How fast have you beaten a game?

CKS said:

For super-fast conquest games, you don't need Mapfinder. Almost any starting location gives you what you need to get your jaguar warrior out quickly. Either you find the AI really quickly or you don't, but Mapfinder doesn't help with this.

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The map finder does help. You need tiles to get 5spt after merging the worker and I generally look for naps with the domination limit as low as possible to increase probability of finding the AI close and that does help.

As far as the need for speed goes, back with Vanilla and Chieftain I have had games as short as about 15 hours, usually with cultural victories. With Conquests and moreover at the Monarch level (read: micromanagement), it's not so easy to win that quickly. I still usually to go for culture, but will fall back on domination as plan B.

For setup, at Chieftain level domination or culture is usually easiest and diplomatic victory (UN) is easy enough if you don't have any diplomatic strikes against you.

(Yeah, your game is probably well underway if not finished by now; this is just my two worth.)