COTM 12: First Spoiler

To qualify for this spoiler, you must have reached the middle-ages, and must have contact with all civs on the starting continent (4 others). You must also have the map of the majority of the starting continent (at least knowing the location of the capital city of each civ).

The starting location was particularly food-poor, which encouraged players to move before settling. How did you make this decision? What were the reasons for it (if indeed you did move, or if you didn't). How did you execute your initial expansion? What limited you? What did you do well, and what did you do poorly?

Also: Once you have posted your spoiler, be sure to head on over to the Hunting Tips (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=2747521#post2747521) thread and offer your wisdom to the conquest-class players.

I send the scout south. I spotted a hint of better land. The scout went further south and spotted the game forest. At the point I confirmed the direction for the settler. I didn't settle until 3750 BC when I could build Mecca as a settler factory. It will take forever to clear the forest, but 2 tiles with game will give us plenty of food. I was disappointed that all the forest cleared without bonus grassland.

The contacts were the Ottomans in 3650 BC, Korea in 3000 BC, and Russia in 2590 BC. I forget to record the contact date from France.

The huts gave Warrior Code, Masonry, The Wheel, and free worker far from home.

I don't even think I have seen France as Green before in a game.

I have decided this will be a very heavy war game, so I take Monarchy from Philosophy.

My big break is that France built the Pyramids. I will be able to get the accelerated growth at some point.

My QSC score was only 3,021. I only had 5 cities placed at the time. All that forest really slowed down city growth until cleared.

The ancient age ended at 710 BC.

Open 20k Attempt

Start

The starting position didn't really seem too bad to me. Not great, but there were enough good tiles for Mecca to produce Workers for my 20k city and then a slow Settler factory. I did move 1 SE to give my Scout a chance to find something better and close by. The Scout spotted a Game to the SE but it was quite a few tiles away so I just settled right there. Next turn the Scout revealed the second Game so maybe it would have been worth the moves but at the least it will make a very nice 20k site.

My initial builds were Scout, 3 Warriors (2 to escort the Settler and provide MP duty for Medina), Settler, Granary, 3 Workers, Barracks and then 7 Workers with a few scattered Warriors to allow Mecca to catch up in pop. Most of those Workers joined Medina right away and Medina was at pop 12 in 900bc.

Exploring

Scout1 headed south and met the Ottomans (3350bc) and the French (3000bc). Scout2 headed north and met the Koreans (2800bc) and the Russians (2110bc). The starting area looked a bit sad, but it did have the one very nice spot and several luxes scattered around so I think 20k was a decent choice for this game.

Goody Huts:
Bronze Working
Warrior
25g
Maps

All in all not that great, though that 25g came at a very nice time allowing me full research a lot longer than I had expected.

Research

2800bc - Alphabet (Korea)
2800bc - Masonry (Ottomans)
2630bc - Mysticism
1675bc - Writing
1000bc - Code of Laws
775bc - Philosophy
775bc - The Republic (free)
530bc - Literature
430bc - The Wheel (GL)
430bc - Warrior Code (GL)
430bc - Iron Working (GL)
430bc - Mathematics (GL)
430bc - Map Making (GL)
430bc - Horseback Riding (GL)
430bc - Polytheism (GL)
430bc - Monarchy (GL)
270bc - Construction (GL)
30ad - Currency (Korea)

I did very little trading for techs. I wanted to keep the tech pace slow, gaining techs just quickly enough to have Wonders to build. The Great Library was a top priority so I ignored all techs that didn't provide culture figuring I'd get those techs for free later on. I did need to make one late trade to get into the MA quickly when the Wonder Cascade wiped out the AA Wonders quicker than I anticipated. Luckily the two scientific civs provided me with an appropriate tech, but that's beyond this thread.

Medina

Medina, NY - a small town in upstate NY - was my hometown so it was kind of cool to be able to build up Arabia's Medina to be the envy of the world. :) As I mentioned above, Medina's site was very nice for 20k. Once to pop 12 Medina was producing 23 shields and 52 commerce, 20 and 45 after corruption in the early going.

Culture:
2310bc - Temple
1200bc - The Colossus
470bc - Great Library
410bc - Library
210bc - Mausoleum of Mausollos (not my 1st or even 2nd choice)
150bc - Colosseum

I'm pleased with this progress. I was hoping to get the Oracle but the other civs were pretty aggressive in their Wonder building.

Fully developed Medina:

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

[c3c] Open, NoAiPatrol=0

Opening Plays

I started off exploring 2 turns SE with my scout and worker. The grassland forest and river was enough to convince me to keep walking. The forest could be chopped to speed up a granary, and the grassland beneath would be much better than desert once improved. The river would speed up my Republic slingshot.

Finding game in the forest was a welcome bonus. :D

3800BC: Mecca founded

In the previous expansionist COTMs I attempted to speed up the tech rate by building lots of scouts and popping huts. But every time, the huts near the start had been removed and I quit in disgust. So I didn't bother building scouts this time.

I did a farmer's gambit instead, building only a granary and settlers in Mecca.

Worker moves:
Explore E,S,E,SE
Chop/irrigate game
Chop/irrigate second game
Chop/road SW forest
Road to silks

3500BC: Mecca size 2
3100BC: Granary
3050BC: Mecca size 3 (delayed growth to wait for granary)
2800BC: Buy the Ottomans' worker
2750BC: Settler
2550BC: Settler
2270BC: Settler...

Mecca was a 5-turn settler factory under Despotism, and 4-turn under Republic.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/davemcw_cotm12_bc2270.jpg



Research, Contacts, and Trading

Even though I didn't focus on huts, the Russians did. I gave Catherine all my techs, and she popped some new ones to give me.

3750BC: Contact Ottomans
Trade for Masonry
3400BC: Contact France
Trade for Alphabet
3150BC: Contact Russia
Trade for Warrior Code, Bronze Working
3050BC: Trade for Mysticism
2550BC: Contact Korea
Trade for The Wheel
2270BC: Writing
Trade for Horseback Riding
1990BC: Trade for Iron Working
1910BC: Trade for Mathematics
1750BC: Code of Laws
1675BC: Trade for Polytheism
1600BC: Philosophy, The Republic
1300BC: Currency
1125BC: Trade for Construction, Map Making
Enter Middle Ages


Military

While Mecca was at size 4-6 popping out settlers, my other cities stayed at size 1, alternating warriors and workers. After I switched to Republic, the first-ring cities built barracks and horsemen while the second-ring cities continued doing workers.

France did a sneak attack in 1830BC, but by then I had enough warriors to defend myself. Joan paid some gold for peace and the rest of the first 80 turns were quiet. I had 10 cities by 1000BC.

Solenoozerec. Class: Open.

Settlement
I move my scout onto a hill s e. This did not change my plans and I moved my settler se send worker ne to start mining oasis.

On a second turn I moved my settler further east on a hill and from that hill I've seen a game in a forest and incense on a hill. This changed my plans and I started moving towards that game.

I settled in 3850 5Xse from starting position (exactly at the same spot as DaveMcW) and I was very happy about it. Late in the game I discovered that there was a similar "dream land" northwest from starting position and I am wondering to see spoilers from those who settled there.

When we gained IW, I rushed a settler south to steal iron from Ottomans.

Research
I started researching on maximum towards republic or monarchy slingshot whichever come first.
First came republic and in 1450BC we became Republic.
I was very lucky with goody huts, I used only two scouts (originally planed to use three), they picked 5 huts and all of them brought techs, this greatly helped to accelerate research.


Warfare
In 1300BC Russia demanded writing. If they were close, I would give it to them, but they were very far and it was save to decline. Russia declared, war was very peaceful, the only event happened in this war was capturing Russian scout.
In 1100BV we signed a peace with Russians

In 1000 my country looked like this:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/SolCotm12_1000.jpg
In 925BC we researched Currency and entered MA.

Future plan is simple: Research towards Chivalry as fast as possible and then conquer the world.

Open, or "I'll take my pottery and like it, thank you very much." DaveMcW played open too? That HAS to be illegal, check the GOTM rules...

I settled one SE, really I dont know why. I wish I had settled in place. City2 was placed coastal by the game forests of course. I built 2 more scouts hoping, hoping, hoping for GH luck, which I felt I got even with the evil russians popping huts as well. I received the wheel, math, iron, and something else from them as well as some gold and one worker. They were most useful in revealing most of the starting landmass (so I could plan my eventual attack)before they were unheroically slayed by barbs.

I really wanted to settler factory a start for myself, and grabbed both the eastern and western double game forests quickly. The AIs were pushy and demanding though, and when Osman wanted to treat me like some runt kid a second time, I sent a horde of archers down to take back my lunch money Id given him (well if you count 5 as a "horde"). His other transgression was building on the southern silks, which I considered MY land. Silk city was soon mine, and the size 7 city north of his capital. He was pretty gassed for the rest of his short existence even though I gave him peace around 1150 BC.

Research was mysticism maxed out, trade for alphabet from the Frenchies, writing philo monarchy, revolt and then currency. All other techs were obtained by GH and trade. I entered the MA at 900 BC by trading currency for construction from France. France was the nearest leading techster (by design) and everyone else was 5 or 6 techs in the dust. No pikes for you Wang and Catherine!

1000 BC I had 7 cities and 24 pop, was building up horsemen, and doing the forbidden palace northwest in the double game cow town. I was originally undecided on victory condition but eventually settled on domination.

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

A right-click showed the nortwest coast to be fresh water. So the scout went n-nw and spots game on a river.
Looks like we are out for quite a nice hike.

Mecca is settled in 3800BC next to two games. Builds a scout then settler.
Science to pottery @ max.

cities
3050BC Medina
1950BC Damascus
1750BC Baghdad
1675BC Najran
1550BC Kufah
1500BC Basra
1375BC Khurasan
1275BC Anjar
1225BC Fustat
1075BC Aden

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/klarius_c12_0.jpg

11 towns, 30 pop
2 granaries, 1 barracks, 3 temples
4 settlers (some dancing with barbs), 10 workers, 2 slaves
3 warriors, 3 chariots, 3 curraghs

925BC Yamama and Muscat
850BC Mansura
750BC Bukhara
690BC Fez


science
3350 pottery traded from russia
3300 masonry from Ottomans
2800 TW researched, traded BW and WC
2470 mysticism from hut
2390 alphabet from france
2070 IW traded
1790 writing researched
1500 math and poly traded
1425 CoL researched
1275 philosophy->republic->revolt
1100 literature researched
900 currency researched, traded for construction
750 traded for MM
690 HBR researched (still nobody had it at that time)

I had quite some problems with barb galleys. The home continent is still not completely circled.
Also two suicide galleys sank. So no off continent contact.

Goal for this game is an Ansar driven conquest. No war up to now.

Open, or "I'll take my pottery and like it, thank you very much." DaveMcW played open too? That HAS to be illegal, check the GOTM rules...Not at all.

Predator is purely optional.

Open – looking forward to Ansar Warriors – considering spaceship (never tried before in civ3)

Scout went SW,W – saw incense but food appeared even worse so settled on spot.
4000BC Mecca – built scout, granary, settler
3450BC contact Ottomans - trade Masonry
3150BC contact French – trade Alphabet
2900BC research Wheel, get Warrior Code and Bronze in trades
2350BC Medina settled near horses (I suspect those settling in food rich area would have produced settler for 2nd city earlier and been far ahead for future cities)
2030BC contact Russians, Research Writing (don’t trade)
1575BC Damascus by Silks to restrict growth Ottomans
1475BC Research CoL
1250BC Baghdad founded by furs –> 3 lux
1275BC Research Philosophy, take Rep for free
1250BC contact Korea – trade around for Iron, Mysticism, Poly, Horseback and gold. Est all embassies
1175BC become republic, Narjan founded
1150BC Trade for Math, Russia demands Math – I refuse -> DOW.
(Russia and Ottomans show as 4 times my size on power graph -> ally Ottermans)
1075BC Horsemen capture Smolensk on incense to my SW – horsemen then hold off warriors and archers
800BC Kufah founded near wines
750BC Research Lit
630BC Peace with Russia and gain Mapmaking (after alliance expired)
590BC Basra founded on east coast to build galley to found city on iron island as Ottermans and Koreans have only iron on continent (and both are much stronger than me)
550BC Research Currency
330BC Research Construction -> enter middle ages

Note re goody huts / scouts – had poor luck with scouts – first one destroyed (managed to pop 1 worker) when finished turn in 3450BC next to barbarian ? popped by French, 2nd one lasted long enough to explore a little of Russia then fled home on DOW to be sent NE – destroyed by barbarian sitting on tile 6 NE of start pos so didn’t explore Korea until sent archer! This second scout only popped 1 GH -> conscript who was shortly after killed by barbarians!

Goal now is rush to chivalry, connect up iron and upgrade my horses (building as fast as I can) to go spread the arab influence.

PS. Can someone please tell me how to attach screenshots (I’ve just spent ½ hr trawling through the site looking)

open

Send the scout 2 SW to see if there are any floodplains: there aren't. Should I move SE with the settler or settle in place. After a long debate between me, myself and I, I settled in place. Builds were scout, granary and setller.

I wasn't quite sure about the victorygoal to pursue: I did a 20K three times in a row and still no award in sight, so maybe a fourth attempt? :rolleyes: When the scout discovered the wonderland to the NW, I definitely decided in favour for a 20K. Out of the nearby hut the scout popped a worker who could immediately start on improving the 20K-site. The RNG-gods must favour this 20K attempt too. :D

Medina founded in 2550BC and starts work on the temple. I'm doing a Monarchy slingshot, beacuse Monarchy holds a useful wonder and us being religious means we can switch gouverment any time at the cost of just 1 turn.

The distance between Mecca (capitol) and Medina (20K) gives imo to much corruption, so I abandon my plan to build a FP in Medina but jump the palace instead. Around 130BC we enter the MA. 20K-builds upon that point:
2350 temple
1600 palace
1000 Oracle
875 library
710 Mausoleum of Mausollos
430 Hanging Gardens
110 Great Library

I had to switch the building of the Great Library to Hanging Gardens, because some AI switch their Pyramids-builds to the HG. No AI had Literature before I build the Great Library.

To illustrate how good the 20K site was:

In the first picture Medina and Damascus can be seen at the 20K-site

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Redbad_cotm12_1.JPG

While Medina does a very useful 25 shields at size 12,

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Redbad_cotm12_2.JPG

Damascus can do a 4-turn settlerfactory as well.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Redbad_cotm12_3.JPG

PS. Can someone please tell me how to attach screenshots (I’ve just spent ½ hr trawling through the site looking)

You can look at post #7 in the first GOTM41 spoiler

Open.

Entered the MA in 330BC (one admission... I didn't know where Seoul was at that point, but I had the full coastline and a rough idea as to where it was).

My goal was going to be Conquest or Domination. After failing to taste the water to the North - it took me ages to discover it was a lake - I headed off southeast.

I settled in 3850BC, three tiles to the SE, with just one Game in the radius. Again, I found the second one later, but I had enough for a 6-turn military/Settler factory in Despotism, and a 4-turn factory in Monarchy (and later Republic).

My tiny empire @ 1000BC:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/COTM12_eldar_1000BC.jpg
6 cities, Horses connected and my first Horsemen being built.

At the end of 1300BC, I learned Philosophy, and as I traded for Polytheism via the Big Picture, I took Monarchy as my free tech and revolted right away. With small, undeveloped, towns at that time, and militaristic expansion plans, Republic might've been a bit expensive - and being religious, a swap later would not cost me too much in terms of Anarchy.

