G-Major 94

I went the complete opposite direction as you The-Hawk All war and no research (or infrastructure). I did build the GLH and Pyramids, otherwise I could not have recovered so quickly. I have added my research times below. They are abysmal initially, but pick up really quickly. What killed me was that I had no infrastructure once I had the proper techs to ready for war. I whipped the hell out of my cities, but it was still too slow.

Warring on my continent stopped at 550 BC

350 BC You have discovered Pottery!
150 BC You have discovered Alphabet!
125 BC You have discovered Iron Working!
100 BC You have discovered Polytheism!
75 BC You have discovered Priesthood!
50 AD You have discovered Mathematics!
75 AD You have discovered Compass! Bulb
125 AD You have discovered Code of Laws!
175 AD You have discovered Calendar!
225 AD You have discovered Monarchy!
275 AD You have discovered Currency!
325 AD You have discovered Metal Casting and Construction!
450 AD You have discovered Feudalism!
475 AD You have discovered Aesthetics! Needed to bulb machinery
475 AD You have discovered Monotheism!
475 AD You have discovered Archery!
475 AD You have discovered Machinery! Bulb
540 AD You have discovered Optics! Not bulbed
560 AD You have discovered Astronomy! Double Bulb
580 AD You have discovered Engineering! Bulb
620 AD You have discovered Literature!
660 AD You have discovered Civil Service and Meditation!

I feel that warmongering is the worst part of my game, because I can't balance growth and research along with war. This makes me bipolar between war and builder/researcher.

shulec said:

I feel that warmongering is the worst part of my game, because I can't balance growth and research along with war. This makes me bipolar between war and builder/researcher.

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Come to think, my game had a great weakness: I went wonderhogger mode at one moment since stone (Raggy) and marble (Shaka) were reachable early. I built the Mids, Temple of Artemis (I think...), Parthenon, Colossus, The great Library, Hanging Gardens (I think), Oracle indeed, MoM if not lost, etc.

I guess these wonders half-nullified my worker boost...I somewhat shot in the foot.

Tachywaxon said:

My second place is being coveted I see! I had to try once again lest I might lose my position. But bloody competition for my health!
Honestly, C63, your astro date rocks as hell! But you confirmed my fears: you were not ready for war...that is the problem I think. Your invasion date is awesome too. I did tread my foe lands in 1000 AD exactly. I really wonder what kind of soldiers did you use...

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Since my game has been accepted, I could look at the player log. Here are some key dates:

74 1040 BC You have discovered Metal Casting! (oracle)
91 600 BC You have discovered Compass! (GS)
92 575 BC You have discovered Code of Laws! (from Mansa)
95 500 BC You have discovered Currency! (self-research)
96 475 BC You have discovered Machinery! (GE from early forge)
104 275 BC You have discovered Optics! (GS)
116 25 AD You have discovered Calendar! (self-research)
118 75 AD You have discovered Astronomy! (2GS)
.............. You have discovered Civil Service! (from Mansa)
121 150 AD You have discovered Construction! (from overseas?)
129 350 AD You have discovered Engineering! (from Mansa)
142 640 AD You have discovered Feudalism! (from overseas)


By 1AD I had 11 cities, including 1 from WK, 3 from Pacal and 1 barb. So REX was ok, I believe, but military techs came too late (and from trade), as economy was in very bad shape at that time. The AD wars were fought with maces and trebs. I used a few airships in the last war (Physics from Lib) just for fun.

Well I submitted another game since my first was rejected -- 1110 AD win. I assume it will be accepted since I had no crash issues or power outages.

So the 1070 AD win wasn't a fluke

This game was a bit slower I think primarily because I teched music for the GA and golden age (it was a waste I believe). I teched guilds before astronomy I think and took most of the world over with knights. With few to no losses the AI capituate quickly so my late astronomy 700 AD? didn't kill the game for me.

In this game I built the pyramids (probably a mistake, but the police state and later universal suffrage did help me spam out the knights and galleons. I also built a very late Great lighthouse 100AD? since the AI didn't build it for me.

Also this game all the AI were reachable by galleys but I wasn't able to circumnaviate the world with galleys, so I felt astronomy was necessary anyways.

bcool said:

Well I submitted another game since my first was rejected -- 1110 AD win. I assume it will be accepted since I had no crash issues or power outages.

So the 1070 AD win wasn't a fluke

This game was a bit slower I think primarily because I teched music for the GA and golden age (it was a waste I believe). I teched guilds before astronomy I think and took most of the world over with knights. With few to no losses the AI capituate quickly so my late astronomy 700 AD? didn't kill the game for me.

In this game I built the pyramids (probably a mistake, but the police state and later universal suffrage did help me spam out the knights and galleons. I also built a very late Great lighthouse 100AD? since the AI didn't build it for me.

Also this game all the AI were reachable by galleys but I wasn't able to circumnaviate the world with galleys, so I felt astronomy was necessary anyways.

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Yay!!! Instant win. IMO, you should've used caravels for the circumnavigation while your galleys were gunning to the other continent(s).
Now, people, bow down to my feline warlord.

K, i've got my aim now, to win within 500 years of that date

Outstanding game, very glad to see you gave it another run after your crash.

bcool said:

I teched guilds before astronomy I think and took most of the world over with knights. With few to no losses the AI capituate quickly...

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Did you send siege weapons, or are knights sufficient? I'm assuming you were up against LB's?

I sent siege, but if there are no castles and it is flat ground promoted knights have decent odds against longbows even if the city has some cultural defenses. So I took maybe 6 cities without any bombardment, and several others with incomplete bombardment.

