BOTM 25 Final Spoiler

[Exploit]

My first time trying the GotM. I've never really tried to milk the game for a high score so I figured it would be fun to try. Original plan was to REX until I met neighbours then max out population in all my cities while keeping peace. I would then use a tech lead to conquer key cities with wonders, key resources and high population with the overall intent of owning all the world's wonders and having an extraordinary population before winning by domination.

Instead, I accidentally won a diplomatic victory in 1912. At the time I was curious how close I would be to a win but I didn't think that Mansa, Elizabeth and I would have sufficient votes for an actual win.

I spent a lot of time in the mid-game playing with Privateers, which I've never really used before. Even used a great leader to turn a privateer into the scourge of the seas. Thought I could make a small fortune from peace time blockades however the best I could do was get 3 cities all within 3 tiles of my privateer then he would steal approximately 2 gpt from each of them. It really wasn't worth the effort though and I spent a lot of time having my privateers dodging my own allies who kept hunting them down.

Final score was ~49000. I made lots of mistakes though. Going for an ultra-high population per city was not worth it, I could have scored better with more mid-size cities. I should also have stayed on organized religion instead of switching to theocracy, given the number of buildings required to offset health and happiness issues. I should also have vassalized my opponents for a higher score but at the time I was trying to keep my land % low so I could conquer the best cities.

Fun map. I enjoy random events although none of them really helped or hurt me significantly this game.

 

[Jasonc]

1840 - Anointed Religious Leader. Final Score: 42,878

Overview

In the beginning, Haggar the Horrible’s strategy was to build his economy quickly and then destroy his nearest neighbor to set up an eventual Domination or SpaceRace win. His decision to found Hinduism, after researching two or 3 techs and realizing that no one had researched Polytheism yet, would eventually lead him to changing his strategy to try for a Diplomatic Win. Being a dumb Viking though, he had no idea what he was getting into and grossly underestimated the complexities of politics. In the end, he did manage to pull out a win by tricking Kubli , but it was at least 100 years later than he expected.

Major Epochs:

The Rush to Colossus (4000 BC – 245 BC)

Horrible's first goal was to build Colossus as quick as possible while REXing as much as possible. Early Tech Path: Wheel, Mining, Mysticism, Pottery (2950).

Notable achievements :
3775 BC - Discovers Sailing. (must have been from a hut, but the records from that far back are fuzzy).
3725 BC - Buddhism is founded in a distant land.

2750 BC – Founds Hinduism late and realizing the must not be a lot of Spiritual Leaders, he guesses. This turns out to be an important decision for him.

1625 BC – Kubli converts to Hinduism. He quickly becomes Horrible's good friend and main political rival throughout the game.

1250 BC – Oracle Built for Metal Working.

230 BC – Hinduism’s first Great Spiritual Leader is born and founds the Kashi Vishwanath.

245 BC – Colossus Built.

80 BC - Toku converts to the one true faith.

40 AD - Darius converts.

385 AD - Viky adopts Pacifism and Taoism! Interesting. Good thing she is right next door. Otherwise she might have been a force to be reckoned with.

415 AD - Great Library built.

490 AD - 1st Golden Age begins.


Conquest over the English (500 AD – 970 AD)

500 AD - Bkrs: +131/turn (80%); Esp: +35/turn (20%).

550 AD - Civil Service civics change to Bureaucracy and Caste System

595 AD - War with the English begins.

775 AD - The world went dark and time stood still. When Horrible woke, he had a serious case of Deja View. (Shiva told him later that the world 'crashed' and he had to 'restart' the year.)

805 AD - Horrible completes the Pyramids. The records of when this construction began are lost.

860 AD - Kubli Khan builds the Apostolic Palace.

970 AD - The English are destroyed. London, Hastings, and the far Island city are taken over by the Vikings. The rest are burned to the ground to allow for resettling by the Viking people.


