BOTM 68 First Spoiler

[DynamicSpirit]

BOTM 68 First Spoiler

Use this thread to boast about how puny your empire is in your BOTM 68 game up to 1AD. And more generally to discuss any aspect of the game and swap strategies.

Stop! If you are participating in BOTM 68, 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 disclose ANY events or information gained post 1 AD.
• Please do not reveal 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.

 

[jshelr]

This is my first game of the month in about 10 years.

Decided to research to work the cow and built a warrior in anticipation of a worker at size two.

Warrior soon killed by a black cat

Switched to mining in 3520. Started on mining 3200. Lots of panthers near here.

First settler 3040. Arabs met 2840.

I usually play marathon speed. The game moves fast. Spain's a cute orangy red color.

Decided to put first settler on the wine source to pick up the ivory after building a monument. I'll need iron working to use the tiles. So, after mysticism, switched to iron. The capital is a hammer-rich environment which will build settlers, axemen, workers. Chopped a bit to speed things up.

Second settler between pig and spice, figuring it's best to give up the water tiles. Iron working reveals we could be a military powerhouse. However, there's nobody close enough to fight

Switching to hunting, masonry, pottery. Will have to try to make a very efficient civ and duke it out later. Settled east of the iron to use the fish. Running at 60% with four cities. Looks like we need to navigate the coasts. Started great wall and pyramids for fail gold. Didn't get much.

City by the stone. Down to 50%. Everyone building cottages.

We surprisingly got pyramids, suggesting a scientist approach to tech will work ok. Arabs moved in to crowd us a bit in the North West. Need a settler to get diamonds currently occupied by barbs.

Spain and Arabia don't like each other but do like me a bit. Turned down the opportunity of joining religious faiths with Arabs.

Picked up machinery and will beeline for engineering. Massing elephants. Even on the scoreboard and feel likely to do ok. However, the other missing civs are likely doing better on tech. When able, will try for Colossus.

 

[PattonTwo]

SIP and sent the warrior north to explore. I plan to make my best attempt at any kind of "rush" hoping for a shot at victory.

Turn 8 found my first goody hut (yay for huts).
Turn 9 popped 2 barb warriors (really?!)
Turn 10 warrior dead.
I think this was karma paying me back for siding with the "no huts" crowd on the debate re huts in the game announcement thread.

SIDE NOTE: It would be interesting to ask everyone to comment on what their goody hut results were. Might help resolve the pro/con hut debate.

Turn 30 lost one of the forests in the capital BFC due to random event. Now I really know it's karma.

2240 bc founded first city on plains hill 1S of horses.

Didn't really have outline of starting area until about 800 BC due to losing the warrior so early. I finally figured out I had no hope of an early rush as the jungle made it (to me) impossible. I was also worried I had already lost the game but the other civs seem to be on a very slow research process.

By 1 AD I have 6 cities (none from war) and am about to settle #7). I have the infrastructure I think I need to start an attempt at war. I'm not very good at mid game war with BTS so I don't have high hopes. I really needed a closer civ to feel like I would have a shot. I'll give it the old college try and see what happens.

 

[kenwyn]

SIP and sent the warrior north to explore.

Turn 8 found my first goody hut (yay for huts).
Turn 9 popped 2 barb warriors (really?!)
Turn 10 warrior dead.
I think this was karma paying me back for siding with the "no huts" crowd on the debate re huts in the game announcement thread.

SIDE NOTE: It would be interesting to ask everyone to comment on what their goody hut results were. Might help resolve the pro/con hut debate.

Turn 30 lost one of the forests in the capital BFC due to random event. Now I really know it's karma.

My moves & experience were almost identical. Except i was on the side of huts & random events. To re-qoute & paraphrase Patton...
SIP and sent the warrior north to explore. I plan to make my best attempt at any kind of "rush" hoping for a shot at victory.

Turn 8 found my first goody hut (yay for huts).
Turn 9 popped 2 barb warriors (really?!)
Turn 10 warrior dead.
I think this was karma paying me back for siding with the "YES huts" crowd on the debate re huts in the game announcement thread.

