BOTM 114 Final Spoiler, Game Submitted

Deckhand

Procrastination at its finest
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BOTM 114 - Final Spoiler



So how did your game after 1AD go?
Did you get a new personal highest score? ;)

Alan is going to investigate whether he can fix the scores.
Spoiler :
from first spoiler
Are you playing despite my screw up? After uploading, I realized I had selected marathon mode by mistake. So, I reloaded the world builder save, selected normal speed did some map edits and uploaded the new saves. The result was normal builds but marathon number of turns. I think that means inflated score values and really early dates and a real patience challenge for those going for the cow.
My thanks to those who alerted me to the problems with this game.

edit,
did you notice what all the civs had in common?
when did you explore the center?


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After I got green light from CFC staff to play on after my crash...

Aiming for a space victory, I kept hopping from continent to continent with my army while developing the core cities. The latest conquered cities produced an army for the next continent to save travelling time.

Axes were enough for Washington and Boudicca, but Brennus needed some Cats as well, and Hannibal Trebs and Maces. I warred quite effectively - it was only while fighting Hannibal that I made a big mistake and threw a whole mini-stack against hill Longbows without taking the city. But I had enough war success racked up to just cap him and move on. By that time I had enough units left to take on Cyrus as well. Conquest was effectively ended arond 1380AD when I had 30 cities and it wasn't worth the trade routes and unhappiness to go after Napoleon as well.

So I went into full research mode with lots of specialists + lots of hammers + a decent amount of cottages. I had only made two Great Persons before slowly making a Great Engineer for Mining because they are a pain to get otherwise. Not being used to corps, I didn't spread them aggressively enough though. I only reached 1 tech a turn for the last five or six techs before launching, with a maximum of 6k beakers. Early State Property probably would have been just as good considering the high maintenance from many different continents.

The end? 1715 Space victory. With a score of over 1 million. I'm never going to feel so close to being Kaitzilla again :cry:

Great map! Was it a modified Hub?
 
Great map! Was it a modified Hub?
Yes.
Besides the water dividers, I added oil and other (happy and health) resources missing in hub and changed the center from ocean to coast with some goodies.
Did you explore the center?
 
I got to see the center via Ai maps (as I got Optics/Astronomy really late). I think my monitor is too small because on the minimap I only recognize the "!" but not the sign before it...?
 
Having filled all of my island, I'm contemplating a war against Washington, when Napoleon launches a surprise attack in 660--from the other side of the world! His amphibious attack immediately captures St. Louis, at the southern tip of my island. :eek: I take it back, then DeGaulle also attacks this city in 1060. His attack fails and I pay him some gold for peace, but Napoleon continues to send occasional galleys with invasion troops. I continue to destroy these, but Napoleon won't make peace for anything less than St. Louis.

I try to ignore him and go to war against Washington in 1380, but before I can take a city, another large stack of Napoleon's galleys appear off my coast. I make peace with Washington to pull back for defense. Finally, one of the random events leads to an end to this war in 1460.

Meanwhile, I'm defying a number of AP votes to give St. Louis to Washington, which causes great unrest in half of my cities.

I go to war against Washington again in 1520, conquering him in 1680 (this end was delayed several turns, because I hadn't noticed he'd settled on one of the gold island to the southeast.

A long era of peace ensues as I build up my economy, hoping for a space victory. I climb to 1st in score. Brennus and DeGaulle attack Boudica in 1818, with Brennus vassalizing her. I'm elected Secretary General, but can't get the votes for a diplomatic victory.

Churchill has the lead in building his spaceship, but I complete the Space Elevator in 1896, I research all of the necessary spaceship techs, and it looks like I'll win the race.

And then Brennus/Boudica attack me and Cyrus (with whom I had a defensive pact) in 1906. Okay, that's a complication, but I can withstand their shore bombardment, with no attempt at invasion in sight.

And then Brennus (who's 5th in score) wins a Cultural Victory in 1907. I hadn't even been paying attention to cultural totals! :eek: :cry:


No, I didn't get a personal high score. But if georgjorge's million point score is close to the top, my 5242 points will earn a whopping .5 points toward my global ranking. :rolleyes:
 
@MarleysGh0st, hope you had fun, sorry you didn't win - sounded like an interesting game.

So, at least Napoleon explored the center. :eek:

iirc, all the civs had a trait in common - did either of you notice?
 
Didn't notice anything about the traits! At first I thought the setup was connected in some way to American independence (with two Americans, two French, an Englishmen) but Carthage and Persia didn't quite fit that scheme.
 
I didn't notice any common traits, either, although games with duplicate nations greatly annoy me. "You want me to cancel my deals with the Celts? Which ones???"

One trait I noticed in my game: the AI liked their nukes! After seeing that a diplomatic victory wasn't going to happen, I asked for a non-proliferation vote. Although the world was at peace and almost everyone was pleased with each other, it was rejected overwhelmingly. It gave me the feeling that my space ship plans would be ruined by a rain of ICBMs, rather than by the cultural upset that actually got me.
 
