COTM14 First Spoiler: Starting Landmass, Ancient Age Resources

Things went pretty much as I planned, well apart from finding not one bonus grassland under the forests, which cost me two turns growth. Luckily I managed to avoid an early fight with the Germans, which is good considering their archer could have walked into London unopposed.

Opening moves:

4000BC - Settle in place, slider to 0.10.0 research Ceremonial Burial, worker east, start warrior.

3950BC - Irrigate Cow.

3750BC - Build warrior, start worker, road cow.

3700BC - Grow to size two, slider to 0.8.2.

3600BC - Build worker, start Granary, slider to 0.10.0. Workers from cow moves south while new worker moves southeast to two separate forest tiles. The idea here was that chopping two forest tiles at the same time in five turns was better than one in three turns and the next in six turns time.

3550BC - Workers chop forests.

3450BC - London grows to size two, slider to 5.4.1

3400BC - We get Ceremonial Burial and start Writing, slider to 0.9.1

3350BC - Both workers now move to the forest south of London

3300BC - Workers chop forest.



3200BC - London grows to size three, slider to 0.8.2. Workers road Fur tile, this speeds up founding York by one turn. Meet Germans, Trade Alphabet for Bronze Working and 10 Gold.

3150BC - London builds Granary and starts a Settler

3100BC - Workers finish roading Fur tile south of London and move southwest to the next forest tile, slider to 0.9.1.

3050BC - Workers chop forest.

3000BC - Trade Pottery for German worker.

2950BC - Builds settler, start worker, slider to 0.10.0, workers mine the Furs tile.

2900BC - York (the 20K city) is founded two tiles south of London, not a great position, but considering where London is, it’s the best I can do.

2800BC - London builds our third worker and a warrior is started, as I’m quite scared of Germany.

2670BC - London builds a Warrior and builds settlers and workers from now on.



2270BC - Research Writing.

2190BC - York builds a Temple.

1650BC - Research Code of Laws.



1550BC - York builds the Colossus, starting our golden age.

1475BC - Research Philosophy and take Republic as our free tech, we get a three turn anarchy, so we do at least get some of the golden age in a Republic.

1200BC - York builds the Oracle

1000BC - York will build the Great Library in nine turns.



QSC:
8 Cities
23 Citizens
7 Workers & 1 Slave
1 Granary
1 Temple
1 Barracks

Open

Settle on spot, decide to try and grab the Republic Slingshot. After meeting Germany in 3450BC, i am torn between wanting to buy BW and WC as protection from an annoyed and aggressive Bismarck, and keeping Alphabet to myself. Eventually, the wandering German archers and spears are just too much for my little heart to handle and I end up giving Germany gpt to keep them sweet for a few turns. When Germany learns The Wheel, this is too worrying for me so I end up trading away Writing to them as soon as I learn it to secure my horses.

Luckily, I still manage to pull the slingshot out of the bag, and revolt in 1550BC (6 turn anarchy). I was hoping that Berlin might build the Pyramids for me, or something useful, but it could only manage the Oracle after a cascade. Therefore, I have no need to kill Germany just yet in my game, they are a reasonable trading partner, and as long as they don't find iron before me, or prematurely declare on me, they shall live. (Plus... they've probably got a stack o' horses which I don't really want to have to deal with right now - they can wait for knights). I only met France and Spain as extra contacts in the early AA since my initial exploring curraghs got wrecked by the barb galleys. Enter MA in 690BC. Very little else to report.

I'll probably head for a quick Domination with this game, unless the tech rate picks up a bit and then I may go for Diplo/Space.

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QSC Stats:

10 towns, 25 pop
1 granary, 2 rax, 1 library, 2 harbor
2 settlers, 9 workers, 2 archers, 2 spears, 2 horsies, 1 galley
3 contacts
all AA techs except Poly, Monarchy, Construct (in 4), Currency

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good going, wet

good site too: at the sea and still only three sea-tiles in the radius.
You've managed to build the Colussus early and still got some use out of the GA.
Build the Oracle and almost certain the GLib: I think you're on a fine 20K path.

Myself:
I've allready finished the game in the weekend. That allways happens when I'm having a great time playing it. Went for space though, not 20K.

Predator, going 100k.

