Some time ago I decided I wanted to see how fast I could do a SV. I was missing an updated guide on how to do this, so I ended up with a mix of tips from the forum and some youtube mixed with my own ideas. After some tries I got it down to a 157 turns win on standard size and speed. HOF settings, but not a HOF game as I save and load as I please, and had prior knowledge of the map. Below I will try to outline a guide for fast SV with the basis of the game.
The main points:
This strategy is based on Russia and Earth godess. My idea was that with Russias bias to tundra starts, earh godess will allow me very fast faith generation in tundra woods.
That would allow very fast expansions when combined with monumentallity and ancestral hall. Since Russia have extra tiles, and I get a builder for each new city, I could chop infrastructure very fast also with a Magnus tour in the cities with the most chops.
Some general notes:
From my reading I saw that space to expand is the number one limiting factor. But I dont see this issue. With lakes template I seem to get all the space I want 9 out of 10 games. The example game I use here is a bit extreme because it has spices on tundra Woods.
To win a fast SV, you need basically 3 things. Enough science to finish the tree as fast as possible, enough gold(or faith) to buy 3 Spaceports and enough chops to chop laser stations. If you reach 20 cities, gold should be less of an issue as you have so much stuff to sell to the AI. In the Russia earth godess setup, chops will not be a problem as well, as you will have tundra woods plenty.
The bottleneck is science. This I think will be true for almost all games in this beta. A common recomendation on the forum is to beeline to moon landing, use that to get to globalization, and you are good. This might be right for most games, but not if you are playing very fast. The way I see it, the fastest you can go, is to finish 1 tech per turn (Excluding the few scources of instant science like Fez). Your goal is therefore get as early as possible to the point where you can 1 turn techs, and keep 1-turning techs for the rest of the game. After globalization/amundsen this is easy, and you can end up with 3000+ spt. The problem is that it comes too late. You need to start 1-turning techs earlier. In this game I start 1-turning when I finish Kiwa at turn 108. After that I think I had maybe a couple of techs I spent 2 rounds on. Everything else is 1-turn.
To be able to do this, you need almost all the boosts, that means you cant beeline, as you need the flexibility to shift to the techs you have boosted, and alternate between cheap and expensive ones. The fun thing is that you dont need to beeline to make it work. But it does require a lot of planning, and very strong culture. Otherwise you will be to slow.
A good economy is also vital, as gold gives fleksibility. Many boosts you wont have time to hard build, so either chops or gold. For example 3 workshops. Some boosts have too high cost to fulfill. I think chemistry, electricity, advanced flight, advanced ballistics, Guidance systems and Telecommunications are the only ones I do not try to fulfill of the science boosts. You can still get them by great scientist boosts though.
On the culture side I do not go for: Games and recreation, naval tradition, medival faires, mercantilism & guilds (as they require you to build com hub, which is too weak early game), Exploration, nationalism, capitalism, after idiology I have moon landing culture, so I boost only what I can get easy. Of course this is not written in stone. Some games will just not allow you some boosts.
Regardless of what people like or not, a lot of the game revolves around planned chopping. Personally I think it requires a lot of thought and understanding to chop most efficently, so Im not sure it dumbs down the game.
UI-Mods that give you info that exists in the game in a structured way is important! Maybe the most important is the one that shows you the gains from policies. This can be consulted every time you change policies.
This game was before the changes to work ethics. That could possibly be even faster.
Ancient era turn 0-50:
The main goals:
I dont think it matters that much exactly what the build order is, as long as you get 1-2 extra cities out quickly, and some scouts out to meet AIs and CSs.
Governors:
As culture is the key to everything early game, I went with Pingala and his +1 culture per pop as the two first. Then Magnus with provision so you can buy settlers without losing pop. This might be bit of a trap as often you can expand faster by bying a settler in a pop 2 border city. But if Magnus is on tour, and close to the action I think it is good.
Districts:
2 holy cites to get the gov plaza discounted. Then focus on campuses and holy sites.
