Finished another game, launched spaceship T161. Some milestones that I consider important:
Captured 2 capitals by T37. Thebes had three clams, irrigated corn, and cows. Bibracte had three clams, riverside mines and forests to build Oracle, GLH and Colossus. The total amount of food in the first 3 capitals is what I look at first when I decide whether to continue playing the map. Another important factor is the availability of marble, which was in capital.
Oracled CS T59 and switched to slavery + bureau. Slavery is quite late, but this way I only spent 1 turn in anarchy in the whole game.
One interesting feature of this map is that I was able to settle two great oversea cities early. This is where high sea level shines. Both cities have grown really fast and provided tons of value. To get better trade routes, I've grown both of them to size 18 as soon as possible.I believe, Calakmul reached size 18 at about T130.
Finished Hanging Gardens T114 with 46 cities and 39 workers. This is the best result I ever got, but now I think it could be improved. One should aim to 50 cities by T115. Or maybe 40 cities, but five turns earlier.
Libbed Biology T121. Unlike the last game, I beelined it first, and went to Steam Power only after that. I was hoping for free philosophy from Mansa, so I gifted him CoL, Math and Alpha and waited for his GS. Unfortunately, he built Stonehenge, and of course the Great Prophet was born, so I got theology instead
. Could have libbed Biology 1T earlier.
It is painful to build universities without slavery, so Oxford was finished only by T130.
This time I knew, that I don't need 4GP golden age, so I could focus on GS bulbs instead. Bulbed chemistry, astro (full bulbs), physics, electricity.
Three Gorges Dam was built T151, and research was finished T158. So it was only 7 turns for factories to pay off. Hmm, it's definitely not worth it to build them everywhere, but I still think 3GD is a good wonder.
I was aiming to T159 launch, so I knew T158 should be the last turn in golden age and I have 3 golden ages left. That's 37 turns, so I should start GA no later than T131,
right? At least I thought so when I played the game
, so 5 turns of golden age wasted for no reason
.
Sub T170 is certainly possible. Maybe under perfect conditions, sub T165 is possible.