GOTM 42 Second Spoiler - Entering the Industrial Ages

GOTM 42 Spoiler 2: Entering the Industrial Age

To qualify for this spoiler, you must have reached the industrial age. You must have a full-world map, and contact with all remaining civilizations.

The emperor difficulty level and the food-poor starting location will have meant that you had slow growth. Many saw an opportunity to improve their empire through conquest of the neighbouring Egyptians, although you may have found the Cathaginians and Greeks crowding the Egyptian borders.

Were you able to bring yourself to a position of being able to dominate the starting continent? As more of the map was revealed, did your strategy change?

20K definitely looks out of the question now. Only got Sun Tzu's and Leo's, and that's only 4 CPT more. Current projected 20k date is like 2150 AD, and Greece is way ahead already.

So, it's time to start shaping my Diplo win. I blocked off Greece with a bunch of obsolete units on their border, then signed them into an alliance against what was left of Egypt - Great attitude boost which helped me keep up in tech, but without the risk of them taking any cities. I started skirmishing with Carthage as well. Meanwhile, the Celts were busy conquering all on the other continent, and I figured I'd let them have it. I had a pretty solid plan in place: Get the UN(Thebes has HUGE production potential, I could probably get it in 9-10 turns) and then sign Greece in against the Celts, who look unstoppable on the other continent. Carthage was still in the way, but that's a story for the Industrial spoiler. I started building cannons for upgrades to Artillery, and Cavalry for the conquest of Carthage(with Greece's help).

By the end of the Middle Ages, 20k was definitely out of the question unless I got a lot of leaders out of Carthage and could capture just about every Industrial Age wonder, and then I'd still have to take over Athens, and then on top of that slow the tech pace to the point where no one could get a space race victory before 2020ish and also get the UN. Diplo is looking MUCH easier.

Open

I aimed for domination at first, but when the IA age came, I changed to Diplomatic. At start, I went war with Egypt(w/ alliance with Greece). Took all of their cities except for two(Greece got the 2). When the war ended, made war to Carthage, after some turns, got most of their cities(w/ wonders in them). Got conrol of Sun Tzu, Oracle, Great Wall, Leo's, Great Lighthouse. I finished them off but they still have a city on an island.
When the war ended, I was really behind in tech. By the time I got Chivalry, Greece has already, Military Tradition. What I did was make Knights so that I can upgrade them to cavalries. By the time IA ended, I was the second most advanced civ and Greece being the first. I noticed that all the wonders that was built was on our continent. Greece and Carthage were the only ones that have wonders. Since, I kicked Carthage off the continent, I now control their wonders.

PTW Open.

AA spoiler

10BC - get Republic but Greeks beat us to it by 1 turn or so, so we can't trade it for remaining AA techs and have to research Currency ourselves.

170AD - galley reaches Vikings, we finish Currency and enter MA.
190AD - trade contacts and WMs around, get Feudalism.
330Ad - terrible news: Byblos (our only horse town) deposes to Carthage.

530AD: FP completes in Thebes. Chivalry learned: it's time to dow on Carthage. But how? No Horses, and they have GW and Numidians...
I'm trying to collect MI on their border when I realize that I'm doing really bad and that the game is slipping.
Research in 15-20 turns, not enough cities, Greeks and Vikings are so much more powerful than us...

I deside to take on Egypt and get their last 2 continental towns, leaving them 1 city on an island. Get a GL!
We rushed J.Bach with it in 700AD (Leo was taken, Sistine was useless as we didn't plan on having cathedrals but we really needed to move Lux slider down). But before that we had to finish Education and it took us so long that we freaked out and bought Music Theory from Vikings for a huge price.

Luckily right after we were done with it Carthage dow on Greece, and we join in, hoping to prey on the weakened titan. We figure that Hoplites without GW would be easier to beat than Numidians with GW, and we leave Byblos alone and aim for the Greek horse town, Farsalos.
Turn our MIs around to face Greece, but when they reach Greek border they are met by Muskets instead of Hoplites...

