Minor Gauntlet Four

Minor Gauntlet Three has finished (well done Denniz/Tone), so we have a new fresh gauntlet for the next 2 weeks:

Victory: Culture-100K (or 60K for )
Difficulty: Emperor
Mapsize: Tiny

Sumerians, ICS and TOA was the way I went, and I still would. The difference is following Klarius' discovery in cotm15 of how effective feudalism and pop rushing is for this, republic is no longer a requirement - so what to pop with philo?

RFHolloway said:

Sumerians, ICS and TOA was the way I went, and I still would. The difference is following Klarius' discovery in cotm15 of how effective feudalism and pop rushing is for this, republic is no longer a requirement - so what to pop with philo?

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Polytheism?

At first, I was thinking Babs for cheap sci and rel, but with ToA, I don't really need cheap rel. So, I've got MF going on Pangaea with Sumerians.

Depends how trading goes I guess, I am torn between

Poly, mapmaking (expensive and will be available after writing), Literacy (get those libraries up fast) or even currency or construction depending on the early trades.

Would be worth I think trying for a sci GL with some combination of CB alpha writing Phil and the free tech (probably in that order), so no religeous, or seafaring civs - I will try america and russia.

I submitted an 860 AD game w/ the Celts. The only great thing about the map was a free GH settler upon border expansion. There wasnt a lot of food nearby but it was enough. I used Republic to cash rush settlers in conquered land until I was close to domination, and then I switched to Feudie in 230 BC. The rest was pop rush madness.

I self built the ToA, and the nearby Mayans built the Pyramids right when I attacked them. Opponents were Maya, France, and the Inca. Ive been playing an SG scenario so the game settings were messed up at first, I hope I changed all of the requirements back correctly. Pop rushing is tedious work.

Edit: I also tried to get as many self built temples up before 250 BC for the doubling effect. Im unsure about the timing of the ToA build here with the Celts; say I want to finish in 750 AD, what is the approximate break even point between going for culture doubling compared to the ToA effect? You're probably limited to about 100 cities on a tiny map, so Im thinking the doubling benefit works somewhere in the 750-250 BC range.

If that doesnt make much sense (my thoughts are a bit rambling this late at night), say I have 10 temples self built at 750 BC, they double at 250 AD, generating an additional 50 turns of 2 extra culture (extra 1000 culture over that time period). Compare that to the 10 settlers you could have built and an earlier ToA. The immediate temples are nice, but can they overcome that extra culture when the endgame is spent mostly without extra culture to rush?

killercane said:

Ive been playing an SG scenario so the game settings were messed up at first, I hope I changed all of the requirements back correctly.

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I don't have time for a full verification right now, but the settings on that game are fully legal.

killercane, did you know you can confirm HOF legal settings before playing a game? Just log into the HOF page and click on the 4000bc link. You can upload any early .sav and that screen will tell you if your game settings fit HOF standards.

I knew that feature was available but I havent availed myself of it, and didnt think to here. I was pretty sure that I checked off everything before starting but you begin to wonder when you get close to the end.

At first, I was thinking Babs for cheap sci and rel, but with ToA, I don't really need cheap rel. So, I've got MF going on Pangaea with Sumerians.

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Those discounted cathedrals are nice though. I had thought about switching back to republic for a short time when I saved up enough gold but that never materialized. Once I had a sizeable chunk of gold in the bank the maintenance costs started eating away at the treasury so I stayed in Feudalism.

killercane said:

I submitted an 860 AD game w/ the Celts.

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This one may be over with the first entry.

killercane said:

Those discounted cathedrals are nice though.

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I have a incomplete game where I was wishing for a cheap cultural building after Temples and libraries. It makes the Babs sound interesting again.

Well I couldn't let you win without a challenger! I submitted a 950AD 60K victory. I had a good start with a reasonably early SGL to give me the Pyramids. Handbuilt ToA.

Played Babs but did not fight any wars so no GA. If I can face another attempt I'll make sure that I do go for a small war as I ran out of cash towards the end and had to revert back to Republic. I'll also need to give city placement greater consideration early on.

Nice game. Youve been owning me so far, so Im frankly glad you didnt get any more SGLs!

No wars?

killercane said:

No wars?

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I finished just three tiles short of the domination limit so I never had to fight for land. I even gifted a city to the AI as my borders were expanding close to the limit and a few cities flipped to me. Carthage was totally strangled as I settled aggressively right on their borders, stealing their land, their resources and sometimes the odd city came my way. A couple of Carthagian cities had only one tile to work before they flipped No GA was a big mistake though.

Pyramids is just so powerful in grabbing land as every main city contributes settlers. It's good to see that you demonstated how skill can overcome such an advantage.

I'm done with this challenge though; I fancy placing the latest COTM as it's the Celts. Of course they are a great 100K civ but I can't face anymore pop rushing for a while so I'll try for a different victory condition