G-Major 11

[Methos]

I finally decided to use MapFinder to get a few starts. Occaisionally I'd glance at the computer to check on it, when I noticed that it had stopped for some reason. Looking at the map I couldn't understand why it stopped, as you can see here:

It wasn't until I looked closer at my warriors starting position that I noticed this:

Odd that both times MapFinder quit due to contact it was with Victoria.

 

[ruff_hi]

I had something similar happen to me and if I founded where my settler was, Korea would not have been able to build a city. They would be stuck until my border pop teleported them elsewhere.

 

[KMadCandy]

this post is spoilered to save space since i'm quite insane and that's easier for me than to actually, like, not type and not post stuff. i do humbly request that harbourboy and superslug please read it at least in part when you have the time/patience to deal with my rambling style, by now you know how i am. i do talk address you both .

Spoiler :

well done harbourboy, i knew you could do it! i am very curious ... who did you end up with as neighbors and overall opponents in this game? how mean were they to you, and did they help you backfill techs thru trading? i depend on my handpicked fast teching peaceful types for backfilling some junk; for example, i just went thru the "hand out metalcasting to 'em all now that some finally researched it and was willing to trade it to me" phase. i mean i was working on education at this point, come on you slowpokes!! i want everybody to have it, to increase the chances i can mooch machinery to save time getting PP. your style is obviously much different, and more flexible so i'm very very impressed. here i shall be totally rude, you can feel free to say no, but if you're in the mood and don't mind uploading the final save, i'd get a kick out of looking it over. quite presumptuous of me to ask tho, shame on me!! please don't tell my mother.

you can do it too superslug! just remember ... make artists, not nukes. good, bad for this gauntlet. this personally-tailored graphical service announcement is not under copyright and may be printed as a reminder if that might be helpful . if you feel the need to nuke, do that when you need a break, but be aware it will almost certainly not help you achieve a cultural victory if you do it in your actual gauntlet attempt game. see below for a case when i myself have decided to do that, and i've never even nuked before! in fact ... may i PM you for advice about the most satisfying way to do it for revenge *giggle*?

my current game is verrrry odd. first tries were as gandhi and i'd get sidetracked on the "oh let's found this religion, let's try for that one, let's stack the deck with opponents who don't know mysticism, lalala". i had some really pretty map starts (almost hafe with marble visible on the starting turn!!!) but none worked out. thankfully none had a more than a few hours invested before i considered them not worth continuing. in thursday's game, victoria DoWd from halfway across the map in one and took my sistine chapel city. i hate her i hate her i hate her, and when i'm done with (or need a break from) this gauntlet i will play a game against up to 6 victorias and kill them all, painfully and starting with sneak attacks, making them think we are good friends right up to "got you now, you many-names-i-wouldn't-say-in-front-of-mother!" with her repeated as a leader, it's obviously not eligible for HoF and i just might not check LMA and let myself cheat if i feel i need it or if it would make me more satisfied. once all instances of her die relatively legitimately, i will reload from a save prior to that point and give myself 50 zillion nukes and blow her to bits, simply because i've never tried that and she seems the perfect victim for my first experience.

so today's try, still in progress, i'm playing as liz (altho my name is IHateVicky), she's my usual in the past, but i'm having tendencies to play and improve the land as tho i'm gandhi. i miss his fast workers so badly, and have to remind myself to be much more careful about changing civics. get this ... i have my usual suspects in the game, fast techers that trade early and often, and i began the game telling myself "do NOT go off chasing early religions, trust that they will naturally spread to a city or two. keep to your alphabet/liberalism/turn off research and culture up beeline, do not pass go..

but in this game, my starting warrior popped mysticism out of a hut on turn 3! this was of course a sign from the gods that had not yet visited our world to deviate from the standard beeline, so i changed research to poly, and london is the hindu holy city. buddhism was founded rather late, 3340 BC, i assume the indians were teching poly like me and lost that race. the founder of buddhism was ... mansa musa! i assume he got a myst from a hut too. asoka and gandhi must have been shocked and dismayed. no religions have been founded by either of them to date (only islam is still out there). hatty got judaism (quite common), george got theology after getting a great prophet, and i got to CoL first even tho i missed the oracle. strange universe for sure! wicked fun so far, and we'll see how it turns out. i'm knocking on wood, but i love that it's fun even tho i know i may not reach my goal of winning, props and thanks to whoever picked this gauntlet. the deity diplo was that way for me too; the highlands time victory was not, but i recognized that early on and didn't spend much time on it. variety is good, that's not a complaint, it's a thank you.