In 450BC, I declared war on the Ottomans, starting with a force of around half a dozen Horsemen. By the time I entered the Middle Ages in 330BC, I'd captured Istanbul as well. Their Iron city is on a hill and I've ignored it for the time being.

My future plans were simple: just keep going. France, then Russia, then Korea, with whatever Horse-based units I had available at the time. Then invade the other continent, wherever it was.

Contacts:
3600BC - Ottomans
3150BC - France (green doesn't really suit Joanie, though)
2950BC - Russia
1790BC - Korea (I lost all 3 of my scouts to Barbarians before I got round to investigating E of the choke)

Techs:
4000BC: Pottery, CB
3600BC: BW (trade with Ottomans)
3200BC: Warrior Code (hut)
3150BC: Masonry, Alphabet (trade with France)
2850BC: Mysticism (hut)
2350BC: The Wheel (trade with Russia)
2070BC: Writing (research)
1790BC: Iron Working (trade with Korea)
1475BC: CoL (research)
1275BC: Philosophy (research), Map Making, Polytheism (both trades), Monarchy (free tech)
1150BC: Horseback Riding (trade)
1050BC: Literature (research)
975BC: Maths (trade with Korea)
?BC: Currency (research)
330BC: Construction (research)

PS. Can someone please tell me how to attach screenshots (I’ve just spent ½ hr trawling through the site looking)

Sure.

YOu have two options. When you are posting a post, you can use the "manage attachments" button to upload a single picture. One picture will get displayed in the post - any more will get shown as attachments.

The other option is to scroll to the bottom of the screen and use the 'upload file' button. Upload a file, then follwo the instructions to find its path. Once you have the path to the file, you can display it in a post using the http://pathtoyourimage tags.

Hello!!!
Open:
Hello. This thread is only for reporting your Ancient Age progress. Please do not post any details of your later game until the appropriate spoiler threads are opened

Open
Goal: domination in a very short amount of playing time.
(Reports of success or lack thereof will have to wait until next spoiler.)
(I'm also reporting from memory and the 1000 BC save here.)

I settled in place, built several explorers, and then a settler as soon as Mecca was big enough. It only built at most one more settler (I don't recall), and then became a 4-turn spear factory for a while, and pumped out only military the rest of the game.

Medina settled NW between the deer and incense, and Damascus just south of the cow. The two of them both became 5 or 6 turn settler factories for quite a while until I started to use the pointy-stick method of expanding my empire.

I had a brief war with the Russians around 3000 BC when they settled a town without defense too close to where I wanted to settle Damascus. IIRRC, the capture of that town was the only action the war saw.

I beelined to monarchy (myst, poly, writing, philosophy), slingshotting it in about 1050 BC and immediately switching governments. I got warrior code from a goody hut and traded for the other first and second tier techs.

At 1000 BC I had
8 towns
2 settlers
2 granaries
all required AA techs except MM, COL, currency, and construction (plus Monarchy)
silks, incense, and horses hooked up

Osman attacked near the end of the AA, and the great Arab expansion began.

"Not at all. Predator is purely optional."

Um... I realize this Ainwood, I was attempting to try this humor thing I keep hearing about... No worries.

Predator

4000 - Settler SE. Misclicked the scout SE, losing a movement point (!)

3950 - River visible south. Settler SE.

3900 - Scout sees game...s! Is the incense on the river?Probably not. But I'll settle Mecca on it anyway.

3800 - Silks visible south. Mecca founded. Worker moves into Mecca. He cannot start cutting forest now if we want to build a scout, and we do. Researching Bronze at 0%.

3650 - Ottomans contacted. Sold Ceremonmial Burial for 10 gold.

3400 - Learned Pottery from hut. Ottoman won't offer anything for it. Furs spotted. Building granary.

3200 - Coast found W, finally.

3150 - Popped map, showing another hut.

3100 - Found Paris, guarded by a warrior.
Traded Alphabet + French worker for Pottery, Ceremonial Burial and 80 gold.
Traded Warrior code and Masonry from Ottomans for Alphabet and Pottery.
Traded Bronze Working + 90 gold from France for Warrior Code. Researching writing at full speed.

3050 - eqworker shaves one turn off cutting 2nd game forest.

3000 - Popped worker.

2800 - Granary finished. Building settler.

2630 - Popped The Wheel.

2590 - First settler produced. Building quick warrior. (Chop finished next turn).

2510 - Novgorod (Russia) found.
Traded Mysticism from Ottomans for The Wheel.
Sold Ceremonial Burial to Russia for 10 gold.

2390 - Medina founded on silks.

2350 - Mecca builds second settler. We're cutting down all (?) forest to let production keep pace with food and, hopefully, revealing a BG or two.

2270 - A scout is slain. Writing finished. Researching Code of Laws.

2230 - Bought French worker for Mysticism.

2070 - Met Korea. They are way behind. Traded Ceremonial Burial to them for 85 gold. Just realized I'm thinking Round City Placement. Do disturb my circles!

1990 - Traded Iron Working and 25 gold from Korea for Mysticism.

1750 - Russia knows Horseback Riding.

1725 - Code of Laws researched. No one else even has Writing.

1700 - Ottomans know Mathematics.

1675 - Ottomans demand writing and get it.

1650 - Traded Math from Ottomans for Code of Laws.

1575 - Philosophy & free Republic. Instant revolt.

1525 - Republic. Unit support is 10 gold. Disbanded a scout.

1500 - Bought Ottoman worker for Philosophy.

Mecca is a 4-turn settler factory at size 4.6-6.6. Needs 10% luxury during 75% of the turns.

1450 - Sold Math to France for 25 gold. Learned Polytheism.

1400 - Bought French worker for writing.

1150 - Currency researched. Studying Construction at minimum speed to save cash.

1100 - Traded Map Making from Korea, who only knows me because Baghdad blocks the choke point. First Barracks completed. Building chariot of course.

1075 - First galley completed.

1000 BC - Some QSC facts:

10 towns
2 settlers
9 workers, 4 eqworkers
1 scout
4 warriors
1 galley
308 gold
1 temple, 1 granary, 1 or 2 barracks.
Lacking Construction, Horseback Riding, Literature, Monarchy.

975 - Lisbon completes Colossus.

950 - Sold Map Making to Ottomans for 117 gold. Mistake. Should have given it to them right away to increase the chance of them researching Construction.

925 - Wines connected.

850 - Bought Horseback Riding and 2 workers from Ottomans for Currency, after much consideration.

775 - Island discovered N of Korea.

750 - Hurried settler in Mecca to avoid luxury tax every 4 turns.

630 - Research resumed. Construction 4 turns.
Trading furs from Ottomans.

570 - Russia knows Construction.
Traded Construction +56 gold from Russia for Code of Laws.

The predator handicap hasn't hurt me yet. Even the barb fights have gone well.

[c3c] v1.22
http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/TreasureSurrender.gif

Shalom!

My people unfortunately only came out of the Dark Ages in 260AD when our scolars decided it was worth chronicalling the history of my people. No written history exists beyond this point, however, a rich oral tradition has persisted many details of our past.

The Arabs wandered in the desert for a while, until our scouts located a greener, more pleasant land to the south east. Mecca was founded thousands of years ago on the edge of an abundant forest within a short distance of a large lake. However, the Arabs were not happy. There was a division amongst the people as some of our number thought that the land looked better to the North West.

Settlers left mecca once more accross the desert to the North East and established Medina and Baghdad.

The people of Mecca were proven right to settle in the South West when Iron working was developed and Iron was sighted in the hills. Settlers rushed to build a frontier town and claim the iron for Allah. However, the Ottoman empire disliked the upstart arabs, and founded two towns, Konya and Edrine. Konya was placed between Mecca and Baghdad, Edrine between Mecca and Damascas. Uskudar was placed on the nearest coastline, blocking access to the seas.

These were worrying times. The Arab people feared that Mecca would lose the Iron to Edrine and Izmit, whilst Uskudar took the horses and Konya completed the strangle hold upon Arabia. However, awed by the wise sages of the Arabs, Edrine schismed from the Otoman empire to become an Arab town of it's own free will. Iron and Silks were ensured for years to come.

However, the French and Russians were extorting gold from the Arabs, and the Ottomans were pushing at our borders. War was declared by the Ottomans, and Arabia swiftly paniced to build a military in our previously peaceful empire.

Although the Ottoman's and clearly been preparing for some time, the Iron in Arabia meant their attacks were soon reversed. Uskudar and Izmit fell to the arabs. Uskudar fell in 260AD. Trading with the french and russians brought Construction and the Republic. Which brought revolution and anarchy to the streets of our fair cities. However, our military was strong compared to that of Ottoman, comparible with the french and only outmatched by the Russians. We had the only Iron on the continent. Kafa, an Ottomanian village on a small island easily visible from Izmit also had Iron, but no Ottomanian towns had harbours.

In 270AD a sneak attack from an Ottoman spearman who we had not noticed deep inside our borders took out a party of workers, and set off to disruput our supply of horses. Civil disorder continuing in Medina really meant that the desert road to Bhagdad must be completed, however, as it was so close to the Ottoman city of Konya, work could not continue. Uskudar began construction of a gally to seek out other civilisations to trade for knowledge.

Then a blow in 290AD, the wedge between Mecca and Baghdad widdened as the French settled Amiens in the remaining narrow gap.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/themike_cotm12_290ad.png

In 310AD, peace was found with the Ottomans in exchange for them teaching us Construction and Literature. This gave us time to build up a better military, improve our lands that had suffered neglect during the war and launched us into the Middle Ages.

We looked around and saw that our empire was small. There were no new areas to settle. The French had archers, spearmen and settlers roaming the hills looking for new cities. The russians to the north also had many archers running throught the hills to the north.



The starting location was particularly food-poor, which encouraged players to move before settling. How did you make this decision?


Having read the pre-game thread, I thought it best to move. I was torn. I thought North myself, but, enough great players said south I followed their advice. Initially, I regretted this once I found slightly better lands to the north, but then the fact it meant I got the only Iron so far on the continent made me change my mind there.


How did you execute your initial expansion? What limited you?


I settled one new town near mecca to the south, then my explorers found the good land to the north, so I founded Baghdad and the other town up there, hoping for something better. Then I found the iron and headed south again. Bit of a can't make your mind up. This has ended up with a small, trapped and splintered empire that didn't expand fast enough. Of course the AI has expanded and left me no room. I've sent a settler up to Korea on a galley to try and improve this.


What did you do well, and what did you do poorly?


Control of the Iron, two horses and a couple of luxuries were done well. Everything else sucked.

Come help me at My Hunting Tips Post (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2748699&postcount=5)

I began my game a bit worried about the outcome. I generally struggle in the ancient age and always end up far behind in either land, science culture or all three.

At first, I couldn't decide where to settle at first, but then I moved 1 N, thinking that I could benefit from the coast for exploration. It took quite a while for me to realize what was going on and why I couldn't build boats, but by then I was over my initial bafflement.

I quickly decided on conquest or domination for this game seeing as I couldn't find a good location fast enough for 20k and I instead found the horses right nearby. Now it was just a matter of deciding who to fight first. Well, as I was thinking of going for the luxuries of the Ottoman, Russia demands, I refuse, and they declare in 1175. I had no problem fighting them, and as I discovered their and I was quite pleased with myself. I make a beeline for Moscow and out of complete coincidence, they finish building the pyramids around 2 turns before my horsemen capture it. It was quite a surprise, and after the fight at moscow, all the other cities in the area fell with minimal casualties.

by 130 BC I was propelled into the MA, with a good head start in technology a powerful army and half of Russia which nearly doubled my territory. Quite frankly, this is probably the best I've ever done in the ancient age.

I was actually so pleased with my progress that I finished the game that same night, but the rest is for another spoiler. :)

Ugh! I have a write up of the first age, but its at work. I cant post it until Monday.

[c3c] Predator, barb fix

I'm going to try the 20k this month. I noticed that all the water is lake so I could settle in place or head in any direction. I decided to scout a bit before settling. Scout heads 2S, and finds some plains forest, but no more water. Worker heads NW and finds incense and some grass forest. I like the looks of grass over plains so settler heads NW toward the grass. Checking F10 shows FOUR scientific civs. I'm wondering if 20k is a good idea with fast science, but decide to try anyway. Scout 2W finds some more lake, whil the settler heads W toward the grass, and finds a deer off to the north, worker follows. Looks like we're walking a bit more. Settler and worker NW, finding the 2nd deer. Settler heads one more turn N to get next to the deer, while worker starts roading the incense. Mecca finally founded in 3800BC and start Pottery at 100%.

Mecca builds scout, scout, granary, settler (2550BC), worker.

Settler founds Medina w of cow (2N,NW of Mecca). This will be 20k city.

Medina builds:
2110BC Temple
1000BC Pyramids
900BC Library
825BC Colosseum (partially rushed with courthouse)
630BC Forbidden Palace

Enter Middle Ages, building Great Library in Medina.

Contacts:
3500BC France
3300BC Russia
3100BC Ottomans
1500BC Korea

Science:
3300BC Pottery
3150BC Masonry from Russia (to allow Palace prebuild)
2950BC Mysticism from hut
2630BC Wheel
2390BC Iron Working from Otto
2110BC Math from hut
1950BC Writing
1600BC Code of Laws
1450BC Philosophy
1450BC Republic free
1300BC Literature
1300BC Polytheism from France
1125BC Map Making from Korea
1050BC Construction (this was a mistake, I should have gone for currency)
At this point I turn off research and build cash. Restart science in 710BC
610BC Currency entering MA

minimap at 610BC:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=88377&stc=1

Medina at 610bc:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=88376&stc=1

Mecca at 610bc (4 turn settler or 2 turn worker factory)
http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=88375&stc=1

France seemed to be plagued by barbs as they grew extremely slowly. I helped keep them slow by buying workers every chance I could. I ended up buying 4 from them. I did my best to expand in every direction, blocking the choke point to Korea. Building the Pyramids was a decision aimed at growing my empire more quickly. I could have taken the Great Library for the extra culture, but I was worried that the Pyramids might end up on the other continent. I think I should have gone for Currency and traded for Construction, and even then I probably should have not turned off science for so long after getting Construction. The extra money was useful to help rush builds and for later upgrades.

@Redbad: I've compared my 20k culture to yours at 110BC using AlanH's 20k culture calc and it looks like you are at 776 and I am at 760. Pretty close. We'll have to see where we are at the next spoiler.

@AlanH: I had to use the FP to put Redbad's Mausoleum in as its not listed in the calculator. I also noticed a shield increase for Shakespeare I think it was. Do you have a C3C version of the calculator?

@Xevious

I think Alan's calculator only supports vanilla because he uses the a Mac. I myself use the one from SirPleb.
You can find it here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=1140948&postcount=1)

I like it that we are so close. I've finished the game and am anxious too to see how our games evolve. Last time I stayed close to Ionimplant until the Industrial Ages.

In the question to AlanH, I hope you meant the Mausoleum of Mausollos and not really my mausoleum ;) .

I think Alan's calculator only supports vanilla because he uses the a Mac.

Not strictly true. it supports PtW as well. My lack of a copy of C3C has nothing to do with the fact that I haven't added C3C wonders to the spreadsheet. I've never played a 20K game, so the effort was purely for technical interest, but I created it quite a while before we started supporting C3C in GOTM.

I think I know enough to add the C3C extras to it, but it's a long time since I produced it, and I've never quite got around to re-learning how it works to make the changes.

Open. Barbs fixed.

