Civ4 GOTM55 Final Spoiler

[leif erikson]

GOTM 55 Final Spoiler

Reading Requirements

Stop! If you are participating in GOTM 55, then you MUST NOT read this thread unless

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

 

[smitsk00]

The AI in general got Longbows before I could kill anyone, so, since I had 4 religions and a great GP farm, I canned the miltary buildup and went culture. Unfortunately, Hatty nabbed the marble spot, so I missed Sistine. Did manage to build the Colossus late for a little commerce boost. Conficianism was the dominant religion (founded by Hatty). Everyone disliked Peter and Mao(Christian) and Izzy (Buddhist). Took Nationalism with Lib. Got Constitution and bumped up my slider. Signed Pacts with #1 Hatty and neighbor Sal to keep Izzy off my back. No wars.

9 cities at finish (I did flip that Marble city from Hatty)

8 cathedrals - I didnt bother with many temples in GP farm or in my 8th city on the little peninsula that settled on the hill in order to work the fish. I transitioned to culture late enough that felt I needed to stay in Caste enough to pass up what could have been a HUGE Caste/slavery cycle advantage with the Spiritual trait.

12 GP total. 3 Scientists - 1 for Academy, 1 bulbed Philo and got Taoism, 1 bulbed Printing Press
1 Merchant - Settled in capital
9 Artists - 8 bombed in GP farm, 1 in second culture city

Capital got 4 cathedrals
2nd (Barb city by Sheep/Horses) got 4 cathedrals and Hermitage
3rd (GP farm) got bombed since it had very low production

Well into repetively hitting ENTER, I started to wonder why I had only popped 11 GP so far and Mansa was building spaceship parts. After a bit of cursing, I switched to Pacifism. Got my last Artist and then:

a much delayed victory in 1904.

 

[Markus5]

I also went culture, but lost a Spaceship victory to Germany in 1927. I don't play culture much and should have done much better. I was about 25 turns from my final culture city. The tough part was trying to keep Egypt off my back. She really wanted war, no matter what I did.

 

[Ronnie1]

This was a fun one for me. I don't think my mid 1800's Space victory will garner much attention, but it was a fun map none the less.

Game: C-IV GOTM 55
Date submitted: 2010-06-08
Reference number: 22393
Your name: Ronnie1
Mod: Mods/HOF-1.74.004/
Entry class: Contender
Game status: Spaceship Victory for India
Game date: 1838AD
Turns played: 289
Base score: 5691
Final score: 74172
Time played: 14:57:24

As I said in the pregame, when the warrior went SW to the hill and didn't spot anything useful, I settled in place and started on a worker while research was set to AG.

I explored generally southward, and eventually met Saladin and later Peter and Mao. I started on a settler pretty early, and still barely got to the wheat/gold site before Sal. He had already settled city #2, and his settler for city #3 then turned NW and settled so the copper would be in his BFC. I hurried another settler, and settled between the wheat and the copper so I would have metal in my skinny square just in case. I then settled the food site on the east coast for my NE city, and then took a barb city by the furs on the western peninsula. I filled in a city in between using the sheep for food, and a city on the N coast using the seafood. This city actually worked a number of Delhi's cottages to keep them growing. The final city I placed 1SE of the marble using the seafood there also. Then I teched my way towards Liberalism and took Military Tradition, followed by researching Gunpowder. I then laid claim to all of Sal's land, he brought in Mao, and I kinda screwed up by not sailing some units across to pinch him a little. As soon as I finished off Sal, I laid claim to Peter's land as it was better than Sal's, and finally finished of Mao and Peter about the same time with Tanks having barely arrived on the scene. Then it was just a matter of teching to the end and getting the ship out ASAP. I used 2 GE's on the Space Elevator, and kicked off a Golden Age while I was building the last few expensive parts.

Mistakes I made....

Not getting an exploring boat out early. I missed contact with the other continent for much longer than I should have, costing me trade routes and tech trades.

