BOTM 39 First Spoiler

[DynamicSpirit]

BOTM 39 First Spoiler 1AD

How is your game going?

Reading Requirements

Stop! If you are participating in BOTM 39, then you MUST NOT read this thread unless EITHER

• You have reached at least 1 AD in your game, OR
• You have submitted your entry

Posting Restrictions

• Please do not discuss anything that happened after 1 AD,
• Please do not divulge your final result if that happened after 1 AD.
• Please do not discuss the location of resources that may not show up before 1 AD (Iron is fine, coal isn't).
• Do not post any savegame file from the game. Discussions and screenshots are fine but not actual games.

So did you defeat the barbs?

 

[neilmeister]

So did you defeat the barbs?

Yes, well, not really. The AI defeated the barbs, without any assistance from me.

SIP, and built the GW. Finished it while I had 4-5 barbs within my borders, it was nice to see them pop outside my borders and then harass the neighbours.

We had lots of copper, but none of the AI had any, so all they had were archers to fend off the barbs. I should have taken advantage of this and rushed Alex, but the maintenance stopped me.

I am in a good position, and still undecided what victory I will take. Probably just default to space.

 

[Htadus]

I did not SIP......Boooooo DS

Settled 1E and teched toward BW and Masonary. Build a worker and about 3 warriors. Next came GW as my warriors were getting very damaged or killed. I do not like to pop rush enough to not build the GW.

Alex claimed the copper to East, so I rushed 4 axes (mainly chopps)and reclaimed the copper with the City. Harrased Alex forever.

Build another city to 2W of the copper to west. Capital rushed the Oracle for MC and built a forge and the harrasment of Alex cont. Gave a shot at AH to see if there are nearby horses but nope but it is very needed. Next teched to Alpha and found out the poor state of tech rate. All I got was a few low end techs and Sailing and IW. Humm no Iron near by?

Settled two more cities and lost a whole bunch of units to barb out in the open while trying to take their cities. There are ton of Barbs cities out there but bad luck is the name of the game right now. Well that is not entirely true. The GH next to wheat and sheep poped a gem. Too bad it was not gold.

I am 8 turns away from teching currency and this may be the second time I am going to win an Immortal game. If I get to finish that is.

Plan is to send out few units to hand around AI as they attack these Barb cities and clean up . Impi's suck btw. so far 4 impies attacked 4 archers in the open and no wins.

Oh I eventually did try to eliminate Alex. A poor attempt but during my harasment I noticed his CG3 archer was at 0.5 and another was at 1.7 and only one healthy defender. I had 3 axes returning that happen to be next tile. So i thought 3 vs 3. What do I have to loose? First axe kill the healthy archer. Second kill the elite defender and third die to the 1.7 dude. Oh well . He was CG2 next turn. I gave Alex peace for Sailing.

My Great spy is running around checking everyone's area out without getting killed. Not sure who I want to infiltrate. Only red has one tech I do not have. Math. I am building a settler to secure a jumbo and fir....a bit far away but need happy. maybe capture the barb city with gold. So much to do and so little time.

This is a cool map and thank you DS

 

[Greeder]

I took adventurer and settled 2w. I didn't go for GW and I was reeeeaaaally luck to be settled on Bronze! That made it. My research was Mining->BW immediately. I choked Alexander, but till 1AD he still had his 2 cities, I was too busy with barbs and had only 2-3 units that were chasing his workers. Mobile Impis and Axemen with Woodsman II are wreaking havoc in barbarian units. I built only one more city(!), north on plains. I'm researching construction in order to finish with Alexander. I built Stonehenge. I'm waiting for end of Alexander to build more cities. Maintenance is high and I have to research some more techs. Alexander made his cities in good-but-not-perfect spots, so I'm planning to raze those cities and build mine nearby. On the west there is barb city which I intend to capture. All in all I plan to have 6 more cities in next couple of hundreds years.
So at 1AD I have one choked neighbour, 2 cities and I'm about 3rd in research. Not bad as my games go.

 

[RRRaskolnikov]

Challenger save.

Settled in place.
Tech path went AH, mining, BW, masonry (myst, TW, pottery, writing , aesthetics, fishing, sailing, currency)
Built the great wall turn 50 with a settler ready to go (used six shock/cover warriors, lost 2 to archers)

Spoiler :

All Ais met (tx to the exploring great spy, and cool impies), I could trade a bit with Alex and Pacal, our closest neighbours since we are jewish. The other AIs are hinduism and buddhism. Religious tensions are expected.

