Final Spoiler for GOTM 26:

If you have not yet reached the modern age, and you haven't finished and submitted your game, then don't read any further.

Open, Civ III v1.29


Well, my first Deity win, but uneventful otherwise...

...EXCEPT...

...this is the first time I ever got nuked!

I had destroyed Korea's capital and their spaceship, then kicked 'em off the home continent. I still didn't have Apollo running and then he dropped a nuke on one of my cities!

It wasn't the most productive city, which was Beijing with the Iron Works, nor, I believe was it the largest in pop. It wasn't close to anything or controlling anything. It was just a kind of odd target for Korea to blast.

What I found humorous was that after the blast, my workers descended on all the polluted squares, which was fine and is what I would have done if they weren't all on auto at the time. But what was silly was that after they cleared the pollution, they all moved OFF the squares without building roads first! :rolleyes: Then they came back to build the roads!

After I got started on my spaceship Korea dropped ANOTHER nuke, again targeting something of little note except for the fact that it was building a nuke of it's own to switch to a spaceship part later. So that made some sense, but it didn't target my hugely productive, spaceship building capital.

To finish off the insanity, since I had gotten the Laser before Korea, I ended the war by trading it to him while getting Satellites in return--which was the last ship tech I needed!

So I guess Korea was just having a bad decade in the smarts department...

To Space and Beyond!
After getting to the industrial I sat in a good position with Raj as the #1 dog in the world. I began building focusing on libraries and universities along with muskets to get to my borders ASAP. No telling when Raj would get antsy. He was busy though trying to get a foothold on Toku and getting a foothold on Koreas island site to the NW. I spent many turns 30+ building science. I had prebuilds for factories and had 7 come on line within 3 turns of getting industrial. My prebuild came through nicely for TOE in ??? and along with Hoovers put me in a temporary position of tech leader. My hand built palace in renamed Peking finally finished and my dual cores were starting to hum. All the while I was keeping an eye on Raj and toying with the Koreans who kept trespassing going somewhere. I would let him in to go 5-6 turns deep and then threaten him back home. He did this 2-3 times and I finally just gave up and let him go. I was tempted to just kill him off but being scientific I wanted him to help with his free tech in MA. Letting him go proved to be a lucky break, though it certainly didn’t look like it to begin with. The idiotic Koreans went straight south and declared on Raj! They of course killed off the Korean 2 knight SOD and then came through my lands with around 20 cav/inf trying to head north to get the last 2 Korean cities. I knew Korea was to die so I waited for Raj to get within 2 turns of Korea and then knocked out Korea myself. With all the Raj forces looking like fish in a barrel I threatened him out and yea! He declared in 1310. I promptly killed off his troops with arty cavs and buckled down for the impending barrage. I was able to plant a spy right off and it was his 130+ inf, 30+cav vs my 50+ inf 40+ cav and my 30+arty. The barrage lasted around 6-7 turns. Where the cavs would crash into my territory going after a bait city with 1 musket in it. I would then get all the cav redlined with arty and then knock him off. I did the same with the inf but they were tougher. This produced a load of leaders which rushed armies, universities. After they gassed out I was going to destroy them completely but that takes so much time. I took 3 cities to straighten out my borders and sued for peace getting 1000g+. After that the Ottos were the only science civ left and after a palace prebuild for the UN came in I gifted Otto into MA. He wouldn’t give up his monopoly on computers even though the Tokus had him down to 2 cities. He died with the monopoly. That left Han, Raj, Toku and Takada with Raj and I going neck and neck on research. I was taking chances dealing my tech to Raj for BIG dollars and this kept his research slower. I caught a break getting satellites from him when I had 6/10 pieces built. I had conductors in 2 turns and after that laser left. I knew after the deal it was over.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/sling26_1.jpg
After playing this game, being relatively new to diety, I see that I have to learn to manage the OTHER civs better. It was a mistake letting Raj get so big and knocking out Korea (scientific). I ended up self researching most of the IA and MA which takes forever when there are hardly any trades available. If done properly I would have finished in 1400 to 1500AD. Oh well, next time. I was thrilled just to complete the objective. I think it was 5998 pts
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/sling26_2.jpg

open - ptw1.14f

I entered the MA in 1490. At this point I was by far the largest civ and also lead the other civs by at least 3-4 techs. Most of the others civs had wars going on, so they never had any chance of catching up. I was in control of almost my entire starting continent.

So i just maxed out research and build infrastructure and all the wonders that came along. Occasionaly som of the other civs would declare war, and i would retaliate by taking all their cities on my continent (if they had any). So in the end there were only 4 Raj cities and a few worthless Korean cities left. Also the stupid Takede with his 9-city Island dared to blackmail me, so i terminated him in 10-15 turns (getting all the spice as well). As i had to research everything myself things didnt go very fast.

Finished my spaceship in 1790.

This is my first victory on this difficulty, so even if i'm far behind a few others, i'm a content citizen.

Question for the experts; Would it have been better for me to wipe out the other civs on my continent asap? This would have bettered my score, but the cities would have been corrupted, so i wouldnt have any use of them. I thought i should just leave a few cities so that i could sqeeze those small civs for gold, selling them old techs and resources.

Btw i'm new to gotm, so if there is anything misplaced or "wrong" with my post, correct me.

Originally posted by Salte
open - ptw1.14f

Question for the experts; Would it have been better for me to wipe out the other civs on my continent asap?


Not that I'm an expert but grabbing the continent does up your score but slows down AI research. On deity level its best to let the AI do most of the research for you. Even if you have the whole continent, this will not feul research faster then having two good productive cores around your palace and FP. The outer cities will have no effect due to the severe research penalties we get when playing deity (it cost us 40% more effort or so, forgot the specifics).

Research the things the AI usually does not go for and trade these for a fast research pace. I let Korea and India both have a third of the continent and between the three of us we researched all the space ship components in the modern age in about 25 turns.

MPF

Open - PTW 1.21f

It seems I am one of the few that started off on the spices position. Because the landgrab is so furious on this level, starting off in a relative off-center position might help I thought. In hind-site, I don't now what would have been best. Did get to grab a reasonable amount of land to form a good base. Not being in the center did avoid early clashes with other civs giving me time to build my core.

Since I went for space race I kept a low profile, mostly trading techs with all the civs to keep up. This worked well in the AA but less so in the middle ages. So I went for the GL coup. Since you will get all the techs availible in the turn after grabbing the GL (even techs after education) I geared up for a quick sweep to grab a large portion of the continent and create a second base. Managed to get the GL from the Khazars in about 250 AD and the GL gave me almost all the middle age techs. Rushed Smiths and Bachs with two leaders as bonus. Things are looking up.

Not much land gained as the Kazars where small. Fortunate the mongols attacked Beakje, whiping them out in almost 6-8 turns. I now had a new target for my partially upgraded riders (didn't upgrade the elite riders as the would be needed to create another Leader to build my FP). When the last Beakjen city fell I demanded a city from the Mongols, the refused (of course) so I asked politly again and again until my rep with them was furious, told them to shove off and voila they declared war on me. Since I am in republic this will help holding war-weariness back for some turns. Asked India to join in and the war could begin.

Sliced through the captured Beakjen cities as the Mongols hadn't any time to reinforce them yet. Capturing almost al former Beakjen cities. Razed the big ones and moved in my settlers. Had to wait for a leader. Somehow this took longer then I expected and I had to really plan my attacks, taking out wounded units with my elites, until at the end of the war (the mongols had only two cities left) I finally got my long awaited leader to rush FP and start to build my second core.

After this stage I helped India and Korea to get as much research done as possible, beelining for techs the AI does not research at first and then trading these. Managed to get TOE and with that Electronics and Radio. Already had a prebuild for Hoover and sold of these techs to gain all availible techs and a lots of GPT from oversee civs.

Tech pace is now running fast, in the modern age I can only keep up by bee-lining for computers (SETI), miniturisation (Internet) and laser. With prebuilds, grabbing SETI and the Internet was a pice of cake. Making it possible to get the Laser and trade al these techs for all the needed space component techs. Beyond Laser I didn't research one of them :cool:

In a desperate attempt to win, India declares war on my just two turns before my space ship hits the skies in 1460 AD.

Still room for improvement but this went very well.

MPF

Playing the Open class with vanilla civ 1.29, using the starting Dyes location. Moved my settler W SW to found the capital, and this proved to become my Iron Works city eventually pumping out 120 shields/turn.

I'd be interested to see if anyone made decent use of the 2nd settler. My instinct was just to walk up to the capital, however I made the assumption the 2 distant spots wouldn't be offered for no reason and founded a city in both locations. In retrospect I don't see any impact to the game from the 2nd distant city.

I took my most of my continent by about 700 ad which increased my score a little, but did slow down the tech pace. I left Korea in the north mostly because it would have been too much hassle to take them out.

