BOTM 23 Final Spoiler

[Markus5]

1906 Space victory. I spent most of the end-game fighting with my computer. Is there a reward for most reloads after a crash?

Time for a new computer, me thinks. This one is long in the tooth.

 

[Grifftavian]

Contender Save

First Spoiler Post

Although I built the AP, never got my religion spread to have a chance for Religious Victory

Was to first to Liberalism, took Nationalism for the free tech and built Taj Mahal for free Golden Age Got beat to being first to Physics

Shooting for Cultural Victory. Civics were...

• Representation (ran early from building Pyramids)
• Free Speech (ran Bureaucracy earlier)
• Caste System
• Mercantilism
• Pacifism

Captured 2 Barbarian cities in the west. Kept my troop count pretty low due to running Pacifism civic, guess it made me look pretty weak.

Sitting Bull DOWed me in 1370 AD. He landed some troops near Sparta (Christianity Holy City), but I was able to kill them all. Got a Great General in the process, created a Warlord Maceman with Medic III All I had were Galley at this point, and the only two troops I landed in a Jungle tile in SB's territory were quickly killed. I got SB to give me 170 Gold and his world map for a Peace Treaty in 1535 AD.

While I was at war with SB, Zara and his vassal Qin DOWed me in 1480 AD. However, they never invaded Greek territory, and I captured an Ethiopian City in the west in 1545 AD. Got Zara to give me his World Map for a Peace Treaty immediately after capturing his city.

In 1850 AD, I got the AP to vote and give me another Ethiopian city. This one was in the west next to Egyptian territory. I started building an Odeon & Theater to get some breathing room for this city, and failed to realize that there were no troops to defend this city

This was too good for Ramesses II to pass up, and he DOWed me in 1870 AD. He captured that city, but I captured one of his and razed another. Got Peace Treaty, 70 Gold and his World Map from Ramesses II in 1901 AD.

Ramesses built the UN, but I got elected UN Leader. On the first vote, I called for Diplomatic Victory, but didn't get enough votes

A Chinese city culture flipped to me in 1918 AD. IIRC, I had 17 cities at the end.

All those wars made it take longer than it should have, but I achieved a Cultural Victory in 1918 AD

Very enjoyable game with an interesting map

 

[Conquistador 63]

Contender save, goal fast cultural victory.

Early game:
I settled in place and my short-term objectives were to found 3 cities and get CS from Oracle, built preferrably out of my capital (avoiding GP pollution). Sparta went NW of gold with 2 seafood, Corinth was founded to east by cows/wheat/horses. Academy in 1280BC, Oracled CS in 1080BC.

Late BC's
Early exploration showed that lay of the land made foreign trade routes available, so GLH would be nice. In previous XOTM's I had lakeside cities also benefit from the GLH additional routes, so I decided to built GLH in Corinth (500BC) and ToA in Athens(800BC), also for the GPP, as I thought this is BTS, I can afford the occasional non-GA for shrines or golden ages. This was a huge mistake, not only I got no extra TR's in Athens (BTS must have fixed this "bug"), but also got 4 GProphets to remind me of my stupidity later on. Parthenon and Confu shrine also founded in the BC's. By then I already had my 4 religions, 3 founded by me and Buddhism thanks to Ramesses's missionary.

Up to 500AD: REX and Liberalism beeline
At first I considered building just 6 cities and using Sparta as a legendary GP farm. But the huge availability of lands to the west, and a sweet spot (pun intended) with 2 sugar, banana, rice and seafood made me change my mind. I went for a 10-city empire (last one was flipped from barbs). Wonders in this period were MoM, Sistine and the AP.
I reached Lib in 520AD, took Nat, started a G.Age with a GMerchant, revolted to FS and shut down research.

Late game highlights:
Around 700AD I noticed Qin and S.Bull, who were cautious with me, were showing their fists. Uh Oh. Fired up tech again for 2 turns for MC (trirremes). I built a couple and stationed one of each next to the threatening AI's coastal cities for early warning. In 940AD I gave Music and Paper to Zara, in return of him taking care of Qin for the remainder of the game, and Ramesses promptly joined the fun by Zara's side. Until I finished the game, SB stayed WHEOOHRN. Weirdo. Late wonders were Taj, christian shrine, Sankore and Colossus. With Moai and Colossus, Sparta was surprisingly good, was able to build its 4 cathedrals early.

