GOTM 54 Second Spoiler

To qualify for this spoiler, you must have either completed (and submitted) your entire game, or you must have the full world map, all contacts and have reached the industrial age.

As always, please don't spoil it by posting screenshots of modern-age resources.

Open - conquest

Getting things started
I founded my capital on the hill, built a granary and ran it as a terrifying 10 turn combo settler factory throughout the QSC period.

I founded a ring of cities and RCP3 which included one city that squelched the wines which became my FP town. After that I crammed in where I could so that all the towns on our peninsula were close to the FP town. I also founded a town on the horses and put a colony on our iron.

In terms of research I self researched potts, alpha, maths and currency and traded for all the other AA core techs except for construction and poly. I got maths and currency as monopolies. I later did a min run on republic which I ended up trading for monarchy. I did the min run as I needed the cash to upgrade my large stack of veteran warriors to swords. However, I am getting a little ahead of myself.

War on China: 900bc - 730bc
As a result of a relatively smooth QSC period I made my first DOW in 900bc. At this point my military was 9 swords, 11 warriors, 2 spears and a galley. The swords, 1 of the spears and a couple of the exploring warriors were ready to march over the borders with the remainder of the warriors back in the main land awaiting enough cash for upgrade and the other spear was defending the colony from some serious barbarian attacks.

The Chinese towns were lightly defended at this stage and I easily captured Shanghai and Beijing and also took Xinjan in a peace deal. With the Chinese no longer being serious competition I moved on to the Americans.

War on the US: 730bc - 450bc
I immediately got going with Abe. Moving around with swords takes time and I didn't capture my first city until 630bc. 5 turns after starting the war. Again, I went for their capital and other productive city and then sued for peace. This time getting two other cities and the remaining AA techs - this put me in the middle ages.

Bring on the Celts: 370bc - 190bc
At this stage Brennus had still not managed to get hold of any iron to the Celtic lands were the next easy pickings for Egypt. I, again went for Entrement and Lugdunum (his two most productive cities first). He then gave me 3 out of his 4 remaining in peace.

China round 2 and the Palace Jump
At this stage I had still not got myself a great leader but it was getting to the stage where not having a second core was really slowing me down. I didn't have civ assist 2 but using DaveMcW's formula it seemed I would need around 30 units to make the jump.

I brought my units in Celtica back (on the way killing the new Chinese core leaving them with 2 very small unproductive towns) and completed my palace jump to a newly formed town to the North East of Old China. The rings around my new capital were at RCP5 and the towns on the peninsula were all RCP 2/3 around the FP so corruption was nice.

German ROP Rape:110AD to 210AD
The Germans were the first decent foe. They had 13 turns, iron and feudalism (albeit only relatively recently). Therefore I decided it was time to call in the Rop rape.

I had 69 units on the territory in preparation (a combination of swords, war chariots and a couple of spears). As it turned out I was perhaps a little over cautious. However, I did take 4 towns in turn 1 and unhook the remainder of their resources.

I did a fake peace for towns and tech in 210AD. Leaving them with 1 town left. I then pulled the tech trick for c.150gpt from America, China and Celts before wiping out the remaining German City.

Problems with the Arabs:210AD-450AD
The Arabs were the most powerful civ other than me. They got off to a flying start thanks to them getting an early second city (presumably a hut as none of the other civs got one). They actually dowed on me shortly before my ROP Rape on the Germans.

It took me a while to move my forces over from Old Germany to the Arab lands. I did rush barracks in Entrement so I could upgrade my chariots to Knights and swords to Med Infs. I pushed back the Arab attacks pretty easily but it took me a while to fight through their jungle. Once I did the weight of Knights I had was too much for them and their towns (still mostly defended by spears with a few pikes) died quite fast.

I actually conquered the last mainland Arab town in 410 AD. However it took me another few turns to take a couple of their holdings in the Jungle to the North and also to wipe out the remaining Chinese, American and Celtic towns. Satisfyingly, I did actually finish off each of the remaining 4 civs in the same turn (440 AD).

Things would have been more difficuly had the Arabs managed to get Chivalry. As it was they focused on the top half of the tech tree. In their situation they obviously thought universities were going to be more useful and move 3 Knights and a golden age!

Overall
It was a nice game and my fastest result to date (450 AD), could have been a bit quicker but I did make quite a few mistakes and I really lucked out on leaders, (I didn't get 1 in the whole game - second game running but I did get 9 on the Iroquois game so things even out)!

I scored 11,070 Jasons which should be up there but I noticed a lot of fast starts in the earlier spoiler thread and I'm sure that if he has decided to get his umpteenth conquest award Drazek will have had no problems getting it!