I didn't get a tech lead until I built TOE with a GL, and I never lost the tech lead. Built all but 1 of the space age techs myself and launched my space ship in 1770 ad. Probably way behind many, but a good enjoyable game.

Clearly I learned that if the goal is an early spaceship, less fighting and more trading is preferrable.

I would like anyone involved in the creation of this gotm to describe what they wanted/expected to see out of the two settlers starting options. If there was something really valuable to do with the 2nd city I completely missed it.

If it could somehow be done with the Forbidden Palace immediately in the 2nd city that would truly rock! The other way that would have been very interesting would be if the 2nd city was on another continent.

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gifhttp://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/ptw.jpg1.27

Ancient Times (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1439313#post1439313)
Middle Ages (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1450922#post1450922)

Research

When I entered the Industrial Age in 130AD I immediately gifted Korea and Ottomans there as well, taking just Navigation in exchange. Korea got Medicine as her free tech, Ottomans got Steam Power. I gifted Baekje to the Industrial Age as well since she'd been my strongest research partner.

I waited a couple of turns, hoping those three Civs would trade the new techs around but only a two way trade happened. So in 170AD I bought Steam Power and started research again, working on Electricity. And as had happened in the Middle Ages, I found myself unable to achieve a four turn research rate. I made an ongoing effort to increase research capacity. Building Newton's in 260AD helped a bit.

Details of my tech progress through the Industrial Age:
170AD, trade for Steam Power
270AD, trade for Democracy
280AD, learn Electricity (7 turns)
280AD, trade for Medicine
340AD, learn Industrialization (6 turns)
350AD, trade for Military Tradition
380AD, learn The Corporation (4 turns)
430AD, learn Steel (5 turns)
480AD, trade for Nationalism
490AD, learn Refining (6 turns)
540AD, learn Combustion (5 turns)
560AD, trade for Replaceable Parts
590AD, learn Flight (5 turns)
630AD, learn Mass Production (4 turns)
670AD, learn Scientific Method (4 turns)
680AD, trade for Communism
690AD, trade for Enlightenment
720AD, learn Atomic Theory (5 turns)
760AD, learn Electronics (4 turns)
800AD, learn Motorized Transportation (4 turns) and Radio (ToE)

As you can see, I barely got my research rate to four turn techs a few times in this era. And I didn't do well in trades with the AIs. I guided their research and even gifted Baekje, my fastest research partner, 100gpt for part of the era. (As well as luxuries for the whole time.) But it didn't work out, they learned just Nationalism and ReplaceableParts for me. That's the minimum I expect to get from the AIs in this era even if I'm not helping them. Oh well, 800AD was still a nice date to reach Modern Times! :)

I timed a build of Theory of Evolution for 800AD to coincide with learning Motorized Transportation. That allowed me to learn Radio to enter Modern Times and to still have a free tech remaining from ToE, ensuring that I'd learn Computers immediately one way or another. Inter-turn, as soon as I learned Radio, I gifted Korea and Ottomans to Modern Times. They got Rocketry and Fission as their free techs respectively. I then used my second ToE choice to learn Computers.

I had 13 cities with prebuilds going for Research Labs. They completed their labs over the next few turns. But again I couldn't make it to steady four turn research. Details of my tech progress:
800AD, learn Computers, trade for Fission and Rocketry
860AD, learn Space Flight (6 turns)
870AD, trade for Sanitation and Amphibious War
910AD, learn Ecology (5 turns)
920AD, trade for Economics
960AD, learn Synthetic Fibers (5 turns)
1010AD, learn Superconductor (5 turns)
1050AD, learn Satellites (4 turns)
1090AD, learn Nuclear Power (4 turns)
1130AD, learn The Laser (4 turns) and launch! :)

Warfare

In 230AD my Baekje allies destroyed Rajaputana. I'd taken over the majority of the Rajaputana territory by that time.

In 280AD I declared on Takeda and landed 12 Riders on their island. (I was still using Riders at this date, had 31 of them, many of them elite.) During my war on Takeda I started upgrading my Riders to Cavalry as they advanced.

In 370AD my last deal with the Mongols expired so I declared on them and attacked, finishing off their three remaining cities and eliminating them in 390AD.

Also in 390AD Tokugawa, who had already been at war with Takeda before me, finished off Takeda. So I was down to six remaining rivals at that date.

Around the same time the Ottomans were fighting Tokugawa and were faring poorly, so I gave the Ottomans a boost (horses and a luxury) to ensure they'd stay in the game - I wanted both Korea and Ottomans around at the start of the next era.

But that didn't stop me from taking over most of Korea :) In 450AD I declared war on her. During this war I captured Sun Tzu's. A leader appeared in 490AD (I think it had been well over 50 elite wins since my last leader, wish I'd been counting) and rushed Universal Suffrage. I didn't particularly want that wonder but building it put an end to some possible AI cascades at the time. Another leader appeared in 500AD and I saved him, later on using him to rush Hoover Dam. In 510AD I gave Korea peace for her one remaining non-capital town.

In 580AD I declared war on Rome and began a small invasion of the other continent. This war was for no reason except score - I already had all resources and luxuries and any cities I gained in this war would be completely corrupt. This war started off poorly due a strong Roman counter-attack and one captured city flipping back. But my military, though small, had nothing else to do. So I pressed on for a while, gaining some territory and eventually giving Rome peace for a town in 720AD.

In 800AD, after trading for her free Modern tech, I again declared war on Korea. There wasn't much left of her from our prior war so I finished her off quickly in 830AD.

The only remaining rival on the starting continent was Baekje. I'd allowed her to grow so strong, and I'd devoted so little effort to my own military, that there was no point attacking her. Thus Baekje remained my friend until the end :) She finished off Rome in 860AD and that was the last warfare in my game.

Here's how my world looked at that date (and it remained much the same in 1130AD when I launched):

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/sirpleb26-3a.jpg

Miscellaneous

It was nice to discover that one of my core cities, Shantung, could build Iron Works in this game! That simplified getting all of the later wonders. Here's how Shangtung looked when it was about to build the last spaceship part - it was one of the more productive cities I've had:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/sirpleb26-3b.jpg

I was able to trade (usually old tech :) ) for luxuries throughout these parts of the game, maintaining 8 luxuries all the way. That gave enough happiness that I was able to handle war weariness (I stayed in Republic throughout) without needing to use the luxury slider - and that was something I really wanted to avoid with the research rate being a constant challenge!

I had great free tech luck in this game - Korea and Ottomans got different free techs at the beginning of each era. But my leader luck was I think the worst I've ever had. I do wish that the chances for creating leaders were a bit more predictable in the game.

Culture flips were amusing. I had just one painful one, in the Middle Ages. My culture rose rapidly after that. But in 480AD I lost a second city in a flip to Baekje, and then in 510AD they lost one in a flip to me! And during my attack on Rome one captured city flipped back to her despite my huge cultural lead.

In hindsight I might as well have taken out Baekje after the Middle Ages. That would have increased my score, and perhaps also improved my launch date by a few turns. (I'd have had a few more productive cities.) Baekje were a great help in earlier research but didn't help in the Industrial or Modern era.

Starting with two separated settlers in this game made for an interesting decision at the start and gave a nice initial boost. The squeezed start position offset that boost a bit, limiting expansion soon after starting. Baekje being a strong researcher but geographically in "our" area (i.e. where we could build productive cities) made for a difficult choice. And the map had many other nice elements, e.g. luxury distribution and the two minor Civs. Good fun!

Originally posted by PattonTwo
I'd be interested to see if anyone made decent use of the 2nd settler. My instinct was just to walk up to the capital, however I made the assumption the 2 distant spots wouldn't be offered for no reason and founded a city in both locations. In retrospect I don't see any impact to the game from the 2nd distant city.
...
If it could somehow be done with the Forbidden Palace immediately in the 2nd city that would truly rock!
Did you read the Spoiler I and Spoiler II threads? Some people developed the second region a bit, in some cases getting a Palace in one region and Forbidden Palace in the other fairly early in the game. I had the two regions running that way at 1375BC which I'm fairly sure is a record for me. The two separated settlers made an early Palace jump irresistable to me :)

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gifhttp://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/ptw.jpg1.21


Great Job SirPleb :worship:

Originally posted by SirPleb

I timed a build of Theory of Evolution for 800AD to coincide with learning Motorized Transportation. That allowed me to learn Radio to enter Modern Times and to still have a free tech remaining from ToE, ensuring that I'd learn Computers immediately one way or another. Inter-turn, as soon as I learned Radio, I gifted Korea and Ottomans to Modern Times. They got Rocketry and Fission as their free techs respectively. I then used my second ToE choice to learn Computers.
Great idea, could you give us a few more details on how you do this inter-turn trading.



