http://www.civfanatics.net/methos/hof/staff/gauntlet.gifWhile the general Hall of Fame is an ongoing competition, we like to run time-definite competitions between updates that we call Gauntlets. Standard Hall of Fame rules (*) still apply, but any games meeting the settings will be counted towards the Gauntlet.

(*) Please read the >> HOF rules << (http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ4/rules.php) BEFORE playing!


Settings:

Victory Condition: Domination (though all victory conditions must be enabled)
Difficulty: Settler
Starting Era: Ancient
Map Size: Large
Map Type: Oasis
Speed: Any
Civ: Any
Opponents: Any
Version: 1.74.002, 2.13.002 or 3.13.001
Date: 10th to 25th June 2008
Must not play as Inca.

The earliest finish date wins, with score as a tiebreaker.

Hmm, I remember my last standard size Oasis dom, took a long time. How long is it going to take on large?

On settler, probably not too long ;) Quick speed here we come... or is that ruling me out of contention?

Settler level...there should be a lot of entries this month.

Except that people looking to fill EQM slots are unlikely to need Settler level submissions so might see this gauntlet as not contributing to that objective.

Large Oasis map tiles: ~2850
Required tiles (14 Opponents): 1453 (51%)

So here are the number of required cities to cover this number. "b" means big city (2 cultural expansions), "s" means small city (1 cultural expansion)

required: 1453 (51% of 2850)
b: 0 (0) s: 70 (1470) sum: 1470
b: 1 (37) s: 68 (1428) sum: 1465
b: 2 (74) s: 66 (1386) sum: 1460
b: 3 (111) s: 64 (1344) sum: 1455
b: 4 (148) s: 63 (1323) sum: 1471
b: 5 (185) s: 61 (1281) sum: 1466
b: 6 (222) s: 59 (1239) sum: 1461
b: 7 (259) s: 57 (1197) sum: 1456
b: 8 (296) s: 56 (1176) sum: 1472
b: 9 (333) s: 54 (1134) sum: 1467
b: 10 (370) s: 52 (1092) sum: 1462
b: 11 (407) s: 50 (1050) sum: 1457
b: 12 (444) s: 49 (1029) sum: 1473
b: 13 (481) s: 47 (987) sum: 1468
b: 14 (518) s: 45 (945) sum: 1463
b: 15 (555) s: 43 (903) sum: 1458
b: 16 (592) s: 41 (861) sum: 1453
b: 17 (629) s: 40 (840) sum: 1469
b: 18 (666) s: 38 (798) sum: 1464
b: 19 (703) s: 36 (756) sum: 1459
b: 20 (740) s: 34 (714) sum: 1454
b: 21 (777) s: 33 (693) sum: 1470
b: 22 (814) s: 31 (651) sum: 1465
b: 23 (851) s: 29 (609) sum: 1460
b: 24 (888) s: 27 (567) sum: 1455
b: 25 (925) s: 26 (546) sum: 1471
b: 26 (962) s: 24 (504) sum: 1466
b: 27 (999) s: 22 (462) sum: 1461
b: 28 (1036) s: 20 (420) sum: 1456
b: 29 (1073) s: 19 (399) sum: 1472
b: 30 (1110) s: 17 (357) sum: 1467
b: 31 (1147) s: 15 (315) sum: 1462
b: 32 (1184) s: 13 (273) sum: 1457
b: 33 (1221) s: 12 (252) sum: 1473
b: 34 (1258) s: 10 (210) sum: 1468
b: 35 (1295) s: 8 (168) sum: 1463
b: 36 (1332) s: 6 (126) sum: 1458
b: 37 (1369) s: 4 (84) sum: 1453
b: 38 (1406) s: 3 (63) sum: 1469
b: 39 (1443) s: 1 (21) sum: 1464
b: 40 (1480) s: 0 (0) sum: 1480


Ouch - I cannot believe the "standard" settler-domination strategy will work.:eek:

I started around 10 maps - researched AH first and never got any horses! Is it possible that Oasis has no horses?

