BOTM 28 Final Spoiler

[Earthling]

- one or two turns later comes the first choice for the UN president - diplomatic victory ! let us see whether this is enough for an award

GAAAAAAAAAAAH

beats me, very close. Course now we can both wait until someone comes by and blows this further out of the water...I think Diplo Victory is accomplishable by turn 200, maybe 210 at most on this one.

I finished in 1685 at 5630, for 182k final score I think.

I had the UN built like 20 turns or whatever 4 or so votes is before I won...I had like three votes where I was about 30 pop away. The problem was I didn't go conquer the other continent right away - I didn't have quite enough pop on my own, even after colony-izing southern island to make sure I didn't go over the limit to disallow the vote. But then I had to go conquer/vassalize France and Zulu with some infantry, and wasted a lot of time. I was hoping to get just one AI to vote for me - bribed with tech, gifted resources, etc, but every AI came to me like every time asking to join in a war or something similar and I didn't choose just one to butter up, not enough civic/religion bonus to speak of so couldn't get someone high enough pleased.

Other things that set me back were losing early wonders as I mentioned - didn't get a CS slingshot ridiculously early and had to self-research it, also waffled and missed the Great Lighthouse.

Anyway, though, I think diplo is possible on our land/continent alone - settle and farm the land faster, and make a colony out of either the north or south, then just build your own population up to enough to win the vote by yourself.

Great Engineer sounds great of course, but I turned off tech/payrushed UN and army anyway, not like you need tech after that. Good luck to you I guess and we'll see what anyone else does on the diplo front.

 

[jeffr23]

Whoops, I was trying to upload the wrong save; the actual end of game one seems to have worked fine. I also took the end year from the (wrong) save file as well; my Immortal Domination victory (massive growth on the home islands+no colonies+force capitualtion of Russian and her formal vassal Greece after a Cavalry-Artillery war)was actually in the somewhat less impressive year of 1828.

 

[Mutineer]

Settle in place. I actually move scout left on forested hill to check may be there are more sea food, but no. I consider more food more important then gems, in addition sea food with commercial leader provide only slightly less commerce, but lot more food.

Move scout south, walking try all this floodplain and not meting anybody. Found edge of south island, thinking opponent on separate land. Move scout north, found edge of north island. Well, we have a huge continent by myself. Thanks god no barbarians, or it would have been nasty.

build order was worker-fishboat-fishboat- settler-warrior or( warrior-settler) do not remember

With no barbarians one does not need military, send boat to north island...

Bah. no one there and no one come from south... hmm...

research went aproximatly
fishing-mining, well, mysticism, massonry-potery-BW

Reason was: If I can get stonehenge I can mach faster expo, so road to stone and settle on it.
Which I did 2560BC, and it was build next turn.. dammit, I got only 20 gold out of it, well, reseach to 100%
Animal saling-AH-writing
2080 gem city
I was whipping settler trowing overflow into GW.
GW do not need with no barbarians, but I want fail gold.

1960 GW was build, netting me a lot of gold.

Great light house was next in 1200BC,
Haden garden - 900BC
after that city/worker spamm.. spamm... spamm..
400 BC I got GE with I used to build MM in 375 BC

1 AD I had 11 cities.

125 AD taoism by self reseaching after CS,
475 AD I got GA with I used for golden age
500 AD AW, and I run 3 priests for golden age/pacifism GP generation.

On 500AD I had 15 cities on main land and full south island owned by my liberated vassal Saladin on 4 cities.

I was waiting when darn oversea AI will show up, so was trying to fill all land as fast as possible.
-----------------------------------------------------------

After 500AD

620 ad got GP, pacifism/golden age 3 prophets generation took only 6 turn.

660 AD build Dai Miao, gold per city and I had a lot of cities.

680 AD liberalism, still no contact, but I did not want to loose it, so to nationalism from it.
700AD Uni of sankore
start building Golden age wander.

please note, I never adopt monarchy and got it from trade way later.

1210 word is round, hmm... all this AI playing 1 CC..

pericles, greek is a big guy with 5 cities and 3 vassals.

1240 I liberated last posible city to bismark, my north vassal, fulling all space and all mainland.

some where I build Kremlin, last wander and attack other island with cav/drafted rifles arty mixture carried by galeons. I am not good on overseas invasions, but with such overwhelming force

domination 1615 Ad

 

[2metraninja]

2metraninja

BOTM28 contender save
Domination by accident in 1725 for 197K points

First win/submission in xOTM on time.

Settled in place, started to grab land like crazy, ready to sell my life at high price against the deity AIs. Realized soon enough that I am on my own in this island, I was wondering how well and ahead the AIs are going trading and expanding at will away from my immortals.

