Marathon Speed - Tradeoffs

[vorlon_mi]

As noted in this thread https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/advice-for-gemini-difficulty.692352/, I started a game as Franco-Iberia, on Marathon Speed. It's my first game at Marathon, so I wanted to share some thoughts on strategies and tradeoffs.

Main Difference: Although this seems obvious, everything takes longer. Nearly every action: buildings and units take longer to build; explorer expeditions take longer to complete research takes more science to finish a tech. Units (once you build or buy them) still move the same number of tiles per turn.

Risk Avoidance: My normal gameplay involves avoiding some risks in the early game. I avoid sending newbie soldiers (infantry or armor) into nests of aliens; I avoid Krakens who can one-shot my navy or explorers. But the length of time it takes to replace a unit at Marathon speed drives me to be even more careful, moving one tile at a time so that I can see potential hazards. I really don't want to lose a trade convoy to aliens, so I chose to build the Ultrasonic Fence and wait for its quest to kick in before starting any trade routes.
In this game I'm emphasizing growth, to avoid being picked on because I'm small. At the same time, I want to carefully choose the location for each city to avoid even the appearance of forward settling an opponent. I have two cities on turn 130, with two more colonists about to set out in the next 10 turns. All 4 cities so far have been land-based (actual and planned), while my 5th may be aquatic.
For diplomacy, I've tried to make friends with my neighbors. I got two of them to Cooperating, even though spending that diplo capital delayed choosing Personality traits. This has helped avoid some of the trash talk that @MarqFJA87 experienced in his game. One opponent (Kozlov) who is furtherst from me is not happy that I'm cooperating with one of my friends, but I'm not as worried about him. He seems to pick fights with his closer neighbors/enemies.

Choices of Virtues and Techs: With acquisitions being SO SLOW, the first choices seem to be more important. My loadout included Pioneering, so I could build Colonists right away. In order, ,my first techs were:

1. Ecology, started turn 0 for the UFence and protect my traders
2. Physics, started turn 82 for Rangers/Gunners, protect my cities and distance attack a Siege Worm
3. Chemistry, started turn 126 so I could improve the oil near my cities

I usually beeline the Prosperity virtues for extra Explorer modules. This game, I did take Frugality (the Prosperity opener) as my first virtue on turn 30. But after thinking more about the pacing, I switched to the Might side for the next 3 virtues.

1. Frugality (Prosp) on turn 30
2. Adaptive Tactics (Might) on turn 43
3. Survivalism (Might) on turn 70
4. Scavenging (Might, level 2) on turn 115

Alternate Sources of Yields: Trying to accumulate science, gold, and culture through buildings or artifacts alone is going to be too slow. In due course, I can get my espionage empire going, which will let me steal gold/energy through missions. But that will required building the Spy Agency (dozens of turns) and the missions... how long wil those take? At standard speed, the first "Siphon Energy" missions take 25 turns. How long on Marathon?
WIth the right choices of Virtues and Character Traits, I can make killing aliens with city shots and ranged units profitable. I chose the Honorable military trait, that rewards some culture with each unit killed. I pursued Scavenging (above) so that I can get some science from each alien killed. I nearly always choose the Subtle Political trait for improved spy missions, but this time I chose Generous: I'm concerned I may need to cash-purchase units in a pinch. After my first war, I may switch to Subtle. I've delayed choosing a Domestic trait, trying to decide between Industrialist (for production boost) or Innovative (for science boost).

Baby Steps ... I feel like I'm moving so slowly, playing defense all the time. Do any of you have more experience at Marathon Speed? In other civ games, at Marathon speed?
I'll post again around turn 200 or 250.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Turn 240 Updates...

