I had just survived a MAJOR scare against Saladin and Alex, but there was still the little problem of winning this game. I had a minor tech lead, and I wasn't worried about reaching the end of the tech tree first; no, I was more concerned with actually building the spaceship, given my weak production. It was going to take some careful negotiating of the tech tree to coordinate everything properly. Well, here we go.
Finish Radio in 1904, start research on Mass Media. Obviously this was a detour away from the spaceship techs, but I was NOT one of the top two civs in population, and therefore I had to make sure that I secured the UN to prevent a possible diplomatic loss. I finished the Apollo Program on the same date, and began working on some casings. All my smaller cities built the casings, while my high production cities I planned to reserve for the more pricey SS parts. Mass Media discovered in 1914, Bantu starts work on the UN (13 turns).
Mao was at peace with Alex at this point, but he and Caesar and I were all still at war with Saladin. I spotted this stack passing by Coal Town in 1920:
Yowzers! For the millionth time, I'm glad that Mao and Caesar are my friends. 
Note also how heavily fortified Coal Town is now. I do not plan on taking any more chances militarily.
Vicky completed her own Apollo Program in 1921, thus proving what I had known since roughly 1000BC, that she would be my main competitor in the space race. Discover Computers in 1925 (and start lots of labs!), research next into Satellites. I trigger a Great Artist in 1927, which combined with the Great Scientist and Great Merchant I already have will be enough to trigger a golden age whenever I want one! I hold them for now, waiting until I really need a golden age. Also trade Radio to Caesar for Combustion, cleaning up one of the backwards techs that I had been putting off.
After my allies made peace with Saladin, I sign peace with him too in 1928, getting 400g and his world map in the deal. To celebrate the first state of complete world peace in centuries (remember, Mao and I were at war with Mansa Musa for like forever), I finish the United Nations on the next turn in 1929:
This ensured that I would be one of the two candidates, which I would not be otherwise. I was only 4th in population, very unusual for me, but the circumstances were certainly unusual in this game. I didn't think I would have enough votes to win, but hey I might as well try this, right? My opponent is Vicky in the Secretary-General elections, which I win easily:
Mao and Caesar are behaving like good boys, very nice. 
Notice that I only have 10% of the overall vote myself though, what a drastic change from Epic One! Doing the math, it looks like I will be just a little short on enough votes to get the Diplomatic victory. Still, I try it anyway just to see:
Yep, not quite enough, short by about 50 votes. If I didn't have a chance at the space race, I could theoretically grab some more population by attacking Saladin, hopefully getting enough to put me over the top. That's a bit a of risky plan, however, so I intended to pursue space first and go after diplomacy only as a second resort. I never like putting the fate of a game in the hands of an AI civ's vote unless there's no other choice!
Mao and Caesar may have liked me, but apparently Alex still did not. He declared war again in 1938:
Oh boy, not again! I'm not at all worried now, however; I've got a substantial military presence in both Coal Town and Calix ready to deal with whatever comes my way. Sure enough, the assault force heading for Calix is nothing that I can't deal with:
A couple cavs? Come on Alex, is that the best you can do? I kill them easily with my infantry on hand. A tech trade opens up with Caesar; since he is no threat to win the space race, I trade him Mass Media and Satellites for Fission, one of the techs that I lack. On a lark, I ask him to declare war on Alex too in the trade, and he DOES! 
I never thought he'd accept that, but chalk one up for good relations between us and bad blood between Caesar and Alex! I planned to have this be a phony war, but if Caesar and Alex slow each other down, so much the better.
When the next UN resolution comes up, I pass the Single Currency one for extra trade routes. Sure, that helps everyone, but almost all of my cities are on the water and have harbors built, so I figure it helps me more than anyone else (if that makes sense). Mao asks me to swap to State Property - sure buddy! And in 5 more turns, I'll swap right out of it again too. It's fun to be Spiritual sometimes.
