deleted

[Sostratus]

I can't break 9 cities atm on a small map without declaring war.

How close are you settling your cities?
If you want to maximize your science, you want as many campuses as you ca per unit area->you want as many cities per unit area->settle cities every 3-4 tiles. 9 cities isn't a whole lot of space if they are packed in like sardines, even on small maps.

 

[Bibor]

Also worth mentioning that it's not exclusively a tech race, especially not on a small maps that I play on. There are usually simply no good city locations left to chop in the parts. Thus, you need to mark one city as the monster food/production city which siphons all the Democracy trade routes and can reliably work 10 or more mines with Ruhr. My current best is a 6-turn hard build of a space race project (discounting Royal Society boosts afterwards) with Pachacuti, which is pretty comparable to chops I'd say. I'm now sorry I didn't take as screenshot of it.

 

[MrRadar]

OK, I had a run at it, my second time playing Korea.
I'm uploading the starting save - the first thing I rolled and what an amazing start it was, Cliffs in sight, had to resist going religion with all my might
Settings: small map, standard speed, disasters 2, continents, Emperor, everything else standard.

Spoiler :

I'm also uploading a second save, where I'm about to hit Robotics t255. Open it at risk of spoiling the map. Also note that in the Games of the Month I usually come 100-150 turns after the fastest guys
I'm putting the situation of the resources and CS in the spoiler, don't look if you want to play it blind:

Spoiler :

Resources are not fabulous, only iron, horses and niter, no coal, no oil, but one source of uranium.
Only one scientific CS - Babylon, lots of faith CS - this map is best for religion.
And no Sweden
Uranium is very scarce on the map, you are guaranteed support for only one GDR, settling one more city close to Canada may let you have a second one. There is a third source on another continent to be obtained only by war, it seems. Unless you save and buy a few and then put up with reduced combat strength due to lack of resources.

I had completely peaceful game, lost two scouts and a warrior to barbs, all my army was two archers and a swordsman, upgraded later, and a couple of galleys->caravels.
I have even built three IZs But at the very end, after everything else. And settled a couple of islands late to have some more action.

 

[MrRadar]

edit: here's my save. Check out city placement. Everything was standard except resources which was "sparse". I wanted to see how "sparse" looked like.

I had a very quick look into your save this morning before work and made a screenshot for reference.
First thing that strikes the eye - there is still a lot of unimproved tiles - unmined hills, unchopped forests and jungle, even unimproved luxuries. All that is wasted production and delayed things. Chop jungle with Magnus established to quickly grow your city and get production boost, chop forests for getting things completed faster. Although with the new patch imminent, these considerations may change.

Also, have another look at the description of Seowon - it gives 1 science to adjacent mines and +1 food to adjacent farms. Every hill around a Seowon should be mined and worked, and grassland or plain - farmed, as you don't want place other districts there anyway. You need more builders earlier.

Try to micro your citizens in the city screen - select the tiles to work for them and click, so that there's a lock symbol on the citizen. You haven't set yield preferences in the cities, so the AI just places your citizens on equal preference for all yields, not ideal. Late game this is much less important, but early game you want to micro your citizens.

I also saw that you have no luxury trades with other AIs. The default user interface is terrible for managing lux trades, but, for example, Concise UI mod in the Steam workshop makes trade almost a pleasure. By trading luxes with AI you get gold, other luxes to make your cities happier. Yield increases from high amenities may seem small, but with a many cities and over time, production and gold buffs may accumulate to something worthy.

On the same note - maybe it is not worth to let the relations to go so sour with all AIs from the start. As diplomacy adviser in Civ2 used to say, let's make friends first, and destroy them later. If you get friendships and alliances early, you have more trading partners and need to waste less resources on units. If your aim is GDRs, wars can wait until you have them. Unless, of course, you have little room to expand or get declared upon, or join a convenient emergency.

Also, you can use more spies to steal gold from AI.

As for the rigid build orders, I would take them with a pinch of salt. Starts vary wildly in Civ 6, so you need to be much more flexible and adaptive. Better develop right instincts than a fixed and fit for all build order, because I'm afraid such an order does not exist.

