NEWB1: Initial Expansion

Barbs and events can greatly skew the outcome of this game, considering it's a contest to get the best time in terms of what turn you clear the requirements. The person who wins this will not necessarily be the one who played the map optimally - merely settling in areas with immediate access to resources/chops and drawing lucky event or barb spawns will shave turns.

Warriors seem the most cost effective means here though.
 
Bit of clarification please:
Found 4 cities means 4 cities+capital=5 in total or 4 including capital?
4 tile improvements per city =16 or 20 improved tiles?
Tile improvements include farm, pasture, cottage, mine, fishing net but exclude roads?
What about city overlap?

I don't see a lot of beginners here :p

I guess an article with links to a series if this kind can be interesting though, to help beginners set foot in the game.
I guess he means 4 cities total =>16 improved tiles which are exactly what you said right above.
City overlap is no problem, but doesn't reduce the number of improved tiles needed.
 
I don't see a lot of beginners here :p

I guess an article with links to a series if this kind can be interesting though, to help beginners set foot in the game.
I guess he means 4 cities total =>16 improved tiles which are exactly what you said right above.
City overlap is no problem, but doesn't reduce the number of improved tiles needed.

So you cram some cities next to the capitol, make some cheap improvements, possibly tile-swap food from capital to grow (then give it back if needed).

You could clear the requirements w/o roads, and without actually having the food to work all 4 improved tiles in the new city (since it grew by borrowing food :lol:)!

How funny would it be to grow off the capitol's flood plains or livestock, but have 2 mines and 2 cottages in the new city and no ability to work them, but to win this challenge :p?

I get the feeling that holding off on military and taking the risk w/ barbs will lead to a faster time also.

It should be an interesting exercise but not likely to be one that you'd want to replicate typically ;).

I'll laugh when the person who should have won the challenge loses 5 warriors to the vedic aryans and doesn't have enough hammers in units :lol:.
 
So you cram some cities next to the capitol, make some cheap improvements, possibly tile-swap food from capital to grow (then give it back if needed).

You could clear the requirements w/o roads, and without actually having the food to work all 4 improved tiles in the new city (since it grew by borrowing food :lol:)!

How funny would it be to grow off the capitol's flood plains or livestock, but have 2 mines and 2 cottages in the new city and no ability to work them, but to win this challenge :p?

I get the feeling that holding off on military and taking the risk w/ barbs will lead to a faster time also.

It should be an interesting exercise but not likely to be one that you'd want to replicate typically ;).

I'll laugh when the person who should have won the challenge loses 5 warriors to the vedic aryans and doesn't have enough hammers in units :lol:.
alternatively you could build all your units to begin with, capture 3 AI cities already improved

turn 88 for me, I guess I'm a slow starter
 
Barbs and events can greatly skew the outcome of this game, considering it's a contest to get the best time in terms of what turn you clear the requirements. The person who wins this will not necessarily be the one who played the map optimally - merely settling in areas with immediate access to resources/chops and drawing lucky event or barb spawns will shave turns.

What on earth do you mean by that ?? :D

Spoiler :
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Barbs and events can greatly skew the outcome of this game, considering it's a contest to get the best time in terms of what turn you clear the requirements.

barbs not. It is noble afterall not immortal... have not seen non animal barbs before i finished. Two warriors for settler protection was just enough...
 
barbs not. It is noble afterall not immortal... have not seen non animal barbs before i finished. Two warriors for settler protection was just enough...

Someone might beat you by a turn by gambling w/ 0 warriors ;).
 
I don't think that the point of this exercise is to "win" an online leaderboard.
 
I don't think that the point of this exercise is to "win" an online leaderboard.

True, and I have no intention of actually using any of the methods I suggested, but it's fun to (unfairly) point out the limitations of the rules, and when going for them vs not might be practical.

Warrior rush cheesing aside, noble players should at least get an idea of how quickly one can possibly expand, and later figure out when it's good or not.
 
Oooh good call, there's nothing saying we can't warrior rush.

That much is true (hey, knock yourself out), but the conditions do say "founded", not captured.

Founding four cities means capital plus three more.
 
I had, in fact, considered specifying city locations. Events likely should have been turned off, to simplify the comparison. Not sure what to do about huts - I don't like the idea of removing them completely, because exploration is part of the game, and I'm not convinced that the AI knows that huts have been removed.
 
The AI doesn't act especially in favor of huts either. If they don't happen to gain LoS of them on auto explore they'll blow right by them.

Huts should def be off IMO so that people don't get writing, AH, or BW around 3500 BC :p.
 
Was a very fun challenge. You should do these more often. I only tried once but I doubt I could've done much better. I don't see how some people are getting 63 and stuff. Maybe I settled my capital wrong =/.

I beat the challenge on turn 80(875 BC). Save attached. Some tips on how to improve would be great.

Spoiler :
Started out by settling 1N to grab the cows too. I was happy that I got fish too but I never improved them during the round(too busy pumping out settlers/warriors to worry about work boats):

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Build order was: Worker->Warrior->Settler->Settler->Settler->Warrior(3 or 4 times)->Library. Started on a Granary afterwards.

Luckily I popped Mining from a hut:

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Tech order was AH->(popped mining)->(I don't remember that well from here xD)Pottery->BW->Fishing->Writing->Alphabet->Mathamatics.

Found my next 3 cities after a few turns:

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I built mostly workers and granaries in all of them(and then warriors in the second city, who was pumping them out faster than the capital). I had 3 workers out by the time my fourth was built and I got the improvements done as fast as I could.

Soon after I got the required military units:

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Then my library finished:

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After the improvements were done I told all my workers to build trade route(except for one, who built a mine) so I could get all the resources hooked, and it always looks so much better with roads connecting everything.

Finally on turn 80 the 4th city grew to size 4. I forgot to take a picture =/.
 
Was a very fun challenge. You should do these more often. I only tried once but I doubt I could've done much better. I don't see how some people are getting 63 and stuff. Maybe I settled my capital wrong =/.

My guess would be the number of trees you left standing...
 
Not sure what to do about huts - I don't like the idea of removing them completely, because exploration is part of the game, and I'm not convinced that the AI knows that huts have been removed.

There are so many artificial chinks in an exercise like this that I doubt that losing the huts would alter the game that much more, and it would smooth things out.

IMHO one of the characteristics of this kind of exercise should be focus, to allow the newbs to get to grips with the issue at hand with minimal distractions.
 
this is exactly my kinda challenge, but i won't be able to play it for maybe a week or two, due to an accidental unistallation....
 
A middle of the road 67 turns for me (2nd attempt).
 
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