GOTM 40: First Spoiler

First Spoiler: Entering the middle ages

For this first spoiler, we will follow similar rules to those that Renata set for COTM 09.

To qualify for this spoiler, you must:

1. Have reached the middle ages.
2. Have a full map of the starting continent.

Because different people may have explored differing amounts of the world map, it is permissable to discuss the contacts made, and the trades with these contacts.

It is Not permissable to:

1. Show world maps or minimaps of lands outside the starting continent (bar any small offshore islands).
2. Discuss suicide galley routes (including direction and number of turns, successful or otherwise).
3. Show maps detailing locations of middle-ages or later resources.

If AI civs settle on your home continent, you may post pictures of those!

DBear's GotM40O Ancient Age highlights:

Towns founded:
3950BC Athens
2390 Sparta
1990 Thermopylae
1525 Corinth
975 Delphi
925 Pharsalos
690 Knossos
530 Argos
110 Mycenae
90 Plebos Nexia
30AD Herakleia
190 Qitaiodea
330 Brempalonica
440 Ephesus


Technologies:
4000BC Alpha, BW
3300 Pottery
1600 Writing
1075 Mapping
690 Lit
610 CB
410 Philo
150 Law
300AD Republic
400 Math

650 every other ancient tech (GLib)

Wonders:
470BC Thermopylae builds Colossus
430AD Sparta builds GLib

contacts:
610AD Persia
640 Romans, Arabs, Carthaginians

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This is my first GOTM, that's perhaps why I paid too much attention to the legend of Jason and the Argo. Jason indeed started on a Greek island and sailed into the Black Sea, to the city of Aea where he obtained the Golden Fleece. The city of Aea was in a beautiful and thriving country. So I more or less was expecting a sea route to a beautiful land to which I could move my capital. Therefore I hesitated to build any infrastructure or wonders at all. I made some good decisions though, like putting all of Athen's citizens to work beside the river and researching Map Making like crazy. I also figured that I would be pestered by barbarian galleys so I prebuilt for a harbor in Sparta. Being able to build veteran galleys from the start made quite a difference.
After losing 4, a suicide galley called the Argo made it through and I contacted the Persians. Xerces spat on the ground before me and refused to trade anything but Mysticism for everything I had. So I decided to sail on and met with the neo-Carthaginians and the Arabs. Meanwhile I got Republic and traded it for all 7 techs I was behind, world map, contact with the Romans and some gold. I was launched into the MA and got Monotheism. Meanwhile the Argo sailed on and discovered Zululand. The Zulus were willing to trade Polytheism for contact with the Egyptians and Babylonians. At that moment, 250BC, I stopped to think things over. What to do? Finish the Great Library or switch to Lighthouse? Start some wars to slow down AI research? Haven't decided yet...

PtW, Open

Entered the MA in a relatively late 210AD, had contact with 3 other Civs (Zulu, Egypt, Babylon).

All of the nearby islands colonised, Colossus and Great Lighthouse built in Athens.

A few more details:
BC 4000 Decide to move the Settler North-West.
3950 Athens founded, Warrior. Pottery @ max.
3500 Looking very islandy here. Research: Writing @ Max, MM @ Max!!
3450 We are on an island for sure. A very small island. With, at size 12… 19spt. Not good enough for a 20k attempt, but not bad.
3300 IT: Pottery->Writing @ Max. Still 40 turns but that's more beakers than at min.
3250 Athens switched to Granary.
2900 IT: Granary->Settler.
2670 Worker roads. IT: Settler->Colossus (Lighthouse pre-build.)
2630 Rings… not very condusive, really, but 3 is going to be a decent enough start. Settler 2E.
2590 Sparta founded.
2390 IT: D'oh! Forgot to turn down Science last turn and lost the Granary.
1910 Looks like I'll get the Colossus well before MM comes in.
1600 IT: Athens Colossus->Settler.
1425 Thermopylae founded.
1350 Corinth founded.
1300 IT: Map Making->Literature. Athens Granary switched to Lighthouse.
1275 Sparta Barracks switched to Galley. IT: Sparta Galley->Settler.
1250 Galley sets off to explore a little.
1075 Delphi founded on one of the Wines.
1000 End of QSC period. IT: Lit->CoL.
900 Okay, so I just found a really scary island… Marine training grounds!
875 And another one. Surely no coincidence, hmm?
750 IT: CoL->Philosophy.
730 IT: Athens Lighthouse->Library.
670 Pharsalos founded.
630 Knossos founded.
610 IT: Philosophy->Republic.
470 Argos founded.
390 A suicide Galley crosses over to safe waters and spots foreign borders!
370 Contact with Egypt. Trades are suspiciously expensive right now… so I hold. I don't want her selling stuff. Contact with Zulus, who sell me contact with Babylon. A bit of wheelin' and dealin' later and I have all known techs, and some nice maps.
310 Mycenae founded.
250 IT: Learn Republic, revolt via Big Picture - 2 turn Anarchy, I keep the roll
210 The Republic of Greece is founded. Sell Republic to Zulu for WM+Maths+cash, then Maths to Babylon for WM+cash. IT: Arabs complete Oracle.
30 Plebos Nexia founded.
10 Heraklia founded.
AD 210 Enter the MA, gaining Monotheism as my free tech. Alas, so do the Babylonians.

