GOTM 37 Spoiler

Ah the green green grass of home... (and if you can remember the song, you might be in my generation.)

Can't believe I'm the first one to discuss the spoil -- am playing too fast & carelessly (I have yet to count the beakers!)

Have yet to nab a barb leader (post 1000 AD) but have seen them a couple of times -- almost lost a city. In fact I have too few cities, too few wonders (have for still available as of now), and have too many friends (have yet to go smack anybody.) But all of that is about to change...

Boy is this one slow! I cast around for a strategy and began by mining a presumed special site (No, LeFayette, I don't use helper programs), and even though I guessed right it was still a long time before I could build another settler. I neglected Medicine/Sanitation in my tech path and that was a big mistake - my capital is still size 12 in 1000AD.

King Richard is a must (!!!) for an efficient game on this map, and also Lighthouse to get to the AI and to more fertile islands. I would guess that heavy internal trade will pay off in the later game.

I do like the scary shape of our island...

I skipped LH -- by the time I was thinking of leaving the island, Nav was only a tech away (Marco's was worth a couple of techs), so even though I had a couple of triremes, I decided to upgrade to caravels.

Well, I learned a valuable lesson: on flat maps, (which I've never played on, before) the map edge does NOT count as coastline -- glub, glub, glub. From this incident has sprung a new tradition in the Mongol Empire: The Diplomat always goes down with the ship.
I know it isn't one of the official GOTM rules (at least, I haven't seen this in the GOTM rules), but a GOTM like this really calls for ruling out the use of the map editor to determine the seed and location of specials. I usually use that in my own games to determine the best settlement spots (using a blank map), but here, locating the specials was part of the challenge.
Unfortunately, I got so involved in playing it out, that I COMPLETELY forgot to make the 1 A.D. and 1000 A.D. saves, so I have "washed out" in more ways than one. Drat! And it's the start of the month, too.
I have got to get used to these GOTMs. I guess in the meantime I can practice on the previous 35. ('Tried 36 at the end of last month - got over-confident and lost half of my civ to the barbarians and the Japanese.)

well, i havent played much Civ II since '98. On a lark, a did this thing in one sitting. The (unimpressive) result:
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Specials always clump in groups of 8 in the same orientation no matter what, and the groups of 8 are always the same orientation/distance from each other. The only thing that changes with the seed is their mapping and what type of resource is manifest in each of the 8 spots (its always symmetrical). If resources are too far from the coast (unharvestable) they are eliminated, giving a great way to know where land must exist. Once you have a good grasp on the system, it isn't too difficult to realize where every resource must be with only a small amount of terrain uncovered. It is counterproductive to mine resources undergrassland into existance before you have a large city base, anyway, so there should be ample time to notice the resource pattern.

I am really looking forward to this game, since I don't really like the relentless hut scampering that goes on, hehe.

This looks to be another slow one from me. I finally have Jeeps & and am only now going to use them since my neighbors have declared war. It is also a first for me -- I can't recall ever "allowing" the ai to gather so many wonders ... for me (5 next door and 3 one step beyond -- and now both have declared). Harvest time begins soon.

I chose conquest, in order to test the method that I published last month at Apolyton, ... and it worked

Marco and LH to start with. The other wonders were built for me by the AI. But huge map and very slow start mean late conquest.
I managed to win before the end of respawning, but not by many turns.

DoM
I think you managed to create a game that is wicked enough to prevent Zenon from landing early

When I finally recovered from my horrible first attempt - I started again, and though it was slow it was nice to see that evil archer get killed.

My first attempt started okey, slow, but okey, I had two cities and along comes a barbarian archer who takes out one of my cities. In the other city I'm building a settler. What happens? A trireme appears out of the blue (literally) and kills off my defens directly after my settler was ready so that I couldn't change to some kind of defense and there's another barbarian ready to walze into my empty city.

