The map is huge, the speed is normal, and the difficulty level is noble.

I know what a couple of you guys are thinking.   "Noble?  Thats bloody easy, mate."  Ah, but here's the catch.  Pay attention:
YOU MUST START 3 RELIGIONS BEFORE YOU CAN ATTACK ANYONE and you must start at least 3 religions to win the GOTM.  With those 2 conditions in mind, the highest normalized score will win the GOTM.  If you declare war on someone before starting 3 religions, you are disqualified from our contest.  If you do not found at least 3 religions before the game ends, you are disqualified from our GOTM contest.

If someone attacks you, they are fair game for your retaliation, taking their cities, making them a vassal, etc, but you are still not allowed to attack them again if you make peace, unless you have 3 religions founded.  For clarification... if they attack you and during your war, they make peace for any reason (including random event, Apostic palace, etc) you must not declare war on them again unless you have founded 3 religions.  Make sense?

All victory conditions are on, but NO TECH TRADING is also turned on.  There are several enemy civilizations.  How many?  Several.  Thats all I have to say about that.   This makes founding religions more difficult, so you have been warned.

Who is to lead your uber-religious civilization through starting 3 religions and victory?  Why, its Asoka of India, of course.

Starting location:

Highest Normalized Score with ANY victory condition will be declared BTS GOTM Champion for April.

When you complete the game, take a screenshot of the Victory screen where it lists your leadership counterpart in history. You may post the screenshot in the GOTM thread and then Email your final save (hopefully one turn just before victory) to gotm@1bcciv.com. Saves should be named as follows: [username]Apr09BTS.CivBeyondSwordSave

Submissions will be accepted until May 15th (that gives you almost 6 weeks)

What are the other rules?
The rules are fairly simple: Play fairly.

This means that you play within the spirit of the competition. As it is a friendly competition, we like to believe that there is no real incentive to cheat - but unfortunately, people do. Any persons found to be cheating will have their games removed, and there is a strong possibility that they will be banned from participating in the future.

Cheating includes (and is not limited to):

1. Playing the game multiple times and submitting the best effort (or even playing to get knowledge of the map, the replaying then starting the game again).
2. Using any sort of programs to edit the game or save files.
3. Altering the XML or using other mods that give you an unfair advantage.
4. Reloading an earlier save-file and replaying turns in a different way. The only time you may reload a save file is to start a new play session, and you must use the save file from the end of your previous session.

Also, if in doubt, ask. If you think you have found a new loop-hole or exploit, then we strongly suggest that you ask as to its legallity before you use it. The aim of the competition is not to see who can exploit the rules, and as such, we reserve the right to disqualify submissions based on exploits that are discovered later.

Good luck and Enjoy!!

If the rules do not make total sense, please state it now before playing.  I don't think my house rules for this game is THAT difficult to understand, but you likely will have to change your priorities towards religions to win.  Please ask if you're confused at anything before playing.

Oh yeah.  If someone attacks you and you take a city of theirs that founded a religion... that does NOT count towards your 3.  You must start/found them!

As usual, I declare myself ineligible from winning this competition.  Good luck!

I am up through the 1900s now.  I was fighting 7 guys at once for a while.  And winning.  lol

I got my 3 religions early.  There are quite a few civs out there, so get them early.

Tones, I think a map this huge can take forever if you're a war monger.  I am too, so it seemed to take a while for me as well.  I didn't really notice my system slowing down towards the end, but I finished mine today.  I was about 2 turns from winning militarily when the option came up for the Diplomatic Victory and I decided to take it.  I won in 1976 via Diplomatic Victory.

Not all that impressive of a score, but given the house-rules victory condition and the Noble difficulty setting, I suppose it was okay.

The last few games I've played, I've ended up making people my vassal as soon as possible rather than taking more land for score jacking and I'm not 100% sure which way is best.  Do you guys tend to crush guys completely or do you make them your vassal as soon as possible?