GOTM 39: Spoiler 1 - The Ancient Era, All Contacts

GOTM 39, Germany - Predator, vanilla 1.29f
Goal - 20k Culture victory.

4000 - I'm happy with the start position, and settle first to show the surrounding tiles, to see if there are BGs to improve.
- science to 100% on POT, in case no scouts come by selling guides on how to mix mud and water.
- build 2 Warriors, work the game forest, MM for cash on the 4th and 8th turn.
- worker moves E, NE without roading, to road and then mine BG.
3800 - warrior scouts W looking for 20k location.
3600 - start prebuilding Settler.
3500 - polite Zulu scout comes knocking. Sell BW for POT, 10g. Switch production to Granary, research to CB at 40%.
3450 - worker finishes, moves 2 squares back to chop game. City now working game, and 2/2/1 BG.
3400 - polite England contact. Won't sell Alpha. Gives 10g for WC.
3200 - Zulu pikeman sighting!
3100 - cautious Greek pikeman. CB would cost more to buy than to finish research. MM off game to forest, to slow growth until granary completes.
3000 - Stop researching CB, because Zulu learned it and now cheaper to buy. 0% research, +5gpt.
2950 - I am the wealthiest. Granary completes, switch to settler, working game and improved BG.
2900 - despite having governor emphasizing production, growth to pop3 lands on BG not forest. That will delay my settler 1 turn. Switch MM to more food.
2850 - chop goes to settler. Irrigate.
2750 - complete Settler, start Warrior. Buy CB from GRE, 23g. (It would get cheaper, but don't want my gold extorted.) GRE polite.
2670 - Annoyed Arab pikeman, has ALPHA, MAS, MYST.
- found Josephberg NW,NW of Berlin. This will be my 20k city. River, lots of grass, a few forests/hills for AA/MA production. Build Temple, work forest until more tiles are improved. Berlin will provide the pop growth.
- both Warrs have stayed near home until now - time to send one W to make friends.
- Berlin, newly pop2, works 2xBG (1 improved) to get warrior this turn.
- buy ALPHA from ENG, CB+50g.
- game is irrigated, now road.
2630 - Berlin warr-warr; work game,mBG.
2550 - worker done road, moves to grass between the 2 cities to mine, road.
2510 - Berlin warr. Will now produce workers every 3 turns until further notice. Joberg will get the extra food every 3rd turn.
2430 - idiot governor chooses unimproved grass over forest. Some emphasis on production!
2390 - cautious Yankee scout, has MAS (as does everyone but Zulu). Decide it's time to make Saliddin happier; buy MAS for 54g+1gpt. Now cautious.
- new worker SW to road, mine.
2270 - new worker joins Joberg.
2230 - Joberg grows to pop3. (MM food last turn).
- worker, under threat from barb in 2, moves NE of Berlin to road.
2150 - worker NE of Joberg (still a barb threat) to road.
- 2nd warr to Joberg to defend, lux slide 10% to keep Berlin happy.
IT - Joberg defended.
2110 - Berline Archer - worker. Lux 0%.
2070 - worker to SE BG to mine, road.
- rush last 18 shields of Joberg temple for 1 citizen. But I couldn't rush 22 shields for 2 citizens last turn.
- buy WHEEL from Rome, 55g+1gpt. Cautious. Pretty pony next to Berlin, thanks staff!
2030 - Joberg temple - Pyramids.
- buy Yankee worker, 10g+1gpt. Polite. Worker to BG N,N of Berlin.
- exploring warr finds Ottomans. Give WHEEL for MYST, 3g. Cautious.
- change Joberg to Oracle - in 75 .
1990 - Berline riots.
- another worker to BG to mine.
Pause to take stock. Settle the wheat? No, producing the settler would slow growth in Joberg. I'll continue with single-mindedness.
- Joberg MM to +2f, 2s. Will get a couple of natural growth population points, then at pop7 all growth will come from Berlin workers.
1950 - Nottingham (English) founded fairly close to Joberg. New worker to mine BG N,NE of Joberg.

1910 - exploring Warr finds polite Keltoi near their borders. Up IW.
1870 - Joberg borders expand. New worker goes to mine same BG. 4 workers, 1 slave are doing improvements. All future workers will join Joberg. Basic worker plan now:
- worker moves, roads, moves to a new position to road.
- is followed behind by a worker/slave pair on the new road, to mine.
- another set of 2 workers does a more standard move-mine-road.
1790 - Joberg grows, and joined by new worker. Pop4.
- the 8 civs I have contact with now have IW. Buy from USA for 35g+3gpt.
1725 - Joberg joined for pop5. Lux to 10%. Workers move on road to mine G.
- With 2 mBG, and pop3, Berlin can now be a 6-turn warrior-worker-worker factory.
1675 - new warrior heads S into vast unknown.
1625 - new worker joins Joberg, pop6. Lux 20%.
1600 - Joberg grows to pop7. Set to 0 growth, net 10spt. Oracle in 25. Lux 30%.
1575 - Joberg joined, pop8. Lux 40%.
1500 - Joberg joined, pop9. Lux okay at 40%.
1425 - Joberg joined, pop10. Lux still 40%.
1375 - Joberg joined, pop 11. Lux 40%.
1300 - Buy worker, 5g, terr map from ROM for 1gpt (keep him happy?), WM.
1275 - Joberg joined, POPULATION 12. Lux stable at 40%. Amusingly, I'm 7th of 9 in score. Horses hooked up. Berlin to barracks.

