Can I win this game?

[Lucius_]

Can I win this game? The game is Alexander, continents, Emperor, everything else standard. Current turn is 226. The save file is attached. Read on for more details.

I screwed up in the early game thinking I'd get a religion and I invested too much time into in. I didn't go for religion early enough, but when I did I invested heavily into it getting the district, shrine and the wildcard slot policy. Stonehenge religion was gone and there were 2 left. I had the lead by quite a bit for the next prophet then suddenly they were all gone. I should have ignored religion and just focused on taking out Russia. Russia because he was aggressive early, before I even had a 3rd city up. I didn't do any early archer/warrior rush because of the religion distraction. I ended up waiting for my UU. I ended up slightly behind in tech and my war with Ghandi lasted far too long. This was mostly due to lack of me fielding a large enough army, so spending too much time replacing units and waiting between cities for units to heal. Overall, I'm not in a bad a place but I'm further behind than I should be at this point.

Of course, I don't know if any of this really affects my problem currently. The problem is Kongo. He's far ahead in tech, compared to the entire world, and he is halfway to a culture victory. Somebody has been increasing their domestic tourism enough to keep him around 50% for a little while now, but i'm not sure if at some point he will run away with tourism or start the space race.

My gut tells me he should be my next target. If I can take him out, I'm guaranteed to win. I just don't believe I am able to defeat him. For units, the only thing I've seen of his are AT crew (corps). My musketmen probably will not stand up against that. My army is small, he is mostly inland so ships will only help somewhat. I don't believe he has air units, but I'm too far behind him to get them first. I'm not gaining on him technologically, but falling further behind. I think he's 160 bpt and i'm 125 iirc.

Anyways, this is probably way more information than I needed to write. Just curious, would you abandon this game? If not, how would you proceed from here?

 

[sa1vy]

Yeah so I definitely think a cultural victory is possible. You should continue research to Radio *ASAP*. Resorts will be your main tourism source. Switch civics immediately to mass media to get Cristo, and put that in Pella as soon as you can. Don't even delay the two turns to get colonialism. Research to computers next, then go to steel to get Eiffel. Looks like you'll have to clear the deer near Pella for Eiffel, but it's absolutely worth it. You should get to Steel about the time you finish Cristo, so it should work out. Switch all your trade routes to Pella for the wonders.
Meanwhile, you can start building more cities for resorts. Looks like you can get one more northeast of Yerevan, one between Palenque and Buenos Aires, one west of Srinagar, and about three more on that skiny desert island Chalkidiki is on. Also, put one put south of Alexandria in Aria by the volcano wonder because culture tiles give tourism once you hit flight.
Cleo will declare war with you on Mvemba now, so I'd do that, just to distract him and decrease his influence on you. Meanwhile, try having trade routes to everyone you can. Get to conservation when you can for naturalists (your faith will be helpful here) and for planting woods for increased appeal for resorts, then go for cultural heritage/social media for tourism boosts.
Edit: put in Rationalism/Meritocracy/Natural Philosophy for government cards. You can skip going for democracy because it's not necessary, and it's expensive and out of the way of more important stuff.
Good luck! hope it works.

 

[liv]

I don't think you can lose. Just focus on your victory type. I would go war and tech to see where the oil is. And focus all my energy on Kongo.