Classic GOTM 35 Spoiler 2: Entering the Industrial Age

As you worked you way through the ancient ages, you (hopefully) worked yourself into a position where you can build towards an army of Sipahi to increase your dominance in the world.

So now is the time to tell us of your great conquests!


The qualification for this spoiler is a full world map with all contacts. You must also be researching an industrial age tech.

Please refrain from posting screenshots showing industrial age (or later) technologies.

... You must also be researching an industrial age tech. ... or have won or lost !?!?!?

... or have won or lost !?!?!?Won? This game? By the end of the Middle ages? :eek:




Yeah, good point. ;)

@Ainwood: OK You did ask!

[civ3mac]http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gif Scientific Ottomans through and through!

We changed era in 430 BC having become a Republic in 530 BC. We'd had a peaceful Ancient Era (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2200351&postcount=21) during which we'd assembled a mighty force of over 40 warriors, all vets.

I didn't cover contact trading in my first spoiler. In 1075 BC the Arabs had finally hailed our patiently waiting archer on the western tip of our land mass. They knew the Greeks and we had a profitable sequence of map and contact trading rounds up to 1000 BC. In 490 BC - 450 BC the Greeks and Zulus met the English and we traded the rest of the contacts and maps around.

We got Monotheism as our freebie in 430 BC and sold it to the Arabs for gold and gpt, and asked a single scientist to investigate Engineering. We then continued along the bottom research path to Military Tradition, accelerating as our empire prospered and built markets and libraries. After Mil Tradition we researched to Magnetism to increase our ship range and then turned research off. So we didn't get ToG and never left the Mddle Ages.

A mass upgrade of our warriors put us in a position to declare war on Carthage in 370 BC, and we took Carthage + Pyramids and Utica in 330 BC. We reduced Carthage to four coastal cities and made peace for Feudalism in 130 BC as serious war weariness started to kick in. Meanwhile, in 250 BC, we had politely asked Shaka to get a couple of marooned units out of our territory and he had the temerity to declare war :eek:

Shaka didn't follow up on his declaration - just a couple of stray units, so we aited for Chivalry and then signed a ROP with Carthage to get access to the isthmus, and built some galleys to speed up the invasion. My notes are hazy here, but our knights cut through the Zulus and captured the Great Library ( we only got Education with it) and left them with two coastal cities and an island. The Vikings decided to declare a phoney war around this time.

In 560 AD we completed Leo's. This triggered our Golden Age as we had conveniently captured the Pyramids and the Library, and almost simultaneously we completed Military Tradition.

So we upgraded a bunch of knights and loaded up a fleet of galleys to pay the Arabs a visit. They had planted a city on our western cape, which we captured on the first turn of the war in 590 AD, and turned into the staging point for shipping Sipahi into Arabia. In 600 AD our Sipahi took three Arab cities, and we redeclared war on Carthage.

It was fish-in-a-barrel time, folks! We destroyed Arabia in 650 AD, and Carthage in 660 AD. Shaka was destroyed and Greece was taken down to a single island shortly afterwards, and we shipped our Sipahi over to France. France was destroyed in a few turns. We declared on England and we were still at war with the Vikings who had declared on us way back when. So we just had to pick off enough cities between these two to trigger domination in 830 AD.

My mistakes were mainly logistics. I should have moved troops and ships in advance of the next stages of the campaign. I could probably have knocked 10 or 20 turns off my date just with this if I'd tried harder. Also, I should have taken Arabia down in parallel with Zulus using knights, but I had ongoing deals with the Arabs, and I was worried about cumulative war weariness. I'll learn ;)

While AA was all about peace and quiet, I turned to bloodlust after I discovered Military Tradition in 330AD.

Research
Continued my heavy trading tradition from Ancient Age. All my soon-dead neighbours are polite or gracious towards me from my unrelenting trading of advanced techs for pennies and bread. In 330AD I have 67GPT from other civs and 573GPT (gross) from my own cities. I am pretty sure that income from other civs has helped my research significantly, and certainly advanced the research date for Military Tradition. They all have metallurgy, but I will of course let them research Military Tradition on their own.

THE WAR (380AD - 740AD)
I have 23 horsemen when discovering MT, and a complete upgrade would set me back a whopping 3500 gold! Which of course I do not have. So I turn off research for a few turns to do some upgrades.

Carthage: I attacked Carthage in 380AD triggering my golden age and taking 4 cities the first turn. In 430AD I gave them peace for all but their last city.

Zulu: I attacked Zulu in 480AD and at the same time preparing for attack on the Arabs. In 510AD I have taken 6 Zulu cities and redirecting the bulk of my forces to my fleet of Caravels waiting to bring the them over to the Arabs and Greeks.

Arabs: I attacked Arabs in 500AD and in 570AD they are history.

Greeks: Attacked the Greeks around 590AD. Make peace a few turns later for all but their last island city.

France: Attacked France around 660AD. In 710AD they are history.

English and Viking: Attacking them more or less the same time around 710. Taking any city in range as fast as I can. Dont know how close I am to domination.

Somewhere along the line I netted 2 great leaders, but they made no difference. Built Forbidden Palace with one of them.

740AD - DOMINATION
firaxis score: 6912
jason score just above 10K which is a personal best.

The Sipahi
Formidable unit that I have now tried for the first time. Even musketmen do not provide any resistance. It is like cutting through butter with a warm sharp knife. Well, must also add that my opponents were not of the sharp kind.

Disappointments in Middle Ages:
1. I actually had a city flipping to Carthage. It was way behind their borders, so I guess I asked for it.
2. In order to try and trigger my Golden Age I built Hanging Gardens in early MA. But did not trigger. Maybe its for the best that I save the production boost for Sipahi. But at the same time, the research boost would have made me reach Military tradition earlier. Dont know whats best.
3. I was not close to a 4 turn research average on MA techs. I started with 8 (or 7, dont remember) for Feudalism and when I got as far as Military Tradition I was down to 5. I need to work on this somehow...

Highlights in Middle Ages:
Warfare! I managed a better timing of events than in my first GOTMs. I started production of Horsemen at just the right time. I had 23 when I discovered Military Tradition and that was plenty. Since upgrades were so costly I could either way not upgrade more than 2-3 per turn. Also I managed for once to know when enough was enough, for example when to redirect my forces to the next frontline. So while I feel I discovered Military Tradition too late, once I got it, I waged war better than earlier games. However, there is of course always room for improvements. As so brilliantly put in a post above ... I'll learn ;)

Well done, MiniMe. Nine turns, huh? I should have worked harder on my logistics :hmm:

I should also have said my primary goal in this game was to beat 10K Jason for the first time. And I just scraped it :D

Thanks AlanH. And congrats as well for reaching your hard earned goal. It is true it was satisfying to see the 10K figure for the first time!

I see at least one interesting difference between our games. You waged early war with Swordsmen while I waited for Sipahi in 380AD. I cannot say what is the better choice but I was also in doubt for a while whether to do the same thing. Will be interesting to see what others did.

Will of course also be interesting to see how our undying elite has fared. Extremely early victories this time??

I had to fight Carthage with swords as they were looking after my horses :D I had very few horses by the time I traded for Chivalry, but was able to build knights fast.

I find it interesting that you reached Mil Tradition some 20 turns earlier than I did. I think I was able to catch up some of that difference because I had already decimated Carthage and the Zulus, and I had Leo's to make the upgrades instantaneous. I seem to recall I traded for Astronomy at the same time and upgraded a *lot* of galleys to caravels as well as all my knights. Also, by that time, I was researching at 4 turns with cash to spare. So I think all in all there was a lot of slack in my game, and I really have to look at how I can run closer to the wind.

And yes. I suspect our dates and scores will look fairly ordinary by the time the big guns report in :eek:

BTW. I set the "Build the same unit as last time" preference in this game. As a result I didn't even build an unnoticed default defender. NO defenders in this game AT ALL!

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/reloadmonkey.jpg Predatory Reloading Monkey Class 1.27f (militaristic and scientific)

My goal was 100k. I entered the MA in the region of 600-500BC. I got engineering as my free tech. I choose to research the top research path first and delay conquest to later, whether this was the prudent thing to do I don't know. By 10 AD I had researched to banking and had switched down to the bottom path and was 2 turns from fuedalism. My culture at this point was approximately 2000.

I reached MT at 350 AD. I thought about having horsemen ready to upgrade for this point but decided against it in favour of building sipahi from scratch in cites that were fully cultured up. I switched off research here for a while and built up a force of sipahi, rushed cultural improvements and finished banks.

By 710 AD Carthage had been resigned to an island. I was three turns away from the IA which I entered in 740 AD. I had turned on research again during my G.A. as I was earning enough to rush and research at the same time and I fancied getting my paws on steam power. At 710 AD my culture was at 15006.

Open PtW 100% Scientific

Times Ancient (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2200057&postcount=17)

Middle Ages summary:
Took out Carthage, had a brief war with the Zulus, researched lots, traded lots, started pulling away. Failed to build (many) Wonders.

Entered the IA in 780AD, by far and away a personal best. I'd decided I was going for Space by then - so had concentrated on the top of the Tech Tree, because I didn't want my GA until the start of the IA. I built a lot of Universities, Markets, and Banks, interspersed with Horses/Knights/Sipahi and artillery.

Details:
630 Finish Currency. Trade WM,Curr,Lit,4g to Zulu for Construction, and we enter the Middle Ages. Monotheism is the free tech. Gift Greece into MA, he gets Mono too. Alexmanika founded.
390 The Barbs are being real pains-in-the butt. Still, I just finished Republic and it bought me contact with the rest of the World, all their maps, and a good deal of cash.
350 7-turn Anarchy :-(
310 Iron connected - mass upgrade time.
150 IBT: DoW vs Carthage, after gifting them Republic. They have an Anrachy GA :-)
110 Eep. A huge number of units fail to take out Carthage, which is built on a hill.
90 Oea destroyed.
30 Utica captured.
AD 10 Peace with Carthage for 1 city, 1 worker, and all his gold. Wuss.
110 IBT: I cave to the Zulu demand for Engineering… and they DoW me anyway!
150 Gonna lose Istanbul, briefly… my forces couldn't reach quick enough. IBT: Lose Istanbul. Now the Zulu have landed a sword by another undefended city on my NORTH coast, gonna lose THAT too!
170 Regain Istanbul. IBT: Lose Emanopidou.
190 Regain Emanopidou.
230 Sogut completes the Hanging Gardens. Can't stop a cascade to Sistine in a number of places though.
270 Peace with Zulu for some gold. They came off slightly worse in that war, I reckon.
390 DoW vs Carthage again. Capture Leptis Minor.
440 Nobody's researched Chivalry… except me. So I sell it everyone for a lot of money. I'm still the only one with Astronomy.
480 Capture Leptis Magna.
500 Learn Banking, and use it to leverage all but one Lux from the AI. The final one, gems, I get with spare Ivory and gpt to Scandinavia. The AI still don't have Astronomy. Meanwhile, I have lots of cash. Nice.
510 Finally give up Astronomy for Gunpowder and pile of cash from France, who seem to be coining it right now… not sure how, though.
540 The Siege of Carthage finally ends. Elite Numidian Mercs on a hill are not easy to shift, I'm telling you.
600 Carthage are history now.
700 The Wonder Cascade came thick and fast, and I ended up with… JS Bach's. Newton's still hasn't been built, and I'll be starting it soon. Have MT, Sipahi, and Cannon now: hurty time for the Zulu real soon!
780 Learn Magnetism and enter the Industrial Era. In record time, yet again. I've decided to go for Space. Couldn't have got a better deal! My free tech is Nationalism - not brilliant, but a good one for trading:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/eldar_Entering_Industrial.jpg
I can hear the engines warming up already....

Neil. :cool:

Open PtW (Latest patch)

Goal: 1) Pre 1000 AD Domination Victory. 2) Win in the MA. 3) 10000+ score.

I entered the MA in 320BC getting Engineering as my free tech. I have already met everyone and have all of their maps with the exception of Zulu, I only have their territory map. I was studying Feudalism with a prebuild for Sun Tzul’s & Leonardo’s.

I was at war with the Zulu. I took or destroyed 4 or 5 cities then made peace. Next I rebuilt the destroyed Zulu cities, I think 2.

England and Zulu were giving gpt for my techs so I left them a lone for now.

I didn’t gift Greece to the MA because I knew I would be at war with them soon. A lot of their cities are on hills so the chance of a tech trade vs more units to take the hill cities. I picked faster war.

I built only 1 defense unit, a pikeman. Arbia landed a warrior & settler on some tundra in my land! I declared war and took the settler. I loaded my offensive units & that lone pikeman on boats, landed them next to the closest Arbia city (Medina built on their only iron). I got Greece to declare war also. Not that I needed help, but it was nice split Arbia forces to 2 fronts. I got my 3rd great leader in the Arbia War. I built my FP with this one. The FP was built in Umtata a city next to Zimbabwe. This will give a nice ring after the next Zulu War.

I took out Arbia and went after Greece who still had not hooked up their iron. Both AI were a push over. By now I can build Sipahi. Greece made peace with only one island city.

