Replay #5 A history of heroes!

[Pangaea]

Would the Favourite Civic be Free Market or Slavery?

Free Slavery

(NOT free the slaves)

 

[Walter_Wolf]

725 AD: The grind shows me its wisdom again, I'm able enhance my scheme of empire management. The things I notice here are basically unimportant for anyone not playing a Sushi-game, and I'm willing to tell everybody trying a highscore approach (in a PN because it'd be quite longish) , as readers, you only have to know that I can reduce the length of a usual turn from between 1-2h to half of that, so 0.5-1h / turn. Even microing almost 200 cities only takes me 40 minutes now, that is again twice as fast as in the beginning of my Sushi games.

Well, if you don't feel like putting that kind of info in the thread, but you don't mind explaining it to people via PM-s, I suggest you open a separate thread about it 'cause I'd be interested for the tip. It's the "strategy and tips" subforum after all .
A separate thread would be an easier reference too.

cheers

EDIT: great game btw. Your writeups brought me back to the game after a few months of apstinention .

 

[happyturtle]

No, they're not in the same tab, but each leader only has one Favourite Civic.

1000 turns? At an hour a turn, that wouldn't take long at all!

As for missionaries, I make a point of getting at least one monastery somewhere in my empire for every religion I have, before they obsolete, just in case I want the missionaries later. This is probably less practical on OMGSUPERDEITY though, where every hammer is micromanaged.

 

[Choggy]

Great read as always Seraiel. I love those looooooong GA chains you can do with MoM!

I don't understand your concerns about War-weariness with attacking Peter though? Naval Warfare in many ways is easier than land wars because you can smash an AI's coastal cities in one go, raze them and then march onto the nearest land-based cities for a quick vassalege while the AI has a brain-fart about how to defend against multiple attacks.

One thought about dealing with vassals like Mansa who go cultural VC...with all that Sushi culture your own cities generate could you culture-crush him instead?

 

[Killroyan]

Hehe, this thread stays hilarious. A GA ends and the difference in gold is only 3500 gold per turn or something and you are still pushing out 3-4k beakers. I wonder where this is going. What is the aim for score?

 

[shakabrade]

If he continues like this, he might get 3593137...

 

[Seraiel]

Hi

Well, if you don't feel like putting that kind of info in the thread, but you don't mind explaining it to people via PM-s, I suggest you open a separate thread about it 'cause I'd be interested for the tip. It's the "strategy and tips" subforum after all .
A separate thread would be an easier reference too.

cheers

EDIT: great game btw. Your writeups brought me back to the game after a few months of apstinention .

Regarding that tip, it's really very very specific, it's only important for people trying highscore-approaches, and as I have learnt, playing those kinds of games only very few people do. It basically has to do with using the Domestic Advisor and his options to sort cities by what they're building / their status instead of manually checking every city, it has to do with not setting the City Governor to prioritize but and because prioritizing all three, seems to somehow screw how Specialists are assigned, it has to do with checking the log and keeping a clearview of the big picture, really really hard to explain and as said, very very specific. Most of this has already been said in these forums by TMIT (guide on how to play fast) and it's caused by things like me trying to reduce Whipping Anger by excessive use of OF-mechanics and queue-switching, but also on that, there exist threads. I'm sure it'll find its place in one of the Guides I'm going to write, as one will be specific on highscore-approaches.

And I'm glad I could evoke some interest in you for something you had already abbandoned

No, they're not in the same tab, but each leader only has one Favourite Civic.

1000 turns? At an hour a turn, that wouldn't take long at all!

As for missionaries, I make a point of getting at least one monastery somewhere in my empire for every religion I have, before they obsolete, just in case I want the missionaries later. This is probably less practical on OMGSUPERDEITY though, where every hammer is micromanaged.

Regarding favourite Civic, I don't know of which leader you're talking, Slavery would be Montezuma while Free Market is Mansa Musa.

1000 turns at 1h / turn requires Korean-grind-genes, I'm still amazed that WastinTime had those, he achieved an 18k points Huge Marathon Time Victory. I'd love to have a Writeup on that game, because it must have been ridiculous, I remember him saying that he had to spend more focus on not winning the round and preventing other Civs from winning than on anything else .

Great read as always Seraiel. I love those looooooong GA chains you can do with MoM!

I don't understand your concerns about War-weariness with attacking Peter though? Naval Warfare in many ways is easier than land wars because you can smash an AI's coastal cities in one go, raze them and then march onto the nearest land-based cities for a quick vassalege while the AI has a brain-fart about how to defend against multiple attacks.

