GOTM 14 First Spoiler

Since I failed to complete the last GOTM (which was my first game played beyond Stonehenge=800BC) due to poor planing I am determined to complete this one and submit.

Settled on the spot and start playing without any plan except for building the Oracle and founding an early religion. Why? Duh...I don't know.

So we started with fishing and built a warrior, workboatx2,settler, worker and Oracle. Hummm... very different from most normal players. Not a good start.

We founded 4 cities, Hinduism and built the Oracle to learn Metal Casting during this time period.


Nothing exciting happened during this period. Napoleon was wondering blind and had no goal other than surviving.

It took until 760 AD to meet Incans. And they stole the Ivory Island right before our eyes. At first it felt like a slow death is in the making. Then something changed when Incans declared on us out of blue. French troops landed and relieved Inca of one of their Cities. Yes the one with Ivory. this gave hope to where there were none. Wait...may be there is a place for the puny French in the universe. So off we go to build tall ships and discover the uncharted world. But that is for another posting.

Wow, I must have been very unlucky. Probably the AI must have popped a hut for Poly, seeing I didn't get Hindu even though I beelined and so many others grabbed fishing first and still founded Hindu.

Contender

I settled in place and built worker-first. Early research: Fishing, Mining, Bronze Working. I contemplated switching production to a workboat after Fishing but my calculations demonstrated that a settler would be ready earlier if I continued with the worker. My worker built the mines, then chopped all forests near Paris for 3 workboats (2 for the crabs, and 1 for a new city) and a settler. By then, my warrior had finished exploring the smallish island.

Orleans was settled near the marble, 1N of the gems. This means marble was outside the first ring, and I would have to build the Oracle without marble. I had the choice between immediate access to marble, and immediate access to food. Naturally, I chose food.

The combination of marble and Normal speed made me want to try for the Totally Peaceful Cultural Victory, which I had never attempted before.

I researched Pottery next, and sent the worker to build cottages. I went so far as to cottage all the hills. A grassland hill is 1f3h with a mine, or 1f2h7c with town and Universal Suffrage.

Writing was the next tech. Orleans built a granary, Paris built a library and started on the Oracle as soon as I had researched Mysticism-Meditation-Priesthood. Research was moving along at a nice pace thanks to the gold mine and two coastal crabs, and helped by the library.

Synchronizing Code of Laws with the completion of the Oracle, I took Civil Service in 1320BC. Confucianism was founded in Orleans and quickly spread to Paris. I revolted into Bureacracy and Slavery.

I quickly whipped a workboat in Orleans to improve the second clams, and two workboats in Paris. One sailed off to explore the world, and the other was used to improve the fish. The fish resource south of the 1-tile island was already inside my cultural borders, though out of reach. I had to spend a workboat on it immediately to relieve the health situation. Unhealthiness was a much bigger problem than unhappiness on this map. Early on, the happy bonus from Representation is quite large, and later you build all the multiple religions buildings. For health, however, you only get the 3 seafood resources, and the building that doubles their effect (Harbor) requires Compass which is far off your beeline to Liberalism.

Research: Sailing, Masonry, Polytheism, Monotheism, Theology.

Paris and Orleans each built a galley. I started a lighthouse in Orleans, and a settler in Paris. The scouting workboat, and the galley that quickly joined it, revealed the shape of the island chain. The second galley loaded the setter. I converted to Organized Religion and Confucianism, and whipped the settler 1 turn before if was ready, putting the 100+ overflow into the Pyramids. My scouting workboat entered Huyana Capac's waters, with at least 10 turns to explore, thanks to the freshly signed Open Borders. Capac could not cancel Open Borders for at least 10 turns, even despite the -3 diplo that had just kicked in when I adopted Confucianism. Capac was the founder of Buddhism.

By this point, I knew the entire southern island chain. It had enough room for either 6 okay cities, or 9 so-so cities. For "Cultural Victory Deluxe", you found 9 cities and build 3 sets of cathedrals; for "Cultural Victory Redux", you make do with 6 cities and 2 sets of cathedrals. 9 cities meant I would have to settle directly on top of the elephant, and fight a protracted cultural battle with Capac to displace him from the fish. In the meanwhile, the city would grow only slowly, while costing me significant maintenance. I decided in favor of Cultural Redux, and offloaded the settler on the 6-tile island, directly south of Paris. The ivory island was claimed by Capac almost immediately.

