GIII - February

Here are the settings for GIII-February:

Difficulty: Deity
Mapsize: Small
Victory: Spaceship
Due: 14th March (note the extra time!!!)

Looks fun. I know 'slug would like to see Genghis kicked off the planet, plus I can see a certain family resemblance with Dr Strangepork & Miss Piggy, so my first entry for the gauntlent will be 'Mongols in Space'

sanabas said:

I know 'slug would like to see Genghis kicked off the planet

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I think the idea is that YOU are in the spaceship, though forcing Ghenghis to launch is a novel way of getting him off the planet .

[Edit]OK, I should have read the whole of your post [/Edit]

It was the Mongols nearly winning a space race that lead to my little spat with them. You are right in that I'd like to see Ghenghis in space, but that preferably only happens when his radioactive ashes are placed in low orbit atop a mushroom cloud or three....or four....or a dozen...or-what's the unit cap in III?

I may participate,but I think I will never touch Gauntlet this time even with great luck (or restart many many times to boost it, even a CB SGL plus Myst SGL).

in theory, one win the fastest will play on Pangea, but on Deity level, I have not adequate skills to play on Pangea,
(my only way to win on pangea is reload, but that's out of HOF discussion)

My only chance to win is byz on a island map with 80% water.

archphoenix said:

My only chance to win is byz on a island map with 80% water.

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Me, too. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Another fast research game? Great!

One of the troubles with 'pelago starts is the inability to trade resources. I find that I can usually get on good terms with my (vastly superior) neighbours by establishing embassies early, trading techs as frequently as possible and trading resources by getting trade routes sorted out asap. I then hope that any aggression on the planet in the early stages is exclusively between AI civs. If not, then I find that Pangea maps make alliances much more valuable in that the AIs actually fight proper wars and I can stay clear of the real action whilst I'm developing infrastructure. I sometimes feel as if I'm hanging onto the tails of the tech leaders in the MA but once the AIs go into Fascism or Communism I can normally hold my own.

I've just looked at the save I submitted in November on a standard map and remembered that I included two non-scientific civs to give me some trading partners just in case I fell behind in the tech race. I don't think that I needed them but I got an early SGL for Pyramids. On a small map I probably need all the scientific partners I can get. I wonder if I can manage with all rivals being scientific or whether I should include one non-scientific civ just in case?

Tone said:

I wonder if I can manage with all rivals being scientific or whether I should include one non-scientific civ just in case?

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expect Tone's game.
for my skills level, I myself will choose Monarchy-favor civs
instead of sci civs, I hate them popping up SGL and I will not gift them techs.(if I am so advance that I CAN gift them).
after entering MT, I may become SCI leader, but I still hesitate to bestow my precious techs, on island map I am sure I will take some small island and use the "island block" trick, so I am afraid the ugly AIs' marines before I socket my spaceship.

I think Persia or Sumeria would make a good choice for pangea. Looking at tech costs, did you know that Sid Tiny tech cost is more than Deity Small? I think one could take over two neighbors in the MA and let the others research away until you can get your science farms up and running. Add another civs cities in IA in preparation for fast research in Modern times. The only thing about the scientific civs is the age change and having to recover from that, but there are several ways to catch up. Dont know, will have to try this one out.

Yes. I was considering Sumeria, but I had a much more peaceful approach in mind. I find it quite difficult to switch from an aggressive stance to fast research and I like to keep the scientific civs around for gifting and techs boosts around the start of each new age. Maybe I need to work at this a bit more. I have played a few aggressive Deity games with Persia but the only successful ones in the long term were when I captured the Great Library and then made sure that I stopped fighting reasonably early. They were all good fun though!

I'm really interested in seeing how the differing strategies pan out so I hope that we have another Gauntlet with multiple entries this month. I'll certainly be making my first attempt at the weekend!

My first game is progressing, this one is enjoyable. I started my golden age at 230 BC lacking math, polytheism, currency, and construction in the AA with an "army" of 30 horsemen. Came out of the Golden age researching military tradition! I was fortunate to control almost all of the iron resources and those were traded for invention, gunpowder, and chemistry, and a careful steal of metallurgy put me as (almost) the tech leader. You just cant do something like that in Civ 4, which is a pity IMO.