Civics/techs:
In the early game I juggle the techs to only complete the ones I need. Science seems to matter very little this early, and if you finish too many the distric cost goes up. Culture on the other hand is extremly important. The culture gives you access to Ancestral hall, and Political philosophy. Everything you need to expand quickly. Throughout the early/mid game culture is more important than science for early SV. You need it for cheap settlers, better workers, governments and science boosts.
Wonders:
I am very doubtful of the effect of many wonders as they have a high oportunity cost. However in this game I have exceptionally good production in the capital, so I built ToA and Oracle. Most games I would build neither, and Oracle Im pretty sure is not worth it. Finding a city with a desert tile to plan Pyramids is smart to just get as early as possible.
Classical era turn 50-89:
The main goals:
Rapid expansion and planning key wonders and boosts. This is basically setting up for the next phase where your science and culture output should exlode. There is a balance about buying settlers or workers. As each settler also gives a worker after Ancestral Hall, so almost all faith should be saved for settlers. In this game I bought some workers with gold instead. This I think is worth it to connect resources to start selling it to the AI.
As long as you got your golden age, you can now start spamming settlers by bying them with faith. In this game I got 1000 faith in the bank, and ancestral hall is up by the time I settle a wave of new cities.
More or less all cities the aim should to be able to either place a 3+ Campus or grow to pop 10 to trigger rationalizm (Preferably both). Farms are underrated. You need housing and food to reach pop 10. Also tundra cities needs to grow to be usefull, so they need access to at least some good food tiles. Since 10 is such a magic number, beware of food chops. Often I will chop a jungle quite early to jump start a new city, but if I see that reaching 10 is hard, I save 2-3 food chops to get from 7/8 to 10. Remember that fast growth is faster placed and cheaper districts. Some cities will not get to pop 10 or 3+ Campus. That is fine. They are still worth it if you can chop a full campus.
A note on military units. You need many of them for boosts, and they are usefull against barbarians and to avoid war. But you dont want to hard build, you want to upgrade ancient era units. Preferably have at least 2 wariors, 3 slingers, a spearman and three heavy chariots, and later 2 catapults. With upgrading those you can achive most boosts. Sea units I think is worse and more game dependant.
Governors:
Pingalas culture boost is important. Otherwise I dont think it matters that much.
Districts:
As many cities as possible with library and uni, and holy cites with shrine and temple. Holy sites are worth it because of choral music gives +6 culture per city. One city needs an entertainment district for colosseum.
Civics/Techs:
Reformed Church is important as it will give cheaper workers/settlers, and Education for Unis. Otherwise I dont beeline if it means skipping boosts.
Wonders:
Get Pyramids. This is just so good, and the better the earlier you can get it.
Plan Kilwa - and get suz of 2 cultural and 2 scientific CS either beforehand or with the 3 envoys from Kilwa. This is the most important wonder in the game by far. If possible it should go in your megacity.
Plan Colluseum - Nice to have, but not essential.
I dont know the number of cities you need, but the bulk of your science and culture comes from your disctricts, so I think at least 15-20 is needed. Also I think it is smart to have one megacity. Reaching pop 10&15 gives Civics boosts, but also Pingala and Kiwa benefits from a megacity. At turn 108 I got 33% of my culture output and 20% of my science output from 1 city. This megacity should have at least Pingala, Kiwa, full campus and theater district.
Medieval Era turn 89-129:
The main goals:
In the next 20-30 turns your science should explode. You are chopping in libraries and unis. Finishing up Kilwa, getting suz of 2 science city states and getting access to rationalism. In total this will tripple your science output quite fast. And that is needed if you are to one turn techs. Together with planning the boosts and planning Magnus tour, this is the most important points.
Cities that had magnus on tour will have reached 10 pop, so the question becomes what districts do they get? Campus and Holy site is still priority. Theater square next, but you will want 3 industrial zones to get 3 workshops and to power your cities. The rest will be hubs or harbours. Your space cities will ofc need encampment or harbour. I did not have time for it in my first spaceport city in this game.
Towards the end of the era you need to have one chop city ready to go for lanching earth satelite and moon landing. That means having builders to chop, having Reyna with enough upgrades and gold to buy a space port.
All cities should also have a farm on the highest possible appeal tile, so that you can replace them by neigbourghoods and get that sweet gold. At the end of the era some cities will start their Research labs as well.
