Swordnboard
Warlord
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2018
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- 223
This thread will examine a game I played in G-Minor 231 in the hopes of shedding light on and discussing best practices for an HOF-type religious (AP) victory on normal speed. The strategies presented should be reasonably applicable (with modifications) for difficulties from noble to deity, and on speeds from quick to epic. Difficulties below noble have slow and useless (but friendly) AI, as well as the ability to gain workers and settlers from goody huts, while marathon speed alters the worker-stealing landscape and even opens up the possibility of conquest. A deep understanding of AP mechanics is also useful for achieving (cheesy) victories in difficult immortal and deity games, especially in isolation or on non-pangaea mapscripts, and is a useful club in the golf bag of any high-level player.
This guide is currently a work in progress. Any commentary, questions, or suggestions are welcome.
Part 0: Game and Map Setup
Leader (Ranked roughly based on my opinion of them)
Rationale:
Settings:
Rationale: It is always wise to have 2 potential friends (Zara and Hatty) in case one ends up nearby and you choose to steal from them rather than buttering them up. Also, Ragnar is an excellent "enemy" civ because he opens borders at annoyed and will often be worst enemies with the high peaceweight hatty even after you DOW him. Hatty also has this quality making her the perfect versatile "frenemy" civ. Gandhi is the only "friend" that even comes close to Zara and Hatty, but he keeps you on a short leash with a -2 penalty for declaring war on his friends. I can only have 3 missionaries at once, so while one more opponent would allow more stolen workers it makes the endgame far too difficult.
Start:
What I look for in map finder: 2 mining resources (Gold, Gems, Silver). I'll also want a granary resource or 3+ floodplains (or oasis), but sometimes exceptions can be made and often these things aren't confirmed until after settling. On the other hand, smallish maps regenerate quickly so I could afford to be pickier. Gold is much better than gems or silver since it both packs a bigger commerce punch and is found on productive tiles, meaning the capital will not have to grow as much, but the other resources are acceptable. Plains-hill start (or better yet, marble), falls under a nice-to-have but isn't absolutely necessary.
Without further ado, the start:
Why this start is fantastic (one of the best out of hundreds I looked at for the gauntlet), in rough order of importance
This guide is currently a work in progress. Any commentary, questions, or suggestions are welcome.
Part 0: Game and Map Setup
Leader (Ranked roughly based on my opinion of them)
- Ramesses (stipulated by the gauntlet and my choice): Ideal traits, OK techs
- Gandhi or Asoka: Misses out on critical industrious trait, but fast worker is the best UU and ideal techs
- Huayna (Stronger on larger sizes): Financial is second-tier trait, Quechua, Strong techs
- Qin: Techs on par with Huayna's, but useless protective trait and no strong UU.
- Augustus: Imperialistic has niche use, mining is a handy tech
- Bismarck: Expansive can be a nice addition, but garbage hunting tech means he starts with scout. Great for lower difficulties where we hut workers rather than stealing them.
- Other industrious leaders (De Gaulle, Louis, Roosevelt, Stalin, in that order).
- Mansa Musa (Best non-industrious traits and pretty good techs)
- Wang Kon (Ideal techs and OK financial trait)
Rationale:
- Mining and Mysticism are critical techs without which the victory is impossible. Agriculture is usually researched, The Wheel has niche use, Fishing has no value, and Hunting has a negative value since we'd like to start with a warrior.
- Industrious greatly reduces the amount of forest-chopping necessary to finish the AP, and makes completing the oracle rather easy as well. Spiritual removes anarchy which can be upwards of 3-4 turns in a roughly 60-turn game. Financial aids in research, the main bottleneck for much of the game. Expansive allows a quicker worker build to get the snowball rolling faster. Imperialistic has minor use when a settler is needed for religious spread or diplomatic bonuses. All other traits have very marginal use.
- The Fast Worker is amazing! It greatly accelerates the forest-chop process and returns to the capital more quickly after being stolen. The Quechua is a worker stealing safety net, and can even allow destruction of an AI or two to reduce the amount of missionaries necessary to achieve victory. I haven't found any other unique unit or building I would be excited to use.
Settings:
- Pangaea (solid shoreline, high seas, toroidal wrap). The goal is to minimize the number of land tiles to allow for easiest worker-stealing and religious conversion. Maps generally range from 150-250 tiles on tiny, though even smaller "micro-pangaea" maps are possible.
- Temperate climate is a must since forests are critical.
- No barbarians
- No events (Game can be won without positive events, and negative diplomatic events are reasonably common and can kill a game. Slave revolts suck as well.)
- Huts on: not necessary for a super fast victory, but it's HOF so might as well give ourselves the chance to get lucky.
- Aggressive AI (faster ceasefires after worker-stealing)
- Zara Yaqob (stipulated by the gauntlet, but an unbelievably awesome leader): +2 innate diplomatic modifier, can be bribed to war or to change civics at cautious, handy and rare neutral peaceweight means he is often cautious with other AI, Favorite Civic: Theocracy
- Hatshepsut (also stipulated by the gauntlet but quite strong): +1 innate modifier, opens borders at annoyed, extra-high peaceweight, war or civic at pleased, favorite civic: organized religion
- Ragnar: Extra-low peaceweight, opens borders at annoyed
Rationale: It is always wise to have 2 potential friends (Zara and Hatty) in case one ends up nearby and you choose to steal from them rather than buttering them up. Also, Ragnar is an excellent "enemy" civ because he opens borders at annoyed and will often be worst enemies with the high peaceweight hatty even after you DOW him. Hatty also has this quality making her the perfect versatile "frenemy" civ. Gandhi is the only "friend" that even comes close to Zara and Hatty, but he keeps you on a short leash with a -2 penalty for declaring war on his friends. I can only have 3 missionaries at once, so while one more opponent would allow more stolen workers it makes the endgame far too difficult.
Start:
What I look for in map finder: 2 mining resources (Gold, Gems, Silver). I'll also want a granary resource or 3+ floodplains (or oasis), but sometimes exceptions can be made and often these things aren't confirmed until after settling. On the other hand, smallish maps regenerate quickly so I could afford to be pickier. Gold is much better than gems or silver since it both packs a bigger commerce punch and is found on productive tiles, meaning the capital will not have to grow as much, but the other resources are acceptable. Plains-hill start (or better yet, marble), falls under a nice-to-have but isn't absolutely necessary.
Without further ado, the start:
Spoiler :
Why this start is fantastic (one of the best out of hundreds I looked at for the gauntlet), in rough order of importance
- Both mining resources are riverside gold
- 15(!) forests within the 40% ring, 7 of which are in the fat cross and can be nicely grouped into threes
- Floodplains for early growth and commerce, but not too many to cause unhealthiness
- Riverside Corn
- Forested silk allows for minor micromanagement of production without losing commerce
- Riverside Grassland Hill that can be mined without bronze working
- All resources will auto-connect via rivers, alleviating happy and health concerns
- Not too difficult to move workers around due to all of the flat land
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