The Deity Challenge Lineup - Game # 1 - The Zulus

@Acken

Really nice game and great write-up. your game and mine went very similar (early culture ruin, worker steal from USA and Dido, while I got one from each and you got two from Dido, and england built GW at the 2nd city)

main differences are:
1. you went for shoshone cap first and approached paris from west - this is just great.
2. you started stacking XPs early and started war early. Great decision again. I wasted 10+ turns with my first archers to find barb quest and scout southern area, as my initial scouting sucked.

@ Tradition or liberty?

I believe that it is just up to players' styles. I prefer liberty b/c

1. getting 1 more hammer is very helpful for early expo production
2. Citizenship worker allows more flexible game (even if worker stealing fails, I can still play usual game)
3. With pyramid, you can build roads in 2 turns and repair in 1 turn. For quick speed, you can build roads in 1 turn!
4. Free settler and +50% production is extremely helpful for early expos.
 
To avoid cluttering the forums I say to post any ideas/suggestions in here.

Whatever suits the hosts is ok but for the practical pov it's just better that everyone uses the same thread.

Also, since you seem to have a specific idea of what makes a game entertaining/challenging, especially on non- Pangaea maps, I was hoping you could either send a save to my email or possibly tell me what you look for. If you do submit a game you must remember that all map packs need to be disabled.

Aah, yes, Gren the Perpetual Idea Mill - a scary thought.
No. I don't have any specific ideas worth mentioning for the next challnge(s) but I'm sure participants (will) have. There always something topical which could be tested in form of challenge. Out of the blue I think around #12 challenge in the previous series was the Mayans because of the general interest towards their UA & something in regards of which GP to choose from the start - can't remember the details.

My general dislike for Pangaea maps is based on two issues. First, AI tends to build a navy regardless of any need for it hence it's hampering itself by wasting hammers & money.
Secondly, a balanced Pangaea map is a true rarity or I'm just extremely incapable of rolling one. One's position on the map makes a huge difference and having Pocatello essentially splitting the continent in halves on T3 is just stupid. Doesn't mean that I'd ignore a challenge on Pangaea but I haven't used it on my own games for ages.

More on the topic as others had bad luck with Pyramids being build very early - not in my game as it was still left unbuild on T180. People weren't very keen on Liberty. It would have been a nice catch but things just go one's way every time.
 
I admit I didnt finished this one and am not trying anymore. I tried. lord knows I tried. My last attempt thought i was onto something but fighting great war infantry when I have cross bows and impis was not working. I probably wandered down the wrong tech path at some point but it was fun to take some capitals on this level. I will watch pedrdoelm video all the way to see about doing these type of games in the future.

In my last try Paris had all the culture wonders and I captured them but didn't know how to play the game after taking their capital. Is it possible to switch to being a culture monger instead of a warmonger at like 190 turn into a game with an ai capital? Not used to this style. I'll get better the more these go on. Hope you are releasing a second game today cause this ones been informative.
 
I admit I didnt finished this one and am not trying anymore. I tried. lord knows I tried. My last attempt thought i was onto something but fighting great war infantry when I have cross bows and impis was not working. I probably wandered down the wrong tech path at some point but it was fun to take some capitals on this level. I will watch pedrdoelm video all the way to see about doing these type of games in the future.

In my last try Paris had all the culture wonders and I captured them but didn't know how to play the game after taking their capital. Is it possible to switch to being a culture monger instead of a warmonger at like 190 turn into a game with an ai capital? Not used to this style. I'll get better the more these go on. Hope you are releasing a second game today cause this ones been informative.

Don't worry about not finishing the game. There have been over 100 downloads and I think only 10 have claimed a victory. I still think people should post their outcomes in the threads just so they can get some feedback on their play. Lastly, I do have the next game ready but I won't post it until tomorrow or maybe tonight at 12 ET, but that is unlikely since I am an early riser on the west coast.
 
Whatever suits the hosts is ok but for the practical pov it's just better that everyone uses the same thread.
I do believe you are correct and that is why I posted the suggestion thread in the original post. On the other hand I don't want to clutter the forums, so I am torn.

There always something topical which could be tested in form of challenge.
Topical like playing as America on the 4th of July? That's the next game btw.
 
That explains it. 4th tomorrw and all day I think it is friday. I worked today and knew I had a 3day weekend. Okay I will wait untill tomorrow.
 
Cmon its already friday in europe :) I finally have the time to play a bit, but I will definitely not bother with Zulu, as I completely don't understand the early offensive wars and don't feel like playing the good old bomber domination again.
 
Finally finished my game just in time for the new challenge. Won a science victory on T356. I am happy with the result as it was a very slow start (only 2 cities for a long time) and a real struggle mid-game. Happiness was a major issue due to tremendous ideology pressure from Dido. Gold was also scarce until about 4/5 through the game. Domination wasn't really a good option by the time I finally got my economy in order (the early ban on salt was a crushing blow). Things came together very well at the end in terms of timing so I didn't lose any turns there. Thanks for the fun map. Final screenshot is below:

Spoiler :
 
IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Though this map is quite old, it can still be played, so if you play it and complete it, please send me a PM so I can update the finisher's spreadsheet.

