Civ V Beta 1
- Thread starter Ozbenno
- Start date
Which is why I never build a second city. That city will never match 30% of your capital's output, so just conquer everyone else and make THEM to the research! =)
Ok, I lied. I'm gonna try one more game, but this one is gonna be different. I'm going to impose a rule on myself that I *must* spend all policy gains the turn I get them, so we can really judge the difference between saving up vs spending. I can still build Cristo, but since I won't be culture hoarding, I will feel pressured to get to it ASAP.
Also, I'll document and take copious screen shots and post a report in the forum while in progress.
My initial requirements for a start location are going to be a decent sized river with a wheat and/or camp within 1 hex of my start. Also, there needs to be at least 2 luxuries, but that shouldn't be an issue as I've almost never seen a start without at least 2. Also, it'll need to have at least a reasonable amount of hills/forests for when I go builder mode. Probably won't take more than 8-10 restarts to find something compatible.
Also, I'll document and take copious screen shots and post a report in the forum while in progress.
My initial requirements for a start location are going to be a decent sized river with a wheat and/or camp within 1 hex of my start. Also, there needs to be at least 2 luxuries, but that shouldn't be an issue as I've almost never seen a start without at least 2. Also, it'll need to have at least a reasonable amount of hills/forests for when I go builder mode. Probably won't take more than 8-10 restarts to find something compatible.
Turn 251? Very nice Neuro! After reading through a lot of the replies, I decided to go back on what I said and take a shot at it. Since the selling-city exploit was dis-allowed, screw it, whynot.
Anyway, I managed a turn 286 win. The only thing I think I could've done better is to puppetize the continent earlier. I also had the bad luck of the draw of only 3 culture city-states on the whole map. Out of 16, you'd think there'd be at least 5, maybe even 6. I was also beat to Great Library and to The Oracle (Egypt and Siam both were in the game. I didn't hand-pick my opponents). Went for 3 cities, and went on the warpath around turn 160ish and puppetized almost the whole continent.
I spent policies for Tradition/Aristo, then Piety/Mandate, Then Patronage and 4 of them (not getting the Greater Person one). Hit Freedom, went to the lowered policy costs one then stopped until I built Cristo. Even after Cristo I still needed 8 more policies, including the 2 freebie, so just 6 more.
At the end I was making over 700 culture a turn when I went full-bore. If you load the winning save, you'll see it much less. After I got the last policy I changed my specialists around a LOT. Play with the 3 cities and their specialists and you'll be back over 700 easily.
Both saves are in the zip. They wouldn't fit otherwise.
Anyway, I managed a turn 286 win. The only thing I think I could've done better is to puppetize the continent earlier. I also had the bad luck of the draw of only 3 culture city-states on the whole map. Out of 16, you'd think there'd be at least 5, maybe even 6. I was also beat to Great Library and to The Oracle (Egypt and Siam both were in the game. I didn't hand-pick my opponents). Went for 3 cities, and went on the warpath around turn 160ish and puppetized almost the whole continent.
I spent policies for Tradition/Aristo, then Piety/Mandate, Then Patronage and 4 of them (not getting the Greater Person one). Hit Freedom, went to the lowered policy costs one then stopped until I built Cristo. Even after Cristo I still needed 8 more policies, including the 2 freebie, so just 6 more.
At the end I was making over 700 culture a turn when I went full-bore. If you load the winning save, you'll see it much less. After I got the last policy I changed my specialists around a LOT. Play with the 3 cities and their specialists and you'll be back over 700 easily.
Both saves are in the zip. They wouldn't fit otherwise.
anklebiter
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2006
- Messages
- 5
This is my first ever participation in a HOF game, and also the first time I've started a Civ V game with a victory condition already in mind. I'm a gigantic noob, so I approached this using Nuero's starting suggestions in page 6 of this thread.
Some of the more game oriented details first, for those who'd rather skip my later musings:
I started with silver and dyes, and found myself on a continent with just one other civ. I can never remember the guy's name, it's the man standing in front of a burning city with a sword propped on his shoulder. I'll call him Burning Man.
There were also several CS's which I took pains to get early good relations with, stepping in when they requested help with barbs etc.
Relations with Burning Man went south after he attacked Budapest. I moved some units up that way, thinking to liberate it if he took it and make Budapest my BFF, but he was incompetent at it. What he did do was come calling to whine about how I was being a pig collecting the world's wonders, cancel trade, and stopped Open Borders - which trapped a big chunk of my military up by Budapest. Time for war, Burning Man!
