Welcome to the HOF
I gave this one a go but got far too bogged down in war at the expense of my research. Finished early 1800s, which is not good at all. May give this another go now that I have a better feel for the game.
Challenge-VI-01
- Thread starter Ozbenno
- Start date
Welcome to the HOF
I gave this one a go but got far too bogged down in war at the expense of my research. Finished early 1800s, which is not good at all. May give this another go now that I have a better feel for the game.
AgedOne
Emperor
I have also given this one a go, but it is worse than yours, ozbenno. I'll have to give it another go. The mid-1800s is positively embarassing!
I had thought it was going alright. Trek north and settled beside Montezuma. Wiped him out, killing his lone warrior with my two.
Then I hooked up horses and copper, and set about Toku. That was where it got a bit bogged down. I took down most of his cities, but ran out of strength and left him with 2 or 3.
I then researched, and grew - filling in all the gaps in the territory once my economy could support it.
Strategically, I probably chose unwisely. I decided to get a PA with Cathy, the largest population, and hope that the universally hated Brennus was our rival. It did work out, but very very late on and after all kinds of war against Brennus and his on/off vassal Toku.
If I went again tomorrow, I would ignore all PA attempts. Make sure of killing all 3 of the Northern civs (Toku, Monty and Brennus). Then manipulate matters to get the vote from 1 or 2 of the southern civs against the 3rd.
Going PA wastes a huge amount of time, and I could have used that time better ensuring I owned half the map!
I had thought it was going alright. Trek north and settled beside Montezuma. Wiped him out, killing his lone warrior with my two.
Then I hooked up horses and copper, and set about Toku. That was where it got a bit bogged down. I took down most of his cities, but ran out of strength and left him with 2 or 3.
I then researched, and grew - filling in all the gaps in the territory once my economy could support it.
Strategically, I probably chose unwisely. I decided to get a PA with Cathy, the largest population, and hope that the universally hated Brennus was our rival. It did work out, but very very late on and after all kinds of war against Brennus and his on/off vassal Toku.
If I went again tomorrow, I would ignore all PA attempts. Make sure of killing all 3 of the Northern civs (Toku, Monty and Brennus). Then manipulate matters to get the vote from 1 or 2 of the southern civs against the 3rd.
Going PA wastes a huge amount of time, and I could have used that time better ensuring I owned half the map!
PAs are hard because the AI vote based on the average of their modifiers towards you and your partner.
I had 64.9% of the vote myself, which was more than I needed. I decided to vasslise/destroy everyone but the biggest other voter (Joao), and my buddy (Wang). Could have done this much smater and faster. Get Feudalism earlier and start vassalising quickly. Not be so big an empire myself for faster research.
I had 64.9% of the vote myself, which was more than I needed. I decided to vasslise/destroy everyone but the biggest other voter (Joao), and my buddy (Wang). Could have done this much smater and faster. Get Feudalism earlier and start vassalising quickly. Not be so big an empire myself for faster research.
Me and my dad are both doing this one with the OCC+ Raging barb restriction of cas. Got me hooked back on this game again I must say. Anyways I'll give a brief description of my game I guess. I won't submit because I'm playing with a non-patched BTS so yeah. Just for fun.
Anyways re-rolled the map till I got a site with deer, cows, and 2 gems (one by luck mine) maybe 3 re-rolls or so. Nice plot with lots of hills and grassland and forests. Anyways teched straight for Great Wall and got it around 2000ish BC. Then teched for priesthood and writing for the Caste System bulb. Sent free missionary to Wang Kong for the nice +4 diplo bonus. Switched on research mode and switched to the caste system for the free great scientists. Teched to Lit and got great lit for the 2 free scientists. Picked up Pyramids on the way and began teching my way to Liberalism. Got Taoism along the way because of the Education great scientist bulb. Started pumping out Confucian missionaries and sent them to the nations of the world. Catherine and Brennus created Judaism and Buddhism respectively but gifting them Aesthetics brings them back up to cautious. Picked up Music and settled the Artist. Started playing diplo and have Wang-Kong, Toki and Joao as friends via Aesthetic gifts. So Paris is currently at size 9 almost ten running 3 scientists, 2 settled Artists, 1 settled Great Spy. An artist, spy, and scientist are chilling in my capitol waiting for last second GAs and MM/Radio bulbs. Rolling through Paper around 1100. Hoping to finish this by 1800 is my goal.