Opening plays

After failing at gotm42 i decided to go for a different approach. Rather than go wandering I settled on the spot and decided to pump out units. I then made my first mistake by building barracks first - the extra units would have been more usefull for exploring and MP. Once the Rax were built I switched to settler as i felt it was important to get at least one out ASAP. After that Mecca built archers and warriors ready to rush our nearest rival (I think others doing this on GOTM42 was the major reason for their success). The settler wandered to the NW towards the river with 2 game and a cow. This was to be the settler factory. In 1350 BC i had amassed a stack of archers on the russian border, and declared on them. In 1325bc I destroyed Yakateringburg as it was only size 1, and headed towards moscow. I had a bit of luck with the RNG when russia counter attacked a warrior who was escorting a settler - the warrior was redlined, but both survived. In 1125 Russia was prepared to give me peace and smolaresk, which i accepted as I wanted to regroup my forces, plus it ended Russia's expansion. At 1000bc I had 6 towns, 1 settler, 7 archers, 4 spears and 3 warriors (barbs had killed the scout), and things looked like this

dhttp://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/arabqsc.JPG

I continued to build my military up ready to attack russia again, and had a spot of luck when they demanded tribute and declared following my refusal. In 590 BC I took Moscow and the pyramids, and abandoned Mecca (after popping a settler from it) the turn after hoping to palace jump to Moscow. Instead the Palace went to medina. Never mind, Russia now gave me an additional city for peace and I was now the most powerful on the continent. I took 2 further cities off them when the treaty ran out, and entered the MA at 50bc ready to finish them off.

dhttp://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/arabcotmendofaa.JPG

I never realised archers could be so good.

I loathe exp civs. I just can't seem to do well with GH hunting. This game I got 1 tech, 25 gold, a useless warrior (which I disbanded) and maps, twice none the less :lol:
That came from 3 scouts...
Also, I decided to move scout S S in 4000 bc. 3950 it went S E, so I didn't spot the game and settled SE of the start. Medina was later founded as my 4-turn settler factory.
I didn't do too badly in the QSC though. Finished the slingshot and had 6 cities with another settler out and about.
Reached the ADs around 500 BC, at which point Ottos had lost Uskudar (which I held) and another city (which was razed) to my archers and I was building horses for the upgrade to Ansars.

I think there should be a special victory category in this game for those of us who never moved our capital from the initial starting tile. That was hard work!! I was able to win the game, but I've never had to work so hard to get settlers.

Was I the only guy that failed te Republic slingsot? I purposely kept writing away from every civ on my continent, but I lost the free tech to somebody else on the other continent.

First attempt at C3C/COTM.
Open, Barbs fixed.

Game plan: explore Expansionist trade to quickly gain AA techs, get Chivalry ASAP and then conquer the world with Ansar Warriors.

4000BC. Scout N, sees lake and food bonuses. Settle in place as the trek to good lands seems too long, but plan to send the 1st settler there (looking at others here I think I would be better off trekking).
Build scout, warrior, scout, scout, settler.

Hit F10 and consult the books as C3C traits are still new to me:
Players: Russians (Sci, Exp), French (Comm, Ind.), English (Sea, Comm.), Ottomans(Ind, Sci), Koreans(Sci, Com), Byzantines (Sea, Sci), Portuguese(Exp, Sea).

Two more Expansionists to compete for GHs. Not good. FOUR scientific Civs! Good. I want fast AA research. And only we are religious, with CB being monopoly tech - very good.

Research: Mysticism, aiming for Monarchy slingshot.

3500BC - WC from GH.
3300BC - BW from GH.
3150BC - meet Ottomans. Get Masonry+10g for Pot&CB.
3100BC - meet Korea. Get Alpha & Wheel for Pottery, Masonry, WC & CB. See at least 2 Horses close by.
2670BC - Medina founded on northern Deer/Cow, starts on granary. Mysticism researched, started on Polytheism.
2630BC - meet Russians. Sell Alpha to them so they can research Writing.
2590BC - Ottomans declare on us with 1 warrior(WTF?! - AI weren't that stupid in Vanilla). He attacks my hilly capital and dies.
2470BC - HBR from GH. That GH was on the border of a Russian city, maybe in 6 tiles from Moscow. (WTF? Expansionist AI Civ would never miss such a GH in Vanilla.)
2390BC - meet France. They still have only 1 city! But have a worker for sale. Give them Pottery for worker and 10g. (Later I saw that they had 2 volcanoes in their land: probably they got hit by them).
My warrior from GH pillages Ottoman's Cow. That's all he was good for. he dies the next turn.
2350BC - Scout witnesses barbarians killing unprotected Russian settler. Sweet!
2310BC. - Barabarians kill my Scout. Not sweet.
2270BC. - IW from Korea for Myst & HB. Now where's Iron? Darn, it's under Ottoman's nose and too far from my settler factory in Medina to get it before Otto. And another Iron is over the isthmus.
2110BC - 2nd Scout killed by barbs.
1750BC - The last Scout spends a turn next to Barb village and survives (WTF?! Barbs weren't that stupid in Vanilla, and that's AFTER they were fixed)
1675BC - Ottomans want Wheel for peace. Bah!
1500BC - Russia demands Mysticism, we give. Then get Writing and 110g from them for IW and HBR.
1350BC - peace with Otto, I give them Alpha for peace as having to build archers drains my resourses. Baghdad is founded on Southern Deer/Incense, Damascus close to Russian Silks.
1225BC - in a round of trading get Polytheism from Otto and Math from Russians. Can get Philosophy in 6 turns with Scientists.
1075BC - Research Philosophy, pull Monarchy slingshot, revolt.
1050BC - we are in Monarchy.
1025BC - in a round of trading get MM from Russians, Currency from Koreans and 2 workers from Otto, plus all their cash. Researching Construction.

QSC - 1000BC. 6 towns, 14 pop. 1 settler, 5 workers (incl. 3 slaves), 8 warriors, 1 archer, 1 scout. 1 granary, 1 barracks, 1 temple. 4 contacts, 780g, all AA techs except CoL and Construction, we are the Monarchy.

450 BC - research Construction, start on CoL, then trade it from Russians for Incense and 30g. Enter MA.
Russians have Feudalism. Sell to/gift Korea, they get Mono, sell to us for Monarchy, all our cash (557) and 2gpt. Try to trade Mono to Russians for Feudalism but they are not interested.
I don't want to gift Otto as he is still a menace to us and has grabbed Iron by this time.

Plan for MA: get Iron by the time we get Chivalry. Did we succeed? See next spoiler.

Attached: 1000BC.

Reached the ADs around 500 BC, ...

Did you discover a time machine? ;)

1750BC - The last Scout spends a turn next to Barb village and survives... Barbs weren't that stupid in Vanilla, and that's AFTER they were fixed
Yes sometimes; if one of them is alone in his precious camp he won't leave it for all the gold of Arabia :rolleyes: . Forgive me if this was not the case here. Other than that, your exclamations are understandable.

Did you discover a time machine? ;)

:lol: Strike that. I entered the MA. Abbreviations in a foreign language :crazyeye: :rolleyes: :)

Was I the only guy that failed te Republic slingsot? I purposely kept writing away from every civ on my continent, but I lost the free tech to somebody else on the other continent.

No, I failed that too, small comfort though. I suck.

Open

Arrrr, it looks like I was hoist by my own petard this time. I had negative experiences hiking my settler all over the place recently, so this time I set him down 1 tile sw of start. At 1000BC I had only 6 cities and 17 citizens (and 1 settler), compared to 10 or 11 for some of the hikers. Whatever, things seemed to go well anyway.
My strategy was basic. Research as fast as possible to Chivalry, take over the world. Be a monarchy(I thought it best), and try to pick a profitable time to switch to Republic.
I went open, yes, losing a tech seemed a little too much. However, I didn't want a granary in Mecca anyway once I saw the surrounding lands. I chose to research Mysticism and Polytheism right away, and take Monarchy as the free tech (which happened in 1250BC). Had I gone predator, I could have traded for Pottery without affecting my game at all science-wise. No guilty feelings though.
The ancient ages were rather uneventful. I played rope-a-dope with Russian settlers to slow their growth and take the lands they headed for. I realize now after reading the other posts that this slowed my own scientific progress as well. I couldn't just let them have the prime land though. I was extorted several times and gave in. I built 2 additional scouts right at the start, but gained only 1 tech (the wheel in 2710) for my efforts, and later saw those scouts slaughtered by barbs before really scouting very much at all.
I attempted to outsmart the AI and research myself the techs that they seem to pick up last. After learning Monarchy in 1250 I studied Construction (learned in 900 BC). I was able to trade it for Literature in 825, which I promptly sold Cheap to everybody to encourage more science. Traded for Map Making in 710, researched Currency in 590, which I was able to trade for CoL from Russia in the interturn and enter the middle ages. At all times during the AA I tried to sacrifice production to science when faced with the choice. The very first turn I spent working an oasis rather than a coast tile and lost a turn of research, so in a perfect world my strategy would have got me into the MA at 610BC.
This is where my game might have been improved. I really believed that Monarchy would be a better government for science in the AA, since at the beginning unit support can be such a problem, and being religious we can switch without terrible penalties. Now that I've done it, I think it would have been faster to save Monarchy for periods of everlasting war, if used at all.
Still, at this point I'm very optimistic. I have only 12 towns, but growth is taking off. The central Mecca isn't so bad, I'll have 2 settler pumps with low corruption. I kept iron out of Otto's hands, and think I can keep Cathy away from horses if I'm careful. Most encouraging of all, in 790 BC I noticed that the 4 civs I know are attempting 12 wonders between them- wasting all those shields, how many defenders can they build?

Open
Roaming barbarians

Moved the scout north instead of south after tasting the sweet water north and then moved the settler north to the coast. Mecca was built in 3900BC (T3) on the hill at the south end of Big Lake keeping the oases and claiming the riverside game.

Very quickly put out scouts (four of them) and in short order met all the neighbors and started mapping the coastlines and busting barbarian villages for maps, money and a couple of techs.

It was not until 1910BC (T47) that Medina was built near the horses to the NW and Damascus in 1650BC (T55) on the choke between the bays. Baghdad was built in the spine if hills south of Mecca in 1500BC (T61) and Najran on the coast SE of Baghdad in 1200BC (T73).

Mecca produced settlers and escort warriors throughout the first 4000 years while the other towns built barracks and when the horses were connected began building the army of horsemen that were to dominate the late Ancient and early Middle Ages.

Research was set to the Republic gambit and the United Arab Republic was formed in 710BC (T91) following a short war with Russia to raze Novgorod which had been built on the sweet spot NW of Mecca.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/UAR-710BC.jpg

The result was a rather nasty recession as the military was too big and the towns too small to support the army effectively, so research was shut off whiile more towns were built in the space to the east moving towards Korea and the source of Iron in the mountains.

The successful Republican gambit was the key to the Middle Ages, however, as I was able to trade for all the Ancient Age knowledge and was researching Feudalism by 290BC (T113).

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/UAR-250BC.jpg

open, fixed barbs

After looking at the starting spot, I decided to found on the spot. I figured those two oasises would be enough to build several scouts then get a settler to go to a better spot where a settler factory could be built. I eventually got Medina founded to the NW of Mecca between the cattle and game. It took me a while to get it running efficiently. I couldn't get enough shields to make a settler in 4 turns, and eventually it settled into a 5-turn factory. Two turns at +5fpt and 3 turns at +4fpt. The Russians expanded quickly in my game and hemmed me in to the north, and the Ottomans also took good spots in the south, including the silks. The French expanded slowly and the Koreans were far enough away to not cause too much trouble. I was the first to Philosophy and chose Map Making as my free tech. This got me a galley to send a settler to the Iron on the island.

Here are my QSC highlights:
4000BC: found Mecca on spot
2670BC: Medina founded
1700BC: Damascus founded
1475BC: Baghdad founded
1300BC: Philosophy researched, free tech = Map Making
1250BC: Najran founded
1225BC: Kufah founded
1075BC: Basra founded on Iron island

1000BC summary
7 towns, 14 population
1 settler, 5 workers, 9 warriors, 1 archer, 1 galley, 1 scout
1 granary, 1 barracks, 2 temples
4 contacted civs, embassies with each
GSC score: 2905

My territory at 1000BC (Basra to SE not shown).
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/gskyes_COTM12_QSC.JPG

The rest of the ancient age consisted of continued land grabbing and starting a military buildup. Wonders of note built by AI include Pyramids (France), Temple of Artemis (Russia), and Hanging Gardens (Ottomans). I was able to found 6 more towns in the ancient age. I became a Republic in 470BC, and researched currency in 230BC, entering the Medieval age.

Here is my minimap in 230BC.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/gskyes_COTM12_230BC.JPG

From here I am building horsemen and planning to upgrade to Ansar Warriors when I research Chivalry. I don't plan on founding any more towns. I will try to conquer the rest of the continent with Ansar Warriors, taking Ottomans first, then France, then Russia. I may let Korea stay if they play nice.

edit: 100th post! That only took me 2.5 years. ;)

Predator. Barbs fixed.

Settled in place. I played this session in about 2 hours one Sunday after noon while drinking a beer. I am over 21. The results were mixed but I stopped the session 5 turns before republic and before things got too far out of hand. Then it sat for about 3 days before I picked it up again. I saw that it would be a conquest style game with us in the middle and I wasn’t sure I was up for it.

Exploration - I sent out three scouts. I found Russia, france, and the ottomans. I didn’t scout korea’s portion of the map until last. There were not too many goodie huts, I managed to find a few down near ottoman/france. I got nothing good.

Research wise, I tried for the republic slingshot at 100%, researching CoL before philosophy, keeping writing away from the local guys. But, I failed the slingshot so I knew I must be facing some advanced tribes on the other land mass. So I self researched republic and got it around 550BC. At this point I had nine towns and I traded my way out of the age. My central position and the monarchy difficulty level and the enemy’s remote positions allowed me to keep a slight tech advantage through out the age.

Expansion – The bad land that we all could see turned out to be pretty small. There was almost a mirror image of good land to the east and west. That is where I sent my next two settlers to set up dual settler pumps. By this time I had managed to acquire pottery. I also settled a few more towns to the NW towards Russia, and one to the NE towards korea. The general theme became, build a town and get ready for the GA meaning get a barracks and a temple, maybe a market and enough pop to have a decent shot of making Ansars.

Horses – I found the horses to the west and founded on them.

Iron – I saw iron to the SE in Ottoman hands. I tried a late AA war to get it but failed. I didn’t manage to acquire iron in the first age.

Luxuries – The luxury placement was really great and there was no problem getting enough to support a decent republic.

Extermination – Halfway through the age my tech trading was giving me some cash. I think I gave into a demand from france/ottomans but when Russia came looking I told them where they could go and they declared. Luckily I had two regular archers near a Russian settlement. That was barely enough to destroy the town (fool heartiness enhanced by beer). Russia gave peace and two cities in their backfield and maybe a tech. I set the free towns to scientists and made workers out of them. Another beer mistake was disbanding the towns when the workers were finished giving me a hit on science and military support. But the war ended well. I also fought an AA war against the ottomans and gained a town or two and a luxury. France was my ally.

Thus ended the first age. I knew I only had the time it would take to research three techs to get my empire ready to pump Ansars and take the world. I didn’t know who or where the other three civs were. I could see that the only enemy with iron was the ottomans. But my military was till smallish, being sqaundered in a failed attack on the ottomans. I fought them twice in the ancient age, once for a luxury, once for iron.

Open.

