COTM13: Final Spoiler

Here's where you let it all hang out. As you may have noticed, if you're not pro-active in taking control, this map only gets harder as the game goes on. How did it go for you?

You must have submitted your final save to the GOTM upload site in order to read this thread. There are no spoiler restrictions.

(And please do remember to check out the Hunting Tips threads to give Conquest players some advice.)

Cheers,
Renata

I was one of only two civs to make it to the end of my game!

Unfortunately, the other one was the Aztecs, who had about 120,000 culture to my 20,000. Once they finished off the Portugese, it was all over for me.

Actually, it was all over for me at about 2000 BC. The Arabs declared war on me and I was spending all my shields cranking out military units just to fend off the Arabs. This crippled my expansion and research and I basically never recovered. I was a rump state throughout the game, always at least a full age behind the leaders. I did manage to expand to the south and west of our starting position once the Arabs were willing to make peace, but by then, the other civs were researching Middle Ages techs and I was still working on things like Map Making and Polytheism. Much later, the Aztecs came through and started razing Arab cities, which again allowed me to expand, but again, it was too little too late for me.

Oh well. I'll get 'em next month!

My first deity victory! :banana:
Artillery was the key. One arty-stack and one stack of cavalry took out one enemy city every second turn. This way Abu was disbanded in 1440 AD. Afterwards I was the largest civ on the map and had no big problems in deleting Henry, for what I was making heavy use of tanks. He said good-bye in 1760 AD.
I had conquered his UN, but the votes I risked were inconclusive. My luck they didn´t go against me! So I started some modern warfare on the other continent until I had all researched the techs needed to launch my SpaceShip - which I did in 1860 AD, gathering 4584 Jasons.

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

This game again took so much time to play, I have already forgotten how it went.
Just a few notes about what I still remember about middle ages and onward.

I entered middle ages in 975BC and started researching engineering.
When I met Byzantines a few turns later and gifted them they got engineering, so I already wasted some research.
I then bee-lined to education to get unis up, hoping the AI will get to gunpowder in this time.
The plan was to let the other continent research unmolested and take the own continent when time permits, while always researching full.

The latter part worked fine, but the other continent civs had a lot wars on their own and were researching terribly slow.

I had to research more than half of the required middle age techs myself, but they got me navigation for a nice map and economy.

At the beginning of the IA I had grabbed the wonders in Mecca and Lisbon and finished Smith's to get a golden age.
Theodora provided me with here free steam power, for an arm and a leg.
The only other required tech I could squeeze out of the AI in IA was RP. And I had already researched flight by that time.
I removed also the weaklings from the map in this timeframe, so it was only Theodora, Caesar and me.

The rest was business as usual:
ToE timed to modern age. Theodora got computers. Traded, ToE gives mini and fusion. Internet completes same turn.
Still didn't get down to 4-turn research immediately. My scientist farms just hadn't grown fast enough (pyramids on the other continent).
Byzantines got me rocketry while I researched everything else.
Launched my space ship in 1340AD.

In hindsight I should better have left the Portugese as researcher and taken out the hopeless Romans. But that would have needed quite a bit more military effort.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/klarius_c13_m2.gif

I expanded towards north first to grab the wheat with rather loose city placement. By 1000BC I had a mere 5 cities.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/cotmrat1000bc.jpg

I traded my way up and got a few techs as monopoly such as writing, philo (and with it currency). After this I completely switched off research for a long time. Through some wars I expanded and connected to the southern iron
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/cotmrat10ad.jpg

I allied Arabs versus Portugese to weaken both and keep the Portugese off our land. Asking AI's to leave our territory I was able to get into
war without war weariness since I stayed in republic for the rest of the game.
I entered the GA in 420AD in a switch off sides war against Arabs and they were gone by 490AD destroyed by the Portugese

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/cotmrat500ad.jpg

I entered the IA in 600AD trading my way up and warring. I had a millenium war with Egypt without ever seriously fighting
but this kept the war happiness.
In 790AD the Incas were destroyed on the other continent.
In 800AD demanded Portugese to remove their units. They declared and we started razing some towns in the north to diconnect the saltpeter. The losses were heavy, but built a lot of Cav's and in 870AD I finally got my first army, a Cav army.
After failing to plant a spy with them, the Aztecs declared war. I razed Aztec towns on our Island in the west and resettled the land. Started a 2nd Portugese war, razed some towns, but didn't gain armies. stole my way
further up to corporation waiting for ToE.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/cotmrat1000ad.jpg

Around 1100AD I got some lucky stealing possibilities, managed to plant spy in with Aztecs, stealing steel and I managed to get a lot of money from Byz (3600g). One turn later, I traded steel for medicine and got another 1100g.
Started finally own research on sanitation while prebuilding for ToE and Hoover.
AI researched very slow due to multiple wars, but 2 turns before finishing research on sanitation the AI's had it. The same happened with scientific methods, AI's aquired it 2 turns before our research, subsequently switched off research. I was able to trade refining with Rome since they lacked other techs. Sold it for good gold.

I built ToE, in 1280AD and chose AT and Electronics to get Hoover.

In the meantime I fought 2 wars against Portugal trying to secure our Island all to ourselves.
In 1340 we own the continent, but Portugese had one city on an Island left. In 1385AD, managed to take the Portugese out.

In 1350AD I asked Aztecs to leave our territory and they declare. At this stage I decided to win by conquest and needed the world at war, so I signed in
Egypt, Byz and Rome to fight Aztecs.

Razed 3 Aztecs towns and in 1425AD settled 1st town on the new continent to claim the ivory.

In 1445AD discover flight via self research as monopoly. Sold it to Rome (Civ #2) for 200gpt,1670g to fuel my own research
By 1465 major Aztec cities were destroyed.

In 1495AD switched sides to go after the strongest AI, the Romans, Tried to expose their spy and they declared
Signed peace with Aztecs and get all other 3 AI's to ally against Rome

The stats at that turn in terms of cities:
Rome 17
Byz 15
Egypt 11
Aztecs 9
France 67

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/cotmrat1495ad.jpg

We got motorized transport soon after and continued to raze towns. Since the other Civ's tried to resettle the land
I tried to seal off the south.

In 1555 took out the last 2 Roman cities in the south on the continent and in a peace deal get 2 towns including the 1 tile Island.
With the entire south taken I could concentrate towards the north.

I also entered the MA, with Fission and Rocketry, but this was not needed.
In 1560 planted a spy with egypt and they declared, their doom. I also built the UN just in case.
in 1595 we eliminated Egypt taking their capital. At that moment only Aztecs (5 cities), Rome (3 cities) and Byz (16 cities) left

In 1615 eliminated Aztecs, in 1645 the Byzantines and in 1650 eliminated the last Roman city.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/cotmrat1655ad.jpg

Stats:
Final Firaxis Score 1655AD: 7602
Jason score: 6452
Culture 24420
Cities: 83 (57% domination)
In the end I owned 18 armies.

What was your jason score, Klarius? Great game, the little animating screen made it look easy.

The Jason was a bit below 10000.
I would have scored higher if I just would have gone for domination in 700-800 timeframe which would have been easily possible.
The spaceship date is too late for deity, but the AI just didn't want to research deity like :cry: .

Klarius, well done, :goodjob: just shows how much I can still learn ;) , but domination is faster to achieve than conquest in this case I believe

In my last spoiler I said that Portugal only had 1 IA tech when I reached the IA. That probably wasn't true; they wasted that time on the Nationalism-dependent optional techs.

I started the IA researching steam power. I was beaten to that, but I got industrialization first, which I parlayed into Medicine and sanitation (IIRC). I was a little behind in the early IA, but the wars began to wear the AIs down, and I crept ahead. I was tied with them when I built ToE, and I kept the lead, or was even, for the rest of the game. Wars erupted, and the Aztecs and Arabs had many, many battles inside my borders. I was coasting, building a defensive military with traded rubber, when I was sneak-attacked by the Portugese. My defenses were stout, and I immediately enlisted everyone but the Byzantines (now secluded on the northeastern island) to the war effort. Early on I attacked a one hp infantry with a musketeer. I won, setting off my golden age. I didn't look back. With 90-100% research (at which rate I was losing between 50-200 gpt; I could support it because the AIs often had lots of gold around. Portugal got up around 11000 in the MA, and at the end Egypt had around 20000) I researched Mass Production and Motorized transportation myself and then traded MP and 4700 or so gold to Egypt for Flight, propelling me into the Modern Age. I went straight for Fission, got it in 8-9 turns, and built the UN.

