COTM14 First Spoiler: Starting Landmass, Ancient Age Resources

This month we are starting the first spoiler thread a few days earlier than usual, with the idea of focussing the discussion on the early turns; a second, more comprehensive AA spoiler will follow shortly.

It is clear that any division of a game recap is somewhat artificial.
This approach -somewhat limited, frequent spoilers- is meant to support the discussion and exchange of strategies, experience etc. without imposing too many constraints nor requiring long waits beore the talk can be started. Let's see if it works...


So. This thread is meant to discuss mainly:
- Initial build-research strategy
- Exploration and expansion
- Any diplomatic activities
- Use of the strategic resources
in relation to the features of your starting landmass


In order to take part in it, you should have at least:
- full knowledge of your entire starting landmass
- including the location of any AA strategic resources within it

EDIT: Ops, I forgot. Please, also limit your recap here to AA events only.

Relevant external events to this spoiler can be discussed (say, an AI declared war on you, or another completed the Great Lighthouse or whatever): just keep in mind that some players will read and post in this spoiler that may have not yet discovered the exact locations of other civs or key features of the map.

AA Spoiler: Where's my Iron?

Settled on the spot and soon met the Germans. Traded Alphabet for Warrior Code and 10 gold. I hoped this would appease them, as they are an aggresive bunch. I used klarius' opening build sequence and it worked out great. I don't have Excel on my computer so I miss out on doing these opening calculations which can have a tremendous impact on your game. I now realize how a few misplaced shileds/food/etc in the early game translates into several turns of loss later in the game.

I was able to expand peacefully and got 2 curraghs out which were sunk before making very much progress. Those barbarian ships are just mean. I made contact with France and Spain. I used bribes to keep them at war with each other a lot.

In science I went for Republic slingshot and got it in 1525BC. I have had a comfortable lead in science and I don't think Germany has met anyone yet...they are pretty backwards as well.

Future plans are to build cities on islands and secure some Iron, then try to take over the world.

QSC STATS
1 city/6 towns
31 population
7 workers
11 horsemen
1 galley
all AA techs except Polytheism, Currency, Monarchy, and Construction.

How did you get republic slingshot? Did you trade for CoL or research?

Praesidian said:

How did you get republic slingshot? Did you trade for CoL or research?

Click to expand...

Self-research. I traded Code of Laws away the first turn I researched it and went straight to Philosophy.

I'll give my spoiler a name MP style: Giving the Germans a Taste of their Own Medicine.

Build sequence was warrior, curragh, granary. This left me very concerned about the aggressive neighbors to the North, who we realized were there upon border expansion. My note from 2900- "Very worried. German units milling about in the south of their empire. Settler changed to spear." I ended up paying them some gpt to appease them and get the wheel.

Writing came in and in 2470 I established an embassy. Berlin has just produced a settler, is size 1, only defended by 2 spears. My capital is pulling in 10 shields per turn and had already built a barracks. Hmmm what to do. 10 turns and five archers later we were marching to Berlin with a regular spear for defense.

By 1725 Berlin was mine for good, and would become my FP spot. In 1700 we make peace with the Germans for most of their empire: (never mind, previous picture had a spoilish minimap and Im too lazy to edit it now. The Germans gave me 2 cities and all their gold for peace and were pretty much gassed.)

Philo and rep came in in 1450 and I got a nice 2 turn anarchy. The Great Lighthouse and the Colossus were both built pre 1400 BC, so no GA there.

QSC was 10 towns, 24 pop, 2 settlers, London growth in one to size 7. Reached MA at 850 BC. The German towns aside from Berlin were extremely angry for while and had nothing but a specialist until I could connect em. France and Spain were met by the initial curragh before it succumbed to barbs. Spain kept demanding things (rebuffed every time of course) and eventually declared war around the govt change time; I'll have to overly tax their stamps and tea when I make them a colony as punishment. We eventually negotiated peace when they got construction and polytheism, which I traded for to enter the MA.

killercane said:

Philo and rep came in in 1450 and I got a nice 2 turn anarchy.

Click to expand...

Well I got philo and rep in 1550bc, and drew a predictable 7 turns. Oh, well at least it wasn't 9.

Nice early war .