I founded Christianity in Lyons (625BC), the new city. Eventually, the Oracle would generate two Great Prophets, who would build shrines in Orleans and Lyons. With Paris, these would become my Legendary Culture cities.

I proceeded to settle the remaining 3 cities along the island chain, the last one in 450AD. So my expansion was much slower than Obormot's. Building the Pyramids without stone really slowed me down. But the Pyramids are paramount. With the very limited hammer production on Archipelago, you need Universal Suffrage to be able to buy the numerous temples and cathedrals that you need.

Capac quickly became annoyed and cancelled OB, which was just as well, because it blocked him access to the island chain. On the other end of it, the city on the iron island blocked Qin away. So I could settle the middle of the chain at my leisure.

The Pyramids were finished in 325BC with a 3-pop rush. Even without stone, the combination of Organized Religion and the Industrious trait meant I could poprush wonders efficiently.

I learned Alphabet and Literature, building the Great Library in Paris in 100AD. Alphabet was learned in 375BC, but the AIs were reluctant to trade. I was Confucian, Capac was Buddhist, Saladin Judaist, and to add insult to injury, they weren't in contact with each other. By that point, I knew Asoka, Qin, Frederick, and the two religious guys - and none of them knew each other! Of course my refusal to sign OB didn't help matters. But Capac and Saladin could have found each other even before my workboat made contact with Saladin, don't you think?

Nevertheless, I was finally able to trade for Mathematics (Aqueducts and Hanging Gardens), Compass (harbors), in the AD years. No less than 4 civs knew Metal Casting, but each leader was thinking it was a monopoly! I was getting worried about the Colossus. Missing the Colossus on this map is not game over, but is painful. Just as I started researching it myself and put 2 turns into it, Qin and Frederick both put it up for trade. I had to give away Civil Service, though.

I immediately whipped a Forge in Paris, then the Colossus as quickly as my pop regrowth allowed (375AD). Then, the partially-built Hanging Gardens which also were long overdue. IIRC Paris was at +4 red faces due to all the whipping. I think the AI's reluctance to poprush contrubuted to most wonders falling late on this low-production map.

But now, at 500AD, I'm over the hump. Paris is a city of wonders with the Oracle, Pyramids, Great Library, Colossus and Hanging Gardens. I wonder if I went a little overboard with them? However they will provide enough culture for Paris to get to Legendary without cathedrals. My cottages, now villages, are beginning to really come online. I have the 6 cities settled and granaries whipped in all of them. They will proceed with lighthouses, libraries and harbors, then aqueducts as needed. I want to grow them as large as possible. I will also build missionaries and infect them all with all of my available religions.

Speaking of religion, I founded Taoism in 500AD, giving me the 3 religions I consider the minimum for cultural victory. I was hoping that Capac's Buddhism would spread, for the 4th religion, but (getting ahead of myself) this was not to be.

I am researching Paper now, then it's Education and Liberalism (for either Nationalism or Printing Press), then I'll shut down research. The AIs have been getting increasingly annoyed at my Confucianism and I'm hearing demands almost every turn. I just hope I can reach Free Religion, 50 turns away, before somebody declares war.

As this is my first game at Emperor level (and after humiliating defeats in prior GOTM), I did some extra research and planning prior to even downloading the game. I studied the perks of the French. Extra military bonus which fitted well with the consensus that at higher levels, early conquest is a necessity. Also there wouldn't be much land, implying that naval units would be vital and that research may be slow due to less contact and tech training. Having just recorded my first ever victory at noble level, a cultural victory, I was confident that I should follow the cultural path in this one, too, kicked off with an early drive for religion.

So now I had a clear strategy: go for religious techs, whilst not forgetting to get naval techs and rapidly acquiring military techs. Meanwhile building tons of military units and attacking every civ I encounter, cultural buildings and all the other riff raff associated with growth - workers, settlers, scouts, granaries etc. Hmmm...looking back it would appear that my strategy was to build *everything*, whilst researching *everything* at the same time. No surprise what happened next......

