From my first spoiler:
At 1 AD, I had 10 cities, 40 pops, 9 of my 10 cities are Confused, 8 workers, 5 warriors, 3 axes, 2 spears, 7 granaries, 5 libraries, 1 monastery, Oracle, 5 half-finished universities, all ancient techs plus Writing, IW, Alpha, Math, Literature, Calendar, CoL, CS, Paper and Education (from Oracle). Bureau, Slavery and Organized Religion. Copper, iron, horses, marble, gold, sugar, corn, pigs, and (almost silk and spice).
So, how did things go after this? Not so well. I had education quite early from the Oracle (475 BC), but I didn't get Oxford finished until 450 AD. It took quite some time to get all six libraries/universities completed. So maybe the Education sling wasn't the best move because it came about 20 to 30 turns before I was ready for it. Self-researching CS and Paper early on delayed getting other key techs I could have used much sooner... Alpha, IW and AH to name a few.
But having it wasn't a bad thing. I'd be interested to hear when others completed Oxford for comparisons sake.
Around 1 AD, I also noticed that I hadn't popped a single great person yet.
Bad boy. With all of the self teching I had to do and with gold and 2 towns in a bureaucratic capital, an early academy would have been quite nice. I finally got my first GS in 275 AD.
Speaking of great people, I didn't manage them well at all. I got GS (275 AD), Music GA (450 AD - used to bulb part of MM), GS (680 AD), GS (900 AD), Physics GS (1070 AD), GS (1100 AD), Econ GM (1240 AD), GS (1270 AD). The second, third, fifth and sixth GSs were all about 33% odds to be a GE but alas, I didn't get one...
Plus, to really tech fast I needed several more early GSs to bulb several of the techs on the Mass Media beeline. As it was, I learned Mass Media in 1210 AD and completed the UN in 1310 AD (10 turns later). A GE could have shaved off 7 or 8 turns. Getting more early GSs could have shaved off many turns from my research. I just didn't focus on them until too late.
I learned Optics in 560 AD with a caravel completed on each coast in 600AD (with a Confused missionary on board each just in case). I think this is quite late when it's critical to meet the AI on the other continent, get the lay of the land, and to start getting plus mods with your intended voting buddies.
When I met the other continent, things were a bit uncertain with Monty, Hatty and Brennus all about the same size. Mansa was small with only 4 cities. I new that I could get him on my side. I decided to go with Hatty too. That way, if the largest civ was either Brennus or Monty, I'd be fine. Of course, I needed Kublai Khan and Churchill from our continent to vote for me too, but I've had 5000 years to butter them up.
So here is where I really screwed up. I had Hatty, Mansa and KK all to Friendly and Churchill to Pleased. I counted pops in cities and Brennus and Monty both had about 73/74 while Hatty had 67. Sweet. I should be able to beat both Brennus and Monty.
The vote comes up and I'm going against Hatty? WTF?
The results come in...
and they confirm that I should have been going up against either Monty or Brennus. I counted before the vote and got similar numbers, so I know that city pops didn't change drastically before the vote.
And then the lightbulb came on. Mansa was Hatty's vassal, so I assume that half of his pops counted toward her total which made her the largest civ. I didn't even think about that when I was playing.
I briefly thought about taking some military action on the other continent to ensure that I'd be going up against my intended opponent but I decided not to due to the logistics of getting a non-existant army loaded onto non-exitant galleons for some ultra fun galleon chain finger aerobics.
At this point, I played about a turn every 15 seconds in an attempt to grow my cities. I gifted up to Biology to Monty and gave him a ton of happy/healthy resources. And about 10 turns later he declared on me. My warrior/archer-protected cities were in trouble. Luckily he landed his troops rather than amphibiously assulting a warrior-defended city. I upgraded, whipped and repelled the attack.
I forgot to mention that that vile Englishman that I stole a worker from hadn't forgotten about it for over 4,000 years and continued to abstain from the vote. Since I had just whipped up a quick army, I decided to whip up a bigger army. If those damn English citizens wouldn't vote for me, they would if I had them under my thumb. So I took all of Churchill's cities... something I should have done eons ago but I figured I could get his votes the nice way so I didn't bother. At least KK stuck by my side... which is a bit ironic when you consider that KK isn't the best partner in most games.
So I was in speed mode just trying to finish. Grow pops, hit return. Call votes. Not enough. Hit return. Call a vote.... I don't know how many votes I called but I finally won in 1848 AD, 103 turns after completing the UN.
So much for my fastest Diplo game.
I could have done a ton of things better than I did. The Education sling was the highlight of this game. It was all downhill from there...