This is the first GOTM I have ever played. Despite having played Civ off and on for about 20 years, I just re-started playing after about a 8 year hiatus. In my warm up solo games I had been playing on Marathon and Huge settings which I believe threw my timing off in this game. I ended up with a loss by being conquered in 2032 AD.
It didn't take long to figure out I was in a relatively isolated starting position. At least my first city was resource rich and had flood plains. I saw the other continent just south of mine, and planned to expand there by researching sailing. But being spiritual, I opted to first dive into religious tech, founding Buddhism and building the Oracle. I built my second city in 2160 BC at the northern tip of my starting continent since that was a resource rich spot and would give me a second wine I could later trade. I obtained sailing around 300 BC and made a crucial decision to forgo further expansion on my own continent in favor of founding a city on the continent to my south. By 350 BC I was firmly planted on that continent with a northwestern city near a valuable copper vein. I met the Spanish, flowering them with peaceful overtures, but as my galleys started exploring new waters, I secretly plotted to conquer them completely as the new millennium dawned.
In 25 AD I declared war on Spain by attacking a settler that was encroaching too close to the marble resources I wanted. After a few turns, I began to feel the weight of war growing on my flagging economy. During the war, I discovered that the "famed" jaguars were not as good as I thought they were. At least not when the enemy has axemen. My first mistake was now clear...by researching various religious tech and founding three religions, I had delayed sailing too long. Once the war started my opponent already had iron, rendering my jaguars ineffective and dooming my war to fail. By the time we found peace in 1260 AD, both Spain and I were at the bottom of the scoring chart and behind on tech.
My second mistake was maintaining a constant war footing and it cost me dearly. In summary, after a few more wars with Spain, France, and England, I was way behind on tech and would never recover. My wars had all been essentially fought to stalemates and in the interest of economic development, I had retreated to owning my original continent only. At this point I focused on population and economic growth. But low tech, poor diplomatic relations, and a relatively small military, resulted in constant attacks by the other powers, now including Germany and Italy. By 1900 I felt the game was unwinnable but rather than retire, I set a new personal goal of survival. If I could maintain possession of my starting continent, I would consider it what I like to term a "small victory".
I managed to survive into the 21st century, fighting off wave after wave of amphibious attacks from better-armed opponents, but in 2032, my last city finally fell to the Italians. Unfortunately musketmen and grenadiers do not fare particularly well against modern armor and infantry.
I vow to do better in the next GOTM. Can't wait.