After a long war we didn't manage to take any of the Greek continental cities but got some Techs and money in the peace deal plus conquered a city on a close island next to the last Egypt city.

My research is getting better with FP and libraries but is still bad, about 10-15 turns per tech.
Try Banking as nobody knows it yet and finally succeed in getting monopoly tech. Trade it around, get more Techs (GunPowder and Navigation - finaly could trade overseas and get some luxuries).

Try for Economics next and again we are the 1st to get it, prebuilding for Smith's before that. Trade it around, get Chem and Metallurgy, aim for Physics to change for ToG or something. Finish Smith's first.

Things are starting to look brighter but our hopes for quick Domination should be abandoned. We will aim for Diplo now - whenever that would be.

Get Horses from Aztecs for some outdated Techs - Aztecs were supplying Horses for the rest of the game from that time on.
And Carthage hardly have Musketmen in place.
And then it hits me: we've already got Metallurgy, it means - no more GW for Carthage! But I managed to enter silly 6gpt for Lux trade with them recently, had to wait 12 turns for it to expire.

Spent the time wiping out the last Egyptian island city - former Greek island city came in handy.

990AD. We research the last MA tech (Physics, I think) and enter IA.

Sell Physics to Greece and they get Nationalism, gift Russia to IA and they get Steam Power but won't trade it to me but trade it to Greece immediately.
Greece are the leaders of the world now and they also have MT. I'm afraid of them and deside to spend time researching MT myself rather than valuable IA techs because nobody would trade MT to me.

1040AD. We get MT and finally get ourselves some Cavalry with Aztecs' Horses.

After that we researched Medicine in 9 turns and got SP from Russia and Nationalism from Vikings who managed to self-research it by that time, and trade Nationalism to the rest of the world, finally getting other Civs to sponsor our research.

The rest will wait till next spoiler.
All I can say now is that IA was very eventful.

Attached are: my empire at 1000AD at the beginning of IA, the Fateful Flip of Byblos and my Puny Army in war with Greece.

open, 20K

with the completion of the great library, i entered the MA.
a war started with Egypt and that triggered my golden age at 150 AD
culture city veii making 25 per turn, 3 corrupted

450 AD, greece sneak attacked me... allied Carthage against him...

600AD, abandon Rome and palace jump to Thebes
and the same year, finally after losing about 6 galleys i found the viking!!! i almost broke into tears... my palace prebuild in Veii has been waiting for a long long time and i've tried every tricks to prevent it from running over..
but after get all the contact, i almost cried again-- no one has any MA techs that i don't have yet!

610AD, traded everything i had to Greece for chivary, banking, music theory. giving him about 200gpt and 1500 gold. of course i cannot let greece get that strong and so i declare war on him and my reputation was forever gone...

and Greece was such a world power in my game. (and it is so for most spoiler i read. Egypt should be a counter force if not for its neighbor Rome). the entire MA they were about 3 or more techs ahead from all other AI and Rome. there's really no way for me to trade with him due to the high price of monopoly tech. so trading with Greece using gpt and declare is the only way i can keep myself in pace with those wonder-enabling techs... i was at war throughout the entire game with Greece afterwards, just to be able to trade with him... how sad... my war weariness was unbearable and lux slide is always at 40%..

at the end of the MA, the war against Greece was so intense that even Veii started to produce knights/cavalry... i figure i didn't have much chance to hand build any wonders and the only way is to get great leaders anyway...

i forgot when i entered IA but it doesn't matter too much.
building sequence:
1990 BC Temple
1250 BC Colossus
410 BC Great Library
290 BC Library
170 BC Colosseum
210 AD Forbidden Palace
270 AD Cathedral
610 AD Bach's Cathedral
640 AD Heroic Epic
680 AD University
990 AD Shakespeare's Theatre
1070 AD Newton's University

Athen was really a competitor, grabbing almost all the other high cpt wonders that Veii failed to get... at one point after i lost the sistine chapel, i almost gave up my 20K goal.. (actually i didn't even have theology when Greece finished it. i only have a prebuild that eventually became the Bach's cathedral).

i have never tried a 20K on empiror and it's really hard for me. i had a terrible time playing the game and didn't even keep notes about my great leader dates... i had a few but really couldn't recall which wonders were rushed.. smart readers may figure it out from the date...

