Predator
As often, my choice was between conquest and domination. And as usual, I chose domination. I used only knights, supported by a few templars and not so few ancient calvalries. I will be surprised and very impressed if someone gets a good conquest date without using cavalries. The Romans had a much stronger military than Germany, and when I tried to get a chunk of the Celts at the end, I had to skip Entremont because of the pikemen.
A useful golden age (started in 10 AD) was possible because I was pretty far ahead in Technology. I could prebuild Knights' Templar in my capital Hamburg without risking AI cascades. I wasted some shields - could perhaps have gotten Sun Tzu's Academy instead, but at that time I already had many barracks on the home continent.
I faced a tough decision, whether Russia or India should be the second off-shore AI to invade. (Mongols was the first, rather easy victim.) India had the Great Lighthouse, and my people were craving the overseas luxuries, luxury tax was at 10% and even 30-40% in war-weary times, but Russia was about to learn feudalism and had at least one source of iron. I chose Russia and I'm sure it was the right decison.
Timeline (Where I Have Excluded a Skirmish with the Celts and a Brief Tussle with the Romans, with Whom We Now Live in Understandig and Shall Enjoy a Peaceful Christmas)
730 BC - Enter MA after currency self research. Free tech Monotheism. I find myself without contact with a scientific civ.
710 - Carthage completes statue of Zeus. We capture it and start barracks.
550 - Peace with Carthage, who have 2 towns now.
450 - Finally met Russia. A stupid wrong turn past some southern islands by our curragh cost around 29-31 turns before we met them. We have one turn left on Feudlism, so gifting is pointless.
270 BC - Karakorum has 3 reg spearmen and 1 reg musketman. No resources. Their military is weaker than ours, even before we have upgraded any knights. They have a total of 12 towns, 3 being island towns and one situated on our continent.
250 BC - Chivalry discovered. Research stopped.
210 BC - Monogols complete ToA. Russia enters MA end gets Monotheism.
10 AD - Golden Age, after capture of Karakorum and construction of Knights Templar in Hamburg.
50 AD - Finally got my first Great Leader, in a squirmish with the Celts. This leader builds FP in Carthage.
70 AD - Delhi has 3 spearmen and one musketman, building horseman. They have no iron, but will not need any when they get Chivalry. India is at war with Russia.
270 - Moscow captured.
280 - 2nd leader (finally) creates army in our Russian holdings. Destroyed Mongols.
290 - 3rd leader builds army.
310 - 4th leader, evacuated from the tundra island to the north.
350 - Mecca has 4 spearmen, 2spt, war weariness, building an archer. Roads N and N,NW needed. ROP costs 14gpt.
Made India declare war.
370 (ca) - Sneak attack by Celts, who I had an unfortunate RoP with. Our clean-up works fine but it takes time for my troops to reach the Celtic heartland.
410 - Finally captured Great Lighthouse in Delhi. But I don't regret putting it off because if I had attacked them before Russia, Russia would have built a lot of pikemen. Taking Russia first, I only faced 2-3 Russian pikes, in Moscow, and the ironless Indians still never got the chance to build elephants.
440 - This is a rare game where a pikeman protecting the borders of Gergovia is probably my most useful unit, except for the armies, possibly.
440 - Finally reached 0 support cost. Arabia is going down. Domination victory will be reached within a few decades. But I have to join a lot of workers. Poor happiness especially on the beta continent has kept my population low.
