G-Minor 42

[Denniz]

[img=right]http://www.civfanatics.net/methos/hof/staff/gauntlet.gif[/img]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.

[size=+1](*) Please read the >> HOF rules << BEFORE playing!
[/size]​

Settings:

• Victory Condition: Conquest (though all victory conditions must be enabled)
• Difficulty: Emperor
• Starting Era: Ancient
• Map Size: Tiny
• Map Type: Archipelago
• Speed: Quick
• Civ: Viking
• Opponents: Must include Greece, Zulu
• Version: 2.13.002 or 3.13.001
• Date: 25th to 10th May 2008

Must not play as Inca.

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

 

[Infantry#14]

hey, finally an emperor game for minor gaunlet!

 

[Harbourboy]

How can Emperor be Minor?

 

[WastinTime]

How can Emperor be Minor?

Minor should be related to map size and game speed, not difficulty....

We need a Diety Minor!

 

[Harbourboy]

I thought Minor meant "Reasonably achievable" and Major meant "Only theoretically achievable if the stars are aligned properly and you're feeling really really lucky, but otherwise practically impossible".

 

[Casper84]

The previous gauntlet was achievable for anyone who could win the game, no matter which condition, so I'm not surprised this one is harder. But I'm not exactly looking forward to a unit-spamming Shaka on Emperor. And certainly not a quick archipelago, I expressed my displeasure about that back in G-minor 26.

 

[Jimmy Thunder]

I wonder if the Major and Minor are mixed up?

With the Major on Prince and the Minor on Emperor? Also, the Major shows dates of 25-10th and the Minor shows date of 25-25 (although copy/paste has it saying it finishes in April).

 

[Casper84]

I agree, the Major is clearly easier than this Minor here.

 

[Kwibus]

I am not such a warmonger myself but this is what i think the safest way to victory.

Archipelo map makes it easier to survive then an average emperor game.
Unless you choose snaky continents you'll probably be on a differentland mass then the zulu's and the greeks. So you can just build some warriors to patrol your home continent and prevent barbs from poping up(or switch barbarians off)and build a few galey's to defend the acces points to your continent.
Focus on economic growth untill you have machinery and civilservice and you can build berserkers then switch to all out military.
You'll want to use a slingshot to get machinery and civilservice.
Perhaps using the oracle to get machinery and then use the profet you get from the oracle to bulb civilservice. You 'll probably need to assign a priest specialist to pop the great prophet early enough.
with low sea levels you have a good chance to reach the other landmasses with galey's

 

[Denniz]

I fixed the dates.

Just mixing things up a bit. Major and Minor are somewhat about playing time as well as difficulty. The idea is to try some something you wouldn't do normally. Plus, people playing for EQM need a chance to play all the difficulties in both Major and Minor.

 

[Blunt_Axe]

far out, i normally play on noble or lower so i am finding this quite difficult, but am definitely learning a lot in the process!!!

My first attempt i went with my standard approch CE and managed to wipe out Greece, but then shaka was too far ahead of me in techs and my knights were no match for his riflemen... and i found my maintenance costs were a big problem by that time also...

My second attempt i tried a SE approach and managed to keep up in the techs, especially with the help of the GS lightbulbs and tech trading... But when i went to war i got murdered by war weariness...

Maybe i should build myself up to this difficulty a bit more slowly haha... I think i will try a prince game tonight...

 

[Infantry#14]

just wondering, is random personality allow?

 

[Casper84]

Probably not, since we need to play with specific opponents. This happened a few gauntlets back as well when they added that restriction later.

 

[Jimmy Thunder]

After a few regens I found both civs on the same landmass as me. I didn't get metal in my borders, but I'll continue playing to see how it turns out. It sucks how even if you have both civs on the same island, it doesn't take them long before they start sending settlers out on galleys - requiring me to build ships anyway...

 

[Jimmy Thunder]

My weapon of choice was horse archers , but you have to act quickly. Even with the fastest "rush" I could put together in my gauntlet attempt I still ended up having to capture 11 cities.

 

[cas]

what landmass type did you choose to get both on the same continent ? Snaky ? I assume low water.

So far I have only been able to get one AI on the same continent and just like your game I did not have bronze or iron.

cas

 

[kovacsflo]

That was one of the hardest minor what i finished, mainly the speed what makes it difficult.

