GOTM-1: Closing Spoiler

OK, this will be only my second CIV game. My first was with Elizabeth, at Settler (just testing the game… ) on a Pangaea, which I won with a domination in the 19th century I think.

I was a little undecided as to how to proceed with Caesar, since I was a still a little shabby on some of the core elements of CIV when I started this game (religion, maintenance, etc…) so I lapsed into Civ3 mode. I expanded quickly, funded by goody huts, founding Hinduism, Judaism and Confucianism. I placed little emphasis on military, and mostly on settlers, workers, and infrastructure. This seemed to work for me. I managed to run at 80-100% research for the best part of the game.

I declared war on Alex in 100AD whilst slowly stockpiling Praets, eventually destroying the Greeks in 620AD. In all, I had captured 4 cities, and razed 3. I had little trouble from the barbs, I even managed to capture the barb town of Phrygian in 425BC. This is a snapshot of my empire in 1050AD, just as I commenced research on Optics.



After seeing the strength of the others, whom I had all met by 1260AD, I decided just to coast to a space victory. A trade mission in Madrid funded 100% research for the rest of the game, whilst other little bonuses such as building the Taj Mahal, an Academy in Rome, and Newton’s University all helped the cause. Isabella declared on me in 1868AD – I assume as an attempt to halt my space progress, but she was a minor irritation as I launched my spaceship in 1914AD.

Final Score - 21344

@all

some amazing victories!

In the first spoiler I got Astronomy in 780AD, planning to take over the world with Praetorians and Catapults.

I avoided Civil Service so I could keep building cheap Praetorians, but this turned out to be a mistake. Without farms I couldn't grow my economy (and score!) fast enough to keep up.

900AD: Capture Berlin (Pyramids) and revolt to Facism.
1040AD: Germany is an OCC
1200AD: Aztecs destroyed
1340AD: Spanish destroyed
1450AD: Arabs destroyed
1545AD: Chinese destroyed

At this point my score was 5500, with a 91238 victory bonus. I gave away four cities to stay below the domination limit and milked the game for 39 more turns. On the last turn I used 45 settlers to claim 99.77% of the land area (this doesn't work with patch 1.52).

My score increased quickly at first, but my population was so far behind hendrikszoon that I couldn't catch him. I finished in 1670AD with a score of 116,976.

Yay, I'm finally done.

I met the other continent (the large one) in 450 AD. My first spoiler is here:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=3431622&postcount=193

Everything after this point was quite tedious, for me. It was obvious that I was so far ahead that I could just build troops and ship them over and conquer everyone; it was just a matter of time. I found that Germany had built the Pyramids and the Great Lighthouse on the coast, at nearly the closest point to my continent, so this was the obvious first target. I took a long time to play the rest of the game, but I still wasn't very careful about some things. I'm sure I could have reached the domination limit sooner (e.g., I still didn't control every space on my home continent when the game ended).

I invaded with mostly Knights (and some Catapults), and I was able to upgrade them to Cavalry and start churning out more Cavalry shortly after. After discovering Military Tradition, I shut down research for a while, to generate gold for upgrades, until I ran out of Knights. Then I turned research back on, for Chemistry and Steel, although they came too late to play any role in the game. I had thought I would draft some Musketmen in captured cities, but, when the time came, it didn't seem worth the bother.

I researched Drama and switched to 100% culture, a few turns before the end, in order to maximize border expansion and try to get the game over with. I also used a lot of Artists.

I achieved domination in 1310 AD with a score of 90858. I had conquered Germany, Aztecs, and Spain. I was at war with the Arabs but I hadn't taken many of their cities yet (since it wasn't necessary for domination, and since I'd only finished mopping up the Aztecs at the other end of the continent a few turns earlier). I never tried shipping troops west across the other ocean, since it was much farther.

