G-Major 60

[Ozbenno]

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.

(*) Please read the >> HOF rules << BEFORE playing!​

Settings:

• Victory Condition: Conquest (though all victory conditions must be enabled)
• Difficulty: Emperor
• Starting Era: Ancient
• Map Size: Standard
• Map Type: Any
• Speed: Epic
• Required: Raging Barbarians
• Required: Always War Checked
• Required: OCC Checked
• Civ: Any
• Opponents: Any
• Version: 3.19.001
• Date: 25th September to 25th October 2009

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

 

[shyuhe]

Ooo, now this is an interesting one. I'm thinking archipelago to slow down the AI. Of course that still leaves the question of what civ to play... Standard assortment of Oxford, NP, GT, IW, NE seems like the obvious choice.

 

[karmina]

Yay, thanks for picking my suggestion as major!

This might prove harder than your typical hand-picked deity game, but after some quick tests I'm confident that it is winnable...


There are a lot of different well-suited leaders and maps for this challenge. Let me outline some ideas:

- To make use of raging barbs, more land is better. With some luck, 1-2 AIs can be destroyed by barbs. But if you wait too long, the others will become unsurmountable...
- I'm not so sure about archipelago. Barbs aren't a serious issue here, while your great wall loses its power.
- If not cornered by mountains or sea, or if you don't have the luxury to settle directly on stone, you will need archers before building the great wall.
- A lot of initial resources are tempting, but I'm pretty sure these mean a reduced chance for the important strategic resources. Alas! balanced resources are not allowed.
- To avoid an accidental AP defeat, stay in Theocracy or build the AP.
- Try not to contact all AI's asap, as only then they will prepare for war.

- Augustus on Terra, the obvious choice. Prepare for an early and massive onslaught of all AIs. Not sure if this is even possible on a standard size emperor map.
- Ramses on Terra for cheap wonders and serious pillaging with war chariots. Though you'll probably need maces and cats to actually win.
- Boudica on Highlands
- Toku for aggressive, protective, and samurais.
- The Chinese crossbowman really shines when facing large stacks, as you will.
- Justinian, beeline to guilds. Furthermore you'll get tons of GGs. Or Saladin with camel archers.
- Gunpowder might be the last that can be researched before severely falling behind, so Suleiman or Zara could be an option, too.

If I may qoute the Fall From Heaven intro: The first goal is survival. Well, the second as well

Good luck everybody!

 

[karmina]

My first serious try as Justinian on Inland Sea failed miserably. My neighbor Zara got destroyed by barbs pretty early, and I managed to get horses and iron with 7500 culture. 1 gold/ivory/cow/wheat, 2 flood plains, 6 hills. No stone, no marble, missed CS slingshot by a couple of turns.

Built some 40 cataphracts starting at about 1450 AD. Despite killing some 200 units, they stood no chance vs. Frederic, who already had 35% of land and 2 vassals. In the end everyone came with Knights, and a huge amount of War Elephants and Pikes. Looks like the BtS AI adapts pretty well to your army composition. I had the chemistry monopole, but was behind overally. Fred was researching corporations.

Lesson learned: Cataphracts need to come a lot earlier. CS sling is mandatory (and GW/Mids obviously).

 

[Ozbenno]

Yay, thanks for picking my suggestion as major!

I meant to say I was using your idea but this was done in a rush so sorry (and thanks)

This will be hard. I think an archipelago might be the easiest but you need to know you have iron and oil or uranium for a decent late navy. In SGs that use these settings someone WBs in these for the game, not an option here

I like Qin for this actually but we'll see how we go. I'm currently without means of playing (laptop got fried) but hopefully will get a chance in the next month.

 

[Fluroscent]

Would a persian leader on terra not work well? It should be possible to kill them all with immortals if you can keep all metal pillaged. Some luck with the barbarians is probably required.

Otherwise, playing on a flat land based map "hiding" in a corner with great wall seems the best choice. A SoD of trebs/maces with stackdefending pikes/Xbows probably to start killing with minimum casualties, and hope no AI gets a sweetspot (safe from barb pillaging).
This strategy won me a similar prince level game a while ago in warlords.