After looking at the starting location i decided to move the scout to the hill N,NW because i didn't like either the mountains&swamps to the NE, plains without fresh water to the SE and desert to the SW, while water to the NW was a fresh lake (gave 2 food) and there was hope to see something good on the other side from the hill. I saw a river, forest on grassland and game, so i lead my people from the desert and into the promised land :) The promised land came out to be really cool: there was another game and a cow.

After settling started building a granary straight away, chopping forest to speed it up. I gave the cow to my second city and the two game tiles (one mined, one irrigated) to the capitol. After that for a while i only built settlers, workers and granaries, not even scouts or warriors. There was not much good land available, so i only founded a few cities around my capitol. With lots of workers i quickly got the population of major cities to high levels running a high luxury tax. The ai didnt like the desert either, so i decided to go for conquest. I built barracks everywhere and started building horsmen, prepairing to attack the ottomans (they had the iron, which i needed to build ansars).

Since i only had one scout, i didn't do much exploration, my scout only found the russians and the koreans, but i made contact with ottomans and the french pretty soon seeing their warriors that were wandewring around. I researched Writing, Philosophy, Literature(free) and Currency. I was lucky to get Construction from a goody hut (the only tech that i got from GH) and that took me to the MA in 975 BC (All other techs i traded).

In 975 BC I have 6 Horsemen, and building new ones quickly, planning to destroy the ottomans. I am researching Monarchy. All my cities are building horsemen except for Basra, my only coastal city, which is building galleys to look for the other continent.

Well it appears that klarius, Obormot, and I were the only ones to settle the first city to the NW. I guess we will see if we are complete idiots or not. The good thing was that we got the incense and had a great location for city on a river with deer for the second one. Also, horses were very close by. The problem of course arose when I learned Iron Working and saw that there was no iron nearby. The Ottomans grabbed the iron in the south before I knew where it was. Luckily, Russia didn't have any iron either and kept traipsing her settlers across my lands to the south. The NW area has proved to be a great chokehold point. While destroying the Russians, the French and Ottomans were strutting their settlers through my lands to the north. This will prove most advantageous in the MA. I have found some iron that no one has claimed in Korean territory. So now I must try to grab it before learning chivalry. To be continued...

On a side note, my scouts sucked royally. All I got was gold and maps from huts, ie no techs!

Well it appears that klarius, Obormot, and I were the only ones to settle the first city to the NW. I guess we will see if we are complete idiots or not.


You must have missed my post above, as I also settled NW. I certainly don't think we're idiots. I have been quite happy with the long walk so far.

I think that Zelda's Man is right that the major problem of you, westerners, is the lack of iron. On another hand, I think that your spot is slightly more productive. We, easterners did not get a moo.

I think it will be very interesting to look on QSC statistic and how people will perform depending on a settlement. IMHO the worst choice was not to move.

I think it will be very interesting to look on QSC statistic and how people will perform depending on a settlement. IMHO the worst choice was not to move.

Not moving allowed you to get a city in each location in the first ring of your empire. It gave the best of both worlds.

You must have missed my post above, as I also settled NW. I certainly don't think we're idiots. I have been quite happy with the long walk so far.


Yes I am sorry. I do believe I left you out of the list. I have been quite happy with the starting spot as it allowed for what I think to be fast expansion. It is quite a trek to get the iron though. It does appear that you did grab some from the Korean territory in your 610BC minimap. My expansion in that direction was slowed by my war with Russia.

Not moving allowed you to get a city in each location in the first ring of your empire. It gave the best of both worlds.

The key problem of not moving isn't geography, but time.

If I could replay with map knowledge, I would go NW. Those bonus grassland give much better production to the first and second city.

The key problem is guessing the correct direction. :)

What I actualy meant is what time would be needed to produce two settlers from the starting position in order to place them to nw and se game accesable spots.
I think from the point of time it is faster to move the very first settler to one of such spots instead.

Cotm 12
Open
AiNoPatrol=1 (Oops, I'll fix that.)

4000bc Worker moves to NE oasis. Scout moves SE. Seeing nothing, settle right away. Building scout. Research straight to Republic slingshot.
3750bc Another scout is done. Building warrior.
3550bc Warrior complete. Building granary.
3250bc Popped goody hut for Bronze Working. See a yellow border. Egypt?
3200bc Brown units from the NW. Russia.
3150bc Popped another goody hut for a warrior. Yellow Ottomans. Trade techs with everyone.
3050bc Too crowded. Fast expansion is necessary.
3000bc Worker has finished everything he can do. Build a road to the next city. But where?
2950bc Meet France. They have Alphabet. I hope they aren't going for the slingshot.
2900bc Granary complete. Start settler/warrior/warrior.
2800bc Alphabet researched. Writing started.
2510bc Medina founded. Spices are connected.
2310bc Some more tech trades.
2270bc Blue border.
2230bc Popped a goody hut for Mysticism.

<Save Game>

What is the plan? Now that I've seen a bit of the world, I can make some plans.
First, the capital will continue to do 6-2-2 turn settler-warrior-warrior. Its not fast, but I'll be able to produce some cities. Spread the new cities to capture the best lands and block the choke point. If possible, each city will produce a worker and a temple as its first builds in whatever order works. The cheap temple is my early advantage. Some of the new cities will need to build barracks then defenders. Others will produce settlers because the capital isn't sufficient.

I'm going straight to the Republic slingshot. Then, Lit and the Great Library. One city will need to prebuild for that.

Eventually, I'll want to build horsemen which can be upgraded into our UU. Getting into the middle ages with a good tech lead to grab Leo's will be my goal. With Leo's, I'll get Chiv some way, and build a number of UUs. Then, attack and trigger a golden age. Use the GA to produce lots of UUs and take the land I want. But, I'll wait for the MA.

2110bc Contact Korea.
1990bc Trade for Iron Working from Korea. Got a bit of gold, too. Need to keep the tech 100%. But, not for long I guess.
1750bc Lost a Scout near France.
1625bc Russian demand Mysticism, I foolishly said no. They declared. Lesson: Give in early, revenge is later.
1600bc Ha! A goody hut gave Literature. I wish I had a city to build a Great Library.
1350bc I can get peace with Russia for Iron Working. Hmmm.
1200bc Settle war with Russia for Iron Working. Trade techs around. Threatened by the Ottoman. Demand Literature. They aren't as powerful as Russia, but another war would be annoying. I cave. Revenge will be mine.
1175bc I need cash to continue at 100% research. Sell Code of Law for 90g to France. It would cut 4 turns off the research to Philo. No. I don't think so.

1000bc Philo in 2 turns.
Stats.
8 Cities.
Score 213. Almost last amoung known Civs.
1 Settler
5 Workers
15 Warriors.
Building the Great Library, a warrior, a spear, barracks, 2 workers and 2 temples.

<Save game>

Couple of turns to see if I get the slingshot.
975bc Slingshot.
950bc Revolution.
925bc The Arabian Republic has ended its first turn.

Large attachment. Mia culpa.

It is quite a trek to get the iron though. It does appear that you did grab some from the Korean territory in your 610BC minimap. My expansion in that direction was slowed by my war with Russia.

Yes, it was a very long trek, but I made it a priority to get the iron before Korea got to it. As you can see on that minimap I did get it. I hadn't had any wars up to that point. I was about to work on France though. For some reason France was very small. I suspect they had massive barb problems because they kept having workers for me to buy (I bought 4).

I think that no iron in the NW is not a big problem: you would propably like to build horsemen, not swordsmen in the ancient age and so you won't need iron untill you discover chivalry. And by that time you should start conquering the continent anyway, so why not start your conquest from secureing that source of iron?

I think that no iron in the NW is not a big problem: you would propably like to build horsemen, not swordsmen in the ancient age and so you won't need iron untill you discover chivalry. And by that time you should start conquering the continent anyway, so why not start your conquest from secureing that source of iron?

Yes, I agree that it is not a huge problem, this is why I am not sure that SE is better than NW. But with iron you have an option to wait and start conquering the world after chivalry. In case of NW you do not have such option.

Very humorous screenshot.
Earlier in the game, I had noticed that one of Korea's cities was destroyed by a volcano. During the course of the game, I nearly destroyed the Ottoman's, leaving them one city, which happened to be founded on the very same spot that the Korean city was decimated.
I like to think that the Ottoman's were so embarrassed about the a**kicking I handed them, that they finally decided to end it all. :D

@Al-thor - it is amusing screenshot indeed :lol: but it is a little spoiler.

Well, I looked at other posts in this thread, and my mini-map isn't really all that much bigger than others that are shown, so I though it would be okay. Everyone knows that the Ottoman's and the Korean's and the Russians are in the game, so no big deal from that aspect.
So how is it a spoiler? I tried to be careful about it. Did I miss something?

There's a wee bit of a resource showing. You might want to try editing the picture or pulling it and putting it up in the next spoiler.

Really? Where? Do you mean the Wines (which is a Lux, not a Resource).

Ack! You are correct. Sorry. I guess that I'll pull it, if I can fugure out how....

I will re-post in the next spoiler. It's a great screenie, as I have never had the likes of this happen before (a civ being taken out because a volcano destroys their one and only city).

Yes, I agree that it is not a huge problem, this is why I am not sure that SE is better than NW. But with iron you have an option to wait and start conquering the world after chivalry. In case of NW you do not have such option.

Well, the map was man-made, and its creators tried to balance it so that the result doesn't depend much on where you moved the settler. You either get iron or cow. Each has it's advantages, but still i find the cow much more important in this game.
There is another good spot to the NE, but propably noone moved there, because that direction doesn't look promising from the starting position.

My plan from the preview screenshot was to go 1N, settle, and start pumping scouts as fast as possible. From the preview screen, I though the two mountains were grasslands :blush: , but everything else was guessed correct, so I assumed a nice size 13 capitol was available at the start:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/MP_arab1.gif

Plans changed when my scout moved to the north hill to confirm the land. Of course, I found out the grasslands were actually mountains, but more important was, game/forest/river only a few moves away. I like having forests to build the first granary so I settled on the NW river.

My cities built warrior, worker, temples, barracks (usually in that order) with the capitol building settlers.

QSC
10 towns - 26 population
2 settlers
11 workers
15 warriors
1 curragh
210 gold
all AA tech but Currency, Construction, and Monarchy

MIDDLE AGE - 370bc
17 town - 70 population
11 workers
9 warriors
11 horsemen
1185 gold

I was able to save up some money for attacking Russia in the MA with horse -> Ansar upgrades.

Class: Open

Goal: To practice fast domination, preferably never entering the
industrial age

I thought I would try hard to get at least something out of our
expansionist trait and would therefore build two more scouts as fast
as possible. The plan would then be to reach domination mainly through
Ansar Warriors. This spoiler describes the preparations in the Ancient
Age.


Getting Started

I settled SE in order to use the forest to get a third scout very
early. I couldn't dream that the starting location was surrounded by
wonder-lands; in every direction there were food and luxuries in
abundance. Going in any random direction would have payed off,
especially since the AI civilizations were all fairly weak, far away
and slow to expand. However, this might have been partly caused by me
popping all the huts.


Scouting and Research

I started researching The Wheel at 0% waiting to meet someone who knew
Alphabet. This happened in 3200 BC when I met Korea. After trading,
research was Writing at 100%. I met the Ottomans in 3100 BC and Russia
in 2800 BC, France only in 2390 BC. My three Scouts popped 25 gold,
Warrior Code, Bronze Working, a conscript Warrior, a Worker and
finally, in 2350 BC, Mysticism. I never popped a Worker while
production was set to Settler. The Worker was popped on the far side
of Korea with nothing more to scout, so I disbanded it as soon as it
would start costing me support. All Scouts made it back to some city
to be disbanded in 1325 BC. I also sent a couple of Curraghs out, who
found overseas land. Unfortunately, the shores were not yet inhabited
when my exploration party passed by. Other landmasses are edited out
of the Mini-Maps.

I discovered Writing in 1750 BC and had a large trading round gaining
me Horseback Riding, Polytheism, Mathematics and Map Making when I
discovered Code of Laws in 1250 BC. The Philosophy-Republic slingshot
succeeded in 1050 BC.


Settling in Peace

I founded Medina in 2710 BC on the choke point to the north. It seemed
worthwile at the time and the location was rich on food. It meant that
the Games location to the south-east had to wait until 1870 BC, when
Damascus was founded. Russia beat me to the north-western Games and
Cattle area in 2470 BC and 1450 BC. I should have prevented the
latter, but I went further south to claim the Wines.

Mecca was a ten-turn dual-Warrior-per-Settler factory, and the
food-rich cities also contributed Workers and Settlers.


Quick Start Challenge Result

6 Cities
18 Citizens
17 Technologies
4 Contacts
270 Culture
207 Points
2 Workers
2 Slaves
7 Warriors
1 Curragh
1 Archer


Really Getting Started

In 530 BC an army of six Horsemen, an Archer and a Spearman attacked
the Ottoman Empire. First target was the Silks city of Bursa south of
the south-eastern Games location. The goal of the war was to seize the
Silks, the Iron and generally the good Grassland in the area. There
are also Furs on Ottoman lands. In the middle of this war, Russia
demanded Literature and I refused. I had previously, in 1400 BC, given
in to a 20 Gold demand, but now it was time to tame the bear. In 350
BC I ended the war against the Ottomans for two Cities and 13 Gold,
adding to the military gains of four Cities, several Slaves, two
Luxuries and Iron.

After 14 rounds of war with Russia I made peace for Construction, one
City in the middle of Russia and all their Gold. I had secured the two
Russian Cities on the north-western wonderland location for the Arab
Empire and one more City on the west coast.

Also on the same round my Curragh made contact with the Portuguese on
another continent. A trading round wins us Currency from the
Portuguese and brings us into the Middle Ages. I gift the three
scientific Tribes on our continent into these pleasant times as well
and get their free Technologies through trade: Monotheism and
Feudalism.

It is the year 170 BC and we have an Iron monopoly on our starting
continent. The next victim will be France, who is hopelessly behind in
all aspects of the game. The Ottomans are severly dented and will be
an easy target.

Predator, Barb fixed.

NW and S were the two logical choices for moving the settler. I moved the scout s then e and he saw only plains. The worker went NW seeing forest on grass. The settler followed the worker since grass is better for growth. Next turn, the worker moves west and sees the game on the river which is good news. The settler and worker head to the river. On moving across the river, the cow is seen. Mecca is finally settled in 3700 BC and begins a scout.

The first scout meets the Ottomans in 3600 BC. The second scout pops a hut in the north for maps and meets the Russians in 3350 BC. We trade Ceremonial Burial and 13 gold for Pottery and production in Mecca is changed to a granary. Scout1 explores in the south and then heads west, getting killed by a barb in 2850 BC just before meeting the French. Scout2 heads n and coming to the coast heads south, finding the land bridge in 2550 BC. Scout2 continues east, meeting the Koreans in 2230 BC popping a hut for maps along the way. A warrior finally makes it down to meet the French in 1700 BC.

Research Summary
3350 BC Pottery (trade w/ Russians), Bronze Working (trade w/ Ottomans)
2550 BC Alphabet, Masonry & Warrior Code (trade w/ Ottomans)
2230 BC The Wheel (trade w/ Koreans)
1870 BC Writing (Ottomans and Russia get it independently in 1550 BC)
1475 BC Code of Laws, Mathematics & Iron Working (trade w/ Korea), Horseback Riding & Mysticism (trade w/ Ottomans)
1325 BC Philosophy, but no slingshot. No one I know has it so the other continent must have a lot of goody huts (we and the Ottomans have over 40% of the world's population)
~875 BC Republic
Research continues with Currency and Construction and we enter the Middle Ages in 590 BC. We don't trade the Republic until the Scientific civs have crossed over.

