Final Spoiler for Classic GOTM 34

What was your chosen method to close-out this game? Secure the home continent, full steam ahead to navigation and then invading the other continent? Or did you set yourself up for a cultural or diplomatic victory? Or even pursue a space race victory?

Or didn't you make it at all.....


As always, please don't post any screen shots that show modern-age resources.

PTW - Open

The disappointment of being beaten to completing JS Bach’s Cathedral was barely offset by the consolation prize of Smith’s Trading Post. Shaka grew even more enraged when the recently conquered city of Kufah, revolted and killed two of his resting cavalry units. “Someone will pay for this outrage,” he bellowed at the walls of his office. Not wanting to break his word of peace with the Arabs, the final Carthaginian city of Russadir felt the wrath of the Zulu cavalry and Hannibal took up residence in the Zimbabwe home for deposed leaders.

Shaka collapsed in his chair. “Why am I always the one to cut ribbons and dedicate new buildings” he asked to the map on the wall”. The new Military Academy in Pasagarde was busy training new armies while the factories of the Zulu Republic were busy building new troops to fill those armies with. The Newton’s University on Ngome added the scientific burst his nation needed to maintain a steady flow of new technologies. With the recent upgrade of all of his antiquated city defenders to Infantry, a moved financed by selling outdated middle age techs to the Indians & Arabs, left Shaka feeling very secure on his own continent and the arrival of Aztec furs & Iroquois silks, were the basis for joyous celebrations in his honor throughout the Republic. There were still five wonders owned by Arabia and he wanted to complete his collection, so he knew war with the Arabs would soon be at hand.

Jafar leaned against his rifle as the rising sun signaled the end of another boring shift of sentry duty in Mecca. As he turned to return to the barracks, he felt the ground tremble as a dust cloud rose from the south. The Zulu Cavalry was coming!!

Brigadier Scoutsout troops poured from into the city past the fallen Arab musket men and assembled in the plaza between the Oracle and Hanging Gardens. Their victory had come with few casualties and they were preparing to move on the next Arab city. The troops in Kufah and Najran were no less successful in slowing the Zulu troops and soon the defenders of Baghdad were facing the mighty Zulu attack force. With the fall of Baghdad with the Great Lighthouse and Colossus, Shaka now controlled all of the known wonders of the world. He knew if the Arabs remained on the planet the peoples of those captured cities would be prone to revolt against his troops, so he ordered his generals to continue to press forward. The third and final Zulu Great Leader, Dingane was born during a mopping up operation near Baghdad and he would be returned to Zimbabwe for a future wonder build. With the fall of Anjar the Arabs had been reduced to a single island city and a transport of Zulu Infantry was in route to claim that city.

The completion of the Hoover Dam in Zimbabwe and Wall Street in Bapedi pushed the Zulu wealth & production capacity to the it’s maximum potential and allowed full funding to continue for the Zulu science community. The completion of the Pentagon coincided with the discovery of Motorized Transportation and soon the number of 4-unit tank armies in lands once held by Arabia grew to four. The massing of Aztec cavalry on the border meant that current period of peace was to be short lived.

General Grahamiam hurried into the morning staff meeting asking to have the floor immediately. “The Aztecs have crossed the border with 15 cavalry companies northwest of Baghdad” he announced. Shaka raised his hands to calm the room “We have five tank armies in place and our cities are defended by infantry and artillery. Absorb their initial assault and then we will claim all of the lands of Gandhi from this fool”.

The Aztec Cavalry Commander had expected to charge the riflemen in Baghdad without any distraction, yet with explosions bursting all around had broken his charge and his troops had become disordered. When he finally looked west away from Baghdad, he saw the first volley leave the barrels of the Zulu tanks and he would soon see no more.

With the Aztec cavalry gone, the Zulu Tanks turned north, the few Aztec pikemen in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Calcutta, Bombay, Basra, Delhi, Lahore, Madras, Bengal and Kolhapur were unable to defeat a single Zulu tank and soon the Aztec ambassador was handing over the full Aztec treasury to the Zulu leader for accepting his peace entreaty. Shaka smiled and looked out his window as the workmen completed the final touches on the palace. It was a nice place to visit, but Alpha Centauri is where he wanted to be. His researchers had completed the Radio and were now working on technologies of the modern era. “I feel very generous and I believe that Persia might be able to speed my journey to the stars if I was to offer them a little incentive” he said to his aide. “Get my the Persian Ambassador”

Xerxes had overridden his counselors and had chosen to visit the Zulu leader in person. He knew that with the wave of his hand the Zulu leader could wipe his single city from the map, but before his reign was over he wanted to see some of these wonders that travelers had spoken of. What few wise men he had managed to bring from the mainland to his island exile had been researching the theory of mathematics since before 1000 BC and still hadn’t got it figured out. “This is your lucky day Xerxes” began Shaka “I’ve got some presents for your little fiefdom and I ask nothing in return except the chance to return later with trade offers”. Xerxes left the palace in a daze. He was leading a parade of over 15 men, each of them carrying an armload of books to help bring his nation to the modern age of science. When he returned to his palace with his treasure, his scientists spent days pouring over the information, until one quiet young apprentice raised his hand. “What is it Ispep?” Xerxes asked. “Sire, with all the knowledge we’ve been given, I can’t help but wonder why something I just thought of, fission, was not included in the list. It must be something the Zulu scientists do not know yet”. Armed with the new bargaining chip Xerxes called the Zulu ambassador and asked him to make me an offer. Soon the wisdom of Computers, Military Tradition and Navigation was part of the Persian book of wisdom. Still, though rumors persisted of nations other than the Zulu, the Persian people would not meet them while Shaka was on the planet.

Shaka smiled, he had given away a lot to the Persians, but they were of no threat either militarily or scientifically. He had saved having to research fission himself and by precise timing of the completion of the Theory of Evolution he received the knowledge of Miniaturization and Rocketry from his scientists. He send word to Ngoome for Dingnane to hurry the completion of the Internet and the Zulu research community was now primed for the final push to space. With the launching of the Apollo Program in Bapedi, Shaka new that it was time to start packing his bags again. For the next 50 years, different Zulu cities would deliver another piece in the puzzle towards Alpha Centauri. At the celebration of the Planetary Party Lounge, General Grahamiam cornered Shaka and informed him that Iroquois Cavalry units had crossed the border near Delhi. The eight tank armies on the continent would be more than enough to handle this invasion. “I’d prefer to launch tomorrow while the planet was at peace, see if you can delay those troops from causing an incident until after the launch.” Alas, it was not to be as Shaka was walking through the boarding area he was intercepted by a messenger from the General, the Iroquois had declared war and attacked Delhi. The fortified Mechanized Infantry had no problems in crushing the attack and the General wanted follow up instructions. Shaka said to the young man “Take this message to the General, he’ll be at the United Nations dedication in Zimbabwe. The fate of the Zulu Republic is now in your hands General, please care for it well. He will know how to deal with this minor threat.”

And so, as the new century (1800 AD) began the engines of the space ship fired and once again Mursilis headed to Alpha Centauri.

Space Ship Launch in 1800 AD – 33 hours & 44 minutes – Firaxis 3390 – Jason 6552

Open

Middle Ages (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2128790&postcount=5)

We entered the IA in 1120AD, heading for the space race victory. We had been able to do 4 turn research from 800AD - 1120AD to complete the MA, and continued through the IA in a similar vein. We decided to gift the one city state, Persia, to the IA in the hopes that they would get something useful for us. They didn't. They got nationalism!

Railing
Our four turn research initially required 100% science while we researched steam, then Industrialisation. Fortunately with libraries, unis, marketplaces and banks in most of our two cores' cities, we had a good buffer to afford this deficit research. By the time Industrialisation came in, we had coal hooked up. We normally opt for the strategic railnet linking all our cities together so that we can respond to military threeats rapidly, anywhere in our empire. This time round we prioritised railing first Persepolis, our capital in former Persian lands, because this city had Copernicus, and was building Newtons, and then our other core cities. The rapid railing of our cores, combined with Newtons completing in Persepolis, resulted in a quick improvement in research cost requirements, so medicine was at 80%, sanitation at 70% etc.

Culture
In 1140AD, the Carthaginian city of Cadiz flipped to us. At first I thought it must have gone the other way, because I am not used to this. I guess our culture from all those libraries and unis was starting to get quite huge!

Wars
By the Industrial Age, the home continent was fully under control. The Egyptians and the Persians still had one city each. The Carthaginians still had three. There didn't seem much point pursuing the war against them, so we shifted to the other continent. Our reasoins for war were twofold. To get a good score on a space victory, you still need to occupy close to 66% of the terrain, and 5 of the worlds luxes were on the other continent. We wanted 8 native luxes. The other reason for ongoing conflict, of course, was to keep a steady flow of leaders coming for rushing important wonders.

We started with the Iroquois who were easy to reach, fairly weak, and had one of the luxes we required. This war went from 1160AD to 1220AD, netting us three cities and a silks resource.

We immediately turned on the Indians, and by 1280AD we had achieved our objective of a new leader, another city, and a spice resource.

Finally we moved on to the Arabs. They were the strongest civ on the other continent - still puny, but relatively the strongest. They also had the remaining three luxes. Securing all three luxes took a little longer than the earlier wars, and we suffered a flip against us just before the end. However, by 1360AD we gave peace to the Arabs and left them with a single city. We now had all 8 luxes connected.

The Aztecs got a little uppity at this time and took advantage of the fact we were warring with a handful of knights and muskets. Numbers were on their side and they managed to wrest control of an unimportant city back off us. We soon returned with tanks, and in the final land grab reduced the Aztecs to a pale shadow of their former selves, but made sure we stayed well under the 66% threshold. By this time a space victory was surely going to score better than a domination victory!