Once I knew that I had a good shot at the UN I began to look at my opponents. I though for a long time it was to be the Aztecs, but the fact that everyone (save myself) was at war with them eventually wore them down, and Egypt took the lead. This didn't bother me much, as I was counting on 4 votes (of 7 civs left): myself, the Arabs, the Romans, and the Byzantines. I was gracious with the Byz and Arabs and polite with the Romans. However, 2 turns before the UN was buit, the Arabs signed a MPP with the Egyptians. This took one of my votes, meaning that I needed the Aztecs to join me. Right before the vote I gifted them a tech, hoping this would bring them from annoyed to polite. It worked. The vote was 5-2. The Arabs voted for me after all.

VICTORY!!!! :D :dance: (Actually, I did do a little dance when I won. Creepy, I know.)

Diplomatic victory in 1475 AD, with a firaxis score of 5883 and a jason of...um...I don't remember, it was in the 6 or 7 thousands.

With a little skill (most of which I learned here) and a ton of luck, I was able to beat a deity game. Thanks to everyone (knowingly or not) who helped me reach this milestone. :thanx:

Middle Ages (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2846579&postcount=16)

Ouch. :cry:

1450 AD: Switch to Commie
1540 AD: Portugeuse, who came to the aid of the Aztecs, finish off the Romans. This is apparently the nail in my rep coffin.
1570 AD: Inca gets the UN.
1590 AD: Inca is building the Internet. I'm researching Steel...
1650 AD: Aztecs declare on Portugal. I'm hoping it's a powder keg.
1655 AD: Inca declares on Portugal.
1660 AD: The Byzantines sign MA with Inca against Portugal. This isn't really news.
1740 AD: Learn Motor. Trans.
1750 AD: Portugal and Inca peace, with Inca having removed Portugal from its landmass.
1758 AD: Aztecs declare on me.
Somewhere in here, Byzantine and Inca go to war.
1766 AD: Aztecs declare on Inca. (damnit, you're mine! :( )
1770 AD: I capture Texcoco. Inca snags Tlatelolco.
1772 AD: Inca finishes off the last 2 Aztec cities with Modern Armor. Oh, and the Byzantines too.
1774 AD: Sign MPP with Portugal... The writing is pretty much on the wall. Short of an ROP raping of Cuzco, there's no stopping the spaceship. I'm just too far behind in tech.

Somewhere in between... Inca boots me off their continent. I lose approx. 75 tanks in the process.

1828 AD: Inca finally launches. 4040 Firaxis. 1762 Jason. (ouch?) I finish with 23% of Area, 35% of Pop. Inca has 48% and 40% respectively, not to mention 149k+ culture to my 44.5k.

Final military:

72 Cavalry
104 Infantry
77 Tank
35 Artillery
20 Other MP
7 Bomber
~14 ships, incl. 4 Transports.

I think I needed to get aggressive and take out either the Romans or Byzantine at some point, but I was just too far behind tech-wise to think I could mount any decent offense. But hey, on the bright side, I actually made it to see 1800 AD. :goodjob: :cool: :lol: I'll get this Deity thing down someday.

Conquest Class

First Deity win, first GOTM played, first post in the civfanatics forums ever. Many firsts, although I spent some time trying to read up on tactics and stuff. Many thanks to strategy&mechanics wizkids like Bamspeedy, Isio, Sirpleb & many more. Never would've won on deity without your tips, as I was usually struggling on Emperor before this game :crazyeye:

The game took so much time, and I didn't take notes or record much. Started out pretty well I think. Built paris on the spot, sent the other settler north. Built warrior, granary and then my cities were building almost exclusively settlers and workers until I had about 25 cities... Managed to grab almost all the land to the southwest except for the westernmost part where Aztecs had four towns. Bastardly Arabs beat me to the gems and iron to the northeast by one lousy turn :cry:... Still I did my first mistake in the expansion phase, as I didn't have a victory goal in mind. I was half and half going for 100k, so I built my cities closer than I would have otherwise, but I stopped my citybuilding too early to achieve that goal.

Shortly before I got chivalry, portugal DOWed the arabs and I took the chance to ally them. The war resulted in arabia being pretty much split in half, although portugal got Mecca including the great wall and Bach's :cry:

After that, Egypt was racing ahead, so I dow them and ally aztecs and inca against them. Unfortunately, I had a luxury deal going on with them, so my rep was fubared... DOWed portugal when I got cavalries, it was a tight war although I won Mecca and four other cities. Razed three of them though as flip chances were too high...

Anyway, I was playing on my parents old P2 which unfortunately had too little memory, so it kept swapping out. Got fed up with warring and grinded myself to a spaceship victory in 1774 I think.. Jason score around 4.4k, not competitive but it's my first officially played game so I'm satisfied... Looking forward to the next one though.

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gif Predator
My two goals for this COTM were intimately related:

I. Get a fast military victory (conquest or domination.) I haven't had one in C3C deity before, and not so many in PTW deity either.

II. Don't fight riflemen or infantries. This goal was inspired firstly by the multitude of gold strewn in our core area, which would help us keep a decent tech pace. Secondly, in my experience conquest is very hard if there are riflemen about.

So how did it go?

I. Domination victory in 1000 AD. It's not really fast, but not slow either.

II. Aztecs and Rome got Riflemen before the end & Aztecs had Infantry. But Egypt and Inca never got there so I could wipe them out comfortably with my cavalries. I then went into semi-milk mode and let culture teke care of the necessary growth. So I didn't fight any Riflemen. If I go for conquest at this level I must remember to involve all civs in tech-delaying wars.

I never reached the Industrial Age. I didn't want the Great Lighthouse to become obsolete.

The most exiting part of the game was to get the golden age. Twice I captured Lisbon just before I finished building JS Bach's cathedral. The first time, Lisbon flipped, so I had to delay JS Bach's C. The second time, I was only one hipoint away from losing Lisbon - but I got my GA.

The biggest single problem was that Temple of Artemis was built way out of reach by the mighty Aztecs.

If my result holds up in the competition I might write a detailed spoiler, but I don't think it will.

What was your jason score?

still waiting for someone else to post a conquest win so I can see that my 1655AD date was far off :lol:

What was your jason score?It was, and is, a number. Yea, 'tis a number that shall be revealed to the world in a fortnight or thereabouts ;)

@ThERat - I think it will be beaten, but good job nonetheless! :goodjob:

I am happy that I have a natural coal resource. It wasn't by Cherbourg, so I am trying to figure out the AIs obsession with that location. I find out I do have rubber. I am still baffled why the AI was obsessed by Cherbourg.


Bad news hits in 980 AD as Rome is already building ToE. The odds of getting Hoover and the huge tech boast has gone away. It is clear this may be a forever behind in tech game, and a loss via UN is very possible.


The scariness of the game continues in 1290AD when I already see a Roman tank. The AI research pace has been just brutal this game. I think that was the challenge built in. Rome is modern in 1315 AD when I still have half an age to go. :(


A war with Rome begins in 1420 AD. Even though they are #1, I feel they must be the first target. I need there oil source on my continent. I get Arabia into the war via an MPP to break their MPP with Rome. This is one of those brutal wars. Cavalry and artillery can defeat mechs and tow infantry, but it is a very slow process. The good news is the Roman cities are giving me a lot of cash. Of course, I need a larger empire for hire a bunch of taxmen to speed up the stealing process. The Roman lands should really help there. The timing of the war worked great as I caught all the Roman troops in the north fighting Portugal. The Romans did me a favor and took out the one Arabia city down there. The war becomes phony in 1485 AD when Rome is cleared from my continent.


Even though I am still in the Industrial Ages, Rome has already completed the U.N.


This has been one of my worst games ever to planting spies. I don't know why I am having such bad luck. It is very frustrating as I have some techs to steal and use in trade, but that time is limited. The Byzantines died in 1515 AD before I could steal Electronics and trade it to them. :(


I finally enter the Modern Ages in 1560 AD. This was mostly by signing deals, and then having my spy caught. This kept freeing up income for the next deal. It would have been a lot simpler if the spies could steal something.


At this point I have no question I will be in the low scoring crowed. The game has gone on to long with so small of an empire. The question now is how to even pull of a win. I am still behind in tech, and very worried that an AI will launch on me.


