Next Emperor Masters' Challenge?

[aelf]

I think there's still sufficient interest for another Emperor Challenge. On my part, I've learnt a lot from the Challenges so far and have enjoyed myself thoroughly playing them (although it could get quite stressful ). But how should we play the next Emperor Challenge?

One idea I have is to play an Ice Age continents map on normal speed. This is new for me and I'm sure most people will find it interesting and challenging enough. The theme would be "The Day After Tomorrow". The world has gone back to a primitive stage as natural disasters brought about by global warming destroy civilization as we know it - basically, what happened in the movie but worse. So we play one group of people who survive and start rebuilding civilization from scratch. Unfortunately, the date has to start from 4000BC We can turn off diplomatic victory to prevent another win through that avenue

If most of you like the idea and we go ahead with it, should we play a random leader or should we choose? One option is playing Shaka and going the SE way. If we do that, we can compare the results of our game with the SEs in the SE vs CE thread Wodan started. However, I'm not sure how to build a good SE without making it too much of a hybrid economy, since to me some city sites are just not suited for specialist farming. Would need to be advised on that.

What are your opinions?

 

[GaiusMarius]

Yes this sounds great, I've been a long-time lurker and i really enjoy your challenges.

I have one suggestion, perhaps you could epic speed? Normal just seems too fast.

Eveything else is great!

 

[dutchfire]

As I've said before, Colossus+G lighthouse seems an interesting challenge to me. Maybe on a map with other coast settings (don't know how they work, but you can make the amount of coast larger, right?)

 

[acidsatyr]

why not immortal challange or SE chalange, something different.

 

[tuckerthecat]

I love reading your Master Challenge threads so keep up the good work! Hmm Shaka seems really poor for a SE economy, also ice age maps I think would tend to be poor food locations so SE would be even worse on this map. I think SE really shines when using phil civs, not so much with the other traits. I'd pick Carthage for this map personally, go for the GLhouse, plus UB & try and run a trade route based economy.

 

[DrJambo]

Epic speed definitely.

Have you thought of trying with the Aggressive AI option on to possibly help spur AI to AI wars a little more? I noticed from the last two challenges you had the AI doesn't tend to war with other AI much.

 

[Phrederick]

Try a game with these settings: Ice Age, Small Islands, Agressive AI. Ragnar or Hannibal would be who I would chose to play as. It's a fun challenge, because the lack of land means it's hard to get any sort of significant production.

 

[flamingzaroc121]

or play archipelago as ragnar to really get the full water invasion experience

 

[asabahi]

Start another game as soon as you can. I need my fix of EMC.

 

[kniteowl]

does this mean you'll show us 2 seperate games? 1 wit SE and 1 wit CE?

Turn the Diplomacy Victory On... jus don't vote for a dipolmacy win this time... at least let the AI have a Chance at winning Diplomacy.

If your doing a SE try a Preist Production City, try to found a Religion in at a location with plenty of food, Build the shrine (which will allow you to assign 3 Priest) build Angkor Wat (+1H for all Priest Specailist & get to assign another 3 priest) Techs To Prioritize (Philosophy Angkor Wat, Music for Catherdrals, Codes of law for Conf) Any Great Prophets with No shrines to Build or good techs to research should be added into the Preist Prooduction City.

 

[aelf]

why not immortal challange or SE chalange, something different.

Didn't I suggest running an SE? And after winning a challenge on normal speed I do intend to move on to Immortal. Also, I am trying to make it different by suggesting an Ice Age map, but I guess people have different definitions of 'different'.

One of you mentioned Ice Age maps having low food, so perhaps an SE would not be good. An economy based on trade routes is interesting. We could make use of a rather strange wonder, the ToA. Plus the Great Lighthouse, of course. To this end, it would be necessary to play with more coasts (higher sea level?). I would, however, avoid making it an islands map because the AI simply sucks at it.

Personally, I am not in favour of choosing Hannibal because he has two of the best traits in the game. However, his UB helps with the creation of a trade route economy so I'm considering him. An Industrious leader might be necessary or there's no way we can ensure that we get to build the necessary wonders. How about Roosevelt? He is Industrious and Organized, which means he gets a bonus building wonders and lighthouses (for the Great Lighthouse). He also has Navy Seals to help with a late-game intercontinental domination push.

