Before we get started on the expansion phase - here is a little shot of what my workers have been working on for the past 300 or so years ... forts ... and lots of them ...
I've populated my little India-shaped part of this land and captured a few ex-Barb cities bring my city total to 10, 7 of which are currently building settlers. I have lots of Praetorian on border duty that I can pull off and garrison cities (a much better use of them). As seems normal in games that I report on, my commerce situation is in a very bad way (-1 @ 0%) so I am teching Machinery very slowly - the main reason for this is not city maintenance, but unit upkeep. Founding more cities helps increase the number of 'free' units, thus freeing up some gold. In 1816, I am 6 turns away from learning Machinery while Qin Shi Huang has just completed the Manhatten Project! I set tech to optics after I learn Machinery.
I finally get a unit past the 10XP limit (I wonder how high my XPs would have gone in this game if that limit was removed?) ...
Meanwhile, I am still out hunting down barb cities. After bombarding defense to 0%, killing off all but one unit, Qin takes my Barb city out from under me ... grrrr. I'm also able to turn research up to 10% (woo hoo) - Optics in 33. Gandhi, in the mean time is starting to like me. Over the next 300 years he gives me (usually after I make a trade that he likes) Paper (1843), Theology (1904), Gunpowder (1972), Flight (2046), Genetics (2108), Fiber Optics (2187) while I only get Ecology (2111) from Qin Shi Huang. In 1856, I finally learn Optics so that I can build a Caravel and go and formally met those CIVs that appear to be trapped in the North. I've also spread Hinduism to all my cities and that is really helping with the happiness (+1) and also enabling me to build temples (+1).
Qin Shi Huang drops by for a cup of tea and also wants to discuss his defensive situation. Apparently, he would like my help in this and offers a Defensive Pact. I think about it and manage to re-negotiate it to slightly more favourable terms. I also invite Gandhi over and set up a similar relationship with him.
Naturally, this really helps my gold position and so I can crank up my tech rate (up to 70%). Personally, I cannot believe how much gold the AIs are paying for these resources. Over time, I re-negotiate these some and get them up to 60g per turn. With these in place, I pick up my tech rate and start to march through the tree. My approach to this is to scroll through to the modern age, click on my desired tech (say modern armour) and let the system pick the path. With the aim of speeding up my tech rate, I have also built a Caravel and sent it off North. In 1879, I met Louis XIV and in 1884 I met Isabella. Just meeting these two helps me with my tech rate (bonus if other known AIs know the tech) ...
I think that I have squeezed all the tech bonuses I can get. So, now it is just a matter of time ...
Education (1885), Feudalism (1889), Banking (1899), Monotheism (1902), Philosophy (1905), Nationalism (1915), Constitution (1920), Democracy (1928), Economics (1934), Corporation (1939), Astronomy (1944), Scientific Method (1948), Physics (1955), Liberalism (1959), Electricity (1968), Fission (1975), Radio (1985), Computers (1993), Engineering (1994), Chemistry (1996), Replaceable Parts (1998), Steam Power (2001), Steel (2006), Railroad (2010), Combustion (2014), Assembly Line (2019), Alphabet (2025), Literature (2026), Music (2027), Drama (2029), Rifling (2035), Artillery (2042), Rocketry (2049), Plastics (2061), Biology (2070), Medicine (2077), Satellites (2083), Refrigeration (2097), Composites (2124), Military Tradition (2129), Communism (2137), Divine Right (2141), Fascism (2147), Robotics (2178), Mass Media (2215)
Ok, sorry to bore you with that long list, but I am trying to share with you my gaming experience. This part of the game was just tech tech tech.
Actually, if you look closely, you will see some pretty funny tech decisions in there. Let me walk you through some of them ...
Bee line to Democracy ... I had to do this as my cities had huge unhappiness due to knowing all these AIs that were running Emancipation - most cities were at +6 unhappy and that was really putting a gimp in my growth rate.
Banking (1899), Monotheism (1902), Philosophy (1905)
What is going on with this tech path. Well, ... I was checking civics, units, tech and the like and I noticed that none of my cities had the +25% hammer bonus from religions. Then I noticed that I couldn't use the right civic because I hadn't researched Monotheism. A little bit of smoke there. Sure, it was a timed game against Deity level AIs but I should have picked this up ages ago.
One other 'funny' tech path was Communism. I picked that up so that I could get a spy or two out to see what was what (more on that later).
Finally ... Assembly Line (2019), Alphabet (2025), Literature (2026), Music (2027), Drama (2029), Rifling (2035) ... why that selection? Well, I am planning on attacking one of the AIs (did I mention that?) and I need to build some modern units to do it with. Modern units required certain resources to build (Aluminium, Oil and Uranium). One resource that was just outside my lands was Oil. I was planning to win a cultural battle and not have to trade for it. So Circci and Uzbek went on a cultural binge.
I traded Uranium for 382gp (per turn) to Qin. My economy had recovered enough that I could afford that! I then bent my cities to building Nukes (I ended up with 17 of them). I had about 6 nukes all finishing on the same turn and as soon as I reached that turn, I was planning on cancelling this deal. 3 turns before the turn dead line, Qin decides he wants to cancel the deal - arrrrggggg. I had to renegociate the deal to 400gp per turn. I cancelled that deal as soon as I could. I could do a lot of damage with 17 Nukes.
The other resource I needed was Aluminium. I traded 248gp per turn for this resource from Gandhi and started to build Modern Armour everywhere. Well, I say everywhere but I really mean everywhere except a city that only had 8 hammers - I put this city on a permanent explorer build. I also built some battleships, transports and artillary. In 2241, I discovered a source of Aluminium in my lands and was able to cancel the deal with Gandhi. This actually delayed the war because I had decided to build build build until my economy couldn't afford anymore. Being able to cancel this deal mean I could build units for another 50 or so years.
Gandhi went to war a few times with Louis XIV and I joined in to get the positive 'mutual struggles' modifiers. I extorted some gold from Louis and Isabella too ... and sold them some tech (Medicine for 910g to Isabella and Genetics for 1800g to Louis XIV). In 2058 I climbed into third position (Score-wize) ...
There were still Barbs about in 1997 but you had to go looking for them ...
