All Restricted Leaders Games

Challenge Date: 10/26/2016 to 6/29/2020

Game 1:

Leader: Frederick (Game Name: Frederick the Great)
Civilization: Germany

Map: Hemispheres
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Arid
Sea Level: Random - High
Difficulty: Monarch

Opponents:
Suleiman - Ottoman
De Gaulle - French
Hammurabi - Babylon
Gilgamesh - Sumeria
Charlemagne - Holy Rome
Sitting Bull - Native America

Result:
Victory - Spaceship - 1973
Final Score: 4555
Normalized Score: 19223
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Game 2:

Leader: Hannibal (Game Name: Hankibal)
Civilization: Carthage

Map: Archipelago
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Temperate
Sea Level: Low
Landmass Type: Shaky Continents
Difficulty: Monarch

Opponents:
Julius Caeser - Rome
Augustus Caeser - Rome
Justinian I - Byzantine
Charlemagne - Holy Rome
Bismarck - Germany
Hammurabi - Babylon

Result:
Victory - Spaceship - 1944
Final Score: 4673
Normalized Score: 28692
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser (Bah! Roman Filth!)

Game 3:

Leader: Victoria (Game Name: The Burger Queen)
Civilization: England

Map: Pangaea
Size: Huge
Climate: Random - Tropical
Sea Level: Random - Low

Opponents:
Brennus - Celts
Joao II - Portugal
Kubal Khan - Mongolia
Lincoln - America
Montezuma - Aztecs
Napoleon - France
Pacal II - Maya
Suryavarman II - Khmer
Washington - America
Suleiman - Ottoman

Result:
Victory - Spaceship - 1932
Final Score: 3702
Normalized Score: 25054
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Game 4:

Leader: Sitting Bull (Game Name: Sitting Duck)
Civilization: Native America

Map: RandomScriptMap (Excluded: Terra)
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Tropical
Sea Level: Random - Low

Opponents:
Washington - America
Isabella - Spain
Napoleon - France
Elizabeth - England
Asoka - India
Tokugawa - Japan

Result:
Loss - Victorious Opponent: Washington - Spaceship - 1949
Final Score: 3650
Normalized Score: 5108
Leader Ranking: Nero

Note: A tough game where I started on a lone small continent, while the AI all started on a continent with one other leader (Napoleon/Elizabeth, Asoka/Isabella and Tokugawa/Washington). I was actually 19 turns away from winning despite multiple wars against me in cultural and if I had realized earlier I needed to go for that over Space (I researched up to Rocketry for example) I feel I would have won. But I didn't, so there's the first loss of this!

Game 5:

Leader: Willem van Oranje (Game Name: William von Orange)
Civilization: Netherlands

Map: Archipelago
Size: Standard
Climate: Random
Sea Level: Low
Landmass Type: Shaky Continents

Opponents:
Ragnar - Vikings
Hannibal - Carthage
Joao II - Portugal
Roosevelt - America
Ramesses II - Egypt
Suravaryman II - Khmer

Result:
Victory - Diplomacy - 1888
Final score: 5112
Normalized Score: 60027
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Note: 1888 AD is the fastest windate I have on the laptop, which has a lot less games than my desktop (or did before this experiment, anyway), and it would have been an early 1800s victory but Sury decided to be an ass and not vote for me barely. I killed him to win instead. Ragnar was stuck in an unwinnable position on a small island and Sury was similiarly kinda screwed, Roosevelt/Hannibal actually had a lot of room but got dragged in a long war between themselves that put themselves behind, Joao II expanded a ton but too fast and had shit research and Ramesses was fodder for me to kill and take his land.

Game 6:

Leader: Asoka (Game Name: Ahsoka)
Civilization: India

Map: Continents
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Tropical
Sea level: Random - Medium

Opponents:
Pacal II - Maya
Napoleon - France
Wang Kon - Korea
Bismarck - Germany
Isabella - Spain
Tokugawa - Japan

Result:
Victory - Culture - 1854
Final Score: 5421
Normalized Score: 72358
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: Lets beat the fastest windate one game later! I had 6 of 7 holy cities in the end and all shrines, easy culture win, this was even more dominating than the last one: 2nd place, Bismarck, just cracked 2000 (2021 to be specific) in the last turns of the game. Was on the same continent as Pacal and got him as a friend with a lesser empire early with my buddhist religion, Wang Kon fought a useless war against Pacal and Napoleon was boxed by Wang Kon to 3 cities, killed Wang and Napoleon with a big tech advantage (beeline Curassiers when teching a lot faster) and then strode home with the land. Could have won by domination if I conquered the other continent's civs but I had few coastal cities to build ships and Culture felt more unique/fitting anyway. I was 9 votes off from winning a Diplo victory the same turn as the Culture victory!

Game 7:

Leader: Augustus Caeser (Game Name: Nero Angelus)
Civilization: Rome

Map: Custom Continents
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Cold
Sea Level: Random - Low
Number of Continents: Random

Opponents:
Julius Caeser - Rome
Pericles - Greece
Kublai Khan - Mongolia
De Gaulle - France
Suleiman - Ottoman
Shaka - Zulu

Result:
Victory - Spaceship - 1959
Final Score: 5591
Normalized Score: 30420
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: What an odd game! 5 civs on one continent, 2 on the other, with Pericles and Kublai the two alone. The 5-man continent was full of backstabbing, with the only friendship being Caeser and Shaka, which survived through the end of the game via Shaka's 1 city island civilization post-conquest. Suleiman was next to me and my only friend, Shaka was weaker (importantly w/o Feudalism when I had Praetorians), so I marched across Suleiman's lands to kill Shaka...but he had a random barb city in Caeser's land and ONE city to the ocean where I wasn't able to easily get to it. I realized I needed to get more land since Shaka's wasn't great, so I beelined Rifling (I Liberalism'd Nationalism) and mass drafted Rifles to crush Suleiman, while Caeser crushes the quite large De Gaulle a bit after. This was actually shockingly close since Caeser and Pericles had a huge army (even with mine being solid) and Pericles was not very far behind. I would have won some turns earlier but Caeser kept sabotaging my crap.

Game 8:

Leader: Mehmed II (Game Name: The Madman II)
Civilization: Ottoman

Map: Hemispheres
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Rocky
Sea Level: Random - Low
Continents Size: Random
Islands Size: Random
Number of Continents: Random

Opponents:
Justinian I - Byzantine
Alexander - Greece
Saladin - Arabia
Churchill - England
Napoleon - France
Bismarck - Germany

Result:
Victory - Spaceship - 1909
Final Score: 5501
Normalized Score: 51665
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: One of the stompier games it felt like and one where I used the Ottomans to their fullest advantage, especially since I wanted to do a Janissary Rush anyway (I usually feel like it but don't pull it off). Alexander started right next to me and while I could have sealed him in, I had horses but no copper, so I Chariot Rushed him down rather effectively (I attacked JUST when he was hooking up copper, so no chance at Spears). I was in the hole a ton economically after despite good land, even losing gold at 0% for a while, but Sailing was a bottleneck-style tech I got in a trade (I needed those trade routes without roads since 3/5th of cities I got were coastal: Got me up to 20% science + Libraries + Build Research). Rushed Janissaries afterwards with Napoleon falling behind in tech due to fighting Bismarck to a standstill twice and drafted + built a ludicrous amount of them (I had a lot of high production cities), like 71 Janissaries after the campaign was over. I then cruised to an easy Spaceship win backed by Sid's Sushi and Mining Inc despite churchill being quite large (He ate Saladin whole and had a big continent due to this).

Game 9:

Leader: Peter (Game Name: Feodor III)
Civilization: Russia

Map: Hemispheres
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Arid
Sea Level: Random - Low
Continents Size: Random
Islands Size: Random
Number of Continents: Random

Opponents:
Wang Kon - Korea
Montezuma - Aztec
Asoka - India
Hammurabi - Babylon
Isabella - Spain
Willem - Netherlands

Result:
Victory - Diplomatic - 1916
Final Score: 3031
Normalized Score: 23294
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: A weird game for sure! For this game, each civ except for Hammurabi and Asoka started on their own continents, with Hammurabi and Asoka starting on the same island, which screwed Hammurabi. The Arid climate was especially noticeable and everyone's islands had huge swathes of deserts, which made my seemingly terrible land not as bad as I thought. I expected to need to conquer other islands to do so, but I ended up not needing to do so, although I had little ability to do so this game as I was behind for most of it. Montezuma hating me was actually the key to victory: everyone except Hammurabi hated him, so I got a lot of shared war bonuses when he wardecced me (which almost killed me a few times!). Almost everyone in this game had a self founded religion they stuck in except me, as I remained agnostic all game. This was a true diplo victory, getting juicy war ally points, acquising to demands and sneaking in the UN (Although I had begun to take a tech lead at the end, it sure didn't feel assured) to win by about 20 votes (it was 670 w/ 649 needed). I was barely tops in score (3031 vs. Isabella's 2895 and Asoka's 2851) and 4th in GNP, 4th in Production and 3rd in Food, so this was very far from an assured win and one of the closer games I've played.

Game 10:

Leader: Brennus (Game Name: Brennus the Menace)
Civilization: Celts

Map: Big and Small
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Cold
Sea Level: Random - Low
Continents Size: Random
Islands Size: Random
Island Overlap: Random

Opponents:
Alexander - Greece
Julius Caeser - Rome
Joao II - Portugal
Ragnar - Vikings
Lincoln - America
Suleiman - Ottoman

Result:
Victory - Domination - 1926 AD
Final Score: 8760
Normalized Score: 79081
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: What an odd start to the game! Religions fell very slowly, with me getting the 2nd one all the way in 2440 BC, and I popped TWO techs from early huts! And then I popped Gems at my capital, to boot! That actually helped a lot due to the odd map. My four opponents started on one continent while me and Joao started on a smaller continent next to each other...we had a somewhat larger island next to us. Our continent also had a smaller island seperated from Joao by 1 ocean river under him and the western part of our continent was seperated from us by two peak tiles...and Lincoln was seperated from it by a one ocean tile river! I quickly sealed off Joao from the north while getting him converted to Taoism, then took to the seas and gobbled up commerce with those early pops + The Great Lighthouse and got ahead fast. I wasn't feeling good about my position, so I betrayed my good friend Joao for what land he had (he was kinda a runt)...Ragnar wardecced on me, which let me swipe some settlements he'd put on the post-peak part of my continent (I had 2 cities there, he had 3, but mine were resource greats while his had few).

