BOTM 68 Final Spoiler

[DynamicSpirit]

BOTM 68 Final Spoiler

So how did your game after 1AD go? Tell everyone and discuss in this thread, subject to...

Reading Requirements

Stop! If you are participating in BOTM 68, then you MUST NOT read this thread unless

• You have submitted your entry

Posting Restrictions

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

 

[jshelr]

We built Notre Dame at the turn of the millennium. Spain declared war after we used the wonder to expand frontier culture, threatening their control of gems. Pretty weak attack. Arabs would be bought as allies but cost too high, IMO.

Spain attack was concentrated on a castle city and they had inferior military tech. So, we turned the situation into a promotion factory.

The other continent is far ahead in tech, but no contact yet.

We're bee lining for rifles. Printing press done in 1400ad. Running at 70% science when gunpowder is discovered. Rifles in 1500. Chemistry next.

Traded with Arabs for Sci Method and Philo. We got oil!!!

Thanks for doing the work of setting this game up.


Where are the other civs? Maybe their tech not so far advanced as supposed.
Aztecs finally show in 1660. Asoka next – he is far ahead in tech. Popped astronomy with a spy and am finishing railroad. We got coal too !!

Well, we built all the advanced wonders except happiness wonders and set up a mining company. So, with a solid tech advantage, and the internet, we were assured of a spaceship victory.

One small problem, Asoka won a cultural victory first, lol.

By way of explanation, I never destroy modern cities to prevent cultural victory and always build the UN and allow a vote for diplo victory if I'm running a democracy. I suppose I should just play by the rules for GOTM. But what kind of democracy would actually raze an ancient seat of culture to "win."

 

[dogides]

Aim: domination and a big raw score

For me, simply winning at Emperor under xGOTM rules was uncharted territory, so I thought I would keep it simple. Very quickly, I decided that this was a map where TGL would be very helpful so I prioritised that. In retrospect, I should then have gone for Stonehenge just because it would have sped up the development of the next cities so much.

City #1 SIP
City #2 on the fish/corn site - it was the best one I was likely to be able to develop before IW, and then was just a settler/worker factory
City #3 N&E accessing the fish (again, it could grow properly before IW)
City #4 on the clams/pig/wine/ivory site [science city, though never a good one]

and then I spread up towards Izzy, with some compromises on city locations because of captured barb cities.

My luck seemed to be in when copper was discovered early in the mine NW of the settler. A few turns later I looked as though I was going to need that copper when an army of spearmen appeared. Fortunately I managed to lure them away to attack Izzy at the cost of just a couple of warriors, but this distraction definitely slowed down my growth.

Saladin had founded Hinduism and Izzy had converted, so I followed suit and traded with them as much as possible; I built most of the stone wonders in my capital, founded Taoism and was first around the world. Our hemisphere was well ahead of the other, where Monty was busy beating up William, so my strategy then was clear; take over my continent and then attack Monty. This way I could keep as many foreign trade routes as possible open for as long as possible, which I was going to need to finance the expansion.

I started colonising the islands to the north while holding off one turn from liberalism and managed to get all the prerequisites for steel. Then my nice stack of trebuchets upgraded and it was a long, long cannon war which took me though Izzy, Saladin, Ragnar [Saladin had let go of his southern island], and then Monty & William. Monty had some large stacks and so it took a while to lure him into suiciding his cuirassier/grenadier SoD onto my machine guns/infantry in such a way that I would actually win. After that, it was plain sailing though.

Founded sushi near the start of the war and so by the end I had 73 cities, most gorging on tuna maki etc (+22 food!). Major problems with war weariness and unhappiness from not running emancipation, though.

I probably should have done it properly and stopped just short of the domination limit and milked the score a little more, but the game had taken long enough as it was. Still, I was a little disappointed with the score (~7k raw in 1852, ~132k adjusted IIRC).

 

[Sleepless]

Managed one hut in the game early for 40g. managed a few wonders. Oracle for alpha. Great Lighthouse, GLib and Taj. First to Lib and took Mil Trad.

