GOTM 30 Spoiler I: End of Ancient Age

GOTM 30 Spoiler I:

TO qualify for reading & participating in this spoiler, you must have accomplished the following:

1. You must have reached the end of the ancient age (be researching a middle-age tech), and
2. Have full view of your starting continent, and
3. Have contact with the Civ that started on the continent immediately to the south opf your starting continent.

Given the uncertainties of other events that you may have experienced in your wildly different games, please refraim from posting minimaps.

You may post screenshots, as long as they do NOT show the location of any non-ancient-age resources, and they do NOT show any land masses other than your starting one and the one of the aforementioned southern civ (please crop & edit other info out of your pictures etc).

Some questions for you:
Where did you found your first city? Why?
What did you set your initial research prioirties to be? Did the results of early exploration affect this?
Do you have a long-term strategy for this game?

I look forward to reading about it!

Like how you got off your little tundra island....

PTW 1.21 - Open

Edited to remove 'other tribe' names

Wow what timing I'm just writing up my spoiler #1 and here's the thread.

I decided to move to take full advantage of the BG, while keeping the game in range and figured I was just changing 1 coastal tile for another. Surprised to find the cow and a fresh water lake. The worker improved the BG and move to irrigate the tile to get a settler pump set up. My first build was a warrior for scouting then a temple pre-build timed to get the granary right after pottery was discovered (researched at maximum). I then started for writing at minimum (40 turns regardless of level) and set about exploring the local surroundings while Madrid began producing settlers. My second city was on the coast to the south built to reach the whale after culture expansion. Once I discovered the Gilligan effect was in play my plans changed from writing->literature to writing->map making. I had 5 cities on the map when my first galley with a warrior and a settler set sail. My second galley left the opposite coast 2 turns later.

I met my first other tribes England and another and swapped writing to both for BW, WC, Mason, IW & Myst. Researched Literature 300 BC and switch Great Lighthouse pre-build to Great Library which completed in 150 AD.

Other Wonders: Light Green Guy built the Oracle & Hanging Gardens, Dark Green Colossus & Pyramids, Pink Great Lighthouse and Blue Great Wall.

I acquired the rest of the ancient age tech from the Great Library by 480 AD including Republic (310 AD) to enter the Middle Ages.

So far only one war, Blue declared on me, got Pink as an ally, then lost 3 warriors & 2 archers to a spearman & archer behind walls and sued for peace (getting 6g). No Pink units were ever seen and they sued for peace the next turn in a Republic for 225g exchange. At the end of the Ancient Age, Spain was a mighty 15 cities (#1 in pop/land/mfg/$$) with the smallest army

QSC as of 1000BC
6 cities
4 settlers
5 warriors (4 veterans)
9 workers
1 galley
5 temples
2 barracks
1 granary

Only pottery, writing & map making discovered

No other tribes met yet.

******************

Once I began settling islands to the east & west and still had yet to meet anyone else I made a couple of long term decisions.

1. I would try to play this a peaceful as possible, declaring war only if no other options and waging defensive wars when declared on.
2. I would try for either a space race or diplomacy victory depending on the tech pace and available time.
3. I need to go for the Great Library in case there is a 3 AI island and they've traded together to jump way ahead in tech.
4. I would need to find additional luxuries. Just one wool was not going keep my people very happy.

Hi All,

This is my first GOTM (and only second game at Monarch level), as I have only recently discovered civfanatics (from which I have learned a lot). Thank you all

Anyway, Here it Goes:

4000 BC - Moved Worker NW to other BG, to scout and then improve. Moved Settler SW to get benefit of 2 BG's and after cultural expansion, the bonus forest.

Settled in 3950 BC. Researched pottery at 100%. Built two warriors as scouts, the used a temple prebuild so I could make the switch to granary after the discovery of Pottery.

Discovered I was all alone on the island, nonetheless, I researched Bronze Working next (100%), so I could start building spearmen. I realized I would need military police as the only luxury on the island was wool, so I figuered they might as well be spearmen. Next, researched Writing at min. Then Map Making. During Map Making research, in 750 BC I completed the Colossus in Madrid. This triggered my GA and greatly increased Research.
During GA, I finished Map Making (6 turns), Literature (6), Phil. (4),
Code of Laws (4).

By this time I had met England, with whom I traded for: Wheel, War. Code, Myst, Masonry, Math, Iron Working, Horse Back.

Researched Currency (7), completed Great Library in 10 AD, trade brokered with England and another neighbor which netted me:
Construction, Poly and Republic.

I am currently researching Engineering at 0% with a scientist in one of my unproductive cities.

Wars: None
Barbs: None
Contacts: I have met 6 of the 7 other civs.

I plan to let the GL give me Monarchy, at which point I will switch to it Immediatly (I would switch to republic, but I am going to need MP support with only one luxury).

I entered Middle Ages in 30 AD and am in Second place out of the known Civs (and closing quickly on #1).

Due to the game announcement, I expected that we are on a more or less small island with almost no resources or luxuries and not too many civs on. So I planned to get map making early and I also wanted to set up a coastal city for the Great Lighthouse.

I hoped that the coast in the south was a lake, so I moved the worker south and revealed that theres not only fresh water but also a cow. That means a 4 turn settler factory at pop 5-7. I moved the settler south and found Madrid in 3950BC. I didn’t want to gamble and researched pottery at max. After exploring a bit with two warriors I build a temple in Madrid first.

In 3100 Pottery was available and I switched a barracks prebuild to granary. Then I researched writing at 40 turns to get map making as soon as possible.

In 2470BC Barcelona was founded SSSE of Madrid on the tile between the lake and the coast. Barcelona has built a temple first.

In 1990 BC Sevilla was founded 3 tiles SW of Barcelona to get access to the wool.

