G-Major 11

[jesusin]

Do you guys really go through map after map until you find one that is just perfect? I always just go for the one I get given randomly. Does it really make that much difference?

I consider regenerating, choosing opponents, choosing maps (and even choosing my own leader)... cheating when I play pivate games. But HOF is different, is like "what are you able to do given the perfect conditions?"

And yes, it makes a lot of a difference, try a 3 gems start someday and see by yourself.

Catherine, Frederick, Victoria

Washington, Rooselvet

 

[Thrallia]

I like playing against Gandhi, Asoka, Washington, Roosevelt, Victoria, Elizabeth, Mansa Musa, Ramses XII, Hatshepshut, Louis XIV, Frederick, Catherine, Bismark, and Peter on peaceful games...I don't generally tend to have any of those leaders be overly aggressive or annoying.

However, in my two most promising attempts thus far(none completed yet though), I've played as Hatty and as Louis. With Hatty, I'm in 100% culture mode and around 100-140 turns from winning, if I can survive that long...I've got 9 cities and 3 religions, and am gradually flipping Vicky's cities...I just don't know if I can keep Brennus happy in this game(I missed one of the slots and randomly got Brennus right next to me lol)

As for my Louis game...I started between Roosevelt and Vicky, and only had space to build 5 cities, only two of which I was really able to put where I wanted...by the time I got my second settler built in 1700BC, Roosevelt had already built 4 additional cities and pretty much boxed me in...after my third settler he had 8 cities. So I pretty much placed my cities to attempt to flip his cities later on. I founded Hinduism and Judaism, Christianity spread to me, and I built Parthenon, Pyramids, and Great Library. As far as GP go...I've gotten 1 artist, 2 engineers, and 1 scientist. I missed out on Liberalism by 13 turns, but it feels like I was cheated...I had 4 turns left on Education, checked the tech screen, and saw no one else knew it yet and only 3 civs knew Philo(me and two others). Two turns later, I get the message that Mansa has discovered Liberalism...and took Economics with it. I check the tech screen again and suddenly, not only do all but 2 AI know Philo, but 5 know Education, while Mansa has suddenly gained Education, Liberalism, and Economics.

Maybe I just didn't see Education in his list, but I've never seen Mansa withhold a tech from trading before. Anyway, I'm gonna keep playing that one, but I'm not sure what my 3rd legendary city will be...I might just attempt to flip an American one that was placed where I was gonna place my GP farm and hope it generates culture fast enough to catch up.

 

[Harbourboy]

Fascinating. I guess I will never ever get top score in HoF if it requires a lottery win of a start to get those sort of results.

 

[Thrar]

I just finished my first and most likely only try for this one, in 1734. It's currently mid-table, so that's good enough for me.

On the subject of regenerating and choosing perfect conditions, I'm probably a bit inconsistent. I did pick peaceful opponents this time, and turned off barbs, but didn't want to wait too long for a decent start. It was corn+marble+3ivory in the end, which I'd consider good average.
Judging by this game, and my little experience in culture victories, I'd say low 1600s should be possible with pretty much any map by a good player. I would be surprised if someone pulled off sub-1500 from an average location.

I always play HoF, even when not going for a specific target. However, on those normal games, I permit myself some more randomness, to make things interesting. Usually I think of a general idea in terms of player civ, map and other parameters, but leave opponents random, and barbs on. Also, those games I'd settle for the first start I get, unless it's exceptionally bad.

 

[Thrallia]

well, I don't think I'll ever get a top score either, but then...I'm not quite as nuts as these other people are

I turned off barbs because I was sick of having my settlers eaten by bears because my warrior was a weakling. I also started picking my opponents on this major because I had three random starts in a row where I started next to warmongers...maybe I'm wrong, but I didn't think I had the time to try to win a cultural victory when fending off Napoleon and Monty as neighbors lol

Kudos to you for winning with four big warmongers in your game harbourboy! I am only regenerating starts for this major because I don't like the settings and just want to get a game over with so I can attempt to get my Deity and Immortal wins taken care of so I can finish the rest of my QuattroMaster reqs on difficulty levels I can play on.

On any other victory condition, and in pretty much any other game, I'm going to have barbs on(possibly on raging), and random opponents, random starts, and probably even random leaders most of the time...that's how I picked my leaders for the minor....I got picked everything random except for making my maps snaky continents and low sea level.

