Conquest 03: Final Spoiler [Archive] - Civilization Fanatics' Forums

Roland Ehnström

Aug 16, 2004, 04:36 AM

COTM03_Open

Ancient Times (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2071676&postcount=24)

Middle Ages (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2085095&postcount=2)

*** Industrial Age ***

720 AD - Our free tech is Steam Power. Our only source of Coal is on a Mountainous 1-tile island SE of Ancyra, and since it's impossible to build a city on a mountain, this source is utterly useless! BAH!!!

810 AD - Oh My God! A new source of Coal pops up on our land!!!

820 AD - We discover Electricity. We give it to the Ottomans for 621 Gold and 215 (!) GPT, and their complete World Map! We now run a profit of 200 GPT at a science-rate 100%. :)

920 AD - We discover Replaceable Parts. There is a source of Rubber next to Dyrrachium. The Indians have three (!) sources of Rubber, the Ottomans and the Vikings have one each. Carthage, Persia and the Dutch have no Rubber.

1000 AD - We discover Industrialization. We have a solid tech lead now, being Industrialization and Replaceable Parts up on everyone else. We have at least two Infantry defending each city, and all cities on the original continent are connected by Railroads. Our core cities are building factories. We're turning off science for one turn, to save money to rush-build the factory in Adrianople. Then we'll research Medicine --> Scientific Method, and pre-build a Palace in Adrianople for Theory of Evolution.

1080 AD - Brusa founded south of Septum, after our Infantry have finally removed the huge stack of Barbarian Horsemen.

1120 AD - Ragnar demands Replaceable Parts. We laugh. He is not amused, but do not declare war.

1130 AD - We discover Scientific Method. Adrianople has 4 turns to go on Theory of Evolution.

1170 AD - Adrianople completes Theory of Evolution, and this starts our Golden Age! :goodjob: We discover The Corporation and Refining. We have a source of oil up north. Great news is that India have no oil at all, while the others have one each. India have recently lost a lot of units, and Calcutta, in a war against the Ottomans. We are still leading the tech-race, one tech ahead of the Ottomans and Carthage. The Dutch are still in the Middle Ages, and our military is "strong" compared to theirs. Our plan now is to rush to Motorized Transportation, and attack India and The Nethermands with Tanks.

1180 AD - Iconium founded on the northern tip of our continent, next to the Oil.

1310 AD - Our Golden Age ends.

1320 AD - We discover Combustion. Motorized Transportation in 11 turns.

1355 AD - "This source of oil has been exhausted" - AAAAAARGHHH!!! The easiest accessable Oil is now just outside the Persian town of Ergili, however our military is "weak" compared to the Persians, and India are providing them with Rubber for their Infantry. We decide to attack The Netherlands instead: We have a "strong" military compared to them, and they do not know Replaceable Parts. They do however have a Mutual Protection Pact with Carthage. But we need that Oil, so we must take the chance...

1370 AD - The Carthaginians give us Flight, 130 GPT and 220 Gold for Motorized Transportation.

1375 AD - How convenient: The Indians offer a military alliance against the Dutch. We agree, and get some Gold.

1385 AD - An army of 7 Infantry, 11 Artillery and 2 Workers are sent north in 2 Transports and 2 Galleons escorted by 2 Destroyers (why didn't I upgrade the Galleons before the oil ran out???).

1400 AD - The Netherlands are attacking Dyrrachium with a number of Knighs. Our Infantry easily kill them. Meanwhile, our invasion force lands next to Delft...

1405 AD - We capture Delft! And better yet: Carthage do not declare war! Their MPP must have ended the same turn. We also send Artillery and Infantry towards Leiden, north or Dyrrachium.

1425 AD - We take Leiden! Our core cities are now building Marines.

1430 AD - We now have 14 Artillery and 13 Infantry positioned outside Amsterdam, and a Destroyer blocking Amsterdam's port.

1435 AD - We capture the Dutch capital of Amsterdam!

1440 AD - WE DISCOVER ELECTRONICS AND ENTER THE MODERN TIMES! Our free tech is Computers.

http://www.ehnstrom.se/roland/diverse/COTM03_End_IA.jpg

-- Roland

flexo

Aug 16, 2004, 04:39 AM

Still alive, no coal, Just looking and looking at that lone mountain island with all its coal. I had crushed India previously. We made it thru the industrial phase, I built the Hoover. Carthage kept on crushing all that stood in their way. Eventually half way into the modern ear, I had finally caught up it felt like. I was hoping to launch myself into space before the fascists came for me. But that was not to be. Carthage scored a massive cultural victory over us. So for the second game in a row I have been defeated by the AI. I probably only lived this long because of the second settler to start with.

jazz_man

Aug 16, 2004, 07:22 AM

humpf! I had mustered a decent bunch of tanks for Persia when the Indians went to space .. wanted another 4-5 turns & the modern age before the war.

My industrial age was very much about defence and catching up in techs.

Thx for advice to not pursue the palace jump! my core cities became very productive with railroads and would probably have suffered if I had done that.

As it turned out I managed to get the best of the dutch, coal, oil and iron. My ally Persia got a bit to though they preferred to raze cities a lot. I quickly squirted out settlers to follow their trail! The Ottomans got Rotterdam.

The resources gave me ability to quickly build railroads and later on get valuable trades - steam was my first technology. Took the opportunity to kick out the Ottomans from Rotterdam while they were at war with India, this unfortunately brought the wraith of Carthage on me despite heavy bribing.

My troops valiantly survived the onslaught with newly discovered infantry (fortunately had rubber!). Carthage had tanks, bombers, destroyers etc.. I lost only one town! .. still no leaders :(

Science? Initially my approach was to buy all the technologies but the others were so stubborn for nationalism that I switched to the research-as-much-as-possible-mode. (Did never get nationalism!)

When I got the ability to do tanks I built as much as I could for a while, shipping them to "Holland". Never got to use them..

In the attached pictures you can see how the dutch demise made a satisfying dent in the power graph. I was hoping for the same vs Persia just as India decided to end this nightmare..

Highlight?

Snatching Rotterdam of the ottomans perhaps - had a nice stack of artillery and loved to feed a pile of cavalry on to take it in one go despite good infantry units defending.

Low mark?

loosing Heracleia next to my capital in a culture flip to India. Also lost another big place on the holland peninsula closest to home the last turn to Carthage in culture warfare! seeing replay and realizing India had ~3 times as many cities as me at 5 towns around 1000bc :eek:

Score? 2222 firaxis points, 1150 jason(?)

cheers,
john

icko

Aug 16, 2004, 08:14 AM

Icko Open Class

Well, this was my first submitted game of the month, and I'm proud of it!
It was also my first demigod game AND the first one where I didn't reload AND my first spaceship win.
Quite a lot of firsts :cool:

Ancient Times
I settled SW of the starting position, getting (luckily) the game and the cattle in the city. However, it was a while before I could get a regular settler/warrior factory going (what with barbarians killing my workers, and me fussing up the pop management), as a result I made much fewer towns that I ought to have made.
I explored quite a bit with my curraghs and was trade leader for quite a while, getting the tech for money and redestributing them around as I saw fit. I got to philosophy first, but I didn't trust the AI to be slow enough to let me get COL first, so I went straight to Phil and got COL as gift (not the best value, but I'm happy to have pulled it through in demi-god difficulty!)

Then I seriously blundered: in a moment of day-dreaming I traded the elephants to the indian (who was already a cultural and military powerhouse at the time). I prayed that my advanced build of the ToZ was enough, but the veggie-curry-lover beat me to it anyway. DOH!! :wallbash: that was dumb on my part.

Anyway, I swallowed hard, and got on with it. I fortified some units in Caesarea, on the southern bottleneck, to hold against the (inevitably coming) indian horde. However it was going to take a few centuries for that to happen.

Middle Ages
Behaving like Gandhi's best friend, we exchanged techs, luxuries, money and cities (that is to say: he got lux, money and flipped one of my towns, and I bought some techs)
I got into repubblic, and tried to bring home at least the Templars, and feel more safe, but this too was not to be: guess who made it? Yes, that's right, our purple friend.
As a cascade, at least I got the Sistine Chapel.
At this point I was desperately trying to catch up with his monstrous culture (5 times my own, and going stronger) to avoid a chain reaction of flips.
But I did flip to me a Dutch hamlet in the north of the starting continent. :rolleyes:
Sometime in this age the viking civilization came to a brutal end, at the hands of Carthage.
Late in the age I was starting to fall behind in tech, and was closed in our limited land. So what do I do now, I was wondering. So solve the empasse, I bought the last techs for the new age and got ...

Industrial Age
Steam Power as my free tech, only to see I had no coal. (well, discounting the mean touch of the coal mountain isle right on my doorstep, but unusable)
The dutch had 2 coals, but fortunately they were slightly behind in techs. I could either gift them to the industrial and buy their resource or invade them and take it. Well, guess what?, I didn't have my golden age yet, and was unlikely to get it from wonders, so this was a perfect opportunity!
I loaded my only 4 dromons with cavalries and pikes, and invaded (after declaring war) Holland. So now I had a golden age right in time to swamp them with cavalries (dromon vs. caravel is very much fun!)
In this occasion I had the pleasure of discovering the power of artillery barrage: 10+ cannons blowing to pieces the swiss pikes, and opening the way for my Cavalries, was a sight to behold!
At this point I also got 2 great leaders (-> cav army) and quickly uprooted them from their land. I made peace in exchange for their last 2 towns, but the Carthaginias wouldn't listen to their pleads of mercy and eradicated them.

Was just starting to enjoy the new peaceful era, when Persia, not content with having Carthage and India and Ottomans as enemies, declared war on me. Well, too bad! For them. I loaded my armies onto galleons and rapidly took their 2 luxuries' cities. At this point I was well behind in tech, and the prices that the India/Ottomans duopolists put were simply outrageous. So I had to research Refinery and Replacable parts by myself, only to discover that I had oil but no rubber. Fortunately (??!!??) India and Carthage had 2 each, so I could buy it, and for a pretty penny too!
Anyway, my arty and cavs were enough to crush the besieged persians, and slowly but steadily they were eradicated.

Buying techs I made to Motorized Transport just in time: India decided that it had too many idle troops and invaded me without declaring.
Immediately I bought alliances with all the remaining powers, and started praying. Everybody was more powerful than me.
In a couple of turns my stronghold in the south was barely hanging on, completely besieged.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/icko_COTM03_india_attack.JPG

For some reason they wouldn't attack en masse Caesarea (well, they did try a couple of times, but were discouraged by my arty and strenuous defence)
That hill on the bottleneck was my saving defence: it meant that attacking tanks would stop there, where my artillery could redline them, and my tanks would finish the job; the momentum of the indian invasion was interrupted! :twitch:

Up in the north I was winning the colonial battle for the territory of the civ_formerly_known_as_Persia, but my Cavalry army was protonized by carpet bombing from the Indians. Wow, that was a shock! Anyway,I resolved the northern troubles, and shipped everything I got down to the defence of the homeland.

