GOTM 30 Spoiler I: End of Ancient Age

[WarriorPoet]

My first GOTM since med melee...which I didn't turn in all though I was doing alright, but I just got board with it and EQOA came out...oh well back to topic:

I am thinking that I'm the only one that moved my settle north on the first turn...3950BC Madrid founded North of start position, because I went for short term gratification that I knew was there.

I just set my worker to mining the BG at 4000BC

I built 2 warriors, then a temple prebuild for granary. Yes, I soon found the settler pumping area to the south, DOH!

I went for Pottery, Bronze making (Collossus), then for Mapmaking and Literature.

I soon found like all of you that we were on an island, a big island though, with a lot of production potential.

Here's where my strategy differs from many of you:

I sent my first settler to found a city adjacent to the nearest cow and the lake to the south of madrid. I immediately began a granary.

I had my luxury rate set at 20% and the rest to research. I cranked settlers out of every city when ever I could and galleys ASAP. By the end of the ancient ages I had a fair ammount of the world uncovered and contact with all of my neighbors.

I delayed the Colossus until I was about 40 turns from from getting literature, since I knew this would cause a GA.

This worked wonders, since I was able to get a big research bump right when I needed it and was able to get the Colossus and the GL in Madrid.

I also traded tech like a fiend, so money invested in research wasn't a priority.

A couple drawbacks from my rapid expansion plans: 1 culture delayed, 2 very weak militarily.

I had a brief defensive war with the one civ, that netted me some gold and lost me one city, which the English promptly rebuilt....(Who says the AI doesn't team up???)

I'm not sure what year I left the Ancient Age in...But I had at least one settlement on an island to the East and the land mass to the far east with the two other civs and another on each of the 4 land masses to the west.

Long term: I know I won't be competing with anyone for speed in this GOTM. I'm hoping to get in the top 25 or so though. I'm probably going for domination. I'm going to go after the English first, the other civs. I happen to have gotten contact with two other Civs...and combined with the another, they will give me real headaches in the later stages of this game.

 

[CruddyLeper]

Just a couple of notes for the minute as my game is far away and I have to go from memory.

1) I settled SE, after moving the worker N, and got the wheat with cultural expansion.

2) I researched Mysticism for a Polytheism gambit, which was a complete WASTE OF TIME... oh well. To make it worse, I didn't notice that it was a small map until about 500BC - minimal research was NOT the way to go on this map.

3) I left the Ancient Age by beating the **** out of the XXX until they gave me all the necessary techs.

4) The English did me a trade for Code of Laws, which was handy, but largely haven't done a lot in my game.


5) Long term plans - just going to roll southwards and eastwards until I get to the domination limit. If I do...

Conclusion - I'm not going to be a top scoring player this game... but I'm still having fun.

 

[Offa]

Open PTW 1.27


4 turn settler + warrior factories are obviously old hat around here since Qitai told us about them in gotm 20, but I haven’t managed one in gotm before, so largely for my benefit here is an illustration of my factory in operation in Madrid:

Turn one:


10 shields and 4 food surplus, warrior built.

Turn two:


micromanage to +6 food to ensure growth next turn. Down to 8 shields but will get an extra 2 on growth.

Turn three:


Size 6 now and +5 food, 10 shields. No micromanagement needed.

Turn four:


note that only 8 shields are needed for the settler as you will get 2 extra on growth, so micromanage to give the extra shields to another town.

Turn five (= turn one of next cycle):


Settler and warrior now both complete and back to the turn 1 position. Micromanagement required to get 10 shields and +4 food.

I think there are other ways of doing this, probably better than mine, but still think this factory is cool.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Nice factory Offa! Getting a four turn settler pair factory is a new twist and a great move. I don't know if it has been done before, but it is the first time I've seen it, and I now have a new standard to shoot for.

I was able to get a settler every 4 by going from pop 4 to 5, but your factory is better since you don't need another city to produce the escorts.

 

[ainwood]

People: Please refrain from mentioning the locations and names of the civs other than the english. Depending on how aggressive you are in exploration, you may have met more than other players, and some don't like the spaceship civ list 'feature'.

The next spoiler will be open in a few days for the full-contacts.

Thanks.

 

[zamint3]

Nice one Offa!!

What year did you get it up and running?

Can you make sure that the extra pop on growth is put on a forrest? If you have a vacant BG, without a mine, this one will be chosen,even if you have emphasized production with the guvernor, or am I wrong??

 

[Leibniz]

Very nice factory, Offa! I also have a question similar to that of zamint. How do you know how many extra shields you get on growth. I assume that are the shields of the tile the city governor chooses for the next worker. But how do i know which tile that is?