Then I kinda accidentally conquered the world, I figured I'd go after Ragnar once Suleiman/Caeser started ripping him up (Suleiman had eaten Alexander earlier) and I was far ahead...then, I went after Lincoln, as he was right next to me in Space Race but not in military, just getting Mechanized Infantry as I launched my Modern Armor invasion (For some reason he still had Longbows un-upgraded! It must be because he was in no wars). This means Lincoln folded fast...and then I saw Suleiman was further behind (along with Caeser) with Infantry, so I rolled him up...and then Caeser's army was in fighting range...

In fact, I felt sad, because Caeser only had one city left the turn I won, and I was trying to race my Domination victory with a Conquest victory, which would have been my first Conquest. Alas, it'll just need to be my first Domination victory for this little exercise. It was touch and go early, but I sure wrecked it in the end.

Game 11:

Leader: Mansa Musa (Game Name: Mansa Money)
Civilization: Mali

Map: Custom Continents
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Arid
Sea Level: Random - High
Number of Continents: Random

Opponents:
Tokugawa - Japan
Suleiman - Ottoman
Suryavarman II - Khmer
Pacal II - Maya
De Gaulle - France
Asoka - India

Result:
Victory - Spaceship - 1945 AD
Score: 5526
Normalized Score: 35215
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: A weird map, we were all on one continent, with Suryavaryman and Pacal II largely connected via a tundra mouth right into my civ. The arid climate was strong, with Tokugawa having a little sahara desert to the north of his civ, and him being placed uncomfortably close to me. His Christianity spread to me though and we became somewhat early friends...except being Toku, he was still stingy, and made afoul of everyone else. I ended up eating him alive over two wars, although it was very awkward due to my only supply of horses being behind his territory due to a weird sea placement and thus my Knight rush had to all be pre-built and then supplemented with Maces. I probably could have done this better. The Islamic Suleiman ended up being my close friend due to warring with me vs. Toku despite holding onto Christianity for a long time.

My territory + Toku's, despite the large amount of tundra and desert, had no oil in it! Worse than that, I had no Coal either! I had to go out and conquer fast to get it...Suryavarman had the largest army for most of the entire game, but he kept being technologically backwards, in part due to huge tech diving without getting Rifling, so I held off an assault down south from him...De Gaulle had ALSO ignored Rifling (WHY), so I rushed him down with Infantry and then Marines against his Musketeers, Knights and later Grenadiers...he got Machine Guns part way through, but I had taken Oil for Tanks, and so I conquered him well...Suleiman had started his spaceship, so I needed to get my econ going, and made peace.

Suryavarman wardecced on me again in the last 15 turns! I think Tadmekka, a city of mine that I "landed" on his part of the continent, kept making him want to obliterate me. His military was HUGE and even turning my entire civ to military, 1-4 turn Modern Armor and Mech Infantry, didn't get me to even in power with him...but, fortunately, he still had Cavs, Infantry, Artillery and Marines as his main forces. I had Modern Armor, Mech Infantry and Stealth Bombers. Managed to make it through it, he truly had a ludicrously large army, I killed over 50 units in one turn and he still had power to spare! It did get me to get Tadmekka back in the peace deal with 5T left, though, giving Sury one last middle finger.

Game 12:

Leader: Shaka (Game Name: Shaka Khan)
Civilization: Zulu

Map: Hemispheres
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Temperate
Sea Level: Random - Medium
Continent Size: Random
Islands Size: Random
Number of Continents: Random

Opponents:
Mansa Musa - Mali
Hannibal - Carthage
Zara Yaqob - Ethiopia
Victoria - England
Willem van Oranje - Netherlands
Roosevelt - America

Result:

Defeat - Conquered, Eliminated By: Willem Van Oranje - 1300 AD
Score: 0
Normalized Score: 0
Leader Ranking: Dan Quayle

Notes: Um...oops? :laughs: I settled a bit close to Willem without having the proper defenses and he caught me totally off guard in a BC Axe/Sword rush a bit before I could get metal hooked up since I had no Copper (had Horses). Lost my capital fast and held on for a shockingly long time with about 3 cities in the south...if my northern Galley settlements hadn't been sniped by a barb Galley and then a Dutch sword winning at like 90% odds to get the city, I might have been able to make enough of an empire to make it to the end of the game. Instead, this is the second loss!

Game 13:

Leader: Qin Shi Huang (Shang Yang)
Civilization: China

Map: Custom Continents
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Tropical
Sea Level: Random - High
Number of Continents: Random

Opponents:
Kublai Khan - Mongolia
Montezuma - Aztec
Brennus - Celts
Ragnar - Vikings
Suryavarman II - Khmer
Zara Yaqob - Ethiopia

Result:

Defeat - Spaceship: Kublai Khan - 1988 AD
Score: 3636
Normalized Score: 5089
Leader Ranking: Nero

Note: Bleh, this game suuuuuucked, and I feel like I entirely beat myself. I couldn't seem to adequately kill Montezuma and probably attacked too early at Knights instead of going Curassiers, but I couldn't seem to keep Monty off my ass from wardeccing me and forcing me to waste time defending it. Ragnar also repeatedly attacked me for no reason and made me have to deal with him. I actually was still 2nd or so for Space Race after killing Monty super late, so I definitely could have won this if I played better.

Game 14:

Leader: Kublai Khan (Game Name: Chagatai Khan)
Civilization: Mongolia

Map: Donut
Climate: Random
Sea Level: Random
Center Region: Standard
Jungle: Jungle
World Wrap: Flat
Resources: standard

Opponents:
Julius Caeser - Rome
Justinian I - Byzantine
Mansa Musa - Mali
Pacal II - Maya
Stalin - Russia
Qin Shi Huang - China

Result:
Victory - Diplomatic Victory - 1882 AD
Score: 4618
Normalized Score: 55563
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: Started off close to Qin, and with the more open space of the donut to my north-left. Had a strong start but was very worried by Pacal's STRONG REXing and Manssa's strong play, which pinched Justinian pretty hard. Was a hardline game between the Christian leaders led by Justinian and the Taoism group of Caeser and Stalin: Stalin got to be a punching bag to Mansa/Pacal, while Caeser was a neighbor but not too close, and Qin gave me a safe border...Qin actually planted a successful Pink Dot-esque spot next to me due to Pacal cutting him off and cut into my lands, but I got a good deal of north stuff as well. Stalin was sealed in by Caeser who grew a truly monstrous empire as well. Qin conviently adopted Free Religion right before I had to invade him for land, which let me do so without diplomatic penalties, with me planning to war with Caeser after...but he actually wardecced me DURING it! This was a tense war, since I was bordering Caeser, so even though Caeser was at war with Justinian, Pacal AND Mansa (it was that kind of game, Stalin was at war with Mansa too) and so I got a good brunt of it, but I got the 1v2 off well and killed Qin. I sniped some cities from Caeser too. Built up, got a kickass 3x Banana 1x Pig Globe Draft city going and then attacked Caeser while his power was high but he had no Rifling. Despite having Cavs and Rifles, the sheer # of units he had + Cannons made it actually hard to make progress, but once I shredded his main stack TWICE (getting my own Cannons + sheer Rifle #  helped), I conquered his huge empire easily, then just won a backdoor Diplo victory. Felt like a strong, clean game.

Game 15:

Leader: Darius I (Game Name: Darius III)
Civilization: Persia

Map: Inland Sea
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Rocky
Sea Level: Random - Low
World Wrap: Flat
Resources: Standard

Opponents:
Alexander - Greece
Hammurabi - Babylon
Ramesses II - Egypt
Ragnar - Vikings
Justinian I - Byzantine
Huanya Capac - Inca

Result:

Defeat - Spaceship: Justinian I - 1931 AD
Score: 6368
Normalized Score: 8913
Leader Ranking: Simon Bolivar

Notes: One of the biggest heartbreaker losses I've ever had! Despite being 9% land area away from Domination, I couldn't win this game, being just on the outside track against Justinian (I lost space race by around 10T) for space and his huge military/nukes keeping me from conquering him (I played out another save after this trying to invade him to see and I don't beat him in time). Fun fact: This is the 2nd highest normal score I have in my Hall of Fame, only behind the Brennus game earlier. Clean start, got good expansion, Ramesses got shafted with a low city count + peace weight and I ate him up, mass drafted Rifles + Cavs took out Ragnar, Alexander got HUGE feasting off Hammurabi (and to an extent Huanya) but didn't even have rifles, crushed him with Tanks...but Justinian had only somewhat less land area than me offo f eating Hammurabi and to an extent Huanya as well (41% to my 55%) and stayed ahead in tech at the start, with the end result being this close loss. Sad!

Game 16:

Leader: Abraham Lincoln (Game Name: William Tecumseh Sherman)
Civilization: America

Map: Custom Continents
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Rocky
Sea Level: Random - High
Number of Continents: Random
World Wrap: Cylindrical
Resources: Standard

Opponents:
Washington - America
Sitting Bull - Native America
Gandhi - India
Ramesses II - Egypt
Mansa Musa - Mali
Montezuma - Aztec

Result:

Victory - Conquest - 1917 AD
Score: 8047
Normalized Score: 77212
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: First Conquest Victory achieved in a clean as hell game, expanded the best early, built up well in the midgame leading to a Curassier rush of the weak Mansa Musa, who had few cities...Gandhi and Ramesses, of course, were building few units, so that led to a large Cavalry rush that easily took out Gandhi and Ramesses, with a brief economic building period between Mansa's conquest and the other two, followed by another brief economic buildup before Tanks slaughtered Washington, who only got Rifles halfway through the way...Sitting Bull got a crappy opening and beaten up by Montezuma, but took so long to die and managed to get ocassional brief peace treaties that Montezuma never killed him, I did. Killed Washington, right to rolling up Montezuma (He still didn't have rifles!!) and capping off Sitting Bull's 4 last cities. A rather easy and clean game.

