Drazek's HOF attempts

[Drazek]

I have decided to make a new HOF attempt and hopefully I'm doing many so I'll open this thread.

My first HOF attempt was on Monarch, described here
I scored the second place in the HOF.

I usually play Deity, but for these HOF games, I try to relax and not have so intensefull game. So I have decided to play Monarch until I have got the first place or I have got bored enough on this level. Eventually, I'll try for Deity HOF, but that'll be in the future.

I don't know how C3C will affect this. I got the expansion, but I have not yet played much. I feel that it has changed so much, that I'll try to concentrate on PtW 1.27f for now.

 

[superslug]

We may be going virtually head to head then. I've got the current third place on Monarch and am already generating maps for a try at first place myself!

 

[Drazek]

Originally posted by superslug
We may be going virtually head to head then. I've got the current third place on Monarch and am already generating maps for a try at first place myself!

That's great! Competition is always beneficial! I have generated several great starting positions using Moonsinger/Dianthus' mapfinder. I'm now playing one Monarch/Wet/Pangaia/5billion map of about 3900 domination limit. I'm having greater score than in my last attempt. I'll report specific score later, when I have booted to my playstation. (I usually use Linux). But reading the current score leader's timeline, EMan got a Great Leader and Pyramids very early, so it could be hard to beat his score. And I have now noticed, that playing Ottomans is not a good choice on Monarch, their UU is way too late, I'm now thinking that Egypt is the most useful Monarch level civ ever (regarding Civ/PtW).

 

[Darkness]

And there's also my 33000+ point game, which will be second when Aeson posts the new update...

 

[Drazek]

Originally posted by Darkness
And there's also my 33000+ point game, which will be second when Aeson posts the new update...

Yeah, bring on the competition. I'm just waiting to beat you all!

 

[Darkness]

Originally posted by Drazek

Yeah, bring on the competition. I'm just waiting to beat you all!

Good luck!

 

[Drazek]

Here's my situation in 10CE:

I got a good starting position in just one night. Over 3900 domination limit and 2 cows + 3 games nearby giving me 2 good settler factories.

But I have problems. The red area shown in the minimap contains no horses. I started in the middle of the horseless area. It took until about 300CE before I managed to link horses. So I started to fight the first three wars with swordsmen/medieval infantry. It's 700 CE now and I still have NO leader, so I have to hand build wonders. I'm way behind all other wise in this game than in my previous one, except in the score, but that's what really matters, so I'm continuing to play.

My score development:
1000BCE 329
10CE 877
500CE 1927

It would be nice to have intermediate scores from all attempters.

In 680CE I passed 100 Sipahi mark. Now I'm just trying to dominate before 1000CE despite my low start.

 

[superslug]

Originally posted by Drazek
It would be nice to have intermediate scores from all attempters.

I'm in! I'm planning on detailed reporting once I start my game. I've generated a few maps I liked, but I haven't played any yet because I still have to finish my Chieftain game and I'm still tinkering with who I want as AI...

 

[Drazek]

Aargh, I hate leaders. Now I got 3 in 4 turns. First battling for over 1500 years without one. I hope they'll remove all leaders in forthcoming civs or make them less 'luckable'.

 

[Drazek]

Finished conquest phase just before 1000CE! Didn't see a single musketman. Strange, but could be that the AIs were so poor due to massive jungle areas. Have to do all clearing myself.

Now it's 990CE and the score is 5147, gaining 117 pts per turn. I'm researching Democracy (have also Replaceable Parts). I usually don't use Democracy, but I'll try now, there's so much jungle still left.

 

[fret]

Originally posted by Drazek
My score development:
1000BCE 329
10CE 877
500CE 1927

It would be nice to have intermediate scores from all attempters.

Ive just submitted a Monarch game, scores as follows...

1000BC 384
10AD 1327
520AD 2846 (nearest save I kept to 500)
1060AD 7352 (all AI eliminated save last city and dom limit reached a couple of turns later)

I'm not telling what the final score was but Darkness' number 2 spot is safe


EDIT - my score peaked at 119 points per turn

The domination limit for the game was only 3577, I never intended to play this as a HoF game originally but by about 500BC I had played probably the best start of my life and then thought about making it a HoF attempt, it was then that I checked the dom limit and was a little dissapointed but decided to carry on regardless.

