News: WOTM 18 Final Spoiler

[Thrallia]

WOTM 18 Final Spoiler

Reading Requirements

1. Completed and submitted your game.

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1. Do not post anything providing info on the location of modern-age resources (oil, uranium, aluminium).

So, did you enjoy the crushing presence that is the Deity AI? Or did you crush them?

 

[Ronnie1]

My 1st spoiler was my FINAL spoiler!!!

 

[civ_steve]

Spaceship Launch, 1715 AD ... not MY spaceship , but I was invited to the launch of the Indian spaceship.

Cities: I got up to 2 cities at one point, having taken a former Barb city in the Jungle to the SW from Louis ... but it was an incredible struggle to keep it from flipping to India! I actually had 2 Great Artists build up the culture to over 17000, and built every culture building I could, and yet the tide kept turning and the city eventually flipped in AD 1262. Bah! So I was a OCC most of the game.

Tech: At roughly the 500 AD point I was mostly caught up by getting a free Philosophy by a GS and using it to trade around; I also got up to about 3500 Gold, too. It went downhill fast after this. I learned Nationhood, and was able to trade it with 2 other AI's; everyone else already knew it. I then tried for Constitution, but everyone beat me to that, so I switched to MilTrad, and was beaten to that. With nothing to trade I was left thoroughly in the dust.

War: Isabella declared on me some time after the 500 AD period. I used the 3500 Gold to get Asoka, Ramses (and Louis who was Ramses' vassal) to declare on Isabella, and for the most part sat back and watched stacks of Egyptian units stream past Rome. Isabella did toss a few Infantry my way, which were a . .. .. .. .. . to take care of with the few Preatorians and Macemen I had. Eventually I was free of Spanish units, and rebuilt the spaces that Spain had pillaged. A few centuries later all declared peace, and I was able to keep Isabella at bay later by mostly giving in to demands. But I never did give up my Taoism to assume her Buddhism - just stubborn that way, and she never did declare again.

Later on Shaka was at war with Ramses; Ramses asked me to help out (ha, like I could help out!), and stupidly I agreed. First, this canceled the Defensive Pact I had signed with Cyrus (really stupid), and secondly, Ramses and Louis (still a vassal) signed peace a few turns later. Fortunately Shaka didn't have much of a presence on the continent. At his first landing of a Cannon and a couple of Cavalry, I was barely able to fend it off (still using Pret's and such). A few turns later he lands 2 Galleons worth of units, with Artillery, Infantry and Cavalry and I can see the referee about to declare a knockout. Anybody want to help out ... nope! I set myself to maximum gpt, and asked Shaka if there was any way we could sign peace. He actually took my gold on hand and another 62 gpt for peace, and I would live to see another day.

That was about all the warfare I saw, and I did all I could to avoid anymore conflict. The turns went by pretty quickly. Cyrus gave me another 3 or 4 techs along the way. I gave into most demands that came my way. I saw Shaka (who had Open Borders with Spain) move a huge stack of very modern units off my borders - quickly I give him some nice Luxury. Don't know if it helped, but he didn't declare.

Asoka eventually builds UN killing any lingering hope. Gradually SS parts start being build by India, Egypt and Persia, with India winning the race. Didn't win, wasn't in the running, but it was nice to survive to the end.

 

[pjdodd]

1598 AD - Asoka space ship has 2 parts left.

Up until that point i had 5 good (large) cities and 1 smaller city used to push a cultural border to Izzy. I was still badly behind in tech and Cyrus, Asoka and even Izzy on one occasion gifted me techs. I had Rifling which I thought would be enough to stave off an attack...however. Shaka declared on me a few turns earlier and came at me with Artillery, shredding my defences faster than I could replace them. The really annoying part was my so-called friends had tanks and would not intervene! WTF?

Diplomacy ratings were
Izzy +12 Friendly
Louis +8 Pleased
Cyrus +6 Pleased
Asoka +2 Pleased
Shaka -8 Annoyed
Rammy -8 Annoyed

I'm pleased about is that my score at this point (before my first city is about to fall) is 1486, above Rammy, and has been for some years. Rammy got vassalised by Louis before I had a chance to grab any of his cities a couple of centuries ago.

Other than that the turns on my game went quickly too. Not much fun at all.

 

[Thrallia]

they were probably scared of his power rating.

 

[PutCashIn]

I got rolled by Rammy the chariot god (again).

Things I did right, if I was good..

1. Get Alphabet

Things I didnt do but should have seems as a. Im not good and b. The jungle ate my food

2. Get IW first.

I should of, I didnt, Rammy didn't care about my handwriting (just the hand maidens)...at one point I had a Preatorian in 2 turns, befor the 8th wave rolled over my omfg-I-got-a-mine-and-2-roads-built-in-the-throes-of-death-? iron mine and sealed my newbie fate.

