GOTM 51: Spoiler 1:

[ainwood]

GOTM 51: First spoiler

To read or post in this spoiler, you must have:

1. A full map of the starting continent, including the locations of ALL cities on the starting continent, and the entire coast line.
2. Contact with all civs on the starting continent (or their remains).
3. Have reached the middle ages.

Please do not post any details about things off the starting continent - including galley routes (successful or otherwise) or any other landmasses.

 

[AlanH]

Ainwood left this thread to be opened in his absence. As this is a small map, I thought it might tbe good to open it a little early.

 

[FadeAwayNot]

My first game of the month and I'm pretty excited. However, I failed to take notes on dates for the most part so my entry will be a little detail deficient.

I settled 1 SE and built a couple warriors for exploration and then a settler. My second city was built on the plateau to the east. Through exploration I'm thrilled with the number of luxes, but begin to suspect the strategic resources may be few and far between.

I made a beeline for literature. As we're on a small island and not sure when contact with others will be made, I figure the GL is a must if I want to have a chance at keeping up on tech. Set second city for building the GL, then backtrack to pottery before researching map making.

As soon as I get galleys I start searching for other civs, which proves to be a very long and frustrating process. It's getting hard to recruit ship captains, as all their freinds never seem to return home.

Following pottery I went to zero research and started hoarding gold.

On the continent, life is pretty mundane. Building warriors, galleys and some culture buildings, mining hills and mountains and settling the island to the north and clearing jungle there. I thought hard about waiting to put the Forbidden Palace on another continent, but in the end built it on the western side of the home continent.

I got burned by the barbarians at one point, having a massive uprising that stole 600-700 gold from my vaults. Guess I learned a lesson. I was too thrilled with the constant pillaging of barb settlements and let them have a place to spawn for too long in the far NW corner of the continent.

I finally make contact with the Aztecs right around 0 AD and the GL is completed right about the same time. I'm about 8 techs behind, but through the miracle of the GL instantly catch up.

My place on the historiograph looks intimidating. But with the isolation from other civs ensuring no attacks in the near term, I'm not worried. I immediately set about putting the other three countries at war to weaken them and slow the tech pace.

The GL instantly takes me into the MA, where I'll prepare my fleet and take some resources that were somehow misplaced in the territory of others.

 

[I. Larkin]

"Contact with all civs on the starting continent (or their remains)."???
I have found nobody at starting continent.
MA via Tech trade came when I opened all WM and other AIs.
So what I can write about?

 

[Htadus]

4000BC Settled on the spot and started to research Writing, Built warrior, Temple, Warrior and settler.
2670BC Founded Barcelona to SE of Madrid & start warrior, Temple settler.
2150BC Learned Writing and start on Phil at 100%.
1910BC Founded Seville S of Madrid & start warrior, Roading Fur.
1525BC Founded Toledo SW of Madrid & start warrior
1425BC Learned Philo but no freebee so going for MM.
1350BC Founded Santiago NE of Madrid & start warrior.
1225BC Learned Pot and changed plans to go after bronze making for collosus.

1000BC QSC 5 cities, 10 citizens, 4 workers, 9 warriors, 1 settler, 1 barracks and 3 temples.
We know BW,Alpha, Pot, CB, Writ, Philo and 12 turn to Myst. No contacts .

975BC Founded Salamanca W of Toledo, Start Spear, Worker.
900BC Founded Murcia SE of Seville & start Temple, Adviser recommend we build FP.
775BC Learned Myst and MM in 25 turns. Aztecs built pyramids
750BC connected gems.
530BC Founded Valencia on Silk.
500BC Madrid complete Colossus and trigger GA, start a settler.
470BC Learn MM and going for Lit.
370BC French Build Oracle, switch Barcelona to GLH.
310DC Founded Ciudad De La Luna NE of Madrid & start Temple. No contacts yet.
150BC Am Built GLH, We just learned Lit. That was close. Switch to GLib. Hope no one else cascaded to GLib.
50BC Az built GW. This is not good.
10BC Az Built HG. 20K is not going good. Lost my only galley to a barb.
90AD Found Zaragoza in the west end.
190AD Barcelona Build Glib.
250AD Founded Pamplona on the island. No contacts.
270AD My only boat lost again. I am all alone.
360AD French Built Sun TAW. We are so behind and my galley lost again.
590AD Learn Iron No Iron . Not good.
610AD Meet Az and Am. They are in a war. GLib got us to the next age and We have no Horses? This is not funny.

