GOTM 29 Spoiler II

For those of you that successfully negotiated the ancient ages, tell us how the middle ages went.

To participate and read this spoiler thread, you must have:

1.) Completed the middle ages.
2.) Have the full world map.


Suggestions for discussion:
Who were / are the most successful civs (your main competition )?
Did you use the early middle age knights for expansion via conquest, or wait until cavalry? Or not go the war route at all?
Did you form any allegances?
Did you manage to keep-up in the tech race? How?

Open PTW 1.21f

Ancient Age

Egypt Goes to War

I had a peaceful Ancient Age that focused on building my core cities, exploring the land and trading with my neighbors. By the beginning of the Middle Ages my lad was filled and thoughts turned towards getting a second core set up. The Greeks had a very nice little peace of land centered on Sparta so plans were begun on a hostile takeover. Our first research goal was to reach Chivalry ASAP. The round of trading that advanced me into the MA also advanced Russia and Greece and so the trade session also netted me Monotheism and Feudalism. Chivalry would follow 14t later. In 70bc we declared war on the Greeks. During the first attack a War Chariot killed off a redlined Hoplite and set off our Golden Age. The Greeks were no match for my Knights and fell quickly and were down to one remote city in 230ad. Unfortunately I had trouble getting units to advance to elite status and wasn't able to get a Great Leader. I would have to start my Forbidden Palace brick by brick.

After a small break to regroup my forces, the Zulu invasion began in 360. Much of the time during the Greek War was spent building infrastructure with our Golden Age boost instead of more Knights so the second war was a little more slow going, but the Zulu's Impis fell quickly and the war was over in 570. There were few hitches in either war. The Zulu managed to take Thermopylae and Zimbabwe flipped on me once killing a defending chariot. Rome also managed to sneak a settler onto my southern coast by boat, but I figured I could culture flip it or just take it later on. During the war, Ramses was created and was sent to Sparta to finish the Forbidden Palace and give my economy a nice boost.

Tech
I got a head start courtesy of Russia and Germany and was able to get to Chivalry quickly. Luxuries were difficult to get to as I took too long in exploring the coastline and opening up trade routes. Combined with nearly nonstop war while in Republic and my research rate was cramped a bit by the luxury bar. I was still able to make decent progress without killing my treasury , averaging 10-11t at 50-60% during my Golden Age. After Chivalry, I researched the Military Tradition path and used trades to get Theology, Education (from Zulu in peace settlement), Banking, Astronomy and Music Theory. Once trade paths were opened I was able to crank the science rate up to 90% and research Physics, Theory of Gravity and Magnetism at 4t's each. The Industrial Age was reached in 710. In 720 I finally traded for Russia's world map, revealing the Babylonians - the only civ except Greece I hadn't mapped with my first produced warrior. That guy finally made it back to Thebes where he has taken up an estate and lives like royalty.



Trades
410bc - Polytheism and the Republic to Greece for Currency and 46g
............Currency to Russia for 513g
............Currency to Zulu for Literature and 95g
............the Republic, Currency and 570g to Rome for Monarchy
............the Republic, Monarchy and 690g to Russia for Feudalism
............Monarchy and Feudalism to Greece for Monotheism
............Monotheism to Russia for 690g
............Monotheism to Rome for 489g
330bc - Monotheism and the Republic to Germany for Engineering
230ad - Peace to Greece for 31g
420ad - Invention to Greece for Theology
570ad - Peace to Zulu for Education
590ad - Metallurgy to Russia for Banking and 6gpt
............Metallurgy and Banking to Germany for Astronomy and Music Theory

Industrial Age Goals
With Space as my final goal, in the IA I want to keep my tech lead by continueing to build up infrastructure, particularly in the former Greece areas. I'm also looking to invade Rome to take the two luxuries in their possession. That may be it for military conquests for me unless Babylon or Tokugawa get uppity with me.

Who were / are the most successful civs (your main competition )? - Russia, Greece, Germany and the Zulu started the age as decent sized civs though the Zulu had fallen off in tech after their quick start. By the end of the age only Russia and Germany are threats. Russia leads Germany in tech but Germany is a bit larger in size. None of the other civs are significant in any way except for Rome's two luxuries.

Did you use the early middle age knights for expansion via conquest, or wait until cavalry? Or not go the war route at all? - I used Knights to take out Greece and the Zulu. I don't like to wait too long in setting up my second core so I rarely wait for Cavalry to attack.

Did you form any allegances? - Not really. Russia and Germany have been nice trading partners, but my Egyptians haven't really bonded with any other civ.

Did you manage to keep-up in the tech race? How? - Mostly though trades. The other civs ignored the Military Tradition path for the most part, so I always had trade bait for the other techs. It helped having rivers everywhere. Once universities were in place in my pop-12 cities and I managed to get a few more luxuries I was able to research at a quick pace.

