Xcalibrator
Ultraviolet Catastrophe
Domination win 1630, but I bow before Yamps for a faster de facto Dom victory. Too exhausted to write now but the war plan I described with a combination of hope and fear in the first spoiler actually worked pretty well (with a big hiccup to start). Loved the map on this one. Thanks DS! 
Added later.....
My clever ploy to pick off the weak and infirm didn't start off so well. Two turns before I was ready to join in Joao's war on Alex, the latter capitulated. Bah.
I really wanted to take on Alex because he had several decent cities but rather old-fashioned units. Willem was my fallback. He was down to 2 cities by this point (others lost to Boudica and Alex) and had no useful techs to extort, but it gave me an easy beachhead on the other continent. I took Amsterdam and he cap'd in 265 AD.
I kept shipping units over and went after Boudica next. Took her 3 southern cities, leaving her one up north she'd stolen from Willem but she still wouldn't cap. I was far from her last city (Utrecht, up north) so I took peace. Mao finished her off in 730 AD. One of Boudica's former cities was getting squashed by Mansa's culture so I generously gave it to Alex, giving him the headache and also increasing his population, close to the 50% of Joao's necessary to break free. Meanwhile I'd gotten Steel in 805 AD and upgraded a bunch of trebs.
I kept shipping over units and turned toward Joao/Alex. Joao had taken one of Willem's cities near the dye cluster. My plan was to take that city since it was far from Joao's core and it would decrease his pop enough to let Alex break free. It worked a charm. I then captured Athens and Alex, now a free man (temporarily), cap'd to me.
After losing a city and his vassal to me, followed by Mao capturing one of his cities, Joao cap'd to me in 960. I started a Golden Age with a Great Sci in 1020 and was in 1st place by 1040.
Mansa was no pushover, but he was surrounded now and I had more units, including my shiny cannon, of which he had only a few. I'd also gotten Rifling by then, while he had only muskets. I gathered a big stack on his southern border in one of Boudica's former cities and landed a small stack up north on his 2nd iron to pillage it and slowly bombard (1130 AD). The southern stack pillaged his southern iron (no more cannon for you!) and took Timbuktu (with Notre Dame and MoM) without too much drama. My stack was never very big so I accepted his cap there (1190), even though Timbuktu would suffer several cultural-pressure revolts in the future. So did Amsterdam and Athens, though I eventually quieted them with garrisons. [Question: If I'd moved my capital to Timbuktu, would that automatically quell the revolts?]
In the middle of my Mali campaign, however, Vicky DoW'd me!
I wasn't too worried because she didn't have open borders with Peter so she'd have to invade by sea. No WHEOOHRN on this, by the way. But wait, it gets better. Peter DoWs me the next turn, again with a dagger attack. 
I had only 6 units defending my two mainland cities (Paris, and Orleans N of the gold). I knew I was begging for trouble by keeping so few units in the homeland cities but I needed everything I could spare for the other continent. I used a fresh GG on 3 units in Paris, spreading Guerrilla promos---very helpful for a hill city---and upgraded them to rifles. I captured Timbuktu and cap'd Mansa the next turn and then pondered what to do.
There was no point in trying to defend flat-land Orleans; I could see Peter's stack of a dozen or so rifles, etc. "Evacuate the city!" I moved all (um, both) its units to Paris but it still took Peter two turns to capture it, although he could have done it in one with his horse units (knights or cuirs, don't remember). Meanwhile, war buddies Peter and Vicky had opened borders so I could expect a stack from Vicky before long. And then Mao DoW'd me (1200)! The same turn, a second Russian stack appeared. OK, things are really looking grim: 3 AIS attacking me, war on both continents, with the bulk of my army overseas while my capital is facing imminent seige.
I seriously considered abandoning Paris. But I told my vassals (Wm, Mansa, Alex, and Joao, a not inconsiderable force) to attack Chinese cities and figured I could hang on over there. "Joao! DoW Mao now!" I commanded.
That left a fair number of units I could ship back to Paris via galleon. The circumnav bonus meant that I could hop across the ocean via island cities and never leave my ships exposed to attack. Meanwhile I drafted Paris down to pop 6 and then whipped from there down to 3. Peter was taking his sweet time marching to Paris (over 30 units in his force by now) and left a stack of 8 exposed on flat land, which I wiped out without loss. He finally attacked, mostly suicides against my fortified Guerilla II and III defenders. I then wiped out his survivors. He offered peace and I said "OK," leaving him Orleans, on flat land, surrounded by my culture, and tying up several of his units over the ensuing centuries to keep it from revolting.
Vicky's stack, around 40 units, showed up a couple turns later. Same story. She lost nearly everything attacking and then I cleaned up. Peace in 1275, leaving me free to deal with Mao. I took one of his cities and he was open to capitulation, which I took. Afterward I traded my Rifling for his Corporations.
