G-III Able

[AutomatedTeller]

This is a game that went nowhere, but the start was so amazing...


6 plains cows, 6 hills - base of 38 spt, 51 in the GA, 47 at size 20, 73 with rails, over 200 with everything.

I may go back and screw around with it (I managed to not get SoZ and someone, somehow, beat me to philo), just to see, but it wouldn't place in the gauntlet...

I've never been able to build the internet in 5 turns...

 

[Tone]

Wow! I've had an AA GA production of 49spt before with one of my HOF 20K games and I've been on the lookout for something just a bit better ever since. Looks like you have it there.

 

[Chamnix]

I finally got a map with an early SGL for the Pyramids, but other than that the map was unremarkable. I have just completed Education and a university in 90 AD giving me 2971 culture plus 63 cpt. I don't know if I will go on with this one just to get an entry in, but it won't be competitive .

 

[Tone]

I've just looked at my 90AD save, Chamnix. If it helps you make a decision, I had 3039 culture @64 cpt so it could be worth a go still. I have the GLib getting double culture a few turns after that but if you can get a couple of MA SGLs to get the key wonders more quickly than I did, wouldn't you have a good chance of beating my submission?

 

[Chamnix]

When you put it that way, it doesn't look so bad, but over the next 18 turns, you have the Mausoleum, library, Great Library, Statue of Zeus, and Temple of Artemis double, plus you completed the Heroic Epic and Shakespeare's Theater. Over my next 18 turns, all I have are the Mausoleum and Statue of Zeus doubling, and I have 0 shields accumulated toward my next build.

I guess it is worth a few more techs, but if an SGL doesn't come soon, then it will be hopeless .

 

[Bartleby]

I'm hopefully going to finish a game in time, but I'll be bringing up the rear. I've never really liked 20k, but I think I have a better understanding of it now.
I would be interested to know what other people build at the start; for a lot of the games that I abandoned in this attempt, I only built a settler before the capital started on culture; in the last one, I think I built a single warrior before the settler.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

In this game, I generally went warrior/warrior/warrior/settler.

Sometimes, I went warrior/warrior/worker/settler.

when I played as carthage, the 3rd warrior was a curragh.

I sent out 2 warriors to find others and one to find a spot for city #2 and tried to time everything so I finished something the same turn I got CB. Depending on the nearby food bonuses, I sometimes popped out another settler or two before starting my temple.

 

[Chamnix]

Well, good news and bad news on my game. The good news is I got an SGL for Printing Press giving me the Sistine Chapel many turns earlier than I would have completed it. The bad news is that my mouse has been malfunctioning lately - often clicking on something results in an accidental double-click. When I researched Free Artistry, I needed to go to the big picture and change my 20K build to Shakespeare's; unfortunately, instead my 20K city ended up completing a bank, and I quit in disgust. I don't think my game would have been competitive anyway without a lot more luck.

I had been sticking with Russia as my tribe. The capital always built a second scout first, but after that it would depend on where I popped my free settler and the surrounding terrain - sometimes I would go for 20K in the capital, sometimes in my second city.

If Moscow was my 20K town, then I would start a granary immediately after the scout, and I would complete Ceremonial Burial pretty much just in time to turn it into a temple. After that, my 20K town would emphasize research while growing to size 6 building 2 warriors for MP (unless I had popped a couple skilled warriors nearby), some scouts, and some workers if I would have grown to size 7 before Mysticism. Since I "knew" I would get a Mysticism SGL, there was no need to accumulate shields before then. The Mysticism SGL would build the Pyramids (Masonry was always popped or traded for by then), and I would generally already have enough workers and improved terrain to spring immediately to size 12 to start the Oracle.

If St. Petersburg was the 20K town, then it would build a temple first while Moscow supplied the MP warriors, scouts, and warriors. Again while I researched Mysticism, St. Petersburg would spit out a couple extra scouts, or, if it would have grown to size 7 before Mysticism completed, an extra worker or two.

I never built a settler until my 20K town was size 12. Since I stayed at 2 towns for so long, there were a few games where I popped another settler or a town, but they were usually too far away to do much except supply unit support for all my scouts.

I keep MapFinder running nights to see if I can make one last attempt, but I'm not optimistic about my chances of completing a huge map in just a few days. Next month...

 

[PrinceMyshkin]

I submitted a 1450AD game using Korea, giving some competition for the rear. Korea's certainly not the best choice for 20K since commercial doesn't do much for early expansion or growth. I used them mainly because they were scientific and I've been wanting to try civs I haven't used. My last eight submissions to the HoF have all been with civs I've not used yet. I got my money's worth with sci though as this game had 5 SGL's, two in the ancient age and one in each succeeding age. Settings were 80%pangea, normal, temperate, 4byo, no barbs, least aggressive against Germany, Ottomans, Persians, Russians, Inca, America, and Maya.