Talking Trash and War: At turn 200, I reached Cooperating status with 3 factions, including my two closest neighbors. One of them was #2 on the score list, while I was 7th (second from bottom). Not that the score means much, when one has 280 and the other has 310. By turn 235, one of my Cooperating neighbors (PAU) had grown to #1 on the score list; I had grown to #6. Two sponsors lowered their opinion of me to Sanctioned. One of the neutrals declared on me on turn 210 (NSA), but his cities were far away. SF declared on turn 214, but he was even further away. Brasil, one of my close neighbors and a potential warmonger, lowered me to Neutral around turn 180, but not lower.
A key factor that is NOT lengthened at Marathon speed: willingness to accept peace. In my last 8 games or so at standard speed, I kept notes on which turns the AI declared on each other and which turns they eventually made peace with each other. Wars always lasted at least 25 turns and showed a clear trend for peace on the 25th turn.
I saw no NSA or SF troops or navy anywhere near my territory. Kozlov accepted a "white peace" 25 turns later. Duncan had killed one of my far-ranging Explorers with a ranged ship, but that was it. He also accepted a "white peace" after 25 turns.

Pay close attention to the relations with your neighbors, in the early-game and mid-game. Having far away sponsors angry with you can be tiresome, or a potential risk to a trader with a faraway station, but their anger is not a threat to your growth or victory. I've grown to #6 on the list, by turn 235.

SLOW Affinity Growth: Yes, I've met everyone. I had met everyone by turn 130. For some, I only know about their capital. But I can infer things about their start (and its quality terrain) by checking their affinities through the Diplo Summary screen. Turn 235 report

Civ	Status
NSA	0/1/2 Sanctioned
FI (me)	2/2/0 (Harmony / Purity / Supremacy)
SF	1/3/2 War (would make peace on turn 239) #2 in score
Chungsu	2/0/2 Sanctioned
KP	2/0/2
INTEGR	0/3/0 Cooperating #3 in score
Brasil	1/2/2
PAU	2/2/0 Cooperating #1 in score

The rate of affinity growth is pretty uniform. Those sponsors with higher scores must have larger cities, perhaps even taken one from a neighbor. Those with higher total affinity (SF, total of 6) are clearly expanding wide and tall. Nobody has enough affinity to get to level 2 for their troops.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Turn 400 Update: Marathon speed is an acquired taste. The overall pace through the tech web is so slow. I've done more restoring from saves than at standard speed. My affinity is 6//3/2. If this were standard speed, I would have finished by now.

Nobody Likes Me Except You: In one of my other threads here, I asked about overall leader tendencies. Samatar (from PAU) has usually been relatively easy to get to Cooperating in most games. A very loyal friend. Literally every other sponsor has lowered me to Sanctioned and declared on me. All but two are too far away to march land troops towards me, while the snaky landmasses make it very hard to get naval vessels to my area. So we "dance", pretending to war for 25 turns, and settle for a white peace. Becoming tedious.
My one-time buddy, Lena, turned sour about the time I passed her on the scoreboard. She was able to send some land troops through PAU to approach one of my cities. Nearly all were weakened from miasma, so they were easy pickings. I'm not sure what will be required to make any of the others stop being angry. Perhaps an affinity buff, or a few more veteran units?

Lucky Expeditions, Unlucky Explorers: Only 3 artifacts, but not a useful result from combining them. In one of my expeditions at a Progenitor site, I picked up part 1 of the Signal. Hurrah! But the units themselves keep being ambushed by aliens. I may need to start escorting them with submarines.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Turn 440 Update: Yup, just about everything takes 3 times as long at Marathon Speed. I don't want to think about how long it would take for a Mind Flower or Beacon to connect. <shudder>

Covert Agents that 15 turns to travel to a niew city; just gaining sources takes another 15 turns. The very first mission (Siphon Energy) takes 75 turns.

I got a quest that I don't remember having before. Finding survivors in a crash site called "the Augments." Since I'm kinda/sorta emphasizing Harmony affinity in this game, I made the choices in the quest to get the Harmony reward. The result is that it asks me to destroy the new station that they founded. Ugh. I don't really need another military adventure, especially since all of the other leaders (except 1) are taking turns declaring on me. In retrospect, I should have taken one of the other paths and made a trade route with the Augments, to get a buff in a different affinity.

