Classic GOTM 36 Spoiler 2: Entering Industrial Ages

CKS said:

Goal is 20K

I've just entered the modern ages and I have a projected 20K date around 1925; I may end up switching to another victory condition, assuming I can.

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1925? Your middle ages sounded perfect, so I don't believe you. Nice to see some good competition in the 20K department!

Perhaps your possibility to get a 20K victory will be dependent on your warmongering or some sort of disturbance to the AI tech pace.

EDIT: I see Roland beat me with 1 turn! If I remember well that is the second time he does that. Firaxis 8134 and Jason 9886.

Research
After getting Feudalism and Engineering from Germany and Russia I set out for Chivalry. Turned off reserch after that. But the others continued and with time I got Invention, Gunpowder, Theology and Education from the Great Library. The last tech I got was when trading Astronomy from Russia in 760AD (finally luxuries all around). I gave all I had (iron, saltpeter, 100gpt) and then declared war the second after.

War
Immediately after entering the Middle Ages I started build up of Horsemen. I upgraded all my warriors to Medieval Infrantry and prepared for the invasion of the Germans. I had already set up a city on the north of their kingdom to deny them Iron. They had another iron source to the south but would be long before they would hook it up.

I declare on Germany around 50BC, using horsemen and MI. The Germans disappear just before 400AD.

I declare on France in 300AD. In 420AD the French are destroeyd. I got my first Great Leader in 400AD and I built the Forbidden Palace in Paris. After finished off the Germans I redirected all my remaining horsemen towards the French continent where upgrade was waiting.

I declare on Chinese in 420AD, I wanted to prevent them from hooking up the Saltpeter. But I was too late. For the moment my Knights dont have too much trouble with Musketmen. I give peace to Chinese in 540 and leave them with a couple of cities on distant islands.

I declare war on India in 500AD. They do not have Chivalry nor Gunpowder so it must be the right moment. Their War Elephants turn up and they trigger their golden age on me. Hmmm ... I give them peace in 680AD after taking the last city on their continent.

I declare war on America in 570AD. I was curious how that would go. They were the cultural giant and so I decided to bring a couple of settlers and raze instead of capture. And they have also had Gunpowder + all possible resources for a while. I bring in Spain to the war as an ally against the USofA. The reason is that Spain doesnt have Saltpeter and they are getting one from America. I would like that to end. Beating Americans took time and I gave them peace 800AD after taking their homeland.

I declare on Russia in 760AD. I give them peace in 880AD after taking their main continent.

I declare war on Spain in 850AD. I manage to take a couple of cities before game was over.

Domination in 900AD.

Conclusion
Not a great date but I do not have any direct suggestions for how I should have improved on that, apart from the fact I had a slow initial expansion. Research was sluggish as a result. Missed the Lighthouse. No GA.
One thing I can mention was that I was separating my forces very early on to fight on different continents. One stream of forces going down to continent with France + Russia + India. Another stream going to continent with China + America + Spain.
Dont know if that was good idea to split off my forces like that(?) Total number of knights was quite steady the whole game around 50.

MiniMe said:

EDIT: I see Roland beat me with 1 turn! If I remember well that is the second time he does that.

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Yeah, and both times you have scored more points than me, go figure...

EDIT: Nope, I was wrong, in COTM4 I did score more points than you. I was thinking of Florian K, who finished his Domination two turns after mine in COTM4, but scored 141 Jason points more than I did.

-- Roland

Redbad said:

If you're out on a 20k in York, why don't you build the FP in York and then flip the palace to York too?

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Possible, but without a second core when will you reach the modern age? SETI=3 cp, Internet=4 + 2 for the research lab, UN=4, Cure for Cancer=3, Longevity=3. Plus a palace= only 1 cp. Plus a good tech pace will help you control the AI. So my plan is (was) to use a leader to build a new palace during the industrial age at the latest.

I like the Culture 20K option because the game is more alive in the modern age than it usually is when you go for spaceship.

@megalou
I did an OCC 20k in GOTM34. Altough it was regent I could hardly keep building the wonders at the rate they came available. So I would say a slower techpace is not a problem. On the contrairy: it prevents the AI from lauching a SS on you. Moreover the last wonders don't make that much difference on the finishing date. Personally I would prefer an early palace.

