Svar
King
I have been trying to play a Deity game for high score and am still in my evaluation phase. I play the Mayans on huge Pangaea, warm, wet, 5 million year old worlds with no barbarians and the 8 AI set to the lowest aggression level. It is a long process and at this level getting longer. I typically use MapFinder to screen about 25,000 worlds for the 400 odd that pass the screening process. I then further screen those 400 and will actually look at about 150 starting positions. Most of them will be played until I realize that I can't build at least 3 settler factories. That only takes about 30 turns, but if the locations are there I will play until 1000 BC then save. I am still playing the last of those 150 odd maps. There are 32 left to be played but those are the most promising and I save those for last. I practice on the less promising ones to develop my strategy and that strategy has change from the previous Warlord, Regent, and Emperor high score attempts that used the same evaluation process.
In my previous attempts I used Philosophy to slingshot to Monarchy as I use it until all the serious wars are complete so there is no problem with war weariness. I make up for the lower commerce by building many cities on irrigated grassland and setting at least 3 citizens to specialists. That doesn't work at this level and I have had to switch to a Literature slingshot to build the Great Library. I have never built the Great Library in my previous games, I built the Pyramids after switching to Monarchy instead. So my present strategy is to found the palace at the first settler factory site and build a worker, three warriors and a granary before building settlers exclusively. Two warriors scout the surrounding terrain for suitable settler factories and a GL city. Once the city sites are located the scout warriors set out to find my neighbors. The first settler usually founds the second settler factory but sometimes the GL city if that loaction is closer. By the fifth settler 2 or 3 settler factories and the GL city are founded.
So far 6 maps have been played to 10 AD and the above strategy has been refined during those 6 games. I reset the map counter in MapFinder to 1 when I start a new high score attempt so I know how many maps were screened. Map 3209 was played to a conquest finish and is posted in the HOF but I didn't build the GL the Zulu did in 130 AD. I played that game because it looked like it would be easy as there were 6 luxuries hooked up by 10 AD and the 7th was probably hooked up before 440 AD as there is a city founded on it by that date. Having lots of lururies makes life much easier. The next game, Map 6369, still needs 10 turns to complete the GL at 10 AD and wont be played further. Map 20521 built the GL in 800 BC and had 73 cities by 10 AD. Map 20887 built the GL in 630 BC and had 74 cities by 10 AD, it was my aborted diplomatic victory game. Map 24729 built the GL in 570 and had 56 cities by 10 AD but I was building with OCP spacing to grab as much territory as possible before the AI grabs it all. That was one of my problems with Map 20887. Map 25414 built the GL in 170 BC and I was sweating it all the way, the Temple of Artemis was completed the turn before and 5 Civs were already building the GL. Map 25414 also had 56 cities by 10 AD with the same OCP spacing to grab territory. I can fill in the resulting territory with three times that many cities after all the available territory is taken. I have yet to see the AI build in the gaps with perfect OCP spacing.
To date 39 maps have been played to 1000 BC and 7 maps played to 10 AD but only 6 were saved, the 7th wasn't worth it. Mapfinder found 413 maps after screening 32,000 that were further evaluated but these included maps that were not suited for high score games but could be played as Conquest, Dommination, Spaceship, or Diplomatic fastest finish games. The culture victories require a different playing strategy and I start all games like conquest games that can be milked for high score. The fastest finish games that I play on these maps are really just practice games. In fact I will probably go back after I finally finish this high score game and play some of the Regent and Emperor 10 AD saves as fastest finish games on huge worlds just for fun.
