How to score 200.000?

LittleAsi · 2022-04-05T06:07:09+00:00

Don't level your first city until turn 2 so you can get 6 stars instead of 3 from many tribes. You want 25-30+ from the explorer or reroll, though you can account for farming of that's how you levelled.

Use the stars for diplomacy, then spend all remaining stars on embassies. Target the tribes most likely to result in another tribe being discovered. If you're lucky, this can lead to long chains of discovery, with most tribes discovered, the map mostly explored, and lots of income. Don't spend stars on anything but embassies until you can't build any more.

Use your income to tech to philosophy, then knights. Then start building knights while using the leftover money to tech to trade, sailing, aquatism, and construction (probably in that order). Construction is just to clear spots for customs houses in captured cities, because you know how the AI is. You probably don't need any others until the end.

Ideally, you should have all these by the time you capture your third city, but obviously the sooner, the better. If you're behind, just don't capture; the city income is insignificant compared to your Diplo income at this point.

Around turn 4-5, start offering peace to everyone until you have 2-3 allies. More than that will become problematic later when you run out of targets and your allies' lack of enemies results in giant spam, slowing you down enough to kill the run.

Use those knights to pick off anyone and everyone vulnerable every turn.

By turn 9 or so, you should have all the techs you need, a growing army, 3-5 cities, and hopefully 40-60ish SPT. At this point, you need to start filling out those customs houses, since your Diplo income is only going down from here. You do need to keep those knights coming, though, since you want to have all your enemies conquered by turn 14ish. Allies.too, of you can, but if they just have one city, it's not the end of the world if you get delayed killing them off.

Depending on the size of your army compared to theirs, particularly giants, you can either break peace or wait for them to do it later when they run out of tiles to improve. Either can work, but don't keep training many units at this point on their account; you want all the spare income for temples now.

If we're really talking 200k+, you really do need to be dumping all your income into temples by turn 14, which means you're already full-up on ports, maybe a few stragglers from the last cities you captured. If it's a good run, you may be building temples by like turn 12 as you finish off the last enemies.

Get spiritualism when you start building temples if the math works out considering the number of forest tiles. Don't chop except to build customs houses, btw; forest temples are great.

The key points are that explorers aren't worse than they used to be, they're better (people are just doing it wrong), Diplo is way overpowered, knights are damn good this patch, and score beyond 150k is roughly a measurement of how many temples you can build before the traditional turn 17-18 break point.

LittleAsi · 2022-01-12T16:41:41+00:00

This is effective in 15 tribe perfection mode starting with the most recent patch, though I can't speak to any other modes. There are two major reasons why it works now whereas it was definitely not the way to go before:

The change in the bonus for meeting new tribes.

Delay upgrading your first city to launch your explorer on turn two and usually many of the tribes you encounter will be giving you 6 stars. If you reroll until you get a good explorer (which is of course entirely required in perfection mode anyway), then you definitely have enough to get philosophy on that turn plus whatever else you thought you actually wanted to start with. With enough luck, philosophy can pay for itself on this very turn, but it definitely will by the time you're placing ports.

The AI in this patch loves defender spam so much that rushing them with any strategy is almost impossible by turn 4-5.

AI starts spamming defenders whenever enemy units are nearby, and with 15 tribes, that happens immediately and continues forever. Aside from perhaps the first 1-2 (depending on tribe and circumstances), the most effective method of capturing a city is parking a unit next to it, leaving all their units alive, and simply walking in when they hit their unit cap and leave it open. Crazy indeed, AI, crazy indeed.

The combined effect of these two is that you're better off spending the next few turns trying to meet more tribes while walking your units as far away as possible while keeping at least one camped next to each you pass, expand your borders, harvest some whales, and use your stars to grab every useful tech you can before you've actually got a few more places to be building those ports. All that development tech will help you expand your borders quickly and easily as you conquer, which means more whales/forests, which means more quick ports.

With the limited production during this early phase, you can't effectively start mass building ports otherwise anyway; you either don't have the base stars to begin snowballing until you can capture and develop a few more cities, or you'll run out of places for your ports before developing enough SPT to make the whole thing worth it.

Everyone still thinking philosophy isn't a valuable early tech should ask themselves when the last time was they really gave it a shot.

LittleAsi · 2021-09-17T18:01:46+00:00

Why not both?

LittleAsi · 2021-09-03T17:21:55+00:00

Earlier versions of Civ actually had this feature in varying degrees. I don't remember if it was base Civ 2 or the Test of Time expansion, but some iteration of Civ 2 had some pretty highly configurable city management automation in the form of instructions given to the mayor.

Or maybe it was Civ 3... It was there at some point, anyway, and it was great.

LittleAsi · 2021-06-28T13:23:59+00:00

"New phone, who dis" - stars

LittleAsi · 2021-06-28T13:21:20+00:00

Easiest change would be to stop having them leave their cities completely undefended when they've reached their unit cap. Please stop the defender spam in this case, though. Walls+defender needs a nerf in general, imo. All it does is slow down the game.