Open PTW 1.27f

History must be written of, by and for the survivors.
Anonymous

A brief run-down of my ancient age.

I had a slow start, hampered by low shields and disease. This put me on the back-foot from the get go, but some luck in my research paths meant I was able to keep more or less up, and I was able to grab a fair whack of land for myself.

By the end of the AA though, I was feeling boxed in, and slipping behind in the tech race, but luckily I had built up a decent sized army, so I decided to go to war, and as the Zulu occupied my border, they would be my first target.

Love thy neighbour
God

The beginning of the Middle Ages pretty much set the tone for much of the game for me. Egypt was weak, very weak, the scientific Civs got lucky, and then traded, with everyone but me, and the Greeks, who were further behind then even I was. This was bad, but I had one thing in my favour, I was at war with the Zulu, and winning. I had already taken 2 cities (closest to our common border) and was ready to march on their capital with my mainly swordsmen army. The one tech I was able to pick up early, was feudalism, and as such, my armies would be dominated by the ever reliable Medieval Infantry.
I got lucky early on in the MA, and a battle with the Zulu resulted in a Great Leader called Ramses! I used him to inspire the people of Thebes to build Sun Tzu’s Art of War. It must be said, that this was probably the best decision of the game, that structure proved invaluable. The war with the Zulu was pretty quick, my home core of Egyptian cities was throwing out military units like nothing else, sadly at the expense of my culture, but that wasn’t proving to be a problem yet. I got the Zulu down to 2 cities, and sued for peace, at a hefty price of course, picking up a lage sum of gold, and a bag full of techs, but by now, I was even further behind.

On this sign conquer
God to Constantine

Then something interesting happened. The Romans had been at war for some time with Babylon, and it was losing badly, but suddenly, it completed Leonardo’s Workshop. This alone was nothing to get excited about, but it also held the Great Library, now, whilst Education had been discovered, I did not know it, so I decided it was time to catch up, I swung my army north, and headed for Rome. I made an alliance with Babylon against Rome, and got a ROP with them, making my passage much faster. On the way, I witnessed Antium fall to the Babylonians, which worried me, I didn’t want to arrive at Rome’s doorstep only to see a Babylonian standard flying over the Tiber River. It seems, I once again, got lucky (I had a lot of luck this game actually, things just seemed to happen at the right time). Babylon was besieging Rome, but had not gotten it to fall, and I planned to succeed where they had not. I attacked with a dozen Medieval Infantry, and it was a tough battle, the Romans were not going to give up their capital easily, but eventually it fell, Rome was mine, I breathed a sigh of relief, and watched it as foreign sages taught me people many new secrets, sadly one of them was Education, so it was a one show wonder, but what a show!
My attention once again turned closer to home. The Greeks had decided they were ready to play world power, this was not good.

Beware Greeks bearing gifts
Unknown

The Greeks were everything I was not. Rich, productive, and cultured. Luckily, they were also with out an army, but whilst I had planned to leave them until later, as they were quite a distance behind tech wise, I was rather surprised when suddenly they caught up, and now, my stagnating Zulu province was under threat from their cultural heart land.
Ever since defeating the Zulu, their lands had been draining my coffers like nothing else, to corrupt to build even the basic amenities, or provide cash to support the men defending them, I had to sacrifice research for military might, and prepared to unite my side of the world under the ever lasting gaze of Ra, whilst gifting Amemet with a few Greek hearts. From here on, my lack of cultural development would prove to be troublesome, several Greek cities flipped back after their capture, slowing down my advance as I had to double back, as well as destroying their garrison. It was now that I started using knights, and they proved decisive. It took longer then I had hoped, but the Greeks were assimilated, unfortunately, they just put another large financial burden on my already overstretched treasury.

A penny is a lot of money--if you haven't got a penny.
Unknown

The end of the Middle Ages was a time of abject poverty. I kept on slipping further and further behind in the tech race, and although by now I had the largest population, the most landmass and the greatest potential production, 2/3rds of my empire was so heavily corrupted it meant nothing. I switched to democracy, but it proved to be of little help, still, it was better then nothing, but by now, my enemies in the west were eyeing my vast amount of land and resources, I had become to powerful for my own good, and to add insult to injury, my treasury would be further hammered by greedy neighbours demanding tribute. It wouldn’t be so bad, if it wasn’t for the fact that 4 powerful opponents remained, and although I could probably stand up to one of them, any more would be suicide, I had come this far sticking to one war at a time, and I know I had to stay with that for the time being. In the closing days of the Middle Ages, Russia decided to act, and declared war, quickly capturing one of my Zulu cities.
This would signal the dawn of a new age for Egypt, but the road ahead was long, and our opponents had a head start on us, but somehow, we would have to overcome these challenges, and rise to become the greatest civilisation of all!

