COTM 27 first spoiler

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I think this would have been more fun on 'most aggressive' - it was when I tested it. :(


Anyway - what were your experiences in the early game?

my report is fairly quick:

thought I can expand with warriors and settlers only. Went to settle where some people suggested as well. Went for warrior and granary then settler.
Met Germany and Rome and expanded to grab the wine in the east before thinking of going north for another lux. I should have smelled something.

I wasn't fast enough and Germany sneaked attacked on the next turn after the screenshot and took my capital, game over in 2400BC :blush:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads12/gotf26rat.jpg

As soon as i saw Bismark, i became concerned. IIRC, I built a barracks and a few archers as soon as i saw him, remembering what he had done in the England COTM (at least 5 players were attacked very early). When Bismark started wandering archers through my territory, i thought i was doomed. Then I saw a Roman Warrior wandering towards my lands. Germany was at war with Rome!

After not finding horses within a reasonable distance, I sought to control the Iron to the south.

Hoping to connect the horses to the NW, but there is a barb infested jungle in the way, and a Mongol planting cities on my continent. Also saw Shaka's galleys.

I was somewhat sceptic before starting this cotm, since I normally play on monarch difficulty. :eek:

However rome and germany spent some thousand years on war, so I got the time and space to finish the collosus and the great library while expanding as much as possible. :goodjob:
Entering the middle ages, I'm just slightly smaller (area + pop) than rome and germany, but much weaker on millitary. So the plan is something like: hope for peace and see what happens...:mischief:

Settle in place, build an axe who heads out for a look around; east at first, and then heading anticlockwise around Beijing, two or three tiles out. The second axe stays home for military police; this will allow me enough commerce to research Pots in time to switch my settler prebuild over to a granary.
Otto is met on turn 10; there is a German spear standing just outside my new borders. Nothing to trade on predator, of course. By the time my first axe has toured around to where the German spear was, he meets a stack of three archers and a spear heading eastwards, and a couple more archers trickling along behind.
I let the granary finish to make pop rushing faster, add the worker back to Beijing, and buy War Code from Otto with Pots and lots of gpt which he won't expect me to honour. These measures are insufficient. Conquest loss in 2900bc.

With some reloading from the point at which I met the German stack, I found a system of trades, builds and rushes which kept me alive long enough to sue for peace, but in a totally crippled state; still just two techs, no worker or improvements, and a single inconsolable citizen.
With foreknowledge of what is to come, I can play the start differently with regards to research and builds, and survive the German attack in a stable state; retired from the tech race, but with enough power to colonize the area, including the iron that I shouldn't really know about. But the dow seems inevitable from the moment those borders pop and Otto sees me.

I guess these game settings merited a test game. Still, I can't say I appreciate these lottery starts... now I know how the casualties of the English game felt. :(

In short: I survived. Middle Ages were entered only 150AD. I had a reasonable knowledge of the starting continent from curraghs exploring the shores and some scouting.

Beijing was founded NW of the starting position and pottery researched. Build order was 3 warriors, granary. I soon met both the Germans and Romans and was able to trade for alphabet and wheel. I lost on writing, but was first with literature. Obviously I built no Wonders. I did not even try. I met all AIs but one and tried to stay in the tech business by trading - hoping for the power of the riders. However when I entered Middle Ages and traded with all my money for the first level techs, I had to learn that the AIs already knew theology, chivalry, and invention. Life ain't easy.

The good part was that Germany and Rome fought quite a number of wars. And I never stopped worrying about all the units walking between my lightly defended cities. OTOH this gave me the opportunity to REX and I could claim iron, horses, wines, dyes, and ivory.

But 10bc Otto made peace with Caesar and declared on me. I was able to defend my cities with spears, swords, and horsemen against mi and ancient cav, but barely. But just when things got really tight, Otto agreed to peace on even terms. :)

My plans for the Middle Ages are to use riders for capturing Rome with The Pyramids and afterwards deal with the Germans. If possible.

