G-Minor 21

[erikthecelt]

Pick better maps to play. One look at that start would have been enough to regenerate a new one. Settle on a plains hill and change your citizen to working the highest hammer tile available. Find an AI within 10 squares of your capital and move in when you have 6 warriors.

I use just three warriors for the first city and four for the second. Usually there's only one warrior guarding the city and only one cultural expansion. You can declare war and move beside the city to attack. It works best before BW is discovered. The AI can't pop a second warrior and they will not build one, they are focused on growing the city. If you can't beat the first warrior with 3 then regenerate and repeat. Four for the second usually works because you get a CR1 from the first city.

 

[erikthecelt]

Of course I could be very wrong. We will see. I would be glad if erikthecelt decided to try this strategy once. He would play with the same level of expertise as the farm-the-heck game he mentioned, so the results would be really comparable.

Ok, I tried 5/6 runs at this with a pure CE strategy and no wonders. I came out about 500 years slower for Liberalism even when I took two capitals very early with warriors. The big difference in tech speed for me was the length of time it took the cottages to grow up to 6 and even then it doesn't include the GP points from running specialists. I cottaged all the bonus squares but still couldn't seem to get the tech up to speed while growing the empire. I'm not a first rank player so there's probably lots of ways to improve the game, but the Wonder/GP strategy seems to suit my game a lot better than the CE.

 

[killercane]

I use just three warriors for the first city and four for the second. Usually there's only one warrior guarding the city and only one cultural expansion. You can declare war and move beside the city to attack. It works best before BW is discovered. The AI can't pop a second warrior and they will not build one, they are focused on growing the city. If you can't beat the first warrior with 3 then regenerate and repeat. Four for the second usually works because you get a CR1 from the first city.

Sure 3 and 4 work well, but if you are having trouble taking even one capital, surely 6 will do the trick!

 

[ParadigmShifter]

I thought they start with an archer on Prince. They always seem to have 1 archer and 1 warrior anyway when I get there.

 

[de Mott]

They do start with 2 warriors.

 

[Methos]

For a warrior rush strategy are you guys using the max number of AIs on the map?

After reading the warrior rush advice I thought I'd try it out... got this start...

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=5651536&postcount=2666

Good luck with that one!

 

[erikthecelt]

Sure 3 and 4 work well, but if you are having trouble taking even one capital, surely 6 will do the trick!

One man's rush is another man's dawdle

 

[jesusin]

Ok, I tried 5/6 runs at this with a pure CE strategy and no wonders. I came out about 500 years slower for Liberalism even when I took two capitals very early with warriors. The big difference in tech speed for me was the length of time it took the cottages to grow up to 6 and even then it doesn't include the GP points from running specialists. I cottaged all the bonus squares but still couldn't seem to get the tech up to speed while growing the empire. I'm not a first rank player so there's probably lots of ways to improve the game, but the Wonder/GP strategy seems to suit my game a lot better than the CE.

Thank you for making the comparison, it is very educative for all.

The point of the cottage economy is not a quick initial win, but a better long term game. So I think it was only to be expected to get later to Liberalism. Did you finsih the game? Was the final result worst or better?

 

[Misotu]

I despair, I think. I always intend to play a proper strategy (usually cottaging) and then somehow ... the map just isn't quite right for it, or whatever. And I find myself with just four-six cottages per city (last game, just two in my HQ. Yup. Two. Sigh).

I always end up playing part-cottage, part great person, part hammers. I'm sure I could do better if I just stayed focused. But I had one last try and got 1634, which was better than my first try at least, and not a bad date. I built more wonders than usual, the Oracle, Parthenon, Taj and Sistine because my HQ was so full of hammers they were incredibly cheap and useful. In fact, my HQ with just 2 cottages ended up being *way* over target culturally. If I'd built them with engineers, I could have spread the wonders around a little and probably finished a few years earlier. But there you go

 

[erikthecelt]

Thank you for making the comparison, it is very educative for all.

The point of the cottage economy is not a quick initial win, but a better long term game. So I think it was only to be expected to get later to Liberalism. Did you finsih the game? Was the final result worst or better?

No, I didn't finish any. I quit and tried again whenever I got to a point where I couldn't figure out how to get the culture score high enough without switching to caste system and pushing the artists out. I had lots of cottages but no citizens to work them. I was looking at culture values of 50-60 base before mods and no cathedrals built. I generally needed to reseach drama and music after Liberalism before being able turn the slider on.

I did not use any close cities to work the cottages for the culture cities so I would have only two or three towns going by about 1000 AD. Is there an ALC game or other primer you would recommend for understanding this strategy.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

How long is left to submit games?

My 9th attempt is going OK-ish. Don't know if it is a culture win though. Just removed Louis from the map. Missed the pyramids, hardly built any cultural buildings yet, Monty bet me to Music. It's 620AD. But Saladin and Monty are both my religion, Saladin is pleased, Monty is cautious but I could easy take him out with the troops left over from the Fench war, I'd lose brownie points with Saladin though I think. Not set up a GA farm yet (had 1 prophet which I used on the Jewish shrine, which everyone on the continent has as state religion), have lots of cottages around my capital but no beureaucracy yet (but soon). I have 6 cities and I could take a couple of Montys or flip them later I expect.

I'm thinking of abandoning culture though, I've already got a minor and there's not much time left is there. What do you think? Plan B is just attack Monty and then build up against Saladin for a domination win. I haven't won as Korea in HOF games yet though. I'd like to get a culture win though.

 

[Shoot the Moon]

We don't close the gauntlets until we do the update, which is scheduled for the 10^th. Granted, sometimes it runs a little late, so the gauntlet's close date gets pushed back as well.

That is what Methos said in the G-Minor 22 thread.

 

[Methos]

Shoot the Moon is correct.

 

[superslug]

Moderator Action: The Gauntlet is concluded. Congratulations to the victors:

G-Minor 21 featured yet another tight finish. 20 players won across four centuries, but killercane came out on top in 1547ad, with AAA only 11 years behind and Sun Tzu Wu not far behind that.