Alright, I'm way too busy these next couple of weeks so I'm afraid I won't get much of a chance to read everyone else's threads for a long while
, but I'll at least go ahead and post my thoughts on the game from my limited perspective (for reference, I have read both the beginnings and ends of most of the threads, but that's about it):
First off, the whole ending. As Spaceman's quote points out, I was rather torn on how to vote. There were a couple of things (in no particular order here) that influenced my decision. The first was I was honestly ready for the game to be over. It seemed to an extent like I was just being dragged along for Darrell's and Nospace's personal sandbox game. I think part of that was my fault for not expressing I would have preferred to go AI clearly enough, but well too late now (I had sort of vaguely touched on the subject with Darrell but in hindsight not clearly enough). The second was that it seemed for the last bit like it was sort of Darrell and Nospace vs. Me and Dave (and that secret MDP only confirms that), so I was more willing to see Dave win at the end of the day than either of the others. The final and I think most important part was that I didn't expect the vote to actually go through, but expected my voting for Dave to force Darrell to gift Russia without me having to lie and say I voted for Dave. Dave had talked to me and said that eliminating the culture in Russia might give him the chance to raze it, so I was obviously willing to help out there. Spaceman, I hope that helps clarify how my vote also falls under the RB-try-to-win ideal -- I honestly expected my vote not to end the game but to help my chances to win in game. We all now how that turned out of course
(that's not saying I'm in favor of continuing though, I was equally happy going in if you guys neglected to gift the city and the game ended; the game ending was a fine outcome for me).
In regards to my other thoughts on the game, I think this sadly sums up the game for me:
Shoot the Moon Wrote:Guess who the dumbass who forgot to revolt to slavery while his first settler was moving was? 
That's what I get for barely paying attention to this game and not doing any simulations I guess.
My lack of simming and inattention to this game up until the Rego war put me irreparably behind. I really only started to seriously pay attention once Dave's frequent diplo and planning forced me to (thanks for that though Dave). If there's one thing from my thread to take away from this game I think it is that if you are in a game against good opponents that sim stuff out, you will lose if you don't do it yourself. Plan for that time commitment before you sign up for a game.
From that bad beginning on I was essentially in catch up mode, which most evidenced itself in my need to go to war with Rego for land and cities. That in turn left my infrastructure and tech too far behind to be in a position to join Dave in his later wars, and then that was that. Playing catch up in Civ, even with a 3v1 dogpile and someone gifting you an entire navy, is not easy!
Obviously