*Spoiler3* Gotm24-Korea Industrial up to MassProd

Again take a few moments to read this introduction carefully to make certain you DO NOT run afoul of the new spoiler rules.

This is the second spoiler thread to support discussion of the Gotm24-Korea. If possible, you should have already summarized your ancient age and Middle ages progress in short reports in the earlier discussion threads for this game.

Every player must pass two tests in order to be able to view or participate this spoiler thread. These two tests define a dividing line where knowledge and events prior to the line may be discussed but knowledge that you may have from later in the game may not be included.

For Gotm24-Korea:

• you must have the full world map and contact with all 10 rivals or their remains AND
• you must have researched Mass Production to enable the ability to build Battleship and/or Aircraft Carrier units in the game (or already submitted your game) but you may not discuss Tank Warfare. (If you discuss or hint about locations of Uranium or Aluminum we will ram slivers of bamboo under your fingernails.)

Information in this thread must be from BEFORE BOTH OF THESE EVENTS.

You may discuss "Aircraft" if you choose to do so.

Do not mention any modern age wonders except as future goals.

What were your impressions of the behavior of the other Civilizations during this phase of the game? Try to touch on all the surviving civs and what you thought they were doing.

Pay particular attention to trying to describe how you chose to navigate through the tech tree in the industrial age. What path di you chose an how long it take you to get from the Cavalry at the beginning of the era to the next major stages and changes?

Have fun!! Meet new players, make new friends, and share ideas. Again that's what this game is all about

At the end of the last spoiler myself and my Olive allies were involved in a death struggle with the Han.

It was rough going with my knights vs. the Han cavalry. If it wasn't for the Olives I would lost all of my gains. Despite making a beeline for military tradition the Olives got it before me and started to take out Han cavalry. When I got MT I was able to upgrade my knights and continue the offensive.

The first target for my cavalry was the Han SP. The Olives beat me to that city. Fortunately for me I was able to limit the olives to only gaining two Han cities. The fact that the AI makes peacemeal attacks really helps.

Eventually the Han were destroyed. I was worried the entire war that they would drag some Japanese clans in on their side. But the best they could muster was a couple of embargos.

After the war with the Han I thought hard about overunning my Olives allies and uniting Korean peninsula. But I decided not to because I could use their vote in the UN.

The rest of the time of this spoiler I concentrated on building a FP in Beijing and building infastructure. I got into one war because of my MPP with the Olives, but saw no combat. I was starting to catch up in tech (the Oda were the tech leader) by getting my FP built and trading SRs and luxuries.

I was catching up in tech, but I was worried that I wouldn't catch up fast enough...

Conquest, Civ1.29f
So it's my privilege to post the first reply here (the funny thing is that I'm not comletely up to massprod., but since this will be the first reply (and since I won't view other replies yet) I don't see any reason why I shouldn't have opened the thread).

Moderator Action: Don't make this a habit. You should not have posted here until you meet the conditions of participation. This is not a hard concept to grasp and is meant to provide a little bit of respectability to the process. Being the first person to post and deliberately violate the boundary conditions does not portend well. - cracker

PS. I still hope you are enjoying the game, just don't deliberately create conflict.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

EDIT: @cracker: sorry & acknowledged

What can I say? It's my first gotm, and I'm indeed fascinated by the intensity of gameplay and the changes, ups and downs, experienced throughout the ages.

Ancient era saw Korea as bold, powerful and warmongering nation, luckily topped with 3(!) great leaders in early MA resulting in SunTzu, Sistine and PalaceJump. Nonetheless we soon fell back in all areas, thus centuries were filled exclusively with the constant fears of
1. missing the best time of buying cheap techs vs. selling them to others (the latter was more or less impossible)
2. not annoying other nations too much and
3. securing the southern border, both with (outdated) military and aggressive culture rushing - which of course decimated Koreas highly needed gold reserves and income...

The new palace btw was located in the second city north of the southern border (western part), but not before building the Forbidden One some five squares northeast of Seoul (right above the iron).

The years just before and just after entering IA were the most fascinating up to now. It began with three Korean cities of the quite advanced northern realm entering the race for Newton's, Smith's and Shakespeare's...
At about half way, Korean diplomats succeeded in buying every MA tech left, except for Gravity and Magnetism. This was the time when our physicians had assembled enough knowledge, books and universities throughout the country to boldly form the global spearhead of magnetism research .
And indeed, (with the help of the still respectable treasury and the world famous Korean entertainment infrastructure) only four turns later our physicians succeeded!
The plan had been to trade magnetism for both much gold and the Theory of Gravity - but what did our diplomats find? Most other nations had already discovered BOTH
Nonetheless Oda (or Takeda?) was so kind to trade ToG for Salpeter plus a couple of coins.

And then the scientist trait came forth and the fun began .

We sold Nationalism for about 300 gpt to Oda, and for some 200 gpt to Chsokabe - giving our scientist the opportunity to research at 100% for the next couple of techs, going for Steam Power first.

At the same time, the three late MA GWs were nearing completion...
860 AD: Lost Newton's (guess to whom...:HAN )
870 AD: Lost Shakespeare's - and still 3 long tuns to go for Adam Smith in Seoul...
890 AD: With desperate effort our lazy workers build two coal mines
900 AD: Adam Smith saves the Day for Korea!
Our civilization has entered a Golden Age!