By the time those 413 maps were screened I felt there were enough practice games available to play fastest finish Diplomatic, Domination, and Spaceship games. I have changed the screening criteria in MapFinder to a domination limit of 3750 from 3500 and increased the number of cows from 1 to 2. MapFinder has gone through a total of 47,000 worlds and the last 15,000 yielded another 7 maps that meet the correct criteria. One of those last games has a domination limit of 4017 and 3 cows in the starting location, I'm really excited about that one. I have never seen domination limits over 4000 on huge Pangaea worlds before and one of my earlier maps had a domination limit of 4023. I just finished the 1000 BC save for that map and there were 3 settler factory locations available with the GL completion in 14 turns. Since I am now playing the starts much faster that MapFinder is generating them the end is in sight.
In my previous attempts I used Philosophy to slingshot to Monarchy as I use it until all the serious wars are complete so there is no problem with war weariness. I make up for the lower commerce by building many cities on irrigated grassland and setting at least 3 citizens to specialists. That doesn't work at this level and I have had to switch to a Literature slingshot to build the Great Library. I have never built the Great Library in my previous games, I built the Pyramids after switching to Monarchy instead. So my present strategy is to found the palace at the first settler factory site and build a worker, three warriors and a granary before building settlers exclusively. Two warriors scout the surrounding terrain for suitable settler factories and a GL city. Once the city sites are located the scout warriors set out to find my neighbors. The first settler usually founds the second settler factory but sometimes the GL city if that loaction is closer. By the fifth settler 2 or 3 settler factories and the GL city are founded.
So far 6 maps have been played to 10 AD and the above strategy has been refined during those 6 games. I reset the map counter in MapFinder to 1 when I start a new high score attempt so I know how many maps were screened. Map 3209 was played to a conquest finish and is posted in the HOF but I didn't build the GL the Zulu did in 130 AD. I played that game because it looked like it would be easy as there were 6 luxuries hooked up by 10 AD and the 7th was probably hooked up before 440 AD as there is a city founded on it by that date. Having lots of lururies makes life much easier. The next game, Map 6369, still needs 10 turns to complete the GL at 10 AD and wont be played further. Map 20521 built the GL in 800 BC and had 73 cities by 10 AD. Map 20887 built the GL in 630 BC and had 74 cities by 10 AD, it was my aborted diplomatic victory game. Map 24729 built the GL in 570 and had 56 cities by 10 AD but I was building with OCP spacing to grab as much territory as possible before the AI grabs it all. That was one of my problems with Map 20887. Map 25414 built the GL in 170 BC and I was sweating it all the way, the Temple of Artemis was completed the turn before and 5 Civs were already building the GL. Map 25414 also had 56 cities by 10 AD with the same OCP spacing to grab territory. I can fill in the resulting territory with three times that many cities after all the available territory is taken. I have yet to see the AI build in the gaps with perfect OCP spacing.
To date 39 maps have been played to 1000 BC and 7 maps played to 10 AD but only 6 were saved, the 7th wasn't worth it. Mapfinder found 413 maps after screening 32,000 that were further evaluated but these included maps that were not suited for high score games but could be played as Conquest, Dommination, Spaceship, or Diplomatic fastest finish games. The culture victories require a different playing strategy and I start all games like conquest games that can be milked for high score. The fastest finish games that I play on these maps are really just practice games. In fact I will probably go back after I finally finish this high score game and play some of the Regent and Emperor 10 AD saves as fastest finish games on huge worlds just for fun.
By the time those 413 maps were screened I felt there were enough practice games available to play fastest finish Diplomatic, Domination, and Spaceship games. I have changed the screening criteria in MapFinder to a domination limit of 3750 from 3500 and increased the number of cows from 1 to 2. MapFinder has gone through a total of 47,000 worlds and the last 15,000 yielded another 7 maps that meet the correct criteria. One of those last games has a domination limit of 4017 and 3 cows in the starting location, I'm really excited about that one. I have never seen domination limits over 4000 on huge Pangaea worlds before and one of my earlier maps had a domination limit of 4023. I just finished the 1000 BC save for that map and there were 3 settler factory locations available with the GL completion in 14 turns. Since I am now playing the starts much faster that MapFinder is generating them the end is in sight.