Xerol said:

20K definitely looks out of the question now. Only got Sun Tzu's and Leo's, and that's only 4 CPT more. Current projected 20k date is like 2150 AD, and Greece is way ahead already.

Click to expand...

well, at the beginning of MA, my projected 20k date is later than 2500AD..
did you count in the shakespear's theater and the university? they two make a big difference.. (why did you choose Sun Tzu and Leo over sistine and Bach's cathedral? that'll be 12cpt)

Availability. I got Sun Tzu's after Sistine's was grabbed by Athens and Leo's was the only thing left after I got my first of 3 total leaders in the game. I might've waited until Smith's but Thebes built that by hand in the early IA(I needed the cash for upgrades) and no one even researched Democracy until after Infantry were about. This would've meant a ~1650ish build for Shakespeare's, way way way too late to help.

Xerol said:

I might've waited until Smith's but Thebes built that by hand in the early IA

Click to expand...

it's refreshing to see that Thebes survived this long... with an extrememely fertile land, Thebes is doomed in most spoilers. good thing is that you're trying for diplo.

Hey Thebes is still around in my game... of course as the centerpiece of my Empire. Open 20K attempt.

The RNG gods that gave me an early leader turned around and decided to sink every single galley I sent out. Attempts to the west of the Northern Greek islands? Sank. Attempts via barb island across the ocean to the west? Sank, and killed by barb galleys. An attempt to the east from the SE point sank within sight of land. I finally made contact in 450 AD.

Such a late contact coupled with the 2000 year war between Greece and Carthage (egypt had been relegated to fighting barbs for all time on Barbarian Island) meant a slower than Christmas research pace. I waited and waited for contact to give me some free techs, but to no avail so I decided to start my golden age and research mono and the rest asap. I declared on Greece and began leader farming on medieval infantry. I couldnt really make any headway on greece without pumping legions out of Thebes, so I had to be content to whack the enemies that strolled down into my "funnel of doom" north of thebes. Got two leaders, one for an army and one for Sistines.

Research was slow. I had to do all of it myself; the other continent was at war quite a bit. I crammed as many cities in the south and around as I could, and eventually also settled barb island.

My builds:

90 AD Colosseum
380 Cathedral
500 Heroic Epic
510 Sistines
590 Uni
820 Bachs
970 Copes
1140 Shakes
1270 Newtons

I was beaten to Smith's by 3 turns.

Open 1.29 Still Struggling for 20K

First post is here. Ancient Age 4000BC - 210BC

Egyptian War
The MA we started at war with Egypt, being in Golden Age anarchy. Roman republic was established 170BC. As reported, Egypt had an alliance with Greece against Carthage and did not put up a good fight. We took their cities in fertile lands, but fought slowly against the troops trickling from the 2 jungle towns NNW of Rome, fishing for Leaders. Trajan builds an army 90BC, Hadrian and Maximus hurry Wonders.

Contacts
Cumae on the eastern coast built galleys. The 2nd spotted orange(?) borders before sinking 70AD. It took until 410AD and galley 6 until we meet Vikings and Aztec ship; regrettably our galley was still in unsafe waters and sank. The other continent was mostly backward (apart from Russia knowing engineering). I immediately instigated wars among the civs to prevent as much as possible their progress and Wonder building.

Carthaginian War
We declare war on Carthage in 600AD to get the horses NW of Memphis. The war was fought with cavs vs. muskets and lasted well into the Industrial Ages. In an alliance with Greece, we let them do most of the fighting but move in for the kill (capturing of cities). This was successful with all but the 3 towns on the northern coast which were finally conquered by the Greeks. We then blocked the isthmus near memphis trapping the Greek units in the north. Greece soon afterwards finished Carthage by conquering their final barb island capitol.