Forecasting a win around turn 900 or so. Hope that the game max turn counter is also increased for Marathon speed.

 

[MarqFJA87]

You play with Max Turns on? I always turn that off, never saw the point in it being enabled.

 

[vorlon_mi]

No, I don't usually. The mainline civ games have a max turn limit, for their "score" victory condition. I assumed that BERT had one as well.
No, I haven't turned it on. I'm using the default settings.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Turn 500 update: Cue the evil grins...
Sent an Explorer, escorted by a sub, to a Progenitor site next to a two-tile island.
Rewards: a free affinity level. Gets me to 8 in Harmony, which means no damage from miasma.
Also a progenitor artifact, which when combined with an OE artifact and alien artifact give me... Sky Chitin!

The nearest Brasil city is within air range now. I've been watching Reijnaldo move his units around in the miasma each time he declares on me. My ally is a toxic cloud With air cover and level 2 tanks, I'm ready when he makes trouble again.

Back to one of the original questions that started this thread: Why are the AI players so hostile?
I checked the personality traits that each leader has adopted. 5 of the 8 chose to like/dislike players based on their most powerful units. Many other chose the trait where they like/dislike based on combat kills. Only Samatar (PAU) still likes me a lot. He chose traits differently and maintains Cooperating with 4 sponsors and Neutral with the rest. That's consistent with my observations in other games where he is present -- easy to befriend, rarely declares on others. If he has a fertile start, he will expand a LOT. If he doesn't, he may become a punching bag for a sponsor who did have a fertile start.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Turn 650 Update... approaching the end game.
I completed Decode Signal, so I can begin the Beacon when I want. In my other thread for Contact Victories, I found that the objectors for this victory are mostly random. They usually include one of my closest neighbors.
My closest neighbor, Brasil, is no more. All of his cities are part of my empire, puppet first, then annexed. Positive health, with Clinics and Cytonurseries everywhere. Total of 8 artifacts extracted, with 3 used for Sky Chitin. I can use the ones remaining to get Machine-Assisted Free Will or Soul Discerner Training. I think I will go for faster covert ops, so that I can refill my energy reserves after I ignite the Beacon.
The remaining sponsors are far from a victory condition, save one.

Harmony in Africa: Samatar, who is #1 in score (I'm #2) has taken several cities from INTEGR. Multiple large cities. He has researched all of the techs to build a Mind Flower (turn 608) and has reached level 15 in Harmony (turn 647). I've got covert agents in and around his capital, to see when he starts construction. We share a border, where my southeast cities are near his southwest cities.

At what point do I attack? I could declare on him preemptively, chew up some of his troops, which might encourage him to delay starting the MF. I could wait until I start building the Beacon and see if he is one of the objectors. I've set my cities to emphasize energy as well as produce units for the coming war. His capital is central, land-locked, and well defended. Even if he's not one of the objectors, I will still need to invade to destroy his MF.

Wonder Building Race: My Beacon will take 70 odd turns to build in my capital, with trade routes adding to base production. His Mind Flower may also take that many turns to build, but he could have build accelerator buildings. If our wonders finished at the same time, his would win first.

Current Plan: Finish the Water Refinery in my capital, which will take about 7 turns. Then start the Beacon and see what happens. I have the tiles surrounding my choke point city filled with units and 3 planes stationed there. If he objects and tries to invade quickly, I can hold him off. As I take some of his southwest cities, I can move my planes up and work my way towards the capital. Very few of his cities are coastal or aquatic, so my navy will be less important.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Diplomacy: Once I made it to #2 in score, suddenly everyone seem to think I was OK. Got more sponsors to Cooperating.

