@Lexad: your honesty gives me the courage to post my defeat story
I settled in place, 2nd city between stone and river, 3rd city by iron, 4th in the southern forests, and 5th along the river up north, by the cows. I had planned to settle the spot SE with the cows and flood plains, as well as the NE spot with the horses and pigs, but those became barb cities. I figured, "no problem, I'll just take them later", but Saladin beat me to the SE barb city (Phrygian) and Caesar beat me to the NE (Tarsus). This was the beginning of my downfall, since especially the SE city would have been a great addition.
I was afraid that Cyrus and Bismarck were too powerful, so I didn't even try going after them (I've never learned how to efficiently wage an early war, much to my detriment). Instead, as Gilgamesh started wiping out JC, I declared on JC, intending to take Tarsus. I came at him with about a 2:1 ratio of attackers to defenders plus 3 cats. I bombarded, suicided my cats, and sent in the troops. The first one did no damage at all with around 40% odds. The next one did damage but lost. The next three got terrible RNGs and died with over 75% odds! I didn't have enough troops left to take the city; I was so
Meanwhile, Bismarck declared on JC and moved his troops next to Tarsus before I canceled open borders. Needless to say, Bismarck ended up with the city
Right then, Bismarck declared war on me, so I had to move most of my scant forces south to defend. After a close battle, he took the city on the SE iron (Rostov) from me. I was just not geared for a serious war, and he was reinforcing Rostov faster than I could muster an army to retake it. Frustrated, there was nothing I could do but make peace. He caught me off guard and I paid for it. I had to leave the game alone for a couple days just to cool down, but I vowed revenge
Fortunately, throughout this disastrous period I managed to stay tech-competitive with everyone and was even first to liberalism somewhat later. My infiltrated great spy (Persia) from the GW helped with this. I had a pretty good tech lead over Bismarck, and by this time he was pleased with me so I decided to play a little double-cross. Remember that Saladin still had Phrygian in the center of my territory. I really wanted that city, but Saladin was powerful and had open borders with Bismarck, and I feared reprisal. So, I bribed Bismarck to declare on Saladin (I managed to bribe him with non-military techs, so I had grenadiers but Bismarck did not), and then I declared on Sal and took Phrygian before he could draft/whip. I watched the German garrisons in Tarsus and Rostov slowly dwindle as they were sent off to the Arabian front, and then just as news arrived of the first German city falling to Arabia, I sued for peace with Sal and declared on Bismarck
Tarsus and Rostov quickly became Russian, but before I could take any of his heartland, Bismarck made peace with Saladin and his forces came back to defend. But with the objectives of Phrygian, Tarsus, and Rostov firmly in my control, I was happy to make peace.
I felt pretty good about getting revenge on Bismarck, but during the war I geared my economy too much towards military and lost the tech lead. I spent the rest of the game trying to catch up in tech, and though I never fully caught up, I was a contestant in the space race. That is, until yet another unfortunate event transpired. I had a defensive pact with Cyrus to keep Saladin off my back (he was still mad about Phrygian). Instead, the pact drew me into a war with Gilgamesh when he declared on Cyrus. The DoW canceled the defensive pact, and Saladin declared on me in the same turn without Cyrus having to come to my aid. This point was crucial, as most of Sal's forces were waiting in Persia to attack my unprotected northern border. If the defensive pact had stayed active and forced Cyrus to declare on Sal, he would not have been able to touch me. Instead, I ended up at war with the two most powerful civs, Arabian forces streaming through Persia into my northern cities and my pal Cyrus standing by and smiling
I retired after losing a couple cities. I knew I would never have won the space race, but it would have been nice to see the end of the game. By the way, why do defensive pacts get canceled as soon as one party gets declared on? Wouldn't it make more sense for the pact to remain active as long as both parties are still at war with the aggressor? Would've saved me, anyway... *grumble grumble*
I have definitely learned a lot this game. I pursued a hybrid strategy of mostly peaceful teching with a long period of war in the middle... and it utterly failed
It seems like, in general, it's better to do your warmongering either early (i.e. rush your neighbor), always (if you're going for conquest/domination), or never (as a peacemonger). Maybe it's just me, but fighting a war against a strong neighbor mid-game cost me the tech lead and any chance at winning. Then again, before the war I was probably too small to win anyway. I think I should have either taken out a neighbor early, or at least taken those two barb cities rather than just staying put for the early game.
In any case, I really can't complain, as this was the first immortal game I've ever played. I normally struggle to win on monarch, so I was quite happy to survive almost to the end
Thanks to the staff for a well-designed, challenging, and entertaining game. Sorry DS, I will not be submitting mine either
Managed to take 3 cities before I set for peace and tried to catch tech wise.
). I put wang on my side thinking that i could launch fast...
). He took one north city and I switch to nationalism to mass a big army to face his huge SOD. I even accepted peace when he was almost begging for it 
: say A is running 80% research and generating 800 bpt, researching techs that cost about 6000 beakers (a tech every 7.5 turns). Now say B has the same economy but is running 70% research and 10% espionage, generating somewhere around 700 bpt, thus a tech every 8.6 turns. How many ept would B have to make to justify his 10% espionage? 
), so I burned him to get Theo, and then on started building missionaries and the AP.
) that I wrongly assumed that espionage points were lost after a failed mission. Because they are not lost, the situation is quite different and most of my analysis is invalid 