I started the next Zulu War. I took all but a main land city and an island city. They gave the island for peace. On the same turn as peace I took their last city.

During the Zulu War I took the last Greek island city.

On to France. The Vikings wanted something I think map + gp, I said no they declared war. France was down to 2 cities so I made peace. I had England & France help with the Vikings. I also got 3 more great leaders.

I entered the IA in 670 AD. I was @ 40-50% science & 40-50% lux. I didn’t need to enter the IA to win but my tech pace was fast so I would have had to set science at 0% to have stopped it.

I did win in 810 AD with a Firaxis score of 6999 & a Jason score of 10681. So 2 out of 3 goals but I could have stopped the science to get the goal.

[PTW] 1.27f - Open Class (scientific from 1910BC forward) - going for either Spaceship or Diplomacy.

[U]Middle Ages[U]

At the end of the Ancient Age (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2200974&postcount=26), I was trying to take Carthage using Horsemen. Unfortunately, I was losing horsemen (redlined or dead) faster than I could build up.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/dsv_g35_290bc_map.JPG

Carthage War - 410BC to 10AD - I eliminated Carthage eventually, but I only had 2 more Horsemen than I started with after 21 turns. England who had the lighthouse turned up a few turns later and provide contact with the rest of the civs.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/dsv_g35_30ad.JPG

First Zulu War - 210AD to 450AD - I repositioned my Horsemen down the isthmus, I took the city at the bottleneck but so I took a lot of loses and decided to wait for Chivalry. I tried on aborted attempt to continue attacking. I captured one city briefly but lost it the following turn. I didn't have enough Knights left to hold it. I got peace in 450AD and started to build up again. I got a leader in 340AD which I used to build the FP in a new city near Carthage for a second core. I also had to take out an English settler and escort that landed in the center of the isthmus and threatened to cut my access to the southern part of the continent. I make peace with England the turn after the Zulu, once they accepted contact. I switched to Republic in 570AD after a 7 turn anarchy.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/dsv_g35_720ad.JPG

Second Zulu War - 720AD to 880AD - I was building infrastructure and working towards MT when I guess the Zulu's got ambitious. I guess they had been doing so well against me they thought they couldn't lose. :) I had build up my knights from 17 to 35 during the interim. I had 25 in the city I took from them earlier. I got another Leader in 750AD which I used to create a Knight army. I lost it 3 turns later when I attacked a vet. Med. Inf. on a mount ion. That pretty much sums up my RNG results for most of the MA. I eventually got MT in and another leader in 790AD. My first Sipahi triggered my GA in 800AD. After that thing turned my way. I used the leader to build J.S. Bach. I got my fourth leader in 870AD an built another army using Sipahi this time. I eliminated the Zulu the next turn.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/dsv_g35_890ad.JPG

That was the end of the MA wars. I concentrated on filling up the new territory and research. I needed Economics, Nav, Physics, ToG and Magnetism. I research Magnetism in 1080AD and got Nationalism as my free tech.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/dsv_g35_1080ad.JPG

Wonders: I built Library, Leo’s, Sistine, JS Bach, Newton’s and Smith’s. I captured Pyramids and HG from Zulu.

I built marketplaces, banks, libraries, and universities in both cores. I built temples and aqueducts wherever they were needed. Cash rushing when possible. I also built marketplaces anywhere unhappiness was a problem, especially once I had Smith’s.

Playing Open-PlainCiv3

I entered MA late, in 230BC
Started researching Monarchy, ignoring Republic. We have 12 cities, 46 citizens incl. 4 slave workers, 354 culture, 367 score (highest of the five civs that are known).

210 BC: Adana founded near Carthage, between two mountains, so the wedge is extended between Northern and Southern Carthagenians.
We have been amassing our Elite forces near Carthage’s North cities and finally we
declare war (my notes are unclear, sometimes around 130BC)
50 BC: We take Utica; still no GLeader
30 BC: The Carthagenes try to retake Utica; in the process we finally generate our GLeader, Orhan!
10AD: Immediately after learning Monarchy, we opt for it. Anarchy! (Merely 3 turns? Am I lucky?)
I propose peace to Carthage, they accept giving me Theveste, their remaining Northern city.
30AD: We declare war and take Mycenae from the Greek on the coast.
50: Anarchy is over, we opt for Monarchy.
90: Zulu asks for tribute (26g+TerrMap); we refuse; they declare war; we enlist Carthage as allies, giving them iron!
Waiting for the Zulus, we shift into peaceful production. The wait will probably be lengthy and we have the Carthagenes as buffer. They have built several cities on the land bridge.
170: I had forgotten I was technically at war with the Greeks. I make peace for 21g and either Feudalism (5 turns worth only as I was already researching it) or Argos, a city of 2-strength on the other continent, on the coast. I take Argos.
As soon as we master Feudalism, we use GLeader, Orhan, to build Sun Tzu in Sogut.
We decide to research Chivalry before Engineering/Theology
270: We start builiding the Forbidden Palace
280: Impis appear at the Carthage territory near our border.
290-300: We kill some Impis but Carthage won’t let us enter her territory
310: Carthage signs peace treaty with Zulus…
I also sign treaty, getting only 23G + map
Very boring phase.
410: Out of sheer boredom, and to inaugurate my knight, I attack a worker near the new Carthage capital, provoking a war.
We capture also a settler that was trying to escape accompanied by a Sword
450: We research engineering and change it with Theology + etc. thanks to the Arabs
490: Unexpectedly fierce resistance of the Carthagenes, we suffer losses
520: Forbidden Palace is finished.
570: Emanopidu founded at a culture hole on the Zulu coast
600: The Carthagene capital, Lepis Magna, is taken; the campaign is not a great success: too many losses, no Leader produced and my whole territory is invaded by Impis -I prefer not to challenge them for the moment.
610: As was to be expected, the Zulus declared war and captured some 4-5 of our workers deep in my territory. They are also bound to take the one city I have on their continent, Emanopidu. We make peace with Carthagenes [taking some money, but then we offer them Chivalry for free] and alliance against Zulus. Also with the Greeks who already were at war with Zulus.
630: As expected, Emanupidu is no more.
640: Aie… Argos, our outpost on the other continent, flips to the Arabs -harbour lost.
650: I go all the way to MilTrad, so I have different techs than GreekArabs and I am able e.g. to exchange Invention for Education and lot of money
740: War against Zulus goes rather bad.
760: A flood of Zulu low-level units invades. The war is fought through Carthagene land.
770: Oea flips to our side!
780: The Zulus create GLeader against Carthagenes!
830: Our Knights are slain by Zulus, but Hippo flips to us leaving the Carthagenes with a mere 2 cities
We build Ankara in the midst of the Zulu islands hoping to cut off their corridor.
840: We get to know the other 3 civs; they are backward and dirt poor.
Seeing that Ankara is about to fall, I make peace to Zulus until I fortify my position.
930: Have started to produce/upgrade Sipahis and also established embassies everywhere. With my galleys I have transported lots of Musket-Pikes and also
Sipahis to Ankara, the city in the middle of the Zulu corridor. Also have rushed walls and harbor.
The Zulus had left two swordmen enclaved in my territory, I challenge them and they declare war.
Unfortunately, the AIs don’t want to become allies or demand an arm and a leg
to do so. But in any case the newcomers were too weak and far away.
950: A Balkan Dragoon (i.e. Sipahi) is attacked in the desert by two Archers; this triggers our GA (rather ingloriously, because S. is killed by the second Archer).
As soon as I can, Sogut starts building Newton Uni.
980: We conquer Leptis Minor from the Zulus.
We take Amatikulu but they immediately retake it
990: We re-retake Amatikulu
1000: We produce at last Leader Murad
We research Democracy but will revolt after the GA is over, if we decide
to change government.
We sell Dem. to Arabs for 100gpt+Music+lump sum
1010: On the other continent, England declared war on the French
1020: We capture New Zimbabwe
1030: Zunguin, the last Zulu city on the corridor, falls.
1040: Isipezi, the first Zulu city on the main Zulu continent, falls to our
Sipahis.
1050: We get Nationalism free, hence Industrial Ages!

I have 30 cities, 202 citizens, 92 units (16+7 workers). My score is way better than
the AIs, 1082. I know that this is a joke compared to other players here, but this is my first GOTM and my first Monarch-level try.

A question: given that I have a lot of units, wouldn't it be better to stick with
Monarchy? I don't know well how to wage war under democracy. Corruption is
a problem but my core cities are very productive and I pay nothing for unit support
for the moment.

I plan to use Leader to build JSBach as soon as Sogut finishes with Newton Uni.
Then, to exterminate Carthagenes (restricted in 2 cities now) and to start the
conquest of Zululand while starting to laying railroads (provided I find coal).
My GA will last for some 10 turns and then I will have to decide whether to
shift to democracy.

A question: given that I have a lot of units, wouldn't it be better to stick with
Monarchy? I don't know well how to wage war under democracy. Corruption is
a problem but my core cities are very productive and I pay nothing for unit support
for the moment.


My advice: SWITCH TO REPUBLIC AS SOON AS POSSIBLE AS STAY REPUBLIC UNTIL THE END OF THE GAME!!!!! :D

Seriously, republic is the most flexible form of governments in CivIII and with enough luxuries and marketplaces you can wage never ending wars while enjoying extra commerce and lower corruption. Democracy is really not worth switching ever, with exception if you are peaceful builder.

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gifhttp://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/ptw.jpg1.27

Link to Ancient Age spoiler (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2198605&postcount=7)

Contact with the Last Continent

Late in Ancient Times, in 875BC, my first suicide galley followed the suggestive sea lane south of Greece, survived one turn at sea, and met France, England, and Scandinavia. They were rather backward. I traded for their maps and a bit of gold.

It became clear at this point that the Great Lighthouse was something I would want. There wasn't a hope I could build it. I didn't have any strong coastal towns, didn't have any prebuilds on the go, and didn't have the military power to get a Leader anytime soon. So it seemed a good idea to immediately throw the remote continent into war. None of the Civs there would trigger a Golden Age due to fighting. Slowing them down would improve the chances for my other four rivals to build the Lighthouse. Scandinavia seemed strongest so I declared on her and allied France and England against her.

Ongoing Wars

After our brief wars in Ancient Times Carthage and Zululand remained peaceful.

At the beginning of the Middle Ages I decided to foment war between Greece and Arabia. I declared on Arabia and allied Greece against her.

When my alliances expired I gave Scandinavia and Arabia peace. France also gave Scandinavia peace but the other two wars I'd started continued without my help until the end of the game.

Research

My free tech on entering the Middle Ages was Feudalism. I gifted Greece to the Middle Ages and got a nice bit of luck - her free tech was Engineering.

I researched as quickly as I could learning Invention in 7 turns, Gunpowder in 7, Chemistry in 6, Metallurgy in 6, and Military Tradition in 5 at 70BC.

And that was it for research, I didn't do any more in this game. Nor did I sell much to the other Civs. They never did catch up - by the end of the game my most advanced rival had learned Invention.

During my research phase England built the Great Lighthouse, dashing my hopes for an easy way to reach the far continent. I formed a new plan to deal with that problem.

Conquest

While researching I built barracks and horsemen. I also finished my Forbidden Palace, increasing the empire's productivity a bit. And finished a few miscellaneous builds - a couple of harbors, aqueducts, and marketplaces.

When I learned Military Tradition in 70BC I had 27 horsemen. My treasury was empty and my net income with research off was 263gpt.

In 50BC I upgraded two horsemen. In 30BC I declared on Carthage and my two Sipahi invaded. They triggered my Golden Age which boosted income nicely - I'd now be able to upgrade at least 3 horsemen per turn. And it would of course help production of new Sipahi.

Map at 50BC before beginning conquest:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/sirpleb35-2a.jpg

By 90AD I was up to 25 Sipahi. I'd lost just one so far. My map looked like this:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/sirpleb35-2b.jpg

I had just a few Sipahi still in Carthage to finish her next turn. I'd split my other forces. I declared on Zulu and part of my force began the assault on them this turn. The rest of my forces assembled with some rushed galleys on the west coast, ready to invade Arabia when my peace deal with her expired next turn in 110AD.

In 110AD I finished off Carthage and was at war with Zululand and Arabia. They were both so underdeveloped that it slowed me down. Arabia had a number of population one towns which I razed. Both Arabia and Zululand had incomplete road systems.

In 230AD I had nearly finished Arabia. I declared on Greece and my forces on that continent continued westward.

In 260AD I began my plan to cross to the far continent. By this date I'd taken much of the Zulu lands and had rushed many galleys on their east coast. The first four of these galleys had reached a jumpoff point across the water from London. They sailed empty to the halfway point across the water:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/sirpleb35-2c.jpg

Two of those galleys sank and two remained in 270AD. I declared on England. Two additional galleys carried four Sipahi from the coast to the midway point. There the Sipahi transferred to the surviving galleys and continued the rest of the way across to land beside London on the same turn. In 280AD they captured London and the Great Lighthouse. Two Sipahi turned out to be all that was necessary to take London! England weakness was presumably due to her ongoing war with Scandinavia.

That solved the remote continent problem. My galleys could safely travel from Greece to France and from Zululand to England.

