GOTM 42: Final Spoiler

We'll give this a try...

In this spoiler, the only requirement is that you have submitted your game - this is a requirement to read it or post in it.

Post whatever you like; discuss whatever you like. This is an opportunity to link all your previous spoilers with what you did after those, and to discuss the map, the strategy, the tactics etc.

1.29 [civ3mac] Finally Reaching 20K

First post is here. (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&postid= 2725729#post2725729) Ancient Age 4000BC - 210BC
Second post is here. (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&postid= 2726448#post2726448) Middle Ages 190BC - 1060 AD

Research
Research was full speed steam(7), industrialization(5), electricity(6), and rep parts(6) ; then we felt strong enough to expel the Greeks. Research sped up to give most techs in 4-5 turns, 6 turns again for computers beginning of Modern Times in 1510AD.

Greek War
After the 2nd kick, Alexander declared war and we organized a World War against him (including embargoes). First turn we captured Ephesus S of Rome with saltpeter, and pillaged the Greek coal with 2 explorers. Next we kill the Greek forces in former Carthage territory and capture the 3 towns they occupy. Meanwile the stupid AI moves their attack units from Greek homeland past our heavily defended border towns towards un-garrisoned cities, e.g. Thebes. And of course the units were killed after heavy bombardment. Great Leaders appeared and built Hoover, Intelligence Agency, Military Academy, army, army, Pentagon. In 1470AD the Greeks were gone from our continent, and soon after completely destroyed.

Other Continent Wars
In 1495 we declare on the Vikings and capture Oslo and some other cities with furs. 1560 silly Russia demands wines, we deny, Cathy declares, and we capture a couple of cities with dyes. Afterwards we declare on Keltoi to get the only silks source on the map. Last we destroy Aztecs, because the are weak and we want more Leaders. They appeared and hurried Cure for Cancer, Longevity, a cathedral in a local town, Apollo, Palace, SDI.

20k Veii
With us being the tech leader and Veii producing 100spt (after factory, plant) we of course got all remaining Wonders.

1280 Universal Suffrage
1330 Theory of Evolution
1340 Hoover
1355 Intelligence Agency
1365 Military Academy
1390 Wall Street
1415 Battlefield Medicine
1440 Pentagon
1535 SETI
1540 research lab
1590 Internet
1595 Cure for Cancer
1610 Longevity
1625 UN
1640 Apollo
1680 Manhattan
1685 Palace
1762 SDI

20K was finally reached in 1812AD.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/tao_gotm42_20K.jpg

Final remarks
It was an interesting game - as always with 20K less so towards the end as the end date was about fixed in 1625AD. Once we had railroads and rep parts, Greece stopped to be a problem. Missing some crucial Wonders (Hanging Gardens, Bach's) delayed Veii a lot. Conquering the islands this time was useless, since they hosted no essential resources. In the end, I had to abandon a couple of other continent cities to avoid passing domination limit.

I suffered a humiliating defeat, but I was happy I was not erased from existence! My first GOTM, first time I really used the Romans and first time on Emperor. I couldn’t believe the first time I saw a war between Greece and Egypt they both had Persian mercenaries. I hid behind my Legions. I was the Kuwait in this world (without the money or the oil) It was still cool and I’m looking forward to GOTM 43.

I, too, suffered a humilliating defeat. I sat in the middle and tried to survive and make a good run at a space victory. Greece cleaned out the Egyptians, and then the Carthagians. Meanwhile, the Vikings cleaned out their continent. In the end, there were just three of us. I missed some of the later wonders, like Smith's by only a few turns. I was all lined up for a Spaceship. Greece wins with a 100k cultural victory! Not surprising in retrospect. They were always ahead in tech.

I was conquered 3 turns into the industrial age. Greece had infantry and cavlary, plus a rail network. My forces consisted of 3 musketmen, 10 pikes, a cannon, and 15 medival infantry. It took Greece 3 turns to finish me off.

PTW open

ancient age (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2712696&postcount=7)
middle ages (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2729290&postcount=18)

We entered the IA in 1000AD being at war with Greece. After razing some Greek cities and recapturing Athens, who rejoined Greece twice, we make peace with Greece in 1060 getting 2 far away cities and 698 gold. The same year we attack Greece again and they're finally destroyed in 1100.

