GOTM92 - Final Spoiler

[civ_steve]

GOTM 92 Final Spoiler - Game Submitted

Reading Requirements:
You may only read this thread if:

1. You have completed and submitted your game.

Posting Restrictions:

1. None! (for THIS contest) As long as its related to the GOTM, and within the forum rules!

[*]Absolutely NO Discussion of any other active 'X'OTM contest!

Any final details to share about your game?

 

[Racinante]

Entry class: Open
Game status: Domination Victory for India
Game date: 1862 AD
Firaxis score: 2628
Jason score: 4956

The jungle definitely made playing more interesting. ICS the jungle as planned. The Chinese maintained the largest military throughout the game, so a RoP with them and alliances against the remaining civs allowed me to eventually expand to the west and grab all of the Mongol, Russian, and Arab lands on the way to the domination. China declared on me once and took 2 or 3 towns on our border and eventually flipped one more, but I did not have to revisit that war to win.

 

[templar_x]

as i posted earlier, i won´t be able to submit. the game crashed, and i had not yet saved it, so i started over. the autosave came to my mind... too late.

predator
domination victory for India and their eles in 490ad
7151 Firaxis score
(is it possible to let me know what Jason score that would be? some mod, please? i am attaching the final save)

here´s the full spoiler:
move worker s to wheat, see 2 bg... so no problem for the SF.
settle in place and see lots of other nice stuff.
go for WRI at minimum as i do not see many turns i could cut short of 40.

build: w – w – w – settler – archer – worker - granary

become a Republic in 1125bc. there was no useful research towards Monarchy, so that was fine with me. 1 settler factory and 2 worker factories are up

1000bc qsc:
9 cities, 1 settler
13 workers
3 warriors
2 archers
1 spear

i enter MA in 775, in 550 two AIs follow, causing the barb uprising
470 connect iron, get Feud monopoly + trade luxes for Mono; go for Chiv at min, as i need the money to upgrad w->MI and start the attack

430 China builds Pyramids, they already have Colossus... okok, i´m coming
410 3rd lux connected
390 4th lux connected
Athens builds GLib

230 war against China begins, they have no iron, so it´s MI against spears
wow, 4 defenders per town is more than i would have expected on Monarch
China builds Hanging Gardens, too, in my proposed FP town

30bc take Chinese southern horse city and change builds to horses for upgrade to WE!
30ad take two wonder Chinese city + wines as 5th lux

130ad take last visible Chinese town and 6th lux, but they must have a settler on a boat
210ad get Chiv, upgrade 12 horses
230ad attack Greece and start GA
280ad i finally get an MGL
take Athens with GLib
hoplites are no match against eles

300ad build FP in Col town, it becomes a 3-turn WE producer
money jumps to +450gpt during GA! without a single market
420ad sail a couple of galleys south and start attack on Arabs too

440ad Russia gone, they had a very poor performance; Mongols go down as well, they did ok
i connect the continents with roads and have all luxes in all cities. everyone is happy, even when my GA ends
470ad Greeks make room for...
jump over the domination limit in 490ad

was a fun game and i would have liked to participate officially

templar_x

 

[Scratcher]

Entry Class: Open
Conquest Victory 840ad
Firaxis: 6018 pts
Jason: 10264 Pts

 

[templar_x]

some more random thoughts and insights in this particular game:

1. i ics´ed my core. i usually do not do this, but i think it was necessary here. there were good tiles that had to be worked every turn. i mm´ed every bit out at the start for optimal use of that limited but good land.
2. i built more workers than i normally would for a military game, and those very early. i saw no use in lots of tiny towns with only jungle and coast to work. maybe i overdid it, coz i really managed to clear ALL the jungle. not sure if that paid off, but i liked the effects.
3. as to which direction to go militarily, i don´t know what would have been smarter. i chose to free my back first and conquer china and only then went west. i am interested to see if someone felt that it was better to go for the big chunk of land first.

what comes to my mind now: if the game crashes and the last autosave file is "corrupt" (it simply didn´t load, i got a white window telling me it could not open it), would it have been allowed to use an older one? i think there are 5 in a row that are automatically saved. but the older the save, the more spoiler info i would have had... whatever, i did not think of using an older autosave, so i won´t be in.

