predesad & the quartermasters

[predesad]

I am intrigued by this challenge and new to the HOF, I just submitted my first game earlier today. I am going to try to get the quartermasters using the minimum amount of games possible, i.e. different difficulty, world size, and victory condition for each game plus one milk run. This thread is to track my progress and for write ups of my games.

Game #1: Standard, Conquest, Chieftain - Aztecs: 750 BC - 2880 points

-took 3 maps before I finally got the one I wanted to finish, the first one had lots of jungle between me & the AI's thus negating the jags extra movement & my later strategy, the second I mistakenly put a scientific civ in the game and they had spears when I met them as my closest neighbor. My final game I still managed to put a scientific opponent in, but I was tired of starting over for a chieftain game so I played anyway

-settings: Standard, Pangea, 80% H2O, dry, hot, 5 billion, no barbs, no SGL

-opponents: America, India, France, Ottomans

Game #2: Small, Domination, Warlord - Persia: 90 BC - 4630 points


-settings: Small, pangaea, 80% H2O, normal, temperate, 4 billion, no barbs, no SGL

-opponents: Scandinavia, Portugal, England

Game #3: Tiny, Regent, 100K - Babylon: 1350 AD - 3545 points

-settings: Tiny, Pangaea, 60% H2O, wet, warm, 5 billion, no barbs, no SGL

-opponents: America & Japan

Game #4: Huge, Monarch, 20K - Celts: 1772 AD - 4069 points

-settings: Huge, Archipalego, 60% H2O, wet, warm, 5 billion, no barbs, no SGL

-opponents: America, Inca, Maya, China, Zulu, Mongols, Arabs, Egypt

 

[predesad]

Game #1: Standard, Conquest, Chieftain - Aztecs - 750 BC - 2880 points

**screenshots in posts # 12 & 13

-took 3 maps before I finally got the one I wanted to finish, the first one had lots of jungle between me & the AI's thus negating the jags extra movement & my later strategy, the second I mistakenly put a scientific civ in the game and they had spears when I met them as my closest neighbor. My final game I still managed to put a scientific opponent in, but I was tired of starting over for a chieftain game so I played anyway

-settings: Pangea, 80% h2o, dry, hot, 5 billion, no barbs, America, India, France, Ottomans

This was a typical rush jags out to find the enemy game. My Jags managed to knock of one of my nearby neighbors, the Indians, but I failed against an Ottoman warrior. A couple archers later and the Ottomans fell.

I researched 2 techs: The Wheel & Horseback Riding. Then used horse to go after the other two civs which had been found by my jags, only they had BW & spears by that time.

In setting up this game my criteria was as follows:

1) no seafaring civs, to hopefully move the starts inland & save a few turns vs. a seafaring civ which might start on the coast all the way across the continent

2) no civs with an AA UU, just on the offhand chance they might have an opportunity to build one & then get a GA & add a few turns to the conquest attempt

3) no scientific civs to avoid spears at the start, although I put the Ottomans in by accident

4) no militaristic civs to avoid archers since i left my own cities undefended at all times & did not want the harassment especially from a close neighbor if my jag rush failed

5) hot / dry / 5 billion to hopefully get more flat lands

A big mistake this game was building too many horses & not enough workers, more workers to raod to the AI would have come in handy, the game ended with many horses not having reached the battlefront

Not really much else to tell, it was a chieftain game after all. Altough this game placed 5th, I could have done better, but it's on the table & that's all I really wanted so I wont stress about it.

 

[predesad]

Game #2: Small, Domination, Warlord - Persia: 90 BC - 4630 points

Setup: Pangeae, 80% H2O, normal, temperate, 4 billion, no barbs, sci leaders off

Opponents: England, Scandinavia, Portugal

I had a 4 turn settler factory after moving one tile at the start, worker spotted cow from mountains. I built a couple warriors & another worker then set up the settler factory new cities built workers right away.

I first met Scandinavia & traded for warrior code, then I met England & Portugal at about the same time, getting pottery & alphabet in trades. I researched only 5 techs - iron working, writing, literature, code of laws, & philosophy, claiming republic for free. I then turned research off.

After meeting Scandinavia I built 2 archers & within a few turns they were eliminated, both archers surviving. About 4 more archers later & England was toast. I rested my units & built a couple Immortals. I dispatched Portugal, saving their capitol. It was during this war that I revolted and got my GA. I never agreed to peace with Portugal & kept 8 units within their borders, one tile away from the city square to choke them off. Every time they built an archer & sent it out it was eliminated by an immortal, I had built a couple more to have a few spare units.

I also set up a 4 turn worker factory and built lots of workers, mainly roading everywhere & then, after switching to republic, irrigating. I took turns rushing settlers & libraries, trying to space cities 5 tiles apart.