It was fun. Looks like my #1 spot is going to take a hit.

after study my games before,
I will follow my small demi game strategy.
so I think I will win between 1500AD-1600AD.

further more, I studied other's games.
and guess the gauntlet victory date will be 1250AD-1350AD.

later I have play a happy reload game to test upper boundary.
and get a 960AD launch. considering HOF rules,
considering 40 days limits, so I think that roughly 1100AD is the
upper boundary for current gauntlet.

expect and what is the final date of the gauntlet?

Never played deity before, never tried a space race before. I will give it a shot!!

I've just submitted my first attempt that I started yesterday. 1280AD launch date. No SGLs so I expect that this will be beaten.

I played as Sumeria with five scientific rivals; Germany, Persia, Byzantine, Korea and Greece. I played a peaceful game until the very end when I needed rubber for the Exterior Casing. I was attacked twice before that though.

Korea decided to have a go at me in the Middle Ages, even though I was their supplier of iron. Very strange! (That source of iron later depleted and ended up with Persia ) This meant that I temporarily lost a couple of my science farms but it kicked off my GA. The main trouble with this war was that this broke a trade route and I lost my rep. This made it so much more difficult to trade techs later on, particularly when entering a new age. The good thing about the GA was that I managed to build Shakespeare's Theatre and also gain a bit of a tech lead.

I entered the IA and gifted all the others with me but I didn't have enough cash to buy both Medicine and Steam. I ended up as one of three civs getting Nationalism and so after the first turn of trading we all had the first tier.

The next war I was involved in was close to the end of the IA. The AIs had gone for Flight and I had Mass Production and on the turn I was intending to trade with them (I was three turns from Mot Transport so I knew that I would control entry into Modern Times) when the Byzantines sent a stack of infantry over my border. I rarely use MPPs but this was an exception as they were so cheap. I think that the AI valued my strength highly because I had amassed around 30000gp for trading once we entered the next age.

The war was no problem but it meant that I had one less partner to trade with when gifting them up and I had also lost my supply of rubber, as I was buying it from Theodora before she attacked. Two civs got Computers and the other two got Fission and Ecology. I had enough cash for Fission...



Then I swapped for Computers, got some of my cash back and then bought Ecology.



Losing your rep is such a pain in these games as I couldn't use any of my gpt for tech trades. This meant that I had to ensure that I was taking the AI for every gp they had in every trade during the IA. I guess that this slowed down the research a fair bit.

My free tech was Recycling-not what I had hoped for! I then concentrated on the bottom row whilst the AI helped me out by getting the top row techs.

My UN prebuild was not quite good enough as I had used my capital and Persia went for a vote whilst we were all still at war with the Byzantines. I've don't remember seeing the AI misjudge the vote so badly. I abstained, knowing that my enemy would do the same. I only needed one vote to ensure that Persia didn't win but I was wary of getting too many votes, with all my alliances and MPPs still in place. If I had actually voted for myself, I would had claimed a UN victory.



In the end I had to start a war to gain a supply of rubber. I had one on my doorstep but I was not going to take it from the Persians as I had no tanks and they had mech infantry. I wondered about using my arty nad bombers and then just walking across the border but it was not a secure plan so I got everyone to declare on my first foe, Korea. Persia was suppling them with rubber and I picked it up next turn (with ivory) for 330gpt and converted my ICBM prebuild to Exterior Casing. I launched two turns later.

I'm tempted to play a more aggressive style next time. I really needed a bigger chunk of territory to research more quickly, although I did have enough to get the techs that the AI doesn't tend to concentrate on and that was good enough for this opening bid.

When did you get to the IA? I estimate you need a few hundred specialists for the quick research needed. Both the Persia and Sumeria game I have will end in about 1320-1340 by my estimation, so I dont know how much warring to do for science farms. This is a tricky challenge.

I entered the IA in 290AD, although I'm currently playing a game where I've entered the IA in 110AD.

