This was my first science game, and also the first game I spent a lengthy amount of time in the modern/future eras. I learnt a lot.
I tried the wats strategy, but must have buggered up the blocking technique because my culture was outpacing my science. I ended up having to waste a policy or 2 because i didn't have education, and hadn't got to the medieval age yet. So i eventially got my free wats, but it took much longer than I wanted. I also thought it would be silly to ignore Siam's special ability so I was agressive in buying the loyalty of cultural city states. Policies were focused on patronage 1st (up to scholasticism), and then rationalism.
My first play through seemed to be going smoothly; I had good relations and was scientifically advanced. However, I've now learnt that being friendly isn't enough- you have to have a defensive force as well. Washington was a constant pain in the ass- DOWing so he could invade my allied CSs that were near his boarders. He eventually did pick them off 1 by 1. First lesson- if you are relying on CSs, you must help defend them because they are pretty incompetent defending themselves against motivated Civs.
Washington's war mongering eventually brought him to my boarders so I had to forgo spaceship oriented construction to try and hold him off. Unfortunately, I had neglected production capacity and military units for growth and science so this was difficult. The end came when Arabia DOWed me with a massive and advanced invasion force. He had been my best friend up until then, but I probably should have seen it coming as he steam rolled India, and China on the way to owning half the globe. He took my financial city (surrounded by spices and gems) easily, which bankrupted me in one stroke. Even worse, this city had my uranium resource, and was lost one turn before I finished building 2 nukes. As a result, I learnt the following lessons:
- dont trust anybody. Friends will turn.
- don't neglect your defenses, which also means don't neglect production capacity.
- do share around the research agreements. I think one of the reasons Arabia got so powerful was because I prefered him to my closer neighbours when signing RAs and trading. Now I think you need to share the wealth around. It is generally better to keep all the Civs in the game at similar strength rather than help a monster to develop.
I know it is against the GOTM rules, but these are just practice games and I didn't want to waste however many hours i spent on this, so I went back in time and restarted from about 1700 before Washington got his role on. This time I focused a couple of cities on military production, bought off Ragusa to ensure I had coal and oil supplies, and helped guard Florence with naval and artillary units. I also had constant defensive pacts with Japan to make my eastern neighbours think twice. Washington still took out Rome, but wasn't able to make inroads against my allies. I also focused on RA's with India, to help him keep parity with Arabia, which seemed to work. China again fell (to Egypt) but India maintained its territory. So with just a little more focus on military, and being a friend to all, the game progressed much more smoothly, and I got my victory. Wasn't fast by any means, but it was a fun game and like I said at the start, I learnt a lot.
I also had to play a couple of more turns after victory just so I could Nuke Washington. I'm spiteful like that.
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