I could have achieved Conquest Victory by conquering Japan's final city in 1620 AD. But, dammit, I didn't spend all that effort building culture in Shanghai for nothing. The city's over 16,000 culture already, and dammit, I'm going to see this through to completion.
I can also pick up some modern wonders; the prebuild for SETI is already underway, and I have that last Great Leader saved to rush the Internet next.
So I put a half-hour's worth of effort into founding a few more cities, disbanding military to rush their buildings, and merging in some of my hundred or so slave workers. And I revolt to Republic for the economic boost... just kidding.
I got the research time down to 4 turns, in Monarchy, for all the Industrial Age techs, even the super-expensive Radio. Computers and Miniaturization each took five turns; I could have gotten that down to four each with more cities but I couldn't be bothered. To speed things up, I throw all the workers on automation and all the cities on Manage Citizen Moods, and click End Turn two dozen times.
Shanghai builds SETI with its prebuild, builds its research lab, and rushes the Internet with that Great Leader. I research Fission next, in four turns, and Shanghai builds towards the UN starting with a Palace prebuild before the tech came in. I took a couple vain last shots at Leaders against Japan's last city.
I was in a very weird mood by this point.
In 1752 AD, I flipped the switch on War-Time Mobilization, just to slow Shanghai's cultural win by one turn, so that it could finish building the United Nations before the game ended. Did I mention I was in a very weird mood by this point?
So in 1756 AD, Shanghai's due to win by culture in one turn. I destroy that last Japanese city (no respawn since there's no room on that small island), triggering both victories on the same turn. The conquest victory apparently gets checked first, and the official result is Conquest Victory in 1758 AD. All nine AI civs eliminated.
But of course I reloaded to register the cultural victory as well. (I couldn't figure out a way to eliminate Japan and still register a cultural victory; conquest always triggered first.)
Yes, folks, playing Always War is the best way to win by 20k culture. 1758 AD is the earliest 20k win yet in the Epics. Although... it could've been earlier if the city was coastal... no, T-hawk, do NOT get yourself started on planning that line of thinking.
And I also spent a little while trying to figure out a way to hold a diplomatic election with only my civ participating - remember I built the UN on this same turn as well - to accomplish the twin improbabilities of registering a diplo win in Always War and registering three different types of victories on the same turn. It didn't happen, though - the conquest and cultural wins always triggered before an election could be held; I couldn't get to an election unless I let Japan live.
And after that monstrosity of a game, I'm starting to think I need a bit of a break from Civ 3 for a while. I'll keep up with my SGs, but Epic 28 is a low-variantism Monarch game, so I might take a sanity break for a bit. This game was fun, but consumed quite some time in the end.
- T-hawk, 5/1/2003
Email: 
