Civ 4 The Monk SP Challenge
 

Credits for the concept go to Herr Doctor Killer: a Tibetan Monk in an isolated position trying to survive against stronger opponents with the help of a few well defendable chokepoints.

Implementation by Beam:
- Large Pangea with an area specially prepared for the Monk
- Always war
- Raging Barbs
- One City Challenge
- No Vassal States

01 version has a fix to prevent the human from capturing an AI cap in the opening turns.

Your task is to survive and have a level 10 unit before the AI achieves a victory condition and post a picture of the whole screen including that level 10 unit. Attaching Great Generals to achieve level 10 is prohibited!

Sample picture (yeah I know there is a Great General attached but hey it is a sample right?)

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/att...1&d=1224360599

You can start with three varieties.

Straight

Prince level.

1. socralynnek - 1824AD

Catatonic

Monarch

1. IanDC - 1795AD
2. Beam - 1912AD

Wise Guy

Guess what, Emperor.

The files are true zip files now. Just unzip and put the file in your Saves /Single folder.

Some notes:
- With OCC on there is a max. of 5 National Wonders in your city.
- OCC plays pretty fast.
- Early on the AI probably will seem lame but as the game proceeds there will be bigger and bigger SoDs.
- Qin Sin Huang was selected as leader because a nice allround UU comes along and he builds wonders fast.

Have fun and enjoy!

The files are true zip files now. Just unzip and put the file in your Saves /Single folder.

Winrar says the archive (straight) is damaged or unknown. :(
what version of what zip program did you use?

Killer, jsut save the file to disk and remove the .zip extension.

Since it might be confusing for ppl I see if I can install and use WinZip.

AARGH!!!!!

:) I should have read ALL of your post!

an interesting challange.

Status so far:
- eliminated one neighbor ASAP
- no serious attempt made to attack me
- am razing another neighbor as fast as I can

I've decided to do the opposite. My niebours will be there to stay, therefore killing their units when they are produced.

How many xp for a level 10 unit is needed?

You would never be able to tell if a great general's points were spread around to a unit but not attached. Right? So that tactic is off the table.

nice idea, will try this over the weekend :)

KC, you'll need about 92 XP iirc. About the Grear General thing, yeah it is impossible to check if a unit gained XP thru a non-attached GG. I'd say agree not to attach and use GGs for any other purpose. OK with that?

OK, I'm done with Prince level. Space race win it is however, I got really scared when one of the AIs started nuking me all around the city and attacked a couple of times with infantry and tanks. But I managed to survive until the ship landed.

Did nothing in the beginning except to eliminate one of the neighbors by walking in with the starting archer into his only city. This got to be fixed IMO, otherwise, it is too easy in the beginning. Cannot post more since it would be too spoilerish. Nice map and thanks a lot for cute game. :) I'd like to upload the final pics but it would be again very spoilerish. Will wait then.

Did not manage to fish out anything of level 10 since I think the main candidate was killed with a nuke.

Thanks for the feedback akots, must have been an exciting game.

I fixed the early elimination. :)

Ok then, I think I'll try the Emperor level but there is little hope for survival. IMO, tyring indeed something a-la-Killer to early eliminate some pesky neighbors is also not a good idea because of other guys getting way too powerful. So, instead it might be a try for early cuirassiers or may be even early cavalry to secure the neighboring areas or even all together trying for a conquest victory. Even though the map is rather large (standard size apparently), so logistics will be quite hard.

However, with some secured technical superiority and with U-Suufrage or even with Herioc Epic/Iron Works, one can probably produce a cavalry per turn in the city. This might be enough for Emperor level of might be not enough, hard to tell. I also think that getting as far as tanks is also an option but surely AI will have riflemen/grenadiers then.

The "easy" version.

1824 AD, level 10 Rifleman.

I razed a few towns with Maceman and later on Rifleman/Cavalry.

The AI keeps sending outdated units which are even outdated for them.

http://fsinfo.cs.uni-sb.de/~ckwon/themonk_1824ad.jpg

Cool, Soc! You make the first entry in the scoretable! :)

On Monarch level - 1795AD Rifleman

I've been having a lot of fun trying for the Conquest win but I fear it's not possible due to the islands.

Does the AI actually settle there? After satellites, I could not see any cities on islands iirc but that was on Prince. May be the sponsor can fix this as well? Would be nice to have that option.

Added IanDC. :)

Actually a higher diff' level could mean getting the level 10 faster because there are more offensive and defensive opportunities.

Gave it a lazy try on Monarch, basically defending from the forts and occasionally attacking the leftovers. :)

1912AD by a Rifleboy.

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/att...1&d=1225141150

While all was going well I did try how far ya can go. :eek:

http://www.civduelzone.com/forum/att...1&d=1225141320

Unbelievably that Rifleboy has smashed about every type of unit in the game! Main issue since getting the Rifle at lvl 10 was making sure fucking Zara Yaqob was stopped destroying me tile improvements.

Level 10 cho-ku-nu in 1665AD on the easy level.