My tech situation was still pretty poor. Peter had infantry and Zara had destroyers while I was still using rifles and frigates. Having vassals was a huge advantage in this game, though, because they could tech so fast and as master I could tell them what to research, or order them to switch before finishing a tech if I needed more time to gather enough to trade for it. After gaining peace I built wealth in most cities and aimed for Physics ASAP. When I finally got it I was able to trade with my vassals for Steam Power, Railroads, and MilTrad. Next I went for Artillery while telling them to research other stuff. With that I traded in 1415 for Combustion and Assembly Line. Next was Flight, which I traded for Medicine, Democracy, Electricity, Rocketry, and Communism (1520). I was now mostly caught up or ahead of everyone but Peter.
Going back to 1320, I DoW'd Charlie and Zara immediately DoW'd me. I captured two cities, including Prague (with a 45 gpt Buddhist shrine and bank and market
--I founded Sushi here later when I got Medicine, finally finishing Wall St about 4 turns before the game ended), and Charlie capped in 1375. Zara wouldn't talk peace and Hanni DoW'd me the next turn. Peter was showing the red fist. Hanni had Artillery (still in my future) but I managed to take one of his cities and he and Zara (now vassal/master) took peace. I launched a second GA, got Artillery, and Dow'd Hanni+Zara in 1490, taking two more of Hanni's cities and leaving him with only one to the NW, surrouned by other AI culture. Zara had too many units and mine were beaten up and out of position so I took a ceasefire. After a turn of healing I marched a stack across Zara's open borders to Arabia, then reDoW'd, captured Hanni's last city and parked on a hill next Zara's Laibela, which quickly fell. In 1580 I took Gondar while my vassals captured Aksum and Zara cap'd. I immediately attacked Sal+Suli, but after two turns Sal cap'd to Peter, who had attacked Sal a few turns earlier (remember that red fist?). There was no 10-turn peace, though, so after moving my units around I redeclared, took Suli's last city, and DoW'd Peter+Sal. Peter marched a big stack toward Paris, but it was mostly a replay of his previous futile attack. Tanks and bombers were a big help here. By 1625 I'd taken 3 of Sal's cities and wiped out Peter's stack. I took peace, popped the borders of several previously captured cities, and got Dom in 1630 with a score of 215132. Very challenging (and satisfying) game, with some lucky breaks along the way.
That was more than you probably wanted to know, but I think this game will be my Civ swan song and I wanted to put some effort into this report. I've hugely enjoyed playing xOTMs and SGOTMs with you and many others over the years but I can't afford the time any more and my arm aches from too much mousing. Thanks to all of you for helping me become a much better player at the greatest turn-based computer game of all time.
Added later.....
My clever ploy to pick off the weak and infirm didn't start off so well. Two turns before I was ready to join in Joao's war on Alex, the latter capitulated. Bah.
I really wanted to take on Alex because he had several decent cities but rather old-fashioned units. Willem was my fallback. He was down to 2 cities by this point (others lost to Boudica and Alex) and had no useful techs to extort, but it gave me an easy beachhead on the other continent. I took Amsterdam and he cap'd in 265 AD.I kept shipping units over and went after Boudica next. Took her 3 southern cities, leaving her one up north she'd stolen from Willem but she still wouldn't cap. I was far from her last city (Utrecht, up north) so I took peace. Mao finished her off in 730 AD. One of Boudica's former cities was getting squashed by Mansa's culture so I generously gave it to Alex, giving him the headache and also increasing his population, close to the 50% of Joao's necessary to break free. Meanwhile I'd gotten Steel in 805 AD and upgraded a bunch of trebs.
I kept shipping over units and turned toward Joao/Alex. Joao had taken one of Willem's cities near the dye cluster. My plan was to take that city since it was far from Joao's core and it would decrease his pop enough to let Alex break free. It worked a charm. I then captured Athens and Alex, now a free man (temporarily), cap'd to me.
After losing a city and his vassal to me, followed by Mao capturing one of his cities, Joao cap'd to me in 960. I started a Golden Age with a Great Sci in 1020 and was in 1st place by 1040.Mansa was no pushover, but he was surrounded now and I had more units, including my shiny cannon, of which he had only a few. I'd also gotten Rifling by then, while he had only muskets. I gathered a big stack on his southern border in one of Boudica's former cities and landed a small stack up north on his 2nd iron to pillage it and slowly bombard (1130 AD). The southern stack pillaged his southern iron (no more cannon for you!) and took Timbuktu (with Notre Dame and MoM
) without too much drama. My stack was never very big so I accepted his cap there (1190), even though Timbuktu would suffer several cultural-pressure revolts in the future. So did Amsterdam and Athens, though I eventually quieted them with garrisons. [Question: If I'd moved my capital to Timbuktu, would that automatically quell the revolts?]In the middle of my Mali campaign, however, Vicky DoW'd me!
