BOTM 37 Final Spoiler - Game completed or abandoned

[RRRaskolnikov]

Playing extremely bad from the start to finish (while being drunk most of the time) isn't the best motivation to post here...

Though that was a very nice map DS! Very enjoyable... Thank you.
Thanks for the write up Duckweed as well

Happy new year folks.

Spoiler for the statfanatics :

challenger, 1841 conquest/domination

 

[shyuhe]

@Duckweed - Impressive game. How were you able to overcome the penalties for colonial maintenance?

 

[Duckweed]

@Duckweed - Impressive game. How were you able to overcome the penalties for colonial maintenance?

This is Monarch, the colonial maintenance is not much, another reason was that I only took ~10 cities from each continent.

 

[mikeocarroll]

Diplo Victory 1892AD, 48K score.

This was a very interesting game, though one that I found pretty difficult. No hammers + aggressive AIs surrounding us made it harder than most Monarch games IMO.

The results that some players manage to achieve are outstanding. I'm reasonably happy with my result from a personal perspective, and continue to improve little by little. My game was very similar to some of the others who have won late domination-led diplo victories.

At 500AD I had 8 cities - post in first spoiler is copied in the spoiler below:

Spoiler :

I’m glad at least that I’m not the only one struggling. I’ve never used the whip so much, and I had previously thought of myself as whip-happy most of the time. Like others I’ve struggled with expansion, although I’ve managed to get 8 cities by 500AD and I now feel better about that having read other people’s experiences.

4000BC-2000BC

Moved warrior 1E and settler 1S, saw the second fish and decided to settle there (1S).

Built WB first whilst working oasis and then fur FP once size 2. Once size 3 hired a citizen for the hammer to progress my still unbuilt WB.

Teched Hunting-Mining-BW. Should have done this the other way around as was never going to get a worker quick enough to exploit the hunting tech straight away.

Switched to Slavery once first WB was en-route to fish. Whipped a second WB, then a settler, and built my second city 1SE of the FP deer (2E? of where the warrior started).

By this point my warrior had explored most of the island and I realised I was alone, although the 2 small parts he hadn’t explored were where the copper and horses were. I teched AH to look for horses but seeing none, and seeing no copper either, teched archery to deal with barbs. The warrior had earlier popped some gold in santa’s grotto.

I built (well, whipped) several warriors and then archers in Washington. At 2000BC I had 6 warriors and 2 archers, fogbusting all the island except the western extremities.

After archery I teched wheel then writing and at 2000BC was researching pottery.

2000BC-1000BC

A disappointing period where my empire didn’t grow at all fast – curse that lack of hammers!

Built (whipped) another worker in Washington which went East to help build cottages and mines around New York. Teched Masonry after Pottery and started building Mids in NY.

Built (whipped) a settler in Washington and founded a third city (Boston) to the north to get marble, sheep, fish, fur, gems and deer in BFC, but only gems prior to cultural expansion. Worked lake to eventually grow to size 2 and started building a library. Fortunately Judaism spread to this city and culture just expanded before 1000BC.

Hatty and Togu found me with their workboats. I built (whipped) a WB of my own in Washington and went exploring... won’t say any more about civ locations.

Barbs became increasingly a problem over the period as I still hadn’t fog-busted completely to the west of my island. At 1000BC a barb archer had destroyed an archer and 2 warriors of mine and was being chased by 2 more of my warriors before it could do serious damage. Washington was building a settler to found city 4.

1000BC-10AD

Barbs were a serious problem in this period due to my incomplete fog-busting. Several barb axes approached my cities and without copper hooked up I struggled to deal with them – I had to whip a few archers which set back my growth/expansion even further. However by the end of the period I had the entire island fogbusted except for the far south-west, where I have 2 archers en-route to tackle another barb axe and bust the final pieces of fog. Now if only I’d done things properly the first time...

Built (whipped) a couple more settlers in Washington to found city 4 to the east (1W of cow, 2SW of copper) and city 5 to the west (1S of the fish in the inlet).

Built the Mids in 475BC but forgot to change to Representation until about 10 turns later. However lack of hammers means lots of whip usage and I haven’t grown pop to really exploit this. Whipping is so important that there’s not too much hope of me getting to CS any time soon.

2 more civs found me with their WBs during this period.

10AD-505AD

I finally settled into a better rhythm during this period. Managed to carry on expanding, reaching 8 cities by the end of the period. I still plan 3 more on the starting continent which I am currently building the settlers for, so will be 11 in total. It would be 12 but Hatty built a city in a prime spot by the marble to in the north-west of the island, so that’s that one gone 

Teched Currency, CS and then Paper. Traded the first two of these with Hatty for a few essential techs (MC, Calendar and Monarchy). Hatty is a few techs up on me but the rest are all behind, although I’ve not teched some basic techs like IW or Constr yet which everyone else has.

I’m aiming for a diplo victory but I’m only friendly with Hatty and everyone else hates us, so it will have to be a pretty aggressive semi-domination diplo victory I think. I panicked for a while as one of the other civs was in WHEHORN and I thought they were going to DOW me, but fortunately they attacked Hatty instead.

My immediate aim is to finish settling the start island, explore more, whip required infrastructure then change to CS and tech like crazy using Representation-enhanced specialists.

My main successes so far: whipping like crazy; building the Mids.

My main failures so far: not fogbusting properly; teching hunting first.

Afterwards:

505AD-1230AD (Expansion and Liberalism)

I was still growing at this point and managed to expand to 11 cities, all on the starting continent. I was struggling a bit from the slowness of my expansion up to this point and a lack of hammers.

My strategy was to tech to Cav/Rifles/Cannon (via Lib) and then go about vassalising my neighbours to set up a semi-domination diplo victory. In retrospect the AI were so backwards in this game that I could and should have gone to war with Maces & Trebs and would have been in much better position to win quicker. Although then again needing to transport the army in Galleys would have made this more difficult.

Instead I maintained a peaceful strategy for the moment and concentrated on building infrastructure, especially libraries and universities which allowed me to get Oxford in my cottaged bureaucracy capital (not sure what date exactly). Reached Lib in 1230AD and took Astro as the free tech.