The world at the end of the Middle Ages

(Excuse the typos and grammar, hard to spell good when tired)

Ancient Age

Middle Ages: To War!

The Zulu War

At the end of the Ancient Age my troops were just beginning to role through the Zulu. With my army of ~30 swordsmen I was able to purchase Fuedalism and turn a few of those swordsmen into Medieval Infantry. The Zulu had horsemen and longbowmen, but despite picking off an occasional infantry/swordsman, they were no match for my army. But then the Zulu did something to seal their fate: as my armies approached Zimbabwe, they completed Leonardo's Workshop in that very city. With Zimbabwe falling easily, I upgraded every single swordsman over the next few turns, and the rest of Zulu-land fell swiftly. The last few cities saw the Zulu finally hooking up their iron, and I had to defeat one or two pikemen, but nothing my infantry could not handle. The Zulu War ended in 610AD, with Zulu being left four cities in the desertous and mountainous expanse of land between their homelands and Rome, where Babylon used to live.

Yes, the poor Babylonians. Rendered extinct in 170AD, they were tag-teamed by the Zulu, Romans, Tokagawans, and Russians. I never did meet them, but I hear they were nice folks.

The Great Grecian War

Now the Greeks were the next on my wishlist. The Great Grecian War spanned from 670AD-880AD and saw all the mainland Greek cities fall before my medieval swordsman. A flipped city here or there slowed my advance a little (most people like me seem to see the Greeks as builders of great culture), but not even the building of musketmen could save Greece in the end. And once again, a wonder fell into my hands: this time it was J.S. Bach's Cathedral. The combined power of my knights and infantry left Greece with only one city on the large island in the center of the map, just west of Zulu's start-point. And even though still technologically backwards, Egypt became a power that the world could no longer ignore.

The world did notice. And the world reacted. Something very odd in this game that I have not really noticed before is that everybody stopped trading with everybody else about midway through the middle ages. Everybody was Furious at everybody else: wars were fought, treaties broken, no ground seemed too hallowed to be spat upon.

The German Empire

Germany was taking advantage of the openness of worldwide aggression and expanding rapidly. They controlled the entire southern part of the western half of our pangaea, having taken advantage of Russia's war against Babylon to conquer most of Russia: Russia was only left with two one-tile islands. Germany had three AA wonders, a few MA wonders, the best science, the largest land area, and so on, and they only kept rolling. When they had taken half of the Russian lands, they signed a temporary truce, they looked at the next strongest civilization to take down, which sadly was Egypt. Around 800AD Germany demanded tribute, and Egypt finally felt brash enough to stand up to them. They declared war and I knew I could not push them back yet: my armies were still mopping up the last few Greek cities, and would take about 7-10 turns just to reach the front-line cities. Not particularly caring much for my Zulu neighbors, I bought them into a soon-fatal alliance against Germany. Apparently they hated Germany more than they hated me. However, with Rome and Tokagawa suing for peace, Germany quickly marched through the Zulu cities, with Rome joining in to finish the Zulu off. They also picked up their Golden Age at this time, in the year 900AD. Now I saw the German forces advance, however even with the remaining of my army in place, I witnessed a terrible sight: they had Cavalry and I was still playing with Knights.

Now with all these wars, I did not get one Great Leader. So I relied on luxuries to trigger WLOTK day (I was in Monarchy for most of the game) so I could build my FP in Thebes in under 100 turns. I don't know if I finished it by the end of the Middle Ages or not, but it was sometime around there; and as soon as I did changed all of the conquered lands (even Zulu's cities, for with WLOTK day even their corrupt cities were able to produce enough for some infrastructure) to producing infrastructure. I knew I had to catch up in the tech race before Tanks or else it might be the end of the Egyptians. However, my first concern was getting to Military Tradition: the rest of the world had it and I did not; subsequently the rest of the world was beginning to move into IA and I was still two techs away.

Once again I used my cash flow to buy another civ into a near-fatal war against the Germans: this time the Romans. I held off the first onslaught of German cavalry with my knights and muskets (barely held off, that is) and then watched them turn about and take advantage of Rome immediately: before Rome could enlist the aid of the rest of the world, it was down to five cities.

I was still working on infrastructure when I switched to the IA. Nobody honored gpt deals, so I had to buy techs with cash outright. Republic may have been a better choice of government, but I felt more comfortable with the military police helping to keep my cities happy. Greece and Russia had fallen behind the tech race due to their OCC or 2CC status, and I swapped techs with them to propell myself into the IA as well as pick up some extra technologies (like Military Tradition). Again, I didn't write down the exact date of my transition to IA, but it was sometime around 1300AD.

