G-Major 14

Congrats! Persistence pays off :)
 
Congrats another major win HB. Can't see myself joining you just yet.
 
How did I manage to win?

1) Gold in capital. Not gems.
2) 5 Great Artist farms. None of them were that great, but together they were a force.
3) One Great Scientist - for Philosophy
4) All the rest of GPs were Great Artists
5) Used Bureaucracy to build Hermitage, Pagoda, Academy, Mandir in capital.
6) Only made two civic changes the whole game:
a) to HR, Bureaucracy, Caste System, Pacifism
b) to Free Speech
7) Never got Democracy or Economics or Corporation
8) Was 3rd to Liberalism around 600 AD
9) Mansa had only one rocket piece left to build so there were probably only a couple of turns left up my sleeve
10) I built 6 cities and Giza flipped to me near the end
11) Switched all non Legendary city artists to Merchants for last few turns so I could keep culture running at 90-100% to get capital over the line.
 
I am really happy with you Harbourboy.
You were persistent and finally reached your goal, must be a great feeling.

I also tried GP farms in my 3rd attempt today, but the game just didn't work out for me. No religion wanted to spread, so I only had taoism. Getting philo first was the only positive. Ghandi got music before me and Roosevelt Liberalism.
How long do you play for one full game? I need 3-4 hours, playing it mostly in one session.
 
I was first to Music and Philosophy, both of which seemed to be more useful to me than being first to Liberalism.

Because this game involved no combat, has little micromanagement and is on Quick, I can finish it in around 2 hours. The only interesting part is the early exploration of the warrior because after that, it's pretty much just following a formula through to a conclusion.

This concept does fall apart if you don't get good food locations to support artists, or if no religions spread to you.
 
Pfft, I only have a few hours left to have a bash at the minor Gauntlet!

Then there is a fortnight old GOTM to do, plus it's my turn on SGOTM5. I'm so behind!
 
How did I manage to win?

1) Gold in capital. Not gems.
2) 5 Great Artist farms. None of them were that great, but together they were a force.
3) One Great Scientist - for Philosophy
4) All the rest of GPs were Great Artists
5) Used Bureaucracy to build Hermitage, Pagoda, Academy, Mandir in capital.
6) Only made two civic changes the whole game:
a) to HR, Bureaucracy, Caste System, Pacifism
b) to Free Speech
7) Never got Democracy or Economics or Corporation
8) Was 3rd to Liberalism around 600 AD
9) Mansa had only one rocket piece left to build so there were probably only a couple of turns left up my sleeve
10) I built 6 cities and Giza flipped to me near the end
11) Switched all non Legendary city artists to Merchants for last few turns so I could keep culture running at 90-100% to get capital over the line.

Well done, mate! I've tried this one several times so far and have gotten launched on between 1560 and 1655 AD. I like a gold/FP start, too. Have tried Saladin, Liz, and had fun even with Mao/organized/Agr/Min. I used the same civics as you did, but not much luck with next door religion coalitions who went cautious quickly when switched to religion/Pacifism. That hurts the GA farms. Most artist specialists I've had in a city was 7 so far. Largest capital cottage spam/cpt was only 15 population, which is the key I think, and food resources for +1 health for big cities. Agree about using Bur for building means Lib/Free Speech not always applied immediately so don't necessarily have to be first to get it. Also use single Merchants in non legendary cities which never catch up enough to pop a GM. Haven't tried first to Music but sounds nice. :goodjob:

Looked at downloaded files by WastinTime, Jesusin, and Lexad, and thanks for your juicy advice. WastinTime, I posted a work around solution to your download save file reading problem in thread 229172 where you posted your query.

Just for comparison, the downloaded saves referred to above had typically a population 20 capital! Big cottaged capitals like that go legendary on their own without GAs. GA farms should not be in capital so capital can grow big.

Interesting the different approaches: WastinTime/Salidin: found Buddhism and beeline to CoL/found-Conf, then alphabet. Jesusin/Liz:Cottage route to alphabet, CoL, GS pop phil/Tao, GS pop paper and/or edu, then pray for religions to spread. :mischief:

AoD
 
Also, for Saladin which starts with mysticism, since you want Buddhism or Hinduism, (take your pick but research this first), you likely also need no starting mysticism opponents. After meditation (or polytheism) you can either do a mining or agriculture as appropriate to your situation and then beeline to CoL, or you can just go straight to CoL which is only three techs away on this research path after Buddhism or Hinduism, through priesthood and writing! That's right, Saladin with mysticism actually enables CoL as the 4th tech researched. ;) Therefore, it's really straightforward to found Budd and Conf with Saladin. So you are guaranteed two cathedrals and the Hermitage in your capital, and you don't have to worry so much about religion spread as you do with Liz/phil/fin/fish/mining (or Mao/phil/org/agr/mining).

