Spoiler1* Gotm22 Vikings Full map visibility of the starting landmass

Spoiler1* Gotm22 Full map visibility of the starting landmass including contact and map visibility of a dark green and orange Civ." Plus you must have completed the ancient age.


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1. Full map visibility of the starting landmass.
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v1.21f

Well ... I simply must post, and this is really, really early in the month for me.

I founded Nidaros on the staring spot; my scout went North to that Mountain, my worker went East, so I was pleasantly surprised to see the 2 cattle spaces to the SW after my capital was set!!

First builds were a 2nd scout, and a worker; I knew I had a lot of tile improvements to perform.

Started on CerBur at minimum - my rationale was that if I met a Religious civ early on, I could trade for it pretty easily, but if it looked like I might be alone, I could accelerate the research to maximum and not lose too many turns. The other Techs would take longer, thus locking me into a longer research time or causing me to throw away several turns if I decided to switch to CerBur later. Also, since 20K cultural is the victory of the month (so to say), an early Temple build would be nice.

Well, it did take too long to find anyone, so after bumping my Treasury up to about 45 gold, I turned on the Research to maximum. Meanwhile, after building the worker, I built a Settler, eventually founding Bjoer... just to the SW so it could share the 2 cattle spaces. After the Settler, and after finishing CerBur, Nadiros started on its Temple.

One of the scouts made it to the SW corner, and started popping Huts. 6 in this area, and 1 in the SE corner, yielding 1 empty, 25 gold, 1 local maps, 1 BronzeWorking and 3 conscript warriors. Two of the conscripts continued on over the bridge, and made contact with stacks of Russian and French warriors coming to quell the Barbarians. I was behind by 3 Techs at this time, and a city or two, of course. (Roughly 2400 BC)

I'd completed CerBur, and continued down this track to Mysticism. I had this lame thought that I could complete the Oracle, and if the Pyramids and Colossus were done, I'd might have a shot at the Great Library. Russia and I finished Mysticism on the same turn; at least I got to trade it to France for a Tech I was missing. About this time I came across a Greek Hoplite, and was able to trade for another missing Tech.

I started on Writing; of course I was beaten to it, but I had good trading power to get it cheaply. At this time I discovered that contact with me had been traded to the Celts and England. I now knew 5 other civs, if not exactly where they were in the world.

I used Bjoer... to build the next Settler, and some defensive units. Oslo was eventually founded to the West, and Stockholm to the North. I haven't used RCP in this game; my builds have been few and I've found it difficult to use RCP, and still be on a river, and share resources ... Also, since I'm working on using the capital for a 20K city, my empire has grown slowly.

Desiring to get my hands on a Library for Nadiros, I started on Literature at a high rate of research. Nadiros had already completed a Temple, and was well on its way to building the Oracle; it was a size 7 most of this time, generating 12 shields a turn. The turn before I would complete the Oracle, Literature was discovered amongst the AI. My thoughts regarding a wonder cascade were dashed. I'd rather have the GreatLibrary than the Oracle, so I bought Literature and changed my production. The turn after my switch, the Aztecs completed the Oracle (I'd have just beaten them to it.) A couple turns later the Greeks completed the Pyramids. A few anxious turns later (1100 BCish or so, I completed the Great Library!! This caused a cascade as England finished the Great Wall and the Celts finished the Great Lighthouse. (BTW, the Colossus had already been built by the Celts).

The GreatLib started kicking in, and I got Construction, Currency, Philosophy and Code of Law in the next few turns. After Literature I'd started on Poly at highest sustainable research, and completed it in around 900 BC, entering the Middle Ages.

I'm even or ahead on Techs, I've only got 5 cities founded, no Granaries (what!!), a Temple, Library, and Great Library in Nadiros. I'm the weakling on the block, and have already given in to a couple of demands, but I'm connecting the Horses and Iron just to the South, I'm building some Barracks and a stack of warriors for upgrade. The only war I've seen is between France and Russia (Russia came out on top). I'm still planning the next set of moves, but I don't think the continent will remain very peaceful for long.