I captured a western barb city (kept it for the furs), but then had to backfill and I overexpanded a bit. Maintenance has been killing me but those days are over since I will have currency next turn.

Plan is now to start another wave of settlers/workers.

Tech wise, I have a shot at the litterature -> Music line but I need happiness badly. Still puzzled on what to do, moreso because the trade situation is tricky and will get worse(crappy religion distribution).

Planning on a conquest/domination game (I got a 10 xp unit down the road to unlock HE) if the Ottomans don't get ride of me first

tech situation:

Spoiler AIs revealed :

Overview:

Spoiler AIs revealed :

 

[Xcalibrator]

Challenger save.

Contender not tough enough for you, RRR? I tried srad's test game twice and died both times. What I learned was to not send the warriors out too far--the fogbusting buys you a little more time but once the barbs start, pull everything back to defend and hang on until the GW is finished. In the real game I settled 4E on the bananas to get more food and river tiles for cottages--I'm pretty happy with that decision. I built 4 warriors and then the GW, finishing around turn 46. No unit losses other than my explorer to a bear. I built a few impis purely for exploring. I used my first GP, a Great Spy, to infiltrate Alex and have sucked a lot of techs off him while I go deeper in to the tech tree (slowly). After the first round or two of tech trading when I got to Alphabet the AIs really haven't had much to offer for my monopoly techs. I bulbed my second GP, a Great Sci, for Math instead of building an academy because I didn't have a lot of capital beakerage yet and also to get the prereq for Civil Service--perhaps a mistake in the long term if it takes a long time to get another Great Sci. The AIs are teching quite slowly and I was able to get the Oracle very late, taking Monarchy/Hereditary Rule to get more happiness --> growth.

All AIs but the English are Hindu, which is helpful. I, as usual, have not expanded as fast as I should and am also a coward and/or incompetent on early rushes. Alex has some nice cities, though and will be my first target once I get cats and maces. I always play Small maps in SP so this is gonna take awhile, but the game is looking good at this point (as long as the AI don't pull out one of those @#$!& AP wins ).

 

[RRRaskolnikov]

Contender not tough enough for you, RRR?

I see it like this: with challenger save, I tend to remain focus longer, hence getting better game usually (and if I die, it will be faster as well, win win really)

U seem to have a game on your own (though I am not a fan of math bulb, but here AIs are slower than usual so it might make sense)

 

[srad]

Where to settle?
After the test games I had a slight tendency to SIP and to tech AH, Mining, Masonry, BW and go for warrior protection while building the GW.
So I moved the scout on the sheep hill and saw the bananas and more importantly the forest PH hill (-> 3 hammers). With the help of the hill the worker will be some turns sooner out and I don't have to tech AH and the beautiful 6 food wheat tile is in the BFC.

Settled E-NE; teched Archery, Mining, Masonry, BW; built worker, 3x Archer, GW.
Looking back the start was easy compared to the test game as only warriors attacked and I had no problem with my Archers to defend the capital and the improvements. GW was build t45. Then the settler, worker building started.

I have the tech lead in 1AD and a nice and compact empire. Things are looking good ... (to be continued in the final spoiler)

 

[adrianj]

Despite my strong words in the pre-game thread about battling through without the Great Wall, I succumbed to the fear as my shaking hands first loaded up the save. I settled in place, first build was a worker, and first three techs went Mining->BW->Masonry. I took this order for two reasons - 1) BW earlier might show copper, 2) BW earlier means I can chop earlier.

BW revealing copper almost changed my mind and I considered going for the wheel to hook it up, but I persisted with the GW beeline. While growing to size 3 I built 4 warriors (which I immediately fortified on the two hills to the left) then an additional worker with the aid of a chop. With a few more chops the Great Wall was built at about turn 40. And now my actual expansion can begin.

Alex was being an annoying neighbour, settling his #2 city next to the wheat and a second source of copper. I considered going after him right away, but instead chopped out a settler to settle on the plains hill next to the eastern sheep resource. Both of my early cities are very strong production cities which I hope to turn to my advantage my eliminating Alex fairly soon.