One thought about dealing with vassals like Mansa who go cultural VC...with all that Sushi culture your own cities generate could you culture-crush him instead?

As said, I didn't know War Weariness mechanics at that time, I didn't knew War Weariness comes with time, I thought it comes from losing units, and the economy was so at its edge, that +1 through War Weariness could have ment 3-5h of work and maybe even cancelling Sushi-deals. I know now, that I could have invaded Peter, but my worries at that time were real and it was very hard to find citie's which could build troops as almost all were focusing on and Wealth. I didn't want to get in an enviroment which could be hard to control mad: through War Weariness) neither did I want to pull of a war like in Replay #4, I just felt the empire didn't have the resources for that. In the end I found out that I was wrong, but my little experience with Civ (remember, this is not even the 10th game that I finished) made it impossible to see that in advance.

Hehe, this thread stays hilarious. A GA ends and the difference in gold is only 3500 gold per turn or something and you are still pushing out 3-4k beakers. I wonder where this is going. What is the aim for score?

The aim was to beat WastinTime's 3.2M, and that point I'm going to reach in the next post, going online soon.

If he continues like this, he might get 3593137...

I might get an even higher score...

Spoiler :

... but I might lose it again because the SpaceShip would arrive too late

Regards, Sera

 

[WastinTime]

1000 turns at 1h / turn requires Korean-grind-genes, I'm still amazed that WastinTime had those, he achieved an 18k points Huge Marathon Time Victory. I'd love to have a Writeup on that game, because it must have been ridiculous, I remember him saying that he had to spend more focus on not winning the round and preventing other Civs from winning than on anything else .

That game was not very special or hard to beat. It was a Future start!
So yea, you have quickly go around and stop everyone from launching a spaceship. It's basically a conquest game, but then you drag out the end. I didn't even try to milk the score that much. I just wanted to fill the empty HoF slot.

But my 125k Tiny Time game. That took much more work.

 

[Seraiel]

Episode 6 - part II
Being married with queen luck​

The last episode didn't have any specific luck in it, it was basically all luck as it reported about a 5th Golden Age, something that is not even possible in most games (Kaitzilla inspired me to go for 5 GAs, he called it "true HoF style") . Chances to get exactly the right GP to run another GA were 30%, now...


... In 845 AD, just after having decided that I'd go for Space-colony, I get a GS If you've followed the Writeup you know, that my GP-Farms were converted to Spy-cities. Of course, they're still GP-Farms so they work as many Specialists as possible, but chances for this to happen were 13% .
The value of how many a GS can lightbulb is influenced by the size of the population, now this GS would have the power to lightbulb a complete tech yielding over 50k !

But REP-Specialist-Research and Lightbulbs aren't the only source of research for me, same turn, I steal Artillery from Hatty:

Knowing Artillery and Flight fastens up my Research of Rocketry. You may have noticed on the screen, that I stealt the tech from Hatty without having full discount on Espionage from the Spy being stationary, this is, because I simply don't have wait. Having 2 Spy-cities and such a huge empire means generating about 1000 / turn, that's ridiculous, I could steal techs of the size of Artillery every 5 turns!

850 AD, the Pentagon completes:

Needless to say, that this is a relict of my plans to go for Domination Victory.

While the Exec-Airdrops run on high-speed...

AP-insanity continues in 855 AD:

Time to set an end to this, more important than the AP is the additional TR I can get through the UN. In 860 AD I finish the Research of Mass Media, also unlocking the Hollywood World Wonder.

870 AD is the next moment where luck strikes again, I get another GS having had 17% odds for that

875 I finish the Research of Superconductors, imo one of the most important techs for Space-colony, as unlocking Laboratories, one should aim early for. As I've planned ahead, I already have Observatories in the production-heaviest cities, allowing me to instantly begin on the construction of the Labs. Having such a large empire of course allows for crazy things again, like planning to build the Spaceship in 15 different cities.

875 AD is another epic moment of the round, because it's the moment, where the empire exceeds WastinTime's legendary Score of 3.2M!

After Superconductors, Genetics follow in 900 AD. Gaining for the cities, that are mostly covered below their green smog still has a higher priority than going straight for Rocketry -> Apollo Program.

With finishing Hollywood in 905 AD, I also finish the Research of Industrialism:

Getting additional through Hit-movies at the same time I'd lose through Ivory getting obsolete, was necessary, therefor I stalled Industrialism as much as possible and researched Mass Media which isn't needed for Space-colony-victory.

