The Vox Populi Challenge No. 7 - A Brave New World

[Grabbl]

Dear friends of Vox Populi!

This challenge's submission date has passed, look up the results in the second post, and don't miss the next one!

The first half of the season is played, here starts the second. Six more challenges to come, then we will know who will be immortalized as a Great Person in the Vox Populi mod. No matter whether you already gathered a few points in the previous challenges or whether you start doing it now, keep on reading.

​

After the bloodthirsty Montezuma, Maria I of Portugal awaits you this time. She has grown sick of the ancient world expects you to secure Portuguese influence on the virginal continent - the New World. Luckily, Portuguese engineers designed the elegant and powerful Feitoria to help you do so.

Before you continue reading, make sure that you have Vox Populi version 9-19 (including the newest hotfix) installed. You can find it here (and a thousand thanks to Thomas8 for reuploading it): https://we.tl/t-xKLciBTIRj

Before we go into details, please make sure you know the rules. Especially, don't share ingame information unspoilered, not even the number of points you achieved (or the turn where you finished the challenge). I don't want anyone to be discouraged by your score, or knowing what numbers he should aim for. In spoilers, you are very welcome to describe your game, of course

Spoiler Game Rules :

1) The Golden Rule: Don't replay, don't reload, send in your first try! It is recommended to set your auto-save frequency to 1 turn for this game. If you have a crash that forces you to replay, write it in the mail afterwards and try replaying as closest as possible to what you did before the crash.

2) Don't exploit any bugs you may find. At the moment, I'm not aware of any exploitable bugs, but just in case, don't overuse obviously bugged mechanics (like the infinite tribute-bug a few patches ago).

3) Don't share ingame-information unspoilered! If you want to share strategies or ingame information in this thread, use spoilers and write "Do not open unless you already sent in your game." on top of it. A separate thread for spoilers would be good, but I don't want to spam the main forum for this pilot.

4) Don't look at spoilers if you didn't finish your game!

5) Don't use cheat tools (Ingame Editor, Info Addict...) and don't open the map in some editor or else.

6) Don't use any additional mods besides full Vox Populi (1 to 6, either EUI or non-EUI) as I'm not sure whether I will be able to open your savegame files if you do.

The exact goal for this challenge:

As fast as you can, have 12 Feitorias built in the New World (!).
The new world is the continent where no major civilization starts, including islands linked to it by shallow (coastal) water. The owner of the tile where the feitorias are doesn't matter, they don't need to be in your territory.

Tie-breaking is the amount of XP on your highest-level Nau unit.​

Submussion deadline is Sunday, the 7th of October, 6pm Eastern Time (midnight in Central European Time). You can submit by personal message to me, posting your save in this thread, or sending it to vox-populi-challenge@gmx.net. Don't forget to write the name under which you want to appear in the ranking if sending by e-mail!

Spoiler Game Settings :

• Map: Terra, Small (see below for some of the particularities of the map type).
• 6 players and 12 city states in game
• Research Agreements, No Tech Trading
• No Ancient Ruins
• No Events

If something is not clear, read the following spoiler, then ask a question if still unclear:

Spoiler Challenge Specifications :

• It doesn't matter whether the feitorias are in your territory, the one of a city state, or any other player's.
• It also doesn't matter whether a worker or a Nau created them.
• "New World" is the (only) continent different from the one you started on, and all islands connected to this continent by shallow water.
• Islands in the ocean connected by coast to neither of the two large landmasses don't count.
• There is no coastal connection between the continents.
• The map generated has two large landmasses. All major civilizations start on one of them which is rather bulky, quite extended in East-West-direction and often has an inland sea ("akin to Eurasia-Africa). The other landmass is generated to ressemble America (namely, a thin part that links a Northern and a Southern blob). Islands near to both of the continents as well as a few connected to neither of them can exist. City states are placed on both continents.

This challenge is the seventh of a season of 12 challenges. After the submission deadline, I will rank all participants (divided by difficulty level) and you will get 15/13/11/10/9/8/7/6/5/4/3/2/1/1/1/... points for the 1st/2nd/3rd... rank. At the end of the season, your best 10 results will count for the final ranking.

