BOTM 50 Final Spoiler - Game submitted or abandoned

kcd_swede

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BOTM 50 Final Spoiler



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..........................................

How did you take advantage of your starting position? Did you make a faster finish or higher score than you usually do at this level? Why, or why not?


Most of all... Did you have fun? (What did you like, what did you not like about the game?)

 
It was totally awesome and glorious game! I finished by conquest centuries earlier than usual. It's my highest score ever! When I cool down I will write more...
 
Conquest Victory scored around 200k and won in the early ADs.
Stupid Lincoln delayed me by 4 turns, founding cities in the middle desert.
Wished a BC's victory, but it can't helped.

Strike on the last turn.
 
Till 70 AD I found some opportunities for trade and got Aesthetics and Philo. 25AD Alexander made peace with Wang, but Zara still wanted his blood (Wang bribed him into this war).
70 AD I DoWed Wang and razed his city next to my border (and Bronze he wanted so much).
85 AD Zara asked me to join war with Alexander. He was backward, with wrong religion and Zara was my neighbour so I agreed.
War with Wang went good and fast as my wars are concerned. It took me just 3 centuries to capture 4 his cities and raze 3 of them. Elputs against Archers is a working solution ;) My army was really small I lost 3 Cats and one Elephant and I had 12 Elputs at the end of war. I used first GG to create Medic3 Elephant with 2 moves. It allowed me to build HE. 5 turn to finish it at the end of war.
130 AD I got GS and used him to built Academy in my flood plains city.
At 145 AD Lincoln built GLib, it was the only wonder in this game I wanted and didn't get it. The same year Vicki declared on Alex. He made peace with Zara at 200 AD. 295AD I built Parthenon, just because I could.
Just 2 or 3 turns before I killed Wang he made a nasty trick by vassalizing to Zara. Now I was involved in unexpected war on my eastern flank. Fortunately Zara was very slow with his SoD. I was able to gather 5 HAs, 2 cats, 1 Ax and bring up my Balista GG. It was enough to annihilate Zara's 6-units stack and later 2 Chariots.
445 AD I discovered CS as first from all civs. 475 AD Zara made peace giving me few coins.
610 AD I bribed Peter to attack Zara.
655 AD I built MoM and few turns later used GA to fuel my first GA.
745 AD I built Shwedagon Paya in my 4th city, mainly for culture boost against Sal there.
850 AD Nationalism. Started Taj Mahal in capitol.
Vicky was at war with Alex all the time. 890 AD she asked me to join her and I did.
The same year I built Sankore and Chapel. Few turns earlier Lincoln built Buddism AP, so I spread it aggressively, each Monastery was a great boost.
One turn later someone (I suspect Zara) bribed Peter to DoW me.
970 AD Engineering. I also captured poor greek city next to ma western city with big Vicky's help. She suicided her stack and I finished the job and turn later destroyed Alex's counterattack.
990 AD I finished Taj Mahal and started another 15th turn long GA. I also discovered Education.

So at 1000 AD I was the biggest civ, first in scores, third in power. My enemies - Alex and Peter - were waek and backward, the rest of AI's were my buddist buddies. I was researching Lib. The only concern for me was Zara, but fortunately Sal was nice enough to settle cities between me and him.

To be continued...
 
Not as impressive as Tachy's approach but I'm still happy with my result. I made the right decision to HA rush everyone. If only my micro and execution was better :p

Spoiler :
 
^
Score? :)

At least, you are advanced! I was so near to an economic catastrophe just like my last XOTM (Kublai on tectonics IIRC). But this is a necessary condition for fast conquest victory. Had to tweak much to get Currency in time. Oracle for construction. Ended to be useful just for the bridge bonus movement over rivers. I broke the neck of Wang Kon just in time to avoid him to get the Oracle. One turn later, I think it would have been too late. I should have meticulously prepared myself to get feudalism slingshot for a BC's victory. Without feudalism, it slowed me down.
 
Around 250k.

My vassals actually did the most teching :D Feud was a nice little asset to have. People usually capitulated after taking 2-3 of their cities. Once they capitulated, I liberated their cities, except for Zara, whose cities I've kept since they had lots of forests to chop and were reasonably developed. (unlike Peter whose Moscow was at size 1 when I razed it)

Fun fact: I made a mistake when I traded my only source of Horse to Alex. Fortunately, Vicky had a spare source but I had to pay an arm and a leg for it!
 