PS: 1000bc I had 8 towns and pop 23 with iron and 3 luxuries.
150AD (beginning of Middle Ages) I had 23 towns with 87 pop; horses also.

I, too, was one of the survivors. I lost a worker to the surprising barbs as he innocently started a road towards the northern jungle. I suppose it’s my own fault, though. I had seen barbs earlier in the game and somehow didn’t connect the dots. :blush:

I started by settling at the popular location north-west and irrigated the cow. Research: pottery at max. The build order in the capital was warrior-warrior-warrior-granary-settler-settler-settler-barracks. Thereafter it settled into a 6-turn military/settler factory. Shanghai was founded n-ne-ne in the BG paradise to the north-east. At that location, it can share the cow with Beijing and got it one turn out of three. It built an archer followed by a worker and the SoZ, which was completed in 1375BC. Later cities usually went warrior-worker-barracks.

I built up an early army to avoid looking too weak to the Demi AI. All cities had defenders of one kind or another, usually warriors or archers. I watched wave after wave of German soldiers cross my lands towards the Romans. Hey. No problem, boys. :wavey:

QSC stats:
13 cities pop 25
15 workers
5 warriors, 10 archers, 1 swordsman, 1 spearman, 2 ACs
1 granary, 4 barracks. 1 big statue
All first and second level techs except CB and Myst. No third.
4 turns from currency
2 embassies, 43 gold

In 800 BC, there were reports of a massive barb uprising near Anyang. :( Both Julie and Otto were wearing fancy new duds, which appeared to be a good sign because it implied that our continent was in the tech lead. A massive attack on Anyang followed but they didn’t get anything much for it. Annoyingly eight of them were just standing in a big pile, trapping an elite AC and a vet Archer who were futilely attempting to bust the fog. Eventually I built another city on the canal site and the barbs were happy to sack it for a buck apiece. I had huge problems with barb galleys. They took down my galleys and curraghs without a scratch. Consequently, my exploration was pretty poor. I eventually built some vet galleys which did the job. I think that event happened beyond the scope of this thread, through.

In 510 BC, I entered the MA in the middle of a war with Otto. Frankfurt had already fallen and I got an MGL with my second elite win! Otto got Mono as his free tech. Nice! He wouldn’t give it up though so the war was about to get serious. Berlin is next. At this moment, I had 22 cities and was closing in on the horses. Score: 598, good for last place but closing on the Romans.

Open

Settled NW. 3 warriors then granary (seems to be a popular order).

Met Germany and Rome early for a nice first trade round.
Second city settled on east coast near wine - building curraghs first.
The second curragh found the aztecs in 1750 and continued clockwise to find all other civs.
First war was a phony one in 1375 against aztecs with mongols as ally.
I continued to spawn some more wars on the other continent as more civs were met.

In 1350 Rome declared. Just two turns after my first ancient cav came out.
1200 Rome brought Germany into the war.
1125 I made peace with Rome. I had just razed one village.
950 peace with Germany. Bismarck gave two villages in the treaty.
730 started the real war with Rome. The city of Rome had the pyramids, so the target was set. An ancient cav army from a leader in the german skirmishes will lead the attack. :D
690 Rome is captured.
Beginning of the MA I'm at war with Rome, Aztecs, Mongols, Zulus and Vikings. :D

Science

3150 pottery researched. Trade alphabet, TW and BW.
1790 mathematics researched
1750 trade CB, IW, writing and mysticism
1475 trade philosophy (had 3 turns to go), MM and HBR
1025 literature researched. Trade CoL, polytheism and construction.
750 Trade republic (had it researched about half). 5 turns of anarchy.
730 trade monarchy
670 trade currency. Enter MA.

:clap: Only 2 civs you havent warred with at the start of the MA!