Redbad, in order to answer that, I'd have to go into details about the modern age in this specific game, so that will have to wait. Suffice it to say that in the middle ages I was confident about effectively wiping out all other civs and I prefer to milk a couple of centuries if I can. Let's also not forget about the small wonders that give 1 or 2 cpt, like the military academy (although I grant you that an early palace flip would give you 2 cpt for the most part of the game.)

Maybe there is little point in comparing an OCC with a more normal game...?

Megalou said:

1925? Your middle ages sounded perfect, so I don't believe you. Nice to see some good competition in the 20K department!

Perhaps your possibility to get a 20K victory will be dependent on your warmongering or some sort of disturbance to the AI tech pace.

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Well, my projected win date continues to drop slowly, but I'm into the modern age now, so it is falling very slowly. I'll be very surprised if I get to 20 K before 1900. Even 1925 would be a great date for me, so I'll be very happy if I can get the win. In terms of what got built, my middle ages went well, but I built things late. I entered the middle ages 300 years after you did, for example, and Shakespeare's Theater wasn't built until 1190.

Also, I realized that if I had switched my Bach's build to Copernicus' Observatory as soon as I learned astronomy, I could have built them both earlier. I had a leader to rush the observatory, but if I'd switched when I got the leader I could gotten them both earlier. I hadn't learned astronomy yet, but other civs had, and I bought it anyway. This would also have set me up to get either Magellan's Voyage or Smith's Trading Company. My prebuild for Universal Sufferage, which worked out perfectly because I lost a bunch of shields when I blew the switch from Smith's to a Palace wouldn't have been so well-timed, but I still would have gotten it easily.

The whole world has exploded into war now, around the time I'm entering the modern ages, so I do have some renewed hope that nobody else will launch a space ship before my 20K date. This is going to keep the modern times interesting for me.

ptw 1.27f - open

Enter MA by trades in anarchy in 70bc. Goal was to DoW China and persue a domination victory

70bc Sell China currency for 65g. Sell Germany currency for 36g. Sold/gifted Russia into MA. Both Germany and Russia got engineering.
Trade Germany: Republic, 10gpt, 111g for Engineering
Sell Engineering to India for 546g.

10bc. English Republic is born. Ouch, unit costs and gpt are hurting our treasury.

30ad ibt, Hand-built the FP

50ad, With the FP we now have a positive cash flow . We demand Spices from China, they refuse so we DoW on China.

70ad Capture Xinjian with china's only horses

90ad Capture Macao

190ad Capture Hangchow. Peace Treaty with China. Need to build up my troops again. Trade China Furs + 6gpt for Spices.

590ad Dow China again.

610 Capture Nanking

620 a knight deep strike expidition pillages Chinese saltpeter

630 Capture Tientsin

660 Capture Beijing

ibt: a Chinese Rider appeared - they must have their horses on the island hooked up; Beijing flipped

680 capture Beijing again and razed it. Capture Tatung
Also I turn research off as I can only research Education. I want to capture TGL from the Americans

690 Capture Chengdu, Canton and Anyang
ibt we built Leonardo's

710 Capture Tsintao - that's it for their mainland. Peace for Shantung (their horse city on the island as a foothold)

910 Dow China - Capture Chinan and Kaifeng

930 Looking to annoy the Americans into dow on us, I aggressively settle on the saltpeter on their island (which is in English territory)

940 It didn't work . Therefore, I rushed a harbor and will DoW on America next turn and claim this luxury rich island (and TGL)

950ad DoW America. Capture Atlanta & Houston.

ibt: lost one cav to their single cav counter attack

960ad Capture Miami

970ad Capture Washington with with Sistine, The Great Library, and the Colossus

980ad Learned alot from the Great Library. Now in IA. Switched a palace prebuild to Newton's with waste of 41 shields.
Captured NY

Plans for IA: wipe out Americans. Then maybe switch from domination victory to either diplomatic or space as conquest seems to be taking a while and going fairly slowly now that I'm fighting riflemen.

open

Going for 20K win.

