BOTM 01 First Spoiler

[Ronnie1]

I wonder if this is a Vista issue.

Not a vista issue. I use vista and I stole a boatload from Churchy also, and Justinian, and Stalin. I'll have a complete list in my spoiler.

 

[plesniak]

@Obormot
@Erkon

Do you guys make a summary as you go along or do you get to a certain date and then go back and make a summary?

I enjoy reading how yous have gone about starting out your empires and arrived at where yous did.

I am playing this GOTM as well and really enjoyed it...I have finished. I can never remember the details of how I got there to post such an entertaining description as yous have though.

 

[Abegweit]

Like several others, I settled on the Ivory and then rushed Winnie. Build order: worker-barracks-chariot(x3)-worker-settler-work boat. As I recall, London fell in 2525BC. I got lucky because the Brits has established Hinduism. This brings up an interesting point. When I later established Taoism, London became a double Holy City! While this was great and everything, I thought it was impossible. Anyone know any more about this?

Research order:
AH (for the pigs)
TW (to hook up the horses)
Bronze Working (for chopping)
Fishing (work boats for London and Gold Town up the coast)
Pottery
Sailing (to connect London to the trade network)
Writing
Agriculture
Mysticism
Masonry
Polytheism
Priesthood
Code of Laws
Math
Civil Service (free tech)

Yep. The Good Ole CS Slingshot works in BtS too. Turning off tech trading really does favour the human.

By the turn of the years I had ten cities, including one on Stalin's continent, to grab the gems and dye. A second came shortly afterwards to claim the sugar. Not sure of my final victory condition. I expect Space. Currently, I'm going Wonder-happy with both Aksum and London pumping them out.

 

[Obormot]

@Obormot
@Erkon

Do you guys make a summary as you go along or do you get to a certain date and then go back and make a summary?

I enjoy reading how yous have gone about starting out your empires and arrived at where yous did.

I am playing this GOTM as well and really enjoyed it...I have finished. I can never remember the details of how I got there to post such an entertaining description as yous have though.

No, I didn't make any notes. I opened my 2000BC and 1000BC saves to get the statistics and the screenshots, and I used the game log to get the timeline for techs. The rest I took from memory: I usually remember my games quite well. Propably that is because I don't play any civ games except the gotms.

 

[Erkon]

plesniak, I use the ALT-E option that enables me to write comments into the event log. I only reload old saves when there are certain details I need to know to compare with other players.

Abegweit, it happens once in a while that two religions are founded in the same city. Religions are typically founded in the largest city that has the fewest religions already. I don't know the exact details though. Distance may have an impact though, but population is more important.

 

[Htadus]

I have a small complain against Firaxis. How can No Tech Trading = No Tech Stealing ? They are just not the same. No real nation trade away propriatery technologies. But that does not stop from foreign nations from stealing it. Boo to Firaxis . I am guessing it is a bug.

Let me say this as I pull my foot out of my mouth that it was my ignorence and not bad programming/design that stopped me from tech stealing. I just did not know what I was doing. My apologies to Fireaxis. Boo to Htadus.

Thank you Balthalion and Ronnie1 for making a comment. It made me open my eyes. Which is not easy since I am usually half a sleep during play between midnight and 2AM.

 

[slowrider]

Taking part of the BOTM Gauntlet - Victory Condition Domination

What is the best way to settle the lands to get to the 813 tiles? Final spoiler will tell us

Is there a thread somewhere or can someone please explain how to determine (1) how many tiles you own and (2) how many tiles determine the domination limit? I've done some searching but haven't found a thread which explains it clearly (enough for me anyway).

Do you have to manually count all of your tiles and also revel the entire map and count the total tiles available ... or are these numbers available with less effort?

 

[Abegweit]

Is there a thread somewhere or can someone please explain how to determine (1) how many tiles you own and (2) how many tiles determine the domination limit? I've done some searching but haven't found a thread which explains it clearly (enough for me anyway).

Do you have to manually count all of your tiles and also revel the entire map and count the total tiles available ... or are these numbers available with less effort?

