Well, looks like this is going to be a really long game so here is a midway report (first 250 turns).
T1
Assyria is quite a strong warmonger so looking forward to steam-rolling whoever my nearest neighbor is.
Settle in place, build scout then monument.
T10
Hello? Where is everybody?
Use the money from City of Gold to buy a Settler which I sent north to the salt. Perhaps I should have sent him west to Mt Sinai to get first pick in the religions but more on that later.
Looks like I have to play Liberty and settle everywhere this game. Not my best game but I can't see any other way to do it.
T13?
Meet the Turks. There are other players in this game!
Finally, someone, I can steal workers from. I explore a little bit in the area and meet the Iroquois.
Actually around now I got a message that someone's capital had been taken which happened on the other continent. Still don't know who that was.
I learn that the AI cheats in a new way. In the picture below you can see that I have started stealing workers (and another has just shown up to be stolen). But see that horse tile? I was watching it waiting for a worker to show up when a pasture magically appeared on it! No worker ... the pasture just popped into existence in one turn. I had to declare war and burn it down before workers would show up to repair it. Anyway, over the next 70 to 80 turns that Warrior sat in that tile and stole a total of 10 workers.
T118
Finished most of my settling (later added one more city). Might have still been stealing workers from the Turks but around now he decided to settle that landbridge between out two areas and so my worker-stealing days ended. Considering the Turks score, all those workers must have cost him.
My second settlement (the free one from Liberty) was next to Mt Sinai. My eventual religion was (tithes, improved production, happy shrines, texts). All quite useful. Kind of wish I made it my first settlement as I'ver been struggling with happiness the whole game and would have been nice to get Pagodas .. but then I would have to give up the production bonus which is not bad.
T120 - T200
T200 was the end of the first Turkish war (and as I later found out ... the last Turkish War). Anyway, back to T120.
Once the Turks settled the city on the land bridge they started attacking me pretty consistently. Fortunately, most of their attacks were troops floating their way across the water north of the land bridge. If you look at the picture below you can see the road I built along the coast (with my reliable Turkish workers) to shuttle missile troops around who killed most of the troops before they were able to land. Had a couple of pike that were able to pin the ones that did make it to land until the archers could kill them. I was also fortunate that the whole time this was going on the Turks were also fighting at least one other AI. For a change this had nothing to do with me, the three of them (Turks, Indonesians, Iroquois) were just packed so tighly together they had nowhere to expand. Eventually the Americans joined in the fun as well.
Anyway, once I got privateers that pretty much stopped the Turkish invasion attempts and eventually let me capture the land-bridge city. My main goal for the first 50 turns of this period was to build up all my cities. After that I started building military units so I could take the war to the Turks.
During this time, the Chinese got wiped out by the Egyptians and Zulu.
Around T180, I suddenly realised that not one of the surviving AI had picked Tradition so I put one point in tradition and built the Hanging Gardens (also got the faster border expansion which was nice). I also kind of wasted 1 culture pick on Aristocracy as I was getting desperate for happiness. Other culture picks were exploration (I could see that navy was going to be important so wanted the extra speed and vision range) and maritime infrastructure (since almost every city was a port). But then kind of wasted one pick on Naval tradition (again, desperate for happiness).
Around T200 managed to capture Instanbul (Turks were fighting 4 people at this point) but he offered Ankara to me in a peace deal so I peaced out figuring I would restart the war in about 10 turns once I upgraded to cannons and gatlings).
Finally, I managed to become friends with the Americans, Iroquois and Indonesians and eventually get through 2 rounds of Research Agreements with these 3 countries.
T200 - T243
Ran into a couple of problems in this time period.
First, some turns back, Ideologies started to get picked. The first 4 countries (Egypt, Zulu, Shoshone, Americans) all picked Autocracy. A little later, the Iroquis picked Freedom while the Indonesians picked Order. I had no choice but to pick Autocracy as well as I could never stand the happiness hit for anything else. I put off the decision as long as I could to avoid the diplomatic effects but eventually had to go Autocracy as well. While I waited on this decision I put 3 culture picks into Rationalism (right side). Will probably put one more pick to pick up the first left side slot.
