I apologize in advance as this turned out to be quite long.
I didn't mean just charging ahead. Just one TS at a time, perhaps even just a few turns at a time. The problem seems to be that interest has waned as our situation has been revealed. We need to know who's still interested so we don't wait forever for someone who doesn't want or can't continue.
As far as Team Klarius, yes it looks like they are charging ahead. For all we know they may win and beat us all by a mile. Then again their luck may change and they get eliminated or slowed way down. Remember, the only victory condition is Space Race. Deity games can change by the turn. We just have to do the best we can, and not give up prematurely. There may be some glory in finishing 2nd best
(For encouragement, check out the graph, it doesn't look as if anyone else has had the same luck TK has.)
I don't know how Team Klarius did it, and it really doesn't matter, I don't think we're going to be able to go the same path.
This reminds me of PTW 75 with Scandinavia, even though it was PTW and not C3C, I think in general this will still apply. Yes, I guessed wrong and got behind early. If you remember the game, the start was on a small island. I was effectively trapped on the island, using amphibious denial to survive during the mid-game. When the other Civs fought each other, I was able to pick up some cities in the more undesirable areas. The key was getting areas that had or might have resources I would need to go Space Race. I eventually boosted my Literacy to 99% during the midgame (#1 of all Civs, and something not normally achieved). During this time, when I was still only one era behind, I completed a Great Library steal from India, after a ROP violation. That brought me closer, then my Literacy combined with the most beneficial civic ( as I learned them) enable me to catch up and surpass all the other Civs, including Arabia and Egypt who had 1/3 of the world each. Yes, it took me forever and I ended up losing the Space Race by 4 turns (at 2050AD) because of poor planning. I believe we can do it here. The lesson being, I had roughly the same amount of land we have now.
Specifics:
We need just enough units to deny any beachhead. The only thing to worry about here is if the Netherlands disbands their spearman and allows a spot to open. We need to be prepared for this and have an extra unit or two to kill off any that do land.
Build Harbors and improve all our tiles. With no fresh water, we won't grow beyond size 6 until we learn Construction. We will need to build some temples or use the Lux slider to get each city to size 6. Once all our cities are size 6, we may be able to hire some Scientists. I think Granaries can wait until we get Harbors and temples in each city.
Our research priority after Republic, should be Literacy, if we don't get it in trade. Once we get Literacy, Libraries should be our top priority.
We don't need to build to many Galleys, as with the Egyptian Caravels cruising around our Island they will probably just get sunk.
The biggest question is what to do about our current situation.
I would prefer to ally with Netherlands as they are #1 and appear to be way ahead of the others. This means waiting a couple of turns until we build up enough money to establish an Embassy with them.
Alternatively we ally with Portugal now, this should relieve some pressure off us. As soon as Spain will talk, we purchase peace with them.
We save our money and establish the embassy with Netherlands.
We continue our war until after the 20 turn alliance is over and see what Egypt may be willing to give.
I have never had a whole lot of luck with "fake" wars. Perhaps someone with more experience could guide us. As Babylon is the weakest, we could conceivably gift them a city, DOW on them, then capture the city and get a city from them when they settle. I am not particularly comfortable with this as I have never used it.
In most of the deity games I remember, if you don't get allies or settle quickly, all the AIs gang up on you and before you know it, your at war with everyone.