On the other continent there are only Vikings and Russians. I had allied the Russians against the Vikings, but shortly thereafter I betrayed the Russians by backing-out of the alliance. Now the other continent has been at peace again for some time. After my betrayel of the Russians the price for a new alliance will be considerable higher: I dow the Russians in 1120 and get the Vikings on my side for Steam Power plus 1150 gold. I raze the Russian towns on the Roman continent. It generates a MGL which I use for JS Bach.

Now it's time to throw the Carthagians off the continent. I dow them in 1160 and in 1240 they're off the continent. Egypt gets a cozy little town southwest of their former capitol. The Roman cities around it have culture so Egypts new home will eventually consist of 3 tiles: 1 land and 2 coast. The coast tiles will have privateers on them so the city can't grow. In 1250 I dow Egypt and capture their last native town (Byblos).

The Vikings are losing the war against Russia, so the Romans will cross the sea to rescue the Vikings ;) . Fighting on two fronts is disastrous for the Russians. In 1365 we capture DaveMcWorgborg :confused: and the Russians are no more. In 1370 we dow the Vikings and in 1390 Carthage. The Carthagians are destroyed in 1400 and the Vikings in 1425. The battle for the last Viking town featured rifleman for the first time. I'm afraid a little to late to save the day for the Vikings. :p

Only Julius C. and Cleo remain. In RL they were lovebirds, but in this game the relations are a bit troublesome :lol: It's time to start the elaborate task of milking the cow. In 1600AD we're at the domination limit having 160 cities. The population grows to some 1900 which is reached in the mid 1800's.

Cleo demands horses in 1545AD. After I explained that I can't possibly spare one for her, she dows. Egypt only has spearmen and her "empire" is surrounded by infantry, so no hostilities take place. Peace in 1725. Around 1794AD Egypt enters the Middle Ages :crazyeye: . Another demand for horse in 1810 and war again. In 1850 I attack Egypt to reduce the number of spearmen. Peace again in 1900. In 1959 Egypt demands iron and of course we're at war again.
Peace in 1991. Finally in 2031 again a demand for iron and then war. I attack again to reduce the spearmen.

After cash-rushing all the necessary improvements (harbour, market, aquaduct and sometimes hospital) I take up research again. I manage research up until future tech 5 in 2047.

2050 histographic victory firaxis 11142 jason 9303.

I don't know if it will bring me the cow: Shigella had in the comparable Chinese-GOTM 10 cities and 100 pop more and got a mid 12000 firaxis. We'll have to wait and see.

And here's a pic of the Roman and Egypt empires.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=&stc=1

PTW - Open.

AA spoiler (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2713880&postcount=17)
Middle Ages (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2726233&postcount=4)

After entering IA in 990AD, we deside to reasearch MT in fear of Greeks.
That shows how desperate we were in this game: researching optional tech when aiming for Diplo. But that's not all: we also bought Music Theory to snatch J.Bach and researched Economics to get a trading edge.

1040AD. We get MT and finally get ourselves some Cavalry with Aztecs' Horses.

After that we research Medicine in 9 turns and get SP from Russia and Nationalism from Vikings who managed to self-research it by that time.

The Lux deal with Carthage expired about that time, so we dow with about 12 Cavalry and 3 MI. I can see now that Byblos is not just a Horse town, it's a Coal town as well. I MUST have it back. And another coal is in the Carthagian jungle city in the midst of my territory. Both fell quickly, but after that the war dragged as Carthage got some Riflemen. I finally expanded deep into Carthage land, planting a city close to their capital. Got another leader, which I saved for Hoover Dam while prebuilding for Theory of Evolution.

One of their cities flipped back but that wasn't an important one. Oh, and I got another GL which I was going to save for UN.

After that it was smooth sailing with me having 4-5 turn research, getting ToE and Hoover in Thebes, trading to everybody and getting all the cash of the world to support me, and having cosy relations with everybody on the other continent.
I sold Nationalism and Rep.Parts cheap to weak nations over their so that they can withstand the Vikings pressure, and they did a good job of it. Even Celts who looked barely alive in MA were evening out.

Everything looked good and the victory seemed close, with Mot.Transp. in 4 turns and then just Flight left and then, with luck, gifting/trading Fission from Russia, GL for UN, and voila...

But that wasn't our fate.

