[BTS] BOTM 168 Results and Congratulations

[DynamicSpirit]

Well, thank you Jovan Kukic for proving that this game was, in principle, winnable. And amazing congratulations for being the only person to win playing the contender save. For your efforts, you win fastest domination, the cow, and the gold medal.

Deckhand, MarleysGhost and greatbeyond also managed to win the game, but they all played adventurer save - which in case was probably a sensible decision, but that doesn't really count as a proper victory does it In fact, somewhat unusually, deckhand managed to get the highest score AND the fastest victory date - but without winning any medals because of the adventurer thing.

Other than that... well the vast majority of the entries were retired. And I'm sure most of those were of the 'This game is wayyy too hard' kind of retirement not the 'Oh bugger the submission deadline is in 5 minutes and I still have 10 AI cities to capture' kind of retirement.

Yes, that was a very hard game. Not only did you face the fast-expanding AI but you started on an island and had to do continent-invasions to get very far. Well done everyone who managed to get past about 3000 BC and still be alive!

Summary of Medal Winners:

Jovan Kukic: 1750 AD Domination Victory, 197,111 points.


Other Award Winners:

greatbeyond: 2024 AD Domination Victory, 22,160 points.


>> See the full results here.
>> See the updated global rankings here.
>> See the latest Pantheon of Heroes here.
>> You can see and compare graphic replays of all the submissions here.
>> Award symbols are listed here.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Here's where everyone settled.

The Small Print:
The numbers by each player's name indicate the turn settled on (starting turn is 0). Players are colour coded by game class (challenger=red, adventurer=blue). Symbols indicate victory condition, if there's no symbol then the player either retired or was defeated. The yellow border indicates the land that was visible at the start of the game.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Nice work Jovan Kukic!

How did so many settle 1N?
I could have sworn 1E was the best at the start.

**Edit**
Oh, I see the pigs now.
I was foolish!

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Nice work Jovan Kukic!

How did so many settle 1N?
I could have sworn 1E was the best at the start.

**Edit**
Oh, I see the pigs now.
I was foolish!

I'm pretty sure the motivation would've been to settle on the plains hill. That gives an extra hammer on the city tile, which means you can build a worker in 12 turns instead of 15 turns. So, after losing a turn moving, your game effectively gets going 2 turns earlier. On a tough level like deity 2 turns can make quite a difference. It was impossible to see the pigs until you'd actually moved there, so I would guess the pigs turned out to be a nice bonus for people who were intending to settle on the plains hill anyway.

 

[Pangaea]

Don't recall where I moved the scout, but DS is probably right that we couldn't see the pigs up north before moving onto the plains hill. Very nice surprise, but my main motivation for moving there was a worker two turns faster, and with corn plus floodplains, it would still have been a nice city. Shame about losing fresh water, but you win some and lose some. I also didn't like killing the forest the settler started on.

Things still went to hell in my game, and it was very much a case of "I really can't win from here" kind of incomplete game, rather than time pressure. Maybe things could have been different hadn't Bismarck created a vassal on the northern island. That meant it became impossible to vassal him, and the war dragged on longer than it should have. When Charlie (I think?) then capped to Mehmed later on, it was effectively game over. No way to overturn such a massive AI with a tech advantage.

I'm glad somebody managed to win, though, and from the writeup it sounds like Jovan had everything under control Really well done!

 

[Deckhand]

somewhat unusually, deckhand managed to get the highest score AND the fastest victory date - but without winning any medals because of the adventurer thing.

I'm number one.

Spoiler somewhat unusually :

i've never finished first (nor gotten a gold medal) in any xotm

 

[MarleysGh0st]

Deckhand, MarleysGhost and greatbeyond also managed to win the game, but they all played adventurer save - which in case was probably a sensible decision, but that doesn't really count as a proper victory does it .

Maybe, but it pays to know your limitations!