Bartleby's HoF Thread

[BlackBetsy]

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

I'll look at the save file, but it strikes me as crazy that:

(1) No AI launched a spaceship in a DG game! (the lack of other victory conditions doesn't surprise me, because the AI is largely stupid on winning).

(2) No DG AI had more than 355 points. What?

 

[Spoonwood]

I'll look at the save file, but it strikes me as crazy that:

(1) No AI launched a spaceship in a DG game! (the lack of other victory conditions doesn't surprise me, because the AI is largely stupid on winning).

(2) No DG AI had more than 355 points. What?

All the AIs so far as I can tell got more points. It's just not marked by a loss on the tables.

There is no requirement to win for a histographic game, and many of my recent histographic submissions have indeed been losses. You just have to survive until 2050 without an AI winning by any victory condition which stops the scoring process.

 

[Bartleby]

Also, any game won in 2050 AD counts as histographic, regardless of victory condition. Not sure whether it would chart as another VC if that table is not full.

 

[BlackBetsy]

All the AIs so far as I can tell got more points. It's just not marked by a loss on the tables.

There is no requirement to win for a histographic game, and many of my recent histographic submissions have indeed been losses. You just have to survive until 2050 without an AI winning by any victory condition which stops the scoring process.

Oh, that's a quirk in the Hall of Fame them, because I've definitely seen some marked as losses.

But Bartleby's isn't.

 

[Bartleby]

(1) No AI launched a spaceship in a DG game!

Looking at the 2050 AD save from that game with CAII, the Zulu had 8 spaceship parts built, and they were halfway through researching Synthetic Fibers.

My game was a win by 20k, although everyone had a higher score than me.


edit: I must have done at least some fighting, because I had a non-wonder Golden Age.

 

[BlackBetsy]

Looking at the 2050 AD save from that game with CAII, the Zulu had 8 spaceship parts built, and they were halfway through researching Synthetic Fibers.

My game was a win by 20k, although everyone had a higher score than me.


edit: I must have done at least some fighting, because I had a non-wonder Golden Age.

Ahhh...now it makes sense. 20k win in 2050 is a Histographic win. And it's not labeled as a loss. Less of a mystery, but still amazing that no AI Civ launched a Space Ship!

 

[Bartleby]

I got a bit bored of the India 100k Demigod starts, and while I plan to go back to them soon enough, I decided to have an interim attempt at Large Sid Spaceship, using a similar strategy as I did for Diplo. I chose the Byzantines in the hope that free techs might give me some trading leverage, and also included more Scientific civs for their free techs.

Now I'm at 1000 AD, on the last tech of the middle ages, having been "buying" from Russia too keep up. For a short while I was at war with Russia, which gave me an Army and a Dromon-initiated golden age (during the GA I self-researched Physics), but I never got a chance to use the Army before peace broke out and I resumed tech trading.

 

[BlackBetsy]

I got a bit bored of the India 100k Demigod starts, and while I plan to go back to them soon enough, I decided to have an interim attempt at Large Sid Spaceship, using a similar strategy as I did for Diplo. I chose the Byzantines in the hope that free techs might give me some trading leverage, and also included more Scientific civs for their free techs.

Now I'm at 1000 AD, on the last tech of the middle ages, having been "buying" from Russia too keep up. For a short while I was at war with Russia, which gave me an Army and a Dromon-initiated golden age (during the GA I self-researched Physics), but I never got a chance to use the Army before peace broke out and I resumed tech trading.

Seems like a slow tech pace for 1000 AD? How have you been slowing it down?

 

[Bartleby]

It is pretty chronic. I guess the AI were slow to meet (they still haven't all met each other yet) and also a couple of them are pretty small. There hasn't been that much AI war in the game...when Russia attacked me, I made some alliances but they all ended before 20 turns.

I looked at my diplo game for comparison and at 1000 AD the tech situation was comparable.

 

[Spoonwood]

It is pretty chronic. I guess the AI were slow to meet (they still haven't all met each other yet) and also a couple of them are pretty small. There hasn't been that much AI war in the game...when Russia attacked me, I made some alliances but they all ended before 20 turns.

I looked at my diplo game for comparison and at 1000 AD the tech situation was comparable.

I took a look at that and also thought it comparable. It seems to me that you're playing 80% archipelago.

 

[Bartleby]

Yeah, it's 80% archipelago. I feel that I need that kind of isolation to be able to get started, but it does slow things down.

