Bartleby's HoF Thread

[Spoonwood]

I'm going to start a new 100k attempt, I think I have a better idea of how to go about it:

1) switch the civ to Sumeria; cheap Universities are a better bargain than cheap Cathedrals, for a game that's going to go past Education
2) no religious opponents, and go for a CB SGL, I really want the Pyramids
3) less culture, more military before Feudalism (the only revolt will be Despotism to Feudalism), build a large stack of horsemen to upgrade, then use disconnect/upgrade
4) add another opponent (maybe more, although I prefer to be able to see everybody on the Foreign Advisor screen if possible) - that should help keep the AI smaller, thus with less culture

I have to wonder if archipelago 60% could work out better than pangea 60%. The domination limit will end up higher. There also exist more coastal areas, so use of sea squares will happen more often with culture pops, and thus there exist fewer tiles per city on average counting towards the domination limit. Some 60% archipelago maps also end up having a large mass of connected land.

Also, at some point (or early on if you feel comfortable enough), it might make sense to setup 1 or 2 turn worker pumps. After rails and the wars if you don't have enough food and production for them early. Ignas's Chieftain game had a fair bit of workers getting joined to cities for purposes of pop-rushing. Maybe even the core builds culture last, while the other cities have their culture pop rushed in.

 

[Bartleby]

I submitted a tiny regent 100k, it won't change my QM stats, because I finished in 1040 AD, should be #4.

I started playing those games to get in some practice for pop-rushing, aiming to get below 1000 AD. This was the third attempt, and I have another few starts so I'm going to be trying again this weekend.

Attempt #1 had an SGL that I used for ToA, and hand-built pyramids, it finished in 1130 AD.
The second attempt also had an SGL that I used for ToA, after which I figured out that the Pyramids would've been better. That finished in 1090 AD.
Then I had an abandoned attempt with an SGL that I used for the Pyramids, but then France declared war on me while I was settling along their borders so I switched to conquering them. I don't remember the exact finish date, but it after 200 AD, so way beyond the tiny regent domination table.

The third attempt had no SGL and I hand-built both the Pyramids and ToA, that got me the 1040 AD win.

So with the remaining saves I'm hoping to get another SGL start that will get me a pre-1000 AD win, but it'll be tough to beat the current #2, 930 AD set by Marsden.

 

[Bartleby]

Last night I tried to do a tiny warlord histographic, as an OCC 20k, but I suffered an embarrasing domination loss in 1975, after 90 min of play. Should've picked an archipelago instead of pangaea.
It was amusing to see French tanks and bombers attacking English marines on my doorstep though.

 

[BlackBetsy]

Last night I tried to do a tiny warlord histographic, as an OCC 20k, but I suffered an embarrasing domination loss in 1975, after 90 min of play. Should've picked an archipelago instead of pangaea.
It was amusing to see French tanks and bombers attacking English marines on my doorstep though.

I'm surprised Warlord AI made it to Motorized Transportation by 1975. Were you feeding them techs?

 

[Bartleby]

No, I wasn't. I was quite surprised at the tech rate too, but they did have unrestricted expansion - I never set foot outside my borders. Both England and France are commercial, so that would help them as well I suppose. France made it to the modern age, but I don't know if they researched any modern techs.

 

[Bartleby]

On start number 4 this morning for TR100k. In 1125 BC I've just got a second SGL, for the last Ancient tech. My hand-build of ToA only has 13 turns to go and I can't decide whether to switch ToA to Oracle and then rush ToA elsewhere, or let the ToA finish and keep the leader for the Sistine Chapel.

Unfortunately the start is otherwise a bit crap, a big jungle to the east and a big marsh to the west. The AI are not very well placed either - and France had a floodplain start so they've built seven towns already.

 

[BlackBetsy]

My hand-build of ToA only has 13 turns to go and I can't decide whether to switch ToA to Oracle and then rush ToA elsewhere, or let the ToA finish and keep the leader for the Sistine Chapel.

What are you going to do about learning Education? This is always such a tough call in these games.

 

[Bartleby]

I'm not planning to learn Education. I think that Universities are just too expensive for a non-scientific civ. And, with maintenance costs I think I wouldn't be able to get to Steam Power fast enough to make it worthwhile.