I would probably say IND is mandatory. So maybe Augustus(IMP) for more GGs, De Gaulle(CHM) for more promotions or Stalin(agg) for the free C1 promo. Either one should help making the stack more efficient, which is very very important in a game like this. The AI are likely going to have some tough promoted defenders from all the barb attacks.
I tried a game with Ramesses, but found SPI near useless as I did not find time to research the techs for orgrel/theocracy, or found a religion for that matter. Also didnt have iron, only copper, which is probably not good enough.
Next I am going to try DeGaulle, planning to get to gunpowder to help supress the stronger AIs that are too far away to be the first target.

Obviously chose AI's that dont have an early UU or are agressive/protective. Also avoid high culture civs or ones that build a lot of units if possible. That way they should be hurt more by the barbs.

Either way it is likely that it will require many attempts to get the required settings, and then it is still going to be very hard.

 

[titanvol]

Would a persian leader on terra not work well? It should be possible to kill them all with immortals if you can keep all metal pillaged. Some luck with the barbarians is probably required.

Of course it would, or at least I am tempted to try this approach, only how am I ever going to finish League of Nations if I keep using Cyrus for G-Majors.

 

[karmina]

Currently playing as Ramses, and I think I'll win. Haven't started the offense though...

My empire is completely weird: Not a single strategic resource, and just 1 hill (tundra gems)
Working 7 food resources and 1 gem. Production comes almost exclusively from 11 Ankor Wat priests and the AP (8 base hammers). Got Biology from Liberalism, the NP allows me to run 20 specialists. Settled 2 GS, 2 GM, 2 GA, 1 GP, 6 GG. Killed some 500 units within my cultural borders. My army consists of about 25 higly promoted Grenadiers, Muskets and Longbows. Just got Rifling, the plan is to get Physics in 11 turns, then Steel->Artillery and attack. Unless I find uranium, this is my only chance - because gunpowder units and artillery (beside bows/cats/trebs) are the only units in the whole game that don't require resources.

Atm I'm facing knights, maces, oromos and cuirassiers (and tons of trebs/cats); but the AI is close to rifles and cavalry which will be the main opponents on my campaign.

I'll keep you posted...

 

[Fluroscent]

Are you playing boreal or something? Strategic resources are pretty scarce there.

 

[karmina]

Are you playing boreal or something? Strategic resources are pretty scarce there.

Sure I play boreal, the one and only map to slow'em all down. But from what I can tell, most or all AI had access to both iron and horses.

Anyway, I didn't continue that game (yet), but started another as Suleiman...and won!

Again no metals nor stone nor marble, but at least horses which helped me to speed things up a bit in the end with cavalry. The main campaign consisted of 30 Janissaries, a handful of cats/trebs, and later Grenadiers. I started in a protected corner of the map, and contacted most AIs when my army was already standing. I guess that beside the crucial decision to play boreal, luck - and AI choice - played an important role with raging barbs: In this game the AI had pikes, but no muskets, and iirc not even maces until the end.

Finish date is 1770 AD - pretty late for muskets, even though I missed the oracle.

 

[Fluroscent]

Very impressive!

Boreal is a good idea, I think I am going to try out rainforest. There should be better starts available+hopefully the AI will have a hard time.

 

[Fluroscent]

A couple of unsuccesful attempts at rainforest. The AI were not nearly as troubled by barbs as I had hoped.

Then tried Suleiman and boreal, and managed a win 19xxAD. Phew, that was intense.