the posts here sooooooo help me improve. you guys rock! each attempt i learn more, and do something(s) better than before, mostly due to what i read here, and how the advice sinks in more when i try it. despite the fact that victory was a you-know-what and ruined my day and my beautiful city. and even there, i whipped up and got to the front lines enough troops to beat off the first sneak attack wave, and that made me proud, i've never even tried that in a cultural game, usually it's "trumpets? exit to main menu!!". but then she came back, from way across the map. with a lot of jumbos. and my sistine chapel city that she took was my only source of jumbos. i have the save still but not the heart to try to turn that one around .

ok stop typing. point is, grats harbourboy, superslug you can do it if you remember how non-nukey you are supposed to be, and good luck to all (including myself *giggle*).

 

[KMadCandy]

Odd that both times MapFinder quit due to contact it was with Victoria.

i think that's on purpose, since it can't erase that event the way it can if you pop a hut in 4000 AD. unless you're referring to the fact it was Victoria twice, that is quite a coincidence.

or maybe that time mapfinder quit due to clam overload!

btw watch out for Victoria, dude! she DoWd me out of the blue on thursday and took my sistine chapel city and i shall never forgive her. she's relatively peaceful but turns out she's more likely to DoW at pleased that i realized. someday soon i will play a (not eligible for HoF) game against at least 4 victorias and they will all be slaughtered. and then i'll reload it and nuke 'em all to bits. i expect to enjoy this revenge a lot. but for now, i'm trying the gauntlet again, as Liz, and have changed Liz's name to IHateVicky.

 

[ruff_hi]

I think I just finished this Major (mid 1700s). Played as Inca under warlords on an inland sea map. My second city was another capital (bye Cyrus). I went religion crazy (Budda, Jewish, Conf, Christian). I missed Hindu by 3 turns - I think one of my non-mystic AIs popped Mysticism from a hut. Toa spread to me but Hindu (#1 religion in the world) never did.

At the end, my three ledendary cities were putting out over 1000 culture per turn. My capital was at 1200 (wonders) and got farmed over to generate artists.

I generated 1 (count it, 1) artist in the whole game and that was 7 or 8 turns from the end. I used him to push my #3 city to 73k. America was building the space ship and someone had just won the UN election ... I won before any resolutions were put.

 

[Methos]

unless you're referring to the fact it was Victoria twice, that is quite a coincidence.

Yeah, the first time was like ruff-hi stated, where I had her stuck on a pennisula. The second time is the pic above. Granted, the chances are 1 in 64, I think, of that happening.

someday soon i will play a (not eligible for HoF)

You can play an actual non-HoF game? Other than a couple PBEM games and DG2 I haven't played a non-HoF mod game since sometime in mid-2006!

 

[Shoot the Moon]

Just submitted a 1574 win. I took a slightly different strategy that what has been discussed in this thread. I used Elizabeth (Warlords). All three of my legendary cities were cottaged, with two main GP farms providing GA's. I never used US, as I didn't realize how helpful it would be until it was too late. It is kinda odd how many strategies can work for this.

 

[Harbourboy]

Well done, Shoot the Moon, that's a good result.