At 1000 BC, we have 12 cities (27 population, 1 granary, 3 barracks) with 2 settlers. One settler is heading towards the eastern iron and will settle there in 2 turns taking it from the Koreans. We have 12 workers, 1 scout, 4 warriors, 1 archer, 1 spearman, and 1 horseman.

At 590 BC, we have 18 cities (45 population, 1 granary, 4 barracks, 1 market, 1 temple), the Ottomans and Russians have 10 each. The Ottomans have half of our population. We've added 5 workers and 2 horsemen since 1000 BC.

Its my first attampt at GOTM and my first writen history, I hope its not too boring. As for the game I think i did OK-ish on this -for my first attempt-, evenso I picked Open as I am comfertable playing at Regent. but looking at prev posts I feel left in the dirt. I did (conciously) slow the progress into MA by researching my last (Construction) tech at low % to gain some gold.
Edit to add: AiNoPatrol=0

The year is 4000BC the start of history for our people Our scout spots a very nice place for a city, on a river with game in a forest.
We deside to be nomads and travel toward that "sweet spot". Our history "really starts" in 3700BC. Allmost emmidiatly our scout finds borders, it turns out to be the Russians.
We trade BW+10g for CB+WC. However things do not seem to favorable anymore so close to the russians, an early war is ineffitable.
In 3300 we find a wondering french warrior, His leaders know all about Masonry + Alphabet we do a flat out trade. Alpha+Masonry+10g for our Pot+CB+BW+WC.
Yet another neighbour is met in 2950, The Koreans. Unfortunatly they do not bring new knowledge. But tey to still have but 1 town.
We were hoping that would be our neighbours, but no... Yet another neighbour is found in 2800, the ottomans. They have no knowledge either and have 2 city's.
In 2630 a lost village teaches us Mysticism and even later in 2310 we get tought Iron working.
In 1375 our empire counts 4 city's with a 5th on the way. Our peacefull expansion has allmost come to an end as we are about to connect horses to our city's. 3 City's will have barracks and will be building some horsies.
The first cracks in our flying headstart (due to a lot of GHs) are showing Both France & Ottoman have Poly but are unwilling to share.
In 1275bc We are the the first people in the world to learn Philosophy and we take Code of Law as our price on the way to Republic.
As we plan to go to war we take up the stats:
Russia has 6 citys,25g and is Phylo& CoL down
Korea has 6 citys, 0g and is Phylo& CoL down (After we sell writing to them for 25g)
France has 5 citys, 0g and has Poly (unwilling to trade), but does not even have writing yet
Ottomans have 7 citys,12g and has Poly (unwilling to trade) but is Alpha & Iron down
Arabs have 5 citys,42g (at -3 gpt) with rep in ack 41 turns
The question is due we go to war with the Ottoman for having Iron & the lead or do we go and "take" russia for beeing our closest neighbour?
The choice is made for us by Russia in 1150, they DoW on us after not getting Philo as they demanded.
One century later the war really starts after the rus took (razed) 1 town from me and we did same for them now 3 horse stand at the gates of Novgorod. Meanwhile our leaders find time to pull of some nice trades, They trade Philo to Korea for 52g+Math, Poly+48g for Philo with France and "gift" Alpha to Ottoman for 12g
Subsequently Yakutsk (the revenge city!), Novgorod, Vladivostok and Smolensk fall into dust at our feet. Costing them 1 Archer, 3 spears, 5 warriors and a worker. Us 1 town.
In 710BC after we capture Moscow we make peace. Getting Mapmaking, Currency and 3 citys (Yekaterinburg, St. Petersburg and Yaroslavl) leaving the russians down to Rostov (and maybe a settler or 2)

A small peace time lets our people prosper, as they become a republic. The Ottomans however are still unwilling to give up their tech(s). For being stubburn, not trading and having Iron, they will have to pay they price, in 570 we dow and attack!!!
We drop the town of Konya, then rush on to take Iznik (and a slave), Sinop (get our first MGL), then edrine falls and the Iron city Aydin. We now have what we want, Iron & Crippled Ottoman (down to 5 citys), Also we have been building Markets instead of horses so we are running low on them as well. We make peace in 350BC and get Monarchy in the deal as well.
Meanwhile we have rushed the FP using the GL that the Ottoman generated.
Shortly there after in 310BC The arab empire enters the MA having:
17 towns
1 city (mecca)
5 slaves
10 Workers
1 Galey
1 Curragh
324g and 114gpt
ALL AA techs

I kept a turn by turn full transcript of what i did right up to the MA (310BC), do I need to keep track on unit level?
Or is that just for the QSC?
And then only up to 1000BC ?

Greetz

@namliaM: The only mandatory logging requirements are:

(1) If you want to submit a QSC entry then you must include a timeline of your actions and decisions and events during the first 80 turns from 4000 BC to 1000 BC.

(2) ... there is no (2) ;) .... But if you want to participate fully in the GOTM experience then I recommend you try to keep enough notes to be able to post in the spoiler threads. That way you may provoke discussion of your progress and learn from the feedback. Or you may help others to learn from your successes and mistakes.

What you include in spoiler posts is entirely up to you as long as it's relevant and within the disclosure rules. Read what others post and choose a style that appeals to you as the basis for your own contributions. If you have a full transcript beyond 1000 BC then you can always attach it to your spoiler post as a text file. Some players may want to download it and try to replay it. Everyone has their own learning methods.

Open class, barbs fixed. Goal – Domination or Conquest

Despite the goal I had a completely peaceful Ancient Age. There was just so much open land to claim, I did not feel the need to take someone else’s that early. Since I am not fond of settler hikes, I chose to settle 1 north of the start. I figured it would be better for future production to have the city on a useless desert instead of the hill. It was by fresh water and could easily maintain 5 spt and if desired I could let it grow for extra gold.

Mecca produced 4 scouts, a settler, then barracks and military. My 5 total scouts did OK before barbs claimed them. First, they discovered the rich land nearby – Medina was founded between the game and the cow to the northwest and became my settler factory. They popped Warrior Code, Horseback Riding, Literature, 1 worker and at least 50g, and I met everyone else on the continent by 2900 BC. The worker was popped fairly close to the future Medina so he stayed to prepare the land there before the city was even founded. Some restless barbs interrupted his work occasionally, but he was still clearly advantageous.

I had no problem running away with the tech lead. I would normally go for Alphabet first, but based on F10 telling me there were several civs starting with Alphabet while I had a monopoly on Ceremonial Burial, I chose to research Mysticism first. By the time I finished it, I was able to trade for Alphabet. Although I have gotten into the habit of checking F10 almost every game, I think that is the first time it actually affected my plans. I then went through writing and completed the Republic slingshot in 1325BC before anyone else had writing.

I was a luxury hog early – I built towns far away from my capital early and backfilled the desert later. I managed to claim peacefully 4 different native luxuries, 2 horses (for denial) and the iron by Korea.

Russia was a scary civ – they had 3 towns by 3100 BC and continued expanding much more rapidly than the other AI. I believe even though we couldn’t pop settlers, we could pop towns, so I think Russia must have gotten one of their towns that way. I had to bow to a couple Russian demands, but they did not attack during the Ancient Age.

At 1000 BC, Arabia had:

9 towns
20 citizens
3 settlers
8 workers
2 slaves
5 warriors
5 archers
1 horseman
1 scout

I entered the Middle Ages in 750 BC preparing for war.

.
The first cracks in our flying headstart (due to a lot of GHs) are showing Both France & Ottoman have Poly but are unwilling to share.
...
France has 5 citys, 0g and has Poly (unwilling to trade), but does not even have writing yet
Ottomans have 7 citys,12g and has Poly (unwilling to trade) but is Alpha & Iron down

namliaM - welcome to GOTM!

Could I give a bit of advice on that situation as I've been there before and it took me a while to figure it out. :)

They wouldn't trade Poly for Techs low in the tree but they would gladly trade it for higher Techs you have but can't offer them until they are up the tech tree with you.

Offer Writing to French and Alphabet and then Writing to Otto and then you can offer them the high-tree techs: CoL & Phylosophy for Polytheism. Then they would trade, I'm sure.

Ottos might even go for Writing + IW, depends on research.

I tried every deal "imaginable" within limits. Did not dare to gift them stuff. Eventually traded Poly somewhere and took Monarch the "pointy stick"-way.

Also i slowed entering MA a lot by setting research to "slow" on construction. I might have entered MA hundreds of years earlier if not for that.
I find myself thinking it might have been better to ram cons home as well. Then gift Korea and russia and later otto into MA as well, then taking their free techs. While research at 0%.

Hmz lessons learned, except no feedback yet on the "learners thread" :(

Greetz

I also delayed Construction on purpose. I wouldn't say that is a mistake, although not necessarily the right thing to do. It depends on your future plans. My reasoning was "The others might help me with Construction, but they certainly won't help me with Chivalry. So if I want to save money before I have Chivalry, this is the way."

If you hesitate too long to give away Mathematics, that would be a mistake. Without Mathematics, it will surely take ages (sic) for the AI to learn Construction. Giving away Map Making is not a bad idea either, since it seems to have a very high AI priority (at least in PTW; I don't know if it's different in C3C.) I think it was a mistake on my part not to give MM to Ottomans right away.

Another factor to consider is the risk that the scientific civs will research monarchy/republic instead of Construction. If they learn the one government that you have, your trading position will worsen. The only safe way to prevent this is to check that they don't get Polytheism, Philosophy and/or Code of Laws too soon.

Note: I eventually started to research Construction at full speed (4 turns). When there was just one turn left I could trade it. So it didn't pay off in a big way, but didn't hurt me much either, seeing that I had about 1300 gold then.

PS. Namliam, you seem to be more than skillful enough to dare give away techs on this level.

Can I post in this thread a picture showing Iron location?

I wandered south east and eventually settled on the forest next to the river beyond the spice hill as this didn't look on a river to me. With a bit of luck this would have been a settler factory (ie if there was any BG under the forest) but it wasn't. I got pretty fed up then when I realized that going NW at the start would have been soooo much better. I then played in a blur of speed and inaccuracy to reach this spoiler, convinced the game was wasted, and I wrote no more in my qsc log. I had 3 turns of anarchy in capital :smoke:, 40 shields wasted in a futile Colossus build, wasted $$ on science, attacking in disorganized fashion, upgraded reg warriors etc etc). I now see I had pretty good company going south and my mistake was not making the most of the position.

C3C science strategy as always was a republic slingshot. I was on auto pilot for this, as with the rest of the game so far. I had meant to try Monarchy.

1000bc: 10 towns, 23 citizens, 7 workers, 1 slave, 1 hour 34 minutes.
470bc: 14 towns, 50 citizens, 15 workers, 7 slaves(thanks Otto), 2hour 34 minutes.

At least I am on for a quick time!

At least I am on for a quick time!

My entire game was a single 13-hour session. That ended at, um, 4.45am...

My entire game was a single 13-hour session. That ended at, um, 4.45am...
that's cool! ... it's easier to make fatal mistakes this way though.

With a bit of luck this would have been a settler factory (ie if there was any BG under the forest) but it wasn't.

You should take a look at Kuningas little trick in the GOTM43 pre-game discussion: Disband a Warrior in your settler factory once for every Settler.

My entire game was a single 13-hour session. That ended at, um, 4.45am...
I can not plat more than 30/40 minutes without a stop, I lose attention and forget even the most obvious things like checking citizens happines :crazyeye:

BTW my PC has the same problem ... it crashes after 30 minutes of play. :sad:

I can not plat more than 30/40 minutes without a stop, I lose attention and forget even the most obvious things like checking citizens happines :crazyeye:

BTW my PC has the same problem ... it crashes after 30 minutes of play. :sad:

My Middle Ages spoiler will reveal more details, but basically, I was at war from 450BC to the end of the game, for all but 8 turns. Combine that with 5 native luxuries, 0% research so indiscriminate use of the the lux slider was possible, and I didn't really need to concentrate much beyond "okay, who's next?!".

I cant wait to find out haw everyone did in the second age.

I havent even started the MA :(

I can not plat more than 30/40 minutes without a stop, I lose attention and forget even the most obvious things like checking citizens happines :crazyeye:



I am sure this is one of the reasons you play so well. I keep telling myself to do this, then suddenly it's 1am and I am at 100bc with a bit of a rubbish game.
Maybe next time....

Anyway, Eldar, 13 hours. Thanks for that it, gives me something to shoot for.
Any chance for a Jason points/minute prize.

open, 20K

initial sequence: scout1(east-south), scout2(west-north), scout3(north-east), warrior.
1 goody hut: warrior code 3450BC
2nd:3300BC masonary
3rd 3200BC wheel... i start to feel that no one on my continent has alphabet... :(


2750BC, Madina founded... i'm really surprised since settler has been changed to workers and i take it for granted that scout won't find towns.
Madina, according to Crpring, is at distance 23 from the capitol... and next to a vocano :o
it has 2 cows in the 9 squars and i guess it was originally designed for France. :)

2710BC, Damascus founded
2630BC, mystism researched. max on writing, due in 26 turns

2470BC, one scout killed by barbarian. two france warrior walked into my popped city. warrior due in 4 turns for that city... :(
2430BC French declared war and walked into my 2-cow city!!! and it wasn't destroyed(auto-razed)!!! why?
now i hated my luck.... due to this city, french probably will have a lot to ask for when negotiating for peace.

2390BC, another village inside a jungle joined me. this one is really too far to make any difference. i'll abandon it if someone walk close to it. :(

2270BC found out my culture city is actually beside a lake... so cannot build colossus!!

2110 BC horse back riding .
it seems i'm extremely luck(though luck can lead to bad luck easily). only french is luckier than me.

1830BC allied Ottomas against French (so that i can get the silk city from ottomas after 20turns) , giving them iron working and wheel.

1735BC, russia asked for writing!!! if it were anything else i would have given in.. but it's writing! i really regretted trading alphabet to it. but after scratching my head for 4 min, i still gave in... i don't want to end my cotm11 so early.

1275, peace with french, getting back my Madina more for a symbolic purpose. :)
1250, my culture city Damascus rioted due to my negligence! :(
got republic slingshot and revolted into republic.
925BC, allied French against ottomas
875BC, bastard Russia asked for philosophy... gave in again. :(

690Bc, russia walked into Damascus... well, you bastard Russia... after giving you two free tech and now you get my 20K city... btw, oracle finished about 10 turns ago and building MofM while waiting for literature to be researched.
So ends my attempt for another 20k…
I really feel sorry for myself.. it’s the 1st time for me to have such good luck in hut popping (2 cities and a lot of free techs) but lost because i didn't have enough deterrence...

20K Attempt, C3C Conquest (I think - downloaded conquest file)

My set-up is pretty similar to Redbad's, exactly the same location. But it is my 2nd city so we shall (hopefully) see some benefits of palace pre-built later in the game. I so wanted to build it on the coast (because of my my favorite Wonder=the Colossus - cheap yet very effective) but decided for this one because of high shield capacity.

AA Culture builds:

Temple 2350 BC
The Oracle 1000 BC
MoM 710 BC
Library 630 BC
Great Lib. 270 BC
Hanging G. 10 BC

Later FP also built in Medine :cool:

Open, fixed barbs:
No screenshots as I forgot to take any, this being my first COTM. I think I may be the only person to explore north and then move the settler to the hill on the lake north of the inital spot, to get the game. I then promptly founded medina across the lake to get the other game and cattle and made that my primary settler factory (once again, first time for this as well). Mecca produced settlers as well, however.