In 1550BC Writing was available and I had noticed that I have no trading partners. So I researched masonry at max to have the Pyramids for a prebuild.

After Masonry we researched BW in 4 turns.

In 1250BC I noticed that there are English borders on the isle in the south. Maybe my first target for a war.

In 1000BC I had 9 cities, 25 pop, 2 Granary, 2 Barracks, 5 temple, BW, Masonry, Alphabet, Pottery, CB, Writing, 6 turns left on MM, 91g, 130 shields into the Pyramids, 1 settler, 6 worker, 8 warrior.

570BC: Great Lighthouse completed in Barcelona. Met polite England. Has 8 cities, 100g and WC, Wheel, Myst.


110BC: War with the English. The island in the south of ours seems to be big enough for our second core. Further there are a lot of recources and luxuries and we want to get them all. We started with a force of 8 swordsmen, but many more are in production.

70AD: Researched Polytheismus and entered MA. Very late but due to the very slow tech pace in this game I had to research two many techs by myself.

Now we will push away the English of the southern island and build our second core there. I plan to trigger my GA with Sistine Chapel. Victory options are Domination, Conquest, 100K (if we work very hard), and Spaceship, but I don’t want to go for this.

I wondered that the AI builds his wonders very slowly in this game and we also have a very slow tech pace. So Barcelona had a good chance to become a 20K city…but now its too late. It also was not necessary to build the Great Lighthouse because the islands are close together and I think without the GL I had also met all other civs.

Hey, there is a blue civ and their ships can go through ocean tiles. I have the GL and I cannot do this!!!!


A screenshot from the beginning of the (very short) war with England:

editTW1.27 open

I’d like to begin by saying how much I have enjoyed this game. I don’t think that it’s going to be my highest score but it has been one of my favourite GOTMs. Thanks Ainwood!

I started by moving my worker to investigate the area around the game, wanting to move my settler off the bg. I chose wrong and wasn’t too happy when my first exploring warrior came across the cow! However I did set up granaries in both Madrid and the cow town to keep a steady stream of settlers to populate many of the surrounding islands.

Research: I went for Pottery at max to get a granary asap. It is also a prerequisite for Map Making and I suspected that this might be an island game. (At least I got that right!) Having got Pottery I went for writing at min rate to build up cash and I didn’t have sufficient income to get it any quicker at max. I then used some of this cash to research MM as fast as I could-the galleys would enable me to grab land on surrounding islands and make contact with other civs. The more contacts that I had; the cheaper new techs would be. I ended up getting many of my techs through some lucrative deals where the AI civs valued my techs highly as in their eyes I held a monopoly on them whereas their techs were of less value to me as I new others that also had them.

Once I had MM I researched Bronze at max for spears to protect from the raging barbs on the unpopulated islands, (and hoping to meet some civs with Iron Working to trade) and built galleys and settlers as fast as I could. I didn’t bother with the lighthouse as there was so much land within reach and I thought that the shields would be better used for settlers and military. After Bronze I went for the Wheel as I wanted to know where the resources were.

I met my first civ just before I had horses but didn’t trade, hoping to meet some others to bring the price down. They didn’t have MM so I went for the island in their direction with my settlers before they could get there. I met the English to the south, having spied an orange border on the map and then gained Warrior Code, Iron Working, Masonry, Mysticism, HBR and over 200g for some of the techs that I had.

I then went for maths which I traded for Polytheism and more gold and then went for Monarchy at max (-12gpt!). By now I had decide to build up warriors and cash from trades to go for England and left some land for other civs to claim. After Monarchy (130BC) I went for currency. My galleys made contact with four other civs before the middle ages which allowed me to trade for the other techs without giving away Monarchy and I decided to build the Hanging Gardens for happiness as we had only one lux. Entered the middle ages at rather late 170AD, turned off research and plotted my attack on England.

Open PTW 1.27

The start of my qsc was the most interseting thing to me in the game:

4000bc worker se and settler e
3950 worker se again and spots a cow. Grrrr! my settler move was bad. move settler sw to forest. Yuk.
3900 Madrid founded on forest 1 se of the start, a rotten start but I can't bear to move again.
research Myst on full.

Ie I moved 2 squares with my settler to land him on a silly forest square only one away from the start, and I made the bad choice to research full blast for Myst when clearly mapmaking was the way to go. I built Madrid on the forest as I couldn't face a 3rd move to get to the best spot which is clearly 1 south of the start square.

However, I did manage a 4 turn settler + vet warrior factory in Madrid (see position below). This did waste a couple of shields so perhaps you all did better. Without early contacts it didn't help much anyway.


Middle Ages in 210 ad: slow, slow slow. No Great Lighthouse: not good. I was far too slow in this game despite the intention to really speed up for once. I fully intended to attack in the qsc period but never even met anyone else until 510 bc.

Fist of all, it is my first GOTM. Thank you so much for bring us the joy and the excitement.

After noticing i was on a quite small island, I went to the long term strategy:
I decided to maximize the use of the limited landmass to build as many core cities as possible. Also, i would like to take advantage of the whale so i sacrificed two cities from being near the lake. There is another city on the SSSWW of Barcelona.
After researching pottery at max, I decided to go directly to the map making then republic as my early goal, because if i can finish map making early, i can trade all techs around.

I dropped your pic, because although you had edited it, it is still a bit too spoiler-ish (shows where resources are, even though it doesn't show WHAT they are. We will open a modern-age spoiler in a week or so, and you can put the unedited one in then.

-ainwood

First-time GOTM player here. Having fun with it, even if I'm not doing all that well... This type of map is a weakness for me...

I hope this isn't a spoiler...I imagine at this point everybody's seen a little purple and white yacht. My compliments to the creator of that unit!