Endgame - started my Beacon on turn 657

Faction	Affinity	Relationship / Score Rank / Objection
NSA	4/5/7	Cooperating, 3 cities
FI (me)	12/9/7	#2 in score
SF	7/10/6	Neutral, #3 in score, OBJECTED
Chungsu	7/4/4	Cooperating, 4 cities
KP	8/5/10	Cooperating
INTEGR	7/9/5	Neutral, 3 cities
Brasil	4/4/6	DEAD on turn 609
PAU	15/8/7	Cooperating, #1 in score, OBJECTED

Based on other Contact victories, I expected these objectors, as they were both near the top of the scoreboard and were on my landmass.
I had some trade routes to my capital, had acquired the Industry virtue, had two Manufactories, but had not built the Crawler. Time to build the Beacon was predicted at 63 turns.

Maneuvering and War: I downgraded Samatar to Neutral, so that he couldn't attack while on my territory. He did start moving some troops into the southern isthmus that we shared. I moved 6 planes into position, in cities just off the soon-to-be frontline. On turn 667, I declared on PAU, since he had embarked a few units which made them more vulnerable to air strikes. My spies reported that Samatar continue to build units, not start the Mind Flower. I didn't see him build any accelerator buildings, but I only focused my spies on PAU when he got to affinity 15.

No real movement on the western frontier, near my border with Kozov. However, even without troops, SF declared on me the next turn. Great, a two front war <sarcasm>

Marathon Speed Production Handicaps: These limits applied to both PAU and my empire. Units lost would be hard to replace. Air strikes are pretty OP on standard speed; they are even more overpowered at Marathon speed. I trashed his invasion force in just a few turns, with a response force that felt small: 2-3 Level 3 tanks, 3-4 Level 3 infantry, and a couple of level 3 gunners. But I took 3 of his land cities only losing a couple units. I sent my navy through the southern channel -- between the isthmus and the ice -- to attack PAU's southern coastal cities.
Kozlov was messing around, trying to forward settle me... after turn 660! I blasted his outpost and put up a spy satellite to watch for his troops.

War Progress - 25 turns even for objectors? All game, I had observed that the AI would often accept peace terms no sooner than 25 turns from war being declared. This timing was the same as standard speed. As I got past turn 690, I wondered if the AI who had objected would also accept peace, or would fight on to stop my attempt to win. I was rolling up the score on PAU, having over 10000 in war score by turn 697.
Yes, PAU finally would consider a peace offer on turn 699. I took all of his cities (except the new capital), having conquered Magan with only airpower, 1 infantry and one tank.
On the other front, I had picked up the Might virtue which lets me replace a conquered outpost with one of my own. SF tried to plant an outpost 5 tiles from one of my cities (former Brasil). I conquered that outpost and refused his offer of peace. His offer included a city way far off, hard to defend. I took another of his cities and killed a Xeno Titan. That surpised me, as Kozlov had been favoring Purity. I asked him for peace, to grab one of his aquatic cities right next to my border -- much easier to defend.

As of turn 700, I'm now #1 in score, with Kozlov #2 and KP #3. I expect Kozlov to declare again in 10 turns or so. Fortunately for me, he has few friends.

PAU, now playing an OCC (One City Challenge), has allied himself with NSA. This behavior is something I've seen happen in the late game, as a sponsor tries to hang onto life. I moved my planes into position, along with my two land units. If Samatar also declares in 10 turns or so, I should be able to snuff him out before NSA does much damage to my less defended puppet cities.

 

[Aldor]

Thanks for the commented playthrough (and the patience!). I usually play Sojuz/Quick, but reading your report here made me curious and I started a marathon game as well.
Worst annoyance I immediately encountered: Removing miasma takes 11 turns! Your workers don't last that long though...so I was losing workers left and right to miasma (not used to having to watch my workers, and shuffle them to a clean spot of land to heal them before getting them back to their workplace).

I had a somewhat reasonable start (as America), but I underestimated the long build times for anything and so messed up my usual rex strategy, falling into too much unhealth (and at marathon, getting out of that is doubly brutal). Eventually I decided to end the game early, but at least I got some experience out of it

I think starting with a water based civ may be an easier approach. Taking artists may help getting to the important virtues faster also. I may try that in another game.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Losing workers to miasma... yes! And explorers, too! Until I got to Harmony level 8, with miasma immunity, I was very worried about losing units.