It was a pretty simple game & just waited until I had enough cities settled & borders expanded until I hit 66% land (with all civs eliminated & the Ports stuck with 1 citizen since they pop rushed an archer everytime they grew I had 98% population)

I also considered Egypt for this game, would have had an almost identical strategy, except I would have included Japan instead of England, but I did not want the hassle of not being able to move through marshes, jungles, mountains or deal with replacing units if battles didnt go well while choking off my last enemy. On the plus side it would have meant less research (horseback riding vs ironworking) & cheaper culture buildings, but i have no regrets using Persia instead.

 

[predesad]

Game #3: Tiny, Regent, 100K - Babylon: 1350 AD - 3545 points

Game settings: Tiny Pangaea 60% H2O wet warm 5 billion no barbs no sci leaders

Opponents: America & Japan

-my only real map requirement for this game was a 4 turn settler factory at the start, a river, not too much jungle / marsh near the start, & either horses or iron nearby. Abandoned one game because of lack of horses / iron.

Started by building 2 warriors, a worker, granary, settler, then temple; placing more emphasis on getting settler factory set up than building that first temple, not sure if that was a great idea or not, but on the grand scheme of things I don't think 60K of culture is going to be significantly impacted by delaying the temple and decided it was more important to get ready to pump out settlers.

Settled in ICS fashion right away instead of expanding out then backfilling to ICS, not sure if this was the best method either. My first few cities built temples outright, but then as expansion moved ahead of my workers I pop rushed a temple after 10 turns (takes 10 turns to grow to size 2 with 2 food, & with 1 shield 20 shields left on temple, works out nice)

I researched alphabet first & traded for pottery & the wheel early. Horses weren't near me so I had to hope for iron later. I then researched writing, literature, code of laws, philosophy, claiming republic for free. I then traded for all the AA techs except currency, construction, map making, & polytheism which the AI had not yet researched. I then went after currency, traded for map making, & polytheism, researched construction & claimed engineering for free.

In the meantime I continued to pop rush temples as first builds in all cities. As soon as literature was researched I of course built libraries, building them in a few cities, pop rushing in others, was able to get several cities to 2 food & 2 shields by working the right tiles.

After building a library in about 3 cities I did not yet have construction so I built a barracks then swords to start warmongering. America was eliminated with little effort then I turned to Japan, knocking them down to 1 landlocked city surrounded by swords / bowmen. During this war, I built a couple bowmen and initiated a GA, but I prolly waited longer than I should have.

I stayed in despotism for quite a while, continuing to pop rush, but after many cities were needing cathedrals & more expensive improvements I switched to republic. My MA research was Monotheism, Theology, Education, & Chivalry. I pointy sticked feudalism from Japan. I then turned research off. The gold to cash rush was more valuable than any tech. There were several techs I coveted in the Industrial ages, but in the overall picture it wasn't worth all the research to get there.

Once cathedrals / universities / colloseums were built I built knights in several cities, then disbanding the knights in others to help rush improvements, all while continuing to crank out settlers. I had to abandon several cities I had captured during my wars, even as far as using colonies for luxuries instead of keeping a city there, because I kept coming too close to the domination limit. I continued to ICS within the territory the Americans had "given" to me & kept the land % to about 63 - 64%. If it crept up from there due to border expansions I would disband one of the cities from Japan, since that area was not ICS'd.

Finally, it became to tedious with all the MM in keeping the settler factories running & building new cities. I know it is more efficient to build temples / libraries than universities, but like I said the MM became too tedious with the ICS. Everytime a settler was built, workers from other cities were assigned the tiles I needed to work while my settler factories grew and it was a real headache trying to figure out which city was working that tile I needed to get those 2 shields on growth, etc, etc. So I stopped settling cities & went to building knights / med inf (low shield cities) to rush unis, caths, & colloseums.

Eventually I just went to unis since they provided the most culture & best culture / shield. Had just a select few cities building knights. Everything else was set to 0 growth with tax collectors & wealth builds. I also ended up throwing in the SoZ. Besides that, I never built any wonders except the FP.

During my wars, I generated one leader & used it to rush a uni. I didnt need an army, the FP was already built, & no more small wonders were going to be available to me unless I built an army, got a victory and then got another leader, decided not to hope for that, Japan was almost contained at that point anyway.

Japan did net me 2 wonders - Hanging Gardens & the Pyramids. I purposely waited outside Kyoto until they finished the Pyramids before capturing. How stupid is the AI to continue building a wonder in their most productive city while the rest of their empire is torn apart & 10 swords / bowmen sit outside the city, sorry for the rant.

At the point I determined I could no longer shave even a single turn off the win date, I just turned everything to wealth.