The middle ages found China declaring war on me and eventually wiping them out. I have had quite a few elite victories but no leaders. My estimated 20K date is 1928. I was a bit behind in the tech race being visibly down Democracy and Metal. I was hoping that I could end the wonder cascade with Smith's before moving on to others. Once Physics was available I did a round of trades to get up to tech parity costing me about 500 net gold. The bad news was that Free Artistry was in play with several nations working on Smith's. Via investigation, I knew I could barely win Smith's (by 1 turn) against the Spanish, so I decided that I would go for Shake's and Newton's instead and hope to get both.

By the start of the Industrial age, I had Shake's and am aiming for Newton's. Most of the AI's entered the IA 1 turn ahead of me. Russia and Germany are the two that are behind (2 techs each).

Germany hasn't had Iron the whole game due to a sneaky city placement by me. I have been selling that Iron to America for much of the game in exchange for their Luxes and some GPT.

I decide to wait one turn to gift up these two as I have an expiring Incense deal with Russia that I want to get renewed as part of the gifting to the IA.

In the 1 turn that I wait, Germany moves against 2 of my cities (the one with the Iron and one on an Island.) but hasn't declared war. I have 1 more city in the south of the German continent near the jungle gems with a force of 3 MI and a Cav. Also during this turn India declares war on France. This is where I left the game last night.

I still haven't had a Golden Age as the last Chinese galley was disbanded right in front of my quickly rushed Man-o-war (just before I finished off the Chinese). I haven't seen any German boats for a while so I'm not sure if the Man-o-war will find any targets. I could really use the shield and research boost to get US and ToE. I'm afraid the cascade might hit these too.

Somewhere along the Chinese war my trading rep got ruined when a Chinese galley cut off my trade route for Gems.

What should I do? I thinking of gifting the German Iron city to Spain just after I pillage the road and sell off some improvements. I can also get Russia into the war against Germany using the tech's to entice a MA. I'm definately not gifting Russia all the way into the IA as I don't want that free tech traded for a while.

AA 4000BC-0130BC
MA 0130BC-0600AD

AA Post Link
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2277298&postcount=37

Entering MA thoughts: Win before Gunpowder. Definitely didn’t think this would be possible initially as I usually try to win at this level with Cavalry hordes.

TECHNOLOGY DATE/HOW
Republic, 0030 BC, research
Monotheism, 0010BC, prophets of the GL
Feudalism, 0010BC, prophets of the GL
Chivalry, 0170AD, research
Theology, 0370AD, prophets of the GL
Engineering, 0430AD, prophets of the GL
Education, 0470AD, prophets of the GL (shucks!)
Others found Invention, which was the last tech ever found
I got Monarchy sometime also, but didn't write down when.

MAJOR TRADES
DATE CIVILIZATION DETAILS
0050BC Germany gift into MA, they get Feudalism
0130AD India join war vs Americans for Monotheism
GH near old German area, 0330AD, maps of region (worthless!!)

WARS & MAJOR EVENTS
START END
DATE DATE CIVILIZATION / REMARKS
Ancient Era Recap Great Lighthouse; Forbidden Palace, Palace jump to former German lands (via Great Leader), Great Library (via Great Leader)
0330BC 0030AD China (16 Horsemen, 2 Swordsman, 1 Archer initially); assimilated
0030BC 0170AD Germany (after Frankfurt deposes!!); assimilated
0030BC 0070AD Revolution to Republic
0030AD 0360AD America (they declared); two cities deposed & recaptured (Chicago, Boston); assimilated
0350AD 0350AD Over half-way to domination victory tiles (783 controlled, 761 to go)
0360AD 0470AD Declare War on France (8 knights initially); India joins for FUR; Russia joins for SILKS/SPICES; give peace for 2 cities
0380AD 0460AD India declares War (don’t understand this one! Since we just joined war together!); no combat
0380AD 0590AD Declare War on Spain (8 knights initially); down to one city
05?0AD 0590AD Declare War on France again; assimilated
At the end of the final turn I made peace w/ all. Tranquility is such a nice thing.

Great Leaders
Though I was surprised to get two in the AA, it was made up for by not getting a single one in the MA. I should have had about 4 this game, but 2 early is better than 8 late, so I won’t complain.

