BOTM 39 Final Spoiler

[enKage]

OK, submitted

I'm in good mood even though I retired, because throughout most of the game I did reaaly well

Retired in 1830 when I lost chance for any victory condition.

Till late game I was a tech leader / 2nd techer (i can't believe it! on imortal! with Shaka!), winning liberalism race and taking replaceble parts.
I founded cionfucianism, but didn't take advantage of it after building a shrine

My problems begun when Ottoman decided to declare war on me, coming with curassiers against my longbows and just a few muskeets. He took quickly 3 of my cities, but in couple of turns, when I got rifles and invited China to my side, I pushed Ottomans back, ending war with 2 former turkish cities (I had to give him astronomy and world map for peace, his cuirasiers - circa 20-30 - were on their way back from china land)

So let's say first Ottoman-Zulu war I won...

Later - Mehmed together with Boudica turned score leader - China - from over 20city empire into 10city vassal of Mehmed. So one of my friends was out of service

2nd Otto-Zulu war was in early 1800 when Mehmed came again with his stack of about 30 cavalries and 20 rifles. At this moment I had only 20-25 infantry counting all my empire. I tried to defend, but Mehmed took my 2 desert cities and was heading towards my main production tiles.

It was obvious I will not defend myself anymore, and will lose at least one of this cities before peace. Mehmed hated me so much, that the peace would last only for ten turns.

Diplo victory - impossible (good relations only with Churchill and Maya)
Spaceship - I lost tech lead to Maya and England because of the war
Religion - Otto/ Boudica,
Conquest/ Domi - not a chance against Mehmed or Boudica
Culture - not a single cathedral in my cities

So the only option was to retire

 

[neilmeister]

Limped home for a 1950 space victory.

Big mistake was to not expand north and grab all of those lovely flood plains, but the maintenance scared me. Had to get Churchill & Boudica to DoW Pacal in the end as he otherwise was going to win a cultural victory.

 

[Jaybone]

Got a 1906 conqust win. Oh my god, it takes forever to conquer all these cities, and I took on mehmed last because I figured he'd be toughest. Even with a big tech advantage he had an anormous stack of 70-80 units that was unstoppable . . .until I built the manhattan project and dropped 10 nukes on him

 

[jesusin]

jesusin contender. Goal: fastest cultural victory. Result: 1635AD cultural victory.

1AD Stats: 5 cities, 15 pop, 7workers, 13units (4Axe), 2 strategic resources, 1 luxury resources, 4 health resources, 1 great persons, 1 world wonders, 0 national wonders, food/production/commerce=58-10-58, 27 sustainable beakers per turn, 21 culture per turn, 8 great person points per turn, 0 gold. 1 religions. 0/0 cottages used, 18 Techs: IW, Alpha, Sail, PH. 0 civs killed. 9 hours played. reli/city, temples, caths== 1,0,0. -9gpt at 0% science.

So with my crashed economy I learned a lot about Strikes. I thought I had 1 free strike turn, without losing units, every time I went into strike. The truth was that I had 1 free strike turn all game long, all other strike turns I lost units, even if in between I would have been on the green for a couple of turns or I revolted for 1 turn.

Built my 6th city up the second river, in a PH with 7FPs. Alex took my fish site and the 2 FP site I had left in between my cities, so I was out of space.

Got Currency 300AD and that solved my problems. Incredibly enough, I was first to CoL at 400AD. That was specially good news: 1 AI had founded hindu, spread to everybody, and Judaism, spread to no one. Churchill had founded Budism and was hated by everyone. I founded and never adopted Confu and Tao... so for a ong time we all loved each other and jointly hated Churchill, saving me of the possibility of wars.

At 500AD I was doing 95 sustainable bpt and had 3 religions. Stupidly lost the opportunity to take a barb city for me with the help of the AIs.

My second GS bulbed Philo, my third Education. Took a barb city SW with dyes, sugar, clams and banana. Delayed Bureaucracy for one turn to pop an Axe as a security measure against a lucky barb. Lost MoM. Founded my 8th city W, with gems, sugar, cows dyes. Found unclaimed Marble far North, next to the sea, killed the barb city there and founded my 9th city there.

Got Parthenon and Music GA.

