GOTM 75 First Spoiler -- 1AD

GOTM 75 First Spoiler

Stop! If you are participating in GOTM75, then you MUST NOT read this thread unless EITHER

• You have reached at least 1 AD in your game, OR
• You have submitted your entry

Posting Restrictions

• Please do not disclose ANY events or information gained post 1 AD.
• Please do not reveal your final result if that happened after 1 AD.
• Please do not discuss the location of resources that may not show up before 1 AD.
• Please do not name civilizations that requires caravels to contact.

I've been wandering a bit with my Settler. I decided that on Marathon it's not essential to settle asap. I found nice spot NW, with jumbos fish and starting Cow. Then Rice appeared after founding the city. Overall very good spot.

Agri->Pottery->AH->Mining->BW->Hunting for jumbos->Oracle's techs->Writing->Monarchy
Feudalism from Oracle, and finally Alpha, 450 BC. Then I got whole bunch of techs in trade.

I started scouting east, and found Toku there. Isn't he lovely guy for neghbour? Knowing him, with no remorse I stole his Worker from golden hill. Then I fortified my Warrior in the forest behind the river, next to his capitol. He lost one Archer and sued for peace. Worker have been eaten by Bear.
Next Warrior I sent south and discovered, that Mao have juicy land. So I decided to slow him down by stealing a Worker. I had a moment of panic when I found pastured Horses next to him. But no Chariots showed up, I suppose Mao didn't have Wheel then. This time I escorted Worker home. Mao sued for peace dozen turn later. I gambled and stole another Worker from Toku almost simultaneously (and escorted him either). But Toku instead of holding a grunge like usual, sued for peace turn or two after Mao. Miracle!

I beelined to Guilds. Barbs were an issue as I had no Bronze and didn't discover IW. There were some nasty moments before I hooked up Horses near my third city founded in 1735 BC. Second was 2005 BC 1S from Wheat, on coast, near east mountains. I founded it there to block Toku.
Next was Baghdad (800 BC) in the southern jungle with Corn and Bananas in order to block Elizabeth and Mao. Mao already settled this amazing spot in jungle with 3 jumbos, 2 Gems and Horses. I decided I'll leave it to him and wait for his Workers to do dirty job of removing jungle.
Fifth city I founded in the middle of desert E from starting position, to hook up Pigs, Stone and Silk. And to block Toku completely.
And I was out of place for settling. So last city I built 360 BC at northen point of peninsula (Fish, Sheep, Incense).
My REXing sucks, I know.
In the meantime I constructed Stonehenge, with the bright thought of REXing. I completed Oracle 650 BC. Ghandi founded Calcutta SW from my capitol, with Cows next to oasis. Cultural pressure from 2 wonders made it to flip 190 BC.
First GP was GP, I settled him in capitol. 140 BC I converted to Hindu to befriend Cyrrus and Elizabeth. It didn't hurt thaht Toku was also Hindu. He was backward, loss of 2 Workers hampered him badly. 30 BC I discovered Currency.
My first intended victims were Mao and Ghandi, both Jewish.

So at 1 AD I had 7 cities, around 27 pops. First in score, second in power, big tech lead, discovering MC.

sorry wrong thread

Challenger save, goal: Domination

Large & Marathon are really messing me around. I have no idea when to whip and even food rich cities take forever to grow.

I moved the warrior NW to reveal elephants, very nice. The settler climbed up onto the PH, even better, an oasis, the absolute best starting BFC tile ever. On turn 1 I am all ready to settle on the PH, but I might as well move the warrior first, who reveals rice! So, I decide to forgoe the short term wonder that is an oasis and move west to grab the rice. Which then reveals the best tile so far, coastal fish!

My warrior explores along the coast west, not impressed with what I see, endless desert. About this time I am convinced the map is africa, with us at the mouth of the Nile. He continues anti-clockwise, meeting Gandhi, then Lizzie and eventually discovers Mao, just as he sends a worker out. Thanks Mao!

Teched Fishing -> Hunting -> AH -> Pottery -> Writing -> Alpha

Oracled Currency in 790bc, which was a very good move, as it allowed me to maintain 100% research while selling off techs to the rest of the backwards AI. I sold Meditation around for 600 gold!!! I researched Construction the same turn and started churning out Cataphants.

