Round 9: 1772 AD to 1903 AD (97 turns)
Okay, I think that's now the longest ALC round ever. But as you'll see, there wasn't really much point in stopping once things got rolling.
I began the round in a peacenik mood, deciding to go after a diplomatic victory as several of you suggested. I knew I had the Buddhist bloc's votes. (well, except for Hatshepsut, unfortunately--again, too bad Zara didn't build both the AP and the UN in this game. Oh well.) Just to try to ensure my victory, I used my Great Artist and Great Scientist to begin a golden age, then I changed civics:
The main change there was to Theocracy, the favoured civic of both Zara
and Saladin, as fortune would have it. That raised them both to Pleased from Cautious immediately. Would it be enough to earn their votes for a diplomatic win?
Er... no.
Darn! So near, yet so far away. And I'd gone into growth mode too, putting many of my specialists back to work on food tiles to try to ensure myself of a pop/vote bump. But to no avail.
Well, I stuck with Theocracy, figuring that the shared favourite civic bonus would grow over time. Maybe one of them would come by asking for a free tech, and I'd be able to oblige. Or better still, maybe Zara's WHEOOHRN was because he was planning on attacking his one-time vassal, Julius Caesar. Then I could join in the fun and get some mutual military struggle points.
At the same time, however, I got some disturbing news:
Granted, Zara was only two slots above me, but my lack of espionage points meant I had no visibility into how big the military gap between us was. Since Ceasar was the one breathing down my neck, the gap could be quite large. And with my nearest neighbour in WHEOOHRN mode, lacking power was worrying. So I set about ramping up my military, producing more units and upgrading existing ones. Just in case.
Meanwhile, I was following Plan B: if I couldn't get a diplomatic win, I'd go for space race. To do that, I pursued the Internet project.
I began building it right away in Portland, the Ironworks city.
My next technology was also one for the space race:
Laboratories to accelerate research and space ship production--and I can build SS Thrusters.
Just when I was hoping to try for the diplo win again and avoid the long haul of building the space ship, Zara went and declared war.
On Hatshepsut.
Which, thanks to the Defensive Pacts and vassal relationships that were in place, meant that Hatty, Hammy, and I were now at war with Zara, Saladin, and Charlemagne.
Sigh. So much for a peaceful diplomatic win!
Zara's main target appeared to be Hatty rather than me, which was a bit surprising, since she was at the top of the power chart. Then again, maybe the AI calculated that at that point she had the greatest chance of winning. In any event, he managed to capture one of her cities, and he had plethora of modern boats which did in my navy PDQ and pillaged my seafood. However, he never did launch a ground invasion against me. I had a pretty good number of Tanks and SEALs read in case he did, but that never happened.
Of course, he might have been intending to invade me, but just never got the chance. Because once again, I used the diplomatic brownie points I'd been building up all game.
I could have persisted with the war, but frankly, I didn't want to. With the diplomatic win out the window, I was now focused on the space race, and war--any war--was a distraction.
The war between Zara, Sally, Charlie, Hatty, and Hammy went on for most of the round, however, and this served to distract some of my main competitors from pursuing their victory conditions. My only real competition for the space race, in fact, turned out to be Gilgamesh--who, because he didn't have a DP with Hatty, was sitting out this particular slugfest.
At long last, I finally finished my first wonder (well, project, same diff) of the game:
I immediately obtained Refrigeration, Flight, Fission, and Mass Media from it. Before the end of the round, I gleaned several more techs from it, including a significant one, as you'll see.
With the war out of the way, I sought to restore some of the balance of power that had been in place before it.
Even if Zara's main target had been Hatty instead of me, that's a useful trick I'll try to remember for future games: when facing a multi-pronged DP coalition, declare war on the civ with the fewest DPs, even if that's not your main target.
Then, thanks to Philosophical, I earned a surprise GP in Kansas City:
I was at a bit of a loss for how to use the Great Engineer, though. I mean, I'd been beaten to every wonder (including the Three Gorges Dam) and none were left. Or were there? I was about to settle him when I wisely checked the tech tree and saw that there was, indeed, one more wonder as yet unclaimed. I wasn't researching its enabling tech, but I had the Internet, so I might get it for free. I put the GE to rest in Portland and waited.
Heh. I love the Internet.
So I started building the Space Elevator in Portland, figured out when to use the GE to maximum effect to hurry it, and went on my merry way.
Around this time, with a comfortable tech lead, several space ship parts being built, and the diplomatic situation being stable, I made a civics change.
US for the additional hammers from my towns, and OR for the enhanced production though yes, I know SS parts don't benefit from it. Normally I would have changed to Free Religion by now, but I wanted to keep all that Buddhist good will flowing. That way the DPs would remain in place and I would likely retain control of the UN.
I was building Malls to help with happiness and wealth. I was also building units when I wasn't building space ship parts, and this helped close the power gap, which I could now see thanks to devoting some of the slider to espionage.
I figured I had a big enough force to deter Zara. Just in case, I built several Transports in case I had to mount a SEAL-led invasion to convince him that attacking America was a non-starter.
As I said, my main competitor for the space race was Gilgamesh, who had a head start on me:
Here I was all proud of my first SS part being completed, then I saw that Gilly had several of them built already. I was going to need the Space Elevator to catch up.
Good thing I had that Great Engineer to hurry it along.
And as luck would have it, I had yet another Great Scientist produced by the GP farm, Washington; another Great Engineer for researching Fusion first; and this guy.
Three different GPs and I'm in a tight late game space race. Hmmm, what to do, what to do...
Golden Age! Duh. If I'd known things would work out this way, I would have waited on the earlier civics change, but there was no guarantee I'd have 3 different GPs in time.
So thanks to the Space Elevator, laboratories, aluminum, and a late Golden Age, I was able to launch a few turns later.
And yes, I beat Gilgamesh into space. As usual, the AI was unfocused on its victory condition (good thing I never am... ahem). Gilly went after a lot of techs he didn't need.
I was pretty much safe from AI incursion for the rest of the game:
Yes, I could have launched an invasion, but what was the point? Besides, the war against Monty wore me out this time. It was easier to just add things to my cities' build queues and keep hitting ENTER.
So, in 1903...
Not bad for my first crack at Immortal. Many thanks to all the people here who helped it happen!
(Oh yes, and look at the cultural pressure poor Tiwanaku was under! It experienced an Egyptian revolt and I had to move several units there. Given Hatty's slow tech rate compared to earlier, I assume she was going after a cultural win and had jacked the culture slider--now way I could compete with that!)
A post-mortem post will follow.
in his capital. Once that happened, all his neighbors were easy to bribe into a dogpile, and Monty was no more ...
Looking back, there are a few thing's I'd do differently now, but overall, the main events of the game would remain the same. I still think rushing Huayna first was a good idea; the shrine income was very helpful. 
, and on the diplo front so you definitely deserve the win.