Anyway, some things production will change very soon with the patch and we'll have to change our ways accordingly

 

[MrRadar]

If you hadn't noticed the population of my cities aren't exactly high.

Yep, and that's a problem which can or could be addressed or avoided.

Gongju, Chuncheon, Jinju, Jeonju all suffer from poor housing and, consequently, their growth is hampered, yet they all are settled one tile away from a river and ample fresh water which gives great housing. If you see a river, try to settle on it. Switch on the lens for the fresh water.

Jeonju is kinda prevented from settling one tile lower by Seoul, but maybe you could've pushed Seoul one tile more to the south? Then it could have fit in an aqueduct from those Dongdae mountains to help with housing.

And speaking of Seoul, it has so many jungle around that if chopped with Magnus at the right time it could've easily hit 10 pop even without an aqueduct.

Cities in the north have enough grassland and floodplains for farms - farms add housing too, helping with growth not only with food, but also with easing up growth restrictions. Gangneung in the north seems to have access to a couple of sea resources, I can't see from the screenshot if it is exactly on the shore, but anyway, maybe it was worth to harvest that stone it has into a harbour with a lighthouse (+1 housing, +1 trade route, as it hasn't got a CH, more food on sea) and improve that fish and something else I can't see behind the city ribbon.

Jeonju or Busan could've used a Petra.

Also, Jinju, with those two districts right next to a volcano, is kinda asking for Liang established there with the hazard protection promotion.

In my lousy screenshot I can't exactly see if you've built Government Plaza. Hunting governor promotions for Korea is even more attractive, because every promotion an established governor has adds +3% culture and science for that city.

I should learn this. I left it alone because I don't know whats the optimal ratio for everything. I'm guessing 1:1 food: production?

I usually check food and production preferences but still lock individual citizens into tiles. If you have no housing at that moment you probably want redirect your citizens from farms to production, gold etc. or put them as specialists in districts. And if you have sufficient housing at the start, you probably want to work rich food tiles first for the city to grow faster. Click around and see how growth and production numbers change.

They were decent until I started declaring war and razing cities. The save is at the final stage of the game where my GDRs are performing a purge.

Ah, fair enough Still, I saw that that grumpy face Genghis was willing to trade one for one unique luxury and even add some extra gold. Why skip such opportunities as long as you're not at war?

I'm one of those people who are more comfortable devising and following algorithms than improvising on the fly.

The problem is that circumstances during the first stages of a Civ 6 game may change suddenly and considerably, so you'll need a rather large library of algorithms

 

[MrRadar]

If I moved any city one tile in any direction they wouldn't be within the Industrial Zone's AoE. That's the main theory/concept of what I did. Sacrifice optimal city locations in exchange for one IZ to cover the entire nation. Despite the low population, because of that one maxed out IZ in the middle all of them built research labs in 19-40 turns. Count how many tiles each city is away from the IZ in the middle. It's exactly 6. So moving them in any direction would put them outside the IZ's AoE.

As far as I can see, only Seoul would be left out, but it has helluvalot choppable tiles and hills to mine to compensate, not a tragedy. Others could easily be moved on to a river with a slight district rearangement for better results.

The vast majority of my science is from science buildings enhanced by policy cards so getting those buildings up faster seemed like the better option than having a higher pop city. So my cities weren't really cities, they were just science buildings built by the production of the capitol's factory. Which is why they were maxed out on science and commercial buildings despite being 3 or 4 pop.

Yep, your thinking about getting necessary districts and buildings is right, but right placing of cities to let them benefit from Rationalism earlier is helpful and for faster building the answer so far was chopping. And mining. Until this patch, that today we've learned more about. Chopping will have to be reconsidered, but what's clear now that the importance of builders and tile improvement skyrockets. There will be much more production in the improved land and it seems IZ regains at least some of its former glory.

I hit GDR at the same turn as you did but you had science CS while I didn't so I think for just pure science rush what I did is more optimal.

