COTM 08: Third and Final Spoiler

This is the Final Spoiler for COTM 08: Sumeria.

This spoiler is now open for reports of new and exciting things that happened after you entered the Industrial Age, and for overviews of your game.

To qualify to read or post in this spoiler, players must have completed and submitted the game.

COTM 08 - Conquest
Well, I entered the industrial ages thanks to a world war led by the Egyptians. They were attacked by a large coalition, started to loose and I tried to settle for the ressources left open. But I only sent settlers with no units, as I was in a hurry and only had trirems (still in very early middle age at that point) and planned for a diplomatic victory. I didn't know that at this level, the AI would be attracted by those empty cities. The japanese first attacked me in 1764, destroying my cities of the other continent. I planned to attack them a few turns after, since they held the GL and I was miles away from the rest of the world in terms of science. Therefore, I had a stack of cavs ready for them just near Kyoto. Capturing the GL brings me directly from early MA to Modern Times.

I allied then the Babs vs Japan so that they can get a foothold on the other continent and fight a deadly war with the Persians, who were greewing too powerful. The following turn, Persia sneak attacked another empty town I had just settled. I had to buy an alliance with Babs against Persia so that they get rid of the Persians on our continent (they had taken the cities I had founded on the north of our continent).

One turn after, the Mongols declare on me because of the Persians. I lose Kyoto and any foothold on the other continent. I also suffer a lot from foreign spies.

Hard luck ! I lose diplomatically because of the war : I am only with the Babs vs the rest of the world, we lose 4-2 with every other opponent voting for Xerxès. I think I could have probably won space race with a little luck, as I was quite advanced compared to the other civs, and would have stolen techs from Persia with my good cash. This was still a very surprising war, I wouldn't have thought that I could stand so much time after my early war with the Babs.

OPEN

My game in the industrial age is a nice example how to turn a good game into a mediocre one.

My decision to research IA techs was based on my fear that the AI will discover nationalism very soon and replacable parts not much later. I underestimated what their constant war for more than 1000 years did to their research abilities. By the end of my game only Japan had nationalism and they discovered it only a few turns before the game ended.
Although the decision to research IA is questionable it was by far not my worst mistake.
One bad decision really was leading to the next bad decision and every one was worse than the one before:

I researched full speed towards scientific method and immediatly switched my two most productive towns to pre-build wonders. One to prebuild TOE, the other for Hoover, so my cavalry production was limited.

When I built TOE and Hoover, I started to build factories in almost all my productive cities, so I did not produce cavalries for about ten turns.

And on top of that I used my money to rush libraries instead of rushing cavalries.

Finally, after I researched replacable parts, I stopped researching.

The AI's were no real match to my cavalries. Greece was very weak, Egypt produced 2 or 3 cavalries, china had basically only spearmen and the mongols had some musketmen. I had only two armies and about 15 cavalry, so it took a while to conquer the necessary cities. Only in the end new cavalries arrived
to speed up the process.

Finally I got domination in 1080 AD.

I replayed my game afterward, stopped research after MT and reached domination in 810 AD

I will add some pictures in a few days

Ronald

Ronald said:

Finally I got domination in 1080 AD.

I replayed my game afterward, stopped research after MT and reached domination in 810 AD

Click to expand...

It is still a combination of the same digits and also the fastest domination reported by now

Ronald said:

Although the decision to research IA is questionable it was by far not my worst mistake.

Click to expand...

But did it help in something? Did you build railroads? Did it accelereate the speed of your units? Did you build factories? Did it increase your production?

solenoozerec said:

But did it help in something? Did you build railroads? Did it accelereate the speed of your units? Did you build factories? Did it increase your production?

Click to expand...

Yes, I built railroads and factories and yes, this finally increased production, but the lost income which I could have used for rushing units and the lost turns to build the factories resulted in a much slower victory.

Ronald

Predator
Middle Ages

After entering the IA in 590AD and acquiring medicine and steam in the big picture trade, I decided to rely mainly on self research for some time.
I squeezed every free gpt out of the AI. This is wrong, I know, but still after all this time as underdog, I wanted to do it.
I had to research every required IA tech myself, because it took the AI forever to get through their favorite garbage techs.
I chose the course to replacable parts first, so the workers could finish the railing faster.