Governors:
In this part of the game Amani and Liang can be placed, and Reyna needs to start her leveling up. As you need her ready to buy a spaceport.
Districts:
Still focus on getting Campuses, then holy sites and theater squares. Also 1 Aerodrome. So much of your yields comes from districts, so planning this is key.
Civics/techs:
Although I dont think you should beeline, aiming towards satelites should be the best way. A strong culture is still important to even have the chance to boost techs like Sanitation and Radio.
Wonders:
One of the things that separates this strategy from other SV-games is the Eifel tower(turn 125). This wonder serves several purposes. It boosts flight, gives another boost for faith production, and gives better yield when I start replacing farms with neigbourhoods. That is 4000 extra gold if you have 20 cities.
Renaissace era 129-157
The main goals: Win the game!
In this stage of the game almost everything revolves around planning the end game timing. The most important point is getting the three spaceport cities up:
City 1: A city for chopping 2 first projects (Sat+moon) - must have Magnus when chopping
City 2: A city for using workers to boost 2 next projects (Mars&Exo) and chopping lasers - Must have Pingala and full harbour or campus
City 3: A only for chopping lasers -Must have Magnus and full harbor or campus
To be as fast as possible you also need tons of 1 charge builders!
In my game I start the era with getting rocketry turn 130. Within a couple of turns I can buy my first spaceport and move off Reyna to the next spaceport city. It will be at least 10-15 turns before I can launch Mars Colony, so it is plenty of time to get enough money to buy another one. After researching nanotechnology there are yet another 10 turns before you have lasers and the need for your third Spaceport, so again you have enough time to get money to buy a third spaceport. In my game I acutally bought a fourth, just for fun, not that it mattered anything.
Unless you have insane culture output, I dont think it is doable to boost the first two space projects with workers, as you need tier 3 government + Royal society. So those needs to be chopped.
Martian colony and Exoplanet can be built mainly by builders. I think I used one chop for Exo. When it comes to the laser projects these needs to be chopped. With the boost from Synthetic Technocracy they are very efficent.
I would reccomend to get 2 military engineers when you are building forts, so that they can run around building Railroads around Your final Space cities. You have to move a lot of workers around, so that helps. Also be sure to have Liang Close to get max charged Builders to use for the boost to mars+exo Projects.
I tired some different strats on the actual chopping, but the fastest I got was to chop all power consuming chop the first turn and let the city power down. Then balancing the next projects between alu and power consuming so I could keep the city powered.
Finished the exoplanet expedition on round 153 and game ends 157. That required finishing 16 lasers, and is probably not always possible. But getting the time down to 6-7 turns from Exo to winning should be fine.
Governors:
Doesnt matter. You just need to keep magnus and pingala in the right cities. And Reyna needs to move around to buy 3 space ports.
Districts:
Having enough gold to buy spaceports is key. Otherwise it doesnt matter much what you do at this point. Early in the era you want to keep the focus on Campuses and theater squares.
Civics/techs:
One-turning techs is still the most important. Towards the end you want to reach Syntethic techocracy as this makes builder charges and chops much better. I used Communism as my tier 3 government since I had so much gold. If Your gold is short, Democracy should be better.
Wonders:
Oxford will give you 2 free techs, and should be planned towards the end of the game. Amundsen-Scott is a significant boost to your science output, and has to be planned quite carefully as the placement restriction is severe. Also you want it the same turn as rapid deployment is finished, so it needs to be chopped or boosted by engineers or both.
I hope this writeup can be helpful for those aiming to do a quick SV, and I appreciate feedback on what can be done to make it faster still. I know Kilwa is too late at 108! Shoutout to @young.carl.joung for wanting this forum to be about discussing and developing strats! I highly agree with that. Hope we didnt lose you! And ofc @Victoria and the rest of the forum for explaining so much about how the game works.
If you want to play the game, the seed is:
Map seed:2100288242
Game seed:2100288241
Game Version: 1.0.2.39
Australia/Astec/Viking DLCs only
I also put a turn 3 sav file.
The main points:
This strategy is based on Russia and Earth godess. My idea was that with Russias bias to tundra starts, earh godess will allow me very fast faith generation in tundra woods.
