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356 AD
Deity, 7 civs, raging hoards, small map, playing as Americans.
Starting techs: Alphabet, Ceremonial Burial, Code of Laws.
Got off to a late start, didn't found my capitol until 3650BC,
but tipped a hut for Monarchy on the 3rd or 4th turn.
Highlights:
3650 MONARCHY. Washington founded.
3250 REPUBLIC
1400 COPERNICUS
975 COLOSSUS
475 NEWTON's U
1 AD Superhighways
160 Computers
180 Flight
240 Space Flight
260 APOLLO
320 Fusion Power. Launch 15-1-1-1-1-1
356 Arrive AC
The SSC ended up at size16, no ST, 10% lux rate.
Compared to my 396 game this one was 9 turns behind at Superhighways and Flight, 5 turns behind at Space Flight/Apollo and 1 turn behind at Fusion Power, but the ship launched immediately. Part of this milestone lag was illusory, caused by taking a different path through the tech tree (I had Laser before Flight). And the rest was caught up at the end with offshore freight deliveries to a foreign civ. These brought several chances for 2 techs/turn. And a lot of cash, which allowed me to build the 20 piece SS in 3 turns and launch upon getting Fusion Power.
Those endgame freights were great! For the cost of Darwin's Voyage, you get 7 freights and a boat to put 'em in. They can bring in 3 or more free techs and 5000+ cash.
I think I may be done with this early landing stuff for now. I'm sure it's possible to get there a little sooner (with another delivered freight or two, I could have bought more SS components), but this is enough. For those who want to give it a try, here's a couple of general thoughts.
First thing, you're not building a civilization - you're building a research machine and a launch pad. You need to acquire about 70-75 techs (and build a space ship) in 120 or so turns to land on AC before 500AD. So, don't build anything that isn't focused directly on those two goals. After you launch, if you still have cash, supported units, or extraneous city improvements, you've probably overbuilt and cost yourself time.
The style I played was "OCC+". An OCC-type science city with a minimum of helper cities (7 or 8) and a conciliatory, tech-gifting approach to the AI. But whatever style you try (and others may work better), think of the task this way: you have to compress your entire game into a very small number of turns. If your baseline game takes 200 turns from start to launch, you'll need to cut it almost in half. Determine what your milestones are, when you usually achieve them, and then figure out how many turns you'll have in which to reach each one. When I started playing with this, I worked backwards from a target launch date to calculate when I had to be where.
It might be possible to launch in 1 AD on Deity on a random map, but it would be a real squeeze. Maybe with caravan-rehoming and a massive offshore freight run at the end. Maybe. Anyway, I came up 16 turns short.
samson
Deity, 7 civs, raging hoards, small map, playing as Americans.
Starting techs: Alphabet, Ceremonial Burial, Code of Laws.
Got off to a late start, didn't found my capitol until 3650BC,
but tipped a hut for Monarchy on the 3rd or 4th turn.
Highlights:
3650 MONARCHY. Washington founded.
3250 REPUBLIC
1400 COPERNICUS
975 COLOSSUS
475 NEWTON's U
1 AD Superhighways
160 Computers
180 Flight
240 Space Flight
260 APOLLO
320 Fusion Power. Launch 15-1-1-1-1-1
356 Arrive AC
The SSC ended up at size16, no ST, 10% lux rate.
Compared to my 396 game this one was 9 turns behind at Superhighways and Flight, 5 turns behind at Space Flight/Apollo and 1 turn behind at Fusion Power, but the ship launched immediately. Part of this milestone lag was illusory, caused by taking a different path through the tech tree (I had Laser before Flight). And the rest was caught up at the end with offshore freight deliveries to a foreign civ. These brought several chances for 2 techs/turn. And a lot of cash, which allowed me to build the 20 piece SS in 3 turns and launch upon getting Fusion Power.
Those endgame freights were great! For the cost of Darwin's Voyage, you get 7 freights and a boat to put 'em in. They can bring in 3 or more free techs and 5000+ cash.
I think I may be done with this early landing stuff for now. I'm sure it's possible to get there a little sooner (with another delivered freight or two, I could have bought more SS components), but this is enough. For those who want to give it a try, here's a couple of general thoughts.
First thing, you're not building a civilization - you're building a research machine and a launch pad. You need to acquire about 70-75 techs (and build a space ship) in 120 or so turns to land on AC before 500AD. So, don't build anything that isn't focused directly on those two goals. After you launch, if you still have cash, supported units, or extraneous city improvements, you've probably overbuilt and cost yourself time.
The style I played was "OCC+". An OCC-type science city with a minimum of helper cities (7 or 8) and a conciliatory, tech-gifting approach to the AI. But whatever style you try (and others may work better), think of the task this way: you have to compress your entire game into a very small number of turns. If your baseline game takes 200 turns from start to launch, you'll need to cut it almost in half. Determine what your milestones are, when you usually achieve them, and then figure out how many turns you'll have in which to reach each one. When I started playing with this, I worked backwards from a target launch date to calculate when I had to be where.
It might be possible to launch in 1 AD on Deity on a random map, but it would be a real squeeze. Maybe with caravan-rehoming and a massive offshore freight run at the end. Maybe. Anyway, I came up 16 turns short.
samson
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