Brennus and Catherine are in 1st, then 2nd respectively then me. I'm light-years ahead tech wise though my best military unit is an explorer at the moment.
Also playing this in multiplayer with my dad. Set him up as Toki under the same OCC/Raging Barbs challenge. He got clobbered by barbs but managed to survive. I'm not doing quite as well in the multiplayer game but w/e. So much fun. Me and my dad are planning to play all the games so that will be cool.
Anyways re-rolled the map till I got a site with deer, cows, and 2 gems (one by luck mine) maybe 3 re-rolls or so. Nice plot with lots of hills and grassland and forests. Anyways teched straight for Great Wall and got it around 2000ish BC. Then teched for priesthood and writing for the Caste System bulb. Sent free missionary to Wang Kong for the nice +4 diplo bonus. Switched on research mode and switched to the caste system for the free great scientists. Teched to Lit and got great lit for the 2 free scientists. Picked up Pyramids on the way and began teching my way to Liberalism. Got Taoism along the way because of the Education great scientist bulb. Started pumping out Confucian missionaries and sent them to the nations of the world. Catherine and Brennus created Judaism and Buddhism respectively but gifting them Aesthetics brings them back up to cautious. Picked up Music and settled the Artist. Started playing diplo and have Wang-Kong, Toki and Joao as friends via Aesthetic gifts. So Paris is currently at size 9 almost ten running 3 scientists, 2 settled Artists, 1 settled Great Spy. An artist, spy, and scientist are chilling in my capitol waiting for last second GAs and MM/Radio bulbs. Rolling through Paper around 1100. Hoping to finish this by 1800 is my goal.
Brennus and Catherine are in 1st, then 2nd respectively then me. I'm light-years ahead tech wise though my best military unit is an explorer at the moment.
Also playing this in multiplayer with my dad. Set him up as Toki under the same OCC/Raging Barbs challenge. He got clobbered by barbs but managed to survive. I'm not doing quite as well in the multiplayer game but w/e. So much fun. Me and my dad are planning to play all the games so that will be cool.
Jouzou
Warlord
Doesn't look so good anymore at 200 AD. The research is still abysmal. My only hope is that I have a great scientist coming. I'm going to use him to bulb compass and try to trade for some techs. Also, if I get really lucky, Joao will give me something for alphabet once I get it.
If this ends in a disaster, maybe I'll shamelessly copy the "raging barbs + great wall" strategy in the 2nd attempt.
If this ends in a disaster, maybe I'll shamelessly copy the "raging barbs + great wall" strategy in the 2nd attempt.
Copy-cats for life yeah.
Anyways played till 1400 A.D still lightyears ahead. Teched to Gunpowder now filling in all the req techs for chemistry. 2 GSes stored up for Liberalism bulb. Monty has declared war on my two friends in the far NW corner so I get the +2 diplo for shared military struggle w/o any work on my part. And I can always cancel before WW. Lost Toki as a friend due to his founding Christianity. Should finish at least even if it isn't a good time.
Not going to double post so yeah.
Played till 1790A.D Researching Mass Media and have switched to free religion for the tech boost and because nobody is confucian anymore. Now friends with Joao, Wang Kong and Catherine with a low approval rating. Probably am going to tech mono for Brennus's favorite civic
Anyways played till 1400 A.D still lightyears ahead. Teched to Gunpowder now filling in all the req techs for chemistry. 2 GSes stored up for Liberalism bulb. Monty has declared war on my two friends in the far NW corner so I get the +2 diplo for shared military struggle w/o any work on my part. And I can always cancel before WW. Lost Toki as a friend due to his founding Christianity. Should finish at least even if it isn't a good time.