I found my science CS quite late, the most important early stage was played not knowing about a single CS. And I have an unhealthy penchant for coastal cities and harbours, which cost me turns, I know that, but can't help it. And my map was so convenient for coastal cities. So I veered off the optimal course, as usual. Fast guys can get Science Victory in the region of 150-160 turns, on standard maps, plus minus, so it must be possible to hit Robotics accordingly, especially with Korea.
But you have to turn to Game of the Month subforum for more professional write-ups.
Anyway, now, with the new patch, a thing or two will change.

 

[incroc]

I tried your challenge @RoboEmperor, and got Robotics at t177. I forgot to screenshot after that, but around t187 I had all the upgrade techs. Think I settled 12 cities and took a couple from Rome cause he stole my spots. Flipped one Canadian city my way as well.

With the Greeks rather than Korea, not sure what's fastest. Culture speeds up the game a lot, so Pericles is in for a shout for being one of the fastest.

I reckon sub-170 is definitely doable if I focus properly, and better players could likely get sub-160. Better players on optimal maps sub-150 maybe.

Got Political Philosophy around t55, Exploration t98 I think, Enlightenment around t110, Suffrage on t143 and Globalization maybe t155. Settled 3 cities early, then expanded rapidly after Ancestral Hall around t66-68.

Built Pyramids, Oracle and the Colosseum. Later I wasted some time building the Bolshoi Theatre. Then Big Ben timed to buy GDR's. Bought 5, which was more than enough. Never really used them before.

Good map though. Can't be so relatively peaceful and at the same time fast if you're forward-settled early. Settled my first expo towards Rome, cutting him off. That helped a bit, but had to bribe him with Horse to avoid trouble.

CivVi_gdr

• incroc
• Jun 6, 2019

Rhetoric Death Robots at t177.

 

[incroc]

Early game it's close to and inspired by the strats posted by @knighterrant81 and @Jerovich in the Early game guide thread. Always culture first at least until I've secured the Enlightenment civic.

First city built a scout, settler, monument but switched to builder then settler upon scouting a good Pyramids spot. Then finished Monument and made Builder x2 and Granary in some order. The capital had no great early improvements. Other times with e.g. a stone, a horse and a wheat I'd definitely make an early builder for the cap so two early builders (one went to city #3 to chop Pyramids).
After that Government Plaza, Ancestral Hall, Settler x4 (mainly chopped). Made two units in there somewhere as well. At least make one slinger for the Archery boost. After that I built Acropolis, Amphitheatre, Campus, Library, University. I made sure to have the Campus up in time for the Recorded History boost. Think I bought an Art Museum in the capital, which was stupid. It's much better to buy buildings in the bad cities, and buying two amphitheatres trumps one museum I think.

Second city built a Monument, Campus (for the State Workforce boost), Oracle (chopped). Followed by Acropolis, Builder x2, then 3 Heavy Chariots, Amphitheatre and Library. I also bought a builder in this city right after settling it.

Third city built Pyramids (chopped with builder made in capital). Then Monument, Granary, Acropolis, 3 Heavy Chariots, Amphitheatre, Campus.

Maybe the order is a bit off in those queues, don't recall exactly. Roughly correct.

Fourth city was Entertainment Complex, Arena, Colosseum, Monument, Granary, Acropolis, Amphitheatre. Finished Colosseum t86-88.

Pyramids completed t4x, Oracle t5x and Colosseum late in the 80's. All those timings are slow if the AI really wants a wonder. I've seen Pyramids go t3x a couple of times - which is too early to compete for it. With good scouting, you can look around the AI land to see if they're making your wonder so you don't waste hammers if they are (most relevant for the Colosseum as it require 6-7 chops).

I went for Magnus x2 first, then Pingala to Grants. It worked out quite well timing-wise. Magnus first assigned to Pyramids city to chop it out. Then re-assigned to Oracle city and chop that out. Then re-assign to capital just in time for chopping out Settlers. Pingala was then in my Oracle city all game, and I made plenty of farms for that city to grow to 10 asap. I was very liberal with making builders in this game, aimed at never working an unimproved tile. Later I promoted Liang to the bottom, and she jumped around making city parks for amenities (extra +5% yield if the city is ecstatic vs happy).