I prefer avoiding wars. :D

:clap: Only 2 civs you havent warred with at the start of the MA!
Don't forget that I had a war with Germany already. :D
The five are only the current wars. So it's only Japan, which I had peace all the time up to now and that's mainly because I just met them :satan:.
The AI will have no chance to do a lot of research, so I expect riders (and even ancient cav) to be useful for quite some time.

Don't forget that I had a war with Germany already. :D
The five are only the current wars. So it's only Japan, which I had peace all the time up to now and that's mainly because I just met them :satan:.
The AI will have no chance to do a lot of research, so I expect riders (and even ancient cav) to be useful for quite some time.

Heh, I knew you had warred with 6 civs, but i was thinking you could war yourself without realising it.. :crazyeye::blush:

Started research with alphabet and my builds in the capitol with warrior, Pyramids (pre-build for granary). To my surprise the neighbours I met didn't have pottery, so I had to change my pre-build to a settler.
Once that was built I tried again with Pyramids, expecting that Germany and Japan would research Pottery soon. However I was wrong on this. They researched everything except Pottery...

Finally I was able to buy Pottery, but I had to waste 27 shields on my pre-build. Then I lost my next settler to unexpected barbs. After this very bad start I decided to abandon the game... Hope that next month things will go better.

Open Domination/Survival challenge Part 1

4000 BC
open save and fight down the short attack of despair.
First Goal will be to get the settler factory up and running, while dodging the AI.
Research will be Pottery first, then Alpha and see.

Workers scouts north sees another BG and I decide to
settle on spot.
Wow the Cow is on a BG too. Oh my god, probably all 7 AI are within a 5 field radius for such a bonus offerd to us.

3800 BC
Warrior Build finds ivory nearby, Wonder If I will still be able to settle it.

3650 BC
second Warrior Build set to Settler

3250 BC
Shanghai founded 2 NW

3100 BC
Rome met
Trade Alpha+10gp for Mas+Pot

2950 BC
Rome has workers for sale, but I got no money. Should I have waited longer with the trade?

2850 BC
In the Southwest were all the romans come from is a plain worthy of battle. Wheat, game and cow. In genral it looks like I will have some space for myself, as nowhere an AI settlement has encraoched so far. Maybe Shanghai was build a bit to tightly.

2800 BC
Granary build in Bejing

2590 BC
Canton founded W SW as the third lakeshore town. Beijing will now convert into Archer-Settler Factory spweing out ne settlers every 6 turns.

2230 BC
Nanking founded in the NE next to the tobacco and the lots of bg.

2110 BC
Rome finishes Writing 5 turns before me. Cancel all plans of slingshot?

2030 BC
Viking finish the Colossus; I still have no other contacts *grrr* Maybe I kept in my patrols a bit to cautiously.

1950 BC
Blue border found (korea)
Rome seems to be at war with them already.

1910 BC
Wrinting finished.
Tsingtao founded at the coast. Buidl set to curragh immediately.
Hmm I still don't know Blue, so its hard to guess what to reseacrh first. but Since rome beat me to writing by 5 turns i turn the safe road and choose Math.

1830 BC
Its Germany and they won't even give us the Wheel for Writing. So carry on with Archering.
Trade BW+11gp for Writing.
Meanwhile I screw up my Factory Approximately once per cycle, making it in fact a 7 turn Archer/Settler Factory.

1650 BC
Xinjian founded on shore next to ivory.

1625 BC
Chengdu founded on Northeaster shore. Now I have inserted myself in the middle between rome an Germany. I won't mind if they keep on fighting through my territory though.

1475 BC
Hangchow founded.

1350 BC
Research Math and Trade for Wheel, CoL, HBr and CB. Arrgh no Horsies anywhere. Should have got IW insteadt of HBR, but couldn't check on the Map due to interturn trading.
Will go on with Philo to spead up republic.

1325 BC
Tientsin founded.

1150 BC
Tatung founded near Wines.

1125 BC
Philo reserached 4 turns late, I go for IW --> Construction.
Macao founded next to Bremen which controls the wines. I think i will start war on germany soon.