Not going to double post so yeah.
Played till 1790A.D Researching Mass Media and have switched to free religion for the tech boost and because nobody is confucian anymore. Now friends with Joao, Wang Kong and Catherine with a low approval rating. Probably am going to tech mono for Brennus's favorite civic
Htadus
A and L's dad
I see my sub mission was accepted. (Ok, don’t laugh but It has been a while since I did a HOF game and had not realized where to find out the outcome 
)
So here is how I got the good result to this date.
I realized and did;
What else I did:
That was basically the plan.
How I intend to do better in the next try :
I intend to beat my time and hope others also do the same.
Almost forgot, I am a builder, so did build a few wonders like Mids, Glib and MM. I cultivated a GE for bulbing and kept him for nearly 2000 years. BTW, do not wait for others to finish the MM to capture at this level. It delayed my first GA nearly 50 turns after Music.
)So here is how I got the good result to this date.
I realized and did;
- First, that at this level, it is very possible to get the CS sling with one or 2 gems. I ended up getting 3 Gems and the sling but nearly no food in the capital. Could have been worst.
- Second, I am taking maximum AI to create more conflicts and small empires to capture and Vassel. I ended up getting 3 peace vassals and killed off several AI.
- Third. Mansa, Fred and Hatty are friends to keep since all the mongers will hate them and they will ask for help. Sad that Hatty was right next to me and I needed the land. But the other two and Wong needed the protection and I provided in several wars with just a handful of axes. Yes they were phony wars but I made sure my units protected Musa’s cities from the Celts.
What else I did:
- Expand to about 30% science either by war or self established. Hatty and Toku gave most of their cities to the cause (3 each) and established a few myself.
- Hope for Joao to build many cities for me. Luckily, he did, and on our side of the map but not many…about 4-5. Left him alive till the end I think.
- After getting the essential techs, head to MM.
- Run about 3-4 GA.
- Let two Aggressive AI's get to size 2 spot.
That was basically the plan.
How I intend to do better in the next try :
- Better capital (less Gems more food) or a high food yield second city.
- Use the whip more than a couple of hand full times during the game. My capital was very food poor and I used a few cottages.
- Build at least 1 worker per city.
- Build the Heroic Epic.
- Build the F-Palace sooner than near the end of the game.
- Rush earlier and drop to 10% science while recovery.
- Know what other National Wonders are available.
I intend to beat my time and hope others also do the same.
Almost forgot, I am a builder, so did build a few wonders like Mids, Glib and MM. I cultivated a GE for bulbing and kept him for nearly 2000 years. BTW, do not wait for others to finish the MM to capture at this level. It delayed my first GA nearly 50 turns after Music.
Manco Capac
Friday,13 June,I Collapse
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2010
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Jouzou
Warlord
I got within inches of victory, but it was not to happen. Granted, the finish date would have sucked badly (1875), but I would've been content with getting my first HoF submission. "Inches" in this case means 26 votes. I had myself a nice jewish clique who hated those buddhist heathens.
In retrospect, I made my biggest mistake when I attacked Brennus. The war itself went extremely well; I attacked with cuirassiers and he had just got to longbows. The mistake was that I didn't finish the job. I only took a few border cities and called it a day when I should have reduced his puny civilization to ashes. As it happened, that puny civ became a mighty one who got the drop on me when I was concentrating too hard on the diplo.
Time to draw a new map and go back to 4000 BC, I guess, but I can't help thinking if my participation is a good idea after all, considering how much trouble I have passing the easiest part of the challenge.
In retrospect, I made my biggest mistake when I attacked Brennus. The war itself went extremely well; I attacked with cuirassiers and he had just got to longbows. The mistake was that I didn't finish the job. I only took a few border cities and called it a day when I should have reduced his puny civilization to ashes. As it happened, that puny civ became a mighty one who got the drop on me when I was concentrating too hard on the diplo.