since i thus had 2 games, i found it made a big (if not the biggest) difference whether your scout made it past the greeks. mine did not in the first game but did in the 2nd. big deal for big deals.

i do not remember what i got from the goody hut, but since it was so close i think this would be another factor for the early game. if you got barbs, this would delay the setup of your core, a worker sure would have been nice (i know i did not get a worker... i think it was gold).

templar_x

 

[krakedhalo]

Entry class: Open
Game status: Domination Victory for India
Game date: 1778 AD
Firaxis score: 3419
Jason score: 6800
Time played: 24:26:09

Very unfocused game for my first official submission in a few months. I changed VCs many times. Settled in place, avoided nearby GH fearing barbs (which I eventually got) but popped two others - both barbs. Scout did not make it past Greek choke, same as Templar's... that would've helped get through AA a lot faster. Don't recall my early research path, but I was thinking 100k early on, so I built a lot of temples and mostly ICSed through the jungle. Greeks landed a settler on the northern bit of jungle, but I blocked them coming by land w/three warriors at north jungle edge. I settled most of the land directly east, but the Chinese got to the ivory 1 turn before me. Played it peaceful early on, very late MA (don't recall the date), gifted up Greeks and Russians but they wouldn't trade. Built lots of jumbos and took out Chinese first, getting SZ, Pyr, and Cop's from them.

Finished off China except for one town on Comma Island in 950 or so, sent remaining troops to claim Greek lands. On the same turn, Russia sneak attacks through greek lands, which started a trend for them. Overall they ambushed me three times. Beat them back, then RoP'd them to claim the four towns the mongols were able to build. Poor Genghis got kicked around all game. The Russians apparently popped a settler (based on final movie, maybe they really did walk a settler 20+ tiles, but I doubt it) hemming them in to the south. They had a fifth town for about 3 turns at one point, but that was it. I finished them off to claim Leo's for a few turns.

At this point I still didn't want a military VC, so I'd have been happy to play out a 3-way space race, but it was not to be. Arabia, who had been 2nd for a long time, sneak attacked, taking out Kakoroum and Leo's. I signed Russia on to do the dirty work, and to my surprise their cossacks plowed right through the Arabs. I came in at the end to make sure they didn't get all the good land (and luxes!) Then it was just Russia and I. I still wanted a space ship. Russia had too many extra troops, apparently, and ambushed me again (2nd time). I did some damage to them but (forgetting India's Rel. trait) stayed in Rep. and had baaaad WW. Made peace, and then 19 turns later they attacked again. WW back in full force, so I switched to Mon. and gobbled up the last 150 tiles to Dom.

 

[CKS]

Open, 20K

I was hoping to cruise along to finish this one out, but the Chinese had other ideas. With fewer than 20 turns to go, they sneak attacked. I spent several days stewing about how to deal with the attack, but once I actually started playing it went much better than I had feared. I allied the Greeks and Russians and drafted a bunch of mech infantry. China didn't have many fast units, and I killed them quickly. Their huge stack of infantry gradually broke up, allowing me to kill the stragglers. 9 turns before I hit 20K I finally got a GL for the heroic epic. This let me take 1 turn off the finish date, and I finished in 1870. Considering my horrible start, I was pretty happy with this.

Firaxis score: 1724
Jason score: 3639

 

[Megalou]

Predator, Conquest in the 500s.

This was not one of my most enyoyable GOTMs. Once it became clear that a BC victory was not possible, the jungle seemed to thicken even more. Endless spearmen and a few pikes hid themselves in the distant Arabian mountains and while they don't pose a real threat, they are sufficient to annoy the h*** out of an elephant.

I started out with Conquest vaguely in mind but got a lot of cash on my hands so I rushed myself to the domination limit well before conquest was reached.

My tactics were to start early wars with China and Greece via warriors and archers to get an early leader for FP. This did not succeed but my brute forces tore big holes in the two nations.

Swordsmen would perhaps have been a better method.

Oh, and like Templar X I settled at RCP2. I had one 4 turn settler factory and one 2 turn worker factory. The latter stopped at 25 native workers. Because of sloppiness the road to Arabia was created a bit too late. I had declared warr on Grece just to make a warrior (not a worker) explore beyond their borders, and after that they would not sign ROP. (Erroneously, Alexander referred back to a previous ROP rape when refusing. If such an ROP had existed, I would not have had to declare war.)

