COTM-19 Second Spoiler: Middle Ages, World Map

Time for the second COTM19 spoiler.

The Middle Ages.
What happened in these times? Peace, war, exploration, research...

Did you manage to influence the way the other civs shared contacts and exploration in this map? Could you control alliances and wars to your advantage?



Please remember, when posting in this thread, to limit your discussion to events that occurred in the Middle Ages and make sure you have sufficient knowledge of the entire world map.

825BC - Build Glib in the Capital.
Get Currency from Hitties for Literature (monopoly for monopoly). Enter MA. Research with a lone scientist, building libraries/markets/harbours everywhere.

630BC - Build Soz in the Capital.
570BC - FP built in Rotterdam.

470BC - Feudalism from GLib.
330BC - Mono & Engineering from GLib.230BC - Chivalry from GLib.
110BC - Invention from GLIb.
70BC - Theology from GLib.
30AD - GunPowder from Glib.
70AD - Education from GLib. Time to start Golden Age to keep up!

90AD - dow Mongols (only they have Average Military against us), ship 2 Swisses over to their island. Sign America aginst Mongols for Education.
110AD - defending Swiss starts GA. Leonardo workshop completes in the capital! Everyone is building Universities.

340AD - Finish Astronomy but 4th. Research Chemistry 2nd, after Chinese, and trade it to France and Hitties for Banking+PP and lots of gold.

430AD - Learn Physics 1st and trade it to France, Hitties and China for Music Theory, Democracy, Free Artistry, Economics and lots of gold. Research ToG (in 9) with prebuild going for Newton's. Take 1st Mongol inner city - Karakorum with Pyramids. One of my cities on Ivory island deposes to France.

450AD - Zulu drop Impi near unprotected city and I miss it! I retake s'Whatever next turn but library, marketplace, barracks and Uni are gone.
460AD - Peace with Mongols for 1 Island city.

520AD - Research ToG but 3 major powers already have it. Should have hold on on Physics but needed money.
Build Newtons in Wassenaar from Palace prebuild.
650AD - research Mag and enter IA.

Minimap at 680ad:

Hawk: Yes. It's my expierence that when starting a war it's best to have no per turn deals to your opponent and have no units of any type (scouts, galleys or troops) on their land. The AI treats having units on their soil as an ROP offense.

Some people had a middle ages I was dead before i learnt how to add or write.

The Middle Ages is where my game started to go astray. I entered the MA in 1250BC still in despot government. I was finally able to buy Monarchy in 925BC for a not too unreasonable price (literature and about 1200 gold) and naturally drew an EIGHT turn anarchy period. I also decided against trying to build the Great Library due to the tech pace in my game and knowing it would have a very limited life.

So in 730BC I become a Monarchy with 16 cities and still working on my first MA tech. Currently I’m only behind Feudalism to America and Mongol. So I’m thinking this is not too bad. It looks like I should be able to continue tech brokering and self-researching enough to stay close to the tech lead. So I decide to go a peaceful route instead of trying to force a military route when all I had was warriors.

I continued to operate my setter factory and went island hoping. I eventually managed to grab the Ivory island. In 130 BC I was able to buy/trade for Republic, Engineering and Feudalism for the cost of Monotheism, 2600 gold and 20gpt. Due to the gpt deal I could not switch to republic until the deal expired. I was also afraid of drawing another 8 turn anarchy period and felt it was too soon to make a second switch.

By 250AD I was up to 26 cities and 144 pop. It was at this point that I switched governments and this time I got a 6 turn anarchy period. As I emerged from the second anarchy period I was starting to feel like maybe I could do some warring in this game, or at least hang up in the front tech wise. That was before I saw this picture in 340AD and I knew the outcome of this game was in jeopardy.



During my government changes the Mongols had decided to become a runaway Civ. They declared on America the second strongest in the game and methodically eliminated them from the game, thus gaining control of most of the Great Wonders in the game. Their next target was Rome. I knew I needed to stop them but I was not militarily prepared to battle them directly so I tried to strengthen whoever they were at war with. I gifted both iron and horses to Rome in effort to slow them down. This had very little effect. Rome was quickly down to 1 city.