 

[Harbourboy]

1703 AD Space loss to Asoka. How does that guy research so fast?

I took one city from Isabella but had to give it up to her in order to get peace so it was a complete waste of a war.

Deity is a ridiculous level.

 

[Thrallia]

but you didn't get conquested, harbourboy!

 

[MacBalt]

Oh man, what a game... The thrill of almost victory and the agony of spectacular defeat all in one twenty-turn span...

First off, I did better than I ever expected I could, so I'm celebrating anyway! Second off, I came pretty close to wining! I built the UN in 1643, got elected to the secretary-general position, and coaxed everyone into voting for my diplomatic victory except Asoka and his vassal Izzy! But even with Cyrus, Louis, Ramesses, and Shaka all voting for me it still wasn't enough! In the closest vote I got 659 of 703 712 required for the diplomatic victory. (The screenshots are attached below.) So much for the thrill of almost victory...

So I figured I'd have to sit back and hit enter for about thirty more turns while Asoka finished the last few pieces of his space ship. Wrong again! The sanctimonious little prick hit me with a DOW on turn 367 (1691)! My defense pact buddies Cyrus, Ramesses, Louis, and Shaka all declared war in my defense, and then some kind of Sid Meier version of nuclear holocaust possessed my computer for the next few minutes. Asoka nuked the Eastern half of the world while Ramesses radiated about half of Asoka's lands. After the glowing dust cleared, I sat there and watched while India's modern armor, mechanized infantry, helicopters, and stealth bombers swarmed in and crushed my infantry/riflemen/grenadier defenders. (It was quite a hoot watching those little guys in blue coats toss their bombs at the modern armor! ) The fat lady finished her sadistic aria in 1712 (turn 374), and I went to the liquor cabinet for my consolation prise.

EDIT: The glance screen is from 1694, when the war broke out.

EDIT #2: Contender save.

 

[Lexad]

Retired 1568AD

Techwise moved towards military techs - Chemistry - Steel - Rifling - Nat-m for draft - MilTrad

My aggression choked on Bella's defences, but still I managed to kill her by 920 AD. It was complicated due to attack from Ramesses - luckily, he lost several stacks at my choke point, and I was even able to get his westernmost city, the founder of his Taoist religion. By then I made a calc and saw that if I didn't want to mess with Asoke - which I didn't - I'd have to conquer all others and barb islands to the west. As couple of AI (Asoka and Shaka) already had Astro by then, I decided the priority should go to barb capture. But barbs already had maces when I landed, and I had to bring newly built knights and grens to capture them. The operation was a success, only Shaka managed to plant a city while I was finishing the last barb city. But by accepting his religious demand and sharing a war I became his friend, so no hazard from here.

Meanwhile Shaka helped me vs Rammy on his own account - not much, but destroyed his fleet, bombed northern cities and razed 1 poor southern city. Also, Asoka declared on Louis when the fool recklessly renounced the protection of Cyrus - the better for me - captured 2 of his cities and vassalized him. Very fast operation, with no chances for rifles against artillery. He then switched to Free Religion, and became gradually cautious to me, so every time I was at peace I stroke DefPacts with Shaka and Cyrus to ward him off - I also went for Liber for his favorite FreeReligion, but was couple of turns short

Then my aggression vs Ramesses started. I lauched a mighty stack towards Thebes and captured it, but lost most and thus had to sign peace to gather forces, protect Thebes and continue onslaught. This done, I launched another attack, captured Alexandria and moved to the third city when the yellow douchebag vassalized to Asoka in 1568 and I faced a simultaneous war from 3 AI, including the undisputed leader. Thus, even if I managed to survive he attack (Asoka had by the time tanks and destroyers, Appolo and all Casings), I had chances neither for Dom where I planned to swamp Cyrus with my horde of olden units vs his infantry, notr for Diplo, where I could count of Shaka's support. Thus I retired, 3rd in score, 30smth% land. I gambled on fighting quick enough for Asoka not to declare, and I was screwed by vassalage and poor relations. Also, my start was definitely not optimal.

Significant weakness of my play - almost ignoring GP.

 

[Erkon]

Lexad, I'm sorry you didn't manage. On the other hand, it's an indication that his game was very hard indeed. I retired 770 AD. I managed to capture a size 18 city (next to Rome, settled very late, and grew like mad), but lost it to Asoka. I realized I would not stand a chance and gave up. Perhaps if I had settled more aggressively to the SW, attacked Isa instead of Asoka, and then attacked eastwards I would have been more successful. But I doubt I could have won due to the immense empire that Asoka had

Anyway, thanks for the game! I am grateful for the opportunity, and it was a humbling experience. Doesn't help to be a Heptathlete, does it?

