Well, to start off with, it was nice to see that no one had 5 to start off with. It was certainly an unusual start.
The first couple turns went as expected in the west, but the byzantium NMR gave Persia a huge advantage. I would have, however, postponed a build if I were Persia at this point because there was no need for the extra army. A fleet would have been more prudent.
By the next builds phase, I stole an SC from Rhodes, who I'm sure was in a quite unpleasant mood after the fact. I built fleets to prepare to take over Greece. Byzantium had thankfully come back, but the damage was pretty much already done. Macedonia and I had a stalemate thing going on, which was kind of fun.
The next builds phase gave me a fairly nice expansion. I got another couple fleets on the map, which helped quite a bit. Byzantium was somehow holding persia mostly at bay, but of course it was only a matter of time. Rhodes was even more pissed at me at this point I'm sure.
The rest of the game went pretty much as expected. By the builds phase of 1547, I knew that I had the game in my hands so I just played it for position. Persia and I fiddled around in the eastern seas a little bit but with me having samos, I pretty much always had control. In the west, I finally broke through Macedonia's line (which helped a little bit).
My big problem that didn't change the outcome of the game was my lovely retreat NMR in Spring of 1543, which I want to apologize for. I had too many games going on at that point, and I guess I just forgot about it... It simply elongated the game by like 6 turns....
Good game, though it should have been Persia's.....