BOTM 101 -- Final Spoiler

[Minou]

Space Victory in 1810

My game started out exciting but bogged down into a slow drive to space after some military mistakes. Essentially, I lost the pace when I misjudged how to attack the Islanders. I only had two coastal cities to build ships and after one was captured by a surprise Chariot landing in the BC years it took several turns to get it back, which slowed Galley production. My invading Macemen ended up stuck in the first captured city on the island for centuries as Archers upgraded to Longbows the turn I landed and swarms of Islander Triremes slowed reinforcements.

Likewise, my first war on the mainland against Sury was a stalemate - after capturing two cities my Macemen were beaten back by a simply enormous stack of outdated units. Once drafted Redcoats became available, Moreau and Sury fell rapidly (probably should have just waited for Rifles to war in the first place). Sulei attacked my unguarded western border during this war, but moved units in such a slow and suboptimal way that I was able to easily repel them. Out of principal, I had to attack Sulei later in the game. This final war was a net negative - I captured a few cities with minimal losses, but the cost in happiness and unit support was not worth it.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of the game is that is the only time I can remember founding Cereal Mills, given all the grains and limited seafood.

 

[Pangaea]

Decided to check out this thread as the deadline is over, or near enough. I've not finished my game. Got pre-occupied with all the Always War games, and now even the Score Gauntlet.

As you saw from the 1AD spoiler thread, I got a really bad roll, and lost a city to Suli after stealing a worker from him, to a wandering archer. Managed to recapture it later with 7 warriors, after whipping and chopping them out. But naturally this set me back considerably.

Believe my game had progressed to around 1000AD. By then I was pushing over Moreau with cannons (maybe I libbed them, don't recall), so I would have won the game, but quite late, as no other AIs had been taken on yet.

Moreau had an incredible amount of galleys, triremes and caravels btw. Was a bit of a challenge to land troops because he had 25 boats nearby Especially early on, my only chance was to suicide them by moving them over, landing the troops, and then losing the boats next turn. No way to defend against such a navy.

Don't know when I would have won conquest or domination, but certainly later than whoever comes there first this time. I did think about trying for Diplo since I had friendly relations with Sury (who had been banging up on Mansa), but more likely I would have gone for a "kill lots of stuff" kinda game

Thought it was a really interesting map design, and I am quite honestly a bit bemused by Seraiel's harsh criticism. Espionage victory is pretty much the definition of a niche strategy, and map makers can't make sure every single strategy is viable in a game like this. Particularly when it's something maybe a handful of people have ever played. Going "all in" for something like that is very risky. It can work in a HoF game where one can just try a different map if things don't work out, hence rewarding of high risk gameplay, but here we only get one try, so going for a very risky plan from the beginning can backfire.

Moreau wonderwhored something fierce in my game too. He got the Mids, Oracle, Artemis, Great Wall and Great Lighthouse. Very early. Getting control of the Mids was very nice, but getting lots of cities on that island also got mighty expensive, so I needed to get up the Forbidden Palace asap. Colony costs can be such a b**ch

edit: Loaded up the save and see it was 1140AD, at the end of a Golden Age. I had been drafting Redcoats too. Things were looking good in other words. Had 19 Cannons and 26 Redcoats. Building up gold for SciMeth, to get to Communism.

 

[Seraiel]

@ Pangaea (and also everybody else) :

Just forget about what I wrote, I was mad because I looked forward to that game and because I'd have loved to play it and I wasn't aware how high the risk of losing the GW is. I'm wiser now, and if necessary I apologize again. Maybe I had played a little too much CIV during that time and was a little to fanatic for it, but if I were, then I was in the right place here, and then I hope that some or maybe even more will understand, that the ambitions I had for the Ephtalon were simply too high, and that it was nothing more than frustration that made me get mad. I'm not proud about it, but honest enough to admit it.

You were very strong with playing on after that opening Pangaea, for that my respect and the same to all other participants.

 

[Pangaea]

That's very mature, Seraiel, and I'm glad to hear it. Not everybody are able to able to admit errors. And as you know, I can "lose it" and rant pretty badly about Civ. You should see some of my save names.....

Would have liked to finish this game, I had played most of it after all, and after that start it would be even nicer to finish than under normal circumstances. But other games caught my attention, and there simply isn't enough time for all of them. Not with how slowly I play, anyhow

Will be interesting to see who get the awards this time. nocho looks in pretty good shape with an early win (with a pile of points to boot), and of course Rusten will get the cultural one, of that there can be little doubt. 1300s is early.

 

[Rusten]

^Yeah 1300s Cultural is pretty nice -- at least on normal speed. I was just a bit deflated on submission/time of posting earlier as I feel I misplayed the final stretch. I feel better about it now.

I remember in Jesusin's guide he made a huge point about stopping 1 AD to plan if you have a good cultural game on your hands. I did not and rushed it.