The Renaissance: (1000 AD - 1360 AD)
1050 AD - Bkrs: 151/turn (50%) Esp: +28/turn (10%). 9 cities, including London, Hastings, and Coventry on the far Eastern Island.
<screenshot>
For 400 years after the defeat of the English, there is peace in the Empire. It is a time of expansion and discovery, culminating in the discovery of Liberalism, Astronomy and proof that the world is round. And the existence of the Buddhist Spaniards, who were still defending their cities with archers and yet unwilling to allow Hinduism into their cities!
1360 AD - Bkrs: 258/turn (50%); Arts: 0/turn; Esp: 43/turn (10%)


The Crusades (1400 AD – 1660 AD)

The Vikings build their Galleons and train their Beserkers for a century. Perhaps they took too long to prepare, under-estimating the advantage they held. The Spanish people had colonized all the islands on their side of the world with 11 cities. The beserkers finally attacked from their ships in 1490, with the few siege engines they brought with them help in reserve. Two cities fall during the first year of the invasion. Madrid, with the Parthenon, is taken over and Seville, on the eastern peninsula, is razed. He also pulls Kubli into the war with him, which proves to be a shrewd move, because in 1545 the Hindu's are called to council and Kubli votes with Haggar to start a Holy War. The diplomatic bonuses gained from this last until the very end of time. By 1600, the Buddhists are no more. Cities on the main land and 3 nearby islands are now under Viking control and are being hastily converted to good Hindus.

1665 AD: Bkrs: 603/turn (60%); Arts: 0/turn; Esp: 82/turn (10%). The addition of 7 Spanish cities brings Hagar's Empire to 17 cities with 8.4 million citizens.


Religion and Politics (1660 AD – 1840 AD)
When Haggar's bloodlust subsides, he realizes he has not paid a visit to any of his Hindu brothers in quite some time. In 1726, the first election is held, much quicker than he expected. It is not good and only Toku votes for him. William and Darius both vote for Kubli, even though they appear to like his rival and him about the same. The Viking starts taking diplomacy seriously for the first time in the game. He sends missionaries far and wide to raise the votes of his only ally. Then he counts the votes and realizes that Kubli by himself has enough votes to prevent a victory! The next couple elections a show little improvement, but then Toku switches to Free Religion and renounces the Hindu faith and the next election is worse than ever.

Haggar panics. He know much about city building, and with his Beserkers, was able to easily defeat two enemies. But, his experience in diplomacy is woefully inadequate. He starts increasing his research and production, anticipating having to change plans and head to the stars. He never realized how hard it was to raise a leaders opinion of him, even a little. Finally, he decides to switch to Free Religion in order to impress William and Darius. He waits until his 2nd Golden Age and switches civics, forgetting his Hindu ways. And quickly realizes that the plan will never work. Free Religion will only impress them while he has it. And he cannot be elected Leader without Hinduism.

He is close to abandoning his religion for the Space Race when he notices something is different about Kubli's attitude! What is this? He is willing to switch to Free Religion too? And all he wants in return is one tech? Haggar trades with Kubli and then switches back to Hinduism the next turn, still in the Golden Age. After awhile, he is elected Apastolic Resident. When the next election comes around, the results are much different. Not only are Kubli's votes cut in half, but everyone else votes with Ha. In 1840, Haggar the Horrible has his victory. A very late victory, but a victory none the less.

1840 AD: Bkrs: 1336/turn (60%); Arts: 0/turn Esp: 253/turn (10%). His empire stands at 16 cities, with 33 million citizens and a final score of 42,878.

 

[m4gill4]

I hadn't read the thread when I posted my earlier rant about the random event robbing me and causing a ragequit. Funny thing is, I always play with random events on and I enjoy them, I just happened to get stung pretty bad this game. It must have seemed like I was coming out against them based on the thread context, but really it was just a coincidence.

 

[BLubmuz]

Back in GotM after a year or so. In this year i played mostly FfH and the SGs.
My only objective was to regain confidence with "normal" BtS and to try to use slavery at best.
The leader and the civilisation fitted perfectly with the map, i like both so this was a good opportunity to start again.

