I settled 1 SE on the Flood Plain square.
Two more cities took up the Flood Plains to the SE of our start, as I missed finding any other ones nearby (by the time that I found Huayna's, he'd settled them).
I teched to Construction for Catapults. I captured Seoul plus 1 other Korean city by 600 BC.
I built The Oracle in 350 BC, taking a long time to decide between Civil Service and Feudalism. I eventually went for Feudalism, even though I figured that Catapults would be sufficient to take over the world.
Paris and one other French city were mine by 1 AD. I captured Louis' last city in 300 AD, at the same time that Churchill built up The Great Wall.
In fact, The Great Wall, Stonehenge, The Sistine Chapel (by way of Huayna's Great Engineer), and the Mahabodhi (by way of Montezuma's late-game Prophet) were the only Wonders that I did not build.
Huayna was getting dangerously close to Feudalism, so he was the next target. By 660 AD, I'd razed about 6 of his cities and captured 2 more. He finally vassalized to me the next turn. Shortly before then, I'd declared again on Wang Kong for settling in the place of one of Huayna's poorly-placed ex-cities (a razed city). I then left Wang Kong within a hair's breadth of survival (a single wounded unit in his "new" capital), but a Barb Swordman finished him off before he would capitulate.
With France and Korea gone and the Incans as a vassal, Churchill and Mehmed II quickly capitulated (880 AD and 1130 AD, respectively). By 1240 AD, I had Montezuma begging to become my vassal for a Conquest Victory. Somehow, the thought left my mouth feeling bitter, so I refused to take the easy win.
I kept after him, taking down most of his cities and breaking his back. By 1410 AD, I had enough land to take Montezuma as a vassal and win a Domination Victory. But again, I didn't really feel like doing so.
So, I started to build up towards a Space game.
However, the relatively unconquered Churchill and Mehmed II's lands backfired and made me gift Montezuma about 11 cities just to avoid a Domination win (he was the only one who would take cities, since all of the other AI were my vassals). I don't think that there is a way to "Liberate" a city to a vassal like you can in BtS, so, to avoid triggering Domination, I kept giving back cities that I'd captured as well as additional cities that I'd founded.
However, I lost more than 500 Science Flasks per turn from the loss of those cities and my vassals weren't very good at helping me tech, so 1950 AD or so was looking like it would have been the earliest that I could have made it to space.
So, I then decided to figure out what all the hype about "milking" was, since I'd never really tried to do it. It was too late in the game for a high points value from the adjusted (Final) Score, but a high Base Score was within my grasp.
Still, I had too many vassals, so my actual primary goal became that of "ridding myself of all of my vassals."
<--Monte
<--Them
<--Me
<--Me a bit later
I upped Montezuma's tech to Riflemen and Grenadiers, but he'd had to disband all of his military (due to Strikes, I imagine) from taking on all of my cities while having too low of a tech value (not even having Currency, if I recall correctly).
Several stacks of 10+ Archers in the hands of my allies (I kept them technologically backwards, at least in terms of the military techs) would still wipe out lone Riflemen. Plus, Montezuma would have been on the defensive, while even losing one of his cities to one of my vassals would have pushed me close to or over the Domination limit.
So, I "advanced" Montezuma in tech, giving him up to Assembly Line so that he could build some decent buildings and have enough trade routes to keep himself afloat. Eventually, he had enough Infantry to defend from hordes of Archers, Catapults, and the odd Trebuchet or Longbowman in the hands of my "allies." It took hundreds of years, but I managed to get him to capture enough of my allies' cities for Churchill and later Mehmed II to "renounce my protection," citing how poorly I had protected them (I didn't blame them, either!). Churchill, I decided to eliminate, so that I could own some of his best city sites. Mehmed II, I kept around, letting him occupy the tundra.
It wasn't until the very late game that I could convince Montezuma to go after Huayna's cities. It wasn't until 2174 AD that Montezuma finally moved his lazy armies into Huayna's "new" capital. Huayna had had enough of me and immediately vassalized himself to Montezuma.
I bought Mehmed II back into the war and could have gone for a Diplomatic win, but I just wanted to push the game to see how long it would last.