Aggressive AI is a possibility, but I have a feeling it skews diplomacy too much, creating Monty clones and making the game too weird. The AI gets enough bonuses on Emperor as it is, and I'm intending to play on normal speed to make it more challenging for myself. Yes, playing on normal speed would make the game shorter, but it also means I can play each turn more carefully.

Well, I have not made my decision so you can give other suggestions. One big issue I'm trying to decide on is whether to go back to vanilla, wait for the new Warlords patch or just go ahead with the game. The problem is the current Warlords does have a few bugs that can ruin the game (eg. the CTD bug when a city with naval units flips to anyone on the map, the risk of which cannot be avoided unless we turn off city flipping). I'm not sure I want to risk starting a game under such conditions. I'm still thanking my lucky stars that the last Emperor Challenge went smoothly.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

aelf, find someone you trust, take the same start and play different strategies. see jumpmasters in civ3 SGs. maybe a third thread to discuss how one or the other is progressing better...

 

[aelf]

does this mean you'll show us 2 seperate games? 1 wit SE and 1 wit CE?

Nope. This is not a direct study of the comparison between an SE and a CE.

Turn the Diplomacy Victory On... jus don't vote for a dipolmacy win this time... at least let the AI have a Chance at winning Diplomacy..

Let me just say that in my games the AI doesn't usually have a chance at winning by diplomacy anyway Leaving it on would only mean that we could accidentally win by diplomacy again.

If your doing a SE try a Preist Production City, try to found a Religion in at a location with plenty of food, Build the shrine (which will allow you to assign 3 Priest) build Angkor Wat (+1H for all Priest Specailist & get to assign another 3 priest) Techs To Prioritize (Philosophy Angkor Wat, Music for Catherdrals, Codes of law for Conf) Any Great Prophets with No shrines to Build or good techs to research should be added into the Preist Prooduction City.

Interesting idea, but it would make it another 'religious game'. Maybe we can try this out in the future.

 

[aelf]

aelf, find someone you trust, take the same start and play different strategies. see jumpmasters in civ3 SGs. maybe a third thread to discuss how one or the other is progressing better...

Too much hassle and makes the game too scientific Anyway, there are so many variables to a game that I don't think a comparison would ever be fair unless in a strictly controlled environment, which isn't going to be fun. Come on, a win is a win, and on the settings we are going to play with, any strategy that works must have more than some merit in it

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

Too much hassle and makes the game too scientific Anyway, there are so many variables to a game that I don't think a comparison would ever be fair unless in a strictly controlled environment, which isn't going to be fun. Come on, a win is a win, and on the settings we are going to play with, any strategy that works must have more than some merit in it

I was just making a suggestion. I agree and merely wanted to throw out a suggestion. I'll shut up and lurk once you get the new game started.

 

[Gnarfflinger]

I'd like to see how to approach a game on an archipelego map. I tend to play Pangea when I choose...

 

[malekithe]

I'd like to see how to approach a game on an archipelego map. I tend to play Pangea when I choose...

Did you read through many of the reports for GOTM08? It was only on monarch difficulty, but featured an archipelago map. Many people did precisely what Aelf was suggesting and went for an economy dominated by trade routes and coastal commerce. It could make for interesting reading if you're curious about archipelago maps.

 

[aelf]

I was just making a suggestion. I agree and merely wanted to throw out a suggestion. I'll shut up and lurk once you get the new game started.

Don't shut up. Contribute!

The trade route thing does look interesting. We could really try that out. But I have to see what kind of maps can be generated. I don't want to play ones that the AI cannot adapt to. I'll see what the map generator can give me tonight.

And what's it going to be: go back to vanilla, wait for the next patch or just go ahead?

 

[aelf]

Yes this sounds great, I've been a long-time lurker and i really enjoy your challenges.

I have one suggestion, perhaps you could epic speed? Normal just seems too fast.

Eveything else is great!

Welcome to Civfanatics!

Actually, when I first started some people complained that epic speed makes the game easier. Well, it does, although probably not by as much as some think. Before I move on to Immortal (and it's time I do, it's been 5 months) I think I should win a challenge on the more challenging normal speed. That's my main reason.

 

[dutchfire]

If you want trade routes, the spanish UB gives them, right?