So it appear that we will need to trade to get both horses and iron (or war). Other 3 civs seem to be at war with each other and only one Galley managed to cross the Ocean. I will have to make sure the keep on at each other. Chances of 20K seem like an impossibility at the moment.

 

[Nata]

PTW Open. 20K.

4000BC - Settler 1NW, on the Gold Hill.
3950BC - Madrid on Gold Hill. Research: Pottery. Build: Warrior, Settler, warrior. Worker - Mine,road G.
3350BC - Pottery learned. Start Writing.
2900BC - 20K Barselona 3SE, getting Game, Wheat, two Gold Hills and Furs in radius. It is a very productive site, but unfortunately it spent too long at size 6, and then at size 12... And not getting sea wonders really hurt.

2710BC - Barselona survives 1st Barb attack!
2470BC - Temple in Barselona.
2010BC - Writing learned. Start Masonry.
1990BC - Seville founded at RCP3, getting Cow, Gems and GoldHill in radious. it is to be my sea-wonder city. It builds Temple and then starts Colossus, to be a cash-cow city and to start us the Golden Age.
But Barbs are major nuisance, they seriously inhibit our growth and interrupt our building plans.

1700BC - Masonry learned. Granary prebuild in Barselona switched to Pyramids. Start BW for Colossus in Seville.
825BC - Pyramids in Barselona.
750BC - MM. Start Lit. Start Palace prebuild for GLib in Barselona.
650BC - Americans build Colossus. Switch to GLH in Seville.
190BC - Aztecs build GLib Barselona switches to expensive Library. It starts Palace prebuild for something next turn - we have no Wonder techs now.
10BC - Basb Uprising near Toledo! And it was my last Barb camp, too!
50AD - GLH build in Seville - Golden Age! Barbs are closing on us.
150AD - 1 Galley sinks in sight of a border, another reaches safety within red border!
170AD - contact with America and France. Buy Mystism & Wheel for our WM. Construction completes, as have nothing to build switch to Colosseum.
170AD - Colosseum in Barselona. And after that, finally - aqueduct.

310AD - Aztecs build GW and HG. So no Wonders until I get to MA.

340AD - Buy Phil & CoL for WM+100g from France & Aztecs. Trade Polytheism from America.
390AD - research Currency & enter MA.

Pretty bleak 20K prospect so far...

The only AA save I had:

 

[ionimplant]

open, 20K
settled SE to the starting position. start to build a temple right away in Madrid. two warriors and 1 settler were built before Madrid was devoted for culture building.
Barbarian didn't cause too much problem. Madrid soon grew to pop6 and i was only able to join 1 worker to it after Barcelona finished its granary.
3450 BC Temple
3950 BC Palace
1600 BC Colossus
1025 BC Oracle
825 BC Library
70 BC Great Library
golden age trigger at 1600 BC when i only had two cities..
overall i got most AA wonders and was lucky to get foreign contacts after only 2-3 galley sinking...
but the coming MA turned out to be a disaster in my wonder grabbing race.....

 

[EsatP]

Open.
I force GrLib and research Monarhy. After then - construction and currence. It is all. First contact above 1300 AD. I have big army and more 10000 golds. GrLib give me oround 20 techs. I upgrade archers and with spearment kill american without problem.
Crazy map - no horses, no iron ... But 90-100 infantry is good argument in territorial works.

 

[Marc Aurel]

Open Domination

Hm, yep, it looks like GOTM 47 Germany - island start without resources with the difference that the AIs are much further away and are emperor level. Not much to report for the AA.

I was persuaded by Piu Freddos analysis in the pregame discussion and settled Madrid on the Gold hill SE-E. But later on (after my 5th city foundation) I palace jumped to the center of the continent and build up a RCP 4/7 constellation with 11 towns on the home island. I chose to build the Great Lighthouse what I did in 70BC in the city close to the freshwater lake in the west. Before that I lost all my suicide galleys (10!). Then in 30BC I found the other civs and got all AA techs by trading except Poly and Mon. In 50 BC I had revolted to republic. Started researching Poly myself, but got it in trade by 70AD. That's it for the AA.