My conclusion from this game is that there is (a) very little room for mistakes, and (b) very hard to know the best way to play the game in advance i.e. where to settle city #2 etc, and (c) very dependent on the starting area for the other AIs (such as Asokas triple gold city). I doubt I will ever reach Deity skill level...

 

[Harbourboy]

Hey, I lasted longer than Lexad and Erkon. I rule!

 

[Jimmy Thunder]

I finished my game tonight - Spaceship loss.

This done, I launched another attack, captured Alexandria and moved to the third city when the yellow douchebag vassalized to Asoka in 1568 and I faced a simultaneous war from 3 AI, including the undisputed leader.

The same thing happened to me, I just captured Egyptian city number two and was about to get artillery when Rammy vassalized to Asoka who brought in his first vassal Louis.

 

[Erkon]

Hey, I lasted longer than Lexad and Erkon. I rule!

I am impressed that you tried Deity. Not getting killed is an achievement itself, and is an indication that you are improving your skills. I remember when you started to play the GOTM series, and I did not get the impression that you had any plans whatever to play Deity Well done!

BTW, what level are you comfortable to play i.e. win most games?

 

[Lexad]

I think that, if I had better luck with barbs and AI plopping cities around me and got better locations for city #3 (or even got #4), I'd kill Lizzie much faster, maintained relations with Asoka and had better chances to kill Rammy before he would vasalize to, say, Shaka. Then finishing 2 AIs with my units would've been much more realistic. Let's see what can be done in GOTM32.

 

[MacBalt]

@ Lexad, Erkon, & Jimmy Thunder: I'm still amazed that it is possible to make warfare work at all at this level. You all deserve medals just for getting as far as you did given these conditions. Maybe after the closing date for this game and GOTM 32 you could post some advice on how to make war work while also keeping up on tech? I'll probably try to do some attacking in the next GOTM, but I'm afraid it is going to feel like shooting in the dark (or falling into the abyss...).

 

[Jimmy Thunder]

Here's a bit longer description of my game: Spaceship loss to Asoka

Despite a semi-promising start to this WOTM I couldn't follow through with a victory.

I tried the military route with a plan to quickly reach important techs that would allow me to front an effective military over a short period. The goal was Praets--> Cats-->Cavalry-->Grens-->Cannons-->Artillery

I took out Izzy with Praetorians/Cats/War Elephants. After that I was first to Military Tradition and took four cities from Asoka. He was too strong and I was forced to sign peace after that. I really needed to take another four cities to actually slow him down. His expanding culture made the cities I had captured pretty worthless to me... but I sure wasn't going to give them back to him!

At this point I doubted ever being able to take on Asoka again and had a dream of getting a diplo win by attacking and vassalizing Rameses and then Shaka. Louis and Cyrus were friendly with me and not that positive about Asoka, so I had a good shot.

I was the second civ to tech to Steel and sent cavalry and cannons to attack the barbarian island and at the same time declared on Rameses. I was about to discover Artillery and was rubbing my hands together imagining walking over Rameses' rifles and machine guns with my new artillery. I easily took two cities before my plan came unstuck.

Asoka declared on Louis and vassalised him, so I couldn't get his votes anymore. And after my second captured egyptian city, Rameses became a friendly vassal of Asoka, which put Asoka/Louis/Rameses at war with me. Game over.

I suffered 10 turns of unstoppable troops entering my territory and I ended up gifting some of my border cities to Cyrus before Asoka could capture them. I lost quite a bit of decent land and finally signed a peace treaty with the gift of yet another city.

From here, my plan was to humbly accept defeat, forget about war mongering and see how far I could research and grow my pop before Asoka launched into space. I was massively behind in usefull techs. My techtree only had enough prerequisites to research Artillery and nothing else. I didn't even have Education. Most of my cities were pretty broken, with no infrastructure buildings beyond granary/courthouse/barracks and had been heavily whipped.

My claim to fame was having settled 3 cities, captured 10 cities from Izzy, 4 cities from Asoka, 2 cities from Rameses and 8 cities from the barbarians. Maybe if I had just settled with the Spanish and barbarian cities I might have been able to make a peaceful victory condition work.

Hopefully I can do better in GOTM 32!

 

[Ronnie1]

Very well done JT, Lexad and Erkon! But I'll bet it took you a lot longer than 13 minutes to reach that level of success.

 

[Jimmy Thunder]

@ Ronnie: There is always quite a bit of luck involved in getting your game off the ground in the beginning. Hoping that you stay clear of really unfavourable RNG once the barbarians swarm and once you start the critical military pushes is a big factor. Of course the earlier in the game, the less chance to have to build up some contingency.

 

[Ronnie1]

barb archer, 1 warrior defending cap, = game over in 13 minutes. even my replays were not very successful!