Challenge-XVII-04

[shulec]

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. 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: Domination (though all victory conditions must be enabled)
• Difficulty: Emperor
• Starting Era: Ancient
• Map Size: Standard
• Speed: Normal
• Map Type: Inland Sea
• Required: No Tribal Villages, No Random Events
• Must Not Be Checked: No Barbarians
• Civ: Rome
• Opponents: Any
• Version: 3.19.003 or 3.19.004b
• Date: 10th January to 10th June 2016

Must not play as Inca.
The earliest finish date wins, with score as a tiebreaker.

 

[cseanny]

Edit: Will be playing with Julius Caesar.

Thinking about opening up 2 ways and would like some feed back.

1. Agr > Bw > Iron > Whl > Myst > Pot > Wrt > Med > Prst > Math > Oracle Currency > Trade for Alpha and Monarchy > CoL > Feud (could easily flip CoL and Feud if AI pick up Monarchy quick).

2. Same as above except after Prst > Monarchy > Oracle Feud > Currency > CoL. If I can't trade for Alpha quickly I'll obviously pick that up myself after Feud. Would eventually need to trade for Math this route too.

I'm leaning towards #1 because I like the idea of conquered cities using more powerful chops in conjunction with whipping to produce quite a few more Praetorians (should be able to steal enough workers to make roads easy enough and chop). Additionally quick Currency/CoL would mean no need to stop the war machine at any point in the game.

On the flip side, quick Feud gives a discount on units, +2xp, and quicker Vassals. I'll imagine my 1st 1-4 cities will have barracks but not so much the rest. As the game goes on distance to new targets comes into play therefore my Original cities with the higher XP won't even be making units at that point because by the time they got across the map the game will likely be over. Now if I got the Oracle/Feud route will some AI's delay they're normal beeline to Feud?? That's another very strong factor to consider. No LBs would be nice.

Anyways, thoughts in favor of either or both would be appreciated.

 

[Pollina]

Take a look at the Challenge VIII-02 logs and this thread. Same settings except for opponents.

Looks like Tachy went for Oracle->Feudalism. I would probably go for a somewhat different opening (no IW beeline), but may change my mind.

Good luck!

 

[cseanny]

Thanks for the link. Took a look at the game and my #2 opening is exactly the same (literally). What I find odd is Tachy went up against 74 Archers and 2 spear. No Axe, No Sword, etc. After brainstorming I'm going to try a game with Math (lot's of forest this map) > and Oracle Currency. It seems stronger to me.

I would probably go for a somewhat different opening (no IW beeline), but may change my mind.

I haven't played many games in quite a long time but from memory Emperor tech very slow. Point - I had thought about opening up with Food > Bw (pre chop) > then beeline towards Alpha and then trade for everything towards Oracle, to include IW.

I'm not sure how quickly AI's get IW this level which would be the breaking point for me. It seems the fastest possible win comes from getting the Praet role started immediately. Time will tell.

 

[cseanny]

Ended up playing with Augustus instead. Getting early Oracle and fail gold ended up looking better imo.

Gave a few starts a try and decided that option #2 is best. Played a quickish game (for me!) with lots of mistakes, to include losing an initial settler to a Bear (!!). Wasn't able to match Tachy's dual AI worker steal (which was 2 AI - multiple workers from both). Also, more than half of my AIs ended up having Axe.

So inconjunction with losing an early settler (lol) and facing too many Axe I made other micro and border pop mistakes at the end too. Shoulda, coulda, woulda finished a lot earlier. Not sure I wanna play another one out...............

edit: Played one more a lot slower (3hours slower, wowza!) and improved a bit. Let my Vassal take a barb city and accidently attacked a newly found city a bit to early (auto raze). This ended up keeping me just under Domination limit for around 4-5 turns. Definitely not playing another though lol.