I get the Arabs to declare war in 1600 AD. I feel boxed into a corner and need to do something. Over thirty tanks cross by border the very first turn of the war. After a few turns I manage to burn the Arab offensive units. I end the war in 1768 AD, as I must concentrate 100% on Rome before they launch.


During this war I go totally leader happy. The trouble is at this point I keep hitting the army limit, and don't have much of value to rush. It is just to easily to get elite units with blitzing tanks. This went into a complete drought after I could have rushed an ICBM.


I have been in a phony war with Rome since the start of the MA. I would keep signing peace to gain something, and then he would declare war again over a caught spy. It ceases to be phony in 1756 AD when I start assaulting his towns on the small island. I general don't try to fight two wars at once in the MA, but I must slow down the Romans.


My worst luck over with spies continues into the MA.


As I feared I get to see Nuclear Havoc. The first nukes arrive in 1784 AD. What baffles me is why the Inca didn't declare war over this since I am at peace with them. I then screw up by signing temp peace with Rome ruining my rep. What sucks is I sign a temp peace with Rome, and the Inca nukes me! My aluminum city of Besancon was hit multiple times. The killer with nukes is that the AI can have them under construction long after the resources are disconnected.


War starts back up with Rome in 1814 AD. This time I have nukes and nuke his aluminum and uranium sources. I plan to have his continent a total nuclear wasteland. I also understand how to use nukes better then the AI. I will nuke every luxury off the map to destroy his productivity. With Rome at 9 parts it is critical that he never reconnects aluminum and uranium at the same time. During this fun Arabia starts building a space ship, so I need to start building up reserves to hit his capitol. I destroyed their capitol when they had 9 space parts built.


Anybody who thinks that artillery is the killer bombard unit hasn't used nukes. I got a big chunk to the Roman offensive units close to my city on their continent, and then nuked a good percentage out of existence. The battle over there is that brutal. Trying to take out an AI with mechs and modern armor is very difficult.


What I can't understand is that the aluminum sources have been constantly disconnected, but the Romans won't run out of Modern Armor. I have watched their count go up multiple times. They can't be importing it as they have been in constant war with Arabia.


In 1920 AD I decide to go into AW mode and declare war on the Arabs. The Arabs were destroyed in 1953 AD. This lets me finally end this marathon in with a domination victory. The finally Jason score is an embarrassing 2,793. This is probably the worst I have even done a GOTM.

That sounds like a wild game, LK. :) Congrats on sticking it out.

Yeah, with 60% land and Deity AIs I fully expected the tech pace to be brutal. A very hard game for the builder.

Renata

On my third GOTM, second COTM, first deity COTM, I felt I did well to survive until 1772. I was one of only three civs left. There was no reason why either other civ (rome or Arabs) couldnt have slaughtered me anytime before 1500, but trades kept me alive.

However, I did survive a couple of big wars, solidly built infantry up until it would have been a long war to kill me, and lost by spaceship to the romans. My Jason score was a disappointing 997 (or so), less than I thought it would be from the Firaxis score (2,983 i think).

But I never play Deity, so I was a little proud of myself.

But I did discover I am a huge builder and a horrible chicken when behind in tech.

I gotta learn to win by domination/conquest.

The map did get more and more challenging the later it went...tough stuff.

See you all next time (probably in the hunting tips)

Hello, long time no writing. And no GOTM for me. I actually started a couple of them but I was not used to Civ so I became over-aggressive and lost. I think I sent one in for last month (or was it two months ago?).

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

Anyway, this was a great game for me, I actually never got to Flight or the MA in C3C before (due to not playing it much and because I either won with cavalry or didn't win at all). No long write-up for me just to let you know that I got to the Industrial age in about 5 days RL (started as soon as the game was released) but it then took me 15 days RL to get a domination. That was 70 long hours.

To cut the long story short, I did not make much of the starting position, first town settled near the furs (big mistake) then on the gold hills and only later near the food sources. I did not allow the Arabs and the Portuguese to settle south of my lands but the Aztecs came so fast, I lost all the good city sites there (the two fur sources, the iron plus that the iron in the North was taken by the Arabs before I could see its location. I had a wild try for Philosophy, failed, then went for Republic, was not first there either and left the ancient age among the last in tech and with no iron.

In the middle ages things got a little better, I made some tech deals and did some research on my own, things got even better after Universities came around because the world was in turmoil. Arabs and the Portugese fought many times and the Arabs got to #2 in the world. The Aztecs were #1 because they got the entire south of my continent. Then they started wars with Egypt and Rome. I tryied to get the prime locations in a short war with them at the beginning of the Middle ages but in the end, I lost the Iron town and had to keep importing Iron when I needed upgrades.

The war with me got the Aztecs a little out of balance because they had to move troops so far but afterwards they returned and finished the Romans with the exception of the 1 tile island. Egypt fought the Inca and the Bizantines fought the Portuguese and the Aztecs so I managed was first to Printing Press, then I was the second to get physiscs and things changed as I had a lot of cash from the Arabs and the Egyptians. I was first to ToG and even got Newton as my first Wonder. I got to the Industrial age together with the rest of the front pack in 720AD. Rome, Inca and the Byzantines were already behind.

I rushed to get Steam Power and was first to do so, then rushed for Industrialization, then Medicine. I got beaten to Electricity and RP but I built the TOE and Hoover and then the Corporation and Refining. I was happy to have Coal and Rubber but kept importing Iron for a high cost. I also had only 2 luxuries and importing 3 more. This is the map of the French republic and the world in 1180AD.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/cotm13_1180.JPG

I finished Refining and saw that I need oil so I attacked the Aztecs with Cavalry, Infantry and Artillery. I managed to free my continent without great difficulty, the Aztecs lacked a rail network and hat to carry troops over the strait. Also I made alliances with everybody against them to make WWI. After I freed my continent I had some tries to get a city in the Aztec mainland but totally unsuccessful. War weariness was climbing and the Arabs pulled out of the conflict to finish the Portuguese. That's the map at 1320AD when I declared war to the Arabs.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/cotm13_1320.JPG

At that time I decided that I need to fight more efficiently and I still missed luxuries so I turned into a Fascist regime. Although the tech pace slowed down dramatically and my 3 techs lead was gone by the end of the Industrial Age, fighting was good. I made peace with the Aztecs and finished the Arabs and the Portuguese, then started to assemble a force that could brake the Aztec defences.

WWII begun around 1460AD when I passed the strait to the Aztecs. I now had Bombers to join my force of Cavalries, Infantries and Artilleries. Still it took up to 1585AD to weaken the Aytecs enough so that I could take major cities. By then, I had enlisted Egypt, the Bizantines and the Inca to start WWII. The Bizantines didn't make it, the Aztecs had several cities in the area as well as a very strong navy.

Next turn, I had Motorized Transportation and it was the beginning of the end but it took until 1695AD to get a domination victory. By then I also had computers but I had never triggered a Golden Age because I forgot Military leaders can't build Great Wonders. SETI was 5 turns away from completion when I managed to secure enough towns from the Egyptians for a Domination victory. Jason and in-game scores were similar, around 6000 Edit: Jason was 5500.

klarius - Good game. When did you start outresearching the AIs in your game?

I just finished a 1500AD launch and knew I was in trouble for an award. I hit the Industrail Age in 420AD and was the tech leader for the rest of the game. I was only able to trade for 4 required tech (replaceable parts, Rocketry, Fission, and space) the rest of the game and in 1000AD I actually gifted the AI's to tech parity just to have them try to help me. I was selling techs around the horn as soon as I got them.

klarius - Good game. When did you start outresearching the AIs in your game?

The last time there were 2 techs around I didn't know was in 975BC when I got currency monopoly and could trade/broker for monarchy and republic.
From the beginning of the middle ages I was researching much faster than the AI.
I even researched the optional Chivalry, Music Theory (waiting for gunpowder) and Military Tradition (waiting for banking) to leave them more time, but it was hopeless.
I got engineering (already 90% researched when bought Byzantines free tech), feudalism, invention, gunpowder and banking by trade in MA. Banking took the AI more than 20 turns after I set them up for it.
The other required techs I had to research myself.
So I hit the industrial age by researching magnetism in 460AD only.
After that Byzantines could only supply me with their free techs and 1 required tech per age (barely, I was both times just 1 turn away of running out of techs to research).
The Romans were constantly in war and stayed in monarchy through most of the game. The others had either problems with the Romans or with the French ;) .

