[BTS] BOTM 191, Julius, Final Spoiler, Game Submitted

[Deckhand]

BOTM 191 - ... Final Spoiler

Tell us all about your game.
Did you have fun?

Reading Requirements

Stop! If you are participating in BOTM 191 then you MUST NOT read this thread unless

• You have submitted your entry

Posting Restrictions

• Do not post any savegame file from the game. Discussions and screenshots are fine but not actual games.

 

[MarleysGh0st]

I declared war on Justinian in 150 AD. After taking six of his cities, he capitulated in 740.

Poor Hannibal had gotten hemmed in by my expansion, and only had two cities. I attacked him in 860 and took both cities by 1000. In 1020, my caravels finally circumnavigated. I had come very close to this with fishing boats, but I think there were a couple straits that were just a bit too wide for them.

In 1040, I attached Brennus. He capitulated in 1210, after I had captured six of his cities.

in 1250, I declared war on Saladin. I only had to capture Mecca and Medina before he capitulated in 1290.

Pericles was my next target, attacked in 1290, vassalized in 1310.

Finally, it was Gilgamesh's turn, in a war that lasted from 1310 to 1350, giving me a Conquest victory in 1360. An easy win with the Contender/Noble save, which probably means that someone will easily beat my time while playing the Deity save. I'll probably try that save next, for fun and practice, while waiting for the next BOTM.

Incidentally, I was given three quests in this game, Blessed Seas, Classic Literature, and Warships, but with the pace of my warfare, I didn't complete any of them. I don't know if it would have been worthwhile to concentrate on any of those; I already had five of the seven libraries I needed for Classic Literature, for example.

 

[MarleysGh0st]

So do I win all the awards if I'm the only player to report completing the game?

(No, I can see a few more names on the submission list. Everyone busy with real life?)

 

[Deckhand]

So do I win all the awards if I'm the only player to report completing the game?

Only four I think.

If it were published today, you would win at least one. But deadline isn't until 10 May. You shouldn't count on any.

 

[LANCE1313]

First Time Submitting GOTM. I'm a very new player. This was my first time ever playing a game where I didn't at least reload once. It was a good learning experience as I've never been forced to deal with the consequences of my screw ups. I made some very large blunders along the way and I ultimately lost to Justin's space Victory. This is quite a long winded reply for a loss but writing it helped me assess my mistakes further and even led me to go back and look at saves along the way to get a better sense of bench marks.

List of Learning Opportunities... (I realize these are seriously beginner mistakes)

1. Expanded far too aggressively I believe. (975BC -> 7 cities on the starting continent. Locations span the penisula up to where the starting continent widens to Brennus's starting location. (North and slightly West) I actually went down to 0% sciencebefore realizing it. I didn't have another save until 500AD but then I'm still at the same 7 cities and up to 50% research. No war yet as i was too behind.
   
2. ~980AD -> Although I saw him amassing troops I was still under prepared when Brennus Attacked me and took my Holy City. Subsequently got stuck in a long protracted war while everyone else teched up unopposed. (I'm so far behind here I've created my own downfall)
   
3. Allowed Justin to get way to far ahead on tech and out of control. By the end of the game I've caught up but it was way to late.
   
4. Eventually capitulated Celtics, Arabia, Greeks. Justin owned Carthage. Gilgamesh was my best ally. I'm equal with Justin on tech but didn't realize I was grossly behind on army strength/numbers. Made a very poor decision to attack Justin directly. Mu thought process had been to conquer him from East to West and likely get a Domination victory. Made landfall with my army and took a single city and conquered it. Justin retaliated and took out my whole army within two turns and retook the city. A complete waste which ultimately led to the final loss. Justin launched a spaceship. I amassed the biggest army I could and attacked his Capital to stop the ship but failed.
   
   • In retrospect here's what I realize I should have done... After the loss I realized this was a huge error and for learning purposes I reloaded to try and address it. I realized picking a fight with the biggest guy in the school yard was a mistake. I redirected my army towards Gilgamesh and he capitulated in relatively short order. Over this period Justin finished and launched his spaceship. By this point I had a much bigger army then my previous attack on Justin but still couldn't conquer him completly. As soon as Gilgamesh capitulated Justin and Hannibal declared war. I redirected my whole force at Constantinople. A quick landfall, Conquered and Razed it (Spaceship cancelled) and then backed out. By this point I just needed to wait a few turns for the next UN Vote and secured victory. Replaying this section was worth it for learning.

Looking for a few opinions.

