Own said:
I tried the 7+1 map as well, and read the turn logs and did EXACTLY what they did, but I got a different outcome. I met France earlier, and barbs didn't appear where they did before.
I also tried right before the war on France, to see how good I could do. I surprised myself a ton, and managed to split the empire in half on turn one, and took about 10 cities (over the course of the war, not turn one). I bet I could have won, had my leader luck been better. There were over 35 elite wins attacking, and some on defense I didn't count, and no leader. By the time I got a leader, Delhi had been razed, and huge SoDs were approaching, and I only had 2 tanks to fill the army with. By turn 3 I had all but one oil killed, the last one could be taken by an infiltrating tank army, so I put my attack on hold and leader fished, but no bites. When I got a bite, the oil wasn't destroyed early enough so I had tons of tanks coming my way.
Sorry about threadjacking, I just had to share that.
Do you mean you could download their saves? But I couldn't download the 4000 BC one, so had to use map seed. Sometimes I pop a warrior out from the goody hut in Delhi, which could help a ton to make contact. But I then restart until getting map, as they had ...
Anyway, we all thank the 7+1 people, who showed us the spirit of sports
Just another thought: how about max research to writing, not min? Sid standard map, with no one knowing it, writing costs 480 beakers. But after 5 of 8 get it (as in 7+1), its cost reduces to 308 beakers. If 7 of 8 know it, then only 240, but India can't meet Persia and Rome that early. Using max research, it should be reasonable to get writing around turn 40, then it's high time for philosophy. I see that AIs go to code of laws and map making before philosophy, and they get philosophy around turn 55. Philosophy COULD be grabbed by human first, maybe by using some scientists. If so, the problem is which free tech to pick? Several options.
1. Of course, literature. The trouble is, there is no prebuild running (maybe the only possible prebuild is forbidden palace). It will take ~30 turns to finish GL, and we have only warriors for military. This is a highly dangerous period. If some one come to extort literature, then we are doomed.
2. Before selecting free tech, hit "big picture", and try to sell philosophy and buy code of laws in all cost, then get republic as freebie! If that could be done, it's huge. But maybe some people think it's explotive ...
3. Take code of laws or map making, sell it and get some of masonry, wheel, bronze working, etc. (certainly not all of them). These are for prebuild and military preparation. Then max run to literature.
4. Forget about GL at all. Take code of laws, then min run to republic.
What is the best gambit?