I also had a small war with the backwards mongols. They had settled 2 cities on my continent and I wanted them.
The peace treaty gave a first foothold on the other continent.

The next mistake on the science front was when Persia sneak attacked my foothold in 730AD.
I allied the big powers and the chinese destroyed them only 9 turns later. So now everybody is furious with me and I lost one sci civ.

I also lost the Babs by a small accident. I had again a war to cut them back to one city and then also attacked their last city.
There were two units in it the turn before, but they must have lost one IBT. So the Babs were destroyed in 990AD.

Well, doesn't look to good for a fast finish, but let's look to get a decent result.

I entered the modern age in 1140AD and got computers.
I could trade ecology from Byzantines and destroyed them immediately.
BTW also eliminated Mongols this year, just because I could.
Miniaturization was 5 turns.
The internet that completed immediately brought all other techs down to 4 turns, though robotics in the end needed also a lot of scientists.

I also had a little war with China in the modern age. They declared when I booted them out of my country after one of their cities flipped to me.
I had MPP with Egypt and Japan, so I just leisurely took a few cities to get to the domination limit, while they impaled their hordes of obsolete units on each other.

Launched in 1400AD.

Mini map at the end:


Well, a lot of mistakes, but it was the first time I launched a space ship at all in Civ3.

Pfff, my first space game.

60 hours played, i am tired now

1240AD launch. 9600 Jason score.

I'm gonna keep it short:

100 workers railroaded my core in short time upon entering the industrial ages.
Factories were build immeadiately.

With these high productive cities, i started fighting and conquered my opponents in the following time and order:
Mongols-Byzantines-Babylon-China-Japan-Persia.
I had 65% around 1100AD.
Started with cannons and cavalry, ended with 90 bombers and few random ground troops.

ToE was ready exactly at entering Modern Age.
UN was built shortly after to prevent the AI from doing so.
Bach's cathedral was made so the happiness slider was not even needed with WW in the end.

Did not build the Internet, science labs were done in 2 turns in core cities, so made those instead.

Hey Klarius !

klarius said:

I also lost the Babs by a small accident.

Click to expand...

Wow, you seem to lose some civ's by accident

Similar game to Dianthus' HOF game.
Basic idea is revolt to Communism and irrigate/railroad all tiles. Then start intensive poprushing of culture
buildings in all cities.

I had problem to find horses and iron in consequence of it I eliminated two AI. In 800AD after many false peace treaties
Babylons were eliminated. In that war I used Longbowman and Trebuchets. Next target were the Byzantines. She
learned Replaceable Parts and had rubber out of my reach. I was forced to break peace treaty several times. I did careful
maneuvers and lured out of battlefield with empty cities more than 10 units of her Infantry. In that war I had only 20 cavalry,
10 artillery, 30 trebuchet and drafted Infantry. I hadn't gold to upgrade trebuchets and only two cities built military units.
All other cities were busy to build culture. Finally in 1040AD she was eliminated.

I kept fast tech pace until I learned Replaceable Parts and Communism. I entered in MA 610BC and in IA 490AD. I
gifted techs to aid my tech pace. In 660AD I managed to trade for Communism immediately I draw 7 turn anarchy. In fact it was my third
anarchy period. In 1425BC I formed Monarchy and in 610BC formed Republic. I wasted 15 turns in anarchy

Lack of citizen happiness was a problem. When I started poprushing it went really bad. At most of time I had 5-7 luxuries.
I had no military actions on other continent therefor I did trade for luxuries. I built Bach's Cathedral in 350AD. 50% of citizens
were either content or sad. Not a good ratio and it required MM every turn.

Despite problems above one was bigger than any of them. It was gold. As I revolted to Communism I had to shut science to min and taxes to max.
It is not allowed to run negative deficit. So I did a lot of MM, hired around 250 citizens to tax collectors and still it was +-0 gpt.
In the end maintenance cost was 877 gpt.