I started around 10 maps - researched AH first and never got any horses! Is it possible that Oasis has no horses?In Oasis horses and marble are usually in the North, and the human always starts on south.
But you can warrior rush a northern AI :D

In Oasis horses and marble are usually in the North, and the human always starts on south.
But you can warrior rush a northern AI :DThanks for the hint, I never played Oasis, so I was a little bit confused :crazyeye:

I think if you put yourself as team 2 (making sure you put the first AI as team 1), you start in the north in oasis maps and can get horses (odd teams start south and even teams start north).

I think if you put yourself as team 2 (making sure you put the first AI as team 1), you start in the north in oasis maps and can get horses (odd teams start south and even teams start north).Great suggestion, never tried this, but now i remember to have read something about.
Just a doubt:
@ Someone in Staff
Some problem in doing this for the submissions???

If you can do this, Darius is the only choice.

I've started a game myself, but using WL/Cyrus (Imp/Cha). Even if I was to play BTS, I doubt Darius's traits are superior, since the 50% for settler production bonus is huge.

I think if you put yourself as team 2 (making sure you put the first AI as team 1), you start in the north in oasis maps and can get horses (odd teams start south and even teams start north).
I just tried it several times to play as Team 2 but always appear in the southern part of the map. This theory must be revised ;)

I think if you put yourself as team 2 (making sure you put the first AI as team 1), you start in the north in oasis maps and can get horses (odd teams start south and even teams start north).

Great suggestion, never tried this, but now i remember to have read something about.
Just a doubt:
@ Someone in Staff
Some problem in doing this for the submissions???
I don't know off the top of my head. But it very well could be a problem for a lot of things, not just submissions. Some of the mods in the HOF Mod assume you are Player #1. I would recommend sticking with Team #1/Player #1.

I think if you put yourself as team 2 (making sure you put the first AI as team 1), you start in the north in oasis maps and can get horses (odd teams start south and even teams start north).

Great suggestion, never tried this, but now i remember to have read something about.
Just a doubt:
@ Someone in Staff
Some problem in doing this for the submissions???

If you can do this, Darius is the only choice.

I don't know off the top of my head. But it very well could be a problem for a lot of things, not just submissions. Some of the mods in the HOF Mod assume you are Player #1. I would recommend sticking with Team #1/Player #1.

G-minor 18 was a long time ago, but back then it seems to have been okay:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=5433920#post5433920

*disclaimer: I've never tried it myself.*

I'm not trying this. Here is the complete description of Oasis map from Sirian's Map Info Reference.


=====
Oasis
=====

Regional Map: No world wrap
Land-Heavy Map: 52 plots wide, 32 plots tall, at "Standard" map size
Neutral Zone: Nobody ever starts in the desert region in the middle of the map.
Teams Alternate: Lowest team number starts in the south, next in the north, etc.
Assymetrical: The south gets more arable land but fewer resources.
Nile-Style Rivers: There are always four rivers, running randomly from south to north.

Resources Anywhere: Cow, Coal, Copper, Uranium
Southern Resources: Dye, Fur, Gems, Silk (rare!), Sugar, Banana, Deer, Pig, Rice
Northern Resources: Horses, Marble, Fur, Silver, Spices, Wine, Sheep, Wheat, and seafoods.
Oasis-Region: Aluminum, Corn (abundant!), Iron, Oil, Stone, Gold, Incense, Ivory

In Single Player: You will always start in the south, unless you use the Advanced options
and swap your team number with the first AI listed (or similar action).

Great suggestion, never tried this, but now i remember to have read something about.
Just a doubt:
@ Someone in Staff
Some problem in doing this for the submissions???

If you can do this, Darius is the only choice.

... and having horses is not really important here - if you choose Marathon speed you can easily warrior-rush your 4-5 neighbors...

I don't know if i have time for this, i'm discussing just to contribute and maybe learn something.
But i guess Maya can be a good choice: financial, expansive and a UU with no resources, just research BW. And you need less units than for a warrior rush.

In the game I started (not sure if I'll have the patience to finish it), I was able to pop like 3 settlers and 2 workers while researching AH. I sent a pair of these north (downstream "my" Nile) so I was able to connect horses quickly. Half dozen immortals south and another pack north should be enough to clear the land. Then chop/move/plop some 60 settlers, in addition to the initial/conquered cities. :sleep:

I just submitted my 1st try - it's really tough to get all the required cities up. I built/conquered 14 cities and produces 56 settlers ... and spent 2 hours planning the city spots. A really hard work for a minor gauntlet

Do vassals help meet the land/pop requirements for a domination, or only your cities? What about permanent allies?

