I meant to call attention to this in my long post last night, but forgot. You seem to assume that it's possible to get to the end of the tech tree, the end of the civic tree, win an aid request, found a religion, and build at least 2, if not 3 wonders, ALL before the modern era? You act like the points from the end of both trees is just a given by the modern era...lol...idk maybe on a super easy difficulty, idk, but I only play on deity and that just sounds ludacris, frankly, even on Settler difficulty.
Quite frankly, I dont mind save scumming. Actually shocked how many people hate it. I just think the whole "voting for the winning resolution" think is such an arbitrary and stupid concept. Until they change it, I'll save scum all I want to win that diplo victory. It was much more fun in Civ V but sadly they chose go change it.
It's perfectly possible, regardless of difficulty. I won't say it's easy, but it's perfectly doable and something you should strive for. I don't take it for granted, but it's always something that I try to achieve. Even if you can't progress on both trees that fast, all you need is a second aid request to compensate. There's, however, a crucial difference on Deity. Below Deity, you get the fifth congress at the second half of the industrial era, and the first post-modern congress is the sixth congress, around turn 240. On deity, the first post-modern congress is the fifth congress, around turn 210, so things change a little bit. Since OP is playing on King and I play on Immortal myself, I wrote my posts based on non-deity difficulty.
I don't have a problem with save scumming, I just find that in this specific situation, it completely kills the fun. Usually when you save scum, you do it to try something different. You do a specific sequence of plays that ends with you losing a unit, so you load it back and try a different strategy. You still need to think and find a solution, even if you are on your second try. In the congress, you just get the right answer. You don't need to think, you don't even need favors, you just see the right answer, go back and win. It's lame. It's the same with Xcom, I don't have a problem with save scumming to try something different, but going back just to roll the dice into you get a hit is lame. I don't mind if others do it, but personally, I prefer not to and I won't recommend others to do so.
Leandrombraz,
you are right it is possible, but you forget this is not a thread how to get the quickest possible diplowin, but make a pattern for someone who plays maximum King difficulty. At King difficyulty you would have probably 2 or at least more congress than deity, so you can easily skip religion
Many deity players have problems to finish civic and tech research pre250, and you bring t210 on the table.
My best is t206 with mahabodhi while 1st modern congress and no aid emergencies, but it still doesn't change the fact, that if you want to learn reliable constant way of winning diplo, you must first of all understand congress rules and understand you cannot sacrifice teching for religious play, if you cannot manage both the same time. And King lvl plaayers are King lvl because cannot manage many aspects at the same time yet, it comes with practice.
Among the set of fast tech progress, fast civic progres, potala, Orszaghaz, SoL, Mahabodji, huge income, solid military, if I had to resign one thing, it would be always religion
Up to immortal, you get 5 pre-modern congresses. On deity you get 4. It's possible to get 6 in lower difficulties, but unlikely. On immortal, the fifth congress happens quite close to the modern era, so the era progress would need to go waaay slower in lower difficulties to get a sixth congress. Anyway, that doesn't change anything in regard to the Mahabodhi Temple. This wonder is good because it's 2 guaranteed points early in the game. By guaranteed, I mean they aren't luck based, as long as you don't mess up, you can get it. That's huge and something that you shouldn't pass. Even if getting a religion meant you're sacrificing tech progress, which isn't really the case, you get 2 points from Mahabodhi and two from the tech/civic tree. Sacrificing one to get the other is pointless. 2 points is 2 points. The only difference between the two sources of points, is that if you miss the Mahabodhi temple, it's gone for good, these are 2 points you can't get back. Meanwhile, the tech/civic points can't be lost. You might delay it, but never lose it, so there isn't a reason to skip on Mahabodhi, permanently losing 2 early points, just to get 2 other points you'll get regardless.
Since you don't need to invest heavily on religion, it won't affect your science in any meaningful way, quite the opposite. Building a couple of Holy Sites is a good strategy, because of monumentality. You can guarantee your religion, then use your faith to buy builders, traders and settlers, leaving your production and gold free to do other stuff. You don't need more than a couple of holy sites in a diplomatic victory, unless you're playing as Georgia. Meanwhile, there's no rush to build your first campus. If you manage to get Choral Music, which, granted, is harder to get since the last update, your religion can be an excellent source of culture, then later you can use Religious Unity to get some extra envoys, something that is ridiculously powerful as Georgia..
