I take advantage of that to buy Gunpowder from Abe. We actually have saltpeter, in one of the cities I jacked from Abe no less. The very next turn, I get contact with Beth and Cleo randomly. Doh!

Too, the Zulus declare on America again because they can, breaking my trade route with Abe. Ruh-roh.

"Well Chief, there go gpt deals."

"Bah, Flunkius. Bah, I say. We're real men! Real men pay cash!"

"Yes Chief."

It's pretty much everything I can do to buy Education off Abe before his island OCC action gets cut off, though right as I thought he was going to die, he made peace with Shaka again.

Shaka's like the raging out of control 800 lb gorilla of this game, barring that he can't quite keep up in tech. But he's trying. He's trying.

He's also totally off his rocker, demanding gems from me one turn, then pulling this the next:

Which of course breaks the gems deal and all the money I paid him. Whatever.

And of course my Munchkin Warriors are useless against his knights, plus they give him a leader. Woot. So I end up losing Atlanta.

"Well Chief, that didn't work well."

"No, Flunkius, it didn't. But he won't be getting on this island. This is MY island."

"Yes Chief."

We skirmish off and on until 900 AD or so, when I make peace for 18 gpt. Everyone but myself and Abe is now in the Industrial Age. I lack Astronomy, Metallurgy, and the techs after. In 960, I trade Abe for Astronomy, and he's suddenly quite out of techs to trade me. However, he comes to my rescue, trading me for one tech, then using that money to buy the next tech on the list, letting me get it for cheaper. After that runs out, I start buying from Beth, who's the worst off of the bigger AIs. ToG and Magnetism from her gets me to the Industrial Age. Out of pity, I trade both to Abe for some obsolete techs and Democracy, which puts him in Industrial as well, and me in Democracy.

The AIs are now up Nationalism, and Cleo has Steam Power as well. Gaining, slowly but surely.

Democracy, incidentally, nets me an increased 100 gpt. Time and a palace move to Allegheny nets me another 50 or so.

And it comes to pass in 1260 that I buy Steam Power and Iron from Beth, who just in the last turn became the third AI to acquire the tech. Here's hoping for coal.

Inside, I'm laughing. Really. Wasted tiles, indeed. I bet everybody else's Niagara Falls already had this hooked up.

And while we wait for the handy workers to hook the coal up, here's the world in 1265 AD:

In 1405 AD, railroads half-complete, Nationalism in, and the beginnings of a research base started, we buy Industrialization and 20 more turns of iron from Beth for 3200 gold.

A turn later, Cleo gets all aggressive and declares on Beth. Considering the Cleo is bar none the world tech leader, this doesn't bode well for Beth.

Too, it doesn't bode well for my iron supply, either, which means I have to buy from Shaka. As Shaka and Cleo are rampantly slaughtering anything that gets in their way currently, this is, uh, bad. Every little bit helps, you know?

By 1500 it has become vastly apparent to me that paying the AIs for tech is going to result in them getting lots more tech faster than I can deal with it.

Fortunately, there is a cure for this.

Or, you know, we could totally biff the spy planting and get declared on. That's always a plus.

But we can fix that. We're clever.

Help me, Obi-Wan Shaka. You're my only hope.

"And we'll just, er, sit back and guard the home front, won't we, Flunkius?"

"Yeah Chief. Oh, and Chief? Our agent in Thebes just reported back..."

Yeah. He then got caught, but that's not bad for the initial run, neh?

Towards 1600 or so, the Zulus and Egypt make peace, right as I'm able to steal Refining finally in 1595, SciMeth in 1620, and Atomic Theory in 1635. I pause to trade AT to Shaka for Steel and some random stuff, then go right back to stealing. I snag Electronics in 1650, only to realize that Cleo hasn't built Hoover's yet, and in fact CANNOT build Hoovers. Allegheny gets right to work.

And in 1670, when Cleo's ships start showing up, I make peace for the all-time high price of 60 gold. Whee.

It turns out, if you give the AI ideas, they usually run with them. Shaka declares on Cleo again in 1685, while I sit back, build the Hoover Dam, and make more money to go back into the tech stealing business.

Of course, with 1 turn left to go on the Hoover Dam, the Zulus somehow get it. Bogus.

