This will be the last spoiler for Conquest Of The Month 04: Mayans.

As the Mayan Empire expanded over the home continent, you would have started consolidating a plan to close-out the game. Here's your chance to share! :D

The only qualification for this spoiler is that you must have reached the Modern age, or completed the game. Please don't post screenshots of modern-age resources.

Open

Goal: 100K Culture

At the end of the Middle Ages, I was just finishing off the Iroquois. And so, this tale begins with the conclusion of…

The Mayan – Iroqouis War of 1150 – 1305 (part 2)

1275 – Capture Mauch Chunk
1280 – Link up the saltpetre on my new island. Capture Grand River.
1285 – Capture St. Regis. Capture Oil Springs.
1290 – C Itza builds Shakespeare’s Theater. Capture Cattaraugus. Learn Steam Power. Also learn that we have no coal on our continent… great :rolleyes: . Oh well, its not such a big deal, the extra points gained from railroad development would not be too great before our 100K win… or would they?
1295 – Capture Centralia. Capture Salamanca and the Great Wall.
1300 – Capture Alleghany.
1305 – Capture Niagra Falls. Capture Akwesasne -> MGL no.6 and the Iroquois have been destroyed. :)

My ambition now is to acquire all techs in the Ind age which will allow me to build culture improvements, wonders and hospitals, then turn off research and rush buy everything I need to get a quicker 100K victory. With the spare armies I have, I may as well conquer France to secure some coal to let my slave workers have something to do. And so begins…

The Mayan Era of Culture

1315 - Ek Balam Found.
1320 – Learn Industrialization.
1325 – Copan Builds Newton’s Uni. Found Tazumal.
1335 – Found Cozumel.
1340 – Learn The Corporation. We land on French shores.
1345 – The French ask us to leave. We DW on them.
1350 – Capture Orleans.
1355 – Build Smiths TC in Quirigua, and build the Pentagon in Yaxchilian.
1370 – Learn electricity.
1375 – Capture Paris, The Oracle, and a supply of coal. Woohoo! :D
1380 – The Celts sneak attack us. And redline all our armies stationed in Paris :eek: . Sign Alliances against the Celts with every remaining civ. And donate the cities of Orleans and Paris to friendly civs in order for teleportation of wounded armies.
1390 – Capture Cataractonium. Learn Medicine.
1410 – Learn Scientific Method.
1435 – Learn Replacable Parts.
1455 – Learn Sanitation. I turn off research at this point.
1490 – Yaxchilian builds the Military Academy. Redeclare war on France.
1500 – Boston builds ToE and we choose Atomics and electronics.
1515 – Copan builds Wall Street. We liberate Paris. Then go on a railroad frenzy. :crazyeye:
1520 – C Itza builds the Universal Suffrage.
1580 – The Sumerians sneak attack me in Paris. Wow! I’ve never seen the AI sneak attack me when I’m so overwhelmingly powerful. They must have balls. I know I will win soon, so can’t be bothered with the war. Draft in all friendly civs to attack Sumeria.
1610 – C Itza builds the Hoover Dam.
1615 – Quirigua builds Battlefield Medicine.

As a final insult, the solitary French city of Rheims allies against us in 1685AD with Sumeria :lol: , but it’s too late.

1685 – Mayans achieve a 100K cultural victory.

Firaxis Score – 5625
Jason – 6888 (my best yet!)

I feel as though my game has improved greatly, as my wars were fought pretty efficiently. The tech rate was slow on my continent, and by the time I had saltpetre linked up and was able to travel across the ocean, the others almost had cavalry of their own. Therefore I think the 100K goal was the right choice to make. If only I could be bothered to micromanage a bit more past the first 80 turns then I might start getting scores of 8000+. I was very impressed with SirPleb’s comment that he was getting 2000cpt. Even after I had rushed a full complement of cultural buildings in every town I possessed, I was still only reaching ~ 1250cpt. Perhaps researching the top half of the tree in the Middle Ages might have suited me more, but I was convinced that a quick cavalry run would be cleaner in the long run. Shame that my cavalry gambit was pointless.

Thanks for an enjoyable map anyway Ainwood. I spent many sleepless nights thinking where my swordsmen would venture next. :)

Pre-industrial Status: I own the starting continent and the salpeter island.

I went for an easy diplo win because I was sick of the time consuming warfare required for conquest or domination, to which the l337 players would beat me anyway. During the industrial era I had seconds thoughts about it for two completely different reasons:
1) I was so much more powerful than the Civs sharing the 'other' continent that it wouldn't have taken alot more effort... I had 50 cavs and three armies while they were inventing fire so to speak.
2) The industrial age was boring, which I found out was worse than tiring warfare. Despite advancing the scientific civs a whole era (the middle ages), I was researching at an average of a tech/5 turns, which the AI couldn't keep up with.

I sticked to my goal nevertheless, in the faint hope of getting the quickest diplo victory. One questionable decision I did make, namely to forego Sanitition as it's not a required tech. I had a pretty tightly packed core so I wouldn't have gained much population, but still... I can't help wondering how much the extra population (scientists!) would have helped. As such, I was in the strange situation of railroading, yet gaining little from it; core and semi-core cities had most if not all the city improvements so the extra production from mines was not important. I guess the results will clarify :)

Oh, one overseas war required to get to the coal. The Celts had the closest one and as such, needed to lose their seat in the UN. The dogpile I used for it was helpful in making the rest of world polite or gracious to me.

Diplo in 1585 AD if I remember correctly.

Only Info I can through out is my final score was 5713, I won a cultural victory (16k+) ONE TURN before my spaceship was going to launch <sigh>

Open.
Quickie before I get home and can expand:
UN victory in 1545, Jason 7100-ish, some could/would/should'ves to add :)

Neil. :cool:

Open

<ancient age link> (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2158636&postcount=2)
<middle ages link> (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2181371&postcount=47)

Once in the middle ages I raced to steam power and hurray, we again do not have coal :( I stopped the game for some hours and resumed it with the deceision not to go for coal. I would have had to options: getting it via force from Theo or gifting the Hittites, which were the only civ with two sources, to Steam Power and trade with them. I did not do the first because I only had one ship and no cavs while Theo had muskets. I did not do the second because it would bring all civs on parity again and the Hittites did not have their second sorce connected. I could sign ROP, sail over and do it for them, but at best it would have saved me 5 or 6 turns on my way to 20k, probably none at all. Third cotm without any nearby coal - a builder's nightmare.

I researched to industrialization to get at least a factory, then to replaceable parts to get enough defense to stay at peace and finally to scientific method. I built The Theory of Evolution which gave me atomic theory and electronics. I built a hydro plant in Chichén Itza and researched the cooperation as last tech for a long time. Close to the end I bought nationalism and researched espionage to build The Intelligence Agency. One last town was built on the rubber source sw of Chichén Itza once it was visible.

All cities got micromanaged to size 12 and the following list of improvements were either built or rushed:

barracks
granary (from Pyramids)
temple
market
library
court
bank
cathedral
university
hydro plant (from Hoover's)
stock exchange

Luxury was raised so that all people were happy besides some taxmen in Chichén Itza, which had no tile to work. After the last wonder (Hoover Dam) was finished in Chichén Itza, I irrigated the town and joined as many workers as possible to it.

Culture buildings in Chichén Itza:

Heroic Epic 1360AD
Smith's 1475AD
Theory of Evolution 1535AD
Universal Suffrage 1605AD
Wall Street 1630AD
Military Academy 1660AD
Intelligence Agency 1690AD
Hoover Dam 1750AD

Game result:

Entry class: open
Game status: Cultural 20k Victory for Maya
Game date: 1772 AD
Firaxis score: 2354
Jason score: 4335
Time played: 30:22:04

First submission; when I've played GOTM before I've tended not to finish during the month for one reason or another.

I really had to grind it out in this one, with three long wars against superior numbers. In early AA while I was skirmishing with America over the lux and iron in north, Montezuma pounced with a huge stack of mostly archers and took 2 of my 10 cities. With javs and then swords i gradually beat them back, eventually enslaving at least 50 workers. Maybe 100. But it was pretty touch and go at the beginning.

America fell to cavs pretty readily (i was able to jam a settler in on gunpowder island between two american towns).

At this point i was in second in power behind Celts, who had MPP with 3rd place Iriquois; and Hiawatha had the only oil on home continent. I MPP'ed with all the minor civs on Celts continent to keep them occupied, and then launched into centuries of Infantry/Artillery vs. rifleman/trebuchet war against Hiawatha. The breakthrough finally came when some infantry armies were able to outflank the onslaught of rifles and cut rail lines, preventing them from trying to entrench in the borderland mountains.

Celts had kept pace, taking several cities from everyone except French, so I decided to intervene directly on that continent. The coalition was crumbling and my diplomatic prestige was lacking so I built UN just to prevent elections. One thing lead to another and I ended up slogging through most of Celts territory with tanks / mech inf; fighting on multiple fronts every time some two-bit interloper (Hittites, Sumeria, Germany) wanted to get a piece. MArmor and some TOW (in helicopters) accelerated the pace 2 or 3x when they finally hit the scene.

Result: Riduculously long and bloody world war with modern era domination win.

COTM04_Open

My game in short: During the Ancient Times I expanded peacefully, setting up a Settler-factory in Chichén Itza and grabbing Horses, Iron, Silks and Spices. During the Middle Ages (510 BC - 770 AD) I took the continent by force, destroying America, Aztecs, Iroquois and Spain in that order. At the very end of the Middle Ages, I discovered the other continent. The Industrial Age was just a question of taking as much land as possible on the other continent. I took on the Byzantines first, and they fell quickly during the period of 820 to 900 AD, losing 13 cities to us. Next up was France, from whom I took 11 cities from 940 to 1020 AD. Then I took 2 cities from the Celts in 1040 and 1080, before taking 9 cities from the Sumerians from 1100 to 1150. From 1160 to 1200 we took 7 more cities from the Celts, and then we finally moved back to the Sumerians again and took the final 2 cities we needed to cross the domination limit for a Domination Win in 1255 AD, scoring 6218 Firaxis points and 9060 Jason points.

*** Ancient Times *** (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2158643&postcount=3)

*** Middle Ages *** (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2177654&postcount=5)

*** Industrial Age ***

790 AD - We meet Sumeria. They're just as backwards as everyone else.

820 AD - We declare war on the Byzantines, and unload our Knight Army along with 6 Veteran Cavalry and 2 Elite Knights just outside Constantinople.

830 AD - Our units kill the 6 defending Pikemen, and take Constantinople and The Colossus! Uxmal founded on the former Aztec tundra in the south. We discover Steam Power, and find out about a serious lack of Coal...