REX/chop/slave fest filled my first few thousand years loneliness.

At AD500 I was ready to circumnavigate the world, but strange enough - nothing happened when I did.

The AIs was small and somewhat backward and I decided to go for conquest and take even an award for doing so.

At 1500 I shut down all science/health/economic improvements and buildings and switched to full military. In ~1600 invaded the other continent with overwhelming in both numerical and technological aspect army. Started to crumple the AIs in order of appearance. But there my soft soul twinkled beneath my cruel warmongering mask. I was afraid that will hit the domination limit and decided just to raze every city I capture - to show no mercy and achieve my conquest goal. Alas, when I took Paris and saw him full of ~10 wonders + 7 settled great persons my heart melted and I spared the town. Then again when taking Eridu from the sumerians I saw that he is the holly town of 4 religions and I just couldn't raze it.

Continued to kill everyone last one of them and when only the Aztec and few partisans ready to capitulate stayed in opposition and my fleet and land army was approaching their country, suddenly out of nowhere "Darius I wins a domination victory". So much for my plans. I was able to reach domination maybe 20 or 30 turns earlier and even without having to shoot a single shot, but...

I wonder - how much is the difference in the points calculation between domination/conquest?

I'm glad that at least I finished the game in time. Not too bad for first time

 

[Kennigit]

Space race 1905.

Nothing interesting, 'cept stupid monty declared war on me and took a city briefly (reconquered ~6 or 7 turns). That threw me off about 8 turns total.

 

[bio_hazard]

Adventurer Start (Mac)

Domination win, 1894, ~77k points, ~68k with Adventurer Penalty

I'm pretty horrible at this game so a win on Diety was surprising.

After scouting in the empty wilderness I realized that we were alone, and tried to expand quickly without totally killing my research. Avoided all early wonders. I hit code of laws about the time I'd filled the northern 3/4 of the initial island, and quickly whipped courthouses and got the forbidden palace in the south of the nice river corridor on the western half of the island.

Given how late it was, I thought perhaps the map had a wall of ice preventing the AI from getting to me. I kept expanding, hoping the land area might be enough for a quick domination win. I had expanded to the small silver island and most of the northern island by the time an AI found me (~1500AD). I whipped culture buildings and pushed the culture slider, and as most of you probably found out, ended up with only 60% of land area, 2% short! Gahhh- so mean. I'm still in Slavery until finally Emancipation unhappiness hits my cities. I trade for Democracy. Someone built Versailles- would have loved to have built that on the northern island.

Surprisingly (to me, at least), I was at roughly tech parity, and was able to do some tech trading for the rest of the game, in spite of only having 30-50% science slider. My power was off the charts given how large I was. I tried to get a peace-time vassal but apparently being so close to the victory condition I couldn't talk anyone into it. I sent a fleet of rifles and cannons and DOW on unpopular Shaka, but he was defeated before I could get there. At this point there were 3 large civs (Russia, Sumeria, and Aztecs), with France and the remaining civ (forgot who) as vassals of Sumeria. I learn of the first AP vote, and Gilgamesh is only candidate, he loses, with no other votes.

Catherine is the least popular of the bigger civs, so i bring in a few, more modern forces to deal with her. Stupidly I decided to take my galleons all the way around the island rather than off-loading and walking through friendly territory. So another 10+ turns at least, and I DOW on Catherine. Everyone else jumps in, and I only take one city before Catherine's other two cities fall to the AI. I have a settler with me and can squeeze a second city on the AI's continent. Another AP vote- Gilgamesh is elected! with all AI voting him leader- probably AI dogpile on Shaka then Catherine make Gilgamesh a popular guy. I am nervous that he will win a diplo victory, so rush the heck out of every culture building I can. Theater + Hermitage + a Mandir + Broadcast Tower... It works, and I get the victory before an AP resolution can come up.

In hindsight, I wonder if it would have been possible to position settlers all over the northern island, try to get a vassal, then simultaneously build a bunch of cities to go over the limit.

 

[LowtherCastle]

This was definitely a fun BOTM to play. Kind of idyllic, euphoric.

My only frustration with this BOTM is that it's classified as Deity, hence there won't be another Deity game for a while. As we know from the deity OCC SGOTM, cramping the AIs so they're limited to 2-4 cities nerfs Deity to Monarch at least. I would prefer to see a real Deity sooner than later. As in, replacing one of the upcoming Prince, Monarch, or Emporer games.

 

[beestar]

Contender save, 1695 Domination win

Built up peacefully, had a big land lead, and discovered that the AIs only had 2 cities each. Monty had vassalized Cathy when I discovered the New World.