Madrid was founded one tile SE of the starting position, gambling on fresh water. Hey, sometimes it better to be lucky than smart... The research priority was pottery for a granary. After getting 3 warriors to look around, I made a bee-line for Map Making, to start settling elsewhere.

At this point in the game I have pushed Elizabeth off that island to the south, but I'm grappling with corruption that is just plain awful. I'm currently building my Forbidden Palace in London, and researching Democracy at 10%. Not because I'm doing some shrewd 10%-research-trade-for-tech-scheme...but because it's all I can afford! (Actually I do have quite a few gpt going to civs for techs that I bought...I'm lagging, but not too badly.) No wonders built, and it doesn't look like I'm going to get any... (though I only tried for one...)

Long-term strategy for this game... sheesh... okay, here goes:

Though I've had a few galleys picked off by hordes of barbarian galleys, I think I've made contact with pretty much everybody. Nobody really likes me that much, and Elizabeth, well, maybe she'll like me in the next game. I think Diplo is out. Through my travels I discovered a one-tile island with about 3 dozen Pictish Horsemen on it. My long term plan is to build several boatloads of Marines to escort a single settler to that island. I'm betting it's a source of uranium or aluminum I'm going to want for the spaceship.

Open 1.29b2

I settled my capital one tile east of the starting position, then discovered the freshwater lake. Oh well, things would be okay, I thought. As expected, the Ancient Age dragged on for some time. Contact has been made w/ 6 of the other 7 civs. I entered the Middle Ages in 410 AD.

Wonders (Great & Small)

None.

Technology

* Researched Pottery @ 90% (17 turns). After reaching Pottery, I set a queue for Map Making.
* Discovered Writing in 1550 BC.
* Discovered Map Making in 590 BC.
* Contact made w/ civ #1; traded Map Making & 270 gold to a civ #1 for Warrior Code, Mysticism, & The Wheel; then buy Horseback Riding for 177gold.
* Contact made w/ England (civ#2); purchased Masonry from England for 68 gold.
* Gain Philosophy & Iron Working in peace deal w/ civ #3.
* Contact with civ#4 allows me to purchase Code of Laws & Mathematics for 200 gold & 1 gpt.
* Purchased Polytheism from civ#5 139 gold & 1gpt in 310 AD; traded Polytheism & Code of Laws (+8 gold) to another civ for Curreny & Literature.
* Purchased Construction from civ#4 which sent me into the Middle Ages (410 AD).

310 AD


Update on Wars and Assessment/Outlook to come later.

Well, this is my first GOTM (and first post on these forums.) I didn't keep notes as I played, so this is from memory and checking previous save files. I'm currently a few turns away from the Industrial Age at 840 AD, but luckily my 10 BC save happens to also be the end of the Ancient Age for me. Here's an overview of my empire at this point:



It all started ~4000 years ago with a lowly settler deciding to walk south to get off the bonus grassland. Upon seeing the cow, Pottery became the top research priority to enable a 4-turn settler factory (and/or 2 turn worker factory.) The initial worker roaded the starting square, then moved down to irrigate and road the cow, then back up to clear the game forest. Once food had been optimized, several bonus grasslands were mines to complete the factory. During this time, 2 warriors were built to explore, and then a temple prebuild for the granary was started. Finally, 2 more warriors were built as MPs as the city grew toward size 4. For sizes 5 and 6, the lux slider was adjusted every other turn to maximize income/science and keep everyone content and productive.

Exploration of the island was complete before the first settler was produced. I was also lucky enough to see an English warrior accross the channel at one point, so I made early contact. The small island made map making top priority (Writing on 40 turns, then map making at 100%). RCP was out of the question, so I just tried to maximize land usage with the city locations. I decided the capital would jump at some point and a replacement should eventually be built on the corner of land just west of Madrid.

I had enough settlers with 9 turns still left to writing, so Madrid switched over to a worker factory (no more messing with the LUX slider... yah!) I quickly amassed quite the chain gang and the island was soon well developed and quite productive. Finally, Map Making arrived and Madrid switched back to settlers as other cities built boats.

Slowly, settlers were ferried to the neighboring islands, including one to the English continent to gain a foothold there for a later attack. I also met 2 more civs at this point. Still no tech trading, though, since I want to make everyone work for Writing->Map Making to give myself as long as possible to colonize unimpeded. After Map Making I went for Republic, then Literacy. Once the other civs had mastered Writing, I was perfectly happy to trade Philosophy and Code of Laws to them for most of the rest of the ancient techs.

Once I became a republic, I was surprised to find that the GOTM updates have changed the way military support works for them. It seems you now get one free unit/city, which is nice, but additional units cost 2gpt instead of 1. My large number of MPs combined with lots of workers was devouring my entire commerce boost, so I decided to gamble by disbanding warriors asap. The island geography provided little barbarian threat past the initial exploration (I don't think I'd seen any barbs at this point period) and everyone liked me since I gave 100 gold to them and then got it back with techs they couldn't pay for.

By trading techs for what little cash the AIs managed to save up, I was able to keep my research near max from map making on in the game. The great library helped out with a few techs and the great lighthouse, while not really needed for the ocean squares ability, was nice for its movement bonus, allowing my boats to cross 3 coast squares instead of 2 per turn. I also built the forbidden palace in Barcelona, in anticipation of a palace jump down the road.

The plan from this point was to race to Sistine (Seville is already prebuilding for that) which will launch my GA around the time of Knights. I'm hoping to take out England at this point. I've also met the rest of the world and have ~90% of the coastlines mapped out, so I have some additional military plans, but can't go into those yet.

PTW 1.27 - Open Class.

This is my first GOTM since GOTM 20 with Spain. I am not sure if I will wait for another spain GOTM after this or not I must say that this GOTM is playing much easier so far than GOTM 20.

