T98 Science Victory with Cooked Settings

[Minou]

For the longest time, I have been obsessed with completing a Science Victory T100 under ideal conditions - e.g. with strong map settings and all the "special" modes like Secret Societies active.

Here is a turn by turn account of my first successful attempt.

For this run I self-banned some strategies I feel are too exploitive/boring including (1) “city flipping" (giving away a city of letting it flip by loyalty just to pillage/reconquer/repair/repeat), (2) buying all the AIs DF cheap to re-sell for a ton of gold later, and (3) conquering city states. The last one isn’t really exploitive but I enjoy City States so much I always leave them alone even when it might be smarter to pillage or conquer them. I did allow ripping the AIs off by selling them some resources and then declaring war - jokes on them for signing the deal.

Here are the settings I choose and comments on them:

Civ: Hammurabi. I think he is the best for maximizing a speed run in general, plus he can unlock things like Industries faster and benefits even more from some Heroes like Hercules (free buildings make the free districts better) and Sinbad (gold can be used for some broken early upgrades like rapid Pike and Shot).

Difficulty: Deity - AIs are there to provide more cities, so give them more Settlers to start.

Size: Standard - I personally just don't like maps that feel too large, not sure if this is optimal though - probably a larger map with more AIs to pillage could speed things

Speed: Standard

Disasters: Set to 0. After a few early attempts, I concluded that the boost for added tile yields is simply not worth the annoyance of districts being damaged or units killed at critical times. In one game I had a Knight straight up killed the turn before he would take a nice city and rage quit immediately. Yeah, two extra food from a flood ain’t gonna make up for that.

Modes: Secret Societies (early Governor Title, Old God Obelisks), Barbarian Clans (seems to greatly reduce risk of early barb rishes, plus chance to buy fun stuff like Galleys, Spears to upgrade to Pikes, or Eagle Warriors), Heroes and Legends (obviously awesome), Corporations (modestly useful, mostly for Industries).

Map Type: Continents and Islands. Pangea seems like it could also be good, but I chose this map mainly to have more late game huts on islands for more chances to pop free techs and to secure Voidsingers if I miss out early. This map also seems to leave more late game barbarian clans that can be converted into extra City States,

City States: Pumped to 18 (max for Standard map). I selected 24 possibilities instead of 18, because this allows Barbarian Clans to turn into the remaining ones (otherwise the civilization feature will be disabled). I took all 8 Science, 6 Culture (all except Vilnius and Mohenjo Daro), 4 Industrial (Johannesburg, Hong Kong, Brussels, and Buenos Ares), 2 Military (Akkad and Granada), 2 Religious (Chinguetti and Vatican City) and 2 Commercial (Zanzibar and Cahokia). In retrospect, some of CS like Nan Mandol and Johannesburg are so strong early and late game science bonuses are so marginal than I would probably cut Mitla, Anshan, and both Commercial CS (I included them hoping to get all cities to Happy, but that’s a fool’s errand) to ensure all the best CS are on the map at the very start.

Resources: Abundant.

World Age: Standard. I am not sure this actually does anything - I actually wanted to reduce the number of mountains since they can cause choke points that greatly slow exploration conquest, but testing things out the number of mountains doesn’t seem to change between Old, Standard, and Young maps.

Temperature: Cold. This results in more tundra areas which can include a few nice Laser chop sites and less deserts which are completely useless.

Rainfall: Wet (more forests=more chops).

Sea Level: Standard.

Start: Legendary.

Wonders: Selected Paititi (the best wonder), Ik-Kil (can be very handy for tasks like chopping Oxford), Torres del Paine (very strong early), Giant’s Causeway (culture is nice and if a CS spawns adjacent you can levy super-warriors from them), and Piopiotahi (kind of a mini-Paititi). I avoided some strong wonders that provide faith in order to increase the odds of getting Religious Settlements since an AI spawning next to a faith wonder would end my chances instantly.