Hello all,

It’s been a while since I submitted it and I didn’t take any notes but here’s what I remember. I decided to go for a Cultural 20K game with the city in question being located the other side of the mountains/hills to the southwest of the starting position. The early game was tough going as I had to sacrifice a lot to keep my 20K city topped up, and I didn’t do that nearly as well as I could have. Anyway I managed to get the Great Library, which I started a pre-build for straight away to build it as soon as I’d got Literacy. This really took the pressure off me for a while and I was able to expand more after then. I didn’t get any of the other ancient era wonders but got most of the important middle age ones. After that though I hit a bit of a brick wall and didn’t research fast enough and so ended up building two armies, which in hindsight I really should have tried to avoid. Oh and I messed up big time when I decided to mobilise :blush:, and I wasn’t really as fast as I could have been faster in getting the prerequisites for the small wonders and industrial age wonders. I think I lost about 10 turns off the finish date due to my mistakes in the later part of the game, still you live and learn.

Final results:

Entry class: [c3c] Open
Game status: Cultural 20K Victory for France (Yay! my first ever Deity win :king: )
Game date: 1798 AD
Firaxis score: 8717
Jason score: 6204
Time played: 89:10:05 :sleep:

T'was a fun game, thanks Renata :)

Entering the IA there was 3 superpowers, Aztecs, Egypt, and Me. :) Problem being, was that Egypt and Aztecs had a MPP - no good. Unfortunately for the AI's in this game is there was only 1 coal on the other continent. When Aztecs demanded coal from me, I reluctantly refused, knowing it may cause war with both countries, but I felt giving them railroads would be even worse.

To my surprise, the MPP was gone. It had to of been cancelled in the previous turn or two, so I was able to ally Egypt vs. Aztecs...a blessing in disguise that demand was. With my help, Egypt crushed the Aztecs and I was able to settle most of the taken land.

I was able to grab the tech lead in the early IA, building ToE and Hoover first. By the time I built up a decent military it would've taken a brutal slugging over hundreds of years to defeat the Egyptian behemoth, which I didn't feel like - I did that in Gotm43, so I settled on rushing my last turns and ending diplomatically. Rome was the only other civ left (with 2 cities), so I gifted them forward an age, MPP, and war with Egypt for their vote.

I think those little golden hills were what allowed us mortals to keep up in tech...that and a little breathing room for expansion. Thanks Renata, for my first deity win!

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/MP_cotm13_06a.gif

Party in Paris!
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/MP_cotm13_11.gif

Class: Open. Final spoiler 1465AD – 1690AD
Fall of French Empire or a story about four musketeers who did not save France
Read it. It is funny, though someone may cry

1465 Steam Power.

1485 Peace with Rome. If I only knew how my people will be unhappy about this.
I did not know that people in Democracy can enjoy wars.

1490 Industrialization

1510 The Corporation.

1540 Refining

The beginning of the fall

1560 Steel. Inca landed a lot of units on an island that we share with them. Since their motivations were so transparent I asked them to move. They declared. After a short battle, I abandoned all my cities on that island and disbanded all units. I probably should just disband everyone without a battle as I got WW.
In addition, I managed to miss a group of units landed on the main continent. As a result two core cities were captured and one razed.

1575 Inca started to bombard us with bombers… badly :sad:

1580 I counted at least 15 Inca bombers and I couldn't count all their ships.

1585 Our people overthrow democracy :wow: I didn't know they could do that.... :hmm:
We got to Anarchy. Domestic adviser said they will be in anarchy for 7 turns.
So I concluded that when my units will be gone, there will be no way to protect my cities. And I had just a few units left - 10 cavalry (9 in three armies and one single) and 4 musketeers at the beginning of this turn and all of them are in bad shape).

Three Musketeers.

1590 I left with D’Artanian, Atos, Partos, Aramis and cardinal Richilieu on a horse.
There are eight Inca units on my continent. I abandoned five of my cities.

1595 All my French heroes are gone and I left without military.
Inca razed four more cities.

1600 Inca razed three more cities and captured one (I am wondering why :hmm: ).

1605 Inca razed three more cities and came with a carrier and tanks. I decided not to give up and watch it to the end. My guess was that anarchy will end before France will be destroyed.

1610 Inca razed three more cities and captured two.

1615 Inca razed six cities.

1620 Inca razed eight cities including Paris (capital moved to Rouen) and captured one. They also started to sacrifice captured French workers. France became Monarchy, she desperately needs Bonaparte.
After France became Monarchy I realized that a better choice would be Feudalism or Despotism as I would be able to rush units.

1625 Inca razed five cities and captured five cities.
Surprise :crazyeye: - researched Combustion and started medicine (if we will survive we will need a lot of medicaments, bad :joke: ).
We formed a salvation army, another bad :joke:, and stroke back.
Interestingly, Inca have flaks (I guess they think I have airplanes :rolleyes: ).
Whooora!!! - our brave cavalry managed to destroy a tank and a flak. Flaks are hopeless against cavalry :p

1630 razed 4, captured 3.

1635 Razed 6, Captured 2. We killed one cavalry!!!

1640 Razed 8, Captured 0.

1645 Razed 3, Captured 3.
New Capital - Strasburg.
For some reason Inca agreed to make peace for one city (I guess they were waiting to become on top of the score).
From now on I simply do not know what to do. I decided to build settlers and expand as much as I can before Inca will be in a bad mood again.
During this war our territory shrunk to 20% and pop to 17%, corresponding numbers for Inca are 55% and 81%. If they weren't razing my cities they would win this game by domination.
That's how remnants of French Empire looked like at the end of this war:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/SolCotM13_1645AD.JPG

1650 Inca ToE. Interestingly we still have all resources.

1665 Inca declared war on Romans (I guess they have marines now).

1670 Inca destroyed Rome, how much they want to wait before destroying France?

1690 Suddenly I was informed that I suffered cultural defeat. I did not watch culture at all. Ok, I guess most people will be defeated by conquest, space race or diplomacy, so if I do not get the green ambulance, at least something was special about my defeat.

On another hand, I probably have time to try GOTM44 now.

BTW can someone point me to a post where it is explained how to make animated minimaps in Ainwood’s CivAssistII?

Whoa :eek: my sincere condolence. I wouldn´t want to be the Incan in your next game...
And your a tough guy to stand by your game till the end.

As for the minimaps:
click on *Archive* button.
doubleclick the relevant archive to select it.
go to worldmap.
right click the mini-map and select *Export Multiple Minimaps*
check *Animated gif*, select the files you want to export (all are selected by default) and click *export*

btw, it´s Richilieu :)

Man, the screenie still makes me :cry:

Good luck and enjoy GOTM 44!

It wasn't as bad as in GOTM37 where I was attacked and destroyed on a turn before achieving domination. So I was expecting something like that, I guess it has to do with my gaming stile.

Besides, I was relieved when this game ended, I was very tired.

Archive button is inactive in my CivAssist. What shell I do? In preferences I found a place for two paths, one is for archive directory and another is something like Civilization Install Path Override.
I am not sure what paths should I set there, but I guess that my archive button is inactive because these two paths are empty.

If I´m not mistaken, you have to go to *options* and check *Archive game Save and Autosave files*, you may choose a directory for the archive there as well. I think you´ll have to do that before you play, though.
If this doesn´t cover it, maybe we should take this discussion to the CivAssistII-thread ;)

Thanks, looks like it works.

Domination win in 770AD, Firaxis score: 12191 Jason score: 10366
Really wanted to try for fastest conquest, but gave up due to suspected Riflemen proliferation and settled for a domination win.

Didn’t post an MA update, but here are the details of that also since I finished the game 3 turns in the IA, so it seemed appropriate for it all to be together.

