BOTM 26 First Spoiler - 1 AD

[Ribannah]

Are there any practical steps one can take that might delay the AI taking the Oracle?

I've noticed that if you go for an early religion, the AI - even those on another continent -are inclined to pick other techs in advance. Even so, that the Oracle was still available this late - on Immortal, even - is extremely rare.

Note, by the way, that the advantage of building it should be weighed against making more settlers, if marble is lacking.

 

[praxio]

I have played the game and made some silly mistakes and gave up. But I have noticed a certain trend among the players about going to a cultural or space victory. Thats OK but why dont you check the victory screen. When look at it I see that my contienent corresponds to a large percentage of the world, and on top of that a higher ratio of the population. Which suggests a domination victory by seizing the contienent and then quickly going to exploration for an weaker opponent or islands to settle.

 

[Jbourne]

The unhealthiness from the floodplains will prevent it from growing very large.

All good points except this. This is not a real problem but persived. Say you have 20 FP's (extream huh) with 8 unhealthy points. But you also got 20 extra food. So for a total of 12 extra food and a massive cottage farm how will you not grow fast? The + health points actually should make this city a -2 health city at the begining but that is not a real problem.

If you farm all of this and run specialists...You got some major GPfarm too. Of course if you have other food sources it would be better.

My dime.

 

[adrianj]

I have played the game and made some silly mistakes and gave up. But I have noticed a certain trend among the players about going to a cultural or space victory. Thats OK but why dont you check the victory screen. When look at it I see that my contienent corresponds to a large percentage of the world, and on top of that a higher ratio of the population. Which suggests a domination victory by seizing the contienent and then quickly going to exploration for an weaker opponent or islands to settle.

Good points Praxio. And welcome to the forums

I think what often happens in these GOTMs is that some players aren't just playing to win by any means possible - they are aiming for some sort of GOTM fastest finish award or high score medal.

Some players might label themselves a 'builder' and just get more enjoyment out of the victories that don't require so much warring. And while Domination might be the most logical way to win the game, it's also very difficult to be the fastest at it.

Spoiler :

The real trick is to win by a victory condition that none of the Russians are trying that month

 

[azzaman333]

I have played the game and made some silly mistakes and gave up. But I have noticed a certain trend among the players about going to a cultural or space victory. Thats OK but why dont you check the victory screen. When look at it I see that my contienent corresponds to a large percentage of the world, and on top of that a higher ratio of the population. Which suggests a domination victory by seizing the contienent and then quickly going to exploration for an weaker opponent or islands to settle.

My reasoning for not going to war was that I didn't have enough good production cities to risk a war against Zara who was doube to triple my power for a good portion of the game.

 

[Ribannah]

All good points except this. This is not a real problem but persived. Say you have 20 FP's (extream huh) with 8 unhealthy points. But you also got 20 extra food. So for a total of 12 extra food and a massive cottage farm how will you not grow fast? The + health points actually should make this city a -2 health city at the begining but that is not a real problem.

If you farm all of this and run specialists...You got some major GPfarm too. Of course if you have other food sources it would be better.

My dime.

You forget that you still want to build some stuff which gets harder with just one hammer. Two or three smaller cities on the edges of those floodplains together will be able to run far more specialists, and will do that earlier in the game as well.

 

[Jbourne]

You forget that you still want to build some stuff which gets harder with just one hammer. Two or three smaller cities on the edges of those floodplains together will be able to run far more specialists, and will do that earlier in the game as well.

Use the other hammer economy. Pop rushing; there will be many available. All you need is a grainary and Cast System. Should be able to build many buildings you need with 1 hammer by the time Emancipation come around.

 

[Lexad]

All you need is a grainary and Cast System

Slavery, I read it in your mind.

 

[Ribannah]

And here I though the intention was to keep those pop heads, rather than to sacrifice them and then sacrifice even more for other buildings that combat all the unhappiness...

 

[Jbourne]

Slavery, I read it in your mind.

Sorry to have put you and others in to a situation to read my mind.

Allow me to state it clearly.

Build a bunch of farms. Run slavary. When pop rushing is available rush the granary Do the same with Lib, and other needed buildings. (Please feel free to rush warriors or others to get hammer overflow into the NE to speed up the process). Let the city grow and switch to CS. Run available specialist to your hearts contentment. Of course Lexad you know all of this and likely more. But thank you for the opportunity to clearup what I was thinking.

And here I though the intention was to keep those pop heads, rather than to sacrifice them and then sacrifice even more for other buildings that combat all the unhappiness...

