The cgannon64 Challenge!

[cgannon64]

Good News: We found a second island! It is about 4 turns travel to the east, over the sea and ocean. Somehow, the RNG was playing nice today and it let me survive the long journey. We discovered an Aztec city on the pretty worthless island, and contact was made. They ARE in the Middle Ages, and they wouldn't give us any contacts or techs. They did sell us their map, and apparently we are the runt in a continent map. There is a huge continent to the east, with each civ getting 12 cities easily on fertile grassland. My guess is that we are in the middle of two or three islands, lucky us. Other good news is that we have iron. Unfortunately, its going to be hard to lead any swordsmen offensives against the other island, considering it is about an 8 turn journey across sea.

Bad News: The Aztecs got the Great Lighthouse, and just about every Ancient Age wonder was taken out in a giant, multi-turn cascade. Ouch. Most civs are in the Middle Ages (you can check by looking at F11 and seeing what their cities look like), and a few are very close to getting there. We are about 1/3 to 1/4 the size of every other civ. The other island is a continent, and it is over a long stretch of sea, which means no safe travel until caravels. Wow. Every civ is stronger than us, apparently.

Our Hope: There is probably an island to the south. The Aztecs don't know them, and apparently neither does anyone else. If we can find them before the rest of the world, they will hopefully be isolated, and we can conquer them. If it is another large island, we can broker trade in between them. I couldn't reach this island, because all of our southern suicide galleys died on the first turn. Come on, RNG, just one more gift, and I'll love you forever!

Here is the infamous second island, where we found an Aztec colony:

Good luck to all competing. I am open to ideas and strategies, because I am in a tough situation here (we all are). This game will be significantly easier if I can find that mythical southern island with fertile grassland, flowing rivers, and a weak civ.

CG

 

[ssmith619]

CG: post a screenshot! God, how much I envy you with PTW. I guess I'll just sit here and refresh, hoping for somebody to post a screenshot.

 

[God]

Originally posted by cracker
CG,

I'll have to weigh in on the side of some reason here and say you need to master some minimum skills before you start majoring in Marquis de Sade style events.

Why not play a GOTM of a Tournament game until you can at least begin to see how some of the features of the game work?

There is some cool stuff built into the game (along with all the "Oops"). Everything does not have to be a circus to be fun.

How many additional post counts did this thread gain you today?

Cracker: Lately almost all your posts have been insulting in some way or another. I commented on your idea to close all threads started by newbies on PTW that have been started elsewhere. They are newbies. They don't know! You are acting as if people don't know anything so they should follow your way. Even your comments on people discussing games in GOTM. They mention how they start off, and you go and critize them for doing it all wrong. Its a game! A game. Let people do what they want. You aren't the mod. Stop with these stupid "Do it my way or don't do it at all"

 

[cgannon64]

The Southern Island exists! The RNG, who must be in a good mood today, allowed my galley to get three turns south and meet the Celts. They have a nice six or seven city island, with a fair amount of grassland. This makes my plan clear: conquer and capital move. There is one problem with this plan: how am I to transport a swordsmen army across three turns of sea, without the Great Lighthouse? That would mean 70%-100% casualities before we even see an enemy. That is horrifying. I can't postpone the war until caravels, because we are pressed for time on this map. I'll be greatly open to suggestions about how to solve this problem. Anyway, the Celts are weak, and at our tech level. My goal is to hopefully clear them out of the island before the rest of the world shows up. They want to have contact with the other island, and it was very hard to get their WM without selling contact, but I managed to do it.

At the request of ssmith, here is our homeland:

And the Celtic Island:

Good luck to all!

CG

 

[SirJethro]

CG...do you think you could use the galley that you already have across as a stepping stone? It is hard for me to tell how far this is, but if you could get the loaded galley within one tile of the one that is safe, then you could offload the units. Then even if the galley sinks, your troops aren't on it.

Of course this only works if the space you need to cross is 4 tiles.

 

[cgannon64]

SirJethro: Good idea. I'm pretty sure the gap is more than 4 tiles, but I'll have to check. That will be a long process though, but it would work.

CG

 

[Bamspeedy]

I tried this save for a little while. Not playing too seriously, just seeing if I actually could get any wonders. My second city (built on the gold and the city was only a size 2) built the Colossus and was 17 turns shy of completing the Great Library. I suppose you could try using the Colossus as a pre-build for the Great Library or Great Lighthouse. But I would have had to take the citizens off the hills for awhile so I wouldn't complete the colossus before getting the tech for the other wonders. I had to use a temple as a pre-build before I finally got the tech for the second wonder, but didnt' get the wonder and would have lost 250+ shields.

I think ICS would work better on the starting island, I had at least 10 cities. Any city that's on the coast and doesn't have any bonus resources, would only ever be able to use 2 hills, so getting more hills in that city would be pointless.

 

[SirJethro]

Originally posted by cgannon64
SirJethro: Good idea. I'm pretty sure the gap is more than 4 tiles, but I'll have to check. That will be a long process though, but it would work.

CG

Actually, now that I think about this you could make it work for up to 5 tiles. Take the loaded galley out the full three tiles. Then the "safe galley" one tile towards it (they should now be next to each other). Move the units over and you can now use the remaining 2 turns on the "safe galley" to bring it back safe again.

 

[ssmith619]

Yay! You people are getting sowhere. God, I wish I could play. This is hard to watch. Well, anyway, this was mostly just a post to up the topic (I noticed it was on the second page. ). Good luck, all!

