Of course, this won't matter once the patch comes out, but I just finished playing a Small, Pangaea Deity Standard Settings (Standard Speed) map as Arabia, with a Science Victory on Turn 216 (1530 AD). Was wondering if anyone had beaten that time and what the details were.
If you're wondering, I lucked out in a few ways:
Gandhi as an immediate neighbor, who decided that 2 cities was enough, and made Friends with a bunch of civs, so it was mostly a love-fest until mid-late game.
All the other civs behind a wall of City States, mostly.
Settled my 2nd city near Fountain of Youth (which with my aggressive City State buying and Bazaar trading meant that I didn't actually finish a Colloseum until Modern Era, I think). Though this was great, it wasn't essential to the strategy. Probably meant that I got the science victory atleast a few turns earlier than I otherwise would have, as I had to settle that city in a place that I normally wouldn't settle until NC was done and my second wave of settlers were heading out. But still, FOY was pretty sweet.
On the negative side, the available luxuries weren't great, I had a monopoly on cotton, which was nice (selling to all 5 civs), but not many others, so I couldn't use bazaars to really dominate luxuries. Also, no marble, so I essentially gave up on wonders, except Pyramids early, and then I managed Sistine with an engy and built Taj.
My strategy was not to build any monuments until I had an RA pop Civil Service. So my second, third, fourth and fifth policy went into Patronage and I pretty quickly got those City States researching for me, which gave me the tech lead quite early, I'm guessing just before Turn 100, and then I didn't look back. I had five techs in Modern Era before anyone else got there, even though a couple of the other civs were ICSing aggressively. I had 8 City States throughout the game (3 maritime, 3 cultural, 2 military), and had a big enough military throughout that I could have fended off an attack, though it would have meant spending money on units instead of RA's and City-States.
I'd attach a screenshot, but to be honest, I don't know how to take one. If anyone would like to see one, just let me know how to do it, and I could attach it.
If you're wondering, I lucked out in a few ways:
Gandhi as an immediate neighbor, who decided that 2 cities was enough, and made Friends with a bunch of civs, so it was mostly a love-fest until mid-late game.
All the other civs behind a wall of City States, mostly.
Settled my 2nd city near Fountain of Youth (which with my aggressive City State buying and Bazaar trading meant that I didn't actually finish a Colloseum until Modern Era, I think). Though this was great, it wasn't essential to the strategy. Probably meant that I got the science victory atleast a few turns earlier than I otherwise would have, as I had to settle that city in a place that I normally wouldn't settle until NC was done and my second wave of settlers were heading out. But still, FOY was pretty sweet.
On the negative side, the available luxuries weren't great, I had a monopoly on cotton, which was nice (selling to all 5 civs), but not many others, so I couldn't use bazaars to really dominate luxuries. Also, no marble, so I essentially gave up on wonders, except Pyramids early, and then I managed Sistine with an engy and built Taj.
My strategy was not to build any monuments until I had an RA pop Civil Service. So my second, third, fourth and fifth policy went into Patronage and I pretty quickly got those City States researching for me, which gave me the tech lead quite early, I'm guessing just before Turn 100, and then I didn't look back. I had five techs in Modern Era before anyone else got there, even though a couple of the other civs were ICSing aggressively. I had 8 City States throughout the game (3 maritime, 3 cultural, 2 military), and had a big enough military throughout that I could have fended off an attack, though it would have meant spending money on units instead of RA's and City-States.
I'd attach a screenshot, but to be honest, I don't know how to take one. If anyone would like to see one, just let me know how to do it, and I could attach it.