Marsden's HoF Attempts

Hi ho, everybody. I am putting down a thread of my quest to be a quartermaster. I'm actually a 1/16th master as I type this Sorry.

My first game, which there is not much to tell actually educated me greatly about how the HoF works. I was really disappointed wasn't even trying for 100k. Call me a foolish, but I never discovered "Future Tech" in Civ3 and this was my primary goal in this game. I know according to the article on milking that this is not a profitable way of increasing score, but I just wanted to do it. Well the game ended and I had 3 or 4 techs to discover. My education was I only scored 943, yet this made the 100k std table, to my shock, but the night I finished I cranked out a tiny conquest in two hours and submitted that, too. That was a warlord that ended in 650BC and scored 5500 points. It didn't make it anywhere. This also surprised me. But it taught me much about how this all works.

My 3rd attempt was a tiny Emperor which ended up a conquest, which yeilded me nothing again. It was however the first time I won on Emperor, and the highest score, 6979, that I had acheived. And the dumb thing with this one is if I just went for domination instead I would have gained a ranking. I probably would have finished sooner, too. I do not have mapfinder or any other utilities, but I must have been close to the domination limit. There was one little villiage left on a pennisula that if I should have left alone.

Oh well!

This will probably be my last post here, so I just like to say good bye to everyone, sorry I started this thread now. My computer died early this morning in a very strange way. It was off since Sunday morning and suddenly it started itself up and was making a loud noise almost like a drumming sound. I turned of the circuit breaker on the serge protector to stop it. I tryed it later and it does nothing, hit the power and nothing moves or responds. I had a Spaceship started on a large map that I was planning to submit before the next update gone and the last insult is my Civ3 CD is stuck in the drive which won't open.



Ok, I was very upset then. Really.

I know how you feel, my hard disk died during my last game, a little over a month ago. On the bright side (for me) I'm expecting delivery of my new custom-built laptop today or tomorrow.
You might be able to get the CD out of the drive though...if you can see a little hole in the front of the tray, or somewhere nearby on the housing. If you stick a straightened paperclip in there you should be able trigger the manual release.

Don't get disheartened.

Pick tables with empty slots in them, there are 2100 slots for PTW players and 2800 for C3C players to aim for, and half of them are still empty.

Choose games which will fill up multiple slots you need for the QC.

Bear in mind that smaller games seem to be played more, especially for Domination or Conquest conditions, so expect competition to be hard.

Sounds like either your fan or the drive have gone, open the box and extract the drive to get your disk out. Good luck.

Thank you, brennan and Bartleby, I appreciate your kind words and your advice. I did get my CD out as you instructed Bartleby , and I found out I might have some kind of service plan so I might be gettin the old box fixed. I'm still wanting to get a new one though but at least I might be back in game, again. I hope.



Quoted from before " This will probably be my last post here..."

I know, overly dramatic

I got myself an old pentium 2 system and I'm back to my quest. I may have to pull the string on the side it to get it started but it works!

you know, pull the string like starting a lawnmower.

