Finally convinced myself to try one of the saved games - this one - after playing numerous enjoyable OCC games of my own. Landed in 1863 (launch: 1848), only 28 years (14 turns) after Paul. That really made my day!
And I'd like once again to thank Paul for sharing his strategies on OCC and spurring the debate on this on the forums. It has been invaluable to me and my understanding of the game as a whole.
I didn't keep a log of the game, but made some observations along the way:
1) I think a key factor was establishing very early trade routes with a nearby Barbarian city. I sent 5 caravans there as soon as I could. They didn't meet any demand, but nonetheless yielded about 200 gold/beakers each, and more importantly: Some much needed additional trade arrows early on.
2) The isolation of Rome on the island ensured a very peaceful game. I only had four direct encounters with the AI: Two Barbarian landings, one American caravan and a late game attack by the Spanish with a knight and a catapult. I defended with a NON archer all the way till the launch, and only built one chariot to catch a Barb leader.
Not much luck with diplomacy, though. No tribute at all, and only by the skin of my teeth did I manage to get an alliance with the Americans mid-game. About 500 gold worth of gifts total, and a few tech trades. Usually I interact a lot more with the AI and trade techs on a regular basis, but this game may cause me to be more isolationistic in the future.
3) The two continent trading. In my earlier tries I didn't apply this strategy to its full extent, but this game I really learned how well it pays off. 5 or 6 freights to the Germans and the Americans, and woohoo!: Ca. 4500 gold/beakers, enough to go shopping for all the Modules and Components you'll ever need!
4) I delayed the research of Democracy for about 15 turns, taking a direct path to Refrigeration. In other words, I stayed in republic right until the 80% cap on science prevented me from maintaining the 2 turn advance rate. I think this was a benefit, as I could go through the final WLTLD celebration that much sooner.
4) On the down side: This game played some tricks on me, science wise, that I haven't seen to this extent before. Around the discovery of Automobile/Miniaturization, it became next to impossible to optimize science to meet the beaker requirements. I'm usually very focused on this (thanks to the discussions in this forum), and I've never had the game drag me around like this before. Example: Once, the number of beakers required jumped from 1932 to 2939 for the next and back to 1988 for the third advance. Not to mention the usual tricks of changing the beakers needed in mid-research; this seemed to be the rule rather than the exception in this game after Flight.
I sure wish I had kept a log now, but it seems so tiresome to do during the game. Really appreciate the work of Paul, Carolus and others, though.
It's been most helpful.
