Short answer no, longer test to date follows.
I thought I had some notes on this game, but they must be on the other PC. I started this one after getting the setting you used. I do not have 1.17F, so the best I could do was 1.29F.
A number of changes occurred in 1.21 and 1.29, one is that the map size for large was reduced to 130x130. So this will not come super close to your settings. To that end, when I move from my main PC, I loaded the game in C3C to make it easier on me. The interface is just better by miles.
You would not be able to load the save anyway. So I lost many of the details, but I may get back to the backup PC and find them.
I found the start notes:
I started a game to more closely match yours.
Large - note that I am at 1.29f, so large maps are smaller than 1.17F now 130x130. I do not know
what the impact is on this, except we will be a bit closer.
Max land
Wet - why do you want a lot of jungle?
Cool, ok I went with the temperate here, max jungle and max tundra is no fun.
5 byo
No mention of barbs so I just when no barbs.
Same nations.
I drew a medium continent with 4 others: Germany, England, India and Russia.
One other item of note is that forest chops are 5 rather than 4 as in C3C.
Communication comes with MM in C3, so they can get contacts sooner.
370BC:
Not much so far, I am 1st in pop and 2nd in all the other categories.
All are even in tech, no huts had an impact.
I did have a scuffle with England and Germany as they came into my land and I don't allow it. I
killed them, but made peace soon. No land was exchanged or anything, except England gave their map.
I do expect to attack Russia as they have a settler and spear coming next to my settler, so they
must die. I do not share or play nice with others.
210BC:
Short war with Russia razed two towns and town, some gold for peace.
( yeah I cannot understand this one either. I suspect that it should say captured a town, but not
sure.)
I trade Germany Lit, even though I just researched it, I am not going to make GLB and it is nice if
they would do it for me. They gave all their gold a map and Poly. England and India do not have
lit, but have no money, so they can do without.
130AD:
Game is too easy at this level as you can trade the pants of the AI. At Sid you rarely have techs
to offer. So I trade Germany into the Middle and Greece, oh I have met all on the next continent.
The ability to trade contacts so early kills things.
Greece needed Construct and since it puts them in the next age they pay a lot. Got tech, map
contacts and gold. I then put up embassy and steal their free tech. Do the same to Bismark and used
their gold to do it.
So only Rome is alone on an island and no one knows them, but I am sure I know where to find them
and a ship is en route. I traded no contacts from my continent, so I am the only that knows
everyone, naturally.
470AD:
Finished killing the Russians, they are gone. I have had a short war with Germany way back early and two wars with Russian, before elimination via swords. I had to go to war with England as they saw me autoraze a size 1 town and landed a settler/archer. I had to kill them.
I am not sure if the autoraze is a C3C function or not, I just cannot remember when it came in. Any town with 1 pop or no culture or not native, will autoraze. This shows how lame Regent is as the town was next to the capitol and never got any culture or growth.
I found the last town on an island next to me, so I sent over a sword and a knight and it only had one spear, good night Stalin.
I have just found the last nation, Rome, and no one on my continent knows anyone outside of this land, so I know all nations. This is often true even at Sid. Note I found out later there was another nation, I should have count to 12.
The 5 nations on the other land all have Republic, none on the other lands have it. I have no interest in it. I was actually considering staying in despot for the fun of it, but that would not be a fair test.
I revolted during the war and now I am a Monarch. I have at least one to three techs on all. No one has knights and I have an army with a single knight, soon to get a second. Eng in 4 more turns.
Rome is just dead, they do not even know CB. I am trying to fill in the land now and hoping someone will start a war, but probably they will not. I have pikes and knights and I captured the Great Wall and build Sun Tzu, so I am sure they are afraid.
Once I get the land filled, then some thing will break and then I will probably run everyone off the continent.
I am first in all the rankings, except land and Egypt is 2 tiles larger than I am. I have several settlers on the long path to locations.
480AD:
Well that did not take long. I moved my galley to return the slave and a knight and spotted a Germany sword and settler on the island that had the Russian town. So I off loaded the worker to my land and the knight next to the sword. I sank their galley and off we go. I never liked Bismark anyway.
I will not enlist the others as it is too easy and why should I give them stuff anyway? Let them get bribed in against me and I can have the happiness. The army will be three units strong soon and go ripping.
