BOTM 83 Final Spoiler

[Deckhand]

BOTM 83 Final Spoiler

This is the thread to discuss how your entire game went.

Did you manage to eke out a win at noble or was the game too hard?
What was most annoying?
What was your most promoted unit?

Reading Requirements

Stop! If you are participating in BOTM 83 (Brennus of Celtia), then you MUST NOT read this thread unless EITHER

• You have submitted your entry, OR
• You have abandoned your game and will not submit.

Posting Restrictions
Do not post any savegame file from the game until after the competition has closed (Nov 16). Discussions and screenshots are fine but not actual games.

 

[duckstab]

Well, that was short and brutal. No metals, no horses, boxed in on marginal land next to one of the most annoying early game AIs. I attempted an Archer rush which failed miserably. Quit after about 65 turns.

I may check out the replays next month to see how the better players managed to pull this one off.

 

[nocho]

Certainly a challenging map to make up for noble. But for ivory no strat resources anywhere close including marble and stone, quite poor food generally. The key was of course getting rid of SB asap, used elepults for it. Next also went France in 2 waves. Went for culture in the end, got that in 1640 AD. Spread 4 religions, popped 18 great people including those from music and economics, of which 11 great artists. Actually libbed divine right for the religion, I think that was a first after all these years.

 

[georgjorge]

1842 Space victory.

After taking on Sitting Bull with Elepults, proceeded to do the same with Napoleon and then Toku. Feels the same as on higher levels, except nobody runs away with a tech lead and I could stop building units a lot sooner. Only faced two Samurai in the end from Toku but I had enough Elephants.

Despite conquering three capitals, never got a city more suited as a cottage capital than the original one (with double gems) despite weak food. So I cottaged it up and ran Bureaucracy the entire game, in the end it brought in about 900 beakers which seems fair. Only built a few more cottages in the Sitting Bull capital, rest of cities ran workshops and farms.

Big mistake was not continuing warring after Toku, I somehow thought the game would last shorter. Also wanted a 2-move-unit to not fight a prolonged war (though in hindsight Infantry would have been fine as well), and it didn't occur to me to trade with Huayna for horses for Cavalry. Also wanted to preserve foreign trade routes but it turned out the bastards switched to Merc anyway despite being bribed into Free Market repeatedly. So I continued on with my 17 (I think) cities. Only started a short war when I got Industrialisation, my Heroic Epic city made a few Tanks and I took five of Qin's cities in seven turns before making peace. I always wanted to do Tanks against Longbows...

Tried to get a Great Engineer in my Ironworks city running six engineer specialists, but it also had the Taj, Mausoleum and Forbidden Palace so I got a Great Artist instead. Then luckily got a Great Engineer from my GP farm at low odds and was happy to found Mining, spreading it almost everywhere.

Never got to one tech a turn, highest was about 3000 beakers (4000 with Golden Age).

I really tried to get a highly promoted unit - attached a Great General to a Guerilla III Gallic Warrior for Withdrawal and City Raider II, thinking to use him as a nutcracker. Died on his second fight at 80+ odds, so I gave up on this particular challenge.

 

[georgjorge]

Well, that was short and brutal. No metals, no horses, boxed in on marginal land next to one of the most annoying early game AIs. I attempted an Archer rush which failed miserably. Quit after about 65 turns.

I may check out the replays next month to see how the better players managed to pull this one off.

Archer rush...interesting. Could probably work on Noble but not with protective Sitting Bull on a hill and already starting with an Archer. I think I would have gone for Guerilla III Longbows (Oracle Feudalism) if I wouldn't have chosen Elephants.

 

[Solyaris]

1705 space 150 000 points

Thought it would be sooner consider beeing at domination limit around 1000AD and having the last 2 AIs at friendly. Guess I used too long to improve my land propperly, and the horrific starting position didnt help either!

Yeah we got gems, but sitting bull on hills, starting with archers and having a superb starting city proved to be a challange even on noble!

 

[georgjorge]

Congrats on the space victory date! What did you use to conquer your land - just Elepults for everyone, or more advanced units for the last ones? How many cities did you have?

 

[Falabello]

Did you manage to eke out a win at noble or was the game too hard?
What was most annoying?

