An Unofficial Science Competition -- paying homage to Mesix

[iggymnrr]

@Syntax
Congrats. Siam can play a good game. I think there is a trick with aluminum. It is required for parts but once the part is delivered to the capitol that aluminum becomes available again.

I think railroads can slow down space finishes. They are not well placed in the tech tree for space purposes. I usually go research labs first, using a golden age for production. Railroads get done immediately prior to Apollo or there abouts. When things are teching fast, the turn railroads finish is usually a good time to map out the ending.

 

[Syntax Error]

@Syntax
Congrats. Siam can play a good game. I think there is a trick with aluminum. It is required for parts but once the part is delivered to the capitol that aluminum becomes available again.

I think railroads can slow down space finishes. They are not well placed in the tech tree for space purposes. I usually go research labs first, using a golden age for production. Railroads get done immediately prior to Apollo or there abouts. When things are teching fast, the turn railroads finish is usually a good time to map out the ending.

Thanks!!!! Yup, that's what I did. I got up to Research Labs first, then went for the Railroads (got it done in 4 turns!). After Public Schools, I went for Biology to get Hospitals. I had some trouble growing my cities, to the point that my capital is not my largest city despite having all Maritime CSes as allies. Money was easy and allowed me to outright buy Labs and Factories.

 

[iggymnrr]

After Public Schools, I went for Biology to get Hospitals.

Sometimes hospitals come into play sometimes not. They can be useful as a device to setup overflow production at the end as well as allow for maximum starvation during the final construction of spaceship parts. When hospitals are not a factor, a person can go straight from public schools (or factories) to labs.

 

[Mesix]

I get Labs and then Hospitals. I can generally get Hospitals up and running in my four core cities between the time I get Labs and the time I'm building spaceship parts. The extra +5 allows for more flexibility of population which can work tiles to pound out the SS components.

 

[DGDobrev]

Hospitals are great, but by the time you get the tech, one should already be building or close to building space parts, which is kind of a problem, as there is not much time to wait for a new citizen to pop up, because you need to make the final push. I usually try to hard buy it, so that I don't lose the momentum, because at this time, there are better things to build - apollo, hubble, parts, hydro/nuclear/solar plants, etc.

 

[Syntax Error]

What happened to me in that game was I was building Hospitals while working my way to Rocketry. Timed Oxford to coincide with finishing Rocketry, got Satellites as a Free tech, and rushed Hubble on the same turn (pretty standard). The extra pop helped a lot, since production wasn't too big that it still left 3 turns after the GE.

Finished Rationalism immediately after that. By the end I had an extra GS that allowed me to blast through the tech tree to leave two turns to research Future Tech.

 

[Syntax Error]

Quick question to Iggy:

With six cities, when do you bother to get the NC? And which city do you put it in?

 

[iggymnrr]

Quick question to Iggy:

With six cities, when do you bother to get the NC? And which city do you put it in?

Right around education time in the capitol. A university may go up before hand.

 

[Mesix]

I finished the game with Babylon on turn 252. I only built 4 cities, and I waited too long to take out Rome which resulted in bad diplomacy, so I took a different route to victory...Domination!

Here is a screenshot of my four cities on the final turn. Population 30, 19, 19, and 25.

Spoiler :

Here is my Economic Overview.

Spoiler :

...and here are four shots (one of each city screen). Look at how many wonders I built! I felt like Ramses! I was playing the game like GOTM44 (with 4 cities instead of OCC), buying settlers, buildings, and units and letting the cities build wonders most of the game.

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

 

[Mesix]

I think I will play again, REXing to 6-8 cities early and taking out both Harold and Caesar with a bowman rush like I did on my exploration game. Then I might try as Maya.

 

[flairin]

thanx for your tips iggymnrr!! I've been able to get Babs to 266 bpt w/6 cities on turn 130.

I have 3 academies, specialists filled up in universities in all 6 cities and 2-deep in Rationalism

Maybe it is better to focus on amphitheaters rather than workshop (for specialist beakers)??

I've been focusing on production in my capital so it is not very high in pop (only 8)... I've got Hanging Gardens so it should shoot-up quite fast after aqueduct.