And in the AI wars, Zulu drags in England, and loses the naval war - hard. England builds up a huge navy out of nowhere, and trounces the Zulus on the high seas.

In 1762, I self-research Radio, and sell it to the Zulus for Combustion and Spices. It then comes down to the fact that everyone but me has Flight/Mass Production.

"Well Flunkius, we're rich, wouldn't you say?"

"Uh, yeah Chief. Almost 10,000 gold."

"And our agent in Thebes is very bored, is he not?"

"Complains of it constantly, Chief. Wonder they haven't found him out yet."

"And our peace deal with Cleo JUST ran out, did it not?"

"This very turn, Chief."

"Well then, let's have some fun, shall we?"

Or we could fail and get declared on. That's always fun.

The great part of this is that I see if I can self-research Mass Production before I can re-plant the spy on Cleo. Sure enough, I can. Doh. And then I research Motorized Transportation, too. Spying on communists sucks, apparently.

Just for kicks, I research Flight by myself, too. Then, the spy having been planted on Cleo, I go for the steal, and...biff. Well, that's not working, apparently.

In 1814, Beth finally exits the scene permanently. Abe, meanwhile, lives on only because of his OCC action on a one-tile island, and because nobody has marines.

In 1840, I self-research Fission 2 turns behind the Zulus, and trade it and 1700 gold to Egypt for Rocketry. I then begin self-researching Nuke Power, which will come due in 16 turns. Slow? You bet.

In 1854, I lose out on both Manhattan and the UN to the Zulus, who build the UN in Babylon, of all places. Yeah, Zulus and Babylon are pretty, er, united...

In 1866, Shaka gets some marines and deals with Abe finally. And then there were three.

Hrm. Shaka want a nuke plant?

Cleo wants one too, but until she gets some tech I want, she's SOL.

And because I know I've got the edge on it, I go for the Laser.

Cleo wants a nuke plant too, and will give me Ecology for one and 2000 gold. I go for it.

In 1898, I pull the Laser, and start going for Synth Fibers. And of course I can't get Superconductor out of Cleo for nothing. I slam the slider to pure cash for a turn, in the hopes. But no.

And Cleo, as it happens, beats me to Synth Fibers, too. Ack. She's not selling, either, for the Laser or anything.

In 1922, I pull Synth Fibers, and start on the only other tech worth getting - Satellites. Cleo, meanwhile, went for the Laser. She needs Satellites, I need Superconductor. Eep. Shaka, still stuck in Communism, got the Laser but nothing else.

No, no, he WENT FOR SUPERCONDUCTOR! WOOT!

And...ruh-roh. Cleo went for Satellites. This is bad. This is very bad.

Get the prebuilds going on the last three parts, and hope REAL hard...

Satellites comes in, we set cash to zero, and go dial up Shaka... For 2900 gold and Satellites, he'll give me Superconductor. Ok. We're in business. Switch over the prebuilds, and in two turns, we're off this rock.

We are the champions.

2181 points, RBCiv-37 the Clever.

The replay, as always, was good times. Of note: A random Zulu town appears next to Washington a few turns in. Zulu golden age in 3200 BC (!). Babylon not making it past the 3CC stage. Egypt pulling an apparent chariot GA in 1410 AD (!).

Egypt had all 5 of the top cities. Heh. I was first in all of pollution and life expectancy, second in production and income.

A few other notes. For the one, I had suspicions on how this was going to play out, based on another game of mine, where I did the up-by-the-entire-ancient-age thing from the other direction. Poor AIs. Couldn't research for anything at the start, looks like. Also, I didn't expect to pull two CITIES. Whether or not that made my entire game right there, it can't have hurt. I expected techs, but cities did fine. Niagra Falls was even one of my top 4 or 5 cities.

I played this game, incidentally, in one "sitting" over the course of a day. 3 or 4 of those 11 hours were AFK time. But other than a couple of breaks, I didn't leave the computer all day. The game was simply that fun. Perhaps one of the best I've ever played, in fact. And fun in a GOOD way - a close game, one where I had to dig myself up, but not in the same painful manner as Epic 33.

As this is likely to be my last game of PTW before I switch over to Conquests, that's a rather nice end to things.

"Well Flunkius, I'd say we handled that pretty well, eh?"

"Yeah Chief. Sure did."