COTM 04 Spoiler 2: Entering Industrial Ages

[Denniz]

Anyway, to be a little constructive, here's what I do all the time, to keep from getting dizzy and disorientated from getting thrown from one side of the world to another all the time: Right-click on the stack of units, then hold down SHIFT and click on each of the units in the stack. Then you will get to manage each unit in the stack in the order you clicked on them. Now, of course, another case of annoying programming pops up: When you SHIFT-click on a unit, the order of the units in the stack is sometimes shuffled, so after a while, if the stack is big enough, you don't know what units you've already clicked on. The end result is usually that there are some units left behind with movement-points left. And if the stack is big enough for you to have to scroll through the list while SHIFT-clicking, it gets even worse, 'cause then often you will have to scroll up and down after clicking on each individual unit!

I use the Right-Click alot. I didn't know it would remember the order clicked though. Anyway, I wanted to add a couple things.

Using a mouse with a scroll wheel allows you to scroll the really big lists. There is always a wake/fortify options at the bottom if there is more then one unit eligable. I also find the wheel very valuable with the city production screen. It works on all the Advisor screens and even will scroll the map. Definately worth the investment.

Also, in C3C, you can use J to move the entire stack or Ctrl-J move all the units of the same type in the stack. You do have to be careful moving mixed units as the whole stack will stay together to the destination. If one unit runs out of movement points before the destination they all run out. This is good for escorting but bad if you accidentally pickup a worker in your stack of tanks.

 

[zamint3]

(predator)

I never did find that saltpeter island, but when I got the new continent mapped, I found this nice spot :



Notice that Germany is allready gone and the Hittities are down to one city. But at this time, 570 AD, they were all at peace.

I was going for conquest but then the Byzantines moved their capital to the one tile island , so I ended with domination in 880 AD, score 7394.

 

[Roland Ehnström]

I think you are being way too harsh on the Civ3 programming team here. At the very least, the decision how much time to spend on what fixes is probably not made by them, and by hanging around here you implicitely agree that the end product is at least playable.

Oh yes, the product as a whole is excellent, but there are those small but very annoying and time-consuming flaws, that to me smell nothing but programmer lazyness. Yes, if this "lazyness" is a result of the product being rushed, then of course I blame whoever was responsible for rushing the product rather than the programmer. If the problem wasn't even recognized at the beta-stage, I blame the beta-testers (but then it could and should have been fixed in a patch by now). In any case, it is a real shame that a multi-million dollar product as Civilization 3, comes with flaws that wouldn't have cost more than a day's worth of work for one decent programmer to fix (at a cost of what, $300?). Actually, the problem described above, is simple enough that it feels like I almost could fix it myself if I had the source code. And I'm not even a programmer...

Call to Power, with all it's flaws, had an EXCELLENT stack-moving and stack-attacking system. Considering how much CtP borrowed from Civ2, I don't understand why the designers of Civ3 didn't just copy the CtP system. It would have made Civ3 so much better, for very little effort. Instead, they release Civ3 without ANY possibility to move units in a stack, which basicly made it impossible to play large and huge maps into the modern age. As you say, they implemented automated workers and city-govenors, to remove a lot of micro-management. But when you wanted to move a stack of 70 Artillery in vanilla Civ3, you would have to press the arrow key 70 times (and not 70 times in a row, no, after you've moved 2 or 3 Artillery, you would be thrown to the other side of the world to fortify an Infantry, then back to the Artillery, then back to the Infantry, then......). I fail to see the logic behind this.

(And yes, of course I know all about J and CTRL-J. I am very happy that this was added in a patch, but to me it's something that's important enough that it should have been in the game from the start. And it is still very much a less-than-perfect stack-moving system - why can't we just have a simple system where you hold down a certain button, then click on some units of your choice, for these units to be "glued" together to form a stack, which can then be easily moved around? How hard can that be to program?)

-- Roland

 

[Danger Bird]

I am learning a lot in this thread. No one is going to learn anything in this post, except how to coast to domination (maybe) from a very generous start position.

The Middle Ages were far less agressive than they could have been, largely because the Maya didn't bother building a military of any note, except a couple of cavalry armies at the end. Decided at the beginning that we would only fight when we were good and ready to expand, not just for conquest's sake alone. (This means, I guess, that I am pursuing no victory condition in particular, but just going along for the Mayan civilisation ride.)

Anyway, we got there (the Industrial Age), with a few important wonders (Leo's, Magellan's, Copernicus' and Newton's) and a Pentagon. And about 60% of our continent.

Some details...

370BC - Enter Middle Ages. At war with America; just destroyed Atlanta on top of the coveted northern wheatfields, with a settler moving up.
IBT, a Spanish settler moves on top of Atlanta's ruins. Sigh, more war.

350BC - The Great Wall is completed in Tikal. DECLARE WAR on Spain. Destroy their settler, and an American settler that was just behind it. (The AI certainly like to have settlers ready, don't they.)

310BC - Found Dzibilchaltun on hill SW of Atlanta ruins. The Great Library is completed in Chichen Itza.

270BC - Destoy Boston. IBT, Americans will give us 4 cities for peace, but I want a leader.

210BC - Make peace with Spain, taking Valencia in the far north (a useless prize).

110BC - Seattle destroyed. Peace made with Americans, taking 2 cities, less than they were willing to give before. Should have cut that war short, and gained more, long ago.

50BC - Iroquois sneak attack. Killing Iro units for the next few turns - leader fishing, to no avail. Still don't have a real miltary, so won't make them pay yet. Forbidden Palace completed in Kaminal.

Building, building, but Mayan military still laughable.

Suicide galleys. Sinking.

300AD - Aztecs declare war. Take a city in the far south that was useless to me anyway.

360AD - Knight's Templar completed in Calakmul.

370AD - Major Aztec incursion (swordsmen and jaguars) into Lazapa province. I watch and kill.

420AD - Make peace with Aztecs getting 40g. (Are we pathetic! Need some time to build up forces.)

480AD - Leonardo's Workshop is completed in Chichen Itza.

Cheap upgrades. Crusaders. Soon we'll be ready to lose our patience.

730AD - Gunpowder. Settler rushed from CI, Caravel Dauntless sets sail for Peterland in 760.