Settled in place, after seen the corn. To be honest i improved it very late.
Let's jump to the final part: conquest victory in 1766 for some 76K.
Many mistakes, due to my scarce confidence with this kind of map and with regular BtS.
Some luck, like an event which gave me silver on a unimproved hill, offering me the mine and the road for 22g.
In the final screen i've seen the "vedic aryans" event, but probably the victim managed to defeat them.
Not great luck with huts, but not bad. One was protected by an archer, so it's still there.
Founded 2 cities (3 with Nidaros): first on the flood plain to have gold, cows and the 3rd clam, 2nd a very crappy one for the marble on the northern coast between the 2.
Perhaps a sefood there would have been appreciated .
Barbs were not a problem. They founded an half-crappy city between me and Vicky, left only an archer there, brought an axe and a M1 warrior, the axe took it.
Sent a galley loaded with a warrior (the scout was too distant) to explore.
After wheel - Mining - BW i went for the Alpha route via AH-writing. Made some good trade, even with Izzy.
I started a bit too late the GLH, and Vicky built it after few turns. A good reason to rush her with axes and cats. Of course she arrived to LBs when my army was ready. OK, i have to suffer. Started the war in 220 AD, finished in 715. Pitiful. By the end some berserker helped .
In the meantime KK warried with Darius, reducing him to 1 tundra city and vassallizing him.
After the English war i built Pyramids in Nidaros and Colossus in Haitabu, having nothing better to do.
Lost the Music race for 1 turn simply 'cause i forgot to start it... until too late.
Some tech and resouce trade, met all, circumnavigated.

I was peacefully preparing my conquest (maybe i was wrong, but i can't see other VCs with this map) triyng Rifling from Lib when KK decided to DoW me (1330). He sent a decent stack, partially suicided, partially wiped actively. But i waited. I was close to Lib. And to Rifles. Possibly promoted berserkers.

The time arrived, i started the active war around 1500, capturing Karakorum in 1525, the same turn i burned a GE (i has 3) on the Taj after traded for Nationalism with the Dutch.
Wiped KK in 1660, kept 6 cities, all with good resources and soon productive, razed the rest. Then razed the only Persian city in 1680.

In 1702 Izzy declared, and i easily wiped her stack near Karakorum. I planned to start with Toku, mainly for logistic reasons, and i did it anyway.
Started in 1706, razed 2 cities, kept one, then he capitulated in 1722.

In the meantime i sent a too small stack in Spanish lands and after razed Seville it was wiped, after heroic resistace by the defenders (the attackers, well, my poor stack). Again, no plans, bad execution of ... nothing. It's a matter of time, anyway. Madrid fell, then a city right west, later Barcelona (South) then i razed a city on a island north, took one on the far south of the Spanish mainland.

In the meantime i started a war also with the Dutch: 2 cannons and 7 rifles were enough to take Amsterdam-full-of-wonders and a city west, then have the the dutch capitulate.
In the same turn Izzy was ready to capitulate, i tried to take a city first, too risky, vassallized, victory. Founded a useless Mining Inc just to gain some score.

At some point i has the troops, but not the ships where i needed them. Played sloppily, definitely sloppily. But it was fun.

Nice game, nice to be back in GotM.

 

[Xcalibrator]

Space race win 1895 (485 turns, 48 hours, 25 cities, score 50691).

My game sounds fairly similar to Niklas' (who beat me by 7 turns, grr ) except that I put off warfare for much too long. After the SGOTM10 nukefest I wanted to live in harmony with my neighbors. That worked pretty well for awhile, since the barbs were kind enough to kill the English in 2850 BC, leaving the entire continent to me. (My sincere sympathies to those who suffered the barb event; I was lucky.) I settled 1 S of the floodplains starting location so could I net the seafood faster and keep the river health bonus. I had 7 mainland cities and 1 on that island gold site for the Moai, which sufficed for a long time, until I had to go to war. I had no quests and very few events of note, apart from one very early that gives you a 90% chance of +2 health. I considered going for a culture win at the start, but no religion spread to me until well into the ADs! Bah!

I got the Oracle in 875 BC and took Metal Casting for the Colossus (290 BC). Also got the Great Library (175 AD) and Parthenon (190 in the city on the eastern gold peninsula). I pretty much avoided wonders for which I didn't have the bonus resource, apart from Notre Dame, which I got with a Great Engineer. Also built the Taj, Shwedy, and a bunch of much later Wonders. I focused way too much on building up my cities for spaceship production way down the line, keeping far too many forests; in the end I chopped very few since Mining, factories, etc. gave me plenty of hammers. Mining went pretty much everywhere; I was more sparing with Sushi because of its maintenance costs. I kept research at 100% for a looong time toward the end by building wealth in most cities.