AIs: I find that with the standard 7 AIs you often don't have a close neighbor to rush. So, I bumped it to 11. I went for AIs with no defensive bonus (e.g. Vietnam) or strong early unique units (e.g. Dido building a Bireme in a city you’re trying to attack really sucks). Here are my choices and reasoning:

Kristina: Tends to pay a lot of gold for DF.

Wilfred Laurier: Tends to pay a lot of gold for DF (or at least I think he does, haven't seen him in a few patches).

Seondeok: Builds lots of fast Campus, good to conquer/pillage.

João III: Pays alot for luxuries and builds tons of Traders to plunder.

Robert the Bruce: Pays the most for luxuries in my experience, also builds lots of Campus.

Gilgamesh: Obviously to have one friend for life to trade with after everyone else hates me.

Teddy: Generic - made sure to specify Bill Moose and not Rough Rider.

Pedro II: Seems to build lots of districts.

Mvemba a Nzinga: Slight advantage of not competing for religion.

Jayavarman VII: Holy Sites to conquer/pillage

Jadwiga: Generic AI that seems to pay a little above average for DF.

Victoria: Threw her in as a random vanilla AI and hope she will build Harbors.

Eleanor (English): Another vanilla AI (English rather than French to avoid combat bonus from Diplomatic Visibility).

Phillip II: This was my one mistake - I forgot about Spain’s +5CP against Civs following another religion.

 

[Minou]

T1-T3: I took the first screen shot on T3. Here’s the start, which I re-rolled dozens of times to obtain. Obviously a fantastic spot due to Paititi, the strongest Natural Wonder in the game. It’s made even better by the discovery of Hercules on T1. Finding a Natural Wonder grants a 50% chance of finding a Hero, and I would consider Hercules the most critical of all - he can crank out 3 districts in the early game which is a huge help with boosts but is also the stronger Hero for comabt with a CP of 36, allowing him to crush weakly defended cities in the Ancient Era. Then, he can be recalled late game for free Spaceports.

In addition to revealing Hercules, discovering the Natural Wonder provides a chance at a free Governor Title due to a Hermatic Order invitaion. We don’t actually want to join that Secret Society, but the title means we can start Amani bounding around very early.

Techs: Astrology (free)

T2: Time to found the captial. It’s well worth spedning a turn moving to setle directly on the double-boosted wonder tile, which gives the captial a 4c/6g base yield! We can also work the adjacent Maize tile for a grand total of 7.2cpt and 16gpt right off the bat. Growth will be slow until we can pop borders onto tiles with more food, and we have no fresh water, but those drawbacks are dwarfed by the huge culture boost.

The first build will be an SK, which is a really useful unit. With extra vision and 3MP it’s a great Scout, and the combat bonus agianst mounted units can be clutch in situations where Barbarian Horsemen turn up early. Plus, as a Melee unit rather than Scout, it can be upgraded into a Man at Arms later. We want to SK first to scout the map and also to take advantage if an AI leaves a Builder or Settler exposed to capture.

For techs, we can start with Animal Husbandry which will let us hook up the Honey and more importantly reveal Horses.

More good news too, as Original Warrior finds a hut.

T3: The hut yields 40g. That’s a bit of a dissapointment as the best yields like a population Builder, or Relic can provide a massive boost but the 40g is merely 3 turns of our base income. More dissappointing though is not getting an invitation to Voidsingers. We really want to join this Secret Society and the odds are highest with early huts. Missing out here means we could be left out to dry if we can’t find another hut nearby. We also miss out on a 15% chance of revealing a Hero, but no complaints after hitting on Hercules T1.

The good news though is that Original Warrior has spotted pink borders - cultural city states are the strongest early game as the +1c really makes a difference. Hopefully, we will be the first to meet them next turn….

 

[Minou]

T4: An interesting twist - we are NOT the first to meet the pink CS, which turns out to be Caguana (on the plus side they have a relatively easy Archer quest) but Vatican City marches a unit out of the fog and we do gain a free envoy to them (their quest is an easy one too, send a Trade Route).

Vatican City is very nice city game in the mid to late game, provided we secure a Religion, as their ability let’s you spread religion anywhere basically for free by judicious use of Great People - otherwise useless GP such as George of St. James can convert a dozen on so cities.

