[LP] Qin Challenges

blackbutterfly

Emperor
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PotatoMcWhiskey, @boesthius and other YouTubers have posted streams of No Settle challenges with and without zombies.

TBH I was surprised nobody did a build No Units challenge as Unifier Qin.

This challenge:
You can't build ANY military units.

No buying units either.
Hiring units from clans ok.
Levying units also ok.
Civilian/support units fine.
Converting barbs of course!

You start with only your 1 warrior.
 
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this'd be pretty easy as most civs if you simply don't go domination, i think. unless you also specify that it must be a domination victory and/or on a pretty high-up-there difficulty
 
this'd be pretty easy as most civs if you simply don't go domination, i think. unless you also specify that it must be a domination victory and/or on a pretty high-up-there difficulty
Ok, on Deity.

Any victory is fine.
Though as Unifier Qin you are begging for a dom victory.
Perhaps culture win next?
 
And maybe turn Heroes on to get the Twins for the challenge? Qin can capture barbs and the Twins can capture everything else. No need to build an army at all!
 
I've started one of sorts but I have no idea how it will play out. I'm not doing the no city challenge. I wanted to at least found a city. I didn't turn zombies on for it either but I might change my mind. I dislike barbs as it is but I know they are a necessary evil and zombies are barbs and I thought that the addition of them would drive me crazy. I am doing it on Deity. I turned SS, Barb Clans, and Heroes on. I always play on Marathon with huge maps. I know the Youtubers tried multiple times for their challenges to succeed and a lot of times it's all about luck with the barb spawns.

I couldn't find any barbs at first, no scouts, nothing. Then when I finally found a camp, 2 CS were attacking it. Then I met Korea and I was like "Oh great." and she was patrolling around going for the barb camps and likely coming for me next. I was about to restart because I wasn't finding any or enough barbs. Then I finally found a scout and followed it. There was a big barb horde around it and I got so excited at finally finding a good amount of barbs. None of the camps I found had UU in them, they were just warriors and spearmen. I know there are different types of clans but I wasn't finding any of them. I know it's all down to luck. I was so happy when I found a group of barbs, I didn't care what they were. I think there were 5 of them in one conversion. I got 2 slingers, two warriors and a spearman. I think I converted another group after that too, but it was maybe 3 barbs.

Then I headed for Korea. She was already teching like crazy. I wasn't planning on keeping her city, I wouldn't have been able to hold it anyway. I had unlocked vampires for SS so I had him lead the charge. I managed to raze the first city, but then she started cranking out chariots. I had unlocked archery but I needed to bring my slingers back to upgrade them. I am not planning on building any units, they all have to be captured, with the exception of battering rams, siege towers. I did make some catapaults because it's not often you see barbs with those unless they go unchecked for a long time. I allowed myself siege weapons, but I will not make any more than those. I also found the Twins, so I used them to capture AI and barb units. So yeah, by the time I had razed Korea's first city she got her walls up and chariots out. I couldn't do much about it until I unlocked battering rams, found some iron to upgrade my warriors, and upgraded my slingers to archers. I nabbed her settler and accepted peace when she asked. But of course that was only until I was able to return with more units and a battering ram to break her walls.

I saw her heading my way with catapults, so I declared on her again as soon as I was able. She was a hard nut to crack but taking on the hardest one first was probably my best bet. I needed to stop her from getting more advanced. I had outdated units, but lots of them, so eventually I wore her down. Again, I am only using converted barbs or enemy AI units with the Twins, with the exception of wall breaking units. Monty was my next target, a lot of his cities had no walls and I think Gran Colombia was already hammering him. I'm razing his cities too, just keeping capitals. He's almost out. Next is Gran Colombia, then the Mapuche. I don't know who else is on the map yet as I went right for Korea as soon as I had a good amount of barbs to launch an attack. I am not sure how it will work out, but I am hoping my military strength will make up for my lack of tech. I am last, so I will have to crush everyone before it gets too late in the game. I think the other civs are on another landmass as it appears there are only 4 on the one I spawned on. I probably should have picked a pangea map. A lot of times I forget to do something when setting up a game. I do have some barb ships, though. I can upgrade them once I get the tech and head out to find more targets. Then I'll likely hire a barb or two on whatever landmass the other AI are on and get converting again.

I know it's not a no city challenge but it's my own personal challenge. It is pretty fun but I might have to restart and I might decide to add the zombies. I am hoping I'll have enough with what I have. The combo of converting and having the Twins is pretty good. It's my hope that my vampires will be able to attack cities without the need of siege weapons. One of them has seen quite a bit of combat so he must be getting pretty strong by now.
 
I turned SS, Barb Clans, and Heroes on.

You may have heard already but players have reported there's a bug with Sanguine Pact + Qin.
Vampires will get consumed if you use the Convert Barbs action.
(So I guess don't use it?!)

Qin doesn't need The Twins 😏

Zombies for sure can attack cities. Once they get strong enough they will kill cities on their own.
In fact this is a nice trick: use zombies to kill barbs in allied cities. They spawn and kill your allies cities 😁

Akkad CS is very useful for Qin!
 
I already knew not to use the vampire for conversions. I just wanted them to maybe bash walls later on, since I didn't want to build any units apart from battering rams or siege towers. If the vamp is strong enough you can just slam them into cities and pillage for health.

I am not sure if Akkad is in this game yet. I started with less CS because the barb clans would eventually become CS. If Akkad is in this game then you better believe I will give everything I've got to become Suze. I've got Himiko too. :lol: I used the Twins to capture AI units. I didn't need to bring them back in the last era, getting higher tech units from barb clans was a much better option.