Finally, apologies for the less honourable black path. I will make the step up one of these days!

GOTM 54, Open. Conquest, done almost entirely with Chariots.

410BC - Enter MA getting HBR in peace deal with China. I delayed HBR foolishly thinking that it will prevent me from building Chariots. Oh well.

Also this turn: 1st GL against Americans. Attack China again, China gone.

230BC - Build FP with GL. Why so long? because I desided to build a new city for FP, for better RCP, and all cities around couldn't grow to size 3 fast enough.

170BC-30BC - War with Germany, we take couple of cities and their Iron and extort Feudalism+Mono in the peace treaty.

10BC - dow Americans (last city) and Celts.
10AD - Americans gone.

90AD - Peace with Celts, get Engineering in a Peace deal.

240AD - take Entremont with GLib, get Invention from it.

260AD - GL in war with Germany. Build Leo.
310AD - Germany gone.
340AD - Celts gone, learn Chivalry about this time and see that Arabs got Guns. Upgrade Chariots to Knights in Entremont (which also had barracks) and throw them against Arabs.

420AD - Arabs gone. I saw maybe 5-6 Muskets which were no match to my 38 Knights and 13 Chariots at the end of the game.

Game status: Conquest Victory for Egypt
Game date: 420 AD
Jason score: above 11K, which is my first above 10K as well. Woo-hoo!

Funny thing happened the last turn of the game: Arabs had 1 Galley left, and they had GLH. Their Galley was on a Sea tile and this same turn I captured GLH. Next turn it sunk in the sea. :) So I didn't have to chase it.

Oh, and Chariots were a lot of fun. I thought them a crappy UU but now I'll respect them more: 1.5 times more troops for the same effort means a lot.

Oh, and Chariots were a lot of fun. I thought them a crappy UU but now I'll respect them more: 1.5 times more troops for the same effort means a lot.


Agreed, the economy of the them was a revelation for me, too. I've never had a despotic gov't churn out so many troops. Of course, the GA helped as well.

Open, going for the Conquest Award!

My AA ended in 410 BC, three turns into our GA.
China had been reduced to rubbish, and I was fighting America who had a MA with Arabia against me. I in turn had signed in the Celts against Arabia to keep them fighting and not disturb me while I handled America.

War on America, 470 BC - 330 BC (and more)
The war began for real with me triggering my GA against some of his troops that were advancing on me through former China. It took my troops a while to reach his towns though, so it wasn't until 330 BC that I could capture Washington and Boston on the same turn. After that the war was over in reality, though no peace was signed for quite some time. I simply saw no reason to. Licoln still held Chicago behind the mountains on the north coast, and my War Chariots couldn't go there - yet.

Beyond America was Celts, whom I didn't want to fight just yet, and their road network was terrible. So, instead of pushing on I sent in loads of slaves to make me a road all across the Celt lands and further through the jungle. The slaves were guarded by swords from the American campaign, while the War Chariots joined the newly built ones in turning north.

War on Germany, 250 BC - 130 AD
At this point about 15 War Chariots marched on Berlin, capturing it in 210 BC with the Pyramids. The other towns fell slowly one by one, I was in no particular rush. After all it's the very last town that counts, and my workers were still roading in the far west. Germany managed to get to the MA just after I attacked, getting Feudalism as their free tech, so Berlin was guarded by a pike, first one I saw. It was also the only one the Germans would ever produce, despite having iron.

The Turning Point - 90 BC
What really made the later German campaign successful, as well as the rest of the game, was the MGL that arose in Celt lands in 250 BC when an elite sword killed a stray Arab warrior. I had intended to bring him to Beijing for a FP, but when the time came to do the hurrying I changed my mind. Feudalism was only a few turns away, and Sun Tzu's Academy was more tempting. The insta-heal combined with the ability to rush veteran units near the front was too powerful to resist. Also every single town could build a veteran War Chariot in 20 turns - that's a lot of Chariots! :eek:
Feudalism came in 110 BC, self-researched since I didn't want peace with Otto, and consequently the Academy was built in 90 BC. I shut off research after that, generating gold for upgrades.

Going for the Arabs, 10 AD - 230 AD
In 10 AD my worker crews brought the road to Baghdad. By then they had been joined by fresh War Chariots from home and some rushed in former America. Also I had captured Mohács that had been taken by the Arabs, and thus I could upgrade the swords guarding the workers. Baghdad fell in 10 AD, followed by three more secondary towns. My forces were joined back together for a massive assault on Mecca in 130 AD resulting in its complete destruction :D. Abu had just joined the MA crew, getting Feudalism :rolleyes: as his free tech, so Mecca had a pike defending it. I leisurly tidied up the remaining towns while bringing most of my forces into Celt lands. Baghdad flipped once, getting a pike as a defender, which was the third and last pike I would see in this game. I got the remote Arab towns past the northern jungle in a peace deal in 230 AD. By then Arabia was down to only Kufah on the south-western tip of the land.

