[BTS] BOTM 200 First Spoiler - 1AD

[Noble Zarkon]

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Use this thread to tell us what happened in your game, up to 1AD. Which save did you pick? How have the barbarians been?

Reading Requirements
If you are participating in BOTM 200, then you MUST NOT read this thread unless EITHER

• You have reached at least 1 AD in your game, OR
• You have submitted your entry

Posting Restrictions

• Do not disclose ANY events or information gained post 1 AD.
• Do not reveal your final result if that happened after 1 AD.
• Do not discuss the location of resources that may not show up before 1 AD (Iron is OK, coal and oil are not)
• Do not post any savegame file from the game. Discussions and screenshots are fine but not actual games

 

[Tobiyogi]

I was not sure which save to play, and then I could not resist to play my all-time favorite civ in double version..
So it's the sweet Arges- from-"China" start.
To be honest, I just wanted to have a look at the Arges map and try out the teaming for a couple of turns, because that option doesn't seem to be available on Mac Steam.
But I never went out of that game, did not restart or reload and haven't seen the other two options so far, so I hope it's okay.

When I got Henge and Oracle (took MC for my IND leader), I seriously started thinking about the "impossible" cultural approach. So after poly/priesth, my techpath was like IW, WRI, math, sailing, Calendar, aest, lit, drama, music.

Pavilions have been whipped everywhere straight after getting Drama (not only in my 3 cities, for the flavor)
Wonders which I have built before 1Ad are: Mids, HG, MoM, GLib, ToA (only for the culture), Parthenon, Sistine and N. epic (not in the capital).
Got CS at 75Bc, but forgot to switch. Shame on me, Qin loves Bureau though. Mao/Brontes switched immediately!
Interestingly, he can also benefit from all my wonders, like getting monuments, going into Rep, etc...

I think culture is possible, my next target are the Shwegady for the only applicable "religious" civic and the Taj. Then probably Banking, because I have only domestic TR anyway, maybe SoL, and eventually the Eiffel Tower.

Met only Hera who came by workboat from the north. She gave me her map and I can see also the plains people. They seem pretty behind with ugly land.

I like that map so far!

I think we got a bit too many units regarding that we already had the Great Wall, so I fogbusted next to Brontes to spare him trouble. Got several Guerrilla 2 archers

Edit: in retrospective I believe that Brontes was also protected by TGW as he benefits from every wonder and vice-versa, because he built Colossus also for me.

 

[WastinTime]

he built Colossus

I managed to get Colossus. I didn't realize anyone would get it before 1AD, but I suppose that's only cus you oracled MC.

Wow, what a blast! It's insane down in Cronos land.
about 1100 BC in this pic...

Minimap

• WastinTime
• Sep 20, 2020

Cronos land

As we all know, you can block all barbs to the capital with one unit. But that means no matter where they're born, they beeline for poor Atlas. And our land is one big barb spawning ground.
I think he has 2 cities and 4 archers at 1AD. Everything else died.
At least he's not dragging me down with a lot of city maintenance And he gets the benefits of my GreatLighthouse/Colossus like @Tobiyogi said.

There doesn't appear to be any way to reach anyone without optics/Astro.

Health is scarce. The 3 seafoods, deer, and a couple sheep. That's it, and recall -- no fresh water in the capital. And no forest-health.
Luckily, you can just ask your teammate for anything for free--even if they only have 1, so I got an early Deer and fish.
Happy is also scarce. Just Silver & Fur. But then! I popped a free gems!! in city #2...

City2Gems

• WastinTime
• Sep 20, 2020

Notice how I have 4 units blocking all access to this city so no barbs bother me.

I had to settle that island next-- for trade routes, so still no barbs can touch me.
I prayed a border pop here would give me access to the north, but no luck.

I'm on Compass. (I've never needed a harbor so badly.)
Machinery and then Optics are next so I can send out a caravel to open tech trading. I just hope every other AI is not locked into permanent war with me.

 

[Tobiyogi]

I managed to get Colossus. I didn't realize anyone would get it before 1AD, but I suppose that's only cus you oracled MC.

e.