Deposed cities
I had 3 more cities depose to France & Spain in 510 AD (Paris), 540 AD (Santiago), 580 AD (Grenoble); this made a total of at least 6 deposed cities that I counted. In general, this was only a minor annoyance, though it did slow me up a bit. It was better than rebuilding everything. I rarely placed more than 2 military units in cities that were likely to depose. The military that need healed would fortify just outside the city. This allowed me to recapture 2 of them the same turn they deposed.

Warmongering
Generally did this well, though on a least 5 occasions I failed to capture a city that had one very injured unit left. Biggest mistake was poor invasion of Spain. I only ended up with 12 military units total (started sending all to France) and it took them way too long to capture the Spanish. I think it would have worked better if I’d made peace with them for a couple cities before I broke my peace treat with France. After that, they wouldn’t give up a city. I never had to fight the Russians or Indians in actual combat, the latter of which I tried to avoid at all costs, especially after they declared war on me as I had other priorities and didn't want to face Elephants.

Future
Assimilate the rest of the world to achieve world peace. Never enter IA, keep the world pristine. Study the genius SirPleb posts some more so I can get better. Thanks for your great posts and strategy!!

Review of progress
When I figure out how to upload the pics I will. I kept getting the links instead of the pics in preview so here is just the final position.

Ancient Age

China War (110 BC – 150 AD)
I have landed my army towards China. I have entered the middle ages and still building the Great Lib.
In 10 BC and just build the Great Lib – India gets the great wall (ending wonder race), I have conquered 5 towns already but I really need more towns to help me supporting my army 25 Horses / 2 Swords (and 22 Warriors that will prove mostly useless but cost in terms of maintenance I pay 84 gpt for maintenance). First Leader will build an army. I could save this one for one wonder but next available wonder is Sun Tzu in 9 turns… I do not want to pause war that much (and I do not really need sun Tzu I would much prefer Leonardo’s for cheap upgrades…
In 70 AD, I encounter some more swords but they are all regulars.
In 90 AD, Second leader raises from the fight of Chengdu (South of China). I do not really need a second army (with galley I can only work with army filled with one Elite* Horse !) as I am 4 turns away to complete Feudalism, I decide to move this leader back to my island to build Sun Tzu or other potential wonder if my “partners” in research can get me Monarchy before …
In 170 AD, I have still the leader while I just conquered the last town of China I made peace with China but did not take their second town (I wonder why) and also I did not try to rush the Hanging Gardens but still the Sun Tzu (although core towns have barracks) in 190 AD.
I am searching the lower end to the techs tree hoping civs will do the upper path so after Sun Tzu, it is Engineering, Invention towards MT.

War against Americans (270 AD – 510 AD)
I am preparing the attack my settling a town close to small San Francisco (North part of America Island)
With 27 Horses and 3 Swords, I am ready to attack America. First, I will conquer San Francisco to get a costal town and will build a rush port (just like in China island).
In 300 AD, I have already conquered 3 towns north, going on defence a bit while having my horses resting and seeing some regular swords coming my way.
In 390 AD, I have upgraded my first Horse to Knight (gain Chivalry through Great Lib). I have also conquered 3 more towns from America, securing Silks and America’s only Iron (they may get some more using trade). I have also Washington (Oracle / Light House) and most towns are still defended by some Spears so the war is looking good… I suffered few flips but around 500 AD, America is gone.
I have some trades with France & India as my best partners and that help me making cash for upgrades. For the same reason, I am not searching at full speed but around 40% - 50 %. I have 5 luxs already that helps a lot in terms of happiness. I am building Leonardo’s Workshop as the next wonder will be a trigger for my GA since I now own the Light House.