I thought about continuing to tech for space, but I was a little concerned about AI tech speed so instead I went for Conquest.

I drafted about 50 Riflemen but I didn't fight the war very effectively. One problem was that Cathy/Monty had teched Mil Sci for Grenadiers and Ships of the Line. The other was overcoming Uruk's defense bonuses (it was inland so not bombardable by Frigates, I didn't bring any trebs or cannons, and my spy failed its City Revolt mission). I got so irritated that I just threw 15 Riflemen at Uruk's Musketmen defenders at 6% odds. They failed, and I was forced to declare peace and fight Monty for a while, before turning back to Uruk.

In the end, my mistake was going over the Domination land limit before conquering the other cities. I was too greedy and held on to those Wonder-filled cities in the New World instead of razing them. I actually thought about releasing North Island and my new territories as colonies, but decided to just grab my first (slightly nerfed ) Deity win.

 

[Ribannah]

CHALLENGER

first spoiler

Space Race Victory

Planetfall: 1685ad (full spaceship)
Score: 387686
In-game: 10801
Population: 62,51% (passed 200M on the final turn)
Area: 60,88%
8 Future Techs

During this game of SimCiv we didn't fire a single shot, despite the fact that we settled on the AI continent when the destruction of France left a small patch of ice open in the south. Paris and Orleans changed hands a number of times but in the end Sumeria grabbed them both, thereby nicely keeping the aggressive Aztecs at bay. Sumeria finished second with 6 cities plus 2 vassals (Zulu, Greece) with 2 cities each. They played a great game; unfortunately for them someone else (we) was five times bigger.

All the cottages matured nicely and nearly all cities were maxed out, producing either wealth or research during most of the 17th century. Our largest city was on the NW tip of the northern island (size 29). We had 3 more Golden Ages, the last one when the spaceship was built. Persepolis (size 28) built Apollo, Space Elevator and both Engines, before we dropped out of Bureaucracy. Pasargadae did great thanks to Temple of Solomon, Sushi, Mining Inc, Wall Street and 6 merchants.

There's really not much more to say.

Some stats
Persepolis (28) 908 bpt + 12 gpt (100% science)
Pasargadae (22) 361 bpt + 1208 gpt (100%) or 44bpt + 1661 gpt (0%)
Gordium (25) (gold/iron) 473 bpt + 28 gpt
Jinjan (28) (3 gems) 450 bpt + 24 gpt

Technology
560ad Paper
680ad Printing Press
800ad Education; Archery, Horseback Riding, Construction (trade)
820ad Drama, Feudalism, Music, Philosophy (trade)
880ad Engineering (trade)
980ad Astronomy
1010ad Nationalism
1020ad Guilds; Banking (trade)
1040ad Replaceable Parts
1050ad Gunpowder
1070ad Chemistry
1100ad Steam Power
1120ad Economics (-> Great Merchant for Sushi)
1150ad Constitution
1160ad Corporation
1170ad Liberalism -> Assembly Line
1190ad Democracy
1210ad Steel
1240ad Railroad
1260ad Combustion
1290ad Scientific Method
1300ad Biology
1330ad Medicine
1350ad Physics (-> Great Scientist)
1370ad Electricity
1410ad Industrialism
1440ad Plastics
1470ad Refrigeration
1500ad Superconductor
1510ad Radio
1520ad Flight
1530ad Communism (-> Great Spy)
1535ad Rifling
1540ad Artillery
1545ad Rocketry
1550ad Satellites
1555ad Fission
1565ad Computers
1570ad Robotics
1575ad Genetics
1580ad Laser
1590ad Fiber Optics
1595ad Fusion
1600ad Composites
1605ad Ecology
1610ad Mass Media
1615ad Fascism (-> Great General)
1620ad Advanced Flight
1625ad Stealth
1635ad Future Tech 1
1645ad Future Tech 2
1650ad Future Tech 3
1655ad Future Tech 4; Military Tradition (Internet)
1665ad Future Tech 5
1670ad Future Tech 6
1675ad Future Tech 7
1680ad Military Science
1685ad Future Tech 8

Great Wonders
1080bc Pyramids
675bc Hanging Gardens
375bc Mausoleum of Mausollos
250ad Apostolic Palace
350ad Great Library
600ad Parthenon
640ad Spinal Minaret
780ad University of Sankore
820ad Versailles
1040ad Angkor Wat
1170ad Taj Mahal
1240ad Mining Inc
1270ad Statue of Liberty
1330ad Sid's Sushi Co
1390ad Pentagon
1400ad Temple of Solomon
1400ad Broadway
1505ad Three Gorges Dam
1540ad Eiffel Tower
1545ad Rock N Roll
1550ad Cristo Redentor
1555ad Kremlin
1575ad Space Elevator
1615ad Kong Miao
1640ad Masjid al-Haram
1665ad United Nations
1675ad Hollywood

 

[TrailblazingScot]

Wow, that is a pretty impressive finish time even though it was SimCiv.

