[BTS] BOTM 202: Joao, Prince - Final Spoiler - Game Submitted

[DynamicSpirit]

BOTM 202: Joao, Prince - Final Spoiler - Game Submitted

Use this thread to tell us what happened in your game, particularly anything after 1AD
Did you win?

Reading Requirements
If you are participating in BOTM 202 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.

 

[kcd_swede]

I went for conquest/domination, because, well, maybe one day nobody else does and I'll win one.

I was suprised that circumnavigation was possible without optics. I went quickly for the Great Lighthouse and got it. It helped that I built Maoi Statues in the capitol first, right after settling on a nearby stone (nearby island). I built a lot of galley's, mostly becuase of barbarian galleys being so annoying. There was a lot of room to settle, and a very short supply of pre-calendar happiness resources. Horses were fine, but by the time they would be useful I had high culture defenses to contend with in my target civs... so mainly went for metals which were annoyingly far away. Once I found iron, I still needed catapults. All in all, it took me a long time to get a GSci to bulb optics, so Carracks were not all that decisive (Galleons came less than 10t later).

AI is awful at amphibious war, and my rivals generally never got astronomy, so it was just a lot of logistics. I took all of China first (maybe 3 or 4 cities) then all of Romans (another 4 or 5 cities). Built the Forbidden Palace in Beijing iirc. Did those two with swords/maces and catapults... trebs at the end of Rome.

No Oracle or CS sling because Incans were wonder-hogging everything. So priority was taking all of the Incan cities on their original continent (maces/trebs/knights) and then took them vassal. All this takes a lot of time just moving units from one part of the map to another.

Portugal and the Dutch capitulate quickly after taking their biggest/best cities. Cannons, muskets, cuirs, cavalry, rifles.

Now its about 1600 AD and all hope of a fastest finish is gone. All realistic hope, anyhow. So I did a golden age and farmed out a GMerch to found Sushi and try to milk a high score. I should have done a whole bunch of new settling at that point but just got lazy again. So as I spread sushi and take Ethiopian cities, I watch my "score by winning this turn". I got it up to 45000 (from about 32000 before sushi) before it started declining, whence I accept capitulation. Nobody got gunpowder or even education, except me.

Spoiler Results :

Conquest victory for Portugal in 1900AD, score 46000 and change.

 

[Powerfaker]

Moving on from 1AD

My intention this game was going for the UN diplo vic. After BOTM200 this seems ''serving mustard after the meal'' (Dutch expression), but well, so far I've only accidentilly hit this vic. It's time I go pursue this more actively, and this game seems a good opportunity.

........ Especially since my first GP 25AD is a GE !! Well, that's one issue solved before it could become one. I have a GE to hurry the UN. Now the issue becomes not to get another one . I also have confu to build relations with Zara, Huayana and Mao. So the vic goal is definitely set.

75AD I finish Colossus. 325AD I finish both Moai and Optics. Some Moai failgold immediately goes into upgrading 3 triremes to carrack.

And now it was time to see what it takes to reach UN.
Well, it's just one straight line from Astro to Mass Media !! No detours required, in theory I just need 6 more techs. Probably common knowledge for everybody, but new to me.
Also, this path is paved with bulb options. GS, GA and GM are all wellcome. And these techs are expensive (25+ turns, current count).
To create the GS bulbs the path Paper to Lib needs to be cleared. Not a problem, Lib can free 8500 beakers Radio, which is a big win-win. Picking up Music seems more or less break even.

A big question was when to start a golden age and which GP to use. An opportunity rose when a 50/50 odds GS falls to the side of a Prophet (due to Oracle).
Annoyed as I was I made the biggest mistake here and settled it for a shrine, a valuable one but what was I thinking here??
The next GP I tried/needed to hurry with some GE points, of course became a GE.
So now I hurried MoM and started a golden age with the GA from Music. I was 1T from finishing Astro and moving onto the Mass Media line. Eventually 2GS helped on the way (and 3rd due to physics), while a GM trade mission financed full power teching. Then I managed to make another mistake, trading to get Feudalism, which opened the Guilds line, which ruined a GM bulb into Mass Media,at the cost of a turn to finish it. I now reached this point 1T after the golden age ended. The GE saved a lovely 17 turns on building UN..