1050AD, learn Satellites (4 turns)
1090AD, learn Nuclear Power (4 turns)
1130AD, learn The Laser (4 turns) and launch! :).
That's a lot of research on deity :eek: how about a screenshot of your domestic advisor ;)



It was nice to discover that one of my core cities, Shantung, could build Iron Works in this game! That simplified getting all of the later wonders..... - it was one of the more productive cities I've had
And generating a lot of beakers:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/sirpleb26-3b_commerce.jpg

If I get this right you have a base commerce of 54, Library, University and Research Lab gives you a total of 182, and with Newton's (?) in the city you get 54 on top of that to reach your 236 in commerce.


So why does this city of mine only generate 135 in commerce :confused:
To me it looks like The SETI Program is not bringing me anything!?

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/Nanking_1525_AD_rezised.jpg

This time last year I was just returning from my vacation at the inlaws where I had played the GOTM for 8 hours per day for 5 days. That game gave me the best GOTM ranking ever, 4th place. Now I just got back from them again but this time I did not take my computer with me because my GOTM days are over for now.

I have just submitted a 610BC conquest loss as I have not played the game in the last three weeks. I will most probably not play the GOTM for a while and will not start any new games of Civ. This decision has several reasons and it's not a permanent departure but a temporary one. Talk to you later.

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gif http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/ptw.jpg1.27
Not much to add after another overwhelming performance by SirPleb, that walking oxymoron - congratulations! You elevate the art of strategy to a higher level.

I also considered staying in republic but then decided on democracy. It couldn't hurt much since I was waiting for the AI to research steel and/or refining for me. And indeed they got refining which would have taken me 5-6 turns, equivalent to my anarchy period. Still, I might have managed to use ToE in a better way, like SirPleb did, planning my research in a different way and not turning democratic. The benefits of democracy perhaps appear when you have control of a whole continent and a lot of cities at distance 20 and upwards.

I should have spared the Koreans too. I did not think about that as the Mongols swept over their remaining tundra towns with their UUs, which incidently they used pretty effectively.

Again, not much to add. I also gifted the AI up to 100 gpt but only got rocketry (Ottoman free tech) and ecology during the modern age. It didn't help much that the AI was always involved in one petty war or another. Rajaputana was always communist despite having snatched Universal Suffrage. I even researched advanced flight and gifted it just so the raging AI wouldn't get the idea to research it. That might have been a bad move, but I was waiting for ecology and as far as I could see that should not be a more attractive tech than advanced flight for the AI.

Launch in 1580:

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gifhttp://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/ptw.jpg1.27

Originally posted by zamint3
Great Job SirPleb
Thanks! It feels like a personal best for me in pushing the research pace. But I expect that it won't look good at all next to Bremp's date now that he's opened the rank exploit can of worms in a GOTM :( He'll easily come in quite a bit earlier. Oh well.

Originally posted by zamint3
Great idea, could you give us a few more details on how you do this inter-turn trading.

In 790AD I finished the turn with:
1) Motorized Transportation will be learned in one turn, and I will then need just one more tech (Radio) to complete Industrial Age.
2) There's a city which will finish building Theory of Evolution in one turn.

When I end the turn there's the usual inter-turn AI action, then:
1) I learn Motorized Transportation. I choose Radio as the next tech to research and exit.
2) Ok the popup message that ToE has been built.
3) I get Radio as free tech #1 from ToE. Just ok that notification.
4) I get the "entered a new age" popup message and ok it.
5) I'm asked what to research next. This is where I'm supposed to pick the second free tech from ToE. I choose "What's the big picture?"
6) In the science advisor window I hit F4 to get to foreign advisor.
7) I gift Ottomans and Korea all tech to get them to Modern Times, and I note the free techs they receive.
8) From the foreign advisor screen, hit F6, and then select a new tech. I chose Computers because neither Ottomans nor Korea got it as their free tech and I want Computers asap to build research labs.
9) Exit the science advisor screen and receive Computers as free tech #2 from ToE.
10) Choose next tech to actually research and exit that screen.
11) Get the popup that a city has produced Theory of Evolution. Select next production there and carry on with the normal inter-turn flow (at last :lol: )

And then when all the inter-turn stuff has finished, use normal trading to get the free techs received by Korea and Ottomans.

Originally posted by zamint3
That's a lot of research on deity :eek: how about a screenshot of your domestic advisor ;)
Sure, here it is at 1100AD, sorted by beakers:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/sirpleb26-3c.jpg

Shantung wasn't at its very best at that date, there was pollution on one of its tiles. Most spare citizens were scientists. I had just two large research centers: Shantung and Hangchow. Shantung had Newton's and SETI, Hangchow had Copernicus', so I'd hurried hospitals at the first opportunity in both of them and then worker-stuffed them to use all available tiles (first removing citizens in neighboring cities from overlapping tiles.) Getting them both up to 20 working citizens increased the value of their science-boosting wonders.

Originally posted by zamint3
If I get this right you have a base commerce of 54, Library, University and Research Lab gives you a total of 182, and with Newton's (?) in the city you get 54 on top of that to reach your 236 in commerce.
Actually, the arithmetic gets a bit nasty because of the way pre/post corruption is displayed. Under "Commerce" in that screenshot of Shantung was 2g corruption and 234g assigned to science beakers, for a total of 236.
But, the calculation is done as follows:
54g total - 2 corruption = 52 net for the city.
The library, university, and research lab each add 50% of the base net, so they add 26 + 26 + 26 = 78.
Newton's and SETI (which is also in Shantung) each add 100% of the base net, so they add 52 + 52 = 104.
And the final net total is then 52 + 78 + 104 = 234 which is shown on the right side.

Confusing isn't it? (Because the left side is pre-corruption and the right side is post-corruption.)

So your city of Nanking is bringing in 40 base, -2 corruption = 38 base net.
Library, university, research lab add 50% each: 19 + 19 + 19 = 57.
SETI adds 38.
Total should be 38 + 57 + 38 = 133 net on the right side and matches the display.
You could boost research a fair bit by purchasing a hospital in Nanking and then joining workers to it to be citizens on another six tiles, with the research from those six tiles getting multiplied by 3.5 because of all the boosts including SETI :)

http://forums.civfanatics.com/images/smilies/ptw.gif 1.27f
Open

Link to Ancient Thread (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1423904#post1423904)
Link To Middle Ages (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1443717#post1443717)

Well, this game for me was a good lesson in focus, although not necessarily a good result. As I mentioned in the earlier threads, I had made a good second core, and my first real palace jump, so was pretty happy with my situation on the home front. I also used my riders to make progress in the home continent, but in attempting to prolong the rider's advantages, and using the Great Library, the research pace was so slow through the Middle Ages that I felt an early space launch was already out of reach. So I decided to go for domination. I entered the Industrial in 570AD, as Korea got Medicine and I started on Steam, glad I wouldn't face Nationalism just yet. (Ottoman were way behind, and I didn't want to catch them up and get Nationalism out yet). My own research in the IA was in fits and starts, I went 80% or so for Steam, 11 turns, then slowly went after electricity and SciMethod to get cash for rushes along the way.

I did get a lot of leaders, I lost track. I was able to rush several wonders:
Newtons 590AD
Hoovers 1020AD (TOE was pre-built)
Universal Suff. 1030AD
Pentagon (other continent) 1180AD
Also built Iron Works, Military Academy, Battlefield Medicine, Wall Street by hand. Made a lot of armies also, had at least 8 remaining at the end, 4 cav each (except one w/3 Riders and a cav, that was a holdover).

Takeda declared war in 590, and it was easy to put them off, killing the occasional landing, until I had reduced Korea to an island in 640, getting Medicine. By 680, Takeda had Nationalism, and so my invasion against them was tougher. I was in nearly constant warfare, and yet still in Republic (a penalty of my indecision) and suffered from terrible war weariness at a couple of points. Takeda was reduced to a couple small islands by 800AD, and I made peace and developed a plan to invade the other continent. They had bought in the Tokugowa, who had earlier crushed the Kuroda and was the power on the other continent. Also, the Toku had 3 luxuries, and through a series of embargos, capture was my best shot of getting them. The map, Kublais, and strategic movement made the invasion and resupply a MM pain, as I eventually had to use some "ship-hopping" even though I don't like it, my Kublais would otherwise be stuck one tile out of port. Progress was slow, one city per turn, until I got 2 stacks of 20+ artillery going, with the cav armies. By then, though, WW was taking it's toll again, so I decided to make peace with them. I was within a couple hundred tiles of Domination, and Rome for some reason had joined in an MPP with Toku, even though they were still Middle-Age tech, so I decided I would shift and gain cities there. I got the ROP with Oda, who were my only real trading partner, and made peace with Toku, but duh, I guess the MPP was still in effect as the next turn Toku was pulled back into war with me, meaning my WW kicked back in. At least I had secured the 3 luxes, and was able to move quickly against Rome, getting 6-7 cities and a few more Toku, until I finally got the message I was waiting for:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/J2_G26_Final.jpg

Unfortunately, the pace was slower than some of the dominations already posted, finishing in 1305AD, although my Firaxis was 10,628. The tons of corrupt cities, constant War Weariness, and slow combat in the forested tundras of Tokugawa combined to make the last few centuries seem more of a chore than fun, but the first two ages were very interesting.

