G-Minor LXXXI

[Peets]

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: Diplomacy (though all victory conditions must be enabled)
• Difficulty: King
• Map Size: Standard
• Map Type: Arborea
• Speed: Standard
• Leader: Denmark (Harald)
• Opponents: Any
• Version: SV8
• Date: 16th July to 1st August 2014

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

 

[TLHeart]

first run through, finished up on turn 291.

Got what I thought was a good start...

3 bananas, in 2nd ring, gold in the first ring, a mountain, and 2 citrus in 3rd ring...

took sun god +1 food from bananas and citrus...

Spoiler :

was a pangaea map.

went 4 city tradition, built GL, then NC, Oracle, HG, then education, then astronomy, then used oxford for radio, biology before plastics, with worlds fair going, rat finisher for plastics,

opened patronage, waiting for rat, went to the influence from trade routes in freedom, finished left side of patronage, happiness in freedom..

World congress, worlds fair, Historical sites, world Ideology, freedom, international games, leader vote.

Spoiler :

 

[Bleidraner]

Tradition 2 cities, but added a third one around t200.
- Policies: Full tradition, put a couple in Patronage until Renaissance, then Rati opener and secularism, finish Patronage, then Freedom: Avant Garde, Civil Society, Universal Suffrage, then finished Rati tree. While waiting for leader vote put a couple more into Freedom.

- Tech: Got to Info era with one turn to spare (around t252), planted 3 GS before Scientific Theory, popped 4 natural ones and 3 faith bought to get to Info at the end. GL'd Philosophy, Oxforded Plastics, forgot about Rati finisher so wasted it in a 1 turn tech, did not matter at that point as I was going to make it on time. The usual beelines (Edu, PP, Public Schools, Radio, Plastics, Telecomms). Did only 3-4 RAs although I had friends everywhere, RAs are very expensive. Astro around 140, pretty late, my maximum bpt was slightly more than 1000.

- Religion: DF, then Tithe and Swords into Plowshares, Feed the world, religious texts. Run a little bit tight on faith at the end, just shy of the 5K but I only needed 3 GSs, not 4, so that worked out OK.

- Wonders: GL, Petra, HG, Borobudur, Oracle, and after that HS, Forbidden Palace, Pisa, used a GE on PT, Sistine, Machu Pichu, Statue of Liberty.

- Votes: Founded the congress, proposed and won World Fair (early, there is a lot to build during that time, but I was worried I would not finish Rati tree on time), World Religion, World Ideology. Won WL with 49 votes, 9 to spare as you only need 40 (Globalization diplomats x 5, 32 from CSs, 2 from host, 2 Forbidden Palace, 2 WR, 2WI, 4 from membership).

For me to beat this time, I would have to either:
1. Tech to Info 30 turns ahead of what I managed to do here. This is probably beyond my capabilities, I could improve as was not able to rush buy science buildings and my cities pop could be much better (34, 21, 15) and I think 4 cities tradition is stronger, but I don't think all that will give me 30 turns.
2. Tech fast while killing all civs except 2 so I get the WL vote at Atomic and don't have to tech to Info, but again that's a a complex proposition given my level of expertise.

The top players may be able to go under 200 on this one. But it will be really tough.

Fun game though, very peaceful. Attila being on the other side of the world helped.

By the way if somebody can point me to the thread where I can find instructions on how to use the spoiler button for screenshots I would be very grateful.

EDIT: Forgot to say that I had to move the settler 3-4 turns to get the desert start. The Uluru three tiles to the west of my cap was a nice surprise.

 

[TLHeart]

If we get any war mongers playing this, they will destroy our finish times... destroy all but 2 civs, and get the diplomatic vote 30 turns earlier. I just suck at war mongering.

 

[dcruze75]

If we get any war mongers playing this, they will destroy our finish times... destroy all but 2 civs, and get the diplomatic vote 30 turns earlier. I just suck at war mongering.

It takes a long time on pangaea since it's all forested, maybe islands would be better for that strategy... Then you could take advantage of the unique ability as well. I've tried, but I suck as well.

-d

 

[dcruze75]

By the way if somebody can point me to the thread where I can find instructions on how to use the spoiler button for screenshots I would be very grateful.

I think you uploaded your picture to the CivFanatics site, so it's automatically a thumbnail. It's worse when you link to an external picture that's already full size, best to use the "SPOIL" button on those. Just select the text/code you want hidden and click that button when you're writing your reply.

