GOTM 14 First Spoiler

GOTM 14 first spoiler

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1. You must have contact with at least one other civilization.
2. You must have reached at least 0 AD.

Posting Restrictions

1. Please do not post details of anything that occurs past 500 AD.
2. You may discuss details of any landmasses & civs that can be reached via coast.

Rats. My notes are at home.
I did reasonably well during the early game, making only one mistake. I can't say that my strategy was sound, however I did execute it as best I could. My really big mistake was in the later part of the game and really hurt. More about that in the future. Tonight, I'll find my notes.

I did some pretty extensive testing prior to this game and decided to settle in place, start a settler and start research towards Poly.
Plan after that was Oracle to MC sling and hopefully forge (prechopped) --> specialist --> Great Engineer --> Pyramids.

I missed out on Poly by 2 or 3 turns (made it in 90% of test games with these settings). Then I missed out on the slingshot by 1 (!) turn just around 1500 BC (settled my first city on the marble and built an obelisk for the expansion which allowed Paris to make use of the marble).

I played on, recklessly, just to check out the map and it was very much different from my test games.
* The AI all had spacious islands. In all my tests, 1-3 AI were stuck until Astro on an island with room for no more than 1-3 cities.
* I think I could reach as many 4 AI civs without caravels (although this may have been after borders expanded over ocean). In tests, I never had more than 2 contacts pre-optics.
* I had come to expect a game that would focus on a peaceful buildup until Astro with a very small window for making ground after that. This, however, was another war monger's game with access to many AIs and metal clse to the start.

Having lost that early gamble, I put this baby to sleep. See you in the next 4otm

I settled in place and put another 2 cites on the starting continent. Then I built my world conquering army.

A work boat discovered most of the map so I sent my army over to Huayna's and attacked his capital (it was only protected by 2 Quecha's whereas his main army was up the North).

My army of 8 axemen and 2 archers was completely wiped out by those 2 quechas in the capital.
Even though the capital was on a hill it had a low defense value, the last 4 fights I lost were in the high 90%'s. I really did think my 2 archers could finish off the 2 quechas when they were 0.1 and 0.3 - but both archers lost as well Not one quecha died.

So I gave up

CliftonBazaar said:

My army of 8 axemen and 2 archers was completely wiped out by those 2 quechas in the capital.

Click to expand...

I would say that this is only possible if you used a "trickling army" : where the defenders are allowed to promote and heal between attacking rounds.

.... OR Beeblebrox flew to close with the Heart of Gold!

That should be very close....
I allways liked improbability drive.

Jastrow said:

.... OR Beeblebrox flew to close with the Heart of Gold!

Click to expand...

Good one

jesusin, contender, goal early domination, focus on the lower part of the techtree, no religion, no Oracle, Glight, GLib.

I was so satisfied with my early game! The misfortunes will be tell in the next spoiler, I will talk here only about early game.

War moves SE, no more land S so a bridge between oceans has no sense, settle in place.
Crabs and gold: my early research is Fishing-Mining-BW-Sailing.
Production, what to do while the workboat is not available? Let’s win some turns of Worker production: Half a worker-workboat-finish worker-workboat-settler-workboat for the second city.

How to improve things? Well, fishing is 62 beakers and we produce 10 beakers a turn. If you micromanage and work the gold for 2 turns, you will transform 2 hammers into 2 beakers and you will get fishing 1 turn sooner.

Then, when you are pop2, you can micromanage another 2 turns of unimproved gold to finish the workboat 1 turn sooner. The use of the improved fish 2 turns sooner will pay off for both sacrifices.

This way the gold is mined in 2800BC. A tough decision took place that turn, I finally decided not to work the gold for 1 turn, thus gaining 2 food in exchange for 1 hammer and 7 beakers.

The only bad thing about my start is that I didn’t believe that there would be land E of the 1 tile island, so I didn’t prioritize a exploring workboat.

Founded a second city on the initial island, taking all the resources and put it to work quickly with a workboat from the capital.

By 1000BC I had: all resources connected, met some neighbours, Alphabet, 46 bpt. I was training a settler and a Galley to get off the island. I felt I was on my way for an award.