My biggest problem, as I mentioned, was lack of focus. Once I decided to go for domination, I should have optimized my cities, probably switched to Monarchy, or at least taken a few turns to generate cash and rush markets in all of the large, corrupt cities. (I eventually started doing this). I would push ahead in research (keeping a lead throughout the IA) but with no real goal in mind after TOE/Hoovers, except vaguely Motor transport, but I knew I would probably hit the limit before I ever got there anyway, and instead was short on cash at a couple points for no real benefit. I also should have gone after the Ottomans and Romans, if my main goal was territory, who were both backwards in tech and power, and on more open terrain. Good lessons learned (relearned, I suppose), hopefully I can put them to use in the GOTY!

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gifhttp://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/ptw.jpg1.21

SirPleb thanks for teaching me about commerce and corruption, funny, to me at least, how math was playing games with me :)

My own game :

I started by moving my southern Settler north, not wanting to deal with highly corrupted cities early on. This worked OK, I made a lot of contacts on the road, with some good trading, and build my second non-corrupt city after about 10-15 turns.
Being on Deity I decided on some tight RCP with ring1 at 3-3.5 and ring2 at 5-5.5, this was fine early on, but later the space was somewhat limited, and I never build any hospitals. Actually I did build one by accident

Having read SirPleb’s article on generating Great Leaders my strategy was now to create a lot of those for rushing The Forbidden Palace and after that Wonders, especially the scientific ones.
This was the first major setback : first leader in 730 AD and Forbidden Palace in 740 AD, that might be considered a little late :lol: :cry:
Later I got a good deal of Great Leaders, but by then all the MA Wonders were gone, and I got my self half a dozen of useless armies.

Actually this was my second setback, after doing some great trading out of AA, I had forgotten about the raging barbs, and got ransacked by 12 barbarian horsemen for all my newly gained gold.

The Tech pace was OK early on, The Ottomans and The Koreans got different free techs at each age. Later some MPP’s started a lot of silly wars and the pace slowed considerably.

I finally launched in 1530 AD

You might have seen SirPleb's Domestic Advisor, here is one from the more mortal zone at CFC :

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/Domestic_Advisor2.jpg

zamint3

Middle Age (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=1450103#post1450103)

[civ3] v1.29f Open

My FP in the south is under great cultural pressure from the Raja and I already had a Chimkent flipping to them in 360 so I have to build much culture to avoid flipping. On top of this Raja seems to be making lot of cash and decent research so they need to be my partner in the long term.
I will try to have the AI helping me at research
In 600, I grab a Wool lux in second continent rushing Libraries & Uni (for Culture battle).

I am searching Steam at 100 % due in 5 turns and then Indus. I have deployed my workers to build frantically my railroad and will pre-build some factories (with Colloseum) when needed. I gifted most of my techs for some luxs and also to have the AI at parity to help me out.
680 AD : I have just finished Indus (5 turns) and put all my pre-built back to factories. I revolt to Democracy… a tech I have exchanged last turn with MA. I wish the AI could help me more on this research so I put them at level, (just keeping Indus to me) in the hope they will research Medicine.
840 AD : Most of my deals are now finished and I am searching at 5 per turns but also at –278 GPT, going for Refining and still no sign of Medicine.
860 AD : They researched Communism, pooh. I did not micromanage the towns to be on the 4 turns routine thus losing some turns in the process. I trade Electricity for Communism & WM & 162 GPT & 20 GP with Raja. I will give it to the rest so that they will be tempted by Medicine. I needed the cash to avoid being in deficit but it zill cripple the research as it seems Raja are the fastest ones. Maybe I should be less conservative and trade more lux & tech to AI but I did not want to lose the tech lead I had…
870 AD : MPP between Kuroda & Oda. The following turn Kuroda sneak attack me, conquering my lux town in their south. I ally everyone against Kuroda for Indus. I am still second to culture vs Raja and I fear flips in my second core. I am finally researching Medicine by myself (4 turns) + 78 GPT with 171 GPT coming from AI civs and will give it to AI so that they could research Sanitation... I have researched Refining (5 turns) earlier.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/GOTM26_870ad.jpg
My army is 83 Worker (for fast grow of towns) & 17 Rifleman & 17 Cavs & 11 Cannon & 21 Medieval Sword & 3 Cannon Kublai
I ferry my army across producing more cavs and riflemen in order to keep my south core with a decent defense. And the following is an onslaught on poor Oda and Kuroda to get back my captured wool and grab the missing silk (8) from my lux list.
910 AD : Research Sci Method (100% - 4 turns)
950 AD : Replaceable Parts (100% - 4 turns), I will finish TOE in the right at the same turn. I could only research Atomic Theory in 6 turns… I have already destroyed 2 towns to grab some slaves on the new continent. A new towns just allows me to re-conquer some wools. WW is 31 %.
990 AD : Hoover Dam is rushed with a leader while TOE allowed me to grab the necessary techs to jump there. My capital will build armies (8 turns) in order to help production were needed. My army is now 99 workers & 26 Infs & 35 Cavs & 4 Artilleries & 7 Cannon. I am searching Steel (100% - 4 turns) on a slight deficit. I am going to cut the Kuroda territory in 2 parts while going to conquer the two Oda towns in the south for silks. I could sue for peace at this time but I may need to wait for the end of my MA with AI.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/GOTM26_1000ad.jpg

1030 AD : I need to search Sanitation (70% - 4 turns + 400 GPT) by myself. I am :mad: at AI. I badly need to grow my cities to a decent size to decrease the upkeep of my workers & continue a fast research. I pre-build Police Station everywhere so that I am ready to switch to Hospital where needed.
Towns are falling to my attacking force. I am trying to limit casualties but WW is up to 50%
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/GOTM26_1040ad.jpg

1080 AD : Another leader rushes Pentagon. I trade Sci Method with Otto for Espionage & 79 GPT & the same to Raja for 104 GPT. I am now researching Combustion (100% - 4 out of 5 turns & - 42 GPT). For the moment, unhappiness (WW is up to 55%) makes and lack of Hospital makes it impossible to go faster. But soon War is over as there are only 4 more cities to finish Oda & Kuroda. Maybe I should have research Sanitation before steel to avoid missing one turn.
1100 AD : Oda and Kuroda are dead. War is over, I will continue to rush Temple and some Harbors on the second continent. I have just exchanges Enlightment so that I am currently building Intelligence Agency & Battefield Medecine (not very useful but using a Palace pre-built) and Shakespeare’s Theater in the capital (in 7 turns). I still have 77 workers to join my core cities.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/GOTM26_1100ad.jpg
Mass Prod (4 turns)
Motorized (4 turns)
1200 AD : Raja 275 GPT vs Steel and also all the other main civs
Flight (4 turns)
Radio (4 turns)
I enter the Modern Age in 1265 AD, searching Computers (100% - 6 turns), I will prebuild all I can with the Police Station or Stock Exchange in order to get quicker research lab. A Palace pre-built will give me SETI wonder.
1285 AD : Raja tried to extort Wines out of me but I said no. So I deal for 12GPT the next turn. I have so many deals with Raja that I hope they will not attack me. My army is strong on defense, so It should be ok.
Rocketry (5 turns)
Space Flight (5 turns)
1330 AD : Raja 370 GPT & 1330 GP vs Flight / Takeda gives 79 GPT / Ott gives 19 GPT.
Fission (5 turns). I am prebuilt with some Coal Plant to get faster my first parts of the space ship. All my slaves are in Automatic mode
1370 AD : Satellites in 4 turns, building United Nations & Manhattan Project and prebuilding a Palace for the last part of the spaceship.
Ecology (4 turns)
Synthetic Fiber (5 turns)
1435 AD : Raja 492 GPT & 670 GP vs Computer / Takeda gives 61 GPT / Ott almost the same…
Superconductor (5 turns)
1450 AD : Raja & Takeda sign an MPP … only 12 turns to finish the game. I may consider to wage the war against Rome…
Nuclear Power (4 turns)
1480 AD : Laser in 4 turns …
1495 AD : Space Victory – Score 10492.

It could have been 1425 AD : Diplomatic Victory – Score 10418

Great Job SirPleb :worship:

As I am playing [civ3], I had the AI to grab Monotheism (entering MA), Nationalism (entering IA) and rocketry (entering MA) and potentially helping me to search some techs ...

I considered keeping the AI with my pace giving techs but I would have only benefitted from a rocketry deal - 5 turns gain.
But I would have lost all the GPT deals that helped me funding my research so I think in the end it would have been even.

Frankly I did not want also the other AI to declare a war on me while I was in peace and building infra an limited army so I kept my tech lead in order to be able to ally everyone against a potential target if needed.

Conquest
Vanilla 1.29f

My first deity game and 5th GOTM. I am happy to be alive with a good chance for a space victory.

