OK, here's the game post-mortem report.
Basic strategy was an early REX utilising Cathy's imperialistic (+50% settler production) and Creative (grab land quickly) traits. Once I saw that stone and marble were in accessible spots, I went for my 2 key wonders: the pyramids and the great library. These wonders in the capital along with speicalists fuelled by representation in my GP farm (St. Petersburg, with National Epic), plus a fast build of Oxford Uni, enabled me to build a huge tech lead by the end game, making the time from getting rifles to being in control of my entire continent and winning domination around 30 turns.
Opponents: Suryavarman, Mansa Musa, Pacal, Isabella, Shaka, Julius Caesar.
Suryavarman was first victim and ironically put up the best fight out of all the AI. He was helped by being creative (early cultural defence bonus pre catapults) and building his capital on a hill, ruling out a chariot rush. I boxed him in pretty effectively though. My axe rush was woeful really, and I failed to pillage his iron and managed to suicide nearly my entire army in a choking strategy that went badly wrong
After I teched to construction it spelled his doom but he still put up a semi-effective resistance, recapturing a city and threatening to take back the marble site, which he decided not to do for some reason. I'll give him a 6/10 rating for effort alone.
Mansa Musa: As expected, teched quite quickly early on. He demanded alphabet from me at cautious, which I agreed to, making him pleased, which made me confident that a surprise attack from him was not likely whilst I was dealing with Sury. I also traded some techs with him before ruthlessly backstabbing him when I saw his cities weren't very well defended. When I did attack, he preferred to tech drama and music for a free great artist rather than feudalism for longbows. Deary me. I also traded construction to him, plus he had machinery, but I saw 1 crossbow and no catapults. Luckily, he had no horses or elephants (no elephants on our continent at all). AI competence rating: 1/10, very poor. Him trading me machinery when I had civil service so I could build macemen and he couldn't was a bad mistake on his part. After I suicided my 2nd army on his cities, he capitulated to me.
Pacal: I have played against him in 3 games so far, and he doesn't seem too dangerous. He tends to wonderspam alot and not expand very quickly. He quickly capitulated to Izzy after we both attacked him (Izzy needed bribing to do this however, but it was cheap, paper and music after I won the liberalism race). I took his capital with its shiny wonders so came out better off after the war. He survived longer than his mistress in the end though, mainly due to the goegraphical locations of his cities and not by any competence on his part. Rating: 2/10. He had a go which was better than Mansa did, and had to fight me and Izzy simultaneously. Should have built military rather than wonders.
Isabella: She was the biggest civ for most of the game and had lots of cities. She just wasn't ambitious enough to expand through Pacal on her own. Her preference for religious techs rather than military was probably her undoing. She was very kind in giving me meditation for free and spreading her religion to me so I didn't have to waste hammers on missionaries. Also had a few nice trades (tech/resources) from her. She had no chance against me when I had rifles, she couldn't cope just with my macemen and trebs either. Civ rating: 7/10, could do better.
Shaka/Julius Caesar: I never set foot on their continent, it was a huge war zone anyway. They were so backwards due to the wars that they were never in contention. Neither of them would have traded techs either since they only knew each other, so it was hopeless for them. If one of these had been replaced by Gandhi or Hatty say, the remaining warmonger could have become a monster. Civ rating: A big round 0/10.
Map: Nice, lots of resources handy, no elephants though
, had to trade for happiness resources which was an issue when I bakstabbed Izzy.
Tech choices: I thought I did OK here, meandered for a bit around the early tech tree, the one tech I should have delayed was horseback riding I think, I didn't use horse archers much, I should have traded for this or researched it before guilds. Detour to economics for the free GM enabled me to upgrade maces for rilfles later.
Build choices: I made a mistake building too many buildings while at war with Mansa, but at least Oxford was built soon after education was finished, compounding my tech lead.
Civics: representation/slavery/organised religion/bureaucracy at first during the REX/building/early wars phase. After Oxford was chopped/universities rushed, switched to caste system and theocracy for an extra science specialists/production from workshops boost. Then built troops non-stop basically. Mercantilism a bit later as well. Switched to police state and nationalism near the end, for happiness purposes more than anything.
Wonders: Pyramids, Great Library. These were key wonders. Mausoleum of Maussollos, Taj, pointless really. National wonders: Oxford/Heroic Epic (capital), National Epic (GP farm), Moai Statues (coastal production city), Forbidden Palace (very late on in the middle of the continent).
And that's all folks... I'll probably play a few HOF games before starting on the next game, which will be cultural on a fractal map. Cathy will wait for you until then!
I found this game quite easy but will probably stick to prince in the next game since there aren't that many noble->prince walkthroughs around at the moment.