My greatest worry through all this was that there might be a one tile island somewhere and one of my rivals might settle it. I traded maps with each rival every turn until I declared war on them. So at this point I knew that Zululand and Greece had each settled an island and that no one else had. I dispatched galleys to both of those islands and they were no problem. They turned out to be the only islands I had to deal with.

As my troops advanced I also kept galleys moving along enemy coastlines to make sure I handled any settlers in boats. These were a concern because I was razing size one towns and leaving some sections of land vacant for a while. I did try to fill the biggest vacancies with new settlers to keep my score maximized but this wasn't a top priority.

In 310AD I finished off Zululand. All forces from that region, plus my ongoing production from the home region were sailing to England as soon as they could.

In 330AD I declared on both France and the Vikings. Just before invading them my map looked like this:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/sirpleb35-2d.jpg

In 340AD I finished off Greece's last town on her northwest island. My troops were already sailing from Greece's south shore to France. At this date I had 52 Sipahi. Many of them would not be able to reach the remaining warfronts in time.

In 350AD my Sipahi advancing on the last English town were amused to see some Vikings, still at war with England after all this time, take that city and thereby eliminate England.

The last bit went very quickly. In 360AD I eliminated France and in 370AD I eliminated Scandinavia. If Scandinavia had had a decent road system I'd have finished a turn sooner. My fault I guess - they'd been at war for a long time and I'm sure that didn't help their construction efforts :)

So, a conquest victory in 380AD:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/sirpleb35-2e.jpg

Miscellaneous

I never shifted out of Republic after learning it. At most points in the game I was paying support for 10 to 15 units. For a long time I was adding cities at about the same rate as units. I didn't notice any war weariness - the conquest of each rival was swift. My cities remained small so luxuries and an occasional specialist were sufficient to handle happiness without needing the luxury slider after Ancient Times.

Leaders and wonders played a very small role in my game. The Great Lighthouse was an exception but I could even have done without that, taking perhaps three turns longer. (Would have built, rushed, and lost a lot more galleys.)

I had good leader luck, getting four of them. But by the time I got even the first there was little for them to do. The first rushed Sun Tzu's on the home continent which was a bit useful. The second rushed Leonardo's just for the heck of it though I had nothing left to upgrade. The third rushed a harbor to connect luxuries from the far continent. I got the fourth on the last turn and he did nothing.

I captured Hanging Gardens from Zululand which helped score a little. Eventually I captured the other wonders but none mattered much. France had the Pyramids in my game.

There turned out to be a lot of similarities between this game and GOTM19! GOTM19 was Ottomans on a small continents map at Emperor level. In it we shared the homeland with two other Civs, there was a second inhabited landmass in easy reach, and there was a third inhabited landmass which required Astronomy or the Great Lighthouse to be reached safely. I'd really hoped to beat my GOTM19 conquest date in this game. And although I did it wasn't by much, just one turn. Oh well. In other ways this was a very different game and hard to compare. The largest differences in how it played out for me were 1) In GOTM19 I gained enough land at the start to do a Palace jump. That gained a fair bit, especially since I didn't know about the Palace rank bug. 2) A local Civ built the Great Lighthouse for me that time. 3) A local Civ also built Pyramids for me in GOTM19. 4) I got a leader early enough in GOTM19 to rush Leonardo's while it still helped.

Anyway, I like to think I played better this time... :)

ptw 1.27f open

290bc enter MA. Our free tech was engineering and the Greeks was Monotheism

250ibt - lost about 150g to barbs :( . I still have 775 left. I need it for upgrades soon for war with Carthage

230ibt - scandanavia contacts us. Trade republic for WM. England contacts us - no trades.

210ibt - France contacts us. No trades

150bc Zulu demands removal of our galley - ok

110bc zulu demands TM and 13g - ok

380ad We demand theology from carthage, they refuse, so we DoW on them :hammer:

400 Zulu demanded chivalry - We refused and they DoW on us

420 We completed SunTzu's

430ibt Carthage asks for peace, but will only give up one tech, but they are close to giving up two. No peace right now

500ad finally see an approaching zulu galley. Peace treaty for Peace Treaty

550ad peace with Carthage. We get Printing Press, Education, Gunpowder, WM, 106g [dance]

670ad we build Copernicus's

830ad Zulu demands tribute - refused. no war.

880ad entered IA

At this time, I've still got 2 Carthage cities that need to be eliminated and all of the Zulu cities on the continent. I apparently didn't take any screenshots at the age change, so no map.

Well, its looks like everyone made fairly good use of their Sipahi!

Well, its looks like everyone made fairly good use of their Sipahi!

Not quite everyone.... well, not in the MA, at least ;)

Neil. :cool:

Open PTW

Ancient Age (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2201032&postcount=27)

I reached the MAs in 190BC with a loose plan to head for space. Since I received Monotheism as my free tech, and gifting Greece there had also resulted in them receiving Monotheism, I decided to start on the top line. I was also thinking about what Ainwood meant about the map being interesting. The most likely thing I could think of given only the evidence of the isthmua and the proximity of the nearest major landmass, was that ocean travel would not be necessary to get around the map. The suspicion turned out to be true, but the great lighthouse was built by an unmet civilisation at this time so I could do little about this suspicion.

We ended our war with Carthage in 150BC, leaving them with just two cities.

Research
We researched to Astronomy at max, then were able to trade to fill out the first tier picking up feudalsim and engineering. Research then proceeded at max towards military tradition. We found that our research times were not brilliant, especially in the beginning, taking up to 8 turns per tech, but dropping as more libraries and then some unis came on line, eventually when we got to mil trad we were at 4 turn research, just, getting Mil trad in 490AD

Change of Plan
Three things happened that made me rethink the space race plan. First the Zulu declared in 390AD, forcing a trade for chivalry, and finding that even though we were not really ready for this war, neither were the Zulu, and so we picked up a couple of cities, gaining the isthmus, and then peace. Second, we met the French in 410AD, and traded outdated tech for full contacts and world map. This final continent could indeed bereached by sea alone, and the rest of the world was backward versus us, and the powerful Sipahi. Third, I looked at the date that we had reached military tradition (490AD), and decided that with 41 turns until 1000AD I had an outside chance of a military victory pre 1000AD. To this point I had never achieved a pre-1000AD finish, so this became the new goal.

Wars
We used the remnants of Carthage to trigger a golden age. We declared in 550AD with 15 Sipahi and wiped out the remaining two cities. The golden age fueled our build up of Sipahi, so that by 640AD we redeclared on the Zulu. We noted that the Zulu had an island city just off the coast, so in 710AD we gave the Zulu peace taking this island city, and leaving them with two cities. That was the end of honourable war - we were on a strict timeline to beat 1000AD, and our rep did not matter a damn at this point.

We first set up our next conquests by signing RoPs with the Arabs and the Greeks for most of their cash. We then moved our troops in to Zulu land in preparation for a final push, but made the mistake of not checking our new island holding. The Zulu gave us the boot order, we refused to go, and war was on once again. Then I found out that the Zulu had two knights bytheir ex-island holding, and of course this new city was undefended, so it fell back into Zulu hands immediately! :crazyeye: We did however, capture the remaining Zulu cities on the mainland, and head for the Arabs at this time.

It took a while to reposition for the Arabs, with our first landings in 750AD. The Arabs had nine cities, including one snuck in on our continent. we used our RoP to position troops, and declared war in 790AD. That year we captured seven Arab cities. In 800AD the Arabs were no more.

The Greeks were still polite with us! :lol: We positioned as best we could, as we still needed some garrison in resisting cities of the Arabs. In 830AD we decided to get rid of our enemies' offensive troops (MIs and longbows are quite capable of killing def 3 Sipahi). We declared on the Vikings and signed a MA and RoP with the French. The English only had five cities anyway! In 850AD the Greeks were left with an island holding.

To finish the Zulu we cash rushed a caravel in the deep south, and ferried 3 Sipahi over to a mountain overlooking the Zulu city. The first landing failed, however, because two knights were able to kill two Sipahi on defence in mountainous terrain. and our remaining Sipahi was redlined killing one knight! We were forced to land three more Sipahi. Second time around the Zulus were eliminated in 870AD.

870AD also saw the first landings of Sipahi in France. 890AD we declared on France, and received our first and only leader of the game! In 900AD we gave the Vikings peace - they were not interested in an RoP for some reason though! Also in 900AD, our single caravel of Sipahi proved sufficient to remove the Greek's last outpost and destroy that civ.

In 910AD, I leader rushed a palace jump to Paris, wanting to see what would happen, given the city was in resistance. Well it turns out that the palace kills the resistance. We also almost doubled our income, and probably tripled the number of usefully productive cities in our empire! A little too late to be of benefit though.

In 920AD, France was gone. We swapped world maps with England for all their cash and declared.

In 930AD we declared on the Vikings as well. We now had only to decide whether we wished to trigger domination or get the conquest victory. I remember SirPleb writing recently that the optimal choice for Jason points is go for conquest if you can achieve it within 5 turns of domination. This was highly likely, but not certain. England had 1 city left, the Vikings 13. Most importantly, I knew in the IT I would hit the domination limit - ie pre 1000AD. If I failed to get conquest in the five turns, I would miss the pre-1000AD finish. This proved to be the over-riding consideration for me this time, so we didn't raze any cities, and got domination in 940AD for 9872 Jason points. Also a record for me.

In 910AD, I leader rushed a palace jump to Paris, wanting to see what would happen, given the city was in resistance. Well it turns out that the palace kills the resistance. We also almost doubled our income, and probably tripled the number of usefully productive cities in our empire! A little too late to be of benefit though.
This is possibly due to the rank corruption bug - any cities that are closer to your FP than to you capital have their rank calculated by the number of cities closer to the capital than they are to the FP - ie: If you capital is miles from the rest of your empire, then all cities are effectively treated as rank '1' for corruption purposes. Because this is an exploit, its actually not allowed in the GOTM. We therefore require you to have around OCN/2 cities near to your palace (even then its a bit exploitive, as you end up with a load of cities that are approx. rank (say) 8).

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gif


Well, its looks like everyone made fairly good use of their Sipahi!Well not this one. :D

The short story for me was : No Sipahi, no golden age, no great leaders but lots of fun. :lol:

Ancient age (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2200321&postcount=20)

Research
Entering the MA i got Monotheism, I then gifted the Greeks into the MA, but they got Monotheism as well. :mad: , so it was Feudalism (4 turns) and Chivalry (4 turns), after that I sold all my libraries and had one lonely scientist researching Engineering.

War
Soon after Carthage build the Pyramids I upgraded my warriors and took the city a long with a handfull of other cities, and then made peace for a few extra cities.
As soon as chivalry came along I upgraded my horsemen and began the final conquest of Carthage and the Zulu (Hanging Gardens :)) and the Greek-Arabia continent, going for a fast domination.


But then, way to late, :cry: .......aaargh.... I realize : there won't be enough tiles for domination on the two continents. (about 26 tiles short) : ......damn you ainwood. :mad: :lol:

Having sold all my libraries, and being 3 techs from Astronomy, I was sweating there for a while, but due to my large empire I was able to research at 4 turns/tech anyway. :)

Actually I rushed a lot of galleys and did the galleyhopping as well :

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/Galleyhopping_GOTM35.png

I finally reached domination in 510AD.

Wow! Scary dates, guys! Just when I think I'm starting to understand how to play this game the bar rises again. :eek:

This is possibly due to the rank corruption bug - any cities that are closer to your FP than to you capital have their rank calculated by the number of cities closer to the capital than they are to the FP - ie: If you capital is miles from the rest of your empire, then all cities are effectively treated as rank '1' for corruption purposes. Because this is an exploit, its actually not allowed in the GOTM. We therefore require you to have around OCN/2 cities near to your palace (even then its a bit exploitive, as you end up with a load of cities that are approx. rank (say) 8).
It could also possibly be due to a bit of poetic license in my description of the benefit to emphasize my mild disappointment at getting no leaders earlier in the game. I had built the FP right next to my palace, expecting a leader to jump the palace into Zulu lands much earlier. Paris was in the middle of France, surrounded by about 8-10 of my recently captured cities!

The true effect was about a 60% revenue improvement, and I noted that some of the Greek/Arab cities were now producing 2 shields instead of the totally corrupt 1 shield.

It could also possibly be due to a bit of poetic license in my description of the benefit to emphasize my mild disappointment at getting no leaders earlier in the game. I had built the FP right next to my palace, expecting a leader to jump the palace into Zulu lands much earlier. Paris was in the middle of France, surrounded by about 8-10 of my recently captured cities!Good to hear ;) Otherwise I would have been recommending that you capture a few quickly. :)

But then, way to late, :cry: .......aaargh.... I realize : there won't be enough tiles for domination on the two continents. (about 26 tiles short) : ......damn you ainwood. :mad: :lol:

Really? Who would have guessed? :mischief:

So did you conquer the greeks / arabs with knights? Was that painful (greeks especially)??

Just to reinforce Sandman2003's experience, I also build my FP close to Sogut, though I did take the precaution of putting it nearer to the coast so that I'd get some productive shipyards. I also expected to get a leader to put my palace in Cathage or Zululand. I finally won my only two leaders of the game while I was fighting the Greeks, and by that time my home core had done all I needed. I didn't need to move my Palace.

