Yeah! My first victory!

[Metropolis Man]

Okay, for you pros out there my 432 score is paltry, I know. But just thought I'd toot my own horn at my first win — a Diplomatic win....I built the UN building and got the vote.

Got a couple questions though —

432 is pretty low, I know. The Aztecs were actually ahead of me in the histogram score. I thought if you finished before 2050 (I got the vote in 2015) your histogram score was multiplied by some factor depending on your difficulty level. Of course that may be the issue — I was playing on Chieftain.

My culture score after discovering Fission and building the UN building was 76000. I was playing the Japanese and from the get-go decided to pursue a 100,000 victory since they are a religous culture. I racked up a huge number of wonders and city improvements along the way and was curious how early one could actually achieve a 100,000 game (i.e. game date). Now I wonder if I could have gotten 100,000 by 2050 — 35 turns to go and still 24,000 short.

Anyway — my strategy changed because I noticed I was ahead in tech, but only by 1 or 2 advances. And a couple civs seemed even with me because I was unable to sell them any tech. I was worried if I continued the culture route the AI would eventually build the UN building before I would hit 100,000. How common is it for the AI to build the UN building and win a Diplomatic victory? My wife got a culture win in 2045 — so I am assuming in that game no one even tried to get a diplomatic victory.

I appreciate everyone's tips over the last month or so since I discovered this great game. Time to move up to Warlord.

 

[Tomoyo]

The multiplier is something like 5000/540*turns left, times the difficulty level.

You can always dogpile the civ that builds the UN if you don't want to lose to a Diplo. The best alternative is of course, to build it yourself and not hold the vote. The AI builds the UN, because it is crazy about wonders.

A 100K culture victory works best with a lot of cities, and wonders are not as important.

 

[Metropolis Man]

The multiplier is something like 5000/540*turns left, times the difficulty level.

The best alternative is of course, to build it yourself and not hold the vote. The AI builds the UN, because it is crazy about wonders.

A 100K culture victory works best with a lot of cities, and wonders are not as important.

So how much of a factor is difficulty level? I had 35 turns left playing Chieftain. What would my score have been on Warlord?

Yeah, I probably did not have enough cities — I think I only had 20.

 

[ozo]

When I got 100k culture victory on Regent I had about 100 cities if I recall correctly. Five culture buildings in 100 cities adds up fast.

 

[Metropolis Man]

When I got 100k culture victory on Regent I had about 100 cities if I recall correctly. Five culture buildings in 100 cities adds up fast.

Ozo — so did you basically not even worry about being that spread out as far as corruption and waste are concerned? I would imagine the farthest cities from the Capital would have high corruption and waste. Did you also pursue Wonders in addition to city cultural improvements?

 

[Symphony D.]

Ozo — so did you basically not even worry about being that spread out as far as corruption and waste are concerned? I would imagine the farthest cities from the Capital would have high corruption and waste. Did you also pursue Wonders in addition to city cultural improvements?

Considering the OCN (Optimal City Number) Ozo was probably in Communism, which greatly reduces corruption by eliminating distance corruption, leaving just rank corruption.

Wonders are a huge investment of resources and time compared to just normal culture improvements, so they're less useful if you're going for 100k Culture Victory, but vital if you want to shoot for 20k Culture Victory (using a super city). It's my experience that a 100k is much easier to achieve than a 20k, so if you're going for that kind of win you probably want to have at least a decent sized empire and be able to rush improvements in Democracy/Republic with a strong economy (likely the other possibility for Ozo's results). As far as the earliest cultural victory, I've heard of them around 1800 AD, but I'm not sure what the earliest is, though considering the skill of some of the players around here, likely sometime before then as well.

 

[JoeCivFan]

Congratulations on the victory. Well done.

 

[Volstag]

Don't worry about your actual score -- a win is a win. There's several methods for pumping it through the roof but, personally, I find the whole process rather boring/tedious.

When going for a "culture" win, I find it's best to stick with normal city improvements -- get them built early and often. Some wonders are worth constructing (when going for a culture win)... like the Sistine Chapel, for example. Perhaps even Shakespear's Theatre, Newton's University, etc.

-V

 

[Tomoyo]

So how much of a factor is difficulty level? I had 35 turns left playing Chieftain. What would my score have been on Warlord

Cheiftain = 1
Warlord = 2
Regent = 3
You can figure out the rest by yourself.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

So how much of a factor is difficulty level? I had 35 turns left playing Chieftain. What would my score have been on Warlord?

Yeah, I probably did not have enough cities — I think I only had 20.

i dont know the difference between those specifically, but i do know the differences from monarch to sid (all in between per level that is).

If those differences are representative, you wont win a higher level with the same quality of play.