Founded my Capital on the starting spot and immediately sent out all of my units in search of anything that was worthy of note. Found the "black rock" things and an archer went at them and ended up elite. From then on the my scouts moved across the land bridge (after grabbing a few huts. unfortunately all I ended up with was 1 tech (cant remember which one) a unit some gold and a few maps.) and met all of the other Civs on "my island". I could see that these Civs (Russia, Greece, France) were a lot more powerfull than me (they seemed to be able to expand at a far greater rate) I knew that the land bridge was going to be important at a later date for trasing maps and stopping hordes of enemy units attacking me so I build a spearman and sent him down to block it up.

I wsa lucky enough to be first to Literature and had a prebuild going and switched to Great Library. The French then demanded that I give them Literature. I toild them to bugger off and they declared war on me. the Greek and Russians joined in and my scout and warriors in their sid eof the map wewre killed. Luckily the spearman held off (I was expecting a Great leader from him but nothing eventuated) and none of my citys were touched.

At this stage I had also met the Celts which had a little island above the Greeks. (they were prett far behind). I decided that it was then time to cracnk out the ships and start building up for an onslaught of Beserkers (when they were researched).

Going into the middle ages I was ahead on techs, the most powerfull but with a small amount of culture and the 3rd highest score. I am not sure if it was around here but I also had the entire map visible..... will leave it to the next thread.

ps -> Cracker. Nice map, I definately think that the way to win this will be through early military domination and then working from there.

Whoops.


Forgot to mention the English. They are the most powerful

I popped 4 goodie huts and not single tech I did however get a settler which is probably better. I designated my capital as the culture center and built some of the ancient wonders there (Oracle, Great Library, Hanging Gardens). I scored the Great Library and finally caught up on the dozen techs that I was behind! I only declared war on the French to take a city that was on my landmass, then everything was rosy until Middle Ages when the Galloglass (sp?) came into the picture.

Tech Step:

I toild them to bugger off and they declared war on me.

Click to expand...

I thought to myself, 'only an Australian would say that', and then I looked at where you were from

PTW 121 Open

This has been a fun game so far and I am fairing much better than previous high difficulty GOTMs. I decided to go with 1 Scientist research only, hoping to gain techs through trade. I always fell far behind in research in other higher difficulty games I've played so I figured it was worth a change in strategy.

I moved the warrior west first and found the cows so I moved the starting settler W to be next to the cows. My settler factory was up in a hurry. While this was happening I sent scouts south and I had much better luck than previous posters with the goodie huts:

3450bc Bronze Working
3250bc Masonry
2750bc The Wheel
2670bc An advanced tribe joined my civ on the southern antarctic coast.

I also got a warrior but I didn't record the year and I popped another hut way on the western coast past the land bridge which was another tech but I don't remember which one. My luck was somewhat paid back when I drew 8 turn anarchy for my switch to Republic in 150AD.

My explorations also yielded trading opportunities, meeting the Russians in 2670bc, Greeks in 2630bc, French in 2350bc, Celts in 1475bc and English in 1425bc. The English also must have traded my communications with the civs on the other side of the world because I had contact with them soon after. This allowed me to stay close to tech parity.

I did make one serious error. I did a 40 turn research gambit on Polytheism when I had the opportunity to do it on Literature instead. Amazingly I was able to complete Polytheism, then do min research on Lit (took about 25 turns after I decided to help it along) and I STILL was 2nd to get Literature. I had timed my Palace prebuild right and got the Great Library in 130AD. I could have had it 25-30 turns earlier and gotten more techs from the GL rather than having to buy them. The GL ended up yielding 3 ancient age techs and 6 MA techs before expiring. Doh.. still much to learn.

My military is keeping pace and I've already fought two skirmishes with the French over cities they placed on "my" landmass. This alone is a testament to a better game... I have never dared to initiate an ancient age war in a level higher than Monarch. My next target will be the Russians who settled much of the land west of the land bridge but are a weak military power.

The Great Library vaulted me into the middle ages and past this spoiler. At that time I owned all the land east of the land bridge except for one Greek city which I've decided to let live for now. I'm keeping pace culturally so I'm hoping for a flip. I also have contact with all civs and am at parity with the tech leaders. Can't wait to see what it looks like to see the Russians and French fleeing in terror from Knight & Beserk SoDs. I have lots of Horsemen ready for upgrading. One scientist research has worked surprisingly well.... I've kept tech pace and now I have a large treasury for mass upgrades. I'm surprised at the tech pace in this game, seems slow for an Emperor+ game. It was after 0AD before the first civ reached the middle ages.