Modern Age
I was nearly getting hope when 2 things happened: the Indians finished the U.N and they also got some Mech Infantry. And I was still in the Ind Age. So I re-bought alliances (beacuse the vile traitors had cut them short) and set on spying my way to the modern age.
For some reason my allies wouldn't even consider payments in gpt, even though I had been careful not to break any deal before. In fact I had RoP and alliances and trades with them and they were polite or gracious, but they wouldn't give me credit: only cash payments. So it was cheaper to steal from the indians (I mean: we are at war anyway!)
And the AI doesn't use mech infantry for attack, not routinely anyway (it did from time to time). Then I discovered that the only source of oil for the indian was on an island (on the edge of the minimap), and I bombed it to oblivion. No more tanks! No more bombers! Just TOW and marines, which were easily despatched with artillery. And so my reconquista began! :lol:
I had to be careful, because their culture was an order of magnitude bigger than mine, but erasing the useless and holding with massive numbers the neccessary, I managed to slowly conquer the whole continent. Delhi flipped back once, but I saw that coming (thanks, Dianthus), and had all but one of my units outside waiting for it. [And it was good too, because it was a shortcut to starvation of the troublesome city]
I gave India peace in exchange of all its cities: the war weariness was really troubling me, the indians were kicked out of the continent, I now owned all the major wonders (Smith, Hoover, Coperincus, Pyramids) and the ottomans had started their space ship.

Another shiver went down my spine: what to do? Attacking? I would be torn to pieces: even after the corroborating war with the indians I was still "weak compared to them", plus they already had nukes.
So let's race to the space!
I had stolen tech parity from the indians, and I now turned on my own research, and my space docks went to work full throttle.
Plus I built a few nukes, just in case it came down to the last SS-piece.
I also had an ace in my sleeve: a great leader was saved for the most expensive part (in Synthetic Fibers).

So I got to Robotics fiirst, stole Synth Fibers from the Ottomans (safely) and completed the last 2 pieces simultaneously on the next turn: 1762.
Victory!!! [dance]

As a little personal satisfaction, on the last turn I declared war on the last indian city and blasted it away with an army of modern armours: the darned Indians didn't see the new era of mankind exploring space! :evil:

Firaxis Score: 4631
Jason Score: 5054

Here is a minimap of the world at the start of the Centauri Age:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/icko_COTM03_final.JPG

Conclusions
Boy! this game was a cliffhanger for me right until the end!
I was middle score in the ancient age, but then I was a bottom feeder for most or all of the middleage, industrial and some modern times!
Always the weakest in power and cuture. (well, not literally, but much weaker than the superpowers: India, Ottomans and Carthage)
On the brink of losing: conquered by the Indians by arms or culture (if they hadn't attacked me, I would have to do it, because they were going for the 100k), then UN in hostile hands, then another cliffhanger with the space race.
Right until 10 turn to the end I wasn't sure I could pull this through!
Thank you, Ainwood!!!
I usually lose interest when I realized I am solidly on top, and that is why I seldom finish a game or I feel frustrated by the rng and reload an unfair (to me ;) ) combat result, but this time I hanged on and completed the game fair and square, and I won!!!!

Psychonaut777

Aug 16, 2004, 09:53 AM

Wow very nicely played. Good job especially at the end.

bed_head7

Aug 18, 2004, 12:51 AM

Stopped keeping a log when I got frustrated with the game, but I was at war at some point or another with everyone but Persia. Got some bad luck with a misclick on a Russian demand that ended with me at war with the Ottomans, Indians, and Russians. I had recently claimed coal from the Dutch when this happened, and quickly lost the coal as well as saltpeter and horses. But I maintained territorial integrity at home, and I guess that was important, because I have managed to survive still and am currently losing the space race.

Edit: I am about to turn in my save. I lost, with nine parts built. I couldn't get robotics for anything and was really worried. If I had waited a few turns I could have bought it. I think I might have actually won if I had been a bit patient, since I had three ICBM prebuilds going depending on when I got robotics. But instead I tried to steal it carefully once and then immediately, and ended up at war with the Indians and Ottomans. I am proud to say that I never lost a city, lost two units, and killed over a dozen Indian units. And then lost by Space Race. I just wish I could figure out where my rep got ruined, because I don't remember breaking any deals or having a deal broken by someone going to war, but no one would take gpt from me.

Second edit: Just in case you didn't believe me. I think someone got lower than me, unfortunately, so I won't get any sort of award.

Game: COTM 03
Date submitted: 2004-08-18
Reference number: 4700
Your name: bed_head7
Your email:
Software Version: C3C 1.22f for Windows
Entry class: open
Game status: Spaceship Loss to Ottomans
Game date: 1784 AD
Firaxis score: 1120
Jason score: 581
Time played: 39:02:18
Submitted save: Theodora of the Byzantines, 1784 AD.SAV
Renamed file: bed_head7_COTM003_C3C122_01.SAV

Kimmy Da Brit

Aug 18, 2004, 04:26 PM

Having been a lurker for many years. Playing for even longer - this is my first post !

Firstly, I'd like to thank the many members who's posts I have gleemed so much from in the past. Hopefully this mini post of mine may serve as a lesson to others.

" Having survived well upto the Modern Age, timing my (UN) pre-build to be ready upon entry into Modern Era. I trade off my free tech (Rocketry) to aquire Fission, set to build UN next turn and then go about 'sucking up to the AI' by gifting them missing techs and making monetary donations."

Surprise surprise - I lost by a Diplo defeat in 1365.

In my haste to finish, I failed to set up ROP's, and withheld Fission (thinking someone would beat me to the UN - duh !). (Playing from the last autosave, correctly, I would have scored 4100 MORE points than I did!)

Moral: Take as much time with your LAST move as you do for your FIRST !

chunkymonkey

Aug 19, 2004, 06:17 AM

start off by settling a city on the decimated carthagininan continent next to the bunch of gems. immediately receive happiness boost and trading partners – and hence research boost. great! I am still tech leader…

then a few turns later, the city deposes to India. my cities riot, I lose my trading partners get bad rep hit, and research takes a dive. I believe this is where I realised I would need to work hard for a win.

then, stupid mistake of the century. Due to the realisation that the only way I am going to win is to survive until the end of the game and get a cheeky space win or hopefully everyone can be my friend and I can pinch the UN with a pre-build, I sign a MPP with India…

.
.
.
.

I think there should be a shoot yourself in the foot award.

India then proceedes to declare war on Persia and the Dutch.
And I realise I still have muskets.
The Persians land rifles on my shore. My cavalry and cannons have a hard time picking them off due to a run of bad RNG but I survive for another day.
The dutch capture all my cities on their continent with a hideous amount of cavalry – where did they get saltpetre from?

Then I scream, I research replaceble parts one turn later to realise the rubber is hiding under one of my recently lost cities. Great. I have no rubber, and the coal I have is part of a dodgy deal with the Indians which they will probably want no part of once I cancel the MPP. Which I do, as soon as it expires. I buy peace with Persia and the Dutch.

OK. I had to assess my options. I was 4th or 5th (can’t remember) on the Histograph, India was way ahead of anyone. India had 50% more culture than anyone (in fact it might be tricky keeping them from a 100K win). I definitely was not going to win a domination victory at this late stage. India is ahead of me by about 4 techs. I’ll have trouble getting the required techs in the space race. So the UN it had to be.

Luckily I managed to build the ToE ahead of India :eek: , I was relieved. I pinched Atomics and Electronics and sold them for stupid money to the other fools. Persia, the Ottomans and the Dutch were going to become my lapdogs tech and money wise for the rest of the game.

Into the Modern Ages in 1650AD, a couple of techs after India. However my palace pre-build on the UN fails by 3 turns. Geez, I hate the 80% discount the AI gets. India builds the UN, but does not hold the vote. This is wise, since the two largest nations are India and the Dutch. I think everyone prefers the dutch.

OK, space race then!
I used the trick of knowing what techs Ottomans, Persia, and the Dutch were researching and researched the others. At one point I was just giving techs to the others so they could catch up and research something for me. This way I managed to stay one or two techs behind India. I was being given the Uranium, aluminium and rubber necessary for my SS parts by the Dutch and Persians in exchange for techs. I had 5 or 6 parts built and only needed SuperConductor and Robotics to have all necessary resources. I set my most productive towns on pre-build nukes. :nuke:

But it was futile, whilst I, with a little help from my friends could research a tech every 6 or 7 turns, I swear India was researching every 4 turns. :( They soon had all necessary resources. OK. I was roughly 15 turns from launch. This called for drastic measures. I had a double vodka, then planted a spy in Delhi :crazyeye: . It worked.

It worked?! :D

I investigated Delhi and realised they had 3 turns to build their last SS part. I tried to steal the remaining two techs I needed, but obviously… Gandhi was not best pleased. I then had a SoD of roughly 30 ModArmors and 20 MechInf turn up at the door of my chokepoint city. :lol:

This is when I conceded. And did something I have never done in any game, let alone a GOTM. I used my nukes.

and so did they… :nuke: :nuke: :nuke:

I think I may have stalled their launch date by a couple of turns, but it didn’t matter. I lost the space race in 1848AD. India also asked for peace just beforehand, I’m not sure why, they could have destroyed me in two or three turns.

I’m sure I saw in the last turn a Dutch ICBM attacking Delhi. That was quite amusing.

Firaxis – 1749

Oh well, this was a DemiGod (OhMyGod) game so I feel proud to have been roughly 10 turns away from victory.

Cheers for a challenging game guys.

LeSphinx

Aug 19, 2004, 07:11 AM

I'm coming back from holidays.
I started COTM3 few days ago and I will not have to time to finish it!
So I will not submit my game.

It was the first time in played on Demigod level with C3C.
As there were not very much land to expand in the starting continent, I decided to try the T-hawk strategy explained in the war academy and go for a Cultural 20K as I never win at it.
I founded Constantinople near the cattle by moving one step North West from the starting location. I build 2 warriors and a carracks and then created a settler in order to found the Cultural 20K cities!
Andriapole was founded and start immediately the production for the Colossus.
I succeed and the Colossus was built in 1625BC. Then, the Temple was built in 1400BC.
Then, I start to pre-buid the Great Library as I was first at the tech race at this age.
I discovered Philosophy in first and had Literacy as a free tech.
I succeed in the Great Library race as I never sold this precious tech. I sold the over ones except this one! THe Great Library was mine in 530BC. I build then the library.
The Golden age allows me to boost for the Statue of Zeus and the Statue of Zeus was built in 190BC.
I still was in Despostism and went in republic. I was still first in the tech race. With the Feudilism free from the scientific civ Byzantines.

The bad point is I had only 5 cities and only 3 cities for the most of the ancient age!

Then, I do not know what happens but it became more and more difficult to get the tech first. The Great Library gaves me all the tech the others had but I was not able to discovered the tech in first in order to sell them....
I lose the race for the Sistime Chapel and all the others precious wonders: JS Bach, Copernicus...
Then, I decided to stop because I will not have the time to complete the game before the 31 of August! And I want to submit the GOTM34 instead!

I learn a lot from my game:
- Cultural 20k is a challenge I like as I like builing the maximum wonders I can
- Cultural 20K game with a lot of cities is a good solution as you can also built an armies in order to make war and capture more cities in order to keep the leardership in the tech race
- It's possible to complete 3 anciens wonders with a golden age

LeSphinx

Sandman2003

Aug 19, 2004, 08:14 PM

Open

Middle Ages (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2103022&postcount=31)
I have only beaten demigod once, before this COTM, and unfortunately that situation has not changed afterwards! :) I trace the problem back primarily to my campaign against India in the early MA. If I had been clever on that campaign, and gone for the Indian fur resource, rather than the capital, I would have been in a much better position with the early added lux, and the powerhouse of India would have been that much weaker. Anyway, here is what happened:

We entered the IA in 1090AD. I thought that I engineered getting medicine as my free tech, but it was just good luck, and trading it enabled me to head for Sci Method.