1475AD. It was late night and I just missed it, forgot to look at the top of the screen, and next turn - do'h! Greeks invaded deep into my territory with Cavs/Infantry, and took 4 of my cities in one fell swoop (using MY railroads!!), including Thebes with all the wonders and FP!!! I almost gave up on the game but then looked closer and saw that Thebes was still guarded with some Greek red-lined Cavalry.

The geezers didn't even bother to put some infantry into it! Ok, I still had a chance. The next turn I took 3 cities back, Thebes and Neapolis had only Cavs, the next one had 3 Infantries whom I redlined with artillery and took with cavs, but the last one (Alexandria with Spices) was packed with Infantries and was now neatly inside their territory, so I gave up on that one.
I also got all the world to dow on Greece.

If Thebes had not fallen I might have finished the game during this war: everybody would vote for me and against Greece.
But unthinkable happened: FP in Thebes was lost! (It still had its factory and Hoover, though). I didn't know that small Wonders got destroyed when the city is captured, it's good I saw some posts about it on this forum or I might not have realized it.

I thought that drop in Research rate from 4 to 10 turns was due to Univs/libs lost in 4 major cities... But after reading those posts I saw that it was FP.

So I desided to use my GL to rush FP in Thebes, otherwise it would take too long to research to Fission. After that I would rush science improvements there and then prebuild for UN.

1550 AD - the war is over, all 20 turns of it. Thebes is back to its glory, research is back on track.

1565AD - enter Modern Age. Alexandria - the last of the taken cities, flips to us! Take that, you Greek bastards!

Gift Russia, trade Flight to Greece. Greece gets Fission, Russia - Ecology. neither trades. :(
Ok, Fission in 9 turns, Palace prebuild in Thebes - in 11 turns. Spy on Sparta: Sparta is building UN but it does 35spt against mine 74, and with no prebuild. They make me sad.

Vikings seems to be as large as Greeks, or larger. It really worries me - I want to go against Greece in UN and not Vikings, and certainly not against both.

1620AD - download MapStat (what a nice little program!), learn that Vikings and Greeks are both at about 18% of territory. Good. But Vikings are at 21.7% population while Greeks are at 21.3%, No good.

I can probably win against Vikings as easily as against Greeks (I need 3 votes and those are ready for me - Celts, Russia and Aztecs), but I have a special bone to pick with Greeks. I want to see them humiliated at UN. And I like the Red Beard: he started out as a bully but now he is a civilized fellow who learned to share and respect his neighbours.

So I boost 2 of my island cities (former Egyptian and Greek) with my Egyptian slaves, even fork out cash for aqueducts, evacuate everything and gift them to Greece. They are at 22.4% pop now. Good. Just keep it up for 3 more turns, will you, suckers?

1630AD. 1 turn till UN. Greeks managed to slip down to 21.9% of population but still leading on Vikings.
I go into MPP/RoP with everybody except Greece and Carthage and gift Fission to them, and they are all Gracious to me.

1635AD. UN gets built, votes are 5 for Ceasar, 1 for Alex and Carthage abstains. Victory is mine!
Firaxis: 3716.
Jason: 5818.

I'm pretty happy with the result considering that its my 2nd Diplo win ever.
I could never win the vote before I came here. And that's why:
1) I thought that Peace treaty is just the end of war. And that as soon as war ends you are free to dow again.
2) I thought that RoP abuse can only happen if you have RoP agreement with this country. And that if, say, Cavalry starts the turn outside enemy borders, and then jumps in and attacks, it's not RoP abuse.
Now I know better. :)

Thanks for the great game and and great tips. By the way, that's the 1st time I spied on the enemy cities, and also built workers/slaves out of captured cities till they are size 1: thanks for Tricksy's thread "And you think it's a bad start?".

Attachments: Aftermath of Greek sneak attack in1505AD, the final minimap.

Link to Spoiler 2 (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2734949&postcount=28)

Open, [ptw]
I finally decided to be a bull ;) in this game and go for domination. The precious warm season has slowly come to Sweden, so I gave up the idea of slower ways to win.

We entered the Industrial Age in 1060 AD, setting the slider on max research on Steam Power. The next turn we destroyed the Aztecs and I set luxury to 30% and science to 0%. Railroads are often very helpful in wars but I preferred gold to rush temples this time. I would also be too lazy to ship workers from the home continent.