As I said, I really should have warred earlier to expand. Khan DoWed me and I razed a city to the NW (the icy iron area), then I accepted a token donation for peace. Willem was getting much too big and techy, though, so I eventually had to take him out. Razed most of his cities (poor locations, and practically no buildings). Then Tokugawa attacked me. I vassalized him, but then he refused one of my later (OK, somewhat unreasonable ) demands; he needed killin', so I obliged. Khan was confined to 3 cities (eventually a 4th) that I coveted; I kept 2. I had around 6 CR3 amphibious berzerkers that were gradually upgraded to rifles and/or infantry; very handy, and I was able to keep my attack forces relatively small for all the wars. Probably only used about 16 land units for combat. Izzy grew quite large but was never a problem. Darius never got too big and kept his head down.

Congrats to srad and Fredericksberg for awesome Space Race games! I've been taught once again that peace doesn't pay.

 

[srad]

and I was able to keep my attack forces relatively small for all the wars. Probably only used about 16 land units for combat.

My attack main force actually consists of only four high decorated Berserkers. They took city after city and I only upgraded them to rifles during my attack on William (who was last on the list).

Congrats to srad and Fredericksberg for awesome Space Race games! I've been taught once again that peace doesn't pay.

Probably not. Is suppose that in most games a valid rule is: The earlier the war the better. And expansion via war excels the peaceful expansion. Most of the land should probably captured around 1000AD and this means better more than 20 cities.
(This is all based on the helpful hints of those really good players - and from my experience this is the way to go for a fast space victory)

 

[Dynamic]

Funny map. It could be nice pre-1000AD Conquest if play this game by military way but... this time I tryed Religious one.
I never played it before so I planned to use Vassal variant - isn't too fast but safe.
I settled on place, Scout went east and finded nice places for 2d and 3d cities and also got Sailing from the hut. Met Viki and went back. There are some nice city-places between us but I wasn't sure I can settle in time so I limited my expantion to the east (AS result I had only 5 cities, 2 on the south island).
I founded 2 cities (3d covered Marble afte expanding borders) and went for CS from Oracle but lost this race in 1050BC. Kublay funny discovered Alpha so I bought it and have exchanged some other techs.
Because of losing slingshot my plan for fast Vassal Religious was destroyed. I researched CS myself, then Monarchy for HR then Currency and Metal Casting. Strange thing but none of AI learnt Theology so I've reaserched it and was first. After that I built AP in the Capital in 40AD.
I wasn't sure what religion I should choose for AP but 2 AI already was Friendly so I didn't change State Religion and built AP in Confu.
Optics next and Caravels with Missionaries for spreading religion and +1 sea movement.
At this point I got a problem - Japan didn't open the borders. Well, I can build Berserks.
Sent 2 Galleys with 4 Berserks, captured 1 japan's city, 1 city destroyed, spread religion, vassalised him, gave city back.
Well, all AI has Confu but Willem likes Darius (my religious opponent) more then me. Kublay and Darius are friendly, Toku is Vassal. So, I gifted to Willem 1 my big city and he was chosen as my opponent for religious victory. On the last turn I spread Confu in big Mongol (after that he had even more voices then Willem) and Japan cities and got Victory in 535AD.
It wasn't direct way to Religious Victory. In case Japan open borders it should be much earlier. Theology also could be discovered much earlier.

 

[Gosha190]

went for CS from Oracle but lost this race in 1050BC.

I lost Oracle race around 12xxBC I had no time to continue playing before today, I have not it today, I'll have not it this week

 

[lroumen]

I suppose that in most games a valid rule is: The earlier the war the better. And expansion via war excels the peaceful expansion. Most of the land should probably captured around 1000AD and this means better more than 20 cities.
(This is all based on the helpful hints of those really good players - and from my experience this is the way to go for a fast space victory)

Do you mean that for a fast space victory you should conquer a large portion of the earth to build up your own science efforts?

