Beta Gauntlet VI

[crunch]

Aluminum only shows up in the western half of the map, which is also where the stone shows up. The food resources and the marble are in the east, where I suspect most of the starts are taking place.

I've grown disillusioned with both the Great Plains and with stone. My games are back to Balanced. The Great Plains maps are flashy, but they have hidden disadvantages.

- Bill

Aluminium spawns consistently in the middle of west side. Also, it spawns in clusters of 4-5. Therefore, all you need is to gift Industrialisation to the civ residing there. And have some spare resources to trade. Or maybe I'm just lucky but it happened every time I played this far.

Just played a really nice game with LOT of map regeneration, to get 4 corn and 2 pig in city radius. Elizabeth, 1710 AD. But I don't see much room for further improvement. I had or traded for all resources (including bribing Kublai Khan to attack Washington to cancel their copper deal).

Development: agriculture, pottery, writing, alpha, one turn of buddhism (then trade), one turn of priesthood (then trade), CoL (adopt religion, send missionary to probable Aluminium civ), CS (switch to Caste system, Bureaucracy), Paper, Edu (Oracle), Metal Casting (after completing forge start chopping GL, Uni, Oxford, Nat.Epic), Literature, Philosophy (switch to Pacifism), Music (Artist joins), Nationhood, Constitution (switch to Representation, around 200 BC).
Later beelines
- Astronomy (observatory)
- Corporation (grocer, merchant, NOT adopting free market...)
- Steam Power (+Liberalism for Assembly Line: factory, coal plant, Ironworks)
- Combustion (to research as much as possible without obsoleting GL/monasteries)
- Medicine (adopt Environmentalism, build Hospital, Red Cross)
- Rocketry
- Industrialism (few turns before start gifting techs to probable Aluminium nation)
- Genetics (supermarket, laboratory); at this point approx finish Globe Theatre prebuild, as necessary
- Ecology (recycling plant) (don't bother with hydro plant, you'd waste shields)
- Fusion (perhaps keep a late great person for GA)
- Robotics

 

[Kalleyao]

Launched mine 1902AD.

Balanced map as Elizabeth.

 

[n0xie]

Development: agriculture, pottery, writing, alpha, one turn of buddhism (then trade), one turn of priesthood (then trade), CoL (adopt religion, send missionary to probable Aluminium civ), CS (switch to Caste system, Bureaucracy), Paper, Edu (Oracle), Metal Casting (after completing forge start chopping GL, Uni, Oxford, Nat.Epic), Literature, Philosophy (switch to Pacifism), Music (Artist joins), Nationhood, Constitution (switch to Representation, around 200 BC).

You skipped the pyramids? I never did that, but I'm going to try that now. Also skipped theocracy when you got to CS. I usually switch to that before I go to pacifism, because you want to build GL, Uni, Oxford, Nat.Epic all around that time. Everything else I basically follow the same tech road, but I can't seem to break 1800

 

[crunch]

You skipped the pyramids? I never did that, but I'm going to try that now. Also skipped theocracy when you got to CS. I usually switch to that before I go to pacifism, because you want to build GL, Uni, Oxford, Nat.Epic all around that time. Everything else I basically follow the same tech road, but I can't seem to break 1800

Yep, skipped pyramids. Basically, by skipping pyramids you can afford to spend hammers on other stuff earlier. And I did not have many hammers because I ran lot of scientists and only had so many forests and wanted to keep all forest in fat cross for later use... Constitution is not that far away (2 techs from philosophy).

I would have used theocracy but I could not trade for it until later, and by that time pacifism was nearby.

 

[n0xie]

Great Plains, 2 Khans + Mansa (I just give him any tech I get except philosophy (liberalism))

Well I just played a game and I skipped Pyramids. I had 2 scientists all the game through and the rest working cottages or bonus food tiles. I think this is the way to go (get 3-4 bonus food tiles and just cottage the rest) since I never really needed any shield tiles. I made an error by switching to theology too late at the end and not changing my towns to watermills earlier, else I would have gotten a better time since I had to wait about 15 turns before all the components were build since I already had all the tech . But this is my first game I ever went under 1800 so I'm feeling proud today . It's not as good as most of the good players here, but since it's my first HOF I'm rather satisfied with the result

 

[BlueRenner]

Alright, I'm officially clueless.