- buy WRIT, from Arabs, for WM, 55g + 3gpt. Goes cautious.
1225 - Arabs shake me down for TM, 20g.
1175 - Berlin barracks - settler
1125 - ORACLE completed.
- London embassy - about 90s in bin, GL in 40 turns, 7spt, grow in 6.
- I can do Pyramids, or GL once buy tech, in 27.
1050 - Berlin settler - settler.
1025 - found Leipzig to claim spices. Barracks.
1000 - Zimbabwe embassy - it's pop7, will complete Pyramids in 7.
950 - my warrior scouting south hits a USA settler/archer pair. USA is about to be destroyed by ROM. I DOW, and try to opportunistically grab the settler.
- but get my hat handed to me.
925 - ROM, ZULU are at war. Nice!
900 - found Hamburg.
875 - spices hooked up.
850 - LIT from ARABs. Change Joberg to GL. MATH from OTTO for LIT, 20g. HBR, 2g from KELT for LIT.
- ZULU finish PYRAMIDS. Look, a future conquest target!
- ARAB cascade to GL.
825 - ZULU want alliance against ROME. Decline.
775 - USA give peace+9g.
750 - GRE extorts TM, 25g.
710 - found Konigsberg, claim cow to S.
650 - GRE, ZULU hit Middle Ages. GL completes in 7 for me, so I ignore their techs. Ah, but people have foreign contacts now.
- buy contacts, China, Japan, Korea. They are all up 2-4 techs on me.
630 - OTTO shakes us down. Found Frankfurt.
510 - finish LIBRARY. Most other civs lose their invested shields.
490 - get all the AA techs except MON, REP. How annoying - no revolution yet.
- doing some trading... okay, I'm not done yet, but I bought a map & want to join the thread.

Currently upgrading warriors to swordsmen, and building horsemen.
The time for war draws near...

4000BC: This is my first GotM using CRpMapStat. After coming close in the space race in GotM38, I should win this one. This means early military. settler moves nw along river.

3950: Berlin built, Research the wheel.

3450: An English scout appears. We make contact. Liz refuses to trade alpha for anything, but will give up pottery for WC + 20.

3350: Scout sees Zulu border. I DON'T want to start next to the Zulus! I hate them, I hate them!

3150: An Arabian scout crashes thru the jungle to the sw. For some reason, he's already annoyed, but will Trade CB + 17 for WC. Abu still has mystic. England still won't trade alpha.

3000: Leipzig built,

2950: Historian pops up. We are 6th.

2750: Wheel comes in. England wants both CB and Wheel for Alpha. We make her cough up 18 and do so. We trade Arabs Wheel for Mystic straight up, we're still ahead Alpha. There are horses sse of Berlin within city radius, and also 2nw of Leipzig.

2310: We trade Arabs alpha for mason. Abu wants us to kick in a gold piece.

2110: England has writing, won't trade for mason. Workers road and start irrigate flood plain. Scout moves nnw, hailing a Celtic worker. Celts have nothing to trade.

1990: Scout finds a goody hut, but it's bad for us.

1950: Ottomans sneak-attack Leipzig. Archer 3 holds, but is redlined. OK, Leipzig can forget about the temple, we need archers.

1910: We get ironworking, start horseback. There's iron 2N of Leipzig and 3sw of Berlin. We trade for writing but it's expensive. Mason, ironworking, contact w/Celts, and 2/turn.

1830: Zulus want contact w/Celts, we give in.

1675: Liz opens an embassy. Turns out London is not far from Hamburg and they have wine. Ottomans willing to talk peace, but have nothing to pay us.

1650: Liz wants contact with the Ottomans. NO! They back down.

1625: Konigsberg built 5sw of Berlin. We have iron, switch to swords.

1450: Get horseback, start mapping. Frankfurt built 2n, 1ne of Leipzig. This gets us a 2nd iron. Frankfurt starts temple because it is in danger of flipping to London.

1425: Sword kills spear, razes Iznik. English warrior shows up near unprotected Leipzig.

1400: Frankfurt needs a garrison of 6 to keep from flipping. English warrior coulda taken Leipzig, but heads w. We open embassy in Zimbabwe, they are 61 from the Oracle.

