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: Monarch
Starting Era: Ancient
Map Size: Large
Map Type: Hemispheres
Speed: Normal
Civ: Holy Roman Empire
Opponents: Any
Version: 3.19.001
Date: 10th October to 10th November 2009
Must not play as Inca.
The earliest finish date wins, with score as a tiebreaker.

Anyone thinking of doing this? Large and Normal speed, makes it more difficult than normal Monarch, and I'm barely a Monarch player. Hopefully I'll find the time to give it a try.

What's the difference between continents and hemispheres?

Anyone thinking of doing this?
What's the difference between continents and hemispheres?

I'll probably give it a shot at some stage.

Difference between continents and hemispheres is that you can determine at startup how many continents there are on a hemispheres map (continents has 3 only for large I think).

Anyone thinking of doing this? Large and Normal speed, makes it more difficult than normal Monarch, and I'm barely a Monarch player. Hopefully I'll find the time to give it a try.

What's the difference between continents and hemispheres?

I'm giving it a go. I'm confident it will only take me one try since it is on Monarch level. Large is pushing my computer t othe limits, but I just upgrade RAM so it shouldn't hang up so much in late game.
But as for competitiveness... I doubt I'll make the cut. I haven't tried to take settings to favor fast domination (presumably max opponents to reduce dom limit and hope you start on the big hemishpere). I picked 4 military patsies and left 4 random civs. No map regens. I'm keeping the peace until about knights because there is just so much room to expand without war.
I haven't set myself up to win a gauntlet, but I'm so far having a fun game (equals wonderspamming :lol: ). It will take a while to finish, though. Esp. if I take time out to do the Minor and/or the upcoming BOTM23.

IIRC Hemispheres are always uncontactable pre optics and roughly equal in size.

So if you can choose number of Hemispheres, how many? I was thinking three.

So if you can choose number of Hemispheres, how many? I was thinking three.

I was thinking three as well as you could capture two and have 66% land, easily enough for domination. Two might be all right as well or even five.

Seems like 2 is best. If you get lucky, you won't need astronomy...and you won't need much of the other land mass if any.

Anyone have any tips?

I tried once and every time that I attack one civ it becomes the vassal of a stronger one. When I gave up China had two vassals and I was suffering too much attrition to keep going.

How many cities to build before the first attack? Any must-have wonders? Any must-have techs by a certain date? Low sea level? Any certain opponents better than others?

I'm not a monarchy player any advice would be appreciated!

Snaky Continents for chokepoints.
Max or close to max opponents to lower dom. limit
2 continents
Raging Barbs to slow down AI expansion (leverage your protective)
Peaceful/non-unit spam opponents (Ghandi, Asoka, Fred, Lincoln, Louis, Hatty, Roose, Willem, Mansa, Wang) while avoiding aggressive leaders.
Stone in BFC!!!! Settle on it if you can.
Several plains Ivory in BFC will let you delay Mining/BW, build the GW, rex and get to Writing quickly to recover. Charlie's starting techs suck, but this lets you leverage them a bit.
I have been teching Agri/AH, Masonry, Archery, Wheel, Writing, Mining, BW

EDIT: Raging Barbs slows down the AI, but it might slow down your domination time too. It has been taking me a while to get a rush going. Not so sure that its a good idea now. Given, I havn't finished a game yet...

Thank you sir! It is much appreciated.

This gauntlet seemed so nice and easy when i read it, just perfect for a little game after a few month's break... But somehow i'm really not doing well with it.

I first tried rushing a bit with swordsmen coupled with some axes. Worked ok, until i i hit on washington, who for some reason had been stacking chariots and axeman. And the going with the swordsmen was very slow indeed. Perhaps i could have played on, but i would have had to regroup and rebuild, etc and i wanted a straight run-through victory.

Next game I tried with Horse Archers, which worked pretty well for a while. But teching is so fast and the large map is large indeed. After securing half a hemissphere mansa, lizzy and ghandi had outteched me and i noticed too late that willie could already build elephants. I can probably beat him anyway if i can fight/sneak my way through to his ivory, but lizzy just vassalized another dude and has more pop and land than me, and my cities really aren't all that great. It's 500 AD already and by the time i mopped up my continent it will probably be quite a while. Not cool at all :-/

Is barbs, GW and rexing really the best strategy for this one? To me it seems so wrong for a monarch domination game

Is it allowed to play this game by the leader other than Charlemaine?