KMadCandy, to attempt to answer your questions (first I had to find them):
- I never ever choose my opponents. I always go random.
- In my game, I had Stalin, Mansa, Isabella, Cyrus, Bismark, Montezuma, Genghis, and Gandhi
- I was Elizabeth because Financial and Philosophical are traits I can work with easily
- The Redcoat comes in a little bit too late for these games where you are going for fastest win but with representation and/or a few scientists in non cultural cities, you keep getting science anyway, so can still make it to rifling for some end game security.
- Bismarck was the game leader, but Stalin and Mansa were my main neighbours. Mansa had good culture but Stalin's was hopeless and I almost ended up conquering him through culture by the end
- Isabella hated me because I ran my Hindu Organised Religion and Pacifism, while her Judiasm never spread to me so converting to her religion was never going to work. I just had to give in to all her other demands, including going to Theocracy for a while.
- Montezuma and Genghis continually made threatening demands but they were reasonably cheap to concede.
- I did turn off barbarians but hopefully this will be the only time I do that
- I did not fight a single battle in this whole game
- My second city was placed to pick up stone for Pyramids, but Stonehenge was already completed by then. I did have any marble.
- Pyramids and Stonehenge pollute your Great Artist pool but GPs and GEs are not the end of the world because the GP allowed me to lightbulb Theology and the GE allowed me to build Sistine Chapel, which were the real keys to victory for me.
- Getting to Liberalism first was nice, but not crucial, although I used the free tech for Nationalism so I did manage to build Taj Mahal as well. Not sure what the impact of Golden Age was but probably reduced the finishing time by a few years.

 

[KMadCandy]

KMadCandy, to attempt to answer your questions (first I had to find them):
- I never ever choose my opponents. I always go random.
- In my game, I had Stalin, Mansa, Isabella, Cyrus, Bismark, Montezuma, Genghis, and Gandhi
- Bismarck was the game leader, but Stalin and Mansa were my main neighbours. Mansa had good culture but Stalin's was hopeless and I almost ended up conquering him through culture by the end
- Isabella hated me because I ran my Hindu Organised Religion and Pacifism, while her Judiasm never spread to me so converting to her religion was never going to work. I just had to give in to all her other demands, including going to Theocracy for a while.

that's why i wondered, i knew you go random and i just am not brave enough to do that for this type game, where i need a certain kind of win. for a normal game, sure i like surprises sometimes. but i want to win a major some year! i think i can maybe get this one if i do it the way i know, and handle the folks i know diplomatically, but if everybody has a chance to show up, i'd need to be on settler level for sure.

isabella !! my nightmare in a game like this, especially since you weren't spiritual to give in to demands easily. i am so impressed that won a game with random opponents, no matter who they were. the fact that monty and izzy were in there, triple bonus wows from me! i never ever would be able to.

shoot the moon - grats! i agree, part of why i still love this game after playing it so long is how flexible and complex it is, how you don't have to do the same thing every time to win.

methos - you should know by now i'm an oddball buddy! a few weeks ago, recovering from a hospital stay, i played one where i WBd spies into enemy cities, way back before alphabet. even barbarian cities. and watched them thru the whole game, what they did, it was just too fun! i fussed with the map to give them more health and happy resources when they were suffering, since i wanted them to do well so i could study more! and then of course i had to obliterate them. so i set myself a challenge of seeing just how many cities i could take on a single turn. mehmed and i started that turn at friendly, i declared war. the turn ended with his civilization destroyed, and a -27 or so "you razed one of our cities!" modifier for me. i was very proud (and according to hubby, overprepared in the extreme). the fighting didn't involve any cheating, but i can't like, give myself spies and give the bad guys resources galore in HoF games. i was cheating in the name of scientific research, mind you, but it was technically cheating. it was the perfect thing for my heavily-drugged state of mind at the time, since i couldn't do anything productive at all, or even play an actual game of civ with my brain that fried.

 

[Shoot the Moon]

A quick question, what map types are people using? I've used Inland Sea for the two times I've ever gone for cultural, but I'm not sure that if that's the best. And, also, what do you look for in a starting position?

 

[WastinTime]

Anyone who knows me, or has read my previous posts, or seen my HOF games knows I'm a big fan of the Inland Sea. It has so many tiny advantages built in. I could probably list a dozen things. Anyone care to try to name some? The only other map that tempts me sometimes is Great Plains and maybe Pangea.

 

[Harbourboy]

I had three attempts on Highland and 13 on Fractal.

Who would be the very worst leader to attempt this G-Major 11 with?

 

[WastinTime]

I had three attempts on Highland and 13 on Fractal.

Who would be the very worst leader to attempt this G-Major 11 with?

Organized and Aggressive seem pretty useless to me. Who is that?