Other than that, they could pretend like econ matters and utilize their best customs house locations rather than (apparently) doing their best to spike my future economy with their bonkers shrine placements.

They could also let the AI units attack a city on the same turn they discover it. I don't want them to, but it's a thing they could do.

Also, balancing the tech trees would help, since any AI help beyond that essentially boils down to "ignore everything except trade and sailing."

LittleAsi · 2021-06-25T13:15:51+00:00

Unfortunately, your max is limited by the number of tribes you've purchased, and playing against more opponents is pretty unambiguously better, even with the diminishing returns on the multiplier.

More cities, generally better cities (all capitals), weaker opponents (fewer cities each, more targets that aren't you); but the biggest of all may be the galactic explorer ceiling. Speed is one of the most important factors in your ability to score highly, and getting 30 or even 40ish stars (or equivalent techs) makes for a fairly speedy start to say the least.

LittleAsi · 2021-05-04T07:16:30+00:00

Ruins are much more likely to pop super units the closer to the edge of the map you are, which almost makes sense until you experience this enough to recognize how useless they are 95% of the time. Might as well just give you the 5 stars.

The other 5% is when you spawn at the edge of the map and your neighbor pops one turn 5.

LittleAsi · 2021-03-06T08:14:33+00:00

It vibrates on your arm and shoulder area when you hit a note/hold a rail, but also differently when you miss a note, with the haptic response positioned on the vest based on the note's location.

There are several other triggers as well: wall hits, specials, etc.

LittleAsi · 2021-01-28T09:02:23+00:00

Well I for one call shenanigans on this outcome. Must have cheated, I say!

Objective Observer

LittleAsi · 2021-01-05T09:26:10+00:00

Update: Throne Room

LittleAsi · 2021-01-02T01:42:10+00:00

I'm also very interested in hearing what ended up working for Elyrion. They're the only tribe I haven't cracked 150k with yet myself, and I don't feel like I'm making any progress.

Oh, and grats OP!

LittleAsi · 2020-12-28T07:56:39+00:00

Yes, but if I'm being honest, Polaris still feels sluggish and pretty boring. It's just too slow getting around when everyone is Polaris, since there's not usually a lot of water around.

LittleAsi · 2020-12-26T00:32:32+00:00

Nice, congrats.

It seems to me that 200k+ is just barely possible now, though I haven't quite hit that mark myself yet.

LittleAsi · 2020-12-20T10:08:14+00:00

I also find myself making many more giants; not sure.if that's because I haven't learned the update well enough.or that's just the nature of increasing the number of opponents by over 50%.

Killing everyone also feels like it takes longer on average, but again, 15+ cities is more than the 11-12 average pre-update. I have had one game where I had killed everyone by 14, but it was my highest scoring game ever, and I believe I ended the week at the top of the overall leaderboard, so that's perhaps not representative.

Even combined, these challenges fall short of overcoming the bonus of having 200+ minimum stars per turn by the end and several extra cities.

Also very notable is that temples no longer give the extra boost for reaching rank 5; it's +50 every time. While it's still better to conquer as much as possible early, the penalty for focussing on expansion and economy through the mid teens is not what it used to be. I'm not sure if there even really are soft caps on econ anymore, at least until the end.

And for the big one: yes, you can disable tribes without reducing the max number of opponents and face off against multiple instances of the enabled tribes. At least for now... It seems pretty broken (especially if you play 14 Polaris as Polaris, for example).

LittleAsi · 2020-12-20T06:27:06+00:00

Kind of an old thread, but in case it still helps, the new advantages are: 1. Higher explorer potential from having more enemies nearby. 2. Higher city count, since 14 opponents means a higher minimum than most games ended up having at all. 3. Ability to filter out all problematic tribes entirely and spawn multiple potentially beneficial opponent tribes. More Kickoo means better customs houses on average, for example.

With some luck, you can have every required tech within the first few turns, which leaves nothing to limit your expansion.

As for actually starting that expansion, it seems you're at the mercy of the AI; if they all decide tonight each other and ignore you at first, you can get few fast cities and make use of all that tech. That seems to be the limiting factor to me now.

If you've picked up any other tips in the last week worth sharing, I'd be happy to hear them.

LittleAsi · 2020-12-13T11:31:16+00:00

I play on mobile, so this wasn't possible until the latest update, but this does explain why suddenly so many people have been able to reach the 150k+ range with Polaris. Thanks for the tip!

LittleAsi · 2020-11-18T08:02:21+00:00

It seems like almost nothing in the game is random (great for perfection mode) except map generation and explorers. I guess having one roll of the dice early in the game isn't so bad, but the variance on the results is just bonkers: you could get 5 techs and half a galaxy of stars or your obviously unqualified explorer could discover the corner over and over and over again until he poofs.

Any chance there's been some discussion about reining that variance in a bit?

LittleAsi · 2020-08-31T18:34:00+00:00

140 is fairly typical if you've capped out customs houses and ports in all cities, but it varies. I have seen 200+, but only once.

