This was my third attempt at a GOTM, and the first one that I completed without sixty-four thousand noobie mistakes, mouse slips, etc. It was my first Emperor level game.
Picking up from the first spoiler thread after 500AD.
515 Hattie makes peace with M&M
605 I captured HC’s capital at Cuzco
Traded around, sometimes at a great discount, but trying to get the techs I needed.
740 Finished Liberalism (first to do so) and chose Astronomy (highest cost tech available, ignoring gunpowder for the moment)
755 DOWed Gandhi, as I began researching Gunpowder. I attacked a northern mining town and would clear a path to HC’s last city actually located on the continent.
800 My first GE was born, and I would save him for a wonder.
905 Peace with Gandhi, after I captured Bombay.
Used these peace turns to build more infrastructure.
995 DOW’ed HC again.
I capture his last city on the mainland and begin to look at Ghenghis Kahn. He has to be my next target because he is so close to my capital. I would use these peace turns again to build. Built my first Galleon of two along in this era. I would later build a couple of destroyers and that was my complete navy for the duration. I did upgrade one Galleon to a transport.
PLAN A
I am now operating under PLAN A. Hmmm… Plan A says I should not build any musketmen to speak of, but wait for rifling and build riflemen. The theory was that any plan, even a bad plan, was better than no plan at all. So, when I DOW’ed Genghis in 1178, my entire SoD consisted of Maces, heavily-promoted Axes, Cats, etc. Maybe one Musketman to ‘scare’ Genghis and ‘show him who was boss.’ Straightaway in 1184, I captured Beshbalik without much fanfare.
The HORDES
1190 Genghis attacked with hordes and destroyed my entire SoD. I don’t think the RNG even allowed me to win one battle (probably due to its realization of the poor quality of my Plan A). I was very lucky he didn’t go all the way and take my capital. He slowed a tiny bit on the way to pillage here and there with his keshiks. Fortunately, I had at least two units in every city, the stronger one a promoted longbowmen. Unfortunately, they were all promoted with G1 or G2. Garrison units are not great at offense, or stopping pillaging. But, you fight the war with the bombers you have on-hand. Luckily, I just finished giving M&M gunpowder to acquire Nationalism, and I revolted to Nationhood and drafted all the musketmen I could. I was just in time to save my capital and throw back Genghis’ hordes. So much for Plan A. [Sidenote: I discovered later with Nationhood, that in rare instances where I had a conquered city in which I had over 10% culture present, that I could ‘draft’ away excess pop instead of having to let them starve away due to enemy cultural swamping… raw noob, now noob first class].
1274 I recaptured Beshbalik from Genghis; my folly of Plan A had cost me at least these fifteen turns and countless fine upgradeable, mace, axe, longbowmen and similar units, population drafts, and a lot of effort cleaning the egg off of my face. [I also learned that “nothing” upgrades to a Musketman !].
1340 Captured last of Genghis’ cities and destroyed the Mongolian Empire.
1370 Hopped to the island and destroyed the last two of HC’s cities, and in the process the Incan Empire.
1400 Ceasar DOW’ed Gandhi from the other side.
I am building jails along, plunging forward toward Physics for the free scientist, but Washington beats me to Physics in 1406 (by about 5 turns). Seems like a vicious tech race in which I am barely holding my own by trading, often at almost a two-for-one trading exchange rate.
1454 Bombay had its first of two Indian revolts; it did not flip to Gandhi though.
1478 I had put off trading or researching for Chemistry because I had the Parthenon (which I captured in London) and it became obsolete in 1478 when I traded M&M Democracy in exchange for Chem & also $1,270g.
1514 Completed the Statute of Liberty with my second Engineer.
1520 M&M DOW’ed JC and asked me to join; I did. Couldn’t really get involved with closed borders, but I did manage to sink a Roman galley with my Galleons!
1523 I started Oxford at Bantu (my first GP city which was captured from the Barbs!). I also built the Nat'l Epic there.
1535 Gandhi captured a Roman city; it appears M&M and Gandhi will divvy up Roman cities among themselves.
1538 I completed West Point at Beijing (I already have the Heroic Epic there). Now I plan to get the Pentagon.
PLAN B
Somewhere above I resort to Plan B after my miserable failure with Plan A. Plan B is exactly like Plan A (okay, so I am a very slow learner!), except I decided not to build anymore muskets, or any riflemen, and instead wait for assembly line and build and draft infantry instead.
I sold a few techs for deep discounts; seemed like the thing to do at the time. I sold one of my enemies (Gandhi) Chemisty – with the attendant Grenadiers—in 1556 for $830g, or about 19% of its original value.