I founded my first city right on the opening square, because I decided I was not yet smart enough to come up with an advantage for settling anyplace else.

I started by researching Pottery, with the intention of making an 8 turn settler factory (5 turns is way too ambitious for me). After Pottery, I researched Writing, thinking that it would probably not be researched by the AI as quick. After I discovered I was on an island, I made a beeline for Map Making, with the intent of building settlers in advance of the completion of map making and settling wherever possible. This seemed to help with early expansion. It seems to me that the AI does not operate this way, allowing me to get an advantage in expansion on this type of map.

My long term plan is to build and expand aimlessly, until a victory or defeat option presents itself

One other note - inspired by Ision's recent article on wonder building, I committed to not building the Great Library. This worked, as I didn't build it!

Open 1.29b2

Once realization set in that the starting landmass was an archipelago, I set myself to the construction of galleys and archers.

Wars

* 210 BC - DoW on civ#3, destroying 1 pop settlements and quickly building cities in areas
* 160 BC - DoW on England; again destorying 1 pop settlements and building Spanish cities.
* 110 BC - England signs alliance w/ civ#1 v. Spain, little comes of it; later peace deals bring technologies to the Spanish Empire.

Assessment/Outlook

I was rather happy with my expansion during this age. I had 18 settlements upon entering the Middle Ages. Contact was made w/ civ#6 just prior to entering the Middle Ages. At this stage, my focus is to remove England from the southern landmass and build my FP in London. This map unnerves me, its easy to capture isolated islands and its easy to lose isolated islands. Maintaining several transports is essential. I've definitely weakened to some degree the civs near my perimeter, but I fear there are a couple civs going unchecked that may present problems in later ages. Another concern is I don't have much infrastructure buit yet.

Open PTW 127f

4000BC
Moved worker E to see what the mystery tiles revealed. Still could not tell if costal looking tile to south was fresh water or coast.
Moved Settler SE to reveal that it was fresh water.

3950BC
Founded Madrid.
Moved worker back to BG.

Research Writing at 40 turns. Built warriors to explore. Then Settler.

Decided that the Great Lighthouse was a must have.

Luckily one of my exploring warriors spotted an exploring English warrior across the channel. Bought Pottery from Liz.

Researched MM then Literature.

Founded the following cities on the first island.

2800BC - Barcelona
2190BC - Seville
1375BC - Toledo
1275BC - Santiago
1025BC - Salamanca
950BC - Murcia

Seville built Great Lighthouse in 590BC.

Madird was able to build the Great Library in 70AD despite having traded Literature on the turn I got it to Liz and another civ, and starting to build it at the same time they did. The Great Library was a game saver, as research was almost non existant due to lack of funds.

Had a short war with another civ - was able to defend my cities, and destroy 3 of his, and get a get a city as part of the peace treaty, that gave me a toe hold on another larger island.

By the end of the Ancient Age, the Glorious Spanish had met all the other civs, had settled the islands to the NE, NW, and W of the start, and a few other choice spots, was in 3rd place in points only 5 or so points behind the leader, was number 1 in land area and population, and was as advanced technologically as any one. In a normal game, I should have been able to run away with it from here, however I had no money to research with, and the GL would soon be obsolete, and there were upcoming wonders that needed to be built. I was in Despotism and making 23 gold per turn with science and entertainment at 0, so I decided that I needed to switch to a more progressive form of government as I entered the Middle Ages. I went into anarchy, and switched to Republic, only to find that I was now loosing 19 gold per turn with both sliders at 0. So, I went into anarchy again and switched to Monarchy. Now I am only making 11 gold per turn with both at 0. Time to do some serious planning for the future.

So, at the end of the spoiler period, I have learned to appreciate Rivers more than ever. No rivers means no money. No money, and limited-far away luxuries, and this Monarch game that should be a cakewalk from here, is starting to look and feel like a Diety level game.

Spain's little island was poor in luxuries, but thankfully well-watered — curiously well-watered actually. To the south-east lay several plots of land which produced an extra gold. A city on one of these plots of land was unable to build an aqueduct when that time came, proving the existence of a freshwater river running through the ocean.

In the attached picture, red arrows point to the three squares which seem to be affected. The blue line is a possible river course. The coast squares are unaffected and do not provide an extra gold. Of course England could not be allowed to have a hold on a continent touching this miraculous source of fresh water...

I was about to point out the same thing. (No screenshots are possible because I've already submitted and my first save wasn't until 1670 AD due to a marathon 17-hour starting session.) The only visible river is the one to the SE of Salamanca(in the above screenshot) but I think I had a city exactly where you had Toledo and it didn't appear to get the no-aqueduct bonus, although I may have to re-check that positioning.

My ancient age was mostly filling in the island, and preparing for a war with England, which was basically getting a lot of Galleys together and moving swordsmen towards the southern coast for an invasion.

I did notice one thing though, there was a significantly high rate of Resource Popping. The iron to the SE of the start position disappeared within 3 turns of being connected but another popped up 2 turns later(which was gone again by the end of the game).

OPEN PTW

Where did you found your first city? Why?
One square down from the start position, wanted to work both mineable squares. Turned out for the good since I spotted the cows then to.

What did you set your initial research prioirties to be? Did the results of early exploration affect this?
Regime change, monarchy. But finding out I was on an island I had to go for Map making so I could expand. Concidering that our start island was void of goodies. One luxury, two iron (for this era).

Do you have a long-term strategy for this game?
No. Since we where religious I was thinking some sort of culture thing but I blew that option.


OK I'm just going to post my qsc here then ....

GOTM30 : SPAIN : fleXo
MONARCH

build some quick scout warriors, tech wise full speed towards regime change. religious and commercial.

tempting starting position but i'll risk it and move a step down to be able to utilize both the mine squares, even thou it will be a few turns before i get to use the game square. ok smart move, there is a cow there.

