G-Minor 24

[HolyHandGrenade]

This gauntlet is for Warlords only.

thx for the info - that's what I assumed but looking for a backdoor

 

[ArcadicGamer]

I gave this a shot last night. Had to beeline to machinery to get any production outta my capital, but successfuly sword/ax/cat rushed both ceasars by 1ad. Julius got 2 praets out, but my combat 4 axman ate it. The total utter lack of hammers held me back alot, as i had no chopping trees and almost no hills to mine. (i should have gone for culture given that every city had 10+ floodplains, easy GGP farming there)

I encountered a problem with the newest patch's HOF mod. It told me my assests were modified from what they should be. I have the STEAM version of all 3 games, and had read a thread elsewhere that the STEAM and BOXED version are showing as Modded to each other in MP games. I hope this doesnt keep me from submitting.

I could probly hit 1 AD as a finish. No idea what others could do.

 

[vbraun]

Getting a hold of any resource on this map early on is unlikely; there tends to be a few sources of copper on the lower half of the map, which for some reason seems to be the only place you start. Because of this, I went ahead and tried Monty for his jags and do a jag rush.

My first attempt scored me a win in 380 AD, mostly on account of one of the Ceasers getting lucky and starting with copper within a tile from their capital, but for some reason they didn't build many axes and focused mainly on spearmen. I had built a giant stack of catapults once I saw this and even waited till I got a hold of crossbows till I went in for the final attack.

The second attempt went much better. I popped mining about 2/3 of the way reaserching it and later popped iron working. After building two jags without a barracks, I went for Cuzco which was built on a hill and could become quite difficult once they get archers. Then went to the next closest city, which happened to be Rome, with the same two jags after they healed. Bismark proved to be annoying mostly due to me loosing with about 57% odds on the last archer of his capital. He then whipped some archers out. After I had moved some fresh jags in he was dead. The other Ceaser was a piece of cake. Final time: 685 BC. Not bad for my second try.

 

[Jack L'Eagle]

First try, 90BC with Hattie. Didn't get horses until I took down the Inca's, so War Chariots were only useful to get the last civ, Julius. Got lucky with Augustus, found him on about the 6th turn with no one home, munch! I grabbed iron with my second city, and basically sword rushed the map.

Second try, 850 BC with Toku.

JC

 

[RickWJ66]

Killercane's suggested strategy of using Impis works quite well. I managed a670 BC victory on my first try, without even playing very efficiently. Neither the Romans nor the Incas start out with scouts (nor the fourth opponent I picked -- Isabella), so it is not too hard to dominate the goody hut race -- I ended up getting three extra settlers and two workers. Real quick game (which is the only way I can justify playing this rather than spending my play time learning BTS, although I am also being tempted by the much tougher major to go for my first deity win . . . sigh!)

 

[denze]

Play-this-Minor howto:

Agressive civ w/o starting Hunting (so you have an extra warrior instead of scout), move settler towards Map centre to get sooner to your enemies (settler moves faster than warrior), find high-production place (Marble/Stone plains hill with another 3hamemr tile nearby is optimal), spam warriors, kill AI. The locations of AI are obvious, starting capital defenders can be killed with 2-3 warriors (1 with luck). Huts may provide you more warriors. The luckiest wins.

This works well. 2260 BC on the first try, good for second place right now. Got three extra settlers from huts, parked one each next to a capital, but built too many warriors before attacking (four per city). Played it safe...

Never got to BW.

 

[Xerol]

I'm trying Toku with archer rush and promoting up the Drill line, but it's still taking too long, best result so far is around 400AD. A protective leader who starts with Hunting would help, but I'm worried the lack of an initial warrior (and being able to crunch one capital with no effort) will slow things down even more.

 

[hecubus]

130 BC with Shaka, beating my Genghis-for-the-Keshik-but-no-horses time by about 14 centuries...

Impi, Impi, more Impi. I think I'm screwing around too much with developing some cities.

 

[Maydrock]

I got 620AD with Shaka. There was no copper anywhere near me, so had to research IW; took forever. I went ahead and settled second city before IW so I could get it up and running; luckily iron showed up in BFC. Although Romans never got a praet out, that 26(?) turns really cost me alot of initiative. Going to try again today, if I can't get copper in first two cities, then I am going to reroll.

 

[Ozbenno]

First attempt was 1120BC attempt with Shaka.

Then discover that create save on exit isn't a default option in HoF mod (as I can't find the save)

I think I've wasted my first game with every change of mod so far. You'd think I'd have learned my lesson

Am I allowed to submit the auto-save from the winning turn? Or reload the auto save and save the game after I've won?

 

[sveusb]

I decided to try Mansa with a Skirmisher rush. I finished in 640BC

 

[Xerol]

I tried Shaka, got down to Julius left at around 900 BC, but in the time it took to kill off the other 3 AIs he managed to build 3 cities and put at least 2 archers in each. In the meantime I neglected defence in my other cities and got swarmed by barbarians, losing 3 of my 5 cities in the span of 2 turns. I'm trying to rebuild but it's the AD years now and Julius still has his capital, now with 3 CD3 archers. I think I can call this one a failure.

