G-Minor I

[superslug]

Welcome to the first Minor Gauntlet of the Permanent Hall of Fame!

During the Beta we ran one Gauntlet at a time with a new one every update. That brand of Gauntlet will now be known as the Minor Gauntlet, as there will be concurrent ones run. Minor Gauntlets will typically focus on lower difficulties and smaller mapsizes. We're going to start low with this one and work up the difficulties and mapsizes, so if you're new to the HOF, this a great entry competition to start working your way up the levels! Established and advanced players will be participating, as everyone is welcome to compete, so there's plenty of oppurtunity for everyone involved to teach and/or learn.

Just be advised that HOF Rules do apply, in addition to these settings.

• Difficulty: Settler
• Mapsize: Duel
• Starting Era: Ancient
• Speed: Epic
• Submitted on or before: May 24th.
• Victory Condition: Diplomatic (though all victory conditions must be enabled)
• Map Type: Continents
• Opponents: Aztecs, Inca
• Civilization: Player must play as America.
• Version: HOF Mod 1.61.003 (Please note that .001 and .002 submissions will not count!)

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

 

[A_Turkish_Guy]

settler duel and diplomatic.eheheh.intersting combination..

 

[WastinTime]

As always, it looks like an OCC to me.

 

[DaveMcW]

It's hard to justify OCC when you can pop settlers from huts!

 

[WastinTime]

It's hard to justify OCC when you can pop settlers from huts!

Good point. Plus we are Organized, so not much upkeep.

 

[Big_Ben]

I figured I would try OCC and normal games for this one. I figure Roosevelt for OCC since civic costs aren't a major problem and Washington for normal games. Just finished an OCC attempt in 1712. I got mass media around 1100 I think. Forgot to save an engineer and the speed build costs were too high. By the time the UN was built I ran into a problem. All of my attempts so far have put me on a continent with another opponent, leaving the last opponent all by himself. When the vote came it was myself and my neighbor against the other opponent. I lost each election by 1-2 votes because he was able to expand his population more quickly than I could. I ended up having to get biology and then switch to environmentalism in order to speed up my pop growth. Just barely beat him in the last election.

Going to give OCC one more go before I have to get ready for work to see if I can get my allies population up more quickly this time. Also going to see if I can get the UN more quickly in order to try and get the vote before the opponent has the chance to expand.

 

[Big_Ben]

OCC is proving to be more challenging for me on this size map than I thought it would be. Managed a win in 1184 this time. Mass media around 600ish AD. Built the UN around 800 I think, had to wait on an engineer. The problem this time wasn't with having a lower population versus the guy on the other continent, this time I had fed my neighbor too much and he became my opponent in the elections. I would vote for myself, he would vote for himself, and Monte would abstain because he hadn't met either of us Finally Monte overtook HC and was my opponent with HC voting for me.

This is a pretty quick gauntlet even if it is on epic. May have time for 1 more today

BTW, I am predicting 600 to be the winning finish date.

 

[pholtz]

Sorry for the noob question. What is OCC?

 

[Big_Ben]

Don't feel bad about asking questions, the only way to learn is to ask.

One City Challenge. Its a checkbox in the options section on the custom game screen. It only lets you have 1 city but in return you can build national wonders like oxford with only having 1 university and you can have unlimited national wonders in your city.

 

[pholtz]

Thanks for the response. You asked for it, another question.

In my first attempt, I finally quit at 1660. I had the UN built and enough votes myself to pass measures, but not the win. The AI on the same continent as me, even though pleased with me would always abstain.

Whats are the ways to encourage an AI to vote for you?

I only built 3 cities.. got a fourth with culture, I was thinking of going for 5 cities to have enough to vote myself a win. How would you get the vote with only one city?

 

[Big_Ben]

During peaceful games tech trading usually keeps the AI in your favor. Having open borders, giving away tech and/or money for free, and sharing the same religion will get the AIs to see you favorably. When playing OCC I usually have about 40% of the world population in my city, I really just need 1 AI to vote for me to win, sometimes requires the bigger of the two though.

Got 1 more game in. It put both AIs on the same continent as me. I controlled 1/3 of the continent, one controlled about 50% of the continent, and the straggler was left with crap. The bigger guy was my opponent in the UN and I couldn't get the votes to add up for an OCC win.

I want a sub 1000 finish OCC then I will start playing regular games.

 

[WastinTime]

I was surprised to see how they killed rush buying in 1.61. After using an engineer on the UN, it still cost over 5000 to finish. I saved only about 5 turns buying the last 1500 with gold. I think it's Hammers times 10 now instead of times 3.

I had 5 cities, population 45. Amazingly it took 45 of 73 votes to win.

Capac and I were on one continent. Never met Monte. Not sure why he only got to about 17 population.

I predict someone will finish the UN somewhere BC. Win before 100 AD.

 

[pholtz]

OK, I guess you need to go beyond "pleased" to get them to vote for you. I should have been even nicer I guess.

It seems that there are two approaches, build about 5 cities or OCC.

 

[Big_Ben]

There's always more than two options to win I am sure someone will try something crazy that we haven't really thought of and do well with it. Only thing I can think of that hasn't been mentioned would be if you are on the same continent as the other two opponents would be to kill them off until they have 1 city left. Isn't a bad idea but would waste a few turns building units.

 

[Dianthus]

Another option to win is to get enough votes that you can vote yourself in without the AIs help. The number of votes is proportional to population, so to get more votes just grow your population and reduce the AIs population.

 

[Methos]

Only thing I can think of that hasn't been mentioned would be if you are on the same continent as the other two opponents would be to kill them off until they have 1 city left. Isn't a bad idea but would waste a few turns building units.

This actually works quit well, as I've managed a 1000 AD win with it my first try. Granted it wasn't a gauntlet game. I played an OCC and towards the end of the game I wiped one AI out and the other down to 1CC. That game is published in the HoF table.

 

[WastinTime]

Another option to win is to get enough votes that you can vote yourself in without the AIs help. The number of votes is proportional to population, so to get more votes just grow your population and reduce the AIs population.

Sadly, this no-diplomacy Diplomatic victory can be done without even trying. My 5 cities was enough to do it. I wasn't even trying to make them big cities. Two were size 6.

 

[DaveMcW]

Of course you can win without trying, it's settler difficulty. The question is not if you win, but how fast.

 

[A_Turkish_Guy]

The question is not if you win, but how fast.

not before 1000 AD. .

 

[WastinTime]

As predicted, I completed the UN in 55 BC. However, I played OCC, so I only had 11 votes. I was looking good until Monte settled too close to me and gave me -3 relations for our close borders. I don't see any way to save this one. The entire world population is only 27. If I grow to 20, that's 20 of 36. Not enough I don't think. Next game....