Wholly Impossible (2)

A while ago, I got the Holy Mountain quest and found, eventually, that it was a peak on a one-tile island beyond settlement reach. Others have had the same experience. So when in my current game I was again handed this quest I thought "oh, ha ha" and ignored it. Later, I had built religious buildings with no thought for the quest and was very surprised when the "success" message appeared. And what did I find ?
(a) The mountain was at the extreme west of the map (a large pangaea): my lands are near the east, and there are two hostile civs (Toku and Genghis) between me and the mountain.
(b) I cannot sail there, because my only ports are on the north coast, in a very wide bay with no access east or west due to sea ice.
And finally (c) -you've guessed it - it's a peak on a one-tile island, this time surrounded by sea ice and five tiles from any other land.

It would appear that the mountain's location is chosen when the quest conditions are met, on the basis that that location has not been visited by any unit belonging to the questing civ. I say this because there are still many peaks on the map which lie outside all cultural borders, on the main landmass,but have all been seen at some time by my Scouts.

 

Isn't the quest a dissappointment anyway?
The colloseum quest is one of the few that is actually worth it.
And the swordsmen quest if you're the Romans.

 

Yeah, that quest is pretty much a total failure. I like the Swords quest, and the Blacksmith quest is kind of nice if you're playing a small map and need copper for Mining Inc.

 

I had the swords quest while playing as the Romans on a Earth map. Boy, did that one help out or what.

The only time I ever completed the Holy Mountain quest was when it was on the next island to my civ and there was room for a city. And (yawn), yay, I got +1happyness. I could do the same thing by just moving the culture slider to 20%.

 

swords quest as Aztecs or Romans own.

But what is the HM reward?

 

+1 in your cities.

 

Wow that is awful.

You could pick up ONE luxury resource you dont have, even Dye, and have the exact same thing.

 

It's a really lame reward for a tough quest. I usually ignore it.

 

Tough enough, but it shouldn't be impossible, however feeble the reward for success.
Incidentally, these two utterly futile "holy mountain" quests are the only two quests that have ever been offered to me.

 

I had one game with FOUR quests recently. The first expired for time about 10 turns after I got it, the second one was too onerous for my strategy at that point, the third was even more impractical, and the fourth meshed nicely with what I was doing so I got it.

OTOH, one game I got one and the reward was a GA! Woo hoo!

It's a shame Nav2 requires Flanking - the quest that rewards you with Nav1 is sweet, and that would make it sweeter.

Overall though, I don't play enough games to see a lot of quests, so I don't have them all memorized.

 

IMO few quests are worth going for if they don't fit well with your strategy. If you are spamming religious buildings anyways, then it can be worth it to pop up the city for holy mountain. But there is no point in putting much extra effort into it.

 

swords quest is worth it, galley/trireme quest is worth it, HM is only if you are a heavy religious civ, but then stop there, harbor is worth it, if most of your cities are on the water anyways, so you are using it for the food bonus, stable quest is worth it if you are Russia or Mongolia.

 

A lot of the quests are pretty nice actually. Before I made the decision to keep random events off forever, I loved the castle quest. Castles aren't something you normally build, but plus THREE diplo with all known leaders? I've won games from that quest!!!

 

And here I thought I was the only one to turn off Random Events
I actually never really played with them turned on. Am I missing out?

cheers,
wannabewarlord

 

For sure. You should at least try some games with them on. I usually play with them off, but sometime's they're refreshing.

 

Definitely turn on random events for a few games. The volcano event will drive you nuts, but on the whole it adds good flavor.

Quests: Agree the stables one can be good. I definitely like the library and forge quests, and the National Sports League is really good.

 

Playing with random events turned off is like driving to work and home everyday. Playing with random events on is like driving off a cliff into a lake, at times.

 

Though I've had a holy mountain on a one-tile island too, in a later game I had a holy mountain on a peak just four tiles away from my capital, meaning I got to complete it for once ( without even trying though: with my state religion being AP, Sankore and Spiral Minaret religion, constructing all the necessary buildings was an obvious choice). So I don't think the mountain is always placed just so that you can't get it .

 

I like the libraries quest, I often build the GL.
The quest about settling different landmasses (I think you get that with archipelago maps) is useless. To many landmasses to settle.