Minor Gauntlet Four has concluded, and now it's time for the new one.
Victory: Spaceship
Mapsize: Small
Difficulty: Sid
Victory: Spaceship
Mapsize: Small
Difficulty: Sid
Minor Gauntlet Five
- Thread starter superslug
- Start date
killercane
Deity
0-1 so far. Im going Pangaea all the way. In my game Germany built Sun Tzu's in 1650 BC (cascade) and then attacked me with longbows a few turns later. Thats pretty quick, huh?
Pentium
Digital Matter
Sid? 
I don't think I'm ready for this one yet... But my no-military Sid Pangaea games are getting better and better.
I don't think I'm ready for this one yet... But my no-military Sid Pangaea games are getting better and better.
Well I gave this a go at the weekend. Played Byzantines on a 60% water 'pelago map with four other scientific civs. After two attempts where another civ was placing a town in my first ring area before 3000BC, I managed to get a reasonable draw on the third map. I wasn't alone on my island but I managed to get enough of a core going to make this game a valid attempt before the Koreans took all the remaining land .
I wimped out on fighting though. I was tempted when I got Rep Parts but then I saw what happened when another civ made a landing on a Korean tundra town. Just short of 200 infantry and cavalry raced to its defence. Deity I can handle but this is just crazy! Maybe 'pelago is not the way to go unless you get an island to yourself? At least if you are on a landmass with a couple of other civs they can reduce the size of their armies when they slog it out with one another.
I managed to get the monarchy slingshot; 7 turn revolution during which time the Ottomans built the Hanging Gardens! I was first to get Monarchy but last to get its benefits due to every other civ getting it. I later revolted to Republic and got another 8 turns of revolution. I'm not a Sid player so I ask if this is normal for this level or did I just get just bad RNG luck?
In the end I lost out to culture. The map was effectively three large islands and Ottomans got the luck of the draw in getting one to themselves. Korea and Greece were close to 50% of 80K but the Ottomans reached the 80K target in 940AD and there was nothing I could do about it. I've got a few more saves with 60% water and a few with 5 rivals on 70% water but maybe I need a rethink! Greece with rivals that only get warriors as free units and put up with a despot GA?
I wimped out on fighting though. I was tempted when I got Rep Parts but then I saw what happened when another civ made a landing on a Korean tundra town. Just short of 200 infantry and cavalry raced to its defence. Deity I can handle but this is just crazy! Maybe 'pelago is not the way to go unless you get an island to yourself? At least if you are on a landmass with a couple of other civs they can reduce the size of their armies when they slog it out with one another.
I managed to get the monarchy slingshot; 7 turn revolution during which time the Ottomans built the Hanging Gardens! I was first to get Monarchy but last to get its benefits due to every other civ getting it. I later revolted to Republic and got another 8 turns of revolution. I'm not a Sid player so I ask if this is normal for this level or did I just get just bad RNG luck?
In the end I lost out to culture. The map was effectively three large islands and Ottomans got the luck of the draw in getting one to themselves. Korea and Greece were close to 50% of 80K but the Ottomans reached the 80K target in 940AD and there was nothing I could do about it. I've got a few more saves with 60% water and a few with 5 rivals on 70% water but maybe I need a rethink! Greece with rivals that only get warriors as free units and put up with a despot GA?
killercane
Deity
If you want to do that, use Persia with spears on a hilltop for no early GA. The last time I tried that, I had 2 Immortal armies within the first 50 turns.
Ive been trying some crazy civs for this, like Germany and the Zulu. Its interesting... I think Im going to have to revamp to no scientific opponents if Im going to stay on pangea. I can stay at tech parity for a lot of the AA if I get into the trading loop early, but that age change hits and bam Im way behind. Pang is gonna have to be a Great Library deal. Ive won a few small pang Sid games but those were just straight war the entire time with dirty deals on both sides. Its a different calculus here.
Since my last post I've had two more serious attempts. Once as the Byzantines and the second as the English but I lost both in space races. I tried the English because of the seafaring/commercial traits and the UU seemed well timed for a GA. In that game I actually got the Republic slingshot and was the first to enter the MA!!! However I found it tough to combat WW in Republic at this level due to the large number of troops that are involved and switching governments always seems to take seven or eight turns. I don't think that I'll be able to play another before the deadline but I've really enjoyed the games so I will probably give this another shot at the weekend (unless I can somehow sneak a few hours during the week 
).
