Ok, so I finally played through and actually won this time! Tristan, 500AD is still excellent, this was my best attempt and I got 560AD. Here is the replay:
It's odd, the date of my landing on AC was 1790, (26 year flight). So those things at the end actually happened, but not on those dates, exactly.
I realized that although RR by 1AD is probably impossible, being a few techs away, and having a size 21 city with Uni, Copernicus, etc. is still a strong enough start to have a solid chance (except on earth
). Copernicus wasn't by the original cutoff date, but 340BC ain't bad. I built it before Uni because the techs lined up that way. Here's my tech order, which I really like because it has nothing I don't need:
Tristan, I know you said not to do it, but I eventually mined all the unproductive grassland to plains, because that still left pop 23 plus a settler on sentry, and I figured it would take half the game to get to 24, even if I wasted turns getting pottery (and getting GE and building cure for just two pop made no sense to me). For a while I was able to build a caravan every 3 turns without needing cash rushing.
I once again got lucky with Darwin, having it last until I could use it for plastics and robotics again. And thanks to your suggestion, RedKi-rr, I formed a Republic in 2640BC. I also got one barb diplomat, which I used to rush a settler in 2600BC.
Other things I tried include:
early Shakespeare (works great, unless you also want Copernicus in the BCs
)
extremely early Copernicus (2100BC, didn't form a republic until 880, and was only teching navigation at 1AD).
early Uni (lol that was pathetic).
So early banking actually seems to be the best, which makes sense to me now as the market/bank combo is basically your early factory.
Should we try another game with these rules, or maybe we put Copernicus back at 500BC and add in Colossus at 2500BC? Based on Tristan's report, I don't know that anyone is going to do all that much better than RR at 500AD, unless the map is significantly nicer. The fact that the games where Copernicus was earlier than 500BC ended poorly makes me think that that date isn't right, unless we already have Colossus. Or maybe a gold mine or two. So I say lets get Colossus and allow restarts only for wonder theft before their "expiration date".
In a couple of days I should return home.
Your dates of landing AC is very nice. My best one was at least after 1850 AD (btw, around these dates United Nations becomes very handy since you may talk with AIs and don't give them anything), and yes - Copernicus was late too. I like your observations with banking. I think I need pay more attention to banks.
But what did you do with discoveries? They cannot be made in the same turn. So, did you do very careful micro? 
Please feel free to open the map, I guess it will be several tries anyway. The land is as usual: it is not good, but it is not bad either.
So, I tried in the past very soft version (not to settle more than one city) 
So occasionally I wasted a turn or two. But I got just enough caravans for trade routes and to build the wonders I did build, which was really only Copernicus, Seti, Darwin, and Apollo, so I guess 39 caravans in all.
like I tried to do a couple of times). Actually, it is a pity that Zulus found out to be so annoying in this game. Also I like very much your observation with the SETI, probably it is one of the keys.
for those Zulu!