Before I started with the HoF I always played on standard worlds. I didn't want to big a map to keep track of but I did not use the smaller ones either. Now I set things up to my choosing. This was the first time I played on a small world. WARNING BAD JOKE APPROACHING. Every now and then I just could not help thinking "It's a small world, after all." Bad joke ended but it's actually true, it's now safe to read further. I found myself on the southern coast of the main land mass near a river and a large jungle. I settled on a luxury on a hill on the edge of the jungle by the river. I had a fair expasion and was surrounded by Babylon to the northeast, France to the northwest and India to the west southwest. Zululand was on the other side of India and America was on a nice sized island closest to the Zulus. Babylon attacked me around 1000BC. I responded by burning down their capital. Around year 0, I decided I was ready to start campainging and Babylon was my first target. I was going to circle through their territory and that would put my army on France's border. After crushing Bablyon, India and France both expanded into territory that I felt was mine. I put cultural pressure on both and took 2 cities from each. India appeared to be the weaker power and they were between me and Zululand, which I wanted to trounce, so they were next on the hit list. Also, France was doing most of my research for me, having sold me most of my techs. Unfortunately, right as I was finishing off India, France blindsided me. I was caught off guard because we were "polite" and trading well. I think the AI calc. that I was an aggressive power that would turn on them eventually and I had most of my army in India. I immediately went to my old enemy Shaka, who I have not yet been hostile this game, and asked for military alliance againt France. He agreed to attack for Wine. He was more of a distraction than an actual threat to France, but the price was right. He actually did take a city, temporarily, but it went back to France, I think it was a culture flip, but I'm not sure, I was busy attacking France's Northern border. I took back all I lost and about half of their territory, too. Even though they caught me off guard, I had a lot of troops slated to go to India to attack Zululand, I just turned them around, and, since I had a good road system, a Samurai moves six squares, that's good on a small map. I hacked and slashed through their pikemen, took all their iron and saltpeter and left them three cities. I was about to launch the final assault on the capital when Shaka comes demanding wines. I told him no, intending to sell them, and he attacked me. Shaka must like wine. Once again I am caught off balance, lost 3 of my Indian cities, and was forced to spare France. Having no resources, France was no longer a threat. I moved everyone to Zululand and retook my captured territories. I also asked America for a MA against the Zulu, they were happy to help. Ol' Lincoln actually put some pressure on the Zulu's Northwest border. I slowly pushed the Zulu back. I tried to use longbowmen for the city assaults and followed up with Samurai, I could replace the longbowmen much easier and the Samurai held against counter attack, but the bowmen made the attack very slow. I was annoyed with my slow going against the Zulu musketmen so I cut across Zululand to take the last Indian city. I also launched an attack on Paris. I figured I must be close, and I was right I won the next turn after taking those two capitals in 1350.

This was supposed to be a spaceship victory, but I changed my mind and decided to ride it out to 2050. Tiny Pangea, 60% water. I picked Rome, Zulu, and England because I didn't want any scientific opponents. I took Greece because they are supposed to be good for researching, but I didn't notice any advantage. I think its more important how you play than the civ you take and this confirmed it, although no one wanting to attack me in the ancient age, maybe because of my Hoplites, was nice. I expanded too slow and was surrounded by the Romans. The landmass had two big lobes connected in the middle by a narrow strip, like a thyroid. The English and Zulu were on the other side of the land, England expanded horizontially across the north controlling the chokepoint and much of the north coast of my side. Every time I try to build up peacefully I lose out. I was surrounded, got annoyed and attacked Rome. After I took about a third of their territory I turned against England and pushed them back to the other side of the chokepoint in the middle. I entered a military alliance with the Zulus against England mostly so they would distrust each other, and also to keep everyone from ganging up on me. After I had what I wanted from England I quit and traded them horses and saltpeter cheap so they could better fight the Zulu and maybe not want to attack me, eventhough I was the one that took those things away from them. I wanted to finish Rome. I finally got a Roman longbowman to attack my Hoplite to get my golden age. During the 2nd Roman war I took all of their cities. In my previous war with England I kept the closer cities, but I burned down 2 English cities. I founded one final city right at the chokepoint. This gave me one whole area with only one way in by land, which I had a city blocking. The English didn't last as long as I had hoped, they were completely overrun by the Zulu. We seemed to have good relations, Shaka and I, but I knew he would be attacking as soon as he could. I signed a ROP, made sure I kept troops fortified at my chokepoint, put all of my cannons in Ft. Chokepoint and moved a stack of seven cavalry next to his capital. Then I did something almost every post and article said not to do, sneak attack with a ROP. He knew the war was started when my calvary blew up his palace. My only regret was those calvary were on a one way mission. I also missed an opportunity to do more damage by not disbanding all of the captured workers, because the Zulu were able to recover them. I took his capital and razed it along with Leonardo's workshop and the Sistine Chapel. My surviving cavalry were able to destroy another city before they were killed. The Zulu counter attack was formidable, I was actually concerned until my recently upgraded artillery spoke up. He had several stacks of about 5 to 7 cavalry move into my territory, shell them down to one hp and kill them with whatever was around. I found the swordsmen can actually be handy even in the industrial era picking off injured calvary. For almost the rest of the game the pattern was improve my units to the next best attacker, attack and destroy as much as I could, and then cease fire. When I got Modern Armor, the final cease fire left Shaka in one town on the coast without anything left but his mobile palace. I find it incredible that there is almost no liability involved in loosing your palace. It just teleports to the next convenient city. I did keep one Zulu city, because it had Bach's. It was close to my chokepoint and now away from the Zulu capital. I destroyed most of the great wonders of the world including the Colossus, Newton's, Great Wall, Great Library, Oracle, Copernicus, Magellan, and Shakespeare. I also destoyed Zimbabwe four times. Pillaged every square of Zulu territory back to how it was in the begining except I had a railroad through all of my colonies, and M-1s and artillery stationed at each one and around the Zulu border. He had one infantry and a longbowman survive.