Research wise I was able to broker techs to help maintain a lead on everyone except the Mongols. I even researched some optional techs to use as trading bait, but could not catch up to the Mongols and their 27 cities which grew to 37 cities by 950AD (as they took over Rome) which is when I entered the IA.

My goal now is to stay close enough to the Mongols techwise and hope I can sneak out a Diplo vote. So far I have had no wars and everyone is pleased with me. I sitting in a solid second place, but trailing a runaway Mongol empire with no way to stop them.

I don't know whether I can finish this game: it is so slow, and my patience with the game, the rng and moving endless units is going.

I expanded very cautiously to start. Then when I saw the Mongols were building Leos I made a plan to take it from them. This plan worked in that I captured Kazan only 3 turns after Leo was complete in 250ad. I was then in a good spot to carry on wars with cheap upgrades. I then carefully took on the Mongols, then the Americans. Mongols were destroyed in 610ad, andf then america in 950ad.

Unfortunately the Chinese have become a tech powerhouse (the Mongols were the early leaders, and I let them linger too long to pass their techs on).
Therefore I was side tracked in multiple wars against them, instead of against the easier guys. I destroyed the town with newtons, and was outside the gates of Beijing when suddened it was filled with infantry.

Well that scuppered my attack. In addition I had pretty poor leader luck: one against mongols, and one right at the end v america, despite building the Epic, and lots of elite wins.

No one will trade, and the pointy stick has failed badly so I have been stealing. I am 4/12 at the moment. I almost completely gave up after I had 4 or 5 steals fail in a row, and have basically been hitting spacebar for the last 300 years waiting for enough cash to try again. This isn't the civ I am used to. The game neeeded a calm change to attack someone else a long time ago, and instead I have played in a panicky fashion. The stealing mechanism is terrible; it is far too chancy.

Offa: I had the opposite luck on steals, failing only twice on with ten sucessful tries. On the other hand I was only able to get a spy to one capital even though I tried at least 10 times.

DJMGator13: The Mongols were also my runaway AI. Take heart however as my Mongols got into numerous wars with America and China in the early IA and switched to Fascism which slowed their research to a crawl.

Phew, made it to IA in 700AD

China is my games numero uno. After expansion phase I got to within 6 points of China but then they over ran Romans and have kicked well ahead.
Monguls have most wonders and threaten to take 20k victory, but they are the only impediment to Chinese taking 100k.

Fought my first 2 wars.
dowed backward Zulu landing stack of 7 SMs and a treb on a hill, hoping to reinforce with further 8 units shuttled from city on island off Zulu's east coast each turn. Didnt last 1 turn - only took out 15 units (with about 12 retreats) before my stack had disappeared. WW meant immediate peace. I may try again with much bigger stack and perhaps on mountain. My intention had been to both draw Zulu's units out of their cities to allow my ACs to attack at another site, and to leader fish - no success on either.

Second war was a sneak attack from Americans (the no 3 AI). I had neglected to cover all outer tiles on my home island and suddenly found an American pike had landed in 440AD (had rop). Fortified my SMs next to it to protect my cities but in 480AD further pike and MI land as well, Next turn, 490AD, they attack - result redlined SM -> GA and welcome reverse WW. Unfortunately pike pillaged a mined BG before I could clear them out. I made them pay by razing all 4 of their island cities once I had cavs . First successful sid war waged. The Americans may be on the way out now as Monguls have dowed and they are no 2 top dog. My plan is to take a city on America's main continent and gift it to China hoping Monguls then dow China - these two are sustaining too fast a tech pace for me to keep up.

