When I say this one goes down as one of the most memoriable games of any Civ game I have ever played is an understatement! This game has been one hell of a ride and should have been on national TV! 
Standard map but random type, Emperor level, Standard speed, me as random civ and I ended up with Rome. I started from the very beginning preparing for a diplomacy vic. Things went pretty good throughout most of the game. I was able to expand and secure several resources at a good pace. Ended up in a couple short wars fairly early on but made out ok. I branched through all tradition and piety. I got through the techs towards globalization, built the UN and had one turn left for the vote. On that last turn, I lost a vote when Persia allied one of my allies. I ended the turn and expected to see my nice diplomacy victory screen but instead seen a new 10 turn counter appear. I then looked and seen what happened. I saved the game at this point, ate lunch and came back afterwards to hopefully score my victory. Well, just after loading it up I done a few things during my turn, ended the turn and guess what? I was greeted with a defeat screen! What in the world just happened!? I looked and seen, Persia, who was the smallest country, had built the Utopia and finished with a cultural victory! What a big surprise and wake up, I never knew what hit me. I guess I never payed enough attention to that on the vic progress screen. I seen Persia had some progress on it earlier in the game but did not think they would be able to pull it off. Once again, this should have made not only national TV, CCN worldwide news 
Awesome game and too bad they beat me to the punch from a different road to victory. Sorry, I tried to post an image but I keep getting 'not a valid image file' even though I am under the size limit and using a valid file type.
Standard map but random type, Emperor level, Standard speed, me as random civ and I ended up with Rome. I started from the very beginning preparing for a diplomacy vic. Things went pretty good throughout most of the game. I was able to expand and secure several resources at a good pace. Ended up in a couple short wars fairly early on but made out ok. I branched through all tradition and piety. I got through the techs towards globalization, built the UN and had one turn left for the vote. On that last turn, I lost a vote when Persia allied one of my allies. I ended the turn and expected to see my nice diplomacy victory screen but instead seen a new 10 turn counter appear. I then looked and seen what happened. I saved the game at this point, ate lunch and came back afterwards to hopefully score my victory. Well, just after loading it up I done a few things during my turn, ended the turn and guess what? I was greeted with a defeat screen! What in the world just happened!? I looked and seen, Persia, who was the smallest country, had built the Utopia and finished with a cultural victory! What a big surprise and wake up, I never knew what hit me. I guess I never payed enough attention to that on the vic progress screen. I seen Persia had some progress on it earlier in the game but did not think they would be able to pull it off. Once again, this should have made not only national TV, CCN worldwide news Awesome game and too bad they beat me to the punch from a different road to victory. Sorry, I tried to post an image but I keep getting 'not a valid image file' even though I am under the size limit and using a valid file type.
So, what do we learned today? Check the victory conditions screen more often! In any case, it must be an ''epic win'' for Persia.