(And btw it was the first Industrial GA I've ever seen in Civ3!)
Well, after the first celebrations I realized that this wasn't the perfect moment for a GA. The extensive tech-trade- and culture-rush have left their marks in Korea's infrastructure. We have neither established a large army of workers, nor a complete road-mine-irrigation net, nor are more than about 30-40% of our cities at full(12) pop.
And to make things worse, one of our coal mines collapses immediately after discovery.
Nonetheless, an Industrial GA is a great experience. Our scientists spared the Industrialization tree for the moment, and headed straight for Scientific Methods (after picking up Hospitals on their way - which actually came too soon, as we are still needing new workers to get the railways done!).

Korea's rivals weren't idle in early IA. Despite GA and 100% research, most nations kept track, only one or two steps behind us. We were able to get one further 300gpt from Oda for Eletricity (of course after our first deal expired). We bought Communism for SteamPower and Saltpeter.

Things are getting hot here again...to soon perhaps...Takeda just declared war on me, and allied with Oda. Funnily, I managed to ally Oda (and 2 other) AND force them into war with Takeda.
But Han gives me sleepless nights once again. Their scientists are always up to date, and their power equal mine and Takeda's... and their riders are massing within sight of our mountain patrols...

To be contiued...

PTW, Predator 1.27f

previous post

Like Karmina, I got an early industrial GA - my favourite. I did go for Industrialization after researching steam power (got nationalism too as the free tech too, which was a pity as I was going for the UN and I'd rather have sped up towards ToE). Since I was making ungodly amounts of money from selling off my techs which came in every 4 turns throughout most of the IA, I could afford to rush factories in Seoul and Pyongyang (slightly to the NE of Seoul) with Seoul building Suffrage and Pyongyang on a palace prebuild for ToE. The nice thing was Sci Meth came in just in time to change Seoul to Hoover, and the AIs only discovered Industrialization on the turn Hoover was built, so with Seoul railed and MM'd for max production I was able to beat the AIs to Suffrage too. They had of course gone for Communism first .

Since my empire at this point still only consisted of my own and former Baekje lands, I invaded the Goguryeo after getting Rep Parts and chased them off our continent - they kept two cities on the Japanese one (about 900-1000AD this was). Artillery vs rifles was no contest. This war gave me 2 leaders - one was used to move the Palace south into Goguryeo lands, a second one was used for an army. The Goguryeo allied with the Baekje, who still had three cities on the former barb island. These fell quickly too, and even got me another leader from an elite guerilla. This one would be saved for the UN.

The Goguryeo and the Tokugawa had tons of ships, mostly frigates, but these started to disappear at an alarming rate after I had rushed a few Destroyers. Korea ruled the seas (and not even with battleships either - I never got around to building those or carriers). On land she was all-powerful too and if I'd played more for score the logical next target would have been the Han, who I suspect would have succumbed fairly easily to the 2 40+ gun stacks I kept around. For speed it would also have been better to just gift all the techs I was ahead to the AIs (about 5-6 throughout the IA) as they didn't contribute anything to the tech pace themselves other than the optional communism & sanitation.

On the other continent, Tokugawa was easily the biggest; as such, I decided to remain at war with them while trading with the other civs who I figured might eventually become my pets in the UN vote. There was a good number of wars going on, one of which ended with the destruction of the SW Japanese civ.

Middle Age Thread.

Searching as fast as possible

AI no help so I live them behind trading some techs more money and keeping deals active so that their GPT helps my research.

620 AD I enter Industrial Ages searching Steam Power at 3.7.0 due to deal for Metallurgy ... in 8 turns I received Nationalism as free tech.
I received Spices vs Metallurgy & 111 GP from Tokugawa so that I max my luxs for happiness.
660 AD : Han : WM &Typography &106 GPT & 167 GP vs Physics
Shimazu : WM & 1 GP vs WM
Takeda : 12 GPT & 108 GP vs Physics then WM & 1 GPT & 5 GP vs WM
Oda : 1 GP vs WM
Kuroda : 10 GP vs Typography
Mori : I offer Typography / 2 GP vs WM
Chosogabe : WM & 22 GPT & 26 GP vs Physics. Move research to 2.8.0…
Shimazu : I offers Physics
Every body is Polite (except Han) & no Gold
Industry in 6 turns

740 AD : Han : Democracy & 856 GP & 9 GPT & TM vs Magnetism
Takeda : MT & 12 GP & 2 GPT & WM vs Magnetism
Chosogabe : WM & 86 GP & 39 GPT vs Magnetism
750 AD : Medecine @ 100% in 4 turns –63GPT
790 AD : Newton’s Gives a GA …
820 AD : Tokugawa : Spices & WM & 9 GP vs Magnetism
Takeda : Gems & WM vs Theory of Gravity & Wines
Han : WM & 9 GPT & 34 GP vs Dyes
Chosogabe : Enlightment vs Ivory & Wines & 78 GP
Place left from dying Kuroda has lot of potential luxs. So I produce some settler in order to take advantage of this spaces and luxs.


850 AD I did not pursue in my deals with Kuroda. They are dead. I settled 2 towns for dyes and gems. I will try to grab also incense… and bring some Riflemen to defend these towns. I rush Harbor & Barracks & Library for the first town & Libraries for all (to avoid some culture flips). Therefore, I am at max luxs and can trade the extras.