Entered the modern age in about 1390AD. Developed the capital in the north at Beijing and built a good core. My second city Shanghi got the FP but had difficuly in getting a good second core which slowed me down considerably.
I am somewhat concerned about production capacity as I would need to beat my research partners to build spaceship. Accordingly I used the TOE to get the two tech's necessary to build hover dam. I have iron works factory and hover dam in the capital so production is not a problem.

My major research partner was Ghandi, with Korea also helping out. I was ahead in the tech's for most of the IA with 100% research. Selling tech's to all who would buy for massive profit. I was getting over 800gpt from other civ's especially Ghandi.

Here comes problems. I had peacfull relations with Ghandi the whole game and did not interfere much with their expansion. We were both similar is size with my civ just edging out for largest area. They were paying me so much gpt for tech's they were going broke and decided to solve their problems by going to war.
A massive war errupted and I managed to enlist the help of all remaining civs. Ghandi is now crushed but I have lost many turns of research and my economy is hurt by only getting about 115gpt from other civs.

Tried several times to end the war but keep getting dragged back by a MPP with Beakje that I got by accident (I thought I was getting a ROP). Oh well only 2 turns left on the MPP.


I have one question for Sir Pleb 'the great' or whoever else might have an answer.

Is there a quick way to see how much base commerce you are generating in you large cities (e.g. size 20) or do you have to count all the little symbols. After seeing the calculations it makes sense to put the tech wonders in the cities with highest base commerce and minimal corruption.

Originally posted by captain chaos
Is there a quick way to see how much base commerce you are generating in you large cities (e.g. size 20) or do you have to count all the little symbols. After seeing the calculations it makes sense to put the tech wonders in the cities with highest base commerce and minimal corruption.

When you are looking at the F1 screen, you can sort the list by clicking on the symbols at the top. So you can click on the shield to find your most industrious city, or the beaker to find your best lab sites or on the gold to find the most commercial. (All the other column headers are sortable too.)

Since the cursor doesn't change when you mouse over it you wouldn't know it was there unless you read the manual carefully!

Originally posted by pterrok


When you are looking at the F1 screen, you can sort the list by clicking on the symbols at the top. So you can click on the shield to find your most industrious city, or the beaker to find your best lab sites or on the gold to find the most commercial. (All the other column headers are sortable too.)


This is a very helpful tip!

However, the commerce reported in the F1 screen is after numerous adjustments to the base net commerce. I am wondering if Sir Pleb has an easier method to figure out the base net commerce or if he counts all the little thingy's for each tile?
:) in the city screen.

Originally posted by captain chaos
Is there a quick way to see how much base commerce you are generating in you large cities (e.g. size 20) or do you have to count all the little symbols. After seeing the calculations it makes sense to put the tech wonders in the cities with highest base commerce and minimal corruption.
Not that I know of. If anyone knows a way to view the base count I hope they'll jump in and tell us. I seldom worry about the base count but when I do, I count the commerce manually on the worked tiles. (Yuk.)

Most of the time I know that I have equivalent improvements (e.g. library and university) in all of my strongest cities. So sorting the F1 display by beakers shows me the best choices for tech wonders - it is comparing apples with apples if all the best cities have the same improvements. But even then, I go and manually compare the top few cities on the list before choosing. The number of beakers they're producing doesn't tell the whole story - one which isn't at the top of the list might be a better long term choice because it doesn't have as many citizens yet (and would be at the top if it did), or it might be better long term because it will have lots of nice gold tiles available but currently isn't using them, is emphasizing shields at the moment.

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gif [ptw]

I decided to go for Conquest victory.
I settled my palace in the northern area W-NW from the starting tile close to both cow an wheat. I built the second city NE from the starting tile.
I set research at zero waiting for the opportunity to search a 2nd level tech.
I built Warrior-Warrior-Granary-Worker-Settler…. in Beijing and Warrior-Settler in Shangai.
I used some pop rushing in the southern area cities.
I met Khazars in 3750BC, I got Alphabet and started a 40-turns research of Mathematics. I choose it not because I needed it but only because I thought it was less likely that other civs were researching it (and I was right).
I met Mongols in 3550BC (got Terra Cotta), Gogu in 3400BC (Burial Rituals + Bronze Culture), Baekje in 3300BC (The Wheel), Takeda in 3000BC, Raja in 2350BC.
Other civs (especially Khazars) were very active in killing barbs for me. A barb warrior was killed by Khazars when he was one tile from a city of mine!
I was threatened only once and I paid.
I discovered Maths in 1950BC and I started a trading session that brought me Calligraphy + Taoism + Bajutsu + Iron Culture + the map of my continent. I start researching Shamanism at full speed.
In 1910BC I bought my first foreign warrior (at 1000BC they will be 10).
In 1550BC I discovered Shamanism and traded it for Civil Service + Confucianism + Map Making.
In 1250BC my first junk met Oda without even having to survive to the sea. The other continent was pretty behind in techs therefore I only got money (about 650g).
I discover Monarchy in 1150BC and in 1075BC I was king.
In 1075 another trading session gave me Construction + Currency and brought me in Middle Age. I gave free techs to scientific civs and was able to trade also for Monotheism and Engineering.

At 1000BC I had:
Cities 21
Citizens 75
Settlers 1
Worker 7
Slaves 10
Warrior 10
Galley 1
Horseman 8
Barracks 10
Granary 1
Temple 1
Gold 1505
Contacts 12

I had all mandatory AA techs + Monarchy + Engineering + Monotheism. My score was 688.

Norhern Area
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/1000bc-north.jpg

Southern Area
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/1000bc-south.jpg

Map at 1000BC
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/1000bc-map.jpg

I discovered Feudal Warlords (750BC) and Samurai Code (550BC), then I stopped research to save money for current and future upgrades.

I start the war campaign in 530BC and trigger Golden Age. Korea was my first victim, they were terminated in 370BC.
In 390BC I got my first GL who built Forbidden Palace in Shangai.

In 350BC I bought Invention from Baekje for Samurai Code and 740g and I started researching towards Military Tradition at the maximum possible speed.

I attacked Mongols in 350BC. In 310BC I got my second GL who built Leonardo. I attacked Raja in 290BC. In 230BC I knew Gunpowder.

In 110BC I attacked and terminated Khazars in the same turn. In 70BC Mongols were terminated and I knew Chemistry.

In 10BC I attacked and terminated Gogu in the same turn. In 10AD I attacked Takeda on the close island. In 70AD Baekje were terminated. I had very hard time to conquer Edo (9 Riders died).
In 110AD I discovered Metallurgy.

In 190AD Takeda were terminated. In 230AD ex-Takeda Great Library gave me Education.

I learnt Military Tradition in 270AD and used all my money to upgrade 37 Cavalries. In 280AD 11 junks with 22 Cavalries were sailing toward Tokugawa land in the second continent and in 290AD war started in the new land.

Map at 280AD
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/280ad-map.jpg

In 350AD I got my 3rd GL who built JSB (at the end they will be 7).

In 380AD Tokugawa were terminated and Kuroda were attacked, they were terminated in 410AD. In 430AD I attacked Oda.
In 450AD Ottomans declared war on us, I allied with Rome against Oda and Ottomans. Oda were terminated in 560AD, Ottomans in 570AD and Romans in 620AD for a Conquest victory.

I’m not an expert of Conquest victory and I had some problem finding the right balance between abandoning and keeping conquered cities. I should have kept more city on my continent and razed more city in the new one (I had 12 flips).
In addition I forgot to send junks to deal with the Roman island (east of the new continent) and I lost 4 turns waiting for few junks to arrive, I could have closed the game in 580AD.

Map at 580AD
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/580ad-map.jpg

Originally posted by Mark Cutt
http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gif [ptw]

I decided to go for Conquest victory.


Brilliant effort. Well done. :goodjob: But really I think you were wrong to content yourself with a conquest win, especially one 300 years faster than mine. You should have reached for the stars, like SirPleb.;)

Originally posted by Offa


Brilliant effort. Well done. :goodjob: But really I think you were wrong to content yourself with a conquest win, especially one 300 years faster than mine. You should have reached for the stars, like SirPleb.;)

I agree!
Unfortunately I did not know I had won gotm25 when I started gotm26.
Having the objective to win a gotm I planned the usual domination victory because I have a lot of experience in domination and it's the only way can compete with stronger player.
After the gotm25 results announcement I could only change my strategy to conquest.
I promise that starting from goty I'll try to learn the secrets of other victory condition;) .

Well done indeed Mark Cutt! Your progress at 1000BC is very impressive, gave you a strong platform to go for conquest :goodjob:

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gif [ptw] 1.27

Link to GOTM 26 Spoiler II (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1434481#post1434481)

270AD - 1190AD

I had two way to archive space victory. One way was to gain more land/cities and commerce by warring to get 4 turn tech pace. Other was to trade techs and help rivals. I chose latter and never got techs faster than 5 turns.
Primarily, I stayed out of wars. Fortunately there wasn't any wars in home continent. When I had railroads built, I disbanded military units.
Koreans and Rajaputana were my trade pals, I gifted techs and luxuries. Tokugawa were monster in other continent, ruined research capabilities there.

