Not sure if this is a good finish time, but I am really happy with this game. My first game with Gandhi and my second deity science victory ever, and my first deity victory submitted to HOF. So prepare for a loooong write up
The start:
Rolled for a coastal salt start and got one, 3 salts, 1 Cotton, 2 wheats in first 3 rings, great start for food and production, not great for Gold. No river or mountain, should have moved settler 1 to get the river, but I somehow thought I had settled by the river, don't know what I was thinking. Thin snaky terrain with sea on both sides, so easy to defend early on, very important for me on deity.
Unfortunately, those 3 salts were the only salts I would get. It was a thin peninsula at the end that was good for only 4-5 cities. Got 3 unique luxuries in my 3 expos, and a NW, Uluru. No more salt as Enrico was my nearest neighbor and he had the rest, I have found that this is fairly usual.
The game:
Played a fairly standard 4 cities tradition, all coastal. Built a 5th city very late in the game to get to the oil. Full tradition, then 3 into Patronage to Scholasticism, then mix of finishing Rationalism and advancing Freedom to Space Procurement, then Open Commerce for some money.
BO: scout-scout-shrine-granary-worker-library. Build the shrine early as I desperately wanted to get a pantheon.And build a worker as I had a huge setback: around turn 20 I lost my warrior when I walked into 3 barbarian enemies, and my first scout trying to worker steal from Enrico. So no workers stolen from AIs or CSs. I also prioritized cargo ships throughout the whole game all of them food cargos, first to expos then to cap, I only changed them to hammers at the end to build the spaceship.
Got my pantheon t26 Earth Mother. Did not know at the time that there was no more salt and only 1 iron. Managed to get a weak religion thanks to the friendly/allied faith CS, pantheon faith and 1 faith ruin, got tithe and growth while no war. Follower beliefs itinerant preachers and 2 culture from temples, which was pretty much all was left.
Ruins gave me some gold, 2 techs (archery and animal husbandry I think), a population boost and 1 culture, a late one gave me faith. Got quite a lot of ruins, I think around 8-9, only 2 of them were useless maps or barbarian camps.
NC around t67, my 4 cities planted by t80, 3 next to mountains (not the cap though). Oracle and tradition finisher t81. Allied 2 early cities states, 1 cult and 1 faith. By t100 I had 55bpt, a religion, cities 12, 6, 5, 2 and researching Civil service. I ended the game with 1200+bpt.
Science: beeline Edu with just a small early detour into optics for the lighthouse and Sailing extra trade route. I got Edu around t114, not great but not horrible either. Entered Renaissance via Astronomy fairly late around 230, which game me time to put a some policies in Patronage, left side to Scholasticism before opening Rationalism.
Rest of beelines fairly standard: Edu, Astronomy, Architecture, Scientific Theory, Radio, Replaceable Parts (for Statue of Liberty), Plastics, Rocketry, Nano, Particle Physics. I got the science lead once my Public Schools were up. Oxford Architecture and Rati finisher was used for Flight. I got every RA that I could afford, as soon as I could afford it. At least 15 RAs I think.
Politics: My objective was to play a peaceful game, as in Deity AIs are really dangerous, I suck at war, and a war will waste resources and time unless you are very good and drive through great peace agreements. Of my neighbors, Enrico was not a problem, but I had Dido to the south in the same peninsula, and I spent the whole game bribing her to declare wars on pretty much everybody. I was nervous about her the whole game. I had invited another 3 warmongers to the party (Attila, Askia, Mongolia) and I used them to secure friendships with the rest through most of the game. For ideology, I chose freedom, and went all the way to Space Procurement to get spaceship parts with money.
I only built Oracle, Porcelain Tower, Statue of Liberty and Eiffel with a faith GE, this last one was not necessary I panicked a little bit as I was close to unhappiness due to ideology pressure. I then built Hubble with another faith GE.
Planted 2 scientists and popped around 6, 5 natural, 1 faith bought (could/should have done better here).
Could I have done better? Hell yes. I think I could have saved 20 turns by not losing those early units, not waste the faith GE on Eiffel (one more scientist!), I could not rush buy anything until the very end as I spent the game strapped for gold, and I could have built some roads or even railroads in prep for my spaceship parts move to the cap. I had to wait 4 turns for the last part to move into place, really stupid. I wasted gold in some occasions bribing city states when I could have waited a couple of turns to get the same result with a quest. I could have built my cities much taller, I spent way to much time on production focus.
What I did well: I don't regret the RAs, they were expensive and left me with almost no cash for anything else, but they were extremely powerful, and I timed them very well to take maximum advantage of Porcelain and Rati finisher. I played an almost flawless game on politics, securing friendships with pretty much everyone except the warmongers until the very end.
This is my last try though, as it is clear that I have to buy a more powerful computer! Time per turn was really loooong.
While the general Hall of Fame is an ongoing competition, we like to run time-definite competitions between updates that we call Gauntlets. Standard Hall of Fame rules (*) still apply, but any games meeting the settings will be counted towards the Gauntlet.
Pity it was a great game.