All my other expansions first builds were Acropolis then Monument or the other way around. After that it varied quite a bit, the ones with mountains made campuses. The ones on the coast with 0 adjacency made some other stuff. I even made a Water Park later on, which was wasteful.

The second age I got a golden age and had Goddess of the Harvest, which is key to be fast, so bought the remaining settlers with faith. At that point I had 7 cities and they were all settled to block the AI as well as possible, so the remaining spots were safeish. I did lose a couple of spots still though, had 15 city center pins planned. Some of the cities sucked balls, but still held their ground in the end I think. If you settle before t100, even the no fresh-water, no aqueduct city is worth it (Pharsalos).

Technology doesn't feel that important to me early in the game. I tend to juggle around in the tree to make sure I get as many eurekas as possible. I did beeline and hard-tech Masonry when I found a Pyramids location. After that towards Writing and Bronze Working, but the AI killed all the barbs so struggled to get the boost. Didn't clear a camp until t100. Lux tech like Irrigation when needed. Aimed for Apprenticeship asap, then Stirrups then Education. Tried to hold off on Edu until I got a great scientist, but lost some turns making crap in two cities. Don't think it was worth it.

Civics I went roughly for Early Empire -> Political Philosophy -> Drama -> Feudalism -> Exploration -> Enlightenment -> Opera and Ballet -> Suffrage -> Globalisation. I was suzerain of 9 or 10 city states I think when I got Globalisation, which is 45-50% extra science. You get an envoy when finishing an Acropolis, so maintaining good CS relations is easier with Pericles. I also went out of my way to solve their quests. I had double Acropolis bonus, double Campus bonus, Rationalism and the equivalent culture one running all game. Perhaps it might be better to go State workforce before Early empire, but this way it's easier to get the inspirations. I lost out on the +15% wonder production for the Pyramids, which could've made me lose it if someone else was in contention.

Rome was boxed in by me early, so some war was inevitable. Especially after he stole my planned fifth expansion which was an excellent location and kept sending settlers towards "my" turf, one of my scouts had to spend countless turns blocking one of them. I attacked him with Knights on t9x and took a couple of cities and got a nice peace deal. Wiped him out with Cuirrasiers when he DoW'ed later in the game. Some eurekas require a bit of combat, so even if you don't take a lot of cities a small war helps. Kill a unit with a Knight, Kill a unit with a Spearman, have 3 Armies etc.

I only really hard-built two settlers, they rest were chopped or bought (and came with free worker). The free worker always chopped in the new city to get the infrastructure up and running.

Gold is rarely a problem, I just sell all my resources. I even moved my initial settler for 3 turns so I could settle on a lux hill I had in vision. Sold it immediately for a crap price (like 90 gold), but that allowed me to purchase an early builder. There's a difference between the AI's: Mongolia in this game paid around 200 gold for 20 horse and 20 iron all game, while Poland and Canada paid good money for Diplomatic Favour. Make sure to see which AI gives the best deal, a lux can vary from 4-5 gpt to 13-15gpt. I also sell one of the works from the first Great Writer. At that point I rarely have an Amphitheatre, and just one spot in the Palace. That's around 22-23 gpt.
To get the science up there are no secrets I think. 10 pop with rationalism and +3 if possible, always work the specialist slots. I had two science CS as well, they help a lot. Without those, a couple of hundred beakers would be gone. But whether the output in the end is 800 or 1200 it's not what I think about. It's more important to have good numbers early and hit as many eurekas as possible. I made a bunch of Campus Research Grants too. All the small details add up, in a sense it's the essence of the game.

Pericles makes the early game easier. Extra policy means flexibility: If you want to buy tiles or make builders or chariots, there's room for the desired policies without losing out on something vital. You also get a pantheon without sacrificing production. +5% culture pr suzerain is great. And the Acropolis ensures a great jump in culture when the wave of expansion is out, it only cost about the same as a Monument at this stage of the game.
However, he is more map-dependant than Korea. Without any mountains or fissures, the campuses suck. You really really want +3 or more.

