Thanks Barbu for the game, Akots for the map and Paalie for the conga rats.
Barbu I can give you a save if you'd like to see my continent.
I think the keys to victory were:
1. Two short wars with prats against the English. Those prats are powerful with city raider. I was able to get to raider IV with one of them. The English cities turned into my strongest cities but early the toll economically was big.
Chianti (York) turned into a GP farm with lots of food while Ferragamo (Nottingham), Brunello (Hastings) and Ferrari (London Glib and Mil. Acad.) become monster cities for me. Without these conquests there's no way I could have kept pace.
2. Relations with Huyana. The final modifier with Huyana was around +18. I really took care of him in our relationship with gifts, his religion/civics and trades. He even reciprocated with gifts and later my borders were empty with units.
3. Optics and the circumnavigate bonus. This really helped in a multitude of ways. Speed and trading with Barbu's ally Hattie along with his enemy Nappy.
4. Naval assaults. Unfortunately, Barbu learned the hard way when I hit him from the sea on both sides.
5. Pop rushing, farming and food. This was such a powerful technique to maximize food when I was rushing prats, courts, libs and forges.
129.87KB
Final big picture view.
109.39KB