Ancient/Classical Era : A nice surprise and a horned barbarian
I moved the settler to the river of course but settled next to the stone rather than on the hill (tough choice). Warrior started exploring roughly east and this proved to be a very lucky choice
I was so impressed by El Cheatrado right next to my starting position that i didn't even notice the CS border. I took the ruin and crossed the river and quickly met some barbarians
Woops, looks like those were not just average barbarians
Cap was building 2 scouts while i was teching to archery (an experiment to try and take as many camps as possible). I bought a settler at pop 2 and settled right next to ED on the hill (nice spot with 2 luxes), bought the plain-wheat tile and improved it with
Harold's my worker. Hamburg started building archers as soon as i got the tech, i stared working ED for culture at pop2, at least Hamburg would still grow.
Since i had a second city very fast and it was producing archers, i decided to try something else at cap (also i had a scout upgrade)
A few more archers followed. I took the scout-archer and the warrior and soon a second archer on barb hunting. Took some time as i did not open Honor but i cleared the area and got 2 brutes and an Axeman out of 6 camps. 50% conversion, better than usual

I decided to go tradition-patronage as ED would lead me to open a new tree before Renaissance and Hanse would synergise with Patronage. Oligarchy would also help defend as Harold would not talk about peace (most AIs will offer peace 10 turns or so after a worker capture, but not old psycho).
I got a lucky faith ruin shortly after T20 and took one with nature. Proved a great choice as i got 4th religion and Mosques were still available. Took Initiation Rites for early gold.
Queued tech for pottery>masonry>phylo>contruction. Forgot Animal Husbandry at first and researched it when i realized. First TR went to Haile for Science.
I built my 2 cities once i decided i had enough workers and got Philosophy in turn 60ish. Built NC at cap quickly and then expanded. I had money from selling spices to almost everyone and some pillaging at Harold so i bought one settler, built a second one, and bought a third later. Went for a 5 cities tradition game. Munich (3rd city) went on a hill west of Harald, Cologne was settled by the mountains near Cerro de Potosi but not on the coast (i already knew England was in the game). This was a very easy to defend position in case she wanted to invade me. Finally Frankfurt went on the tundra hills with plenty of sheeps east of Melbourne. Coastal so i could build ships. In the end it was my best

city.
Sorry, i forgot to take screenshots for most of the game
I had to fend of multiple attacks from Harold but he never assembled a good army as he was attacking over and over. Eventually Cathy DoWed and eradicated him

but not before i offered shelter to more of his workers. I was worried she might go for me after that so i offered her a horse (thanks Budweiser for this trick).
Medieval Era : Building an empire
Soon after Cathy finished Harold, she was denouced by everyone (apart from me) and then every AI dogpiled her. I thought this would keep her occupied and i was quite safe between her and a very friendly Haile so i switched to turtling mode and built my empire. Most trade routes were directed towards my capital but i always had one to a CS as they kept asking me for trade.
Tech was Civil Service>Education>Banking to open Renaissance. I kept trading spices with everyone and then some marble and silver. I was very happy without even building a single colosseum

Everyone was friendly with me apart from Lizzy of course. She went runaway during medieval era as she was really safe at her end of the world with only a rather peaceful Ramsesses nearby.
Cathy was really tough. Despite being at war with every AI she only lost single city to Kamy and eventually, one by one, she made peace with everyone.
Lizzy entered Renaissance while i still hadn't started Bancking and i was worried because she had opened Patronage as usual (no other AI had) but tech leader was Cathy who had recovered from all her wars, so i sent my spy to London. Turns out Lizzy had gone Navigation for her ships and delayed Bancking. I got a couple free techs from her.
Oh, my religion was still unimproved because every AI had improved very fast so nobody could take any more belief from me. I wanted to build Mosques and spread to my cities with Missionaries before renaissance. The GP would not cost more in a later era.
By the end of Medieval, as i was researching Bancking i stared sending all of my TRs to CSs to prepare for the Hanse.
Renaissance Era : Trying to catch up
I bought a Hanse in Berlin as soon as i got Bancking and built a 5th Caravan at Hamburg while Berlin started Forbidden Palace. I switched focus to

and stopped working specialists to get it as soon as possible. Glad i did cause Lizzy got bancking about the same time as me as my spy showed me, unfortunately for her she built a bank first and i beat her to FB. Spy moved to Lhassa then as Lizzy was now tech leader and i wanted to start turning CS away from her (she had most of them by now).
Finally improved religion and took Sword into Plowshares and Printing Press (AIs had been really cool leaving this one for me).
Tech was straight to Industrialisation for early Ideology. I proposed the culture from NW resolution (can't remember the name) as i wasn't sure i could get ideology in time for Worlds Fair but Haile did propose Worlds Fair. I started producing it in all my cities as soon as it showed up while saving money for Factories, needed more than 3000

without commerce.
Indistrial/Modern Era : Can't really catch up in tech
I finally won Worlds Fair slightly after Industrial Era but the only coal was outside my borders on a forested hill. Took me too much time to mine it so free SP and first SP from boosted culture went into Rationalism. In the end i really needed that

so that's fine.
Finally got my coal, bought 3 factories cash and took Freedom. I had saved 2 great writers and was in a golden age so culture went fast. I could get to treaty orgnisation by the end of the 20 turns. I used 2 artists to make the GA last longer (12 turns with ideology is nice) and really started to take CS away from Lizzy.
Lizzy really went runaway during Industrial era. She took most of Egypt in something like 10 turns and left Ramsesses with a single city.
Cathy went Warmonger again and attacked Pacal but he managed to push her back.
Haile was really cool and Kamy went wonder crazy with all the Renaissance cultural wonders.
1st World Congress election occured too early. Lizzy still had most of the CS and even with Forbidden Palace i couldn't get myself elected so i voted Pacal. Take this Lizzy!
The old guy was really pleased, then he proposed Embargo City States