I took a lot of risk placing campuses beneath volcanoes this game for adjacency, forcing me to spend turns repairing later after the inevitable eruption. I also took a lot of risk going for three early wonders. Finally, I took risk bribing Rome to keep my puny army out scouting. There was a window early in the game where he could've set me back a lot with a Legion attack. There's also risk with getting the good pantheon. Without it, I would've aimed to chop out settlers in some of my newer cities, but that would've delayed everything.

You need room to expand to make it work, which isn't a given. It feels to me like I can always get my second city just in time before the AI gets his fourth. But if the AI settles the third city right on your doorstep, any fastish development requires war. With certain AI's, you also know you're gonna be DoW'ed all game if you don't wipe him out. Like Alexander or Chandragupta, awful neighbours. Maybe it's just the luck of the draw, but fractal maps seem easier to me than Pangea. Some of the starting spots on Pangea are incredibly cramped. Still, Rome, Canada and USA all had lousy land, so had I drawn one of those locations it would've been hard.

Playing this way will sometimes get you a cultural victory by accident though, which is a bit annoying. I deliberately delayed flight, but still ended up winning a CV not long after I got Robotics. I cba selling great works just to avoid winning. If the patch nerf culture victories I'd be happy.

Man that ended up too long. I'll have to work on being succinct.

 

[Victoria]

2 specialists is as much as a university

 

[kb27787]

t200 GDR?.... Are we talking about deity? (might be a bit harder) or on settler (where you just play sim city? and try to get science?)
I guess it's doable... 200 turns is a lot of turns in the current expansion... I suppose we just buy the unit once the tech comes? (probably with faith with grandmaster's chapel, maybe easier than gold)

That and specific CS (Geneva, Babylon) help a lot... other science CS prolly not worth beyond 6 envoys.

 

[Jerovich]

Hello RoboEmperor!

I've been watching your tread for a while since it contains interesting things. I'll give my 2 cents for a fast science victory, or a fast GDR develop, as you like

If you go 'semi-tall', aim for 10 - 12 pop 10 cities. If you go totally wide, go for 16 - 18, even 20. Increase those numbers by 25% for each scientific City State below 2 you know - and of course suzerain, or at least 6 envoys.

Go for 15+ pop on your main Spaceport city. Those citizens are supposed to mainly work mines or river mills. If there aren't enough mines, search for another emplacement that has got enough.

A fully developed encampment in that city is essential - 15% more production toward space projects policy. Aim for 10 trade routes at least - better 15 - all of them from your capital with the +2 food +2 prod per route policy.

Invest hard on both science and culture. The main goal is to reach Democracy and Rocketry more or less at the same time - so you can begin space projects with all those routes boosting your production.

Don't settle/conquer cities that can't build a +3 campus unless they're so good for other reasons - luxes, already built districts, etc.

Build only the essential districts/buildings aka fully developed campuses, comm hubs + market and theatres + amphitheater. 2 harbours are fine for Cartography eureka. Don't bother with banks nor museums, they'll slow your victory. Exception is one archeological for the inspiration and eureka. After that, put all science specialists to work and run science projects on all your non-core cities.

Regarding power, try to fully build 2 industrial zones, firstly with coal plants, finally reconverted to oil ones. They'll trigger a few eurekas. Try them to cover most of your cities, and power the rest with solar farms - they'll come soon after Research Labs are built, don't worry.

For the final push. Liang and/or Magnus are your friends (if you hard build the Spaceport). Reyna is your friend (if you have 7200 gold to buy it). And Pingala is your best friend (30% toward projects).

Aside note: Government plaza Tier 3 building, Royal Society will allow your workers to spend all their charges (more prod the more charges they have) in city projects.

Hope it helps, feel free to ask anything else. I'm sure I've left a lot of details somewhere

 

[Jerovich]

I'm playing as Korea so I will always have +4 adjacency.

Don't be afraid to put them close to your cities for +3. Sometimes they're better there for a number of reasons (you needn't to buy a tile, or just the adjacency to mines and/or farms is better with that +3 spot).

Also going semi-tall with 10 or less cities

Going for a fast science victory implies MORE than 10 pop 10 cities, not less. I've written about this in the post above.