1275: England has mapping and we have nothing to trade for it. Open embassy with Celts, they are 46 from Oracle. We try to bribe them into an alliance, but they want too much.

1150: We contact Romans. They give us 8 gold and contact w/Greeks for contact w/Celts.

1125: Greeks give us contact with America for contact w/Celts + 5. Konigsberg builds sword 6 just in time, a barb shows up next door. We are strong compared to Rome, so I decide to see if I can bully them out of Neapolis.

1100: Rome stands up to us. I retreat sword outside borders and declare war.

1000: Settler builds Munich on spices. Sword retreats to hill to heal. Zulus and Arabs have 8 towns.

Stats:
QSC score 2317
Population: 13--6 happy, 6 content, 1 unhappy.
Land: 85 squares, 6 towns.
Production: 93 shields, 55 food, 24 gold. 4 rax.
Diplomacy: 8 contacts, 3 embassies.
Tech: all starters plus Ironwork, Writing, Mystic, horseback. 169 beakers from mapping.
Units: 4 workers, 3 archers, 5 sword, 1 horse. 5 vets, 3 leets.

We are 3rd in power rankings, behind Arabs and Zulus.

950: Washington builds Colossus. Frankfurt now has enough of a garrison to prevent flips.

925: Leet sword fails to archer, redlined. Vet sword finishes.

900: We are falling behind in tech. Sword 2 kills spear, razes Neapolis.

875: Make peace w/Rome, doing some pointy-stick research, getting law, philo, + territory map. Rome has iron within its borders. We have contact with Americans but have no idea where they are.

850: Munich connected, means we have spice.

825: Mapping comes in, start lit.

800: Frankfurt expands. Now they only need 1 to avoid flipping, freeing up garrison for Turks.

775: Trade maps with America and Greece, getting 8 from the latter. Why can't we build galleys?

690: Hamburg builds temple, starts worker. Sword 8 attacks ottoman spear, wins, takes slaves.

670: Archer stops next to my stack. Leet sword kills it, despite wounds, wins Iron Cross!

650: London builds Oracle. Leipzig whips to rush temple. Sword Army formed.

610: Lose archer and sword, but we take Sogut. Horse comes down off mount and kills archer. Settler heads w.

570: Stupid Ottomans move an escorted settler next door. Leet sword 9 kills spear, takes slaves 3-4.

530: Elizabeth tries to extort territory map and gold. We refuse and she backs down. Heidelberg built, starts temple. Iron Cross sword destroys Uskudar, takes more slaves. Ottomans are dead, let that be a lesson to those who would sneak-attack us.

510: Celts exchange territory maps, we kick in 5. We can build the FP, but where?

490: We get lit, start Poly. Berlin switches to GL. We try some pointy-stick research on England. Fails, we declare war. Horse defeats warrior near York, takes English slaves. Shaka wants no part of an alliance, even if I offer lit. Since we're not the only ones with Lit, we trade it to America for math, kicking in 5. We trade Shaka Lit + 10 + 4/turn for Poly. All cities currently working on temples switch to libs.

470: Entremont builds the Pyramids. Army wins.

450: Zimbabwe rushes the GL. Berlin switches to Epic. We take York and raze it. Nuremburg founded next to gold mounts.

430: Nuremburg in danger of flipping. England sends out settler and spear. Army kills spear. Thanks for the slaves, Liz!

410: Rome has monarch and pubby, but won't trade for Lit. The assault on London begins. Army is redlined. Lose one sword, but we take London and the Oracle. We decide to keep it.

350?: We take Hastings.

230: We can trade spice to Celts for silk, but they refuse. Cologne built n of ruins of York.

190: We exchange maps with Korea and Japan. China won't trade maps. China is the most powerful in the world.

70: We get currency, and exchange it with America for monarch, Korea for construct. This puts us in the Middle Ages.

nikof said:

- rush last 18 shields of Joberg temple for 1 citizen. But I couldn't rush 22 shields for 2 citizens last turn.

Click to expand...

You can poprush max half the citizens in one rush. So if your city is size 3 you can not poprush 22 shields in one rush because it would kill 2 pop which is more than half the amount of citizens. You can however poprush first to 40 shields and immediatly thereafter poprush to 60 shields (temple), because it's killing one pop at a time. But in this case you lack a 40 shield item at that moment to poprush, because being German the barracks are 20 shields and you don't have the 40shield library available yet.

DBear said:

775: Trade maps with America and Greece, getting 8 from the latter. Why can't we build galleys?

Click to expand...

You are probably refering to Konigsberg. Konigsberg can't build galleys because it's build on fresh water, a lake. You can check that by being able to get 2 food from the water (without having a harbor (which you also can't build on fresh water)).

Open, vanilla.
Goal: Undecided, perhaps diplo.

