With all the open land available that early warriors discovered, I set about pumping out settlers and expanding before the Egyptians got there. I was successful at grabbing the western half of the continent. With so much expansion I suddenly realized I was following the same path as my GOTM42 debacle.
(Under defended cities led to an early demise at the hands of the Iroquois.) I corrected this problem; this game turned out much better.
Entered the MA with only a short term plan. Feudalism, initiate GA with a short war, secure a second saltpeter, perhaps a MGL, add a few cities and pick up a few slaves. The war was completely successful for my objectives.
Egypt was the target; they were neighbors and number two in score at this point. Carthage helped and carried the war far longer than the 20 turns I did.
And now for something completely different.
(At least for me) At this point I decided to try for a diplomatic win. The conditions seemed right for this strategy. The other civ’s attitude toward me was polite (very unusual
) due to continued ROPs and profitable tech bartering. Secondly, a conquest or domination victory would have required me to send troops over seas which I was just not in the mood to do this game. I was looking to have a fast and simple game. So for the first time ever I used my MGL to rush the FP. I was really bothered by the fact that my cities SW of the capital across the big pond, which had potential to be decent production cities, were completely corrupt.
From this point on, I focused on racing through the tech tree. I did manage to build a few wonders though. (Hoover, ToE, Knights Templar (earlier) and of course UN).
Turns were very fast as I approached completion of the UN and I was starting to worry I would not receive the necessary votes for the win. The Arabs had fallen earlier in the game and I knew I would have only Hiawatha running against me. That left 5 votes up for grabs. Cleo was still furious so I couldn’t count on her.
I had started gifting all kinds of things (techs, gold, GPT, a city, resources) and was only able to get Gandhi to turn gracious. With only two turns left I signed MPPs with Hannibal, Xerxes, and Theodora. Hannibal and Theodora both turned gracious. The vote was 5-2 in favor of Joan.
Oddly, Xerxes who was still only polite voted for me also. I was under the impression that an attitude of any thing less than gracious would not garner a favorable vote.
Two things I found interesting in this game: This world seemed to be resource rich but luxury poor. I had no problems with resources in my half of the continent and was able to sell my extras many times. However, I had only two luxes and only ivory (Egypt) was ever available on the market. The second oddity was there were only 2 wars. One I started and the other on the other continent that quickly took out the Arabs.
The numbers here are not great but I’m still pleased with my first Diplo win.
Score 2207
Jason 5179
Diplomatic Victory 1774 AD.
)
Shame on me! But that was the only way to finish the game on time. Byzanz fell in one turn, Arabia in two, and a couple of turns later I only needed two turns to take out Persia except for one city. (And I begin to like it... 
-- You guys over here do have a bad influence on me...)
