Spaceship Launch, 1715 AD ... not MY spaceship
, but I was invited to the launch of the Indian spaceship.
Cities: I got up to 2 cities at one point, having taken a former Barb city in the Jungle to the SW from Louis ... but it was an incredible struggle to keep it from flipping to India! I actually had 2 Great Artists build up the culture to over 17000, and built every culture building I could, and yet the tide kept turning and the city eventually flipped in AD 1262. Bah! So I was a OCC most of the game.
Tech: At roughly the 500 AD point I was mostly caught up by getting a free Philosophy by a GS and using it to trade around; I also got up to about 3500 Gold, too. It went downhill fast after this. I learned Nationhood, and was able to trade it with 2 other AI's; everyone else already knew it. I then tried for Constitution, but everyone beat me to that, so I switched to MilTrad, and was beaten to that. With nothing to trade I was left thoroughly in the dust.
War: Isabella declared on me some time after the 500 AD period. I used the 3500 Gold to get Asoka, Ramses (and Louis who was Ramses' vassal) to declare on Isabella, and for the most part sat back and watched stacks of Egyptian units stream past Rome. Isabella did toss a few Infantry my way, which were a . .. .. .. .. . to take care of with the few Preatorians and Macemen I had. Eventually I was free of Spanish units, and rebuilt the spaces that Spain had pillaged. A few centuries later all declared peace, and I was able to keep Isabella at bay later by mostly giving in to demands. But I never did give up my Taoism to assume her Buddhism - just stubborn that way, and she never did declare again.
Later on Shaka was at war with Ramses; Ramses asked me to help out (ha, like I could help out!), and stupidly I agreed. First, this canceled the Defensive Pact I had signed with Cyrus (really stupid), and secondly, Ramses and Louis (still a vassal) signed peace a few turns later. Fortunately Shaka didn't have much of a presence on the continent. At his first landing of a Cannon and a couple of Cavalry, I was barely able to fend it off (still using Pret's and such). A few turns later he lands 2 Galleons worth of units, with Artillery, Infantry and Cavalry and I can see the referee about to declare a knockout. Anybody want to help out ... nope! I set myself to maximum gpt, and asked Shaka if there was any way we could sign peace. He actually took my gold on hand and another 62 gpt for peace, and I would live to see another day.
That was about all the warfare I saw, and I did all I could to avoid anymore conflict. The turns went by pretty quickly. Cyrus gave me another 3 or 4 techs along the way. I gave into most demands that came my way. I saw Shaka (who had Open Borders with Spain) move a huge stack of very modern units off my borders - quickly I give him some nice Luxury. Don't know if it helped, but he didn't declare.
Asoka eventually builds UN killing any lingering hope. Gradually SS parts start being build by India, Egypt and Persia, with India winning the race. Didn't win, wasn't in the running, but it was nice to survive to the end.