I picked a Huge world for the 20k because it did not require me to span the globe, my one city would win it for me. Since my time is short, playing a huge world with a lot of detail is out of the question if I want to finish before 2006.

I picked Babylon because of the cheap culture buildings and also you get Monotheism, Nationalism and Rocketry free, and one turn anarchy to switch to a better gov't. I've read in 20k you don't want to waste turns in anarchy. Next time I think I would pick Egypt or Japan, maybe India, because the religous is handy, but the scientific did not make that much difference, although the free Monotheism was nice, the others didn't help at all.

Picked archipelago with only 8 opponents so I could have some room to expand by myself. I was confident I could out build the AI on warlord so I didn't plan to have to bust any heads. Wrong. I spent way too much time claiming my island, it was infested with Romans. After they were gone I just filled in and stayed put. The stupid Zulus landed an Impi and a longbowman, I told them get out and they declared war. I crushed them with one of my cavalries, and then asked almost everyone else in the world to fight them for me. Five on one and the Zulus actually came out ahead but they never came back.

I used my capital as my 20k city. I built temple first then a settler and started the colossus. My settler was, in a way the begining of everything because the capital only worked on culture. I got pyramids, Great Library, and hanging gardens. then rushed cathedral and colosseum, switched to monarchy before hanging gardens. Then built Sistine Chapel, Bach's, Shakespeares, Smith's and Newton's. I missed sufferage and didn't have a river for hoover. I got ToE and was upto 95 culture per turn but I ran out of things to build. I got to the modern age with free rocketry and ended at 1894AD.


One thing more. I did not have any coal. None of the friendly civs had coal, the Zulu had 3 or 4. I know I should have hit them, but I really didn't want to draw this out any longer, my computer was taking about 2 or 3 minutes for the interturn. I wonder why coal is really only good for railroads. (Ironclads aren't too important.) Railroads are very important, but it's strange that they are really the only impact that coal has on the game.

My return to the Hof is less than spectacular, but it'll do. Yet again I ended up with a different entry than I planned. This was supposed to be a diplomatic victory, unfortunately I'm not very diplomatic.

Tiny world, asked for pangea but I got 2 cont. and some islands. My home island had Aztecs on the other side, the other had Persia and Babylon. I forgot to pick my opponents, although it really does'nt matter, but, I just don't like dealing with these particular civs. My expansion was too slow, and I got frustrated with waiting for a bunch of Jaguars to attack me so I hit the Aztecs first. I was going for an early republic and neglected to discover the basics like iron working, so I beat the Aztecs to death with archers. Very inefficient and sloppy. I kept both of their cities after I wiped them out. Shortly there after, about 400AD, I encountered the Persians and Babylonians. Ham only had two other cities local and one more on the far end of their island across Persian territory. I was attempting to trade with both when about 900AD the Persians wiped Babylon out. Bang goes my UN victory. I guess I should have tried to get along with the Aztecs, but they were in my way and I really can't stand Montezuma.

