Civ: Maya
Opponents: Portugal, Mongols, Russia, Germany, Korea, Byzantines, England, America
Map: Wet, warm, 5 billion years old, 60% water, archipelago
Level: Emperor
After several failed attempts at a I found a decent start with a quite good domination limit of 4413. I was able to set up two 4 turn settler factories right away, and in addition to that I had a nice spot for the pyramids and not too far from the ocean so I could put some curraghs out fast. I also discovered two luxes close by (spices and ivory) plus silks to the far north of my peninsula.
(luxes in red circles)
Im currently at 610 AD in a game that I have been very close to throwing away several times.
I quickly made contact with the portuguese, and after the republic slingshot I traded them for whatever techs they had, only to find that I had no horses and no iron within my borders. At this point I was very close to throwing the game away, but then I saw a source of horses right beside a portuguese border city, so by settling a city two tiles east of it and rushing some culture I could take over the horses. A bit later I even discovered a source of iron to the far south of the peninsula, which was not yet settled by the portuguese. So now I had both horses and iron and was in great shape to take over Portugal when knights come around
(Horses and iron in red circles)
I had a bunch of curraghs out exploring, and found a large continent to the north with no starting AIs. This should play a central role a bit later. On the other side of the portuguese a small hill connected our landmass with another huge landmass which had the mongols close by who had wines and gems. This meant that between the three of us we now had 6 luxes since the portuguese had incense. (Me: ivory, spices, silks; Portugal: incense; Mongols: gems, wines)
My curraghs made contact with the americans east of the continent to the north, they turned out to have both furs and wines.
The connecting land:
Since both America and Mongolia had wines i suddenly realized that this most likely was a huge continent, possibly with all civs. I later found out that this actually was the case, and was quite surprised, since I have never seen that at such a high domination limit!!
When I entered the middle ages I researched chivalry, upgraded a bunch of horsemen and took out the portuguese, getting my fourth lux: incense
In a temporary peace deal I was able to take a portuguese colony off the continent, so naturally I thought I had destroyed them when i took Lisbon the next turn. But they turned out to have at least three galleys sailing around, and at least one of them carries a settler. In 610 AD the are stille sailing around trying to find place to land... At least Lisbon had the Great Lighthouse which also should come in handy a bit later.
The research of Invention in 130 AD gave me an SGL, which was instantly used for building Leonardos Workshop.
The invention SGL:
After discovering gunpowder I (as usual) see no saltpeter within my borders. Again I almost abandon the game, but decide to keep playing a little in search for some saltpeter. The mongols have a big chunk of land, which could contain some, but they have just built the great wall, so that would significantly slow down the war, dramatically hurting my score. I decide to sign a RoP with the Mongols so I can take out the backwards russians south of Mongolia while searching. The Russians dont have saltpeter either. Meanwhile I had landed a settler and a horseman on the northern continent next to some iron, not that I needed it, but I had to land somewhere...
Suddenly I see a source of saltpeter under a german settlement to the far north on the otherwise empty continent. I didnt really want a war with them since they were just north of the mongols, and the largest AI at this point in the game. My exploring horseman a few turns later found that this was not the only source of saltpeter on this lone continent, another one was located further south
My smile quickly disappeared when I saw that the continent was surrounded by sea, so I couldnt connect the saltpeter until astronomy.
Again I almost threw the game away, but then I remembered the Lighthouse of Lisbon giving me the ability to trade across sea, and quickly a galley-fleet was assembled to colonize the saltpeter, and setting up a harbour in time for the discovery of Military Tradition
The game was saved once again...
The saltpeter colony to the north:
The second elite win in Russia gained me my first Leader, and I quickly formed a Knight army, and started the Heroic Epic. Which was finished shortly after the conquest of the russian continental cities. They had a few cities on an island east of thier home-country. I got one of them in a temporary peace deal, but didnt want to take my army overseas to take a few of their cities, so I left the rest for now. I could have rushed a few galleys in the conquered russian cities, but I could really use the cash for upgrading horsemen and knights just a few turns later. And since all AIs are on the same continent Id rather focus on taking over the continent as fast as possible rather than being distracted by a few AI colonies.
The former russian landmass (Krasnoyarsk flipped after a peace treaty was signed)
Here's a little overview of the map at 390 AD:
