Bartleby's HoF Thread

[BlackBetsy]

I've played to 800 AD. I got Bach, Shakes, and Newton, but unfortunately all the Leo's builds meant I didn't get Cope or Smith.

I just entered the Industrial Age, I decided not to gift, to see if I got Steam, but I got Medicine. Then I gifted Germany and Russia, who both got Nationalism, and then Sumeria, who got Steam. I cost me 670 gold + Incense + gems to get it, but thankfully I have multiple sources of Coal. Persia is still in the Middle Ages, and I plan to attack them next turn...hope I can get a leader soon...

Istanbul is now building a Marketplace, I think that's the first non-culture build since before the Great Library in 1200 BC. Culture is 7267 & 95 per turn, with the Cathedral and Colosseum to double shortly before 1000 AD, and the University and Sistine to double around 1300 AD. Bach will double in 1520 AD. Shakes will not double; CAII predicts 20k in 1630 AD as things stand.

I have 5 turns until Industrialization, I should be able to afford to rush a Factory and Coal Plant.



Oh yeah... I got pollution the first turn after finishing Shakes, and then again two turns later.

I plugged your parameters into my calculator and if you want to finish by 1595, you've got about 820 more culture to add over 114 turns. If your Cathedral and Colosseum double by 1000, you'll be at 100 culture per turn @ 1000 AD, unless you can get USuff (4 CPT) done first to get you to 104. Getting it done in the next 15 turns will generate 400 culture for you by 1595. You've also got ToE (3 CPT) and Hoover Dam (2 CPT) to build in terms of IA wonders, which might get you another 320. Wall Street (2 CPT) will also help once you have the corporation - build banks now in 5 core cities. I'm pretty sure you are on a good path for a 1575 or so finish, which is a very good quality game.

 

[Spoonwood]

I got MapFinder to boot up on Windows 11, but it doesn't seem to interact with the game / restart / save maps. Is there anything I should be doing to get it kick started to actually interact with Civ3.

This sounds like what I had when I tried it.

 

[BlackBetsy]

I'm going to try to install the offline backup installer from GOG on the WinXP machine.

OMG it's working! And I can run it in the background while I play regular civ on my Win11 machine!

Update - now I can't get Civ3 to open on the XP virtual machine. It ran the first time; shut down and now it's not starting at all.

Interesting - my machine won't run CivIII on the virtual machine at the same time its running on the XP machine.

 

[Bartleby]

In 800 AD the dyes and spices deal I had with Persia expired. I had just finished positioning my Knights along my northern border to attack when a lone Sumerian Med Inf entered my territory in the far south. Maybe they're headed to the Sumerian exclave nearby? I let them go for a turn, but Horse and a Knight appeared behind them and a Sumerian Caravel dropped another Med Inf as close as they could land to my capital. Everybody knows the best time for a sneak attack is three turns into a deal that supplies them with two luxuries, right?

I demanded they leave and they declared war. I initiated some alliances.

This delayed my plans for Persia, but anyway a few turns later Mil Trad became available and I bought it, along with Saltpeter, from Germany and used most of my nest egg to upgrade 40 Knights to Sipahi, and about 10 turns after that, in 950 AD, I finally declared War on Persia. The Knight I had used to kill the Sumerian MDI dropped on my coast had promoted to Elite on his first battle, and then his second battle, against a Persian Longbow, generated a Leader!

In 920 AD had I built Universal Suffrage and a couple of turns started on ToE; I also delayed the Build of ToE by a turn so it would finish the same turn that Replaceable parts finished.

So in two turns I'll have Heroic Epic and the turn after that the Hoover Dam.

1000 AD culture 9253 and 107 per turn; CAII now says 1600 AD for 20k

 

[BlackBetsy]

I don't think I ever read sweeter words on a computer screen than "Our recent breakthrough in..."

 

[Bartleby]

1100 AD, over halfway there, with 10382 culture and 115 per turn.

I used the Replaceable Parts SGL to rush the Hoover Dam before the Heroic Epic so that I could have a chance to get another MGL. I got two, and used them to make armies so I could build the Pentagon. I hand-built the Epic and the Pentagon, then used another Leader to rush the Military Academy. I ended up hand-building Wall Street, because I didn't get another Leader in time; Persia is running out of units. I built Wall Street last because I had underestimated how much it would cost to cash-rush the five Stock Exchanges and didn't prebuild... I had to wait another turn to get up to the 2088 gold it eventually cost. Wall Street will complete this turn so next turn the cpt be 117.

I'm facing an economic crunch now, none of the AI I can trade with have any more gpt to offer and 100% Science is barely affordable, so I might end up having to lower the slider. Maybe I'll need to make peace with Sumeria to get more gold, but I think I still have War Happiness from them.