Turn ~30 gained 15 beckers toward my research due to random event. Now I really know it's karma.
-------------------------------------
There were villages to be found! Since we were in near solid jungle our warriors were just as fast their scouts at exploring.
I cranked out a couple of warriors (for protection from raging animals!) + a scout (for better results) to find them & AI civ's.
Got 53 gold, experience for scout, & a map from huts found mostly to the N & NW.
Made friends & Open Borders with Arabs & Spanish. Allowed me to discover/explore enuf to figure out the basic world type.

Built Great LH which is helping research & culture nicely.

Like everyone else, i'm headed for techs to get me in touch with other civ's, especially with the GLH in cap.

Building army of elephants, horse archers, & cats to grab eastern half of a woefully low-tech, no-metal Spain that has over-extended herself over our N.

 

[Gregonar]

Hi everyone!

This is my first GOTM. Been playing quite a bit online in FFAs past few weeks (small map, quick, lots of early fighting) so I'm not used to the normal speed and the build.

SIP (if mp, would have went for the plains hill) and sent warrior N. Switched research from bw and went for AH/fishing instead (realized that worker won't have anything useful to do). Chopped for 2nd worker/fishing boat after mining the hills. Got size 4 before working on settler. Had about 4 warriors. Popped 120 gold from hut. One warrior died to panther. Another got a leadership promotion and eventually went to woods 2 and explored neighbours' bases. Cities 2 and 3 were on wine and spices near river.

Realized too late that GLH would make this map an easy win...been playing too much pangaea.

Sent a fishing boat to scout SW islands. Followed it with a galley with a scout and an axe. Popped calendar from a hut and traded to Izzy/Saladin for CoL, alphabet, religion techs and monarchy. Currently just behind Izzy in score and plan to do a big expansion game--with so many calendar resources, Hamman, Medmed's specials. Probably take the continent when I get to Janissary/Cannon. Izzy will probably kill Sala by then, possibly with my help. I am thinking of global conquest but landings are a PITA on harder modes. Maybe switch to space.

5 cities by 1AD, converted to Judaism (Izzy sent me 4 missionaries), HR/OR/slavery.

Wanted my usual early conquest but the neighbours are so far away. So going for all econ for now. Next plan is to go from 7 to maybe 12 workers to help with all that jungle, and from 5 to about 12-15 cities and cottage spam what little land there is to make up for missing the GLH...

 

[Falabello]

The beginning and cities:
#1- Istanbul 2E==>Worker / Warrior / Settler
#2- Edirne 3N4W (2200 BC) – 1 clam, 1 pig, 1 wine (GP Farm)
#3- Ankara 7N (1480 BC) – 1 corn, 1 pig, 1 stone, 2 spices
#4- Bursa N (1120BC) – 1 fish, 1 corn, 2 dye
#5- Konya NW (650 BC) – 1 sugar, 1 gems, 1 horse, 1 dye
#6- Samsun NW (75 BC) – 2 spices, 2 dye

The game:
- Just 1 Bad Hut: Hostile (at least my Warrior resisted)
- 1 Great Scientist: Academy in Edirne (575 BC)
- No one World Wonder (I didn’t try to build them )
- Saladin od Arabia (3240 BC) and Isabella of Spain (2560 BC)
- This game can be a pacific one: Saladin +6 and Isabella +9
- My beggining is very poor and it will be very hard, and I don't know what VC is possible ...


1000 BC Stats: 4 cities, 9 pop, 3 workers, 7 units (Warriors), 0 strategic resources, 0 luxury resources, 3 health resources, 0 great persons, 0 World Wonders, 0 National Wonders, food/production/commerce = 24/13/37, 34 bpt at 100%, 22 bpt breakeven at 60% (+2 gpt), 4 culture per turn, 3 great person points per turn, 3 gold, 2 granaries, 1 library, 0 religions, 6/3 cottages used, 10 Techs: Sailing, Writing, AH, Masonry, BW, Alpha (15 turns), 0 civs killed, 1:21 hours played, Score: #3 (3 Empires) – 178 / 30,722.

1AD Stats: 6 cities (all founded), 19 pop, 6 workers, 9 units (7 Warriors, 2 Axes), 2 strategic resources, 0 luxury resources, 4 health resources, 1 great persons, 0 World Wonders, 0 National Wonders, food/production/commerce = 55/29/53, 59 bpt at 100%, 19 bpt breakeven at 20% (+3 gpt), 15 culture per turn, 6 great person points per turn, 4 gold, 4 granaries, 2 libraries, 2 lighthouses, 1 barrack, 1 religion (not founded), 5/2 cottages used, 16 Techs: Math, Alpha, Myst, IW, Currency (6 turns), 0 civs killed, 4:22 hours played, Score: #3 (3 Empires) – 349 / 38,167.

