G-Major LVIII

[Morcar_olmig]

Welcome back Zenmaster and congrats with first quantum level run!

By the way, I had half an hour and fooled around the settling on gems thing, using my saves. It looks as if what drives the AIs to offer 2gpt, even 3, is the gpt differential between you and them, and not the military power. The military power plays a role on whether they offer or not, but not on the quantity. I tested a few variants, and if you are making more than 6 they offer 2 gpt, if you are making more than 8gpt they even offer 3gpt. Then I tested what happens if I trade my gpt for cash to take the number down and I got offered nothing, the minute I declared war and got my gpt back, they went back to offering 1-2 gpt. Not convinced that is it, but it does seem that way, I did not test it exhaustively as I need to get the diplo game in. Needs more testing.

Interesting... It's looks that there is clear correlation between your gpt and gpt offered by AI for peace deal. For marathon it should be like 1/3 of players gpt, while for standard it should be 1/1 i guess? That requires some testings.

@Vadalaz, would be great if you could prove that fact with real game testings.

P.S. Just finished TSG106 (messed up as usual - i'm still mediocre with the long run culture) - so i'm going to try myself in minor!

 

[zenmaster]

Thanks for the observations everyone. If I were to try this again, this would be my recipe, based on my own experience and strategies and observations of others (I feel as if I am "standing on the shoulders of giants," if you will)

Settings: Nothing weird (outside of the required OCC). Make sure Promotion saving is on and no need for Raging barbarians.
Oppponents: Include Pacal (as per Vadalaz), Harald, Isabella (as per Chuck), and Theodora and suit the rest to taste. Aside from possibly building a latish monument, Pacal befriended me and I got some good cash in a trade before crushing him in my win. Theodora befriended me too, but then backstabbed me right before the trade became possible! Still worth a try putting her in though. Harald is often a culture laggard. Carthage and Zulus were a little slow on culture in that win for what it's worth.

Initial city placement (per Chuck, vadalaz, Morcar_Olmig, and Bleidraner): If you are shooting for sub-110, don't bother with anything average. Basically, settling on gems or gold/silver with decent hexes adjacent is the way to go. Ideally in or near the shallow Eastern woodlands, but area placement alone would not make me reroll.

Build order: (per Vadalaz) Scout, monument, units (with 2nd scout or other unit bought asap) is the way to go. I messed around with other possibilities like scout scout monument or monument-first but they have big flaws with timings and opportunities.

General strategy: Your 2 limiting factors you have control over are when you finish Liberty and when you finish conquest. As per Cromagnus, as a general rule the earlier the warpath gets started the better. As Chuck said and Bleidraner observed, focus on conquest and hope the culture works out. As Morcar_Olmig noted, early units get earlier barb camps and conquests. In practice, this means identifying who will likely receive your GM concert tour asap and choose your first victim and conquest order asap. Don't just automatically take a peace deal for cash with everyone. If you can take someone out early, don't necessarily peace deal them and delay that conquest the full 30 turns.

Despite that, as Vadalaz discovered, Cultural CS alliances are the key to getting Liberty asap. As vadalaz and Bleidraner have noted, the balance you have to strike is when/how much to spend on units and Cultural CS alliances. Don't overspend on the Cultural CS- spending 500/1000 when 250/500 might do is not the best. But don't wait too long on quests or waffle too much as late CS alliances mean culture will limit you for sure. Make sure you have enough melee units to take cities quickly at the end in multiple places. A late bought scout was essential in my T117 win.

Conquest path: If at all possible, take out the Eastern woodlands civs as soon as you can before they expand. Remember you will have chariots at some point so factor them into your plans.

Religion: Pantheon if you get a faith ruin/alliance will be the one that gives you the most culture. Most likely God-king, but the gold/silver pantheon is a possibility. God-king does give the extra gold and hammer too so that might tip the scales too. The pasture one is tougher as workers improve so slowly on Marathon.

Final push: Make sure path of Great Musician is clear and protected. Make sure you have the melee units needed to take last minute cities.

That will be my gameplan if trying to go sub-110 in this final week. Hope the summary is of help any others looking to give it a go.
Good luck to all taking a(nother) shot.

 

[Morcar_olmig]

Final push: Make sure path of Great Musician is clear and protected. Make sure you have the melee units needed to take last minute cities.

Don't forget about the road to the victim's cap - in my game it saved me 3 turns (i had two separate road blocks on the GM's path, what can be seen on the second and third screen from the end).

Otherwise nice plan, happy hunting, zenmaster!

 

[Denniz]

Gauntlet Results:
G-Major LVIII - Culture, Chieftain, Standard, Great Plains Plus, Marathon, Egypt (Ramesses II) (check options)
1st Morcar_olmig - 2460 BC T-104
2nd vadalaz - 2420 BC T-108
3rd zenmaster - 2330 BC T-117

Congratulations!