I've overwritten my log and can't remember my exact start. I can recall missing out on both Hinduism and Buddhism each by a couple of turns. City growth seemed very slooooooww to me. Eventually built 2 further cities, one north of Paris (settled in place) and one at the north west edge of the home island.

Early exploring found islands south and south west. An empty galley found a good spot for a city, next to ivory south west of start and towards the Incas.
The galley returned with a settler & warrior but, horror of horrors, Saladin landed just 1 turn before me He built a city in exactly my desired spot and in my annoyance I declared war on him.

As my home island seemed reasonably unapproachable and as I'd been trying to develop my 3 cities, I had virtually no military. At this point I made several awful tactical movement mistakes. Including moving galleys off unloaded, then having to return to pickup (several times). Built workers while ignoring others that were sleeping etc. Also narrowly missed out on a further couple of good city sites by poor coordination. Saladin's war proved pointless, just knocked my overall development back with no gain. After an OK start, the 500 years up to around 0AD were truly abysmal.

By 500AD, I was in last place with the 4 civs I'd encountered. The Inca's are probably leading and I've made sure I'm getting on well with them. I now have a further 2 cities: one on the island immediately south and one particularly unproductive city on the tiny island to the south east. And there really isn't anywhere to expand too by now. I guess I shouldn't be too downhearted as several times I was beaten to my targets by just one or two turns. At Noble level the same plays would probably have me in the lead in the same game.

Now my aim is survival. The others have significant tech leads over me so I fully expect them to gang up and attack my swordsmen with tanks in around 1650

bio_hazard- adventurer start (hey, I've never won above prince before).

Goal is either Spaceship, with a diplo fallback. I had such bad luck getting religions last GOTM that I didn't trust cultural, and have always had a problem with full-scale military victories. I can usually get one or two AI, but by the time I make it to the third they are prohibitively ahead in techs...

Here's a partially complete list of events up to 0AD:
Paris founded in place. Build order: Workboat, Workboat, Worker, Settler, Axeman, Oracle (1520- took Metalcasting), workboat, settler, Galley, Axeman, forge, settler, Colossus (got it!) Warrior, Axeman, Hindu Shrine, Settler, axeman

Orleans founded in NW of continent, 1920BC. Workboat, workboat, obelisk, granary, forge,, library,

Lyons founded the bigger island south of the main island and east of the elephant. 725 BC, Workboat, Granary, axeman

Rheims founded 400BC- on the one-tile island with the 2 fish, just east of Paris: Workboat

<I end up with some more cities shortly after this, including one at the 'elbow' of our starting island. Not sure why I didn't go there earlier, but I guess I wasn't too worried about an AI founding there, and figured I'd do better to grab as much land as I could...>

Research:
Mining (3720
Mysticism (3480
Polytheism (3000) (Hinduism founded in Paris)
Bronzeworking (2520 BC)
Sailing (2240 BC)
Priesthood (2080BC)
Pottery (1920 BC)
Writing (1640 BC)
Metal Casting (1480BC- Oracle)
Animal Husbandry (1400BC)
Alphabet (875 BC)
Code of Laws (500BC)
Drama, (225BC)
Masonry, (150BC)
IronWorking (25BC)
Meditation, Mathematics, Hunting (0AD- presumably from trade)

Relevant world events:

I used workboats to explore, and met China, HC, and Germany. I was planning to go to no-religion when I met enough civs, but both China and Germany converted to Hinduism. This is good.

I was pretty nervous about HC- and he didn't disappoint.
Incans take Lyons with 2 archers vs. my one axeman in 25BC. I wait for the rest of the invasion.... more in the next spoiler

My assumption was that early expansion wouldn't be particularly worthwhile because there just wouldn't be much good land to expand into. Accordingly, I decided to build one other city on the home island (if possible) and then concentrate on building those up with wonders and improvements before worrying about expansion.

My initial research was Fishing – Mysticism – Polytheism. Meanwhile I started a Settler and switched to a Work Boat as soon as possible.