 

[predesad]

Huge Monarch 20K - Celts: 1772 AD - 4069 points

The real challenge for this game was getting the map I desired, I played a Huge Arch 60%, wet warm 5 billion, no barbs, no SGL. My opponents were the Americans, Inca, Maya, China, Mongols, Egypt, Zulu, & Arabs.

I wanted a 4-turn settler factory for my capitol with a river as a fresh water source vs a lake (increased commerce), using my 2nd city (Alesia) as my 20K city. Getting a 4-turn settler factory for the capitol was a non issue, I got plenty of maps to work with. Next for Alesia, I wanted a site no more than 3 squares away from Entremont that was coastal with access to fresh water (preferably a river, but not necessarily) & a food bonus. However, if the food bonus was the only condition lacking form my map I would be content with adding settlers to Alesia from Entremont to help boost population. The final ingredient to my 20K recipe was the most difficult to find - ivory. Many, many games were played & abandoned when ivory did not show up on my landmass, but finally I received 2 maps to choose from which met all of my conditions, the one had a lot of jungle & no hills, so I abandoned it in favor of another.

I started by building 1 warrior from Entremont the a settler, warrior quickly scouted around & found a coastal river site w/ a food bonus, actually 2 - wheat on grass, the only question that remained about the map was ivory. I researched bronze working first & right before finishing that my exploring warrior stumbled across ivory. Quickly my capitol operating as a 4 turn settler factory sent a settler out to claim it (not that there was any real hurry, I am alone on my island) I also built several coastal cities in preparation to build curraghs after alphabet was researched.

I built a granary in Alesia (20K city) first, even though that was a questionable decision, but I wanted to get to 12 citizens ASAP. Then I built a temple, but did not pop rush it, finishing in 1750 BC, thought that was a bit late. Then started on Colossus, 1200 BC.

After bronze working, my research was alphabet, masonry, math & writing. Somewhere while along this path I sunk many curraghs, but finally made it across at 2 different spots, one in the north after a couple nonsuicide island hops, & one just a little south of me. To the south I found the Mongols on an island alone & the Inca & Chinese sharing another landmass. Eventually I would also be able to find the Arabs off the Mongols coast, they were also isolated on an island.

I traded for mysticism & went for the Oracle. I really wanted to build SoZ next & if I had my way I would have put off the Oracle until even after the GL, but I knew (well, didnt know, but had a very strong feeling from experience) that the Oracle would go fast, so it was build it now or lose the chance. The same goes for pyramids, it would go fast, but since it would have given me an instant GA i had decided to skip it. I got the Oracle in 710 BC then hand built a librbary finishing in 610 BC, then SoZ in 330 BC.

Meanwhile, concerning research I went for literature, code of laws, philosophy and claimed republic for free. After this I traded for iron working & started on construction.

After SoZ I built the GL in 80 AD which instantly (well, not instantly, but the next turn) gave me The Wheel, Horseback Riding, & Polytheism. Meanwhile I was prebuilding for Hanging Gardens & hoping the ToA would hold out and not cascade before I could finish it. After a few turns, the Inca had Monarchy, but nobody else. Since I could be patient with a prebuild going, I was, & didn't try to trade for it. Eventually, the Arabs also discovered Monarchy, I got it from the GL & was able to net Hanging Garden in 290 AD, kicking off my GA.

About this time I think I was finishing up on currency. I should have rushed a colosseum after HG, but I had my heart set on getting Sistines during my GA. But that was a mistake which would have knocked one turn off the my finsih date. It took 19 turns to build Sistine during my GA, so I had the extra turn to spare. I finished Sistine in 470 AD, then rushed a university, cathedral, & coloseum.

I set up most of my cities as fishing villages, having only 3 non coastal cities, they had a barracks & were solely repsonsible for military. It was about this time I decided to do some warmongering. I had my sites on the Inca who owned 2 of the 4 wonders I did not build during this game. I wanted the Lighthouse to aid my exploration, I was still missing 4 contacts and craved luxuries to aid unhappiness.

After Sistine, I wanted SHakes, only my prebuild would not last until I researched Free Artistry, so I got Copernicus in 700 AD, then Shakes in 920 AD. I was far ahead in tech & stayed far ahead, After entering the MA, I never had any competition for any wonders and was able to build what I wanted.

While building Shakes, I got my first MGL, I built an army, got a victory, then got another MGL. Once SHakes completed, I used that MGL to rush Heroic Epic so I could get more MGLs. Then I built JS Bach, finishing in 1190 AD.

WHile working on Bach's, I got several more leaders, which I used to build armies so I could get pentagon, finally I saved one for the FP, which I rushed immediately after Bach's. Then I built Newton's in 1315 AD & Magellan's in 1385 AD.

I believe it was right about here that I got coal & railroaded everything around Aleisia ASAP, i think taking about 3 turns to finish. It was also right about here that I ruined the chance to build the pentagon because I was getting tired of the game & sloppy.