:sad: I lost the gold medal once again. I really should stop killing every lifeform in sight, this is not competitive...:lol:

205 AD isn't that great. *Running back to the other side of the forum (HoF) while wailing*
 

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Wait...what? Gold medal is for the highest score? I thought it worked as in SGOTM where the earliest finish date wins :D

Btw. a very impressive result. Your game actually looks like you put some real effort into it...unlike my chain capitulation spam :lol:
 
Wait...what? Gold medal is for the highest score? I thought it worked as in SGOTM where the earliest finish date wins :D

If you look at the last BOTM, you will observe Neilmeister had a bronze with an earlier date compared to the soon-Eptathetlon Jovan later date. Weird enough, score is an important aspect here.
It is just in SGTOM's where score is totally negligible.

I wouldn't be surprised someone jumped in and brings a super delicious BC victory. :please: Maybe bcool idk. *tomatoes pitching onto me*
 
1300AD conquest.

There were too many nice city sites near the Sampo so I expanded and teched before gearing up the war machine. I'm a slow conqueror ... I was afraid of the PRO archers so I attacked Peter to the south first.

My wars were elephant/catapult, then add xbows, then macemen, then trebs.

Was it worth hanging on to any enemy city sites? None of them were as nice as my floodplains core. Other AIs kept settling the razed areas. I should have remembered how important capitulation and vassals are, and aimed to get Feudalism a lot earlier.
 
At 1010 AD happened something which I think made my game. Lincoln forced everyone to crusade against Alex. He was at war constantly and had quite huge army, finishing him myself alone would be pain.
1060 AD Gunpowder.
1090 AD Notre Dame - just because I could.
1100 AD peace with Peter. I annihilated his few-units "SoD", and he was willing to negotiate.
I delayed Lib having in mind Steel or something better, but AIs were gaining in techs. So I traded Edu for Guilds, Banking, Optics and took MT from Lib in 1120 AD. I upgraded some elephants, produced some Cuirassiers and with help of my buddist buddies captured 3 greek cities in several turns. It was just fun to observe when AIs approached a city with siege stack and not enough troops to capture city in one turn. Cuiras were also great as defense measure - Alex has a short way to ex-Wang cities.
When Taj Mahal GA finished I launched next one using GP and GA. So my GA finished in 1270 AD.
Having seen all of theirs SoDs I decided, that this is definitely the time to kick some asses. I had one city with 2 GG settled, another with West Point, and in 6 turns I was producing five 9XP Cuirassiers.
1220 AD I vassalized Alex nad sent all Cuiras immediately to Sal's border. His stack was going back home through my territory...
1255 AD when his stack was on my border I declared on Sal. He bribed Peter to DoW me. In next couple of turns I annihilated Sal's siege stack and another one, about 8 units strong, which appeared from the desert south of Wang land. And then Sal being resonable guy vassalized to me without losing any of his cities. He even gave me one of his cities under cultural pressure.
The same turn I invented Steel. GE built Ironworks in GGs city.
I started to send troops near Zara's border. Peter sent his SoD there so I annihilated it in bargain.
Zara has proven he is the smartest in the world. Seeing what my Cuiras can do he vassalized voluntary at 1290 AD. Peter became my vassal the same year.
1310 AD I discovered RP and declared on Vicky. I sent 3 stacks of Cuirassiers to her territory. I have pillaging in mind waiting for Rifles to start capturing cities with Cannons.
Now I discovered that she have defensive pact with Lincoln. But he was far away and Zara took all his wrath. Lincoln took one of his cities and gave it back for peace in 1330 AD.
Vicky decimated one of my stacks, I withdrawed there. Northern stack killed around dozen units there, Sal with Camel Archers captured border city and I have road to London opened! Southern stack with my GG Medic captured poor Liverpool and left it undefended. But Vicky has enough and didn't even try to send single Longbowman there. My GG went north and pillaged her only Iron mine. From there it was just 3 turns to London.
Her SoD appeared near my borders, where my decimated stack healed. I forgot to take it back and she finished it, but with heavy casualties. Next turn I have Rifles and with some Cannons annihilated her forces. I captured London and she capitulated at 1360 AD.
I had some turns of peace with Americans left. I upgraded Cuiras to Cavalary, sent them to his borders.
The last war started at 1385 AD. Liverpool was a nice base near his northern territory. I captured 2 cities there and one attacking from Zara's territory and he was willing to capitulate. I delayed one turn to "milk" - bulit Versal using GE, discovered Steam Engine and captured another city for population.
Conquest 1410 AD, almost 250k score.
 
