Beta Gauntlet V

[superslug]

While the general Hall of Fame is an ongoing competition, we like to run time-definite competitions between updates that we call Gauntlets. Standard Hall of Fame rules (*) still apply, but any games meeting the settings will be counted towards the Gauntlet.

[size=+2](*) Please read the >> HOF rules << BEFORE playing!
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Any submissions meeting the following criteria will be considered Gauntlet entries:

• Difficulty: Deity
• Mapsize: Huge
• Victory: Domination (though ALL victory conditions must be enabled!)
• Starting Era: Ancient
• Speed: Marathon
• Submitted on or before: Feb 24th.

Whichever game has the earliest finish date will be declared the victor. The winner (and settings for the next Gauntlet) will be announced with the next Hall of Fame update.

While each map can only be played once, players are more than welcome to generate new maps and submit multiple games. Also, as everyone is playing their own distinct maps, there is no need for spoiler limitation within the forum. In fact, we encourage detailed posting of strategy and gameplay, although all conversation about this Guantlet should stay within this thread.

Any games not finished before the submission cutoff may still be submitted to the Hall of Fame as general entries.

New players:
Please note that we need two files for Hall of Fame submissions. A save from your initial 4000bc turn, and the turn after you win. For the last file, when you win the game, you'll be displayed your sequence of victory screens and then be prompted if you wish to exit or play "just a few more turns". Select just a few more turns, and then save the game immediately without playing further.

 

[fluffyflyingpig]

Meh, huge marathon games take forever.

Looks like its going to be Caeser killing everyone with preatoreans. The perpetual anarchy thing is allowed, right?

 

[Big_Ben]

Yep, it is still allowed for now. (Atleast I am pretty sure) I think someone will make the top 10 with someone other than Caesar. Not sure you can break top 3 with someone else though.

 

[BlueRenner]

Meh, I'm sitting this one out. Just not interesting... this game has been analyzed to death. The only point in its favor is the fact that its on Deity.. but the deity AI fights exactly the same as the noble AI.

- Bill

 

[EvantheSavage]

The perpetual anarchy thing is allowed, right?

Could be a nice twist to change the way this game would play out if it was not allowed. It would certainly make it harder to achieve such huge scores.

 

[sirford]

Could be a nice twist to change the way this game would play out if it was not allowed. It would certainly make it harder to achieve such huge scores.

i greatly 2nd this.

 

[A_Turkish_Guy]

deity.. ..too hard for me.

 

[WastinTime]

Also sitting this one out. I have no desire to practice the anarchy exploit. Well, maybe once just to understand it better, but I'm not going to practice it on Huge, Marathon.

 

[Big_Ben]

I will give it a shot. I would have liked it to be on a island map so that it wouldn't be all about caesar. The good thing about this is that no one has played a Deity Huge Domination yet, so this will fill up a few more spots on the tables. I would also imagine this will result in some amazing scores.

Good luck to all.

 

[Dianthus]

There's a bit of a conflict between high score and quick date in whether to wipe out your opponents or not. The domination limit increases by 2% for each opponent wiped out. So, for a high score you'll want to wipe out all but one to get the highest domination limit. For a quick date you may well want to keep a large number of opponents barely alive so the domination limit is kept low and can be reached quicker.

 

[Lurifax]

Too bad that this type of game is very dependent of the computer. I just tried a game and first of all, generating a game took about two minutes, then after a while in the game each turn really takes a lot of time before the computer is done.

 

[BlueRenner]

A_Turkish_Guy: Don't shrink from this gauntlet because its on deity, its not nearly as big a problem as you think. In a non-aquatic Domination gauntlet (as this will assuredly be) the building advantage of the AI is rapidly negated by the fact you're taking everything they build. If you can run a good assault on Noble you can run the exact same thing on Deity. There's a whole lot of documentation on this over in the Strategy forum.

However, as noted above, this gauntlet is going to be an exploit-fest and slow as hell. So if you're not the sort to turn on NoClip in Counterstrike or to micro a titanic empire every turn, you might want to reconsider this one.

- Bill

 

[Big_Ben]

I have played 3.5 hours of gametime. That is the longest game I have ever played on civ 4. It is VERY monotonous and boring. I currently have 34 cities I think, and occupy MAYBE 30% of the map. I will finish this game but it is taking forever. Doubt I will be playing another.

I haven't played huge conquest/domination games before. I was hoping to finish off most of my enemies before they got to longbowmen or war elephants. They just appeared I don't know if I will even be able to win the game before gunpowder and then it will be pointless for me. I am running out of trees as well.

I am thinking that 300 AD may be to goal for this gauntlet, not real sure, might be way past that. I am around 200 AD right now and know someone else could be way past me in terms of land area.

I don't know if caesar is the way to go with this though. Someone else may be able to take out the enemies faster than I can and win the game before longbowmen and war elephants come up but with me I think I am not gonig to be able to win before gunpowder.

 

[thip]

I'm lost on this one. By the time I have built 3 cities the AI has overrun me. I can't even get to Iron Working to build Praetorians. It takes too long and the AI is so far ahead. Better leave this one to the experts....

 

[Big_Ben]

You have to make sure the cities you build have river squares, you need the gold from them. Gold or gems are nice as well. Build 2 cities, save the other settler until you know where the iron is. Tech path is bronze-wheel-ironworking and that is it, set science to 0% after that.

By the time you reach iron working and make your 3rd city your opponent will have 6 cities or so, each. Then chop rush praet's and start taking out your enemies. Go for the civ with the pyramids ASAP. Chop rush barracks and praets in all cities. Then you have to do the anarchy exploit.

I haven't finished my game, I gave up. The enemy was going to get gunpowder before I could do anything so I decided to try again some other time. Not sure if I will though. I would like to finish the game once, even if I don't place, so see how well I did.

Not sure how many entrants this gauntlet will have, by the looks of this thread, very few.

 

[superslug]

I have no intention of staying away from larger mapsizes or higher difficulties in Gauntlet selections, but I will admit this particular combination has proven uninspiring.

 

[Big_Ben]

I agree, I enjoy playing larger maps and think that Deity is pretty achievable on all victory conditions. Putting the huge, deity, domination combo together results in a VERY long game that you don't know if you can win until you have played 3 hours of the game. Think it would have gotten a better response if it woudl have been something other than domination.

 

[thip]

Thanks Big_Ben for the advice. I will have another go if only for the learning experience.

 

[WastinTime]

superslug,
Keep the Diety coming. I love it. Huge is also not a problem. Maybe if the anarchy exploit was either fixed in the next patch or just banned from this gauntlet... Or maybe if we were on Islands, the anarchy thing wouldn't work. Islands would also take the combat out of the Ancient era.

I needed a break from Civ 4 anyway. Looking forward to Feb 25th.

 

[Big_Ben]

Yeah, I was all for a islands or team continents domination game. Huge would have taken forever but would have been fun. Having to tech up to astronomy to start warring would have been sweet. Would have almost eliminated caesar as an option.


Has anyone finished this gauntlet yet? I have been playing some different games for the HOF and haven't had another go at this yet. If I am going ot try and do this one I need to give myself enough time.