I was beaten to Hinduism by one turn (!) in 3040 BC. If I’d micromanaged Paris a bit better I’m pretty sure I could have had it. After this I targeted Masonry. My hope was to build some combination of Oracle, Pyramids, and Parthenon, preferably the first two. Ambitious, I know, but I figured with Industrious I had a reasonable shot.

After researching Masonry I was greedy and wasted a few turns working on Monotheism, before someone (Saladin) established Judaism in 2440 BC. After that I built Orleans next to the Marble (forgoing a Clam) while researching Priesthood, then started the Oracle there. Meanwhile I worked on the requisite techs for a Metal Casting slingshot.

The Oracle was completed in 1220 BC… in a distant land. I’d missed out by one turn, again. Why? Because I hadn’t microed Paris to get max research, again. I could have finished the Oracle several turns earlier but held off since I was waiting on Pottery. Those wasted turns on Monotheism were also deeply regretted.

After failing on the Oracle I immediately switched Orleans to the Parthenon. Paris was already working on the Pyramids. Both of these were successfully built… by other civs before I could complete them myself. I was 7 turns off on the Pyramids (475 BC), and 2 turns behind on the Parthenon (275 BC).

By 250 BC things looked pretty bleak. I had two cities with hardly any improvements, and I’d barely begun exploring off island. On the plus side, the huge pile of cash I’d received for failing so many wonders kept research running strong. I’d developed Sailing, Metal Casting, and Writing. I would finally complete a wonder, the Colossus of Paris, in 0 AD.

These were small bright spots, however. My situation in 500 AD was quite woeful. China had contacted me and settled that annoying city near the iron. I’d found the Incas and Arabs, the later of whom settled near the Ivory I wanted. So my third city went on the best remaining site, on the island due south of Paris. That and a few Axemen were all I had to show for myself. But things would change in the years to follow… wouldn’t they?

toller pretzl said:

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.

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Nope, all in one turn It was the unluckiest turn I've ever been involved in

Definitely a 'Heart of Gold' attack then....

Capt Buttkick said:

Wow, I must have been very unlucky. Probably the AI must have popped a hut for Poly, seeing I didn't get Hindu even though I beelined and so many others grabbed fishing first and still founded Hindu.

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I had the same experience as you. I went directly for Hinduism and got beaten to it by several turns. I then went for Confucianism and got it. That eventually spread to a lot of the surrounding AI cities.

The iron island to the east of Paris seems to have been lost by a lot of us. The Chinese took it in my game also. I had explored past it to the east and knew a lot of the Chinese and German lands but didn't settle it fast enough.

The same thing happened to the islands to the south. They were settled by the Chinese and Saladin. I was hemmed in and had to go on the offensive to take back some of those islands.

At 500 AD I am still in last place in score, but am keeping up in techs by being selective and getting those that the AI is bypassing. The Incas, however, always seem to beat me to the techs I am pursuing by a couple of turns. That's not so bad because I can still use those techs to trade when I get them because the Incas aren't trading.

Capt Buttkick said:

Wow, I must have been very unlucky. Probably the AI must have popped a hut for Poly, seeing I didn't get Hindu even though I beelined and so many others grabbed fishing first and still founded Hindu.

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You can't get religious techs from huts.

Alraun said:

You can't get religious techs from huts.

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Thanks, I didn't know that. I'm pretty sure I got religion from a hut on a previous installment of the game, would that be correct?

I've tried searching, but can't find any comprehensive guide to what GHs may yield. I'd appreciate it if someone could provide me a link if such a guide exists...


I guess that means I had no chance at one of the early religions, cause the AI must have beelined for Meditation and Poly then (both founded before I got to Poly. Strange how the same start can play out so differently.

Well this is my first Game of the Month.

So far everything seems very difficult. The water map is confusing ... and all the other civs (the AI civs) have much more of a clue than I do.

My strategy has been to try and stay competitive in the game.

My cities keep turning unhappy and/or unhealthy, but at least the HOF mod gives warnings.