I did it this way. I went back to the original save, settled on the Ivory and pressed the space bar until the borders expanded. At this point I counted 12 domination tiles and the victory screen told me that I had .94% of the domination limit. 12 * 100 / .94 = 1278.596 domination tiles. Multiply by 64% and you get a 817.02 domination limit. If I assume that Erkon's number of 813 tiles is actually true and work back, I find that I actually had .944649% of the domination tiles, so this is within the margin of error. If I plugged a larger empire into the original equation, there would be less error. For example, if I move the settler inland so that all 21 tiles are domination tiles, I get a limit of 814.545. Assuming that Erkon is right (and I believe him), this is already much closer.

 

[Erkon]

Is there a thread somewhere or can someone please explain how to determine (1) how many tiles you own and (2) how many tiles determine the domination limit? I've done some searching but haven't found a thread which explains it clearly (enough for me anyway).

Do you have to manually count all of your tiles and also revel the entire map and count the total tiles available ... or are these numbers available with less effort?

(1) Visit the demographics tab in the Info Screen (F9). The Land Area value (square km) states the number of tiles you control (divide by 1000). Note that snow and mountains count, while coastal ice and inland lakes does not.

(2) You need two values: total tiles and % needed for domination. To find total tiles, you need to hover the mouse on your entry at the bottom right part of the screen where all civs are listed. Second line is the Land-entry. The value you are looking for is the value at the far right. It will say something like: X from Land (Y/Z), where Z is the total number of tiles on the map. The percentage you need is listed in the Victory Screen (F8).

I usually enable the HOF-mod to warn me when I come close (which is 50% away in the first step). Then I know exactly how many tiles I need. Remember that you need one extra to exceed the limit. Jastrow states that you can multiply the total number of tiles with the percentage and round up to get the correct value. I have not verified that it is correct, although it is likely.

Be wary when/if you use the percentage report in the Victory Screen (F8) when determining the number of tiles you control. The value is delayed one turn, and I have on multiple occasions witnessed that the value is unreliable.

You still need to count the tiles available on the starting continent to get a feeling for how much you need to expand overseas, although a rough estimate may be enough.

PS: I have intentionally not referred to other threads since they may be spoiler threads for other GOTMs.

Abegweit, please remember to complete and submit your game before experimenting with tile counts by reloading. Perhaps you did and if so, please disregard this advice.

 

[quill18]

I hardly ever move my starting settler. Often it's because the default start is usually "pretty good", and I can't really crunch the numbers involved in shifting my position. Mostly, though, it's because I hate the thought of losing a turn or two. On the other hand, I rarely play on epic speed, where a turn isn't as expensive, so here was a chance to try to change my ways.

I wanted a fairly aggressive start, so I moved 1S to the plains hill for the useful early-game hammer. (I am still loath to settle ON a resource -- maybe I'll get over that one day.)

I built Scout, started a Warrior until Aksum grew to 2, then switched to Worker. By this point, I've researched Animal Husbandry for the pig --- and discovered the horse to the NW.

Now, I'm very partial to rushing to Horse Archers. I know that Axemen are the standard early blitzer, but I've just gotten screwed too often. Chariots, well-fortified Archers, and other Axemen can all ruin things. I'm just not good/fast enough to reliably pull off the Axe rush.

Horse Archers, on the other hand, easily slaughter everything you'll find in the early game except Spearmen. The AI is unlikely to build Spearmen early, even if they have copper/iron -- and it's not hard to take out their supply quickly in a war. I like to use Flanking 2 on the first couple of attackers to weaken their toughest defenders, and then Combat+_______ for the rest.

Sure Archery/Horseback Riding takes much longer to research than Bronze Working, but it also means you have a longer window to find Horses. If you can't get Bronze ASAP, your axemen are going nowhere.

Anyway, my 2nd city was NW of Aksum and took in the horses, gold, and seafood -- along with floodplains. It provided acceptable production and nice commerce early on, and developed into a decent commerce city in the long-term. My 3rd city was 1SW of the eastern copper, initially for denial purposes.