Now Germany is the strongest civilization on the planet: while I may have more land area, their advanced army (and they have actual armies, while I still have not received one GL) probably would have taken a few cities of mine had I not enlisted aid from Rome and Zulu. My problem with taking on the Germans directly, however, is that I would probably have to launch an amphibious assault to do so: Tokagawa and Rome stand in the way, and I know if I tried to pass armies through their territory they would force me to declare war. I, however, tried to use the buffer as my advantage: infrastructure first, armies second. Too long has the Egyptian been the laughing stock of the scientific world.


Edit: fixed some typos

PTW 1.27 Open

The biggest surprise is that I made it out of the middle ages intact. Nobody declared war on me (and of course I didn't declare war on anybody - my goal is not to lose by _conquest_). I'm not last in anything, either.

After shifting to Republic at the dawn of the middle ages, I started earning enough to buy techs. The Babylonians were down to 2 cities on an island and they weren't getting anywhere, but the Romans were only a few techs ahead. The Russians were willing to sell at the best prices, so I mostly bought from Russia, sold to Rome, and gave to Babylon throughout the middle ages. By the end of the middle ages I'm only a little behind most civs, ahead of the Romans and Babylonians, and way behind Russia, who has a huge tech lead.

Greece has no saltpeter, so I trade mine away for techs and money. This works out pretty well; I upgrade and start musketmen before making the trade, build something else after the musketmen, and by the time it finishes I have saltpeter again. Then I repeat the process. I was a little anxious that this would come back to haunt me if the Greeks decided to attack, but they haven't, and now I'm far enough along that it doesn't matter anyway, and the Greeks have found a supply of their own.

Throughout the entire middle ages (starting in the ancient and continuing into the industrial) most of the continent has been at war with Germany. I think Russia started it and then got out. My warrior who's trapped over on the western end of the continent has watched a steady flow of Zulus, Greeks, Romans, and Japanese head through Russia to attack the Germans. For a long time Germany was holding its own, but by the end of the middle ages it is starting to very slowly shrink. Russia isn't picking up any of the pieces and is getting way ahead in techs, so I think Russia isn't in the war anymore. Everybody else is involved heavily (except Babylon), and consequently they are ignoring me.

The middle ages have gone pretty smoothly. Nobody is mad at me, my people are pretty happy, a nearby Roman city flipped to me, I'm making lots of money to buy techs, and I'm doing okay trading other stuff. Russia is the scientific leader, and the Zulu are the only real competition for Russia in any sense. I'm a little uncomfortable since they are right next to me, but they haven't really threatened me. I've given in to a few demands for tribute, but there haven't been too many.

While Russia and Zululand are the clear leaders, I'd have to say that my main competition is Rome and Babylon. It's no contest with the rest of them.

We'll see if I survive the industrial age.

Open 1.29b2

Early into the Middle Ages, Rome declared war on Egypt (refused an extortion attempt). This was in 620 AD. I signed an alliance w/ Greece v. Rome on the same turn (costing me 42g, wool, 6 gpt, & wm). IBT -> Greece signed 3 alliance (Zulu, Tokugawa, & Babylon) v. Rome. IOW, I got 4 allies for the price of one.

In 710 AD, Rome was pretty beaten up, and I signed a peace treaty, receiving Invention in negotiations. I did break alliance w/ Greece, but was not too concerned. On the same turn, I trade iron & horses to Rome for Gunpowder. Like I said, they were in bad shape and willing to deal.

A couple turns later, I initiate some "real politik" and declare war on the Zulu since Shaka's forces are away from home. Because of the alliance I broke w/ Greece, I decide to gift Alexander wool to encourage him to maintain neutrality.

In 810 AD, I trade Chemistry to Russia for Theology.

After capturing 3 Zulu cities I opt for peace, in 870 AD, to haggle for techs, gaining Education, Printing Press, Monarchy, & Metallurgy (+ 50g).

Further dealings w/ Rome, in 920 AD, bring the knowledge of Banking, Navigation, & Music Theory to Egypt for iron & Metallurgy.

When Egyptian scientists discover the Theory of Gravity in 1140 AD, it is quickly traded to Babylon for Magnetism, which thrusts the Egyptian Empire into the Industrial Age.

Assessment: The key to this age was the accumulation of technologies through war and diplomacy. Also, my GA was triggered in 750 AD which helped me reach a couple techs (Chemistry & ToG) that were used for further tech trades. Upon entering the Industrial Age, I'm only one progressive tech behind (Germany - Nationalism). My research plans are to beeline for Scientific Method (ToE). I'm 7 turns from building my FP in Swazi, which will be a plus if my plan to assimilate the Zulu become reality. At this point I feel pretty confident of victory, in spite of Germany's size and aggressive history. The narrow land passage between myself and Germany should be easily defended once the Zulu are out of the way. The question is, can I keep a handle on Bismarck until my immediate goals are met. Greece and I seem to be getting on well, being mutual trading partners. I don't intend to start any skirmishes w/ Alexander any time soon, even though I had two captured Zulu cities (Mpondo & Tugela) flip to him.

open 1.27f

Ancient Age Post

Attacked Zulu in 650BC, with 15 swords. I decided to attack at that point simply as I'd got to the point where I had enough cash to upgrade all 15 (600 Gold) and was close to the allowed unit limit for troop support.

