GIII-Zeta
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AutomatedTeller
Frequent poster
AT WILL RULE!!! I SHALL DOMINATE!!! GO AT!! GO AT!!!
This will take awhile, won't it? I may win by being the only person to enter
This will take awhile, won't it? I may win by being the only person to enter
Is zeta the next letter in the Greek alphabet? I should look it up.
Bartleby
Remembers laughter
Looking at the table as it stands, conquest seems to be better by quite a margin (that kind of game is not my cup of tea).
Besides, I've just started a Huge Warlord milkrun so I may be busy for the coming weeks.
Besides, I've just started a Huge Warlord milkrun so I may be busy for the coming weeks.
Marsden said:
alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta, theta, iota, kappa, lambda, mu, nu, xi, omicron, pi, rho, sigma, tau, upsilon, phi, chi, psi, omega
It helps to have been a math major--I found a book of tables that listed the Greek alphabet.
I'm not sure how superslug does it, but I always look at this page on wikipedia when I can't remember which one comes next 
.
.
Bartleby
Remembers laughter
That was actually my major too, but when the old college textbooks are on a shelf, and the google toolbar is on my desktop, what's the probability that I go for the book?bluejay said:
AutomatedTeller
Frequent poster
I'm wondering whether a pangea would be better than an arch map - probably would mean faster expansion and faster to get to max size, as you end up with more irrigable tiles. Plus, irrigation and rails gives more food than coast/sea/ocean with harbors.
AutomatedTeller
Frequent poster
I'll probably try both, actually. Conquest games will be fast, and I *do* need a histographic for quartermaster, so...
bluejay said:
Thanks, bluejay. I feel rather foolish now, for some reason I equated zeta with 'z' and got worried this is the last gauntlet(even though I haven't submitted to the last two, I did try the Sid SS). I should have known Omega is the last from "the alpha and omega, first and the last." It didn't sink in.
AutomatedTeller
Frequent poster
ok - how to do this:
fast conquest, or histograhic. Apparently, they are pretty similar for this mapsize/level, so I will try both.
Conquest: Fast attackers, available at start. That means Aztec in PTW or Conquests, or Incas (chasqui scout)
Incas allow for early exploration and a chance to get a warrior right next to an AI city before it gets a guardian. Chasqui's are expensive, though - but they also go through rough terrain faster.
Aztecs have the jaguar warrior, and those are very cheap in PTW, not as cheap in conquests.
Japan is an option - they start with the wheel, so maybe can build chariots right off. But that's only if they start with horses right away.
Score:
What you want is lots of land and happy, content or specialist citizens. Plus future tech, but we won't worry about that.
Of the eight traits:
- Agricultural seems to be a must - the faster growth directly impacts the number of citizens, which impacts the number of happy and content.
- Expansionist seems worthless - it gives a big boost in the AA, but on chieftain, expansionist and non-expansionist are the same except for a small chance of warriors. And the human out researches the AI anyway.
- Commercial is interesting - it seems quite likely that at least some of the happiness will come from the lux slider.
- Militaristic is almost useless - there is no need for armies, as the AI is hopeless and none of the small wonders help with score. Cheap harbors help.
- Seafaring is a little less useless - cheap harbors help, as does the extra commerce. On a pangea, not that useful, on an archipelago, the extra movement will help with expansion
- Scientific - usually really good, but SGL's aren't that important, and while it's important to get to hospitals and rails, it's not critical. Probably middle of the road for this.
- Industrious - as always, an excellent trait, directly affecting the ability to expand and irrigate.
- Religious - usually not that useful, there are two things that recommend it in this game: A) ability to switch to Democracy, with faster workers and less corruption and B) cheaper temples/cathedrals, which are important happiness improvements. Of course, Democracy is off the main research path to rails and requires it and another optional tech, so it may not be that important.
I am thinking either agri+industrious (Mayan), agri+commercial (Iroquois) or agri+religious (Celts). Next down is Dutch (agri and seafaring, for an arch map) and agri and scientific (sumeria). Inca and Aztec I will ignore.
