Thanks vexing and BWS for the tips, I got a desert mountain start, with 4 flood plains, 3 salt (2 on desert and one on a forested grasslands), an oasis and lots of desert hills, but only two with irrigation, and thought it was a good start. The game didn't go as well though, as I'm very far from the turn targets other people got. Another thing, I saw people saying that a 700 bpt is good, and I'm wondering when should that be reached, and how. Also I'd like some tips on SP choosing. Sorry If I'm asking too much, but I'm a more casual player and just recently started to want to get more competitive, and this is the first gauntlet I'm trying. I would really appreciate any help. Thanks!
Ok summary of some basic strategy for this gauntlet:
1. Good start - mountain is a must, desert hills ideally with an oasis or river along, river + flood plains, salt is very good, wheat and marble are good bonuses but not necessary.
2. Early focus on good scouting and growth.
Decent early build orders are
a) scout, scout, pyramid, granary (sometimes if you are lucky you can buy one of those) great library, nat. college, temple of artemis, petra, hanging gardens
b) scout, monument, + the same
And maybe get the unique archer and another scout sometimes around T-50 or so, as you will need to destroy several barb. camps at that point.
3. Social policies - definately start with Tradition, get to landed elite asap, and also complete tradition asap. Then pick Patronage, then it depends on your strategy and luck, but either get Aesthetics and then Rationalism + continue left side of it. Or skip Aesthetics if you dont have enough culture for it, but its definately way better to have it early on. After finishing left side of rationalism, get Order and Planned economy for the +25% science from factories. Then if your culture is really strong, you can go for the science from allied CSs, but usually your culture wont be strong enough for it so just finish rationalism - plan way ahead here so that you finish it when you are ready for it - about 10-12 turns after finishing Plastics (so that you have 8 turns time for maximized science + 2-4 turns bulbing)
4. Religion - If you play heavy desert start, definately go for desert folklore first. If you play non desert or only partial desert start, go for Fertility rites. Then go for either Tithe or Pilgrimage (I like the latter more, but its tougher to manage money then) and Swords into plowshares. Then I am not sure, I used to go for Religious community, but since production isnt too important here, it may be better to go for either Feed the world for little extra food or the one with +2 faith for each wonder bonus.
5. Techs
As pretty much always in non-domination games, go for pottery, writing. Then specifically for this gauntlet, go for quick Theology to start Long count asap. You need to get your first great person at T-62 if you go for this strategy. Or you might want to rush for currency and get Petra ultra fast, but I think the Theo strategy is slightly superior here. After that, rush for Civil service, then Education. Then go for Astronomy to get the Observatory Then beeline Scientific theory, then Plastics, then Globalization and thats it. You can decide which particular routes you take while beelining to get to some wonders earlier than to others, it depends on your particular game. Also, use a GS or maybe even oxford for Plasics if you can afford it.
6. Gameplay
It is really important to find as many ruins early on as possible. Also find AIs asap and as many CSs as possible too. You especially want to get maritime allies asap, but cultural are pretty important too and religious come in handy as well.
Also, buy a worker asap, usually with your 200g saved up, you can get a loan of 112 for 5gpt and buy your worker somewhere between turns 18-24 or so.
When you meet a CS, always pledge to protect them, it will slowly get you to 10 influence for free. Try to fullfill quests as soon as you can.
Steal from a CS or if possible buy another worker soon too, say prior to turn 45.
Try to have good diplomacy too, ideally you should be friends with everyone. Realistically this is almost impossible though, but you should have about 3 DoFs prior to getting education.
After getting education, rush buy University and fill the scientists slots. Then sign your first wave or RAs as soon as you can. Dont be afraid to get a loan to do so.
Everytime you get to a new science building, always rush buy it and fill it with scientists.
Also, get Oracle the same turn as finishing Astronomy to insta open Rationalism. And ideally get your 1st rationalism policy on the exact same turn too. Usually you wont manage that good, but you should definately get it within next 3-5 turns.
Then just keep scouting, keep getting Great Scientists and plan for the endgame. When you get to Plastics and get your Research lab, fill all specialists slots and production to research to maximize science. Then wait 8 turns, then bulb all your GSs. You should have about 5-6 of them for the final bulb. Also, your science in those 8 turns should be 600+bpt. You can probably manage even with like 550 with some RAs help. You need to try yourself to see.
7. Some turns to know if you doing good (assuming you wanna get a sub T-200 game):
NC between T-47 - T-55
Civil Service T-70 - T-78
Education T-80 - T-88
Astronomy T-96 - T-104
Sci. theory T-139 - T-146
Plastics before T-182
Hope it will help. Also you might want to check saved games from similar scenarios other people submitted, it might help too.
It pretty much cover everything needed to be said!
), although having enough cash to rush buy observatory only a few turns after university will be tricky, but manageable.