Research
The Great Library gave us techs up to invention. I traded for education from Greece 540AD to move towards the MA high cpt Wonders and started research trading techs with Alex and making some gpt also. Towards the end of the MA, I was well ahead, but not enough to ensure getting the Wonders I desired. Industrial Times start 1060AD with full research on steam.

20k Veii
The city developed nicely and reached pop 12 in 190AD, being second only Thebes in raw power.

Cultural builds:
150BC Great Wall
90BC colosseum
110AD Heroic Epic
300AD Forbidden Palace
350AD cathedral
460AD Sistine (Leader)
520AD Sun Tzu's (Leader)
540AD university
720AD Copernicus's
890AD Shakespeare's
1120AD Newton's

We lost Hanging Gardens and Leo's to Keltoi, Bach's to Golden Age Moscow - I didn't think of this when embassy establishment told me Veii would win the race. Cumae is working on Smith's to secure it for us should Veii fail to get it from another Leader.

Big Picture
On capturing Thebes, it looked like an extremely good spot for a Palace move. However, I had to complete the Forbidden Palace in Veii first, and since I had no Leaders to spare, Thebes had to get up to pop 12 (as Veii) plus a lot of troops had to pile in the city. Rome was abandoned (and rebuilt) 450AD and we had a second core and started to amass power for the unavoidable struggle for dominance with Greece in the Industrial Ages. Most of the time our military was weak compared to them (sometimes average) and notorious Alexander commited a couple of extortion crimes.



The minimap shows our empire on entering the Industrial Ages before the final turns of the Carthaginian war. The relatively small number of cities helped a lot top keep corruption at less than 15% and all cities were at least reasonably productive. I tried to flip the Greek city (with saltpeter) south of Rome, but Greek's overall cultural lead prevented that from happening.

The other continent civs I kept busy in fighting among them. Aztecs was backward, Vikings relatively weak, Russia and Keltoi the strong powers (but weaker than Greece).

After loosing my 6th galley, I did not build any more naval units. But from the large number of Greek and Carthage vessels moving to the SW island, I concluded that this was an area of "regionally intense barbarian activity".

PTW, Open. Domination/Conquest victory

Sounds like the Greeks have really been giving people trouble in this game. Almost makes me feel better about what I did to them.

Small backup: Around 290 bc, after making peace with the Egyptians, I realized that I could get Monarchy in about 16 turns for a net loss of -8. Alexander had a monopoly on the Republic yet lacked Currency and Polytheism. Carthage was at war with the Greek but in the MA. If I got a monopoly on Monarchy, I could probably get the Republic out of Greece a turn ahead of schedule, revolt once I researched it, and trade it to Carthage thereafter for a discount on some MA tech.

110 bc: Monarchy now due in 4 turns.
90 bc: Carthage takes Monarchy before I can . Now due in two turns, but it'll be useless for trading.
30 bc: 4 turns left for peace with Egypt before I take the remainder of their continental cities. Carthage clearly has the upper hand on Greece in the open field. They've pushed the confrentations back to Egypt's side of the map. For the record, Carthage has also been at war with Egypt, and has mopped up two Egyptian cities for me on the Carthage side of the map.
10 ad: Greece demands I pay them some homage. The bots really have a warped sense of military strength. I refuse the demand, Greece declares. Sign an MA against them with Carthage so I don't have to keep my flank defended.
30 ad: Peace with Egypt expires, and I push forward into their lands, capturing the spices rich Elephantine the next turn.
190 ad: I take the last Egyptian city (extra ivory) and it auto-razes. Arrived just before the Carthagians could take it.
210 ad: For some reason I've researched Feudalism before Republic. Greece is still up me Engineering and Republic (both of which are monopolies).
320 ad: Many regular Greek troops and one leveled island town later, I'm able to make peace with Alexander for Republic (still a monopoly, but I get it in 3 turns). Not certain but I think I got a 4 turn anarchy. FP will build in Thebes in 2 turns. In the IBT, one of Greece's nearby size 11 cities takes The Great Library.

