GOTM 31 Spoiler 3: End Industrial age / end game submitted

This will be the last spoiler for GOTM 31.

To qualify, you need to have either completed your game and submitted it, or reached the end of the industrial age (researching a modern-age tech).

As always, please refrain from posting screenshots that show the locations of modern-age resources.

Remember: The player's choice award is up for grabs for the best spoiler contributions, so get posting!

1.27f Middle Ages are but a click away

540 AD and The Industrial Age kicks off
So, the library & university-freak Megalou researched Democracy in order to gift the Germans into the ancient age. They got Medicine and I traded it. I then instantly gifted Greece, the second scientific civ, into the Industrial Age, so that I would not accidentally start to research the same tech that they would get for free. But they got medicine too, so I could not cut any corners there. Of course I gave everyone Democracy so they would not waste time researching it when instead they could research something later for me.


The defiant laughter of the musketeer
Well, the garlic-reeking laughter of a musketeer brought us into a Golden Age then. It was a contemptful laughter directed to a rugged spearman in one of the last towns of the Iroquios. Now the tech pace was the magic 4...


Academic constipation
...but the GA was over before Radio, so that took a humiliating 5 turns.


Tech trades in the Industrial times
Yet, I was pleased to have chosen Radio over Refining. The Greeks had a choice of Atomic Theory, Sanitation and Refining and chose Refining . 4 turns saved. Right afterwards the Aztecs presented me with Sanitation. I was not going to build any hospitals and risk pollution - this is the stage of the game when I usually get really fed up with my workers - but I could give it away to the Greeks. That should increase the chance of getting another tech trade during this age. Previously I had done the same thing with nationalism and communism (buying it and giving it away). But this time it was not meant to pay off.

Germany wakes up and smells the coffee
80% of my cities had no defense at all. The Germans, sensing defeat, thought they could make use of that situation. They landed 3 transparent-looking troops, even though we had a Right of Passage. Transparent indeed, so I signed Mutual Protection Pacts with everyone, including the Germans themselves so that they would hurt their own reputation even more. I had no idea what city they wanted to attack - with the Right of Passage and the railroads they could choose freely. I took care to protect just Salamanca (Palace) and Rheims (Forbidden Palace). And the Germans chose to capture Paris along with Theory of Evolution. The stony Bismarck must have become extra grey when everyone declared war on him. Needless to say, I did not allow Paris to "evolve" in the hands of the Germans.

Why had I signed those Mutual Protection Pacts? Well, at this point I was leaning towards choosing Diplomatic victory. A palace prebuild in Rheims was designed for the UN. If I had aimed for a Space Race Victory, it would have been better to leave the other nations out of it, since wars always hurt the AI research.

The Modern Age and The Mega-Santa Claus approach
There was still time to sign for peace with Germany before the advent of the Modern Age. But there was not time to cancel the MPPs.

This presented me with a poser. Do I make peace with Germany and risk a hit on my reputation? Only then can I bring them into the Modern Age and increase my chances of not having to research Fission myself... On the other hand, if I let down my foes, will I be able to win the vote?

I choose to wait of course. I can always gift Greece first. Maybe they will get Fission. Meanwhile my workers micromanage the area around Rheims so that Rheims doesn't accidentally build a Palace. They are just a few turns away.

Mega-Santa Claus's cliffhanger stunt
So France enters The Modern Age in 1130. Fission is 5 turns away. I sell the last industrial techs to Greece for around 200 gold per turn. Checking our finances, I see that I am able to offer Greece around 1400 gpt and 2000 gold for......... Ecology. No dice!

Still in the same interturn, I choose to make peace with Germany. It's the most exciting thing to do. And this is where Joan D'Arc dresses up like Mega-Santa Claus with a very unsaintly décolleté. When I make peace (earning another 120 gpt from Germany), two of my former allies are still gracious, but two have gone back to polite. Tons of butter is brought in along with rubber, salpeter, oil and luxuries to enchant these former allies. Remember, the former allies are still at war together, so they like each other, and one of them is Zulu, who is likely to be my opponent in an upcoming vote.

