King of the hill - open challange for all playlevels

[dirtyparrot]

Spoiler :

Snaaty, I agree that Jamuka's strategy is probably better than yours, even though in that particular game he eventually lost. Using Jamuka's strategy at the same time cripples one of the AI's and secures for the human player a good bit of land. In the German forum, did anyone manage to beat this game?

 

[Noobilator]

Spoiler :

First, sorry for not putting spoiler on my first post. And double sorry for those who saw it.

Second I'd like to point out whether or not the game is won depends largely on the fact that if you figure out the location of the chokepoint early on. It is pretty obvious what to do once that is figured. Which I think is very much luck based. A defensive player would have never figure it out because they keep their troops at home to fight off the waves. Moreover, since the goal of the game is survival, not victory, players have less incentive to explore and risking losing their troops. Just my thoughts.

Most player lost not knowing why is it even named of the hill.

 

[mzprox]

I've survived untill 1590 AD.. actually i had like 20 defenders in my last city when suddenly said game over .

Spoiler :

Very short summary, i need to sleep now : I have built the pyramids.. this meant that i didnt build cities (only two in the whole game and got one from the barbarians), by the time i have finished i had to defend myself from the first waves of attackers.. and this went untill the end of the game. Thanks to the pyramids (and the great library ) i was able to research quite well. When i lost my outpost city in 800 AD i concentrated only on my capital. all my GG was settled there (9-10 ) so i got lvl 5 longbowmen and later musketmen and grenadiers and i could build them in 1 turn (except the latters). My lost was quite unexpected at that turn because i still had many many defenders. I did w/o reload, but restarted a few times in the begining, because i always underestimated the barbarian threat..

Edit: hmm sorry i havent posted in each checkpoints, i have saves from those dates tho. Btw I consider myself an emperor level player

 

[Bleys]

Spoiler :

Second I'd like to point out whether or not the game is won depends largely on the fact that if you figure out the location of the chokepoint early on.

Spoiler :

But the choke point is too far to settle, and doesnt have any decent food spots. I built an early settler, and I cant find a decent spot to settle, other than that hill on the coast with the Horses, Corn, and FPs.

 

[Noobilator]

Spoiler :

You can wait a while before settling it, just do it before the settling waves get pass the chokepoint and the AIs gets aggressive. It is possible to just put units on the hill without placing a city to block the AIs off, but you will definitely need a medic. I had not try the game yet, so I can very wrong.

 

[Lansky]

Spoiler :

Taking it slowly and am in the early AD's however putting a city on that choke is no laughing matter. I scouted very early clockwise around the coast and saw it immediately, however Shaka's capital will preclude you from settling it so it has to be razed. I chopped out an army asap of axes/praets and even after letting the first couple stacks go by and attack the capital I still did not get to Ulundi before Shaka had walls up. It can clearly be done, but "just go put a city of the choke" is not even remotely easy. I consider myself an emperor/immortal-ish player and I'll be happy to make it past 500AD.

 

[Earthling]

Spoiler :

Nice tries everyone, we'll figure something out. I too am curious how the win-rate in the orignial German forum for this was.

I'm thinking I really ought to retry this with my build just to see if it can be done - the choke doesn't seem nearly as viable to me anyway because it's so far away. I assume Stalin can win Space/some non-military vic so falling behind and turtling doesn't sound all so great to me, whereas Lbows in 1000 or so BC would pretty much guarantee a solid empire to tech/conquer if you pull it off (and I know it can be done since I was 1 turn away! Even beat Stalin to Buddhism (he got Hindu).)

 

[Snaaty]

The best player in the official game of the month in the german forum managed to surive bit more then the 1650th, all in all I think it were only 5 or so lasting longer then 1500 AD

All in all, there weren´t too many victories in the original game But you have to keep in mind that it was without any reloads you had to play it. Here we should at least have a decent chance to see a victory I guess with all the knowlege gathered

 

[Snaaty]

@ mzprox:

Can you please post a screen and/or a save from your last round for beeing included in the scorelist? Your game seems impressive, living that long. A more detailed summary migh also be helpfull. Thanks in advance.

 

[Crusher1]

1565 AD Defeat

Spoiler :

I went the Oracle route, took MC, whipped a forge and used the GE to bulb Machinery and spammed out crossbows and spear men. The next GE I got was used to bulb Feudalism where I spammed out LBs. I made a mistake and built the colossus and the one that gives +1H on all water tiles. Looking back, I shouldn't have built either. As soon as I bulbed Feudalism I should have simply turned research off and focused on nothing but LBs. I made a mistake and tried to go on the offensive but very quickly lost a lot of my units and the new city some turns later. So the 30 turns on wonders in one coastal city and a bad military push cost me around 30 Units, at least. I could have used those 30 units to reach 1600 for sure =/.

 

[Snaaty]

@ Crusher:
I see you have met stalin

Spoiler :

how many gallons did he bring? And where did he land?