My log (continuing from the end of spoiler 1):

500 AD - discover Monarchy
540 AD - discover Code of Laws
580 AD - complete Great Library in Rome
600 AD - circumnavigate
620 AD - complete Parthenon in Antium
640 AD - discover Civil Service
660 AD - switch to Hereditary Rule/Bureaucracy/Caste System
700 AD - complete National Epic in Rome; 2nd GP born (Great Engineer)
740 AD - discover Feudalism
800 AD - discover Guilds
820 AD - 3rd GP born (Great Engineer)
860 AD - complete Heroic Epic in Antium
920 AD - complete Notre Dame in Ravenna
940 AD - discover Astronomy
960 AD - discover Construction
980 AD - use GS + GE to trigger Golden Age
1000 AD - discover Philosophy
1040 AD - discover Nationalism
1050 AD - use GE to rush Taj Mahal in Rome and extend Golden Age
1060 AD - war with Germany; capture Essen; 4th GP born (Great Artist)
1070 AD - discover Gunpowder
1090 AD - capture Berlin (Pyramids, Great Lighthouse, Chichen Itza)
1100 AD - discover Military Tradition; use GA for great work in Berlin
1130 AD - capture Munich, Cologne
1150 AD - capture Hamburg; Golden Age ends
1160 AD - 5th GP born (Great Artist)
1170 AD - capture Frankfurt
1180 AD - capture Dortmund; Germany defeated; war with Spain
1190 AD - capture Seville
1200 AD - capture Salamanca
1210 AD - discover Chemistry
1220 AD - capture Madrid (Temple of Solomon, Kashi Vishwanath); complete Forbidden Palace in Berlin
1230 AD - capture Cordoba, Barcelona; switch to Police State/Nationhood
1240 AD - war with Arabs; war with Aztecs; capture Mauryan, Texcoco
1250 AD - capture Medina
1260 AD - capture Tlatelolco, Santiago; lose Barcelona (not paying attention)
1270 AD - capture Kufah
1280 AD - discover Steel; capture Teotihuacan (Stonehenge), Barcelona, Toledo; 6th GP born (Great Merchant)
1290 AD - discover Drama
1300 AD - capture Calixtlahuaca, Tenochtitlan; Aztecs defeated
1310 AD - capture Murcia; Spain defeated; use GA for great work in Toledo; achieve domination

At end of game I had:
37 cities
270 pop
446 gold (running large deficit due to 100% culture)
1 great merchant
2 settlers
25 workers (lost several due to carelessness)
1 explorer
2 longbowmen
3 crossbowmen
39 cavalry
1 maceman
4 warriors
10 praetorians
4 catapults
4 cannons (recently upgraded but never used as such)
2 caravels
5 galleons

Megalou said:

@A'AbarachAmadan
Your 1600 AD cultural victory is amazing! I demand a more detailed spoiler.

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Sorry for the delay. I tried to get it out before my vacation, but failed to do it. I just got back from Down Under, which was totally awesome; I spent the last couple hours compiling my notes, so if I missed anything important let me know and I'll add it.

Goal: Fastest cultural victory. Cultural victory in 1600AD.

Research: I decided to skip the early religions in favor early expansion and conquest. (If I’d known there was only one opponent on my island I would have changed this.) My goal obviously was to hit all the cultural techs and get my ‘big 3’ up and running quickly.

3680BC-Agriculture; 3200BC-Masonry(GH); 3120BC-Bronze Working; 2960BC-Mysticism; 2680BC-Polytheism; 2400BC-Monotheism; 2240BC-TheWheel; 2120BC-Pottery; 1880BC-Writing; 1720BC-Priesthood; 1400BC-Iron Working; 925BC-Code of Laws; 650BC-Meditation; 550BC-Philosophy; 425BC-Theology; 225BC-Alphabet; 175BC-Sailing; 100BC-Drama; 1AD-Mathematics; 250AD-Music; 680AD-Civil Service; 780AD-Calendar; 860AD-Paper; 1050AD-Education; 1140AD-Liberalism; 1140AD-Nationalism(free); 1160AD-Monarchy; 1180AD-Metal Casting, Archery, Horseback Riding (trade); 1210AD-Divine Right; 1240AD-Machinery; 1240AD- Construction (trade); 1250AD-Literature; 1270AD-Feudalism; 1300AD-Guilds; 1320AD-Banking; 1350AD-Economics; 1370AD-Compass; 1390AD-Optics; 1450AD-Constitution; 1500AD-Corporation; 1525AD-Astronomy; 1540AD-Gunpower