Game 17:

Leader: Gilgamesh (Game Name: Girugamesh)
Civilization: Sumeria

Map: Tectonics
Climate: Random - Arid
Sea Level: Random - High
Landmass Type: Random
Aridity Level: Random

Opponents:
Hammurabi - Babylon
Pacal II - Maya
Darius I - Persia
Ramesses II - Egypt
Huanya Capac - Inca
Gandhi - India

Result:

Victory - Diplomatic - 1866 AD
Score: 5451
Normalized Score: 72030
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: This was one of the most unique and more challenging maps I've rolled so far, as the entire thing was almost all desert and plains, with almost no grassland at all: One of my most important cities had only two Oasis tiles and an Iron to work on, but I really needed that iron! This meant an excess of production, while research was kind of slow: Civil Service and Biology were VITAL for the NUMBEROUS Plains Farms in action. Had a huge military production factory via a million hills and Plains Farms + some food. Pacal was my closest neighbor and was scared to advance too much towards me due to the giant desert between us, so my Oasis + Iron city crushed the map here. This led to some odd wars: Desert territory was no good, so I had to go Maces + Catapults vs. Pacal, but fortunately he'd be grinded down by Hammurabi and was easy...but Rifles were a bit far away and I saw Gandhi was weak, leading to the rare Grenadier + Cannon rush as both were a lot closer than Rifles. Gandhi went down easy, slightly due to Rmaesses help, crushed pathetic and weak Huanya, then won later than I should have because I didn't pay enough attention to see Hammurabi would vote for me (Darius did too, but only near the end).

Game 18:

Leader: Isabella (Game Name: Joanna Castile)
Civilization: Spain

Map: Hemispheres
Climate: Random - Arid
Sea Level: Random - High
Continents Size: Random
Islands Size: Random
Number of Continents: Random

Opponents:
Joao II - Portugal
Louis XIV - France
Charlemagne - Holy Rome
Montezuma - Aztec
Huanya Capac - Inca
Kublai Khan - Mongolia

Result:
Victory - Diplomatic - 1952 AD
Score: 5931
Normalized Score: 34351
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: A weird game, everyone got two islands, with Kublai stuck on his own island wedged right next to me, who had Huanya close. Huanya had the misfortune of having no metals thanks to me settling his only nearby source, so I rushed him with Swords, which CRUSHED my economy for the start. Kublai invaded me, but his invasion was a bit weak and ill timed, as it was right when I was prepping to ramp up to invade him. Make peace after kicking some ass and taking an island city, mass draft rifles, kick his ass fast. Montezuma was HUGE due to Joao II's start being kind of squished under Montezuma and Monty was invading him, but Monty lacked rifling while I had it, so I drafted MORE rifles and with my mass of Galleons sailed them across to invade him. Sledding was tough, but I got to Flight fast, which meant airlifting in support, and then went for Tanks, which turned the tide. Joao II impressively survived with one city...and thanks to going to Free Religion near the end and the mutual military bonus, Joao II's one (two, I liberated a culturally crushed city to him for diplo points + because it was useless to me) city allowed him to vote for me, and put me just over the top (I won by 4 votes, after two barely failed votes, so he was needed for more than just having an AI alive. Louis was racing to a cultural victory, so it's possible I would have lost in Space vs. Culture, and he was militarily equal to me.

Game 19:

Leader: Charlemagne (Game Name: The Burger King)
Civilization: Holy Rome

Map: Continents
Climate: Random - Cold
Sea Level: Random - Medium
World Wrap: Cylindrical
Resources: Standard

Opponents:
Justinian I - Byzantine
Frederick - Germany
Napoleon - France
Augustus Caeser - Rome
Mansa Musa - Mali
Tokugawa - Japan

Result:
Defeated - Retire (Was Being Conquered By: Augustus Caeser) - 1540 AD
Score: 711
Normalized Score: 994
Leader Ranking: Dan Quayle

Notes: I retired from this game, because I was definitively dead but probably like 30 turns from doing so and didn't feel like wasting time. Me, Augustus, Mansa and Justinian were stuck on an awkwardly small island together, with me and Mansa being Judists and Justinian and Augustus being Christian. Justinian wardecced me, but I actually got the better of him, sniping a city and getting peace...then he tussled with me again AND Augustus joined on the same turn. Justinian was actually a dork and I was all set up to steamroll him, but Augustus was off the power charts, and I got cut off from a lot of expansion due to Mansa's cities. I held off Augustus for a long  time and actually took Constantinople but I couldn't hold off Augustus' superior production and tech. I just got outplayed here, I think. Never got to see the other continent, but Frederick apparently died.

Game 20:

Leader: Napoleon (Game Name: Naple Lion)
Civilization: France

Map: Hemispheres
Climate: Random
Sea Level: Random
Continents Size: Random
Islands Size: Random
Number of Continents: Random

Opponents:
Frederick - Germany
Elizabeth - England
Catherine - Russia
Mansa Musa - Mali
Pacal II - Maya
Pericles - Greece

Results:
Victory - Diplomacy - 1916 AD
Score: 4119
Normalized Score: 32492
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: A kinda weirdass map, each civ on smaller continents with blobs of surrounding small areas to get, Mansa got shafted starting behind Frederick and never got more than 4 total cities all game. My island wasn't the best, but I made the most of it, especially with Stonehenge + The GReat Lighthouse and good barbbusting, going to an Astronomy rush for a strong start, although I got less cities out of settling that way then I thought. But I got a strong tech lead, enough to invade Pericles (Amusingly, he invaded me a few turns before I invaded him, although annoyingly I lost a city or two for a few turns due to not following his Galleons properly) and I did have to come back at Infantry to really finish him, but taking his capital was a death blow. Catherine made a spooky wardec, then hardly did anything. Had oddly high diplo, maybe due to the low amount of wars and border tension, so went for diplo and won by 14 votes. Lost way too many 70%/90% Infantry battles.

Game 21:

Leader: Hatshepsut (Game Name: Hatty Sheep)
Civilization: Egypt

Map: Big and Small
Climate: Random - Arid
Sea Level: Random - Medium
Continents Size: Random
Islands Size: Random
Island Overlap: Random

Opponents:
Joao II - Portugal
Augustus Caeser - Rome
Isabella - Spain
Brennus - Celts
Mansa Musa - Mali
Kublai Khan - Mongolia

Results:
Victory - Spaceship - 1955 AD
Score: 5523
Normalized Score: 29617
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: This was a really interesting map! Everyone had somewhat sizable continents to start with, except Mansa's being small, with a huge amount of small and moderate sized islands dotting the land for people to claim. I was the only one to start on a continent with 3 civs, with Augustus and Joao as neighbors. I expanded well and a well-placed and timed barbarian city pop allowed me to shut Augustus out, while I pushed decently well into Joao: Both of them got somewhat more limited room, while I got more, but a lot of it was desert (how fitting!). Flood Plains and getting out a few island cities (I coulda done better with islands this game) kept me ahead in tech and I ended up smashing Augustus with Grenadiers into Rifles + Cannons, then turned around and did the same to Joao w/ Infantry: I didn't take either of their island holdings, Joao had a LOT, due to not having a ship edge, but took over the entire continent. Isabella foolishly wardecced me when I got oil and I smashed her with Transports, Infantries and Tanks. She was actually the only elimination this game, and if I had been kind, we could have had nobody die. Winning was easy, I was uber far ahead. Mansa Musa somehow came in 2nd despite having only 5 cities for like half of the game.

Game 22:

Leader: Alexander (Game Name: Iskandar)
Civilization: Greece

Map: Pangaea
Climate: Random - Temperate
Sea Level: Random - Medium
Shoreline: Random
World Wrap: Cylindrical
Resources: Standard

Opponents:
Hatshepsut - Egypt
Darius I - Persia
Hammurabi - Babylon
Julius Caeser - Rome
Gilgamesh - Sumeria
Charlemagne - Holy Rome

Result:
Victory - Diplomatic (Religious) - 1812 AD
Score: 3712
Normalized Score: 59905
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: This game was super tough, but I pulled through, I was actually going towards Domination and chose to go for the AP Victory on a whim and Gilgamesh voted for me due to our mutual war and his 17 votes put me over the top. I started off in a crazy boxed in start with Hatshepsut directly to my left, meaning her Creative culture boxed me in, and I only had a few tile wide way to get to the land north of me, which I had to claim fast and which Caeser got the bulk of due to this. I felt my only option was to Axe/Sword Rush Hatty because otherwise I wouldn't have enough territory, I did so but it completely murdered my economy, losing money at 0% frequently and going on strike. Recovery was tough because Caeser attacked and I had to mercilessly whip out Phalanxes to survive in my capital. This is a rare game where everything about the leader/civ combo actually helped me a lot to survive: Phalanxes being good against Chariots allowed me to exclusively make them to take down Praetorians despite Caeser mixing them with Chariots, Aggressive allowed me to promote them to Shock fast and then use a Great General for massive Combat II + Shock for odds, Philosophical got me to bulb Theocracy with a Prophet that let me trade it around and the resulting Construction let me build Odeons in all my Egypt conquests, which were not under attack, so they could get larger and keep my empire afloat. Darius building the AP and me switching to the dominant Daoism got a peace resolution and since Caeser was Daoist we became fine buddy.

Charlemagne was weak and at Knights I had enough to invade him with some help from Caeser, although Caeser bowed out quickly, and Gilgamesh, which let me take a lead in land size, but I was still down significantly in tech to Darius/Hammurabi for a long time. Caeser went into war making mode and I drafted a ton of Rifles to defend myself, which seemed to get him to back down, and ended up being winning: I beelined Assembly Line. Hammurabi and Darius had a Defensive Pact, which kept me from invading them like I wanted as I could not 1v2 them, but Gilgamesh invading Darius broke the pact, allowing me to take on Darius in a 2v1 and buy Caeser to fight Hammurabi 2v1. Kicked Darius a ton as he had to waste a ton of army against the giant army of Gilgamesh and then was going to roll over everyone decently easy until I won by AP. Really proud of this one! This takes over for the fastest win yet.