I sent him a Diplomat and asked kindly. Finally he voted against his own proposal
Finally, Lizzy entered modern slightly before me (science wasn't really good) but i had took most of her CS away from her with spies, Trade Routes and bribes. She went order and this was great for me as she wouldn't have the tools to fight me on the CS front.
Cathy was next and went Autocracy. Not really a surprise. She attacked Pacal again and wiped one of his cities.
Haile went Freedom which was great for me as it would make him even more friendly and help against England's influence (i had some digs, Eifel Tower and Great Works of Music to help me but she was like 86

when i was 26.
At some point i was tech leader during early Modern but not very long. Cathy took the lead again and wouldn't loose it till the end.
Finally, Ramsesses and Pacal went Ideology and with 1 and 2 cities, they choose Freedom. Yeah. Too bad Lizzy considered it was Ramsesses last insult. The very next turn she DoWs him and 2 turns later he's gone
I had most of the CSs then. Geneva had been taken down by England and another religious CS was still allied with Pacal but not for long. A CS ally had gifted me a Merchant of Venice. Those guys give you 60

when used as conventional merchants.
Atomic/Information Era : Plan is proceeding perfec .... WHAT
I'm still 2nd slightly behind Cathy in tech but i have all the CS allied. I've been able to get Freedom as World Ideology (thanks Haile and Pacal) and to force my religion as World Religion (thanks myself and myself). Nobody even cares about CS anymore and i have 500+

with some of them, and nearly 200 with my least loayl ally.
Cathy goes bad once again. "My words are backed by nuclear weapons" shes says before she DoWs Pacal for the 3rd or 4th time in the game. This time she's clearly ahead of him but the old guy won't go down without a fight. I've seen Mayan Knights try to defend their land. I couldn't really help him as my own cities were defended by Composite Bowmen

. He resisted much longer than expected but in the end he couldn't stand against the Russian war machine. RIP Pacal
Worst thing is i know she will come for me. She probably hates every single AI more than she hates me but i'm the easy prey. Time to prepare for the inevitable. I take my last tier 2 freedom tenet for 6 Infantries, my CBs get upgraded all the way to machine guns and i quickly build bombers and fighters : 1 of each for every city. I have a couple units from Sofia, the only militaristic CS on the map. I'm waiting for you Cathy.
Now, this is the UN 5 turns before the first election (hey, i remember where the PrintScreen key is

).
That's when Cathy DoWs me. Now i have troops waiting for her, i may be behind her globally but my planes are not! No way she can break through quickly without a-bombing me and no way she can a-bomb me without bombing her own troops thanks to her attacking from Copenhague with Munich very close. She won't get me down in 5 turns, even if i badly underestimated her. At worst she will take Munich. Nothing can go wrong, right?
Right ?
aaaaarrrrrgh
2 turns after Cathy, or 3 turns before my victory, Lizzy and Kami join against me. What are they trying to achieve? They have to cross all of Russia to get to me by land and should they go by see, they either have to land near Cologne
Or fight against 4 Nuclear Subs to get to Frankfurt and AIs can't handle subs.
Well, turns out they didn't even try. Kamy took Zurich and Lizzy took 4 of my CS near her. 4 !! I could afford to loos a couple CS, i made it sure i had extra votes, but not that much. Now i need to start over and to make things worse both Lizzy and Cathy started spaceship. I still don't know what victory Haile is trying to get.
My fault neglecting the army for too long. I knew i could defend my lands but i forgot i had to defend my CSs. Am i going to loose an El Dorado game? No way i would give up, i now have 20 turns to get enough votes. I have nuclear Subs but they can't take cities so no way i can cross the ocean and reclaim my CS from England. It all started because of Russia, she will pay for this. I have a strong Economy, let's buy bombers, i have a good production, let's build rocket artys. Swithching to Liberation mode.
Cathy was already badly weakened from her failed attempt at taking down Munich. I took Copenhague quickly with Statue of Zeus, teched to Mobile Infantry as i was still nowhere with tanks. Aarhus followed some time later.
Psycho didn't really understood what was happening when he woke up and saw my bombers flying above his city. He quickly built some Composite Bowmen in case Cathy would turn on him once more

I offered him some spice and silver then moved to the real Russian empire, splitting my army half to the SE towards captured Sofia and the other half NE towards Palenque.
It took me more time to reach the former Mayan capital than to liberate it. Two russian cities fell to the south and were offered to Psycho (no time to waste with resisting cities) ensuring his friendship but Sofia was hard to reach. In the north i turned my attention to Kamy. He was lagging in techs and it took only 3 shots from my artys to take down a city. Too bad i only had 2 of them so i had to spend 2 turns on a city. Took one of his cities for Pacal and liberated Zurich then he asked for peace offering a nice sum of money.
At last i could bring my north army back to Russia. Cathy understood this time, she offered half her cities for peace, including the smallest one, but the one i really wanted : Sofia. I offered one of the cities to Pacal so he was back to 3 cities like Psycho. Cathy DoWed him right away and reclaimed this city

Well, at least there was no way she could reach Palenque before the second election and Pacal was really happy with me
In the end, i didn't even need them, but it's nice to see those 2 were grateful