 

[Bleidraner]

I think you uploaded your picture to the CivFanatics site, so it's automatically a thumbnail. It's worse when you link to an external picture that's already full size, best to use the "SPOIL" button on those. Just select the text/code you want hidden and click that button when you're writing your reply.

Spoiler :

Thank you!

 

[TLHeart]

It takes a long time on pangaea since it's all forested, maybe islands would be better for that strategy... Then you could take advantage of the unique ability as well. I've tried, but I suck as well.

-d

not with the vickings UA, travel the seas, make land fall and attack in the same turn.
It is fun to do, but I still have not been able to balance the wars and keep my tech going..

 

[Bleidraner]

not with the vickings UA, travel the seas, make land fall and attack in the same turn.
It is fun to do, but I still have not been able to balance the wars and keep my tech going..

Well I am going to try. If we keep saying that we suck at warmongering so we won't try then we'll always suck at warmongering. But to be completely honest I am not sure it is worth it, there are only 3 techs between Atomic and Info, I think that's like 20 turns at that stage. Warmongering will cost me in tech rate more than that, I think. Well we'll see.

I am going to do it in Pangea, I have never played an islands map. To kill 5 civs, I guess CB or crossbow rush is the only option, as by the time artillery comes along game should almost be over. Any advice? Never done this before on standard speed.

 

[Kasemodder]

New to the gauntlets (and competitive Civ as a whole), figured I'd give this one a stab.
First take, lost on turn 452 to a chinese cultural victory

Rerolled and won at turn 345, kinda forgot that I needed to get to the info era to trigger the start of diplomatic victory

Started with a solid 5 deer resources in the region and a ton of silver

Spoiler :

Had to take down Assyria around turn 150, they were causing problems. Had all the city-states allied with me around turn 220. Popped all the scientists I could, and took me till about 300 to get to info era.

Had to war attilla at the end to liberate 2 city-states to have enough votes to win, but by that point I hat rocket artillery to his crossbows.
Had the forbidden palace, but no other bonus votes (no globalization, no world ideology or world religion)

Going to give it another try, it's an interesting challenge to try to do something different

Spoiler :

 

[crocivfanatic]

First my "properly done" diplomatic game,as dont think i ever won diplomatic game with first voting.Pulled bleidraner build order and it is quite interesting,but what is unusual in that build order is how you have toomuch faith and as result it is wasted faith on two great prophets.Maybe instead desert folkore and feed the masses would be better to use get +10 growth as pantheon and +2 faith for each world wonder.
And when it come to warmorgering,howmuch i remember from last diplomatic game they were using chariot archers to resolve problem with forest.

 

[Bleidraner]

Maybe instead desert folkore and feed the masses would be better to use get +10 growth as pantheon and +2 faith for each world wonder.

Not a bad idea, as we are wonder spamming anyway that will give you +10 faith by t120 or so. I may use it if I don't get desert.

DF is of course highly situational but with our starts I think it makes sense. There are 2 reasons I went for it:

- i wanted earlier faith as I wanted to found first religion and get all the choices. With DF I get +10 faith on t60 or so.

- Also I wanted to maximize faith production to rush buy scientists for an early finish and DF midgame faith is huge. Assuming you maximized your faith buying GSs for tech (and it looks that way in your screenshot, you had 600+ faith to spare, take that to 10 turns before and it follows you spent all your faith in GSs) and considering I finished 35t earlier more or less and you need the faith at least 12 turns before winning, 45 turns earlier you would have had roughly 70 fptx45 =around 3K faith less than you did, so you would be short at least 1GS and that might have made you miss the first vote window. In my game, I would have definitely missed the window.

- I also think that Sword into... > Fertility rites if you get an early religion.

And when it come to warmorgering,howmuch i remember from last diplomatic game they were using chariot archers to resolve problem with forest.

I thought about that, but the promotion path is not great to knights and I cannot kill all 5 civs with just chariot archers and if I build other ranged units then my army slows down to the pace of the slowest units. +CAs have a penalty on movement on rough terrain, so that does not help either. Also, Knights are melee units not ranged, and have a penalty against cities. So I don't think CAs are the answer here.

I am playing a new game trying for dom diplo killing the 5 civs, is not going great, if I have time to finish it before hols, I'll report back.

Thanks for the advice though, very much appreciated.