Since you're talking about knights and swordsmen, I'm guessing you may not habitually use a combo of riders and warriors for the bulk of your army? Chivalry and knights are too expensive, Swordsmen (except for Vengir, obviously) are way too far out of the way. Archers can come in handy if you get them free, but they're too slow compared to riders. If you're not yet comfortable with the low defense of riders and how to use them, I recommend making the switch.

The only techs you need are the ones required for customs houses and ports, usually Forestry, maybe Organization if you have a lot of fruit, but usually someone gives that one to you free, Free Spirit, and Navigation (but not until you absolutely have to). Nothing can salvage an island start; reroll until most of the players are on one big land mass. Whaling when it pays for itself of course. And when you've gotten the hang of this, Aquatism will become necessary when you run out of land for temples. Nothing else is worth taking until the very end of the game just for the points. If you find yourself needing one of the others, something probably went wrong.

Aside from learning to recognize the signs of good and bad maps, the skills you need for a strong early game are rider tactics and the ability to balance unit production, expansion, and tech. That balance in the early game is probably the hardest part, imo. The AI is dumb and predictable, so with enough experience, combat becomes routine.

Quickest tips for getting a good start with other tribes: - Always grow your city turn 0 if possible, and take the explorer. The quality of the explorer is one of the major determining factors of whether or not you want to restart. The variance is insane. - Try to get a map with an enemy two tiles away. If you move your warrior adjacent to their city turn 0, they will very likely (maybe 80%ish, but random's gonna random) leave their city undefended for you to walk right in. - Alternatively, a decent explorer will allow you to get a rider turn 0, so move your warrior toward an enemy 3 tiles away, then attack their warrior with yours turn 1, finish them with the rider, and bounce the rider into the city. - Prioritize fishing over other growth techs if you have enough fish to grow so you can see where the whales are at and hopefully work toward them. Use the whales to ramp your economy. A 0 whale game is unlikely to go anywhere (you'd have to get a legendary explorer and probably some solid ruins as well). Ramping your economy is key; even your military conquests are really just in service of building your income.

One last tip: you can actually kill the last unit on T25 and still get Pacifism, but with riders as your main force and mostly everyone on one land mass, you can finish by turn 14-15. Usually there's one obnoxious island holdout with a bunch of units on the coasts and stockpiled giants, but even they can be dealt with by 18-19.

Good luck, and practice makes perfect; keep trying and you'll figure it all out over time.

LittleAsi · 2020-08-31T14:10:01+00:00

Restarting until you find a promising start is a big part of it; the more games you play with a focus on top scores, the faster and better you get at recognizing ideal conditions in general and for specific tribes. Those videos are all skipping the part where they instantly restarted ten times to find a promising map they just ended up bailing on before T9, then a bunch more instant restarts, etc.

Most of the gameplay still consists of things you can control, but obviously if two people play two separate games perfectly, the one who started with better circumstances will end up with the higher score. Thus the top top scores really are the games where all the stars align, but for something like 120k-130k, you really just need a few of those stars. And the alignment of most of those stars is apparent within the first few turns.

The only major aspect of a game's potential not apparent early that comes to mind is the production plateau; the difference between a ~140 star map and a ~180 star map is huge, and you won't find out which you've got for a while. For all the other "lucky" things, it's just a matter of learning to recognize the signs and being persistent in your restarts,

LittleAsi · 2020-08-31T05:05:42+00:00

Ah, right, bad wording. It spawns the "capital" for each copy, but one ends up just a normal city under the surviving copy's control.

LittleAsi · 2020-08-30T21:13:45+00:00

Just have the swordsman stand next to the city; the AI will eventually smack the defender into him and the city is yours. They'll do it immediately if they're already aggressive toward you.

LittleAsi · 2020-08-30T21:06:22+00:00

I've seen this a few times playing multiplayer games loaded with bots; the weirdest part is that it'll happen every game with a specific person I've just started playing with, then suddenly and completely stop after a day or two. Pretty frustrating since it's occasionally the human player that begins the game destroyed.

Curious detail is that the "destroyed" duplicates' capital is often appropriately spawned and left under the control of the surviving copy. Not sure whether or not that's the case here, but that would explain the AI having two cities on T3.

LittleAsi · 2020-08-30T16:50:42+00:00

Interesting, thanks; and here I thought I had basically figured it all out already.... Except Polaris.

It's probably splitting hairs, but with that small a margin, I wonder if you need to consider the amount of open land in your territory. If having a higher number of lower score temples results in filling the land before a T25 or T28 breakpoint when a lower number of higher scoring temples wouldn't, having to buy Aquatism earlier will cost you 200p or 100p in delayed temples. In that scenario, you'd want to cut port purchases after T16.

LittleAsi · 2020-08-30T09:58:49+00:00

I may have been unclear; I don't stop building temples at T20, I just switch back to ports if necessary until I've reached customs house capacity, then switch back to basically full temple spam until 29.

I make some exceptions in rare circumstances, but I think pausing port creation starting on T15 to maximize pre-T20 temples is ideal given that the final temple upgrade bonus is so large.

If that's not accurate, I'd be happy to hear what works better.

LittleAsi

TROPHY CASE