Theory Of Evolution Gambit
After starting the MAs in the tech lead, and falling to sixth place by the end of the MA, I knew I needed every tech boost I could get to stay in this game, hence the common attempt at ToE. I did not have Industrialisation after the initial trading, and from past attempts at ToE that have failed, I have realised that with a palace pre-build leaving some considerable build still required on ToE, it is essential to have a super productive city with the aid of a factory and a coal plant to succeed at this. So I desperately needed Industrialisation.

Reputation
This leads me to my other big problem in the game. Somehow I must have destroyed my rep, and I really can not figure out how. The worst that I did in this game, I think, was to go to war when the active trade screen showed peace treaty, but no turns remaining on it. I thought that that was ok, else I could have waited one more turn. Anyway I am off to the academy to research reputation articles!

The reason this really hurt was because at the start of the IA, I had 331gpt to trade with. I am sure I could have brought Industrialisation, even at monopoly prices, and that would have been enough to jump bact to tech parity, and probably regain all my spent gold!

Instead I had to slow down Scientific Methid research so I could save up my gold to buy Industrialisation outright, which I finally did in 1190AD (from India). Then of course I rushed a factory and a coal plant in my best city (Adrianopole), and worker joined it ot the max. As we rushed towards Scientific Method, we were pre-building (palace). In 1220AD we were beaten to Scientific Method. To be fair the AI had given me a chance - they researched a bunch of other stuff first. They gave me another chance, as well by not starting on ToE immediately. However, in 1295AD the whole plan went belly up when the accursed Indians beat me to it by only 4 turns!

Coal
We, of course, don't have any, and see Ainwood's little joke with the tantalisingly close, yet unattainable coal on a single tile mountain! Anyway the Dutch had two sources, but wanted outrageous prices for it, so I decide to take it by force. I declared on them in 1190AD, and quickly take the Hague, and its source of coal. I don't have the fire power to really go after the Dutch, especially with my priorities on ToE at this time, so I simply repel their attackers and hold on. Reinforcements are used to grab one more city, but that is it. In 1280AD, we decide to end the hostilities, and trade steam to the Dutch for Sanitation and small change.

In 1315AD, my Dutch gains, along with a bunch of units go poof in a flip that was supposed to be very low chance of happening. I then have to trade with the Dutch for coal, and so I quickly finish my railroading effort!

World War
In 1290AD, the Persians Dow on us, and attack with bombers. We are a long way off flight. We respond by MPP India and Carthage. Persia brings the Ottomans in on their side, and pretty much the rest of the game is spent at war with these two great divisions. I think our side is slightly stronger, as I am able to run a defensive war while I try to catch up in tech. Very little territory changes hands, probably due to the relatively ineffectual AI seaborne assaults!

Tech Race
In 1365AD we get our next big trade opportunity as we learn Atomic Theory first. Trading yields the corporation, replaceable parts, steel, refining and combustion. And here's the thing, part of the trading involved a peace treaty with the Ottomans. They accepted my credit on this trade (gpt), but no one else would! Strange! I should have paid more head to this fact, and used it later on!

Persia, Ottos, India and Carthage were all flight and Mass Production ahead. But now in Peace, the Ottoman's will not take gpt. Also I note that we do not have rubber. (of course) But look the Indians do, and if we had gone after the furs early on, it would now have been ours!
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/SMCOTOM03_1490AD.jpg
I don't even contemplate attacking Indian forces. Having lost a bunch of cavs in the Dutch flip, I had a depleted force of rifles, cavs and very few cannons, up against a lot of Infantry, and bombers.

I end up having to research to the end of the IA, finishing flight last in 1640AD. There was one opportunity to trade at the end, but that would have meant I could not go to the big picture and try to manipulate the free tech result. As it turned out, on this occassion, it really didn't help at all. It would have been better to get there faster. I could not trade for any other first tier techs, without my free tech, and as I discovered, I could not actually pick what I wanted after all. I chose ecology, but got computers! On trading I secured rocketry.

The UN
In 1580AD, India built the UN in Delhi (tantalisingly close, but realistically out of reach due to massive tech inferiority, and much weaker troops). The vote is held, and it is India versus Ottomans. I abstain, and the vote is inconclusive. No further votes take place.

Second Dutch War
I soon realise that my tiny lands are unable to generate the necessary commerce to research modern age techs first in a reasonable time, so I need more land! The Dutch still only have infantry, and I have tanks. In 1715AD we declare on the Dutch. In 1720AD, a Dutch cavalry destroys a fortified mech with out taking a hit!!!! But that is the only good point in this war for the Dutch. My tanks rip through them. I have to block Carthaginian units from advancing from the south, as I want the Dutch lands for myself. In 1758AD the entire Dutch mainland is mine. The Dutch only have their capital on an island shared with the Indians, who are also at war with them. I hope that the Indians finish off the Dutch, but they never do.

Before
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/SMCOTOM03_1715AD.jpg
After
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/SMCOTOM03_1760AD.jpg

Stealing Tech
We decide to lend our democratic hand at stealing to catch up. We carefully steal ecology off the Persians in 1740AD. But this is the one and only time our stealing works in this game. In 1762AD, we see that our enemy the Persians have synthetic fibres, but our careful steal fails, and we are back at war. The Persians have no rubber, so I don't mind. In 1770AD we attack the Persian mainland, however the Persians turn up with modern armour, so they are getting rubber from somewhere. The only sources are the Indians or the Carthaginians. The Indians accept a trade embargo against the Persians. The Carthaginians do not! However, we are able to get the Carthaginians in on the war in an MA against Persia and suddenly, Carthage has a spare rubber. No more modern armour or new mech infantry to face from Persia!

Tanks and artillery, versus mech infantry and TOW make slow progress, but we do eventually pick up three Persian cities. And, we are close to securing a second lux source. Yes, I fought the Dutch, and then the Persians as a democracy with only one lux source. The happiness management was a true nightmare, but it is possible to do! One of the cities flipped, with only one unit in it, and we were able to immediately take it back. In 1788AD we got our first leader of the game. In 1790AD we failed to steal synthetic fibres carefully for the second time, but also got our second leader.

In 1794AD, India, who we never placed a spy on, lauched and we lost! 1776 Firaxis points became 921 Jason points. I don't think we were ever in a position to stop India at this point, even if we had rushed all our troops home and made a last desperate attack on Delhi!

An enjoyable, but tough game!

I think my three key areas to improve on are:
1) Build more workers
2) Target early acquisition of luxes. Over a period of time it makes a huge difference to your position.
3) Understand reputation better.

Roland Ehnström

Aug 20, 2004, 04:27 AM

Well, no one has answered my question above, so I'm posting my log of the modern times, modified not to mention or show any modern age resources.

Ancient Times (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2071676&postcount=24)

Middle Ages (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2085095&postcount=2)

Industrial Age (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2099722&postcount=7)

*** Modern Times ***

1450 AD - We capture The Hague.

1460 AD - We capture Rotterdam and Leiden.

1465 AD - We capture Middelburg.

1470 AD - Persia teaches us Rocketry.

1475 AD - Rotterdam flips back to the Dutch. We take Utrecht.

1480 AD - During an attack on Groningen we get our first Military Great Leader: Justinian.

1485 AD - We re-take Rotterdam.

1490 AD - We capture Groningen.

1495 AD - We can finally use the source of Oil on the formerly Dutch land. Justinian builds an Army.

1500 AD - We capture Eindhoven. Adrianople completes our first Tank, which joins Justinian's Army.

1515 AD - Man, The Dutch somehow signs a MPP with Carthage, and Carthage declare war on us! Meanwhile, we take Holwerd from the Dutch.

1530 AD - We discover Fission. We capture Haarlem.

1540 AD - We capture Maastricht.

1545 AD - Our Army captures Den Helder.

1550 AD - We destroy Harlingen in an Amphibious attack - my first ever as far as I can remember.

1560 AD - Vidin founded.

1565 AD - We destroy Breda and the Dutch are history! We start a revolution.

1570 AD - The Ottomans complete the United Nations, but there is no election.

1590 AD - After the revolution I emerge as the chairman of the Communist party.

1625 AD - The Ottomans are now getting awfully close to a cultural victory. According to my calculations, they will get a 100k Culture win in about 30 turns. I need to make a decition: Either I attack India, and grab some land to up my score before the Ottomans get their cultural win, or I attack the Ottomans, and hope for the impossible: That I can somehow stop them from winning. Well, the latter option sounds like more fun, so I'll go with that one. :)

1645 AD - The Persians take the last of the Viking towns.

1700 AD - 8 Transporters escorted by 3 Destroyers are carrying 20 Modern Armor, 9 Tanks in three Armies, 18 Artillery and 4 Mech Infantry to a certain death on the Ottoman beaches...

1715 AD - The invasion-force lands outside Edrine, a 30 pop metropolis and home of the United Nations.

http://www.ehnstrom.se/roland/diverse/COTM03_D-Day.jpg

1725 AD - Oh My God, we have destroyed Edrine! Our armies are moving west towards Istanbul...

1735 AD - All roads and railroads around Istanbul are destroyed.

1740 AD - We lose one of our Tank Armies to an enemy counter-attack. A second wave of 16 Modern Armor, out of which 4 are in an Army, and 6 Mech Infantry is sent out to help the invasion force.

1750 AD - We raze Konya!

1752 AD - Ottoman submarines manage to sink one of our Transporters, carrying our glorious Modern Armor Army. :(

1754 AD - We manage to raze Istanbul, the Ottoman capitol, and with it a number of wonders as well as the Ottoman Space Ship! However we are now running out of Armor, so we have to make peace.

http://www.ehnstrom.se/roland/diverse/COTM03_Istanbul_razed.jpg

1774 AD - The Ottoman's total culture reaches 100,000, but they do not win. I am baffled. Turning to the forum answers the question: A civ needs 100,000 culture AND at least twice the culture of any rivaling civ, to win a cultural victory. Would have been nice if the civilopedia said so! Anyway, the histograph reveals that India and Carthage both have around 60,000 culture. Better yet, after our attack on the Ottoman core, their culture is now growing faster than the Ottoman's. For now it looks like the threat of losing on culture is off. Our greatest threat now is the Persians, who are suddenly ahead in science (when did that happen?!?), and have already built 5 out of 10 parts for their Space Ship. We have a "strong" military compared to the Persians, so we gather our resources to give them hell...

1786 AD - Our units land in Persia. Our two Tank/Mech Infantry Armies are on a mission to destroy the roads to the important Persian resources. The two Modern Armor Armies are, for now, serving as protection to 16 Artillery outside Sardis on the Persian east coast.

1788 AD - We capture Sardis! 25 Modern Armor, 6 Mech Infantry and some more Artillery arrive in Sardis in a second wave. We now have almost 70 units on Persian soil.

http://www.ehnstrom.se/roland/diverse/COTM03_invading_Persia.jpg

1790 AD - The Persians launch a major counter-attack, but do not manage to capture our Artillery outside Sardis. Our Tank armies have completed their mission of destroying the roads to the Persian resources. We get everyone else to ally themselves with us against the Persians, so that no one can trade them resources.

1794 AD - We capture Arbela.

1796 AD - We capture Tyre.

1798 AD - It looks like the Ottomans will win after all: They have completed 7 out of 10 parts for their Space Ship, only 24 turns after we destroyed their first Space Ship. :(

1800 AD - We capture Gordium. Ottomans build their 8th Space Ship part.

1804 AD - We capture Persepolis, and have destroyed the Persian Space Ship!

1808 AD - The Ottomans have built their 9th Space Ship Part... Our attempt to plant a Spy in Moscow (now the Ottoman capital) is a miserable failure: The Ottomans declare war!

1810 AD - We capture Antioch and Pasargadae, with it's famous Dyes. We also take the formerly Persian town of Sidon from the Ottomans. We make peace with the Persians for Miniaturization. A second feeble attempt to plant a Spy in Moscow fails.