Do vassals help meet the land/pop requirements for a domination, or only your cities? What about permanent allies?I believe that vassal count 50% and permanent allies 100%.

I believe that vassal count 50% and permanent allies 100%.
If you target a good victory date, don't even start thinking about vassals or perm-allies ;)
You should focus on some very early conquest, research only the absolute minimum and after that non-stop settlers. Look at my post above for the number of required cities ...

What a long tedious game.

I was able to accomplish a domination before 1200 AD. I know it can be done faster, but I'm not sure that I have the patients to try again.

Patients? Are you a doctor?

Not sure where I'll stand but I endured the boredom and finished my game - before 1200BC.

Patients? Are you a doctor?

No...are you an English teacher?

I played Catherine (Imp/Cre) on marathon. Researched bronze working and iron working. Sent out all scouts popped along with a couple warriors. Killed and raze all but one opponent and one holy city by 500 BC. Built Stonehenge (for the free monuments) in the holy city. Then built settlers until 100 BC and parked them. Then I sent out about 30 settlers and plopped down a bunch of cities. This got me to about 40% land ( already had the pop). Then I built settlers in all the cities and plopped as I built them. I finished in 190 AD. and was losing 500 gold a turn. This didn't matter because I didn't need to research anything and Joao was friendly (settlers don't disband).

I think I could have done better if I had bronze in my borders and didn't have to find iron to roll all the AI but alas those 2 hours won't likely be done again. Time to move on to the Deity level Major Gauntlet.

(settlers don't disband).

Really? Pretty sure this isn't true in Vanilla, at least at some higher difficulty level. I wonder if this is a Warlords/BTS thing or a settler-level thing...

Really? Pretty sure this isn't true in Vanilla, at least at some higher difficulty level. I wonder if this is a Warlords/BTS thing or a settler-level thing...

At least they didn't in my game. Once I settled my first 30 cities, my economy tanked completely and by the end I was at -500 per turn but still happily building new cities to drag down the economy even more.

I'm not trying this. Here is the complete description of Oasis map from Sirian's Map Info Reference.

=====
Oasis
=====

Regional Map: No world wrap
Land-Heavy Map: 52 plots wide, 32 plots tall, at "Standard" map size
Neutral Zone: Nobody ever starts in the desert region in the middle of the map.
Teams Alternate: Lowest team number starts in the south, next in the north, etc.
Assymetrical: The south gets more arable land but fewer resources.
Nile-Style Rivers: There are always four rivers, running randomly from south to north.

Resources Anywhere: Cow, Coal, Copper, Uranium
Southern Resources: Dye, Fur, Gems, Silk (rare!), Sugar, Banana, Deer, Pig, Rice
Northern Resources: Horses, Marble, Fur, Silver, Spices, Wine, Sheep, Wheat, and seafoods.
Oasis-Region: Aluminum, Corn (abundant!), Iron, Oil, Stone, Gold, Incense, Ivory

In Single Player: You will always start in the south, unless you use the Advanced options
and swap your team number with the first AI listed (or similar action).


I tried several games now with 2 different setups. The 1st setup I switched the team number with 2nd team and in the 2nd setup I switched the team with team 8. In both setups I always start in the south, and sometimes near the middle. So getting a city in the middle is the best you can achieve.

I therefore changed my research path from AH-Bronze to Bronze-AH building some warriors and upgrade them to Axes (money from huts).

At least they didn't in my game. Once I settled my first 30 cities, my economy tanked completely and by the end I was at -500 per turn but still happily building new cities to drag down the economy even more.

Which version did you play??

I was doing warlords and my settlers were disbanded the turn after they were built :\

First there was 1 military unit per turn disbanded, then 2-3, and then workers started going and after a while (at -150 gold/turn and 0 gold) I lost up to 4 settlers a turn.

I will not be able to finish that game and I only reached 20% landmass

The settlers did not disband in BTS.

