BOTM 110 Final Spoiler - Game Finished

[DynamicSpirit]

BOTM 110 - Final Spoiler

So how did your game after 1AD go? Did you win?

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[georgjorge]

Space in 1715AD

The game started off quite well by getting both Bronze Working (3800AD) and Writing (3240BBC) from huts taking care to always pop them through culture or Scouts

Then the big question was how soon I needed Astronomy for the additional cities. Since I could already settle 10 cities on my continent I decided that getting decent research through Bureaucracy + Oxford (in the northern city near the Banana) was a bigger priority so I went towards Education.

I placed my fourth or fifth city correctly and soon became aware of Ragnar. Now some EVIL person had put his starting Settler on a tiny island which completely crippled his development. In the early ADs, he had four cities and not even Monarchy! I shed a tear upon seeing this, and since he didn't even have Iron/Bronze hooked up I whipped the most pathetic attack force the ADs have ever seen: 4 Swords + 4 Catapults. But instead of being laughed off the continent it managed to take all three of his mainland cities and upon getting Astronomy it also took his island capital.

While expanding, I built the necessary wonders rather late, whenever I needed them - Mausoleum, Great Lighthouse, Oracle (for Civil Service), Hanging Gardens. Didn't build Pyramids without Stone as Constitution wasn't that far away by that time, and Collossus would have been obsoleted too early. I also beelined Communism after Astronomy as maintenance was getting too high and I couldn't create an Engineer for Mining Inc. anyway so State Property it was until the end.

I met Charlemagne, and again not wanting to take too much away from infrastructure + research I had a few cities only contribute a couple of Maces + Trebs each for him. Again to my surprise, this tiny force managed to take five of his cities quick by being ferried around with Galleons ! After that I couldn't advance well with so few units, but when the Trebs magically turned into Cannons and the CR3 Maces into Infantry (skipping the whole Renaissance) it became easier .

And since I had already paid the cost for the upgrade and there were still some Infantry left, I shipped them over to Stalin. Now that was a sad chapter...his island capital was defended by three Longbows but two of them were camping on a tile besides the capital! So one amphibious attack later the capital was mine and they suicided against the city. His second city was defended by a single Warrior (keep in mind this is about 1000AD, not 3000BC).

I stopped attacking anyone after taking three cities from Stalin. Nobody else ever attacked anyone so it was a rather peaceful game, and I went through the motions of building spaceship parts.

Maximum beakers/turn: 4500
Cities at 1AD: 10
Cities in the end: 34

 

[Deckhand]

The most advanced tech you can get from a hut is Astronomy.
There is a list somewhere.

huts: 35 gold, map, hostile warrior (who kills my chariot!)

events: slave revolts (why do they keep happening in same city?) Different cities were hit in ADs.

After finally noticing island to the east, I sent an exploring workboat. Then built strong city on the island (eventual Moai). Then sent chariot exploring. Popped a hut and Astronomy!
Dang, now my Colossus, just built in 175AD is obsolete.

Not sure which is better.

The game started off quite well by getting both Bronze Working (3800AD) and Writing (3240BBC) from huts taking care to always pop them through culture or Scouts

Early techs provide a nice head start.
The hut in NW corner was guarded by a warrior, that's why I used a chariot to pop it. How do you get that? Build a city nearby before popping it? Good plan.

OK, I have Astronomy. What shall I do? Spam settlers for fastest domination? But Rags and Stalin are so weak. OK, my goal is Gold Medal and fastest Conquest.
First Ragnar and Stalin, using Maces, Catapults, and Trebuchets.
Then my buddy Bismarck. Using Trebs and Cuirassiers. I want full credit (not half credit) for his population, so I don't accept this Capitulation and press on until I have all cities. Same thing for my buddy Charles. This time with Cavalry. Again I delay Conquest a few turns to take more cities and pump up score by population and wonders. I finish 3 wonders after accepting Charlemagne capitulation including 1 of his two cities.
So, I think I could have finished 5-10 turns sooner by just pressing for Fastest instead of Gold as well.
And probably another 5-10 turns if I was more efficient, effective, and focused. I have a hard time min-maxing. I want to build a civilization.

1460AD Conquest.

 

[Deckhand]

My other bit of good luck really didn't make any difference. I got the Quest to build Colosseums, looked it up, and GA is reward for also owning Statue of Zeus - which was in Munich. So, I waited to capture it before building the 5 Colosseums.
Ran continuous golden ages from 940AD to end with exception of ten turns. I think those gaps were unnecessary and I had the great people to start the ages sooner.
Four 12 turn ages: Artist, 4 turn gap, Taj Mahal, 6 turn gap, Artist/Prophet + Quest, still 8 turns to go before end. And I had 4 unused great people at the end - I could have used them instead of the quest, which is why I say quest luck didn't make any difference. Maybe I would have been better off building units instead of Colosseums.
Certainly could have used my great people better. otoh, several came at the end when it didn't matter much what they did.

 

[georgjorge]

Not sure which is better. Early techs provide a nice head start. The hut in NW corner was guarded by a warrior, that's why I used a chariot to pop it. How do you get that? Build a city nearby before popping it? Good plan.

Are some barb units coded to not wander around and stay on top of huts? No idea. In that case I indeed would have popped it by culture since there was no pressure at all to get it early.

