Classic GOTM 34: Final Spoiler

Final Spoiler for Classic GOTM 34

What was your chosen method to close-out this game? Secure the home continent, full steam ahead to navigation and then invading the other continent? Or did you set yourself up for a cultural or diplomatic victory? Or even pursue a space race victory?

Or didn't you make it at all.....


As always, please don't post any screen shots that show modern-age resources.

PTW - Open

The disappointment of being beaten to completing JS Bach’s Cathedral was barely offset by the consolation prize of Smith’s Trading Post. Shaka grew even more enraged when the recently conquered city of Kufah, revolted and killed two of his resting cavalry units. “Someone will pay for this outrage,” he bellowed at the walls of his office. Not wanting to break his word of peace with the Arabs, the final Carthaginian city of Russadir felt the wrath of the Zulu cavalry and Hannibal took up residence in the Zimbabwe home for deposed leaders.

Shaka collapsed in his chair. “Why am I always the one to cut ribbons and dedicate new buildings” he asked to the map on the wall”. The new Military Academy in Pasagarde was busy training new armies while the factories of the Zulu Republic were busy building new troops to fill those armies with. The Newton’s University on Ngome added the scientific burst his nation needed to maintain a steady flow of new technologies. With the recent upgrade of all of his antiquated city defenders to Infantry, a moved financed by selling outdated middle age techs to the Indians & Arabs, left Shaka feeling very secure on his own continent and the arrival of Aztec furs & Iroquois silks, were the basis for joyous celebrations in his honor throughout the Republic. There were still five wonders owned by Arabia and he wanted to complete his collection, so he knew war with the Arabs would soon be at hand.

Jafar leaned against his rifle as the rising sun signaled the end of another boring shift of sentry duty in Mecca. As he turned to return to the barracks, he felt the ground tremble as a dust cloud rose from the south. The Zulu Cavalry was coming!!

Brigadier Scoutsout troops poured from into the city past the fallen Arab musket men and assembled in the plaza between the Oracle and Hanging Gardens. Their victory had come with few casualties and they were preparing to move on the next Arab city. The troops in Kufah and Najran were no less successful in slowing the Zulu troops and soon the defenders of Baghdad were facing the mighty Zulu attack force. With the fall of Baghdad with the Great Lighthouse and Colossus, Shaka now controlled all of the known wonders of the world. He knew if the Arabs remained on the planet the peoples of those captured cities would be prone to revolt against his troops, so he ordered his generals to continue to press forward. The third and final Zulu Great Leader, Dingane was born during a mopping up operation near Baghdad and he would be returned to Zimbabwe for a future wonder build. With the fall of Anjar the Arabs had been reduced to a single island city and a transport of Zulu Infantry was in route to claim that city.

The completion of the Hoover Dam in Zimbabwe and Wall Street in Bapedi pushed the Zulu wealth & production capacity to the it’s maximum potential and allowed full funding to continue for the Zulu science community. The completion of the Pentagon coincided with the discovery of Motorized Transportation and soon the number of 4-unit tank armies in lands once held by Arabia grew to four. The massing of Aztec cavalry on the border meant that current period of peace was to be short lived.

General Grahamiam hurried into the morning staff meeting asking to have the floor immediately. “The Aztecs have crossed the border with 15 cavalry companies northwest of Baghdad” he announced. Shaka raised his hands to calm the room “We have five tank armies in place and our cities are defended by infantry and artillery. Absorb their initial assault and then we will claim all of the lands of Gandhi from this fool”.

The Aztec Cavalry Commander had expected to charge the riflemen in Baghdad without any distraction, yet with explosions bursting all around had broken his charge and his troops had become disordered. When he finally looked west away from Baghdad, he saw the first volley leave the barrels of the Zulu tanks and he would soon see no more.

With the Aztec cavalry gone, the Zulu Tanks turned north, the few Aztec pikemen in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Calcutta, Bombay, Basra, Delhi, Lahore, Madras, Bengal and Kolhapur were unable to defeat a single Zulu tank and soon the Aztec ambassador was handing over the full Aztec treasury to the Zulu leader for accepting his peace entreaty. Shaka smiled and looked out his window as the workmen completed the final touches on the palace. It was a nice place to visit, but Alpha Centauri is where he wanted to be. His researchers had completed the Radio and were now working on technologies of the modern era. “I feel very generous and I believe that Persia might be able to speed my journey to the stars if I was to offer them a little incentive” he said to his aide. “Get my the Persian Ambassador”