War against Spain (530 AD – 960 AD)
War against Germany (610 AD – 820 AD)
I am searching towards Chemistry while Education has been found, but I am still very much in advance and now I have landed a settler in a small peninsula on Spanish soil. It will soon be a port where I will put all my forces (12 Horse / 20 Knights) towards Spain.
In 590 AD, I fail to conquer Madrid but just– only defended by Regular Spear (but 6 of them). In the process, I have another leader that will rush a Palace in soon to be built town, in the middle of America RCP. The idea is to develop a second core in this area to help sustain the war / research.
In 610 AD, I am still resting in order to conquer Madrid and building a strong force in the Warwick where I have 18 knights ready to attack Germany only defended by Pike (they have not complete Invention although I am 5 turns away of Metallurgy.
By 650 AD, I have already all the North of Germany (5 towns), I have secured Gems and have another leader. It will build Leonardo’s and I will switch current pre-build towards a Palace (while waiting for another wonder). This will trigger my GA. Metallurgy is due next turn, I will not research MT already as I want to benefit from cheap Knights upgrade and find a nice tech for the leader to build a wonder… My army is now 5 Horse / 35 knights.
In 670 BC I finally lost the race for Copernicus and needed to switch to Palace and research mostly un-needed tech (Music Theory), in order to cascade to JB cathedral, loosing only 100 shields in the process
In 830 AD, I finished the German conquest.

Final rush
By 830 AD, I declare war against Russia since they have some towns scattered around under my pressure by my armies. I gain 3/4 towns and then around 900 AD I must declare peace to Russia as I have a pike + Persian Mercenary menacing a town only defended by a Spear.
I am still making some slow progress against Spain in the South. My army is quite limited and I have to preserve it and avoid casualties as it is a long way to move units down this area.
In 890 AD, I declare War to China to conquer their remote town and kill a wandering settler and I finally destroyed China in 910 AD

By 870, I am ready to declare War on France with most of the Army from Germany that is back to home island. I have now 75 cavalries & 5 knights and no support cost. I am also rushing some temple and some settlers to fill gaps in order to reach domination limit. During this war, I face some French Muskets but there are not a rela threat to my mighty armies. In 960 AD, French are no more and on the same date I finish the Spanish war by conquering their last town.

By 980 AD, I declare War against India to gain some much needed territory.
And I win by domination just on 1000 AD. I continued to search after MT although not needed.
Instead of rushing Library / Temple for high GP I rushed some settler that well place did gain many valuables tiles and help supporting more units.

Instead of rushing Library / Temple for high GP I rushed some settler that well place did gain many valuables tiles and help supporting more units.

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Neat idea. I did Temples (no Libraries) in the hope of upgrading my score some with sea squares. I think next time I'll try a combination. Key coastal cities building temples and internal cities building nothing, just closely packed and rushed via settlers.

Most of my settlers were built by my 5 "settler-only" cities (ended up with 4 'factories' of 4-5 turns each after reaching Republic).

Open PTW

Ancient Age

Science
Interestingly, the two scientific civs became tech laggards in the MAs. Shortly into the MA I was able to trade for feudalism, completing the 1st tier MA techs, and then maxed research on chivalry. I then held onto our monopoly tech until both theology and Invention were available before trading for these techs and lots of cash/luxuries. I then found that the opportunity for xfers vanished, because as soon as a new tech was discovered it was immediately traded around between India, France, Spain and America. Of course this meant that buying the tech was cheaper because it was at 5th civ prices, so I had no trouble keeping up.

This situation lasted all the way to military tradition, at which point I was ripping through America, and then the opportunity for xfers reopened! I can only surmise that owing to some combination of India having the Greal Library (up to education), and America having no less than three luxes to trade was enabling this situation. With the removal of the three American luxes, this tight trading situation broke down, and the end of the MA offered a two-fer on magnetism and theory of gravity.

Bankers Gambit
This is total overkill for emperor level, but I wanted to give it a road test prior to next months deity game. Basically, every turn I siphoned off all the excess funds of India, France, Spain and America (China was dead, Germany and Russia never had excess funds), in return for a payment plan. This meant that I had heaps of cash for rushing infrastructure and short rushing unit builds. It also meant that the AI had no cash for these purposes

Throughout the AA/MA I only received one tribute demand. It came from America. They wanted my territory map and 81 gold. At the time I was paying them over 100gpt, so naturally I refused, and I was actually disappointed when they backed down!