 

[el_kalkylus]

Yes nice to see something new! I also have a question for Offa. Are you planning to disband some of your cities later and do a palace jump to the english or another civ (by disbanding Madrid)?

 

[Offa]

Originally posted by zamint3
Nice one Offa!!

What year did you get it up and running?

Can you make sure that the extra pop on growth is put on a forrest? If you have a vacant BG, without a mine, this one will be chosen,even if you have emphasized production with the guvernor, or am I wrong??

Set up in 1990bc. Thiswas pretty slow but was delayed as I didn't learn pottery until 2230bc and I wasted time building a temple first. I had also built a barracks (not a waste as it meant the warriors were vets), a settler, 2 warriors and a worker prior to getting the factory going.

You have to set the city governor to emphasize production not food. As this is pretty much the only point of governors it is best to set them up like this. Also you mustn't let them manage moods or you may find the new citizen will be an entertainer, which means you won't get any bonus shields at all. Really these settings should be the standard ones to use as they prevent the governor from interferring too much. You should check at 4000bc that your governor is set up this way. Why would you have an unmined BG?

You do obviously need to make sure that a spare tile that produces 2 shields is available when the city grows. I have checked and the extra square worked will be the forest not a mined grassland when both are available.

I would hate to think that anyone thinks I am claiming this sort of factory as new. They are well known; I first heard about them from Qitai's superb game in gotm20 (also Spain). In some cases you can do better than this, and I sure you noticed that my factory doesn't use all the food and shields that are available, but share some of the good tiles with its neighbours.

 

[Offa]

Originally posted by el_kalkylus
Yes nice to see something new! I also have a question for Offa. Are you planning to disband some of your cities later and do a palace jump to the english or another civ (by disbanding Madrid)?

If only I had done something like that. The factory was really the only highlight of my game.

 

[dojoboy]

Offa, were you really surrounded by all those barb camps? I never saw a single barbarian. Or, is that colonies?

 

[grs]

Civ 1.29f - Conquest

I thought about playing a rather peaceful game, maybe going for spaceship or diplomatic victory. Spaceship seems not to be a good option by now, as research speed is rather low due to the map layout. I also did not want to take part in the race for early wonders and build more settlers (and galleys as I soon discovered). If I had known how easy it would be to get the Great Library and The Great Lighthouse I might have chosen differently. In retrospect I may have made it a bit too easy by chosing the Conquest save file. I did not encounter a single barbarian in the whole game and I saw just one barb encampment far off to the west on another isle.

4000 BC

Moved the warrior east to look for the hidden wheat; it wasn’t there. Moved the settler southeast to explore for a good place to found Madrid and hurray! there’s a small lake inside our lands. Ordered the worker to improve the start tile

3950 BC

Settle to build Madrid next to the lake and found the cow on the outskirts of the city radius, very nice. Set research to Pottery on max and start to build a 2nd warrior

3750 BC

After the warrior is built I switch the worked tile to the one I just finished building the road on to get Pottery 1 turn faster, prebuilding a barracks for a later granary

3500 BC

Just as Madrid expands my worker gets to the cow-tile to start irrigating it, barracks in 6, Pottery in 5 turns – that looks nice start.

3200 BC

Research set to Writing / Map Making at max, production in Madrid switched to granary with one turn left; Madrid serves as a settler factory to settle my isle as fast as possible; I use a RCP of 3/7/10 (I avoided 6 to connect my only luxury faster and to avoid settling a second city on a bonus grassland as I accidently did in the 3 ring)

3150 BC

Discover what I already guessed: I am alone on the isle and I only have one luxury

3100 BC

I use the luxury slider (10%) to avoid needing an entertainer in Madrid for 3 turns until a second garrision arrives (is this a wise or stupid move?); every new city gets a starting production cue of warrior, worker, temple, granary (some are switched though)

1600 BC

Connect the wool to my trade network.

1350 BC

Map Making researched.

At this point I am a bit clueless what to do next – especially if I should continue researching myself and if I do, which way to go. I decide to research straight to Rebublic (Philosophy, Code of Laws, Rebublic) at max and trade techs with my neighbours.

1100 BC

Founded Ciadad de la Luna – first city on a foreign isle

1000 BC

Meet with Elisabeth of the British and trade her Writing for 55 gold and Map Making for Bronze Working, Masonry and 93 gold (all gold she had). I decided not to give her Philosophy to make sure I get to Rebublic first (hopefully this works out). (Over time I discover she is a total lunatic: first she needs ages to build a harbor and when she finally does, she builds it in a city that is not connected to her luxury so we can’t trade. No wonder she is last in score.)