Tech Acquisition
We were able to do 4 turn research throughout the IA. The only hiccup came when we wanted to research atomic theory. This would have taken 5 turns so we delayed getting to electronics researching the other branch, until we were able to do these techs in four turns. We had deliberately decided to use ToE to pick up two modern age techs, and so had delayed the build of this wonder. The only IA optional tech that we researched was sanitation. We considered it essential to get our core cities, and in particular Persepolis, able to work all city tiles. Persepolis had Copernicus and Newtons, and then later Seti, so it was a real knowledge powerhouse.

We entered the Modern Age in 1520AD. We gifted Persia to the MA, and they get rocketry as their free tech. Our research on computers takes five turns. I also find that I need to try and slow diown my ToE build, so that it doesn't come in until after I complete computers. ToE completes on the same turn as I research computers. I get miniturisation, then via big picture trade Persia for rocketry, and pick up space flight as my second tech.

From here on in, modern age techs take four turns each, with satellites being the last tech researched for space. We use three or four core cities working on prebuilds of unnecessary wonders, so that as the techs come in, the spaceship parts are completed immediately, and the prebuilds can start anew. When satellites came in, I used the big picture to access the cities list and searched through until I found a prebuild that could complete the last spaceship part in one. This saved one turn on the launch, I think.

Space achieved in 1715AD for 7164 Jason points.

Attached is Persepolis - churning out almost 300 beakers of research per turn.

[PTW] 1.27f - Open Class

Just a few turns before then end of the Middle Ages (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2129124&postcount=6) , I had a begun the invasion of the other continent. Capturing two cities by the time I reached the industrial age.

Indstrial Age

My goal by this time was to milk the game to a histograph victory. I had reduced the Iroquois to one city by 1400AD and as I was positioning 20 cavalry down the coast preparing to attack the Arabs for their luxuries, when India jumped up and said "Me first!". Since I had all those troops just off their coast, I was only to happy to change my plans.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/dsv_g34_1405ad.JPG

In 1440AD, I captured the last Indian City. I had begun to raze instead of capture to keep my territory below the domination limit. Of the Iroquois cities I had captured, I was abandoning them by rushing settlers.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/dsv_g34_1440ad.JPG

In 1505AD, I was ready to start on the Arabs as they were beginning to expand in the former Indian territory.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/dsv_g34_1505ad.JPG

By 1545AD, the Arabs had been exiled to their 2 tile island, when the Aztecs decided to invade in the north. I had been blocking their access to all that open land and I guess it just pissed them off. In addition to what you can see, I have 2 Cavalry Armies in Salamanca.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/dsv_g34_1545ad.JPG

The Zulus became a Democracy in 1585AD afer a 5 turn anarchy. I grabbed the chokepoint and sent a couple armies to pillage the Aztec's saltpeter before I gave the them peace in 1595AD.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/dsv_g34_1595ad.JPG

I entered the Modern Ages in 1740AD with the discovery of Radio. I completed the ToE the same turn for Computers and Miniaturization. I used another prebuild to finish The Internet the following turn. (Can anyone tell me why that was a bad idea. Never mind, I found out.) Things were quiet until 1782AD when I decided to use all my new toys to eliminate the Aztecs who were trying to expand again.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/dsv_g34_1782ad.JPG

I completed my razing of the former Aztec empire by 1800AD. The picture below shows my slaves workers busy planting trees as they had done in the other pars of the continent. It looked really cool with them all moving. I had 167 slave workers at my peak.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/dsv_g34_1802ad.JPG

From there it was clean up pollution and hit the turn button. I researched Stealth in 1862AD and went back and researched 4 optional techs before researching 9 future techs. In 1991AD, after micromanaging population, pollution, and domination limit, I was suprised to find I had won a 100K victory.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/dsv_g34_1991ad.JPG

Game status: Cultural 100k Victory for Zululand
Game date: 1991 AD
Firaxis score: 5581
Jason score: 7822
Time played: 52:29:59


I never built many cultural buildings except science in my core. I had sold off all my temples long ago. I knew my culture was low. I just forgot to keep checking it. I went back and checked my saves. In 1900AD my culture was 60,000 and in 1950AD it was 80,000. If I had just checked it once, I could have prevented the 100K victory.

It looked like I was doing pretty well, but I have never play for a Histograph victory. I don't know how I would have done had I kept like I was going for another 60+ turns.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/dsv_g34_histo.JPG

Open

Before Industrial age, I had conquered Carthage and was at war with Persia.
I had decided I was going to go for Space Race so switched to Democracy since I figured the war with Persia would only last for 10 turns or so. :rolleyes: I was wrong, shortly after I had entered the Industrial age, so did Persia, and they got Nationalism as their freebie. My cavalry had a hard time against the Persian rifleman, and my citizens started to get annoyed. I decided that I would have to make peace, even though it meant breaking an MA with Egypt.

Egypt eventually finished off Persia. and I was left with a few dangerous Egyptian cities nestled in my territory. I was fairly ahead of Egypt in tech, so declared war and annexed them to their south west peninsula with my tanks. My citizens started to get upset so decided to switch to commie government, but by the time I’d had a revolution, Egypt had infantry. :rolleyes: Oh well, make peace with Egypt and switch back to Democracy for space race.

Launched spaceship in 1922AD.
Firaxis - 2522
Jason - 4314

I could have done better. The reason this was so slow was the number of turns I spent in Anarchy, my apathy with the game during the Ancient/Middle Ages, and pointless lengthy wars. I think my government chain throughout the game looked like this:

Despot – Republic – Democracy – Communism – Democracy :lol: . I know…
I’ve promised myself to make sure I’m in a good mood before I start playing next time. My lack of concentration of apathy really hurt me early on.

classic 34 open ptw 1.27f

goal: pre 1700 domination victory (never had one in a solo game)

1530 ibt enter IA and complete smith's

1545 Dow on India

1570 destroyed Indians

move more cavs to other continent, rush cultural improvements and muskets

Turn off research after learning Steam Power

1630 checked mapstat - I need 161 tiles to win and Iroquois have 254 and are weaker than the Arabs, so the Zulu will annex their lands

Demand Printing Press from Iroquois, they refuse, so we DoW and capture Bangalore and Karachi and position cavs to pillage saltpeter next turn

1635 capture Fustat - see an Iroquois army heading to Bangalore :(

ibt - had a very brave cavalry that died, but not before reducing the full strenth 3 knight attacking army to 2 hp :goodjob:

1640 and elite cav finished off their army, but no promotion, captured Hyperbad

1670 Fifty tiles to go - will I make my goal of a pre 1700 domination victory :confused:

1680 34 tiles to go at beginning of turn. Capture Salamanca with Sistine's and Grand river - recheck and now only 9 tiles to go.

1685 ibt some border expansions, but not enough

1690 Capture cattaragus - check mapstat and I have 8 more tiles than needed :yeah:

1695 domination victory with Firaxis score 2893 (jason 6519) [dance]

Just barely squeeked under the date for my victory goal. :D

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/rrauclassic34win.jpg

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/rrauclassic34hist.jpg

First time I have played a full game in PTW (played vanilla untill I got conquests)... Corruption was quite different from what I have gotten used to in C3C..

Never played Zulus before.. so decided to do everthing differently than I usually do since it was just regent difficulty. I normally am a builder and occationaly doing some wars in middle ages and usually finish off game in industrial ages with tanks. Decided to try to win by conquest or domination pre 1000AD.

Had really bad luck with popping huts.. got ceremonial burial from one, a town in far north end of home continent (turned out to be only a few tiles away from iron and horses eventually, andit would supply me with those resources after I got mapmaking .. so getting that city wasnt bad in the end). Rest of the goodiehuts was all maps I think.

Researched up to monarchy, and switched to that. A few turns earlier chartage had buildt the pyramids, so I took a stack of swordsmen and declared war on chartage the same turn as I reached monarchy I believe. From then on till the end of game I was always at war with atleast one other civ.

Triggered golden age first turn of the war by killing a stray warrior (or perhaps archerer) with one of the impis I had brought along. Killing chartage was slow since heavy losses with swods vs numerian merchenaries. Started on egypt a bit later (think I had temporary peace with carthage in meantime while I rebuilt my swordsman army and they were paying me gpt for peace).

Captired first Carthage city in 350BC, finished off Carthage in 570AD
Also finished off Persia in 570AD, and Egypt in 580AD

I had contacts with all civs on the other continent and full maps of it in 270BC. Soon after I decalered war on Arabs and Iroquois, and allies Indians vs Arabs and Aztec vs Iroquois.

Started invation of other continent with galleys and knights in 700AD-something. Captired first Arab town in 800AD.

In 1000AD when I had hope to win by I was 1 tile short of domination limit acoring to mapstat, and the only city that was due to expand culture boundries would only grab sea tiles. I was not in position to capture any cities that turn. Finally won in domination victory in 1020AD.

At this point I still only had the following of the middle age techs : Feudalism, Monotheism,Chivalry,Education and Music theory. I set a lone scientist to research astronomy when I could build Bach's, but he still had 16 turns left when game finished :D

Score: 4695
Jason: 10153
Time played: 14:32:04
(open class)

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/GOTM34_Gyathaar.JPG

PtW Open

Brief recap so far:
AA - Expanded, and Carthage declared when I booted one of their warriors for (approximately) the 12th time. The war (swords, then quickly horses, vs. Mercs and Archers - not very painful, as the horses could retreat) lasted until Carthage bit the dust, and straddled my entry into the MA.
MA - Screwed up at the beginning. I'd figured that the best way to a fast conquest was Chivalry, then run to Navigation. So of course I researched Engineering first, then got Feudalism and started on Invention. Highly successful, otherwise: I got all three early-era wonders (Sun Tzu built from scratch, Leo's leader-rushed, Sistine pre-built), decided then to switch from military win to as fast a UN win as I could. Apart from Economics and Navigation, only required techs were researched. Built Smith's, Magellan's, Copernicus, Newton (though, er, not in the same city... not that it mattered).