After a flurry of research and HA building, I went to war with England. I defensively researched Ironworking and was able to cut off London and York from the metal. My HAs easily ran over the entirety of the English civilization without needing backup from any other unit. I captured London and York and auto-destroyed the two Size 1 cities to the south.

485 BC: English are destroyed.

In many games I end up with a big lull after clearing myself some expansion room. I also suck at overseas conquest. I tried to overcome both this game, but still ended up taking a long time developing my continent. I used very heavy cottaging to BARELY keep myself above 50% research while I finished populating my starting island as well as a couple to the south. One of the southern islands is the one that Stalin appears to have started on. I missed the Oracle and had to research CoL the old fashion way.

I'm not sure what I could have done differently to avoid the lull. I'm sure that a win is inevitable, but the lose of momentum will prohibit any truly extraordinary score.

As of 500 AD, I have the top score in all categories save for Power, which Stalin leads (Myself and Stalin are 1st and 2nd overall). My garrisoned units are a little antiquated and light in some places, which is a bit of a risk but I'm counting on our relative isolation at this point in our development.

---

I'm in the 18th century in my game and I'm having a blast. I don't usually play Big and Small, have hardly ever tried Epic, and I never play with tech trades off. The experience has been wonderful and this particular combination has really encouraged me to practice some out-of-date skills.

 

[classical_hero]

This is my first attempt at GOTM in Civ4 so it will be interesting to see how well I do. This is obviously a cultural game so I have gone down this path but only after getting two religions in one turn did I make that decision. I was able to get the Slingshot from the Oracle, but I forgot that I did not have maths at the time of getting both the Oracle and Code of Laws, so I got the most expensive tech around, with that being Philosophy, meaning that I got two religions in that turn, but not CS.
This is my Demographics as of right now, being 505AD.

Spoiler :

As you can see that I am doing very well with my GNP meaning that I can research quickly meaning that I can get techs fastr and therefore get to wonders first.

 

[azzaman333]

Went completely peaceful knowing I'd have trouble killing Churchill, especially since I didn't meet him until at least 2500BC making me think I was isolated. This was a good thing though, since I focused more on connecting the marble and building the ToA and the Oracle (which earnt me MC) with the side effect of founding Judaism. Also, I popped a source of Gems on one of the plains hills south of the settler's starting location giving me a very strong position to persue a technological advantage, which was made easier due to the only Financial opponent, Darius, being stuck with 6 cities, 4 of which were owned by his colony Saladin. With Suyarvaraman and Stalin over-expanding, and Boudica and Justinian in constant war, and Churchill stuck with 2 good cities, I simply blitzed my way through the tech tree.

 

[Living Parasite]

This is my first GOTM so I'm having a good time rolling through this game.

My game:
Loaded up the Contender save. I settled in spot. I went AH -> BW (quick BW for quick expansion as I like to play) and quickly explored the island with one warrior and one scout. I discovered the Copper near the English border so I plopped a city so that the copper was in its BFC. I settled another quick settler NW of the capital. I hooked up a road system between the copper and my capital and whipped axes and raxes to quickly take Hastings. Then I pillaged London's improvements but I was unable to beat down protective Churchill's archers. I went quick catas and took out Churchill in the early AD years. At this point I've not explored beyond my island and am rexing it up now as Churchill is defeated. I'm not sure if I want to go Cultural or Domination. I have a good CE going in most of my cities and could easily win culturally by cranking up the culture bar.

 

[nbcman]

Settled in place. Started with AH and built chariots to assist in the exploration of the continent. I also discovered the copper near London and was in a settler race with Winnie to claim it. I declared war on the english when his settler ran a space ahead of the archer guarding it I also got lucky and captured York (the Jewish Holy city) that was south of London before declaring peace leaving the English London only. I got double lucky when I discovered that York was built over Iron! So I beelined construction and finished off Winnie by 460 BC. Fortunately Winston managed to build two additional cities for me to capture in the final war. After that I spread Confucianism (my state religion) to Stalin and Sury and rexed the remainder of the continent.

