Well, I finally finished, 1900 A.D.
My first Mapfinder run, I threw in a bunch of protective opponents, and there always seemed to be one of them between me and six cities.
So I reran with more pliable opponents, and of course, ended up with a game where I was able to REX six cities. If it weren't for the fact that I sent some Privateers to harass Monty, there would have been 0 losses/kills for the entire game. (And the privateers thing was a failure, because Bismarck kept bringing his Frigates in to defend on behalf of Monty!)
Here's the starting city:
Cottages, mines, food and gold; a good all around city. Ultimately it was a little too good, as I ended up with 72k culture there waiting for the others to catch up.
I had Cyrus, Lincoln, and Sury on my continent, and Bismarck, Monty and Joao on the other. I didn't realize until very late in the game that Joao was in the game; I must have accidently left the last slot as random.
I got two culture events; the first wasn't that useful, but the second one shaved about 6 turns off my finish.
Here we are heading into the last turn, after firing off my nine Great Artists:
My first Mapfinder run, I threw in a bunch of protective opponents, and there always seemed to be one of them between me and six cities.
So I reran with more pliable opponents, and of course, ended up with a game where I was able to REX six cities. If it weren't for the fact that I sent some Privateers to harass Monty, there would have been 0 losses/kills for the entire game. (And the privateers thing was a failure, because Bismarck kept bringing his Frigates in to defend on behalf of Monty!)
Here's the starting city:
Cottages, mines, food and gold; a good all around city. Ultimately it was a little too good, as I ended up with 72k culture there waiting for the others to catch up.
I had Cyrus, Lincoln, and Sury on my continent, and Bismarck, Monty and Joao on the other. I didn't realize until very late in the game that Joao was in the game; I must have accidently left the last slot as random.
I got two culture events; the first wasn't that useful, but the second one shaved about 6 turns off my finish.
Here we are heading into the last turn, after firing off my nine Great Artists: