Micro Challenge Central

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kossin

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Anyone ever notice how Education says 'CIV4 = $' ?​

Welcome to the Micro Challenge Central!

The challenges so far:
Micro Challenge 1
Micro Challenge 2
Micro Challenge 3
Micro Challenge 4
Micro Challenge 5
Micro Challenge 6
Micro Challenge 7

No directly related
The Barbarian Challenge

*************************************************

I can't guarantee I'll post these in a regular fashion, it depends on my available time!

I'm hoping for more suggestions/topics you'd like to tackle. Keep in mind I'd like to reduce the random effects as much as possible so some challenges are difficult to plan.

For example, practising coastal starts is feasible as you don't have to worry about the AI so much.
On the other hand, it's quite impractical to make a challenge saying 'expand to 6 cities' , there's no telling where the AI will settle once the RNG is changed.

I may eventually post more open-ended challenges but then they would be less tested, leaving out possibilities I may have missed (and making the challenge a mess).
 
Some ideas:

- Prepare a HA rush: we just teched HBR, the task is to get 12 HAs that can attack an enemy city on turn x. There would be a restriction on city sizes of course, so we don't whip everything down to size 1 :D

- Economic recovery after war. We start from something like -20 bpt at 0%, we just wiped out a civ, and we are trying to tech currency. We would need to get to currency without strikes or disbanding units in a fixed number of turns.

- Settle your second city 'optimally', as in maximize the combined food, hammer and commerce output of the two cities on turn 50 (this could start from the point where the worker and a warrior is ready and we are at size 2). As in challange 2, you could just tell which units and buildings must be ready and what techs need to be built, and also specify city sizes.
 
Let me first repeat my appreciation and thanks for putting these challenges together. It is one thing to read about a particular aspect of micromanagement and another to fully understand it, put it to use, and remember it. I do believe that the first two challenges have helped me improve my game in important ways. In addition, they are a lot of fun to do. Fantastic work!

I was vaguely aware that there was some "trick with workers" but I never learned it until now. Seeing how it works and watching the additional population materialize out of the thin air of worker movement points is an eye opener. [note: I always assumed the extra movement was invested in the improvement being made and don't get why they didn't just implement it that way. Seems very illogical which is probably why I didn't grasp this concept much earlier.]

The same goes for the second challenge, saving three or four turns early on in the game is a very significant advantage. I will definitely rethink how I open my games after doing this challenge. Nothing like attempting a task many times and failing each time and then doing it again and succeeding to make a idea sink in. The lesson I will walk away with from #2 is: Get the high-yield tiles up as soon as possible and keep using them turn after turn, do not whip them away.

As far as suggestions for future challenges, I would benefit from a practical trial of granary use. This is an extension of, and focused return to, challenge II. Learning to max out whips by timing growth and adjusting tile use to that end is still something that I find a bit abstract. I can (and on occasion do) read about it, have my eyes glaze over, and move on without internalizing the information. If you can make a challenge that would center on this aspect of the game I think I might finally get it under my belt. The granary is probably important enough to warrant the attention.

I like the suggestions mentioned in the above post as well. Diplo challenges could be useful as well, but I'm not sure how that would work.

I look forward to whatever you come up with, these small trials are welcome additions to long games.
 
There are some things I can't control in the game (for instance, a leader making a request) and so some kind of challenges would be luck dependant, which I don't really want to showcase here.

I'd rather frustrate people with actual micro than reloading and trying to manipulate the RNG :D
 
I hope this becomes a great series :) Well, it's fun already, no pressure :p
And I think that, with regards to challenge design, the post below is spot on (from MC 2):

VSarius said:
As is customary, all games must have at least 3 difficulty settings.
Normal
Hard
Nightmare
An easy to solve problem coupled with something a bit more difficult, and then a third task that is essentially impossible, but maybe someone can crack it. Doshin's second addition fits that third criteria...
Click to expand...
Not sure where the custom comes from but having definite, clear objectives is a good way to appeal to all. The deadline isn't mentionned above but is a part of what "objectives" are.

e.g. I've played through MC2 about 50 times with great pleasure. I could probably play through 50 more times with equal pleasure (or 30, depends what it takes to reach a satisfying outcome).
e.g. I've tried to solve MC 3 & 4. I gave up on 3 when reading "keyword" but it was ok, I suppose (didn't play through the 13 turns, tried planning). It ended up being a one-trick poney, which is a little disappointing but of little importance in a series.
MC 4 is too vague! "As soon as possible", as the objective of a challenge, takes its meaning too late (at least after first try, probably after comparison with tries from other players). We need a deadline to assess our attempts! Especially those of us who won't crack the nightmare difficulty need deadlines ;) (Couldn't bring myself to play through either.)