Conquest 880AD (Knights / Cuirassiers)

Attacked WK with knights and he capitulated after taking one city.
Next Alex, two cities and he was part of the rising empire.
Then Peter; still knights.
Saladin was a vassal of Vicky and I attacked after upgrading some knights to cuirassiers.
Saladin, Vicky, Zara and finally Lincoln.

Screens:
Spoiler :






Well done Tachywaxon and Ororo! Very good conquest dates!
 
^
I wouldn't be surprise you get one of the best score despite being later on your win.
Is there a reason why you chose a early peaceful expansion and development to the point where having knights and later cuirassiers are the breaking point for fast conquest?

To me, the moment I saw thoses horses near to me, HA's were a no brainer. In addition, I have a deep experience about oasis mapscript and that mapscript thwarts the unlucky AI's while boosting the luckiest ones. And losers are more common than lucky ones. For example, the protective leaders in the north didn't even make me recoiled because there were set for a reason (meta-gaming theory?), the northern regions are the best.
The strip of lush lands are narrower than south, but the resources are more abundant.
Marble only there, normally horses only there, a hell lots of forests to chop even in bad cities...
And on the cherry on the cake, a small strip of waters may spawn clusters of seafood.

Compared to the south, north rocks and I had to strike hard in the north as early as possible.
Especially when the AI is an idiot having copper online and still making peace for a single lost worker! Only WangKon was enough intelligent to refuse any form of peace until I gathered enough power to to convince of the contrary.

Peter was the proof about how bad south locations can be. He had two food tiles and bad ones.
The only succesful AI was Vicky (because she had many food tiles in her capital) and she was the first AI to fall...after letting her finish the ToA, which I deduced via spy tables.

Anyways, looks like everyone is going to get the typical 250k; I thought I would save my a** with that meager 200k. :lol:
 
I enjoyed a 1510AD domination victory.

After 10AD Wang Kong was the only hindu in a world divided by two blocks, buddhists and hindus. I did not have religion and have been bribing everybody to fight Wang, who was the most advanced civ after me. There was also some battles, bribed by Wang, between Peter and Victoria-Zara.

At 415AD I declared war to Wang Kong while he was fighting Saladin and Victoria. I invaded his territory with macemen and catapults taking first his copper city.

I built the Sistine Chappel at 475AD thinking in a domination win (as there was plenty of space to expand and culture steal). Meanwhile, Victoria the buddhist finished the Apostolic Palace.

At 745AD Peter decided to become my vassal without needing to menace him. I was not sure to accept at first, as he had plenty of room to expand, and he did not helped me a lot in my wars after late in the game so I'm not sure if it was a great decision.

I made peace with Wang at 820AD leaving him only with Cheju, a tiny city with crap territory, and getting his last technologies. I had captured 4 of his cities, one with sea access, and Saladin another one. Cheju was then taken by Alexander who was dangerously expanding in the west.

At 1080AD I got rifles through liberalism and started preparing for war. At 1110AD I started the war against Alex taking all his territory by 1335AD. During the war I got the TajM golden age and reached steel. By that time I decided to try getting a permanent alliance with Saladin or Lincoln to get the remaining land I needed to reach the land domination limit (44% in front of 62%), I had surpassed the population limit centuries ago. Thus, I beelined to fascism and raised an army of cavalries, cannons and rifles as a backup plan, placing them in my eastern city.

In order to be able to form a permanent alliance I bribed the religious hate of Saladin to attack Victoria and Zara to attack Lincoln. I finally decided to declare on Zara as his territory was more accessible than Victoria and I thought Lincoln was better for PA than Saladin. After culturally flipping one of Victorias cities and capturing a couple of Zara's ones, I discovered Fascism in 1490AD. Regrettably neither Lincoln and Saladin where whiling to accept, telling some stupid thing like "You have grown too strong for us" and declined to sign a permanent alliance. As my plans were not working, I decided to grow up settlers to fill the small gaps, and hope Zara's cities were enough to finish the game.

