G-Minor 120

[img=right]http://www.civfanatics.net/methos/hof/staff/gauntlet.gif[/img]While 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.


Settings:

• Victory Condition: Domination (though all victory conditions must be enabled)
• Difficulty: Warlord
• Starting Era: Ancient
• Map Size: Standard
• Map Type: Any
• Speed: Normal
• Civ: Any
• Opponents: Any
• Version: 3.19.003
• Date: 10th to 25th May 2011

Must not play as Inca.
The earliest finish date wins, with score as a tiebreaker.

Hatty seems like the obvious choice here. However, I'm wondering if Cathy is better. You lose the extra strength of the war chariot but gain settler production. At warlords, we may be able to get by with regular chariots. Settler spam speed might make the difference?

The-Hawk said:

Hatty seems like the obvious choice here. However, I'm wondering if Cathy is better. You lose the extra strength of the war chariot but gain settler production. At warlords, we may be able to get by with regular chariots. Settler spam speed might make the difference?

Click to expand...

I would agree with Catherine for her Imperialistic boosted Settler production. Her Creative trait is also good for the free +2 Culture per turn in every city, making Domination just a little easier and no need to capture or build Stonehenge for its meager +1 Cpt in each city.

Julius Caesar or Augustus would be strong Imperialistic contenders too, though Praetorians are probably overkill for Warlord level.

Cyrus can be ok for when the AI starts building Archers.

Genghis Khan is another interesting choice.

Sun Tzu Wu

The-Hawk said:

Hatty seems like the obvious choice here. However, I'm wondering if Cathy is better. You lose the extra strength of the war chariot but gain settler production. At warlords, we may be able to get by with regular chariots. Settler spam speed might make the difference?

Click to expand...

Catherine is better. At Warlord, it is so easy to choke any AI to stunt its expansion (it's domination, not conquest victory) and the initial scout means faster tribal hut hunting...so more settlers and Workers. Think about popping settlers one after one.

EDIT: Moreover, at Warlord, we get Wheel for free, so Cathy gains one more tech than Hatty ~~

I took a first attempt at this one:
Cathy, great plains, 6 opponents
My thinking behind the minimum opponents was, that it is easier and faster to build settlers than to conquer cities. Don't know if this is correct or not.
Great plains because the abundance of cows. They give +4 tiles for fast settler production, no need for the whip.
Made a number of suboptimal plays and did not plan my settler positioning carefully enough and had no horses in the BFC of my first two cities.
Domination just before 500 BC. Probably some time before 1000 BC should be possible

Ronald said:

I took a first attempt at this one:
Cathy, great plains, 6 opponents
My thinking behind the minimum opponents was, that it is easier and faster to build settlers than to conquer cities. Don't know if this is correct or not.
Great plains because the abundance of cows. They give +4 tiles for fast settler production, no need for the whip.
Made a number of suboptimal plays and did not plan my settler positioning carefully enough and had no horses in the BFC of my first two cities.
Domination just before 500 BC. Probably some time before 1000 BC should be possible

Click to expand...

I do think great plains have more land than...err...for example and high sea pangea map.
Meaning more settlers to pump.
More civs mean less the necessary land for domination win:

Sun Tzu Wu said:

BTW, to maximize Score via Domination, you may want a minimum number of Civs (six for Standard Map) so the Domination limit is 64% rather than 56% for 10 Opponents.
Sun Tzu Wu

Click to expand...

But good and well-thought attempt.

I just submitted 1120 BC. Cathy was fine, no need for war chariots. Pangeae map. Pretty straightforward... spam chariots, then spam settlers. I did manage to capture Henge, probably shaved a couple of turns.

I suck at these things
over 500 Ad for me

Damn, this time it was hard just to pop 3 "development unit"(workers+settlers).
Anyways, I popped for my first attempt 3 workers (interesting to see if this is better than settlers like in G-Minor 119) and won in 1200 BC (70th turn). A bit disappointed as I targeted ~1500 BC.



After multitudes of fake attempts to obtain minimum development units, I thought RNG Gods gave up on me, but naw.



So conjunctural, although I had to wait a bit Math.

Other details:
*No SH, in fact no wonders in the world, bloodthirsty Cathy abhors pompous leaders.
*Annoying hilly cities are common to capture.
*Minimum number of civs
*High sea temperate pangea map.
*Wheel-like map. Meh, could be better like a big solid mass.
*Didn't popped much tribal huts because of the map configuration, which lets me chew over once again about maximizing the number of civs.
*No barbs

If you don't mind ,The-Hawk, I'll take the role of AAA as main antagonist for the moment like he did in G-Minor 115. I want to be in the middle of a succession of games better and better...competitive sensation, you know.

Conclusions

+At least, one must pop 3 development units (= workers and settlers) Favored Workers as the imperialistic bonus leveled equally the number of forests used for development units.

+ If settlers are favored from tribal huts, better settle them in forested area and near an AI for early warrior rush. High commerce tiles can be favoured instead.

+ Don't build anything than settlers in newly founded cities. Try to found cities in forested area with a forest PH to wait improvements from workers.

+ Math prioritized. Obvious I know. That's why I stopped Alpha half way and think twice afterward.