I had signed an alliance with Celts and Russia against the Vikings way back in the early Middle Ages and as a result, Russia was big. We only had 22 cavalries on the other continent (6 of them in 2 armies) and we would start Russia's Golden Age as soon as a cossack won a battle. Many of our towns had concentrated on marketplaces, temples and cathedrals, so there were few reinforcements available instantly. I couldn't wait for big reinforcements because Russia was only 2 techs from the Industrial Age. I looked at the situation and came up with this solution:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Russiatactics.jpg

I would've loved to take Kiev with JS Bach's Cathedral but feared that the losses would be too great and the difficulty of holding on to Kiev would drain our ability to work towards domination. Instead, we could use these two towns and the Celtic territory as a buffer. An alliance with Celts was surprisingly cheap; all they required was some wines.

It may seem like a waste to keep those two armies fortified in towns, but it guaranteed no combat losses in those towns and no cossacks ever got passed them though several tried.

We were lucky not to get more than one flip against us during the war, and the two key towns with the armies didn't flip at all. I had made some preparations just in case by using workers as cannonfod... eh, I mean heroic civil defenders, to limit the damage (the worker building fortress on the hill was obviously misplaced and moved the next turn):

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/incaseofflip.jpg

We captured the last ex-Viking town of the Russian "empire" in 1180 AD. War weariness was high so with a final thrust we captured Kiev with the 2 guardian armies and signed for peace. In 1190 we had crawled over the domination limit.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/megalouend.jpg

Not a brilliant date, obviously, but pretty solid. I didn't settle Rome until 3750 BC which hampered my qsc period more than usual and I don't master archer rushing and early warfare as some people do. Getting a total of 10 great leaders helped, and I must say I miss the "omnipotent" leaders in ptw when I play Conquests.

I enjoyed the map very much; it wasn't that easy. It seems to me like early lack of food causes interesting variations between players. Too bad some of you guys didn't win this time, but you'll get 'em next time.

Timeline 1060 AD-1190 AD

1060 - Dragged myself into the INDUSTRIAL AGE. Aztecs is doomed next turn and I will be able to hurry Newton's in Thebes before that so as to get a chance for another leader. Another army will be vital before the attack on Russia and the subsequent acquisition of silks from Celts.

1070 - Hurried Newton's University. Got a new leader. Destroyed the Aztecs.

Decided on domination. So it's research off. A pretty worthless Newton's University is completed.

1090 - ROP rape on poor Catherine. Sorry, I just want to finish and I've already drawn up a generous pension for you. Allied Celts against Russia.Furs captured.

I took 2 "real" Russian towns for strategic reasons but will concentrate on the old Viking towns where resistance should be smaller. Armies guard both captured cities against cossacks, hopefully diverting cossacks from the Russian core area towards the Celts instead. But the flip risk is apparent.

1120 - Trajan appears. Forms 3rd army.

1130 - The tactics seems to be working well; the two original armies have hot been attacked. But this turn Russia landed some units in ex-Aztecs area. War weariness sets in. Hadrian appears as Norrköping is captured. He hurries colosseum.

1180 - All ex-Viking towns now captured. A final thrust against Kiev with the guarding armies gives us JS Bach's cathedral. With no flips, domination should ensue next turn.

1190 - Sure 'nuff.

I also finished -- sort of. I got to somewhere in the first half of the MA, wiped out Greece, did some attrition warfare against Carthage, when some nasty person decided to steal my computer. It's too bad, I had some nice plans for galleying cavalries across the ocean :)

On the bright side, my civ disk wasn't in the drive (very rare). So I'll try again next game.

Not really much to say, as I played terribly making mistake after mistake, but learning a lot though.I think the bad start + the very posh starts for the AI's made this a DG-level game, which I've never beaten, so at least I was able to finish.

I got a pic here of 2 Scandinavian tank armies as they were rolling over the aztecs. I thought that was kind of rare.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/gotm42b.gif

I got a pic here of 2 Scandinavian tank armies as they were rolling over the aztecs. I thought that was kind of rare.

Only in C3C do the AIs not use MGLs to build Armies.

Only in C3C do the AIs not use MGLs to build Armies.

That's too bad for them. I guess the AI's couldn't handle that much power :hammer: ;) .

Spoiler 2: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=2752749#post2752749

Open Mac, going for survival still.

Carthage is my next target, I look and see rifles. So this will take a little longer than I had hoped. They have 2 border cities, one is heavily fortified with about 6 rifles, so I station cannons and rifles and bomb it, and bypass this city. Their 2 northern cities on Greece's side of the water fall quickly (I am razing everything due to culture deficit) and 4 cities south of Carthage collapse. The one city with 6 rifles remains, as a size one and completely cut off.