Lvl11 1890AD on hard (went through 10/11 in the same combat) died with his boots on at approx 140 when my lines were broken in 1930.

This is just impossible! How do you do it? I was doing fine with an axeman, when suddenly I realised after upgrading it to a maceman that it loses XP's by doing so. So how do you even get a level 10 unit at all?!? Cos it doesn't have 100 XP's by far by the time any unit becomes obsolete...

Matrix, just check my 1912 Rifleboy and you'll see it is far from obsolete where it sits:
- Hill, forest, fort, fortify bonus = +125%
- Woodsman III, Guerilla III = +100% and 2 first strikes
- Drill IV = 6 first strikes

So base = 14, + 225% defense = 45,5. Before it is being hit the 6 first strikes do a nice job.

Then at level 15 it became an additional:
- Combat II = +20%
- Ambush, Pich and formation = +25% vs. a lot of units

Which means an attacking Modern Armor is first hit by 6 * (14 + 45%) = 20.3, then has to fight against a defense of 45,5. :)

I doubt you can promote a Spearman to a level where it can stop a Tank btw but you could give it a try. ;)

I see. But that means you can only achieve this with a defensive unit. I thought it would be better to just go out on quests and destroy everything on it's path. Perhaps it's better to keep your enemies alive and thriving, as long as you do so better.

1911 AD at easiest/'straight' difficulty level.

http://www.straland.com/images/cdz/M...ghtMatrix2.jpg

Some golden age, all nicely circling the Mausolleum of Mausollos [:D]:
http://www.straland.com/images/cdz/M...ghtMatrix1.jpg

http://www.straland.com/tmp/MonkStra...eyondSwordSave

I know nobody has tried this challenge since 2008. I was looking for something to do and I like challenges like this in general. Also I don't think I've ever made a level 10 unit even with a GG, so why not try. Since nobody had completed it at Emperor difficulty and because it's the closest to the difficulty level I normally play I took the Wise Guy save and played it through.

Completed on first play-through. Got a level 10 Cho-Ko-Nu in the year 1660 AD. I think playing on an easier diff level might make for a later time.

I scouted with my initial archers, trying to meet everyone so they'd declare war on me. They won't send troops if they're not at war. They might not send troops anyway if they're far away, but it didn't hurt.

I had an issue of my defensive positions being too strong so that units would approach but when I moved onto the Fort tile to defend they would leave because of their odds. I took to standing outside the fort, and eventually I chopped that forest to give myself less defense.

I used a Cho-Ko-Nu unit with Drill IV to minimize damage taken when in battle. Defending gets you a lot more XP just because you can defend against any number of units but you can only attack 1. I usually used a catapult to weaken the attacking forces, then when they'd attack my CKN killed them all and a Medic healed him quickly. All of my GGs I settled in my capitol so that by the end my troops were coming out with 15 or 17 XP.

I built a ton of wonders and every GP after the first GS who built an Academy was settled.

Here's a picture of my city at the end and a picture of my Level 10 Cho-Ko-Nu.

http://i984.photobucket.com/albums/a...enShot1094.jpg

http://i984.photobucket.com/albums/a...enShot1095.jpg

1540 AD on Emperor

https://i.imgur.com/BGtbn7h.png

After an aborted, bashful go with rifles on easy, I realized there wouldn't be enough SoD's to just sit and wait for XP to float in. My plan was to go out, heckle neighbors but leave their city defense stacks alive by 1 unit. That way they reinforce, I get to attack again, etc.

Oracled machinery, rushed 2 raiding parties of 3 ChuKoNus at the neighbors to attack anything I could get a grip on. Gave them reinforcements ASAP with a few Chu's and tons of trebs. On to steel for cannons and the rest is history.

Initial 3 were promoted 1 drill, 1 healer (march asap), 1 strength (march asap). I almost made those initial stacks 2 Chus, 1 spear and 1 axe, but was afraid they'd steal from the lead Chu XP on defense. The AI seldom attacked my stacks early on and I only lost Chu's to very large stacks and/or elephants. The high-XP french raiders got wiped that way. The lead Chu in Ethiopia made it by the skin of its teeth once: there were 3 AIs' stacks right before cannons got in, I cornered them in the mountains and they lashed out trying to escape.

Now, I cheated. Sorry. There was a reload early on where one of my protective, lvl 3 archers got killed in a forest by a barb warrior. That was just bullshit. He's the loser that died from french elephants, which is serendipitous. Still, doesn't deserve to go on the leaderboard.

If I do it again, I'll send a spy or 2 ASAP to meet and taunt all 7 AIs in the hopes they'll come knocking. Other than that, the Chu did surprisingly great.

While waiting for the next pitboss, I felt like a simple OCC so I came back here for the emperor file and rushed for conquest.

https://i.imgur.com/1PGSfjF.png

Unfortunately, Pacal decided to be a little pest. No way to reach him, no way to win.

https://i.imgur.com/ryVBKW7.png

I guess the game was rigged from the start.