Democracy Game Challenge 1: Spoilers

[dutchfire]

Please post all spoilers for the Democracy Game Challenge 1 here.

Suggestions for comments for the first part of the game:
What was your initial plan?
Did you go for a religion? And did you get it?
Oracle?
Early War?

[dutchfire]

Originally Posted by donsig

I moved my settler in search of a hut. Nothing so I settled on the coast.
Founded Buddhism.
Stone and marble nearby.
Lost my scout to wolves.
Built a warrior and almost done with an obelisk in my capital.
It is 3000 BC.

Did you go for Buddhism immediately? I think you must have with Mysticism and Meditation in 3000 BC while you didn't settle immediately. By the way, why did you put an obelisk in the capital while you've got Buddhism and a palace to provide culture?

[dutchfire]

Originally Posted by fed1943

Scout moved SE,found wheat, Karakorum founded on place.Worker;agriculture.
Research path: agriculture, mining, bronze, husbandry,mysticism, pottery, iron, writing, masonry, alphabet (6 turn to finish it).
Two settlers from Karakorum founded Beshabalik (1NE 4N) and Turfan (5NE 3N)and one settler from Beshabalik founded Ning (3NE 2E) all from capital.Besh got horses and two gold,Turfan cows,marble,spice and iron,Ning rice,fish and stone.
Very good territorial coherence.
Some decisions: to enhance Karakorum'commerce-4 cottages being worked;
to work the two gold in Besh; not to build Stonehenge to make the settlers
and more one worker;not to try a religion until now;trust warriors and speed;
peace and accept open boards.
Current units:2 workers,1 scout,3 warriors,2 chariots. (Ning still empty).

4 cities already, good job! In which year are you now?

[robboo]

hey do you want to hide the spoilers to not ruin the game for those playing...or am I not supposed to read this thread till I am done?

EDIT...never mind I read the other thread and understand why....

I HOPE to play this weekend and will give a link to screenshots and spoilers.( its in another forum)

[DaveShack]

I have survived until 1270 AD (so far) though I'm still dead last in just about everything. IIRC I have 6 or 7 citizes. Could have had one more but suffered a small setback when I discovered the hard way that this is vanilla and so chariots don't get an advantage over barb axes.

I got CoL but missed the Oracle by a couple of turns. That was about the point that the score gap started, with me on the bottom.

[730195]

Here are brief summaries of my VERY briskly-paced games:

Spoiler:

Game 1
Year 1904 - 5th place. Founded Hinduism & Judaism. 9 Cities. Good income. At war with China and France. Around 15% of land & pop. Hopeless

Game 2
Year 1550 - 6th place. Founded Hinduism. Decent income. At war with France and Greece. Ripping up Greek countryside, but so what? Pop & land 9%.

Game 3
Year 1814 - 4th place. Founded Hinduism. Started attacking France and then Greece early. Chewed them up pretty well, kept their cities and can barely pay my upkeep. Research allocated at 0% leaving me +1 gpt. Pop 12% and land 19%. Going nowhere.

Game 4
Year 75 BC - 4th place (out of 5, only Rome below me). Fiddled around and made 2 cities. France is already hemming me in. Depressing.

Game 5
Year 1170 - 4th out of 5. Completely hemmed in by France (grrrr!). Founded Buddhism. Decent income. 4 cities and dubious prospects. Pop 11% and land 6%.

Game 6
Year 425 BC. Founded Buddhism. 2 cities. Already attacked by Greece! Beaten off for the moment, but it cost population & time. Grim prospects.

Game 7
Year 580 - 4th of 5. 3 cities and attacked by France. Looks like too many French troops heading my way.

Game 8
Year 1160 - 3rd of 5. Founded Buddhism. 5 cities. Money OK. Started hitting France early - mostly beat them down and then Greece decides to attack me. Don't know what will happen here.

[donsig]

Originally Posted by dutchfire

Did you go for Buddhism immediately? I think you must have with Mysticism and Meditation in 3000 BC while you didn't settle immediately. By the way, why did you put an obelisk in the capital while you've got Buddhism and a palace to provide culture?

Yes, founded Buddhism and Hinduism, too. Built the obelisk because I like culture.