Time to draw a new map and go back to 4000 BC, I guess, but I can't help thinking if my participation is a good idea after all, considering how much trouble I have passing the easiest part of the challenge.
Not at all. Ask questions here about your strategy and how you will approach these games. This one is a little bit trickier than you think. Game 8 is the easiest probably even though its on Emporer.
You should be looking to destroy or vassalise when you get into wars in this one I think.
Well I got really close to winning on this one but my 16 votes would not be enough to even get me secretary general on this one. Catherine is such a dick to get votes. You have to do the most outrageous things to get her as a friend. And to make a long story short around 1900 A.D the Secretary-general thing came up and I thought I had this in the bag since I had everybody except the impossibly religious Monty at least pleased with me so the vote came up and I see that Catherine voted against me. I still almost got it but Toki did so I was forced to pass the Free Speech thing for like an hundred turns. It seemed like Cathy changed from her favorite civic like the turn before the vote. 
Anyways Toki rolled through Brennus and Wang Kong and I knew the game was lost.
If I had to play this one again, I would:
A) Not do OCC. Impossible to get enough votes with 6 AIs still in the game.
B) Take out at least 2 civs early via chariot rush (Preferably Monty and Catherine)
C) Vassalize at least one Civ to get their votes (Peaceful if possible to ^ the diplo bonus)
D) Probably change my tech path a little bit like grabbing some reqs for Chemistry and the like early. (I grabbed the prereqs for astronomy early but that's about all)
E) Probably grab some more GW like University of Sankore for more GPP.
Anyways a over-all fun game and a learned a lot about AI diplo. I now know that I have to be selective with my open borders and if someone asks tribute of a resource than make sure you don't have any friends that will ask you to stop trading him gems. I got closer to winning than my dad though. His "diplo" was attacking Toki in a OCC with Musketeers. Toki inevitably brought in Monty, Brennus and Catherine. Lol
Anyways Toki rolled through Brennus and Wang Kong and I knew the game was lost.If I had to play this one again, I would:
A) Not do OCC. Impossible to get enough votes with 6 AIs still in the game.
B) Take out at least 2 civs early via chariot rush (Preferably Monty and Catherine)
C) Vassalize at least one Civ to get their votes (Peaceful if possible to ^ the diplo bonus)
D) Probably change my tech path a little bit like grabbing some reqs for Chemistry and the like early. (I grabbed the prereqs for astronomy early but that's about all)
E) Probably grab some more GW like University of Sankore for more GPP.
Anyways a over-all fun game and a learned a lot about AI diplo. I now know that I have to be selective with my open borders and if someone asks tribute of a resource than make sure you don't have any friends that will ask you to stop trading him gems. I got closer to winning than my dad though. His "diplo" was attacking Toki in a OCC with Musketeers. Toki inevitably brought in Monty, Brennus and Catherine. Lol
bcool
Deity
My date can definitely be beaten. I didn't get a great engineer despite several decent odds chances ... 50%, 33% and 12%? Ah well.
If I replay this one I'm considering building the National Epic in the city I build the pyramids, hanging gardens, a forge, and even the Hagia Sophia so I can get several great engineers
My mistake is the previous game was that I built the NE and ran with it before I got a 100% great engineer from my hanging gardens/hagia sophia city.
I was playing with diplo too in my game.
I ended up building the AP and switched 4-5 AIs into my religion with missionaries, spies and diplomacy. Even if an AI founded their own religion they will not switch out of the AP religion if they have most of their population in that religion.
Also AI seem less likely to switch their religion back if you use espionage to flip them several times even if they don't have 100% of your religion.
Also AI don't seem to switch religions if they are in the middle of a war.
If I replay this one I'm considering building the National Epic in the city I build the pyramids, hanging gardens, a forge, and even the Hagia Sophia so I can get several great engineers
My mistake is the previous game was that I built the NE and ran with it before I got a 100% great engineer from my hanging gardens/hagia sophia city.
