Challenge-XVIII-10

[Fippy]

Hmm thinking about some tipps, did not build any early wonders besides Oracle (no Glib as well).
With marble i would have thou, but without it's not a huge loss and at least Scime does not obsolete stuff that hurts.

Monarchy with Bur. switch, needed some warriors as city was growing fast.
Hammers saved on not using Glib went into Globe when i had nothing else urgent, it's needed later anyways when Rep gives only +3.

Library before granary or 2nd workboat, so i could run 2 scientists.
Academy before Oracle prophet might mess up the pool.

Other national wonders, Moai was helpful.
Ironworks are imo a must in occ, NE ofc and Ox.

Other than that..always keeping my trading partners advanced.
Mansa and Hammi in this case, he's easy on friendly with Bur. as favorite Civic and i gave him CS early.
I usually only kept just enuf techs to trade with them, and many many gifts so they stay useful.

 

[Thlypsis]

Oh man, I'm afraid to ask, but are people launching 20% success rate spaceships? It seems like the competitive way to go, but I don't want to start hating Civ!

 

[Fippy]

I launched a fully built one

 

[neilmeister]

I had another go, launched at 60% success with only 1 engine, all other parts complete.

I improved 10 turns on my successful landing, still 16 off Fippy! I have tried a few times at 20% which would have been within a few turns off Fippy, but they never landed.... and yes, I hate Civ sometimes!!

Internet has been very useful in my last few games

 

[Fippy]

Hmm yup Internet i was not sure about, but i can see why it's a good investment.

 

[neilmeister]

Oh my god, this game is killing me. It's so quick to play which is why it's so easy to play....

Had the ultimate start, Oracled CS in 1560bc, had Stone & Marble + FP's galore and Gold, Corn, Clams, Fish & Deer.... whipped University in 300BC.... but I cant see Oxford... turns out I forgot to set OCC and I had already built my 2 national wonders. NE & Maoi.....

I hate life!!!

 

[Noble Zarkon]

turns out I forgot to set OCC and I had already built my 2 national wonders. NE & Maoi.....

Oops, that would be rather annoying!!

 

[Thlypsis]

Spaceship landed in 1967. I'm not too proud. I rushed for space elevator techs thinking the latitude limit was 45 degrees, but Nidaros at 31 degrees was too northerly. I messed up trying to renegotiate my iron and aluminum deals, so I didn't have either in the late game.

Some lucky stuff happened, though:
I founded a religion and it spread to Korea and Greece, then Greece built the AP.
My ship had a 20% success rate.

If I were to replay, I would build the following national wonders: National Epic, Oxford, Ironworks, Globe, Moai
Sushi would have been amazing, I think.
Not sure if building an amphibious army would be worth the hammers, but demanding coal from a vassal would have been great.

What's the maximum number of opponents on a tiny map?

 

[Kaitzilla]

This one was crazy!

Spied on Fippy's game (a nice one, I got a bit jealous) and noticed that Aluminum was an important resource to acquire and National Park removes Coal killing the +50% bonus from IronWorks plus any chance to found Aluminum Inc.
Then I rolled this map.

Spoiler :

Guarded some huts to get free Writing.
Beelined Alphabet and then Oracled -> Civil Service in 1640BC with only 2 chops.

Spoiler :

Mansa teched like crazy and I avoided all Wonders except Oracle to beeline Education and Oxford.
Lots of random events with only 4AI on the map and a big tech lead for the human!

Spoiler :

Noticed Charlemagne was plotting war in 50BC, but I was Pleased with him so he wasn't targeting me.

Went all the way to 225AD and had NO RELIGION SPREAD TO ME YET!!!
Suck on that Org. Religion+Pacifism!
That strange situation when you whip Pyramids complete in 25BC and Hanging Gardens complete in 200AD, and the Org. Religion bonus still isn't active!

After Education (600BC), I Beelined straight for Biology. (Machinery -> Printing Press -> Trade for Eng. then Gunpowder -> Chemistry...
Mansa was very generous about avoiding Liberalism.
He teched Nationalism, Constitution, Corporation, and Astro instead of Liberalism. >_>
That let me Liberalism Biology in 680AD.

Which led to 740AD National Park with 10 Forests!
Add on Medicine and Environmentalism to give +2 for each forest Preserve, and my Financial Trait will make every Forest Preserve very valuable!
10 Free Specialists will generate a huge amount of settled Great People too.

Spoiler :

Just need to pop Aluminum and I'm feeling good about beating Fippy's game.
.
.
.
.
.
Oh hey, I just got DOW'd by 15 units.
10 strong killers and 5 Catapults.
After deleting all my Garrison Warriors.
And I obsoleted Castles when I got Economics from Mansa sigh.

Spoiler :

Apparently Charlie started plotting war in 150BC at Cautious and I didn't notice until 50BC when he was Pleased with me.
I thought I was safe!
Oops...