Adam

Well, here we are again! Boy, let's see if I remember...I settled on the spot, sent the scout north to the mountain, worker to the bonus east... I started the RCP and got 7 of the optimum 8 in place, the only one I left out would of shared with the capital's cows. I didn't want to interrupt the sweet settler factory I had rollin'! I almost immediately abandoned any hope of completing a 20k vic. I popped about 5or 6 huts and got two techs! I have been settling like mad! I got a city all the way over in the tundra on the other side of the bridge next to the wine! then mad a trail backwards. I completely filled my starting area. Unfortunately, this game's theme seems to be "Tears of the Unlucky Technician". Every time I hoped I had gotten the drop on the AI they must of researched it the same round! Anyhoo, in the scope of this thread, I met my neighbors, missed all the wonders I wanted(due to late techs, late builds and misplans), I just haven't been catching any breaks. I went to war as soon as I could upgrade my 20 or so warriors, I had all vets and soon many elites, and I honest to god could not get a leader to save my life! All of my GOTMs have been marked by a glaring lack of leaders. I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but I've had a total of 3 leaders in the course of my 7 GOTMs(I did receive one after the scope of this thread, but still!). I save my elites for regulars and wounded, but wouldn't ya know, the round they decide to give it their all...it against my elites! I can't recall how many times I've watched a two bar regular or veteran spearman or swordsman take down my elite without losing a point! I've crushed France, and I'm crushing Russia, next will have to wait... Anyhoo, I'm hanging in there but we will see....I'm very angry with the foreign scientists!!!...and conscripts!!!

Rock on!

1.21f

Overall this was a mixed start for me. I aimed for having a wonder city separate from my capitol, but made a big mistake by trying to short rush a prebuild by chopping forest. Got the forest chopped on time, got the tech (map making to go for the lighthouse) and the !@$%* thing wouldn't let me change from the prebuild to any wonder.

Through the end of the ancient ages, I managed to miss out on all of the wonders, however it was a fairly productive QSC timeperiod, at least by my standards.

Summary:
11 towns, 27 population, 84g 2.7.1 +0gpt
29 total units, 1 settler, 8 workers, 3 warriors, 3 archers, 12 spears, 1 galley, 1 worker1
1 slave.
5 contacts
Math in 9

The huts were quite lucrative:

3150 BC: hut, deserted

2950 BC: Hut - warrior

2800 BC: Pop hut with scout, burial! Pop hut with warrior, 25g.

2670 BC: hut, bronze! another hut, masonry! [dance]

Originally posted by RocknOats
Unfortunately, this game's theme seems to be "Tears of the Unlucky Technician". Every time I hoped I had gotten the drop on the AI they must of researched it the same round!

Click to expand...

I noticed this too RocknOats, I think something suspicious is going on. Maybe it's been modded in a way that one of the AIs has a continual Great Library effect...can this even be done???

1.29 Open Class

The first turn shows (Vagn goes S, scout N, NW) 2 cows, furs, and the coast. Nidaros is founded on the spot, worker heads to irrigate cows.

The difficult early game decision was whether to make Nidaros our 20k culture city or found another one to this goal. Nidaros has a great location, lots of food and shields. However, it cannot use a Palace as pre-build or shield store if we loose a wonder race. I decided to found Oslo on the western coast as 20k city. In hindsight, I'm not sure that it was the best decision, but comparing notes will hopefully show.

Build order was scout, warrior, archer, settler, granary. Nidaros was turned into a 4 turn settler factory or 2 turn worker factory; I later joined a couple of workers to Oslo.

Oslo was founded 2800BC, builds warrior. It then built temple (2030BC), Colossus (1250BC), Hanging Gardens (310BC).

Pyramids were build in Tenochtitlan (750BC), Great Library in Athens (650BC), Great Lighthouse in Entremont (650BC).

Our scouts were very successful in popping goody huts. We got masonry, bronze working, alphabet, 25g, 25g. We were able to block the isthmus to the western part of the continent, but later the French and Russians sent settlers by ship to found towns to be conquered later by us.

Our archer dispersed all of the northern fog, but did not get a single promotion.

Our min research failed on ceremonial burial, literature, and mysticism.

In 2750 wee meet Russia (knowing the wheel). In 2390 we meet France and trade the wheel for our warrior code plus 33g. We buy ceremonial burial from Russia for 1 gpt and sell it to France for 40g. In 2230 we meet Greece.

