WithTea said:
Your two sentences seems separated, but actually they're striclty tied.
Can we assume that, until proved the contrary, Culture can be the fastest VC?
I think that yes, we can (i already heard this, can't remember
)
Why are we assuming that Culture is the best option for this game?
because our investigations on the initial save are telling us that's highly probable that:
1) we're in a land rich map, with no wrap
2) we're facing 8 AIs teamed in pairs, teching like Deity AIs or almost
3) a war can be difficult, since we'll face 2 AIs at once, not considering the usual dogpile if they're friendly with some neighbour (so that we can have 4 AIs sending units)
4) vassal are off
5) Culture is shortest than Space
6) if 2) is correct, Diplo is out of question, not for random personalities itself. In fact we can understand after few turns after met them who we're actually facing. In our latest test game, Toku is offering OB, so he should be someone else. And if there's Mansa and he would not even offer OB he can be Toku, sure like Hell.
Then, back to the above quoted post. We're all but Dredd weak in whipping. If we go for culture running Caste and a lot of artists is the way to go. We can probably use slavery during a GAge, only for few turns to whip something useful, then back to Caste.
And WithTea is forgetting another aspect of researching Masonry: what if we find marble? Better build a quarry than chop like mad. Or we can do both. Once arrived at that point, we can shoot for Mono, to ensure we have 3 religions. I have no doubts that we can found Tao.
And the city by the stone must be up and running asap. So, if we find marble in the neighborhood, city 2 there, city 3 by the stone ASAP.