HURK, Free Golden Age event!!!!!!!!!!!
I've never gotten it before!
Not one time in 8 years...



If I can just survive until Cannons.
Maybe I shouldn't have finished those last 4 turns of Medicine.

Spoiler :

Game over.

LOL

Can National park make up for a 50% production loss in Spaceship Parts by teching to Ecology much faster?
No idea, I didn't take the Immortal AI seriously and lost.
A fun few hours.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

No idea, I didn't take the Immortal AI seriously and lost.

Wow - interesting game! It's very tempting just to risk no military on OCC especially as the games are so quick.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Spaceship landed in 1967. I'm not too proud. I rushed for space elevator techs thinking the latitude limit was 45 degrees, but Nidaros at 31 degrees was too northerly.

Well done on winning.

The general consensus is that the Space Elevator actually delays your win due to the tech detour you need to take to get there.

 

[Fippy]

Very interesting game Kaitzilla, not sure if to laugh or cry at that ending yup

I would be scared about production with National Park (and short river for not many Levee tiles), but if you can be much faster on research with it's help..who knows?

 

[lymond]

Looks like that herald was a little bit late there, Kait

I had one good attempt going but lost to UN..nothing I could do about it..

 

[Pangaea]

The Anti-Challenge thread.

Kaitzilla - Defeated
lymond - Lost to UN
Pangaea - Lost to UN

 

[Kaitzilla]

The Anti-Challenge thread.

Kaitzilla - Defeated
lymond - Lost to UN
Pangaea - Lost to UN

Ok, tried again and was real careful about any surprise DOW's.

Spoiler :

And forgot about UN after blazing through the next turn button.

This one city challenge is kinda throwing me for a loop.

I should have used my good relations to build UN first and get control of the vote.
Letting Charlie be Mansa's opponent was fatal.
And since I didn't, I should have burned the UN city to the ground before the vote landed. (I think that stops the vote)

Marines on Transports standing by to burn AI capitals in case of spaceship launch might also be useful.
Depends on how much the human wants to gift techs and leverage Internet I suppose.


Ironclads and Iron pillaging got me a fun 1-turn Internet, so finally a use for them.

Spoiler :

 

[Fippy]

Yup, the amount of starts i rerolled..

This one city challenge is kinda throwing me for a loop.

 

[DizzKneeLand33]

Hmmmmmmm.....

So, I started with 4 civs along with myself, and Charlemagne apparently split off part of his empire and it is now led by Bismarck. The Mod now says "not valid for HOF use" -- never said that until now -- because there is now an extra Civ (5 opponents now on a tiny map).

Is this true (not valid for HOF), or am I okay to continue the game?

EDIT: Never mind, I found the answer, it's been a while lol:

(Note: Vassals created during gameplay do not affect this rule, only the number of opponents you select at the start of the game matters).

 

[Fippy]

I did worry about that too for a minute on my first game.
Would be silly thou so i guessed that cannot make games invalid.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Grrr

So I tried a 3rd time being careful about DOW's and the UN.
Everything was under control and the 1AI that could possibly attack me was hopelessly backwards.

Spoiler :

Surprise amphibious assault!!!
My heart stopped as my 1 Machine Gun mowed down the Rifleman off the boat because my Warriors weren't going to do squat if the Machine Gun died.
Thankfully the real army didn't attack till later, and I squeaked through to win the game.

Spoiler :

 

[Kaitzilla]

Oh ya, getting those resources.

Iron is pretty plentiful, so some AI will trade it for 50 per turn once it is needed for Ironworks. (25 per turn later in the game)
Coal is the trouble child since it is more rare than Iron. (It powers Aluminum Inc. too)
Coal is needed for both Ironworks and Coal Plants, and it can be bought from any AI that has 2 of them for 15 per turn.
The -70 per turn deficit can be funded by selling AI techs for 300 and Mansa techs for 600


In my game, the AI got gifted Steam Power, hooked both sources up, and then traded to a Friendly AI before giving me a chance.
So I built a fleet of Privateers to surround his island and sever his trade deal using blockade.
This was a terrible idea.
Every AI in the world sent Frigates to kill them and bombed them using Airships.

Then I got the bright idea to use 2 Spies and engage in economic terrorism.
Blowing up both mines would definitely sever the Coal trade deal from Hammurabi to Elizabeth. (Not sure if just 1 mine would do it)
Right as the Spies arrived, Hammurabi immediately offered the Coal for trade because this game hates me.

Spoiler :

Almost blowing 3 games in a row, my confidence lately...

Also, I'm not sure I can recommend random events for this one anymore.
Not only did one of my tiles get destroyed by storms 5 times, a volcano blew up destroying more tiles, and 2 important buildings got destroyed in my City (twice!) by a hurricane, I get stuff like this:

Spoiler :

5 gold short!