In 1870 Greeks sell comm w Keltoi for 73g. comm w English for 67g, iron working and mysticism for 135g. (We had a lot of cash). Russia gives writing for iron working, mysticism, 1gpt. France gives 77g for iron working.

The next trading frenzy was in 1300BC: map making from England for wm, 5gpt, 127g; code of law, philosophy, tm, 2g from Russia for mm, tm, 4gpt; horseback riding, 57g, wm from France for mm; map trading gives another 53g.

In 630BC we buy polytheism from France for 228g (our goal is HGardens), mathematics from Russia for polytheism.

In 510BC we buy republic from France for 386g, 10gpt; construction, 15g from Keltoi for republic. Revolting to republic takes 6 turns and Vikings are republic in 330BC.

In 310BC, we can finally afford to buy monarchy from England for furs, 14gpt, 285g; currency from France for monarchy, 7g. We enter the Middle Ages.

Civ III 1.29f Open

hello all. this is my second stab at a GOTM. i played in the Med Melee and, although victorious, my score wasn't near what alot of you all got. i usually play my SP games at Monarch or below and have only attempted 2 Emperor games (lost them both). i figured this game was going to be brutal on me, but hey you only live once and it is only a game

after reading through the pregame discussion i figured i would give the 20k victory a shot even though i'm not in the tournament and i'm a noob here. i settled on the spot after seeing the 2 cattle to the west and lambs to the north. good spot for a settler factory which meant that i needed a second city for the 20k. i started research on CB hoping to pop some tougher techs with the huts. i pumped out two more scouts and then started on a granary. prolly my first mistake. should have went with a quick settler to get that 2nd city starting on prebuilds.

my 3 scouts went a searching for friendlies. found the fog to the north. wasn't sure what that was all about. had to go and look it up in past GOTMs. pretty cool. uncovered our neck of the woods and made my way to the other half of the continent. popped 8 huts in all. not much luck for the kid. i received 1 settler , 2 25gd pieces and 5 conscript warriors. not one single tech. when i met up with the French, Russians and Greeks they were all way ahead in techs. i was on 40 turn research though and was able to buy some of the cheaper ones including BW and Myst. my second mistake was my 2nd city placement. i wanted a coastal sight so i could have a shot at Colossus or Glight. i settled Oslo to the north at the mouth of the river. in hindsight i prolly should have settled to the east taking advantage of the wool and coastal bonuses (fish & whale?).

anyhoo, in 1550 BC i started on the colossus in Oslo. russia, france and greece hadn't started anything yet, but we didn't have contact with the celts or england yet so i had no idea they were already building. the Aztecs nabbed the Oracle around 1300bc and England followed with the pyramids and colossus soon after. i quickly purchased Lit from the cheapest source and switched to the GLib, but Oslo was growing slowly and i hadn't built enough workers to get it up and running and through an espionage mission saw that England was gonna get that as well. now i was mad. my 20k victory was mostly out the window unless i could get a leader quickly.

while Oslo wasn't the best move on my part, the rest of my civ was growing rapidly. my 1000bc stats are as follows:

11 towns, 25 pop, 9.1.0, 76gd, 31gpt, poly 19

this was one of the best starts landwise i have ever had in any game. after 1000bc Nidaris began spitting out Swordsman after a barracks was made. around 600 bc i was ready to invade the other half of the continent. i had 2 galleys in my western most town of Bjoergivn. these galleys could traverse the gap in one turn and plop my Swordsman down in a hurry. Catherine was to be the first victim to feel my wrath. she had no iron or horses. poor Catherine my blades soon made mincemeat of her warriors and spears and a couple achieved the golden Elite status. i dragged the war on using my Elites as much as possible, but couldn't score a leader and finally sued for peace around 150bc for currency and construction wich vaulted me into the MA.
England got the GLib of course and France followed with the GWall. only the Hanging Gardens remained. everyone else besides Russia had the Republic and Monotheism already, i was researching Monarchy hoping to get it first. only time will tell......

some thoughts about this game so far. pretty upset with my poor early game management. definitely need some improvement on where to place those key first cities. i've read up on the RCP deal but i hate not being able to place a city on a river or someplace else i think is better. also bummed about only one wonder getting built on my continent. here are my wonders so far:

England- Pyramids, Colossus, Gr Library
Celts- Gr Lighthouse
Aztecs- Oracle
France- Gr Wall

yay, the Gr Wall is on my island. what a gip

no techs from the huts hurt. kinda negates the Expansionist trait.

i am happy with with how my civ is coming along, though. i'm behind on culture but have a nice stack of bloodthirsty Viking Swordsman ready to go rampaging after their successfull campaign against Russia (lookout France). i currently have the most land area and more towns than anyone else.

current Histograph at 150bc

Vikings- 607
England- 562
Greece- 427
Celts- 372
France- 348
Russia- 272

never, ever would have thought i would have the lead entering the MA on Emperor level

PTW 1.21 open.