 

[Drazek]

Originally posted by fret
Ive just submitted a Monarch game, scores as follows...

1000BC 384
10AD 1327
520AD 2846 (nearest save I kept to 500)
1060AD 7352 (all AI eliminated save last city and dom limit reached a couple of turns later)

I'm not telling what the final score was but Darkness' number 2 spot is safe

Sounds good. My game is not going as well as I had hoped, but this is my second real milking attempt so I'm still learning. I hope that I'll play a heavy catchup in the milking phase, and now I hope to score about 31000-32000 total, but the real decision point will be about 1400CE, when there's only waiting left. At about that time I should have a real feeling how well/bad this is going and I might scrap the game then...

 

[superslug]

I take it you all are playing pangaea's? I want my domination limit to be several hundred tiles larger than EMan's was, so I'm likely going continents or archipelago...

 

[fret]

Yeah, huge panagea, wet, warm, 5 billion, sedentiary barbs 8 other civs.

After having a look at the summary reply of Eman's number 1 Monarch game I might try 16 opponants in the next game - it looked like he did really well by expansion through very early conquest because all the civs were close by.

Drazek wrote - I hope that I'll play a heavy catchup in the milking phase, and now I hope to score about 31000-32000 total

You should be able do some good catchup in the milk phase, with an extra 400ish tiles on the dom limit - I dont know how much that will equate to in terms of points per turn as an average, but even if you only get an extra 6 or 7 points per turn from it that should still net you a good 2000 over and above what I got in a 300 turn milk phase.

 

[Drazek]

Originally posted by fret
After having a look at the summary reply of Eman's number 1 Monarch game I might try 16 opponants in the next game - it looked like he did really well by expansion through very early conquest because all the civs were close by.

Yes, and he played Egyptians. I played one Emperor game with Egypt and I got about 70 war chariots in about 10CE. My nearest opponent was Carthage, but I crushed them easily and proceeded to conquest with war chariots.

Now the problem in my current game is that I couldn't start real conquest until I got horses hooked up and MT, which took really really long. Next time I'll try with Egypt and hope to dominate before 500CE. I'm confident that it's doable, Monarch level AI is so slow and poor that Sipahi is an overkill.

 

[Drazek]

Bah, I think I'll abandon this game. I have now reached 1160CE and turns are going really slow, just some jungle and rushing left, but it's so boring that I don't think I want to play as the reward is not so high with only about 31-32k end score.

 

[Svar]

How do you estimate your end score in 1060 CE?

 

[Darkness]

Originally posted by Svar
How do you estimate your end score in 1060 CE?

You can't. Not accurately anyway, not even with SirPleb's score calculator (which becomes really accurate only when you're in the milking phase of your game)...

 

[Drazek]

Woohoo, I have finished my second real milking attempt! This time playing Americans on Warlord, final score 18410. This was a very quick game, played during three days. Mapfinder/CrpMapstat were very helpful and reduced time. Now I was careful with culture, sold all cultural improvements after I had used them enough. The downside of this fast play is that the rush build phase feels very boring (and I can't stand more than 30 manual workers).

Settings were Archipelago/Wet/Warm/60% Water. Domination limit was 4435 tiles. Overall my start was best ever, about 80 towns in 10CE (but only 2 luxuries ) I had enough space that I didn't need to go to war until around 500CE, but it took a long time to conquest, until 1200CE. And finishing rush building took until 1600CE, so despite my good start, something went wrong, partly due to Archipelago landmass. End game was just pressing space every few mins. Anyway, the start was my greatest ever and this makes me confident starting a new Monarch game. I just have to find a really great map first!

Score development:
1000BCE 216
550BCE 359
10CE 657
500CE 1346
1000CE 3188
1500CE 8050
1750CE 11025
2050CE 18410

 

[Svar]

Congratulations on the new top score. My current atempt on warlord was based on my ability to get second place relatively easily. Now, however with your top score and at least 1 other one I'm aware of the best I can hope for is fourth unless I get a really great score. I guess I better finish practicing, develop my evaluation tool and get on with it.