Grendeldef
Trancerelic & coffeeholic
The last turns T300->T339. 112 cities is a bit...much My main rival only had 53 which I thought was pretty decent number, too.
T304 Hubble ready and started mass bulbing towards Stealth but every tech required two GSs so I only got it T312 and domination still looked like the way to go but I changed my mind soon afterwards. My problem was rapidly sinking, already minimal, cash reserve to I upgraded 8 SB before hitting negative gpt. That was also part of the reason bulbing when I did even though it was far from optimal time.
T309 Dido & Oda started swapping nukes, T312 Sydney OH, Japan became influencal over me so only Carthage to go anf WF finally started and Japan basically build it in one turn with his 43 cities at that point - I settled for safe 350(.58). The increasing worry about negative gptand potential boredom in the last turns made me DoW Dido on T315. Luckily she was so screwed with happiness issues that her response wasn't even half hearted - endless subs just running away, nothing that could be described as air force and nukes were saved for Oda so in 3 turns I liberated Vilnius, burned one & sold one city to Oda, managed to destroy most of the navy near Aotearoa without losing a unit.
T318 I also build CN Tower mainly to prevent Oda for having it. Lack of Aluminium was a bit of a problem and I was about to GG bomb some from Kyzul where I lost my 1st unit but capturing Saguntum T321 solved that issue for a moment, settled on alu & even bombed Quebec's alu just for me, nice. Japan already had nuked most of the city's defenses away and it even had Prora.
T324 liberated valletta, too and for a change the AI wasn't in a gatherer mode but spent all it had. I also build 2 SS factories and started building parts as a backup plan.
T327 Oda joined the Information era but was not heading anywhere near Internet so he wasn't gonna win anytome soon after all. As a one extra safety measure I bought his vote for WL in case that the others would suddenly fall, mainly Dido.
T330 Utique with Macchu Picchu - nice but a bit late. Selling few cities to Oda got me back to positive gpt and razing cities on the 2nd continent some decent cash.
T334 Carthage fell with ease even without SBs as didn't dare to bring'em in the range of her nukes and those in Ulundi only reached as far as Macchu. Hippo Regius would've an option as nuking it would've meant fallout on her own territory, too but still it seemed far too risky.
Parts ready, one in Ulundi, two in Tenochtitlan and 2 + GE in Honolulu. I had nukes, carriers & XComs enough to take Kyoto, London & Cusco in two turns if needed but the timeline would've been roughly the same.
Two more GSs would've spawned had I not stopped running specialists and I could've bought 2 more so timing was far from optimal. I even ended up buying the 500 faith prophet & converted few cities.
2nd continent after razing half a dozen cities. Karalis was a planned mission for long but Lixus an afterthought as it had the uranium & aluminium.
Japan was quite impressive but went into negative happiness in the last few turns. My happiness went through the roof even without too much help from religion; 50+ while razing half a dozen cities isn't every day stuff for me anyway and it peaked somewhere around 74.
Policywise full Tradition the Exploration and Rationalism opened before Order. Ended up filling Ratio as I need all the cash I could get and on the other didn't want open any more trees. Not totally what I planned before the game but not too much of a detour either.
The late war was sort of funny. Due to limited oil I had quite a few subs and nothing wrong with those but when upgraded they became hilarious especially when Dido didn't shoot back - nuclear subs are awesome, half the world is visible and they one shot everything apart from carriers and are fast enough to move around effectively especially with few perks.
Slightly tricky start & and I had few pre-game thought I followed despite them being a handicap but I welcomed the opportunity to lose a game for a change.
My religion was crap and the way I used it was worse but that was part of the plan. Ended up buying 2 GEs, 6 Pagodas & a Prophet with it. Even something in form of spreading the 2nd continent would've given few more gpt if nothing else.
Scouting was bad as I missed Sri Pada for ~150 turns - that'd have been a nice city location much earlier but the unlucky 2nd continent CS quests was more annoying. I really can't produce a GMe on T40.
