G-Minor 146

[Ozbenno]

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.

(*) Please read the >> HOF rules << BEFORE playing!

Settings:

• Victory Condition: Conquest (though all victory conditions must be enabled)
• Difficulty: Prince
• Starting Era: Ancient
• Map Size: Large
• Map Type: Any
• Speed: Normal
• Must Not Be Checked: No Barbarians
• Civ: Russia
• Opponents: Any
• Version: 3.19.003
• Date: 10th to 25th June 2012

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

[Quibblesome]

I've never submitted to these before. How does one submit? I have no idea if my score is any good as its like 200 hundred years off the HOF score .

[Ozbenno]

Welcome

Just submit using the normal hall of fame page, the settings are automatically picked up.

[Htadus]

Terra and chariot rush for starters and finish with HA will likely be the fastest route here. I hope the reletively smaller Large map can be tolarable for my computer.

Min number of Ai and low unit spammers should aid in the process along with no creative or protective AI. Raging Barb migh help too. Hummmm

[Quibblesome]

@Htadus, bear in mind you have 8 opponents on a large map. Can you chariot => HA rush while remaining ahead of all of them? I appreciate its only prince but the current HOF score is 1380 AD which is well after HA, the AIs will have elephants and even pikes by then.

[lymond]

Originally Posted by Quibblesome

@Htadus, bear in mind you have 8 opponents on a large map. Can you chariot => HA rush while remaining ahead of all of them? I appreciate its only prince but the current HOF score is 1380 AD which is well after HA, the AIs will have elephants and even pikes by then.

Although I'm not used to playing large than standard maps, you'd be surprised Quib. 1380AD sounds very late for a Conquest victory with an "Any" map setting. If it's the current date for Terra, then it may simply be that is was not played much under those settings. Almost every new "normal" HOF challenge leads to new rankings. I expect that 1380AD date to be beat significantly - at least if folks are choosing Terra. I usually pick Pangaea if I have the option though.

You are probably going to be shocked by some of the dates you start to see here under different settings.

[WastinTime]

yea, take a look at G-major 100.

Huge (instead of large)
Deity (instead of prince)
and Raging Barbs.

two games came in under 1380 AD.

[Htadus]

Originally Posted by Quibblesome

@Htadus, bear in mind you have 8 opponents on a large map. Can you chariot => HA rush while remaining ahead of all of them? I appreciate its only prince but the current HOF score is 1380 AD which is well after HA, the AIs will have elephants and even pikes by then.

As lymond stated that date is not very fast, however, it was likely based on the map type and finding all 8 AI. So if you manage to put them all in the same landmass and make that landmass small; as terra should be, then it is going to come down to how fast you locate AI and get to there capitals. I am going to risk and say that Tachywaxon will do it in BC's. He/she has shown some excellent HA rush games, specially the sury BOTM. If JovanKukic show up he will give Tachywaxon a run for it.

I know I hope to.

[Quibblesome]

Well darn it. I was getting all excited cause I can hit the 1300s consistently with these settings.
If someone significantly beats that date then I hope for a write up to see how I might improve.

Managing it in the BCs would be astonishing!

[Sun Tzu Wu]

In my opinion, Catherine would be the best leader for this Gauntlet. Her Creative and Imperialistic traits will be hard to beat.

Sun Tzu Wu

[Htadus]

Originally Posted by Quibblesome

Well darn it. I was getting all excited cause I can hit the 1300s consistently with these settings.
If someone significantly beats that date then I hope for a write up to see how I might improve.

Managing it in the BCs would be astonishing!

Quibblesome, try a map that favor hunting, mining, farming and/or AH. Tech AH and BW. Locate Horses and settle a city to claim it if needed. Tech the wheel next and archery and finally HBR.

Build: a worker first and then send out warriors/scouts to find AI. The if you have horses within capital and trees to chop (creative will help here with a bigger fat cross) build a second worker and skip the settler altogather if no good city sites show up.

Once AH and the wheel is learned and horses connected start spamming chariots until you can spam HA. I will not buld a rax before killing off the first 2-3 AI's. You should catch the AI with just warriors in this level.

[Bugio]

Aren't pangea nano-maps smaller than terra old world? especially on larger map settings, i always found terra to be a pain, with an island region, sneaky continent to often move across. Don't know, maybe i did not give it a good go yet.