840 AD - Our Cavalry Army takes Adrianople. We also capture Varna.

850 AD - We spot a source of Coal outside Caesarea!

860 AD - We take Nicaea and Caesarea, with it's Coal.

870 AD - We capture Smyrna with Dyes.

890 AD - We have hooked up the Coal outside Caesarea. We capture Heraclea and Tsetserleg. Mayapán founded on the southern tundra.

900 AD - We capture Erdenet and Trebizond, and then make peace for three more towns and some gold.

910 AD - Kabáh founded on the Salpeter island.

920 AD - Aké founded on the Salpeter island.

940 AD - We declare war on France.

950 AD - Our troops walk into Lyons. We found Xcalumkin on the Salpeter island.

960 AD - We take Paris!

970 AD - We take Orleans, Marseilles and Avignon.

980 AD - The Sumerians have destroyed the Mongols. Taking Chartres, we get our third Great Leader. It builds a Cavalry Army.

990 AD - We capture Rouen.

1000 AD - Tours and Besancon fall into our greedy hands.

1020 AD - The Celts suddenly declare war on us and take Erdenet! We make peace with France for Dijon and Chartres, and send our units south to teach the Celts a lesson.

1040 AD - We re-take Erdenet and also capture Ratae Coritanorum on the east coast of the continent.

1060 AD - We lose one of our Cavalry Armies in a Celt attack on Erdenet. :(

1080 AD - We take Hovd, then make peace with the Celts for some gold. We'll attack Sumeria next. Chichén Itza completes Theory of Evolution.

1100 AD - We declare war on Sumeria and take Choybalsan.

1110 AD - Kazan captured.

1120 AD - Karakorum and Tabriz are ours. We get our fourth Great Leader.

1130 AD - We take Mandalgovi and get our fifth Great Leader.

1140 AD - We capture Almarikh and Kua.

1150 AD - We take Darhan, then make peace for Der.

1160 AD - We break the peace-treaty with the Celts, and take Ta-Tu and Kadesh.

1170 AD - Copán completes Hoover Dam.

1180 AD - We capture Ulanbaatar, Agendincum and Camulodonum.

1200 AD - We take Burdigala and Harran, but lose our trusty Knight Army to a Celtic Musketman. :(

1210 AD - We make peace with the Celts and declare war on the Sumerians again.

1240 AD - We take Hattusas from the Sumerians, but lose it again at the end of the turn, losing a Cavalry Army.

1250 AD - We take Hattusas again, as well as Ugarit, will this be enough to cross the Domination limit?

1255 AD - Yes, WE WIN A DOMINATION VICTORY!!!

Firaxis score: 6218

Jason score: 9060

Time Spent: 19 hours, 17 minutes and 20 seconds

My fastest ever victory (and I usually play on standard-sized maps!) and my highest ever score (and I usually play on Emperor difficulty!), so I am very happy about this result. More or less everything went exactly to plan this time! :D

-- Roland

Open

As I entered the IA in 740, I was consolodating my continent and doing my best to research quickly.

The other continent was quite stupid when I found them. They did however have a valuable asset for me-3 scientific civs.

Once I entered the age of Industry, so did all three of them. The Byzantines and Germans got Steam, and Sumeria got Nationalism. Not the best situation, but not bad either. I'm glad that they got steam at all. With that in hand, I research Medicine and traded it for Steam. As I had around 40% of the world area, one would figure there would be one source of coal. But of course not....Ainwood, you are an evil, evil administrator...I love it :lol:

Naturally, this forced me to get off of my comfy continent and go looking for some coal. Of course the backward people of the other continent either had only one source a piece or they didn't have any hooked up. I was about to wait, so I looked for the most accessible source. This turned out to be at Ceasarea in the Byzantine homeland. With that, I upgraded some horses to knights, as someone must have "misplaced" the saltpeter as well :lol:
The knights were shipped over and in 960 Ceasarea was captured. I rushed a harbor, and the coal was soon paving the way to rails all over the home continent.

I dabbled in some more warring, as I hit France quick for a city or two. Of course, my streak of getting sneak attacked kept on going with the Hittites in 1250. I held them off easily enough thoush. Knights vs. Infantry was fun to watch though :evil:

I kept researching as fast as I could, and was helped along by a few wonders in this age. I built Hoovers in 1275 and Smiths in 1305. Smiths helped a ton, giving me around +150 gpt to work with.

In 1335 I finally researched Motorized Transportation and went Modern.

Once I was modern, the three scientific civs followed again.This time, I was extremely pleased with the results, as the Germans, Byzantines, and Sumerians got Rocketry, Ecology, and Fission respectively. I quickly researched Computers and sent it to them and rounded up all three free techs.

On a side note, the Hittite bastards pulled another sneak attack in 1365. This time, I didn't let them off the hook so easily, as I created a couple tank armies and torched a few core cities before I let them have peace. It probably hurt my finish date a little, as WW hit and reduced research, but burning their cities and killing their people just felt so good. :evil:

In 1400 I finally completed ToE, grabbing Minaturization and Super Conductor. I switched a prebuild to the Internet and go that in 1425, greatly increasing my research. In 1440, I also added SETI in C.I. for more science power. IN 1455, I added the UN for good measure, along with the Mahattan Project in 1490.

I was ble to research most of the techs at a 4 turn pace, and when Robotics finished, the last part was completed, and our SS launched in 1525.

[c3c] 1.22f - Open Class

After clearing the starting continent in the Middle Ages (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2179407&postcount=25), I found the Saltpeter Island and was build my invasion forces

Industrial Age

Mongols 1050AD - 1130AD - More lux

I began the invasion in 1050AD against the Mongols with 2 Knight armies, 4 Cavalry and 4 elite knights. I had held off upgrading all my elite knights to try for more Leaders. (Something, I normally haven't done. Lesson Learned!) I allied with the Celts and later Germans. Last Mongol city captured 1130AD. I got another MGL that year. The Mongols weren't eliminated nor did they ever build another city. But they stuck around for hundreds of years. I made peace with them when the MA with Celts expired. Germany sneak attacked around 1220AD. The net effect was 2 MGL in 1250AD and reverse WW.

Byzantines 1260AD - 1295AD - I needed coal!

With the discovery of Steam Power, I found I had a need for coal. The Byzantines were the closest. It didn't hurt that they also had incense. I waited for trades to expire and hit them from 3 sides. Land from the south. and two sea-borne invasions in the west and north. I capture all their continental cities by 1280AD. I made peace in 1295AD.

Germans 1295AD - 1400AD - They started it!

I allied and ROP with France 1295AD against Germany. Up until I had been just dealing with a trickle of weak units coming through the Celts. I was ready to invade through France. We split the 9 continental cities 5/4. I got all of the core. France, who had Knights, took the last one in 1325AD. I got another MGL for an army in 1320AD and build my first army the following year. I stayed at war with the German until 1400AD to avoid breaking my MA with France. I got a city on the tundra island from them.

Celts 1340AD - 1440AD - More lux

By 1340AD my trade with Celts had expired, so I started by grabbing my seventh lux (wine) by taking advantage of my ROP with France. I invite both France and Sumeria to join via MA. Celts had Musketmen and Knights. By this time I was product Infantry and Artillery and had 4 Cav Armies, 3 Knight armies and on empty waiting for tanks. The last Celtic continental cities were captured in 1385AD. I made peace in 1445AD when the MA's expired. I got their city on the saltpeter island for peace.

I discovered Flight in 1505AD and turned off research for one turn to await completion of ToE the following year. I took Fission and Computers as my free techs. I was at 60% of land and 83% pop but it was way too late for Domination or Conquest. My diversion on the research path and waiting for treaties to expire had taken too much time. I didn't want to go for culture or Spaceship. I wanted to complete the Histograph victory condition I missed in GOTM34. In GOTM34, had taken Computers and miniaturization to get internet for research and got a 100K victory through inattention. I took Fission to get UN, but since I did want a diplo victory and the other Civs we still in the MA, I should have taken Rocketry or Ecology instead.

IA Research:
Steam, Elec, RP, Ind, Medicine, Sci Method, Corp, Atomic Theory, Electronics, Sanitation, Refining, Steel, combustion, Mass Prod, Motor Trans, and Flight. I built all the IA wonders from using prebuilds to speed things up.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/dsv_c04_IA.JPG

Modern Era

Sumerian 1525AD - 1565AD - 8th Lux

In 1525AD, I attacked the Sumerians to acquire my 8th luxury (ivory). I had 4 Tank, 4 Cav and 3 Knight armies assisted by Bombers and Mech Inf. It was slow going because most of the terrain to the east was Hills, Mountains, and Forested Tundra. Since, I so close to the Domination limit, I razed all their continental cities, except for UR which had ToA, by 1565AD. I later thought better keeping Ur and built settlers to disband the city along with the token Celt and German island cities I had extorted earlier.

Byzantines & Hittites - 1585AD - 1565AD - Because I could?

In 1585AD, I razed the Byzantine city that France had lost in a flip. I only wanted the one city so I made peace as soon as they would take to me. In 1590AD, I declare war on the Hittites. I made peace with the Hittites in 1625AD after razing 2 of their 3 cities.

France - 1670AD - 1715AD - Clear the second continent.

In 1670AD, I decided to do away with France. I an additional Modern Armor Army on their border and two more back on the home continent. I also had 20 Modern Armor and 30 Mech Inf available. I razed all their cities, except Paris which had JS Bach, by 1715AD when I made peace. While I was at it I destroyed the last Hittite city and the two from when they respawn in the far eastern tundra.

That left only the Byzantines, Sumerians and French (Both the Mongols and Germans had been eliminated over the years by the others).

Last war - 1802AD - 1838AD - Cleanup the other civs.

In 1802AD, after France and Sumeria had landed settlers on the second continent, I decided to remove the distractions. I destroyed the intruders and began shipping Modern Armor (2 armies and 6-7 units.) to the tundra island. I destroyed all the cities there and left the island to the barbarians except for a Mech Inf protecting the airfield I create there. France and Byzantines were eliminate and Sumeria was reduced to the 3 tile island near the original continent by 1838AD. It took a long time because the majority of the invasion was carried out with only one transport that was on the scene. I did have 6 Marines that I send from the home continent to destroy the Byzantine capitol on the 1-tile island. After the war I surrounded the Sumerian's last city with warships and continued to build more over time to keep them there. They never tried.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/dsv_c04_ME.JPG

ME Research:
After the ToE boost, I researched Rocketry, Ecology, and Synthetic Fibers before going back for Espionage, Amphib War, and Advanced Flight which I finished in 1655AD. After that I researched Miniaturization, Genetics, Recycling, Nucs, Stealth, Superconductor, Satellites, Smart Weapons, and Integrated Defense which completed in 1830AD. I had traded for all the other optional techs except Ironclads which researched next. After that, I researched 17 Future techs on minimum settings.

Wonders:
I build all the modern wonders. I time the Manhattan Project and Internet to complete in 2050AD. The Internet messed me up last time. I didn't want to deal with the Nucs. In hindsight, I would probably not build Longevity as it increase my turn management time.

