Vive La France
Difficulty: Monarch
Speed: Normal
Scenario: 3000 BC
Finish Date: 1680 AD
Score: 14859
Vassals: Aztecs, Incas, Persians, Ottomans, Russians
Happy Turkey Day!
Game started with me inheriting 5 cities from the Romans.
Ordinarily, I would balk at this, but I decided to try out the youtien approach and it worked out swimmingly.
DoW'ed Rome after gathering my stack as they didn't DoW me on spawn and overran Milan and Rome. Then picked off the leftovers during their collapse.
Around this time, I settled Scotland too, and England wound up OCCing thereafter as I did not OB with them.
The rest is a bit of a haze, but I DoW'ed the Spanish, Germans, Arabians, Moors, Turks and later received a DoW from the Byzantines,
which allowed me to snag the Catholic shrine and some ancient Wonders in Greece.
Later in the game, the Persians respawned (note, respawned, instead of the Iranians spawning) at the same time the Chinese did and at war with the Mongols.
I paid off the Mongols to make peace with the Persians and then I vassalized Persia.
Later, the Ottomans sought a master against Russia, Arabia, Mali, Mongolia & Corea.
Since Arabia was my Defensive Pact partner, I paid them off to make peace with the Ottomans, and then I took up the role of the Ottomans' protector, putting them under my wing and sending a stack over to Russia.
At around the same time, my Trading Company conquerors arrived but I quickly made peace with the Tamils and moved my units north to meet the Mongols.
The Chinese respawned for the second time and for some reason, I got Aomen as the Chinese inflicted some losses on the Mongols and caused their cities to revolt.
China collapsed soon afterwards though, leaving behind a Barbarian Kaifeng guarded by a single Rifleman.
I made peace with the Mongols and beat them to Kaifeng.
Now that I was at peace with Mongolia+Corea, I vassalized Russia and gave them back their cities.
After that, it was just Settler spamming and pumping up my Culture slider during GA.
Game ended with me culture bombing Nice.