750AD - Get Iroquois to declare war. Start taking Iro cities and putting lost mounted warriors out of their misery. Get gems. And then, in 890...

Magnificent 5th Horsemen defeat Iroquois MWs north of Allegheny, under the leadership of Blue-Quetzal-Macaw, who is recognised as the first Great Leader of the Mayan army. He organises an army of Bonampak knights, and two more stubborn Iro cities are taken. And...

The Maya (slow, peaceful builders at heart) stop, leaving Iroquois a respectable dominion of 4 towns.

Meanwhile, 820-890AD, ... The town of Peter is founded beside the hill, road is built to saltpeter mines, and harbour rushed.

920AD - Copernicus establishes observatory in Calakmul.

1010AD - Sumeria builds JS Bach's Cathedral one turn ahead of Chichen Itza. Arrgh! Research up to 70% to get Military Tradition in one turn, and the Academy in CI. Sell 4 colosseums to stay solvent.

Have a few knights hanging around up north, so we DECLARE WAR on America.

1030AD - Chichen Itza builds Military Academy.

1030-1150AD - America falls. The leader of the 8th Great Horsemen, Eighteen Rabbit, distinguishes himself in the battle of Washington and forms an army.

Never bothered leaving Republic so war weariness was hitting hard. Peace with America, leaving them Houston in the north.

1120AD - CONTACT Byzantines across the water to the east: exchange Chemistry for... Printing Press, world map, contact with Mongols, Celts, Germans, Hittites, French (all but Sumeria), and all their money.
Send envoy to the weakest, France: exchange literature for contact with Sumeria. Maya and Aztecs are strongest civs. We are the technology leader, up metallurgy and MT over Celts and Sumeria.

1190AD - Magellan's Voyage returns to Kaminal, after a successful circumnavigation of... we'll call this world America.

Buildup.

1255AD - DECLARE WAR on Aztecs. Lots of cannons, muskets, and crusaders, Eighteen Rabbit's and the Academy's cavalry armies reduce Tenochtitlan and 2 other major cities to rubble. Peace is made. New southern cities established.

1330AD - Pentagon in CI. Enter Industrial ages.

 

[socralynnek]

Open class...

Ancient age in short again:
Conquered america (except for one city south of Chichen Itza), conquered a little of Aztec territory.

Middle Ages:
With MI and an MI army (my 4th army) I conquered Aztec cities one after another.
They had build ToA, so I got a nice culture boost in those conquered cities.
Build FP in Washington (Mausoleum of Mausollos was there)

Sadly the Spain had salpeter but not me...So after finishing the Aztecs I decided to go for the Iroqouis, because they didn't have iron.

I didn't sell contacts till Navigation, this hindered the AI but the tech rate was too slow to get an early victory.

By the end of the Middle Ages, a lot happened, Spain attacked me after I switched to demo and the Byzantines attacked me shortly after.
I conquered spain (but it was alittle in the Ind.Age. when I finally captured their salpeter city) and signed a few alliances vs. Byz. . Sumeria France and Mongols finaly destroyed the Byzantines.

I built Smiths and Newtons.

I decided to go for space victory, because I was the tech leader and had enough productive cities.

 

[mph3]

Sir Pleb:

Thanks for the response (big fan of your work), that explained it as well as it could be, I think. Maybe next time I'll shoot for conquest, haven't had one yet.

 

[grs]

Open

<ancient age link>

The last contacts:

I gained contacts with the remaining civs one by one while sailing conterclockwise from Constantinople around their island. I bought the last two contacts for a few 100 gold from Theo in 360AD. It was probably the first time since conquests I bought a contact.

The American wars:

I had two wars with Abe. The first after a "leave or declare" demand from me in 130AD gave me Detroit and a straight peace short after that. The second after him joining an alliance with the Aztechs exiled him to some remote towns after I took all his core cities and his two diamond sources. Somewhere in between New York flipped to me.

The Aztech wars:

The Aztechs declared on me two times in the middle ages. In both cases we stalled at each others borders and made peace for some cheap gpt payment from me as I was not very much interested in warring them.

Research:

I researched the upper path to printing press and only got feudalism from the Great Library before I learned education. I bought engineering, invention and gunpowder and kept the tech pace slow when I had enough to build and hurried again when I needed a tech to enable a new wonder.

Culture buildings in Chichén Itza:

I got all middle age wonders I planned to get. In fact I got all but Sun Tzu's, Leoardo's (which I did not want) and Magellan's (which I could not build in my capital).

Great Wall 10BC
Cathedral 110AD
Sistine Chapel 450AD
Knights Templar 570AD
University 610AD
Bach's 840AD
Copernikus' 990AD
Shakespeares' 1230AD
Newton's 1320AD

The middle ages ended with researching magnetism and buying metallurgy from the Aztechs in 1335AD. Spain was eliminated by the Iroquis and Germany by the Celts during this age. The Iroquis and Aztechs fought wars from the start of the middle ages till about 10 turns to the end of the game. These were constatly fought in my territory as you can see below. They actually proved to be beneficial as they stopped the Aztechs from declaring on me. While the Iroquis constantly faced an alliance of at least two foes and were behind in tech and resources all the time (first it was mounted warriors vs. knights and later knights vs. cavalry), they got a right of passage agreement with me, so they could keep up. The war prolonged and I was not pestered anymore.

 

[LuuCkyJaa]

It seems that everyone in this game, even those following a peaceful strategy (I see grs is building the Heroic Epic), has gotten an MGL except me. Guess I have to work on managing my elite units better.

I have had quite a few successes with those units, only lost a couple in battle, but have not given them as many attack opportunities as I should have. Oh well, live, learn and hope you get lucky.

 

[denyd]

LuuCkyJaa: Check out this article by SirPleib on leader farming:

Link to article

 

[chunkymonkey]

Open

Goal: 100K Culture

Primary aim is to wipe out the Spanish before they get their Conquistadors. Will bring Iroquois into the war so that they waste their GA. Then will declare on Iroquois. Finally using cavalry to wipe out the Aztecs.

