Score: 8828
Date: 1180AD
Condition: Diplomatic Victory
Civilization: Sumeria
Version: C3C 1.22
Submitted: 2005-03-10 05:45:07
File: 457_1144_Sandman2003_Sumeria_Deity_Standard_C3C_1_22_AD1180.sav
Ok, obviously I changed a few things since I ran with Sumeria, insteda of Russia for deity. The way I figured it, there was no way an expansionist civ would have time to pop many huts for tech before the AI monster covered the map with their settlements. I did, however, leave sedentry barbs on in the hope that this might help speed along the AI. As I wasn't going to be expansionist, I wasn't going to pop any deity GHs!
So which civ for me? Obviously, I went with Sumeria for the agricultural trait, but I considered Byzantines for faster early contacts, and sea bonus commerce, Persia for faster workers and a good offensive AA UU, Greece for starting with alphabet, and the commercial bonus. and finally Babylon for religious, so that I could change to democracy for an IA research boost.
To be perfectly honest I am not sure that any of these wouldn't have been at least as good or even better than Sumeria. I went with Sumeria because it is easier to find a suitable map to create a four turn settler/warrior (enkidu) pump, and a two turn worker pump. With enough food, any of the other civs could have accomplished this as well, and then had other advantages over Sumeria.
For the world, I went with standard size pangea 60% water, normal wetness, temperate, 5 billion years old. Pangea offers the fastest possible tech pace, and contacts, I think! It also removes the need for boats, although I eventually did a circumnavigation in a curragh. This proved unnecessary (except to identify exactly where the AI were) as all contacts came to me quickly from scouting warriors, even before finding evidence of the AI civs.
The AI chosen were:
Korea
Ottomans
Persia
Germany
Greece
Russia
Babylon
Here is the situation at 1000BC:
1000BC
As you can see, the expansion phase is over, I missed the philosophy-republic slingshot, and we were totally resource deprived - no luxes, no horses or iron. To the SW is Korea who have two luxes and both strategic resources. North is the Ottomans who are likewise endowed. War with Korea was inevitable.
QSC stats:
12 cities
39 pop
17 workers
5 archers
1 catapult
13 Enkidu warriors
1 curragh
And we were missing only currency from the compulsory AA techs.
To stay with the tech leaders, and keep the tech pace high, I brought in to the MA which also means that you lose the opportunity to use the big pricture and get a second tier tech. You have to research the last tech in the age in order to be able to use this trick (which I already knew, but I considered that I needed to stay with the tech leaders more than get a jump to the second tier). I left Korea in the AA, but gifted/traded the others into the MA. I was first to theology, education (no cheesy GL tricks in this game)and astronomy, picking up an SGL on the way. In trades this got me $$s, luxes, Invention, Gunpowder, Chivalry, and most importantly horses and then iron.
Two border cities flipped to the Koreans during this time, although I retained cultural borders right up to one of these cities. After a long thought, the SGL became Leo's not Copernicus, as the horse to knight upgrade is relatively the most expensive in the game, and the Korean war was a must win. My force of about 20 knights was joined by 10 longbows (those archers became useful after all) and war was declared. I quickly brought in multiple alliancesw, although only the Ottomans proved useful in the conflict per se, killing at least a dozen Korean units in my view.
The war generated a leader - knight army. An enkidu warrior also took it upon itself to attack a redlined sword, and well, he umm... just won, kicking off a well timed GA. The GA plus a bit of Ottos help resulted in carving up the Koreans, leaving just one city so that they could be used on the new age. We used a mix of raze and replace, and keep for the Korean cities, and squeezed a few extras in for good measure (never liked AI spacing). We also had the opportunity to build up our infrastructure - unis and then markets.
We lost our sole army in the war, and didn't see another one for the duration. However, with luxes and resources, plus the GA we had no trouble keeping up with the AI (and draing off some gpt to fund our research) untill the IA.
We of course had no saltpeter! Also, I again brought into the IA, but didn't bring the Ottomans in with me. All the AI and our free techs were nationalism and steam power - no medicine for free! Also we had no coal (the civ gods really didn't like my Sumerians!) The Ottoman's had two sources of saltpeter, and a visible coal source in the jungle several cities into their borders! We needed another war!
I dogpiled the world against the Ottomans, and temporarily purchased coal from the Germans. The knights, even the elites became cavalry (Ottos quickly got to the IA, and nationalism anyway, so I needed the fire power). It was a bit touch and go in the beginning since the Ottos had their Sipahi, and no doubt a GA, but since it was against the whole world, they were eventually toast. We seured saltpeter immediately, and got to our own coal so we didn't need to renew the German deal. We also picked up a monopoly lux before the fascist Germans steamrolled through the rest of the Ottoman empire and wiped them out! That wasn't part of the plan!
To add insult to injury, the Germans then dogpiled the rest of the world against the Persians and steamrolled through them as well, wiping out a second sci civ! We used the opportunity to resettle the cleared out landscape, and by applying cultural pressure on a German held former Ottoman city (remember the Germans were fascist) our borders expanded and stole a fourth lux!
Meanwhile the Greeks were threatening to run away with the tech race. They had a monopoly on medicine, and wanted my whole economy for it, they beat me to electricty and were up the corporation as well! Fortunately, our run for ToE was successful, regaining control of the tech lead for us.
The game got really interesting just a few turns out from the Modern Age. The Germans declared war on the Gracious Russians who were paying us almost 200gpt to boot. MPPs dragged the rest of the world and us into this unwanted war! Now we were faced with 6 civs, including us of which the Koreans were still furious, and there was nothing I could do about it! The Germans were clearly going to be the opponents due to their size and pop ratings, and the Russians would be furious with usa due to the war we were forced into. 3-3 even if some votes are abstentions is considered inconclusive, you must win with a clear majority.
The solution - goodbye Korea. All you had to do was become gracious with us over time, and you would have seen in the modern age. Oh well! I was able to make the Greeks and the Babylonians gracious by declaring on the Germans and bringing them into the war (actually the Babs would have none of it, but signed an MA against Russia making them gracious, then when the Germans invaded our territory, our MPP forced them into that war as well).
I didn't need to do any IT fiddling in this one either. I deliberately delayed the prebuild during normal turn time, so that I had one turn's grace after entering the Modern Age. It proved necessary too, as I could not buy fission from the Greeks with all my cash reserves, but I picked up computers, and that trade worked a dream!
Final map in 1180AD:
1180AD
Final thoughts - In light of the new Quartermasters challenge, I should have changed the final game plan to go for space. I had Hoovers and factories throughout the core, so I was well set up for that goal! Besides the modern warfare would have been fun!
Fortunately, the Iroquois were close, and in a horrible start location, so I just used them for future expansion. 