I plan on warring most of the game, but like some others didn't have a single war in the ancient age. I concentrated on settling as much as I could (had to scramble to get iron), and actually claimed a 2nd iron on the small island. At the end of the ancient age, Russia appears to be my first target as they stole my spare horses and an incense, and they have no iron :)

690Bc, russia walked into Damascus... well, you bastard Russia... after giving you two free tech and now you get my 20K city...So ends my attempt for another 20k…
Ouch! :(

Did you build any military at all? :eek:

Didnt have much time lately due to a phenomenon often referred to as RL. But here goes without any strict notes.

Settled on the incense to the SE after my scout spotted the end of a river and some forest on the first turn. See that some sent scouts NW instead and I wish I had done the same.

Building scouts in these games have rarely payed off and so I started on a granary finishing that around 3100BC. Built second town close to capital to share all the food. Third town close to silks. Had 11 of them end of QSC, with 25 pop.

Research was focused on republic slingshot and discovered Philosophy in 1550BC (or some time just before, dont remember). I give away all the techs as soon as I get them in order to avoid double research by my neighbours. The exception was Republic that I wanted for trade on entering MA with all these sci-civs. I could trade for techs like math, poly, map etc. I discovered Currency well before 1000BC and missing only Construction I hoped that some nitwit would get it for me before end of QSC. But no, so I had to research it myself, entering MA in 875BC.

I granted currency and construction to Korea, Russia and then Ottomans. Two of them got Monotheism and one got Feudalism. I could trade for both using Republic and slowly started on Chivalry to save some money for horseupgrade.

Did not have any wars in AA. Towards the end of AAI started building barracks in cities close to the capital and then horsemen to have ready for upgrades to ansar when time comes.

Havent decided on victory condition yet. For the moment I am conquest mode, but that might change.

QSC stats:
11 towns, 25 pop
2 settlers
10 workers
5 warriors
1 curragh
2 granaries
1 barracks
EDIT: 1 temple

Empire (1000BC):
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/cotm12_1000BC_minime.JPG

Ouch! :(

Did you build any military at all? :eek:
i think i skipped too much details in my spoiler... all my forces were sent to the battle front with Ottomas and were making good progress. and i do have a single warrior in the western part of my country but he happened to wandered off when two Russian warriors came to my culture city.

mayb a picture is better than a thousand words
you can see the two cities i got from goodyhuts.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/ionimplan.jpg

I sent the scout on the hill NW-N. He saw the deer and incense. I thought that settling on that hill could be a good compromise between site effectiveness and moves needed to reach it.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Picture_1.jpg

The scout went S-SW.
I reaserched Mysticism because it was the only second tier tech I could learn.
Mecca built a second scout who went N. Then I built Granary, Settler, Settler, Temple, Settler.
I had no settler factory. Each city built a Settler when possible otherwise it built the quickest useful unity/building available.
By 1000BC I had built 14 additional Settlers:
Mecca (no food surplus in Despotism) built 6 Settlers, Medina (2 surplus) 4 Settlers, Damascus (0 surplus) 2 Settlers, Basra(0 surplus) 1 Settler, Najran (1) 1 Settler.
The objective was to built a 4 and a 7 rings.

My scouts found 6 huts. I got Bronze Working, Horseback Riding, Mathematics, 2 Warriors and 25g. I found the last hut in 2070BC (turn 43) close to Korea cities, it looks like other civs were not very active.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Picture_2-1.jpghttp://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Picture_2-2.jpg

Arabs met France in 3650BC, Russia in 3300BC and Otto in 3100BC. We did not meet anybody else for more than 3000 years.

I learnt Mysticism in 2850BC. In the meanwhile I got Alphabet, Warrior Code, Masonry from trading.
Arabs learnt Writing in 1830 and traded for The Wheel and Iron Working.
We learnt Code Of Laws in 1400BC and Phylosophy + Republic in 1225BC.
I had a very short (2 turns) anarchy, I guess because I had just 16 citizens at that turn. Then I traded for Polyheism and Map Making.
Eventually I learnt Construction and Currency and entered Middle Age in 800BC.

I had two kind request from Russia and Otto. I could not afford war at that time so I gave them free techs.

In 1325BC I realized that France was at war with Russia.

I had no war but 5 "contacts" with barbarians. I lost a Scout and a warrior.

Connected Incense in 2630BC and Horses in 1025BC.
I had Wine and Silk in my perimeter ready to be connected as soon as necessary.

Iron was very far from the core cities. I had to build a city at distance 12 to connect Iron in 590BC.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Picture_3-2_bis.jpghttp://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Picture_3-2.jpg

Other civs did not build cities too close to my bordes so I could build 2 complete rings. To minimize the risk of close cities I preferred to build some of the distance 7 cities before completing the 4-ring.

At 1000BC I had:
12 cities
All AA mandatory techs but Currency and Construction (plus Republic)
4 Warriors
3 Settlers
4 Workers
4 Slaves
4 Temples (too many!)
1 Granary
2 Barracks
Score 242

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Picture_4.jpg

The objective was to built a 4 and a 7 rings.

Mark, no need to bother about RCP in Conquests!

Mark, no need to bother about RCP in Conquests!
ehm.. I guess you understood this is my first COTM :blush:

Open, barbs fixed, 20K

I moved my scout S and E, the worker NW, and then moved the settler SW and built Mecca. I started in on alphabet at maximum and started exploring.

Exploring went pretty well. I popped huts for Warrior Code and Bronzeworking and met Ottomans, Russians, and Koreans in the first 20 turns, with France not long after. I also got some maps and cash from huts; the maps did lead me to Russia, so they were helpful.

I traded ceremonial burial and pottery to the Ottomans for masonry + 10 g. Russia had nothing to trade. Korea gave me alphabet + 35 g for CB, and I switched to writing at 90% science. France had nothing when I met them. I traded masonry + 30 g for the wheel when Korea learned it. Once Russia also knew the wheel, I traded it to the Ottomans for mysticism + 25 g. I finish off writing and start philosophy at max. I learn it first, take literature for free, and start mapmaking. Before investing any time into it, however, I trade philosophy for iron working + 75 g and then philosophy + IW for polytheism. I then switch to monarchy at max (49 turns, but I'm hoping that will come down). It does. I trade it for code of laws, math, wines, and 50 g from Russia. I then research map making, trade monarchy for construction + 60 g, and then research horseback riding, which no one else has. I finishe the great library just after learning HBR; it gives me currency, the republic, feudalism, and engineering to bring me to the middle ages in 310 BC.

Rather than move my first settler to better lands, figured I'd just put my 20K city in the nearest really good land. I put Medina on the water south of the deer to the northwest of the start. It grew nicely and had a temple in 2430 BC. It starts a wonder built that eventually becomes the Mausolleum in 1375 BC. It gets a library in 1125 BC and the great library in 350 BC. Unfortunately, it also gets a palace in 2030 BC.

The Koreans declare war out of the blue when they have a regular warrior wandering by Mecca, defended by a single regular warrior - one turn before my first archer would have finished. They kill my defender and raze the city. At this point I have only Medina and a settler in transit, and I figure I'm in for a quick end. However, Korea does not send the warrior on to Medina, which is also only defended by a warrior (veteran, this time) or after the settler, who is unescorted. In fact, the warrior just hunkers down for a while and then wanders off. Eventually they make peace when I give them writing + 15 g.

The same turn that Korea declares, the Ottomans demand alphabet. Needless to say, I give it. Just before finishing the great library, the Ottomans demand literature, too. I give in again, though I worry about losing the library. I should have built the great library before the library, and then I might have been able to rush the library (after revolting to monarchy, although my small empire has cash flow issues) and I wouldn't have had to worry about losing out on the GL. I was worried about tying up a lot of shields in something and then having to switch to military, though.

The ancient age does not go well for me. Losing Mecca meant that Damascus had to produce units and settlers both, slowing down things greatly. I end the ancient ages with 3 cities and one settler in transit. I have incense and silks connected and am 2 turns away from having horses connected, but I have no way to get iron.

I almost abandoned my 20K plans, but I decided to try and hold on. Maybe I'll get a nice shield out of it. Unfortunately, Medina no longer has a palace prebuild available. This causes problems later. I enter the middle ages with 559 cp + 19 cpt. Culture-wise I'm not in horrible shape, but I have no empire to support Medina with, so things aren't looking good.

Good and bad stuff,

I moved the scout. I thought I would need to move the settler at least 4 turns to get a better start position so settled in place. Next turn moved the scout and discovered the twin game. :blush:

Oh well second city should be a good enough settler pump, pop a settler soon, and every thing will be OK.

Traded for iron working early and saw the iron near the ottomans :goodjob:

Settled there right on top of the iron :goodjob:

half a dozen turns later :eek: culture flip :rolleyes: lose the iron back to the Ottomans.

They would keep it for the rest of the ancient age. (but only build 1 swordsman with it. :D )

secured horses in the hills to the NW, and started building Horses for an ansar upgrade - a 3 move knight would help compensate for may lousy unit positioning and my tendancy to charge all my units from one side of the map to the other.

Used print screen when setting up embassies and timed that once the other empires started building TOA (500 shields always seems a lot and I never get round to it - 16 horsemen seems much more useful :devil:). Russia would be quickest so they were the first target. I entered the Middle ages with Russia on the rack and me looking to secure the iron back - :ar15:

wont see you in the next spoiler as I never make it to the Industrial Age! :lol:

Open, barbs fix.
Goal: Diplomacy
Ancient Era update: 4000BC-0825BC

Pre-History thoughts: Decided to go after a fastest Diplo win again. This is a great COTM for conquest, but that is what I love and last time I did Diplo I got beat by 20 turns, so I really wanted to try it again. I really studied some other games and posts before starting on this one. Before starting I see 5 civ’s w/ Alphabet and 4 Scientific civ’s. Wow! Will definitely try to use the Scientific civ’s to propel every change of ages.

Initial moves: Check that what I thought was a coast is actually a lake. Send scout to hill by lake and see the game forest. Decide to settle in place and most likely make my second city by the game (which I do). Then send scout to the mountains for a high view and continue East. With 5 of 7 having Alphabet, start off w/ 0 science until I trade for Alphabet, then go to ‘max’ forever.

CITY FOUNDING & CONSTRUCTION (to 1000BC)
FOUNDED - NAME - PRODUCTION DETAILS
4000BC – Mecca – Granary (3100BC), Settler (2800BC), Scout (2710BC), Scout (2630BC), Settler (2390BC), Warrior (2310BC), Warrior (2230BC), Settler (1990BC), Warrior (1910BC), Warrior (1830BC), Settler (1650BC), Warrior (1600BC), Warrior (1550BC), Settler (1400BC),
2710BC – Medina (4NW) – Granary (1910BC), Worker (1830BC), Worker (1725BC), Settler (1600BC), Worker (1525BC), Settler (1375BC), Worker (1325BC), Settler (1175BC), Settler (1025BC),
2230BC – Damascus (2NW/3N) – Granary (1500BC), Worker (1425BC), Settler (1200BC), Settler (1100BC),
1790BC – Baghdad (4SE/1E) – building Colossus (will try to get Cop’s Obs & New’s Univ)
1525BC – Najran (6NE) –
1525BC – Kufah (8NW) – Worker (1225BC), Worker (1000BC),
1300BC – Basra (4S/1SE) – Worker (1050BC),
1275BC – Khurasan (5SW) – Worker (1025BC),
1125BC – Anjar (5N/5NW) –

Cities with low corruption/waste go after libraries, marketplaces, universities, temples. Cities with high corruption/waste go after temples.

GOODY HUTS
Got 8 of them, in order: Gold, Warrior, Gold, Maps, Warrior, Gold, Mysticism, Warrior
This was disappointing, I was really hoping for more techs, but was surprised I still hit so many not building scouts first, though I did have 3 out and got warriors to help also, which actually popped two of the huts.

DATE MET CIVs
3500BC, meet Korea
2630BC, meet Russia
2470BC, meet Ottomans
2270BC, meet France

TECHNOLOGY - DATE/HOW
Pottery, 4000BC start
Ceremonial Burial, 4000BC, start
Alphabet, 3500BC, trade Korea :D
Masonry, 2630BC, trade Russia
Warrior Code, 2630BC, trade Korea
Bronze Working, 2630BC, trade Korea
The Wheel, 2270BC, trade France
Writing, 2150BC, research
Mysticism, 2070BC, goody hut
Mathematics, 1650BC, trade Ottomans
Iron Working, 1650BC, trade Koreans
Code of Laws, 1525BC, research
Philosophy, 1375BC, research
Republic, 1375BC, free tech
1375BC-1325BC, 2 turn revolt to Republic
Literature, 1200BC, research
Currency, 1150BC, trade Ottomans
Map Making, 1150BC, trade Korea

I decided to go after Polytheism and hope to trade for HR & Con, but it didn’t turn out as well as I thought it would. Russia found Poly before anyone found HR and no one would trade Con until I got Monarchy :sad: . I was doing that so I could gift the 3 scientific civs I know and trade Monarchy for MA techs. I still got 1 in the trade (Engineering found by 2 of them), but couldn’t trade for Feudalism :sad:, which was found by the other one.

Polytheism, 1075BC, research
Monarchy, 0825BC, research
Construction, 0825BC, trade Korea
Horseback Riding, 0825BC, trade Ottomans

End of Ancient Era Status (0825BC)
12 Cities, 34 Population
2 Settlers, 10 Workers, 1 Scout (left), 8 Warriors
At switch I’m at 30% income, 60% science, 10% luxury. On a few occasions in the AE I actually switched 1-3 citizens to scientists when I was about to miss a tech. The later in the era the more I was willing to use.

Not a single combat between civs conducted or seen; just barbarians. I'm able to block the Koreans from finding everyone, though the Ottomans did get through to meet them.

Open, barbs fixed, Going for a Diplo Victory

Of late, I have kind of been stuck in a rut. From reading the QSC pages, I have gathered that I kind of have the basics down in the AA, but just the basics. I also realized that my MA sucks. I am way not a warmonger and when it comes to that time to war and take more territory … well ….again I say I suck. I seem to be able to pull out a victory, but not that great. With that in mind, I was going to try to expand as fast as I could and come up with a plan to try to get to that domination limit asap and then get the UN. I try this on most games, but I think only half heartedly. So, here it goes, and any suggestions would be great.

The Ancient Age, 4000bc—710bc
First Moves
In looking at the initial start, I knew most people were going to search sw, which seemed fine, but knowing I hate to move more than 3 turns (I know sometimes a mistake) I really thought about the visable tiles. The choice came down to going sw or n. Unless something really great appeared in the south the move n would be quicker. I knew this was contrary to most who posted in the pre-thread, but I have always been a bit contrary to what others say (for good or bad-it’s my life-what can I say). So, I decided to move my settler n and before that I figured I would indulge my curiosity and send my scout n+ nw to see how big the lake was. To my surprise (as to all of us) there was some nifty game around the lake. Next decision-do I move my settler around the lake or not. Having said earlier, I hate to move a lot for my first city, so….I moved my settler n and worker nw to the oasis. Next turn I sent my settler nw onto the hill to build Mecca and set my worker to mine the oasis. The scout went 2e along the mountains. Next turn, founded Mecca and scout went 2n and set tech to wheel @ 90%.

