Challenge-XIX-10

[Noble Zarkon]

​

While the general Hall of Fame is an ongoing competition, we are running a series of ten games called the Hall of Fame Challenge Series - "Fall of the Inca II". Standard Hall of Fame rules (*) still apply, but your best submission meeting the settings of one of the games will be counted towards the Challenge.

(*) Please read the >> HOF rules << BEFORE playing!
(*) Games must be played using the >> BUFFY MOD 3.19.003 << or >>>BUFFY MOD 3.19.004b<<<.
(*) Games to be submitted via the >> Civ IV Hall of Fame Website <<
(*) New players, please >> register << using your CFC forum name

Settings:

• Victory Condition: Time (though all victory conditions must be enabled)
• Difficulty: Chieftain
• Starting Era: Any
• Map Size: Any
• Speed: Marathon
• Map Type: Big and Small
• Civ: Mali (Mansa Musa)
• Opponents: Must include America (Lincoln), Carthage (Hannibal), France (De Gaulle), Portugal (Joao)
• Version: 3.19.003 or 3.19.004b
• Date: 10th September 2017 to 9th March 2018

Must not play as Inca.
The highest score wins.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

This will probably be one of the least popular challenges I know as Time games are not everyone's cup of tea. The Incas own the record at Small, Standard, Large and Huge on Chieftain / Marathon so I've left the size up to you - you can even play Tiny if you want to challenge my score with Liz in that slot (although that score is a lot more competitive than the Inca ones which are very beatable). I've also left the Starting Era open as I know some of you will knock this off with a Future start.

You will play as Mansa, whom most people prefer to play against! His traits are great for a Time game, Financial to sustain your economy and Spiritual to give you maximum flexibility. At Chieftain his Skirmishers can take out an AI or two with a bit of luck. The Mint will help sustain your economy as your Empire grows out to the Islands.

The opponents have been carefully chosen - no one with Mysticism in case you want an early religion and a Shrine to sustain your economy, no one with Hunting so more chance to grab the goody huts! Joao will build a decent amount of cities (for this level) which can be helpful in keeping the domination limit at bay, Hannibal can be a good trade partner early on (later in the game no AI is any use for trading as you will be so far ahead), Lincoln often chases the Optics / Astronomy line which can be quite helpful, DeGaulle is there for everyone to hate and perhaps a couple of worker steals!

I will definitely be submitting a game for this at Small and likely Standard as well - I'm hoping someone with a more powerful machine can take on the bigger maps!!

 

[Noble Zarkon]

I will definitely be submitting a game for this at Small

I've submitted this game with a score of 27,303 so a 50% increase on the previous record.

Walked into Washington and destroyed it early on, then warrior rushed Carthage. Teched Mysticism -> Polytheism -> Hunting -> Archery -> Masonry -> Monotheism. Carthage become a double Holy City (and later Confucianism would be founded there) and got Moai Statues, Wall Street, Mining Inc and Sid's Sushi so was the commercial hub of my Empire.

Built 6 Skirmishers and destroyed both of Joao's cities leaving DeGaulle as my only rival, I left him alone and went building.

I did have some fun with Privateers though Meet Ivan the Terrible - he's level 22, would be 23 but there are no more Promotions he can be given lol!

Spoiler Ivan the Terrible :

Here are some statistics for my Empire

Spoiler Statistics :

 

[Noble Zarkon]

I will definitely be submitting a game for this at Small and likely Standard as well

I'm working on the Standard one now, have a good game going where Huts have given me 4 Settlers, a Worker and Animal Husbandry!!

 

[Ozbenno]

Played the huge map!

Been many many years since I played a Time game and would do it differently if I had my time again

Forgot the importance of grabbing all the islands until it was too late. So had a lot less cities (and seafood) than I should have and was within 1% of domination for 400 odd turns and had 4 cities due to become legendary within 10 or so turns at the end. I had a row of Cereal Mill powered cities on my border to stabilise it (too much culture in Sid Sushi). Got to future tech 820 which was nice!

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Played the huge map!

Well done!

Got to future tech 820 which was nice!

Impressive!

 

[Kaitzilla]

I've never won a Time victory before.
Does it have a snazzy victory screen?