First moves and actions

After investigating the starting spot, I came to the conclution, that it wasn't very likely to find any better spot for my capital, than the starting spot. (Well, at least not with one worker move) So I settled in place and moved worker to the game (As what I have seen, everybody did).

Also like many others, I was convinced that at least one of the four expansionist civs would contact me before I could learn pottery, so I started to study IW with minimum cost. Good call, as I think many others have also seen.

First builds were: Warrior, warrior, settler (which was changed to granary after trading for pottery with England 3550BC). Granary was completed in 2800 BC and first settler in 2590 BC. I decided to build rings at distances 4 and 7. Why? Not sure. Almost none of my first ring cities are by the river and that will cost me hundreds of shields in form of aqueducts. I think I thoght that there were better sites in ring 4 that would have been in rings 3 or 5. Anyway, first settler went to the flood plains, NW, NW, NW, N.

After that, Berlin kept building warriors and settlers, while Leipzig built workers, some warriors and some settler.

Worker moves

As I wrote, worker moved to the game. After chopping it (shields went for the granary) he irrigated it. After that, worker consentrated on mining BG:s and building roads. Once Berlin had what it needed in order to produce settler every six turns, Worker(s) moved to imrove other cities' environments.

Contacts

3550 English warrior comes to us.
3500 See Zululand
3100 Arabs
2850 Meet the Greek.
2670 Contact with the Americans
2630 Ottomans
Met also Romans and Kelts by or near this time, but I can't find the info anywhere.

Early and meaningless war

Against the idiotic zulu, who sneak attacked my undefended city and razed it down. As I didn't at that point have very strong troops, I just waited for zulu to do nothing and after a while I also auto-razed one of their cities. After no more battles we signed for peace, and Zulu gave me their gold (21g). This war took part at 1525-1300 BC.

Little later and more meenigfull war

Against the idiotic Zulu, who didn't build tons of units. This war (or it's amusing preparations) started in 550 BC when I moved my troops near zulu cities both in north and center of our border. Done that, I remembered that I didn't want to get a rep ht by Declaring while my troops are in their territory. Well, I would move my troops back next turn and then DoW. Fortunatel I didn't need to do that, as Shaka kindly asked me to move or declare. We moved. The next turn I DoW on zulu, and THEN moved the swords and couple of horses to Zulu area. The turn after this, I captured one city, the turn after that their capital, and as the war started in 530BC, it ended in 430BC, and Zulu was left with one city in the middle of jungle.

Researh

As I was reading Sabre's post, for a moment I thought that it was from my game! Well not really, but I must say, that there is some similarity to be seen.

3550 - Pottery (English)
2150 - Iron Working (40 turns)
2150 - Masonry
2150 - Ceremonial Burial
2150 - The Wheel
2150 - Mysticism
2150 - Alphabet
1700 - Writing (English)
1700 - Horse Back Riding (Romans)
1000 - Polytheism (40 turns)
1000 - Code of Laws
1000 - Map Making
1000 - Philosophy
1000 - Mathematics
750 - Literature(I suppose 10 turns)
390 - Republic(I suppose about 15 turns)
390 - construction (trading republic)
390 - currency (trading republic)

So I reached MA in 390BC, and as I did, something quite rare (I think) happened. I got Feudalism as my free tech. Then I talked t the greeks, annd they had Monotheism, but not Feud, so I was able to trade it with them. I thought this doesn't happen in vanilla. I also bought contacts with three remaining civs the turn after I turned in the MA.

In 1000BC we had

8 cities, 21 pop.
2 settlers, 9 workers
4 warriors, 4 spear, 8 swords, 1 horse
223gold, contacts with 8 civs
all non-government AA techs exept construction and currency
2 granaries, 2 barracs, 1 temple.

In 370BC we have

15 cities
1 settler, 14 workers + 5 slaves
12 spear, 8 sword, 3 horses, 1 PM
many barracs, 7 libraries, 1 temple, 2 granaries

Redbad said:

You can poprush max half the citizens in one rush. So if your city is size 3 you can not poprush 22 shields in one rush because it would kill 2 pop which is more than half the amount of citizens. You can however poprush first to 40 shields and immediatly thereafter poprush to 60 shields (temple), because it's killing one pop at a time. But in this case you lack a 40 shield item at that moment to poprush, because being German the barracks are 20 shields and you don't have the 40shield library available yet.

Click to expand...

Aha! Thanks for the info, Redbad!

PTW, Open.

I thought I might try a 20K victory this game, but I did not like any of the sites I found near my capital for a 20K city, so I quickly fell back to conquest/domination mode.

Cities and Builds: Berlin was founded 1 NW of the starting location while the worker mined and roaded the starting position. Initial builds were 3 warriors (to search for 20K city or just make contacts), granary, settler, settler, barracks. Berlin eventually became a 6-turn settler + warrior factory.

