Wow, I'm gone for one day and I come back to find the game over already!
I think it's highly poetic that we managed to kill the Zulus on the final turn that we also won by UN vote. I knew that the game wasn't going to last much longer once the AI civs got their act together in the post-Gandhi bashing period and began to research techs again.
Speaking of Gandhi... once again a near-perfect game is flawed by events outside of our control. If anyone from Firaxis is reading this, please see if anything can be done about the bug whereby the player's reputation can be destroyed as a result of an AI civ picking a fight and getting killed. There is no logical reason for this to take place. I normally despise the use of renegotiating peace (as it allows the player to trade as though their reputation was not broken when it is), but in this game it was appropriate since we had lost our good name through no fault of our own.
Regarding the ending date, 960AD is not slow at all. In fact, if anything it's FAST compared to the old Deity tech pace. Most games had UN dates ranging from 1000-1200AD under the old tech speed. (In GOTM7, I won by UN in 1190AD and that was the earliest diplomatic victory by quite a bit.) Sirian's 750AD victory was an exception, and the fastest non-military victory I've ever seen. So, in the end, we did in fact get the desired tech rate that I was going for.
It certainly is different from what exists now, isn't it? Under the old rate, you just didn't have time to win military victories on Deity unless you absolutely devoted your entire civ to pushing nothing but military all the time and slowing down the tech pace. I agree that the modern system is better, but it's a lot easier too. Without some exceptional rounds of trading and the use of our free scientific techs, this game would have been a LOT harder. I noticed from the final save that we were #1 in GNP, Manufactured Goods, and Productivity - and even #3 in population. Ha, that just goes to show how inefficient the AI civs are even with their massive Deity bonuses!
Enjoy the high victory score for the extremely early victory, we earned it. Almost all of my highest HOF scores come from the pre-1.29f days when the tech pace was faster. (Note that if we had saved our leader from the UN, we could have won even earlier, he he.) Here's my own HOF at the moment:
Top score is from GOTM8, where I deliberately waited around after the game was over to build up score (blah). #2 is from RBE1, our overwhelming modern-era domination victory. #3 is this game, naturally, with the super-early finish. #4 was my domination victory in Epic8, where I ran over everyone with the English in the potluck game. #5 is from GOTM7, with the fastest diplomatic victory out of over a hundred competitors (also one of the few wins from that game, I might add). #6 was from a private large map game with fewer than max opponents where I started next to two cattle and grabbed an enormous amount of land, then coasted to victory. #7 is from Epic 1, another early domination victory due to the faster 1.21f tech pace. #8 is from LK25, one of LKendter's succession games. #9 is from Epic 4, another 1.21f Deity victory by spaceship in 1250AD. And #10 is the victory from RBE4, the game with the 50% cost factor for the Deity civs. Just missing out from the list are some games like Epic 21 with Temujin the Cold Hearted (5729), the RBP4 Menagerie game (5709), and the training game I ran in SUL4 (5594). Just goes to show that I've played way too many games.
It was a fun game for me, I hope you guys liked it too. Now, any ideas for a future game?