1812 AD - The Ottomans drop a Nuclear Bomb on Ohrid and then THEY COMPLETE THEIR SPACE SHIP - WE HAVE LOST!

So close, but yet so far...

Final Firaxis score: 2563 (third in the game behind the Ottomans and Carthage, but ahead of India who were the leaders in the Middle Ages).

Jason score: 1329.

Time spent: 25 hours, 36 minutes, 25 seconds.

http://www.ehnstrom.se/roland/diverse/COTM03_final_map.jpg

-- Roland

Lmtoops

Aug 20, 2004, 10:51 AM

Roland,
Good game and good write-up.

Your ending sounded much the same as mine (except yours was a few decades earlier). I tried to steal a modern tech from Otto, but got caught. Which was no big deal since Otto was very close to launching. In 2-turns, he unleashed a couple of nukes, which pissed the rest of the world. One turn later, he launched and all was history.

MiniMe

Aug 21, 2004, 04:20 AM

Situation at start of Industrial Era (800AD) is that Indians are under my rule. In regards to tech we are behind, but not hopelessly behind. World leader is Carthage, and I plan to teach them a lesson. I am building up cav armies to attack their capital.

1000AD - The world is thrown into chaos and darkness. MPPs have been formed with Netherlands, Ottomans, Scandinavian and Russia, and we attack Carthage. Carthage formed an alliance with the Persians, so we are now at war with them too. May the force be with us in our quest for the greater good. We discovered Electricity and are now going for Theory of Evolution.

1100AD - Two Carthaginian cities razed so far. This includes Carthage, and I guess about half the wonders of this world.

1160AD - All in all 4 Carthaginian cities have been razed, but at a cost. My three Cavalry armies all perished against feisty riflemen eager to to defend the empire of darkness. Strangely enough my Ancient Cavalry army made it so far. Hitpoints seems to be king. I have secured new sources of silks. I have my eyes set on their new capital that would give me gems.
I finished Theory of Evolution and took Atomic Theory and Electronics. Hoover Dam started. Scientific Methods traded to Russians for 260 gpt!

1220AD - Peace with Persians after taking their city on Dutch island. Traded Atomic Theory for Replaceable Parts and Sanitiation + gpt.

1230AD - Sixth Military Leader. Use him to build Military Academy.

1265AD - Peace with Carthage, they have now lost their home island and are no longer a threat. The race to Tanks has started. I plan a new tank offensive on whoever I feel as the biggest threat. Probably the Persians. At last I feel I start to lag behind because in Monarchy. I start switch to Republic (6 turns). I trade Atomic Theory to get Steel from Persians. They have Refining, but I dont feel like giving up Electronics for it just yet.

1295AD - I recover from Anarchy and I trade Electronics to the Russians for Refining and 100gpt. I discover I am being refused oil by a Viking city to the north of my continent. Hmmm ... I settle just next to it to grab the oil.

1300AD - My city on the Dutch continent has Rubber. So they sneak attack. But I saw it coming and got a Passage agreement just before. Guess their rep is all but history now. Just like mine :(

1315AD - Seventh Military Leader. Building an army in newly taken Eindhoven.
1325AD - Eigth Military Leader. Building an army in Eindhoven.
1340AD - Ninth Military Leader. Building an army in Ghulaman.
These will soon be filled with tanks.

1400AD - Discover Motorized Transportation. I break all my principles and sell it immediately to the Russians for the nice little sum of 343 GPT. I just couldnt resist. The russians are my little pet nation, I almost pity them. So much money and so few resources. A miracle the Ottomans didnt consume them a long time ago. Well, the risk is they sell tank tech to the Persians who are my next target. But who cares, it will just delay their demise.

1430AD - We discover Flight and enter Modern Age. We get Ecology as free tech. We research Fission next to build UN. Plan is to wipe out Persians, then Netherlands and finally Ottomans and Russians. Hopefully none will get to Nukes before that. I am at par in tech.

Really fun game so far. I have a good feeling about Modern Era. I had some breathtaking moments when going after Carthage. Seeing your cav armies fall one after the other against Infantry is a trying experience. Supporting cannons made up for and I had just enough forces to throw them out of their island.

Roland Ehnström

Aug 21, 2004, 07:34 AM

Roland, Good game and good write-up.

Thank You! :king:

-- Roland

EsatP

Aug 21, 2004, 11:04 AM

Jansku

Aug 21, 2004, 01:56 PM

The year is 1826. A spaceship has just been launched, with the Byzantines' flag waving on top of it.

Firaxis score: 4030
Jason score: 3992

The highlights briefly:

Ancient Times

This is how far the Byzantines got before confronting the Indians:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/after_cities_founded.jpg

The Indians declared war and took Sardica. I started building horsemen, and with the help of the Indians (ab. 100gpt for engineering), managed to gather 32 knights at the choke point after learning chivalry.

Middle Ages

I attacked and captured 3 cities, including Delhi. The war elephants were too tough (and too numerous) and my knights were slaughtered. After Delhi had flipped twice and I was running out of knights, I decided to raze it and make peace, despite that it had four great wonders :cry:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/delhi_wonders.jpg

After the war I quickly switched to Republic. I was lucky to get 4 techs from the great library, because I had been left behind in tech when I stayed in despotism for maybe too long. What's more, I had also totally forgotten to trade lux with others civs, or at least raise my lux slider when war weariness started to rise :blush:

Industrial Age

I tried to research military tradition as quickly as possible, but the Indians (who had been the top civ before I had attacked them) had already gotten riflemen. I attacked with 40 cavalry and took 6 cities, but then they got infantry and my attack was stopped again. This is the situation before my cavalry attack:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/before_cavalry_attack.jpg

I got coal by bribing the Netherlands into industrial age and exchanging a tech for coal. Built lots of workers to finish the rail network in 20 turns.

My plan was to build artillery&cavalry to defeat the Indians or to attack the Netherlands. But it was too late: the Netherlands was quickly crushed by the other civs and the global research went too fast and I had to postpone the war to the tank-era.

Modern Times

When I researched motorized transportation, I managed to trade myself into modern times, and I had the tech lead together with Persia :). Carthage and Ottomans were the strongest civs, Persia being third. I researched computers (I always do that when I enter modern times - the research labs pay off very quickly) and soon I got synthetic fibers.

There was aluminum in India close to my border, so I took one city with ordinary tanks and then upgraded them to modern armor. The weakened India only had TOW infantry and cavalry.

Immediately after India was conquered, I transported the armors to Ottomans (former Russia), as they didn't have mech infantry just yet. They got crushed, and there were three civs left: Byzantines, Carthage and Persia. Carthage and Byzantine were equally powerful, Persia lagging a bit behind. The three civs were almost equal in tech, with Byzantine and Persia having a slight lead.

My plan was to maintain peace and to build the spaceship, while Carthage and Persia were fighting, and it worked out :king:. Just in case the others would reach the last spaceship tech (robotics), I had 30 modern armors near the Carthage's only aluminum resource and had a few ICBMs ready to blow up all the aluminum resources on the map :D

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/jansku_histograph.jpg

I noticed that in the final part of the game, Carthage had drafted lots of people from its core cities, during the war against Persia. Why?? Maybe because its main continent was connected to the Scandinavian peninsula, and it was trying to bring as many troops to the border as possible..
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/carthage_drafted.jpg

FrankTheMan

Aug 22, 2004, 04:15 PM

Well, this has certainly been both the most difficult (up to now) and therefor on of the most challenging GOTMs I've participated in!

During the AA I could get by technologywise through early exploring and trading, but I completely lost the tech race afterwards. Certainly something I have to improve on. At a certain point I decided I was so far behind, I could only catch up through the GL. Of course, this was inconveniantly built by the Russians in Moscow....

At that point I progressed in science just up to the point that I could only study Education, after which I set 90 percent to income and 10 percent to happiness to get some WLTK days going. It was a time of short wars with India (and Netherlands at some time). I really had to resist demanding Education in peace deals, since I easily could have gotten it. I was falling further behind rapidly.

With some carefully crafted alliances I could slowly cut through the Indian mainland all the way to the west, jumping my capital to the middle of the Indian subcontinent to create a very good core.

After building first infrastructure and then military, I was ready to try to snatch Moscow out of the Russian hands. However, they had a MP treaty with mighty Carthage, who in turn were MP'ed with Persia and Netherlands....

Time for some inelagant moves. I bought a MP with Carthage myself and then got Cathy furious by some ridiculous demands. Afterwards, I told her to get her guerrilla's (who had been helping me to cut through the Indians) off my lands. As I had hoped she declared, which led to declaration by Carthage on Russia!

I also got the Ottomans to join and launched my dromons loaded with cavalry and cannons to land near Moscow. When I got enough firepower there, Moscow easily fell and my hopes were answered. In one sweep I was at par again with the rest of the world (all the way up to flight/combustion/replaceable parts/electronics). For some unknown reason Music Theory was not delivered, while clearly everybody already knew it.

Having barely survived up to now, I never even dared to think about victory conditions. But now I felt confident that diplomatic was within reach if only I could get UN first. Russia and India were all but finished, Carthage would be my opponent, and at least Ottomans, but probably also Persia would vote for me. i did have a clash with Netherlands before, so I was very uncertain about William.

I slided into the modern age, but got ecology. Persia got fission and soon after smashed my hopes by building UN. Now I will either have to conquer Persia, thus smashing my chance for a diplo victory or find some other victory condition...

It's now 1700 AD, and given the speed of Persia scientifically and Carthage still ahead in victory score, this is still very much in the open. This may well end up in my first GOTM loss after all...

Roland Ehnström

Aug 22, 2004, 04:57 PM

I have 6-7 canon, but in F3 I see canon (0)

Then all your cannons are captured from some other civilization. You can see them in the box at the bottom, next to your captured slaves.

-- Roland

Kuningas

Aug 22, 2004, 06:26 PM

predator

Does anybody know, what triggers AI to attack healthy armies?

I feel quite secured in 950AD. Two cavalry armies are blocking the choke. In IBT Ottomans sneak attack us and kill 13/13 hp cavalry army with 4/4 hp Tank. Advance can be seen on the bottom screenshot.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/cotm3_kuningas_950ad.jpg

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/cotm3_kuningas_990ad1.jpg

bradleyfeanor

Aug 22, 2004, 07:13 PM

Does anybody know, what triggers AI to attack healthy armies?

I have had tanks attack cavalry armies before, in almost exactly the same situation as shown in your screenshot. I don't know if it is because the AI programming considers tanks to be strong enough to attack a cav army, or if it is because the AI was blocked and the only way to my cities was through my cav armies. Unfortunately, the attack came shortly after the AI got Mot. Trans., so I am not sure which of the two was the reason.

PS: If you are going for space, I may be in trouble again! :rolleyes: I see you are researching flight, and I didn't get it until after 1000AD. :cry:

bob rulz

Aug 22, 2004, 09:00 PM

Then all your cannons are captured from some other civilization. You can see them in the box at the bottom, next to your captured slaves.

-- Roland

Are you sure? I once had a spy with someone and it said they had workers (0) but I could see them clearing up pollution near my border.

Civgeek

Aug 22, 2004, 10:05 PM

I have had tanks attack cavalry armies before, in almost exactly the same situation as shown in your screenshot. I don't know if it is because the AI programming considers tanks to be strong enough to attack a cav army, or if it is because the AI was blocked and the only way to my cities was through my cav armies.
I think it is the 1st (AI thinks tanks are strong enough to attack cavalry armies). I had several cav armies atacked "in the open" during the game. The AI also seemed to have no concerns about bombing the c! out of my healthy cav armies. It was quite annoying. Almost smart on the AIs part. :cringe:

Roland Ehnström

Aug 23, 2004, 05:39 AM

Are you sure? I once had a spy with someone and it said they had workers (0) but I could see them clearing up pollution near my border.

