A Very Difficult Situation--HELP!

[nikonratm]

Ok. It's 2038 and all I need to do is put one piece on my Ship to win the Space Race, only problem is, I don't have laser yet. So, If I push Science rate all the way up (I can afford it) I can get it done in 6 turns. So now its 2044, last problem is that the city with the lowest number of turns requires 17 to build it. So I've tried it all, ALL. I made every city square mined, I built (bought) a plant in one turn, I just can't get it in time! Anyone know the best way to get it off in time?
Thanks

[Sean]

1)Why don't you start building a wonder in said city (or large city improvement). Then when you get the tech, you are immediately ready to change over to the ship item, with an effective production bonus.

2) It might be worth switching to democracy, if you are not already there, and if it can be done very quickly.

3) To research the tech quicker, turn people in other cities into specialist scientists. Thus allowing earlier production of the item.

[sugar daddy]

use plenty of specialists to increae research and go to war and get a GL. Its a gamble but the GL can rush the last SS part when you get the tech, and even if the whole world goes up in flames, you'll be safely on your way to Alpha Centauri

[vulture]

17 turns for the planetary party lounge? Presumably you've modded the cost of it then, since it's normally 160 shields... Are you already using all 21 squares around your best production city? If not, add workers to that city to bump it up to size 20. If other cities overlap then stop them working the squares that your main city can use. Prebuild something until you can change to producing the party lounge (palace is the best bet, unless you are in a city that can't build the palace). If this city has some corruption, an extreme solution can be to disband cities that are closer to the FP or palace than this one so as to reduce it's corruption due to number of cities (although this might well stop you researching the tech fast enough, in which case it should be avoided).

If you have a size 20 city using all 21 squares and everything optimised for production, then there's not much else you can do. As sugar daddy says, in that case trying to get a great leader may be your best bet, which is generally quite easy with you have a large number of modern armour lying around the place.

If you can do a prebuild, then it doesn't really matter when you get the tech, as long as you don't finish building the prebuild before that happens. E.g. you start building a solar plant (the most expensive thing assuming there are no spare wonders you can build, and you've built a nuclear plant already). Suppose this takes 10 turns (unrealistic example). Then it doesn't matter if you get the laser tech in 4 turns or 9, since when you switch to building the party lounge it will be as though you've been building that from the start.

[FrustratedPoet]

Convert as many citizens as possible in all your other cities into Scientists until you can research The Laser in 4 turns. This should be possible since all other considerations (city happiness, city production) are unnecessary for all your cities apart from the one you want to build the SS part.

Max out production in your target city. Sounds like you've already done this, but just make sure the city is using every tile in its radius (join workers to boost it if neeeded).

Start a pre-build straight away in your target city. This will give you much-needed production bonus. Just make sure you will finish research on The Laser before you complete the pre-build.

When you have researched The Laser start producing it in your target city.

Change you tax rate to 100% after research is over ... this will give you a lot of money so that you can try and hurry the production in the last turn if you have to.

Attack the weakest and nearest enemy Civ with every offensive unit you've got (the Elite ones take priority). If you are lucky you will create a Great Leader and your problems will be solved. You don't have to worry about being sucked into a long war or getting your army killed because the game will only last a max of 12 turns anyway.

Hope this helps.