My closest win ever involved cyrus in a space race as well i had 7 turns to go on the engine he had 3 on his life support and thats all we both needed to win, I had my gold to max for sabotage production getting around 7k per turn, meaning id get 2 attempts, to delay it per turn, my first was a success, the next 3 failures. I figured I was screwed, no spies no gold and 1 turn till i lose, and still needing 4 turns. So I did the untinkable, declared war and fired 7 nukes into his 32 population city, with almost no millitary. As his countless mech infantry modern armors, plundered my heavily garrisoned cities' mix of riflemen, quechas and other "highly advanced" units from earlier wars, he just simply didnt have enough time to get to my capitol before my spaceship launched, in 1876. (monarch)