I should add that I got DOWed a few times and a couple of times AIs took a city before I took in back. Annoying but they weren’t important cities. More destructive was the whipping required to turn back the invaders and the endless pillaging of my fishing boats due to insufficient naval forces on my part.

1230AD-1615AD (Preparing for War)

Not much to say about this except I’m not sure why it took so long. I never got tech going well in this game and peaked at around 700/800 bpt – a couple of reasons for this i) I’ve never been any good at running a specialist economy – think I’ll stick to cottages in future; ii) Most the AI were in Merc so no trade routes to be had; iii) my Oxford city was, due to lack of hammers, also one of my main production cities so my city specialisation was poor.

I finally declared on Stalin in 1615AD.

1615AD onwards (War)

Again the lack of hammers told in a world with aggressive AI who had lots of units. It took me two bites of the cherry to finally force Stalin to capitulate in the mid-1700s, not the quick, decisive war I had in mind. Meanwhile Monty DOWed me and landed a massive stack, taking one my cities. I eventually recaptured this and with Ironclads and later Destroyers got a sufficient naval force to protect myself from further invasions.

After vassalising Stalin I attacked and vassalised Monty. This was reasonably swift as by this point I had infantry, artillery and tanks against his rifles.

1800 onwards (Endgame)

I’ve not often gone for diplo victory so I learned a lot from this game. Hatty was my main ally but was top in scores so I (wrongly) assumed this would mean she would always be a competitor in the UN. I hadn’t realised that scores bear only minor relevance to whatever determines UN votes, presumably population. As it happened in was Hatty who built the UN so she was my competitor, but it didn’t have to be that way and if instead I’d concentrated on building the UN myself I could have won a diplo victory some 40-50 turns earlier than I finally did, as I’d have bagged the votes of both Hatty and Victoria.

Wooing Victoria was one of my successes and with Hatty my competitor, Victoria was the only support I could rely on (apart from my vassals, which due to my creating colonies, amounted to 7 civs by the end of the game). However I wasted a lot of time attempting to woo Boudica (and so learning properly how the diplo modifiers work, since I didn’t know well at all before). It was always going to be a difficult map to win diplo as i) the different landmasses meant different religious groupings; ii) I felt (in retrospect maybe incorrectly) that I would never be able to handle colony expenses of conquered foes, so created lots of vassals, creating a -2 “we fear that our rivals are vassals to your empire” modifier with everyone. My attempts to woo Boudica show how poor my knowledge of diplomacy is – I even gifted her one of my cities to see if this created a modifier – nope, only -1 for “our close borders create tensions”. Whoops. I changed religion and civics to woo Boudica but to no avail – civics in particular don’t impress her very much (+1 only).

So more and more domination was necessary, so I attacked and vassalised first Togu and then Mao. I had been elected Gen Sec at the first attempt but it took 3 votes (21 turns) for me to be elected to diplomatic victory. Definitely lots learned!

Conclusions

Although initially not too unhappy with where I was in 500AD, in retrospect (and as always), this is where the most important part of the game and where I can make most improvements. The main things I aim to improve in future are:

i) building more and better wonders (I usually don’t build any, just built the Mids in this game) – it strikes me from Duckweed’s game just how useful these can be;
ii) attacking earlier – I always wait for too long / too much of a tech lead before launching wars, whereas I should just whip lots and go for it;
iii) diplo - I now know a lot more about the modifiers than I did before, so should be able to diplo better even in games where I’m not going for diplo victory.

 

[WelshGandalf]

Ice was too hard.

Gave up & submitted in 1505AD as Herod closed in on my capital. Don't really have the motivation to elaborate on my defeat...

 

[Greeder]