I advise you a few changes to your game play, not much should be needed to win warlord. Some common mistakes for those on low difficulties:

-Play more patient, think just a bit more about what you do and micro just a bit more
-Most likely you use too few workers since almost al low level players do so
-Dont focus on wonders, in ancient, just make only pyramids, later on just make some happiness wonder, the hoover dam and smiths trading. Maybe one or 2 more optional.
-Don't ever think you have enough cities, as long as there is space anywhere on the map, keep expanding. In early game, make sure you expand and grab as much land as possible.

Reading and taking to hard all articles from this site should enable you a few more difficulty levels.

 

[Tomoyo]

Dont focus on wonders, in ancient, just make only pyramids, later on just make some happiness wonder, the hoover dam and smiths trading. Maybe one or 2 more optional.

Or, much better don't build any wonders at all. Pyramids can a crutch later and one has to learn the process of building granaries.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

Or, much better don't build any wonders at all. Pyramids can a crutch later and one has to learn the process of building granaries.

I don't think we are talking about someone attempting Sid

 

[ozo]

Considering the OCN (Optimal City Number) Ozo was probably in Communism, which greatly reduces corruption by eliminating distance corruption, leaving just rank corruption.

Wonders are a huge investment of resources and time compared to just normal culture improvements, so they're less useful if you're going for 100k Culture Victory, but vital if you want to shoot for 20k Culture Victory (using a super city). It's my experience that a 100k is much easier to achieve than a 20k, so if you're going for that kind of win you probably want to have at least a decent sized empire and be able to rush improvements in Democracy/Republic with a strong economy (likely the other possibility for Ozo's results). As far as the earliest cultural victory, I've heard of them around 1800 AD, but I'm not sure what the earliest is, though considering the skill of some of the players around here, likely sometime before then as well.

I was in Democracy actually. My core cities produced the money, and then I just rushed everything in the outer cities. It didn't really matter that they didn't produce anything themselves, I had the money to rush. My victory was late 1700's or early 1800's, can't remember exactly. It was only Regent level tho.

 

[Longasc]

ozo, grats!

The best victories are those in doubt and hard earned. I played much worse than today, but I still remember some games where it was a fight till the near end or to the very end, I valued my bare histograph victory on Monarch higher than my first on Demigod.

All games in higher difficulties were only a problem in the beginning - later on they usually bored me, my last game took 6 month perhaps with 50 hours gameplay IIRC. I just did not have the mood for a long time to finish a tedious and decided endgame. :-(

 

[Tomoyo]

I don't think we are talking about someone attempting Sid

We could be thinking that we are talking about a future emperor...

And to hold true to my point that the space wasted by the user details can be used, I put this line. <--- And that's annoying.

 

[scoutsout]

I'm catching up on my SG's after a couple of ...interesting (long) days at work. I ducked into S&T, saw this thread title, and just had to offer my and congratulations.

Time to move up to Warlord.

Thanks for drawing this conclusion yourself. You may not know it now, but taking on that next level is going to be bigger than the win. Let us know when you win that first Warlord game. (Or let us know if you get in a pickle on the way...)

In all seriousness Metropolis Man... I think I caught some of your earliest posts here, and I thank you for sharing your success. You just brightened my day.

 

[MSTK]

I found Warlord not much different from Chieftan. I jumped from Warlord to Regent

That was, of course, after being scared about Warlord as if it were Diety and playing at least 10 games on Chieftan. It wasn't at all what I expected it to be

EDIT: I also recommend reading all of the "Beginners" tutorials at the War Academy, especialy the "Diety Settlers" by Bamspeedy and "Four Rules to Wonder Addiction".

 

[ozo]

In my opinion the best thing with the lower difficulty levels is that you don't actually have to micromanage that much. You can win anyway.

 

[Metropolis Man]

I found Warlord not much different from Chieftan. I jumped from Warlord to Regent

EDIT: I also recommend reading all of the "Beginners" tutorials at the War Academy, especialy the "Diety Settlers" by Bamspeedy and "Four Rules to Wonder Addiction".

Those articles are awesome and I need to reread them. I also think I'm going to skip Warlord and go straight to Regent for my next challenge.

But back to my original score question — my final score was 432 (Histogram). Tomoyo said the multiplier was 5000/540 X turns left X difficulty level. Plugging in the info — 5000/540 X (25 turns left) X difficulty level (1) = 231. Is this number added to some other number to get the 432? Inquiring minds have to know.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

Yes, it is a bonus for winning before 2050AD.

Your base score is based on the amount of terrain and citizens you have (happy counting double, unhappy not counting at all) It is an average of all your turns so it is good to start getting much terrain early.