I usually postpone my first RAs until I'm running 90-100+ beakers.
Isn't it pretty much the same time the universities are up? Which pretty much few turns at best after you hit Education?
Hey, I just joined these forums to say thank you for all the advice through this thread, it's been a huge help to me so far.
Welcome to CFC and Happy New Year to you and all!
I'm doing OCC with Inca, currently on Prince setting since I'm still new to the game, huge pangea map. I've followed the first post almost to the letter, only taking a small deviation (and it wasn't really a deviation I suppose, I did need it to head towards plastics) to get gatling units since I ended up in a war. The only other deviation I can think of was building the Hanging Gardens since they were in my tech path anyway and food is good. .It's currently T249 and I'm just getting plastics, obviously nowhere near the T250 win I was hoping to achieve. The thing is, I'm not entirely sure why
Hanging Gardens are fine. Temple of Artemis is also fine. Everything that boosts growth is valuable. Only science buildings get higher priority than food-based ones. Trading posts are not fine though. Farm everything you can.
So I just followed the guide on Immortal, and landed me a sweet T324 launch. Does Deity speed it up because you can steal techs?
Not really. You steal the same junk on both, from my experience. Higher AI's bpt does speed it up a little, though, and higher cash flow is nice as well. But everything comes down to starting location. I win faster on better map, doesn't matter whether it's immortal or deity. There are downsides to both.
My starting location was incredible, but I only had some horses for strategic resources, which greatly set me back since I couldn't generate nearly as much money. CS alliances didn't really exist, and I couldn't build Factory/Hydro/Nuclear Plant until AI allies tech'd up and I could buy the resources I needed.
If you couldn't generate enough money, it had not been that incredible.
CS allies help a lot. Recently I end up allying more or less all CS out there regardless VC and difficulty. In OCC every beaker counts, and you generally get more SP's than with multiple cities. So Scholasticism is a huge help. In the game I described above, I peaked at 988 beakers with 10 or so allies. You naturally have more cash towards the end and in the meanwhile can try to do their quests.
I also played a regular sized map which really limited my RE options... are these T229 wins being done on large or huge maps?
My game was on standard. Jeespoks attached initial save file earlier, you may try it out. Amazing map.
Could use some pointers to speed it up.
OCC is all about location. You can't get a crazy early finish on every map.
For better results you must:
- river.
- mountain (deity OCC without observatory seems totally unrealistic to me, tbh).
- religion (not necessarily yours) and high fpt.
- many CS allies.
- lots of culture to get Planned Economy and Scholasticism on top of Rationalism.
- neighbors that hate each other more than they hate you.
- obviously high food + high production (Petra + Desert Folklore combination is hard to beat).
- and more...
Some of these can be very random.
324 though sounds too late even for less than perfect start. On deity AI will lunch before that. And there is a high chance it'll happen on immortal too.
There are few checkpoints that are worth paying attention to.
What turn do you hit Education? What's your bpt with university?
What turn do you hit Scientific Theory? What's your bpt with public school?
What turn do you hit Plastics? What's your bpt with research lab?
What turn do you get each of Rationalism policies?
What turn do you get Planned Economy?
How many RA's you have per wave?
How many scientists do you have at the end?
I'll edit if I think of something else.
Since you have so much gold you probably could have bought all the science buildings (including observatory) so you could instantly work the GS slots.
Or ally CS. Not sure rush buying is justified in a city that can hard build the building in 2 turns. It's more justified on higher difficulties, IMO, where AI has some cash of its own and even the slightest delay can cause you to miss an important wonder. On lower levels, however, you have to bankroll AI and there is no danger to lose wonders. So the cash may be saved for something else. Don't know, just guessing.
You could save Oxford for late tech or use it early to get to a science building extra fast. doing it early can save 20+ turns on the end time, say, if you use it for Education and rush buy the Public School and instantly work it, or the same for Plastics and Labs.
For Astronomy to unlock Rationalism asap.
You really can't expect to win quickly with Science on lower difficulties, since fast victories are highly dependent on RA's. Settle Scientists you get and keep teching up. Sub-300 is still possible though.
Assuming OCC, of course. Without the restriction, you can win very early.