The problem with this gambit is compound interest. I actually needed someone to break their agreements and attack, thus allowing me to get out of my payments to them. It didn't happen, so I had to precipitate the action myself. I brought up to tech parity with the richest civ (America, owing to her three luxes) and then RoP raped her, massively boosting my gpt, but of course totally destroying my rep in the process, and ending the bankers gambit!

Wars
We entered the MAs in war with China. This war had been started by us in 210BC, but it took until 190AD to finish the Chinese. Our combination of swords and horses lacked sufficient numbers to knock the Chinese off faster. As a player who is more experienced at Conquests than PTW, I am never quite used to how cheap unit upgrades are in the classic version of the game, and so don't take this option ot the extreme that many other posters here seem to.

Our next target was Germany, because we could attack them without interfering with our banking operations, they were close, and they were relatively weak, so we could build up knight numbers to a respectable level while crushing them. It also brought online a third native lux. The German war ran from 380AD to 570AD, and resulted in the elimination of the Germans.

As we were starting to choke on gpt payments, and needed the luxes, the next target we chose was America. It took until 690AD to move units into position, before we declared on America, taking half their cities in the opening turn. I could have been even more aggressive with the initial attacks, because it turned out that mose cities were protected by two spearmen - our bankers gambit had been almost too successful! The second phase of the war went a little more slowly. We were still using knights, we had to contend with AI city placement, and the Americans were able to start upgrading to pikes (I conquered their two sources of saltpeter on the opening turn). We also ran into Mr Invicible. One regular pikeman dispatched 5 knights singlehandedly and promoted to elite! When we were able to assault him again, it was with cavalry, but he still held off about 5 units before finally succumbing!

In 700 AD we got our first leader and rushed the palace in the heart of America, boosting gpt a modest 40-50. Unfortunately, in this war the Americans managed to slip two settlers out to two different islands, so while we finished their mainland by 770AD, we still have two remote cities to deal with before eliminating the Americans and making our second core fully operational.

RoP Rape
Our RoP rape of the Americans in 690BC was amongst the most evil I have ever done. We owed them over 200gpt at the time as well. However, in 740AD, we renewed our RoP with Spain, but this time instead of them payign us a few gpt for the deal, we paid them spices. In 760AD we renewed our RoP with India, this time for wines. And in 770AD we renewed RoP with France for silks. SO the door remains open for more of the same!

Industrial Ages
In 780AD we traded into the IA. We are yet to have our GA, and have the concern that rifles are just around the corner, so military progress is likely to slow down a lot soon. I will be surprised if I can wrap it up pre-1000AD.

PTW, PREDATOR

Ancient Age

My MA began in 170BC. At this time Germany and France leave us and I prepared to the war with India. In this game I widely use ROP abuse (5 times) and 3 times I use “See Gate” technique (2 near cities on the different islands) for quick transporting my force to the other land.
After Germany war AI leaders didn’t want to sign ROP but everything has own price and each time I got the ROP with target country.

Shortly after entering in MA, The Great Library gave me Monotheism (Russian free tech) and Feudalism (India). After that I started research Chivalry and got it in 30 AD. Further I stopped my science and got Engineering, Theology and Education by GL only.

In 130BC I captured 4 Indians cities and got second GL rushed Handing Gardens in Delhi. Some turns after that I got 3-d GL for Sun Tzu in Calcutta. While I fought against India I understood how much price I must pay for missing temples and libraries. Several culture flips cost me ~ 10 horsemen. After that I stayed my units around cities. I note, if culture difference is big the resistance is very high and not lowered while not peace.

Some turns after beginning India’s war Russia and Spain declared war against me and sent some warriors to my territory. These wars ware short and I got some cities for peace 4 turns later.

In 150AD I founded one city on the north coast of China’s island and start transferring Knights. Early I thought to send some galleys to the Spain first because I want The Great Lighthouse but after Indians flips I understood I can’t fix it without big force. And after placing my forces around China’s cities I started war in 250AD captured 6 cities at once. I afraid very much for flips but only 1 happened. At this time I began build temples but too late.

