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Arrian:
Actually, it was not my favorite game (it was on a small continent and I love having a huge territory when I play Russia).
My favorite game was what I called the "Korean Challenge". Emperor, 240*240, 24 Civs, Continents, modded rules. It was one early version of PtW, so the Civ strating positions weren't equal at all.
I begun on a tiny island entirely covered with Jungle. The only thing that made my spot viable was the fish next to my settler. And I said "what the heck, I take the challenge"
I "quickly" settled the 4 cities that my Island could support. Of course, there was no luxury nor resource there. I "rushed" to get mapmaking (yeah, that's 120 turns), and in the meantime I cleaned and mined every single tile on the Island.
Once I had mapmaking, I tried to explore with my triremes, but to no avail. My isolation was to curse me for the rest of the times, or that's what I thought. I managed to build the Lighthouse (never thought I'd win that race), and that had been an eye opener for my Civ. I could quickly discover the Americans, and I immediately got techs by entering an alliance against the Russians.
The Americans and Russians shared a rather small continent to the southwest (I was in plain center) with the Spanish, Aztecs, and Brits. Sadly, I was so backward I couldn't trade techs, and I hadn't enough money to buy them as well.
Some time later, I discovered another small continent to the North. There were a few Civs there, most of them were barely more advanced than me, and all of them definitely less advanced than the southern continent. For centuries, I flourished being the middleman between the Southern and the Northern continent. Selling southern techs made me rich (and advanced by those standards). Meanwhile, it made the Northern continent more advanced, and I soon became the middleman in tech-trading itself, gaining from both sides
I really managed to make an insular merchant empire 
Everything was all right as long as both continents were struck with galleys.
In the meantime, I discovered the Celts, who managed to be even worse off than me. They had an isolated Island which could only bear 2 cities, and they were completely backwards. Since my greatest priority was to expand everywhere it was possible, I quickly set up an invasion force of archers and catapults (I had no resource, and them either).
I sucked and the war dragged on for centuries. It was completely one sided, since they had no chance to disembark on my Island. But in the end (and one disembarkment later), I finally succeeded eliminating the Celts. With these two cities taken, my empire grew by 50%
Then things got out of hand because of the people of the third, eastern continent (mainly, the Egyptians and the Germans). The third continent was very large, and the Civs there had as much room as they wanted. They brought modernity to my world, and they brought ruin to my intercontinental trade / whoring.
I was dismayed. Both southern and Northern continent could now modernize without my input. And they did quickly. For 40 turns, I put my science slider to 0%, buying techs for loads of GPT. At the beginning it was great, but it ended up sucking being a bad investment when I reached the industrial age.
During this time, the guys at the eastern continent were flourishing, being half an age in front of me, and making the difference bigger and bigger. I knew I was going to lose. I still tried.
I found three backward Civs similar to the Celts at the Antipodes (south of the Eastern Continent). I crushed them vehemently to double the size of my empire over the previously Indian, Celtic and Japanese Civs. Sadly, my acquisitions could not pay off before massive investments. I was still badly lagging behind the main powers.
Fortunately, these great powers have decided to ruin it all for them. They switched to wommunism, and the Germans and Egyptians begun fighting with each other. Other continents saw war between the regional powers. And I was here, one of the few democracies still existing, not sharing any landmass with them, and still making business.
And I was here, regaining on the gap despite the ****ty starting position. I could watch them killing themselves, meaning that I could be the middleman again when I was whoring techs.
Sadly, the waiting times between turns became unbearable at this point (more than 30 minutes), so I stopped there.
I still have the save though. One day, when I'll be patient enough, I'll finish this game, and I'll win by spaceship ! 
Actually, it was not my favorite game (it was on a small continent and I love having a huge territory when I play Russia).
My favorite game was what I called the "Korean Challenge". Emperor, 240*240, 24 Civs, Continents, modded rules. It was one early version of PtW, so the Civ strating positions weren't equal at all.
I begun on a tiny island entirely covered with Jungle. The only thing that made my spot viable was the fish next to my settler. And I said "what the heck, I take the challenge"
I "quickly" settled the 4 cities that my Island could support. Of course, there was no luxury nor resource there. I "rushed" to get mapmaking (yeah, that's 120 turns), and in the meantime I cleaned and mined every single tile on the Island.
Once I had mapmaking, I tried to explore with my triremes, but to no avail. My isolation was to curse me for the rest of the times, or that's what I thought. I managed to build the Lighthouse (never thought I'd win that race), and that had been an eye opener for my Civ. I could quickly discover the Americans, and I immediately got techs by entering an alliance against the Russians.
The Americans and Russians shared a rather small continent to the southwest (I was in plain center) with the Spanish, Aztecs, and Brits. Sadly, I was so backward I couldn't trade techs, and I hadn't enough money to buy them as well.
Some time later, I discovered another small continent to the North. There were a few Civs there, most of them were barely more advanced than me, and all of them definitely less advanced than the southern continent. For centuries, I flourished being the middleman between the Southern and the Northern continent. Selling southern techs made me rich (and advanced by those standards). Meanwhile, it made the Northern continent more advanced, and I soon became the middleman in tech-trading itself, gaining from both sides
I really managed to make an insular merchant empire Everything was all right as long as both continents were struck with galleys.In the meantime, I discovered the Celts, who managed to be even worse off than me. They had an isolated Island which could only bear 2 cities, and they were completely backwards. Since my greatest priority was to expand everywhere it was possible, I quickly set up an invasion force of archers and catapults (I had no resource, and them either).
I sucked and the war dragged on for centuries. It was completely one sided, since they had no chance to disembark on my Island. But in the end (and one disembarkment later), I finally succeeded eliminating the Celts. With these two cities taken, my empire grew by 50%
Then things got out of hand because of the people of the third, eastern continent (mainly, the Egyptians and the Germans). The third continent was very large, and the Civs there had as much room as they wanted. They brought modernity to my world, and they brought ruin to my intercontinental trade / whoring.
I was dismayed. Both southern and Northern continent could now modernize without my input. And they did quickly. For 40 turns, I put my science slider to 0%, buying techs for loads of GPT. At the beginning it was great, but it ended up sucking being a bad investment when I reached the industrial age.
During this time, the guys at the eastern continent were flourishing, being half an age in front of me, and making the difference bigger and bigger. I knew I was going to lose. I still tried.
I found three backward Civs similar to the Celts at the Antipodes (south of the Eastern Continent). I crushed them vehemently to double the size of my empire over the previously Indian, Celtic and Japanese Civs. Sadly, my acquisitions could not pay off before massive investments. I was still badly lagging behind the main powers.
Fortunately, these great powers have decided to ruin it all for them. They switched to wommunism, and the Germans and Egyptians begun fighting with each other. Other continents saw war between the regional powers. And I was here, one of the few democracies still existing, not sharing any landmass with them, and still making business.
And I was here, regaining on the gap despite the ****ty starting position. I could watch them killing themselves, meaning that I could be the middleman again when I was whoring techs.
Sadly, the waiting times between turns became unbearable at this point (more than 30 minutes), so I stopped there.
I still have the save though. One day, when I'll be patient enough, I'll finish this game, and I'll win by spaceship !
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