BOTM 11 First Spoiler - 500AD

[HolyHandGrenade]

I am having a complete shocker, after being far too complacent at the Warlord level. At 500 AD, I'm in a worse position than I usually am on a Prince level game, because I've far too casual in my tactics. Stink.

be more precise

 

[WithTea]

This was my first GOTM. Also my first real posts. I'll have to keep better track of what I do next time. Everyone else's lists of what they did are eye opening on how they get things done. I have to say that I never got the point of not founding a religion. Giving up all of that cash is difficult. I've played few games without, and won, but it was so much harder. I do know that I got polytheism and spread it quick. Converted Boudica/Louis to prevent war. I suppose I've always taken more of the peace monger's approach, and the best way of ensuring peace is having the same religion. Excepting of course Ragnar and Montezuma who aren't right there to make life hell. As a peace monger I didn't worry about the lack of copper, when I did get BW. As I usually get that late in comparison to the others here. I remember figuring that playing as the Byzantines I'd need to rely on a horse based military, so went for AH. A few strategic Chariots can hold a peaceful quite border well. I want to thank everyone else who posted for letting me inside their minds on how and why they do things.

 

[HolyHandGrenade]

I'll have to keep better track of what I do next time. Everyone else's lists of what they did are eye opening on how they get things done.

It's very easy to keep track of your progress. Because you have to use HoF-mod you can enable "autolog" in the options and then just read the log-file for everything that happens.

 

[ZPV]

Goal: fastest diplo; contender save
New Goal: not to be thrown out of xOTM for breaking the starting location analyzer.

Early Tech path: Agriculture-AH-Mining-BW-Writing-Pottery-Fishing-Sailing-Alphabet (I think)

What happened: I went for a settler walk. I was looking for Stone or Gold, but I found neither. So, I just kept walking, eventually settling near the West Coast on turn 12, with Plains-Wheat and a Grass-Cow in the BFC. It was too late for a Warrior rush, but when I researched BW, I had Copper just outside my borders.

2nd city was settled on the desert-copper, and I started building axes.

As they marched over to Boudica, a Celtic city getting the horses and copper was founded; I immediately razed this with a force of 3 Warriors.

I captured Bibracte (Buddhist holy city) around 500 BC, and then turned my attention to Louis. He had kindly built Stonehenge, The Great Wall and The Oracle, as well as founded Hinduism and Judaism, and I was waiting for him to start the pyramids (Visible in the espionage screen as requiring lots of EPs to sabotage), but to no avail. By 500 AD, I captured all of France, and a Celtic city where everyone's GP Farms will go, in the starting screenshot.
Boudica has one city left, on a hill east of Bibracte, and I have a bunch of CR3 Axes. My economy is in the drink due to maintenance costs, and I am almost done researching Civil Service.

edit: no GPs yet

 

[WithTea]

Thanks HHG. I'll do that next time and shall not stop at two.

 

[Harbourboy]

be more precise

A half hearted warrior rush followed by an even more lame archer rush, assuming that I wouldn't need high production or chopping because it was only Warlord level. Needless to say, these were unsuccessful and pulled me far off the optimum tech path. This was a lesson in how to play with your brain in neutral.

 

[zagnut]

Hello Ainwood, Alan and the rest of the staff. I haven't been around for awhile but I'm glad to see that you are still providing us with a good time.

Played Contender. Moved Settler 3 spaces south and founded capital. 2nd city was founded just south of the pigs on the north coast.

At 500 AD I have 8 cities, one of which is Bibracte, which I just captured from the Celts. After discovering AH and seeing the horses very near to Bibracte, I decided to found my third city next to the horses and make Boudica my first victim. However, before that my goal was to expand to the west. With my three cities blocking Boudica and Louis from expanding, I spread westward and currently have my westernmost city just before the west coast.

Did a CS slingshot with the Oracle and am now researching Construction (2 turns). The short term goal is to get Optics and explore the rest of the world with Caravels.

I usually wait for Catapults before invading, but this time I attacked Boudica with 6 Swordsman and 4 Axemen. That turned out to be a little overkill as she only had Bibracte defended with a Gallic Warrior and two Archers. The fight was over quickly.

 

[HolyHandGrenade]

A half hearted warrior rush followed by an even more lame archer rush, assuming that I wouldn't need high production or chopping because it was only Warlord level. Needless to say, these were unsuccessful and pulled me far off the optimum tech path. This was a lesson in how to play with your brain in neutral.

Ahh I see (and you are sure that the Warlord level of your version of Civ4 matches the copy everyone else has?)