Game 23:

Leader: Huayna Capac (Game Name: Wham)
Civilization: Inca

Map: Tectonics
Climate: Random - Cold
Sea Level: Random - High
Landmass Type: Random
Aridity Level: Random

Opponents:
Pacal II - Maya
Montezuma - Aztec
Sitting Bull - Native America
Wang Kon - Korea
Stalin - Russia
Saladin - Arabia

Result:
Victory - Domination - 1580 AD
Score: 4901
Normalized Score: 113316
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: This game started with me popping Fishing AND Mining from a hut! The map turned out to be EXTREMELY small in land, like under 400 tiles, and if I had thought to check earlier I would have considered rejecting this map, but I wasn't going to stop after over 100 turns in. Sitting Bull and Wang Kon started right on my butt, my capital touched Wang Kon's borders and Sitting Bull's touched Wang Kon's from another side, I started with Copper but Wang Kon and Sitting Bull only had Iron, Axe rush was super easy and surprisingly low cost. Built up big, realized I already had 50% land area, rushed Astronomy to conquer stalin and Pacal. Turns out most people only had room for 2-4 cities, so my advantage was massive. I would have won sub-1500 AD but I made a bad attack and got HORRIBLE RNG for some fights. I guess it's only fitting the best Restricted Leader had everything stacked for him. To give you an idea, the next highest score was 883.

Game 24:

Leader: Louis XIV (Game Name: Clovis I)
Civilization: France

Map: Hemispheres
Climate: Random - Cold
Sea Level: Random - Low
Continens Size: Random
Islands Size: Random
Number of Continents: Random

Opponents:
Victoria - England
Sitting Bull - Native America
Pacal II - Maya
Gandhi - India
Hannibal - Carthage
Mansa Musa - Mali

Result:
Victory - Domination - 1917 AD
Score: 6670
Normalized Score: 57831
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: A fairly fun game, everyone except Mansa Musa started on a continent with 1 other civ, with me boxing in my neighbor England massively, Victoria wardeccing me but I easily handled it and conquered her with mass Elephants. I expanded well, had some good land, Pacal II actually killed Sitting Bull in the fog which was a surprise, but overall nobody could match my tech rate, and I conquered everyone but Mansa Musa with vastly superior tech and few losses. Flight is so good for late wars! #1 in all Demos except Exports/Imports.

Game 25:

Leader: Saladin (Game Name: Saladin the Paladin)
Civilization: Arabia

Map: Custom Continents
Climate: Random - Arid
Sea Level: Random - Medium
Number of Continents: Random

Opponents:
Hatshepsut - Egypt
Charlemagne - Holy Rome
Justinian I - Byzantine
Kublai Khan - Mongolia
Cyrus - Persia
Elizabeth - England

Results:
Victory - Spaceship - July, 2029 AD
Score:  4471
Normalized score: 9548
Leader Ranking: Shaka Zulu

Notes: This game was the hardest win yet I think, I expanded somewhat poorly due to poor starting terrain and going for a religious start necessitating going to Monotheism. The land around me was somewhat poor with a few decent spots (I had to found some early fishing villages just to get stuff out there!) and Kublai Khan, my continent partner, out-expanded me hard (at one point he had double my cities!). I beelined Camel Archers during the medieval era to try and rough up Kublai for territory and managed to snipe some border cities, which allowed me to nudge an advantage against him for a Curassier/Cavalry/Rifle rush later and get his territory. Cyrus was a massive runaway and invaded me due to at the time religious differences (I went to FR after) and I thought I was doomed due to his large amounts of Infantry/Artillery, but I actually managed to throw enough Cavs (which got better odds than I expected due to being able to make 3-promo caves due to GGs and Theocracy) and Rifles to stifle them out, he took one of my Mongolian cities by the end of it (he captured like 4 of my cities overall, but I recaptured most of them) and then I cashed out by offering him huge GPT (335!) to leave me alone.

Cyrus probably would have won if he didn't end up warring with Justinian later in the game, which seemed to make him not research Superconductors (the last Spaceship tech he needed) for a looong time. I should also note this game almost ended with no eliminations, with no civ being destroyed until the era of Tanks. I barely won and needed to use spies + full Espionage slider to sabotage Cyrus' Stasis Ship Part, which I barely did. He was over 2k ahead in score over me and near domination limit when I won. The end date was ABSURDLY late in this game, too: I doubt any game will go longer.

Game 26:

Leader: Bismarck (Game Name: Gottfried Ludolf Camphausen)
Civilization: Germany

Map: Hemispheres
Climate: Random - Rocky
Sea Level: Random - Medium
Number of Continents: Random
Continents Size: Random
Island Size: Random

Opponents:
Frederick - Germany
De Gaulle - France
Suryavarman - Khmer
Charlemagne - Holy Rome
Zara Yaqob - Ethiopia
Elizabeth - England

Result:
Victory - Spaceship - 1919 AD
Score: 5494
Normalized Score: 44820
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: At first, I was very worried about this game, as Frederick (my continent mate) expanded REALLY fast during my Oracle grab, we're talking 8 cities to 3. Fortunately, he expanded so hard he crashed his economy and stopped, while I built The Great Lighthouse and conquered a barb city. A nearby off-continent, large island (enough for 5~ cities) allowed me to realy take advantage of said Great Lighthouse and Frederick was so culturally pressured on one of his cities he flatout gifted it to me. My slower, more steady expansion allowed me to easily take the entire lower half of our continent as well, with my self-founded Judaism (from Theology via Great Prophet) allowed me to convert him to Judaism and ensure he would never attack me. I simply expanded more and teched better than anyone else, despite not going to war. This game almost had nobody die, but I conquered Suryavarman just to make sure Frederick (who also had good land and tech) wouldn't beat me to space. Super chill and easy game.

Game 27:

Leader: Julius Caeser (Game Name: Sulla)
Civilization: Rome

Map: Big and Small
Climate: Random - Tropical
Sea Level: Random - Medium
Continents Size: Random
Island Size: Random
Island Overlap: Random

Opponents:
Alexander - Greece
Augustus Caeser - Rome
Napoleon - France
Genghis Khan - Mongolia
Hatshepsut - Egypt
Ragnar - Vikings

Result:
Victory - Spaceship - 1965 AD
Score: 6144
Normalized Score: 31873
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser (But I am Julius!)

Notes: This was a fun map, with all civs save Ragnar on one big continent and Ragnar on a large island that was Galley reachable (which let Ragnar expand fine) right next to us. There were a lot of medium and small islands scattered through, so I abused The Great Lighthouse here. A weird narrow tunnel towards me made it so Genghis was kinda forced to expand at me, so I crushed him with Praetorians, which got me a lot of land (especially fertile jungleland) but did cede some of the middle of the map to Napoleon, who became a runaway. I was friends with Hatty and Augustus most of the game, but Hatty only had 4-5 cities for most of the game and Augustus kept getting warred against, I actually turned against Hatty and devoured all but 1 of her cities to get juicy diplo bonuses.

Sadly, I kinda bungled the end game: I thought my Tank advantage vs. Napoleon would let me conquer him, so I wardecced him, but his more backwards unities weren't backwards enough (he reached Infantry and slowly upgraded them during the war) and so it stalemated, with me only taking 1 mainland city (my wandering ocean Rifles/Infantry took an island city or two). I conquered half of Alexander (Napoleon joined in instead of wardeccing me, thank god) which was decisive, but Napoleon just had sooooo many spies and EP that my spaceship was repeatedly sabotaged and I was set back at least 20 turns by this spying, making this quite a late win.

Game 28:

Leader: Boudica (Game Name: Boudica the Goodica)
Civilization: Celts

Map: Big and Small
Climate: Random
Sea Level: Random
Continents Size: Random
Island Size: Random
Island Overlap: Random

Opponents:
Augustus Caeser - Rome
Kublai Khan - Mongolia
Frederick - Germany
Wang Kon - Korea
Cyrus - Persia
Victoria - England

Result:
Defeat - Concede (Killed) - 1942 AD
Score: 3356
Normalized Score: 4698
Leader Ranking: Warren G. Harding

Notes: I played this game with a loooooooong break in-between, so I don't really remember much, but I started in an awkward and hemmed off position. I actually positioned myself to win via some wars versus nearby Victoria, who expanded well, but Cyrus wardecced me late in the game and I was a bit slow on my earlier wars. When I conceded, he had well over 3x my power and had very decisively won a battle at my biggest science city against the bulk of my army and took it. With even tech, there was no chance at turning this around. I think this is the first game nobody died in.

Game 29:

Leader: Genghis Khan (Game Name: Temujin Khan)
Civilization: Mongolia

Map: Pangaea
Size: Large (Standard Size # of Leaders)
Climate: Random
Sea Level: Random
Shoreline: Random

Opponents:
Stalin - Russia
Qin Shi Huang - China
Cyrus - Persia
Gilgamesh - Sumeria
Willem van Oranje - The Netherlands
Boudica - Celts

Result:
Victory - Domination - 1850 AD
Score: 5678
Normalized Score: 88436
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: Double Marble, Corn, Rice and Pigs start AND popping Agriculture? Nice! This game was almost all random (I only selected China as a civ, not even the leader) and we rolled almost all people who had low appearances, Persia the highest with 4. Rushed down Gilgamesh ultra-early because he was way, way too close to my right side (I could see his capital's borders from mine!). He was even nice enough to build Stonehenge before he died, which paired excellently with my Oracle (Religious Genghis?!). I ended up riding this tide into a dominating game of warfare, consistantly keeping up my economy while pumping out Theology units that got super promoted thanks to a big stream of Great Generals. A brief 2v1 was only slightly worrisome, Cyrus really hated me, but overall this was a smash 'n' dash win.