Regards tech - my GA helped give great boost after my bee-line to Mil trad failed to get a monopoly.
Researched guns 290AD (after Mong -China) and sold to Americans and Hittites (needed money as unit support costs have been abocve 100gpt), got Chem in 370AD 1 turn behind Mong-China, likewise Metal in 440AD. (was able to trade China 12g for metal shortening 1 turn). Mon-China got mil trad 480AD, I was 2 turns later 500AD. Went for and got PP in 4 turns for a monopoly allowing trades for physics, 68gpt and 136g. At this stage I was getting 202gpt from Mon-China-Hitt - unfortunately Americans renegged on their gpt payments .
All this money allowed a careful steal of ToG - successful. Researched banking 630AD (4 turns @ 80%) aiming for economics. Economics 670AD. Switch my prebuild which was planned for ToE (yes long way away) to Smiths and decide not to trade Economics despite monopoly tech. Check trades carefully each turn and price not coming down. As GA ends Smith is due in 13 turns at 30spt, next IT China demands Econ - I refuse - they DONT declare, but suddenly message shows American's building Smiths and have traded with China (getting Americans into IA and making my monopoly worthless) Now my GA has ended it is over 20 turns to build Smiths robbing all surrounding cities of productive tiles including capital - decide it's not worth it, so give productive tiles to other cities and revert to ToE plan. It hurts to lose out on all those gpt payments I could have got.
Only good news is Monguls have dowed America so willing to sell Magnetism in 700AD for Econ and they throw in 2gpt +130g

Phase one of William’s plan had been a success and phase two (using the Great Library to stay current on technology) was beginning. Phase one, combining rapid expansion with exploration and multiple trades he him entering the Middle Ages among the world leaders in territory and science. However his military was non-existent. In 470 BC he obtained horses via the founding of Ruimte on a horse site and in 390 BC completed the Statue of Zeus was completed in Amsterdam. With just a single Ancient Cavalry on the map, the Hittites landed a two sword invasion force next to Ruimte and for the first time William was at war. He had managed to complete about 90% of his worker wall, so the homeland was somewhat safe as were most of his island holdings. A galley bearing a pair of Ancient Cavalry landed on the ruins of Ruimte made quick work of the Hittite invaders. William quickly followed up those victories with a pair of settlers to re-settle horses. After acquiring Feudalism in 310 BC, William was able sign peace with Mursilis in 170 BC.

William had been hoping to steal Sun Tzu’s with a pre-build, but when the Mongols (who else) completed the War Academy in 50 BC, he quickly arranged deals for the recently acquired monotheism & engineering knowledge (thanks to the Great Library) for chivalry and completed The Knights Templar in Eben. The Mongols would complete two more wonders (Leo’s and Sistine Chapel) and four more technologies (theology, invention, gunpowder & education) would be learned before the Great Library expired. It was now time for phase three of William’s plan, using the Dutch Golden Age to complete the Middle Ages with some carefully chosen research projects. Research had already begun on the Printing Press when William began assembling a fleet to take on the Hittites. Mursilis’ earlier razing of a pair of Dutch cities called for revenge and using an alliance with France for support in 290 AD William launch a Crusader / Ancient Cavalry of the Hittite island NW of his homeland. The spearmen defending the island were no match for William’s attackers. Moving on to the SW islands near the Hittite main island a defending Swiss Mercenary won a defensive battle and the Golden Age of the Dutch had begun. His troops continued their success until nearly all of the Hittite islands had been conquered. Peace was now the order of the day as William returned to the bargaining tables and using a monopoly on newly discovered techs (printing press & metallurgy) returned to tech parity acquiring Astronomy and Banking and using a nicely timed pre-build discovered economics and completed Smith’s Trading Post in Eben in 730 AD. In the preceding years the Mongols completed Newton’s University and America cascaded to Shakespeare’s Theater, Bach’s Cathedral and Magellan’s Voyage. With the end of the Dutch Golden Age (and the discovery of Physics) in 700 AD, William was two technologies short of the Industrial Age. Now was the time for phase four of his plan. The theft of knowledge would be combined with the Theory of Evolution slingshot to provide the final pieces of his plans to reach the Modern Era. In 750 AD with a successful steal of Magnetism from America, William reached the Industrial Age.