Caguana can be quite powerul as well, for example we can place a Batay between the Wheat and Corn and it will create a +5c tile. The biggest drawback of the Batay is that it can’t be placed on floodplains, which always seems to kill many of the the best spots.

Perhaps the biggest development of the turn is that we now have +1f from Vatican City and are steamrolling towards Code of Laws, which will let us get another +1f from God King. This means we have a legitimate shot at Religious Settlements, which would let us plant a second city near Paititi around T15!

Incidentally, getting an envoy to Vatican City offers a 10% chance of revealing a Hero too, but no luck there. However, we can send Amani to the CS, which guarantees another Hero reveal in 5 turns.

Another nice developent is the addition of the Wheat tile to our borders, pushing us to 9.2cpt which is insance on turn 4, and also setting up growth in 7 more turns in stead of 13.

 

[Minou]

T5: Code of Law is complete super early thanks to the wonder start, so we can swap in Discipline and God King and push for RS.

Civics: Code of Law

T6: We meet our first AI as an English Warrior emerges from the fog to the west. This provides Writing for free, but is overall just terrible news. First, they must be close enough to us that we risk geting rushed. What a shame if we lose this beautiful start to getting attacked on T10!

To make matters worse, England has 6 faith, meaning they have a shot to scoop us for RS.

Techs: Writing (free)

 

[Minou]

T7: A huge sigh of relief: the tooltip shows England at 7f, meaning they are only generating 1f per turn, probably from a resource like Tobacco. At this pace, we will comfortably beat them to 25f for a Pantheon. Of course, there are 10 other AIs out there to worry about….

We also meet our third CS, Cahokia. This is an interesting City State, allowing a potential push towards empire-wide happiness late game when each Builder can basically become an extra luxury resource by spamming Cahokia Mounds. With our capital lacking fresh water the Housing boost should be useful too. Unfortunately though, we missed first contact with them as well and their quest (Encampment) is not going to be easy any time soon.

Inspirations: Political Philosophy

 

[The Highwayman]

Thanks for posting. I'll be following. Have you thought about including several Kristinas? Not all Kristinas, since you want to rob many AIs of diplo the first 60ish turns or so. But I found all too often I bankrupt Kristina and my diplo sits around until she can replenish her reserves.

 

[Minou]

Thanks for posting. I'll be following. Have you thought about including several Kristinas? Not all Kristinas, since you want to rob many AIs of diplo the first 60ish turns or so. But I found all too often I bankrupt Kristina and my diplo sits around until she can replenish her reserves.

One of my "house rules" was no duplicating AIs. Certainly 11 Kristina's would be easy to abuse but it felt too cheesy. I do realize it is arbitrary to ban duplicate AIs or flipping cities to pillage while picking all the CS and rolling for a wonder start, but I just wanted to play a game that felt fun.

 

[Minou]

T8: Every turn so far I have been using the Settler lens to scan for AIs or CS in the distance. The Settler lens is useful for Scouting, but the Appeal lens can be too. The RF hill SW of the Warrior has an Appeal of 5, so the tiles in the fog must be either mountains or forests, making moving south a dicey proportion for wasted movement since mountains often run in chains.

 

[Minou]

T9: A bit of a crazy turn! First up, Amani arrives in Vatican City and reveals Himoko, by far my favorite early game Hero. She can easily net 15+ Warriors before T30, and with her +5CP ability these hit very hard in the Ancient Era. Meanwhile she can go exploring ultra-fast with 4MP and no terrane penalty, wracking up CS vassals that provide DF, potential resources, and special Suzerain abilities - plus revealing further Heroes.

The shared vision with Vatican City reveals the United States and Breaking Wave Clan (selling Galleys for 150g, a very good deal), a second hut and a new continent (Foreign Trade was set to complete this turn anyway so the boost is wasted). The new continent provides a 50% shot of revealing a Hero which fails, but no worries with Himoko on deck.

