Wow, what a game. Seems like I got luckier than most.
The Report
For my opening, I immediately switched to a worker. I reckoned this was the strongest opening move, and, looking over the reports, I think Iâm right.
I set research to polytheism, and I got it in 3480. We found Hinduism. Looking back, I think this is the single most important event of my game, or at least the key to my plans.
I didnât opt for the Hydra strategy, or for a wonder monopoly. I decide a balance of wonders and early expansion is more valuable. This paid off for me, as far as I can see.
I decide to use the marble to get the Oracle, and the free tech goes to metal casing. This allows me to also grab the Colossus. Iâm not sure how much that helped, but it didnât hurt. These are the only two early wonders I got.
The rest of my focus was on using galleys to grab nice spots along our coast. I missed the âsheepâ spot over by China, which some people got, but I also got a string of cities along the border with Caesar, putting my border much closer in to the Romans than most peopleâs. I even almost snagged the crabs in the south of âthe lakeâ but the Chinese got there first.
I also settled fairly quickly in the east, grabbing the spot north of the sheep, and beating the Arabs to much of the good land. To keep my people fed, I windmilled over almost every hill in my territory. I will never, ever doubt the value of the windmill again.
I pretty much coast along in builder mode, with very minimal military power. This was made possible only by a strong conversion effort amongst both the Romans and the Chinese, who went Hindu early on, and never stopped. Caesarâs attention was directed against Vicky for most of the game, which was nice. She appeared to be running away with the game by the early 1000 ADs, but Caesar hosed her enough to let me be the first to liberalism, and the free tech.
Mansa Musa got similarily hosed, fighting Mao, Caesar and Alex on and off. Alex trailed in tech for most of the game, but had the largest empire, at the expense of the Arabs and Malinese. This is probably the big difference between my game and many others: Alex was always slightly bigger than Mao, who was slightly bigger than Caesar, although it was a close race all along. Vicky and Mansa got hosed, and Saladin was just sad. He tried invading me on and off, but I rolled him back, and stole two cities from him over the course of the game. Why he wanted to attack me, when Alex and Mao had his number, I have no idea. Saladin is weird.
In 1590, I pulled a lucky great engineer, and used him to build Versailles in the east. I doubt it made much of a difference, but every little bit helps.
My Statue of Liberty came late (although not Sirian late), and I managed to nab it in 1824. That was the fourth wonder Iâd built, and I was amazed that I landed it.
I pushed my settlement frontier constantly into the east, which was largely unoccupied for most of the game. I lost a barbarian city to the Greeks by one turn, which annoyed me, but at least I managed to dominate the east quite handily.
By 1888, Saladin was gone. Vicky was super-hosed, with cities dropping to the Romans every few turns. I joined in against her on several occasions, at the request of Caesar and Mao. They were totally fake wars, but they netted me some very nice relationship points. Alex was big but backward, and Mansa was diminished enough to not worry about. However, Mao was pulling ahead in tech, and conquering more territory by the minute. I thought it was my fate to lose to my closest ally! However, the demographics kept saying Alex was in the lead for people and territory.
So, with my tech good-but-not-great, and Mao surging ahead, I decided that a diplomatic victory was my only chance. I plowed every beaker I could manage into a rush for Mass Media. I got there far before anyone else, and, with the help of an Ironworks in Tenochtitlan, I built the UN before anyone else had the tech.
I was elected UN secretary easily, on the weight of my growing empire, Caesar, and Mao, who were both totally loyal to me by this point. As predicted, Alex was my opponent, and he was deeply unpopular with everyone. However, when the first diplomatic victory vote came around, Team Montezuma was about 40 votes short of the goal. Alex wasnât likely to catch up, but Mao was already building spaceship parts, and I needed this to end quickly. So, in 1912, I dialed up my friends in Rome and China, and told them it was time to wipe out our arch enemy⦠Mansa Musa! Then, the turn after we declared, Alex jumped in too!
Let me tell you, things did not go well for Mali. Caesar was backwards, but had dozens of cavalry. Mao was advanced, and could field huge armies of artillery and SAM infantry. But nothing prepared me for the sight of the SoDs that Alex put in the field. Huge armies of dozens of infantry, cavalry, artillery, and a few kitchen sinks started taking chunks out of Mansa Musa. The Romans and Chinese captured a couple cities each, and I grabbed one for myself, but Alex was rapidly eating away at the eastern Malinese front. However, everyone still hated Alex (or liked me much, much more).
However, to help seal the deal, Iâd started a crash population program, founding four new cities, and farming all the arable land I could. Still, by the time of the second vote, I was still short of the mark. It wasnât until the third vote, with the results coming during 1936, that I managed to hit the mark exactly. Mao, Caesar and yours truly had elected Montezuma the Emperor of the World. And it was no surprise that I was so beloved, either: Hinduism, my one and only religion, had spread to 55 cities, and represented 51% of the worldâs faithful. I donât think Iâve ever had a religion so successful, and the money sure helped overcome the poor starting position.
Mao, despite his huge tech lead, was so tied up in war that he never finished more than the 5 casings.
Diplomatic Victory, 1936.
Thanks for a great game!