Challenger.
Halving food excess of the capital is actually a stiff penalty this time.
When thinking before save were available I decided that I will settle in place, how I would in normal game.
Wandering around rarely gives a better settling site and lost of time will be big.
In addition there could not be any space on this island.
As usual, I did not formulate any plan befor I have more information about shape of my surrounding.

So, New Year come and I got sick. In house with a temperature, nothing else to do except to play civ between lying in a bed.

So, move warrior south, do not see anything interesting and settle in place.
Research went fishing-mining-pottery - bronseworking.

Was building worker until discovery fishing, then switch to boat why working gold hill.
Boat- finish worker why working now improved sea resource tie then - granary.
Worker went to mine and road gold hill then to mine cooper mine.
Cooper in capital city radius change my estimation of continue use of capital a lot.
Based on original resources I was thinking I will be forced to do 1 pop whipes,
Swapping city between size1-2-3, as I had only 2 good ties to work with.
3rd good tie made it profitable to do 2 pop whipes, why working
fish+Grassland cooper at pop 2, adding gold hill at size 3 and some forest at size 4.
After finishing mining tie worker went on chopping duty.

My warrior in a mean time explore all starting island, discovering a perfect spot for second city, which even better then capital, but luck forest and went on fog busting duty, as capital were standing at size 1-2 for very long time.
1680BC Orlean founded

So, there is a marble in second city radius after 1 border expands. And what to build in capital after settler? After some thinking I remember that I am industrial, so, why not snatch cheap Stonehenge? So, I build Stonehenge.

So, Capital was building Stonehenge 1360BC. Research wise I do not remember exactly, I think I went after animal husbandry first and find we have no horses. Then I thinking may be I can stick Oracle with metallocasting after I connect marble, so set to research polytheism (back up plan, no oracle = attempt Pantheon)-priesthood.

Just as I was connecting marble Oracle was build 1200BC. Ok, set to back up plan.
Back up plan was to build GL in second city and Pantheon in capital.
Idea was not to pollute GS point with pantheon.

Build 3rd city 750BC and fouth 525 BC
Third city was settle on this one tie island with 2 sea resources and fourth on next 2 sea resource tie.

Pantheon was mostly on back burner, capital did not make that mach shields.
Still, with 150% bonus it was coming along.

As result I got all this 3 wanders.
Stonehenge+ Pantheon in Capital 475BC, GL in second city 200 BC.
Base of my early economy set, I was happy.
Now it is time to expand.
Explore wise I build exploring boat on some stage and he went south and found Capac and later Saladin. In other direction Galley went and found Chinese and German.
I known 4 civs, but they know only near by one’s, so they did not want to trade mach.

325BC got GP and used it 175BC for Cristianity. Did not convert for some time because wanting to get some trades.

Some where here I traded iron working and discover Iron on nice island with 1 sea resource available. I was a bit slow claiming that, but already have worker roading it when Chinese Galley show up and claim the spot 25 AD a few turns befor my settler get there.
Darn, I really hate how AI know ties around coastal borders with out actially exploring them! I never saw any Chinese exploring boats, but there it is, loaded with settler and headed strigth to the spot!

Homer was born in Paris 175AD, got music from it and get GA back.
Used it later to speed up Divine rigths.
Build 5th city more south 250 AD.

That it, no more good city spots avalible and no iron for me.
Had one more unused settler, as Elephant spot was claimed by Capac.
Some where about this time Gandy build culture bridge over ocean.
So, whom to attack?
Gandy cultural bridge only peace time one. He build pyramids, but I can not attack him.

Chinise the same story. They have 3 cities befor bridge, but I can not get to there mainland. Capac left.
Got GS 400AD, took Philosofy from it.

So, here I am 500AD, 5 cities, prepare war with Capac.

Mutineer said:

Gandy cultural bridge only peace time one. He build pyramids, but I can not attack him.

Click to expand...

I had the same feeling at first. But after some more thinking I thought you can attack Asoka by moving troops to his land first. After the DOW the troops will teleport to the northern part of his island, because that's outside his culture.
Then return and attack.