270AD - Ottomans got Medicine, Koreans got Nationalism.
350AD - Steam Power (8 turns). Trade for Medicine and Nationalism. Anarchy period ->
410AD - Democracy formed. (6 turns)
470AD - Electricity (6 turns)
520AD - Scientific Methods (5 turns)
600AD - Atomic Theory (8 turns), Electronics and Radio (ToE), Industrialization (Koreans)
640AD - The Corporation (4 turns)
690AD - Steel (5 turns), Refining (Koreans)
740AD - Combustion (5 turns), Replaceable Parts (Rajaputana)
800AD - Flight (6 turns) trade it for Mass Production (Rajaputana)
820AD - Koreans started UN. stupid Rajaputana have sold Flight to Koreans :mad: if I have waited 2 turns I could have get both MP and MT for Flight.
850AD - Motorized Transportation (5 turns) Koreans got Fission, Ottomans Ecology.

870AD - Steal Fission from Korean for 1700 gold :D
930AD - Computers (8 turns) Ecology (Ottomans) Rocketry (Koreans)
970AD - Han built UN.
980AD - Koreans cascade to SETI, close call.
990AD - Koreans learned Space flight :mad: why I didn't start on Nuclear Power.
1010AD - Space flight (8 turns)
1080AD - Superconductor (7 turns) Satellites (Koreans)
1140AD - Nuclear Power (6 turns) Synthetic Fibers (Rajaputana)
1190AD - The Laser and space ship launched.

It isn't easy to guess what AI will research next. I should have believed spreadsheet "AI tech research estimations" by Ambiorix. Could have cutted end year by 100 years.

Firaxis score 8455.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/GOTM26_kuningas_mini.jpg

Predator, PTW 1.27f

I left my last spoiler at 825BC. Here is my progress in the next ages:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/Ronald_gotm26_4.jpg

Originally, I was thinking for a space victory, but I did not have the time to play it fully, so I decided after more than 25 hours of play to settle for a diplomatic victory at 1285AD with a Firaxis score of 9715.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/Ronald_gotm26_5.JPG

It was quite a difficult game and I really liked playing that one.

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gif
Summary
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/GM26_sistine.jpg
When I left off my ancient age post, I was attempting to win a culture victory without directly attacking enemy cities (i.e. only gaining new territory by culture, propaganda, or poaching open sites from third party wars). In the end 34 cities flipped to me (about 24 by culture and 10 by propaganda) and culture victory was achieved in 1740 AD.

Detail
It would be a simple matter to exceed 100k culture, but it is also necessary to keep all potential rivals from reaching 50k culture. Korea and Baekje became culturally powerful, and were destroyed by alliances among the other civs on the continent. Even without attacking cities, a handful of Han horsemen/riders and catapults was enough to tip the balance in favor of the allies by destroying Korean/Baekje troops in the open.

Tokugawa became the dominant civ on the other continent, amassing significant culture and pushing back Rome and Kruodo (the only remaining competitors on that continent). A small expeditionary force of riders stopped Tokugawa's northern advance, and an alliance with Rome and Kruodo kept Tokugawa in check while Han culture increased.

As the Tokugawa stalemate dragged on for over 120 turns, the former Korean and Baekje cities flipped to the Han with great frequency. Eventually, almost all Korean/Baekje cities would flip to me. In the industrial age, rifles/infantry and explorers executed pillaging offensives against Tokugawa, and later Raja and Mongolia after these civs attacked. The Raja attack struck at my lightly defended southern territory, and I lost 7 cities to to razing, abandonment, or capture. Nonetheless, I gained far more cities from Mongolia and Raja than I lost due to favorable culture and propaganda flips, and both empires were reduced to small pauper states with the help of my allies (Goru and Kazars). Han culture was also somewhat effective overseas as 5 Roman cities on the other continent converted to my side.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/GM26_finalmap.jpg
The circled regions represent the original Han territories after the initial expansion, with all subsequent expansion caused by flips or third party razing.

Very nicely done Zwingli, a work of art! :goodjob:

Superb Zwingli. It looks like you weren't all that far off a domination win, which would have been a real coup.

PTW OPEN

The good news is that I secured a diplomatic win. The bad news is that it was in 1625.

I fell behind in the tech race at the beginning of the Middle Ages and had to change my strategy. At 1375 BC I traded for Map Making and managed to barter it to the other civs for much gold and all the known techs.

I started a couple of wars after that but they all went badly. I eventually made peace and licked my wounds. The plan was to build up the military again and then take over the continent. But from that point on I started to slip behind the other civs in the tech race. The scientific civs entered the Middle Ages and must have traded their techs around because all of a sudden I was way behind. At that point I made up my mind to go for either a diplomatic or spaceship victory.

In 890 AD I declared war on Kuroda in the hope of slowing the tech race so that I coulde catch up. That worked as I allied with a lot of his neighbors to also slow them down. Raja declared war on me and that brought the war to the home continent. Pretty soon one of my Riders beat an Elephant and we entered our Golden Age. That gave me 4 turns per tech and enabled me to close the tech gap.

In 1030 I finally got my first Great Leader.

In 1150 I made peace with Raja and got Steam Power. By then I was in the lead in the tech race and sprinting for the Theory of Evolution. I got it built with a Great Leader and from then on it was all downhill to the UN. Since I was ahead in techs I just gifted techs to the other civs until they all loved my, except for Raja who was furious forever.

The most powerful civ in my game was Korea. They had many Wonders and tons of culture. Just about the time I discovered Motorized Transport they decided to declare war on me. That was their big mistake. I quickly allied every other civ against them except the Mongols who only had one city on an island. I then proceeded to take about ½ of their cities.

It was gratifying to fall behind in this game and still manage to pull out a win.

ptw 1.14f predator

finished the game at 1140 for a diplomatic win. Wasn't lucky with my research partners. I had to research ALL industrial age techs myself, except for medicine! My research partner should have been the rajaputana's which were the highest score at the end of the MA. Although I left them almost 1/3 of the continent, they didn't research a bit! As Sir Pleb was mentioning I also couldn't research at a 4 turn rate, it came out at 4.4. All in all the 1st GOTM I was able to finish at a in-game score of over 10000, not too bad.

civ 1.29 on a MAC, Open class

Han launch spaceship in 1745AD, score approximately 7700

Unlike many, I settled the capital on the spot in the south and moved the northern settler. By 1000BC I had 10 towns. I dispatched the Goguryeo first with swordsmen and horsemen. Then I attacked the Baejke. Somehow I screwed up my reputation with this attack and could no longer trade gpt. I beileve they were giving me Gems and that was the only active trade. I reduced them to a 1 city. 20 turns later, my Riders finished them off trigger a golden age. A leader appeared and he was used for Sistines.

I kept up fairly well with trading by checking the trade screen each and every turn.

Mean while the Mongols were kicking the stuffing out of the Koreans. I used my golden age to build infrastructure and about 20 riders. The riders were dispatched to the northern lands to keep an eye on the mongols. Soon after the mongols were done with Korea, they attacked us. I signed up Takeda and the Raj to fight the mongols. My Riders simply shredded the mongol forces. They had hordes of archers who died to promote my riders. I got several leaders, whom I used for wonders. The Mongols were wiped out fairly quickly.

After this war I built up my core, built the fp in a former Khazar town. Then it turned out that the iron works could be built in a 1st ring city of my FP (woo- hoo!). I got the TOE with atomic theory and electronics slingshot. This put me in the tech lead for good.

Meanwhile Kuroda died on the other continent. I sent a settler to poach a silk site in the former Kurodan lands. Oda didn't like that and sent an army to crush it. An industrial age world war was started. Oda got the Raj on their side so I had to deal with them first. The Raj had a few cities cities that I needed so I took them. I could have wiped them out but I let them live thinking they would be good research partners. They weren't. Then I turned to Oda and pummeled them. I dispatched an expeditionary force to sieze back a silk supply. Then I made peace. This was fairly easy as the Han were the only ones with tanks. Meanwhile I'm researching as fast as I can.

Then Tokugawa tries to extort Flight, and the Han say no. The result is war. Tokugawa signs up Takeda. This is actually useful as it lets me rid my continent of their outposts. I mass airlift tanks into my silks beachhead and take the south eastern corner of the other continent. They quickly accept peace.

Meanwhile I build the UN and then SETI and the Internet to help wih researching the expensive techs. I gift the Ottomans to the Modern age, they learn rocketry and I trade them Fission for it. This is the only help I get from the AIs. In order to keep a positive cash flow and high research I turn many big cities to wealth production in the modern age.