 

[iggymnrr]

thanx for your tips iggymnrr!! I've been able to get Babs to 266 bpt w/6 cities on turn 130.

I have 3 academies, specialists filled up in universities in all 6 cities and 2-deep in Rationalism

Maybe it is better to focus on amphitheaters rather than workshop (for specialist beakers)??

Great. Teching is something of an illusion. It's all about bringdown the late tech tree as quickly as possible. (Scientists and RAs) I use workshops first to setup a scientist "assembly line." Libraries, unis, aqueducts and gardens all need to go up. Then its happiness (colosseums) to grow. Amphitheaters come after and can keep the cultural press going.

 

[Tabarnak]

Great. Teching is something of an illusion. It's all about bringdown the late tech tree as quickly as possible. (Scientists and RAs) I use workshops first to setup a scientist "assembly line." Libraries, unis, aqueducts and gardens all need to go up.

Yep. Probably that Tradition shines because you can skip workshops and save on aqueducts. Also, larger amount of gold needed to rush buy universities(and early) is available under Tradition due to free buildings.

I'm really convinced now that Mayans and other ''research'' civs are favorised with Liberty. They can gain enough extra science to make a detour to workshops and start buildings early.

Though in multiplayer i begin to think that either Tradition or Liberty with early MC is also pretty good especially with the 15% prod. bonus from a religion despite a bit more slower research rate. Production can shave you turns later.

 

[iggymnrr]

Yep. Probably that Tradition shines because you can skip workshops and save on aqueducts. Also, larger amount of gold needed to rush buy universities(and early) is available under Tradition due to free buildings.

I'm really convinced now that Mayans and other ''research'' civs are favorised with Liberty. They can gain enough extra science to make a detour to workshops and start buildings early.

It's not so much tradition versus liberty as much as it is getting 6 cities to function like an assembly line. Everything runs like clockwork. Money that under tradition that might go for a uni might go to keep a weaker city in sync with 6 cities. With Babs all GP counters should start at the same time (except Capitol.) Scientists kick out like crossing time zones, in sequence, no turning back. If they don't start at about the same time it is like running wind sprints: start at the east coast, run to a time zone line, run back to the east coast, run to the 2nd time zone, run back to the east coast, etc. Something like that. (I'm already winded.)

 

[flairin]

yeah, so when I got to education I right away bought two unis in my two weakest prod. cities capable of filling gs slots so as to kickstart science while they were still building workships and then built the rest... My capital got in about 10 turns later ... so then it was a few turns later for my final three cities aided by forest chops... This way I managed 6 unis in under 20 turns.

So they weren't in sync I guess?? I will say that for the first time ever I've gotten beyond 700 bpt at turn 200, and without the help of research labs!!

 

[Agent Cooper]

Finished with Korea on turn 251 - pretty much same approach as my Mayan game. Signing RAs just isn't working for me with these saves, it seems. I think I signed 5 and only 1 came through because of mindless DOWs, as in AI civs turning on me despite having 4-5 positive diplomatic modifiers with me and only 1 negative. Mindless...

Spoiler :

Nevermind - my gut feel was that Babylons late game rush through the late techs with an army of GSs, will outperform Maya and Korea (with my playing style anyway) when it comes to launching fastest. Koreas strength seems to be the midgame with Universities and science specialists coming into play. The extra boost from late game science buildings + the additional specialists can't match 4-5 GSs bulbing 4-5 late techs - the game is too close to the finishing line at that time.

So, I re-played a fast Babylon game to end this run with the exact same approach as this one - 9 cities, few RAs, essentially the same wars, but now with map and AI civ knowledge and it seems I'll be launching in the early t230s with that game. With more late game RAs, it would easily have been around t220, just as I figured in a previous post.

Thanx for this challenge - it was great fun. Now a break before GOTM45

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

glad you enjoyed it, Agent Cooper. The Diety version will be available in a little while as well as GOTM46 by Oct 15th. Keeping things busy around here, haha.

 

[Tabarnak]

The Diety version...GOTM46 by Oct 15th.

Please not a cultural one

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

Please not a cultural one

nah, we're on a schedule. we try not to do the same VC twice in a row so my next one wont be cultural, haha.

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

The deity science challenge is officially up here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=11900101#post11900101