I was planning to invade Asoka at some point anyway, but then he went and grabbed a little island just a few turns before me, and even put the city right where I was going to put it. I was happy for a minute because there was a city right where I put a little sign telling myself to put a city there ... and now I'm really ticked because it is his city not my city.

Apparently the only way I'm going to be able to invade is to send over a bunch of attackers while open borders are still open. The ocean is blocking my galleys, which means I'm going to lose that avenue.

The good news is that I can build macemen now but nobody else can. My guess is that I only have a few turns before everyone else will build them too. The other weird good news is that I seem to have built most of the wonders in the game. Some other good news is that my caravels earned the circumnavigation bonus by following the excellent general strategy advice of sending them off in opposite directions to meet on the other side of the world. I met a mystery civ who nobody else knows. He would be terrifying right about now if he were not all alone over there.

Is the Game of the Month always this hard? I started with the bonus work boat ... but it didn't help much ... or maybe it did ... really I can't tell.



My tech strategy has been to click on Astronomy and let the system figure out my path. Every now and then I need to interrupt it for some reason or other by picking something else and then going back to an attempt for Astronomy. Right now I'm on the path to Liberalism for the free tech and then Astronomy after that. So far I have received two or three great people (two I think) and they each learned a tech for me.

This has been a frustrating game. I've come up a day late or a dollar short repeatedly -- e.g. missed Oracle by one turn, missed GA from Music by one turn, etc. As someone else reported, I've run research on failed-wonder money.

My initial approach was remarkably similar to BALBES (and apparently unlike almost everyone else) except that our long-term intentions are totally disparate . . . as I intend to take over the world. Hope she made far fewer tactical errors than I did.

I did, belatedly, recognize the option to attack India using open borders and expanded cultural boundaries to galley-transport and pre-position units to the Arctic tiles just north of his culture. That worked out well until, after conquering his large cities and having them come out of anarchy, I realized that without Astonomy none of my happiness resources were available to those cities and I had to whip inopportunely to keep from simply wasting their citizens. Still, at that point I was finally no longer at the bottom of the scoring list.

Torvoni said:

Is the Game of the Month always this hard? I started with the bonus work boat ... but it didn't help much ... or maybe it did ... really I can't tell.

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The GOTM is designed to be a challenge. It doesn't always turn out that way, but it is great fun to compare your victories and defeats with hundreds of others.

Emperor is a tough level and if you are still alive then you are doing okay.

I have been reading through this section of spoilers ... and everyone seems to have settled right in place.

Was moving one spot and then settling on the gold a bad idea?


I thought I was being very clever.
Apparently that was a bad move.

I'm getting the feeling that it will be hard to win this game.

OK. Emperor level again, and after my recent experience with WOTM04 I was adamant I was going to make a better go of it this time, and not repeat the same mistakes.
Of course, this is a very different game. The speed being Normal as opposed to Marathon makes a huge difference, and then we’ve got the Archipelago land format.

Taking note of the traits of our leader, the mighty Napoleon, it seemed we were going to benefit from our cheap barracks and promoted military, which should help us avoid that unpleasant situation where we are at the bottom of the military power chart and get picked on by everybody in sight. This is not going to happen to the French army!
The other bonus suggested that we might get a Wonder or two. At the outset, we mulled over the possibilities, liking the idea of Colossus, Oracle or Pyramids.
In the event, we planted 2 cities on our ancient homelands – Paris and Marbleville (guess where?) – and sent one of our early workboats off exploring before returning to work the coast nearby.

The Oracle looked like a good possibility, with that marble to boost us still further. Our early researches had gone Fishing – Mining – Bronze. So we then headed in a straight line – Mysticism – Meditation – Priesthood. We started building the Oracle about 2000BC, coincidentally just as we met our first neighbour. The exploring workboat had headed east at first, before following the line of islands first south and then west – so the first contact was with the Incans.

Amazingly, we built the Oracle in 1440BC, and hadn’t even connected the marble up! Never needed it! The Emperor was very pleased, and we told him all about our new discovery – Metal Casing.

The plan at this stage of the game was to mark out our territory, and even if we couldn’t afford to populate it all then we would keep all intruders out. Later, when we had the appropriate technologies to keep our economy under control, we would settle our empire.