Histograph Strategy:
Obviously, the two main ways to screw up are the Dom limit and Culture.

I built temples throughout the game to expand borders but began to sell them off once the cities expansion was sufficient for maximum cities size. I had built Libraries and Universities in my productive cities. When my culture was around 55K, in the late 1700's, I calculated my cpt and ending culture. As I would exceed the 100K limit before 2050AD, I proceeded to sell off my libraries and Universities around that time. My ending culture was 77,370.

I expanded until I was around 50 tiles short of domination. Later, when I was more comfortable with culture expansion control, I took it down to 12 tiles short of the limit. Only my wonder cities were uncontrolled but they were either hundreds of years from expansion or were far from the borders. (Needless to say I used Dianthus’ CRpMapStat to manage all this. :goodjob: )

I had decided to research Sanitation and build Hospitals to maximize pop. I irrigated all mines and forest lands, starting with the corrupt areas first. I inserted cities close together in the forested Tundra lands and in between other cities where they had not fully grown into their space (mostly on the second continent). Finally, when I was done making improvements, began adding workers cities to max out their population immediately. (I roaded and forested all the tundra and unclaimed lands to prevent global warming issues.) I kept the governor off for most of the game in order to use Engineers to help build improvements in corrupt cites. I cash rushed improvements to facilitate growth as need and as I could afford (Aqueducts, Harbors, and Hospitals). I also built marketplaces and Mass transportation in all 12+ pop cities as needed. Later I built recycling center in my core cities with factories. Pollution was a problem throughout the IA and ME. Once I was done producing units and wonders I sold off the factories to decrease pollution. I kept 20-30 workers on each continent right up to the last turn cleaning up pollution, even with the other measure I took.

In order maximize my score, I began bumping up the lux slider as the need for cash diminished. I also micromanaged the extra population in cities to produce as many happy citizens as possible. Using all those slave workers to fill up cities freed me from keeping unhappy citizens to maximize pop growth. At the end I had only a 13 sad or 6 content citizens. Most were either Happy (1864) or specialists(897). With Longevity, my cities with an odd number of food tended to go through grow/starve cycles. I took advantage of this to rush more workers as their numbers diminished.

A couple of lessons learned here was that I should have started joining workers much earlier and I let too much cash build up (70+K) before I switched to mass cash rush of hospitals and completing new city packages (Aqua, Market, Hosp, and Mass trans). I saw a GOTM34 Histo spoiler where they didn't build hospitals but employed ICS. I can see where this would be easier to manage and would allow a higher percentage of happy. With 8 lux and marketplace no city below 13 every needed any micromanagement.

In the end, I spent 70 hours, 21 minutes and had a base score of 13,921 for a Jason of 8849. (my best score ever on both)

As stated in previous posts, went for conquest victory but bungled up by allowing the byzantines to move their capital to the 1-tile island off their coast, so had to switch goals and go for domination after killing all the AI's except for the island city and some tundra cities on the second small island. I never made it to the modern era, in fact, I only got three IA techs: Steam power, Nationalism, and Industrialization. Who needs tanks when he has cavalry armies?

Entry class: open
Game status: Domination Victory for Maya
Game date: 1110 AD
Firaxis score: 6832
Jason score: 9636

Not bad for my fist COTM :-)

*except Brennus, but I bet he loves me, really

Times Ancient (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2162383&postcount=35)
Times Medieval (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2177522&postcount=3)

Going for the UN, again. I didn't find the Saltpeter island until too late, and the lack of Coal, and the virtual ignorance of the AI in even hooking it up, dragged me back in the IA. I then messed up my UN pre-build, ended up with an unwanted Palace switch, and finished probably 50 years after I could've.

Entering the IA, I'm still at war with Spain; the Aztecs are yet to be finished off; America is down to one city at the very northern tip of the Spanish peninsula; Iroquois have DoW'd me once, and lost two cities as the price for their impudence.

940 Research Metallurgy (Great Wall obsolete) and enter the Industrial Age. My first time before 1000AD, a personal milestone :-) Gift Germany (who was still in the AA!), Byzantines, and Sumeria into the IA. Germany and Byz get Medicine. Sumeria gets Nationalism. Best I can do Steam Power in is 5 turns at a deficit, but I'll definitely go for that. Germany will give me Medicine for Navigation, Silks, Furs, WM, and 170g - and he gives me back 23g. Um, alright. Sumeria, with a monopoly, won't give up Nationalism for any price just yet.
950 Barcelona captured.
960 Santiago captured.
980 IBT: Aztecs ask me to remove the rather large stacks of forces I've just entered into his territory. Er, no, Monty, no. I'm ridding myself of you at last, now I have sufficient strength to wage a 2-front war.
990 Steam Power completed. Er, Ainwood, there isn't any COAL here, either! Who said Javs were useless… I get another (3rd?) slave when a Jav kills a Spear defending Malinalco. Capture Cempoalo, Malinalco, Tlaxcala, and Atzcapotzalco to leave Aztec with 2 cities.
1000 Capture Teayo and Tzintzuntzen, the last to Aztec cities. After just over 3000 years, my not-so-eternal Nemesis has bit the dust. I've found an island with Saltpeter on it!
1040 Capture Toledo.
1060 Popped a Goody Hut (on the Tundra Island)! 50g :-)
1070 Capture Seville.
1110 Capture Valencia.
1120 Catpure Murcia and finish off the Spanish. The last American city is right at the tip of the Spanish peninsula, so…. IBT: America DoW.
1130 Get my 4th MGL, this will form a Cavalry Army as I now have Saltpeter hooked up and am 1 turn from Mil Trad. Take Houston and finish off America.
1220 Time to bash the Iroquois. 4 armies on the march: 1 4xCav, 2 3xKnight+1xCav, 1 3xSword+1xCav. Tons of Cannons and a couple of Artillery. Foot troops. Loads of Cavs and some Elite Knights and an Elite Horse. IBT: DoW vs Iroquois.
1230 Capture Mauch Chunk.
1240 Capture Allegheny. I like Armies. Capture Akwesasne. Decision time. I want faster research, for this I need more gold, for this I need Smith's. Go for Economics, in 4 turns. Bach's is due in 5 turns but I'll switch.
1250 Capture Centralia.
1255 Get my 5th MGL from an Elite sword, Blue-Quetzal-Macaw(2). Will use to rush something useful (Wall Street probably).
1260 IBT: Mauch Chunk re-captured by the Iroquois, annoying as all my slave workers were in there.
1265 Re-capture Mauch Chunk. The workers have gone. Hiawatha just disbanded around a dozen of his own workers! That or they auto-disbanded due to his economy being in tatters since I invaded.
1275 Complete Smith's. Sell Economics to everyone I can, and get some nice gpt deals. Use MGL to rush Military Academy. Capture Salamanca, Cattaraugus, and Grand River. Iroquois down to a 1CC now.
1280 Capture St Regis and finish off the Iroquois.
1365 Building now. No plans for war. Boring part of the game.
1415 At long last, an AI has some spare coal. Not surprisingly, it's the Celts - the Uber Power of the other continent.
1495 Complete ToE, take Electronics and Fission as free techs. 9 turns to UN, but I really screwed up pre-building and ended up moving my Palace by accident. Forgot that the AI re-assigns workers after starvation, and so the requisite shields for the Palace were dumped off in the end anyway. Gift Germany (Fission too), Byzantium (Ecology - no trade), and Sumeria (Ecology - trade for Fission, Oil, Rubber).
1535 At the end of this turn, the UN gets built. Everyone is polite with me, two are fighting against the Celts, the others are known to have had wars with them, I reckon I can win this vote quite easily.
1540:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/eldar_Vote.jpg

Firaxis score: 5233
Jason score: 7134
Time played: 23:45:29

At the time, a personal best Firaxis, not quite as good a Jason as GOTM34.

Mistakes: my UN pre-build was the glaring cock-up. Deliberately having the city riot by cutting off its trade routes might've worked - though taking out he Harbour would've killed its food supply. Using Civil Engineers (because I wanted to play with them!) instead of Scientists probably didn't help my late Industrial research rate.

Annoyances: Being beaten to Philosophy by the other continent. Not finding Saltpeter Island earlier. America, Spain, and Iroquois for DoW'ing me each time I was starting to get troops ready to finally finish off the Aztecs! The AI's snail's pace research. FFS, there were THREE Scientific Civs on the other continent!! The lack of local Coal, and the AI's reluctance to connect up more than one source of it.

Good Things: Beat my GOTM34 date. Getting a better feel for waging war. Maybe sometime soon I'll actually invade another continent properly. Much better MGL rolls! Managing to MM my Settler Factory at 3.5-5.5 - though I concede that possibly running it at higher pop would've generated more gold, I'm not sure what the expense in higher Lux tax would've been.

Neil. :cool:

Well done eldar, that vote wasn't even close :goodjob:!



I then messed up my UN pre-build, ended up with an unwanted Palace switch, and finished probably 50 years after I could've.

I was pretty close to that last month. I realised it was going to happen though and irrigated all the mines, sold my factory/coal plant, allocated other cities to the mountains so they couldn't be used, and started a gradual starvation. I knocked the shields per turn from about 50 to about 4!

I was pretty close to that last month. I realised it was going to happen though and irrigated all the mines, sold my factory/coal plant, allocated other cities to the mountains so they couldn't be used, and started a gradual starvation. I knocked the shields per turn from about 50 to about 4!

I was only 16 shields away, though. Even with just the centre square (4 shields per turn being an Industrious Metro!), I was going to finish in 4 turns no matter what I did. I could've starved 2 pop, emphasised food, and irrigated as much as possible, pillaged all the mountains/hills with my armies, sold the Factory and Plant, and I'm still not sure I'd have got the build time up to the 9 turns I'd have needed to coincide with ToE completing.

I was going to post my AutoSave from them to see if there's anything anyone might've suggested... but my AutoSave has gone too. Ah well.

Neil. :cool:

There is one other way I thought of, but I didn't have to stoop to it. I thought maybe the city could be thrown into disorder. That may require disconnecting the roads around it to get rid of the luxuries, but it's likely to be possible if the city has lots of population (it's normally pretty easy to do by accident, after all!).

I did consider that, and it was probably the only way. Again, with Armies to pillage rails/roads for free, and plenty of workers to reconnect when needed, it would've been easy. I'd have had to have sold the Harbour as well, and the Marketplace, and the Temple just to be sure! Then when I wanted it back productive, reconnect the road, knock Lux up to 100% (no problem as research would've been off by then), and there you go.

Alternatively, I could've done some better maths, built a Cathedral and something else there before starting the Palace, and wouldn't be putting forward these theories ;)

Neil. :cool:

A new age was underway for the Mayan Republic and Smoke Jaguar called his ministers to order to discuss the priorities for the future. “Let’s begin with Doctor Oddity as to our scientific pursuits” Smoke said as the meeting began.