With CHina & INca gone I had started ICS'ing that landmass as well as some other smaller islands, my research rate quicky reached 4 turns per tech. I got tired of ICS so I quit that. Then I invaded the Mongols simply to generate more leaders, but I got 2 of my armies killed off.

After Magellan's I rushed Wall Street. Somewhere in here I rushed a factory & a coal plant then built ToE in 1490 AD, then rushed battlefield medicine, then Universal Suffrage in 1545 AD, then rushed Military Academy.

That was the end of small wonders. I continued to plug along in the game, had brief wars with America & Zulu & a 2nd war with the Mongols, when I had tired of fighting & decided to let them live. I just kind of went through the motions, defending from attacks until the AI would agree to peace, researching to the Modern age, skipping all the optional techs in the Industrail Ages. I only got to Fission, Computers, & Miniaturization in the Modern Age, then turned research off since I needed no more techs.

I finished out the game building Hoover's, UN, Research Lab (rushed) & Internet.

IN Entremont, I had built KNight's Templar, Leoanrdo's & SunTzu's. I only lost 4 wonders the entire game - the Pyramids & Lighthouse to INca, THe Great Wall to CHina, & ToA to America. I didnt want to build any of those wonders in Alesia, so it played out well.

In retrospect, I think on Monarch level I should have tried this on pangaea, the benefits could have been more trading & slightly faster tech pace, which might have made me lose out on a couple wonders. However, there would have been more opportnities for war, thus quicker MGL's to get a few small wonders much quicker.


20K build summary:

temple - 1750 BC
colossus - 1200 BC
oracle - 710 BC
library - 610 BC
statue of zeus - 330 BC
great library - 80 AD
hanging gardens - 290 AD
sistine's chapel - 470 AD
university - 480 AD
cathedral - 490 AD
coloseum - 500 AD
copernicus observatory- 700 AD
shakespeare's theater - 920 AD
heroic epic - 930 AD
js bach's cathedral - 1190 AD
forbidden palace - 1200 AD
newton's university - 1315 AD
magellan's voyage - 1385 AD
wall street - 1390 AD
smith's trading - 1445 AD
theory of evolution - 1490 AD
battlefield medicine - 1495 AD
universal suffrage - 1545 AD
military academy - 1550 AD
hoover's dam - 1605 AD
united nations - 1670 AD
research lab - 1675 AD
internet - 1740 AD

 

[predesad]

Game #5: Large, Space Race, Emporer - russia

opponents will be all the other scientific civs:

byzantines, persia, ottomans, babylon, greece, korea, germany, sumeria

 

[predesad]

Game #6: diplomatic demigod undecided civ, undecided map size, but i am thinking of an unconventional strategy for this target victory type

 

[predesad]

Game #7: somesize something prolly Demigod

evidently in my haste I misfigured & this game wont be necessary

 

[predesad]

Game #8: milk run

 

[predesad]

Game #9: somesize something prolly Diety (optional)

 

[predesad]

Game #10: somesize something prolly Sid (optional)

 

[predesad]

Starting screen shots for Game #1

 

[predesad]

Ending screen shot for game #1

 

[superslug]

Welcome to the competition!

 

[predesad]

Welcome to the competition!

thanks, but doesn't seem to be much competition right now with so many slots open. Of course, my SP gets so little attention that could change before I submit too many more games.

 

[superslug]

thanks, but doesn't seem to be much competition right now with so many slots open.

It depends on where you look for the competition.

With one more game I'll be a Quartermaster myself, and I won't be happy to be near the bottom of the list. As a matter of fact, I'm using my current game to increase my Pentathlon position.

 

[Pentium]

Well, many slost are open on high levels. There aren't many open Chieftain slots...

 

[predesad]

lower levels & conquest / domination spots seem competitive, while higher levels & "peaceful" victories you can pretty much get on the table just by getting a win. My goals are not to just get on the table, but at the same time I am not obsessed with claiming a #1 spot either.

 

[predesad]

only 2 games left for Pentathlon, but i cant get my map for 20K I already skipped this game once, i am thinking of trying my demigod / diplomatic game next, but that is the only game which I am not sure I can win, never played above emporer (w/ the exception of one unfinished COTM) so I kinda wanted to hold off on it. I don't want to go ahead with my space race yet either because I am planning to use an expansionist civ (russia) & that's my favorite trait. Wanted to hold off on the challenging & most fun games, but unless mapfinder gives me a gem I wont have much choice.

 

[Pentium]

lower levels & conquest / domination spots seem competitive, while higher levels & "peaceful" victories you can pretty much get on the table just by getting a win. My goals are not to just get on the table, but at the same time I am not obsessed with claiming a #1 spot either.

Well, if you are the only one on a table, you get #1 spot.