Tidying up the trash, 130 AD - 250 AD
At 130 AD, all AI civs were still in the game! China had expanded to 4 towns, so I went for Mao first. DoW in 130 AD, gone in 170 AD. In 250 AD I broke the fragile peace deals with both Germany and Arabia and both were gone on the same turn, having only one town each. That left America with two mountaineous towns, and my "friends" the Celts.

Backstabber, 270 AD - 300 AD
Friends, hmm, by this time they were furious with me since our MA vs Arabia was no longer in effect. And I had to pay a ridiculous price to keep our ROP agreement in effect. In other words, he had it coming! :p
In 270 AD my strategically placed troops surprised the Celtic defenders and quickly captured 5 of his 7 towns. The second last were taken the turn after, but the final one in the hills on the west coast set me back with some bad RNG, delaying me an extra turn. Didn't matter much though because America was also alive. My worker crews had been building a road up in the mountains for my War Chariots to use, and it was completed on the IBT before 270 AD. On that same IBT, Lincoln demands that I remove them, so it was really in the nick of time. My workers were captured when I refused, but the road was complete and my chariots could storm up in the mountains. In 280 AD I captured Seattle, and in 290 AD Chicago was taken, same turn as the last Celtic town. Victory came after the IBT. :egypt:

Game Status: Conquest Victory for Egypt
Game Date: 300 AD
Jason score: 11100
Time played: 19:47:48

The score is my highest ever by a long shot :dance:. Only previous 10k+ was in GOTM41 Persia, the game where a good quarter of the field had 10k+ scores, so this feels like a first.

Looking at the results by Wardancer (450 AD) and Nata (410 AD) gives me hope of finally claiming the Conquest Award. Sure, Drazek doesn't post spoilers, but I seem to have played a really strong game in comparison. I can only hope for the results to be posted quickly so that I don't have to worry too long...

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gif
predator ptw - goal: space is the place.

Middle ages spoiler

At the dawn of the Medievals, research is carried over at bare minimum toward Engineering. Meanwhile Egypt amass troops, build a road north and prepare for the takeover of China. For a long time, the army sits idle doing nothing while the scarce worker force roads the mountains north. It's a precise strategy: once connected, the Chinese cities will be easier to maintain and the core will benefit of the hooked luxuries.

The government remains a despotism. No one bothers to research Monarchy and when finally someone has it, it's too costly to be bought. In 210 BC, the road is finally complete and the war versus the chinese begins. Nanking and Xinjan fall easily. Beijing offers a fierce resistance but is captured anyway with some losses; two more luxuries are hooked at this point. Troops are enough to prosecute the war and the next target is the northern town of Shangai to negate the Chinese source of iron. A leader is generated and is kept spare for a future FP rush in the forming 2nd core. With the large cash amassed we're able to buy Feudalism from the Celts and trade it for Republic with America.

In 50 AD Cairo is founded and the FP is rushed immediately. At this point it's no more convenient to stay in despo and a revolution is held. In 70 AD the Republic of Egypt is finally established. In the very same turn Engineering is complete and despite the Celts knows it too we're able to trade it for Monotheism. At this point research is resumed toward Invention at max speed.

The chinese war goes on. Next targets are the southern town of Canton (spices) and Tsingtao. In 110 AD Canton falls, after a failed attack the turn before. In 150 AD Tsingtao is owned and peace is finally signed. China toss in a city and Monarchy. The intention was to use it to rush the Hanging Gardens later, but not any leader has emerged after the first (despite at least 20 elite victories!) for the whole medievals :mad:

The next victim is America. We're able to take over Philadelphia and New York and seize the 5th luxury (incense) but heavy losses prevents us to advance further toward Washington. Meanwhile Invention and Gunpowder are researched. We sign peace with America extorting Theology, then trade Gunpowder it to the Arabs (Education) and Celts (Chivalry). We insist on the lower branch by researching Chemistry.

After a few peaceful turns, it's time to take over the rest of China and to trigger the golden age. War is declared in 380AD and the Chinese are completely assimilated in 500AD. In those few turns we research Chemistry and Metallurgy and trade the first with the Arabs in return for Astronomy. From this point, we're able to sustain 4 turns research until the end. We go for Physics and gift it to everyone. Given the fondness of the AS for the upper optional branch, we go for Magnetism and Gravity, leaving Banking in the hope that someone research it.