Nice call for the settings, 'slug. This has forced me out of the comfort zone and that's been good for me.
).Nice call for the settings, 'slug. This has forced me out of the comfort zone and that's been good for me.
I caved in and tried one more go. Greece was my civ this time. I lost out just two turns from my final SS part so I'm getting closer. It would not have been a great date but a win is a win as far as I'm concerned when it gets to sid level.
I actually had an opportunity to win the game by diplomacy. India had built the UN and made several attempts to get a Diplo victory. I was surprised to see that I qualified in the last attempt (must have been via population) but I wanted to win via SS so I abstained. Two of the other four civs voted for me so victory woulkd have been mine if I had not been playing for the gauntlet victory condition. As it happens small Sid Diplo is an empty slot.
Oh well, at least I'm improving! 
I actually had an opportunity to win the game by diplomacy. India had built the UN and made several attempts to get a Diplo victory. I was surprised to see that I qualified in the last attempt (must have been via population) but I wanted to win via SS so I abstained. Two of the other four civs voted for me so victory woulkd have been mine if I had not been playing for the gauntlet victory condition. As it happens small Sid Diplo is an empty slot.
Oh well, at least I'm improving!
I know that this gauntlet is over but I had to try and get a win. I started my week away from work with a bang and got the victory I wanted.
Pangea, all settings average except 5byo, 5 rivals (Egypt, India, Arabia, America, China). A 1525AD lauch date is not that impressive but as I've mentioned before, I don't consider myself a Sid level player so I'm pleased with it. I am learning though.
I must admit that I got a bit of an early boost...
My thoughts went to rushing the Pyramids and what trades would be best to get Masonry but another civ built then in the interturn. I therefore used my tech lead in this area to go for the Great Library which enabled me to build up a small treasury so I guess that it's not the total victory that I've been looking for. I was still able to hold my own on research once the GL became obsolete though as the scientific trait helps with this. My only lux was Ivory so I built SoZ, but only got around half a dozen ACs so that was a waste of time! I also managed to build ToE and Hoover which were not so useless.
In all my games I've found it difficult to wage war and research so I kept to my own island. This was partially because I wanted to protect what I had. I knew that I had a valuable resource by the town north of my capital as every civ except Egypt tried to sneak attack me there. Every time an attack was due there would be this trail of boats that had to travel along haif of my coastline before they reached their destination. Quite amusing really. It turns out that I had two sources of uranium on the island, which sort of made up for the lack of salt, coal, oil and aluminium.
In the end the only other civ to have uranium (Egypt) was my only serious contender in the space race. I'm just lucky that the AI is so useless at conducting a space launch as Egypt had a two tech lead on me at the end so it's good to know that you can rely on AI stupidity even at this level.
Pangea, all settings average except 5byo, 5 rivals (Egypt, India, Arabia, America, China). A 1525AD lauch date is not that impressive but as I've mentioned before, I don't consider myself a Sid level player so I'm pleased with it. I am learning though.
I must admit that I got a bit of an early boost...
My thoughts went to rushing the Pyramids and what trades would be best to get Masonry but another civ built then in the interturn. I therefore used my tech lead in this area to go for the Great Library which enabled me to build up a small treasury so I guess that it's not the total victory that I've been looking for. I was still able to hold my own on research once the GL became obsolete though as the scientific trait helps with this. My only lux was Ivory so I built SoZ, but only got around half a dozen ACs so that was a waste of time! I also managed to build ToE and Hoover which were not so useless.
In all my games I've found it difficult to wage war and research so I kept to my own island. This was partially because I wanted to protect what I had. I knew that I had a valuable resource by the town north of my capital as every civ except Egypt tried to sneak attack me there. Every time an attack was due there would be this trail of boats that had to travel along haif of my coastline before they reached their destination. Quite amusing really. It turns out that I had two sources of uranium on the island, which sort of made up for the lack of salt, coal, oil and aluminium.
In the end the only other civ to have uranium (Egypt) was my only serious contender in the space race. I'm just lucky that the AI is so useless at conducting a space launch as Egypt had a two tech lead on me at the end so it's good to know that you can rely on AI stupidity even at this level.
killercane
Deity
1525 aint too shabby! Im still finishing up a game. These Sid games take much longer than normal.
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