At this point I was not completely aware yet that we share every new tech and wonder, so I didn't think of Colossus at all ( having only 2 coastal cities) But he did and yes, he built it so early because I oracled this.

With IND leaders, I love to get early MC rather for the 2-pop-whip forges in most of the cities. Not only production boost but also happiness with gems f.example.

Good to see you have got gems too

 

[Folket]

Playing the challenger save things do not look good. Three cities and was to occupied fighting barbs to get the great lighthouse which is really going to hurt. I picked up ironworking as it is needed for astronomy and boy did I regret not getting it earlier. Two iron in my territory could have made a massive difference earlier.

 

[WastinTime]

With IND leaders, I love to get early MC

Agree. And in case you didn't know Cronos is IND too. I didn't know that til I opened the save.
One drawback of IND is that your teammate will build a lot of mostly useless Triremes.

Two iron in my territory could have made a massive difference earlier

Yeah, but after (I settled on) copper, I just gave my Iron to my partner. He (finally) has a horse, so I think I'll take that for 10 turns. Need some axe killers.
Then I'll un-block all my cities and let the barbs come my way. And I decided (too late) I should go and de-fog the entire continent so we can live in peace.
I was expecting barb cities to pop up and the invasions to stop, but no.
I was wondering if my teammate died does my tech cost drop. Probably not. Anyone test that?

@Tobiyogi : question. When Brontes was building Colossus, could you build at the same time? or is that blocked?

 

[Tobiyogi]

Agree. And in case you didn't know Cronos is IND too. I didn't know that til I opened the save.
One drawback of IND is that your teammate will build a lot?

I haven't even tried Colossus (probably it was never proposed in that coastal cities anyway), so pretty sure it's blocked because later in that game, Broadway was not available while Brontes built it. I could only click on Rockn Roll. What's interesting, resources are not "shared", he never built a single CKN while I was claiming the Iron.

 

[WastinTime]

so pretty sure it's blocked because later in that game, Broadway was not available while Brontes built it.

Take that as a warning. I've seen where you have one spaceship part left to build and your teammate starts it in a coastal city with no hammers.

I think there's a trick here. For example, let's say you want to build G.Lighthouse. If you have sailing and on the last turn of Masonry, you research something else and let your teammate finish masonry, then you get first shot at starting GLH.

 

[Tobiyogi]

I think there's a trick here. For example, let's say you want to build G.Lighthouse. If you have sailing and on the last turn of Masonry, you research something else and let your teammate finish masonry, then you get first shot at starting GLH.

I adopted that trick in order to get my free GP, because one time, Brontes got it. It was past 1AD, so i cannot tell details.

 

[WastinTime]

It was past 1AD, so i cannot tell details.

but generic advice is not a spoiler. You're saying, for example, if you're researching Communism or Physics, you tell your teammate to switch to something else so you get the free spy/GS.
Good reminder.

 

[nocho]

I took the contender save and I must say that the first part of the game was pretty brutal with the waves of barb activity. I don't know if it was the mapmaker's thought as well, but I sort of imagined them being the Titans, so before Zeus could address the issues with the other gods he would have to establish himself first by winning this Titanomachy. For anyone interested, please read Stephen Fry's wonderful Mythos which makes for an excellent and entertaining read about it.

Anyway, in the game I decided to follow a cautious tech path, which at least has allowed me to survive. First fishing so our team mate would have a food resource, then went ultra defensively in hunting, archery, AH, mining, bronze, iron. The latter also so Poseidon could cut the jungles from the gems and the pigs. The first wave of barbs was by far the worst. The capital was never under serious threat, but the improvements around the capital were nearly all burned down. Worse still was the loss of my only worker at what must have been very low odds. It was defended by a combat archer in a forest, and a barb archer killed it from across a river. What a marksmanship!

It took quite a while before getting the first settler out. I replenished the lost worker first with two new ones and also had to of course invest in archers to defend improvements and the new city site. Finally was ready to go when IW was just in, so settled next to the iron to the south. At that time the flow of barbs (Titans!) was getting lesser though, as the AIs around started to expand as well. Actually some borders from the people of the plains and bushes started to be in sight. So when the first metal units came out I didn't really need them that much anymore. So from there I just started churning settlers and tried to grab anything half decent. Happy to have grabbed a site on the south coast near Poseidon with jumbos, cow, fish and oasis. It should have, or has, a horse tile too, but curiously this tile is shared with a city of Poseidon and while my cultural percentage is higher, the tile is his.

