High/Low Challenge? You have got to be kidding!

I was playing a high/Low Challenge. For those that have not tried it yet, it is a game option where you start as one civ, get the top score, take over as the lowest score civ, take them to the top, and then play the rest of the game as a third civ who starts at the lowest score after you get the second to the high point. I thought I would share what might be the most hopeless situation that this game mechanic can produce.

I set the game up to have thee random good players, three random neutral players, and (yep) three random evil players. I started as the Luchrip and easily got to the high schore through an early settle rush land grab and a few free techs from huts. The second team that I got was the Bannor. It took me awhile, but I was able to build a lot of wonders, reaarch about 3/4 of the tech tree, and take over part of the other continent to get to the top spot of about 2200 points. Then I got stuck with this:



It looks like a colony or something, but doesn't seem to be a legit colony. It is right next to the capitol of the original civ, has only one city, no techs, no room to grow, and the original civ is losing a war against the Dolivo. A completely hopeless situation. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention that the leader is a minor leader with only one trait: Philosophical.

Sounds like you got landed with Minister Koun. Well that really stinks, hope you can pull out of that one.

...Yikes!

Now that is what I call a challange

It is a game option, you should not expect it to give you a good game always.

At your place I would save it and set up a custom goal like 'survive for 100 turns'. Then threat it as a scenario.

I think that Minister Koun should really start with the techs of the civ from which it splits. I also find the -100 weightings towards all religions to be annoying when he splits off from a non-agnostic civ. Of course, having the other minor leaders added for other civs instead of Koun might be a better solution.

But I'd rather play Volanna from the beginning and give her a second trait...wait I already did that.

What is up with Minister Koun? He popped up in another game. Thankfully, I had reached stage 3 of my high/low before he popped up. This time he was Luchrip. Does Minister Koun come about from an event?

edit: honestly I don't know that my new game is much better. I drew the Clan of Embers for the 3rd civ and they are way behind the power curve. Thankfully, the Erebus map makes them somewhat isolated so that I have time to turn the economy around and take out some AI players with my ogers (fingers crossed).

Yep, a random event pops up in some games saying that one of your cities wants to rule itself. If you choose the independence option, a new empire will start there under Minister Koun. The other options involve unrest and similar stuff - generally preferable to losing the city, but the AI often picks to let the city be run by Koun for some reason.

Koun can come from 2 events that have identical text. In one he founds his own seperate team, and in the other he joins a Permanent Alliance with the civ that frees him.

yep, high to low provides fun challenges like this, but it would have been worse if you had final five turned on too

Final five and high low combine for a tough game I would imagine.

Thats actually not the worst situation to be dropped in. The worst is in control of a civ that is on the losing end of a war just before they are wiped out.

That is pretty much what happened here. 10 turns after that screen shot the Dolivo finished off the Balseraphs. The island had only the two civs (plus Minister Koun) on it. Guess who was next with a single size 1 city and only the exploration tech? He had tier 3 and 4 units. I had 4 archers and the ability to build Loki and a few warriors. Hardly a fair fight!

Hold on. The Doviello won a game? Against the Balseraphs?

I think that's the real story of this thread.

Medicine_Man_55 said:

Hold on. The Doviello won a game? Against the Balseraphs?

I think that's the real story of this thread.

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Actually, we don't know that yet. We only know they killed Balseraphs, there are more civs

Kael said:

Thats actually not the worst situation to be dropped in. The worst is in control of a civ that is on the losing end of a war just before they are wiped out.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I was once dropped into the Bannor only to have their own axeman go barbarian (probably got enraged from a dungeon) and come home to slaughter us all. I only had one defender and didn't have time to build another. Probably my most interesting loss.

MagisterCultuum said:

I think that Minister Koun should really start with the techs of the civ from which it splits. I also find the -100 weightings towards all religions to be annoying when he splits off from a non-agnostic civ. Of course, having the other minor leaders added for other civs instead of Koun might be a better solution.

Click to expand...

wow.... thats not fair at all.

The next patch will cause Minister Koun to start with the techs of the civ from which it splits.

That is good news. If I can get him in another Hi/Lo game it might be an interesting challenge to play. Maybe the mod gods could add Minister Koun to the trophy room. Winning a game as Minister Koun is a real accomplishment in my book.

Yeps. Minister Koun sucks.

Dispite the humorous end to my first high/low challenge, I think I have grown to like this game mechanic. In my current game, I started as the Sheaim and used a settler rush to rocket them into 1st place. Then I took the Luchuirp to 1st place by taking out the AI players nearby with Soldiers of Killmorph (iron weapons upgraded) and Bambur the RoK hero. After about 250 turns I got the Clan of Embers. They were so far behind tech wise that it was a challenge to catch up. I eventually took out Hyborem, sacntified all the hell terrain, and formed a RoK team with a few AI players. I am currently in 5th place (out of about 9 or 10) in score and a recent popup said that I was the 2nd most advanced civ. Tonight I will take over the Sheaim and hopefully make it to 1st place before time runs out. It is very satisfying to take a team from last place to 1st place for the win.