Neil.

ainwood said:

Show world maps or minimaps of lands outside the starting continent

Click to expand...

Do you call it continent?

Anyway, I have a very bad access to the Internet from the place I am curently in, so I will send my spoiler maybe later (in March?) after I leave this place. The only think I want to say is that I entered MA in AD ages

Software:
Class: Predator
Goal: was undecided for most of the ancient age, so why state one here?

Halleluja! I realize I've been waiting for a map like this all through my GOTM career. It's so different, clever and yet simple.

Some dates:

3950 - Settled Acropolis. The old name seems appropriate because it may one day be abandoned as a habitat.

3700 - Built a warrior, switched to barracks prebuild.

3250 - Pottery discovered. Researching writing at 40t.

2900 - Granary complete. Growth 10, settler 5. Food storage will fill up.

2670 - Settler2: S,SW, founds Sparta. Warrior1 takes a stroll. Unexpected palace expansion from my spartanic people of low expectations.

2510 - Warrior2 complete, goes for a stroll.

2270 - Settler3 finished. Heads NW, NW for one of 2 available river tiles. Colossus 34t in Sparta. Surprisingly, Sparta reaches 5 shields with no waste.

2230 - Warrior 1 unfogs the last unfoggable water tile, then heads towards Sparta.

1870 - Argh! Why won't the new citizen pick forest when a town grows in size, like usual?

1625 - Writing discovered. Max research on Map Making ~20t.

1250 - MapMaking. 2 Galleys ready - they take off with warriors. Switch to Great Lighthouse. Literature 10 turns. Lighthouse 20, reduced to 13.

1225 - Settler landed on wine.

1175 - Pharsalos founded on the farthest wine, building worker. Luxury 10% to allow quicker lighthouse.

1075 - Galley survives barb attack.

1025 - Literature researched. Code of Laws 10t.

QSC (see picture at the end of post):
6 towns, 1 settler
3 workers
3 galleys
7 warriors
Great Lighthouse due in 2
196 gold
Population 14
1 granary
1 barracks

975 - Great Lighthouse done.

925 - Library in Thermopylae.

875 - Harbour in Corinth.

825 - Library in Delphi.

800 - CoL researched. Sparta completes library, starts another wonder at 8 spt. Philosophy 4 turns.

775 - Contact with Persia.

750 - No new contacts, which gives me the feeling the Persians are pretty strong.

730 - Embassy with Persia.

710 - Philosophy researched. Republic 16 turns with -5 deficit.

690 - Zululand found. They don't have Map Making. Sold it with WM for Contact with Egypt, WM, Warrior Code, Wheel, Cer Burial, 22g.

Traded Contact with Babylon, Masonry, Mysticism, 29g, WM from Egypt for Map Making, WM.

Traded Iron Working+70g from Babylon for Map Making (worhtless to them) + WM. As I suspected, Knossos sits on the iron. They should be able to pop-rush harbour before Republic comes along. Strangely, they have exactly as many turns to complete harbour as the wine town Pharsalos, 34. Pharsalos should also be able to pop-rush.

ROP with Persia bought for 25g.

650 - Hannibal shows his shrewd face. Temple in Thermopylae.