1000AD Stats: 8 cities, set, 68 pop, 11 workers, 19units (10Axe), 4 strategic resources, 6 luxury resources, 6 health resources, 3 great persons, 2 world wonders, 0 national wonders, food/production/commerce=189-89-165, 76 sustainable beakers per turn, 68 culture per turn, 24 great person points per turn, 200 gold. 4 religions. 4/6 useful cottages used, 41 Techs: Music, Liber, Natio, no PP, no Guilds. 0 civs killed. 17 hours played. reli/city, temples, caths== 21,7,0

Got NE and Sistine's. First Cathedral as late as 1080AD. My 4th and last GS was used to revolt to FS (and CS and Pacifism) when I reached Liberalism first in 1200AD (3 cathedrals by then).
Base culture then was 59, 34, 55.

My mistake was trying to save on missionaries, so I waited for something to spread to my three no-religion cities. In the end I got tired of waiting and used the missionaries there, with a huge delay.

Hermitage in capital, the only decent city. Delayed TajMaj to use the GAge to revolt to Mercantilism. AI tech rate was pitiful this game, very far from normal Immortal level. Probably due to toroidal maintenance costs.

Saved up to 2400g and went 100% culture with my 6th cathedral, 1310AD.

1400cpt and 411GPPpt by 1370AD.

1900cpt, 600GPPpt by 1500AD.


Since my estimations gave the last GA being worth 1 single turn, I burnt a GA and the free GM from Economy on a third GAge. Wroked carefully on the correct GA pop order. Joined a fake war against the only infidel. Sometimes I saw someone going WHEOOH but I always could bribe someone else to war against them or just as them for a few coins to get a 10 turns respite and them provoke AP resolution to go to war against the infidel... so I never knew if they were planning to go against me.

Near the end I was again strong (rifles) so I thought a PA would be a would idea. I broke that pact just the turn before Mehmed dowed my PA partner, ufffff. I could have survived, by his stacks were scarily big.





Key data: Cultural victory 1635AD. Multipliers 5.5-4-4, bombs 1-7-7, base culture in the end 200-125-125, 2GS bulbed, GS Acad, GM+GA+GS for 2GAges, total 21GP.

In short: Bad start withour GW, economy crash after beating the barbs, but then I got Pyramids and got out of the hole with Currency. AI were extremely slow and I could manage my diplomacy, so I run ahead of the quickly after my economic recovery.

 

[evil_spock]

Space loss to Mao in 1944. I managed to launch my ship but Mao completed his SS a turn or two faster.

This was practically my second proper immortal game ever, first being BOTM 34 in which I managed to launch the space ship but Joao launched his ship a few turns earlier.

This game seemed strangely easy up until the mid 1800's. Barbarians were no threat with the great wall and I managed to get CS from the oracle. I had assembly line well before others even had rifling, so I quickly conquered Alex. At this point I had only one evening time to finish the game so I decided to go for the space victory with 18 cities.

I had a good tech lead for a long time, but when it came to spaceship techs, Mao stole at least four of them from me. This is what happened in BOTM 34 too. I should have done some counter espionage and build some security bureaus and spies, but as I was clicking through the the game in a hurry I didn't remember to do any of those things.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and bang my head against the wall...

 

[2metraninja]

I wonder if anyone else who didn't build GW has won?

I did. Finished the game in the last few hours, will write about it tomorrow morning.

 

[Htadus]

Just submitted an incomplete game in 1918. I think I picked a bad game for a domination. I am just under 55% of land and just ran out of steam and mainly time.

I wrote the following at lunch time yesterday and it is not complete. I think what I really want to share is that with planning ahead, you can expand to the point where the science is at 0% and loosing gpt. Also I made some bad decisions that casued me to need more time to play this game.

Spoiler :

Wow, this was one tough mutha. I am not sure that I would get to finish it.

At the end of 0AD, I had a small empire and was harassing poor Alex. Once I realized that I could send those units to capture Barb cities, I got peace. I sent those axes and Impi’s out and captured about 4-5 cites claiming 3 irons and incense. As expected my economy tanked. From about 0AD to about 1000AD, failure gold from Wonders, tech selling and careful mm kept me in the forefront of Tech and land without my units going on strike at 0 percent science. About 19-21 cities by this time. The biggest mistake made was not teching CoL. Obviously this also meant I was nowhere close to CS either. Wake up call. I did have Aesthetics, music, drama, and literature. And not to mention Machinery. What happened to my planned tech path? You know ……CS after Currency.

I had planned for a fast Domination? (Ok you can stop laughing now) So I assigned different cities to build the SoZ, HE and Globe. Good prep I said to myself. But when the time came for war and drafting, the Globe was nowhere to be found in the empire. I vaguely recall switching to a worker at one point….Oh well.

