Launched my spaceship T200. My land just wasn't good enough to keep pace with Vadalaz ' game. I hit Radio on the same turn as his game but then I hit plastics 3-4 turns behind and finished 4 turns behind. Too many subpar tiles which started getting worked soon after Radio. Didn't make any major screwups in the end; just limited by science. Topped out at 52 population and 919 science. Had to wait on a necessary Great Scientist a bit late before popping Hubble but I had been good about getting GP help up asap all game so it couldn't be helped. Faithbought 4 GSes which seems about the limit you can reach.
Planted 4 academies. May have gained or lost turns at crucial policy juncture soon acter adopting freedom. I had 2 academies planted and one coming soon. I had a few CS allies but nowhere near the full 16 I had at endgame. After getting the 2 free early adopter policies in Freedom, (Avant Garde +25% gp generation and Civil Society specialists use less food) I had a tough choice for the next SP. The usual Freedom 2nd tier awesomeness of specialists yielding less unhappiness nd longer golden ages or Freedom 2nd tier New Deal which boosts academy science bulbs or Scholasticism. Happiness was not an issue at all but my Great Artists were lined up to start making the perpetual Golden Age until game end soon after hitting the next natural GAge. I only had 3-4 CS allies at the time and was not set up to get others real soon. I had 2 academies at the time. I opted for longer golden ages, then beelined to get New Deal then got Scholasticism. If I had played it differently it may have affected things but I'm not sure how actually. The earlier academy boost may have bought me a couple turns but I would have lost Golden Age turns along the line.
Main trouble area beside running out of great tiles was the map. Stringy continents with only 3 other AIs on my continent (and me in the middle of it) meant much fewer ruins than I had hoped for and a relatively late World Congress as I researched PPress 5-10 turns before finding last civ. A roundish pangaea or a funky map where I had a big sheltered area of ruins to mine would have been much better.
Oh, and there really is a first time for everything-- this game was the first in which I intentionally built a caravansary! My landlocked cap had only 1 CS initially in caravan range, so I had to build if to get any trade routes going! My puppeted cities love to build useless caravansaries most games, but in this game one was actually vital!
I think Vadalaz' benchmarks are spot on as to what you should ideally shoot for. The better your land, the faster and smoother your endgame will be. Vadalaz had 53 pop at game end and I had 52, so I think you really have to be around 50 at least to break the T200 barrier.
OCC really is different, so heed Vadalaz' advice and start faithbuying GS really early as you can't buy spaceship parts on the same turn you faithbuy. I almost started a turn or two too late, but my science was a turn or two slow as well so it worked out. If you are buying all your spaceship parts you need at least 6 turns to do it too.
Do not sweat culture or happiness, they were minor or negligible considerations all game. Getting the key social policies in Tradition/Rationalism asap is still important, but there is no need to stress about getting all the commerce/freedom/order policies you need. At Chieftain, they come easily in the mid-late game with any effort at all at cultural CS or wonders. Happiness was not an issue at all unless I was planning out Golden Ages.
I will try the Major I think before coming back to this one. I think being patient or lucky about getting great starting terrain is the key.
Almost forgot. Can someone who uilt World's fair or one of the other world congress projects in this gauntlet tell me about how many turns it took? If feasible, I have a far out idea to beeline PPress instead of astronomy after education to found World Congress early, then beeline to Satellites to try to get International Space Station voted 8n early enougb to actually build and help. An extra GS and +33% to bulbing techs sounds pretty sweet on this science starved gauntlet. I was building research much of the endgame after the specialist buildings and science wonders were done; I think building Space Station would be worth it if it could be done in time.
Planted 4 academies. May have gained or lost turns at crucial policy juncture soon acter adopting freedom. I had 2 academies planted and one coming soon. I had a few CS allies but nowhere near the full 16 I had at endgame. After getting the 2 free early adopter policies in Freedom, (Avant Garde +25% gp generation and Civil Society specialists use less food) I had a tough choice for the next SP. The usual Freedom 2nd tier awesomeness of specialists yielding less unhappiness nd longer golden ages or Freedom 2nd tier New Deal which boosts academy science bulbs or Scholasticism. Happiness was not an issue at all but my Great Artists were lined up to start making the perpetual Golden Age until game end soon after hitting the next natural GAge. I only had 3-4 CS allies at the time and was not set up to get others real soon. I had 2 academies at the time. I opted for longer golden ages, then beelined to get New Deal then got Scholasticism. If I had played it differently it may have affected things but I'm not sure how actually. The earlier academy boost may have bought me a couple turns but I would have lost Golden Age turns along the line.
Main trouble area beside running out of great tiles was the map. Stringy continents with only 3 other AIs on my continent (and me in the middle of it) meant much fewer ruins than I had hoped for and a relatively late World Congress as I researched PPress 5-10 turns before finding last civ. A roundish pangaea or a funky map where I had a big sheltered area of ruins to mine would have been much better.
Oh, and there really is a first time for everything-- this game was the first in which I intentionally built a caravansary! My landlocked cap had only 1 CS initially in caravan range, so I had to build if to get any trade routes going! My puppeted cities love to build useless caravansaries most games, but in this game one was actually vital!
I think Vadalaz' benchmarks are spot on as to what you should ideally shoot for. The better your land, the faster and smoother your endgame will be. Vadalaz had 53 pop at game end and I had 52, so I think you really have to be around 50 at least to break the T200 barrier.
OCC really is different, so heed Vadalaz' advice and start faithbuying GS really early as you can't buy spaceship parts on the same turn you faithbuy. I almost started a turn or two too late, but my science was a turn or two slow as well so it worked out. If you are buying all your spaceship parts you need at least 6 turns to do it too.
Do not sweat culture or happiness, they were minor or negligible considerations all game. Getting the key social policies in Tradition/Rationalism asap is still important, but there is no need to stress about getting all the commerce/freedom/order policies you need. At Chieftain, they come easily in the mid-late game with any effort at all at cultural CS or wonders. Happiness was not an issue at all unless I was planning out Golden Ages.
I will try the Major I think before coming back to this one. I think being patient or lucky about getting great starting terrain is the key.
Almost forgot. Can someone who uilt World's fair or one of the other world congress projects in this gauntlet tell me about how many turns it took? If feasible, I have a far out idea to beeline PPress instead of astronomy after education to found World Congress early, then beeline to Satellites to try to get International Space Station voted 8n early enougb to actually build and help. An extra GS and +33% to bulbing techs sounds pretty sweet on this science starved gauntlet. I was building research much of the endgame after the specialist buildings and science wonders were done; I think building Space Station would be worth it if it could be done in time.