G-Major 58

[Ozbenno]

I've been refusing all vassal's as I think I'll end up with a higher score if I don't have any.

I had the same thought so turned vassals off

Playing Global Highlands for no apparent reason, 3 AI dead and 4 crippled beyond repair. Of the last three, Joao is no risk but Washington and Asoka might just eek out a win and have a DP. I'm importing heaps of resources for Mining Inc and Cereal Mills from them so don't really want to destroy them so might spend a few turns assessing how they are faring and getting my land borders stable to see how close to domination I am (currently about 8% short with 5-6 mcities to come out of revolt).

 

[pholtz]

I had the same thought so turned vassals off

Dang, wish I would have thought of that

 

[KingMorgan]

Very gald to see my accepted game in there at (currently) #1.

Industrial start, .40 under the dom limit, all farmed and running cereal mills, future tech 80 odd i think at the end, had to raise 2 Pacal spaceship capitals, very close to losing on the first space ship, couple of turns or so. End score 14k odd, easy to beat.

 

[pholtz]

1744

Cathy is not so great any more. Something happened I had never seen before. Cathy had a vassal, Suleiman. I went after Cathy and took over 1/2 of her cities, and then was surprised when she accepted a peace that involved her giving me a size 10 city. The AI is usually doesn't want to give up cities. I was fighting Longbowmen and Knights with Cannon, Infantry and Calvary.

The strange thing was that the turn I sued for peace, Suleiman broke free of Cathy, then on the same turn, Cathy became of vassal of Suleiman. I think it reset the normal 10 turns of peace, because I think it was only 5 or 6 turns later that I was able to declare on Sulieman and just about finish Cathy. She now has only 1 or 2 cities and is no longer a factor. Never had to fight Sulieman, but he gave me plenty at the peace talks anyway. I got very lucky with Cathy. The turn I declared the second war on her, she finished Versailles. So I got that Wonder, in a good location, without having to build it.

So that's my largest opponent removed, but now for the toughest, my ally Ragnar. But it will be "Shock and Awe" . I've recently starting building tanks and he has only Cuirassiers I think. Haven't seen any Cannon. His area is right in the middle, and I surround him on 3 sides. I plan to place all my tanks for a quick kill. They will probably be attacking without artillery softening up, so it will go quicker. I can afford a few tank losses in exchange for speed. It will take me a bit to set up the attack, giving me time to finish spreading Mining Inc. and get Cereal Mills a bit more widespread, as I had just got that company going about 10 turns ago.

My other closest ally is Tokugawa of all people. He started on the opposite side of the continent from me, and when he starting fighting I would declare war on his opponent. A few shared wars and he got very friendly. But even with my help he is still an also ran and should be easy to stab when the time is right. Suleiman will be my next victim, after Ragnar. I also have Justinian to finish off, but his growth was stunted a while ago when in our first big war when I along with, Ragnar, Tokugawa, and for a short while Hannibal, took on the rest of the world. Ragnar took several of Justinian's cities and Byzantium never recovered. (Hannibal later foolishly back stabbed me. He is now down to one city, off of the main continent.)

It has been non-stop war for a long while, but it looks pretty good. By the end of the Eighteenth Century, I should be pretty well set up with all my opponents weakened. Then I it will be mainly saturating the map with as many cities as I can place without going over the domination limit. That's the plan anyway.

 

[pholtz]

I found this thread about the last time we did a G-major time victory. At least it's the last time I remember as I think it was just before I went on a couple year break from CIV. Interesting how much more active the thread was then. Probably more people needed a major gauntlet victory. I'm not sure if my research into the end of the game time/domination/conquest problem is applicable any more with all the patches since then.

 

[Ozbenno]

I'm pretty sure that the order has changed. Since Time victories take so long I never risk another victory.

 

[pholtz]

It's 1812, any war that is worth the name is over. I'm sure I'll have minor clean up wars. But I did something a bit weird, hope it doesn't cause any problems.

I took a look at the map, went through all the cities and played around with maximizing science to see how far I was away from 1 FT/turn (not too close ). So I had the map open for 40 min or so, I think, didn't make a move, but did lots of reassignments on the city screen. I saved the new game and will start from there tomorrow. I still need to do a few more calculations, to make sure I won't have a Culture problem.

Now the balance act is to cut into science/turn now for more later. Not sure where the line is especially when the increase in science is minor (eg. adding an industrial park to get a bit more science from the free Engineer, at the cost of 2 - 4 turns of much lower science if I would just 'build science'.)

 

[Methos]

But I did something a bit weird, hope it doesn't cause any problems.

I took a look at the map, went through all the cities and played around with maximizing science to see how far I was away from 1 FT/turn (not too close ). So I had the map open for 40 min or so, I think, didn't make a move, but did lots of reassignments on the city screen. I saved the new game and will start from there tomorrow. I still need to do a few more calculations, to make sure I won't have a Culture problem.

So long as you saved the game and restarted from that save you should be fine.

 

[pholtz]

So long as you saved the game and restarted from that save you should be fine.

Great. I was just afraid that for some reason, having a session where no turn was done would raise some kind of flag.

 

[pholtz]

1843 and wonder of wonders. I saw the solid green line advance in the research bar as I gained an FT. So up to 1 Future Tech per turn. I know I'm at least 2 centuries behind what the top players could do but even so, I'm not positive I can keep it up. I couldn't get the next FT done in one turn, so I went and backfilled communism which I had never discovered, using the over flow on that to then get the FT done in one. I found myself with a Great Spy. I burned him for a Golden Age, and I hope that I can build all the science buildings in the still undeveloped later conquest cities so I keep one FT / turn going after the Golden Age is over.

