G-Minor 81

[Ozbenno]

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:

• Victory Condition: Domination (though all victory conditions must be enabled)
• Difficulty: Warlord
• Starting Era: Ancient
• Map Size: Small
• Map Type: Terra
• Speed: Quick
• Civ: Russia (Peter)
• Opponents: Any
• Version: 1.74.004, 2.13.004 or 3.19.001
• Date: 25th September to 10th October 2009

Must not play as Inca.
The earliest finish date wins, with score as a tiebreaker.

 

[nikAlto]

any thoughts on opponents for this one? avoid agg and exp?

 

[narri]

My thoughts so far from my two games:

Terra is not fun to finish off Dom with. Plan to tech Astro quickly, maybe even before going for Cossacks. Every turn counts in Quick, so lots of micro (that I'm not willing to do to my detriment) is necessary.

Cossacks are placed very well to kill quickly once you get a bunch of them. Especially fun when you're so far ahead, those Cossacks are fighting chariots and HA's .

My third game is looking a lot better than the first two, mainly because I actually get the CS slingshot to happen! Game one saw me one turn away from both CoL and Oracle only to have Zara build Oracle and take CoL and the religion . Game two Oracle went even earlier!

Phil works really well here. So far I've been settling most GS and GE and making my capital a monster wonder builder after CS+OR+Rep revolt. GA's are put in strategically to make even more scientists. And half priced Universities are a big deal when you need every Oxford turn you can get!

Don't forget to use culture slider at the end.

You may want to try Warlords rather than BtS on this one. The dates favor Warlords on Quick (well, checking my games against Pious_Pete's 1425 AD quick http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ4/game_info.php?entryID=7255). My second game took fewer turns (on a map with a lot more land tiles), but is still too slow at 1560AD. Me, I love BUFFY's interface too much to boot up Warlords .

Of course, if anyone can pull off a good rush that gets old world territory in earlier eras (maybe knights or curriasers instead?) on Quick, all of this gets moot. Just do your rush, then tech Astro and ship settlers galore.

 

[WastinTime]

Can't you just max out opponents (7, I think) to lower the dom limit. Then win with the old world only -- no Astro needed?

 

[narri]

The difference between min and max opponents in terms of requirements isn't very much. Even if you could win in the old world only, it still requires conquering the other civs before your rush unit becomes obsolete. Its not like we're playing Rome here! I guess a rush->CS slingshot->bigger (c)rush might work, but I feel like we still need astro (or optics and a bunch of new world lucky hut pops) to win.

I finished my third try with a 1300 AD (125 turns) using min opponents. Had astro at turn 91, mil trad at 99, and lib->rifling at turn 109.

 

[babybluepants]

This has to be max opponents (62% dom limit). I tried one quickly as a test, but not enough land in old world by about 30 tiles. Horses in the BFC are good. Starting right in the middle of the continent would be nice, too. Travel times can hurt. Can you pop a settler at Warlord?

A few opponents can go down to chariots. After that, I don't know - HA's or swords... The AI is painfully slow to expand, so a sizable settler spam is probably in order.

 

[pholtz]

I've given up on my first attempt. I tried the 'No razing' option and I got too many cities and had to stop my attacks. It is probably better to raze and keep the number of cities down to three or four until you settler spam at the end. I'm going to do some experiments at epic speed where I can quickly rush the AI and see what map settings allow the win without astronomy.

Can I get some pointers to routines to figure out how many squares are needed for the win? Matching squares to per cent?

 

[babybluepants]

If you mouse over your in-game score, it tells you the total number of land tiles (land score x/y - y is the total). In the demographics screen, you can see how many you have under land area (divide by 1000).

 

[Hsinchu]

Already tried twice. Third time I'm turning on PA so I don't have to waste time researching infinite military techs just to bust my opponent's kneecaps. Focused on Astro/Rifling three times now. I'm at 1700AD (still slow, I know. Maybe just one more go after this one?) and once me and my partner are fat enough (I donated Astro to speed things up) I'm going to PA. Population is already ready and just finished biology.

Summary of third attempt: kneecapped two of 4 opponents. About to wipe one out actually.... Friendly terms with Katherine of Russia. Pleased with UN Rival Qin Shi Huang.