Xerxes had overridden his counselors and had chosen to visit the Zulu leader in person. He knew that with the wave of his hand the Zulu leader could wipe his single city from the map, but before his reign was over he wanted to see some of these wonders that travelers had spoken of. What few wise men he had managed to bring from the mainland to his island exile had been researching the theory of mathematics since before 1000 BC and still hadn’t got it figured out. “This is your lucky day Xerxes” began Shaka “I’ve got some presents for your little fiefdom and I ask nothing in return except the chance to return later with trade offers”. Xerxes left the palace in a daze. He was leading a parade of over 15 men, each of them carrying an armload of books to help bring his nation to the modern age of science. When he returned to his palace with his treasure, his scientists spent days pouring over the information, until one quiet young apprentice raised his hand. “What is it Ispep?” Xerxes asked. “Sire, with all the knowledge we’ve been given, I can’t help but wonder why something I just thought of, fission, was not included in the list. It must be something the Zulu scientists do not know yet”. Armed with the new bargaining chip Xerxes called the Zulu ambassador and asked him to make me an offer. Soon the wisdom of Computers, Military Tradition and Navigation was part of the Persian book of wisdom. Still, though rumors persisted of nations other than the Zulu, the Persian people would not meet them while Shaka was on the planet.

Shaka smiled, he had given away a lot to the Persians, but they were of no threat either militarily or scientifically. He had saved having to research fission himself and by precise timing of the completion of the Theory of Evolution he received the knowledge of Miniaturization and Rocketry from his scientists. He send word to Ngoome for Dingnane to hurry the completion of the Internet and the Zulu research community was now primed for the final push to space. With the launching of the Apollo Program in Bapedi, Shaka new that it was time to start packing his bags again. For the next 50 years, different Zulu cities would deliver another piece in the puzzle towards Alpha Centauri. At the celebration of the Planetary Party Lounge, General Grahamiam cornered Shaka and informed him that Iroquois Cavalry units had crossed the border near Delhi. The eight tank armies on the continent would be more than enough to handle this invasion. “I’d prefer to launch tomorrow while the planet was at peace, see if you can delay those troops from causing an incident until after the launch.” Alas, it was not to be as Shaka was walking through the boarding area he was intercepted by a messenger from the General, the Iroquois had declared war and attacked Delhi. The fortified Mechanized Infantry had no problems in crushing the attack and the General wanted follow up instructions. Shaka said to the young man “Take this message to the General, he’ll be at the United Nations dedication in Zimbabwe. The fate of the Zulu Republic is now in your hands General, please care for it well. He will know how to deal with this minor threat.”

And so, as the new century (1800 AD) began the engines of the space ship fired and once again Mursilis headed to Alpha Centauri.

Space Ship Launch in 1800 AD – 33 hours & 44 minutes – Firaxis 3390 – Jason 6552

Open

Middle Ages

We entered the IA in 1120AD, heading for the space race victory. We had been able to do 4 turn research from 800AD - 1120AD to complete the MA, and continued through the IA in a similar vein. We decided to gift the one city state, Persia, to the IA in the hopes that they would get something useful for us. They didn't. They got nationalism!

Railing
Our four turn research initially required 100% science while we researched steam, then Industrialisation. Fortunately with libraries, unis, marketplaces and banks in most of our two cores' cities, we had a good buffer to afford this deficit research. By the time Industrialisation came in, we had coal hooked up. We normally opt for the strategic railnet linking all our cities together so that we can respond to military threeats rapidly, anywhere in our empire. This time round we prioritised railing first Persepolis, our capital in former Persian lands, because this city had Copernicus, and was building Newtons, and then our other core cities. The rapid railing of our cores, combined with Newtons completing in Persepolis, resulted in a quick improvement in research cost requirements, so medicine was at 80%, sanitation at 70% etc.

Culture
In 1140AD, the Carthaginian city of Cadiz flipped to us. At first I thought it must have gone the other way, because I am not used to this. I guess our culture from all those libraries and unis was starting to get quite huge!

Wars
By the Industrial Age, the home continent was fully under control. The Egyptians and the Persians still had one city each. The Carthaginians still had three. There didn't seem much point pursuing the war against them, so we shifted to the other continent. Our reasoins for war were twofold. To get a good score on a space victory, you still need to occupy close to 66% of the terrain, and 5 of the worlds luxes were on the other continent. We wanted 8 native luxes. The other reason for ongoing conflict, of course, was to keep a steady flow of leaders coming for rushing important wonders.

We started with the Iroquois who were easy to reach, fairly weak, and had one of the luxes we required. This war went from 1160AD to 1220AD, netting us three cities and a silks resource.

We immediately turned on the Indians, and by 1280AD we had achieved our objective of a new leader, another city, and a spice resource.

Finally we moved on to the Arabs. They were the strongest civ on the other continent - still puny, but relatively the strongest. They also had the remaining three luxes. Securing all three luxes took a little longer than the earlier wars, and we suffered a flip against us just before the end. However, by 1360AD we gave peace to the Arabs and left them with a single city. We now had all 8 luxes connected.

The Aztecs got a little uppity at this time and took advantage of the fact we were warring with a handful of knights and muskets. Numbers were on their side and they managed to wrest control of an unimportant city back off us. We soon returned with tanks, and in the final land grab reduced the Aztecs to a pale shadow of their former selves, but made sure we stayed well under the 66% threshold. By this time a space victory was surely going to score better than a domination victory!