1100 BC
Anyang founded.
Found Horses at the end of the world. Maybe switch to MM and sail there? I still hope I can get MM in a trade.

1025 BC
Shantung founded
Another Area in the factory Cycle though. Probably could have got one more city by now.

975 BC
Started a war with Germany.
He prooved well matched for my force of 23 Archers, killing most of my attack troups on his main area.
But while attacking him I was able to take out two fringe towns near the iron and near a luxury. So I will come back with a revenge next time sporting knights.

In between i met the guys from the other continent, after realizing, that i ahve been searching in all other directions first as usual.
they were a bit more backward, allowing me to trade up to tied last place.

620 BC
I am missing Currency, Lit and both Govs from the AA.

Start 2 Session, by being beaten by massive barb uprising due to rome and Aztecs having reached MA 10 turns or so ago.

I will send a galley with a settler north to settle the horsies and build a harbour. Research is set to Lit, as this is a monopoly tech and I desperately need the Lib and maybe Glib.

450 BC
First Demand Arrives, Rome gets 1 gp. We also met the last civ (vikings) by them landing next to our home.

390 BC
I am first to research Lit, but nobody is willing to give any tech for it. I decide to wait, to gain a head start
on the Glib, but next turn somebody researches it and sells it around the world. Of course in the wonder cascade Zulu switches to Glib. No we will have to see who has the better prebuild. At least in 4 turns all my Libs come online which shpuld aid me in fast research.

190 BC
Currency researched, I have reached the MA alive. But If I am to hope for dominaion victory, I am still a long way of. My immediate neighbours are ahead in tech and manpower of me, and I have no techs or money to forment some wars. Maybe when I get rpublic I should try it.

Summary:

Apparently I got rather lucky with germany going NW in my game. I Didn't meet any neighbouring Civs for ages, or better stated until my archers where mostly out of date already.

I settled 3 cities around the lake as stated by Redbad (I probably misunderstood). With hindsight I am not so sure of this move. it allowed me to use all the good places around the lake from multiple cities, but given the space i had, it was also a very tight placement, which is limiting city growth now.

I should have switched one of my core cities to Glib much earlier, but was still hoping for archer rush.

The research was a totally messed up affair. I could have managed the Philo Slingshot easily, but instead went Math first. When I later went Philo I got then beat by someone. I got Math and Lit at monopoly, and never managed to get decent offers for them.

I took way to long to get out of despo, again not enough prio on the right research here.

Militarywise, I think i am way behind the AI by now, especially, after Rome and Germany have stopped fighting. ROme is regurlarly marching 50 Armed guys through my countryside, and germany is collecting AC and Crusaders since god knows when.

So my guess is, I am in for the survivor version of the challenge, but there might be some live still in the chinese empire.

I setteld NW like most people and the land grab went well. Tech research went voor Philo and did not get it (two turns to late) :mad:. Now I becom a backwards civ and i didn't make any progress on the tech tree.

Meanwhile that i failed to get the Statue of Zeus, to get the free units.

Just survice the game and Germany and the Romans where still in peace. The Momgols are the first who declares war to me and I benifit from that bij taking a town from them before peace :). So maby this work after all.

Butt the Romans came to me and distroyed my army and got half my citys before peace came. About ten turns later they finisch me off with cav in 640 AD.

Maby next time better and a different strategy.

Nilson

Settled in place. Got a good little factory going. Fought a few skirmishes with Germany, but kept the peace with Rome, acceded to a few small demands. Failed to hem them in well and they got a long border with me to the south.

Got the slingshot to Republic, but fell way behind on other techs.

Fortunately Berlin got the Great Library, which I eventually took. I had hooked up horses to the north. I'm about to snag saltpeter from the Germans as well.

Ended up fighting a difficult two front war against Rome, which attacked with several massive SoD full of MI and a few mustkets. Minimized my losses and abandoned most cities the turn before capture. Used riders to attack, cause losses to increae their Demo WW. Had two strongholds, one protected by an army that they wouldn't attack. Finally after losing only about five small towns I was able to sign for peace and unleash the full fury against Germany.