Game 30:

Leader: Zara Yaqob (Game Name: Kwestantinos I)
Civilization: Ethiopia

Map: Big and Small
Size: Standard
Climate: Random
Sea Level: Random
Continents Size: Random
Island Size: Random
Island Overlap: Random

Opponents:
Pacal II - Maya
Lincoln - America
Joao II - Portugal
Brennus - Celts
Suryavaryman - Khmer
Sitting Bull - Native America

Result:
Victory - Spaceship - 1939 AD
Score: 5456
Normalized Score: 35612
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: What a weird starting map, I boxed in Pacal II a good deal but the land is sparse and a lot of icy, there's some places to go more by boat so The Great Lighthouse is very important to get (I did). Sitting Bull is leading the AIs when I meet them all?! Ended up doing a weird Oromo Rush on Pacal II's four cities where I wanted to mass draft but didn't have the tools so I mass built instead. I was originally just gonna try to go to space from there (tho I was considering military), but Lincoln foolishly wardecced on me when he was an era behind in tech to try and torch one of my iceballs on his island. Land Oromos + Rifles over, grab Cannons, trash him casually (Sury and Brennus joined for juicy diplo points!). From there, very easy and clean cruise to the finish line as Sitting Bull never sat down to develope well enough (and was a bit smaller than me) while Joao II and Brennus never got big enough. Sury did manage to survive with about 3 cities left from Sitting Bull to the end, though!

Game 31:

Leader: Hammurabi (Game Name: Hammer Rabbi)
Civilization: Babylon

Map: Tectonics
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Cold
Sea Level: Random - Medium
Landmass Type: Random
Aridity: Random

Opponents:
Gilgamesh - Sumeria
Hatshepsut - Egypt
Suleiman - Ottoman
Elizabeth - England
Frederick - Germany
Washington - America

Result:
Defeat - Culture Victory by Frederick - 1971 AD
Score: 1783
Normalized Score: 2495
Leader Ranking: Dan Quayle

Notes: I ended up being on a somewhat small (but not THAT puny) island with Gilgamesh, with Washington on his own island, Frederick/Elizabeth and Hatshepsut/Suleiman sharing their own islands. Washington didn't quite get to be a runaway because Suleiman did war him surprisingly successfully, Elizabeth instead was the tech runaway but Frederick went full bore on a cultural victory and was not called out. I went to war with Gilgamesh early due to poor land, but I didn't play it the best, and not realizing there were a few islands to his side I thought he had no metals when he did. The end result was me getting a peace because I thought I could come back in 10T and instead being rocked. With a small empire, I had basically no hope to win, and an attempted cultural victory was simply far too slow to do so. Elizabeth ended up launching a spaceship one turn before Frederick won. Shockingly, nobody died this game! Amazing. This game is very winnable, but not when played as bad as I did.

Game 32:

Leader: Ragnar (Game Name: Sweyn Forkbeard)
Civilization: Vikings

Map: Archipelago
Size: Standard
Climate: Random
Sea Level: Low
Landmass Type: Shaky Continents

Opponents:
Elizabeth - England
Hammurabi - Babylon
Wang Kon - Korea
Willem van Oranje - Netherlands
Peter - Russia
Zara Yaqob - Ethiopia

Result:
Victory - Spaceship - 1958 AD
Score: 4473
Normalized Score: 22413
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: 3960 BC pop Sailing as Ragnar? Hella! I ended up alone on my own large island with a smaller island close to me, while everyone else had larger but shared areas. I took longer to backfill my land than normal in order to grab multiple wonders thanks to my Marble: This put me behind in tech, Elizabeth led until the 1900s and I was behind for a long time, and I quite wondered if I could win, but I had more land and wonders like The Great Library, Pathenon and so on actually helped quite a bit. A war dec by Hammurabi nearly threw things into a blender and I momentarily lost one of my random weak cities due to not seeing a stack but got it back. This also led to the hilarious reptition of me paying Wang Kon repeatedly to go to war only to instantly get paid to go to peace. Ultimately I outscaled Elizabeth and won a handy if low scoring victory that felt quite solid. Surprisingly everyone lived yet again this game and it was hardly one where sea combat was required for eliminations (4 civs on the same continent). There were even a lot of wars, too. Bizarre.

Game 33:

Leader: Washington (Game Name: John Jay)
Civilization: America

Map: Custom Continents
Size: Standard
Climate: Random
Sea Level: Random
Number of Continents: Random

Opponents:
Churchill - England
Napoleon - France
Pericles - Greece
Pacal II - Maya
Suleiman - Ottoman
Zara Yaqob - Ethiopia

Result:
Victory - Culture - 1953 AD
Score: 3601
Normalized Score: 19793
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: A weird map! Reminds me of one of Sullla's games. One continent, the one I was on, was a giant S shape, the other a kind of b shape. My starting land was pretty good, especially my capital which was premium for commerce. I did make a mistake in not settling north fast enough, allowing Pericles to get some truly dumb and annoying cities in position. I actually was the runt of expansion early, although once I saw Greece settling I did make a rush for it. What really won me the game was going all out on a Knight rush: I planned to hit Pericles at first, but Suleiman's war dec against my other neighbor Churchill made him a premium target. I would end up conquering him entirely, although I needed to come back with Curassier which allowed me to do a round of building. I could have done this better nonetheless, I feel. I ended up sniping three cities from Pericles before cashing out fast (he was Friendly with me before the war, which seemed to help cashing out): Napoleon wardecced me and landed about 20 units that temporarily took one of my backline cities, but it was mostly Knights and Cannons so my Rifles (I had Rifling at this point) ended up recapturing it with some emergency drafting. Everyone except Napoleon was doing fairly good by the end: I probably would have run away with it if I set up science, but I think the culture win ended up around 20 turns faster. Decently solid game. Unsurprisingly low score given the mediocre end date + low in game score: The lowest win since the very first Frederick game!

Game 34:

Leader: Elizabeth (Game Name: Mary I)
Civilization: England

Map: Hemispheres
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Cold
Sea Level: Random - Medium
Number of Continents: Random
Continents Size: Random
Islands: Random

Opponents:
Joao II - Portugal
Isabella - Spain
Mehmed II - Ottoman
Justinian I - Byzantine
Peter - Russia
Gilgamesh - Sumeria

Result:
Victory - Diplomacy - 1844 AD
Score: 4816
Normalized Score: 69599
Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: I would like to dedicate this victory to Mehmed II, who did not appear in a game for 34 games and then had one of the worst performances from an AI I've seen yet. Peter was like 1 diplo point from voting for me first election, which held back by victory date but fortunately it was still my 2nd fastest so far (and the Incan game was accidentally cheesy, so you can argue this is the "true" fastest game). This game had a fun continental setup: Isabella, Joao and Peter were in the middle with a huge continent, while me, Mehmed, Justinian and Gilgamesh were on pairs of continents with one person Galleyable and the others not. Me/Mehmed and Justinian/Gilgamesh were the pairs. My land was pretty sweet, but small: Fortunately, Mehmed was reachable by Galley and he just...didn't expand. He sat on three cities for so long I thought he got stuck on some small crappy island, but no. Maybe he had barb issues? Casually conquered him with Knights, had a strong tech lead, I had beelined Astronomy in case of settleable islands but it instead turned into conquering Justinian with Redcoats and Cannons which was ultra casual. Since Gilgamesh was Friendly with me, I went for the early diplo victory. Peter didn't vote for me the first round as the Bureacracy civic help had not gotten high enough: I had dozens of Tanks rolling off the factory lines at the end to go conquer Joao (who had wardecced Peter) if he didn't vote for me.

Game 35:

Leader: Justinian I (Game Name: Theodora)
Civilization: Byzantine

Map: Medium And Small
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Rocky
Sea Level: Random - Medium
Continents Size: Random
Islands Size: Random
Island Overlap: Random

Opponents:
Mehmed II - Ottoman
Darius I - Persia
Zara Yaqob - Ethiopia
Augustus Caeser - Rome
Sitting Bull - Native America
Darius I - Persia
Hammurabi - Babylon

Result:
Victory - Domination - 1923 AD
Score: 5834
Normalized Score: 51006
Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: This game had a 7 month gap into it pretty late, so honestly I remember almost nothing of it, but it was a pretty wonky water/island heavy map script, more like Archipelago. I absolutely could have won sooner but it would have required significant micromanaging when I had the game well in hand, so I probably lost 10 or more turns of victory time, it was pretty easy overall.

Game 36:

Leader: Ramesses II (Game Name: Ozymandias)
Civilization: Egypt

Map: RandomMapScript (Excluding Terra)
Size: Standard
Climate: Arid
Sea Level: Random - High

Opponents:

Ragnar - Viking
Washington - America
Justinian I - Byzantine
Suleiman - Ottoman
Wang Kon - Korea
Hannibal - Carthage

Result:
Victory - Space - 1939 AD
Score: 6869
Normalized Score: 43897
Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: Computer issues until I got a new board make this very hard to remember early, save that I rushed down Ragnar with War Chariots from a cramped position that gave me a big chunk of a 4-civ continent (me, Ragnar, Justinian and Washington). Rushed Knights to cut Justinian off before he got Cataphracts, then came back with Rifles and Cavalry to finish him off (and backstab Washington, although Suleiman finished his offshore settlements). Space was easy after that as while Suleiman had a large empire his research was exceedingly poor. Wang Kon ended up dying too to Suleiman and Hannibal, though.

Game 37:

Leader: Wang Kon (Game Name: King Taejo)
Civilization: Korea

Map: Archipelago
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Rocky
Sea Level: Low

Opponents:

Willem van oranje - Netherlands
Huanya Capac - Inca
Gilgamesh - Sumeria
Pacal II - Maya
Suleiman - Ottoman
Charlemagne - Holy Rome

Results:

Victory - Space - 1947 AD
Score: 5346
Normalized Score: 32438
Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: This start was an isolated one, although it turned out Willem was on his own fairly close and isolated island, with the rest of the civs sharing their own continent. This was overall good but I was fairly slow at expanding, in part due to barbarian influence (two barb cities popped up) but I also tied myself up a bit too much on wonders and buildings I think. Nonetheless I had a pretty solid start and was able to secure a large empire alone. I ended up rushing Willem down with largely Infantry along with some previous Rifles, him discovering Machine guns partway through did not slow me much as he had already been beat up so much he couldn't really field them in force. With all that land, I then simply teched to space in peace, winning the game easily but more slowly than I wished. I feel I played this game suboptimally.