Having got alliances with Bablyong and Toku who were already fighting Zulu, found that Zulu were quite weak and by 470BC had destroyed 3 Zulu cities, and captured two others including their capital. Zulu got Greece to join but they just send waves of unprotected archers and some Phalanx that were dispached in the open.

After the inital attack on Zulu all that was built were horses, for the rest of the game.

By 270BC Zulu was down to two cities, and after a peace with Greece found we were at war with them again. This time I had Medieval Infantry and horses and moved everything against Greece.

In that war got a leader and built Sun Tzu, it was obviouse that would be a great help on this map. I resisted getting Forbidden Palace. At this time I started a build for the FP near the capital in case I didn't get another leader for a long time.

I managed to buy and trade for the MA level one techs and started on Chivalry at max pace. Here I was leader in tech and never lost it from this time.

Zulu is illimiated in 170BC with some help from my allies, and now everything it put onto Greece.

During this time Chivalry is researched and the attacks are slowed waiting for Knight upgrades. Right on cue another leader is found and Leo's is build, still don't have FP. But this really helps for the horse upgrades.

In 100AD With the Greece war going well I eyed the west and noticed that Germany was getting strong. Now I had enough tech lead to declare war with them and get everyone else to join, Russia, Toku and Babylon. Just to slow them all down a bit.

300 AD As I built into the gap between Toku and Babylon, was sneak attacked by Toku and lost a couple of cities. Bought alliances with Babylon, Rome, Russia to fight Toku. Now the world is really at war.

350 AD and Greece is now gone

From now it was just war war war, didn't really even trade much. Fighting whoeever was in path, just one after another. Kept rep until later, when I just ROP raped everyone that would offer it and continually declared peace, to avoid counter attacks and declared war next turn.

660AD researched MT, which was the last tech I researched.
Upgraded about 25 Knights to Cavalry.

The rest of the game, was just Cavlary charges. I actually built a stack of cannons, but never got them to the front.

Temples were rushed everywhere, and settlers rushed to fill in the gaps.

I only built marketplaces in four cities, and libraries in a couple.

910 AD Domination Victory 7704 points

Open PTW 1.27

Middle age, a nice era. My mind is set on chivalry, but I'm so far away from that. A couple of other civs are in MA too but wouldn't trade to me for their lives. I sit back and quietly build horsemen and a few War chariots.

I finally reach Monarchy around 350bc and switch immediately. prepared.

Take a couple of Zulu towns with MI's and start building horses only.

I let Greece understand the middle age and give them C&C, to get them even. They learn Mono which I trade for and I learn Feudalism from the others. Max research on Chivalry to HUGE loss.

Greece is partly taken a soon years later, I leave them with 2 cities only. Horsemen are so good sometimes!

I eradicate Zulu from this world and when Chivalry comes I upgrade everything I can afford to and go for Babs. They fold too easy.

Rome, I leave with a city, since I don't even know the map.

Tokugawa, the same.

Then Russia in a never-ending war and my game was won by domination by 660AD with 9078 Firaxis points.

By 4000bc - gozpel the Goofball
By 1000bc - gozpel the Good'ol'fun
By 300 bc - gozpel the Gluff-gluff
By 10 ad - gozpel the Goddamstop'im
By 300 ad - gozpel the Great-treaty-breaker
by 660 ad - gozpel the Gunk

A few years before the end, I sent Russians to the left and right in alliances just to attack them right away. No sneak attacks this time, just mean rutten decievement. Germany got that treaty too.

And now I feel bad, it is too rotten to be fun.

I'm a builder, with a little understanding of warring. This is NOT the way to win a reward in GOTM. This is foul play, very tactical and mean, but not fair.

Now the "waiters" can play their turns, after seeing a pretty good result.

I did this in 14 hrs, it was a very quick game for me. I usually need double the time for a GOTM.

I'm happy to find a way which others obviously done before me, but I'm not happy with how I did it.

I like to be Bob-the-Builder and do stuff. Then I make wars. Not like this whacking, without honor systems or anything. It is allowed in GOTM, but I won't be the first preacher for it.

I'm replaying the game as it was supposed to be for me and hopefully I can wash the grime off my hands.

PTW 1.27 Open

Great effort Gozpel.