90 – The Mayan Golden Age comes to an End.
150 – We learn Engineering
170 – The pesky Aztecs encroach on our territory. We ask them to leave. They agree.
210 – They turn up again. We ask them to leave. They promise they will this time.
230 – “For the last time Monty, get your stinking Jaguar Warriors of our land…”

and so begins…

The Great Mayan-Aztec War of 230AD – 660AD

The strategic aim of this war is to cripple if not destroy the Aztecs, primarily with Medieval Infantry whilst racing to Military Tradition. The Great Library should start to fill out the top half of the tree for us.

230 – Found Cuello
250 – We research Feudalism. Watch out Monty.
320 – Capture Malinalco
330 – We learn Invention
340 – Meet Byzantines with a suicide Galley. They are only slightly behind us tech-wise.
350 – The Great Library teaches us Monarchy. We capture Texcoco.
390 – We learn Gunpowder. There’s no Saltpetre anywhere to be seen! Perhaps it’s in the fog somewhere. Now I am more determined to wipe out the Aztecs quickly.
420 – Capture Tenochtitlian.
440 – Sign an ROP with the Iroquois so that I can scout their land for saltpetre. I may need to declare on them soon if they possess it.
450 – Sign ROP with Spain for the same reason.
460 – Build Heroic Epic in Palenque.
470 – Learn Chemistry.
490 – Build Leo’s Workshop in C Itza.
500 – Capture Teotihuacan
530 – Capture Xochicalco
570 – Capture Tlateloco and Tlaxcala, Found Tulum.
580 – Learn Metallurgy
600 – Capture Atzcapotzalco.
610 – Capture Calixtlahuaca
630 - Capture Tlacopan, Found Coba
640 - Learn Military Tradition. Still no Saltpeter anywhere and I’ve searched the whole continent. Thanks Ainwood! Capture Tzintzuntzen, Found Dzibilchaltun.
650 – Capture Tula, autoraze Temuin.
660 – Autoraze Ixtapaluca. I sue for peace and receive all remaining Aztec cities.

This war went pretty well. I’m now in a position to declare on the Spanish, well, once I get my MedInf up to Spain. The others still haven’t helped me out tech-wise. Looks like I’ll have to research the top half of the tree all by myself.

670 – We receive word that the Mongols have been destroyed. Shame.
680 – We learn Monotheism
690 – Build Sun Tzu’s in Copan
720 – Research Chivalry
760 – Research Theology. Meet the Celts.
790 – Sign ROP with Celts.
800 – Learn Printing Press. Sign ROP with Byzantines.
840 – Learn Education. Once again, the GL was amazingly useful.
870 – Aztec cease-fire is up. Capture Tepetlaoxtol.
880 - Learn Music Theory. Capture Cempola. Hmm, there must be an Aztec settler on a galley somewhere… Demand Toledo from Spain. Denied so DW on them. Sign MA with Iro for 193 gold.

The Mayan – Spaniard War of 880AD – 1150AD

910 – Meet France. They are very weak. ROP and get German Contact.
930 – Mayapan Found. DW on Abe, ROP with Germans for Hittite contact. Hittites give us Sumer contact and surprisingly other civs don’t yet know the Sumerians. Trade Sumer Contact for some Gold.
940 – Capture San Francisco. Americans destroyed. Learn Astronomy.
970 – C Itza builds JS Bachs. Boston builds Knights Templar. Aztecs finally destroyed
990 – Capture Barcelona and get 2nd MGL.
1010 – Found Kabah
1030 – Capture Santiago. Learn Banking.
1070 – capture Madrid. Learn Economics.
1100 – Capture Seville and get 3rd MGL
1110 – Learn Democracy.
1130 - capture Murcia. Build Sistine Chapel in Copan.
1140 – Build Cop’s Observatory in C Itza
1150 – Learn Free Aristry. The Spanish are destroyed by the Iroquois. Which Leads to…

The Mayan – Iroqouis War of 1150 - ???

The Iroquois are still in their Golden Age, so I expect a meaty battle for a few turns. Then I should be able to sweep them away with my Knight armies.

1150 – Capture Valencia
1170 – Capture Miami
1190 – Learn Physics. Get 4th MGL. Found Ake and Xcalumkin on the saltpetre island. Finally! But a little useless now...
1220 – Capture Kahnawake. MGL number 5.
1230 – Learn Theory of Gravity. Capture Tyendenaga.
1240 – Boston builds Magellan Voyage.
1260 – Capture Tonawanda. Learn Magnetism and enter the Industrial Ages. Sweet!

The Iroquois have 10 cities left. I give them about 10 maybe 15 turns to live. No-one on the other continent has visited my continent yet, so they know nothing of my transgressions. As soon as I finish off the Iroqouis, I’ll start rushing libraries and temples in preparation for the 100K.

BTW, it's very interesting to see how things have turned out for continent number 2 in different games. Just shows how diverse the same game can be for different people.

 

[LuuCkyJaa]

denyd,

Thanks for the tip. I actually read that article recently, but did not put its advice into action as effectively as I could've/should've. Better luck next time, I hope.

James

 

[LuuCkyJaa]

chunkymonkey,

I have also found it interesting how things have developed on the other continent. In my game, all those civs still had all their original cities entering the IA. I noticed a brief war between the Germans and the Hittites as my suicide galley was making its first trip around the continent fairly early in the MA but that was it. I think I was responsible for giving most of them Republic and think that might have curtailed the warmongering apparent in other games.

It seems that the later the human player had contact with that other continent, the more wartorn and backwards it was found to be. It think that SirPleb and I both reached that continent at about the same (relative) point in the MA. Of course, he was way ahead of me in calendar years. While our home continent maps look completely different entering the IA, our maps of the other continent are very similar. Have other people noticed this, or am I seeing something that's not there?