Tech Acquisition
We were able to do 4 turn research throughout the IA. The only hiccup came when we wanted to research atomic theory. This would have taken 5 turns so we delayed getting to electronics researching the other branch, until we were able to do these techs in four turns. We had deliberately decided to use ToE to pick up two modern age techs, and so had delayed the build of this wonder. The only IA optional tech that we researched was sanitation. We considered it essential to get our core cities, and in particular Persepolis, able to work all city tiles. Persepolis had Copernicus and Newtons, and then later Seti, so it was a real knowledge powerhouse.

We entered the Modern Age in 1520AD. We gifted Persia to the MA, and they get rocketry as their free tech. Our research on computers takes five turns. I also find that I need to try and slow diown my ToE build, so that it doesn't come in until after I complete computers. ToE completes on the same turn as I research computers. I get miniturisation, then via big picture trade Persia for rocketry, and pick up space flight as my second tech.

From here on in, modern age techs take four turns each, with satellites being the last tech researched for space. We use three or four core cities working on prebuilds of unnecessary wonders, so that as the techs come in, the spaceship parts are completed immediately, and the prebuilds can start anew. When satellites came in, I used the big picture to access the cities list and searched through until I found a prebuild that could complete the last spaceship part in one. This saved one turn on the launch, I think.

Space achieved in 1715AD for 7164 Jason points.

Attached is Persepolis - churning out almost 300 beakers of research per turn.

[PTW] 1.27f - Open Class

Just a few turns before then end of the Middle Ages , I had a begun the invasion of the other continent. Capturing two cities by the time I reached the industrial age.

Indstrial Age

My goal by this time was to milk the game to a histograph victory. I had reduced the Iroquois to one city by 1400AD and as I was positioning 20 cavalry down the coast preparing to attack the Arabs for their luxuries, when India jumped up and said "Me first!". Since I had all those troops just off their coast, I was only to happy to change my plans.


In 1440AD, I captured the last Indian City. I had begun to raze instead of capture to keep my territory below the domination limit. Of the Iroquois cities I had captured, I was abandoning them by rushing settlers.


In 1505AD, I was ready to start on the Arabs as they were beginning to expand in the former Indian territory.


By 1545AD, the Arabs had been exiled to their 2 tile island, when the Aztecs decided to invade in the north. I had been blocking their access to all that open land and I guess it just pissed them off. In addition to what you can see, I have 2 Cavalry Armies in Salamanca.


The Zulus became a Democracy in 1585AD afer a 5 turn anarchy. I grabbed the chokepoint and sent a couple armies to pillage the Aztec's saltpeter before I gave the them peace in 1595AD.


I entered the Modern Ages in 1740AD with the discovery of Radio. I completed the ToE the same turn for Computers and Miniaturization. I used another prebuild to finish The Internet the following turn. (Can anyone tell me why that was a bad idea. Never mind, I found out.) Things were quiet until 1782AD when I decided to use all my new toys to eliminate the Aztecs who were trying to expand again.


I completed my razing of the former Aztec empire by 1800AD. The picture below shows my slaves workers busy planting trees as they had done in the other pars of the continent. It looked really cool with them all moving. I had 167 slave workers at my peak.


From there it was clean up pollution and hit the turn button. I researched Stealth in 1862AD and went back and researched 4 optional techs before researching 9 future techs. In 1991AD, after micromanaging population, pollution, and domination limit, I was suprised to find I had won a 100K victory.


Game status: Cultural 100k Victory for Zululand
Game date: 1991 AD
Firaxis score: 5581
Jason score: 7822
Time played: 52:29:59


I never built many cultural buildings except science in my core. I had sold off all my temples long ago. I knew my culture was low. I just forgot to keep checking it. I went back and checked my saves. In 1900AD my culture was 60,000 and in 1950AD it was 80,000. If I had just checked it once, I could have prevented the 100K victory.

It looked like I was doing pretty well, but I have never play for a Histograph victory. I don't know how I would have done had I kept like I was going for another 60+ turns.

Open

Before Industrial age, I had conquered Carthage and was at war with Persia.
I had decided I was going to go for Space Race so switched to Democracy since I figured the war with Persia would only last for 10 turns or so. I was wrong, shortly after I had entered the Industrial age, so did Persia, and they got Nationalism as their freebie. My cavalry had a hard time against the Persian rifleman, and my citizens started to get annoyed. I decided that I would have to make peace, even though it meant breaking an MA with Egypt.

Egypt eventually finished off Persia. and I was left with a few dangerous Egyptian cities nestled in my territory. I was fairly ahead of Egypt in tech, so declared war and annexed them to their south west peninsula with my tanks. My citizens started to get upset so decided to switch to commie government, but by the time I’d had a revolution, Egypt had infantry. Oh well, make peace with Egypt and switch back to Democracy for space race.

