Seems like several players found this game to be rather easy. Well, it certainly wasn't that way for me! It took a grueling 16 hours to finish this one (for someone who generally tries to finish in the single digits) and I'm handing in my lowest scoring game to date.
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The British Empire was founded on the shore south of the lake in 3850 BC. Queen Elizabeth decided she likes both gold and wonders, so Colossus, Lighthouse, and Great Library get built early on, with Colossus setting off the Golden Age that made all this possible. She also can't tolerate the fact that other tribes exist in this world, so she resolves to destroy them.
This meant quite a few early wars for England, but they generally were beneficial to growth. Several were started over enemy settlers showing up on English shores, something that really couldn't be tolerated -- though slave workers were always welcome.
France, however, proved to be particularly annoying in the early stages of the game. The cat fight between Joan and Isabella was rather unbalanced, and Spain was knocked off her starting continent without too much hassle. But once England gets involved, the French take a sound beating, losing most of their core including the Hanging Gardens in Paris, which gets burned to the ground. Elizabeth, however, urged caution when approaching the French ports in the northwest, realizing that they could be useful later on. The English military then swings through and "liberates" what was formerly Spain, establishing colonies on the various resources there.
The Vikings had the gall to make unreasonable demands of Elizabeth, so they were politely shown the door, after which the rest of the world lined up to knock them down. Fortunately they were as far as they could be from England, so there were plenty of allied ships to intercept any potential berserkers that would otherwise be rather fearsome. The constant warring meant that the competition also had to slow down their research rate. Abu, in particular, paid through the roof for precious iron that Arabia did not have.
The middle ages were a time of prosperity at home and military success abroad, so much that Great Leaders were waiting around idle for the next wonder to become available. Leo's Workshop came first, then the Sistine Chapel, and after that, Bach's Cathedral. This made the working people somewhat jealous, so Elizabeth allowed them to build Magellan's Voyage, Newton's University, and Shakespeare's Theater from scratch. Another leader from a distant battle nabs the last of the traditional English wonders, Smith's Trading Company.
Ragnar Lodbrok very stubbornly clung to his title as Prime Minister of Scandinavia, so much that war weariness devastated the Viking cities and many of them lost over half their population. Thus, they were easily conquered by English cavalry and they were the first civilization wiped off the map in 1778 AD. Elizabeth carefully conned the other leaders into a last-minute alliance with many techs purchased using gold-per-turn offerings that would never materialize. This brought England into the industrial age on equal footing with her rivals, with the added bonus of Universal Suffrage provided by yet another victorious leader returning from the campaign.
Elsewhere, Japan had declared war on Korea, and seized control of Sun Tzu's in Wonsan. This set off a chain reaction of MPPs, which Elizabeth had wisely avoided. However, Tokugawa's arrogance ultimately raised the ire of the Queen, and so an English task force was dispatched to stab directly into the Japanese homeland. This was a costly effort, as the Japanese cities were defended by infantry, but most of their troops were preoccupied with Korea, leaving relatively minimal defenses.
After cleaning up the southern half of the continent, Korea was sufficiently weakened by the war with Japan that Elizabeth allowed her troops to simply charge on through them. Another leader gained during the war with Japan rushes Theory of Evolution. Eventually, the East Asian continent is very nearly cleared of its original inhabitants, with Wang Kon coughing up all his known techs for peace. Tokugawa has been completely evicted from his old home, but the Japanese are off to a fresh new start in what was formerly Scandinavia.
Abu escapes from crippling payments of tribute for Atomic Theory by declaring war, but in doing so digs his own coffin, as the rest of the world is brought into an alliance against him. He manages to wipe out the last remnants of Spain in the process in 1974 AD, but at the same time the English begin landing in western Arabia and the Ottomans continue the border clashes in the east. Once the last native Arabic city is destroyed, Elizabeth thanks Osman for his help and rewards him with a right-of-passage abuse. Shortly thereafter the Middle Eastern continent is cleared of enemies. Wang Kon complains loudly about this treachery, so he gets the boot in 1997 AD.
The Japanese have been making some startling recovery, spreading across the Scandinavian continent and also colonizing southern France. Joan does England a small favor by retaking Grenoble, the last remaining Arabic city, in 2002 AD. She is then asked to demonstrate her commitment with an alliance against Japan. England invades Japanese-controlled Scandinavia again, but this time the conquest is completed much more easily. A second city named Kyoto had been built at the southern end of the Western European continent, and it was here that Tokugawa met his final demise in 2023 AD.
Here a major problem develops. The Commonwealth of Nations has amassed 19,927 cultural points and is due to gain another 75 each turn. To circumvent this, Elizabeth declares a public emergency and suspends the parliament, leading to anarchy. This state would be maintained indefnitely.
France is now all that stands between England and complete world conquest, and there is no time to lose. Elizabeth tries her old right-of-passage trick again, but the attack wears out due to a shortage of units. Still, the French troops are no match for the additional reinforcements from the Scandinavian continent. With only a few turns remaining, Elizabeth decides to stall the assault on Rheims to prepare the first Mark I combat tank for delivery of the final blow. This happens at last in 2044 AD, leaving England as the sole master of the world and Elizabeth accepting the crown of the supreme English monarchy.
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I'm not sure why the submission page recorded this as a 20K victory. I tried to trigger 20K on the same turn as conquest by coming out of anarchy on the same turn as destroying France in 2044 AD. This left me with 20002 culture points in 2045 AD and a victory screen that congratulated me for a conquest victory. CivAssist also indicates that the game is complete, with conquest as the victory condition.
Oh well. If I win the low score award this time, I'd prefer that it's for lowest-scoring conquest though, as I think I need the variety
Entry class: Predator
Game status: Cultural 20K Victory for England (disputed - see screenshot)
Game date: 2045 AD
Firaxis score: 225
Jason score: 257
Time played: 16:08:27
Note: had to reload to grab the screenshot - that's why the time doesn't match