I was playing with diplo too in my game.
I ended up building the AP and switched 4-5 AIs into my religion with missionaries, spies and diplomacy. Even if an AI founded their own religion they will not switch out of the AP religion if they have most of their population in that religion.
Also AI seem less likely to switch their religion back if you use espionage to flip them several times even if they don't have 100% of your religion.
Also AI don't seem to switch religions if they are in the middle of a war.
I finally came around to submit my first attempt at this game. Originally planned this as a testgame to get used to epic speed again, the oasis mapscript, which i never played before and one-mover-rushes. So i went in with no specific gameplan, but a combination of "one more turn-syndrome" and luck helped me to secure a win ~ 1700AD.
Added two AIs, Ghandi to divert the attention of Toku, Monte and Brennus, and Izzy to be Izzy. Plus they're easy to stop in the unlikely case they don't go the missionary route and invest hammers in settlers instead.
Got a start in the s-e-corner with pig, rice, freshwater banana, dye, gems and 4 hills after moving on a PH.
Found Cathy to my north on Turn 4 and rushed her with warriors. Tried it a second time on buddhist Izzy, who was west of me and failed because of very optimistic assumptions.
Thought about replaying but decided against it because i wanted the testgame to last until 1AD minimum.
Met Toku (N), Joao(N), Monte (hindu)(S), Brennus(N), Ghandi(jewish)(N) and Wang Kon (S) while teching AH-Mining-BW-Pottery-Writing-Alpha and after that to crossbows/maces.
In the meantime i settled ~10 cities before i shifted my attention back to solo-buddhist Izzy. By the time i got rid of her, the world was seperated into a hindu (Monte, Toku, Brennus and Joao) and a jewish block (Ghandi and Wang Kon).
Joao started to look like my main obstacle for the diplo win and i briefly considered attacking him right after my Izzy campaign, but he had just discovered feudalism, three warmongerer as buddies and the tech advantage to bribe them in if necessary.
I had room for 20 cities, no siege and the high possibility that Joao would break out of the hindu-coalition as soon as he would get his hands on liberalism.
So i converted to hinduism and started teching towards liberalism and straight to mass media after that. Joined some wars against Wang Kon and Ghandi with my new crazy friends (joao switched indeed to free religion) for mutual struggle bonus.
Because of the wars, Toku stayed in theocracy the whole time and between brennus' favorite civic and Monte as the founder of the religion there was little fear that they would follow Joao's example.
Besides that i was running Mercantilism and OR the whole time.
Then disaster strikes as Brennus and Toku peacevasseled to Joao and Monte respectively.
First thought was to finally abandon the game because it was meant to be a test in the first place, but after playing up to this point i wanted to know how fast i could reach Mass Media.
Researched Biology right before it and set every city on food, then rushed the UN with a GE. Became secretary-general. Looked at the voting screen and missed brennus' votes plus some for the diplo win.
Then caught the huge and final break as brennus decided, five turns before the first diplo victory vote, that independance is the way to go.
The Election came up, i won and then stared at the victory screen with a mixture of "yes, i won" and "oh my, that was embarrassing. saved by AI stupidity"
Overall this was an interesting experience. I'm not sure whether i should add any AIs at all, the direction of my wars (stay in the south or try to get horses asap)
or which military unit is the most efficient (slowly but steadily with maces/trebs, quick strikes with musketeers, all the way to cuirassiers or a little bit of everything)
The mapscript itself leads to some uncommon situations besides the resource distribution. For the first time in Civ i wasn't excited when i approached an enemy capital with my troops. As a human, even without mapfinder, you can just regenerate maps the whole day until you find a good one but some AIs really got screwed with their start. The worst example was Toku, who got 3 horses in his BFC, one spice, no food. Seems like oasis handicaps the AI a good amount, atleast until they get the massive bonuses on the higher difficulties and are able to outexpand the human while you can't axe rush them with a reasonable successrate.
Anyway,there are enough options and room for improvement for a second attempt at this, but i might play some of the other games before i go back to this one and try to win without luck this time.