The screeny shows my empire at the end of AA Everything interesting happened in the MA and the spoiler for that (I already wrote it) is muuuuuch longer.
Wait; one funny question - What is "Casa del Bamrapido??" Is this a reminisence to Bamspeedy? Is he Spanish? And if so, is it the same with "Aldea de Ribannah?"

 

[Obormot]

Predator.

I played this game quite sloppy. I made a big mistake in the early game settling 1SE of the start. I was too greedy to waste worker turns my having a look at the surroundings from a hill and thus missed the wheat (and i didn't want to settle on top of the gold because i thought that my capital can quickly reach size 6 and work 2 gold hills for a nice commerce boost). Of course the wheat is not much of a food bonus without irrigation, but still i think it slowed me quite a bit. This is waste is even more irritating for me since after some calculations i found that i'll only be able to research writing in 40 turns on demigod (I should have thought abotu it before settling!) This means that those coins i saved actually didn't give me anything. OK, i settled 1SE and started a min run on writing hoping to get pottery in a trade (which didn't happen of course), even though i didn't get it it wasn't a disaster since i wouldn't build a granary anyway before settyling the food bonuses. I built my second city near the wheat and third near the wheat and cow lake. I researched pottery after writing and built granaries in both these cities which became settler/worker pumps. I then decided to build the Lighthouse and went for masonry (prebuild) and then MM. I got Madrid to size 6 with worker joins and worked 2 gold hills as expected. I completed the Lighthouse in 775BC, but only managed to meet other civs in 390BC and find out that on this map the Lighthouse is pretty useless (though maybe it helped me to meet others earlier). I built my cities at RCP4 around Madrid (though i built the northern fish town at distance 3 - it increased corruption a bit, but i think all the commerce it provided was well worth it). I built more distant towns at RCP3 around Seville (cow/wheat city) and i think i'll hand build the FP there. Because of crappy land i had most of my towns work 2 mined plains or forests to build a harbour quickly and then work the high commerce coast tiles. I went for republic after MapMaking and was 2 turns away from it when France learnt it before me (The other civs were more advanced because of demigod cost factor and much better starts). I had very little beakers left so i could by it from France cheaply and then sell it to aztecs and americans. This got me most AA techs, but still wasn't enough. I didn't want to research techs already known to AI, so i decided that it is now time for my reputation to go. I bought all remaining techs and all lump gold in the world for gpt and declared war on everybody entering into MA in 310BC. I revolted to republic immidiately.

QSC stats:
5 towns
14 population
5 workers
2 turns away from MapMaking
45 minutes playing time

 

[madviking]

The screeny shows my empire at the end of AA Everything interesting happened in the MA and the spoiler for that (I already wrote it) is muuuuuch longer.
Wait; one funny question - What is "Casa del Bamrapido??" Is this a reminisence to Bamspeedy? Is he Spanish? And if so, is it the same with "Aldea de Ribannah?"

Casa de Luna is Moonsinger
What im saying that famous civ people get names in G/COTMS

DaveMCWorgburg
Alan (English MGL only in COTMS)
Casa de la Luna is Moonsinger
Case del Bamrapido is Bamspeedy
Dunno about Aldea de Ribannah

Link http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=126331

 

[AlanH]

Some easter eggs were planted by Cracker for GOTM 20, the first Spanish GOTM. They included the names of some high ranking GOTM players of the day converted to Spanish town names. This was over 2 years ago. This continued as Cracker added new vanilla civs to patch the PtW ones, and a few town names inherited player names in Greece, Scandinavia and probably others.

The MGL names that have started to appear are new eggs laid by Ainwood and Karasu.

 

[Più Freddo]

Predator Space Race Challenge

I followed my premeditations and was rewarded with a nice view over
wide fields of golden wheat as i looked out from the Golden Hill. By
3000 BC I had mapped the whole island and made a plan similar to Marc
Aurel's to jump the palace to a central location, not the least in
order to take full advantage of the irrigatable lands in the west,
which were too small to house their own core. Other than Marc, I
founded at distances 4 and 6 and could so fit in a few more cities. I
didn't care about the jungle island in the north, but left that for
later eras. Actually, for a long time, I had a Warrior posted on our
northern cape to spy for other civilizations on this, as it seemed,
other landmass.


