[BTS] G-Major 149 - Rameses, Time - deadline 24th January 2017

[Noble Zarkon]

While the general Hall of Fame is an ongoing competition, we like to run time-definite competitions between updates that we call Gauntlets. Standard Hall of Fame rules (*) still apply, but any games meeting the settings will be counted towards the Gauntlet.

Settings:

• Victory Condition: Time (though all victory conditions must be enabled)
• Difficulty: Warlord
• Starting Era: Any
• Map Size: Small
• Speed: Marathon
• Map Type: Big and Small
• Civ: Egypt (Ramesses II)
• Opponents: Must include Babylon (Hammurabi), France (Napoleon), Mali (Mansa Musa), Ottoman (Suleiman)
• Version: 3.19.003 or 3.19.004b
• Date: 26th November 2016 to 24th January 2017*

Must not play as Inca.
The highest score wins.

*(Extended deadline due to nature of this Gauntlet and the holiday season)

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

This should be fun. Probably starting in Future Era will be close to optimal for time victory score and the game won't last that long even on Marathon speed. Modern Era start might be good too, but longer.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

I'm planning an Ancient start but thought leaving the option open was the best choice. Will be interesting to see if later starts can be competitive.

 

[Chaosquo]

What are the main differences between the starting eras? I assume even with a Future start you have enough time to let your cities grow to max?
Advantages of ancient: You can get all wonders, easier to cripple AI and have no competition for seafood
Advantages of future: less time spent playing
Also settings: low seas, arid?

 

[Noble Zarkon]

I think the advantage of future is simply to reduce the time taken to play Marathon / Time. I prefer Ancient because I like to build my Empire up in a particular way e.g. a key way to pay for Corps is a Shrined Holy City with Wall Street, preferably with 2 religions - much easier to organise with an Ancient start. As for crippling the AI yes although I'm experimenting with leaving a viable competitor who can trade me resources this time. If you start with later eras you don't get the benefits of the Egyptian UU & UB.

Arid yes would be my choice, for sea level I prefer high for more 1 tile islands although I don't think it makes a huge difference.

Don't underestimate the challenge of keeping under the Domination limit with Sushi culture going crazy!

 

[Chaosquo]

I just took it from Wastintimes BC Spaceship thread, but I guess he chose low seas for more Mining Inc resources?

Also how would you setup religions, guess on Warlord you just found them yourself when you only have 1 city?

 

[Noble Zarkon]

I think on Large / Huge low sea levels makes sense as there is so much of the main continent you can leave alone, on smaller maps I think High makes more sense but I could be wrong.

I find setting up a good Wall Street city with two Shrines and your HQs is key to funding the Corps. Ideally you'll pop a Settler from a hut and be able to found your Capital and your Holy City very early. I tend to go with Oxford / IW in the Capital and Wall Street / Moai (or Globe if not coastal) in the Holy City. The bureaucracy bonus doesn't apply to specialists or your Shrine income but the Wall St. one does so better to have cottages in your capital and a high food holy city.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

What are the main differences between the starting eras?

Ancient - 1,500 turns - Start with Settler & Warrior
Classical - 1,350 turns - Start with Settler, Archer, Worker & Scout
Medieval - 1,150 turns - Start with 2 Settlers, 2 Longbowmen, Worker & Explorer
Renaissance - 975 turns - Start with 2 Settlers, 2 Longbowmen, Worker & Explorer
Industrial - 750 turns - Start with 3 Settlers, 3 Riflemen, 2 Workers & 2 Explorers
Modern - 525 turns - Start with 3 Settlers, 3 Marines, 2 Workers & 2 Explorers
Future - 300 turns - Start with 3 Settlers, 3 Mech Inf, 3 Workers & 2 Explorers

• You also get all techs up to the previous era e.g. Medieval start you get all Ancient and Classical techs.
  
• Religions from previous eras are founded in a random city on your 5th turn.
• Each city you found in a non-Ancient start gets a certain number of automatic buildings (will list later)

Could be quite a challenge to get out to all the islands and have them all fully grown in a Modern / Future start but the pre-built buildings will help.

Note non-Ancient starts only count for Rock of Ages in EQM.

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

I did a Deity Dual Modern Era Time game at Quick speed, where you have no more than 100 turns to increase your score. I think that Future Era with 300 turns should be plenty of time to get a high score for time victory, especially at Warlord difficulty; Small versus Duel map size isn't a huge difference at this difficulty either.

The advantages of starting with an earlier Era is the AIs will be stuck at which ever Era you start at. Thus one might want to start in the Industrial or Modern Era, so one can get a significant technological advantage over the AIs. On the other hand, at Warlord difficulty, the AIs are already handicapped, so a technological advantage over them isn't really needed; A Future Era start should work out fine.

 

[lymond]

Not sure if it was mentioned, but settler cost increases significantly at each later era start.

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

Not sure if it was mentioned, but settler cost increases significantly at each later era start.

Yes, it does, but each newly settled city will have all the basic buildings for that era prebuilt. The increased cost of a later era settler should be considered a bargain with all the "free" prebuilt buildings it includes.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

I've got a good game going - managed to found Buddhism, Hinduism & Judaism in my original Capital. Got the War Chariot Quest - all my War Chariots got the Combat 1 promotion . Suleiman is now my only opponent - he has 1 ice bound city .

Moved my capital inland before building Oxford so the original Capital is now my Holy City and has Moai and Wall Street.

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

Well done, NobleZarkon!

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

Well, only on an Ancient Era start will you be able to get three religions founded in the same city. That is a huge benefit of the Ancient Era start over all the others.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Agreed, I find this the best way to pay for Corps - my Holy City will have 3 Shrines, Mining Inc HQ, Sushi HQ and Wall Street. With the 3 religions spread to all my cities that should fund the HQs. Mining Inc means you can quickly get the Courthouses up in you new cities as well. Forbidden Palace and Versailles should both be built before a mass expansion as well, I have them complete in strategic locations.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

I've got a good game going - managed to found Buddhism, Hinduism & Judaism in my original Capital. Got the War Chariot Quest - all my War Chariots got the Combat 1 promotion . Suleiman is now my only opponent - he has 1 ice bound city .

Had to abandon this game after some bad luck with GP generation, got another one good going. Can now consistently found the initial 3 religions in one city, this leveraged with the Egyptian UB means you can get Shrines up early and use that to fund your Empire. It's a nice tactic for lower level Time games.

Got the Sports League Quest - this may be the only time I have ever built the Statue of Zeus! The extra reward for owning that and having 5 Colosseums (something else I rarely build) is a free Golden Age, pretty neat!

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Congratulations to, er, me for winning this Gauntlet with a score of 40,959. Will post a full update later.