I wasn't too worried because she didn't have open borders with Peter so she'd have to invade by sea. No WHEOOHRN on this, by the way. But wait, it gets better. Peter DoWs me the next turn, again with a dagger attack. I had only 6 units defending my two mainland cities (Paris, and Orleans N of the gold). I knew I was begging for trouble by keeping so few units in the homeland cities but I needed everything I could spare for the other continent. I used a fresh GG on 3 units in Paris, spreading Guerrilla promos---very helpful for a hill city---and upgraded them to rifles. I captured Timbuktu and cap'd Mansa the next turn and then pondered what to do.There was no point in trying to defend flat-land Orleans; I could see Peter's stack of a dozen or so rifles, etc. "Evacuate the city!" I moved all (um, both) its units to Paris but it still took Peter two turns to capture it, although he could have done it in one with his horse units (knights or cuirs, don't remember). Meanwhile, war buddies Peter and Vicky had opened borders so I could expect a stack from Vicky before long. And then Mao DoW'd me (1200)!
The same turn, a second Russian stack appeared. OK, things are really looking grim: 3 AIS attacking me, war on both continents, with the bulk of my army overseas while my capital is facing imminent seige.I seriously considered abandoning Paris. But I told my vassals (Wm, Mansa, Alex, and Joao, a not inconsiderable force) to attack Chinese cities and figured I could hang on over there. "Joao! DoW Mao now!" I commanded.
That left a fair number of units I could ship back to Paris via galleon. The circumnav bonus meant that I could hop across the ocean via island cities and never leave my ships exposed to attack. Meanwhile I drafted Paris down to pop 6 and then whipped from there down to 3. Peter was taking his sweet time marching to Paris (over 30 units in his force by now) and left a stack of 8 exposed on flat land, which I wiped out without loss. He finally attacked, mostly suicides against my fortified Guerilla II and III defenders. I then wiped out his survivors. He offered peace and I said "OK," leaving him Orleans, on flat land, surrounded by my culture, and tying up several of his units over the ensuing centuries to keep it from revolting.Vicky's stack, around 40 units, showed up a couple turns later. Same story. She lost nearly everything attacking and then I cleaned up. Peace in 1275, leaving me free to deal with Mao. I took one of his cities and he was open to capitulation, which I took. Afterward I traded my Rifling for his Corporations.
My tech situation was still pretty poor. Peter had infantry and Zara had destroyers while I was still using rifles and frigates. Having vassals was a huge advantage in this game, though, because they could tech so fast and as master I could tell them what to research, or order them to switch before finishing a tech if I needed more time to gather enough to trade for it. After gaining peace I built wealth in most cities and aimed for Physics ASAP. When I finally got it I was able to trade with my vassals for Steam Power, Railroads, and MilTrad. Next I went for Artillery while telling them to research other stuff. With that I traded in 1415 for Combustion and Assembly Line. Next was Flight, which I traded for Medicine, Democracy, Electricity, Rocketry, and Communism (1520). I was now mostly caught up or ahead of everyone but Peter.
Going back to 1320, I DoW'd Charlie and Zara immediately DoW'd me. I captured two cities, including Prague (with a 45 gpt Buddhist shrine and bank and market
--I founded Sushi here later when I got Medicine, finally finishing Wall St about 4 turns before the game ended), and Charlie capped in 1375. Zara wouldn't talk peace and Hanni DoW'd me the next turn. Peter was showing the red fist. Hanni had Artillery (still in my future) but I managed to take one of his cities and he and Zara (now vassal/master) took peace. I launched a second GA, got Artillery, and Dow'd Hanni+Zara in 1490, taking two more of Hanni's cities and leaving him with only one to the NW, surrouned by other AI culture. Zara had too many units and mine were beaten up and out of position so I took a ceasefire. After a turn of healing I marched a stack across Zara's open borders to Arabia, then reDoW'd, captured Hanni's last city and parked on a hill next Zara's Laibela, which quickly fell. In 1580 I took Gondar while my vassals captured Aksum and Zara cap'd. I immediately attacked Sal+Suli, but after two turns Sal cap'd to Peter, who had attacked Sal a few turns earlier (remember that red fist?). There was no 10-turn peace, though, so after moving my units around I redeclared, took Suli's last city, and DoW'd Peter+Sal. Peter marched a big stack toward Paris, but it was mostly a replay of his previous futile attack. Tanks and bombers were a big help here. By 1625 I'd taken 3 of Sal's cities and wiped out Peter's stack. I took peace, popped the borders of several previously captured cities, and got Dom in 1630 with a score of 215132. Very challenging (and satisfying) game, with some lucky breaks along the way.That was more than you probably wanted to know, but I think this game will be my Civ swan song and I wanted to put some effort into this report. I've hugely enjoyed playing xOTMs and SGOTMs with you and many others over the years but I can't afford the time any more and my arm aches from too much mousing.
Thanks to all of you for helping me become a much better player at the greatest turn-based computer game of all time.