Queen luck isn't tired to show me that she loves me, in 915 AD I get the 3rd GS!!! This one came from Cuzco, a city working a decent number of Scientist-Specialists, anyhow, even that GS had only 50%ish chances. Maybe someone better in Math than me can calculate how the overall chances on getting the right GP 4 times in a row were, the 1st GP had 30% chances, 2nd had 13%, 3rd had 17% and the 4th had 50%. I guess odds for that are beyond 1:200.

920 AD, I complete the Research of Rocketry, now I can finally construct Apollo Program, only needing 10 turns thx to the insane output of Warwick:

Just wanted to post that picture, because I guess one doesn't often see a city put out 750 , and when talking about insane cities, lets take a quick jump to Washington, centre of Corporation madness:

My friend BigBossPlayer called me a cheater when he saw that city, he just couldn't believe a single city could produce more than 4000 .

The true insanity though is, that while the most advanced AI empires are researching Industrial-techs like Assembly Line (Ramesses) , Incans are far advanced into the Modern Era, researching Plastics next at a speed of 7000 / turn at 0%.

Before I can use the GSs for the craziest bulb-action ever, the Tanya's have to commit the biggest tech-robbery of the round in 935 AD:

Notice how robbing Fission is only costing about 10k while being worth about 40k of on those Settings? Noticing how Research is up to 7500 / turn with only a few turns having passed since the last update? Noticing the Incans making 1.5k of / turn? The developement of an empire in the end is something I totally underestimated, I thought it'd take long to finish that round, but the game showed me that developement is exponential and that everything goes really fast in the end.

----------------------

So while the Laboratories are finishing and the score has reached 3.5M, the Incan empire is short before its biggest breakthrough in tech. 3 GSs are waiting for Plastics to be finished. Rumors are spreading throughout the Incan empire, they've heard of their Deity's plan to launch a Spaceship and expand onto the next habitable planet, but what the Incans don't know is, that the empire is only 2 turns away from reaching Fusion!

Follow the end of this round in the next episode, going online today too! Its name is: "Finale". Cya,

Seraiel

 

[Revent]

WOWWW that is ing AMAZING. Everything is fitting in perfectly! Labs and Apollo finish roughly same time, GS's bulb all the techs for you and all the spaceparts are being constructed at the same time in your highest hammer cities? Woow.

 

[WastinTime]

300:1 odds of getting those 4 GS

 

[happyturtle]

Regarding favourite Civic, I don't know of which leader you're talking, Slavery would be Montezuma while Free Market is Mansa Musa.

That leader would be Sushi of the Incas.

 

[Choggy]

I didn't know War Weariness mechanics at that time, I didn't knew War Weariness comes with time...my little experience with Civ (remember, this is not even the 10th game that I finished) made it impossible to see that in advance.

That's astonishing...10 games in and you've just beaten the highest score of all time for Civ4.

No need to justify the lack of knowledge you have, I've only played 8 games on BtS myself to completion and know nothing about Corporations (hence my Sushi questions) or modern era play and I only learned how to control powerful vassals in the SoM game I just completed. The game before I got AP cheesed for the first time. I'm still making loads of mistakes, only I've been doing it at Monarch - you're doing it at Deity

I keep forgetting you've already played this game, so am making suggestions as if it was still being played (mental note to self: just sit back and enjoy) On that note, back to the popcorn to read your writeup.

 

[monkeycid]

Wastin, you unscientific scoundrel! My trusty windows caculator tells me the chance is one in 301,65912518853695324283559577677 ... ... ... sooo yeah, one in 300. Good call

Lady luck (... although in my language she is the direct translation of "Frau Fortuna") is indeed on your side. Though I'm sure that you've had strings of wins and losses in this game that add up to even more unlikely outcomes - pick any string of combats and as it grows . If you want to play statistican - what is the chance of this given game ending up in its given state? One in a few exabazillion, I'd guess, given the large of random values calculated each turn.

Still. The chance of getting those right GP are roughly equal to the chances of 25 times in a row winning 80% or losing 20% battles. That is, not bloody likely. Good job

But let's not derail this thread with statistics. 4k BPT at 0% research is insane. 4k gold, even at 100% gold, is also insane beyond the pale. Go build that spaceship, you crazy German!

 

[Pangaea]

How many specialists are you running to achieve that kind of count with no research? Incredible numbers. Same with spy points. Just mental.

 

[Seraiel]

Omg, I've just lost 3h of work, because my PC crashed when trying to load the last save of that round.

 

[shakabrade]

Sincere condolences.

Do you write your writeups in notepad or MS Word and then just copy paste them into civfanatics message box?

