now i am curious how you accomplish this.
Education -> mysticism -> writing (in the days of the free sage, you could get tier 4s turn 120) ->
Religion (if necessary/desired) ->
(Maybe FoL or OO before writing)
2-3 of the most appropriate/effective economy techs (calander, bronze for chopping, and/or something civ or terrain specific). Not expensive stuff here. The efficient cheap techs. ->
Ether (if mage-based strat and before economy techs if not arcane or charasmatic) ->
Hunting (for hawks and hunter garrison) ->
Appropriate Tier 4 tech.
Whether commune, strength of will, engineering, religious law, righteousness, malevolent, war-horses, etc... your civ synergies should provide the
appropriate tier 4 tech around (a little before) turn 150 (quick speed) if you do not have a significant inturruption by a troublesome AI. Note: barbarian civs take longer - aim for a tier 3.5 (UU) with those. As far as I can tell, excepting 15+ city empires (exploiting city-state's cheaterness), Clan and Doviello (with the possible exception of the non-barb leader) never see tier 4 (doviello never sees war machine). I guess these civs are supposed to bully-trade their way there, cause they sure will never tech tier 4 on their own.
The only lightbulbs I use are alteration (very rare - if I have excess sages and am beelining SoW. 99% of the time, another academy is better), arcane lore (a good LB - but tough to time), or engineering and its path (only possible with Luchuirp, really).
The whole lightbulb thing needs to be redone. For luchuirp, it is cheater (engineer gives engineering, which gives an engineer, which gives slums... give me a break!), and for the rest (except for rare timing with an arcane civ - arcane lore) are WORTHLESS. I lightbulb in about 1/30 games
when philosophic, and always engineering with Luchuirp's cheater engineers. Early drama is possible with Balseraph (a 'meh' bulb), especially if you get the FoL shrine with the free bard.
One note:
Kuriotates and Malakim are naturals (palace mana) for a Tower of Divination - SoW move, but you gotta get those adepts EARLY to have the xp ready when you finish Arcane Lore and Tower (and you must switch to charismatic, not arcane, on turn 70). I can get archmages turn ~125 with Kuriotates (the fastest civ to SoW, thanks to the tower and sprawling, in my testing) - and they get domination from required Tower of Div mana. If you want to take the smooth and steady ride to SoW with Kuriotates, change to arcane on turn 70 and charismatic on turn 140 - that gaurentees some arcane units passively level 6, and 140 is not so much later than 125 (but 15 turns at that point in the game is pretty big). Easiest way: arcane 70, complete tower ~130, charismatic 140.
With Malakim arcanes, I aim for combat 5 pure mages after my first 4 adepts for domination (they still get summon lion without spending a promotion on mana, right?). A last-second adept can take care of blazing for the mages.
Keep in mind... this is aiming for tier 4. If a powerful AI (or, god forbid a player) hits you sooner... pretty much you lose. Don't forget to check the diplomatic advisor often and gift that extra palace mana you are not using at the moment (gifting mana = exploit?). In some ways, it's kind of a combo builder-warmonger strat/style. You are a turtling builder for the 1st 150 turns, then its full-on crunching time until everyone except you is dead or enslaved.
I don't like playing with axemen. I can do that in BTS (no offense to the many pretty cool axemen UUs).
.02
ps. I think the strongest strat in the game is Svartalfar,
education -> mysticism -> FoL -> writing -> Hidden Path *OR* Honor -> Poison / Handling -> Religious Law (turn 120, Chalid + Alazkan = game over) -> Feral (for Baron and Kithra) -> SoW (turn 180) -> Commune (for yvain) -> Animal Mastery -> Precision
Usually I skip getting Chalid and Radiants or Rathas (no Honor), and just go straight to archmages (after Hidden, Poison and maybe handling) that cast domination and summon mists to go with Alazkan, 2 rangers/hunters, 3 assassins at ~150. Rarely Feral before SoW, if I'm under bully-pressure (or really feel like playing with Baron is the right/fun move).
If you go the Honor (Empy) route you're going to need sanitation and math or drama for happiness after Religious Law, if your land/trades are below average. At least, until Chalid dies and you return to FoL and tech Hidden. If Alazkan dies before Chalid, Chalid can resurrect him. If Yvain is still available after Chalid dies, you have a new tier 4 priest for the army (and to resurrect Alazkan if needed).
Which brings us to my advice:
Practice that strat many times - terrain will change build orders and even tech orders sometimes (see "Most Powerful Strat" thread, in strategy forum, for further details), practice many times, then get a nice start and destroy the AI on monarch (as per my settings posted above) and post me in the morning
Once you can do it with, what I think is, the strongest civ, doing it with others (appropriate tier 4 tech) will be possible even on immortal with a little civ-specific practice to learn the civ-unique stuff. Immortal
requires luck - either a good start, huts, trades, or AI fighting each other... like deity did before .32 (I don't do deity anymore except with extensive options).
Grigori is the most fun, atm. 1 luon, 2-3 chaos twincast spellstaff archmages ~150 ftw. That's the smallest army I can roll an immortal AI 'playnow' with. Pillaging with mists and raider trait, while cash rushing and dominating + Alazkan over anything you like is a close second. Balseraph druids, a real pain, is my 3rd favorite. I despise the melee line (personal taste) and will only subject myself to it for Luchuirp's cheater engineers and Calabim (CR3 paladins/eids). I hear and see (MP) Mimics are way OP, but I'm done with Feral before I worry about Bronze (to arena scouts, not for mimics) as Balseraph (goin for my druids - building radiants while teching Handling, then switch back to FoL and get Hidden). If I liked melee, I would definately play Sureshot's scenario to get proficient with Bannor.
Oh, I almost forgot. The most important setting: this forum as a favorite or homepage. Read everything. I didn't learn all this stuff by myself. Even out-dated information helps (to understand the whys of current mechanics).
pps. In MP PvP, I still usually get my butt kicked by a any good Ladder BTS player who knows almost nothing about ffh (because of city-spam technique, mostly, I think). You cannot city-spam on immortal SP, so I never really got into how powerful it is.
on't take the easy way by removing "all bothersome terrain features", just level down them a little ...