I then decided to go for Spaceship. My army was very weak and I should have been more careful, because Xerxes demanded Engineering and I told him go away. He then declared war on my weak republic. Lucky for me, his idea of attacking was sending 2 immortals at a time in a galley. I built Sun Tzu's and Leo's and mass upgraded everyone to muskets and longbows. They never made it off the beach. I hate fighting with slow troops and ships so I got MT and Ast for caravels and cavalry. It was a little slow but I left one persian city on an island. I kept Babylon at the south end of the island and the other Babylonian city on the north end, built harbors and colonies for the lux and resources. Razed everything else and sent most of the workers back to my island. Then researched until I finished the ship and launched 1988. I'm disappointed with it, but I can do better next time.

Marsden said:

I'm disappointed with it, but I can do better next time.

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That's been a strong attitude for many an HOF'r over the years here. You wouldn't be the first player to complete the Quartermaster's Challenge and then focus on improving particular games within the rankings.

Hi, I'm at it again. I had a Large Regent going for spaceship about 90% done when my computer went belly up (refer to post#3). Now, after several attempts at Deity, I've run back to Regent. I'm probably going for a 100k culture win, but if I can squeeze a Diplomatic victory out of this I will take that instead.

After playing many many times I've only now realized why I will never be a great civ player, I just can't focus. Switching down after getting my head booted on deity, I'm confused where to go with this one now. It's 500AD, I've got the biggest country by far and am planing on assimilating my only two remaining neighbors (India and Iroquois) on my continent. There are two, I'm on the smaller, but its a big territory. There are five civs on the other continent: Rome, England, America, France and Aztecland, and there is an Australia size continent really close that has China. I've got a tech lead that I wasn't even trying to have. On deity I got maybe one tech and everyone else had a 5 or 6 lead over me.

I crushed India without much trouble. The war elephants are not a good unit, at least when the AI used them. My knights made elephant jerky out of them. I got a MGL from a swordman, used for Leonardo's, another from a knight, used for forbiden palace in the middle of Indian territory. This gave me two solid core areas about half the distance of the continent apart. I used this area to launch my war of conquest against my last neighbor. I prepared by discovering replaceable parts and upgrading muskets to infantry and knights to cavalry and 28 cannons I had been building for the last few turns.

Here is something I'm not sure about, and I'd appreciate any comments on. Just after the initial assault, where I took a few Iroquoi cities, France, who was polite with me and I had just sold them steam power for 96gpt, attacks me with a pathetic force of a horseman and longbowman on a galley. Then during the interturn, the foreign minister, who I call dopey, announces a MPP between France and Iroquois. Could they have had the pact and not announced it until after, or, did the Iroquoi see a potential ally and make the deal it after my assault. It really seemed to be as if they were allied before I attacked. Well next turn I asked the Aztecs for a MPP, they declared on Iroquois, then France declared against them. France was sorry, I'm sure.

All during this I was building temples, cathedrals, and libraries everywhere, plus many universities. I traded techs much more than I normally do because I wanted to remain on polite or better with the other civs, except, of course, my enemies. I really never bothered to attack the French, they were beaten by the Aztecs, Romans, and Americans. I got a final MGL from a knight in the Iroqouis war, and used him to get Smith's. I like having free Mkts, harbors, and airports.

Well it's getting down to the end. I finished killing every single Iroquoi I could find and now I own my whole continent and an island just south of it. I've good foreign relations with Rome, America, England, and China. And France, all two little towns of it, seem to want to be friends now too. I discovered fission in 1754, missed my target by about 4 turns. Lost Hoover Dam to the Romans by three turns, had to change to Battlefield Med. to cut my losses. My score is about 1000 less than I hoped, and even with my prebuild the UN won't be ready until about 1774, which will be the earliest I can finish for a fastest finish. I'm kind of thinking about delaying the UN vote to get a higher score, but I might trigger a 100k and that would still keep me from my target score of about 4000. I think I'll end up about 3000.