Entered the IA in 1210, having shifted my initial thoughts from a conquest/domination (due to the distance of the other continent... it would've required ship-chaining, which I couldn't be bothered with, or a fast run to Navigation, which I'd already blown out). Persia and Egypt were still alive, barely, but didn't survive long. As I was at war with Persia, I couldn't gift them into the IA - besides, I wouldn't have wanted to faced Rifles and didn't want Nationalism anyway.

4-turn researched throughout the IA, the only optional tech being Sanitation. Suffrage from scratch, pre-built ToE, leader-rushed Hoover.

War-wise, being a cheap-ass, I coveted the Indian Spices and Gems, and the Arabian Ivory, for my own. I launched blitzkrieg attacks with Cavalry, Infantry, and Artillery to snatch them. Mission accomplished, plus my second leader (used for Hoover).

Modern Era entered in 1530. If I'd timed my ToE to research Fission, I'd have still had pre-build turns left for the UN. So I used ToE for Radio and Mech Transport, and researched Fission (try as I might, and despite rushing Libraries and Universities in every non-corrupt city) in 5 turns.

With a bit more manipulation, I might've won in 1555 (as in, just figured out how I might've done it - I believe DaveMcW did something similar in COTM02):
- Political shenanigans (see below).
- MM my UN pre-build to finish the same turn as Fission was completed.
- Have my capital finish a build on the same turn as Fission was completed.
- End turn.
- Zoom to the capital when the build order box comes up, scroll the the pre-build, switch to UN.

Political shenanigans: due to my raids on India and Arabia, they were somewhat upset with me. India, indeed, refused to be anything but 'Furious' with me, no matter how generous I was. My opponents in the UN vote would be the Aztecs, who, annoyingly, were still on good terms (as well as the Iroquois). There was only one way to resolve this.

In 1555, the turn before completing the UN, I DoW'd vs Aztecs, and bought alliances with Iroquois and Arabia. India just would not bite - wasn't too fussed, they'd had a war with Aztecs too, and Arabia had fought a millenia-long war with the Aztecs. With three votes guaranteed not to go to Monty, I was at least assured of not losing.

With heart in mouth, I ended the 1555 turn. 1560 rolled in, the UN was finished, and the vote was held. I voted for myself (that would've been one hell of a slip!), and the final tally was:

Shaka votes for Shaka
Monty votes for Monty
Gandhi abstains (no surprises)
Abu Bakr votes for SHAKA
Hiawatha votes for SHAKA

The Zulu Nation wins a Diplomatic victory in 1560! (Now to go clean up the mess I left with the war I started...!)

Firaxis: 3573, Jason: 7832.

Neil. :cool:

Edit: Oh, and just how 'Fission' was researched without knowing how to print books, I'm at a loss :crazyeye:

PtW Open
As I was at war with Persia, I couldn't gift them into the IA - besides, I wouldn't have wanted to faced Rifles and didn't want Nationalism anyway.

The free-tech bug in vanilla was fixed in PtW.
So you would have had a 2/3 chance for a useful tech.

3CC AW (Conquest) Predator

Tech race was very slow. No threat to lose UN or space.

I constructed factories and coal plants in 1880-1900AD. After then I got upper hand. Unfortunatly time was running up. I trash my primary goal conquest. I finished by 21th century Cultural 20k.

Game status: Cultural 20k Victory for Zululand
Game date: 2012 AD
Firaxis score: 592
Jason score: 889
Time played: 14:03:29

Continents were much harder than Pangaea in my variant.
I had to research Navigation/Magnetism.
AI had naval superiority.

AW difficulty scale:

Easy Medium Hard
Monarch -> Sid Archipelago Continents Pangaea
Chieftain -> Regent Archipelago Pangaea Continents

The free-tech bug in vanilla was fixed in PtW.
So you would have had a 2/3 chance for a useful tech.

I suppose leaving him with 1 city then gifting him in wouldn't have been too much of a pain. Knowing my luck, he'd have got Nationalism anyhow.

Neil. :cool:

Eldar: I left Persia live with a single island city until the end. I even gifted him the 3 other island cities to keep me under the domination limit. He never met any of the other continent tribes. Only India ever had any galleys out and the Arabs wiped them out before they had time to meet the Persians. I ended up gifting Xerxes from Mathematics to the Modern Age where he got Fission (he got Feudalism & Nationalism in the earlier ages). Then I researched Computers in 4 and traded him computers and a couple of optional techs (literature, navigation & military tradition, I think) for fission. So I managed to shave 4-5 turns off my completion date. I thought about gifting him to the Industrial Age earlier, but was concerned he'd make contact with one of other continent and then I'd be facing rifles instead of muskets. As it was the Aztecs & Iroquois got rifles with about 6 turns to go and never met Persia.

I just realised, my timing was out anyway - when I entered the IA, Persia still had 3 or 4 cities left. I'd have had to make peace there and then to see what his free tech was. Now, I'm not scared of a couple of Rifles but....

My initial pause in the campaign after hitting two cities initially, to soak up his inevitable GA rush of Immortals, probably stopped me from isolating him - I'd certainly have kept him as a pet had I finished the job before the end of the MA.

Neil. :cool:

PTW 1.27 Open

I entered the industrial ages in 1515 AD gearing up for a war with Persia to secure my continent and going for a 20K victory. As with my earlier wars, the gearing up went on for far too long, and the wars dragged on and on. By the time I finished wiping out the Persians I was facing infantry. At least now I know to build artillery, but moving and attacking with all those pieces wasn't fun. They did their job, though, and Persia steadily lost ground. After Persia I destroyed India (I think, it has been a while) on the other continent and realized I could get a domination or conquest win easily. I've only ever won by domination once, and never by conquest.

This was a new problem for me, as I didn't want a domination win. (Avoiding a conquest win seemed easy.) While my 20K win around 2000 AD wasn't going to be a high scoring victory, it was definitely going to be better than a domination win around 1920 AD. I briefly panicked and then went and got MapStat. I was at around 60% of the "land", so I finished off the Indians. The Arabs and the Iroquois both attacked later, but I got peace negotiated without taking much from them, and I ended up about 20 tiles under the limit. My usual play style is to not declare war on anyone who doesn't attack me, but wipe out anyone who does. This doesn't lead to high scores, and I'm trying to change that. In this game I both attacked preemptively and refrained from annihilating my foes..

While everyone else is fighting, the citizens of Bapedi are patiently building culture: Universal Sufferage in 1740, Theory of Evolution in 1774, Intelligence Agency in 1790, Hoover Dam in 1972 (rushed by a leader after turning the original build into the Intelligence Agency), Battlefield Medicine in 1806, Wall Street in 1818, the Pentagon in 1844, the UN in 1930, SETI in 1958, the Internet in 1976, and either Longevity or Cure for Cancer just before the game ended (I rushed the other one at about the same time in a different city).

I hit 20K in 1995. My Firaxis score was 2945, which is good for me, and my Jason score was 4206. I think this is the first time my Jason score has been higher than the Firaxis one (losses don't score many points, for some reason, imagine that!). I expect to be back scraping for any sort of win next month, but it was interesting to play a game where winning wasn't in doubt and I could concentrate on how to play a winning game. Obviously I still have lots to learn.

GOTM 34 – Zulu (Open)
Civgeek
Aiming for 20K Victory

Industrial Age (1365 AD – 1754 AD)
Modern Times (1754 AD – 1828AD)
From the Industrial Age on, I was essentially just running out the end game. Technology was self-researched at a 4-5-6 turn pace depending on how happy I wanted people to be. I continued to build/rush wonders in Ulundi (20K city). I eventually eliminated Carthage, Persia and Egypt in order to annex their last few cities. If I had been more aggressive I could have conquered part of the other continent to move closer to the Domination limit (I think I was around 53% as it was) and up my score, but frankly at this point the game was becoming a bit repetitive (God save us from worker micromanagement and pollution in Civ 4). I was 2/25 on leader chances, giving me a final total of 7/98 or 1/14 overall. There was some excitement towards the end as both Arabia and the Aztecs approached me for RoP and then proceed to attack me within two turns of each other. I’d never had an AI do a RoP backstab on me before, so getting two in collusion like that was a quite a surprise. Additional Wonders built in Ulundi after the Middle Ages were:

1450 AD Magellan’s Voyage
1455 AD Universal Suffrage (leader)
1570 AD Battlefield Medicine
1580 AD Theory of Evolution (leader)
1645 AD Hoover Dam
1670 AD Wall Street
1768 AD United Nations
1794AD The Internet (+ Research Lab)
1824 AD SETI

Obviously the later wonders don’t have as much impact, so I only reduced my 20K turn by 28 years to 1828 AD. Ulundi was at 129 culture/turn at the end. Score 3465; Jason 6482. As noted, I probably could have up’d that score a bit with some overseas conquests and more aggressive milking of the homeland. Still, the people of Ulundi were very happy as having conquered the world through cheap exploitation flicks, mindless TV soap operas, mass media control and charging outrageous prices to tourists to see the “20 Greatest Wonders of the World!” they decided to move onwards to finding a Cure for Cancer.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/mjf_gotm34_04.JPG
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/mjf_gotm34_05.JPG

Still, the people of Ulundi were very happy as having conquered the world through cheap exploitation flicks, mindless TV soap operas, mass media control and charging outrageous prices to tourists to see the “20 Greatest Wonders of the World!” they decided to move onwards to finding a Cure for Cancer.
:lol:

You forgot softdrinks, fast food, booze and women!

It does seem much more difficult to get the culture victories than just plain old conquest/domination.

I started a game with intent on culture, but the map is driving me towards warmonger, again.

I hadn't really been planning on doing any of the spoiler stuff for this game, and I didn't keep a log. But I was really happy with this game, since I beat my next best Jason score by nearly 3000 points. So what if most everyone's scores are a little padded for this one?