I tried something different with great generals this game. I attached 2 GG to siege and gave them the movement upgrades and the accuracy promo (and gave 2 or 3 units the extra experience I didn't really need). Being able to keep up with the knights and moving and bombarding is really nice.

The first wave that hit the overseas AI (shaka was first I believe) was 8 knights and 1 GG attached catapult. That was basically enough to cause his capitulation although he didn't have longbows.

I also upgraded a knight for medic III promo (also allowed me to share the excess xp with some siege units--CRIII catapults have good odds against flat ground longbows without cultural defenses too.)

Only 1 AI had significnat numbers of longbows (Pacal). I actually just got Alex on my continent a turn or 2 after he got feudalism.

Sitting Bull was annoying (and he only had archers) He had castles and the world wonder that gave an additional +25% defense. He was the last to fall and probably delayed my victory 1 or 2 turns.

bcool said:

Sitting Bull was annoying (and he only had archers) He had castles and the world wonder that gave an additional +25% defense. He was the last to fall and probably delayed my victory 1 or 2 turns.

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Again! Both you and The-Hawk had the same problem. SB has a 0 value regarding wonders, but does he have some flavor for Chicken Pizza?
As always, it is better to kill him asap in the early game.

Habitus said:

K, i've got my aim now, to win within 500 years of that date

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I know how you feel!

bcool said:

I tried something different with great generals this game. I attached 2 GG to siege and gave them the movement upgrades and the accuracy promo (and gave 2 or 3 units the extra experience I didn't really need). Being able to keep up with the knights and moving and bombarding is really nice.

I also upgraded a knight for medic III promo (also allowed me to share the excess xp with some siege units--CRIII catapults have good odds against flat ground longbows without cultural defenses too.)

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Excellent idea to attach Great Generals to Siege units, giving them Morale (extra move) to keep up with the Knights and Accuracy to bombard away Cultural Defense faster.

The Knight you upgraded to Med3 must have earned many promotions before the Great General was attached. Even giving just three Siege units 5 XPs means the attaching GG unit receives only 5 XPs as well. However, converting three Siege units from CR2 to CR3 makes the use of a GG attachment worthwhile alone, but you got a Med3 Knight as well. Kudos to you!

Sun Tzu Wu

The Knight you upgraded to Med3 must have earned many promotions before the Great General was attached. Even giving just three Siege units 5 XPs means the attaching GG unit receives only 5 XPs as well. However, converting three Siege units from CR2 to CR3 makes the use of a GG attachment worthwhile only, but you got a Med3 Knight as well. Kudos to you!

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Charismatic leader so I only needed 13 xp to get the Medic III promo. So I think it had 7 xp before I attached the general to it with 2 catapults.

bcool said:

I tried something different with great generals this game. I attached 2 GG to siege and gave them the movement upgrades and the accuracy promo (and gave 2 or 3 units the extra experience I didn't really need). Being able to keep up with the knights and moving and bombarding is really nice.

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First time I've heard this idea. Outstanding thinking!

Another excellent gauntlet

The settings made this one a real head scratcher. I experimented with islands for quite some time, and found galleys to be terrible even with a land bridge. Worker stealing helped make me strong quickly, but the lack of trading partners hurt me worse.

Bulbing astro requires skipping meditation, theo, and civil service as others have already mentioned. Here is a nice link I found if you need some reference as to what bulbs what: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=140952


My winning attempt was with continents on a cold setting to compress north/south a bit. I didn't steal any workers the first 50 turns and just beelined alphabet.

Then I teched hereditary rule, and oracled fuedalism. Vassalage gave me 2 promotion troops in all cities, and early vassals REALLY helped out my happy cap. The extra techs when they surrendered were also appreciated. Shaka didn't know quite what to do against a few well placed longbows

Not sure what I did to Sitting Bull (Maybe razed his first city?). He was the last Civ I declared war on, and for 9 turns he refused to talk to me no matter how many cities/capitols I captured. Ended up having to burn all his little island cities Managed a pretty good time, will keep it to myself for this gauntlet

Kaitzilla said:

Managed a pretty good time, will keep it to myself for this gauntlet

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I imagine this is becuase it is in the 1800's, on par with your other games, and you are too ashamed to share your score!

shulec said:

I imagine this is becuase it is in the 1800's, on par with your other games, and you are too ashamed to share your score!

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Sounds like someone went low!

One of the great things about these gauntlets is hearing all the different approaches to the task.

Hey, Kai! I am disappointed you didn't even bother reading my PM and then giving your answer. Even if it is a "no", it is better than nothing.

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Now I am working on an attempt where I oracled Machinery thanks to my capital with 2 golds, 2 gems, irrigated corn and clam. Moreover, my second city has one supplementary gem plus another gold. My third city has another gold tile. I have stolen 11 (one lost though and 2 settlers into workers) workers from Pacal II and Alex. Oh yeah, I got BW from a lone tribal hut in jungle, good thing I killed all these scouts.
SB and Hammy is next to my continent and I might try to get friendly with him so as to get CoL and other goodies from him before backstabbing. Good thing he got Confucianism and bad thing the other continent has only buddism. Please Shaka and Raggy, take care of Wang Kon and MM before my arrival...

I feel this attempt is ugly; my REX sucks and the territory is so-so.

Here's an overview because I am bored...

I am very sorry I missed your PM Tachywaxon. I don't log into Civ Fanatics very often except to post messages or submit games. I'll get back to you on it soon.


That attempt you are doing sure has a lot of commerce resources!

This gauntlet is now closed.

Gauntlet Results:
G-Major 94 - Conquest, Emporer, Normal Speed
1^st Kaitzilla 1030AD
2^nd bcool 1110AD
3^rd tachywaxon 1120AD

Well done to all who took part