What follows is a summary of the game from my perspective, which will also answer RJ's questions:
To begin, when I entered this game I felt whoever met my challenge the game would be won in one of two ways: early domination / conquest or space race. I did not perceive one human player being able to get a conquest / domination win over another with this set up (4 civs apiece) once the REX phase was complete and territory had all been divided up, the players would have too many options available to prevent this. An exception would be a serious lack of resources or a great difference in playing skills. Therefore, my goal was to focus on science from the very start. Which is another aspect of PBEMs, a human player in the tech lead is almost always going to beat the other human player unless resources interfere.
With this in mind, I was careful to choose my starting civs to get as many starting techs as possible, the only one I lacked was warrior code because niether of us chose a militaristic civ. DogBoy had not chosen a religious civ, so this gave me a one tech lead over him from the start, it might not seem like much, but it was a lead I never gave up. Also, I chose two scientific civs, while he only had one. In retrospect, I wish I had chosen Greece or Korea over India (gives 3 scientific civs and maintains commercial trait), but everything worked out fine for me in the end.
I started all civs by building settler, granary, settler and following suit in my second city as well. I expanded faster than DogBoy and was able to shut him off on two fronts on the one continent (no promises, but a few pics may follow later) with Sumeria and India claiming an obscene amount of land. India had no corrupt cities, almost every city could be seen as a core city after courthouses were built. Sumeria was very large with several corrupt cities, but had a very good core as well, though this was cut short by the Ottomans border. I wanted peace on this continent at all costs, these two civs were going to win the game for me, I was especially focused on keeping Sumeria out of war.
In my research efforts, I started one civ, I think Sumeria but not sure, on warrior code then writing followed. Instead of going for writing right away at minimum research. Going for writing immediately would have taken nearly 50 turns even at max rate on this large world I was sure. But, by going for warrior code first, I allowed myself to get a few more cities in place and roads built and then managed to get both techs researched sooner than I could have researched writing to start (most of the first turns researching writing form the startwould have been wasted) I ran a negativ ebudget at times going for writing, and philosophy to follow, but I got a free tech out of it (construction, having claimed mathematics with another civ, did not have time to get polytheism before philosophy and I was not going to risk the republic slingshot because I knew Dogboy would beat me to philosophy that way. DogBoy only discovered 2 techs before me the entire game, Republic, and Printing Press. I did not go for either one to much later in the game than he did. My scientific civs really paid off because at each era they both gave me a different tech so I got 2 free techs at the start of every age, for a total of 6 (throw in the one from philosophy, then a later ToE build meant 9 free techs the entire game.)
At the conclusion of the game I think I had motorized transportation, flight, amphibious warfare, computers, ecology, economics, communism, music theory, and espionage over DogBoy (I considered economics, communism, music theory, and espionage to be luxuries I might not have went after had DogBoy kept pace) Also, rocketry was due in about 4 turns, and Fission in 8. India and Sumeria were the only 2 civs researching from the end of the middle ages, and India went once ona minimum research campaign with a scientist. My research times were 4-6 turns per tech, the jump to the modern age caused slower times for my first 2 techs, but India had research labs being built in 2-3 turns. Sumeria was going to head after miniaturization next and prebuild the Internet to get research labs in all ciites, I then expected research to go down 2-3 turns per tech.
Persia and the Celts did not do as well in the REX, France and Maya managed to get abnout equal territory as them, perhaps more because the Celts were small due to the size and shape of the starting location, peninsula with Maya as their neighbor. The thing I did have on that continent was iron, exactly one iron resource on the continent and the Persians claimed it. We had peace treaties in place which were very long, 50 turns, so I built up military, trading the iron to the Celts once, and then went to war against the Mayans and French. By the time the peace treaties expired, however, gunpowder had been discovered and both France and Maya had saltpeter.
From the start of this war, I expected France to run over Persia, while the Celts would do the same to the Mayans. Afterwards, I figured we would be in pretty much a stalemate, but my tech lead would give me an advantage and keep France on its toes. This did not work so well because DogBoy used other civs to block the Celts advance during the war and according to our peace treaties I had to give 10 turns notice before cancelling the peace treaty. Finally I manged to break through and claimed some Mayan land. Twice with the Celts I made invasions into Mayan territory hoping to raze Chichen Itza, and both times nearly all of my units were eliminated which meant I almost lost all my artillery units. The first time was bad planning and I think I just got lucky that I decided to turn back so that I could upgrade my units, meanwhile, DogBoy nearly eliminated my SoD as I retreated.
Persia I did horrible with. I played them very badly going against France and France manged to push me back quite a bit. Then they got military tradition and wiped Persia out, although not entirely because I kept 3 settlers in caravels dispatched throughout the world. At the end I used th eturn order and an exploit to retain all my Persian units, but they never contributed much, only showing up a couple times to aid the Celts by making some suicide maneuvers so I could keep my Celtic units. What I did wasa build a Celtic city in Celt territory which I didn't want anyway, then I gifted it to the Persians, who only had one city left. Persia was the first civ in the turn order, the Celts my last (although that was unimportant, so long as the Celts went after Persia it would work without DogBoy knowing what happened. The next turn I accepted the city, then I abandoned my capitol, now my new capitol was up in celtic territory while all my units were standing on a piule of rubble which had been my capitol. So, I built another city the same turn on the same spot, and immediately gifted that city to the celts. When the celts turn came, I accepted that city, poof all those Persian units were transported to the new capitol in Celtic territory. I then abandoned the other city which the Celts had just accepted. I only kept the new Persian city one turn (and then only to finish off a tech I had been researching at min) The best thing was with no cities Persia could keep all those units (in excess of 100) with no unit support costs, and they would still stick around to grab free techs for me in the future.