Game 38:

Leader: Catherine (Game Name: Elizabeth Petrovna)
Civilization: Russia

Map: Custom Continents
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Arid
Sea Level: Random - High
Number of Continents: Random

Opponents:

Mehmed II - Ottoman
Frederick - Germany
Saladin - Arabia
Isabella - Spain
Joao II - Portugal
Lincoln - America

Result:

Victory - Space - 1984 AD
Score: 4434
Normalized Score: 17153
Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: The setup was 4 continents, each with a pair + Joao II all alone...except America on my continent managed to die to barbarians on Turn 31?! It would appear a barbarian event, possibly in addition to a bad goodie hut (as I noticed one I was going to take was gone yet never found a scouting unit), led to the death of America. The end result was an isolated start akin to my last game, ideal for Catherine but there was a LOT of barb issues, given it started with a barbarian event maybe that made it more intense? It did allow me to rush Horse Archers and take Washington, but my expansion was slowed a lot and economy was subpar for quite a while. Once I got my full continent I had more land than most without warring, Saladin ended up with a larger empire and higher score but I was vastly out-teching him. Never fought a war, but damn was this a slow win. Could have won a diplo victory on Turn 357/1937 AD (still would have been slow) but was short 20 votes. One of my weakest wins.

Game 39:

Leader: De Gaulle (Game Name: Charles de Gaulle)
Civilization: France

Map: Pangaea
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Tropical
Sea Level: Random - High
Shoreline: Random

Opponents:

Bismarck - Germany
Napoleon - France
Hannibal - Carthage
Mao Zedong - China
Churchill - England
Ragnar - Viking

Result:

Victory - Domination - 1884 AD
Score: 6188
Normalized Score: 67502
Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: I went into this hoping to get off a Musketeer rush and it worked out well. Snagged the traditional De Gaulle Stonehenge, managed to expand out far enough to be able to backfill reasonably. Ragnar ended up getting warred upon a few times due to religion and exhausted himself while being on my borders, so I went to Nationalism + Gunpowder early to Musketeer rush him. It went well, but there was an unexpected element that through it all into whack: Hannibal! He was my neighbor and since he won't declare on Pleased, I felt the fact we had a shared religion for that kept my flank safe. But then he built the SHWEDAGON PAYA of all things and swapped to Free Religion, going to Cautious and declaring war on me! We also had a lot of border tension, especially as I took a barb city in his backlines. This flank attack was very spooky and I had to pull back and drat a lot, 2 move Musketeers helped a lot, so I held pretty well aside from having to deal with more unhappiness. I would not forget this: Once Gilgamesh died, my much larger empire teched up to Infantry and killed Hannibal quite dead as vengeance, taking some pretty nice land for myself. I then just rolled up to Tanks and conquered everyone else, none of whom stood out much all game.

Game 40:

Leader: Pericles (Game Name: Mekanicles)
Civilization: Greece

Map: RandomScriptMap
Size: Sandard
Climate: Random - Arid
Sea Level: Random - Low

Opponents:

Kublai Khan - Mongolia
Stalin - Russia
Pacal II - Maya
Gilgamesh - Sumeria
Gandhi - India
Churchill - England

Result:
Victory - Domination - 1930 AD
Score: 7419
Normalized Score: 59818
Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: I could NOT remember if I got the Aladdin TV Series reference right for his name, lol. This was another game with a particularly desert-y Arid climate (https://i.imgur.com/18FEJzf.jpg https://i.imgur.com/D345I0U.jpg), with me + Stalin + Kublai + Pacal on the same continent. Gandhi ended up on a very small island with a ton of small islands nearby that hurt him, while Churchill ended up on a medium continent on his own plus the same small Gandhi islands and did better. Diplo was a mess: Kublai founded Buddhism while Pacal II founded Judaism and spread it to Stalin. One would think this would make Pacal and Stalin natural allies, but Pacal declared war on Stalin BEFORE Stalin picked up the religion and so poisoned their relationship. Everyone kinda just hated everyone. I managed to expand very nicely as Pacal was off warring against Stalin and also expanded almost entirely northwards, while Kublai started far away from me and the shape of the continent meant Kunlai (who hated Stalin due to religion and wouldn't open borders) cut him off. My land wasn't the best, multiple cities with just desert and water, but I got more of them out quicker and used that to open up a widening tech lead.

I actually did not declar war until very late in the game, around 1700 AD with mass drafted rifles, as all three of my opponents kept lots of units on hand and mostly kept close enough I didn't have a decisive tech lead. But I got to rifling quickly, mass drafted + built them and knocked down Kublai very quickly. Pacal II I knew would get Rifles before I got to kill him, so I teched up to Tanks and somewhat neglected economy so that after killing Kublai and a cooldown period I could amass Tanks + Bombers to take out Pacal. Pacal did manage to get Infantry and put up an actually pretty obstinate fight that slowed my victory, but he went down all the same. At that point everyone was behind Pacal in tech and smaller, so they were easy to kill. I had hoped Stalin would have enough land for me to win Domination but I came up short, so I built Transports and conquered Churchill AND Gandhi at the same time to win by Domination. I ended up the game with over 80% of the world population, so yeah. A deserved high score here!

Game 41:

Leader: Mao Zedong (Game Name: Chiang Kai-shek)
Civilization: China

Map: Tectonics
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Rocky
Sea Level: Random - Medium
Landmass Type: Random
Aridity Level: Random

Opponents:

Tokugawa - Japan
Huanya Capac - Inca
Julius Caeser - Rome
Gilgamesh - Sumeria
Joao II - Portugal
Elizabeth - England

Result:
Victory - Culture - 1945 AD
Score: 4313
Normalized Score: 27290
Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: The rocky climate made my continent HILARIOUSLY Plains heavy, with Caeser and Huanya (my northern neighbors) having multiple cities which could only work Plains tiles. And I also had this issue! Beijing and Shanghai, my first two cities, were almost entirely Plains. One thing I had going for me is that Shanghai was in front of a narrow 1-tile wide gap between peaks tiles that seperated the north and south of me and Rome. By planting it, I made it entirely impossible for Rome or Inca to settle the south except by boat. Huanya and Rome both had plenty of room to expand while I backfilled, but it also allowed me to ignore the spots for a while and go more military. The end result was killing Huanya with a mix if Cho-Ko-Nu and Macemen that ripped apart his Longbows. It was extremely bloody (adding Knights later helped) but gave me a huuuuge land area. Rome did end up attacking me after I killed Huanya, a smart move that led to a lot of tense defense, but I managed to hold him off and came back later with Cavalry to take over about 70% of his empire. I did sign peace before finishing him off though to get infrastructure in, then came back and took his last 3~ cities with Tanks. Wanted to get out from war weariness!

I did not have an ideal culture setup but it was still faster than space, as I had a kinda poor commerce area. I think I still would have won space but Joao II and Gilgamesh both had large empires, so it would have been tight. Getting a +54 culture per turn Sid's Sushi helped a lot via seafood and I built all the culture wonders. It was still a slow finish date but I won by a decent chunk. Also Elizabeth declared war at the end with highly outdated units, I just cleaned them up and signed peace.

Game 42:

Leader: Suleiman (Game Name: Suleiman the Lawmaker)
Civilization: Ottoman

Map: Pangaea
Size: Standard
Climate: Random
Sea Level: Random
Shoreline: Random

Opponents:

Charlmagne - Holy Rome
Joao II - Portugal
Darius I - Persia
Hammurabi - Babylon
Genghis Khan - Mongolia
Qin Shi Huang - China

Results:
Defeat! - Charlmagne Invasion - 1967 AD
Score: 2093
Normalized Score: 2929
Ranking: Dan Quayle

Notes: Oof, this one hurt. I was stuck in a kind of boxed in position with Genghis Khan and Darius I, along with to a degree Charlemagne, which kept me on a low number of cities although I managed to squeeze a fair few out including numerous coastal and filler cities. Darius declared war on me early and due to the structure of my start I actually lacked metal early! He ended up conquering 1 of my cities and nearly ending my game by taking a 2nd as the city he took had my copper, but I had beelined Horseback Riding and managed to whip out enough Horse Archers to beat him back, then to retake my city. I got lucky here: A nearby Barbarian city distracted Darius and he wasted about 5 turns taking it over. I ended up getting to capture that and another Darius city as well...but unfortunately Hammurabi, literally the furthest person away from me, sent over an entire stack and declared war! This put the kabosh on any further conquest (which seemed unlikely) but I did hold fairly easily. I had built up some Knights in hopes of conquering Darius I at this point (which in retrospect had no chance of working) and ended up sending them halfway across the world for fun, I actually captured one of Hammurabi's cities! In retrospect I should have just razed it since I had no chance to hold.

Ultimately I fell behind due to subpar land and the early invasions taking their toll. Joao II also became a runaway AI who swallowed up Qin and Hammurabi while Charlemagne also made gains such as against Genghis. In retrospect I stuck too close to Genghis as an ally and should have turned on him sooner despite our religious bloc: I only ended up getting a few cities but could have gotten most of his core, which also would have helped avoid border tensions with Charlemagne. With no hope to out tech but multiple religions in my borders (and IIRC Sistine) I slammed on for a Cultural Victory. I was 20T away and almost certainly going to beat Joao II's Spaceship (which I estimate at 25~ turns) when Charlemagne invaded me with 3x the army and Tanks vs. Machine Guns. I retired when he took my 3rd Legendary City.

Game 43:

Leader: Roosevelt (Game Name: Eleanor Roosevelt)
Civilization: America

Map: Continents
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Cold
Sea Level: Random - High

Opponents:
Churchill - England
Frederick - Germany
De Gaulle - France
Julius Caeser - Rome
Tokugawa - Japan
Qin Shi Huang - China

Result:

Defeat - Caeser Invasion/Spaceship - 2026 AD
Score: 645
Normalized Score: 902
Ranking: Dan Quayle

Notes: Similar to my Shaka loss, this an an "Ah...oops!" loss that was entirely my own fault. I settled fairly aggressively towards Caeser and was late hooking up my Iron due to chopping out a wonder with Worker turns. I also did not research Archery quickly, staying with Chariots on defense despite knowing Caeser had Praetorians.  The end result was Caeser declaring war and killing me. So, why the super late end date? Well, I managed to sneak a Galley onto a two tile large island before I died, and gave Caeser a tech for peace. For fun, I decided to just keep playing the game until I died, but Caeser never came back to finish me off, nor did anyone else. I even ended up managing to land two settlers on the other continent and finish with three cities! It was actually kind of fun min-maxing my little one city challenge and allowed it to get above some of my losses. Caeser would have won earlier but he just could NOT resist going to war forever but failed to meet Domination due to a Friendly Frederick.

