Alright, time to end this lousy war. And uh, start another one.
To begin with, I wanted to do something with that massive 6000 gold we were sitting on. I noticed that MLP was in 2nd place to produce a great scientists, after Byzantium which was almost done. So I purchased a public school in MLP and added another scientist there; hopefully it will finish before the game ends. I also purchased a factory and windmill in Istanbul, which speeded up Big Ben to only 12 turns.
Well... I still had a bunch of gold so, what to do with it? More units wouldn't really help against the Aztecs, and I wasn't quite ready to go to war with Siam yet. However, Egypt looked like an easy foe. To that end, I decided to purchase 2 more artillery, and send them down to attack Egypt.
Turn 1: I got a little over ambitious in attacking Monty, and he counterattacked. He almost killed a rifle! It survived though.
Meanwhile this stupid French musketeer won't get out of the way. He stayed there throughout all my turns, blocking up the road system. Have I mentioned lately how much I dislike 1UPT?
We spawn another great general, and since we don't really need 4 great generals, I use this one to start a golden age. We're now getting 700 gpt LOL, and Big Ben is due in just 8 turns.
Turn 2:Again I get lucky and survive a counterattack from Monty without losing any units. I should really be more careful there, but I just want to hurry. I sold our excess luxuries to Siam for 700g, who says that our military is "the laughing stock of the world". Really? More than Greece's hoplites? Well I guess those are still holding him off somehow. Meanwhile I liberate Helsinki.
Turn 3:Replacable parts finishes and I begin biology. I bombard Tlatetelolco but can't quite take it. Armies are en route to attack Egypt.
Turn 4: Monty tries to defend by rushing walls in cities in whatever cities I attack, but it doesn't matter. Tlatetelolco and Tlaxcala both fall this turn. I upgrade some of our rifles to infantry.
Turn 5: We're still rolling in gold, so I send 500g to Vienna, which allies with us. This gives us a solid line of allied cities on the other side of Siam. Later I also allied Genoa, to complete the line.
Ramesses won't give me anythign when I demand gold from him, so it's time for war! Here's what I declared war on him with. It's not much, but it's easily enough to defeat his army of muskets and war chariots. How is a deity AI still using war chariots at this point in the game? That's just not right.
Turn 6: despite Napoleon's interference in the worst possible place, I capture Texcoco, and advance towards both Cape Town and the capital of Tenochtitlan. Monty still refuses to give anything but an even peace.
Since I had no respect for Montezuma at all, I went on settling new cities right next to him while the war continued
Turn 7: Finally my luck runs out, and I lost a cavalry to one of Montezuma's knights. I noticed that some knights were getting a bonus against mounted- I'm not sure why. Anyway I press on, liberating cape town, and conquering both Tenochtitlan and one more Aztec city. Heliopolis also fell this turn.
After that I made peace, getting nothing but a resource for gold trade.
turn 8: Funniest AI message yet- Monty warns us not to settle any more cities near him! Yeah right. Meanwhile Big Ben and electricity finish. The golden age also ends. However, we can now rush buy a coloseum for only 510 gold, less than we make in one turn. I used our 2 great scientists to bulb telegraph and electronics (for mechanized infantry) while starting on the Taj mahal and railroad.
Turn 9: I liberate Kuala Limpur from Egypt. Our Sipahi gets stuck after taking the city, but for some reason Egypt ignores it and futily counterattacks the city instead. I upgraded most of our infantry into mechanized infantry. People were unhappy, and every city already had a coloseum (I bought a lot of coloseums during these turns) so I had to buy a theather somewhere, instead. Kind of ridiculous that it really doesn't matter where you buy these things.
Turn 10: We get a new great scientist. Time to finish off the Egyptians- look at how powerful mechanized infantry are!
4 move, and strong enough to take a city in one blow! That's... probably not the way it's supposed to be. They can do that to Thebes too but I couldn't quite reach it this turn. So...
Turn 11: Railroad finishes, and I take Thebes. That's all I did on this turn, most of the units haven't moved yet. Oh, except for one other thing.
I realized we've been neglecting an important part of our economy! We haven't made use of our UA at all! Time to pick up some of that massive barbarian galley loot.
With this many cities, the late game just flies by (meaning very few turns to do anything. The turns themselves take forever to play. Maybe 30 minutes/turn). We're researching most techs in just 3 turns, buying whatever we need anywhere. Our army went from rifles to infantry to mechanized infantry just in the last 10 turns. The era of infantry lasted just 5 turns- is that really how the game is supposed to work?
I leave it to alpaca to finish off the game. My guess is that you'll be able to win it in about 10 turns. We have Siam completely surrounded with our units west and south, our city state allies on the east, and Greece to the north. Somehow, miraculously, Greece still has its capital, so we might have to take that too.