880 AD: AI have some money. I have just grabbed ToE (prebuilt as a Palace).
Han : Furs & WM & 139 GPT & 412 GP vs Medicine
Takeda : WM & 32 GPT & 131 GP vs Medicine
Chosogabe : WM & 17 GPT & 369 GP vs Medicine
Mori : 12 GP vs WM
Oda : 27 GP vs WM
I am 4710 GP & 601 GPT (4.6.0). I could Commercially win in few turns turning all Science and putting all cities at Wealth. (With the save, I did a replay for Commercial Victory - Science to zero and cities to wealth, I manage a Commercial Win in 950 AD)

940 AD … cruising with some more deals. Shimazu : WM & 7 GPT & 36 GP vs Medicine
990 AD – End of GA – Switch to Democracy after Refining … Miss it by one turn anyway switch to Dem in 1000 AD
Tokugawa – WM & 40 GP & 9 GPT & Wo vs Medicine
Chosugabe – 180 GP & 12 GPT vs Incense
Takeda – 10 GP vs WM
Shimazu – 29 GP vs WM
1040 AD , I am in Dem …
Chosogabe : Communism & WM & 23 GPT & 55 GP vs Electricity
Han : Sanitation & 5 GPT & 92 GP vs Electricity & Ivory
1100 AD : Bring Han to Polite giving them some wines
… pressing return and monitoring the research …

1240 AD : Sneak Attack of Tokugawa, grabbing one town the next turn with dyes. With all the MPP around, I should have been more cautious on defense . My army consists of 5 Cavs & 25 Infantries & 1 Rifleman & 2 Transports & 1 siege cannon & 12 Kensai. I am so dumb that I forget to upgrade outdated units despite sitting on GP. I gather every-body against Tokugawa. He is #2 on the list so it is not that bad to have this global war. But I am not ready for it …
I have also marauding Han forces in my territory this does not look good at all.

To be continued later as tanks are involved ... Tough part of the game.

Japan tribes were backwards and mostly polite to me linked to multiple trades ... Han was ahead of the AI pack but many techs behind me ...

1.27f
Predator

Link to my Ancient Age Post

Link to my Middle Ages Post

Han Cavalry vs. Korean Hwach’a

At the end of the last spoiler, 440AD, I was in the midst of my “Limited War” against the Han, having taken my first two objectives, Hangchow and Nanking, and just purchased Metallurgy to start upgrading my catapults. Unfortunately, Han Riders had morphed into Cavalry, and I knew this war was going to be even more difficult than I thought. I rushed a wall in Hangchow, and pulled my forces back from the mountain pass, as his cavalry were starting to bypass the road, and could ride out of the mountains to the town in one turn. I was still struggling for cash, and only able to upgrade a couple Hwach’a per turn. But I hunkered down to defend, using the Hwach’a to weaken his cav before they attacked, and slowly held him off there. In the east, I continued to push south, using a couple Hwach’a and defenders along the mountains to block his cav there. I still lost several units, especially wounded ones trying to go back and heal, to his cavalry raiding behind me, but usually if they entered my territory, I could send knights or Kensai to finish them off in the open. Shantung fell in 480AD, and by now I had several Hwach’a on that front, and was able to concentrate near Tatung, the fur city. Tatung fell in 510AD. With the completion of my objectives, I sought peace from the Han. I wasn’t able to get much in peace, but afterward, I sold him back his fur and silks for 200g and 1gpt (thanks to Bamspeedy’s attitude article, I didn’t settle for a lump sum, and it would prove to be worthwhile later).

My New Luxury Cities


Playing catch-up in the Tech Race
Meanwhile the tech pace had continued from Japan. In 470 Banking was available, and Navigation in 480. The Kuroda and Tokugowa did not have Banking, so I could do a 2 for 1 deal. I bought Banking (on credit), traded for Navigation, and then opened a new era of trading luxuries and resources. Several of the Japanese civs did not have Saltpeter, which was worth a lot in trade. I wasn’t quite rich, but it helped to offset some of the tech payments I was making. By 520AD I had 897 gold and 123gpt with no science. I also saved a couple of luxuries and a salt, so when the next tech round came out, I would have something to offer. It didn’t take long. In 540 Democracy became available, and although I didn’t really need it, I bought it to sell to some of the other civs. (My last anarchy had taken too many turns, I couldn’t afford to go through that again). I overpaid for it though, paying out 80gpt, and was only able to get 30gpt from sales. But it did help in 560, when Music Theory came out, I was able to trade Democracy to get it for free (and Bachs as a useful pre-build). Finally in 580 Physics was available, which I bought, paying for part of it with Saltpeter. I also established more embassies, and began to plan some wonders to get my Golden Age. The next two available would be Magellan’s (Commercial) and Newton’s (Scientific). If I missed on either of those, I would have to get Smith’s and ToE, which I had planned on anyway.