 

[nokem]

Like many I settled a few squares south to leave room for a GP farm on the coast. Initial scouting revealed the Celts to the east were easily blockable. I decided to keep them alive and expand peacefully westwards. Boudica founded Buddhism and it spread to me immediately; we were best buddies against Louis from that point on.

I saw the horses but decided to avoid fighting a culture war with B's capital. Picked up marble instead and built the pyramids while rexing. First GP built an academy, all subsequent ones were settled in the GP farm whch quickly became a research powerhouse. I skipped the Oracle hoping that Bo or Louis would pick up a decent tech to trade, but I quickly left them behind.

I had planned to pursue an early religious victory, but I forgot to switch out of buddhism the turn the AP was completed. Disgusted. My voting rival was now my best friend. I considered quitting on the spot but decided to have some fun instead.

My new target: maximise the SS economy and pop the most advanced tech possible from Liberalism. Rocketry anyone?

nokem

 

[jesusin]

Like many I settled a few squares south to leave room for a GP farm on the coast. Initial scouting revealed the Celts to the east were easily blockable. I decided to keep them alive and expand peacefully westwards. Boudica founded Buddhism and it spread to me immediately; we were best buddies against Louis from that point on.

I saw the horses but decided to avoid fighting a culture war with B's capital. Picked up marble instead and built the pyramids while rexing. First GP built an academy, all subsequent ones were settled in the GP farm whch quickly became a research powerhouse. I skipped the Oracle hoping that Bo or Louis would pick up a decent tech to trade, but I quickly left them behind.

I had planned to pursue an early religious victory, but I forgot to switch out of buddhism the turn the AP was completed. Disgusted. My voting rival was now my best friend. I considered quitting on the spot but decided to have some fun instead.

My new target: maximise the SS economy and pop the most advanced tech possible from Liberalism. Rocketry anyone?

nokem

Mmmmm, if you are teching so far, it would have been better to settle all scientist on the capital, not the GPFarm, wouldn't it?
By the way, where is your Academy, in the GPFarm?

By the way2, where is BCN, Barcelona?

 

[Htadus]

................
Well - too much wonders for a culture victory, but I had the appropriate resources and a lot of forests to chop. I expected some more barb cities but I assume I fogbusted too much

This will be an interesting game to compare. My game is focused on wonders for a significant boost to base culture.

Pregame plan was to go for three religions in the Cap but JungleIII's test proved that was a bad plan. The new plan was to go for Meditation for Buddhism and get mining, BW and Ag. (And then go for the other early religions if no one founded them by then.) Find copper settle and claim the nearest AI capital. Sittingbull was tough with archers in JungleIII's game and I was hoping not to find any protective civs in the real game......or Mansa.

The warrior in the Real Game found another food source to NW and settler went east to check out the hills and on turn 1 settled with fresh water and the coast with pigs, wheat and 2 lakes with 3 food potential (+3 commarce with Colosus)

Started a warrior while first warrior was doing a CCW circle and after we met Bodica and the city grew to pop 2, we built three 3 turn warriors and captured Bibracet with 4 warriors total. Celts are gone. Very soon we conducted a worker stealing campaign against French(?) until we got a GG from two highly promoted axes. Well...what good is the trait if we can't get a GG. Also wanted to build the HE in one of the culture cities. French are gone.

By this time we had founded Buddhism, (and our French friend the remaining two early religions) established the copper city to the East, Marble city to SW, GP farm to west and waiting to settle two more cities right after the Oracle was built to get Philosophy. Built a whole bunch of wonders (wish we had stone....too bad it just does not pop at a mine ) Only the GW was not even considered.

By 500 AD we were about to finish MoM, had founded Christianity and learned CS with 2 Prophets along while ago. I think the AP was also done by this time. (I am going by memory of a game played very late/or early ) Had about 9 or 10 cities with 4 culture city candidates. Capital and Bibracet with settled GA is for sure but Paris and another city has very even culture. I am not sure which is better yet. This has been a wonderfest and thank you for the game DS.

 

[HolyHandGrenade]

This will be an interesting game to compare. My game is focused on wonders for a significant boost to base culture.

I should have been more precise. What I am complaining about is that I built too much non-artist wonders. As you can see I got a GProphet instead of a GArtist. It seemed I was not careful enough after I decided to switch from fighting to culture.

 

[nokem]

Mmmmm, if you are teching so far, it would have been better to settle all scientist on the capital, not the GPFarm, wouldn't it?
By the way, where is your Academy, in the GPFarm?