However, immediate goals are economic, since it would be a shame to take Alex’s cities only to be unable to support them because of the crazy high maintenance costs on this map. After Wheel->Animal Husbandry I went straight for Writing->Alphabet, which I learned approx 950 BC. A 3rd city was settled to the southwest of the capital on the coast near some cows (in hindsight, not a great city - no rivers or hills). Next tech goals are to trade for whatever I can get, and then up to the Classical trifecta of Code of Laws, Currency and Hereditary Rule.

Short term, my two production cities are producing axes almost every other turn. Alex has no horses so the axe has no real counter, and assuming I take Sparta on the first turn of the war he won’t have any metal either. My first war with Alex wasn’t very brilliant. I razed two of his cities, including his capital (which was surprisingly rubbish - map maker tinkering?). I took peace for Maths tech, and have just discovered Currency, on my way to Code of Laws. Pretty soon I will finish Alex off.

At 1 AD I’m still at 4 cities, which isn’t great, the fourth placed north of the capital with many floodplains to cottage. Hinduism has spread to me, which is shared with my good friends Pacal and Churchill. Surprisingly (or not so, given the map) I have a good tech lead. My goal is a diplomatic victory, but we’ll see how that pans out.

 

[Conquistador 63]

My "worst enemy" in this game will be the lack of time to finish this fun BOTM. My fault, shouldn't be scheduling holiday trips in a month like this.

Unlike some of you, I had no time to spare playing test games, so played by instinct. A quick death might be for the best, given my time constraints.

I moved the scout to sheep hill and saw the bananas. Decided to settle 4E1N, on the PH, keeping the 3 food tiles in BFC (and also being closer to Alex, as I discovered after I settled ).

Initial tech path was mining, masonry, BW, and early build were worker, warrior x3, GW.

Had awful luck losing the scout and 2 fogbusting warriors at 70%+ odds, but GW came just in time (t38) to rescue me.


From then on, I abused the Zulu's REX'ing powers and by t86/725BC I had a 6-city empire - including one by the southern copper, to deny it to Alex - who wants to have him as a neighbor? Then I amassed a bunch of impi's and declared war on Greece in 275BC, capturing Athens the next turn, in a surprise attack before Alex could whip more archers.

Obviously, economy was nearly crashing:

Turn 115/500 (0 AD) [19-Feb-2011 23:57:34]
kwaDukuza begins: Archer (25 turns)
100% Research: 114 per turn
0% Espionage: 4 per turn
0% Gold: -65 per turn, 170 in the bank

But I already had Alpha and my plans at that point were to continue expanding and cottage-spam my lands on the way to space - that is, RL permitting.

 

[dima42]

Early game plan: settle in place (I don't expect to keep the food sources anyhow), worker->ikhanda->warriors. Get lots of experience. Skip archery and masonry. Upgrade warriors to axemen, and conquer the world.

I did this. Unfortunately, I didn't know how to defend against the barbs; they got the copper mine twice before I finally hooked it up. But I did get a bunch of 10xp warriors, which I then upgraded to city raider 3 axemen (no research past pottery, just hogging money for axes).

I conquered Sparta (Alex built it by the copper) in 925BC, and by 1AD I had just conquered Greece in a war that I epically mismanaged. (Turns out attacking with axemen against promoted archers on hills cities is painful.) I also got most of my tech out of this war by settling for peace twice. My tech is pretty pitiful, and it will take a while for my economy to get consolidated; fortunately, the AI tech is also awful.

The Barbs are still being a nuisance as of 1AD; I am getting about a barb Axe every other turn.

 

[godotnut]

I settled three east on the riverside grassland hill. I wanted to be on a hill for early barb defense, and all the nearby food looked nice. Was pleased to see the copper south of me later.

I built worker > warrior > warrior > GW > settler > worker > warrior > Pyramids in the capital. Chopped forest for most of the myds. The happiness and tech boost is nice. I really need that bonus for great people, since my economy is teching below 50%.

After scouting along the southern coastline for a while, my great spy infiltrated Alex. I have been milking him for techs while he grows his empire for me. So far, I have stolen mathematics, calendar, and construction from him. I just finished literature, started the Great Library in my capital, and am just started teching currency.

I have seven cities, all settled myself, except one I took from the barbs. There is another barb city in a good spot that I plan to take soon.

