G-Minor 15: February's Vanilla Gauntlet

39 accepted submissions already! that's a record on the minors, well i dunno about beta. i think this choice was definitely a good one

i've tried once since my best so far. i got the same exact year doh! but in the second game i ended up getting a scientists i hadn't planned on (and it was too late to help due to the way i'd planned on spending mine), and other things i saw that could improve my time, so i'll try it again before the deadline. and then after that, i'm not playing anything on great plains for quite some time! the map/huts are so important in this game, so many times i restarted since i didn't get good goodies. add to that, i'd been playing a long game (40+ hours, over many sessions) on GP before this gauntlet, so
i have spent way too much time in the last couple months looking at those great plains!

I had two tries at this, my first was the best. The thread helped a lot on the strategy, thanks, I think I'd only played one diplomatic game before this. I played inland sea because I need this map for the Quattro. Saladin, 170AD. Not impressive by comparison with other posts here, but I'm happy

First try, 290AD. Pretty bad play (like forgot to stop the oracle before completion... ), and relatively bad hut luck - 1 settler 2 workers. Don't know if I'll have the patience to try again...those of you who got those extremely lucky hut results, how many times did you have to try til you had them?

See you all over at the major!

Misotu said:

Saladin, 170AD. Not impressive by comparison with other posts here, but I'm happy

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you take that back! i'm still astounded by my own 110 AD since i am a permanoob and didn't think i'd ever beat 500. so we're both impressive. all the finishes are impressive in fact, since it seems we're all learning new tactics and improving on our old scores.

2040 AD might be the most impressive of all, if you could delay it that long and still win! must not give myself any further ideas...

Thrar said:

First try, 290AD. Pretty bad play (like forgot to stop the oracle before completion... ), and relatively bad hut luck - 1 settler 2 workers. Don't know if I'll have the patience to try again...those of you who got those extremely lucky hut results, how many times did you have to try til you had them?

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grats! as far as restarting, i never sat down to start a new attempt unless i was in the mood to be patient enough to keep restarting until i got one i thought might work out. if i had a league of nations box for every time a great map start got terrible huts, i'd be full i think! but it really doesn't take much time to redo that opening exploration if you start out the session with the time and willingness to put up with it until you get (most of) what you want.

Though I´ve submitted a few HOF games before, this is the first time that I´ve tried a gauntlet. I have to say I really enjoyed it. I normally play the GOTM and WOTM. Because you only get one shot for these, I usually play pretty conservatively. I really enjoyed trying out different ideas in the gauntlet, following the suggestions in this discussion thread.

For the record, my four submissions went as follows:

1. 1496 AD
2. 1280 AD
3. 1352 AD
4. 170 AD

I´m pretty pleased with the gradual improvement. (I even consider the 1352 AD an improvement because I was playing better, but lost out by starting on a weaker map).

I´m pretty certain I could get a BC finish if I tried again, because I was playing quite cavalierly in the last attempt in order to finish before "attending to some other duties".

However, I´ll probably leave it as it is because the siren call of WOTM5 beckons.

I got a 1112AD win! A big improvement from my earlier 1424AD win!

Peter was great. His scout popped settlers and workers, IW and one other tech (I forgot) which helped me.

I believe that I can get a win before 1000AD, but unfortunately, I don't think I have enough time for another try.

1750 AD a perfect game without any thinking involved

KMadCandy said:

you take that back! ...

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OK, you talked me into it. I take it back.

(Note to self: think positive )

2040 AD might be the most impressive of all, if you could delay it that long and still win! must not give myself any further ideas...

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It could be done quite easily, esp on this difficulty, if you just wipe everyone out except a few cities, avoid domination and then vote yourself in. But it won't score well

Misotu said:

OK, you talked me into it. I take it back.

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thank you *giggle*

Misotu said:

(Note to self: think positive )

It could be done quite easily, esp on this difficulty, if you just wipe everyone out except a few cities, avoid domination and then vote yourself in. But it won't score well

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oh yeah. would you believe, i'm so stuck in peaceful mindset as far as this victory that when i typed those words it did not even cross my MIND you could kill/cripple the AI so that they're no challenge even given all the time in the world.

wow. not one of my most brilliant moments ever eh? luckily i have in fact slept since then.

Victory in 550 BC

(Mass Media 655 BC, UN 640 BC)

Finally back from vacation and played my last Minor-15 runs.
I was not able to get Liz working on Oasis. So I went back to Sal on Great Plains. I thought I'd try and east side start, but couldn't get the map generator to put me there, so I was in my usual spot on the southwest.

First a GE, then (for the first time--with careful planning) I got 6 GS's -- all for lightbulbing. I actually finished my regular teching early and had to wait for the last GS's.

