Fast Science Victory: Civ VII Edition

[Bleidraner]

Thank you @Salamis and @pmarc amazing response, not just great for this particular question but for any other of the leader quests. I wanted to replay the last 50 turns of the Isabella game as I focused on getting the three wipes (a first for me) and not on optimal gameplay, and I wanted to see what a full game correctly played would be like including Expl and Modern. One of my frustrations was that I had not managed to get the expansionist point that I wanted from Isabella’s quest and also wanted to lean in more on the naval advantages of Isabella, specially in Exploration but prepping in Antiquity, as they have been in my opinion underestimated. I am playing now carefully and may even decide that three wipes is not as good as 2 wipes with good preparation for an early wipe in Exploration and a couple more legacy points while I wait for the next GoTM. I will report back. I think this will be my last Isabella game, as the meta has changed quite dramatically in the last update and this coming one, and now I want to try Xerxes, Aksum, Tonga and a few others. But I want this last Isabella game to be great, lets see if manage to do that.

 

[Manpanzee]

Well, I blitzed through my first game on 1.3.0, and it looks like power levels are creeping back up. We’re into the 160’s… are 150’s still possible?

Himiko QoW leading Tonga / Inca / Russia
103 + 40 + 23 = 166 turns

Mementos:
Cultural attribute + diplo attribute
Corona Civica + Gold Snuff Box (+20% food when in exactly one alliance)
Lotus Blossom + Note G

--First impression of Tonga is that they might be the new strongest Antiquity civ. Perfect scouting lets you combine all the respective upsides of playing on Continents vs. Pangaea, and the yields ain’t bad either.

It became apparent fairly early in this one that I wasn’t going to manage an Antiquity civ wipe. However, I had a really juicy econ game going (including four Expansionist city-states, with enough settlement limit to delay that option for last), and decided to play it out and see. I ended up finishing both Future Tech and Future Civic to close out a solid 103-turn era.

Spoiler :

--I failed to unlock Abbasids and didn’t have the option to play as them, even if I’d wanted to. I was already planning on trying something different here, and, after considering then dismissing some Future-Civic-based strategies, decided to go with Inca.

I think Inca are (Bulgaria excepted) the generally strongest econ/infrastructure civ in Exploration. The plan in this game was to use my perfect map knowledge to get treasure fleets flowing extra fast, while relying on Monasteries to transmute econ into science.

Inca’s homeland treasure fleets ability is hard for me to judge, as the three-worked-mountain-tiles requirement is a significant price to pay. However, a couple extra treasure fleets were definitely relevant this game, shaving two or three turns. Ultimately, I managed to clear all legacy paths and Future Tech by turn 39, and the belated civ-wipe of my Antiquity adversary let the era tick to completion on turn 40.

Spoiler :

--Modern was mostly straightforward next-turning with big-yields Russia. Only really notable decision was passing on the Universities Golden Age (I think Lyceums and the +science leader legacy option are both better, if you have access to the latter.) I was a bit lucky, with three Militaristic IPs to pop, plus a spare Scientific IP to trigger more Note G hammers. Everything synced up, with Rocketry and the last Communism civic both finishing on turn 22, for the turn 23 finish.

Spoiler :