It is monumental post, but it was epic game for me.
I settled 2N and let's just say it wasn,t optimum location :/ But I was tempted by varity of resources.
I went for Hunting for Deer camp, Mysticism for Monument (stupid choice!), Meditation thinking about Oracle, then Mining and Bronze Working. I was glad for finding copper on my island and terrified because it was so far away.
Till 500 BC I founded New York 4W1N from starting position. First thing I whipped there was Fishing boat for capitol. I still didn't realize that I can build cottages on frozen plains!!
Lack of hammers made me abandoning any thought about Oracle.
I had just Monument and Granary in both cities, still only one Worker from beginning of game and only 4 units. I remember that one of my two Archers died attacking barb Warrior at 96%+ odds. I panicked then a little
I researched The Wheel, Animal Husbandry, because I saw one Cow, Potttery for Granaries (tooooo late), Archery, because copper was so far away, Masonary for Marble, Writing and Aesthetics for trade. Second barb unit came and it was Spearman. I panicked again
During next 350 years 4 AIs found me. I was last in score, Sugar Plum had twice as much as I. Luckily for me Red Nose had Alphabet and I could trade for Iron Working. I gave him Aesthetisc and something else. Luckily, because barb Axes were swarming. I builded Iron mine immediately. Researched Priesthood and Monarchy.
40 AD
I've finally started to build cottages. I had also 2 more Workers and 1 Settler. More Axes. Oracle had been built long ago so I decided to go for GLib. The only thing I did right in early stage. I was half way to Literature and building Library in capitol. I gave a tribute to Red Nose. Propably Priesthood.
535 AD
I founded 2 more cities. One 2S of Iron, good spot, second 1W from copper. I researched Math , and Currency. Alphabet got for Monarchy from Red Nose. Tree Fairy found me. Still last in score, closest one was 1,5 better than me.
About 700 AD I founded Atlanta, my 5th city, near plains east of capitol. About 800 AD Ghost builded city on my island, south to Atlanta. I decided to go more military oriented. Researched Metal casting, researching Feudalism. I had in mind Engineering, Machinery and CS next.
At around 100AD I founded 6th city, west, near sheeps and clam. In second circle I would have horses. Ghost built two more cities on "my" land, south of Boston, city with Iron. Ebeneezer built Nagasaki on NW part, to gain Deer and Whale. Sugar Plum built a city on the southern end of her continent. She gained Fish I wanted for my 7th city... I was still last, 200 points to Tree Fairy. Ghost has almost 400 points more than I. Sugar Plum had been on top from the beginning. GS builded Academy in New York.
In 1200 I was on path to Liberalism researching Paper. Ghost built city next to my horses and I decided this is the end of this! He had just one unit in every city and in 3 cities it was mounted units. And I had Pikmen So I've buit few Pikmen. And what a luck, Ebeneezer just attacked Ghost. Red Nose attacked Sugar Plum. Academy in Philadelphia, city with copper.
In 1230 I DoW on Ghost. One city had beed autorazed, good, it was on awful spot. I took another easily, but Ghost managed to whip some defenders in two other cities. That forced me to whip my army, Trebs especially. So few Trebs and few Maces and I took those cities and made a peace with Ghost. After war he was "only" 340 points ahed of me. Tree Fairy was close, only 56 points ahead. I started reseaching Liberalism and decided to put myself together finally. I made a plan: to produce more Workers, spread Hindu (AP religion) in my country (Red Nose and Sugar Plum were Hindu), expand my economy and build, whip, research like crazy. Go for military victory somehow. Go for Democracy to gain some hammers from towns and be able to buy infrastructure.
During Ghost War I founded my las city, 2N from North Pole. I had to fight with Egyptian culture there.
In 1440 I discovered Liberalism, took Nationalism as free tech. Traded Lib for Guilds and Theology, traded it later for Banking and Astronomy from Red Nose.
In 1575 dicovered Democracy and switched to US and FS.
My plan gave first fruits, I outpaced Tree in score.
And then it was destroyed by evil Ebeneezer. He attacked me in 1585. With Grenadiers. I didn't have even Gunpowder.
And it was a point when my game really started.
I made myself a promise that Ebeneezer will not see the end of this game!
He immediately took Krasnoyarsk from me.
When the war started I was just 21 points to Great General.
In 1615 switched to FR, mainly because being afraid of other, non Hindu, civs (Herod, Ghost, Frosty) and to boost research. Literally all of AI's had "full hands". Red Nose still in war with Sugar Plum.
2 turns later Bryansk was taken. My units fled in panic. There is no use to defend Longbows against experienced Grenadiers. I started teching and trading like a crazy. Red Nose and Sugar Plum were ahead of me and I traded with both of them. Sometimes also with Frosty. She was fast ahead of me (no war on her).
1650 Great Prophet was born. Goood. He started GA.
1660 Economy. Traded for Gunpowder. 1675 Scientific Method. Ebeneezer took Tver', city with horses.
Rifling was close. Before GA edn I switched to Nationhood, Emancipation (few Maces whipped that last turn), Free Market and Theocracy. In 1702 discovered Rifling. I upgraded few Maces to Riflemen and retook Tver' and Krasnoyarsk. Those Grenadiers where though and Garrison promoted. Two Trebs didn't even scratch one. I lost two? CR promoted Rifles to take Krasnoyarsk. GG (Montgomery) was born. I merged him with Maceman and gave him CR3.
Ebeneezer built a city on Ghost's city ruins. I've sent Monty there and autorazed it again. And again, because he founded new city on the same spot.
1720 Chemistry.
1724 Herod and Ghost declared on me. Next turn Monty razed new city, American revolt has taken place in Bryansk and I retook it.
Only Nagasaki left on my island. Before bombarded its defense he upgraded Longbows to Grenadiers.
After few centuries of war Red Nose at last took one city from Sugar Plum. They signed peace few turns later. Sugar insisted to stop the war against faithful. I agreed and signed with Ebeneezer and Ghost in 1736.
Switched to Org Religion. Again started to build infrastructure. Libraries, Observatories, Universities, Leeves, Goccers, Harbors, Temples (for hammers), Moai and Heroic Epic in Philadelphia.
1750 Steam Engine, 1774 Steel.
1764 Holy war against Herod inspired by Sugar Plum. I was still in war with him, so agreed happily.
1786 Ghost declared on me altough we were buddies and both in war with Herod.
1796 Tree declared on Frosty. 1800 Ghost declared on Ebeneezer. Whole world in war.
1802 Railroad. Yeah! Rails and MGuns! Some defense at last. I traded them for Physics and Music. Ghost made peace with Herod. Few turns later he captured Ebeneezer's city.
1816 Communism. Switched to State Property and Free Rel.
