I tried and partially failed a CB rush on this map. All the failures added up and in the end it was quite hard because I had missed a window of opportunity.
My first target was of course the Huns. I managed to get 2 CBs from ruins (also 2 culture ruins, 2 tech ruins -Archery and The Wheel, and an pantheon ruin - culture from pastures). Started with AH because of all the pastures around. Beelined straight for Construction, and started building CBs in all 3 cities (built my own settler after the free one from liberty). The capital had Granary and Water mill, but expos only got monument at first, and started building army. The huns were pretty strong (because I didn't attack them earlier), they had me cornered for a while, I lost some pathfinders, but I managed to finish the job once the first generation of CBs were up. Unfortunately I completely eliminated them (they only had 2 cities) so everyone started hating me. 2 Backstabs (Venice and Byzantium) and a joint Dow (Venice and Russia I think). I used this time to build some infrastructure in my expos so started working on Water Mills and Granaries.
I moved towards Venice while keeping Poland busy in wars (this was a mistake as they were begining to become a runaway). NC was build at about that time (early 90s I think). Venice fell down petty fast, in the meantime I already teched machinery and I slowly upgraded my army (some CB already had logistics and soon got range).
Arabia Dowed my right after I captured Venice , they had a large army but it was outdated. They had a lot of CS allies around so they were pretty annoying. I couln't get them to dow Polinesia to keep them busy and by the time I reached their capital they already had Camel Archers, but I sacrificed some units and the capital fell pretty fast.
With a pretty promoted army, I marched towards Poland and I got 2 cities pretty fast (one had Statue of Zeus but apparently you need honor to make it function). By the time I reached their capital they already had those pesky Winged Hussars, and they slowed me down quite a bit. I reached a stalemate at their capital, each turn I would conquer it and the next they got it back, but I managed to push sacrificing my pikemen and even got another city besides the capital (which had Notre Dame so I kept it). At that point I was already Dowed by Polynesia, Russia and Arabia, and Poland already had riflemen so I sued for peace.
Arabia managed to reconquer their capital, because I had 0 military in that area, but they lost their other city to an ally CS of mine. I marched an army of Muskets combined with XBs and Cannons south to defend Venice, and once that was done I split it to get Arabian capital back, and the rest went towards Polynesia who had GW. The Polynesian capital was pretty easy to get, I sacrificed a Musketman, but the only delay was the Great Wall.
I then waited to tech artillery and rifling before attempting to strike Poland (who now controlled the rest of the 2 Capitals I needed) from two directions. After using Oxford on Dynamite and a bulb for Rifling I upgraded my military (I also had a GM to help) and immediately DoWed Poland. I used the old XBs as sacrifice units as they were dealing little to no damage. I also made sure I had some CS allies around, and that Poland didn't have any dangerous CS allies around my border, so I had to wait to perform a coup on Mombasa before attacking. With about 8-9 artillery units their cities fell pretty fast, got Moscow pretty soon, and I was about to conquer the city right next to Constantinople when they gave me the city in a peace deal (they offered me 3 cities for the peace deal, and I was just messing around with the deal giving the AI my non-Capital cities in exchange for Constantinople, and surprisingly it worked!). This was utterly stupid of the AI because that gave me victory right then, and at first I was tempted to replay the last turns, but in the end I submitted this win time ( I would have probably finished in 7 turns anyway.
I build Machu Piccu later in the game to get more gold, but other than that no wonders. After finishing Liberty (I planted a GS) I opened Commerce with Wagon Trains, then opened Honor for Statue of Zeus. I also invested 2 in rationalism (it was pretty late but I realized I needed more science in order to tech Artillery in time), and in the end I was close to finishing commerce. I also build 2 guilds to hep get policies faster.
Spoiler :
My first target was of course the Huns. I managed to get 2 CBs from ruins (also 2 culture ruins, 2 tech ruins -Archery and The Wheel, and an pantheon ruin - culture from pastures). Started with AH because of all the pastures around. Beelined straight for Construction, and started building CBs in all 3 cities (built my own settler after the free one from liberty). The capital had Granary and Water mill, but expos only got monument at first, and started building army. The huns were pretty strong (because I didn't attack them earlier), they had me cornered for a while, I lost some pathfinders, but I managed to finish the job once the first generation of CBs were up. Unfortunately I completely eliminated them (they only had 2 cities) so everyone started hating me. 2 Backstabs (Venice and Byzantium) and a joint Dow (Venice and Russia I think). I used this time to build some infrastructure in my expos so started working on Water Mills and Granaries.
I moved towards Venice while keeping Poland busy in wars (this was a mistake as they were begining to become a runaway). NC was build at about that time (early 90s I think). Venice fell down petty fast, in the meantime I already teched machinery and I slowly upgraded my army (some CB already had logistics and soon got range).
Arabia Dowed my right after I captured Venice , they had a large army but it was outdated. They had a lot of CS allies around so they were pretty annoying. I couln't get them to dow Polinesia to keep them busy and by the time I reached their capital they already had Camel Archers, but I sacrificed some units and the capital fell pretty fast.
With a pretty promoted army, I marched towards Poland and I got 2 cities pretty fast (one had Statue of Zeus but apparently you need honor to make it function). By the time I reached their capital they already had those pesky Winged Hussars, and they slowed me down quite a bit. I reached a stalemate at their capital, each turn I would conquer it and the next they got it back, but I managed to push sacrificing my pikemen and even got another city besides the capital (which had Notre Dame so I kept it). At that point I was already Dowed by Polynesia, Russia and Arabia, and Poland already had riflemen so I sued for peace.
Arabia managed to reconquer their capital, because I had 0 military in that area, but they lost their other city to an ally CS of mine. I marched an army of Muskets combined with XBs and Cannons south to defend Venice, and once that was done I split it to get Arabian capital back, and the rest went towards Polynesia who had GW. The Polynesian capital was pretty easy to get, I sacrificed a Musketman, but the only delay was the Great Wall.
I then waited to tech artillery and rifling before attempting to strike Poland (who now controlled the rest of the 2 Capitals I needed) from two directions. After using Oxford on Dynamite and a bulb for Rifling I upgraded my military (I also had a GM to help) and immediately DoWed Poland. I used the old XBs as sacrifice units as they were dealing little to no damage. I also made sure I had some CS allies around, and that Poland didn't have any dangerous CS allies around my border, so I had to wait to perform a coup on Mombasa before attacking. With about 8-9 artillery units their cities fell pretty fast, got Moscow pretty soon, and I was about to conquer the city right next to Constantinople when they gave me the city in a peace deal (they offered me 3 cities for the peace deal, and I was just messing around with the deal giving the AI my non-Capital cities in exchange for Constantinople, and surprisingly it worked!). This was utterly stupid of the AI because that gave me victory right then, and at first I was tempted to replay the last turns, but in the end I submitted this win time ( I would have probably finished in 7 turns anyway.
I build Machu Piccu later in the game to get more gold, but other than that no wonders. After finishing Liberty (I planted a GS) I opened Commerce with Wagon Trains, then opened Honor for Statue of Zeus. I also invested 2 in rationalism (it was pretty late but I realized I needed more science in order to tech Artillery in time), and in the end I was close to finishing commerce. I also build 2 guilds to hep get policies faster.