I'm thinking about the Big Picture in about 20 turns, I'll probably take my free tech first, and then if it's not a wonder tech, do the gifting and hope to trade for one. If I wait till then to make peace with Sumeria it might give me additional leverage (maybe not since there hasn't been much fighting, just a few landings from them so I've probably killed not much more than a dozen of their units).

 

[BlackBetsy]

1100 AD, over halfway there, with 10382 culture and 115 per turn.

You are having an absolutely fantastic game. This is an early 1500's finish. You have a very reasonable chance at the #1 spot. Congrats!

 

[Bartleby]

Thanks, I've run some numbers and I'm pretty sure it's not possible for me to beat AutomatedTeller's date, 1540/1545 looks quite possible, so I do think I'll get past Sanabas into 2nd place.

 

[Bartleby]

Oh, come on!! I've just finished cleaning that!

(it hit the same square as last time edit: That was wrong; I forgot, the first time it actually missed the city tiles; this time it hit one of the grassland tiles)

Persia has been reduced to three offshore cities, I might make peace. Sumeria continues to drop the odd unit off but I assume I still have War Happiness from them so I'm not inclined to sign peace with them yet. Barring funny business I don't intend to do any more major fighting.

Having eked out a bit more gpt from the rest of the AI, and also switched mostly from Military to Wealth production, I'm not feeling the pinch like I was 10 turns ago.

It's 8 turns till we reach the Modern Age, Motorized Transportation and Flight will both be 4 turns; I'm now thinking I'm not going to gift the Scientific AIs up even if I don't get a wonder tech for my freebie...

 

[Bartleby]

1540 AD finish!

I had decided to not gift up the Scientific opponents, partly because I was paranoid that one of them would get a leader and steal one of my wonders. In the end I didn't get a wonder tech (I got Ecology), and while I was considering whether to gift them after all, I absent-mindedly closed the Advisor screen during the Big Picture, which meant that my Army prebuild completed, and there was no hope of finishing before 1540 AD (I think 1535 might have been possible).
10 turns or so later, Abe sneak attacked, which ended up giving me MGLs for Intelligence Agency and Apollo Program, but they didn't improve the date.

This game turned out far, far better than what I had in mind when I started. I was optimistic I could beat the existing #3 date of 1705 AD, and I was hoping to be close to my Monarch date of 1565. If i'd gotten an SGL in the middle ages, or if the AI Leonardo's cascade had finished sooner so that I could've had Cope's and/or Smith's, I really think I could've had a shot at #1, but as it is I can't really grumble about Leaders for Ceremonial Burial, Writing, and Replaceable Parts.

 

[Spoonwood]

Congratulations Bartleby!

 

[Bartleby]

For my next attempt I want to try Small Warlord Spaceship, my goal is a pre-1000 AD launch.
I'm going to try with Sumeria again, against Greece, Korea, Ottomans, Persians and Byzantines. 60% Pangaea, and sedentary Barbarians.

 

[Bartleby]

I played about half a dozen starts last night, just trying to get a feel for the game. I found that popping seemed to be very streaky, more so than I remembered; in one game I'd get loads of techs, the next game I'd get almost exclusively barbarians. To avoid the risk running of out of huts, I didn't try to research Philosophy while waiting to pop Code of Laws, and went CB-Myst [just hoping for an early SGL]-(Alpha if not traded by then)-Writing-CoL-Philo.

So the first game tonight, in 1910 BC I got this:

I had also popped a settler near the capital. I'm not sure if I'm actually ready to play a proper game yet so I might well screw it up.

At 1000 BC I have 22 towns, 2 settlers, 10 workers & 3 slaves, I finished Astronomy in 1025 BC and now have 5 turns to go on Banking.

 

[BlackBetsy]

You finished Astronomy in 1025 BC?? Did you pop all the ancient age techs by 2000 bc or something?

I played about half a dozen starts last night, just trying to get a feel for the game. I found that popping seemed to be very streaky, more so than I remembered; in one game I'd get loads of techs, the next game I'd get almost exclusively barbarians. To avoid the risk running of out of huts, I didn't try to research Philosophy while waiting to pop Code of Laws, and went CB-Myst [just hoping for an early SGL]-(Alpha if not traded by then)-Writing-CoL-Philo.

So the first game tonight, in 1910 BC I got this:

View attachment 695421

I had also popped a settler near the capital. I'm not sure if I'm actually ready to play a proper game yet so I might well screw it up.

At 1000 BC I have 22 towns, 2 settlers, 10 workers & 3 slaves, I finished Astronomy in 1025 BC and now have 5 turns to go on Banking.

