Another last minute submittal, although I see I'm in good company with Ainwood also submitting on the final day. 
Using lots of SHFT-Enters, I learned my last Tech (Satellites) and launched in 1325 AD. An improvement over my last spaceship victory, but not as quickly done as I would have liked.
I made a poor choice at the beginning of the Industrial Age (330 AD). I gifted Korea and the Ottomans up to the IA, and they got Steam Power and Nationalism respectively. I started researching Medicine (okay so far). Then I decided to start a war against Korea: they were exerting considerable cultural pressure on my Northern cities, and I wanted to secure that edge of my empire from flips, and I thought I might be able to extort Steam Power from them as part of a peace deal. Problem is, once I'd learned Medicine, there were no other required IA Techs to research except Steam Power! I wasn't in a position to force a favorable peace settlement, and I didn't want to delay research until I could, so I researched it myself, and wasted 4 turns. If the Techs were reversed this tactic would have worked because there are several Techs beyond Steam Power to research while putting pressure on Korea to get Medicine for free.
Anyway, I razed the 3 nearest Korean cities, and took Seoul, Pyongyang and Wonsan (which all had Wonders in them) before I signed peace. Eventually the 3 cities all flipped back to Korea, and they became the most powerful AI researcher in the Modern Era.
Baekje, Khazars were already gone, and Mongols down to 1 Island city. The Oda were taken out by everybody else on the 2nd continent. Korea gave me a GL which rushed Newton's. Goguryeo declared on me, and provided my a GL to rush Universal Suffrage as I took them out. I got IronWorks in my Capital (Beijing), and pre-built for Hoover's, eventually getting it. Got nervous about Theory of Evolution being built by others (later in the Age), and built it a little early, getting Flight and MassProduction for free (was trying to save it for the early Modern Age, but several others had research Scientific Theory so I had to pull the trigger early.) Eventually redeclared on Mongols and took their last city. Reached Modern Era in 990 AD.
Gifting Techs to Korea and Ottomans gained Ecology and Fission. Those were the only Modern Techs I got from the AI - Korea came close to helping me with Synthetic Fibers, but the Ottomans were hampered by a series of wars on the 2nd continent. Rome (which was still Medieval), got reduced to 2 or 3 cities. Rajaputana decided to attack me in 1240 AD; after they'd lost 4 cities, they were happy to call it quits. Launched in 1325, with the Koreans being 3 Techs behind as closest competitor.
Never quite got up to consistent 4 turn research during the late Industrial and early Modern Era. I think the Commercial/Scientific trait combo (Greece or Korea) is really powerful for the Spaceship victory; being Miltaristic/Industrial means having to make up quite a bit (although being Industrial meant good jungle clearing capability). I also didn't build a lot of hospitals in my cities, since they were close enough together that size 12 cities mostly used all the available tiles. I think more Hospitals with lots of irrigated spaces would have provided enough Scientist specialists to add 100 to 200 research per turn, which might have shaved a turn off most of these Techs.
Txurce: even though I contacted the 2nd continent well after SirPleb, it was quite beneficial. They were missing Shamanism and Literature, but had Construction and Currency. I was able to fill in the blanks, and with an exclusive on the valuable Republic Tech, was able to get both Engineering and Feudal Warlords in trades, because the 2 Scientific civs had not contacted each other (so Republic was an exclusive for both).
Lots of fun, and I'm glad we had the extra week - this was a very busy holiday period in RL! Looking forward to starting GOTY.
Using lots of SHFT-Enters, I learned my last Tech (Satellites) and launched in 1325 AD. An improvement over my last spaceship victory, but not as quickly done as I would have liked.
I made a poor choice at the beginning of the Industrial Age (330 AD). I gifted Korea and the Ottomans up to the IA, and they got Steam Power and Nationalism respectively. I started researching Medicine (okay so far). Then I decided to start a war against Korea: they were exerting considerable cultural pressure on my Northern cities, and I wanted to secure that edge of my empire from flips, and I thought I might be able to extort Steam Power from them as part of a peace deal. Problem is, once I'd learned Medicine, there were no other required IA Techs to research except Steam Power! I wasn't in a position to force a favorable peace settlement, and I didn't want to delay research until I could, so I researched it myself, and wasted 4 turns. If the Techs were reversed this tactic would have worked because there are several Techs beyond Steam Power to research while putting pressure on Korea to get Medicine for free.
Anyway, I razed the 3 nearest Korean cities, and took Seoul, Pyongyang and Wonsan (which all had Wonders in them) before I signed peace. Eventually the 3 cities all flipped back to Korea, and they became the most powerful AI researcher in the Modern Era.
Baekje, Khazars were already gone, and Mongols down to 1 Island city. The Oda were taken out by everybody else on the 2nd continent. Korea gave me a GL which rushed Newton's. Goguryeo declared on me, and provided my a GL to rush Universal Suffrage as I took them out. I got IronWorks in my Capital (Beijing), and pre-built for Hoover's, eventually getting it. Got nervous about Theory of Evolution being built by others (later in the Age), and built it a little early, getting Flight and MassProduction for free (was trying to save it for the early Modern Age, but several others had research Scientific Theory so I had to pull the trigger early.) Eventually redeclared on Mongols and took their last city. Reached Modern Era in 990 AD.
Gifting Techs to Korea and Ottomans gained Ecology and Fission. Those were the only Modern Techs I got from the AI - Korea came close to helping me with Synthetic Fibers, but the Ottomans were hampered by a series of wars on the 2nd continent. Rome (which was still Medieval), got reduced to 2 or 3 cities. Rajaputana decided to attack me in 1240 AD; after they'd lost 4 cities, they were happy to call it quits. Launched in 1325, with the Koreans being 3 Techs behind as closest competitor.
Never quite got up to consistent 4 turn research during the late Industrial and early Modern Era. I think the Commercial/Scientific trait combo (Greece or Korea) is really powerful for the Spaceship victory; being Miltaristic/Industrial means having to make up quite a bit (although being Industrial meant good jungle clearing capability). I also didn't build a lot of hospitals in my cities, since they were close enough together that size 12 cities mostly used all the available tiles. I think more Hospitals with lots of irrigated spaces would have provided enough Scientist specialists to add 100 to 200 research per turn, which might have shaved a turn off most of these Techs.
Txurce: even though I contacted the 2nd continent well after SirPleb, it was quite beneficial. They were missing Shamanism and Literature, but had Construction and Currency. I was able to fill in the blanks, and with an exclusive on the valuable Republic Tech, was able to get both Engineering and Feudal Warlords in trades, because the 2 Scientific civs had not contacted each other (so Republic was an exclusive for both).
Lots of fun, and I'm glad we had the extra week - this was a very busy holiday period in RL! Looking forward to starting GOTY.
