While the Gauntlets laid down in recent months have been fantastic in general (thank you!), I have to be honest in that highish level Domination, Quick speed, Large/Huge map gauntlets are not very enticing. Not wanting to be critical, I just want to lay out some observations to constructively help increase Domination game gauntlet participation levels going forward hopefully.
Just recently, and only on King level, the following got zero entries
- Expansion: Brave New World
- Victory Condition: Domination (though all victory conditions must be enabled)
- Difficulty: King
- Map Size: Large
- Map Type: Rainforest
- Speed: Quick
- Leader: Iroquois (Hiawatha)
- Opponents: Any
- Version: SV8
- Date: 1st December 2022 to 31st January 2023
and the previous December got one entry for the similar gauntlet below, me, who mainly did it for the novelty of "maptype:any" so I could pick the smallest map possible and because I figured King/Carthage might not be too sloggy to deal with
- Expansion: Brave New World
- Victory Condition: Domination (though all victory conditions must be enabled)
- Difficulty: King
- Map Size: Huge
- Map Type: Any
- Speed: Quick
- Leader: Carthage (Dido)
- Opponents: Any
- Version: SV8
- Date: 1st December 2021 to 3rd January 2022
Even on Prince and Standard speed, a Huge Continents Domination game below got only 1 entry (props to
@billybgame !). The Huge Continents map is just daunting timewise for domination.
- Expansion: Brave New World
- Victory Condition: Domination (though all victory conditions must be enabled)
- Difficulty: Prince
- Map Size: Huge
- Map Type: Continents
- Speed: Standard
- Leader: Greece (Alexander)
- Required: Complete Kills, No City Razing
- Opponents: Any
- Version: SV8
- Date: 1st November to 3rd December 2022
Getting back to the current Gauntlet settings,
By the time you tech to good military technologies on Quick Speed, the higher level opponents have them as well, and the speed of conquest is very slow on Quick, especially if given any map that impedes movement at all. There is much more space-clogging and resistance from Barbarians and AI civs. While they may be seen as a Major challenge, (and admittedly rightly so!), High level, big map, quick speed domination challenges are by nature sloggy and have not engendered many/any entries. A Higher level Quick Speed Domination game is paradoxically NOT quicker than a Standard or longer speed Domination game because of the increased board-clogging and resistance.
This Assyria challenge in theory should be enticing because siege towers and the bonus technologies gained through conquest should speed things up, but... the small continents map blunts the effective time period of siege towers, as does Quick speed. Unless you get great map luck, the towers won't be able to get to and take out many capitals before being obsolete. If you go for galleass/frigate conquest, the small continents map might mean some inland capitals which are a pain to deal with in that case, especially on Immortal Quick. And the large map means lots of slow "swimming" after optics while the Immortal AI civs and barbs are pumping out units on Quick speed. And nine capitals to deal with. And Immortal Happiness penalties. I honestly cannot bring myself to even start this one, genuine Major challenge notwithstanding. The fact that I have been the only one in a year to even submit with this type of setting makes it a complete non-starter as a gauntlet for me.
Suggestions:
If there is going to be a Quick Speed domination challenge, make it at least two of -- lowish level and/or small/predictable map, and/or a very good conquering civ.
(Ex. A Large Archipelago Quick Domination game got 5 entries last year as it was Warlord Germany.
A Prince Standard Fractal Japan Domination game (not even Quick) got 4 entries a couple years ago which is fine.)
For higher level domination challenges, Standard or longer game speeds would be more enticing to enter than Quick speed games as well, paradoxically, as the conquest will come more quickly/easily than with quick speed. And nicer (and/or smaller) maps for conquest (e.g. not Large Continents) would be good for higher levels.
Seafaring civs on a water map or Civs with good unique units that have followed the above criteria have all engendered more Domination game entries and participation in the recent past, I think.
I know that Major gauntlets are meant to be challenging, but this current type of setting has not been enticing people to rise to this type of challenge recently. If Dines, NiceOneEmlyn, or other high level Domination players were in the mix, this setting would be more viable for "throwing down the gauntlet" at present. As it is, I predict this gauntlet will get few to no entries.
Just my two cents. Not meaning to be critical at all. Just offering suggestions for more engagement in Domination gauntlets going forward with my reasoning behind them.
I have been greatly enjoying the recent gauntlets and appreciate the great thought and effort
@aafritz17 has been putting in to create them!
If some players are really looking forward to this current gauntlet, please chime in and prove me wrong! I would welcome it, actually.
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My one concrete Domination gauntlet suggestion: At some point, revisit the Boreal "Heathen Conversion" Domination gauntlet from awhile back, one of the
funnest ever.
While the general Hall of Fame is an ongoing competition, we like to run time-definite competitions between updates that we call Gauntlets. Standard Hall of Fame rules (*) still apply, but any games meeting the settings will be counted towards the Gauntlet. (*) Please read the >> HOF rules
forums.civfanatics.com
New Gauntlet wouldn't have to be Immortal level of course, but getting the reformation belief Heathen Conversion is crazy on Boreal with all the barbarians Boreal produces.
| Heathen Conversion | Missionaries Convert adjacent Barbarian Units to this Civilization's Control | Merely standing next to a Barbarian will make them join your side - incredibly powerful with Raging Barbarians. |
Poland made it very quick to be able to get to reformation in the Piety track, but any good early culture civ like Brazil or the Aztecs would do OK also, I would think. Or Germany so the Barbs would cost less unit maintenance maybe. Or Celts to guarantee a religion to implement Heathen Conversion ASAP. Anyway, having your missionaries just convert barbarians to your side en masse is completely bonkers, and this style of gauntlet is the only way to make this reformation belief relevant to winning quickly