Yep, captured units (workers or artillery) do not show up in the F3 list, except in the box at the bottom. It's because you do not pay maintaince-costs for captured units. In your case, the other civilization really didn't have any workers of their own origin - the workers you saw were slaves they had captured from some other civilization.

-- Roland

SniperDevil

Aug 23, 2004, 12:05 PM

I have suffered my 3rd straight COTM loss :(

Although i thought i did pretty good considering the difficulty level.

I suffered a conquest defeat in 1475 AD :)

Technology: This was by far the best game i have ever had with technology. I reached the Modern Age in 1450 AD!! Think of how much faster that will be once i start playing on difficulty levels that i can compete in.

Conquest Loss: I lost to the Indians in the end. The Carthaginians were the main power in this game and i had an MPP with them. They had saved me a bunch of times but they ended up being the death of me.
Around 1450 a world war broke out. India, Russia, Persia, and the Dutch VERSES me, Carthage, and the Ottomans. Now because of my MPP i was forced to go to war with India. They stormed through my brders with modern armor and TOW infantry and i tried to defend with cavalry and rifleman, but it did not work.

Thank you Ainwood for a nice experience. This was my first conquest loss ever :)

FireAxis score 1115.
Jason score 450.

Megalou

Aug 23, 2004, 03:11 PM

It is nonuderstanding games.
1. I have too many leaders 14(!!!).
2. I have 6-7 canon, but in F3 I see canon (0)
3. Cruiser kill without problem every units.

Result - domination 1355. No entering in indastrial era. cities build only attack units and library. Could "canon (0)" mean that all your cannons were captured from other nations? They can only be seen in the captured units box.

Nice result!

Megalou

Aug 23, 2004, 04:03 PM

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gif Link to penultimate spoiler (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2095110&postcount=23)
I'd give myself a B- on this game, whereas GOTM33 was a B+. After the devastating flip in the middle ages, I focused on science instead of conquests. I was thinking space race, knowing that it is exciting to do it on archipelago maps, probably even more so when the map has been modded by ainwood. But lack of time made it clear that diplomatic was the right thing.

High points:
* Alliances with everyone against India in 880 AD delayed their knowledge of replaceable parts just long enough for me to capture all their territory.
* Beating the Indians with only 10-15 cavalries, 6 infantries, 3 ancient cavalries and stolen bombardment units.
* Seeing that the courthouse of Dehli kept the city from flipping back to those fascist b------s. (The winner writes the historybooks...they started it in 3000 BC or so... ;) ) Eventually Dehli produced around 35 beakers.
* The micromangement of Constantinople gave me a neat 3-5 settler factory. I'm getting the hang of that, even predicting the free shields at size 5.

Low points:
* Ridiculous flip in 310 AD. If I had just founded a town 2 tiles away from Dehli to store my troops, it would not have mattered.
* Mistiming the UN by five turns. Because of unhappiness I could not join workers to speed it up. I generally build too few marketplaces. After learning Fission (traded from Ottomans), I could still have saved 1 turn by upping luxury, but just forgot about it. So please don't beat me by a small margin :) . I had enough of that in GOTM33.

Diplo victory in 12xx.
Jason score 7870.

That's it for me, I'm signing off for a while. If a deity game shows up I may borrow the discs back from the guy I'm lending them too. Till then, have fun. Thanks for all the great efforts from both the staff and the players!

v0iDDr0iD

Aug 23, 2004, 06:35 PM

Technology: This was by far the best game i have ever had with technology. I reached the Modern Age in 1450 AD!! Think of how much faster that will be once i start playing on difficulty levels that i can compete in.

Actually, you're probably researching faster because the AI contributes more to the tech-pace.. don't expect to reach modern ages before 1450 in your next regent game ;)

predesad

Aug 23, 2004, 08:32 PM

I wont be submitting my game because i made a near fatal mistake in the late middle ages. I refuse to play beyond that point on this difficulty level, but sometime in the futuree i think i will replay from an earlier save.

What happened was this:

at gunpowder i mass upgraded pikes to muskets then traded away my saltpeter resource for an enormous amount of gpt, i think to russia, but it has been awhile. none of my min research attmepts worked, some AI always researched whatever i was going after first, even music theory and i was seriously behind in tech, but not overly worried.

i was planning a war with india and was planning my attack. i was going to take india's saltpeter resource on the island to the south and had an invasion force ready, so when the previous deal w/ the other AI (russia?) expired i renewed it though for not quite so much gpt but still quite a bit. i felt i had a real good plan to get the saltpeter from that island at the very beginning of the war anyway.

meanwhile, all of my ancient cavalry were scouting out india territory. i wanted to get some muskets to key locations and do a mass pillage right after the ROP expired and at the same time launch an attack on the saltpeter island, was going to plant one unit on the resource so i could pillage it on the same turn i declared war.

the problem: india declared war on me in the middle of the rop, sending cavalry at my choke city, which had not been built on the hill, but foolishly on the grassland below the hill, what was i thinking. i still won more battles than i lost, but this initial invasion kept me from getting to the island for the saltpeter as i had to deal with cavalry / med inf / and musket SoD that never seemed to stop. plus, on the same turn they declared war on me they took out all of my ancient cavalry in their territory, which was all my ancient cavalry.

basically i made 3 mistakes, one of which i cannot really fix without going way back in the saves or making a big sacrifice in wasted time, that being founding my choke city on the grass instead of the hill. the other two mistakes, trading the saltpeter to russia when i was preparing to go to war and keeping too many valuable untis (ancient cavalry) spread out in their territory, i have learned from. i might replay form earlier not just to correct these mistakes, but because i woiuld like to know how well i would have done if i had not made those mistakes.

eldar

Aug 23, 2004, 08:37 PM

Eek. Spaceship loss to India in 1685.

After making it through the Ancient age unscathed, and level-ish in tech, I fell behind the pace. Though I'd built the SoZ for the ACs, they only helped me capture a few Dutch cities in that dogpile. After that, the Indians DoW'd me in 800AD or so, and I could only watch as their Cavalry walked all over my cities. Then the Vikings joined in the fun, taking a couple of cities.

I brokered peace for cities from both, and ended up with just two cities, waiting for whatever win to come along. I outlasted the Dutch, Vikings, and Russians. The end was a series of world wars, with India the inevitable aggressor. They had over 100K culture, I guess one of the others must've been over half - would've been over sooner otherwise.

Biggest mistake: not colonising the entire peninsula once it became clear I could, and not using my Dromons to colonise nearby islands and coasts. Once the other Civs knew each other, my use as a tech broker was gone, and so was I.

The final score:
Game: COTM 03
Date submitted: 2004-08-23
Reference number: 4746
Your name: eldar
Your email: spam.this@nothankyou.com
Software Version: C3C 1.22f for Windows
Entry class: open
Game status: Spaceship Loss to India
Game date: 1685 AD
Firaxis score: 663
Jason score: 344
Time played: 09:21:14
Submitted save: COTM03_T328_1685AD.SAV
Renamed file: eldar_COTM003_C3C122_01.SAV

Neil. :cool:

DaveMcW

Aug 23, 2004, 08:56 PM

[c3c] Open

Spoiler 1: 4000BC to 530BC (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2071069)
Spoiler 2: 530BC to 660AD (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2090522)

Continuing my quest for 20k culture in Adrianople....

I got the three industrial wonders easily. And my constant warring gave me enough leaders to rush the Pentagon, Wall Street, and Intelligence Agency when they became available. This left about 20 turns to build (and rush) armies in Adrianople before I started on the modern wonders.

The Indians were eliminated in 1040AD.
The Dutch were eliminated in 1240AD.
The Vikings were eliminated in 1270AD.
The Carthaginian war began in 1270AD.

Also in 1270AD, I bought Flight from the Ottomans and entered the modern age. I have Fission, the Ottomans and Persians have Fission and Ecology, and Carthage has Mass Production. Adrianople is up to 101 cpt, 9674 total culture.

Now that I've read and posted in this spoiler thread, I'm back to playing the game. Ideally I will milk the game until my cultural victory, but lack of time and patience may force me to end it quickly.

Spoiler 4: 1270AD to 1675AD (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2146865)

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/davemcw_cotm03_ad1270.jpg

Peglegasus

Aug 25, 2004, 10:12 AM

Conquest class

So in 580 AD I am in the industrial age and find myself in quite a similar situation as I was in the only other GOTM I've completed; GOTM 31, my first.
GOTM 31 final spoiler (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=1844149&postcount=6)

I have no coal, a very small territory, no military to speak of... I've decided after my unsuccessful war with India that I will attempt a diplomatic victory just like in GOTM31. That game really helped me learn good trading. Cash flow will be the most important factor in my game so the most important improvements will be banks and stock exchanges. One thing that's really funny is that I notice a couple Russian horsemen on India's 2 tile island. Russia dropped them there when they were at war back in the early middle ages!
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/chittaind.jpg

Immediately following Byzantine's entry into the industrial age the wonder cascade begins. Bach's in Istanbul, Smith's in Madras, Newton's in Persepolis, leaving us Magellan's in Adrianople- completed in 610AD. We begin trying desperately to get coal. There are two sources in Russian lands but they aren't hooked up so we can't trade for it. My other goal is to try and get India to feel a little better about us. Ghandi, it turns out, will remain furious with us for all but about 20 turns. We trade all around for as many luxuries as we can get, gift techs to the Dutch and the Vikings, and gift small amounts of gpt to anyone annoyed with us to try and get them polite. This works phenomenally with Carthage. Hannibal will be gracious to us basically the remainder of the game.

About that coal on the little island: I used a worker to plant a colony on it. I knew it wouldn't let me use it that way. I was hoping for one of those "the source of (resource) has been exhausted" messages because it seems the resource always respawns not too far away. Was a longshot, I knew, but I had to try something.

We make it to industrialization first in 710AD! I was surprised, actually. We use it to get caught up in most techs and acquire over 1000 gold plus about 112 gpt. We GIFT industrialization to Ghandi and he's still furious. Cash rush factories in Adrianople and Constantinople. In 780AD we complete the Forbidden Palace in Lahore. There's no way the cities down here are going to flip now! At least that's my hope.

Research Corporation in 780AD! Another 113gpt +700 or so coins and our research gets pumped way up. Entertainment slider stays at 0% for almost all the industrial age because of all the luxuries we are able to trade for. Somewhere around this time I get frustrated waiting for Russia to hook up the coal, so I find a creative way to get some. One of the coal deposits is on an island Russia shares with the Ottomans, and the coal is right on the edge of Russian culture. I hurriedly get 2 workers, a settler, and a knight over there via galleon.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/coalsteal1.jpg
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/coalsteal.jpg
The Russian workers were kind enough to road it and clear the jungle for me! Something that surprised me was that I was able to build coal plants and start railroading without putting a harbor in the new city.

Steel in 900AD. Able to get electricity, nationalism, sanitation, 40gpt and some change. Russia has replaceable parts. We gift a bunch of techs to the Netherlands and Vikings, and India destroys the Vikings in 930AD. India asks for an MPP +ROP with us in 960AD. Ghandi is still furious. I feel like I need to do something or else Ghandi is just going to squish me like a bug. We agree to the MPP and give some gpt. I don't want his troops all over my land. Delhi completes Universal Suffrage the next turn. Our build in Adrianople switches to Palace.