Just have the German city Konigsberg which has Leo in my sights and I'll probably have to sign peace as my WW is getting bad and I don't want to take 27 turns to research metalurgy!

Wonder if I should get ready to fight Rome again after 20 turns because I have four armies of Riders and they will become obsolete soon if they haven't already as Rome has a few Rifles here and there.

What do you think?

This happens to be my first post in the forums, although i have been an avid reader for over a year... I'm a regular Demigod level player and decided to play the COTM 27 after a ten month break from Civ. :D I was prompted to start posting because of a weird event that struck in the middle of my game. :hmm:

The year was around 640 AD and I had recently begun assaulting the German empire. At the time I was first in pop, land area, and power, although i was about 5-6 techs behind the faster tech pace on the other landmasses. The continual early wars between Rome and Germany had really slowed down our continent, and I was frightfully lazy in the early game with making contact with the other civs. :wallbash:

I had gone too aggressively after HB after realizing that horses were not in immediate vicinity of the starting area and this resulted in a much later SoZ build date than I would have liked...As a result of this and the slower tech pace, I went into the war with the Germans with a large stack of horsemen, AC, swordsman and trebs, but lacked the rider.:blush: (Also really cool: the Germans finshed Leonardo's first turn on the attack in Berlin. Woohoo! Thank you Bismarck.) I quickly realized that my stack did not quite have the power to take out Berlin's fortified pikeman in their little hill fort. So I spent everything in my treasury to pull off some items + GPT deals for Feudalism and Chivalry (I had been researching Feudalism on a 40 turn gambit- not a smart decision) With these new techs, I had just enough money to upgrade one horseman to a rider, and quickly used it on a lone German MI and snap!... China enters her glorious GA.

With the all the extra shields/GPT from the GA, I knew that Germany was toast and China was on a major roll. But...I didn't want to have to spend all my cash just to catch up to the other AI in tech, and upon looking at Beijing, realized that the GL could be built in just ten turns. I figured this would be a reasonable production/opportunity cost trade for all the GPT it would save me in the long run as I was hoping to get Monotheism, Gunpowder, Invention, and Education for it, plus the culture bonus. I couldn't remember at the time how to control, if at all, what techs the GL gives...it has been a while since I built it.

Fast forward ten turns. Berlin had fallen yielding the HG and Leonardo's, Chinese riders were closing in on the last bits of the German empire, and Beijing had just finished the GL. :cool: I clicked the end turn button, waited through the inter-turn while expecting to get the message about techs from the GL. Sure enough, this happened just like normal. First my "sages learned Republic from...", then it was monotheism, then invention, and finally then a screen popped up asking me to give guidance as to what to research next. (At this point my though was, "oh, right, that's how you control the GL's free techs) So I clicked on Gunpowder as the next tech and...wait a sec, it popped up the message that Education had been researched, so the GL was now obsolete... Umm, obsolete? Guess again. Bummed it had somehow not gotten Gunpowder instead, I hit the enter key, and the next message said Gunpowder had been researched. Oh, cool. :D I hit enter again, and then the GL went crazy.

A bit stunned, I kept hitting the enter key as in approximate order Printing Press, Astronomy, Banking, Navigation, Chemistry, Metallurgy were also learned from "other civs." :thanx: my sages. You guys are pretty cool. The only bummer to this quite surprising wealth of techs was that Metallurgy made my SoZ obsolete...but hey, I'll take the trade. Interestingly, when I chose to build the GL I temporarily stopped the Heroic Epic, and I desperately wanted a leader to rush the FP in a town near the Romans. So, this crazy good GL (10 techs!) that got me almost out of the MA turned out to be more than worth the cost. The other wierd thing is that as I checked around with the other civs afterwards there were two civs with Magnetism, but I didn't get that tech with the GL...I was tech parity or above with the rest of the civs...