If you do, you can set it to autosave. If you are not, you might consider it.
Saved my nerves many times. (But in my cases problem was me and quitting. Do you want to save changes to this file? Me clicking: No! Me yelling to myself: NOOO! What have I done?!).

I also copy my links to screenshots into notepad if there are many of them.

 

[Zx Zero Zx]

That's astonishing...10 games in and you've just beaten the highest score of all time for Civ4.

No need to justify the lack of knowledge you have, I've only played 8 games on BtS myself to completion and know nothing about Corporations (hence my Sushi questions) or modern era play and I only learned how to control powerful vassals in the SoM game I just completed. The game before I got AP cheesed for the first time. I'm still making loads of mistakes, only I've been doing it at Monarch - you're doing it at Deity

I keep forgetting you've already played this game, so am making suggestions as if it was still being played (mental note to self: just sit back and enjoy) On that note, back to the popcorn to read your writeup.

I am pretty sure Sera has played way way way more than 10 games of Civ. >.> You can't beat Deity let alone get the highest score after 10 games.

 

[Seraiel]

Episode 7​

Finale​

Ok, as said, I've lost 3h I already invested in this post because my PC crashed. Therefor, this post has no introduction and will be a lot shorter and less emotional than it was in the original version.


The time is 1045 AD:

The research of Plastics finishes:

This unlocks the possibility to lightbulb Computers:

Which again unlocks the lightbulbing of Fiber Optics:

Leading to the possibility to lightbulb Fusion:

Giving me a Great Engineer that can lightbulb Robotics:

A screen showing the tech-tree after that crazy bulb-action:

While the "Tanya's" swarm Mansa Musa's empire and I'm having my revenge on him, having decided trying to steal the Victory from me by going for Culture...

... and while the United Nations are born ...

The Apollo Program finishes in 970 AD, so I can begin on constructing the Spaceship in various cities:

1010 AD, all techs that are needed for the Spaceship's parts have been researched. A screen showing the synchronal building in 15 cities, with the IW city constructing the Space Elevator:

I crank out the last Hammers by switching to Universal Suffrage, by letting the cities work normal Citizen-Specialists, and the very last Hammers are achieved through the Space-Elevator itself in 1020 AD:

1070 AD, which is only 20 turns after the completition of Apollo Program, all parts are in their place, and the Spaceship is rdy to be launched:

An acrobatic flight squadron is flying a formation above Cuzco while an honorous guard of Quechuas that has over 5000y of tradition is securing the safety. The Spaceship itself stings through this formation and into Space:

Final screens of the round before Victory is achieved:

The score peaking at 3.6998M in 1085 AD:

The Internet and the Incans having 200 cities in 1120 AD:

Corporation madness #1: Sushi at +45 and Mining at +30 :

Corporation madness #2: Washington producing 5000 / turn:

Corporation madness #3: A size 41 city having 30M+ inhabitants:

Cities producing 13k+ / turn, 70k+ / turn and 1.5k+ / turn with the Incan empire paying over 40k+ as expenses:

6k+ pop on a map that was ment to have only 1/2 of that:

4 of 5 people are Incans:

The most important picture, the one of the final score:

----------------------

This was the last post covering an amazing round I played in Civilization IV. Having to re-write the last post took me 2 additional hours to the 3h I already spent on the 1st version of it, so be patient with it not fulfilling the quality standards of some other posts. If you have any questions, feel free to ask, if you have critique, I will listen and try to adjust, if you have any ideas, plz let me know.

I hope everybody had a good time while reading this thread, and if you ask about the heroes, I don't think that it was the last time that we saw those. I enjoyed doing the writeup as much as playing the round itself and hope, that it helps people playing highscore games, that it evoked interest in the players base to try out something different and new (playing a HoF game, a Huge map on Marathon speed or the Incans i. e.) , and that some ideas (i. e. gifting Pericles Theology to construct the Apostolic Palace for me but also others) could improve its readers games.

Thx at everybody giving feedback, without it, I wouldn't have found the will to write so much. Special thx to the heroes, you're awesome and I hope the idea of renaming units after you made you smile and that you're content with how I illustrated you, and special special thx to Tachywaxon and WastinTime for always reading everything I write and improving my ability to play Civ greatly.

Seraiel

 

[Pangaea]

Seem to recall he said he has started 1000 Incan games or something wild like that. Guess he just hasn't finished very many. Clearly an outstanding player though. Hands up those who could do this

to that game and score. Just utterly amazing. No idea how you can pull off something like that, with the time it takes. Very, very impressive. Congrats on the new highscore too. Will be interesting to see if WastinTime can beat it

What will you move on to now?