Launched spaceship in 1922AD.
Firaxis - 2522
Jason - 4314

I could have done better. The reason this was so slow was the number of turns I spent in Anarchy, my apathy with the game during the Ancient/Middle Ages, and pointless lengthy wars. I think my government chain throughout the game looked like this:

Despot – Republic – Democracy – Communism – Democracy . I know…
I’ve promised myself to make sure I’m in a good mood before I start playing next time. My lack of concentration of apathy really hurt me early on.

classic 34 open ptw 1.27f

goal: pre 1700 domination victory (never had one in a solo game)

1530 ibt enter IA and complete smith's

1545 Dow on India

1570 destroyed Indians

move more cavs to other continent, rush cultural improvements and muskets

Turn off research after learning Steam Power

1630 checked mapstat - I need 161 tiles to win and Iroquois have 254 and are weaker than the Arabs, so the Zulu will annex their lands

Demand Printing Press from Iroquois, they refuse, so we DoW and capture Bangalore and Karachi and position cavs to pillage saltpeter next turn

1635 capture Fustat - see an Iroquois army heading to Bangalore

ibt - had a very brave cavalry that died, but not before reducing the full strenth 3 knight attacking army to 2 hp

1640 and elite cav finished off their army, but no promotion, captured Hyperbad

1670 Fifty tiles to go - will I make my goal of a pre 1700 domination victory

1680 34 tiles to go at beginning of turn. Capture Salamanca with Sistine's and Grand river - recheck and now only 9 tiles to go.

1685 ibt some border expansions, but not enough

1690 Capture cattaragus - check mapstat and I have 8 more tiles than needed

1695 domination victory with Firaxis score 2893 (jason 6519) [dance]

Just barely squeeked under the date for my victory goal.

First time I have played a full game in PTW (played vanilla untill I got conquests)... Corruption was quite different from what I have gotten used to in C3C..

Never played Zulus before.. so decided to do everthing differently than I usually do since it was just regent difficulty. I normally am a builder and occationaly doing some wars in middle ages and usually finish off game in industrial ages with tanks. Decided to try to win by conquest or domination pre 1000AD.

Had really bad luck with popping huts.. got ceremonial burial from one, a town in far north end of home continent (turned out to be only a few tiles away from iron and horses eventually, andit would supply me with those resources after I got mapmaking .. so getting that city wasnt bad in the end). Rest of the goodiehuts was all maps I think.

Researched up to monarchy, and switched to that. A few turns earlier chartage had buildt the pyramids, so I took a stack of swordsmen and declared war on chartage the same turn as I reached monarchy I believe. From then on till the end of game I was always at war with atleast one other civ.

Triggered golden age first turn of the war by killing a stray warrior (or perhaps archerer) with one of the impis I had brought along. Killing chartage was slow since heavy losses with swods vs numerian merchenaries. Started on egypt a bit later (think I had temporary peace with carthage in meantime while I rebuilt my swordsman army and they were paying me gpt for peace).

Captired first Carthage city in 350BC, finished off Carthage in 570AD
Also finished off Persia in 570AD, and Egypt in 580AD

I had contacts with all civs on the other continent and full maps of it in 270BC. Soon after I decalered war on Arabs and Iroquois, and allies Indians vs Arabs and Aztec vs Iroquois.

Started invation of other continent with galleys and knights in 700AD-something. Captired first Arab town in 800AD.

In 1000AD when I had hope to win by I was 1 tile short of domination limit acoring to mapstat, and the only city that was due to expand culture boundries would only grab sea tiles. I was not in position to capture any cities that turn. Finally won in domination victory in 1020AD.

At this point I still only had the following of the middle age techs : Feudalism, Monotheism,Chivalry,Education and Music theory. I set a lone scientist to research astronomy when I could build Bach's, but he still had 16 turns left when game finished

Score: 4695
Jason: 10153
Time played: 14:32:04
(open class)

PtW Open

Brief recap so far:
AA - Expanded, and Carthage declared when I booted one of their warriors for (approximately) the 12th time. The war (swords, then quickly horses, vs. Mercs and Archers - not very painful, as the horses could retreat) lasted until Carthage bit the dust, and straddled my entry into the MA.
MA - Screwed up at the beginning. I'd figured that the best way to a fast conquest was Chivalry, then run to Navigation. So of course I researched Engineering first, then got Feudalism and started on Invention. Highly successful, otherwise: I got all three early-era wonders (Sun Tzu built from scratch, Leo's leader-rushed, Sistine pre-built), decided then to switch from military win to as fast a UN win as I could. Apart from Economics and Navigation, only required techs were researched. Built Smith's, Magellan's, Copernicus, Newton (though, er, not in the same city... not that it mattered).

Entered the IA in 1210, having shifted my initial thoughts from a conquest/domination (due to the distance of the other continent... it would've required ship-chaining, which I couldn't be bothered with, or a fast run to Navigation, which I'd already blown out). Persia and Egypt were still alive, barely, but didn't survive long. As I was at war with Persia, I couldn't gift them into the IA - besides, I wouldn't have wanted to faced Rifles and didn't want Nationalism anyway.

4-turn researched throughout the IA, the only optional tech being Sanitation. Suffrage from scratch, pre-built ToE, leader-rushed Hoover.

