It was a really fun game, but unfortunately, I lost in 1963 to Cyrus by spaceship. I know I should have been able to build a spaceship before that time, but I was trying to win by domination. I got wrapped up in a long war with Gandhi and I was amazed how far ahead Cyrus was by the time I finished up.
A big problem in my game was Cyrus wiped out the Romans fairly early on. I never even met Caesar. Cyrus had the entire continent to himself. Another big problem was tech trading. For a long time, the only one who would trade with me was Gandhi. I was not getting much in return for some of my techs. It seems like I switched civics at some point and then Cyrus would trade with me and not Gandhi. I was still getting screwed in the tech deals, but now it was someone else. Maybe I should have just been researching what the other civs already had and not bothered trading? It just seems wrong. But by trading, I feel like I gave Cyrus the boost he needed and I was never able to catch him.
About the time I finished securing my continent from Gandhi, Cyrus finished up the Apollo program. I wasn't too concerned until I saw he had Mech. Infantry in his cities. I looked at the tech tree and realized he had to have an amazing amount of technology. Cyrus had the most power and also had a defensive pact with Saladin who was number 2 in power. Still, I had no choice and had to declare war. My hope was to fight them both to a standstill, deal enough damage to Cyrus to slow his spaceship production down, and win by total score when turns ran out.
I managed to hold my own against both of them. They never took a city on my continent. Eventually, I did get Isabella to declare against Saladin and take him down a notch. I did get him to sign a peace treaty shortly after. Also dropped my first nuke in a game ever on Cyrus but he returned the favor 5-fold. Any troops I did land next to Cyrus were destroyed in a turn or two. Cyrus was just too strong. He had better tech and could out-produce me.
I feel like Emperor is the level I really need to be playing right now. I'm close to being good enough to beat it. Just need to improve my management a little. More Emperor games please!!!