Is it allowed to play this game by the leader other than Charlemaine?

Only games using Charlemagne are accepted for this gauntlet.

I ran into vassal problems as well. I will try again without vassals on. Although, it means less land covered when you vassalize an AI with a few islands, it should be better for taking over a continent: You can do one at a time, if need be.

Any submissions yet? This is taking me some time.

Only games using Charlemagne are accepted for this gauntlet.

You should be mean-spirited and pull the "must not play as inca" ban only to force everyone to one civ anyway :lol:.

1700s...45% land...easy win...stupid display driver error freezes my game...:mad:


Anyone know how to fix this?

Any submissions yet? This is taking me some time.

Now that I have a machine that can take it, I will probably be a little more active in HoF again...

Though I probably won't do another one of those "7-10 valid games submitted in one weekend" type deals. I have other commitments too after all :p.

Bugged out!
Achieved domination in 165xAD, but the game didnt grant me victory. Nothing happened, other than the notifications that stated that my land area exceeds the limit.

-yes all victory conditions are enabled.

-yes my population also exceeds the limit.

-yes I did end turn...

-I used max opponents to lower the limit. Is BUFFY calculating it wrong or something?

Any ideas?? It is a pretty long game, I'd hate to lose it this way.

Bugged out!
Achieved domination in 165xAD, but the game didnt grant me victory. Nothing happened, other than the notifications that stated that my land area exceeds the limit.

-yes all victory conditions are enabled.

-yes my population also exceeds the limit.

-yes I did end turn...

-I used max opponents to lower the limit. Is BUFFY calculating it wrong or something?

Any ideas?? It is a pretty long game, I'd hate to lose it this way.Victory screen says you have 51.16%. Maybe you need to exceed the limit and it rounded the fraction down. Try getting a few more tiles. You might have to get at least 51.5%.

AFAIK, BUFFY doesn't mess with the victory determination. I am not sure it is exposed in the SDK.

That is not it. I played some more turns going above 55%, and still nothing.

What about your population? Land and population have to be above the limit.

Can you email us the save turn before victory?

That is not it. I played some more turns going above 55%, and still nothing.Did you uncheck Domination victory? I can't think of anything else but you should have gotten a warning message when you started. You could check your settings screen.

I have had 3 goes at this and stuffed them all up. This might take a while.

Email sent. I cannot myself find any reason it would not work. Although the game itself crashed when on one of my attempts to reload and end turn again.

I have tried 11 times but can't get a good early rush in. Charlemagne is hopeless for getting a good non-violent lead so I can't get a good game going.

I have tried 11 times but can't get a good early rush in. Charlemagne is hopeless for getting a good non-violent lead so I can't get a good game going.

It is probably worth trying an Engineering bee-line and rushing with landskrecht (sp?) and trebuchets, could be pretty effective for Charlemange.

I got bogged down in an industrial age war and its just taking too long and too tedious. I could finish it but... is that really how I want to spend my limited civving time? I will likely abandon it.:sad:

This game is very time consuming. I figure the best game involves an early archer/axe rush, an economic phase, then a landsnecht/trebuchet assault. Part of the problem is getting a couple of other civs on my landmass. I'm thinking massive continents is the way to achieve this. Any other ideas?

Yes, I'd say you'd want to go for the two continent only option, with high sea level, just to limit the amount of area you have to take over.

The inability to use stack attack on BUFFY makes this incredibly tedious...

Any more suggestions on how to tackle this one? I'm struggling.

Any more suggestions on how to tackle this one? I'm struggling.

In my only game that went well enough to finish i basically did what was already suggested here: Massive continents, high sea levels, close to max oponents, early rush (i actually used swordsmen cause i had no copper close enough), and then a science phase to pikemen/knights. With those troops i vassalised my continent and then moved on to the other continent.

I ended up finishing in 1540. It went better than my previous attempts, mainly due to taking a little more time preparing my "rush" and having a more diverse troop makeup (with the new patch the AI really seems to react a lot better to the Player's troops). But there certainly was still very, very, very much room for improving.

The biggest factor for improving would have been luck though: Had my starting continent covered at least 52% of the land mass, i could have perhaps even finished a couple hundred years earlier. But even without such luck, I could have been faster by being a little more decided in my actions.

Still, a fun gauntlet. Warring really seemed very different to what i was used to from previous games.

The biggest factor for improving would have been luck though: Had my starting continent covered at least 52% of the land mass, i could have perhaps even finished a couple hundred years earlier. But even without such luck, I could have been faster by being a little more decided in my actions.