War-wise, being a cheap-ass, I coveted the Indian Spices and Gems, and the Arabian Ivory, for my own. I launched blitzkrieg attacks with Cavalry, Infantry, and Artillery to snatch them. Mission accomplished, plus my second leader (used for Hoover).

Modern Era entered in 1530. If I'd timed my ToE to research Fission, I'd have still had pre-build turns left for the UN. So I used ToE for Radio and Mech Transport, and researched Fission (try as I might, and despite rushing Libraries and Universities in every non-corrupt city) in 5 turns.

With a bit more manipulation, I might've won in 1555 (as in, just figured out how I might've done it - I believe DaveMcW did something similar in COTM02):
- Political shenanigans (see below).
- MM my UN pre-build to finish the same turn as Fission was completed.
- Have my capital finish a build on the same turn as Fission was completed.
- End turn.
- Zoom to the capital when the build order box comes up, scroll the the pre-build, switch to UN.

Political shenanigans: due to my raids on India and Arabia, they were somewhat upset with me. India, indeed, refused to be anything but 'Furious' with me, no matter how generous I was. My opponents in the UN vote would be the Aztecs, who, annoyingly, were still on good terms (as well as the Iroquois). There was only one way to resolve this.

In 1555, the turn before completing the UN, I DoW'd vs Aztecs, and bought alliances with Iroquois and Arabia. India just would not bite - wasn't too fussed, they'd had a war with Aztecs too, and Arabia had fought a millenia-long war with the Aztecs. With three votes guaranteed not to go to Monty, I was at least assured of not losing.

With heart in mouth, I ended the 1555 turn. 1560 rolled in, the UN was finished, and the vote was held. I voted for myself (that would've been one hell of a slip!), and the final tally was:

Shaka votes for Shaka
Monty votes for Monty
Gandhi abstains (no surprises)
Abu Bakr votes for SHAKA
Hiawatha votes for SHAKA

The Zulu Nation wins a Diplomatic victory in 1560! (Now to go clean up the mess I left with the war I started...!)

Firaxis: 3573, Jason: 7832.

Neil.

Edit: Oh, and just how 'Fission' was researched without knowing how to print books, I'm at a loss

eldar said:

PtW Open
As I was at war with Persia, I couldn't gift them into the IA - besides, I wouldn't have wanted to faced Rifles and didn't want Nationalism anyway.

Click to expand...

The free-tech bug in vanilla was fixed in PtW.
So you would have had a 2/3 chance for a useful tech.

3CC AW (Conquest) Predator

Tech race was very slow. No threat to lose UN or space.

I constructed factories and coal plants in 1880-1900AD. After then I got upper hand. Unfortunatly time was running up. I trash my primary goal conquest. I finished by 21th century Cultural 20k.

Game status: Cultural 20k Victory for Zululand
Game date: 2012 AD
Firaxis score: 592
Jason score: 889
Time played: 14:03:29

Continents were much harder than Pangaea in my variant.
I had to research Navigation/Magnetism.
AI had naval superiority.

AW difficulty scale:

klarius said:

The free-tech bug in vanilla was fixed in PtW.
So you would have had a 2/3 chance for a useful tech.

Click to expand...

I suppose leaving him with 1 city then gifting him in wouldn't have been too much of a pain. Knowing my luck, he'd have got Nationalism anyhow.

Neil.

Eldar: I left Persia live with a single island city until the end. I even gifted him the 3 other island cities to keep me under the domination limit. He never met any of the other continent tribes. Only India ever had any galleys out and the Arabs wiped them out before they had time to meet the Persians. I ended up gifting Xerxes from Mathematics to the Modern Age where he got Fission (he got Feudalism & Nationalism in the earlier ages). Then I researched Computers in 4 and traded him computers and a couple of optional techs (literature, navigation & military tradition, I think) for fission. So I managed to shave 4-5 turns off my completion date. I thought about gifting him to the Industrial Age earlier, but was concerned he'd make contact with one of other continent and then I'd be facing rifles instead of muskets. As it was the Aztecs & Iroquois got rifles with about 6 turns to go and never met Persia.

I just realised, my timing was out anyway - when I entered the IA, Persia still had 3 or 4 cities left. I'd have had to make peace there and then to see what his free tech was. Now, I'm not scared of a couple of Rifles but....

My initial pause in the campaign after hitting two cities initially, to soak up his inevitable GA rush of Immortals, probably stopped me from isolating him - I'd certainly have kept him as a pet had I finished the job before the end of the MA.

Neil.

PTW 1.27 Open

I entered the industrial ages in 1515 AD gearing up for a war with Persia to secure my continent and going for a 20K victory. As with my earlier wars, the gearing up went on for far too long, and the wars dragged on and on. By the time I finished wiping out the Persians I was facing infantry. At least now I know to build artillery, but moving and attacking with all those pieces wasn't fun. They did their job, though, and Persia steadily lost ground. After Persia I destroyed India (I think, it has been a while) on the other continent and realized I could get a domination or conquest win easily. I've only ever won by domination once, and never by conquest.

