Bindy's Road to EQM -- Round 5

[Bindamel]

Welcome back!

As I mentioned in this thread, I have devised a plan to achieve all the requirements for four of the six legs of the Elite Quattromaster Challenge.

I will try to post a thread around every two weeks with the game conditions, and then some highlights of my game, and encourage others to do the same. I also open the floor to discussions of strategy, as the regular HoF'ers never cease to amaze me with their insights into the game.

Round 5: La Rue de Morte (How badly did I massacre that?)

Back to Vanilla/Warlords for round 5, and our first conquest victory.

"Required" Settings:
Expansion: Vanilla/Warlords (BTS submissions are welcomed as variants)
Era: Ancient
Civilization: French
Victory Condition: TimeConquest
Game Speed: Marathon
Map: Terra

As of this writing, EQM appears mostly settled, and there seems to be no doubt that small maps will be allowed. Tiny maps are currently in, but many are of the opinion that they shouldn’t be, so keep that in mind.

This is definitely a case where I see myself operating on a small map. I figured conquest on Terra was a good choice for a Marathon game, because the civs are closer together, and it will play like a Pangaea if you don’t let anyone get to astronomy.

Here again are the opponent requirements for various map sizes.

Mapsize    Minimum     Maximum   
  Tiny         2          4  
 Small         4          7  
Standard       6         10  
 Large         8         14    
  Huge        10         17

Remember, Duel Maps are definitely ineligible for the Elite Quattromaster Challenge.

Two leaders to choose from this round (three for any BtS’ers); Louis is Creative and Industrious, neither of which will likely take you far on conquest. Napoleon is one of the leaders that had a Warlords personality transplant; Vanilla players like myself will be Aggressive and Industrious, Warlords folks will be Charismatic and Organized. Both Aggressive and Charismatic should have some use in conquest, so that may be a wash. The French UU is the Musketeer, a musketman replacement with an extra movement point. A nice feature in a conquest, but not as useful in V/W with grenadiers right around the tech corner from them. Warlords players will also get the UB, which is the Salon, an observatory with a free artist attached. Not much help in a conquest there.

Oh, and the French start with agriculture and the wheel. Been there, done that.

If you're interested, the current best dates for a small map are:

Deity       Moonsinger       3070 B.C. (non-HC is denze in 1285 B.C.)
Immortal       denze         2410 B.C. (non-HC is denze in 1405 B.C.)
Emperor    Grey Cardinal     2980 B.C. (non-HC is Thrar in 860 B.C.)
Monarch      dwarrior        3115 B.C. (non-HC is dutchfire in 810 B.C.) 
Prince        Mareck         3520 B.C.
Noble         Mareck         3535 B.C.
Warlord       Mareck         3610 B.C.
Chieftain     Mareck         3595 B.C.
Settler       Mareck        3715 B.C.

and the current best dates for a standard map are:

Deity       Moonsinger       1915 B.C. (no non-HC games submitted)
Immortal    Skallagrim       1960 B.C. (non-HC is Sromr in 120 B.C.)
Emperor        Lexad         2590 B.C. (non-HC is Diginitas in 190 B.C.)
Monarch      Gosha190        3025 B.C. (non-HC is jn10091981 in 270 B.C.) 
Prince        Mareck         2800 B.C.
Noble         Mareck         2965 B.C.
Warlord       Mareck         2860 B.C.
Chieftain     Mareck         3550 B.C.
Settler       Mareck         3430 B.C.

Master the old world before the new one bites you in the (ooh, wait, this isn’t deviant minds)!