Added two AIs, Ghandi to divert the attention of Toku, Monte and Brennus, and Izzy to be Izzy. Plus they're easy to stop in the unlikely case they don't go the missionary route and invest hammers in settlers instead.
Got a start in the s-e-corner with pig, rice, freshwater banana, dye, gems and 4 hills after moving on a PH.
Found Cathy to my north on Turn 4 and rushed her with warriors. Tried it a second time on buddhist Izzy, who was west of me and failed because of very optimistic assumptions.
Thought about replaying but decided against it because i wanted the testgame to last until 1AD minimum.
Met Toku (N), Joao(N), Monte (hindu)(S), Brennus(N), Ghandi(jewish)(N) and Wang Kon (S) while teching AH-Mining-BW-Pottery-Writing-Alpha and after that to crossbows/maces.
In the meantime i settled ~10 cities before i shifted my attention back to solo-buddhist Izzy. By the time i got rid of her, the world was seperated into a hindu (Monte, Toku, Brennus and Joao) and a jewish block (Ghandi and Wang Kon).
Joao started to look like my main obstacle for the diplo win and i briefly considered attacking him right after my Izzy campaign, but he had just discovered feudalism, three warmongerer as buddies and the tech advantage to bribe them in if necessary.
I had room for 20 cities, no siege and the high possibility that Joao would break out of the hindu-coalition as soon as he would get his hands on liberalism.
So i converted to hinduism and started teching towards liberalism and straight to mass media after that. Joined some wars against Wang Kon and Ghandi with my new crazy friends (joao switched indeed to free religion) for mutual struggle bonus.
Because of the wars, Toku stayed in theocracy the whole time and between brennus' favorite civic and Monte as the founder of the religion there was little fear that they would follow Joao's example.
Besides that i was running Mercantilism and OR the whole time.
Then disaster strikes as Brennus and Toku peacevasseled to Joao and Monte respectively.
First thought was to finally abandon the game because it was meant to be a test in the first place, but after playing up to this point i wanted to know how fast i could reach Mass Media.
Researched Biology right before it and set every city on food, then rushed the UN with a GE. Became secretary-general. Looked at the voting screen and missed brennus' votes plus some for the diplo win.
Then caught the huge and final break as brennus decided, five turns before the first diplo victory vote, that independance is the way to go.
The Election came up, i won and then stared at the victory screen with a mixture of "yes, i won" and "oh my, that was embarrassing. saved by AI stupidity"
Overall this was an interesting experience. I'm not sure whether i should add any AIs at all, the direction of my wars (stay in the south or try to get horses asap)
or which military unit is the most efficient (slowly but steadily with maces/trebs, quick strikes with musketeers, all the way to cuirassiers or a little bit of everything)
The mapscript itself leads to some uncommon situations besides the resource distribution. For the first time in Civ i wasn't excited when i approached an enemy capital with my troops. As a human, even without mapfinder, you can just regenerate maps the whole day until you find a good one but some AIs really got screwed with their start. The worst example was Toku, who got 3 horses in his BFC, one spice, no food. Seems like oasis handicaps the AI a good amount, atleast until they get the massive bonuses on the higher difficulties and are able to outexpand the human while you can't axe rush them with a reasonable successrate.
Anyway,there are enough options and room for improvement for a second attempt at this, but i might play some of the other games before i go back to this one and try to win without luck this time.
Nice writeup Undecided
Good luck with the test of the games.
Good luck with the test of the games.
Jouzou
Warlord
Yes! I did it! And I got there in the 18th century. This was my third attempt as the second one was lost to a blue screen of death (I stupidly didn't have the autosavefrequency set at 1), but that game wasn't going that well anyway.
Most of my strategy came from this thread, so a huge thanks to everyone who contributed. I regenerated for a while and got a start with good food, some hills and commerce resources. The catch was that many of these were calendar resources, but I decided to go with it anyway.