This was a new problem for me, as I didn't want a domination win. (Avoiding a conquest win seemed easy.) While my 20K win around 2000 AD wasn't going to be a high scoring victory, it was definitely going to be better than a domination win around 1920 AD. I briefly panicked and then went and got MapStat. I was at around 60% of the "land", so I finished off the Indians. The Arabs and the Iroquois both attacked later, but I got peace negotiated without taking much from them, and I ended up about 20 tiles under the limit. My usual play style is to not declare war on anyone who doesn't attack me, but wipe out anyone who does. This doesn't lead to high scores, and I'm trying to change that. In this game I both attacked preemptively and refrained from annihilating my foes..

While everyone else is fighting, the citizens of Bapedi are patiently building culture: Universal Sufferage in 1740, Theory of Evolution in 1774, Intelligence Agency in 1790, Hoover Dam in 1972 (rushed by a leader after turning the original build into the Intelligence Agency), Battlefield Medicine in 1806, Wall Street in 1818, the Pentagon in 1844, the UN in 1930, SETI in 1958, the Internet in 1976, and either Longevity or Cure for Cancer just before the game ended (I rushed the other one at about the same time in a different city).

I hit 20K in 1995. My Firaxis score was 2945, which is good for me, and my Jason score was 4206. I think this is the first time my Jason score has been higher than the Firaxis one (losses don't score many points, for some reason, imagine that!). I expect to be back scraping for any sort of win next month, but it was interesting to play a game where winning wasn't in doubt and I could concentrate on how to play a winning game. Obviously I still have lots to learn.

GOTM 34 – Zulu (Open)
Civgeek
Aiming for 20K Victory

Industrial Age (1365 AD – 1754 AD)
Modern Times (1754 AD – 1828AD)
From the Industrial Age on, I was essentially just running out the end game. Technology was self-researched at a 4-5-6 turn pace depending on how happy I wanted people to be. I continued to build/rush wonders in Ulundi (20K city). I eventually eliminated Carthage, Persia and Egypt in order to annex their last few cities. If I had been more aggressive I could have conquered part of the other continent to move closer to the Domination limit (I think I was around 53% as it was) and up my score, but frankly at this point the game was becoming a bit repetitive (God save us from worker micromanagement and pollution in Civ 4). I was 2/25 on leader chances, giving me a final total of 7/98 or 1/14 overall. There was some excitement towards the end as both Arabia and the Aztecs approached me for RoP and then proceed to attack me within two turns of each other. I’d never had an AI do a RoP backstab on me before, so getting two in collusion like that was a quite a surprise. Additional Wonders built in Ulundi after the Middle Ages were:

1450 AD Magellan’s Voyage
1455 AD Universal Suffrage (leader)
1570 AD Battlefield Medicine
1580 AD Theory of Evolution (leader)
1645 AD Hoover Dam
1670 AD Wall Street
1768 AD United Nations
1794AD The Internet (+ Research Lab)
1824 AD SETI

Obviously the later wonders don’t have as much impact, so I only reduced my 20K turn by 28 years to 1828 AD. Ulundi was at 129 culture/turn at the end. Score 3465; Jason 6482. As noted, I probably could have up’d that score a bit with some overseas conquests and more aggressive milking of the homeland. Still, the people of Ulundi were very happy as having conquered the world through cheap exploitation flicks, mindless TV soap operas, mass media control and charging outrageous prices to tourists to see the “20 Greatest Wonders of the World!” they decided to move onwards to finding a Cure for Cancer.

Still, the people of Ulundi were very happy as having conquered the world through cheap exploitation flicks, mindless TV soap operas, mass media control and charging outrageous prices to tourists to see the “20 Greatest Wonders of the World!” they decided to move onwards to finding a Cure for Cancer.

Click to expand...

You forgot softdrinks, fast food, booze and women!

It does seem much more difficult to get the culture victories than just plain old conquest/domination.

I started a game with intent on culture, but the map is driving me towards warmonger, again.

I hadn't really been planning on doing any of the spoiler stuff for this game, and I didn't keep a log. But I was really happy with this game, since I beat my next best Jason score by nearly 3000 points. So what if most everyone's scores are a little padded for this one?

Anyway, did archer rushes for far too long in the game. I had destroyed Persia, gotten my first GL and 20 or so elite victories, and was partway through crippling the Egyptians when I finally got Iron and Horses hooked up. I was nearly as bad as the AI with this, but it just took forever to hack through the jungle. Anyway, I did okay with GLs but not great, with probably 50ish elite wins and two GLs on the first continent. However, after rushing the Pyramids with the first GL I wasted the next on an army, which promptly lost a battle where its odds of winning were about 20 to 1. So no Heroic Epic. Around 1000 AD, I finally had the first continent clear, knowledge of the other continent, and was going full speed ahead towards Navigation. I didn't use a single Cavalry in beating off the Egyptians and Carthaginians, which shows how slow tech was going. So it was domination for me.