Results to follow:

bestje won in 260 B.C. on Monarch, small map
Bindamel won in 230 B.C. on Monarch, small map

 

[bestje]

if i can get this game done thats map quest finished so i'm definitely playing.
try to get my first small monarch conquest

 

[bestje]

well I have finished the game, fingers crossed it will be accepted

played as Napoleon against gandhi, fred, liz and roosevelt
on vanilla with no unusual options, i won in 260BC
axe rushed india whilst teching to IW then managed to conquer the others with swords.
monarch difficulty seems a lot easier in vanilla, as the AI mostly only built archers and not very many either even when they had metal or horses they weren't really building axes/ chariots

techwise i didn't make it to CoL or currency i was teching CoL when my economy crashed and i had to turn off research and keep capturing cities to pay my costs.
also used a few unneccesary anarchies to prevent striking

 

[Bindamel]

My game was remarkably similar, winning in 230 B.C, facing mostly archers.

I never faced a metal based unit in my game, because of a favorable layout of metals, although the vanilla AI do get archer happy, so it may not have mattered.

My opponents were similar; I used Washington, Gandhi, Isabella, and Mansa. The skirmishers came last, and slowed me down a bit. My bad.

My starting position. Very quickly this was a race with Washington for the copper:



I got my settler there first, and got the copper hooked up, and it was clear sailing from there.

Besides my two settled cities, I kept two of Washington's (the capital, and Boston, which was settled near iron), and Delhi, which had two gems in its fat cross, and kept me safely at 30% Beakers or better the entire game.

There were two coppers in the Old World, mine and one in the southern snow that no one ever got hooked up. Mansa built a city that would have been able to access it shortly before I got there. There were three irons, one south of my position that never got claimed (they would have had to sail to it, as my borders blocked off the peninsula), mine in Boston, and one that was on the border between Spain and Mali, that Mansa was just starting to mine when I got there.

The final dates on each civ:



combat statistics (the four axemen were barbarians):



and the pride of my army:



It's funny, I was really concerned about playing at Marathon, but this game was a lot of fun, and not very long at all.

It was also my first ever B.C. Victory!

 

[Ozbenno]

What level were you playing at Bindy? Monarch I assume.

I very much doubt I'm going to have a go at this, I've only gotten 1/5 games I need for EQM done so far this update period (and 1/3 for QM).

 

[Bindamel]

Yep, Monarch.

It's hard fitting these in with the fast pace of PFS01, you know.

I actually started my first RoA game last night, Qin/Classical/Epic/Fractal/Vanilla. It turned out to be a Pangea. Metal Casting --> Iron Working --> Oracle to Machinery, and I didn't have iron. Amassed troops on Greece's border, and Izzy declares on me, clear on the other side of the map. Then while I'm laying waste to her lands, Alex invades. Oh well, it's 1400 A.D., and they're both gone.

 

[bestje]

do you think vanilla monarch is significantly easier than in the expansions?
i'm guessing that RoA isn't on the road then?

 

[Bindamel]

Early warfare is easier in Vanilla than BTS, IMHO. I don't own Warlords, so I'm not sure about there.

In my RoA game, I have two CR3 catapults. In BTS, they wouldn't be that high, because they would get one XP for the withdrawl instead of a few for a win. I don't have to bring as many units because the catapults can win fights. If I move up to a city in Vanilla and start bombarding, the number of defenders over the course of five or ten turns would go from 3 to maybe 4, whereas in BTS, the AI will whip/transfer units and you'll be facing 9 if you wait. You're also much more likely to have copper to begin with in Vanilla.

I didn't put RoA on the road for a couple of reasons. At a game every two weeks, the schedule already ends in 2009. Also, I don't have a lot of experience with later era starts, and don't have a good feel for what would be good leader/map/VC combinations would be for various eras. I just figured I would fill those games in whenever I got to them.

 

[Ozbenno]

For my ROA I just used whoever has the best UU available straight away, Classical (Sumeria - Vulture), Medaieval (Rome - Praet), Renaissance (Japan, Samurai), Industrial (Churchill, Redcoat) and had Modern and Future from Gauntlets and played quick conquest games on small/tiny maps. As they don't count for any other EQM slot, not worth spending time on.

 

[Bindamel]

Updated the first post with bestje and my games; if anyone else has one, or gets one, let me know!