I did poorly in the initial skirmishes and lost most of those primitive units. BM came calling again though, asking for peace and offering all his gold for it. Sure! Just let me roll up some swords and cats during the lull, and park them next to that city you just settled near me to snag pearls. 10 turns pass (Mecca is very hilly and a production beast), and war #2 is on. I puppeted that city, and went on to puppet his whole nation. It was nice knowing ya, Burning Man. Hmm, this may not be good, who am I going to trade with now?
I embark a horseman gift from Budapest over a short stretch of water to the east, and run into George Washington. He's on a smallish continent by himself with a couple of city states, whom I ally with, and apparently Washington has been on these people's bad side since the dawn of time. I watched Vienna (I think) actually take Atlanta from him and raze it. Geez, Washington, you're not the brightest bulb, are you? The CS's out-teched him badly.
I'd been getting notifications about other Civs losing their capitals and getting conquered, so I hit the water again with my horseman and boat further east, to find Hiawatha "The Terrible". And man, did he deserve the title. He'd crushed and puppeted multiple Civs over there including Monty, Catherine and the Babylonians. Unlike Washington, when Hiawatha decided he wanted a CS, they were -history- on the next turn. He had anti-aircraft batteries watching the skies for nonexistent planes that no other nation knew how to build.
I took extra care to stay on Hiawatha's good side, doing lots of luxury resource trading with him (as well as one deal with Washington). I finished the Utopia project in 1970. Not terrible, but I'm sure someone more experienced could have done it a lot sooner.
Highlights of the game for me:
Some of the more game oriented details first, for those who'd rather skip my later musings:
- I only settled Mecca, and never built another city, thinking to keep SP costs as low as I could.
- I started with Piety to get the bonus for excess happiness, and filled out most of Patronage after that. Then I saved culture until I could unlock the Freedom 25% cost reduction bonus.
- After that, I banked 22k culture and beelined to Telegraph, then used a GE to rush the Christ the Redeemer monument. I had enough to finish out 5 branches, plus a little extra, and immediately started Utopia in Mecca. It took ~30 turns to finish it.
- As in every game I've played, I was out-teched badly by at least one of the AI's. How do you all do it? Year 1900 rolls around and my guys are still figuring out steam power. I must be doing something very inefficient w/ regards to science.
- If you do download the finish to take a look at it, marvel at the power that is Hiawatha. "Iroquois Nation" was pretty scary.
I started with silver and dyes, and found myself on a continent with just one other civ. I can never remember the guy's name, it's the man standing in front of a burning city with a sword propped on his shoulder. I'll call him Burning Man.
There were also several CS's which I took pains to get early good relations with, stepping in when they requested help with barbs etc.Relations with Burning Man went south after he attacked Budapest. I moved some units up that way, thinking to liberate it if he took it and make Budapest my BFF, but he was incompetent at it. What he did do was come calling to whine about how I was being a pig collecting the world's wonders, cancel trade, and stopped Open Borders - which trapped a big chunk of my military up by Budapest. Time for war, Burning Man!
I did poorly in the initial skirmishes and lost most of those primitive units. BM came calling again though, asking for peace and offering all his gold for it. Sure! Just let me roll up some swords and cats during the lull, and park them next to that city you just settled near me to snag pearls. 10 turns pass (Mecca is very hilly and a production beast), and war #2 is on. I puppeted that city, and went on to puppet his whole nation. It was nice knowing ya, Burning Man. Hmm, this may not be good, who am I going to trade with now?
I embark a horseman gift from Budapest over a short stretch of water to the east, and run into George Washington. He's on a smallish continent by himself with a couple of city states, whom I ally with, and apparently Washington has been on these people's bad side since the dawn of time. I watched Vienna (I think) actually take Atlanta from him and raze it. Geez, Washington, you're not the brightest bulb, are you? The CS's out-teched him badly.
I'd been getting notifications about other Civs losing their capitals and getting conquered, so I hit the water again with my horseman and boat further east, to find Hiawatha "The Terrible". And man, did he deserve the title. He'd crushed and puppeted multiple Civs over there including Monty, Catherine and the Babylonians. Unlike Washington, when Hiawatha decided he wanted a CS, they were -history- on the next turn. He had anti-aircraft batteries watching the skies for nonexistent planes that no other nation knew how to build.
I took extra care to stay on Hiawatha's good side, doing lots of luxury resource trading with him (as well as one deal with Washington). I finished the Utopia project in 1970. Not terrible, but I'm sure someone more experienced could have done it a lot sooner.