So far all had gone according to plan and with only the Hittites and his final opponent (to be determined) as expected votes against him, William pressed forward in hopes of a diplomatic victory.

If I get this game done, I will be surprised. The IA will take a long time, and I might just press enter the rest of the way and hope for no space launch/demo loss after I build Sufferage/ToE/Hoover.

Anyway, settled in place, map reveals a site to the south with a few hills and the plains fur. Research CB on max, writing at max. Curragh to west and one to the east. They find everyone, thanks to the nicely placed reservoirs of coast.

I kept everyone at war once I secured my island resources with workers/Swiss Mercs, so tech pace was pretty slow.

Builds in Wassenaar:

Temple- 2550 BC
MoM- 1525 BC
Hanging Gardens- 950 BC (Golden Age)
Library- 875
Great Library- 570 BC
SoZ- 390 BC
Cath- 370 BC
Colosseum- 290 BC
Sistine- 290 AD
Heroic Epic- 470 AD (forgot to switch over, lost one turn there)
Shakes- 660 AD

Estimated win date now- 1830.

All the other later wonders were lost in cascades, but that is to be expected. I fought one real war with the Mongols, and filled in their half of the island they were on. They were pretty weak after being at war with America for most of the time.

We came, we saw, we continued!

Middle Ages – 900 BC
875 BC – Mongols settle the S end of the Wheat Island near their starting mass.
China has connected their Iron and starts building swordsmen. Rome still has not connected their iron.
775 BC – We have Feudalism – ahoy to Swiss Mercs!
730 BC – Rome has taken China’s iron city! And the Chinese have destroyed a Roman city on the small islands around their land.
Americans are slowly starting to prevail against Mongols.
710 BC – China recaptures their Iron city.
690 BC – Rome captures a strategic Chinese city on the choke-point between them. And it has managed to build a few Legionaries.
We have discovered Engineering now.
670 BC – We settle the Tobacco Island E of the Ivory Island.
630 BC – We have Invention now.
550 BC – Romans have taken again the Chinese Iron city – and have connected their own Iron. They are probably in a Golden age.
We settle on the Desert Island W of Zulus.
490 BC – We build Sun Tzu’s in Utrecht. And we have discovered Gunpowder. Admire our might, Feeble Humans!
China retakes its Iron city.
470 BC – We have Monotheism too.
390 BC – We discover Chivalry too. How about that, eh, Feeble Humans!
370 BC – We settle a small island E and also the N of the island W of Hittites.
The Hittites attack the French and win with their Chariot – Hittites enter in a Golden Age.
Mongols and Hittites have entered the Middle Ages.
350 BC – We settle another of the NE islands.
Americans are getting the upper hand in their war with Mongols.
330 BC – Amsterdam completes Leonardo’s workshop.
310 BC – We have Theology too.
270 BC – Americans take Tabriz from Mongols while Romans and Chinese continue to slaughter each other in the choke-point mountains for no great use.
We make a second settlement on the Desert island W of Zulus. Soon the world will be ours!
250 BC –Tabriz flips back to Mongols. BTW, Literature is widely known by now..
230 BC – The war between America and Mongols continue unabated, Americans retake Tabriz but Mongols complete the Statue of Zeus – one turn before us!!!
Utrecht completes the Knights Templar and we have discovered Education. We are GOTM-AI after all.
170 BC – Romans have won in the mountains, descend to Canton and take it. Americans are advancing on Mongols while the French stubbornly refuse to build any boats and just kill any Hittite that lands on the French Island.
130 BC – Hittites build the Great Library in Hattusas.
110 BC – We have Astronomy.
70 BC – Romans retake China’s Iron city. We have Banking and our Caravels are flying high our flag en route to somewhere only we know.
50 BC – It seems that our war with Zulus has only been postponed, we send some Knights to their glorious death on the Zulu Island.
30 BC – Romans are heading for Beijing while Mongols are on the counter-attack.
10 BC – We use Knights to take a Zulu city on the Ivory Island – another Zulu city still stands.
Hittites are the first civ, except for the Glorious Dutch, to discover a Middle Age tech – Feudalism.
10 AD – Romans are marching on Beijing, destroying all improvements in their way.
We have Navigation.
50 AD – We take the last Zulu city on the Ivory Island – it’s all ours now.
70 AD – Romans have destroyed the improvements in half of China but have now retreated to heal their troops.
90 AD – We lose three brave but stupid Knights in Zulu territory.
110 AD – We have Chemistry while Mongols and Americans have Feudalism.
130 AD – Wassenaar builds the Sistine Chapel.
150 AD – Romans take Chengdu but Chinese raze a roman city on a shared small island.
We land a Swiss mercenary and some maces and archers at Zululand – they are promptly killed but the Swiss Merc takes with him five Zulu Swordsmen.
210 AD – Amsterdam completes Magellan’s voyage. And we now have Metallurgy too.
We land a party on a small Zulu island just between Zululand and Ivory Island… and it holds thanks to the two Swiss Mercs – now, that’s a landing party! Glory to GOTM-AI, the unmatched strategist of all times!
The Chinese retake their Iron Island but have lost their harbour. Romans are at the gates of Shanghai and Mainland China looks doomed…
230 AD – We easily take Swazi, the small island between Zululand and Ivory Island.
On their side, Romans have no trouble taking Shanghai.
250 AD – That’s it, we have Military Tradition! No other Civ has even Chivalry.
280 AD – Romans take Tsingtao. And Maastricht completes Copernicus’ Observatory.
290 AD – We got Physics too.
320 AD – Romans take Nanking. Only Beijing is left of Mainland China.
330 AD – Romans takes Hangchow, the Chinese iron city.
We discover Magnetism.
350 AD – Romans take Beijing and control their Island. China has s few cities scattered on the small islands N of Romans.
360 AD – We attack the Hittites and take one of the small islands SE of their mainland. We also land some units, quite good landing, 3 Swiss Marcs and 3 other offensive troops but they are nevertheless killed.
370 AD – Romans attack America over a small northern island.
And we proudly enter the Industrial ages when we discover Theory of Gravity.
We also discover a worthless human player, hidden on a small island without a single city, just a settler and a worker frozen in fear of the mighty GOTM-AI!
Tremble, Feeble Humans, as you survey our map of the world in 460 AD !.