The UN was finished in 1800. I don't understand why my date just above was off so much, but it did not make a difference on the chart. I was actually very surprized at the outcome even though it was the one I wanted. I thought my opponent in the election would be Montezuma, he had the strongest army and the largest(I think) territory. China was on the Iroquois side although we never fought, they had embargoes against me. I was technically at war with France almost the whole time I was fighting the Iroquois, but the only fighting was destroying the three crappy units that attacked me. Therefore, I didn't expect any support from them.I entered a bunch of MPP in an effort to get that ally vote. I got one with America and Rome for fission. I then went to China and they didn't even want anything. This was a mistake I thought, because even though I knew Aztecs were attacking China, I didn't realize England was, too. I was counting on England, Rome, and America voting for me. As soon as I signed the MPP with China, England started bombing my one coastal city. I had not even noticed that they had a small city on an island close enough to do anything. But all they really did was ruin a few roads that my workers rebuilt almost as fast as they were destroyed. I was in democracy but I didn't even notice any war wearrines. I got 7 tanks and loaded up a transport, escorted by 2 battleships and took the city. I then gave it away to the Romans. So as things ended, England and Aztecs were co-beligerent against me, America, Rome, and China. I then brought France in on our side for Steel and Refining. My opponent turned out to be Lincoln. When I saw this I was even more worried, I was counting on his vote. But the results were: Lincoln voted for himself, Montezuma and Elizabeth abstained. Joan, Mao, Ceasar, and I voted for ME. So I pulled it off even though I only had one of the votes I was counting on, I got two others, and I think everytime I was counting I was forgeting my own vote. This completes my Pentathlon and puts me one away from the Machiavelli and two away from the Octathlon. This was one of my worst hurdles because I don't like to be nice to the AIs. Now I have to concentrate on getting a conquest that charts.


Not much else to say, just, if you are a newer player and you are looking for tips to play better, don't ask me. I like playing around way too much. I like building and I like beating up my neighbors and I can't really focus on one approach or another to actually be one of the good players. Before I started playing for HoF I would always play to the end. Once in a while I would build the spaceship, but really enjoy carving out a huge chunk of land and then being the premier power above all others until retirement. One of my main goals was to have all of the luxuries, I used to go to war mostly because I wanted all eight. I was disappointed if I triggered a domination because it cut my fun short. I really like having modern armor and using them to crush my enemies. I like to try for fastest finishes, but the truth is I don't think I'd have ANY on the tables if the HoF was almost full. But I'm still going to submit everything because I enjoy the HoF and the postings and it has really enhanced the game experience. Maybe I'll still be able to slip into the quartermasters, but I'm not thinking its just a matter of time, now I doubt it will happen. In closing, I hope Superslug stays around to keep the Civ3 HoF open, I would be really sad to see it go. Just because I'm in the middle to lower end of the pack doesn't mean I don't like being in it. Thanks.

Marsden said:

Just because I'm in the middle to lower end of the pack doesn't mean I don't like being in it.

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Have you seen my Quartermaster ranking lately? I'm 16th out of 19. The fun alone is worth it...

superslug said:

Have you seen my Quartermaster ranking lately? I'm 16th out of 19. The fun alone is worth it...

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Right behind you, boss!

I was planning to try to get my conquest (and my emperor, too) on a map that my computer should be able to handle. Towards the end of the last game I was waiting for about 5 minutes or so between turns. The tiny charts are beyond my ablility, but the small still have a few openings. I'm not sure which civ I want, but I was thinking of taking one with an ancient age UU to get that extra help.

