Deity Challange 2

[RedRover57]

Since people seemed to enjoy the first challenge with the Mongols, I decided to start another, this time with the Aztecs. Settings are deity, lakes, large map, standard time, no ancient ruins, quick combat, raging barbarians .

Here is the start:

Spoiler :

The Challenge: Win after completely filling the Honor tree to start (inspired by a recent thread).

Any victory condition is fine, but bonus points for Domination or Cultural.

The save is attached. No DLC needed other than Mongols. Have fun!

 

[RedRover57]

Note: I already lose points for the misspelling of "challenge" in the title!

 

[MadDjinn]

2 deer + 2 wheat?

obvious granary game.

Aztecs are fun culture games when you go honour first.

 

[RedRover57]

Yes, and it will be particularly interesting to see if people can win without the initial free settler/worker/GP Liberty crutch.

 

[Silly Boots]

I'll take the challenge, though you're right - without the Liberty tree to start it will be much harder. At least that's a pretty sweet starting spot.

 

[MinutiaRules]

I know that combat animations can be turned off if the game is set up with them on. But can they be turned on if the game is set up with them off?

------

BTW nice idea and thanks for the raging barbs for Monte! I've grown very interested in just how will the experts approach an Honor first game. I tried previous games with Honor first but ended up far behind in all areas.

 

[Randall Turner]

Yep. Just download the "starting settings" add-on for the tuner.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=401194&highlight=modify+save+game+files

 

[Martin Alvito]

Insane start. Obviously a Pottery, vertical game. No sense in wasting the early growth by hard building Settlers.

The only real question is what to chop. GL -> Iron would be hot, but it'll be tough to win the race without the Worker from Citizenship. Warrior spam will yield big Culture but slow Iron.

 

[ArcaneSeraph]

I'll give it a try if I get time. Aztecs aren't my favourite but that start looks pretty cool. You could probably get the HG. In addition to their unique building... wow. What the heck you'd do with all the growth I don't know... but it'd be fun anyways!

 

[147s]

I tried and got of to a desent start with a few stolen workers. But then at turn53, both Alexander and Wasington jumped me just two turns from iron. Its hard to stop hoplites with jags . Fun map though and i think ill give it another go.

 

[ArcaneSeraph]

This map plays quite differently than many maps. I don't want to spoil so I won't comment as to why but lets just say many unusual things happen here.

 

[ArcaneSeraph]

Got NC
Got Iron
Survived Washington
Got Peace
Attacked Oda, got his capital
Got Education and finsihed HS
... lost 2 cities to Hiawatha next turn

Too many darn warmongers on this map

 

[ansa]

Insane start. Obviously a Pottery, vertical game. No sense in wasting the early growth by hard building Settlers.

The only real question is what to chop. GL -> Iron would be hot, but it'll be tough to win the race without the Worker from Citizenship. Warrior spam will yield big Culture but slow Iron.

Could you please advise - if this is a strict vertical start, when would be the proper time to hardbuild a settler? After Iron and to time it with Iron, or even much later after NC?

 

[ArcaneSeraph]

Could you please advise - if this is a strict vertical start, when would be the proper time to hardbuild a settler? After Iron and to time it with Iron, or even much later after NC?

You certainly can use it as a vertical start. That's what I did and it worked out well. It's an insane food start. It's actually an insane happy start too. IF you can pull off the GL it would be amazing. However I could not manage to do that and I tried many different ways. You need a worker to do it... ideally two. That's normal. However you also need a ton of jags because of the raging barbs. Without out them you get swarmed and your worker(s) just run around. There's not a lot to chop that will be within your radius either unless you want to sacrifice those deer forests. Even then, all the warmongers that are on the map will be declaring war on you at some point and you need more military.

There are two general ways to play this map, I think. Either go direct to iron and rush someone. That can work but you need one heck of a lot of units. You need them to protect yourself from other invasions, raging barbs, and of course your offensive units. If you do it this way I think you'll run into a lot of excess unit production penalties and gold problems.

The other way is to aim the NC. You don't have to do it right away but the sooner the better. Use the NC to power you through to iron. I also built a barracks and, although it is unusual for me to do so, built the heroic epic. I wanted my jag-to-swords to have every advantage they could. I expanded to 3 cities after getting the NC. I was doing quite well but the mistake I made I think was switching off to build some more builder type stuff. Hiawatha rolled in with a bunch of mowhawks and I didn't have the units or cash built up to defend my two expansions.

Also Germany is insane on this map. Every time I've tried it, they are almost double the nearest players score. I guess it's very close to their ideal settings.

 

[147s]

Hardbuild granary and then rushbuy floating garden to get pop 9or10 before spamming settlers. I quickly had 4 cities with tons of happiness but its so hard to hold off being in the center and even with 3 swordsmen i couldn't hold Alexander as barbs also rolled in from behind. I most say i am abit disapointed with the full honor-tree bonus 4-5 gold per kill does seem to be worth the effort...

 

[vexing]

I most say i am abit disapointed with the full honor-tree bonus 4-5 gold per kill does seem to be worth the effort...

it's the unit's strength in gold, so when you're killing riflemen it'll be 25

 

[Vo01985]

I like Aztecs on a Lakes map. Grow tall, spam jaguars and upgrade them to swordsmen, their bonus (+2HP) after a kill can be insane! Combined with fountain and march and you will have super (literally) soldiers. I got my best domination victory like this on immortal (without fountain).
Greece is very annoying though

 

[RedRover57]

Crazy map. Once again I have been forced into a mostly defensive game, which has put me behind in science (even with the good city growth).

