The HoF allows selecting specific AI. The player can know all opponents, including their flavours/traits, and that does not count as prior knowledge of the map or conditions. The CS are closer to opponent AI than any other map factor and, unless specified somewhere, wouldn't necessarily be included of the definition of 'map or conditions' if the opponent AI aren't. Would be good to get clarification on that.
Blatc, saw you got your Settler Shoshone Science victory time down to T147. Nicely done!
I saw you got your 5th expansion city down by T32 this time. Any change in strategies? Did you change your early build order any to accommodate more workers/units? Did you go heavy into Maritime CSes or did you buy universities? Curious to see what you did given your pondering in previous posts!
I made several adjustments, some from Vadalaz's input. Luck factors including # of nearby ruins and the direction the AI decide to scout in have huge impact! Out of what we can control:
*I've been more careful in selection of ruins, delaying popping a nearby ruin if it won't be worker/settler and a pathfinder further away can pop one first
*sometimes my 3rd ruin choice is unit upgrade, and that unit then kills or scares off AI units, so they don't take my precious ruins
*now build a worker in at least my first 4 cities; if 5th city (meaning 4th expo) gets a strong start, that'll build a worker as well. As vadalaz wrote about previously, I'm aiming for ~2 workers per city fairly early on.
*I think my T149 game included several Maritime allies, 7 cities total and high end game pop, whereas my T147 game was (I believe) 6 cities, zero or one early maritime ally, and several Uni purchases. The former included more barb camp requests/opportunities than the latter, so it was partly a result of the circumstances.
Other thoughts, specific to Settler and sub-T150 SV
*as good as cargo ships are, coastal cities normally have weaker tiles overall while having to put out more production for work boats, lighthouse, and cargo ships. Keep in mind we're comparing the very best games possible, not the average game. It's more and more difficult to get non-essential production back the faster the game goes
*playing Tradition-Merc only now
*always going to Astronomy after Education
*1 GS bulb for Schools, Oxford Radio, 1 GS for Plastics is my norm now
*finally convinced that the +100 gold founder belief is best, so long as there's enough early faith. This does make the game take longer, as sending them across the highlands takes a while, especially once the barbs have horsemen
*more emphasis on having more units that can clear barb camps for gold. I've never really done CS tributes, so that's something to get into in future attempts
*getting DoF with Sweden around Education is helpful, though some luck involved in terms of their willingness and the order in which you meet AI (re: early war)
*my first congress proposal is usually science funding. However, if I'm not DoF with Sweden and they dislike that proposal, I'll look for something they'll like