I did the raging barbs + great wall thing and I must say it works really well. Enjoy those barb axemen, guys! I'll just build some infrastructure here while running pacifism. The settled great spy also helped a lot with early espionage.
I also manipulated the starting locations of other civs using the knowledge from this thread (something I didn't even pay attention to on my first attempt). I set it up so that Joao, Cathy, Monty and Toku spawned in the north (two REXers vs. the trouble maker and the isolationist) and me, Wang, Brennus and Gandhi (filler civ) in the south.
Gandhi only got to live until ~1000 BC before I rushed him. Wang was almost killed by barbs (how a protective civ gets into barb trouble is something I'll never understand
), but I let him live and that turned out to be a good decision. I found out the entire world was buddhist, except WK (who was more like a city-state than an actual civ) was hindu.
My strategy was set there and then: Make friends with the AIs, get to Mass Media, build UN in a border city, gift it to WK and cruise to victory. I did divert from the MM beeline a little:
- I grabbed the late religions (Christianity, Taoism and Islam) just so that the AIs don't get them and break the buddhist harmony by converting. Philo is required for lib and theology speeds up paper, so you might as well take them. Divine right is a dead end tech, so maybe I would've done well without it. It's a good tech to trade around, though, as it doesn't really help the AI.
- Liberalism, obviously. The AI's tech rate was so abysmal that I deliberately held it back and eventually took Mass Media out of it in the 1600s! My heart skipped a beat when I saw Cathy running free religion (What! I checked the tech screen a turn ago and she was nowhere close!), but then I realized she'd just built the Shwedagon Paya.
- Banking, to be able to run mercantilism (Toku's favourite civic). I also got a great merchant shortly afterwards, so I bulbed Economics.
I had avoided gunpowder, so I was able to double-bulb most of electricity with great scientists. When I gifted the UN to Korea, Brennus had actually the most pop and got me sweating for a while. Thankfully, biology + farm spamming + junk cities on cultural borders made me eligible again.
Here's a screenshot from the end, if someone's interested:
Most of my strategy came from this thread, so a huge thanks to everyone who contributed. I regenerated for a while and got a start with good food, some hills and commerce resources. The catch was that many of these were calendar resources, but I decided to go with it anyway.
I did the raging barbs + great wall thing and I must say it works really well. Enjoy those barb axemen, guys! I'll just build some infrastructure here while running pacifism. The settled great spy also helped a lot with early espionage.
I also manipulated the starting locations of other civs using the knowledge from this thread (something I didn't even pay attention to on my first attempt). I set it up so that Joao, Cathy, Monty and Toku spawned in the north (two REXers vs. the trouble maker and the isolationist) and me, Wang, Brennus and Gandhi (filler civ) in the south.
Gandhi only got to live until ~1000 BC before I rushed him. Wang was almost killed by barbs (how a protective civ gets into barb trouble is something I'll never understand
), but I let him live and that turned out to be a good decision. I found out the entire world was buddhist, except WK (who was more like a city-state than an actual civ) was hindu.My strategy was set there and then: Make friends with the AIs, get to Mass Media, build UN in a border city, gift it to WK and cruise to victory. I did divert from the MM beeline a little:
- I grabbed the late religions (Christianity, Taoism and Islam) just so that the AIs don't get them and break the buddhist harmony by converting. Philo is required for lib and theology speeds up paper, so you might as well take them. Divine right is a dead end tech, so maybe I would've done well without it. It's a good tech to trade around, though, as it doesn't really help the AI.
- Liberalism, obviously. The AI's tech rate was so abysmal that I deliberately held it back and eventually took Mass Media out of it in the 1600s! My heart skipped a beat when I saw Cathy running free religion (What! I checked the tech screen a turn ago and she was nowhere close!
), but then I realized she'd just built the Shwedagon Paya.- Banking, to be able to run mercantilism (Toku's favourite civic). I also got a great merchant shortly afterwards, so I bulbed Economics.