The question is
Will the Germans get Fission as a free tech, sell it to me and give me a possible 1130 AD diplomatic victory?
Will they get something else and leave me with a possible 1180 AD diplo victory or a later space race victory?
Do I even want a diplo victory? I read something that makes me think Kuningas is going for it too: He wanted Carthage to stay alive and was ready to go to war for it.

¿?¿?¿

Tune in at the beginning of June, when our superb leaders probably have the results out.

ptw 1.27 conquests

1260 After paying tribute to Germany, they declare war anyway. They mainly bombard the shores but land a few troops.

1285 3rd Leader appears. Will save for ToE. Also made peace around here with germany. no tech or $ exchanges hands.

1380 Germany demands spices, but given their prior history, they are untrustworthy and I refuse and we are at war again

1385 Sign MA's with Carthage and Aztecs against Germany. Can't afford to bring any others in. Also sign separate ROP's so they don't expire with the MAs. Gifts to Zulu & Greece to hopefully prevent them from allying with Germany. (between turns, Greece DoW on Carthage). A couple of turns later, the zulu throw our luxury givt in our face and declare war.

1465 1st to learn Scientific Theory and rush ToE with saved leader. Trade Scientific theory around for close to tech parity. We lack espionage and refining. Germany knows them and would be willing to sign treaty and get esp and 300 gold, but would take a rep hit from broken alliances and will be trying for diplo.

1470 change prebuild to Univ Suff in Chartres

1710 Aztecs violate ROP and declared war.

1786 Finished UN, but don't have enough friends as aztecs just declared war, so no vote and will go for domination victory or space race.

1786 Zulu are no more

1790 Build Manhattan project from army prebuild.

1830 We destroy the "Glorious Aztecs" [dance] Will go for space race as we have a monopoly on uranium.

1834 Germany declares war on Greeks, we had MMP with both Greeks and Germany so we are at war again but were planning to finish off carthage next and then Greece when MMP expired and didn't want to tackle the Germans as their army was average as compared to ours while we were stronger than everyone else.

1852 Another elite win. Will move capital to former aztecs lands (the whole continent is ours except for 1 greek city and two or three German cities. Choose Tlaxcala as our new capital. Same turns Chartres (FP) finishes Nuclear plant and is producing 158 shields per turns(most productive city ever! It had also built iron works previously)

1872 Finally established a beachhead city on German continent after landing many troops and just letting the German army throw themselves into our weapons. Had another leader (5th) and rushed an airport in the city to resupply troops quickly.

1878 Chartres not producing an astounding 178 shields per turn (I didn't think it was possible to get this many shields per turn and will complete Apollo's in 3 turns )

1884 Sucessfully planted spy in Berlin and attempted one in Carthage but was caught.

1888 Another defensive leader(6). Will make army.

1912 We lose our uranium monopoly and it pops up in carthage, but they don't even realize it as they still haven't learned even refining.

1916 7th leader (defensive). Another army

1924 interturn 8th leader on defense but dies before accomplishing anything

1942 Accidentally triggered domination victory, but will take it. (had misplaced the pediaicons file so ended up playing this turn 3 times as the first two times I tried to edit the pediaicons file for the missing files, but finally asked if I could just over write it and found out that that is where it was suppposed to be placed

PTW 1.27 Open


As I've had to contend with various aspects of academically surviving at college, I've had nary a post in this forum for a while. With summer nearly here and college a memory(for a few monthes at least), I hope to have a more detailed write up for next month.

With that said, I'll quickly recount my GOTM 31.

Like many others, I quickly took out the English and Iroquois. As I didn't feel like doing too much war mongering this month, I set my sights upon a Space Race victory. The major thorn in my side for this was my lack of a leader for a FP in Iroquois lands. Luckily I had kept one English city around, and did finally manage to fish a leader from it a bit later than I would have liked. With the FP built, I then finished off the city with a musketeer to begin my GA. The GA carried me into the IA quickly, and once I left it I was still able to maintain 4-turn research for the most part. Things were fairly boring for that point on.

I reached the MA in the early 1300s. I wasn't quite able to maintain 4-turn research for this age, but I did nonetheless manage to snag several techs at that pace. All said and done, my ship said good bye to this world in 1545.

It was an alright date for me, but I look to improve upon it(and my reports) in the coming monthes.