Engineering will let me cross those rivers, a big boost.
490AD:
Now 1st in all 4 areas and autorazed Brenen. The game had 4 scientific nations, so that is a lot of free techs and cheap lib/uni, but it is not going to let them ever get ahead in tech now. They all got either Fued or Mono and I will have Eng in 2 and already have Chiv.
I may head for ED, just to trade it to Babs as they build the GLB. Not sure as they will no get much from it anyway.
530AD:
I hate to be such a lair, or at least mistaken. I finished my turn and looked at the techs and see India had about 83 gold and not Monarchy. So I went ahead and asked what they would give and they gave the world map and 80 gold. I said how about an alliance against Bismark and they said sure.
So I did bring in India, I know they do not get hurt too bad or gain much. I autoraze Stuggard and kill a spear/settler and a sword, so a pinch coming to Bismark. The army now is stuck with two slaves and there are 2 groups of 2 swords each around it, so either had to escort or abandon them. Well I guess that depends on the IBT.
Stopping here for some Might and Magic. Oh, Invention in 8 and a pre is going for Leos.
540AD:
The IBT saw two of the swords attack Dacca and die, so Ghandi held his own that turn and I can send the slaves home and let the army whack away.
I had a galley trying to drown, by it make it all the way back to the mainland. Figures, that since I did not care, it would be safe.
I am trying to decide if I want to be nice or slick. I have the army next to 4 German swords, but they are poised next to Dacca and I could let them attack. If they die, fine army heals. If they win, I grab the town from Germany. Yeah that's the ticket, will wait and see how it goes.
BTW the biggest civ, or it was the biggest only has 20+ gold, how they going to research? I have the HE and FP closing in on completion an the pre for Leo going and over 400 gold. I could be farther by just going to war much sooner and staying there, but that is not quite in the spirit of the test.
550AD:
All 4 swords attacked and only one lost. I had a knight close and it kill one of the survivors. The army grabbed Dacca and I see they have several other units close, so it may be a struggle.
4 turn research by the AI? I self researched Chiv and Eng and only 5 turns for Inventions and they have yet to research a single tech in the middle age.
620AD:
Razed a size 3 town for 4 slaves. Gunpowder in 9, but I am not researching as hard as I could. Still no one has learned any techs, unless i traded it to them and all are down at least 3 MA techs, some still in AA. Note I am not in Republic as I would normally have been in the C3 days, I am not trying to use RCP or FP placement so as to not gain any help from those things.
630AD:
Egypt finally research a tech, Theology. I will not trade for it as I do not want to help them and speed up tech over there. I will do it later maybe. I want to be able to get Ed and get it to Babs before they can get much and if I trade techs, they will get them free and the rest will get some.
I decide to whack the England settler pair on the island. It seems to be a nice place to grab free slaves as nation try to drop settlers and I can get them right to the mainland.
So I have another war with the Queen. They have swords, I have knights and pikes with muskets not far off. Very little free land now so war will be common.
640AD:
Looks like Hammi researched Theo on his own as only Egypt knows it other than Babs.
720AD:
Well I broke down and attack Ghandi's settler pair on the island, so war with all three nations on my land, it was a given. I am keeping the slaves there to road the place so I can defend it from landings. It is all snow, so I do not want to use it.
Clear my land and then Rome and then the rest.
760AD:
I had thought the GA would trip on the IBT as Dacca had German and English sword next to it and I had a musketeer. The first sword, regular, killed the 5 defense musketeer, no sweat.
I have razed a few English towns, but there is a lot of jungle in the front, so it will be slow going. Still no one has come up with any techs, either new or known by me. Got another leader.
I think it is safe to say that the AI cannot research at a 4 turn pace at this level. I would say at any level.
800AD:
Poor Rome, it still does not know Math, while I am on Metallurgy. I had given them CB for a map.
820AD:
Looks like Cleo is the other top dog now as they just got ED and are the only ones doing much. She is down Invention, Chem, Gun.
920AD:
Slow going with no MDI, no trebs, armies are less powerful. Babs know ED, I am working on MT. No good reason, but I agree to peace with Ghandi.
960AD:
Not sure if this is a problem with vanilla or it is with Regent, but the AI will give up towns so easy. Bismark gave me two of his 6 towns and I did not try for more as I did not want to be ill, should he give up even more.