 

[WastinTime]

Fascinating. I guess I will never ever get top score in HoF if it requires a lottery win of a start to get those sort of results.

It's not lottery-like at all. If, for example, you run mapfinder overnight, it should get you 20-30 starts to look at. Of those 5-10 are probably good enough to play if you're competing for a top spot. And it doesn't take rocket science to set up the rules for picking starts. For this gauntlet, I tell it to save anything with 2 gold/gems, or something with marble and 1 gold/gem. Where there's one commerce resource, there is often 2 or more. And there's always a corn or some food around for the capitol without even telling the mapfinder to worry about that.

 

[Harbourboy]

It's cool if you guys want to use MapFinder, but to me that doesn't sound like fun to take so much of the drama and variety out of the game.

 

[WastinTime]

It's cool if you guys want to use MapFinder, but to me that doesn't sound like fun to take so much of the drama and variety out of the game.

You should try it before you label it "no-variety" "no-drama", etc.

Anyway, my latest game (which is completely different from previous attempts ) has some interesting points...

I used Capac to capture a neighbor's capitol in 2500BC. Giving me 5 workable gold tiles (7 total). This allowed me to finish Liberalism in 230 AD without ever building an academy. I also took detours to Music, Theology, and Drama.

Now, we'll see if I can finish without the Philo trait helping me make GA's. And no Parthenon. I have just barely enough food. No really good GP farm sites, so I'm doubting it. However, construction of cathedrals should go well. I have stone/pyramids and can trade for marble.

 

[Denniz]

It's cool if you guys want to use MapFinder, but to me that doesn't sound like fun to take so much of the drama and variety out of the game.

Map Finder levels the playing field between those that have the free time to regenerate maps manually and those that don't. Plus it can be fun looking through the list of saved maps trying to figure out which would be best to try next. A lot of those good starting locations turn out to be otherwise geographically challenged. You got to kiss a lot of frogs...

In the end, it depends on what you are trying to do. If you are just playing for fun, then you are right, it doesn't matter. But if you want to win the gauntlet, capture that #1 table slot, or better your QM ranking, you need to use all the advantages you can get.

 

[Harbourboy]

As I said, it's cool that there is a tool available for those people who would otherwise sit and push 'regenerate' over and over again.

All I am saying is that I prefer to go about it the "slow" way - i.e. by playing each of the different maps that I am given. One way of looking at it is that in the (very) long run, all this means is that we are playing the same maps, but in a very different order. I am playing them in the order they are presented to me, and you are playing them in an order sorted by certain preferences.

It's all good.

 

[ccccc]

Harbourboy, do you do the GOTM? It doesn't suffer from the problems you seem annoyed by. Personally, I'm near the bottom of the table, and I'm not going to run map finder either to try to get a better time.

It's just that MapFinder is an accepted "method" for this particular competition, and not using it is fine although it will be difficult to complain when people do so well using it. I think that's part of the reason that it is included in the HOF mod, to prevent the people-who-have-it from constantly destroying the people-who-don't.

Edit: re-reading, you basically understood all of this anyway. sorry

 

[Harbourboy]

I do do the GOTM and I can accept and understand the subtle differences between that and HOF.

GOTM is great because everyone does the same settings and the same map and there can be unpredictable human adjusted settings so you have to be on your toes.

HOF Gauntlets are great because you can have multiple attempts at the same one, you can play it the way you want to (within reason) and you can discuss them with other people as you go without worrying about spoilers.

 

[Xerol]

I've been having issues with Barbarians at the default number of Civs, so I decided to add a couple more AIs (still within the HOF limits for a Large map) but for some reason I keep getting "CRCs are missing" whenever I attempt it with 10 AIs, Spain, Great Plains, and the other Gauntlet settings (and never with 9 civs on the same settings, or 10 civs on any other settings). It's a fresh (less than 6 hours old) install of Civ and Warlords, using 2.08.004, and like I just said only happens on those specific settings.

 

[Denniz]

I've been having issues with Barbarians at the default number of Civs, so I decided to add a couple more AIs (still within the HOF limits for a Large map) but for some reason I keep getting "CRCs are missing" whenever I attempt it with 10 AIs, Spain, Great Plains, and the other Gauntlet settings (and never with 9 civs on the same settings, or 10 civs on any other settings). It's a fresh (less than 6 hours old) install of Civ and Warlords, using 2.08.004, and like I just said only happens on those specific settings.

I tried to duplicated this but wasn't able. Could you e-mail a save to hof.civfanatics@gmail.com?

