Random end of game?

[athanasius]

My game was going along great and then at the beginning of my turn in 2017 I suddenly suffer a humiliating defeat. I have the most territory in the world, the highest score by 1000 points and no one else (as far as I can tell) has even started building a spaceship. I own the UN so no one was voted in yet. Any idea what happened?

[Lucilla]

Maybe somebody else won a cultural victory? You might have overlooked that message.

If you have a saved game, reload and have a close look at your opponents culture historgraph. Also have a look at the wonder screen (F7), to see where the most wonders are or at the city score screen (F11). If one of the other cities has 20,000 culture points, they win, even if they don't have outnumbered you on the total cultural score, IIRC.

[athanasius]

Well, using my finger to measure overall culture (since the game doesn't give meaningful numbers) I have the most culture overall. There is one city ahead of mine in the city list so I guess that's how I lost. It sure would be nice if the game actually told you why you lost.

[Gramphos]

What victory type (lost) does it tell you in the high score?

[Cookie Monster]

This same sort of thing happened to me in a game last night. I was doing fine and then in 2011 I get the message that I suffered an embarassing defeat.

After clicking through all the end game screens I finally saw that I lost the game because someone won the space race.

All through the game I was never told, unlike when someone starts building a wonder, that the space race began. To add insult to injury the player is never told who completed the space race.

This is a problem IMO that should be addressed. Why were there no warnings that someone started the space race? Do I have to check the "Space race screen" every so often once the first civ reaches the modern era?