Finished in 1510 BC

I dont think you actaully have to kill the AI players... 50-100 gold for razing thier city is OK i guess but for real, my only remaining AI had 2 cities when I finished 60% land domination. If you keep more AI players domination threshold will be lower and win will be faster. Risk is that someone will attack you I guess, but its not like its going to be a struggle for land

The settlers did not disband in BTS.

Finished in 1510 BC

I dont think you actaully have to kill the AI players... 50-100 gold for razing thier city is OK i guess but for real, my only remaining AI had 2 cities when I finished 60% land domination. If you keep more AI players domination threshold will be lower and win will be faster. Risk is that someone will attack you I guess, but its not like its going to be a struggle for landOuch - nice victory date, I think I give this gauntlet one more try, even if 1510 is really hard to beat ...

The settlers did not disband in BTS.

Finished in 1510 BC

I dont think you actaully have to kill the AI players... 50-100 gold for razing thier city is OK i guess but for real, my only remaining AI had 2 cities when I finished 60% land domination. If you keep more AI players domination threshold will be lower and win will be faster. Risk is that someone will attack you I guess, but its not like its going to be a struggle for land

Actually, that is not true. Adding more players via colonies (which is impossible on Oasis maps because it is all one continent) will decrease the threshold. Having more players in the initial setup will also decrease the threshold. As you eliminate players through conquest, the threshole does not go up. I made this mistaken assumption in my first game and played very poorly (time wise) for it. I decided to start over and watched the values in the victory screen. No matter how many AI players I eliminated, the land requirement remained 51% with 14 AI opponents.

Actually, that is not true. Adding more players via colonies (which is impossible on Oasis maps because it is all one continent) will decrease the threshold. Having more players in the initial setup will also decrease the threshold. As you eliminate players through conquest, the threshole does not go up. I made this mistaken assumption in my first game and played very poorly (time wise) for it. I decided to start over and watched the values in the victory screen. No matter how many AI players I eliminated, the land requirement remained 51% with 14 AI opponents.This is correct, this behaviour haven't changed since the release of civ4 (as far as I remember ;))

Ohh.. I started out with 14 AI and saw 51% and when I played my winning game I had 8 AI (of which I killed 7) and I observed 60%. I simply assumed that this was because I killed off the competition

Well since the your expansion willl be exponential I dont think it is that important, 51%-> 60% is only about 10-15 turns maybe. However, not killing off the AIs may save some "production" which can be turned into population increase (by working food) or similar to accelerate your expansion. The AI is so pisspoor on settler and I wonder if they will ever get aggressive enough to declare war.
If alphabet is reserached and you give the AI techs then you get a free +4 relation bonus as well

Sometimes you can get an island up at the top of the Oasis maps. I remember once going for a conquest or something and discovering HC up on a little island. I conquered eventually with culture bombs. So, if you are lucky enough to find you have an island, settle it and make it a colony. I actually had an island on try, but didn't do this!!! It was before I played with max opponents though.

Do you need vassalage or something to create colonies?

My first effort was a monumental waste of time. I quit after 1500, with lots to go. Probably spent way too much time building culture items, I guess.

Going to give it another go, but I gotta ask......190AD, on Marathon, in 2 hours? Where do I sign up for that? I don't think I've even played a Civ game, of any kind, that took me less than 10 hours. I always hear about 2 hour games, and wonder what I'm missing. Regardless, 190AD? Is that even approachable?

My first effort was a monumental waste of time. I quit after 1500, with lots to go. Probably spent way too much time building culture items, I guess.

Going to give it another go, but I gotta ask......190AD, on Marathon, in 2 hours? Where do I sign up for that? I don't think I've even played a Civ game, of any kind, that took me less than 10 hours. I always hear about 2 hour games, and wonder what I'm missing. Regardless, 190AD? Is that even approachable?

Some hints for a good finish :
- research: Bronze(chop),AH(chariots),Myst(Stonehenge). If you think you need it add Masonry(Stone), Fishing(WB). That's it - research to 0% then.
- Try to get a good result from the 1st hut (worker, settler)
- Warrior rush your nearest neighbors
- As soon as you have Bronze, connect Copper and build/upgrade some Axes and conquer some neighbors
- in new cities produce Worker,Settler,Settler,........ and use the worker to chop like crazy.
- stop founding cities as soon as you go into gold deficit. Save the settlers for your final expansion step.
- final expansion step: Move all your produced settlers to their final destination and build all cities in the same turn. With around 10 conquered capitals you need around 45 additional cities to reach the 51% land area.
- final hint: try to optimize and adjust the above hints:D

I am currently at 2nd place with a 1470BC finish using this strategy

Finished, but I really suck at rush games like this. Much to learn. But, oh well, got lots of Quatro categories out of the way.

