G-Major 45

[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!
[/size]​

Settings:

• Victory Condition: Space Colony (though all victory conditions must be enabled)
• Difficulty: Immortal
• Starting Era: Ancient
• Map Size: Standard
• Map Type: Any
• Speed: Marathon
• Civ: Any
• Opponents: Any
• Version: 3.17.001
• Date: 11th February to 10th March 2009

Must not play as Inca.

The earliest finish date wins, with score as a tiebreaker.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

I believe you mean "Space Colony" rather than "Space Race" since this is a BtS only gauntlet.

 

[Denniz]

corrected. Thanks

 

[Dynamic]

It's a good major, just Standart map size is too big for me...
But in any case the best result of this Major will be the new record for Immortal Space Colony I think.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Tech isn't really my forte' so it's probably easy for me to win this but not to finish earlier than other players.

 

[Dynamic]

I'm still playing Small Monarch Space Colony (will be about 1050-1100AD) and it looks like 1 month for this Major is to short for me...

 

[PaulisKhan]

I think Darius is the obvious choice for this one. A rushing unit to claim early territory, an extra healthiness building (very important for space colony games because health is a bigger problem than happiness) and both primary economic traits.
Mansa is another possible choice, I've used him for immortal difficulty skirmisher rushes before, and I'd like to have spiritual but I just don't think I can claim enough land with him early.

I've played a couple of games with Darius up to the very early AD's with 16 or so cities, trying to find the right balance between expansion and teching. Still getting the hang of immortals too, I am finding it difficult to get them out before the AI hook up copper if I don't have horses in the BFC (which I usually don't due to my preference for floodplains
=(

Is worker stealing with warriors a big part of this type of rush? or self build worker first instead?

 

[Ozbenno]

If I have a go at this I was going to use Darius as well for exactly those reasons.

 

[oyzar]

Darius seems like a good choice given that incans are banned...

 

[AutomatedTeller]

What about Hannibal? Numidians are really good for conquering - high survival rate, plus get fast promotions, plus extra happiness. They don't come early, of course.

 

[cabert]

It's a good major, just Standart map size is too big for me...
But in any case the best result of this Major will be the new record for Immortal Space Colony I think.

I guess so since this is an empty spot
edit : you probably mean it will be faster than pauliskahn's 1638 AD victory

 

[oyzar]

What about Hannibal? Numidians are really good for conquering - high survival rate, plus get fast promotions, plus extra happiness. They don't come early, of course.

HBR is a very expensive tech that doesn't give you any benefit economically, it still requires horses and they are even worse than immortals against archers as well as more expensive... Also the UB is slightly worse and if you are aiming for space charismatic is probably worse than financial. There is basically no reason to play hannibal over darius. I could see trying out Julius or Gilgamesh but i don't think hannibal is going to be any good...

 

[ParadigmShifter]

I'm doing ok as Hannibal on an archipelago map. First to liberalism (a first for me on Immortal), Dutch about to be eliminated (it is 1190AD though), 2 turns away from steel.

I'm refining my previous failed attempts at archipelago with TGL, Great Lib and Taj having been the plan.

I don't have any horses so UU hasn't been an issue, the UB is great though

 

[ZPV]

Is anyone else trying to play this as an SE?
I've played a game with Peter up to 1000BC, and tech has been faster than I expected (I'm making 200bpt and researching Civil Service).

The AI researched Alphabet in 2160BC which was scary, but I caught up as soon as I researched Aesthetics.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

I'm not, although the Great Lib in the capital is helping things along on the GP front.

If I lose this game (UN loss seems to be the main danger since everyone seems to be getting along) I'll give Gandhi a go. Heckers, even if I win I might give Gandhi a go since everything seems alot easier on marathon rather than normal speed. Takes a long time though

 

[TheMeInTeam]

One could just go liz, and roll a start that yields enough room to expand peacefully. Like, a lucky start that lets you block for like 12+ cities.

