G-Major 13

[Moonsinger]

At the moment, I'm busy exploring Space Empires V and don't plan to play this gauntlet. However, if I'm going to do it, I probably would abandon any game that doesn't start on a big continent. After about 30 turns, if I don't meet at least 5 civs, it probably means that I'm on a small island. The same thing goes for G-Minor, not enough civs=>not enough religions=>slow culture win.

 

[Denniz]

At the moment, I'm busy exploring Space Empires V and don't plan to play this gauntlet. However, if I'm going to do it, I probably would abandon any game that doesn't start on a big continent. After about 30 turns, if I don't meet at least 5 civs, it probably means that I'm on a small island. The same thing goes for G-Minor, not enough civs=>not enough religions=>slow culture win.

I am not sure I agree about the g-minor. Just playing around I managed to get Buddhism and Hinduism 2 out of 3 trys. I probably could have gotten Judaism as well if I had wanted to. Granted I didn't choose any spiritual civs.

 

[azzaman333]

Simply playing against Isabella, Asoka, Ghandi and Hatshepsut has guaranteed that I'll have at least 2 religions on my landmass, since they split up fairly evenly and they all seem to found at least 1 religion in each of my early failures so far.

 

[Moonsinger]

I am not sure I agree about the g-minor. Just playing around I managed to get Buddhism and Hinduism 2 out of 3 trys. I probably could have gotten Judaism as well if I had wanted to. Granted I didn't choose any spiritual civs.

Well, 3 religions means "slow" win. For a reasonable win, I think 5 or 6 religions. Btw, I did give this gauntlet a shot and ended up with around 1040 AD on my first attempt. So many silly mistakes...I think 5AD or sooner is doable. Basically, My first two warriors captured 2 workers and made peace. Researched Bronze Working for axeman rush; pretty basic stuffs, nothing special at all.

 

[Methos]

Well, 3 religions means "slow" win. For a reasonable win, I think 5 or 6 religions.

Hehe, we're discussing the Minor in the Major thread.

Really? You go for 5 or 6 religions? I typically stop at four, as after that it's too hard to spread your religion. The one thing I would consider (if I had a lot of cities) is to spread my religions around to different cities. That way I had five or six religions, but no city had more than three. Than I would do my best to get as many religions as possible in my culture three. With eighteen cities I could have no more than three religions in each city and still have six religions. That's something worth trying.

 

[Moonsinger]

Really? You go for 5 or 6 religions? I typically stop at four, as after that it's too hard to spread your religion.

You are right about that. May be that why I haven't gotten any top slot on culture. Will try to focus just on just 4 (may be 5) from now on.

Back on topic, this gauntlet is much tougher than I thought. Even 1000AD target date is very tough. At this time, I doubt I can get anything done before 1000AD.

 

[Padraig]

My attempt at the worker steal was 1 for 3 in my first game. The two failures were promptly killed by archers and the workers recaptured. Only found a single hut and no nearby copper

So what's the best research path after bronze-working? Grab the needed worker functions then head for construction?

 

[Moonsinger]

My attempt at the worker steal was 1 for 3 in my first game. The two failures were promptly killed by archers and the workers recaptured. Only found a single hut and no nearby copper

Worker stealing ended up badly for me too. I don't do it any more. Even if I was able to make peace with them after that (pretty tough to make peace because we have nothing to stop their archers), they refused to trade techs and the rest of them complained "you attacked my friends".

So what's the best research path after bronze-working? Grab the needed worker functions then head for construction?

1100AD win was pretty easy and very relaxing too; I don't expect to be on the top 5 with this kind of target date but it was a lot of fun and I probably will try it again. Basically, I built my empire the old fashion way - my starting warrior to explore and pop a few huts while my capital building a worker. Once my city got to size 4, I built a settler, then barracks. Research for Pottery first (need to get some cottages going early), then Bronze Working (get some early axemans rolling), then Alphabet (trade for some of their techs - such as Animals, Monarchy, Sailings, Iron Workings), then Construction (now the fun begin with Hwacha). I put a War Elephant, a couple of axemans, a couple of spears, and a lot of Hwacha in each of my stack. The combination of elephant, axe and spear prevented the AI from targeting my stack and let my Hwacha performed its magics (got to love those fireworks).