Well, this game was too hard, but I definitely got it worse. My initial idea was Cats and Archers. I took the Capital and realized he also didn't have cooper. So, Civilopedia told me: Hey, disoriented man , Dog Soldiers doesn't need any resource!!! Thanks, I thought ...
Then, I settled a city to capture elephants very late... But my initial plan was working well, until... ...While waiting the phants, I marched to Poverty Point, and made my biggest mistake: my Cats weakened the defenders and my Archers killed them, till the last. Before my Archer took the city, I misclicked and accepted peace ... I had to get to city again and lost several units. I took that city, but had to stop the war and wait another Army (this time with elephants). I think my war with Cats/Archers would won if wasn't my mistake, but I had to deal with it ...

I capitulated Sitting Bull very late and started waring against Togukawa. Took the first city, and he became vassal of France. I wasn't prepared for another Army. Lost my units defending and lost the Japanese city I conquered. Stoped waring and waited for peace. After that, I would play pacifically trying the UN. Lefting 19 turns to complete it, Togukawa declared. Neither my defence nor my mind weren't prepared for that, so I gave up .

What was your most promoted unit?

I wanted a high-promoted unit and planned since the beginning. This unit would be an Archer. He became a Great General, but died trying to fix my mistake.

After, the next Great General was a War Elephant. Before he died defending against the Japanese, he reached the Level 8/9 and Experience 44/49. This is half of what I imagined

 

[Falabello]

Just for fun, find the picture that I used.

I like this kind of mystery, but I didn't understand what exactly was requested. Is this picture about the map ? Well, I tried ...

 

[Deckhand]

@Falabello, sorry I wanted it to be hard but I didn't want you to lose.

Knock, Knock - Brennus of the Celts. Brennus is wandering thru Rome, looking for his spoils.

This picture is cropped from a famous painting. The challenge is to find and enjoy the rest of the picture. [img=right]http://gotm.civfanatics.net/civ4games/images/botm83civ.jpg[/img]

 

[Falabello]

- -

I translated PICTURE as FIGURE, IMAGE, not as PHOTOGRAPH .

I understood that you used an image inside the game. The most funny is that I tried to find it throughout the game .

But don't worry! At least the idea for a drawn map is suggested

I have no idea about the picture, but it reminds me Asterix (not the player )...

About the difficulty of the game, it's part of the challenges. I always played XOMTs remaining few days to submit. This time I managed to finish the last with plenty of time. So, I'll have time to replay some games untill next XOTM. Who knows I'll learn something new. Thanks for the games you plan !

 

[Solyaris]

Congrats on the space victory date! What did you use to conquer your land - just Elepults for everyone, or more advanced units for the last ones? How many cities did you have?

Used elephants + catapults for everything. Sitting bull and napoleon PreAD, toko and Inca postAD. In the end I had something like 40 cities and 63% land. Had to give away 2 cities not to go over domination limit.

For once I also built the spiral minaret and university of sankore. Persian built the apostolic palace and since I was spirutal all temples costed 40hammers total, giving me 2 BPT, 2 GPT and 2 hammers for each buddist temple. Never done that before, but Im pretty sure it was worth it. (1600+225+225 = 2150) hammers for 80BPT/80GPT/80HPT and +1 happy in every city

 

[Falabello]

This picture is cropped from a famous painting. The challenge is to find and enjoy the rest of the picture.

Wow, I searched for it and had a nice history lesson . Here is the link to the page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brennus_%284th_century_BC%29

And yes, I was with a certain reason about Asterix, the Gaul !

 

[whb]

Well, I discovered what happens if you get conquest and domination simultaneously.

My invasion of SB was almost cowardly late (but still done with elephants and cats). Napoleon tried to invade me from behind while I was doing it, which slowed things down further. After his offensive troops were taken out, he agreed peace and I got on with the conquest of SB. Far too slowly.

In the meantime Japan and China had a little tussle, leaving Toku even more unpopular than ever. So next I took enough of Japan's cities that Toku became a vassal.

After this I had three rather happy turns of events. The first was that three of the opponents (Inca, Persia, and China) all seemed to decide to go for culture wins. The second was that, having shared a war with me and now having a close border (where I'd taken Japanese cities), and with my vying with Napoleon for number 1 in the chart, China signed up as a vassal voluntarily -- presumably to protect them while they went for culture. The third was that Napolean "had enough on his hands right now", but instead of attacking me he marched his army of muskets and cuirassiers up to Persia to take Parsagardae (Persia's third big culture city)

So there I am one moment thinking "ok, that's Toku conquered. Now, who's next -- China's a bit far away, but Napoleon has lots of troops, and musketeers that are going to be a pain". And the next China conquers itself for me, and Napoleon sends his troops off the wrong side of China.