In 610AD, war with America is declared again. Next turn we take over Seattle, complete Gravity and complete Copernicus in Alexandria thanks to a clever prebuild. Elephantine switches its palace to Newton. Too bad no one has researched Banking and we have to go it the hard way.

In 630AD Washington is finally captured and the 6th luxury (ivory) is seized. More importantly, the Celts have finally researched Banking and we're able to buy the tech with interests. At this point we're in the Industrials. Banking is sold away for all the money we can get, then Germany is gifted into the Industrials. They draw Steam Power, so we go for Medicine. We should be able to buy Steam for Medicine + some quids once the tech is researched, since the AS is quite likely to go for Nationalism or Democracy.


Tech log:

3900BC: Masonry, Ceremonial Burial (prerequisites);
2670BC: Alphabet (self); Pottery, Warrior Code (trade, America); Bronze (trade, China);
2350BC: Iron, Wheel (trade, Germany);
1950BC: Mysticism (trade, Germany);
1790BC: Writing (research + trade, America)
1150BC: Literature (self); Maps, Math (trade, Celts); Horse Riding (trade, China);
-975BC: Code of Laws (trade, Germany), Philosophy (trade, Arabia);
-730BC: Polytheism (self); Construction (trade, Arabia); Currency (trade, Celts);
*********************************************
--10AD: Feudalism (trade, Celts); Republic (trade, America);
--70AD: Engineering (self); Monotheism (trade, Germany);
-150AD: Monarchy (pointystick, China);
-260AD: Invention (self);
-350AD: Gunpowder (self); Theology (pointystick, America);
-380AD: Education (trade, Arabia); Chivalry (trade, Celts);
-440AD: Chemistry (self);
-470AD: Astronomy (trade, Arabia);
-500AD: Metallurgy (self);
-540AD: Physics (self);
-560AD: Navigation (trade, Arabia);
-580AD: Magnetism (self);
-620AD: Gravity (self);
-630AD: Banking (research + trade, Celts);

A shoot of the terrific 2nd core. It took a while to build it up but it was worth it.

Crikey - thats a great date Niklas. Some nice logistics on the roads. Also, the combined power of the Sun Tzu and war chariots must have been quite tasty. Were you still in despotism - because with the Pyramids you would have had an insane number with pop rushing.

Even if Drazek has gone the conquest route I suspect you will be giving him a run for his money! On the other hand I noticed Klarius is also in the submission list. No spoiler yet from him but I would guess a very fast dom/conquest would not be out of the question.

I have to say that I did not expect to be the slowest win on the board at this stage!

Thanks for the praise! :)
I was in Monarchy, since I wasn't planning on Sun Tzu from the start and wanted those 10spt in my core towns during the GA. Now that you mention it, of course I should have switched back once I got Sun Tzu, but I never thought about it. Oh my, what an army I could have had... :)

Sorry, no real spoiler from me. Just a few notes to show that I'm not competing with the fast conquesters.

Stumbled around a bit with the settler. Settled in a soso position.
Did wait some turns with swords and chariots for pyramids to complete at the gates of Beijing.
Then proceeded to a knight driven domination in 450AD leaving parts of Germany and Arabia intact.
But as usual the score isn't too shabby :).

Impressive result Niklas!

PTW Open Going for 20K

Ancient Age Culture

G Lib 710 BC
Temple 610 BC
Colusseum 290 BC
Library 150 BC

Middle Ages

I decided that it was more honourable to hand-build all my culture so there would be no leader farming for me (or if you don't buy that - I was so far behind in tech and military that I had no chance of putting a dent in the AI). I followed an isolationist policy, on the understanding that if I didn't bother them, the other civs wouldn't bother me. Of course those war-mongering brutes just can't respect international borders can they? Much of my game followed a similar pattern: sneak attack by the AI, my troops hold-out at the fortified mountain pass long enough for me to sue for peace. Meanwhile back in my 20k town I'm building wonders like bilio (assuming bilio is an arthritic, asmhetic tortoise with its legs tied together).

I did manage to cobble together the Sistine Chapel and Shakespeare's Theatre (researching Free Artistry just a few turns before my prebuild was finished). But mostly I built palace pre-builds which I eventually had to convert to something useful like archers. I produced some of the most shield intensive military units in civ history.