610 - Contact with Rome. Luxury 10% due to warrior shortage. If this is maintained for 8 turns it shaves 1 turn off Colossus.

590 - Contact with Arabia. All contacts. Persia knows mathematics. They won't give me a good enough price yet.

570 - I trade Polytheism, Horseback Riding and WM from Egypt for CoL and Literature. I trade Math, 148 gold, World Map from Persia for Polytheism and Literature. I trade Math around but keep Philosophy for myself.

510 - Messed up Sparta with civil disorder. Will it cost me Colossus? I slow down republic 1 turn to be able to pop-rush the two harbours and still get two rolls with the dice.

490 - Library in Corinth.

430 - Luxury back to 0% as Sparta has reached size 6. Republic learned. I miscalculated the pop-rush timing so revolt will wait a turn.

410 - Both harbours pop-rushed. If I revolt now, Sparta will starve which will add 1 turn to Colossus (now 5t) apart from the anarchy turns. Researching Monarchy.

310 - Colossus finished in Sparta. Revolt. 3-turn anarchy. I'll take a chance with 3 consecutive civil disorders in Sparta to avoid starvation, hoping the library won't be destroyed in riots.

270 - Persia, Carthage have Construction. Traded for Philosophy, Polytheism and WM.

250 - Republic. All warriors (9) disbanded except my only vet who is upgraded to swordsman. Unit support 10/10. Monarchy 3 turns (one gained) at science 80%, luxury 10%. Sparta just ekes out a third luxury coin.

210 - Library in Acropolis.

190 - Monarchy discovered. Currency 4 turns. I should probably have skipped Monarchy, but I want to give Monarchy to AI to speed their research in MA.

130 - Temple in Delphi. Knossoss forgives past oppression when working fish at 10% luxury. Persia demands a contact. Because they are scientific and I don't want war with them now, I give in. Perhaps if contacts come out, a few civs will get stronger and become useable trading partners. On the other hand, Persia is already at war and likely to lose research capability without my interference.

Currency researched, enter Middle Ages. I get Feudalism. Time to decide on a victory condition.

Tech summary: Pottery > Writing > Map Making > Literature > Code of Laws > Philosophy > Traded Warrior Code, Wheel, Cer Burial, Masonry, Mysticism, Iron Working, Polytheism, Horseback Riding, Mathematics > Republic > Monarchy > Traded Construction > Currency.

Home area in 1000 BC:

I decided to move E with the settler and go for an RCP3. I dont regret it as RCP 3 is full of cities. Later it showed that a partial RCP 8 would be available.

4000BC : Settler E

3950BC : Settler founds Athens. Research pottery at 100%

3400BC : Discover pottery. Research writing at 100%.

3000BC : Athens finish granary, start settler.

2670BC : First settler founds new city.

2150BC : Discover Writing. Start mapmaking at max possible.

1500BC : Discover Mapmaking. Start Literature at max possible.

1225BC : Discover Literature. Start philosophy.

1075BC : Discover philosophy. Start CoL.

QSC stats:
8 towns
20 pop
3 workers
6 reg warriors
2 galleys
2 granaries
2 libraries
2 harbors



Only have pottery, alphabet, writing, mapmaking, literature, philosophy.
Researching CoL and will get it in 4 turns.
No contacts.

Discover CoL in 900BC. Start Republic at max possible.

Discover Republic in 550BC and pull 2 turn anarchy.

In 570BC I send out another two suicide galleys. And finally one makes it to meat the Persians. They are quite advanced. The only thing I can offer is Literature and Republic. They have LOTS to offer backwards little me, including contact with 3 other civs. Republic wont buy me anything, Persia must be close to researching it themselves.

I go into tough negotiations with each of my new partners. They have gotten as far as math and mysticism. That allows me to start construction next turn. I see we dont have horses. Yikes !

My galley is sunk the next turn by barbs ... I call that a close call. but some contacts at last! The remaining civs I wont find until navigation.

Discover currency in 430BC. Discover Construction in 350BC. Discover polytheism in 270BC and enter MA. Get Monotheism as free tech. Start theology.

Possible mistake: Not to build lighthouse to get contacts earlier, and more contacts.