That would allow very fast expansions when combined with monumentallity and ancestral hall. Since Russia have extra tiles, and I get a builder for each new city, I could chop infrastructure very fast also with a Magnus tour in the cities with the most chops.
Some general notes:
From my reading I saw that space to expand is the number one limiting factor. But I dont see this issue. With lakes template I seem to get all the space I want 9 out of 10 games. The example game I use here is a bit extreme because it has spices on tundra Woods.
To win a fast SV, you need basically 3 things. Enough science to finish the tree as fast as possible, enough gold(or faith) to buy 3 Spaceports and enough chops to chop laser stations. If you reach 20 cities, gold should be less of an issue as you have so much stuff to sell to the AI. In the Russia earth godess setup, chops will not be a problem as well, as you will have tundra woods plenty.
The bottleneck is science. This I think will be true for almost all games in this beta. A common recomendation on the forum is to beeline to moon landing, use that to get to globalization, and you are good. This might be right for most games, but not if you are playing very fast. The way I see it, the fastest you can go, is to finish 1 tech per turn (Excluding the few scources of instant science like Fez). Your goal is therefore get as early as possible to the point where you can 1 turn techs, and keep 1-turning techs for the rest of the game. After globalization/amundsen this is easy, and you can end up with 3000+ spt. The problem is that it comes too late. You need to start 1-turning techs earlier. In this game I start 1-turning when I finish Kiwa at turn 108. After that I think I had maybe a couple of techs I spent 2 rounds on. Everything else is 1-turn.
To be able to do this, you need almost all the boosts, that means you cant beeline, as you need the flexibility to shift to the techs you have boosted, and alternate between cheap and expensive ones. The fun thing is that you dont need to beeline to make it work. But it does require a lot of planning, and very strong culture. Otherwise you will be to slow.
A good economy is also vital, as gold gives fleksibility. Many boosts you wont have time to hard build, so either chops or gold. For example 3 workshops. Some boosts have too high cost to fulfill. I think chemistry, electricity, advanced flight, advanced ballistics, Guidance systems and Telecommunications are the only ones I do not try to fulfill of the science boosts. You can still get them by great scientist boosts though.
On the culture side I do not go for: Games and recreation, naval tradition, medival faires, mercantilism & guilds (as they require you to build com hub, which is too weak early game), Exploration, nationalism, capitalism, after idiology I have moon landing culture, so I boost only what I can get easy. Of course this is not written in stone. Some games will just not allow you some boosts.
Regardless of what people like or not, a lot of the game revolves around planned chopping. Personally I think it requires a lot of thought and understanding to chop most efficently, so Im not sure it dumbs down the game.
UI-Mods that give you info that exists in the game in a structured way is important! Maybe the most important is the one that shows you the gains from policies. This can be consulted every time you change policies.
This game was before the changes to work ethics. That could possibly be even faster.
Ancient era turn 0-50:
The main goals:
- Meet as many CSs as possible. Get 1 envoy in cultural ones.
- Befriend all AIs. Send delegation the turn you meet them.and sell them all you can
- Ensure enough points to get a golden age. If this fails, the game is failed.
- Establish a religion and start accumulating as much faith as possible. (Earth godess, choral music and religious settlements)
- Get 3-4 cities up and as much culture as possible.
- Get Gov plaza and ancestral hall before mass settler exand
I dont think it matters that much exactly what the build order is, as long as you get 1-2 extra cities out quickly, and some scouts out to meet AIs and CSs.
Governors:
As culture is the key to everything early game, I went with Pingala and his +1 culture per pop as the two first. Then Magnus with provision so you can buy settlers without losing pop. This might be bit of a trap as often you can expand faster by bying a settler in a pop 2 border city. But if Magnus is on tour, and close to the action I think it is good.
Districts:
2 holy cites to get the gov plaza discounted. Then focus on campuses and holy sites.
Civics/techs:
In the early game I juggle the techs to only complete the ones I need. Science seems to matter very little this early, and if you finish too many the distric cost goes up. Culture on the other hand is extremly important. The culture gives you access to Ancestral hall, and Political philosophy. Everything you need to expand quickly. Throughout the early/mid game culture is more important than science for early SV. You need it for cheap settlers, better workers, governments and science boosts.