I had plans to DOW Gandhi again and get to him before his newly acquired Roman cities were able to get online good and contribute to his empire. I gave Hattie a "two-fer". I gave up Democracy and Steam and received only Steel. Another trade that I might regret later.
1577 Wow! Now I did get an unexpected dividend. I was trading Steam (now cheap) around, and offered M&M Steam for $1,400g and if he would DOW Hattie. He accepted, (although I would have taken only the $1,400g at this point, preparing for war with Gandhi as I was). But, now he was helping me by warring with Hattie.
1580 Since M&M was now fighting ‘for me’ against Hattie (making my war plans against India more secure) I gave M&M {cringe} Assembly Line in exchange for Artillery ( a tech I often ignore and stick with cannons or cats). I was moving toward Modern Armor, Mech Inf and the U.N. as my final techs I wanted on the tree. I would not make two of the three….
1586 I am drafting infantry as I can, without depleting cities though.
1595 I revolted to Police State and Emancipation. I wanted PS for the War Weariness and to build Mt. Rushmore. It also gave me a 25% military unit boost in production, for which reason I would retain it until the end of the game.
I DOW’ed Gandhi again, and no sooner than, began to break out in a cold sweat, --remembering Genghis’ counterattack with hordes of his UU, the Keshiks. I now found myself wracking my brain trying to remember what Gandhi’s UU is…. Oh yeah, there for a minute I thought we might be in trouble.
1604 Captured Delhi.
1667 Used a GE toward the Pentagon. I had about three GP farms [although several cities did produce a GP or two], and as Forrest Gump might have said, “My GP farms were a lot like a box of chocolates; you never know what you might get.” I did not even try to specialize them, because as a noobie, looking at the map early on, a GP farm (i.e., excess food ANYWHERE on what I could see on the map) appeared to be a pipe dream to me. I had twenty-one GP born in this game; I was anxious to hear how many others got, who actually knew what they were doing, and of course, more about ‘how’. 21 GP was not too bad for me as a noobie.
1670 Destroyed the Indian Empire.
1688 DOW’ed M&M
1694 Captured Rome from Mali.
1697 My Pop is 51% and my Land is 45% of the world (M&M second with about 18% each). I have no idea how to secure a conquest victory – I guess you have to raize cities instead of keeping them to avoid Domination??? Unlikely, since I have rarely ever met a city that I did not like…
1700 Hattie is still at war with M&M also, and is actually helping me in tiny, small, insignificant ways, such as surrounding a couple of Malinese cities with her culture, and bombarding a couple of coastal cities with her Frigate and later destroyer.
1727 Emptied Pissant, ah, that’s Pisae, for the first time with a gunship (which can’t capture a city). M&M dutifully sent three more units to “fortify” the city, which my fighters and artillery and infantry and gunships again dispatched with utmost efficiency, again leaving the city vacant as my SoD moved alongside, heading around the city for the next target to relieve cultural pressure once I actually ‘occupied’ Pisae. Finally took Pisae when the timing was right to capture Walata on the very next turn (1738).
1776 Cashed in a GM trade mission in Washington, USA for $3,150g. I thought the year was a nice touch, huh?
1776 Built the U.N. [this would have been my fall-back position- harrumph… {coughs, looks-down-at-feet} ah you know, PLAN C ].
1778 Won a Domination Victory, base score 5,932, adjusted score 65,811.
Although it obviously doesn't win any awards, as a noob first class, I felt very humbled to win at all. And for Harbourboy, et. al., I certainly won't use the word easy. Darn it! Did it without thinking ... Actually, truth is, I have learned almost every single thing I know about the game by reading the GOTM forums and the information that has been given me and answers to my questions here. Thanks to everyone. OH, and in case you missed it in my first spoiler, I was playing Adventure Class. That made a HUGE difference for a noob and is a swell idea for noobs like me who might not even attempt an Emperor level game otherwise. One Question: {you knew there would be one} ... Depending on the GOTM scenario next month and the Adventure Class options, am I eligible to play Adventure if I want to? I will not know if I placed in the standings in the top half of those submitting until after the July GOTM starts, but I will be out of town in July travelling, and I will certainly not finish it before the June GOTM postings are up, say in mid-July. I would guess I could choose Adventure Class one more time if Contender looked like too tough a level for me, regardless of where I place until it is actually posted?? Thanks again for everyone's patience and guidance to this noob.
) to the addictives. 
I've been doing this for 9 months and still have not won on Emperor. Should have won this one but I underestimated Hatty's threat and got overrun by some 70 to 80 Cav, rifles and cannons.
You're not loosing your edge, are you? 