GP (Mis)Management
Ok, I have read jesusin's excellent cultural guide several times but still haven't learned my lessons. Apart from the free GA from Music, 15 GPersons were born. 1GS, 2GM, 4GP and 8GA. As I settled 1st GM very early and fired a GAge with the 2nd, I never got another non-GA to pair with the GP for a third GAge (2nd one from Taj).
GP generation: 7(!) from Athens: 1GS, 4 GP, 1GA, 1GM; 4 GA from GPfarm - mediocre, took too long to develop it properly; GM+GA from Corinth, 2 GA from minor cities.
GA usage: settled 1 from Music in Corinth, bombed 0-3-4.

Getting legendary.
Corinth got there in 1430AD, Athens in 1440AD and Sparta in 1460AD.

Fun game, thanks DS!

 

[Airny]

You can find my first post at the bottom of the first spoiler thread.

800AD Nationalism done, used a GE for Taj Mahal -> 3rd GA starting. 14 macemen with at least 7XP (upgraded swordsman or vassalage+theo+barracks). I will use galleys and attack 3 cities in first turn, spies are in place soon.

1040AD Most units shipped over and parked at Zara's southern border, rest will be unloaded via ships. Switched to Nationhood and got gunpowder. Globe Theatre in 9 turns, MilTrad in 18. Qin meets my knights instead of cuirassiers, but then I'll upgrade.

1060AD Ramesses wanted to be my vassal...I accepted happily. Never happened before to me, I hope Qin won't hurt him.

1110AD took 3 cities and siege Beijing. Next target is Zara, with whom I traded Nat vs DivRight and Banking. Now I can bulb MilTrad with my 2 GAs and upgrade my knights. I got lucky here, I found out by accident. Research set to 0%.

1200AD China is gone since 1150AD, attacking Zara. +2gpt with 10% espionage, switching to representation.

1280AD Argh, colonial expenses are rediculous, making -120gpt! Only able to hold this when taking new cities . I build Versailles in Beijing and switch to mercantilism.

1340AD Versailles finished. The effect was awesome: from -60gpt I skyrocketed to +125gpt! FP ready in 5turns, assuming another +70gpt. 40% land, Isabella declared war. I can handle 2 wars now, so no problem.

1390AD FP gave me +78gpt. Sitting Bull is a hard nut to crack, got delayed in my attack. After taking his main island, I'll vassalage him and then focus on Isabella.

1510AD 58% land, score is 143k. Collecting my troops near spain. Bombardement with frigates in action. I got a quest "for free" about musketman and could pick a golden age from it! My score is stagnating, I need to end this soon.

1555AD Mh, score is 143k. Liberty statue in 2 turns could really boost my science.

1610AD Took whole spanish empire and gifted two cities to Ramesses for that. I won't be able to gift small cities now, so when borders in post-spain pop, I'll get a domination victory. I decided to go into anarchy last turn to switch to communism and free religion.

1615AD Anarchy was timed badly. I won the game but dropped to 159k, while in 1600AD I had 162k. Hope it won't make a difference in the ranking. I had around 50 cities and research was just before industrialism and electricity.

I guess my score could've gone higher, if I would've switched to max pop/food earlier. Anyways, this game was a big learning experience to me. Thanks again for the lovely map!

 

[mabraham]

First spoiler here

520AD Lit. Capture Memphis.

560AD Finished Moai in wheat cities. Dunno if that was worthwhile.

600AD Ramesses capitulates before I even took his capital.

680AD Double-DOW SB and ZY Got Gunpowder

720AD Took Lalibela

740AD Took Poverty Point

800AD Took Aksum, ZY capitulated

820AD Dowed Izzy for kicks. My army is miles away, but I can hack off some crap cities with a lone swordsman

880AD SB sneak attacked PP, but I took it straight back

940AD Finally SB capitulated. Bleah that took forever :-(

1000AD Dow Hammy. Lose a 99% knight in the opening. Sheesh.

1010AD Izzy capitulates before I take her capital.