Map:
60% water, to get the most land. Pangea or arch? I think Pangea, to give the biggest effect of pyramids on growth. Arch gives the most workable tiles, because of more sea, but more land = more food (because of rails)
Barbarians:
nice to have huts, but don't want bands. Set it to sedentary
AI aggresiveness:
Doesn't matter on chieftain
Climate:
Wet, warm is the standard for food rich. That will give lot of swamp and jungle for workers to clear, but oh well. Warm and arid gives a fairly remarkable amount of floodplains, but also a lot of desert. Cold is just bad.
age:
old, old, old. No big mountain ranges.
opponents: I think scientific civs, and a bunch of them. A) They can provide a couple of towns, perhaps and I can trade for the free techs. Since chieftain AI's are basically bunny rabbits, it doesn't matter. On a standard map, you can have 7 opponents, so probably all but the industrious ones, so we can hope for an SGL from masonry.
Strategy:
Expand, expand, expand. Keep the lux slider so that, at least early, we have all happy citizens (20-40%). Get as many luxes as possible as fast as possible - hopefully, we can get 5 or 6 early and trade for others.
Build the following wonders:
Pyramids
ToA (expansion)
Hanging Gardens
Oracle, perhaps
Bach's
Sistine chapel
cure for cancer
build temples, caths, and markets everywhere.
We have 4 content citizens to start - 1 for temple, 6 for cath + sistine, 1 for hanging gardens + 2 for bach's makes for full contentment at size 12.
to be completely happy at size 20, we need 20 content and 20 happy- markets and all 8 luxes should be pretty easy to get by then and those will give the happy faces. Content are 4 born, 1 temple, 6 cath+sistine, 2 for bach's, 1 for cure for cancer, 2 for colloseum making 16, so we will have to run lux tax at 10-20% even late, or have clowns.
We will never make a barracks, bank, stock exchange. We might not ever make a library, uni or research lab, we probably will - they will give research a heck of a boost.
No commercial docks, only a couple of factories/plants, and those only until we are done with wonders.
I think I will try the celts. Big issue will be avoiding a despotic GA with pyramids.
fast conquest, or histograhic. Apparently, they are pretty similar for this mapsize/level, so I will try both.
Conquest: Fast attackers, available at start. That means Aztec in PTW or Conquests, or Incas (chasqui scout)
Incas allow for early exploration and a chance to get a warrior right next to an AI city before it gets a guardian. Chasqui's are expensive, though - but they also go through rough terrain faster.
Aztecs have the jaguar warrior, and those are very cheap in PTW, not as cheap in conquests.
Japan is an option - they start with the wheel, so maybe can build chariots right off. But that's only if they start with horses right away.
Score:
What you want is lots of land and happy, content or specialist citizens. Plus future tech, but we won't worry about that.
Of the eight traits:
- Agricultural seems to be a must - the faster growth directly impacts the number of citizens, which impacts the number of happy and content.
- Expansionist seems worthless - it gives a big boost in the AA, but on chieftain, expansionist and non-expansionist are the same except for a small chance of warriors. And the human out researches the AI anyway.
- Commercial is interesting - it seems quite likely that at least some of the happiness will come from the lux slider.
- Militaristic is almost useless - there is no need for armies, as the AI is hopeless and none of the small wonders help with score. Cheap harbors help.
- Seafaring is a little less useless - cheap harbors help, as does the extra commerce. On a pangea, not that useful, on an archipelago, the extra movement will help with expansion
- Scientific - usually really good, but SGL's aren't that important, and while it's important to get to hospitals and rails, it's not critical. Probably middle of the road for this.
- Industrious - as always, an excellent trait, directly affecting the ability to expand and irrigate.
- Religious - usually not that useful, there are two things that recommend it in this game: A) ability to switch to Democracy, with faster workers and less corruption and B) cheaper temples/cathedrals, which are important happiness improvements. Of course, Democracy is off the main research path to rails and requires it and another optional tech, so it may not be that important.
I am thinking either agri+industrious (Mayan), agri+commercial (Iroquois) or agri+religious (Celts). Next down is Dutch (agri and seafaring, for an arch map) and agri and scientific (sumeria). Inca and Aztec I will ignore.
