Beta Gauntlet VI

[BlueRenner]

Okay, its over.

C'mon, Wastintime, I want to know. How did you beat me?

My strategy at the end was to regenerate like crazy until I got an absolutely beautiful start, defined as:

1) Marble within 2 border expansions
2) 3 High-food resources
3) Lots of Forests
4) Good River
5) First-or-second turn Worker

#5 was by far the limiting factor, but not nearly so rare as you might think. I'd regenerate for a half hour or so before it popped up. Then again, perhaps I'm just lucky.

After that, I had the following production goals, set in an "as fast as possible" mentality

1) Library (+2 scientists)
2) Chop Great Library
3) Chop Oracle, store it away for later
4) Chop National Epic
5) Chop University
6) Chop Oxford
7) Build Globe Theater (+2 scientists)

And after that I would grow like mad and build the Hanging Gardens if I felt I had time, followed by the Ironworks, followed by Apollo. Apollo was interrupted several times to build other structures as they became available, like the Factory and the Coal Plant.

My Tech Tree:

Agriculture -> Hunting? -> Writing -> Alphabet
-> (Masonry)
-> (Mysticism) -> (Polytheism) -> Literature
-> Code of Laws -> Civil Service -> Paper -> Education [Oracle]
-> Nationalism -> Constitution
-> Drama
-> Music
-> Currency
-> Astronomy
-> Printing Press
-> Steel
-> Economics -> Corporation
-> Scientific Method -> Biology -> Medicine
-> Physics
-> Rocketry
-> Steam Power -> Assembly Line
-> Refrigeration
-> Computers -> Genetics
-> Satelites -> Fiber Optics
-> Fission -> Liberalism [Fusion]
-> Robotics
-> Ecology

Specialists played a large role in my strategy. I would typically end up with 21 great people from city production, and despite having both the National Epic and the Globe Theater up, the 6 scientists would drown out their GPPs. I would typically get a single artist in a game, aside from the Musician. Engineers are favored over Scientists, and I switch them over as soon as the appropriate buildings are constructed.

- Bill

 

[pooLarized]

nicely done. the specialist approach seemed like the way to go but never having played ooc before i just couldnt seem to pull things off. it was fun playing but damn it was painful to screw up and have to restart and go back to regenerating the map. i only once managed to get a worker first turn despite getting dizzy from all the map regeneration.

seems like youre always up there in the top blue

 

[WastinTime]

Let's see, where to start. I'm not sure I have one big trick that put me ahead. The first time dropped from the 1800's to 1750 was when I built the Great Lib first with Qin. It seemed many people were skipping it at that time. But I see now that I'm not alone there. BlueRenner built it first too.

It's hard to explain my strategy because I hadn't really ironed it out yet. I was still trying so many different things. I think the Liz game would be better than Mansa's if I replayed it. I played Mansa more carefully and added a few new tricks. Mansa also had Aluminum. I love how different leaders/resources mean game plans.

I tried not building the Pyramids with my great food start I mentioned earlier and I did not like that. Nationalism and Constitution take too long and are not very important. In my top game and my 1660 Liz game I build the Pyramids in 2400AD and 2600AD respectively. In both games I got 2 free workers. All my best runs had 3 total workers. I like being very fast at the start.

Another early game trick I do is send a worker out along the river to connect the closest civ for trade route payoff.

Liz starts with Fishing, Wheel, and Mining, so I don't get Agriculture. I'm pretty sure she doesn't get that start on higher difficulty. No wheel, right?
Hunting (fur) -> Masonry -> bronze -> Alphabet

Mansa only gets Wheel, mining
Agriculture -> Masonry -> Alphabet
Here I traded for bronze. I knew I wouldn't need it until after Alphbet.

-> (Mysticism free) -> Polytheism
-> Code of Laws -> Civil Service[Liz Oracle]

Since Liz had marble, -> Literature (GL built in 1500's)

-> Paper -> Education [Mansa Oracle]

I didn't think Mansa could build the GL (no marble), so planned to skip it and got Literaure after Edu. When an engineer showed up in 850BC, Mansa rushhed the GL.