AA: 4000BC-0750BC
MA: 0750BC-0740AD
IA others: 0510AD, see 3 cultures in the IA :cry: (I don't have Theology yet)
IA: 0740AD-0770AD (Great Library capture got me here)

MAJOR WARS
50BC-260AD; 280AD-310AD; War vs. Arabia (19 cities; 19 Knights, 10 MedInf, 4 Galley, 1 Crusader) – mid-turn they tell us to leave after RoP ends, I say no, declaring war & they attack; take 4 cities to start, including all iron sources; 30AD – capture Mecca and the Temple of Artimis!!; leave them w/ 1 city & get Invention; then finish them off

The worst part of the war w/ Arabia is that I asked Portugal to join me and they captured the saltpeter; had I known about it I wouldn't have ask them to join me :cry: . By the time I reached them they had musketmen everywhere. :sad:

360AD-470AD: 500AD-570AD War vs. Portugal (have 49 knights); in 430AD Portugal attacks my only Musketeer built in the entire game to give me a GA – which is used to do nothing but produce Cavalry!!!!; 440AD – finally get a great leader; Faro deposes every other turn about and lots more deposing – darn culture;

510AD-660AD: War vs. Aztec (have 54 cavalry); decide to start going the other way; finally destroy them; still no more Armies

About 570AD I decide going for fastest conquest is not feasible. I see Riflemen in Roman city…and they have 18 cities. I have one Army, on the wrong continent, and its Crusaders, not Cavalry. I stopped counting my bad Army luck at 50 elite wins :sad: :sad: :sad: . Decide going for a domination win is still possible with the early capture of the Temple of Artimis, so decide to do that. Figure if I don’t reach that the game could turn bad being so far behind in tech. I’ve had that happen before when they all got Riflemen and my conquests were stopped cold.

660AD – a city on my continent deposes to the Inca – ahh!!, but it gave my Crusader Army something to do later; I had gifted them Fez so Portugal wouldn’t capture it from me long ago

700AD –730AD War vs. Byzantines (have 66 cavalry), no captures on first turn, damaging or losing 8 cavalry, very bad :( – I was over anxious and attacked before my main force was in position since the Inca were running over them; end up getting a whopping 4 of their cities, though I did finally get another Great Leader to make another Army; the two cities I original attacked were captured by the Inca; captured the final two cities in 730AD, same turn I turned on the Inca

730AD – War vs. Inca: push to Domination, capturing 11 cities on first turn!! (most used to belong to the Byzantines), what a great RoP break :smug: !!! – including the cities I captured from the Byzantines on the same turn I ended up capturing 153 tiles that year :cool: , leaving me 31 to go; after capturing all those cities I realize I can hit domination in 770AD without capturing another city, though I did build 8 cities in 760AD just in case a city flipped or Rome attacked or …; also see Riflemen in 0740AD in the Inca capital, though not two other cities I can see, so that seems like a plan; I get Rome to join me fighting the Inca in the hopes they won’t fight me; in the end I was 24 tiles over the limit; next turn I would have gained 28 more


TECHNOLOGY - DATE/HOW
Republic, 0730BC, research (3 turn Anarchy to Republic)
Monotheism, 0730BC, trade Byzantines
Feudalism, 0490BC, trade Portugal
Engineering, 0370BC, trade Inca
Chivalry, 0310BC, research (beat by 1 turn by Arabia )
Invention, 0260AD, from Arabians (for peace)
Gunpowder, 0380AD, from Romans (for peace)
Chemistry, 0430AD, research
Metallurgy, 0470AD, research
Military Tradition, 0470AD, from Portugal (for peace)
Everything to Nationalism (not Music Theory), 0740AD, from capture of Great Library

Played this COTM as one of my rare SP games. I mostly play PBEMs on Demigod or Deity and most of my tactics are based on the presence of one or more human players behaving totally different compared to the stupid AI.

Ancient Age went pretty smooth, entering the MA in 925BC. The land / Civ distribution ideal for tech brokering. Decision to go for Diplo was already made, also to use the AI on the other continent as key source of income. The French empire. Still room to expand, Arabia is a very poor performer.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=92176&stc=1

The techpace of the AI was pretty lame during the MA due to constant wars on the other continent, because of that France had to do most of the research by itself.

In 630 AD Arabia thought it was a good idea to attack. It was a good idea! For France. ;) 38 Cavs were ready to conquer Arabia and 690 AD they were history. In that same year France entered the IA.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=92177&stc=1

Since the techpace of the AI was so lame Industralization was researched directly after Steam Power. ToE went as planned. Hoover completed in 1140 AD, for the Portuguese a good reason to declare. Since Arty building and Infantery upgrades had just started the first couple of turns were used to fight of invading units and to do some leaderfishing. Once Portugal was weakened enough it was a smooth walkover and Portugal destroyed in 1290 AD. MT came in 1340 AD.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=92178&stc=1

At that time France was cashing 579 gpt from the AI :D

The prebuild of the UN had started a little to late so it was only completed in 1415 AD with 4 out of 6 voting for Joanne d'Arc. I had carefully kept my reputation intact and declared just once, the other wars resulting in clearance of the continent were caused by the AI.

Just submitted my first ever xOTM. As I said in the second spoiler, I was far too passive early, which made victory easy but a quick finish/high score hard.
End of the MA in 490AD saw the Arabs almost finished off by Portugal and me. Very next turn, the inca landed a stack of cavalry near my core for a sneak attack, and my defense was thin as it was needed for the arab front. Tried to avert it by signing the Inca in against the Arabs, but no such luck, sneak attack launched, and my forbidden palace was captured. Dogpiled the world onto the Incas, immediately took my city back, and got my first and only SGL of the game in the process, which was used for replacing the forbidden palace. Portugal delivered the final blow to the Arabs in 520, I booted the 1 arab city from my continent in 540, and kept up a pseudo-war until the alliances expired. That left the Inca with most of the other continent, Byzantines and Rome had small areas on the other continent, Aztecs were reduced to a 5CC on the SW corner of my continent.

Researched Steam Power in 600AD, and find abundant coal. Traded around for nationalism & medicine, and I kept the tech lead for the rest of the game. Only required tech I traded for was replaceable parts, AI was no help for the rest, lagged a couple of techs behind the whole way. Very standard builder game from that point on. Scientific method was discovered, my prebuild finished 3 turns later, the cheapest tech was sanitation in 5 turns. Delayed the prebuild 2 turns, slingshot to Hoover Dam, which I built. Built Smith's trading co, and in 1010 AD, discovered music theory available for trade, which I didn't realise had been skipped by everyone. Traded for it and built JS Bachs. Got refining, had no oil, but had a hole in the remains of the Aztecs in the SW of my island which let me grab oil. Spent the last 20-30 turns of the game cranking out inf/arty/bombers/tanks, as most cities had run out of builds. Also automated the workers, as the game was won, and I didn't feel like waiting for space, or playing with the tanks. Hit the modern age in 1255, my UN prebuild would finish in 6, fission was 8 turns away. I gifted the Byzantines to the next age yet again, hoping to reduce the research time, but they received Ecology. Delayed the build, dogpiled on the Inca, and won the vote 5-1.

Summary: This was a surprisingly easy builders game on Deity, I only had 3 short wars, 2 v Arabia, and 1 pseudo-war with the Inca, and finished with a comfortable UN win, and could have had a comfortable spaceship. There was no culture threat, 30k was the biggest AI culture, and there were no cities over 10k. My territory remained fairly constant at 21-22% once the Arabs were gone, and there were multiples of all the important resources in my territory.

Victory type: UN
Victory Date: 1295 AD
Firaxis score: 8521
Jason score: 8266
Play time: 9 1/2 hours.

[c3c] Open

Research and Trading

I entered the middle ages by backstabbing the Aztecs for tech parity. Thus began France's Machiavellian ascent to world domination.

In 730BC I came out of anarchy, and bought an alliance with Egypt vs the Aztecs. The Egyptians were willing to overlook my past mistakes during the Aztec war, so I made some nice gpt deals with them.

730BC: Trade 10gpt to Egypt for Alliance vs Aztecs
670BC: Aztecs ally Inca against me
670BC: Trade 24gpt to Egypt for Literature + 157g
650BC: Trade 4gpt to Egypt for 60g
630BC: Trade 7gpt to Egypt for 105g
630BC: Trade 10gpt to Egypt for Alliance vs Inca + 88g
630BC: Trade 11gpt to Aztecs for Peace Treaty + 188g
630BC: Declare war on Egypt

Egypt's free money allowed me to research Engineering at 100%, getting it as a monopoly in 470BC. I built 7 libraries to help with research, then focused on marketplaces and barracks everywhere.

470BC: Engineering
230BC: Invention
70BC: Gunpowder
70AD: Chemistry
170AD: Metallurgy
260AD: Military Tradition


Conquest

I prebuilt lots of knights for upgrading, so from 10AD to 230AD I used them to wipe out the Arabs. I triggered my golden age in 50AD.

Then the cavalry rush began. I sold my techs to the Inca for hundreds of gpt, but kept them away from everyone else. So I never had to fight AI cavalry.

