[BTS] BOTM 201 Final Spoiler - Game Submitted

Noble Zarkon

Elite Quattromaster - Immortal (BTS)
Super Moderator
Hall of Fame Staff
GOTM Staff
Supporter
Joined
Sep 6, 2012
Messages
7,421
Location
Gibraltar

Use this thread to tell us what happened in your game, particularly anything after 1000AD
Did you win?

Reading Requirements

If you are participating in BOTM 201 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.
 
Continuing with my Contender save:

At 1000 AD, I had just declared war on Achilles. He was eliminated in 1440, with five cities falling to me and the final one to Zeus. In the meantime, Arges/Brontes made contact in 1380. Arges willingly traded maps, which gave me the circumnavigation bonus, despite not having built a single ship. :crazyeye:

I had decided to try for a Cultural Victory. We managed to beat the Cyclopes team to Liberalism in 1535, and I remembered to ask Zeus to switch to researching something different, so that I got to choose Nationalism as the bonus tech. Starting a golden age, I switched to HR, Free Speech, Caste System and Pacifism and started working on generating as many Great Artists as possible. I was hoping to build the Taj Mahal, but Arges beat me to that by seven turns.

Rather than letting my military go to waste, I did fight one more war with Sarpedon, taking a useful border city. Zeus failed his effort to take a second city, and since I didn't want any more of my production going into reinforcements, I made peace in 1630.

Usually, I despise trying for Cultural victories, because shifting the economy to generating culture points leaves your military becoming hopelessly obsolete. Two big factors mitigated that in this game. First, the relationship bonuses with the Cyclopes team made them too friendly to consider attacking us, despite their dominant power. (They even signed a Defense Pact with us.) Second, my tech continued to benefit from the research Zeus did. Since we were totally lacking in the religious bonuses, I was hoping that tech would advance to the point that would finally let me build some cultural bonuses, like broadcast towers.

I did manage to found Creative Construction in 1892, putting a low-odds GE I had ended up with to good use. But, ultimately, the advantages that the Cyclopes had was too great to overcome. They finished the Apollo Project, built the Space Elevator, and then finished and launched their spaceship in 1936. Then--having nothing better to do while the ship was in transit--they declared war against Hera and used a handful of tactical nukes to make the invasion by their already superior forces that much easier.

I culture-bombed the 11 Great Artists I had accumulated, which was enough to get two cities to legendary, but I would have needed five more to finish the job for the third city. Arges/Brontes achieved their Space Race Victory in 1946.

I don't know if there's anything I could have done differently to tip the balance in this game. I did have one Great Prophet that went unused. If, instead of using my GE for Creative Construction, I could have used those two great people for one more golden age. That would have let me generate some more great people points, but I doubt it could have gotten me five more GAs. I think the advantages the Cyclopes had were just too much to overcome. Maybe if there had been another AI on their continent, it would have slowed down their juggernaut.

Anyway, I'll be interested to see how everyone else has tackled this challenge. Thanks for the game!

Civ4ScreenShot0023.JPG
 
Continuing from the 1000AD save.

Achilles is quickly dispatched by 1060AD. I was amassing another army in the meanwhile to attack Sarpedon. Declared in 1070AD. I captured Knossos, Athens and Babylon by 1270AD. Zeus was about to capture Mycenae, but I did't want him to have it as I planned to build FP in close-by Babylon. So I sued for peace (my troops also needed some rest). 10 turns later I restarted the war and soon in 1450AD Sarpedon is history. It's still not too late yet so I started a war with Hera, who did have longbows and I only had a few maces mixed with swords and elephants. I am mostly focused on economy at the moment so just slowly rolled over her with mostly my original army plus some reinforcements from the Heroic Epic city Konya. I caught a lucky break -- 1535AD Hera completed Versailles in Heliopolis! I was about to whip FP in Babylon at this time, but upon learning this Babylon stopped building FP and we quickly captured Heliopolis. I then quickly whipped FP in the former people of the bushes, yielding about +20 per turn savings. I thought about going after the titans and building FP there, but ended up deciding that's too much effort without necessarily enough gain -- it's already 1535AD and I was in a crazy tech race with the Cyclopes and can't afford spending time doing that. I would end up appreciating that choice. The Hera war went slowly until 1660AD when we sued for peace after she was reduced to only 2 icy cities and 1 overseas city -- I didn't have enough Galleons to transport my army and was getting killed by war weariness by that time, so I stopped. In hindsight, might be worth getting a few more units to finish up that war faster -- I was OK but Zeus was heavily delayed by building big unit stacks...

On the research front, Education was discovered 1140AD with a GS, and Oxford quickly whipped at 1230AD. We discovered optics at 1270AD and met Cyclopes at around 1330AD. We decided to go the route of Philosophy - Nationalism - Constitution and then get Democracy as the free tech, to construct Statue of Liberty which is very useful in this huge continent with 20+ cities. Was supposed to grab Taj as a side benefit -- but damn, I guess I still didn't know how to time the tech completion in the team game -- I completed Nationalism and Zeus immediately started building Taj, so I didn't even get a chance to start building Taj myself...

