The Hall of Players

[Pangaea]

Not at all surprised after what I have seen. I gave up fighting without the siege completely - too much gambling, too much frustration after the failures like the one you described.
My last two attempts at Epic/Standard Space were murdered by power blackouts. It happens like once or twice a year, but of course, it had to happen at exactly the wrong time. One of those was really good and had potential for 11xx landing (2 neighbours lacking both metals and ivory). Apparently it will have to wait until the gauntlet, I don't feel like playing big at the moment.

Ouch! Sorry to hear that Sounds like they were really good games too. 11xx landing would be awesome.

I've had good success with Horse Archers before, especially against non-metal units, so this was just bonkers. Hurts the most in the early-ish game too, when every unit counts. Doesn't matter so much if you have bad luck when you have 50 Cuirs.

Playing another game now, and had access to ivory, and no horses around, so will try elepults. If that isn't safe, I don't know. Kind of a strange map, though. So many AIs nearby I only got 2 cities + capital. But it will have to do. Should really finish one of these games, but it becomes a drag. Had so many .003 games with very promising #1, but of course those won't matter now. For some reason I stopped playing one of them when I was practically done spreading both corporations. Just the last stretch left.

 

[Pangaea]

I'm starting to have second thoughts about having Mansa in my games. Is that nuts?

He's good for getting techs of course, especially in the early to mid game. However, time and again he is teching like hell despite having a puny 3-4 city empire, which leads him to become a threat for (something good from) Lib. He also like to haul ass towards Democracy and the annoying Emancipation. And techs I don't want to go around he will offer to anybody with a pulse.

What do you reckon, would it actually be better to simply remove him? It has become second nature to include him since he will (almost) always trade, but there can be pretty big downsides too.

 

[Anysense]

Not sure about Mansa - he is truly very useful. On the other hand, those super early macemen everywhere (because Mansa got Machinery and CS about 500BC and traded them around immediately) are rather annoying. Particularly when you rely on praetorians to do most of the conquering.
I've been thining of bringing into the game more dunderheads, that tend to stay in Classical era for ever, and fewer fast teching guys. The former are by far easier targets, despite their habit of spaming units.

 

[Kaitzilla]

I'm starting to have second thoughts about having Mansa in my games. Is that nuts?

He's good for getting techs of course, especially in the early to mid game. However, time and again he is teching like hell despite having a puny 3-4 city empire, which leads him to become a threat for (something good from) Lib. He also like to haul ass towards Democracy and the annoying Emancipation. And techs I don't want to go around he will offer to anybody with a pulse.

What do you reckon, would it actually be better to simply remove him? It has become second nature to include him since he will (almost) always trade, but there can be pretty big downsides too.

Removing Mansa almost always slows down teching in a game's pace.

But it does make earlier rushes easier, and it does simplify diplo a bit more since Mansa can DOW at Pleased.
It all depends on your goals really.

If you are curious if removing Mansa is a good idea, go for it.
See how you like it.

 

[Anysense]

Removing Mansa almost always slows down teching in a game's pace.

But it does make earlier rushes easier, and it does simplify diplo a bit more since Mansa can DOW at Pleased.
It all depends on your goals really.

That is exactly what my idea was - slow the tech pace down to make conquest easier and get to the domination limit earlier. That is the research in the early game is hampered, but I get faster to the point when explosive economic growth begins. That (at least in theory) should produce better results.

 

[Pangaea]

Thankfully he ended up being useful in the game where I was angry with him, but I had to take him as a peace vassal first - which of course means a good portion of land percentage got taken as well. Not ideal, but the least bad option given the circumstances I think.

More generally, I do think it makes some sense to remove him. I may play around with it later, although right now I'm playing some space games, so in those it may still be good to have him. Not sure tbh. It can make claiming land harder when he spams CS and worse around, and it can certainly be hard to get something really good out of Lib. Usually I like to aim for at least Biology in these games, so having to opt for Economics isn't exactly great.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

How do you guys like this start in my latest attempt, t4.

 

[Anysense]

That looks good. I played a few games on duel-size Terra trying for space, and sometimes there was about as much food on the whole continent as you have here in the starting location alone

Edit: I never make anything out of games where I get BW from huts. For some reason they all have fatal flaws making free BW completely irrelevant. The only exception was a religious game beating old Incan record with a decent date (2175 BC).

