No RA's, no shortcuts
DOMINATION VICTORY
Turn 171
Score = 829
HOF = 3645
Iron Working comes in on turn 124 and it is revealed that we have two nearby sources of Iron, although York and Nottingham still haveto expand to get them. I wasn't worried, on Immortal there are plenty of opportunities to trade for it of get the resource from a CS. Still, it's always nice not to have to.
We begin grabbing Compass and some useful minor techs like Construction and Mathematics for happiness, waiting for the Hagia Sophia to get built. The Golden Age is even extended from 18 to 25 turns with a third Great General. They'd just get in the way anyhow.
Meanwhile, we have not been idle. A fleet of our four best Triremes sails north and we declare on Persia, which has the Colossus and The Pyramids. Persepolis falls in 9 turns. It is their only city. A massive bunch of units remains though, including two unused Settlers. For a long time, they do nothing, but eventually Persia settles a single new city. Cool!
Turn 139 sees the wonder finished. We choose a Great Engineer, and rush the Porcelain Tower with it for a Great Scientist, which is spent on Astronomy. The tower gives science points as well. Come turn 145, London produces a new Great Scientist and we have Navigation.
Four of our Triremes in the north get upgraded right away. Eventually, of a grand total of ten ships, five develop logistics, which is a great help as they get to come in for two rounds of fire, and move out of reach again on the same turn.
After the first upgrades, the difference is immediately clear. Ships of the Line typically do 3-5 points of damage per round, instead of 1. Beijing falls quickly, and the first fleet sails southeast.
A second, mixed fleet of five ships sails east towards Greece. Athens falls quickly, also because they have no ranged units, but Paris is another story. It is hard to reach, and there is a gauntlet of two French cities, both with Archers, to move past. Paris is still taken without losses, but the ships are damaged and need time to heal.
The first fleet has no such problems. Istanbul falls immediately, the limiting factor now becomes how fast we can get a land unit over to enter these capitals. Berlin and Mecca follow. However, we have to reduce their massive armies to make them refrain from any counter attack.
On turn 160, London produces a tenth Ship of the Line. It doesn't see much action. Four turns later, a swimming Pikeman (our intial Warrior!) finally discovers Japan. They are sitting on over 1600 gold - quite useless now - and think they are alone on the planet.
Meanwhile, from Mecca to Gao is just a couple of turns, and Sukhotai ias attacked next with one ship remaining for the final kill. Land units bought in annexed Beijing arrive in the northeast just in time; Persepolis sent some west. The second fleet from Paris speeds past Thebes. Both fleets send ships to Rome and Kyoto.
There is no need to sell some of the conquests to an alternative AI. We keep up in happiness by buying courthouses and colosseums.
The fat lady sings on turn 171 when the last four capitals fall together.
Egypt had a War Chariot on nearly every tile; this way, we didn't need to bother with those. Our initial Warrior made the final kill at Kyoto.
Notes
I was somewhat surprised by the ease of the conquest. Had I know beforehand, I could have finished several turns earlier. I also made an error by not starting on the Hagia Sophia right away, as I had intended by selecting Theology before Civil Service. I simply forgot about the importance of the science points from the Porcelain Tower, and it could have given me Navigation a number of turns earlier. And the Ottomans could have been conquered by land units. It just didn't seem true to the game. Finally, I tried a variety of promotions after logistics, but the only useful one appeared to be mobility.
Maybe I'll replay from turn 112.
Turns 123-171
Policies
139 Commerce
164 Naval Tradition
Cities
139 Persepolis
148 Beijing
152 Istanbul
154 Athens
157 Berlin
164 Paris, Mecca
167 Gao
171 Thebes, Sukhotai, Rome, Kyoto
Allies
154 Bucharest (Whales, 2 Iron)
Technology
124 Iron Working
133 Compass
135 Construction
136 Archery
137 The Wheel
139 Mathematics
140 Astronomy (GS)
141 Horseback Riding
145 Navigation (GS)
147 Metal Casting
152 Currency
157 Engineering
164 Chivalry
171 Machinery
London
130 Trireme 350g
137 Great General #3
139 THE HAGIA SOPHIA, Great Engineer
140 THE PORCELAIN TOWER
145 Harbor
154 Workshop
160 Ship of the Line, Great General #4
164 Colosseum
168 Aqueduct
York
128 Workboat
134 Workboat
146 Harbor
151 Horseman 520g
156 Colosseum
160 Archer
164 Archer
Nottingham
128 Circus
153 Harbor
164 Colosseum
170 Granary
Hastings
128 Workboat
134 Workboat
145 Harbor
149 Workboat
155 Workboat
160 Workboat
168 Colosseum
. I also dicsovered a lot of civs before navigation. Again, i didn't leverage that and i was sitting on a huge pile of 
. When i upgraded all boats, i was left with over 1000 