Still, a fun gauntlet. Warring really seemed very different to what i was used to from previous games.

I had that luck... I think my continent was about 50% and there were nearby (galley accessible) islands to make it 52% I'm sure. Too bad I needed 60% to win my game. :lol:

Well, it was interesting (if tedious at times) game to play for me... I seldom get to use all those stealth bombers and missile cruisers and attack subs etc...

It surely would have been faster if I had stuck to my original idea nad made permanent alliance with someone on other hemisphere. But my PA target vassalized an AI on my continent that was in my way. So be it.

What is it with SDI anyhow? Some turns the AI's SDI does almost nothing, other turns it knocks down 8 out of 10 ICBM's. I think I launched 30 or more of them.

One thing I learned is that once nukes are in play it is very bad idea to concentrate troops anywhere. AI do not hesitate to nuke their own land, and even seem to enjoy nuking their vassal's land. :lol: Another thing I learned is that fallout reduces movement rates, which really changes (messes up) battle plans a lot.

Nice modern warfare for a change... but just too damn much on Large map. My finish is not competetive, but there will be no other submission for me (this one attempt including random opponents and no regens - even though I had no metal in my civ - took over 20 hours of play time. 10hrs is a lot for a game, for me).

1964AD domination. I was close to losing to an American spaceship. Without that concern, I could have easily vassilized every other AI (none of them got composites) much faster. Even so... damn those SDI.:mad:

Any more suggestions on how to tackle this one? I'm struggling.

Horse archer rush an entire continent and use your UB to recover.

Looks like my 1540 finish wasn't that bad after all... I made two more tries and ended up taking longer both times.

I'm a bit suprised nobody else beat me though... There are only two submissions so far, is nobody playing the gauntlet?

Looks like my 1540 finish wasn't that bad after all... I made two more tries and ended up taking longer both times.

I'm a bit suprised nobody else beat me though... There are only two submissions so far, is nobody playing the gauntlet?

Five days left. Submissions usually pick up on the last day or two.

I am playing it - but it is taking FOREVER. I may not finish in time.

Aaargh. I was going quite well, then had the unique experience of EVERY single AI delcaring war on me in the same turn! Every one! How on earth could that have happened? Half of them hate each other. How could they have all agreed to take me out at the same time?

It has been over a year since I have done one of these gauntlets, but I figured it was time to give another one a shot. For some reason, I picked this one. It was tedious and it did take FOREVER, but I finally managed to finish with a lackluster 1979 score. I picked only two continents, using "snaky" and high sea levels. Even though I only picked two, the hemisphere map still produced several continents, with only one other civ on my continent, and only one other having coastal access. The other civs were also pretty spread out, which slowed them a bit in terms of tech gain (but Lincoln somehow managed to get to Liberalism much earlier than anybody else, before I even had Paper -- he stayed ahead of me in tech until I built the internet.) So it was quite an effort to get sufficient land mass from different continents, and much of my war mongering had to wait until after I had astronomy.

I started with five gems in my fat cross, plus ivory. I founded my second city on stone and built the great wall there, and also used oracle to get to construction for an early war elephant/catapult assault on my one neighbor. Could have obtained a much earlier finish if I was able to negotiate a permanent alliance, but I did not plan that one out well enough ahead of time, and my pa target ended up declaring war on me even though he was friendly. So I just took him out using advanced armor, stealth bombers, and marines for amphibious assaults (he was a bit spread out over three continents, one of which he colonized into a separate vassal), and finally managed to get enough land.

Aaargh. I was going quite well, then had the unique experience of EVERY single AI delcaring war on me in the same turn! Every one! How on earth could that have happened? Half of them hate each other. How could they have all agreed to take me out at the same time?

Sounds possibly the result of an apostolic palace vote, if you have no city with that religion but all of the ai opponents do?

Horse archer rush an entire continent and use your UB to recover.

This seems to work well. HA rush can kill 2 civs quick. (pre 500AD)
Tech to Engineering and roll over the continent with Lands/Trebs/Knights(upgraded from HA).

A pigs + 2 mining riverside resource start with some other hills/choppage make this much easier. ;)

Would have a submission in by, now, but I screwed up (DoWed Mansa for his shrine city without noticing that he was a vassal to Willem who had also vassalized Louis) in one game and stupidly quit due to beer.
In the next, I had all but one civ in my hemi vassalized circa 1540 and the game "stopped" working. This was on my "other" computer, so I had not fixed the ini file yet. :mad: It is now fixed.