The only bad development is that somehow England now has 13f! I negelected to check last turn but they were at 7f on T7, so somehow they made 6f in two turns. The obvious source would be a Relic, but they don’t have one according to the trade screen. They must have done some random combination of God King, an envoy to a religious CS, and luxuries….

Sadly, this means we have almost no shot at Religious Settlements anymore, so we might as well swap in Urban Planning and get a later Pantheon from Himoko’s ability to score 50f when providing an envoy to a CS we are already Suzerain of.

Amani heads over to Caguana, which will let us get some extra culture and have 2 envoys ready when Himoko appears. We have a nice pile of 171g but competing options - we could buy a Builder to get more housing and sellable luxuries, buy a Monument to speed Himoko, buy a Galley to scout the coast and help attack any English cities on the coast down the road, or even buy a Settler in 10 turns while putting all our production into other thigns. So many choices…

Civics: Foreign Trade

 

[Minou]

T10: An English Settler is marching east, which is actually great news. Hopefully it will settle right on the Cotton, which would put the city in range of 3 wonder tiles. Then, we can smash the city with Himoko-backed levy Warriors and not even have to worry about loyalty since it would be practically next door to our capital.

Ten turns in, our stats our: 1/2spt/9.2cpt/1fpt/17gpt. We have one envoy and one Warrior.

Obviously everythign is juiced by the natural wonder start. We could have Himoko on T17 and are set for Political Philosophy on T39 without even accounting for adding a Monument and growing! Long-term, we are in a fantastic position thanks to Himoko and Hercules being revealed so soon. As long as England doesn’t rush in immediately and Hercules doesn't get scooped before out second city can chop him out, this will be a great game.

 

[Minou]

T11: Our first build is complete: The SK pops and heads east towards the hut revealed by Vatican City. This unique unit is nifty, basically serving as a sturdier Scout with the added bonuses of crushing barb Horsemen if they appear and being upgradable to a Man at Arms later.

The capital also hits 2 pop this turn and can work the 1f/2h/2c/3g forest, pushing us to 11.5cpt and 20gpt. I decided to train a Builder next and use gold to purchase the Monument when we hit 240g, in order to rush Himoko.

But…. England denounces us and is getting aggressive - a Slinger and a Warrior (the latter is hidden north in the fog) are marching east. The wonder both helps and hurts us in terms of defense. On the plus side, it creates two one-tile choke points (one helpfully on a forest, the other not-so-helpfully on a marsh) to block incoming units but on the minus side it makes it possible to siege the capital with just two units. If England threatens to surround us, we could back out of the Monument purchase and go for a Warrior for defense, which together with Original Warrior could hold the forest tiles to the NW and SW of the capital to block England from sieging us. The next few turns will be critical...

 

[Minou]

T12: England beats us to a Pantheon as expected and takes…. Sacred Path. That’s certainly an odd choice for a coastal Civ. This probably means another AI already got Religious Settlements. If not, we may have shot ourselves in the foot by switching out of God King and thus conceding the race too early.

 

[Minou]

T13: England stupidly settles Bradford SW of the Cotton, declining to gain a free luxury, passing on a 2nd ring wonder tile, and stranding a Honey outside the third ring borders as well. What a terrible choice....

To my surprise, the Warrior and Slinger that were marching east decline to move. Not sure if this means England won’t attack, but regardless if gives Original Warrior an extra turn to move back to the homefront. Given the breather it seems safe to buy the Monumen and start Devotion to Himoko immediately, pausing the Builder for now. The extra 2c puts us all the way at 13.5cpt.

Out east, Vatican City looks close to clearing the Breaking Wave camp - it would be a shame if they do so before we have enough gold to buy a Galley, especially since we have no immediate plans for a coastal city to build one otherwise.

 

[Minou]

T14: SK pops the hut, and for the second time we hit 40g. But, much more importantly we get an invite to Voidsingers! This is certainly the Secret Society we want to join, as Old God Obelisks are amazing. We fail on revealing a Hero at 15% odds. Checking the AI trade interface, England (who knew no other AIs when we met them) now knows one other, and America knows two. That’s good as it means at least 4 nearby AIs to conquer.