Log out.

Ancient Summary
It was a pretty standard ancient age for this game - settle the homeland and southern island chain down to the ivory. Get the slingshot, taking Polytheism. Build the Great Library. Meet all the AI with curraghs, and coastal routes where possible. The Mongols build the Lighthouse, and move to attack the Dutch eastern island, but they are little further threat as long as my navy is strong. I let America keep them busy with a land war. Eventually, the Hittites emerge as the leading tech power, and the Zulus as the most backwards, for they have no contacts other than me.

Into The Medieval
The Glibrary brings me into the new age in 510bc. I am still a despot, and plan to switch to Feudalism when I get it. First there is a war to fight. The Mongols and Americans are deadlocked over the horse isthmus, and I have been preparing an invasion force to attack the Mongol core via their plains island. The offensive begins in 210bc, and goes smoothly with the help of Zeus. By 330ad the Mongols are kicked off their mainland, and I have the Pyramids and Lighthouse. Of long term significance, the Americans found Detroit in an area cleared by the razing of a Mongol town. I should have taken more care to block or settle such spots. I capture the Mongolian island refuge in 370ad, and the first civ is down.

On Other Matters
While the Mongolian war is cruising along, the Glibrary brings me Feudalism (170ad); I draw a six turn anarchy. The next turn, Mursilis demands contact with China. Mursi is the tech leader, and China and Rome are well behind, having been at war (China was the more successful). I don't want the Hittite techs reaching the southern hemisphere, so I take his dow and send Joan up against him. He is no threat to me as long as I have the coastal jump point blockaded. Then in 210ad, he starts Copernicus. Oh. So much for the galley blockade.