As far as I know, which vote is chosen and how the AIs vote is literally a completely random choice - which is why you can frequently see AIs voting against a peace vote which might be of great use to them. An AI might not even have Uranium and still vote not to ban nukes, or it might have Uranium and vote to ban them still. It's a pity that they work that way.
 

did you notice what all the civs had in common?

Errrr... they all started on their own landmass? There were two of most of them? They were confusingly almost all different shades of blue or orange? (Thanks Deckhand! ;) )


when did you explore the center?

The centre came to light when I traded maps. I didn't explore it myself because oceans and coasts look virtually the same to me, so I just assumed everything away from the shore was ocean and inaccessible before optics. But when I got paper and traded maps with the AI, the lovely gem centre came to light. Luckily for me, something in my brain went 'hey, no one has optics yet. How did the AI discover that area?' - at which point I checked and realized it was all coast. Deckhand - was that deliberate?. Even more luckily, I managed to get my settler there literally one turn before a Carthaginian settler!

Incidentally, putting coast in the 'ocean' had another consequence: I nearly lost a galley containing two units - to a barb galley that appeared, apparently out of nowhere just off my shore. Since I could see the entire coast in that area, I'm guessing the barb galley must've been created away from land, courtesy of one of the 'ocean' coast tiles. After that I became much more careful with my boats!

Exchanging maps also revealed the lovely 4xfish + 4xhill island off the coast of Celtia, which I also rushed to settle. Astonishingly, not one but two AIs got settlers there a couple of turns before me, but neither of them settled. I don't know if they were programmed to wait for some more units to arrive before founding a city or something, but I wasn't complaining. Unfortunately, the island proved not as useful as it would've been because of Celt culture swamping it, which I wasn't able to fix until the late game.

In terms of overall game, I basically slowly conquered my way around the World while teching to space. The map was unusual - nice touch Deckhand. But I never really figured out the best way to cope with it, and seemed to end up most of the time with armies aimlessly wandering from one continent to another. The worst bit was when I'd just finished conquering Boudicca (somewhere around 1000AD). The obvious next target was Brennus - both because he occupied the next island, and because he had stone and his culture was causing problems for what should've been my start city - on that 4-fish island. But a quick check revealed his navy was vastly bigger than mine - and invading him would therefore be very hard until I got frigates (estimated 15 turns away). So instead I ended up spending (wasting?) 10 turns ferrying my army back to finish off the other America. And this was an army that was costing me nearly 40bpt gold to maintain too - at the time that was about 15% of my science! In the end that army just worked its way South - taking America then England then the Blue France. And finally, around 1800AD, I shipped what was now an army of tanks back up to the NorthEast to sort out Brennus's cultural pressure :)

By the end, I was very close to the domination limit. I think I won the space race with about 59.53% landmass - and each turn while my ship was in flight, I was anxiously looking at the land for any tiles that might flip, worried that I might accidentally get a domination victory. I ended up giving one city away to the orange French, which was just enough to keep the victory a space one.
 
Havent played in years... Some pathetic fast lost games, and most of all rl ;)
But.. Thanks!! For a great game! I had so much fun!
Settled in place, second city on the silver island and then i transported some 14 axe with 1 galley (thats pro for me) to my usa college. Went straight for capital and i won! I even won a 5 axe v 3 archer battle. Took more time to capture his last city, which i gave to churchill. We friends, and then the religious wars agains churchill began. No more friends. Way way behind in score, en sooo completely broke. Lost 5 axe due strikes..and kept building villages.. and micro all cities to cash.. whipped much much later courthouses.
And still alive! I had no idea what to do next. Keeping alive!
Everyone but churchill pleased with me, still way behind.. 400 v 1200.. that level..Meanwhile Boudica had settled on my original island.. so i used the 4 GA from my pathetich GA farm to culture bomb her. Her city was at end game on tile on island.. could not have it.
Got my towns and money and people. And then a team showed up. Weird. I could def pact with all.. and selected Napoleon. My best buddy.. but a bit disliked by others. Actually wanted def pact with all.. but that dont work ;). Big bass from the soundsystem.. and whoppa.. we are the leading team! WTH. We share techs! Some big wars and huge armys from ai.. i managed to peace out any invasion fleet.
And they got off.. appolo here and there.. and i dont have oil yet.. things like that. I do get to produce some space parts.. but then a culture loss from team bouddica/brennus in 1941.
4509 base score, which is ofc pathetic, and more or less and insult to the makers of that great buffy mod which allows much better play. If a revolution takes 3 turns i tend to press enter three times ;)
Thanks some more and again for the entertainment provided.
 
Errrr... they all started on their own landmass?
No that's not what they all have in common.
There were two of most of them? They were confusingly almost all different shades of blue or orange? (Thanks Deckhand! ;) )
My apologies to all. I spent some time editing the map. But I neglected to edit the WB file to make colors different.
- at which point I checked and realized it was all coast. Deckhand - was that deliberate?.
Yes. I changed all the center sea to coast and added the maze and islands. Reward for eXplorers.