I also tried ( as always ) for a fairly quick domination win, but (as usual) started too slowly to achieve a good finish date. I figured that Cavalry would be needed to finish off the AI and proceeded gingerly until I got this, but was unable to get Military Tradition before 600 ad. The game went pretty quickly after that and I managed a domination win in 900 AD (7692 score). I will be interested to see just how early people can win here as I think my effort was pretty slack. It was vey quick to play though.

I still don't understand how to achieve rapid science while actively conquering, but suspect that this is the key to success in the Middle Ages.

I would quite like to play more as a builder, as I always used to in Civ2, but don't feel I have really sussed out the conquest thing yet.

-> spoiler 1

Liberation of Greece, Zululand, Babylon
the next victim after zulu war pt.1 were of course the greeks. they were down to one far away city at the time of the peace deal - i barely had a few tiles of that city on my map! during the war a leader rushed FP in athens. thanks to ai-rcp i had 2 productive cores this way.

after i had GLib i gifted techs from the lower tech path (engineering, invention, ...) as soon as i got them to let the ai research further on along the military path and to slow down the discovery of education. this worked quite well (thank you, SirPleb!).

After the greek empire was history, I took care of the rest of the Zulu Empire. A few turns after the last zulu city was conquered on the eastern part of the landmass, the Babylonians declared war. i wanted to attack them next, anyway.

battle of superpowers
but then, something strange happened. In the middle of the babylonian conflict, there were 2 cavalry and 2 knights from the Germans saying hello at Hlobane. i hadn't expected this. i took a break here to think of what to be done.



I was convinced Germany was going to declare war. The list of ai stupidities might be long, this was a clever move, however - to try to destroy me as long as they 'can', not waiting at the other end of the map until i was big enough and had eaten up all my neighbors. this was going to be an preemptive war by the Germans.

until then, the germans are unstoppable in my game. they produced the following wonders:
- Hanging Gardens (800bc)
- Great Wall (40bc)
- Colossus (410bc)
- GLight (230bc)
- Sun Tzu's (290ad)

i met germans personally in 400AD, when they had not less than 25 cities. they seem to be an ai-clone of SirPleb and promise an exiting endgame.

Playing on
in case of war, wanted to attack first so i would ask them to leave. Germany indeed declared war when being asked to withdraw. The lucky attack of my elite knight brought a leader who immediately rushed Bach's in Hlobane - the city could use some culture, the nation would get some more happy cities, this means more production, less corruption. 2 stacks of about 10 units fortified on hills and mountain were waiting at the bottle neck. a couple of turns later i bought miltrad for 1210g from russia (ouch!), hoping in the best case they would use the money to rush some troops and attack the Germans. i traded nav + wmap = miltrad with romans.

The army the Germans came up with was beaten by a cavalry and a longbow - sorry, guys, wrong number in the generator, eh? 820ad razed Ashur & 6 Cav are on their way to the Babyonian Iron via the Roman territory.

830ad i make an alliance with the russians against the germans, they get 120gpt for it. well, this is a kind of military aid to keep the german units away from my borders.

my iron-pillaging cavs razed another Bab city. another mixed stack took Babylon. in 910ad it was time to let Toku engage in the war against the Germans, ma = 99gpt, as the russians are loosing territory.

In 940ad, babylon was driven from the continent and i made peace for physics. i got magnetism soon after in an expensive deal with russia. With entering the industrial era i started research again to get techs to trade and eventually overtake the ai in techs. i decided i'm going for space ship this time, as domination would be a bit late and i'm tired of warfare.

next, i definitely want to build evolution theory in this plan. i should start a prebuild right now.


oh, and here's something funny: why i could trade furs with rome ...



look, this is my worker there building roads on the roman territory - he's part of a ngo executing a local development program ....

p.s. are the pics too bad? i compressed them, but did i too much of a good thing?

That I feel was my drawback as well, Offa. I was in no means a scientific nation, and even with my expansion every time I looked to get off my taxing ways and stress research more I found that I was still around a 15 turn research. So I bought them instead. For those of you that were able to do this, what's your trick? Building quick and only the basic infrastructures (libraries, universities)? Obviously Republic is a must, and that is something I forgot about being changed in the GOTMs, as this was only my second one. Is a quick FP relatively near the Palace a key component, or is getting a GL and rushing it well into your conquered territory a good idea? (Again, I wasn't able to do this as I was left without a GL until the IA, despite warmongering for most of the game.) And of course you can't have too large of an army, else you take away from your researching efforts. Of course successful tech trading is key to this, as this done well can finance everything for you, leaving you to only put commerce into minimum luxuries and maximum science.