I chose Bismarck for the second time in my set for his Ind trait. Last time, he was my rival. This time he is kneecapped.

Similarly, chose Roosevelt for Ind, kneecapped about to disappear. Industrious and in three games in a row hasn't really been able to do very well in terms of land.

Industrious leaders because I'd rather steal wonders than build them all myself. This time, though, I have ended up building most of the wonders I have except for one religious shrine. Incidentally, Katherine has the other big wonders, so I guess I'm not worrying too much.

Good luck everyone!

 

[babybluepants]

Second attempt: max opponents with no city razing. It's definitely possible to win in old world only. I'm currently at 1 AD, having killed 3 AI and beaten up on two more. The other two are on a separate peninsula. Finishing machinery this turn, then shutting down research for a final rush with maces. I need to take another 4-5 cities and spam 10 or so settlers. The continent is really snaky and awkward, though. I'm wasting way too much time transporting my troops around. Should be under 1000 AD, but it's possible to win this much faster, I think (a better player than me could do a BC win).

This one takes some luck with map setup.

 

[DJMGator13]

Came up 4 tiles short in my 2nd attempt. (1st attempt I went the Astronomy route.)

Did you go with high seas or low seas in your map setup?

 

[babybluepants]

I was just planning my end game, and realized I miscounted bad. I'm actually missing 15 tiles... I might try a third time, but this is kinda frustrating.

I was playing low sea level. Do you think there's somehow a better chance of 62% at high? I figure that they're probably proportional, so might as well play with less total land required.

Edit: I meant I'm playing high.

 

[DJMGator13]

I just completed a game without using Astro, again it was very close on the tile count. I was sitting on 61.8% when I thought I had exposed all the little islands, but luckily I found 1 more which pushed me over the 62% level.

I played with High seas, 7 opponents. You need to be careful with how much land you leave the last AI. I switched who I planned on leaving alive because I found an AI with a 3 tile island. That became the last civ left in the game.

 

[Hsinchu]

I breached 68 on Vanilla w/Astro 17xx.

I "might" try again tweaking the sealevel, after a run at a GOTM first. This has been an entertaining Minor

 

[narri]

Warlords seems to better for this no matter what path you take. I still need to learn to properly rush (and didn't have enough tiles in the old world anyway and had to go Astro), but still managed a 1280 AD win. The fact that Cossacks only need gunpowder and not rifling in Warlords is a big plus! The starts aren't usually as good at BtS though.

 

[ryzax]

hey guys, what's the date to beat?

insights on this gauntlet:
1) Philo and Exp really helped. Cottages aren't really useful here, so concentrated on specialists. My usual problem with Quick is that the workers move "slow" so thanks to Exp, workers are produced fast so they get to do more tasks. A.I. workers at Warlord take forever to appear so i never bothered to worker steal.

2)Never used Cossacks - it's an overkill. chariot --> HA --> Knight

3) Settling in the new world can be really annoying. And I produced too much settlers in the end. Haha

4) I think the Oracle is the single most important wonder here.

 

[DJMGator13]

hey guys, what's the date to beat?

Mine is still showing in the #1 spot. I won't have time for another try so I don't mind telling the finish date.

Spoiler :

620 AD

Played high seas, max 7 opponents
Went the no Astro route

 

[billybgame]

Not sure on the end times and the time zone used to determine it...mainly want to get a time stamp for my post, as I see they end at 11pmish.

I got very lucky and have every civ on one continent. But, I'm sure I made mistakes and won't be too great a score. That's if I can get done in time.........

Edit: Ah....looks like US EST....nice

 

[WastinTime]

I got very lucky and have every civ on one continent.

This map guarantees that all civs start in the "old world".

 

[Denniz]

Not sure on the end times and the time zone used to determine it...mainly want to get a time stamp for my post, as I see they end at 11pmish.

I got very lucky and have every civ on one continent. But, I'm sure I made mistakes and won't be too great a score. That's if I can get done in time.........

Edit: Ah....looks like US EST....nice

I am running a couple hours behind because of modem problems. The update will be up in a little while.