Challenge 2 Tips

First up, I drew up a ruin map for those of you who wish to maximize the profits from ancient ruins. I might I have missed a few here and there.

My thoughts on England

England has the best location among all 10 civilizations to control the Mediterranean Sea. With nuclear weapons and a dominating fleet, Elizabeth can effectively nuke down anybody approaching a science or culture victory - probably except for Paris, as your human opponent is not an idiot AI.

The big question is - can Elizabeth make nuclear weapon soon enough? Or maybe Elizabeth doesn't need them if she works with Napoleon's unique infantry!

Maybe Elizabeth needs to expand beyond the tip of the Balkans as quickly as possible. Honor policy would be perfect for taking down the first neighbor, who happens to be one of the least aggressive leaders. Is there a 6X Iron nearby for Swordsman? Yes! Along with Longbowman, Elizabeth has a very good shot (not really a literally long shot) to bring down a neighbor or (or more!) to become a superpower.

Science victory is always a good option once your empire grows to a good size. You will be rich enough to sponsor multiple Research Agreements even if your partner is dirt poor. Building the Porcelain Tower could be a real challenge, though, as you want to get to Machinery for Longbow at the same time. But if you have a big-enough empire, you should generate enough science yourself. You can even purchase most of the City States in the world and go for Patronage.

My thoughts on France

France is located in a save haven - far, far away from neighbors. It is a perfect setup for Liberty policy - the more cities you have, the more cultures you generate and the FASTER your policies unlock! (At least for the first tree). Resources around Paris and upstream Euphrates is not very rich, but good enough to support 4-5 decent cities to boost start the French empire.

While Conquest would be a pain for Napoleon (as he is at the very east end of the map), he has a pretty good shot for either a Culture or a Science victory. But can you be faster than the AIs? You will need to work with Elizabeth and compensate for each other's weaknesses!

There are so many barbarians around France. The Honor policy opener sounds like a great idea!

Plan for official walkthrough:

Crossgate2003, the maker of the exciting Conquest victory on Challenge 1, has graciously agreed to play Challenge 2 with me, using email to send the save files back and forth. Crossgate2003 will control England, and I will control France. At the time of writing this we are at Turn 67.

I am also planning to play another game by myself to try completely different approaches. This map offers many exciting possibilites. Maybe I will do walkthroughs on both runs!

What I have learned so far.

(1) If you play with a partner who uses another machine, the random seed number changes every time you load his/her save. You will get different results from battles, ruins, etc. This could be difficult for you to control what you get from the ruins.

(2) AI war declaration's peace lock lasts a lot shorter (less than 7 turns, more like 3-4). So you will see AIs constantly declare war on each other and go for peace quickly. That means the AIs pretty much can't make any advance on each other unless they were bribed to war.

(3) The Level 9 AIs finish the Great Wall, Hanging Garden, Orcale around Turn 50s. Don't bother with them!

(4) It is good to be player 1 as you act first. For example, if both you and player 2 reaches victory at a given turn, you win and your opponent loses! But it is also good to be player 2 as your machine's random number seed decides what happens during the AIs move. That can make a lot of difference!