James

 

[Darkness]

predator

MA entered in 750 BC by researching Construction

750BC – Set research to Monotheism. Trade Construction to America (now I hope they start researching Feudalism). For 39 gold. Iroquois get Philosophy for 8 gold. We sell Currency to the Aztecs for 50 gold. Spain gets Currency for 25 gold. Mayapan founded
650BC – Washington builds Pyramids
630BC – Salamanca builds Mausoleum
610BC – Aztecs sneak attack us. Fortunately the AI is fairly obvious about these sneak attacks, so we were prepared.
590BC – German city Berlin builds the Great Lighthouse
550BC – America has discovered monarchy and has triggered a revolution. There goes my plan of Abe learning Feudalism for me… A Javelin Thrower kills an Aztec Jaguar Warrior. Golden Age!
530BC – Discover Monotheism, start Feudalism
510BC – Complete Forbidden Palace in Copan.
470BC – Peace with Aztecs.
450BC – Sell Currency to Spain and the Iroquois for a total of 89 gold
430BC – Discover Feudalism, start Chivalry. Entremont builds Temple of Artemis. Tenochtitlan builds Great Wall. Ur builds Statue of Zeus. Palenque switched to Sun Tzu’s
290BC – Discover Chivalry. Set research to Theology
270BC – Iron connected, start upgrading horseman to knights
210BC – Palenque builds Sun Tzu’s
190BC – Declare war on America. Bribe the Iroquois to join us in exchange for Polytheism. We also pay the Spanish 130 gold for an alliance against America. Atlanta captured
170BC – San Francisco and Washington (Pyramids & Oracle) captured
150BC – Golden Age ends….
130BC – Buffalo captured
110BC – Miami, Philadelphia, Seattle, New York and Houston captured
50BC – Chicago captured
30BC – St. Louis captured, America eliminated. Sell Literature to the Aztecs for 212 gold. Declare war on Aztecs
10BC – Xochicalco captured
10AD – Tenochtitlan captured (Great Wall). Sell Literature to Spain for 135 gold. Declare war on Spain. Barcelona captured
50AD – Calixthahuaca captured. Santiago captured. Elite knight generates first Leader -> army. Army wins battle, Production in CI switched to Heroic Epic. Kabah founded.
70AD – Teotihuacan and Tzintzuntzen captured
90AD – Texcoco captured. Madrid, Toledo and Seville captured
110AD – Volcano near Seattle erupts; minor damage. Atzcapotzalco and Tlatelolco captured. Tlacopan razed.
130AD – Tlaxcala captured. Valencia razed.
150AD – Murcia captured.
170AD – Theology discovered, start education. Tula captured. Zaragoza razed.
190AD – Spanish spearman/settler pair killed. Spain eliminated. Ake and Ek Balam founded. Malinalco captured.
210AD – Make peace with the Aztec for 4 cities. Only Monty’s capital remains
230AD – CI builds Heroic Epic
250AD – Discover Education, start Astronomy
260AD – Aztec peace treaty broken. Capture Chalco. Aztecs eliminated. Since the plan is to eliminate the Iroquois next and that’ll happen before contact with other civs across the sea, a ruined reputation won’t stay ruined very long… Sell Monotheism to the Iroquois for 136 gold. Declare war on Hiawatha and take out four settler/defender pairs walking through my territory. Elite knight spawns second Leader -> Army. Tazumal founded. Tonawanda captured.
270AD – Cozumel founded. Celtic city Entremont builds Hanging Gardens.
290AD – Discover Astronomy, start Navigation
300AD – Mauch Chunk and Allegheny captured
310AD – New CI founded. Niagara Falls captured
320AD – Boston and Grand River captured
330AD – Navigation discovered, start Engineering. Switch Palenque to Magellan’s. Elite Knight generates third Leader -> Army. Elite Knight generates fourth Leader -> Army. St. Regis captured. Xcalumkin founded
340AD – Salamanca captured (Mausoleum).
350AD – Cattaraugus and Centralia captured
360AD – Last Iroquois city, Oil Springs captured, but they don’t die. Great, they have a settler out on a ship somewhere….
370AD – Engineering discovered, start Invention. New Copan founded
380AD – My fleet of hastily cash-rushed caravels sinks the Iroquois galley with their last settler. Great, sinking one galley just cost me 7 caravels, around 900 gold….
390AD – One of my exploring caravels sights land across the ocean and contacts its’ inhabitants, the Byzantines. Their tech level is early MA. The invasion fleet sets sail this same turn. New Palenque founded
410AD – Invention discovered, start Gunpowder
420AD – Declare war on Byzantines. First wave of invasion force lands N of Constantinople, consisting of 12 knights and 3 9hp knight armies
430AD – Constantinople and Adrianople captured
440AD – Palenque completes Magellan’s. Varna captured
450AD – Gunpowder discovered. Start Chemistry. There is not one source of saltpeter on our continent! There goes my beeline for MT, to get 3-move cavalries for a quick domination/conquest win. I guess I’ll have to slug it out with 2-move knights. Set research to zero. New Tikal founded. Nicaea and Ceasarea captured. We meet France and trade Joan our TM for her WM.
460AD – Smyrna captured. New Yaxchilán and New Bonampak founded
470AD - New Lagartero, New Quirigua and New Calakmul founded. Declare war on France
480AD – Rheims captured. New Lazapa founded
490AD – Elite Knight generates fifth Leader. Paris and Orleans captured. Leader rushes Pentagon in Paris. New Kaminaljuyú and New Piedras Negras founded. Sumerian city Ur builds Great Library
500AD – Paris build Pentagon. We meet the Mongols and trade our TM for their WM. Lyons, Avignon, Trebizond and Heracleia captured. Byzantine capital jumps to one-tile island…
510AD – Meet the Germans. Trade our TM for their WM. Tours and Chartres captured. New Uaxactun and New Cuello founded.
520AD – Meet the Hittites. Trade our TM for their WM
530AD – Capture Marseilles and Sardica. Make peace with the Byzantines and get the town Naissus as a bonus. Theodora now has her capital on her one-tile island (one of Ainwoods favourite features ) and a small town on the northern tundra island. Make peace with the French. Joan only has her capital remaining, on the other side of the inland sea…Declare war on Germany. Frankfurt captured. New Tulúm founded
540AD – Nuremberg captured. Declare war on the Mongols. Darhan captured. New Cobá and New Dzibilchaltun founded
550AD – Kazan captured. Meet the Celts. Brennus gets our TM for his WM. New Uxmal, New Mayapán and New Kabáh founded Heidelburg captured
560AD – Elite knight generates sixth Leader -> army. Dalandzadgad captured. Elite knight generates seventh Leader -> army. We meet the Sumerians, and trade our TM for their WM. Ulaanbaatar and Karakorum captured. New Ake founded. Although I have already secured two sources of saltpeter, I’ll refrain from researching MT, because the money is better used to rush temples and settlers… Celts destroy the Hittites.
570AD – Tabriz and Hamburg captured. New Xcalumkin founded
580AD – Ta-Tu and Choybalsan captured. Elite knight generates Leader number eight -> army. New Ek Balam founded.
590AD - Almarikh captured. Make peace with the Mongols for the towns of Hovd and Mandalgovi, leaving Temujin his capital and one other town south of the Celtic lands. Berlin (Great Lighthouse) and Cologne captured.
600AD – Munich and Leipzig captured. Make peace with Germany and get Hanover for it. Germany now only has its’capital on the main island and one town on the tundra island in the north. Establish embassies with the French, Germans, Mongols and Sumerians. New Tazumal and New Cozumel founded.
610AD – Declare war on the Celts, the largest remaining AI. Our world map buys us an alliance against the Celts with Sumeria, Germany, the Mongols and France. Joan virtually insisted I’d take Monarchy from her as well… Eboracum captured.
620AD – Gergovia and Burdigala captured. Incense Coast, Tundra Bridge, New Berlin and New Ta-Tu founded
630AD – Entremont (Temple of Artemis and Hanging Gardens) captured. New Seville and New Tundra Bridge founded.
640AD – I lose a 18 hp 4 knight army attacking Lugdunum to a veteran pikeman. This is a serious setback…. Lugdunum and Hattusha captured. Banana Springs and Whale Point founded. Celts capture Banana Springs. Strange: size one town, without culture… Should have been razed I think. Brennus took this town with a regular archer and a veteran horseman, form two fortified veteran knights. I don’t think the RNG likes me anymore….
650AD – Agedincum and Aleppo captured
Cultural expansions on the intraturn give a Domination Victory
Time played: 32h42m40s, of which at least half is idle time (I hope…)
Firaxis: 7844
Jason: 10826