I decided that 20K is for weaklings and decided from the start that conquest was the true Viking way. Raagggghhh!

Delighted with the start position - great for rapid expansion - 2 scouts, worker, grannary and then settlers. Used Varg Anderson (?) for some limited exploration - He later died in an unfortunate dispute with some land fog.

Found the passage to the other half of the island quite late, but had gained 2 techs from the huts, so traded with my new neighbours. Had pretty much filled my starting area by then

They were a barbaric bunch, who spent all their time kicking each others teeth in. The Greeks came out best - due to their hoplites. French had backed into a corner and had some plush cities behind the front lines. The Russians were whipping boys and at one point were down to 1 city (having lost Moscow) - only the intervention of my scouts stopped the greeks finishing them off.

I had been building an army - had 12-15 vet warriors and a few horses. Was waiting for map making to transport them without taking 20 turns to walk there. Got this from the Orangies when they made contact with the French. A 40 turn gamble on Polytheism paid off for that.

The Orangies had a very impressive empire and had absorbed part of their green neighbours. They built the lighthouse very soon after I met them. Decided they would be the first target.

My brave sailors (4-5 trimemes) cut through the killer fog to the north and made a channel to their orangy shores. Upgraded my warriors and struck. Captured a coastal city and their lighthouse city. Then massed my forces for an attack on their capitol. The RNG turned on me - lost roughly 8 swords and 3-4 horses on the walls and didn't take it. To compound matters they managed to get several techs in rapid succession and got all the way to a new types of offensive and defensive units beyond the scope of this thread - not at all pretty

I'd lost the lighthouse city and barely managed to hold out in my initial beachead - a brave suicide squad unhooked their iron - without that I'd have been pushed off their island. Managed to get a great leader and he rushed the great library - my prebuild for that was switched to make the hanging gardens on the same turn. This caused me to leave the ancient age, in a revolution heading towards a republic.

I believe the great lighthouse may have pushed the orangies into their golden age, which could explain all the fun I had with them I really should have spent the trivial sum of gold to check that before invading, but its a good learning experience However there was no way of predicting the sudden tech spurt they had.

Unfortunately while I was busy with the Orangies, the Greeks managed to consolidate their Empire and they are now on a par with me. Wish I'd had the forces to deal with them, but a 2 front war at this time isn't really feasible.

This has been a lot of fun so far. Interesting map and a great challenge. Been learning a lot about ancient age overseas wars - new territory for me...

Open - PTW

Last month , my first spaceship ever, my first GoTM.

This month, my first post on page one - yes, my first 20K city - doubtful.

I am also playing open by mistake cos i downloaded the wrong file

650BC - when the game went sadly wrong. I was within two of GrLib, and had a leader in a boat on the way back to Culture City (courtesy of the Russians). Popped into London to have a quick look and GLib in one. Still at least the peek meant I got Lighthouse (but luckily i think - in wonder cascade i must have been in the right place in the order). The leader built HangGdns, 500 years later though. My science was also knackered as I was waiting for GL (the phrase putting all your eggs into one basket springs to mind). In a non 20K game I couldve had GLib in Odessa and GLight in Culture City - oh well.

Amazed at different speeds of games, GLib: me and Tao 650 BC,(but neither of us), adam 130 AD, and civ_steve 1100BC.

To answer the questions for this thread:

I met France in 3000 BC by walking over the landbridge, kept going and met Russians 2230 and Greeks 2030. England and Celts must have paid to meet me, I had an exhobitant offer from the greeks but didnt think it worth the money.

Strategy 20K of course! I put culture city on coast (settler for that first, then granary). Temple then pre build for whatever came along. I fear that from now on (having 2 cul for GLght rather than 6 for GLib) I will have to severely curtail my opponents to stop them getting other sorts of victories, if is not already to late - (I assume 20K in 2070AD does not count.)