“Well sir, our scientists have completed the research of Steam Power and Electricity are moving rapidly towards understanding Replaceable Parts, however to our dismay, the powers that be (Ainwood) have chosen not to give us access to a local coal source “ Space said.

“Great, we finally about to have saltpeter available to us once the harbor in New Chichen Itza is complete and now we have to go track down coal” Smoke replied “Anything else?”

“Yes sir. The construction of the new science academy in Quirigua is on schedule and will be completing later this week. These new facilities should provide a boost to our research that will allow us to maintain our pace on breakthroughs” Space replied.

Smoke then turned to Bede, his trade minister “I hear you have surprise for us all today”.

Minister Bede stood and spoke “As of today fine Celtic Wines and exquisite Sumerian Ivory are arriving in our marketplaces. Finance Minister AlanH, should also be receiving nearly 50 gold pieces regularly from the Hittites & French for the recently completed exchanges in technologies.

Smoke smiled and complimented his minister for his excellent work. “I’m afraid that I’ve got plans for this sudden influx of gold. I’ve been discussing with General Grahamiam the need to modernize our military and he has detailed what will be required to allow our troops to discard their pikes and be outfitted with helmets & rifles and be trained as infantry soldiers and this will cost about 75% of our current treasury, over 4000g. I feel this commitment to our security is justified based on the reports from our knight & crusader commanders on the other continent.”

As Smoke watched the fireworks exploding over Chichen Itza, he was interrupted by a messenger from General Grahamiam reporting that a several units of Celtic Longbows and Mace troops had attacked a detachment of Mayan Knights moving in neutral territory. Several of his knights had been wounded, but there were no deaths among his troops. War with the great Celtic nation had begun. Smoke was not concerned for his own nation, as not a single Celtic ship had been ever seen and Minister Bede had reported that the Celts had not yet learned of how to construct ocean-going vessels. Having the extra luxuries available allowed Smoke to enlist the Mongols, Hittites & France against the Celts without having to reduce his treasury.

“Report General” said Smoke as the battle briefing began. “All has gone well. Our knights and crusaders, with a couple of cavalry units have overwhelmed the defenders of four Celtic cities. However, our French allies have taken Varna and cut off our route to any additional Celtic cities. On another positive note, our new hero Caucac-Sky has returned from the front and will be assisting in the completion of the Pentagon. We have a pair of crusaders waiting to complete our Armies once that is complete.” General Grahamiam replied. “Have no worries General, your troops won’t be idle long. I received a communiqué from our embassy in Germany and it appears the Kaiser is mobilizing and we are his intended target.

The intelligence was correct and soon German archers & longbows entered Mayan lands and died futilely attacking the Mayan Infantry fortified in the border cities. “General, I have a surprise for you.” Said Smoke as they entered the factory. “We’ll soon have 4 completed tank armies ready for transport to eastern Germany. The Kaiser has been concentrating on the western front, so the defenses should crumble against these new weapons.” The fall of Konigsberg in southeastern Germany began the dominos falling for the German leader. The capture of Berlin with it’s Great Lighthouse, occurred around the same time Mayan scientists announced that new research on electronics was complete and the Mayan Republic was now in the Modern Age. As the Mayan tanks rolled into Heidelberg, Germany had been evicted from the continent and would be relegated to tundra living. The peace treaty that Germany signed also obtained a pair of tundra cities (though New Berlin would revolt back to Germany later).
“Decisions, decisions” pondered Smoke. “Should I endow my neighbors with technology well beyond their understanding in hopes they can shorten the time until we can launch, risking facing a technological equal in battle, should our relationship turn hostile or do I take the additional time to research it all myself and be content with a more secure world. Bah, the safe path sounds way too boring.” “Contact trade minister Bede, I have work for him” Smoke ordered to his aide. Theordora & Gilgamesh both sat in stunned silence. They had never dreamed of such wonders. Her people were still learning about the science of Chemistry and suddenly they knew of Ecology. For Gilgamesh his reward for the modern era was Fission. Of course neither would part with their new treasure. However, with money to burn, Smoke soon found another way to acquire knowledge. Nearly three thousand pieces of gold was a lot to spend, but fission was a valuable commodity. A few greased palms here and there and Smoke had his prize. At the cessation of hostilities with Germany, the Kaiser received many knowledge gifts from Smoke and soon accepted a trade for of fission & democracy for the knowledge of ecology.

At the christening party for the new Hoover Dam in Quirigua, Smoke took General Grahamiam aside, “I have one last campaign for you before I leave for Alpha Centauri. That little French tart has been testing our borders too long with her cavalry. I think it’s time we let our armor out for a little exercise.”

The following eight years were quite eventful, twelve French cities now flew the Mayan flag, Leader, the fourth hero born in battle, had help complete the Apollo Program in Adrianople, peace with France had been signed, Chichen Itza had completed Theory of Evolution leading the Mayan scientists to discover computers & miniaturization and the space ship was now 40% complete.

Between the Internet dedication in Boston and the United Nations inaugural, Smoke had barely time to pack. The space ship was now 80% complete and the discovery of the laser was an ”any day now” promise from his Minister of Science. As he sat in his chambers thinking back on the past 5700 years, a knock came at his door. “Come in” he said. “Sir, the Hittite ambassador insists on seeing you at once” the aide reported. “I’ll be down in 10 minutes, get him some lemonade” was the reply.
“I can’t believe this. I trade openly and honestly with you and a demand for a technology tribute is my payment. Then instead of negotiating for the knowledge you declare war on me. Return to your embassy and inform your leaders my armored response will be arriving in your capital shortly” Smoke said as he waved the Hittite Ambassador away.

Eleven Hittite cites tried vainly with pikemen, riflemen and an few conscript infantrymen to withstand the Mayan Tank Armies & Modern Armor, but to no avail. The Hittite capital, Hattusas with the giant Bronze Statue, provided the stiffest test and a Hittite Great Leader died when the city fell. A Mayan Great Leader, Blue Quetzal Macaw II, arose during the final battles, and for the fun of it, hurried to Paris to complete the Iron Works (a first for me in Conquests). The confirmed rumors of Sumeria having nuclear capability convinced Smoke, that his stay on this planet was nearly over. As his final act in office, he approved the Hittite peace treaty and 1752 AD, he once again boarded a space ship for Alpha Centauri.

(Editors note: Spaceship Victory in 1754 AD – Firaxis score: 5974 – Jason score: 6755 – 41 hour 31 minutes)

A Request For Advise:

Since I think I'm too focussed on playing the warmonger, I decided to try and replay this scenario aiming for a 20k victory [not submitting of course]. Although the traits aren't great for a cultural victory, it could be worse and the level is not too bad and the starting position is great. Ergo, it should be doable.

The general strategy I suppose should be something like "build enough empire to generate the defense & research necessary to keep building things, but sacrifice a lot to get those cultural buildings in the 20k city".

Some general possibilities for the opening:

1) Have capital as 20k city, build N or NE, and build something like war, war, war, set, temple, wonders
- in that case, do I try to setup the second city near the wheat as a settler pump (eg by building the capital N and building the 2nd city two tiles upriver)? I tried this for a while, but had a lot of trouble getting enough tiles improved to have both a working settler pump and not impede the 20k city too much, although in the long run the settler pump city will have to go to make room for the 20k city to grow. Maybe the 2nd city should start with two workers to get the improvements going?
2) Setup the first city as settler pump, and get the 2nd city near the hills, for example the gap between the hills 3E 1SE from the starting loc to get a river, 4(?) BG and some forest and hills.
3) Setup the first city as 20k but build the second city far enough away to not impede the capital. Will not have a settler pump in that case but I suppose expansion is slightly less important for a 20k?


In both cases, the first two cities are designated 20k and settler pump cities. Is this wise? Will it not take too long to get some military going, which might make the AI eager to attack?

In terms of research, I suppose I should get cb first for the temple, and then try to slingshot either to rep (risky if I want to research cb myself) or to literature to get lib & gl?

Thanks in advance!

Vanatteveldt: Most 20K games go somewhat like this:

Settle your capital and get a settler out ASAP then that city is your settler pump if possible.

Settle city #2 on a river and on the coast if possible, looking for a high shield location.

Improve the terrain for city #1 to only what you'll need. Improve city #2 to size 12 size. Start building as many culture items in city #2 as possible. Hopefully you'll have either the Oracle or Colossus available early. Pick 2 or 3 early wonders depending on difficulty level in the first 2 ages. My favorites are Colossus, Great Library & Hanging Gardens from the Ancient Age. Between building of wonders, spend a couple of turns on a temple, library & colosseum then cash rush them to completion and start on the next item. Get a marketplace when you get about size 7-8 to help with happiness. Try to join a worker to City #2 whenever possible until size 12. Once you've got enough cities for a forbidden palace, that is you pre-build tool in city #2. Head for Republic ASAP (increased food & production). In the Middle Ages, Sistine and/or Bach plus Shakespeare and Newton's are your main targets. Since the AI normally goes along the bottom path you might be able to get them all. Once again try to rush a university & cathedral after Bach/Sistine is done. You'll probably miss Copernicus (Shakespeare is twice the culture). While your 20K city is busy collecting culture, the rest of your country has four goals.
1. Protect the 20K city
2. Get as many luxuries as possible for 20K city
3. Improve every workable tile around the 20K city to get as many shields as possible (railroads & mines)
4. Get as much land and happy faces as you can without getting too much War Weariness

There is a fifth goal for non-C3C games, get as many GL's as possible. Each GL is a wonder. When there are no wonders to hurry, make any army and win a battle so the 20K city can build the Heroic Epic. For C3C games, with that first GL build an army to enable the Heroic Epic. Then use the next GL to rush the HE. The next 2 to enable the Pentagon and the 5th to rush it in the 20K city. Do not build the Military Academy in the 20K city. You'll be too busy adding culture & happiness items to build armies.

I had a domination victory in early 1700's. I think I was a few turns into researching Steam power. Other than that, I don't remember too much about it except my computer started crashing right after finishing the game (hard drive meltdown from too much civ I guess). I managed to get the save files on a floppy disk and sent them from another computer, but can't tell you much more than I think my firaxis score was 4000 something with a Jason of 5000 something. (I checked the submittal email on my work computer then had to delete it off)

[edit] after reading about the scarcity of coal, I realized I had that same problem. Therefore I think instead of being a few turns into researching steam power, I was a few turns into researching fission. I do recall I was researching the first tech after an age change.

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gif (predator)

Link to Ancient Age spoiler (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2170325&postcount=100)
Link to Middle Ages spoiler (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2178843&postcount=18)

Summary

100K cultural victory in 1310AD.

