I researched C.S. in 50 AD and switched to Bureacracy and O.R. In 200, I spread Mining, Inc. to my second city and converted to my own Confucianism, despite the three AI I've met all being Buddhist. At Immortal difficulty, that may have been a poor diplomatic decision.
I went a bit crazy building wonders after that: Hanging Gardens, Parthenon and the Great Library in my capital, and the Great Lighthouse on the sea coast to the northwest. Given the lack of resources and the poor commerce on this map, I don't think any of these were excessive. Nor were Notre Dame, the Mausoleum, the U. of Sankore, and the Taj Mahal, which I built later in the game.
At 475, I noticed Isabella was plotting, almost certainly against me. I got Construction in 500 and started building Ballista Elephants. These proved very handy when Isabella declared war in 620. She attacked Banteay Kdei (a city I'd just settled at the river mouth to the southeast of Holy Roman territory. Although I held off the initial attack and hurt her badly, I couldn't get enough reinforcements there in time. Isabella razed the city and then pulled back her army. Charlemagne immediately moved in and settled Pisa on the ruins of my city, which was not only annoying but rather odd, considering that he originally had a settler on the site before I did, but had inexplicably pulled it back.
At this point, I started worrying about the A.P. uniting the Buddhist powers against me. I traded for Theology and used a GE to rush the A.P, myself, in 860. Charlemagne declared war in 900, but didn't invade with any significant army. I raze Pisa in 940 and resettle Banteay Kdea in 980. I destroy another of Isabella's invading armies and sign a peace treaty with her in 1130. My offensive against Charlemagne fails against his landsknechts, so I settle for some gold for peace in 1200.
I've spread Confucianism to two English cities to the north of my territory, but that's not enough for Churchill to consider converting. He starts plotting against me and attacks in 1330. In the war that follows, I capture three of his cities (including the two I converted), but Churchill still won't capitulate. In the meantime, I've paid some gold in response to Isabella's demand, keeping the peace there. And in 1440, I finally make contact with Tokugawa! I had thoroughly explored the western mountain wall, even finding a potential entry into the land beyond it (which would
only have required building a city on the lake in the far northwest corner, then ferrying units across the lake, then repeating that process once or twice more
) but I had only managed to glimpse the edge of his border. What finally established the diplomatic contact was the fact that he peace-vassaled to Isabella! Why he felt insecure in his hidden kingdom, I'll never know.
In 1510, I notice that Charlemagne is plotting, so I take some gold from Churchill for peace. Charley declares war in 1570 and Isabella starts plotting. I push a stack forward to besiege Mainz. In 1580 I research Steel and start building/upgrading cannons. In 1635, I notice that Isabella is marching a stack down the same road my reinforcements are marching up and it's obvious she's ready to launch another attack against me. I capture Mainz and make peace with Charley. Then, to force the issue, I demand 1 gold from Isabella. To my surprise, she gives in to the demand, handing me 10 turns of peace with her!
So, I use this opportunity to resume the attack on Churchill. I declare war in 1660, capture Coventry in 1670, and accept his capitulation in 1675.
Charley agrees to open borders (extending the peace treaty with him). I declare war against Isabella in 1690. She takes Coventry from me, but I take it back and then take Santiago. In 1730 Tokugawa breaks free from her, which makes her willing to capitulate. I press on to take Salamanca and Cordoba, then let her bend the knee in 1735.
In 1740, I declare war against Charlemagne. I take three more of his cities and he capitulates in 1775. All of this time, I was still at war with Tokugawa. He refused to capitulate during the war, because he was "afraid of my enemies". Once Charley gave up, he still refused, because "I must be joking". In 1785, border pops gave me a Domination Victory.
I
really wanted a Conquest in this game, but the evil mapmaker frustrated me there. I could have given back some cities to my vassals to keep under the domination threshold, then continued researching until Flight and Fascism allowed me to build Paratroopers, but I'm not even sure if my vassal cities were close enough to allow me to airdrop those in over the mountain range. Or maybe, if Tokugawa was willing to accept them, I could have gifted him a couple of cities, then captured them back to convince him that he was "losing" the war while his home city remained untouchable? In the end, I didn't think it was worth my time.
Mining, Inc. worked out very well, given my slow expansion approach. By the end of the game, I had spread it to 13 of my 26 cities, where it generated 24 hammers in each, at the cost of 10 to 15 gold. Representation, combined with the AP and my other wonders, was generating a respectable number of beakers, even when running at 0% science.
But that western map edge, that was
not a Christmas gift.