First of all, I was wrong about a few things in the pregame. My claim that 13 AA techs cost less than 100 beakers was blatantly false. I guess the costs change depending on the difficulty level... Oh well.
Nevertheless, I did pretty much what I said I would do. Worker to cow, settle in place, irrigate, chop, chop, roads later. The initial build order was warrior->granary, completed in 3300. Then a settler. I consciously delayed science a small bit so that micromanaging allowed the settler to appear on the same turn London grew.
Bismark was ok as a trading partner- he traded us Alphabet (3150), Ceremonial Burial and the Wheel (both in 1910). He toured my southern lands and then left, at which point I sealed the choke-point. He didn't attack. My Germans were running around with spearman pairs rather than archers... unlike in others' games.
My cities were spaced quite closely at first. York in 2900 2 tiles south of London. The cow was just out of reach, but not for long, Wolmer Green brought in under our control in 2510. So York builds Granary#2. All this population focus meant poverty in the army and navy, but I didn't suffer as a result.
The 1st curragh was out at 2230BC. Met the Spanish and French soon after, start plotting the settlement of these islands. Meanwhile settlers are peacefully stealing things from Germany, like cows and even some silks. Woo hoo!
I hit the Republic slingshot in 1550, drawing a lousy 6 turn anarchy. Babylon finished the Colossus this turn, so I scrapped all early GA plans right here.
1275- The Germans strike! Hastings, 4 NE of York, claimant of cows, deposes to the Germans! Of all the rotten luck...
1000 BC stats: 12 cities, 36 citizens. (Those might be my best qsc numbers ever, even with the lost city). 5 temples, 2 granaries, 1 harbor. 12cpt, 164 culture. 8 workers, 4 warriors, 1 galley, 1 curragh, 1 slave. Preparing to build Chariots.

My AA went on for a looooong time. Ultimately I defeated the Germans and settled all over the place, but I'll wait for the next spoiler.

predator, 100K attempt.

Who needs iron if you have curraghs

London is founded on the spot and first trains a few landcrabs, who head out exploring to the North. Fairly soon they run into some uncivilized people who don't even know the alphabet. We don't teach them and quickly discover that the Blues have precious little land. Jolly!
It is only fitting for a proud seafaring nation to start a navy, and in 3600BC our first curragh, the Dragon - no, that's not Lizzy's nickname - sets sail. By easterly winds it is blown along various islands barren of life. It will be followed by several others, valiantly battling the waves and the barbarian galleys and discovering all kinds of overseas riches.
After a granary is built some of Londons citizens decide to move to the East coast, and in 2670BC York is founded. The two cities conveniently block the isthmus of our island, preventing Uncle Otto from settling to our South. The only Germans settler ever entering our lands is conveniently trapped on the Palace Lawn north of London, where he will camp for 910 years. in the mean time we fill up our half of the island, resulting in 8 cities by 1000BC.
Our research is full speed to Republic, while Otto and some other friends conveniently research all kinds of other stuff for us. Even more convenient is that our friends do not try to get in touch with each other, giving us the easy broker's position. We get Republic for free from a travelling philosopher in 1525BC, but Lizzy doesn't want to step down yet, and so we stay in despotism until 350BC (probably not so wise, but how do you tell a Queen...). The unsuspecting Germans trade the Wheel to us, and after a frantic effort to catch some horses the English Charioteer Corps is founded in 1200BC. We also find that we have no iron - probably have to get that from somewhere overseas in true English fashion.
In 690BC we upgrade the Charioteers by removing their carts, and tell Otto that he is blocking our view. The war initially goes quite well, then bogs down a bit before Berlin. It lasts to the early AD years, when we finally finish the Germans. Berlin will make a good site for the Prince of Wales' Palace.

This is my second COTM game and it seems I am a little behind the curve. I did however manage to avoid the quick death to Germany some of the less fortunate players had. That was down to pure luck as the Germans pretty much ignored me after I traded tech with them after meeting them at the start.

I settled in place and my initial builds were warrior. granary, settler. After that London spent its time churing out settlers and curaghs

I met France and Spain early and had a nice little tech brokering situation between those two and the Germans. None of my Curaghs managed to get through the barbarian Galleys to find the other Civs. I realised later that I should have persisted more with this as not finding them earlier cost me heavily.

I also bottled the Republic slingshot and went straight for Philosophy after Writing and took Map Making as my optional tech. This did allow me to start settling the surrounding Islands a bit earlier than the other local Civs.

At 1000BC my map I had 9 cities, 97 tiles, a score of 271 and power of 3788 and still no resources in my box!

Future plans at this point were to continue to expand on to the surrounding Islands, find a source of iron and take down the Germans.

Hang on, thats something I wanted to ask. Why did all the units 'hop' from place to place-rather than walk or run there? Though it wasn't a big issue, I missed the sight of my units moving around and getting stuck into the enemy.
So, what happened??

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

You probably had Caps Lock on.