As I progressed through the game it became obvious that it was a race between my 20K city and Arabia's push for domination. One of the civs did build the UN but they never held a vote (phew!). America were knocked out pretty early, in the ancient age I think. By the end of the game it was me and my "island", the Celts, Germany and a massive Arabia. Occassionaly one civ or another would ship a couple of cavalry (later infantry) behind my defensive lines. Since most of my cities were completely udefended this threatened to wipe out my entire empire. But each time I was able to scramble just enough units to halt the invasion before it did irreparable damage.

It also became clear that I'd never build another wonder because I was so far behind in tech. So I churned out a few small wonders with their meagre 1cpt. I ended the game just a few techs into the industrial, while the others were having fun playing with modern armour and mech inf. My cavalry gazed across the mountain pass in awe and wonder at the sophistication of the enemy. It's just a shame their leaders were not similarly sophisticated for any kind of concerted attack would have brought me crashing to my knees.

So by the end of the game I was fast developing RSI from pressing enter and then reciting a little prayer (please don't declare war, please don't declare war). I must have done the last two hundred years or so in about half an hour.

Anyway the outcome was:
20k Victory in 1999
1116 Jasons (I reckon I'm in the running for lowest scoring victory ever)

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gif
predator ptw - sun ra :)

The rest of the story

We enter the industrial still at war with America, and after a few elite victories the long awaited leader finally pops up. It is kept for the whole age for the Evolution slingshot. Despite the high level, the AS weren't of any help in research. I had to research all the industrial techs myself, except for Steam that was the free tech for Germany. Nothing meaniful to report, except for a sneak-attack by the Arabs easily repealed.

In the very first turns i completed Newton's in a money-rich city in the old core. Later in the industrial ages i also built Smith's and the Hoover Dam.

The slingshot was precisely timed. We enter the modern ages in 1320AD and gift immediately the Germans into it. They draw Rocketry. Next turn Evolution is complete and we draw Computers and Miniaturization. In the same both the Internet (prebuild) and SETI (leader) are built. We buy Rocketry from Germany and do the final research.

At this point war with America is redeclared and with all the units employed in elite status the 3rd leader soon comes out. It is used to rush Apollo. Except for the 1st tech (Space Flight), all the modern age techs were researched in 4 turns. The only surprise came from the germans who sneak-attacked in the very last turn and captured an undefended city. I could have ignored them and simply complete the ship, but some warfare with Modern Armors was a nice break from a boring peaceful game. So in the last turns i took over a good part of Germany. Berlin fell the turn before the ship was complete. In the 1510 AD interturn the last tech (Robotics) is complete and the last part is also built.

Final result: spaceship victory, 1515 AD; Firaxis: 5017; Jason: 8289.

tech log

-690AD: Medicine (self);
-700AD: Steam (research + trade, Germany);
-730AD: Military Tradition (trade, Celts);
-770AD: Electricity (self);
-840AD: Rep Parts (self);
-890AD: Industrialization (self), Economics (trade, Celts);
-940AD: Corporation (self);
-980AD: Scientific Method (self);
1030AD: Steel (self); Nationalism (trade, Arabia)
1080AD: Refining (self);
1110AD: Music Theory (trade, Germany);
1130AD: Combustion (self);
1140AD: Communism (trade, Arabia);
1170AD: Mass Production (self);
1220AD: Atomic Theory (self);
1255AD: Electronics (self);
1280AD: Radio (self);
1300AD: Flight (self);
1320AD: Motorized Transportation (self);
***********************************************
1320AD: Sanitation (trade, Arabia);
1325AD: Computers, Fission (Evolution); Rocketry, Printing Press (trade, Germany);
1355AD: Space Flight (self);
1375AD: Satellites (self);
1395AD: Ecology (self); Democracy, Amphibious War (trade, Germany);
1415AD: Synthetic Fibers (self);
1435AD: Fission (self);
1455AD: Superconductors (self);
1475AD: Nuclear Power (self);
1495AD: Laser (self);
1515AD: Robotics (self);

spaceship log:

1360: Apollo (leader);
1360: Docking Bay;
1370: Cockpit;
1390: Engine;
1390: Thrusters;
1420: Storage/Supply;
1445: Exterior Casing;
1465: Fuel Cells;
1470: Life Support;
1500: Party Lounge;
1515: Stasis Chamber;

Regrets

I left 3 AS untouched to have them help research. Nope. They went for the useless optional crap and never were of any help after the Medievals. Next time i won't be so merciful :evil:

EDIT: added the built wonders and fixed a few typos (it was 5.00 am when i wrote the spoiler).