England gave up a town a couple of turns back, but I only asked for one as I did not want to make too many holes for others to fill.
I am going ahead and filling up the tundra island now as I do not want to be forced to DOW capriciously.
1060AD:
None of the nations that know ED have learned Astro, which is a few turns away for me. I have an Army build to switch to, if I want. I may just use one of the university builds as I am sure I have plenty of time to finish.
Thinking of going back to war to finish of Germany soon as I now have filled out to England's border.
India has been fighting them since I allied with them.
1230AD:
I eliminated Germany, I waited till Peace deal expired. Greece wanted to trade contacts, so I realized that I had not met America, careless or what? ToG due in 2 turns, others lack even Gun, many do not have tier 1 MA techs.
1270AD:
Babs learned Nav, I am a few turns from Mag and will not learn Nav. Then back for the last MA tech, Banking. No others know Chem. DOW England. Will eliminated them now. I will have to capture most cities as a) they are deep in jungles b) England is at war with India.
1290AD:
Start banking it is due in 4 turns, it is known by a couple others. Well someone will do a 4 turn tech, but it was not the AI.
1350AD:
England gone,
Steam next turn.
AI has:
Gun 4
Bank 4
Astro 6
Chem 3
Phy, Metal, ToG, Mag, MT none.
They have several optional Middle Age techs, that I won't have, unless a deal is done sometime.
Looks like I have about the same amount of land as the next two combined. I am making little effort to manage the towns and to place them optimally. I am building temples every where or nearly so as I would expect others to do, so as to not be too war like.
There is only two lux on this continent as I recall. I could trade for some, but why give them techs or lux?
I have some frigates and galleons and making more ships. I was not able to gather workers for rails as too much jungle to clear/road to connect towns and too much land with no roads. Will start soon and still a bit short on settlers to go after Ghandi. With Astro and Nav, we may soon get landings wanting to fill any hole.
So I think it is quite clear that it plays close to what I remembered, that is the AI will not be able to hold it is own after the second tier techs in the middle age, if it was doing so to that point.
It surely cannot do 4 turn research and doe little trading from this point on with other civs, unless there is a bribe. No one has any money. If they had some, I would trade it away.
I thought I had some notes on this game, but they must be on the other PC. I started this one after getting the setting you used. I do not have 1.17F, so the best I could do was 1.29F.
A number of changes occurred in 1.21 and 1.29, one is that the map size for large was reduced to 130x130. So this will not come super close to your settings. To that end, when I move from my main PC, I loaded the game in C3C to make it easier on me. The interface is just better by miles.
You would not be able to load the save anyway. So I lost many of the details, but I may get back to the backup PC and find them.
I found the start notes:
I started a game to more closely match yours.
Large - note that I am at 1.29f, so large maps are smaller than 1.17F now 130x130. I do not know
what the impact is on this, except we will be a bit closer.
Max land
Wet - why do you want a lot of jungle?
Cool, ok I went with the temperate here, max jungle and max tundra is no fun.
5 byo
No mention of barbs so I just when no barbs.
Same nations.
I drew a medium continent with 4 others: Germany, England, India and Russia.
One other item of note is that forest chops are 5 rather than 4 as in C3C.
Communication comes with MM in C3, so they can get contacts sooner.
370BC:
Not much so far, I am 1st in pop and 2nd in all the other categories.
All are even in tech, no huts had an impact.
I did have a scuffle with England and Germany as they came into my land and I don't allow it. I
killed them, but made peace soon. No land was exchanged or anything, except England gave their map.
I do expect to attack Russia as they have a settler and spear coming next to my settler, so they
must die. I do not share or play nice with others.
210BC:
Short war with Russia razed two towns and town, some gold for peace.
( yeah I cannot understand this one either. I suspect that it should say captured a town, but not
sure.)
I trade Germany Lit, even though I just researched it, I am not going to make GLB and it is nice if
they would do it for me. They gave all their gold a map and Poly. England and India do not have
lit, but have no money, so they can do without.
130AD:
Game is too easy at this level as you can trade the pants of the AI. At Sid you rarely have techs
to offer. So I trade Germany into the Middle and Greece, oh I have met all on the next continent.
The ability to trade contacts so early kills things.