 

[Major Tom]

How do you guys like this start in my latest attempt, t4.

Questionable, You orphaned a fish!

 

[Anysense]

Questionable, You orphaned a fish!

Quetionable, look at the tile 1N of that fish!

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Questionable, You orphaned a fish!

Yeah, it was in the fog but even so I probably still would have orphaned it hoping for an offshore island but no luck.

Going well - here is the lie of the land now.

Spoiler Lie of the land :

Gandhi's former capital is a glorious addition to our Empire.

Spoiler Delhi, now Roman :

He's welcome to his new one even if it is the Christian Holy City!!

Spoiler Gandhi's capital :

 

[Noble Zarkon]

I'm playing about with Duel, Score games - played a very sloppy one last night and got 160k without much effort!

I tried playing as Mansa Musa with the aim of running a 96 turn GA whilst spreading Sushi to offset the costs, problem is you really want to be in Caste for the GA but you need slavery to whip the execs!

Trying with Darius now - half price lighthouses and courthouses are sweet and Immortals make good Military Police.

Mansa and Gandhi were my opponents - warrior rushed Gandhi early on, MM has traded me a load of techs so quite promising.

 

[elitetroops]

I've played a few AP and UN victories while relearning the game. Why does the victory conditions menu claim I only get diplo victory votes from friendly civs (+10) when in reality I always seem to get the votes at +8. Is there some exception or is +8 always enough?

Another question, can you get traded with worst enemy penalty for peace deals?

Last game was a close one. I accidentally traded with Vicky without noticing she just became Willem's worst enemy and Willem was down to +6 a few turns before the vote. Liz had created Monty as a 4 city colony who later broke free, so my plan B was to take one city from him and gift him the UN city in the peace deal to face him in the second vote instead of my good friend Hammy. Luckily I got two more points from Willem right before the vote and it didn't come to this.

All game I was bribing people on Monty whenever I had a chance, but none of them succeeded in taking anything from him despite one of his cities being defended only by a warrior in 700 AD.

 

[Tonny]

I've seen that +8 is enough for the vote too. So there's no exception.
Sword has posted a nice write-up when he got a turn 56 AP win. He states as well that +8 is enough.

 

[elitetroops]

Yeah, hardly had anyone at +10 in any of my AP victories. I wasn't sure if +8 is only AP or also UN, so it was quite nerve-racking to press end turn on turn of vote when victory screen tells me I'm a loser.

 

[sampsa]

Sword has posted a nice write-up when he got a turn 56 AP win

Where is this?

 

[Tonny]

Here it is
Religious Victory Case Study (Monarch/Tiny/Normal)
https://forums.civfanatics.com/thre...udy-monarch-tiny-normal.633256/#post-15148751

 

[elitetroops]

@Noble Zarkon I notice the only immortal G-minors since early 2018 have been space colonies (and I happen to need an immortal G-minor ), so here's a G-minor suggestion:

• Victory Condition: Domination
• Difficulty: Immortal
• Starting Era: Ancient
• Map Size: Tiny
  
• Speed: Epic
  
• Map Type: Highlands
• Civ: Russia (Catherine)
• Opponents: Any

One of the worse map scripts for fast domination, but the current #1 should be beatable even with these settings. I think it could be a fun and slightly different challenge. For those who just want to tick off the G-minor and not worry about grabbing a #1 slot in the tables it shouldn't be too hard.

Could also make it Civ: Sumeria if you want to make it easy mode.

 

[elitetroops]

I tried OCC PA deity for the first time yesterday. Man, that stuff is broken!

First game my intention was to go space but Mansa decided I should win culture instead. Whatever, I'll take it. Towards the end Lizzy stole pretty much all of my BFC and replaced my precious towns with farms:

Spoiler :

How is that even possible?? Was it just unlucky, or is there something I should do in OCC games to prevent this?

 

[WastinTime]

is there something I should do in OCC games to prevent this?

Yes, you need to opponents/PA partner that don't like culture victory.
IIRC, avoid : SPI, CRE, FIN
and to due to a bug IND is only half as much an incentive as the others.

Mansa is two of those, so extremely likely to go culture.