Browsing through the hall of fame one notices that the best space race victories are with cIV 1.61. All the space race wins with 2.08 are noticeably later...

Therefore I was wondering, what are peoples personal bests with space race?

My record is 1706 AD on epic/prince/Inland sea with Peter/Russians. The key to getting it so early was tech trading. Trade, trade, trade... (Yes, I add Mansa Musa and Elizabeth when going for fastest space win.. Its just not gonna happen with opponents like Tokugawa, Montezuma, Alexander and Napoleon...)

I usually run a SE when going for space win, I've never done as well as 1706 AD on epid with a CE but it would be interesting to know if there is a great difference between the economy types with this kind of victory condition..

1730 Epic Pangea Prince Mehmed, running hybrid economy (as usual).

If you can stand playing normal speed, please try this challenge (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=196783) to see how your SE (or hybrid!) compares. :)

However, if you can win a space race in 1700 AD, you usually can win a domination victory much early, isn't it?

However, if you can win a space race in 1700 AD, you usually can win a domination victory much early, isn't it?

Well, depends of map size etc. But domination and fast space race dont necessary correlate.. Overexpansion followed by an economical horror story (worst case workers disbanding due to lack of funds, but most often bad research slumps) can slow down a space race enormously... Even though you could still lightbulb you will have horrible gaps in techs you cant research..

Conversely looking at some HOF games (admittedly most are v1.61, but still) one often finds 6-7 city empires clocking impressive wins..

My main issue is the balance of expansion/research necessary for good wins. Tech trading should not really be taken into account as it is often unpredicatible and opponent/religion dependant, but should only be seen as a "time bonus" to the main strategy being run..

As a test I'm currently playing Great Plains maps with no barbarians and crippling the AI early with chariots in order to test difference strategies with lots of available territory and "in isolation" so to speak...