I have 9 space ship parts completed before Takeda start one. Spaceship launch in 1745AD. I have 77000 culture at this point and I believe I could get an easy 100k culture win by 1900. Given that I have moden armour, and a massive army, and nukes I believe I could also easily win a military victory.

This certainly was a melee. The AI's were constantly at war.

civ1.29f, open

[edited with Kuningas feedback, thanks]

On my first try at the official GOTM, I still have a lot to learn. Its amazing what some of you can do.

I did the long march to the south, never dreaming about a palace jump. I was worried about corruption. When I saw all those stacks of armies, I decided to be extra friendly and give in to whatever they asked for until I could get some armies built up.

As a result, I was peaceful for much of the AA. Here's my 1000BC status (note all in the south).
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/hans_1000bc_mil_advisor.jpg

First skirmish was border cleanup and luxury grab with the Bakje. I took their closest (southern) cities.

First war with Gorguryeo at 290BC to take out their 2 cities by 230 BC and off to the MA. I used swordsmen, which I never did before, but then I never have seen the upgradeability before, and I made a guess that that would make them more useful. They're so slow I still don't like them, and still the medieval sword stops being useful in early MA in my opinion, especially with Rider for the Han available at same time! What do others think about swords versus horse? I saw some (but not all) of the pros had no swords for this game, and a lot of horse.

At 150 AD I had a decision point. Would I go west and take out the game leader Raja, or go NE and take out my furious opp Bakje and their neighbor the Kazar?

Map at 150 AD:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/hans_150ad_ma.jpg

I was lined up to take Raja, then I noticed the prebuilt RCP of 5 with the Kazar and Bak -- all I had to do was help myself to their cities. So NE it would be :)

Here's the AI's RCP of 5 waiting to happen, with Balkhash in the center.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/hans_430ad_rcp_for_free.jpg

I also wanted tech, and both Bak and Raja had plenty to spare, if I could convince them. Bak gave me Inv and Son Buddha in 310 AD when the treaty of Balkhash was signed with Kazars mediating.

Curiously, Kazar declared war on me the next turn. I destroyed them that same turn, which must be some kind of record! What were they thinking?

I'm at a tech disadvantage, and the Mongols just don't know how to trade, so I plan to help them learn :). By 410 AD, the Mongols gave me Gunpowder, Banking, and 800g.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/hans_410ad_ma.jpg

In 450 AD my golden age is over. I'm struggling to stay up with AI research, and I'm going for space race, so I think that democracy is necessary to get the extra kick to keep up.

My 7 turn revolution has me watching helplessly as 3 of my cities flip during anarchy! Raja takes 1, Korea takes 2.

710 AD I finally get to IA about even with AI due to some timely trading. I opened up trades almost every turn to check on AI progress.

850 AD: railroads span my country. I dare any AI to attack me now! I'm starting to feel frisky for the first time this game. I have the game in hand at this point, I think.

910 AD: I have a tech lead for the first time! Sci Method is next turn, and I have GL ready to make ToE next turn. So I will be up 2 techs, I hope to keep it that way!

1150 AD: I'm at peace a long time, while I build research infrastructure. Raja takes out a lot of others (Korea, Rome, ...) I help finish Korea, and also finished Bak after our 20 turns was up. I'm starting to get that expansion itch again. With Takeda's island be next, or Korea? Raja took out Rome on other continent, if I had been on the ball I could've had most of that newly emptied real estate for just a few settlers, but now its too late to build ships. I don't even have 1 ship yet, nor any extra settlers.

1050 AD snapshot:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/hans_1050ad_ma.jpg

1200 AD: still no war, but I have lots of gold (~5000). I'm keeping my tech lead, and selling 1 or 2 tech old to Raja, Korea, and Takeda. I'm keeping Toku in the game, and Oda too.

1320 AD: Modern age. Takeda declares war on me -- why, I ask? I get Korea to help, and they get the whole world to chop Takeda's island to bits. Its only fair that I get the best pieces.

1445 AD: Korea sneak attacked me while under a RoP. I didn't know the computer would do that! Good thing they only sent 1 army to deep interior, else I would've been toast. They raze one of my best cities in interior, take 4 others. I thought we were friends, now I must have vengeance! :ripper:

I think that my trying to plant a spy on him and getting caught 3 times got him 'annoyed'. Does anyone have a good spy planting technique (in order to see space ship progress)? I ended up planting 0 spies, but got 6 caught and killed, before I abandoned the effort. For spaceship insurance, I ended up placing stacks of artillery and modern armor outside of the my main rival Raja's capital (we have RoP and he is gracious, heh heh).

To deal with Korea, I wanted to bring in allies on my side since I don't think I can take on the world. But Korea already have MPP with Raja and Toku. So I made a mistake. Instead of military alliance against them, I sign a MPP with Oda and Toku and Raja. I carefully just took Koreas armies on my land that first turn, which meant I couldn't recapture my cities. That worked fine. However, when Raja declared war on Korea on his next turn, he used my RR to take back my recently stolen cities for himself -- and he razed them! What kind of ally is that?

The MPP haunted me, because I wanted to quit the war due to high War Weariness but kept getting dragged back in. My first exit was for 2 turns, only to have Korea attack Oda and send me back. I took 4 more Korean cities, made peace, and then Korea attacked Toku. I end up launching in 1540 while still at war with the Koreans, who had cities scattered all over, and my people were none too happy.

I could've finished 1 turn earlier with my prebuild palace if I had known to go to the big picture, hit f1, open up my prebuild city and make the switch (thanks to Kuningas for that idea).

Also, if I had dreamed about being sneak attacked and having trouble with WW, I would've kept my bank account in better shape. As it was, I was feeling flush and everyone was polite to me, so I rushed culture and science improvements, draining the bank. When my people started get war weariness, and Korea's gpt deals went away due to the war, I lost so much revenue that I ran a serious deficit and had to cut back on research to stay positive.


Lessons Learned

My best research was 6-8 turns for ModernA tech. Thanks to SirPleb's post earlier I'll try to improve that next time by growing my best research cities and trying harder for the science wonders (I only got SETI). Also, I'll need more cities.

The palace jump is something that never even occurred to me. So many games I have waited 60+ turns for that foreign palace to manually build (if no GL), when I could just build it right next door... I'll have to try it.

The 4 turn settler factory is something else I'll work on.

From now on, I'll avoid MPP unless no other options, and keep science/bank lead so that I can buy allies when I need them! On the other hand, RoP seemed to work great to keep others from warring with me when I didn't want them to (until the end of this game at least).


Final score: 6961 for launch on 1540 AD. Lots of room for improvement.

Final map: http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/hans_1540ad_ma.jpg

Science rate at end (nowhere near SirPleb):
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/hans_1540ad_science.jpg

Thanks for having this GOTM forum, I really enjoyed reading the posts so far.

PTW 1.27f Open

I had a lot of fun with this Gotm, though I did run out of time for a space race victory due to the Christmas holiday and family obligations. I was able to score my first diety win with a diplomatic victory in 1395AD. My Firaxis score of 9227 was a personal best. Especially considering that we were also potty training my 3 year old boy this month (he is doing very well, almost ready to ditch diapers at night).

In the game, my biggest boost came from the Han's Golden age from 280AD thru 480AD. I was able to mostly catch up in the MA tech's and even got to Typography first.

By the early Industrial Age, I had conquered and claimed most of the Korean, Mongol, and Gorg land. The Baekje had most of the Khazars. We split the Raja, with the Baekje possesing the middle so that I was split in two halves. However, relations were polite so I thought I would have a good tech trading partner.

That all ended when they sneak attacked me in 810AD. They only captured one city that turn but did kill a couple of cavalry. Luckily, they also went after riders and medevil infantry. I was able to regroup and, in a few turns, had them on the run. I banished them from the home continent in 990AD, leaving them 1 city on the island off the east coast. What was really remarkable was that, in 1020AD, I was able to sue for peace and trade tech with them for gpt. The were able to pay 5gpt, 36gpt, and 116gpt in three seperate deals. Later, they paid a whoping 306gpt for Electronics! All from a single island. Thier money, however, seemed to run out in the end as they were only able to offer 76gpt for Radio.

Only the UN was hand built with a palace pre-build (badly timed, should have learned better from GoTM24). Rushed Newton's, Shaekspears, Universal Sufferage, Theory of Evolution, and even the Heroic Epic.

Thanks to all the players who submitted Gotm24 and 25. I was able to review some of the games and noted that they usually had a much denser city layout than I typically used and I tried to adjust this game. The extra cities were extremely useful during the Baekje war. Some powerful enough to build cavalry every 3 turns. Really saved my butt.

I would also like to thank civ_steve, denyd, and SirPleb for thier advice in the 1st spoiler. I did try to keep the Ottomans in the science race but they kept getting behind as I had almost the entire world paying me for tech's after Theory of Evolution. Next time, I will try to keep more than 1 science civ viable in the game for as long as possible. After reading this thread, I'll also gift more to make sure thier free tech's become available during age changes.

