might be partly you popping huts in the wrong order
. but i think it was more fred popping huts in exactly the wrong order (for you)! those dates are just unreal.
in my game, i wanted only 1 of the first 3 -- you said in your report "I am actually hurting more from health than money" i knew darn well i'd be hating the lack of grocers for health! so i waited around for somebody to get hinduism and judaism, to try to avoid double holy cities. nappy founded those 2 in my game, and that's not bizarre behavior for him. i have no evidence to officially to point to about their behavior of course, just going by my sense of playing against them.
but in my game, nappy got hinduism in 2480, and judaism in 1720. in yours, 3400 and 2000! 3400 BC is only 15 turns into the game at normal speed. 2480 might not
sound much later but it is, it's turn #38.
you got me curious. so just now i went back to the starting save, gave myself a spy in berlin, gave myself alphabet so i could see his techs, and currency to see if his huts gave him money
, and i watched him. i teched agriculture first, like you did, and then went to meditation. i didn't pop any huts myself, i just sat in my capital, and his capital, and i added a scout of my own following his scout. his scout popped another scout, i didn't follow that one, i just tracked his progress by F4.
well, he fairly predictably went to archery, since he started with hunting. we passed by paris so we met nappy, and then i could see nappy's techs and gold. nappy never did get any gold from huts, poor guy. he offered to trade me hunting for myst, but i said no. then cathy came by, so we met her. and because i knew alphabet i found out that cathy knew mysticism
! and in this alternate universe, while i was researching meditation, she beat me to it by two turns. buddhism FIADL in 3480 BC
.
the RNG moves in mysterious ways!