So did you conquer the greeks / arabs with knights? Was that painful (greeks especially)??Not really :

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/Military_360AD.png

....and with a ROP rape on both. :mischief:

The Greek had Chivalry but I don't think I saw more than one or two knights.

Predator, [ptw]1.27, Militaristic

I was whupped by zamint3 by 7 turns (congrats) and played a game similair to his, so I'll keep this short.

With a bloody approach already decided upon, I could either (1) research to mil. tradition or astronomy and go for conquest or (2) stop reseach at Chivarly, put the spare cash to good use, and go for domination. With a militaristic trait, I chose the latter. Carthage was eliminated with swordsmen. I then set up a two front war with Zulu and Arabs simultaneously. Temples were rushed practically every turn as soon as the horsemen upgrade phase was over. Eventually I traded engineering from England for something like 100 gpt and then declared war the same turn.

The reason zamint beat me was probably that (s)he had more knights. I did get stuck on a few Greek towns. I never had an overwhelming power, which made it fun to play, though.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/slow.jpg

Gloat, zamint3, gloat! I would.

The game ended with a push into France via ship hopping.

Leader luck: 5
- Hurried Hanging Gardens in Hlobane (for culture and happiness)
- Made an army of knights.
- Hurried Sistine Chapel in Tours (For cultural expansion only. It flipped before expanding but the good thing about wonders is that they get their cultutral values back when you recapture them.)
- Hurried Heroic Epic in Rheims.
- Hurried library on a far away former Zulu island.

@SirPleb: Great game! What impresses me most is the foresight to move all those galleys to an area so far from where the "action" took place, i.e. the area where you first moved troops over to Arabia.

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gifhttp://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/ptw.jpg1.27

Scientific through and through.

Still going for Domination. My Ancient Age post is HERE. (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2198364&postcount=6)

Middle Ages
Shortly after entering the MA in 590 bc, I gifted Greece in. They got Monotheism and I gave them Republic and some gold for it. I finished my FP in 470 bc, in a city NW of my palace. This location had been planned long before, and it already had RCP rings at 3 and 6 (the RCP 6 ring included many coastal cities on the west coast of the main continent). I also converted my 4-turn Warrior/Settler factory into a 6-turn Horseman/Settler factory. All other military builds were switched from warriors to Horsemen as well.

As mentioned in my previous post, Carthage was beaten to the Pyramids by 8 turns: the Arabs basically destroyed the Pyramids usefulness to me by building them on that god-awful hill-riddled island to the west in 590 bc. :sad: Loosing the Pyramids was partially my fault. If I had investigated the Arabs, I could have hurried my invasion plans and taken their capitol before they built them. If Carthage had gotten the Pyramids it would have had a nice impact on my Domination date. Ah well, woulda coulda shoulda.

In any case, I declared war on the Arabs in 430 bc and took Mecca two turns later. In 270 I got contact with the other continent (English, French, Vikings) through the Zulu. They didn’t have any techs to trade, but getting their maps was nice. The war with the Arabs was costly: several of their cities were on hills, and I lost a total of 21 MI in the taking of their cities. Bad, bad RNG. This pretty much nullified the usefulness of my ancient age warrior/settler factory, because most of the warriors it produced died quickly. The few that survived died in the first few turns of my war with the Greeks to their hated hilltop-hoplites. I ended the Arab war in 110 bc, getting two cities for peace and leaving them with only one.

The zulu “sneak attacked” in 150 bc, while I was still at war with the Arabs. They were never a threat, as I had horsemen waiting for them. I was actually thrilled they declared on me, because the war happiness was quite useful. I redeclared war on Carthage in 10bc and took two more cities, leaving them with one. I then gave them peace again.

I struggled this game with what to do with my palace. The arab/greek hill island was not very attractive. Although the Zulus had very nice territory, I knew it would be late in the game before I took them over. I decided the best thing I could do was just maximize the non-corrupt cities on my starting landmass, so in 170 AD I jumped my palace to the eastern side of the main continent (using a combination of worker-joins and military buildup in the new palace city). This increased my income by about 20%, and my research time went from 6 turns per discovery to 4 turns. I was not expecting that big a jump, and I wished I had done it sooner! (My research remained at 4 turns per discovery until I researched Magnetism in 420 ad, at which time I turned off research.)

I never researched or traded for chivalry in this game, because I felt I would be better off with Sipahi against all the hilltop hoplites and impis. I got military tradition in 270 ad, and I immediately upgraded 6 horsemen to Sipahi. At 140g apiece, that blew my entire bankroll, and I decided I would wait to upgrade the rest after I finished Leonardo’s workshop, due in a few turns. However, I continued to build horsemen in most of my cities by disconnecting my saltpeter. I would connect/disconnect it many times throughout the game.

Two turns after I upgraded the 6 sipahi I declared war on the Greeks and immediately lost 3 of them. Expensive and discouraging. I also entered my Golden Age though, during which I was doing 4-turn research and making from 200-400gpt. In 340 AD, I finally got a leader. (My one and only in this game: I guess the fates were balancing out the insane leader-luck I had in GOTM 34). I sent him to the home continent to rush Sun Tzu. That would be most helpful in my war against the Zulu. A few turns later I completed Leonardo and upgraded about 22 horsemen to Sipahi. Many more upgrades would follow on every turn for the rest of the game.

In the next few turns, I went to war with everyone in the game except the Vikings, whom I traded education and some gold to for gems and furs. Cities fell fast, averaging around 4 per turn, although on one turn I took 10. I was also using gold and extra Sipahi to rush libraries and settlers at this point. The cheap libraries of the scientific trait came in very handy. At one point I was up to 85 sipahi, but I then used about 40 of them to rush settlers and libraries. In 540 ad, I did the biggest library/settler rush of my game (about 20 libraries and 10 settlers), thinking that I had my timing just perfect to win in 580 ad. I was way off though, because I didn’t take the time earlier to count up the tiles. I should have made my push around 480 ad. I could have won sooner—although it still would have been one turn after Zamint’s 510 domination win (and probably after several others that have yet to post)! Here are two screens from Dianthus’ Mapstat on the turn the game ended:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/BF_GOTM35_mapstat1.jpg

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/BF_GOTM35_mapstat2.jpg

I went over on tiles by 115, and I would have gone WAY over on the next turn with the impending culture expansions (19 cities, most of them in areas that would have added tiles to the domination count). It was a good learning experience, however, and I think/hope my timing will improve in the next game.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/BF_GOTM35_MM.jpg

In spite of my compaining above :rolleyes:, domination was reached in 570 ad: a new record for me. Woo hoo! (And I think one turn before Megalou??? groucho ). I'm now looking forward to COTM 5, which, unlike COTM 4, I think I will have the time to play, thankfully.

PS: Unbelievable conquest date Sir Pleb! I wonder when Kuningas finished his conquest…

And I think one turn before Megalou??? groucho Right! Rub it in. :mad: :mad: :mad: I, er, was blindfolded...1 arm tied behind my back - no 2 arms! I punched the keys with my nose, which is pretty big, you know. What's your Space Cadet high score anyway? Huh?

I actually had nationalism in 5000 BC and gave it away to all civs, then hacked the game and removed all techs of my own including masonry, bronze working and the unlisted tech "sanity" which requires about 5978 beakers. I also erased my ability to build any unit that has attack strength or defensive strength, took out Carthage with workers who each cost just slightly less than Hoover Dam. I sent explorers to run around Paris until the French fell apart with dizziness (inventing the Swedish word Pariserhjul, Ferriswheel), before I finally decided I'd had enough.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/swordsman_smaller001.gifPREDATOR [civ3mac] Panther 1.29

Ancient Times (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=2198908#post2198908)

After all the reading about bloodthirsty conquerers (amazing!), here is my report on the progress towards peaceful ;) diplomatic victory.

Middle Ages were entered 550BC with free monotheism. I donated Greece into MA, but as nearly always in 1.29, they also get monotheism. :( Massive barb uprising kills one settler and ransacks 2 cities. :(

In 470BC, we meet the backward English and soon the other oversea civs; all retarded scientifically. I researched full speed and the AIs contributed theology, feudalism, chivalry, education, banking, and magnetism. I traded or donated all techs asap to speed progress in order to reach the UN early.

Carthage was dealt with 190AD till 440AD. In 190AD our only elite sword in the very first attack created Great Leader Orhan, who immediately rushed Leonardo's. The last war turn gave a 2nd Leader who built Copernicus'. Carthage came with Great Library (gave us zilch) and Sistine. 390AD we learn military tradition and upgrade 17 knights to dragoons, triggering our Golden Age 400AD. This speeds research and we enter the Industrial Age 470AD , ready to assimilate the Zulu nation next.

@Megalou: :rotfl:

If I ever come to Sweden I will have to look you up: that is worth at least a case of beer. And yes, I am 0 for 1 as a Space Cadet oh mighty Captain. I think that makes me a Garbage Scow Technician, 3rd class.

My AA was fairly similar to everyone elses, so I'll give just a few highlights before the MA report. In 1000 BC I had 15 cities, and I entered the MA in 390 BC.

As I rightly assumed, this games in being dominated by bloodthirsty war mongers, so I decided to go for space. I had a bit of a skirmish with Cathage around 100 BC, but all I got were a few towns. I decided to sit back and wait until I got Sipahi before I attempted any more warring.

My main goal in the Middle Ages was to achieve 4-turn research. I was moderately successful in that aspect. Here are the dates at which I acquired techs.

390BC-Engineering free, Feudalism from Greece
230BC-Monotheism
70Bc-Theology
50AD-Education
170AD-Astronomy
210AD-Invention from Arabia
230AD?-Banking
290AD-Gunpowder
340AD-Chemistry
380AD-Physics
420AD-Theory of Gravity
460AD-Magnetism
500AD-Metallurgy, Enter Industrial Age

Great IA date, Kaiser - almost 300 years ahead of me (also went for the SS). Looking good for a pre-1400 launch? How did you get your research up and running so quickly in the MA?

Neil. :cool:

Great IA date, Kaiser - almost 300 years ahead of me (also went for the SS). Looking good for a pre-1400 launch? How did you get your research up and running so quickly in the MA?

Neil. :cool:


Thanks. Yes, I was looking for a pre-1400 launch. Did I find one :rolleyes: ? :lol:

My strategy was basically to make a beeline for Education so I could get my cheap universities online as soon as possible. I got it in 50AD, and after that my research times began to drop accordingly. Thankfully I had a decent amount of cash sitting around, so I was able to rush a lot of of them, getting me going sooner.

Great IA date, Kaiser - almost 300 years ahead of me Ahem. I was 30 years faster. ;) Despite the fact that I researched military tradition first.

My focus was on speeding tech progress by immediately trading techs around. Maybe it also helped (I hope so) that I handbuilt The Pyramids in my 2nd city immediately after founding it.

Great game SirPleb!!!
I didn't expect that it is possible 90BC MT!
Well, hte PTW players can choose own free tech end get other from AI but...

I go to Chivalry for "early" wars but I begun it at the same time as you start with Siphai!
I built FP east from the palace in 470BC.
In 150BC I attack Carthage they has Pyramids.
Then attack Zulu and in 290AD I researched MT.
At this moment Zulu has 1 city and I refocusing to Greece and England.
Arabs was killed by Greece in BC.
I simultaneously attacked in 2 direction and reach Domination in 410AD.

I got 4 Leaders: Great Lighthouse, Sun Thzu, Palace in Zimbabwe and Leonardo.

I simultaneously attacked in 2 directions and reach Domination in 410AD.

Amazing date yet again Dynamic! :king: I don't know how you do it.

Well, the PTW players can choose own free tech end get other from AI but...

The advantage of PTW is that each scientific civ is more likely to get a different free tech. I don't think PTW players can choose which one they get, can they?

Another amazing date :eek: And four leaders !?

Amazing date yet again Dynamic! :king: I don't know how you do it.

Thank you! I will make some screenshots later.

Well my game was very similar to alot above - My goal was an early domination.

1000BC

17 cities
Republic in 9 turns
1 settler
9 workers
9 warriors
3 archers
2 granaries
29 citizens

I decided to go all out science to get MT ASAP, and reached it in 280AD.
Went for a double - go revolt when I drew 6 turns but ended up with 7 turns on the reroll! - grr. So could have reached MT a little sooner.

SirPleb - I am amazed at your research skill to reach MT as soon as you did - very impressive :goodjob: I have alot to learn in that regard.

I had no wars before MT but was tempted when I discovered the Horse at the land bridge had been grabbed. Instead though I roaded it and traded for horses which worked out great.

Those Sipahi - what can I say. Never played them before but they have to be one of the top UU's in the game! As quoted above it was like a hot knife through butter and the only real delay I had in domination was switching science back on to get Astronomy - well designed map ainwood :)

Anyway, I reached domination in 640AD with 10809 Jason points - a record for me as well :goodjob:
But still heaps of room for improvement when looking at some of the scores posted - impressive guys!!

Great fun game.

The advantage of PTW is that each scientific civ is more likely to get a different free tech. I don't think PTW players can choose which one they get, can they?