The winners of the season (one for Prince, one for Immortal) will be granted the opportunity to become a part of the game as a Great Person of their choice (Prophets excluded). Thanks to Gazebo for this contribution to the challenge!

Now... download the save for your difficulty, make sure you have Vox Populi version 9-19 and you're ready to go!

 

[Grabbl]

And here are the results of your glorious adventure with Maria. For the first time, there are more Immortals than Princes among you... what does that mean? Is Immortal getting too easy?

Anyways, newcomer Bonnibpilly manages to get the first double victory in this VP challenge with his very first participation! Congratulations!

On Prince, Dejagore is building quite a lead, with Thomas8 now in second place. If someone wonders that the points don't add up, from now on the two worst results will be erased (as this is the rule for the final standing). The only one that is affected by that is Dejagore as everyone else missed at least two challenges, so the worst results are 0 points.

The top two places in the Immortal season stay the same, but also here Thomas8 jumps a few players and tries to catch up to Merill and CrabHelmet.

Edit: I'm sorry, Bonniebpilly's attempt to Prince was forgotten the first time which lead to a false Prince table. Now, the rankings should be correct.

 

[loafery]

I happen to check the forums and the thread was 6 minutes old, so I gave it a go again. This time it took a bit longer, but it was still playable in one go.

Spoiler :

First off I needed to tech to Nau and that was gonna take a while so I just played normally until then.

What I usually do is go tradition and maybe do 3/4 cities and just pump out engineers and scientists. That was the plan, but I made some early mistakes and I wanted to settle where Hamburg was going to settle but I lost it and the marble and the monopoly on copper with it so then I had 2 choices. If it weren't a challenge I would normally just restart because losing that good second city spot really hurts. However, i decided to just go with it and go for the next best thing which was either war and get Hamburg or just settle somewhere else. I did the latter because an early war would hurt too much.

Apart from that and the tiny war with Greece it seemed like smooth sailing, until I got Nau and the tech for pioneers. I made some more mistakes here and wasted a ton of turns losing a pioneer and losing a Nau. And then I realized I needed more pioneers to get to 12 because there was only 7 city states on the New World. My biggest downfall was not accounting for the massive horde of barbarians that were left for a long long time.

I think I could've finished a lot earlier, but I guess you could say that were a lot of unexpected things in the New World.

Edit: I added the immortal one as well which I did faster than the prince one oddly enough.

 

[CrabHelmet]

Spoiler :

The new world barbs are absolutely insane, goodness me. Is that normal?

 

[Grabbl]

Spoiler :

The new world barbs are absolutely insane, goodness me. Is that normal?

Spoiler :

From what I've heard, it is Imagine all those poor city states desperately proposing influence for help and nobody is there... However, barb units outside camps don't upgrade, do they? I'm sure your knights can deal with some New World Brutes.

 

[Grabbl]

Please update to the newest hotfix (called 9-19).

 

[merill]

someone has the 9-19 version?
i can't find it.

 

[Grabbl]

I'd be happy if someone could re-upload the 9-19 installer and post a link (I'll edit it in the first post as well). I'm not at my computer till next Sunday, so I can't do it, sorry.

 

[Thomas8]

My 9-19: https://we.tl/t-xKLciBTIRj

Also in attachment my prince attempt.

Spoiler :

Finished on turn 207.
I went with Progress. 7 Fetorias from City-States + 5 around 2 newly built cities.

 

[bonniepbilly]

In attachment my prince save.

 

[CrabHelmet]

Almost finished, should be uploading tonight.

Spoiler :

I actually left this one for a while and came back to it because I got so discouraged. I thought this was probably the most difficult of the challenges to date. On immortal, that starting location is awful. It's low on production early-game, low on food mid-game, you can't connect a Monopoly without warring through Morocco, any city you found anywhere at all is in an area someone else wants to expand into because you're at the crossroads of the map, you can't get City-state allies because of Venice, you can't get Wonders because China and Morocco are Cultural powerhouses with their UAs and at least for me, both went Tradition, your start wants you to clear the entire tech-tree at once - Fishing for Pearls, but then Pyramids and Bronze-Working for the Dyes, Mining for the Salt, you get forward-settled all over the place, it's horrible. By turn 60, I was at war with 4/6 of the other Civs, and I wasn't wasting time building my army either. I had no time at all for infrastructure, so my Science lagged, which meant reaching Naus slowly.

