G-Minor 20

[Moonsinger]

Having trouble with connecting to the internet today & have just seen Moonsinger's post. Good grief. 1000 BC. Now *that* really is something to aim for

I was just thinking out loud...pure speculation. Since I don't have time to play this gauntlet, I have no way of knowing what the best date may be. Good luck!

 

[Harbourboy]

1000 BC is just nuts. I had barely taken over one city by then.

 

[Andrei_V]

1000 BC is just nuts. I had barely taken over one city by then.

I usually have 5 or 6. But 20+ Settlers? I don't know... BTW border expansion with Stonehenge requires 15 turns. 1000BC is 100-th turn, so all the cities must be built on turn 85, that is, 1450 BC.

 

[Gosha190]

relax guys! 1000BC absolutely unreal date for standard terra as it seems to me

 

[Andrei_V]

Well, I got 1142 AD. I was kinda slow this time with conquests, even though the AI did not make it to Longbows. The good news is that the Old World appears to have more than 56% land, maybe 60%, so 500AD or even faster finish must be doable.

 

[Misotu]

I have just posted 1274AD, which is a distinct improvement on my usual performance. My date with Julius was *much* later, so capitulated and went for Huayna. Actually, I had really good fun with him - I think I'm just about starting to get the hang of this early rush thing

I made some really stupid mistakes so I think I'll give it another go. If I can get below 1000AD I'll be well chuffed. My main problem is that I run out of steam on the conquest thing. I do quite well initially ... and then somehow I seem to get bogged down with three or four cities on hills. In one game I lost *10* quechas (including four at level 3 and two at level 4) and failed to take a hill city with just two archers. I have seen my troops lose 3 battles in a row, each with 95%+ probability in my favour.

On the up-side, at least I managed to stay focused for longer and keep building troops. Usually I start aggressively and then somehow I find all my cities building granaries and libraries

A question though ... I can see placing the settlers and then founding loads of cities all on one turn. But what I don't understand is how you know how many cities to build to achieve the necessary % of land. Is it just a rough guess? Or is there actually a more scientific way? I get the impression that people are pretty accurate about the number they need and since you go broke next turn, I suppose the consequence of getting it wrong would be terminal?

 

[Moonsinger]

A question though ... I can see placing the settlers and then founding loads of cities all on one turn. But what I don't understand is how you know how many cities to build to achieve the necessary % of land. Is it just a rough guess? Or is there actually a more scientific way? I get the impression that people are pretty accurate about the number they need and since you go broke next turn, I suppose the consequence of getting it wrong would be terminal?

Just a rough estimate for me so far; however, I recently found out that there is an HOF mod option that would tell us exactly how many more squares needed for the domination limit. See the following thread for more info: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=220641

 

[Andrei_V]

I get the impression that people are pretty accurate about the number they need and since you go broke next turn, I suppose the consequence of getting it wrong would be terminal?

I think 10 Settlers should be enough, provided that you did not raze many AI cities. You can make like 12-15 just in case. In my case after I built all those cities I was still making +1 gpt at 0% research, and I had a significant (like 1000+) amount of cash from the conquests. With an Artist specialist and Stonehenge, it takes only 3 turns to border expansion.

BTW it makes sense to raze the last 2 or 3 conquered cities, and build the new ones, since they'll border expand faster than the conquered cities go out of Anarchy.

So, it should not be so devastating, except for several turns lost if you miscalculate. Also, you can run enough Merchants in your old cities under Caste System. Properly placed Forbidden Palace also helps, and so does the religious shrine, which is easy to make with the Prophet from Stonehenge.

It will be devastating if you go to the New World, though.

 

[Infantry#14]

1st try 1532 AD domination victory, I was leaning on either domination or space race, but my 56% pop in and I cant no longer go for space race

 

[Gosha190]

A question though ... I can see placing the settlers and then founding loads of cities all on one turn. But what I don't understand is how you know how many cities to build to achieve the necessary % of land. Is it just a rough guess? Or is there actually a more scientific way?

It's very simply:
Put your mouse cursor on your nickname in the leaders list in the right down corner of a game screen - you'll see a lot of infos in the left down corner.

There you can find number of land tiles for your current map (for example 900).

Then you must open another infos screen by pressing "fist" icon (right upper corner). In this screen you shall open victory window, where you can see % of tiles you need for dimination (64% for examle) and your current territory in % (2.4% for examle).

Look at the your map and count your current territoty in tiles (21 tiles for one city, for example).

Calculations: 21tiles=2.4% => (21tiles/2.4%)*64%=560 tiles you needed for domination. City with zero culture has 3*3=9 size => 560/9=62.2 cities with zero culture you need for domination. City with 20% culture (after first bordes expansion) has 21 tiles territory => you needed 560/21=26.7 cities!

Good luck!

PS yor must consider the next: water tiles and water ice tiles are not included in your territory so you must exclude them form yor covered territory.

PS sorry for my english, I hope, my post be able to help you.

