Moved the settler on a hill next to a mountain, away from the river to settle Berlin. Was confident about this due to the many hills there for nice production. However I forgot how slow border expansion was without Tradition - for e.g. I never have gotten the two river hills to the NW. There also was another problem with the capital there which I'll bring up later. More importantly, I think I've gotten 2 culture ruins, so Hamburg was settled pretty quickly. What is really unusual here is: I've already discovered all other civs by turn 35!
Great Library finished on turn 75, granting me Theology. Bought a library in Hamburg and immediately went on with the National College in Berlin.
0 happiness. Silver mine finishing next turn. Compass researched and Hagia Sophia by the next turn...
...gonna chose a Great Scientist and bulb Education. The great engineer from the liberty finisher then hurried...
... the Porcelain Tower. The new great scientist immediately is used to bulb Astronomy. Hello Renaissance! Hamburg finished The Oracle on the same turn, so Rationalism was opened so the Research Agreements now were boosted to grant 100% instead of only 50% of the median beaker value of available techs. That's what I meant about excellent timing in this game!
HBR is done in 4 turns, increasing the median by a lot right before my first RA is resolved (just the next turn after HBR is done):
I was worried though since I've seen Delhi building the Hanging Gardens which I needed so urgently for Berlin (remember, I settled in a quite hilly area). Just two turns later he completed it. Damn it! There's no evidence, but I believe if I'd have gotten the Hanging Gardens in Berlin, then I'd have finished the game at least 20 turns earlier! That is how good this wonder is (granting 10 food in Vanilla). You'll see it later: Delhi will be my largest and strongest production city at the end of the game, even though it got it's population halved, when I took it somewhen later in the game.
Anyway... playing on without the HGs
My newest settler however went on and arrived at the location of Munich right in time. Berlin will finish the natural wonder "Ironworks" just before the settling of Munich would increase the cost of that wonder (and of course not delaying it even further due to another Workshop being required from a size 1 city otherwise).
It was obvious I had to conquer Gandhi. So I moved my troops to the West of Delhi so I could attack it without the river penalty... but look who's suddenly knocking at the doors in Berlin when my army it totally out of position to defend myself...
Rush bought a cannon in Berlin to fend that off. However Darius immediately turned around and never actually attacked
Now Gandhi actually was to well defended and he killed of my useless warriors (who were supposed to be cannon fodder anyway). He had toom many Knights and even though I had Landknechts, I couldn't hold the position. Flew into to ocean, swimming back eastwards towards my borders where the bought cannon from Berlin and another cannon build by Hamburg joined up the forces which then walked over the Indian empire - this time from the east (who cares for rivers when he has 3 cannons?).
Border expansion without Tradition is such a pain... had to buy the Coal and Whale tiles in Munich. Berlin was bought a factory immediately while Hamburg was still buildings it's fac manually. The 5 other coal have been sold of to other civs for now, even though they did not know yet, what coal was actually good for.
Darius was expanding like a madman in this game, look at this (still at war with him without having fought once!). Oh, and there's a camel archer scouting at my borders from my new best friend Harun, with whom I've just signed a research agreement and sold him Furs for 360g.
That kinda saved Darius. I took two minor cities from him in the meantime, but then I had teach Harun a lesson (who eliminated Washington earlier). Lessons to Camels are obviously best taught with a Panzer! (and some artillery backup).
Now about to enter the Modern Age... I mean... err... about to skip the Modern Age and just go from Industrial to Future Era!
I had to bulb a tech at this point, so I went for Radio which opened Mass Media for the upcoming resolving RA (bulbing Flight for e.g. wouldn't have opened a new expensive tech).
That RA is done. Only one more RA to come.
But before that, we've gotten a new social policy granting us two free techs (enabling me to start the Apollo Project and also opening the very high beaker techs Lasers and Satellites for the final RA.
Which resolves just a turn later, leaving 3 turns remaining on Electronics and 6 more techs to go.
6 techs to go. Lets count: 1, 2, 3, 4 scientists + oxford in 2 turns plus another great scientist spawning in 2 turns as well. 6x bulbing. Excellent!
GG.
Look at Delhi and compare that to Berlin... Hanging Gardens, Railroad bonus and - what I just learned in this game - FORGE bonus to spaceship parts, which apparently count as land units! Berlin will produce 2 Boosters, Delhi 1 Booster and 1 expensive part while Munich and Hamburg each build one expensive part each. Delhi is also 19 tiles away from Berlin, so it will take 2 turns to move the parts to Berlin via railroads and attaching them (20 tiles would have been 3 turns).
The great artists from the Louvre which had just been build before the Apollo Program finished were used to start one golden age (expanded by a great general) and to snatch that 3 aluminium tile south of Delhi. I also bought 4 more workers to be able to chop all the forests near Delhi in hope to maybe win a turn. And actually, the rush bought Space Ship factory did reduce the turns needed by 1. And all the chopping decreased it by another turn! Holy crap!
The last part from Delhi rested in Munich (10 tiles away from Delhi). And for some reason (I believe contacting another leader does this) the part that finished in Munich this turn and the part from Delhi which were both stacked at the beginning of the turn were automatically unstacked. DAMN IT. 1 turn lost.
Final SP situation:
Win on turn 379:
). Somehow I did play and nearly everything worked out exceptionally well especially concerning the end game bulbing and social policy timing.
