I just want to go through some highlights and strategic decisions. One thing Ainwood missed in his opening paragraph was that the map made it important to rush Jaguar warriors to the many chokes, limiting the computer in its expansion.
I founded my capitol one square southeast of the start and things went downhill from there. Not that my empire actually had any real problems. But I was playing pretty sloppy. I actually managed to lose my starting worker to a barbarian (dangit). Luckily, I'd finished 4 improved squares near my capitol. Throughout the Ancient Age I was too cocky (and thus careless) due to the monarch setting.
I founded two cities to the west and quickly blocked off the Iroquois in their little northern area. The cities could have been closer to my capitol, and I was thinking too much looking for 'ideal' sites for early cities. See, this game was wildly different from my normal Civ3 games. One of the reason I liked the GOTM idea. I usually play on a very crowded map, generally max water continents with 8 civs. But in addition, I favor a cold, arid, and young (mountainous) world.
For awhile I just built settlers and workers. Unfortunately, I got The Wheel late. Partially because I'd been working on bronze working, got that tech through a hut, and didn't notice when the sci advisor started me on Iron Working too early. 36 turns later...
But in any case, i isolated the weird penninsula south west of the starting land from the Americans, and blocked off the southwest land area with two more Jaguar warriors (they'd gotten a setter past the one-square isthmus befure I started thinking). In retrospect, I might have also been able to block off land far to the south east from them as well.
In any case, I expanded to the east, both south and north. North just enough to the luxuries there, but I missed the horses (wheel was too late). They were right on my border with the Iroquois. Damn their UU. I find it's right up there with the persians' UU for Ancient Age annoyance. South enough that I had 4 good cities along the side, until I hit desert. The Americans did steal one spot along the inner sea, south of my capitol on the land road to that inner sea penninsula. But I colonized the penninsula (thanks blockade), to the west and north were two cities above the isthmus, and three cities were built on the southwest landmass, first on the iron there.
That iron took forever to get connected to my empire. In part because of barbarian activity. They just kept popping up there. I had three J. warriors and an archer hunting down huts (archers for mountain fastnesses), but the barbs still got one horde off. In a rare decision, I decided to defend instead of buy something overpriced from the computer with my ~200 gold. My city barely held, with my scrambled defenses of 4 spearmen and 1 J warrior all redlining and becoming elite.
Well, that was nice. But the Americans had founded a city that pushed my 2 warriors holding their entrance to the SW land area back, and the Iroquois had used triremes to found two cities there. I wasn't happy with that, so I built up a mixed force of J. Warriors, Swordsmen, and Horseman. A little rag tag, but they were what I had available. And four horseman, seven swordsmen, and a few J. Warrors to attack mounted warriors is a nice force.
For the war with the Iroquois (I had initially planned on the Americans, as they didn't have Mounted Warriors, but they turned out to be bigger because the Iroquois were bottled, and I wanted to deny Iroquois horses) I sent two Elite spearmen to hold the western front, two elite J. Warriors and an eilte archer to attack the Iroquois in the southwest, and the bulk of my army to the northeastern front (including two more elite spearmen).
I crashed across the border with excellent inital success, taking the Iroquois city with horses. I then planned to fortify and move on, hopefully not losing any units to the Iroquois mounted warriors. They may have also had a golden age due to Oracle, but I didn't want to count on that. Most other wonders had been built overseas.
Two turns after I took the horses city, Hiawatha broke his army on my fortified spearmen. No less than three Mounted warriors impaled themselves on just one elite spearmen (the other destroyed two swordsmen). My best spearmen were renamed the Living Wall Brigade, and I created an army of 3 regular swordsmen (upgrades...).
Everything was going swimmingly, including the destruction of a city in the southwest, until one dreadful attack a few turns into the war. Hiawatha was running out of units in the north east, had ignored the west, and one town stood in the southwest with a single regular spearmen. That spearmen defeated an elite archer and two elite J. warriors. Only one warrior retreated, and the spearmen were now elite themselves. In the north, my army (7 hp) and the Living Wall brigade both fell on the same turn to 2 regular swordsmen (one each). My counter attack largely failed, including the loss of an attacking vet. horseman to a defending regular Mounted Warrior. Hiawatha's last Mounted Warrior, no less.
The rest of the war consisted of me scrambling units to the northeast to counter the golden-age stream of Iroquois swordmen flooding the area, while trying to destroy that darned city in the southwest. After another failed attack, 3 J. Warriors finally took Tydenaga in the southwest, eliminated the Iroquois from the area. I'd only planned for a short war (rather than a civ-killing one) in any case, though I hadn't meant to make such limited gains. Luck had kept my golden age until near the end, triggered in the south by a J. Warrior.
I got republic in peace (& ended ancient age), changed governments, started Heroic Epic, and planned on spending my golden age rapidly improving my cities to take the infrastructure lead. I was first in population, land area, and production, but not GNP.
