Science Victory Strategy (and boasting!) Compendium ツ

[yung.carl.jung]

Since the AI loves building HS I almost always get a religion through conquest. Never tried Jesuits. I can't play Civ until end of january, but I'm looking forward to this new patch. Sub 200 shouldn't be a problem, but sub 150 seems almost impossible now!

 

[Iamteehee]

Does anyone have any videos of their fast SV playthroughs? I'd be interested in seeing one since I'm still having trouble with fast SV in civ 6.

 

[fortydayweekend]

Sub 200 shouldn't be a problem

Just finished in 202 turns (Rome / Deity / Small Continents / Standard) with only Goddard (+20%) and Sagan. I was basically guessing when to stop building settlers, when to switch to campus projects etc and made plenty of mistakes especially with using builder charges and placing districts that never got finished, so good players should get well under 200t.

New IZ rules were a lot more interesting than just "build them everywhere", especially trying to plan minimal overlap while still being at war and expanding and not sure where cities would end up. In the end I figured overlap wasn't the end of the world as the factories worked in a chain - first one providing cogs for the second and so on - and when spies took them out they didn't lose production. In the end I had 4 Power Plant IZs and 1 Factory IZ (from Watt) and a couple of Workshop ones in the older cities, with 21/23 cities getting Factory or better coverage.

 

[codenamegrim]

Does any of you have online videos of your gameplay?

 

[whacker]

t191 SV with India, post patch.

I played this game for a post patch entry to the Beta Gauntlet#2. Obviously India would not be my first choice otherwise

I decided to go with 3 IZ, covering all of my cities and a Big Ben finisher. I doubt that Jesuit Education is worth the investment in the HS, as you will lack sience early on, maybe with Saladin.
I finished the last 4 parts of the spaceship with Sagan and 3 chops in one turn.

City states were OK, but sadly i did not have Stockholm. Had Geneva and Hongkong though.

As usual some early conquering, i conquered 7 cities and settled 9+capital for a total of 17 cities.

I made some mistakes in the mid-/lategame, so i finished the tech tree several turns before i could finish Big Ben - sub t180 should be perfectly possible with a better civ and less mistakes.
I actually think Rome now is by far the best civ for SV, because monuments are mandatory to get Democracy in time, which is required for a Big Ben finisher.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

Do you guys think I should update the OP, since achievements from past patches don't really count now that so many things have been changed?

 

[whacker]

Yes, we should only consider games of the current patch.

 

[ShinigamiKenji]

You could maintain the older ones so we can compare the impact the patch had in the overall time.

 

[Monthar]

What's a good build order for this strategy?

 

[Sanke]

Is there any video available with someone going for a sub200 win?

Im able to win sometimes under 300 turns, but Im curious about some decisions made to reach earlier wins

 

[yung.carl.jung]

What's a good build order for this strategy?

In the opening post I have a section where all the key technologies and civics are outlined. Post patch I think what you should be focussing on goes something like this:

Campus (Libraries, Universities) > Commerce hub (Traders) > Industrial Zone (only Workshops are necessary in every city) > Housing/Food > Gold > Culture > Faith

Basically what it means is this: Before, production used to be your main bottleneck. Now it is raw science and, to some extent, gold for GP. Production is still important for the GP projects.

 

[fortydayweekend]

Early conquests are also needed I think for <200t. And sticking to the beelines (Archery, Writing, Apprenticeship, Machinery, Education, Industrialization, Electricity, Sci Theory, Rocketry etc - maybe not exactly in that order) while hitting as many Eurekas as possible on the way.

 

[whacker]

In the opening post I have a section where all the key technologies and civics are outlined. Post patch I think what you should be focussing on goes something like this:

Campus (Libraries, Universities) > Commerce hub (Traders) > Industrial Zone (only Workshops are necessary in every city) > Housing/Food > Gold > Culture > Faith

Basically what it means is this: Before, production used to be your main bottleneck. Now it is raw science and, to some extent, gold for GP. Production is still important for the GP projects.

I am not sure if an IZ+workshop really pays off. A workshop costs 175 production, which takes 87,5 turns to be amortised. The only true benefit i can see from getting more than 3 IZ for Industrialization boost and overlapping factories are the GE points, which on the other hand became obsolete with the -40% cut for spaceship projects.

Not getting any IZ also means that your campi/CD`s come online much earlier (keep the 7 pop restrictions for 3 districts in mind) and as the game takes quite a bit more turns to end, the importance of science from projects has gone down. Big Ben/Democracy solves the GS generation.

The only civ i see building IZ at the moment is Germany cause the Hansa is still good for easy adjacency/half cost and the UA essentially lets you get them for free.

 

[ShinigamiKenji]

Now that the Big Ben strategy seems more viable, I somewhat repeat my question: When do you build Big Ben? How much gold do you usually have to buy all those GS?

 

[whacker]

Now that the Big Ben strategy seems more viable, I somewhat repeat my question: When do you build Big Ben? How much gold do you usually have to buy all those GS?

I usually finish Big Ben when having 15-20k gold as you will need around 30k gold, sometimes a bit more or less, depending on how much GSP you have accumulated and wether Sagan/Korolev are available before or after Abdus Salam.

Theoretically the best timing is 1 turn before finishing Nuclear Fusion to get the remaining parts in one turn, using Sagan and chops.
This requires a good balance between culture for Democracy, gold for Big Ben and science.

