China/Monarch, 1884, what to do... (save attached)

[Arkanin]

Ok, I'm playing as China on a Monarch game, and everything was just peachy with me about 500 points ahead of the other factions.

I plan on a space race victory and made a HUGE, spectacular mistake of building the manhattan project before the apollo program. I'm about 1/4th of the way through the Apollo program, and it's been anounced that Cyrus and Elizabeth have finished their apollo program.

On top of everything else, I'm very suspicious that Gandhi is trying to get a cultural victory.

My current plan is start trying to build spaceship parts once I finish the apollo program, while trying to cripple India, England, and Persia. I want to wage a very brief war on India to take and raze their capital (Delhi) to ensure that they won't get a cultural victory. I also want to attack England and try to sufficiently cripple their economy to prevent a space race win, and probably simply launch nukes at Persia to try to ensure the same.

This all seems like a very messy way to try to finish the game, though. Can anyone give me some suggestions to try to win this without waging war on three fronts? I've definitely made a big mistake by not building the apollo program first, but maybe there is some way I can beat England and Persia in the space race anyway, and just hope Gandhi doesn't get his cultural victory by then?

Save:
http://ee.1asphost.com/Arkanin/Qin Shi Huang AD-1884.Civ4SavedGame

 

[Dairuka]

Build the Scotland Yard.

- Use dozens of spies to limit the production of England and Persia.

- Use Nukes to massacre India.

- Laugh as you win.

 

[Arkanin]

That would definitely work, but I'll feel like I'm cheating..

I think pointing nukes at India is a good idea, but the spies... I want to win without using them, as the AI just isn't smart enough to do anything

 

[Ravellion]

I have won a game where not only had the AI built the program, but also the casings. All done. I didn't, I did other stuff (confident in a diplo win. No, make that "overconfident in a diplo win"). Without spies or nukes, I made it. That said, I was a tech leader (on Noble, have since moved on to Prince).

The key is to find out and chart - meticulously - the "critical path" of your space program. I think I'll try and make one, problem is the non linear tech chart of Civ4. It was easy for civ3 .

Anyway, you think you need high production cities to win the space program? No. What you need is high production cities available to build the last parts of your ship. The most expensive parts of your ship you should beeline for, and produce in your still-quite-good-but-not-terrific production city. When the not quite so expensive part becomes available your city should still be producing that part, but your final part should be produced by your high prod city.

Oh: rush laboratories and the Space elevator. If you don't have the cash, sell tech and resources to people who aren't racing the space race with you.

edit: I didn't dl your save. Looks like you are out of luck, considering the next poster's analysis.

 

[Shillen]

Your cities are seriously unimproved. Shanghai is like the second or third city you build as China isn't it? Yet it's surrounded by jungle and only size 7. Your only aluminum source has a windmill on it (needs a mine and that doubles apollo program production). You have like a bazillion happiness in your cities but very little health resources. Therefore all your cities are tiny. You should have mostly size 14-18 cities at the lowest at this point in the game. You have a couple fish tiles that don't even have fishing boats on them. I'm starting to think you must have warred a lot and the AI pillaged you like crazy or something? All those factories and forges you're building aren't even helping you. They're crippling you further from the unhealthiness. Your best production city is size 8. I hate to say it but you'll never beat them to the space race with those tiny cities.

Quite frankly I'm amazed that you're even in the space race.

 

[Lord Chambers]

I'm so depressed after reading that last post I need to slit my wrists.

 

[Arkanin]

Well, the moral of the story is that I sucked hard at micromanagement near the end, because I neglected to manually rebuild from being pillaged many times. :/

But hey, I'm very unexperienced at Civ4 and the series, heh. So be merciful.

 

[Arkanin]

Your cities are seriously unimproved. Shanghai is like the second or third city you build as China isn't it? Yet it's surrounded by jungle and only size 7. Your only aluminum source has a windmill on it (needs a mine and that doubles apollo program production). You have like a bazillion happiness in your cities but very little health resources. Therefore all your cities are tiny. You should have mostly size 14-18 cities at the lowest at this point in the game. You have a couple fish tiles that don't even have fishing boats on them. I'm starting to think you must have warred a lot and the AI pillaged you like crazy or something? All those factories and forges you're building aren't even helping you. They're crippling you further from the unhealthiness. Your best production city is size 8. I hate to say it but you'll never beat them to the space race with those tiny cities.

Quite frankly I'm amazed that you're even in the space race.

Yes, that's exactly what happened, I have been at war for the entire game, had everything reasonably laid out and went through a ton of wars, and by then I had put my AIs on automanage and got lazy because I was 500 up on score. :/