No pain no gain. You know that the grainary will pay for itself with population and we really only need a few building to run a good GP farm. Grainary, Lib, NE and as needed Aquaduct, Market (happy), Grocery(Health) and perhaps a sew other happy buildings. Of course you also know this but is giving me a hard time for disagreeing with you.

 

[Lexad]

As if you need another GP farm

 

[Jbourne]

As if you need another GP farm

If you are talking about the location about 5 tiles west of the settler location, it is a potential future capital. But you are right on the GP farm. It is where the settler was at. That was the best GP spot I ever seen in XOTM with all the hammers I would need to build what is needed and food to support Specialists.

Well while we are at it. Do you think it is best to put globe there for max people +Science or Oxford for max science? I am thinking og globe to go with the NE and GLib and put Oxford in the other capital site.

 

[Conquistador 63]

Some great games already posted.
It's summertime down here, not easy to find time and play all XOTM's (failed to complete/submit last couple BOTM's). Let's see if I can change things, I started this one a couple days ago, and played until 1AD (or 0AD as my autolog says ). I'm also kinda lazy in posting spoilers lately, I'll try to amend it a bit here.

Goals
Ideally, I'd like to go for a fast conquest or high score game, but these are my 2 weakest points, so I might as well settle for a conquest-fueled space game instead. My game hasn't been brilliant, but I can't complain about my luck so far.

Overall strategy
After settling in place, I decided to leverage SB's philo trait and and the abundance of food. UU/UB were not important so far.

Tech
Early tech path:Mining/BW/Pott/Writ/Alpha (1600BC). Not sure if was a good idea, got little in return (Myst,Hunt,AH for Writ; later Arch,IW,Monarchy). After that I researched stuff I usually get from trades in an Emperor game, like MC (forges=2 + 1eng slot), Sail, Math, Masonry, Construction, HBR eek, before going for sensible techs like Currency and CoL (CS is due in a few turns). Is there any reason for this? See next.

Expansion Very timid, was too busy building stuff.
City2: 1960BC (silver/fish/sheep)
City3: 1280BC (14 floodplains): cottage city. Why? not sure, no overlap with NW of capital just seemed pretty.
City4: 350BC (wheat/iron to SW): future barracks city
City5: 300BC (wheat/iron/cows/fish), 1 tile off the coast near the peaks - another very unusual city placement for me, but also a future barracks city
City6: 75BC (pigs/horse/corns), taken from barbs

Diplo

Hinduism is the only religion in the continent. Zara has 9 cities, Darius 3. I've been receiving elephants (er, Ivory) from unsuspecting Darius. He might see them coming back to him in the near future, if possible before he gets LBows. Zara can wait.

Current plans: I got 3 GS's, 1st one for Academy (1400BC), other are sleeping. I'm considering burning 1 for Philo (need Meditation first), then next one for a Golden Age, when I'll switch to Hindu, HR, Bureau and Pacifism. Does that make sense? I hate spending GS's for other actions besides bulbing/academies, but the detour to Music (free GArtist) seems too costly for a Philo leader.

See you in the last spoiler (hopefully!).

 

[civ_steve]

AI built Oracle in 2000 BC in my game - so much for ANY thought of a free tech!

I'm trying for an AP victory. I've avoided Meditation, so the GS's can go for Compass and Optics (along with Math and Alphabet) (although, another GS for Philosphy followed up by Pacifism might have done as well). Persia did found Hinduism; Ethiopia is expanding like crazy. I've only founded 2 other cities, and there's a barb city in the floodplains that I have some plans for. And I did get CoL first and founded Confucianism. Should have researched Sailing earlier than I did (vs trading once I had Alpha); 9 happy citizens plus Caste System could support 6 Scientists in capital with a Lighthouse.

So, as of 1 AD I am 5-6 turns away from Machinery, and a couple more turns for a GS to bulb Optics, a couple of Triremes available for upgrade, and will in theory only require Theology for the minimum techs necessary. Someone else already has it, but I'll likely learn it before I reach them. I may still bulb Philosophy for a 2nd religion for the AP and spread it carefully, so there's still work to be done.

I'm rather blown away by the Oracle dates being reported, and am curious about the effect an early Player religion would have on the AI building it, if that does have an impact.