The Oda Expedition / Return of the Han
In spite of many elite victories, I still had no great leader. I never had enough elite troops, I was throwing everything I had into the fray, so there were plenty of regulars out there too. I looked at the options of building the FP myself, when an idea came to me. The Han had brought the Oda into the war somewhere along the way, and they were still at war with me. They also had the Colossus, which with it’s commercial trait might help trigger my GA. So I spent the next 10 turns preparing for an expedition to their land, thinking I could take all my elite troops, capture the Colossus, maybe get a leader, then sue for peace. I knew I couldn’t count on a GL, though, so I switched Kangyang from University to FP just in case. It wasn’t my ideal choice, but only 12 from Seoul and with a Courthouse and Market already in place, it would still take almost 20 turns. I built and upgraded several junks, and moved all of my elite troops to the northern corner of my peninsula as a jump-off point. Unfortunately, in 610AD the Oda allied with the Han again, and the Han declared war! There was some slight panic as I realized most of my best troops were on the opposite side of my land. I rushed a few Odas in the south, sent the cav galloping along the roads, and took my slower troops in my new Kublai Junks to sail south to reinforce. This was a pure defensive war, again using the mountains and Hwach’a to blunt his initial offensive. However, I also rushed/switched production to crank out 6 explorers, who swarmed into his territory and pillaged both his Iron sources, his Saltpeter, and cut several roads through the mountains, isolating the eastern half of his empire. I also made a separate peace with the Oda (just to sow some discord for later). The WW kicked in fast, I think because of all the turns we had been at war with the Oda, but with no fighting, it was sort of latent. Without the resources, his attacks slowed quickly, and I was able to get peace with the Han in 650, and got 4 workers out of the deal. These would be useful later this turn!

The “Asian Economic Miracle”
In 640AD I bought Theory of Gravity from the Kuroda, for Wool, Dye, and 15gpt. The next turn, 650AD, I saw that Economics and Magnetism were available. I bought Magnetism for 60gpt, and it was time to start my Tech Slingshot. I got Steam Power for my free tech, which was good luck, as Nationalism was an optional tech, that I wasn’t necessarily in a hurry for anyway. After checking to see that I had coal, I began to sell Steam around and bankrupt most of the other civs. Overall I raked in over 1,000g and +427gpt for Steam, not to mention getting Economics and 2 more workers from the Han. I could now afford to go to max science, and at 100% I could see Medicine in 7 turns, still pulling in a net gain of 100gpt. The next 100 years witnessed the continuing explosion of my economy, as I completed the FP in 700AD, Medicine in 710AD, Newton’s (at Seoul) in 720AD, and Magellan’s in Pusan in 750AD, triggering my golden age. What a difference a century can make:



During this time I also rushed a few courthouses and marketplaces, which went into high gear with the Golden Age. From this point on through the rest of the Industrial Age, research was 4 turns per, and I skipped all the optional techs (Nationalism, Sanitation, Espionage, etc.), picking them up from the AI for my techs. I missed out on Smith’s, but my main focus was getting ToE, and the GA would help me get there. I thought I could count on the AI for Sanitation, although it took a while, but by then I had several more cities at 12, so it was worth the wait. My tech timeline was as follows: Electricity (770), Scientific Method (810), Replaceable Parts (850), Industrialization (890). I waited until Industrialization to sell again, as I didn’t want the Wonder Cascade to get to ToE. Also, I knew once I started on Industrialization, there would be no more help from the AI, because I would be leading that tech branch. The Chosogabe got Shakespeare and Bach’s, the Oda got Smith’s, but in 900 I got ToE. For my free techs I took Electronics and Atomic, and started on Corporation. By selling Electricity now, I brought in another 280gpt. Finally in 930 someone researched Sanitation, which I traded Industrialization for, and was able to build hospitals with the last few turns of my GA. In 940 I got Corporation, and the GA ended in 950. I was still able to get 4-turn techs, but with less gold left over (science at 90-100%) because I had built lots of universities during the GA.

Staying Above the Fray
From here on, it was a pretty predictable plan of getting techs every 4 turns, building up my population, and working on a Palace pre-build (in my FP city) so I would be ready for the UN when I got to Fission. Diplomatically, most of the Japanese civs were already polite to me, and I was careful to continue luxury or resource deals, ROPs etc. with all of them, even if I couldn’t get much for it. I even gifted a couple of luxuries, until all Japanese civs were polite (The Han would always be furious). Meanwhile, they were declaring war on one another constantly, but I stayed out of it. I thought about getting tricky, and trying to buy several of them into an alliance against my likely rival, but I wasn’t sure if it would be Takeda or Tokugawa, and didn’t want to take the chance of it going the wrong way. I even gave in to a tribute demand along the way, rather than get involved in a war. I also gave Refining away to everyone around 1100, figuring that would be enough value to maximize my gift bonus through the end. It also had the desired effect of sparking more wars, as the AI fought over the limited Oil supplies! I had spent a bunch of Gold upgrading infantry, guerrillas, and artillery after Replaceable Parts, but that was the last of my military build. A couple of destroyers, just to patrol, no planes, tanks, etc. (I did build one tank by mistake, a smaller town that I didn’t switch to wealth). I was getting all the luxuries I needed (actually getting 9, which gave me some flexibility when renegotiating, I could afford to say no in the interturn and deal on my turn. This was pretty important when I wanted to trade techs, as if I did it on the interturn, the AI would trade it to everyone else before I could!)

I hit Mass Production in 1150AD, IIRC, so I will have to stop here. To be continued . . .