Further I thought to bring a settler too and found a city at a spot close to our own island (btw Asoka's capital probably needs to be destroyed for doing that). After cultural expansion of that city the cultural bridge will be reestablished.

The downside of it is that you have to build an army first and then attack. So on normal speed the army will possibly face somewhat more advanced troops then what's present at the start of the army build up.

Challanger
Settled in place and research fishing so that I could start to work the gold/crabs combo as fast as possible.

Expantion:
Orleans in 1880 BC (NW on starting the island)
Lyon in 325 BC (One tile city to set up a GP farm).
Reims in 250 AD (Island SE, not east of Lyon)

Wonders:
The Great Lighthouse in 1440 BC
Colossus 575 BC
The Great Library 75 BC
all in Paris

With marble and copper around I decided to go for Col and GL, this might not have been the best plan as it slowed expantion enough to let China grab two nice island locations (2 islands east and the one straight to the south).

I am back to GOTM after a half year break, and this is my first "real" attempt at a non-military win (diplo). Playing contender.
I am enjoying the game so far: a decent difficulty level, and not tedious thanks to normal speed and high sea level!

The UN is not too far away if you beeline to mass media, so the perfect strategy here is to setup a single big research center in the capital, that will bring in most of the beakers needed. Still I want to have six good productive cities by the time education is researched, so that I can build Oxford, so my focus in the early game is on rapid expansion, as usual.

Capital build order was warrior, workboat, workboat, worker (start at size four, whip two citizens), workboat (for exploration), workboat (for the second city), granary (prebuild), settler (start at size five, whip one citizen on the last turn for big overflow), Oracle (built in 1520BC, take metal casting), finish granary, ... (mostly settlers and workboats) I think a direct CS slingshot was possible thanks to the gold hill, but I decided to play solid.

I expanded quickly to 6 cities, the last one of them was settled in 300BC (bringing my research rate down to 60%, not that bad). The capital also provided all those cities with workboats and MP warriors. I am whipping granaries, lighthouses, forges and libraries (required for universities) everywhere, and I should have all cities equipped with all those buildings by the time I get eductaion. Most land tiles available are cottaged and the rest will be cottaged in the near future (except hills and bonuses of course).

I lightbulbed CS in 50BC (had enough beakers invested prior to that, so the prophet from the Oracle got it for me instantly). I also know Alphabet & Literature (planning to build the GL & NE) and have a nice sum of money saved to fuel the research of paper and education. I still don't have an academy in my capital by 1AD, not even a library IIRC. As you can see my research is slow, but I hope to catch up in the second part of the game.

I have contact with all civs except one. I got confucianism and it spread to China & Germany who had no religion of their own. Asoka is hindu, Capac is buddhist, Saladin is jewish (and also has christianity). I have converted to confucianism recently, will try to cultivate Frederick and Qin as allies to get their votes peacefully. It looks like Capac is going to be the second candidate. I think I am going to conquer Asoka at some point to get more population for voting. The last remaining civ can propably be converted and that should give me enough votes.

Contender, Going for Conquest

Well, I failed to finish the last GOTM simply because I got tired of moving around troops at the end. I just couldn't justify spending hour upon hour moving troops around in a game I knew I had already won. That's my worst problem with Civ--I lack the patience for military end-games and usually just stop playing out of boredom when I know I've won. I decided to buckle up and actually finish an aggressive game this time. Wish I had used the more peace-suited Isabella game for something more builder-ish, especially with yet another aggressive civ (Shaka) in the next WOTM.

I decided to continue my experimentation with founding Judaism for the missionaries and early 25% builder bonus from Organized Religion. I figured going for Judaism I could research fishing and mining before the religious techs, work the gold, and still get Monotheism first.

Early research: Fishing > Mining > Masonry > Mysticism > Polytheism (lost Hindu, of course) > Monotheism (founded Judaism) > Priesthood (for Oracle) > Pottery > Writing > Metal Casting (from Oracle) > Alphabet (filled in the missing early techs with trades shortly thereafter) > Literature > etc.

Similar early builds in capital: worker until fishing, then workboat, workboat (until size three) > worker > settler > workboat > workboat.

Used two of the four workboats to explore at first. Found all but one Civ.