I settled my second city on the east coast to get stone. I did build the Oracle. I think I used it to get theology. Settled my third city up north to try to snag both horses and marble. Soon after that, Napoleon attacked.

I had no offence and could only build archers while the French ran wild over my lands, raping and pillaging at their whim. My third city was destroyed. I think I only survived that war because I used theology to bribe Alexander to attack Napoleon. I also had to pay a heavy price to the French for peace.

Rebuilt the city by the marble and the horses. Got a great prophet and used him to build the Buddhist special building. Lost out on a couple wonders (the parthenon was one) and used the gold to buy techs and finance research. Did lots of tech trading, too.

Got a second great prophet while I was researching divine right so I used him to help that along, founding Islam. (Someone else founded Judaism and Confucianism).

By 1500 AD I was way behind the others. Napoleon demanded a tech (I think it was guilds) and I gave it to him. Next turn the SoB attacked me! Another war of building arrow guys while the French plundered at will. Built longbows in the capital and archers in the other city (which I immediately upgraded till money ran out). The Germans and Greeks were fighting so I couldn't get Alexander to join me this time. I lost the horse and marble city right away. Lost my coastal city, too, but took it right back. Eventually (1600 AD) lost the capital (Buddhists and Hindu holy city.)

Bismark and Alex finally stopped fighting and once again i was able to get the Greeks on my side. It's 1800 AD, I have one city and I'm sure the French will attack again.

[fed1943]

I stopped year 675 BC. And didn't play further yet,nor will do right now, one
hour to chat and I want to be there.
Good play? Not so sure. I'm trying a very risky and greed gambit (never would do it, if inside a team):
No Stonehenge, so mysticism and obelisks;
Research path: no archery, doing alphabet (I'll blackmailed,by sure);
Went for good cities: Turfan (3rd one) got cows,spice,marble and iron inside
its 20 tiles radius (but no iron in the 8 tiles radius).
Would be perfect if Leader was creative, but it is not; so, Turfan needs more
6 turns to build obelisk,more 10 turns to expand,that is 16 turns to begin mine
the iron;after mined, the two older cities can begin axemen.
And I need, at minimum, four of them to protect the west (gold,flood, and the
two cities) and 1/2 to the north/northwest.
Until iron connected what can I do? Some more chariots to pretend I have
some power? If I trade for archery, some archers to gold/hills?
Of course if I can get said minimal defence before war (Napoleon is sleeping)
then,yes, I shall have a very good game.

Best regards,

[donsig]

Well, I played another hundred years last night. Just plodding along trying to make my city as good as possible. Have three longbows defending it in 1900 AD. I'm sure Napoleon's hammer will fall again. I think that will make it three strikes and I'm out.

[fed1943]

I also played more, as I was wrong about chat time.
Played until 100 DC, then stopped to post, and now chat time close.
I got avoid war: put chariots close French, they build archers and the threat
time went away. Peace until now.
Didn't try found more cities: four look enough.
Units: 4 workers,1 scout,2 chariot,3 keshik,4 warrior,3 axemen.
Techs:all first 4 rows, alphabet,mathematics,literature, 6 turns to calendar.
Enough food, but not plentiful, so didn't go to slavery.
Two older cities with reasonable commerce and grow stopped at happy cap;
3rd city shall be a powerhouse; 4th city is coastal.
Building forges at commercials and powerhouse for production and happy;with
calendar,spices;so +3 happy faces, health no problem.
I plan to build Great Library on capital (after forge).
Then build more troops. Map is full, expansion must be by war. The strongest
civ - Germans - have no frontier with me. We shall see.

Best regards,

[donsig]

Played another fifty years this morning. Build a New City halfway between my current capital and my old capital. Got a great engineer and used him to build the Hermitage in New City. Also got a great artist which I used in New City on a great art work (or whatever it's called) and now my cultural borders are right up against my old capital. Thinking of building another city.

Just got printing press and working on replaceable parts. Adopted pacifism and merchantilism. Been a bureaucracy for ages. State religion is Christianity.

Built a few musketmen to help the longbowmen defend my cities. The French and Greek fought another war. Alexander wanted my help but I turned him down. Bismark joined in with Napoleon against my old friend Alex.

[ordinaryguy]

This is going to be the most challenging game for me. I just recently started to play on noble.