Map:
60% water, to get the most land. Pangea or arch? I think Pangea, to give the biggest effect of pyramids on growth. Arch gives the most workable tiles, because of more sea, but more land = more food (because of rails)
Barbarians:
nice to have huts, but don't want bands. Set it to sedentary
AI aggresiveness:
Doesn't matter on chieftain
Climate:
Wet, warm is the standard for food rich. That will give lot of swamp and jungle for workers to clear, but oh well. Warm and arid gives a fairly remarkable amount of floodplains, but also a lot of desert. Cold is just bad.
age:
old, old, old. No big mountain ranges.
opponents: I think scientific civs, and a bunch of them. A) They can provide a couple of towns, perhaps and I can trade for the free techs. Since chieftain AI's are basically bunny rabbits, it doesn't matter. On a standard map, you can have 7 opponents, so probably all but the industrious ones, so we can hope for an SGL from masonry.
Strategy:
Expand, expand, expand. Keep the lux slider so that, at least early, we have all happy citizens (20-40%). Get as many luxes as possible as fast as possible - hopefully, we can get 5 or 6 early and trade for others.
Build the following wonders:
Pyramids
ToA (expansion)
Hanging Gardens
Oracle, perhaps
Bach's
Sistine chapel
cure for cancer
build temples, caths, and markets everywhere.
We have 4 content citizens to start - 1 for temple, 6 for cath + sistine, 1 for hanging gardens + 2 for bach's makes for full contentment at size 12.
to be completely happy at size 20, we need 20 content and 20 happy- markets and all 8 luxes should be pretty easy to get by then and those will give the happy faces. Content are 4 born, 1 temple, 6 cath+sistine, 2 for bach's, 1 for cure for cancer, 2 for colloseum making 16, so we will have to run lux tax at 10-20% even late, or have clowns.
We will never make a barracks, bank, stock exchange. We might not ever make a library, uni or research lab, we probably will - they will give research a heck of a boost.
No commercial docks, only a couple of factories/plants, and those only until we are done with wonders.
I think I will try the celts. Big issue will be avoiding a despotic GA with pyramids.
My game was a bit quicker.
Score 4830. 100 points less (and two turns longer) than the game I submitted in this catagory just a few days before the start of this gauntlet but there's still plenty of time to beat this.
My settings: PtW/Pang(80%)/Arid/Cool/5BYO/No barbs/Respawn off.
No scientific, industrious or militaristic civs-I chose Iroq, Ind, Eng and Sp for what it's worth.
Method:
Find a start with a couple of two-shield tiles.
Add the worker to the town, switch lux up to around 60% to get happy faces, and watch those jags popout every other turn. Send them out in different directions and overrun your rivals.
Sometimes you catch them early...
Sometimes that sole warrior puts up more resistance than expected...
but if they're close enough, they just don't stand a chance at this level.
Score 4830. 100 points less (and two turns longer) than the game I submitted in this catagory just a few days before the start of this gauntlet but there's still plenty of time to beat this.
My settings: PtW/Pang(80%)/Arid/Cool/5BYO/No barbs/Respawn off.
No scientific, industrious or militaristic civs-I chose Iroq, Ind, Eng and Sp for what it's worth.
Method:
Find a start with a couple of two-shield tiles.
Add the worker to the town, switch lux up to around 60% to get happy faces, and watch those jags popout every other turn. Send them out in different directions and overrun your rivals.
Sometimes you catch them early...
Sometimes that sole warrior puts up more resistance than expected...
but if they're close enough, they just don't stand a chance at this level.
Lord Emsworth
Emperor
AutomatedTeller said:
Be carfeful with those happyness improvements. The last thing that you want is a cultural win in about 1856 AD. Or a premature dom win. I did not build a single temple (etc.) for happyness purposes and even went as far as selling off all research facilities once I hit Replaceable parts in my histo attemps.
-------
I think I'll have a stab at the long way home too, though. Persia or even America maybe as I don't have agricultural civs.
AutomatedTeller
Frequent poster
good point. It may makes sense to use the lux slider and luxuries, at least until rails and hospitals. ToA is good, though, at least until expansion.
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