+ After Chariots pumping, newly gathered settlers must be place far far away, but must wait before settling...in order to avoid maintenance backstab.

+ More than 75 % of newly founded cities are placed in a way to avoid any overlapping and sea tiles. City quality disregarded.

+ Yeah, no timeline difference between versions. Thx Ozbenno.

cabert said:

I suck at these things
over 500 Ad for me

Click to expand...

Come on, Cabert. You're miles away more experienced than me. Why people are so pessimistic here?

Disclaimer: I didn't try in any way to insult you , I don't want to make foes like I quasi did with Misotu about AP Cheese expression.

Tachywaxon said:

+ After Chariots pumping, newly gathered settlers must be place far far away, but must wait before settling...in order to avoid maintenance backstab.

Click to expand...

I guess you play with no barbs?

Walter_Wolf said:

I guess you play with no barbs?

Click to expand...

Right. Barbs are just a nuisance. Info added.

Tachywaxon said:

Come on, Cabert. You're miles away more experienced than me. Why people are so pessimistic here?

Disclaimer: I didn't try in any way to insult you , I don't want to make foes like I quasi did with Misotu about AP Cheese expression.

Click to expand...

experienced doesn't mean good
I can't live with under 0 income. it's just beyond acceptable to me

Tachywaxon said:

Anyways, I popped for my first attempt 3 workers (interesting to see if this is better than settlers like in G-Minor 119) and won in 1200 BC (70th turn).

Click to expand...

Well done... I think 3 workers is critical. In my game, I got 2 settlers, but I suspect getting workers chopping right away would be much better.

Tachywaxon said:

If you don't mind ,The-Hawk, I'll take the role of AAA as main antagonist for the moment like he did in G-Minor 115. I want to be in the middle of a succession of games better and better...competitive sensation, you know.

Click to expand...

Sorry, but not this time. I am just starting two weeks of travel. Unfortunately, this was a one-attempt gauntlet for me.

The-Hawk said:

Sorry, but not this time. I am just starting two weeks of travel. Unfortunately, this was a one-attempt gauntlet for me.

Click to expand...

Nooo!!!

Very good game, Tachywaxon!

You seem to have the strategy for this gauntlet nailed down!

Events served you well. Quest resulting in Combat 1 for all Chariots!

I'm almost attempted to join in the fun. Just kidding ... Maybe.

Sun Tzu Wu

Nice!


After all, I thought 2000 BC (50 th) was a hypothetical and ideal limit (that's why I put 1500 BC as a practical limit), but I am near to this limit this time.



Difference compared to the precedent game. Almost nothing. Villagers provided a Settler (1 st turn I think or the second), a Worker (5th turn) and a late 13th turn Settler. I think no techs and around 120 golds. In terms of development units, I didn't manage to convince the villagers enough!

Some specs changed notwithstanding.

* Big landmass
* Most capitols were NOT hilly.
* Near two neighbours
* Didn't lose time with Alpha.
* Began with BW.
* More organized incursion in order to steal each leader's sole Worker before wiping out.
* A fine gift of three scouts from villagers AFAIK.

It would be nice ,Sun Tzu, to join in. Popping three development units aren't the end of the world. I was too restrictive in my first fake attempts, wanting lots of development units before turn 10. Especially a Worker before turn 5.
But I know your hate for tribal huts.

For some reason, I feel alone in my ivory tower during this gauntlet...I mean...where are people? No AgedOne, no AAA, no Misotu, no Shulec, The-Hack can't continue, no WastinTime, busy Cabert, etc. Better beginning trying the current G-Major then.

600 BC

Setup: Cathy, min. opponents, pangaea, high sea level, no barbarians.
Popped a worker, settler, agriculture, and maps ... maps ... maps

The rush phase went well, I captured Madrid, Amsterdam and then Istambul. Built only ~10 chariots, a worker, a warrior and the rest settlers (24 or 25).

I applied all of the hints and tips, and made it at 600 BC. Why not sooner?
Well, I made a total noob mistake by choosing Mao (protective) as one of the opponents . By the time I got to Bejing, he had three archers, so my 7 or 8 chariots had no chance. As I suicided almost all of them, my power rating went at the bottom of the y - axis of the graph (you get the picture), and the Chinese didn't want to hear about a cease fire. That's why I couldn't place the settlers comfortably for the finish, but had to move them in the last turns instead. Something like 10+ turns wasted.


So, this "strategy" is doable by elliminating just 3 or 4 opponents, no need to kill all of them as you (Tachywaxon) seem to be doing all the time.

I'll probably give it another shot.

EDIT: btw, no techs apart BW, math, and a few worker ones are needed. You better save the money for the strikes. All of my military and worker units abandoned me.
Settlers didn't ... I wonder why ...

Tachywaxon said:

For some reason, I feel alone in my ivory tower during this gauntlet...I mean...where are people? No AgedOne, no AAA, no Misotu, no Shulec, The-Hack can't continue, no WastinTime, busy Cabert, etc. Better beginning trying the current G-Major then.

Click to expand...

I'll be back!




(actually I have looked - briefly - at the current minor and major, but life is busy, I work, and we had visitors last weekend. I expect to make more of an appearance this coming weekend)