Challenge-XIX-09

[AutomatedTeller]

I'm having trouble getting more than 2 other caps. I'm running medium/tropical. Maybe I'll try medium/temperate, and hope the drives caps nearer. I keep walking the wrong way away from nearby caps...

 

[Kaitzilla]

This game came out of a couple of the suggestions from the discussion thread - the skill is in picking a Leader when all the best ones are gone! If you want, as it's Noble, you might want to choose someone with really useless traits like Protective if you are working towards your QM or EQM.

Choose carefully if you are trying to beat the current Inca record of 1360AD though as that will be quite challenging!

This challenge is driving me crazy!

 

[Noble Zarkon]

This challenge is driving me crazy!

It's not as straightforward as you might think is it!

 

[Ozbenno]

I think it is a fairly straightforward game. To beat the Inca date not so much.

Don't think I've ever hit 1300s for space, so I'll set my sights lower for this one.

 

[elitetroops]

Somehow I feel that in the end beating the Inca date won't be nearly as hard as beating Kaitzilla.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

If you have are having trouble, try this:

1) Play a 1CC game with low everything as Willem and make sure you add in all the fin civs. That will get you finished with the challenge. This is a long game, so you might get a decent finish.
Then
2) The best game will likely get 3 or 4 caps from warriors. The inca game picked up 2 early caps, so you could just produce 3 or 4 warriors and restart if you A) don't get one with your initial warrior and B) don't get a 2nd with the next 3.

Those two will likely get you a decent ranking for the challenge.

 

[Kaitzilla]

If you have are having trouble, try this:

1) Play a 1CC game with low everything as Willem and make sure you add in all the fin civs. That will get you finished with the challenge. This is a long game, so you might get a decent finish.
Then
2) The best game will likely get 3 or 4 caps from warriors. The inca game picked up 2 early caps, so you could just produce 3 or 4 warriors and restart if you A) don't get one with your initial warrior and B) don't get a 2nd with the next 3.

Those two will likely get you a decent ranking for the challenge.

Yes, Willem with low seas is great advice.

A few capitals can be captured with Warriors, and the fast border pops will get you Bronze or Horse quickly.

Early game teching is 50 percent faster with Financial and cheap Libraries I'd say.
This is much more crucial than games where you can trade for techs.

I've tried many other leaders, and they fell a bit flat early game.

I still wonder if another could do better than Willem with a good start.
Maybe Cyrus hmm.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

Pacal might well be better than Willem. If you end up with, say, 30 cities, you'll get 1/2 off of 30 granaries, but also some 50-55 workers, as opposed to 25-30 libraries and some smaller number of theaters and maybe a colloseum. the border pop is nice, but Stonehenge sort of makes up for it. Getting a few Holkans out might be the difference between 4 and 5 or 6 early capitals.

I no longer think that low sea levels is important. I think medium or even high are fine. You need a lot of cities, but a terra map has a LOT of land, even in the old world..

Also - oracle education. Get marble hooked up early and partially build oracle in a bunch of cities for the failgold.

 

[elitetroops]

What's the verdict on corps vs SP in this scenario? On normal speed I'm quite comfortable launching in one turn using SP and chained overflow (just regular overflow, not the banworthy hammer stacking technique). I'm not sure how well this translates to epic speed. Maybe it could work... Or is mining a better bet? SP should be able to handle the tech pace with some 50 well developed cities.

I continued my Willy game a little bit. After taking 5 AI capitals by t37 I paused military production to finally get out some workers. This might have been a mistake as it allowed the AI to tech archery and/or hook up metals. Now at t92 with 9 cities, 11 workers and a few settlers coming soon. I have only captured one more AI capital in the last 55 turns... That just doesn't feel right for a space game! Also, the 6 libraries I have should probably rather have been hammers into army or settlers. I'm currently wrapping up another game, but then I might try to play this one through rather quickly to get a feel for how epic/noble can play out. Urgh, who am I kidding? "Rather quickly" still probably means 60+ hours for me...

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Early game teching is 50 percent faster with Financial and cheap Libraries I'd say.

Does Creative really give you cheap libraries? I never knew that! I always use the Leader Picker and it doesn't have that as one of the benefits!!

 

[lymond]

Does Creative really give you cheap libraries? I never knew that! I always use the Leader Picker and it doesn't have that as one of the benefits!!