After some attempts I ended up taking Japan. I like Samurais. I took Russia, England, France and America as my opponents. I picked them mostly because none of them have good UUs. Actually, their UUs all stink IMO. Bear in mind I'm on Vanilla. France was isolated on a large island. I was on the south end of the main continent. England was just north of me, America was on the north end and Russia was on an island to the east that conected on the north by a land bridge. Russia was in an extremely poor starting position on a desert. America killed them relatively early on, but not before I bought three workers and some techs for gpt. England, also, was weak and I attacked them soon after Russia was gone. After consolidating their territory and building up my army to where my Advisor said we were strong, I attacked America. It was a tough fight with swordsmen against some pike and spearmen with swordsmen countering. I got Chivalry from France and then let the Samurai loose. Unfortunately, by then the Americans had Muskets and things slowed down again. Taking Washington was quite a chore, but I got the GL and it gave me every Mideval tech I didn't have except Metallurgy and MT.

I conquered America and started on France. Initially I had success on the underdefended periphery but I lost my desire to continue on against the well defended core area. They were only two techs ahead, but they were nationality and MT so my Samurai were in over their heads, and I took the domination win at a disappointing 1480AD.

One thing of note was taking the Great Library. I must have gotten 13 techs, most of them after education. Is this a bug or is this a strategy to be used? It surprized me, but then I don't play on emperor very much and it was the first time I captured the GL on that level. Thanks.

Hi. I've pulled out most of my hair and lost most of my marbles, but I'm still trying to win on diety. I'm on my 7th try now. Even on emperor I can usually win, even if its ugly. This game is just laughing it's butt off at me. I had what might have been a promising start, my nearest opponent was on the other side of an isthmus that I got to first and I had a nice large territory to settle to my self. My the bad news is I left barbarians on roaming Wow they are tough. Ya think, hey I've got a spearman fortified in the town, that warrior won't beat him, yeah right. I couldn't believe some of the stuff it pulled. They must have cloned Conan the barbarian to make these warriors. I lost three settlers and had another 3 sheilds from done pillaged.

I will let you know if my current attempt pans out.


I give up! I'll try again later, based on advice posted in this thread I'll try a tiny and go for dip or ss or 100k.

I couldn't decide which civ to take, and last game I was playing I needed longbows to get ahead against my enemies' pikemen, so I took Persia. They really are a good all around choice, good workers, free tech, and Immortals.

I chose pangea, arid, temp, 5 billion, no barbs, and seven opponents. I concentrated on expansion until about 1000bc, then attacked the English, who were very weak, and then India, who were stronger, but not much trouble. By 10bc India had one little town and I had the whole corner to myself. America started with me twice so as soon as India was gone the are the "next victim... your turn to die." As of 500ad its going well, Rome is my ally and they are actually helping. Can you belive it?

I finished America by 980ad, and then I didn't know what to do. Russia only has 3 main towns and 2 little ones near me, but they are farthest away. Germany was closest and the next logical target, but logic does not prevail, unfortunately. Russia attacked me(why?) their army consisted of some warriors and spearmen, everyone had gunpowder at least. I have been alling with Rome against everyone, they helped me with the Russians. It worked too well, the Romans took over almost all of the Russian cities(well... all two of them) but Moscow. I moved against France to get their great library, Rome and Japan helped me against them. By the time France was gone everyone has cavalry and riflemen and my Immortals are obselete, although I still use them, they are good at killing enemy calvary.

I think I've discovered the limits of the Great Library. You don't get and Industrial techs, even if they meet the criteria. I got every tech from theology to military tradition and I got nationalism as my free tech, but Japan and Germany, at least, had nationalism already, I thought the Library would give it to me and I would get another tech free for my age advance, but no. Oh well, I still got about 16 techs, so I'm not complaining.


As of now, it's Rome and I against Germany and Japan. Germany is falling apart, only four cities left. After Japan is gone I'll turn on the Romans who will probably also turn on me, They are furious with me when our alliances end.

