My current game is one of those magical games where everything makes sense (how rare they are!!)
King/Small/Continents/7AIs/12CS
It's currently the 1940s... and in all of recorded history...
My continent is kinda like 2 landmasses connected by a 2 hex land bridge, of course I controlled that bridge quickly dividing the continent... Alex on one side with me, Napoleon and Hiawatha on the other - Nappy is going straight cultural and only built 2 cities, Hiawatha is starbound and has already completed Apollo...
So I took an early opportunistic DoW on Alex to pare down his too big army.... with plans to cripple him later. He comes to me with the "hiding in the shadows" line, and I wasn't quite ready for the 2nd war, so I'm told him all is cool... which now limits me DoWing for 30 turns or risking the distrust of my BFFs to the east...
Alex gets huffy with me... so I denounce him! Soon my homies back east do too...
23 turns in, Alex DoWs.... and I can finally scrunch him... he's got some good Wonders in Athens, so that's a bonus...
I leave him with 2 cities... One because I don't want the genocide tag, and the second because he offered me a nice little haul in exchange... and I didn't want the 2nd city spot just yet, didn't have a settler ready, and Hiawatha had 2 chomping at the bit to get a foothold on my subcontinent.
By now I've met Germany, since Biz Markie sent a caravel into Boston Harbor, and we're all tight! Soon I send out a clipper ship and find Ramkhamhaeng and Gandhi chilling with Mark on the other side of the world...
So now I'm cool with them... they gots my back... plus Nappy and Dances With Wolves are all in on this little hootnanny we got going on...
Next thing I know is I'm hearing of this place called Genoa that just got swallowed up... but nobody says anything....
After a while Gandhi comes looking for me to join him in a war against Alex (oh yeah... by now the whole other continent is down on the Greeks)... so I say whynot? And Germany jumps into the dogpile.... I go ahead and take that city spot I wanted... a little to the left actually....
So now it's the Roaring 20s, and all is well in the world.... and I've since learned that it was Germany who rolled poor Genoa... hmmmm... they are by far the most powerful military in the history of the world, so maybe that's why Siam and India took a blind eye....
But now Germany rolls into Brussels looking for it's beefy supply of Aluminum... stoopid me for not having bought out Brussels by now.... and I'm thinking... yanno, I've got this good thing going with Germany.... RAs, big trades, the whole nine... so do I dare denounce them?
Just then, Siam and India finally denounce Markie... so I follow suit, next turn it's my homeboys...
I try to get germany to stop it's invasion, but the stubborn Belgian mules have declared permanent war despite having no military at all... they won't last 3 turns, so I'm not gifting them units they'll never get to use....
Just recently Hiawatha, who is getting less excited about my presence lately is feeling the pinch due to having only 2 oil.... so now he rolls into Budapest looking to capture their wells...
I go to the peaceful Iriquois to ask them to cease hostilities... they'll agree... only if I give them 200gold and 2 luxuries!! Whoa!! That's new!!
Germany has just asked me to go to war against India... I showed him the door... then renewed my friendship with the Mahatma... they are both nuclear capable, I can't wait to see this!!
So that's where I've left the game for now....
I'm about to finish Apollo... so I'm sure Onandaga County Courthouse is gonna be pissed off at me for that anyway... so then I'll likely denounce him for his atrocities!!
But what amazes me is that I have tried playing nice with all the AIs and was fortunate enough to have a few extra luxuries lying around to be able to acceed to all the "we could use the help" requests... so I've taken no hits there... all the denouncing has been for good reason, and the only hit I've taken is one for denouncing a friend... but I thought our DoF had ended...oooops!!
And here it is 1942 and there has really only been 1 war... me annexing Greece... sure India and germany declared... but Germany sent one boat, which the Ephesians sunk, and India never showed at all, eventually taking peace instead.
Even if I don't win (Gandhi is going culture as well, and is quite far along)... it's been fun to watch play out