Well, not really.
That kind of settles things. The only question left is whether the loss will be by conquest, space, or histogram.
Thanks to the units I'd built up to go after India, I was able to hold off the Mongol horde. I did have a half-dozen each of artillery and tanks, which were enough to fend off the one or two mechs and tanks that the Mongols would land each turn. Still, the Mongols moved in a totally ludicrous amount of battleships, which quickly tore apart all my terrain and improvements.
At least I'm not in last place.
And I did even get my Golden Age, although it's going to be the most useless GA ever, with my city now at size 1.
However, with me unable to build any more units better than riflemen (couldn't keep a road on the rubber tile long enough to build/draft any infantry), the mindless Mongol hordes of mechs did eventually get the upper hand. At the end of 2027 AD, my city survives with a single hit point on a single horseman defender. And miraculously, in 2028 AD, Temujin will open negotiations!
I'll take it!
So, I start rebuilding, although I'm not even sure HOW to do that. I rushed a granary to start growing again, and a harbor to start trading, then just started accumulating shields until I figured out what to do with them.
But, those bastard Mongols just couldn't be content with having already clinched the win, and reamed me up the backside again only 10 turns later. No chance this time.
Conquest Loss in 2037 AD. I bet that's the latest conquest loss ever in Civ 3 history. :) 211 points.
Lessons learned? If you're going to play a OCC, GET THE COLOSSUS. If I'd been able to get that, I would've been competitive in tech all the way up to the Modern Age. Probably would've been able to do my own research to take the lead on Scientific Method, and selling the ToE techs at monopoly would've kept me even in technology up until about halfway through the modern age, at which point stealing could've taken over.
Well, it was still certainly fun to try, and that was also my first official recorded loss (not a retirement) in an Epic. And it went pretty quick too - certainly not jeopardizing Epic 36 at all. :)