 

[Kaiser_Berger]

Open

As I entered the MA, I was going on the warpath while trying to maintain a decently high rate of research.

My wars went as follows:

Iroquois,370-190BC, provoked by Iroquois sneak attack
America,70AD-150AD, started by us, America destroyed
Iroquois,210-390AD, initiated by us, Iroquois crippled with us now ownig Pyramids in Salamanca
Aztecs,270-360, initiated by sneak attack.
Spain, 300ish-460, initiated by us, Spain destroyed
Aztecs, 580-late 700s, reduced them to OCC
800 Iroquois destroyed

I managed three MGL in this era, all becoming armies, one sword and two horse. All my warring was prosecuted with horsemen and the sword army, and one victory by a JT in 320 AD for my GA.

I picked up two wonders while in this era, Copernicus and Newtons, both in C.I.

War Weariness did hit me a bit and affected my research rate, so I didn't exit the MA until 740 AD. At this point I was looking towards either Diplo or Space, leaning towards Space.

 

[Dianthus]

Spoiler 1: Ancient Age (4000BC-350BC)



The rest of this game was mainly warring, but ainwood definitely made it more interesting with the lack of Saltpeter. I was originally going to make Military Tradition my 1st goal techwise, but on discovering the lack of Saltpeter on learning Gunpowder I switched to the upper part of the tech-tree so that I could explore the Sea/Ocean. I was wondering whether maybe there wouldn't be any Saltpeter anywhere though, so I prepared myself for getting the Conquest win with Knights rather than Cavalry. I had no idea how the other civs were doing, and even without Saltpeter they could get Riflemen by the time I got across to them, so I set out to gain some armies. I built The Pentagon and Heroic Epic to help get the armies quicker, and so I could have 4 units in them (once I got them off our continent). I only populated 3 of the armies with 3 Knights (not 4 as I wanted to transport them with Galleons). All of the other leaders I used to create armies, but didn't populate them just in case there was some Saltpeter available.

Here's a picture of just before I declared war on the Iroquois in 310AD:

The Iroquois were keen to get to the free land to the south. They had an ROP with me, but I kept blocking the route through so they ended up with lots of units in my territory. Ripe pickings for some easy Elite victories .

On learning Astronomy in 610AD I found the NE Saltpeter island, and settled it. I then finished off our continent ASAP as I didn't need to keep them for generating leaders. I had been breaking deals with the civs on our island (I.e. the ROP with the Iroquois in the screenshot above), so I explored and found the other continent, but didn't move in close enough to meet them until I had eliminated our continent.

I made contact with all civs on the other continent between 810AD and 870AD, and was pleased to find them far behind in techs. I made trades to get their cash. My world map was surprisingly valuable!


I made ROPs with the Byzantines/French, and proceeded to war with the other continent starting with the Mongols and working around anti-clockwise. Having ROPs with the Byzantines/French meant I didn't have to worry about protecting my back, and just kept advancing the whole time.

From this point it was pretty easy (but time consuming) as I was generally facing Spearmen/Pikemen with my Cavalry and numerous Cavalry armies. This last phase of the Conquest got slowed down quite a bit as:

1. The Hittite/German territory was still full of Jungle, so unit movement was pretty slow.
2. The Germans had settled the island to the north. I had taken my 3 outdated Knight armies up there and some Cavalry. I had wiped out all cities except for the one on the far east. I took one army across there, and it got killed by barbs! There were about 30 barb horsemen sitting outside the German town. They were happy to leave the town alone and instead decided to attack me! It took me 4 or 5 turns to get the other armies across the island to take that town, in which time the Germans settled another town on the west, so taking another 4 or 5 turns to get back again.
3. The Byzantines had settled the 1 tile island and it had grown quite well, to size 4. I left a size 6 town as their capital and waited for them to allow contact, and they refused to give the 1 tile town for peace! I figure this was because it was large enough to be valuable to them, so I built lots of Frigates to bombard it down. When it reached size 1 I managed to get it for peace and then finish them off.

I finally finished in 1250AD with a Fireaxis score of 6800 and Jason score of 9582.


Graphs!
Here's one of my naval buildup. Note the Frigates at the end!