Body

Initial build order in Madrid: Warrior, Warrior, Settler, Wealth x 2,
Warrior, Settler. Worker orders: Road Game, Road and Mine Wheat, Road
and Mine Bonus Grassland. I needed the extra production from the first
BG before the Golden Age set in, but the rest of them I roaded only.

The first Settler I sent towards the irrigatable cow and wheat
area. After dancing around a well populated Barbarian Camp that
appeared right in front of him, he founded Barcelona between the two
food bonuses away from the fresh water. This was in order to fit in
more cities along the coast.

3900 BC Found Madrid
2590 BC Found Barcelona
2430 BC Found Seville
1790 BC Found Toledo
1650 BC Found Santiago
1650 BC Connect Gems
1575 BC Jump Palace (New capital is Santiago)
1575 BC Found Madrid ("Salamanca" is skipped)
1550 BC Found Murcia
1150 BC Connect Furs
1025 BC Found Valencia (Optimal number of cities)
825 BC Found Ciudad de la Luna
775 BC Found Zaragoza
610 BC Found Pamplona
510 BC Build The Colossus
250 BC Found Casa del Bamrápido​

I built The Colossus in Seville on the other Golden Hill by the
Fish. This was to be my foremost science city throughout the game. As
it was built, all the other three tribes switched to The Great
Lighthouse.


Mind

I researched Writing on full and so managed to shave off two (2) turns
from minimum research. What can a little predator do? Of course no
trade for Pottery, so that was next, then Bronze working for the
Colossus and the Golden Age. That would also have been a nice trade on
a normal map, but there you are. When I finally discovered Map Making,
I had no production capacity free for a prebuild, so the first Galley
was sent out as late as 875 BC and met the first neighbour in 630
BC. Our name was then sold and in the next few turns we knew all our
neighbours. Needless to say, the AI tribes were somewhat ahead of us
in technology at this time. When Literature came is a monopoly, we
could catch up on the lower tiers and see that we lacked the usual
resources.

2150 BC Discover Writing
1950 BC Discover Pottery
1700 BC Discover Bronze Working
1175 BC Discover Map Making
550 BC Learn Warrior Code
510 BC Enter Golden Age
510 BC Discover Literature
510 BC Learn Masonry
510 BC Learn The Wheel
510 BC Learn Iron Working
510 BC Learn Mathematics
510 BC Learn Mysticism
370 BC Learn The Republic
370 BC Establish Republic​

At this point, the others entered the Middle Ages. We had -- the
Golden Age was in progress -- 4-turn research of Construction,
Currency, Horseback Riding and Polytheism and chose to go for
Construction and then Currency.

330 BC Learn Horseback Riding
290 BC Discover Construction
270 BC Learn Polytheism
210 BC Discover Currency
210 BC Enter Middle Ages​

Another tribe had just discovered Monotheism. We could do Feudalism in
6 turns.


Quick Start Challenge

7 Cities
16 Citizens
3 Temples
2 Granaries
2 Luxuries
6 Workers
6 Warriors​

2051 QSC Points

Our fledgling empire in 370 BC:

 

[Più Freddo]

In 500 BC I had revolted to republic.

How could you research it so fast?

 

[Marc Aurel]

How could you research it so fast?

Oooops, I was too shaky with my finger and typed a 0 too much and didn't recheck. The correct date for my republic invoking was 50 BC. Obvious mistake, since the year 500 BC is not a game date

I am like Obormot a fan of the “all out farmers gambit”. If I don’t have pottery from the beginning, it’s the first I research. With a prebuild I try to finish the granary asap, since I believe in the priority of growth in the beginning. After that I left out Bronze Working and Literature, since my strategy was pointed to domination. I didn’t want to build the Colossus, cause I wanted no ancient GA. I saved my GA for the time I could upgrade horsemen to cavs, where it was later on very helpful. You can see so many warriors in my screen, cause I initially wanted to upgrade them to swordsmen. Since we had no iron that was a mistake, I should have looked after it before, but I was keen on an optimised start, so I postponed bronze and iron working (Two of the warriors I really upgraded later in France) My priority was the Great Lighthouse. My late finish date for the GLH is due to the fact that I used the freshwater lake city as a settler factory before switching to the wonder. Looking at your AA finish date, I think I missed quite a lot not meeting the other AIs early. But again I am envious, that so many others were successful sending their suicidees to the new world and my galleys simply all sank. From the 10 I send before GLH 7 sank after the first turn. OK, that’s bad luck but still in the frame of the statistic math. But the 3 that survived the first turn just sank after the second. Grrrrrrr!
The influence of this point on the overall game seems to be tremendeous, since for the rest our empires look pretty equal. OTOH your early GA seems to have been successfully invested. I have to think my aversion against an AA GA over.