In 980AD Russia starts getting uppity. They demand 29 gold +map. Sure Cathy, here ya go. And take this 5gpt gift too. She is polite now. She gets Scientific Method 1 turn before us. We go ahead and finish our research on it and in 1000AD switch Adrianople to Theory of Evolution in 6 turns. I think about selling it around because it's doubtful anyone can finish it faster than 6 turns. But I don't. Ottomans demand it IBT and we give. Then I decide to sell since I already gave it away and I accidentally gift it to Persia! Doh! ToE is complete in 1040AD and we jump ahead to Atomic Theory and Electronics. Adrianople will complete the Hoover dam in 15 turns. Atomic Theory nets us Replaceable Parts, Refining, Communism, Gems, Rubber, 110gpt and some change. Ottomans are now gracious too.

Now if I continue like this my post will be waaaay long so I'll try to sum up more. The AI aggression is crazy in this game. I renew my MPP with India after it expires and that sends me to war later. There are wars breaking out all over the place constantly. 2 civs will be allied against a third for a while, then the 2 allies will go to war against each other... madness! In the end though I hope this will help my UN chances. We complete the Hoover Dam, Wall Street, Intelligence Agency. We fall behind on tech eventually with India becoming the leader. Russia goes and researches ironclads with only 3 techs left in the IA!

In 1270 my MPP with India bites me. India and Carthage ally against the Ottomans. We are forced to declare, losing wines and rubber. The Ottomans capture Smolensk on our littel coal island. I have cash rushed infantry over there but not nearly enough of them. Our little outpost is taken quickly, along with our coal. Luckily I have already railroaded everything in our territory. Then Persia joins the alliance against us which means we lose dyes and incense too. ALL our cities riot. Ghandi soon after dclares on the Dutch, too! Complete chaos! The only good thing that comes out of all this is that Ghandi is now only annoyed with us. Yeah! As soon as our MPP is over we do not renew. Ghandi goes back to furious.

I'm careful not to attack any other civs we are at war with. I want peace as soon as possible and get back to trading and preparing them for the UN vote. I build some ships and some infantry as defenders but no REAL military force. The world ends up having a couple turns of peace and then my worst fear is realized: Ghandi declares on us! He even gets Cathy to join him. I start drafting riflemen (no rubber for infantry!) and building artillery (no oil for tanks!). I immediately regret not building Caesarea on the hill on the land bridge so I send workers to build a fortress on it and then barricade it. Ghandi's invasion force moves in... infantry and guerillas? Flak guns? Crusaders?!?! Holy cow! Ghandi doesn't have oil either! I use artillery to bambard his units and cavalry to swoop in and finish them off. We lose 1 infantry total and they lose 2 Flak guns (I don't even have flight yet!) and about a half dozen infantry and guerillas. The only real damage done is Chalcedon gets bombed repeatedly and I have to rebuild the temple, library, etc there. They do some pillaging though which is annoying because I can't rebuild the railroads. Ghandi realizes his attack isn't going to accomplish much and calls for peace. What a relief.

Eventually we all enter the modern age. I use the "big picture method" but no one will trade their techs. No one gets fission. We get ecology. Russia gets computers. Persia ecology. India quickly researches rocketry. Our military plans get stolen a couple times and this makes me real nervous. We trade for some oil and rubber and roll out tanks. India again starts moving forces into our land, a goofy mix of infantry, guerillas, marines and longbows. As I close in on fission I start running into money problems. All those gpt deals from the late IA start expiring. I end up having to disband units, join workers to cities, switch cities to wealth, etc to maintain the tech pace.

Wars are still breaking out all over the place. India and Carthage ally against Persia, which makes the Indian forces leave our land. I breathe a little easier. India tries to drag me into it. No way, man! We're sooo close to fission and the UN. Russia goes to war with India! I forgot about the Russian horsemen by Chittagong! So 2 ancient age units attack a modern age city. They are redlined and retreat, then suicide onto the city the next turn.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/chittamod.jpg

With 1 turn left on fission, we get word that India is building the UN. I panic for a sec but then check F7 and start to laugh! India is building the UN in Chittagong! It's a freakin' 2 tile island, and the one open tile hasn't even been roaded because the Russian horsemen have been sitting on it for 2000 years! Too much! We get fission and switch to UN in Constantinople. Was originally going to build in Adrianople but by switching some citizens around and altering some terrain Constantinople can finish a couple turns faster. Research goes to 0% and the gifts start flowing from the Byzantine empire. My military plans are stolen again. Makes me nervous. I haven't put spies anywhere because I didn't want to piss anyone off.

Russia asks for an MPP. They are at war with the Ottomans, Carthage, and India. No thank you, Cathy. We are trying to stop all this madness. We agree to ROP instead. Then I notice that Cathy only has 3 cities left! I want Cathy around for the UN vote. I've been buttering her up since about 400BC. After a bit of thought, I surround Sardica with infantry and ships and then gift it to her.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/sardica.jpg
Carthage very quickly moves ships over and lands tanks in our land but can't reach it. They promptly bomb it from size 10 down to size 1. I highly doubt Carthage will attack me to get to it. They've been gracious towards us since the end of the MA. We shower gifts on everyone.

The UN is complete in 1550 and we hold the election. The interesting thing is there are only 2 candidates: Osman and myself!
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/voteresults2.jpg

Just for kicks I investigate Chittagong... 177 turns left :p

My territory at end game:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/mapaftervic.JPG
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/uploadresults.jpg

Was a fun game. I almost didn't continue after the Middle Ages because I thought it might be boring just sitting there trying to get the UN win, but it turned out to be fairly exciting with all the wars going on. I also thought about quitting because I really didn't think I could keep up with the tech pace, but it turned out to really not be a problem even for my small country.
One thing interesting I noticed was that everyone except me and the Netherlands were in Fascism the whole time, even at the end. I think this helped me a lot. I had the most cash flow probably and when they offered big gpt deals for tech I'm sure that slowed their research a bit. The Dutch were in Republic but really weren't doing much. I basically gave them every tech from the MA onward.

grs

Aug 25, 2004, 05:34 PM

OPEN

ancient age 4000BC - 590BC (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2073554&postcount=59)

I didn't have time to write a middle age spoiler, so I'll try to sum it up in this final one.

1st Indian war (430BC - 110AD):

430BC
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/grs-cotm3-military-430BC.jpg

110AD - captured 6 cities, razed and replaced 2 and got 1 for peace (+Invention and some gold); Dehli got the forbidden palace from the 2nd of my only two MGL; the first formed a med.inf. army
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/grs-cotm3-military-110AD.jpg

2nd Indian war (560AD - 660AD):

560AD
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/grs-cotm3-military-560AD.jpg

660AD - India is destroyed - Hyderabad flipped from me twice in a row ("freeing" me of many ACs healing there)
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/grs-cotm3-military-660AD.jpg

I entered the industrial age somewhere in between. I got nationalism, the Russians and Ottomans (my trading partners) the other two techs.

I built harbours, libraries, courts, unis, banks and researched the middle path (to combustion). The AIs reseached the optional techs and some of the lower branch. Delhi got a factory and a power plant. I took a gamble with timing a UN prebuild 1 turn after entering the modern age, hoping for me or at least one AI getting fission. I entered the modern age in 1150AD. Gifted all AI to it and none got fission ... I pressed <enter> and ended up with fission, switched the prebuild and finished the game in 1160AD with a 5:2 vote vs. Hannibal.

The GOTM submission form told me:

Game status: Diplomatic Victory for Byzantines
Game date: 1160 AD
Firaxis score: 7433
Jason score: 8510
Time played: 22:53:17

Some remarks.

I got my coal from this island (Septum was settled on it and Zwolle flipped to me). It also held a second oil source.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/grs-cotm3-coal.jpg

I formed no alliances and had no more wars. I did no dogpiling to win the UN, just gifted everyone a tech or two and made ROP agreements.

@ainwood: was this a huge map again? I needed more cities than I calculated to get a 1.000 shield palace (I thought/read it will cost 1.000 shields at OCN, but I needed more cities).

Besides me winning this game, I don't think this was an easy demi-god game. Sure it is easier than taking the first random map you take, but I don't like India as neighbour, because a) they are always a cultural giant b) you can't stop them from building elephants once they know chivalry. Pillaging is of very limited use against them. I consider myself very lucky with getting coal "cheaper" than it was designed; i.e. I did not have to war for it. The guaranteed SoZ was a big help!

It was a very interesting game - with a nice large enough island for a fast UN win this time, but without coal again. Thanks for the game and please give us some coal next time :)

Denniz

Aug 25, 2004, 06:18 PM

ALL our cities riot.
There is a trick I use to avoid multiple cities rioting like that. I zoom to the first city when the message pops up (you have to have that turned on, of course). I fix that city and use the next button to step through all my cities and fix them before I go back to the main screen. Since the other cities haven't been processed yet they do not riot.

Gyathaar

Aug 27, 2004, 10:57 AM

This was my first GOTM, and since I started the 27th, I decided to play a OOC to save time :D

moved sw so I would be on sea and betting on that I would have more river in workable tiles, and still have the cow in radius. Settling showed the deer aswell.

Was planning to try for a 20k victory.. and ancient agest went great.. a few currags gave me lots of contacts and I was tech leader.. culture allowed me to grab ivory so I could start Zeus uncontested.. later had to buy ivory to produce the ancient cavs.

Ended up with colossus,zeus, mausoleum and great library of the ancient wonders...

Middle ages was bad.. missed out on sun zu, leo and siztine with 1 round due to a castade.. and nothing was available to switch to.. switched to a barrachs I believe. Missed copernicus by 2 turns.. and after that I was hopelessly behind in techs and ended up not getting a single middelage or industrial age wonder..

Due to incredibly lucky tech steals (didnt get caught a single time on neither tech steals or spy planing), followed by 2-3 fers.., I somehow managed to get into modern ages as 2nd civ.. drew fission as free tech.. and started to build UN.

With 1 turn left on UN I still had monopoly on fission, so I gifted fission and other techs.. started RoPs, and a MMp with persia (was stupid.. caused me to go to war with the duych in interturn.. and they had been gratious with me since early middle ages). And all the civs was gracious at that point.

Hit end of turn, held the vote and won diplomatically in 1510AD.

Toughest OOC I have ever played I think.. no recources or lux (except for a few turns in ancient ages), and missing out on all the wonders though 2 full ages.

Dianthus

Aug 28, 2004, 08:02 AM

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

Spoiler 1: Ancient Age (4000BC-800BC) (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=2136339&postcount=158)
Spoiler 2: Middle Ages (800BC-370AD) (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=2136343&postcount=49)

Spoiler 3: Industrial Ages/Modern Times (370AD-1365AD)
I gifted the Russians/Persians/Ottomans into the Industial Ages and immediately traded Medicine (my free tech) for Steam power. I then had a little hunt for Coal. It didn't surprise me to find there wasn't any in my territory, but I expected there to be some in the Indian territory! At this point I resigned myself to having difficulty trading for Coal, so I decided on Diplomacy rather than Space as I would really need rails to get high enough production to make Space feasible.

I continued researching at max and was eventually able to trade for Military Tradition in 430AD. It took a while to upgrade my Horses to Cavalry, and even then I was weak compared to India.