I did not try the Espionage Economy since I was the tech leader and there was nothing of importance to steal from any AI. Looks like this game will be an easy cruise to a cultural victory-assuming I can keep Stalin happy enough to not invade me.

 

[greentea]

Defeated Churchill by 245BC with Horse Archers. He had 3 cities at the time, I also had 3 of my own. So it's a pretty good start.
This was the easy part, though. Unfortunately I did not set my priorities right and got distracted in the research path, delayed CoL too much. As a result my tech rate suffered even though I tried to fill the continent slowly. Captured a barbarian city on Stalin's continent, founded another myself. Some nice happiness resources there, but need to steal Calendar first.
Hopefully my strategy to build the Great Wall will soon start producing results as I am leading in Espionage points with that Great Spy joining the capital. Used 3 other great people on techs (artist from music, 2 scientists after building GL in capital), probably should have started a Golden Age at least once.
Planning to attack Stalin next, but not sure when, since he leads in power at the moment. Most likely aiming for guilds to upgrade some of those experienced horse archers. He founded hinduism which is shared by most AIs I have come in contact with. Could have done better in the lower ADs, but I noticed I have this problem in the several test games I played.

 

[gingerscot]

Hey people,

I'm new to all this, been playing civ 4 on/off for a year or two. Only found the site a few months ago and finally decided a might as well try a game of the month and this is the first one that supports Beyond the Sword (right?). Finished and won the game by Space Victory but I think its a pretty crappy score (won in 1930ish). I forget to save it though and I presume the hack means I can't go back and finish again then submit? Also i can't even work out how to submit a saved win anway lol. I may play the game a few more times and just look at the final points tables to get an idea of where I stand.

As for this game: I'm not a great one for getting into wars to early so I hit 150ad before attacking york and the 2nd copper (I got the copper north first so I wasn't such an issue for me and i was using war elephants and chariots to attack anyway). I had 4 cities by that point all though my placement was slightly off looking back. My main frustration was my underestimation of how quickly the english settlers came and ended up having 4 fights with the english all going 2-3cities down but them building at least another in peace time in annoying positions. I need to be more forceful! I go with a worker-settler-warrior-settler start to get cities early with BW and AH first, which never leads to me wanting to fight early. I'm interested in these mass chariot starts to knock them back....I going to play again for experience/test new ideas.

Thanks, Dave

 

[killerloop]

Challenger

BtS as X-mas present and finding out the 1st BOTM is runnung. Back with CIV for almost a yr!!

Start:
moved my scout East, saw outlines of river and decided to move to the blue circle, got me the Corn.

Pretty quick found England, moved there with warrios, got me London and an island for myself!

Did a REX which got me at 1000 BC:
7 cities, 31 population, 5 workers, 3 workboats, 1 galley, 5/4 warriors/axe, 1 scout, 1 settler, 2 steles, 4 lighthouses, 1GLH and 1 religion.
GNP: 87, Production: 53, Crop Yield: 93.

A couple of turns later I got the Oracle and Theology. Also secured the 3 luxuries on the close by coast.

As I wanted to learn the new stuff have decided to go for a cultural win.

Good to be back, tx for a fun game

 

[dfi]

Well crap! I'll probably get DQ'd from BOTM 1 now. Crashed on exit and created no save. Went with the last autosave, but I didn't have it setup for saving each turn on my new system... so not sure if I replayed a turn =/ Still going to submit since it's getting close to the end, but odds are i'll be DQ'd.

Ah well I was only middle of the pack vs. AI's anyway =P Was a good refresher so I won't suck as bad in BOTM 2

 

[dfi]

nevermind... I just got the great spy again that I got right before I went to bed... so i'm not even submitting =(

 

[Kennigit]

but I didn't have it setup for saving each turn on my new system...

That reminds me, I need to change the autosave interval. Could anyone be kind enough to describe how?

Sorry about your game dfi, good luck next month