1822. Thebes has achived Legendary.
1824. Peace with Herod.
1841. Electricity
1844. Corporation. May be it's traded.
1845. Peace with Ghost.
I'm building MGuns like crazy. I need safety before anything else. Still thinking about destroying Ebeneezer and in short time - capturing Nagasaki.
Ghost captured next city of Ebeneezer. I had spare GE, built Kremlin, only WW I could. Few years later Ghost built Pentagon.
1853. Assembly line. Immediately upgraded some Rifles and declared on Ebeneezer. The same year Ghost captured next two cities on his mainland and Ebeneezer capitulated to him. Oh, the hell. I was mad. Declared on both of them and captured Nagasaki. Finally alone on MY island. Well, almost. Frosty founded Dover on west part. She was my trade partner, so I will let her live there.
1859. Time to think. Under victory condition I saw that Sugar Plum will win Cultural in 81 turns!!! Ebeneezer must wait.
Frosty is teching like crazy. She has 5 techs more than me. Sugar Plum 4, but she has no Electricity, Communism, Assembly. Herod the same, but has Assembly. Ghost also, but he only has two techs I have not.
Ghost is dozen points ahead of Sugar Plum. Herod is third. I'm 400 points after him.
Only one city from Sugar's 'big 3' is on the coast. Quite close to me. Memphis. My goal.
Started frantically to work on my develop. 1864 peace with Ghost for some coins. 1868 I discovered Radio and started to build all 3 wonders. I need happiness for war.
Traded for Combustion and Military Tradition.
Herod captured one of Plum's cities. She recaptured it and made peace with him. Red Nose too, and he built Rock'n'Roll. I built Cristo Ren, but Frosty built Eiffel Tower before me. Well, I could use cash. Herod attacked Frosty, Sugar Plum attacked him. I've got Military Science. Discovered Flight, traded for Biology. Started to learn diplomacy and bribed Red Nose to attack Sugar Plum in 1889 .
I was working heavy on my military. Small cities retaken from Ebeneezer had been producing MGuns non-stop. In my flood plain cities I've built Factories. Health was a big problem, I had no navy and almost all the time at war so my sea food was almost non-existing. I traded with everyone. I have about 60 gp from trade each turn. I planned to build 5-6 Transports nad 2-3 Destroyers and play vabanque. Didn't expect them to survive my first attack.
Started second GA, dicovered Facism. Switched to Theocracy and Vassalage. Built West Point. Switched to Police State to produce units faster. Started to produce Paratroopers instead of Infantry.
All in all I built 8 Transports and 5 Destroyers. Attacked in 1900, 22 turns before Sugar Plum cultural victory. It was few turns later and my force was bigger because Red Nose attacked her near Memphis and she had more troops than I anticipated. Ha, funny thing, I had remembered about air recon two turns before planned attack. Well, better later than never. So I knew something about her forces there.
What a war it was! Magnificant!
I put my troops on her shore, next to Memphis. 5 MGuns, 8 Cannons, 19 Infantries, including Monty. Destroyers destroyed city's defense and ran away with Transports. I planned to attack from sea, but discovered that moment that cannons can't attack from Transports!
Sugar counterattacked with Artilleries, Cavalaries, Tanks and Infantry. It was disaster. I lost few cannons, Monty and several other Infantry units, 2 MGuns. But my cannons were unpromoted. I promoted them, so they were about 8-10 strong. Plum's troops in Memphis were damaged. I still had a chance. I had the same amout of attackers as she of defenders. My first Infanrty died. Rest of them won. And one defender left. Oh, no! Only 20 turns left and Memphis still existed! She counterattacked once again, weakly and lost few units. Then she left my forces alone. I had 3 MGuns and 11 Infantries left. No chances to take Memphis without siege units.
Plan B, I needed plan B!!!
I had only 24 land, units including 9 obsoleted, in my whole country. And 19 MGuns. And 16 Fighters.
But war production was in progress. I decided to attack south part of Plum's country and give my Memphis units hand by splitting her defense.
I discovered that she didn't have big navy. Probably wars with Red Nose and Herod made it so. All in all I lost only one destroyer. My navy went to Seattle, I put on 2 Transports scraps of my army. Destroyers negated culture defense. I attacked garrison troops by my Fighters. Lost 5 of them, but gained air superiority. And I easy took one city, then second. Our landmasses were so close, that I could pump units like crazy. I've sent couple MGuns to my forces near Memphis, just in case. Then I sent 6 cannons, few Paratroopers, Infantries and MGuns near Memphis by sea and attacked. This time I lost only one Cavalary. I was afraid of counterattack, but there was no such thing.
Herod signed peace one turn after my declaration on Sugar Plum. So only Red Nose and I were against her.
After taking Memphis she was eager to negotiate, but she would give only some coins, no techs, not even Divine Right. Cities which I took were choking under her culture, so I decided to continue war. I needed more lands, more cities to kill Ghost's vassal.
BTW I took Memphis 9 turns before her cultural victory.
I was terrified by thought of Ghost's suprise attack. My homeland was dried of units.
I discovered Industrialism and switched to Universal S again. I put research to 10%, culture to 20% and started to buy units.
Industrialism. Navy Seals. I produced several immediately. I left damaged units in Memphis. Healthy one went for next city. 4 years after Memphis I captured Elphantine, next 'to be Legendary' city. In 1916 one transport of Seals took another Plum's city. I sent healed cannons and spare troops from nearest cities to her capitol. She made something stupid - sent 4 or 5 Artilleries and stopped near my stack. So I destroyed them and continued. I had 2 GG already from this war. Built War Academies. I used GE to rush, build in fact Mt. Rushmore. I couldn't afford 20% on culture.
1918 Ghost attacked. But his supprise attack was not a suprise. He didn't attack directly from sea. I had 3 citties which could be captured by suprise attack. In each of them had at least 3 MGuns. When his navy stack appeared near one of them I just sent there any MGun I could afford. He damaged his forces (16 units only) badly, and then I just finished them off. I also sent my whole 'navy' to fight with Ebeneezer Frigates. Easy prey, easy experience. Even easier were his Airships for my Fighters. It made me to produce more Navy units. Good decision for future.
In 1923 Ghost was screaming for mercy. I signed peace for few hundred gp. I needed this peace badly as I wanted to finish off Sugar Plum. She was willing to capitulate, but I wanted her land. My worst fear was that she will capitulate to someone else.
Herod started war preparation ("enough in our hands"). Was I paranoic or I was his future victim? I was almost sure of it but had to finish my bussiness on north.