The free tech as a scientific civ in PTW is random. I once thought (hoped) otherwise, but it is definitely random.

@Kaiser: Figured it was rushing Unis. I didn't have a Govt when I reached the MA either so spent the first part researching Republic and sitting through a 7-turn Anarchy period ouch!). Greece got the same tech as me (monotheism), and I started as usual on Engineering, instead of going straight through Theology to Education. You also had 50% more cities than me at 1000BC, so that would've helped too. Still, I was happy with my eventual date, shows I'm improving :)

Neil. :cool:

Mursilis sat staring at the early evening stars wondering how long before he’d be planet bound this time. As he turned back to his desk he looked at the map of his continent. Carthage was to the west and Zululand was to the south via a narrow land bridge with a Greek city at the choke point. The first target for expansion would be Carthage, though Mursilis knew the Carthaginian defenders would not fall without a determined fight. “This looks like an elephant that will have to be eaten one bite at a time” he thought.

“Colonel, I want a short war. Just a quick level a couple of cities and then sign peace. Can you plan for that?” Mursilis asked. “Not a problem. A dozen or so of on Mace units with Longbow support should be able to get the job done and we have that many trained units available at this time” replied Colonel Scoutsout (General Grahamiam was on vacation and the Colonel was filling in for him).

A quick war was what Mursilis wanted and that’s just what he got. Just two Carthaginian cities had been razed, when the Emissary from Hannibal came requesting peace. The knowledge of Monarchy and a coastal city was the condition he agreed to and once again peace was know throughout the continent, but it would not last.

“Brigadier, I’ve noticed that there is a Greek city blocking our campaign to the Zulu lands. This calls for another of your short and decisive little war. You’ll need to position your troops for a quick little war on the Zulus following that. When can you be ready to move?” Mursilis asked. The newly promoted Brigadier General Scoutsout replied “Our troops are already on the move towards Plebos Nexia and should be in position within the week. My staff has already prepared plans for a quick smash and grab of a couple of Zulu cities for your approval. With your ok, we’ll merge the two into a single campaign.” “Make it so” was Mursilis’ answer.

The small Greek garrison stood no chance against the Ottoman Longbows and the city fell quickly, the Greek citizens seemed to be relieved to no longer be a colony so far from their homeland and quickly squashed any resistance. With their path no longer blocked, the Ottoman troops streamed into the neutral lands north of three Zulu cities.

The Zulu messenger stood on the hill above Umfolozi and stared, he was too late. In his hand was the notice of war between the Zulu and Ottoman. The delay in at headquarters had cost the defenders valuable preparation time and the garrison fell with little ado. He only hoped his fellow messengers had reached their target in time. They had, but to no avail, as the Zulu cities of Umtata and Ibabanago fell to the Ottoman foot soldiers. The Greek and Zulu emissaries waited for their appointments with Osman (as Mursilis was now called) in silence. Both had been victims of the powerful Ottoman war machine and were eager to end the conflict.

Later in the day Osman as he prepared for the opening ceremony of the new War Academy he mentally reviewed the results of the peace treaties, from the Greeks a sum of gold and his first peek at a map of the world and from the Zulus the knowledge of the Printing Press and gold. At the ceremony he was pleased to announce to the cheering throng, the newly signed peace and as a contribution from his scientists, the knowledge of gunpowder.

Just as Osman was discussing the completion of continental conquest with General Scoutsout (General Grahamiam was now the Dean of the War Academy), a messenger arrived with news that the Arab city of Fustat had revolted and wished to join the Ottoman Republic. “That’s one less battle to fight” Osman said as he welcomed the news. “Carthage must go first, there are five eastern cities and Rusicade to the northwest. Let’s start in the east and let our new recruits head north. I’m planning on setting up a international trading soon and would like to be able use those extra Carthage luxuries as trade bait, can your plans accommodate this General?” As the General looked at the map, the timetable and his order of battle he remembered the difficult time his troops had with the Carthaginian defenders the last time they were at war. “Without iron, they will be forced into a defensive war and with numbers on our side, we should be able to meet your schedule without too much trouble”

Osman’s concerns proved to be unnecessary for two reasons, the Ottoman army rolled over the first four Carthaginian cities leaving only the Capital and the NW city to Hannibal, and secondly at the trading conference, the new ivory supplies were of no interest to any of the participants. However, the knowledge of Chemistry gained Osman the knowledge of Astronomy, Greek wines, Viking furs, 83gpt and 390g from the attendees. The highlight of the conference was Osman’s announcement of the completion of Leonardo’s Workshop in Uskudar.

With the discovery of Military Tradition, 8 veteran Sipahi units left the capital for Rusicade. As his troops arrived at the gates the cavalry commander, a welcoming committee of city officials greeted Major Alerum69. It seemed that the intelligent people of the city had killed the garrison during the night and wished to join the Ottoman Empire. While he was disappointed in forsaking the battle he was happy to accept this unexpected conquest. He quickly turned his troops east to Carthage.

Another trading conference had concluded and once again Osman was pleased with the results. The knowledge of Banking and Navigation plus a growing treasury for Metallurgy techniques had made the convention a success.

Major Alerum69’s forces arrived just in time to witness the retaking of Theveste from a rebellious mob by Ottoman foot soldiers. He was quite disappointed to learn that his troops were not to be involved in the final assault on Carthage. However, when he learned of his new assignment that was all forgotten. While the mud-thumpers were busy pounding Carthage into submission, he led his now 25 strong column of Sipahi south to the Zulu border.

To celebrate 4800 years of rule, Osman held a gala in the capital to welcome Orhan the first battle hero of the Ottoman Republic, to dedicate the Forbidden Palace in Aydin and to announce the fall of Carthage with the Great Library. “Orhan will be leading the First Sipahi Army into battle” announced Osman.

“Attention, the time has come to complete the acquisition of this continent.” Osman stated as he opened his weekly staff meeting. I have asked War Academy President Grahamiam and General Scoutsout to present a plan they have designed to gain the current Zulu lands while limiting our losses. Gentlemen you have the floor.”

The two cut contrasting figures as they presented the plan, Grahamiam, the grizzled old veteran and Scoutsout the young protégé both spoke with the confidence of years of battle hardening. Their plan was simple yet elegant, equal forces of Sipahi circling the Zulu capital capturing all of the coastal cities and then turning north from the final city to attack the capital from the south while the cannon supported foot soldiers pounding the central Zulu cities into submission and arrive at the capital to support the final attack.

From the declaration of war, followed by the first Sipahi win which began the Ottoman Golden Age to the final Impi’s death in Zimbabwe, the plan’s execution had been flawless. One by one the Zulu cities fell with ruthless precision before the Ottoman attackers. Thanks to the library provided culture advantage, none were razed and none rebelled. In 860 AD, eighty years before the war would end, the discovery of Magnetism pushed the Ottoman Republic into the Industrial Age (with Medicine as a science bonus).

With Greece as a trading partner, the rate of scientific advances was quite rapid; Theory of Gravity, Physics and Steam Power were all rewards for Ottoman science & resources (dyes & saltpeter) at the trading table.

So with the dawn of the Industrial Age, with the Ottoman work force busy adding railroads to the continent, the Ottoman troops completing the conquest of the Zulus and the Ottoman scientists busy researching Industrialization, things look rosy for Osman’s journey to the stars.

Well, I had another of these MT domination victories.
Entered MA in 590BC, a little bit delayed by the 7 turn anarchy.
Stayed peaceful all the way to military tradition in 150AD.
3 turns later Leonardo's completed and I started upgrading my horses (I never acquired chivalry).
Zulu and Carthage fell quickly.
Arabs were no problem.
I then researched Astronomy and Navigation and started on the English while crawling through the Greek mountains.
Domination in 520AD.

We had a very good map and starting position in this GOTM (thank you, ainwood!).
I built 6 ring4 cities and 11 ring8 cities + some farther. My first goal after discovering my position was cut off Carthage from my ring8 and I did that.

Since I want to get Sipahi I must rush my research. I play Civ3 1.29 and haven’t Feudalism and Engineering for free. It sign my science speed is lower and I must use tactical ruse for fast win.

I decided research Literature earlier then Republic for increasing my culture and science. From Carthage and further Zulu I traded Alphabet, Horseback Riding, Map Making, Mathematics and Polytheism. Currency and Construction I research myself because I won’t they have early Feodalism.

After entering in MA (590BC) I go to the Chivalry with half speed for collect some money for upgrade. I discover it in 170BC and upgrade ~20 Horseman to Knights. I easy took Carthage and other cities with Pyramids.

Some words about Leaders. I don’t know how works 1/16 probability rule, but I note in the many of my games I got quick first Leader while my force isn’t big. It is main reason for early war if neighbor is close and hasn’t strong defense. But further when I have many of units the Leaders appear seldom. I await the Leader from Cartage war but it appeared vary fast. I rush The Great Lighthouse and some turns later discover last continent.

After discovering Chivalry I research Engineering and stop science on couple turns for maney.
Then I got to the MT with 4turns rate (got it in 290AD).

From Zulu’s war I got another Leader and rush Palace in Zimbabwe. I can upgrade my units without Leonardo’s but my last Leader appeared in the final of Zulus killing. Further I won many of elite battles but haven’t luck. I discover Theology especially for rushing Sistine Chapel but never did it.

When I’m a power leader of the world I can use ROP abuse. I use it with Zulu, Greece and England. I surrounded core cities, captured its and go to other by short ways. Sipahi is the great unit! Using them against spearmen (mainly) and some pikemen is “slaughter of the innocents“.

In each city I rush library when it stop resist and have 1 shield in storage. When I see the domination limit is closer I stop rushing libraries and rush settlers for covering holes between borders.

Thanks for posting the details of your game Dynamic! This is really going to help me get better dates in the future. I learned a LOT from your post, but I will mention two points in particular:

Some words about Leaders. I don’t know how works 1/16 probability rule, but I note in the many of my games I got quick first Leader while my force isn’t big. It is main reason for early war if neighbor is close and hasn’t strong defense. But further when I have many of units the Leaders appear seldom. I await the Leader from Cartage war but it appeared vary fast. I rush The Great Lighthouse and some turns later discover last continent.

I seldom go to war ultra-early, but when I have, I often get that early leader as well. I think I am going to start having an early war more often to get that leader.

When I’m a power leader of the world I can use ROP abuse. I use it with Zulu, Greece and England. I surrounded core cities, captured its and go to other by short ways.

This was the big one!!! Your pics really demonstrate what an effective strategy ROP abuse can be. I knew it was helpful, but not THAT helpful. I never used ROP abuse in the past, but I am certainly going to be using it in the future! Thanks! :goodjob:

@Dynamic: Thanks for a great post. As BradleyFeanor says there are a lot of lessons in there, specially for middle-rank players like me.

Conquest Class
Playing in PTW ( to avoid downloading files needed for CivIII ).
Noticed that Incense is showing up in City luxury box as two separate luxuries. This also applies to the other nations. I suspect it is an icon error and that one of them is another luxury. Has anyone else noticed this.
Whilst I have never entered a result, the GOTMs are the best feature of this site, as a lower rank player the posted QSCs and discussions have taught far more than years of trial and error.
I was disappointed to read an earlier thread on this game where the folk who put the hard work into GTOMs were having to try ( more than once ) to explain the idea of the spirit of the game.
It would not be possible to have a rule book covering all possible eventualities , utilities etc ( specially those not yet seen ), as in many other games and sports. We should all accept the decision of the guy who created the game.

Conquest class

Made it into the IA finally in 1260AD.

As you may remeber I have only played warlord games before so this has been a bit of a batism of fire :) I played COTM last month and got slaughtered, so my hopes were not too high for this GOTM.

Anyway, at the begining of the MA I had had two small wars with Carthage and Zulu. I now consentrated on Carthage and in two wars knocked them out. Zulu is confined to the lower section of the land mass, and is going to feel the full benifit of my Sipahi very soon.

After being in a tech hole for all of the MA I am getting near parity now, I was the first to the corporation and that allowed me to trade 3 or 4 techs and am now only down 1 tech (with 3 optionals which I don't really need) Electricity.

Score wise I am in the lead with Greece and Zulu second and third, quite close really but I am thinking on the best way to handle things ATM.

Overall, I am very pleased to be doing so well :)

I think I owe all of my sucess to the war academy!

Open

Goal: Seeking out the cow

At the end of the ancient ages I was dealing with the remains of the Carthagininan empire. So here we go…

Otto-Carthaginian War (Part 2)

50 – Capture Carthage
130 – Enter Anarchy
150 – Capture Leptis Magna. Sign peace treaty with Carthage for the cities of Sabratha and Rusicade. Found Urfa.
230 – Trade Engineering with Arabs for Feudalism, and with Greeks for Monotheism.
260 – We are a Republic.
340 – Learn Chivalry.

I need to clear this continent before the Zulu learn MilTrad, otherwise I’m going to have a harder time wiping them out… plus they’ve got the Pyramids!