While I really want that Great Library city, I'm too afraid of it flipping to the Greek. And because of those city walls, I still need to build up my forces quite a bit before I could efficiently assault them. Also, Greek culture is way ahead of my own and Carthage's. If I take Carthage's cities, I don't have to resettle them, and could just kill them off to destroy flipping possibilities. For Greece I'd need several galley's to reach all their offshore cities. What to do??

490 ad: Most of the Greek cities still lack aquaducts and all of them have city walls. Since Greece has the Great Wall, I'm going to have to attack Carthage, just as soon as my spices deal ends next turn. As a side note, they've been stupid about not expanding their boarders to connect their iron, though it would hardly help them at this point.
500 ad: Declare on Carthage. Sign an MA against them with Greece.
540 ad: Using the Legionaries as Pike substitutes, I'm able to form an effective blockade that forces the majority of the Numadian/longbowmen to go around the hills/mountains.
610 ad: The war on Carthage has gone well. I'm making the 3 tile march towards Carthage herself and have just now produced my first Great Leader. Most of their army is smashed, and I'm conquering cities defended by two Numadians and a rushed Longbowman.
620 ad: GL rushes Sun Tzu's in Hilaspolis. The Celt's complete Sistine on the same turn 0_0 !!
700 ad: Cancel MA against Carthage and sign a peace for invention (their only tech I don't have). I leave them one city to keep Greece from turning all those troops in my territory against me, as I am planning to give Alexander the ole' boot order and slaughter them once Chivalry comes in. (See this link).
740 ad: Chivalry comes in, mass upgrade most of the horsemen I've been stockpiling.
750 ad: Give Alexander the boot order, he declares. I slaughter his entire offensive force right there He is currently up me both Theology and Gunpowder. My army will split and crawl up both sides of Greece in an attempt to cut off wherever their gunpowder is.
900 ad: Ugh... those Muskets have run me low on Knights and MI's. Greece still has Athens, two other continental cities, and several island cities. Athens built Da Vinci's shortly after I nabbed Tzu's, and I really want that Da Vinci's. Peace cannot get me education, though since I've switched to researching, I can get it in 4 turns. I make peace for one of their crappy island cities.

Greece lacks Chemistry, which I have due in 6, and will trade for Education. And then it will it will finally be time to start teching up and blow by wherever the other bots are at in their research. The latest wonder to be built was Bach's by the Greek, so I'm not too concerned with the bots being beyond my own tech level.

1120 ad: One of my suicide Caravel's spots a brown boarder.
1130 ad: The caravel survives for some reason and I make first contact with the outer world. Later this turn, I take the last Egyptian town. Carthage was killed off some short while back.

Mini-Map of the world

Not too bad, the Russians are up Theory of Gravity. Vikings are down Physics, Celts are even with me. The Aztecs are WAY behind. They're still missing all the first teir MA techs. I don't think I've ever seen a bot on Emperor fall that far behind on a continent. Of these nations, the Vikings are at war with the Celts and Russians. Russia only at war with the Vikings. The Aztecs are at war with no one. Greece has yet to be able to establish any contacts with the next continent, but I won't be letting them give new techs to Montezuma. 7 more turns of peace with Greece. As soon as Military Tradition comes in, Greece will be killed off, and Da Vinci's will finally be mine with no chance of flippage.

However, what to do about the other continent? If I charge into the industrial age and build several Galleons with combined arms troops, I shouldn't have much difficulty establishing a beachead and advancing into Russia with lots of combat settlers. But the combined arms approach is getting too old for me, and I hate having to resettle large cities if I can help it. With the low food startout, I was at least hoping to get into the modern age before the game is over.

Looking at the date, I assume I'm way too late to get any kind of good score in comparison to the rest of the gotm players. Therefore, I descided to try something different for a change. I'll try to hamper the bot's progression of science by exploiting the current wars and building massive amounts of naval bombing equipment once I get the technologies. Then I can wreak havok on the bot's scientific progression and knock most of their cities back to pop 1.