I waited for Napoleon to take Parsargardae (to make sure he had a city to defend and keep his stack up there) before I declared war.

Napoleon did not last long.

Inca went next, though there was a delay while I gathered and healed the troops. A very short war (two cities taken) and he became a vassal.

And that left me with one opponent left on the board, and 2% below the domination land threshold.

Well, another short delay gathering the troops (especially as Persia had several techs the other side of Astronomy which I hadn't got, so I wasn't sure what I was in for). Then two turns of war, and when his first city fell he capitulated -- simultaneously taking me over the domination threshold and meaning I'd conquered all the AI leaders.

Well, it seems that conquest wins.

Probably a thoroughly late date given the map, but lots of fun. I don't think I've played a game where I've had the biggest army for most of the game before.

(Thanks, mapmaker)

 

[Deckhand]

Well, I discovered what happens if you get conquest and domination simultaneously.

...
Well, it seems that conquest wins.

I've read that it is random. The game randomly picks between all the simultaneous victories. Of course, it usually works out that you don't get the one you want.

 

[astre]

I'm in holydays and so had to use another computer. buffy mod is not fully working so i will not submit.
I Won by 1040 with AP with 58k pooints

oracle for construction
Killed SB by year 0 with fanta put (with 2 cities fants and cow/gem)

Considered to continue rampage but nappy had metal and was big...
At this point everyone was hindu while darius was budist.
I bulb theo, started AP, start a global war against Darius and spread Xian to everyone.
For darius, i took one city of his, infected it and liberated it.
At one point, i took a random barbarian city the other side of the world. Few turns latter, i figuered i had horses, the barb city was sitting on it, i did not noticed! was it the ony source or horse in the world?

I had too many vote, had to whip some stuffs the last turn.
was techning lib in the last turns.
easy win, everyone voted for me except darius.

Thanks shulec for the modus operanty (the one we used for previous SGOTM)
Thanks brennus for being spiritual (help me change religion for AP production)
Thanks mapmaker for being so kind (i used only one gem in the starting area)
Thanks AP win to be quick to play (2 evening: <6hours)

 

[zbgayumn]

No submission for me either. I rage-quit after two bonehead mistakes. First, I went for CS sling and forgot that Math is pre-req. Then, as Sitting Bull was trying to box me in, I hooked up elephants, built about 4 of them, and went to war. Didn't count on Cahokia's culture being so high that it still blocked my connection to the ivory for my other 3 cities even after I captured one of his cities. Without more elephants I was screwed...

I eventually replayed and fixed my two mistakes. That one ended up as a 1846 domination victory.

This "hard Noble" game was at least as difficult as the easy Immortal game. Some of that had to do with expectations going in, but mostly it was the game situation. Boxed in by a civ that pretty much can't be beaten before elephants or maces, and the little bit of land you get has no food to speak of. The difficulty level was still apparent in the ease of maintaining a tech lead, but without expansion there wasn't much chance of things staying that way.

 

[Jastrow]

My game was a textbook example of playing without a plan....(or perhaps more accurately with several contradictory plans).

In the final save, I have built Appollo and started on a couple of space ship parts. I am UN secretary general (and was AP resident until I built the UN), have two vassels, and have just crossed the domination barrier (1725, I think was the date).

I never really commited to space, domination or diplo, and all of a sudden it was 1600 and I looked around... I had the choice between a late ~1820 Space ship, some ~1700 diplo based on some tricory of gifting the UN city at the right time, or a ~1700 domination... Obviously, none of these seemed competitive, so I decided to just go the easy route and cap a couple of AI's on the way to a late domination...

 

[billybgame]

Well, looks like I'm not alone in bailing on this one. Nap and Qin declaring on me slowed me down, firstly.....by the time I declared on SB, shortly after 1 AD, he had quite the army and boy, was that an effort....started westward from the Ivory....took two of his cities, the second being a bear....then got to the capital and it went on, and on, and on. I almost had it, too, and bet I would have then taken them out fully, but they whipped a catapult, and it left me one attacker short.....from then on, he rebuilt quick.....had to rebuild myself, and by the time I had his defenders down to a number I could take, up popped his longbowmen.....arghh..

Bad luck for me, all the way around. When I declared on SB....I wondered where the heck his Spearmen were coming from....anyone else get this?.....that sure as hell didn't make it any easier for my elephants. I'm thinking he traded with Darius. But, not sure. I couldn't see in game where they were getting it from.

Pretty frustrating, all the way around.

 

[astre]

dog soldier doesn't need metal