COTM 15 Final Spoiler

Moderator Action: Hardly a Medieval spoiler post. Move to this thread

I finished my Diplo victory... Played 13+something hours
Good map and a fun game! Was down to 4 opponents, Persia(biggest and strongest), Japan(next in line), Vijay and Lang Xan(or what they be named)
Altho I was researching Synthetic Fibers when I won...

I'll be on holiday soon... so time to get the final spoiler for COTM15 going.

If you have submitted your game (or are not playing at all...), post here your final recap and impressions.

See you again in CotM16

Open, goal: 20K (but let's have some fun on the way!)

Times Ancient
Times Medieval

The Final Cultural Dominance of Delhi, With Asides (750AD-1605AD)

First things first, the University of Newton was completed to celebrate entry into the new era. With the Sumerians and Persians drawing Nationalism and Steam Power between them, research was set to Medicine. This was successfully traded for Steam Power, and so the Indian Republic set off towards the completion of its goal.

The first side goal was generation of a Military Great Leader, to allow the building of an army, and ultimately the Heroic Epic, Military Academy, and Pentagon.

The Vijaywhatsitnames were the unlucky ones. They had guns, though, so Cavalry were needed; the Elephants were slowly phased out. Luck was finally with us, though, and we soon got the leader we needed, and the Heroic Epic followed thereafter.

The Vijays were despatched utterly, and in so doing we finally claimed 7 of the 8 luxuries, whilst quite happily trading the 8th, Ivory, from the Japanese. A peaceful conclusion was all we desired, and so it would have been, but for...

The Japanese War
A city we'd taken from the Lan Xang in the peace settlement centuries ago was at the far north of Japan, and lightly defended. Clearly the Japanese didn't like this much, so they attacked, and captured it. Ultimately, this slight upon my good nature cost them the ultimate price. So was born Project Satsuma when it was apparent that the Iron Works could be built there, and a spare MGL popped up around the same time. By the end of the game:


Well, that was an interesting side-project, and something to do with my piles of cash. Anyway, with the Japanese wiped out, I was quite happy to sit the rest of the game out peacefully. The Chinese, though, had other ideas. Their loss; with the whole world allied against them, they lasted less than 10 turns.

Once again, I was happy to sit the game out peacefully. (Is anyone spotting a pattern yet?) Next up were the Sumerians, and this is where the real fun began. Now pay attention, there will be a quiz at the end:

1. Sumeria declare war, using an RoP rape to snatch the undefended ex-Vijay city with Leo's Workshop in it. They then sent a couple of stacks across the border.
2. Persia won't sign an alliance with me, but will sign an MPP. So I go for that....
3. The Arabs are more than happy, with some, er, technological reward, to sign up against the Sumerians.
4. I blithely send a tank army against the city the Sumerians took, and blithely forgot about their MPP with the Persians.
5. I am now at war with Persia and Sumeria.
6. Oh, I have 3 Tactical Nukes "just lying around".

I've never used a nuke in a game, except as a bit of fun. A first for me, then! 2 Sumerian and 1 Persian Stacks-of-Doomed bit the dust. Then a further 3 Sumerian cities were splatted.

Nobody got destroyed in this war. After signing peace with Sumeria, I signed another MPP with Persia (when will I learn?!), who were attacked by Arabia, who I then had to declare on.

Confused? I was glad of winning the game by that point, though I didn't get to use my just-built ICBMs on anyone

So, yes, in the middle of all of this, I was building the following cultural beacons in Delhi:
750AD - Newton's University
910AD - JS Bach's Cathedral
950AD - Heroic Epic
1050AD - Universal Suffrage
1110AD - Theory of Evolution
1190AD - Hoover Dam
1240AD - Wall Street
1285AD - Intelligence Agency
1310AD - Battlefield Medicine
1350AD - Pentagon
1395AD - United Nations
1440AD - Internet
1440AD - Research Lab (free)
1480AD - Seti Program
1510AD - Manhattan Project
1545AD - Cure for Cancer
1550AD - Apollo Project (MGL rushed)
1585AD - Longevity

Delhi at the end of the game in 1605AD:

Research upped to 100% for effect!