Wonders:
I am very doubtful of the effect of many wonders as they have a high oportunity cost. However in this game I have exceptionally good production in the capital, so I built ToA and Oracle. Most games I would build neither, and Oracle Im pretty sure is not worth it. Finding a city with a desert tile to plan Pyramids is smart to just get as early as possible.
Classical era turn 50-89:
The main goals:
Rapid expansion and planning key wonders and boosts. This is basically setting up for the next phase where your science and culture output should exlode. There is a balance about buying settlers or workers. As each settler also gives a worker after Ancestral Hall, so almost all faith should be saved for settlers. In this game I bought some workers with gold instead. This I think is worth it to connect resources to start selling it to the AI.
As long as you got your golden age, you can now start spamming settlers by bying them with faith. In this game I got 1000 faith in the bank, and ancestral hall is up by the time I settle a wave of new cities.
More or less all cities the aim should to be able to either place a 3+ Campus or grow to pop 10 to trigger rationalizm (Preferably both). Farms are underrated. You need housing and food to reach pop 10. Also tundra cities needs to grow to be usefull, so they need access to at least some good food tiles. Since 10 is such a magic number, beware of food chops. Often I will chop a jungle quite early to jump start a new city, but if I see that reaching 10 is hard, I save 2-3 food chops to get from 7/8 to 10. Remember that fast growth is faster placed and cheaper districts. Some cities will not get to pop 10 or 3+ Campus. That is fine. They are still worth it if you can chop a full campus.
A note on military units. You need many of them for boosts, and they are usefull against barbarians and to avoid war. But you dont want to hard build, you want to upgrade ancient era units. Preferably have at least 2 wariors, 3 slingers, a spearman and three heavy chariots, and later 2 catapults. With upgrading those you can achive most boosts. Sea units I think is worse and more game dependant.
Governors:
Pingalas culture boost is important. Otherwise I dont think it matters that much.
Districts:
As many cities as possible with library and uni, and holy cites with shrine and temple. Holy sites are worth it because of choral music gives +6 culture per city. One city needs an entertainment district for colosseum.
Civics/Techs:
Reformed Church is important as it will give cheaper workers/settlers, and Education for Unis. Otherwise I dont beeline if it means skipping boosts.
Wonders:
Get Pyramids. This is just so good, and the better the earlier you can get it.
Plan Kilwa - and get suz of 2 cultural and 2 scientific CS either beforehand or with the 3 envoys from Kilwa. This is the most important wonder in the game by far. If possible it should go in your megacity.
Plan Colluseum - Nice to have, but not essential.
I dont know the number of cities you need, but the bulk of your science and culture comes from your disctricts, so I think at least 15-20 is needed. Also I think it is smart to have one megacity. Reaching pop 10&15 gives Civics boosts, but also Pingala and Kiwa benefits from a megacity. At turn 108 I got 33% of my culture output and 20% of my science output from 1 city. This megacity should have at least Pingala, Kiwa, full campus and theater district.
Medieval Era turn 89-129:
The main goals:
- Main goal is to get to the point you can keep 1 turning techs.
- Get all boosts that you can.
- Get Magnus on tour
In the next 20-30 turns your science should explode. You are chopping in libraries and unis. Finishing up Kilwa, getting suz of 2 science city states and getting access to rationalism. In total this will tripple your science output quite fast. And that is needed if you are to one turn techs. Together with planning the boosts and planning Magnus tour, this is the most important points.
Cities that had magnus on tour will have reached 10 pop, so the question becomes what districts do they get? Campus and Holy site is still priority. Theater square next, but you will want 3 industrial zones to get 3 workshops and to power your cities. The rest will be hubs or harbours. Your space cities will ofc need encampment or harbour. I did not have time for it in my first spaceport city in this game.
Towards the end of the era you need to have one chop city ready to go for lanching earth satelite and moon landing. That means having builders to chop, having Reyna with enough upgrades and gold to buy a space port.
