I was engaged in a tight space race for the first time ever. Most of my games are over long before this point, so this was a new challenge for me. A true space race can probably only occur on Deity; if you know what you're doing, the AI is pretty incompetent at building the ship. But I would still have to execute my moves well if I were to win.
As I said before, in 1050AD I was two techs behind. Specifically, I was missing Superconductor and Satellites. No one had yet researched Nuclear Power or The Laser, but those 2 techs were all that Egypt and Bablyon needed to launch spaceships. I didn't have any spies in capitals (not enough money and waaaaay too risky placing them) so I didn't know exactly what their progress was. I assumed the worst, and didn't find out until the game was over how far along they were.
In a way, the game was almost out of my hands here. I estimated that I could build the spaceship any time after 1200AD, but if they launched before that there was nothing I could do. It wasn't a matter of getting the techs (though that was hard enough); I physically didn't have the shields to build the spaceship any faster than that. And with them only 2 techs away in 1050AD, I was pretty sure I was going to lose. But there's no shame losing if a civ launches a spaceship in the 12th century, so I continued on.
This was when the other civs first began to feel the effects of their endless warfare. I kept trading for world maps every turn so I could monitor the progress of the wars, and it wasn't pretty out there. All of the tile improvements in range of bombers were getting smashed to pieces. The borders between fighting countries were covered in pollution and utterly devoid of any roads or rails. It was downright ugly. Even the Deity AI started to feel the effects here as the combination of Communism (they were ALL in it) and shell-shocked territory made its presence felt.
The happy result was that Nuclear Power wasn't discovered until 1140AD. Only Egypt and Babylon had the tech when I made the diplo rounds for that turn. I bought it from Babylon for about 5000g, all lump sum and no gpt. I then turned around and traded it to France along with silks, dyes, and 450gpt for the other two techs I was missing. This brought me into a tie for the tech lead! I actually was still getting about 100gpt after this too - not too shabby. I should mention that the Commercial trait was incredibly helpful in this game, generating thousands of extra gold that I desperately needed. Too bad the Militaristic trait was utterly worthless for me.
After getting these techs and shuffling production around, I discovered that I would be able to launch the spaceship in 1210AD (my initial estimate of 1200AD was pretty good!) But I couldn't launch any sooner; four separate parts would be built on that turn. So for the next 7 turns I was going to have to bite my fingernails and hope that The Laser wasn't discovered before my launch date. Not my favorite kind of race, since it was out of my hands, but I did what I could.
1150AD, 1160AD, 1170AD... They went by, and no Laser tech. Then in 1190AD, a luxury deal ended and all my spaceship part cities went into disorder. My note for this event reads, "DAMN IT!" There was no warning that the deal was going to end, and no cities completed production so I couldn't use the scroll-ahead feature. The new launch date was 1220AD. Would it be enough?
Yes, it would.
1220AD came and went with no discovery of The Laser. So did 1230AD. But it was discovered in 1240AD, and Egypt was the only one with it. This was when I learned how expensive 2nd-civ prices for Modern Age techs are on a large map on Deity when you have pitiful culture. I never could afford it with my current income, so I planted a spy in France (and wasn't caught; darn!) then "stole" their world map to get them to declare war on me. VERY much a dastardly act, but I wasn't concerned with being a good little boy here - I wanted to win! This returned 450gpt to me, which I turned around and planned to trade with Egypt. Imagine my shock when 4800g and 752gpt wasn't enough to buy the tech! Noooooo!
But Egypt was at war with China and India at the time, which prompted this as the final version of "the deal":
Wow, is that expensive or what? I didn't care though; I was going to win on the next turn! Except that... I was importing aluminum from India, and when I made the deal with Egypt I had declared war on India! Noooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!
My game CAN'T end this way! I had to win on the next turn, because China and India could walk right through my cities and capture them all (I had mostly spearmen and warriors for defense - no joke). Who could I get aluminum from? The only source was... Egypt! And they don't want to trade with me because I just broke a deal with India. I had 0 gold and an income of -51gpt. Oh yeah, I was well and truly screwed here.
Then I realized that I had a tech that no one else had. And I brokered The Laser at 3rd civ price to Babylon for over 4000g, and then to Germany at 4th civ price for over 2000g. Egypt was willing to ship me aluminum for 6000g up front. The result of this is on the next page...