3950 found madrid. mystism 90% 36turns
3700 warrior done. auto-exploring/scouting.
3550 warrior done. auto-exploring/scouting.

There appears to be lots of islands around me. Could I be on an island to?

3200 settler done.

So far there doesn't appear to be any luxeries here ...

3050 found Barcelona.

3000 warrior done. auto exploring.


LIVY: Largest nations
1 english
2 Some Civ
3 Another one.
4 Well, I'm not in the top three.
5 spanish Me! Yay!
6 Beating this one!
7 And that one!
8 Loser Civ!.

ok this is looking a lot like an island. Might have to deviate from my tech plan and get me some boats.

2670 myst done. pottery 9t.

2590 temple done in barcelona.

2510 ok it is official this is an island. settler done.
2430 found seville.
2270 pottery done. bronze.
2110 settler done.

1950 bronze done. masonry
1550 masonry done. writing. settler done.
1525 settler done.

1475 found salamanca, murcia.

1175 BLING BLING BLING. I see orange border. On the land mass next to Salamanca. From Livys survey I'd say it is ye ol' english.

1075 writing done. Map making.

1000 BC END OF QSC
city count: 7
temples: 7
settler: 1
workers: 3
warriors: 7
spearman: 6

bronze, masonry, alphabet, writing, pottery, ceremonial, mysticism.

OK that was the QSC ... To continue down to the end of the era ...

------------------------

975 bc Advanced Civ: Everyone ahead of me!.Spanish. Well no real surprise there.
925 bc Valencia.

I know have town all over my start island.

670 bc Pyramids in Another Civ.
650 bc map making.
630 bc colossus in madrid triggers my golden age > oracle in entremont.

510 bc first city on another island. west of madrid. ciudad de la luna.
490 bc meet the english. i have one more city, they have atleast three more tech (wheel, wc, iron)

450 bc zaragoza. trade polytheism > iron working + warrior code + 36 gold.
430 bc pamplona. great lighthouse in barcelona.
390 bc casa del bamrapido
310 bc vitoria on the english island.
one of my scout galley find a purple border, could be ??
290 bc visual verification; It Is!
trade: myst+25 gp for the wheel.
trade: poly for horseback + math + 26 gold.

England, Spain, + other know all share tech.

210 bc end of golden age.

190 bc great wall of someone who is not me. scout galley meets another civ. they have lots of tech: philo + code + construction

170 bc santander.
150 bc asturia
130 bc monarchy!
110 bc jaen. Anarchy!

looks like the another civ have lots of luxeries.

10bc logrono.
10ad found another civ border. also found a funny barbarian island, two mountains, one source of iron. good one.
30ad valladolid

ticitus happies nations:
spanish #1

70 ad find Another Civ ; trade math for code of laws.

hanging gardens 1t away; trading monarchy to all.
Another civ: construction + 124 gold
Different Civ: currency (for monarchy + 90 gold)

Trading again: furs (for polytheism + philosophy)
english: silk + 11 (monarchy)

130ad hanging gardens in barcelona.

190ad palma.

290ad Another civ are building great library. i am 16 turns away for that.
trade with a civ : monarchy > wine + dyes + 20 gold.

300ad finally meet the last civ. I know all civs.

360ad two other civs signed peace; so apparently they had a war.
370ad Cordoba.
380ad some civ building great library. 6t away.
390ad 3 more building great library.
400ad and another building great library.
420ad and another builing great library. 1 away.
440ad great library in Barcelona.

That is the end of the era as far as I recall.

I had the start island, the island north of us, the island west of us. Then some odd colonies here and there.


I edited out the civ names for those that don't like to know.[/mod]

I think I did pretty good the first 80 turns, I even entered the golden age at 1100 bc.

First I moved the settler SE since I thought I saw a lake and didn't want to build an aqeduct, and I wanted to irrigate the dear as fast as possible. When I saw the cattle I didn't have irrigate the dear to create a settler factory. My worker roaded the start position and one square to the south and then irrigated the cattle just in time for culture expansion. Madrid built warrior, warrior, worker, then granary. I wanted to chop down the woods to the dear as quickly as possible. Madrid then built 4 settlers (1st one took 5 turns and the rest 4 turns each.) Because the start position was to the north my first warrior only went south until it had to go west. My second warrior only needed to walk on a mountain to see that there was no more land to the north. The warriors maintained happiness after this.

3150 BC- There is no one else on the island. Pottery discovered.
Research Bronze Working for Colussus.
3000 BC- Forrest cleared. Madrid has 5 food/turn (if I want).
2710 BC- Madrid size 4.
2670 BC- Granary complete! Settler factory opened.

2470 BC- First settler!
2390 BC- Barcelona founded. Bronze working discovered. Research
Writing at full speed.
2310 BC- Second settler!
2230 BC- Seville founded!
2070 BC- Toledo founded!
1870 BC- Warrior in Toledo. Temple complete in Barcelona. Start
Colussus. Santiago founded!
1725 BC- Salamanca founded.
1700 BC- Temple complete in Madrid. Warrrior in Toledo.
1675 BC- Temple complete in Seville. Worker in Madrid.
1650 BC- Luxury connected to Madrid. Worker joins Barcelona.
1625 BC- Writing discovered. Research Map Making. Worker joins Barcelona.
1425 BC- Barracks complete in Madrid.
1400 BC- Temple complete in Salamanca and Toledo. Murcia founded.
1100 BC- Colussus complete. Enter Golden age.
1050 BC- 1st galley
1025 BC- 2nd galley. Meet with the english. Trade Writing for
Masonry and Mysticism and some gold. Trade Map making for The Wheel and Iron working.