We had spotted Elephant Isle, between us and Huayna Capac, and decided this must be claimed for the French Empire before anyone else got there. Hands off our elephants! We were about ready to start producing galleys, so the plan fell together easily.

Just about the time we landed our settler party on Elephant Isle (to found the city of Cote D’Ivoire) was also the time we discovered Iron Working, and this showed us another island that would be an essential part of our strategy. Named the Isle du Fer, it sat to our east and was empty, for now ..

Well, we met Qin Shi Huang, and, having just learned Alphabet, we were able to trade tech. Our Oracle slingshot was of some benefit here, as we had a lead in some branches of tech that tempted our neighbours into trading with us.

Suddenly we spotted a problem! Our pleasant new friend Qin had just settled on Isle du Fer! A council was held. All those in favour of evicting him forthwith into the sea say “Aye!”. Vote carried.

Around this time (1AD) we bumped into Saladin while one of our galleys continued an exploration down the Incan mainland to the south. As an aside, just how did Huayna get this huge mainland while we got landed with our tiny little gaff? The Emperor advised us to find nice large lands to settle on. He seems to be very nervous about little islands, for some reason that he does not care to talk about.

We knew about another border very close by to the south-west of Marbleville, but it was tantalisingly out of reach at this time. We knew that one day we would wake up and find our idea of the world had changed when this neighbour was revealed – but this didn’t happen until some time later.

With only 3 cities at this stage, economy was easy to managed and no-one could accuse of over-expanding. On the other hand, there was too much growth in Paris and Marbleville, leading to regular battles with unhappiness and ill-health.

As the early period of Napoleonic history draws to a close, we gathered our forces to throw Qin off of the Iron. Gallic galleys packed with seething, unhealthy and ill-tempered axemen were sailing off to the east. But more of this in the next instalment…

Torvoni said:

I have been reading through this section of spoilers ... and everyone seems to have settled right in place.

Was moving one spot and then settling on the gold a bad idea?


I thought I was being very clever.
Apparently that was a bad move.

I'm getting the feeling that it will be hard to win this game.

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Yeah, settling on the gold was a bad idea in this game. Not only did you give up the early tech speed from the mined gold, but hammers are precious on a water map, and I wouldn't have wanted to give those up either.

Settling on gold can be a good strategy sometimes--usually when there is more than one gold in the same proximity, or if there is not enough food in the area to maintain a citizen on the gold. If you have the food to occupy a gold hill early in the game, it is almost always a good idea to do so and to do so right away.

My two cents.

Well I&#8217;d pretty eagerly followed the discussion on the pre-game thread so I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do, starting off. This is my first GOTM and first game on this difficulty setting so I chose the noobie bonus for the free workboat and tech

The Early Years

Warrior went S, revealed nothing of interest, so I chose to settle in place. Worked the gold tile since I wanted to be the first to Hinduism. In retrospect, I could probably have worked the gold tile only one or two turns instead of constantly, and still revealed Hinduism in the same game turn.

In order to get hinduism, my first research was Mysticism. Paris built worker, since he could immediately mine the gold mine, and I explored with fishing boat, heading E to see what that bit of land over there was - nothing, a heroic one tile blip. But there are other islands...

Warrior goes NW around the island. Figured the 2x clam + gems + hills spot was going to be first expansion city, until I saw the marble!! Which is too close to the other spot I had in mind for two cities and too far away for one city. Discovering the marble, combined with Napoleon being industrious, convinced me to go Oracle for Metal Casting.

After getting mysticism, I went for polytheism. Buddhism was founded in 3680, in some strange distant land.

My fishing boat found an *ideal* place for a city! Elephants and hills (my initial island was depressingly thin, and depressingly devoid of hills. Hammers were going to be a big issue) I decided to make this my first island.

3200 I found Hinduism. Hooray! I start fishing, which is going to be important, since my island is completely devoid of food tiles and rivers. The worker pops out, I set him to building a gold mine to give my early research a big boost.