At 1AD I'm at 8 cities, Poseidon 5. Most worrying is the tech situation, though I guess we'll catch up soon when the land is developed a bit more and when we can build research (some turns left on alpha). The bush people are plotting, but not overly worried about them. Can't build much else than units and hammams anyway.

By the way, it's funny that Poseidon's 4th and 5th cities are nameless...

 

[Noble Zarkon]

By the way, it's funny that Poseidon's 4th and 5th cities are nameless...

Oh, I assumed they would revert to normal naming once they ran out of the preset list!!

 

[Powerfaker]

Unfortunately I ran into a Runtime Error, so no submission possible. I had to reload a few turns back to continue, which I will keep doing as long as I can. My 2 testgames with teams both ended this way, so it wasn't that much of a surprise. Apparently this Error is sensitive to the teams setting. (and it's not a new problem to me, seems my BtS version in combination with ...? can do this)

I chose the ice start and basically I have no expectations about winning or loosing, just curious how far I can get with this.

At 1AD I have 5 cities. Expanded to city2 exactly where WT did. From there south at deer/fur and the island. Another expansion next to cap cause I built GLH (750BC). Also built Colossus (75BC, without copper). 2 more turns into Moai and I can finish it with OF from another settler in the cap (decay of hammers turns up extremely quick by the way). I'm expecting a GM within 10T, or a tiny chance of GE (how nice would that be to bulb Mach). Just finished Math and started Compass.

To my shame I must admit my team mate expanded to more cities than I did (6), despite taking all barbs in the first half. Well done Atlas.
For a long time I had no problems processing my own share of incoming barbs. Until just 3T ago when some Hercules with a bow killed both my triple hill promoted archers. (like a true hero he died on the 2nd, a coward warrior finished the job)

So next turnset I will be busy rebuilding forces, fill up with more cities and crawl to optics/astro. The tech cost is +35% (±) for teams I've noticed. Double cost would have been a real killer. The impression I get from other posts is that the AI tech pace is not (much) faster than usual. Gives good hope of gaining parity when I meet them.

 

[Folket]

Unfortunately I ran into a Runtime Error, so no submission possible. I had to reload a few turns back to continue, which I will keep doing as long as I can. My 2 testgames with teams both ended this way, so it wasn't that much of a surprise. Apparently this Error is sensitive to the teams setting. (and it's not a new problem to me, seems my BtS version in combination with ...? can do this)

I chose the ice start and basically I have no expectations about winning or loosing, just curious how far I can get with this.

At 1AD I have 5 cities. Expanded to city2 exactly where WT did. From there south at deer/fur and the island. Another expansion next to cap cause I built GLH (750BC). Also built Colossus (75BC, without copper). 2 more turns into Moai and I can finish it with OF from another settler in the cap (decay of hammers turns up extremely quick by the way). I'm expecting a GM within 10T, or a tiny chance of GE (how nice would that be to bulb Mach). Just finished Math and started Compass.

To my shame I must admit my team mate expanded to more cities than I did (6), despite taking all barbs in the first half. Well done Atlas.
For a long time I had no problems processing my own share of incoming barbs. Until just 3T ago when some Hercules with a bow killed both my triple hill promoted archers. (like a true hero he died on the 2nd, a coward warrior finished the job)

So next turnset I will be busy rebuilding forces, fill up with more cities and crawl to optics/astro. The tech cost is +35% (±) for teams I've noticed. Double cost would have been a real killer. The impression I get from other posts is that the AI tech pace is not (much) faster than usual. Gives good hope of gaining parity when I meet them.

