My last playthrough lasted for a whopping 180 turns before I ran into trouble. Sadly, now my save won't load anymore and the autosaves 1-2 turns before seem stuck to be stuck i turn pending. See attached files.
Tbh my game was running out of steam anyway. I gave up my vast Mongol Empire to become the Ottomans. The list of territories I was about to lose was so long that I didn't notice Lydia was among them - which I suspect is an oversight after splitting Anatolia (see spoiler below for screenshot). Arguably, as a branch of the Turkic peoples, the Ottomans could have kept some of the eastern territories as well, like Transcaucasia, Parthia, Chorasmia, Transoxiana, etc. Keeping Dacia was a bit weird in this instance - historically accurate perhaps, but it was completely isolated from my core territories in Asia.
I had a lot of fun! My run was: Assyrians => Huns (the Babylonians beat me to Persians) => Mongols => Ottomans
As the Assyrians, the Babylonians (pastel pink) beat me to the Persians, so I went for the Huns. I had to give up my cities and on transition, but one of my outposts was automatically upgraded to a city to become my capital - which wasn't in the territory I had preferred and I wasn't sure how the game decided which outpost to upgrade btw.
As the Huns, I built a vast steppe empire, only to lose over half of it when I became the Mongols (my capital in Orenburgum became the westernmost border, while I lost the Caucasus, Ucraina, Moscovia to Permia, Parthia and Media - which I felt I should not have lost at all. I reconquered most of my old empire and extended it. The surviving offshoot Hunnish empire eventually became the Polish (red), giving up Tobolium, Muscovia, Casanum and Media. I also destroyed a rival Mongol empire to the East, which had given up most of China that remained in the hands of the Zhou.
As the Huns and Mongols I was constantly bleeding money due to my large army, so I spend most of the time waging wars on my neighbours, occasionally taking territory, but mostly demanding reparations. My scientific progress was abysmal, but it didn't matter as long as my Mongol & Hunnish hordes dominated the battlefield. However, when I transitioned to the Ottomans, I was still in the late classical/early medieval techs and my Science income was terrible.
Maybe the compensation for giving up territory could also include a boost to Science? It would be a nice touch to see how much compensation you are getting on the culture selection screen - but that might not be easy, since giving up a large empire already crowds the screen with al the territories listed. Maybe it's better to describe which territories will be kept, rather than lost? Btw, I was sceptical about this compensation in the first place, but I must say it is a solid mechanism. The normal flow of the game tends to lead to stagnation influence-wise, as expansion and choosing civics become prohibitively expensive unless you have some aesthete bonuses. But thanks to the compensation, each transition provides an opportunity to invest in new civics and start expanding again, which really gives the sense of a vibrant, emerging culture bringing innovation and new energy in contrast to the old empire.
Anyway, as the Ottomans I wiped out most of the Ummayads (from Babylonians => Persians), who had a few Pikemen/Crossbows that posed a challenge to my Hunnish/Mongol hordes, but mostly they still had classical units that I could easily deal with. I also took some independent territory. However, then I ran into the Nubians, who controlled most of Africa and were in the early modern era. They besieged me in Memphis, Egypt, with an army full of Pikemen, Crossbows and some Knights. I lost most of my army and surrendered when my was support was near 0. They had a claim on Lydia (which I had taken with my Expansionist action), so I lost that again, and this also ruined my financially. Meanwhile the Mycenaeans (grey) had declared war after I took independent Thracia and made a port to "bridge" the Bosporus and now the Mycenaeans marched an army across to besiege the city in Cappadocia. While their army consisted of ancient units still, I had few troops left and was about to attempt a sortie, but I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to recover from my technological disadvantage and the defeat against the Nubians.
Some observations/thoughts:
I started with max 8 cultures in the Neolithic. Many cultures did not transition. For example, the Zhou became the Mongols in the medieval era, leaving much of their lands in the hands of a new Zhou empire. This empire got to early modern (industrial even) but did not adopt the Ming culture. The Mycenaeans controlled most of Europe and made it to medieval or early modern without changing culture. Same for the Harappans in India, the Nubians in Africa and the Olmecs in the Americas. The Hittites were still around while I was the Mongols. I took their cities for the purpose of becoming the Ottomans after the branched-off Huns beat me to claiming Polonia and transitioning to the Polish.
There were some exceptions:
Phoenicians => Carthagians => Ghanaians
Babylonians => Persians => Umayyads
Zhou => Zhou => Mongols
Perhaps it was due to my 8 culture limit in the neolithic or the Mycenaeans not changing culture, but I didn't see any of the early European cultures (Romans, Celts, Goths; English, Franks, Byzantines, Teutons, Norse). Of course the fundamental problem is that these cultures have no real predecessor in the Ancient era, same goes for others, e.g. the Japanese, Koreans, etc.
What happened in most games was that Huns and Mongols came from the early centres of civilisation (Middle East and China), while much of the history of Eurasia is characterised by successive waves of migrations/invasions from the steppes, rather than to the steppes (i.e. successive waves of Indo-Europeans, including Indo-Iranians and Indo-Aryans, Mongols and Turkic peoples all originating from the steppes). I feel the Hittites are the best place-holder culture for these Steppe peoples, but regions like Sub-Saharan-Africa and Noth America don't really have a fitting placeholder culture at all.
In that case the site could be 1 hex to the southeast.
