The Deity Challenge Line-up #38 - Alexander the Great

[consentient]

There is now a thread to express yourself if you have remarks and ideas


The map is attached at the bottom of this post!

Welcome to the Deity Challenge Line-up!

Most Civ 5 players hate Alex, but I really like the guy. He's never boring, and usually quite a competent opponent. Now, you get to BE him! Will you create a massive empire through conquest? Manipulate the city state via bribes diplomacy? Or something else?

Before you play, check out this short clip about one of the legends regarding Alex.

Link to video.

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- The spreadsheet of all challenge finishers to date has been updated and is available here.

Rules:


- New games will be posted every 10 days.
- All the games in this series are set to Deity difficulty.
- User civilizations, maps, and opponents change with each challenge, but the game speed is always set to Standard and the starting era is always Ancient.
- We try for a variety of starts
- This isn't a competition so there will be no predefined victory conditions.
- If you complete 5 challenges, your name will be added to the 'Top Finishers' list.
When posting about your victory, please begin the post with the turn number and Victory Condition in bold letters - e.g. 'T247 DiploV' (this is so the person who updates the spreadsheet can see it more easily)

* We welcome all comments and write-ups and invite you to post screenshots of key moments and the moment of victory (if you are successful), but please use the spoiler tag if you post a picture, make a comment about which civs are in the game, or about wonders, or locations of ancient ruins, etc.

* In short, if it’s information you can only know by playing the game, don’t spoil it for others by divulging this information in the open. Thank you for your co-operation

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DCL Game #38

You: Alex
Map Type:

Spoiler :

Lakes

Extra Settings:

Spoiler :

5 Billion Years, Arid, Hot, Abundant Resources

Difficulty:

Spoiler :

Medium-Hard?

Starting Location:

Spoiler :

Quick combat and movement are on (turn them off if you like)

Game Version - 1.0.3.279
Downloadable Content: – G&K, BNW, Conquest of the New World Deluxe, Genghis Khan's Mongolia, Harold Bluetooth's Denmark, Isabella’s Spain and Pachacuti's Incan Empire, Kamehameha's Polynesian Empire, Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon, Sejong The Great's Korea, Wonders of the Ancient World. The map packs are intentionally excluded.

Past Games

Spoiler :

Super Easy

Game #20 12/02/15 Spain Terra
Game #25 30/03/15 (April Fool's) Venice Pangaea
Game #28 30/04/15 Russia Oval

Easy

Game #03 18/07/14 Persia Continents
Game #05 15/08/14 The Inca Pangaea
Game #06 29/08/14 Byzantium Continents
Game #08 26/09/14 Mongolia Pangaea
Game #13 05/12/14 Indonesia Continents
Game #16 02/01/15 China Pangaea
Game #26 10/04/15 Celts Fractal
Game #34 30/06/15 Egypt Europe
Game #36 20/07/15 Assyria Mesopotamia

Medium

Game #01 20/06/14 The Zulu Pangaea
Game #07 12/09/14 Ethiopia Pangaea
Game #11 07/11/14 Morocco Pangaea
Game #12 21/11/14 The Maya Continents
Game #15 19/12/14 (Xmas Special) Poland Pangaea
Game #17 16/01/15 Germany Pangaea
Game #18 23/01/15 OCC Babylon Continents
Game #19 02/02/15 Aztecs Pangaea
Game #22 28/02/15 Brazil Pangaea
Game #24 20/03/15 Arabia Pangaea
Game #29 10/05/15 Carthage Small Continents
Game #32 10/06/15 England Continents
Game #33 20/06/15 Songhai Pangaea
Game #37 05/08/15 France Inland Sea

Hard

Game #02 04/07/14 America Continents
Game #04 01/08/14 Sweden Pangaea
Game #09 10/10/14 Rome Small Continents
Game #14 19/12/14 (Xmas Special) The Netherlands Small Continents
Game #21 20/02/15 India Continents
Game #23 10/03/15 Huns Continents
Game #30 20/05/15 Iroquois Pangea
Game #31 31/05/15 Ottomans Fractal
Game #35 10/07/15 Siam OCC Pangeaa

Super Hard

Game #10 24/10/14 Polynesia Terra
Game #27 20/04/15 Danemark Pangaea

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I hope you all enjoy the map!

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If you want to share a map please send Acken a private message.

Please note that maps you wish to share MUST have map packs disabled, so those who do not have them can enjoy the challenge. To do this, you MUST go into the DLC option from the Main Menu and untick the options ‘Scrambled Nations’, ‘Explorers Map Pack’ and ‘Scrambled Continents’. You will need to do this EVERY TIME you start a new game, or just simply delete the map packs from your computer.

 

[NightKoalaBear]

DCL #36 is too hard for me, I may start this.

Does the extra setting make any different than normal map?

 

[stormtrooper412]

I think it has more desert and jungle and less swamp or something. And less mountains but more hills.

Or it could be completely the other way around, I keep forgetting that

 

[consentient]

Perhaps predictably I'm playing H-C-A. Trickiest part is choosing the first victim. All neighbours look quite strong

T88 Update

Decided to delay NC so I could build SoZ, not just cuz its great, but because some CS wanted it, and cuz its Greek, and cuz it was only 10 turns to build in my capital. Having an NC in the 90s isn't the end of the world.