Highlights of the game for me:
- Iron. Iron everywhere. So...much...iron...
- Washington's pathetic, fumbling attempts attacking CS's (compared to Hiawatha who swatted them like flies). It was like watching someone run headfirst into a brick wall, get up, and do it again. And again. And...
- Having a swordsman unit tech-upgrade into riflemen when I tripped over a never-discovered ruin in the early 1900's. "Sire! The ends of these sticks...they explode!"
- Trying to talk Washington into peace with Capetown, and it not being possible because he'd so thoroughly pissed them off that THEY were at permawar with HIM. I gifted them a mech infantry (given to me by Budapest)
and laughed as Capetown routed his obsolete units with it, took Philadelphia from him, and were on the way to (New) Atlanta with it when I won the game.
Nice idea! I think I shall appropriate it!
I think I might do the opposite, and actually hoard as much culture as I practically can this time, to the extent of bypassing +1 food and +33% wonder production until after patronage is unlocked.
I think if you're definitely spending everything straight away, getting into the mediaeval era with the great library should be a high priority, so you're able to get into the patronage tree very early.
I'll also try and remember to take decent notes. One suggestion for both of us, record how much each individual policy costs as you go, so we can see the total culture required for our 26/27/28 policies (depending on Opera House/Oracle acquisition).
youralex
Chieftain
339 turns - 1919
Could be better
If not so boring at the end
Just spammed Enter waiting it to be over.
View attachment Harun al-Rashid_Initial BC-4000.Civ5Save
View attachment Harun al-Rashid_0339 AD-1919.Civ5Save
View attachment Harun al-Rashid_0339 AD-1919.Civ5Replay
Could be better
If not so boring at the end
Just spammed Enter waiting it to be over.View attachment Harun al-Rashid_Initial BC-4000.Civ5Save
View attachment Harun al-Rashid_0339 AD-1919.Civ5Save
View attachment Harun al-Rashid_0339 AD-1919.Civ5Replay
Just joined the site and I decided to give the HOF game a try. Decided before starting that I would attempt the game with a single city to keep policy cost low and that I would take what ever I was given on the first start instead of restarting to get an optimal start position. Turns out, I probably should have given myself some leeway on that second choice as I was placed in between tons of Tundra, desert and mountain tiles. Fortunately I was blessed with several luxury resources in the area and that enabled me to avoid war from two rampaging civs in Persia and the Iroqouis. The 2 of them eliminated all of the other civs, and all but 2 of the other city states during the course of the game.
The poor start location led to very slow growth and by the time I got things really rolling, I had virtually no chance to recover. To put the final nail in my coffin, Hiawatha beat me to the Cristo Redentor. Towards the end of the game, it became a race between myself to finish my final policy tree, and Darius as he was building the spaceship. A bit of creative bargaining got Hiawatha to declare war on Persia to slow his progress, a war fought almost entirely within my borders, while I tried in vain to crank out my final policy and build the Utopia Project. The final policy came in 2041 and I had my workers desperately clearing forests to try and get the Utopia Project built before the end of the game, but watched in agony as 2050 rolled around a mere 2 turns before the Utopia Project completed.
Gonna give it another go tomorrow, with a lot learned from this effort, I have no doubt that I can at the very least complete the cultural victory, if not do it in a decent amount of time.
The poor start location led to very slow growth and by the time I got things really rolling, I had virtually no chance to recover. To put the final nail in my coffin, Hiawatha beat me to the Cristo Redentor. Towards the end of the game, it became a race between myself to finish my final policy tree, and Darius as he was building the spaceship. A bit of creative bargaining got Hiawatha to declare war on Persia to slow his progress, a war fought almost entirely within my borders, while I tried in vain to crank out my final policy and build the Utopia Project. The final policy came in 2041 and I had my workers desperately clearing forests to try and get the Utopia Project built before the end of the game, but watched in agony as 2050 rolled around a mere 2 turns before the Utopia Project completed.
Gonna give it another go tomorrow, with a lot learned from this effort, I have no doubt that I can at the very least complete the cultural victory, if not do it in a decent amount of time.
Despite Nebuchadnezzar vastly outteching me and making four times as much gold per turn as me, I finally managed to get a cultural victory in 2019 AD. I only had 3 cities for the majority of the game, and was severely gimped because of it. Also, I could not trade a lot with Bazaar luxuries because I only had one opponent left alive.
I'm super angry with Babylon for not leaving any other civs alive on his continent, so now I'm going to "just one more turn" until I can catch up to him techwise and destroy him!
