Raiders of the Lost Ark the easy way

I wanted this achievement so much I was unwilling to wait for it to happen naturally. (The odds are astronomical imho)

Don't get me wrong, I tried. I put Egypt and Germany into a standard game and tried about 3 times to get it to happen naturally. (8 players, standard, standard, emperor)

On the third try I realized that the odds were highly against Germany ever sending an archaeologist to Egypt, let alone both of them surviving or dipping into Archaeology early enough to have it happen before an AI won. The only way to reasonably make it happen in one playthrough is a 4-player map, America/Egypt/Germany/etc, or quickly eliminate/weaken the other 5 players via conquest. And turning off Time Victory... it's still incredibly unlikely.

So, finally, I just gave up and did this:

I picked a dig site right between two of my cities, and planted an archaelogist on it, and worked the tile right up until the point where the dig would complete. I planted a second archaeologist right next to him, in the other city's borders. I ensured through tile purchase that the borders for one city included the dig site, and the other borders reached just up to the dig site. Then, I sold one city to Egypt in exchange for open borders, and the other to Germany for open borders. In the same turn, I gifted the second archaeologist to Germany. (Which works since he's in Germany territory)
I then completed the dig immediately to get the achievement.

Pain in the butt. I think having it ever happen otherwise would require insane luck.

Sounds like you found one way to get the achievement! A slightly easier option (how I got the achievement) would've actually been to do this in hotseat multiplayer - load up a three player (Egypt, Germany, and America) game in the Modern Era, settle an Egyptian city on an antiquity site, and then train and send out archaeologists as both America and Germany to the proper antiquity site. Can't deny, though, that it's one of the most complicated achievements (and probably about impossible to get without "staging"!)

cpm4001 said:

Sounds like you found one way to get the achievement! A slightly easier option (how I got the achievement) would've actually been to do this in hotseat multiplayer - load up a three player (Egypt, Germany, and America) game in the Modern Era, settle an Egyptian city on an antiquity site, and then train and send out archaeologists as both America and Germany to the proper antiquity site. Can't deny, though, that it's one of the most complicated achievements (and probably about impossible to get without "staging"!)

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Oh, good call. Yeah, I forgot about hotseat multiplayer. That's certainly the easiest way to stage an achievement, now that it's available. Don't get me wrong, I try to earn them fair and square, but this one is just ridiculous. ;-)

Maybe it's just my playstyle, but I'm thinking God is Great is the second hardest one to achieve. I just don't build *nearly* as many temples as I do anything else. I end up buying them half the time too, which doesn't help. And puppeted builds don't count, I don't think... do they?

I occasionally play with ICS-style strategies, but usually don't bother to build temples in that case either. At this rate, I'll earn the 100 victories achievement before I get God Is Great.

Unrelated: cheesiest way to get the Deity victory achievement. Start on duel, pangea, as the Huns versus Venice.

cpm4001 said:

Sounds like you found one way to get the achievement! A slightly easier option (how I got the achievement) would've actually been to do this in hotseat multiplayer - load up a three player (Egypt, Germany, and America) game in the Modern Era, settle an Egyptian city on an antiquity site, and then train and send out archaeologists as both America and Germany to the proper antiquity site. Can't deny, though, that it's one of the most complicated achievements (and probably about impossible to get without "staging"!)

Click to expand...

I did it that way too. Although I started an age earlier and let Egypt be run by an AI. Big mistake. Was waiting ages for Egypt to get round to expanding its borders onto the antiquity site. Very fiddly.

HerrDoktor: That's just cruel Will need to try that to see how the AI (fails) to cope.

I might add that except for achievements that have victory as a condition, you can still get them after you have won (or lost) the game via the one more turn.

joncnunn said:

I might add that except for achievements that have victory as a condition, you can still get them after you have won (or lost) the game via the one more turn.

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God, I have to admit I'd forgotten this. Although, since I *usually* (this being the exception) try to earn achievements "fair and square" it wouldn't help. But thanks for the reminder!