1505 AD! But, it was kind of fun, I thought, mixing land grab with military might.

Here's hoping I'm not in last place.

Finished, but I really suck at rush games like this. Much to learn. But, oh well, got lots of Quatro categories out of the way.

1505 AD! But, it was kind of fun, I thought, mixing land grab with military might.

Here's hoping I'm not in last place.
You can check your current place at the Minor-Gauntlet Page and if your last - you ARE last ;)

You can check your current place at the Minor-Gauntlet Page and if your last - you ARE last ;)

But, unless I'm mistaken, you cannot see the current active standings unless you have an accepted game? Soon, I hope.

I am extremely curious as to how a pre-1000BC game is possible. How many cities are producing these settlers? From the tips from HHG above, it would appear that they are size 1 maybe, size 2 cities. Building worker and then pumping out settlers does not seem right. Would not a size 3-5 city be a better settler producer?

My latest attempts have gotten earlier, but my luck with huts and warrior rushes has not. Back when I was finishing with AD games, I could take out all but 2-4 civs. Now, I am lucky if I can find 2-3 civs before they build their first warrior. You need roughly 3-1 numbers for a warrior on a hill, so how are people conquering a city and build worker, settler, and so on without the help of more troops.

Finally, once I have taken out around 6-7 AIs, my economy is already tanking and I have to take a city for money and go into anarchy to prevent the dissolving of troops just to make sure they get to the next city in time.

Is there another factor that I am leaving out? I assume the top 3-4 peoople have been playing as Catherine, but I am tempted to Genghis Khan a try.

I'm currently 3rd with 12xxBC. In my only real attempt played Cyrus (warlords). If I was to replay it (I won't), there is only 1 thing I'd do differently. My workers would do nothing but chop trees. No point build mines or connecting resources as I did before. And I'd consider João for the settler and worker production bonus.

But, unless I'm mistaken, you cannot see the current active standings unless you have an accepted game? Soon, I hope.
Right - the game must be accepted, but my experience shows that the HoF staff is really fast :goodjob: ....

I am extremely curious as to how a pre-1000BC game is possible. How many cities are producing these settlers? From the tips from HHG above, it would appear that they are size 1 maybe, size 2 cities. Building worker and then pumping out settlers does not seem right. Would not a size 3-5 city be a better settler producer?

My latest attempts have gotten earlier, but my luck with huts and warrior rushes has not. Back when I was finishing with AD games, I could take out all but 2-4 civs. Now, I am lucky if I can find 2-3 civs before they build their first warrior. You need roughly 3-1 numbers for a warrior on a hill, so how are people conquering a city and build worker, settler, and so on without the help of more troops.

Finally, once I have taken out around 6-7 AIs, my economy is already tanking and I have to take a city for money and go into anarchy to prevent the dissolving of troops just to make sure they get to the next city in time.

Is there another factor that I am leaving out? I assume the top 3-4 peoople have been playing as Catherine, but I am tempted to Genghis Khan a try.

I think I should give some detailed info about my 1470AD finish.

- nearly all of my cities are size 1 (to keep upkeep low)
- I just build cities with settlers I got from huts
- I used initial hut-settlers to explore the middle territory and pop more huts
- with hut-settler-cities and conquests I have around 14 cities; most size 1, captital and some conquered cities size 2
- I built settlers everywhere!!! Most workers are chopping like crazy. Some are building roads to get the final settlers to the positions faster.
- I used the drawing tool to mark city spots and placed the produced settlers at spots from where they could reach the destination spot in 1-3 turns.
- With 14 initial cities (2 expansions) you need 44-45 additional one-turn cities (1 expansion) to reach the domination limit
- I moved the 45 final settlers to their destination and founded all cities at once. This is necessary to avoid loss of settlers through the huge finance deficit which appears immediately.

