Bartleby's HoF Thread

[Bartleby]

I've been playing a Large Sid Diplomatic game.

I played as the Netherlands, on a hand-rolled, cold & dry 80% water archipelago, to try to hamper the AI growth, but that turned out bad for me because half of my territory ended up being Tundra.
Attempt #2 gave me an ocean-isolated start and I filled my local islands; also I was first to Philosophy, took Literature and built the Great Library. When ocean trading became possible I started capital-disconnection to catch up in tech.

Nobody ever landed on my shores, and because of the minimal aggression, despite refusing a few demands I never had any war (so no Golden Age).

The vote was concluded in 1735 and I won 4-3. That should put me in 4th (last) place on the Table.

I made a colossal blunder at the end of the Industrial Age, that cost me at least 20 turns; I forgot to include the resource in a trade and ended up paying 990 gpt to Russia for 20 turns, that money would probably have been enough to get me to the Modern Age over the next couple of turns, and possibly could've made trading for Fission less challenging.

I might try again with a better start, and as the Byzantines, and with more Scientific opponents. In this game I had the Germans, the Russians, and the Ottomans as Scientific opponents, and America, China and Mongolia for the others.

 

[Spoonwood]

I played as the Netherlands, on a hand-rolled, cold & dry 80% water archipelago, to try to hamper the AI growth, but that turned out bad for me because half of my territory ended up being Tundra.

But during a warm, wet summer, maybe there's something psychologically appealing about those types of maps?

Yea, that was a joke.

I made a colossal blunder at the end of the Industrial Age, that cost me at least 20 turns; I forgot to include the resource in a trade and ended up paying 990 gpt to Russia for 20 turns, that money would probably have been enough to get me to the Modern Age over the next couple of turns, and possibly could've made trading for Fission less challenging.

This made me laugh out loud. Not because I'm laughing at you Bartleby. But rather because I've recently talked to someone on YouTube in a comment section who has insisted that trade route disconnection is both an exploit and a cheat/doesn't need any skill to execute. I mean your example, Betsy's recent experience, and some of my own such as this:

where I have a pre-Navigation deal that I can't cancel for some reason I don't think I ever understood suggest otherwise.

Also, a few weeks ago I think I had an AI demand my extra luxury source when I had a setup/had used the trade route disconnection tactic, and it was early. I'm not sure I could have handled war with them. But, exporting a luxury or resource and then pillaging out one's trade route and then one's reputation is rather bad.

Congratulations on your Sid victory!

 

[BlackBetsy]

Amazing that you played it in only 15 hours on Sid! And it was a Large world!

 

[Bartleby]

Thanks Spoonwood & BlackBetsy.

Because of the rigged map and the trading shenanigans it really didn't "feel" that Sidly, except for the research times when I had to do it for myself.

 

[Spoonwood]

Thanks Spoonwood & BlackBetsy.

Because of the rigged map and the trading shenanigans it really didn't "feel" that Sidly, except for the research times when I had to do it for myself.

I suppose winning on Sid, or feeling that one has a viable plan to win on Sid at least, also doesn't "feel" that Sidly for some.

Somewhat recently I had planned to set up trade route pillaging with some AI. Then the AI demanded my extra luxury source. I just gave up and quit on that game.

The whole process can get time consuming and highly detail oriented.

 

[Bartleby]

I did see some huge stacks of units while exploring the AI coastlines earlier in the game, so that was a bit Sidly.

I came close to quitting out of frustration when I screwed up the trading, but I'm glad I persevered. TBH it wasn't the only time I made that mistake, it was just such a huge gpt payment that time.

 

[Bartleby]

Just another thought about that game, I was lucky with resources. I had two lux of my own and I had both Iron and Coal for railroads, but I also had Rubber, Oil, Uranium, and Aluminium.


Anyway, now I'm looking to get a better rank than 4 on a large map. I had been thinking about Deity 100k but after reading about BlackBetsy's game I think I might try Demigod instead. There are two entries already, both were played with Vanilla Civ3 (so 100k not 130k). I'm not really looking to beat 1355 AD for #1 but I do hope I can beat 1932 AD for 2nd place.

