1.22f - Open Class
After clearing the starting continent in the
Middle Ages, I found the Saltpeter Island and was build my invasion forces
Industrial Age
Mongols 1050AD - 1130AD - More lux
I began the invasion in 1050AD against the Mongols with 2 Knight armies, 4 Cavalry and 4 elite knights. I had held off upgrading all my elite knights to try for more Leaders. (Something, I normally haven't done. Lesson Learned!) I allied with the Celts and later Germans. Last Mongol city captured 1130AD. I got another MGL that year. The Mongols weren't eliminated nor did they ever build another city. But they stuck around for hundreds of years. I made peace with them when the MA with Celts expired. Germany sneak attacked around 1220AD. The net effect was 2 MGL in 1250AD and reverse WW.
Byzantines 1260AD - 1295AD - I needed coal!
With the discovery of Steam Power, I found I had a need for coal. The Byzantines were the closest. It didn't hurt that they also had incense. I waited for trades to expire and hit them from 3 sides. Land from the south. and two sea-borne invasions in the west and north. I capture all their continental cities by 1280AD. I made peace in 1295AD.
Germans 1295AD - 1400AD - They started it!
I allied and ROP with France 1295AD against Germany. Up until I had been just dealing with a trickle of weak units coming through the Celts. I was ready to invade through France. We split the 9 continental cities 5/4. I got all of the core. France, who had Knights, took the last one in 1325AD. I got another MGL for an army in 1320AD and build my first army the following year. I stayed at war with the German until 1400AD to avoid breaking my MA with France. I got a city on the tundra island from them.
Celts 1340AD - 1440AD - More lux
By 1340AD my trade with Celts had expired, so I started by grabbing my seventh lux (wine) by taking advantage of my ROP with France. I invite both France and Sumeria to join via MA. Celts had Musketmen and Knights. By this time I was product Infantry and Artillery and had 4 Cav Armies, 3 Knight armies and on empty waiting for tanks. The last Celtic continental cities were captured in 1385AD. I made peace in 1445AD when the MA's expired. I got their city on the saltpeter island for peace.
I discovered Flight in 1505AD and turned off research for one turn to await completion of ToE the following year. I took Fission and Computers as my free techs. I was at 60% of land and 83% pop but it was way too late for Domination or Conquest. My diversion on the research path and waiting for treaties to expire had taken too much time. I didn't want to go for culture or Spaceship. I wanted to complete the Histograph victory condition I missed in GOTM34. In GOTM34, had taken Computers and miniaturization to get internet for research and got a 100K victory through inattention. I took Fission to get UN, but since I did want a diplo victory and the other Civs we still in the MA, I should have taken Rocketry or Ecology instead.
IA Research:
Steam, Elec, RP, Ind, Medicine, Sci Method, Corp, Atomic Theory, Electronics, Sanitation, Refining, Steel, combustion, Mass Prod, Motor Trans, and Flight. I built all the IA wonders from using prebuilds to speed things up.
Modern Era
Sumerian 1525AD - 1565AD - 8th Lux
In 1525AD, I attacked the Sumerians to acquire my 8th luxury (ivory). I had 4 Tank, 4 Cav and 3 Knight armies assisted by Bombers and Mech Inf. It was slow going because most of the terrain to the east was Hills, Mountains, and Forested Tundra. Since, I so close to the Domination limit, I razed all their continental cities, except for UR which had ToA, by 1565AD. I later thought better keeping Ur and built settlers to disband the city along with the token Celt and German island cities I had extorted earlier.
Byzantines & Hittites - 1585AD - 1565AD - Because I could?
In 1585AD, I razed the Byzantine city that France had lost in a flip. I only wanted the one city so I made peace as soon as they would take to me. In 1590AD, I declare war on the Hittites. I made peace with the Hittites in 1625AD after razing 2 of their 3 cities.
France - 1670AD - 1715AD - Clear the second continent.
In 1670AD, I decided to do away with France. I an additional Modern Armor Army on their border and two more back on the home continent. I also had 20 Modern Armor and 30 Mech Inf available. I razed all their cities, except Paris which had JS Bach, by 1715AD when I made peace. While I was at it I destroyed the last Hittite city and the two from when they respawn in the far eastern tundra.