So again, forget what you have learned for other games. You will not be attacked! You don't need health or happiness. You only need settlers. So focus only on this task!

I see my mistakes, playing a quasi-normal game. I didn't even pick a good civ, with a warrior, instead of explorer. So, I took out no one early on. But, my main goal was Quatro pickoffs, so no biggie.

Now, I'm more frustrated with trying a Normal speed culture game I spent all day on yesterday, only to be reminded that legendary culture in those games is 50,000. Ouch. Boy, the game sure could detail that somewhere.

I almost took that last place, there.

starting warrior instead of scout....D'oh!!!

I will try another

I'm currently 3rd with 12xxBC. In my only real attempt played Cyrus (warlords). If I was to replay it (I won't), there is only 1 thing I'd do differently. My workers would do nothing but chop trees. No point build mines or connecting resources as I did before. And I'd consider João for the settler and worker production bonus.

You had workers?

starting warrior instead of scout....D'oh!!!

I will try another
I tried using a warrior too. I switched back to Cathy then because
- a warrior is too slow to get some huts (settler, worker, tech, warrior)
- capital on plain-hills + forested plain-hill gives you a warrior in 6 turns
if you know your nearest opponent (thx to the scout) this warrior can
directly move in the correct direction
- to get a fast victory you need huts, huts and more huts ;)

You had workers? Didn't you? :confused:

I got accepted and am 11th. Never having looked at this before, am I doing this right? It only shows my score, no one elses.....

And, it shows a 12th spot. Maybe I'm not in last!

I got accepted and am 11th. Never having looked at this before, am I doing this right? It only shows my score, no one elses.....

And, it shows a 12th spot. Maybe I'm not in last!

correct analysis - 12 different submissions and you are 11th :goodjob: - and you cannot see who are the others :(

Wonder who is first :) I got knocked off my 1st place a few days back.
Maybe Ill replay to try to take it back

Wonder who is first :) I got knocked off my 1st place a few days back.
Maybe Ill replay to try to take it backYes - and I am now 3rd ...

ah, so my 5th place is pretty respectable still. :)

HHG, I agree with Cathy. I tried as Joao and had a decent game, but you need the extra culture in each city I find. Khmer might be one to try.

In one game I got Monarchy from a hut and used the Oracle to get Feudalism. With enough cities, Gandhi asks to be your vassal. I have been thinking about a gambit to use the Oracle for Mathematics. You could build the Hanging Gardens and get +1 population. That would certainly help in settler production, but it's a lot to have to research Mysticism, Priesthood, Meditation, Masonry, BW, Math and Writing. Goody huts, might make this doable.

Wonder who is first :) I got knocked off my 1st place a few days back.
Maybe Ill replay to try to take it back

That was me. Didn't quite finish in the 1700's BC - could have though except I forgot where a few settlers were that I was storing so I founded their cities a little bit late.

This was my 3rd go at the gauntlet. First was in the 700's BC, then in the 1100's and finally a 1600's BC finish. Used Darius for the 700's and Cathy for the other 2.

Everyone else's comments pretty much sum up what I did as well:

-got lucky with a number of early settlers.
-researched BW first. Didn't bother warrior rushing since most games I started with it I ended up razing their capitals. I waited instead for axemen.
-Stopped settling after awhile (15-20 cities) and just stockpiled settlers.
-make sure to get mathematics for the chopping bonus - makes things move much faster.
-once I hit mathematics, turned science to 0 and founded until I was negative. I peaked this game with over 1000 or so gold in the coffers I think that ended up running out the turn before I settled the last bomb of settlers.
-settle cities in the south for access to choppable forest.

My 1100 BC start would have been a similar time except I forgot that I only used the minimum opponents on that map so when I bombed the cities to get to 51% of land area, I actually still needed to get to 60%. DOH!