2nd Greek War

When it was time to expand again, Alex was my first choice. He was not part of the Buddhist league. So I never even considered that he would be my friend Boadicea’s Vassal. Well, that was not good because I had a sweet barb city bordered by the Celts defended by an ax and an impie. I send out the impi for recon and get killed by a Celtic LB. Two HA take my city. I take out Alex with Maces, cats and Elephants. My sizable (slow built) army head toward NE and start attacking Celts. My Friend and his voluntary Vassal Pacal join in the party. My armies were about to take 3 cities when my Friend calls for AP Vote to stop the war against Shaka. Next turn I get peace forced upon with the Celtic Lass. The cites I prep for capture falls to England. Soon after Chuchy get his next Vassal. Grrrr

Liberalism Drama

The drama was all self created. First I was heading toward steal, then toward MT. When I was done with Nationalism, I find 4 AI with paper. I trade for it and see no one has Education. I changed my mind to go for Steel again since I have no horses. Chemistry almost done and I find that Churchill can tech Lib and Mao will trade horses. Change techs again. This time to Education and use a GS to part bulb it and my friend Churchill trade it for another tech. I barely get Lib before Churchill and take MT for free.

Next War
So the race is on and I think I am sprinting but it was trot. I get 3 stacks ready to go after Mehmet; mainly to get even for the last WOTM. The 2 of stacks were about 15 units each and a large one with about 25 units. Mainly composed of Maces, cats/trebs and a few newly promoted knight and cuirasses. More were being built; about 7-8 while other cities are starting muskets.

Disaster #1 (AKA bonehead #1)
Well two things happened at this point. I was ready to go to sleep and Mao culture bombed a city to north and took away about 6 tiles from my iron-incense city. I just did not like that. Friends don’t do this to friends do they? So I turned my army around and send them to china. First turn, we take 1 city and 2 more the next, including the culture bomb city. City governors inform me that I lost several part built Cuirass’s and on the 3rd turn of the war his stacks take two back and decimated my army. So I did the most logical thing next. Saved the game and went to bed.

Oh well, said I, to me. I am not going to finish this game. Then myself reminded me and I that we had planned for this contingency and can use the AP to stop the war since we are the current vote leader and our Friend will vote for us against Mehmet.

Two weeks later I opened the file and began to whip and draft an army awaiting the AP vote. The sudden power build up made China to come to its sense and agree to peace.

2nd China War
Now we have Cannons and Rifles. Dow China again and this time it take forever to take about 8 Chinese cities with 2 stacks. After the first 4 cities lost, the China is ready to capitulate but I am after a Domination win albeit a slow one.

Disaster #2: Chinese Capitulate…to Ottoman’s
The war goes for ever and china bow to ottoman. This does not look good. Now we have a containment situation in the NW while the main attack force is capturing Chinese Cities. One of the former Barb cities bordering Ottoman culture become the hotbed. He brings a stack of about 60 units and park on a hill. I have about 9 rifles, mainly drill 3 and 4 defending the city and we can upgrade them to Infantry. Next turn there are 9 infantry and several new rifles. Also many of the cannons intended for Chinese war get routed to this city and suicides on the stack. On 3rd or 4th turn he attacks and looses nearly all of his army. My newly arrived units clean up and just about then another stack show up. About 10-20 units at a time. This go on for about another several turns. The war goes on forever and stops when china was gone and Ottomans’ have 3 cities and become a Zulu Vassal. Mehmet did blindside me and captured one of my cities near Pacal for about 4 turns. Took it back. The city he gave me had soooooo many buildings. Damn them AI can bild.

During peace, we try to catch up on tech race and get to Artillery and was about to get tanks when I had the urge to attack Pacal. When I stopped last night, I had taken 4 cities and lost 1 to a great stack.

 

[RRRaskolnikov]

@Htadus: Funny I got the same problem than you ("OK I am gonna blitz mao with horses... wait a minute, he is my horse provider" I made sure to attack when I had a more than enough stack)!

edit: yeah! lucky me I noticed it before declaring

 

[Htadus]

@Htadus: Funny I got the same problem than you ("OK I am gonna blitz mao with horses... wait a minute, he is my horse provider" I made sure to attack when I had a more than enough stack)!

At least you stopped from making a bad decision.

I kill me.

 

[Vynd]

Got a 1906 conqust win. Oh my god, it takes forever to conquer all these cities, and I took on mehmed last because I figured he'd be toughest. Even with a big tech advantage he had an anormous stack of 70-80 units that was unstoppable . . .until I built the manhattan project and dropped 10 nukes on him

Sheesh, conquest on this map sounds like a huge chore. Well done! Nicely played with the nukes.