Is there anything else I'm not thinking of? I'd really like to hear some other people's strategies who are able to pull this off, possibly so I can bring my Domination/Conquest times down. I was way too far behind in tech in my game to acheive a quick Domination win; especially when the AI civs were bringing in Riflemen when I still was without Cavalry.

pindicator - some of the things to help boost your science

Build lots and lots of roads. Any worked tile without a road is a lost gp and they really build up fast.

Take advantage of any rivers. This GOTM, nearly all my cities were on or near a river and the extra trade really added up.

Libraries and universities are a must but don't forget courthouses in any city between 25-75% corruption. Also remember to get your cities to as high a population as you can - harbors and aqueducts where necessary. The more pop, the more cash you have. Building lots of small, tightly spaced cities will also rack up your population.

Get as many luxuries as you can. Getting your luxury slider down as soon as possible is important and something I was slow on this game as I neglected to open a trade route to Russia and Germany soon enough.

Once you get to the late MA, early IA try and get gpt deals for your tech. Monopoly techs can net you 100+ gpt, really helping you get your science slider to 100%.

Concentrate on one tech path and let the other civs research the other for you.

I like to set up my Forbidden Palace in the center of one of neighbors' land. This is usually the biggest factor in who I invade first. This month Greece had a nice area around Sparta so I attacked them before the Zulu.

Republic really helps your trade and I try and get to that as soon as possible. Democracy is nicer if you aren't fighting, but I find I can usually fight a war in Republic without too much war weariness if I keep my troops out of enemy territory as much as possible and I have plenty of luxs.

Hmmm, can't really think of anymore but I'm sure some of the more seasoned vets could add to this.

Okay, Okay, what an interesting aspect of the game. Play the same game as many others and compare notes! Now after playing the game since introduction I'm finally seeing what others do with the same start. Daaa, well welcome me to the civ cyber world. Reading some of ya'lls recollections is just inspiring. Let me try one of those GOTMs. By the way - when does the game let one know they have won by domination? All the way at the end? I see Gozpel acheived victory in 660ad. Here, I have several games where easily I have over 60,70% of the map and yet we play on. Oh well.

Originally posted by Regent Stoneman
By the way - when does the game let one know they have won by domination? All the way at the end? I see Gozpel acheived victory in 660ad. Here, I have several games where easily I have over 60,70% of the map and yet we play on. Oh well.

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The game does tell you when you have 66% land and population. You can use a MapStat programme to tell you how many tiles you are away from domination ( eg Dianthus'). In practice 2/3 of the land+coast is much more than you might think. I used to think I was nearly at the domination limit when I was several hundred squares short.

After a very slow start, I went about this game very unorthodox. And it didnt pay off very well.

Right after i reached the MA the Babs and Romans declared war because i wouldnt give away my hard earned gold. This was convenient. Rome had mananged to build an isolated city south of my lands, between me and the zulu. This was swiftly taken. The babs had two cities on the northern desert coast, west of the mountains near our starting point. These fell quickly as well. So there i found myself with a nice little path to my enemies. This lead me to attack the romans next (instead of taking out the zulus and greeks). The idea wasnt that bad, because i never had to worry about my core cities, but as i soon grew so strong that this wouldnt have been a problem anyway, and my streched supply lines cost me precious time.

After taking out the romans the game took a new strange turn. That deicieing Toku sneak attacked me, so he was next up. After taking all his cities my empire streched almost all the way to the western end of the continent, but still there were the zulu, greek, babs and germans left (russians were hunted by everyone except me and wiped out early). The germans were way ahead of everyone else in score.

After this i finally got to my senses and took out the zulu, greeks, and babs in that order. So as i was about to enter the industrial age it was between me and the germans. I was way ahead in tech, so the outcome was inevitable, the question was how long would it take (i wanted military victory). The answer was too long .

Originally posted by Regent Stoneman
Okay, Okay, what an interesting aspect of the game. Play the same game as many others and compare notes! Now after playing the game since introduction I'm finally seeing what others do with the same start. Daaa, well welcome me to the civ cyber world. Reading some of ya'lls recollections is just inspiring. Let me try one of those GOTMs. By the way - when does the game let one know they have won by domination? All the way at the end? I see Gozpel acheived victory in 660ad. Here, I have several games where easily I have over 60,70% of the map and yet we play on. Oh well.

Click to expand...

Your civ pop also needs to be 2/3's of the world's population.

Civ III 1.29f Open

After a quiet AA, I decided to keep my head down (I was the smallest empire apart from Rome). My taxation stayed at 10.0.0 the whole time. One person in a city was set to Science to get the 40-turn research (helped bring tech prices down after a few turns fo research). So trading for techs was done throughout the Middle Ages. Once I got Engineering in 280 AD, I was reaping that Forest bonus to hurry along some city improvements, and moved to a Republic in 280 AD as well.