Mao plays very similar to Liz by the way, but you get your money up front with each city founding, so you can keep your research slider up higher and spam cities faster to gobble up the crucial +1 health resources. ;) Also, since you get both agr and mining with Mao for your 1st worker, you can do the Saladin beeline to CoL I described above immediately to grab conf, but don't count on getting budd or hind. I did luck out with hind once against non mysticism opponents with Liz by founding capital on 2h/3g gold hill next to 3f/3g oasis and FP. :) Unlikely to get Hind with Mao though as that would be a 2h/2g capital gold hill and 3f/2g oasis. But Mao is good at early city spam on a FP with capitol on PH and build of Warrior grow to size 2 then Settler, Settler... until you have all the nearby food and blocking positions, building worker at second city. ;) Also, may not be a good idea to found on a gold hill unless you have two gold mines in the fat cross and even then I don't usually do it, but I was curious whether it was possible to get Hind with Liz.

AoD
 
I just got 1235 AD again. I think I can break 1200 now.

This was a horrible map. Corn was the only food in the capitol. My "big" GP farm had 1 cow and 3 flood plains. How sad is that?

I founded 2 religions and ZERO spread to me, so I was stuck with only 2 cathedrals.

I was only playing it out to see if I could get 2 cities to flip really early. I had a good position on them. Well, one flipped around turn 95 and was just barely able to contribute 1 GA. The other never did even though it was consumed by my culture. I couldn't get Mansa to trade for Philo, so I figured I needed a research boost and built a GS. Yes, I feel dirty. It only saved me 5 turns of education, not sure it was a good idea.

going to bed...I will respond to some of the new posts in the morning.
 
Alan_of_Dale,

Thx for the advice on loading saves.
Good analysis of the saves you looked at. My game at least, was quite old. I didn't remember that I beelined to CoL. I now take Alphabet first, then still get CoL 1st most of the time. It's worth the risk, I just play non-mysticism AI like you said. I also got rid of all the music-loving AI. One game I tried took forever to get Music from them and they never got drama. I had to research it after 200 AD. So I dumped them and now I get 1st to music. Even with that little side-track, and a non-financial leader. I can get research done in 85-90 turns with no GS bulbs.

A size 15 capitol is sufficient, don't think you need 20. I'd be surprised if my games had 20.
 
Oh yea, I was holding back one secret in my 1335 game. Maybe some of you can have fun with this idea. Build the Parthenon. My GP farm was doing 139 GPP all by itself. Saladin has the best shot at it, but I did it with Liz. There's time to beeline alphabet, trade for Poly/Masonry and build it. Saladin can make it easier by researching Poly (instead of Med) then Mining- Masonry. That does not delay your trip to alphabet by much. Don't attempt without Marble.

I'm out for vacation for a few days. good luck.
 
I had my first attempt at this gauntlet after enjoying reading everyone’s very helpful discussions.

I won in 1525AD – just in the nick of time. I was very pleased with this game since it was my first real win on deity (other than trying out the PA spacerace).

I must have made loads of mistakes and I’m sure my map wasn’t anywhere near optimal.

I had only one religion for 85% of the turns
My GP farm didn’t have a single food resource until my culture push around 900AD
My 1st city had a pop of 13 and my 2nd and 3rd city had pop of 9 (and only 3 cottage squares each)

My biggest mistake was having Ghandi as an AI. He took liberism first when no other AI had education. He built the UN and started adopting those pesky global civics. The first one to go was my state religion and pacifism, then I lost out caste system to emancipation. My GP farm had to squeeze out a final GP with 2 artists, 2 scientists and 2 priest specialists. I was VERY lucky and got my last great artist!! Yay.

It couldn’t have happened any sooner too.

Every AI had the Apollo Program and I checked the victory screen to see that Ghandi only need the Life Support part to win. I won in 1525 and knew that it was a close race, so after saving the game I played one more turn and BOTH Ghandi and Mansa finished their last spaceship on the very next turn!!!

Lucky, quite thrilling and a very enjoyable game.
 
WastinTime,

Thanks for the Parthenon tip as I am trying to boost my GA production. :) Interesting on your current research priority of beeline to Alphabet. Actually, as Saladin I got CoL first and 2/3 way to Alphabet I had three AIs approach me when they had alphabet with deals which I renegociated for what I wanted, CoL+ for Math, etc. Must have been Jesusin and/or Lexad with the size 20 capital(s).
 
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