Liz uses an engineer for Oxford 875BC.
Mansa builds it with stone before 1000BC

-> Philosophy (pacif)
-> Currency
-> Printing Press
-> Astronomy
-> Music

Music's G.Artist:
About 1/2 the time I add it to the city. With Mansa (and probably Liz), I did the 4000 culture bomb. It always puts my past the 5000 barrier. This has several nice effects. You steal lots of resources from close civs. Mansa would not have gotten aluminum without this trick because the 18 civs were so cramped and you can't absorb a capitol. You prevent civs from making new cities too close to you. Big one: You get to chop more forests and each has more hammers per forest. You can absorb more close cities earlier. If a war starts, you have more time to react and protect your towns because your borders are so far out.

Liz gets Drama and does the Theaters, Mansa skips Drama completely.

-> Steel
To start Ironworks

To be continued....

 

[WastinTime]

Great People Liz ended with under 2200 birth rate so that's 15 people, right?
Mansa had a pathetic 1600, so that's only 12 GP.

I'll take you through Mansa's end game instead of trying to do both at the same time. I knew Mansa had a hot start, but was going to be much slower than Liz, so I focused all my energy on research.

I get Monarchy for free
-> Guilds -> Economics
Mansa gets to switch to Free Market (other leaders should not do this with Environmentalism coming)

I usually don't want to break through Sci Meth so soon, but here I am just before 1 AD with only 460 beakers per turn. Size 14 population.

-> Scientific Method -> Biology -> Medicine to get the population up fast.
-> Physics -> Computers (with Liberalism)

-> Rocketry
I'm pretty sure I start Apollo before most of you (around 900-1100 AD) just as I'm finishing up Ironworks. I like to keep research at max and not convert to watermills, etc if I don't have to.

-> Steam Power (cus I just finished Ironworks and started Apollo)

Finally get around to
-> Nationalism -> Constitution -> Corporation
-> Assembly Line -> Industrialism (praying for Alum)

Now Mansa gets fancy. I switch to Univ. Sufferage for the minimum 5 turns. This costs me about 1 turn of beakers, probably less. I forgot about the 3 happiness and lost a couple people. (oops) I buy Theatre so my people can get back to work, Factory, Coal Plant, Grocer, and the Taj Mahal!
I wanted the Taj effect right after Aluminum.
Switch back to Representation.

Now it's 1230 AD, size 21 city, 850 beakers (the Taj golden age starts next turn) Apollo will finish in a couple turns.

-> Satelites -> Fiber Optics-> Fusion
Used the engineer to discover Railroad. This is not normal, but having Aluminum (for the first time), hammer production didn't need the railroad boost.

-> Robotics -> Refrig -> Genetics
If I don't need the health from Genetics, I save it for the end. I need a part I can build as fast as Ecology is researched.

-> Ecology
I always end on Ecology. The part is only 800 and uses copper. Mansa was able to built it the turn after the tech was discovered. I used the overflow from the previous part + I chopped my last two forests inside my city's fat cross for 150 hammers each. Only 40 extra hammers. Exciting finish!

I can't help but think Mansa didn't deserve to win this gauntlet. It was my first try with him. I'm sure Spritual leaders have more tricks that I missed, but somehow I think Liz would do better on a good map. I never got a really good one with Liz. A little too much real life got in the way. I coulda used a few more runs on this one. Very fun gauntlet. I might even have to take what I learned and go back to Gauntlet 4. I was playing that one as OCC too.

 

[WastinTime]

Oh, and don't forget Mansa gets to switch to Free Religion after the last GP pops out.

 

[crunch]

You can absorb enemy capitals. And yeah, I'm pretty happy about my glorious third place, yeehee.

 

[jesusin]

This is absolutely fantastic! I had never played and OCC, and it's really fun. I had never won a Space Victory. It's been nice trying, though I am late for submission. Only 2 games, 1900AD first time, 1750AD second time. That's how much you can learn reading these posts!
Thank you all, nice experience.