You're right. It's a very interesting challange. The AI will do a lot of research for us so we don't want to cripple them so there's a fine balance to strike when expanding. My research was pretty pathetic, with many projects taking around 10 turns. However the AI tends to go for the same techs so when I got a monopoly it was pretty valuable. In the modern era, I traded one tech (The Laser IIRC) for Superconductor and Satellites in a single deal. They researched as much as I did in the final phase but you can still be sure that their planning for a lauch is pathetic as ever. Persia was the closest to a launch-they had the techs, beating me to Robotics by a couple of turns and yet were still three parts short of a complete SS when I launched. You might be further ahead than you think!

My initial thoughts are that it's worth keeping at least a couple of AIs strong to deal with the Deity research rates.

I've just finished my second attempt. Well actually I changed my goal to UN because it really was not suited to a SS victory.

I reached Modern Times in 800AD, 10 turns earlier than the previous game. I had a couple of prebuilds ready for the UN and SETI but I was resource poor. No horses, rubber, oil or coal. The only techs that the AIs got were Fission and Rockets and when I traded for them I found that although I did have uranium, I had no aluminium either. How can you lauch a SS without aluminium or rubber? My free tech was N-Power, which is normally fine, but without computers my research was useless. My military was poor and without oil or rubber I was easy meat if an AI decided to attack me. I therefore took advantage of my SGL that I got for Sci Method and rushed the UN, beating my previous best on Deity by one turn.



Back to the drawing board.

I've just wasted a really good opportunity. I beat my previous submission by one turn but it really could have been so much better.

My start was pretty good with two cows in sight. I moved my settler away from one of them, so that my second town could also have a river/cow site and revealed a third cow. There were a couple of other food bonus tiles around so all in all a good start.

There were a couple of AIs pretty close by but I still had enough room to expand and claim some resources. Then I had a real stroke of luck when this happened:



Pyramids was still on the table so I grasped it with both hands. I was also doing well in the tech race. I gifted the AIs into the MA, managing to trade for Eng and Mono, although Persia would not give up Fued initially. My free tech was Theology and this was enough to convince X-man to trade.

Once I had Republic and Education I just pulled away from the AI. I took the top and hoped that they would go for the bottom but they were very disappointing. I managed a few four-turners but my AI 'freinds' were not helping me, thus I was the tech leader all the way. This meant that progress overall was slow and so by 10AD I was still on Chemistry.

My luck continued into the IA. More gifting meant that I could trade for Steam and Medicine during the interturn and I got Electricity. Persia again got a monopoly on the most highly valued tech but would not trade Nationalism for anything. I normally try to get it and share it around so that the AIs get beyond Communism and Fascism but X-man guarded his knowledge.

I gifted Electricity and went for the top row, boosted by a Newton's induced GA. The AI got Rep Parts for me but yet again they did little else. I held back on Scientific Method until late on, getting it the same turn as a couple of other civs. They started building it in towns that were shield poor and so I decided to hold back and see if I could delay it until I entered Modern Times. I did investigate all wonder building cities before going for this and I thought that I could just do it, even if with a wonder cascade. I was one turn from discovering Electronics, completing ToE and entering the next age when...





How could I be so stupid? AT and Electronics took me 15 turns when I could have taken them for free. The trouble was that I was tempted by getting the Internet upon entering Modern Times as I had got a second SGL which I had held back. I'm still not quite sure what went wrong with my city investigations.

The AIs got Ecology, Rocketry and Computers and then I got Space after trading continuing my good luck with free techs. Miniturisation took 9 turns and Satellites a further 7 before my rivals came up with Fission and Synth Fibres. I then cruised to a 1275AD launch, helped by my Persian friends who finally did a bit of research for me.

I'm really getting into this.

These games are fun, though I havent submitted the first one yet . I got a Philosophy SGL with the Ottomans on a 2 cow, 2 gold hill capital, but I think playing with only 4 AIs hurts the tech pace and I wasnt going to do pre 1300. So Im searching for another map. I am trying to brainstorm on the problem of specialists in the IA and MA. In Moonsinger's tiny sid game, she just waxed the AIs early with an Aztec rush, Im trying to figure out a variant of that.