Invading the Second Continent

At the end of the Middle Ages in 870AD I was expecting to coast through the remainder of the game without warfare, spending my time filling in towns, building railroads, and rushing culture improvements with assistance from Civil Engineers.

In 870AD I gifted Germany, Sumeria, and Byzantines to the Industrial Age. Their free techs were Medicine, Steam Power, and Steam Power respectively. The price to trade for Steam Power seemed too high so I started researching it. In 880AD those three Civs had done some trading and Steam Power was affordable. I traded horses + 4 luxuries + 76gpt for it from Germany.

And then the big whammy - there was no coal anywhere in my lands! The world's only coal was on the other continent. And there wasn't much even there - it looked like poor odds that I'd be able to trade with anyone to get coal.

I'd invested a lot in reaching Steam Power and after doing that I wasn't about to finish the game without coal. The other continent had two sources near the coast where I could quickly take it over. One in Byzantine lands, one in Hittite lands. I had a commitment to supply the Byzantines spices for another 14 turns. I had no obligations to the Hittites so I targeted them for my invasion.

I still had my two Knight armies from the Iroquois wars. They would lead the invasion. I rushed some galleons and a settler, and brought all of my remaining Knights from around the continent to the departure point. I started some barracks builds to replace the barracks I'd disbanded earlier on and to then begin rebuilding my military.

In 950AD I declared war on Hittites and landed my first troops on their shores. In 960AD I destroyed their coal town, replaced it with my own, and rushed a harbor:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/sirplebc04-3a.jpg

I didn't have any difficulty fending off the Hittite counter-attacks. And now that I'd begun military operations again I couldn't resist the opportunity to expand my holdings a bit. It was slow going because I didn't prioritize military production. I just produced units in the few core cities which had finished building all improvements and shipped them to the new world. I gave the Hittites peace in 1020AD. In 1100AD I declared on the Celts to take their wines and some of their land. In 1240AD I finally gave the Celts peace. At that date I controlled 57% of the world area.

I had no further warfare but did gain a bit more land by cultural expansion. It was especially nice to take a source of ivory this way from Sumeria :) At the end of the game I'd grown to have 60% of the world area. Here's my world map at the end, 1310AD, showing the details of the ivory squeezed out of Sumeria's hands (first a library rushed in Agedincum gained access to the tile where ColonyIvory was established, then I rushed its cultural improvements:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/sirplebc04-3b.jpg

Research

After trading for Steam Power I researched directly toward Replaceable Parts. I learned Electricity in 920AD and Replaceable Parts in 960AD, four turns each.

After that I ran at zero research for a while, slowly trading away my tech lead to get Medicine, Printing Press, Economics, Military Tradition, a luxury, and some gold.

Eventually I started research again. My reasoning was that I could probably make a net profit on just a bit more research. Some of the other Civs were finally developing reasonable purchasing power. I learned Scientific Method in 1180AD, built Theory Of Evolution soon after, and took Industrialization and The Corporation as my free techs. Researching that one additional tech allowed me to build a number of Stock Exchanges before the end of the game and to continue trading my tech lead for the other Civs' cash.

An amusing thing I saw in the early Industrial Age: When the Byzantines discovered Printing Press in 900AD it became clear that they hadn't made contact with Sumeria yet!

Growth

As soon as I learned Replaceable Parts in 960AD I started using Civil Engineers in corrupt towns. Unhappy citizens and surplus citizens (those who were already specialists due to filling the land, and those producing an oversupply of food in towns which needed aqueducts) became Engineers.

The Civil Engineers helped first with temple production. Many towns had 2 or 3 of them and this resulted in a considerable production boost. Soon a lot of corrupt towns had completed both their library and their temple. I set a number of these towns to building universities (if small) or cathedrals (if large and the happiness boost would help.) After a while I started switching new towns which completed their temples to wealth since the end of the game was in sight. In 1290AD my last temple was completed - all 233 of my cities had libraries and temples. I managed to also rush a number of cathedrals and universities in corrupt towns before the game finished.

Despite the shortness of the time I had them I think that the cost of getting Civil Engineers (i.e. research to Replaceable Parts) is worthwhile in a 100K culture game. It feels like I got more back from them than I lost due to the research cost. Hard to be sure though.

During the Industrial Age most of my productive cities completed all basic improvements (each ended up with temple, library, cathedral, university, colosseum, marketplace, bank) and a number of them also completed stock exchanges.

My income at the end of the game with the luxury and science sliders at zero was 1838gpt. 266gpt of that was coming from trade with other Civs.

Culture reference points from my game:

date culture c/turn
750BC 298 +30
10AD 2663 +109
300AD 5476 +220
600AD 15747 +501
900AD 36824 +872
1000AD 46104 +1028
1100AD 58088 +1299
1200AD 72139 +1461
1250AD 79760 +1558
1300AD 96623 +1821
1310AD 100356 +1881


I didn't quite reach my goal of +2000 culture/turn.

And the culture graph:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/sirplebc04-3c.jpg

Northeast Island

It took me unti 1020AD to deal with all the barbarians which had accumulated on this island. I handled most of them by just absorbing their attacks, settling towns where I could draw them out and then letting them pillage the towns. (I never had much gold left at the end of a turn so this didn't hurt.)

Eventually I did control the island and I settled it very densely. During the war on Hittites I took their one town there and during the war on Celts I took their two. That left just two stubborn foreign towns, one belonging to Germany, one to Sumeria. I really thought I'd get one or both of these towns to flip to me. I applied great cultural pressure on them but both remained stubbornly loyal till the end. Despite my culture lead and pressure in many places I didn't receive a single town from a culture flip in the entire game. Here's a picture of the culture squeeze on the two most stubborn resistors at the end of the game:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/sirplebc04-3d.jpg

@denyd:

Thanks for the tips, I'm sure they'll help me investigate this for me relatively new side of Civ.

My main reason for asking this in this forum is of course to allow specific rather than general answers. We know the civ, difficulty level and terrain.

Do people think it is worth it to walk to the coast to be able to get the coastal wonders? It is quite far and the surrounding countryside doesn't quite look as good. The best location would problably be on the hill near the river mouth, giving 3BG, 5G, 2F, 1hill, 2 mountains and a fish.

Assuming city nr1 will be the settler pump and will settler N or NE, what is the best place for the 20k city? My thoughts go towards the east side of the river, with four likely options (See picture):

Blue: 3H, 3BG, 4F, 10G, 4 moves from settler pump
Red: 3H, 4BG,2F, 11G, 4 moves
Yellow: 5H, 4BG, 2F, 1M, 8G, 5 moves
Pink: 1H, 2 mountains, 3BG, 5G, 1 fish, 2F, 6 ocean, 6 moves + coast

From this, my preference would probably go to blue: It has the same ultimate potential (exchanging one grassland for a plain) and more short term production (Forest) for temple, library, etc.. These two extra forests might wel yield a BG even though one of them is on a plain, but we might wish to keep one forest for production anyway. Yellow is just too far away for what it offers, althought the ultimate production potential is higher due to the extra hills and mountain; pink is even further and has 6 fairly unproductive ocean squares. But it is on the water, allowing for colossus etc..

What do you guys think?

About research order: should I try and get CB and myst for the temple + wonder, or go for a republic (or even literature) slingshot?

Just finished, and though I was naturally beaten by SirPleb, only by three quarters of a century. Doing so scored me new personal bests for Firaxis and Jason scores (over 7000 and over 9000, respectively).

Lucky for me that the limit was 100000 instead of 130000, because the non doubling effect of temples was really beginning to show its weakness in the latter stages. I had 230 or so cities, each with a temple, but only 20 or so were hand built and half those hand built were done too late to matter, when settling the island to the northeast. I wish I had realized there would be no 1000 year double before starting this game, or I might have gone with a different strategy.

Here's a picture of the culture squeeze on the two most stubborn resistors at the end of the game:


LOL! :lol: That's one for the "Screenshot of the Day".

Fantastic work as usual, Sir. :goodjob:

-- Roland

Man, I can't believe those towns didn't flip! Or even razed by crushing cultural force! Amazing.

I had three Aztec towns surrounded like that for over 500 years without them flipping. I couldn't believe that in the end I actually had to take more than just their capital.

I just finished the COTM (open class), which was probably my best civ3 game ever played :)

Was a really enjoyable game, i won by Domination in 1665 AD, with normal score: 5973 and Jason score: 7094

Congrats to evryone who played esp. those who did real well :goodjob:

Great map Ainwood!

Ancient Ages (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2177457&postcount=131)
Medieval Ages (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2177483&postcount=2)

Open class, My second submission

Spaceship victory in some 16xx, yielding 6999 Jason IIRC. It was sort of disappointment after getting over 9000 for domination in GOTM34 to me as I outresearched AI by an era (the best of them started research industrial techs when my SS launched.
I had probably use my advantage immediately and go for domination or share techs intensively to speed up my research. Instead from MA, when the AI ceased to be significant opposition, I played the game like sand-box one resulting in very slow victory.

@horragoth, did you reach the domination limit? That's important for score, even on non-military victory conditions.

@horragoth, did you reach the domination limit? That's important for score, even on non-military victory conditions.

I had over 70 % world population, and 60 % territory. I stopped conquering to prevent domination victory as I wanted a builder-type victory this time. I thought that if I reached the territory domination limit as well the domination victory would kick in and other victory-type would be prevented. If there is something I am missing, please tell me.

Sounds like you did the right things. From your ealier spoilers I thought maybe you had only taken territory on the original continent, which would have resulted in a low Fireaxis score.

@Dianthus: Thx for answer. This game taught me that the score is not given to me how much I outperform the AI opposition, but rather how well I perform absolutely. I have known that the AI can be used as a tool to promote own goals and I even manage to use it sometimes at higher difficulty settings, but I failed to use it in this game, where I wasn't pressed to it.

[c3c] predator

Started this discussion in Spoiler 1, but finishing it here as it is the most actual spoiler.

In spoiler 1 SirPleb showed he build 4 workers from his settler pump, before cranking out his 1st settler. Of course he had the luck of his settler-pop from hut, still I asked myself the question what the value could be of 2 workers vs. 1 settler, when created as early 2710BC. I did some (quite straightforward) maths and post below my assumptions and results for discussion purposes.

Assumptions:
1) One worker available in 2800BC, one in 2710BC (as in my game where I had settler pump ready by 2900BC).
2) Worker will only mine and road grass-like tiles with sequence: move, road, mine (7 turns cycle).
3) Workers will only improve tiles that are being worked by a civilian of a city. Not too unrealistic, with a settler being created every 3-4 turns (but maybe some extra worker moves should be taken into account)
4) No corruption.
5) An agricultural trait (like this COTM)
6) Settler will settle on river (not always possible)
7) Settler will move 3 moves before settling.
8) Each settled town has 1 forest, and 1-2 BG’s available (depends on scenario, see below).
9) All squares worked by citizens have one commerce available (hence are on a river). This is not very realistic, but simplifies my commerce calcs!