Well the nice little town capture simulator came in handy... So thanks in more ways than one. It gave me a 92.2% chance of success w/ 5 archers vs. 2 reg spears by going to the mountain first and avoiding going across the river, 78.6% if they have another spear waiting. I figured it was only a matter of time before the Germans attacked me, so better to take the initiative.

I wouldnt be surprised if someone gets sneak attacked by the Germans ultra early; they worried me quite a bit.

Moderator Action: Moved to GOTM

Moderator Action: Thanks Chieftess. Spoiler post from outside the GOTM Forum deleted and PM'd back to originator. AlanH

Thought about 20k, changed my mind, don't know what I'm going for at the moment. Initial build was warrior-granary-settler-warrior-settler. Made a couple of stuff ups, that 2nd settler wasted a lot of shields, I should have slipped a curragh in before it and only lost 1 turn. Also checked how long a worker had to finish chopping, and woke him up. Also didn't realise I had horses until late, they're hiding under a city.

Research was full speed for a republic slingshot, which I reached in 1550BC. Held off the revolt for a turn to finish 4 builds, drew a 5 turn anarchy, and I'm a republic in 1400AD. I traded alphabet to the germans for 2 workers early, and pottery for bronze working as soon as I met someone and it got cheaper. trading for other techs waited until I'd contacted other civs, and there was a chance for being middleman. nobody had writing, spain had iron working and germany didn't, writing got me iron, writing and iron got me the 4 first tier techs I didn't have, next turn I met france and writing got me mysticism too.

Raging barbs are no fun, one curragh found a stack of galleys, played chaseys and found another stack, but got away, kept running, came round the tip of an island and found some more. 6 galleys v 1 curragh wasn't pretty.

Current plans are working out when to eliminate germany, and when to trigger a GA. Lighthouse will give extra movement, and more importantly let me hide from barbs in sea squares (I think).

once I discovered that Germany shares the Island, the thought was set on an archer rush.
I started building 2 curraghs first before a rax and then finally mil units. Met everyone before MA, but curraghs were pestered by those 'locally active' barbs and eventually all sunk. I fought a tough battle with Germany 2 times, first war taking 3 towns and razing one, the final battle taking the remaining 3 towns. Since I redeclared before the end of 20 turns, I made sure Germans knew nobody before eliminating, so nobody knows about my atrocious warfare

Predator

I decided to go for exploration first.
So my builds were warrior - 2 curraghs - granary - settlers.
Science to slingshot (what else ).
Got philo-republic in 1650 (all self research), but got also a few tech trades in between (I had 3 contacts in 3050 already).
One of my curraghs managed to sneak through barb galleys and found 3 more civs before 1000, so I knew everybody except Babylon.
Entered MA in 1075BC by researching polytheism.
At 1000BC I have 10 towns with 35 population.
No war in AA, but that will change - the goal is conquest.

1000BC:

Since I redeclared before the end of 20 turns, I made sure Germans knew nobody before eliminating, so nobody knows about my atrocious warfare

Click to expand...

Dead men tell no tales, 'tis good logic.

Man, reading these posts makes me feel like such an amateur . Knowing that I was on an archipelago map, I made curraghs a high-priority build-and have discovered the lie of the land-and that of the nearby islands. It was depressing, though, to run into the Germans so early-and to see their rapid settler production. Quite frankly, this is my very first COTM, and I am already getting my butt firmly thrashed. Should point out, though, that this is also my first game on Emporer.
So, now its time to change strategy. Beeline for map-making so that I can get triremes-and try and beat the Germans to those unoccupied neighbouring islands. Then, when I am properly settled, I think I will try and wage a 'War of Annihilation' against the Germans, so I can have that nice hunk o' rock we are both on all to myself ! I won't be suprised, though, if I end up being decimated before the Ancient Age is over !

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

i have had a few problems with the germans, the major one being that they had a warrior block part of my island. cant quite remember what my opening moves were, but i built London on spot 4000 bc, York 2550 bc, Woolmer green 2310, Nottingham 2110, hasting 1625, watton at stone 1050, canterbury 1000 and great wymondly 590 bc. in my 2nd war with the germans right now, but neither side has gained anything. its just fighting on the borders between germany and england. first time on emperor so im assuming i will lose.