Incidentally, putting coast in the 'ocean' had another consequence: I nearly lost a galley containing two units - to a barb galley that appeared, apparently out of nowhere just off my shore. Since I could see the entire coast in that area, I'm guessing the barb galley must've been created away from land, courtesy of one of the 'ocean' coast tiles. After that I became much more careful with my boats.
Unintended consequence.
I also apologize for this. Some players encountered nasty barbarian galleys and early AI naval invasions while others didn't.
 
No that's not what they all have in common.
My apologies to all. I spent some time editing the map. But I neglected to edit the WB file to make colors different.
Yes. I changed all the center sea to coast and added the maze and islands. Reward for eXplorers.

Unintended consequence.
I also apologize for this. Some players encountered nasty barbarian galleys and early AI naval invasions while others didn't.

He he, no need to apologize for everything. It was a very imaginative map, that made for quite an interesting game. It's just a shame that coast and ocean look so similar (bad Firaxis :) ).

Now I need to replay to figure out if there's a better strategy for this map :)
 
@Alquest: some unorthodox plays there ;) waiting for Boudicca to settle your island so you can culture bomb? 14 Axes with one Galley? But it seems to have worked in parts...

Your post made me realize that this game actually had permanent alliances on. I don't know if I could have made one work towards the end for some extra beakers (maybe not because the numerous wars and staying in my religion didn't make me popular) but I definitely should have remembered that.
 
In this game I encountered permanent alliances for the first time, they have been enabled in many games I've played, but no alliances had actually been formed, as far as I can remember. In this game there were actually two - first de Gaulle and Boudica founded the French Buddhist alliance and then Napoleon and Churchill founded the alliance of short fat men. I was in an early war with Washington and after taking his capital and also Boston I made him my vassal. Boudica and I were good friends, I took her Buddhist religion and in the end she was the only one I was never at war with. Alas, my mideival invasion attempt of England failed, I only managed to take two cities, of which Dover was constantly completely swamped by English culture. This made me hopelessly behind in tech, and the end was a bit boring. I almost ragequit (rageretired?) when De Gaulle beat me to Sid's Sushi by just a couple of turns. I did manage to get Cereal Mills though. In the end it looked like a Space win for the French Buddhists, they managed to launch their spaceship. However, they were thwarted by Hannibal who won a culture victory three turns later. Should have listened to old Cato...
 
@georgjorge: not intentional...Too busy moving axes..It was a nasty surprise. Things that make you wanna open wb and erase the city...
 
I was going for an unremarkable space win when I accidently hit domination in 1610. Obviously hadn't paid attention to the land percentage, thought I was about 10% clear of it, but saw that wrong.

I got a mindboggling score of 1,65M, only quadrupling the previous high score I had. :eek: Curious to know how it'll be corrected. At least a big thank you to Deckhand for a once in a lifetime 1M+ experience! :D

Fun game, really liked the map. My play wasn't very inspired though, didn't really focus on a particular VC until quite late, so my space try wasn't going to win medals. Sushi'd everything up, but never seriously had tried to get a GE for mining and didn't luck out. Conquered Boudica and made her capital the HQ for Sushi. Captured half of Brennus, the whole of America, vassaled Churchill and then went for de Gaulle, as he had amassed an incredible number of wonders, having beaten me to several (MoM, parthenon) and had other useful ones too for space (Pyramids). All in all the acquisition of France and some Sushi powered border pops in the end pushed me over the domination limit.

Thanks for the game. :goodjob:
 
I got a long delayed, long frustrated Religious win in 1340ad. Didn't even notice the score as it was 40K, but opening the save again it was actually 400K!! Definitely a record religious score for me.
 
A very interesting map -- thanks for the fun game! :)

Space victory in 1913, after a lot of uninspired play. Got sneak attacked twice due to neglecting my military, once by Napoleon and once by Boudicca. Neither did any damage -- I was weak in total power but technologically superior, so they failed to break through my defenders despite their numeric advantage. Had trouble several times with the AP -- Hannibal kept calling votes to cut off trade with me, and all my resource deals and overseas commerce would disappear for a while. :( Did bad things to my cities' happiness and health, plus I had focused a lot on trade route income so those losses were painful.

I did explore the center when I realized it was all coastal, but was beaten to the gem island by one turn by Hannibal. I did secure the nice gold island south of that, which was extremely useful (see below). The little "treasure islands" scattered around the map were a fun feature.

Noticed the common trait of all the AIs (and us, as well): charismatic! I only realized it when Napoleon spun off his colonies and Ragnar joined the game; him not being charismatic was what made me notice it. Washington would later spin off Frederick, so ended up with 10 civs by the end as no one was eliminated. Boudicca had only one island, after I conquered her homeland once she attacked me, but she was still alive.

Brennus built the UN and got elected, then called for a victory vote while my space ship was en route. Fortunately he had offended too many people to win -- that would have been a painful loss! Hannibal was working towards culture but needed at least 40 more turns, so that threat was not especially close.

I spread Mining Inc widely, and Cereal Mills some -- I had actually dealt almost all my spare seafood away so Cereals gave me more food. But the extra hammers from Mining were much more important. For some reason I got a ton of great engineers this game -- six total. Used some for the space elevator, rushed it in that nice gold city since it was my only one close enough to the equator.

Overall a very enjoyable game. Thanks! :D
 
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