In last night's play, I finished and ignited my Beacon. How long until contact? Any guesses? 135 turns!!

At least 100 of those turns are going to be a snooze fest. One of the objectors (PAU) is down to one city, plus I have him surrounded. The other objector (SF) is being demolished by my naval and land forces. I had finally dug myself out of the unhealth hole, when the war started. I've been conquering and puppeting cities faster than my health buildings can compensate for. I'm back to -24 ! Fortunately, my Beacon is well protected, inland surrounded by my cities. All of the other AI sponsors are neutral or cooperating.

 

[Aldor]

Congrats

Indeed that waiting time feels certainly excessive. I tried a new marathon game as well, as NSA and using artists (sunday and nothing else to do, so nice!). Got a good start where I was on my own on the southern edge of a continent, with only Brazil and Al Falah somewhat close. Water start and building a few water cities worked very well, that health and culture you have with water cities is really amazing. This time I was far too careful with expansion, and managed to stay below 10 unhealth most of the time. Built six core cities eventually (all water based), carefully alternating between building buildings and some naval units. This was apparently enough to keep all AI off my back for pretty much all the game.

Made very good use of Duncan's ability...everything is so slow on marathon, but you still can zip your cities around in 1 turn (after building some infrastructure of course)! I was very lucky and found a part of the signal early on, so I could go for a contact victory as well. I built the Transcendental Math and Decode projects in Deepcastle, but the beacon in my second city Eilemuir (this city had a traderoute to Omoikane going, and was huge already from all that bonus food, and thus also had good production). Building the Beacon took 65ish turns (don't remember the exact amount), and I finished it on turn 503. I had been saving energy anxiously since I thought activating it would cost much more than on normal speed, but it was 1000 energy like normal...?

Al Falah and Integr (also on my continent) didn't like my building the beacon. I attacked Al Falah pre-emptively and captured their water based cities first, then their capital (which was on the coast too). Made peace after that, but she attacked again, so I finished her last land cities with some planes and a single tank (she had warred with Brazil before and was already weakened, which didn't really help her).

Lena attacked as well, but only ever sent a few troops through the miasma and so it was no problem to pick them off with planes. She never sent any ships...?

Since the waiting time for the beacon was so long, I eventually started the Exodus Gate as well, which made Brazil and America object. Brazil eventually attacked, but I could repel their navy quickly and was going on the offense now. America never attacked until the end, staying cooperative (which I found odd, since they were absolutely dominating their continent, but I suppose they didn't have much bias for building a navy in this game).

Overall, a very nice game, but definitely got lucky with that start, and finding the signal piece. Doubt I will play marathon anytime soon again though...everything just takes too long, and I found myself clicking next turn too often.

 

[MarqFJA87]

I honestly shudder at you guys casually talking about being at negative health for prolonged periods of your matchs. I actually tried it once, and noped the hell out once I saw that even barely going negative immediately added at least a dozen or so to the turn count for any city production item, when it takes much longer to get any major health boost on the colony-wide level (from wonders like the Xenonova).

 

[vorlon_mi]

Unhealth / health is also affected in subtle ways, including virtues and affinity. I have a two-part approach.

Early Game / Expansion Unhealth: Just setting up your first expansion city will start to push towards unhealth. It's a balance to push out the first 3-4 cities, grab some resources, accumulate culture and science, while still keeping health greater than -5. I try to save up energy/gold to buy a clinic in each new expansion city, then start building an Old Earth Relic and a Trading Post. I try not to get worse than -8 in these stages. Once I get my spies out, I use the Siphon Energy missions to buy Cytonurseries and Pharmalabs in each of my core cities. At this point, the hole is not too deep.
I'm a big fan of the Prosperity virtues, including "Mind Over Matter" which gives a blanket bonus to health. One of the early Might virtues gives +0.25 health for each military unit; that helps since I have a gunner garrisoned in each city. The might virtue that gives science for killing aliens helps speed up research for techs that boost affinity. I know I've reached the mid-game when I have:

