G-Major 23

[Denniz]

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.

[size=+1](*) Please read the >> HOF rules << BEFORE playing!
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Settings:

• Victory Condition: Diplomatic (though all victory conditions must be enabled)
• Difficulty: Immortal
• Starting Era: Ancient
• Map Size: Standard
• Map Type: Any
• Speed: Epic
• Civ: Any
• Opponents: Any
• Version: 1.74.002, 2.13.002 or 3.13.001
• Date: 10th March to 10th April 2008

Must not play as Inca.
The earliest finish date wins, with score as a tiebreaker.

 

[Ozbenno]

Geez, you could have picked an empty table rather than my highest q-score game

Note to self: be nicer to the HOF mods

 

[Dracandross]

Mmm again one that has to be tried... Specially as theres no Incas as last deity diplo had.

Bye bye your high score it seems . Wasting is gonna beat this is my bet though.

-D

 

[FiveAces]

I'm in and will forgo picking up any EQM quals to give Wastin a run for his money. Will be interesting to see if multi-city can still beat OCC given no Inca's and easy (relative to deity) CS slingshot.

 

[Ozbenno]

Will be interesting to see if multi-city can still beat OCC given no Inca's and easy (relative to deity) CS slingshot.

I'm interested in which will be better, but not enough to try multi-city myself

Also intertested in BtS vs Vanilla as well.

Definately an OCC attempt from me. Have to decide on Lizzie, Gandhi or Mansu though

 

[WastinTime]

I did a test run with Hannibal, OCC. The extra happy from Charismatic is not worth it, but it fills in my LoN. I play on BTS, so I'm probably screwed. CS slingshot is unlikely. Oracle was built on turn 71 by a non-industrious civ. That seems really early, maybe that AI popped a couple free techs, and copper, and had marble.

I recommend you turn OFF vassals, that messed with the voting.

Bug: The Ap. Palace was supposed to be obsolete after Mass Media, but they kept voting. The AI was 3 votes short and then 1 vote short of winning. The Palace is just another reason that BTS will be harder.

Liz is a good choice. Mansa is best on Quick speed when spiritual matters more.
I'm gonna mess around with some of the new leaders to fill in my LoN slots.

 

[FiveAces]

I'm gonna run with Liz, just not sure whether OCC. Problem is GP pollution from Oracle. Thinking CoL beeline for slingshot, immediately using Caste for sci's to pop GS for academy (restart if GP) while researching alpha, then switching to cottages in the capital. That means if I pop next great person from capital it will most likely be a prophet...

I'll be using Vanilla so it will make for good comparison.

@WastinTime - If AP works like the other wonders it would only go obsolete when the civ that built it got MM, right? So unless you gifted that civ MM it should still be active? Also, this will fill immortal LoN slots for you, you're not going for Deity straight off?

 

[WastinTime]

@WastinTime - If AP works like the other wonders it would only go obsolete when the civ that built it got MM, right? So unless you gifted that civ MM it should still be active? Also, this will fill immortal LoN slots for you, you're not going for Deity straight off?

Good point about gifting MM. I just thought it was strange that both votes came up on the same year. I could have lost and won at the same time.

I'm filling QM LoN (not eQM) eQM looks like it will become something I'm not interested in. But you're right, I would go for Diety. Lord knows I wouldn't want to complete it at any other level and then have to start over from scratch.

 

[FiveAces]

I might try building only 2 cities - capital and GP farm.

EDIT: or might not. the immortal AI won't have paper/edu if I go straight to astro. looks like 6 cities with libraries by the time I complete education and try to use Lib for physics. Or OCC and cross fingers no prophets show up. Hmmm.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Well just started my first ever Immortal game (BtS, Gandhi was the random leader it chose for me).

Since I play with barbs on I grabbed archery after hunting and animal husbandry, bronze working, then went down the religious path to build the Oracle, teching writing. Lincoln came along offering me agriculture for priesthood, I didn't really need agriculture but I did the trade anyway.