 

[KMadCandy]

i was caught offguard by this, had no idea it was possible. in case someone else out there doesn't know, i want to warn you to perhaps spare you the situation i just got ... if you haven't yet built a national wonder, you can end up stuck with someone else's version of it, if it's built it in a city you flip accept. ugh. maybe even cities you capture in war, i don't know, never have seen it happen there. i knew that he'd lose it; i didn't know that i would be stuck with it. so be careful if your neighbor is a dork who doesn't place his nationals in good cities!

i just accepted atlanta in a flip from george washington. nice site, size 8, i want more cities building temples, you know the drill. BAD call. i was still building my national epic. he had already built his, in atlanta. it came with the city, so now i can't build my own anywhere. i got gold for the effort of starting mine at least, as if that's any consolation. the city did not even come with the library that's required to build the national epic, mind you, so it's not even legal for it to be there ! there's no way for me to know that he has a national wonder there by the F9 list. maybe you can tell by the little pictures outside the city, i don't try that way since i too confused. the only one i can recognize is forbidden palace, since the star shows by the name. i'm confused even by the library thing. why did it go away? i thought cities you got in revolt came intact? been a while, the flips i've gotten lately were in OCCs so i don't even get a message about them, just poof i realize later that the city is gone. but i am getting culture from national epic so it's definitely being treated differently than a world wonder captured during a war.

i never knew you could capture someone else's national wonders intact if your own wasn't built, and therefore be locked into their choice, for better or for worse. one more thing on my already long list of reasons why i want a chance to look at the city before i decide whether to disband it /sigh. i'm quite frustrated. i didn't want to inherit his . at least now i know, and i'll probably disband each and every future flip until i get my nationals built.

hmmz, i wonder if you can flip the globe if you don't have 6 theatres of your own, or heroic epic if you don't have a level 4 unit? maybe you can, since his national epic came without the library but it's working, i'm getting GPPs for it. one good thing, he hadn't chopped all the forests yet or farmed over the cottages he's worked up to villages. that wasn't luck, it was because i took over those tiles by culture before he had the chance to, but still .

having learned this lesson, i took a closer look at the two other cities of his i planned to keep if/when they flip. philadelphia will be my only source of stone, so i pretty much want it no matter what. it's down to 45% american now, and has had a revolt. i just realized that it's where he built chichen itza! i'll so giggle if he loses that part of his defense strategy to my peaceful culturemongering ways

 

[WastinTime]

It annoys me that you can't look at a city before you decide to keep it. Or that you can't destroy the city after you keep it (like you can in SMAC)

 

[Harbourboy]

Yeah, I got Stalin's Globe Theatre in my game. I had to change strategies and turn that city into a sort of Great Artist farm.

 

[Infantry#14]

i was caught offguard by this, had no idea it was possible. in case someone else out there doesn't know, i want to warn you to perhaps spare you the situation i just got ... if you haven't yet built a national wonder, you can end up stuck with someone else's version of it, if it's built it in a city you flip accept. ugh. maybe even cities you capture in war, i don't know, never have seen it happen there. i knew that he'd lose it; i didn't know that i would be stuck with it. so be careful if your neighbor is a dork who doesn't place his nationals in good cities!

i just accepted atlanta in a flip from george washington. nice site, size 8, i want more cities building temples, you know the drill. BAD call. i was still building my national epic. he had already built his, in atlanta. it came with the city, so now i can't build my own anywhere. i got gold for the effort of starting mine at least, as if that's any consolation. the city did not even come with the library that's required to build the national epic, mind you, so it's not even legal for it to be there ! there's no way for me to know that he has a national wonder there by the F9 list. maybe you can tell by the little pictures outside the city, i don't try that way since i too confused. the only one i can recognize is forbidden palace, since the star shows by the name. i'm confused even by the library thing. why did it go away? i thought cities you got in revolt came intact? been a while, the flips i've gotten lately were in OCCs so i don't even get a message about them, just poof i realize later that the city is gone. but i am getting culture from national epic so it's definitely being treated differently than a world wonder captured during a war.

i never knew you could capture someone else's national wonders intact if your own wasn't built, and therefore be locked into their choice, for better or for worse. one more thing on my already long list of reasons why i want a chance to look at the city before i decide whether to disband it /sigh. i'm quite frustrated. i didn't want to inherit his . at least now i know, and i'll probably disband each and every future flip until i get my nationals built.