In 260AD I finally killed India.
In 300AD signed peace with China.
In 310AD Russian war started.
In 380AD American war started.
In 400AD Second China war started, peace with Russia.
In 420AD signed peace with American. One city flipped.
In 440AD I finally killed China. Started rushing settlers.
In 450AD Spain war started (Spain declared war to me).
In 460AD I finally killed Russia.
In 470AD captured 2 Spain cities.
In 480AD I won by Domination.

Note In 480AD my score increased by 60 points per turn. But each turn at this time give me 50 bonus points for win (10 years * 5). If I understand correctly it sign the later Domination may gives me more points?

P.S. In 480AD after I save my final .sav I did one unit attack (against captured by Spain my cities) and got GL. But too late, too late.

Dynamic said:

PTW, PREDATOR
Note In 480AD my score increased by 60 points per turn. But each turn at this time give me 50 bonus points for win (10 years * 5). If I understand correctly it sign the later Domination may gives me more points?

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It would give you more Firaxis points.
That's the basic flaw of the Firaxis scoring system and the reason for the invention of Jason score.
Your Jason score will not depend as much on the finish date, but you have to wait for the calculator to come up to find out if lost or won a couple of points by finishing early.

1.27

Link to Ancient Age spoiler

On entering the Middle Ages at 350BC I'd just taken over most of Germany, jumped my Palace to Berlin, and my world looked like this:



I assume there were barbarian uprisings somewhere in the world but I didn't see them, my lands were well enough patrolled to have no camps.

Research

I gifted Germany and Russia all required ancient techs. They got Monotheism and Feudalism as their free techs. I traded for both.

I kept research at zero for a brief time at the start of the Middle Ages (six turns), building up cash for subsequent upgrades and completing libraries in most of my core cities.

I learned Chivalry in four turns at 150BC. Then another research pause of two turns while I used all available income to upgrade horsemen.

After that I maintained flat out research for the rest of the Middle Ages. I learned Theology in 5 turns, Education in 4 turns (followed by building universities in all core cities as a top priority), Astronomy in 5 turns, and Banking in 4 turns.

I'd been hoping to get at least one more MA tech from my rivals. To encourage them to research Engineering I'd traded away Monotheism and later on Theology. But by the time I finished the mandatory techs on the top research path, none of them had even learned Engineering. So I spent two turns researching that and then was finally able to make a trade for it, saving the last two turns I'd have spent on it myself.

After that I maintained a steady four turn pace on the bottom tech path, bringing me to the Industrial Age in 550AD.

Although I'd traded a fair bit for gold and for luxuries, at the end of the Middle Ages I was far ahead of my rivals - none of them knew Physics or Metallurgy yet.

No Golden Age Yet

After learning Astronomy I decided not to divert energy to researching Navigation and building Magellan's. Instead I would go for a later Golden Age, either by building Smith's trading when I was able to trade for Economics (I wouldn't divert energy to researching that either, would just wait for a rival to learn it) or by using a Man-O-War if that seemed more convenient.

By the end of the Middle Ages I hadn't had a convenient opportunity to deploy a Man-O-War. I had a wonder prebuild ready which could flip to either Magellan's or Smith's. My rivals had just learned Navigation and had not yet learned Economics. I decided not to trade for Navigation to build Magellan's. It seemed likely that it would not be long before some AI learned Economics and Smith's was overall a much more desirable great wonder, I'd just keep waiting for it.

Warfare

While heading toward Chivalry at the start of the Middle Ages I moved most of my surviving horsemen from Germany to the home coast near China. And accumulated newly built horsemen there.

In 230BC Spain feebly attacked me with a warrior in the ex-German region. This war with Spain never developed into anything. I eventually gave her peace for one island town in 110AD.

In 150BC I began upgrading Horsemen to Knights. And in 110BC declared war on China (after giving her Republic) and invaded.

Partway through invading China my peace with Germany expired and I attacked her again. It wasn't much of an attack - her only remaining town had no defenders at all! I just moved in, took it, and Germany was out of the game. She must have been hit hard by barbarians arriving from the west after the uprisings - her remaining town was at the chokepoint on that landmass. After taking over her last town it took me a fair number of turns to clean out the barbarian camps in the western region.

Taking Germany out of the game would mean one less free tech for me at the start of the Industrial Age. I did it anyway because I wanted to expand my holdings on that landmass both to gain a bit more strength there and to increase score.