To me, this GL business was really quite stunning. I've played quite a bit of Civ and I've never seen the GL keep researching past Education. I also searched on the forum for any mention of this occuring elsewhere, but saw nothing. My question is: Was this a seriously good "bank error in your favor" type of deal or is this a known deal that I've never heard about? My game is a straightforward Conquests version with no mods. Just in case this is a wierd deal, I quickly saved the post-GL turn with all those techs researched, and also reloaded the autosave of the pre-GL turn and saved that also as a separate file. I also quickly tested the saves to see if the GL would again produce this many techs, and indeed following the exact order of clicking I did above, it produced the same results. I can post the saves if someone wants to take a look at them. If anyone can set the record straight here, please let me know! Thanks in advance!

Sorry also for my long-winded explanation!!!

Your Great Library phenomen is not unusual: The turn after you captured it you will get all techs at least two of your known rivals know. That might even elevate you to the Modern Times as we did in SGotm 9 recently. But as you will also get Education in this process, the effect is immediately gone. Nothing spectacular - unless your are surprised about your rivals progress. :wow:

Thanks Paul. That makes perfect sense, even though my understanding had been that the Education cuts the process off immediately. BTW, why would I then not get Magnetism as well? Two other civs had it when I checked after the inter-turn. Does the GL give you all the (eligible) techs that the other civs have based on the PREVIOUS turn, or does it calculate it after the other civs had taken their turn?

Also yes, I was rather unpleasantly suprised just how far behind I was tech wise. Unacceptable, but deserved because of my poor early scouting for contacts.

Does the GL give you all the (eligible) techs that the other civs have based on the PREVIOUS turn, or does it calculate it after the other civs had taken their turn?

Yes, you got it. That's my perception, too.

COTM27 Open, War path. First game as Chinese. Can't wait to find out how tough the Riders are.

4000BC Worker move to moo and find another BG. Settler move to NE.
3950BC Found Beijing. >War. Worker irrigate moo. Pot in 23 turns at 90%.
3800BC Worker complete I and start road for gold.
3750BC War>War. War go East.
3600BC War>Pyramid as grainary prebuild. Worker roading oasis.
3500BC Meet Bizmark and he has BW but will not trade.
3250BC There are wine near by. Biz just got wheel and alphabet from some where.
3150BC Learned Pot, Starting Alph at 80%. Switch Cap to Granary due in 2 turns.
3050BC Grain>Settler. Meet Ceasar and Trade pot and Mason for Alpha+The wheel+BW+18g and Pot+Mason to Biz for CB and 13g. Start Writing.
2850BC Settler>Barracks
2710BC Found Shanghai on tabacco to NE. S:War
2670BC Beijing:Rax>Archer
2510BC Germany learn Myst
2310BC Found Canton on 4 to SW. S:War. Shang:Wor>Rax
2270BC 6 turn archer/war/settler factory is finally set up.
2110BC Both Germany and Rome know writing. We have 15 turns to go. No chance of a sling for us.
1990BC We can buy writing for 4gpt and 30g from Biz. So we go for it.
1870BC Founded Nanking to claim one Ivory. 4 tiles SE of Cap.
1650BC Founded Tsingtao to claim the nearest wine. Vikes built the Colossus.
1600BC We have connected our first lux. Ivory.
1500BC Founded Xinjan to the NW of B'Jing.
1450BC We learn Philo and trade to Rome for Math and 93g. Buy IW from Biz for Philo+102g+2gpt. We get Construction for free. :D Trade to both and got tech parity and all the gold (wish I sent out a galley). Start on Currency.
1300BC Founded Chengdu 8 tiles SE of Cap to build a worker factory??????. It has 55% corruption.
1150BC Aztecs built the Pyramids.:(
1100BC Founded Hangchow to calim the last iron. Damn... still claimed no horses.:cry: Hope I wont regret this!!!
1075BC Completed SoZ:cool: in Shanghai. Zulu built the Oracle.
1050BC Founded Tiensin between Hangchow and Capitol.
1025BC Hamburg built MoM.