So I won't submit anything this time, but I'll try a early spaceship and early conquer on this map just for the heck of it. But I learnt a valuable lesson... Don't think that your defense can wait the way it can on chieftan...

It feels so sad the get wiped off the map after having survived last months diety-GOTM

Barbarianless woulda been nice, they are such a pain. By 1000 AD I have decided that I am better off leaving all my cities vacant and just paying off the barbarians hehe. Just make sure you have as near to exactly 1000 gold without going over so you don't overpay them (100 increments only I think, so anywhere between 1000-1100 is good). The part that is especially funny is that two of the rival nations have had their capitals perminently taken by barbs (the barbs are better off than the civ, so it isn't going to be retaken).

On this level of difficulty I would STRONGLY encourage the use of horsemen as defense. Horsemen are much more versatile than simply defending with phalanxes or even musketeers, since barbs die much more easily when attacked, and nearby cities can send their horsemen for additional attacks if the first horseman fails. Also, about 50% of the time it seems that the barbs will come next to your island without landing, so with horsemen you can quickly move them into all landing positions until you can blow the ship up with a ship of your own. Settlers are also great blockers since they can do chores while they block. It isn't necessary to have anything inside of cities, since barbs won't drop directly into the city to my knowledge.

never knew how much i depended on huts, this is one tough game. can some one tell me the cut off date for ai restarts in this game thank you

I've just finished - not a good game for me.

I initially wanted to try conquest again, but eventually realized I was going to find it difficult with my main island so isolated I changed to SS. The other civs were very unfriendly, refusing to sign peace treaties. I got complacent with my main island - neglecting to upgrade defences. Apollo was destroyed twice during production.

But the final nail in the coffin was the Aztecs launching to arrive the same year as me Not the first time that's happened to me! I tried to fight back with the help of some spies planting nukes in the Aztec capital, but they had the funds to relocate twice before I ran out of time.

Hmmm I just realized this game that the extra knowledge beyond an advance generated from a trade route is just thrown away, kind of annoying! I hit 3 700 gold trade routes in a row thinking I would gain at least 3 advances but only ended up with 1 . I think I am going to end up going space ship, but only after conquest of the world (like I would any other game) rather than trying the fast landing like some of the recent GOTM's, since its getting pretty late in date and clearly I will not have a fast landing.

tough game for me . went conquest won in 1796 with pop. of 9.800.000. turns out i over built. would like to try another game without huts, thanks D.O.M

A VERY slow game for me. I headed south to settle the 4xSpecial spot for an OCC game, which set me back 12 turns. Marco Polo came around 200bc, but alliances and gold started flowing like water. By 600ad had made up most of the issues, thanks to AI gold and a few key techs. Don't think huts would have helped much, but the lack of shields and impossibility of getting trade routes going without Lighthouse was the bigger issues.

Hope the next one is easier for newbies...

Yes I found that spot a bit later (decided in part at that time to not go via OCC), so I renamed the capital & founded SSC2 in the better location. A very sweet spot, I must confess.

My current problem is that I am stuck at Strong power level, and the Cyan civ is missing, so my tech costs DOUBLED. I'm experimenting with gaining/losing citizens and tech gifting, but have not found solution yet...

lessons? like Stegyre i fell for the coastal "lie" on the border and drowned! shame on you.
just about as bad as when i hit the "bermuda" longitude and the ship goes crazy... (i can't believe i did it again!)
shame on me!

glitches are *****es

po'd again

I tried going down below the number of citizens when I switched to Strong: didn't work. So I figured I'll need the extra Scientists anyway, so I Farmed everything (thanks for all that Grass Duke!) and WLed up to size 33. STILL NO CHANGE! So I just maxed out the research at 100% and 10-15 turns later I turned SUPREME! I think the Germans hitting the Aztec coastal cities may have helped me jump over them in power rating too.

Originally posted by ElephantU
...I turned SUPREME!

Click to expand...

A) We already knew that, but validationa is always enjoyed.

B) Post a screen shot after the scores are in.