Unofficial May Tourney game

[Carcajou]

Diplomatic win in 1766 AD with 2302 points.

In 1764 AD, change the production in Tsingtao from Palace to U.N.

Normally I do not bother with Chivalry and wait for Military Tradition. In this game, I needed the Riders for Golden Age.

I really underestimated the power of those Riders and let Gandhi
build his empire. In fact he had Cavalry first.

[nbarclay]

"Archers Explore" Opening

China's starting technologies open up a possibility for an interesting opening gambit. In the "Archers Explore" opening, the idea is to build a barracks first thing and then start churning out veteran archers (however many fit) in between settlers. As additional cities are founded, have them do the same. The down sides are (1) early exploration lags behind, (2) if the archers are out exploring, there's little or nothing at home if barbarians show up, and (3) there aren't as many spare units lying around to assist with happiness. On the other hand, bring two or three exploring veteran archer units together against a rival capital defended only by warriors and it's easy pickings, and larger groups of archers can hit cities defended by spearmen.

By the way, the mark to beat for an early domination victory is now 1160 AD (with a score of 4270 if I remember right). With Riders available for early blitzing, I couldn't resist trying a heavily militaristic strategy even though it's not my usual style. I'll post my save file later.

My date of victory is definitely beatable (at least if one has a good strategy and is willing to do the necessary micromanagement). I like to think I had a solid basic strategy, but my execution and luck ran into a few hiccups. I'll be interested to see how my results hold up as others finish the game.

Nathan

[watorrey]

Originally posted by Carcajou
Diplomatic win in 1766 AD with 2302 points.

Isn't the goal for diplomatic victory the highest score instead of fastest?

Just want to make sure.

[BillChin]

Originally posted by watorrey
Isn't the goal for diplomatic victory the highest score instead of fastest?
Just want to make sure.

That's what Civfanatics decided, so it sounds good to me. However, the Apolyton tournament is so small right now that I'm not going to worry about these fine distinctions until I get more than 20 submissions for one game. A player can usually get a space victory if they are ready for a diplomatic victory. Anyway, the whole enterprise is just for fun. Enjoy.

[watorrey]

Originally posted by BillChin


That's what Civfanatics decided, so it sounds good to me. However, the Apolyton tournament is so small right now that I'm not going to worry about these fine distinctions until I get more than 20 submissions for one game. A player can usually get a space victory if they are ready for a diplomatic victory. Anyway, the whole enterprise is just for fun. Enjoy.

Well... i see there are 28 downloads of this game. I suspect there will be more submissions this month because it is a regent level game. Damn interesting map also

I am in 1620AD and almost have the UN finished. So that leaves me with a possible fastest space race (latter half of 1700's i suspect) or i could milk the game till 2050 for a really high score. the latter seems too time consuming however.

Domination was tempting, but i couldn't beat the first post. That is why i asked about a spoiler thread. Having that posted here changed the way i played the game.

Anyway... gotta get this done so i can play the 2nd tourney game.

[La Fayette]

sorry Watorrey
I shouldn't have written the date. Won't do it again.

[watorrey]

Originally posted by La Fayette
sorry Watorrey
I shouldn't have written the date. Won't do it again.

No problem really. I understand the idea of not starting a separate spoiler thread for this. This is 'unofficial' and we aren't winning any prizes. I had a load of fun on this map though.

Soooo.... i just finished my game. Year to beat for space race is 1764ad. 4763 score.

I didn't like having the Zulus next to me so i did a warrior rush on them while they still only had 2 cities. No more Zulus. That set me up for taking over the upper part of the continent. When i got too spread out, i let the others found new cities for me

The lighthouse set me up for trade routes with the other civs so i had lots of luxuries early on. Once i got chivalry, i upgraded my horsemen and started taking over. I cleaned off the continent before the other civs ever had contact with them. My reputation was impeccable with them and all but the Japanese were gracious most of the time. They also made good customers for my techs. I got so big that it was costing me a fortune for luxuries however.

I built a new palace toward the southern part of the continent with my second or third leader. FP was in the upper middle. That made almost the whole thing productive, especially after police stations.

From the late middle ages on, i was researching at 4 turns per tech. I probably could have gotten an earlier launch if i didn't go for a couple of optional techs along the way.

It is almost the middle of the month so i am posting the game. One has already been posted anyway.

[hallumj]

Here's my finish.

