I went for a 100k win in this one. The early expansion went well enough; at 1000 B.C. I had 14 cities planted (31 pop), a settler on the ground, 5 workers, and a dozen warriors. I had all of the first-tier techs, Iron Working, Writing, Mysticism, Map Making, Horseback Riding, and Polytheism. I was researching Monarchy at the end of the QSC period. Once learned, I spent the rest of the game in Monarchy.
I delayed attacking Greece to build some early culture (and some roads through the jungle). This turned out to be fortuitous, as I snagged the Great Library when Athens fell.
By endgame I had been at war with everybody at one point or another. Greece, Carthage, Rome, and Celts all fell, and Arabia was down to one city.
The first of 4 MGLs rushed my Forbidden Palace (520 AD). Two others went into Knight Armies, while one rushed Sistine Chapel for me. Once that was in hand I needed no luxury tax.
I fought three AI Armies through the course of the game, killing a German MDI army and 2 Aztec Knight Armies. On the last turn I killed an Aztec MGL in Tours as in changed hands a second time in as many turns. One of the Aztec Knight armies even killed one of my Knight armies in a sneak attack... though I've lost a few armies in xOTM efforts in the past, I thought it was interesting to actually lose one in combat.
Though I can't say I had any specific "problems", progress seemed slow in this one. The terrain wasn't bad, though I had to burn a lot of worker turns dealing with the jungle. Once the FP came in my economy (and progress) improved quite a bit.
It seems I spent much of the game trying to squeeze out an extra gold piece here and there... most of which was spent short rushing Libraries in batches.
The 100k cultural win was accomplished in 1585. The Firaxis and Jason scores were 4475 and 8066 respectively. I'm not sure how good that is... as this is my first 100k submission in a xOTM. It's not a Victory Condition I normally pursue.