 

[Harbourboy]

The fireworks are cool.

Unfortunately, that is the extent of my insights into the uses of the hwacha.

 

[de Mott]

This should be fun. Does anyone know if you are guaranteed enough land for domination on the starting continent, or is it just luck?

Hwachas are going to be the main staple of my attempt.

I think the normal case is that there are two continents almost the same size. So the percentage should be difficult to reach.

What I would try is playing with an uneven number of total civs - 7 or 9.

I think with 7 civs one continent is supposed to be comparably bigger because it has to host 4 civs, while the other one hosts only 3.

Assuming there are 2 continents and one is bigger than the other one ... you have a 50% chance to be sitting on the bigger one.


I also think that a SE with Pyramids would have an easier go here for reaching the population threshold and for still running research while sacking cities.

 

[Mutineer]

It would be mach more challenging and less unnoing with Conquest as a victory condition.

Firaxis in my opinion made mistake when they make continent screept in such way that one can get domination with just one continent.
So, it made good map generation a boright slow process and make use of vassals imposible, as vassals reduce you starting continent a bit.

 

[Harbourboy]

OK, maybe I will attempt this, even though it seems way out of my league. I might post some progress here, as I will not be able to do it without some helpful advice.

 

[Harbourboy]

OK then, here is the start of my first attempt:

View attachment Harbour Wang Emp GMaj 13 I BC-4000.CivWarlordsSave

And here is where I am at after 41 turns:

View attachment Harbour Wang Emp GMaj 13 I BC-2770.CivWarlordsSave

Compared to Moonsinger's games where she has taken over 4 AIs at this point, I have basically gone nowhere in this time. What should I have done differently?

What should I do from here? Or have I already stuffed it so badly I should give up?

 

[Harbourboy]

Alternatively, here is another attempt. I got off to a good start with gold in the capital (plus silver showed up later) and iron and copper nearby. So far has been my best ever Emperor military campaign (except when I carelessly raised the Confucian holy city) but am now in the typical 500 AD doldrums. Any advice on this game appreciated as well.

View attachment Wan_Emp_Sta_Con_Epi_Anc_560-AD_Tem_Med_Jul-05-2007_07-04-50.CivWarlordsSave

 

[Moonsinger]

Compared to Moonsinger's games where she has taken over 4 AIs at this point, I have basically gone nowhere in this time. What should I have done differently?

I think you are comparing apples to bananas. I could never have taken over 4 AIs at this point with non-Inca civ. I'm 99.99% sure that I can't do it. Of course, it's doable with the Inca, but you are playing with just normal warrior here. Again, I'm 99.99% sure that I won't be able do it at this point.

 

[Harbourboy]

I see now why this has been chosen as a gauntlet. Unless I am searching the HoF incorrectly, nobody has ever done a Korean Emperor Domination victory on Epic Continents before. So there are no games to look up as references to what might work in this situation.

 

[Airny]

Yeah, if you are able to beat this gauntlet, you're really a skilled player.
As I said, this one is difficult.

 

[Harbourboy]

That's why I am trying to get all the help I can get. Doesn't look like many people are even attempting this.

 

[Padraig]

I did a second attempt that I really wish I would have taken seriously. I was on the smaller continent which is why I didn't take it seriously, but I figured I'd play it out to start warring with one of the other civs for practice. I made great progress taking out 4 Persian cities with Axeman/Hwacha/Spearmen. I then popped a great general and attached him to Hwacha cause I figured I was quitting soon anyway...it lost its next attack with a 90+ chance at victory So I stop payin attention for a few turns and then came to the realization that I had captured the Persian copper supply, destroyed their iron city, and the Spain (the other Civ on the continent that I had a +6 dip with) didn't have either. So I should have been able to continue my conquest of Persia, build up and infrastructure and tech parter with Spain while I built a military to take her out.

I did follow Moonsinger's suggestion above with a more peaceful start. The main problem I ran into was happiness. Pre-calendar luxuries would be of great help, I didn't have any. So gold, silver, fur, ivory, gems would be good things to have.

 

[Harbourboy]

There has only been one submission in this Major. I wonder how many will actually be completed. I hope I can achieve one.