Won turn 259.
Completely peaceful game until 1 turn before I won.
I never got DOWed. I payed Shaka ASAP to DOW Assyria, he just wanted 1 Cotton. Then when he made peace, I had him DOW someone else and so on so he was permanently at war with someone else. All the Civs were continuously at each others throats, but most of them were friendly with me most of the time.
I didn't build a single land unit except the initial scout
Got a few units from allied CS though, and built some ships and planes for protection. Don't know if they were needed because no one ever attempted to invade me, but they may have served as a deterrent.
I also didn't build any roads all game, nor railroads. I even automated some workers and they didn't build roads either. I guess they somehow knew that my cities were already connected by harbors.
Notes from the early game
Initial BO: Scout, Monument, Shrine, Granary, Library, Settler
Ruins on our continent: Spear, 80g, 20cult, pop, map
Ruins on continents to the south: Scarcher, 60faith, pop, map, 20cult, 85g
Policies: Full Tradition, Full Patronage, 3 in Rationalism (left side), 3 in Freedom, Commerce opener (I don't remember the exact order but completed Tradition first)
Timeline
t55 took Fertility Rites pantheon (+10% food)
t112 NC
t150 lost Forbidden Palace to Isabella, 3 turns left
t176 Porcelain Tower
t222 Oxford -> Plastics -> Tech lead
t230 Cristo Redentor (GE'd)
t237 Statue of Liberty
t241 reached Atomic Era, started popping my 4 saved GS to quickly reach the next era
t244 Big Ben
t244 Telecommunications -> Information Era, 1 turn before World Congress vote
t257 DOWed Spain and Rome who had over 1000 gold each, so they wouldn't buy off my allies
t258 WL vote
t259 won
This is the first time I managed to research Telecom 1 turn before a congress vote, which triggered a world leader vote 14 turns later (the game says 11 turns but it's actually longer, because it doesn't include the turns where votes actually happen or the congress gets upgraded to UN)
After winning, I reloaded some saved games to better understand the crucial timing between reaching the Atomic and Information Eras.
Here's a detailed breakdown:
t241 Penicillin ->
Atomic Era
- I got 4 GS throughout the game, and saved all of them for the end game. Started popping them after Penicillin
- The next congress vote is due in 4 turns
- As luck would have it, another GS is due in 3 turns.
- I need 4 more techs to reach Information era: Electronics, Atomic Theory, Ecology, Telecommunications
t242 a research agreement completes (gave me about 2500 beakers, wasn't really needed)
t244 natural GS spawns
- 1 turn left to congress vote, Telecom due in 3 turns. Popped telecom with the GS I just got ->
Info Era
t245 UN founded
- Victory Progress screen says 11 turns left to World Leader vote
- Vote for UN host
t246
- still 11 turns left to World Leader vote
t247
- congress vote happens (World's Fair, Embargo Spain), the results of which are irrelevant for this game
- Victory Progress screen now says 10 turns left to World Leader vote
t248
- still 10 turns left
t258 Actual Word Leader vote happens
t259 I win with 41 votes (40 votes needed)
- 4 votes base
- all 15 CS allied - 30 votes (1 CS got conquered)
- 5 votes from Diplomats
- 2 from being host
All in all, I got lucky with the 5th GS spawning just in time. The RA completing on the other hand wasn't needed.