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This was by far the roughest time I've had in a Monarch game in ages. I never actually felt in danger of losing, but Rome and Greece stayed fairly competitive through the whole game. (And that's playing default rules; this was only my second 1.29f game, and I didn't want to try a modded version before I was used to the default rules.)
My problems started with the absence of both horses and iron on my home continent. That meant I had to builld a harbor on the island to the north before swordsmen would be available, which in turn left me without as comfortable a margin as I wanted to attack with swordsmen before pikemen would start appearing. I decided to wait until I could do an archer->longbowman upgrade. (That also gave my galleys more time to explore before they would be needed for military operations.)
Then I discovered Republic about two turns into my golden age and wasted a huge chunk of it changing governments. I really hate that kind of situation where any choice I make involves a waste.
I finally got Invention but decided to wait another 19 turns or so to finish Leonardo's Workshop so my longbow upgrade would be less expensive. But finally, I was ready. My longbowmen, with pikemen to defend them, conquered the American mainland. No great leaders! So I went ahead and attacked France. Still no great leaders! But at least my initial longbow force lasted long enough to capture the home continents of both America and France, so that much of my master plan held together.
I ended up having to build my Forbidden Palace the hard way, closer to England than I really wanted and a lot later than I wanted. That, in turn, had highly unfortunate consequences for my research. My dream of a cavalry-era invasion of Babylon, Rome, or Greece evaporated, and research through the industrial era went a lot slower than I'm used to. I was able to maintain a lead, but Rome, Greece, and Babylon stayed fairly close.
During the industrial era, Babylon was foolish enough to attack me. The timing was wrong to attack Babylon's mainland, but I did manage to nibble away some island posessions.
Finally, I got Motorized Transportation, but only my original core could build tanks without compromisizng my ability to build needed city improvements. Building up the tank and marine forces needed to attack Babylon took a while, and I launched the invasion with a smaller advantage than I really wanted. But I had enough for local superiority, and my numbers kept growing over the next few turns. Then I discovered the final bits of technology needed for Modern Armor, and the war ended relatively quickly. And a leader appeared, now that I didn't particularly need one.
By the time Babylon's last island fell, I was only sixteen turns away from discovering all of the technologies needed for a space launch. (For the first time in the entire game, I was able to research on a four-turn pace on a sustained basis.) Under the circumstances, I saw little point in attacking Greece or Rome (although I did get to watch Rome conquer the last remnants of France). Finally, my starship launched in 1806.
Nathan
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