Start with 6 deer, sheep, stone. Lower mid location, with noone to the west, and a blocking mountain range east, to make the AI come from one direction only. Met one AI early. CS-sling ~300BC, early game went extremely well in general.
But I had no luck to keep the AI from meeting me before I was ready, so I had to contend with six AI flooding me with units for most of the game. Never got an attacking force of janissaries goin. Was able to start conquering when I had a solid choke of highly promoted janissaries and rifles.
The AI had tons of horse archers and catapults mainly. They got maces about 1300AD, Knights soon after.
I cleared half the map with trebs+rifles, losing most of my initial force to grenadiers, the last three AI got rifles as well, and two of them were english.
But I managed to stay just ahead in techs for the rest of the game, and actually ended up with mechinfs+tanks vs infantry, fighters and SAM's.

For AI, I used Elizabeth, Victoria, Washington, Lincoln, Cyrus and Frederick. Avoiding anyone with PRO, AGG, CRE, IND, and religion whores seemed like a good idea.

I learned some techniques like clearing forests in an arc, to prevent the AI from having any defensive terrain, manipulating approaching stacks by leaving certain tiles open and of course learning to use some of the many army management features I had never considered

 

[FiveAces]

I tried with DeGaulle, but he's too slow through education and there's too much forest to really take advantage of the musketeers extra move.

Then switched to Suleiman but somehow, I am not getting any GG points The bar just stays at 30??? Has this happened to anybody before? Did I accidentally change a setting or something to turn them off?

 

[manic_bob]

Quick question -

Am I allowed to turn on "no city razing" in this gauntlet?

-- manic

 

[Ozbenno]

Quick question -

Am I allowed to turn on "no city razing" in this gauntlet?

-- manic

I'm fairly sure that I checked that BUFFY handles this option correctly in OCC but to be safe best to leave it unchecked.

I'm playing around with a Genghis game after checking the availability of horse in the map first (planning to use Keshiks, then Knights to wreak havoc) but haven't been able to get a decent start with horses yet to see if it will work

 

[Fluroscent]

Improved to sub 1600AD.

Very nice corner location. Gems+stone+3xwheat+2xsheep. No strategic rescources for the whole game, but played as suleiman. Only used janissaries+trebs to conquer.

Met two AI early, the closest kept to one city by barbarians. There were no AI in the middle or to the immediate west, so plenty of room for the barbarians to roam.

Notable dates
Great Wall 2375BC
Mids 1525BC
Academy 925BC (2nd GP)
Oracle-CS 700BC
Education 200BC
Gunpowder 70AD
First city razed in 715AD

 

[pholtz]

When I first saw the Gauntlet suggestion, I thought it was a joke. I am amazed that some are actually succeeding at it!

 

[Ozbenno]

I'm beginning to think after more failed openings that stone is the crucial resource in this game, for Great Wall (especially) and Pyramids. Even going 3 x warriors out of the bat, I'm getting crucified by the barbarians.

 

[manic_bob]

Nice work Fluroscent - very impressive times. I've been trying some inland sea games to keep the number of contacted AI low. That does seem to work, but the Barbarian effect wears off pretty quick and by the time I start to conquer they are already getting pretty advanced. By the late 1500's I had a good force of riflemen but it was just taking me too long to clear everyone off and the farthest civ was starting to get good troops. Sounds like the Boreal games are much worse on the AI.

The issue I had with Boreal is starting position: there doesn't appear to be much commerce and you didn't use a financial leader, yet you got to education quite quickly. How did you do it so fast, and did you bother to build Oxford? What about the +100% military building (forget the name)?

I had both but I still couldn't produce enough troops even winning much more than 90% of the time. I made a bunch of mistakes though (I'm out of practice - haven't played for a long time). My early game was very good - played the Inca, researched masonry first, and then straight to the wall (sometimes built another warrior first). The Inca are really good because their special unit (I won't even try to spell it without looking it up) starts with +10% and is +100% versus archers so it is great on both offense and defense against the early Barbarian archer/warrior units. Usually I need to kill ~10 units (often without losing anything) before the wall gets up, and sometimes much less if I'm in a corner. For the gauntlet I've been using Mansu Mansu since he has good traits and an early special unit. Still, no victory for me and I don't have enough time to keep trying. Great gauntlet though.

-- Manic

 

[babybluepants]

Quoted from OP:

Must not play as Inca.