1. I believe my real issue was my start (i understand this is often the case of new players) and hamstringing myself by expanding to fast. In past games I've often not expanded fast enough and I think I over compensated. This caused the stopping of research. I've read about not decreasing reasearch below 50% for expansion. Is there a benchmark you guys use or rules that guide you on expansion pace?
2. Based on comments from this and the first spoiler thread it seems most people have attacked Justin or Hannibal first and not Brennus. I felt it easier to hit him given access over land. (I was behind on tech as well) Are there specific reasons you guys crossed the water?

Open to any suggestions to improve gameplay. I'm going to watch some of AbsoluteZero's gameplay footage before next GOTM. Hoping for a win!

 

[Anysense]

@LANCE1313, 7 cities by 975 BC is a good pace, you just need to build healthy economy to sustain further expansion. Here you can simply build the GLH very early thanks to strong coastal capital, in other circumstances it may not be that straightforward. I expanded to 10 cities before 1 AD and captured 2 more from Hannibal and research was fine, as it should be - this is a fairly generous map.

Killing Justinian on Noble is a no brainer, but on Deity its best to keep him friendly (easy enough with shared religion). And that is the main reason why I gave up - there is no prospect of expanding much further, it is too inefficient with all the water and snaky continents.

 

[LANCE1313]

@Anysense, Thank for the reply.

1) My 7 cities stretched all the way up along the snaky continent to where it widened and Brennus was. I think I took up too much area and lost too much to maintenance costs. All of my cities were 5 squares away from each other. I think I should have put them a bit closer and shared a few tiles.

2) You mentioned killing Justin as a no brainer. I wondered why did everyone hit the enemies across the water (Hannibal and Justin) and didn't go up to hit Brennus over land? You wouldn't have needed boats and presumably you could hit him earlier that way.

Sorry if this is obvious stuff.

 

[Anysense]

1) Yes, you probably did overstretch there. Settling distant cities too early hurts your economy.
2) Both Justinian and Hannibal are very close - you only need a couple of galleys to cross the channel. And you need them to settle on other continents and to keep barb galleys in check, anyway. On the other hand, Brennus is so far away that it would not cross my mind to attack him until I'm done with Hannibal at least. Besides, he is a notorious unit-spammer; one of the worst actually, just not as aggressive as Monty or Genghis Khan.

 

[LANCE1313]

Good to know. The experience to know the subtleties of each AI personality will come in time.

Thanks again for the insight

 

[Xcalibrator]

Did you have fun?

No. No, I did not. I took the Deity save, and deeply regretted it when both Carthage and the Celts attacked me. I lost one city across the water to the east west but held off Carthage when he came for my elephant city to the south, and got peace. Brennus, however, just kept coming and it was clear I'd never recover enough to have a hope of winning, so I retired and submitted. In that game, Justy had 15 cities by 1 AD!

I tried again, this time putting more effort into expanding north to block Brennus, and was in better shape at 1AD, with 439 in score, 5th of 7 known, with Justy at 766 and a mere 11 cities. That very turn, however, Brennus attacked with another massive stack and I quickly lost a city. He was soon threatening two more cities at once--things looked grim so I decided to try BOTM 192, which should be much more fun because it's..... ah, Deity.

But seriously, I do appreciate our comrades making these games available, and I do enjoy them, even when I'm getting my butt kicked, so thank you!

 

[Conquistador 63]

First submission in 5 years. Nice to come back just in time for a Noble level GOTM, seemed adequate for my current skill level
Conquered Hannibal and acquired 3 vassals (Brennus, Gilgamesh and Pericles) on my way to a UN victory in 1410, but the real challenge was to submit my game a few hours before deadline.

 

[Fine_Distinction]

First submission in 5 years. Nice to come back just in time for a Noble level GOTM, seemed adequate for my current skill level
Conquered Hannibal and acquired 3 vassals (Brennus, Gilgamesh and Pericles) on my way to a UN victory in 1410, but the real challenge was to submit my game a few hours before deadline.

Well done and welcome back! Sadly, I somehow have even less time than normally to play now. Another game not finished ;(

 

[shakabrade]

I had effectively 5 hours to play this one so I took the Contender and went for culture (traditional one, not espionage). I killed Hannibal to get to 9 cities for shrines, painfully built Parthenon, National Epic, Sistine with no Marble. I probably could have taken the Marble with the remaining Praets and Cats but invading the Greece would involve planning and execution I was not prepared for. After pressing end turn for many times, I got to win in 1720AD. Probably my first cultural game in last 8 years. So, if everyone else were normal and said that this map has no cottageble land and no Marble and thought going for Culture was bad, I get the award.

 

[Anysense]

Someone might have noticed that there was fair amount of seafood on the map and tried Sushi-powered Culture.

 

[shakabrade]

Someone might have noticed that there was fair amount of seafood on the map and tried Sushi-powered Culture.

Yeah, that could yield a better date. And so much more effort, if that happens, it is well deserved.