At 1ad both Mao and Gandhi are dead, the latter having built me the Mahabohdi, which meant I was gaining money rather than losing it at 0% research. Toku & Cyrus are next. I should do Lizzie, but she has troops scattered everywhere and would make defence a pain. Also, being so close it should be no problem to take her out last.

I once again took the Adventurer....someday I'll finish in the top half of one of these

Settled in place...seemed good enough. With my two GAs, definitely planned on Culture.

Founded Buddhism and Judaism. But, no more by 1AD, and no more spread. Hoping for a 3rd to come my way, at this point.

Good thing was, my Buddhism was spreading like crazy and everyone was becoming my buddy, including Tokugawa. Thoughts of a Diplo victory began, but that would no doubt take longer than Culture, but we shall see.

Medina was founded nearly due S, to get that great 4 resource area with Corn, Silk, Cow and Ivory, before Mao did, and hold his city advance at bay. Baghdad was 3rd city to the East, just past the mountains with the Wheat and Pig, to do the same to the Japanese. Then #4, N of there, to get the Stone and Clam. #5 W of that, to completely close off Japan and give me a few smiley faces. Last city at 1AD, and perhaps my last before some culture flipping, if I go that route, was NW of capital to get the Fish.

Stupid vanilla auto assigning GP made me get a GS. Took forever to get a GP, so I was struggling along at around 50 or 60% research. Not a lot better now, but Courthouses will help.

Without a ton of food, GA building may be tough. I should've probably built more farms in a city, but the best candidates would be the 3 of my Legendary candidates. So, maybe Culture may not work too well. I'll give it a go, though. As close as neighbors are, there certainly should be some flipping going on.

Geez... I'm really out of my comfort zone with this marathon speed. I have no idea about what would be nice progress in 1AD or how things scale here. Everything takes lots of turns to do and there seems to be nothing happening most of the time.

My initial plan was to Oracle Feudalism, bulb my way to Guilds and then dominate the lands with those knight-imposters. And not build any cottages. However, that plan had to go after the Oracle part as all the good spots were taken by AIs and I didn't know where to settle more cities. Except for the cottage-part, still no fancy cottages for me. This naturally led to longbow-rush - a thing I've always wanted to try out. Longbows may not be the best offensive unit out there but at least it's possible to get cover promos for a change.

I settled on the PH despite the fish around. My plan at that point insisted on forgetting how to fish and I wanted to stick with it. Initial builds were worker -> warrior -> warrior (partly) -> settler, after which I noticed that those partly builds aren't useful here as hammers get lost very easily while hitting "end turn" 30 times in a row. Second city went west for oasis + cows + rice + shared phants and third south for horses + cows + lots of flood plains. Techs started maybe with Agri -> Hunting -> AH. Founded hinduism rather late while going for Oracle and it spread to most of the AIs. First two Great Scientists bulbed Math & Alpha, soon I'm getting either GPro for nice hindu shrine (would be very useful) or GSci for Calendar bulb (also useful). Besides Oracle I just got Mids so it's repre-time now.

Once I got those longbows online, I went after Mao and his nice gems+phants spot. And also other cities too. Bit before Toku had DoWed Cyrus so I wasn't too concerned about him. After Mao was finished my longbows went for Lizzy and her nice golden desert spot. Then it was Gandhi's turn to eat arrows, though I left him alive with one city under my cultural pressure. As most of the land was quite poor, I had to raze some cities to avoid crashing my economy. And I still managed to crash it... I guess I need to throw Toku with a bunch of longbows soon to get some more war-gold to Arabian vaults.

Stats at 1AD:

- 15 cities, 57 pop
- 82 bpt @ 0% science, -28 gpt
- Techs: Feudalism (Oracled), Currency, Construction coming in soon
- Wonders: Oracle, Mids

Wow....Feudalism and Longbows that early.....that must have taken some building time or a lot of cash. With 15 cities, I don't think you are struggling too much! Maybe with tech/tax rate

I meant to add to my post that someone out there(I think Liz and Peter), were building most of the wonders. I didn't even build any by 1 AD. They were building them hot and heavy.

