and yet so far away.
(0) 1804 - Not much to change. I do very little, actually.
(1) 1806 - Move towards Russia. I investigate stealing techs. Different civs have different costs to steal techs from them? I'd never noticed before because I'm usually stealing from the one civ I knew had a certain tech or from the only civ I could take as an enemy or some other reason to target one civ specifically. But costs vary by several hundred gold. Is it tied to techs known? # of cities? Population? Interesting research question. [Auth: Hey, something useful from this game! Might invalidate or call into question some of T-hawk's assumptions in the steal vs. research debate, too.]
Anyway, Arabia had far and away the cheapest steal deal. Hmmm.... Try Immediate. We're really desperate. It succeeds!!! BUT they have nothing useful to steal! They're more backwards than we are. No wonder techs were taking longer to research. We weren't even researching at last. I take Navigation, in case I get the urge to build pillaging explorers.
(I) France declares war .... on Korea. Dang. Not a war I wanted. I just hope Korea's navy is weak. WK comes asking for an embargo vs. France. Since I know our MPP with France will kick in soon, I decline politely and send him on his way. At the end of the turn, we declare on Korea.
(2) 1808 - Keep moving towards Moscow, trying to not sail in Russian water. Hope Korea doesn't eat us for lunch.
(I) France and India MPP. Good! When we fight Russia, France will join and then India will join, too. Dogpile might actually happen. India declares on Korea.
Umm...then France declares war again....on Russia. Umm...!@&@#$!@#&$*) We are so NOT in a position to land on Russian soil. Moscow completes Manhattan and SS Life Support (8 pieces).
(3) 1810 - Rather than risk 800 troops at sea, I land them randomly on Russia's shores. They're badly scattered and on flatlands, but I felt it the best course of action. I fully expect our 100+ troops to be reduced to about 5 by my next turn, but at least they'll have a chance to fight back. A couple ships run into subs and sink, luckily after dropping off their troops.
Galleons that can't reach Russia's shores this turn try to hide behind French ships, hoping to stay alive long enough to drop off their loads.
Clear rally points in anticipation of defending the home island/sending troops to minor Russian holdings.
Plant spy in Korean capital (next cheapest to steal from, but can't use embassy because we're at war with him). Interestingly, the Korean capital is Madras! Been some serious fighting over there.
World is getting confusing at this point....
(I) Russians send cruise missiles (nice animation), actually fire artillery from cities and then MI to attack our infantry stacks. We give about as good as we get, killing a number of MI and only losing a few infantry. Of course, some MI retreat to fight another day, but MUCH better than I'd feared.
(4) 1812 - Bombard, bombard, bombard, hope. Move into better positions. Moscow's civil defense actually is destroyed very early! Woo-hoo! I can also redline a defending infantry on a radar tower and take him out with an attacking infantry. One less tower to worry about.
Time to use our Korean spy. Careful steal. It WORKS! But he's as backward, almost, as Abu!!! No new required techs. I take Communism, just in case we need police stations, by some odd miracle. Curse, curse, curse.
Desperate, I do an immediate steal from France, because I know Joan's in the modern age and finally get something useful -- steel.
(I) Abu joins dogpile on Korea. Russian subs start going to work on our "fleet". One modern armor appears...and kills 3 infantry easily.
(5) 1814 - Bombing Moscow gets it down to size 13. We also kill the MA, after redlining with artillery fire. Pillaging also becomes a bit more prevalent. But our homeland is still safe. Organizing a party to sail west to try to eradicate Russian holdings over there.
(I) More subs. More MA appear but don't do quite as much damage. Then, something interesting happens, the Russians restart UN..maybe in a better city?
(6) 1816 - We're still alive? Really? And Russians are building UN in Kiev, which is a MAJOR shield powerhouse. Miracle victory still possible? If we could just raze Moscow and then get Kiev after the UN was finished.... Pure fantasy, of course, but it kept me going.
Moscow drops to size 10. I lose 3 infantry trying to take the last hp off a MA.
(I) Super-infantry that attacked the MA defeats another MA *and* MI in defense, before succumbing to a second MI. We need more troops like that!!!
Russians add Exterior Casing to their ship. WW strikes and Persepolis riots.
(7) 1818 - Luxes up to 30% and re-MM. Moscow down to a town now...size 6. But no infantry in range to attack. More pillaging. I start trying to organize a force to land near Moscow and hopefully raze the sucker. Still a million-to-one against, but losing all their defensive bonuses will help us a microscopic amount.
(I) More subs sink our ships. More Russian artillery blasting away (good for the AI!). Another mega-infantry appears, doing 6 damage to attacking MA (unfortunately not killing any) before getting tread under. Other infantry die...starting to die in more serious numbers, but they've held up much better than I ever dreamt.
(8) 1820 - Can I get to turn 10? It's not game over yet?
Any chance Russia has mobilized?
Moscow is cheap to investigate now, since its size is way down. 64 gold shows me a city NOT mobilized (bummer, Party Lounge has to be close), with 12 of 15 shields, while lacking courthouse and police station (corruption is definitely NOT killing Cathy). And see 12 MI still defending the city.
Hmm.... Go to plan B. "Sir...there is no plan B." D'oh!
Try another immediate steal from France. What other good option do I have? It succeeds again, miraculously, getting us Combustion, leading me to order a few destroyers built, hoping to give us a prayer against the Russia sub menace. That's 4 techs in 8 turns. Pretty lucky.
Move as many troops as I can muster next to Moscow.
(I) Russians and India sign peace treaty. I don't think it will last long.
Russian subs are starting to find full ships to sink, out in the ocean. I just hope enough numbers of ships en route will allow a few troops to land. Absolutely desperate, of course, but we all knew that going in.
On land, MA dominate, but attacking MI and guerillas die reasonably easily. We're nowhere near 1:1 casualties, but probably better than 1:2, when I was expecting 1:5 or so, considering all the factors in Russia's favor (2 tech levels ahead, tower bonuses, free movement).
War weariness increases. A couple cities riot (not sure why I didn't catch the second one. Oh well).
And, whoops! Orleans completes UN. We abstain, naturally. Voting would be pretty tactful, so we can't have that! Cathy and WK vote for Cathy. Abu, Ghandi, and Joan vote for Joan. No majority, and the game continues, narrowly. We could've given Joan a victory here, but it just wasn't meant to be.
(9) 1822 - Hey, one more intra-turn and I'll actually get to pass this off! Who'da thunk it?
Off the radar tower defending Moscow. Moscow down to size 3. Luxes up to 40% and cities back to normal production.
(I) MAs kill a bunch of our troops, but about 3 turns from now, we can land another 28 or so infantry, giving us a semblance of a prayer against Moscow.
But....
Ugh.
Hey, were we intentionally playing an OCC???
Check out the wonders order and speed.... I mean, ToE before Bach. Bach cascade getting Universal Sufferage?
And how often do you see a size 3 "city" as the world's best?
Final save
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/lotr5-1822ad.zip is the auto-save from 1822, as that was the latest save I had. Should be easy to see the final loss. Just do whatever you want, even shift-enter to force end-of-turn.
More comments to hopefully follow later today,
Arathorn
10k or more a shot at something like a 5% chance of success?)
We cannot get France and Russia's votes, meaning we need ALL of India, Arabia, and Korea. Any of them that have MPP or ROP with Russia will vote for Cathy instead of us. But I agree it's our only chance; destroying Russian AND French spaceships until we accumulate all the techs ourselves is equally impossible.
For lack of a better idea, I accept. Palace expansion. 
Gandhi no longer wants to continue our Spices and 3 gpt for Incense deal 