I whipped culture buildings in this order: Library ->Temple ->University ->Colosseum. I built expensive Cathedrals in those cities that had more than
2 uncorrupt shield. That order is not best in culture per shield ratio. But it allowed to whip buildings as soon as possible. Library at size 3, Temple at 4,
University at size 6 and Colosseum at 7.

Cultural 100k achieved in 1365AD. Jason score 8700.

I got a very late start on this one and I achieved a Diplomatic victory in 1340AD. Not the greatest but for only 20 cities and playing the whole thing in just over 12 hours I was pleased with the results.

Open

At the end of the last spoiler (800AD), we had just been dragged into the industrial ages by capturing Theo's Great Library. We also contributed to the beginning of WW1.

World War 1 (part 2)

Over the next century a variety of alliances sees the war get more intense, whilst we take every opportunity to duck out of the action and concentrate on our infrastructure. From now, the Sumerians will concentrate on a diplomatic or galactic solution to their problems. The Sumerians had been granted knowledge of Nationalism, Communism, Fascism and Steam form the Library, and in 960AD this was complemented by the research of Medicine. In 1030AD we learn Sanitation. In 1080AD we act as techbroker and learn Electricity and Industrialisation.

In 1120AD the Mongols destroy the Japnese. We learn Scientific Method and trade it for Corporation and Espionage. In 1250AD we learn replaceable parts and trade for ironclads. In 1260 the Byzantines beat us to the Theory of Evolution, which is annoying. In 1310 we learn Atomic Theory and trade for Refining and Steel. In 1365, we learn Electronics and trade for Combustion. 1375 sees the Egyptians destroyed by the Byzantines, and 10 years later, the Persians are destroyed by the Chinese. We are sad. Sort of.

At the turn of the 15th century we learn Mass production. In 1415, China, the military superpower, declares war on Byzantium, the cultural and scientific superpower. The good news is that this will give us an advantage since we can broker techs between the two, the bad news is that a UN victory is looking more fragile every turn. The political climate does not lean to us gauranteeing support from anyone in particular. In 1430, we learn Motorised Transport and start mass producing tanks in preparation for a sneak attack by a random scoundrel. Luckily, next turn, Babylon declares on Byzantium. This gets better and better. In 1465 we enter the Modern Ages with the knowledge of flight.

Our world at the beginning of the Middle Ages:



Space Race

Unluckily, a timed pre-build we had for the UN is scuppered when we recieve Ecology as our freebie. We trade for Rocketry and eventually learn Fission in 1525. IN 1550, Ur builds the Manhattan Project, and Sumer buids the UN. I
feel it is too risky to call for a vote, so i leave it for now. We learn Nuclear Power in 1575, and trade for Computers and Space Flight. In 1635 we learn Miniturisation and switch a pre-build in Sumer to the Internet, which is completed this turn. The Sumerians enter their Golden Age! We get a major boost to our research speed.

In 1655 we build the Apollo Program. We trade Miniturisation for Synthetics, and build SETI in Ur. IN 1670 we learn The Laser, but the Chinese are still staying one ahead of us every time. This calls for drastic measures.

Operation Beijing

We upgrade all our tanks to armor and sign an ROP with China. Begin ferrying armor, cruise missiles and artillery over to the gates of Beijing. As we are doing this, for some unknown reason, the Mongols declare war on China. This will probably be our salvation. We learn Robotics and trade for Superconductor. The Sumerians and China are now vying to be the first to research the last spaceship tech, Satellites. In 1735, our Golden Age ends, but we research Satellites just in time. China is still satellite-less. Unfortunately, our aluminium deal with China has also expired.

The only source of available aluminium is in China. The only thing they will trade for it is Satellites! We plant a spy in Beijing. They have 8 spaceship parts completed and one in production. If I trade them Satellites now, they will probably switch to the two remaining parts in the next inter-turn. There's only one thing for it. I trade them Satellites for aluminium, switch my Erech pre-build to Thrusters in 1 turn, then prepare my stack of 20 cruise missiles, 15 arty, and 40 armor. We launch our assault, and succeed. The Chinese spaceship is destroyed!