I take all land south of Carthage including the peninsula to the west, finally destroy that lone city in the south and call for peace. More pointy stick research. I have become very shrewd with bartering the techs, my slider for taxes is almost always 0-10% and I make a healthy income. (Like trading electronics 2 turns before I finish Hoover.

After I get tanks, I build up to take my continent (I know I should have a long time ago, but this was the only way I could keep up research wise.) Russia still has a 2 tech lead on everyone, and them getting the UN or a space ship starts to worry me.

2 quick wars eliminate Greece from the game and Carthage from the continent. Somehow Carthage got a city next to the Aztecs, so they are not gone. In the last battle on my continent, I get a GL!! Guess what I'm building? THE UN! *Whew* That one avoided.

I trade some tech (can't remember which one) for about 350 GPT to all civs. Even after all this trading, they are still all furious with me. Good thing I got the UN. Russia has all cities built to the hilt - all native cities are 20+ pop, 2 cities on barb island are 11 and one captured from Aztecs is 11 as well.
I have now taken the point lead from the Vikings (who took all the Aztecs cities except for a lone settler (who then built in my territory on barb island) and ended up losing 5 cities back to Monty via culture flips!

So, I am behind in techs, Russia builds Manhatten Project, but Apollo program is not started. :rolleyes:
I could milk this for another 200+ years because my score cannot be matched by anyone. I could invade the other continent and go for dom. I really don't see winning by UN, I did space last GOTM. During this decision process, lightning strikes! Russia DoW's me! They are 2nd biggest pop so would be my opponent. So... I sign the whole world (sans Carthage) against them for such dastardly deeds. I also gift anyone not polite with me (I think it was just the celts) and 2 turns into the war, I hold a vote:
Me; Ceasar
Vikings: Ceasar
Celts: Ceasar
Carthage: Catherine
Russia: Catherine
Aztecs: Ceasar
!!!
I win! 1828 Diplo victory.
Firaxis score: 2984
Jason score: 4119

This was my first game on the Emperor level, so I am quite surprised how well I did. I must give credit to this website increasing my capabilities, as I only played on Warlord before finding this place.
:goodjob:

20K,
constantly in war against with Greece and there's a point when i was at war with everyone else. Greece was super reach (more than 25000gold) and allied everyone against poor but powerful me...
i was very very careless after gettting very frustrated with the progress against Greece and didn't realize that the AI naval units had destroyed all my costal cities' improvements until very late. to make it worse, my 20K city is along the coast and when i finally paid attention, it was down to pop5 and had only those wonders left while library and temple and others were all destroyed... finally achieved a pathetic 19** 20K .

Hello,

I lost. I suck. Oh well. Good job to everyone else. I really should study your stuff, so that I don't screw up again. I need to stick to Monarch or Regent games I think. I have played Civ since the start. I just cannot seem to master the higher levels. I am going to play GOTM 43 just to see how fast I can lose. Ha Ha Ha.

You guys rock!

For Vegasgustan: Megalou's personal top list of valuable tricks on the higher levels:

1. Learn which techs the AI don't like to research and get a monopoly. There is no need to ponder over the science rate: 100%, if it doesn't totally bankrupt you. In the upcoming GOTM 43 I think Mysticism, Polytheism and Literature are cool examples.

2. You will get a sizeable army faster if you use mass upgrade. For example, if you have lots of horsemen and gold, you can have an army of knights immediately when you research chivalry. That may mean the difference between attacking spearmen and musketmen.

3. You don't suck. Apparently you have played much more on lower levels and need some more experience on the higher ones.

4. Try a "settler gambit." This means that you build settlers and workers in the beginning and little else. Try to aim for at least 12 towns at 1000 BC if the terrain is good. You may be surprised to see how often the AI stay away from your towns even though you have a tiny military. A few strategically placed soldiers could be enough to withstand a surprise attack, but sometimes you just have to take a chance. Remember that the AI respect you more if you have a big territory, so that alone might deter them from attacking you.

5. Be a mathematician for a while and find out the most effective way for a town to produce settlers. The tiles with food bonuses are by far the most important tiles.

Because I made this list, I think I'll lose GOTM 43

Done it. Just submitted. Domination in 1410AD. Score: 6344. Jason: 8625. Sorry but i'm too tired to post a summary right now. It's morning after a night with no sleep.