Well done tR1cKy,:goodjob: you got me by 1 turn :(

Well done tR1cKy,:goodjob: you got me by 1 turn :(
Urgh! :cringe: If no one else does better, it would be the 2nd time i win an award for a mere 1 turn of difference :wow:
Well, it seems that my skills at science games weren't so bad after all :D
Are you posting a spoiler?

doubt it, I'm kind of tied up in two SGOTMs in their starting phases

Pity. It would have been interesting to compare our respective tech progress. I suspect that you were ahead for the most part of the medievals and for the whole industrials and that i caught up only in the very last turns with the 4-turns research in all the modern techs.

Anyway, thanks. I feel a little sorry for you, pal. Only 1 turn... no kidding.

Anyway, thanks. I feel a little sorry for you, pal. Only 1 turn... no kidding.
Don't, c'est la vie and I only get slobbier if I win easily. It's sad enough that so many aces have left. I much rather have my butt handed to me, then to win by lack of good competition.

Yeah, me too i think so. Many top dogs aren't here anymore and the pool of players is constantly shrinking. Winning by lack of competition isn't that great. Perhaps we should come out with some ideas to recruit new ones.

Perhaps we should come out with some ideas to recruit new ones.

That Civ 4 is so boring should be enough, but it seems most people don't agree.

As i already suggested some time ago the only way to make competition for fastets finishes more interesting in 3OTMs is to limit the number of victory conditions that get awards in each game.

Obormot, your idea isn't bad at all. Restricted awards may help in raise the interest in the competitions. But i think it's not enough.

Personally, i started to play GOTMs after over 1 year that i was wandering in these forums. I see lots of new names in the general discussion area of Civ3. Probably many of them aren't even aware of this competition. Sending a few invitations each of us may result in new entusiasts picking up the competition.

Specially made maps - unusual competitions - altered civilizations etc. may lead some of the retired ones to join again.

Just some thought of mine. What do you think about them guys?

EDIT: without being annoying, i think that suggesting some people seeking advice of some sort to see the GotM threads and trying a pair of games should be good advice anyway.

I started out building Warriors and eventually blocked off the entrance to my peninsula. My research took me to The Wheel first, but I did not build War Chariots initially. After meeting and trading, I decided that I would conquer the world with Swords. This worked well as I also could upgrade my Warriors, and because I had been doing that in the last quick game. I connected up the iron just north of the starting point while making a road through the mountains. I also put a city on the hills horses to make the road faster. China was my first target.

Since the start did not allow for lots of cities, I decided that I would jump my capitol to Chinese lands as soon as possible. I built my first core with that in mind, with the FP to be built in Heliopolis.


http://www.nd.edu/~mcrocker/access/gotm/gotm54/firstring.jpg

After two or three wars, I managed to capture 3 Chinese cities by force, 2 through peace deals (including an island city), and destroyed 4 size-1 cities by 130AD. That left the Chinese with two cities and me with a great second core. In fact, this is probably the best second core that I ever had. I used 3 of the old Chinese cities and 4 of my own. The Americans had placed 2 at a perfect distance from Shanghai. I jumped palace to Shanghai in 110AD.

http://www.nd.edu/~mcrocker/access/gotm/gotm54/newcore.jpg

Events that took place before the palace jump led me to reconsider my sword-conquest idea. First off, everyone was in the middle ages by now. I was in the middle ages too thanks to a military leader and thus the Great Library in Shanghai in 350BC. This let me build up money for upgrades and rushed buildings. I had switched to Monarchy in time for my golden age which started in about 230BC. Starting around 50BC, I had enough Medieval Infantry to take the rest of China, and I decided to take the Cavalry route. I was losing MI really fast, so I decided to switch production to Library, Barracks, and War Chariots and change to the research game.

In the end, I built a total of 8 Libraries in my two cores. I researched directly to Military Tradition, after switching to Republic in 210AD. Along the way, the Americans fell off the map. They had always been spread out, but things got worse for Lincoln. I received Boston and New York through cultural flips, and the Germans took San Francisco, Atlanta, Seattle, and Chicago. Washington was all they had left. After taking China's last two cities, I realized that conquering China gave me four additional luxury resrouces: Dyes, Furs, Incense, and Spices.

I built up War Chariots as much as possible until I received Chivalry in about 500AD from the Great Library and started going after the Celts. The Celts did not have iron, so Knights worked well against Spearmen. However, the Arabs had declared, so I was fighting the Arabs for Celtic land. I think Entremont was captured back and forth for 5 consecutive turns.

http://www.nd.edu/~mcrocker/access/gotm/gotm54/entremont.jpg

Once I had MT in 620AD, conquest went much faster. I learned from my wars with the Germans that cities with foreign citizens (Celts and Chinese) don't get destroyed when captured, which is nice. I managed a Domination Victory in 850AD. My second core looked really good at that point.

http://www.nd.edu/~mcrocker/access/gotm/gotm54/gotm54pic.jpg

My conquest progress went something like this:

http://www.nd.edu/~mcrocker/access/gotm/gotm54/gotm54timeline.jpg

@Spiffykeen - Nice spoiler, unluckily you went for the same victory condition as Klarius so no award for you this game!