From there it was a case of vassaling the AI.. Isa - Sal - Monte - Wil - Hattie and Asoka last for a conquest victory 1165AD. Edit 1665AD hoping for the first date..

Fun game..

 

[Orel]

I almost had my first ever emperor win!
Missed it by 1 turn and am very frustrated by the way it happened.
Went for space race, was leading in techs and supposed to wrap up things early 20th century.
I was obviously watching closely the victory screen to check for potential other winners...
Culture was an obvious threat with Hatty and Asoka accross the ocean.
The victory screen showed that the best rival in culture (Asoka) was 50+ turns away from a 3rd legendary city when hit the space bar for the last time...
Unfortunately, Hatti won a cultural victory right behind this.

My conclusion is that the cultural line of the victory screen does not displaythe closest rival to a win but the most cultured empire overall.
Asoka had 2 cities at 80k+ and 70k+ and a 3rd around 40k it seemed while Hattie had 3 50-55k cities. Overall Hatty was the closest to a cultural win but it did not appear because she was in total less cultured than Asoka, thus misleading myself regarding my winning rivals...

Not sure i am right here but i could not guess another explaination...
Your thoughts?

 

[jshelr]

Interesting that Orel found that flaw in the victory screen. Never ran into that one before.

 

[Orel]

Interesting that Orel found that flaw in the victory screen. Never ran into that one before.

I would like to test the theory but it's very much depending on AI's will...

 

[lordofcivs]

Well, it's difficult to give all the details of my game, but I will try my best.

Normally I play civ games with total war in mind, and somehow win other victories. I generally prefer domination victory over all the others. For this game, I decided to go for something different than the domination/conquest thing.

I settled at original location, made cities for clam/ivory/pig & stone/corn/pig. I created early stonehenge wonder, but missed oracle (big drawback). However, I managed to distribute other wonders between all three initial cities. I decided to go for culture victory early.

I adopted hinduism, and did not found any religion myself. I built 7 cities on the continent, and three in the southern islands, and played rest of the game with only 10 cities. Major problem with me remained that I was technologically backward. None of the civs attacked each other until late game, and they traded techs with each other, and were friendly. I was also very weak all the time, and had only allocated troops at strategical locations. I remained pleased for Arabia and Spain for being 'Brother & Sister'.

I went free religion, and made India, Egypt, and Netherlands 'Friendly'. Aztec remained angered (as I had declared him war as a consequence of him attacking my defensive pact ally - India). Spain became pleased after remaining cautious for a while, but Arabia never came out of his caution on me. When I build UN, Spain was the top ranking nation, and I could win Diplo victory (or could be very close to it). However, I missed the chance when Aztec became India's vessel and became second best. By that time, my three cities were culture dominating. I increased my focus on culture of these three cities, and started to utilize UN in my favor, gained one Spanish city (If culture flipping was on, that city could be mine many years ago.) Spain attacked me just 5 turns before my culture victory. I brought Egypt as an ally, and shut down war against me (I mean... stopping the terrorism) using UN. I won the culture victory in 1927 with the normalized score of 29053. I wish I would have built Sistine Chappel, and I would have won lot earlier.

The game was good so far, had good events generally (but not extraordinary). Found one hut in the beginning (but I don't exactly remember what I received from it... might be coins only). I enjoyed it, and I think people can get culture win lot earlier.

Thanks for the game.

 

[Tall German Joe]

I'm still completely amazed there were huts on this map. I didn't see a single one! I ended up with a mid 1500s conquest, but man that coulda been faster if the early game weren't so much of a drag. I am sure my date will not be competitive, although I have no idea how these things are scored. missed the oracle (landed 1420 BC, didn't expect that on emperor!) and had to self-tech alpha AND iron working by low-digit BCs (what an outrage!). at least we had a lot of food in our starting continent.

the other weird thing about this map was the shape of the eastern continent. it was really snaky in a way that really prevented ships from sailing through. drove me crazy!

