This is my first GotM, and one of the few games I had the patience to stick with beyond the Ancient Era... both in Civ 2 and Civ 3.
I discovered the ideal Athens location and expanded conservatively. My second city on the flood plains, got lucky with my third down towards the romans. Managed to snag the iron too, but I failed to secure horses.
Amazingly, I only had one occurance of a major barbarian uprising near the middle, never had one attack Athens. Also, somehow, I managed to snag the Pyramids, the Colossus, and the Great Lighthouse in Athens, which got me off to a good start. My scout galley sucked, though, it got sunk by barbarians as I hit the coast of the large continent, but before I could make contact! Argh! At this time, I've gotten the middle of the continent, but rome has settled both the south and north ends.
Anyways, I made what turned out to be a devestating blunder; I accidentally accepted a trade with me giving away communications to the Romans. They get tech and more importantly IRON! Argh. I had planned to obliterate him by trading for horses, making a large knight force, then rolling him over. Unfortunately, he managed to come back and hold his own with their hoardes of legionary and longbowman. Of course, my impatience didn't help any when I attack with nearly all my knights and leave none to defend my stacks! The most interesting aspect was he kept pillaging my roads connecting the iron to my core.
After a couple wars, I get horses, and slightly over half the continent, but in the peace several cities defected, roughly equalizing landmass. I was one tile away from getting the coal supply.
Play tech broker, blah blah, build lots of cultural stuff to contine my plan for a cultural victory. Eventually, I realize that I'm probably not going to pull off a cultural victory, but I realize I am producing a vast amount of shields, and realize that a space race victory seems the most viable option.
In a clever strategic gamble, I place a city on the edge of roman cultural borders, and it is able to establish a cultural foothold into roman territory, pushing very close to his capital, should war crop up again. In a big stroke of serendipity, it turns out to be next to the island's only supply of uranium.
In a big stroke of bad luck, it defects to the romans. 
Well, it comes down to a nail-biting space race. I figure out a clever strategy to use wall street; instead of setting research at, say, 60%, I set it at 30% for a few turns then 90% for a few turns, allowing me to accrue a surplus and get interest on it. Anyways, it all comes down to a key trading blunder the AI makes... I get synthetic fiber for the mere cost of the laser. I have 4 cities with 80 - 100 shield production allowing me to pump out the final 4 components at blinding speed and win with 2392 points in the year 1802 with a space shuttle launch.
I found it interesting to note that I was extremely isolationist. I had zero involvement in the politics of the rest of the world, aside from technology trading, aside from being the catalyst for a world war against the #1 civ at the end of the game (Chinese) by getting a MPP with the romans after the chinese catch me failing to plant a spy 3 times in a row.
Hurkyl
I discovered the ideal Athens location and expanded conservatively. My second city on the flood plains, got lucky with my third down towards the romans. Managed to snag the iron too, but I failed to secure horses.
Amazingly, I only had one occurance of a major barbarian uprising near the middle, never had one attack Athens. Also, somehow, I managed to snag the Pyramids, the Colossus, and the Great Lighthouse in Athens, which got me off to a good start. My scout galley sucked, though, it got sunk by barbarians as I hit the coast of the large continent, but before I could make contact! Argh! At this time, I've gotten the middle of the continent, but rome has settled both the south and north ends.
Anyways, I made what turned out to be a devestating blunder; I accidentally accepted a trade with me giving away communications to the Romans. They get tech and more importantly IRON! Argh. I had planned to obliterate him by trading for horses, making a large knight force, then rolling him over. Unfortunately, he managed to come back and hold his own with their hoardes of legionary and longbowman. Of course, my impatience didn't help any when I attack with nearly all my knights and leave none to defend my stacks! The most interesting aspect was he kept pillaging my roads connecting the iron to my core.
After a couple wars, I get horses, and slightly over half the continent, but in the peace several cities defected, roughly equalizing landmass. I was one tile away from getting the coal supply.

In a clever strategic gamble, I place a city on the edge of roman cultural borders, and it is able to establish a cultural foothold into roman territory, pushing very close to his capital, should war crop up again. In a big stroke of serendipity, it turns out to be next to the island's only supply of uranium.


Well, it comes down to a nail-biting space race. I figure out a clever strategy to use wall street; instead of setting research at, say, 60%, I set it at 30% for a few turns then 90% for a few turns, allowing me to accrue a surplus and get interest on it. Anyways, it all comes down to a key trading blunder the AI makes... I get synthetic fiber for the mere cost of the laser. I have 4 cities with 80 - 100 shield production allowing me to pump out the final 4 components at blinding speed and win with 2392 points in the year 1802 with a space shuttle launch.
I found it interesting to note that I was extremely isolationist. I had zero involvement in the politics of the rest of the world, aside from technology trading, aside from being the catalyst for a world war against the #1 civ at the end of the game (Chinese) by getting a MPP with the romans after the chinese catch me failing to plant a spy 3 times in a row.
Hurkyl