After conquering all of Zara's cities -the russians took 1 and the americans another-, by 1510AD Lincoln cultur-flipped one of my just conquered cities, but cultural pressure in other spots was enough to finish my domination game in the same turn.

Thanks for this game, I had a great time. The part I most enjoyed was planing the settlement of my cities in such rich but complex area in order to get the most of it, as also deciding how to invest my advantage. It has been also the first time I have into account the leaders personality, and I have found very interesting to use that in my advantage, combined with my technological advantage that made me possible to manipulate the diplomatic relations at my will. It was also interesting how easy was to develop just settled cities obtaining in few turns a granary, theatre and library, great to expand borders for domination victory. :goodjob:
 
^
I wouldn't be surprise you get one of the best score despite being later on your win.

A bit above 350k.


Is there a reason why you chose a early peaceful expansion and development to the point where having knights and later cuirassiers are the breaking point for fast conquest?

The reasons are just personal preferences. If you target earliest conquest date then your approach is probably the best way.
I'm just too lazy so I took this easy way which yields a high score .... but I did not milk it in the end.

I think on this map 400 - 500k are not that hard too achieve. -> Conquer all food-rich cities until Domination is near and beeline Bio. Farm everything and let the cities grow. Watch the score and when it stops to increase trigger Domination or Conquest.

Normally this is around 1400 - 1600AD. Score is all about pop (and it shouldn't be too late... :) )

...............
The result list is ordered by score but I consider the earliest date awards as the difficult thing to achieve - go for the epthatlon ;)
 
Very fun game. I collected vassals. Had all but Vicky and Abe. Played on through the 1800s and was really close to a domination victory though I knew my date would not be competitive. Started building a spaceship but thought a 1900s launch wouldn't be much better than the 1800s domination. So I built the UN and got the diplo win in 1898. Very good for me as I'm usually trounced on emperor.
 
Its nice to see how many great games are being played! :goodjob:
 
This was a really fun game, though it didn't seem like Emperor.

Settled on the PH 1E of the start. It had it all, except commerce. So I ended up with a bizarre empire, where the capital was my heavily farmed GP farm, and my satelite cities were all heavily cottaged. Settled city 2 to claim gems/gold/wheat/stone with 2 oasis. City 3 got silver/sampo/lots FP's, Cities 4 & 5 got yet more FP's. With 3 happy resources very early, we were setup to get off to a great start.

Oracled CS in 1050bc
Pyramids in 410bc
Great Lib in 200bc
Oxford in 280ad, this has to be a record for me

Had an embaressingly massive tech lead for the entire game, despite me selling everything in the hope of getting some useful techs out of the AI.

The whole world was going WHEEORN while I was whipping a mace/cat army, my first target was going to be Saladin. Both WK and Saladin offered to become vassals, and I accepted WK's offer, as it would guard the back door from him and Alex.
Alex was next, as he was so weak, and when I could promote my Maces to Rifles, I took out the English and all of their lovely cottages.

Mismanaged the end game a little, in that I had to wait 3 turns for the last SS part to be finished. Not that bad considering I was teching Ecology when I finished Apollo, and was building about 15 parts simultaneously.

Cereal Mills was a big help, and so was Mining Inc,. By coincidence of the AI I conquered (Saladin, Alex, Vicky), I controlled nearly all of the Cereal Mills resources.


I used this game to christen my new work laptop, and even right at the end on a very land heavy map it ran smoothly, so that is good to find out. :goodjob:
 
If you look at the last BOTM, you will observe Neilmeister had a bronze with an earlier date compared to the soon-Eptathetlon Jovan later date. Weird enough, score is an important aspect here.
It is just in SGTOM's where score is totally negligible.

I wouldn't be surprised someone jumped in and brings a super delicious BC victory. :please: Maybe bcool idk. *tomatoes pitching onto me*

I think you beat me soundly. I won conquest 295 AD but I did it with treb, elephants and knights.
 
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