u/Hopeful-Status-6256

This is my normal experience for the end-game. Intercontinental wars even if "smaller" scale due to map size.

Towards the end game only 3 civs out of 5 remained. The Germans thought their unit support advantage on Emperor will help them win so they landed troops and declared war.

In subsequent turns they used 5 transport fleets, landing 6 units every turn on average hoping to overwhelm my counter-force but i quickly built more and the naval push failed.

My first counter-landing also failed when 6 riflemen landed on a mountain were destroyed by a cav swarm so i retreated my force until i got infantry.

Second , larger and more advanced force held the beaches and i moved my infantry units to block the mountain ridge in north Germany while taking a city. This city baited their army to attack but they were caught in the field and annihilated (20 cavalries were eliminated in the field and few others died to fortified infantry in the city.

The ridge was fully occupied, cutting off the northern part and their only oil source (not that they could use it , i was slightly more advanced). They lost many infantry units trying to dislodge my infantry on the mountains.

After the flow of German units tapered off i came down from the mountains with my artillery , cavalry and newly built tanks and conquered their cities one by one until i reached Berlin - defended by 8 Infantry units.

Still , my tank divisions managed to break through and took the city on turn 44 of this war in the last battle of the campaign. The war ended 3 turns later with the total destruction of Germany.

Some thing i noted was the very high unit support cost i had to pay in order to defeat the German Fascism.

Combination of map peculiarities and very stupid AI decisions allowed for almost 0 effort domination win

Starting position looks hopeless, no fresh water on site, 3 plains tiles one of which had sugar, deserts and hills. Moved my scout to the hill in the east and saw the promised land - a river, a cow , spices on plain forests. Much better place for a capital.

Settled the better location and started to play normally and discovered the (North) Koreans. Their starting location was barely better then my original one but still allowed size 4 instead of just 3. Still, they used their settlers to settle re-education camps in the hills, the desert and the tundra instead of competing for the fertile lands near the river and lake. All those camps couldn't get beyond size 2 without harbors so all settlers could come only from Seoul but instead of building more settlers they decided to build a giant statue (the colossus) so i settled most of the island unimpeded.

When they finished the colossus i built a swordsmen stack and conquered them easily. By capturing the colossus i could initiate GA with any wonder so i got the republic, built the Mausoleum, got the GA and used it to build FP, many aqueducts, libraries and marketplaces jumpstarting my advancement.

Meanwhile, the 3 AIs on the other large island tore each other apart, advancing slower then a turtle. When the time came i stomped them easily with a cav/musket stack as they destroyed the armies of each other offering almost no resistance while their galleys were easily sunk by my carracks. They were so backward that they had just pikemen and knights when i had cavs and rifles.

Last star that aligned here is that i got Portugal. Portugal is usually considered the weakest civ but here it shone. My scout discovered much better location for capital and got something useful from the huts (2 techs and 2 warriors). The traits allowed me to get GA from adding any wonder to the captured colossus. The UU swept the enemy galleys from the sea making conquest easier. In this setup only Russia might have been bettr.

My usual playstyle is aggressive warmongering without much wonder building so i failed to get 20K till this time.

Now, what i need to do to get it faster?

What map size and setting is better? This map is a harsh 80% continents, 3 billion, arid and cold.

Coastal locations allow 3 more wonders so is it better to try this with coastal start.

I assume the Hittites are not the best to get cultural victory so who to pick?