**Edit**
Actually, I went back and looked and did win a Time Game many, many years ago.

Highest score wins on this one? hmm

 

[Ozbenno]

There is a seperate victory movie. Can't remember what it is as I'm always just relieved it is over

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Guess what "El-Wingnut" did?

She played the first whole game on epic speed! Arrrrgh! I got a half decent score too. Now I have to actually do it right and do the game on marathon.

 

[Fippy]

Wait..you will really punish yourself with marathon on a time game?

 

[lymond]

Well, era is open on this game, so one can do a late era start...very late era

 

[Major Tom]

I did start in future era. Man, those settlers were expensive.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Man, those settlers were expensive.

Yes but the cities they found have a few buildings don't they?

 

[Major Tom]

Yes but the cities they found have a few buildings don't they?

Plenty of buildings and population 5, so not expensive at face value perhaps. But problem was early expansion. Around 2.500 hammers or 15pop whip for settler . AI was too far away on my selected settings. Should have used a crowded map.

 

[lymond]

Plenty of buildings and population 5, so not expensive at face value perhaps. But problem was early expansion. Around 2.500 hammers or 15pop whip for settler . AI was too far away on my selected settings. Should have used a crowded map.

War is quite easy on the later era starts even on Deity, so Chieftain your early priority besides improvements, is capturing stuff and founding Sushi and Mining. Once you have those corps spread and your power network online, settlers will come much faster. Not like you need to tech on Future. I would not whip much at all on a future start. Chop out a few extra workers first thing..well WBs too if needed(likely) Spiritual is great here for the civic switches, and Serfdom has a lot of value as one of first civics in the late eras to get those workshops/watermills online fast...then Caste.

 

[Major Tom]

Agree. Need a crowded map and steamroll AI. But question about your two last words (..then Caste). I see no point in running Caste, would have stayed in Serfdom (good tip), farming and get max food for max pop. At the end I was mostly running spy specialists for enhanched sabotage of remaining AIs spaceparts.

Edit: The setting was future era start, so soon it was only future tech umpteen to tech.

 

[lymond]

Well, Serfdom loses its value once you get your initial improvements in place. You probably will get more workers anyway from the AIs, and you'll be running specialists quite a bit once Sushi is in. Caste boosts your workshops and allows you to run more specialists like merchants for gold so you can buy stuff.

Espionage seems a waste. Just take their caps as they are building parts. Ultimately you can whittle the AIs down to one AI with a crap city so Space is not even an option.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

I'm playing the Large map now and had something really funny happen - have upped the Domination limit to 76% via killing every original AI (only AI left is a former vassal of Hannibal) and setting up 16 vassals. One of them is Asoka but both his cities are under enormous cultural pressure due to Sushi. I have avoided Mass Media so the AP is still active and a vote came up to assign one of his cities to me which succeeded! He was left with one city and yet again the assign city vote came up, I was sure he would Defy but he didn't he simply voted No. The vote was successful so his last city was assigned to me and he's dead!! He's still on the scoreboard so the Dom limit is still 76% - I'm sure @WastinTime or someone can come up with a really evil way to exploit this!!

Spoiler AP kills Asoka :

 

[Kaitzilla]

I'm playing the Large map now and had something really funny happen - have upped the Domination limit to 76% via killing every original AI (only AI left is a former vassal of Hannibal) and setting up 16 vassals. One of them is Asoka but both his cities are under enormous cultural pressure due to Sushi. I have avoided Mass Media so the AP is still active and a vote came up to assign one of his cities to me which succeeded! He was left with one city and yet again the assign city vote came up, I was sure he would Defy but he didn't he simply voted No. The vote was successful so his last city was assigned to me and he's dead!! He's still on the scoreboard so the Dom limit is still 76% - I'm sure @WastinTime or someone can come up with a really evil way to exploit this!!

Spoiler AP kills Asoka :

View attachment 482197

I've never seen the AP literally kill someone.
Good job.
Got the max dom limit, and now you're bumping off your colonies.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

After having eliminated AIs via Culture-Flipping, I was not very surprised that the Apostolic Palace could also eliminate players, and have done so myself. It's still a pretty neat thing to have pulled off, though, so, nice job!

I do find it pretty impressive that you've managed to keep your Colonies from expanding. I would have expected Colonies to start settling other islands, thereby risking you going over the Domination Land Limit.