Forgot to mention about barbs earlier. I've seen maybe one barb warrior and one archer so basically nothing. And that archer even went to harass somebody else. Animals caused some trouble as one lucky panther got to eat my first worker just before I got my third city up and running. I was too careless there.

billybgame said:

Wow....Feudalism and Longbows that early.....that must have taken some building time or a lot of cash. With 15 cities, I don't think you are struggling too much! Maybe with tech/tax rate

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Got Feudalism in 1135BC and built my longbow army mainly from wood. Serfdom has been useful as improvements take long to build, and we're spiritual so I've been switching between serfdom and slavery a lot. I think I have around 650 gold in bank so I have money for 20 turns or so. That sounds like a lot but with marathon speed all the changes happen quite slowly. Of course I can get some gold from trades or build wealth but I really need CoL soon and courthouses online. Science slider has been at 0% for a long time and I have no idea about when I can possibly raise it.

billybgame said:

I meant to add to my post that someone out there(I think Liz and Peter), were building most of the wonders. I didn't even build any by 1 AD. They were building them hot and heavy.

Click to expand...

In my game AIs haven't done anything really. I was hoping to get at least Stonehenge from somebody but no can do. Have to build everything by myself.

-Asterix- said:

Geez... I'm really out of my comfort zone with this marathon speed. I have no idea about what would be nice progress in 1AD or how things scale here. Everything takes lots of turns to do and there seems to be nothing happening most of the time.

Click to expand...

Same here, I can't recall the last time I played a game at this speed - or maybe I have never done it before. Not sure if I will even find the time to finish it, as I'm leaving for some short vacations and return near the submission deadline.

But surprisingly enough, I admit I'm having fun with this game. As I mentioned in the pre-game discussion thread, I'm going for culture - hopefully the VC I could complete in the shortest real time.

I settled in place before even moving the warrior.

Tech
I went Agri/Pottery/Hunting/AH/Writ/Poly(founded Hindu)/PH/CoL(Confu) > CS from Oracle (1210BC). From then on, Alpha (for the cheap techs)/Math/Constr/Lit/Currency/Music.

Expansion
I went S for the corn/cows/ivory/etc (legendary #2); then W (cows/oasis/forests!), E (pigs/wheat/hills/forests).
My 5th city was Delhi and the 6th Bombay. Acquired buddhism as a 3rd religion.
City 7 was mediocre but grabbed stone (for wonders)+sheep+incense.
Talking about resources, I was looking for copper and marble but the nearest sources were in english lands. Therefore I had to send cataphants to grab them. I kept 3 english cities (London, the 2xgold site and the awful marble city). I gave peace to Liz for Mono, but might have to get rid of her last 2 cities, to avoid "motherland" issues. One of them is the jewish holy city. I might be able to keep it for a while until it produces a missionary for my 5th religion, then gift it to Mao, but it is probably overkill.
The flipside of this greedy crusade for resources is that my empire is too scattered and I’ll face higher maintenance costs than desirable.

Diplo
Mao and Cyrus share my hindu religion, while Toku is buddhist. I attacked a japanese settling party which was "invading" my lands, but a full war didn't interest me at the moment. Just noticed another nearby AI borders but unfortunately my scouting was flawed and we haven't made contact yet.

Wonders and GPP
Oddly enough for a culture game, just built Oracle and Pyramids so far. I'll try for a few more as I have connected the key resources now. Maybe this is the reason I only got 1 GP - a prophet who built the hindu shrine. That is, besides the GA from Music. Note to self: amend this aspect in the AD's, we're PHI after all.

Prospects
Mecca and Medina are doing well on their long way to legendary. Delhi was the natural candidate for the 3rd one, lots of food - corn/clams+3 sugar? But since I conquered London I am unsure where should I build the NE. Now I'm researching Drama, and next should come the minimal stuff to get Nat from Lib. I should be able to grab Tao as a 4th religion from Philosophy.

SIP, built one city by the other cow S.

Chariots and HAs burned the land, getting a lot of practice against Barbs.

Enjoyed taking Toku out first.

Only Peter and Frederick had a few Spears at the end. (Peter 1 and Frederick 4 ) but they were no match for my SOD of veteran HAs.

Research: I'll have Pottery in 321 turns.

I like that approach!

fun game. Thought I could make it in one sitting all the way to 1AD, but had to take a break around 900BC. This definitely seems to take longer.

1st time playing GOTM, Vanilla, and Marathon! Pretty new to game and having fun learning. I am just cheesing as I did in my WOTM game and basically just rushed the CPU. The marathon setting seems a bit easier in that any damage to the AI you can do early is pretty much game ending as they can't rebound very fast.