I am going to be pissed if I don't finish this thing. I don't even care about the date anymore.

I'm thinking of a no-vassals HA dow-then-peace abuse, then running a permanent alliance on the other side.

This one was painful. I have temporarily abandoned my first attempt since it was not going to be competitive.

My attempt:
Rush closest neighbor. Settled second city near horses. In prep for chariot rush, I got bronze in capitol bfc. So I made a successful axe/chariot rush. I razed one out of four cities. I should have razed one of the three I kept.

Rush then next neighbor with axes/chariots and a few of my first horse archers. I picked the pyramids on this rush. I razed three cities, kept three and made peace with two cities left.

At this point I am a bit overextended. I do have a lot of workers, and moderate access to food, but not enough to make a good specialist economy boost, so I have a lot of cottages.

My biggest problem: My economy couldn't support keeping all of the cities I captured, and for every bit of destructive progress, the existing civs moved in with new settlers.

If I were to make another attempt (and I won't), I would avoid an early rush (due to Charlamagne's crappy start techs) and go for a treb/landsknect rush. The key would be killing before longbowmen.

It would be interesting if I tried to get an early Liberalism bulb beeline ~500AD to set up an early rifle rush. I would be afraid of not getting enough help from the neighbors in teching to get me there fast enough. The big payoff is you can build/draft a strong army (that may not have an overwhelming number of units) that can support war against your primary target and the vultures trying to grab the scraps left over from my carnage.

Anyway, I have new respect for Charlamagne and the Landsknecht, but I still think he sucks.

Treb + anything is too slow. Gotta go earlier or later IMO.

... in one game and stupidly quit due to beer.

Oh, how many amazing starting locations have been squandered due to the suds! :cheers:

EDIT: So frustrating. Snaky Continets with high seas kept giving me isolated island starts. One maybe two civs per islands. I tried normal, I changed to medium seas....same thing. I had a sweet start with both marble and stone and myself on an island! I had to go to massive continents. Decent start, but I feel that barbs hurts you. You need GW adn by the time you get your axemen or swords your neighbour could have Longbowman. Not good at all. Mansa Musa is horrible for a first takeout b/c of his UU. I don't think the extra civs to bring the dom limit down 4% is worth it.

I won't have time to prove/test this as I am moving to Moscow next week and need to pack and other things. Next one, I could I can do.

Finally!!! VERY slow process (I cannot wait for Buffy v2 where I can use stack attack again), but I got a 1983 win. I had a battery issue for one turn and had to replay a turn, but hopefully it will still be accepted. No way I will medal here, but it is good to have actually finished this thing.

I decided to try this one too. I used a SE again beelining to writing, then BW then alpha. 6 continents and 15 opponents. I ended up with Roosevelt and Gandhi on one really small continent. I had access to ivory and therefore decided to use war elephants. After that go for engineering with the UU being a nice addition to my army. Attacked Roosevelt in 50BC and still have only taken his main in 400AD. I think I can get both but it will result in a slow domination. Playing the BOTM 23 and looking at BOTM 22, attacking from the seas can be very effective and so I hope to be quick later on.

Finally!!! VERY slow process (I cannot wait for Buffy v2 where I can use stack attack again), but I got a 1983 win. I had a battery issue for one turn and had to replay a turn, but hopefully it will still be accepted. No way I will medal here, but it is good to have actually finished this thing.

What's wrong with the stack attack?

I've been using the stack attack and got a 1540 finish as well as some games not much slower than that. Can't figure out why the stack attack would slow you down...

There is a bug in BUFFY that causes a crash when you take a city using stack attack.

There is a bug in BUFFY that causes a crash when you take a city using stack attack.

Guess I was lucky then, hasn't happened to me yet. Though i typically make the last attack with only a single unit anyway.

Oh, and I just submitted another game, hope it's still in time... I was sooooo close to getting a 14xx finish, but damn Bismark pushed the population up so high that i had problems whipping the last settlers needed. And I had to notice that creative leaders are definetly not easy targets late game :-/

Results:

G-Major 61 (http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ4/gauntlet.php?show=major&gauntlet=189) - Domination, Monarch, Large, Normal on Hemispheres with Holy Roman Empire
1st Salomo 1505 AD
2nd phanc 1760 AD
3rd Fluroscent 1808 AD

Congratulations!