Congratulations Zwingli on an incredible game. I also hope Qitai submits as I am really curious what happens in that game.

Happy New Year! :beer:

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gifMac 1.29
Ancient Age Spoiler (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1451700#post1451700)
Middle Ages Spoiler (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1485939#post1485939)

The rest of my game continued on the same research path as the Middle Ages - of the essential techs, only industrialization, rocketry and fission came my way from the AI. This was despite scrupulously keeping the other continent up to date. What worked against me was periodic warring, and too much balance among the offshore civs. Alexman has given us a good sense of what the AI will research next, but it seems to me that building up at least one AI civ to near-superpower status may also be key. My for this section of the game was about 5 turns per tech.

My approach to warfare for the rest of the game was to build units only when there was nothing else of value to build in a city. My pattern was usually markets, libraries, universities, banks, and stock exchanges, followed by factories and hospitals where useful, and then a big push for research labs. I built no temples, colosseums or cathedrals - these have fallen out of my games altogether, except when going for a cultural victory. Thanks to plentiful Leaders, I built every Industrial wonder, and the UN as well.

Since I was waiting for the AI to research military tradition, I used Riders to take the last Goguryeo city in 520, then allied with the Kuroda (who had settled along the icy southern rim) against the Raj. My Riders encountered only a few elephants, and the occasional musketman - but the Raj had no iron. In 750 I acquired MT from the Ottomans, and got Korea to declare war the next turn. (The Raj fell in 780). The Koreans had riflemen, but not a lot of them, and the cavalry made short work out of them, knocking them out in 850. The only AI left on the continent was the southern Kurodan strip, but I took their cities and made peace in four turns. This left the Takeda on their island as my last immediate target. I invaded in 920 with a cavalry army and loose cavalry, and eliminated them in 1030.

There was about a century of peace until 1160 when - one turn before I entered the Modern Age - the Oda declared war after failing to extort motorized transportation. To keep my research hopes alive, I allied with all of the other AI powers, and invaded with two tank armies and six tanks. The Oda were eliminated in 1285. At this point I was entertaining myself while waiting to build my spaceship. In 1305 I declared war on the Tokugawa with the Kuroda as allies, and wiped them out in six turns. This put me very close to the domination limit. Cutting it very tightly, I took two Roman cities in 1345, and razed the rest of their continental holdings in five turns. In 1415 I attacked the Ottomans to take a city that was on the wrong side of the border (offending my aesthetic sensibilities), then built a buffer by taking their three border cities and giving them to the Kuroda. I launched the next turn. Thanks to this expansion, I managed to get a Firaxis score of 10784.

This is the state of my military - and the extent of my empire - at game's end:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/26-1420ad.jpg

Originally posted by jeffd210
:confused: How do you put in one of those screen shot pictures?

How do you find out how long you have anarchy? (using Civ3 1.29f)

Does anyone have a good spy planting technique (in order to see space ship progress)?

I could've finished 1 turn earlier with my prebuild palace if I had built something else that turn (then switch my palace to lounge when that first thing completed). Is that legal?

I lost out so much revenue that I ran a serious deficit and had to cut back on research to stay positive (what would happen if it goes negative: random buildings sold, or not random?)

Colossus would probably help too, due to extra commerce -- or does that bonus end early?

By the way, how to get the "hours spent" summary? Is it an add on patch?

And the little happy faces on the F1 screen? Is that an add on too?


1. There is many tutorials for that. ie: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?threadid=55122

2. Press F1. Little advisor in top right corner, click him few times.

3. Spy planting fails so often. I plant spies only when I want specific civ to declare war on me. This will give defensive war bonus, it increases happiness in my cities.

4. It's legal in GOTM. When you research last mandatory tech for space ship, hit "what's the big screen?" go to F1 screen and replace palace with last component.

5. It's bug "negative cash research". You can run -1000 gpt and you only lost building and unit. I think its fixed in C3C.

6. Colossus' effect continues until Flight is learned.

7. Hours spent summary is only in PTW and C3C.

8. Yes, its add-on.

Just thought I'd peek in and say I won't submit this month. I had to replace my video card, and getting the new one took almost 3 weeks (delay on delay on delay), so I couldn't finish my game in time. :(

SirPleb and Kuningas:

In comparing my game to yours, the big difference in research lies in the Ancient Era, which you both finished well ahead of me. I succeeded in all of my research gambits, there was no war to slow research down, and everyone traded constantly. One big difference , though, was that I didn't amke contact with the other continent until well after the QSC was over. Do you feel that these extra contacts had a major effect on your research?

Originally posted by Txurce
One big difference though, was that I didn't amke contact with the other continent until well after the QSC was over. Do you feel that these extra contacts had a major effect on your research?
They definitely had an impact for me :)

When I first met the remote Civs I was able to get Shamanism from Oda. A bit later Baekje where the first Civ in my world to learn Currency, in 1275BC. Ottomans were the first to learn Construction, in 1225BC. By cross-trading these two I was able to enter Middle Ages at that date. And then to further boost things, I was able to gift the remote Ottomans into Middle Ages at that time as well as Korea locally.

Another last minute submittal, although I see I'm in good company with Ainwood also submitting on the final day. :)

Using lots of SHFT-Enters, I learned my last Tech (Satellites) and launched in 1325 AD. An improvement over my last spaceship victory, but not as quickly done as I would have liked.

I made a poor choice at the beginning of the Industrial Age (330 AD). I gifted Korea and the Ottomans up to the IA, and they got Steam Power and Nationalism respectively. I started researching Medicine (okay so far). Then I decided to start a war against Korea: they were exerting considerable cultural pressure on my Northern cities, and I wanted to secure that edge of my empire from flips, and I thought I might be able to extort Steam Power from them as part of a peace deal. Problem is, once I'd learned Medicine, there were no other required IA Techs to research except Steam Power! I wasn't in a position to force a favorable peace settlement, and I didn't want to delay research until I could, so I researched it myself, and wasted 4 turns. If the Techs were reversed this tactic would have worked because there are several Techs beyond Steam Power to research while putting pressure on Korea to get Medicine for free.

Anyway, I razed the 3 nearest Korean cities, and took Seoul, Pyongyang and Wonsan (which all had Wonders in them) before I signed peace. Eventually the 3 cities all flipped back to Korea, and they became the most powerful AI researcher in the Modern Era.

Baekje, Khazars were already gone, and Mongols down to 1 Island city. The Oda were taken out by everybody else on the 2nd continent. Korea gave me a GL which rushed Newton's. Goguryeo declared on me, and provided my a GL to rush Universal Suffrage as I took them out. I got IronWorks in my Capital (Beijing), and pre-built for Hoover's, eventually getting it. Got nervous about Theory of Evolution being built by others (later in the Age), and built it a little early, getting Flight and MassProduction for free (was trying to save it for the early Modern Age, but several others had research Scientific Theory so I had to pull the trigger early.) Eventually redeclared on Mongols and took their last city. Reached Modern Era in 990 AD.

Gifting Techs to Korea and Ottomans gained Ecology and Fission. Those were the only Modern Techs I got from the AI - Korea came close to helping me with Synthetic Fibers, but the Ottomans were hampered by a series of wars on the 2nd continent. Rome (which was still Medieval), got reduced to 2 or 3 cities. Rajaputana decided to attack me in 1240 AD; after they'd lost 4 cities, they were happy to call it quits. Launched in 1325, with the Koreans being 3 Techs behind as closest competitor.

Never quite got up to consistent 4 turn research during the late Industrial and early Modern Era. I think the Commercial/Scientific trait combo (Greece or Korea) is really powerful for the Spaceship victory; being Miltaristic/Industrial means having to make up quite a bit (although being Industrial meant good jungle clearing capability). I also didn't build a lot of hospitals in my cities, since they were close enough together that size 12 cities mostly used all the available tiles. I think more Hospitals with lots of irrigated spaces would have provided enough Scientist specialists to add 100 to 200 research per turn, which might have shaved a turn off most of these Techs.

Txurce: even though I contacted the 2nd continent well after SirPleb, it was quite beneficial. They were missing Shamanism and Literature, but had Construction and Currency. I was able to fill in the blanks, and with an exclusive on the valuable Republic Tech, was able to get both Engineering and Feudal Warlords in trades, because the 2 Scientific civs had not contacted each other (so Republic was an exclusive for both).

Lots of fun, and I'm glad we had the extra week - this was a very busy holiday period in RL! Looking forward to starting GOTY.

Txurce: 2nd continent wasn't great benefit, but some aid anyway. 1225BC I got shamanism from Oda. They didn't research Currency nor Construction for me. I traded 1025BC Currency from Korean and Construction from Rajaputana. This was pretty fast as Coguryeo got Mathematics ~ 1500BC which I of course traded and gifted. I sold interval contacts quite early ~1200BC. So I didn't get my first MA tech until Republic gambit finished 550BC.