Worker moves
After worker was done with the oasis, it moved 4 turns to the game forest, chopped, and irrigated. Worker then moved se and chopped and mined. Worker moves n and chopped and irrigate, and so on. My goal was to have the best tiles worked for Mecca and also prep for the next city location.
Mecca initial builds
3050 bc-granary 2800 bc-settler 2510 bc-settler 2230 bc-settler
(Mecca was to be my settler factory and other than a few military, it still is)

I think one of the big things I really focused on was micro managing. I always had, but I think I took it to the next level in this game.

Exploration
I focused heavily on growth at the beginning and didn’t focus on more scouts or exploring warriors. We met the AIs on the following dates:

3300 BC-Russia 2900 BC –France 2270 BC –Otto 1350 BC -Korea

At this point, I assumed the other civs were a bit too far away to be concerned with so I decided I would get to really searching for them later.

Empire Expansion
As mentioned earlier, I really and truly concentrated on expanding so I build hordes of settlers. If
this were a high level, I wouldn’t have lived long due to my slow military growth. Here are the dates
of founding on the next few cities and what I believe I built???

2510 BC founded Medina- built archer 1st, settler 2nd
2310 BC founded Damascus-built war 1st, worker 2nd
1950 BC founded Baghdad- built war 1st, worker 2nd

Here are my 1000 BC stats:

12 towns pop 32 ( 14 happy, 12 cont., 6 unhappy )
141g -4g per lux @ 20% tech @ 80% lit due in 4
currently building 7 war, 2 arch, 1 court, 2 rax- wars will most likely switch
have horses and insence connected
1 settler, 7 workers, 1 scout, 8 war, 3 arch, 2 char, 1 cur weak to rus+oto, ave to fr+ko
know Russia, otto, france, korea
culture 136 +2 per
missing poly, const, curr, rep+ mon, researching lit
2 rax+ 2 granary
current score 249 in 2nd place

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/NichelleCOTM12_1000-bc.jpg

Research and Government
I assumed that with 4 scientific civs and goody huts that the tech pace would be fast and furious …

4000 bc Pottery+ cb
2900 BC traded france pot+cb for alph+ 20g, traded Russia alph for bw+ wc+ 10g
2670 BC got wheel and set to writing
2270 BC traded otto masonry for wheel
1650 BC got writing, traded otto myst +25g for writing, traded france iw for writing, set tech to col to try for rep slingshot-don’t get it though
1350 BC traded korea math +35g for cb+ writing
1200 BC got col, traded france col+math for mm+25g+ bought phil for 139g,tech to horsies @ 80%
1075 BC got horse and set to lit @ 90%,
900 BC got lit set to cur @ 80%,
730 BC traded otto construction for horse+lit+poly+col+ 48g
710 BC got currency, entered next age

Warfare
Well, I will make it quick….an entirely peaceful AA.

Summary and Plans
I currently have 15 towns 46pop –I was a bit silly and didn’t save @ 710bc, but I do have 650bc and there isn’t any real difference between them.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/NichelleCOTM12_650-bc.jpg

I did trade and gift MA techs around but that is a different thread.

Goals for next age, continue to expand, build military and infrastrucure, keep tech pace going.

I am very proud of the micromangement and growth I was finally able to do on this game of the month. I hope this isn’t a one time thing and I think this is one of the best starts of a game that I have had.

Now, if I can just keep it going….into the sucky MA (at least normally for me) but we’ll see…..

The Middle Ages summary will follow shortly…

Predator, barbs fixed

I did not participate in the pre-game thread, so maybe that helped, but I was surprised to see that so many people explored south. Not only is that immediately away from the oases, but also in the north the lakes are more than one square which means a richer choice of starting locations. And, thirdly, moving to the equator ensures that the desert ends.
So the scout went north around the lake and immeditaly spotted a game forest on the river. We settled in 3700bc, northwest of the two game forests, the Worker started chopping to increase the food surplus, and a scan of the surroundings learned that Mecca has a potential 30 shields (with -1 food) in the Middle Ages. An excellent site for 20K Culture (although any strategy works here: settler factory or one horseman/turn).

The scout popped a Warrior from a hut which made contact with Russia, we traded for Pottery and then stole their Worker. :)
While the Scout turned about and headed south, the Warrior went east towards the wetlands and ended up rounding the lake, and the slave joined Mecca to speed up its development.

The scout, going counterclockwise, managed to contact France, Ottomans and Korea, and that was it. It never saw another hut .... oh well, we kept sharing all techs with our neighbours and we only wanted the Republic slingshot and Literature anyway. Thanks to the Great Library, we still reached the Middle Ages in 825bc.

A funny thing happend in 2230bc when an unprotected Russian Settler entered the territory around Mecca, apparently chased by barbarians. Naturally, we made two slaves, and a few turns later the dented Russians gave St. Petersburg for peace!

Mecca
3700bc Palace (2 rounds of wealth)
3550bc Warrior (forest cut)
3250bc Worker
3200bc Slave (Russia) joins Mecca
3050bc Slave (France) joins Mecca
2950bc Settler (to found Medina on the desert incense)
2800bc Worker
2430bc Granary (4-turn factory at size 4-5-5-6)
2270bc Settler (to found Damascus on the silks)
2110bc Settler (to found Baghdad on the hill near the wines)
1950bc Temple
1910bc Worker
1830bc size 7
1650bc size 8 (turned Republic in 1675bc)
1600bc size 9
1550bc size 11 (one slave joined)
1475bc size 12, sold Granary
1275bc THE GREAT LIBRARY
1250bc Library (disbanded Warrior and bought Granary)
875bc THE PYRAMIDS
850bc Colosseum (disbanded Scout and bought Marketplace)
825bc ---- MIDDLE AGES ---- buildqueue says:
610bc THE ORACLE
590bc Cathedral
570bc Marketplace
370bc HANGING GARDENS

Towns
3700bc Mecca
2850bc Medina
2190bc Damascus
2030bc Baghdad
1910bc St. Petersburg (peace deal with Russia)
1400bc Najran (connecting lake and norhern sea)
1325bc Kufah (on the large southern lake with fish,sugar,wines)
1175bc Basra (southeast on the Arabian lake)
1100bc Khurasan (dropped by Galley on the landbridge, seagate)
950bc Anjar (dropped by Galley on Korean continent at game forest, seagate)
875bc Fustat (at the wheats north)
825bc Aden (hill NW on Mecca's river)
825bc Yamama (dropped by Galley at the games far southeast)

Technology
4000bc Ceremonial Burial (sole starting tech)
3650bc Pottery (Russia)
3250bc Alphabet (France)
3150bc Bronze Working + Masonry (Russia)
3050bc Warrior Code (Ottomans)
2350bc Writing (research), Iron Working (Korea), The Wheel (Russia)
1870bc Code of Laws (research), Mathematics (Ottomans)
1790bc Horseback Riding (Russia)
1700bc Philosophy (research), The Republic (slingshot)
1300bc Mysticism (Korea), Map Making (France)
950bc Construction (Great Library)
875bc Currency (Russia)
825bc Polytheism + Monotheism + Engineering (Great Library)

Culture progress in Mecca
4000bc 0
3500bc 4
3000bc 14
2550bc 27
2150bc 47
1750bc 79
1500bc 111
1250bc 166
1000bc 296

QSC 1000bc
9 towns (one over 6)
28 citizens (potentially all happy)
117 tiles
1 Palace
3 Temples
1 Library
Great Library
2 Settlers
13 Workers
4 Slaves
2 Scouts
1 Warrior (vet)
2 Archers
1 Galley
3 contacts
218 gold
300 shields
91 food
all AA tech except Polytheism,Construction,Currency,Monarchy

http://www.castlegobs.nl/civ3/cotm12_1000bc.jpg

Obviously I didn't optimize for QSC score, the 20K has priority. :)

The Garden of Allah

This will be my first religious civ to play in XotM.
It also turns out we are the only religious civ in
the game, which means a pottery monopoly. Probably
a lot of people going for 100K, we'll see what happens.
One interesting thing I find is that the three civs
with sea UUs are all in.

First Wanderings

Looking at the map, we are slightly south of the
equator. After trying CotM42 thru the ancient age,
I don't want any part of jungle, so we're heading
south. Mecca is founded after a move ne. In -3400 we
find the Turks. The French are contact 3 turns later,
and 2 more turns later finds a Russian settler pair.

Haggling

The Ottomans were not receptive to trading BW and
Masonry for pottery and CB. The French were more open,
trading mason + 10 for pottery. We turn around and
trade Ozzie pot + CB for BW + 10. Cathy trades warcode
+ 10 for mason.

Taming the horses

We discover the wheel in -2800. We spot horses 5se, 1s
of Mecca. We turn Mecca into a 10 turn settler/worker
factory. Medina founded in -2270 next to the horses.
In -2110 we trade France mystic for a dhimmi.

The culture center

In -1725 we found Damascus, and decide that city will be
the cultural center of Arabia. In another note, we build
Baghdad in -1525. In -1400, we celebrate the year of the
temples, as Damascus, Mecca and Medina all finish at the
same time.

Ambassadors of the faith

In -1350 we trade writing to Russia for math + 111. We
use that money to open embassies to France, Turkey and
Russia. I've set up things so that Mecca is my settler/
worker factory, Medina my military factory, and Damascus
my culture center. In -1175 we pull off the philo sling-
shot, getting poly. In -1125 we build Najran.

Barbarian infidels

A group of workers roading the incense ssw of Damascus is
harassed by barbarian horses. Our own move to intercept
and end up playing zone defense. Also in -1150 we meet the
Koreans, who are backward and have nothing to trade.
Russians try to send a settler pair into our lands, we play
zone again to block.

QSC Stats:

Score: 179 Firaxis, Mapstats 2531
Russians 293, Turks 263, Korea 201, France 192.
Land: 5 towns, 93 squares
Population: 14--7 happy, 4 content, 3 sad.
Units: 4 workers, slave, settler, scout, warrior, archer,
3 horse. Horses are vets, others are regulars.
Buildings: 4 temples, rax, grain.
Production: 47 food, 129 shields, 40 gold.
Diplomacy: 4 contacts, 3 embassies.
Techs: All starters + IW, math, writ, mystic, philo, HB,
poly.

Expansion:

In -975 we build Kufah. In -800 we learn lit, start
currency. We later trade philo to Russia for maps + 25.
We build Basra in -670 on the grapes. In -590 we trade
Philo + map + 22 to France for construct, which gets traded
to Korea for law + 35. That was some fine haggling.

Sneak attack:

In -570, the Russians sneak attack Basra, but are repulsed.
Damascus is beat to the Oracle, so they switch to the GLib.
Khurasan built, starts a rax. Our neighbors want Lit to
ally with us, so we are on our own. We briefly take Novgorod
2 turns later, but it is immediatley taken back. Russians
are ready to talk in -410, but I want to try to take something
from them first. In -390 we learn Currency and enter the
medieval age. Start learning Republic. We are 8 turns from
the GLib. I forgot to get stats, may edit them in later.

Open, barbs fixed.

We decide to follow the breadcrumbs to the east and settle Mecca on the river next to the game in 3750BC. We meet the French and Ottomans soon after and trade for Alphabet, Bronze, and Masonry. Build a couple of curraghs and a couple of scouts and send them around the continent. Our scouts are unlucky and get killed by barbs pretty quickly. We meet Korea in 2550BC and trade for WC and Wheel. Meet Russia in 1990BC and trade for IW - we need a bit of culture at Damascus to grab the iron currently inside Ottoman borders, which is not a problem with cheap temples and forest chopping.

In 1300BC we pull off the Republic slingshot and revolt. In 1250BC the Ottomans demand Writing from us - we are weak, so we let em have it. Russia does the same a few turns later.

--------------------------------------------------------

QSC Stats:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/1000BC.JPG

8 cities, 18 pop
1 granary, 1 barracks, 1 temple
6 workers, 10 warriors, 2 curraghs
4 contacts
AA techs bar Construction, Currency, Maps, Monarchy, HBR

--------------------------------------------------------

In 750BC we trade for the remaining techs we need to escape the Ancient Ages, leaving the others trapped. I've got a feeling I expanded too far out in an attempt to grab sweet spots and deny others resources and lux. We'll see if it comes back to haunt me later.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/750BC.JPG

I decided to return to Civilization and due to a break in the Russian Nonreload championship turned to CoTM.

Did not take notes during the game so just some key events.

The capital was founded like many to the SE near two games. Setting the capital in the centre of a dezert not a good idea anyway.
Start learninng mysticism to trade for alphabet I expected to get from one of quite many commercial or seafaring civs that were in the game. French were to trade with.
I founded only 6 cities including Mecca. I don't like settling in poor places and having cities too dense to interfere with each other later.
In goody huts nothing interesting was poped-up except por IW.
Researched mathematics and construction myself going for aqueduct for my capital.
Also literature was researched after Republique slingshot.
As result MA came only in 670BC after got Currency.
Got Engineering from Ottomans and Monoteism from Russians. The Koreans were the last in the list to allow free tech so I decided to stop at the point. There was only 1/3 chance to get feudalism and morover, they had iron nearby.
6 cities only but 4 of them with 7-8 population with temples, libriaries and barracks. And now ready to produce horsemen to start conquests. First - Ottomans as they have Edrine to complete 1st ring (they managed to place it near silks) and Iron. And certainly they are closest.

The sunrise through his hotel startled a badly hung-over Mursilis awake. If he could survive another couple of nights, he’d be heading back to the quiet days and nights at Galactic Operations Terrestrial Management Unit (GOTM for short). As he laid there waiting for his eyes to finally focus, the buzzing of the intercom nearly launched him into orbit. “What is it?” he moaned to the operations manager as he tried to clear the cobwebs from his mind. The response seemed to echo around his head until the words finally arranged themselves into a proper sentence. The launch scheduled for the middle of the month had been rescheduled earlier due to unforeseen solar flare activity.

Without thinking, Mursilis bolted upright, only to find himself lunging for the waste basket to deposit what was left of last night’s dinner. As he rose he wiped is face and asked the operator for connect him with his office. The duty officer was surprised to have the boss calling at that early in the day. He quickly read the list of on-site colony managers and waited quietly for Mursilis to select from the available options. Abu Bakr had stayed behind to celebrate a Muslim religious holiday and was the only leader on campus. With the launch only hours away, Mursilis was quickly connected to Abu’s quarters.

Abu was so pleased to be finally assigned to lead a colonial party. His last assignment was terminated early due to time constraints and he was determined to complete his mission this time. He studied the terrain survey and came to the conclusion that the initial landing site was not conducive to long term growth. He longed for the chance to control an entire continent and be voted leader of the world. With this new colony he would finally achieve that goal.

The early reports from Lewis the scout made the decision to move north an easy one. Plentiful game and a fresh water supply were ideal for starting a colony. With the founding of Mecca in 3700 BC, his empire had begun. Lewis was the first of three Arab scouts and his successes were the key to early growth for Abu. The contact with France in 3450 BC by Lewis and Russia the same year by Clark, led to the acquisition of Masonry & Bronze Working. Lewis also contacted the Ottomans in 3150 BC gaining Warrior Code and popped a hut for Mysticism. Boone, the third and final scout contacted the Koreans in 2710 BC gaining Alphabet for the Arabs and popping a hut for Horseback Riding in 2270 BC. Boone’s final act was to pop a hut for 25g, but in doing so, he arrived next to a barbarian warrior who slew him without mercy. Additional research and trading had pushed the Arabs to the forefront of knowledge, however with little military, both Russia and Korea were able to demand and receive technology for no cost. The discovery of Philosophy in 1100 BC led to the gift of Republic from a passing wise-man and The United Arab Republic was born in 1025 BC and the at the end of his third millennia of rule his empire was seven cities strong with a very small military of three warriors and one horseman.

