RA Free Strategy: Challenge #2 - ready for action

Similar blurb as challenge #1, Please respond to the poll so we can get Challenge #2 going!
EDIT: Thanks to those who responded, majority wanted a choose your own type deal (which is what I was leaning to anyway) so here goes
Note changes from challenge 1 regarding map type and Civ as well as GS usage

Lets operate roughly along the lines of the HOF gauntlets (i.e. avoid cheesy exploits like Liberty/Autocracy Policy Switch and Building Oxford multiple times, avoid reloading etc.). Not gonna be overly strict but you all get the idea

Victory Condition: Space (though all victory conditions must be enabled)
Key restriction on GS usage as follows: if you wish to bulb it must be done on the turn the GS is born, otherwise you can move/hold and settle
Difficulty: Immortal
Map Size: Standard
Map Type: Lakes, Pangea or Continents
Speed: Standard
Civilization: Any (incl DLC) except Babylon
Opponents: Any
Version: SV7 (1.0.1.332)

Earliest finish date wins!

Note: When posting your updates/game results try to note some key elements wrt to generation such as #GS produced, bpt at 100, 200 and 300 turn marks, SP path, key science related wonders, etc.

Good luck to all

PS Personally I'd appreciate if everyone could post their starting saves also. Thanks

option 3 should read "different civ than..."
Oops

America Donut map with inland sea

Choose our own map and civ.

For me, this yields more information.
Why map 1 performs better than map 2.
What unique opportunities arise on different maps with different opponents.
What broad strategies work across diverse game setups.
... etc, etc.

Edited the OP so we can all get cracking - good luck and godspeed...

1st attempt:

FAIL!
I got distracted by shiny Wonders.
... forced to win Diplo 321T. <<< See the damage greed causes!

For me it will be : Siam using the legalism trick for free wats on a pangea map. More culture than usual will bring me more policies--->patronnage earlier(after legalism)--->extra and . Good synergy.

Same early start as game before, i will focus on getting a fast 4 cities/4 workers set-up. I will probably burn a GE for ND and hard build PT(usually, it's the opposite).

Pangea map for early trades and snowballing. I will try to land in a corner surrounded with cs and mountains if possible.

Yeah I had a game going before the challenge launched that fit these requirements and altho I'm pretty sure I'll win by science the whole time I feel like I've been behind the 8 ball.
Hilly land slowed growth, defensive wars slowed development and deprived me of trading partners, not enough CS allies/culture for needed SPs, left warring to late etc.
Up to 550+ per turn in the turn 220s but still far to go so I am pretty sure I can do better but we shall see (I'll at least finish it so I can have a benchmark for my proper attempt)

Building Apollo at turn 225, not a single RA signed, only bulbed Astronomy (with PT) and Rocketry with a GS produced by a city. I'm over 1000 BPT, and I feel like I can finish around turn 260, but I have this annoying bug. I have no aluminum in my borders so I allied a CS who has 8. Even though they have a mine built on the aluminum, they are not giving it to me? So I will not be able to build Spaceship Factories which will reduce my finish time severely.

Vo01985 said:

Building Apollo at turn 225, not a single RA signed, only bulbed Astronomy (with PT) and Rocketry with a GS produced by a city. I'm over 1000 BPT, and I feel like I can finish around turn 260, but I have this annoying bug. I have no aluminum in my borders so I allied a CS who has 8. Even though they have a mine built on the aluminum, they are not giving it to me? So I will not be able to build Spaceship Factories which will reduce my finish time severely.

Click to expand...

What was your basic approach - when war, how many cities etc?
I assume you bulbed on the turn the GS was born...

Finished on turn 260. I played as Korea on a Pangea map. Settled next to a river on a hill with silver. Got a culture ruin and a tech ruin (Mining). I went straight for Writing to build the GL. Sold the silver as soon as I found someone with 240 gold. I went Tradition, and got the +15% wonder bonus fairly late, I was more interested in getting my cities to grow as I felt confident that I was going to get GL regardless. I "bulbed" the Hagia Sophia tech with it (forgot the name of the tech) so I was in medieval era at turn 46 or so. I bought 2 settlers during this time and settled a city on a hill, and another city on a hill, next to a river and next to a mountain. Got DoW from Germany from the southeast, defended with Archers. DoW from Egypt from the southwest, again archers. Then Rome DoW'd me too from the east, but I managed to defend that too (by this time I had crossbows). Captured a few cities from Egypt, got offered a very good trade deal (gold+3 cities) which I took. Razed a city, puppeted one and annexed one.
Fended off Germany and Rome well, I was never in any trouble. I also managed to get Hanging Gardens in my capital before I built the Hagia Sophia in my second city. I tried to grow as fast as possible, building every possible specialist building, and went Rationalism as soon as possible (after I built PT I used the GS to bulb Astronomy and the same turn I opened Rationalism).
Also managed Notre Dame, which was very useful because when I got H'wacha's I of course did some conquering. Cleared out all the Rationalism policies except Scientific Revolution (2 free techs). I opened Order because of the conquering I was unhappy. I killed off Egypt, and took all but two of Germany's cities, all the while growing tall. Because of the H'wacha's->Cannons I never built a single melee unit. The warrior from the start ended up as Mech Inf, lol, but I still managed to wipe out enemy units due to significant science advantages.
Anyway, turn 225 I start Apollo, and use Scientific Revolution to get into Future Era. I then hard-tech (I believe it was only 9 turns at 1100 BPT or so) the final tech needed for the space victory. I had 3 Great Generals which I used for 19 turn Golden Age and managed to finish at turn 260.
Not a single RA signed, and only bulbed once for Astronomy, and once for Rocketry. I settled all the other GS (forgot how many) in the capital which turned out 400BPT at the end of the game. Korea + Tall + Rationalism = Powerful.