Kaiser_Berger said:

I reached the MA in the early 1300s. I wasn't quite able to maintain 4-turn research for this age, but I did nonetheless manage to snag several techs at that pace. All said and done, my ship said good bye to this world in 1545.

Click to expand...

Sacre bleu, K.B.! I launched in the same year! I think we would have to have a taunting duel to resolve the cotemporal launch, but from his last post it seems likely that Megalou launched two centuries earlier (b/c I doubt Germany was going to get anything but medicine as their free tech, despite santa megalou's generosity...). I'll post the details when I return from out of town later this week...

Conquest class, PTW 1.27.
So this is where I left off:

"Paris switches to Newton's University which will be done in 1 turn. 6 turns to go on Shakespeare's in Orleans. In 980 AD we reach the Industrial Age. Going for Steam Power in 7 turns. Several cities pumping out workers now to get ready for railroads. And soon after... a major disappointment. But that's a tale for another spoiler. "

In 990AD I discover that Germany, Greece and Carthage all have steam power already... of course they won't sell. Orleans completes Shakespeare's Theater soon after, in 1010 AD. Several of my cities have produced workers to get ready for the railroad build to come. We discover steam power in 1040 and are now researching sanitation. We manage to trade steam power to the zulu for wool and some gold.

And then... the big let down. My workers inform me that they cannot build railroads because we have NO COAL! NO!!!! I am so used to playing domination and conquest games that it is extremely rare for me to not have a resource when I need it. I didn't even think about this possibility. My territory is very small. I have been approaching this game in a completely different way than usual. There is coal just 7 tiles north of me in English territory! If I had taken the whole island in the early game like I thought about doing... bah! I could go to war now and try to take it. No good. Ok I've been playing the diplomacy game this whole way, I need to find someone who has extra coal and trade for it.

It looks to me like Carthage has 2 extra coal. I'm not alone in lacking it. It appears that the Aztecs, Greeks, and Iroquois have none as well. Of course Carthage won't sell it to me I need something good to trade for it. In 1130 we research medicine and we are lucky; Hannibal thinks it's a fair trade for coal! What a relief. We trade Medicine all around and get some great gold per turn deals. Including one from Liz who has been a cheapskate the whole game. She forks over 130gold +25 per turn. I've been practically giving her everything. So, we are able to push science up - sanitation will be reached in 5 turns. Our workers begin the rail projects.

1160 AD: Carthage asks for a mutual protection pact and right of passage. I agree immediately because I want to stay on their good side for the coal, and because they are the main tech nation. I've been barely keeping pace with their research pace and I'm afraid they will soon pull ahead. When they do, I need Hannibal on my side.

We get to sanitation first and sell it around for more gpt deals. Except Liz. she's back to her old ways. 13 gold. Thanks a lot. Germany gave me dyes and you give me your spare change. Everyone renews the alliance vs. the Aztecs. I find this surprising. What also is surprising is that no one appears to really be DOING anything over there in the war. I figured these guys would be pounding on the Aztecs but I haven't seen a single city fall on either side.

In 1190 Carthage makes peace with the Aztecs. Huh? Hannibal, you signed this alliance only 20 years ago (2 turns). I really wish the diplomacy screen had something you could use to try and put pressure on a civ that breaks a treaty with you. Anyway, Carthage has industrialization and has just finished Smith's. We fork over a pretty big some for industrialization.

England and Greece are next to break their treaties with me. Our first ironclads are built in 1230 and we begin several factories. WE make it to electricity first and sell it around. Research is at 100% and we're still making 257 gold per turn, almost all of which is coming from the other civ's. One of our new ironclads intercepts an Aztec galley heading for our shores. We engage and the punk sinks us. We make it to scientific method first and Paris switches to Theory of Evolution in 1 turn. It's safe to trade it in this case so we get rep. parts from greece. We buy more coal from Carthage and renew our MPP. They are gracious to me. More gpt deals for rep. parts.

Paris of course completes the Theory of Evolution and we get atomic theory and electronics. We are almost completely railroaded by now and our first pollution shows up.

