I finished my third win last night. It was on King difficulty with the small continents map. I spawned on a small, private island. 2 other leaders had islands all to themselves as well. Germany, France, Ottomans, English and Aztec spawned on a large island together. France had the worst starting location I have ever seen, deep in the tundra, not far from ice, with the ottomans blocking their exit east and the Aztecs not too far north. They were out in the 1300's
What I didn't realize is that Aztec had also conquered the English, giving them a massive stake on the largest land mass. Seeing where this was going I starting gifting units to Germany, but it was hopeless. By 1600 the Aztecs were huge.
I decided to take over another small island. I had planned on just having a few really big cities anyways, this brought me up to about 10 cities total. My score wasn't that far behind Montezuma so I thought I still had a shot. Then the "Pointiest Stick" report came out. I had around 6000 points while he had 22,000. I have never seen a military power that big.
I decided my only chance was a science victory and started heading for it. I built up a strong navy and Airforce to defend my most productive cities and set the science machine on go. For the last 100 turns of the game I only 3 types of cities, those producing science, those producing wealth (and great merchants), and those building space ship parts or defenses.
My military grew so “big” (I only had 10 cities remember) I ended up running deficit pretty bad, -70 or so. Every time I got close to economic collapse I’d get a great merchant or golden age. When I was building the last component at my capital, I pulled my entire army back to defend my capital. I had destroyers and subs patrolling the water to hopefully destroy the enemy before they could nuke me as well as tanks and helos CLOSE to my base (but far enough away to avoid the nuke) in case of a surprise ground attack.
I finally won without event.
TLDR: I won a game on King difficulty… barely.
I also learned, or at least relearned, that there are some serious downsides to having a “small” nation. Things like strategic resources are hard to come by. You get fewer points, get to field a smaller army, that sort of thing.
On the other hand, the huge city size (I think my science capital got up to 21 population) lead to nice benefits like 100+ research and culture.
I also reaffirmed the fact that it is nearly impossible to complete a cultural victory or research all techs. This game I tried extra hard to set up a high culture nation, but I still ended up with only 3 and a half policies complete.