All cities should also have a farm on the highest possible appeal tile, so that you can replace them by neigbourghoods and get that sweet gold. At the end of the era some cities will start their Research labs as well.
Governors:
In this part of the game Amani and Liang can be placed, and Reyna needs to start her leveling up. As you need her ready to buy a spaceport.
Districts:
Still focus on getting Campuses, then holy sites and theater squares. Also 1 Aerodrome. So much of your yields comes from districts, so planning this is key.
Civics/techs:
Although I dont think you should beeline, aiming towards satelites should be the best way. A strong culture is still important to even have the chance to boost techs like Sanitation and Radio.
Wonders:
One of the things that separates this strategy from other SV-games is the Eifel tower(turn 125). This wonder serves several purposes. It boosts flight, gives another boost for faith production, and gives better yield when I start replacing farms with neigbourhoods. That is 4000 extra gold if you have 20 cities.
Renaissace era 129-157
The main goals: Win the game!
In this stage of the game almost everything revolves around planning the end game timing. The most important point is getting the three spaceport cities up:
City 1: A city for chopping 2 first projects (Sat+moon) - must have Magnus when chopping
City 2: A city for using workers to boost 2 next projects (Mars&Exo) and chopping lasers - Must have Pingala and full harbour or campus
City 3: A only for chopping lasers -Must have Magnus and full harbor or campus
To be as fast as possible you also need tons of 1 charge builders!
In my game I start the era with getting rocketry turn 130. Within a couple of turns I can buy my first spaceport and move off Reyna to the next spaceport city. It will be at least 10-15 turns before I can launch Mars Colony, so it is plenty of time to get enough money to buy another one. After researching nanotechnology there are yet another 10 turns before you have lasers and the need for your third Spaceport, so again you have enough time to get money to buy a third spaceport. In my game I acutally bought a fourth, just for fun, not that it mattered anything.
Unless you have insane culture output, I dont think it is doable to boost the first two space projects with workers, as you need tier 3 government + Royal society. So those needs to be chopped.
Martian colony and Exoplanet can be built mainly by builders. I think I used one chop for Exo. When it comes to the laser projects these needs to be chopped. With the boost from Synthetic Technocracy they are very efficent.
I would reccomend to get 2 military engineers when you are building forts, so that they can run around building Railroads around Your final Space cities. You have to move a lot of workers around, so that helps. Also be sure to have Liang Close to get max charged Builders to use for the boost to mars+exo Projects.
I tired some different strats on the actual chopping, but the fastest I got was to chop all power consuming chop the first turn and let the city power down. Then balancing the next projects between alu and power consuming so I could keep the city powered.
Finished the exoplanet expedition on round 153 and game ends 157. That required finishing 16 lasers, and is probably not always possible. But getting the time down to 6-7 turns from Exo to winning should be fine.
Governors:
Doesnt matter. You just need to keep magnus and pingala in the right cities. And Reyna needs to move around to buy 3 space ports.
Districts:
Having enough gold to buy spaceports is key. Otherwise it doesnt matter much what you do at this point. Early in the era you want to keep the focus on Campuses and theater squares.
Civics/techs:
One-turning techs is still the most important. Towards the end you want to reach Syntethic techocracy as this makes builder charges and chops much better. I used Communism as my tier 3 government since I had so much gold. If Your gold is short, Democracy should be better.
Wonders:
Oxford will give you 2 free techs, and should be planned towards the end of the game. Amundsen-Scott is a significant boost to your science output, and has to be planned quite carefully as the placement restriction is severe. Also you want it the same turn as rapid deployment is finished, so it needs to be chopped or boosted by engineers or both.
I hope this writeup can be helpful for those aiming to do a quick SV, and I appreciate feedback on what can be done to make it faster still. I know Kilwa is too late at 108! Shoutout to @young.carl.joung for wanting this forum to be about discussing and developing strats! I highly agree with that. Hope we didnt lose you! And ofc @Victoria and the rest of the forum for explaining so much about how the game works.
If you want to play the game, the seed is:
Map seed:2100288242
Game seed:2100288241
Game Version: 1.0.2.39
Australia/Astec/Viking DLCs only
I also put a turn 3 sav file.