Anyway, did archer rushes for far too long in the game. I had destroyed Persia, gotten my first GL and 20 or so elite victories, and was partway through crippling the Egyptians when I finally got Iron and Horses hooked up. I was nearly as bad as the AI with this, but it just took forever to hack through the jungle. Anyway, I did okay with GLs but not great, with probably 50ish elite wins and two GLs on the first continent. However, after rushing the Pyramids with the first GL I wasted the next on an army, which promptly lost a battle where its odds of winning were about 20 to 1. So no Heroic Epic. Around 1000 AD, I finally had the first continent clear, knowledge of the other continent, and was going full speed ahead towards Navigation. I didn't use a single Cavalry in beating off the Egyptians and Carthaginians, which shows how slow tech was going. So it was domination for me.

I had a stack of 20 or so catapults (don't know how I forgot to upgrade to cannons), 10 cavs and 20 knights and a few muskets, pikes and MedInf. Started with the Arabs and worked my way north fairly quickly, though a sneak attack by the Aztecs slowed things down a bit. And the fact that I pretty much stopped shipping units over after the initial landing. So I missed my goal of 1250 AD domination victory, but not by a whole lot.

Game: GOTM 34
Date submitted: 2004-08-29
Reference number: 4790
Your name: bed_head7
Your email:
Software Version: PtW 1.27f for Windows
Entry class: open
Game status: Domination Victory for Zululand
Game date: 1335 AD
Firaxis score: 3645
Jason score: 8550
Time played: 32:27:59
Submitted save: Shaka of the Zulu, 1335 AD.SAV
Renamed file: bed_head7_GOTM34_PTW127_01.SAV

Open PTW 1.21f

5CC Conquest IV

Ancient Age Spoiler (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2119383&postcount=20)

Oh Where Oh Where Could The Other Civs Be?

Towards the end of the AA I had the home continent firmly under control. The other three civs were reduced to a few towns each and I had yet to see any other civ. I had 50 Horsemen by about 1100ad and Hlobane was cranking out a Galley every two turns. Problem was I could not for the life of me find the other continent. At first I was fooled by the coastal waters off of Egypt. I sent a dozen Galleys off, hoping to quickly get an invasion going. Of course, it ended up being just a bunch of islands - and really, what was I thinking? If that really was the other continent, the other civs would have had visiting Galleys by now. A few failed suicide attempts NW of the islands just added to my frustrations.

Once I realized the west was not the answer, I began sending Galleys off to the east. Twice I made it as close as seeing coastal waters before sinking. Finally, I gathered 4 Galleys into 1 group and sent them off together. 1st turn I lost 1 of the 4. 2nd turn I lost 2, leaving 1 Galley. That Galley finally reached the far shore and contacted India. All in all I think I lost 14 Galleys in suicide attempts. :sad: Some quick trades netted me the map of the new world and contact with all the civs. I even managed to keep my old world contacts and map a secret. The Great Library then gave me Monarchy, Monotheism, Engineering, Theology, Chivalry and Invention. Engineering had been recieved in a peace settlement with Carthage.

The conquest resumes

With Chivalry in hand, I started upgrading my Horses to Knights and proceeded to finish off my neighbors. Each civ fell quickly and respawned within easy reach of my Knights. In 1450ad I finished them off. In the meantime I was using my sparkling clean reputation to trade around with the new world and making a beeline to Navigation, which we reach just about the time I finished my continent. Each of the new civs began colonizing at about that time, but a small force of Knights kept at home would take car of them easily enough.

In 1480ad 38 Knights split into 3 groups landed in Arabia. Luckily for me, India and Arabia were already at war and the Ansar Warriors and War Elephants were busy destroying each other. :lol: My Knights made quick work of Arabian Pikes and Muskets. It only takes 5 turns to reduce Arabia to 1 city. I trade peace to the Arabs for Printing Press, Banking and Physics. The Indians finish them off 2 turns later and with nowhere to go Arabia gets no respawn.

India

After a couple turns of healing and regrouping, my Knights turn on India with the help of the Iroquois. India is a bit tougher of a nut to crack. Their large cities are defended by Muskets and it takes about 12-15 Knights attacks to take each one. Not much of a counterattack from these guys as much of their War Elephant forces were used against Arabia. The going is slow, but a city falls every 3-4 turns and reinforcements are constantly coming in. In 1680ad India is reduced to 1 mountain city and peace is called Democracy, Economics, Theory of Gravity and Magnetism.

Iroquois

At this point both the Iroquois and Aztecs have Military Tradition, which I had been slowly researching to. I traded Incense to Iroquois for Military Tradition (I hade 8 turns left) and immediately declared war on the naive fools. I then give the Aztecs that Incense for an alliance and the Iroquois fall quickly.

1762ad and it's just me and the Aztecs. My Cavalry are just now getting onto the war front in numbers to replace the vet Knights headed back for upgrading (all elites stay on to play a support role.) Unfortunately, the Aztecs have gotten to Nationalism so my Cavs will have their work cut out for them.

Aztecs

The turn the Aztecs reached Nationalism, they had 249g in their treasury. I wanted that gold so it couldn't be used for upgrading Muskets but they refused to trade with me. Something about shady deals with the Iroquois. :mischief: I declare war on India's 1 town and get the Aztecs to ally with me. Suddenly they are willing trade partners. Fools. I take their 249g in exchange for 75gpt and declare war. Bwuhahahaha!

The Aztecs had a large force of Cavalry, including 3 Cav Armies. Unfortunately for them, nearly all of them were in the south heading to overwhelm the little Indian town. I then distracted them by scattering my huge stacks of slaves all over the southern area. While my stack of doom marched on their core cities, their Cavs and Armies played capture the worker. As they trickled back up for a weak counterattack my reinforcements knocked them off before joining the invasion.

Once again it was slow going as the Rifles fortified in cities were a match for my Cavs but they only had 6-7 cities in their core and with little in the way of a counterattack, my Cavs made a steady progress. In 1826ad I had all the Aztec cities razed leaving 13 scattered towns to clean up. No problem. 1862ad the last Aztec town falls and they respawn in the far south. Next turn they are eliminated and I finally have my Conquest victory!!! :D

Final Notes

I noticed a few things about the AI that had me scratching my head. One was the way they used their Cav Armies. I was a little nervous when I noticed they had three of these floating about, but when it came down to it they were little threat. Instead of being used to mess up my SOD, two of them were placed in unimportant towns in the south for defense. It took only two Cav attacks for each to be destroyed and they were actually far less efficient than a Rifleman in their defensive roles. I rarely see a Cavalry used as a defensive unit and I'm not sure why the AI considers a Cavalry Army for that role.

Another odd thing was the placement of Newton's University. The University doubles a city's science output and where did the Iroquois build it? In Niagara Falls, a pop 6 tundra/hill town with very little commerce. It was about as useless as a Wonder could get and it just confirmed my right to extinguish the other civs.

With Conquest behind me, I'd like to try and get a 5CC Space victory. With a possible Monarch game next month, I figure if I approach it in the same way as my Conquest games except not finishing off everyone I could have a shot of getting a Spaceship launched. I've won 20k Culture and Diplo already and Space seems to be the only possible victory left. I'd also like to try and get a higher difficulty Conquest win. I came close twice before and I think my game has improved enough in this style to make an attempt.

Tech

1010ad - Feudalism (Carthage - peace)
1230ad - Monarchy (Great Library)
1240ad - Monotheism (Great Library)
________Engineering (Great Library)
________Theology (Great Library)
________Chivalry (Great Library)
1250ad - Invention (Great Library)
1255ad - Education (Great Library)
1345ad - Astronomy (India - WM, 320g)
________Gunpowder (Iroquois - Astronomy)
1385ad - Navigation (50% - 9t)
1485ad - Chemistry (10% - 40t)
1520ad - Printing Press (Arabia - peace)
________Banking (Arabia - peace)
________Physics (Arabia - peace)
1635ad - Metallurgy (10% - 40t)
1680ad - Democracy (India - peace)
________Economics (India - peace)
________Theory of Gravity (India - peace)
________Magnetism (India - peace)
1690ad - Military Tradition (Iroquois - Incense)
1735ad - Music Theory (Aztecs - 24gpt)

City Builds

Zimbabwe
890ad - Wealth to 990ad
1010ad - Horseman
1020ad - Sun Tzu's Art of War (Dingane)
1060ad - Horseman-5
1190ad - Library
1190ad - Wealth
1310ad - Cathedral
1320ad - Impi-2
1405ad - Leonardo's Workshop (Mpande)
1420ad - Knight-13
1700ad - Bank
1725ad - Cavalry-14

Ulundi
890ad - Wealth to 990ad
1020ad - Horseman-7
1190ad - Library
1190ad - Wealth
1320ad - Cathedral
1370ad - University
1410ad - Knight-11
1700ad - Bank
1725ad - Cavalry-14

Bapedi
450ad - Horseman-29
1190ad - Library
1190ad - Wealth
1315ad - Cathedral
1370ad - University
1400ad - Sistine Chapel (Cetshwayo)
1415ad - Knight-14
1710ad - Bank
1740ad - Cavalry-13

Hlobane
550ad - Galley-29
1270ad - Library
1325ad - Cathedral
1375ad - University
1390ad - Knight
1470ad - Magellan's Voyage
1485ad - Caravel
1505ad - Knight-9
1710ad - Bank
1740ad - Cavalry
1745ad - Shakespeare's Theater (Zwelithini)
1758ad - Cavalry-12

Isandhlwana
890ad - Wealth to 990ad
1030ad - Horseman-5
1180ad - Library
1180ad - Wealth
1325ad - Cathedral
1380ad - University
1415ad - Knight-11
1710ad - Bank
1745ad - Cavalry-12

Kuningas - 3CC all war? That takes some guts to try, even on Regent. I can usually get through the AA with 3 productive cities, but for me I need all 5 cities to produce a military big enough for my abilities and even then I'm finishing pretty late. Congrats on the 20K win and I hope you make another attempt at conquest.