@MiniMe,
Clever move to go for RCP3 and retain one fish for Athens. The fish may account for your rather fast research and expansion, right? In turn, your fast research seems to have made it possible for you to settle your RCP3-islands fairly soon, not having to wait for Map Making for a particularly long time. I also find it extraordinary that you had the guts to wait for the Lighthouse so long, even though the risk of losing it must have been very slim. Too bad about that barb galley; I don't want to sound smug but IF you have the Lighthouse you should try and end your turn on a sea tile, where the barbs don't dare attack.

Isn't it nice and cosy not having to build a dozen workers?

@Megalou, I actually never built the Lighthouse (my sentence was ambiguous). The reason why I did not was not related to guts, more to a mistake. In my ignorance I thought that surely I would find a safe way to another continent. When I realized my mistake it was too late to have any positive effect on suicide missions, since I needed contacts before possible to finish the Lighthouse.

I did a lot of micromanagement to share the squares between my close cities so the resources are used as efficiently as possible. And in that respect the fish was really nice to have since it gives a full 2 food and max trade (and possible to share between 3 towns). I am more inclined to believe that if there is a difference in the expansion phase of our games it can be related to the fact that I did not reserve one of my very early cities to the Lighthouse.

I never had as few workers as in this game, that is for sure

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GOTM 40. PTW - Open. My 1st experience with PTW!
Going for 20K or if that would take too long, for Diplomatic victory.

Settle E. Warrior, Warrior, Barracks, Settler.
Go for Writing->Map Making on max as seems we are on a small island.

Sparta built around 2700BC, is building Colossus. It is designated as 20K city.
To give it more space I built only one more RPC3 city on the continent.

2070BC - learn Writing, realize need Pottery for MM anyway. D'Oh! Start on Pottery. On the other hand, Pottery can be researched in 6 turns now as have 3 towns, and Writing would have taken 40 turns anyway. So maybe it's for the best.
Granary built in Athens.

1225BC - Colossus built in Sparta, starting on GLH, finished CB and starting on Lit.

1000BC.
QSC stats: 4 towns, 12 pop, 2 workers, 1 granary, 2 barraks, Colossus, 4 Hoplites, 2 warriors, 1 Galley.
13 turns to Lit. (Hoplites were built because it took too long to wait for settlers).

950BC - Temple in Sparta, to get culture while building GLH.
900BC - Delphi built on the Wine island. Go for RPC 3.

270BC. GLH built. Oracle and Pyramids built by others - no GL cascade. Good. Build Library in 4 turns, then start on GL.

50BC. Wines hooked up via Harbor.

10 AD. Arabs build GL. Switch Sparta to FP and Masonry at Max to switch it
to Palace. After that research Monarchy to build HG.

190 AD. Meet Zulu, trade for contacts with Egypt and Babylon,
their World Maps and some techs.

290AD. Built Hanging Gardens. Meet Persia on another Continent. Trade for all contacts, all WMs and remaining AA techs. Enter MA and get Feudalism. Revolt to Republic and get 3 turns of Anarchy on the 1st try! Is it PTW, or am I just lucky?

Attached is my world at 1000BC.

Predator PtW

Well the RNG did hate me big time in this game.
It took 12 suicide galleys to make contact. About half of them lost after the Lighthouse was built.
I made contact with Persians only in 10AD and then I didn't want to pay their monopoly prices so traded into MA only in 130AD

Settled north. Build warrior->granary

Science
3300 pottery
2110 writing
1500 map making
1225 literature
1075 philosophy
875 code of laws
470 republic
From there on only slow research hoping every turn to meet somebody
150 iron working
70 ceremonial burial
30AD mysticism
Finally in 130AD had four contacts and traded for the rest of AA techs, got mono as free tech, the same as Persia



QSC stats
9 cities, 15 pop
1 hoplite, 8 warriors, 2 galleys, 6 workers
3 granaries
pottery, writing, map making, literature, philosophy researched

With this lousy AA, I just finish the game somehow w/o big focus.

Newbie here,

Why are some of the graphics different in the screen shots? The last screen shot looks "prettier" with deeper colors and the terrian looks more detailed than what I see in my PTw setup.

Gom Jabbar, some people have downloaded graphics and terrain mods. Check the customization section.