The start looked terrible, but I could see the coast one tile away and moved the settler. Seoul's city radius had one cow, one forest game, several bg's and river forests and only two sea tiles, so I gave the game a try. Build order was curragh, temple, settler as I researched CB first. I might of been better off building an extra worker or two and some mp's as Seoul grew slowly. I started the Colossus right after the settler, but only completed it 1675BC.

My first SGL for writing got the Pyramids in 1650BC. Seoul was now size 12 with 25 despot shields as every forest I chopped had a bg under it. Seoul ended up having 12 bg's in its radius. The next builds were the Oracle in 1125BC and SoZ in 775BC since I had ivory nearby. I had another SGL fro CoL I wanted to use on TGL, but the AI still had a cascade going and I was badly boxed-in so I used it to build the ToA in 750BC. This meant I wouldn't get the GLib until 290BC which cost me a bit of culture. I went to war early as well taking out the Inca, the island nation of China, and America sparing the sicence civs and the island Maya so I could trade on the big picture screen on age changes. I didn't get a leader until very late and the Heroic Epic was only built in 1090AD. Free techs on the age changes were theology with no one getting feudalism, nationalism and synthetic fibers.

I apologize for no pictures, but I still can't get them to work connecting by proxy server. Here's the complete build list.

3950BC Palace (528)
3000BC Temple (972)
1675BC Colossus (1224)
1650BC Pyramids (1624) SGL#1--writing
1125BC Oracle (1432)
775BC SoZ (1328)
750BC ToA (1320) SGL#2--CoL
710BC Library (972)
510BC MoM (588) GA starts
290BC GLib (1566)
130BC Hanging Gardens (948)
90BC University (924)
10BC Cathedral (657)
90AD Colosseum (408)
350AD Shake's (1200)
470AD Cope's (472)
480AD Sistine's (657) SGL#3--music theory
590AD Newton's (636)
740AD Bach's (546)
850AD Universal Suffrage (320)
910AD Smith's (222)
950AD Magellan's (210)
1030AD ToE (186)
1070AD Wall Street (116)
1090AD Heroic Epic (224)
1120AD United Nations (212) SGL#4--motorized transportation
1170AD Seti Program (144) SGL#5--computers
1180AD Research Lab (94)
1265AD Internet (148)
1270AD Military Academy (36) MGL
1325AD Longevity (75)
1365AD Cure for Cancer(51)
1390AD Apollo Program (24)
1395AD Battlefield Medecine (11) MGL
1410AD Intelligence Agency (8) MGL
1425AD The Pentagon (5)

 

[AutomatedTeller]

Korea actually isn't bad for games like this - start with alphabet is useful, and less corruption/more commerce always helps in research. 1450 isn't a bad date, either.

 

[Bartleby]

I got 1565 in the end, as Carthage.

 

[Tone]

I would be interested to know what other people build at the start.

I meant to reply to this earlier but it meant looking into the archived saves which I forgot about. Sorry, but better late than never. My build was:
warrior-warrior-settler-Pyramids(SGL)-settler-worker-Colossus (by hand) followed by more culture stuff as detailed in my earlier post.

BTW did you get any SGLs in your Carthage game, Bartleby?

@Chamnix: Sorry to hear about your game. Very frustrating I imagine.

@PrinceMyshkin: you may have noticed that my game in the current table is with Korea and you beat that by a turn.

To all: We've got into the routine of waiting until the end of the 15th before getting the update and results published, giving you almost two more days (from the time of this post) to complete any outstanding games . However we've decided to get the new gauntlet up on the 15th so don't get worried by the overlap.

 

[Bartleby]

Thanks for the input about early builds, everyone. Next time I try 20k I'll probably make more explorers before the settler.

Tone, in the game I finished I got four(!) SGLs, two fairly well-timed (Writing, which I used for ToA to shut down the cascade [I hand-build Colossus/Oracle/Pyramids, with the completion of the Pyramids during the first turn of Republic] and Printing Press, which I used for Bach or Sistine) and two at the tail end of the Industrial age when they weren't all that useful--they got me Universal Suffrage and the UN, I think.

 

[Tone]

Thanks for all the submissions and discussions. The results are

Gold: Tone 1405AD
Silver: AutomatedTeller 1420AD
Bronze: PrinceMyshkin 1450AD
4th place: Bartleby 1565AD

Just in case you have not seen it already, the new gauntlet can be found here.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

I'll get you next time, Tone!!!

Actually, I don't know that I've ever won a gauntlet where you have participated. I managed to beat Chamnix once, on score.