My result is 960 AD, both of my opponents were weaker than usual. Me and the Zulus were at the same continent, Shaka didn't have bronze or iron (most of my units were swordsmen), it was an easy task to destroy him. He built several chariots, it was even better than an racher in i city!

Pericles were in a quite small continent (he built only 5 cities), he had bronzem but his military were very weak. He started to build longbowmen, but not too much.

War weariness is a sirious problem. I had 5-6 luxuries, but it still wasn't enough. 4-5 grr face/city, even if the war against the greek didn't seem long in game turns, but it was 800 years.

 

[Rain]

Yay! I finally got a victory in this thing. I think the correct map selection goes a long way to making it feasible.

Before i hit the right combo i was managing to take out one civ, but the time i was taking to build galleys and move everything about was taking up way too much time so that the other civ was light years ahead. I abandoned those games even tho it might have been feasible to pull out a late win with some advanced units - tho it was iffy being so far behind tech wise.

Another time i tried a slingshot to get berserkers and while i got there successfully and i think had a slight tech lead, there were just too many ai cities. It wasnt long before they had longbows and once again everything mired down. I think you can win this way it just takes a real long time. Not being much of a warmonger anyway - doing it for 300 turns didnt much appeal.

Sooo I finally got them both on the same continent - researched mining BW IW. Bronze was right on my doorstep. I had thrown out one settler as soon as i saw the greek location just to block them and give a me a launch pad. My own city went into rebellion and wanted to join the greeks before i could get a warrior over to it. That was comedy enough Anyways - at that point it was streaming axemen and the greek cities went down without too much bother. Athens had some iron which i hooked up and started tossing sowrdsmen out. My research had petered out on pottery
and I was living off the avails of looting and razing.

Soon as the greeks were mopped up it was on to the Zulu soon as i moved up to the border. They were a little tougher. Iron and horses, but still no serious issue as i was streaming units from 5 cities. Then the terrible realization came that that the zulu had wandered off into the great beyond .

After taking their cap and last city on the continent I had to make a cease fire since i had no boats. We were very odd vikings. So i had i think 300 gold and was dropping cash at about 25 g a turn. 100% Research @ -50 g got me sailing in 2 turns then it was slash and burn every forest in sight to build galleys. It was literally a rowing race to make it ot the land's end where i had like 20 units stacked up. I had done a bare minimum recon with a fishing boat. But it looked hopeless. Then lo and behold a great spy got me a golden age That staved off starvation for 5 turns when i probably made a mistake and declared war again as soon as i had one galley in the proper location. In retrospect i should have waited out the whole GA and got my ships closer.

So war puts me back at - 25 a turn and i have less than 10 turns cash at that rate. My galleys are the generic slow kind since i never build trading posts. One of shakas cities turns out to be a one square job with walls . I make the mistake of attacking that with a couple of swordsmen and give him some free promotions. then calm down and take the rest of my galleys toward the other remaining city on another island. Coin time is running out - i have every available coin square worked in my cities but i am going broke fast. My units finally go on strike and i have to go at his 2nd last city with 4 swords vs 2 archers and a chariot with 40 % culture. Some how I win and that snares me 155 g. By now all my ships hav e arrivd at my continent end. I take 4 galleys with 2 swords apiece for the amphib assualt on the final city and it falls . Was a fun game - first time i have tried emperor in BTS. Sorry for the rambling tale but it was an entertaining game. For the record my start location was nothing extraordinary and completely devoid of grassland gems, gold mines and the like. I think i had a pig or a sheep and a clam. Most important was i had 3 good hills to crank out units.

 

[HolyHandGrenade]

After some civ-free time I tried this one. I finally got a 1540AD finish on a high water archi map. I used these settings to play as a real viking. I rushed to CS and Machinery and then only build berserkers. I lost a lot of turns when I noticed, that the galleys had to travel around the world to attack from the other site. Pericles was really tough at the moment when he can build caravels. He countered with stacks of 4-5 caravels. All in all a nice game

 

[AAA]

800AD
Nobody on my island, but both reasonably available.
Iron fell right by my capital--that helped.
My, but thoughs years pass quickly.