 

[WilliamOfOrange]

So, I was reminded on the update that a RoA submission does not count towards any map or civ requirements. I have a question about gauntlets like this though. Since it is Any Era, does that mean it counts for both Gauntlet and RoA? In the case of these gauntlets, do they only count for gauntlets or do they count for civs, map and everything else? Or just gauntlet and RoA? Or just gauntlet? Thanks.

 

[Ozbenno]

So, I was reminded on the update that a RoA submission does not count towards any map or civ requirements. I have a question about gauntlets like this though. Since it is Any Era, does that mean it counts for both Gauntlet and RoA? In the case of these gauntlets, do they only count for gauntlets or do they count for civs, map and everything else? Or just gauntlet and RoA? Or just gauntlet? Thanks.

This is one of those murky areas for EQM (qualifies for everything in QM of course). If you use ancient start, this game will be acceptable in all categories but if you don't use ancient start, it will only count for RoA, not gauntlet.

 

[pholtz]

This is one of those murky areas for EQM (qualifies for everything in QM of course). If you use ancient start, this game will be acceptable in all categories but if you don't use ancient start, it will only count for RoA, not gauntlet.

Now I'm totally confused. It says in the settings "Any Era". Also I have submitted a future era game that is listed in the gauntlet results. And you are saying the game won't count towards the gauntlet???

Edit: reread what you had, are you saying a Future Era start counts towards the Quattromaster Gauntlet, but not towards the Elite QM Gauntlet? Weird.

 

[Ozbenno]

Edit: reread what you had, are you saying a Future Era start counts towards the Quattromaster Gauntlet, but not towards the Elite QM Gauntlet? Weird.

Yep that is right.

 

[pholtz]

1890 Something and still plugging away. I'm in the process of spamming settlers to fill in every hole I can find and the UN-paving over of the world, as cottages, villages and towns get replaced with farms. Future Tech is almost 70. I've been giving techs to the poor AI's and it finally paid off. I got a tech in trade. First time that's happened for a LONG time. I think I still have three techs other than Future techs. Computers can finally be researched as the loss of the wonders won't hurt me any more. I'll see if I can get the AI's to research them though.

A few questions:

I get more than the required science to get a FT/turn, is there any reason for me to build science buildings in the new cities?

Same with money. My income is more than sufficient. In fact, is there any reason for me to build anything in the cities now other than supermarket?

Assume two cities. Would I get different or the same number of points if one city was size 5, the other size 15; or if both were size 10. The first would give me a higher 'population' in the report, but any difference in the score?

In fact, it looks like I can relax a bit, as if the game creates a priest, scientist or a merchant or whatever when a city expands it doesn't make much difference. Only the cities that might spawn a GP need to be watched?

 

[WastinTime]

You probably want Granary, Lighthouse, (grocer), supermarket.

Cities 5 and 15, or 10 and 10 give the same score.

 

[Hsinchu]

Question: I'm not reattempting this one by any means (too long *yawn* and I never planned to get #1 in the first place) but I think pholtz brings up an issue for me that has been pressing.

I've never really milked a game for points (AKA pop and future techs) so I'm not sure how it works, but doesn't future tech get progressively more expensive?

I'm pretty sure I've experienced diminishing returns, because where future tech cost me 1 turn, the next tech it cost me two, and so on and so forth until I just figured I'd rather have the gold to rush buildings.

 

[cabert]

Question: I'm not reattempting this one by any means (too long *yawn* and I never planned to get #1 in the first place) but I think pholtz brings up an issue for me that has been pressing.

I've never really milked a game for points (AKA pop and future techs) so I'm not sure how it works, but doesn't future tech get progressively more expensive?

no

I'm pretty sure I've experienced diminishing returns, because where future tech cost me 1 turn, the next tech it cost me two, and so on and so forth until I just figured I'd rather have the gold to rush buildings.

there must be some kind of reason, but it's not about FT getting more expansive.
Maybe you had a very large beakers overflow or something like that.

 

[billybgame]

Well, this was a big waste of time. Taught me I need to learn more about getting a Time victory at higher levels, though. Lost to a Tokugawa space win with 4 turns to go. I pretty much figured I was going to lose when he launched with 22 turns to go.

The thing I don't get is how he launched on me. I was prepared as he was leading the space race, and had a bunch of spies infiltrating him. I ruined his docking bay with maybe 25 or so turns to go. I figured I'd be good, and he built it back and the engine, in just 3 turns. I guess I've got a lot more to learn about espionage. I did learn more on it, in this game, so that's good.

This took me forever, even as a Modern game, so I doubt I'll be trying again. Still need a Time victory for both QM and EQM, so I'll use what I learned here again sometime.

 

[Hsinchu]

Well, this was a big waste of time. Taught me I need to learn more about getting a Time victory at higher levels, though. Lost to a Tokugawa space win with 4 turns to go. I pretty much figured I was going to lose when he launched with 22 turns to go.

The thing I don't get is how he launched on me. I was prepared as he was leading the space race, and had a bunch of spies infiltrating him. I ruined his docking bay with maybe 25 or so turns to go. I figured I'd be good, and he built it back and the engine, in just 3 turns. I guess I've got a lot more to learn about espionage. I did learn more on it, in this game, so that's good.

This took me forever, even as a Modern game, so I doubt I'll be trying again. Still need a Time victory for both QM and EQM, so I'll use what I learned here again sometime.

I haven't played Modern in awhile, but I am going to guess that Modern means your ability to cripple your opponents technologically is significantly handicapped by equalization at the start. Congrats on the effort though! I know in GOTM they take failures and medal them. Too bad about Gauntlet, XD.