I just tried my first serious game on Emperor (Epic speed/Standard size/Continents as Ragnar of the Vikings) and it ended in a loss. 
To recap major events of the game :
-> I started on a continent with Mao and Hannibal. My start had insane production, but absolutely horrible commerce. Carthage had exactly the opposite, basically a dream capital with nearly all riverside Flood Plains/grasslands, cows, and some other food resource afaik. Major events of the game include :
-> I beelined bronze working so I could axe rush Carthage because I wanted that delicious capital and it was so close. Unfortunately, SOMEHOW, no copper or horses anywhere nearby so I was basically stuck with a powerhouse production capital with nothing to build. I considered restarting at this point.
-> I painfully researched iron working and luckily iron was in the capital's BFC. I sword-rushed Carthage easily and suddenly the game was looking up. I had heavily promoted Swordsmen and great land.
-> Unfortunately Mao decided to plunk a city a couple tiles away from where I wanted Carthage's former capital to be (it gained some more riverside floodplains/grasslands and fit better with the rest of my planned cities). Because I had such a superior army and I was afraid that I might tank my economy filling in former Carthage, I thought the best idea was to just rush Mao as well to raze some cities for gold, ofc get him away from my dream city site, keep him weak, and further promote my army. At the time it seemed like a decent decision, but I think this was my worst failure. Though I needed to get him away from former Carthage, I kept razing his cities for gold to stop the bleeding gold from unit costs and rex-ing into former Carthage that eventually I got to a point of no return where I knew I'd never be able to repair my relationship with him. I would have no trading partners until optics. However, I felt this was ok because I had basically conquered the entire continent for myself really early in the game and it was great land.
-> For a very long time however, I just couldn't get my economy back online. Scientists were my sole research while I planted cottages desperately to get my economy back on track. I couldn't even whip because that meant working less cottages and units would have started to go on strike. So I did what any desperate for gold player would do, I went to raze some more Chinese cities
Cultural defenses and massive protective archers made my next jaunt into Chinese territory much more difficult however, and it just wasn't very efficient (unit costs and supply line costs were probably costing me more than the cities gave me for razing them, probably).
-> Slowly but surely however, cottages matured and key techs like currency and CoL were researched which slowly got me out of the red and onto the path of world domination.
-> It was at this point that I started to build up some more military to finally squash China for good. Unfortunately China had researched Feudalism and there was no way I could blast through protective Longbows with Swordsman-even heavily promoted ones, I had crazy units like CRIII C1 Cover that still had like only 10% odds vs them- without sustaining huge losses that couldn't be easily replaced. My production centers were just too far away from the front line.
-> At this point I figured I wasn't doing too bad. I had great land, my economy was starting to shine, and I saw frequent great general messages so I assumed the other continent was embroiled in war and was not very far ahead of me. Boy was I wrong.
-> Joan II reached me about the time I researched Metal Casting, and all I saw from him was a buttload of techs that I didn't have and double my score. I didn't panic because I figured I could catch up. Little did I know he was ridiculously far ahead of me. To put it into perspective, within a couple of turns I had met the other civs (Greece, vassal to Joan, Wang Kong, and Victoria) and Wang Kong had just discovered liberalism. Not only that, but everyone except for Wang Kong was in Judaism (Wang was in free religion). At this point I started to get discouraged. There was a basically a Judaism lovefest going on the other continent and they were all extremely far ahead of me.
-> I still hadn't lost hope though. My economy was skyrocketing and the techs were crazy cheap because I was researching every single one at like 4th civ. When I got my Beserkers I tried again to stomp China off my continent seeing it as my only hope to regain control of this game. But his protective longbows were just too tough a nut to crack. It didn't even matter either because the AP (created by Victoria) ended the war within the first several turns anyway.
-> I was so backward that Joan GIFTED me Nationalism.
-> When I had teched Rifling and decided to once and for all destroy China (Joan had mech infantry, btw), Joan had completely the Apollo program. The AP tried to stop the war but I defied it and took the entire continent for myself within like 20 turns.
-> I was highest in land, population, 2nd in score 4th in GNP (although not very far behind the AIs), 2nd in production, 1st in food... but it didn't even matter. Joan had launched his spaceship around the time I reached artillery (~1910ADish).
-> Crazy stuff went down the last few turns of the game. I knew I had lost by that point, but Victoria went apehorsehocky on Wang and nuked him even though they were not on bad terms with eachother. Wang pulled out a cultural win just as Joan was about to reach the moon, and I thought that was pretty amusing.
For a second there I thought I could pull out a diplo win, I had Wang and myself for about 90% of the votes I needed. Victoria abstained however and ruined that chance...
Now my question is, I seriously have no idea how I could have won that game. Though I certainly didn't make optimal decision at some points in the game generally I think I played pretty well. The other continent was just so far ahead that even if I could surpass their economies there was no way I could beat them to the moon or fight their superior armies. I think the major factor was that they all shared the same religion on their own continent. I felt semi-isolated because I burnt the only bridge I had (although Mao wouldn't have been very helpful anyway, he wouldn't have traded any of his techs to me because he would have perceived a monopoly on them. Or would he? Need advice from other players on this one).
So basically what I'm asking for... I detailed most of my major decisions in the game, does anyone have some advice on what I could have done better?
I attached a save from a couple turns before Wang got victory. Keep in mind that by this point I knew I had lost and was just hitting space so I could end the game. I stopped caring what cities built and basically just ordered random stuff built all over the empire. But you can see how I decided to specialize my cities, (Chinese cities are new though, I didn't really build any improvements over them.) so any comments on that and maybe city spacing would be nice. I use BUG/Blue Marble, I'm not sure if that effects if you can open the save or not.
