As described in my first spoiler:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=4249112&postcount=17
I decided to forgo the beaten path and skip any Oracle based sling-shot, relying instead of a Colossus + Great Lighthouse powered sea-based economy. During my first spoiler I expressed reservations about what would happen when I finally had to research astronomy, and how big a blow that would be to my economy. In retrospect, those concerns were ill founded, and the sea-based economy was able to power me all the way to the UN.
When we left the last spoiler, Washington had just declared in 25 BC (I said 1AD from my notes in the last spoiler, but apparently that was one turn off, according to the replay file.) He came at me with quite a bit, including horse-archers, and I was not ready to reply immediately. As a result, Frankfurt fell in 50 AD. Fortunately, Washington decided not to raze it.
At the time Washington declared, I had already started building up my forces for an attack against him, so a few years later, my axmen started rolling of the line for the counter attack. Frankfurt was retaken in 150AD, followed by Chicago in 350AD, and Boston in 520AD. The attached screenshot is from 500AD, just before I took Boston. It shows the state of my empire at the time. In 520, I make peace with Washington, leaving me with 11 cities (including Boston, and Oxford, which I build the same year). I would continue my expansion across the continent later….
The year after the war, having shortly finished CS, I adopted Bureaucracy; turning my capital into a driving force of research (It has an academy since a long time).
In 640AD came a surprise…. Cathy (at the time, I did not know who, it was BIAFAL) built the Hanging Gardens. I had NEVER seen an AI build it that early (rarely at all), so I assume that as others have speculated, Cathy was running out of things to do, and simply trying all the wonders. No big deal, since HG was not part of my main plans. Just a surprise. In the next 300 years, I founded only 1 or two filler cities, but built up forces to push Washington off the continent. Then, in 960AD, the time of reckoning has come… My Macemen and Catapult army role into US land, and takes out Atlanta in 1020, NY in 1110, and Washington in 1340.
During this time, I was also trying to expand to one of the southern islands, and founded two cities there. That turned out to have been a mistake, since I overextended, and ended up losing them to barbs. Oh well, probably did not cost me nearly as much as later mistakes, but annoying never the least.
In any event, back on the main front… LA in 1380, Philly in 1450, followed by peace, which was needed to war weariness, and because Washington has a couple of cities on Islands that I have not seen yet (apparently, since he is not dead!?!)
During this war, in 1440 to be precise, I was the first to Liberalism, and had a solid tech lead on the planet. After the war, I assessed my options as follows:
-Domination? Possible. I am first in tech, and rolling along nicely. However, given the shear number of squares to be collected, it is a daunting task.
-Conquest? Similar to domination (since I will need to keep all islands guarded after I sweep them, to prevent recolonization, it may be even worst in that I will have to pay troops away from home upkeep).
-Space race? It’s an option, but I still fear that my sea-based economy will wither as the early wonders go obsolete, and I am hesitant to commit to the end of the tech tree.
-Score? Does not really count… That is a fallback position only.
-Cultural? Not on the cards at all. Only my capital is at all in the running, and even it is nothing special culturally.
-Diplomacy? YES!!! Firstly, I have yet to annoy only Washington, so I might still get some other AI to vote for me. Secondly, I can basically pursue a domination-like path, and get to 62% of the world pop to vote myself in. That is what I opt for, so I bee-line for the UN, while continuing to grow.
So, in the following years, I continue to expand to nearby Islands, founding some cities, and taking some from barbs. The rest of the game is without news. No other real wars. Just a beeline to the UN, accompanied by expansion. Here, I did make a tactical mistake, which cost me at least 20 years. I though that my population would reach 62% and that I would vote myself in. Sadly, someone else grew quicker than I anticipated, and I maxed out at 61% (and could not get anyone else to vote for me). I had to declare war on Toku (low man on totem pole) and smack him down to get over 62%. Not a problem, but had I properly anticipated this, I would have done it 15 years earlier, knocking two election cycles of my victory time. In the end, I scored a back-door diplo in 1832. Not my best effort ever, but a solid game nonetheless.
Attached is a screenshot of my final empire the run after victory.
That is, besides the handful of barb towns scattered through the southern seas that I annexed to my empire, I remained at peace with my 6 neighbours all the time.
is tough. 
. 
]. I build the UN and got 2 votes less than needed because of the last japanese city hidden somewhere on the map 