 

[Crusher1]

@ Snaaty

Spoiler :

He landed on my NW city and it seemed harmless enough, but, I swear, it took like 25 seconds for all his men to unload and just as much time for them to all move into their new city.

 

[Snaaty]

Snaaty 500 BC:

BIG SPOILER ABOUT MY ECONOMY

Spoiler :

Here I settled my blocking city as first city:
View attachment 210930

Then timed getting Hindu (nobody seemed interested in that reli) to get it capital for later shrine and chopped walls in blockcity ASAP.
Small reload here: Settled city 1 turn to early and got Hindu there... ...reload and delayed settling city 1 turn

Built Great Wall in capital, and chopped oracle in blocking city
Major reload here: Lost Great Wall by 1 turn... ...went back some turns and next try I chopped 1 forest more

Finished GW 2440 BC
Hindu 2400 BC
Blocking city 2400 BC
Settled city near river and pigs 2000 BC
Oracle 1240 BC in blocking city
Alpha from Oracle
Settled city near fish and deer, started Pyramids ASAP there 1160 AD
Settled fish and silver 800 BC
Getting some spies out in parallel from capital
Great Spy gets born 625 BC
Switch research off after archery, infiltrate nearest city (mogolia, who captured a barb city near the eles), send my spies there
muahaha, who needs science when he can steal techs
Hadnt lost many units so far. Did all my reloads up to 500 BC (4-5). Those not mentionedd were misclicks like sending settler to the front

Overview 500 BC:
View attachment 210938
Most important for defence is one thing: Dont settle a city which the AI might reach NOT on a hill and get wall up there ASAP

 

[mzprox]

@ mzprox:

Can you please post a screen and/or a save from your last round for beeing included in the scorelist? Your game seems impressive, living that long. A more detailed summary migh also be helpfull. Thanks in advance.

I will put up a few saves when i get home later, But i will also try it again, i think i can do better, however i don't try to win at all, just defending.

 

[StuntedAzrael]

Spoiler :

This game got me thinking that forts are actually much better if you want to defend that hill. That extra 25% defense can't be catapulted away and CG promotions work on it too.

After feudalism maybe it's a good idea to have some longbows with Drill IV on that fort. Basically +25% city defense, +50% hill defense, +25 fort, +25 fortified and Drill IV makes it very much resilient to everything except mounted units who ignore first strikes but still have to chew defense bonuses. Basically my foremost worry is countering mass siege.

 

[Snaaty]

Scorelist updated, and we have a new scoreleader, who reached 1565 AD

The immortal checkpoint has been finally reached. Congrats

...

I have just checked in the german forum, best player reached 1635 AD there and 1565 AD would be the 5th place in the german forum

Lets see when and if somebody manages to beat 1635 AD, would be "only" 14 tiny turns longer then 1565 AD

...

Reminder:
Only with a screen and/or a save are you included in the scorelist

 

[Iberian]

You have a link to the German forum? I would like to see what craziness they came up with.

 

[nocho]

I gave this a try, but the inevitable happened in 900AD. Usually play monarch, so I'm in the correct dying range.

Spoiler :

Things started out well enough. That is, lots of barbarian settlements around of which I manage to capture one while founding two cities.

In 500 BC the empire looked like this.

I think one crucial mistake was my techpath. You can see here that I went Aesthetics and after that Literature for GL. Some habits die hard! In a deity AW game it's no use investing precious research turns and then hammers in something which net worth is a mere two scientists. In all cities I had two scientists hired anyway from libraries which did an ok job researching. Should have gone monarchy and construction sooner.

Then the waves of attack increased in frequency and size, especially when Gengis and Ragnar also had set firm eyes on pitiful Rome. I was doing quite well, I thought, fending them off, with 4 GGs settled in Rome for 11XP praets of the bat. But in a particularly intense and 3-way coordinated attack Antium fell in 475 AD. It had 10-15 praetorians, a couple of spears and some archers behind walls on a hill but it was not enough. So in 500AD the empire had lost a crucial city and the better part of the army.

From there on it went downhill, the King came down so te speak. I managed to hang on until 900AD, ironically on the last turn of my first golden age.

Had a lot of fun playing this! Thanks, snaaty.

 

[mzprox]

Scorelist updated, and we have a new scoreleader, who reached 1565 AD

The immortal checkpoint has been finally reached. Congrats

Hey!You forget about me, i have reached 1590 Ad before that...

 

[Snaaty]

Hey!You forget about me, i have reached 1590 Ad before that...

OK, sorry, let me correct this

Scorelist updated, and we have a new scoreleader, who reached 1565 AD and posted a screen and/or save

The immortal checkpoint has been finally reached. Congrats

Better now?

Edit:
scorelist updated, first monarch player has submitted a save/screen and passed the monarch checkpoint by 400 years, bien echo, nocho

Edit2:
german forum: civforum