[BTS] Notes on marathon Space Colony

[Wednesday]

The beaker output exceeded expectations and I finished research one turn sooner, so its turn 318 launch and turn 348 or 20 BC landing.

With +44 food Sushi and finishing 11 turns sooner than @WastinTime did, there is a good chance to beat the score record. And since the HoF site is still down, I'm going to take my time.

Spoiler :

 

[Mitchum]

Well done!

All of your research comes from Sushi-powered Representation Scientists, right?

Regarding the strike, how many units do you lose per turn? I'm guessing that you use work boats or is it some other unit?

Knowing the power of Sushi, would you still found Mining before Sushi? Or would you do it the other way around? I always felt that Mining first was better because those extra hammers make spreading Sushi easier/faster.

 

[Wednesday]

Well done!

All of your research comes from Sushi-powered Representation Scientists, right?

Regarding the strike, how many units do you lose per turn? I'm guessing that you use work boats or is it some other unit?

Knowing the power of Sushi, would you still found Mining before Sushi? Or would you do it the other way around? I always felt that Mining first was better because those extra hammers make spreading Sushi easier/faster.

Not too shoddily played, I believe. I was rather impulsive, if not downright hasty, on several occasions. There were miscalculations. For example, I got wrong value for Composites and noticed it only when I could not do Ecology in 1 turn. Did not make any difference in the end because then I did Genetics in 1 turn, instead of 2 turns as I planned, and there still was about 8000 beakers overflow.

Mining produced 8466 hammers (9906 with multipliers taken into account).
Average population from Computers to launch was 1559, most of them scientists. Since most of the cities with Sushi had libraries and some also had observatories and labs, average multiplier was probably about 1.3, which brings scientists contribution to roughly 12000 bpt.

Workboats in neutral keep executives, missionaries, explorers and workers in my culture alive, and ships with these units are also safe. This makes workboats perfect sacrifice to keep late game spreading on. I did final Mining spreads on t305. That turn 21 units were swallowed by the strike monster, so this turn cost me 1260 hammers worth of workboats. Three executives and the gold cost 753+ hammers. That was 317-305=12 turns before I finished research; that's 3*51*12=1836 hammers. So it almost entirely covers the expenses and workers had one more turn to build improvements.

It is hard to make Sushi stronger than 20 food early, while mining typically starts at 35-40 hammers and quickly gets to 45. Besides, the benefit of Sushi is delayed and you need Kremlin to make the most of it; getting enough overflow for executives without either Mining or Kremlin is excruciatingly difficult (and I did not put it this way just for a want of a fancy word). That is Mining is just plain more powerful until certain point. So, its definitely Mining first. May be, if you go for early Communism...

 

[nocho]

Impressive stuff Wednesday!

 

[Wednesday]

Done. Can't upload any saves until the game is accepted (or rejected) in HoF. I've got 14 GB of screenshots, they were useful while I was playing the game, but I'd rather not bother uploading them.

Spoiler :

Here is a little GIFt. It is incomplete because the game began to stutter after 1000 BC and I stopped it. Once the game is accepted I will try to make a full version.

Spoiler :

 

[Wednesday]

Small cities should get granary and library and skip forge. And that is a vast majority. Some cities will need forges for executives. Only a handful of cities will be getting a complete set of hammer buildings, most of them will be involved in construction of the spaceship.

Built 22 factories and power plants. If I had the population to whip more factories I would have done so, but 22 is enough to manage essential tasks.

That limits my options for generation of overflow gold for spreading, which is a problem in itself as intend to keep spreading 9-10 corporations every turn. May be, I will use more than one religion for missionary gold.

I used four religions. Note for future games: missionary gold is great, use as many religions as possible. Missionaries are not wasted hammers - they can be used to protect ships from the strike monster.

 

[Kaitzilla]

...just rely on the lucky number to carry me through it? Ridiculous. I do not rely on chance.

Ya! Civilization 4 is mostly a strategy game

I am a murderous psychopath, running a militaristic police state.

That's the spirit.

Done. Can't upload any saves until the game is accepted (or rejected) in HoF. I've got 14 GB of screenshots, they were useful while I was playing the game, but I'd rather not bother uploading them.