You can go to the graphics sub-forum and find a graphics set that you like. Just remember to back up your old files before replacing with your newly downloaded graphics.

The forum is located here

EDIT: BTW, welcome to the forums!!!

Leaderless 20K

How can you get leaders if you don't have any enemies?

Last month, I aimed for and acheived domination. I had hoped the experience would have helped me break out of my normal builder-style diplomatic victories. This month was to be a war driven 20K victory. How was I to know this map would force me back into the builder mode? Greece is a perfect builder, and isolationism favors buildings, keeping the smallest of armies. Without anyone to whip on, my theoretical Leader Stream was shut off before it started. :shakehead

QSC was pretty pitiful with 4 cities. Two granarys, Three Libraries and the Colossus as well as:



My beginnings somewhat resembled Nada's opening. I moved to the East and designated Sparta as my 20K city. My Sparta was however on the West Coast. I missed out on the hills but gained the extra food from the fish (once we switched to Republic).


Sparta built:
Colossus 1175BC
Library 1075BC
Temple 925BC
Oracle 290BC
FP 110AD
Colloseum270AD

I too missed out on the Great Library, I also missed out on the Hanging Gardens.

I lost two suicide gallies, and decided to wait until Thermopylae finished the Great Lighthouse before trying again. That meant I researched the entire Ancient Age by myself! Having bee-lined to Map Making at Max and Literature at Max, I was able to build enough libraries (whipping included) to get all but republic at near 4 turn rate. By the time I met the other civs, one continent was in the Middle ages and the other was behind me. That was good for trading and I kept the two land masses in the dark until they could sail the gap for themselves. Unfortunately, all scientific civs got Monotheism, (what is this, Vanilla civ?)

So far, I'm headed towards the slowest 20K possible, without getting the GLib, Hanging Gardens and several high culture Middle age wonders.

I've filled my islands and the accessible ones to the east.

I managed to ship chain one settler over to grab some horses south of the Zulu. I was rushing a horseman every other turn there. The plan was to skip Chivalry and build lots of horsemen when my harbors connect. Then upgrade to cavalry. The next spoiler will indicate if I succeeded.

Good luck all.

Mac Vanilla Open

Ainwood, you are cruel!
Anyway, here is the rough outline of what happened. I actually have fairly detailed notes this time at least for the BC era, but forgot to save at 1000 BC and was afraid to go back to my autosave in case it looks like I had reloaded. Not that I was doing all that well anyway.

I kept hoping someone would meet me, or I would eventually find another continent separated by only coastal waters. No such luck! Should have started hard-core exploring much earlier. Got Great Library in Athens in 330AD. Building Great Lighthouse in Sparta, and missed it by 1 turn! Sparta switched to FP, then to Sun-Tzu and Leo’s later, but ended up losing all that production… I built a fair number of barracks and libraries, and enough harbors in other cities to get the wines and iron around to any island big enough to have multiple cities on it. I started to build up some warriors for upgrading, and to get some galleys ready, but by the time I switched to republic in 500AD (after a 6-turn anarchy- I didn’t get to roll again as I had postponed my revolution to wait for the Great Lighthouse to be built), I was pretty corrupt, most of my cities were not very productive, and I had a ton of units that needed to find someone to beat up on! Basically, I had to cut research way down after getting Republic. The way the early MA turned out, I should have gone Monarchy for the added unit support. But alas…
I would say the highlight of the game was getting a goodie hut, since I got none in GOTM 39!

Cities- all on ‘continent’ or nearby islands- this isn’t quite a complete list apparently:
3900 Athens (N of start position, on river)
2430 Sparta
1725 Thermopolae
1575 Corinth and previous 2 are RCP-3 from Athens
750 Delphi (on wine island)
710 Pharsos
470 Knossos
370 Ceremonial burial (from goody hut)
30BC Mycenae – on iron island next to my spacious continent.
110AD Plebia nexus founded
420AD Herakleia


Techs (all self-researched- obviously!)
Pottery 3100BC
Writing 1700BC
Mapmaking 1100BC
Literature 590BC
Ironworkign 370BC
Code of Laws 150BC
Phil 30BC
Republic 350AD
Wheel 380AD
730AD After meeting the more populated continent, finally Great Library kicked in, and I get remaining AA techs, plus first tier MA techs plus Invention.

