Just finished trying Rainforest. It has large numbers floodplains and even more jungle covered grasslands. In the jungle areas, one needs at least 2 Workers clearing jungle full-time in addition to the usual 4-5 Workers for a 4 city civilization. The most disappointing part of this map is the lack of variety in Health resources.
I started out in a grasslands area clear of jungle with 2 Pig, 2 Gems and 1 Deer within the fat cross centered on a fork in the river and I built my Capital there. It turned out that about 4 tiles down each of the three rivers (one downstream and two upstream) there was a potential city site with 2-5 resources within a fat cross area, but each of the non-capital sites was solid jungle. The cities had adjacent and non-overlapping fat crosses, so each commerce city could run up to 20 cottages each (cottaging over unneeded resources).
In this game, I played Elizabeth (Philosophical and Financial) again. Philosophical is really important for the Great Person point boost. Financial is almost as important for the Cottage fueled Research in the early game and the Cottage fueled Culture in the end game. My opponents were Darius I, Hatshepsut, Mansa Musa, and Washington.
Diplomacy went very smoothly in this game; After the usual 0 diplomacy in the early game, it never went below 3; I didn't even have to try to raise my diplomacy, even after Hatshepsut insisted that I join her (AP) Religion. I had three very early religions (Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism); I had Stone, but no Copper or Marble. I managed to build The Pyramids with Stone, but The Sistine Chapel without Marble wasn't even close (Not enough Hammers) at 16t to go. I also lost the race to Liberalism by about 3t; I did foolishly trade Education for Philosophy so I wouldn't have to research it for 4t prior to Liberalism.
Earlier in the game, I didn't notice that Hatshepsut was building the majority of all the World Wonders. On Turn 160 (AD 1000), I noticed that Hatshepsut Culture was already approaching 10K with my Culture roughly at about half that. Both my Cottage and Artist development was very so to start, due to jungle clearing and low Health resources.
Hatshepsut's Culture rate was about 370 Cpt in the third city and my 2nd Cottage city's was 200 Cpt, but my Great Artist spamming should easily close the gap. However, by Turn 200 (AD 1400), Hatshepsut built The Eiffel Tower and Rock N Roll and as 1000 year doubling bonuses kicked in for her early buildings and especially WWs, her Culture rate in her third city rose to 500-600 Cpt. Then on turn 208 (AD 1480), Hatshepsut's Culture rate in her third city inexplicably jumped from 500-600 Cpt to 900-1000 Cpt. I simply couldn't spam Great Artists fast enough to catch up.
On turn 223 (AD 1565), Hatshepsut generated a Great Artist in her third city and used it on the following turn to go from 45.5K Culture to 50.5K resulting in a Cultural Victory (turn 224; AD 1570). I wish I had turned on Permanent Alliance, since my diplomacy was Friendly (14). There would have been enough time to get a Defensive Pact on turn 160 and possibly get the Permanent Alliance on turn 200. Is this waiting period between DP and PA 40 turns or longer?
GP: GS for Academy, GS for most of Education, GE for National Epic, GE for Buddhist Stupa, 8 GA, and three more GA nearly born.
Again, what really slowed me down was Health which was never better than 14-15 until UN Environmentalism (+6 Health) was passed. Even with the poor Health, I had one city at 20P and the Capital at 18P.
I also blundered again by building Hermitage in the GP Farm which had enough Hammers to do it, because the Cottage cities were busy doing something else. I probably should have saved the second GE for the Hermitage.
Well, another poorly played game, but I got the loss this time that I justly deserved.
Sun Tzu Wu