I'm probably just gonna use someone for EQM though. I have no interest in the top spot here.

 

[PaulisKhan]

My typical HoF space games require a good bureau capital but I'm finding that without Quechas I'm better off getting a good production starter village with horses in the BFC to help fuel an immortal rush. Delaying things to build a settler and claim horses elsewhere was just setting me back too much.

It's currently something like 600 BC and I have around 14 cities. I just managed to drag myself through -36 gpt at 0% research by building research to get through to CoL and several turns of anarchy while I waited for civs to finish researching currency so I could beg cash from them.

I'm very impressed with half price courthouses from organised, a 2 pop whip is very very convenient.

My typical strategy for space races is in absolute disarray at the moment.
No GE points quietly filling up the GP bar somewhere to pop in time for mining inc, no mids for rep, no GLib, in fact no wonders of any kind (apart from Shwedagon Papaya which I'm leaving unfinished in order to cash in for gold when an AI finishes it).

I guess I'm going to have to play it by ear from here on out, though I'm fairly confident I can beat the current HoF date.
Just need to decide on the best way to turn all of my land into beakers.
I've also already hit WFYABTA with multiple civs though, only Isabel who I'm friendly with will trade with me, and I haven't even researched paper yet >.<

I'll probably just whip like a crazy man for the next 1000 years to get infrastructure in place and keep maintainance costs down, while I research the workshop techs (minus communism) and then just build research for the rest of the game (and pray for a GE)

 

[The-Hawk]

I have not played too many space games in BtS, when I do, I tend to play them very vanilla-like (e.g. have never used corporations). Looks like this major is attracting some good discussion, so I think I will join in to improve this part of my play.

I'm curious... what map type are people using? Do any of the map types have better resources? I assume being on a large landmass with most/all AI's is the best bet for tech rate.

Oh, and this reminds me why I don't like space race... play a long game only to find you have no coal or aluminum.

 

[The-Hawk]

Is anyone else trying to play this as an SE?

My biggest concern would be Emancipation since space is a long tech haul. Won't loss of Caste System really curtail the tech rate?

Edit:

Been looking at leaders. I think Philo, Expansive, Organized and Financial are all good traits for this. Leaders that strike my fancy:

Liz: Philo, Fin, gold producing UB
Darius: Org, Fin, health producing UB, good early UU
Fred: Org, Philo, production UB
Mehmed: Exp, Org, UB not so helpful
Peter: Philo, Exp, tech producing UB

Darius seems obvious choice on a crowded map, but on a sparse map with room for peaceful expansion, Liz, Fred, and Peter all have merit.

Since PaulisKhan is trying Darius and ZPV is trying Peter, I think I'll give Liz a roll. Strategy will be early tech and peaceful expansion. Close neighbors will fall to a more advanced unit in mid-game. Therefore, map will have minimal AI's.

 

[ZPV]

I'm curious... what map type are people using? Do any of the map types have better resources? I assume being on a large landmass with most/all AI's is the best bet for tech rate.

I think Great Plains is supposed to be the most unbalanced in that regard, but I have no personal experience of this.

I'm playing on Big and Small with the option "Islands Mixed In".
The number of food resources around isn't amazing, but there are huge expanses of Grassland which can be workshopped later on. It also has enough islands around, and possibly an offshore civ, that you can get some overseas trade routes.

My biggest concern would be Emancipation since space is a long tech haul. Won't loss of Caste System really curtail the tech rate?

I hope this won't be a problem, but I don't really know.

I selected several opponents who like to go for a Cultural Victory, and sometimes they don't research Democracy before pushing the culture slider.

My main hope, however, is that I can trade/conquer for all happy resources, and can manage happiness with the culture slider if necessary, thereby remaining in Caste System.


If this game doesn't go well, or Research Institutes turn out to be too late to matter, then I'll try Gandhi. Switching between Caste/Pacifism and Slavery/OR for free will be really nice.