hmmz, i wonder if you can flip the globe if you don't have 6 theatres of your own, or heroic epic if you don't have a level 4 unit? maybe you can, since his national epic came without the library but it's working, i'm getting GPPs for it. one good thing, he hadn't chopped all the forests yet or farmed over the cottages he's worked up to villages. that wasn't luck, it was because i took over those tiles by culture before he had the chance to, but still .

having learned this lesson, i took a closer look at the two other cities of his i planned to keep if/when they flip. philadelphia will be my only source of stone, so i pretty much want it no matter what. it's down to 45% american now, and has had a revolt. i just realized that it's where he built chichen itza! i'll so giggle if he loses that part of his defense strategy to my peaceful culturemongering ways

hey, couldnt you just give it back to him or someone else, that way you dont have it anymore

 

[Methos]

A quick question, what map types are people using?

My first attempt was with Inland Sea, as I really like that map style. The problem was I wasn't getting very many religions spread my way. Or if I did, it was the same one multiple times. My current attempt (once I actually start it) is pangaea, as that map seems to allow religions to spread more.

 

[KMadCandy]

hey, couldnt you just give it back to him or someone else, that way you dont have it anymore

i'm afraid to try it. my guess is, even if i don't have the national wonder any more i won't be allowed to build it, the game will consider my chance gone since it already took it out of my build queue and gave me gold "you can no long continue building..". i'm guessing he can't rebuild his either. and i sure don't want to test it in this gauntlet, if i give it to him and i can't put it where i want it, i definitely don't want to go to war with him over atlanta if i flip and give a city back i can't ever flip it again i think, is that right? so i figure better to have one, in an okay city with quite a bit of food but not nearly the infrastructure i want, than to not have one at all.

edit: hahaha update on the george washington situation: philadelphia, the home of chichen itza, did in fact flip to me and i accepted it since it has a stone garden. i think this is the first time i've ever culture flipped a city that had a wonder in it that wasn't obsolete. it's not the world's greatest wonder IMO, but it was free, thanks george. i'm not getting any culture for it, like usual world wonder captures. however, the castle came intact with the city and i am getting +1 culture for that. sometimes i don't understand the rules at all. note to george washington: if you mess with a woman's GP farm plans, she will find a way to weaken your defenses everywhere. don't mess with me dude.

about inland sea: i love that map for getting early contact with everyone, in games where i'm hoping for a fast tech-pace overall to benefit from trades. there are rivers everywhere, and they all connect thru the sea, so once i've looked around enough and know sailing, i'm hooked up to everybody. i save a lot of worker time building roads early on, (there are just so many rivers if you hold out for a good start) that generally you can just improve tiles and just need roads to speed up your travel, not roads to actually connect networks, maybe a tile or two between a city and a river.

in my current game on inland sea i founded 3 religions. of the others, buddhism spread to me very very early; christianity got to me only recently, when i settled a city to get some fish for health, and left it religionless with my fingers crossed; and gandhi's keeping islam pretty hush-hush, 3% spread on the map, not to me. 4 nations are strict believers in judaism, that is of course the only faith that has not spread to me , no pacifism in this game. on higher levels, they are totally devoted to sending you missionaries to spread the faith, in Major 9 i'd end up with 4 or 5 religions in my single city and all but one had to come by missionary. on monarch, they don't send out missionaries, you're just depending on the RNG. well maybe isabella does, but i do not invite her. methos, i hope that the faiths find you on your map!

 

[azzaman333]

I won!

Went as Vanilla Washington, against Hatty, Vicky, Bismark, Fred, Ghandi, Asoka, Mansa and Liz. Chose a continents map, with my continent having Hatty, Vicky and Bismark. Stole a worker from Hatty, who wouldn't accept peace until I learnt Alphabet and gave her Pottery for it. Despite the other continent's civs having 3 cities by the time I built my 2nd, because of the pointless war with Hatty there was still a lot of space to build cities, and I ended up getting 9 of my own cities. I was able to out-tech the AI's to Liberalism despite having only an average GNP, and after that it became a matter of slowly accumilating culture while spreading the continent's 4 religions, Hindu, Judaism,Tao and Islam. Won in 1840AD with Asoka having built all SS Casing and Thrusters. Flipped 2 cities (shoudl've been 4) one of the twon containing the Hanging Gardens.