I had finished that space race game actually before the event officially opened. During the four weeks that this event was open, I went back and finished Epic 26, and also jumped into Arathorn's LotR27 succession game. But I still had some time to fill with Civ, and this mod was so intriguing that one try wasn't enough. I'm going to play it again, this time going for domination. Not conquest because I know those offshore islands exist.
I mentioned in the game setup that Spain doesn't really have a UB. Instead Spain has a second UU, which is the City Raider 3 trebuchet or cannon, enabled by the +5 XP Citadel. For some time, I've wanted to play a game dedicated to Spanish siege. And this is a fine chance. The mod may make havoc of city production, but conquering will go as usual.
So of course the plan is to get Engineering as quickly as possible. Oracle to Metal Casting is still the best play, and the Great Engineer bulb of Machinery is well known too. Engineering itself can be bulbed by a second GE. (Can't get a Great Scientist to do it, he will go up the Sailing - Optics - Calendar - Astronomy line instead.) Then simply let the economy crash while conquering to victory with trebuchets. Elephants will be the primary siege support, with macemen to come later.
Taking a cue from India's game in PBEM #2, I think the quickest start is to start chopping forests as fast as possible. Use that for growth, don't worry so much about improving hammer tiles. The first worker still takes 20 turns no matter what we do. But this time I'll go with Hunting first (we can skip religion) and camp the furs in order to build the second worker, while researching Bronze Working, then start chopping.
Oh my goodness! This wasn't my plan, but I'm not going to turn down a free worker steal like that! The free worker even arrived and started camping the furs before my native worker finished.
My warrior stayed to choke England's capital for a while. And now it would seem I can blast out England with a chariot rush (remember we have no copper but I know horses are nearby.) So my research path was Bronze - Animal H - The Wheel, Pottery for granaries, then on up to Priesthood.
Here's a shot after 25 turns, as before. Madrid's 19 turns to growth are just temporarily low, both workers are mining hills right now. I chopped three forests for population, while starting a settler (the overfull food box means Madrid could grow even while building the settler), and double-whipped it.
So here's Barcelona, and here come the chariots. Madrid built two, whipped one, and Barcelona built one (out of gold? 
). Four chariots arrived at London with five warriors on defense. They all attacked at 70% ish odds, and expected value held, winning three and losing one. Critically, one of the chariots had previously whacked a wandering English warrior, giving it enough experience to promote to Medic, healing all the chariots for a second hit.
Two chariots healed and attacked for a second round, now leaving just one warrior in the city...
but then England got an archer in the city. The Sabotage Production number was quite high, so I expected that London had whipped an archer then switched back to a different build, but next turn a second archer also appeared.
Yeah, OK, that wasn't a chariot rush. A chariot rush is more like 10 chariots. Not 4. Even 6 would have pulled off this attack. Stupid me.
The remaining chariots and a couple warriors stayed there to choke England.The 8 XP Medic chariot peeled off and wandered the eastern frontier, looking for a barbarian to whack to qualify for Heroic Epic, which it did. Amusingly, I intentionally attacked that warrior across a river in order to earn the chariot 2 XP instead of 1.
Back home, the Oracle did complete. Like the chariots, it was basically made out of gold. In the first game, I'd delayed the gold tile for a while, but now I realized that it should have been grabbed ASAP. Self-supporting food and SEVEN production? Way better than any tile in the regular game.
The Oracle went in Barcelona so as to keep Madrid's GPP pool pure Engineers. Madrid immediately quad-whipped the forge and hired an engineer. Now the best thing I can do is simply continue research to Mathematics - Construction as planned, and use cats and elephants to finish off London. The Oracle also helps in that its culture will grab those ivory tiles quickly.
I sidetracked to Monotheism before Construction, grabbing Judaism. The holy city would land in Barcelona and I couldn't do anything about it... except that it defied the odds and picked Seville instead! Great, this city could really use the free border pop. It whipped a missionary right away to speed the Hanging Gardens via Org Rel in the capital.