 

[templar_x]

Predator, Conquest in the 500s.

I started out with Conquest vaguely in mind but got a lot of cash on my hands so I rushed myself to the domination limit well before conquest was reached.

was it conquest now or domination, megalou?

templar_x

 

[Megalou]

Sorry, I meant to say that I got close to the limit.

 

[PaperBeetle]

(Erroneously, Alexander referred back to a previous ROP rape when refusing. If such an ROP had existed, I would not have had to declare war.)

Was your worker already in Greek territory already when you dowed? The AI doesn't distinguish between sneak attack and ROP rape the way we do.

 

[Megalou]

Yes, execpt it was not a worker but a warrior. I fear the Greeks would have been able to capture a worker. Maybe. The rep hit is acceptable, Alexander's phrasing is off.

 

[Lanzelot]

domination victory for India and their eles in 490ad
7151 Firaxis score
(is it possible to let me know what Jason score that would be?

After the game has been evaluated, you can use the "Jason Calculator" to get the exact score. But for now I can give you an estimate: 11200.
Our games seem to have gone pretty similar: I reached domination three turns later (520AD) and had almost the same Firaxis score: 7093. My Jason was 11013, so you would probably have gotten 100-200 points more... Too bad you were not able to submit!!
But anyway, I think you won the "fair play contest"! (Unless Neo666 turns up with an earlier date .)

A curiosity on the side: in my first spoiler I said, that I did not yet find a trace of the "remaining two civs". I kept looking for them until the end of the game (even lost a suicide galley)... Only when watching the replay at the end of the game, I realized there were only 5 civs (as is stated in the pre-game discussion...). Why did my F4 screen show 7?!

Unlike Megalou and templar_x I did not ICS the jungle, I set up an RCP3 and cleared all the jungle in between. I stopped at 26 workers (and a handful slaves), but I didn't manage to clear the last jungle before the end of the game... After the core was cleared, I concentrated on other things, like mining the mountains and building roads towards the enemy.

Which leads us to the military aspects. Here the game differs again from Megalou's and templar_x's: I kept very good relations with everyone (except Arabia, as mentioned earlier) and did not have any real war until around 100AD. At that point I finished Chivalry. (I had delayed it a bit in order to finish 17 horsemen. Unfortunately it took forever to connect the horses in the east.) The upgraded 17 Elephants tore through China in only a few turns. (Like in templar's game they had a settler on a boat, which went ashore exactly 2 centuries later on former Russian soil... As the peace treaty had expired by then (fair play contest ), I redeclared and captured it to get two slaves.) I think, China is the obvious first target, because of

• the wine and furs
• you don't want a two-front war
• best land for a second core
• they had the Pyramids in my game as well

The attack on China started my GA, and the core began building WEs (using short-rush via Military Infantry...! Unfortunately I couldn't use temples, as we are religious, and I coudn't use granary, because of the Pyramids...!). Once six Elephants were ready, I started the war on Greece (must have been around 150AD. At that point I had already realized, that China didn't put up much of a fight and the initial 17 Elephants would suffice.) Here the progress was slow, because of the Hoplites, but when the first WEs from China returned, Greece was gone in 300AD. From here I attacked Russia, and shortly after Mongolia as well, because the last Russian towns were too far away. In 510AD I made peace with Mongolia for their last town, and the next turn a few culture expansions pushed me over the dom limit.

Three more funny points:

• I reached domination without ever taking an Arabian city, even though they had declared on me around 800BC, and I kept the war alive for war happiness for the rest of the game...
• The AIs apparently also played "fair play contest" in this game...: I had Greece, Russia and Mongolia locked in MA+PT deals against Arabia for most of the game, and they never broke the MA...
• As usual I got a very late first (and only) leader: in 440AD. (The entire Chinese campaign went without a single elite promotion!!) The Palace Jump would not work (not enough garrison left in China), and so I wanted to use the leader for building the Palace in the area prepared for the second core. (The FP had already been built "by hand" in Madras during the GA). Coincidentally the leader reached its destiny right when the game ended, one turn short for actually building the Palace... This is my first game that ended with an "unused" leader! But neither an Army (they are so useless in PTW) nor Sistine's or Sun Tzu's would have made a difference at that point in the game.