• Virtue for bonus 3 explorer modules
• At least 6 cities, all with Clinics, Cytonurseries, and Pharmalabs
• Affinity level 5 in two of the three. This activates the hybrid affinity traits that reduce unhealth. Getting level 5 in all 3 is better

Late Game / War Unhealth: Having a big offensive war opens the door to some nasty unhealth. When I conquer a city, I always set it to "Puppet." Trying to annex right away gives you an immediate hit to your health without much short-term benefit. The city wiil go through a few turns of disorder, but then the puppet governor will start constructing buildings.... usually the health buildings which you need. By the time that the AI will accept a peace offer (min 25 turns), your puppet cities may have built a clinic to help offset the penalty for taking them.
I use air strikes to kill the AI ground troops, so that my land troops face less resistance when they come to attack a city. Playing carefully, keeping my units clustered together, I can sometimes take 3-4 AI cities without losing a unit. To your point, @MarqFJA87 , yes, my production back home is taking a hit as my troops are successful. But if I lose very few units, I don't feel the pain of more turns to produce reinforcements.
I can use the energy I get in the peace treaty to buy infractructure back home, e.g., Gene Gardens, to help get out of the hole.

Level 3 Prosperity virtues can dramatically reduce the unhealth factors. Getting to level 8 (I think) in hybrid affinity and the "Joy From Variety" prosperity virtue can flip a switch, where -10 suddenly becomes +20. The level 2 virtue synergy can give +1 health for every city, which is a lot more impactful for a 15 city empire thana 4 city empire. Once the dam bursts, I can begin annexing long-conquered cities (no longer on the front line), to further reduce their contribution to unhealth.

 

[MarqFJA87]

OK, I'll keep that in mind for my next playthrough. But how do you deal with the aliens in the early game? Siege worms I figured out that I could actually kite them once I have my first ranged unit, but sea dragons are frighteningly numerous for their relatively high strength and krakens are practically unstoppable until at least late into the mid game, when I could muster enough ranged units of sufficient strength to pick them off one by one... if there's any left after the AI players are done with their xenocidal obsessions.

For context, the factions I've been playing recently are ones with leaders that lore-wise seem to be slanted towards full Purity or hybrid-Purity (e.g. Elodié, my current pick, seems oriented towards the "godlike superhumans" vibe of Purity/Harmony), and I like to role-play in accordance with such implied bias, which means low to zero tolerance of the alien wildlife and pursuing the quest that involve killing aliens.

I'm actually starting to wonder if I should just turn off "Frenzied Aliens" from now on; I had taken to keeping it on because the aliens kept being rendered irrelevant way too quickly, and partly because I was hoping it would mean there would be more siege worms and krakens towards the late stages of the game (boy was I wrong; it's only recently that I learned there's a bug in the code that makes it effectively impossible for colossal aliens that aren't the Makara to spawn in the late game like they're supposed to).

 

[vorlon_mi]

My habits (both standard speed and my one game with marathon speed) is to step around them for a good while. Until I get either an affinity buff for soldiers or patrol boats, or until I get the Might virtue that gives science for killing them. If I get the virtue while my troops are still weak, then I just take shots from a city and keep the troops away.

In practical terms, that usually means moving my "baby boats" one tile at a time, so that I can retreat. Krakens are fearsome, but they seem to move in a consistent, large orbit. That is, a patrol that covers 10-20 hexes. I tiptoe around, try to figure out their pattern, and wait until they have passed. Occasionally, I will take some ranged shots across a 1-tile island. Or ranged shots from shore, when they move into range. But I mostly pray that I don't stumble across them.