Ok this is getting really long now so I'll sum up. We enter into MPP's and ROP's with some of the other nations. Everyone has backed out of the alliance against the Aztecs. I send over a couple infantry and take an Aztec city. They quickly recapture it but all my MPP buddies are forced to declare war. I should probably explain the whole Aztec thing. I was using them in a "rogue state strategy" hoping that the war would slow the tech pace of the others a little. I think it worked well for a while. The Aztecs still have the most territory and are somehow still the leader on the histograph, but are way behind in tech because of the constant war.

Anyway, we manage to complete Hoover Dam, continuously renew our coal supply, and become a democracy. I couldn't afford to switch governments earlier but now with Hoover out of the way, there are no more wonders for a brief period. At this point Carthage pulls ahead in the research pace. I soon discover that the fastest I can research techs is 7 turns... and that's at 100% science. I'm just too small a nation. Carthage is researching in 6 turns.

We reduce science for a nice 928 gold per turn so we can buy from Carthage. We start prebuilding for the UN in Orleans.

This is where things really fall apart. My luxury trades start expiring and I mistakenly think that I don't need all of them. I renew a couple but let the others slide. I'm thinking I'm going to need a bunch of cash to buy tech from the Carthaginians and I don't want to spend it all on luxuries. My people are really happy anyway. I had no problems with anarchy switching to democracy. We were even making 671 gold per turn in anarchy and none of my cities went into disorder.

I am terribly mistaken. ALL of my cities go into disorder. I have to crank the entertainment slider way up to stabilize the situation. I pray that the luxuries we passed on haven't been sold to someone else. Luckily they haven't. We are able to get wool from the zulu again, and dyes and incense from the Germans. Dyes and Incense? What are we, a bunch of hippies?! Hey maybe Alexander has some Grateful Dead records we can trade for. Yeah! And maybe we can get Phish to do some concerts in our colloseums.

So our treasury is a bit lighter but our people are happy again. Work resumes on our UN prebuild but losing even that one turn on it sure makes me nervous.
In 1505 we buy our way into the modern age.

edit: adding ending. sorry so long, but I'm having fun
Now I have to explain something before I continue. I'm going for a diplomatic win here because I've only done it once and that was on warlord a long time ago when I first started. Now for some reason I seriously believed that I had to not only win the vote, but had to also BUILD the UN.

So... I realize that Lyons is producing more shields per turn than Orleans and will finish a bit faster so we begin a prebuild there with battlefield medicine. Carthage surprises me and sells Fission ridiculously cheap when they get it. It's down to the wire now so I investigate Carthage to see how quickly they are moving on th UN. They will finish 6 turns before me! NO!!!! I make sure that Lyons indeed will finish the fastest of any of my cities. I adjust workers there... no good they're producing all the shields they can. What do I do?!

Ok I could sabotage them with a spy. I HAVE to! There is no way this little country of mine is going to win a space race. And if you've seen my map... HA! forget about domination or conquest. I've got to sabotage Hannibal. Seven failed attempts to plant a spy in Carthage! Hannibal really doesn't like that. Fianlly, after I don't remember how much gold, I succeed. But even so, things aren't looking so good. I have to bribe Hannibal back into a polite demeanor, and Alexander is now annoyed with me. I manage to get him back to cautious. Liz, Hiawatha, and Shaka are all still gracious.

Now for the dirty deed. AAARGH! I'm 600 and some change short! and that's for the lowest chance of success and highest risk. Ok, no problem. I'm making almost 700 per turn. I let a turn go buy and go back to sabotage again. Still 600 something short! I don't know how much each shield cost to sabotage but we are evenly paced and I will be the same amount short each turn. I desperately try to make some money in trades. I sell techs, I sell uranium and aluminum. Still not even close. I make peace with the Aztecs in the hopes that I can get some money from them. But they are broke after being at war continuously for 2000 years.

Damn. This has been such a great game for me up to this point and now it all falls apart. All right, I'm not going to give up. I need to get ready for a really hard space race. I need as much cash as possible. I need to get all my cities ready to produce as many shields as possible. In 1605 Carthage completes the UN. We begin the Manhattan project, and are airlifting units to an Aztec city we conquered. Might as well mess with them some since the game is not going as planned. GRRRRR!