For that I'll need lots of ironclad/destroyers to hit all those costal cities. And then a large fleet of cruisers to really reduce the world's population. Since I have Da Vinci's, I can build quite a lot of tanks once I get the right tech, and mass upgrade them to modern armor for a 1 turn conquest of the entire other continent. With that plan, I made a late entrance into the industrial age in 1230ad.

Stats at a time:
490ad (Before attack on Carthage):
-32 Legionaries
-18 Medieval Infantry
-42 Workers (not counting slaves)
-20 Cities

750ad (Before attack on Greece):
-16 Knights
-27 Legionaries
-21 Medieval Infantry
-5 Pikemen
-6 Horsemen
-6 Catapults
-47 Workers
-12 Settlers
-31 Cities

1230ad
-49 Knights
-22 Legionaries
-13 Medieval Infantry
-8 Galleons
-106 Workers
-55 Cities

Mistakes and Miracles:
- Made a huge by researching Monarchy-Feudalism-Republic. Going Republic in the mid-300ad's really slowed down the speed of conquest.
- Made a pretty big n00b error by not getting a courthouse into Thebes before starting the FP. Went back and checked some older saves and found out it could have built somewhere around 10 turns faster.
- Not sure if waiting for Caravels to find the other continent was a mistake or not. I really did NOT want to be put in a position where Greece started getting tons of $$ from outside nations and ran away in the tech lead. On the other hand, had the Vikings and Russians not been deadlocked in centuries of warfare, they most likely would have already been industrial by the time I found them.
- Was a pretty amazing miracle that my Great Leader emerged just barely in time to take Tzu's. Had it been one turn later, the Celts may have nabbed it.
- Not only was the first direction I chose to test out for the other continent the right direction, but my Caravel did not sink on the very first try. I really don't think that's ever happened before.

700ad Horseman roadblock
1130ad Mini-map
World @ 1230ad

Open class. Quickest victory I can get (maybe Diplo).

Egypt had been reduced to a Tundra Island city in the North during the 2nd Egypt war. This left me in the middle with Carthage and Greece being powerful AIs on my continent. I had an initial war with Greece and was able to get one of the old Egypt cities before I got peace. Greece and Carthage were at constant war for a long time mostly fighting near Thebes. This was a good war in that most of Greece's and Carthage's units were being consumed.

I spent the Middle ages researching towards Military Tradition and trading for much GPT with the other continent. Eventually Greece got Navigation and got contacts with everyone. This limited my trading opportunities as I had wrecked my reputation thinking that it would be tought to kill off all my neighbors before they got to the other continent.

While researching to Cavalry I built a 4 cities that with libraries were able to push my borders just outside of Carthage and a few other cities. I was massively behind in tech and all AIs were up Education and most of the upper tree. Only Greece and I had Mil Trad. Carthage had the Great Library (and also Sun Tzu's), so they were my target to be my elevator to the Industrial Age. This GL Elavator actually almost got me to the Industrial Age. I still had Magnets and ToG to research.

A few turns before I was ready for war I gave an ROP to Greece to soften up Carthage for me. The move order was Me - Carthage - Greece so this worked really well. During the entire Carthage war Greece only captured 2 cities from Carthage, but there were a few close calls where I only had to fight redlined units on my turn. I got a great leader during the war and used him to move my Palace a second time to reduce flip risk. Carthage still flipped once during the war and was immediately recaptured and at about that time I eliminated Carthage.

In my game the Vikings are the run-away civ over on the other continent. While I was taking out Carthage they were about to eliminate the Russians but I eventually gave them a city to save them for a Diplo vote.

Future plans:
Instigate a war with Greece and get at least the Vikings to participate. Reduce Greece to a single city.

Eliminate what's left of Egypt, who now have 2 cities. The second of which is located on the Southern Barb Island and was responsible for the removal of about 30 Barb horses once their spear defender was destroyed.