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

Kuningas - 3CC all war? That takes some guts to try, even on Regent. I can usually get through the AA with 3 productive cities, but for me I need all 5 cities to produce a military big enough for my abilities and even then I'm finishing pretty late. Congrats on the 20K win and I hope you make another attempt at conquest.
[Shameless advertisement]

Check out this SG, it's quite cool... it's a redux, the original attempt was lost.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=97894

:D

[/shameless advertisement]

And, good luck, Kuningas. Great job, Continents is hard on a 3CC. :clap:

Ankka - Very cool! I'll be keeping an eye on that game. Looks like you're off to a good start. :)

OPEN going for the cow

The industrial and modern age was ,y first milking attempt in more then two years. I decided to go as quickly as possible to replacable parts to increase the speed of my workers and I built Bach's for less unhappy people.

I decided to let no city grow beyond size 12, so I don't have to deal with pollution and I don't have to build hospitals and mass transport.

It took a lot of time to make sure that all tiles are worked, all jungle cleared and all cities are around size twelve with minimum waste of tiles. Around 1400 AD everything was done, my workers were put back into cities and then I tsarted to research again, gettin gfinally to future tech no.9 (additional 1 Firaxis point).

in 2050 AD I got my historical victory with 8431 Firaxis points. I had no idea whether this was good or bad, but after submitting my game I saw that the score was pretty good, so my milking was not so bad after all.

Here are some meaningless pictures of the milking phase:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/Ronald_gotm34_3.JPG

It took me more than 40 hours to finish this game. Hopefully I get the cow because I don't think I want to milk another game anytime soon.

Ronald

Predator [ptw] Link to Spoiler 2 (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2165309&postcount=49)
For the first time I can remember I managed 4-turn research all the way from Monotheism (although Monotheism was not my first tech in the Middle Ages.)

I went out of my way to support the research of the Indians. I eliminated the other opponents and gave all towns that were situated reasonably close to Dehli to the Indians. I also gave them about 4000 gold cash in all, but they seem to have used it mostly for military... The techs I managed to trade after the Ancient age were very few in this game:
Chivalry (India)
Economics (India/Arabia)
Navigation (Arabia)
Nationalism (Persia)
Communism (India)
Only optional techs as you can see. Economics was the most useful one.
I was hoping for Music theory and Ecology, but the Indians seemed to have a low science rate even when they were not at war. And their workers were so ineffectual I sent all my captured workers to help them.

I gifted India all first layer modern techs and saved Ecology/Synthetic Fibers for last, but the Indians only managed to come up with Communism during this time. I don't remember if I gave them Nationalism the moment I got it, but if I didn't it was certainly a mistake. They could have started communism much earlier. It could be that I didn't have enough privateers in place to keep them from meeting the Persians (who would have said nasty things about me) and so didn't want to give them Magnetism. Much ado about nothing. Edit: Just remembered: I didn't get Nationalism until 40 turns after entering the IA, after a 40 turn research by the Persians. that's the obvious reason India got it too late.

Persian free techs were
Engineering
Steam Power
Computers
Better luck there.

With 5 turns remaining the Indians decided to attack pathetically and lose the 5 free luxuries and the 50 gpt I endowed them. A victorious cavalry unit was of course named "You Ungrateful Bastards."

I did not research Sanitation. And I guess I never will. On a higher difficulty level, the AI will research it for me, and on a lower level it doesn't seem necessary, except maybe on a meagre archipelago map.

Spaceship victory around 1500 AD. Jason score 8935, very low for such an easy world.

The Zulu were really enjoyable to play in PTW. Lots of GLs.

Always short of time...

I played GOTM34 for a 20k victory, which arrived in 1760 AD (my fastest, in the few I have played

so far).
Here are my few scattered notes.


Assessment of starting position
First, I sent the scout south-south -and saw nothing extraordinary.
Then the worker north, on the wines, and saw nothing astonishing.

So I decided to settle in place and begin with a couple of scouts to explore a bit more while I was

making up my mind on the victory condition -the initial idea was a 20k, but I was a bit puzzled on

where to place the 20k city and where to get the settlers and workers to bring it to a reasonable

size and productivity in a short time...

Hoping I would find a hut or two, I set research on Ceremonial Burial.


Exploration and huts
I met the first two huts in 3700 BC, one relatively close to Zimbabwe (north) and the other one a

bit farther away (south).
I popped the latter and got Broze Working. Disappointing.
I popped the former and got a Settler [dance]

At this point my doubts were solved. I founded Ulundi (3600 BC) at the river mouth whence the

two whales would be accessible after border expansion. As a consequence, I increased the

research funding on CB to maximum.

The location hasn't got a very high shield potential for the later game, but the BGs and the forest

look good enough for the Ancient Age and for the early Middle Ages (assuming I would

start the golden age around that time).

In 3600 BC I met neoCarthage, and traded nothing
In 3450 BC I met Persia, and traded to tech parity with both AI civs (Alphabet, Masonry, Pottery

and some cash).
Zimbabwe was switched to Granary in order to try and speed up Ulundi's growth.

In 2750 BC I meeet Egypt. They had Memphis undefended near the chokepoint. Pity I reached it

with a Scout...


Research
I trusted the AI to research MapMaking for me, which they did in 1100 BC, while I dashed to Republic (after Mysticism, to get the Oracle).
I changed government in 800 BC, with two turns only of Anarchy.

I then took a somewhat leisurely pace, while building the last AA wonders, and only reached the Middle Ages in 10BC, when a suicide galley got contact with the other continent.

I tried to speed up research at the beginning of the Middle Ages with the help of some libraries in my core cities and of the golden age. Didn't work out too bad, but I only reached Free Artistry around 700 AD.
At this difficulty level, with little risk of loosing the MA wonders, I should have probably tried to keep a faster tech pace, and build Shakespeare before the other wonders.

After that, my only effort was to reach the beginning of the IA for the last wonders.
Actually, there has been a late outburst of research towards the end game, as I realized that the UN plus another Modern Age wonder would bring the final date to 1760 AD.


Expansion
The first units from Zimbabwe all went into Ulundi of course, so I only had five cities at the QSC timeline.

I mainly focused on improving the 20k city area and develop a couple of rings around Zimabwe, letting my neighbours expand where they wanted.

As soon as I got Iron and horses connected, I started taking over their lands.
These wars were aimed more at getting great leaders than at real expansion, but I ended up being more effective in the latter... :devil2:
In fact, I spent the last several turns between 1 and 3 tiles to the domination limit... :eek:

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

Oh, and I never moved my capital, and the FP was built in Ulundi. I found out that I never needed a second core, neither for production nor for science; had I played for a different target, I would have done it of course.


Strategic Resources and wars
As soon as I got Iron Working and The Wheel, I saw that there were no horses nor Iron around -which knowing Ainwood was no surprise, of course... :cooool:

And Egypt and Carthage were already too close to the southern sources; moreover, they were a bit too far for my expansion pace.
So I looked a bit more around, and spotted an empy tile to the north, right between the two resources. I managed to send a settler, a couple of workers and a couple of units there and foundend Mpondo in 530 BC as my initial resources supply.

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

I didn't hurry war preparations (a mistake, most probably), and took some time to build a couple of harbours and do a little warrior upgrade.

So it was only 170 AD when I attacked Carthage capturing Theveste. By 460 AD they were left with a small city in the north. This war gave me one just one great leader

In 510 AD I attacked Egypt, and by 740 AD they were only living in the three islands to the west.
Only one great leader, again.

740 AD saw the war with Persia (with knights). By 1070 Persia, neoCarthage and Egype were all, but I got no great leader.

In 1140 AD I brought war to the other continent, for the sole purpose of getting more leaders (even though some might say that I enjoy carnages... :mischief: )
1310 AD Attack India
1380 AD India and Arabia gone, I am 1 tile from domination.

I went on attacking Iroquois and Aztecs. At the end, in 1605 AD, Montezuma was relocated in the two-tiles island south of former Arabia. I had never done that, hey, it's nice... :D

In the end, I got eight great leaders, which is not bad at all. But they all came very late, in spite of uninterrupted fighting from 170 to 1605 AD.
I should have definitely started fighting much earlier on, as a very early great leader would have definitely improved the final date.
I especially liked Ronald's approach with his Archer rush -a great idea.


culture buildup
Temple: 2630 BC
The Colossus: 1675 BC
The Oracle: 1000 BC
The Great Library: 290 BC
Library: 190 BC
The Hanging Gardens: 170 AD
Cathedral: 300 AD
University: 400 AD
Sistine Chapel: 410 AD (leader)
Forbidden Palace: 480 AD
Colloseum: 540 AD
J S Bach's Cathedral: 550 AD (leader)
Shakespeare's Theatre: 760 AD
Copernicus's Observatory: 970 AD
Heroic Epic: 1080 AD
Newton's University: 1090 AD (leader)
Magellan's Voyage: 1270 AD
Universal Suffrage: 1275 AD (leader)
Smith's Trading Company: 1375 AD
Theory Of Evolution: 1380 AD (leader)
Wall Street: 1415 AD
Hoover Dam: 1420 AD (leader)
Military Academy: 1465 AD
The Pentagon: 1470 AD (leader)
Intelligence Agency: 1505 AD
Battlefield Medicine: 1605 AD
United Nations: 1690 AD
Manhattan Project: 1695 AD (leader)

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

Open

I was afraid I would not be able to finish this GOTM when I started due to work responsibilities. Once I reached about 1000 BC, “afraid” I wouldn’t finish became “terrified” I wouldn’t finish, because it was shaping up to be my best 20k game ever. Fortunately, I was able to finish this morning. Here is a copy of my submission email:

Here are the new details we have recorded.
Game: GOTM 34
Date submitted: 2004-09-14
Reference number: 4920
Your name: Bradleyfeanor
Software Version: PtW 1.27f for Windows
Entry class: open
Game status: Cultural 20k Victory for Zululand
Game date: 1545 AD
Firaxis score: 5536
Jason score: 10841
Time played: 46:51:47

Definitely my best 20k game yet, by far. I milked up to the victory date, although I did not go so far as to relocate cities because I didn’t have the time. I also got tired of building settlers so I stopped.

