This summary for Game Two was written by TheOneAndOnlyAtesh. Many thanks for volunteering to put this report together! 
Seven AI fields are always intriguing, and Game Two of this young season was no exception. In the rather cramped North were, from West to East, Genghis Khan, Catherine, Justinian, and Tokugawa. The first three, all being hyper-expansionist leaders with the Imperialistic trait, were bound to engage in a rat race over who was going to be able to claim land first. Justinian in particular seemed to be in a tough position, with the unpredictable Genghis and Cathy breathing down his neck and a very prickly neighbor in Tokugawa. Meanwhile, the South seemed to have far more room, albeit of slightly lower quality, with Gilgamesh, the infamous troll Wang Kon, and Bismarck all having some breathing room to themselves. The picking contest significantly favored Gilgamesh due to his Creative culture and ample land, although the Pool 1 leader Justinian also garnered some votes, and some were betting on Genghis having his breakout game. There was far less consensus on who would take silver and who would get the First To Die distinction, with Tokugawa, Justinian, and Gilgamesh taking most of the former while Genghis, Cathy, and Bismarck got the latter votes.
Ultimately, the key questions of the game were: 1) Would Justinian, who had been having down years recently, show everyone why he is the strongest religious leader in the game, or would he get bogged down by his neighbors while one of the Southern leaders developed and snowballed? And 2) how would Genghis Khan affect the game?
The first few turns seemed to show the AI doing their typical behaviors. Justinian brought the word of Christ to the world; Genghis, Bismarck, and Gilgamesh went for the Archery poison pill; Cathy and Wang Kon opted for the techs they needed to improve their food resources. However, pretty soon things would get weird. In fact, in hindsight, the single most impactful event of the game would take place within the first 20 turns: TOKUGAWA would found the 2nd religion, Buddhism. At the time, I thought that this was bad for Justinian, because he was guaranteed to have an enemy neighboring him when it seemed that he could little afford that. However, it would become apparent that Tokugawa was the best possible leader to take the rival religion for Justinian. Tokugawa was in a weak position, he cared the least about religion of the seven leaders, and his prickly and isolationist nature made it likely that his religion would not spread, paving the way for there to be pretty much only one dominant religion in this game: Justinian's Christianity.
As I had previously alluded to, there were three Imperialistic leaders in the Northwest, and one of them was bound to become irrelevant in the first 50 turns. This happened to be Catherine, whose clams start just could not compete with Genghis and Justinian. Making matters worse was that Justinian's Holy City was right in Cathy's face, and Cathy would even lose a decent settling spot to Justinian by one turn, essentially closing the door on her winning chances. Meanwhile, the Southern leaders were not expanding as well as we all thought they would. Both Khan and Kon opted to settle towards Gilgamesh, giving the Sumerian leader less room than initially believed. In fact, both Old and New Sarai were trollish spots for Gilgamesh, ensuring that there would be border tensions between Giggles and Genghis while being far away enough that these cities would not be culturally flipped anytime soon. Two barb cities would also pop up in Giggles' face, although they barely registered as a nuisance as the leader would build the Great Wall and take those nice spots for himself. Speaking of barb troubles, Wang Kon would bear the brunt of the barbarians, getting his Financial furs pillaged. Most of the trolling the Troll King ended up committing in this game would be self-inflicted. Rather than expand towards decent city spots in the center, the Korean leader chose for his 3rd and 4th cities two horrific iceball spots. The 3rd city in particular is worthy of induction into the Real Poverty Point Hall of Fame. What a whale of a city!
By Turn 50, it was clear who the big dogs were: Justinian, Genghis Khan, and Gilgamesh. Justinian in particular had expanded masterfully and was in prime position to show his doubters why he is a formidable opponent. In this game, there would be no dominant religion except for Christianity, for Justinian would bury every single other faith, one by one. Tokugawa's journey to Nirvana, on the other hand, turned out to be a misadventure, as his religion beeline had delayed crucial techs and expansion while relegating him to runt status alongside Wang Kon and Cathy - he would not research MINING until the mid 60s turns.
The other biggest turning point of the game would take place on Turn 63, when Genghis Khan decided to attack... Gilgamesh. Certainly not a surprising choice, considering the ridiculous amounts of border tension the two leaders had. Soon, Wang Kon would pile on, leaving Gilgamesh stuck in a two front war. Despite the 2v1, Giggles was not in any significant trouble, due to his elite defensive combination of Creative/Protective and the lack of Catapults on the battlefield. The true winner was Justinian, who could continue his snowball while his biggest competition (including Wang Kon, who had recovered to become a top leader due to Financial/Alive) dragged each other down. Genghis would take the Sumerian city of Ur and then switch sides, joining with Giggles against the Troll King, but even with Catapults nothing would happen save for Pyongyang becoming filled with Sumerian, Mongolian, and Korean blood.
