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Here's the last part of my struggle. I finished the game already Saturday, but had problems with 'Poly, so I played the whole rest of the weekend "1503 AD".
After Electricity I irrigated my few grasslands and plains. Now I had 2 or 3 halfway good cities (size 8-10 and producing somewhat 20 or 25 shields), but the rest was either large but unproductive (coastal cities) or small and productive (inland). I managed with ToE and a lot of trade to keep up in tech till the modern age. After I traded for Refining, I looked my cold empire. I expected oil in abundance, but surprisingly had only one source on my own territory. Another one I had on conquered Babylonian soil, but the only civ without oil was Russia, which was still in the medieval age.
I thought long about attacking Greece and did it not, for several reasons. First, Greece had taken the tech leadership and was my best trading partner and the strongest AI civ. Second, they had a very good economy, from former Babylon I could see lots of cavalries and later infantries (and not hoplites, Theseus) roaming. For me even lousy 20 cavalries (that's far from being enough) would be an effort of national dimension. So attacking them on their own turf looked not very inviting.
I was enforced to finish the Babylonian war in the mid of the industrial age. I was surprised, that it took so long with the war weariness. I fought the war as a Republic for a whole age. I didn't get a leader, and in the end even lost my last 2 elite knights to wounded musketmen (who sold Hammurabi that saltpeter, and with what did Hammurabi pay???
). The Babylonian war had exhausted my scarce resources, so I took 2 of the remaining 3 cities and made peace for only a world map.
In the modern age my chances to keep up in tech vanished. I had size 7-10 cities, the AI's size 20-25 cities. Time to switch to plan B. I set science to 0 and most cities to Wealth. After I heard about other civs building the UN (which means they have Fission) I bought the tech and switched a prebuilt palace in one of my "productive cities" to the UN. Now I planted embassies everywhere and looked how far the enemy capitals are. Only one (Delhi) was dangerous, they needed 7 turns in their size 22 metropolis while my size 7 city still needed 9. The city had an almost full foodbox, so I added 4 workers to made it size 11. It starved, but could now complete the wonder in 6 turns.
One turn before the UN was ready (I was now sure to build it, due to the order the game handles turns and production), I opened again the "Babylonian question". The evil villain Saddam Hammurabi had violated the "no flight" zone with boomerangs and was told to develop WMDs (spiked clubs). This could not be tolerated. Just like it happens in real life (
), I called the whole World to a cruisade against the evil Babylonian terrorists. And unlike in RL, all nations loved me for this. I got elected to be the UN secretary and here the game ended.
A pretty lame finish, ain't it? But hey, I said I'll win the game, I didn't say that I'm going to win a beauty contest with it. I don't know if with 0% science and a lot of prebuilds I could have won the space race. Maybe yes, maybe no. I didn't have the patience to check it, even more since a brand new game "1503 AD" was waiting on my desk. It's cool, although still buggy. MP comes as free patch in November. Sunflowers isn't Firaxis, so I think I can believe them.
After Electricity I irrigated my few grasslands and plains. Now I had 2 or 3 halfway good cities (size 8-10 and producing somewhat 20 or 25 shields), but the rest was either large but unproductive (coastal cities) or small and productive (inland). I managed with ToE and a lot of trade to keep up in tech till the modern age. After I traded for Refining, I looked my cold empire. I expected oil in abundance, but surprisingly had only one source on my own territory. Another one I had on conquered Babylonian soil, but the only civ without oil was Russia, which was still in the medieval age.
I thought long about attacking Greece and did it not, for several reasons. First, Greece had taken the tech leadership and was my best trading partner and the strongest AI civ. Second, they had a very good economy, from former Babylon I could see lots of cavalries and later infantries (and not hoplites, Theseus) roaming. For me even lousy 20 cavalries (that's far from being enough) would be an effort of national dimension. So attacking them on their own turf looked not very inviting.
I was enforced to finish the Babylonian war in the mid of the industrial age. I was surprised, that it took so long with the war weariness. I fought the war as a Republic for a whole age. I didn't get a leader, and in the end even lost my last 2 elite knights to wounded musketmen (who sold Hammurabi that saltpeter, and with what did Hammurabi pay???
). The Babylonian war had exhausted my scarce resources, so I took 2 of the remaining 3 cities and made peace for only a world map.In the modern age my chances to keep up in tech vanished. I had size 7-10 cities, the AI's size 20-25 cities. Time to switch to plan B. I set science to 0 and most cities to Wealth. After I heard about other civs building the UN (which means they have Fission) I bought the tech and switched a prebuilt palace in one of my "productive cities" to the UN. Now I planted embassies everywhere and looked how far the enemy capitals are. Only one (Delhi) was dangerous, they needed 7 turns in their size 22 metropolis while my size 7 city still needed 9. The city had an almost full foodbox, so I added 4 workers to made it size 11. It starved, but could now complete the wonder in 6 turns.
One turn before the UN was ready (I was now sure to build it, due to the order the game handles turns and production), I opened again the "Babylonian question". The evil villain Saddam Hammurabi had violated the "no flight" zone with boomerangs and was told to develop WMDs (spiked clubs). This could not be tolerated. Just like it happens in real life (
), I called the whole World to a cruisade against the evil Babylonian terrorists. And unlike in RL, all nations loved me for this. I got elected to be the UN secretary and here the game ended.A pretty lame finish, ain't it? But hey, I said I'll win the game, I didn't say that I'm going to win a beauty contest with it.
I don't know if with 0% science and a lot of prebuilds I could have won the space race. Maybe yes, maybe no. I didn't have the patience to check it, even more since a brand new game "1503 AD" was waiting on my desk. It's cool, although still buggy. MP comes as free patch in November. Sunflowers isn't Firaxis, so I think I can believe them.
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I agree on comprehensive temple builds as a path to cathedrals once the first wars are won and that eventually expanding your cities' borders is necessary. Those builds and hill mining, etc., usually wait until the neighbors have been visited. 
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