I'm super angry with Babylon for not leaving any other civs alive on his continent, so now I'm going to "just one more turn" until I can catch up to him techwise and destroy him!
KCMcG
Chieftain
Okay, here's my first ever submission for a gauntlet. I went with two cities, because on a standard size map, the second city only needs to put out 20% of the culture of the capital, which it was by the end of the game. (Actually it was ~30% of the capital)
The bazaar was nice once I finally got it. I started by beelining straight to Archaeology. In fact, after that I was two or three techs away from biology, which put me in the industrial era (+8 culture/cultural city-state), didn't even get iron working until after that. I was pretty reliant on the patronage policy line. I think half my research for most of the game was from city-states.
I was able to line up my third happiness golden age with building the Taj Mahal on the same turn, putting me in a 25 turn golden age. That combined with gifted GPs from city-states and the 6 turn GA from Piety allowed me to finish the last 50+ turns in GA. It finally ran out on the same turn I finished the utopia.
I lined up 5 research agreements for the final beeline to the telegraph and used Oxford University and an almost perfectly timed great scientist to finish it. I then had a great engineer sitting by to complete Cristo Redentor in one turn. Unfortunately I was one and a half policies short and had to wait another 15 turns to start on the utopia. Fortunately I was surrounded by hills and forests with a windmill, ironworks and factory in my capital and was able to build the utopia in 12 turns.
I think next time I would have kept a few more of the units I got from militant city-states and conquered and puppetted the civs on my continent for some extra culture. I would also get currency sooner because the ability to trade twice as many resources to the other civs is incredible. +10-20 gold per city from trading.
The bazaar was nice once I finally got it. I started by beelining straight to Archaeology. In fact, after that I was two or three techs away from biology, which put me in the industrial era (+8 culture/cultural city-state), didn't even get iron working until after that. I was pretty reliant on the patronage policy line. I think half my research for most of the game was from city-states.
I was able to line up my third happiness golden age with building the Taj Mahal on the same turn, putting me in a 25 turn golden age. That combined with gifted GPs from city-states and the 6 turn GA from Piety allowed me to finish the last 50+ turns in GA. It finally ran out on the same turn I finished the utopia.
I lined up 5 research agreements for the final beeline to the telegraph and used Oxford University and an almost perfectly timed great scientist to finish it. I then had a great engineer sitting by to complete Cristo Redentor in one turn. Unfortunately I was one and a half policies short and had to wait another 15 turns to start on the utopia. Fortunately I was surrounded by hills and forests with a windmill, ironworks and factory in my capital and was able to build the utopia in 12 turns.
I think next time I would have kept a few more of the units I got from militant city-states and conquered and puppetted the civs on my continent for some extra culture. I would also get currency sooner because the ability to trade twice as many resources to the other civs is incredible. +10-20 gold per city from trading.
Lukeuw
Chieftain
Turn 444 - 2022CE
Decided to give this challenge the 'ol noob try. Wish I had checked out all the good info in this thread before jumping into my first gauntlet game.
As for my particular game, started out on an island with one maritime city-state and no other opponents. I think this turned out to be a trade off as I could completely ignored my military but lost out on the advantages of diplomatic benefits from other civilizations and city-states. I built three cities which was probably one too many and just "turtled" my way to acoustics and then towards Christo Redemptor. One of my many mistakes was spending SPs as I went along instead of saving them up, I guess I didn't even think that was possible.
Well 2022CE isn't very impressive, but it was a fun and cheap Friday night since the girlfriend is out of town.
Decided to give this challenge the 'ol noob try. Wish I had checked out all the good info in this thread before jumping into my first gauntlet game.
As for my particular game, started out on an island with one maritime city-state and no other opponents. I think this turned out to be a trade off as I could completely ignored my military but lost out on the advantages of diplomatic benefits from other civilizations and city-states. I built three cities which was probably one too many and just "turtled" my way to acoustics and then towards Christo Redemptor. One of my many mistakes was spending SPs as I went along instead of saving them up, I guess I didn't even think that was possible.
Well 2022CE isn't very impressive, but it was a fun and cheap Friday night since the girlfriend is out of town.
TheIceSentinel
Chieftain
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2010
- Messages
- 2
Okay so this is my first time trying for the HOF Gauntlet and I thought I did fair for being a new player. I have always read the Civfanatics forums and never actually posted on them, mainly because I didn't think I was good enough. Anyways, without anymore fanfare here are my two game saves playing as Greece for the cultural victory.