I had avoided gunpowder, so I was able to double-bulb most of electricity with great scientists. When I gifted the UN to Korea, Brennus had actually the most pop and got me sweating for a while. Thankfully, biology + farm spamming + junk cities on cultural borders made me eligible again.
Here's a screenshot from the end, if someone's interested:
Spoiler :
Well, I decided to try yet again ftw on this challenge. Started SW with like 3 rice, deer, cows, silk etc with one of those like oasis lake like things with some nice forest and grassland. I like always on this mapscript never get any military resources so I'm going to try to win this peacefully yet again. Got my four basic cities and I'm going to wait till at least 60% tech rate to build another one. My tech rate is nice and I got Gwall and am like 2ish turns from the Oracle which will bulb me towards Theology and AP. I think I have a shot of winning this time.
Ronnie1
Deity
I see my sub mission was accepted. (Ok, dont laugh but It has been a while since I did a HOF game and had not realized where to find out the outcome
So here is how I got the good result to this date.
I realized and did;
- First, that at this level, it is very possible to get the CS sling with one or 2 gems. I ended up getting 3 Gems and the sling but nearly no food in the capital. Could have been worst.
- Second, I am taking maximum AI to create more conflicts and small empires to capture and Vassel. I ended up getting 3 peace vassals and killed off several AI.
- Third. Mansa, Fred and Hatty are friends to keep since all the mongers will hate them and they will ask for help. Sad that Hatty was right next to me and I needed the land. But the other two and Wong needed the protection and I provided in several wars with just a handful of axes. Yes they were phony wars but I made sure my units protected Musas cities from the Celts.
What else I did:
- Expand to about 30% science either by war or self established. Hatty and Toku gave most of their cities to the cause (3 each) and established a few myself.
- Hope for Joao to build many cities for me. Luckily, he did, and on our side of the map but not many about 4-5. Left him alive till the end I think.
- After getting the essential techs, head to MM.
- Run about 3-4 GA.
- Let two Aggressive AI's get to size 2 spot.
That was basically the plan.
How I intend to do better in the next try :
- Better capital (less Gems more food) or a high food yield second city.
- Use the whip more than a couple of hand full times during the game. My capital was very food poor and I used a few cottages.
- Build at least 1 worker per city.
- Build the Heroic Epic.
- Build the F-Palace sooner than near the end of the game.
- Rush earlier and drop to 10% science while recovery.
- Know what other National Wonders are available.
I intend to beat my time and hope others also do the same.
Almost forgot, I am a builder, so did build a few wonders like Mids, Glib and MM. I cultivated a GE for bulbing and kept him for nearly 2000 years. BTW, do not wait for others to finish the MM to capture at this level. It delayed my first GA nearly 50 turns after Music.
I am brand new to HoF.....mostly been a xOTM player. I am confused by the opponents listed here Htadus. Are we allowed to use more opponents than just those listed in the game description?
Manco Capac
Friday,13 June,I Collapse
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- Mar 1, 2010
- Messages
- 8,051
Welcome to HoF world. Even though you affirm being a xOTM player, you already have a neat advantage knowing xOTM skills have to with many unknown variables imposed by an external map maker (evil or nut..uh...I mean not
) Just take your time to get used to the different format of play in HoF games.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Before comitting some games, just take a look on the rules.
In regards to opponent lists, this is only an imposition on the presence of some leader (to make a HoF game into a challenge). But normally the max opponents number of AI's is ruled by HoF rules.
Being on a standard size map, you may have 10 opponents and no more.
Manco Capac
Friday,13 June,I Collapse
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2010
- Messages
- 8,051
Htadus
A and L's dad
Brief answer is, Yes.
On the HOF rules link, you will see the maximum number of opponant for a given map size. So as long as you include all the required AI and there are more slots available, then you can bring along additonal and right type of AI's to get you to the specific VC.
For me, when Mansa is in the game with aggressive AI, he is always hated and he becomes my friend and the AI keep him under check. I just like hatty and Fred as partners or pushovers at this level.