Scenarios:
I then worked out in detail till 1000BC the following scenarios:
1) Settler cascade: Each new town produces settlers as quickly as possible.
2) Granary 1st, then settlers

Results based on above assumptions:
Workers:
472 commerce and 408 shields. No food as they didn’t irrigate.

Settler cascade (1BG):
As the city only has 3 food extra, it can only expand in 7 turns, still producing over 40 shields, hence a warrior and a settler in 14 turns.
Using this:
471 commerce , 367 shields and 384 food
At 1000 BC this was 7 settlers (210 shields), 9 warriors (90 shields), and work in progress/losses account for the other 67 shields.

Granary 1st (2BG’s):
After the granary has been built, crank out settlers as fast as possible:
434 commerce , 389 shields and 285 food. At 1000 BC this was only 4 settlers (120 shields), 2 granaries, (120 shields), and work in progress/losses (149 shields). Minus the upkeep of the granaries for 37 turns in total

Conclusions/Discussion:
1) As already generally accepted in a low food environment the granary doesn’t pay out. Only build one when having 4-5 food extra, which I was using as rule of thumb already. Also on higher levels corruption slows down this process even more.
2) Early workers seem to pay out, as they can add commerce and shields to citizens that really work the tiles. For strategies that need fast research, I would recommend them.
3) For the agricultural trait the settler cascade seems to work pretty well, balancing future growth, expansion and research/happiness. Watch out, the commerce part could be overestimated (assumption 9). Definite benefit is the o-so important expansion early on in the game. The warriors even give some protection as well.
4) For non-agricultural traits it looks like the early workers are worth it (even more? :hmm: ).

What did I learn and will do different from now on:
1) In a non-agricultural trait, as soon as I have my settler pump ready I’ll crank out some workers first. Bias here could be when food/resources are available in direct vicinity.
2) In an agricultural trait I’ll crank out 2 settlers 1st, than a couple of workers, than resuming the settlers. Something I didn’t do this game, but IMHO is worth it. On top they get replaced in 2 turns as well (SirPleb’s point)

Generally said:
Early workers from settler pump pay out for themselves.

Or with SirPleb’s words:
“Early workers can be quite valuable because they are useful for more turns, a kind of leveraging. And overall I favour producing workers from cities with granaries and a food bonus, the population loss is replaced more quickly”

I FULLY AGREE ! :goodjob:

Comments :sad: /Questions :confused: /Additions/(Dis)-agreements :thumbsup: :nono: /Ideas :hmm: ????

PS: don't hang me on the exact numbers, probably some different micromamagent could maybe add 5-10 shields/food/commerce

Open - Seeking the cow

I got close to 20k Firaxis points. I have lost sanity, play time was 85 hours :eek: It is not good for health to be an unemployed. I just went to food store and forgot my wallet back home :mad: Too much Civ, I guess.


Horseman invaded the home continent. I wanted to keep high research pace, therefore lacked gold for upgrades. Invasion on foreign continent I did with Cavalry. Some minimaps of the process:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/cotm4_kuningas_minimaps.jpg

Techs. In the MA optional techs had top priority. 1. Navigation enabled overseas trade route. Lucky the Celts had Wines available. The Sumerians had Ivory but they traded it to the Celts. Also I sent settler to claim Incense in between the Mongols cities. In 400AD I was up to 6 luxuries. 2. Music Theory. JS Bach Cathedral completed soon after in 270AD. In the IA. 1. Steam Power. 2. Replaceable Parts. 3. Sanitation. After those I piled gold for cash rushies.

Date AD Tech
70 Navigation
150 Music Theory
440 Military Tradition
560 ToG ->IA
610 Steam Power
660 Electricity
710 Replaceable Parts
750 Medicine
790 Sanitation
...
2050 - Future tech 20

After all I have not played a huge map milk yet. I broke many personal records.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/cotm4_kuningas_stats.jpg

Open - Seeking the cow


I think you may have found it! Herculean effort :goodjob:

Kuningas:
Open - Seeking the cow

sought ,found ..........
and milked it!!! :clap: :hatsoff:

Open - Seeking the cow

Holy, well, Cow!

Neil. :cool:

Open - Seeking the cow

Very, very impressive. Sir, I salute you. :salute:

Now you can get some sleep. :)

Hooey! Hats off Kuningas, and I was all giddy about getting close to 15,000... :lol:

@Kuningas:
Well played. IMHO the cow is yours... :)




Now try milking a huge map for the HoF, you'll see it's fun. :crazyeye:

Well done Kuningas. I think you may well get a gold cow! ;)

Well done Kuningas. I think you may well get a gold cow! ;)

Yes, I think this is very well possible...
Care to enlighten us as to what your Jason score was? :)

Open - Seeking the cow

I got close to 20k Firaxis points. I have lost sanity, play time was 85 hours :eek:
Awesome! :hatsoff:

I was real happy with almost 14K. Now I see how it is supposed to be done. :goodjob:

Care to enlighten us as to what your Jason score was? :)

I intended to keep it in secret. It was slightly over 12 000.

open

Went for histographic in this game, thou when I saw kuningas was going for the cow I assumed I would not get highest score :p

Comparing to Kuningas graphs it seems I lost the game in the 0ad to 1400 period.. I was way too slow in fully conquering the home continent, and specially the 2nd continent.. not finding the 'saltpeter island' untill around 1300ad wasnt not good either :(

Seems like I was around 6.5k points behind Kunnigas in 1450ad, but managed to gain about 2k points on him from there on, and ended up at 15117 fireaxis score.

This was my first ever milking attempt thou, and I learned a lot for next time I will try :) (not that I feel like doing it anytime soon after spending 100 hours on this game ;) )

I intended to keep it in secret. It was slightly over 12 000.

Awesome!
You've definately got a golden cow coming your way, 'cause I really doubt anybody will beat that score!!!!

It is not good for health to be an unemployed.

I do not think you will have any problem finding a milking man job now. Just kidding ;)

Open --

Since I got a Diplomatic victory in COTM1 and a Space Race victory in COTM2 (I don't want to talk about COTM3 -- it wasn't pretty), I decided I would go for one of the other victory conditions this time. By the start of the Industrial Era, I had conquered my whole continent, so I decided the victory was to be a domination victory.

By this point, the Celts had conquered most of the Byzantine homeland (the rest was in French hands; the Byzantines were in exile on the tundra island). The Celts also owned the former Mongolian territory (Genghis was eliminated before I met him), large portions of the Hittite territory, and had prevented the Sumerians from expanding (or so I thought -- during the replay, I discovered that the Sumerians had actually been the ones to conquer Mongolia before losing their prize to Brennus). The Germans were also long gone, having been conquered by the French and Celts before I ever heard of Otto von Bismarck.

My first Industrial priority was, of course, to get coal. I landed my troops near Constantinople and carved out enough territory to get to the coal. By this point, the Celtic counteroffensive was putting the hurt on me, so I made peace. I spent some time building up my infrastructure, switched to communism, and let it roll.

Things did not go well for me at first. Brennus pushed me all the way back to Constantinople. I had to buy coal from France! Oh, the indignity. Then I got smart. I had eveyrone pile onto Brennus. This saved me in two ways. First, Brennus stopped attacking me and started attacking the other nations. Second, instead of defending on one front, he was suddenly defending on three fronts (neither the Hittites nor the Byzantines had enough power to count as a front). Brennus did me some more favors by conquering a few French cities, which I promptly took from him. I rolled through Cletic territory, then took out the Hittites. By this point, I was at around 60% territory. I backstabbed the Sumerians, rolled over their troops, and crossed the domination limit in 1820.

In retrospect, I probably could have gotten there sooner if I had micromanaged my Cletic conquests by whipping some cultural improvements out of them. I was too busy micromanaging my troops -- ferrying them from the home continent to Constantinople, and from there to the front. I also should have imported some workers from the home continent to the Celtic conquests in order to build railroads, mines, etc. quicker. But I'm not a patient micromanager, and I won't complain about my 5066 Firaxis score/5269 Jason score.

Here's my final minimap:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/JFliegel/COTM04-06.jpg

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

This is the first time I have completed a GOTM of any sort. Thanks to the creators for this game it was very enjoyable.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/Winner2.JPG
I won by domination in the year 1405AD. My game score was 6147 and I believe the submission page said that my Jason score was 8306 but do not take me to court on that. I owned 66% fo the land and 76% of the population. There were six civ's left and Sumeria was the Largest in land and pop next to me at 8% each.

Recap: I played the whole game in either Despotism or republic. I started the MA with the goal of getting the home continent to myself by 1000 AD thinking that this should get me pretty close to domination. :lol: I should also note I do not play many Large Maps so I severely underestimated the amount of land I need to win. At around 950AD I did conquer the Homeland but I was still 2 tech's away from Magnets. My 1st suicide galley had reached the other land mass (the big one) so I had met everyone. Once I got the required tech's to get overseas safely, I spent the rest of the game shipping units over to the other land and I started with the Byz (closest to the northern part of our lands) and worked my way down the western coast of the continent. I did not sell Nav or Mag to the enemy because I wanted as much of a jump start on them getting to the little islands as I could. After the Byz were relegated to a 1 tile island I went after the Mongols and then the Hitties. This completed the domination 5 years after my initial goal I set at the beginning of the game. On thech I never got to Steam because after getting to Cav's I basically turned off research.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/Winnermini.jpg

I am pretty pleased with my game. I know there are many areas I can improve and that's 1/2 of the fun of this game for me.

Interestingly I used Dianthus' Stats utility after my game was done and amongst the other neat things there I found this info on my military at year 1405:
I had:
240 units
906 total HP
2450 Attack
1764 Defense
33 native workers
133 slaves
10 settlers
2 warriors
6 spear
19 pike
4 musket
4 MI
34 knights
59 cavs
4 cats
1 treb
20 cannon
13 crusaders
6 javelins
2 galley
4 caravels
10 galleons
7 armies
1 privateer

The reason I find this interesting is that I had no idea I still had all of those outdated units lying around. Next game I play I intend on using this utility a bit more to make sure my empire is not supporting outdated units. Thanks Dianthus!

The reason I find this interesting is that I had no idea I still had all of those outdated units lying around. Next game I play I intend on using this utility a bit more to make sure my empire is not supporting outdated units. Thanks Dianthus!

You do not need Dianthus program for that. Just use F3. :king: Moreover F3 will also show you where your outdated units are located

Summary

100K cultural victory in 1310AD.



45 years from some serious bragging rights! - 1355AD for me, but on 100k I think 9 turns is actually a lot to catch up, I know I could have got closer if I had focused on it from the start, but it was more a case of gifting something to the Aztechs so the 350 shields they had invested in a wonder wouldn't be wasted, and as thier capital was sitting on my border it was rude to to take it as a thank you present!

