[C3C] Looking for a great sid archipelago start

[Marcitko]

Hello everyone,

All attempts at winning @ sid difficulty have failed so far. The challenge continues.

I had a few great starts and good runs on archipelago maps, but since this happened twice, it seems possible that the RNG 'punishes' amazing starts with crappy/no res/lux on your island?

Anyway, I'm looking for an amazing sid archipelago start seed to hopefully get that first win.

Not sure how seeds work but I'm looking for: Standard or large map, even huge, strong civ, very large starting island with great land and good or great res/lux.

Any help appreciated.

 

[BlackBetsy]

What are your settings? What civ are you playing? How many opponents and which ones? Note that resources / luxes correspond to number of AI opponents, so the more opponents you have, the more luxes and resources will be about.

On an archipelago map...don't be surprised to have to play with 1 and maybe 2 native luxes and missing a key resource like horses or iron. But you should be able to trade for luxes at least. Until then, it's the lux slider.

One of the reasons I played my game with the Vikings is that Berserkers don't need iron so I didn't have to dump games without iron. But if you don't have iron and coal....no railroad.

 

[Spoonwood]

But if you don't have iron and coal....no railroad.

As a nice coincidence, the game I had on my mind proves useful here.

If you don't have iron, then there exists another resource trading possibility for cancellation of deals via (capital? border? harbor city?) trade route pillaging.

I really like this picture, because I remember dropping games because of the cost of iron, but this game made me rethink that:

From my standard histographic attempt where I decided to just take domination instead of going for histographic.

I may not have made a profit initially by not having iron, but (69 + 22 + 49 + 39) = (91 + 88) = 179, so at 10 AD that game had 54 gpt of profit by acquiring iron instead of having it natively.

The 170 AD save I have looks like this with Greece:

Though, by that point Greece also has Dyes and Ivory for sale, since, I guess, we declared war on Korea, and signed a military alliance with Greece against Korea (which then got canceled since the military alliance included iron in it). But, that's plenty of gpt to purchase iron for a bit even with some conquering.

And did the Maya have their own coal?

By 330 AD it seems they did:

And workers had something of a rail network in progress:

 

[Spoonwood]

The above post got an edit. It had some incorrect statements.

@BlackBetsy For more study, I have a 170 AD, a 190 AD, a 300 AD, and a 330 AD save and some more saves below.

I don't recall all of the details. I did upgrade horseman to cavalry units for a bit. I also think I would sometimes purchase part of a cavalry or rifleman by shortrushing a temple or granary and then let the last 20 or 10 shields complete.

The saves also show a dedicated corrupt city for the purchasing of armies. I might have purchased them ever turn by purchasing a worker and then swapping to an army, or purchased an army every 2 turns or maybe even every 3 turns.

@Marcitko There exist maps over at the HoF which to varying degrees, I think fit your description. The first map that came to my mind was the 1620 AD Carthage game. The top scoring histographic games over there also fit... though I assumed previously you wanted a start with no one else on the island.

20k entries tend to have very powerful starting territory, and the top spots also have often have ivory. But, I think before when I read your request I believed you would find their choice of civs not strong enough. Seeds can get found using civAssistII . However, if you change opponents of yourself, I think especially with Seafaring civs coming in or out, that can reposition your start.

Edit: Bartleby comments on that in the link.

 

[BlackBetsy]

Trading for Iron AND Coal can be difficult. In my experience the AI getting a second coal hooked up for trade - especially in archipelago - can be a long and problematic wait. All other things being equal, I'd rather have native coal than iron, simply because there always is more iron on the map (I think that's in the code, right?).

But yes, any extra resource available to trade by an AI is a lucrative source of cash via the trade route pillaging technique.

 

[CKS]

Hello everyone,

All attempts at winning @ sid difficulty have failed so far. The challenge continues.

I had a few great starts and good runs on archipelago maps, but since this happened twice, it seems possible that the RNG 'punishes' amazing starts with crappy/no res/lux on your island?

Anyway, I'm looking for an amazing sid archipelago start seed to hopefully get that first win.

Not sure how seeds work but I'm looking for: Standard or large map, even huge, strong civ, very large starting island with great land and good or great res/lux.

Any help appreciated.

In winning at Sid, having a very large starting island is not necessarily an advantage. If the AI get to the island before you have it completely settled, they have a beachhead, making it easier for them to wipe you out.

I'd look for a medium-sized starting island with each AI civ starting on its own medium-sized island, ideally far from you. Don't pick AI that start with alphabet, and let them drown in unit support costs.

Any of my HOF Sid games are winnable by anyone, I would think.

Starts that have bonus food or commerce are less likely to have other resources, because tiles generally only get one kind of special thing. If you settle in hills with gold, you can be sure that they won't have iron later.