Not much luck with WLtKDs either but that gave opportunity to sell more luxes than otherwise - main problem throughout the game was lack of money.
Spoiler :
T304 Hubble ready and started mass bulbing towards Stealth but every tech required two GSs so I only got it T312 and domination still looked like the way to go but I changed my mind soon afterwards. My problem was rapidly sinking, already minimal, cash reserve to I upgraded 8 SB before hitting negative gpt. That was also part of the reason bulbing when I did even though it was far from optimal time.
T309 Dido & Oda started swapping nukes, T312 Sydney OH, Japan became influencal over me so only Carthage to go anf WF finally started and Japan basically build it in one turn with his 43 cities at that point - I settled for safe 350(.58). The increasing worry about negative gptand potential boredom in the last turns made me DoW Dido on T315. Luckily she was so screwed with happiness issues that her response wasn't even half hearted - endless subs just running away, nothing that could be described as air force and nukes were saved for Oda so in 3 turns I liberated Vilnius, burned one & sold one city to Oda, managed to destroy most of the navy near Aotearoa without losing a unit.
T318 I also build CN Tower mainly to prevent Oda for having it. Lack of Aluminium was a bit of a problem and I was about to GG bomb some from Kyzul where I lost my 1st unit but capturing Saguntum T321 solved that issue for a moment, settled on alu & even bombed Quebec's alu just for me, nice. Japan already had nuked most of the city's defenses away and it even had Prora.
T324 liberated valletta, too and for a change the AI wasn't in a gatherer mode but spent all it had. I also build 2 SS factories and started building parts as a backup plan.
T327 Oda joined the Information era but was not heading anywhere near Internet so he wasn't gonna win anytome soon after all. As a one extra safety measure I bought his vote for WL in case that the others would suddenly fall, mainly Dido.
T330 Utique with Macchu Picchu - nice but a bit late. Selling few cities to Oda got me back to positive gpt and razing cities on the 2nd continent some decent cash.
T334 Carthage fell with ease even without SBs as didn't dare to bring'em in the range of her nukes and those in Ulundi only reached as far as Macchu. Hippo Regius would've an option as nuking it would've meant fallout on her own territory, too but still it seemed far too risky.
Parts ready, one in Ulundi, two in Tenochtitlan and 2 + GE in Honolulu. I had nukes, carriers & XComs enough to take Kyoto, London & Cusco in two turns if needed but the timeline would've been roughly the same.
Two more GSs would've spawned had I not stopped running specialists and I could've bought 2 more so timing was far from optimal. I even ended up buying the 500 faith prophet & converted few cities.
2nd continent after razing half a dozen cities. Karalis was a planned mission for long but Lixus an afterthought as it had the uranium & aluminium.
Spoiler :
Japan was quite impressive but went into negative happiness in the last few turns. My happiness went through the roof even without too much help from religion; 50+ while razing half a dozen cities isn't every day stuff for me anyway and it peaked somewhere around 74.
Policywise full Tradition the Exploration and Rationalism opened before Order. Ended up filling Ratio as I need all the cash I could get and on the other didn't want open any more trees. Not totally what I planned before the game but not too much of a detour either.
The late war was sort of funny. Due to limited oil I had quite a few subs and nothing wrong with those but when upgraded they became hilarious especially when Dido didn't shoot back - nuclear subs are awesome, half the world is visible and they one shot everything apart from carriers and are fast enough to move around effectively especially with few perks.
Slightly tricky start & and I had few pre-game thought I followed despite them being a handicap but I welcomed the opportunity to lose a game for a change.
My religion was crap and the way I used it was worse but that was part of the plan. Ended up buying 2 GEs, 6 Pagodas & a Prophet with it. Even something in form of spreading the 2nd continent would've given few more gpt if nothing else.
Scouting was bad as I missed Sri Pada for ~150 turns - that'd have been a nice city location much earlier but the unlucky 2nd continent CS quests was more annoying. I really can't produce a GMe on T40.
Not much luck with WLtKDs either but that gave opportunity to sell more luxes than otherwise - main problem throughout the game was lack of money.