Conclusion:
Shakespeare's (620AD) was 20 turns too late for my liking, at least. Though my haul of ancient wonders (Oracle, Great Library, Mausoleum, Hanging Gardens, Temple of Artemis) was pretty satisfying. By not getting Shakespeare's earlier, I almost certainly missed Smith's.

Of course, not getting an earlier MGL for the Heroic Epic hurt a bit.

I don't expect to win any awards, but it was a fun game, I got to the opposition, and tick off another notch of my personal Eptathlon (just conquest and the cow to go!)

Thanks for the map Karasu

Now if only the rest of the human participants would hurry up... or have they been scared off by the size of my spoiler?!

Open Class, going for 20K.

Ancient Age
Middle Ages

Upon entering the Industrial Ages in 680 AD, my goal was to continually expand to maintain 4-turn research (it took 5 turns to research one Modern Age tech (nuclear power, I think), everything else was 4) and to claim all wonders from this point forward (no problem). Sumeria and Persia learned Medicine and Nationalism as their free techs, so I had to research Steam Power on my own. I fought China 770 AD – 920 AD (removed them from the Pangaea – China was eventually eliminated by Persia in 1080 AD), Sumeria 940 AD – 1070 AD (ended war once war weariness struck), Arabia 1100 AD – 1190 AD (eliminated), Persia 1255-1275 (they declared on me, and I really didn’t want any part of war with them at that point since they already had bombers and could actually do some damage before I crushed them), Sumeria again 1325 until they were eliminated. I was within 60 tiles of domination, and I had the Internet so I didn’t want to cut it too close and accidentally reach domination so I gifted gpt to Persia to try to avoid any more wars.

The final list of all culture in Bombay:

-2710 Temple
-1525 Oracle
-1050 Pyramids
-1025 Library
-670 Great Library
-630 Colosseum
-470 Forbidden Palace
-430 Cathedral
10 Sistine Chapel
30 University
170 Statue of Zeus
360 Shakespeare’s Theater
440 Copernicus’ Observatory
590 JS Bach’s Cathedral
660 Heroic Epic
770 Newton’s University
870 Universal Suffrage
880 Wall Street
940 Theory of Evolution
980 Intelligence Agency
1000 Military Academy
1040 Pentagon
1120 Hoover Dam
1170 Battlefield Medicine
1255 SETI Program
1260 Research Lab
1305 Internet
1350 UN
1355 Apollo Program
1395 Cure for Cancer
1435 Longevity
1465 Manhattan Project

Nothing else to do except irrigate everywhere, clean pollution, rush aqueducts, marketplaces, and hospitals, and press enter until 20K was reached in 1560.

Ahh the 2 City challenge.

That fell flat on its face actually. For some reason my first city was 100% unhappy even with my luxury slider at 100%. I starved my capitol down to zero and still the sole citizen was unhappy (and with 8 luxuries as well.)

I then tried abandoning the capitol and place a fresh city there. Well the same thing then affect my other city, now my capitol so I was well and truly stuffed.

I am probably the only person to submit a loss on this one

Lost to Japan 100K culture in about 1980.
They also nuked me about a dozen times.

Has anyone come across a situation that no matter what you did you citizens were unhappy? (It says I drafted but I never did.)

Looking back in retrospect I shouldn't have completely eliminated one player, that just let the others expand there and grow stronger. I may try a 2CC again on Regent.

Cheers

7Losses said:

Has anyone come across a situation that no matter what you did you citizens were unhappy? (It says I drafted but I never did.)

Click to expand...

did that happen before you got nuked? can that be a reason? (did you clean those pollution right away?)
AI is famous for nuking the wrong cities... but now that you've got only two, i guess it's hard for them to nuke a wrong one...

7Losses said:

Has anyone come across a situation that no matter what you did you citizens were unhappy? (It says I drafted but I never did.)

Click to expand...

If an AI draft or poprush a city to unhappiness, and you capture this city and abandon this city, then all the unhappiness is transferred to your nearest city.

(Abandoning a city will always transfer draft/poprush unhappiness to your nearest city)

GOTM-AI said:

Code:

We dispatched an account to unworthy human "Karasu".
We are not pleased with his report.

