Time for the annual bump!
Just submitted a turn 200 SV as the Zulu. The key selling point here is that Impis are on the tech path to Education anyway, so you don't have to choose between Machinery/Chivalry and Education. Catapults (yes I actually used catapults) damage cities, Impis and CBs kill units, then after Education you upgrade to XBs and Trebuchets.
I missed that Arts Funding had been proposed and of course it got passed, which definitely cost me at least one turn, as in the end I was timing Hubble and PT with the final natural GS spawn. Another thing that hurt me was that William beelined Muskets and had Great Wall + Himeji + Defender of the Faith. This slowed me down and made capturing Amsterdam, the best AI city on the map, pretty difficult.
3 self-founded cities + 4 conquered capitals, standard Tradition / Commerce / Rationalism / Freedom. Couldn't make 5000 faith unfortunately so had to settle for 1 GE and 2 GSs.
I think it's evident that early dominant UUs can carry you to a sub-200 science victory, and this speaks volumes as to how balanced warlike and peaceful approaches to this game are, which to me is a thing of beauty.
Just submitted a turn 200 SV as the Zulu. The key selling point here is that Impis are on the tech path to Education anyway, so you don't have to choose between Machinery/Chivalry and Education. Catapults (yes I actually used catapults) damage cities, Impis and CBs kill units, then after Education you upgrade to XBs and Trebuchets.
I missed that Arts Funding had been proposed and of course it got passed, which definitely cost me at least one turn, as in the end I was timing Hubble and PT with the final natural GS spawn. Another thing that hurt me was that William beelined Muskets and had Great Wall + Himeji + Defender of the Faith. This slowed me down and made capturing Amsterdam, the best AI city on the map, pretty difficult.
3 self-founded cities + 4 conquered capitals, standard Tradition / Commerce / Rationalism / Freedom. Couldn't make 5000 faith unfortunately so had to settle for 1 GE and 2 GSs.
I think it's evident that early dominant UUs can carry you to a sub-200 science victory, and this speaks volumes as to how balanced warlike and peaceful approaches to this game are, which to me is a thing of beauty.