Thank you.
 
T279 DiploV

Spoiler :
I admit it, I just wanted to be different in this game. I'd previously played the map through in a Liberty domination attempt but quit somewhere around 3 capitals. Noticed recently that no one won a DiploV on this map, so thought I'd give it a shot using the Piety guide that is so reviled.

The religion. With the salt I got Earth Mother pantheon, settled my 2 expos quickly and got an early religion. Took Pilgrimage, and concentrated mostly on religious spam until the Shoshone, French and Babylonian cities were all converted, then switched to growth. Enhancer was RT of course, and Reformation was Charitable Missions.

Diplomacy-wise the game was odd. There were no wars at all until T260 or so when Nappy and Dido finished warring with each other and promptly double DoW-ed me. I had played with no bribes at all, but being allied with the military CS I had a bunch of infantry sitting around doing nothing at all.

There was little to do in the end game except hoard money and keep an eye out for a possible quadruple DoW.

Ideology wise, Dido took Order in T157!!!! I was 2nd to ideologies and took Order too, since the word on CFC is that it's a safe bet. Within 50 turns I had -60 Revolutionary Wave, since Freedom apparently was the cool club for this game. So I switched, lost my tenets, took Economic Union, which helped a lot, and enjoyed happiness the rest of the game.

I think this shows that every game is really different, even on the same map, since this bunch of psychopaths have never been so peaceful. Don't get me wrong, I had the "my disagreements have become too much" B.S. almost every turn, along with the customary pleas for Open Borders, but no actual wars until right before the end.

Also, if the Zulu can win a DiploV using the Small Piety strategy, then I think anyone can. For me this victory vindicates it against the attacks of the naysayers.

That said, the DiploV victory always feels cheap when AI players like Pocatello are sitting on enough gold to buy all the CS and they don't do anything. Maybe 1 in 20 games one of them will do it, but it's usually Alex, let's face it.

SPs: Full Piety, Full Patronage, Rationalism+Secularism later, Orderx2 (later deleted), a few in Freedom (can't remember what besides Economic Union), Commerce opener
 
There was an old random game I played with all random settings and random civs and all that and by the time ideologies rolled in, I was the first pick and went Order thinking I'll be fine, but everyone else went Freedom and my happiness went balls up. So I reloaded some 20-30 turns ago and picked Freedom but then everyone went Order just to spite me.
 
There was an old random game I played with all random settings and random civs and all that and by the time ideologies rolled in, I was the first pick and went Order thinking I'll be fine, but everyone else went Freedom and my happiness went balls up. So I reloaded some 20-30 turns ago and picked Freedom but then everyone went Order just to spite me.

AIs are suckers for early adopter tenets.... (even Gandhi will go autocracy and then just sit around not DoWing anyone unless invited because his warmonger flavor is a 2 for example... if warmonger flavor is below 4 then he even cannot be bribed to war despite hating the target); in other words, although useless for him, he just picked it to send you some red faces because he wonderwhored.

That said, this particular game I don't think DV is a given; with Siam and Carthage in the game, sometimes you will see them relentless with the CS (couping with their 2934830294893028 spies they get from stealing techs because of AI advantage, gifting gold EVERY time you supplant them, etc.); most of the naysayers are not saying it CANNOT work; they are either saying: it will not work IF the AI decides to bother with CSs or anything aiming for DV is not considered a real strategy in their eyes (for whatever reason).
 
Yeah, IF they decide to keep the CS, you have no chance. But it's really 1 in 20 that their intelligence subroutine kicks in. The rest of the time they are stoopid. I really think Pocatello could have bought all of them with his gold (especially if he did what I did and sell the science buildings for extra cash).

As for the faith, I realised later that it was complete overkill. The AI had given up fighting the worldwide religious war with me, and without Glory of God or anything, it was just sitting there useless. Imagine the wonders I could have built had I gone full Tradition later instead of wasting the policies on Order and so on...
 
T196 Domination Victory

Spoiler :

I went full Liberty (followed by full Patronage), with a 3-city start. First city was built on the starting point, with the 2 expos ~5 tiles NW and NE. I xp farmed archers on the nearby city state and, once I had some level 4 units, headed North to attack Siam. Took the 2 main Siamese cities before T100, leaving the 3rd (a ways off to the West) for Poca to eventually conquer. Next, I headed to England, who had built the Great Wall; cleared them out completely, and then same for Babylon by T125.

I tried to keep most civs at war with someone throughout, though Dido and Poca definitely had periods of peace to grow. Poca probably took the longest, with some rough terrain to traverse through, then after that I steam-rolled East through France, America, and finally Dido. I had 1 main military force, with others protecting my initial cities; the game likely could have gone faster if I'd sent troops to have 2 simultaneous battle fronts.

Thanks to all the great posters on this forum, I've learned a lot reading the past few months.


 
Well if I ever want to get rolling on this map, it's going to have to be OCC because I get boxed in that fast :lol:
 
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