Bismarck, even though he had converted to Christianity, launched a crusade against Justinian, who promptly swatted his armies away as if they were flies. Justinian's snowball was already insurmountable. The Christian shrine was enabling him to research like Mansa Musa, and he was building every world wonder under the sun. Everyone else was competing for the Runner Up spot. Bismarck and Justinian quickly made peace, and Tokugawa decided to invade Germany, despite at one point researching EIGHT beakers per turn. This would be a foolish move, as Justinian would cash in on his tech advantage and attack Tokugawa himself. He would take three cities, including the Buddhist Holy City, hilariously guaranteeing him ALL SEVEN HOLY CITIES. Imagine how rich the Byzantine culture must be!
With the war in the South sputtering, Genghis peaced out (Giggles and Wang Kon, all being Christian, would quickly do the same) and then chose his next target: Tokugawa, on the complete other side of the map. Troll Kon? More like Troll Khan. 
Despite Justinian surprisingly pulling out of the war, Tokugawa was done for, and Genghis Khan would take the remainder of Japan, save for Wang Kon who piled in and took a city for himself. Thus, Tokugawa would be the First To Die, for the first time ever, as LinkMarioSamus loved to remind us. This was a horrific performance from the usually solid leader. He was in the perfect position to just do Tokugawa things, chill out, and ride Justinian's religion to at least the Wildcard match. Instead, he acted contrary to his usual style with a pointless foray into another religion, crashed his economy, and got banished into the shadow realm by the rest of the world...
After the conquest of Japan, the entire world had become Christian, Cathy was in love with everybody, and all the leaders sat around a fire and sang Kumbaya till the end of time. Or did they?
In our proclamations about the upcoming "long period of peace", we completely forgot that some guy named Genghis Khan was in the game, and he immediately cut the peace short by siccing his armies onto the lands of Mother Russia. Cathy was on the road to becoming a member of the Golden Horde, as her tiny crescent empire was too weak to do anything, especially once the bulk of Genghis' army had returned from Japanese Mongolia. Cathy was finished, at the hands of Genghis Khan, like many of us predicted would happen. Which knight in shining armor would save the damsel in distress? Justinian would not attack his brother in faith. Gilgamesh and Genghis had built a bond over bashing their heads against Pyongyang. The Troll King? Really?
Cathy's savior turned out to be Bismarck. The German leader had rebounded excellently from his bad start and foolish war against Justinian to become a major contender for 2nd place, and he backstabbed Genghis Khan at the perfect time. Genghis had become greatly worn out by all his fighting, and his army was becoming increasingly outdated while Bismarck had Grenadiers and Cannons on the scene. This saved Cathy, who would essentially become reduced to a City State vassal of Justinian, her final city safely tucked into the Northwest corner of Justinian's massive empire. Bismarck's attack crippled Genghis Khan, and Bismarck had become the top contender to advance to the playoffs alongside Justinian.
Then, Gilgamesh started plotting war, and it was obvious who his target was: it was time for him to take revenge on Wang Kon for helping knock him out of contention for the top spot, while making his own play for the runner up spot. Like Bismarck, the Troll King had also established a strong position from a poor start, including nabbing the Liberalism prize. However, in another instance of self-trolling, Wang Kon had developed Willem Syndrome, teching Physics before Rifling. Gilgamesh had a massive army of Cavs and Rifles ready, and he quickly rolled over the previously impenetrable Pyongyang and then captured the Korean capital. With only one city that was not an Antarctic fishing village left, Wang Kon was collapsing, and Rifles wouldn't save him anymore.
Genghis, with his army still in the medieval era, died much quicker than Wang Kon. In all fairness, this was one of his better performances, but that says a lot about how effective he is as a leader. His econ was poor; he overextended early and instead of building up his empire in peacetime, all he did was prepare for his next battle. His aggression was without focus: instead of initially attacking Gilgamesh, why not the weak Cathy? Why march his army all the way across the map to Japan, a move that likely spelled doom due to the ensuing border tensions with Bismarck? Why not maybe team up with someone to knock Justinian down before he got too strong? Genghis Khan, in his usual fashion, was too bloodthirsty for his own good, and as a result faltered in one of the best situations he has ever had in AI Survivor.