The near future plan is to take Alex's best cities with an axe and cat attack (plus spies creating city revolt for fast attacks), beginning the war around 500ad. The long term plan is to build a vast southern empire with Alex's help, then decide on the victory condition I have the best chance of excelling at. Maybe diplo, as there is a solid block of fellow Hindus in my game.

I'm enjoying this game, especially the chance to practice my use of espionage and work with a leader I've seldom played. Coming back to civ4 from civ5, I am reminded what a superbly balanced and wonderfully multifaceted game BOTS really is.

 

[Greeder]

I settled three east on the riverside grassland hill.

Great spot. I built a city there, but I had to raze Sparta first and it took me eons.
Anyway, it was my best production city, even built few thousands years after my capitol.

 

[Rusten]

Took the challenger save and after some testing settled in place to get an early GW. Finished it turn 47ish and got my first settler out turn 50.
Tech path ah-mining-bw-masonry-wheel-pottery

Spoiler :

Went for alphabet rather than the usual aesthetics hoping to trade for monarchy early (so much food and health) and quick currency. Picked up monarchy 375 BC.

8 cities by 1 AD -- preparing to grow them into double digits.
Great Library due in 3 turns and about to chop the Hanging Gardens in Ulundi (stone from Boudica).
The 8th city is by the marble (transported with galley).

Spoiler :

Used Impi to explore the map (mobility means no barb encounters). I have a 9XP Impi now which I will make sure gets to 10.
Got a GS out (academy) before the Gspy had a chance to pop.

 

[BobRoberts]

I played some tests and was ready to settle 1E. When I moved my scout, I saw the nanas and decided to change and move 1E-NE.

Started Mining > Masonry > Bronze as my planned GWall grab. Duly got it in 2280BC after some barb interferance, they were quite brutal!

Figured the toroidal costs would be brutal, so opted to lay down a couple of cities now and go for a Rex after I'd landed CoL. Vertical growth first. Went for a production city to the SW of the start hill and another north along the river to pull in all the tasty FPs and rice.

Ended up taking a punt at the pyramids and landed them in 50BC. Was started for fail cash and ended up being very nice. Lots of food around, so switched to representation just before the end of this turnset...

Fun game!

 

[WelshGandalf]

Settled in place, mining -> BW -> masonry. Built a worker, about 4 or 5 warriors then GW at around turn 47. On the turn I researched masonry I whipped a warrior & chopped in the same turn but I don't think they all got carried over? I had 2 or 3 warriors in the city, and one each on the two hills to the left to protect the mines, they all lived

Continuing my pre-game plan I went to settle 3E (on the bananas), great site. But as I got there, on T61, Alexander settled 2S from there! After much deliberation, I settled 1N from there. Still a nice city but not riverside. From this point I just build loads of axemen and Impi and attacked Greece. First I razed that city that was 2S (plan to resettle 1S or 2S of that for copper, pigs and bananas), then marched on Athens and took it. Not a great site but ripe for cottaging. A better city was Sparta about 3E of there, it has gems, cows, bananas and dye in it. It was on a hill and I just managed to take it, 1 archer survived my first onslaught but my CR3 axemen took care of him the next turn.

This left Greece with one rubbish city on a hill north of Athens. I want to take him out but have paused to rebuild first. Impi with Cover really helped with this war - I took out 2 or 3 archers in the open, running between cities.

I settled my 5th city on the coast directly south of my capital (Fish, Cows, Whale). 6th city is shortly to be built north of the capital (2 rice, lots of FP), will be a nice GP farm, settler is ready but I need to clear out a suboptimal barb city nearby first.

I went to Aesthetics and backfilled with it. The AI seem to be teching fairly slowly - I'm the only one with Maths except for the 1-city Greek empire??? Sailing & polytheism are the only techs anyone has on me. Happy cap is very, very limiting for me. I'm teching towards Monarchy now, seems really essential to get it.

There seems to be some kinda of anti World Wonder pact going on. It's 1AD, Immortal, and no-one's built the oracle yet?! I might try it myself! Only GW, stonehenge and Kasi Vashinath or however the heck you spell it have been built. Both of those were built by the Mayans, who are 2nd bottom in the scores. When scouting their lands, I can sort of see why, they have barbs everywhere.

Economy is not a total wipeout at the moment. Going to tech at least to CS and expand peacefully for a bit before going warring again, possibly against the Vikings or Mehmet as they are Buddhists and the rest of us are Hindus. There is so much land west of where I am.