3000 BC fishing finishes. My workboat is too far away to turn into a workable food tile at once due to me thinking a shallow water bridge existed where none did. I finish the gold mine, the settler putzes around building some roads up towards my next city site so that my settler can run up there super fast. I start researching bronze working for slavery + chopping goodness.

2640 BC &#8211; bronze working finishes. I find copper *right next* to my starting city. Things look very promising and I am very glad I settled in place and not one tile to the W. I tell my existing worker to build a copper mine. I start researching masonry. I know I&#8217;m going to need it to help build a quarry, and hopefully I can found Judaism as well as Hinduism. I start priesthood as soon as masonry is finished.

Second worker pops out, start producing a settler. Viciously chop wood for him. I&#8217;m a little sad that my island is so narrow! Not many forest tiles at all.

The rush for the oracle

2080 BC Settler pops out, beings running up to start a town on the marble.
The settler founds the city, which immediately begins work on oracle. Both workers build the quarry on top of the marble. As soon as it pops the workers run off to chop down some wood, but I sadly discover there is only one stand of trees on my little island nearer to Orleans than to Paris. Very bad. That could make me lose the Oracle race, when I have so few normal hammers. Naturally as soon as Orleans grows they are going to work the gem mine right next to town, which I have also improved. Paris begins to build another workboat, finally giving it a chance to grow

1800 BC I found Judaism, which is founded in Orleans, giving Orleans an early border pop that I need to grab the crabs. Excellent.

Begin researching pottery. Now that the rush for Judaism is over, I move my worked tile from the goldmine to the crabs so that Paris can grow.

1560 Pottery finishes I start sailing. I know that the naval aspect of things will be huge here, and I aim to get to astronomy well before anyone else.
Paris hits size 2 (finally).

1400 Stonehenge built in a far away land. At this point I am nervous!! Does anyone else have marble? Or maybe just a better starting island? They couldn't possibly have fewer hills than I do. Huayna adopts slavery, which I assume means he just got bronzeworking.

1320 Success! Oracle finishes. I choose metal casting, since I&#8217;ll be going for Astronomy. In a fit of heady excitement, Paris begins building the Parthenon. I hope to get the great library and a bunch of specialists and the parthenon will help with that. Sailing finishes, begin writing.

Colonization begins

1120 BC Writing finishes, and Orleans borders expand, running smack into Aoskas borders SW of me. Hmmm! Everyone seems to be reaaaallly close together. Unhealthiness is killing me in Paris (size 4 now) so I start researching Ironworking to get to compass for the harbor. I am more worried about unhealthiness than unhappiness, as I plan whip things along when folks get over the happy cap. But unhealthiness eats directly into how fast I can regrow from a whipping.

975 BC Huayna gets code of laws, converts to Confucianism. I'm amazed he has code of laws already O.o But at least that makes it less likely he's going to beat me to Astronomy. Someone founds the great Lighthouse. After the galley in Orleans finishes, I start a fishing boat to go work the crabs by the city.

825 BC Ironworking finishes and behold!!! Iron on the island just E of me. I can put a city on there 2N of the iron and have the hill, iron, and those fish out to sea. Not too bad. Aoska obligingly converts to Hinduism, and I follow suit to keep friendly.

625 BC the Parthenon finishes. Paris starts producing a settler to go populate that island to the east. Asoka&#8217;s island is fairly small, but he does have two cities on it, both larger than mine. His island is broader too, meaning he has more workable tiles. However, he appears to have only copper, sheep, and wine. I think I got the better starting location.

My galleys sail around, and run into Qin. Huayna cancels his open borders deal with me, naturally. Machiavelli&#8217;s study of the civilizations shows that Huayna is the most powerful, so I&#8217;m not too surprised. In a way I'm relieved, since while he *is* leading us, the gap isn't that big and it means there's no on else out there even more powerful.

350 BC Huayna founds Taoism and converts to pacifism. He's rocketing ahead on the techs. I land on the iron island literally a turn ahead of Qin&#8217;s galleys. He must also be very very close. I found Lyons and Hinduism soon spreads there, which is great, as now I don&#8217;t have to build an obelisk for the culture pop. I start building the colossus in Orleans, as I&#8217;ll be working at least 4 water tiles soon, am industrious, and have copper. Orleans refuses to have Hinduism spread to it so I built a hindu missionary in Paris (at this point I&#8217;m running hindu as state religion, organized religion, and slavery).