Game 44:

Leader: Churchill (Game Name: Winston Churchill)
Civilization: England

Map: Hemispheres
Size: Standard
Climate: Random
Sea Level: Random
Continents Size: Random
Islands Size: Random
Number of Continents: Random

Opponents:

Julius Caeser - Rome
Isabella - Spain
Wang Kon - Korea
Peter - Russia
Shaka - Zulu
Asoka - India

Result:

Victory - Culture - 1913 AD
Score: 3599
Normalized Score: 30715
Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: This was a pretty casual stroll to a victory. I started on my own continent, but Caeser was contactable from a very nearby continent. His Judaism spread to me, I adopted it and we became lifelong buddies. Isabella was tied up constantly fighting Caeser in a seemingly endless war while Shaka frequently fought Asoka or Wang Kon and Wang Kon fought Peter with various religious diplomacy going on. This left me free to build. My continent was a unique shape with a kind of "island" I started on with room for about 5 cities, then a very long land bridge that could account for one city, then another "island" with room for about 4 cities. In additon, I was able to squeeze in about 2 extra cities just to work unused tiles or the ocean. There also were some nearby islands, where I was able to plant roughly 4 additional cities (and get domestic overseas trade routes!). In the end I was able to build a large civilization entirely peacefully and blow by the competition: I never entered a single war!

Since a bunch of religions had spread to me and I had a high food spot, I went for Culture after making sure I had a firm military lead and won at a solid date.

Game 45:

Leader: Gandhi (Game Name: Grandhi)
Civilization: India

Map: Big and Small
Size: Standard
climate: Random - Temperate
Sea Level: Random - Low
Continents Size: Random
Islands Size: Random
Island Overlap: Random

Opponents:

Charlmagne - Holy Rome
Shaka - Zulu
Isabella - Spain
Justinian I - Byzantine
Suryavarman II - Khmer
Lincoln - America

Result:

Victory - Spaceship - 1969
Score: 4759
Normalized Score: 22424
Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: This victory was as weak as the scoring suggests. I had a total bomb-ass Capital with 2x Corn, 2x Clam and 1x Crab, but the settings produced an actually super Island heavy map and despite the Temperate climate my starting lonely island was almost entirely Desert and Tundra, a lot of my production had to come from a Moai Statue + Lumbermills fourth city to give you an idea and my early production was carried by a city with 3 seafood resources, 3 desert hills and no other non-water tiles. I did manage to get a decent island empire going, including a 3-city island near me that had a pair of solid cities, but a lot were two seafood + nothing else. Charlemagne also managed to land two Settlers on my main land and snipe two of the more valuable city spots from me, but fortunately they were so out of place I could casually conquer them with a handful of Swords and Maces. Winning with the land I had would have been impossible, especially as Lincoln actually had a huge island empire, but I was able to beeline Rifling + get Astronomy from Liberalism with the end result of Rifle rushing Justinian (my island was an AWESOME drafting camp!). It did still take a while since he had a lot of units, actually had naval superiority due to more Frigates / Ships of the Line and got Rifles near the end (fortunately by that point I had Cannons and Infantry). After that, standar but slow space.

Oh, and this game was a bloodbath without any kills (aside from my kill on Justinian). Justinian, Charlmagne and Isabella ALL had different religions and so hate that, but on top of that Shaka went to a minority religion nobody practiced in Taoism and of course also was Shaka. Shockingly despite horrid expansion shaka never died. Sury went to Isabella's religion, but the two fought constantly, likely because they were on the same land mass. Only Lincoln largely avoided it, thanks to picking up Holy Rome's religion but avoiding conflict since everyone just kept fighting each other.

Game 46:

Leader: Stalin (Game Name: Leon Trotsky)
Civilization: Russia

Map: Pangaea
Size: Standard
Climate: Random
Sea Level: Random
Shoreline: Random

Opponents:

Mao zedong - China
Mansa Musa - Mali
Pacal II - Maya
Gilgamesh - Sumeria
Ragnar - Viking
Wang Kon - Korea

Result:

Victory - Diplomatic - 1954 AD
Score: 5610
Normalized Score: 28658
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: Everyone was supreeemely cramped in this game! Mansa, myself, Pacal and Mao all had our second cities end up touching at least one of each other's capitals because we were all so close. In this regard I held an advantage, as I had more backline to expand into, but at the same time a lot of it was very weak tundra or ice as well. Mao, at my flank, was the one to declar war on me, while others remained peaceful or specifically went to war with Ragnar, the only one practicing a minority religion (everyone else was Hinduist until Free Reigion made Mansa and Wang Kon go Free Religion)! Mao's invasion wasn't too impressive as he got stuck bombarding a city with 2 Catapults, but I totally bungled my own invasion. While I took his capital and some other cities quickly, I made the foolish mistake of trying to advance too deep to decapitate his main production center rather than conquering more methodically. Mao got Cho-Ko-Nu while I did so and while I tried to reinforce to bombard, I was never able to adequately do so and my stack was wiped out, requiring more strict Musket drafting and stack creation. If I had conquered more sensibly I could have ended the war sooner and spent less production. This most certainly cost me in win date by some number of turns.

Ragnar had been Obliterated via AP (literally everyone in the world wardecced on him!) by me, with Gilgamesh taking most of the spoils and becoming my main opponent. Mansa also remained quite a threat, however. He also had fought Pacal II earlier and cut a dagger into his territory, leaving him with only a few cities. After some brief economy rebuilding and Pacal II going to a heathen religion, I was able to cut him down and take his few cities to help as well. Gilgamesh was plotting war for well over 30 turns but never declared, quite strange. I actually had a spaceship victory in 12 turns, but Gilgamesh built the UN and I ended up winning by 4 votes. I had avoided going to Mass Media because I did not want to obsolete the AP's production bonus, but given my diplomatic situation I should have considered doing so to try and win earlier. I was pretty ahead in most metrics by the time I won and no threat to die.

Game 47:

Leader: Suryavarman II (Game Name: Suryavastman II)
Civilization: Khmer

Map: Pangaea
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Arid
Sea Level: Random - Medium
Shoreline: Random

Opponents:

Gilgamesh - Sumeria
Zara Yaqob - Ethiopia
Willem van Oranje - Netherlands
Montezuma - Aztec
Hannibal - Carthage
Shaka - Zulu

Result:

Defeat - Conquest (Multiple Invaders) - 1580 AD
Score: 1329
Normalized Score: 1858
Leader Ranking: Dan Quayle

Notes: War, war, war! With a group of leaders almost entirely war-like, only willem is at around average aggression, I knew this was gonna be a fighting game. But unfortunately I wasn't able to get out from under it. Gilgamesh's initial war declaration not only was fine but looked like it could be beneficial, as I was able to quite easily repel him and begin building up Ballista Elephants. Too bad everyone else kept joining in! Hannibal declared war on me around when I was going to take more than one Gilgamesh city and while he was probably purchased in he still slowed things down. Then a few turns after I got Hannibal to peace out for cheap, Shaka marched his army halfway across the globe to attack me as well! What should have been a very simple invasion, Gilgamesh's border city had like 2 Archers, a Spear and an Axe, by the time I was actually able to invade it had Longbows and a Pike. Fortunately the invasion force was easily enough to take the city but I had to peace out after that rather than casually conquering Gilgamesh like I planned. Also since Gilgamesh spent so long at war with me, Montezuma got a huuuge amount of land and was able to snowball it into killing Zara due to huge peaceful expansion. In the end my economy was getting on track but Shaka, Gilgamesh AND Montezuma declared war on me in the span of 5 turns and so I had less than 0 chance (one of Monty's super stacks was as big as my entire army and Shaka had Curs while I did not have Rifles).

Game 48:

Leader: Montezuma (Game Name: Monty the Cheesemaker)
Civilization: Aztec

Map: Fractal
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Temperate
Sea Level: Random - Low

Opponents:

Isabella - Spain
Justinian I - Byzantine
Mehmed II - Ottoman
Asoka - India
Boudica - Celts
Gilgamesh - Sumeria

Result:

Victory - Domination - 1919
Score: 6816
Normalized Score: 61058
Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: Pretty much a perfectly clean game. The religious situation was a mess: Isabella naturally founded her own religion, but Asoka beat Justinian to the punch and landed his buddhism. Where it got really crazy was when MEHMED founded the third religion through some arcane sorcery, which led Justinian to found the FOURTH religion and all of them to stick to their own self founded religions, fostering plenty of hatred and emnity. Gilgamesh and Boudica were on another continent and interestingly never picked up a single founded religion as all the nuts on our continent took them all. This did allow Asoka to make them all buddhist by getting to them with Caravels first. I wanted no part in this mess and stayed non-religious. I got to tech peacefully, the religious shakedown largely led to the AI dogpiling the rather weak Isabella...but Isabella did beat them to the Apostolic Palace! I had the votes to decide the "Stop the war" resolution and used it to stop the war only when Isabella was near the end when she was down to few cities. She actually ended up getting multiple cities back via AP resolutions, which I was all too happy to vote for as it hurt all of the civs nearby!

I teched up to Curassier for a pretty classic rush, but I made the mistake of forgetting I had no Iron, meaning I couldn't build them! I ended up having to tech to Cavalry, which honestly may have worked out best either way as it allowed me to roll over Mehmed with a lot more easy, eating him up without many losses. The excessive cavalry I built up allowed me to move right on to Justinian not long after, but by that time Asoka had reached tech parity, so I ended up teching to Tanks to finish him off (Tanks and Bomber vs. Infantry is no contest, let alone my more than 2x larger empire). In retrospect, if I just built an insane amount of cavs I could have possibly won a lot earlier. I unfortunately was a few tiles short of Domination with Isabella's one city left, so I had to kill her (which took only 1 turn, but I thought it would have been fun to keep her alive). Pretty easy game.