I haven't run MapFinder yet, but I'm thinking about having a go as India, for cheap temples & cathedrals, and also maybe a bit of stomping with war elephants. Since I'll start with alphabet I'll go with no-alpha opponents.

After that I'm thinking about starting a new attempt at a Deity milkrun.

 

[BlackBetsy]

Thanks Spoonwood & BlackBetsy.

Because of the rigged map and the trading shenanigans it really didn't "feel" that Sidly, except for the research times when I had to do it for myself.

Any Sid W is a Sid W, Bartleby! I think the most impressive part of any Sid Diplomatic win is getting the UN from behind on tech.

 

[Spoonwood]

I had two lux of my own and I had both Iron and Coal for railroads, but I also had Rubber, Oil, Uranium, and Aluminium.


Anyway, now I'm looking to get a better rank than 4 on a large map.

I don't know what the technology situation was like. But, you had all the resources needed for all the spaceship parts. And there exists only one Sid Large Spaceship game at present. I guess hindsight has it's advantages.

 

[Bartleby]

That did occur to me, and I'm considering trying for space in another attempt if I can get as lucky with resources, but in that game I'd had to pay so much for Fission that I was tied to another 20-turn deal and I was quite hamstrung for that time. But, I might actually load up the 1730 save and run the experiment to see what happens if I decline the vote and try for space.

 

[Bartleby]

I've played a few starts for the India 100k attempt, one of them to 10AD, but I'm still trying to find a really good one. What I'm looking for is not too much jungle/marsh near the start and at least two reasonably-settlable luxuries visible by 1000 BC. For the opponents I went with America, Babylon, Egypt, Mongolia, Persia, and Russia. So far in the starts that made it to 1000 BC I've not missed the republic slingshot, but I think if I end up making a second set of maps I might put Japan or someone else instead of Mongolia, because the Mongols consistently go for Alpha-Writing before the others.

One rather obvious disadvantage to India, that I had overlooked, is that there's no disconnect-upgrade possibility for the War Elephants since they require no resources.

 

[Bartleby]

After finishing the days attempts, I thought I'd take a leaf out of Spoonwood's book and play out a histographic loss on standard chieftain; random civ + all random opponents, I was going to see if I could more-or-less hit enter for 540 turns.

Wouldn't you know:

later:

and then:

Currently I can get a 2050 20k if I don't build any unnecessary culture; should still count as a Histo win.

 

[Bartleby]

I finished the histo game, 20006 culture in 2050 AD, and 71 points. Took just under 5h total, turns got faster this evening when I stopped trading for luxuries using tech and used gpt instead. I only researched one modern age tech.

edit: I'd had to move the Palace to Arnhem, which had flipped from the Dutch, to prevent an earlier 20k win.

 

[Spoonwood]

Took just under 5h total

It surprises me that it took you that long. My recent histographic games, I think, all clock in under 2 hours.

Now if only I could convince a few other souls to put in a few hours trying to finish out games on Monarch or lower, we could have those histographic tables filled up quickly...

 

[Bartleby]

Yeah the reason it took so long was because I was trading for luxuries and extracting their gpt roughly every 10 turns because it just so happened that I had two sets of trades at those intervals. I really didn't need to do that; eventually I did just go with continuous gpt trades.

 

[BlackBetsy]

Bartleby - just saw this. How does this work????? You do a conquest, leave a civ with one city in the tundra and dismantle your entire empire?

 

[Spoonwood]

Bartleby - just saw this. How does this work????? You do a conquest, leave a civ with one city in the tundra and dismantle your entire empire?

View attachment 698564

I watched the replay with CrPViewer. It was an OCC.

 

[BlackBetsy]

I watched the replay with CrPViewer. It was an OCC.

But how do you survive and get a win at that level with that many points?

 

[Spoonwood]

But how do you survive and get a win at that level with that many points?

Luck.

 

[Bartleby]

Yes, it was an OCC 20k game, it pretty much comes down to luck in not being attacked.

edit: also, none of the AIs triggered any other VC