Quick summary:
Set up Chichen early as 5->7 pump, expanded towards US, since I expected most of the resources there; turned out I was right, had already grabbed both Horses and the Iron when that Techs came up.
Tried CoL->Philo->Rep gambit, but failed.
Built MoM in the Capital, one of my favorite Wonders; by that time, I had set up a city with 3 Oasis S as Settler town already.
Didn't bother much with JTs, one of my least favorite UUs. Somehow lone Barb Horses managed to kill 2 full healthy of them fortified
. Got a tottal of one Barbarian Slave. However, I still had 4 JTs as top defenders in core cities, which later turned out to be highly risky...
After initial expansion, I went for a balanced built-up, but stayed peaceful. Those pesky Barb vessels kept sinking my ships, so I didn't make contact with the other continent (Byzantium) before 150AD.
130BC saw the only somewhat critical moment: Monty moved in a couple of Jags on absolutely obvious sneak attack vector...
Not that he was any real threat, but I couldn't demand him out since we had a RoP. I had to disband 2 Spear/Settler combos in his lands to not risk my rep, and what made the situation really ugly was that he was aiming at 2 core cities defended by JTs - and I had another 5 turns of anarchy
. Not to speak I aimed for Space, thus planned on triggering the GA with Hoover...
However, I could lure 3 Jags to slaughter a Horse, and the 4th attacked a JT, redlined and retreated!
Built a couple more wonders in CI, including the GLib. The Aztec War took centuries; Sumeria had Chivalry, I had the GLib, so I didn't want to research it by myself, but nobody aquired it for ages. Hand-build the FP in Tenochtitlan, and finally eliminated Aztecs with the help of Spain and US (only America got a single city there).
Then, it was just research at 4 turns/Tech for centuries.
Meanwhile, Sumeria did as well as you'd expect from an AGR Civ with Pyramids, HGs and SoZ. For reasons only known to the AI, one weakling after the other declared on the monster, and vanished, or was exiled to the tundra island. However, due to all that wars Gilgamesh didn't build culture in his captured cities, so I could get a foothold in a non-aggressive spot. When I gifted the other 2 SCI Civs into the MA, it turned out that a source of Coal and 3 more tiles next to it was outside his borders in ex-Byzantium
. Same with Oil, could found a non-aggressive city to pouch one source between Hittites and Sumeria (ex-France).
General strategy was getting Shakespears ASAP in CI, then using Army prebuilds for other wonders.
Tech path was obviously only required Techs except FA, and going for ManuPlants first in the Modern Era, building SETI and Internet on the way, then Spaceflight and SF last.
At this time, I had a solid Tech lead (not really wanted, but I simply couldn't prevent the AI from fighting on and on); Sumeria was 1st in land, Iros and US had something like an economy. Triggered GA with Hoovers in CI. Stayed in Republic throughout the game. Disbanded enormous amounts of units in all those former Aztec tundra towns, to get them to size 7 and all SCI buildings.
Made a pretty stupid mistake in underestimating a Monarch AI - 2 turns after Gilgamesh had overrun the mainland holdings of the Hittities (MI/Ari/Bomber time), and we were alone on that landmass, he of course delared. Did cost me 2 cities mostly founded to help with unit support, but WW and the loss of 3 Luxes was what really hurt. Anyway, while it did delay vitory for a total of 2 turns (since I couldn't afford to research 2 techs @4, with running 40% Luxury tax), I was by no means in any danger of loosing my important resource cities, and when I launched, I had 7 Luxes by my own again (imported the 8th one, Gems, from America the entire game), and Sumeria was down to 20% land - he was at about twice as big when he felt like starting the war
. What really helped me with WW was tundra OCC Celts declaring on me without any reason
.
This game saw about the most stupid AI Government choices I've ever seen:
Sumeria, owning nearly an entire continent, switched to Monarchy, despite knowing Communism (but of course not Fascism).
Celts, however, with a single tundra city capped at size 3, prefered Communism over anything else
.
Space Victory in 1776AD, predator. Would have won by Diplo with 6/7 without further donations, since of course I tried to speed up tech race by gifting anyone to the level of Sumeria.
Enjoyed the resource distribution, but wasn't that pleased that it seemed SGLs, and IMHO pretty annoying, Cultural Conversions were turned off...