I've spent the last few days clawing at the 1730 barrier, and I have absolutely no idea how you guys get through it. At all. In any way, shape, or form.

All I'm doing now is replaying one amazing start (3 corn + stone) over and over in hopes of learning something. Getting nowhere, though.

- Bill

 

[syn]

Haven't got time to play Civ4 anymore so would appriciate anyone trying out the following strat for me. Please let me know what you think of it.
Played it once quickly and finished teching in 1680, only production held me back till 1785. With decent start I think it's possible to finish around 1660.

So in short -
Lizzy in NE of great plains, khans, Mansa (maybe some more like like Cyrus, Asoka or Hatty), you want lots of food, river and forest and marble.
Found your city on a plains hill, preferrably with wine or similar.

Teching: pottery, bronze, myst, writing, alpha - backfill missing, code, literature, paper

Build: worker, worker, worker?, Stonehenge, library, granary, Great Library, Oracle

Use your first great prophet from Stonehenge for Civil Service (DO NOT RESEARCH MASONRY before that or he'll give you monoth, you must have medit, poly AND priest as well), chop for GL, time Oracle for education. You should get edu by 1200BC the latest.

After that as usual ,calendar asap to eliminate prophets from stonehenge and to get some happyness.

 

[WastinTime]

1660 AD.

I think I'm done. Did it with NO copper, NO Aluminum. (Overrated resources.)

Liz, Great Plains, marble, fur, deer, 2 corn
Khan's + Mansa.
City size 23.

For the early fur tile, I researched Hunting -> bronze -> masonry -> Alphabet.
I believe my success comes from a very fast early game. I'm all about getting the Oxford up ASAP. I built it in 875BC this game, when are you all finishing it?

I only had to convert a couple towns to watermills in the last few turns to shave off a turn or two. Other than that, my tech and production finished at almost the exact same time. I always time it so I finish building about 2-3 turns after my final tech. Are you guys doing that?

 

[syn]

1660 AD.

For the early fur tile, I researched Hunting -> bronze -> masonry -> Alphabet.

Wow! 1660!

No pottery, are you farming and using specialists instead of cottages? Or started cottages later after alphabet?

edit: Stupid me, you need pottery for writing
Fur by river, 5 commerce, nice idea, never thought of going for hunting first

 

[Moonsinger]

I'm done too. There is no way I can break 1660 AD.

 

[WastinTime]

Wow! 1660!

Fur by river, 5 commerce, nice idea, never thought of going for hunting first

Yea, I've done hunting first several times. Worked for the Deer too. I actually left the forest on the Fur. It's not destroyed by the camp.

If I get another chance to play, I'm gonna try some of your strat, syn. I like how it focuses on the early game. I'm not sure I like my first GP being a prophet. I often use an engineer for Oxford and I really like to get an early Scientist for the Academy. I don't like playing GP roulette. A 2nd prophet would be bad.

I also would like to try crunch's strat of not building Pyramids. These two seem to fit together. Sadly this means no engineer.

 

[Big_Ben]

Yeah, wow, can't believe you made it by 1660, that is just craziness. I just had my personal best, 1806. Could have finished around 1790 if I would have been able to trade for aluminum. Finished with a pop of 27, was 23 until I switched to environmentalism.

I don't know about putting a camp on that fur though. I cottage all of my +1 gold resources in my fat cross. Same with deer if I have another outside my cross. I will have to try going after the fur early. I think getting Oxford early is the key, I am going to have to work on shaving off a little time getting there. I have also been a little unlucky about getting a scientist early for the academy. Last game I hit an engineer, prophet, engineer, then scientist.

Wastin: Do you use the Oracle for education or not build it at all in order to not get a prophet? Do you build the GL and hold off on sci method or just not build it? Do you wait until all of your cottages are worked before you starting making scientists or do you make a couple early to speed up GP production?