Nothing much goes on for the next few turns, I'm building spaceship parts and researching. The war with Alex is almost totally phony, and when he shows up with units I kill them easily. Research Genetics, then Fiber Optics. Missing some wonders (Eiffel Tower and the late-game happiness wonders, all of which were built by Vicky) got me a ton of cash which I used to fund deficit research. Here was my Financial Screen with my civ running at full tilt:
I managed to get almost up to 1500 beakers/turn by game's end. Pretty darn good for starting in this iceball, methinks. Furthermore, let me show you a shot of Texcoco, the ultimate fishing village:
172 beakers, and I'm not in a golden age. It's amazing how little ground you actually need to make a good city. Just look at that trade route income!
As far as my path on the tech tree, I kept advancing as far as I could down one branch at a time, deliberately leaving certain techs unresearched in the hopes that I could trade for them later. For example, I had already gone back and traded for Combustion and Fission with two of the AI civs earlier. The goal was to make sure that I would be able to build the parts in as short a time as possible; it was production and not research that was the real limiting factor in this race. I also didn't fear either Caesar or Mao beating me to the spaceship, so I was free to trade with them so long as I didn't give anything to Victoria. One very expensive tech that the other civs in my alliance had all researched was Plastics, and I was waiting forever for an opportunity to arise to trade for it. Thus when this opportunity appeared, it was a huge stroke of luck:
This was called "the last piece of the puzzle falls into place." Notice also that I sent Mao exactly the same two techs I had sent Caesar earlier for Fission. Mass Media may not have led directly to a spaceship tech, but I used it to build the UN and also make two absolutely critical tech trades. I'd like to say I planned that, but it was more luck than anything.
Now that I was down to the last few techs and production of the parts was most critical, I triggered the golden age that I had been saving:
Few things help more in a close space race than a well-timed golden age. I actually didn't get the Great Engineer from Fusion because Vicky got there 1 turn before me. Heh. At least I was still ahead of her on the bottom of the tech tree. Saladin actually redeclared war at this point, but it was almost a total non-event. I ordered up some tanks and started shipping them to the front outside Calix. I killed 4 Arab units in 1960, 3 more the following year. I was taking some losses, but killing many more of the Arab invaders. The war really was not worth mentioning, compared to the epic struggle I had gone through earlier.
When it came time for re-election to the UN in 1963, Mao was now my opponent instead of Vicky. Uh oh. I wasn't entirely sure how the vote would play out with a different opponent. I certainly didn't want Mao controlling the UN as Secretary-General! Thus I was relieved to see this on the following turn:
Ah, good old Vicky. Our relations had improved so much that she was Friendly with me and gave me her vote. Amazing. 
That ensured that I could continue my policy of simply not holding votes; I didn't want anything strange to happen and jeopardize my chances at the spaceship win. Every four turns a vote would come up, and I would choose not to put a resolution forward. Congressional stalemate in action!
Of course, Saladin HAD declared war on me, and I couldn't let that go entirely unpunished:
A nice tank stack assembled outside Fustat and decided to annex the city into the Azteskimo Empire. After some losses (I didn't take the time to bomb down the city defenses), the city was mine:
It might have been fun to go on a conquering romp at this point, but that would have taken more time and energy with no impact on the game, so I fortified my units at Fustat and held my ground there. As you can see from the research into Fascism, I had already reached the end of the tech tree with the discovery of Robotics in 1967. Bantu immediately started on the last SS part, which unfortunately would take 15 turns.
I was not satisfied with that ending date, however, so my workers reconfigued the city by mining over its windmills. I also had saved two forest chops for just this occasion, so they were both cut down and their shields added to the build as well. Even ran an additional Engineer specialist, driving the city further into food deficit, just because it would cut off another turn. All told, I cut four turns off the ending date of the last part, and by 1978 there was only one turn left to go:
Bantu used to have a bunch of windmills, but I turned them into mines for this dash to the finish line. Obviously it is not at a sustainable food level, but that doesn't matter because I will win next turn! Go on to the next page for the happy conclusion.