Should be a preferences-thing, shouldn't it?? I think "animate own moves" is not enabled. In fact I think no animation is enabled at all...

Don't worry, my mistake. Now that you mention it, my caps lock was on-I just didn't make the connection .

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

@Yndy. Hello, mate! Good to see you around

Ancient Age (4000BC - 975BC)

Starting build is warrior - curragh - granary - settler - worker. Worker will irrigate and road cow before starting a couple of chops. Granary is ready in 3100BC.

Exploration
My first curragh sets off in 3550BC. He moves eastwards. In 3500BC I see a blue border expand into sight from the north. We are not alone.

Contact with Germans in 3150BC. In 3000BC Germans have 2 workers for sale and I purchase both for Alphabet and Pottery. I loose my possibility for immediate tech parity but I think workers at this time was more important.

Contact with Spain in 3000BC.
Contact with France in 2950BC.

I build some more curraghs because the other neighbours seem difficult to find. I spot barb islands and fear for my curraghs. I need the Lighthouse to stay out of reach and go quicker. I will dedicate one of my towns for it.
I meet the first barb galley around 2000BC. That is pretty early and there are many of them. Soon I loose two and the remaining hero lives in real Columbus style and travels to meet Babylon and Netherlands around 1700BC and finally Sumeria and Vikings around 1200BC.

Research
Going for Republic slingshot achieving that in 1625BC. 4 turns anarchy.
The learn Literacy (forgot when) and Currency in 1100BC. Trade construction from Spain. Start Polytheism.

QSC stats
11 towns
41 population
14 workers
4 reg warriors
1 vet horseman
1 curragh
2 granaries
1 barracks
1 harbor

Contact with all civs.
All AA techs except monarchy and polytheism (1 turn) ... will enter MA next turn.

4 turns remaining on Lighthouse. Amsterdam has also been building it for a while ...
18 turns remaining on Forbidden Palace.



Immediate plan is to populate some islands around us and to find IRON. If I manage to get Lighthouse it will trigger GA and I plan to build some Libraries. I will focus on research and expansion for now. Slow buildup of forces in parallel to be ready to take over Germany. Have a feeling I will go for Diplo this time.

COTM14 Open Class

4000 BC Settle on spot. Move worker to cow. Research 100% to Code of Laws. Building warrior.
3850 BC Building curragh.
3750 BC Blue border to the NE. Too close. Warrior returns for MP.
3550 BC Building granary.
3400 BC Contact Germany. Trade Alphabet for Bronze working + 10g.
2950 BC Building Settler.
2710 BC Settler has moved to the location of the new city. The German are at London with 2 archers and a warrior. I have one warrior in the city. Building a spearman. With the chop it will be done in 2 turns, I think. This might be my shortest game ever. Yes, they captured London. I have a settler and a worker. But, the worker may be toast, too.
2590 BC Join the worker to York. Maybe enough to get a warrior built. Warrior in 2 turns.

End of game.

Open Class, barbs fixed.

I decided to try my hand at 20K since I have never submitted a 20K xOTM. I opted to settle London on the spot and use it for my 20K location. Initial builds were a warrior then a second worker. I know it is unusual to build a worker from your 20K town, but I figured the 10 shields would be regained from a forest chop, and he would rejoin London once growth slowed at size 7. First worker irrigated and roaded the cow, then I used a double forest chop to speed the temple (using granary as a pre-build). After the temple was completed, London built the only settler that would come from that town and concentrated on wonders.

I decided to forgo the Colossus to avoid the ultra-early GA. Research was Ceremonial Burial (temple), Mysticism (Oracle), then Polytheism. I wanted Polytheism so I could use the Temple of Artemis as a pre-build, and I was also planning to use the Monarchy slingshot although I changed my mind about that later. After researching writing and philosophy, I chose literature as my free tech instead of Monarchy. My thinking was that literature had a lot more culture available than Monarchy, I could learn governments from the Great Library, and my pre-build in London already had more shields than I needed for the Hanging Gardens. After literature I turned off research, but it took me too long to make contacts – since my curraghs kept being sunk, I went through a dry spell in the ancient age where I could not build any culture in London.

I met Germany in 3400 BC. I had much better luck with them than most – not only did they not attack me, they provided me with 2 workers in 3000 BC for Pottery and Ceremonial Burial and another in 2230 BC for Mysticism.