Are screenshots or pictures allowed as spoilers?

[dutchfire]

Originally Posted by donsig

Played another fifty years this morning. Build a New City halfway between my current capital and my old capital. Got a great engineer and used him to build the Hermitage in New City. Also got a great artist which I used in New City on a great art work (or whatever it's called) and now my cultural borders are right up against my old capital. Thinking of building another city.

Just got printing press and working on replaceable parts. Adopted pacifism and merchantilism. Been a bureaucracy for ages. State religion is Christianity.

Built a few musketmen to help the longbowmen defend my cities. The French and Greek fought another war. Alexander wanted my help but I turned him down. Bismark joined in with Napoleon against my old friend Alex.

Any chance of winning by diplo? Or will the AI launch soon?

Originally Posted by ordinaryguy

This is going to be the most challenging game for me. I just recently started to play on noble.

Are screenshots or pictures allowed as spoilers?

Sure

[donsig]

Sat down to play some more turns and right off the bat Napoleon demanded my lunch money. I gave it to him. A few turns later he attacked and a fews turns after that I was conquered.

What should we do with our saves and replays? Upload them to the CivFanatics thing?

[Falcon02]

I started out strong, but I failed to expand enough, and never did get a good source of iron.

Since 1600 AD I've been waring with Alex and Napoleon switching between them, my power rating is low so they consider me easy pickings. Each time I take a city from one the other declares war on me. And in order to get peace I am forced to give up a tech or gold.

My most recent save it's 2022, and I've lost the cities I've gained from France, and Alexander's troops are marching through my land poised to take my cities, I see no way out, and can guarantee this first attempt will be a loss, due to my lack of resources, and falling behind in tech.

I've got a more detail "log" I've been working on since I started the save.

[fed1943]

Played until 500 AD. Napoleon declared war on me. Battles in the space between
Karakorum,Beshbalik and Rheims. Just conquered Rheims this turn; keep it,not
a great city,but opens the west and Greeks just to the north.
Unpleasant geography: we on SE, French W of us, Greeks whole N, Germans
N of Greeks; need to conquer French,then a very long frontier with Greeks.
Greeks and Germans annoyed among themselves.
Germans founded Budhism; Greeks Hinduism and Judaism. Germans and Greeks
cautious with us.
Researched calendar and construction,now machinery.
Turfan always build military, Beshbalik,after monastery and missionary,military;
Capital two turns to Great Library.
Troops not plentiful:4 worker,1 scout,4 warrior,2 sword,3 axe,2 spear,2 cat.
No navy(fishnet destroyed by 2 galleys).

Best regards,

[730195]

Originally Posted by fed1943

Unpleasant geography: we on SE, French W of us, Greeks whole N, Germans
N of Greeks; need to conquer French,then a very long frontier with Greeks.

I agree with you. I've played this one many times and can't seem to breakout without completely bankrupting myself.

[dutchfire]

Most people seem to have problems with two aggresive neighbours. I think that once you've overcome that problem, you're halfway to domination or space race though.

[Falcon02]

Originally Posted by dutchfire

Most people seem to have problems with two aggresive neighbours. I think that once you've overcome that problem, you're halfway to domination or space race though.

Well, couldn't do Domination because I failed to secure a Iron source in time, and my closest source was held by my only ally on the continent. Not worth a back stab.

Couldn't do Space Race, cause..... I gradually fell behind in tech as I tried to replenish my forces to try to hold off Alex and Napoleon, and try to secure a resource from one of them.

Still haven't "finished" the game, should probably do that. But, Bismark has started building spaceship parts, and I still don't have Rocketry.

Not to mention Alexander I think is about to wipe me out of existence before Bismark flies off the world.

EDIT: just finished out the last turns... I SURVIVED!!!!! Bismark got a time victory... though Napoleon destroyed just about every improvement on my land, and I lost half my cities.

[fed1943]

I finished the game. And I was defeated.

I got to whip out Napoleon, with late Alexandre help (both Alex and me were

judaists.). But I took the heavy burden.

Later, I was not yet full recovered, Alex declared war on me. As I was in big

trouble, I tried and got Bismark help.

Bismark attacked Alex from the north... and won a domination victory.

Looking now at Falcon report it looks... Germans know how to win the game

by several ways...

Best regards,