Spoiler :

I settled in place and stayed at one city until after the NC (mid-50's). During this time I built/bought 7 jags and 2 archers and farmed barbs. I think I filled the Honor tree before turn 80 due to all of the culture from fighting. I also made sure that I built a granary and floating gardens in my capitol.

Mid-50's I was DoWed by Washington and held off his attacks due to the good defensive position. After the NC I teched IW, built a settler and settled NE on the 6-iron tile. This city allowed me to immediately upgrade my jags to swords, but was very slow growing until I had the cash to buy a floating gardens. Just before settling my second city I was DoWed by Iroquois (mid-60's) and was faced with wars on 2 fronts. Luckily my 2nd city was also in a good defensive spot as I had to fight off what seemed like hundreds of troops from both sides. I really wanted to place a third city up near the FoY, but decided I wouldn't be able to defend it and would also tick off Alex if I expanded further north. Turns out Alex DoWed me anyway around turn 85ish, so now I faced attacks on 3 sides.

Eventually, I killed off enough of America's troops to get a straight peace, and I kept bribing Bismarck to war with Alex (only 100 gold each bribe), which allowed me to focus a bit more on Hiawatha. I puppeted 2 of his cities and whittled down a lot of his troops, but stupid Washington DoWed me yet again and Alex increased his offensive so I had to take a favorable peace treaty from Hiawatha (I got about 340 gold, 15 gpt and wine) before I could take his capitol and cripple him.

Currently on turn 133 and haven't teched Education yet (3 more turns I think), so my science rate is too low. I had to tech to LS first to defend and Currency to build markets since I was bleeding almost 10 gpt at one point while on gold focus. I have once again whittled down a lot of Washington's troops, but he and Alex have both spammed cities very close to the west and north (Alex grabbed the FoY site). I would bet any money that as soon as the peace treaty with Hiawatha ends he will DoW me again. I am hoping to somehow gain peace with America again so that I don't need to keep defending from 3 sides. But at least I have 6 heavily promoted (March and Blitz) jags turned LS, several heavily promoted archers (soon to be crossbows after I finish Edu and tech Machinery) and lots of iron still to start cranking out siege and more LS.

After filling the Honor tree I took Tradition and Oligarchy (a life-saver!). I haven't been able to build any world wonders. GL went on turn 33 and all of the other good ones have gone early. Also haven't had the cash for RA's. I have some cash now but will use it to either buy a university in my capitol or annex one of the Iroquois puppets to get some troop production on my eastern front. Not sure how long I can last against the relentless AI but it has been fun so far.

 

[Martin Alvito]

Brutal. Inside is what happens if you push Iron quickly and get some rotten luck.

Spoiler :

Well, I'm alive. Gameplan was Pottery -> Mining -> Writing -> Bronze -> Iron -> Philosophy. Start was Worker -> Granary -> Jaguar -> Library -> Jaguar spam. The idea was to hook up the Iron quickly, upgrade and punch someone in the mouth. Meanwhile, build a Library in the second city and get the NC up.

The AI had other plans.

I finished IW on turn 49, saw two Iron near the FoY with six Iron adjacent to that, and moved to snag the FoY. Meanwhile, the Worker connected up the capital Iron. Once that was done, I mass upgraded and started to shift my army east to drill Hiawatha.

One problem: double DoW from Alex and Hiawatha. This became a triple DoW a few turns later when Tokugawa joined the mix. I had a feeling that Alex was coming when a Hoplite passed a barb camp and headed south, but I did not expect the massive, raging horde that came boiling out of the east. At least fifteen units, mostly Mohawks with a few Archers and a Catapult sprinkled in. Ugh.

Surviving that cost me about three Swords and prevented me from improving a lot of dirt. That in turn cost me cash, which has forced me to hard build the Library instead of rushing it, which has put me in a lousy position.

The plan from here is to finish that Floating Gardens and start the NC ASAP. Then I'll make a call on whether or not to push Steel.

 

[Kevin J]

Did everyone settle in place?

I was thinking of trying this, but settling on the hill next to the mountain... loss of 2 turns, puts the sugar out of reach, and gives a fair bit of yucky tundra.... but I really like a hill/riverside/mountainside capital, and it has a riverside plain wheat and riverside forest deer in the initial borders. Who knows, could be something good on the other side of those mountains - though I couldn't see in the screenys.

Yeah, what the hell, I'll give it a go on the hill - should help me survive the DoWs I'm sure I'll see. I didn't survive your last challenge, may this one go better!

EDIT: Yep, another deer, 2 tiles from that hill, and the tundra is hills = production. Looks good!
EDIT 2: And a marble on the other side of the mountains!

Moving was a good choice I believe:

Riverside/Mountainside/Hill Capital
riverside plains wheat/riverside forest deer within 1 tile
forest deer/riverside forest deer/gems/dye within 2 tiles
marble/plains wheat within 3 tiles

3 luxuries including marble, 2 wheat, 3 deer, riverside, mountainside, hilltop with lots of hills for production.... I really like that city site