PTW 1.21f Open

This time I decided to participate in the QSC. I think I did more writing than playing in the Ancient Age ...

My start was alright. I founded Nidaros right at the starting position after spotting those two cattle and turned it into a settler production factory. I produced Scout - Worker - Granary and from then on settlers. I managed to keep the city at size 5-6 most of the time, so it could produce settlers in 4 turns. But I forgot to reassign tiles after city growth way too often and let it drop to 3 sometimes

I moved my scouts and a warrior around here and there and had my landmass explored by BC3200.
The huts weren't too bad (3550-2900): Ceremonial Burial, Bronze Working, 3x 25 gold and a settler I let the settler take a 14-turn walk to a location closer to my capitol and just hoped that no barbs were around ...

I didn't bother with research a lot and started a 40-turn research on Alphabet at the start. I rather hoped to find a civ soon and to buy it. But just in case that the landmass was really an island, and there would be no contact before Map Making, I simply had to take the Alphabet - Writing - MM route.

Well, 2670 a French border appeared across the sea to the west, but no French units ...
In 2510, contact with Russia. I bought Alphabet for 197 gold and went for Writing in 40-turns.
2190 contact with Greece and 2070 with France. I bought Masonry from France for Pottery + Cer. Burial + 13 gold and the Wheel from Greece for Masonry + 1gpt + 31 gold. I was at tech parity with them now
In 1750, Russia beat me for Writing, I had still way too many turns left, and they didn't want to sell it ...
1600 I bought Mysticism from France and start 40-turn research on Polytheism.
1525, Greece has also discovered Writing. That was long ... I bought it for 185 gold and sold it to France for Iron Working. I decided not to switch to Literature, because I suspected that at least Russia would get it early anyway. Plus they have already started the Pyramids.

Well, I tried to build a 20k culture city, even though I have never ever achieved such a victory.
In 2110 Stockholm was founded on a wool hill NE from Nidaros. I have build a temple first, and started the Colossus in 1575. Russia was already building the Pyramids, and Greece started the Colossus a few turns later.
1475, England finished the Pyramids. There is a cascade to the Oracle.

Then in 1350, I discovered England by chance My warrior was walking between Greek and French territory when suddenly an English city pops up on the other side of the sea. I bought Map Making + contact with the Celts + 90 gold for contacts with the Greece, France and Russia. Apperantly, I was the first one to meet them.
I sold MM, contacts with Celts to France, Russia and Greece for their maps + 398 gold in total.
Well, the Celts finished the Colossus two turns later, and started the Great Lighthouse. They will have finished it in 21 turns, while my wanna-be 20k city will need over 50 turns ...

Status in BC1000:
12 cities, 24 population, 621 gold and +35 gpt, Polytheism in 16 turns




0825, a suicide galley made its way over the ocean but what I have found there is probably beyond the scope of this spoiler thread

0800, bought Literature from France.
0750, Celts finished Great Lighthouse, I switched to Great Library.
0710, I checked the other GL builders. I needed 15 turns, but England only 7
I upgraded some warriors to swordmen, made 3 galleys ready for an assault. England was constructing the GL in a coastal city just north of my territory. But to make it short, I couldn't land any troops in time. This increased naval movement costs really killed my plan ...
So in 570, when England finished the GL, I bought Construction and completed the Great Wall, the most unimportant wonder with the cultural value of a Danielle Steel novel
0310, bought currency and entered the MA. I'm researching Republic at 70% and won't bother with Monarchy as England will have finished the Hanging Gardens earlier anyway.

Right now, I'm second in score, only a few points behind England. In terms of power, the glorious Vikings are probably first, though England is nearly equal. England is a cultural terrorist, having more points here then anyone else ...
The starting peninsula is settled, and a city between Russian and French territory is established, so we can move troops for an attack later on. My cities are producing archers and horsemen like mad, but also some temples as I won't be able to hold any captured city for more then two turns if the Vikings don't gain ground on the cultural front.

I'm sure, there is nothing that can stop the rise of the glorious Vikings on their way to a superpower, but whether we will have a cultural monster among our cities is a completly different question ...

Being back at GOTM after a "summer break" (wish summer was really that long) I have to say thanks to everyone who contributed in the making of the improved Civilopedia. No more switching between Internet Explorer and the game - great!