 

[Vynd]

Settled in place and built the Great Wall. Only managed a few other cities before Alex declared on me. After Alex foolishly suicided his stack into my walled fortified hill city, I was able to capture Sparta (with the Copper to the SE). I lacked the strength to carry the war further and made peace. I settled my Great Spy, and as a result had excellent intelligence on everyone for the first 3/4s of the game.

Pacal founded Hinduism and spread it like crazy. Everyone was solidly Hindu, including me of course, except Bouadica. I built the Apostolic Palace to ensure that Pacal would not do so and win a diplo victory (he had built a lot more missionairies than he did cities). I had an outside chance at a religious victory at this point, but it would have required going to war on the side of Mehmed and Pacal against power leader Bouadica, and I chickened out. Probably a good decision as Alex declared on me again. I captured a couple of cities but was running out of gas and could see he was on the verge of getting Longbows, so I made peace again.

I proceeded along toward a Space Race victory. My main threat was Mao, who had benefited from my relatively poor expansion and had 18 cities. He peacefully vassalized Pacal and Mehmed, and later vassalized Bouadica in war. Churchill and I were ahead of him in tech though.

All along I kept my eye on the religious victory option, and did what I could to work toward that without jeopradizing the Space Race. That's why I spread Hinduism to a couple of English cities to ensure that he would be my opponent in any votes, not Overlord Mao. This also motivated me to dogpile on Bouadica in her war with Mao/Mehmed/Pacal and get a few more reltionship bonuses. After that, conditions looked pretty good so I maximized my civics for more relationship bonuses instead of actual productivity, and... victory in 1860. It helped that I had finally vassalized Alex and secured his votes as well. I think the only ones who didn't vote for me were Bouadica (neglible Hindu population) and my opponent Churchill (with whom I actually had the most favorable relationship of anyone).

 

[Htadus]

Finally finished the game. I took several more cities of Pacal and Vasseled him. Then just built a few settlers and got the domination. I was sooooo close. Very educational game. I am now 50% immortal player.

 

[Jovan Kukic]

I won by conquest at 1220 AD.
Alex founded Sparta very early in area which I considered as MY land (planned for 2nd city), so instead making settlers I decided to teach Alex the lesson . My armies were near his border looking at his copper. When his workers came to dig mine on it to satisfy his greed for resources, then my greed for working force also increased, so our greed triggered the war . I captured Sparta and burned Athens, because maintenance was getting too high on these settings, and I wanted to settle some floodplains areas instead grassland resourceless Athens. Alex was dead, and I planned to vassalize other AIs. I burned most of English cities I captured. After discovering feudalism I was able to vassalize opponents, and sometimes give back some poor cities to them instead burning them, in order to get more points. I used axes in Greek and English war. In Greek war also there were warriors. Because of their speed, impi were mostly used in most of wars, since English war as addition to axes, till Ottoman war (last war). During Ottoman war I started making horsearchers instead impi because Ottomans disovered machinery and started making crossbows which kill impi like rabbits. Due to my high military losses, Ottomans capitulated quite late, after losing almost all of their empire

 

[Munro]

Fun game - all going well on the way to a conquest victory, unfortunately I just ran out of time to complete.

• I expanded to about 8 cities and declared on Alex first with maces and cats. Unfortunately I only managed to get one city before he capitulated to Churchill, the score leader who already had Pacal as a voluntary vassal.
• I turned my attention to Mao, getting Boudica to Friendly and bribing her into war first, before taking Steel from Liberalism and declaring with grenadiers and cannon. It was a long war and Mao didn't capitulate until 1670 AD with 12 of his 18 cities captured (including one which went to Boudica).
• Mehmed declared on Churchill / Alex / Pacal soon after. Pacal eventually renounced Churchill's protection and made peace, but I bribed Boudica into war again and eliminated Alex in 1818AD.
• In an interesting turn of the tables, Churchill sought the protection of Pacal, who now found himself Master of his former Master but at war with the rest of the world.

Retired and submitted in 1844AD with Churchill down to his last few cities and Pacal in the process of being steamrolled by my infantry and artillery. Wth a solid tech lead over Mehmed and Boudica it's just a question of pushing the stacks around for a conquest win, but sadly out of time to submit so I'll leave things here and have a look at the new Ragnar deity save.

Thanks DynamicSpirit for the game - Oasis is one of my favourites and I enjoyed the game.



@Jovan Kukic - thanks for the write-up. Very impressive!