Stats
5 cities (almost 6), 19 population, 5 or 6 workers (only 2 are mine, rest are former Greeks )
Teched to Asthetics, IW, Maths, Meditation and I'm just about the tech leader.
169 gold, +6 at 0% slider (Library being built in Sparta next turn so will move slider up then)
Granaries, Ikhandas and Libraries everywhere. Chopping with Maths is fun.
Hinduism in only 1 city. Spread for goodness sake! Missionaries coming soon.
Running 2 scientist in capital, hoping for a great scientist rather than a great spy in 11 turns. The spy is exploring the world, will probably conduct espionage mission in my next traget.

 

[kcd_swede]

I settled 1E. Not very good, but adequate. IOW, very good hammer city, but kind of lame for commerce. And although I could fill the map with settlers, I am limited by the economic factors. Too bad civ won't let you run a trillion dollar deficit.

I teched mining>bw>masonry

City builds were worker>warior x3> and built the GW in t45 with 3 barbs at the door and 1 anti-melee warrior, one combat1 warrior, and a wounded scout defending, 2 chops completed before harassment began, then 2-pop whip the GW.

I then planted my second city to take gems + copper. Teched wheel. Whipped axes, and took Corinth and a worker on turn 1 of war. Not worth trying to take on 4 promoted archers in 40% culture, so I pillage Greece to the ground until he offers peace. He never recovers, and is backwards still.

GSpy meets the neighbors and maps the world... will later infiltrate the closest AI with a substantial tech lead.

Unlike everyone else, apparently, I expanded mostly northwards, following the river(s) and taking sites with tons of floodplains. OK... a longterm investment to grow those. No coastal cities yet.

GWall is my only wonder. The AI have taken them all early. Everybody is in Hindu. I aim at taking over barb cities to gain xp + developed land. Dismayed at high maint costs, but glad to have cheap Ikhandia's to help. Will tackle Alex for good when cats come on line. My only concern is "where's the friggin' iron!"

I think the gems in the capitol would have been better for a fast start. But my cottage spam is just starting to pay back.

Now... all I have to do is figure out a way to win. I can't see a sure win no matter which way I choose to go. But I should have a decent shot at diplo or Space Race... domination is a longshot.

So far a very challenging game. BTW... I now hate Oasis maps even more than before.

 

[Htadus]

Now... all I have to do is figure out a way to win. I can't see a sure win no matter which way I choose to go. But I should have a decent shot at diplo or Space Race... domination is a longshot.

So far a very challenging game. BTW... I now hate Oasis maps even more than before.

Wow....you wrote about my game better than I did. main difference is I took Alex's city and built the Oracle for MC. Were your AI advanced like the others? From reading other's games, it seem like the Ai in my game were really backwards. Only one has Math over me.

I am hoping to improve my mongering. So may be take out one of the protective civs before Lbow show up.

 

[kcd_swede]

Wow....you wrote about my game better than I did. main difference is I took Alex's city and built the Oracle for MC. Were your AI advanced like the others? From reading other's games, it seem like the Ai in my game were really backwards. Only one has Math over me.

I am hoping to improve my mongering. So may be take out one of the protective civs before Lbow show up.

Global tech pace is much slower than in a typical game. I'm able to keep up with trades, but not ready to be tech leader. Thankfully, Boudica is far away and causing all sorts of trouble now that the barbs are settling down and being calm.

 

[babybluepants]

Settled on the banana. GW T40. From there it was ugly. I grossly mismanaged my early war with Alex, resulting in no gain, lots of units lost and economic crash circa 1000 BC. Since then I've recovered a bit, capturing two decent cities and razing Athens. Still made some awful tactical mistakes in the war, though. Gave him peace for Math + 2 small techs and left him with a crappy fourth city. Oracled COL and I'm finishing Lit now. That was seriously stupid, as well. Should have beelined Currency, but I kept waiting for Alpha and Math to appear in trade (just around 100 BC finally). First Great Spy scouted the north, before infiltrating Mehmed. GS academy.

I was planning to follow with Churchill and probably still will, but I was also expecting to be in this position about 1000-500 BC, instead of 1 AD.

Stats:
6 Cities (4 settled, 2 captured), 24 Pop, 9 workers, awful economy.