A Wasted Golden Age
Well, the Hittites aren't a substantial threat to me, even with sea travel, but I decide that I need to curb their power sooner rather than later. I start trying to dump units onto their land; in 470ad, six swiss land on the mountain next to the mainland Hittite iron. Six is not enough - they only kill six attackers (mostly, Mursilis used knights). My next experiment is to drop six attackers onto one of his islands, where he won't have his entire military on hand. He does have muskets though. I kill two of them, but this is a stupid attempt too - my battered attackers withdraw. My last folly is to try the mainland beach-head again, but with 12 swiss. Again my swiss all die in the first Hittite attack, and can still only bring down one enemy unit each.

Easier Pickings
Despairing of ever being able to attack Hittitia, I turn my attention south. Really, I should have dealt with America next, as I share a border with them, and have the old Mongolian choke-point town at which to massacre the depleted (i.e average to me) American military. Stupidly, I was distracted by the Chinese, who started menacing my ivory settlements. A boot order triggers war with China in 530ad, and I bring the Romans in too. I push China out of the ivory islands without much trouble, and start island-hopping eastwards. By 730ad, China is pushed off the islands, but is winning against Rome, who has only one mainland town left.

Back To Hittitia
I have established a ship chain through Hittite's northern waters, and in 750ad I settle the northern half of the Hittite iron island, northwest of his mainland. I have no idea why this spot isn't taken - he has a town in the south, getting the iron. Before any real action can happen on this island, war weariness starts killing me, and I give Mursi peace for his map and a small cash payment. I am researching Mil Trad, but Mursi already has it. Abe is catching up too; in 820ad I give him Chemistry for Astronomy + gpt.

World At War
In the Chinese campaign, I pursue my quarry onto the mainland, and generate a leader attacking Nanking; form a Zeus army. The strategy down here is all about resources; all the iron is on the islands, under Roman rule, but the mainland has two horses. I have pillaged the western source, and the eastern source is under the last Roman town. Things looks safe, but in 950ad I see that Mao is buying iron in. Bringing Mursi into the war should put a stop to that, but my new alliance doesn't hold; he backstabs me on the next turn, and our war restarts where it left off: the northwest iron island. More alliances fly, and we have China and Hittitia against the other five civs, albeit that Rome is almost powerless, and the French and Zulus still show no interest in actually building any boats.

A Set-back
In 1030ad I capture Beijing. Next turn, it flips back, taking all my elites and cannon. Ouch. As punishment, I raze the place. You may ask why I had all my best stuff in a newly captured enemy capital. Well, until this point, I had had no flips despite only using one-units garrisons, usually capturing towns instead of razing, squeezing towns close to the AI wherever I felt like it, all that kind of thing. So I eventually came to the conclusion that we must be playing with flips turned off. Not so eh? I give Mao peace in 1160ad. I get Printing in the deal, and I have taken a bite out of his old core. Mao immediately goes to war with Rome.

A Step Forward
The Hittites enter the industrial in 1020ad, and get rifles in 1140ad. I am tempted to give them peace straight away, but manage to hold my nerve a little longer; after a gruelling seige, with my northern ship chain carrying a stream of reinforcements west, I capture the Hittite town on their iron island. I needed help from American cavalry, and my last couple of kills were done with swiss pikes. This battle will be remembered as Holland's only significant success against Hittitia. I give Mursi peace in 1200ad.

Turning On My Friends
I don't want China getting Rome's iron, so the obvious thing to do is to take it for myself. Caesar has been my closest (if weakest) ally so far, but I use a boot order to get him to dow in 1190ad. His islands are easy pickings, and I beat the Chinese to all of them, finishing the Romans off in 1310ad. I try the same trick on China, but Mao complies with the boot, so in 1320ad I dow on him, getting immediate war weariness. I bring both the Hittites and Americans into the war, using luxuries as bribes. In 1345ad, I discover Gravity and enter the industrial, well behind both Hittitia and Amercia.