G-Minor 26

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.


Settings:

• Victory Condition: Domination (though all victory conditions must be enabled)
• Difficulty: Chieftain
• Starting Era: Ancient
• Map Size: Standard
• Map Type: Archipelago
• Speed: Quick
• Civ: Any
• Opponents: Must include Inca (Huayna Capac)
• Version: 1.74.001 or 2.13.001
• Date: 26th August to 9th September 2007

The earliest finish date wins, with score as a tiebreaker.
See G-Minor 26 for details.

This looks more like my cup of tea, compared to the impossible major gauntlet, and G Minor 25 (which is proving to be even more difficult than some of the majors).

I am confident that I could complete this gauntlet!

This is my first Gauntlet (and my first HOF game I will submit).
Trickier than I thought. I chose Genghis Khan to play as (warlords) and I ended up with Tokogawa alone on an Islands. Man, his archers are tough. I got the entire island now and I discovered Monty and Augustus on seperate islands. Let's see how it turns out.

Btw. Do we send gauntlets to hof.civfanatics@gmail.com or should we submit them like normal HOF games? I suspect the former, but just in case.

You just submit as normal, if the settings are correct it will be entered into the gauntlet so I guess it's possible to enter one by mistake

This is probably one i can do easy. 1.74, ill play as an agressive trait with fishing as a starting tech, if i can have it....

Finally finished it in 1885 AD. Number of civs was the standard 7, which were scattered across 5 islands. Because of this, I now officially hate Quick speed in combination with Archipelago maps.
Traveling takes a lot of turns compared to slower speeds. Well I'm used to marathon so what should I have expected?

It was very satisfactory to finish it nonetheless.

Oh yeah, in-game score was 5403, normalized score was 18201. Maybe I'll try a new one though, I need some practice with this kind of game.

Casper, did you use Genghis or Kublai? I'm using Kublai for my game.. it's frustrating to come across these tiny little islands.

On the funny side, I've reduced one of Peter's cities (size three) to one square. My cultural borders surround his and his city is actually 4% Russian. It's saving me a war at the moment.

I used Genghis. I haven't done any 'research' on which civ to use, which landtype (snaky cont./islands/arch.), which civs to play against.
All I checked for were traits and unique unit. Though later I thought Kublai might have been better, or at least easier for expanding. Territory is going to be the problem, not population.

I tried again this afternoon but that game was worse.
Little advice: try to take out Capac first. Today when I started conquering him he had knights/riflemen vs. my cannons/grenadiers (artillery came soon). No wonder you have to include him. In my submitted game I did take him on first (by coincidence) when it was cannons/macemen vs. axemen/longbowmen.
That reminds me, bring siege weapons, lots of them. Get a tech lead so you can pit cannons against his defenders. I kept 2 defenders on my city but I never got attacked, except perhaps my recently conquered cities during the war. You never get attacked from peace, they wouldn't dare.
I would choose opponent civs, to make sure you don't get protective leaders.

And I got an idea for my next attempt: to get a city on each continent/island early and conquer them simultaneously. Works best on snaky continents. If it works.

EDIT: My attempt of today was with Ragnar. I got a smaller island to start on and I didn't manage my early empire well enough. In 1900 I gave up on domination and kept the game going for a time victory after I couldn't get a cultural victory that is. I ended with 50-55% on both pop. and land.

Gooblah said:

This is probably one i can do easy. 1.74, ill play as an agressive trait with fishing as a starting tech, if i can have it....

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Japan works very well for this. You get fishing, aggressive, and org to top it off, plus the UU is a 2 first strike maceman which is all you need.

I just completed my 3rd attempt as Cyrus (though I didn't even use Immortals) and the best by far: 1485 AD. I decided to actually do the CS slingshot (got CS in 720 BC, had to get machinery though , so got that in 265 BC and astronomy in 680 AD).
After taking all cities except Roosevelt's I stood at about 58% land, and I already plunked down 4-5 settlers. Next turn: whoosh, victory!!
Problem was there were several small tundra islands that I didn't discover. That's the whole difficulty of this gauntlet as far as I'm concerned, finding al the land quickly.

FiveAces said:

Japan works very well for this. You get fishing, aggressive, and org to top it off, plus the UU is a 2 first strike maceman which is all you need.

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Bummer, never thought of that one. And in my 1st game I played against Japan and got a hard time finishing him off. (protective archers, bleh! I selected opponents from then on)
I just said to myself that I would keep the 1485 AD as my final attempt, but you got me interested to try one more time!
I agree you don't need more than macemen if you get it right. I did get cannons in the end and they helped some.

*rubs hands evilly*

Oh yeah, this gauntlet I definitely have to try.