To recap major events of the game :-> I started on a continent with Mao and Hannibal. My start had insane production, but absolutely horrible commerce. Carthage had exactly the opposite, basically a dream capital with nearly all riverside Flood Plains/grasslands, cows, and some other food resource afaik. Major events of the game include :
-> I beelined bronze working so I could axe rush Carthage because I wanted that delicious capital and it was so close. Unfortunately, SOMEHOW, no copper or horses anywhere nearby so I was basically stuck with a powerhouse production capital with nothing to build. I considered restarting at this point.
-> I painfully researched iron working and luckily iron was in the capital's BFC. I sword-rushed Carthage easily and suddenly the game was looking up. I had heavily promoted Swordsmen and great land.
-> Unfortunately Mao decided to plunk a city a couple tiles away from where I wanted Carthage's former capital to be (it gained some more riverside floodplains/grasslands and fit better with the rest of my planned cities). Because I had such a superior army and I was afraid that I might tank my economy filling in former Carthage, I thought the best idea was to just rush Mao as well to raze some cities for gold, ofc get him away from my dream city site, keep him weak, and further promote my army. At the time it seemed like a decent decision, but I think this was my worst failure. Though I needed to get him away from former Carthage, I kept razing his cities for gold to stop the bleeding gold from unit costs and rex-ing into former Carthage that eventually I got to a point of no return where I knew I'd never be able to repair my relationship with him. I would have no trading partners until optics. However, I felt this was ok because I had basically conquered the entire continent for myself really early in the game and it was great land.
-> For a very long time however, I just couldn't get my economy back online. Scientists were my sole research while I planted cottages desperately to get my economy back on track. I couldn't even whip because that meant working less cottages and units would have started to go on strike. So I did what any desperate for gold player would do, I went to raze some more Chinese cities
Cultural defenses and massive protective archers made my next jaunt into Chinese territory much more difficult however, and it just wasn't very efficient (unit costs and supply line costs were probably costing me more than the cities gave me for razing them, probably). -> Slowly but surely however, cottages matured and key techs like currency and CoL were researched which slowly got me out of the red and onto the path of world domination.
-> It was at this point that I started to build up some more military to finally squash China for good. Unfortunately China had researched Feudalism and there was no way I could blast through protective Longbows with Swordsman-even heavily promoted ones, I had crazy units like CRIII C1 Cover that still had like only 10% odds vs them- without sustaining huge losses that couldn't be easily replaced. My production centers were just too far away from the front line.
-> At this point I figured I wasn't doing too bad. I had great land, my economy was starting to shine, and I saw frequent great general messages so I assumed the other continent was embroiled in war and was not very far ahead of me. Boy was I wrong.
-> Joan II reached me about the time I researched Metal Casting, and all I saw from him was a buttload of techs that I didn't have and double my score. I didn't panic because I figured I could catch up. Little did I know he was ridiculously far ahead of me. To put it into perspective, within a couple of turns I had met the other civs (Greece, vassal to Joan, Wang Kong, and Victoria) and Wang Kong had just discovered liberalism. Not only that, but everyone except for Wang Kong was in Judaism (Wang was in free religion). At this point I started to get discouraged. There was a basically a Judaism lovefest going on the other continent and they were all extremely far ahead of me.
-> I still hadn't lost hope though. My economy was skyrocketing and the techs were crazy cheap because I was researching every single one at like 4th civ. When I got my Beserkers I tried again to stomp China off my continent seeing it as my only hope to regain control of this game. But his protective longbows were just too tough a nut to crack. It didn't even matter either because the AP (created by Victoria) ended the war within the first several turns anyway.
-> I was so backward that Joan GIFTED me Nationalism.
-> When I had teched Rifling and decided to once and for all destroy China (Joan had mech infantry, btw
), Joan had completely the Apollo program. The AP tried to stop the war but I defied it and took the entire continent for myself within like 20 turns. -> I was highest in land, population, 2nd in score 4th in GNP (although not very far behind the AIs), 2nd in production, 1st in food... but it didn't even matter. Joan had launched his spaceship around the time I reached artillery (~1910ADish).
-> Crazy stuff went down the last few turns of the game. I knew I had lost by that point, but Victoria went apehorsehocky on Wang and nuked him even though they were not on bad terms with eachother. Wang pulled out a cultural win just as Joan was about to reach the moon, and I thought that was pretty amusing.
For a second there I thought I could pull out a diplo win, I had Wang and myself for about 90% of the votes I needed. Victoria abstained however and ruined that chance... Now my question is, I seriously have no idea how I could have won that game. Though I certainly didn't make optimal decision at some points in the game generally I think I played pretty well. The other continent was just so far ahead that even if I could surpass their economies there was no way I could beat them to the moon or fight their superior armies. I think the major factor was that they all shared the same religion on their own continent. I felt semi-isolated because I burnt the only bridge I had (although Mao wouldn't have been very helpful anyway, he wouldn't have traded any of his techs to me because he would have perceived a monopoly on them. Or would he? Need advice from other players on this one).
So basically what I'm asking for... I detailed most of my major decisions in the game, does anyone have some advice on what I could have done better?
I attached a save from a couple turns before Wang got victory. Keep in mind that by this point I knew I had lost and was just hitting space so I could end the game. I stopped caring what cities built and basically just ordered random stuff built all over the empire. But you can see how I decided to specialize my cities, (Chinese cities are new though, I didn't really build any improvements over them.) so any comments on that and maybe city spacing would be nice. I use BUG/Blue Marble, I'm not sure if that effects if you can open the save or not.
fund raising