Literature finishes, I continue work on the library in Paris so I can build the great library there. I start researching compass. Huayna is way too far ahead of me to make an attempt for liberalism worth while, so my best bet is to go for astronomy. Somewhere in here I try to colonize the elephant island only to discover Huayna already there.

125 BC The oracles great prophet is born. I move him down to Paris, and have him become a specialist. There are only about 4 hindu cities out right now, and I can use the extra hammers from making him a specialist instead of having him build the hindi shrine. In retrospect, Hindi wound up being by far the most dominant religion and I never got another prophet, so the shrine would probably have been the better choice.

25BC I begin building the great library. Unhealthiness is absolutely choking my growth so next up is going to be some harbors, I think.

1AD Christianity is founded in Bombay, and Asoka immediately converts to it. Hmmm I&#8217;m losing my religious buddy.

125 AD Colossus finishes in Orleans, I start a harbor. Lyons has built a workboat, which improves the fish tile, both the hill and the iron mine are improved, giving me iron back at home. I am building a granary which doesn&#8217;t seem like a terribly good idea. Perhaps a barracks would have been better. Huayna is throwing up towns all over the place he is 200 points ahead of me and has about 5 more towns. From what I can see of his starting island it&#8217;s a lot larger than either mine or asoka&#8217;s. It is certainly much broader, giving him plenty of room for cottages. His GNP is hugely above ours.

300 AD Great Library finishes in Paris! That gives me four wonders so far. I love being industrious I build a harbor in both Orleans and Paris, which finally helps solve my unhealthiness troubles. I begin building the national epic in Paris. Lyons and Orleans begin building galleys and military units to try to get my power rating up some. A Great scientist is born in Paris. He could either light bulb calendar or attach himself to the city. I have him build an academy, which is an almost 20 beaker jump in Paris.

475 AD machinery finishes and I begin researching optics. I am having no luck trading with the AI at all, most of them won&#8217;t even give me archery. I suppose I&#8217;ve made myself really hated.

680 AD optics finishes, and I research calendar and start pumping out caravels

750 AD calendar finishes, I begin research on astronomy. It will take 36 turns!!

800 AD my next great scientist is born in Paris. I have him light bulb astronomy. Now we&#8217;re down to 16 turns! Huayna is rocketing ahead of everyone else in terms of GNP, though I have more culture than anyone else.

The next few turns are simply me improving the economy and slowly expanding: I built Rheims on the little desert island with a hill and clams and fish. Not a great spot, but the city should grow fast. My work boats turn up no additional good spots to settle: Qin is hemming me in from the east, Huayna from the south, and Asoka from the W. I'm out of luck until I get astronomy and can hopefully discover some pristine lands.

But that will have to wait for the next spoiler thread..

Contender

When I opened the save, the blue circle was north-west of the settler. I went there, losing one turn, but the next turn the blue circle was back on the starting location! I settled on the forest anyway, and haven't regretted it. At least I had a small seapassage to show for it: getting from the first to the second city by ship was a bit quicker.
I founded hinduism in 2960 BC after starting research with fishing.

Stonehenge, Oracle for Metal casting. Big oversight: started on the Great Libary too late, losing it by a couple of turns.

The Chinese took the iron island. Thought about taking it with axemen but decided to wait for macemen. Thought about a galley-war against Asoka, but decided to wait for galleons.

Settled in place, lost Oracle in 1240 for 4 turns (it was timed for a CS slingshot) to Asoka, as i learned when i met him.

China settled the iron island when i was beginnig my first galley, so i stay in my island with 3 cities until Astro.

Probably due to an annoying cold, or probably to the Oracle lost, i was too lazy or too pessimist to try to settle a city in another island.

GL in Paris in 50 AD, founded Tao with 2 scientists from a library in 250 BC

My army, until CS consisted of 3 warriors.

Very good tech trading all the game, finally my first defeat submitted.