It was really a poor map. 1 Corn, 1 Gold, stone. I had a minor happiness problem and a larger health issue. I traded stone later on for a cow. Even my huts were not anything to brag about: 3 settlers, 2 workers -- That's the minimum I can even play with or I'll abandon the game. Since it's a little frustrating just trying to get that minimum, I had to play it out. I still think 610 BC is possible. You'd need 4 settlers and 4 workers I think.

WastinTime said:

Victory in 550 BC

(Mass Media 655 BC, UN 640 BC)

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wow. that's all research done in 123 out of 660 total turns if i put it in my culture sheet correctly. you never cease to amaze me. grats!

WastinTime said:

Victory in 550 BC

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Wow! Congrats! I probably won't be able to beat that, but I'm currently on vacation. Looking forward to see how you do this on the Deity Gauntlet.

Thx, If anyone else gets a 550 BC, they'll surely beat my score. I had to starve my cities a bit to squeeze out those last GS's.

I'll be moving over to the Diety Gauntlet tomorrow most likely. Looking forward to a change of pace.

WastinTime said:

I had to starve my cities a bit to squeeze out those last GS's.

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Thanks for sharing your secret. I have thought about it, but haven't tried it.

WastinTime said:

Victory in 550 BC

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Amazing I know I couldn't hit that ... but I think I'll have to get more disciplined about binning games that aren't great on the hut results in future gauntlets. I hate restarting ...

Aaarrrggghhh... Improved my time by almost 1000 years in a Warlords game only to realise this is a Vanilla only gauntlet.

Well, pretty sure I'm done... Going out of town this morning, but taking my laptop in case I find time... Managed to get 250BC with a horrible hut luck game. 2 Settlers, 3 workers (but workers came after I'd already built my own). Ended up building 2 more settlers in my capital and I made the poor choice of also building pyramids there when I could have chopped it quickly in a less important city. I also screwed up and forgot how many GScis I had and researched half of a tech I should have bulbed outright. I think this game could have gone around 400BC even with the poor hut luck... I also have since had a 130BC game in which I popped 5 settlers and 2 workers, but settlers came very late (last one in 1600BC or so). The map was poor and I didn't manage to get a GE earlier enough to manage my GScis properly... Also only had 2 forests to chop when it came time for UN. Oh well...

WastinTime said:

Thx, If anyone else gets a 550 BC, they'll surely beat my score.

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Well, no one did.

Moderator Action: The Gauntlet is concluded. Congratulations to the victors!
Rank Player Date Score
1 WastinTime 550 BC 23026
2 AAA 490 BC 30405
3 Gosha190 310 BC 49300
4 uwsublime 250 BC 27782
5 Moonsinger 190 BC 35663
6 Bram 190 BC 28259
7 jwm124 70 BC 27586
8 KMadCandy 10 BC 29143
9 azylic 10 BC 23727
10 Airny 50 AD 30599
11 billator 110 AD 29682
12 Dracandross 110 AD 25244
13 shyuhe 110 AD 22127
14 BLubmuz 170 AD 26077
15 Pious_Pete 170 AD 25591
16 Misotu 170 AD 24815
17 Drool 230 AD 18849
18 Bozso77 230 AD 15953
19 Thrar 290 AD 26268
20 a space oddity 290 AD 17484
21 DaddyMac 350 AD 19296
22 Methos 350 AD 16422
23 ozbenno 410 AD 16857
24 Hindi 470 AD 40875
25 DeafDolphin 470 AD 22367
26 Rockin_T 470 AD 15948
27 ori 650 AD 18713
28 phanc 710 AD 21095
29 CliftonBazaar 890 AD 16495
30 ruff_hi 950 AD 25885
31 ggilyeat 1010 AD 14577
32 elmoro 1070 AD 14872
33 WilliamOfOrange 1160 AD 15469
34 erikthecelt 1184 AD 16447
35 Thlypsis 1208 AD 17584
36 azzaman333 1328 AD 13535
37 archphoenix 1352 AD 5767
38 FAMOUSRON 1400 AD 14812
39 philoampersand 1400 AD 11504
40 Shadowlich 1424 AD 11341
41 foolonthehill 1496 AD 8790
42 Yaotlatoani 1520 AD 19373
43 Mantaur 1520 AD 16265
44 Lord Orpon 1580 AD 14954
45 Jean d´Eath 1750 AD 13709
46 Steev42 1844 AD 6435

Nine BC wins...! Goodjob everyone!

Special grats to KMadCandy who snuck in one of those too! I'm sorry, this way you'll never gonna make the bottom of the QM list... maybe you should aim for the other end of it, I've a feeling you stand a better chance achieving it...!