BTW: I was much surprised, when I saw my first Elephant and noticed it had only 4 hitpoints...! So the 5th HP was added in C3C, I assume?!

Lanzelot

 

[Lanzelot]

Was your worker already in Greek territory already when you dowed? The AI doesn't distinguish between sneak attack and ROP rape the way we do.

Yes, attacking a nation while having units in their territory, has some quite strange consequences: apparently it harms your reputation (therefore in games where I need a clean reputation, I always make sure to formally declare before sending any units (including ships!) into their territory), but it doesn't appear to harm your ability to sign RoPs in general: only the AI, on which you played this trick, will refuse a RoP in the future. Others will still agree to a RoP. (I know, because in some games I employed the following bad trick: sign a RoP way in advance. After 20 turns and after your troops are in position, cancel the RoP from the F4 screen and then attack. Other civs were still willing to sign RoPs with me, even after I had done this a couple of times...)

 

[EvilConqueror]

I popped two huts but all they gave me were more barbs to deal with. Greeks wouldn't let me get past their chokepoint with a warrior so I ended up having to trade for contacts later on.

I managed to settle near the two iron spots before the Chinese but the Chinese beat me to the ivory and horses. Greeks were the weaker of my two neighbors but the Chinese had a lot of units wondering around near my border. I was worried about a sneak attack so I decided to beat them to the punch and try to raze and replace the city near the horses. I razed and replaced three Chinese cities, including the horse city, before my force got too worn down and I had to make peace.

A few turns later, I learned that the Chinese had build the Great Library in their capital. That was an opportunity I couldn't just let slip by. After the 20 turns, I re-declared and made good initial progress until I reached Beijing. It was more heavily defended than I had expected and I got bogged down there. I was surprised that the Chinese hadn't build more horseman. I think I faced two in total. Horseman could have torn me apart as my forces got red lined attacking Beijing. Eventually I massed enough forces and took out Beijing and the few remaining Chinese cities. 1 down.

With China finally destroyed, I sent my first few War Elephants against the Greeks. The Greeks fell as easily as I expected and I had soon plowed through their core, capturing a few wonders in the process. They had one city left, but it was blocked by the Russian and Mongolian lands. I made a right of passage agreement with Russia and sent some War Elephants after the last city. I captured it but I didn't get a message that the Greeks had been destroyed. They had a settler around somewhere. Erg.

I was churning out my first cavalry by the time I had captured the last Greek city so I decided to build up my forces a bit and then go after the Russians who had muskets in some rough terrain. I took a few Russian cities before I ran into Rifleman. That slowed me down considerably but I eventually knocked them out.

With the Russians gone, there were 3 other civs still around. The Greeks had a settler around somewhere. The Mongols had a sizable empire with rifles and cavalry. And the Arabs were the strongest of the civs left. The Mongols looked like the best next target but I faced an odd situation. I was holding four cities (1 Greek and 3 Russian) that had been build between the Arab and Mongol lands and I didn't have a land route to them. I was shipping troops to the cities by Galleon. If the Mongols focused on targeting them, they'd be difficult to hold.

When I felt that I had enough forces in place, I declared on the Mongols and got the Arabs in on the mix in the hope they'd divert some troops away. The Arabs got the Greeks in the mix and the Greeks were finally destroyed the following turn. The Mongols avoided sending the bulk of their forces toward the four vulnerable cities or into the Mountains near some of my other cities as I had feared. Rather, they sent most of their forces into flat land where I slowly wore them down. They sent the rest of their forces to deal with the Arabian advance.

Before I had an opportunity to make a significant advance myself, I noticed that the Mongols had started building infantry. Erg. I was still a few turns away from Replacement Parts. When I completed RP, I pillaged the only source of Mongolian rubber that I could see but they kept building them. It was under one their cities. Double erg.

It turned into a stalemate for a while. I massed artillery, cavalry, and infantry for an eventual advance while the Mongols poured infantry and longbowmen into the same flat area turn after turn. I finally got my first leader around this time but it wasn't much help on its own against infantry in cities. I also spotted a Mongolian infantry army at one point where they were fighting the Arabs but luckily I never saw it again.