I was paranoic. He declared on Frosty and captured Dover on my landmass. He had quite a big stack, all his units which retreated from Sugar Plum's land after signing peace.
It was wonderfull news. I had peace with Ghost for a few more turns and Herod was busy. Red Nose was my buddy. I could finish Sugar Plum and think a little.
Six years later I captured her last city on the continent. Then she capitulated having one city on small island south of my land. I got some coins and Divine Right. Her land, population and wonders gave me a lot of points. Suddenly I was second, 400 before Red Nose and 120 points behind Ghost. This last city I gave to Red Nose. He was my buddy, but he was buddy of everyone else and I needed his votes.
I resigned from Vassalage and adpoted Free Speech. I needed both culture and coins.
Herod requested me to join war against Frosty. I did, to gain relation bonus, nothing else. It was 1934, the same year I discovered Plastics and decided to go for Internet. Well, decided right after Herod attacked Frosty, thus Plastics was so fast. Next turn adpoted Free Rel, I didn't want to make buddist Herod angry. I love Cristo Redentor!
I had 2 potential enemies - Herod and Ghost. Right after peace deal canceling his hands were full again. I'm paranoic, paranoic. But now I had: 34 MGuns, 17 air units, 15 navy units, 9 Tanks. And my cities on other land were safe from him. Two new cities had Military Academy and two GG installed. I had 4 shrines and built fifth soon. I sent navy, air and troops back to my mainland. Started to build infrastructure. Power plants in producing cities, temples (AP still worked), marketplaces, groccers and banks in others. I planned to build Internet and turn off research slider. I would get Artillery, Mass Media, Rocketry, Fission and Medicine. After Internet I would produce some more troops and declare on Ghost. I had to vassalized one of my enemies and he had no Industrialism, and what is more important no Oil. That way I could use my air superiority.
In 1937 Frosty capitulated to Herod.
1941 I discovered Computers. Used one precious turn to build Wall Street in Thebes (2 shrines, about +100gp while 80% at research) and started Internet there. Maxed hammers, and prayed. About 18 turns. I traded Computers for Rocketry with Sugar Plum.
I switched to Vassalage again. After few turns decided to research Modern Armor, Advanced Flight by myself. I'm a real fan of technological advantage.
I discovered Robotics in 1947, and Red Nose signed pact with Ghost. Grrrr, I had to wait for Ghost's attack then.
I traded with Red Nose, Computers for Artillery and Mass Media.
1950 I completed The Internet and gained Medicine, Fission, Advanced Flight and Satellites. Next year got Fiber Optics.
In 1952 Ghost attacked. Cool!
24 navy units, 27 air units, 15 guided missles, 7 Artilleries, 17 Mechanized Infantries. And about 2000 gp.
I upgraded all infantries and fighters I could.
I was not suprised at all. Air recon rules. This time he tried on Tver'. Facing 7 MGuns and 4 SAM Inf he unloaded his 24 units.
He attacked, but without conviction, only by half of his stack.
During first 3 turns after declaring I annihilated his landing force (3 Art., 9 Paratroop, 6 SAM Inf, 3 Anti-tank, 3 Infantry, Cannon), captured Orenburg on the island south of Krasyonarsk (4 more units, Navy Seals rules) and killed 12 destroyers, 3 carriers, Battleship, Attack Sub, 2 Subs, Fighter (and six more on carriers), 4 bombers and some obsolete navy units.
My casualties: 7 Art., 1 Mech. Inf, 2 Jet Fighters. I lost much seafood and some infrastructure (windmills and towns) due to Guided Missles. I gave Orenburg to Sugar Plum.
Several turns my navy and air force have been repairing. I sent Submarine and destroyed single Ghost's Uran mine.
Then I sent small flotilla to his city on the border with Ebeneezer. I lost Missle Cruiser, and 2 Destroyers, his coastal cities were full of missles. But my Transports were intact and I could support them with air forces. So I captured this city. Navy Seals rules!
Ghost signed peace, giving me Tokio, near my latest conquest. Now his continent was splitted by my lands. And Tokio had an airport!
It was July 1958. In the meantime I discovered Composites and Stealth. At the end of my war with Ghost he lost first power position for Herod and this devil tried to win by voting. I gave Tree Fairy Flight on this turn and he didnt't succeed.
In July 1960 Herod declared on me.
This war was a joke! He sent forces from Dover on my land. I annihilated them with air force help and captured Dover.
Then he sent Transport flotilla to Nagasaki without escort. I destroyed 3 of them on sea and then annihilated the rest of landing force. Then he sent 8-10 units flotilla (3 or 4 Transports) in the direction of my northern continent. I annihilated it. He was willing to negotiate, but wanted to give me Frosty's city on the other end of the world. And I wanted Liverpool, on his land, near my borders. So I took it. Navy Seals rules! He lost about 20 navy units, about 10 air units and about 50 land units. I lost some infrastructure again, but not much, few Jet Fighters, one Stealth Bomber, few navy units. We signed peace in July 1963.
Red Nose was building spaceship quickly.
Now I was preparing for Ghost. I wanted to vassalize him and may be Ebeneezer also and I wanted to do it fast. I had just few turns of guaranteed peace with Herod and I need to do something about Red Nose's spaceship.
During war with Herod I was sending troops like crazy to my cities on Ghost's land. I had one city garrison to spare, because Krasnoyarsk was now safe from suprise attack. Sent it there via sea.
In July 1964 I declared war on Ghost. Till 1968 I captured 4 his cities and Ebeneezer has broken free.
Next year I captured Moscow and Ghost capitulated. I gave him back most of his cities maitaining some buffer for Tokyo and Nara I captured 10 years ago.
Ebeneezer made biiiig mistake. He didn't want to capitulate. OK, no means no. It took me few precious turns but in 1971 his civ was non-existant. Promise was fullfilled. It was my only mistake in late game, but I hated his guts!!
When I attacked Red Nose he had just one SS casing to finish his spaceship.
This war was quite interesting. I didn't have enough units in that area to crush him decisively. I aimed for conquest victory having 2 vassals and destroying one civ. Started to raze his cities. He retook one of his cities, I lost 4 Stealth Bomber then. In the midle of the war I was just tired of carnage. Changed my mind and aimed for domination, just to finish this game.
I conquered all Red Nose's land and destroyed his civ. Just in case, I suspect vassal can still send spaceship and win. Then I prepared for Herod. I took 6 his cities and was streched thin, but he capitulated. With my vassals votes I was able to win diplomacy victory. I needed just 1% land area to win domination.
And for dessert my score: 21k.
I hope I'll get "award"

