Culture victory turn 117.
Before the game started, we were told that we would start on the island, but the announcement indicated the donut map. How is this possible? After I saw the starting screenshot, I was almost 100% sure that we would start on a small donut island inside a large donut. I'm surprised that this turned out to be a surprise for most players. The only thing that bothered me before the game was whether we would be able to sail from our island to astronomy. The exploration of our donut by a warrior showed that yes, we can.
The strategy of playing sacred sites is simple, especially on warlord, where no AI should definitely overtake us in the reformation. I really liked my timing in this game - everything was almost perfect for the first 60 turns. Of the 2 ruins on our island, in first I updated warrior in spear, in second I got 20 cultures -> the open of liberty. In the capital, I built a monument - pre-bild worker - shrine - finished worker. On the same turn, when I finished worker, I accepted the collective rule and started spamming settlers. The free settler went south, the first our own settler to the east of our donut. A turn before the construction of 2 settlers, I learned optics. Before that, I bought a scout, who immediately sailed to the west, and a spear to the north of our island. The scout found Sri Pada = 4 city. 5 city in the north near salt and gold, for which spear taked worker from Polynesia. 6 in the west near the salt. 7 was planned on the eastern island, but it turned out to be completely captured by the barbarians, so further on the Big Donut near copper and cotton. For this city, I stole a worker from Zurich. I didn't have any more workers until turn 100, when I built the Pyramids. The last settler from the capital sailed south to the 9th city between 2 horses. 8th city I bought for 500 coins in the west and built it on silver. I bought the 10th city in the north and built it around Sinai. On the 74th turn, I took for peace St. Petersburg with incense connected, a little later Osaka (I had to build a crab boat). 13th city became the eastern island, for which I built a spear and a warrior to clear the barbarians from sea. Later I found Kailas where I built the 14th city, took for peace Teotihuacan and Corinth (before 100 turn), Mombasa (from Turkey about 110 turn) and built 2 more cities and 1 settler at the end of the game.
I chose God King as the Pantheon, in my opinion this is the best choice. About 40 more turns passed before connecting marble, and even more before connecting wine. If I'm not mistaken, on the 59th turn I adopted religion (initiation rites and monasteries), and I need have accumulated more than 250 faith, but I was lucky with the strengthening, 304 was enough - at 76 turn (pagodas and itinerant preachers).
On the 74 turn, after settlers' spam, I built a Great Library in the capital (I took drama, since I learned philosophy myself at 73), then the Oracle (90 - took the reformation), then the Pyramids (100). In other cities, I built the Parthenon (101), the Lighthouse (100-), MoM (102) and ToA (113), as well as the Guild of Writers (102), but with Stonehenge AI was a little ahead me (about 100 too). This is to the question of what to build in cities after the shrine, temple and monument.
After philosophy, I learned hunting, and then studied theology for 2 turns, after which I changed my mind and went to the CS. This 2 turn slowed down my victory by 1 turn. The most interesting thing is that I changed my mind for the wrong reason, I decided that the transition to medieval would increase the cost of monasteries and pagodas by 50% and I would lose more than I would gain. For the same reason, I almost postponed the CS at the last moment, but fortunately I hesitated and decided to check ((thanks TSG 239). On turn 102, 1.5 bulbs were not enough for me to learn CS, perhaps this would also allow me to win 1 turn, but rather is not. One of the reasons why I doubted the need for CS was that during the game I fought with all the AI, with some 2-3 times. So I doubted they would agree to open the borders. I was very lucky: 2 of the most cultured AI (France and Greece), with whom I fought only 1 time, opened the borders, the rest did not, but it did not matter. the 3rd culture was in Russia, I sent second caravan there, first - in France.
75 turn stats: 11 cities, +31 faith/turn
100 turn stats: 16 cities, +16 tourism, +104 faith/turn.
116 turn statistics: 19 cities, +52 tourism, +159 faith/turn.
p.s. where the hell is the last wonder of nature?