 

[cazaderonus]

Oh damn, i hoped to see the map i suggested. Sad sad me. Well, i ll get to be alex again so it s not too bad i guess

 

[nickytootricky]

It says "Required DLC is not available". What am i missing?

 

[adcarrymaokai]

"Required DLC not available".

Bye.

 

[stormtrooper412]

maybe the Lakes map requires some DLC, I don't know. I will obviously be able to play it regardless so I can't tell

 

[adcarrymaokai]

Lakes are available without DLC. Which ones do you have?

 

[stormtrooper412]

I have every DLC so I'll be able to run it and not know what's causing it

 

[consentient]

I'm not sure what the problem is. Obviously the map works perfectly on my machine, and I have only the standard DCL stuff.

 

[stormtrooper412]

Looking at the hex code, it has stuff like "DLC MAPS" 01 through 03, which I don't remember seeing. No idea how it got there, perhaps it was implicitly added so that the Lakes type map could be created. I checked some other maps and it doesn't have that

 

[consentient]

Yes, I'm trying to figure this one. Map Packs have been deleted from my computer a long time ago, so really not sure about this one. I've enlisted the help of other forum members to edit the savegame file. What is really weird is that I've loaded and played it OK, but I sent it to a friend for testing and he couldn't load it. Odd!

 

[Grendeldef]

Doesn't work here either and it's screaming for a missing DLC - other Lakes maps seem to be working just fine.
When I downloaded it on weekend I just thought that something had been changed with DCLs so I didn't bother to investigate further but I might now.

 

[consentient]

Well if you can get rid of the references to Map Packs, there will be a lot of grateful people!

I don't want to be the only one playing this

 

[beetle]

Thanks! I was not expecting the next DCL so fast, and was still trying (without much success) to get a better France game. Hope I can open the file!

Opening move is warrior to sheep hill SW of settler. Then settle T0 one hex to right or cross river to SE to settle T1, depending on what the warrior reveals. I want to be on desert to have a chance with desert folklore (learned that lesson last game). I imagine that with the maps settings, there will be a lot of competition for DF.

It will also be a challenge to resist looking at consentient's screen shots at least until I get to NC...

 

[SooHongLoo]

I've been pretty busy but had some time to download this file and it seems to work just fine with my game and pc. I recently upgraded to a new pc and have windows 10 now and am getting used to it. One problem I had with Explorer was that it does not want to download civ5save files but I used another browser and that fixed that problem. As I have said before though it appears we will not be getting any hard maps anymore but at least this one is listed as med/hard.

I am waiting for Acken to update and release his mod out of the beta phase. How do we get the beta version and are players playing maps off of it and posting on another forum? I wouldn't mind messing about with it if others are playing maps with it and posting!

 

[consentient]

I CAN CONFIRM THAT THE SAVE FILE SHOULD NOW WORK ON ALL COMPUTERS

Special thanks go to mbbcam - a legend in his own time

 

[beetle]

Thanks for clearing the filesave issue.

What is the trick with Greece to get 0 degrading w/ CS relations? AFAIK, the UA plus opening Patronage is -75% degradation. Is there something to do for that next 25%?

I never got very far with my HCA attempts using Alex with consentient's guide, so I am not sure how I will play this. Probably Hoplites and CC for the RP aspect, but defensive until I have all the CS lined up. Then see if I am in shape for late game domination or not.

 

[consentient]

Well the best thing about HCA with Alex, if you get that far, is you take Gunboat Diplo instead of Clausewitz, and then you're actually GAINING influence per turn.

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UPDATE:

Anyway, I slowly bought all the CS in my game, and it was, yet again, the central tenet of my domination strategy. It's not like Gustav who can just feed them generals, but with Alex, once you've bought it, it's pretty much yours. Some will be 'hostile' and be a bit flip-floppy, but I had many gamelong alliances.

T232 Domination

Spoiler :

Textbook H-C-A. I even had a bit of a slow start. Better Honor players and Liberty runs may achieve VERY quick results. Perhaps the map isn't Medium-Hard after all. It might be harder if you try to play Peaceful.

Screenshots show:-

T105 XP farming up the wazoo

T162 Rome (1st victim) and Maya (2nd victim) have been conquered. During this period I fed Bismarck monumental bribes to stop him DoWing me, especially after wiping out The Maya (hey, they had two huge lovely cities and nothing else!) The plan was that the bribes wouldn't be TOO long because I would swing back around for him pretty soon.

T164 Despite a slow start, having 2 mega Mayan cities and Rome and Cumae (or was it Antium), plus my self-founded three, puts me 2nd on points

T190 Warsaw. Even more bribes were required and I was slow to get my Artillery going, plus Casimir actually put up a resistance, unlike the first 2 victims. However, I know that had I not bribed Bismarck for like 50 turns, he would have put a stop to my sweep, that's for sure.

T203 Berlin. From the East, it was a piece of cake, plus Germany was exhausted from being at war with everyone.

T214 - Cathy being Cathy, spamming missionaries like the world is going to end. (I guess when I take the 7th capital it did!)