I understand you wish for challenges wide and varied. That's ok and definitely a stake for a series. However, repetition has its virtues, too. Variations on the same theme are ok, not something to fear (especially with city management/worker use: high replayability).
I also understand there are different tastes and not just my own :goodjob: You draw the line.
 
There are three somewhat similar challenges:

http://fastmoves.wordpress.com/category/challenge/

1
You are alone on an Island. Your goal is to make 100 or more science research per turn, while not having a negative income. At the same time you need to have built at least four cities and workers each. The Great Library is banned – it is not allowed to build it.

2
This is the second fastmoves challenge, continuing the theme laid out in fastmoves challenge #1. This time it´s about all-out war. The scenario simulates a potential situation in a 5v5 ancient game on Team_Battleground. You got an aggressive leader and decided on not rushing or going for a common 4cities-granaries-monuments-barracks buildup, but attacking with a bigger stack before Construction is researched or even player´s build up completely. Your plan is to get as many units (axes/spears only, being representative for 23 hammers of production each) as possible till turn 50 with the total disregard for the long-term consequences on your empire.

3
It is time for our challenge to move away from ancient start. “Smart Ragnar” simulates the role of Ragnar/France in a 3v3 Renaissance Inland Sea teamer. He has to build up science with Financial and at the same time get as many French Muskets as possible. French Muskets are very important for the whole team in Renaissance, because compared to Knights, which the other players will build, they get defense bonus in cities (and unlike any other unit, that does so, have two moves). Also they can cover attacking Knight stacks against Pikeman and War Elephants. For further information see our article on Renaissance

Your aim is to expand to three cities, spread your religion and build as many tripple promo French Muskets as possible, while still building up to 60 science/turn over the course of 30 turns. To be able to build French Muskets right away, you have Gunpowder from the start.
 
The 5th installment is finally here... stupid laptop. Link in post #1 for anyone subscribed to this thread :)

I'll eventually get to posting a solution of #4...
 
I would love to see a two city challenge where you have just settled your second city to grab copper and are about to tech (or just have teched I'm not so sure about research rates) writing. The goal is to get out 25 axes (at least 15 of which are CR1) and a library as soon as possible.


I often find myself in situations like this as the greeks or sumerians where I think I can cripple an AI early and effectively block off a lot of land with an axe rush but when ever I do it I immediately tank my economy so hard that AIs are at calendar/feudalism/construction/currency by the time I get aesthetics. Having a great scientist coming in to bulb for trading would really help there in covering my costs while I rebuild my empire. Especially at immortal level where I am playing right now, the window for an axe rush (even with Vultures) seems so small that I pretty much always abandon everything else while I try to take advantage of it.
 
25 Axes seems over the top... but something reasonable (10 Axes) would be possible. I'll look into it after the next one...

Speaking of which, I'll make the next challenge in about 2 weeks after a loooooong delay. A bunch of granaries as I had said at an earlier point, because these are easy to calculate ;)
 
fyermind said:
I would love to see a two city challenge where you have just settled your second city to grab copper and are about to tech (or just have teched I'm not so sure about research rates) writing. The goal is to get out 25 axes (at least 15 of which are CR1) and a library as soon as possible.
Click to expand...


There was a challenge like this by fastmoves.

goals
Get as many Axes/Spears with three experience points (barracks!) as possible till turn 50.

rules

Upgrading Warriors to Axes/Spears is not allowed!
Your research path has to look like that: 1. Bronze Working 2. Animal Husbandry 3. Archery 4. Iron Working 5. Pottery, then (around turn 38) save money going to 0% research.

http://fastmoves.wordpress.com/2010/01/12/challenge-2-“montezuma´s-revenge”/



10 axes is barely enough for defense in multiplayer. You need 20-30 units to do some damage against competent player.

Another idea for challenge could be something space race related. Perhaps single city about to start building Spaceship?
 
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