My survival plan is to deny Cyclopes Education as long as possible since they tech wayyyy too fast! I managed to do that until about 1555AD and won both races to Liberalism and Economics. Meanwhile we managed to trade for Guilds, Printing Press, half of Banking, and Engineering, mostly using the techs from the Philosophy-Nationalism-Constitution line. By that time, with universities + Oxford we were teching at about the same rate with these guys without Education. But then educated Cyclopes were such a tech juggernaut! I forgot to target Physics first and researched Chemistry, and then realized the time we used to get Chemistry+Physics, they already managed to get 4 techs --- Scientific Method, Communism, Democracy and Physics --- we got to Physics at the same turn Cyclopes did but the GS somehow went to them (probably because I didn't make it in my turn, and Zeus is behind Cyclopes in the ordering). Undoubtedly, I was very worried. So I beelined to Sushi and Superconductors, hoping to regain tech parity. Meanwhile, I denied Cyclopes Biology for as long as possible. Gladly, they decided to start attacking the Titans, which slowed down their crazy tech rate significantly. Finally, I felt more comfortable around 1810, when I traded Rocketry for Assembly Line. At this point we have Superconductors and Genetics, while they have Radio, Communism and Fascism, and that's about even. From there on, I was able to build up a 3-tech advantage over them when we launched. Meanwhile, they fought a long war with the Titans and finally wiped them out in 1888, right after we launched. We soon built SDI and signed a defensive pact among the fear of getting nuked, as I saw in several GOTM 200 spoilers.

On to the space race, this was the most strange space race I've ever done in that I was not building many parts at all... Zeus basically took over on more than half of the parts. At the very end I was still not understanding how to time the techs properly, so I didn't get to build the Dam at all (Zeus started it, then Cyclopes were faster), and when we discovered Fusion, Zeus immediately took the lead to build both the engines. I just started a GA for those with 3 GPs! I could have started the GA earlier or burned the GS and GM otherwise, had I known this beforehand. Zeus was reasonably fast so I ended up not being too worried. But I just realized I haven't yet spread Mining Inc. to him, and so I did that and gifted all my metals to him to get him even faster. But.... he paused his production of one of the engines half-way to build a Mining Inc. Executive!! Damn... Gladly he reverted back to the engine right after that so I only lost 2 turns from this indicent.

Finally after all these delays we launched in 1886. Space victory in 1903. Had I managed to build Taj myself and not lost 2 turns from Zeus building that executive, or not botching Physics, this would be before 1900.

When I submitted the game, it somehow showed Spaceship loss to Ottomans in 1903... It must be Zeus! Hope that would turn out OK?


upload_2020-11-25_19-34-17.png
 
Can't believe I got to the end of this one. I really shouldn't have, with all the other stuff I ought to have done instead.

Wanted to take the punks on militarily, and it may have been possible if I had the time for it. Then again, they suddenly teched at supersonic speed, so it's also possible it would have been suicidal, unless the timing was just right.

Alas, i had to lean on Diplo again. Ended up being slower than the 200 game, which surprised me a bit as I think we were ahead of that game. Perhaps the lack of enough GS for bulbing purposes slowed us down, despite managing to win Lib this time (Communism).
Spoiler :
BOTM 201-1775AD Diplo win.jpg


PS: For some reason the summary screen after submitting has the wrong information. It states we lost to space to the Ottomans (huh?) and the score is very low.
 
Crazy, crazy game. In terms of being both a challenge and unusual things happening. Certainly worth playing a 2nd time. Thumbs up for the creators.:thumbsup:

Played as Poseidon/Olympians. I won't ''spam'' the 0Ad and 1000Ad thread. Most interesting things happened after 1000AD.

Up to 0AD.
The late worker is unpleasant, but gives great freedom to unlock multiple techs. The fish, horse and lake is workable enough to start developing. After the.jungle misery is gone ±1500BC Poseidon has a very nice land and expands to 7 cities. Zeus meanwhile holding of the barbs is the proper distribution of tasks. He loses settlers/workers until I secure his south and has a couple of cities too at 0AD.

Up to 1000AD.
Colossus and GLib built. Unfortunately my unit to gather 10XP against barbs dies, losing a 98% battle, so no HE before the 1st war. I develop an army of Cats/WE/HA/Swords. Sarpeidon presses my borders and is a bigger threat than Alex, so he is my first target. Right before 1000AD I reach Civil Service (as if I'm playing Cronos again)

Up 10 1500AD Cleaning the continent
And this is where things start to get tensed.

I DoW Sarpeidon and he appears a massive unit spammer. He has mostly hill cities. Cats are eaten like candy. It's a slow process with war weariness rising quickly. The first 4 cities each yield a GG. Then things finally go somewhat easier. Though heavily needing peace myself (±1400AD), I leave him a tundra city and his port southeast (it would drown in Nile culture).