1st India War (490AD-630AD)
I declared war on India in 490AD, and traded techs to the Vikings/Persians/Dutch for an Alliance against them. I managed to trigger my golden age during the 1st turn of the war by lethal bombaring an Indian Galley with my Dromon. At this point I had 16 Cavalry and was weak compared to them, so I razed the 1st Indian town at the choke point, then attacked the Indian War Elephants as they entered my territory. The Indian War Elephants were slowed by the hill so were unable to attack my troops healing in Chalcedon and I was able to pick them off easily:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/DianthusCGOTM03_IndiaSkirmishing.jpg

I gained 2 leaders during the skirmishing, which I used for armies. In 560AD I was still weak compared to the Indians, but the War Elephants had slowed to a trickle, and I was pretty confident with my armies. I captured Delhi in 620AD complete with The Great Library (obsolete), The Oracle & Smith's Trading Company. I was feeling a little over-extended at this point having suffered fairly heavy losses against the Indian Riflemen. This along with increasing war weariness, which was now slowing my tech rate, triggered my decision to make peace at this point. I didn't realise until later that at this point I broke the military alliance deals with the Vikings/Persians/Dutch :(.

Here's a minimap at 630AD:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/DianthusCGOTM03_ad0630.gif

2nd India War (830AD-1060AD)
I had continued to build up my military since the previous India war. When my golden age finished I mobilized so I could continue my rapid Cavalry builds, and was now finally average compared to them. Unfortunately India started upgrading to Infantry just after I started this 2nd war, so I had to resort to using Artillery to soften the cities up before taking them with my Cavalry and armies. This was slow going. I had quite a few flips to the Indians during this period, and I was starting to wonder if they were going to flip back faster than I could take them. Capturing the horses helped quite a bit as I didn't have to worry about far-reaching Cavalry attacks. I finally took the last Indian town in 1060AD to wipe them out and ensure no more flips.

This was my first use of Mobilization as it's normally disable in GOTM (I guess the previous bugs in [civ3]/[ptw] have been fixed in [c3c]?). I was a little surprised that the extra production for mobilization didn't apply to Artillery!

Here's a minimap at 1060AD:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/DianthusCGOTM03_ad1060.gif

Diplomatic Objective (1060AD-1365AD)
My research had stopped towards the end of the India war as I had run out of techs to trade for luxuries, and I ended up needing all my income for entertainment. I managed to trade for Coal with the Carthaginians for 20 turns, long enough to build rails from coast to coast and around my most shield-rich city. I continued with the research, and started on a Palace prebuild for the UN in 1110AD.

I was pretty close to not getting the UN victory.

1st I was later getting Fission that I expected. I was hoping to either get it as my free tech or to trade my free tech for it. I got Computers, so did the Ottomans, the Persians got Fission. The Persians wouldn't trade, so I had to research Fission. I had to drastically cut the shields in my Palace pre-build city to avoid accidentally building the Palace before the UN was available, so much so that it couldn't get enough food to support the population. Every time it shrunk the citizens would get reassigned to shield tiles again!

2nd, I declared war on the largest civ (Carthage) and attempted to get everyone else to ally against them. Unfortunately this didn't work too well as:

I couldn't get everyone to ally against Carthage, even for lots of expensive techs. This was probably partly due to my accidental deal breaking earlier.
The Carthaginians didn't remain the largest civ for very long once attacked by the other civs.

The Ottomans emerged as the largest civ. I then declared war on them too, and got more alliances against them with Russians/Vikings/Persians. I thought this would be enough, but unfortunately the Carthaginians had made a trade embargo deal with the Vikings against us, and this was still in effect when I built the UN, so the Vikings abstained.

I wasn't really in a position to do anything in the war against the Carthaginians/Ottomans, so just fought defensively. By the time the 2nd UN vote came up in 1360AD the embargo had ended and I got the 4 votes for a diplomatic win with a fireaxis score of 6324 and Jason score of 7419.

Here's a log of my tech pace:
380AD Democracy (Traded)
380AD Steam Power (Traded)
430AD Military Tradition (Traded)
490AD Artistry (Traded)
500AD Electricity (Researched)
560AD Scientific Method (Researched)
620AD Atomic Theory (Free ToE tech)
620AD Electronics (Free ToE tech)
690AD Replaceable Parts (Researched)
690AD Nationalism (Traded)
690AD Communism (Traded)
690AD Industrialization (Traded)
750AD The Corporation (Researched)
760AD Fascism (Traded)
830AD Steel (Researched)
890AD Sanitation (Traded)
890AD Ironclads (Traded)
1000AD Espionage (Traded)
1110AD Refining (Traded)
1110AD Combustion (Traded)
1170AD Mass Production (Researched)
1230AD Motorized Transportation (Researched)
1240AD Flight (Traded)
1240AD Amphibious War (Traded)
1240AD Computers (Free new era tech)
1295AD Fission (Researched)

Jason Fliegel

Aug 28, 2004, 06:33 PM

I was in Conquest class. I'm normally a Regent/Monarch player, so I take some comfort in the fact I made it as far as I did -- I hit the Modern Age shortly before the end of the game, and I outlasted the Russians, the Carthaginians, and the Scandinavians, all of whom were wiped out long before the end of the game. I even outscored one of the other survivors (the Dutch)!

So how did the game end? If I'm remembering right, I entered the Industrial Age distinctly trailing the Indians, the Russians and the Ottomans, and about even with everyone else.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are some pictures:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/JFliegel/COTM3-5.jpg
This is what things looked like at the dawn of the Industrial Age.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/JFliegel/cotm3-7.jpg
This is what my empire looked like at its peak. As you can see, I waged war against the Dutch and secured a source of coal. Alas, though, my dreams of empire were short-lived. First, I lost my choke-point city to the Indians. Then, one by one, I lost a few cities on the northern penninsula of my home continent to the Indians. Then, borrowing a page from the actual history of the world, the Ottomans decided to conquer the Byzantines. Fortunately, I managed to sue for peace, losing only my saltpeter island (the island off the SE coast of the home continent) and my iron/horse island (the island off the SE coast of the area we conquered from the Dutch).

Then, disaster struck. India decided I looked like a tasty target. Here's what I call "The Begining of the End":
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/JFliegel/cotm3-6.jpg

I managed to keep plugging away, but it was all over by that point. In 1902, this is what I saw:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/JFliegel/cotm3-8.jpg
Yes, the Indians had launched their spaceship. I took some comfort in the fact that at least I made it to the Modern Age.
Here's what the scoreboard looked like in the end:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/JFliegel/cotm3-9.jpg
Here's what my empire looked like:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/JFliegel/cotm3-10.jpg

Final Firaxis score: 1780
Final Jason score: 785

Note to ainwood and/or AlanH: Right at the begining of my turn in 1830, I hit F1 and crashed to the desktop. I'm not sure why. I just reloaded from the autosave; I hope that's OK

Hobbes

Aug 28, 2004, 06:44 PM

Ancient Age

To start I ploped my settler down at the starting point and decided to water the plains, when what did I notice but a cheese factory. As soon as I finished my road/sprinkler system I had my worker start watering the cow. My production build went, warrior, warrior, row boat and then grannary. I had built the obligarty row boat and sent the Skipper and Giligan out hoping to make contact with other civ’s (which I had great luck). I had built 4 cities and was sending a settler and warrior to grab the spot of land just past the choke point when out of the blue (or purple), Mr. G decides to declare war on me. Well, forget about grabbing the land past the choke point, I high tailed my setter back to the hill square on the choke point and built a city. The first thing I built were walls (helped by vast forests nearby). After having to rush a few spearmen in other cities to anchor the city, and rushing a road to get them there quicker, it soon became a city that Indian warriors and archers would learn to hate. This went on for a while, until I learned how to read a map. As soon as I learned to read a map, I asked Kate if she would like to do the same. Guess, what she did, and she was so happy with this new skill she declared war on the Indians with me. I continued to push my research, to keep my self at the top of the tech race, and as soon as anyone made contact with the Indians, I traded a tech for a war declaration. While they may not have landed a lot of troops, they did stop trading with Ghandi (his tech advancement went to zero and pretty much stayed there).

Middle Ages

I was the first to make it to this age and got engineering for my trouble, and as I did not want to spend 36 turns at 70% to get Feudalism, I dialed the research to 0%, with one lone scientist, and started ranking in the gold. When Kate finally made it to the middle ages, I traded her Engineering and a good chunk of gold for Feudalism. Guess what, it was MI, pikemen and ancient cavalry vs spearmen, archers and swordman, guess who won? I got the whole continent except for two cities that Kate got. Fine she can have them, I started building libraries, markets, and universities. I set my research at zero, and bought my way into the next age.

Industrial Age

No wars, lots of trading and the ToE, end play. Just barely made, but I did.

Modern Age

Got Rocketry as my free tech, try to trade Kate for Fission, but she said no way. Xeres, who got Fission a few turns latter was not so bad. I had to give him 5000 gp and 300 gp/turn and Rocketry, but I got fission. Switched from Battlefield Medicine to UN and in 11 turns (1405 AD) I would have a vote. After gifting my GDP and many techs (in 1400 AD), everyone but Kate was gracious, guess what the vote was? :king:

magritte

Aug 29, 2004, 10:51 AM

Well, this is my first GOTM. I've been playing Monarch lately, but I decided to go with conquest rather than open class, and I'm still getting my butt kicked. I've just limped into the Industrial era at 1090 AD.

At first, things seemed to be going fairly well in the Ancient Era. I built two carracks early and had contacted everybody by about 1800 BC, leading to a slight tech lead. Unfortunately, the seeds of my failure were already in place, exacerbated by the higher level of difficulty and the fact that I'm not playing an Industrious civilization.

I have this bad habit of not building granaries, leading to a lack of early population excess, so I tend not to build many workers early, leading to low production. Ordinarily, I can compensate for this, but at this level of difficulty with the large Indian civilization to the SW, it meant that I had very little built other than settlers, a smattering of troops, and the statue of Zeus. I also failed to secure the horses in the north. There was a big stack of barbarians up there, and I decided not to put a settlement up there until I could wipe it out--while I was building up, the Russians settled.

Shortly after building the statue of Zeus and close to the end of the ancient era, Carthage demanded some tech (currency, I think). Although they were stronger than me, they were also based halfway around the world, so I called their bluff. They had built a couple of cities on the islands to the east of my main region and I had already figured that would be my best direction to expand given India's strength. They allied with the Scandinavians, I countered by allying with the Dutch and began loading ancient cavalry & swordsmen onto my Dromons.

Then (as seems to be the universal pattern), the Indians attacked. Ouch. I was hoping that the relatively non-agressive Indian civilization would leave me alone, especially since we were trading partners. No such luck. Worse, during the painfully long time it had taken to research republic, the Indians had gotten a jump on me technologically and were building war elephants. I triggered my golden age by attacking a carthaginian galley and basically had to pour most of my energy into building enough pikemen to hold India off at the city I had built at the isthmus. It was enough, but I wasn't able to make much of a dent in the east, though I did build three cities over there. Eventually, I was able to buy the Indians off for 70 gold, which I made up (more or less) with my peace treaties with Carthage & Scandinavia. No sooner had we made peace than I was shocked to find one of my cities culture flip to India--and with it one of my critical ivories. I wasn't prepared for this because I usually play a builder approach and rarely am greatly outcultured by my opponents.

Given this, I felt I needed to spend most of the ancient era building culture & economics to prevent myself from getting culture-flipped out of existence. Even so, I lost the isthmus city I had fought so hard to protect, despite having built a library and temple there and having five military units posted. I lost another city when the volcano in the south erupted. Choosing not to rebuild there, the Russians landed there, but their city was promptly crisped as well. Eventually, toward the end of the ancient era, the Indians settled there and have not been buried so far.