Click to expand...

Uh-oh...

...looks like I'm in trouble...

Open - Domination

Entered the IA in 860AD after taking out Persia leaving Sumeria,Arabia and China on the mainland. The Elephant army although generally "up for another war" were phased out in favour of the cavalry which would hopefully finish the job . Declared war on Sumeria in 930 which brought in the Arabs as their allies and then the remains of Lan.
To cut many centuries short Sumeria was taken out and as our triumphant armies (of which we now had 5) were advancing through Arabia the Chinese were brought in against us giving the age old strategical success of fighting a war on two fronts! The Chinese grabbed one city before they reaped the whirlwind and the mainland was all but cleared by 1395 when domination was achieved.
Not the quickest by far I suspect but thoroughly enjoyable - thanks Karasu.

@GOTM-AI: Can you perhaps tell us, feeble humans as we are, how you achieved your awesome reputation as a Civ3 player? And what misfortune caused you to lose this particular game?

Sorry bout that post... hehe hope it didn't spoil anything!
Uhmm here is some info from my game(shots)...
It was a nice map and I am looking forward to trying the next one

AlanH said:

@GOTM-AI: Can you perhaps tell us, feeble humans as we are, how you achieved your awesome reputation as a Civ3 player? And what misfortune caused you to lose this particular game?

Click to expand...

Attempt at mockery from human AlanH detected


We need no awesome reputation as "Civ3 player". We are Civ3.

@Bans: nicely done. Looks like Persia wa a juggernaut in your game.

I went for a cultural 20K 2CC, winning in 1834 AD after about 7 hours playing time.

The AIs were always busy bashing each other up and ignored me completely, which was handy. The only fighting was when I joined an AI dogpile against the Vijayanagar to get a War Elephant golden age, fighting a total of 1 (victorious) battle. By the end, Persia was the dominant force, with Lan Xang and Japan still with healthy empires.

None of the AI were close to any of the other victory conditions, so it was pretty straightforward. Not being attacked, ever, helped.

Cultural buildings:
2800 BC Temple
1675 BC The Mausoleam of Mausollos
1175 BC The Great Library
1075 BC Library
590 BC The Great Wall
290 BC The Hanging Gardens
230 BC Colosseum
190 AD Cathedral
330 AD Knights Templar
490 AD Sistine Chapel
520 AD University
800 AD JS Bach's Cathedral
1090 AD Shakespeare's Theater
1260 AD Smith's Trading Company
1510 AD Universal Suffrage
1550 AD Theory of Evolution
1590 AD Hoover Dam
1610 AD Intelligence Agency
1834 AD Victory!

WarDance said:

@Bans: nicely done. Looks like Persia wa a juggernaut in your game.

Click to expand...

Thanks

Yeah Persia grew pretty big! I was afraid he'd win before I could hheheh. I voted once before but without result.

I kindda like playin' these low city games cause I get overwhlmed by all that management and feel it takes some of the fun away. In addition to that I usually have a few drinks and a few funny cigarettes while I play... so keeping an eye on 50+ cities becomes really hard

Did Spaceship this time with an 1170AD Launch. Have to go back to get some more details for the othe posts. Fought one battle very early (with warriors) in the AA to prevent an incursion into an area I wanted to settle, but then didn't really battle again until toward the end. In the IA I wiped out one civ. And in the late game I wiped out 3 civs in 5 turns with Modern Armor, leaving 3 just for the heck of it (and trading lux for money). In the end I had all 8 luxuries in my territory. However, for a while the Persians were 'nice' enough to give me Aluminum for about 250gpt, which is the main reason I decided to attack others.

open, 20K

Industrials started in 590 and I'm at war with Arabia and Lan Xang. Sumeria is gone and I've allied Vijayanagar, China and Japan against Lan Xang. I don't recall that much from memory but still have my notes. So here's the final spoiler.

With help from my allies the Lan Xang front was quickly stabelized and we recaptured the 2 lost cities. After that I left the Lan Xang war to my allies. In 670 the long awaited first MGL was born on the Arabian front. After forming an army and killing an unit with it, there was no urgent reason for prolonging the Arabian war and peace with Abu was declared in 690.