Sounds like a bug in the HoF mod. Maybe there is someone you can send the save file and they may resolve the bug for the future.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Unfortunately I ran into a Runtime Error, so no submission possible. I had to reload a few turns back to continue, which I will keep doing as long as I can. My 2 testgames with teams both ended this way, so it wasn't that much of a surprise. Apparently this Error is sensitive to the teams setting. (and it's not a new problem to me, seems my BtS version in combination with ...? can do this)

That doesn't disqualify you from submitting if it was a genuine game crash. You just replay those turns as close as you can remember to exactly what you did first time, and PM the mapmaker to say what happened.

 

[Powerfaker]

Sounds like a bug in the HoF mod. Maybe there is someone you can send the save file and they may resolve the bug for the future.

Once the Error message appears I cannot save or print-screen or anything, just press ''oke'' or close message, after which I'm back in Windows with Civ program closed.
And yes as far as I remember only under HoF settings I've run into this. Maybe due to Buffy, or the Lock modified assets setting. One guaranteed appearance is after a few dozen map regenerations.
For playing maps under HOF condition I (may) have a workaround. If I play a short first turnset, then continue another day (ie after computer has been shut down) I seem to be able to avoid it => all my BOTM games since I started March this year came to a good end this way. Except this last one, but as mentioned I also got this in my (very short) test games, hence my suspicion about team game setting.

That doesn't disqualify you from submitting if it was a genuine game crash. You just replay those turns as close as you can remember to exactly what you did first time, and PM the mapmaker to say what happened.

Ah, that would be nice. I've moved on to 700AD, without further trouble. So I suppsoe I'm not out of the competiton yet (apart from choosing the Ice-start )

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Ah, that would be nice. I've moved on to 700AD, without further trouble. So I suppsoe I'm not out of the competiton yet (apart from choosing the Ice-start )

Yeah, based on what you've said in this thread, it sounds like you'd still be eligible to submit - although the final decision to include an entry always rests with the mapmaker, based on examining your actual submitted save. In general we're not as strict about crashes as the HOF guys are (I guess they can afford to be stricter because in a HOF game, if you crash, you just roll out a new starting save - in GOTM you can't do that, and it'd be a bit mean if suffering a crash meant you couldn't submit that month).

 

[Fippy]

Good luck everybody on the Challenger, i did quit early cos no food within ~15 tiles felt a bit like wasting time (no pun intended WT ).

 

[SittinDown]

I chose Contender - with Zeus.

I had a little trouble with barbarians at the start - and had to sacrifice a few tile improvements, but the horses helped. I wound up getting them under control, and then rexxing pretty hard. my friend Posiedeon isn't doing that well though, and I had to lend him a few workers to help him chop out his jungles and improve his tiles that got beat by barbarians. Oddly, Posideon prioritized building a road all the way up to me really early - but I guess that was pre iron-working.

I wound up using the Great Artist to culture bomb to capture a good barbarian city, and I took another barbarian city. Achilles to my South West looked pretty weak, and didn't seem to have metals, so I attacked him and took a city, but I think he must have made a trade, because he whipped a sword and a spear the next turn, so I wound up cease firing with 1 city taken.

It's 1 AD - and I have 11 cities. My economy is pretty bad though, I'm running -7 GPT at 0%. I have a bunch of cottages on 2 river cities, and am running some scientists to limp my way to Alphabet, which nobody has got yet.

All of the wonders seem to be built by an unknown rival, so I didn't get to do any fail gold yet at all, and the stone and marble haven't been used for anything.

 

[ZPV]

I played Contender.
I started with Fishing-AH-Mining-BW-IW-Pottery-Hunting.
In hindsight, Hunting needed to come earlier so we could hook up Ivory and grow to size 6.
City #2 went for the wheat-horse site, and city #3 got copper and iron.

Then HBR (1120BC) and Archery.
At 1AD I have 12 cities, Alphabet (traded from Egypt), Mathematics and Currency.
Greece (People of the Plains) is dead.
Egypt (People of the Nile) has no metal, but does have Great Lighthouse and Stonehenge! I am currently at war with them

I think my ally has been a net positive - the additional beakers probably cancelled out the extra tech cost, but trading for Gems instantly was a big bonus.
He also managed to kill one Greek spearman for me.
He has 5 decently-developed cities.

Happiness is an issue - I have several Hammams, and am currently researching to Monarchy to get into Hered Rule.