Beaten to Oracle by 1 turn, just as I was 1 turn away from teching writing for code of laws from the Oracle , 925BC I think.

I guess I'll have to be quicker if I want the Oracle on Immortal, or not trade away priesthood I'm not sure whether it was Lincoln who built it.

Had a worker steal war with Qin Shi Huang, I stole his worker and killed an archer.

I might try again though see if I can get off to a better start.

Any suggestions for leaders to try? I might give Fred a go, I liked him last time I played as him.

I know you will all say don't play with barbs on I should have gone for bronze working rather than archery anyway since it was one of those BtS heavily forested starts, and my worker was standing around for quite a while after building a pasture on some pigs waiting to build a mine on a forested hill.

 

[WastinTime]

IIRC, for vanilla Civ, it was always 4 turns between votes no matter what game speed.

I'm seeing 8 turns on BTS. Another way BTS gets screwed. I've never played an expansion pack on any game that made me want to go back to the original.

I also got a nice -3 population while researching Mass Media, I had the choice to take -4 population.

I did have an amazing map though, Hannibal built the UN before 1100 AD. I'll have to try vanilla for any future runs on this gauntlet.

 

[WastinTime]

Ah ha, I found an advantage to BTS. Turn 265 in BTS is the same year as turn 255 vanilla. A 10 turn advantage for BTS somewhere near the end date.

 

[kovacsflo]

I welcome this gauntlet. Immortal is my favorite diff and with a peaceful victory in for example inland sea it seems a pretty enjoyable game.

Anyway I think Pacal is the best leader for the gauntlet because of the following reasons:

- First of all exp AND ball court allows bigger cities
- Fin is essential of course.
- Starting with mysticism allows an early religion

Flóri

 

[FiveAces]

Ah ha, I found an advantage to BTS. Turn 265 in BTS is the same year as turn 255 vanilla. A 10 turn advantage for BTS somewhere near the end date.

I reckon it is possible to build the UN before 1000, maybe even 900 - I have built it in 11xx on a large Deity map OCC. Although whether you can do this and still get the votes is a different matter, since you will most likely have some negative modifiers with a few civs if you build it in the fastest possible manner.

 

[Dracandross]

Vicky 1460 or so bad starting position but got bored to find better... OCC

Gotta try harder it seems...

-D

 

[WilliamOfOrange]

I was just curious, why OCC would make this an easier task?

 

[WastinTime]

OCC gets a burst of tech by completing Oxford somewhere around 1 AD. It takes longer with a multi-city approach. Eventually Multi-city will catch up. If the path to Mass Media were any longer OCC wouldn't have a chance. But it's a close race.

Multi-city may be easier than it is on Diety because maintenance costs are down. It's probably the best way to go, but it's a lot more work.

 

[Dracandross]

And specially as Inca is not allowed you cant early rush so effectively...

-D

 

[FiveAces]

And specially as Inca is not allowed you cant early rush so effectively...

-D

I don't see an early rush as being that effective at all - a settler is 100h (normal speed), an axe is 35h. So 3 axes is more than 1 settler, but you can't take a city on immortal with 3 axes (unless you are very lucky), and I don't think you can count on taking 2 cities with 6... So I think you would be better off just building settlers unless you don't have space for 6 cities, but on a std imm map I don't think that would be an issue - you don't need 6 good cities to beat an OCC time, you only need 3-4 and just lib/uni in the others.

 

[WastinTime]

I don't see an early rush as being that effective at all - a settler is 100h (normal speed), an axe is 35h.

You're forgetting about all the free workers, and the fact that the city you take is already size 2, 3, 4, or more, and it already has improvements/roads, and capitol cities often have better resources. Did I forget anything?

Just send 2 Axemen, and hope to get lucky. I've wiped out 2 entire civs on Deity with 1 warrior (and a little luck.) Of course that's Inca, but an Axeman is much stronger.