Game 49:

Leader: Pacal II (Game Name: Lady Sak K'uk)
Civilization: Maya

Map: Custom Continents
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Tropical
Sea Level: Random - High
Number of continents: Random

Opponents:

Mansa Musa - Mali
Sitting Bull - Native America
Mao Zedong - China
Julius Caeser - Rome
Charlemagne - Holy Rome
Suryavarman II - Khmer

Result:

Victory - Culture - 1908
Score: 2447
Normalized score: 21678
Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: There wasn't a lot to say about this game. The biggest challenge came early, as I settled somewhat slowly to pick up some wonders and had to get pretty fast on expanding to keep Mansa from out-expanding me on our shared island. I took a barb city and expanded strongly though, pretty easily snagging enough city spots to be competitive, and changing to Mansa's religion to become best buddies. Me and him founded a TON of religions and I managed to pick up Sistine, so I just went on a full-on cultural plan once we got to the midgame. I was somewhatslowed down by both Sury and Caeser launching non-sensical wars against me, but I figured the aggro civs might and had teched up to Machine Guns: Since they were so ass-backwards these were still ahead far into the game and just getting a few out quickly ended any invasions. It did cost me around 10T of victory date, though.

Game 50:

Leader: Cyrus (Game Name: Cyrus the Younger)
Civilization: Persia

Map: Pangaea
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Arid
Sea Level: Random - Low

Opponents:

Alexander - Greece
Hammurabi - Babylon
Ramesses II - Egypt
Hannibal - Carthage
Zara Yaqob - Ethiopia
Asoka - India

Results:

Victory - Diplomatic - 1806
Score: 3674
Normalized Score: 57796
Leader Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: This was a fun game with a surprisingly early diplomatic finish! The arid climate was heavily on display, with a looot of desert around. Me, Ramesses, Hammurabi and Hannibal were crammed on the left side of the map while Zara, Asoka and Alexander were more open to the right. This made getting out to expan quickly, fortunately my Imperialistic trait went to good use there! My third city of Persepolis was probably my most important, a strong-if-somewhat-jungled spot with Corn, Horses and almost all Grassland but with two hills to help out with early production. Better than that was that it neatly sealed off Hammurabi or Ramesses from expanding towards me, allowing me to do so more freely. Ramesses ended up with a mere 4 cities, while Hammurabi managed 5 thanks to a random one tile island. Hannibal cutting off Ramesses helped, with my fourth city of Sogdia helping cut Hannibal off from expanding TOO hard against me. Him and Zara would war repeatedly in this game, almost always initiated by Zara whose Buddhism went against the world dominant Christianity. Asoka also went to war repeatedly due to his minority religion, but was unable to make any gains.

While I was able to get out more cities than most at 10, a lot of them ended up with rather poor territory of ice, tundra and desert. So I was actually pretty close in this game to the AI. I knew I had to expand, so I went to Guilds to prepare to Knight rush Ramesses down, but things did not go as planned. Alexander had been declaring war willy-nilly all game and set his sights on Ramesses, with Alexander part of the Buddhist block while Ramesses was Christian and controlled the AP. The end result was everyone in the world wardeccing Alexander! The other thing that happened was Ramesses got Pikes, with enough units I decided to abandon my war thoughts...for Ramesses. While Alexander was halfway across the world I knew he would be weak, so I sent them all to Greece hoping to snipe some cities. But Alexander was so far behind that my big stack of Knights could cut through it well. I opportunely snuck around the AI sieging his cities, struck ones with weak defenders and struck at cities they were sieging prematurely to take them with heavier losses. The end result was that of Alexander's 6 cities, I took 5 of them! Zara took Knossos to start, but that was it. They KILLED me in maintanence due to distance for a big chunk of the game, but once I got to be communist I had a clear lead. Zara wardeccing so much made him have a malus with a lot of people, so I built the UN and since he was my opponent won a solid diplo victory.

Game 51:

Leader: Joao II (Game Name: The J-Man)
Civilization: Portugal

Map: Inland Sea
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Tropical
Sea Level: Random - High

Opponents:

Suleiman - Ottoman
Ragnar - Viking
Stalin - Russia
Huanya Capac - Inca
Boudica - Celts
Pericles - Greece

Result:

Defeat - Ragnar Invasion - 1820
Score: 3051
Normalized Score: 4269
Leader Ranking: Warren G. Harding

Notes: This game was going perfectly right up until it wasn't. I had a really strong expansive start, using Joao's traits fully to expand purely peacefully out to 2 more cities than my opponents. I did wreck my economy doing so, for a few turns I was having to finangle cities to not lose gold at 0%!,  but I had still done it carefully enough to pull myself out of said hole fairly easily. Grabbing The Great Lighthouse helped a lot despite only having 3-4 coastal cities, and one I got Currency and some cottages matured my economy started to really take off and I was firmly up in the pack in tech (though not the leader, Suleiman and at times Ragnar was). I beelined Knights, then had enough time to snag Curassier and pretty casually overrun a week Stalin. This was a pretty classic and strong start overall!

It all went downhill about 5 turns aftr that, starting with Huanya Capac declaring war on me. This would have been fine by itself, lead to a loss of a few Stalin cities followed by recapturing them, but then about 3 turns later Boudica jumped in too! I lost three of the Russian cities I had captured pretty quickly as they both had huge, fresh armies while mine had been battered by killing Stalin. Fortunately, I had Rifling on the horizon. Mass drafting Rifles while building Cavalry all over allowed me to retake the three Stalin cities I had lost and get peace. Speaking of Stalin, I did have one piece of bad luck with him: Corinth. Stalin had taken ONE random Greek city halfway across the world, which I sent some Curassier after. But they failed at 77%+ and 90%+ odds to take the city. Because of this, Stalin was alive the entire time I fought Huanya/Boudica, which wouldn't have been a huge issue were it not for Ragnar controlling the AP. He constantly tried to put through resolutions to give my conquered cities back to Stalin since he still had culture in them which I had to defy. Aside from losing the AP hammer bonus, I had to amp up my spending on culture to deal with the 5 unhappiness. If I had just taken that Stalin city, I would have never had to defy and would have teched significantly better! And if there weren't city resolutions, Ragnar may have put up a dogpile resolution vs. Boudica or Huanya as he had Hinduism like us while they were ardent Buddhists.

I actually took the tech lead after finishing the war, but I think I should have delayed economy more to beeline Assembly Line as I knew I would be attacked though I suspected it from Huanya or Boudica. Ragnar ended up attacking me instead with a massive army that had Artillery, SAM Infantry an discovered Infantry at the start while I still had Cavs and Rifles. I think if I had teched Assembly Line I could have held here as I could build Infantry very fast, could swap to Nationalism to draft and had a lot of interior lines of reinforcement. Instead I was 8T from Assembly Line and had no way to realistically defend myself long enough. I surrendered before he took any cities but played on to see if I could actually win and yeah he's too fast for me to get to Infantry and it to matter.

Game 52:

Leader: Tokugawa (Game Name: Oda Nobunaga)
Civilization: Japan

Map: Inland Sea
Size: Standard
Climate: Random - Rocky
Sea Level: Random - Medium

Opponents:

Roosevelt - America
Genghis Khan - Mongolia
Louis XIV - France
Catherine - Russia
Saladin - Arabia
Alexander - Greece

Results:

Victory - Spaceship - 1958
Score: 6522
Normalized Score: 34130
Ranking: Augustus Caeser

Notes: Opponent choice was based on the people seen the least often in this challenge, with Arabia being the lowest Civilization and the rest being the only leads to appear less than three times (Louis and Catherine only appeared once each!). After that "lowest" was ties, so I simply set it to random to add some spice. My starting spot was a pretty dangerous one, wedged between Genghis and Alexander, which at least let me know I was gonna be in for a fighting game! Most of my expansion for premium spots went to Alexander, which left a bit of a hole for Genghis Khan to expand into and led me to do something I hadn't done in a while: An Ancient Age rush! My huge stack of Swords and axes crashed against Genghis, I actually got some really awful combat luck here, which meant that I only took two cities. If I hadn't lost about 3 Swors to 70%+ odds, I probably could have taken a third. Nonetheless I took Genghis' holy city along with a border city that allowed my nearby Moai city to work a lot more tiles, on top of that it allowed me to capture a barbarian city under it that while crappy still helped me out. Catherine declaring on Genghis assured he would remain an always-ran, while Alexander consumed Roosevelt.

I was teching up to Knights while keeping an eye on Catherine's slow conquest of Genghis, but she managed to take his capital without me noticing, which made me realize I had to act fast. I actually went to 0% gold and upgraded all my surviving Ancient Age units to Maces while taking my small force of Knights (didn't have time to make a lot of them!) and thrusting at Genghis. The position of cities I took was a huge edge, allowing me to strike at Genghis' border cities much more effectively than Catherine. We ended up splitting the cities 4 to 4, but one of Catherine's was a really useless tundra city I got to culturally dominate, and Karakorum was culturally struck as well (although one of my cities had  that issue too). I also had room to backfill an extra city in Genghis' lands. Me, Alexander and Catherine all were in competition for the most land at this point while me, Catherine, Saladin and to a degree Louis were the tech leaders. Louis ended up war deccing on Catherine and hurting her ability to consoliate. I knew Alexander would declare on me at some point (different religions, it's Alexander), so I went right to Military Tradition and Rifling ASAP for Rifles and Cavalry. This turned out to be very important, as Alexander declared war basically the same turn I was finishing up Military Tradition. He has well over 70 units at the height of his swarming! He was behind me in tech but he DID have Grenadiers, so even with mass drafted Rifles + building Cavalry and Rifles it was extremely touch and go. If he hadn't stopped to bombard for so long or had Cannons (which would have made him siege MUST faster) I would have lost some cities, which could have spelled doom for my chances at victory or even outright killed me as he was attacking my most valuable cities first.

Over about 15 turns I cut down his entire army, at which point I had won the war: My empire was more advanced and had units survive while his entire stack was cut own and I had much stronge units, which led to winning more battles, surviving and snowballing out. Alexander was consumed fairly quickly, leaving me much above the other civs. But Catherine and Saladin signing a Defensive Pact made me think I could lose the 2v1, so I just went Space Race. Casual win. Louis somehow survived the entire game despite Saladin and Catherine's wars.