290AD: Declare war on Portugal
360AD: Peace with Portugal, +2 cities in treaty
380AD: Trade 4500g to Portugal for Astronomy + Banking + Printing Press
380AD: Portugal defeated

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/davemcw_cotm13_ad380.gif

290AD: Declare war on Rome
290AD: Sign alliance with Aztecs vs Rome
400AD: Declare war on Aztecs
470AD: Peace with Aztecs, +1 city in treaty
510AD: Aztecs defeated

440AD: Declare war on Byzantines
480AD: Peace with Byzantines, +2 cities in treaty

540AD: Peace with Rome, +1 city in treaty
550AD: I have 66% territory but not enough population!
550AD: ROP rape Rome with my injured forces, losing 30% of my cavalry.
560AD: Domination victory

It is already 3rd time I wanted to finish gotm, but was not able to do it. The time is too short. Nevertheless, I would like to inform you about my progress (or maybe stagnation).
Maybe you noticed my earlier spoilers, where I explained my plans for 100k cultural victory with no wars. Klarius advised that I would need a huge amount of cities to be even able to achieve that, so I started to place cities in a kind of ICS.
Around 1200AD I stopped research after getting Railroads. All of my workers started to build rails and increase the economic efficiency of France, while taxmen aquired 100% tax from people and settlers were founding new cities. All gold was used to hurry the cultural buildings everywhere. Thanks to that some Arabian cities flipped to me.
In about 1500AD there was a good opportunity to expand to the new continent. Aztecs conquered the whole area and there was quite a lot free space to found new cities. BUT! After founding ~6 cities on the new continent, Aztecs declared war at France and my empty cities could not survive long. I tried to make peace asap and even Portuguese and Arabs joined me in that war, but I lost not only cities in new continent, but also in my mother country.
I have ended my game in ~1720 with no perspective for future. 120k with 840cpt of culture, while Aztecs had 80k and 650cpt. As I said I stopped research with Railroads, while Aztecs has built the UN already. My plans at this time are to gather big amount of knights (I cannot build better units) and try to capture the UN city to trigger UN election, however I have no time to finish it.
Congratulations to all who finished and especially to those who managed 100k victory.
PoorAxl

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

The Middle ages dragged along, I was in a long war with the Arabs, War Weariness was horrible, but I was making slow progress, razing and rebuilding.Tech pace was not to high at this moment, there was a lot of war on the other continent as well, and unlike GOTM43, wars lasted a lot longer. :)

Playing Predator I had almost given up the idea of a GA, I was never even close to building any kind of wonder. :sad:
Then I realized : Lisbon had both The Colossus and The Pyramids :cool:. From then on I had one goal. (well actually two, I would like to win as well :lol: )

I started a prebuild, and I was lucky, research almost stopped due to heavy world wars, and many years later: Arabs reduced to one city on the island, my troops outside Lisbon, prebuild ready, one turn from Scientific Method (and ToE). :smug: Bingo there it was : Next turn I had captured Lisbon (and The Pyramids), started my GA (by finishing ToE, using: The Big Picture), got Atomic Theory and Electronics and traded myself to the tech lead and a lot of gold, and as a nice topping, my last elite cav produced a GL. :dance:

I did like that turn !! :D

First Deity win, space launch in 1575 AD, score 9248 (can't remember if that's Jason or Firaxis :mischief: )

I can't write a big post now, may be on weekend. Shortly it was a hard game and my big mistake was choosing Monarchy as government type. So later I was fully depended on Great Library trick but it was successful. Arabs built ToA and Portugal built Colossus and Pyramids so after the capturing its I had a chance for culture and population. I win by Domination in 580AD. Previously I wanted milk game but my free time was not allowed me to do it. Wait for Bradleyfeanor and hendrikszoon result.

Open class

I never qualified for the second spoiler...
I was also some kind of happy when finally Egypt had won, because it was already late in the last night before submission closes...

But from the beginning:
My biggest mistake was not to explore the south-west part of my continent early, so Arabs and Portugal made contact with the others earlier than I did.
A bit of bad luck: Arabs had build ToA which made their cities grew faster and since I had no culture in the beginning I couldn't expand close to their border.
Next one was that TGL was build by Incans where I hoped it would be build on my continent.
At the beginning of the MA I was not that far behind, but I went to Monarchy and build units for a war that never came.
I didn't build units aggressively enough and did min research, so when I finally had musketeers the others had Infantry shortly after, so I never attacked Arabs except for a short period where they had still Muskets and they had declared war on me. I had gotten 1 city but I was making peace with them as the war didn't progress further.
Later the Prtuguese almost crushed the Arabs, I had settled some towns in former Arab land between conquered towns to become 2nd in land (hoping for UN vote)
But then Portugal declared war and conquered those towns, I only conquered 2.
When they attacked, I bought MT from Arabs. I shouldn't have spend so much money for rushing temples t grab land from Port. in former Arab territory.
On the other continent, Aztecs were killed early, and Rome was stronger than Egypt, but after Egypt had build Hoover Dam they crushed Rome in almost no time, while Portugal finished off the Arabs.
Shortly after Rome had gone, Egypt destroyed Incancs, so I was one of the last 4 civs surviving.
By 1824 AD I started researching Republic, never have done an AA tech so late...(did a minimum research on Printing press and never researched Education, don't know what I was hoping for)
In 1842 AD Egypt sent their space ship.
After the Portuguese war, I was only building units s.t. I could survive an attack, but luckily Portugal was busy with Egypt and the oters fighting, so they never attacked again.
I had no MGL.
In GOTM 37, I won on Deity, but there GLib was build by a weak civ and the others didn't grow or had no ressources so I managed to get a Diplo win there, but this time no luck, the opponents were too strong...
1436 jason points...

I didn't have time to go for the cow either. I had my game all set up to milk too, so it was quite upsetting. :cry: I started razing cities in 510bc to stay under the Domination limit and ensure I had the territory I wanted for a high score, but then didn't get to play anymore until the 30th. I had to give it up last night and triggered domination in 660ad. I figure it probably would have taken me another 50 hours of play time to get to 2050 ad, and that only if I never built hospitals. If I had gone with hospitals for maximum score there is no telling how long it would have taken. Oh well, maybe I'll have time to pursue the cow in the future.

This was a fantasitic game design Renata! I found it very challenging and fun.

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

Playing as France, my initial thoughts were to build a big empire with big cities and take advantage of the Commercial and Industrial traits for a Spaceship launch. Therefore my initial expansion was pretty wide; I was going for minimal overlap between adjacent cities. This might be a problem at Deity, because these cities need a lot of development and they are too far apart to support each other well early on, but I forged on.

I learned Pottery before I met the Arabs (my first two warriors went West and East!), and initially built 3 Warriors, a Granary, then a Settler. Settled to the North near the Wheat on Plains space and then successively on nearby bonus food sources; these cities built Granaries early on while Paris built a Warrior or 2 between Settlers. Expansion went pretty well.

I saw Green border to the West across the Water, so I left a Warrior down in that general area. After the Arabs came Portugal (trading for BW, CerBur and War Code between the two), and eventually the Aztecs crossed the water. That was the extent of my contacts during the AA.

After Pottery came Writing, which I researched first in my group, and traded for Wheel and Math. (Interesting they learned Math early.) Next was Philosophy; I was sweating as I saw Portugal learn Code-of-Laws and Map-Making, but in 1450 I learned Philosophy ... and that was it. Well, from other posts I was about 8 turns too late. In 1375 I contacted the Aztecs, who had Construction, so I suspected it was Monte who did Phil first. Phil gained me IW and Myst, and I limped towards Currency.

That took a while. Actually learned it uniquely in 750 BC, but Monte still held a monopoly on Construction! So no trade for that Tech, but I got all the others. Started on Construction, and finally one of the other AI on my civ learned Construction a few turns later, and I could make a trade; entered MidAges in 650 BC.

I eventually met the Romans when they founded on my continent, and Egypt sailed a Galley by also. Contact with the Incans and Byzantine didn't occur until Printing Press was learned by somebody. They were well behined everybody else, and Byzantine empire was small; they must have tussled with the Incas early on; neither was much of a player in the game.

Expansion went well, but there was a lot of space to claim. Arabs got to three 2nd tier city sites before me, and the Aztecs got two sites as well, so I didn't quite get all the locations I was aiming for.

Demands - quite a few which I paid off every time, usually 10-20 gold. I was in no shape for war.