Greece needed Construct and since it puts them in the next age they pay a lot. Got tech, map
contacts and gold. I then put up embassy and steal their free tech. Do the same to Bismark and used
their gold to do it.
So only Rome is alone on an island and no one knows them, but I am sure I know where to find them
and a ship is en route. I traded no contacts from my continent, so I am the only that knows
everyone, naturally.
470AD:
Finished killing the Russians, they are gone. I have had a short war with Germany way back early and two wars with Russian, before elimination via swords. I had to go to war with England as they saw me autoraze a size 1 town and landed a settler/archer. I had to kill them.
I am not sure if the autoraze is a C3C function or not, I just cannot remember when it came in. Any town with 1 pop or no culture or not native, will autoraze. This shows how lame Regent is as the town was next to the capitol and never got any culture or growth.
I found the last town on an island next to me, so I sent over a sword and a knight and it only had one spear, good night Stalin.
I have just found the last nation, Rome, and no one on my continent knows anyone outside of this land, so I know all nations. This is often true even at Sid. Note I found out later there was another nation, I should have count to 12.
The 5 nations on the other land all have Republic, none on the other lands have it. I have no interest in it. I was actually considering staying in despot for the fun of it, but that would not be a fair test.
I revolted during the war and now I am a Monarch. I have at least one to three techs on all. No one has knights and I have an army with a single knight, soon to get a second. Eng in 4 more turns.
Rome is just dead, they do not even know CB. I am trying to fill in the land now and hoping someone will start a war, but probably they will not. I have pikes and knights and I captured the Great Wall and build Sun Tzu, so I am sure they are afraid.
Once I get the land filled, then some thing will break and then I will probably run everyone off the continent.
I am first in all the rankings, except land and Egypt is 2 tiles larger than I am. I have several settlers on the long path to locations.
480AD:
Well that did not take long. I moved my galley to return the slave and a knight and spotted a Germany sword and settler on the island that had the Russian town. So I off loaded the worker to my land and the knight next to the sword. I sank their galley and off we go. I never liked Bismark anyway.
I will not enlist the others as it is too easy and why should I give them stuff anyway? Let them get bribed in against me and I can have the happiness. The army will be three units strong soon and go ripping.
Engineering will let me cross those rivers, a big boost.
490AD:
Now 1st in all 4 areas and autorazed Brenen. The game had 4 scientific nations, so that is a lot of free techs and cheap lib/uni, but it is not going to let them ever get ahead in tech now. They all got either Fued or Mono and I will have Eng in 2 and already have Chiv.
I may head for ED, just to trade it to Babs as they build the GLB. Not sure as they will no get much from it anyway.
530AD:
I hate to be such a lair, or at least mistaken. I finished my turn and looked at the techs and see India had about 83 gold and not Monarchy. So I went ahead and asked what they would give and they gave the world map and 80 gold. I said how about an alliance against Bismark and they said sure.
So I did bring in India, I know they do not get hurt too bad or gain much. I autoraze Stuggard and kill a spear/settler and a sword, so a pinch coming to Bismark. The army now is stuck with two slaves and there are 2 groups of 2 swords each around it, so either had to escort or abandon them. Well I guess that depends on the IBT.
Stopping here for some Might and Magic. Oh, Invention in 8 and a pre is going for Leos.
540AD:
The IBT saw two of the swords attack Dacca and die, so Ghandi held his own that turn and I can send the slaves home and let the army whack away.
I had a galley trying to drown, by it make it all the way back to the mainland. Figures, that since I did not care, it would be safe.
I am trying to decide if I want to be nice or slick. I have the army next to 4 German swords, but they are poised next to Dacca and I could let them attack. If they die, fine army heals. If they win, I grab the town from Germany. Yeah that's the ticket, will wait and see how it goes.
BTW the biggest civ, or it was the biggest only has 20+ gold, how they going to research? I have the HE and FP closing in on completion an the pre for Leo going and over 400 gold. I could be farther by just going to war much sooner and staying there, but that is not quite in the spirit of the test.
550AD:
All 4 swords attacked and only one lost. I had a knight close and it kill one of the survivors. The army grabbed Dacca and I see they have several other units close, so it may be a struggle.
4 turn research by the AI? I self researched Chiv and Eng and only 5 turns for Inventions and they have yet to research a single tech in the middle age.
