nice one zen, so fils still keeps the gold on this one
put in an attempt a couple of months ago was really a fun game
t160 had 90 pop and 634 beakers with t-3 to modern era - ended up with a 5 city t227
https://imgur.com/gallery/ZwOqVI4 with the slightly different gp order (GM:>GS)
you just mentioned and the extra city (6) I am contemplating some improvement though - Maga also recently subbed a good game in too
looks like we have a new trend revival hahaha
Yes, these are fun settings with the Maya in particular, so room for tinkering. That game you had was nice, especially your midgame benchmark!
Well, I'm back at it. Finally got Civ6 and was dismayed to learn there's no HoF for that, so I'm getting my fix here.
Managed a t213 victory despite some rust. Nearly panicked when I went to buy a spaceship part and realized it requires aluminum... thankfully Recycling Centers exist and gold wasn't my primary constraint. My endgame bulbs also weren't strong enough to one-turn the final techs... probably should've grown a bit more before transitioning to TPs.
I used a hybrid Trad-Liberty opening, rushing Citizenship and leaving Collective Rule as the last Liberty policy for an endgame great person. I like this opening a lot on lower difficulties, where early Worker steals aren't a thing. Sometimes it's nice to keep your options open for an extra Merchant/Engineer/Writer instead of a Scientist, although in this case the Scientist was the pick.
My map had zero culture city states, so I had to compensate by grabbing both Pagodas + Mosques and building Sistine Chapel earlier than ideal. A bit unfortunate, as policy costs are lower on Warlord, and I think you can do some interesting stuff finishing Commerce on this difficulty -- faith-buying double-gold Merchants is not a bad deal at all. But I didn't have the spare culture to try anything too fancy here.
I'll probably try my hand at some more of the gold-medal-eligible low-difficulty science entries.
Nice game despite the rust! Almost the same end result as mine; the win I submitted was T212.
The "save Collective Rule for last" is certainly an interesting gambit. I generally have been playing straight Liberty on Warlord and lower these days, saving Representation for last, as that Golden Age sometimes comes in handy late game. However, with the Maya theology rush, I went with Tradition as that really plays well into the Great Library rush. Ignored Liberty, went straight Commerce/Rationalism/Freedom with a late dip into patronage for the extra science (CS only gave me 40 out of my 1750 endgame science. Warlord...) I was able to steal workers not too late from nearby Korea and farther away Netherlands, as well as from a CS and a barb camp, I think, so I was OK without Citizenship or Pyramids. I either hardbuilt workers and bought a couple settlers or maybe bought 1 worker and the 1 settler early. 6 cities all hard built (It is tough to have a decent AI capital near enough and nice enough to capture in a Warlord Highlands game!)
Looking back at my final screen, I think the lack of a mountain in my capital and lack of rivers kept me from matching fils' game. The nearby CSes and a decent amount of salt helped a lot.
Funny that you had a no culture CS game. It would seem counterintuitive, but I think a couple of my best science games actually had zero culture CSes as well. I think the timing if you take the spare straight path through Trad/Liberty, Commerce, Rationalism, Freedom doesn't get screwed up by too much early culture. No "luxury" social policies, but you get the key ones no later. Probably more importantly, the bevy of maritime, religious, and mercantile CSes that come when there are no culture city-states really compensate nicely, Faster growth, happiness to accommodate it, and faith to buy at least 1 more great person than usual. That speeds things up nicely, probably more than earlier rationalism policies depending on the mix and ability to ally.
Also, I've been playing some Chieftain games recently and have been really struck by the gap in AI civ gold production between chieftain and warlord. I guess Chieftain is so easy that the AIs attract gold easily despite any wonky civ management they use. At Warlord though, many or most AI civs can be cash poor throughout the game.
1st fils - 1480 AD T-208 
2nd vadalaz - 1530 AD T-216 
3rd Memoryjar - 1585 AD T-227
shall be demolished by 2019 