The AI really started to pull past me in the early Middle Ages. I went for Engineering (learned that one from GOTM43!), and was eventually beaten to it in 150 BC; still, able to buy the remainder and Trade for Mono and Rep. Couldn't quite get Feudalism and Rep, but I really wanted to revolt so it was the best deal I could swing. That meant I had to learn Feud on my own with no trade options. Which I started on in 10 BC after a 7 turn anarchy (ouch!)

I would research a Tech for several turns, then buy the remaining research off one of the AI; Aztecs were huge in my game, and usually they lead with Arabs right behind, followed shortly by Portugal and Rome. Feud in 110 AD - no trades. I started crawling along the lower track, with the AI definitely ahead. Invention in 250 AD - no trades. Gunpowder in 310 AD - got two Luxuries to trade for! Starting to see some daylight. Chemistry in 380 AD - no trades. Only Aztecs have Metallurgy - start on it! Metallurgy in 430 AD - no trades, as the others make up the difference. Only Aztecs have MT - can I get it next! MT in 460 AD (big bucks to buy it here) - and I'm able to trade it for Education and Astronomy! Physics in 510 AD - I can get 3 Luxuries out of Physics (20 turns after the Gunpowder trade). Some of the AI have Magnetism, so go for ToG, bought in 540 AD - trade for Mag and Banking, and enter the Industrial Age! The key thing I was looking for was when a 2nd AI, usually the Arabs, got the Tech; this drops the price substantially and there are still two other AI (Rome and Portugal) to trade with.

I had huge debts at the beginning of the IA, time to recoup. Start building Banks, and set minimal research on Steam Power. And start building up to take the Arabs on; I had seen an early war between Arabs and Portugal that Portugal got the worst of, so I figured the Arabs were a little weaker and had already done a GA, and Portugal would be a willing ally. Also, I had no trades with them, and huge Gold payments to the Aztecs, so no deals to break and if the Aztecs decided to gang up on me, I'd be a lot richer. Disconnect Saltpeter, build some Horses, reconnect and upgrade. Hoping to get enough Cavalry before Riflemen show up, but didn't quite make it. Eventually got the war going, and brought Portugal, Aztecs and Rome in on it (in the end I decided it was worth the price.) After 20 turns I had taken about a 3rd of the Arab cities (Cav did OK against the Rifles they came up against), Aztecs another couple, Portugal had regained its losses plus a city or town, and even the Egyptians had chimed in and taken a city. Arabs were down to 3 cities, so I did not renew the alliances, and signed Peace. 2 turns later they were gone, so no chance for any more flips (a couple did happen, which were promptly recaptured). A successful war and set of alliances that saw me gain several Gems (a 3rd luxury) and an additional incense.

Now the issue is catching up, again. The AI learned Nationalism first, and then Medicine of all things. I decided to Gift Theodora into the IA to see if she got Steam Power - nope, Medicine. So I eventually buy Steam Power once two AI knew it, in 790 AD (about 3 turns into the big Arab war) and trade for Medicine. Next was Electricity, and I was surprised to see the AI beat me to it; I was able to trade for Industrialism. Next was Corporation, beaten to it again, and traded for Sanitation. Cities were building Factories, then Coal Plants and Hospitals. Now I set my sights on Steel, and I started to see Refining show up, and heard about somebody building the Theory of Evolution. Timing was going to be tight, but here's what happened between 1120 and 1130 AD:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/cvst_c13_ToEGold.jpg

and

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/cvst_c13_ToETechs.jpg

Of course I have a Palace pre-build going. Steel, my first uniquely learned Tech of the game (ok, 2nd, after Currency), and it gets me Theory of Evolution, along with 2 free Techs, 3 required Techs from the AI, several optional Techs and tons of Gold the AI (mostly Aztecs and quite a bit of Roman gold) has been storing for me. :D The rest was quite uneventful. AI beat me to Combustion so I bought the last turn, and researched Mass Prod and MotorTransp myself, trading for Flight. Gifted Theodora to Modern Era - she got Computers (hmm, 0 for 2), so I had to learn Fission myself and conclude a Diplo win (5-1 vs Monte; Egypt was also taken out) in 1325 AD. I was tired, and there was only 3 hours left to submit, so it seemed the prudent thing to do.

Another fun game; thanks Renata! I think Deity games just have to be played (since they come around infrequently), but next time, not two in a row, please!

I will not be able to write a detailed post before Friday next week. So I will give only a short statement.

I made the same mistake like Dynamic: I changed my goverment to Monarchy. But this was not the main problem of my game. ToA and Pyramids were build by the Incas - the strongest Civ in my game - in Cuzco. Cuzco was conquered in 450AD - too late to get a high Jason Score.

Special thanks to Renata. I gamed on Deity only two times before and I lost both games. So thanks Renatas map design I could win my first Deity game.

I really tried to play this game. But I just couldn't finish in time.
The problem was my depression. I played until about 300 CE, when I entered
IA. Then I calculated I would need more than expected 50 rounds to finish
with a Diplomatic victory. Problems was, I coulnd't reach 4 turn research.
but the main problem was I falled in depression. I have had this problem
for 4 years, and when I fell in to my suicidal depression, there's no go
for my Civ3 games. I predicted Diplo victory for about 950 CE. But no, no
go, I just thought about dieing, and committing suicide. But I'm still
alive, I hope I don't kill myself soon. So I'm trying next Cotm.

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

I finished the game yestoday, was in a hurry to submit it in time. I played through my late MA and IA in one shot, so i don't have a separate MA spoiler.

Ancient Times (4000BC-1550BC) (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2836603&postcount=54)

Middle Ages (1550BC-530AD)

Expansion
I entered the MA in 1550BC, only having 4 cities. I continued with my expansion to build more cities around my capital. I wrote in my firts spoiler that i used extremely loose spacing to grab all the food bonuses. I didn't want to build cities closer then at distance=7 to Paris, cause it would have increased rank corruption in my powerhouse cities built near food bonuses. My QSC stats: 10 cities, 126 land tiles, 22 population, 4 granaries, 9 workers, 9 warriors.

Research
I researched Literature at max (To give it to Arabs and Portugal, but the GL went to Inca by cascade. It came out that i could easily keep up in tech without it.), Engineering at min, Printing Press, Chemistry, Physics, ToG and Magnetism at max, all other techs i traded. I managed to guess what the AIs will research correctly most of the time, except ToG/Magnetism.

Wars
I started the war with Arabs in 610BC, i fought with swords, cause i was too impatient. (A big mistake, i shoul have waited for knights). In 230BC Arabia was captured (a few towns by the Portuguese), but a settler escaped on a galley, which caused some towns to flip later and i had to recapture them. I started the war with Portugal shortly after that, but swords were inefficent vs. pikes, so i had to sign peace in after capturing about 1/3 of their territory. I couldn't even capture Lisbon with Piramids and Colossus needed for GA. That is the map after the 1st Portuguese war:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/cotm13_Obormot_210AD.jpg

This was almost the end of my expansion, i realized that i cannot get a good domination or conquest date with such a start, so i decided to go for a scientific victory. Later i built some knights to capture Lisbon to get the Piramids for my science farms to grow faster, and captured some cities built by civs from the other continent. That is the map with Piramids captured and some science farms founded at the end of MA:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/cotm13_Obormot_560AD.jpg

Industrial Ages (530AD-1000AD)
With science farms growing rapidly with total irrigation/railroading and piramids i came near the 4-turn research in the IA. Most of my territory looked like that:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/cotm13_Obormot_farms.jpg

I made heavy use of the AI research propabilty spreadsheet by Ambiorix to get some techs from the AIs too, but they were quite slow and wasted precious beakers on the *ism crap, so i only got 4 usefull techs from them: Steam Power (free Byzantine tech) Electricity, RP and Flight. I wanted to trigger my GA with US to finally get to 4-turn research and get free modern tech(s) from the ToE, but this happened at 730BC:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/cotm13_Obormot_730AD.jpg

This guy walked into my unprotected US prebuild city (all my cities were unprotected). I was to busy squeesing out beakers and to sleepy, so i didn't notice him. I triggered GA with the ToE and couldn't get Fission for free, but i was lucky, the Byzantines got Fission as a free tech and i stole it from them safely in 1000AD (they wouldn't sell it for all the riches in the world).

My UN prebuild was not timed perfectly so i only the UN victory 2 turns later in 1020.

I started razing cities in 510bc to stay under the Domination limit...

