RA Free Strategy: Challenge #2 - ready for action

[Tabarnak]

Pretty good game Attaturk!

I have not tried this challenge much yet(some ''meh'' starts rerolled), i don't know if i will want to play this because i recently bought Assassin's Creed Revelations for the PS3....

But something is sure now, mass conquering is the way to go here. And keshiks can give you this opportunity in an easy way. Turn 233 is a beast.

 

[ifinnem]

Sub 240 is definitely impressive. At turn 200 on my attempt and just cant see doing much better than turn 250-260 for a finish despite being at 600 per turn and only 8 or so techs left to hard tech...
Hopefully I don't screw something up to post something respectable at least

 

[RD-BH]

2nd attempt:

T353 victory.
Nothing to write home about here.
Japan took a CS allowing a UN tie otherwise this was a diplo loss (meaning I would have won diplo victory T350).
There was room to expand, however I did not expand fast enough.

My 2 cents:
... I am bothered the fastest science victory is by domination.
... Puppetting AI with highest tech rate doesn't feel like a science victory.
... Balance-wise,
... ... I would like to see science/culture benefits of domination reduced;
... ... ... permitting VCs to differ without always playing domination.

 

[Attaturk]

2nd attempt:

T353 victory.

... I am bothered the fastest science victory is by domination.
.

Well, it is the fastest turn-wise, but I spent 10+ hours to do it. Proper science victory is at least twice as fast if measured by wall clock.

With Mongols, Capital city is doing pure science victory build. Second city produces 5 chariot archers and a horse in the first 100 turns. After you get education, you build university and beeling chivalry.

This is very small detour from going Astronomy after education.

The difference is that instead of pressing 'End Turn', you do warring with Keshiks for the next 130 turns.

Science priorities were:

Philosophy (start NC)
Finish NC
Settle 2nd city.
Math (start HG)
Theology (start HS)
Education (using Eng to finish ND, build Uni)
Chivalry (upgrade chariots to Keshiks) 5 keshiks + 1 horseman is enough
Astro (buy Observatory if possible)
Scientific Theory (buy Public School)
Plastic (buy Research Lab)
Rocketry (start Yuri Gagarin's first manned flight)
Spaceship Factory tech (start boosters)

 

[chazzycat]

I'm not surprised at all the best strategy involves Keshiks, but much props for making it work so well. 220 is crazy good even WITH RAs. Getting HG in the NC capital with the 2nd city as military producer seems like an excellent strat for Mongols when you get bored of domination.

 

[ifinnem]

With Mongols, Capital city is doing pure science victory build. Second city produces 5 chariot archers and a horse in the first 100 turns. After you get education, you build university and beeling chivalry.

Science priorities were:

Philosophy (start NC)
Finish NC
Settle 2nd city.
Math (start HG)
Theology (start HS)
Education (using Eng to finish ND, build Uni)
Chivalry (upgrade chariots to Keshiks) 5 keshiks + 1 horseman is enough

You managed all this in like 103 turns right? Thats impressive in itself!
Any tips?

Plastic (buy Research Lab)

I don't think the detour to plastics pays off, especially when you are hard teching a bunch of stuff... (15k + impossible to make back before game ends on the basis of RL benefit. Even factoring in hydro plant I think its still not worth it)

 

[Attaturk]

You managed all this in like 103 turns right? Thats impressive in itself!
Any tips?

Depending on how good is the land around you, you may not be able to build HS.
At the attempt I posted, I was too late for HS, so I built oracle to finish liberty tree, used GE to build HS.

In another game, I got HS but missed the oracle.

To achieve this you need to have good land around you. You cannot do this if your capital have just grassland around you. Though Mongols seem to have bias for plain starts, so production is usually not a problem.

Scout-Scout-Granary-Monument-Great Library (Maximize growth. You bottleneck is researching Philosophy-AH-Trapping. Lock growth tiles and switch to production focus on population increases)

Pottery-(AH)-Writing-(AH)-Trapping-Philosophy

On Immortal you may miss great library. When I did a replay I lost GL race on turn 38.

On Deity you won't be able to get great library, so you go for 2 city start. On immortal you can afford to stay at one city until you build NC.

I don't think the detour to plastics pays off, especially when you are hard teching a bunch of stuff... (15k + impossible to make back before game ends on the basis of RL benefit. Even factoring in hydro plant I think its still not worth it)

Hmmm, wanna try to replay from turn 150 save to see if you can finish faster without going for plastics?

Research Labs give huge boost and you need it a lot, since you have to go back and research bottom combustion path.

 

[ifinnem]

When do you typically build the NC?
I pretty much follow the same path you outline above but can never get 3-4 cities up + get the required wonders + units and still get to Education + Chivalry by turn 100...

 

[ifinnem]

Hmmm, wanna try to replay from turn 150 save to see if you can finish faster without going for plastics?

Research Labs give huge boost and you need it a lot, since you have to go back and research bottom combustion path.

I think I see the disconnect - because you use keshiks to war you never need the artillery/infantry etc line and so can beeline to plastics and then come back down the bottom part of the tree and get value for the Labs. That would make sense for the Mongols but hard to do with other Civs that don't have the early powerful UU!