 

[Bartleby]

I did have fairly good hut-luck. I self-researched CB and Myst., traded for Alpha & masonry, researched Writing, CoL, Philo, then Polytheism. The rest were popped. While I was researching Philo I camped next to a few huts and popped them immediately afterwards, that left me researching Poly as the last required Ancient tech. I don't actually remember what year I reached the Middle Ages, but I was lucky enough to get Theology as my free tech, so I just needed to research Education before Astronomy.

 

[Bartleby]

I've reached 210 BC, and next turn Magnetism will finish and the Industrial Age will begin. After finishing Banking, which took 6 turns, I researched Invention, Gunpowder, Chemistry, Physics, and Theory of Gravity in 5 turns each, and finally managed to get 4-turn research for Metallurgy and Magnetism.

I have 41 towns, 3 settlers, 43 workers and 4 slaves. Recently I built a couple of Barracks and now have 6 veteran horsemen in addition to 6 regular Enkidu warriors. I just disbanded my curragh which had just finished circumnavigating the continent.

Golden Age should trigger in 6 turns, when Newton's University completes.

 

[BlackBetsy]

I've reached 210 BC, and next turn Magnetism will finish and the Industrial Age will begin. After finishing Banking, which took 6 turns, I researched Invention, Gunpowder, Chemistry, Physics, and Theory of Gravity in 5 turns each, and finally managed to get 4-turn research for Metallurgy and Magnetism.

I have 41 towns, 3 settlers, 43 workers and 4 slaves. Recently I built a couple of Barracks and now have 6 veteran horsemen in addition to 6 regular Enkidu warriors. I just disbanded my curragh which had just finished circumnavigating the continent.

Golden Age should trigger in 6 turns, when Newton's University completes.

What an astoundingly good game! If you can do the Industrial Age and Modern Age in 80 turns (I did Modern in 37 turns but that was at a higher difficulty and had AI research support), that will be a 820 AD finish, which would be great.

 

[Bartleby]

Thanks BlackBetsy. I am pretty pleased with how it's turning out so far. I'm crossing my fingers for a good trading outcome and another lucky free tech.

 

[Bartleby]

In 210 BC I gifted everyone up.

Ottomans and Persians both got Nationalism; Byzantines got Steam Power, Greece and Korea both got Medicine.

I bought Medicine from Alexander for Literature, 530 gold, and 35 gold per turn.
I bought Steam Power from Theodora for Medicine, Literature and 121 gold per turn.
I bought Nationalism from Xerxes for Medicine, Steam Power, Republic and Monarchy.

I sold Nationalism to Theodora for 115 gpt, and to Greece for 530 gold and 30 gpt. Neither of them could pay any more gpt, so I didn't quite get all my gold back.
I had been hoping that Steam Power could've been gotten by one of the super-backwards civs so that I could trade for it without needing to trade for Nationalism.

My free tech was... Ironclads.

Also, despite owning 33% of the land, there was no coal within my borders. Fortunately there was a source nearby that I was able to colonise in a couple of turns.

In 190 BC the best I could do was 7 turns on Electricity (Industrialization could've been 6 but I wanted to prioritise Replaceable Parts), but I managed to cut off a turn when the Golden Age began in 90 BC. Replaceable Parts was 4 turns (I have rubber but it's not connected) and I've just started Industrialization, due in 4 turns.


It's 10 AD, I have 44 towns, 1 settler, 55 workers and 4 slaves.

 

[BlackBetsy]

I bought Nationalism from Xerxes for Medicine, Steam Power, Republic and Monarchy.

I sold Nationalism to Theodora for 115 gpt, and to Greece for 530 gold and 30 gpt. Neither of them could pay any more gpt, so I didn't quite get all my gold back.
I had been hoping that Steam Power could've been gotten by one of the super-backwards civs so that I could trade for it without needing to trade for Nationalism.

My free tech was... Ironclads.

One of the things I learned is that, statistically, it's better to NOT trade for Nationalism. If you trade for Nationalism and have Nationalism, Steam Power, and Medicine, your possible free techs are Communism, Fascism, Ironclads, Sanitation, Electricity and Industrialization. In other words, 4 of the 6 free techs (66%) are NOT required.

If you only trade for Steam Power and Medicine, your possible free techs are Nationalism, Ironclads, Sanitation, Electricity and Industrialization. So only 3 of 5 free techs are not required (60%). And, to be fair, Nationalism is a great tech to trade for gpt, and Sanitation is at least useful to expand core cities. So the only truly useless tech is Ironclads, and you have only a 20% chance of that. Communism, Fascism and Ironclads are fully 50% of the possible free techs if you trade for Nationalism.