Shortly after, the Romans wanted out of the pact, so I let them go made peace with Germany and entered a pact with them, which got them into a war with Japan. I then finished off the Romans who had been severely beaten by Japan. Get this one, even though Germany went to war with Japan because of a MPP with me, they declared war against me because the Romans had a MPP with them. So I destroyed Rome and Germany, and swept into Japan taking all of the captured German territory quickly. My military advisor said were average compared to them, which upset me, but I had a good position to attack and had captured Smith's and JSB from the now dead Germans. I sent a stack of cannons and calvary along the west coast through formally Roman territory, destroying 9 size 12 cities including Rome. I skirted the Japanese core cities and was moving on to Japanese held French territory and Russian cities when my cavalry got depleted on an assault on Chartes. I bombarded them down to size 3(from 12), but the enemy riflemen held. then I had 30 cannons deep in enemy territory guarded by 4 cav. the healthiest had 3 hp. The enemy were sending longbowmen and Samurai and cav aren't good defenders. I hated to do it but I disbanded the whole stack when it looked like my northern campaign army couldn't rescue them. The northern army composed of 3 Cav armies plus more loose cavs and 20 artillery, plus 3 infanty and a rifleman. This force did not see defeat, eventually destroying Kyoto, which was defended by 9 riflemen and 2 Samurai.

While my southern command was tearing through but before my artillery were ready I noticed the enemy had only one saltpeter by StPetersburg, I sent a force of cavalry and riflemen in two galleons guarded by two ironclads. Almost there an enemy ironclad attacked sank one and then the other on subsequent turns, then attacked my galleon and lost, very close, I am terrible at naval warfare, after the galleons unloaded I tried to get them to port but they didn't make it. The force destroyed St Pete's and pillaged the Saltpeter, I used the workers that I got from the razed city to build a fort to hold the square but they were overwhelmed.

I started a third force of all artillery and infantry to hit the other side(western) of the Japanese core cities, they barely took any casualties. I thought it was funny, they had 3 catapults in Tokyo. I disbanded them, as they were useless at this time. I did make extensive use of catapults against the Americans much earlier, though. These two forces converged after destroying all core cities and moved onto the last ones captured from France and Russia. There was also a city on an island I sent three galleons of mixed troops to destroy, the Japanese ironclad fleet being severly depleted, catching most of them in port( I destroyed six in Edo alone.)

Somehow Japan managed to refound two cities during my conquest, I couldn't believe it! Just before I took the last city I offered a peace treaty for the world map to make sure there wasn't any islands out there I didn't know about. I had discovered all land already and there were no other cities shown or listed on the negotiations screen, but there were two cities. Does the AI get free settlers even after the game is progressing? Well, the cavalry ran over an whacked them for a 1776 victory.

Unlike prior entries, I was kind of happy with this one. I would have liked the date to be better, but I took on 8 emperor level AIs and beat them all, mostly myself, some help from the Romans. I think I should have worked harder at my research instead of depending on taking the Great Library. Also, I was in Monarchy for a very long time and that also hampered my economy. I never built a single bank or university. All around, very good for me, average to below for Hof standards.

Now I can retire to my study and sit at my desk and talk to my enemies and tell them where they went wrong in opposing me. I have their heads nicely arranged on my desk, where they are always available for conversation.

Marsden said:

One thing of note was taking the Great Library. I must have gotten 13 techs, most of them after education. Is this a bug or is this a strategy to be used? It surprized me, but then I don't play on emperor very much and it was the first time I captured the GL on that level. Thanks.

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You can decide for yourself whether this is a bug or a "feature". It is allowed in the HOF though and I thin I first learned about it when SirPleb actually gave away the GL on Sid, and later taking it back to get a boatload of free techs from this "feature".

Regarding beating deity: try deity on a tiny continents or archipelago map with two non-scientific AI. This is how I beat deity the first time. If you want to put it in the HOF go for domination instead of conquest - as domination is less popular.

For Deity I prefer standard continents. Just don't start any wars until cav, then take over the world. Tech parity is easy if you have enough warriors exploring for quick contacts and trading.