 

[Sultan Bhargash]

You sure you didn't create this map yourself Gannon? An AI Civ with your starting position would be terminated on the first move, starving its only city before it could do anything - like the old Civ2 trick of making an all desert world and winning on the first turn.

I have downloaded your challenge and may give it a try, but... dayamn!

 

[cgannon64]

Originally posted by Sultan Bhargash
You sure you didn't create this map yourself Gannon? An AI Civ with your starting position would be terminated on the first move, starving its only city before it could do anything - like the old Civ2 trick of making an all desert world and winning on the first turn.

I swear to whoever (must be PC here ) that it was a random map. I've had bad starts before, but this topped them all. I was so shocked by it that I realized I had to post it, and I decided to make it a challenge.

I'm going to play now. The game will be significantly easier if the Celtic land is 5 tiles away from us (see SirJethro's method). If they aren't, I'll probably decide to wait until caravels, rather than risk losing 70-100% of our attack force before we declare war. If you can convince me to try a galley attack, I'll do it, but right now I'm hoping that we can just trade our way into the Middle Ages. That is where I feel that others will do better than I can; trading. I've always had a hard time trading my way out of these starts. It takes perseverance and knowledge of how the AI trades, which I fear I lack. Good luck to all.

CG

 

[ssmith619]

Congratulation on your 1400th post, Sultan!

 

[Sultan Bhargash]

Originally posted by ssmith619
Congratulation on your 1400th post, Sultan!

Thanks! I have been cranking through about 70 a day lately, way too many!!!

 

[sabo]

Originally posted by cracker
CG,

I'll have to weigh in on the side of some reason here and say you need to master some minimum skills before you start majoring in Marquis de Sade style events.

Why not play a GOTM of a Tournament game until you can at least begin to see how some of the features of the game work?

There is some cool stuff built into the game (along with all the "Oops"). Everything does not have to be a circus to be fun.

How many additional post counts did this thread gain you today?

So not only do we have everyone playing "spam police" out here now people are complaining about "post count". People!! there are bound to be threads that go a little 'off-topic' it's just human, As long as it doesn't get too bad who really cares?? It seems we have people just waiting for someone to go a little "off topic" just so he can tell him to get back on topic.

And as far as "post count" goes, who cares??? I mean the only thing post count ever did for me was give me a custom avatar at 300, WHOOPIE!!! that's what people do here, they post!!!
personally I don't care if a persons got 3 posts or 3000 as long as he/she has something interesting to say I'll listen.

Also if I come on and complain about someones post count or their spamming then what the heck am I doing?

let the mods play spam police, that's one of the reasons they are here.

 

[cgannon64]

Originally posted by sabo10

And as far as "post count" goes, who cares??? I mean the only thing post count ever did for me was give me a custom avatar at 300, WHOOPIE!!! that's what people do here, they post!!!
personally I don't care if a persons got 3 posts or 3000 as long as he/she has something interesting to say I'll listen.

The only reason I'm averaging 10 posts a day, and I have 1400 in 5 months is...that...well...I have too much time! I speak the truth.

Anyway, about the game: Bad news to report. The Celtic island is 9 tiles away. This greatly troubles me. Without the Great Lighthouse, which was almost impossible to get with the conditions and the massive cascade, I have two options: a very risky galley invasion, with huge pre-combat losses, or I wait until caravels. I figure I'm going to wait until caravels. Unfortunately, my plan of keeping the Celts isolated won't work if I do that, because its only a matter of time before the Aztecs find them. So I hope to get harbors in every city, keep on looking for reachable fertile islands, build up a nice army (we have horses and iron...), and try to trade my way to a decent position. That is where others will get the best of me, and I hope to get lots of tips in that area. Trading is my weak point in civ, and bad point to have weak. Good luck to all, I've played all I can today.

CG

 

[ssmith619]

How are you doing in the research area? If you are behind, you do have two great resources available. If you want to have a horse army, you really don't need iron (until those horse and iron techs, of course), and it's very valuable. You should try not to fall behind in that sector, for that is one of the easiest to maintain under the current circumstances.

 

[Chieftess]

Originally posted by Grohth
What's that word I'm looking for? When somebody enjoys pain?

Think I'll pass on this challenge. I would have more fun going into a biker bar and telling them they are all panzies and getting the crap beat out of me.

Masochist?

Or, as someone (an admin) from another forum said:

"Do you enjoy being a perverse masochist?"

 

[xavitor]

The only positive thought on this starting location is that at least you will have no fear of global warming, just hope you've got some uranium and bring on the nukes!

 

[Chieftess]

Originally posted by Bamspeedy
I think ICS would work better on the starting island, I had at least 10 cities. Any city that's on the coast and doesn't have any bonus resources, would only ever be able to use 2 hills, so getting more hills in that city would be pointless.

That's what I was thinking of doing. Infact, lately, I've been using ICS for tundra/hill cities. They're great for ultra corrupt cities, too, since you get atleast 1gpt from each city.

 

[cgannon64]

Originally posted by ssmith619
How are you doing in the research area? If you are behind, you do have two great resources available. If you want to have a horse army, you really don't need iron (until those horse and iron techs, of course), and it's very valuable. You should try not to fall behind in that sector, for that is one of the easiest to maintain under the current circumstances.

Well, I can't trade resources over the sea without the Great Lighthouse, which I don't have. And I can't transport an army to another island safely. Looking VERY tough.

CG