Science victory T248. Given how slow my game started, I'm glad to have stayed sub-250, although a round 250 would have been more thematic for this GotM.
Continuing from the openings thread, my tech path was universities first (I sometimes go workshops to get production going), although I had already researched Construction. I researched Education T126, which is not fast (although technology costs are higher on huge maps), and then of course the universities took forever to build since I did not have workshops yet. The only wonders I managed to build before the Renaissance were Oracle (in an expand), and Borobudur (I actually went Theology before civil service to improve my chances of getting it). Perhaps I needn't have bothered with Boro, though, and I could have done the Sweden trick instead: use a prophet to spread religion three times, and then gift the prophet to a CS for 90 influence. That only occurred to me while writing this report, and anyway I had six cities.
When I can, I enter the Renaissance via printing press, not being too bothered about picking another filler policy (Patronage, in this case), but since this was a science run (and my game was already quite slow), I entered via Acoustics instead. I made that decision a little late, so I had to work research in a few cities for a few turns to ensure I reached acoustics in time. The capital then built Sistine Chapel, but that was the only Renaissance wonder I would build from the capital, since production was still a little weak. The Leaning Tower I offloaded to an expand, and I took the questionable decision to pick an engineer, to make a further questionable decision of engineering Taj Mahal. Happiness was still low at this point (I had already tasked my capital with a 5-turn circus maximus build, and still I was at zero), and I wanted all the production I could get for building factories and public schools. I did not get around to Forbidden Palace. The capital was too busy building infrastructure (like a musician's guild to be able to gift great people!), and the other cities were also busy and/or still had poor production, so William completed it instead, just as the build times were starting to look more reasonable for me. I went factories before schools, and was rewarded with improved coal, so I could actually get some factories up before building schools.
For my religion, I went tithe and religious community. I sort of always pick that, but this time there were no good other picks available either - at least no mosques and pagodas. I would really have liked pagodas in this game, or mosques, because my cities were sorely lacking in culture and therefore border growth. I did not build amphitheaters and opera houses either this game, so border growth was excruciatingly slow. Another downside of having six cities rather than four, is that you have to buy tiles in two more cities, and very soon these become too expensive for my taste. I know FilthyRobot abhorred Angkor Wat, but in this game I would have liked to have it - it was a quest for four CS as well. Alas, the AI also quite likes it, and Maria built it before I could contemplate building it. Anyway, back to my religion, for the enhance I would have liked to pick something with happiness, but there was literally nothing there anymore. Despite this only being emperor, there were a couple of civs with quick religion games. I therefore picked Swords into Plowshares and Itinerant Preachers. I felt the latter might work on Emperor where I have Borobudur, but it did nothing for me. I do wonder now, though: does Reliquary work with the Swedish ability of gifting great people?
Funny thing about Swords into Plowshares: I had kept the war open with Ormus to generate a general, and around T180 when I had almost finally earned one, it struck me that Swords
also does not work when you are at war with a city state. I did keep the war open for a few more turns to earn my general, then finally made peace.
Time to wrap this long-winded report up: using the Swedish ability with friendship declarations worked quite well, I was usually friends with most of the AI, giving me an empire bonus of 115%, when I checked at the end of the game. However, on the first vote the AI had proposed and passed Arts Funding. On a huge map, there was little I could do to stop that, unless I had bulbed for modern era and had managed to snag Forbidden Palace. As it was, my scientist generation was only somewhat better than normal, but it did mean I had plenty of musicians to give away.
As a side note, does anyone do research agreements on Emperor? My gold was poor (for like the first 200 turns) and I didn't.
The end game was good by my standards: I reached labs around T221, and managed to buy all my labs instantly, by trading Hiawatha 140 gpt plus some resources for a lump sum of gold. This was possibly quite lucky. Even though I was friends with most AI, only the Iroquois had any serious cash on hand, and I suppose that is by no means a given on emperor (fun fact: not all the AI were doing so well, as Ethiopia finally managed to steal physics from me, turn 243
). Then, by the time I needed to purchase space ship parts, I could borrow another ~5000 (even though I was still giving away 140gpt). A couple of turns of improvement could still be made. I could have waited perhaps for one more scientist spawn before building Porcelain and Hubble, but I figured I did not need the extra scientist, though in fact science was close. Then, on turn 246, I had like 15000 beakers of 12000 for particle physics, but did not get the tech, so with better bulbing I might have shaved off one turn.
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