1000BC QSC
9 Cities
24 Citizens
7 workers
11 warriors
13 Archers
Iron secured but not connected.
Horses need to be secured and connected.
Missing Currency (6 turns to go), CoL, Poly, Lit, Republic and Monarchy.
EDIT: QSC Score 4668

The plan is to Wait to see who complete the ToA and take it. Well that did not last too long.:sad:

First War - Sino-German

925 BC Bizmark demanded 39g and we laught. He declared and attacked with an archer. Our warrior survived.
900 BC Rome completed ToE. Berlin cascade to the Great Wall.:eek: :mad:
875 BC Capture Frankfurt. Lose 1 archer. Need to connect the Iron badly.
850 BC We learn Currency. Trade to rome for Poly + CoL + 168g. We entered the Middle age. Ceasar know Monarchy and Republic.

Plan is to take about 4 German cities before turning on Rome.

3 turns later we destroyed the nearest German City and lost 5 archers trying to take Berlin. Still have about 400g and just connected iron.:cool:

Oooops. Double post. Deleted content. Htadus

I captured GL from the Germans (in Berlin) and Leo's (in Konigsberg) which has been so great. But a real difficulty to keep from culture flipping. Actually disbanded a few armies of riders to rush University in Berlin and lessen my unit cost, which was out of control. - I had CAV so I didn't really need riders anymore...now I've managed to get borders to expand and build a few suburbs there so the culture flipping won't be a big worry. I've got a tidy little empire now so I think I'm liking my chances to catch up the few techs I'm behind - looking forward to steam power before long and perhaps an attack on Rome to avenage their earlier war on me, and to shorten up my overlong border.

Happy Civing.:king:

Reporting a Predator casualty:
I played this on a late, rainy evening after much work on SGOTMX and having forgotten all about the hints and nudges of the most agressive AI's and the conquest spears. When I met Bismark I had worked on pottery, figuring it would be my best shot at a trade, and I met Julius on the next turn IIRC which allowed me to trade for archers. By the time I got a meager few of those, both mil's sneaked on me and that was it.

I'll probably replay this on open, but my REX start was a total, huge, almost deliberate brainfart. Oh well.

I, from reading the other spoilers am seeing that I am actualy not doing to badly but since I decided to abandon this game, I now realised I should not have done that, but it is too late. I did it because Roman was just way to big. They were the dominant force and I knew that I did not have the force too take them on. I was at war with Germany. They attacked me with archers but I was able to beat them back and eventually I was even able to take a city from the Germans. I foolishly allowed the Romans a RoP with me since they were also attacked by Germany, but now they have so many units that I cannot move around my cities, it's that bad. Another problem is the fact that I have so few workers. I think I had only 7 and this really hurt my production. This is one thing I am learning the hard way, but workers are the best unit to have.

It seems that I am in a good position compared to half of these attempts!

I have roughly 1/3 of the continent, horses, iron, and only 1 (Beijing) and 1/2 (Tsingtao (i think)) decent cities to produce riders (1/2 because it's building the FP.) I'm at parity with all civs (thanks to GL) other than the Aztec, who also have the most land ('tecs are up Astro)

I doubt i will win, but I have caught up to Demi-God AI's techwise in the IA before, so im hoping i can again. I am also hoping to conquer Rome, and Germany. (Germany and Rome dont like each other much, they have been at war for a looooong time)

Try and go for a Diplomatic victory, aaron. I'm sure you have good relations with the AI... right? :mischief:

I settled on the spot, building two warriors for scouting and then a granary and a settler. Fairly soon I met Bismarck and Caesar and saw that I was not alone in the world. Bismarck never really warmed up to me and sent me a raiding party of archers and spearmen when I only had 3 warriors -> game over.