At 1000 bc, this is what my empire looks like:




To be continued...

PTW 1.27f - Snoopys Graphics Obviously PART #1 Of 2


Yay first gotm!!!!!!!!! WOW Tons Of Fun!!!!
My play style is builder. I try to be as peaceful as I can unless I need to expand due to space/resources... My idea's going into the game is going for a 20k/Diplo/Culture win.

Im going to give a fairly detailed first turns as this is what I needed when I started playing. And reading the play's have helped my game out tremendiously, feel free to critique.

4000BC - Explore A Bit

Madrid Founded One Spot South Of Starting Locations

Research Max: To Pottery
Built 2 Warriors - Temple Prebuild For Grainary

3250BC
Wow this island is starting to look small Pottery Discovered Set Reasarch to 20% and Lux to 20% on to writing (40 Turns) as I can go MM if needed (yes it looks like it will) or LIT assuming its not as bad as I am expecting

Madrid Moves To Building Grainary

2950BC
No Sign Of It Getting Better...First Settler Start To Be Built
Lux Slider Set to 30% for Max Workers

2750BC
First Settler Built... Not Exactly sure where to put it...
Lux Back To 0...

2710BC Lux to 10...God I hate this part...

2670BC Ahhhhhh Looks Like Spain will be enjoying fine wool clothing. Unfortunatly this looks like it may be our only resource at least so far that we have found. We do seem to be on an island and it does seem small maybe 6-7 cities can fit on this.

2590BC Barcelona Founded to the east of Madrid positioned to take advantage of the coast and the fresh water. Not a single barb in site and no neighbors so I start city with build of temple

2550BC Lux Back To 0 3rd Settler Produced.
2390BC Lux To 10
2350BC The Great City Of Serville Supplier Of WOOL is founded. Built to take advantage of the coast and to the wool and whales. Starts Built On Temple

Usualy I attempt to build cities 5 spaces appart due to the smallness of the island this will not be possible, so I am kinda worried that my core cities will not be monster powerhouses.

2310BC Settler Built Lux To 0

2270BC Ok The Island Is Explored (WTF!!!!!!!!!!) This is going to be interesting as I have never played a island game like this before. A second Source of Wool was found and there is very little expansion room left. I think I can fit 3 more cities in (not counting the one that is about to be built) Writing is still 18 Turns away and it looks like I will HAVE to go MM

2230BC Toledo Founded this city is one spot south of the northern coast placed in the hill it will also overlap madrids squares but I have to get a core up! Optimal city placement is well out the window. Warriors head back to madrid to act as MP

2190BC Exploration Of The Island is complete There seems to be expansion routes North and South and West (islands that I can see)

2030BC Barcelona Finish's Temple I dont want to build another grainery and a barracks is to soon (I think) so the only viable option is to build a worker (am i to much of a pacifist?)

1830BC Seville is faced with the same problem that Barcelona and begins a worker

1790BC Barcelona Builds Worker Starts Warrior

1750BC Madrid Builds Settler

1725BC Santiago Founded Built to take advantage of our second wool. Both Existing Warriors are now policing the ever leaving population of Madrid

1700BC Now Seville starts Warrior looks like these cities will do a W/W split till I come up with something better.

1675BC Toledo Begins the W/W shuffle as its temple is finished

1625BC We now know the secrets of how to write but nobody to wite to! Full Bore Research 1.9.0 to MM -4 Gold Per Turn we now have 173 lets see how long I can keep this up.

1600BC Murica Founded South and West In the Hills Again Not good placement but in good position if iron pops in the south mountains. Wool Hooked Up

1550BC Madrid builds the last settler to find a place on this island.
What the hell do I build now. MM is still 22 turns away on full burn I can't pre-build anything hell I guess i'll built a temple.

1500BC Valencia Founded North Of Madrid (in the forest) and all the way west in a streight line from Toledo. Standard New City Build Temple then W/W split of course with 7 cities cash being burnt from research I'm going to need to start looking into other things.

1350BC Awww Crap, Madrid is done with the temple I'm Still at a -4 GTP burn to MM (11 Turns)
Cant do a coastal prebuild there as im not on the coast. Plus nothing to prebuild with. I guess this would be the time to stock pile a settler for a south/north/west Expansion.

1300BC The People in Barcelona report to seeing a Pictish warrior to the south accross the see, we tried to talk to them but they did not respond. (I got excited about contact!!!)

1250BC The Pictish Warrior moves away bored waiting for us to cross to coast, this does cause me to think to bring a warrior with a settler on the boats. I continue the Temple Then W/W build I am doing im 15 out of 28 unit limit so its not impacting my cash flow yet.

1225BC Madrid Finishes the First Overseas Settler. I Start a W/S build there and start moving them to Barcelona and Teledo as they look like they will be in the best shape to build boats (7 turns). We are now on a -5 GPT Burn

1200BC We see a Barbarian Horseman where the Pictish warrior was and I begin to get a little nervious as that is where I wanted to place my first overseas city...

1150 Sevile now has 3 warriors from the W/W build pattern I continue the W/W pattern in my cities that are doing it and fully expect to use the last change as a prebuild for galleys

1100BC The First Boat Load (settler/warrior) is ready at Barcelona, Sevelle shifts to a prebuild of grainery for something (most likely a galley) I reduce the lux slider to 60 to optimize burn without effecting the 2 turn production the burn is now -2

1050BC The Sea Expansion Phase May Now Begin MM IS RESEARCHED. I start Lit at max time to build the coffers back up (I'm still expecting to meet people and want to trade) The Second Expansion Settler is produced and head to Toledo, Galleys Start Production in my jump off cities of Toledo (north east island expansion) and Barcelona South East (where the barbarians where) Sevile changes build to the Great Lighthouse!!! I may change this back.

