G-Major LXXIII

[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.

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

Settings:

• Expansion: Brave New World
• Victory Condition: Culture (though all victory conditions must be enabled)
• Difficulty: Deity
• Map Size: Standard
• Map Type: Terra
• Speed: Epic
• Leader: Any
• Opponents: Any
• Version: SV8
• Date: 17th June to 16th July 2016

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

 

[vadalaz]

Well, the obvious leader choice is Spain, but I think Sacred Sites might work with other civs on Epic speed as well, especially Maya and Brazil. Great Musicians are bugged, they're stronger than they should be on Epic, so Liberty + Piety would work well I think, assuming noone beats you to Reformation. Early military units don't become obsolete as fast on Epic, so the Huns could be an interesting pick as well.

edit: First try as Maya - the last religious building was taken one turn before I spawned a Great Prophet to enhance (T80). Nevermind the Sacred Sites lottery, I'll just play the Huns.

 

[vadalaz]

Got a T163 "culture" victory as Attila. Venetian liberation + Dutch Sacred Sites.

Went in without a real plan, so made a lot of weird mistakes. William took Sacred Sites (which I saw only after I'd already founded my own religion, so I wasted some faith there) and had Mosques, Monasteries and cheaper missionaries - the perfect combo. I went Honor-Piety but in retrospect it'd have been better to just go Piety right away. Honor is overkill on Epic speed, some of my Horse Archers had 7 or 8 upgrades in the end. I also got a weapon upgrade ruin on one of my HAs. A Knight with the March promotion is a pretty fun unit to have in ancient era.

I killed Portugal around T40-50, and I saw Enrico was making the least culture, so I gifted him a tundra city and took Venice. The plan was to gift him Lisbon before capturing the last capital to avoid a DomV, and then he'd resurrect Portugal or keep the city. It wouldn't have taken long to become influential with the remaining AI either way. He chose to liberate, so I took my tundra city back and sent a trade route to Lisbon to speed things up a bit.

Normally this is done with Greece as the liberator, but I thought his UUs and city-spam would be very annoying to deal with.

Spoiler :

 

[Sclb]

Nice game, my previous try is 400+ which is pretty late so maybe SS + early conquest can fix it. This map is too cramped for normal SS and they ended up being turtle slugfest even if I can kill AI's.

 

[Sclb]

Ok got it in T236, not much luck for earlier since I only was able to get 1 religious building self found SS going. AI weren't getting it and only 1 went piety anyway. Happiness and gold both in the negative for most of the game until the religion starts working. Also culture is lacking so unable to finish liberty for GM. Similar strategy of gifting the first conquered capital to avoid DomV. It might be faster to skip liberty and just go full piety.

 

[vadalaz]

Yeah, I think pure Piety is better for this. Perhaps Reformation -> Liberty Golden Age could be interesting as Brazil here. I have a feeling Spain with Uluru still beats everything though. Which civ did you play?

 

[Sclb]

Played Huns, other civs might be more difficult due to having to kill 7 civs without units getting obsolete. Having no science and not having initiation rites in my religion meant I can't even upgrade units.

 

[Denniz]

Gauntlet Results:
G-Major LXXIII - Culture, Deity, Standard, Terra, Epic, Any Leader
1st vadalaz - 155 BC T-163
2nd Sclb - 910 AD T-236
3rd dribnairb - Jan 1959 AD T-569

Congratulations!