I do wonder about that. On the one hand you do get more and better cities to build parts in, but on the other hand preparation for war does slow down your tech. In addition if you conquer one of the other tech leaders you have to research everything yourself.
A friendly tech partner does decrease the time to get the techs and once you have most of them just workshop/farm every city that seems to have a chance to build parts and temporarily build science in these cities and later crank out the parts.

Of course, having both a friendly tech partner and half of the world conquered is better, but when does that ever happen?

 

[lymond]

1964 AD Diplo Victory
Score 29046
Contender Save

First, a note on random events since it appears to be a hot topic. I think what frustrates me the most about them is that for every one positive event I receive 10 negative ones - that actually happens quite often although I may be exaggerating a tad. Conversely though, I find that they do add a bit of flavor to the game. I don't mind having an occasional "events on" gotm from time to time. However, I guess it can skew the results a bit for comparison of like games.

I'd say I'm probably just recently reached a point where I can say I'm a Monarch player, so this was a good game for me. I almost took the challenger save but wanted to make sure I get through with a victory since I've lost several recent higher level gotms of all types.

I believe I settled 1 SE. I honestly stared at the map for like 15 minutes before deciding. The corn to the north would have been nice in the cap but at least let me get a halfway functioning city up there. The main issue early was getting decent cities with fairly crappy starting land. Settled two cities to the east to get the iron. The iron city became a rocking production city eventually - probably one of my best ever. I also made it a priority to grab the island to the SE as I felt Kubla would grab it. Surprisingly the AIs were slow to expand early it seemed. This would not be the case later.

I think my major mistake was not planning things better early and maybe at least taking out Kubla. This is my first arch map and I didn't realize or consider how much land was accessible by galley.

I lost out on Lib which was frustrating but was still the first to Optics and Astro by a longshot. Discovered Izzy who was a complete early tech whore, including the Mids. Well, thank you for building all these lovely buildings for me Izzy. My first conquest was Izzy circa 1500AD. I took most of her main island - and wonders - and capped her. At that point I used US and Rep for most of the game as well as running Caste and Merc. Later I switch to Free Market to exploit Mining Inc and Sushi.

Next up for a beat down was Toku. I set up some Rifles/Cannons/Galleons and laid waste to his main island and a couple of outlying cities and then capped him. His main island was nice and Kyoto was productive.

At this point I was leaning more toward domination/conquest. Vicky was pretty powerful at this point and had oil, which I didn't. So I did everything to stay on her good side. We were Hindus for a long time anyway.

So I set up to go to war with Kubla. I sick Vicky on him ahead of time - I did this several times with different civs. However, this backfires on me. As I'm just aboutt to attack, Kubla caps to Vicky without her even taking one of his cities. I've never seen that before. I guess it was the large power difference.

So it's either really ramp up and take on Vicky and Kubla or go an alternate path. At this point I fear Vicky's navy. I stepped back and starting focusing on either Diplo or Space. My tech is pretty good, but I do need oil badly. I tried trading with Darius for oil but it's too imbalance. I decide to attack and take his main island before capping him. Now I just demand the oil.

Interesting thing happened later as oil demand expired. I demand it once again with no problem but the second time the demand resulted in immediate war with Darius. That's never happened to me before but then I don't think I've been in that situation as I'm usually pretty nice to my vassals. I just need that oil badly. It's kinda silly though as I easily took several of his remaining cities including the ice/oil city that was only that. I capped him again and gifted a few cities back - didn't really want or need them.

I beeline MM and build the UN quickly in Haithubu, my unit pump and hammer juggernaut. After MM I focus on Space as much as possible and run Rep. (I built Cristo) - switching to US for brief periods to rush by things. Space was inevitable but I really wanted to finish this game as early as possible. The problem with Diplo was Willie and all these broken off colonies. On the first vote, Willie voted for me but there was just not enough votes that way. Several later tries he abstained as his attitude toward fluctuated for some reason. I gifted, traded, and bribed him until victory. The final vote occurred shortly before my final space part was built and I was already in Future tech.

