King of the hill - open challange for all playlevels

I think the BEST way starting from scratch is: Agi, BW, Mas, Wh, IW, Mys, Poly(some games will need to take meditation to secure oracle), Priesthood, Writing

This will give you the following; GW, 3 max Axeman before Praets come on line, Oracle, Settle for pig city (which I settle on north Plains hill near coast.

After this point I have tried two different approaches, looking for advice

1. Math, CS
I did not like this approach at all. It delays my use of Great Spy's and Espionage.

2. Alpha, Aest, Lit (poly first if I have taken Med) Mono (if not stolen)
This is a better approach if you want to build the HE/NE early.

Is there a third and better way? What tech's next should I go after first... Is there a best choice I am missing?

Is the GL the best choice in this game? Are those chopped trees and build time better used on a different choice in the GP farm?

Agr->masonry (probably not optimal, but i could build the GW without any chops by 2560 bc)-> BW->wheel->iron working->mysticism->polytheism (only because i dont know why hinduism was not taken) ->->-> literature->->-> civiliservice->->->alphabet->->->education->->-> banking/economy (for the free merchant)->->->railroad/combustion

So you did not get the Oracle?

Now I know why Hindu was not taken yet in your games.

I will need to test later today. If it is repeatable I will let you know. Agr, Mas, BW, probably sends a signal to the AI to choose a different tech path than Agr, BW, Mas. I know choosing BW first sends an "aggressive" signal to the AI's you see Wonders fall quick and religions much earlier

Will need to see if I can still take at Ulundi and acomplish the above... Without Ulundi gone, the Jungle Hill will not get the GW bonus.

Was it Wor, Bar, GW, axeman etc.. need the sequence to test how it effects tech path of AI.

I don't think you can go that far to predict everything from the moves. My building order was this: worker-warrior-GW-then either settlers->worker or worker->settlers, I'm not sure. I think i havent built any axemen in the capitol, but started to build the piramyds asap. My new city was founded close the capitol that it could use the gold too. It was not an optimal placement for long term but had its benefit short term.

This is a picture of my capital after the victory. I was under Hereditary rule ofc, but for this picture i have changed to representation to show how much research, spy points and wealth i generate even without working the fields (those two specialist are free for mercantilism and Statue of Liberty)

Decided just to continue my 25 AD save myself, see where it gets me. Reloaded some stupid mistakes where i wasn't really paying attention to all the ai units (especially impis) as i played fairly quick. Defending here is actually easier than i would have thought, i have so much units in blockcity that i don't even check if they're alright there after an attack, even with trebs the ais just can't do enough collateral. Once Ragnar just went to my capital through the woods with phants but i could easily upgrade some praets to wood III, end of phants. Mabye i should have built less units but once all units get hit by collateral you're in danger i feel. Moreover once i have steel i have so many backup units that i can take 3 zulu cities (Ulundi last) fast. All units have good promos so they'll help against Stalin too after upgrade.

I'm postponing construction, cats are rather useless and upgrading to cannons will be way to costly. I'm researching edu now 880 AD with approx 200 bpt, 11 turns left. I have a GE and a GS and i will have 2 more GS in 16 turns. I wonder what to do, settling in capital or 1 bulb on edu and burning the others on pp, chem. Almost sure i can take steel from lib then and if i use the GE for a GA i can whip unis fast for early oxford. A nice short term plan that will boost science soon to 500 gpt but after that prospects are a bit bleak, i can't do much. Alternatively i can settle all maybe use one GS on a second academy. I can chop most unis and no uni takes more than 10 turns to build. This will delay oxford by ~10-15 turns (later edu, no whipping because of caste). I will have to self research chem but that'll be 4-5 turns especially with settled persons, pp doesn't do enough to research now probably. Long term i will benefit immensely from all those settled persons of course especially after constitution. I know the challenge has been cracked but i still value some input.

One key element to stopping Stalin is the ability to gain the +1 water movement for being the first to circle the globe. You do not even have compass or Machinery. With out this movement aid you will NOT be able to react fast enough with your fewer naval units. (this is really a big issue I think)

This goes to my comments with Mzprox in an earlier thread... I would not settle the GP unless I had Pyramids to take advantage of representation. You do not and it is already 880AD I think you will find more value in bulbing or deploying your GP.

After reflection, I acn't even justify settling a GP for the appropriate religious shrines (8/9 gold a turn is not a fair exchange for 2 hammers 5 gold in a city of your choice or even the 900+ for Bulbing.

As i said in an earlier post it's not winnable this way, i'm 20+ turns behind because i can't steal all these techs. The jungle hill might have helped also but defending wasn't such a hassle as i'd expected. I don't think i'll get destroyers in the first place before Stalin comes so i may have to concentrate on the land. Then again maybe if i bulb everything i may get to destroyers before 1500 or at least <1600 after all. I reckon bulbing everything will gain me at least 20 turns. About the circumnavigation, nothing that can be done about it, delaying edu now means stalling forever.