Here's my finish. I wasn't too aggressive in this game, so I didn't rack up that high of a score. Looking now at other peoples results, I see I could have been very aggressive and ended the game much faster. I attacked the Americans first on a swordsmen rush, leaving them pretty much 4 cities around the hump of the continent. Next, I needed the horses that the Zulus were hoarding, so I attacked them and took that hill with the iron and the horses, too, which left the Zulu's Iron free for some time. I took their continent to their capital in the first war, and let the Indians start the second war. I took the north half from sea to sea then. Unfortunately, I leadered the Forbidden City right next to the Indian border, expecting a war with them, and it never came. Wasted about half of it. Oh well. I'll learn next time. Fun game. Final score, 2460 pts, 1868 AD.

[hallumj]

Crap, forgot the file:

Here' tis.

[BillChin]

* bump *

There is still time to start and finish the May game. My game is almost done. It is a fun map that gives the player a lot of ways to win the game.

[punkbass2000]

Just a post to upload my game because I've been playing at my mom's this weekend, but I'm not done yet and I want to be able to download it at home. This will be deleted later today after I do so, though you can feel free to look at it, if you want.

[BillChin]

My game is one of warmongering. I build warriors, upgrade to swordsmen and go after America. After I get three additional cities in the peace treaty I swing the sword against the Zulu. I leave Shaka with one city and then finish off the Americans and press the war against Ghandi. By the time war with India breaks out, Riders start to come online. They make short work of India.

The rest is mostly mop up action. Domination victory in 1295, score of 4472. I seem to always be a step slower, and a few points behind NBarclay.

[gus_smedstad]

Domination, 3794 points, 1670 AD

This was pretty easy, but obviously I didn't push as hard as some folks here. I did the typical expand / expand / horsemen attack. Americans were my first victims, followed by the Indians. I left the Zulu alone early on because Impi can force losses against horsemen. When I got Chivlary I wiped 'em out.

I don't really see how you get a domination victory before 1200 AD. Sure, it's easy enough to get your own continent under control well before then. The issue is getting Navigation or Magnetism for the cross-ocean attack early enough.

- Gus

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by BillChin
The rest is mostly mop up action. Domination victory in 1295, score of 4472. I seem to always be a step slower, and a few points behind NBarclay.

Actually, you beat me by a 202 points. My save file for the official game is enclosed.

By the way, I replayed the game to hone my skills at using Riders (although I'm not sure how well what I learned will carry over into games at higher skill levels). In my first, third, and fourth replay attempts, I cut my margins too thin for the luck I had in my initial attacks and missed my goal of taking both enemy capitals. Those games, I aborted early. My second replay brought victory in 1000 AD and my fifth in 920 AD. (And that's trying to avoid taking unfair advantage of knowing the map.)

My top game came with a combination of three strategies:

(1) An "archers advance" opening using two archers each to take the enemy capitals. I used the archers to garrison the capitals after having had Washington flip in my first replay attempt when I just left a one-unit garrison.

(2) I then went into a combination of builder and settler flood tactics, building practically no more military for centuries. During that time, I went maximum research to get Riders. (Marketplaces were big on my build queue.)

(3) Once riders were ready, it was blitz-blitz-blitz.

My attacks started with America, capturing everything worth capturing and then making peace. (I left America with a couple size one cities that I could go back and take at will later.) After that war, I immediately hit India. The American war resulted in a golden age, during which I kept research high and beelined for Military Tradition.

Thanks to a lack of handy saltpeter, I wasn't in a good position to upgrade to cavalry during the Indian war, but I did upgrade my non-elite riders to cavalry in time for the (brief) Zulu campaign. During these wars, I kept pushing research, going after Magnetism.

I just barely managed to find the other continent with a combination of the Great Lighthouse and galleys before I discovered Magnitism (just as the Zulu war ended - I delayed that war to recall my elite riders in hope of getting a great leader). From there, it was upgrade my galleys and caravels to galleons, ferry my large cavalry and elite rider force across the waves, and blitz-blitz-blitz. Interestingly, the domination victory in that game came just as I was preparing to take the last two French cities for a conquest victory. (Mostly, I started with Japan and worked down, but some of my forces diverted south to hit the Iroquois while my main body was rampaging through England. Cavalry against pikemen is FUN!)

Nathan

[BillChin]

The downloads have been fritzy all day. If for some reason, a player wants to download the 4000 B. C. file, I attached a copy to post number fifteen on this Civfanatics thread:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22947

A good player could probably start and finish the game in about 12 hours of playing time.

P. S. Wow I beat Nathan.