My territory entering middle ages, nothing spoilerish.
Green cross - my settler was there when bismark built frankfurt
red cross - german warrior just stood there, blocking my path down to the end of the island

Thats really funny, Azzerman. The placement of your first three cities is identical to mine. Can't speak for the rest, as I am only on 3 cities thus far ! Still, its only 1500BC, so I don't feel too bad just yet.

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

If you want AI/barbarian units to move randomly (which would've gotten that warrior to move), you have to fix a setting in your civ.ini file. (Change NoAIPatrol=1 to NOAIPatrol=0.) The GOTM staff highly recommends making this fix to allow for better barb behavior, but as of yet, we don't require it. There's a small download floating around somewhere that'll make the fix automatically, but I'm so sleepy it's taking me five minutes just to write this post without dozens of typos, so I'll let someone else point you to it.

Renata

C3C Open.

Well, this game sure beats some kind of record, but of a wrong kind.

Here's my detailed log.

4000BC. Worker - to cow, road. More Furs! Settle in place.
Proposed build: Warrior -> granary->settler ->currah.
Research: Wri->Col->Phil.
3800BC. Worker South. Chop.
3750BC - Warrior explores North. Blue border.

3500BC - contact German Archer. Trade Alphabet for Warrior Code + 10g. 2 Archers head our way. Warrior goes back to guard London, just in case.
I will not switch Granary to Archer. I will not. I did it in GOTM43 and lost on expansion and lost the game anyway... I had hordes of Mongolian archers passing by my capital, and they didn't touch me... Surely Germans are not worse than Mongolians? I'll take my chance.

3250BC - Granary built. 2 Archers are next to my capital. 1 reg. warrior on a hill - will he have a chance?

3200BC - Germans dow. First Archer is defeated, 2nd kills my Warrior.
"You suffered a humiliating Conquest loss. Time spend: 0 hours, 14 minutes and 37 seconds".

Firaxis: 79.
Jason: 58.

Vow. That was my shortest XOTM ever. I discarded the game in disgust and played it just for fun, but I could avoid this outcome only on the 4th try, only when I changed Alphabet to BW instead of WC and switched granary to Spear and then hurried another Spear with a chop, only then could I survive this agression and carry on with the game, and it is a very fun game, I feel bad to be thrown out of it so early.

Then I realized that I mught have gotten Red Ambulance but my autosave before loss in 3200BC was already gone. So I went back and starting from the beginning replayed those turns till 3200BC (and there were not much to replay), and submitted.

So moderators, please deside if you can accept this game, I'll abide by your decision.

And I was suprised that others in this thread didn't have the same problem with Germans, and they had similar peaceful builds, with only 1 first warrior. What did I do differently? Maybe I went North too fast, but it was the obvious way to explore, by the hill/mountain ridge. It's a mistery, but whatever. Looking forward to GOTM45.

The turn before loss:

Renata said:

If you want AI/barbarian units to move randomly (which would've gotten that warrior to move), you have to fix a setting in your civ.ini file. (Change NoAIPatrol=1 to NOAIPatrol=0.) The GOTM staff highly recommends making this fix to allow for better barb behavior, but as of yet, we don't require it. There's a small download floating around somewhere that'll make the fix automatically, but I'm so sleepy it's taking me five minutes just to write this post without dozens of typos, so I'll let someone else point you to it.

Renata

Click to expand...

Ohhhh....so does that explain why a stack of ~80 barb horsemen were sitting 2 tiles outside of an undefended city and didn't do a damn thing the entire game?



Vanilla, Open

First move is worker 1 NE, was a waste, but I ended up getting moving fairly well without it. Didn't attempt any AA wonders, mostly because I was preparing an archer rush on Germany. Took one of their mainland cities(which I would keep the rest of the game) and

MeteorPunch said:

I made contact with France and Spain. I used bribes to keep them at war with each other a lot.

Click to expand...

Sorry, but being an avid but not very good Civ-er, when can you start convincing civs to do this? Being that I'm going for UN victory, I didn't want to upset anyone by forming an alliance against someone. Or will I just have to bite my pride and make someone angry with me?