But just before that there was another sneak attack. This time from my eternal friends, the Persians (What took you so long Xerxes). I had some troops on the Persian borders and with my army rushing from Arabia to the north, the attack only cost my one city. My allies in the Lan Xang war were quite willing to assist in the Persian problem, even Abu joined. And after not to long a time the Persians found themselves at the receiving end of the stick.

In 770 the alliances against Lan Xang expired and I made peace. In 830 my second (and last MGL) was created on the Persian front. I wasn't in any particular hurry to eliminate any of the AI, but tried to balance the powers. And prosper and build culture in Delhi in the meantime.

And then again, 1 turn before the alliances against Xerxes ended, I was sneak attacked once more. In 870 Mao attacked. In 880 I made peace with the Persians and allied all against the Chinese. The Indians themselves didn't play an active role in the Chinese war. In 1080 when the alliances expired we made peace with Mao and were finally, after seven and a half century not at war.

And finally a few turns before the end, Mao, who had only two cities left, rode with a lone cavalry to Delhi and attacked the MechInf stationed there. The poor cavalry didn't really have a chance, and I ignored Mao. So no further hostilities took place until the end in 1555.

Final culture builds in Delhi:
3950BC palace
2390BC temple
1475BC Oracle
1450BC library
1225BC Mausoleum of Mausollos
1125BC colosseum
750BC Great Library
530BC Hanging Gardens
510BC cathedral
70BC Sistine Chapel
50BC university
170AD Knight's Templar
400AD Shakespeare's Theater
470AD Copernicus' Observatory
550AD Newton's University
710AD J.S. Bach's Cathedral
750AD Heroic Epic
820AD Universal Suffrage
890AD Theory of Evolution
920AD Wall Street
1000AD Hoover Dam
1030AD Military Academy
1160AD Pentagon
1295AD United Nations
1300AD research lab
1345AD Internet
1390AD SETI program
1445AD Cure for Cancer
1480AD Longevity
1500AD Intelligence Agency
1535AD Manhattan Project

Open, 20K

Ooooo! This month is very close for 20K games, well done Redbad 1555AD is a very good date on this map me thinks

I think I had a large slice of luck with this game, although I took some fairly desperate measures to get great leaders on the turns I needed them. Also I’ve learnt that it really pays to investigate cities to see what the AI is doing, if I hadn’t of done this the V-people would have beaten me to Bach’s Cathedral. Instead I flattened them just in time. It would have been great to have gotten the Iron Works but the coal jumping just didn’t fall kindly for me, and in fact I even lost one of the Irons half way through, which definitely cost me a turn or two off the finish date.

IPA’s Culture Improvements

3650BC Temple
1700BC The Oracle
1150BC The Pyramids
1075BC Library
710BC The Great Library
690BC Colosseum
470BC The Great Wall
430BC Cathedral
10AD Sistine Chapel
280AD Copernicus’s Observatory
300AD University
380AD The Statue of Zeus
520AD Shakespeare’s Theatre
600AD Newton’s University
720AD JS Bach’s Cathedral
770AD Heroic Epic
850AD Universal Suffrage
910AD Theory of Evolution
920AD Wall Street
1000AD Hoover Dam
1020AD Military Academy
1050AD The Pentagon
1070AD Forbidden Palace
1080AD Palace
1200AD Intelligence Agency
1275AD The United Nations
1280AD Research Lab
1285AD Battlefield Medicine
1330AD The Internet
1375AD SETI Program
1415AD Cure for Cancer
1420AD Apollo Program
1460AD Longevity
1485AD The Manhattan Project
1510AD Strategic Missile Defence
1555AD Victory



As you can see from the picture, I’m close to getting it a turn earlier, and maybe I would have got that had I been quicker with the Library and University. I’m still pleased as I knocked 100 years off my personal best but I think this will be beaten, last month’s 20K was won in 1530AD and that was on Emperor, so I think a Monarch level game might be even earlier, especially considering how good the start is.

For comedy vale here’s my sliver:



And my mini-map:



Twas a fun game, thanks!