 

[Minou]

T15: Early Empire is complete - with such high culture there was never any chance of getting the boost. We can now hire Liang, who should arrive a turn before we train our first Builder.

Luckily, the Vatican City Warrior healed between turns instead of clearing the Breaking Wave clan camp. So, we still have a chance to buy a Galley after all. Teddy will pay 22g for Open Borders, and we can take a loan of 51g for 4gpt (seems fair enough since he only asked 3gpt and I will thus end up paying off the 51 plus interest) to buy the Galley thanks to the 40g hut last turn.

Amani arrives in Caguana putting us up to 14.5cpt, but does not trip a Hero at 10% odds.

Civics: Early Empire (no boost)

 

[Minou]

T16: Planning begins for the invasion of England. Homoko pops and thanks to her powerful ability of ignoring terrain will reach Caguana next turn. Meanwhile our Galley finds that England’s coastal city of Leeds is currently empty. If it remains so, we can quickly conquer two cities with the Galley able to hit hard ahead of the ground troops which will be surrounding Bradford.

T17: Vatican city clears the Breaking Wave camp between turns. Himoko uses charge #1 to add a third envoy to Caguana, making us Suzerain. This reveals the Hero Maui (in my opnion probably the worst Hero, but at least it removed him from the list). Shared vision also reveals Brussels with a nice easy Irrigation quest and the One Eye Clan, which is selling Warriors for 95g but about to be cleared by Brussels.

T18: With Craftsmanship done, we can swap in Colonization to speed out a Settler, though we still want to wrap up the Builder first (will take 3 turns). Himoko uses charge #2 to levy 5 Warriors from Caguana. Just like that, our army is tripled in size. This boosts Mercenaries early (the 40% boost is worth a little more if we get it before the Classical Era starts and Civic costs scale down)

Inspirations: Mercenaries

Civics: Craftsmanship (no boost)

 

[The Highwayman]

@Minou How's the progress going?

 

[Minou]

Will write up a few more turns soon. I realize I forgot to post the start file if anyone wants to try this map.

 

[Minou]

T19: Our hired Galley finds a new continent with an offshore hut visible, though it’s too late for the FT boost. We do reveal the Hero Hippolyta on the 50% chance though. She is pretty strong, but we still want Hercules first. Teddy will buy the DF accumulating from Caguana for 6g each, a nice little addition to our income.

 

[Minou]

T20: Liang arrives in the capital, just in time to boost our Builder who completes next turn. Continuing west, the hired Galley spots the borders of Korea and then turns back east to aid in the invasion of England. Meanwhile the levied Warriors march in from the opposite direction. Himoko slides swiftly towards Brussels since Cahokia would require 4 envoys to control and Brussels only 2 thanks to their Irrigation quest, which we can complete soon.

At the end of 20 turns, we are running 1.5s / 14.5c /1f /15g, thanks to the wonder start. Our army is strong with Original Warrior, 5 levied Warriors, an SK, a Galley, and of course Himoko.

T21: Animal Husbandry completes, our third tech but the first one from actual science due to the 50% penalty. We are lucky to have several horse resources in the neighborhood, including a really nice one on a wonder-boosted tile. Our 4-charge Builder pops and instantly hooks up Maize to complete Irrigation and earn us an envoy to Brussels. Himoko is unable to provide a second envoy this turn, due to an annoying Warrior standing in the way and a mountain blocking the alternate route.

But the big news is its time for WAR! Since England denounced us earlier, we can declare a Formal War and suffer less grievances. Declaring reveals England’s vassal Chinguetti to the south, which explains some of their early faith generation.

The power of Himoko is on display as we have enough troops to rush our neighbor on T21. One of our Warriors steals a 3-charge Builder while two others siege the city of Bradford and pummel it for 31 and 26 damage. Although unboosted Warriors are fairly flimsy, England has only a single Warrior in the vicinity of our army, we should be fine unless they manage to churn out an Archer.

Techs: Animal Husbandry, Irrigation