The ToA is seriously broken on this set up. You can get a massive amount of culture when combined with some ICS style spacing (I recon about 30k of my culture came from this alone). You just must not get education (and so must also avoid the Great Library), but you still have libraries, cathedrals and colluseums, which is all the culture you need, and if you need it you can still reach cavalry.

Cash rush in your many 1 production cities and use taxmen to good effect, while still focussing on food for score - I managed to play the last 100 turns in a little under 4 hrs once I had worked out that it would work.

I finally finished my first Civ histographic victory last night! As a compulsive micromanager, I took a perverse satisfaction in spending 115 hours on it...:mischief:

I learned a lot from my mistakes, e.g. taking long breaks from research during the conquest phase which prevented me from getting hospitals until late, letting my boundaries expand into tundra, and letting some coastal/sea tiles within my cultural boundaries escape city boundaries. But, I'll improve next time! I finally eliminated all but the Byzantines, who were consigned to the single-tile island city in 1640AD. Here are some timepoints from my game:

date_____score_____________happy______specialists
1640_____5914 +45ppt______1313_______360
1778_____7471 +46ppt______1684_______530
1810_____8225 +48ppt______1803_______796
1890_____10010 +42ppt_____1860_______1018
1980_____12288 +35ppt_____1980_______1128
2050_____14381 +26ppt_____1956_______1137

By 2000AD, my game was crashing if I tried to micromanage my scientists or taxmen to entertainers, thus preventing me from keeping my citizens at max happiness, so I just let it go and saw my #happy peeps actually go down a bit. Here's how my cities were laid out for the milking period:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/COTM_04terr_map.GIF

Hats off to the Master (Kuningas) for having just about every fertile tile included in his cultural boundaries! I think I'll work on refining my skills in getting to the domination limit earlier in the next few COTMs. Thanks for a fun map, Ainwood! 14381 fireaxis translated to 9141 Jason.

P.S. Thanks Dianthus et. al, for CRPMapStat- it was an invaluable tool during my game!

Time spent: just under 29 hours according to the in-game clock. In reality, more like 9 hours due to me doing things such as work, cooking and cleaning inbetween turns or simply gazing at beautiful things :D


Next time I decide to play GOTM (first one for me :) ) I will try to determine far sooner how I plan to win and I'll be far better at mircomanaging and manipulating the A.I civs. Of that I am certain. Where I went wrong to a certain extent was by in essence going for almost all the victory conditions at once and by having an appalling wonder strategy in the Ancient Era that cost me dear as I got bugger all.

Next time I'll also not use my laptop AT ALL as it affects my play as it is harder to use a touchpad and I didn't take any screenies on that computer. My play improved so much when I moved over to my desktop from the early wars with the Germans to the launch of my spaceship in 1795 A.D or so after I had at some point beaten up all the other civs, quite brutally.


Game Summary

Built up a nice core around my capital which I placed by the river where it met those lovely hills. My expansion was to be directed along this river primarily before I headed to the North-West mountain belt. After which I soon got entangled in war with the Americans, soon clearing them out and also a smallish tussle with the Aztecs. The result was the Americans were driven to live in the tundra to the far south and I went against the Spanish with my Great Leader army, which promptly died going for Madrid ahead of the main force of swordsmen :mad:

After the Spanish were wiped out I proceeded onto the Iroquois for no other reason than these civilizations were pathetic tech trading partners and yet had decent land. I cleared the Iroquois after a bloody war due to their counter-acts using mounted warriors. Then it was onto the Aztecs who had fought me a few times but been held off by my border cities and strategically placed spearmen in the mountains.

The Aztec war took a long time as their army was immense, as was their empire (though their city placements left alot of extra room for cities to be built...very odd), but in the end I trapped their army in two large encirclements near Tenochtitlan and butchered it.

Very soon, the whole continent was mine and the search for new lands intensified.

It was around 1000 A.D I met the other civs and traded with them as soon as navigation came around. The Germans were large, but very puny with spearmen and swordsmen to their credit. I quickly defeated them so giving me a large empire on the other island.

From then on it was a matter or promoting trade and trying to advance the A.Is as good tech trading partners so I could go to space. In the midst of this the Sumerians due to a very nice capital forced me to go to War and soon I had a very nice enclave in the SE of my continent. Time passed, techs moved on and this is how things continued between my privateer raids till the World Wars with the exception of a war against France that netted Lyon and Paris.

These World Wars were caused ultimately by a foolish move where I signed a MPP with France and ultimately this doomed the Mongols to destruction, the Celts to virtual destruction and cost me much land and gold. In the end I MPP with Celts and the result was that after the Mongols were tanked to death, the French were destroyed too having done some damage to me. All the while I supplied Byzantium and Celts cities to stop winning my domination which was a real possibility.

As soon as the techs came I was able to launch my spaceship and I went to the Stars :)



This was a fun game, but it was getting tiresome as I had so many cities to manage and I couldn't be bothered, especially with all those workers. The best moments were when the French invaded the Celts in that very small continent to the East of where the Americans started as it was a huge invasion fleet and also when my tiny enclave around Ur held out and then countered successfully against the Celts despite being reliant on simply the troops they had their at the start of the World Wars and that could be drafted. Marvellous.


kittenOFchaos: Predator Mode - Spaceship Victory, 1794 A.D


[Screenshot: My empire after the Germans were defeated and Ur taken by my mobile forces (which also took the rest of Sumeria). My army? Abroad, no need to defend the homeland!]

P.S No abuses used -even if legal- e.g ROP rape etc.

I didn’t have time to do any spoiler postings this month, but have been reading them. Nice to see many people setting new PBs (as did I). Brief summary of my game:

Decided to go for Domination win. Set up settler factory as per pre-game discussion. Expanded quickly along river to capture lux. Didn’t use the UU much, except to start GA. I preferred my industrious native workers to slaves and as “agricultural” it was pretty easy to churn out loyal Mayan worker brigades. Went for Republic sling shot and then didn’t really look back. Took out America, Spain, Iroquois and Aztecs in that order, with little difficulty, building ToA and Knights Templar along the way. Also captured Pyramids from the Americans which was a nice bonus. Set-up to invade other continent after getting to Navigation and Military Tradition. Shut down research more or less at that point and never left the Middle Ages. Invaded with 30 cav and 1 cav army. Quickly marched through Byzantines, Mongols, Celts, (picking-up 3 more cav armies and reinforcing the Le Grande Armee of General Smoking Cool Blue Jaguar to 50+ cav), finally Sumerians to reach domination limit in 1275. Only the Sumerians put up much of a fight, defending with muskets and having three cities flip back due to cultural conversions. Everybody else was trying to stop my cavalry with pikes or spears or was easily bribed with techs and lux to join our cause and not be a nuisance. Missed 10,000 Jason score by thissssssss much, but still my best score so far. :goodjob:

Entry class: open
Game status: Domination Victory for Maya
Game date: 1275 AD
Firaxis score: 6879
Jason score: 9384
Time played: 35:32:07

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/mjf_cotm04_02.JPG

Open class

Spaceship victory in 1892

Yes I know it's a little late, but I had to do research all on my own, after I got the Sumerians to declare war on the Celts. Sum lost some cities and since they got others to declare war on them they all were fascist.
I had to gift some cities, because I would have reached 100K and the dom limit 25 turns before I launched my ship, while no one else had flight.

Jason score 4622, so I won't be in the Top 50, I guess.

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

Just a quick summary; RL is very busy right now and I just got this done in the time I had available, so no notes, everything from memory, such as it is.

Actually researched Wheel first; gave me some trade value to get Alphabet, from Spain, and then I beat them to Writing, etc, finished Republic slingshot in 1025 BC. Kind of late - what are those other civs doing?

RNG was very streaky! Early JT rush on Washington was gloriously successful! This nice city eventually became my FP site. But Horses did poorly against Atlanta, the attack bogged down and I signed Peace getting Boston and Chicago. I resumed the war later on in the AA, doing Abe in for good and gaining Philadelphia.

Montezuma demanded a Tech, and War started. I razed one city, captured Tenochtitlan (no losses!), then totally bogged down against the next city. I gained Tula and Malinalco in peace negotiations, and eventually Texcoco flipped to me (sorry SirPleb; I didn't have near the cultural pressure you were exerting!), and that was the extent of operations against the Aztecs.

The Iroquois declared on me out of the blue early in the MidAges. The swarm of Mounted Warriors was starting to run me over; I got Spain allied, giving them a second target; I couldn't get Monte allied - he hadn't made contact with Hiawatha yet! :lol: Eventually he did, and he became allied. Streams of Aztec units started moving through my territory, not exactly a pretty sight. Eventually I signed a ROP with Monte, his units got to the Front much quicker, and he actually stayed at war far longer than I did. With all these allies, I couldn't pull out. Situation in Philadelphia was desperate; 2 wounded defenders vs 7 Iroquois units, 6 with attack values. So I gifted Philadelphia to Spain. (Later on I took it back from the Iroquois, along with a captured Pamplona :D ) Once I was in the clear, no active alliances, I signed peace with Hiawatha.

That was it for combat. I'd decided on building my core cities up, and going for Space/Diplo. I was first in the MidAges on my continent (590ish BC), and beelined up the Mono, Theo, Educ, Astr, Nav path. I'd seen Byzantine culture, but the gods of the sea were against me! I sent several parties of Galleys out, at least 3-4 per party, but none of them survivied the two turns on open sea/ocean to reach across. When I'd nearly researched Astronomy, I positioned 4 Galleys to wait until Sea spaces were safe. With only 1 turn on Open Ocean, 3 Galleys crossed and contacts came quickly then. I was able to trade for the other 1st tier MidAges techs, but the other continent wasn't too helpful in research, otherwise. They eventually learned Banking for me, and shaved a turn or two off Metallurgy, but I had to accomplish all other research myself. Entered IndAge in 700 AD. BTW, I had 3 Luxuries naturally, and was able to trade for Furs from the Aztecs and Wine from the Celts for 5 total; I didn't try to gain any others.

Running out of time, so playing pretty straight and simple. Gifted Scientific civs to IA, and they each got one 1st tier Tech. I started on Medicine, and was able to trade Navigation for it after a turn or two (Byzantines and Sumerians had traded Steam Power and Medicine so it was devalued.) I felt that I'd get little help with research from anybody, so I researched Sanitation next so I could bulk up my own cities. Then it was off on nearly solo research. I signed ROPs and sent Workers over to hook up extra coal on the 2nd continent, but the Byzantines connected them first; I was ahead in Tech so I had my coal source. Eventually the AI got me Scientific Method with 1 turn to go, and ReplParts for Free, and that was their only help with research.