A few things to note:
-Started on continent with 5 City States and 2 other Civilizations (England and China)
-Turns out a military of 1 Hoplite and 2 Companion Cavalry lasts quite a while against an entire continent of enemies, lol.
-3 Cities, Athens (Wonder/GPP Farm), Sparta (Production), Corinth (Gold) +2 consistent Puppet States.
-For most of the game I was able to keep around 6-8 City States bought and paid for.
Anyways, it wasn't a bad game overall and had I not finished around the time I did, the monster known as Japan that had finished devouring its own continent was coming for me, and I probably would have been dominated.
In retrospect, Corinth was largely superfluous and I should have stuck with 2 cities in total. I may try again with Greece or Arabia just to test that out.
Any critique would be great.
Cheers!
A few things to note:
-Started on continent with 5 City States and 2 other Civilizations (England and China)
-Turns out a military of 1 Hoplite and 2 Companion Cavalry lasts quite a while against an entire continent of enemies, lol.
-3 Cities, Athens (Wonder/GPP Farm), Sparta (Production), Corinth (Gold) +2 consistent Puppet States.
-For most of the game I was able to keep around 6-8 City States bought and paid for.
Anyways, it wasn't a bad game overall and had I not finished around the time I did, the monster known as Japan that had finished devouring its own continent was coming for me, and I probably would have been dominated.
In retrospect, Corinth was largely superfluous and I should have stuck with 2 cities in total. I may try again with Greece or Arabia just to test that out.
Any critique would be great.
Cheers!
Policies cost for one city.
1 25 11 1075 21 3445
2 45 12 1260 22 3745
3 90 13 1460 23 4050
4 160 14 1670 24 4365
5 245 15 1890 25 4690
6 345 16 2120 26 5025
7 465 17 2365 27 5370
8 595 18 2620 28 5725
9 745 19 2885 29 6090
10 905 20 3160 30 6465
sum26=49445
sum27=54815
sum28=60540
Somewhere in this thread i upload excel file with some calculations and data extracted using firetuner.
I've tried like 40 starts and every one sucked. With least sucking i was able to win in 359 turns. But no Civ to me for two weeks, luckly there still will be time to win sooner before end of Gauntlet.
DennisIran
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2007
- Messages
- 75
this is actully the only reason i keep playing these games! with this i mean the lovley community
Did my first try, had a decent start location and moved 1 square so I figured what the hell.
309 turns... I messed up a bunch of times near the end so I should have been able to get it under 300. While I had a decent start, it wasn't nearly ideal as I did not have marble so I could not construct nearly the number of wonders required to get a truly ideal number of turns. I'll probably try again, though, when I have some time...
309 turns... I messed up a bunch of times near the end so I should have been able to get it under 300. While I had a decent start, it wasn't nearly ideal as I did not have marble so I could not construct nearly the number of wonders required to get a truly ideal number of turns. I'll probably try again, though, when I have some time...
If I'm critiquing it for the gauntlet, I'd say reading the instructions would help.
You need to play as Arabia for it to be eligible for the gauntlet. No big deal for this one, and you're not the first to do it. But always good to check the required settings before you start a specific challenge. Other than that, as you found 3 cities is a big increase to total culture required, particularly if the other two don't build everything cultural.rutpak said:
Sweet. Saves me writing as I go. Though for mine I have 2 cities, no horses in my capital and a location I couldn't resist for city #2. Should be a decent date, though thanks to a crash & replay nearly 10 turns, it'd get excluded for a non-beta game. Still playing for research purposes anyway. What is noticeable is that the first 12 techs cost ~6k culture. So even if you save up to the point that Freedom is your first tree unlocked, you're only going to save ~1500 culture compared to getting it after 2 tradition and a full piety or patronage tree. Which is maybe 3-7 turns at the end, depending how your empire looks. Definite argument for taking useful policies ASAP.
In my current game I bought the two tradition upgrades straight away, and then waited until Freedom unlocked, thanks to beelining to theology + using a great scientist, I reached it prior to turn 100. Didn't worry about patronage tree earlier, thanks to still conquering my continent and only finding 1 cultural city-state.
DennisIran
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2007
- Messages
- 75
Okey i dont know what i did wrong everything was going so well. I was doing my getting allied with city states and keeping a long distance from going to war with anyone but then Germany and Iroquis descided to go to war AGAINST everyone exept me! and im stuck in the middle will moslt likley die because i have no army 
time for the second try !
getting allied with city states and keeping a long distance from going to war with anyone but then Germany and Iroquis descided to go to war AGAINST everyone exept me! and im stuck in the middle will moslt likley die because i have no army time for the second try !