@Tricky / Obermot - I think both those ideas are excellent. A bit of marketing of the GOTM competitions across the other parts of the site definately would not hurt.

In terms of Obermot's suggestion I think this is an absolute must. I have just completed the Roman game with a fairly late science win. In is no way worthy of an award (particularly when compared with some recent efforts of others) but I think I stand a fair chance purely on the basis I am likely to not have any competition from anyone serious.

At the moment the only two fastest finish awards worth anything are the Conquest and the dom. That needs to change.

I think 3 awards per games would be nice to balance good competition and good diversity. One military (one month conquest, next month domination, etc), one builder (one month space, next month diplo, next month 20k, then back to space, etc) and one "marathon" (cow and 100K). The other conditions are playable and get jason score according to the best dates, but don't get awards. It will be unfare to the epthatlon players of course since they'll have to wait 2-3 month between attempts, but well, winning the epthatlon is not supposed to be easy.

As for the intersting and challenging maps, i agree to some extent, but not completely. The recent challenging maps in COTM had fewer people participating. The games should be unusual to some extent, but should not take too much time. It was fun for me to explore the world of COTM23, but i got bored when i saw just how much land there is on that map. I think smaller maps are the way to go, we have more people playing GOTMs now then COTMs, this used to be the other way around, but changed when GOTMs moved to small maps. Also people usually like better starts more, so a great start deity is more fun then poor start emperor game (though some alternation is required of course).

As for marketing gotms, this may attract some people, i agree, these forums are big and people from one subforum don't read what's goin on in others. But I don't really know how this can be done.

The GOTM staff are now very busy running 3 GOTMs and 2 SGOTMs at once and in 4OTMs the number of submissions is several hundreds that is higher then submissions for 3OTMS have ever been, so maybe they don't have the time to arrange all these changes :( But perhaps we should start discussing this now (maybe this can be moved to a different thread), hopefully sometime when the 4OTMs are running smoothly they'll find some time to think about this. I guess we just have to say thanks to them for not forgetiing about good old civ3 :)

11219 jason
domination in 390

i played civ4 for few months but i can say civ3 is better than civ4. that is my opinion

I will casually suggests people asking for advice to see some spoilers here and try a GotM competition. It would be good advice too. In my case, it did a great job of improvement and refinement.

I salute everyone who got to the middle ages in this game. I thought I was a great CivIII player when I started this, my first GOTM. I now stand humbled and beaten. :-(

So Tricky, Obormot, et al. You guys are doing great just giving advice. I think people will start GOTMS like I did. Needless to say this being my first emperor game and first GOTM I fared pathetically.

I was actually pretty okay till QSC, 6 cities 19 population or something like that. But German's demanded tribute I refused, DOW. America demanded tribute I refused DOW, Chinese demanded tribute, I refused DOW, all in the same turn!!I got so panicky pushing my poor spearmen to the mountain passes, that I missed ALL wonders. I fell VERY far behind in tech, and had the ignominy of having my military advisor disband units because we could not manage their upkeep.

So all you guys thinking you have had a bad game, please don't fret. I can successfully win the hardest played worst defeat award anytime. You know, start one of those awards and I bet we have more people coming in. :-)

@Wardancer - Thanks! I have not written a spoiler in a while. I'm glad that I've done a good job. Lots of pictures does not necessarily mean that I provided an interesting or useful description of my game. :) Now that I am closer to being a "top" player, maybe my spoilers will help others...

As for reducing the possible victory conditions so that there is more competition, I don't know what to say. I have only ever won Civ3 games through domination, conquest, or a 20k cultural city. As long as there is the possibility for domination and conquest, I don't mind having only one other fastest finish award. It might just convince me to try a space or diplomatic victory.

@Obormot - How is 100K cultural like the cow? Is that because you have to rush a bunch of buildings and that leads to the same kind of micro-management as going all the way to 2050AD? I mean, don't the other victory conditions (space, diplo, 20k) usually last longer (date and time spent playing)... Looking back at previous results, it seems that the different fastest finishes take turns being the game with the longest play time. Sometimes it is not even the cow. I saw 20k, space, and diplo fastest finishes taking longer than the cow and 100k. I would say that space, diplo, 20k, and 100k are in the same boat, just as conquest and domination are in another. I'm just curious why your reasoning was.