Eventually the Mongolian forces started to trickle, one of their cities fell to Arabian infantry, and I advanced and razed one of their core cities. It was still slow going but the stalemate was broken. By the time I had reduced them to 3 cities, I got another leader and they still were producing infantry. The Arabs had been pounding one city with their navy and suiciding infantry on it for countless turns. With the other cities disconnected, I learned that it was the city on the rubber. I send my two armies, 20+ artillery, and a dozen cavalry to take it before the Arabs. Even with those forces and the help of Arabian bombardment and attacks, I couldn't take the city. After two tries and red lined armies, I called that off. On the same turn that I captured the Mongol capital, the Arabs finally captured the rubber city.

Now it was just me and the Arabs and I found myself in another interesting situation. The Arabs had just one weakened infantry in the rubber city and they had just put all of their naval units in that city. I had a cavalry army in range. If I attacked, I could prevent the same disaster I had experienced with the Mongols a few turns earlier and I could destroy the Arabian navy in one swing. The problem was that most of my other units didn't have any movement left or were red lined and there were a load of Arabian infantry in my territory. I could stand to lose a good number of units if the few healthy infantry I had left failed to hold some border cities.

It was another opportunity I couldn't pass up. I attacked and captured the rubber city. The Arabs attacked some of my cities but the infantry held. The next turn, I hit the domination limit after settling the rest of the former Mongolian lands and starting to wear down the Arabian infantry that were still in my borders.

Overall, a very interesting game where I really learned the value of artillery. Cavalry vs. infantry is not fun.

 

[templar_x]

Lanzelot – thanks for your hint about the Jason calculator. i had forgotten about it completely.

i would have liked that score. but “fair play” would not work out as really fair here, as i had a better game in my 2nd try after my first had crashed. i do not believe my first try would have grown into a similar result.

re who to attack first: your arguments are indeed strong and that´s why i myself attacked China first. but i am not fully convinced if my 2nd core made that much of a difference (yours never set-up practically gives the answer).
and going west first would bring your troops to the more distant areas while your later produced units could take the closeby Chinese empire. under ideal circumstances, i think you could save 10-20 turns with this strategy, compared to the “clear the back, then go west” approach. but i too dislike 2 fronts and did not give it a try.

i short-rushed only little, because the fully improved lands yielded a lot of shields every turn already. i used my money on culture improvements for more tiles.

btw, i had exactly the same suprise effect when i saw only 4 hp´s on my first WE!

templar_x

 

[Lanzelot]

going west first would bring your troops to the more distant areas while your later produced units could take the closeby Chinese empire.

Very good point, indeed! Never thought of that. I think the idea of the second core stands and falls with whether you get an early leader or not. So it's a chance factor, that I shouldn't rely on...

However, the two early luxuries in China allowed a lot of short-rushing, so I had more units that way, then when I would have gone for Greece first?! But another point for going west first: the sooner you take out Greece, the less Hoplites you will meet...

btw, i had exactly the same suprise effect when i saw only 4 hp´s on my first WE!

In fact: at first I thought it had something to do with the fact that my first Elephants were all upgraded 4-HP horsemen. Only when I saw my first "produced" Elephant, I knew for sure...

Lanzelot

 

[PaperBeetle]

Not my most enjoyable GOTM either; I don't find much to like in the PtW Indians, and I made a cheap mistake right at the end. But first...

The Ancient Era
I settle 1NW, so as to open the southern peninsula for RCP3. Research is Writing, and as I don't have access to Pots, the first build is a settler, which founds Bombay at the source of the river (NE of Delhi). In the meantime, Delhi's borders pop a hut for an axe, who wanders NW, meeting the Greeks in 3000bc. After the settler, Delhi builds an axe to explore NW; I meet the Chinese in 2470bc, and get to trade for Wheel, which in turn gets War Code and Bronze from the Greeks. The remaining contacts come in trade, when I hit Writing in 2150bc. I also pick up Pots, Burial, Mysticism, Ironwork, and plenty of cash. Delhi and Bombay both start granaries, as the 3 bonus food resources can potentially be shared to get both towns to an average of +5fpt.
Third twon Madras is founded in 1830bc, at RCP6 NW of Delhi; I want to make sure to get the dyes ahead of the Greeks, and try to block them out of my jungly homeland a bit. By this point, the Chinese are up to 7 towns! Once the granaries up, I start producing both settlers to claim the lowlands, and workers to clear the jungles off them. Research proceeds at a fair pace thanks to the commerce-rich starting area. I hit Maths in 1625bc and trade it around, hoping to get some Construction or Currency out of the AI later. My next target is the push through to Republic. Arabia tries to distract me with a demand in 1125bc, but I gladly take war happiness instead.