Here's one of my horse-based military. I've included armies because I got enough that they're actually worth graphing

 

[smackster]

Left the AA in about 550BC, started researching as quickly as I can towards Chivalry, started building horses exclusively. This was a period of peace, but my eyes started looking towards Spain.

In 350BC I had enough Horses in place and declared on Spain, but also got a sac galley through, and meet Mongol, reneg peace for their 50 gold and they are behind, three techs. That galley still at sea dies before getting any further, went about 4 turns in ocean, so I can't complain.
Next I hit on the shortest spot acorss the ocean and in 270BC meet Byzantine, in 230BC Meet France, they don't even have Writing

The war with Spain goes quickly and they put up almost no opposition to our stacks of horses.

At the start of the war I had 27 horses, 12 warriors, 12 swordsmen. With others a total of 71 units, but my cities only supported 29 units, so I was paying the computer god 84 GPT. This severly restricted my ability to research. This was the time that I started using Ainwood's CivAssist and this tool really drove this home to me. So I started disbanding all my regular warriors (who would never be upgraded) and pushing more settlers out. This may be obvious to some but it really helps to keep an eye on this. At this time, even though I'd gifted Republic to the AI, nobody had any cash for me.

Voila 170BC Byzantine discover Engineering, we get that for Republic and 40 Gold, don't even have to give them Feud which we had discovered by then

In between the peace with America has ended and we take back Washington, and clear them from the game in double quick time with spare horses, the American veterans now on their way to Iroquois.

Our galleys continue to scout the other continent, and in 110BC Meet Germany, who have, you guessed it, nothing, not even any gold.

As our stacks of horses build on the Iro border, they decide to conveniently sneak attack us in 50BC. I actually had a couple of troops in a galley, so that I could pay a visit to their horses, but they got killed on the first turn. I took one city, but Iro had a suprising quantity of Mounted warriors, so things became difficult. Luckily in 110AD Iro would pay us for peace, actually 10GPT, and next turn 39GPT for engineering and 3GPT for spices.

This was the turning point of the game, once the AI starts to pay you that quantity of cash, and you have Chivalry, iron and horses, its game over man. Previously Byzantine paid us for Engineering too and I was getting 37 GPT from them, but everyone else was broke. It was a suprise to get that from Iro, and I was glad that I didn't wipe them out. Using the 999 trick (on the old saves, bring up GPT for them, type in 999, hit enter) I'm able to see that all the other AI are generating a lot of GPT (they are all republic by now) but must have existing deals in place as they wont even give me 1 GPT for anything. Trick is to get them when those deals with the other civs expire, although the only way to do that is to check every turn, and a jump in gold is an indiciation of that (CivReplay-MapStat for that). One further trick is to keep the AI tech even with each other, so they don't trade things about too much. If you are ahead, keep all of them even, and then when you sell something to one sell it too all, pretty hard to do this right however.

At this time Chivalry had also been researched, and I started to upgrade Knights on the Aztec border. They could have saved themselves if they would buy something from us but it was not to be. Aztecs actually had GWofC, but right on our border in one turn Knight range, so we would target that first and save attacking walled cities.

I'd been eyeing the other continent for a while, and bought a few embassies to check their war status, not much going on so decided to wake them up a bit, so in 210AD declared war with France, ask Germany to join and they pay us for it I was just looking for a couple of neighbors that didn't have any cash, no real logic beyond picking France, but in the end that helped me, as you'll see later.

By now we had enough Knights in place (14) so in 260AD launched our offensive on Aztec. As for tech after getting Chivalry, started towards Navigation, for trading purposes and to pay them a visit with our Knights. Then it would be MT in quick time, but you know the drill. By this time, our allowed units was up to 56, we had 80 and were paying the bit bucket 48 GPT, which is much better, but still too high, so more settlers were being rushed.

In a mere 8 turns 340AD Tenochtitlan is burning, the Great Wall is ours, Aztecs are a spent force and by 390AD we declare peace after taking their furs city. During this time our trade gold from other civs peaked at +176GPT, so that with 4 luxuries we can research 0.10.0 for as long as we need.

Now usually I'd just have to finish all the AI on my continent before thinking about the other continent, but what with trading with Iro, and Aztec stuck in bad land, it didn't seem wise to finish that off quickly. To get a win by Conquest, getting to the other Continent was paramount and I could finish the others later, so I left them, even when the furs city flipped, I just traded for it, kept my cool and continued towards the ultimate goal.

As I continued down the Navigation path, the Byz suprise me and in 420AD come up with Invention, we swap for Astronomy and lots of their gold. At this time I was a mere 2 turns from Navigation, and the brave expeditionary force was gathering.



Our good friends the Byzantines had built the Great Lighthouse, and it was that prize that we so craved, but would have to wait a few turns for our last deal to expire before wrestling it from them. I still wanted to preserve rep to make sure that everybody is fighting each other as we arrive.

The picture looks very grim for Byzantine as we arrive in 490AD, and show our shiny new Knight army, ready to be filled as we land. A few turns before we found that Navigation allows us to trade maps (I thought it was printing press, but I guess that is communication) and the world is revealed. Even on my laptop monitor I can now see a very tempting little square between the Byzantine and French borders (who I'm also still fighting), and land a few Knights in advance of war, Byzantine ask us to leave, which we do and find that we are teleported within three squares of their iron, also 4 diagonal squares from France and their iron, and another prize to be revealed in moment (I was still 4 turns from Gunpowder).



After the war declaration, I typically invite a friend to join, and Mongols agree to the alliance. I always like to do that 2-3 turns before I arrive, so the AI's spare offensive units are elsewhere.

As our troops were dropped off right next to Constantinople, we still found that although the Byz had iron and Fued, they only had spearmen. First turn we cut all links to their capital to make sure our Knights would only fight spearmen. The Byz didn't last long but we had certainly noticed the one tile island long before and declared peace just to get that in 550AD. Still wanting to preserve rep for the final alliance (which at this point looked to be with Celts against Sumeria, but turned out the other way round) we kept that peace and went for our next goal.

For once I'd remembered to look for the Saltpetr and eventually found it under Paris. Now I bet you wondered what happened to the Knight threesome that were energised near the Byz iron, well they did try to get it, but met resisitance and as I'd cut off Istanbul already, found that I did not need to cut it. So they turned round and took Lyon from the French. This gave us an almost complete road to Paris. All Knights now went that way, MT was in 7 turns, 45 Knights in play, most on the other continent and more cash than we know what to do with.

