Challenge-XXII-04

[Noble Zarkon]

While the general Hall of Fame is an ongoing competition, we are running a series of ten games under the Hall of Fame Challenge Series XXII called "The Weakest Link". Standard Hall of Fame rules (*) still apply, but your best submission 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 3.19.005 <<
(*) Games to be submitted via the >> Civ IV Hall of Fame Website <<
(*) New players, please >> register << using your CFC forum name

Settings:

• Victory Condition: Conquest (though all victory conditions must be enabled)
• Difficulty: Deity
• Starting Era: Ancient
• Map Size: Standard
• Speed: Epic
• Map Type: Boreal
• Required: No Tribal Villages, No Random Events
• Civ: Zulu (Shaka)
• Opponents: Must include America (Franklin Roosevelt), Egypt (Hatshepsut), England (Elizabeth), Germany (Frederick), Greece (Pericles), India (Gandhi)
• Version: 3.19.005
• Date: 1st July to 28th December 2020

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

See Challenge-XXII-04 for details.

 

[Pangaea]

Looked at this game for a change of pace, and Boreal looks kinda... not-so-good. Tundra and plains everywhere, with very low diversity in resources. But AIs will have a lot of room to expand into, and Deity will do so quickly. What do the experts say, fill it up with 10 AIs or stick with the default (and required) 6?

Looks like it's setup for a love fest.

 

[NickTrofimuk]

Does anyone have any strategy or tips for this one? I have played a few games but am struggling with the boreal setting and diety difficulty.

 

[Pangaea]

Have some failures too, and one game currently on hiatus. Really difficult to handle the total lack of economy and lousy tiles everywhere you look, coupled with Deity bonuses out of control. The good thing is that there are lots of forests to chop into units, but you need units that can actually do something to these super-fast AIs. And they get longbows damn early as usual.

Hoped bulbing Machinery would lead to something nice, but by the time I got there they've got longbows, which of course makes crossbows rather useless. Same with the HAs that killed Elizabeth. Therefore not sure how to proceed that game.

 

[elitetroops]

One of Seraiel's replays was deity conquest on boreal. The videos and images are gone but second half of thread seems more discussion focused. Maybe some help in there. His game is still holding the top spot for large/normal conquest, you could have a look at it for ideas.

I only once attempted conquest on boreal. The lack of commerce really sucks. Wouldn't attempt this without a ton of gem in the immediate starting area.

 

[NickTrofimuk]

Thanks elitetroops, that thread was very helpful. I was thinking of doing either a pyramids/specialist economy, or finding a river capital with some food resources, and cottaging the plains tiles (since my usual cottaging of grassland/flood plains not really an option). I ended up trying a game on Emperor/Quick just to see if I could find something that worked. Finished the game 1860AD Conquest.

I didn't have copper or iron, and although I built a lot of trebs, I didn't end up attacking until I had cavalry and some drafted riflemen. Took a city off of Gandhi (scoreleader at the time) which had iron and then immediately upgraded all the trebs to cannons. Gandhi with longbows and knights then fell easily. Once I had a bunch of his cities with some excellent wonders it was an easy win from there. I didn't do my first attack till around 1500AD, though could maybe have gone earlier.

It helped a lot that my capital had 5 food and 1 gems, and a couple grassland tiles. I hooked my third city up to stone for the great wall (to avoid worrying about barbs) but it didnt complete. They ended up not being an issue at all, maybe because only emperor difficulty, but likely because I spawned on a piece of land in the corner of the map, surrounded by water aside from two entry points which were easy enough to defend.

Going to try a similar strategy on diety now. Not sure if I will go for a treb attack if I have iron this time, or just go for cavalry again.

 

[Anysense]

I remember playing a conquest game on Boreal - it was a nightmare. At least Shaka has the means for reducing maintenance that goes well with intensive warfare.

 

[Pangaea]

Quite the nightmare indeed. My game has been on hiatus for a while now, and unfortunately I won't have time to complete it. Not entirely sure I could succeed though. There is no economy. Very little happiness. And I was actually fortunate enough to capture Mids.

This was the start I had.

Spoiler :

Great with all those gems, but not enough food. Killed off Elizabeth, wasn't sure how to proceed with a crashed economy, and that's where it stands...

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Not sure if it helps but the series has been extended into late January to ensure people have the full festive season to play.

 

[Anysense]

Not sure if it helps but the series has been extended into late January to ensure people have the full festive season to play.

I may have another go on this one then. My current attempt does not seem likely to be successful; I suppose I can win something like 18XX AD but that will be ridiculous.

 

[Seraiel]

Does anyone have any strategy or tips for this one? I have played a few games but am struggling with the boreal setting and diety difficulty.

I tell you look for a high Commerce start (at least two Gold/Silver, if possible 3rd Gold/Silver in 2nd city), look for the tiles that are probable to have Copper/Iron (non-forrested tiles) and pre-road them, focus on Worker-stealing, you have high-defense because of Forrests everywhere (steal from 2 AIs with Warriors/Axes) , promote everybody to Woodsman3 (AI will keep Forrests for you to attack from if you're fast enough and the movement bonus from WM2 enables faster Conquest) , get Stone as a start (I and Boreal need Mids because of almost no economy) those are just the basics that I remember from Replay #9.

 

[Anysense]

I continued that game just to get a bit more experience with the map and it went much better than I anticipated. It's funny how I was a tech leader without actually researching anything - just trading stuff my vassals researched.

Spoiler :