Astronomy from a hut is very nice but I think I got luckier here. When I had Optics (around 400AD) it only took me 4-5 turns to research Astronomy, whereas it would have taken me 10 turns each to research Bronze Working and Writing in the beginning of the game.

I'm not too sure about huts in BOTM games. They are fun but make games less comparable to each other. What I would like though is a BOTM with A LOT of huts in the starting area so one single hut doesn't have that much effect, and of course the area needs to feature AI units that you either have to beatto the huts or kill to protect them for later.

Nice conquest, I hope you get credit for your score!

I haven't thought much about how fast conquest is possible here. It should be rather fast since two out of four AIs can basically be conquered whenever you want due to them being so far behind. And Trebs + Maces ferried around by Galleons should be enough for the other two.

Fulfilling a quest for a Golden Age would have been nice, the problem with Space Race is that from a certain point onwards you tech so fast that you can barely build the required buildings before you enter a new era

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Are some barb units coded to not wander around and stay on top of huts? No idea. In that case I indeed would have popped it by culture since there was no pressure at all to get it early.

I think (not absolutely certain) that if a wandering barb unit happens to wander onto an unguarded hut, then it will normally stop wandering and stay to 'guard' the hut instead.

I'm not too sure about huts in BOTM games. They are fun but make games less comparable to each other. What I would like though is a BOTM with A LOT of huts in the starting area so one single hut doesn't have that much effect, and of course the area needs to feature AI units that you either have to beatto the huts or kill to protect them for later.

Agree they do add some randomness. However, part of the rationale for having them is that (unlike random events) huts can be part of a player's strategy: If you know that there will be huts, you can for example prioritize getting a scout out early to pop them. And you might adjust how you do your early exploration to take account of huts. You might get different things from huts than another player does, but it is also the case that if you prioritize popping huts, you'll probably get more goodies from them than a player who doesn't.

 

[magpie_robert]

The game started off quite well by getting both Bronze Working (3800AD) and Writing (3240BBC) from huts taking care to always pop them through culture or Scouts

Well my early pops of archery and AH were not quite so good as yours but felt good to get two free early techs and found the horse just south so that's where I put my second city. In the end though, being alone with lots of good land and little barb trouble, I didn't need much defence. What we were lacking a little was happiness resources and so I founded Confucianism in 625BC, and completed Oracle the following turn for Civil Service.

With no AI met, I figured I would just concentrate on researching quickly and built Great Library and Colossus to help that. I figured the game would either end up being a space race or a late warfare domination but when I saw Christianity still hadn't founded, I went for theology and built the Apostolic Palace in 940AD.

I used the music artist for a Golden Age to switch into christianity and back to Confucianism then got to optics and made contact with Ragnar, then Charlemagne and Bismarck.

I decided to try for a religious victory so got open borders with those three by giving away techs. Easily spread christianity to small cities in those three civs but Stalin was a tougher nut to crack. I eventually did get borders open with him and spread to a city on Charlie's island so figured the vote would happen soon.

I changed to HR and vassalge for favourite civic bonuses from Charlie and Ragnar so had those two and Bismarck at +10 attitude so was fairly sure of their support. However, the vote wasn't offered and I eventually realised I had too many votes myself. So I built three more missionaries and spread them all to Germany (he was Friendly, the other two were just Pleased).

The very same turn that I did this, Stalin liberated his overseas colonies and placed TOKUGAWA in charge! This meant that their was now a sixth civ in the game, a non-voting member who, as we all know, really REALLY doesn't want to trade with you! How was I to get a christianity to one of his cities?

First, I tried putting one on a caravel, sailing it into his territory and gifting it to him. I think the ship was gifted but the missionary disappeared. Anyway, it didn't work. Then I realised there was a barb city on the next island with a cultural overlap. I brought my galleon round and loaded up with two infantry and a christian missionary. The two barb archers were no match so I captured and spread christianity to Bulgar. Then I promptly liberated it to Toku

The vote came round a few turns later and I achieved the religious victory in 1645 .

 

[Deckhand]

... I brought my galleon round and loaded up with two infantry and a christian missionary. The two barb archers were no match so I captured and spread christianity to Bulgar. Then I promptly liberated it to Toku

The vote came round a few turns later and I achieved the religious victory in 1645 .

 

[greatbeyond]

Yet another inadvertent Domination. Germany and the HRE have long since been relegated to the worst parts of the map, with 1 and 2 cities respectively. I have kept one city on former German lands to block them in and 2 cities on former RE lands. I have been patiently waiting for the end of game with my territory at 66%. Workers have been busy converting almost everything to farms, and cities are emphasizing food. The goal is to see how high a score I can get under a time victory. To keep under the 68% limit I declared on HRE to let them take Aachen so I could destroy them completely as it was threatening to grow further (with me at 67.45%) and put me over the 68%. They still haven't taken the bait, an empty city right next to their cultural border. I carefully check at the end of a turn, still 67.45%. I press enter and a domination victory pops up. ???

 

[donsig]

I decided to play this one out to a time victory so I could have lots of big Sushi cities. I made sure not to trigger domination but ended up with a cultural victory in 2043 instead.

 

[georgjorge]

Hmm, judging from the last two posts it seems rather hard to NOT win this game...

 

[neilmeister]

I played to the map and the leader and went for Culture.

At 1ad I was still a little torn to do traditional culture or to go the sushi route as there seemed to be a lot of seafood around. In the end I went traditional wonder whoring and GA popping, not sure if was the right decision.

Culture VC in 1500ad.