It was a brutal game for me. I hung in with my 100k victory goal but I made too many mistakes to count. But it was a good learning game, that's for sure.
I managed to achieve 100k victory in 2050AD. Yep, I brought it in on the last turn by destroying Babylon - my culture rival. Once they were dead, my 125k culture tripped the victory. I let the vikings live to witness it. I did not mean for the game to last until 2050AD - I don't think I've ever played a game to the end date. At the end I was sacrificing Modern Armor and Modern Armor armies to destroy the last few Bab cities. I had to abandon several cities at the end to make sure I didn't trip the domination limit and I could have won by conquest in the last round too - I had the vikings all sealed up in their last city. It is nice to have options, though I was resigned to a histograph win if I couldn't pull in the cultural win. I don't think a 1950AD Domination or 2050AD conquest would be worth a whole lot.
This ought to be good for a nice shield, but I will take a lot away from this game. I ended with a score of about 4700, Jason of about 4200. The warrior at the end told me I was magnificant, but I think he was just scared of my modern armor. Thanks for the ego boost anyway!
This game was a lot harder for me than GOTM105. The Babs came very close to a spaceship launch - 8 of 10 pieces complete to my impressive 0 of 10 complete!
**Edit** Sorry - to answer the questions:
So how did you feel about this game as France playing a pretty serious Archipelago map? I thought the starting landmass was a decent size to give you a pretty good base to operate from. What do you think? And please provide any final commentary on how your game concluded?
I'm growing accustomed to these island maps. I thought the islands were nicely spaced and I pulled off the Lighthouse - that helped a great deal in the early game.
Nice starting island, no complaints, other than the very stingy supply of luxuries. My early game suffered because I had a hard time balancing happiness vs. science. Entertainment was eating up a large portion of my budget! I should have invaded the Zulu much, much earlier.
Thanks for the great game! It was a challenge!