Conquest, Civ1.29f
Industrial Age Part II:

My worries were unnecessary. The GA and the first big tech-sellings did the trick. Thence I managed to stay about 2 techs ahead, while constantly getting between 400 and 1100 gpt from my rivals. This enabled me to quickly enhance the outer cities, while still keeping enough money to rush the occasional factory, hospital and stock exchange in my core lands. Although I spent quite a lot of the precious GA on building up my worker army, my first factory kicked in the very turn after the end of our GA.
This was in Forbidden City, which started working on Univ.Suff.; One turn later Seoul started on Hoover Dam (ToE had already been established during GA). By that time all other civs had already begun on Univ.Suff., but obviously they all were far too slow.
BTW, Takeda's 23-turn war on Korea was quite idiotic: They managed to unload a single samurai on our homelands, but theirselves became quite decimated in power by our allies (Tokugawa, Oda, Shamiz?a, later on even Han).

In 1280 AD Korea discovers Mass Production.
By this time the railway net is practically complete, more than half a dozend cities can produce Infantry at 1/2 rate (got Hoover of course), and everyone except Takeda is both polite and pays a LOT of gpts to us. I don't see any chance of loosing this game yet.

BTW I noticed three quite queer things, and I do wonder if they changed the corresponding rules in gotm24:
1. Despite the absence of Police and UnivSuff we had not a single war-weary pop in 23 turns of war.
2. Despite two cities producing >90 shields, about a dozend >40 while >14 pop, we still encounter less than one polluted square per turn. In most other games I'm used to spend two workers per city exclusively on pollution cleanup until recycling.
3. Two of our three coal mines expired before researching Refining (can be bad luck of course).

PREDATOR 1.29

Ancient Times 4000bc - 370bc (5 turns of anarchy to become a republic )
Middle Ages 370bc - 670ad (8 turns of anarchy to become a democracy )
Industrial Times 670ad - 1220ad (forecast)

The goal was set: peace, balance, and harmony meaning eternal peace to Gogury (170ad), Han (440ad), and Baekje (810ad). Having the entire continent was a nice balance against the other clans. We were peaceful and did not start any other war.

The goal was to research as fast as possible, while donating techs to the other civs in hope of them contributing to the research. Nationalism was free, steam took 7 turns, all others 4 (medicine, sanitation, electricity, rep parts to speed workers, scie method, atomics and electricity from ToE, corporation, refining, steel, combustion, mass production in 1140, next mt and flight). Because we needed very little military, our economy was extremely healthy and we often gave resources for free to the AIs keeping everybody happy.

The AIs contributed communism (of course), industrialization, and surprisingly radio. I did not expect them to research this expensive tech, but happily took it. My mistake: I researched the optional sanitation. ToE gave the usual atomics, electricity, and Korea also built Hoover.

The AIs started to fight each other, mostly reducing Tokugawa. Korea stayed out of trouble and when Takeda demanded oil, we conceded to avoid any spot on our reputation as a peaceful nation.

We trained a lot of elites on the barb island, but regrettably, the final war against the last 3 Baekje cities (they were first reduced in Ancient Times) did not give the much coveted Great Leader for UN. Thus the issue was "How to time the UN pre-build?" We might get fission as our free tech, or most likely, we might not get it. I settled for a Palace pre-build starting 1130 timed to complete one turn after entering Modern Times. Thus victory will be delayed one turn till 1230 (if we get fission), or the city production will be reduced to time the completion with learning fission in 1255.

I got Newton's univ. IIRC. I tried to get the rest of olive through cavalry attacks, which partly failed because the cities culture flipped and I didn't have the ressources to attack again. Also the Han partly took the cities, and I didn't want a war with Han. Especially since I had changed to Republic during the war against olive.

So I tried to improve my science rate by rushing city improvements. I traded as much as I could, staying out of the wars going on on the main continent and micromanaging mines and irrigation. I expanded my worker contingent until I got Railroad and quickly connected my cities.

Tech-wise I went for Scientific Method, but unfortunately passed on Theory of Evolution. I tried to get Hoover Dam, which I really managed and rushed some factories. Since the AI went different paths in tech I managed to trade a lot, especially Atomic Theory for Replaceable parts. This turned out to be a good trade.

A Han city culture flipped back to my side. They were not amused. So I got what I did not want: A war with Han in an unprepared Republic. I had upgraded my defensive units to Infantry when I got RepPts and I still had a stack of Cavalry around from my war against olive. Also the rail connections proved usefull. I moved all my defensive units to the cities Han could reach from his territory and sneak attacked his weaker units. I knew I would not gain anything from this war and could only hope to defend the cities I had. My top tech priority was to get to Motorized Transportation, but I had started Radio since some turns to get a good trade from AI. I hoped they would get MT at about the time I got Radio. I changed production to defensive units and raised luxury rate to prevent disorders.

This was a crucial moment in my game, since most of my cities were undefended and all my forces were positioned in the three southernmost cities. What I wanted to do was to attack his units when they were weak and in my territory without loosing too many of mine. I lost one city due to his initial attack force, but not without a fight. My defensive production started to kick in and all three cities in danger were more or less well defended. Han got pink to declare war on me as well, which was of no importance at that time, because he was restricted to barb island and technologically totally backwards.

The fight went on, Radio was about to be discovered, pink was about to send a ship. Waiting for next spoiler.

After a ridiculous absence of 8 months or so (what can I say...baseball had my attention), I was finally able to play a GOTM again. All I have to say is: Wow. So many changes and great fun. Kudos to all those who put work into the scenario.

