Unless I'm mistaken, Writing requires 2 out of 3 techs (Pottery, Animal Husb., Priesthood). Plus it's good to be able to see all those horses you will never be able to use.ekanata said:Why would Fiber Optics need both? Just pottery would be enough.
If someone would give it a try, may the following list help you
I like the Civil Service path much better than Theology! With macemen, the Middle Ages just might be survivable.
As for steam power/plastics etc., that's a whole lotta extra techs and the whole point is to get to The Internet as fast as possible, so you can learn as many older techs as possible. (Thanks for posting that route, though...I knew I'd reached The Internet w/o Rocketry once.)
While Agriculture, Literature & Code of Laws may get you there faster, I think it violates the spirit of the challenge to acquire techs that lie outside the "beeline" path. (Besides, you can always "pop a hut" for Agriculture if you're really, really, really, really lucky!) Trading techs is indeed possible w/o Alphabet (as long as the other civ has it) but I think there should be a restriction that you may only trade for techs that are part of the beeline.
It might also be worthwhile to use an Industrious leader so you can build Wonders faster (esp. Oracle & Great Library, maybe Pyramids too.) Gandhi might be a viable choice.
Anyway, if I try this it will probably be on Warlord or below...just started playing this game and I'm only up to Noble so far, so Prince is right out!