I'd settled on Diplo win, but really bungled up my pre-builds and the ending play. Ended up delaying TofE a few critical turns, which allowed the Celts to sneak in and finish it first! :( So I had to research Fission from scratch (7 turns); this caused my remaining pre-builds to go over, so I got a MilAcad and BattleMed monument that I had no use for. My last pre-build now needed 6 turns to finish the UN; my Palace was never worth 1000 shields in this game, more like 600. Finally, built the UN, and after providing copious gifts, gained a 7-4 Diplomatic Victory in 1375 AD. Hiawatha voted for Brennus (still angry after all this time), along with Murcilis and Gilgamesh (probably due to some late alliances formed during some short IA wars.)

The research rate for the other civs was abysmal. I guess that the Large Map, combined with 7 civs on the 2nd continent, made for poor research rates. While there were leaders on the 2nd continent, no one civ stepped up to really dominate. This made things a bit frustrating, but it was fun to just build up my cities, and even build a few Wonders, too. Total time was just over 15 hours, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to submit it. Seeing the Final Spoiler finally, I can see that there were some outstanding games submitted! Playing a Large map is combersome, but it also allows some unique games to be submitted, so it is a nice change. :)

My original goal for this game was conquest. The home continent was cleared before the end of the MA, but the lone Byzanth island made me think. I remembered too late that I could have taken it in a peace deal and so started down another path of victory, trying for a fast diplo win.

I actually feel a little bad for CivSteve. He would have beaten me handsomely if he hadn't messed up those prebuilds.
I had absolutely no help from any AI civs after trading Currency for Construction and entering the MA. Once I reached the other continent, they were all very backwards and I wouldn't like to give them a tech leverage by gifting the sci civs into the IA so when the Celts and the Mongols backstabbed me, I decided to go close to the domination limit. Germany was already gone just before I landed on their continent. I declared on the puny French myself (Paris was one sweet spot of resources :cool: ). One after the other all AI civs except Byzanths and Sumeria warred me and I took them down, taking over their cities and rushing a little culture here and there while I made sure I kept 4-turn research.
To keep the Byzanths and Sumeria backwards while still content, I had to sweeten them somewhat, but Byz wasn't going to be happy no matter what lux I threw their way so I decided to RoP them. I guessed they were going to be my diplo contenders anyway (second highest score altogether and increasing with +1 score to Sumeria every turn) so if they RoP rape one of my cities on their continent, I figured no way Gilly would then vote for Byz. Although I hadn't razed many cities they knew about, I had killed off a few civs (French, Mongols, Celts, Hittites) so I wasn't 100% sure on the vote.
Sure enough, around 1290, Byz takes a size 11 city on their continent. I retake it the next turn, bog down in defense and only attack troops that venture into my territory (if I took her cities, not only would I soon be over the domination limit, but also Sumeria would be my contender for the UN vote).
In 1345 (end of turn), I finish the ToE in Chichen Itza, choose Fission as my second tech and use the big picture to switch Palenque's prebuild to the UN. Gilly votes for the Jaguar while Theo votes for herself --> 2-1 diplo victory with just over 9K Jason points.

...
I actually feel a little bad for CivSteve. He would have beaten me handsomely if he hadn't messed up those prebuilds.
...
Don't feel too bad; I was actually happy just to have finished!! :) It goes to show you what happens when you play tired and fast.

My Palace was only worth about 600 shields; Hoover's Dam is worth 800. Even though the city building HD is generating slightly less than 50 shields without a PowerPlant, that's only 5 more turns. Best would be delay HD until after ToE, switch, and forget about the HD. Maybe shave 10 turns off final time. Key point for me: building HD and getting the free Hydro Plants did not make up for the 200 shields I lost as a pre-build (and it really messed up my timing!)

Really, there is little to write about this game. I decided to play open class because of the large map. It takes a lot of time to move these units around. I have not built anything but a few libraries in the core, barracks, some markets also in the core, and then horsemen-knights-cavalry researching first Chivalry then to Navigation and then to Military Tradition. America and Spain were killed mostly with horsemen. Aztec and Haiawatha as well as Byzantines with Knights. Then, France, Celts, Mongols, Hittites and part of Germany were finished with cavalries. The game has been pretty steady and I was fortunate to locate the saltpeter island and built a few cities there. Otherwise, it was rushing of temples and settler and Domination was won in 740AD with Jason's score 10710. It could have been earlier or with somewhat higher score if there was a possibility to build Temple of Artemis or Pyramids on the home continent but both wonders were built on another.

I was really amazed with the game of Kuningas. This kind of commitment certainly deserves a medal!!! Now I'm not too much worried about losing the job because of playing Civ (j/k). "I had a wife and a house, a job and even remember having a dog. But all this was in a previous life before I started playing Civilization!" :)

Quick summary:

Set up Chichen early as 5->7 pump, expanded towards US, since I expected most of the resources there; turned out I was right, had already grabbed both Horses and the Iron when that Techs came up.
Tried CoL->Philo->Rep gambit, but failed.
Built MoM in the Capital, one of my favorite Wonders; by that time, I had set up a city with 3 Oasis S as Settler town already.
Didn't bother much with JTs, one of my least favorite UUs. Somehow lone Barb Horses managed to kill 2 full healthy of them fortified :mad: . Got a tottal of one Barbarian Slave. However, I still had 4 JTs as top defenders in core cities, which later turned out to be highly risky...
After initial expansion, I went for a balanced built-up, but stayed peaceful. Those pesky Barb vessels kept sinking my ships, so I didn't make contact with the other continent (Byzantium) before 150AD.

130BC saw the only somewhat critical moment: Monty moved in a couple of Jags on absolutely obvious sneak attack vector...
Not that he was any real threat, but I couldn't demand him out since we had a RoP. I had to disband 2 Spear/Settler combos in his lands to not risk my rep, and what made the situation really ugly was that he was aiming at 2 core cities defended by JTs - and I had another 5 turns of anarchy :mad:. Not to speak I aimed for Space, thus planned on triggering the GA with Hoover...
However, I could lure 3 Jags to slaughter a Horse, and the 4th attacked a JT, redlined and retreated!
Built a couple more wonders in CI, including the GLib. The Aztec War took centuries; Sumeria had Chivalry, I had the GLib, so I didn't want to research it by myself, but nobody aquired it for ages. Hand-build the FP in Tenochtitlan, and finally eliminated Aztecs with the help of Spain and US (only America got a single city there).
Then, it was just research at 4 turns/Tech for centuries.

Meanwhile, Sumeria did as well as you'd expect from an AGR Civ with Pyramids, HGs and SoZ. For reasons only known to the AI, one weakling after the other declared on the monster, and vanished, or was exiled to the tundra island. However, due to all that wars Gilgamesh didn't build culture in his captured cities, so I could get a foothold in a non-aggressive spot. When I gifted the other 2 SCI Civs into the MA, it turned out that a source of Coal and 3 more tiles next to it was outside his borders in ex-Byzantium :) . Same with Oil, could found a non-aggressive city to pouch one source between Hittites and Sumeria (ex-France).
General strategy was getting Shakespears ASAP in CI, then using Army prebuilds for other wonders.
Tech path was obviously only required Techs except FA, and going for ManuPlants first in the Modern Era, building SETI and Internet on the way, then Spaceflight and SF last.
At this time, I had a solid Tech lead (not really wanted, but I simply couldn't prevent the AI from fighting on and on); Sumeria was 1st in land, Iros and US had something like an economy. Triggered GA with Hoovers in CI. Stayed in Republic throughout the game. Disbanded enormous amounts of units in all those former Aztec tundra towns, to get them to size 7 and all SCI buildings.
Made a pretty stupid mistake in underestimating a Monarch AI - 2 turns after Gilgamesh had overrun the mainland holdings of the Hittities (MI/Ari/Bomber time), and we were alone on that landmass, he of course delared. Did cost me 2 cities mostly founded to help with unit support, but WW and the loss of 3 Luxes was what really hurt. Anyway, while it did delay vitory for a total of 2 turns (since I couldn't afford to research 2 techs @4, with running 40% Luxury tax), I was by no means in any danger of loosing my important resource cities, and when I launched, I had 7 Luxes by my own again (imported the 8th one, Gems, from America the entire game), and Sumeria was down to 20% land - he was at about twice as big when he felt like starting the war :rolleyes: . What really helped me with WW was tundra OCC Celts declaring on me without any reason :D .

This game saw about the most stupid AI Government choices I've ever seen:
Sumeria, owning nearly an entire continent, switched to Monarchy, despite knowing Communism (but of course not Fascism).
Celts, however, with a single tundra city capped at size 3, prefered Communism over anything else :rotfl:.

Space Victory in 1776AD, predator. Would have won by Diplo with 6/7 without further donations, since of course I tried to speed up tech race by gifting anyone to the level of Sumeria.

Enjoyed the resource distribution, but wasn't that pleased that it seemed SGLs, and IMHO pretty annoying, Cultural Conversions were turned off...

Enjoyed the resource distribution, but wasn't that pleased that it seemed SGLs, and IMHO pretty annoying, Cultural Conversions were turned off...

SGL's are indeed off, but culture flips are on in the COTM.
IIRC I had one of my newly conquered towns flip back to its previous owner in this game...

Cannot imagine that. Look at Sir Plebs screenie, and I saw similar situations. Plus, there was not a single flip during all my game, despite all the civs on the other continent pretty mixed up. I had Iroquois cities completely surrounded by twice-expanded borders, and a huge culture lead over them.

Did you check it with Flip Calculator? Actually, I find it that in GOTMs usually peaceful flips are rather seldom. AI often has a decent start and builds at least some culture. As well as moves lots of units into flip-risky cities to counter the possibility of flips. May be Iro had 20 or more units in that city. And how big was your lead? 2-fold, 3-fold?

In this game I had about 50% cultural advantage over Byzantines yet Adrianople flipped once or twice, don't remember. MapStat showed about 1.6% probability. This was the only flip in the game except that I had to abandon Tenochtitlan after capturing it for the second time since it showed about 6-7% flip probability. And Celts had similar culture with about 4% flip chances for one or two cities but none of them flipped. :)

I had a lot of flips ( I mean A LOT) particularly at the end of the game. I think it delayed my victory. I finished it by domination around 1350AD or so.
Despite I had libraries and temples in many cities.

Ok, if someone actuallly faced flips, I'm convinced. Note I always wrote '...seemed to be turned off.'

Hi!

well, I thought the huge map made the end game a bit boring so focus was lost a bit in my cavalry wars.. short summary is that I had grabbed everything by 1495ad except for a single tile island the byzantines where occupying. It took me until 1595ad to get marines to allow me see the conquest win popup.. :cry:

Built the knights templar wonder, havn't played much with that and found it quite nice, possibly because the tech pace was so slow - it was pumping for ages! the best defence any of the others got was musketman.

It was really the armies that wiped the floor though, heroic epic seems to be a very good investment when warmongering.

cheers,
John :king: