First Sub-t250 SV! Hooray!

I did it as Spain, with an awesome* start. Found 3 natural wonders first, 1 of which was in settle range and gave me religion on t27. Also had pretty cool Petra site and bunch of river/salt, and 2 coastal cities meant interchangeable food cargo ships. Funny thing was, only 1 other civ got to found religion, and by almost the entire continent had converted to mine (tithe $$$). I finished with 1st in pretty much everything and launched on t242. Now I can claim mastery of CiV science victories along with others such as tommynt and Acken.

*I already played this map, but didn't feel satisfied with results - see http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=539694

Good for you mate I might try this map. Even though salt starts are considered overpowered it is always fun to build wonders which you normally do not get

When did you hit Education/ST/Plastics?

I spy with my little eye, something that starts with "U"

t95 education, t149 ST, t189 plastics, bought labs immediately. Then used horrendous amounts of gold to buy all but one SS part.