G-III Mike

Hello and welcome to the latest G-III gauntlet challenge!


For those of you out there that don't like hurting the AI's feelings (too badly, at least ), this one's for you!

Standard Demigod Diplomatic


As always, in order to qualify for the gauntlet the games must be submitted by the deadline: April 15, 2009. So don't do your taxes when you can play Civ 3!

What happened to Mike? Anyways 620 AD... that sounds really fast.

Ok, Mr Spoonwood, are you happy now?

I was confused anyway when I read G-III November.

I always think my birthday is coming soon and I am getting even older again

Quiet, you! You're both on my list.

Marsden said:

Quiet, you! You're both on my list.

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And I thought I was already on one of your lists

But enough off-topic...

The reference finish date will be hard to beat...

I dunno - 500 AD seems possible. I'll certainly give it a shot. Probably will try russia first (you can get at least 1 settler/city for free on demigod, maybe 2), but sumeria, greece, korea, persia, ottomans, byzantium, even babylon are all good (babylon cuts probably 3 or 4 turns of anarchy off, plus you can switch to democracy if you want - given that the AI will probably go for astronomy, it may not even cost you much if the AI also gets you printing press)

AutomatedTeller said:

I dunno - 500 AD seems possible.

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I agree. The fact that I only have one entry there means that it must have been my first half-decent attempt in this catagory. Anyway that game has been there for a couple of years now and the standard of entries has improved in that time so it's about time someone took a potshot at that entry. Good luck to all participants!

I've taken a few whacks at it, with Russia.

I've not gotten all that far - once, I got into the middle ages by 1000 BC, but I've been playing with max AI and they get a lot of the huts, so scouts are less useful And I keep getting land that is ok, but I get bunched in by the AI. Or the scouts die on barbs.

I may keep trying russia, or go with greece or sumeria.

As I am working on my histographic game, I won't have time for this, or anything else...

My first attempt with Sumeria had a good start location, but I soon found that I was boxed in on a peninsula with no resources, so most of the game was an involuntary six-city challenge. No SGLs this game either. Have to try again with a better map.

1790 BC Colossus
530 TGL
510 Middle Ages
450 Golden Age
AD 890 Industrial Age
1565 Modern Age
1640 UN & win

If it's appropriate to discuss here . . . what are some tips for zooming through the Middle Age techs? I am thinking that if I build TGL, not to set the science slider to zero, but to make a beeline for Astronomy and get Copernicus. In this game I went for Banking, hoping to get Astronomy and PP from the AI, but it did not work out.

This is my first victory on Demigod, so thanks everybody for all the discussions and tips that helped me win!

Calis said:

As I am working on my histographic game, I won't have time for this, or anything else...

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Well, thanks for letting us know, is it alright if the rest continue?

TxCraig said:

My first attempt with Sumeria had a good start location, but I soon found that I was boxed in on a peninsula with no resources, so most of the game was an involuntary six-city challenge. No SGLs this game either. Have to try again with a better map.

1790 BC Colossus
530 TGL
510 Middle Ages
450 Golden Age
AD 890 Industrial Age
1565 Modern Age
1640 UN & win

If it's appropriate to discuss here . . . what are some tips for zooming through the Middle Age techs? I am thinking that if I build TGL, not to set the science slider to zero, but to make a beeline for Astronomy and get Copernicus. In this game I went for Banking, hoping to get Astronomy and PP from the AI, but it did not work out.

This is my first victory on Demigod, so thanks everybody for all the discussions and tips that helped me win!

Click to expand...

Middle Ages golden age isn't a bad thing, at all. Gives you a boost in building a lot of important infrastructure (markets, unis, libs).

My general plan for MA is:

1) try and trade for all the 1st level techs and get 1 of the 2nd level techs free. Make sure the AI's have feudalism and engineering
2) Theology->Education->astronomy->Banking. Trade for invention and gunpowder.
3) Finish off the lower level.