Actually, Thebes WAS part of my empire then - they only had 2 cities left after the second war, neither of which was on very good land. I just needed to get Smith's as fast as possible, and with no leaders available, Greece bearing down on 20k MUCH faster than I was, and me being in a serious cash deficiency trying to upgrade my pikes/muskets(even with Leo's) to Industrial Age units made a serious need to get that fast. I didn't go into too much detail because that's beyond the scope of the spoiler.

Just to recap, though I essentially wrapped up my game with my AA spoiler:

I crawled into the Middle Ages by extorting some tech from Egypt, but Thebes still stood, protected by the Great Wall and the Uber-Spearmen-From-Hell (it had withstood one small Archer rush by being size 7, another 10-Archer rush by beating the slightly unfavourable RNG Gods, and a 7-Legion hit by having Muskets...).

I finally got Thebes with combined Catapults and Med Inf, and finally got Horses, too, but by the time my first Knights rolled off the line, I'd witnessed plenty of Greek Cavalry heading for Carthage.

I blocked off the Greeks with a line of troops, but they declared on me eventually and swept me aside like the little men made of sticks that my "military" was.

My empire finally succumbed in 1190AD.

OPEN, going for conquest

After I became a republic, I upgraded a few warriors to legion and triggered my GA when I destroyed the Egypts.
The next 500 years or so went uneventful.
Greece was very aggressive in the AA, they declared war twice without real reason, so I kept the border with Greece armed with legions. Carthago never showed any sort of agression, they left me alone and I did not bother them.

The real fun during this time was dealing with the barb infested island in the South.

I was strenghtening my empire, about 30 workers were clearing the jungle to make these cities productive. Around 350 AD I started to build horsemen for a mass upgrade as soon as I get MT.
in 400 AD MT was researched and net turn my SODs were ready for a war with Greece:



The hoplites put up a better fight than expected (some real bad battle luck), but they were finally no match against my cavalaries.
Carthago had in the meanwhile the great lighthouse completed. Ready for my to take it. (it was not really essential, it only saved 1 turn sailing to the other continent.
In time when the war with Carthago was finished, my research of navigation was completed, so I sailed to the other continent.

The Vikings have been the powerhouse early on, but then all the other civs engaged in war with them (ahm I initiated these wars of course).
When I arrived, all civs were rather weak in military, so it was almost a walkthrough untill the last Russian city fell in 850 AD.



It was a nice game, I did not play particularly well. I am sure my conquest time can be beaten by at least 200 years.
I liked the starting continent where Egypt was the logical choice as an early war because the two other civs have excellent AA defensive units.
The barbarian island in the South was a nice extra feature.

Predator PtW

Entered the MA in 250BC. We were at war with Carthage at that time, but our next target really was Egypt.
So in 210BC we DoWed Egypt, made peace with Carthage and allied them.
We also took Thebes and started our golden age with one of our 3 legions (never built more).
Egypt was reduced to one city by 10AD and finally destroyed by Carthage 90AD.

The next few 100 years were quite peaceful. I had a little skirmish with Carthage, but mainly I was settling towns and building up forces for the war with Greece.
In 190AD the palace jumped into Abydos located at the Greek border.

War with Greece started in 420AD with Athens taken in 450AD. But Athens was a major problem.
It 4 times flipped back. Because it had Sun Tsu's it got a veteran hoplite every time. These cost me several units.
In 760AD Greece was down to 2 cities on the southern barb island and given peace.
I had settled several cities claiming luxes on the other continent by then, but I still had to clean the home continent.
Carthage was out by 850AD. The last two Greek cities also were taken around this time.
The rest was shipping over cavs and taking out Aztecs then Celts then Vikings (Russia was destroyed by the Vikings long before).
Conquest victory in 990 AD.

PTW Open. Goal is survival.