2 remarks:
- it was my first game when I didn't produce even single Spy!
- Navy Seals rules! I trained just 10 of them, 2 died and I captured 6 cities using them. They are killing machines with air support.

 

[noncommutative]

I've played every GOTM the last year and enjoy these games enormously, but I always cheat to seek out the best possible scenario. It's amazing to watch the games of people who DON'T cheat but still kick my butt. Very talented players here... Anyhow here's a writeup for anyone interested:

-----------------

Cultural victory, 1330 AD, final score 1849, normalized to 90,798
(Cheat w/ reloading, no submission)

Settle: 3W, 1N
Warrior: explore, find cottage turn 9 to discover Sailing. Fogbust S, return to capital.

Research: Mining, BW, Hunting, Wheel, Pottery

Initial queue:
1) Workboat, until growth to pop 2
2) Switch to worker, until whippable
3) Resume workboat until pop reaches 3 (unhealthy due to floodplain).
4) Whip Worker when Bronze Working researched
5) Whip first workboat
6) Chop second workboat
7) Double-whip settler
8) Double-whip granary
9) Lighthouse
10) Double-whip settler
...

Cities
3975 BC, Washington, 3W 1N, w/ fish(x2), fur(x2), deer(x3), gems, dye, 6 floodplain
2675 BC, New York, on hill in NW, w/ fish, deer, marble, 4 floodplain
2200 BC, Boston, on ice in S next to Dye, w/ fish(x2), Dye, Iron, 4 floodplain
1800 BC, Philadelphia, in N area on ice S of sheep, w/ fish, sheep, wine, gems, deer
1450 BC, Atlanta, in NE area on ice, w/ crab, clam, incense
1150 BC, Chicago, in E on hill, w/ fish, 5 floodplain
700 BC, Seattle, E, w/ cow, copper, 5 floodplain
335 BC, San Francisco, W, w/ fish, clam (x2), horse
25 AD, Los Angeles, E, w/ deer (FP), marble, fur

Presents:
Cheated like crazy: arrived at 1500 BC with scout, squatted and reloaded until all huts were techs
1) Horseback Riding
2) Currency
3) Calendar
4) Iron Working
5) Metal Casting
6) Compass
7) Monarchy
8) Aesthetics
9) Construction
10) Literature
11) Drama
12) Music

Religions:
Confucianism -- Founded 925 BC
Buddhism -- Received from Montezuma ~700 BC
Christianity -- Founded 365 BC
Taoism -- Founded 215 BC
Islam -- Founded 25 AD
By the end all 5 religions were saturated with 5 cathedrals in each legendary city.

Great Wonders:
1000 BC -- Great Lighthouse (New York)
335 BC -- Parthenon (New York)
290 BC -- Great Library (Washington)
215 BC -- Sistine Chapel (Boston)
110 BC -- Mausoleum of Maussollus (New York)
65 BC -- Colossus (Washington)
640 AD -- Taj Mahal (Boston)
National Epic, Hermitage in Washington

GP:
4 scientists
3 merchant
8 artists (including from Music)
Built 2 academies, 2 golden ages, settled 2 merchants, bombed all artists in New York and Boston.

Civics:
Early game: Slavery, Organized Religion
Mid game: Bureaucracy, Hereditary rule
Late game: Representation, Free Speech, Caste System, Pacifism

Defenses:
All warriors. Cheated to avoid barbarians by reloading and fogbust at the right time / place.

AI:
Selling techs for cheap kept everyone happy, most were pleased/friendly by the end. However, the Celts declared war 3 turns before end-game, but brought only catapults and accomplished nothing.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

huts were techs
12) Music

Very interesting. Since you can't get a Religion-founding tech with a Hut, I had always assumed that the same was true with a Great-Person-granting tech like Music.

GP:
4 scientists
3 merchant
8 artists (including from Music)
Built 2 academies, 2 golden ages, settled 2 merchants, bombed all artists in New York and Boston.

It's nice to see someone else who believes that one doesn't need an almost purely-Great-Artist gene pool in BTS Cultural Victories.

Defenses:
All warriors. Cheated to avoid barbarians by reloading and fogbust at the right time / place.

It wasn't too hard to spawn-bust the continent. Yes, I had several run-ins with Barb units that caused me to waste a lot of population and Whipping Unhappiness, but it also probably wouldn't have been too hard to have done some good spawn-busting for those of you who didn't lose their first Warrior very early on like I did.

For the minimal amount of Hammers saved, the added frustration that you must have went through wasn't really worth it for this particular point, if you ask me.


As to the Huts... well, getting free techs is nice but you probably could have done nearly as well had you focused on the techs that you wanted the most and traded for the rest. If you were foolishly trying to build every single Wonder, then yes, having all techs well ahead of the AI via cheating the huts' contents might be the only way to do it.

That said, I think that you were selective in which Wonders to build, which is good. Your entire list of Wonders is quite doable without reloading (I think that I built all of those, but I might have missed one or two--I can't recall for certain).

Selling techs for cheap kept everyone happy, most were pleased/friendly by the end. However, the Celts declared war 3 turns before end-game, but brought only catapults and accomplished nothing.

Perhaps selling to everyone is ill-advised, as often you will get a -4 You Have Traded with our Worst Enemies negative Diplo modifier, which completely offsets the +4 Fair and Forthright Trading positive Diplo modifier.


While it hurts to miss out Wonders in your Legendary Cities (I think that I missed out on Ankgor Wat by a couple of turns), certainly everything that you accomplished would have been possible without cheating: a few more cheap Military Units to spawn-bust and to replace the odd ones that die, the same set of Wonders, similar techs (just perhaps a bit slower to get to them--so you have to plan out your desired order to tech them) thanks to beelining some techs and trading for the others, and even getting multiple Religions by either prioritizing the founding of them as the techs that you chase after (as you did) or else what I should have done (founding none and waiting for them to spread to us).


Thus, I encourage you to rid yourself of your reloading habit for the next game. Who cares if you win in 1800 AD instead of 1300 AD... if you can say that you did it without reloading, you'll feel much better about your victory!

 

[Tredje]

@ Duckweed: Such beautiful play. I particularly found the early part about whipping and expanding inspiring.

 

[Lexad]

1st game in like last 3 months, and do I suck at milking. 295k 1985ad domi, too slow despite good start with GLhouse, the most useful wonder in this game. Hats off to Kaitzilla and Duckweed. Jesusin - masterful, as always.

 

[jesusin]

I've played every GOTM the last year and enjoy these games enormously, but I always cheat to seek out the best possible scenario.