Can anyone tell me the main differences between Noble/Chieftain difficulty and between Normal/Quick speed? I've looked around the reference areas and haven't found anything specific yet.

Chieftain you can pop settlers from huts. You tech faster than the AI (i.e. get a bonus) and pay less maintenance.

Quick speed you have to get your skates on because your units obsolete fast.

ParadigmShifter said:

Chieftain you can pop settlers from huts. You tech faster than the AI (i.e. get a bonus) and pay less maintenance.

Quick speed you have to get your skates on because your units obsolete fast.

Click to expand...

Thanks, much appreciated.

I finished this last night...1190 AD through extraordinary luck. I'm usually not a warmonger, and I've never played a HOF game before, but this one looked fun. I played as Kublai Khan (snaky continents, max opponents, raging barbs). I figured that it would be a bloodthirsty land grab, which corresponded to the creative and aggressive traits.

A couple of things helped me out:

1. I settled my capital on horses by some random miracle.
2. Most of the land I needed was on my initial island (about 45%-50%...snaky continents helped).
3. Most of my early enemies were either underdeveloped, mired in jungle, or had no access to copper.
4. I was at one end of my island, so I had no risk of backstabbing. Later, Isabella appeared behind me on an island, but it was one of those weird border situations where I could get to her by galley, but she couldn't get to me.
5. The AI at this level is pretty dumb...I had Julius down to Rome and Cumae, but Rome looked like it would be tough to crack. I went around Rome to attack Cumae, leaving a couple of Keshiks to guard a recent acquisition when a large part of the garrison at Rome left to defend Cumae . My Keshiks took both Rome and Cumae without having to engage the army (4 weak archers total were left in the cities, I think), and that was the end of Julius. Louis did some similar things.

The Keshik "ignore terrain movement costs" ability is great for speedy conquests. I didn't have to build anything more advanced than Keshiks. I just might use them more often now.

Increasing the number of opponents might be helpful. Does that decrease the percentage of land you need for domination?

Yes, the maximum allowed (for the HOF at this map size) 10 opponents reduces required land to 56% (or thereabouts). Pop requirement goes down too. I'm trying the Major and pick 10 opponents for this reason (but I lose, they tech and REX too fast on Emperor).

Wow, didn't know that about the # of opponents reducing the requirements (I have seen different requirements before though). Perhaps I can get near Apopp's time then. Not sure whether I'll play as Kublai or Tokugawa, as FiveAces suggested.
I'm currently second; there's plenty of room between 1190 AD and 1485 AD for others to squeeze in (assuming Apopp's game is accepted already).
Or do better.

Casper84 said:

I'm currently second; there's plenty of room between 1190 AD and 1485 AD for others to squeeze in (assuming Apopp's game is accepted already).
Or do better.

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Yes, it has been accepted, and I'd have to imagine that there's plenty of room and time to get ahead of me . I botched a couple of things (like accidentally revolting to Judaism by pressing enter at the wrong time and not invading Louis or Isabella right away when I had a sufficient force). Also, I wandered around the tech tree after I got Horseback Riding, so I guess I could have beelined Knights and had quicker success with my later invasions. Of course, it's easy to pick apart your play afterwards .

Casper84 said:

Wow, didn't know that about the # of opponents reducing the requirements

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I had no idea about that either. I just finished a game with 10 opponents with an 1100 ad finish. Between the amount of land that that extra 8% is on a standard map, (since it's 56% instead of 64%), and the quick speed, I think max opponents is the way to go. My old date was about 1530.

I played as Augustus, low seas, snaky continents and no barbs. I beelined iron working and used prats, and after the CS slingshot upgraded them to macemen. My starting spot was good, 4 sugars, spices, clams and fish. Only one opponent was on my landmass, but the really large one was one water tile away.

Basically I was at war with someone or another the entire game, and once some of the original cities started being too far away to bother building military units, I built settlers and galleys and settled islands.

1100 definitely seems beatable, I'm gonna try a couple more times.

Oh boy, pre-1100. I have to take another big step for that.

I haven't tried again since that 1485 AD game, so here goes. Dunno who I'll play as. Monty just popped into mind as well.
Btw, I did give Kublai and his Keshiks a try but I found them too weak in combat. I had to battle Asoka's 60% culture, built on a hill with 7 archers on it Delhi.
Should have had more units before I started the war.

IglooDude said:

*rubs hands evilly*

Oh yeah, this gauntlet I definitely have to try.

Can anyone tell me the main differences between Noble/Chieftain difficulty and between Normal/Quick speed? I've looked around the reference areas and haven't found anything specific yet.

Click to expand...

In that case, I'll have to play this gauntlet to defeat you again!