My difficult in locating the best spots still remains. Some help?

 

[Tall German Joe]

apparently there were huts on this map, but I didn't see any of them! go figure!

 

[neilmeister]

My difficult in locating the best spots still remains. Some help?

It is difficult without resource bubbles

My first reaction is that your cities are too far apart, this costs you in extra maintenance. You have also built around the elephants, which are an important source of empire wide happiness.

Academy in a city that isn't your cap is a mistake. It is difficult to beat your cap as it gets 8 free commerce from the palace.

The Hamman in Edrine is surely a mistake, as it does not require either happiness or health, or does it?

 

[Falabello]

I didn't build a city around elephants because the lack of food, but I had both to hapiness and maybe a change! Now I guessed it was a mistake !

I always build the Academy in the GPFarm (in this case Edirne). My readings about specializing cities told me it was the right thing to do. But, was it wrong ? Is it better to build in the Capital? Or maybe one in Capital and another in the GPFarm?

Regarding Hammman in Edirne (GPFarm), I understand that one time or another that city needs happiness and health to grow to generate more GPPoints, so I prefer to build early. Is it wrong too?

This kind of map puzzles me. I never know was it better: to approximate the cities and shared some tiles of the BFC, or let them grow with all their tiles without sharing?

About the map, could you post a picture at 1 AD of yours? This way I can compare where you built your cities. If possible, logically ! Here is mine with the bubbles.
By the way, I play Contender and thought that I'd had Cooper in BFC's Capital, but Iron it would be an unknown. The opposite happened (as you see with the bubbles). Did I understand wrong, or it was what you call an "evilness soul of the mapmaker" ?

 

[neilmeister]

Academy in the GPFarm can be very strong, but only when the GP Farm is runni9ng at least 6 specialists and you are in Representation. First GS is nearly always best for an Academy in the capital or bulbing a key early tech depending on if you are going deep in the tech tree or not.

@Hamman, you are right they are quite useful, and I certainly built them in my cities but as your city does not have happiness issues (health issues do not matter at all in the early game IMO) it was not necessary yet.

Sharing resources between cities is normally very strong, especially food resources. This allows you to give the food to a city you need to grow while the other city stagnates while it works of whip unhappiness, then you swap. City overlap is essential.

I realised we had Iron only be reading the comments in the announcement thread. The challenger save explicitly mentioned that there was no iron 2E of settler.

I don't have a 1ad save, so I will post some images of 300ad in the final spoiler later.

 

[Minou]

Scouted with Settler and Warrior and settled on the Plains Hill north of the start for the extra hammer, leaving the fish for my second city. Went AH first for the Cow. Warrior went NE and circled the coast, finding one goody hut for HBR. Met Saladin and Isabella quickly and when I reached their lands later, I found Saladin sadly squished in about 10 tiles of land by Isabella's borders. Some poor early management led to the loss of a Worker to a Barbarian Archer: I thought I could move him after half-building a road but he got stuck on it as first unit to move that turn, and thus killed. One Warrior was also eaten by a Panther.

City 2 settled to the SE with Corn, Fish, and Dye (shares Iron with capital). City 3 was NE by Pig, Spices, and Corn. The next four filled out the natural starting area and I also shipped one Settler to the island with the Sheep and Bronze.

Most of my effort has been to cottage up my land and build the Pyramids to grow larger. Initially all my cities were coastal, but I missed out on Great Lighthouse by a few turns which really set the plan back. Missed Oracle by a mile. Isabella sent a bunch of missionaries so I joined her in Buddhism for extra free happiness. Just about to and pop my first GP (Scientist). I will probably try for Space, and do so very slowly as I have not played a spaceship game for over a year.

The huts and random events have not changed the game much. Free HBR was nice, but the events I got so far were both minor annoyances - a famine and a mine collapse. One of the AIs got the "Madrid Games" (gives diplomatic bonus I think).