Second problem, the Turks collapsed much quicker than I thought they would. By the time my 10 turn peace was over they were gone. Almost immediately, the Americans and Iroquois declared war on the Indonesians (was a joint declaration I think). I wanted to get involved BUT I also wanted to complete my research agreements. Since I still had open borders with everyone I engaged in some cheesy tactics to help the Indonesians capture cities which I knew I would be taking as soon as the Indo research agreement completed. An example is below. See the Iroquis trying to take a city from Indonesia but for some strange reason can't get a melee unit in range to attack the city? Similar tactics on the American front let me help the Indonesians capture one American city on that side. Of course, about 2 turns after this (Research Agreement done) I denounced the Indonesians as war-mongers and declared war on them to help my faithful American and Iroquois allies. Captured the two cities below quite quickly (and the one on the American front).
So here we are at T243. Indonesia went down pretty quick between me and the Americans. I peaced out at the very end, just before the Americans captured the last Indonesian city. Maybe I can revive them later, once the inevitable war with America starts.
However, in the short run me and the Americans are buddies. I finally picked Autocracy and now he loves me again. Even signed another research agreement with me.
Over the past 40 turns finally got my research running properly (never trust the AI to manage your cities, I'm very bad at this (=lazy), always watch your cities!). On T243 I finally caught up to the tech leader (The Zulu? Since when are Zulus tech leaders.) and am just about to start a war with the Iroquois.
Actually, a pile of Iroquois units started showing up on my front about 10 turns before this so I immediately bribed the Zulu and Shoshone to declare war on him (for like 5 gold each ... they must have not liked him very much. Shortly after that, the Shoshone declared war on me, but other than Merchant routes being cut I haven't seen any sign of the Shoshone. For about the past 100 turns the Shoshone, Zulu and Egyptians have been fighting each other in various combinations and it does appear that the Shoshone are losing out (currently Shohone fighting both Egypt and Zulu, as well as being at war with me and the Iroquois). I think I need to bribe the Zulus to start fighting the Egyptians again (easy to do) and get them to make peace with the Shoshone (tough to do). Sure don't want the Egyptians to take over that continent
T243 onwards?
Well, clear out the Iroquois first. If the Americans decide to remain friendly I might push tech till I get XCOM. Guess we'll see.
Thinking about putting my next three picks into Autocracy to get the really massive happiness boost from the military buildings. Would be really nice to be able to stop worrying about that.
Finally, I just took over the leadership of the world council. In 5 turns we get to vote on whether we want to hold a World's Fair or not. Just a bit later than normal for this to happen. World Council is a good place to boost your diplomatic relations, either by voting for people to become council leader, or picking items that people like.
And that's it for now. Got to be at least another 100 turns in this game, perhaps more. Will take quite some time depending on how long and how soon the fighting starts.
Will post the results when done.
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1 Week later
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Well, the game has really slowed down, or at least I'm a really slow player. Always check out all attacks before I do them to see what combinations I need to do etc. It's not unusual for a war turn to take 15 minutes for me. As you might guess, I never play PvP.
Started the Iroquois war, and first couple of turns went quite well. Army took one city and fleet took another (both former Turkish cities). As you can see in the picture above, those cities walls were only about 40 points so not much of a challenge.
The next rank of cities were 70 pointers though. Got set up to attack the first of those and just get started when they tick up to 100. Ouch. And suddenly the Iroquois sent in a wave of Great War infantry and cannons, and shortly after, Great War Bombers. I have no air at all.
I start retreating back into my territory and that citadel you see in the picture below was created to help me defend against that attack. The next 10 turns go back and forth a little bit but I'm never really able to threaten those 2 cities. T265 I'm putting on another bit of pressure but another wave of units show up so I get ready to pull back again.