Open
1475 trade philosophy (had 3 turns to go), MM and HBR
670 trade currency. Enter MA.

COTM27 Open
1450BC We learn Philo [...] We get Construction for free. :D
850 BC We learn Currency. Trade to rome for Poly + CoL + 168g. We entered the Middle age.

Quite different luck this game. I researched Philo in 1575 BC and someone (Japan?) beat me to it... :aargh:
Must have been some hut-popping luck there... :ack:
So I stumbled into Middle Ages in 775 BC...

Here's my progress in detail:

Cotm 27 Open. (Chicken me :blush: )
I play open because having no Warrior code would delay warring and trading too much. I want to go for a fast victory, conquest or domination - predator handicaps will have a huge impact on this.
And in recent Gotms I realized that in warmongering I am not a predator yet :mischief:

research plan
research to chivalry asap. Get monoply techs on that way for trading.
monarchy slingshot if possible.
We start on the pottery, then beeline to Phil.

first moves
4000 worker on the cow. Reveals a BG.
The cow has two shields!! :wow: We stay where we are!
Beijing founded on the start, starts warrior, Excel says three warriors, a chop, a granary, size 5 in 2950 BC. Excel never lies... :rolleyes:

Research and Rivals
3300 Discover Pottery, meet Rome, trade for Alpha.
3000 Meet Germans, trade for TW, BW, 35g. Built granary, start settler. Perfect timing!
2110 Rome got Writing five beakers before me :wallbash: Buy it for 12g from Germany.
1575 Philosophy. Trade via TBP for IW, CB, 47g to Rome. For Myst, 19g to Germans. No Poly around :o(
We take Poly... - missed the free tech :cry: change to lit.
1200 meet the Atztecs.
1175 Literature discovered. Finally a monopoly...
Math, 104g from Rome.
Poly for Math, Lit, Phil, 37g from Aztecs.
CoL, 328g from Rome, HBR, 120g from Germans for Poly.
meet Mongols - way behind. Sell Maths for 110g.
1150 Mongols have traded Maths around: Suddenly they are only Lit back and rich. :eek:
1000 Zulus. Way behind. Who took away "my" free tech?!? :hmm:
775 Currency. Trade for construction to Germans. Middle Ages.
No monarchy from Aztecs for Cur & Con :(

Resources
2270 Ivory connected
1600 Whines
1300 Dyes
825 Iron connected.

Towns
2750 Shanghai 2N-NE of Beijing
2430 Canton 3S of Beijing by the elephants
2030 Nanking by the wheats.
1650 Tsingtao by the whines.
1625 Xinjian by cow and game.
1400 Chengdu by the Dyes.
1225 Hangchow 3NW-N from Beijing

QSC-Stats
8 towns, pop 30.
8 warriors, 15 archer, 3 spears, 1 galley.
9 workers, 2 settlers.
All AA techs except Rep, Mon, Con & Cur (9 turns left).
5 rivals, all embasseys.
324 gold in treasury.

Towns
950 Tientsin by the Iron.
925 Tatung 3E of Beijing.
900 Macao by game and wheat.
850 Anyang on the horses.
800 Shantung in the northern desert.
(no more recording... :sleep: )

Im a little over my skill level at demi-god but Im hanging in there. Middle ages began for me about 300ad or so when I met the Japanese and extorted polytheism from them.

My experience sounds like everyone elses. big troop movements through my lands as Germany and Rome slog it out. Germany is winning. Rome declared on me a few turns back when I asked them to get their hairy unwashed slopeheaded inbred knuckledraggers off of my land. Which was just as well as I need to take out a Roman town or two in order to get the horses in the north.

I'm being best freinds with Germany and have fake wars going with everyone else to keep the tech pace down. So far everyone is way out ahead of me in tech, and my pointy stick research has not begun to pay off yet.

I hope to keep growing as Rome slowly caves in and plant cities behind the german wave of troops. But I will need to get those horses and techs for knights before Germany decides that our freindship is no longer in their best interest