I don't really have any spoiler info and never keep notes. Let me just say that these Asian civs are a pretty damn aggresive bunch, especially during the IA, and it was all I could do last the entire game without losing a city.

The map setup was really condusive to peaceful victory strategies. Anyone going for a conquest must be shaking their head.

One question: I used PTW. What happened to all of the automated worker buttons?

Originally posted by Vedder
One question: I used PTW. What happened to all of the automated worker buttons?

Click to expand...

Open the Preferences menu, under Game activate the 'Show advanced unit actions buttons'.

The map and the civ (Korea with sterile hwachas) settings were definitely biased for a peaceful victory.

For the sake of clarity, I intend to post my game in the last spoiler, so I can share my unusual Gotm24 experience with the other players.

Originally posted by keiselhorn
...For the sake of clarity, I intend to post my game in the last spoiler, so I can share my unusual Gotm24 experience with the other players.

Click to expand...

Just an FYI, that saving up your sharing experience so that you can post the whole game in the last spoiler may not indicate that you have a grasp of what we are trying to accomplish here. By dividing up the game into logical blocks that fit the outlined timeperiods, you can either share your game as you go or at least share it in a way that is organized and courteous to all other players who are both currently playing the game or who might play the game in future months.

Each person is free to be their own kind of player but I sincerely hope you will be able to make the transition to joining us and following the simple outline of participation that has served us so well in the past.

There is no need to be different at every stage just for the sake of trying to do things in the way that is most unlike all the other participants. We are interested in hearing about your game progress. Unless you developed the magical ability to only play the modern age then certainly you must have at least 3/4s of your game story that does not rightly belong in the final spoiler thread except as a summary.

Open 1.27, Medal 6-1

In all means this was one of my best Civ experiences ever. Both for my performance in the game and for what the scenario offered. The map and all the Asian features were compentently elaborated. I particularly loved the flags, they were really cool. Congratulations to cracker, kinboat and the Gotm staff for making it possible.

I decided to post everything together this time to avoid posts which would only talk about my wonders and technology advances. Also, I don't record deals in the game, although I was a very active negociator.

Unfourtunately I couldn't start my Gotm24 till Oct 10 because I have some technical problems with crashing. After solved, I could put my strategy into action.

Plan: Game as peaceful as possible. No wars at all. Establish an inner and an outer ring and stop expanding. With my region explored, decided to set the inner in 4-4.5 distance and outer in 7-7.5 dist. After that stop expansion.

Almost everything ran as planned till Industrial:
- 15-16 cities producing well (Kangyang was flipped by Baekje in MA and reflipped back to me in IA)
- Early FP close to capital
- Total Commerce + Science
- ROP for all at all times. Total peace, rivals must be happy throughout all game.
- Minimum military (which would almost doomed me in Industrial)
- Not caring about exploration beyond my continent. Made only 1 junk all the game. I really hate suicide galleys.

Everything ran well in Ancient Ages. My intention was to trigger GA through Colossus+GL. But I missed the GL for 2t, having to afford the most expensive Small Library in Eastern Asia. Then I saw it wouldn't be a fruitful GA anyway... too early and I was avoiding wars, wouldn't help much (though the Colossus would help, but I missed it too).

130bc - Hanging Gardens in Seoul. My only Ancient wonder. And actually the best possible for my peacemonger approach. Helped a lot since I held few luxuries.

I don't remember when I reached MA (I don't keep logs or timelines), but by 210ad I had all contacts and always going for Education. I wanted unis around asap. ROP with everybody in the world, no exception, until the end of the game (the exceptions would be one or another very expensive ROP offer that I would
wait to eventually low the price).

The gpt from tech sales like Education financed my further research. I was aiming for Smith + Newton to trigger the GA, and then assure the Industrial wonders and go smooth to Fission.

During all the game, there were 2 tech leaders: Han and Oda. I was close, sometimes leading, but my pace was alright. Since both (especially the evil Han) were not trading much from mid-MA, I was a great tech exporter. My interest was to equalise the world in techs so it would avoid disparties and possible domination from some parties, such as Oda, Han e Tokugawa. Also, it would assure the tech pace would be fast, AND my reputation would be always high, by frequently selling stuff and sometimes even giving it away.

By giving away to extremely poor civs, and selling for nice prices such as 60-100g/t in MA and IA, I was withdrawing powerful tools of negotiation from the superpowers Oda and Han, which were the techs. In other words, I came close to monopoly in tech exchanges. Rarely other civs were trading between them, because I was faster and sold to everybody. Reminding that Oda and Han were even faster than me but were not willing to exchange.

By the 400s, Han attacked Gogureyo. Below the situation in 470ad. My military was minimum, and stayed like that until the rise of riflemen.


Larger version: http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/gotm24_foto1.JPG

By pre-building other wonders in MA, Seoul was able to get Smith in 520ad. If I had a leader it would come much much before. But since I was not involved in wars, I had a terrible disadvantage
to civs like Han, who were producing leaders in the game. FINALLY FIRAXIS CREATED THE SCIENTIFIC LEADERS! Diplo victory will come much faster in Conquests.

~700ad - Industrial Age
800ad - Newton in Seoul. GA triggered.

The GA was great because shortned considerably the way between Suffrage and ToE. And my diplomacy followed respectable, with ROPs and all the deals. I could notice the Han were getting consistenly angry with me without clear reason. No wonder, they were losing all the wonders.