1030AD Hammy fights well... he just won about 4 fights on the wrong side of 90% odds... Teched through to Military Science about now

1050AD Got another scientist, so had a golden age

1090AD Babs has lost a few cities, including his capital, but is fighting on. Have burned my navy.

1100AD Had to take over half of Babs' empire. Got the capit now

1110AD Conquest win. I used 7 galleys.

 

[m4gill4]

Fun game. I peacefully expanded to the continent to the west, and got a good city in on Sitting Bull's continent early, which helped me conquer him much later when he attacked me. I had the largest empire and a comfortable tech lead, I'm sure I could have gotten an earlier win if I'd have gone domination, but it's just so much work!

 

[m4gill4]

I'd like to add that I really enjoyed the interesting canal features of this map. It added some welcome variety to the strategic decision making process, and made for some cool naval battles at the various sea-choke-points.

The editing gave the map the qualities that you wouldn't get from any of the standard scripts without breaking the game or making it unfair. You could also accomplish this effect in future games using impassible mountains. Making the map a bit different from the standard map-scripts was a big factor in keeping me entertained enough to actually finish this BOTM for once. Thanks for the effort

 

[noncommutative]

My first post, but I've been reading and playing GOTM for several months now. Lots of fun, but I cheat like crazy with replays so I never submit.

Contender save, goal fast conquest victory.

Settled in place, teched Ag->AnHu->Wh->Sail->Mi->BW
Built Sparta E on the coast by cow+horse+fish, built three chariots at capital.
The second city built a work boat, and whipped a galley.

1880 BC -- China war. Razed Shanghai and captured Beijing with a galley and three chariots.
1800 BC -- China dead. No casualties. Same three chariots heal and get back on the galley. In the meantime, settled two more coastal cities N and S of Athens and built peaceful stuff (granary, library, etc.).
1480 BC -- Native America war. Ignore dog soldiers, go straight for the jugular in capital.
1440 BC -- Native America dead. No casualties. Captured Cahokia, Native America's only city at the time. In the meantime, Athens builds Oracle to discover Metal casting. Whipped forges in big cities to make populace happy and improve output.
1160 BC -- Ethiopia war. Take galley with two chariots directly to Aksum, capture in 1120 BC.
900 BC -- Ethiopia dead. No casualties. The two other cities were lightly defended and razed. In the meantime, Beijing is building an army of swordsmen, and Sparta builds the Collosus.
675 BC -- Egypt war. The same three chariots (promoted to Combat3) from the north capture Thebes.
525 BC -- Egypt dead. The swordsmen from Beijing capture Memphis, Egypt's only other city at the time. One swordsmen and one chariot dead. In the meantime, a galley is snaking up the canal carrying 2 more chariots and 2 more swordsmen. Every turn, 2 units get out, 2 units get in, repeat until they reach Spain.
425 BC -- Babylon war. Two swordsmen from Athens show up in a galley and say hello. The bowmen were strong but stupid, attacking when they should have defended. Babylon captured in 300 BC.
400 BC -- Spain war. The swordsmen carried along the canal razed Madrid in 325 BC.
225 BC -- Spain dead. Two more cities razed.
75 BC -- Babylon dead. Two more cities captured.

50 BC conquest victory. 137594 points.

Once again, I cheated the whole time so I can't submit. Just chiming in to let y'all know what can be done with this map and difficulty. Cheers.

 

[culdeus]

Even reloading 20 time not sure I could do a BC Conquest.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Once again, I cheated the whole time so I can't submit. Just chiming in to let y'all know what can be done with this map and difficulty. Cheers.

Interesting post, and thanks for your honesty. However, I'm not sure that what can be done with constant reloading is going to be representative of what can be done if you play by the rules. If you reload you know exactly where to find the AI, and more importantly you can bias all the battles etc. in your favour by reloading only the battles that didn't work out first time round - thus ensuring that overall odds work in your favour to an extent that would be so unlikely by chance as to be for all practical purposes impossible by playing the game fairly.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

I'd like to add that I really enjoyed the interesting canal features of this map. It added some welcome variety to the strategic decision making process, and made for some cool naval battles at the various sea-choke-points.

