By Tubby Rower with emendations by Bede:
The First Reel
When we last left our underdog heros, hints of a Babylonian invasion in old Japan were rampant. Unilke most rumors, this was true. Hammi sneak attacked us and due to a ruined alliance earlier in the many and ongoing wars, we weren't able to sign any alliances against the Bearded Backstabber. We managed to stem this
Red Tide by only losing 3 cities. After bickering over a few cities and WWI style trench warfare peace was signed with Babylon after the entire world (except Iroquois) were at war with us. Hammi entering IA was a great incentive too.
Meanwhile, the Mongols got a little break from the Celtic conversion. But then Carthage brought a stack of Numidian Mercenaries.
Brother Bede reduced this down to
We signed an alliance with the Mongols to help with the Carthaginian threat in return for some fur for Ugly's hat. Carthage was pushed back, and our gallic swordsmen army pillaged Hannibal's lands back to the Stone Age.
In 1300 AD, Hammi came again, this time with a stack of cavalry and blood in his eye. In the first onslaught we had lost 7 cities to Hammi. To stop the bleeding some of the towns most in threat of being captured were donated to Joan. An alliance with Joan was signed with us costing a bundle and a half: our WM, 106gpt & 924G!! As Hammi captured the new French cities, It triggered a French MPP with Abe to join the war against Hammi. A MPP between Abe & the Viking horde brought the blonde devils to the battlefield as well. The Mongols, however, joined Hammi against us. So now we have 3 fronts (Babylon, Mongol, and Carthage). The Plan became push on Carthage, hold against Babylon, and swat like blackflies any Mongols that appear.
Carthage was pushed to an island OCC, then the Ugly Mongol was relieved of his land and his fur hat (furs by Brennus) and joined the big ugly tree in the sky.
Joan and Abe and Ragnar kept Hammi hog-tied in the north and the northern front held. Peace was signed with Hammi in 1365 after infantry started showing up. The others remained at war with Babylon until the end.
The rest of the game was a waiting game. Many Celtic citizens gave up their lives for the greater Celtic culture. As hoped, but slowly, one at a time, the Babylonian cities in old Japan returned to us. France and America made inroads into the Babylonian core.
In 1580AD we became a Communist government. Culture passed 100k (+1379) on mab's turns at 1670AD but Hammi had 68k (+517). So we had the advantage but just had to wait. Hammi's culture was declining indicating that the French & Americans were getting to him. We lacked the force at this point to try to help take out Hammi and any seizures we made would not reduce his cultural growth nor enhance ours meaningfully.
So we waited...and waited....and waited. in 1760 we had passed the +2k culture per turn threshold. In 1788 we finally doubled Babylon's culture with a total of 167,335 culture points accumulating 2181 per turn.
And in 1790:
and special recognition as most improved player in the series
again for your sponsorship, administration and scenario design. First SGOTM5 and now this, how is it you can make seemingly simple and straightforward games so richly interesting?
to all and see you on the Rialto.
Ahh, even Hammi loves us at the end 
Congrats fellas!
