Handy 20 Grumpy Old Men give Always War Deity Standard Pangaea a try

[handy900]

We could pick/roll the starts here and then start a new thread when we play. It means less clutter at the start of the thread.

Let's do that.

I believe this true for other civs as well. In this game i also started by building reg enkidus, and that is one of the reasons we got so fast expansion for AW standards. But it didn't help because of the wide front. It seems that a peninsula would be ideal.

You played a great start Obormot. Given a narrow front we may have pulled this off.

 

[Greebley]

For Maya, would you consider to pop rush using slaves? Otherwise I don't see it helps too much to have more workers since your workers are already fast ...

Never having to build a worker is an advantage. I wouldn't pop rush because of the unhappiness. Dumping all the unhappiness into a junk city is an exploit in most peoples lists.

It is also an Early 2-2-1 unit which is also a good unit. Babylon is unexpectedly decent at AW because of this.

 

[Heroes]

Never having to build a worker is an advantage. I wouldn't pop rush because of the unhappiness. Dumping all the unhappiness into a junk city is an exploit in most peoples lists.

It is also an Early 2-2-1 unit which is also a good unit. Babylon is unexpectedly decent at AW because of this.

I am curious to this. Javelin thrower costs 30 shields, and is less strong than sword. Is it really good for AW?

 

[Greebley]

No swords are better but you are guaranteed to get it and you get it much earlier than the swords. Also the free workers compensates for the higher cost. I for one find I never have enough workers - even if industrial

Note that you don't want to upgrade them as you can get free workers even fairly late into the game

Note that I don't know from experience whether they make a good diety level AW civ, but given that iron can be hard to get, they are very good those games.

What I like most about them and bowmen is that they have defense if they attack so you can go for attacks on hills and mountains.

You do want to get mathematics quickly with them

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Have a few promising starts.
Here’s one I played for a while. Three AI nearby kind of sealed this one.


Here’s another. It is 3850 BC, how does Henry have a spear already?


While this one didn’t have a river, it looked like a nice peninsula for a while:


Had one start on a narrow isthmus with two rivers. Celts were very close. Enslaved four Irishmen , but that one is lost as well when a stack of six warriors capture the capitol.

Then there was another two cows on a river.


So Friday wasn’t a good day for starts. Maybe Saturday will be better.

 

[Heroes]

So Friday wasn’t a good day for starts. Maybe Saturday will be better.

How about 60% water? Maybe you can have longer time to breath ...

 

[Ansar]

lurker's comment: you gotta get a good start eventually...

 

[Own]

lurker's comment: The last one looks promising with it's hill locations, but where are they in the minimap? I think Greebley said minimap position is more important than cow number

 

[handy900]

No luck yet here. This was the best so far, but not enough BG and we will soon be at war with 2 civs.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

60% water is a good idea. I've been going with 70%

 

[Greebley]

4000 BC: Looks like a good start - 2 cows. Need to move 1 to be next to the river though.

I move 1 and there is a 3rd cow. I think I agree that 3 cows is nowhere near 1/10000. 1/100 at most - this is the 2nd in not that many tries (Obermut being the first).
We have 2 Elephants as well. One of the better starts I have seen.

3950 BC: Make that 3 elephants - not that a 2nd or 3rd matters any - we won't be trading. May make it harder to pillage though.

2850 BC: We meet Spain. I trade for Alphabet (want Cats).

2350 BC: Golden age Begins.

IBT: We gain 4! slave workers defending against Spanish warriors.

?? BC: Get Mathematics

1830 or so: Meet the Iroquois. Trade Mathematics for CB and Bronze W.

1750 BC:

Notes:
No horses, but 9 turns to the statue of Zeus.
We have all the base techs, mathematics and IW in 4 (after which we can go for Lit).

5 cities in 1750 BC.

Our biggest disadvantage is that we know 2 civs and I can see the outline of a 3rd civs cities.

I don't know what our front will look like, we still can expand some so hard to tell if this is really good or not. It has been a while so maybe we can try this one...

 

[handy900]

That one looks good. SoZ will be nice. I will start a New Thread. Bede has had to resogn, so we will all get to play a little more frequently.

 

[Vol]

I think I agree that 3 cows is nowhere near 1/10000. 1/100 at most - this is the 2nd in not that many tries (Obermut being the first).

lurker's comment: Your statement is correct. However, in addition to three cows, I was talking about plentiful grassland + river (you have primarily plains), no unproductive land (you have desert and ocean nearby), a mid-latitude (you seem to have this), good shields (you have less BGs and hills), and plentiful city locations (you're cramped by ocean to the northwest and north, desert to the south, and enemies to the east and south, all preventing a full set of ring-1 cities).

I have genuinely checked >30,000 maps against those criteria, and found only 3 or 4 satisfactory. If those are things you care about (and you probably don't), then good luck finding another map like Obormot's.

That Ivory is quite nice, though. Good luck.

 

[Greebley]

Ah, ok, I see what you mean. For us the fact we have ocean front is an advantage. If we didn't have ocean to the north, the start would probably be worthless.

 

[Ansar]

lurker's comment: all right!with ivory and 3 cows, and prolly SoZ, this game wont be hard.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

lurker's comment: all right!with ivory and 3 cows, and prolly SoZ, this game wont be hard.

This is AW Deity. This will be a bear! I figure even with this start we have a 25% chance of winning. That's why we play!

 

[Heroes]

I have a great start for AWD pangea as Greece. Using it, I have managed to destroy Rome and occupy all the peninsula. After GLib becomes obsolete, self research still keeps a reasonabe speed. I guess it has at least 50% chance to win. This is the earliest save I can find.

 

[Heroes]

Several regular hoplites can do wonders in the ancient age:

 

[Sirian]

Man. I realize it's necessary to get a favorable start to make a run of it with these "pushing the extreme edge of the extreme edge" challenges, but it seems odd to be on page ten and still looking for a viable start.

Call me a wimp. If the variant is too hard to support a chance at victory from the first random start to come along, then it's over my head. ... Of course, I suck, so that doesn't mean anything.

I hope I can find people to play my wimpy little unchallenging SGs with me when Civ4 comes out. My funnest SG was RBE2, and that thing had one of the more craptastic starts I've seen. (That was part of what made it fun!)


- Sirian

 

[Heroes]

Man. I realize it's necessary to get a favorable start to make a run of it with these "pushing the extreme edge of the extreme edge" challenges, but it seems odd to be on page ten and still looking for a viable start.

Call me a wimp. If the variant is too hard to support a chance at victory from the first random start to come along, then it's over my head. ... Of course, I suck, so that doesn't mean anything.

I hope I can find people to play my wimpy little unchallenging SGs with me when Civ4 comes out. My funnest SG was RBE2, and that thing had one of the more craptastic starts I've seen. (That was part of what made it fun!)


- Sirian

Yeah, some of us are trying a sid game from an average start, standard pangea map, not knowing alphabet, and barbarian on. I don't know this is a "pushing the extreme edge of the extreme edge" challenge, or it has a chance at victory from the 1st random start!