Challenge-XV-07

[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: Monarch
• Starting Era: Classical
• Map Size: Standard
• Speed: Normal
• Map Type: Rain Forest
• Required: Raging Barbarians, No Tribal Villages, No Random Events
• Must Not Be Checked: No Barbarians
• Civ: Khmer (Suryavarman)
• Opponents: Must include Arabia (Saladin), Babylon (Hammurabi), Egypt (Hatshepsut), Ethiopia (Zara Yaqob), Mali (Mansa Musa), Maya (Pacal)
• Version: 3.19.003 or 3.19.003s
• Date: 15th December 2014 to 15th May 2015

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

 

[Jenarie]

Is it possible to deal with raging barbs without a starting metal or should I just ignore any start without copper?

Defending first two cities with archers fine but can't do anything about the plundering so every improvement I built is long gone and it seems like by the time they get finished with their raging I would be too far behind to make it worth continuing.

Edit: Haha apparently what I was surviving was just the temper tantrum before the raging... it got ugly fast when they started sending stacks of swordsmen against my archers. I think copper start is needed here.

 

[lymond]

The opening on this one can be a little tough, Jen. Chariots can also help as well and there are lots of AH starts here. Make sure you get units out into wilds to spawnbust. Not sure if you are familiar with the 5X5 rule.

Another thing that helps a bit is to add a couple more AIs, which will help the map fill up faster. This is a standard game so you can have up to 10 AIs.

 

[elitetroops]

You could also look for a start in the corner of the map. That leaves you only two directions to spawnbust. But yes, copper is strongly recommended. So is adding some extra AI.

 

[Jenarie]

Thank you!

I tried a second game with horses and it helped a lot but was still rough. Much improved though - have that game saved and may go back to it. Also added three AI so between the two was huge improvement.

I did think of the corner thing but haven't generated enough maps to find it yet.

I have never used map finder yet - usually just play what comes up or regenerate a few times manually. I think the main advantage for ME of the map finder would be having a long list of maps I could try instead of having to reenter all the options every try. I always wish I could save a master map to regen from but once you save it the regen option goes away.

Was really surprised no one seems to be playing this one. Had never tried a non-ancient start or this map before so seemed like fun to me to play around with it.

 

[elitetroops]

The regen option doesn't go away entirely. You can always use mapfinder commands to regenerate from any starting save. Ctrl+Alt+G to generate, then immediately Ctrl+Alt+Shift+G to stop. This way you can regenerate one map at a time, even if the regenerate map option doesn't show up in the menu.

I started a game for this. Actually two, the first one got destroyed by barbs, wasn't at all prepared for what I was facing. Second started well, but it has been on hold a week or two. Will get back to it eventually.

 

[smitsk00]

Just got a 1836 finish wihout copper or stone early on. I have started a number of these, and having map sides/corners, mountains and lakes to bottneck your spawn busters seems to be the most important aspect to the start (building 5 archers instead of 8-9 gets cities and cottages and Artists up that much faster. A gem or two at the start doesn't hurt either.