Think it also highlights some of the benefits of settling in place in this particular game.

 

[Orel]

myfirst ever deity win!!! I won't be the only one to say it i know... but thanks to you mapmakers!!!
A 1910ish domination win for 70k points. Should have been at least 100 years earlier if i had figured out earlier that my 3 islands continent was inches from making it enough for domination... I was initially going for space race and just build up a little army and conquereed a couple of cities on the other part of the world when i realised the fact...

 

[budweiser]

Do your three islands give enough tiles for a win? If so, in retrospect all you have to do is spam cities.

 

[azzaman333]

Do your three islands give enough tiles for a win? If so, in retrospect all you have to do is spam cities.

It leaves you 2% short.

 

[Silu]

My first trek into the XoTM land, resulting in a few format-specific screwups - it's hard to not get in the "just win" mindset of normal games. I was just looking for a challenge, so the mega-easy setup was a bit disappointing; I had heard horror stories about sadistic map creators having the most cunning obstacles in the path of victory in these games

When playing, I had no idea what the scoring is based on - I was assuming win date I guess, so I could have had maybe 10-20% more score just from settling more land. Also left a ton of wonders (world and nat) unbuilt which would have given a little boost as well. Didn't go for any wonders, except I got an accidental Colossus I was building for failgold.

Anyway:
Contender, 1350AD Conquest, 258911

Sandbox, sandbox... Not a huge fan of games where diplomacy means nothing.

Went for an ordinary (+ jungle) FIN isolation tech path of IW->Monarchy->Currency->CS->Optics. Only ever settled a single city on both of the other landmasses, against such weak opponents I thought it's not worth the investment of battling the colony maintenance - obviously I should have to have gotten a truckload of more score. So, Astro to Lib->Steel to invasion. Never went for Oxford despite an early Edu since the end was so near it wouldn't have paid off.

Shaka gave me a chuckle - I sieged his last (only) city that was defended by 20 units. Then he decided to assault my vassal neighboring him with 15 units, leaving just 5 to defend

The one serious possible caveat as mentioned here is AI AP vic when you start taking cities there - didn't think about that at all so dodged that bullet totally with luck. Funnily enough I almost got AP vic accidentally 2 turns before win, which would have resulted in an even lower score.

Really straightforward game, all in all took less than 2½ hours to play. Tunnel vision at its finest.

 

[Ribannah]

Do your three islands give enough tiles for a win? If so, in retrospect all you have to do is spam cities.

Even with five land tiles under my control on the other continent, I only had 60,88%.

 

[boogaboo]

Win, Spaceship, 1882AD.

2 players beat that already And.. What the f is SimCiv?
I'll do more writeup next time... this is my first BOTM.. that I submit.. last 2 I lost
First and main mistake for me was the start. I was sure I was gonna trade techs, and I went for alphabet. Stupid, right? Especially when I discovered I was alone before completing it. I still gambled I'll meet them on the northern continent, but no!
So I was left with alphabet, and no religion until very late stages.
Lost many world wonders, especially my Statue of liberty was almost complete when some AI built it.
I could have done better, but that was my shot.
At an early stage I understood that my advantage is in commerce and started spamming cottages, then I realized this should be a good game to reach and build the spaceship. So I went that way.

Booga out

 

[beestar]

1615ad Kong Miao
1640ad Masjid al-Haram
1665ad United Nations
1675ad Hollywood

Ribannah, I suppose the two final shrines were just for fun, but how did you have the Great Prophets for them?

 

[Ribannah]

After we built Angkor Wat, all cities ran prophets, until we discovered the Computer. During that time, we got Great Artists, Scientists and Engineers. Then, long after we had switched to engineers, merchants and scientists, these two Great Priests arrived... As they were of little use, we sacrificed them both.

 

[beestar]

So the priests were basically engineer specialists that also give 1 gold. Did they make a big difference? I tend to build Forges everywhere and not have a lot of temples - how do you have the slots for the priests?

 

[Ribannah]

Every city got a temple. With the Apostolic Palace, the Spinal Minaret and the University of Sankore, each temple and each monastery gave 2 hammers, 2 beakers and 2 gold, in addition to their normal function. Forges were built only after those.
Some of the larger cities also built a synagogue and could therefore run 3 priests.