Initial city placement: 4000BC - Rome(1E) as it looked best to start and I couldn’t see what was south of the hills, initial warrior move didn’t lend anything, though I did consider a 2 turn treck to the west; 2480BC – Antium (5W of Rome) for Gems and Corn with forest chop access; 2160BC – Cumae (4E/2S of Rome) corn, hills, 5 from Sparta, 4 from Rome and forest chop access; 1320BC – Neapolis (on stone) this was to be near iron as it was the first settler constructed after IW, but since it was already in range of Cumae I could use it for another purpose, so I picked the stone to immediately speed wonder construction and get the fish in range as well as forest chops access; 725BC-Apache captured from Barbarians, though it was traded; you can see the forest chop theme; my last city built was in the jungle MANY years later, I just put a warrior up there early to stop barb generation

Rome (culture): 3400BC-Worker; 3000BC-Warrior; 2760BC-Warrior; 2720BC-Worker; 2560BC-Settler; 2400BC-Worker; 2280BC-Settler; 2120BC-Worker; 1960BC-Granary; 775BC-Parthenon; 550BC-Oracle; 525BC-Obelisk; 400BC-Library; 425AD-Sistine Chapel; stopped detailed tracking

Antium (culture): 1920BC-Obelisk; 1760BC-Granary; 1600BC-Worker; 750BC-Pyramids; 525BC-Library; 400BC-Jewish Monastery; 300BC-Conf Monastery; stopped detailed tracking

Cumae (military): 1560BC-Granary; 1520BC-Obelisk; 1440BC-Warrior; 1320BC-Warrior; 1280BC-Barracks; 1160BC-Warrior; 950BC-Worker; 875BC-Praetorian; 800BC-Praetorian; 675BC-Praetorian; 575BC-Praetorian; 475BC-Praetorian; 450BC-Praetorian; stopped detailed tracking

City management: I built zero, count them ZERO, cottages. I maximized the use of Artist Specialists in ALL of my cities, though better micro-management would have put some in scientists, but only in cities which would never generate a great leader. My reasoning was that it was a great way to generate culture and also lots of great people. Going for culture, it allowed me to switch to 100% culture earlier as I would still generate decent technology without worrying about my non-culture cities doing nothing. I really focused on getting 9 temples for each of my 4 main religions built so I could build Cathedrals in my 3 cultural cities. Started to spread Islam, but it was too late to make use of it. I REALLY focused on spreading religion and the temples in other cities to get this high culture boost.

Wonders: If they didn’t produce culture I didn’t want them unless necessary. The only two non-culture wonders I built were The Pyramids and The Oracle – seemed more important to get Great Artists than the average wonder culture boost (had lots to build anyway); had I known the enemy would be so far behind I might have skipped The Oracle also & I would have built Metal Casting sooner so I could make use of the forges – which I never built.

Great people: My goal was all the great artists I could get, micromanaging the timing sometimes to maximize my probability. Only one slip, which I should have managed better. 300BC-Artist; 200AD-Artist; 250AD-Artist(free); these first 3 are added to Antium as specialists, though I think the last two should have been held for the 4K increase – I was originally estimating a 1750 or so finish, so I really messed this micro-management up; 325AD-Artist; 820AD-Artist; 1040AD-Artist; 1130AD- Artist; 1140AD-Engineer (60/40, shoot!); 1350AD-Merchant(free); Artists - 1200AD, 1330AD, 1350AD, 1370AD, 1430AD, 1555AD, 1575AD, 1585AD, 1600AD; so 13 Artists used to add 4K culture to Rome (3-4) and Sparta (9-10);

Revolutions: 1800BC-Jewish State Religion; 725BC- Representative, Caste System, Org Rel; 680AD- Bureaucracy; 1150AD- Free Speech, Pacifism; 1350AD-Merchantilism

Other: 1380AD – 0% science & 60% culture; 1500AD-Trade Mission allows 100% culture. After Greeks destroyed no other conflict for me.

