t23, 105+38+23=166 turns
Again, all the important decisions happened at t1. First decision was to choose Buganda. I was hesitant between them and Russia, and I think Russia was likely the better choice as they have really good early culture and a bonus for wonders in their civics tree I seem to remember. But I went with Buganda for the culture pillage.
I had left some of Isabella's settlements alive on purpose and I had 11 total between Isabella, Ibn and the Turkish lady, Sayyida Al Hurra. So the plan is to get to Ideology as fast as possible and conquer 10 settlements for 2 points each after that, unlocking the military vctory. Then build Manhattan Wonder and Project Ivy.
I needed a few military IPs to disperse and at least 1 science to suzerain for a great finish, but what I got was 1 military, no science. Also that 1 military was problematic, as it was encased between 2 of Sayyida's cites and would surely be wiped out by her and I absolutely wanted to prevent that.
So I declared war on all three AIs and rushed towards the IP with a newly constructed fleet in DLs and the Army Commander that I had sent East to DLs in Expl to explore and potentially ally/kill IPs and that had got some promotions protecting my settlers in Exploration. Both armies were almost half a world away, but made it there just in time to protect the military IP.
As for the rest, the war was not incredibly efficient, I could have saved one, maybe 2 turns. I did not quite go all out from t1, but prepped a little by cleaning my own cities of enemy units and I think that was a wasted effort, it does not really matter if you lose a crappy little town, you are swimming in money anyway with the pillage, and the main thing is get the 10 enemy settlements asap and nothing should distract from that.
Anyway, I got to Communism by t10, conquered the 10 settlements by t14, had 4 turns building the Manhattan Wonder, helped by railway, factory, the Wonder Tradition and 4 chocolates, then 7 turns for the Ivy Project powered by whales and tobacco that got cut down to 5 turns by dispersing the military IP, I also had the Communism civic that gives 30% to projects. Would have been great to have a Science IP to add their 30% bonus to projects on top of that, probably cut another turn, but the map Gods did not smile at me.
I never converted the second city, Baak. I forgot and then it did not really matter. Again, I did not get offered the option to change capitals to Baak, weird.
I had saved a ton of influence in Expl and spent all of it plus 5 hub towns worth of influence (130+ per turn) befriending a cultural IP as fast as possible for the culture on warehouses bonus and that helped me get to Socialism for the 30% bonus exactly on time.
Absolutely key was saving almost 10K in exploration and spending 8.5K on that final turn on warehouses and Stone Heads, I left 1500 gold at the end of Explo so started Modern with 9500+ (the max) and I spent it all in more warehouses, and completing my third and 4th fleets
Anyway, the save game is t22, you win on click as Project Ivy completes at the beginning of t23.
If i have time I will update the post with some thoughts about all three ages. Really nice game thank you GoTM staff.
EDIT: Some thoughts on all three ages:
Ant: Nothing much to report, I messed up Antiquity with a war against Xerxes, specially obsessing with conquering Parsa, that completely distracted me from the important stuff. I should have conquered his one river settlement, whittled his units and gotten a peace deal for another town and leave it at that, it would have been relatively easy to conquer Parsa in t1 or 2 Expl.
Expl: I updated the Exploration post with info about the mementos. I focused on settlement limit and chose the Expansionist to make sure that I would get the +1 pop in towns before legacies. I also chose the scientific as I was runnng a little behind in science (and culture for that matter). Choosing Songhai was the most essential decision, it is true that I had to very quickly plant 2 settlements and conquer another one and all of them had very little expansion capabilities. This put me over the cap limit by t2, and forced me to manage happiness all age, mostly by slowing down conquest so I would add settlements in the last 10 turns, but the return was absolutely amazing, guaranteeing economic path by t38 in my case without having to do anything. In fact I should also have used for this the settler I prebuilt in Antiquity, but I really wanted to plant in the inland sea DL island, I should have realized that with my plan I would not need any ttrasure from DLs. So that did not work out, that settler and the other 5 DL settlers stayed unplanted until the very last turn, which helped me a lot with the cap limit, but it kind of pains me that I prebuilt that settler in Exploration only to plant it on the last turn of Modern.
Modern: I used Lotus Blossom and the +1 culture on specialists, like
@civfanatic4sure (spectacular Antiquity he posted). I see
@GoblinMatron (wonderful Modern) chose Clipeus Virtutis, but I do not have that memento unlocked so I have not used it before, I will try to unlock it in the next few weeks, seems great, a solid choice, probably better than culture from specialists. On the other hand, I made it to Socialism and its 30% on projects just in time, so I needed all the culture I had, and I think the 30% on projects>the aprox 25 production per turn but maybe you can have both by pillaging in a more efficient way. GoblinMatron built the wonder and the project in 10 turns, while I built them in 9 turns, and we both used 1 military IP. GoblinMatron was faster to both military legacy path completion (12 vs 14) and to the ideology (by t7!!!! instead of my t10, amazing).