As for general strategy, HA all the way. It is possible to get the first civ (maybe 2 but don't think on large settings) with warriors. Go for HA asap, and don't forget to oracle feudalism (require decent commerce start). I'm not an expert on chain-capping, but it can pull out some crazy timings, BC defently possible. Maybe even sub 1000sh bc.


I hope i have time to play this, been hella busy lately.

[Quibblesome]

Oh I see, its a much slower tech game but at about 700AD I was finishing off the 3rd to last civ. I think I can do a lot better though, I spawned far away from everyone else and forgot to beeline Feudalism so was losing stacks to hills archers (I finally understand Seraiels sig) instead of just picking the easy (non hilly) cities and then relying on capitulation.

The AI techs so slowly at this level its a joke, even my war weary econ seems to beat theirs. What exactly are they doing?!?!? I had a completely nightmarish maintenance empire with cities all over the place and Frederick with an identical city count without any warring was struggling to keep up!

Oh btw, one thing that confuses me is the "vassal break free" counts. Do they only count for peace vassals? I've played games where my war vassals have a percentage that should free them (they've expanded into territory that I've razed) but they've remained my vassal, why is this? Is it always safe to gift them back their cities should the cities be too far away from my main empire?

[Tachywaxon]

Huts are available...gnnnn...awww....ouch....T17 HBR anyone?

[Htadus]

Originally Posted by Bugio

Aren't pangea nano-maps smaller than terra old world? especially on larger map settings,

What is a pangea nano map?

[Quibblesome]

Well I got decent results with a Great Plains map. The premise is that there are less hills for the AI to settle their capitals upon. Still, can be tricky to get horses, food and forest at the start. In my "winning" game I lucked out and got flood plains cow (lol!), greenland deer, gold and I think 4 forests for the capital. The big trade off is that you can't start in the centre of the map (no forest), you have to live at the edge so re-enforcements take some time towards the end.

I personally think Oasis would be one of the best options as all the metal is in the middle away from the starting spots. Only issue is that horses only spawn at the top and for some reason the map never puts you at the top .

Another benefit of both of these map types is there are less trees and seas in general helping your hossies almost always move 2 squares at a time.

Another benefit of these maps is they don't automatically give the AI decent starting positions so some of them are completely gimped from the start as they don't seem smart enough to move around.

[Tachywaxon]

^
Oasis and Gplains are certainly good choices for:

- AI's placements (Oasis)
- Total Random resource generator
-Many AI's may ends up without strat. resource while some hogs all of them

But there is one bad aspect: larger map in general.

How to make the larger more beneficial: Make goody huts on and pray for free HBR.
At the same times, only put AI's starting with a warrior (that is starting without Hunting tech, good on two aspects, no scouts and no early archers) and not starting with Mining lest to see them pop BW. Lacking BW, their possibility to get whipped soldier one turn before the assault is greatly reduced on prince.

On large, many tribal villages will spawn, I assure you. If you get lucky, you may receive a bunch of early scouts and the reaping time snowballs.

What to know about huts:
You can pop techs AFTER the first city is settled. Huts popped by the settlement are counted as before.
The first 5 turns (i.e. until turn 5 and not at the beginning of T6), you may bank your beakers in case you pop partial tech. This means select the tech, then deselect before pushing the turn button.
Huts cannot be separated by less than 3 tiles of distance. This means (if you put markers on those popped huts), fogged regions that are nearer than 3 tiles from a hut can be ignored. This leads to more efficient exploration for huts.

BTW, what brought here, in the HoF world? Just curious. Unless you were a usual customer before March 2011.

[Quibblesome]

Oh, Seraiel's posts in Strategy and Tips. I remember reading about his Incan laments and his "slow and steady" game. After reading those the premise of top scores interested me. That was just very recent, perhaps a month ago?

This is my first time trying a gauntlet.
I've submitted twice now and am considering a strat for a third submission.

[Tachywaxon]

Good job, Sera! Bring more recruits for HoF!

[kovacsflo]

My 50 AD victory is accepted now. I played with Stalin, it seemed obvious. I played on pangea, and could conquer 2 AIs with warriors. Built 3 cities and researched iron working to start produce swordsmen like crazy. Met just a few axemen (maybe just 2). Later on, I got some catapults as well, and produced some elephants as well, but I couldn't really use them since by then most of the AI cities were already captured. I think I should have research feudalism instead, because AI-s would have capitulated earlier. Yet it could have saved only 2-3 turns.

Hey, Tachy, your avatar is cool again