3 Culture Cities:
Antium (finish size14 with 6 artists and 3 great artists),
Rome (finish size 19 with 8 artists)
Sparta (finish size 16 with 7 artists)

All 3 built- Granary, Aqueduct, Obelisk, Library, Theater; all Jewish, Christian, Confusion and Taoist religious buildings; Antium also Hermitage, The Pyramids, Notre Dame & The Taj Mahal; Rome also Palace(start), National Epic, The Oracle, Parthenon, & Sistine Chapel; Sparta no others

At Finish:
Antium culture is 880/turn (23 commerce,2 hammer, 78 specialists, 5 religion, 68 buildings; +400%)
Rome culture is 688/turn (34 commerce, 1 hammer, 48 specialists, 1 religion, 88 buildings; +300%)
Sparta culture is 356/turn (16 commerce, 2 hammer, 42 specialists, 1 religion, 28 buildings; +300%)

StanNP said:

bradleyfeanor - Astronomy in 940AD - Domination in 1430 - Total turns from Astronomy to Domination = 46
Roland Ehnström - Astronomy in 1080AD - Domination in 1510 - Total turns from Astronomy to Domination = 44
StanNP - Astronomy in 1090AD - Domination in 1515 - Total Turns from Astronomy to Domination = 44

Based on this bench mark, it looks like getting to Astronomy quickly was a huge determinant of how quickly you could achieve Domination.

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I don't really think this makes sense, because the research order can vary so much. I could have had Astronomy around 300 AD (via Great Scientist), but that wouldn't really have helped me win any faster. I actually got Astronomy in 940 AD, and then I achieved domination in 1310 AD, so that's 34 turns. But I went for Guilds before Astronomy in order to have some Knights ready to go on my Galleons as soon as they came off the lines, while I think most of the above results are based on researching Astronomy before Guilds.

This was my first 4OTM, but sadly all came tumbling down when a truly outrageous barbarian rush left two of my four cities burned to the ground. (I don't know how they fell; both were protected by three archers, both had walls.)

Learned lots of lessons and looking forward to 40TM Game 2!

I went for a Domination Victory.

First I rolled over the Greeks. I then stopped churning out military units to improve my cities for a bit to get my science rate up. Looking at what others did I'm not sure this was the best strategy as going for Astronomy and then heading over to the other continents with Praetorians, Cannons etc seems to be very good.

Anyway, after finding all the other civs I seemed to get along with Germany the best. First off though I invaded China as they were by themselves on their own continent and weren't friendly with any other civs. That way I was hoping to avoid getting involved with a war with anyone else.

After destroying the Chinese I then spent turns again improving my cities and shipping units over to Germany who I had Open Borders with. I also spread my religion (Hinduism) across all of Germany. I then declared war on Montezuma and Germany was happy to help (having fought them before) and switch to my religion.

I then switched to attacking the spanish and capturing their cities until I won a domination victory a few turns after capturing them all in 1890AD.

Score: 6472
Final Score: 31777

I really enjoyed this GOTM thanks. In retrospect and comparing to what others did I think I was quite conservative in my attacking and maybe took too much time in between wars! Great fun.

Boppy.

I achieved my first diplomatic victory in 2003 AD, scoring around 6700 points. The Greeks and Barbarians posed no threat. Mao and Bismark were allies, Isabella and Saladin were enemies, and Montezuma had a tiny, isolated city.



Lessons Learned:

1. Start Game of the Months early.
I began playing on 12/28 and it was a race to the finish.

2. Decide on your victory condition by 1 AD.
I couldn't decide between domination and diplomacy. As a result, my actions and cities were not aligned.

3. Explore the oceans before launching an armada
My army of 3 macemen, 7 praetorians and 2 catapults and circumnavigated the globe before hitting land.

