[BTS] BOTM 293: Willem, Monarch - Final spoiler (game submitted)

[kcd_swede]

BOTM 293: Willem, Monarch - Final Spoiler - Game Submitted

How did your game go? Did you go crazy with dikes?
Use this thread to tell us what happened in your game, particularly anything after 1AD

NOTE: if you finish your game before the server is back online and thus you cannot upload your "game over" save in the usual fashion,
please submit it to me (kcd_swede) as an attachment to a PM, and I will upload it when the server becomes available again.

Reading Requirements
If you are participating in BOTM 293 then you MUST NOT read this thread unless

• You have submitted your entry

Posting Restrictions

• Do not post any save game file from the game. Discussions and screenshots are fine but not actual games.

 

[Conquistador 63]

After a peaceful expansion in the early game, we started our wars.

1. Shaka (620AD/980AD) > vassal
2. Monty (1150AD/1340AD) > eliminated
3. Augustus (1535AD/1580AD) > vassal
4. Sury (1610AD/...) just took enough Khmer cities to ensure us a Diplo victory 1670AD

We did build a lot of dikes as our original plan was Space, but RL interfered and had to take the usual shortcut to diplo.

Thanks for the game!

 

[Mitchum]

I decided to build up, albeit slowly, for Domination after 1 AD. First, I got my economy in order by building some infrastructure like courthouses on the islands to get ahead of the massive colonial maintenance cost since every AI was on 1 or more separate continents. My wars were as follows:

1. Shaka (740 AD to 960 AD) > eliminated; cats and macemen
2. Monty I (1010 AD top 1090 AD) > wiped out his starting continent and then signed a cease fire until I could get his second island; trebs and macemen
3. Saladin I (1110 AD to 1190 AD) > took his starting island and left him with a single city in the south; trebs, macemen and knights
4. Monty II (1230 AD to 1280 AD) > eliminated; trebs, macemen and knights
5. Augustus (1300 AD to 1350 AD) > eliminated; trebs, macemen and cuirassiers
6. Hannibal (1390 AD to 1470 AD) > eliminated; trebs, macemen and cuirassiers
7. Surry/Saladin II (1500 AD to 1555 AD) > eliminated Surry; Saladin broke free and I signed a cease fire with him to avoid some unhappiness in his old cities; trebs, macemen and cuirassiers
8. Pericles (1500 AD to 1555 AD) > vassaled; on the turn I DoW'd Surry, he created this colony/vassal which declared on me; he was down to 2 cities when he vassaled; trebs, macemen and cuirassiers
9. Saladin III (1555 AD to ...) > I was ready to take his capital on the turn I triggered Domination; he had 2 cities total

Domination was triggered in 1560 AD.

My economy was never really in trouble thanks to the GLH. Colonial maintenance got to be a burden but I built a lot of courthouses to minimize it. My science slider was at 0% for large portions of the game. State Property would have been nice but there was no easy way for me to get to Communism. I mostly stopped research when I got to cuirassiers.

Moving troops around with galleys was very slow and painful for the early wars. Once I learned Astronomy, things got a LOT better with the East Indiaman.

My entire war campaign went from west to east. Even when I was attacking Surry, I was attacking from the west. It might have been better to attack from the east because he was so close but all of my ships and army were pushing east and it would have take a bit of time to get a new set of ships and units to attack him from the east. I'm sure it could have been done because I stopped producing units in most of my starting cites and only build wealth to keep my economy strong. I guess I could have started the Surry war ~200 years earlier which would have probably resulted in a faster date.

Thanks for the fun map as always, kcd_swede!

 

[kcd_swede]

I'm pretty close to getting a Deity BOTM 294 up and running, and will publish some preliminary results 291 and beyond... was more work than I thought so I just went on the beach and sunned myself instead. But now the rains come, so soon I'll find the time and energy... Thanks everyone for their patience!