Unfortunately, this game will not compete with Domination victories on Jason score. I wish there were some way the 20k, 100k and space race victories could be a bit more competitive with domination victories as far as score. I think it would lead to more variety in the types of victory people go for, and that would make for more interesting GOTM threads. Oh well.

I will try to post a summary this evening. I had the best leader to elite victory ratio I have ever had, and it was a fun game.

I don't have a leading domination submittal, but I thought I did pretty good with an 840 AD submittal; your Jason score is 700 points higher than mine!

I could be wrong, but I will not be surprised if a few of the lightning fast domination victories that were posted break 11,000, or possibly even 12,000.

bradleyfeanor,

Excellent effort, I hope you get a medal.

Returned to GOTM after 17-month lay-off (or lay-in in the HOF). :)

Predator Level (Should have played at Open Level!).

Yes, I was one of those folks that went for a Domination Victory (690 AD)..........Many of my "phantom" sailors went down with their ships! (BUT, NO actual military units.) ;)

Speaking of ships, did anyone find out what the "Muslim ......" ship, available with Astronomy and moved 6 squares, was all about? :)

Returned to GOTM after 17-month lay-off (or lay-in in the HOF). :)

Predator Level (Should have played at Open Level!).

Yes, I was one of those folks that went for a Domination Victory (690 AD)...... :)

A bit slow for you: only 20 years faster than me :crazyeye: I thought you were a dedicated milk man.

Did you use standard city names for this one?

A bit slow for you: only 20 years faster than me :crazyeye: I thought you were a dedicated milk man.Only deliver milk to the HOF...........BUT, since Aeson's not home right now, had to find another job! :lol: (Tough for me to milk a game in a month!)

It takes awhile getting used to (ainwood's) editing of the map. Should have known something was up when I saw an ocean square next to a coast square! :)



Did you use standard city names for this one.NO!........started at 001 and incremented by 1 for each new/captured city.....with a few more bits of info in the city names, to wit:

1. If the city is in resistance, I don't change the name until the resistance has ended! (Don't want to forget about it!)

2. If the city has "foreign laborer(s)" (viz. a captured city) of a non-exterminated civ, I add XX to the city name, where XX is the first 2 characters of the foreign civ. E.g. AR=Arabia
(Reminds me that the city could flip because of foreigners being present.)

3. If the city needs workers to work the city-radius, I add the following characters to the city name, as appropriate;
r = road needed
i = irrigation needed
m = mine needed
c = forest/jungle/marsh needs to be cleared
p = plant forest

4. Add "/" followed by "1 thru 8" and/or "a thru l" for forest squares already cleared within the 21-square "city radius".

E.g. City Name of 005ARrm/5..........would tell me that this was the 5th city acquired; belonged to Arabia; needs road(s) and mine(s); position "5" has been deforested.

Wish you hadn't asked, eh? :lol:

P.s. Sounds like you had a good game, Offa?! :goodjob:

Returned to GOTM after 17-month lay-off (or lay-in in the HOF). :)
Good to see you here again EMan! ;)

Thanks SirPleb, my friend.....it feels good to be back.......always subject to fiancee approval, of course! :)

I see some things at the GOTM never change..........like YOU setting THE standard.........no matter what YOUR "Victory-condition-of-the-month" happens to be...........medal or no-medal! :)

Speaking of ships, did anyone find out what the "Muslim ......" ship, available with Astronomy and moved 6 squares, was all about? :)You been nosing through the BIC / BIX? ;) Or was this in the civilopaedia?

A while back, games were being played with "Differential Naval Movement" - the full details are here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?threadid=56886).

The Muslim Caravel was simply a modded unit included to add a bit of flavour to the game - same stats as a normal caravel, but replaces the normal caravel for some middle-eastern civs (there were also chinese junks etc for asian civs). The 6 moves is simply the 3 for a normal caravel doubled, as per the differential movement. :)

Open

Initial Strategy and Plan
I didn’t have time to post in the other ages, so this will be a summary of my entire game. Like several others, I decided to go for 20k. My strategy was pretty straightforward: follow T-hawks excellent 20k guide from the war academy, and also do everything I could to generate leaders. This meant sacrificing land area (and score) in order give the AIs the resources needed to build military units.

Expansion Phase
My scout went east to make sure the water was a lake and not an ocean. When this was confirmed, I settled one tile SW and circled my scout around to the north. I got very lucky, and popped a settler in 3700 bc. He founded Ulundi, my 20k city, on the popular coast/river/2 whale location. My capitol built two scouts, granary, barracks, warrior, archer, archer, settler. After that it alternated between a military unit or three and a settler. I needed to get military units out in the field as soon as possible to get leaders for ancient-age wonders.

I set up my cities at RCP4, which held several nice coastal locations. I didn’t worry about distance from the palace too much though, because it was much more important to place cities in relation to Ulundi, the location of my future FP. I also settled a city on the dual wheat location in the south, in the hopes that I would be able to jump my palace to that large, fertile area as soon as possible. I began laying down cities at RCP 4 and 7 around that city.

I met our three opponents early, and noticed that Carthage had claimed the nearest horse in 2950bc. I sent my archers down to poke around Hannibal’s borders, and in 1910 he tried to walk a settler past me. I attacked. I proceeded to kill many Carthaginian warriors and archers, and in 1375 bc, on my sixth elite victory, I got a leader. He went home to rush the Great Library. 5 turns later, after four more elite wins, I got another leader that I used to rush the Pyramids. After that, the leader well dried up for a bit, but not for too long. I departed from my strategy (letting the AI grow) a bit here, because I needed Carthage’s horses and I also didn’t want to have to deal with lots of Numidian Mercenaries later in the game. I razed one Carthage town, and then forced him to give me his horse city for peace. That left him with two cities, and was pretty much the end of Hannibal as a world power.

Stats at 1000 bc
Pop 27
10 cities
1 Temple
1 Library
4 barracks
2 granaries (sold)
The Pyramids
The Colossus
The Great Library
5 workers, 2 scouts, 2 warriors, 4 archers, 1 galley, 3 impis
All techs except Math, Poly, Costruction, Currency, Monarchy and Republic
Republic is due in 4 turns.
Score 215 (Egypt is second with 167)

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/BF_GOTM34_20kcity.jpg

Middle Ages and On
I discovered Republic in 900 ad, immediately revolted and got a four turn anarchy. In 230 bc I completed the FP, and immediately jumped my palace to my dual wheat city to the south. I wish I had known about Sir Pleb’s great new palace jump technique before this game! I had kept the pop down in my 20k city for many years just because I knew I would eventually need to jump my palace. In any case, I raised money after the jump for about 10 turns, but from that point forward I was doing 4-turn research and making lots of gpt besides.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/BF_GOTM34_palacejump.jpg

With the exception of the Carthaginians, I didn’t take cities from the AIs until well into the ADs. I just killed their units. I would be at war with one or two civs for 10-40 turns and then switch to war with another civ. I also left the Persians around so I could get their free tech at the end of each age. I repeatedly pillaged their iron throughout the game, and only saw a handful of immortals.

I tried a new strategy (for me at least): several times in this game, I would give a civ a few hundred gold just prior to attacking, in the hopes of getting them to rush units when I stepped into their territory with my military. I was not very methodical about testing this because I did not have the extra money to investigate cities, but I intend to go back to some old saves to see if it was working. I think it was, as I encountered more archers and spears than I expected from a regent level AI.

Here is a summary of my leaders and how they were used. (I apologize for the readability, but I couldn't figure out how to format this as a table)

Leader/Date/# Elite Victories/Use
1 1375 bc 6 Great Library
2 1275 bc 4 Pyramids
3 250 ad 18 Army
4 320 ad 9 J.S. Bach
5 400 ad 8 Hanging Gardens
6 450 ad 1 Copernicus
7 490 ad 7 Magellan
8 550 ad 13 Newton’s University
9 580 ad 6 Leonardo’s Workshop
10 630 ad 5 Sun Tzu’s Art of War
11 640 ad 3 Shakespeare
12 740 ad 10 Smith’s Trading Co.
13 790 ad 10 Universal Suffrage
14 980 ad 9 ToE
15 1060 ad 9 Hoover
16 1180 26 Manhattan Project

After leader 16, I had 18 more victories, but no leader. I should have returned to my strategy of giving the AIs money at this point, but I got impatient and wiped them out (left Arabia with one city on a two-tile island). I got a leader approximately every 10.125 victories, with the first 5 coming before the Heroic Epic. I am pretty sure that is the most favorable leader ratio I have ever had. Also, early leaders are much more valuable than those that come late, and my first two arrived pre-1000 bc.

Here is a summary of the culture builds in my 20k city.

Temple 2590 BC
Colossus 1500 BC
Library 1300 BC
Great Library 1275 BC
Pyramids 1175 BC
Oracle 510 BC
Lighthouse 290 BC
Forbidden Palace 230 BC
Colosseum 130 BC
Cathedral 50 BC
Sistine Chapel 310 AD
University 320 AD
Bach's Cathedral 350 AD
Great Wall 430 AD
Heroic Epic 450 AD
Hanging Gardens 460 AD
Art of War 650 AD
Copericus' Observatory 490 AD
Magellan's Voyage 530 AD
Newton's University 580 AD
Leonardo's Workshop 630 AD
Shakespeare's Theatre 740 AD
Smith's Trading post 780 AD
Universal Suffrage 940 AD
Theory of Evolution 1020 AD
Military Academy 1090 AD
Hoover Dam 1100 AD
Wall Street 1150 AD
Battlefield Medicine 1200 AD
Intelligence Agency 1300 AD
United Nations 1400 AD
Manhattan Project 1405 AD
Resarch Lab 1425 AD
Seti Program 1490 AD

*All these dates are 1 turn after I actually got them: I was recording them incorrectly, but I didn’t feel like going back to fix them.