(I only build cities that can be covered within 1 industrial zone)

Being in range to a power plant is nice, but not strictly necessary. So you better only settle/conquer cities that can build a +3 campus. Solar Farms or Wind Mills will solve your power problems for those final turns that you have Research Labs.

How do you grow pops to 10-12?

A simple Bananas tile - with its jungle - chopped with Magnus will insta-grow a 7 pop city into 10. Wheat, cattle or sheeps from 8 to 10. You don't want ANY city above 10 except your Spaceport city. Reason? Managing amenities. If you can achieve ecstatic lategame cities they'll generate +10% of ALL yields, including science.

Half of them are tundra or desert, the other half are ocean and hills.

Practice forward-settling the AI, this will grant you better spots for your cities. Also conquering them is also a viable option.

I thought about internal trade routes but each trade route is like 15 coins per turn lost.

Pre-democracy internal trade routes are way better than foreign ones. Just head them to a full-of-districts-city and enjoy the +2/+4 food and +2/+4 production.

I'm going Seowon->Commercial->Theater but the theater comes online too slow for it to matter. If I go Seowon->Theater->commercial, half my cities don't hit 7 pop so that's a lost commercial.

Don't try to think of a pre-established order for districts. This is TOTALLY dynamic. In your first cities you'll want a fast district for state workforce inspiration, probably a campus, or encampent if going for a really early war.

You don't need a second campus until Recorded History - your science will be good enough that you'll have to hardly trigger eurekas before their techs are researched.

You DO want 2 Commercial Hubs AND 2 Harbours to meet medieval inspirations and Cartography eureka. You need as well a strong culture infrastructure to reach Democracy at the right time.

ALL OF THIS before your 3rd campus. Trust me, you'll need it if you want to achieve a fast victory.

Then, as a standard rule, try to have built campuses on almost all your cities by turn 100 or so. Buying Libraries and chopping Universities is a good thing in your less productive cities.

Saving money for the lame game is also recommended. Buying some Research Labs, Power Plants and the Spaceport if possible (thanks Victoria) will shave some turns from your victory.

 

[incroc]

It is however disheartening that 3 of the major boosters are entirely luck dependent (Einstein, Science CS, coal or oil to power Research labs, and the forests to chop to construct it)

I always try my ultimate to recruit the GP I want by running projects or buying with faith/gold. If at all possible. You can look up the order they arrive, and pass on the crap ones to get the good ones. The early ones just go, like the +1 for all Libraries. But I think Newton and Einstein can be gotten with some planning almost always.

I also settle atrocious cities on top of strategic resources later in the game if need be, like down in the snow or on some remote island. In the aforementioned GDR game I played, I settled two cities to get Uranium, and sent a builder over to a City State to make a mine for him.

Science CS are just luck though, nothing to do. Sometimes you get great CS, sometimes they suck. And sometimes they enable completely new strategies, like getting Alcazar, Moai or Nazca lines.

Chops as well are a bit lucky, but you can also prioritise max chops when placing cities and planning what do use them for.

Overall, the very very fastest will always be a combination of luck and skill. But you have resources available to influence a lot of stuff during the game.

 

[incroc]

800 beakers is very good I'd say, especially in a game with some problems along the way. Good job

Once the fundamental numbers look good, it's just a matter of some practice and the turns fly off. At least that's my process.

 

[kb27787]

prince or king... hmmm...

I was going to try Aussie (with the right map I think they are really good) but I guess then people don't declare war on you or kill CS that much on lower difficulties.
Extra housing from coast also makes it easier to have a higher number of tall cities. Korea obviously is really strong as well for half price campi. Sumeria? Persia with Granada?

 

[knighterrant81]

I wonder if part of the problem is actually your difficulty level. This actually works better at higher difficulties. One of the things they aren't telling you is how they are all selling EVERYTHING to the AI as soon as they possibly can. That doesn't really get you all that much at Prince or King, but at higher difficulties, it is an integral part of almost any strategy. The AI generates a lot of gold on the highest difficulties, and the player can use that to their advantage to really boost their progress.

 

[Jerovich]

Hello RoboEmperor!

I've done another run on Science with Pericles. Deity, continents, all the rest standard. As knighterrant said, once you get on the mechanics playing on more difficult levels makes your victories faster. The AI generates more gold than in lower difficulties and you can trade with them a lot more.