Spoiler :

View attachment 740822

Here is a little GIFt. It is incomplete because the game began to stutter after 1000 BC and I stopped it. Once the game is accepted I will try to make a full version.

Spoiler :

View attachment 740821

Tremendous work Wednesday.
This was weeks of careful effort, where any mistake could be disastrous!

You have achieved the hardest and most mythical achievement for Civilization 4, a classic game which will be played forever.

B.C. Space Landing!
Not on Settler difficulty!
...
.......
With Hatshepsut






I look forward to the Hall of Fame update.

 

[Wednesday]

I'd like very much to whip a settler in Delhi. I do not have enough islands for new vassals. Unless I settle some more soon, I will have to house one or two vassals on the mainland. Not the disaster it may seem. May be, I should get on with it? What does it matter if I get one or two fewer cities with Mining in the end, if it saves a lot of trouble now and allows me to use Delhi for other purposes?

It is acceptable if it helps to get on with increasing the domination limit when you do not have enough islands. It may be a good idea to pick cities for your vassals so that they are likely to flip back to you, once you start spreading Sushi. You don't want them to flip until the domination limit hits 76%.

First thing to plan is the spaceship.

This bit worked out well.

Next step is to plan early Mining spreading. I need to know what resources I need for important tasks - such as the spaceship and corporation spreading - in order know what overflow or chops I can drop into Taj/NE.

And so did this.

It would have been so much easier if I could still build war chariots. If I ever play it again I will either make one of my vassals pop the huts or just skip the Astro gamble altogether.

Giving a city and a scout to a vassal ought to do the trick. Although it could be a better practice to build a few monasteries and rely more on the missionary gold, and pop the huts as soon as you get Optics, rather than put it off until Assembly Line.

Ya! Civilization 4 is mostly a strategy game

I prefer to think of it as a huge optimization problem with a few random variables.

With Hatshepsut

Do not underestimate women.

May be, Ramesses can do better. Why don't you give it a shot? Huge map, perhaps?

 

[happysheep]

Done. Can't upload any saves until the game is accepted (or rejected) in HoF. I've got 14 GB of screenshots, they were useful while I was playing the game, but I'd rather not bother uploading them.

Spoiler :

View attachment 740822

Here is a little GIFt. It is incomplete because the game began to stutter after 1000 BC and I stopped it. Once the game is accepted I will try to make a full version.

Spoiler :

View attachment 740821

woah 14GB of screenshots. Perhaps you could upload some of them to a google drive? I would love to see them :>

 

[Wednesday]

woah 14GB of screenshots. Perhaps you could upload some of them to a google drive? I would love to see them :>

Its hard to find anything in there. Saves are much better.

Final charts for failgold, GP, corporations and spaceship could be useful.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Why don't you give it a shot? Huge map, perhaps?

I think Large maps might be ideal map size for the B.C. space challenge?

I was facing enormous difficulties with just the size of the Huge map attempting a Turn 349 goal.
Also, more resources had to be gathered on Huge compared to Large to get the same corporation benefits.


Your clear thinking and willingness to use another civilization besides Inca are really inspiring.

 

[Wednesday]

I think Large maps might be ideal map size for the B.C. space challenge?

I was facing enormous difficulties with just the size of the Huge map attempting a Turn 349 goal.
Also, more resources had to be gathered on Huge compared to Large to get the same corporation benefits.

I think the key is to get more workers sooner - there are 200 more forests to chop before you get to corporations. Steal more workers and build up your army faster, get this snowball rolling as soon as possible. Even if you end up with only 20% bigger empire, that's more than enough to compensate for more expensive research (7.14%).

You will need a better UU to expand faster. Quechua is fine early in the game but runs out of steam very quickly. I think it should be a 2-move unit, such as War Chariots or Immortals. Both civs also have great traits. Although Romans have an edge in the late midgame (turn 200+) and Imperialistic becomes more interesting on Huge.

Why not try for a BC Culture victory on Large? Should be doable with t250-255 Sushi. I got t258 Mining in this game, and I had to prepare for spreading, collect Mining resources and save a bunch of forests for the spaceship.