QSC stats:

1 city, 3 towns
18 citizens
2 curraghs
1 worker
3 slaves
5 warriors
London 481 culture plus 19 cpt

Cultural builds in London in the Ancient Age:

-4000 Palace
-3050 Temple
-1700 Oracle
-1125 Great Library
-1025 Library (I wanted to cash-rush it until I realized I was still in despotism)
-775 Mausoleum of Mausollos.
-390 Hanging Gardens
-290 Coliseum

I entered the Middle Ages in 230 BC. We had formed a Republic the same year following a 3 turn anarchy.

i already finished the game, with a goal of diplomacy victory.

in the ancient age, i had the similar problem with that German archer pair. i had three warriors to dance with them and they didn't get a chance to explore the lower half of our continent for a very long time. though the choke point needs 4 unit, but AI is foolish enough to be 'danced around'.
finally wiped out German. but i missed the republic slingshot. spain and french didn't know it and so it must be the upper map countries... started to research for republic and when there's one turn left, Spain got it!!!!!
other than this incident, everything else went fine... but i'm sure this alone will delay the victory by about 30 turns...

open

go to conquest or domination.
1400BC - philo -> rep -> 5 turn anarchy
QSC Status
13 cities
37 citizen
10 worker (6 slave)
14 ground unit
1 curra
338 score (best 450)
all contact
barrack 2
granary 1
harbor 1

Open, the goal is everything but cultural victory.
I, too, settled in the spot and built curragh, warrior, granary, settler.
This first curragh sailed west and found some nice islands, but made no contacts!! It also didn´t notice Germany, so I contacted them in 3150 BC, when my warrior met a spearman of theirs. Funny thing that I had no problem with an ultra-early attack. My germans were also bearing spears instead of bows, maybe this determined their decision. Nonetheless they demanded furs in 1790 BC, and looking back I´m more than glad I gave them.
So Spain wasn´t contacted until 1225 BC, followed by France 3 turns later.
I succeded with the Republic-Slingshot in 1500 BC entering the new government in 1375 BC.

QSC-stats:
1 city and 6 towns with 32 citizens,
a granary and a temple in London and 3 Barracks in other towns.
5 Warriors, 10 Workers and 1 curragh posing as my military.
I lack AA-knowledge of construction (which spain has), currency (will be in in 2 turns), polytheism, monarchy and literature.

Exploration became massively better after building the Great Lighthouse in 925 BC. As I found out, Barbarian Galleys can be fully avoided by sailing the ocean.
I see that it´s a major advantage to wipe out Germany early. But I´m a poor warmonger, so I´ll have to share the island for the time beeing. There are only 5 blue towns thus far, so I hope I can outmatch Otto soon.

It is nice to be back into the GOTM groove for the first time in six months.

As the scope of this thread is limited, I will only discuss two aspects: 1) Germany's early attack, and 2) Research.

1) In 2510 BC, Germany declared war on me. I had noticed their strange behavior in 2710BC, and I had rushed to get a spearman for defense, wasting most shields that were accrued for a granary. Thankfully, my spear successfully defended London, and my other city was able to contribute more spearmen to the defense, losing all of its progress on a granary. . The good news is that I was able to hold out until I could sue for peace, but in the process, they German soldiers destroyed every tile that I had worked up until that point.

2) Because of the early war with Germany, and barely surviving, I was unable to get to Philosophy first. I had completed Code of Laws, and had just started on Republic when I saw that another civ had already researched it.

I will save more details of the Ancient Age for the next spoiler.

For all of you who suffered the unfortunate fate of falling early to the Germans, the same thing happened to me in the COTM7. To make you feel better, see my post here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=2425485#post2425485

Though I have since finished my 'Official Game', I have been replaying this game to develop strategies for later. Something I noticed though was that, on about 6-7 reruns of the same game, the Germans suddenly became incredibly aggressive-moving on my Capital and attacking it almost as soon as they came in contact with me. Has anyone else seen this?
Just curious.

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

After staring at the game for a while I do decide to go with 20K. I would be a glorious victory to pull of 20K with this horrid civ for it. I decide to send 2 NE to the hills. London and the 20K city will be painfully close, but that site needs the ability to have a palace pre-build. I get a major shock when I spot blue borders already. This game is going to be ugly. I get York in place in 3150 BC to start my run at 20K.

I meet Germany in 3650 BC.

The game turns out to be over instantly. Germany declares war in 2550 BC. I should have gone with by gut feeling and cancelled the 20K attempt after seeing Germany so close. Too much effort was on improving York, and to little military.

I haven't even bothered submitting the game as this is my worst ever game. I see I wasn't the only one to get screwed by the ultra-early wars. I noticed several other deaths, and several near misses.

Germany was the cruelest civ to put next to us with them getting free spears and archers for their bonus units. I was not impressed with this map design at all.