We get everyone to declare on China, and for the first time in the entire game, Theo is polite to us! We donate Beijing to Babylon and get automatic airlift of our strike squad back to Ur! In 1740AD, our spaceship is launched!

The world at the turn of our victory:



This my first ever Demi-God win, so i'm ecstatic! I probably could have made it a little less nail-biting towards the end by starting and managing the World wars a little earlier in the game, and I did have some luck with tech trading. If it wasn't for the Mongols and Babylon, I would never have kept up with Byzantium and China. Also, I probably could have demolished Babylon
quickly at the beginning if i'd had a bit more courage, which would have set the game up for me on a plate, but i'm happy. I'm glad i have a couple of days rest before COTM09!

Middle Ages

There wasn't much left to do after the end of the Middle Ages. I finished off the Japanese and Mongols within a few turns, taking all but 1 Chinese city, and reached the domination limit at 830AD. Then it was a ton of Workers, Aquaducts, Marketplaces, Harbors, and Hospitals while my 20k city tried to keep finishing wonders as best it could.

My free tech was Nationalism, and I went for Steam and then Industrialization. Then I went back to the Middle Age techs to get to Shakespeare and Smiths, then cut out research once I got Replaceable Parts. From then on it was mostly research by specialist, other than a couple turns of high research to get Scientific Method to start ToE. By the time I got to corportation the specialists were booming enough that most every tech from then on was 4 turns at 0% research. I did have to help a couple techs along with 10% research for a turn or two still.

When I hit the Modern Era the Chinese decided to invade. A Warrior and a Rifleman/Settler pair was in my territory, the Warrior seeminly headed to one of my undefended (they were almost all undefended) towns. So I demanded they withdraw their troops and they declared war.

I hadn't contained the Chinese because I didn't want to spare the production towards military units, and always had enough units being produced to be disbanded each turn to stay safe. So the Chinese had 10 cities spread throughout the Tundra regions of the world at that point. I stopped disbanding my MI for a while and used them, two of my old Armies that had avoided being disbanded, and some Elite Cavalry to cut the Chinese back to 1 city on the south central island. I stayed at war with them for the rest of the game because it made a couple of my people happy that I couldn't make happy any other way. (When I say a couple, I mean exactly 2 citizens were affected. ) The Chinese also helped me get another MGL which was used to rush Apollo.

My free Modern tech was Computers. Then it was just cleaning up pollution until 20k hit. The 20k city's builds were:

1990BC Temple
1175BC Mausoleum of Mausollos
730BC Hanging Gardens
490BC Great Library
470BC Library
390BC Colosseum
270BC Cathedral
10AD Knights Templar
230AD Heroic Epic
280AD University
300AD Pentagon
390AD Statue of Zeus
570AD Copernicus

750AD Newton
940AD JS Bach
1010AD Shakespeare
1090AD Universal Suffrage
1150AD Smiths
1200AD Military Academy
1270AD Battlefield Medicine
1370AD ToE
1445AD Hoover
1475AD Wall Street
1510AD Intelligence Agency
1605AD UN
1610AD Apollo
1695AD SETI
1760AD Longevity

20k was triggered in 1762AD. Firaxis 17069.

Looks pretty good Aeson - notice you didn't post your Jason score.
But a firaxis score of 17000+ is impressive on its own, and that's a very good date for 20k. Even more impressive when you consider that the starting location wasn't particulary conducive to high production for your 20k city.

Why did you build Throne Of The Flame within the 21 tiles for that city (even if its only using one of them?)

I initially planned to Palace jump after building the FP in AotV, getting rid of TotF and freeing up that extra tile anyways. I ended up using a MGL to rush the Palace in AotV though, because TotF was so important to the rest of the empire as the second most productive city. At most that tile would have made the difference of 1 turn on the 20k date. But I think maybe not even 1 turn. I couldn't use all the tiles in AotV's radius until after Shakespeare, and by that point things were almost set in stone anyways.