In retrospect, I almost certainly chose my Policy wrong, so that didn't help. I didn't realise how cramped I was early on, and I thought: okay, I am somewhat cramped, but I want to tech well to race to Naus, so let's go Tradition and focus on a defensive army while building infrastructure. Absolutely the wrong choice, no doubt at all, this was an Authority start.

Then, when I made it to the New World, it was crawling with Barbarians. I had to hack my way through them to found and get Feitorias going, and that was obviously slowed by my Policy choice again.

Would be surprised if I took first this time. Really just played consistently poorly.

 

[CrabHelmet]

And there we go.

Spoiler Turn count :

199. Honestly, I feel like a good play could have cut 15 turns off this, maybe more.

Absolutely kicking myself for not going Authority, just left so much Science on the table.

EDIT: Looks like I beat Loafery by the tiebreaker! His best Nau has 71 XP, mine has 85. That was close... we're very much asking to beaten at this point, methinks.

 

[Dejagore]

Phew! Both difficulties finished. Thanks for another great scenario Grabbl!

Spoiler details :

Prince scenario was quite easy and probably it could be finished much faster than I did but well was fun anyways.

The 'FUN' came with the Immortal one. At the beginning I already found out it will be nightmare. Everyone starting so close. I've met Venice, China, Morocco, and Spain pretty fast. My plan was to start forward settle cities asap and stay with Tradition bench. First city - near Morocco to hold their expansion north. Then I've moved with second settler towards Natural Wonder near China. Unfortunately China already planted a city nearby but was still able to have a good spot. With third City I managed to fit between Venice and China which was totally not what I think was possible. Last city planted near Buenos Aires just to get horses (which eventually was took over by City State). The moment I thought I gonna lose was when China, Venice and Spain - all declared war on me. Almost lost 2 cities but somehow was able to defend them. I managed to have white peace on all those wars. Later just Venice started another war after capturing Buenos Aires. This was cool as the CS was easy target (7 defense) and get loads of money from them for a peacy treaty. All other parts of game was just to beeline to Compass and Astronomy and find the New Land. Definitely best scenario ever.

 

[bonniepbilly]

My immortal save.

Question: is it ok if a feitoria has been pillaged?? Otherwise I will have to play a few more turns.

Thanks for a great scenario!

 

[loafery]

In hindsight I don't know why I teched banking when I could've just went with astronomy.

 

[Grabbl]

Question: is it ok if a feitoria has been pillaged??

Yes, that counts, as it's still a Feitoria built in the New World.

Thanks to everyone for the submissions, I'm already itching to dive in your saves when I come home Sunday night

 

[Thomas8]

Finished immortal

Spoiler :

Finished around turn 185 or 186 (also faster than on Prince - I think New Worl is closer on Immortal than on Prince). 7 Feitorias from City states + 5 around new cities (1 more will be finished in next 2 turns)

I went again with Progress -> Statecraft. Beggining was hard. I settled my first city between China/Venice. That ticked off Venice who declared on me early. I barely hold together - his archers brought my city down to 30 hp. But once China started moving his units to him - he quickly peaced out. But during that time China grabbed Nature wonder and all Dyes, I had to settle in worse positions. Second war with China+Venice was easy - since I already had walls and was able to repel them. Just before end China decalred on me again - but I didnt pay attention to this war anymore.

 

[merill]

finished prince:
https://mega.nz/#!Uk5AEIIR!l5RD01bbWC0aJJNerDMg8O2cf57LDwSr0QY17uYRAU8

edit: &immortal
https://mega.nz/#!114yWQ4T!F9XO6c2mW-puWmwU2Vxc_zlcibEkG7eNKTSINYBux_w

 

[NikMuazHakim]

Finished Immortal. Catastrophe intensified

 

[Grabbl]

The results are there (second post)!

Thanks to all participants, and congratulations to the winners (and everyone else, of course).

I'll be doing some crystal ball gazing to see when the new version will come online, and then decide whether or not I'll wait for it or launch a 9-25 challenge - also depending on my time. In any case, don't miss it!