QSC Era
I forgot to submit QSC, but the stats should be something like...
9 towns, 96 tiles, about 20 citizens
2 granaries, at least 1 barracks (going woefully underutilised)
A couple of archers, a handful of axes, a small army of workers
All ancient techs except Construction, Currency, Polytheism and the 3 optionals
All contacts, no embassies, everyone's cash and maps

Republic is complete in 750bc and I immediately go to anarchy. By this point the AI have managed to come up with Construction, but rather than head directly for the medieval, I detour to Literature, and start using courthouses to prebuild libraries. The first library is complete in 530bc, and the next turn I complete research of Polytheism to enter the medieval.

The Medieval Era
I bring Alex and Cath into the medieval, and they get Monotheism and Engineering, so I head straight for Feudalism. Handily, they swap their techs next turn, so I can buy both for Republic. Normally, I would next concentrate on going up the top branch of the tech tree while hoping for some AI progress on the road to Gunpowder. But this time I wanted to try something different, so I started off down the bottom branch of the tech tree myself, while hoping the AI would research Chivalry so I could start my golden age. No such luck by the time I reach Metallurgy in 170ad, so I start along the top branch.
My plans for expanding into a second core involve displacing the Chinese, but I'm not really ready to hit them hard by the time I notice them hooking their iron. Not wanting to face pikes, I dow in 230ad, and take both their towns near the iron sources. But my small army runs out of steam pretty soon, so when the Arabians (remember the happiness-war?) buy the Greeks against me in 360ad, I have to give China peace and turn my attention to the west. In the Chinese peace deal I get a junk town over in the west, which I immediately give to Arabia for peace. To compound Alex's misery, I buy the Mongols agsint him.
The AI research Chivalry in 430ad, so I trade for it, and start producing elephants. I start my GA in 490ad by taking Athens with an elephant. The extra commerce helps me reach 4 turns per tech at the end of the era, despite still having no second core. I hit Gravity in 560ad and go industrial. By this time, the Greeks have been booted from the mainland, but got a town out to the large island in the southern hemisphere; handy, as I would have had to give Alex peace and a junk town otherwise, to stop the Mongols from eliminating the Greeks.

The Industrial Era
After a turn of gathering cash, I give Alex peace and bring up for Medicine. I bring Cath up too, and she gets Steam. Well, that's about as good as it could be, but how do I get these techs out of them efficiently? Of course I could use gpt and then break the deal, but I don't want to spoil my rep here. I could stock up cash until I could buy one of the techs; possibly the Greeks and Russians would swap techs in the meantime, reducing my buy-in cost, but making it harder for me to get both techs. A similar strategy would be to research one (i.e. Rails) until they swap, and then immediately buy the rest of my research at a relatively small price. After much agonising, I choose to use gpt to get both techs in a twofer, and then use more gpt each turn to buy cash from Greece and Russia, so I can keep up max research until I can sell the next tech to get my gpt back. Electricity takes me 7 turns.
Meanwhile, Mao comes to renew our peace deal, but I want to claim that second core, so no deal. We are back to war. It goes slowly again, as the Chinese have a lot of foot units that need taking care of before I move on to their cities, but in 800ad I reach Beijing. I also have a leader in hand, who immediately rushes palace there. On the same turn I get another leader who rushes Darwin, just as Industry completes; I take the usual Atomic and Electronics as my free techs. The Chinese campaign ends with their destruction in 860ad. I start developing an RCP5 core around the new palace.