I would also recommend to start Big Ben asap and leave it at 1 turn until completion. This way you will not get it late.

 

[Monthar]

In the opening post I have a section where all the key technologies and civics are outlined. Post patch I think what you should be focussing on goes something like this:

Campus (Libraries, Universities) > Commerce hub (Traders) > Industrial Zone (only Workshops are necessary in every city) > Housing/Food > Gold > Culture > Faith

Basically what it means is this: Before, production used to be your main bottleneck. Now it is raw science and, to some extent, gold for GP. Production is still important for the GP projects.

That only covers districts. The only other thing you've said is build units. Umm, which units and in what order? When should we build workers, settlers and traders? With building all these combat units and districts, how do folks manage to get such a large number of cities by turn 100? I haven't seen very many AI settlers and rarely see them unescorted.

Is it better to run the trade routes from the capital or to the capital?

 

[fortydayweekend]

A workshop costs 175 production, which takes 87,5 turns to be amortised.

Workshops give 3 production, so 58 turns to pay back, plus GP points. The first 3 for the tech boost upgrading to factory + power plant with good coverage is still necessary I think.

But IZ and workshops in other cities should probably come after Campus/lib/uni/CD/trader and so for most would be too late in the game with 50-odd turns to pay off. Maybe an IZ that covers some newer cities waiting for James Watt to build the free WS and Factory? I usually seem to get him.

 

[whacker]

Workshops give 3 production, so 58 turns to pay back, plus GP points. The first 3 for the tech boost upgrading to factory + power plant with good coverage is still necessary I think.

Hm, my workshops never give 3 production.


t165 SV

I once again played the gotm1 map, not very innovative but it just is the best map i had so far and i hate searching for good maps.

More details tomorrow.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

That only covers districts. The only other thing you've said is build units. Umm, which units and in what order? When should we build workers, settlers and traders? With building all these combat units and districts, how do folks manage to get such a large number of cities by turn 100? I haven't seen very many AI settlers and rarely see them unescorted.

Is it better to run the trade routes from the capital or to the capital?

Sure, I'll try my best to help you out. Let's assume we are not playing as Sumeria or Scythia to make it easier, my BO goes something like this:

Scout / Scout / (Buy Scout if you have the money) / Worker (for Inspiration) / Slinger / Slinger / Settler (one settler before early empire, always. makes it so that you only have to grow your capital to pop 5) / Army (until early empire) / 5 - 10 settlers (after early empire).

My army usually looks like this: 6 - 8 archers (upgraded); 4 horses or heavy chariots; one or two good blocker units (swordsmen; spears)

It is important that you have enough archers to get a capital city down in time. My BO does not include any districts as you can see, so it relies on capturing a district very early for the inspiration.

After you're done building your army you won't need to put much or any time into building units, which is the good part.

I build a ton of settlers. Usually I strive to end up with an empire that is at the very least 15 cities (small map) and up to 25-30 cities (large map). In general I think larger map settings and high water levels help with conquering and therefore also expansion.

Traders to me always get priorities over buildings. In the first half of the game I always run traders from my newest cities to the cities with the highest food and hammers, usually the cap but not always. In the second half of the game I use trade routes to boost the key cities that will have space ports in. In the last ~40 turns I put every single caravan in my spaceport city.

 

[whacker]

That only covers districts. The only other thing you've said is build units. Umm, which units and in what order? When should we build workers, settlers and traders? With building all these combat units and districts, how do folks manage to get such a large number of cities by turn 100? I haven't seen very many AI settlers and rarely see them unescorted.

Is it better to run the trade routes from the capital or to the capital?

BO: scout/worker/settler/slinger/slinger/slinger is my standard opening with most civs. Swap worker with settler as Rome. On high difficulties 1-2 slinger before settler. Buy the first caravan to boost your 1. expansion immediatly. Get some more slingers and horseriders/swordmen so you have a total of ~10 units. Upgrade slingers to archers. Always try to use the 50% production card for as much units as possible.
Afterwards build settlers and look for citystates to conquer early (improved tiles/worker/monument/granary). In those 3-4 cities you keep pumping settlers until you have 15-20 cities with conquest. Use all the conquered workers for settler chops. Swap the settler policy card with the 30% for worker and get a worker in every city, stop at 1 turn left for completion. Swap the +2charge card asap and finish your workers in that order: bad production->good production->chops.

Always build districts for one turn to keep the costs low. I like to get campus 1. in cities with 3-4 adjacency and CD in all the others. Find 3 cities to get good IZ overlapping and build IZ there asap (beeline for apprenticeship). One city that does not have an IZ should get a ED for Colloseum. Cities that finished both districs build traders. I buy most of my traders afterwards, when i have merchant republic. Traderoute assignment like described by yung.carl.jung.

For buildings:2 markets/rest libraries->markets->2 banks/rest university->bank. IZ buildings have priority over everything else. Stock exchanges in your best production cities. Start campus projects when all these buildings are done. When not playing as Rome you have to fit monuments in there, preferably very early.

Wonders: Try to get pyramids asap (only lower difficulties)->Colloseum (if you get the 215 GE use it)->Ruhr Valley->Big Ben. Build Big Ben and Ruhr at the same time with the 15% card. Leave Big Ben at 1 turn until completion. Right now i am not sure if Ruhr pays off. With Kwolek/Hongkong/Sagan/4chops you can finish 5 projects in one turn without Ruhr.