Founded second city right next to the marble, saving the north-eastern seafood resource for a third (military builder) city. This allowed me to build the Oracle very quickly using the marble and organized religion bonus.

After using the Oracle on Metal Casting, I used the synergy of double speed forges from Industrious trait to quickly get those up (finished with the whip) and built Colossus with copper bonus in the capital. Other two cities whipped granaries then galley in one and barracks in other. Those two built my army while the capital focused on wonders.

Held off on Monarchy and used the Oracle prophet to light bulb Civil Service.

After the other Civs discovered each other, the trades opened up. When I got iron working, I saw the iron island but got beat to it by Qin. Founded on the other good island South of it. Redirected my army from Huyana to the iron island and took it immediately, destroying it because it was not in a place to take advantage of the northern fish resource. Refounded new iron city and started building/whipping swords. Destroyed one more city of Qin's then got peace and went after Huyana. Just about to declare on Huyana in 500 AD. I have five cities, three on the mainland and two on the islands to the East. Tech speed is good for a military game (Colossus rocks on this map). But war progress seems a tad slow.

This is my first GotM. I've come back to Civ IV with a vengeance recently after playing off and on for the past year. I've never played above Noble, so I go into this knowing I'll probably get killed...

Adventurer, going for Cultural

I decided I had no chance to win militarily at Emperor, so I tried culture. I rushed to Oracle, starting my research with Meditation -> Priesthood -> Writing -> Code of Laws (slingshot). Only then did I go back to Fishing -> BW -> Pottery -> Poly -> Sailing -> Mono -> Theology. In this fashion I founded Confucianism in 2040 and Xn in 225. Those would be the only two I would found.

Building queue in Paris started Worker -> Settler -> Oracle, which really stunted my growth. I didn't found my third city until 300 BC, by which time Qin had taken the next big island to the east, Capac had filled his big island, and Saladin had snuck up to found on the decent island to the SW. I founded one more city on the little island to the SE, then founded a third city on my main island in 400 AD.

I hit 500 AD very cramped, with 5 cities and nowhere really to go. I had two religions, though, and everyone liked me so far. See my continued fortunes in the final spoiler thread.

Contender – Aiming for Space Victory

I wanted to try to combine technology race and warfare, with focus on technology. It was ages since I won a space victory and I wanted to try something different (I usually go for conquest/domination).

Settled in place, begun worker, swapped to work boat and completed worker afterwards. Then another work boat and the Oracle. I have come to the conclusion that building a worker first is the default choice. I will start with something else only if there is a specific reason why the worker should be delayed (such as tile improvement tech will not be available when worker is completed). The loss of growth is most often compensated by working an improved tile for perhaps 15 turns extra.

Research path: Fishing, mining, mysticism, meditation, priesthood, writing and code of laws.

1520 BC – Finish Oracle and CoL =>
1480 BC – Civil Service (yeah, I know, very conventional)

Paris is now size 5.

Build: two work boats for exploration, settler to found secondary city up north west. Then another three work boats. I wanted to find suitable land for more cities. Of course, the chinese steals the iron island to the east, and there are no more nice spots, so I focus on infrastructure (library, temple, monastery, granary, lighthouse, forge, great library in Paris). I build the Colossus in Orleans.

Research path: Civil Service (from Oracle), BW, IW, alphabet (650 BC – no one wants to trade), masonry, pottery, sailing, metal casting, polytheism, mathematics, hunting, A.H, Literature, Archery, Construction, Machinery (450 AD).

Then I build a small force to capture the Incan city on the Ivory Island (continuation in Final Spoiler).

State of the French Empire as of 500 AD:
Paris size = 8
Orleans size = 7
Great Prophet => shrine, employed Great Engineer.

Redbad said:

I had the same feeling at first. But after some more thinking I thought you can attack Asoka by moving troops to his land first. After the DOW the troops will teleport to the northern part of his island, because that's outside his culture.

Click to expand...

That thought crossed my mind too - unfortunately too late in my game for me to use the tactic (though I'd have probably played ultrasafe by transporting the troops to the neutral territory in the North in the first place). I suspect anyone who did think of doing that and pulled it off will have gained quite an advantage, since I think Gandhi had the only nearby land that was solid enough to give really good science cities with lots of cottages.