Great!!! You beat me and DaveMcW in this game. I don't know about Dave but with better random I could reach Domination only 2 turns earlier, not in 510AD (I think you mean AD).

Open

At the end of the middle ages, I was finishing off Portugal and securing my hold on the continent, whilst running towards the spaceship as quick as possible. With Portugal dead in 820Ad, I set about trying to ICS my corrupted lands and produce an army of scientists. My research is helped by construction of ToE in 980AD. In 1000AD, I sign peace treaties with all my old foes, which does not impress Caesar, since he is at war with practically the rest of the world. He goes from gracious to annoyed. When I ask him to move his legions, he declares war, which gives me the opportuntity to clear the foreign scourge completely from my contnent. Cavalry are still pretty functional against infantry with enough artillery behind them.

I enter the Modern Ages in 1275AD and from then on it's 5/6 turn research all the way to the ship. I only manage to trade for a couple of techs from the stubborn AI - Computers, and Satellites. Eventually, the French set off into space in 1575AD.

Firaxis - 9495
Jason - 7646

My first Deity win!!! :D I realise it was a slightly easier than Deity scenario but I'm still pleased with myself. Off to thrash some savages in COTM14!

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/chunkyCOTM13win.JPG

Predator

I downloaded the Predator file this time because in this game the Predator restrictions didn't influence me. The changes concerning the Industrial Age Wonders were not of interest for me: I planned to finish the game in the Middle Age. Also I don't like defensive units. I never really used Musketmen or Musketeers.

But now it's time to explain my game:
Settled in place. Start research of Writing on 100%. The decision to start with Writing was not an easy one. In this "foodless" environment Granaries are a "must have". So on one hand I would get a big problem if it would be impossible to get Pottery from another Civ. But on the other hand I would have no chance to get the free technology if I would take the way Pottery, Writing, Philosophy. Fortunately in 3350BC my first Warrior met an Arabian Scout: Exchange of Masonary for Pottery and 10 Gold.

In 1790BC France was the first Civ who researched Philosophy. The chosen free technology was Monarchy. This choose became possible two turns before when the Arabs researched Polytheism. In this moment I thought that I am a lucky guy. It needed some time until I realized that this was not a good choice. But I will explain this later.

At 1650BC I killed an Arabian Warrior who was escorting a Settler. This brought me two Arabian Workers but also war with the Arabians. Some time later nine Arabian Warriors and one Arabian Archer appeared in front of Rheims. My answer was to rush a Wall and to station three Warriors in Rheims. Fortunately the Arabians attacked immediately when they arrived. So they came in two waves across the river. In this battle the Arabians lost eight Warriors and the Archer. I lost only one Warrior and got my first Great Leader (1500BC). In 1400BC I got one town (Basra) for peace.

In 1175BC I got Currency from the Portuguese. I paid 40 GpT or better I paid nothing because I attacked Portugal in the same turn. 1125BC I contacted the Aztecs and 1075BC the Egypts. They I offered them Monarchy and got Construction. So I was techological leader and the first Civ in the Middle Age (1050BC).

In 2230BC Portugal triggered their Golden Age by finishing the Colossus. So an comercial wonder is not so far away. Now I need also an industrial one in my range. In 1910BC the Pyramids wer finished in Cuzco :confused: . The next wonder was build again by the Portuguese. My hope was the Temple of Artemis but it was the Great Lighthouse. Nice, but completely worthless for me. The ToA was finished (1200BC) in Cuzco. Some turns later I contacted an Inca Galley and then it was clear were Cuzco is located: Definitive and without any doubts outside of my range. Fortunately I have had not to much time to become desperate: in the next turn the Hanging Gardens were finished in Lisbon. So the two wonders needed for the French Golden Age were together in one city. This was the positive aspect of this game. The negative one was that nearly all the time I would have to play without Pyramids and ToA. So a really high Jason Score was not possible. In the beginning of the game I planned to go for a Domination Victory. But this makes no sense without ToA and Pyramids. So my new plan was to go for a Conquest Victory.

The next challenge was to trigger the Golden Age. For this trigger I wanted to use the Knights Templar. So my next research target was Chivalry. After entering the Middle Age normally the AI researchs Feudalism at first. So I started to research Monotheism in the hope later a lot of the AIs would have Feudalism so that an exchange Monotheism <-> Feudalism+xx Gold + xx GpT would be possible. In 750BC I was a little bit irritated because three AIs had Engineering. But this was only the free Middle Age Technology of the Byzantines. After getting Feudalism by exchange the research of Chivalry started. This research was finished in 390BC.

To get the Knights Templar right in time I started the build-up of the Palace in Lyons. Then I sent my troops to Lisbon. These troops consisted of one Swordsman Army and around ten Horsemen. Right of Passage with the Arabians were very helpful for fast advance. After building an Embassy in Mecca I realized that the Arabians are in war with the Portuguese. In this war the Arabians were able to disconnect the Portuguese from their Iron. So I had only to fight against Warriors, Spearmen, Archers and Horsemen. In the following fights with the Portuguese I got three Great Leaders - the first one was used to rush Heroic Epic - and a big amount of Elite Knights and Elite Horsemen.

In 350BC the attack on Lisbon could start. I had placed the Swordsman Army, 5 Veteran Knights and two Elite Horsemen around Lisbon. The first attack was not successful, but the defenders lost eight Spearmen. One turn later Lisbon was a French city. In the same turn the Palace in Lyons was switched to Knights Templar (only six shields were necessary to finish it - this I call a good timing). So also in 330BC the Golden Age was triggered. In the next turns the Portuguese were wiped from the map (210BC).

In the meantime the Aztecs declared war to me. So they were the next target. On the way to them my troops had to pass through the Arabian territory. I didn't like it to have a potential enemy in my rear. A little RoP rape solved (110AD) this problem.

After the knowledge of Chivalry the next research target was . The research of Military Tradition took a lot of time - in my opinion with Republic Military Tradition could be researched eight turns faster and this means that it was also possible to finish the game around eight turns earlier when I would have waited a little bit and then would have switched to Republic.

But now enough with these "would" and "could" and I come back to the game. I brought the Egypts into war against the Aztecs and took their Iron town. The rest was a childrens game - only flipping towns were a little problem - which ended in 440AD.

Before the Aztecs were completely defeated I was also in war with the Romans, Incas and Egypts. The Byzantines helped me against Incas and Egypts. The Romans were very weak. So I concentrated my troops at first at the Romans and sent them later against the Incas and Egypts who were not only in war with me but also mutually. At this time I have had so many Cavalry Armies and was so powerful that my Conquest Victory was foreseeable.

In 450AD I took Cuzco :mad: , the city I really hated. Pompeii, the last Roman city, was conquered in the same year. Four turns later I had to destroy seven of my own towns to prevent a Domination Victory. The last Egyptian city was conquered in 480AD and the last one of the Incas in 540AD. The game ended with the defeat of the Byzantines in 580AD and the resulting Conquest Victory in 590AD.

In sum I got 16 GLs in this game. One GL came too late to do anything with him. The 15 others produced one Swordsman Army, Heroic Epic, Forbidden Palace, two Knight Armies and ten Cavalry Armies. This was the first time I really was "farming" Leaders and the result was great: It was also the first time where I believe that I wasn't a "slow conqueror". So in future "Leader farming" will become an essential part of my strategy.

At 1650BC I killed an Arabian Warrior who was escorting a Settler. [...] So they came in two waves across the river. In this battle the Arabians lost eight Warriors and the Archer. I lost only one Warrior and got my first Great Leader (1500BC). In 1400BC I got one town (Basra) for peace.

Daredevil! You don't even wait for a "quick" archer-rush :eek: :eek:

I guess I would have already lost to the settler-combo.
Did you build baracks first? Or were those regular warriors?

Impressive performance!

The attack on the Settler Combo was a calculated risk. The Combo was far away from the Arabian territory and I have had two Warriors for my attack. The problem was the Arabian counter attack. I didn't play very often on deity level. So I underestimated the Arabian strength. That the Arabians were not able to take Rheims based on only two things:

1. The AI is stupid. A human player would have waited one turn until all attack units would be ready. Also the human player would bring at least the first wave across the river to prevent the malus of across river attacks.

2. I have had a lot of luck.

I will never do again such an action on deity or emperor level.

I think the earlier post regarding h's posts poses a valid question. And the reply from h gives a valid explanation. From the Civ3 games I have played, it's about 75% player skill and 25% luck. That's the way SirPleb won't win every GOTM.