G-Minor CLXIX

[aafritz17]

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:

• Expansion: Brave New World
• Victory Condition: Domination (though all victory conditions must be enabled)
• Difficulty: Warlord
• Map Size: Huge
• Map Type: Small Continents
• Speed: Quick
• Leader: Any
• Opponents: Any
• Version: SV8
• Date: 1st to 31st August 2019

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

 

[zenmaster]

Wow, huge, quick, and small continents map make this more than a sprint, even with the warlord setting.

I love the "any" civ gauntlets, so will probably try Huns, Zulus, and Spain.

 

[zenmaster]

Just finished a game using the Huns with turn time in the 120s.

Notes:

Two conquering armies is not enough. Absolutely need 3 if you want to catch everyone before they tech up in a reasonable amount of time, but it is hard to get around the huge map. I only made two horse archer armies, as the other AI civs were so far away and so hard to get through by obscure sea connections that I didn't find 3 of them until relatively very late. 1 army would have been wandering useless anyway. Ended up teching Navigation and using Frigates to take out the last discovered most isolated Austrians. (who were rocking crossbows and a 35 strength capital at the time). Horse archers were enough for everything else. Never got a battering ram upgrade and didn't build/buy any as they are slow and covering ground was king here.

I don't think Spain will do better as the horse archers (with triremes scouts or horsemen as capitol city takers) cover so much ground. An early archer buy with Spain would not make covering the huge map go much faster.

The Impis get fast but the buildup time is just too long to get their mojo going, esp. compared to horse archers.

The Mongols need time to get to keshiks... gotta think the huns are the best bet here.

 

[aafritz17]

I'm trying Polynesia. Their Galleass' can navigate ocean, get 'em at Compass.

They're slow, though, might be worth having Great Lighthouse.

 

[zenmaster]

I'm trying Polynesia. Their Galleass' can navigate ocean, get 'em at Compass.

They're slow, though, might be worth having Great Lighthouse.

I had not thought of them. The big advantage with them is finding all the enemy capitals as soon as possible to set up a plan of conquest. Setting sea level high and hoping for generally small landmasses might work out. They would definitely work well on island maps and maps that could be islands.

 

[vadalaz]

I went with Polynesia on my first attempt as well, but moving the armies took forever so this didn't feel right. I think the fastest way to win this is to implement the peace deal cities strategy (rough outline here).

Update: I beat my first result very convincingly with the peace deal strat. Would've finished another 3 turns faster if Sejong had expanded, but unfortunately he didn't, so my units had to swim all the way from my capital to take Seoul. Apparently Korea was getting crushed by the local barbs.

 

[zenmaster]

I went with Polynesia on my first attempt as well, but moving the armies took forever so this didn't feel right. I think the fastest way to win this is to implement the peace deal cities strategy (rough outline here).

Update: I beat my first result very convincingly with the peace deal strat. Would've finished another 3 turns faster if Sejong had expanded, but unfortunately he didn't, so my units had to swim all the way from my capital to take Seoul. Apparently Korea was getting crushed by the local barbs.

Nice!
I used a peace deal to get a few units afar, but was slow to even find one landmass with a tricky naval access, which hurt my possibilities to do that better.

It's funny how some AI civs can't deal with the local barbarian tribes very well sometimes. Even on Prince or King I sometimes see AI civs with smoldering mounds aplenty.

 

[aafritz17]

Gauntlet Results:
G-Minor CLXIX - Domination, Warlord, Huge, Small Continents, Quick, Any Leader
vadalaz 40 AD 76 2039
2 zenmaster 1380 AD 129 2438
3 finminer 1978 AD 259 2275