Challenge-XIV-06

[lymond]

While the general Hall of Fame is an ongoing competition, we are running a series of ten games called the Hall of Fame Challenge Series. Standard Hall of Fame rules (*) still apply, but any games meeting the settings of one of the games will be counted towards the Challenge.

(*) Please read the >> HOF rules << BEFORE playing!
(*) Games must be played using the >> BUFFY MOD 3.19.003 <<
(*) Games to be submitted via the >> Civ IV Hall of Fame Website <<
(*) New players, please >> register << using your CFC forum name​

Settings:

• Victory Condition: Traditional Cultural (though all victory conditions must be enabled) Espionage Culture is excluded!
• Difficulty: Immortal
• Starting Era: Ancient
• Map Size: Standard
• Speed: Normal
• Map Type: Medium and Small
• Required: No Tribal Villages, No Random Events
• Must Not Be Checked: No Vassal States
• Civ: China (Qin Shi Huang)
• Opponents: Must include Babylon (Hammurabi), France (Louis XIV), India (Gandhi), Mali (Mansa Musa), Maya (Pacal), Netherlands (Willem Van Oranje), Rome (Augustus Caesar)
• Version: 3.19.003
• Date: 1st May to 30th November 2014

Must not play as Inca.
The earliest finish date wins, with score as a tiebreaker.

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

Is the spread culture espionage mission allowed in the cultural cities for this challenge game?

Sun Tzu Wu

 

[lymond]

Traditional Cultural. I've updated the settings in the OP

Thanks, Wu

 

[Ororo]

Congrats lymond, your advertisement in the Strategy & Tips subforum has worked on me.

I tried this one first, since it seemed like a casual game that does not require tremendous amounts of concentration nor micromanagement. Rolled a 1620 AD victory, which is excellent for me. I doubt it will be anywhere near the top spots though. I know most of the regulars on this subforum play to win, but for me simply finishing these 10 games will be an awesome achievement. Wish me luck

I landed on a larger continent with Willem, Hammy and Gandhi. My starting spot did not offer that much in terms of commerce, but the food was excellent: triple sheep, double dry corn. It also had a river so it seemed like a good spot for a Legendary city. I chopped some quick settlers and by 1200 BC I had 6 cities. Judaism spreaded to most of my cities and was the only source of happiness until Monarchy. Willem reached Alpha pretty quickly, so I opted for the standard Aesthetics trade. Hammy was kind enough to trade me Marble for Copper, so I could easily build key wonders such as Parthenon, MoM, National Epic, Sistine and Taj Mahal. I beelined Music and got the free Great Artist, then I beelined Lib and got free Nationalism. Unfortunately, I only has a single religion for a long lone time, which meant only 2 Cathedrals were built before I turned the Culture slider on (later on I added a single Buddhist Stupa).

AIs were pretty peaceful, I kept Willem at pleased for the entire game and Hammy at Friendly for a good chunk of it. I produced a ton of Great Artists so I am actually wondering whether IND is perhaps better for Culture games than PHI. My gut feeling is that it is, but I may be wrong.

Spoiler :

(Yes, the third Legendary was the city that has been culture-trolled by Babylon previously.)

 

[lymond]

Congrats lymond, your advertisement in the Strategy & Tips subforum has worked on me.

Great to see you here, Ororo! I had subliminal messages in there to attract you

Nice game!

 

[Pollina]

Medium & Small is one of those map scripts that lets you pick your neighbors. (AI distribution with 7 AI is something like A-ABABBAB) I naturally wanted Gandhi and Mansa on my continent. I did not plan on a peaceful game, so, as 3rd AI, I wanted someone who would be disliked by Mansa & Gandhi (no diplo hits for DOW) and who would have a decent chance to found a religion himself. The choice was between Willem (CRE) and Pacal (Holkans), and I picked Pacal in the end.

Additional settings were “No Barbarians”, “Aggressive AI” (quick peace after worker steals, AI less likely to build wonders). I forgot to check “Choose Religion” (pick religions for cathedral resources).

Pacal was very close and I stole an early worker from him. He also founded Hinduism for me. AH and BW revealed both horses and copper near my capital, but not within my culture. I liked the horses site much better than the copper site, and settled my second city there. Yep, I was going to chariot rush Pacal. He got BW only a couple turns before I attacked. I was very lucky that he emergency whipped an axe instead of a holkan. I captured his capital (Hindu Holy City, marble) with some luck in 1440 bc, his other two cities fell soon after. With Pacal wiped out and Mansa (Judaism founder) and Gandhi down in the island region, I had space for 15-20 good cities, but I restricted myself to 9. I also chopped a very late Oracle (t72, thanks to Agg AI). Sadly, Confu went a few turns earlier (Hammurabi), so I went for Currency instead of CoL (mistake?).

I got all the wonders I cared for, but missed Tao (Hammurabi) by a few turns and the music artist by one turn (Gandhi). Christianity and Islam went to Hammurabi on the other continent, too, so there were only 2 religions in my hemisphere. At least Mansa did most of the Judaism spreading for me. Got to Lib 660 AD, shortly after my 6 cathedrals were built.

I generated 2 scientists (academy, education), 2 low odds priests (GA, settled very late) and only 12 artists, bombed 0-5-7 and finished 1420 AD. With 1-2 more religions, early 1300s or late 1200s would have been easily possible.

 

[neilmeister]

Impressive game Pollina!

I am happy to learn that the Medium & Small allows us to pick the neighbours, I hope I remember that!

 

[enKage]

I tried the trick with AI distribution, but it seems like it doesnt always work. I wanted Hammi, Gandhi and Mansa on my hemisphere, but always something went bad and I got additional Augustus or Augustus instead of Hammurabi xD

Finally I had so little time left (1 day), that I have to play whatever, just to complete the challange.


I got rather weak land, but who cares, no Luois, no Pacal on this side of the world, so I took it. Strategy was clear: GLH, get to Biology somehow with my poor commerce land and go National Park, then Sushi.
Managed to settle 7 cities on my landmass and 5 on islands nearby, my commerce went mainly from GLH (I gave high sea level to increase the chances the continent will be broken into 2 landmasses, and succeded - Willem had his own start island), not a single haevy cottaged city (at the end of the game I had maybe 5 cottages throughout the whole empire.

I lost Mids, lost GLib, lost TajMahal, the only wonders I managed were GLH, MoM, Chapell, Angkhor. Having no stone and no marble was annoying :] but who cares of a date when only 1 day is left xD

Finally managed to get 1846 victory. Never got war, finished with defensive pact with Augustus. It is strange how many turns he needs to form Permament Alliance - I never formed it even though our pact lasted for ages.
Medium/small mapscript is awful for culture as it forces early Astro. Previous game I neglected Astro and went bankrupt because of Dutch privateers :]