Years ago I used to reload a lot too. I thought I was trying to play "the perfect game". The fact is that I was a bad player that made tremendous strategic mistakes and never realised.

I recommend your playing GOTMs without reloading. You will learn a lot this way. You will save lots of time. And you will enjoy the game much more than ever before. The thrill of knowing there is no second chance makes every game a unique experience.

If you are looking for the perfect game, though, I suggest your playing in the HOF competition. There you can get the perfect starting position, the perfect rivals, the ideal map and climate. The fact that you can't reload there either isn't as important, if you start a game and lose the Oracleby 1 turn, you just throw the map away and start a new one.

Islam -- Founded 25 AD

I think the time you invested in researching Divine Rights wasn't worth the benefit of a 5th set of cathedrals. Maybe you will do me a favour and reload once again (for the last time maybe ) and play the game the same way you did from that point on, this time ignoring Divine Rights. That would be an interesting experiment.

290 BC -- Great Library (Washington)

I am sure this is a mistake. In BTS having a couple of WW that give 1 or 2 non-artist GPP is good, you don't mind starting a GoldenAge with a "wrong" GP. Now, the GL gives you 8 "wrong" GPP. That's too much. Even if those few additional GPP were critical for getting one more GP, you are better of with 2 less GSci and one more GArt. The culture points of the wonder itself don't offset this loss.

GP:
4 scientists
3 merchant
8 artists (including from Music)
Built 2 academies, 2 golden ages, settled 2 merchants, bombed all artists in New York and Boston.

That's 3 all-but-useless GP (and 2 more used for a GAge which is far from optimal). Had you had 2 more GA instead, you would have saved aroound 6 turns out of your enddate.




I hope we can meet in Gauntlet Minor 112, it will be a pleasure to compare strategies with you. And I wish you give my advice a try and play one GOTM without replaying any part of it. I'm convinced you will enjoy the experience. Good luck.

 

[pnp_dredd]

I was inspired by recent SGOTMs to launch Santa into space.

Like most I settled on the iron and used slavery for production. I had a bit of a barbarian scare when axes began appearing before I had fully fog busted, and needed to quickly tech archery and sub-optimally whip some archers. Didn't try for Oracle, which went to Egypt in 1500 bc, but I did build GLHouse early, and Parthenon and GLib fairly early. [Parthenon didn't get a lot of use because I was of course in slavery most of the time.] At 0AD I had 6 cities.

I settled Philadelphia on the southern floodplains and that because a beurocracy-capital oxford super science city. I probably prioritised this a bit too much as it wasn't as great as a fully-cottaged site would have been.

I lost Taj by 1 turn, as I waited until I had captured MOM to build it.

After Cannons I tried to simultaneously wage war against Egypt and focus on getting Sushi and Mining Inc. I was way too slow getting the necessary Great People, and I don't think I got the most out of Sushi. I chose Egypt first as they had so many wonders, not realizing that most of these wonders were very soon obsoleted. After Egypt I took out Japan. My research peaked at around 5000 beakers per turn and due to poorly-timed Golden Ages the last few techs and parts took way too long. The micro involved in spreading two corporations and managing GPs and production/commerce tired me out and I got lazy towards the end. Workers were automated after building a rudimentary railroad network.

Launched very soon after 1800ad, which I was fairly happy with and learned a lot along the way (stuff which will be useful for launching Santa next time but perhaps not so relevant for more standard maps!).

I missed out on my presents - Stalin "ghost of Christmas past" had built a city on that island by the time I got there. I was blocked by Stalin's borders early on, after giving into someone's demands to stop trading with him. The grumpy old man won't talk for an awfully long time when snubbed.

I'm really enjoying these scenario GOTMs (and SGOTMs) which slightly twist on 'standard' play.

 

[noncommutative]

Thank you Dhoomstriker and jesusin for the kind review and advice. I'm sure you're right about skipping Divine Right and the Great Library. This weekend I may try again before starting the next one.

I may play GOTM or HOF the right way some day, but alas probably not: my replay addiction runs deep. GOTM is basically my crossword puzzle. The most fun part for me is seeking out the best way to do "X" given the constraints. I don't exist on the same plane as some players here, so the likelihood of doing that on the first try are nearly zero for me.

 

[kcd_swede]

I started this one late, so was hoping for a fast game. I gave up in abou1650AD when it became obvious that winning would require a much more substantial time-investment than I have available before the closing date.

I should have gone for culture, because the land was good for that. (Then I could just click enter a whole bunch of times until game over (which I say mostly to annoy Jesusin) But lack of religions (Hatty hogged most) was a big problem... I founded Confucianism, but got no spread from anywhere else despite OB. I was doing well in tech, so instead I went ahead with a spaceship in mind, which kind of wrecked any chance of a fast victory.

By the time I was ready to expand beyond the start continent, war was the only option. I had won the liberalism race and took steel for cannons, in order to make conquest fast as I could make it. Cannons + Rifles. I did not build enough galleons, however, so resupply was difficult, and I had to worry about caravel stacks because I didn't make enough frigates either.

Dismal warring against aztecs: they have only medieval units, but easy resupply from land routes, and their English vassals pitched in too. It doesn't matter that rifles/cannons win every battle (then 1 t to heal), because each turn there are more aztec units than the turn before. Eventually (10t or so?) I take the first city and figure that his stack is spent and now its clean-up time. That's when the Rusians join in with grens. I think I still would win, but it won't be a competitive date (already at 1650AD). If I have the time one day, I'll finish the game to put that to the test. However, not enough play time left for me now that the war has spread and resistance has stiffened.

I enjoyed the christmas presents (gold, maps, enough xp for HE, calandar, HBR, and a few scouts and warriors). I think it was very challenging with the concentration of resource tiles that the AI were given (notably Scrooge and the SPFairy). Fun!

Fast tech start but too complacent about expanding after enabling Oxford U. Meant I needed war with Hatty just to get my whole continent! I need to get more aggressive in the early game, too, I think. I also mishandled the diplomacy because every time I went to war my targets would bribe others to join. Lots of mistakes... I'll blame it on being rusty after a prolonged vacation. Congrats to the winners, and wish I had the time to be among you!