 

[BlueRenner]

Managed 1705AD.

My head hurts.

- Bill

 

[ohioastronomy]

I got to 1750, but 1660 seems pretty tough. Great Plains, NE, Elizabeth; Khans and Washington. I do swap off engineers and scientists so that the last piece finishes just as robotics does. I could try to go for an Oracle Education slingshot. The fastest starts seem to have deer and fur, so that you can get a long way with hunting. Hunting - Bronze -Pottery - Masonry - Writing - Alphabet seems to be my most successful opening sequence, and cities with lots of food resources. A fast play for Globe can easily get you a 15 size city in the early BCs...

 

[WastinTime]

Big_Ben,

I like to have one early commerce tile to work before cottages come up. So, without gems or gold, the camp has to do. You can always change it to a cottage later. I didn't, but I should have since I had 4 Fur.

I remember being all excited to get Edu with the Oracle on Gauntlet 4. Eventually everyone else figured that out and the thrill wore off. I posted a long explanation of why I prefer taking CS instead, but most people still seem to go for the thrill. I mostly wrote about how it's the number of turns you save, not the number of beakers. I don't recall if I even mentioned the hammer bonus you get for switching to Bureaucracy 15 turns earlier than when you research CS.

If I can't chop the Oracle fast enough, I may save it for Edu. I have never skipped the Oracle. I never skip the GL.

I don't work many specialists until the population is up. Sometimes I might work one to hurry along the first or 2nd GP. One crazy game I popped metal casting from a hut, so I tried chopping the Forge and working an engineer. That way I got the GL and Oxford with engineers.

 

[WastinTime]

I do swap off engineers and scientists so that the last piece finishes just as robotics does.

Robotics? Isn't that last part a big one. I like to finish on a small part.

 

[Big_Ben]

Yeah, I read about you using the Oracle for CS but it takes me too long to get the pyramids and then the Oracle chopped for CS. I could only imagine if you have extra commerce in the beginning. I am going to give this one more try in a bit. Going to be busy the next few days. I think with the right start I can easily get sub-1800 and that is my only goal right now. I am going to try out some of the recent ideas posted up and see what I can do with em.

 

[WastinTime]

I can't seem to stop playing this one. I just got a start with 6 food:
Corn, Corn, Wheat, Pig, Deer, Flood Plains, and then Fur, Fur. Marble is outside the cross. I'll play it sometime tomorrow. If this doesn't work, then it is possible to have too much food.

 

[Big_Ben]

Getting that many food tiles isn't all that hard on great plains but I have never seen that much variety in your cross. I just finished my game. 1828 on balanced but I should have finished 1750 or sooner easily. Around 1580 Saladin declared war on me. I called in 5-6 other countries in on him. He managed to completely destroy one of my towns and took out 2 food resources, 1 in my cross. That made me have to drop 2 pop and lose all the income from the town until it could be worked up again. Also had to take 5turns to pump out 2 marines to go kill him. The wasted turns slowed down my tech pace quite a bit.

Just a tip for everyone. I usually stop sharing my tech once I get tired of having to give it to all the opponents if I have a lot. This isn't a good idea. It is best to try and keep your opponents as close to you as possible in tech. It will speed up your tech pace by a turn or two. This hasn't really made much of a difference in most of my games but last game I stopped sharing really early and I noticed the effects a LOT near the end.

 

[crunch]

I would like to try a game with Saladin. After all, most of the time I'm working either food tiles or hill tiles or both, and I rely on research from specialists.

Also I was wondering, there was a strategy to get civil service with a priest, if you have some techs but not other. Anyone knows? Something like not having masonry or so?

Edit:
I did some experiments: Meditation, worker done, hunting, priesthood, writing, stonehenge done, library done, assign scientists for quick spawn of great person, CoL (caste system, more scientists), great prophet born (can research poly, bah), polytheism, GP -> civil service (1960 BC), alphabet, temple done, paper, oracle -> education

Oxford done 525 BC, Apollo started 1280, launched 1765... *shrug* Saladin, eastern Great Plains