 

[Misotu]

This is a big help - thanks for all the replies and different tips.

Maths is not my strong point, heh. So, using this information, I think I can work out quite easily how many land tiles I still need. If the victory screen says I have 60% of territory, and the domination limit is 64% that would be:

Total tiles/100 * 4 = number of land tiles still required

Um ... right? (It seems too straightforward Even *I* can cope with this!)

 

[denze]

Total tiles/100 * 4 = number of land tiles still required)

Right. Also, your capital will probably give you 37 tiles as it has had the time to expand its culture twice, maybe even some of the early conquests will have time.

I get the impression that people are pretty accurate about the number they need and since you go broke next turn, I suppose the consequence of getting it wrong would be terminal?

You can still found cities even after your civ has gone on strike. Settlers won't last a turn after you build them, but if you have a road leading out of a city for three tiles you can found the new city on the last road tile (as long as it is three tiles from any other city). You can actually string several new cities out along the road if it is long enough to give you the three tile seperation between each city. Useful for filling in the small cracks between cities or putting you over the domination limit if you are close to it.

 

[Capt Buttkick]

Right. Also, your capital will probably give you 37 tiles as it has had the time to expand its culture twice, maybe even some of the early conquests will have time.

I have been playing around a bit with trying to get Izzy as my nearest heighbour. She founded Buddhism for me in the Rome game I submitted for last minor. First captured city and religion means you will easily have two border expansions before dom is reached

Edit: with luck and careful planning you may get your second victim to found Hindu. I think I need to experiment on this once I finish my (abysmal) space attempt

 

[Misotu]

Yup ... in the only game I've submitted so far (well, I think it was that game anyhow) Asoka founded Budd, Hind & Jud in his capital. So after I'd taken it and then built Stonehenge & the Oracle, followed by all 3 shrines, my economy was perfect. It's a pity I'm not better at the military stuff ... for someone else, that would have been a seriously good date

 

[Misotu]

@ Denze - so, that's interesting. I assumed something really terrible would happen. Obviously units start to disband but you're saying that you can still found cities, assuming that you have settlers left or have time to found them before they're disbanded. I've never been in this position so I'm interested to know what the possibilities are.

 

[denze]

@ Denze - so, that's interesting. I assumed something really terrible would happen. Obviously units start to disband but you're saying that you can still found cities, assuming that you have settlers left or have time to found them before they're disbanded. I've never been in this position so I'm interested to know what the possibilities are.

On strike: Units disband. You can still build units, buildings, and Wonders.

Settlers and workers are certain to be disbanded when you end a turn. If you build a settler, move it along a road three tiles (3/4 of its movement points on a road), then you can change it into a city. Build a settler in that city and repeat. It only works as long as you have more road.

The other units disband randomly as far as I've been able to determine, except if you try to have more than 3 in the same city it always disbands one of them on the next turn. This is more of an observation than a fact. Since you are always losing units it is probably a good idea to keep building some, if only to try to convince what is left of the AI that you are too strong to attack. If you are attacked you can whip up defenders for a short time, but basically it is game over.

If you've researched writing you can build libraries and use scientists for research to pick up some tech points while you are waiting for your culture to grow.

You can run in the red for as long as it takes for your culture to kick in.

 

[Denniz]

I tried Inca against 10 opponents hoping to get more civs close to my start. Plus the theory that each of the others would get less room making for smaller opponents. I took out 3 civs relatively close fairly quickly. I took out a couple more with just Quechua.

I had to make settlers to get copper and later for iron. I went for alphabet and traded for Iron. I should have gone for iron first. There was a lull while I built Axemen and waited to get iron and later Construction. I had to use brute force against cities both before and after construction. I must have suicided 20+ cats. Especially when the last few civs got longbows.

In the end, I cleared the continent and filled the blank spaces with settlers for a 1010AD win. I could probably do better with a different start position and better planning.

 

[Andrei_V]

I got 800AD. This time I made it to the New World and dumped 6 cities there. Culture bombed one with an Artist born out of GL/Natl.Epic. I also filled all available gaps larger than 5 tiles on my portion of the Old World.

I moved my initial Settler to a location 3 tiles away from German capital, and took it with 2 Quechuas. After CS I simply whipped the Palace in Berlin.

I built Stonehenge, Oracle, Pyramids, Colossus, GL and Hanging Gardens, the last one like 3 turns before the end.

With all that stuff I was making +40 gpt at 0% science, so I think even faster finish is possible.

 

[Misotu]

@ denze: Thanks for the additional info. At least now I know what to expect

My latest submission was 1190 AD - an improvement on my first submission but Denniz and Andrei_V are steaming ahead Not sure there's time now for one more go but ...

 

[Moonsinger]

My first and probably last game ended in failure around 500 BC with 56% of land. I used Code of Laws to push my border to the max but the old world just didn't have enough land for the win. At this time, I think 1000BC isn't possible, but 500BC is doable.