Failed the GotM challenge because Bismark decided to reach for the stars. SV T448 (one turn before I would have gotten a Diplo Victory!).
Another fun one. I really enjoyed the late game combat again since it came quickly in the game; I even used Giant Death Robots. I founded London in place and sent one settler NW and one across the channel. Darn, Kuala Lumpur appeared out of nowhere and took my Pearls; no luxes in the capital. My settler had to head east toward Flanders. There was some nice Cocoa in the area so founded York there. Nottingham was founded on the west coast of the island.
I opened Tradition and then saved the rest for an ideology - decided to go Order, took +2 Happy from Monuments, 25% GP generation, Skyscrapers and Resettlement so I'd get +3 Pop in new cities (same as
@sebtanic ); so all my cities after London started with 7 Pop, a nice bonus.
The game started out peacefully; I made DoF with both Napoleon and Isabella (strange I know). But then Napoleon DoW Bismark, inadvertently Backstabbing me. So then everyone ended up hating him and everyone declared war on him. I took Orleans, Bismark Berlin and I let Kuala Lumpur take Lyon - and they actually kept it.
At some point I realized that the AI weren't really expanding very much. And Bismark had failed to go east and settle in the Vistula river valley. Since I went Order, I built 5 settlers; 4 to go east and found cities up and down the Vistula; there I founded New Castle, Warwick, Cantebury and Coventry. One settler went south to found Oxford on some Gems in the Pyrenees. This is where Resettlement really helped with each of them starting out with 7 citizens and a Monument for happiness. With Skyscrapers I could buy any needed buildings right away basically.
Along the way I allied most of the city states. But when the World Leader vote came around I didn't have quite enough votes. So I figured this is where a teams game would help. I could vote for Bismark and surely he'd vote for himself and we'd win the game. After the votes were counted -
Ok, we still had time. I bided my time until the next world leader vote. But the AI started building spaceship parts. So I got worried. Rome had build 4 of the parts so I started building/buying Xcoms, Stealth Bombers and Giant Death Robots. Rome built a 5th part! I attacked Caesar, took Cumae, surrounded Rome and pillaged all his production tiles. I sent a spy to Rome to see if he was building the last part -
Kiev ended up taking Antium and I let the eternal city stay intact.
Ok, smooth sailing to the World Leader vote I thought. Down to one more turn and I had the votes.
Next turn.
Wait what???