Thank you, kcd_swede, for the highly entertaining, original, and special anniversary BOTM. The arrangement on the Inland Sea map, with all civilizations either at war or in eternal peace, presented a challenge to established approaches. Sparta as a civilization was an ideal choice, both historically and for the game concept. The Odeon as a special building was a perfect fit; Sparta’s creative and philosophical traits already gave me an initial idea of how I might win the game… if I even got that far.
I thoroughly enjoyed the BOTM itself, which I can't say about the quality of my game. The start was mediocre (see my 1 AD progress report), but by 75 AD I had managed to eliminate Darius and capture Persepolis, having completely blockaded that single city until then. So far, so good. But then the problems with Cyrus began. My spy was far too slow and took far too long to scout his hinterland and strategic resources. While marching on his first, western city, I almost completely missed his counterattack on Persepolis. By the time I finally repelled it, Cyrus had researched Feudalism, and now I had to fight against longbowmen. Supply lines were long, so I focused my research on Construction (t158). I had captured three of Cyrus's cities by then, but it was a slow process because I underestimated his strength and didn't concentrate solely on warfare, also wanting to develop my own cities.
What frustrated me most were my careless mistakes, which repeatedly led to losses. I lost Pasargade again, I left individual units (twice a GG) vulnerable, and above all, I marched slowly and mindlessly with my SoD instead of sending out fast units to pillage. At times, I had some bad luck, losing units a couple of times in a row despite odds of 90%. To be honest, I was so frustrated at times that I considered to give up. Alexander came to my aid, and I let him capture a smaller city while I worked on longbows with Garrison II or III units, or on hill towns with Guerrilla II or III longbowmen. Only guilds with knights finally turned the tide, and in t212 (1510 AD) I conquered Cyrus's last city.
So how was I going to win? Peace vassaling wasn't an option because all factions were at war with each other. That ruled out a Domination Victory. I did manage to reach 45% of the world's population shortly before the end of the game. But 64% land ownership was therefore impossible. Right from the start, I had considered attempting a cultural victory, and after bulbing Philosophy in t131, thus founding my second religion, there were five religions in my empire, albeit few and very scattered. So: research liberalism for free speech and +100%
, send missionaries for each religion so that it was represented in nine cities, build for each religion a temple in each of those nine cities, and build a cathedral for each of the five religions in the three target cities: Athens, Corinth, and ??. Focus GP (philosophical!) exclusively on GA and switch from research to culture. Here, I made another hair-raising mistake. I spent twenty minutes deliberating over the best choice for the third cultural city, only to then send my first GA to the wrong city and have his artwork erected there. After all the previous excitement, the rest of the game proceeded very calmly. No spy seriously engaged in sabotage. In 1874 AD (t307), the time had finally come, and my three target cities had achieved legendary status.
Quick info: 20 cities, 302 POP, 45.2% Pop, 47.0% land
A small note: Despite my enormous cultural pressure, Alexander managed to hold onto the small city he had conquered from Cyrus until the very end, as did Ragnar, who had built a city right next door (by the fish), thus beating me by a few turns. Ragnar's city ultimately survived not having a land tile and one revolt.
. Later I guided him to taking a rather small city on the Viking border, which I wasn't interested in because of the likely Viking cultural pressure. Funnily enough, that city did later flip.... to ME! 