While I move my army to Alex' territory he raises a red fist. Despite his pathetic army he DoWs and invades Zeus. This clears the way for me to roll him up rather easy, which is done by ±1550AD.
I leave the Nile People in peace. I want to turn my attantion to Cyclopes now.

Somewhat earlier, around ±1350AD the Cyclopes find us. I just had a golden age that I used to reach Edu with help of some bulbs + put up Oxford and was about to finish Engi. So there was actually tech parity between us with a lot of tech trade potential, and also with Hera. I pick up Printing Press with a bulb and make sure I have a comfortable headstart on Liberalism. By the time I trade away Edu. I've gotten Music/Drama/Philo/Feud/Guilds/Banking/Compass/Optics.
I'm in tip top shape now and switch to secure Eco too. Though so are Cyclopes. I have vision on their tech rate. After finishing Astro they appear capable to do Lib in 2 turns!! So I finish it 1T earlier 1500AD, taking Nat. Then same thing with Eco. They need 2T and I get it 1T earlier, pffffew. Of course they move to Nat next and finish it, while I'm half way Taj. But I got that one too.

Up to 1700AD Tech race against the Cyclopes
All this time I need to prepair a solid invasion force, cause my next targets are the Cyclopes. I don't see them growing their forces, so that looks promising.
I no longer trade techs for a while. The pace would be too fast. With help of Taj I head for Communism and Physics first. SP and airships both useful and I want to deny Cyclopes the GP, and I have some GS left to bulb this path. Then get Steel/Rifling/MilTrad and upgrade my 70unit army of knights/trebs /janissary. The cyclopes blast forwards faster than I do, but are very much focused on peaceful techs like Corp/Demo/Steam. I loose vision on their teching because they smack a casual 200EP at me.
So is this a peaceful time? Not entirely. An age of barb privateers in the middle of my navy built up is somewhat disturbing.

In my Cronos game I thought 150gpt tradegold was alot. Well Zeus can do a lot better than that:

Spoiler :

Civ4ScreenShot0018.JPG

Eventually he does a little bit over 500 gpt


Up to 1820AD. The first Cyclopes war
The turn I want to DoW (1705) and invade Arges in his northeast (it's the shortest crossover) he appears to have Destroyers. This also means Machine Guns and Cannons, but no Rifling/MilTrad.
My first wave is dropped of next to 2 cities. Frigates bombard them. The second wave secures 90% of the army is on the other side now. 2 Destroyers can only sink 2 frigates and flee in one of the cities I am taking. Arges rushes his army right in front of my cavalry landing, so loses his current reserves immediately.
I still fear a massive empowering act. But that does not happen. I rush forward , anticipating any city could be the last without facing infantry (yes they have Assembly Line). Conquering more than 20 core cities takes a while. I get them all with high Pop, cause they do not switch to slavery. They keep terrorizing me with their emancipation.
Machine Guns without Rifle support appear actually not that scary. Cavalry has decent odds. And cannons do the rest. Brontes is totally inactive on land. Only thing I have to swallow is losing seafood to roaming destroyers.
A big worry is the happiness situation. War weariness of 7 and rising within 5T + emancipation unhappiness means I need to raise the culture slider high. One thing I learn that Theaters are incredibly powerful in such situation (after struggling 10-15T first without of course). Still the whole war I pretty much crawl to just Artillery. I was glad to see Cyclopes suffered likewise.
With 3 cities of Arges to go separating me from Brontes I take a ceasefire in order to demand an unreachable island. And this gives me the space to move my navy from Arges east side, pick up assembled forces from the home land and sail those to land on Brontes' westside in the second war. Stil they amazingly do not have rifling.

Up to 1900AD interbellum - bellum - interbellum
Between the wars I jump forward in tech, also through trade. Hera is of good use for that. The Cyclopes get nothing. I run a golden age both times and adopt emancipation
The second war runs 1840-1874. I was thinking I could take out Arges fast and reduce much of the war weariness that was instantly back. The very last city however Brontes awoke and kept reinforcing his teammate. What started as a minor diversion eventually absorbed my entire (eastern) army. And now they have infantry/tanks/marines. My artillery and airships have to save me from losing many units.
When I finally do eliminate Arges 1854 war weariness does not drop (of course it doesn't). I move on to take cities from Brontes until I decide this will go much faster if I modernize my troops. I should have a clear better tech rate now. And I have another golden age that would be wasted when running a high culture slider.

Final decades
The third and last war against Brontes is fast. I just kick him out of his home continent. He can keep his cities on the Titan continent. I'm close to domination now. I have some turns left that I use to attack the Titans. This is just a logistic exercise. They have longbows at best and are elimininated before I reach victory.

Victory map, see map lower right corner
Spoiler :

Civ4ScreenShot0022.JPG

 
Top Bottom