I consider myself very lucky in this game since my strategy fitted the map very well. Each GOTM has a certain tolererance to mistakes and varying strategies. This time the penalties for mistakes was high, and not many strategies worked. As a result, fewer people managed to succeed..
I wouldnt even say you have to be that lucky. For the celts, Stonehenge is a logical wonder (+1 happiness, especially if you have lots of food but no other resources), and with all the forest around, not so hard to get. Once you have that, settling near the copper and waiting to push Cyrus border back is also not that hard. Once you have the Gallic warriors, the immortals are no big threat any more. You can promote them with only 4XP by 2 levels to give them hill attack bonus and retreat chance, and Cyrus is no more.
I understand you can have bad luck and get attacked by multiple civs before you are really having your army up, but the AI is still pretty inefficient at war and you usually need only 1/3 of their army to win. I got attacked by Ramses and Cyrus like that, and even though I made some big mistakes, I fought them off both and still gained some cities. There was another intense moment later when Shaka and his Vasall Spain and Egypt DOW just as we had all upgraded to Gunpowder, and had they gotten Hannibal to join them, it would have been trouble. But they kept coming in small waves, were not focused and were just giving me XP points and nice Warlords. I have not seen one properly promoted AI unit, seems the AI is not taking care enough of its important units. I had some Infantry in the end that had started as Gallic Warriors with up to over 100XP and they were cutting through everything, but I had to of course cover them against counterstrikes. And the AI didnt do that, and it didnt really go for my super-units when wounded / given a chance.
Yes there were a few constellations were I felt the AI was a little smarter than usual, but i.e. it kept marching at me with 10 units, losing 5 attacking a city and then when my defenders were all wounded it didnt take the city but would start pillaging, and thus become an easy prey after 1-2 turns when I promoted and healed my units.
Both the Romans (to the west) and the Korean (even further to the west) had very nice lands. They were both capable of launching space ships, at least in my game. The start continent was big enough for a domination victory, even with a couple of vasals (if they became your vasals that is). According to the results table, you had to about 1850 before risking a SS defeat.
That was one of my problems / mistakes. This was my first warlord game, so I didnt really know how this vasall thing worked. It seemed fun to have vasalls but I would have won much sooner if I had finished them off instead of getting credit for 50% of their land. Didnt realize that as the Master, you have no chance to get out of this agreement (or is there a way ??).
I finally reached the domination limit 1847 with the Koreans and Romans just starting their first Spaceship component, and still lacking many techs.
Oh dont get me wrong, even if I sound a bit negative about the AI, all in all WOTM 3 was the most challenging and most fun CIV4 game in a long time.
A final word about the leader Brennus, sorry I disagree with him being a mediocre leader. He ROCKS
! The charismatic trait makes for faster promotions and thus unit healing, which were a key in my domination victory. And on this terrain, the Gallic Warrior rules, and later on it will become a rifleman / infantry that can retreat like a cavalry for just 4 XP if you promote it right !
