Winning early (science).

[Chee]

Whilst I can win pretty much every time at Emperor level, I would like to know how people manage to win by science victory so early?

It usually takes me until sometime in the 300's but I see people in the GOTM's launching around turn 250 (sometimes earlier).

I build all the science buildings and wonders, run the science specialists, spam research agreements etc.

If I go to war, I puppet everything and usually run with about 4-5 of my own cities.

 

[Mesix]

The key is saving up GS and bulbing the last several techs at the end of the game. It is kind of a broken game mechanic, but that is how the fastest times are achieved.

 

[Tabarnak]

Starting RAs around turn 80-85 is necessary for sub 210 turns with an excellent managing of medians. With more tweaked settings for very fast science victories(like sub 190-195 games) an emperor+ pangea map with a rich land around is needed.

Video from DaveMcW : fastest recorded science victory game

The fastest of all from last official patch come from the great khrax. He has done a 186 turn game at emperor level on a great plains map from a recent HoF competiton(gauntlet) game(i personnally got 196 on these settings, my best time so far).

Edit : Found a better one from him. Terra, prince, napoleon. Standard HoF game(not a gauntlet). turn 182-183???

 

[chazzycat]

- get universitities up & running ASAP. I'm guessing you are already following Mesix's advice but it's important to get that engine running early as possible. after opening rationalism open freedom to boost GS birth rates, and try to build gardens/national epic asap.
- extreme fine tuning of RAs - know exactly when they will complete, carefully manipulate the median to get max results, etc.
- learn the early timing so your 2nd policy choice after liberty can be rationalism
- learn the late timing for scientific revolution/oxford/Apollo/spaceship parts/etc.

I am not as good as Dave or Tabarnak but can pretty regularly get around turn 240-260 spaceship launches with good undestanding of these 4 things. Otherwise it's just surviving the inevitable wars.

playing as babylon or korea will also help a lot, but is not necessary to win in that timeframe.