My goal was to achieve the fastest Science Victory that I could, but it may differ from your GDR goal in the last 40 turns maybe.

Here there are some screenshots of turns 100 (expansion phase), 133 (consolidation phase) and 185 (victory). In them you can see the layout of my cities, districts, etc.




Turn 100: As you can see it's not that impressive, only 8 cities, but with a planned strategy for them and some key wonders already built (Oracle, Colosseum, Pyramids).

Turn 133: Here there is the result of the plan. After some warring with my dear friend Monty I ended with like 15 - 16 cities (perfect for science pushing, more you'll lack of amenities probably). Wonders built: Kilwa and Forbidden City.

Turn 185: And here you have it the turn before arriving to stars. Wonders built: Potala Palace, Oxford University and Ruhr Valley.

As said before, it may differ from your goal of arriving to GDRs in the last 40 turns or so, where you can focus on going towards Robotics instead of all the techs needed for a science victory.

I've saves from all those turns if you wanna take a look on them or something. And of course feel free to ask. Hope it helped a bit.

 

[Jerovich]

Ok I'll upload them so you can take a look.

it's my sneaking suspicion that you guys are stealing 8 fully developed and built cities from deity AI

Not really. Conquered 6 cities, one of them just founded by Shaka and captured by Monty. The original 5 from Monty had 4 campuses, 4 libraries and 1 university. Not that much of an advantage.

The key is to invest hard on culture so you can reach to important governments and policies faster. Plan your districts carefully and build key wonders.

Oracle + Pingala x3 grants you 6 GPP of all types you have a district in the city.

Pyramids is the best wonder in the game probably. 220 cogs for an extra charge on ALL your builders along the game.

Colosseum generates like 12 - 16 culture and 12 - 16 amenities. In turns 70 - 80 that is too much.

Forbidden City let you use one more wildcard policy.

Kilwa Kisiwani boost your yields in all cities by 15% as long as you suzerain 2 or more of that type.

Potala Palace let you use one more dipomatic policy.

Oxford University grants you 2 random techs late game (which can be roughly 4000 science) for only 1620 production. Totally worth it.

Ruhr Valley gives that city 20% production boost and +1 on each mine and quarry. So useful if you wanna have one mega industrial city (Spaceport or the one to build GDRs)

 

[Jerovich]

Also why do you guys keep going Pericles? I've read every article I could find and they all say Korea is no.1 for science.

Maybe for your plan Korea is a great civ.

But I'll hazard to say Pericles is better suited for a science victory than Seondeok because of his culture advantages.

How to science win fast? Culture and production

 

[Jerovich]

Hi there!

Here you are the saves we talked before. I hope you can play them since I'm playing on the game version just previous to the Antarctic Patch (I can't manage to make it work on my computer). I also use the TCS Walls for City States mod.

Seondeok gets +50% from rationalism due to +3 adjacency while other civs do not because it is ridiculously hard to get +3 adjacency on a campus.

It's not really that hard. Now we have those geothermal fissures it's much easier. You've to be lucky on mountains though. For cities without them you can use the Governmental Plaza to give adjacency to 3 - 4 campuses.

Get as many luxuries as possible and sell it all and then buy a ton of settlers with that.

I've bought only one settler in that game, and it was so late to really impact anything (turn 120 - 130).

Regarding the luxuries, I usually sell the first 3 or 4 always for GPT. After that I go for ecstatic on all my cities for all the game (+20% growth, and +10% on the rest of the yields).

Get as many great writers as possible and then SELL the works.

I usually sell only the first great work I have, because by that time it's common to have only one slot available (capital). After that I keep them for the culture, even so it implies putting to sleep a writer for a few turns.

Since you're buying everything getting that IZ AoE on the outer cities doesn't matter since you're just gonna buy the buildings there.

In this game I've given you the saves from, I've bought maybe 2 or 3 libraries, 1 university and 1 research lab. All the rest were built or chopped.

One noticeable aspect here is I bought the Spaceport with Reyna for 7200 gold (thanks Victoria)