That left only the Byzantines, Sumerians and French (Both the Mongols and Germans had been eliminated over the years by the others).
Last war - 1802AD - 1838AD - Cleanup the other civs.
In 1802AD, after France and Sumeria had landed settlers on the second continent, I decided to remove the distractions. I destroyed the intruders and began shipping Modern Armor (2 armies and 6-7 units.) to the tundra island. I destroyed all the cities there and left the island to the barbarians except for a Mech Inf protecting the airfield I create there. France and Byzantines were eliminate and Sumeria was reduced to the 3 tile island near the original continent by 1838AD. It took a long time because the majority of the invasion was carried out with only one transport that was on the scene. I did have 6 Marines that I send from the home continent to destroy the Byzantine capitol on the 1-tile island. After the war I surrounded the Sumerian's last city with warships and continued to build more over time to keep them there. They never tried.
ME Research:
After the ToE boost, I researched Rocketry, Ecology, and Synthetic Fibers before going back for Espionage, Amphib War, and Advanced Flight which I finished in 1655AD. After that I researched Miniaturization, Genetics, Recycling, Nucs, Stealth, Superconductor, Satellites, Smart Weapons, and Integrated Defense which completed in 1830AD. I had traded for all the other optional techs except Ironclads which researched next. After that, I researched 17 Future techs on minimum settings.
Wonders:
I build all the modern wonders. I time the Manhattan Project and Internet to complete in 2050AD. The Internet messed me up last time. I didn't want to deal with the Nucs. In hindsight, I would probably not build Longevity as it increase my turn management time.
Histograph Strategy:
Obviously, the two main ways to screw up are the Dom limit and Culture.
I built temples throughout the game to expand borders but began to sell them off once the cities expansion was sufficient for maximum cities size. I had built Libraries and Universities in my productive cities. When my culture was around 55K, in the late 1700's, I calculated my cpt and ending culture. As I would exceed the 100K limit before 2050AD, I proceeded to sell off my libraries and Universities around that time. My ending culture was 77,370.
I expanded until I was around 50 tiles short of domination. Later, when I was more comfortable with culture expansion control, I took it down to 12 tiles short of the limit. Only my wonder cities were uncontrolled but they were either hundreds of years from expansion or were far from the borders. (Needless to say I used Dianthus CRpMapStat to manage all this.
)
I had decided to research Sanitation and build Hospitals to maximize pop. I irrigated all mines and forest lands, starting with the corrupt areas first. I inserted cities close together in the forested Tundra lands and in between other cities where they had not fully grown into their space (mostly on the second continent). Finally, when I was done making improvements, began adding workers cities to max out their population immediately. (I roaded and forested all the tundra and unclaimed lands to prevent global warming issues.) I kept the governor off for most of the game in order to use Engineers to help build improvements in corrupt cites. I cash rushed improvements to facilitate growth as need and as I could afford (Aqueducts, Harbors, and Hospitals). I also built marketplaces and Mass transportation in all 12+ pop cities as needed. Later I built recycling center in my core cities with factories. Pollution was a problem throughout the IA and ME. Once I was done producing units and wonders I sold off the factories to decrease pollution. I kept 20-30 workers on each continent right up to the last turn cleaning up pollution, even with the other measure I took.
In order maximize my score, I began bumping up the lux slider as the need for cash diminished. I also micromanaged the extra population in cities to produce as many happy citizens as possible. Using all those slave workers to fill up cities freed me from keeping unhappy citizens to maximize pop growth. At the end I had only a 13 sad or 6 content citizens. Most were either Happy (1864) or specialists(897). With Longevity, my cities with an odd number of food tended to go through grow/starve cycles. I took advantage of this to rush more workers as their numbers diminished.
A couple of lessons learned here was that I should have started joining workers much earlier and I let too much cash build up (70+K) before I switched to mass cash rush of hospitals and completing new city packages (Aqua, Market, Hosp, and Mass trans). I saw a GOTM34 Histo spoiler where they didn't build hospitals but employed ICS. I can see where this would be easier to manage and would allow a higher percentage of happy. With 8 lux and marketplace no city below 13 every needed any micromanagement.
In the end, I spent 70 hours, 21 minutes and had a base score of 13,921 for a Jason of 8849. (my best score ever on both)