My stats at 1000 BC:

9 cities, 163 gold, 2 settler, 5 worker, 9 warriors, 3 galleys, contact with Elisabeth and Code of Laws in 9 turns

600 BC

Meet *Civ2* and trade him Writing, Philosophy and Code of Laws for The Wheel, Warrior Code, Horseback Riding and Mysticism

550 BC

Meet *Civ3* and one of his junks – really nice unit, just one point: the junk “upgrades” to the “galley”, but this is a downgrade in reality as the galley is just slower and more expensive. It should upgrade to caravel.

350 BC

Meet the *Civ4*. Finish my research on Republic and start to revolt immediately. Because I am an idiot I get two cities rioting in the one turn anarchy I trade around techs for Mathematics and Iron Working and use 20% lux till …

110 BC

I meet *Civ5*.
Start my big trade-around of Rebublic and get

Polytheism + all cash + 1gpt,
2 luxuries + all cash (2 luxuries make me drop the luxury to 0% again)
Construction + Literature + all cash

I was really in fear that this would not work out. I had to wait long enough for enough techs beeing available, while having to get some (Mathematics and Iron Working) beforehand as prerequisites and hoping that no one researches Republik in between. I think it went nicely though I did not take the chance to hope for Currency to be researched before Republic too.

It made me leader in techs, while having a nice treasury of about 600 gold. I stop researching and wait for one of my neighbours to research Currency which is the last tech I am missing.

50 BC

I meet *Civ6*; he is using a fake name this time, but I am not that easily misguided – I remember his face! Waiting for someone to research Currency.

10 BC

I meet the last civ, *Civ7*. I establish embassies with Elisabeth and *Civ5*. I sign ROP with *Civ5* to cross his waters. Still waiting for someone to research Currency….

70 AD

*Civ5* declares war on *Civ3*. Currency anyone, please???

90 AD

I start researching Currency myself!

150 AD

Buying the “rest” of Currency from Elisabeth for 15 gold (1 turn left). *Civ5*, Elisabeth and me enter the Middle Ages. I start researching Monotheism, Theologie, Printing Press at max and aim for Cathedrals, the Sixtine Chapel, Contact Trading and maybe after that Democracy.
Its now…

190 AD

I have 22, cities, 444 gold, 3 settler, 16 worker, 13 warriors, 8 spearmen, 7 galleys and 4 turns left to Monotheism. I am first in Population, GNP (what ever that is), Mfg. Goods, Land Area and Productivity. I lead the scoreboard with 555 points, next is *Civ5* with 468. I should have chosen Open instead of Conquest – I still have the advantage I gained through the 100 gold starting treasury. I am quite confident that I will win and now aim for diplo – all other civs are polite to me – execept the leader of *Civ6*, who still claims his name is Mohammed ( ainwood: as he already uses a fake name I don't give something away, do I )
I have embassies and ROP with all but 2 civs and know about 3/4 of the coastlines.

The game is much fun, just because. Well, the map takes a real good advantage of the delayed Contact and Map Trading rules and that what it makes much fun imho.

Here is what I am allowed to post of my map. I settle on 4 other isles; next round I will settle down on another – getting me wines and in about 7 or 8 turns I’ll place down my last 2 towns (probably for the rest of the game!?).



(just edited out one remaining spoiler name, sorry)

 

[Ketadrean]

WOW! Just amazing guys...

I was thinking I expanded to far and to fast, and the early war was slowing me down but I see others who took a similar route and OUT EXPANDED ME...

Just amazing...

 

[zagnut]

When I realized we were on a small continent I decided to go directly for Map Making. By 1200 BC I was built out on our continent and was stockpiling Settlers for a quick trip to the adjoining lands. Was also prebuilding Galleys.

Discovered Map Making in 875. By 850 2 Galleys were on their way, one to the west and the other to the NE.

I met England in 750 and founded a town on that continent in 710 in order to capture the Olives.

Spent the next couple of hundred years exploring the world and met all of the other civs.

Managed to secure the Republic and the Great Library at about the same time and then completely turned off research and decided to rely on the other civs to research for me. That turned out to be a slow path as they were in no hurry to research. Whenever I got a tech I traded or gifted it to the other civs.

Finally made it to the Middle Ages in 360 AD. It took awhile, but I was in first place and had a ton of money. I gifted everyone into the Middle Ages and hope they get to work discovering some techs for me.

 

[Chris1111]

Hopefully I will have time to finish this game and turn it in. Judging from the posts I started off much slower then others I think.

While waiting on mapmaking I basically built a lot of swordsmen and a few settlers and used my extra cash to upgrade all my warriors. As soon as I got galleys (built them all over)I made a couple trades with england right before landing my swordsmen on their shores.

After I captured cities and destroyed one or two I made peace and demanded all their techs. This helped push me along the ancient age tech tree and on into the middle ages eventually.