I reached the domination limit around 1000 ad. I milked some, but I did not relocate cities to food rich areas as I should have for a true milk run. In 1545 ad, I achieved a cultural victory. Here are the cultural target dates, which I cut and pasted out of AlanH’s 20k calculator, which was invaluable!!!

Date/Culture/Culture per turn
1000 AD 8,540 114
1250 AD 11,530 123
1500 AD 18,506 163
1750 AD 27,096 184
2050 AD 64,961 194
1550 (victory date) 20,148 166

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/BF_GOTM34_end.jpg

Or was this in the civilopaedia?It was in the Tech Tree (F6). :)

I wish there were some way the 20k, 100k and space race victories could be a bit more competitive with domination victories as far as score.
And still, you did awesomely well! Way over 10,000 Jason in a 20K game - congratulations! And it looks like you've also set a new standard for leader farming. Not just a nice RNG, you did a lot of good work too to make it happen. I'm also curious whether your cash gifts helped by encouraging AI rushing, I hope you'll be able to work out whether it was a factor.

And still, you did awesomely well! Way over 10,000 Jason in a 20K game - congratulations! And it looks like you've also set a new standard for leader farming. Not just a nice RNG, you did a lot of good work too to make it happen. I'm also curious whether your cash gifts helped by encouraging AI rushing, I hope you'll be able to work out whether it was a factor.

I agree completely. I took a different approach to leader farming (which I will be posting shortly) and didn't think of gifting them gold to increase their ability to rush units.

Great game! :worship:

[civ3] Predator

Given the line in this month’s little history lesson about how Shaka “forced his Zulu warriors to build their weapons from scratch,” I anticipated that an early archer rush would be necessary to acquire resources. I guessed correctly. I also decided to go for a 20K culture victory if I got some early leader luck.

After taking a peek to the west with my worker, I decided to settle on the spot. I built 2 warriors and 1 impi for exploration before starting on a granary in the capital.

I popped five goody huts, drawing Masonry (3400 BC), barbs (2850 BC), maps (2550 BC), a conscript warrior (2070 BC), and barbs (1870 BC).

In 1000 BC I had 5 towns (1 settler due next turn), 1 temple, 1 barracks, 1 granary, 2 native workers, 6 slaves, 10 archers, 7 warriors, and 1 impi. Fairly pathetic growth, but I had a decent military.

This being my first 20K attempt, I made some poor decisions early on that delayed my victory by several turns. I did not found Bapedi (my 20K culture city) until 1725 BC (turn 51 – in retrospect, this was a major blunder). It was on the coast in exactly the same site chosen by several others, so I won’t bore you with another pic.

I had excellent leader luck in the AA (2 leaders from my first 5 elite victories), so I decided to see if I could make up for my late start.

Warfare:
I pulled an early archer rush on Egypt starting in 1500 BC. Persia provoked me into whacking them with an archer rush in 850 BC. I waited for swords to take on Carthage, and had them reduced to a single city by the end of the Ancient Age (310 AD in my case).

All of this early warfare was fun, but I effectively destroyed what little tech pace there was to this game. I had to study 9 AA techs myself. I kept the Persians as a pet so I could get Monotheism by trade, and that was the last tech the AI completed for me.

After committing many galleys to the ocean floor, I finally made contact with the other continent in 580 AD. The other civs didn’t seem to be very smart, had not been fighting each other very much (there was only evidence that a couple of towns had changed hands), but did seem enamored with building cultural improvements in their towns. Did Ainwood change the build preferences of all of these civs from military and science buildings over to religious buildings?

I finally shipped about 20 knights over to the other continent in 850 AD. My conquest went well, but my leader-farming attempts at home and abroad were relatively disastrous! I suffered through a leader drought from 90 BC to 880 AD (almost a millennium). Already frustrated with my poor leader farming, I used my third GL to build an army and completed the Heroic Epic in 900 AD.

After completing the Heroic Epic, my leader farming got……WORSE! It took 38 more elite victories to get my fourth GL, followed by another 44 elite wins to generate my fifth! Perhaps my elite knights and cavalry feared generating leaders, as they knew they would be sent to the glue factory immediately upon achieving elite* status! Excuse me while I vent. :gripe: :wallbash:

My efforts evened out a bit after this point, but I had to resort to questionable tactics to provide more leader-generating opportunities. I actually conquered the Iroquois and Aztecs back to 1-2 cities on 3 different occasions, only to gift their cities back to them. I eventually shipped tanks over to make promotions (and victories) more predictable. Before I re-gifted their cities the final time, I sent my slaves in to irrigate and railroad all of their tiles, joined my Iroquois and Aztec slaves into their respective cities, and then gifted them up to Nationalism. If they couldn’t build units fast enough for my sadistic leader-farming desires, then they could just draft them! Of course, after going through all of this effort, I finished the game with 49 consecutive elite victories without a GL!

I went back and tallied up my elite victories after building the Heroic Epic, and found that I went 7 for 197. If Heroic Epic really improves one’s chances to 1/12, then I suffered disproportionately bad luck here.

I had the southern wheat site set up for a palace jump fairly early in the game, but never pulled the trigger. I was able to maintain a 4-turn tech pace throughout the Industrial Age, and even completed most of the Modern Age techs I studied in 4 turns (after building Seti and a research lab in my 20K city).

The net effect of my late exit from the Ancient Age and appalling leader luck was that I had a lot of time to build wonders brick by brick in Bapedi. My build sequence there was:
Temple – 1250 BC
Colossus – 510 BC
Pyramids – 490 BC (Leader)
Forbidden Palace – 110 BC
Great Library – 90 BC (Leader)
Library – 50 AD
Marketplace – 270 AD
Great Wall – 410 AD
Cathedral – 430 AD
Coliseum – 460 AD
Hanging Gardens – 560 AD
University – 590 AD
Copernicus’ Observatory – 800 AD
Heroic Epic – 900 AD
Shakespeare’s Theater – 1200 AD
Sistine Chapel – 1210 AD (Leader)
Newton’s University – 1320 AD
Factory – 1350 AD
Coal Plant – 1355 AD
Bach’s Cathedral – 1405 AD
Hospital – 1410 AD
Magellan’s Voyage – 1440 AD
Smith’s Trading Company – 1485 AD
Universal Suffrage – 1490 AD (Leader)
Wall Street – 1515 AD
Stock Exchange – 1520 AD
Sun Tzu’s – 1565 AD
Leonardo’s Workshop – 1570 AD (Leader)
Military Academy – 1600 AD
Hoover Dam – 1605 AD (Leader)
Theory of Evolution – 1650 AD
Seti Program – 1655 AD (Leader)
Research Lab – 1660 AD
Internet – 1735 AD
United Nations – 1740 AD (Leader)
Longevity – 1745 AD (Leader)
Palace (free jump) – 1764 AD
Apollo Program – 1764 AD
Cure for Cancer – 1794 AD
Offshore Platform – 1802 AD (just for the heck of it)

In summary, I crammed 22 wonders into my 20K city along with 5 small wonders and (eventually) the palace. I completed the 20K victory in 1812 AD with a Firaxis score of 4944 and a Jason score of 8667.

I have to take solace in the fact that I had as many pretty buildings in my 20K city as BradleyFeanor – I just completed them in a LOT later than he did! :lol:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/Shigella34a.jpg

Bottom Line: Domination win in 1918; personal high score for GOTM. For the first time ever, I won a game in the Industrial Age.

This game was a lot of fun–in the Middle Ages, I toyed with the idea of a 20K win, but then I saw ainwood’s pre-announcement that COTM 4 was going to be on a large map, so I switched gears.

Main points:

Pre-game planning: Even before the tribe was announced, I decided to focus on Archers and hurting/killing one or more tribe early.

Early game: I went on the offensive early. By 1000 BC, I only had 6 cities, but one of them was Carthaginian (and another of Carthage’s cities was destroyed). I crippled Carthage and Egypt early, but let them live, hoping to create a single desolate zone to which they would respawn. That didn’t work–when I killed them off in the Middle Ages, they just stayed dead.

New playing technique: Besides being more aggressive early (you have to understand I bought Civ III primarily because of the cultural victory option), I changed my build order for most cities to: 1) warrior; 2) worker. I based this on reading spoilers and it made a huge difference early on.

Big thanks to Dianthus—thanks to CrpMatStat, I went through the whole game without suffering a single culture flip! And considering how strong Persia’s culture was, that’s saying something! I was surprised how large a garrison I needed in many cities, but it worked! Also when I was 1 tile away from winning, I knew it, and named my last city accordingly.

The price of greed award: Around 1100, I was ready to attack Persia. I had a lot of knights, and they hadn’t yet hooked up Gunpowder (I could see the worker on the tile). All I had to do was declare. Instead I demanded 5 gpt (take this deal or suffer), assuming the AI would huff and puff, so I’d feel better about blowing his house down. Instead, he accepted! I declared 20 turns later and conquest definitely was harder.

Predator, checking MapStat.

I hope I could submitted the game in time, it was 2.47am on the 15th, still should be the 14th. Since the time was pressing, I went for a rapid Domination and was checking MapStat by Dianthus. Not that I used it, no, I completely relied upon it with autosaves and did not miromanage at all. It was a big surprise that even on predator, the first or second hut I popped with a warrior yielded the settler. I had similar number of cities by 1000BC as Gozpel (around 20) and already eliminated Carthage. The settler from the hut was partially compensated by the lack of early leaders and because of this, I had no Pyramids. :sad:

Well, early Republic and many irrigating workers partially compensated for this. I cleared the home continent around 200BC and discovered Navigation around 50AD immediately launching assault on the other continent. At first, Arabs and Iro were mostly attacked with horsemen but about 200AD I learned Chivalry and upgraded most of the horsemen to knights. Otherwise, it was all the usual stuff, rushing settlers and temples. Domination was reached 490AD with Firaxis score 5915 and Jason's 11628. The game was a great fun and MapStat was very reliable except if something happens at the end of the turn. IIRC, that was my fastes GOTM (playing time slightly over 10 hours). Many thanks to Ainwood and team for the game and to Dianthus for his great utility!!! :)

I'm not going to finish in time!! :cry:

I played Predator, built all the wonders (except Oracle), and don't think it's possible not to win... just too late to submit it! :(

Only deliver milk to the HOF...........BUT, since Aeson's not home right now, had to find another job! :lol:

Wish you hadn't asked, eh? :lol:



Of course I am glad I asked. Your naming strategy is brilliant, and very funny :crazyeye: . I am seriously tempted to try a much simpler version.