Trades:
720AD After a couple of ship sinkages, finally meet another continent, Persians first. Trade contact w/romans for lit, terr. Map, 60g.
Romans give me contact with arabs for lit, world map, and 40g
Arabs give me contact with carthage for lit, world map, and 10g
I then get 30 gold from Persians for my world map.

My MA ended up going down the drain, so I may not finish this game. I’m anxiously awaiting the next spoilers, however, to see how people dealt with this crappy start!

open class - target: Diplomatic victory.

No detailed notes. I settled to the SW and did min research on writing followed by max on pottery, MM, Lit, Philo, CoL, Republic.

I think I lost 2 suicide galleys before the 3rd almost made it. I was adjacent to the border but still in a sea square. Contacted the Persians. They would not trade contacts for cash or techs. So, I tried to reneg peace to see if that would buy me something. It did: WAR!. It was a phone in war as neither could reach the other. They wouldn't sell my contacts, so I was still without any trading opportunity.

I had built Collosus in Sparta and was building GL. 3rd city was building GLH and just about done. I revolted to Republic via Big Picture and got a 6 turn anarchy. Re-rolled and got 2 turns. I was a Republic either just before or just after year 0. A few turns later I completed the GL and entered my Golden Age.

Before I had finished off the AA techs, another GLH assisted suicide galley was able to reach the big black area where another continent had to be located. I landed in the middle of Egyption territory. They were much more backwards than me and had only 3 cities! They had been beat on by the Babs. Using some ship chaining I was able to get a settler and some troops across the ocean. The settler headed for an unclaimed horse but was beaten to the site by the Babs. I then quickly eliminated the 3 cities to find that they had a settler somewhere. I made peace and set about readying a Palace jump.

I entered the MA before I completed the conquest of the Egyptians or the attempted Palace Jump.

I had fun playing this. I am looking forward to more. I am writing this from memory, so things may not be exact. The first time I sat down, I played straight through the first two ages. Play was sloppy, workers were somewhat inefficient after my first island was finished and I completely neglected diplomacy and trade once contacts were made.

My Approach
Since this was ‘only a regent game’ I felt I should try and accomplish something special. So I decided I would capture all the luxuries on the map (steal the golden fleece) and then launch a spaceship (sail to the stars). This would also match the Greek’s scientific and commercial traits. I thought I would be able to wage an ancient age war featuring Hoplites, and then build up my infrastructure enough to conduct 4 turn research. That was the plan.

The First Age

The start
I started by settling in place, my thought was that I would build a granary right away and use the first town to pump out settlers, never growing beyond size six. I also wanted a head start exploring. I moved my worker 1 tile North (this gave me a good view of the starting area) and started a road on the river for even more science and this also had a small side benefit of giving my first warrior an extra movement. It didn’t take long to discover I was on an island, but it looked like a nice island.

Science
I did 100% research on pottery and built my granary. I did 100% to writing and then to map making and then literacy. I never build wonders and it did not occur to me to build the Great Lighthouse right-away. I ended up building the Colossus, the Great Library, and then the Great Lighthouse.


Expansion
I got galleys pretty fast and sent my first galley to the east. I discovered all the islands and I used a second galley to follow up with settler/warrior combos to the islands. I eventually build four cities on the main land and settled eight more cities on all the islands including the large north-south island to the east. Later on I built two more cites on the single-tile resource islands. My third galley went west and discovered the dragon’s teeth, but since I never thought to build the GL I only had three movement. Eventually a suicide galley broke through on that side and I met Persia. The southern continent went undiscovered until almost the end of the first age although I could see where it was because of a suicide galley. It took a few more attempts before land faw was finally made.

Ending the first age
The Persian landmass had a bunch of techs but I didn’t trade too much because I didn’t want to give up my literacy edge on the Great Library. I researched several techs myself rather than let them get ahead. Not the best approach, but I was being greedy.

My GA and the Republic
I was building the great light library, but I was still in despotism. I wanted to get the thing built before I revolted to republic. Sure enough, as soon as the GL was completed, my GA kicked off. Never-the-less I revolted so I ended up losing four GA turns to anarchy. After that I started the Great Lighthouse.