I have a 1585 AD win with Gandhi in the submission queue at the moment. So we can do a lot better.
Rainforests are bad for popping huts
Your capital spot is nice and clean, but the rest of the world is jungle. Ick. This is where those fast workers truly shine, as they can move through two squares of jungle per turn, as long as the first move isn't on a jungle hill! Definitely won't get the kind of luck we got on Inland Sea (which was the last Settler Space Colony gauntlet, though at Marathon speed). I only got two or three settlers from the Gandhi game. Finding good spots is also tricky.
Fast workers rule!
Normal speed + jungles galore = saved worker turns mean a lot! Now, we can have the argument for Philo vs. Organized, but I think having fast workers is the biggest factor.
Food heavy cap = whip like mad!
It is not uncommon to find disgustingly good food cities either as your cap or as a subsequent city for a classic GP farm. Note that because it's normal speed and settler that the obvious Nat Park GP farm (preserving jungles) isn't really worth the time spent setting it up. My early game consisted of 3-pop whipping settlers quite a bit to get land (and I think I should have done even more cities), followed by workers. And because it's settler, I have enough happy cap to deal with the anger. Even more importantly, settler gives enough of a health cap such that I can settle cities in the middle of the jungle and can actually grow to size 2!
Executives don't like the rainforest
There aren't enough resources that are covered by the corporations we want (Sid's (almost no sea), Cereal (except for sugar), Mining [resources are not dense]), especially given the Large size (corps resource bonus is scaled inversely proportional to map size). On the other hand, State Property + Caste System + workshops = lots of production easily.
What to Oracle and Lib?
I got Education with Oracle, though my development was still too nascent to get Oxford until much later. CS is a bit early IMO when we're in Settler level, though I can see how it will help with whips.
Liberalism is a more interesting beast, especially if you want State Property (as Communism requires Liberalism as prereq). I went with Superconductors (through Refrigeration route) for Laboratories, though I'm considering going to Genetics (where I only need medicine and superconductors above what I did the first game). Why? Because...
Your three biggest enemies in this game in order (the AI's are a joke). Just not enough health resources (especially Granary-enhanced ones), and happy also becomes an issue.
Next game I will build more cities (I challenge you to get bankrupt on Settler!) while getting lots more Workers! Hagia Sophia may actually be warranted here, hmm...
Finally, I would like to comment on how smart the automated workers were that game. Even before State Property, they were spamming workshops everywhere that I didn't want a cottage. How pleasing
While the general Hall of Fame is an ongoing competition, we like to run time-definite competitions between updates that we call Gauntlets. Standard Hall of Fame rules (*) still apply, but any games meeting the settings will be counted towards the Gauntlet.
It does up the tech rate for you though so can be useful.
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