Leipzig was founded by the wheat to the NW and produced almost nothing except workers. All other cities built barracks first, then warriors with an occasional worker or settler thrown in if they were getting too big. I made an effort to build at RCP 8 first, then fill in the gaps at RCP 4.

Research started off disastrously. I went for iron working at maximum, but due to my small capital size and late founding of other cities, it took me close to 40 turns anyway, and the Zulu beat me to it. I wasted an enormous amount of money. The only redeeming feature was that I had done a better job than the Zulu at making friends so I could trade it to civs they hadn’t met.

3400 – picked up Pottery + 7g from the English for Bronze Working and Warrior Code.
3200 – picked up Ceremonial Burial + 10g from the Arabs for Warrior Code.
2350 – bought the Wheel from the Celts – at the time I had barbarians outside an empty city so I wanted to empty my treasury.
2270 – picked up Alphabet from the Americans for the Wheel.
picked up Masonry from the Ottomans for the Wheel.
2190 – picked up Mysticism from the Arabs for Iron Working.

Since mysticism had only recently been discovered, and the AI often ignores Polytheism, I went for Polytheism at minimum next. It worked great as in 1025 I secured a monopoly on it and had a pile of cash.

1625 – picked up Writing + 6g from Greece for Iron Working and Masonry.
Picked up Horseback Writing + 87g from the Celts for Writing.
1025 – finish Polytheism and use it to get almost all the gold in the world plus Code of Laws, Philosophy, Map Making, and Mathematics. I start Monarchy at max. I upgrade all my warriors to swordsman and start…

World War I – I pick the English as my first target. Although I am now strong compared to everyone except Rome, I was strong compared to the English first, plus they have accessible wines and no relevant UU. I want to make sure none of my neighbors join against me, so I declare on the Celts and sign MAs with Ottomans and Arabs, declare on Rome and sign MAs with Greece and America, and finally declare on England. I hoped to get the Zulu involved in some war, but they wanted too much. I gambled that if I couldn’t afford them, then nobody else could either. It worked since they did not join WWI at all. The war lasts (for the Germans) until 570 – by then I had autorazed several English cities and captured London. Liz gave up her remaining cities for peace and was reduced to a OCC. I fought almost exclusively with swords, but as the war went on, I was building horsemen for the better upgrade path. I sign peace with everyone in 570.

In 590, I had discovered Monarchy. I revolted from the big picture and got 8 turns anarchy. Rerolled for 5. Became a Monarchy in 510.

In 450, while my troops are massing on the Arabian border, I trade Monarchy to the Celts for Currency, Literature, Construction, and 66g to enter the Middle Ages…

@Nikof: I never looked at the Oracle from your perspective. Never could even think of a use for it. I'd like to see how that turns out. It'd be cool if you popped a coliseum.

@Banthafodder: It might be best to avoid the situation you're in in the first place. But if that's what you got, defensive units are the way to go. Who cares about your rep, looks like it's already shot, taking out the resources will help a lot. More defensive units in places like mined hills or floodplains wheat pillaging tiles will continue to be a drag on the AI long after the unit is dead. So make it a long war. Wait for the AI to exhaust his offensive units against your defensive units- that's about exactly how many you'll need. Then, the offensive stack you've had up your sleeve pops out and starts taking cities, maybe one at a time, maybe only every 5 turns. The units the AI does produce without resources or productive tiles will be wimpy and will only promote your troops. Maybe abandon captured cities after a few turns, make peace after the capitol is in flames, wonders or not. Or hang on, but build a satellite city or 3 at the closest distance, and rush culture in those. I think that helps prevent flips,doesn't it? IMHO

Predator PtW

I started with worker north. Settled 2 northwest of starting location in 3900.
I decided to go for an early granary so the worker improved a BG first. Science 100% pottery, just in case.
Initial builds were two warriors then granary via settler prebuild.

3450 met England and Arabia. Trade for pottery, alphabet and masonry using the whole economy. Writing @ min.
3400 meet Ottomans. Just take their 10g for pottery.
2950 meet Greece.
2900 granary completes->worker
2670 meet Zulu. Get CB+10g for alpha.
2630 meet America.
2590 trade for TW
2510 meet the celts
2430 first settler is out
2310 settle Leipzig by wheat and horses. Buy IW from England and sell it around.
2070 meet Romans.
1830 Writing is around. Cannot afford it even with only 3 turns to go.
1790 Trade for writing, HBR and mysticism. Research to literature. Nobody has contact to the asians. Settle Hamburg.
1650 Settle Königsberg.
1475 Buy mathematics from Romans and distribute around for change.
1450 settle Frankfurt
1400 literature->philosophy
1325 settle Munich
1225 philosophy->Col. Trade for MM, polytheism, maps and most of the gold around.
1075 settle Heidelburg
1025 CoL->Republic. Settle Nuremberg.