I was fine with Persia being "eliminated" the idea behind the war was to distract those two civs from science and infrastructure while my powerhouses focused on science and infrastructure knowing I could outdo DogBoy's other 2 civs on that same continent. I did once set India on minimum research so I couild rake in money to support the war, the tectic could only work if I kept the Celts alive, but with the lay of the land, I had a very small border to defend and no naval invasion to fear, I was more than prepared for any attempts.
I often told DogBoy I was in serious trouble and felt I was going to lose, there was not much hope, etc, etc, I don't think he ever really bought it, but I knew I was in a very good position, especially when I realized he had stopped researching (mostly) and was stealing techs from me. Investigations of some of his cities revealed he had science at 0%, except for the Iroquois, I think. Then as I kept a clsoe watch on his techs using the diplomacy screen to see what I had that he did not I noticed once that he discovered a tech on one turn, then the next turn he had discovered another tech which required that previous one as a prerequisite. With the limit of 4 turns minimum on research I knew he must have stolen it from me. But, as long as he did so he owuld remain behind me. Plus, I felt he would not risk stealing until he knew I had new techs.
Replaceable parts was nearly a turning point in the game. Because DogBoy was stealing he had to use an embassy, and he only had one with Sumeria. So, I researched it with India and did not trade it to Sumeria. Eventually he did build an embassy with India and I assume stole it from them (locked alliances meant he could not steal from Persia or the Celts, well Persia had no cities so no embassy, but everyone was at war with the Celts due to locked aliances which means automatic MPPs) I the n traded almost my entire treasury to the Celts for upgrading. Every defensive unit was upgraded to Infantry and evey artillery type unit to artillery (over 10,000 gold worth of upgrades) and then I marched towards Chichen Itza. I kept 2 tiles away form his cities and used artillery / explorers to pillage tiles as I moved. But, he got Replaceable Parts before I could finish my plan and make an attack and he upgraded his units so I retreated hastily. I lost way too many infantry in retreat and for awhile thought he would be able to capture all my artillery (80+).
However, at this same time another plan was developing on the peaceful continent which would make a real difference in the game. India had built J.S. Bachs (religious) and prebuilt while the Celts were on a 50 turn research of economics. We then switched govt to Republic and already had most of our land railroaded. We got economics, India built Smith's Trading and entered their Golden Age. Sumeria had grand plans of their own, they built Newton's and Copernicus (both scientific) and then Universal Suffrage (using a prebuild of course) to get a GA. We then blasted through a large part of the Industrial Age and at one time I think we were up 5 required techs plus sanitation and 4 other optional techs, including espionage. Even his stealing could not catch up. In fact, he managed to steal about 3 techs in the final few turns (assuming they were stolen) to somewhat catch up.
Of course I neglected to mention Calcutta was eligible to build the iron works. At games end this city netted 159 shields w/ no excess food, but I could also run a -2 food and get about 170 shields or something like that. With a granary and the city size (level 3) I could afford to do this for several turns if necessary.
I decided DogBoy would get no more wonders, not because I necessarily wanted them, but because I did not want him to be able to get a GA. The only wonder I gave up after Sun Tzu's was Magellan's and I didn't want it, although I used it as a prebuild until DogBoy built it. I of course built ToE and slingshot to Hoover Dam during my GA.
All my core cities have libraries, unis, markets, banks, stock exchange, granary, hospitals, factories, and powerplants, commercial docks / harbors where applicable and any other needed improvement. I have spies planted by both civs in all of DogBoy's civs and have kept an eye on his military, this means I can run a very thin military since he is also honorable and abides by the peace treaty. Most of the time my cities are building wealth until a new tech enables another improvement. My average city nets around 80 shields.
I don't know if I have really left anything important out or not, but basically at this point in the game I have about 4 turns left on rocketry, and 8 on fission. Then I think there's like 8 more techs to go for space race, divide that up to 4 techs apiece, figure research rate of 6 turns because of research labs and internet means right around 30 turns left. A little planning with prebuilds and the spaceship parts would be ready as techs are discovered. I planned to be safe and build it in both civs, but India with Calcutta (iron works) can really rack the parts up. The only question is resources, would I have got the resources to build the parts? The answer is yes, when DogBoy conceded I used the admin password to go through the turns to make sure I would have had the resources, otherwise I could not have accepted his concession, I would have needed to ramp up the Celtic war effort, but I think I still would have managed, especially since the Indians were going after Synthetic Fibers (modern armor) when they finished Fission.
The only thing about this game is I feel it was tainted due to the locked alliances, that kept us form doing some things we would have liked to do. It forced civs to sometimes be technically at war when we did not want them to be. With a less trustworthy opponent this could have been a very big issue.
In conclusion, it was a very long and intense game with a very worthy opponent who is among the most honorable I have met. I know we both had issues at times about some things, but upon examination those issues were always the result of an oversight or interpretation and were minor issues. I believe there were no deal violations on either part.
Perhaps we will have another challenge soon.
