G-Major LXXX

[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: Domination (though all victory conditions must be enabled)
• Difficulty: Emperor
• Map Size: Standard
• Map Type: Shuffle
• Speed: Epic
• Leader: Poland (Casimir III)
• Opponents: Any
• Version: SV8
• Date: 17th January to 16th February 2017

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

 

[zenmaster]

The dreaded shuffle map, for me at least... I know that you can get Pangaea ones, but I seem to get some kind of tundra island setup over half the time! The rest are mostly some form of Arborea/Boreal/Frontier mashup on continents, at least to my memory. Shuffle is one of my least played maps as a result

 

[Zlither]

Never tried Poland for domination .... would it make sense (due to extra policies) to do liberty/honor -> commerce? Or the tradition/liberty "standard"?

And just hope for islands and ignore Poland's UU?

 

[zenmaster]

Never tried Poland for domination .... would it make sense (due to extra policies) to do liberty/honor -> commerce? Or the tradition/liberty "standard"?

And just hope for islands and ignore Poland's UU?

Oh My! Your post reminded me that this gauntlet echoes maybe the funnest gauntlet ever. https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/g-minor-xcii.541266/

It was a Poland Immortal Domination challenge on Boreal. the almost-never-used Reformation belief Heathen Conversion was king in this one!!! By the end, I had filled out Piety and the left side of the Honor tree. Your missionaries magically recruit every barbarian unit they move next to. It was actually a little tricky as recruiting too many weak barbs too early actually hurt you. I think we all were running Raging Barbarians too, of course.

Just downloaded my saves from the Hall of Fame. Yes, ran straight down Piety to reformation to get Heathen Conversion, filling out all of Piety to get all the beliefs and bonuses for the missionaries and such. Then I went down left side of Honor afterwards. The thread I linked to has all sorts of advice, commentaries, and after-action reports. Chuck H was invaluable, as he was a veritable expert on Heathen Conversion.


The darn Shuffle Map throws a monkey wrench on this, as barbarian galleasses won't show up for ages and ages, so any kind of island map will not let the beautiful barbarian conversion carry you all the way to victory. The Heathen Conversion is just so much fun though, that I will probably run it and hope for a Pangaea or linked small continents type setup. It is usually easy enough to see if you have an island setup early and abort.

 

[zenmaster]

Rolling some maps for this one, and the Shuffle Map makes it tough as always. Took a double digit tries to get a Pangaea type (Looks like a Highlands map) after about a dozen islands and 3-4 continents maps (which are most annoying as it takes awhile to figure out they are large continents). Going for fast straight land conquest, I need that kind of map and some nearby horses. If going for Heathen Conversion, need a decent faith source as well.

This Highlands map had salt nearby, so I have the Earth Mother pantheon which took me a little too long to get. Only 1 Religious CS I found late and no faith huts-- Had to earn the pantheon with a shrine after 2-3 other civs already got theirs. Have horses in my cap radius, but they were a bit far and took a bit of time to get to, which was OK as I needed to get scout units and cap infrastructure up anyway. 1 salt was mined relatively early, but the others were all 3 squares away, so had to earn and spend cash to buy the tiles to get enough faith to hope to run Heathen Conversion. Actually did the Great Library to jumpstart the Polish bonus SP acquisition as Salt, horses, and wheat have my capital running well and it was doable in time to beat AI civs. Just spitting out my first chariot archer army to be done about turn 90 (which on Epic is OK). Have found all the other civs but the raging barbs have most of my pre-chariot forces simply defending my salt and horses at the capital site. Waves of 2-3 come in from 1 side even on Epic, joined by occasional barbs from the opposite side. It is cool to behold. Looking forward to converting these hordes to a swarming force of conquerors. Have already gotten to the Reformation SP and chose Heathen Conversion, but have not founded a religion yet. At least I should have the Missionary purchase bonus SP by the time I get a religion up. Got that much in before work. I will see how it plays out tomorrow.

Good luck to anyone else giving this a shot. Just have to be patient with the Shuffle maps unfortunately.

 

[zenmaster]

Finally got this try finished. As it turns out, Heathen Conversion was not really necessary. My map was so good (pangaea-ish, central location, horses/salt, AI civs building cities that didn't badly block paths to conquest) that the barbarian converts were not needed. There were so many hills and mountains it seemed almost highlandish, and thus it was not perfectly ideal, but I can't complain much about the map.

Heathen conversion did save me some turns at the end as I was able to polish off the last two AIs faster. Especially since the last civ was Brazil with decent troops and the Great Wall. It was hugely helpful to surround Rio De Janeiro with half barbarian converts and half my own units. If I had gotten to missionaries earlier while barbs were still truly swarming, Heathen Conversion may have been a great boon. As it was, my slowish faith meant that missionaries did not appear until after the AI civs had culled most of the original barb encampments. Thus, I was only able to convert 1 or 2 barbs per camp, not bigger swarms.

Ultimately though, I probably wasted turns directing my policies toward Piety rather than Honor with my faith generation not so hot. If I played again, I would not go Heathen Conversion unless I had Desert Folklore, Dance of the Aurora, or a faith natural wonder handy. Barring great faith, I probably would just go straight Honor with an awesome capital and Liberty/Honor with a lesser cap (assuming you have a land map.)

 

[vadalaz]

Yeah, it's tricky to make HC really shine. You need good production, strong faith and a great supply of barbs, while other approaches only need the production. And even then I'm not sure it necessarily beats Liberty or Honor, as you don't need that many units to clear an Emperor map anyway. Immortal/Boreal was one of the best possible combinations for HC, I think. Tilted Axis might be better, as long as you get a Pangaea one.

I'm curious, if you're playing Germany and you clear a barb camp by converting it with a missionary, do you still get a chance for an extra barb recruit from the UA?

 

[zenmaster]

Yes, you're dead on about the Heathen Conversion. It is just so fun to convert all the barbarians though!

Interesting question about Germany-- converting camps is a little wonky as you seem to only be able to convert the combat units but never the captured workers. As the German barb camp bonus unit is a combat unit, i would imagine the missionary would automatically convert it if adjacent. Perhaps a German Immortal Tilted Axis Domination gauntlet is in order?

 

[Zlither]

Not going to have enough time to do this... but enjoyed one (failed) try where Morocco built the Terracotta Army ... on a turn he had no units.

 

[Denniz]

Gauntlet Results:
G-Major LXXX - Domination, Emperor, Standard, Shuffle, Epic, Poland (Casimir III)
1st zenmaster - 140 BC T-164
2nd R.G.A.M. - 1750 AD T-385
3rd walkyc - Jan 1942 AD T-535

Congratulations!

 

[zenmaster]

Not going to have enough time to do this... but enjoyed one (failed) try where Morocco built the Terracotta Army ... on a turn he had no units.

Classic! The AIs love Terracotta Army so much.

If you (or anyone else) do have time to try this one in the future, it is not that bad. Epic speed makes conquest easier, and the AI is competent enough to conveniently have their luxuries developed so that happiness is not too bad of an issue after you conquer them. Just make sure you have horses near the cap before going all in.