Mutineer said:

Some where here I traded iron working and discover Iron on nice island with 1 sea resource available. I was a bit slow claiming that, but already have worker roading it when Chinese Galley show up and claim the spot 25 AD a few turns befor my settler get there.
Darn, I really hate how AI know ties around coastal borders with out actially exploring them! I never saw any Chinese exploring boats, but there it is, loaded with settler and headed strigth to the spot!

Click to expand...

I doubt there was any foreknowledge involved. More likely, Mao simply sent the galley out, and offloaded it on the first habitable island he found - which seems quite a reasonable tactic on this map if you've run out of land at home and haven't explored.

Frustrating I can imagine though, that's potentially quite a key island to lose

DynamicSpirit said:

That thought crossed my mind too - unfortunately too late in my game for me to use the tactic (though I'd have probably played ultrasafe by transporting the troops to the neutral territory in the North in the first place). I suspect anyone who did think of doing that and pulled it off will have gained quite an advantage, since I think Gandhi had the only nearby land that was solid enough to give really good science cities with lots of cottages.

Click to expand...

I attempted the galley invasion of the Indian island, but failed to capture a city. It would have been huge if I had pulled it off. An Indian golden age in the middle of the attack didn't help. He kept reinforcing the defenders and I goofed in not giving any units a medic promotion. My weakened troops needed 15 turns to heal, so I went for it but just failed to capture his northern city (with the Pyramids). More to follow later.

Contender.

Settled in place.

Reseach:
Fishing -> Mysticism -> Polytheism (found Hindu in Paris) -> Mining -> ... don't remember;

Initial build order:
Warrior, workboat, workboat, worker, (settler? - don't remember)

My second workboat went exploring before settling on the crabs, so I found some islands to E and SE.
I founded second city NW near marble, and third, fourth and fifth cities all on those smallish islands to E and SE.
One of them turned out to have Iron later.
Founded the third city on the starting island/continent only later in the game.
I got beaten to the Ivory island by chinese, so they become sort of a buffer between HC and myself.

Didn't build any early wonders, tried some but was beaten to all of them so finally I had build National Epic in the capital
- very unusual for me, usually I'm trying to build Oxford and Wall Street in the capital.

My research was going well, funded partially by money from unfinished wonders, so I founded Confucianism in my second city.
Had a shot at Christianity as well, but I decided two religions is enough for me and went for some other techs.
HC become buddist, Qin Shi christian, Saladdin tao and Asoka took hindu first, then converted to Islam later.

I've builded two shrines by prophets from my capital, which was probably a mistake.
Another mistake was to convert from Hindu to Confu to see if Confu spread anywhere - no it didn't, but I lost 2 turns for anarchy.
Curiosity killed the cat!

War with Huayna Capac.

So sometime when I still had only 5 cities, HC decleared on me out of the blue.
I guess he only new myself and Saladin back then, so perhaps I was his worst enemy.
My military force consisted of 2 archers, 3 warriors and 2 galleys at the time, one of them far away in Chinese waters,
so I decided my best shot is to find a spot and block a shoreway by the galley, and make him attack my galley.
Well, before I could get there his empty galley shows up, pillages my fishery near South island ang hangs around there preventing me working that fish.
I gathered two galleys and waited for Incan invasion fleet which never came.
So I decided to do a little invasion on my own.
The French Grand Armee of one axeman and one swordman landed on Incan shores near Cuzco (I don't remember what year it was, but well before 500AD.)
I think there where Longbowmens already in the capital (or maybe bunch of archers and they where upgraded to LB later).
There was no way I could take his capital, so my invasion army killed quechua defending the cow, pillaged cows and went on pillaging cottages around Cuzco.
Meanwhile I was gathering even bigger army, of 2 axeman and 2 cats, but as soon as I found maceman in Cuzco, I made peace for 50 gold coins.
That was the only war with Huayna Capac, and he was my best buddy ever since.


The story of two arabian wars (including some of the battle camel action) and the most tragic story of how Naoleon was beaten in the space race by Asoka
by just ONE turn (son of a diddly!) will be told in the next spoiler.