By the way2, where is BCN, Barcelona?

My GP farm had the same food as the capital (+12). I planned to use the cap for settler & worker production. I put my academy in the GP farm and settled all GPs (up to 500AD). It had decent hammers too so I intended to build the Gt Lib and Oxford there if the game lasted that long. At the time I was planning an early religious win. If I found myself in the late game, the capital had potential for massive production post-Biology.

I built Stonehenge there while I was waiting for libraries. I knew this could dilute the early GPPs but since I would run scientists in other cities (and I'm not bulbing and trading) I didn't think this would hurt. An early engineer is useful, anyway.

(Yes BCN is Barca, but only until monday when I will be LON )

 

[Gosha190]

jesusin, contender. Goal: fastest spaceship.

it's a good news!

contender save
( I didn't play cultural game for a long time. I think it is more than 1 year or more)

1000BC 4 cities, 4 workers, research 75 at 100%, gpt >0 at 60-70%.

500AD 9 cities, 16 workers (in 700BC it was 13), pop 81, tech 485, wonders 195, score 1267.
2 turns to finish guilds. Research about 400 bulbs. Research rate 100% since 450AD, 44 gold in my tres. and +8 gold per turn.

settled 1S. 2880BC B. killed. 2360BC L. killed.

3680 Medi. I found Buddism!
3400 Agri
3000 Animal
2760 Mine
2520 Pottery
2320 Priest
2160 ____SH!
2080 Writ.
1640 Math
1520 BW
1160 CoL,____Oracle->CS
1040 Mason
975 Poly
950 Mono
775 Aest
725 Lit
700 Fish
650 ____Pyrs
575 Curr ____Parth, GL
525 Sail
475 Cal ____NE
350 MC
325 IW
275 Drama
150 Mus
75 ____SistCh
50 Paper
_____________________________________
1AD ____Zeus, MoM
25 Education
100 Alpha
175 Mach
200 PPr
300 Philo
350 ____HG
425 Liber->Nat
450 Monarch
475 Feo

 

[srad]

2 turns to finish guilds. Research about 400 bulbs. Research rate 100% since 450AD, 44 gold in my tres. and +8 gold per turn.

400 bulbs at 500AD, this is impressing! I assume you are running a CE economy? What is the key to get such a high research power, the high number of workers at 700BC?

 

[Gosha190]

400 bulbs at 500AD, this is impressing! I assume you are running a CE economy? What is the key to get such a high research power, the high number of workers at 700BC?

I am playing for culture so I did not do any special efforts to increase research.

All 3 cultural cities got cottages (8-10 per city). All of them are villages, some are towns. lib + 3-4 monasteries per city + (academy + GL) in my capital + representation + bureaucracy.

3-4 cities build money from time to time.

I was needed to build many wonders by chopping so I built more workers than usually - it were 3-4 worker per city for a time period before 500BC.

 

[nokem]

3-4 monasteries per city

I guess that makes a big difference - 10% each. I should make more of an effort to collect religions and build monasteries.

 

[dannybe]

500 AD & doing not too bad. I have 6 cities and all but the SE part of the island to myself. Settled 1S of the corn & put my second city SSE of the horses. I thought my first city looked good for military production so I started with barracks till size two & then switched to worker( then finished barracks, settler, 3xwarrior) and working towards a domination victory. With Bodica as my neighbor building the barracks seemed to work well since I can have decent protection and keep her a bay. Attacked Bodica at 400BC with chariots & axes. Captured 3 cities - capital, vienne & tolosa. At 500 AD, the Celts are eliminated & preparing for war against Louis. Also building Parthenon in old Celt capitol, Heroic Epic in my military city & Great Library in my soon to be science city. It's nice to be on the winning side once in awhile.

My mid-game usually sucks though.. We'll see how the rest goes.

 

[Htadus]

I guess that makes a big difference - 10% each. I should make more of an effort to collect religions and build monasteries.

It does make a great deal of a differance in culture game. Sadly they become obsolete with Astro. Then again, even in culture games by the time you get astro (assuming you want it) your science is at zero so the loss is basically the boost specialist beakers got from the Monastaries.

It seem in this game, the fastest way to build a monastary is to chop a forest on the last turn of the temple and bunch of extra hammers go to the Monastary.

 

[Htadus]

...............
My mid-game usually sucks though.. We'll see how the rest goes.

Me too. That suck doesn't it. I hate that. I have been telling me and myself to stop doing that but boy no one listens.