4. Avoid long wars (when you're the attacker)
I attacked Greece from 500 BC to 1120 AD, and weariness slowed my economy when it needed to expand. But, when Spain fought me for 100 turns, my populace didn't grow weary!

5. #2 in score doesn't mean #2 in population.
I was #1 in score, enemies with #2 and friends with #3 and #4. I figured that put me in a great position for a diplomatic victory. After building the UN I discovered #3 in score was #2 in population... a tougher win.

6. 'Wealth' cities aren't worth it at 100% science.
I built a wealth city (production converted to wealth) to allow me to run at 100% science. It would have been more efficient to make it a science city and occasionally drop my slider to 80% science to recoop funds.

7. 'Culture' cities are cool.
When civilizations that I needed as allies got a foothold on my isle, I attacked them with culture rather than military forces. Their population dwindled. Oddly, they never flipped.



8. Fresh water is ultra-important for cities to grow early and big.

9. The AI doesn't know what to do with workers.

10. The AI "Optimize Science" option doesn't always work... it sometimes makes the wrong choice between science specialists and commerce.

Well, this was hands down the most exciting Civ game I have ever played. Riveting from start to finish. I won't bore you with details since I'm a total newbie (first Civ4 game ever). But I was literally on the edge of my seat for every turn after the "99 Turns Left" announcement; when I had easily 160 research turns left toward my space ship. ARGH. I entered a serious science marathon and recovered, only to find myself in a neck-and-neck sprint with Mao. I took the last 5 turns with my fingers crossed, and launched my ship about 10 turns before the game timed out. Great great fun! I'm hooked!

Thanks to the GOTM folks for putting this together!

Megalou said:

When you say they closed their borders, I assume you mean they adopted Theocracy (The no non-state religion spread civic)? If you mean they wouldn't sign Open Borders, I fail to see why you couldn't just do a little bit of licking up to overcome this.

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No, it was actually just closed borders. I played a few games a while back and noted that when I knew only one AI, that AI would not trade with me no matter how positive our relations became (went as high as +11). As a result, I assumed an AI would never trade when it thought it had a monopoly on its techs. So I didn't even try to trade with Greece. Thanks for pointing out that it is possible to get an AI to trade when you only know one. That could make a big difference in my future games.

Hendrikszoon said:

Next time I will do it better.

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Well, that statement is downright frightening. The speed at which you are mastering the game is amazing. But I will beat you! One day. When I get really, really lucky…and learn Voodoo so I can curse your units.

Seriously, thanks for posting your insights into the game so that we can all improve!

@A’AbarachAmadan: Very cool culture strategy and great summary. The zero cottage strategy employed by you and Hendrikszoon was something I would never have considered. I also realize I am going to have to pay much more attention to great person farming.

The Middle Game (continued from first spoiler)

My caravel ended up meeting Saladin and then continued along the northern border of the large continent. I love how caravels ignore foreign borders. As I sailed along each coastal city, I wrote down which units were stationed there (I guess I did take some notes). Apart from the obvious technological gauge you get by seeing which defensive units they employ, simple knowledge of unit numbers aid any later conquest. Around this time and in no particular order: I met all the civs on the main continent, got the +1 naval movement, discovered Astronomy (840 AD) and ran into Mao. Once I saw that Mao was alone on a smallish landmass, I sent a small force around his continent to weaken his city defenses. I think I dropped off one maceman and one catapult near his 3 largest cities. I then stormed the beaches of Beijing with a few praetorians (3 maybe 4?) and took my time conquering China. This was by far my longest campaign, starting in 1000 and ending in 1200.

As for research (which was definitely waning due to a large army), my plan was to go 100% cash once I discovered Guilds. Before Guilds, however, I had to make a small detour to my favorite war tech. I recall hendrikzoon relaying the importance of Biology as it pertained to the strategy of his gold medal game. For my strategy, there was an equally important tech that I wanted to research asap – Paper. Like I said earlier, information is king and paper allows map trading. Subsequently, map trading begets informed battle planning and informed battle planning begets conquest.