620AD:
Razed a size 3 town for 4 slaves. Gunpowder in 9, but I am not researching as hard as I could. Still no one has learned any techs, unless i traded it to them and all are down at least 3 MA techs, some still in AA. Note I am not in Republic as I would normally have been in the C3 days, I am not trying to use RCP or FP placement so as to not gain any help from those things.
630AD:
Egypt finally research a tech, Theology. I will not trade for it as I do not want to help them and speed up tech over there. I will do it later maybe. I want to be able to get Ed and get it to Babs before they can get much and if I trade techs, they will get them free and the rest will get some.
I decide to whack the England settler pair on the island. It seems to be a nice place to grab free slaves as nation try to drop settlers and I can get them right to the mainland.
So I have another war with the Queen. They have swords, I have knights and pikes with muskets not far off. Very little free land now so war will be common.
640AD:
Looks like Hammi researched Theo on his own as only Egypt knows it other than Babs.
720AD:
Well I broke down and attack Ghandi's settler pair on the island, so war with all three nations on my land, it was a given. I am keeping the slaves there to road the place so I can defend it from landings. It is all snow, so I do not want to use it.
Clear my land and then Rome and then the rest.
760AD:
I had thought the GA would trip on the IBT as Dacca had German and English sword next to it and I had a musketeer. The first sword, regular, killed the 5 defense musketeer, no sweat.
I have razed a few English towns, but there is a lot of jungle in the front, so it will be slow going. Still no one has come up with any techs, either new or known by me. Got another leader.
I think it is safe to say that the AI cannot research at a 4 turn pace at this level. I would say at any level.
800AD:
Poor Rome, it still does not know Math, while I am on Metallurgy. I had given them CB for a map.
820AD:
Looks like Cleo is the other top dog now as they just got ED and are the only ones doing much. She is down Invention, Chem, Gun.
920AD:
Slow going with no MDI, no trebs, armies are less powerful. Babs know ED, I am working on MT. No good reason, but I agree to peace with Ghandi.
960AD:
Not sure if this is a problem with vanilla or it is with Regent, but the AI will give up towns so easy. Bismark gave me two of his 6 towns and I did not try for more as I did not want to be ill, should he give up even more.
England gave up a town a couple of turns back, but I only asked for one as I did not want to make too many holes for others to fill.
I am going ahead and filling up the tundra island now as I do not want to be forced to DOW capriciously.
1060AD:
None of the nations that know ED have learned Astro, which is a few turns away for me. I have an Army build to switch to, if I want. I may just use one of the university builds as I am sure I have plenty of time to finish.
Thinking of going back to war to finish of Germany soon as I now have filled out to England's border.
India has been fighting them since I allied with them.
1230AD:
I eliminated Germany, I waited till Peace deal expired. Greece wanted to trade contacts, so I realized that I had not met America, careless or what? ToG due in 2 turns, others lack even Gun, many do not have tier 1 MA techs.
1270AD:
Babs learned Nav, I am a few turns from Mag and will not learn Nav. Then back for the last MA tech, Banking. No others know Chem. DOW England. Will eliminated them now. I will have to capture most cities as a) they are deep in jungles b) England is at war with India.
1290AD:
Start banking it is due in 4 turns, it is known by a couple others. Well someone will do a 4 turn tech, but it was not the AI.
1350AD:
England gone,
Steam next turn.
AI has:
Gun 4
Bank 4
Astro 6
Chem 3
Phy, Metal, ToG, Mag, MT none.
They have several optional Middle Age techs, that I won't have, unless a deal is done sometime.
Looks like I have about the same amount of land as the next two combined. I am making little effort to manage the towns and to place them optimally. I am building temples every where or nearly so as I would expect others to do, so as to not be too war like.
There is only two lux on this continent as I recall. I could trade for some, but why give them techs or lux?
I have some frigates and galleons and making more ships. I was not able to gather workers for rails as too much jungle to clear/road to connect towns and too much land with no roads. Will start soon and still a bit short on settlers to go after Ghandi. With Astro and Nav, we may soon get landings wanting to fill any hole.
So I think it is quite clear that it plays close to what I remembered, that is the AI will not be able to hold it is own after the second tier techs in the middle age, if it was doing so to that point.
It surely cannot do 4 turn research and doe little trading from this point on with other civs, unless there is a bribe. No one has any money. If they had some, I would trade it away.