I'm not doing too bad but I'm still not sure how it will work out. All the pillaging I did made me pretty advanced in tech. In fact, I'm in second place. I guess it doesn't help that I've killed off 3 AI so far, but Kongo (Nzinga) is a bit of a concern for me. She is on another landmass with Pericles and Tokugawa. I just finished off the Mapuche and am making my way through Gran Colombia now. Then I plan on heading over to take the rest out. Provided somebody doesn't win another victory condition first. Kongo is about 4 techs higher than me which isn't much at all but I need to get over there before she starts doing space projects. As soon as I get Gran Colombia's capital, she will be my next target as she is the biggest threat of sneaking in a win.

It's been fun though, I loved being able to upgrade my warriors to swordsmen, then to man-at-arms, then straight to line infantry just by hanging around barb clans and "trading" them for my lower tech units. Who needs to worry about upgrade and resource costs when you can just wait for a barb clan to spawn!
 
I also managed to found a religion, Korea had a holy site so I used it to found a religion and I managed to build the Hagia Sophia so I didn't have to sacrifice units anymore. I guess that would go for vamps too if I wanted but I just wanted those for bashing city walls. I noticed the Twins had the 2 conversion thing on them too but that didn't make any sense. I know it's a bug.

I think I'll be able to pull it off, still not sure. Nzinga started her space race. I took Greece's capital, all that's left now is Japan and Kongo. Japan will be a rollover as he's quite a bit behind in tech. I now have the most tech but I wasn't planning on going to space. She hasn't gone past launching the second part yet. .Kongo's the tough one. I had a hard time making a dent into her territory, but I should have her capital soon. She captured quite a few of Japan and Greece's cities and I had to get through those to get to her founded cities. We just went into the next era and I'm golden and she's normal. She'll never make it to space. Mwahaha. I don't need to convert any more barbs, I have more than enough of everything. I'm uh, also working on a "special project" for a grand finale of sorts. I'll have to buy a bomber or two for that. Gold was a serious problem for a while but now I'm swimming in it. I was trying to do this challenge with only converted units but I might as well finish off on a high note and use some nukes. I deserve it. Or uh the AI deserves it. :lol:
 
That's what I did. I got Kongo's capital, then launched a nuke at Japan's capital and finished the game. Well, I might have launched several nukes. It was satisfying. I normally play on Marathon anyway. I played kind of in the style I would normally play, but adopted a Qin Challenge for myself. I've never really done a challenge as such. I wouldn't consider myself a great player, but I do ok on Deity most of the time. If I had used a smaller map (I used a huge map like I normally do) and made it pangea it would have been over much sooner. It was 8 civs, I reduced the normal amount. However, I did end up keeping some cities because the barbs kept spawning everywhere in the open areas and it was getting out of hand. I won mid game, but that's about normal for me. Kongo was the runaway civ as she had taken a fair amount of Greece and Japan's cities. However, she never did make it to space. What a shame. Maybe I'll try again with the zombies now that I have a general feel for barb farming. It was really fun!

Some screenies:


qin win 2.jpg


qin win 3.png


qin win 1.jpg
 
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I already knew not to use the vampire for conversions.

I just played one of my first games with Sec. Soc. (because someone on Steam asked me to build a Vampire Castle on my TSL maps I am playtesting RN).


OMG Sec. Soc. is so OP! 😲
It's insane.

I think this is why I don't usually play it.

Caesar is my next fav. leader after Qin. Amazing at conquest. Clearly if Julius had vampires at his disposal I think we'll still be living under Romans 😂

Qin is "super powered" compared to everyone else. Not OP. How do people not see this?
 
Yeah, Caesar is also great for barb farming on marathon. You can get rich pretty fast just by raiding the clans over and over. That can also put you in the lead pretty fast because the the amount of gold you get, if you raid enough barb clans every 10 turns. He doesn't work with regular barbs, you only get the bonus from raiding clans, not clearing them. So that's why I think some of these new leaders are meant to be used with modes on. Qin being one of them.

I had played Unifier Qin before but I played a normal game. I had early war aggression from the Zulu and converted barbs a few times to help defend against the war, then I took Shaka out. I had a peaceful science game after that. I didn't have a use for barb conversion because I wasn't at war with anyone else. I don't think he is OP. I think if you go for other victory types then his ability isn't very useful. He really shines with the use of modes.

I probably didn't need to use the heroes, but I wanted to be able to convert non-barb units too. As far as SS, they probably weren't necessary either. Maybe the Owls would have been a better choice because I spent a good part of that game either low or losing gold like crazy because everyone hated me and CS were all I had to trade with. However, I wanted the Vampires for wall bashing. When they are strong enough, they can knock a city's walls down easily. I never did find Akkad in that game so the vampires were a good alternative for breaking walls. They get stronger every time a unit dies around them. I was actually taking out Kongo's weak GDRs with them. Her GDRS were only level 1 s so they weren't that much of a threat. I got +4 era score for every GDR I killed with a vampire and I killed several of them.

Sometimes I play with a mode or two on, sometimes I don't play with any.
 
Oh I almost forgot!

Qin Unify China Challenge.

Play against all other China leaders and personas (five) and win domination. + Zombies for extra challenge!
I (almost) did this on my latest map Scrambled China. It was fun! 😁

p.s: Pls note: this map is a straight port of Civ V's China map (from its Scrambled Nations DLC). It is generating too many mountains RN. But it's balanced b'cos everyone has mountains.
 
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