In 30AD I got my first leader. Saved him a while and he eventually rushed Copernicus'

In 130AD I gave China peace for two towns, including one on an island:



The town on the large island was nice to get. It allowed me to expand to fill that island without needing to send ships.

In 110AD Russia surprise attacked me, taking the ex-German capital. I was able to take that back, to take another nearby Russian town, and eventually to get two more towns from Russia for peace in 260AD.

At the end of my war on China I was down to 14 Knights. And those weren't even all at the warfront - four were in the ex-German area dealing with barbarians and I'd need more there to be safe from Russia. Furthermore, almost all of my building efforts were focussed on maintaining research speed. My original core needed universities and marketplaces. The new core in ex-Germany needed everything.

So I began a fairly long peaceful period.

In 400AD when my peace deal with China was over I attacked her again. I quickly took her last cities but she remained in the game with a sailing settler. I eventually eliminated her in 500AD. And that was it for military activity in the Middle Ages. At their end in 550AD my map looked like this:

SirPleb said:

In 110AD Russia surprise attacked me, taking the ex-German capital. I was able to take that back, to take another nearby Russian town, and eventually to get two more towns from Russia for peace in 260AD.

Click to expand...

Is this your palace city!?

Dynamic said:

Is this your palace city!?

Click to expand...

No, sorry, I should have been more specific. It was Germany's final capital, the poor town at the chokepoint which I think was ransacked by many barbarians before I took it.

1.27f

Ancient Age 4000 BC to 390 BC

Wow! This will be an interesting Space Race!

I entered the MidAges in 390 BC, having just learned Republic, traded for the other Techs I needed, forced the Scientific civs into the MidAges, and starting my revolution. Russia got Monotheism, which I was able to trade Republic and Gold for. Germany got Feudalism, which I was unable to trade for, at the moment.

4 turns later, I was a Republic, in 310 BC. I learned Theology in 30 BC, which I was able to trade for Feudalism; Engineering was not known yet. Having gotten Feudalism, I saw that Chivalry was already out, so I traded for it as well.

Learned Education in 130 AD; fortunately Engineering had just been learned, so I had a good trade.

Got Lucky; just as I learned Astronomy (270 AD), Invention was learned. Now I switched my pre-build in London to Copernicus' Observatory and still had 5 turns to go so it was decision time. I figured that with Sun-Tzu's, Leo's, Sistine's available (JS Bach's soon after) that CO was probably safe for 5 turns, and did the trade. And that worked out.

After that it was 5 or 4 turn Research, going Gunpowder, Chemistry (trade for Banking along the way), Physics, Theory of Gravity (switch pre-build in London to Newton's), Magnetism, got no help on Metallurgy so Metallurgy and I entered the Industrial Age in 540 AD. Along the way I've picked up most of the optional Techs; only Free-Artistry and Military Tradition are yet to be learned.

I've focused on developing my cities on my original island. A centrally located FP was built around 10 AD; the only Wonders I've got are CopObs and Newton's. I did find the Gem island and managed to wade ashore, eventually (lots of Barbs there at the Age turn-over), get founded, and finally connect the gems. I have 4 total cities on that island (along with 1 German and 1 Chinese), and I have a city on the island just West of France (an extra Iron, and a source of Saltpeter.) The Chinese have two tundra cities on my land-mass; I hope to encourage them to join us at some future time.

One set of weirdness going on with America. I kept trading for their 3 Luxuries, and they kept getting cut (I'm assuming due to Barb Galleys). Finally Astronomy was learned, and I fugured they were mine for good. Wrong, they got lost again! So I reestablished the trade when it was available. Now Navigation is out, surely we're set. Not So!! I lose the 3 luxuries again!! I establish an embassy with America, and Washington DC's harbor is gone. Abe has only 10 Gold in the Treasury, and it looks like he was running negative balances and lost his Harbor! I could really use those 3 luxuries; have to think about this.

I plan to keep pursuing a fast reseach path through the Industrial Age, and hope to have time to finish a Space launch. There's been no wars at all, that I'm aware of; all these Commercial civs should make for a lot of research capability.