The next three hundred years were quite calm, with only the death of Clark to a barbarian horseman, the completion of the Pyramids in Paris and couple of blackmails by the Ottomans and Koreans, when in 710 BC the Arab scientists discovered Map Making and the Arabs were the first to enter the Middle Ages.

Things looked pretty good for Abu. He had survived the early ages with limited military and had acquired access to horses and iron. His army was beginning to grow and soon he would have his feared Ansar Warriors to begin his continental conquest.

COTM 12 – Predator

I started this game hoping to redeem myself from my humiliating loss in GOTM 43. Looking at the start, I was tempted to walk the settler, but was also afraid of sending the settler in the wrong direction. Two oases and three freshwater tiles lead to a good research rate and a settler every ten turns. I sent my scout north, and spotted the game across the lake. While it was sort of within walking distance, I was somewhat wary of the time it would take to walk that far, chop the forests, and set up the settler factory. Ultimately, I settled in place, researched pottery, and built a couple scouts, 2 military police, and a granary. Once the granary was up I started a 10-turn settler/unit pump. The first settler went north and founded Medina in 2110 BC on the coast next to the game forests. With the help of a couple well-timed chops I put a granary up in Medina and began pumping out workers and settlers.

Expansion
Expansion was slow at first. In 1000BC I had only 6 cities, but I was generally able to get good land. I decided to expand to the north first before the Russians snapped up all the good city spaces. I also placed one city on the horses to the south on top of the horses to deny them to the Ottomans. Once Median was up and running, the pace picked up and by 200BC I had 12 self-made cities (and a few stolen ones).

Research
I researched pottery first to ensure the presence of granries, then the wheel for trading leverage. Once this was done I decided to go for a Republic slingshot seeing how slow and backwards the AI was. I actually succeeded in getting CoL and philosophy before anyone else on the continent, but apparently someone on another continent got there first. At this point I self-researched Republic and traded it for Monarchy. I took advantage of the religious trait and used Monarchy as an intermediate government to soften the unit support shock of republic.
Trading was nothing spectacular, mainly because the AI lagged severely and didn’t have much to trade. France and the Ottomans eventually started moving faster I did manage to pick up most of the ancient techs through trading. My approximate research path was:
Pottery
Trade for BW, masonry, and WC
Wheel
Trade for IW
Alphabet
Writing
Code of Laws
Philosophy (in 1000BC)
Trade for MM
Horseback Riding
Republic
Trade for Monarchy
Literature
Trade for Consturction
Trade for Currency (in 210 BC) to reach middle ages

Luxuries
This map was rather generous with luxuries. Besides the freebie incense near the start, I grabbed a silk from the mountains to the north and a wine to the southwest. Further inspection of the map revealed furs in Ottoman territory which I planned to secure in the early middle ages.

War
My first thought upon seeing the desert start was that I would have to fight early on in order to get better land, like in GOTM 42. However, the civ placement on this map was significantly looser, leading to less pressure early on. Also, the presence of a settler factory nearby made waiting and founding more cities a viable option. Finally, the lack of the militaristic trait makes a real difference for early attacks, since a non-mil barracks costs the same as a mil barracks plus a (veteran) archer. As it was, I had 3 attack units (archer + 2 chariots) in 1000BC. Had I been playing a militaristic civ instead I would have had 6 and been a position to attack someone.
I finally declared war on the Ottomans in ~370 BC, mainly because they had iron. I started the war with about 8 horsemen and a few archers. The Ottomans had just fought a war with Russia and lost a lot of their army, so they presented no resistance at all. They didn’t even think to connect their iron and build swords When I entered the middle ages, I had already taken their core cities and was well toward mopping up the remainder.

Wonders
The Ottomans kindly built the Oracle for me in their capital. I won’t get too much use out of it before getting Education. The also built the Mausoleum of Mausillos, for what that’s worth. I’m also likely to get the Hanging gardens from their last remaining city once they finish it. More importantly, the French have built the pyramids, which will be very useful. Since the AI is such a push-over on this difficulty setting, the real challenge isn’t steamrollering them but rather pumping enough settlers to claim domination as quickly as possible, something that will be really helped by the pyramids.

Future plans
As the middle ages begin, I control the only iron on the main continent, besides Korea, who appear to be lagging severly anyway. This leaves me open to go wild with Ansars, hopefully before anyone can start building muskets. The French are definitely next, since they have the pyramids, and because I want to hit them before they can build the new and improved C3C musketeer. The more land I take the less likely they are to have saltpeter when it becomes available. Because Ansars are almost as good as cavalry, I’ll research the top branch of the tech tree first in order to get naval capability earlier. I may even shut off research entirely and just rush-build more ansars. It is entirely possible that the home continent itself is big enough to get domination without ever building a single ship.

My QSC map with six small but precious cities:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/qsc.jpg

And my much larger empire at the start of the middle ages:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/middle_ages.jpg

Evaluation:
Settling in place was probably a mistake. Those who hiked seem to have done better. Also delaying the Republic slingshot for so long was stupid. I should have skipped the Wheel and done it right after pottery. And I probably could have hit the Ottomans sooner, although that doesn’t matter too much in the long run.
On the positive side, I managed to make good use of the settlers I did have. The northern cities will be very productive with their hills and grasslands. I have as much of my core as could be expected given the starting position of the Russians. And I also managed to make it into the middle age in a strong military position. Without horses or iron, Russia will not be a threat until the industrial age, and France is about to get smacked before they can develop gunpowder.

Open, Barbs Fixed

Wow, it's good to be back to civfanatics. It's been a long reprieve, almost a year I think -- stuck up in the boonies of Alaska will do that I suppose. Anyhow, I know my civ-skills are in decline because I haven't played in so long, but now that I'm back I can't resist the calling and here I go again. Picking up COTM12 hopefully with time enough to finish before the end of the month. So we'll try for a quick conquest/domination victory.

As I missed the QSC submission, I didn't write anything down and don't have specific dates. But I decided to plant on the spot because I didn't want to move far (and I started without checking out the pre-game discussion). I didn't see anything nearby, and I kind of regret that, but not too badly.

Russia was a big land-hog from the north. She hit the good lands in the north of the start spot just after I started settling, so it got a little crowded in there. Several times she just beat me to a settling location, especially the town just west of Mecca. Also a bit of a bully -- she's demanded techs from me twice so far. War with Russia is inevitable; as soon as anwars arrive she dies.

The other bully, to the south, is Otto-Man. He's a bit of a jerk. But between the two jerks, it's been peaceful so far. No wars of any kind. That'll change: I've finally hooked up horses, and have started pumping a few out.

Korea is completely backwards, and France is just a bit behind. I still don't think anyone else has contacted Korea, besides myself; the central location has helped as far as trading techs goes.

I'm still in a depotism, which I wonder why now -- I'm playing a religious civ, duh! My thinking was that I wanted to wait to hit the MA before revolting because of the down time, but if I'm religious that doesn't really stack up. Ah well.

So in 530BC I hit the Middle Ages. I have a full 11 cities, and two settlers are en route to new locations, however prime real estate is scarce and galleys will soon have to shuttle settlers about. Medina is a good 5 turn settler factory, which was good practice for me to get back in the swing of making the things. I had a couple mis-haps along the way, for sure.

Here's hoping for a violent Middle Ages.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/COTM12_530AD_EndOfAA.jpg

edit: playing open class

Well, I'm new to this so I don't have super detailed notes. This is my second GOTM... the first being a catastrophic failure in GOTM 43!

I moved the settler SE and settled directly on the incense hill. Built one scout that went north, the first scout went south. Built a granary and a settler before building anything else.

I was able to expand fairly rapidly but I neglected to check things out at the end of the QSC period so I don't remember how many towns. Think I had around 8. The Ottomans started roading the iron to the south and I plopped a city right next to it... they proceeded to road and mine it for me! I built barracks and warriors exclusively, forgetting how expensive they are to upgrade. Oh, well. When I remembered I started on the horses. I should have roaded them and built nothing but, but oh well. I went up the bottom of the tech tree, researching poly and monarchy. Switched to monarchy as soon as I got it and then switched off research to hoard gold for upgrades and temple rushing in soon to be conquered lands.

Declared war on the Ottomans in 510BC. By 410BC I had taken their capital and 2 northernmost cities. Around this time I see barb horses coming from the NE. I never explored past the mountains just NE of the capital and never realized there was more land up there! So I send some horse up there and finally find Korea in 290BC. Had no idea there was another civ on our continent. Somewhere in the 200's the French, Russians, and Ottomans all enter the MA. I'm able to trade for currency and enter the MA myself. I take one last Ottoman town and make peace with them for Engineering, Literature, and one town, leaving them with two towns very distant from each other.

In 190BC I'm researching Feudalism, have 21 towns, 4 settlers, 8 swords, 13 horses, 15 workers and a couple slaves, 9 warriors, 1 spear.

I'm remaining friendly with the Russians by gifting them some luxuries. As far as I can tell they don't have any horses! :) I have extra but will keep them to myself. The French have seven towns but four of them are building wonders. They should be easy pickings if I can get them before they have pikes. I want to eliminate them before they have a chance at muskets. Then I'll go after the Russians before they can get cavalry.

My empire in 190BC, just after entering the MA and ending my first war:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Wardancecotm.JPG

I had to quit not long after I last posted. Everyone else had muskets and was so far ahead of me, then my border cities started to culture flip. I gave up in disgust.

Does the palace jump work the same way in conquests as it does in PTW? Thinking of jumping my palace further south into conquered territory...

No, in fact a palace jump is quite often a negative to your empire as the once prosperous core is now quite corrupt.

To summarize a SirPleib article (I wasn't able to find the link), try to build the FP as early as possible in the direction you expect to be expanding.

Thanks, Denyd. Well, I've just finished my FP on the edge of my empire bordering Russia, in the same spot I think I saw someone building their 20k city. So that should work out ok for me.

Open, NoAIPatrol=0. My goal of late seems to be Domination, by the usual means of peacful then aggressive expansion.

QSC period.

Following A'AbarachAmadan's amd Redbad's thinking I send scout sw-sw. Don't see anything. Then settler se. Then scout e-e, and found Mecca one se of starting spot. I do a bad job of early-early exploring, and miss the cow with my second scout heading North. I settle my second city on the river with two game to the SE.

In 2510 BC A lone Ottoman rWarrior has strolled to the hills one SE of Mecca. I just finished a second rWarrior MP. I can't imagine he's going to declare, but that's just what he does. Their warrior loses a HP while killing one of my warriors. He then retreats E to the desert. They didn't pose much of a threat after that. Especially after what happens to them later.

My third city is to claim the silks, and horses, next to the Ottomans. It was about 2000 BC when I first uncovered the second game, which was still available to the north, but the cow was taken by the Russians. My fourth city claimed those two game and two incense. It's great having so many lakes around, and not needing to be on the river. :) Great Map!
I was at war with Russia with no real action until much later.

At 1000 BC I still hadn't claimed the wine. Or maybe even worse, still hadn't sent an extra scout that I had sitting on the sugar, just "watching for Russians" over the land bridge. :crazyeye: Cold War wastage.

I was just so damned happy I had horses. I thought the rest was to be easy. ;)

1000 BC (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/1000bc2.jpg)

QSC stats: 4 cities, 12 pop, 2 temples, 2 barracks, 1 settler, 3 workers, 1 scout, 5 warriors, 1 spear, 2 horse.

In about 500 years I'll see the 2 wheats over the bridge, and get 3 settlers out there.

In 530 BC I notice that the Ottomans' Iron has depleted! Haha. And they didn't get a new one pop up for them. I originally thought it jumped to the island but later learned that was there all along. Don't know where it went...yet.

In 130 BC, at peace with the world, I reach Middle Ages. I have a settler about to claim the only Iron on the continent, near Korea. Ottomans have a city on Iron Island, but no harbor. I also have all the horses so far, and I'm just about to begin my aggressive expansion on France to get my Furs and Wine. Slow, but stlyin' [party]
130 BC (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/ljdjr130bc.jpg)

Open class

The Ancient Age (4000bc - 350bc)

1. Victory condition: domination or conquest. I want the game to be fairly quick to play, and with a fair score to give my global player ranking a bit of a boost. The Arabs' expansionism and their fast knights make either military victory easier. Whether I dominate or conquer will probably depend upon the percentage of land available to me on the starting continent.

2. Do I move my settler? It's a bad start, but I can't see where the good land is, so there's no point wandering in a random direction. Settle in place. This is no place for a settler factory, so I won't put a granary here. Build orders are 2 scouts and a warrior, followed by a settler.

3. Second city: by now I see that there are settler factory locations in three directions. NW is marginally closer, secures the incense, and can act as a springboard to go for 3 more resources (silk, horses, wine). I settle SW of the two deer, planning for another city to share the deer and take the cow.

4. Scouts? Doing good business. I meet Korea (3350bc), Russia and the Ottoman (3200bc), and France (3100bc). I get Bronze from a hut, a warrior and a worker. The worker was an error - it was a long way from home and I had forgotten to block with my build queue. However, it was this worker who explored his way across Korea and popped a hut SE of Seoul which gave Arabia its third town!

5. Resource grabbing: My third city is next to the the SE deer, and the fourth claims the silks which Russia thought were hers. This will be a source of friction, and Russia will repeatedly send a small stack of warriors into my land, whereupon I give Cath some extravagant per-turn deal and the stack goes home again. The fifth city is similarly aggressive; discontiguous with my empire, one tile north of the Ottoman iron, thus securing the southern silks as well as the iron. Cheap temples will help me in these little culture battles. The northern wine is claimed at the same time as the the horses in the SE, in 1525bc.

6. Techs and AIs: France is backward (I bought her workers, and she failed to put up any decent infrastructure) but the rest of us all keep the same sort of pace. I make several bad-with-hindsight research choices, and thrice in the ancient age I buy a tech from Osman which I will research myself in 1 or 2 turns. The French and Ottoman meet early, and they meet the Russians later although I manage to settle across the continent so that the French and Russians do not border each other. Russia gets the horses W of Arabia, and the Ottoman gets the furs. Korea remains isolated as I block the isthmus NE of the start with a scout, and later (850bc) a city, but they do secure their nearest iron source.

7. War! My appeasement of Russia finally fails in 1350bc. At this stage my empire is a sinuous curve from the northern wine to the southern iron, and it is hard to rush defenders to the Russian front. The war focuses on my silk-stealing town, and I come to thank my decision to site this town on a hill. Several Russian archers are repelled by staunch warriors and spears in this town. Peace is agreed in 1150bc for pretty even terms.

8. The slingshot? Yes, I get the slingshot without ever expecting to do it. Writing was bought from the AI, and then I research Philosophy in 1275bc. I take Monarchy and revolt in 1250bc.

9. QSC stats: 10 towns with 27 citizens. 1 settler, 14 workers, 2 scouts, 15 military units. All ancient techs except Construction, Laws, Republic, Literature. MapStat estimates a QSC score of 4428, but I wasn't in time to submit :(

10. And on to the medieval... Laws and Literature are researched at max, but then I slack off and start stockpiling cash while I build horses, so I can upgrade a decent force to ansars. In 410bc the Forbidden Palace is built in Najran, the town by the Russian silk which kicked off the earlier war. This is a strong town and starts to specialise in wonders. Under Monarchy, the nearby game town makes an easy 4-turn settler factory, and I have 18 towns when, in 350bc, Construction is traded from the Ottoman and I enter the medieval era.