 

[Miraculix]

I have been considering which civilization to use for this Gauntlet. These are the options to consider:
1) Start with warrior or scout
2) Early Unique Unit

1) Starting with a warrior is useful if you can take out one of the other civilization before they build their first defender. However, after several attempts, I still haven't been close enough to take out a defenseless opponent. It seems like on epic speed, the AI will normally build his first warrior before turn 10 or so. This means that you need to use 2 or 3 warriors to take out the first AI. Assuming that you can build one warrior in 5 turns (city on plains hill plus 3-hammer tile), the penalty of starting with a scout is 5 extra turns before you can capture the first city. On the other hand, using a scout significantly increases the chance of popping another scout or a settler. I believe an early scout more than compensates for the the 5 extra turns.

2) It seems difficult to conquer all four opponents in the warrior-only era. This is why I have considered civilizations with early Unique Units. The following civilizations start with a scout and have an early UU:
- Persian: Non-aggressive, can build Immortal (4/2) after researching Animal Husbandry (12 turns with one city)
- Greek Aggressive, can build Phalanx (5/1) after researching Bronze Working (29 turns with one city).
- Zulu: Aggressive, can build Impi (4/2) after researching Bronze Working (29 turns with one city).

To me, Persian is the obvious choice since you can build your UU several turns earlier. (Even if the UU lacks free promotion.)

My best game so far with Cyrus ended in 2440BC. I founded one of my cities on horses and was able to buld Immortals. I took out Augustus with 3 warriors, Julius with 4 archers, Asoka with 2 warriors and 3 archers, and Huyna with 3 Immortals.

 

[Dracandross]

1) Starting with a warrior is useful if you can take out one of the other civilization before they build their first defender. However, after several attempts, I still haven't been close enough to take out a defenseless opponent. It seems like on epic speed, the AI will normally build his first

Thats not true. If you find it fast enough with settler and settle on plains hill + work at least 2 hammer plot it can be defenseless if AI decides to work all the floods nearby. Not too rare thing to happen

My best game so far with Cyrus ended in 2440BC. I founded one of my cities on horses and was able to buld Immortals. I took out Augustus with 3 warriors, Julius with 4 archers, Asoka with 2 warriors and 3 archers, and Huyna with 3 Immortals.

Uuh tried also Cyrus and ended up 1120bc. I gathered way too many units before attacking 3rd and 4th. Took ages to run there. Shoulda walked there while picking 2nd. But its a submission now to hit the culture major.

-Dracandross

 

[erikthecelt]

So far I've gone with Shaka - 650BC, Toku - 1660 BC, Ragnar 1900 BC and Cyrus 1960 BC. It helping to fill the holes in my League of Nations for the Quatro.

Interestingly enough Cyrus popped 0 settlers and only one worker but I am getting more aggresive with each win. Took Antium with 2 v 1 warriors, Cuzco with 6 warriors vs 2 Quecha on a hill, Rome with 2 promoted warrior survivors + 2 archers va archer and warrior on a hill and London with GG promoted archer (4 first strikes) and 3 more archers ( no time to bring in the survivors from Rome). I was surprised to see the GG.

With Ragnar I had popped three settlers and took Antium with a walkin warrior vs no defenders but I did build any archers. When I had a stack for Cuzco, HC whipped an archer in the city with 2 quecha there, so I had to back out and add to the stack.

I had four but none of them was a 5 so it was a slow build. With Cyrus I had the 5 and the AI were all on the left side of the map. My capital never had a pop larger than 1

Sadly though despite going from 1650 to 1960 I've dropped from 4th spot to 5th.

 

[The-Hawk]

I think I've had enough of this gauntlet. I submitted a pretty mediocre effort with Cyrus (I think 1570 BC). Seems to me that there is a little too much luck involved (dependence on huts and initial positioning of AIs). This is a good gauntlet concept and was fun for a weekend . But, not sure I want to spend lots of time trying to get the right start/huts to move up towards the top of the pack. I think I'll accept my current crappy position and move on. Time to eye some of the empty or vulnerable slots on the main HOF page .

 

[de Mott]

Lexad's strategy sounds good. However, I'll try with Cyrus first. After that, I'll try a warrior rush. Cyrus is a save win if you get horses, but a warrior rush can be faster.

 

[Thrallia]

Got a 125BC win with Shaka...it should have been much sooner, but I had bad luck with Huayna and Asoka. I didn't manage to take out Huayna until 1900BC(thanks to losing my first two warriors attacking his quechua), took out Augustus at 1700BC, Julius at 1200BC, and then attempted to take down Delhi(60% culture and 6 archers) with the 13 Impis I had there and lost all but 2 of them, only killing 2 archers.

I then had to reproduce my entire army, and finally killed him off in 125BC with 24 Impis vs 7 archers...lost 15 of them.

 

[DJMGator13]

Never played an Oasis map before so my first few attempts were for getting a feel for the map. I just submitted a Japanese 1690BC game which I won using only warriors. I built a few archers but they never reached the front lines. I did pop a settler from a hut about a third of the way thru the game. I even managed to take out 2 archers in the last defending city with a stack of 10 warriors (luckily the city was not on a hill).

I was located in the midwest portion of the map and I sent my first warrior west, finding no one. Everyone else was located near the far eastern border, so I had about 15-18 turns from my capital to the front lines. Had I been located closer to my rivals this game would have been over way before this date.

 

[Xerol]

I'm always too slow for these, I just finished my first attempt and went to double-check the conditions, and found out I'm 48 hours late already.