At 1000BC we have:
8 cities, 23 pop
3 barracks, 2 granaries, 4 libraries
10 workers, 10 warriors
missing currency, construction and the governments




900 settle Cologne
730 settle Hannover. Republic->Currency. Trade for construction. Declare on England, raze Nottingham.
710 revolt for 5-turn anarchy
650 Capture London. Settle Bremen. Raze York.
610 Capture Hastings. Make peace with England for Coventry on the island nw of our continent.
590 We are a republic.
570 Contact with Japanese.
550 Trade for rest of contacts and all maps.
530 Settle Stuttgart
510 Settle Bremen. Researched Currency, get feudalism. Middle ages.

I'm still undecided what to do with this game. Conquest or 100k are the options I'm currently thinking about.

Edit: removed my post of despair, rewrote the post that the sponsors ate.

Open, vanilla.
The plan: to practise my lousy warfaring skills.

4000 BC: Berlin settled on the spot. Idea is to get a warrior-settler pump as quick as possible. The larger plan is to massproduce warriors, and then upgrade to swordsmen.
Initial build sequence (turns): warrior(4)-warrior(4)-worker(3)-granary(15)-warrior(2)-(warrior(2)-settler(4))*
Going for IW in 40 turns, I'm convinced that someone will trade me Pottery before I need it.

3550 BC: Met the English. Bought Pottery for BW and 18 gp.
3400 BC: Met the Zulus.
3150 BC: Met the Arabs.
2950 BC: Met the Americans.
2850 BC: Met the Romans.
2750 BC: Met the Ottomans.
2710 BC: Berlin finished granary.
2390 BC: Met the Greeks.
2230 BC: München founded NW of Berlin, by the wheat. The plan is to pump workers.
2190 BC: Made the rounds at the trading tables. Results: I get CB, TW, Masonry, Alpha, IW and Myst, plus everyone's gold, 139 gp in total. All that just by buying from one and trading/selling to the others.
After this I set the slider to 0%, I have no wish to push the tech pace, and I need the money for upgrades.
1910 BC: Lübeck founded by the spices south of Arabia, to keep them from the Arabs. At that time I didn't know of the spices straight to the south.
1725 BC: Eliza has researched Writing and sells me contacts with the Keltoi for 16 gp.
1675 BC: Köln founded north of München, between the horses and the iron.
1625 BC: Leipzig founded in the grasslands SE of Berlin.
1525 BC: Buy Writing from the Ottos for IW and 19 gp.
1425 BC: I'm weak. Caesar wants 43 gp to spare me, I give in. That does it, time to connect that iron!
Dresden founded by the cattle south of Berlin.
1350 BC: Worker starts road on iron.
1325 BC: Frankfurt founded next to the wheat N of Berlin.
1250 BC: Buy Maths from Eliza for 131 gp, sell it to Alex for HBR and 41 gp. My intention was to use those two techs in between to get the CoL from Shaka and sell it to everyone else. He still wants 283 gp however, so I couldn't cover my expenses from the others' treasuries.
1200 BC: Iron connected! 5 warriors upgraded to swordsmen, and immediately I go from weak compared to everyone, to strong compared to everyone. I still have 6 free non-MP warriors to upgrade...

My battle plans are simple. Zulus, Greeks, Romans and Keltoi all have AA UUs that I don't want to fight. Arabs has a knight UU, so I want them gone before Chivalry. After that the Ottos and the English, neither have any UUs that will interfere.

1175 BC: Hamburg founded by the river, SW of the closest iron.

1050 BC: All is ready, the forces are in place. War on the Arabs, 12 units on Arabian soil. Two attack routes, a smaller force of 3 swordsmen move towards Damascus from the south, while the main force heads straight for Mecca.
1025 BC: RNG curse. Three swordsmen against Damascus manage to kill one regular spearman and to take one notch off another. No river crossing, grassland terrain. Gah.
1000 BC: Rostock founded by the spices straight south of Berlin.
The smaller task force, down to one swordsman, retreat to wait for the oncoming reinforcements.

The main force is poised for the strike on Mecca.



QSC stats:
9 towns (bah)
24 pop (with 100% lux: 18 happy, 1 unhappy)
1 settler (will settle next turn)
6 workers
1 slave
4 warriors
2 spearmen
12 swordsmen (6 veteran)
1 horseman (veteran)
1 granary
4 barracks
129 gp, +24 gpt
Contacts with all but China, Japan and Korea.
All first and second level techs, only HBR from third level.
Or, in the words of my esteemed Scientific Advisor:



Some notes after 1000 BC:

First Arab war lasted 1050-850 with a Peace Treaty. I had then captured Mecca and Baghdad, and destroyed Damascus. 8 slaves captured, and I got Philosophy, MM and CoL in the Peace Treaty.
Losses: 3 swordsmen, including the 2 in the first round.
Arabs left with three 1-pop towns on the coast.