And then.... a miracle! The UN vote is held in 1660 AD





I can't believe it! A diplomatic victory after all that trauma! Man I have learned a lot in this game. Was truly a blast even though when I didn't get the UN i wanted to quit. Here's a map of my cute little territory.



Looking forward to next month's game!
Peglegasus

.. our way into the modern age.

Click to expand...

.... and then? Man, this is the last Spoiler! Are you planning to keep us in suspense until the results come out?

I know I know... my computer was acting strange so I stopped to reboot. I'll edit and finish.

Peglegasus.

Peglegasus said:

In 1605 Carthage completes the UN. We begin the Manhattan project, and are airlifting units to an Aztec city we conquered. Might as well mess with them some since the game is not going as planned. GRRRRR! And then.... a miracle! The UN vote is held in 1660 AD I can't believe it! A diplomatic victory after all that trauma!

Click to expand...

Wow, what a hectic end! I have never won UN vote when someone else has called for it.

Peglegasus said:

I know I know... my computer was acting strange so I stopped to reboot. I'll edit and finish.

Click to expand...

Wow! That was some ending. Well worth waiting for. Thanks

I can't believe it, my second GOTM and my second Space Ship loss.

And for a long time, all seems looking very well.
After killing the english and iroquios i ruled my landmass and the ile above (OK, without one town from the germans on this iland)
I jumped to the top of the point-scale.
But my biggest rival was my horrible tech rate, so no chance for fast researching. And after my great war, no one would trade with me.
My biggest problem comes about 1890AD, the evil germans declared war and captured the complete iland (5 towns). They fight with weapons, i've never seen bevor (because i had no such technics). Wow, in the next GOTM, i would play as AI, because they captured the iland with an tank-army landing from an ship.
I tried all diplomatic patterns, but no other AI declared war to the germans and helped me.
After the iland capturing, i had the chance for peace and i used this period to make my forces stronger.
The germans declared war to the atztecs and they used the iland as base for theire invading troops.
Then it looks that the germans retreat, an big fleet (4 carriers with bombers and fighters, 6 battleships and some transporters) went into an harbor on the iland and this was my chance.
I declared war to the germans bombed the ships around the harbor down, and captured after an short fight the town and short after the whole iland.
I tried to invade the german landmass, but they were too strong. So i went into peace and a short time after this, my space ship loss against the atztecs comes.

PTW 1.27f

I left the middle ages sometime during my war with the Iroquois. The industrial ages weren't very interesting. I missed Theory of Evolution by 4 turns but I stayed in touch with the tech leaders, the Zulu, by trading. I had begun to have hopes of winning, so I was very glad when the Iroquois and the English were wiped out by other civs. They would have been hard to convince to vote for me, and I thought a diplomatic victory was my best shot.

In 1640 I traded into Modern Times, giving lots of gold to the Zulu. I had lots of second thoughts about this, because it crippled my own research and gave me 20 turns of not much cash. I did it anyway, because I couldn't stand not knowing what modern techs were around. I have a palace prebuild for the UN that will finish in 35 turns, and I keep my fingers crossed.

The very next turn the Greek's oil city flips to me. I think I'll be able to make some money selling oil to them. No. They don't have any, and even after their gpt deals with me for something else expire, they still don't have any. I remain cash poor.

Evidently nobody is researching Fission except me. I finally get my forbidden palace built in London, when I'm just 2 or 3 turns from fission. My income nearly doubles for the last few turns of the game. I've had to move people around to keep my prebuild from turning into a palace, but the UN will be mine.

One turn before I get fission, the Zulu finally learn it. They don't want to sell, but it doesn't matter. I try to decide who my opponent will be. I can't figure it out - everyone else is too close in size. In 1784 I give gifts to everyone: fission to the Germans, uranium to the Greeks, coal to the Zulus and the Aztecs, and horses plus cash to Carthage. (I can't decide how much the horses are worth to Carthage, because they have no cash - I can get 9 g for them, so I give some cash, too. It is probably unnecessary, but I have lots.) I build the UN, hold a vote, and beat the Zulu 5-1.

This was my first emperor win, so I'm happy.