SIP after seeing all the food - whip (tho that is weird seeing "for 30 turns")

Hunt-AH-Fish-Pot-Min-BW-Writ-Med-Priest-Mon-Alph-Iron
Oracle-Feud.

3070 War Toku - stole worker
3025 War Mao - stole worker
2620 Toku eliminated - Capital (warrior-chariots)
2455 Mau eliminated - Capital (chariots)
2065 War Liz - stole worker
2050 Captured juicy English city with 2 gold, corn, cows!
740 Liz eliminated - Capital (chariots at a price)
580 War Cyrus - stole worker
50 - Cyrus eliminated - Capital (longbows-swords-chariots)
1 AD - War Gandhi - stole worker

Got a few more turns till Cats show up and can easily wipe out Ghandi and then this part of the continent is clear.

Been having some pesky issues with axemen barbs (guess cause there's so much free land open?). In fact lost a city for a few turns. I just read that Vanilla chariots aren't as powerful vs. axemen as Warlords haha! Longbows finally seemed to help!

Lost an early worker cause I didn't realize panthers had 2 movement points (sniped me from the dark)

That was fun and intense (barbs) being so spread out. Guess there's 2 ways to play this game:
1. Build up super forces, wealth, and infrastructure then safely steamroll an AI who has improved cities/terrain when the time is right (comfortable).
2. Rush with sticks and stones and try to balance the chaos of being somewhat defenseless and poor, slow tech/infrastructure.

Will try to finish before deadline. Thnx again for putting this together.

I've started towards a cultural victory, but I don't think I can be bothered to finish it. It's just so tedious & boring, it'll feel like a chore to finish it off. (Plus it could be going better!) Maybe give us two months for a marathon game?

The beginning and cities:
- Warrior 1N / Settler SIP
#1- Mecca SIP (4000 BC) – cow, elephant - Worker / Warrior / Settler / a lot of Chariots…
#2- Medina S (2410 BC) – cow, rice, silk, elephant
#3- Guangzhou Chinese (1390 BC) - gems
#4- Shangai Chinese (1345 BC) – corn, gems, elephant, horse
#5- Beijing Chinese (660 BC)
#6- Nanjing Chinese (640 BC)

Technologies, Wonders and Great Persons:
- Agric / Pott / AH / Mining / BW / Hunting / Medit / Priest / Writing / Alpha / Math / Monarchy / Constr (22t)...
- Only The Oracle – I choose Horseback Riding for Horse Archers… and later Camel Archers
- Great Prophet (140 BC) settled in Mecca

The game:
- The first war was against Mao Zedong (1435 BC) with 14 Chariots
- After the conquest of two cities we made peace (1315 BC)
- Dowed again (670 BC) and conquered two more cities. The last became ruins. He was destroyed (610 BC)
- The intencion is surely Domination.

1 AD:
- 5 cities (2 founded, 3 Chinese - Nanjing was given to England Empire to reduce costs).
- Pop 21 / treasury 0 / 4gpt at 60% - Construction (10 turns)
- Hereditary Rule / Slavery
- 12 Horse Archers / 7 Chariots / 2 Warriors / 3 workers

I had five cities by 1 AD (I think). Took out Gandhi with warriors early on.

Originally I thought of going culture too. But changed my mind since war will be much faster.

SIP and lost 1st settler to a panther (killed the warrior)
Found Horses, stole a worker from Toku and a lion ate him.
Attack Toku with 7 Chariots against 1 archer and 2 warriors. Ended with 2 hurt choriots facing a Freshly CG promoted Archer.
Misread 2 archers in his second city as 2 pop and when the 4th chariot killed the last archer, the city autorazed.

2 more chariots joined the two hurt chariots to kill the Surviving archer to find a fresh archer in the city next turn. It was 2000BC and it was time to back off.

I exited the game and went to bed.

After a week I started again today and continued. Finally got my second city founded just a turn before Mao claimed the corn to the south. Founded 3 more cities, Oracled CS. Bulbed Math and learned Construction.

By AD's Killed off Toku and Took 2 of Persian Cities.

So the city count is 10. Know currency and lerning MC. I have just started whipping.

I am in the same boat as several others here w.r.t. Marathon.
Settlers are cheaper. Single whip will build a phant? I am so confused.
This is the first time I have played this spped past 2000BC. Things are way too slow.