1010ad - GA over. After building and hurrying many banks, unis and some factories, some minor cities (all cities were productive) start building rifleman. It was time to finally dispatch my 15 warriors and set real defences in Korea.

1020 - Suffrage in Pusan. No more easy democratic wars for Han's stupid AI. Scientific Method (1st in the world) discovered at same turn.

1100 - ToE in Seoul --- Chose Atomic Theory (Han and Oda already had it for a long time) and Electronics (1st in the world).

1240 - Hoover Dam in Seoul. Beauty. Now it was straight to UN.
In the same turn, Intelligence Agency in Puhang.

1265 - Wall Street (Pyongyang).

By 1250 my defences were mostly infantaries and guerrilas. I really avoided to spend much production turns in units because I wanted to set my productive rings to wealth, thus bringing the techs faster.

About 1270 the unpredictable happened.

Han invades my territory, violates the milenar ROP we had and declares war. Detail: Han was gracious with me! TREASON! :arrow:

Below a picture showing Han diplomatic status by 1250, few turns before the war (I don't have the save from the beginning of the war).



At that moment I just started researching Flight and was expecting the UN for about 1320-1350. After Flight, the only remaining tech separating me from Modern Ages would be Motorised Transportation, which I was intending to
trade for my Flight with Oda or Han... until they declared war.

(to be continued in the Modern Age post)

1.27 Open

As my nation entered the Industrial Age in 700 AD, I was researching easily at a 4-turn pace. I was concerned that without my GA to boost my income, I might not be able to maintain such high research. That, however, turned out to be false. Starting with my free tech of Nationalism, I used tech gpt deals from all of the AI to fund my research, and run at 100% science for most of the rest of the game. I managed to snag all of the IA wonders, but made a rather move when I mistimed the TOE and got Steel when I had one turn of research left. So, in effect I only got one free tech. A free tech is nice, but not having the second one cost me around 20 years.

Despite that minor setback, I was on cruise control on my way to a Diplomatic victory.

PTW Conquest.

By the IA I had wiped out Pinky and Olive. Made sure everyone else loved me by passing around ROPs to everyone and also giving people luxaries or saltpeter so they wouldn't attack. Thus my military stayed at around 5 units (obviously not counting workers). People were actually Gracious with me. I had never had that outside of war.

I got Nationalism for free so the RNG still hates me. My leader is sitting home waiting for Fission to come around in the next age but I just know that I the RNG won't be nice in that age either.

I make a bee-line towards ToG however I don't finish it. I sit on it for a while until I have a 5+ turn research path. The moment I have my first one I use it.

The game pretty much boiles down to the civs all contacting me with the ROP and/or luxary gifts disapear and me buying all improvements in this order:
Library, Courthouse (for cities with more than 25% corruption), University, Marketplace, Bank, Harbor (when available) Stock Exchange, workers to simply fill out every city to 12 pop. If you take away the diplo screens 90% of my turns were hitting the space bar.

From the beginning of the IA to the point where we are to stop I literally only had about 5 military units. I'm never a war demon, but this even surprised me. The only thing I could figure is that there were so many people Gracious with me that no one dared threaten me. Heck no one even asked for a tribute and the Had were always at least polite with me. I thought about waging a little war on the Han, but then decided why? This is Civilization, lets be civil like the real world and just ride it out. I kept all the civs at the same tech level, 2 behind me, even though some of them couldn't have researched anything in less than 40 turns.

So I'm headed for a diplo victory and I haven't had a war with any surviving civs and they all are either Gracious or Polite to me up to the cut off for this spoiler.

PTW1.27

* Discovered Mass production in 1120 AD. There are 8 civs left; I would have preferred an odd number but there’s no point in changing that now. The eliminated civs are: pink, olive and orange (the one that was, if we think Indo-European, appropriately named “Mori”).

* Plans for a diplo win: Three Japanese peoples are at war with Han Dynasty. But they have not established themselves on our continent. Their naval attacks are probably too scattered. Up to 1100 AD I had not had a single MPP, but then I signed with everyone except Han Dynasty. I will try to win as many fights as possible against Han to make the others like me. As a precaution, I have given Han a worthless town on a small island. (See screenshot) because I don’t want them wiped out even though they will not vote for me.

* It’s not yet clear who will be my opponent in the voting because the population count is tight. But it will probably be Shimazu. Funnily, I had them picked as my opponent from the beginning. However, the original plan was to wipe out everyone except the islanders Shimazu and Chosogabe, which I could hardly have managed because of a poor start.

* Two uncertainties:
1) Will someone research amphibious warfare and capture the Han Island city? (See screenshot.) It might not make a difference because there might not be time to capture all the other Han cities.
2) Is it a mistake to drag Shimazu into the war? It might be, but they don’t have any MPPs or alliances.

* IA Tech race: Got free Steem Power, then went straight for Scientific Method.

Traded for Industrialization, Refining and possibly Medicine (can’t remember) + all the optional techs. Researching Steel before Refining is a must when you have a tech lead. Right now I’m hoping to trade Flight, debating with myself if I should give Radio away to prevent the top 3 AI from researching it rather than Flight.

* I’m still in Monarchy! The plan to switch to Democracy was stopped by the Golden Age I got from Newton’s College. The research rate has been 100% since the early Middle Ages. Free units= about 170. No banks, no cathedrals, marketplaces everywhere. Cash is around 3500g.