1000BC Valencia changes from W/W build to Galley to be my jump off to the East

975BC Since Murica has not yet grown and is just now getting some attention from the workers I have shifted its build to a galley worse comes to worse I'll set this bugger on explore.

875BC Toledo is first with its Galley and loads up and heads north east to the seen coastline, Madrid is on a Warrior/Settler Pattern to Fill Up the Boats Toledo Builds Boat For Now...

850BC Barcelona finishes his boat loads up and as I get ready to move I notice there are culture borders in the area i want to land in...I'm about to meet someone it seems!
Northern landing we find GOATS!

825BC Move north east landing in one and find fresh water, land south east, Galley From North Landing starts to explore to coast, Southern Landing starts to explore the coast.

800BC Ciudad De La Luna founded in the north east island expansion. Warrior that went with him and the galley that dropped them off start exploring this strange new island Build order will be Temple/Worker/Warrior unless something changes.
Zaragoza Founded in South/East Expansion I see Olives on this land, but they are allready in the initial city radi of these red culture borders but we still have not seen anyone..

Warrior Explors to Find some people...

775BC I've moded the tech slider to put the GTP back to 0 giving me Lit in 18 Turns they want to build the forbidden palace

The English have been contacted those where the red borders I was dancing around to the south. I am next to there city Warwick (how fitting as if I launch and invasion it will be this city I attack first) They have 6 cities, Silk so far, Bronze, Masonry, Wheel, Warrior Code, Mysticism I have mapmaking and 189 Gold. I am unsure to give them MM as I am concerned about having the monopoly on it so that I can get a bit of exploration out first. I hold off traiding this turn but I bounce research down 1 so that I'm getting +7GPT but it pushes me out to 30 turns for Lit. Valencia begins to prebuild with FP I will either complete it or use it for the GL not 100% sure yet.

750BC
The english are obviously researching map making, as there offer went down significtly for it, I buy Bronze Working from them for about 80 G and 1 GPT I sell Map Making to them for 100 Gold (they offered 80 what a joke) and then I bought Iron working for ALL my gold and 4GPT, there are two sources of iron on my land. The north east island is very small only going to put 2 cities on it... I do see some soft shell crab further to the east that I will go explore to with the galley that is exploring that way. Barcalona Switches to a barracks for warrior upgrades and possible launch point for an english invasion although with my FP and Palace in the north this may create corruption problems in the furure.

730BC Pamplona Founded in the West Expansion Island I have a warrior begining to explore the island and the galley that droped them off mapping the coast. I start build with another warrior I dont know the barbarians but I havent seen many...

710BC Madrid Finishes another expansion settler, This will be the last settler built from my core cities for the purpose of expansion cities. I have a choice to place it in the North East Or North West. In the North east Is the small island with nothing exciting except some goats that we have a city next to I am still unsure of the size of the west island so I pull back the galley and hope my warrior finds a subitable place for it. While eating some softshell crabs my exploration galley has found some culture borders. I will investigate.

The way the engish island looks it would take forever for the swordsmen to cross through and do an invasion by land. Looks like I will be doing one by sea if I do go through with this.

690BC Another civ completed the Oracle
I find that the crab lovers are the lovable XXXX I trade them map making for Masonry, The Wheel, Warrior Code and 60 Gold my cource seems clear since i've given my 2 neighbors the technology to get off there island and that is to secure the 3 islands I am on (my main and the 2 expansion) war with england still seems like a good plan, we did find horses on our smaller expansion island and the Warrior scouting the other one has found another island. Maybe I will build one more settler back at home...

650BC Still working on getting warriors built up, I need to check the cost for upgrade my iron is now hooked up Lit is 24 turns away Light house build is 43 FP is 29 so I should be in good shape to get the GL... I've decided to sail my settler to the 3rd island to the west (god corruption is gonna be a killer in this game) England has horses, and XXXX has wine

590BC Oh this looks bad, we are in last place scientificly...The english are #3 the invasion preperation continues. 40 a shot to upgrade warriors this looks good. (I know I know I should know how much it costs but i've been playing conquests to much with the player1 mod)
Looks like I can get 3 cities into the first island to the west, the second is still being explored. I checked in with the other leaders...

570BC Casa Del Bamrapido Founded... Production I'm sure will suck...

Current Stats
11 Cities 3 Islands 12 Workers (all on main island) 19 Warriors 5 Galleys My score is the highest of the 2 folks I have found.

550BC WHAT THE HELL!!! A ship??? is heading right for one of my expansion islands checking the stats it has a transport capacity of 2 and im sure its loaded. I quickly check in with the leader and find he does not have map making!!!!! OKAY!... I trade it to him as its kinda worthless as he can sail all over the world (MP of 7!!) allready. He gives me horseback riding and mysticisim and 40 gold. I check his other stats and has wine, horses, and dyes and 8 cities.

510BC 2 Swords are dropped off on the English Island to Destroy Warwick when the time comes. I want to be able to expand into that jungle as well as get the olives... Spanish Love there olives... That ship can move through ocean oh man that does not bode well, at least he's off my coast.

490BC That ship is still sailing around my island has not dropped off yet, our 3rd expansion island is fully scouted. and I realize I will have more warriors than cash to upgrade them.
I whip a swordman into shape...in teledo...
ABother civ (who the hell is he??...) built the Colussus cascading a bunch of wonder shifts.

410BC Civ XXX build the Pyramids still prepping for war, looking for first main invasion to consist of 8 swords and the 2 swords to destroy warwick Lit pops in 10 turns


370BC I'm at my unit limit, cash flow is starting to go down. I disband 4 warriors that where waiting for upgrade... Im close to invasion start. As I have 9 total, with 5 cities producing swords (one is at 15 turns so it does not count) I see a DOW in 3-5 Turns.