Ah, interesting. Waiting for Math in my gambit is starting to make more sense. I had a pretty good start this last game, but mucked it up when my 4 warriors couldn't take out Napoleons 2. Well, they did, but as I waited for the next turn to take out their scout, 2 more came out of nowhere. Axe rushing is likely better than a warrior rush. If you hit them without archers, it's guaranteed, unlike the low odds I gamble with on a warrior rush. Okay, back to the drawing board, but going from 200 AD to 3xx BC to 560 BC to my latest of 880BC is promising. Thanks to everyone for sharing their tricks!

ah, so my 5th place is pretty respectable still. :)

HHG, I agree with Cathy. I tried as Joao and had a decent game, but you need the extra culture in each city I find. Khmer might be one to try.

In one game I got Monarchy from a hut and used the Oracle to get Feudalism. With enough cities, Gandhi asks to be your vassal. I have been thinking about a gambit to use the Oracle for Mathematics. You could build the Hanging Gardens and get +1 population. That would certainly help in settler production, but it's a lot to have to research Mysticism, Priesthood, Meditation, Masonry, BW, Math and Writing. Goody huts, might make this doable.

I tried Khmer, as I thought the UU is very nice to conquer fast, but my 1st decent try with Cathy reveals, that you really need this culture. Together with Stonehenge you can shave off a lot of turns in the final settling phase. And don't neglect the settler-building-advantage of Cathy ;)

Ah, interesting. Waiting for Math in my gambit is starting to make more sense. I had a pretty good start this last game, but mucked it up when my 4 warriors couldn't take out Napoleons 2. Well, they did, but as I waited for the next turn to take out their scout, 2 more came out of nowhere. Axe rushing is likely better than a warrior rush. If you hit them without archers, it's guaranteed, unlike the low odds I gamble with on a warrior rush. Okay, back to the drawing board, but going from 200 AD to 3xx BC to 560 BC to my latest of 880BC is promising. Thanks to everyone for sharing their tricks!If you are really fast (1st warrior in 6 turns, 2nd in 12) you can take out 2-4 immediate neighbors with you warriors. Then upgrade them to axeman and take on the others til you are nearly in debts. This works fine for all of my tries.

I just had my best game. I shaved off another 300 years or so. I rushed with warriors for the unguarded cities. Upgrading to axemen was alright, but hurt the research. I got a few more cities after that. The only problem was those damn Germans had archery and I couldn't take them, that would have been another great settler producer. This was the aggravating part though: My CR2 Axeman on Germany's doorstep, their PH city with an archer and warrior, were disbanded, while my scouts and axemen on the way weren't!! Why does the AI, not prioritize this?!?! Hell, I went around disbanding other units and going into anarchy to give them the time, the one move needed to get into attack position. AAARRGGHHHH!! At least Freddy will except peace after a backstab pretty easily.

I make a few mistakes, as always. When I made the switch to settling, I missed a few. And of course, some stupid cities keep producing the worker from in the queue or whatever only to be disbanded. Oh well, I got Math and had pretty good GH luck. I founded some cities in the North next to the AI, hoping I could culture flip them, but I should have moved over to get the whole BFC of culture. I really though I had a shot at the 4th spot, but I am happy with this 5th place. I just hope it holds! :mischief:

This has been a great Gauntlet to play while recovering from my tonsillectomy. I don't know what the next ones will be, but you guys might not see me for a while, come July. I am moving from Brazil back to Canada, but with a 10 month traveling detour. So enjoy the guantlets everyone and thanks for all your help. I hope to be playing again in April or so! Cheers!:goodjob:

This Gauntlet is complete. Results:

1st Taian 1620 BC
2nd ssjos 1510 BC
3rd HolyHandGrenade 1470 BC

Congratulations to the winners!

This Gauntlet is complete. Results:

1st Taian 1620 BC
2nd ssjos 1510 BC
3rd HolyHandGrenade 1470 BC

Congratulations to the winners!1620 is amazing :goodjob: I bow down before you :king:

He beat CaptKickButt by one turn! But yes, very impressive!

He beat CaptKickButt by one turn! But yes, very impressive!

I think its alot easier to do on another map type than oasis as well so the actual acheivment was probably alot harder than the last HOF score

Yes, very true. I noticed that before. He did it on GP. It seems GP maps are the best for any resulting game. I wonder why that is?


EDIT: One other thing I forgot to ask above. Were people pre-chopping and then wait for Mathematics or a GA to help boost the settler output? I started to, but with so many cities and workers, it became too hectic to keep track. I suppose that makes a difference.