While Bismarck and Gilgamesh were murdering Genghis and Wang Kon, Justinian was enjoying life in his utopian Christian world. Due to his 7 Holy Cities and his 1000 wonders, a Culture victory was in play, despite not running the Culture slider. The remaining questions left were: 1) Would Bismarck or Gilgamesh take 2nd place, and 2) How would Justinian win? Domination seemed unlikely, because Justinian will not attack at Pleased, but all of the peaceful win conditions were in play. Unless... As it turns out, both questions were about to be answered: Bismarck was gearing up for another war, and he had two potential targets: Gilgamesh and Justinian. This was a pivotal moment that would decide the playoff fields. Attack Gilgamesh, who was killing Wang Kon slower than expected, and Bismarck, with his much larger army, would secure the silver medal. He would do the logical move, right?
Of course not. 
He went for Justinian. Again. Justinian had Tanks, and was about to research MECHANIZED INFANTRY. Trying to fight those with Cavs and Rifles is like trying to fight Darth Vader with a kitchen knife. Congratulations, Giggles, and welcome back to the playoffs. Giggles was taking a ridiculously long time to finish off Wang Kon - Sullla was getting annoyed, and rightfully so. Part of this was because he still had Catapults bombarding city defenses, part of this was that he was upgrading his Rifles into Infantry, and part of this may have been from pathfinding issues from Wang Kon's one former Japanese city. For some reason, Cathy declared war on Wang Kon, and the bravery of the two grenadiers she sent to Korea finally spurred Giggles into action, and he quickly eliminated Wang Kon.
The Troll King had no one to blame but himself. His expansion was among the worst that I have ever seen in this tournament. Tundra fishing villages are the types of cities to be settled in Turn 100, not as 3rd and 4th cities! He teched well to come back, but then refused to research Rifling until it was too late. Frankly, this was a disappointing performance from Wang Kon in all aspects - he wasn't even the best troll in this game.
Predictably, Justinian had vaporized Bismarck's armies. The power graphs tell everything - that wasn't a shark fin, that was the Grand Canyon. Justinian had enough of forgiveness, and Bismarck's very survival was in question. Spaceship, Culture, and Domination were all in play. Which one would it be? Domination. Just like in Game One, an AI died to get the winner over the domination limit. This was an epic bag fumble of Bismarck, and there was no realpolitik to be had here. It seems that after killing Genghis Khan, Bismarck adopted the Khan's personality, and it did him no favors here, suiciding into Justinian. This was a great setup for Bismarck, with two weak neighbors and good land, but he threw it all away doing Bismarck things. His "Clownmark" reputation is well deserved.
Amazingly, one-city Cathy made it to the Wildcard Game. Her position was hopeless, as her start was a horrible fit for her and could not match up with that of her neighbors. One could say she was the anti-Tokugawa; she understood her position, and did very little in the game save for hiding behind Justinian's religion and maintaining good relations with everyone. I expect her to be a bottom feeder in Alternate Histories, and she is exceedingly lucky to make it to the Wildcard Game. Watch her become the Season 8 Champion.
Gilgamesh, the Runner Up, had a slightly disappointing performance, although not all of it was his fault. He had less land than I thought he would have, and was the victim of an early 2v1. Nevertheless, he could have had a better early game tech path and his expansion was slower than it should have been. Gilgamesh reinforced the community's belief about him: he is an above average leader who is great at surviving and progressing, but he lacks that one elite trait that can really elevate his ceiling, like Louis' Culture, Mansa's econ, or Julius Caesar's warmongering.
Finally, this was an incredible statement performance from Justinian from start to finish. Everything was executed to perfection, from expansion to religion spreading to knowing which wars to pick and which ones to back out of. Justinian has had some bad luck in previous seasons, and he really needed this smashing victory to announce that he is still the dominant Season One Champion of old. Nevertheless, I wonder how much Tokugawa taking the 2nd religion helped him. As I said, I believe this was the single most important event in the entire game, because it ensured that Justinian would get the perfect religion game for him due to Tokugawa's nature. The Alternate Histories will be very intriguing here, and I wonder how a stronger rival religion would have shaken things up.
The top scorers in the picking contest were random.org, JTZ, and Moo2400, each scoring 23 points. For Fantasy purposes, Henrik's and Eauxps I. Fourgott's 17 cost bids on Bismarck and Tokugawa respectively proved worthwhile. JDP El Grillo's Mongolian bids fell flat, and he really needs a solid Game 3 performance from Shaka. At least Hammurabi won a game. Kjotlek won big, as he had both the winner and runner-up contestants on his team.