 

[old_civver]

Contender start.
A Sioux without a pony is like a banquier without a sou (unless they’re on Wall St, then they have the US Gov in pocket, but that is now, this was then . Therefore, AH to findum horse. But the Great Spirit put the horses near the white man so we must hurry to claim them. First teepee right next to horse. Stupid white man went for the elephants.
Great Spirit say this land belong to us. All of it. But there is much work to do. When the white man discovered this country, we were running it. No debt, everyone free, squaws did all the work. White man thought they could improve on this. We must get some white squaws. BC 1080 war. Two braves get 2 white squaws. What? City defended by only one pitiful archer. White man archer is weak and timid with no experience. Sioux chariot kill archer with one blow. Now white man city belong red man. Next city will not be so easy. Smokum peace pipe, while we build up braves. Must keep barbs from white man archers to keep them weak and make us strong. Soon the War parties head out again. Many braves go to happy hunting ground but by BC 250 no more cursed white man on our land.
To celebrate we must honor Great Spirit and build great wonder in stone. New teepee by stone and for cow to make pemmican. Must claim this land quickly. The black man from Ethiopia is spreading very fast and is very strong and he friend of white man. He see red when he see us. We must learn to make better weapons. Better to have less thunder in the mouth and more lightning in the hand. It is good to have strong enemy, so that if defeated we will not bear shame. We must be cunning as the coyote and make friends with this black man until we are ready to strike. Take great risk. No OB with the black man. No trade with him. Bad for wampum but keep him weak. The eagle spirit say there is another world to trade with. We must build strong ship to take us there.

 

[adrianj]

@old_civver - I love it Best writeup award

 

[kcd_swede]

^I agree.

 

[darkvapor]

This the first time that I found these games. Greate idea. I thought I'd try this one just to see what they were like. Unfortunately it kept crashing on me. I'll try to rectify for the next one for an official entry.

But one thing I did notice about this one that I thought I'd share. It was pretty obvious that culture victory was in need for this Leader, so I started work on stonehenge to get the free totums in each town. Or so I thought. I was able to get SH, and when I went to work on my first Dog, I noticed I didn't get any of the exp bonus' that your supposed to get with the totum. So, working as intended or bug??

Anyway, looking forward to the next one so I can get a clean submission.

 

[Jbourne]

But one thing I did notice about this one that I thought I'd share. It was pretty obvious that culture victory was in need for this Leader, so I started work on stonehenge to get the free totums in each town. Or so I thought. I was able to get SH, and when I went to work on my first Dog, I noticed I didn't get any of the exp bonus' that your supposed to get with the totum. So, working as intended or bug??

Anyway, looking forward to the next one so I can get a clean submission.

Only Archery units get the 3 experience points from the Totem Pole.


Welcome to xOTM.

 

[fallofrome]

I've been lurking for a while, this is my first time playing a xOTM game, and I finally am breaking my silence. I'm Monarch level, I've only won Emperor once so far.

Settled in place.

Went workboat first since we had Fishing to start. Normally I've been building workers at size 1 and chopping by bee-lining Mining>BW, but...

Decided to go for Mysticism first and gamble at a religion since I hadn't done that in the last dozen games, and in the back of my mind kind of wanted to go for Oracle.

3640 Darius grabs Buddhism, 3400 Hinduism in foreign land. 3360 I finish Polytheism, so no dice on religion. I bump into Zara early on here too.

I finish the Oracle in 1840 decide to pop Metal Casting. At this point, I've discovered our small continent is just Darius, Zara and me.

The capital keeps pushing on the happy limit, so I pick up Buddhism, assuming Zara will get it too... then Zara gets Code and goes Confucianism... doh!

I'm still waiting for the AI to get Alphabet so I can do some trading. I actually held off on Writing hoping to pick it up, and still no Open Border agreements.

275BC I pump out Colossus for kicks, I've founded about 5 Cities now, 2 on the flood plains, 1 north towards Zara by the Cow/Wheat/Iron and the 5th just South of the capital to pick up pigs and silver.

I'm actually a little torn at this point if I should go aggressive or peaceful and am shocked the 2 AI neighbors don't even have Writing yet... is this usual for Darius and Zara? I thought they were fairly peaceful teching civs and would prioritize these.

At any rate, since I'm guessing there's 4-5 civs out there, I decide to make a beeline towards Optics, so after I popped Metalcasting, I research IW, Compass, and Machinery, using my Great Prophet from The Oracle to start Golden Age for a boost.

By 1AD, I'm researching Optics, which feels like a good choice given I see Christianity is founded by an unknown civ. Darius finally picks up Writing and we sign an open borders. I'm hoping to get some caravels out and do some trading, and get an edge on both Zara and Darius since without Writing & Alphabet all their progress is self-researched this far. With a tech lead at least on my continent, I can then size up the world and figure out where to go.

I'm a little miffed I've squandered the Philosophical trait without Libraries... but I'm just floored that neither guy picked up Alphabet before 1AD.