HOF III March Gauntlet

[del62]

Originally Posted by bluejay

My 270BC win with the Iroquois was accepted, beating the 210BC of Calis. Domination limit 1208. It could have been won a few turns earlier with better play, starting earlier on making roads through jungle.

Who were your opponents?

[bluejay]

Originally Posted by del62

Who were your opponents?

China, America, Mongols, Arabia, Russia, Inca. I used them once to trade for Warrior Code, and once in a peace settlement to get Writing, which I used for embassies and city investigation. I stopped research after Horseback Riding. Basically I followed the lead of Calis, who had a 210BC finish with Iroquois.

[Calis]

Originally Posted by bluejay

China, America, Mongols, Arabia, Russia, Inca. I used them once to trade for Warrior Code, and once in a peace settlement to get Writing, which I used for embassies and city investigation. I stopped research after Horseback Riding. Basically I followed the lead of Calis, who had a 210BC finish with Iroquois.

I am so glad that I gave you some advice

But I will also try to give it a shot, if time allows it.

[bluejay]

This isn't the start that I ended up using, because one tribe was on a separate island, but this has the most cows that I've ever seen from the starting location. Eleven!

[Calis]

[Ceoladir]

Save please.

[bluejay]

Originally Posted by GamezRule

Save please.

The 11-cow save, I assume.

[Calis]

Got my game accepted:

430BC with the Celts

Dom limit 1107 (It was a really perfect map).

[Tone]

Only two submissions but both were top quality, beating everthing that was on the table before this. Good job guys! The lower domination limit was critical though.

Gold Calis 430BC
Silver bluejay 270BC

Update and new gauntlet are on the way...

[del62]

Well done Calis and Blujay, most of my attempts ended with a Civ on another Island, so I submitted a couple of domination instead

[bluejay]

Originally Posted by del62

Well done Calis and Blujay, most of my attempts ended with a Civ on another Island, so I submitted a couple of domination instead

Thank you.

For a Large Conquest on 80% Pangaea, you need quite a small domination limit to guarantee that all civs are on one continent.

I did an experiments, as follows. I set Mapfinder to allow every map (only criterion was domination limit >0). I did a few hundred maps and put the DLs into Excel, and found that the mean was DL was about 1250 with a standard deviation of about 50.

Then, for many maps, I started up, settled in place, then retired. This lets me see where the civs started. I found that you need to have a DL of under 1150, 2 standard deviations down from the mean, to have a good likelihood of all civs being on one continent. I was lucky with my submitted game, DL = 1208. Calis was lucky to find a good map with DL of 1107, but then he must have played it well to get such an early win.

[Calis]

I was very lucky with my map, yes. After the game finished, I saw that there was not one single small island besides my continent. It was a true pangea map. I do not think that much below 1107 is possible.

But I did not have 11 cows...

[bluejay]

On my submitted game, I *only* had 4 cows in my capital's 21 squares. Calis had 2, but a better map otherwise.

[Calis]

Don't get me wrong. I was just kidding. I am aware that my map was great.

[bluejay]

Yes, I understood the kidding, even without the added smiley face.

[CKS]

I finally finished my game, as a conquest. The missing AI were on an island reachable by GLH galleys, but my naval invasion skills are only marginally better than the AI's. I finished up in 680 AD. This was an interesting experience, but not my cup of tea. Maybe with the next gauntlet I can finish within the time allotted.

[Spoonwood]

Originally Posted by bluejay

This isn't the start that I ended up using, because one tribe was on a separate island, but this has the most cows that I've ever seen from the starting location. Eleven!

If the capital were on the bonus grassland at the "2" position, it would have 9 grassland cows, and 3 hills in its city radius. Pre-Engineering that's (((3x3)+(9x2))+2)=29 shields. Once you forest all the cows, that's another 9 shields, for 38 shields pre-Shake's. Post-Shake's you have some 16 more shields, I think, for 54 shields total.