290BC Ok I was a bit off, invasion fleet is on the move though. LIT IS RESEARCHED Seville switches from Lighthouse (I dont think I will need it this map) to GL 30 turns...
Is my prebuild enough to whore it out? Let me wait for the cascade to happen then do it, I dont have an immediate need for cash, but I do need tech I start to research poly as my neighbrors dont have it... They look like there going republic..

270 A boat of swordsman for the second wave just left the main cost...I might be overkill here...

230BC Vitoria founded on small expansion island to the direct north east
WAR!!!
Nottingham Captured No Loss
Lost A Sword in my attack on Warrick

Part # of the above post...

210BC CRAP the british have swords...
We starve Nottingham down to size one..

190BC Santander Founded on small expansion island to the north west of core

150BC Cantabury Destroyed, Our forces seem to be giving and getting down by a city that just might be london, re-enforcments are trickling in...

130BC Forbidden Palace Built.

50BC The Seige of london has be bloody for both sides...and the english ask(beg) for peace, the give us Code Of Laws, Philosophy, and Mathmatacs as well as 3 workers I accept, knowing that the loss of 3 cities is good plus I can move my forces back for an attack in another 20. I build a settler to claim some of the land from lost cities and use my swords to form a wall. I take this lull in the fight to boost science to Poly in 6 turns, establish embesies with the two other civs, I also shuffle some workers into the british lands...

10BC The other civ have invaded they dropped off 2 warriors next to valencia, luckaly I had a spearman in madrid that could be sent over to help defend. They have not decleared war yet...so we tell them to get out and of course the declare..time to make sure my expansion cities have a unit on them...

10AD the initial attack was easily defeated. I start to build spearman in my expansion cities just incase.

90AD I whore Lit out for 180 and 140 as im only 9 turns from GL I grab construction from the english for 330 gold and switch to Currency I can TASTE the MA... Madrid starts the great wall

Mistake I made earlier, I dont have 2 wool...traiding is not going to be an option it looks like.

190AD Civ Ask for peace offering 18! Gold..

210AD Asturias Founded in the ruins of Cantabury our second attack on england is well under preperation with 13 swords waiting for the go command.

220 I just noticed that another civ built on one of my expansion islands...must investigate

260AD will this age EVER end, the GL is built! That other civ is nice we sell them poly for 90

290AD
Another civ took part of my other expansion island..will go invistagate to chat them up and see what we can do.
We trade construction and 100gold for wine and dyes from a civ (we built a harbor just for this purpose) The english peace treaty is over and we will declare war this turn, Currency is 1 turn away which will bring us into the MA at turns end, I am hopeing to get Monarchy or Republic from the GL as we need it. All cities are pretty much building infostucture at this point as I think I have the units to polish off the english.

Stats...
15 Cities

15 Workers (spread out between 5 islands)
12 Warriors
11 Spearman
17 Swords
5 Galleys

We are in first place score wise with the XXXX as the only ones close to us. Our pop and land area are #1 but are income and prod are FAR from #1...Madrid is the finest city in the world...We have embasies with everyone we have met except for the british.

removed some civ names

Open
Using the logic I laid out in the pre-game discussion I moved my worker east. Well there was nothing on that “special” tile, so I moved my settler due south as I had planned. “Cow!” I yelled out loud, and my daughter looked over at me like I was a two-headed alien. I went for pottery at 90% and built warrior, warrior, barracks pre-build to granary. By the time pottery came in I had a good idea that I was stuck on an island so I made several decisions at this point.

1. First I decided that I was going to win this by domination.
2. I decided that I would have to do my own research. Additionally, since the AI will be separated, I needed to find them and do some brokering.
3. The Lighthouse was a must.

So I started research on writing then map making. Science was initially 10%, but as my economy started to grow I increased science. My second city would need to build the Lighthouse. I decided a tight build would be critical in order to use every tile as early as possible. Barcelona was founded southwest of Madrid and built a temple for boarder expansion and then started a palace pre-build. I set up Madrid as a four turn settler factory which kept running till the end of the Middle Ages. I used Toledo(southeast of Madrid on the coast) for military and then galleys. Santiago also became a military factory.

I saw the English boarder popping up from the south and sent my first galley (loaded with a settler pair to claim some land on the eastern peninsula of England. I also started settling the island to the Northeast of ours. 1000 BC saw the Spanish Empire with 11 cities

I rapidly started to meet other civilizations. The differential ship movement is great for moving you along if you use it correctly. I met the English in 750 BC, civ #2 in 650, Civ #3 in 610, Civs #4 and #5 in 570.

Here’s my world (edited) in 550 BC:


The lighthouse completed in 530 BC, making exploration even easier. Trading quickly got me a tech lead, which I was able to maintain throughout. Realizing that most of the AI were behind I aggressively started to self-reseach, going for techs like math that is low priority for the AI. In 490 BC, I discovered Math and I was able to broker it for all known techs. I was short construction and currency, plus the two government techs.

In 470 BC, Elizabeth made a critical error and launched a sneak attack against Vitoria with warriors. (Is it just me or was the AI very aggressive in this game?) At first I had to scramble to get enough defenders in England. I had a lot of warriors, working towards a sword upgrade program. I quickly hooked up my iron, upgraded my army, and the elimination of the English from their homeland was just a matter of time. The war would last for 800 years, well into the Middle Ages, but the last portion was a series of leader fishing expeditions.

The last civ was met in 390 BC. We learned the wonders of Monarchy in 30BC, and in 10 BC the Spanish Monarchy was born. I entered the Middle Ages in 210 AD by purchasing Currency from civ #3.

Cheers to Ainwood for a very challenging map. It will be interesting to see how everyone handles the various difficulties it presents.