The year of our Cavalry was 600AD the people of Paris are now speaking a new language, thats where the SP is, MT was researched just in time. 27 Cavalry upgraded in a flash, 28 more Knights to go in the coming turns
.
Cavalry go in two main battle groups around the lake, north through France, Germany, Hittie and South through Mongol, Celts. It always shocks me how quickly you can win from this position, I was thinking 1000AD, but would be very wrong.

In 650AD Hitties wont leave our territory and declare war on us, which is fine by me, as a little bit of reverse WW wont hurt. About to backstab Germany. Decide to get the powerhouses to fight each other, before my rep is too bad. Declare on Celts and get Sumaria to fight them, that should be very bloody. It was the trades that did it in the end, I could get Celts to fight Sumaria without giving them MT. Don't want to fight Cavalry if I can help it.

Let me get this right, after getting all the alliances I can, we are now fighting Hittie, Germany, Celts and Mongols, Hittie fights Germany, Mongal fights Celts, Sumaria fights Celts

Our Military Advisor shows the inevitability of the end. So its time to take the battle to our continent, and as Aztecs have more land we send in the Cavalry there, soon we'd send them into Iroqois. Trying to time the end to its best. Many centuries before Byzantine had given us a few cities on the north eastern island, and plans were in place to finish of the other AI there. The Saltpetr island had yet to be discovered, but with massed Caravels in place we were scouting every square, I was concerned when I found it, but in hindsight we would have known about it through AI maps if they had it, I never did sell my map once in this game.

Great chearing and rejoicing in 710AD as our battle groups close the gap round the lake. A Mongal city flips, suprising so few, but lose an army I think. That would have been the last Mongal city. Germany down to one city, Hittie down to one.



Speaking of armies, they were hard to come by in this game, we got one on the home continent fights, and I was leader farming as much as can be. Then on the second continent elite wins were coming thick and fast but no leaders. Suddenly around 650AD, the leaders came in floods, just like busses and we even had time to build the Pentagon in the end. Toward the end of the game, I'd often find a forgotten army healed in a barracked city, that could get to the front and attack a city in no time. I was using every trick (legal) that I could in this game, and would have used settler tunneling but could either not build the settlers quick enough or when I did the Cavalry tracks were too quick.



In 740AD I was thinking that the game was over by 800AD but made a suprising miscalculation, Aztecs were nearly gone, Iro were fighting back but I was rushing help, and I was about to crush the Celts, while I was still at peace with Sumaria. With 65 Cavalry and 5 armies that end was surely within my grasp.

As it turned out the other continent was cleared in 810AD, also the Iro went at that time, the northern Island by 820AD, the saltpetr island never being discovered, but the Aztecs got me with a Jag Warrior in the last moments of their end. I only had a few Cavalry down there, and didn't seem to need anymore, but sometimes those spearmen can do a lot of damage. At the perfectly timed end, with three Cavalry around their last city, a JW sneaks out and takes one of my undefended cities nearby. That meant I had to go back take that (and raze it this time) and then didn't have enough to take their last city. Now just to rub the salt into my wounds as a newly created army was about to wipe them out they sneaked out a settler galley, and I had no Caravel in range. To save my blushes, they landed the settler right away, next to a Cavalry, who obliged, and the conquest was complete.



840AD Conquest victory, 7269 Firaxis points 10420 Jason. 56% of land. You'll see very little culture expansion on the other continent, which was too many resistors and all cash being paid to Cavalry upgrades. Iron cutting was used extensively to increase the number of Cavalry, in the end I had 83 Cavalry and 8 armies.

 

[Jason Fliegel]

This is an Open class game.

I didn't do a Middle Ages turn log, so this is just going to be a broad run-through of the era. It's divided into two parts. The first part is midway through the Middle Ages, and the second part is at the end of the Middle Ages.

As I mentioned in my Ancient Age turn log, I was amassing troops to go to war with the Irroquois. Before I could attack, though, the Aztecs -- my only neighbor who could rival me -- attacked. I lost a few outlying cities to them, and then we bogged down into a 25-30 turn stalemate. Eventually, I sued for peace. I learned a valuable lesson here: don't let the AI dictate your wars to you. I had no reason to fight the Aztecs, yet I kept fighting them long after I should have stopped. Why? Because I wanted to retake my 2 (relatively unimportant) cities? Because I didn't want to have to pay for peace (I wound up giving the Aztecs Monotheism in the peace deal)? Those are bad reasons to wage war.

The good part of my First Aztec War was that I got two great leaders. One ran back to Chichen Itza to await the introduction of knights. The second, I decided to make into a horseman army. That was a mistake, since the army got killed pretty early. Fortunately, my army got a victory before it fell, so I was able to start on the Heroic Epic.

My other big boo-boo was losing out on Sun-Tzu's by a single turn to one of the off-continent civs. Depressing, but I switched production to Knight's Templar, so it wasn't a total waste.

Other than those setbacks, I did well. Once I made peace with the Aztecs, I turned my attention to the Americans, who I had already carved back during the Ancient Age. I quickly reduced them to a single city north of Spain. Meanwhile, the Aztecs went to war with the Irroquois. I didn't want to mess with either of them, so I let them move their troops through my territory (much blood was spilled outside Chichen Itza as I stood and watched), turning instead to Spain. I wiped Spain out completely. By that point, the Aztec-Irroquois war was over, and I quickly conquered a now-weak Irroquois.

Science-wise, I also did well. I have all available pre-Education techs, with the exception of Military Tradition, which I'm working on. I won the race to Leonardo's Workshop, which will come in handy over the years.

So what's next for me? First of all, I need to make a science decision. My original plan was to shut off science, send out suicide galleys, buy all available contacts, and rocket toward (or even into) the Industrial Age. I haven't seen any indication that the other civs are more advanced than me, though -- nobody's build Copernicus's Observatory, for example -- so maybe I'll just keep doing my own research.