The Leader Picker tool is wrong, and the code underneath it likely not updated for BTS. Creative only gives the bonus on the Library in BTS.

I'd recommend always going by the Civopedia in-game. The Civ IV War Academy is really a mess now.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Creative only gives the bonus on the Library in BTS.

Thanks - it was updated for BTS but the author must have missed that one. I'll go though and compare it to the Civopedia at some stage.

Creative just got a big boost in my personal rankings!!

 

[AutomatedTeller]

I have definitely been taking a break in taking caps. Archers start showing up around turn 50, which makes it tough for warriors, and you do have to develop cities at some point.

But it becomes pretty easy to pick up AI with HA vs archers. I wouldn't bother with chariots - they die way too much. Honestly, even a civ with metals isn't too tough - they'll have a spear or two and a sword. A HA with shock will knock that down so it can be killed pretty easy. As long as you have enough HA so that you can take 5 or so cities in 5 or 6 turns, you'll be fine.

 

[Kaitzilla]

What's the verdict on corps vs SP in this scenario? On normal speed I'm quite comfortable launching in one turn using SP and chained overflow (just regular overflow, not the banworthy hammer stacking technique). I'm not sure how well this translates to epic speed. Maybe it could work... Or is mining a better bet? SP should be able to handle the tech pace with some 50 well developed cities.

I continued my Willy game a little bit. After taking 5 AI capitals by t37 I paused military production to finally get out some workers. This might have been a mistake as it allowed the AI to tech archery and/or hook up metals. Now at t92 with 9 cities, 11 workers and a few settlers coming soon. I have only captured one more AI capital in the last 55 turns... That just doesn't feel right for a space game! Also, the 6 libraries I have should probably rather have been hammers into army or settlers. I'm currently wrapping up another game, but then I might try to play this one through rather quickly to get a feel for how epic/noble can play out. Urgh, who am I kidding? "Rather quickly" still probably means 60+ hours for me...

My strategy is avoid the new world and Astro to keep Colossus as long as possible. (will need Physics eventually)
Not enough islands to spam colonies and raise Dom limit on large terra.

Will probably go Edu->Ga->Banking (mercantilism)->Biology (bulb, so avoid Optics)->Communism->Levees->corporations.
Keys are sailing and rivers to avoid building too many roads, 2 island cities for trade routes, stealing workers from every civ, and early Hagia Sophia for 3 turn chops (after Calendar?).

Grabbing capitals early is quite maddening.
Any good attempt should probably aim to get at least 3 before t50.

Having to self tech everything is quite different.
Probably more Banks to generate gold and prereq techs for +20% tech bonus.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Somehow I feel that in the end beating the Inca date won't be nearly as hard as beating Kaitzilla.

Got a game going that is gonna be tough to beat!

Spoiler :

 

[elitetroops]

40 cities and 2000bpt in the BCs? I suppose that's kind of semi-decent...

Spoiler :

I haven't continued this Challenge yet, only procrastinated by playing some other games. Among others I finally got around to finish my best space game to date, which was almost completed last year, but interrupted by the release of Civ VI.

Now I realized I forgot to set flat world wrap for this Challenge. Distance maintenance is not that bad on noble, but I think that is still a too costly mistake and I'll have to restart. Or at least play first 100 turns of another game, then compare with my first try. I think it should be possible to get to a much better position by then.

 

[Kaitzilla]

I've switched my photo service from Photobucket over to Smugmug, so hopefully I can keep spamming images in the future.
Only 14 months to move everything over and edit 4000+ forum links.
No way I'm paying $399 per year.
$48 is much better.

On the Noble space race, AI barely chop any forests!
Just have to build National Park and then give away National Epic city and whip (National Epic) in National Park city, then take old National Epic city back.
14 permanent Specialists with +100% Great People Rate mmm.

Spoiler :

Kremlin takes an outrageous amount of population to whip.

Spoiler :

Still doing well on this map/attempt.
Will take this game all the way to space.

Spoiler :

 

[AutomatedTeller]

Something I never realized - the AI starts the game with 11 hammers into their first warrior. I was wondering how they got them built so fast....

 

[Major Tom]

Since this is the discussion thread also for the gauntlet, I am wondering if I submit a second game will it count as 2 finished major gauntlets for the QM/EQM-ranking?

 

[Ozbenno]

No, you have to have submissions for 2 seperate gauntlets.