I am guessing this satisfies your post COTM5 promise to get a good 20k date and 10,000 range Jason. And considering that you disabled all opponents to claim MA wonders, my sacrifice the empire for the 20k strategy might not have even been able to beat your date at this level.

bed_head7 said:

I am guessing this satisfies your post COTM5 promise to get a good 20k date and 10,000 range Jason.

Click to expand...

Yes, I remember there was an extensive discussion of Jason score. Some people complained that it is very difficult to go for 20K or SS and hit a high score and that Jason score and rating systems are unfair to thes types of victories.
Aeson promissed to prove otherwise. I guess this is it, isn't it?

But
But anyway astonishing performance!

bed_head7 said:

I am guessing this satisfies your post COTM5 promise to get a good 20k date and 10,000 range Jason. And considering that you disabled all opponents to claim MA wonders, my sacrifice the empire for the 20k strategy might not have even been able to beat your date at this level.

Click to expand...

It would be possible to finish with a faster date than I did by focusing more on the 20k date. I didn't build AotV or pump the 20k city as fast as I could have. I may have been able to get one other AA wonder if I did, or get an earlier Temple, Library, Colosseum in at least.

The best date for 20k is mostly tied to difficulty level. I forget the exact modifiers, but the other Demigod game we played (COTM03) had a 1780AD best date according to the calculator, so this game's 20k date should be pretty close to that. I was shooting for around that timeframe and maximizing score as much as I could otherwise. Because of that I didn't build the FP in the 20k city, which did impact the date slightly because it's a pretty decent build at 200:2.

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

I went back and looked at before and after Shakespeare. It looks like the tile TotF was built on didn't negatively impact any possible builds. I was using as good or better tiles (production wise) before, and after I was at 102spt without it.

Kuningas said:

Similar game to Dianthus' HOF game.
Basic idea is revolt to Communism and irrigate/railroad all tiles. Then start intensive poprushing of culture
buildings in all cities.

Lack of citizen happiness was a problem. When I started poprushing it went really bad. At most of time I had 5-7 luxuries.

Click to expand...

I found in my HoF game using same method that having all 8 luxes really help.. and not having to trade for them save you cash aswell

Kuningas said:

Despite problems above one was bigger than any of them. It was gold. As I revolted to Communism I had to shut science to min and taxes to max.
It is not allowed to run negative deficit. So I did a lot of MM, hired around 250 citizens to tax collectors and still it was +-0 gpt.
In the end maintenance cost was 877 gpt.

Click to expand...

Yes, gold for maintainance is a real killer in this method when you cant run deficit

Kuningas said:

Cultural 100k achieved in 1365AD. Jason score 8700.

Click to expand...

Very nice win-date for a 100k game.. specially with 15 turns of anarchy

Great Game Aeson!!!

At first when I known my Jason score for this COTM I was very and decided this game is different from previous. But now I understand that it is not game with low Jason coefficient but only my own small score. The right playing always gets a good points. If comparing with COTM03 is right your Jason score is about 11500 this is more then 1000 over me.

I now is'nt in my home and can't post a long letter.
Shortly I win by Space Race in 1170AD. I reached domination around 800AD but not killed any of AI civs. My city placement was optimized for good Middle Age and in later times they can't grow enough. And I miss Sanitation on my way to Space. Some of AI discovered it only when I reached Modern Age in 880AD.
In my game Diplomatic win was available in 800AD (earlier ToE) but with 4 scientific civs it isn't too great result.

This game has a huge micromanagement for me and I'm very tired but submit before deadline.

My last goal in COTM series is to get a good score with non-militaristic victory types but as I can see not only I have such idea.
And again, Strong game Aeson!

Thanks.

Glad to hear you could finish in time. I was pretty worried by mid-month that I had no shot at finishing with the level detail I was taking with the milking phase too. 1170AD is a very good date for spaceship though, better than my date for 20k on this map I'd say. I wasn't trying for the earliest possible 20k and my Jason is inflated a bit more than if I had put everything into the 20k city at the start because of it. So I think the difference in Jason score (which isn't as big as you suppose...COTM03 must have had a lower max score than this map did) is more likely to be due to the tradeoffs associated between turning a good date into a great one rather than how well played the games are.