Otto-Zulu War (Part 1)

390 – Declare War on Zulu and Carthage. Sign MAs against Zulu with everyone in exchange for Chivalry. Hopefully I can waste some of the Golden Ages of the other civs this way. Capture Izipezi. Learn Invention from Arabs in exchange for Chivalry.
440 – Capture Hadrumetum. The Carthaginians are no more.
480 – Learn Gunpowder.
520 – Capture Tugela.
550 – Learn Chemistry. Learn Education from the Greeks.
590 – Ceasefire with Zulu in exchange for Liverpool.
610 – Learn Metallurgy.
620 – Learn Printing Press from Vikings in exchange for Chemistry.
650 – FP built in Edirne.
700 – Learn MilTrad. :hammer:
740 – Learn physics.
760 – Trade Metallurgy to the French for banking.
790 – Learn Magnetism. The Arabs give us 13gpt to redeclare on the Zulu. We have a Sipahi triggered GA whilst capturing Isandhlwana, Ngome and Umtata.
800 – The Arabic town of Fustat flips to us.
820 – Regonotiate alliances against Zulu. In exchange for Physics, learn Navigation and Music theory.
830 – Learn theory of Gravity. Enter the Industrial Ages and get Nationalism as my freebie.

I breezed quickly through the Middle Ages faster than I have ever done. Hopefully my sipahi will take out the Zulu fairly quickly, and then I can decide who to cross of my list next. Probably the Arab-Greek island. This should then give me close to domination, and I should be able to sit back and play it cool for the rest of the game.

BTW, I'm absolutely astounded by some of the domination and conquest dates. Good job guys! :thumbsup:

Ancient Times (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2207225&postcount=49)

Goal for MT
Achieve Conquest victory. Start with early medieval units, but maintain fast tech pace to finish it with massed Sipahi.

A Way to Zimbabwe
Zulus are next on schedule. Just as the Carthage war continued I has assembled two teams of Worker+Slave that are capable of building road in one turn and started build a long road to Zulus. Just 2 Workers + 2 Slaves allowed me to proceed at a steady pace 1 tile of road / turn.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v188/horragoth/gotm35/gotm35-workerteam.jpg

The problem was that barbarians have a nasty habit settling on my new road so I had to build a couple of settlers to fill the space.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v188/horragoth/gotm35/gotm35-landbridge.jpg

Continental war
50BC Arabs declared war to me. I welcomed that as I could push them off my continent and concentrate on Zulus
50AD War was declared to Zulus which lasted to 360AD. Due to my impatience and distractions (pushing off Arabs, finishing Carthage 320-360AD, barbs) I attacked with suboptimal troops and got only couple of cities. I have also lacked settlers in placec to fill the gap and Greeks decided to settle in.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v188/horragoth/gotm35/gotm35-stalemate.jpg
Thus I rather concluded peace in 360AD.

Sipahi
I have researched Military tradition in 420. I had prebuilt some Knights/Horsemen so I changed tax settings to get quick gold for upgrades
440 AD I have attacked Arabs on their continent and immediately entered GA. Greeks declared war to me in 550 AD. Arabs were destroyed in 570AD, and Greeks were reduced to one island city in 620.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v188/horragoth/gotm35/gotm35-island.jpg. They were destroyed in 690AD.

Zulu incident
During the Greco-Arabian campaign another Sipahi force was produced and used to Destroy Zulus in 640-750AD


Final invasion
Just as the war with Zulus proceeded with sufficient forces, the newly created reinforcements and the forces remained after Greco-Arabian conquest were assembled in preparation of the final invasion. Forces were transported via the former Arabia and Greece so that only two channels had to be crossed, because my navy was scarce.
I signed ROP with all remaining nations with a dark intentions:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v188/horragoth/gotm35/gotm35-rop.jpg
You can see the stacks of Sipahis marked red. However, the English intentions were even darker as their single Archer (marked blue) attacked me the turn before I could start a sneak attack on French (830AD). The alliance were forged with France and Vikings against the English. The English were destroyed by 880 AD, before the slow moving French armies made contact with them. With their armies in former English territory, the French were overrun in 2 turns with most units outside their cities. Vikings took me 3 turns to conquer as they garrisoned their cities with musketmen and they have several cities on hills.

The End
In the End my army counted 70 Sipahis.
Firaxis score: 6695
Jason score: 10493
Time played: 28:51:12

Edit:
Almost forgot the minimap evolution
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v188/horragoth/gotm35/gotm35-minimap.jpg

Bottom line question
This is my 3rd submission to GOTM/COTM. Since I already achieved Domination and Spaceship in GOTM34 and COTM04 I have pursued conquest this time. However I had to raze/abandon cities to avoid domination victory. I could reach Domination 5 turns earlier than Conquest.
My question therefore is: If I pursued max Jason score, which would be better Conquest or Domination? Is there any rule of thumb?

I also pursued the bloodlust game although not as fast as the top players but I am learning. Never thought the ROP was so powerful. I ended up with a DOM victory in 860AD. Not bad considering how I neglected my military at the beginning of the game.

I entered the MA and started a war with CART but did not have the power to wipe them out. So I sued for peace and started an all out effort to build my military. I essentially went from 200AD to 450AD just building my military. I also should have skipped Chivalry and gone stright for MT which I learned in 440AD.

So I restarted the war with the CARTs and eliminate them in 510AD. I eliminate the Zulus in 640AD, Arabia in 690AD, Greece down to the small island by 730AD. Then I cross the ocean from former GreeK lands to France and DOW on them.

Horragoth,

Your final question was asked recently. Check out SirPlebs answer in this thread, about 15 posts down from the top:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=99650&page=2&pp=20WARNING: IT IS A SPOILER PAGE FOR COTM04

Horragoth,

Nice graphics. What graphic pack are you using?

Thanks,

Deny

Horragoth,

Nice graphics. What graphic pack are you using?
He answered the same question here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2214990&postcount=69) in the first spoiler :)

@Megalou: Thanks for the hint, I have missed this one.
@denyd: As AlanH already said, I have answered in detail in previous spoiler. In short it is modified Womok's pack.

After spending most of the Ancient Times trying to build an empire (previous spoiler Part I (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2213025&postcount=58), Part II (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2213463&postcount=65)), I spent the better part of the Middle Ages building horses.

I started a smaller war with the Zulu in 150BC to get their luxuries. I didn't get that but I did get two leaders.

I researched Military Tradition in 300AD, at which point I had more than 70 horsemen. I gradually upgraded them and started eliminating the AI civs. I didn't have the guts to invade the far continent with suicide galleys so I also researched Astronomy and eventually Navigation. I could have reached the domination limit in 570AD but decided to go for conquest so from then on I razed most of the cities I captured.

I eliminated all other civs in 610AD and achieved conquest victory in 620AD.

Minimap summary

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/delmar_gotm_35_MA_minimaps.jpg

Turn log

490BC I think I have the barbarians under control so I revolt. 5 turns anarchy.Incidentally the first galley is ready just in time. It starts exploring towards the South of the Greek-Arabian island.

390BC We are now a happy republic. Feudalism in 6 turns. I start a palace pre-build in the FP city as a perparation for Leonardo's. It will take 50 turns to finish. I hope to be able to time it so that it will be ready by the time I research Military Tradition and then do a mass upgrade.

Originally I didn't plan to have any wars until I have sipahis, but the lack of luxuries is crippling. The Zulu have 2 luxuries I don't, so I start to move my troops to their border.

370BC I give away Republic to all four neighbors. I get 1 worker from the Arabs in exchange, and some gold from the others, but this is basically a gift to make sure that they change to Republic and a.) generate more gold for me to get and b.) decrease their ability to wage war. As expected all four of them immediately go to anarchy. I could have gotten Monotheism from the Greeks for Republic and Engineering but I don't want to give away any tech that's on the way to Military Tradition.

350BC I meet an English galley, and it turns out that they sold my contacts to the Vikings already. The English are surprisingly well developed, the only tech I could give them is Engineering. The Vikings are lame. I give them Republic for World Map and contact with French. The French are even more lame. The English though have not only all the techs, but also a bunch of gold. I don't want to give them Engineering, but amazingly, they give me all their money (276 gold + 2 gpt) for my World Map and contact with Carthage.

150BC I amassed about 10 horsemen and a couple of other units on the Zulu border by now so I decide to attack them. The very first attack generates a great leader. I don't think I've seen anything like this before. This is my first war, so far I was fighting only barbarians. Anyway, I use the leader to rush Sun-Tzu's in the Zulu city I just captured. I go through all the cities and sell all my barracks, except one where the city is going to finish a horseman next turn. I will sell that barracks next turn.

My only galley finds new, unsettled land. Looks like only a small island though.

Quick unit count: 10 workers, 2 settlers, 8 warriors, 4 archers, 1 spearman, 20 horseman, 1 galley. Number of warriors is way too high. I am going to move them to the low production cities and disband them. The spearman is an elite and is near the Zulu border so I keep him. Three of the archers are also neer the front, the fourth will be disbanded.

50BC Another leader appears. I don't really know what to do with him, eventually I decide to use him to rush Leonardo's and I switch production in the FP city to Colosseum. 84 shields wasted...

I sell Engineering to the Greeks for 20 gpt and 93 gold. Nobody else is willing to pay anything remotely reasonable. I gift Republic to the French.

90AD I capture a Zulu city surrounded by 3 swordsmen and an archer and I have no way to move in more troops than the injured horsemen that captured the city, so I am forced to make peace. The only problem with this is that I didn't caputre any luxuries. The good news is that I am pretty close, so once the road reachs the border (the Zulus didn't build any infrastructure), I can attack again and hook up wines quickly. Spices are still far away, would have to go through 2 cities and one of them is the Zulu capital. That's probably not going to happen until the sipahis arrive, ie. about 15 turns from now.

110AD I give Invention to the Greeks and Arabs for Monotheism, about 50 gpt and 150 gold total.

300AD Military Tradition is researched. I set science to 0% and make all the specialists tax collectors; I am making 241 now. Greece, Arabia and England now have Theology; I sell Monotheism to France and Scandinavia for 10 and 8 gold respectively so that they might aquire Theology and thus make it cheaper for me. I also need the gold to make sure I have at least 280 gold next turn and can upgrade 4 sipahis. To this effect I also sell Invention for 27 gold to the Carthaginians. I now have 54 gold.

Greece is willing to pay 35 gpt, 90 gold, and Theology for Gunpowder (Arabia and England would also pay smaller amounts) but musketmen would slow my upcoming conquest so I resist the temptation.

310AD The Greeks are not willing to give me all their money for Gunpowder any more. I seem to remember that this is an indication that they are about to research it. I also make an interesting discovery: the Greeks don't have any saltpeter and the Arabs have only one (even that is unconnected). So in the worst case the knowledge of Gunpowder will result in a few Arabian musketmen. The English and the French don't have any saltpeter, although there is one unclaimed source between their territories. It is however clear that by the time I get to them, they will have to knowledge of Gunpowder, one way or the other.

So I sell Gunpowder for 45 gpt, 130 gold, and Theology to Greece, 8 gpt and 30 gold to Arabia, and 10 gpt and 35 gold to England. I am now making 314 gpt and I was able to upgrade 7 horsemen to sipahi. I still have 67 horsemen; it would take over 15 turns to upgrade all of them at this rate so I hope the Golden Age will increase my income significantly.

I move a few citizens around to make sure I am making maximum money; now I am up to 320gpt. To be honest unit costs (118gpt) are killing me. I have 16 workers, I should join most of those into cities when the Zulu luxuries come online. I also have 2 archers, those will be disbanded as soon as the Zulu military is trimmed back sufficiently. Apart from that, there is not much I can do. Oh, capturing cities will also help with unit support. :)

320AD I attack the Zulu. Wines are online, max population is now 8 with Marketplace and 6 without. I start moving former specialists to work in size 6 cities and joining workers to cities with Marketplace. Now I am making 485 gpt. I will be able to upgrade 7 sipahis next turn; I have 10 on the front, three elites -- perfect match.

I lost 2 horsemen while attacking the Zulu as I didn't want to use sipahis for "easy" targets. This was probably a mistake. From now on I will attack only with sipahis.

330AD I capture the Zulu capital. The previous two cities didn't have any resisting citizens, this one has 4. Hopefully not for long. A culture flip would be ridiculous, nevertheless I park a few sipahis outside of the city.
I am now making 522 gpt. I want at least 15 sipahis before I attack Carthage, that's 2 turns.

350AD Spices are online. Pop limit is 11 with Marketplace and 7 without. I think unhappiness ceased to be the bottleneck for population growth. The two cities with granaries will finish marketplaces in 2 and 3 turns respecitvely. They will start cranking out workers then, which I will join to other cities.

360AD The campaign against the Zulu is progressing so well that I order back the reinforcements that I thought would be needed due to the original loss of horsemen. As a matter of fact they are willing to talk peace and give me their remote city on that island. I pass on this offer for now as I built a galley anyway just for this purpose. At the very least I want to capture all their cities except their capital before I negotiate.

I attack Carthage. I now own the Pyramids, this makes my previous remark about "cities with granaries" meaningless. The strategy from now on is to produce workers in size 6 cities that can't grow further due to lack of aqueduct.

England, Arabia, and Greece are getting quite rich. In two turns, when a previous gpt contract runs out, I will sell them Chemistry.