The Report
For my opening, I immediately switched to a worker. I reckoned this was the strongest opening move, and, looking over the reports, I think Iâm right.
I set research to polytheism, and I got it in 3480. We found Hinduism. Looking back, I think this is the single most important event of my game, or at least the key to my plans.
I didnât opt for the Hydra strategy, or for a wonder monopoly. I decide a balance of wonders and early expansion is more valuable. This paid off for me, as far as I can see.
I decide to use the marble to get the Oracle, and the free tech goes to metal casing. This allows me to also grab the Colossus. Iâm not sure how much that helped, but it didnât hurt. These are the only two early wonders I got.
The rest of my focus was on using galleys to grab nice spots along our coast. I missed the âsheepâ spot over by China, which some people got, but I also got a string of cities along the border with Caesar, putting my border much closer in to the Romans than most peopleâs. I even almost snagged the crabs in the south of âthe lakeâ but the Chinese got there first.
I also settled fairly quickly in the east, grabbing the spot north of the sheep, and beating the Arabs to much of the good land. To keep my people fed, I windmilled over almost every hill in my territory. I will never, ever doubt the value of the windmill again.
I pretty much coast along in builder mode, with very minimal military power. This was made possible only by a strong conversion effort amongst both the Romans and the Chinese, who went Hindu early on, and never stopped. Caesarâs attention was directed against Vicky for most of the game, which was nice. She appeared to be running away with the game by the early 1000 ADs, but Caesar hosed her enough to let me be the first to liberalism, and the free tech.
Mansa Musa got similarily hosed, fighting Mao, Caesar and Alex on and off. Alex trailed in tech for most of the game, but had the largest empire, at the expense of the Arabs and Malinese. This is probably the big difference between my game and many others: Alex was always slightly bigger than Mao, who was slightly bigger than Caesar, although it was a close race all along. Vicky and Mansa got hosed, and Saladin was just sad. He tried invading me on and off, but I rolled him back, and stole two cities from him over the course of the game. Why he wanted to attack me, when Alex and Mao had his number, I have no idea. Saladin is weird.
In 1590, I pulled a lucky great engineer, and used him to build Versailles in the east. I doubt it made much of a difference, but every little bit helps.
My Statue of Liberty came late (although not Sirian late), and I managed to nab it in 1824. That was the fourth wonder Iâd built, and I was amazed that I landed it.
I pushed my settlement frontier constantly into the east, which was largely unoccupied for most of the game. I lost a barbarian city to the Greeks by one turn, which annoyed me, but at least I managed to dominate the east quite handily.
By 1888, Saladin was gone. Vicky was super-hosed, with cities dropping to the Romans every few turns. I joined in against her on several occasions, at the request of Caesar and Mao. They were totally fake wars, but they netted me some very nice relationship points. Alex was big but backward, and Mansa was diminished enough to not worry about. However, Mao was pulling ahead in tech, and conquering more territory by the minute. I thought it was my fate to lose to my closest ally! However, the demographics kept saying Alex was in the lead for people and territory.
So, with my tech good-but-not-great, and Mao surging ahead, I decided that a diplomatic victory was my only chance. I plowed every beaker I could manage into a rush for Mass Media. I got there far before anyone else, and, with the help of an Ironworks in Tenochtitlan, I built the UN before anyone else had the tech.
I was elected UN secretary easily, on the weight of my growing empire, Caesar, and Mao, who were both totally loyal to me by this point. As predicted, Alex was my opponent, and he was deeply unpopular with everyone. However, when the first diplomatic victory vote came around, Team Montezuma was about 40 votes short of the goal. Alex wasnât likely to catch up, but Mao was already building spaceship parts, and I needed this to end quickly. So, in 1912, I dialed up my friends in Rome and China, and told them it was time to wipe out our arch enemy⦠Mansa Musa! Then, the turn after we declared, Alex jumped in too!
Let me tell you, things did not go well for Mali. Caesar was backwards, but had dozens of cavalry. Mao was advanced, and could field huge armies of artillery and SAM infantry. But nothing prepared me for the sight of the SoDs that Alex put in the field. Huge armies of dozens of infantry, cavalry, artillery, and a few kitchen sinks started taking chunks out of Mansa Musa. The Romans and Chinese captured a couple cities each, and I grabbed one for myself, but Alex was rapidly eating away at the eastern Malinese front. However, everyone still hated Alex (or liked me much, much more).
However, to help seal the deal, Iâd started a crash population program, founding four new cities, and farming all the arable land I could. Still, by the time of the second vote, I was still short of the mark. It wasnât until the third vote, with the results coming during 1936, that I managed to hit the mark exactly. Mao, Caesar and yours truly had elected Montezuma the Emperor of the World. And it was no surprise that I was so beloved, either: Hinduism, my one and only religion, had spread to 55 cities, and represented 51% of the worldâs faithful. I donât think Iâve ever had a religion so successful, and the money sure helped overcome the poor starting position.
Mao, despite his huge tech lead, was so tied up in war that he never finished more than the 5 casings.
Diplomatic Victory, 1936.
Thanks for a great game!
And with all due respect, that's quite a shocker! 
I'm not sure anyone would have predicted that. Congrats on an impressive result Jester.