G-Major 112

[WastinTime]

Justinian is also my favorite for Ren Era. As long as someone else is going to submit one of those, I'll try to beat it with Fast Worker-- Ren.

 

[WilliamOfOrange]

I love it! Away next week so will try and get some in tonight and later!

 

[Pollina]

Submitted a 925 BC attempt with Hatty (ancient start). There’s still some room for improvement. I wouldn’t be surprised to see finish dates well before 1000 BC.
Hope I’ll have the time to play some of the other sub-gauntlets. What’s the best unit for future era start fastest conquest? I’ve never played one of those (and don’t even know what units are available on the far right of the tech tree).

 

[WastinTime]

What’s the best unit for future era start fastest conquest? I’ve never played one of those (and don’t even know what units are available on the far right of the tech tree).

The theory is: In the later eras, the UU's are only a trivial amount better than the regular units, making the Fast Worker shine (especially on quick and even normal speed)

 

[Ozbenno]

Classical start is still war chariot dominion, they're just too quick and powerful i believe. Ren start is justinian reign as proven multiple times, later starts are more intersting to me

Why no love for Immortals? 100% vs archers straight out of the gate. Not as strong as WCs vs spears but stronger against archers, the unit you'll face the most.

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

Submitted a 925 BC attempt with Hatty (ancient start). There’s still some room for improvement. I wouldn’t be surprised to see finish dates well before 1000 BC.
Hope I’ll have the time to play some of the other sub-gauntlets. What’s the best unit for future era start fastest conquest? I’ve never played one of those (and don’t even know what units are available on the far right of the tech tree).

Excellent 925 BC date, Pollina!

The War Chariot with the Creative evldently will take one to a much earlier date than I had expected. Maybe this is partially due to the difficulty level; Emporer isn't quite as difficult as Deity. I've developed a habit of forgetting that.

Sun Tzu Wu

 

[lymond]

I've submitted a Classical (Boudica), Medieval (Justy) and Ren (Izzy). Working on a Modern game with Asoka. I'd say Asoka is champ of the later eras when you combine fast worker with fast factories. Doesn't take long to get 1-2t tanks and 1t fighters.

I went Izzy in Ren for Conks. However, it does take some time to get them up and running due to techs, even with bulbs. I made the mistake probably of not at least charging a couple of AIs with Knights first, then upgrading. Once I did get Conks though, I plowed through the AIs very quickly. I can see Justy being strong on Ren though since you have Catas out the gate.

Medieval era is probably the oddest. You start fairly weak for such an advance era and still have much teching to do to reach a military advantage. I went with Justy here too to get the Catas - which were strong - but it took a long time. I guess Horse Archers could be effective here if you can catch a couple of AIs before they hit Feud.

Yeah, I'm not sure what to do with Future era since that warfare I'm almost completely unfamiliar with. Like the Modern start, I'd probably go with a fast unit and air attacks.

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

I believe the approach to use on each non-Ancient Era is a no Research approach and spam the most advanced unique unit that Era supports. Build all Hammer cities or whipping cities provided one has a strategy for dealing with whipping unhappiness.

Sun Tzu Wu

 

[Kaitzilla]

Submitted a 925 BC attempt with Hatty (ancient start). There’s still some room for improvement. I wouldn’t be surprised to see finish dates well before 1000 BC.
Hope I’ll have the time to play some of the other sub-gauntlets. What’s the best unit for future era start fastest conquest? I’ve never played one of those (and don’t even know what units are available on the far right of the tech tree).

That is an awesome finish date!

 

[lymond]

I believe the approach to use on each non-Ancient Era is a no Research approach and spam the most advanced unique unit that Era supports. Build all Hammer cities or whipping cities provided one has a strategy for dealing with whipping unhappiness.

Sun Tzu Wu

I'd say you are probably right - at least in most eras. War Chariots, Cataphracts, etc. Although when you hit Industrial +, I think the standard units are pretty strong like Grens, Cavs or tanks (not sure about Future yet though). The UU of choice being the Fast Worker as Waste advocates.