Maybe i'm wrong. I never played a 100K game and got my award for nothing :p

Well, my point was that diplo, space and 20K require the player to balance expansion and building up the core (when they are played for fast finish, not score), but 100K and cow require reaching the dom limit ASAP and only then doing some other micromanagment. But anyway it doesn't matter how to split the awards in categories, we may just pick 3 out of 7 randomly. The idea is that we have 40 people playing now instead of 100. So the number of awards should be scaled using approximately the same factor.

Open, going for the Conquest Award!
Looking at the results by Wardancer (450 AD) and Nata (410 AD) gives me hope of finally claiming the Conquest Award. Sure, Drazek doesn't post spoilers, but I seem to have played a really strong game in comparison. I can only hope for the results to be posted quickly so that I don't have to worry too long...

No worries, Niklas. This game was a really painful for me. I thought about abandoning it for some times. It actually took me 3 weeks to complete, although playtime was just short of 8 hours. I got so frustrated with all those mountains and jungles + I lost my roading workers to barbarians a few times.

Looks like I did an unusual move in the beginning, as I did a short palace jump to west of wines. Did not bother to calculate if it was a good choice, but it allowed me to have 5 ring 4 towns. Then it was just a long wait to get those towns ready for Golden Age and get mountains roaded. GA gave me lots of War Chariots, but they weren't enough, my core really lacked production. I got Monarchy before GA but had to change back to Despotism to pop rush troops in the frontline. I must have abandoned about 20-30 towns because I just lacked army to protect them and I tried to do conquerring as fast as possible. Jason was under 11k.

@Drazek - At 8 hours I'm normally still tinkering with my QSC spreadsheet :)

@Spiffykeen - I also agree with the 100k being in a category with the cow. Its just such a painful long slog. Spending hours pop rushing all the useless culture in your fully corrupt ICS towns is not fun. Its definately my least favourite victory condition!

I too agree we should limit winning conditions for each 3OTM. If I were to win a award because no one else went the same route, It just won't feel right. I think all winning conditions should be turned on for the game. As for how many to be available? At least 3 as Obormot sugested but 4 would be preferable. That way all conditions will be available within two month. How about 4 one month and 3 the other?

Domination Loss to Germany. My 2 failed wars against China left me stuck on the mountain island (start area). In the end, i was banished to the small island between China and Egypt, by Germany and Arabia (who simultaneously declared war, i hate that)So i was sitting on my island (with a galleon, 2-3muskets, 1 worker, 1 swordsman) watching the Germans plow through anyone who stood in the way.

A bit late, but I figured I would chime in with some thoughts too on how to get a better competition. I think the idea of limited awards makes sense, it would certainly increase the competition for those awards and make the Eptathlon rightfully hard to achieve again. But I'm not so sure that's enough.

Those who have left us for Civ4 are not going to come back because we take away half the awards for each game. Those who still play Civ3 but not the 3OTM games are not going to jump in the water because the competition is tightened for each award. Those who have their Eptathlons already (or are well on their way but gave up because of the cow) won't really care about how awards are given any more. I think we need something different, something new, something that draws some attention to 3OTM.

My suggestion is to formalize a contest within the contest, much like the gauntlet games of the HOF. I'm talking about something like the Predator Challenges that tR1cKy started. Those were fairly successful, lots of players chose to join the Conquest challenge with Carthage, and even more went with the Arabian Domination Challenge. And that with no official backing to go with it, just the bragging rights.
So, I think we should introduce a formal Challenge in each game, for a particular VC, with some sort of laurel to go with it. Scrap the old awards, their value is deflated anyway (or keep them for those who really want to). Introduce a new form of Challenger Eptathlon (or maybe fewer than 7, 5 maybe if we skip the marathons?) for those who have won a challenge for each VC. Let players win their games any way they like, but distinguish the Challenger games. Keep a separate CPR, Challenger Player Rating, where only challenge games count. Retain the old GPR for players going for just any VC.

Will this increase competition in each game? Certainly. :)
Will it bring new players to the game? No idea. :confused:
Will it bring old players back? Probably not. :(
Will it make the game more fun for those of us who are still around? You bet. :cool:
(Would it put more work on the staff? Yeah, that too... :blush: )

Niklas and others,
I'm not coming back, for personal reasons, but I hope the competition lives on. I'm not the one to judge civIV, being quite inexperienced with it, but it does seem clear to me that the major advancement in the game did take place between civII and civIII with the cultural boundaries feature.

Incidentally, I made a rare comback in GOTM54 finishing with a 450AD domination victory, but I will not submit for any reason, being officially retired.