isomeme will be pleased.

As I remarked to kshandra it is a very good thing I got CivIV before I developed the Pink Death. Having an activity that's very distracting and makes me think about something other than how miserable I am really helps.

This morning's game was supposed to be an attempt at a Conquest victory, eliminating all my rivals and ruling the world! I took out the French at the dawn of the gunpowder era, then turned on the Chinese and came close to wiping them out, but soon realized three things.

1. I was never going to be able to fully commit to a war with one of my powerful neighbors without the other one jumping on me.


2. I had no idea where one of the nations was. The Indian nation got an entire continent to themselves and never made contact until the 17th century!


3. I had a serious tech lead.

So with about 200 years to go I turned my eye to the Space Race win. I had a large and modern army to deter misadventures by my neighbors, and feeding Russia tech innovations kept Catherine the Great at bay. This allowed me to turn my industrial output and research to gaining the technology and parts for the starship. In short, you not only need to acquire several late game technologies like Fusion and Genetics, but you also need to build several parts before anyone else does. From memory, 5 SS Casings, 3 SS Thrusters, and one each of the Docking Bay, Cockpit, Engine, and Suspension Chamber. You also need to have built the Space Elevator.

I met all the conditions in 2040, and the Aztec Empire was the first to the stars!