Meanwhile I was expanding, expanding, expanding.
Paper and map trading gets me circumnavigation 450AD.
19 cities get +1 pop from Hanging Gardens 580AD.
It never occurred to me this was a map with HUTS ON, until I found, what I think was the only one present. Too late to make a try for astro bulb. I got barbs instead, eating my worker.
Unfortunately I found a nearby marble site way too late to matter.
When I finished UN and turned my attention to the diplo screen I had expanded a little bit over the vote limit running 35 cities. I corrected this by giving away some cities. Then during the 1st vote my pop grew over the limit again, a waste of 8-10 turns.
The 2nd time I made sure I stopped every growth and got the Diplo Vic. Now that I've noticed how fast this path can be I must say I am much more interested to aim for this more often.

Last but not least the Military might of the Modern Era Portugese:

Spoiler :

 

[Powerfaker]

@kcd_swede
Early Moai was a good move. With a big garrison / Hereditary Rule Lisbon becomes a powerful productive city
Once you work 5+ coastal tiles per city Colossus is stronger than GLH. That could be a reason to avoid Astro and rely on carracks instead (and have Colossus built of course).
Production and movement is tough on these maps, so maybe your progress to 1600AD was not that bad at all. (unless like you mentioned Portugal capitulated )

 

[kcd_swede]

''(unless like you mentioned Portugal capitulated )

Were we playing as Portugal??? Hmmm... maybe it was someone else. Were there Egyptians? Might have been them. I don't think my other vassals were Americans... I think I swallowed America whole at one point, but there was so much tedious sushi milk to deal with, the early game is hard to remember details like that.

In conclusion: I only capitulated my hopes of fast finish.

 

[nocho]

After BOTM200 this seems ''serving mustard after the meal'' (Dutch expression)

I have to still finish BOTM200, so this game was more mustard during the meal for me, though not sure if I'll finish the actual meal.

The mustard actually also took some time to swallow with this tiny islands map. Just for fun I thought it a good idea to punish myself and push for domination. In the end I needed to have a total of 86 cities for that! Also finished with two 1-city vassals (Americans and Dutch), leaving the Incans intact and the others gobbled up.

Like others also got a whole bunch of wonders in Lisbon. Also had Moai there and was fairly lucky to pop an iron in one of the mines in the late BCs. Got Stonehenge, GLH, Oracle (got currency, started a bit late on it and didn't want to gamble CS), Colossus, GLib, Pyramids, MoM and Taj.

To reach domination I had to settle an enormous amount of iceballs, seems a significant percentage of land is directly unreachable on this map type due to ice blockage. The 86 cities did the trick fortunately, when I hit the limit I had another 12 settlers en route to the most unattractive spots of the map. Finished in 1505AD.

 

[MarleysGh0st]

I proceeded with my typical conquest/domination path, but like kcd_swede, I realized I was far too slow to have any chance of winning a medal in those categories. So, after conquering the Chinese in 1525 and the Incans in 1635, I accepted capitulation from Ethiopia in 1695, from the Dutch in 1730, and from the Americans in 1740.

But then...I decided not to finish off the Romans, instead making a very late play for a cultural victory (which might give me my second Epthathlon or secure my title for the Inepthathlon) and possibly a cow. I captured six Roman cities and razed one more, but then signed a peace treaty in 1816, leaving him two useless island cities. I had neglected to aggressively spread religions before my monasteries become obsolete, but Sushi ultimately helped generate seven Great Artists. Wonders like the Eiffel Tower and Hollywood also gave me some of the bonuses I should have gotten from cathedrals. With judicious culture-bombing, Lisbon, Guimares and Beijing all reached legendary status on the same turn, giving me a cultural victory in 1903.

As for the cow, I might have a chance, if nobody else pushed hard for it. With just over 50% of the land, I could have expanded to a few more islands and to those pockets of land in the arctic regions, without crossing the domination threshold. And a few more Sushi executives might have pushed my population higher, but their expense was already costing me on the cultural slider.