Sandman's Diplo Fastest Finish

[Sandman2003]

So it looks like using higher difficulty levels to beat the Chieftain dates for Spaceship and Diplo by using faster tech rate from opponents will not go as smoothly as people thought?

I think I can beat both my emperor and my deity dates, but I think that my fastest possible emperor date should be faster than my fastest possible deity date. Gyathar's sid game seems to suggest that sid offers an option to be faster than deity and maybe emperor, but I think bettering chieftain is unlikely. A pre-2000BC MA entry, plus 50% tech cost is just too much advantage, I think.