I'd say it's not a bad win for me. It's funny how a few measly votes ended up in probaby a 60 year difference for the victory. A more military approach to the game would have been interesting but I really learned a lot playing this one out rather peacefully. For one, I've never been much on corporation simply due to either going more for conquest/dom and ignorance. Sushi is just whacked powerful. Now I see how one can make those terrible ice cities into actually strong cities. Mining is also great for the additional hammers. I ran them both strictly domestic based on what I read here about corps. Sushi does drain the coffers but one can easily make up for it by running merchants and making sure it's in our WS city.

As for events, I really didn't recall many quests in my game. I think I got one of those that's ridiculously close to expiring the next era and something with boats. I did get the cannon combat promo which is nice.

Really nice game and map.

 

[Jasonc]

Funny map. It could be nice pre-1000AD Conquest if play this game by military way but... this time I tryed Religious one.
I never played it before so I planned to use Vassal variant - isn't too fast but safe.

Wow! That really makes my 1840 Religious Win look slow. This game made me realize how little I know about Diplomacy. Can you recommend any good threads on Religious Victories?

 

[Dynamic]

Can you recommend any good threads on Religious Victories?

Sorry, I'm novice in this question and played without strong system. I read one article but it was written before checking self-voting exploit for Religious Victory (and by russian language).

 

[srad]

Do you mean that for a fast space victory you should conquer a large portion of the earth to build up your own science efforts?

I do wonder about that. On the one hand you do get more and better cities to build parts in, but on the other hand preparation for war does slow down your tech. In addition if you conquer one of the other tech leaders you have to research everything yourself.

I'm pretty sure that in most games (there is always the exception of the rule) until Immortal the AI does not contribute in any way to the tech progress via trading (beside some small techs in the beginning). The AI is just way to slow.
I tried space races with this approach and I gifted all techs I researched to the other civs. I never got an end date below 1800AD.
Surely you should avoid going bankrupt while expanding but cities could just build wealth until you can afford them to develop further. As said, the AI is to slow - you need enough cities to develop the research power by yourself.

If you are interested in space races look into those really fast games with the replay tool on the GOTM website. Probably most of the expansion is done before 1000AD. Or look in the older BOTM threads for comments of Dynamic or Gosha190 (and surely there are other very good space racers) what they said about space race games.

 

[srad]

Wow! That really makes my 1840 Religious Win look slow. This game made me realize how little I know about Diplomacy. Can you recommend any good threads on Religious Victories?

Have a look into the HOF sub forum for those games with a Religious Victory as goal. There is some good discussion with lots of useful information.

 

[srad]

I lost Oracle race around 12xxBC I had no time to continue playing before today, I have not it today, I'll have not it this week

Lost it 1150BC.

That is too bad that you can't finish the game (maybe good for me if you reach for the stars )! Also relieved that Dynamic went for the Reli Diplo victory.

 

[old_civver]

Challenger save. Cultural win 1875. Took London very early with one lone axeman in 2125 BC, even though the game says I'm a user. Maybe they were performance-enhancing or maybe I'm Leif the Lucky. Built a gp farm on peninsula to the east. Built GLH, Colossus and Great Lib. Now the mighty Vikings roared out of the north and started swingin those axes. 610 AD no Mongols and the Kashi and the mids have new owners. The bloodlust continued. 850 AD no Persians. 890 AD the longboats got turbos.
The Japanese were the next to fall to the axes. While Leif and his battle-hardened veterans were in far-off Japan doing what Vikings do, things were changing at home. Religion was spreading like wildfire. Leif came home from Japan triumphant, but to a changed land. Religion was everywhere!
What to do now? He consulted his advisors, they checked the reindeer gizzards for omens, he talked to the manar on the street. Then he went up into the mountains on retreat and came back a changed man. He had seen the light. He ordered the axes to be melted down and temples to be built throughout the kingdom. He was sick of all the killing. The longboats were cleansed of blood. Now they had a higher purpose. Missionary work! Conversions were often resisted but Leif would try and try again. Religious fervour gripped the vast nation. A mighty engineer volunteered to help the noble cause and constructed a great wonder in a fit of religious ecstasy, the Sistine Stave Church. Other great structures were soon reaching the sky. Mom and the Taj made the entire population proud. The golden age of Viking hegemony would last for decades.