 

[nocho]

I'm pretty close to getting a Deity BOTM 294 up and running, and will publish some preliminary results 291 and beyond... was more work than I thought so I just went on the beach and sunned myself instead. But now the rains come, so soon I'll find the time and energy... Thanks everyone for their patience!

Maybe not too many will read this bright news as it's in a final spoiler thread.

 

[nocho]

I reached the stars in 1780AD, maybe not as quick as I had hoped but I rushed through the ADs as I go on holidays tomorrow.

I killed Monty and Shaka first, then acquired Rome and Arabia with cavs. I took half of Carthage, but let Sury peace vassal Hannibal as I got close to domination at some 62%. I ended up with 42 cities, about two thirds with dikes, factories and coal plants. The former Aztec capital was a decent Iron works city, with Moai added to it too. I took the communist route, probably corps was the better play but corps spread looked like a hassle on this map. I did manage to get the 5-man golden age in the end.

Thanks for the game!

 

[Mitchum]

@nocho 1780AD sounds like a great date to me on that map. Even with dikes, there were no awesome production cities because every city had at least some water tiles in the BFC that could only produce 1H each (2H in a golden age). With all of the colonial maintenance, I think State Property was probably the way to go. I hope someone did try the corporation route just for comparison. You're right about corporation spread being painful but I assume you already had quite a navy from your early conquests.

 

[nocho]

@nocho 1780AD sounds like a great date to me on that map. Even with dikes, there were no awesome production cities because every city had at least some water tiles in the BFC that could only product 1H each (2H in a golden age). With all of the colonial maintenance, I think State Property was probably the way to go. I hope someone did try the corporation route just for comparison. You're right about corporation spread being painful but I assume you already had quite a navy from your early conquests.

Well thx! I hadn’t really thought of colonial maintenance, that might indeed have been an issue. I had actually saved a GE and a GM for the corps and pre built enough banks for WS, but just thought it would take to much time IRL to do corps spreading. I had around 15 East Indiamen roaming around so navy was indeed not the issue, more so my laziness!

 

[Smiregal]

Hello e everyone!
I kind of dreaded the doing the write up since my game did not go as smothly as the games of the other players. Or maybe let me rephrase that I did not reach an important goal at the beginning of the game. And this bothered me the whole game. In a nutshell I did miss the great Lighthouse. It Was build by Rome in 975bc. And missed it by 4 Turns. Or i missed it by 50 hammers, or I missed it by that one galley i had slipped into the build queue, for getting a Settler to the northwestern Megacity Spot. Which I had missed for quite a while due to a lack of scouting. I was a little bummed out not to get it since this meant that my game would Not be very competitive. But I managed the urge to rage quit and played on. Basicly having the same early game as the others with 9 cities Till 1 ad. Oracle for monarcy and being around 4or 5 turns away from cs. One City was setteled on Montys Island. After cs I went straight for engeering. And started conquering westward. Monty, Shaka, Augustus (or Was it Julius) and Hannibal. Being somewhat aimless during the midgame, still struggeling with missing TGL I decided not to continue conquering and went for the tediuous spacerace route via Corporations. I figured that most players who go for space would go through State Property since it is easier to manage and is a little faster most of the Times. I managed to stay at around 60% of the landarea and tried to settel as many cities for some scoremilking . I even founded miningink with the great engineer from fusion, which speed up my date by only two or three turns, because it came so late. But I managed to spread it to every City (i had 48 i think) before I reached Alpa centaury around T 280 (Not sure). Having tried this route for space I believe that Corporations is probably the better route on this map if one has a great engineer early. Although I had a pretty late date I still managed to get 200k in point at the end. Which surprised me. I m not sure if the Corporationsroute would Win the fastest Spacerace but I think it whould definetly win more points, ergo a medal.
I starded a replay ( to test this theory) were I did get TGL and were I did the CS Sling but kind of lost the drive to continue.
Still thanks to kcd for this map. I is my all time favorite playing willem on an island heavy map.