Maximising my Jason score?

[Sailorstick]

I don't seem to have a problem completing or winning the GOTM games, but my score is so low compared to others. What are the best ways to increase my score? I don't mean milking, I mean what style of play? It seems to me this is the best way to go:
1. Play Open class (no brainer there!)
2. In the initial stages: continually pump out settlers, settlers and more settlers.
3. Go all-out war mongering early on and for the rest of the entire game.
4. Don't bother too much with building improvements, focus more on building barracks and troops.
Am I on the right track here?

 

[DaveMcW]

Yes, the winning strategy is to reach the domination limit as fast as possible. Even if you don't plan on winning by domination.

You're on the right track with the key points, although I view them as part of a bigger strategy:
1. Expand to the corruption limit as fast as possible.
2. Build your FP and expand the second core to the corruption limit.
3. Crank out offensive units and warmonger until they are obsolete.
4. Research a bit and upgrade to better offensive units.

Depending on how much you like milking, you could play for a slightly higher-scoring victory condition or just end with a domination win.

 

[Yndy]

Sort of,

First key thing is to get to the domination limit as soon as possible (triggering a domination victory is optional).

Second key thing is to maximize the population and keep them as happy as possible.

One tactic, is to play ICS style but that's not a must.

 

[Qitai]

Just another perspective. I view Jason score as giving the best score if you maximize your rate of gaining in game score - which is really just means gainning as much pop (happy) and land as early as possible. After that, you can do whatever you like and you will not lose out on the Jason score. Yes, that actually means that you can continue to a space victory and still get a very good score as illustrated by Sir Pleb/Aeson`s quick game. But for most, if you are that big already, it would be easier to just finish the game by triggering the domination limit. I guess this is just a repeatition of what has been said.

 

[Karasu]

Originally posted by DaveMcW

4. Research a bit ...

I love this line!

Dave, your "researching a bit" brings you to Atomic Theory by the time most of our scientists are still frying their brains on the secrets of Alphabet...

 

[Moonsinger]

Originally posted by Karasu
I love this line!

Dave, your "researching a bit" brings you to Atomic Theory by the time most of our scientists are still frying their brains on the secrets of Alphabet...

I second that.

Sailorstick, I don't have anything to add because others have already said them.

 

[waylander]

Two questions.

1. What do you mean by domination limit? How do you calculate that?

2. What exactly is the corruption limit? Where even with a courthouse you have 100% corrruption?

Waylander

 

[hotrod0823]

Domination limit is the number of tiles required to trip the Domination Victory. Using the Mapstat utility you can figure out how close you are to domination. By pushing to domination you get the maximum land area without winning the game. This allows you to persue another victory condition such as space, diplo or culture. By pushing to domination quickly you maximize your ingame score (one component of the jason score). Then push for a fast victory of your choice. The longer you are at the domination limit the higher your ingame score.

The corruption limit is map size dependant. It is the Optimum City Number for that particular map. It is also twice the number of cities required for a Forbidden Palace. I believe (haven't checked for sure) that the OCN is 22 for a large map. That is any city added after 22 is corrupt. Not exactly sure if adding those corrupt cities effect the corruption level of the core cities.

I believe and may be wrong but corruption is also a function of how far away from the capital or the FP the city lies and is basis for the RCP.

 

[Svar]

Originally posted by hotrod0823
Using the Mapstat utility you can figure out how close you are to domination. By pushing to domination you get the maximum land area without winning the game. This allows you to persue another victory condition such as space, diplo or culture.

Mapstat is really the key here. In my present game I guessed at the limit and was turning prime land back into unimproved forest until I downloaded Mapstat to check what the real limit was. I was off by over 600 tiles. Now I'm back to the same prime land clearing forest and improving land. Thats about 50 lost turns.

 

[waylander]

Mapstat is really the key here. In my present game I guessed at the limit and was turning prime land back into unimproved forest until I downloaded Mapstat to check what the real limit was. I was off by over 600 tiles. Now I'm back to the same prime land clearing forest and improving land. Thats about 50 lost turns.

So only tiles that are improved count for domination? Or is it any tile within your cultural borders?

 

[Svar]

Originally posted by waylander


So only tiles that are improved count for domination? Or is it any tile within your cultural borders?

As I understand it all land tiles within your cultural borders count. The coast tiles may count as well but Mapstat calculates which tiles do count for domination. It tells you what the domination limit is, what your current total is and what the difference is.

 

[Txurce]

Would it be more accurate to say that maximizing the Jason score is best achieved by researching as quickly as possible while growing population as quickly as possible? When having to choose between fast growth and fast research, growth seems to have the bigger effect on the Jason score, but fast research (which may or may not come with fast growth) is key for an optimal Jason score in any non-military victory condition.

 

[CruddyLeper]

Txurce, I would say that's a good rule of thumb... but having thought about this thread for a few minutes, it seems that targetted research is more important than fast research on all fronts.

I can research OK, I can build infrastructure OK, I'm just not very good at ancient/MA warfare yet. I haven't even come close to domination in any of my GOTMs either - so thank you all for pointing me in the right direction!

Oh yes, I'm right in thinking that domination can also be triggered by population as well as tile area within the cultural area? I'm even further away on that front because I hate managing big (19+) cities.

 

[Dianthus]

Originally posted by CruddyLeper
Oh yes, I'm right in thinking that domination can also be triggered by population as well as tile area within the cultural area? I'm even further away on that front because I hate managing big (19+) cities.

It looks like Conquest will be addressing this tile/pop counting issue by adding a new Victory Status Screen (look at the IGN screenshots referenced from the CFC main page, the "Conditions" screenshot). Hopefully Conquests will be supported by GOTM soon after it's release because I don't get time for any Civ other than GOTM .

 

[Yeti]

So using MapStat during a GoTM game is legal !?

And I don't follow why you would want to push to the Domination limit to allow you to go for another victory condition instead of just winning by Domination. The earlier you win, the more points you get, so isn't it best to just get it over with?

 

[Smirk]

Interestings screenshot, I also notice that one city cultural is only 10k.

 

[hotrod0823]

Oh yes, I'm right in thinking that domination can also be triggered by population as well as tile area within the cultural area?

@Cruddyleper: You are correct sort of. You have to have 2/3 of the land area and 2/3 of population so if you get to the tile limit you may need to grow your cities to gain population. Because population grows geometrically a city with a pop of 19+ is much more population than a lot of size 1-6 cities.

@Yeti:I think the reason for not just winning by dominination is to increase the in game score by increasing population once at the tile limit. Population and civ size are the largest components of the ingame score. I think but am not sure, that you can outpace the speed bonus for wining by domination to increase your ingame score by "moderate" milking then chosing the appropriate win condition to maximize the jason score.

 

[CruddyLeper]

Ah thanks Hotrod!

Watch out GOTM22! The Berzerkers are coming...

 

[jeffelammar]

Originally posted by Yeti
So using MapStat during a GoTM game is legal !?

I recently asked about this in the FAQ. The answer is yes MapStat is legal, but you should not use it till you have a full world map. (IE, if you had the patience, you could count the squares manually)