Well done, tR1cKy.

Like you I was targeting conquest, and I'd eliminated all but the Aztecs and Russia. I backed off to domination when Russia forged ahead and researched Rep Parts, and I figured I didn't have enough time to build a bunch of arty to augment my cavalry to take her out, so I settled for killing off the Aztecs and taking their territory into the Roman empire. Not expecting a great score, but I haven't really been concentrating.

It was 1425 AD. I was working my way north turning blue territory red, and about 80 tiles and five or six turns from domination. Then in the wee small hours of the final night I wasn't paying attention and let my deals with Cath expire. She hadn't read the script I'd carefully prepared, where she loses. She promptly declared war in an inter-turn, her cossacks marched into half a dozen of my lightly-to-zero defended Keltic and Viking cities, and I was suddenly almost 200 tiles down with all my cavalry committed at the wrong end of the continent.

I could have regrouped and recovered, no doubt, but not in the time available before the submission deadline. :(

Uh, i'm sorry you didn't make it AlanH, this game really deserved to be completed. Too bad there's also real life around... :rolleyes:

My game too was struck hard by the lack of time, although not as hard as yours. Being just a few hours away from the deadline, i was forced to play hastily and without the proper planning. This game had to be won in 1250 or even before. Sadly, i was performing almost perfectly until the demise of Greece.

Here's my progression:

Lack of time seems to be a common desease in this community... :mischief:

I was in good pace this time after failing to submit Cotm11 when on Friday my computer started to break down :aargh: . Saturday I bought a new one, luckily the old harddrive was accepted and the Gotm42 save rescued. :banana:

But CivAssist doesn't work on my XP, so I had to do a blind flight to domination limit which I stumbled into in about 1530 AD. I got away with a 7400 Jason Score. I did not take any notes and won't have time for a spoiler this time, sorry.

After submitting I found out, that Mapstat also works great to check domination :eek: :blush:

This time I'll skip Cotm and directly go to Gotm43...

Time was an issue for me too, though I managed to hand in the game a full day before the deadline.

Menacing the Greeks
I had both Egypt and Carthage severly decimated at the advent of the MA, and they didn't survive long after that. Despite my ~20 legions, Greece was strong against me at this point. I started building horsemen and held myself tight, but it wasn't long before the Greeks declared on me. During the first war I took only the one town they had plopped down on the ruins of a Carthagian settlement next to the horses, but more importantly I eliminated their stack of Hoplites and swords that were making trouble in old Carthage (they were allied with me in the war) without too much trouble.
I went at 0 research, waiting for Chivalry. When it came, I bought it for lots of gpt from the Celts, and then promptly signed an alliance against them with Scandinavia. I upgraded ~15 horses to Knights and ROP raped the Greeks. This was in 430 AD. I started by letting a suicide horseman pillage their iron, and they never got it back. Despite the lack of any real counter attacks, progress was slow, and it wasn't until 700 AD, with a period of peace in between that I promptly broke, that Alex was off the mainland. During this time I had rushed a palace in the middle of former Greece, so those lands were now my most productive.
I was anxious to get the rest of the Greek towns on the islands as well before someone got to Navigation and could hear their stories of my barbaric treatment of them. Russia already had Astronomy... Still, shipping was slow, and it wasn't until 880 that I had them eradicated. No navigation, phew. :)

My only regret is that I had to raze Athens with the GLib. At least it gave me Chemistry and Theology. :)

Ragnar signs his own death warrant
Three turns before Greece was gone, Ragnar shows up and demands contact with them. I refuse of course, and he declares. He was already at war with Russia too.
At this point I was starting to feel the clock ticking, I'll blame that for some of the stupid stuff I did. I started researching towards MT at top speed (had Chem already), upgraded Knights to Cavs, and then researched Nav to start shipping them over. My armies (yeah, actually had two of those) and Cavs were shipped over from former Greece to the coast of Russia, then marched through Russia (ROP) to the Viking lands beyond. I could have just shipped them over from former Carthage, would have been so much faster, but it seems my captains still thought they would go over the edge of the world if they went that way... :crazyeye:

I had signed in everyone against the Vikings, and to my surprise the Aztecs pretty much rolled over the western parts of the continent, having loads of knights. I see they were an easy prey in most games, in mine they were one of three survivors, up to tech parity and with a really large army!
The Vikings were quickly exiled to a single town on the island south of their start. I got a fair share of Viking lands, including Nidaros with Sun Tzu's and Oslo with the Sixtine Chapel, but not enough to bring me domination. Someone else had to go, and that someone was clearly the Celts, being by far the weakest.