The editing gave the map the qualities that you wouldn't get from any of the standard scripts without breaking the game or making it unfair. You could also accomplish this effect in future games using impassible mountains. Making the map a bit different from the standard map-scripts was a big factor in keeping me entertained enough to actually finish this BOTM for once. Thanks for the effort

Thanks, I see a few people have commented on the canals. I was very pleased with them, from what I could judge from test games, though of course you never know how a twist is going to go down with the community until everyone has played the game and the feedback comes in...

 

[noncommutative]

If you reload you know exactly where to find the AI, and more importantly you can bias all the battles etc. in your favour by reloading only the battles that didn't work out first time round - thus ensuring that overall odds work in your favour to an extent that would be so unlikely by chance as to be for all practical purposes impossible by playing the game fairly.

Check, check, and check; a minimal invasion force and constant cheating were key to this strategy, which I learned from Rumsfeld. I was compelled to post because from the caliber of players here, I expect someone will beat that easily without resorting to cheating. Thanks for another great map Sir, these games are a blast!

 

[beestar]

Check, check, and check; a minimal invasion force and constant cheating were key to this strategy, which I learned from Rumsfeld

nice

It even included an invasion of Mesopotamia / Babylon!

 

[MacBalt]

...a minimal invasion force and constant cheating were key to this strategy, which I learned from Rumsfeld.

Ha! I love it! Civ-Rummy! Sounds like you handled the occupations better tho!

In fact, maybe the creation of a new leader is warranted here. Rumsfeld of the Americans. Rummy is "Ardent" and "Short-Sighted." The Ardent trait requires automatic declaration of war against the least popular civ in the game each turn and bumps war weariness to +500% at home; the Short-Sighted trait prohibits stationing troops in conquered cities until they have gone into rebellion at least three times. Short-sightedness also increases the cost of building courthouses in conquered cities by +250%.

 

[Lade]

1944. Diplomatic loss.

Great way to start off my gotm experience. With a loss at noble. I guess I really am that bad.

 

[beestar]

Hey, keep at it Lade - these games are a useful way of learning. They really helped me move up from being a totally beginner at Civ. Perhaps you could post some screenshots or narrative about the game you just finished?

 

[Airny]

Rumsfeld of the Americans. Rummy is "Ardent" and "Short-Sighted." The Ardent trait requires automatic declaration of war against the least popular civ in the game each turn and bumps war weariness to +500% at home; the Short-Sighted trait prohibits stationing troops in conquered cities until they have gone into rebellion at least three times. Short-sightedness also increases the cost of building courthouses in conquered cities by +250%.

Very nice. What about his unique unit and building (yeah he gets his own)? I suggest The Torturer: every marine unit you build, reduces relations with all civs and dies after 10 turns (because they go mad from the cruelties). The unique building could be a Detention Camp, which increases war weariness in the attacked civs by +100%.
Extra: Rumsfeld is not allowed to build United Nations or win a space race of course.

1944. Diplomatic loss.

Great way to start off my gotm experience. With a loss at noble. I guess I really am that bad.

There are a lot of guides or strategy articles in the forum. You can't expect to discover all the tricks in civ by yourself. Don't give up on it already, most players here have years of experience with civ4.

 

[Mackuilio]

Contender save, 1620AD Accidental domination -177k points. Was going for a higher score with sushi spam in some ~40 cities, easily on course for 200k+ but forgot to gift a city away before another came out of revolt. Game over!

Lol and I thought a 50k was a good score
Anyway Won a Domination Victory at 1894...

At first I was looking for a Space race victory but when Qin build the Piramids I decided to take them by force... then I couldn't stop the bloodshed
Thanks for the Map! It was all about navy!

 

[Gosha190]

Have some problems with internet connections at home, hope I'll be able to solve them today and to submit my game.

SR attempt was sucsessful and I achieved AC in 1605AD. I did not planned final part of my game carefully and have lost some number of turns because of that. Initially, before my game was started, I belived that I should win earlier. What was hard to me - fast expansion.

 

[Gosha190]

I still have lots to learn on how to help the ai help me I guess...

it is usless idea at easy levels. AIs research are too veak and they cann't help you.

I asked my vassal Q to learn compass and optics and he learned them for me within 15-20 turns!