1AD Stats: 7 cities (all founded), 18 pop, 6 workers, 5 Warriors, 2 Axes, 1 Galley, 2 strategic resources, 2 luxury resources, 5 health resources, 0 great persons, 1 World Wonders (Pyramids), 0 National Wonders, food/production/commerce = 74/17/92, 91 bpt at 100%, 54 bpt at break-even, 6 great person points per turn, 4 granaries, 4 libraries, 2 lighthouses, Buddhism in 4 cities (not founded), 6/12 cottages used, 21 Techs (researching Aesthetics). Forgot to write down the score.

 

[jesusin]

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

Warrior SE sees Corn, settle 2E.
Research AH-Fishing-Minbing-BW
Production Worker-Warrior-WB-Settler
If I have had more commerce I would have beelined Alpha without Mining and BW first.
I decided to complete the warrior before starting on WB. Security first.

02 built S of Stone, with Stone, Pigs, Corn, Spices
03built N, fish, corn, 2dyes. Settled 1W of Corn losing the lake lh bonus, but 1W of here would take eons to pop borders
I came to regret this decision later on, but starts that need Monuments are far too slow.

Capital (WW, artists); 02 (GPFarm, early WW) and 03 (Moai, late WW) would be my 3 Legendary cities.
No cottages this game as early Stone allows Pyramids.
The difficulty of this map is happiness and commerce.

04 built NW, river, Clams, pigs, ivory, wines. I'm doing +5gpt at 0% science.

1000 BC Stats: 4 cities, 11pop, Set, 4workers, 6units(6War), 1 strategic resources, 0 luxury resources, 4 health resources, 0 great persons, 0 world wonders, 0 national wonders, food/production/commerce=43-15-27, 13 bpt at breakeven, 8 culture per turn, 0 great person points per turn, 40 gold, 3Monument, 1library. 0 religions, 0/0 cottages used, 9 Techs: BW, Masonry, AH, Wri. 0 civs killed. 3 hours played.

Going for Alpha might have been a mistake. Only 2 trade partners, IW delayed very much (it's key, commerce tiles are buried under jungle).

05 built NW of horses, horses, sugar, 2gems.

Pyramids 650BC. Alpha 500BC. GS 300BC.
Someone takess confu, I'm researching far to slow.

06 in silver island.

07 was a terrible mistake. I thought I could take both the Pigs+Sugar up North and the Pigs+Corn peninsula SW of there. I was greedy. I should have taken the former. I tried to get both and Isabella took them both. It ended up coming back to settle fish+sheep in the S island.

Currency after Alpha is forced. I'm using scientists in far too many cities, that could affect my artist generation pool.

1AD Stats: 7 cities, 35 pop, 5workers, 11units (2Swo), 3strategic resources, 3luxury resources, 6health resources, 1 great persons, 1 world wonders, 0 national wonders, food/production/commerce=106-34-135, 83 sustainable beakers per turn, 31 useful culture per turn, 14 great person points per turn, 100 gold. 2 religions. 0/0 cottages used, 20 Techs: IW, Curr, Alpha, Maths. 0 civs killed. 6,5 hours played. 6rel*city, 0temples, 0cath

 

[Falabello]

Academy in the GPFarm can be very strong, but only when the GP Farm is runni9ng at least 6 specialists and you are in Representation. First GS is nearly always best for an Academy in the capital or bulbing a key early tech depending on if you are going deep in the tech tree or not.

@Hamman, you are right they are quite useful, and I certainly built them in my cities but as your city does not have happiness issues (health issues do not matter at all in the early game IMO) it was not necessary yet.

Sharing resources between cities is normally very strong, especially food resources. This allows you to give the food to a city you need to grow while the other city stagnates while it works of whip unhappiness, then you swap. City overlap is essential.

I realised we had Iron only be reading the comments in the announcement thread. The challenger save explicitly mentioned that there was no iron 2E of settler.

I don't have a 1ad save, so I will post some images of 300ad in the final spoiler later.

Hey! I think I have two great tips here: one about the Academy and another about the location of cities . I'll try both in the next games. My initial plane is more regular then it was, but it needs some improve to reach the numbers that the experienced really do! So, first Academy in Capital (or one key tech). I liked very much of this idea. I guess the Academy in the Capital will make a great difference ! Let's see what happens! And share food resources (if was the case) for better place of the cities !

About Iron and Cooper, my confusion was about Cooper in BFC. But I understand that it was only to adventurer. Sorry, my fault ...

I'll be waiting for the images. Slowly, things are getting better! Thanks !