 

[Bozso]

Map Finder levels the playing field between those that have the free time to regenerate maps manually and those that don't. Plus it can be fun looking through the list of saved maps trying to figure out which would be best to try next. A lot of those good starting locations turn out to be otherwise geographically challenged. You got to kiss a lot of frogs...

In the end, it depends on what you are trying to do. If you are just playing for fun, then you are right, it doesn't matter. But if you want to win the gauntlet, capture that #1 table slot, or better your QM ranking, you need to use all the advantages you can get.

Unfortunately mapfinder is not working at my computer (WIN XP SP1), so I alwasy regenerate. For me it is a fun to see the maps. But if you regenerate you have to wait long for a double gold or gem spot (I haven ever had it in this gauntlet . NOT even in pangea , in Inland see 1 gold is lot of time to get).

 

[Denniz]

Unfortunately mapfinder is not working at my computer (WIN XP SP1), so I alwasy regenerate. For me it is a fun to see the maps. But if you regenerate you have to wait long for a double gold or gem spot (I haven ever had it in this gauntlet . NOT even in pangea , in Inland see 1 gold is lot of time to get).

Have we tried to figure out why it is not working for you? (This is getting off-topic, we should discuss it over in the Mod support and suggestions.)

 

[AAA]

As I said, it's cool that there is a tool available for those people who would otherwise sit and push 'regenerate' over and over again.

All I am saying is that I prefer to go about it the "slow" way - i.e. by playing each of the different maps that I am given. One way of looking at it is that in the (very) long run, all this means is that we are playing the same maps, but in a very different order. I am playing them in the order they are presented to me, and you are playing them in an order sorted by certain preferences.

It's all good.

The thing about mapfinder/no barbs/picked opponents is that it allows different stratagies that wouldn't be possible otherwise. I like space race and have tried to push that style of win a fast as I can. Often cities will have no units in them for half of the game, you just can't do that with barbs. But its not that easier to not make units, it just that the production is needed elsewhere. The challenge and part of the fun, is push the limits of what you can figure out (I kind of view the games as one large puzzle).
Thats what is so great about the gauntlets, they make you try something new, think agian.

I have been trying the GOTM, and barbs are a rude awakening if you haven't played them for awhile. But I always find new insights from trying different styles, and it's fun. It a very fun game

An analogy might be comparing mountain bikes, to racing bikes. Both are good, but if a mountain bike tries to race on the pavement, it's going to be tough.
So Harbuorboy, download mapfinder, turn off the barbs, pick your AIs and try street racing. I guarentee that you will learn something that you can take back to the style of game you like best.

 

[AAA]

Oh yes, with no barbs, the softest AIs, running through at least 15 saved maps (I attack early and at the edge, so I lose often ),and with conciderable luck, I managed a date in the high 1300s.

 

[AnitaGaribaldi]

I won the game. The date was late 1856 AD. Louis was destroyed. There were a lot of wars. That slowed down the AI. They were already building the ship, the AI with more parts had only 5. I "fought" one war too. Cyrus asked me to join him against Peter. Well, he was sending lots of cavalary to attack Peter far way. He was using my horses (I traded for copper). He asked for help. There was Hatty between me and Peter, Peter was already very weak. I was pretty sure he would not pillage me. So I agreed. Few turns later Hatty joined the party. I was "fighting" a war with two AI allies. I haven't built a single unit, nor sent a single Redcoat into the battefield, but I got the plus points in the relations. I got my win. Peter was destroyed. If the game were peaceful, I would have done much better. I wasn't attacked, but I lost lot of production in units and turns researching military techs. One military tech made me lose the Liberalism race. That is my forth Monarch win, second cultural.

 

[KMadCandy]

I won the game.

yay!!!!!!!! i want everybody to win a game in this gauntlet of course, but i have to admit i was rooting for you in particular after seeing your enthusiasm and interest in culture games, in the thread you started before the gauntlet . grats!

as for my own game, it's going quite well, but gandhi just built the UN. this has been a big fear. obviously it's not going to be a quick win it's 1592 AD atm, no signs of apollo but i can't see where they are techs at all except that hatty told me to fear her SAM infantry. i don't think anybody'll win diplo victory, but they might vote in FR (and i'd lose pacificism) or even worse, emancipation! please don't guys! you're already in it anyway, and i have no problem with the faces, i want my unlimited artists. *crosses fingers*