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1.27f
Ancient Age - 4000 BC to 90 AD
A quick post ... I actually pushed through to a Domination Victory this morning!
1275 AD, which isn't all that fast but this map does present a few challenges. In fact, this GOTM is really a good test scenario for experimenting with all the 'fringe' tactics that are often used in this competition: Suicide Galleys, Ship Chains and Palace Jumps.
Let alone the challenge of getting resources.
I might even post a few pictures later on, but for now, just verbiage.
I entered the MidAges in approximately 90 AD. I made contact with Zulus and Persia (and then everybody else) in the 700 to 600's BC, and got all their Maps. Those maps, along with my suicide galley route to Persia, showed there was a suicide ship chain route to Persia with only 1 required stay in the Ocean (total of 6 moves from the SouthEastern barb mountain island to a safe coastal square off Persia's coast.) I decided at that time that Domination was my goal, and through Persia!
As stated in Spoiler 1, I got both continents embroiled in warfare. I kind of blew it; I had Republic uniquely and could have used it to get Carthage to ally vs Persia. I missed that opportunity, and later (around 90 BC when I started these wars), Carthage already had all my Techs, including Republic, so this wasn't an option. Best I could do was declare on Carthage and Persia, and ally Rome and Arabia against both. I saw little effect from this, and the alliances were eventually broken. I also declared on Babylon, and allied Egypt and Shaka against Hamurabi; this war continued for a long time, again with little effect, but at least they weren't trading Techs and such.
So the general plan was invade Persia, take over, jump Palace, set up 2nd core, churn out Horsemen for eventual upgrade. How to compensate for distance and those Immortals? Massive quantities of force! (Ha! Ha!) I turned the Greek isles into one big Military Industrial complex. At the time I was in the AA, so I wanted to land 20 Swordsmen, followed by 10 more, as my primary landing. The 20 Swords required 10 Galleys to survive 1 turn at sea; with roughly 50% sinkage rate, I needed 20 Galleys to move out the turn before the transfer. And I needed 10 more Galleys to take my Swords out to sea, to transfer to the surviving Galleys. With an expected 5 Galleys surviving at the transfer point, I needed 5 more Galleys to transfer the 2nd wave of 10 Swordsmen over. Total of 35 Galleys. And 30 Warriors/Swordsmen.
I built 3-4 Barracks, to start building Warriors for upgrade. My islands would typcially build Harbors first, then start on Galleys. I would need 1200 Gold for Warrior upgrades, so as I approached that amount, I started rushing Galleys with excess Gold. I noticed that Persia and Carthage were in the MidAges; I made a small trade to get Currency, and I became Medieval in 90 AD. I wanted to see what Tech Persia had gotten (would I be facing Pikes?); they both had Engineering (OK), and I got Feudalism as my free Tech. The plus side, I'd now match the Persian Immortal; however, I now needed 1800 Gold for my upgrades!
Well, I didn't quite get to my planned force structure. I finally rushed a Harbor on my Iron island and did a mass-upgrade. I set sail in the mid-400's (I'll have to check this) with 24 MedInf on 12 transports, and a whole lot of empty galleys. I reached the jump off spot; I planned to send my forces over in two waves, 2/3 then 1/3. So 16 empty galleys went out. Only 7 survived, so 14 MedInf were safely chained across. Of the 7 Galleys left at the Transfer spot, 4 survived, so another 8 MedInf landed. Because the beach was only 1 movement away, the first group of Galleys could move, unload their 14 MedInf, move back to the safe coast, Load up the 8 MedInf in wave#2, move back to the beach, and unload the 2nd Wave. Landed 22 MedInf adjacent to a Persian city.