370AD I make peace with the Zulu to get their island city, and then I capture their last city in the same turn. The Zulu are gone.

380AD I attack the Arabs. All their cities on my continent are gone. I also land 10 sipahis on their island. Carthage is down to 1 city, will be gone next round.

I sell Chemistry to Greece and England. I am making 728 gpt now. I upgrade 12 more horsemen. Troop count: 13 workers, 11 horsemen, 6 galleys, 64 sipahis.

390AD One of the former Carthaginian cities deposed so Hannibal will live for another turn. I capture two cities on the Arab island. I do lose a few sipahis.

400AD I am making 500 gpt while researching Education at maximum speed. Looks like I will have Astronomy in 8 turns, and then the invasion of France can begin. I am not even sure if I can cut trhough the Arabs and Greeks so fast. I might need to tone down research. In any case, I order 5 galleys to move to the nearest point to France. In the meantime, I spend all my money on rushing libraries.

450AD My worries of not being able to cut through the Arabs and Greeks fast enough were unfounded. A stack of sipahi is waiting at the nearest point to France for the galleys to arrive. The galleys will be upgraded to caravels; for this reason I will have to rush a harbor in that Greek city.

470AD The Greeks are willing to pay 23 gpt and 105 gold for peace. I am tempted but I am afraid that their cities will flip back if I dont eliminate them. They seem to have learned from the Zulu history because they are not willing to give me their remote city.

480AD A Greek city flips, I recapture it. Greece is now down to 1 city, which is on an island far away. I make peace; they are still able to pay 35 gpt.

490AD 9 sipahis are sailing towards Avignon. I have 80 total, plus 6 horsemen. Most of them on the Greek island. I have 5 caravels near Avignon and one round takes 6 turns. Way too much. I am researching Navigation in the hopes that a Leader appears and I can build Magellan's. Not sure how this would happen though as I am at peace with everyone. I am thinking that a RoP rape would be the fastest way to get rid of France. I build an embassy. Maybe I should rush a few more caravels there instead of counting on a leader...

510AD 125 tiles to domination limit. I started to move slave workers to the (former) Greek costal cities so that I can disband them and rush a caravel for relatively cheap every turn. I think I will be able to move my entire army to France in about 8 turns.

570AD I am 79 tiles from domination and I am ready to attack the French. I will take at least 7 cities in the first wave but possibly 9. Another city will also expand in culture next turn. I need to decide whether I want to go for domination or conquest victory. Conquest will take at least another 5 turns as it will take that long to get to the last Greek city.

I decide to go for conquest in the hope for a higher Jason-score. I sign a RoP agreement with the English and the Vikings and break the same with the French. I capture all but 1 of their cities and raze many of them. A leader appears and helps to build Magellan's in Avignon.

600AD The two caravels reach the last Greek city. I sign a RoP agreement with the Greeks and unload 6 sipahi. On the English/Viking continent, I move approximately 80 sipahis into position. The placement is less than optimal but I think I should be able to take all English and Viking cities next turn.

610AD The Vikings declare war on us! At first I was impressed by this "artificially intelligent" move, but the truth is that they declare war on me in order to be able to capture a lame undefended city that I captured from the French and was too lazy to abandon. I don't think they attacked any of my units sitting in their territory, even though I saw several berserks earlier so they could have done some demage easily. Nevertheless, this unexpected event still almost messed up my plan, as now I had one more city to capture, but eventually I succeeded. A leader appears amidst the fight but he won't be needed.

I razed all cities except 2 for strategical purposes and 1 by accident. 11 tiles below domination limit. One city's borders will expand next turn but it will increase my territory by only 3-4 tiles. Shift+Enter...

620AD Conquest victory after 25 hours, Firaxis score 7281 points, Jason score 10950.

Domination in 520AD.

Ouch! Missing it by 2 turns sucks. ;)

Open, [ptw]1.29, scientific

link to AA report (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2235325&postcount=75)

I researched to Mil Trad first after entering the MA, and let the Sipahi trigger the GA by warring against the Zulu. I stuffed the conquered land with cities to make up for the staggering unit upkeep cost. I think I had a bit too many... :mischief:

In the golden age we researched all the way into the IA, in 780AD. I built Copernicus' in Sogut in 640AD and got a leader for Newton's on top of that in 700AD. The big mistake I made is building no courthouses. I didn't realise until later in the game that they are extremely influencial on the beaker output from the first and second ring cities.

In the picture you can see that the Babs were conquering Greece to my dismay. But, as was the case in other games, they build an island city that would be secure for the rest of the game. They were extremely rich and helped keeping research at max when the golden age was over. They got however the same tech as I did when I gifted them into the IA, Steam Power.

PTW - Open - Scientific

Ancient Ages Post (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2239174&postcount=76)

Still going 20K, I really slowed things down in the MA, They didn't end till 1060 AD.

Entering the MA I am in Republic, and will be till the end of the game.

Got all the contacts, and kept the English/French/Scandinavians isolated from the Greeks/Arabs for quite a while. All the while just using Sogut to build wonders.

First was Carthage. They had two cities on the land bridge, and I wanted to have access to attack Zulu when I chose. This was also a leader farming event, but none showed (IIRC). When done, they had only one city left.

After that my thought was to delay war till I had Siphi, but Zulu declared war on me while I was still building my horseman armies. I had disconnected iron to build a mass of upgradable horsies.
I immediately upgraded about 25 horses to knights and proceeded to head down the land bridge. While I was at it I decided to aquire the two luxuries they had that I didn't. I also razed Zimbabwe. (I did this because of possible culture conversion) I kept all other captured Zulu cities. I left them with about 6 cities.
During the war I would attack with elites till I got a leader, then pull the elites back and attack with veterans till the leader could get to Sogut to rush a wonder. I got two or three in this war, Sorry, but I can't read my notes.

After the Zulu war, I had a short war against Carthage. This was another leader farming exercise, I attacked with only elite knights till I got a leader on a longbow.

I got all the main wonders I wanted. The only one I wanted that I didn't get was Copernicus.

I hardly used the Siphi at all, as Zulu and Carthage were mostly dead. They did make for an entertaining 1 turn blitz, taking 5 of the 6 remaining zulu cities on the starting land mass.

MA Culture
30 AD: Cathedral
540 AD: Sistine Chapel
560 AD: University
810 AD: JS Bach
830 AD: Shakespeare's Theatre
930 AD: Adam Smith
1090 AD: Newton's (Actually just into the IA)

PTW 1.27, Open class

I want to give kudos to the designers of this game -- it had a number of unusual elements that made it a blast to play. I had a great time, even if things did get sloppy for a while. Okay, for a couple of whiles. :)

Bottom line: domination victory in 880 AD, still in the middle ages. In game score was 6470, Jason score was 10176.

War summary:
30 BC: declared on Carthage
Late 200s AD: Got a *defensive* leader from an elite horse playing zone defense near Sabratha. (Most of my cities were empty of defenders for most of the game, and the horses were nearly useless on city attack.) I rushed the FP in Carthage with it -- not something I'd planned for at all! See below.
320 AD: made temporary peace with Carthage, leaving them with three towns: Sabratha, whatever-the-heck that town was west of Leptis Magna, and Oea, up in the tundra. Stacked about 20 obsolete units in Leptis Magna to try to prevent flippage (that town I can't remember the name of was Carthage's new capital!) and sent my new knights down to Zululand. (Change of plans -- had originally intended to attack Arabia next. It was Arabia's lack of useful-to-me luxes vis-a-vis Zululand that changed my mind. Luxes were a major problem for me midgame.)
About 350 AD: Zululand sneak-attacked while I was fretting about needing to wait another 8 turns for our ROP to expire. Wheeee, thank you Shaka!
430 AD and 510 AD: Two more great leaders showed up and were used to rush Leo's (score!) and Sun Tzu's (meh. but at least no one else had it). Somewhere in here, Oea flipped to me, leaving Carthage with only two cities. Yet another thing that surprised the heck out of me, but shouldn't have, in this case, given Carthage's complete cultural pitiful-ness. They were even worse-off than me.
About 650 AD: Re-declared on Carthage. I had Sipahis by this point, and got my golden age with a victory down in Zululand. Cash-flow was awesome; I didn't even need to save up to do the upgrades, and I could do 4-turn research towards Astronomy and Navigation at no more than 30% science.
660 AD: Carthage dead, declared on Arabia.
720 AD: Bye-bye Zulus. Starting rushing libraries and settlers like mad to fill in the empty space.
730 AD: So long Arabia.
750 AD: Got all my ducks in a row and my Sipahi in position to cut luxes, and declared on Greece.
800 AD: Declared on England so I could go grab their little island to the west of Zululand. Started paying *slightly* more attention to homeland defense. This means I left my last four or five Sipahi on the home continent instead of sending them to the galleys. Or maybe they were caravels by then.
810 AD: Into the home stretch. Greece was dead, resisters were being supressed, libraries were being tossed up left and right, and settlers were settling. I was starting to run out of things to do with all my money. :) Caravels were loaded in southwestern Greece and eastern Zululand over the next couple of turns and set sail for France and England (the latter having to wait about a turn for navigation).
880 AD: Victory! Military advisor says my military consists of 49 Sipahi, about 20 caravels and one lonely warrior, who'd been hanging out on that inaccessible mountain range on the Carthage coast suppressing barbs for about 1000 years.

T'was a blast, truly. :)

Things I'm proud of myself for doing right:

Primarily the naval movement. I'm usually pretty pitiful in co-ordination of naval and land units. This time I had the right number of boats in the right place within a turn or two of the right times, although I can't really claim credit on getting navigation right when I did as opposed to ten turns earlier or later. I also prioritized the disconnecting of resources when attacking each opponent (except the Zulu, whose resources were fairly inaccessible -- there I prioritized getting luxes for myself) to a greater extent than I've done before, and found it very powerful, especially in the slow Carthage war. The Numids were so tough that if I'd had to face a counterattack with stronger units than archers and warriors, I'd have been in trouble. As it was, I could tromp about with impunity, and I could afford to leave even nearby cities completely empty, knowing they couldn't be reached.

Things that worked out well, but not through my own doing:
The great leaders, of course. As I mentioned in the previous thread, I completely forgot to build a Forbidden Palace the whole BC period. Once I finally remembered, I was already at war, and couldn't really afford to donate one of my most productive cities to it. I finally compromised on building it in Uskudar, a plains city east of Sogut with fairly low corruption, but it was ungodly slow -- would've taken about 20 turns. I then got the leader with Uskudar still five turns short of completion. The FP went in Carthage, which I'd captured maybe five or ten turns earlier, and gave me a very nice (about 30 or 40% IIRC) boost in cash & science. None of the Carthage cities had been starved (see aforementioned Carthage lack of bothersome culture), so they were able to be productive quite rapidly, particularly Carthage itself and Leptis Magna. And the cash-flow impact of that area by the end of the game was huge.

Things I had problems with:

Happiness/luxes during the Carthage war. It was a slog, and war weariness was pretty bad. I was able to trade for wines from Greece for one 20-turn cycle, but I forgot how the renegotiate deals thing worked, and lost them after that, never to get them back until I captured them myself. Zululand never did build a harbor or hook up the necessary roads to let me trade with them, Arabia had nothing I needed, and England didn't explore that last little strip of sea between them and Greece until after the Carthage war was over. (And even at that point I somehow missed the trading opportunity until it was too late and everything was already taken.) I was finally able to trade for the Vikings' two luxes very late in the game when their trading partners had been eliminated. I had more riots during the Carthage war than I'd like to think about; I also forgot about the manage-happiness option in the governor settings. Actually I forgot that there was a governor at all. :)

As I said up top, though -- very fun game. I loved how the map gave with one hand (food and lux right nearby at the start, plenty of iron, rivers for cash, Sipahi!) and took away with the other (horses miles away, Carthage and their Numids on a freaking hill ;) , the isthmus that I never found, the difficulty of getting productive coastal cities).

So kudos again to the designers, and major kudos to everyone who played so well. Some of the game descriptions are amazing.

Renata

I was still trying to continue the games without Palace moves and RoP abuse just to see is it indeed possible to get the decent score. I also tried to minimise resource connection-disconnection in this game. Actually, must say, it was OK. Sipahi are so powerful that they are not needed in extreme numbers on that difficulty level. Usually maximum 4 units per city is certianly enough. I also played very fast thanks to great MapStat utility in only two playing sessions with total time slightly over 13 hours iirc.

During the Ancient Age I expanded similar to like zamit3 described and then built libraries and marketplaces everywhere and researched to Military Tradition at 4-5 turn rate while accumulating some horsemen. I built Forbidden Palace in an RCP 6 city to north-west of Sogut and never moved neither Palace nor FP. Upgraded only few of horsemen to Sipahi around 100-150AD and attacked Carthage to trigger Golden Age. With this nice income boost, it was quite possible to upgrade 4-5 horsemen per turn. I then got a leader and rushed Leonardo's (hand-built Sun Tsu's). Since Carthage had Pyramids, this grealty boosted the growth. I then continued to advance against Zulu and researched to Navigation to trade for luxuries with France and Vikings. At the same time, Sipahi landed and attacked Arabia which has fallen in 3 turns and then attacked Greece. Zulu campain yeilded another leader which was used to rush Bach's again to increase the happiness. This allowed to irrigate all terrain in corrupt cities and get a relatively good score. The game was finished by attacking France a few turns after the Golden Age finished and Domination was triggered in 570AD yeilding a very decent Jason's score of slightly above 11K.