As far as colonization along with englands land I have colonized a part or all of three other islands. Im in the early AD years.


----------
Being as I haven't played GOTM in a long time I was shocked by certain changes to boat movement. You should of heard me curse as it threw off my initial plans .

 

[Offa]

Originally posted by dojoboy
Offa, were you really surrounded by all those barb camps? I never saw a single barbarian. Or, is that colonies?

I'm not sure what you mean. Those are my other cities surrounding Madrid in a pretty tight RCP 3 ring. Barcelona is obviously in a bad spot as it reduces the available spots in the ring, but I was in a rush to settle at the time ( not realizing I was alone on the island) and didn't want to waste more forest by settling on it.

I never saw barbs either, or huts.

 

[WarriorPoet]

I'm giving up on this game due to some events I'll post on when future spoilers are available.

I hyper-expanded like you wouldn't believe...maybe I should submit a QSC and call it a day.

Anyway, turns out that my culture was way too weak for the later stages of the game, and for some reason, I couldn't pump out enough military quick enough to be able to do anything after I took the English out...bah...Guess I'm just a neophyte Monarch player...

 

[julia]

hi there

this is my first summary, also i have played many GOTMs. well, i have sent in only one so far...

PTW v1.27, predator

i had no cultural victory for several games now. being religious with spain i thought to give it a try this time.

initial moves

i decided to move the settler south for several reasons:
1. the possibility mentioned in the preGameDiscussion that there was a lake there
2. the starting position was in the north of the map, so founding my capitol a little south would place it more in the middle of my to-be-empire
3. Madrid in the realworld is also not a costal city. guessing that if ainwood had a "gameplan" for that GOTM the best location for madrid would not be at the coast as well.

Madrid builds: warrior, worker (well, i had none...), warrior, granary, tempel, settlers (4 turns)

i placed my second city, Barca, at the coast, 5 tiles away from Madrid, to get both wool and whale into its radius as soon as the borders expanded. Barca builds tempel, granary, great lighthouse

military, expansion

as soon as i realized that i was alone on that island i stopped building military at all. my homeland was, despite of some MP warriors totally undefended. after MM was discovered i have sent out most of the warriors to defend colonies, so the starting island got even emptier...

i managed to find all other civs with galleys pretty early. around 200BC i had contact with all of them.

i have not even thought about declaring war on the english. also i have managed to build a city on their continent, within radius of the olives. too bad i realised the presence of these strange rivers too late, so none of my initial citys other than Madrid and Barca have access to fresh water

after exploring the word i have also build a few citys on other small continents.

at 1000BC i had build the following:
7 citys, total pop 21
4 tempels
2 granarys
2 settlers
7 workers
6 warriors
2 galleys

heres a picture of the spanish empire at 1000BC (with prebuild for GL in Madrid):



in 50 BC the seafaring nation sneak attacked one of my colonies. we had some fighting on one or two islands, but after bringing two other civs into an alliance against them i have not seen a unit of theirs...

culture, wonders

tempels were a priority for me. usually i would build tempels before anything else in my citys.

i got the GL in Madrid and the Lighthouse in Barca. later i managed to build the Wall in Madrid. i am currently building the Gardens, and hope to get Sistine there, too. Madrid has also a Libary and a Colloseum, but i am not sure if this will be enough for a 20k victory. maybe i will have to change to a 100k or start building military after all.

research, trade

pottery at max, writing at min, MM at max (1100BC), litrature at max, poly at min, monarchy at max.
i managed to trade for all other important techs, and after the GL i didn´t bother with buying them. i entered MA in 10 AD as the first civ, because they were all researching Construction, and i was first on Poly.

i also sold ROP to everybody who was willing to pay for it. it wasn´t much, though, but it kept them happy with me and netted some gold as well.

i had to use the luxury slider quite a lot in the beginning, with Madrid being size 10+. since all civs now have harbours they sell me their luxuries and using the slider is no more improtant.

outlook

cuurent date: 340AD. i will definitely try to get a cultural victory. at monarch level it should be possible to build at least some of the MA-culture wonders in Madrid with Sistine triggering GA. i will have to raise better defenses in my colonies, and maybe wage some wars over important islands i have not managed to claim by settling. my UU will be of good use for this. also getting access to more luxuries is a priority.

 

[Tone]

Julia

There are several 20K calculators that will help you decide if you stand a chance of winning under this victory condition. Visit this link if you're interested

link

 

[alamo]

My start looks pretty similar to others. I have the home island and the closest islands on either side. I also got one city on the English island, on the other side of the jungle.

Those seafaring peoples were around, so I expect everyone got a glimpse of them.

I managed to get Colossus and Great Lib and used the breathing room to expand and build city improvements. That would cost me later, but that goes beyone the scope.