I staretd the MA behind in tech, and my main aim was to reduce that gap and finish egypt off. I had bad luck when Pi-Ramesses flipped back to egpyt, which pissed me off so I declared war on them immediately to take it back. I also moved a stack of 12 legion to thebes ready to take it the following turn. However I obviously failed to moev enough troops to defend pi ramesses and immediately lost it IBT to Egypts counter attack. My stack by thebes had good RNG luck and I only lost 3 legion, whereas egypt lost 12 units attacking the stack. However this luck did not last the following turn when the remaining men attacked thebes, and a red lined spear held out while my stack died. I then bought an alliance against egypt with Greece to simply stop them doing me more damage. in 870ad i retook pi ramesses, as egypt was getting destroyed by an already industrial age Greece. I moved some MI to take thebes, but Greece destroyed thebes with infantry and cavlary, which at least enabled me to settle the lands formally occupied by greece. Clearly I would have to remain friendly with greece, which i did by joining them in wars against carthage - although i didn't do any fighting. As I was about to enter the Industrial age this happened



I have 3 muskets.....still this is the furthest i've ever got in an emperor game,

PTW open

Entered the MA in 90BC.
I finally decided upon the disered victory condition: Moooo. Egypt was reduced to one town in southeast, which they extended by another two towns on the southern coast. Going for the cow means I have to increase population. I let the new Rome launch settlers every four turns for eternity. Of course I have to get rid of the Greek and the Carthagians. Especially the Greek worry me: they're racing through the tech tree, have plenty Wonders and most of all an enormous culture:


In 170AD Pi-ramesses joins Greece and in 330 Hippo Regius joins Carthage. In 600 we got cavalry and it's high time to slow down the Greeks. I dow them and raze Knossos.
Next turn we raze Ephesus but loose Plebos Nexia. We raze all Greek cities which don't have important wonders, because of the Greek culture and because we want to perform an efficient city-planning for the cow.

In 630 the Egyptians enter our lands and somehow it seems I can't boot them . So I dow Egypt too but keep focussed on Greece because the Egyptians are no threat anymore. We recapture Plebos Nexia and raze Herakleia, Pharsalos and Cyrene. We capture Corinth because it has Sun Tzu. Finally in 710 the second Greek war ends for contact with the Russians and 28 gold. The other continent is divided between the Vikings and the Russians, the Celts and Aztecs long since have vanished. I dow the Vikings and ally the Russians, to keep them both occupied.

I now reduce Egypt to 1 city, Byblos, and make peace with them in 750 for 3 workers, world map and 5 gold. It also brings me my first MGL, which I save for a new capitol in the Greek lands. In 800 we make peace with the Vikings ( I don't give a ... for my rep in this game ), the Russians fight on of course.

810AD Corinth (Sun Tzu) joins Greece.

In 910 I've regained strength and the open spaces are settled, so it's time for the third Greek war. I dow them and loose Tyrus. 920 recapture Tyrus and capture Athens (Pyramids, Great Wall and Leonardo's). 930 Athens joins Greece. 940 recapture Athens. In 950 we found Mediolanum, hurry the palace in it and rename to Rome. Thebes gets it's name back and has finished a FP prebuild.

After the razing of Qitaiodea, Delphi and Mycenea and the capture of Sparta (Hanging Gardens, Colossus) the Greek are banned from the continent and we enter the Industrial Ages. It's 1000AD.

Hereby the Greek culture in the Middle Ages.

I'm totally new. Just wondering if I can still enter this month's "game of the month contest? If so, when will we have to submit them by.
Also, I have conquests, but I saw someone mention that you can find the appropriate executable file within conquests to start regular civ 3. If this is true, can somebody explain where to find it, or point me in the right direction?

@GucciOvaries,
Welcome to CFC.

Since you are posting in the Second Spoiler thread I will assume that you have read this. As such you have now spoiled your ability to play the game without fore knowledge and would have an unfair advantage. You are of course welcome to play any of the games, but you would not be allowed to honorably submit GOTM42.

Goto http://gotm.civfanatics.net/ to get info and/or download starting saves.

As for conquests and regular civ3. You should have a ptw.exe or civilization3.exe program somewhere if you have installed. This will allow you to play in the classic GOTM in the future.