You could try Theology->education->Banking and hope the AI gets astronomy for you while you do the lower levels, too. Problem with that is that you run the risk of losing copes to a cascade, of course. Key is to go to education fast (which is why I never build the GLib in a game like this - you can almost always trade for everything you want.

Marsden said:

Well, thanks for letting us know, is it alright if the rest continue?

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Sorry for writing here. Won't do it again...

It's ok, I just thought it seemed funny, 'Hi everyone I can't do this' Just finish up your histographic so I can reject we can see how good you do.

Marsden said:

It's ok, I just thought it seemed funny, 'Hi everyone I can't do this' Just finish up your histographic so I can reject we can see how good you do.

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yeah, Calis - dont' worry about it. I can't imagine Marsden meant that as anything but funny - I'm sure he wasn't trying to get a dig in on you or anything.

Marsden said:

It's ok, I just thought it seemed funny, 'Hi everyone I can't do this' Just finish up your histographic so I can reject we can see how good you do.

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That's what the smileys are for...

Sometimes I just do not seem to be in the mood for such things

But now I will put on a and everything is fine again...

The AIs can get Astronomy for you for sure. Only thing is, that makes it harder to get Cope's. Although, maybe it's better to miss Cope's than research Astronomy yourself. I don't think the Colossus pays off here, but it's worth a thought.

My second attempt had a better start location, but still far from perfect. Sumeria found itself at the far eastern end of the world on a swampy peninsula.

There were only two luxuries, but the land provided every strategic resource except uranium. The AI did not bother to connect its extra resources, so for most of the game I was only able to trade for wines; I conquered the Zulu for their furs. USA never connected its gems, and the Mongols connected dyes late in the Industrial Age.

1275 BC -- I had such good luck trading techs in my last game, I was going to forego The Great Library and do the Republic slingshot instead, but Shaka Zulu beat me to Philosophy by two turns.

950 BC -- Ancient Age wonder cascade. Zulu demand CoL and declare, losers.
900 Golden Age
610 TGL
590 Middle Ages (Engineering)
490 Golden Age over; Revolt -- eight turns anarchy
330 Republic
AD 280 -- Copernicus
520 Bach
690 Industrial Age (Steam Power)
1270 ToE
1485 Modern Times (Ecology)
1550 UN & win

No great leaders of any sort. Ah well, 1550 is better than 1625, but nowhere near 620.

I did not manage the Middle Ages wonder cascade well -- after Bach's Cathedral I was still about three techs behind the AI. I traded Chemistry for Economics, hoping to use Smith's as a prebuild for Newton, but the AI built Smith's right away. USA built Shake's soon afterward. Either from being greedy or from not having a prebuild available, I tried to squeeze in a University and a Bank between Bach's and Newton's, but lost out on Newton's.

The Maya were the only civ to have any gold; the rest were flat broke the entire game. I traded my Industrial Age techs to the Maya for massive amounts of gold. That kept my research going at 100%.

I played against my standard 7 scientific opponents for this thing as Sumeria... meaning everyone but Greece. I had a SLEW of territory without any war and never went to war. How much? I had 24 cities. So, the AIs didn't really give me as much help as I would have liked. I probably took too much gpt from them and needed to feed them some of my extra gpt, but oh well. I didn't get an SGL, so I used my 800-shield palace pre-build to build the U. N. I used Universal Suffrage (having already built Newton's earlier) to trigger my G.A., and it ended the turn I entered the modern era. I had a palace pre-build which *would* have finished, but I gifted everyone up and got their free techs. No one got Ecology, but Russia got me Fission, so I built the U.N. like 3 turns later and finished in 750 AD. Nothing spectacular there really, and feeling frustrated in that I knew the game I had going wouldn't finish *very* fast, I put the game on hold for a couple weeks, but after TxCraig's last post I decided to finish. I guess I could still play another.