Well done CKS Hard luck Detlef. better luck next month

1.27f Open
Ok this was the most nailbiting game I've ever played! I was originally aiming for a diplo victory but was beaten to the UN by a lousy 3 turns! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
I was way behind in tech but everyone was friendly so I tried some trading to catch up. Only problem was I made a deal with Carthage and they were wiped out before the turns were up... bye bye reputation!
I honestly thought all was lost and was just waiting for the AI to build the ship or have a vote or whatever... I never did manage to get the continent to myself but took advantage of a dogpile against the English to grab most of their cities. I was slowly catching up and thanks to some nifty trading (thank you Moonsinger for that excellent thread!) I was at tech parity with most civs and ahead of a couple. This is where I started thinking I might just manage a win. I had absolutely no chance of any kind of military victory since my army was puny and weak and I didn't get a single great leader all game. I also thought that capturing the UN would go against me as I couldn't take on the might of the germans all by myself and no one would ally with me since I was so poor and feeble! So I decided to reach for the stars instead!
Lets just say it was a race to reach robotics before the others and since my rep had been trashed I had to research by myself or pay in full. Painful!
Well in the end the French prevailed with a pathetic launch date of 1953, yes you read that right, NINETEEN FIFTY THREE!!!
Still it was at least a win rescued from a hopeless position.
Firaxis score: 2420
Jason score: to be edited in
I also had to sit through 2 unexpected UN votes and hit "abstain" hoping that there wouldn't be enough votes.... phew!

Note to self: Be more of a warmongerer and less of a cowardly builder!

Couple more things:
My entry for blunder of the month looks like a sure winner... if I'd woken up and switched to democracy sooner then I would have been in a much stronger position and probably would have won 60 turns sooner by a UN vote.

Never gift things to a dying AI because you feel sorry for them! It will always come back and bite you in the @$$ when they are wiped out before 20turns. Damn carthaginians!

See you in GOTM32

Note to Team Ankka... dont let this crappy performance give you doubts about SGOTM2.. I have learnt and moved on!

Nice games everyone. My game fell into the predictable pattern: build, war, build, war, build, then win by diplomacy or space race. I enjoyed the game very much, but I really need to apply more creativity. While looking back over all the notes I took for this time period, I realized nothing there really was of interest in the end.

Industrial Era (1210 AD) - Modern Era (1910 AD)

Some highlights:

* In 1410 AD, I made an uncharacteristic decision,...I committed a ROP rape of the Iroquois. They were down to one city, and I had a few units protecting them from the English. But then, Niagara flipped back to them. Fearing the English would capture it quickly, I DoW'ed the Iroquois and quickly destroyed them. This did present some trade problems later in the game, but nothing serious.

* In 1470 AD, Paris built the ToE, providing the sling-shot maneuver for me to gain the tech lead.

* In 1525 AD, Orleans built the Hoover Dam, which triggered the French Golden Age (well timed for distancing myself from the other civs along the tech tree).

* In 1530 AD, I decide to trade coal to England so Elizabeth will lay rail which will allow England to be fully developed for French assimilation in the near future. This was probably by most creative idea.

* Research Fission first in 1720 AD and trade right away for nice deals. A palace prebuild is only a few turns away from completing the UN.

* Orleans built the UN in 1750 AD, and the French government institutes Marshall Law, suspending the constitution. There will be no elections!

* After Lyons built the Appollo Program in 1774 AD, I set my sights on space.

* Finally hand build the FP in Salamanca in 1812 AD. I had toyed w/ not even bothering with it, but I had remained undecided on it for so long while it was building that wasting the shields became unthinkable.

* I get around to destroying the English completely in 1842 AD. Yeah.

* The Aztecs DoW me in 1876 AD. So, I roll around Montezuma's land razing cities here and there. There is no need to keep them, and besides, he should have considered this when he delcared war. Those deaths are a direct result of his actions. Boo-f#@*ing-hoo!

* Last spaceship component built in 1908 AD and France launches the next run.

Thanks for the game ainwood and staff. My apologies for not having made better use of it.







I did have this one bizarre terrain event. Evidently, a severe earthquake hit which caused the ocean floor to rise, completely enclosing Avignon.