But dark clouds were gathering. Unbeknownst to the Vikings there were others who were envious of the tremendous Viking achievements. With all this religious work Leif had neglected to pay proper attention to events on the far side of the earth. Suddenly there was a vast Armada of Spanish warships right in the heart of the Holy North, plundering and pillaging. Luckily some of the Vikings had hidden their axes under the floorboards, and they went absolutely berserk. The old Viking ways were soon remembered and they made quick work of these Spanish fools. Peace was soon restored and it was back to the temples and cathedrals. Foreigners never dared to come again except as tourists with glass-bottom boats, to see the remains of their "mighty" Armada.

Relations eventually improved enough that the Spanish managed to convert some of our country folk in a backwater town to their religion. This only served to hasten the inevitable victory by adding a 4th group of temples and cathedrals to the cultural powerhouse cities, who one by one became engraved on the runestones of Viking Legends. Viking cultural victory 1875.

 

[lroumen]

Yikes, a confirmed cultural win 1 year before my own. Maybe that gives us something to compare.
I was unfortunate that no other religion spread to my kingdom so I had to do it with only one and that kept me slow. In addition I had some problems with privateers and unwillingly had to go for astronomy to get rid of them because all my cultural cities relied on the sea too much.

I wonder what slowed down your achievement (if indeed you felt slowed down).

 

[ZPV]

I played a fairly nondescript Conquest game, finishing in 700 AD.

Why was it nondescript? Because I wasn't focused on conquest from the start.
Instead, I settled on the plains hill, and expanded to about 5 cities and the Great Lighthouse, generally improving my economy. I made friends with Victoria, thinking she was too far away to profitably rush (although I'm impressed by some of the 1-axe jobs reported here), traded with Kublai and Darius, and even persuaded Tokugawa to open borders and trade his Dyes to me.
I blocked an Astronomy Lightbulb by researching Civil Service and revolted into Bureaucracy.

Then, I researched Machinery, and found I had a little fire in my belly.

I whipped and built a fleet of 3 galleys, with 6 promotable Beserkers on board - these allowed me to sneak attack Kublai Khan in 235AD, capturing Karakorum and his holy city in the north on the first turn of the war. This force, and the reinforcements, went on to conquer all of Mongolia, Persia, and finally Japan.
Meanwhile, I built separate fleets for the Netherlands, England and Spain - these comprised Beserkers and 2-3 Galleons per civ, since I researched Astronomy in time.
The Dutch fleet returned to finish the Spanish campaign, where I had to raze a few cities, due to roaming Spanish units.

Key dates:
1150 BC Oracle BIFAL
975 BC The Great Lighthouse
230 BC Civil Service
5 AD Machinery
110 AD Optics
235 AD War with Kublai begins
295 AD Circumnavigate the globe.
400 AD Astronomy
460 AD War with 2CC Persia. Persia destroyed.
535 AD Mongolia destroyed. War with Netherlands.
565 AD Netherlands destroyed.
595 AD War with England, invasion of Japan begins (Toku dogpiled against me earlier in a phoney war)
640 AD Despite having a couple of longbows, England is destroyed.
655 AD Japan destroyed, war with Spain begins.
685 AD Spain is destroyed.
700 AD Conquest victory.

One amusing side-note is that I built a cultural bridge south of London, the other side of which (Japan), I soon discovered, was linked to the my continent by coast anyway.

 

[Dynamic]

Well, now we can see predicted pre-1000AD Conquest.

 

[Jbourne]

What a mess. Note to self. Killl Victoria early.

Missed Oracle (never got to start), missed Lib by one turn to get Radio for free and missed Taj Mahal by 2 turns. But captured it and the MoM from Persia before launching first GA and switching to Vasselage inorder to get the full benefits of the 8 musketman Quest. As a reward I got a second golden age for free.

I took the vassel route to Diplogame. Can not remember the date, I will add that later. Why did the Religious vote taking place after the UN was built? Was it because I did not own the Palace?