@ madviking and AlanH:

Thanks for the info! So, if I ever would manage to grab a couple of these hard-fought medals, my final reward would be a Roman city called "Domus Marcum Aurelium"?

 

[Obormot]

I am like Obormot a fan of the “all out farmers gambit”. If I don’t have pottery from the beginning, it’s the first I research. With a prebuild I try to finish the granary asap, since I believe in the priority of growth in the beginning.

Well, i am more of "all-out republic slingshot" fan And even in vanilla/ptw i beeline to Republic even though i cannot get it for free. I most often go Alphabet->Wrinting route and hope to get pottery in a trade, though it is usually difficult for me to choose between pottery and alphabet on an islands map since you never know if your are alone or not. But in this case the choice was easier since there was no food bonus near the capital (for me, i didn't get the wheat into my city radius) and in such case i favour an early settler over an early granary hoping to grab a more food-rich spot sooner.

 

[Marc Aurel]

I moved the settler towards wheat and then saw the fish and moved further for a 4-turner. I took the risk of going straight for a granary. Usually it works, but this time i didn't get away with it. The evil persian knig Ronald declared on me and his warrior walked into my capital. Conquest loss on monarch.

When I wrote this I much more had this post of you of the GOTM50 AA spoiler in mind. Until this post I always built a warrior first. But you 're right; it's a waste so early in case no one comes along your borders. OK, the Arabs have pottery from the start, but I judged that you must really believe in the "granary first" approach, if you risk "va banque" the defenses of your one and only city.
I finally really regretted your fate, since it was always helpful for me to read your spoilers improving my game.

(Off topic, belongs to Pregame discussuion COTM21)
BTW, I also will go for conquest in COTM21. Yes, I will play the COTM this time, since it seems probable, that the SGOTM competition will be limited to the C3C version next time. I won't be a match for you, since my target will be to finish first time before 1000AD. But like Ignas I will do my best

 

[Obormot]

When I wrote this I much more had this post of you of the GOTM50 AA spoiler in mind. Until this post I always built a warrior first. But you 're right; it's a waste so early in case no one comes along your borders. OK, the Arabs have pottery from the start, but I judged that you must really believe in the "granary first" approach, if you risk "va banque" the defenses of your one and only city.

Actually i build a warrior or two before a granary usually. Not because i want protection (i would rather take the risk), but because it speeds up research. In that game IIRC the place where i founded my capital was very food-rich, but didn't have that many shields (freshwater fish and wheat and no forests to chop), so it would have delayed the granary for a longer time then usual, and that's why i decided to skip building MP that time.

 

[AlanH]

Hmm! GOTM 50 isn't finished yet. Please don't talk about it outside the spoilers until it's over.

 

[Twonky]

predator class

I decided to settle on the gold hills for some early commerce. Madrid was placed on the eastern one and would eventually also get the wheat like that. The next two towns were placed on the other gold hills as part of my RCP3.

Research:
Pottery (3250), Writing (2110), MapMaking (1425), Literature (1100),
Philosophy (925), CoL (690), The Republic (230, this was delayed for 2 turns so the GLight would complete first). Under Republic I did easy 4 turn research on BW, IW, Wheel, Masonry and Maths until I met the others in 130/150 AD and traded into the MA in 170 AD.

QSC-stats:
8 towns with 16 citizens, 3 barracks and 1 harbor
6 workers, 10 warriors and 1 galley
73 tiles owned
Unfortunately I missed to save at 1000bc, so I won´t be able to submit for QSC

I didn´t bother to build a granary in the capital, the initial build order was 3 warriors > settler > barracks > settler.

As you can see on the 170 AD picture below, I´m building the FP in the city on the lake, which will bring 10 of my towns to distance 3.