Buccaneers: Seafaring; 2 cities
Privateers: 2 cities
Spain: Catholicism; 2 cities
England: Political Ambition, Protestantism; 2 cities
France: Political Ambition, Catholicism; 2 cities
Netherlands: Protestantism; 2 cities
Portugal: Seafaring, Catholicism; 2 cities
America: 2 cities
 

SCENARIO SETTINGS

-all civs start with the same land area and resources

-strict shallow water rules: Deep draft vessels can only enter cities with  deepwater ports. Deep draft vessels cannot travel in coastal waters.

-no plagues

-barbarians: roaming

-cultural conversions are allowed

-map trading not allowed

-length: 540 turns in 540 years

-Victory conditions: you need 225,000 victory points or 125,000 culture points to win outright. You can also win by destroying all your opponents or by controlling 61% of the terrain and population.  You receive the most victory points by capturing cities. In this scenario, gold does not earn victory points. Because you are going for a win based on victory points, population size, territory size, and military strength are not the most important factors. Concentrate on activities that generate victory points.


IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS

Half of the deepwater squares are still undiscovered. They are unmarked but functional if you find them. Finding unmarked deepwater is especially important in this scenario.

Gold earns no victory points.  However, gold is important to your economy because each unit of gold brought to your capitol adds 200 gold to your treasury.

Exploration is important in this scenario. Map trading is not allowed so you need to explore in order to discover new terrain. There are several very rich islands that can help boost your economy in the mid-to-late game.

A conquest victory (destroying all opponents) will be difficult unless you are playing one of the pirate civs. Only the pirates have amphibious attack.  Some of the civs will colonize islands with only 1 land square (so there is no place to land invading troops).

This scenario is especially good for players who avoid early conflict and enjoying building up their civilization.  All civs are separated by water so land invasion will usually only happen in the mid-to-late game.

Don't ignore diplomacy.  It is a very important part of this scenario and vital to your success.