 

[chuckh89]

In the last Diplomacy Gauntlet, Cromagnus mentioned a awesome strategy that when applied would always get you the vote on the first attempt....He called it the Cromagnus Special, but I am having problems with the Gifting Unit part.

So, yeah, if you're only 1 vote short, just execute the Cromagnus special:

1) Put warmongers in your game. 2 will suffice. Find someone you can pay to DoW someone, preferably early when you can still convince anyone to DoW, but with warmongers it shouldn't matter.
2) Get open borders with the warmonger and pay them to DoW their *neighbor*.
3) Get their neighbor's *last city* down to zero health, then gift the warmonger units right next to the guy's border.
4) Let him capture their last city.
5) Liberate.

The liberated guy will always vote for you as World Leader.

I LOVE the strategy, but I can't seem to "Gift" the unit right next to the guys border.

When I posted on Q&A about how to gift leaders units, Browd answered with this...

Walk the unit inside his borders. Right click the unit. On the additional actions menu the gift button should be live.

So, I am asking for confirmation...
The gifting portion of #3 on the list is not possible, unless the Warmongers borders are right up against the target city (And you gift the unit inside his border.....Right???

 

[crocivfanatic]

Tried few more times but managed to fix my score for only 5 turns-kind a crazy considering how improved many things compared to previous game-had much more faith,much more wonders,4 my own founded cities,trade caravans properly done.
But on start while position was great for capitol,i was not able to search for other civs due cartage blockade on north.I did dowed to pass border,even stole 3 workers from cartage but still was not able to search for other civs till 1300 ad.And as due that didn't had RA's on time i guess that is how this happened.Also it seems it is better to take +50 faith when GP is spend then faster spreading as that does not work anyway if other holy city is nearby plus as you get tons of great prophets you can spread it manually.

 

[Bleidraner]

Well tried the diplo domination, failed, only managed to kill 2 civs, and i would have needed an extra 50 turns to kill three more. Won anyway on diplo, and funnily enough on an earlier turn (around t257), and I can guanteee I lost tech time with war. no RAs, no gold trades, practically no trading. What I did differently is coastal capital, no desrt and coastal second and third city, early cities too. So next try is going to be peaceful 4 cities traditional, coastal. If I get time before holidays
EDIT: i discovered kind of late that Berserker is the unit for this, it has 3 moves, But without a fast ranged unit it is a challenge. If i get time I will try again after the peaceful try. Again, time is the issue here.

 

[crocivfanatic]

Well tried the diplo domination, failed, only managed to kill 2 civs, and i would have needed an extra 50 turns to kill three more. Won anyway on diplo, and funnily enough on an earlier turn (around t257), and I can guarantee I lost tech time with war. no RAs, no gold trades, practically no trading. What I did differently is coastal capital, no desrt and coastal second and third city, early cities too. So next try is going to be peaceful 4 cities traditional, coastal. If I get time before holidays
EDIT: i discovered kind of late that Berserker is the unit for this, it has 3 moves, But without a fast ranged unit it is a challenge. If i get time I will try again after the peaceful try. Again, time is the issue here.

You might try with small islands instead,as then you can discover and reach other civs very fast.
Here you can see nice example of diplo win by turn 253 on small islands:
http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ5/gauntlet.php?show=minor&gauntlet=107

 

[Memoryjar]

IMHO, Pangea is useful for this gauntlet. You can start your domination without Astronomy and Berserker with them 3movements reduce low movement in forest tiles.
High sea level helps to have other civs near you. In my first try (maybe only), I settle two cities and annex 2 caps in a range of 8 tiles from Copenhagen.
Then I'd got 2others, one with some wonders and a last one to make a 6 cities game.
I missed atomic era for 1 turns (or 1 GS) after annihilated all civs but 2. So I lost 20 turns. Also missed Modern era for 3 or 4 turns, so I wasn't able to propose a world ideologies. Start to settle my GS for Liberty then realize Order is better (you just need worker's faculties then you end ratio to reach atomic era faster).
I went for metal casting before education. It gave me a T251 win.

I think, people don't have time this summer for this gauntlet so I'm still leader. But A T220 victory seems reachable.

 

[Bleidraner]

Well no time for the peaceful coastal try. I really liked this HOF.

 

[Denniz]

Results:

G-Minor LXXXI - Diplomacy, King, Standard, Arborea, Standard, Denmark (Harald)
1st Memoryjar -1705 AD T-251
2nd Bleidraner - 1740 AD T-258
3rd Bram - 1780 AD T-266

Congratulations!