The Modern Era
I dow the Mongols in 880ad, just for the sake of picking up more territory. Their low-def keshiks also make easy leader-fishing targets, so I get to rush several mildly useful wonders. I progress through their territory fairly smoothly, finishing them off in 1050ad. I want to end the warring at this point, but Cath has other ideas. She dows in 1110ad and captures undefended wonder city Karakorum. That is really frustrating, as I want to keep her alive into the modern era in case she gets Fission free, and therefore I want to be able to count on her vote. It won't be guaranteed if we have recently been at war (Alex, on the other hand, has had time to get over his beating, and quite likes me again). Well it can't be helped; I knock the Russians down to 1 city, and give them peace in 1160ad, the turn before I finally complete Radio and hit the modern era.
I bring Cath and Alex into the modern era during the interturn, but get no luck. They get Rockets and Computers, so what do I do now? I need to resarch Fission myself, but how fast can I do it? I switch to Democracy (being REL it costs me no turns of commerce provided I flip during the interturn) in case the miniscule boost in beakers is enough to buy me an extra turn. I also buy Computers from Alex using gpt, allowing me to build SETI and research labs - I have some prebuilds for labs in my core towns. As for my UN Prebuild, I cut that down to size using 800-shield Suffrage. When the interturn is over, I find that Fission will take 5 turns, and 4 turns is probably out of reach.
So I am looking at a 1220ad win, with Arabia as my opponent. I dow Abu in 1170ad, and sign MPPs with the other guys. Amusingly, an Arabian spear has been trekking across my territory for centuries, so Abu really can't get out of trigerring those MPPs. Trouble is, even after her MPP kicks in, Cath is still in a bad mood with me. Idiotically I decide to gamble on getting her vote, in case breaking my deals with her upsets my relations with Alex. No luck; the first vote is held in 1220ad, and Cath abstains. I make my disappoinment known to her in 1230ad, taking the last Russian city. Alex agrees peace with Arabia, but is happy to rejoin the war for gpt. The second vote is held in 1290ad, and I win 2-1.

 

[Più Freddo]

I think the idea of the second core stands and falls with whether you get an early leader or not.

That way you could get it earlier, perhaps, provided that you have built the Forbidden Palace already. But nothing prevents you from rushing Settlers in the old Capital until the city is abandonded at any point in time you choose.

You do have to manage getting the Palace to jump to the city you select, which is not necessary if you can afford using a Leader. But fulfilling the rule OCN/2 gets you pretty far in this respect, and that you have to do also with a Leader.

So I'd say the idea stands also completely without Leaders.

 

[Lanzelot]

You do have to manage getting the Palace to jump to the city you select ...snip... But fulfilling the rule OCN/2 gets you pretty far in this respect

I don't completely understand. Isn't stuffing military into the city, where you want the palace to go, the only means of influencing the jump? CivAssistII told me the following:

Target City	Continent	Rank	Garrison	Required
Madras		Alpha		61	0		0
Calcutta	Alpha		60	0		2
Bombay		Alpha		54	0		8
Bengal		Alpha		53	1		10
Jaipur		Alpha		50	0		12
Kolhapur	Alpha		48	1		15
Pune		Alpha		46	6		22

Madras is the one that had already built the FP, Pune is my "designated future capital". I had grown Pune to size 12 by that time, but even Bengal and Kolhapur, which had size 7 at that time, come before Pune in that list. So in order to make the jump, I would need 16 more units in Pune. (Which would be almost a third of my current military, and Pune is as far away from the front as it can get... )

After pondering this a bit more, I now think the following would be the best strategy:
Go after Greece first. If a leader appears, use it to rush the FP in the Greek core. It won't be as powerful as the Chinese core, but much much closer to the front, so at least as effective. In the meantime continue to buy wine and furs from China for outdated techs (as I actually did until I got to Chivalry). Then, when you reached Russia or Mongolia, keep the newly produced Elephants in the core and start a (slow) war with China, so that China and Mongolia are finished at the same time, pushing you over the dom limit.

@PaperBeetle: Funny, how we both got an early demand from Arabia and enjoyed WH for the rest of the game...
One question: why did you go for Math first? Isn't it better to have Republic as early as possible? I'm sure you could have reached Rep around 1100BC?! (Instead of 750BC.)

Lanzelot