 

[SilentWatcher]

My pre game decision was to try for the green ambulance award this month as ... well you can never have TOO many green ambulances and its better than a red one.. I thought my plan had worked until I read this thread. Now I'm not so sure. I got a space ship loss in about 2030. I had avoided about 5 culture losses by razing holy cities after I figured out that the AI have been reading the forums here! They have figured out the espionage assisted culture victory and are rinsing it big time! Once I realised the AI were cheating (one of them had a single city culture value of over 119000!) I just built a task force. A large SoD that went around nicking all the cultural cities and spraying graffiti until they disappeared. After spotting that Asoka was 25 turns from cultural victory I landed them next to a "legendary" city and wiped the traces of their espionage trickery of the face of the planet. Problem was hattie was only 12 turns behind. Then Willie a few turns after that. Then Asoka again.. AGAIN? meanwhile Sallie launched his rocket before I built my engines.. just as I planned really. The first time I actually caught up with and started abusing Sid's sushi too... thought It would be better

 

[SilentWatcher]

Ive been looking at the save files of champion games..Most of them have a single warrior guarding lots of their major cities. How comes when I try it my capital gets captured twice? Huh?

 

[DynamicSpirit]

I'm still completely amazed there were huts on this map. I didn't see a single one!

You must have not explored quickly enough

 

[Tall German Joe]

You must have not explored quickly enough

its very possible. I kept my warriors spawnbusting in an arc around my frontier, I guess that's just what I'm used to doing. its been awhile since I've played with huts...

i really could have explored better though. i unfortunately let a barb city spawn on the south west island with the copper that I didn't clear out until I had swords, and didn't even notice the amazing copper/silver island until I was on my way back. lost the colossus to overseas because of that. ;[

 

[neilmeister]

Space 1820, 150k

This was quite a fun game, capped both Isabella & Saladin leaving them with a few scattered cities on the islands.

Got fantastic random events, first one let me spread judaism to 12 cities (6 of mine & 6 of AI) and the next one that told me to capture the jewish holy city, and I already had a SoD outside it about to do just that.

Missed the Economics GM but got lucky and got a GM at 40% odds just a few turns before learning medicine. Same thing happened for Mining Inc, GE at 30% odds.

Finished the game with 3 consecutive 12 turn golden ages with only 1 turn wasted, finished 5 components on the last turn before launch, so at least I timed my end as well as you can, something I have not been so good at lately.

 

[Falabello]

My first idea was a pacific game, but I had to try. It would be a great risk (Saladin was stronger than me), but Mecca was a giant reward. So in 1585AD my army was going to attack. And in 1595AD I was well close to Mecca when Saladin pacifically became vassal of Isabella . Instead of a great risk, this way would be a complete suicide :suicide:!

I had to give up and try to attack the Astecs. Everything went wrong . So I returned to my land and play peacefully till the end ... the inevitable end: loss! But after this mess, the game satyed cool. For the first time my cities became more developed . It was nice to see them grow and it was a new learning. So, despite the loss, it was very cool. Thanks for the game, DSpirit !

 

[nocho]

I hoped to win space before 1800, but it seems I'm not able. Won in 1846 with about 120k points.

Expanded to 11 cities peacefully, then wiped Arabia and Spain from the continent. Left Arabia as a vassal with the southern islands it had, but took all Spanish northern islands which were rather filled with Sushi material. Founded Sushi and Mining in Madrid, home to the jewish shrine. It ended up making a decent 678 gpt at 100% science and without wealth. Anyway, with about 30 cities turtled away to space. Arrived when it arrived in 1846. Enjoyable game anyway.

 

[Jastrow]

Around 1830 space for me...

It was a completly unfocussed game... I started warring, then gave it up at longbows... never really had a plan... Did not build oxford!! or either epics!!! A game best forgotten, I think...

 

[jesusin]

Ive been looking at the save files of champion games..Most of them have a single warrior guarding lots of their major cities. How comes when I try it my capital gets captured twice? Huh?

The best way not to get your capital captured is not to be at war in the whole game.
Diplomacy helps a lot with this.

In this game you can only be attacked by 2AI (sea attacks will come too late in the game to matter and it's easy to reject them with a few turns of Nationhood).
It was quite easy to share religions with them so a continual peace was easily achievable this game.