After regrouping my forces, I went for the Ottoman empire.
The Ottoman war lasted 570-490 BC and ended with their destruction when I captured Sogut. I also captured Uskudar and Izmit and destroyed Iznik. 6 slaves captured.
Losses: 1 swordsman.

By stupidly placing a town where I had just destroyed Iznik, the Keltoi involontarily made themselves my next target. They had no iron anyway, so no UU for them. Tough.

The first Kelt war lasted 470-310 BC and ended with a Peace Treaty after I captured the capitol Entremont. I had also captured Richborough, Mohács and Camulodunum, and destroyed Verulamium. Mohács flipped back one turn before I took Entremont, cost me one swordsman. 3 slaves captured, and I got Mohács (again) and Verulamium (the next version) on the island NW of ours. I also got Currency and Construction, sending me straight to the MA in 310 BC, and giving me Monotheism as my free tech.

During the wars I also managed some research on my own, Literature and Monarchy. In 370 we went into anarchy to switch to Monarchy, 7 turns...
My reason for choosing Monarchy was that I figured I'd be at war a lot, and that WW would trouble me otherwise. I might actually reconsider that, once I get Chivalry my wars will be a lot quicker, and the extra gold from the republic could come in handy.

During this time I also bought contacts with the final three civs, and a map of the world. At the entrance to the MA, this is what the world looks like:



And this is the graph over the power distribution in the world:



The only thing to break the prefect image is that I've gotten no GLs at all so far. The English will pay for that dearly...

Short summary:settler moved north and settled next turn..Build sequence :warr warr granary settler worker and many settlers and few warrs for MP duty..Research:researched alpha,writing,col,philo,rep(traded for all other techs)...At 1000bc i had:9 towns,25pop,8worker,3grans,1barracks,2luxes connected....Had a bit of luck as english destroyed zulu city near wines...Learned rep in about 450bc and entered mid ages...Going for diplo this time

Btw, would someone mind telling me what the stats are for Korea in the GotM mod? The civilopedia shows a blank screen. What are their traits, and what is their UU?

PTW Predator 1.27f

Initial Moves.
I started by moving the worker to the deer. When this revealed a bonus grass to the north, I moved the settler north-west in order to get it into the city radius. As it turned out, other bonus grasses were available at the start location so this was not necessary. Oh well. It’s just a turn.

I started by researching Iron Working at the minimum rate. Berlin’s initial build sequence was <warrior><warrior><settler><worker><granary>. Both the settler and the granary were accelerated with a forest chop. Thereafter, the town built a settler every six turns until well into the Middle Ages. The warriors went out to explore. The first went north past the flood plains, east to the ocean and then west again, up towards the Celts and eventually to the western ocean. The second went south, east to the ocean south of the Zulus and back west again.

By the time that I established my second town I had met four civilizations, the Zulus, Arabs, Ottomans and English. Unfortunately, the only trading opportunity with was Cathy. I bought Pottery from her for Warrior Code plus some spare change, allowing me to build the afore-mentioned granary.


Expansion

I decided on a 3-6-10 RCP build pattern. The inner ring held four cities to the northwest, northeast, southwest and southeast. The outer two would be spaced tightly in order to pack them in. The first cities were built in areas of good food. Leipzig could share the deer with the capital. Next came Hamburg by the flood plains and Konigsberg by the eastern cattle. This was my first city in the second ring. Later cities concentrated on filling the inner two rings while building barracks and, later, libraries.


Trade and Research

2350 BC saw my first major trading round. My single scientist research on Iron Working was still seven rounds from completion but I had to move if I was going to get in on the first-round tech trades. So… buy TW from the Arabs for 80g; trade TW + 2g to English for Alphabet; TW + Alpha to Zulus for IW + CB + 10g; Sell IW to Arabs for 84g. Alpha to Celts for Masonry + 2g; CB to English for 25g. This gained five techs while adding 39g to the kitty. Not too shabby! After this round, I started research on Math at the maximum rate. Satisfyingly we found out that, for a change, we will have no problem with any resources except luxuries. Quite a change from recent games!

2030 Writing has appeared, so it is time for another round. Trade IW, 30g, contact with Greeks, Romans and Zulus to Cathy for Writing. Trade contact w Celts to Romans for contact w Americans. Contact w. Romans to Arabs for 14g; contact w Americans to English for 18g; Masonry, IW & CB to Romans for a worker (s1), move s; contact w Ottomans & Celts to Greeks for 28g; contact w Celts to Zulus for 11g;

1600 Learn math, start literature. Still at maximum rate.

1375 Mapmaking appears. Time for another trading round. Trade WM + Math to Romans for MM + WM; Math + WM to Zulus for Philo + WM + 25g; WM to Greeks for WM + 6g; WM to Americans for WM + 1g; to English for 23g; to Ottomans for 2g; to Celts for 18g; to Arabs for 5g; to Romans for 10g. Two more techs in my pocket plus a bunch of cash.