 

[Bartleby]

I decided to go with the Oracle, so now I won't research Theology.
My plan had been to build a force of around 12 Gallic Swords and then conquer France, it looked to me like that the left-hand part of the map might be about 2/3 of the territory and I'd leave the bit on the right for Carthage.
But, in 950 BC Carthage sneak-attacked, so I'm fighting them instead. I razed three no-culture size one towns, they're left with only Carthage and Theveste.
It's 570 BC, Feudalism will be in next turn - I researched Monotheism and Engineering before Feudalism, to give me time to build a few more Gallics.

 

[Bartleby]

Carthage eliminated in 490 BC. In typical style the last Numidian Mercenary took two turns to kill, so Carthage had a turn of Golden Age before leaving the stage.

In 210 BC I finished research on Gunpowder (I have saltpeter), and research was turned off. In fact I do have one scientist working on Chemistry; as a professional chemist I simply can't not research it at all.

 

[Bartleby]

This is a pic from CivAssist II that shows the border with France in 10 AD. I'm a bit tempted to capture Lyons and Marseilles, just to deny them Iron and Horses.

 

[Bartleby]

I did capture Lyons and Marseilles, in 50 AD, and made peace soon after. Then France declared war back in 360 AD. After losing a few units (but managing to take out a couple of Gallic Swords too), the French accepted an offer of peace for 14 gold - their entire treasury. Hopefully now things can remain calm for the rest of the game. I'm hoping to finish before 900 AD, but I don't think I have any chance of beating RFHolloway's 820 AD game.

 

[Bartleby]

In 510 AD I reached halfway, 30070 culture and 920 culture per turn.
As of 600 AD I've passed 1000 culture per turn and I'm delighted to say that CivAssist II now predicts I'll reach 60k in 810 AD! Dunno if I can shave off another turn, I only have one cathedral left to rush, and 13 or 14 colosseums left. I did spot one more space that I forgot to plant a city, so I should end up with 100 cities. I'm 8 tiles from domination, but I don't think any more tiles will be picked up... must keep a close eye on that, though.

 

[Spoonwood]

In 510 AD I reached halfway, 30070 culture and 920 culture per turn.
As of 600 AD I've passed 1000 culture per turn and I'm delighted to say that CivAssist II now predicts I'll reach 60k in 810 AD! Dunno if I can shave off another turn, I only have one cathedral left to rush, and 13 or 14 colosseums left. I did spot one more space that I forgot to plant a city, so I should end up with 100 cities. I'm 8 tiles from domination, but I don't think any more tiles will be picked up... must keep a close eye on that, though.

Impressive! That should be a new number one then. One question. Did you build roads everywhere? When I did Small Regent 100k I figured out that a road network would make sense. But, if stopping research before Education, workers could get their jobs done more quickly if they don't build roads everywhere. I suppose that could theoretically make for more of a cash crunch, but in my game I didn't run into cash issues or found some solution.

 

[Bartleby]

I did skip roads a lot. Once most of the work was done and before joining workers for pop-rushing, I added a few more roads especially near France to make troop movement more straightforward, just in case.
I didn't have too much trouble with cash; I turned off research early and had a good cashflow for a while, then when costs started mounting I could easily afford the deficit. As more towns became finished I could run wealth and tax collectors and get back in the black - I've even started to research again, just for the hell of it.

 

[BlackBetsy]

Congrats in advance Bartleby!

 

[Bartleby]

I screenshotted the "you win" screen, unfortunately it didn't save. But I did win in 810 AD, and I'm very happy with that.

I didn't manage to get the colosseum up in the late-founded city, but all the rest of the cities were finished. I'd just finished researching Mil Trad and started a 4-turn run on Theology. I had over 2k gold in the bank and was making 58 per turn at 50% Science rate.

France made it into the Middle ages, and managed to research Feudalism and Monotheism.


edit: I finished with 60755 culture and 1083 per turn

 

[Spoonwood]

Congratulations now Bartleby (o. k. superslug still has to check it).

 

[Bartleby]

Thanks!

 

[Spoonwood]

You're welcome!