Diplo trick: did you know Saladin will never dow at Pleased?

 

[jesusin]

jesusin, contender. Goal: demonstrate that espionage "spread culture missions" are overpowered... eh I mean, Fastest cultural Victory through traditional methods.

Isabella demands Aesthetics, I'm starting with Parthennon, I say no, see gets her hands full.
I should have invested 1 turn in anarchy to share Isabella+Saladin religion. I wanted to "optimize" and change religions for free much later, while in my first Golden Age. Lesson learnt, the war cost me much much more than 1 turn.

Slave revolts are a really annoying Random Event.
Bulbed Philo for my 3rd religion. No Academy.
Settled 1 city far W, on a Marble, without food. Marble IS that important in a (traditional) cultural game.

When Isabella dows, Marble gets disconnected. It cost me MoM and almost Parthennon too.
Moai gets built in 375AD. This is a mistake I've made far too many times and I won't do again. Hopping one hammerless city will become great once it gets Moai is suicidal. The city (my 3rd one too!) hasn't contributed anything to the empire yet. It's too late, it is under developed.
For this idea to work, you need at least one mine (and lost of whipping overflow).

10 cities, last ones useless (single fish East).
Music free GA. Delayed starting on CoL in the hopes of trading. Had I changed religions soon, now they would be Friendly and would hav traded monopoly techs, sigh!

1000AD Stats: 10 cities, 75 pop, 8 workers, 20units (5Swo), 5 strategic resources, 7 luxury resources, 7 health resources, 3 great people, 4 world wonders, 2 national wonders, food/production/commerce=225-111-351, 129 sustainable beakers per turn, 150 culture per turn(useful), 19 great person points per turn, 800 gold. 3 religions. 0/0 cottages used, 32 Techs: Music, Paper, Feud, MC, Philo. 0 civs killed. 11 hours played. reli/city, temples, caths== 26,18,4

GS bulbed part of Education. Liberalism, 1110AD, embarrasingly late. Terrible research all game long. GS used in GoldenAge for free civic changes.

TajMaj Golden Age used to get into Mercantilism.

1750cpt, 550 GA GPPpt near 1500AD.

Sports league quest allows a free GoldenAge near the end.

Cultural Victory 1585AD. Multipliers 4.5-3.5-3.5, bombs 3-6-7, base cpt 175-150-150.
3GS GoldenAge and bulb Philo and bulb Educ, 16 GA bombed, total 19GP, one of them for free.





I feel I played a slack game. Too short on commerce early provoked research stagnation. IW delayed worsened the situation. Greediness provoked loosing a good city site. No religion provoked an unwanted war.

I only did a good work in the endgame. The "just press ENTER" strategy would have taken me to a 7 turns later victory (also depending GP luck).

Now, lets see if culture-through espionage can get a BC cultural victory . In this map sub 1000AD should be achievable.

 

[Minou]

Space win in 1936.

I used this game to practice building the spaceship, which I almost never try. I'm sure it could have gone at least 100 years faster if I knew what I was doing...

At the start of the game I just expanded without warring (explaining half of my bad time) and tried to optimize science. Isabella attacked sometime after I switched to Free Religion and lost the bonus for sharing Buddhism. It was pretty easy to repel the Spanish troops and take over all of the shared continent with Infantry and Artillery (plus one very helpful Spy that incited 3 revolts). Once that was handled, it was just a matter of some disorganized teching and poorly planned building to launch the late spaceship. Egypt built a gigantic stack of units that I was monitoring with a ship in case it was meant for me, but it never left their capital. My favorite part of the game was building tons of submarines due to my unorthodox tech path, and sinking dozens of wooden ships plus four lucky wins versus destroyer (two by the same sub in one turn). Never get to do that in Cultural games.

Random evens did not really affect the game. I had a plane crash, some fires, Jade, a bad wedding, some type of grain loss, but nothing big. A volcano destroyed part of one AIs land. One of my nuclear plants also melted down but I think that does not count as an "official" random event.

Certainly was a useful learning experience and makes me want to improve on space.