Second of all, I need to take out the Aztecs. Fortunately, the RNG has been very kind to me -- I have *six* Knight Armies ready to take them on, plus a good assortment of trebuchets, knights, pikemen, and Knights Templar. This won't be as easy a war as the Spanish War, the Second American War, or the Irroquois War, but I think I can do it.
==============================
The Second Aztec War was a success. The Aztecs had been massing troops on my border ever since the end of the First Aztec War. When I was ready for a fight, I called them on it -- "Get your troops out of my territory or declare war!" They declared war. We were stalemated for a few turns, but then I broke the back of their resistance and started marching on their cities. It wasn't long before I conquered them. Unfortunately, they got a settler off -- he eventually settles on the Tundra island to the north of the other continent. I only hope I don't lose any cities to a culture flip. I also take the opportunity to conquer the lone remaining American history, giving me control over the entire continent.

In science news, I didn't even have to slow my research down. Before I finished Military Tradition, a suicide galley made it through to France, who introduced me to the Celts, the Summerians, the Hittites, and the Byzantines (the Germans and the Mongols were long gone by this point). I get 3 techs -- Education, Astronomy, and Banking -- from the Great Library. Ur built Copernicus's Observatory around this time.

I was also able to secure a source of saltpeter -- I found the small island to the northeast of our continent. I settled two cities there. The Celts also settled two cities (they got the iron), and the French settle two cities.

Here's my race against time for the late Middle Ages. I started building Adam Smith's. Nobody else even had Economics. That was the good news. The bad news was, there were 3 other civs in a race for Bach's Cathedral. If someone else had discovered Economics before Bach's Cathedral is built, I stood a good chance of losing Smith's to a cascade. When I assess in 1375, I've got 3 turns until I discover Physics (and can therefore get Newton's if I lose the race to Adam Smith's), and 13 turns until the Trading Company is complete. Subsequently, my rivals discovered Economics before the Company is complete, and started building it themselves. Fortunately, on the same turn that I hit the Industrial era (1440), I completed Smith's Trading Company. This is double good news -- not only did I win the Wonder Race, but it means my rivals have pretty crappy production in some of their key cities! Plus, as an added bonus, nobody switched their Trading Company builds to Newton's University, which means nobody else has Theory of Gravity.

As I go into the Industrial Era, things are looking good. I'm filling in the former Aztec territory, and I've assimilated all the Iroquois, American, and Spanish territory. My plan for the next era? I'm going to start sending troops over to the other continent! Unless there's a strategic reason to do otherwise (i.e. coal), I'm going to land my troops near Constantinople (which is Celtic in my game) and work my way east.

 

[Orlen]

Coming into the middle ages I had just finished a third war with the Aztecs, gaining nearly all of their land except the tundra-cities. The first war had gone well, but they'd caught me unawares on the second and taken a city, and I'd had to pay them for peace. This third war was payback.
Anyway, after I'd taught the Aztecs their lesson, I decided to take all the land the Iroquois had, they had no iron so I thought it would be easy. Wrong! I amassed some knights near his border and then told him to get his spearmen out of my land, he declared war and so began the most frustrating war of my life. It went back and forth, back and forth, nobody lost a city until well into the middle ages, but before that happened, he ran out of his stockpiled units and I was about to crush him when he got an alliance with the Americans. This is when it got nasty, I hadn't expected this, as I had a ROP agreement with the Americans and was exchanging luxuries with them, and they caught me off guard and managed to take Lazapa before I could beat them off, from this point everything went well, I crushed the Iroquois and the Americans at the same time, it went very smoothly (apart from a couple of culture flips), and soon the Americans and Iroquois were both gone from the continent except one Iroquois and one American city down in Aztec land. So I turned my attention to the Spanish, I was just finishing them when I researched Magnetism to complete the middle ages. I'm going to go for a spaceship victory because I don't fancy any more long wars, especially on another continent. I'm a couple of techs behind the French and Mongols, but it's nothing I won't be able to overtake with my much larger economy once I switch to democracy after finishing the Spanish.

 

[fbouthil]

Open

I was much slower than most in AA, but I seem to have make up for it in MA.

50BC - Entered MA, I have conquered most of Aztec territory.

320AD - With a dozen knights, DoW on Americans. As a Canadian, I always like doing that! :crazyeyes:

470AD - America is reduce to a few toundra cities and give me St.Louis for peace.

520AD to 600AD - Spain suffured the same fate as America, but I should have given them republic as they pop-rushed a lot of sword.

630AD - Dow on Iroquois.
640AD to 700AD - Eliminate what was left of the Aztecs. On the same turn, Celts eliminate the Hittites. I do not know those civ yet, but Celts have control over wonders built by Hittites.

730AD - Contact Sumeria which seems a bad target since they have SoZ. Meet the other civ in the next few turns.

740AD - Discover gunpowder to find that there are no saltpeter on the whole continent.

780AD - Finally eliminate Iroquois.

810AD - Mop up America.

840AD - Settle on the saltpeter on the island NE of our continent.

850AD - The saltpeter I settled on is EXHAUSTED! Fortunately, it reappeared in Mongol territory which I plan on conquering soon.

850AD to 930AD - Mongol war resulting in their elimination. I make a saltpeter colony as I do not want to wait 5t for the city to expand.

940AD - RoP France to position to attack Bizantines.

950AD to 1040AD - Bizantine war resulting in exile on the 1-tile island and a few toundra cities on the N island.

1040AD - DoW on Celts and make alliance with France, Sumeria & a more than happy Germany against them. There are Celt cities with german names so they have been at war in the past.

1050AD - Capture Entremont and TGWall.

1060AD - 1170AD Sumeria manage to get a city from the Celts. The Celts got one french city. I conquered all but one Celt city deep in Sumerian territory and "liberated" the french city.

1170AD - Domination victory with a Jason score over 9200!

It is fortunate I was planning to begin conquest of the other continent with knights considering the exhausted saltpeter. I thought Ainwood found a way to make the saltpeter disappear on the first turn it got connected to a city, but I did not read that it happened to anyone else.

 

[zamint3]

840AD - Settle on the saltpeter on the island NE of our continent.

850AD - The saltpeter I settled on is EXHAUSTED!

Tough one!

I thought Ainwood found a way to make the saltpeter disappear on the first turn it got connected to a city.

That would have been really mean, don't give him any good ideas now!