I had a stack of 20 or so catapults (don't know how I forgot to upgrade to cannons), 10 cavs and 20 knights and a few muskets, pikes and MedInf. Started with the Arabs and worked my way north fairly quickly, though a sneak attack by the Aztecs slowed things down a bit. And the fact that I pretty much stopped shipping units over after the initial landing. So I missed my goal of 1250 AD domination victory, but not by a whole lot.

Game: GOTM 34
Date submitted: 2004-08-29
Reference number: 4790
Your name: bed_head7
Your email:
Software Version: PtW 1.27f for Windows
Entry class: open
Game status: Domination Victory for Zululand
Game date: 1335 AD
Firaxis score: 3645
Jason score: 8550
Time played: 32:27:59
Submitted save: Shaka of the Zulu, 1335 AD.SAV
Renamed file: bed_head7_GOTM34_PTW127_01.SAV

Open PTW 1.21f

5CC Conquest IV

Ancient Age Spoiler

Oh Where Oh Where Could The Other Civs Be?

Towards the end of the AA I had the home continent firmly under control. The other three civs were reduced to a few towns each and I had yet to see any other civ. I had 50 Horsemen by about 1100ad and Hlobane was cranking out a Galley every two turns. Problem was I could not for the life of me find the other continent. At first I was fooled by the coastal waters off of Egypt. I sent a dozen Galleys off, hoping to quickly get an invasion going. Of course, it ended up being just a bunch of islands - and really, what was I thinking? If that really was the other continent, the other civs would have had visiting Galleys by now. A few failed suicide attempts NW of the islands just added to my frustrations.

Once I realized the west was not the answer, I began sending Galleys off to the east. Twice I made it as close as seeing coastal waters before sinking. Finally, I gathered 4 Galleys into 1 group and sent them off together. 1st turn I lost 1 of the 4. 2nd turn I lost 2, leaving 1 Galley. That Galley finally reached the far shore and contacted India. All in all I think I lost 14 Galleys in suicide attempts. Some quick trades netted me the map of the new world and contact with all the civs. I even managed to keep my old world contacts and map a secret. The Great Library then gave me Monarchy, Monotheism, Engineering, Theology, Chivalry and Invention. Engineering had been recieved in a peace settlement with Carthage.

The conquest resumes

With Chivalry in hand, I started upgrading my Horses to Knights and proceeded to finish off my neighbors. Each civ fell quickly and respawned within easy reach of my Knights. In 1450ad I finished them off. In the meantime I was using my sparkling clean reputation to trade around with the new world and making a beeline to Navigation, which we reach just about the time I finished my continent. Each of the new civs began colonizing at about that time, but a small force of Knights kept at home would take car of them easily enough.

In 1480ad 38 Knights split into 3 groups landed in Arabia. Luckily for me, India and Arabia were already at war and the Ansar Warriors and War Elephants were busy destroying each other. My Knights made quick work of Arabian Pikes and Muskets. It only takes 5 turns to reduce Arabia to 1 city. I trade peace to the Arabs for Printing Press, Banking and Physics. The Indians finish them off 2 turns later and with nowhere to go Arabia gets no respawn.

India

After a couple turns of healing and regrouping, my Knights turn on India with the help of the Iroquois. India is a bit tougher of a nut to crack. Their large cities are defended by Muskets and it takes about 12-15 Knights attacks to take each one. Not much of a counterattack from these guys as much of their War Elephant forces were used against Arabia. The going is slow, but a city falls every 3-4 turns and reinforcements are constantly coming in. In 1680ad India is reduced to 1 mountain city and peace is called Democracy, Economics, Theory of Gravity and Magnetism.

Iroquois

At this point both the Iroquois and Aztecs have Military Tradition, which I had been slowly researching to. I traded Incense to Iroquois for Military Tradition (I hade 8 turns left) and immediately declared war on the naive fools. I then give the Aztecs that Incense for an alliance and the Iroquois fall quickly.

1762ad and it's just me and the Aztecs. My Cavalry are just now getting onto the war front in numbers to replace the vet Knights headed back for upgrading (all elites stay on to play a support role.) Unfortunately, the Aztecs have gotten to Nationalism so my Cavs will have their work cut out for them.

Aztecs

The turn the Aztecs reached Nationalism, they had 249g in their treasury. I wanted that gold so it couldn't be used for upgrading Muskets but they refused to trade with me. Something about shady deals with the Iroquois. I declare war on India's 1 town and get the Aztecs to ally with me. Suddenly they are willing trade partners. Fools. I take their 249g in exchange for 75gpt and declare war. Bwuhahahaha!

The Aztecs had a large force of Cavalry, including 3 Cav Armies. Unfortunately for them, nearly all of them were in the south heading to overwhelm the little Indian town. I then distracted them by scattering my huge stacks of slaves all over the southern area. While my stack of doom marched on their core cities, their Cavs and Armies played capture the worker. As they trickled back up for a weak counterattack my reinforcements knocked them off before joining the invasion.