 

[Bartleby]

I've played 11 more turns, to 1100 AD. In that time Russia researched Military Tradition and Magnetism and entered the IA, closely followed by me. Cathy got Medicine and I got Steam Power (I have no Coal). I was able to swap Med for Steam, and with a little jiggery-pokery also ended up with all the money in the world. Cathy has only one source of Coal, and the greedy Ottomans have three, so I gifted Osman up and bought Coal from him. So I'm going to be keeping the trades going for the time being. I presume Cathy & Osman will head off towards Nationalism so I'm now researching Electricity myself at the max rate I can; due in 18 turns.
I'm undecided as to whether there's any point in gifting up the Babylonians and the Germans, they're both completely broke - they've never been able to spare any gold per turn. Unfortunately, the Persians have been eliminated... they were the smallest AI, they started on the same island as the Babs and came off worse in an early war.

Here's a pic of my empire now:

 

[Spoonwood]

I'm undecided as to whether there's any point in gifting up the Babylonians and the Germans

Do they have Banking? Though maybe that won't them much, since it's an 80% archipelago map.

 

[Bartleby]

Interesting point, thanks.

The Babs do have banking, and it's not helping them so far, but maybe they just don't have many banks built yet (or they're running 0% tax).
The Germans don't, so I think I might gift them that far at least.

 

[Bartleby]

Played 9 turns to even it out at 1200 AD. The Babylonians made it to the IA themselves, they drew Nationalism, thus far they haven't traded it around, because still nobody has any gold. I've given Banking to everyone who didn't have it already.

I micromanaged a bit before starting off this evening and got Electricity down from 18 to 16 turns (mainly by making taxmen into scientists, I forgot to do that last night). Most of the activity has been railroading, one worker per tile.

 

[Bartleby]

Now up to 1450 AD. During this session, the Babylonians and the Russians went to war, freeing up some gpt from Babylon, so for a while I was getting 180 gpt over several lump sum for gpt trades. In those deals I just let them keep the lump sums because I didn't want to have to re-make my coal deal with the Ottomans every time. Before too long though, the Babs approached with multiple galleons, so I knew trouble was brewing.
They landed five units, two rifles, and three older units. I bought Nationalism from them for a large gpt payment and when I asked them to leave they declared war. I allied everyone against them. Since then they made a few more landings, the biggest one of eight units including two infantry; my nine artillery wasn't enough to redline all the units so that landing cost me three cavalry, the only units I've lost so far. The next landing gave me my second MGL.
It's 18 turns since the Bab declaration and only America is still at war with them. The Babs are also now the tech leaders, they are up Industrialization on me, but I was able to build the Theory of Evolution, so I have Atomic Theory and Electronics as monopolies at the moment. (Babylon and Russia both know Communism, Fascism and Sanitation, but I don't think I'll bother to acquire them soon).
Anyway I'm hoping that I can make peace with Babylon in a couple of turns and that they'll have something I can buy, so that I can "trade" with them. Annoyingly in the last couple of turns a Bab frigate has started to bombard my coastline; three bombards, three terrain improvements destroyed, what are the chances of that??

 

[Spoonwood]

Annoyingly in the last couple of turns a Bab frigate has started to bombard my coastline; three bombards, three terrain improvements destroyed, what are the chances of that??

Do you have workers or soldiers on the coastline where they have bombarded? Or just improvements?

 

[Bartleby]

Yeah, I do have that bit of coast worker-blocked.

 

[Bartleby]

I didn't find time to play at the weekend but tonight I managed 10 turns to get to 1500 AD. When the last alliance ran out I made peace with Babylon and immediately acquired Industrialization, and next turn the Corporation. I forgot about the War Happiness I was getting from the Babs, though, and several cities went into disorder...I had to put the luxury slider to 40%. Just before 1500 AD though, Russia sneak-attacked again so I've regained that War Happiness.

Not sure I'll continue with this much longer though, I was hoping for a period of peacetime so that maybe the AI could pick up their tech pace, but maybe they're just drowning in unit support. We're still six techs away from the Modern Age.

 

[Bartleby]

It's 1600 AD. I made peace with Russia as soon as they would talk, for their world map and spare change, I probably killed about 20 units.
That made turns much faster, and the Babs have been researching a bit faster, so we now have Refining, Steel, and Combustion, leaving three techs to go till the Modern Age. Russia and Babylon have just gone back to war again, I hope that doesn't slow down the Babylonian research. I'm also beginning to be concerned about a Russian 100k win, it looks like they have more than twice the culture of the Babs; there's nothing I can do about that really.