Peglegasus said:

Anyway, we manage to complete Hoover Dam, continuously renew our coal supply, and become a democracy. I couldn't afford to switch governments earlier but now with Hoover out of the way, there are no more wonders for a brief period. At this point Carthage pulls ahead in the research pace. I soon discover that the fastest I can research techs is 7 turns... and that's at 100% science. I'm just too small a nation. Carthage is researching in 6 turns.

Click to expand...

I've given up on democracy in any game where I'm not a religious trait civ. The second anarchy period just doesn't seem worth it. I think you would have done just as well by staying in republic. You were a republic, right?

Nice ending!

CKS said:

This was my first emperor win, so I'm happy.

Click to expand...

Congrats, CKS! :grad:

mabellino said:

Note to self: Be more of a warmongerer and less of a cowardly builder!

Click to expand...

You and me both mabellino, you and me both.

dojoboy said:

I've given up on democracy in any game where I'm not a religious trait civ. The second anarchy period just doesn't seem worth it. I think you would have done just as well by staying in republic.

Click to expand...

Me too! The new Republic unit support makes it very attractive, and I'm slowly learning how to manage Republican war weariness now so that I don't bother with Monarchy any more either.

PTW:

This is my first GOTM, and consequently first GOTM post. Apologies for my inaccuracies and lack of stat taking but I just wanted to take you through some of the high/low points of my game. This was also my first Emperor victory, I started with more than 1 settler, but 2 workers IIRC so I don't know if that bumps me back down to Regent/Warlord level:

Ancient Age Good Points

I secured the Wines, all Iron and all but 1 Horse (which the Iroquois never connected for some reason)
2/3 of the home continent was French thanks to an early war between the English and Iroquois
I traded well, giving Iroquois Horses whilst they were fighting the English so they could get MW and a GA. My trading also helped with tech parity.

Bad Points

I failed to take the continent by the Middle Age because I was afraid of the AI strength as Ive never played Emperor before
I was falling behind tech wise by the end of the AA
I didn't meet anyone else other than those on the Continent
Unprotected Settlers were lost twice because I didn't see the barb level

Middle Age Good Points

I used Cavalry to take the continent but I should've done it earlier
Adapting SirPleb's GL trick from a recent HOF I took Salamanca (which had many GWs in), taking the GL and 14 techs in the process, bumping me up to equal tech with most Civs
Again I traded well, using some of my 14 techs to gain gpt/lux for a brief period, and using the Wines to make some money
Having held back I had many GWs on the Continent, most notably Bach's and Magellan's, although the GL was indispensable

Middle Age Bad Points

Didn't take land on another continent
Wasted a GL rushing a Musketeer by accident (!) (Why isn't there an undo button!?!?!)
I was behind in tech for long periods

Industrial Age Good Points

This was a bad time, I fell behind in tech because I couldn't really decide on a good win strategy
My score moved from fourth last (after the defeated Carthage, England and the Iroquois), to 2nd after the Aztecs
I traded well again, giving resources for extortionate amounts and using them to catch up in tech

Industrial Age Bad Points

See above, I also failed to RR quickly enough and fell further behind in tech

Modern Age Good Points

I won!!! Spaceship victory in the end, but my score was top after the Aztecs
I was the only person to have all resources, thankfully, making Spaceship victory the best option (and I finally decided on it then!)
Finally made war, against the Aztecs (as they were the points leader, I thought histographic would do), and took the eastern quarter of their continent.
Used a Spy to get the final SS part tech and finished quickly as id prebuilded it, good strategy if I may say so

Modern Age Bad Points

For the number units I lost for what i gained in the Aztec land was terrible; I didn't realise how strong artillery was until it was too late, and even then the artillery/infantry army was too slow to plod through their lands so i sued for peace. It did tip the points balance in my favour


Conclusion

looking at other players I have a long way to go, I should've taken the continent earlier but the GWs were reasonable compensation. I need to play for shorter periods as I made some bad errors (rush a musketeer, undefended settlers etc), but in the end had some luck and won through. Was pleased with my victory despite the above. Anyway GOTM is a lot of fun so Ill probably play next month, and it helps me focus as i start countless games and quit because of boredom.


Oh and where do you send submissions?