It is of course great to have top players like yourself back in gotm, instead of holed out in HOF farmland. But I suppose the siren song of the lowing herds will drive you back there soon.

Good game Shigella. The gifting of cities is a good idea: cash gifts are useless before the AI changes governments, so that is a good alternative. There were quite a few differences in our games, but it is pretty easy to spot the biggest one: I got almost three leaders for every one that you received! It looks like our luck ran to opposite extremes.

still, you did awesomely well!
That is really nice to hear, especially when I think on how much I have learned from your posts: they have played a huge role in improving my game.

An update on the AI using cash gifts to rush units:

I found three saves that I could test and the results are below. Each line represents the total number of units I killed in two AI cities. In the first two tests, one city was attacked the turn after my DoW, the other city the turn after that. In the Arab test, both my attacks came one turn later because I had to land troops.

Civ Name/Attack without cash gift/attack after gift of 300g

Egypt: 3 spear, 1 sword/4 spear, 1 sword, 1 arch

Aztecs: 4 spear, 1 warrior/4 spear, 1 warrior, 2 archer

Arabs: 5 spear, 1 horse/6 spear, 2 horse

So, each gift resulted in an additional two units for me to kill. I suspect more units may have been rushed in other cities, but I couldn't determine that accurately. Now I wish I had done a lot more of this in my game!

In all three tests, the AIs spent the gold quickly, as their treasury went from 300g to 5-27g after their first turn (I used Dianthus' utility to check). I also note that there were no new technologies to purchase from other AIs in any of these tests, so I do not know if they would spend the money on a tech instead of units if a tech were available.

I also investigated the AI cities in each of the tests before my attack. They were all building various improvements or units, but, as luck would have it, they had from 0-12 shields in the box. Therefore, I am not sure if they would abandon an improvement if they had more invested in it.

There are still quite a few questions to answer: will the AI spend its money on a tech if one is available, will he abandon an improvement if many shields are in the box, etc. Also, this was a very tiny test sample, and it needs to be larger to be more reliable. I will try to do more analysis of this in the future, but, if you have noticed how long it takes me to play a game, you will know that I am pretty slow! If one of you speed-demons/editor experts wish to run better tests, then please do so!

Good game Shigella. The gifting of cities is a good idea: cash gifts are useless before the AI changes governments, so that is a good alternative.
I second that! I guess we're likely to see even more extreme leader rushing in future games ;)

So, each gift resulted in an additional two units for me to kill. I suspect more units may have been rushed in other cities, but I couldn't determine that accurately. Now I wish I had done a lot more of this in my game!

In all three tests, the AIs spent the gold quickly, as their treasury went from 300g to 5-27g after their first turn (I used Dianthus' utility to check). I also note that there were no new technologies to purchase from other AIs in any of these tests, so I do not know if they would spend the money on a tech instead of units if a tech were available.

I also investigated the AI cities in each of the tests before my attack. They were all building various improvements or units, but, as luck would have it, they had from 0-12 shields in the box. Therefore, I am not sure if they would abandon an improvement if they had more invested in it.

There are still quite a few questions to answer: will the AI spend its money on a tech if one is available, will he abandon an improvement if many shields are in the box, etc. Also, this was a very tiny test sample, and it needs to be larger to be more reliable. I will try to do more analysis of this in the future, but, if you have noticed how long it takes me to play a game, you will know that I am pretty slow! If one of you speed-demons/editor experts wish to run better tests, then please do so!
That's great information, thank you! Looks like there's still a fair bit to research if someone is inclined to. But the most important part is clear - the AI will rush units when it has the money and is under pressure. :cool:

I second that! I guess we're likely to see even more extreme leader rushing in future games ;)


Well, even though my leader farming didn't pan out too well in the last game, I'm not above another attempt down the road. :mischief:

Here are a few more nuggets of info I gleaned from my game for those inclined to attempt “extreme” leader fishing.

As I described in my spoiler, I irrigated and railroaded all of the Iroquois and Aztec lands before re-gifting their cities the last time. The idea was to put them in a major food surplus (more citizens) and rob them of shields before gifting them up to Nationalism. Essentially, I wanted to face a bunch of conscript rifles.

I declared war on both the Iroquois and Aztecs within 2 turns of re-gifting their cities the final time. Since I didn’t set up shipping lanes to the Aztecs, I had to conquer through Iroquois territory before putting the Aztecs under pressure. Here is a brief summary of the AI behavior.

1. The AI definitely will use gold to rush units, but the type of units depends upon how much pressure they are under.

I saw regular and veteran rifles in several Iroquois cities very early on. They either were rushing and upgrading spears (as I had pillaged all of their resources), or they were rushing rifles directly. Presumably, gifting gold to the AI before DOW (as illustrated by bradleyfeanor) would enhance their ability to rush even more units.

One lesson I learned here is to sell off the barracks from cities that I intend to re-gift to the AI. Vet rifles in a city have the potential to inflict serious harm even on elite tanks.

When I pushed through to the Aztec cities about 6-8 turns later, I captured a lot of slaves again. They were busy rushing settlers and some workers, even though I declared war on them the same turn that I declared on the Iroquois. There was plenty of open space on the map at this point, so it really isn’t that surprising. It also isn’t really all that counter-productive to the strategy, as you can just re-join their slaves back into their cities and start the cycle over again.

2. The AI only seems likely to draft defenders when their cities are under pressure. The AI drafted conscripts when I left attacking units outside their cities for one turn before attacking. I didn’t see very many conscripts in cities that I attacked directly from a distance.

This also is fairly easy to address. All you have to do is leave attacking units outside their cities for a turn or two to allow the AI to draft citizens. Hypothetically, you could farm each size-12 city for 6 “victims” in this manner. In my game, the Iroquois and Aztecs were both in Republic at this stage of the game and could only draft one defender per turn. I could have increased my chances even more had I gifted them into Democracy earlier in the game. Then they could have drafted 2 victims (I mean defenders :hammer: ) per turn.

One could actually repeat the process of conquering and re-gifting cities to the AI for many cycles. The ultimate limiting factors might be AI war weariness and eventually running out of “native” slaves to join into their cities.

Perhaps this is starting to sound a bit exploitive? :hmm:

PTW 1.21f Open

Well, I see that my 20k attempt has been vastly over-shadowed by some other great 20k games. At least I learned alot from this exercise.

20k City

My Industrial Age began in 1340AD. Additions to Bapedi (20k city) as follows:

1340AD - Newton's - Leader
1380AD - Smith's - Leader
1450AD - Factory
1475AD - Military Academy
1505AD - Universal Suffrage - Leader
1520AD - Bank
1535AD - Courthouse
1550AD - Theory of Evolution - Leader
1565AD - Hoover's Dam - Leader
1625AD - Pentagon
1660AD - Intelligence Agency
1700AD - Stock Exchange
1756AD - Wall Street
1792AD - United Nations
1794AD - Manhattan Project - Leader
1804AD - SETI Program - Leader
1820AD - Internet - Leader

Great Leaders

1375AD - Mpande3 - rush Smith's
1475AD - Zwelinthi3 - rush Universal Suffrage
1520AD - Dingane3 - rush Theory of Evolution
1550AD - Cetswayo3 - rush Hoover's Dam
1605AD - Mpande4 - army
1605AD - Zwelinthi4 - army
1625AD - Dingane4 - rush Magellan's (on other continent)
1774AD - Cetswayo4 - rush Manhattan Project
1798AD - Mpande5 - rush SETI Program
1806AD - Zwelinthi5 - rush The Internet

Total of 18 Great Leaders for the game.

Overall

My notes are not exactly clear on this, but I estimate that I hit the domination limit somewhere around 1650AD. I chose not to build any hospitals because I did not want to deal with pollution. My finish date was 1830AD, with a pitiful 2844 Firaxis score, and a disappointing Jason score in the 6000 range. I do see some mistakes in my game, particularly after reading other spoilers here. But, this is a victory condition which may depend upon luck moreso than others. A couple of early leaders, and an early settler out of a hut can change things drastically.

What I did wrong:

- I shied away from a coastal city thinking it was a poor choice. Poor choice!
- Overall, my research selections were sound. But, the tech pace was too slow in the game. I should have tried to speed it up instead of slowing it down.
- Did not reach domination limit fast enough. I spent too much time farming instead of conquering.
- Probably should have built hospitals, as this type of game is, apprently, semi-milking.

What I did right:

- Can't argue with 18 leaders! But, was it at the expense of domination points?
- Played GOTM! That's always a good choice!


And one last note: Not to take away from anybody's games, but does anyone else find some of the domination scores to be a bit too high in the Jason department? Is a domination after 1300AD on Regent worth 10,000 jason points? Just wondering if there may be an error in the Jaoson scoring for this game.

Hergrom

Hergrom: I believe Jason scoring 'more or less' assigns a value of 10,000 to any game that matches the projected score growth due to milking. So a Domination victory in 500 AD or 1300 AD would both score 10,000ish if the later game followed the projected population and score growth.

My understanding is you can score greater than 10,000 by 1.) doing better than the projected best dates, or 2.) grow your population of Happy and Content people faster than the assumed growth rate for this type of map. (I'm super simplifying this to what I understand.)

Since there's been a lot of discussion regarding methods to do 20K victories in this game, I'd like to know if the Jason 'best date' for 20K victory in COTM accounts for the loss of any GL to rush wonders. Losing this capability puts the potential best date for 20K Victory in COTM considerably later than in GOTM.