OK, I've got a picture of the Ship Chaining. Done in 440 AD. Looks like I had 20 Galleys moved to the transfer spot, not 16. Here's the picture:
The rest of it went ahead slowly. I hadn't traded for anything, but a solid Carthage - Persia trading block had already learned my tech Feudalism, and Invention, AND Gunpowder!! So on top of facing 10-12 Immortals, I also got to knock out a few Muskets in the Persian cities. I captured their coastal city (Bactra, which also had Iron). Two turns later I captured Pasargadae (which had horses and a surviving barracks), so I started it on Horsemen. I then disconnected their 2nd Iron (no more new Immortals), and turtled up a bit, taking out the flood of Immortals as they arrived. Meanwhile, my cities in Greece kept building Warriors and Galleys, transferred the Warriors over, who became MedInf once they reached Pasargadae. I also transferred over several Settlers; I founded a couple new cities where it was reasonably safe to do so. In 600 AD I abandoned Athens, Jumping my palace to Pasargadae. At that time I had 5
(Edit - 4 cities) cities in Persia. The Immortals had been cleared out, so I sent 17 MedInf to capture Persepolis; which had Pyramids and Great Library. Next I headed to Susa, just South of Persepolis, which had Great Wall. After that it became fairly easy, and by 700 AD I had about 12 cities in Persia.
Here's a picture of the Palace Jump result in 600 AD. I added a couple Settlers to Pasargadae to bump the population up to 7 (6 good Greek citizens and 1 Persian, which equals 6 1/3 for Palace Jump purposes.) A couple of cities in the Greek islands totaled about 10 for Jump calculations, so I added 15 MedInf to Pasargadae to get it's count over 11 (1/3 for each military unit). Abandoning Athens then jumped the capital to Pasargadae.
Persepolis flipped at least twice, but I kept some MedInf nearby to retake it. I was getting a productive core in Persia as cities became pacified. It was time to start a GA. I'd built and transferred over a bunch of Hoplites, but Xerxes LongBows didn't want to attack them. But he did send one out after a MedInf in the open; my Hoplites converged for the kill and the GA - 750 AD. (Just after BradleyFeanor had finished his game!
) The Horsemen production went up a lot after that, and Persia was out for good by 850 AD.
The rest was very basic. I built about 30 Horsemen, and saved about 3000 Gold. I waited for the Great Library to work during this period; it got me up to Chemistry, but I had to learn Metallurgy and MilTradition myself. I went a little negative during that time, so I could only upgrade 23 Horses to Cav in 960 AD. Signed ROP's with everybody. Took 2 cities from Carthage in initial assault. (Including Sun-Tzu's; Veteran's everywhere!) Tried with 10 Cav to take Carthage itself but was rebuffed; rebuilt and came back a few turns later, capturing Leonardo's (half price upgrades now.) Carthage gone in 1070AD. Rome was small, and the ROP was still in effect; Ceasar gone in 1100 AD. Build up for Arabia (and move forces from Rome). ROP still in effect; in 1150 AD send 20 Cav into interior position and take 4 interior cities, and 2 border cities with follow-up group of 7. (Including Great Lighthouse, so I have safe transit to the next continent.) ROP's expire, but Zulu's re-sign ROP!
Arabia exiled to 2 cities on Mountainous island eventually (1200 AD). Land in Zulu's territory (1255 AD; readjusting the Arabian forces took a little time, along with 2 turns to transfer over), take cities. Even took most of Egypt (1260 and on) before Domination kicked in. I'd started Rushing Libraries and Settlers to fill in Culture in the captured territories to get the game finished.
I think I have to plan a little smaller, and try for earlier invasions. (Problem is I usually get terrible RNG results with small numbers of units, so I tend to plan big.) The time required to build up my forces also gave the AI time to learn Gunpowder. The furthest anyone got on the upper track was to Astronomy, which really didn't play a part here. The AI were helpful in building lots of useful Wonders.
Very fun, fast (just over 13 hours); I'm glad I could finish and submit! On to COTM10.
(somewhat edited, adding dates and pictures)
it took me another 710 years to finish this game. It was not a diffficult game, but it was a very slow one. 
Note to self: Never pretend to be a civ scholar! I checked the CivReplayViewer again and noticed that the program does not tell us who razed a town. It says just like you wrote "Egyptian city NN razed." So there is no reason to believe that they razed it themselves. I haven't used CRPViewer much and there were very few razed towns in my game to compare with. 
![[party]](/images/smilies/partytime.gif "Party [party]")
My AIs (well, those that survived long enough) had developed 'Long Shooty Stick' by the time I was finishing with them. But only just 