The final rush
I had an ROP agreement with the Celts, so I promptly moved all my troops into his lands. DoW, and in the first turn I took 5 of his 9 towns, Entremont flipped back, on the next turn I took it back and two more, and in the third turn of the war I took the last town and destroyed them. I had signed in the others to help me, only to stop the Celts from turning them on me. They were close to getting the last of the towns, but a stout musketman with 2hp left survived and let me have it. :D

When retaking Entremont I got my fifth and last GL. It was perfect, the final obstacle for me to reach domination was to fill in the gaps around the Celtic towns. With the leader I could rush Newton's in Entremont, despite the resistance there, which made its borders grow in only two turns, thus giving me 20 more tiles and over the edge.

Final result: Domination win in 1265 (I was aiming at before 1200, oh well).
Firaxis score: 6579
Jason score: 9268

Not what I had hoped for, but that just shows how much I've improved since my first GotM. That was GotM 38, China on Emperor with a great start compared to this, and there I got 5810 jason... Thanks CFC!! :goodjob:

Open [ptw] Domination Victory

I also had a Real Life flare up and barely had time to finish let alone post spoilers.

Here's a brief recap, from start to finish. Sorry for lack of details:
I ended up settling on the tile between the coast and lake, NW, N.
I built some warriors and a settle before going all barracks/archers. The archer stack took Thebes.
I settled enough towns to enable the FP, built it in Cumae N of the wines. I then Free Palace Jumped to Thebes and triggered my golden age. Greece had DOW on me in the middle of my routing of Egypt. I settled for peace with Egypt after taking the horses near Carthage and all but one Egyptian city. I stayed at war with Greece, triggering their GA. I MA'd Carthage to trigger their GA so we all spent most of our sheilds on extra units.

In the end Greece got weak, I got more leaders than I can count which enabled me to move my palace twice into Greek territory, ending up in Thermopolyae. (Flip suppression would have taken >46units without the palace). I also made three armys and rushed a few wonders.

Carthage started grabbing Greek Cities, no matter how much I tried to block their units. I was building horses almost exclusively and rushed to Military Tradition at max after buying Gun Powder. It would have been easy to DOW on Carthage and take all their new Greek territory. Then my Real Life got ugly and I opted to leave well enough alone and just focus on research and go for a Diplomatic Victory. It's a shame really because it would have been a really fun battle.

Peace with Greece got me a city on the Barb island. I continued to add cities there and got over 75% of it despite Carthage founded two cities there before I ever landed one unit. Barbs eventually were cleared out by my legions and knights. Russia took advantage and landed a settler a turn ahead of mine to steal one city site.

I built librarys and unis and capitalized on the commercial trait for extra gold. I bought Medicine and Nationalism (Greece and Russian free techs) much later as I researched Steam/Industrialization and Replaceable parts before the AI learned any more. They proceeded to work on Free artistry and Espionage, the only other techs the stupid AI could gain during my run to Fission. Most of the techs were at 4 turn rate. Still, with all of my minimum research in the first two ages, I ended up getting to the Modern Age at a rather pitiful 1430AD. EDIT2: Guess it wasn't that pitiful of a date for this map :blush:

Luck was on my side as both Greece and Russia got Fission as their freebie's and I bought it for 4000g+409gpt, converted my palace prebuild using the big picture and finished the UN the same turn I reached the Modern Age.

EDIT: I had eliminated Egypt so Greece was the only one mad at me. Aztecs had been eliminated by the vikings early on. I was thinking the whole time that the Vikings were going to be my opponent since they had taken all the Aztec land. But when the vote came through, Carthage had appearantly taken the lead. (Vikings were gassed fighting Celts and Russians.) No matter, Carthage voted fro themselves, Greece abstained and everyone else voted for me.

Jason score 7613.

I win! 1828 Diplo victory.
Firaxis score: 2984
Jason score: 4119


:eek: That is excruciatingly close to my score. I don't remember the Jason (once again, I downloaded the email to the work computer and can't get to it) but I think I was one turn later and had a few less Firaxis points. This is gonna be a close one for the shield.