Strategically, I would have been better off protecting Huayna and keeping him as a vassal, as his capital had actually been reducing the number of Land squares that I owned by a considerable amount. By taking the city, Montezuma only occupied the city centre and the rest of my culture surrounded the city, meaning that I now owned the "full" amount of those Land squares, instead of the previous half amount when they were my vassal's (Huayna's). So, with only one more square at stake, I decided that I'd just keep the city for myself. That extra land plus a couple of more city cultural expansions around the empire was enough to give me a late-game Domination win. I could have grabbed any victory if I'd protected Huayna's city and kept him as my vassal, but seeing as how I'd have virtually no chance at a fastest victory (only if no one had gone for a particular victory condition) and seeing as how a "low points" victory would be unlikely when I owned enough Land for Domination and far more Population than would be required, I don't think that it really would have mattered how I won the game in terms of obtaining a Shield.
The submission form logged the win as occuring in 2050AD, well before the game actually ended, so we'll see what appears in the final results' tables. I wonder if there will be some "jury-rigging" required just to get the results to show up properly.
With a Base Score far over 10000 points, it will take a very determined individual to steal the Cow out from underneath of me.
'Twas a fun game! Thanks, Leif!
The key techs in my mind were:
Construction: For the main military backbone, Catapults
Feudalism (or Civil Service if you were going for a fast space game): For overkill with Vassalage and Longbowmen or a better Science rate
Monotheism: Once you'd gotten enough religion spread around to make Organized Religion worthwhile, the extra production was more useful than in a normal game
Metal Casting: Forges, even with -1 Health and no additional Happiness, were still a worthwhile trade-off for this production-poor map
Banking: It appears that Vassals in Warlords DO NOT trade with you under Mercantilism, which was a major disappointment for someone with 3 Vassals to learn the hard way. However, I found the extra Specialist to be very useful, giving me an Engineer for additional production in most cities
Biology: If you were still in the game at this point, the extra food was a greater boon than normal, seeing as how we didn't really have "bonus tiles" to marginalize Biology's effects. In other words, the extra food had a far greater relative impact than in a game where you have 2-5 Resource squares per city.
Medicine: Environmentalism RULED if you left your Forests relatively intact, as I had done--I'd chopped about 40% of them but had about 75% of the chopped ones grow back by this point in the game, giving me about 12 Health and 12 Happiness per city (12 Forests = 12 Happiness under Environmentalism; 12 Forests = +6 Health and Environmentalism = +6 Health). The Hospitals for extra Health helped a lot, too. I don't think that the Environmentalism Civic in BtS is nearly as good, as they replaced the +1 Happiness per Forest effect with simply giving you +1 Happiness at any time (regardless of your Civic selections) for each Forest Preserve. In Warlords, though, Environmentalism with a few to several Forests per city was a good enough replacement for a lack of Resources, at least in terms of Health and Happiness effects
Genetics: An extra 3 Health everywhere was useful
Future Techs: Eventually, I was able to chop all forests and Irrigate (put a Farm on) just about every square--except for non-irrigatable squares, such as Coast and Tundra not located on a River--due to the extra Happiness and Health provided by each one of these Techs that I researched. Some cities, with 45 or so Unhappiness from War Weariness, a lack of Emancipation, and the citizens' desire to join their Mother Land was not enough to counter my 60+ Future Techs' bonus Happiness
Communism: Once Environmentalism wasn't needed, State Property allowed me to spam cities within my borders for additional population. I think that this Civic is the key to milking, as you really want to have as many marginal cities as possible to fill in the gaps between cities (so that these additional cities aren't pushing out your cultural borders), while State Property keeps your finances in check enough to do so
) So I am looking to post 30 to 50 points in each category with this one game … which means the goal is …
) (T21) wheel (T30) pottery (T35) writing (T49) math for chop bonus (T65) alpha (T78) … T77 I stole a worker from Louis, so worried about defense … hunt (T80) archery (T82) trade for priesthood (T83) trade for masonry (T84) literature (T95) monotheism either trade or self, construction (T105) currency (T115) (is that a long enough list for you jesusin? 
and 
. I had hoped that more folks would use the Challenger save as I think it would have provided a bit more difficulty as the AI techs a bit faster. The AI doesn't use cottages and chops very well though. 
game sometime where siege weapons do not kill, and with a bit more difficulty. Thanks for the comments on ways to improve things.
. I will take a win over a loss anyday but space and culture in this game was the real challenge.