1275 Learn literature, start Code of Laws

1175 Trade Mapmaking and Philosophy to Greeks for Code of Laws, start Republic at maximum.

1100 I accidentally traded Philosophy to the Ottomans for Horseback Riding. This was not intended as I wanted to build a few more chariots first. [blush]


The Zulu War

The Zulus were seriously impinging on my breathing space. Hlobane was actually putting pressure on my inner ring, so I declared war and attacked, the objective being to raze Hlobane and Ulundi, thus giving me some room to grow to the east. Most of my six-ring would be free. Although the Greeks, Romans, English, Ottomans and Arabs also had pressure on it, none of them actually were in the way of city placements. By comparison, I had two cities within two squares of each of Hlobane and Ulundi and needed space for more.

With Ulundi out of the way, we would also have a local supply of wines. We had been importing them from the English for a while. In 850BC, I attacked and Hlobane was razed the next turn. I then tried to take Ulundi. This failed to an uber-impi but my very first elite victory gave a Great Leader, who was used to rush the Pyramids. My second attempt on the city was much more successful and it fell in 690BC. With my people on the gates of Intombe, the Zulus sued for peace the following turn, giving us Construction in exchange.


The Republic of Germany

We learnt Republic in the same year Ulundi fell, 690BC, revolted immediately and drew a four-turn anarchy. We did not attempt a second revolt. The following year, the year of the Zulu peace, we met the Asian civilizations and got a full world map. We traded Construction to the Arabs for Polytheism straight up, leaving only Currency and Monarchy to be discovered.

We switched to Republic of Germany in 630BC, improving our cash flow considerably. It has continued to improve with each new city founded. Since most of the AI civs only have three or four cities, it is not necessary to field a big army in order to attack. Despite their pikemen, a battalion of dozen or so horses and/or swords seems to be more than enough to beat down on the bad guys.


The English War

In 530BC, I chose my second victim, declaring war against Cathy. I brought the Ottomans into the war. London was razed two turned later and Canterbury fell in 430BC. This was the first city I chose to keep. In the attack on Canterbury, a second leader appeared! As this was only my third elite victory, my luck so far has been remarkably good [smile] In the same year, I traded Republic to the Arabs for Currency and entered the Middle Ages. I had sixteen cities at this point. With the exceptions of Dortmund and Canterbury, they were all quite productive.


Tech Summary

3000 Pottery (from English)
2310 The Wheel (from Arabs)
Alphabet (from English)
Iron Working (from Zulus)
Ceremonial Burial (from Zulus)
Masonry (from Celts)
2030 Writing (from English)
1790 Mysticism (from Americans)
1600 Math (self-taught)
1350 Map Making (from Romans)
Philosophy (from Zulus)
1275 Literature (self-taught)
1175 Code of Laws (from Greeks)
690 Republic (self-taught)
650 Construction (from Zulus)
Polytheism (from Arabs)
430 Currency (from Arabs)
Monotheism (free tech)


QSC Stats

10 cities; pop 19, 252 g
2 granaries; 4 barracks;
2 settlers, 11 workers, 3 warriors, 3 swordsmen and 3 chariots
All AE techs except Polytheism, Currency, Construction and the governments
Republic due in 16 turns
Firaxis score: 163; QSC score: 3979

Btw, would someone mind telling me what the stats are for Korea in the GotM mod? The civilopedia shows a blank screen. What are their traits, and what is their UU?

Click to expand...

Scientific and commercial,hwacha(replaces cannon) needs saltpeter ,has bombardment of 12

@Niklas

The Koreans are commercial and scientific.

Their UU is the Hwach'a, a replacement for cannon with a bombard of 12 instead of 8.

Hwach'a has lethal bombard as well, I believe, so it can capture cities and create a leader.

Thanks a lot!
The Scientific part explains why the Koreans suddenly had Monotheism when no one else did.

Abegweit said:

In the attack on Canterbury, a second leader appeared! As this was only my third elite victory, my luck so far has been remarkably good

Click to expand...

I didn't get a single great leader the whole game (although I've destroyed 4 civ's)

I got a leader with my first elite victory...

In about 1500BC...

I was very lucky with elite's as well - I think I've had about 5 GL's so far...

Tomoyo said:

I got a leader with my first elite victory...

In about 1500BC...

Click to expand...

Yes I read that one too you got the pyramids with it.

BTW are you pursuing space this time also ? (I thought rockets would be apropiate for the Germans)

@Wanderer
You people stop posting these things or I'm going berzerk