Endgame

Now it’s on. I got Paper (1070). I have lots o’ galleons. I have City Raider III praetorians, City Raider II catapults, double strength macemen and around 20 recently produced chariots. I also have huge army expenses, but the accountants can deal with that headache. Now begins BY FAR the most difficult and most time intensive part of the game for me. So many critical questions arise. How much land do I need for domination? Which civs should I conquer to most easily gain this land? Once this is decided, what’s the order of conquest? And then, the grand daddy of them all….which units go where? After painstaking deliberation, I decided that I could achieve domination by wiping out Monty and Bismarck and then expanding my borders to make 90% of their land Roman. Or course, with tile counting and a little math, I could and should have found out exactly how much land I needed, but it seemed like too much work.

Anway, war with Bismarck commenced in 1080. I discovered Guilds in 1150, turned off research and began upgrading my chariots to knights (speed was crucial at this point). The same technique of defense bombardment/praetorian reinforcement was used against Germany who finally expired in 1180. Last was Monty. This one was a free-for-all. I had units at almost every border city and then proceeded to invade his one inland stronghold. Monty was exterminated in 1250 and a great artist immediately painted the Mona Lisa.

I thought this would do the trick, but I was still a few tiles away (63.87% or something). Since I had some extra cash lying around, I decided to rush the Hanging Gardens on my last turn. I knew population had a comparably large effect on scoring, but I was completely unconcerned with this aspect of the game; I just wanted a fast finish. Also, I didn’t know there were rankings based on score, so I really just lucked out with a score bonus on such a seemingly inconsequential purchase. Anyway, I reached the domination limit in 1260 with a score of 97,847.

Finally and most importantly, as has been voiced by many, much thanks to the GOTM staff. Such speedy results on so many submissions is truly amazing. This was my first GOTM and certainly not my last.

Originally Posted by StanNP
bradleyfeanor - Astronomy in 940AD - Domination in 1430 - Total turns from Astronomy to Domination = 46
Roland Ehnström - Astronomy in 1080AD - Domination in 1510 - Total turns from Astronomy to Domination = 44
StanNP - Astronomy in 1090AD - Domination in 1515 - Total Turns from Astronomy to Domination = 44

Based on this bench mark, it looks like getting to Astronomy quickly was a huge determinant of how quickly you could achieve Domination.

Click to expand...

DaviddesJ said:

I don't really think this makes sense, because the research order can vary so much. I could have had Astronomy around 300 AD (via Great Scientist), but that wouldn't really have helped me win any faster. I actually got Astronomy in 940 AD, and then I achieved domination in 1310 AD, so that's 34 turns. But I went for Guilds before Astronomy in order to have some Knights ready to go on my Galleons as soon as they came off the lines, while I think most of the above results are based on researching Astronomy before Guilds.

Click to expand...

34 turns does seem very fast compared to other games. My opinion is that one only needed to have Praetorians and Galleons to win a domination victory. If you had gotten Astronomy in 300 AD, turned off research and pumped out units for an invasion, don't you think you could have had the fastest domination victory?

StanNP

StanNP said:

34 turns does seem very fast compared to other games. My opinion is that one only needed to have Praetorians and Galleons to win a domination victory. If you had gotten Astronomy in 300 AD, turned off research and pumped out units for an invasion, don't you think you could have had the fastest domination victory?

Click to expand...

Yes, very likely. Probably by several turns. I didn't realize, in 300 AD, that the other civs would be quite so backwards. Not even knowing what the other continents would look like, I thought the war would be more effective with faster units. But building many more Praetorians, and attacking all along the coasts, using Galleons for mobility, would probably have been very effective. And, by avoiding upgrade costs and research costs, I could have used the Pyramids for Universal Suffrage and rushed lots of additional Praetorians on foreign soil.

This does look like the best strategy for quick domination on this map and difficulty level: save a Great Scientist for rushing Astronomy immediately after discovering Optics. Then you don't even waste any time building Caravels. I almost went this route, but then made the wrong decision.

Thanks for posting your spoiler, Dave the Lesser! I was curious how you achieved your great result.
I can see clearly from your post that I went further into the tech tree than I needed to.