Once again it was slow going as the Rifles fortified in cities were a match for my Cavs but they only had 6-7 cities in their core and with little in the way of a counterattack, my Cavs made a steady progress. In 1826ad I had all the Aztec cities razed leaving 13 scattered towns to clean up. No problem. 1862ad the last Aztec town falls and they respawn in the far south. Next turn they are eliminated and I finally have my Conquest victory!!!

Final Notes

I noticed a few things about the AI that had me scratching my head. One was the way they used their Cav Armies. I was a little nervous when I noticed they had three of these floating about, but when it came down to it they were little threat. Instead of being used to mess up my SOD, two of them were placed in unimportant towns in the south for defense. It took only two Cav attacks for each to be destroyed and they were actually far less efficient than a Rifleman in their defensive roles. I rarely see a Cavalry used as a defensive unit and I'm not sure why the AI considers a Cavalry Army for that role.

Another odd thing was the placement of Newton's University. The University doubles a city's science output and where did the Iroquois build it? In Niagara Falls, a pop 6 tundra/hill town with very little commerce. It was about as useless as a Wonder could get and it just confirmed my right to extinguish the other civs.

With Conquest behind me, I'd like to try and get a 5CC Space victory. With a possible Monarch game next month, I figure if I approach it in the same way as my Conquest games except not finishing off everyone I could have a shot of getting a Spaceship launched. I've won 20k Culture and Diplo already and Space seems to be the only possible victory left. I'd also like to try and get a higher difficulty Conquest win. I came close twice before and I think my game has improved enough in this style to make an attempt.

Tech

1010ad - Feudalism (Carthage - peace)
1230ad - Monarchy (Great Library)
1240ad - Monotheism (Great Library)
________Engineering (Great Library)
________Theology (Great Library)
________Chivalry (Great Library)
1250ad - Invention (Great Library)
1255ad - Education (Great Library)
1345ad - Astronomy (India - WM, 320g)
________Gunpowder (Iroquois - Astronomy)
1385ad - Navigation (50% - 9t)
1485ad - Chemistry (10% - 40t)
1520ad - Printing Press (Arabia - peace)
________Banking (Arabia - peace)
________Physics (Arabia - peace)
1635ad - Metallurgy (10% - 40t)
1680ad - Democracy (India - peace)
________Economics (India - peace)
________Theory of Gravity (India - peace)
________Magnetism (India - peace)
1690ad - Military Tradition (Iroquois - Incense)
1735ad - Music Theory (Aztecs - 24gpt)

City Builds

Zimbabwe
890ad - Wealth to 990ad
1010ad - Horseman
1020ad - Sun Tzu's Art of War (Dingane)
1060ad - Horseman-5
1190ad - Library
1190ad - Wealth
1310ad - Cathedral
1320ad - Impi-2
1405ad - Leonardo's Workshop (Mpande)
1420ad - Knight-13
1700ad - Bank
1725ad - Cavalry-14

Ulundi
890ad - Wealth to 990ad
1020ad - Horseman-7
1190ad - Library
1190ad - Wealth
1320ad - Cathedral
1370ad - University
1410ad - Knight-11
1700ad - Bank
1725ad - Cavalry-14

Bapedi
450ad - Horseman-29
1190ad - Library
1190ad - Wealth
1315ad - Cathedral
1370ad - University
1400ad - Sistine Chapel (Cetshwayo)
1415ad - Knight-14
1710ad - Bank
1740ad - Cavalry-13

Hlobane
550ad - Galley-29
1270ad - Library
1325ad - Cathedral
1375ad - University
1390ad - Knight
1470ad - Magellan's Voyage
1485ad - Caravel
1505ad - Knight-9
1710ad - Bank
1740ad - Cavalry
1745ad - Shakespeare's Theater (Zwelithini)
1758ad - Cavalry-12

Isandhlwana
890ad - Wealth to 990ad
1030ad - Horseman-5
1180ad - Library
1180ad - Wealth
1325ad - Cathedral
1380ad - University
1415ad - Knight-11
1710ad - Bank
1745ad - Cavalry-12

Kuningas - 3CC all war? That takes some guts to try, even on Regent. I can usually get through the AA with 3 productive cities, but for me I need all 5 cities to produce a military big enough for my abilities and even then I'm finishing pretty late. Congrats on the 20K win and I hope you make another attempt at conquest.

Sabre said:

Kuningas - 3CC all war? That takes some guts to try, even on Regent. I can usually get through the AA with 3 productive cities, but for me I need all 5 cities to produce a military big enough for my abilities and even then I'm finishing pretty late. Congrats on the 20K win and I hope you make another attempt at conquest.

Click to expand...

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Check out this SG, it's quite cool... it's a redux, the original attempt was lost.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=97894



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And, good luck, Kuningas. Great job, Continents is hard on a 3CC.

Ankka - Very cool! I'll be keeping an eye on that game. Looks like you're off to a good start.