6otM78 AAR

Yes

I am not sure what you mean by final science sequence.
I went to Rocketry, I got Big Ben on the way there to increase my gold and it also gives you an extra commercial slot for more gold which allowed buying a second launchpad. At rocketry I bought the spaceport with Reyna and immediately swapped her out for Magnus while I got to moon landing. At moon landing I had 1 charge builders on all the wood and then did the sums, how much is a chop worth with Magnus and Hong Kong, so do I have enough chopping power for 2400 production (satellites and moon landing together) and then chopped in. If I did not have enough I would need more techs to increase chopping power. At this stage I also added up all the culture I need to get to globalisation including getting suffrage. I divided this culture by 10 and made sure it was less than my science output. If it was not I would have to have chopped in science projects and fired off the wonder and mountain scientists (which I did) this then allowed me to get to globalization is about 6 turns where I could then slot the ISS card for 5% science per suzerain. At this stage you should be suzerain of as many as possible.

At rocketry I also started hard building my London spaceport, I did have a few chops left which help and naturally saved these chops as long as possible as they get stronger with each tech. My science starts getting faster at globalization and you can get to the mars colony before your spaceport is ready but this is not necessarily a problem as you are also now trying to find the exoplanet expedition. In London I get a shipyard for and extra 15% on science projects, Pingala great vets 20% and Hong king gives 20%. Having got the royal society I use builder charges for both mars and exoplanet launches with the main limitation being finishing before lasers. These builder charges are increased by Hong Kong, Pingala and seaport so you only need about 6-7. These projects in between typically do not need chop because of the time to get to exoplanet and then lasers but a few can help depending on your science output, the earlier you finish, the less science you have.

At lasers I was lucky enough to have got another chop spaceport up with Magnus in. This I then used with aluminium to chop in 5 lasers in a single turn meaning form the start I was running a 6 light years but using builders and things I got another 6 lasers out between the 3 spaceports.

My fist city I settled to the west on that tiny river you see in your T63 screenshot by the slingers. When I killed the barb camp my warrior explored these woods and even got me the foreign trade inspiration. This city is a far superior city to grassland ones you settled. Production is so important. The first thing it built was 2 galleys using the 100% ship card. Getting this eureka early really helps but also sending a galleys both ways meant I got to CS a lot earlier. Even if you do not find them first, you can only do their quests once you have found them and the double envoy card makes quests quite strong.

 

Science Victory Turn 261, Score 2093

I was mostly just screwing around in this game.

 

@Victoria Thanks for this. Super helpful.

For my own future understanding, I want to try to compile a checklist of things to do for a better SV. Based on this information and pouring through old threads:

Early Game -
Hypatia if possible (+1 libraries)
Crassus if possible (save for end game chop tiles in 4th/5th rings of selected city)

Colosseum? (for the culture?)

Mid Game -

Mausoleum
Newton
Galileo (position and save for moon landing)
Darwin (position and save for moon landing)
Einstein

Big Ben? (for the gold and the slot?)

Look for a suitable big chop city location and settle, ideally on a non-capital continent for use with colonial production policy.
Suzerain as many CS as possible.

Late Game / Space Race
- Goddard, Korolev, Braun if possible for space race bonuses. Sagan, Kwolek also if possible.
- Ammal and Leaky if possible (position and save for moon landing)
- Hong Kong if present.
- T3 Government and Royal Society.

Order of operations:
1. At Rocketry, build or buy a Spaceport (position Reyna in advance to buy), and launch the Earth Satellite sometime before finishing research on Satellites (probably having moved Pingala in right after Reyna). Cycle Reyna to any other cities that you're going to buy Spaceports in.
2. If/When you reach Space Race, build/buy Seaports/Academies in any Spaceport cities but especially in the Moon Landing chop city if you have yet to chop-land on the Moon.
3. Research Satellites and have Magnus positioned in the choppable Moon Landing city.
4. On the same turn as Satellites? switch all cities except Moon Landing city to Campus Research.
..... does this need to be same turn as Satellites, or turn before?
..... does a chop in each city increase the affected science per turn for the Moon Landing culture bonus?
5. Also that turn, activate any one-time-Science-bonus scientists (darwin, etc).
6. Chop the Moon Landing completely on that one same turn.
7. In the ensuing turns, avoid any inspirations to prevent losing culture overflow.
8. Use the culture overflow to beeline to Globalization, so that you can quickly tech to Nanotech (Mars) and search for Smart Materials.
9. Once you have found Smart Materials, chop/finish the Mars Colony if you haven't already, and then chop or builder-charge the Exoplanet.
10. In the turns following the Exoplanet Launch, use any and all available chops and builder charges to complete laser projects.

Is the focus on specifically one-charge builders for chopping simply because you've saved them from earlier after having used their initial charges for something beneficial, or is there a specific mechanic this relates to? Like if you've got cash/faith to spare and can use full charge builders to chop does it matter?

It would seem that a general expansion/build strategy would be to focus on obviously campuses with a few early commercial hubs to try to get Crassus and build up an economy capable of buying out some scientists (and purchasing districts/spaceports), then IZs to help earn the appropriate engineers? Conquer who you can along the way.

 

Not a big one in the overall scheme of things. The nice thing is she is a free library

They come too late for the fast game.

Play a game and you will see getting 7200 gold to buy a spaceport is not so easy. Even if you do, the extra commercial slot is invaluable and the extra 50%. Gold is always useful. A Big Ben chop city is always worth the consideration.

1 charge builders because you need to chop in as fast as possible(one turn for satellites and moon landing) Using 3-5 chop ones is a bit of a waste.