However, things were going a bit better in the oceanfront down south. Had pretty much destroyed the Iroquois navy and upgrade my frigates to Battleships. Managed to take one of his coastal cities which he took back on T265 but wonder of wonders, he decides to peace out with me and gives me Grand River and Buffalo Creek as part of the peace deal. Lucky! No way I could have got them in the next 10 turns with what I had.
And that was pretty much the end of the Iroquois because by the time that 10 turn peace ended my artillery was upgrading to rocket artillery and the Iroquois had only 2 decent cities left. With the fleet at one end and rockets at the other, he only lasted another 5 rounds before I took capital and last good city.
Did run into a happiness problem with that first peace. Those 2 cities dropped my happiness to -15. But 5 turns later, I finally got the Autocracy happy boost (Barracks etc +2) and happiness stopped being a problem. One group of rebels (3 WWII Infantry) did appear and cause some damage before I cleared them but not a big deal.
A bigger deal was that ~T260, Egypt wiped out the Shoshone and now they are way out front (like 1000 point ahead of us). Fortunately, they start a war with the Zulu (who I had bribed to fight America) so I have a bit of a breathing space to finish off the Iroquis. Was getting really worried that he would declare on me while I was stale-mated with the Iroquis but it all worked out in the end.
Around T270 (while still at peace with the Iroquois), the Americans agree to start a war with me against Egypt in 10 turns.
My tech research is peaking out and I've moved up to nukes, and almost got XCOM and Stealth Bombers. Egypt (as I later find out) also has nukes.
So, just as I finish off the Iroquois (the second time) the war starts with Egypt (~T280). Egypt immediately peaces out with the Zulu but not much happens for the first few turns as I'm busy moving fleets and troops into the new theatre.
An Egyptian fleet makes one strong push in the direction of my capital. I manage to kill his destroyers though, so his battleships bombard away but no one is around to actually capture a city. Eventually, my subs chase him away.
Meanwhile, my navy arrives at his lower-left corner (former Shoshone territory), along with the addition of one carrier that provides fighter cover and has 2 nukes.
I nuke Washake, the battleships level the walls and a privateer takes the city and then next turn I peace out (after that departing Egyptian fleet drops a nuke on my capital).
America peaces out shortly after but I'm able to keep him occupied with the Zulu.
I start moving XCOM, bombers and rocket artillery to my foothold on Egypt's continent. I have the advantage of being adjacent to the Zulu with open borders while the Egyptian does not, so I have several avenues of attack available to me.
Around T295, I restart the war with Egypt, burn down 1 small adjacent city to give me some room, capture his last city behind my lines and then start heading north. It's slow going as Egypt has a LOT of units. I eventually nuke his stronghold city (just after 8 aircraft moved in). He has made another naval push in the north towards my capital but he doesn't get as close this time, which is why he nuked some other city of mine. I start to sink every carrier in sight now. In addition, I use the world council to ban the production of nuclear weapons (after I built 12 or so). I'm pretty sure I'm the only one with nukes left.
Meanwhile, back on land, I start punching out a few cities, choosing to liberate them instead of occupying. This is handy as it pushes his units way back, somewhat scattering them and making them easier to target in small groups. In addition, I still have open borders with these people and Egypt does not so it really helps in the maneuvering. Currently, Egypt is sending his armies down the cost by seas which makes it really easy to kill them. Oh yes, the Shoshone are back.
Another, oh yes. Finally discovered who the missing empire was that disappeared on T20 nor so. India! They started between Egypt and China but I guess they never got their elephants into production.
Currently, it's T316 and I now think we are moving into the end game. Don't know how long it will take but unless all 3 of them (Zulu, America, Egypt) gang up on me I'm pretty sure that I can finish up a Domination victory around T400.
You may notice that my research has mostly disappeared. Once I got XCOM and Stealth Bombers I sold off all my research centers and public schools to save money (quite a bit actually). Maybe I should sell all the universities as well.
See if I can finish things off in the next week or so.
[Stopped playing this one as victory was pretty clear though would take a while to grind out. BananaGod's strategy below is a far better approach to this game.]