Medieval still is the odd ball because the most advanced unit is Horse Archers from the start, if you want speed. I wonder if Mongolia is best for that one. Still, I think that you could often hit a brick wall as Ais can still get to Feud mighty quick. Of course, there is Phants/cats approach, but it may be slower. I went Justy and held out for Catas on Medieval, but I'm sure that is too slow. Catas would probably rock out the gate on Ren though.

 

[lymond]

Oh...and you HOF old-timers can help out Oz by posting plugs in his HOF threads in General and S&T.

 

[Merovech]

Do we roll our own maps? If so, how can this be an accurate test of relative civ strength? The map is usually a far more important variable than the civ strength and should obscure any civ-dependent effects.

Edit: I do not mean to say that it doesn't look like fun, however.

 

[Ozbenno]

Do we roll our own maps? If so, how can this be an accurate test of relative civ strength? The map is usually a far more important variable than the civ strength and should obscure any civ-dependent effects.

Edit: I do not mean to say that it doesn't look like fun, however.

Yes, roll your own map. Using the Lakes map-script should even out the map effects to an extent. Leader and player ability should be more important in this gauntlet I think.

Hope you have fun trying it out!

 

[Kaitzilla]

I'm not sure Vanilla can be used. There is no way to turn off huts, like GMinor 137.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=452351&highlight=vanilla+huts

Immortals and War Chariots with retreat built into them

Even still, probably best to remove Vanilla as an option. No one seems to like huts these days.

 

[Ozbenno]

If you can't turn off huts, then can't use vanilla, I'll take it off.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Why no love for Immortals? 100% vs archers straight out of the gate. Not as strong as WCs vs spears but stronger against archers, the unit you'll face the most.

WC are first strike immune and are better than immortals vs archers in cities in a large majority of cases (IIRC the break point is ~85% defenses for the archer, which means immortals stop being better even against a 20% city with a fully fortified archer, BEFORE promos and/or hills consideration!).

Immortals are slightly better against archers in open field, but both units win that matchup so soundly it doesn't matter.

Egypt is strictly better than Persia when the only goal is fast UU conquest. WC is just a better UU for it and I expect Egypt to take ancient era. Keshiks might be interesting in classical.

Even still, probably best to remove Vanilla as an option. No one seems to like huts these days.

Hut volatility = more attempts to even out RNG luck. They're strictly bad for competition. If someone pops BW or even HBR super early there isn't a lot you can do to compensate that if each person plays relatively similarly, or even if the "not lucky" person plays a little better.

What does that add to a HoF competition? Absolutely nothing, actually.

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

Why no love for Immortals? 100% vs archers straight out of the gate. Not as strong as WCs vs spears but stronger against archers, the unit you'll face the most.

Immortals are not +100% versus Archery units. They are +50% versus Archery units and only strength 4 (no better than a normal Chariot versus non-Archery units). Their unique attribute that sets them apart is they are one of the few mounted units that can utilize defensive terrain and fortify.

Immortals are also more appealing when one has the Charismatic trait and needs only 4 XPs for two promotions, 8 XPs for three promotions and 13 XPs for four promotions.

Sun Tzu Wu

 

[Pollina]

I’m having more fun with these games than I anticipated. I might become a warmonger after all (in the very distant future).

Played a classical start game with Hatty (225 AD) and a medieval game with Genghis (1240 AD), both first trials with the first maps that had horses. A no teching approach definitely is the way to go here. I’m not entirely sure if Keshiks are better than Fast Workers for medieval starts, but they are a fun unit.

I’ve been wondering, if I should play the modern era game in Warlords and promote a few tanks with barrage. I know I loved barrage tanks when I was still derping around on noble. But now, I’m not sure if they would be useful. Playing without Buffy would probably be pretty annoying, too.

 

[GKey]

...medieval game with Genghis (1240 AD), both first trials with the first maps that had horses. A no teching approach definitely is the way to go here. I’m not entirely sure if Keshiks are better than Fast Workers for medieval starts, but they are a fun unit.

Medieval conquest in 59 turns?

How can be this even possible...

 

[Manco Capac]

HoF cheat powaaaaa!