Overall, I think that Palace jump either free or with a leader can be completely ignored and still the result can be more or less OK. :)

Scientific Predator

I agree akots. Palace jump and massive ROP abuse gives advantages, but not necessarily huge ones. Partly it depends on the map and the difficulty level, but even in the worst cases it's not as if simply doing one of those things will magically turn a middle-of-the-road scorer into a top ten finisher.

That said, I don't like either of them. :)

Renata

I was still trying to continue the games without Palace moves and RoP abuse just to see is it indeed possible to get the decent score.


I didn't do this and I did win in 810 AD with a Firaxis score of 6999 & a Jason score of 10681.

I've never done the "Palace Junp".

And I just never thought of the RoP abuse, that would have saved maybe 5-10 turns.

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gif

Originally I didn't want to play this month, but the Ottoman UU, the Sipahi are such an awesome unit, so I had to try an early domination victory.

The goal: Fast research to military tradition and domination before 500 AD:

The start was OK, I researched republic in 1025BC immediately switched government and had only 3 turns of anarchy.
My free tech was bad luck, I got monotheism, no help at all. Greece got engineering, at least something. In 190 AD I researched military tradition and started the war against Carthago.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/Ronald_gotm35_1.JPG

With my golden age I could upgrade 3 horsemen to Sipahi per turn.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/Ronald_gotm35_2.JPG

It took my untill 330AD to have all upgraded.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/Ronald_gotm35_3.JPG

The wars itself went relatively uneventfull: Carthago, Zulu, Arabia and Greece fell without problems.
The last continent could not be reached safely because London Had built the Lighthouse, so I had to chain sail a few sipahis across, took London, everything else went very smoothly

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/Ronald_gotm35_4.JPG

At the end I missed my goal by 5 turns, but I am nevertheless quite happy with the result (If I had gotten feudalsim instead of monotheism, I would have made it)

Fun game

Ronald

PTW 1.27 Open

I played the ancient ages without a plan, but by the start of the middle ages I'd tentatively settled on taking the continent and then heading for diplomacy or space. I researched chivalry to help encourage myself to war earlier.

While preparing to go to war with Carthage, I get attacked by the Zulus. This goes nowhere and we quickly make peace. Then I declare on Carthage and get Zululand to agree to an alliance. It runs out while Carthage still has a few cities left, and I don't bother to renew it. Then, with 2 Carthaginian cities left, the Zulus attack. This looks like a huge disaster, as I have minimal forces in position to deal with them. I've just learned MT but I have few sipahi and the Zulu now have my horses. I stop playing for a long time.

When I finally get back to the game, I decide to let them have a couple of cities, reinforce a little farther back, and try to hold on until they will talk. This works, and they only take one other city. I pay 50 g for peace, finish wiping out Carthage, and build sipahi (and a couple of cities in spaces the Zulu have left empty) for 20 turns. After our peace agreement expires, I declare again. During this war I enter the industrial ages.

I was still trying to continue the games without Palace moves and RoP abuse just to see is it indeed possible to get the decent score
...
Overall, I think that Palace jump either free or with a leader can be completely ignored and still the result can be more or less OK. :)
I agree. I don't think Palace jumps are game altering, though they are stronger now that we know that the destination can be controlled with military units. It still I think requires a suitable map to make a Palace jump worthwhile. (Unless the Palace rank bug is used of course.) On this map I didn't try for one, didn't try hard and didn't see a good place to jump until it would no longer be a good thing to do.

ROP abuse is harder to quantify. I haven't used it in a very long time. I'm not sure if it could gain as much as 5 turns toward conquest or domination. I guess the gain depends on whether other Civs have met. If they haven't then it can be done more than once, perhaps gaining a few turns each time? Or is there a trick for doing it more than once even if they have met? I think I saw a note about that once.

ROP abuse is harder to quantify. I haven't used it in a very long time. I'm not sure if it could gain as much as 5 turns toward conquest or domination. I guess the gain depends on whether other Civs have met. If they haven't then it can be done more than once, perhaps gaining a few turns each time? Or is there a trick for doing it more than once even if they have met? I think I saw a note about that once.
There are lots of really fast ways to use the ROP abuse. In a pangea game (not a GOTM, I never ROP Abuse in GOTM), you can sign ROPs with all nations on the same turn. Then ROP abuse each as units come availiable. In a late game, this can even be done in a single turn. In the AA/MA you could probably use this to take out 3 or 4 opponents in a 20 turn sequence.

There is no way that I know of to get a ROP once contacted nations have communicatied your perfidy.

I have started using RoP abuse in GOTM because it is allowed and others use it. I believe that it can save my game play more than five turns quite easily. With enough units you can wipe out a whole AI civ in a single turn - position using your RoP, declare, and destroy. If you get all the cities, you don't even need to clean up all their spare units, unless there is a settler out there somewhere.

You can get the best results by signing RoP with your first target, then when ready to declare sign with the rest - so the twenty turns starts leter that way. I don't think that the AI's response to your perfidy is as significant as it should be. Even after your treachery, it is still sometimes possible to sign an RoP if the AI want a strategic resource or luxury enough, and your lands typically are larger than theirs by enough.

Of course, owing to the power of RoP abuse, you may not need more than 20 turns to finish up! I could understand if RoP abuse became a banned exploit in GOTM.

Or is there a trick for doing it more than once even if they have met?
I am not sure if this is the 'trick' you refer to, or even if it is 100% guaranteed, but if not it is very close to it! Signing an AI to an MA seems to all but guarantee that they will agree to an RoP even after witnessing an abuse of the agreement.

... ROP abuse is harder to quantify. I haven't used it in a very long time. I'm not sure if it could gain as much as 5 turns toward conquest or domination. ...

It is possible to gain more than 5 turns IMO.

In this particular game I also waited with 20 Sipahi on an former Arab-Greek border for a luxury deal with Greece to expire for 8 turns or even 9, don't remember exactly.

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gif [ptw] 1.27

Scientific from the start – Going for space

I ended up staying peaceful a lot longer than anticipated in this game. Upon entering the Middle Ages, I drew Engineering as my free tech. I gifted Greece into the Middle Ages and they drew Engineering as well. :sad:

I made a few unsuccessful suicide runs with galleys to try to gain contact with the last 3 civs, but gave up fairly quickly. The English actually bought contact with me in 110 BC, so I was able to trade for all contacts at that point.

Early in the Middle Ages, I was giving away a pile of techs for free to all of the civs except for the Arabs. I was hoping to encourage a skirmish between Greece and the Arabs to trigger their Golden Ages, but that didn’t happen until much later. I continued to give free techs to Greece, France and, to a lesser extent, Carthage and the Zulu throughout the Middle Ages. I was intent on keeping Greece and France strong, as they would have better potential than the other civs to give me GPT for my techs later in the game (since they were the only commercial civs in the game).

I completed Copernicus’ Observatory in Uskudar (in my first ring) in 440 AD. I focused on building libraries, universities and marketplaces in my first ring cities. All of this focus on building science paid off, as I was able to study the last 8 techs of the Middle Ages in 4 turns each. I also did this without a Forbidden Palace (still waiting to build it in either Carthage or Zulu territory) or a Golden Age.

My science progression was:
450 BC Engineering (free tech)
390 BC Learned Literature
250 BC Learned Monotheism
190 BC Traded for Feudalism from Zulu
170 BC Traded for Monarchy from Carthage
130 BC Learned Theology
10 BC Learned Education
130 AD Learned Astronomy; traded for Invention from Greece
210 AD Learned Music Theory (wanted more happiness from Bach’s)
270 AD Learned Banking; traded for Chivalry from Greece
310 AD Learned Economics; traded for Gunpowder from Carthage
350 AD Learned Chemistry
390 AD Learned Physics
430 AD Learned Magnetism
470 AD Learned Theory of Gravity
470 AD Traded Navigation from Greece
510 AD Learned Metallurgy; Enter Industrial Age

Carthage was my best research partner by far. In fact, two of the three techs I picked up from Greece were actually studied by Carthage and traded to the Greeks. I’m glad I decided not to kill them off too early.

I didn’t fight any wars at all, but I did pick up a Carthaginian city to a culture flip in 450 AD. My immediate plans for the Industrial Age were to continue with the fast tech pace. I decided to let the AI study Military Tradition for me, which they were certain to do.

My military at the dawn of the Industrial Age consisted of 9 knights, 6 horsemen, 15 warriors and one musket (which I got for free when the Carthaginian city flipped to me). I was building a significant number of knights in my core in anticipation of some early-IA bloodlust.

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gif [ptw] 1.27f

Whew!! I loaded the game up on the 9th, and just submitted it with maybe a half hour before the gate was closed for GOTM35!

Very short time to play, so I kept it extremely simple. I actually threw RCP out the Window, I never built any Granaries, and I never converted Governments staying in Despotism for the entire game! (In fact, I don't think I ever learned Monarchy and Republic, although all the other civs did, that survived that long, that is. :D ) I built Barracks in my key central cities (later the border cities would pop-rush Libraries, some Temples, to expand the cultural radius in my shot for Domination). As my core cities grew to 6, I'd pop out a Settler, otherwise I kept building Chariots, once I had Horses.

Plan was to pursue an early Horseman takeover. Ainwood made this complex by placing Carthage, Greeks and Zulus in close proximity; their UU's seemed designed to thwart Horsemen. Once I'd learned the Wheel and saw Horses adjacent to Carthage my path was set. I learned IronWorking, saw several sources including the one near Utica, built my cities in a line towards that source (and Carthage), upgraded several Warriors and the first war was on. I captured Carthage itself, razed Utica, and got two other cities during Peace negotiations in 1225 BC. Later on I started Round 2, and captured 3 more cities finally finishing Carthage around 50 AD, using primarily Swordsmen and some Chariots, finishing up with Horsemen.

Someone distant entered the MidAges in 430 BC; it wasn't any of the local crew. Walls and Chariots defended the one barb uprising near Carthage; I'd controlled barbs everywhere else. I entered the MidAges in 230 BC after contact from England allowed me to gain all contacts and buy or trade the rest of the way; HorsebackRiding was the last Tech I traded for and I had 40 Chariots and about 1500 Gold at this point. :)

I decided I'd take on the Greek-Arab continent next; I preferred the possible retreat from Hoplites than going toe to toe with the Zulu's Impis; also Zulu's are Militaristic so I'd probably see more Veteran Impi's, and the Greeks were likely to have Regular Hoplites. After Greeks and Arabs, I'd go after the French, English and Vikings. I figured I'd need to go after this continent regardless because I didn't think the first two continents would provide enough territory for a Domination Victory, and by the earlier argument, I'd still rather go against regular Pikemen then Veteran Impis. I'd need a big navy to bridge the gap between Greece and France, so I built a ton of coastal cities that would pop-rush Galleys at every opportunity. These Galleys would take a load of Horsemen across to the Greek-Arab continent, then head off to accumulate near the Greek capital, across the strait from France, for use later.

Greeks and Arabs had already gone at it, so the last Arab city was taken by my Horsemen in 50 AD, establishing a beachhead. Then I started to work on Greece. The Horsemen did a good job! Most Greek cities had two Regular Hoplites in them; I'd usually lose 1 Horsemen, have 1 or 2 retreat, and kill the Hoplites with the rest. I did suffer several flips, but lost few units in them (I tend to heal in the open ;) ) Greece was finally gone in 420 AD; this was after gaining a couple of towns through Peace negotiations, then reneging on the Peace deal - my first broken deal of the game! (There would be more)

To soften up the 3rd Continent, I declared war on England, then bought France and the Vikings into the War. They actually mopped England off the continent! I signed peace with England gaining one of her two cities on the Greek-Arab continet; a few turns later I broke the peace deal to capture her last city; England was gone right around 420 as well.

I knew I was going to break these two deals (and almost simultaneously), so I signed a ROP deal with France right before I sullied my reputation. I also decided (since I had learned Monotheism by 40 turn Minimum, and had gained Feudalism due to Peace treaty with England), to learn Chivalry (6 turns) and go after France with Knights. Good decision, since they had Musketeers! So I learned Chivalry, sent my Knights over by using the Galley Two-Step move, set up France and took 4 of the 5 first turn cities around 570 AD. I kept at Joan, upgrading Horsemen and shipping them over, until France was finally taken out (late 700's I believe). Several cities flipped during this time, so I had to retake quite a few; however, the large population of France made good pop-rushing material, so I'd short-rush to Archer, then use a 2nd pop-point to finish my Library, and culture was popping out all over all 3 continents.

Zulu's decided they wanted part of the action and declared War; I accommodated, and took a few of Shaka's northern most cities as well. And I launched my French Veterans at the Vikings as well. Domination Victory in 860 AD (same as DJMGator13's I believe), with a Jason score just over 10K. On to COTM5! (Soon as I catch my breath)