 

[-Asterix-]

When I saw all the ice at the beginning I thought to play my first-ever game without building cottages (wouldn't destroy captured ones, though) and to concentrate more on farms, mines and specialists. Despite lack of hammers I thought to put that ind-trait to good use and get some shiny things, we had marble after all. Also whipping seemed to be of the essence but I wasn't even remotely hard enough to my elves when I look at the games by Duckweed and others. Well played!

I settled Washington on the forest E next to the fish, with the nice reindeer on BFC. I got an extra warrior from Santa's Grotto which maybe helped me a bit with fogbusting. Barbs weren't really a problem at all with decent fogbusting and some luck but my initial expansion was very slow. Too slow to achieve some of those faster victory dates. Only had like 4 or 5 cities at 1AD. Maybe I concentrated too much on wonders getting GLH, ToA, Parthenon, TGL, Colossus and some others. Missed Oracle and Mids went very early in my opinion. I still don't know how to abuse HR properly, so repre would have been nice.

My exploring workboat met bunch of rivals but I managed to totally miss the Christmas presents. I guess I missed the route there at the first time, and when I later found the correct place after map trades there was nothing left. Stalin had one city on that island and so did barbs.

Even though my expansion was rather slow, nobody else settled on that starting continent. I tried to be friends with everybody except Toku and that helped me stay away from the first conflicts. The first DoW on me came from Monty. I thought that he would go to somebody else first but I was very wrong. Should never underestimate the power of pure madness... He got me unprepared, though I had taken one barb city earlier and had at least some troops. Luckily he brought only two galleons full of siege next to my city so he couldn't really do anything. Those cats/trebs were the only foreign units that landed on my continent during the whole game. After dealing with them I soon got peace with Monty and got some time to get prepared for further expansion with war.

I waited some time to get infantries, cannons and GG from fascism for super-medic and headed then (around 1500AD I guess, not sure if I remember correctly) to Monty for a payback. Rest of the game would be war. Capitulating Monty didn't take too long with superior units and also Vicky fell soon after quick regrouping. Next in line was Stalin who had capitulated Toku. To ease things up with him I waited to get destroyers on-line (Stalin had superior numbers of frigates and frigate-killers) and prepared to attack also Toku at the same time. War with Stalin took a bit longer because I had to completely wipe out Toku first to make him capitulate, but I got bunch of big cities and land on the process. Then there was only Hatse with all her shiny wonders and Boudi who had capitulated Mao earlier. While transferring my troops to better positions to attack Hatse I teched Mass Media and built UN for diplo victory. One city from Hatse got me enough votes to win but I decided to take some more and all the shiny things. After vote I even capitulated her because there was no danger to go over domination limit.

So the result was diplo victory in 1780AD with some 146k points. Could have been a lot faster but I'm still happy with the game. Possessed all the wonders in the end and Washington became a nice icy capital with 10+ settled GPs.

 

[Lexad]

I wonder if anyone tried to wipe out Scrooge early - his land coupled with no copper and iron in the nearest vicinity could have come handy.

 

[Vynd]

At the start I suckered myself into heading south in search of non-frozen land, and ended up settling on the peninsula down there with only Fish and Dye for resources, but lots of flood plains and some hills I could mine....

... One month, roughly 32 hours of game play, and 500 turns later I won a Conquest victory, in 1911. All seven original opponents were vassalized (I eliminated one released colony opponent). Final score was a relatively piddling 86,290.

Perhaps after I've slept I'll feel like posting some details, but it was far from perfectly played. At least I got to make effective use of modern military units I never normally employ like masses of Modern Armor, SEALs, Jet Fighters, Guided Missiles, and Attack Submarines. Oh, and extensive use of Airships actually gave me a real combat advantage.

I could have won Domination 10 turns earlier at least, but by then I had my heart set on Conquest and refused to accept Monty's capitulation until I could get Frosty to bend the knee simultaneously. Ended with ~70% of the world's population and land, including my share of the vassals' stuff.

 

[Arnold_T]

Hey, Duckweed, great game! My result was a dismal dipl loss in 1804 to Aztecs.
I'm replaying trying to duplicate your sucess, and my first question is about getting that awesome capital.
How did you decide to send your settler south? As others have posted here the pobvious lures are to the deer/floodplains to the east. Did you just have a hunch that better land must be south since this is supposed to be the North Pole. what were your first warrior and settler moves?

 

[babybluepants]

Goal: fast diplo
Result: submitted incomplete 1280 AD
Was gonna do a long session today to finish, but didn't happen.

Edit: I underestimated what it would take to build up an army in these conditions and went straight for the Phys-Elec-Radio beeline, hoping to Lib whatever I can along the way. Then had to switch gears after Astro, tech Nat and GP, Lib MT and go into rush-buy mode. Vicky was the first target, but Monte walked up to one of her former cities with an SOD, when I was gearing up for London. Abandoned that and went after him instead. AP re-assigned one of Vick's cities to her a few turns later. Spy-bombed Hatty in the meantime. As of the last save: Monte's a vassal, Vicky is down to 5 cities and about to lose them quickly, should be ready to attack Hatty with spy+cuiri in 10-15t. Boudica and Toku are friendly, with Stalin as the very likely UN opponent and Mao a non-factor. I have a GE, but I also stopped researching for 25-30t, while rush-buying with 100% gold slider and two GM trade missions. Should switch back to Rep in 5t or so and beeline MM, research is still crawling to Sci Meth.

Great games, Duckweed, Kaitzilla and jesusin!

Awesome scenario, DS. Most fun I've had in a solo game in quite some time.

 

[zamint3]

Managed to submit just before deadline.

Late sushi domination 1718 AD, 346K

My capital was crappy (but did whip quite a lot of workers and settlers ) and I lost a city to the barbs early on.

Moved capital later (first time ever) onto east coast, think I'll keep moving the settler in next Botm...

Great write-ups Duckweed and jesusin