I will certainly reload when I’ve submitted to check out what a switch to Democracy would have yielded. Most players seem to have chosen Republic over Monarchy, but I felt that war weariness was not my cup of tea this time. With monarchy you can stay at war longer and also get a bit of extra happiness for WLTKD.

Here's the screenshot

1.27f OPEN

Continuing from my previous post, I entered the Industrial Ages in 480AD after buying Metallurgy from Tokugawa. I get Nationalism free (wanted Steam), so start Steam Power, and even with GA I need 100% science to get it in 4 turns. I'm starting to feel the effects of the Palace and FP being one city apart. I really need to prepare for a palace jump in case I get no leaders. (Not enough time for this game.)

The rest of the Industrial Age consists of fastest possible tech progression, combined with gifting to all other civs to try and get some help. I end up getting only one Industrial tech from the AI (Replaceable Parts). I have a TOE prebuild going in Pyongyang and will try to get some kind of prebuild going for Hoover in Seoul.

Highlights:

530AD Steam Power

590AD Electricity

610AD Newton's in Seoul (Lib, Univ, Copernicus and Newton's for 300% research bonus)

630AD Someone finishes JS Bach, the last available wonder, ending any further cascades! This is a good thing.

670AD Scientific Method. Switch to TOE in Pyongyang, due in 3. This means I'll lose 3 turns of research. Industrialization is 5 turns at 100%, but would give me Suffrage as a prebuild for Hoover. MM Pyongyang to slow down TOE to 5 turns and then switch to Palace. Switch Seoul to TOE to prebuild Hoover.

720AD Industrialization, big picture: switch Seoul to Suffrage, Pyongyang to TOE, tech to Atomic Theory. Before letting it continue I do some calculations on Seoul. It's 16 turns to Suffrage (same as Hoover), OR I can switch to factory which will finish this turn. The shield boost from factory will let me do Suffrage in 15 turns meaning it will finish the same turn either way. Switch Seoul to factory. Exit big picture, TOE finishes, get Atomic Theory, Electronics and start Radio. Seoul builds factory and starts Hoover, due in 15 as calculated. Take some workers away from railroading to beef up Samchok in the mountains to prep it for UN prebuild. Also realize I should have been improving the barb island a long time ago, start shuffling a couple dozen workers over there to beef it up.

750AD Get Replaceable Parts from Takeda. At this point I'm gifting tech for free to try and keep their science rates up.

790AD Radio

820AD Island is fully developed and cities at size 12 after rushings lib, univ, aqueduct and marketplaces and joining workers.

830AD Corporation

870AD Steel, Hoover done in Seoul. Get Sanitation for Steel.

910AD Rush Hospital in Seoul and add workers to increase research rate.

920AD Refining. Combustion due in 5, shuffle tiles, add workers to Seoul so they are using every tile available and get it down to 4 turns. Sell Refining to Han for 110gpt to keep my net positive and then gift as usual to everyone.

960AD Combustion, trade around and get Espionage and Elightenment. Gift everyone EVERYTHING since I'm on the top tree and bottom is done. Would like to get some help with flight if I can.

1000AD Mass Production. Palace prebuild for UN is 7 turns from done, need to slow it down.

1030AD Use Mass Prod to renew lux deals.

Will continue in last spoiler.

At the end of the Middle Ages I got a monopoly on Economics and traded it for several techs I was missing, and a lot of gold. I was prebuilding for Smith's and got it 9 turns later. I expected it to trigger my Golden Age but it did not. At that point I was still a Republic and could have used the GA boost.

A few turns later I was able to trade with all of the civs on the other continent. This did wonders for my treasury as I was able to get lots of gold per turn. This finally got my tech rate down to 4 turns for Physics and Magnetism.

I was also prebuilding for Newton's or Magellan's. However, I got a late start and lost Newton's by 4 turns and Magellan in the cascade.

Entered the Industrial Age at 760. Got Nationalism when I wanted Steam Power. But it turned out fine. The AI values Nationalism very highly and I was able to trade it for a forturne.

I switched to Democracy shortly after entering the IA and got a 7 turn anarchy. I got the same 7 turns when I went from Despotism to Republic.

In 830 the Oda declare war and the Gogurys ally with them. That was pretty stupid of the Gogs because they only had one city left to them after my previous war with them. They lasted one turn. The Oda landed one Rifleman during the entire war and his remains were sent back in a floating bottle. I never worry when a civ on another continent declares war because the AI can't mount an amphibious invasion. I just use it as a time to get allies and weaken the opposition on the tech front.

In 1150 I discover Scientific Method and get Theory of Evolution from a prebuild. Choose Atomic Theory and Electronics so that I can build Hoover Dam. The TOE finally triggers my Golden Age and it was wonderful to have it in a Democracy. I spent the rest of the IA gifting techs to the other civs in the hope that they would research some techs for me. I did manage to get Combustion and Mass Production that way.

My GA ended in 1300 and I got Mass Production 4 turns later.

One curious thing that happened in my game had to do with the Gogurys. As I said above, I eliminated their last city in about 840 AD. However, they remained in the game. I carefully examined all of the terrain and could find no other Gogury city. All I could see was one Gogury Junk. Is it possible for a civ to survive with just a Junk? Sounds like a lot of junk to me.