The map is very neat too, the starting location slightly more bountiful then I expected. Many good places to found cities.

Tech

Like others I aimed for GL. Getting Bronze Working from a hut, I could prebuild early. I would have missed Colossus with about 3 turns had I wanted it.

Then there was the usual hopping between techs, avoiding a switch to "palace" because at this stage in a game it is often a sign that the options are running out. I'm satisfied with my choice to research at a minimum level, using only a specialist if possible. I opened negotiation screens to check that I could buy the important techs when I wanted them. I bought Literature about 15-20 turns before I had to have it, fearing that the price would rise when the option to build Great Lighthouse was exhausted.

Despite my early prebuild, it was a real nailbiter! Some AI cities had in fact been prebuilding along the trail of Pyramids-Great Lighthouse-great Lib (though slightly less intentionally)!

Those of us who got The Great Library should give ourselves a big pat on the back. Those who didn't may just have been unlucky. It would, however, be interesting to hear if someone had a method up his/her sleeve to improve the odds further. As far as I can see it's just a a matter of "hard work" (not forgetting to join workers to the city to increase shield production) and as I said a bit of luck.

Expansion and overall progress

I used Nidaros as a settler factory for the first 2500 years or so. A lag in military production didn't seem to be a problem on this map so I could keep the capital's production low. (And not worry about overpopulation.)

Later I gave away the most fertile of the cows to another town to allow Nidaros to grow. Now the peninsula is mine, except for two Greek towns in the tundra. One of them used to be Russian and it should have been mine since I am at war with Russia. But I "injured" its last spearman and set the table for a Greek warrior, when I should in fact have been in bed.

I also thought the spearman/warrior on the land bridge was a good idea.

Names of towns

Well, the names sort of gives you an idea about which area of Scandinavia that really matters <lol>. Where is Bergen, for instance?

PTW 1.21

Since I have yet to complete a GOTM, I figured I was best of in conquest mode, considering the high difficulty of this map.

I forgot to take notes, but opening moves was sending the scout eastwards toward the ocean, and after much deliberation the second settler went the same way. There were plenty of forest, BGs and even wool within range, so Bjoergvin was founded squares east of Nidaros, in 3900 BC. Build Colossus in 1600 BC Great Library in 690 BC and Hanging Gardens in 10 AD. Quite a picking of ancient wonders! I barely lost out on the great lighthouse by a few turns, which the English nabbed in 875 BC.

Contact wise, my south going scouts made early contact with the russians and french, followed soon by the greeks. I can't quite remember if I actually met the English and Celts, or id they were traded to me by the greeks, but the net effect was that I was able to stay alof in ancient times by trading. I hand researched Polytheism and Litterature, and got the rest through trading and TGL.

The ancient age was spent building up my own sub continent, and preparing for my first naval crusade: The English. Just needed to get Invention first, so was stockpiling a few archers for upgrading.

Edit: Megalou, Bjoergvin is the old name for Bergen

I used my chests to build a granary. I wanted to use my capital as a settler factory, and that worked out well.

I moved my free settler west and my free warrior south. My scout went north and discovered the fog on the coast. I wish I had done it the other way around.

My free settler built a city on the coast by the mouth of the river (no aquaduct!). After the granary was built in the capital I started churning out settlers and the warriors to guard them.

My free warrior started finding the goody huts, and the scout came south to help. I only got one tech out of them, and no settlers or free cities.

On the mountain land bridge I met my first civ, the French. They were ahead of me in tech (no surprise). Soon after I met the Greeks and Russians. The Celts and English were next.

After I connected my iron I built a couple of swordsmen and took out the land fog. A galley took care of the fog on my coast. I never saw any squids. One of my cities also had a wierd name, "McWorfborg." What does that mean?

I built no wonders (though I did start a palace prebuild at the end of the ancient era) and stayed out of wars. I also filled up all of "my" territory with cities. The Celts and English fought constantly, and so did the Russians and Greeks. The English and Russians got the upper hand in their wars. Russian dominance over Greece was surprising, considering Greek hoplites.

ltccone, 2 (atleast) of the cities are named after CFC people, DaveMcW and Qitaim.

Originally posted by Tarkeel
ltccone, 2 (atleast) of the cities are named after CFC people, DaveMcW and Qitaim.

Click to expand...

I didn't notice Qitaim, but it doesn't sound Nordic!