Korea seems pretty powerful for this kind of challenge. I don't have Korea, but it will be also interesting to compare settled GS compared to GS production delay. Turn 260 seems pretty good.

Yeah I have a Korea game going that looks promising - 190 at turn 130 and about to go smack so heads... Not sure if I can beat 260 tho

EDIT: Forgot to mention - my capital has surplus of 40 at size 15, quite fun!

Just finished a game on turn 256 with Askia.

No GS settling, always insta-bulbing. Early dive into Scholasticism and CS allying en masse (with the help of Songhai's UA and lots of warmongering of course). Later game: lots of annexing for science focus and started a delayed GS-farming.

Definitely not an optimised game. Had some 'fun' mid-game and built a couple of unecessary wonders. With more stringency I could easily have shaved off 10 turns.

Will post soon a more detailed review together with the start-, mid- and end-save.


ps. This is really fun. Nowadays I only play deity but with these challenges other levels can be quite testing as well. Maybe next one could have the following rules; no RA's, no GS bulbing, only GS settling allowed. Start with generic civ (ie no Korea, Babylon) and no warmongering allowed (defensive wars ok). Would also like to see everyone get the same map and civ.

JeanBaptiste said:

Just finished a game on turn 256 with Askia.

No GS settling, always insta-bulbing. Early dive into Scholasticism and CS allying en masse (with the help of Songhai's UA and lots of warmongering of course). Later game: lots of annexing for science focus and started a delayed GS-farming.

Definitely not an optimised game. Had some 'fun' mid-game and built a couple of unecessary wonders. With more stringency I could easily have shaved off 10 turns.

Will post soon a more detailed review together with the start-, mid- and end-save.


ps. This is really fun. Nowadays I only play deity but with these challenges other levels can be quite testing as well. Maybe next one could have the following rules; no RA's, no GS bulbing, only GS settling allowed. Start with generic civ (ie no Korea, Babylon) and no warmongering allowed (defensive wars ok). Would also like to see everyone get the same map and civ.

Click to expand...

Thanks for joining - I know for me it is definitely refreshing to not have every game go the same way!
Look forward to seeing the details of your approach - I can see the appeal of delayed GS farming (be sure to let us know how many Modern techs you were able to bulb etc.)

Mass annexing feels kinda flawed right now, considering the Courthouse bug. I wish they'd fix that. Turn 256, guess I have to start a new game this weekend

Seems like mid 250's is the time to beat right now. I've not had enough time to devote to this. I had a great game going with Babylon from Challenge 1 but I wasn't going to beat 255. I gave Aztecs/Lakes a shot for challenge 2, using barb camping to keep my reasonable, but ended up with 3 AI's DoW me and I couldn't focus enough on for my liking. I've also tried Korea/Pangea for challenge 2 and have been doing well with that. I took a big risk one game where I can an isolated start and didn't build any military. I was trucking along when a (what I thought to be) distant Alexander all of a sudden shows up on my doorstep with a massive army.

I need to figure out how to balance warmongering (seems an important element in the early game especially) and science in the first 100 turns...

This time I beelined education first before getting Keshiks.

I got slightly unlucky and Suleiman captured China's capital, so I had to alter my war plans to liberate China first before getting the juicy Persepolis that I captured too late to make much impact on research time. Probably could have shaved 5-10 turns of research if Suleiman wasn't that aggressive.

All science building were stuffed full time. I tried to always have an expensive tech opened, so that GS will grant me the largest beaker amount.

In the last ten turns, annexed a useless city and sold all of the culture building to delay Scientific Revolution by a few turns.

Pol: Liberty->Pat1->Rat 3 right Side->Pat+2->Rat Left Side

To delay Scientific Revolution took Freedom opener and Patronage happy policy
Used Liberty GE to build Hagia Sophia and used it Eng to build Notre Dame

Normally, I hard build HS, but this time, I went HG first

Early wonders:

GL->CS
HG
Engineer->HS
Engineer->ND
PT->Banking
Oracle

Milestones:

T103 bpt 75 uni HG ND GL ORA GL
Karakorum 16
Beshbalik 4
5 keshiks 1 horse

will travel and attack my closest neighbor shortly

T152 bpt 281
Karakorum pop 24 brings 160 beakers (Just bought public school)
Beshbalik 10
Madrid 7
Athen 11

T200 bpt 1273 (just captured last good capital, sold bejing back to China prio)
Karakorum 34 brings 330 beakers
all other capitals beside persepolis doing research

T222 PeakRsrch 1870 bpt 411 172 150 (9 cit)

T225 finTree microed last GS and SR to hit on the same turn

T233 won

I think bulbing is superior to settling. It gives you a boost immediately and allows to maximize your land potential.

Karakorum was production monster with 38 pop and 260 hammers . It was doing expensive parts in 4 turns and boosters in 2-3.

3 production cities

Beshbalik - engine in 7
Madrid - booster in 7
Karakorum - 4 - 2 - 2

Win on turn 233?? Well done!

I'm impressed with these times. I feel like I can pull a win together in the 280's based on what I've been doing so far...but nothing in that range. I am terribly vexed. Back to the lab!

Nice one attaturk, that's a great time. Will be quite a while before someone beats it. I think I'll try this weekend.