Depending on the biome (fungal/arid/protean) you choose, the aliens can sometimes be easier to piss off. So I am careful about how often I actually pillage their nests. Doing that twice in rapid succession (same turn or next turn) usually drives them to red. If I only kill them every other turn or so, they can stay green for dozens of turns. I can't forget the time where I had pillaged nests to turn them red, while stalking a siege worm. It rolled up to one of my new cities, attacked and destroyed it!

 

[Aldor]

I never tried frenzied aliens...does that increase the number/frequency of aliens only, or also their aggressiveness? I mean, normally they start of neutral to you, so you can basically ignore them (I often use chains of units to "herd" them out of my territory though, if possible).

Another interesting thing for marathon(may be my impression only): In my first game, I had an alien nest directly next to my capital (second ring). I bought that tile as soon as possible, and the aliens became allied to me around turn 100. This was a freezing world, it may take longer in other climates. So...if you have the option, it may be worth it to get some nests in your territory, and use the aliens as buffer against AI. Don't forget about the Xeno Siren (satellite) too, it can help you concentrate aliens in specific spots.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Xeno Siren orbital unit: Yes, I've seen that but rarely built one. Yet in my first marathon game, I see that the AI love to build them. I keep seeing them appear inside *my* orbital coverage, not too far from a city. When that AI declares on me, I shoot them down. But another AI will put one up, in the same spot. Haven't seen that before in my standard speed games.
Most often, I see AI putting up several Solar Collectors, with a couple of Lasercomm satellites if they are going for Purity or Supremacy victories. In the marathond game, only one AI fell in love with Solar Collectors.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Turn 800 Update: Nearing the end... about 25 more turns until my Beacon connects.

Small AI Behavior: At the time I ignited my Beacon, PAU was down to a single city, NSA had about 3 cities, Chungsu had 4 cities, with INTEGR having 3 cities. KP, on the other hand, snapped up some of SF's cities just off her coast as I was conquering him. She clearly took over the 2nd position in score, land, and population. During the first 50 turns after I eliminated SF, both Chungsu and INTEGR declared a "David vs. Goliath" war against me... except for PAU who was an initial objector. NSA stayed allied with PAU.

One by one, I conquered each of them. KP declared on the alliance, taking all of Duncan's expansion cities. Why? Why did they declare on me?
Over in the Civ7 forums, they are having a lively debate about whether the AI logic should try to prevent the human player from winning, or simply pursue their own victory. Samater has been able to build a Mind Flower for more than 150 turns, but has Never. Even. Started. At least, according to my spies.

Cooperating and Potential Backstabbing: All 3 of the surviving sponsors have asked to be Cooperating with me. For at least 50 turns, I kept refusing PAU. I felt that -- as an objector -- they would eventually declare on me, try to retake their cities. But I eventually agreed, keeping planes and some units at the ready. NSA has been pretty friendly, but if PAU declares, they would join the fight.
To her credit, Kavitha attempted a clever manuver. SInce we were Cooperating, she sent a hover tank and 3-4 Immortals crossing into my territory. In the general direction of my Beacon. I let them get as close as 6-8 hexes, then I downgraded her status to Neutral. If she was planning to make a kamikaze run at my Beacon, she would declare.... but nothing happened. Her tank is stranded in a patch of not-yet-claimed territory between my cities; her immortals left by water to the south.

Final Turns: Even if she declares, her forces can't reach my interior in time. She has researched the tech for her Supremacy gate, but is still affinity 13. No one else is a threat. I'm building a few wonders, and clicking "Next Turn." Given the large number of cities that I've taken, this game will definitely top my personal Hall of Fame. Yes, my health is WAY high... +160. I'm annexing a bunch of cities, while I wait. Health dropped down to +100, rebounding as each city completes its annexation.

 

[MarqFJA87]

I could've sworn that CivBE follows Civ5 in ejecting foreign units from your territory when war has been declared between you and those units' owner.

And yeah, that ridiculously high health is normal for me in the late game. I honestly wonder if it's working as intended, because it's several times more than what one could possibly need even while waging war.