Although this was mostly a time of entrenchment, I did fight a short war against Scandinavia. They had captured one of the Carthaginian cities near me, so I decided to grab it before they could reinforce it. So now I have horses. Despite my efforts at building libraries and universities, I gradually fell behind in the tech race, not reaching the industrial era until 1090 AD. I currently have 12 cities--eight on my mainland, two on the southern coast of the Dutch continent and two on the island to the south of that. I'm ranked 6th or 7th by most measures, stronger than Scandinavia and about on par with the Dutch.

I had tried to keep myself optimistic by recalling that I have won from a long way back on Monarch level, that things generally improve a lot for me in the Industrial era. Unfortunately, the conditions that allowed me to come back don't look to be met here. The decision not to rebuild in the volcano-plagued city has come back to haunt me, as there turns out to be coal nearby. No one has any coal available to trade, and without railroads, I just won't be able to ramp up my economy. Also, the Theory of Evolution has already been built.

I think my last hope is a war with the Dutch. They have coal that they haven't discovered yet, and if I can seize that resource, I might be able to make a move. They don't have riflemen & cavalry yet, so I might be able to take them. Perhaps Carthage will help. I'll need a fast war, though, because I don't want to have to switch out of democracy. Maybe I can still get some mileage out of my piles of Ancient cavalry.

FrankTheMan

Aug 29, 2004, 01:47 PM

Well, I left off earlier in this thread in 1700 AD, when my hopes on a diplomatic victory were scattered by Persia building the UN. As I expected, they never dared to call a vote. And even if they would, I wouldn't have been eligible anyway.....

At this point I decided that the way forward would be war and conquest, hopefully leading to a domination victory. Luckily, most of the others were eager enough to wage war. And by several MP's and MA's, I always managed to find allies in my war. The MP's however bit me back several times, and forced me into wars - destroying carefully arranged peace deals - that I really didn't want to be in.

On the whole I could expand beyond the original Indian/Byzantine continent, first gaining the Russian subcontinent and then the Netherlands' continent. The final conquest was the Ottoman empire. All these conquests were only possible through the massive use of armies (and of course artilleries).

I really held my breath during the Ottoman campaign, as my F3 information (through my spy) showed that the Ottomans build 2 ICBM's as well as 2 tactical nukes. However, even in their death throes, they were responsible enough not to use them, but rather let them be destroyed as I conquered their cities. I think no human (player) would be so decent...

In the mean time, both Persia and Carthage were building their spaceships, and Carthage was rapidly approaching the 100,000 culture limit. However, Persia seemed not to far behind, so I was confident that the Carthagians would not be outdoing them more than 2 to 1.

For some reason, Carthage and Persia really hated each other, and they were at war with each other to the very end. This allowed me, after eliminating the Ottomans, to quickly research the remaing Laser and Robotics and finish my spaceship in 1944. Carthage's culture just passed the 99,000 mark at that point!

Of course, my points (especially Jason points, less than 3500!) were not very impressing, but because my victory was so uncertain for so long, this was really a very challenging and enjoyable COTM. Thanks Ainwood and the team!

DJMGator13

Aug 30, 2004, 03:27 AM

Link to my AA spoiler (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2121905&postcount=157)
Link to my MA spoiler (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2133235&postcount=48)

I enter the Industrial Age having eliminated India and having reduced Russia to only 3 cities on 3 separate islands. Both of these wars were timed to put a dent on them before they got their UU in action. Against India I only saw 1 War Elephant, while Russia was quickly separated from her only supply of horses. So I set my sights on the Ottomans, again I am attacking right before they get their UU. I’ve also managed to keep the tech pace slowed due to a long false war with the CARTs, that they started. I was able to sign a few MA which kept everyone involved in at least one war.

OTTO War
In 720AD the Dutch were already at war with OTTO, so I offer my assistance to them. Coming thru the chokepoint from former RUS lands, I attack upward capturing 2 cities, one of which had Sun Tzu & the Oracle. In 800AD I send my Knight army on a pillaging run and disconnect the OTTO horse supply in 830AD. This was a good move because I also killed 5 Sipahi that same turn and would see less than a dozen total over the whole campaign. In 840AD I finally generate my 4th Great Leader, the last one was in 50BC and I have been at war nearly the entire time. My pillaging run has also divided the OTTO lands in half. In 890AD I run into my first rifleman and the rest of the campaigns start to drag on. I capture a town about every 3-4 turns. In 1080AD I learn Electricity and start on Scientific Method, I have already started a prebuild for ToE. The only reson I did this was because I did not want any of the other civs to get the slingshot.

In 1120AD an unbelievable event happens. Edrine a size 7 city consisting of 1 OTTO and 6 BYZ flips :eek: back to OTTO at a point when the OTTO empire consists of 2 cities. This takes away my spices and causes 23 cities to riot. :cry: Because of this I do a little dishonest trading. After recapturing Edrine and the OTTOs biggest remaining city I offer them peace for gold and gpt to gain Nationalism. I then immediately declare war and capture their last city in 1130AD. Not worried about reputation because I know this is going to be a domination victory condition.

The Coal Puzzle & The Russians
Yes I was stupid enough to try putting a colony on the mountain coal, knowing it would not work but I was intrigue by the idea that Ainwood might have modded the game to allow its use. Nope, but it was a nice dream. So I look around the map and discover that 1 of Russia’s 3 cities has a coal in the jungle. So I declare war on Russia again and go after the coal source. I end up getting it hooked up in 1240AD. RUS was eliminated in 1180AD after I took 2 of their 3 cities.

CART War
As soon as the OTTO campaign ended I went after the CARTs. I captured the first CART city in 1170AD and have control of 6 by 1255AD when I learn Scientific Method and I get TOE in 3 turns after thanks to a nicely timed prebuild. In 1260AD I generate my 5th and 6th Great Leaders on the same turn after I converted the first to an army. The Vikings and Persians know Replaceable Parts, and PER extorts coal from me, the turn after I capture a 2nd source. After TOE completes I leave science off, game should not reach Modern Age. I capture 4 more CART cities and eliminate them in 1275AD.

The Dutch
In 1295AD I sign a MPP with the Vikings and go after the Dutch. Persia wanted rubber for a MA and I declined to bring them into the war at this point, eventully I get the MPP by trading them a tech. In 1310AD I issue DOW on the Dutch who have 22 cities, but are barely in the Industrial Age techwise. In the first 2 turns of the war I capture 8 cities and their supply of rubber, which they could not use. The MPPs kick in and both VIK and PER declare war on the Dutch. This almost proves to be a mistake because the Persians were a little more active than I expected. I capture 11 more Dutch cities and they are eliminated in 1385AD. Persia captured the other 3 cities and this cause me to be short of need tiles for domination.

Here is a look at my military at the end of the Dutch war.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/DJM_C03_04.jpg

End Game
In 1390 AD I still need 130 tiles for DOM and there are 192 unclaimed. I had already switched production over to settlers and libraries. This is the first game I have ever used Civil Engineers in. I also disbanded some cannons and later some cavalry in cities to help rush the last few libraries. I was able to get the needed tiles in 1420AD and thus achieved a 1425AD victory. This is only the second demi-god level game I have played. The only other was in an SG, so this was my first solo game. I ended with a final Firaxis score of 7513 and a Jason of 7792.

grs

Aug 30, 2004, 04:32 AM

This takes away my spices and causes 23 cities to riot. Just one tip. When something like this happens, use the "zoom to city" option and then scroll forward through the cities. This way only one of them will riot.

DJMGator13

Aug 30, 2004, 09:52 AM

@grs, I thought about doing that. However I had reinforcement troops right next to the city so I was not concerned about recapturing it. After about 3 or 4 cities I figured out what was causing it. It was just an annoyance. At first I thought it was WW then remembered that I was still in Monarchy.

grs

Aug 31, 2004, 12:17 PM

Jason Fliegel

Aug 31, 2004, 05:19 PM

One thing happened, that I've seen very rarely before, was the Ottos and Russian building a barricade each at their choke. That may be, what let the Russias keep their half, as I read in quite some of your writeups they lost to the Ottomans.

Interesting. The Ottomans did wipe out the Russians in my game -- I think both were early Industrial at the time. I'm not sure whether the Russians built a fortress at the choke point (heck, I'm not even sure if the chokepoint was in Russian territory).

The Dutch built fortresses as their chokepoint, but it didn't stop my cavalry from rolling over their Swiss Mercs.

Not that it helped me in the long run. In fact, that chokepoint on the Dutch continent wound up being the core of my empire by the end of the game. :(

Gyathaar

Aug 31, 2004, 05:59 PM

In game Russians got wiped out too.. however Russians placed their city differently in my game.

No idea if they buildt forts or not.. since when russians was pushed back from choke we could still not trade maps, and my map from that area was from early anchient ages:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/COT03_Choke1.JPG

However after maptrading was available, and Russians was already pushed off their home continents and to some small islands, this is how it looked like:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/COT03_Choke2.JPG

Someone had buildt forts (not barricades thou.. there are trenches around the fort graphics when there are barricades) on both sides of the choke city.
They even planted a forest for more defense?

(Carthage buildt the knights templar, so neither side could have used templars to build them)

civ_steve

Aug 31, 2004, 08:01 PM

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

Time limit is approacing, so I automated everything I could automate, turned off animations (except for Battle), and dove into the IA. Goal: finish as fast as possible, preferably with a victory, so aiming for UN.

Entered IA in 570AD, with free Tech of Nationalism, and was able to finagle a trade for Steam Power, so I was Tech Even or Ahead of everybody.

3 Problems entering the IA: no coal (man that coal on the island mountain was tantalizingly close!!), long grinding war with India, and just declared on by Russia.

Coal: I saw the same island that grs saw; in my game the coal space was completely surrounded by Russian, Carthage and Persian culture, but wasn't claimed!!! I drafted a few Riflemen, sent a Settler and 2 Riflemen to this location (signing a ROP with Persia to gain non-contested access) and this coal was mine once I rushed a Harbor.

Russia: used Nationalism to ally Ottomans with me against Russia. They in turn brought Carthage, Persia and the Dutch in. I also placed workers along my coasts when Russian caravels were nearby. During entire war only saw 1 LongBow and 1 Rifleman ever landed on my continent. Russia did not fare as well :) , but still had a couple of cities by the end of the game.

India: Gandhi was still in the mid-MidAges, and didn't have any Saltpeter, so no Muskets. I didn't trade for MilTrad; turned off research to generate some cash, built Horsemen, trade for MilTrad from one of the non-scientific civs, upgrade, and India was done shortly after. Took 20 turns, to 770 AD.

In 610 AD I finally did a Palace Jump to a spot near where Delhi used to be; I placed the new capital 2 spaces NW of Delhi's original spot, which brings in several Hills/Mountains to make the capital a good shield producer. My FP was located in Adrianople, near all the Ivory sources. Moving the Capital made my original core about 40-50% corrupted, but the new Indian core was eventually bigger and had higher shield producing cities once they were developed. Typical build was Library, Marketplace, University (with Courthouse/Aquaduct if needed.)

The IA was a wild time with warfare constantly breaking out amongst the AI. I stayed on the sideline for the most part; I think the Dutch did declare on me once, but I never saw any of their units; somehow the Russians got them to sign peace, then ally against the Ottomans, who started to dismember them. Other than India and Russia, that was the only DoW I recall.

After India was pretty much taken care of, I turned Research back on. The AI knew Industrialism so I started on Electricity. Ottomans beat me to it by one turn, so I bought it for 14 Gold and WM; there were enough trade opportunities to get Ind and Corp, and I started on Refining.

Again was just beaten to Refining, but got it, and was able to trade for Steel and Rep