Dead? Call To Power 2

Yay?

Call To Power 2 could be the first game in this project which I've finished.

It could be.

I got to the end and I didn't die. I think that fulfils the criteria. There is some uncertainty though.

How did I reach this possibly astonishing conclusion? Read on...

One of the main problems I found in the early Civilisation games is that, if you're not fighting a war, and you have a decent production rate, your ability to build new buildings far outstrips your ability to research them.
What happens then is that you generally sit there pressing Enter to end your turn, waiting to research something. When your research comes in you build whatever it gave you in all your cities, and then you pick a new research target and start the pressing Enter game again.
Pretty soon after my last post I made peace with my only enemy and then began this long and fairly uninteresting process.

For brevity's sake here's the highlights of my game until the end in 2300. We pick up while I'm still waging a reasonably successful guerilla war against the Polish:

1820 - The Polish have Machine Gunners (I have Infantry)...
1828 - The Vikings show up. Hi Vikings!
1832 - The Polish city of Lodz falls to me!
1858 - The Polish have Artillery. I suffer huge losses at the battle of Posnan. My military options are now zero. There's no way I can compete.
1898 - The Southern colony of Llandow is attacked by Infantry (Llandow's not a colony! He's a man!), but the plucky Welsh archers see them off! An incredible victory!
1904 - Peace with Poland. The pressing Enter over and over game begins in earnest.
2052 - Accidentally start a war with Poland again. They have tanks...
2085 - Caerphilly falls. The skeleton crew of one archer is swiftly dispatched, but a relief force from Cardiff retakes the town instantly.
2141 - Peace with Poland.

At this point I funnel all my money and resources into science and infrastructure. I want to finish the game with every bit of land improved with either a farm, mine, park, supermarket, port or deep sea fishing centre. If there's a chance for me to be elected ruler of earth I have to do it by being the happiest nation on Earth.

2144 - China demands 2400 gold. I give it to them because I'm scared and they are huge.
2153 - Holy Moley! A helicopter!
2195 - More gold for China.
2200 - Time is running out! Humanity is looking for their one true leader.
2245 - More gold for China.
2250 - Increase science specialists in every city. Must. Unlock. Everything!
2291 - Sun Tzu starts work on the internet...
2300 - It's all over.

By the end of the game I've met my goal of improving every tile I own and all my cities are happy and growing. I'm at peace with everyone, but still behind on technology. Lots of things happened along the way - Pollution, trade, research, tweaks to my cities, some diplomacy but to explain it all would take more time than I have.

Let's see if the game thinks I'm the best:

Stats:

Score - 10060
Cities - 9
Population - 259

Plus points:
Advances - 650
Wonders - 4000
Population - 360 (points not millions of people, that's the population score above. This took me ages to work out)
Feats - 100

Minus points:
None

Power:
2nd!

I've come second! China has beaten me, but not by much, and I smashed Poland even though they were so far ahead of me militarily. I can only assume my population and general happiness scraped me through at the end. I'm extremely pleased (although it makes me wonder what I could have done if I'd captured one more city or perhaps pumped money into science earlier), but I'm not sure if this counts as a 'win'. Are we only counting completions? Is second place acceptable? I'm tempted to say yes. The idea is to reach the end of the game. Just because some genres only have one outcome doesn't mean it's not still a feat. However, it does mean that those games where battle isn't the primary motivation might be considered 'easy wins'.
What do you think? Have I clocked my first title?

P.S. Apologies for the lack of pictures. I can't figure out how to take decent ones. Also, apologies for the delay. Ben and I have been playing X-wing Miniatures in our lunchbreak and it's too addictive!