I founded my capitol one square southeast of the start and things went downhill from there. Not that my empire actually had any real problems. But I was playing pretty sloppy. I actually managed to lose my starting worker to a barbarian (dangit). Luckily, I'd finished 4 improved squares near my capitol. Throughout the Ancient Age I was too cocky (and thus careless) due to the monarch setting.
I founded two cities to the west and quickly blocked off the Iroquois in their little northern area. The cities could have been closer to my capitol, and I was thinking too much looking for 'ideal' sites for early cities. See, this game was wildly different from my normal Civ3 games. One of the reason I liked the GOTM idea. I usually play on a very crowded map, generally max water continents with 8 civs. But in addition, I favor a cold, arid, and young (mountainous) world.
For awhile I just built settlers and workers. Unfortunately, I got The Wheel late. Partially because I'd been working on bronze working, got that tech through a hut, and didn't notice when the sci advisor started me on Iron Working too early. 36 turns later...
But in any case, i isolated the weird penninsula south west of the starting land from the Americans, and blocked off the southwest land area with two more Jaguar warriors (they'd gotten a setter past the one-square isthmus befure I started thinking). In retrospect, I might have also been able to block off land far to the south east from them as well.
In any case, I expanded to the east, both south and north. North just enough to the luxuries there, but I missed the horses (wheel was too late). They were right on my border with the Iroquois. Damn their UU. I find it's right up there with the persians' UU for Ancient Age annoyance. South enough that I had 4 good cities along the side, until I hit desert. The Americans did steal one spot along the inner sea, south of my capitol on the land road to that inner sea penninsula. But I colonized the penninsula (thanks blockade), to the west and north were two cities above the isthmus, and three cities were built on the southwest landmass, first on the iron there.
That iron took forever to get connected to my empire. In part because of barbarian activity. They just kept popping up there. I had three J. warriors and an archer hunting down huts (archers for mountain fastnesses), but the barbs still got one horde off. In a rare decision, I decided to defend instead of buy something overpriced from the computer with my ~200 gold. My city barely held, with my scrambled defenses of 4 spearmen and 1 J warrior all redlining and becoming elite.
Well, that was nice. But the Americans had founded a city that pushed my 2 warriors holding their entrance to the SW land area back, and the Iroquois had used triremes to found two cities there. I wasn't happy with that, so I built up a mixed force of J. Warriors, Swordsmen, and Horseman. A little rag tag, but they were what I had available. And four horseman, seven swordsmen, and a few J. Warrors to attack mounted warriors is a nice force.
For the war with the Iroquois (I had initially planned on the Americans, as they didn't have Mounted Warriors, but they turned out to be bigger because the Iroquois were bottled, and I wanted to deny Iroquois horses) I sent two Elite spearmen to hold the western front, two elite J. Warriors and an eilte archer to attack the Iroquois in the southwest, and the bulk of my army to the northeastern front (including two more elite spearmen).
I crashed across the border with excellent inital success, taking the Iroquois city with horses. I then planned to fortify and move on, hopefully not losing any units to the Iroquois mounted warriors. They may have also had a golden age due to Oracle, but I didn't want to count on that. Most other wonders had been built overseas.
Two turns after I took the horses city, Hiawatha broke his army on my fortified spearmen. No less than three Mounted warriors impaled themselves on just one elite spearmen (the other destroyed two swordsmen). My best spearmen were renamed the Living Wall Brigade, and I created an army of 3 regular swordsmen (upgrades...).
Everything was going swimmingly, including the destruction of a city in the southwest, until one dreadful attack a few turns into the war. Hiawatha was running out of units in the north east, had ignored the west, and one town stood in the southwest with a single regular spearmen. That spearmen defeated an elite archer and two elite J. warriors. Only one warrior retreated, and the spearmen were now elite themselves. In the north, my army (7 hp) and the Living Wall brigade both fell on the same turn to 2 regular swordsmen (one each). My counter attack largely failed, including the loss of an attacking vet. horseman to a defending regular Mounted Warrior. Hiawatha's last Mounted Warrior, no less.
The rest of the war consisted of me scrambling units to the northeast to counter the golden-age stream of Iroquois swordmen flooding the area, while trying to destroy that darned city in the southwest. After another failed attack, 3 J. Warriors finally took Tydenaga in the southwest, eliminated the Iroquois from the area. I'd only planned for a short war (rather than a civ-killing one) in any case, though I hadn't meant to make such limited gains. Luck had kept my golden age until near the end, triggered in the south by a J. Warrior.
I got republic in peace (& ended ancient age), changed governments, started Heroic Epic, and planned on spending my golden age rapidly improving my cities to take the infrastructure lead. I was first in population, land area, and production, but not GNP.
. And I think if I'd been really aggressive at it, I could have reduced AMR's size by the end of the AA by 4 cities or so. Sloppy play...
![[ptw]](/images/smilies/ptw.gif "PTW Icon [ptw]")
1.27f
Leaving the settler unprotected. 
(angry barbs)