Most of my trading was done with the Greeks, Zulus & Tokugawa. But after getting a tech, I was generally able to sell it to other civs, keeping my balance book good.

I decided to stay peaceful throughout the period, due to my small size (reduced by the Zulus culture siping one city). So, in all 9 occasions of a threat, I caved in and gave them what they wanted (in one case, Theology). If I had ever gone for a war, then it would be Goodnight Vienna, since 10 cities was not very viable for a defense (I was having enough trouble defending them without anyone attacking).

I did not see many wars going on, but I assume from the map changes (once I got the whole thing), that Germany, Russia & Tokugawa were having it out slightly. Nothing major, and my end of the continent was exceedingly peaceful.

Got to 930 AD and the Industrial Ages. Still second last in the Civ score, only beating the Romans. Had come into the MA as dead last, so some improvement.

I haven't been keeping stock of the trades I made (actual amounts). Will do that next time, since some of the trades were for quite large amounts. Getting into the 70-80g/turn for a tech.

Predator 1.27f

Thanks for another good game. Welcome, regent Stoneman.

gozpel the gunk,
660 AD? You beat me by 520 years even though I also won by domination. Possible reasons for this:

* I'm not used to domination efforts. My attacks can ususally be vindicated by the words "Mom, they started it!" (or in reality "I made them start it.")
* I didn't lose one single city, except for a few flips, which may indicate I was too careful.
* I didn't break any deals, including an alliance with Russia which cost me a few turns.
* Made a mistake in the RCP ring - see this pic.
* Did a little building after all. Got a 985 shield library. Built cathedrals in the core cities when I conquered Sistine Ch.
* I was a bit too anxious to conquer the one tile islands, hence I made peace twice since Babylon had two and Tokugawa one of those islands. This was probably because I hadn't decided between conquest and domination and needed those islands to achieve conquest victory.
* I stayed in monarchy throughout ---> slow tech pace.
* The extra predator settler for all AI civs. It will be a poor excuse when Adel, SirPleb et al show up. (It doesn't account for the 520-year-difference from gozpel either.)
* As for palace jump, I think it is difficult. If you want to jump to a conquered city you have to keep your core towns so small. Maybe I'll try building lots of workers in my core towns next time, and build the FP a.s.a.p. Anyway, I'm tired of hoping for a leader to complete FP. Most of the time the first leader doesn't show up in the first war.

Overall strategy
I simply ate myself westwards, which seemed safest. Used almost only mounted units of course, and the odd longbow to defend against naval attacks and keep happy. It was easy enough although the horses had to travel a long way. When my second core was set up (around 600 AD...) it was game over definitely.

Oddity 1
Neither Germany nor Russia built a single harbour. In Germany's case the explanation is probably that I was at war with them almost the whole time to keep their tech pace slow. On the other hand, it seems that they didn't even have a road through Russia either. The Russians were probably just too weak to be able to build a harbour. I think there was too much jungle on the western part of the pangea. It made the game much easier for safe players like me.

Because I couldn't trade for dyes, I finally made a "daring" move and conqered a couple of jungle towns across the ocean, near Germany. By then I could see how slow the research pace was and so could make peace with Germany.

Oddity 2
Germany founded a third town as early as 3200 BC. It is likely that it came from a hut because there was a Russian town only two tiles away from it, at distance 3 but still only two tiles away.

Edit! This was wrong; it is even odder. I saw on the replay that the odd town, Brempalonica, was founded by the countryless Greeks in 520 AD by a wandering settler. It's the first time I've ever seen the AI found a city two tiles away from another city. Maybe it was because it was to be the new capital of Greece and culture-push Smolensk next to it right away. It was a doomed effort from Greece and certainly a city unworthy of the accomplished Bremp.

Technology
Beelined for Monarchy, then beelined for Chivalry and Military Tradition insofar as I could afford it. Then it was all a matter of money to hurry temples.

My best move (I need to gloat a bit too)
The Greeks were cultural giants so I wanted to take them out in one fell swoop. When I took their last town it turned out they had at least one settler floating around. This was both bad and good. There was a risk for flips but they also had Gunpowder. So I made peace for Gunpowder and alliances against Germany, Babylon and Rome. With a combined effort from my "enemies" my "ally" Greece was soon gone. It didn't seem to hurt my rep.

The world in 1180 AD:

I don't know if this has been talked about, but is the map a rendition of the fork between the White & Blue Nile rivers? You think?


Btw, nice job Megalou!

Btw, nice job Megalou!

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Thanks! I guess I was fishing for some kind words with my blue crying smiley and all. I was happy with my result after all. I don't know much geography so to me the whole Nile is brownish.

BTW, too bad we couldn't play Australia so that one town could be named Adelaide after the winner of GOTM26.

The funniest city name I encountered this time, although I may have missed some, was