I really liked this scenario. I will need to be faster to go through the era if I want to be on the podium ^^.
Ekareya Space Race Turn 44.ctr

Japanese Turn 32 Eka Space Race.ctr


Just in time =).

Thank you =)
Reloading save seems to somehow mess up the action of the AI. It doesn't do the same move weither you pass the turn, or load the autosave. So the near-constant reloading to optimize might have somehow screw the AI.

I think you are misreading the population graph by one turn. I didn't have a higher population than you & komodo on turn 3. And I manage to get to 26 on turn 4. So it was mostly a manner of trying different combination of anomaly. Anomaly pop randomly based on where your units are. so just changing a unit by one tile give you a different set. So for each turn, I reloaded a few time, and selected the one I felt was the most advantageous. (here is the save with the anomaly I choosed at the begining of turn 3: Nomadic Tribe Turn 3 10 pop to 25.ctr)

During the run, I was actually worried about red, because it didn't settle as soon as it should have, so less opportunities to get kill for the military star. In the end I had to let the north island be and unexplored until turn 19/20 in order to force neutrals to spawn.

I choose Zhou for the +10 stability per territories, and the awesome science because lot of mountain on the map, the average of my confucian school was a bit under +15 science. I delayed entering Era II to get two more in. It was basically a Zeus Statue but with way better science. going with the Zhou also allowed me to get the food bonus in neolithic instead of the science one.

For Era II I choose the Greek to get to feudalism asap (Had it on turn 12), to get the free buildings for the three latest cities. I didn't go with the Achaemid for the +2 city cap, as for me two territories cities are almost equivalent to two single territories cities. but are easier to manage. and it cost you less influence

For Era III, I went with the Khmers, but I don't feel like It was that good and I didn't get much from it. I also might have lost a turn on science compare to going with the Umayyads, as during the last turn of Khmer, I was researching stuff that I didn't need/used. I also make sure to spend as little time as possible on this era.

For Era IV & V, Joseon and French were a no-brainer, From this era it was a direct course to rocket sciencen, you need to have access to era V Tech asap, as there is only one tech to research in Era IV (moveable typeface). I only research luxury manufacture at the end, the fame and stability bonus is very good, but you lose too much time.

And for the last Era, It was Japanese, the 20%bonus allowed me to get research institute one turn earlier, so I could have uranium on time for the mars project

Concerning the wonder, I think I should have built the Mausoleum. And I stole the Zeus statue from the AI in the end.
By doing that, and going with umayyad, I think you could go as low as turn 30. Maybe by going to Era I on turn 3 instead of 4, you could save an other turn, but I have high doubt about it, as the population gain that can occurs during Turn 4 is very good.