Not getting some pillagers into China earlier to slow him down. I ended up facing Rifles when I probably could have kept him to bows.

I'm sure there are other mistakes, but I shall not dwell on them.

 

[shyuhe]

Took the challenger save. To pick up from my 1AD spoiler, I declared on Saladin with swords (and a few axes). Took him out completely as he lacked metal. Since he wasn't even protective, he was very easy to crush

I then started building elephants + catapults and declared on Peter when I had a stack of about 20 units. Hatty had settled two cities on my continent but I ignored them for now. Peter had almost no military, and I conquered all but one city (and got cavalry during this war from liberalism). His one city was only reachable by boats so I just left him for the time (until I eliminated him later).

I then declared on Mao, taking all but two cities before WW became too large. Again, not many units here. I eventually eliminated him later too (with the help of artillery at that point).

I shifted gears and went after Hatty who had foolishly skipped rifling - took her out completely. She had Chichen Itza and 60-80% culture cities so I lost quite a few cavalry storming her cities. Still, she didn't put up much of a fight and I just had to make sure I took her out before she got rifling.

After that was Izzy who had also skipped rifling. She had conquistadors and cavalry though, so she did manage to pick off a few of my units. I had also bribed Mansa to war with both Izzy and Fred, so he helped draw some of the fire (although he grabbed some of her northern cities).

I was just starting to go after Fred when I triggered domination in the 1600's. I lost two cities via culture flip but it didn't delay me that much. WW was pretty brutal in my game though, as I hit 10-15 at some points. If I had used nationalism, I imagine I could have finished my game another 20-30 turns earlier as I was running short on city garrison units towards the end

 

[Fluroscent]

4000BC, I settled on the hill getting both corn and pigs. Sal nabbed the gold site south by 1T, even though I built a settler at size 2. Settled copper instead and attacked Sal with axes and added swords/cats for his large amount of archers in the capital and a far away city on a hill. DOW'ed Hatty to take her city on the NW peninsula with nice resources. Progressed through phants->maces->knights as I took out Peter (he was unusually weak) and most of Mao. Ran out of steam with two cities left since he had knights and muskets and my unit producing cities were so far away. Another Hatty city on the west end of the jungle strip and a Mansa iceball meant I had all the landmass except a few cities. I hadn't decided on VC yet, but had built infrastructure in most core cities. No Oxford though, so space was ruled out.

I decided to go UN rather than invade the other continent. For three reasons: 1. It was easier since the other continent was ahead in techs except Izzy 2. I was on friendly terms with Mansa + Fred 3. I had a GE and a city that could be gifted to hated Hatty to make her the opponent.

Won in 16xx on the first vote with plenty to spare, even though Mansa+Fred got -4 from me gifting the UN city to Hatty (wasn't sure if it would). Fav civics bonuses did just enough.

 

[mushroomshirt]

I managed a culture victory in 1800. Nothing to write home about for most people, but good for me.

This was the first time in a looong time that I've played culture. Usually I am a warmonger.

Once I spotted the pigs I settled SSW. My 2nd cottage city was up by the crabs and the GP farm was to the east with all the food was my 3rd LC city.

Things I did well: decided to focus on early REX rather than wonders. I managed to secure the northern half of the continent and 8 cities (one was a captured barb city). Built 10 great artists and one GS (academy).

Things I did not so well: growth on crab city was pretty slow. I should have built a more farms there and then cottaged over them later. Also my GP farm was very hammer poor and I stupidly chopped the forests very early in my NE build so all I had for hammers was the gold mine. I also stayed in OR much too long before shifting to pacifism - but this is related to the slow development of my 2nd city.

All in all I'm pretty happy - my first emperor win in a long time!

 

[HuginogMunin]

Didnt write first spoiler, short recap. No surprise in choice of victory condition, we kinda specialize in diplos I guess...

Settled 2nd turn on FP to get corn+pig. 2nd city south by wheat+gold, 3rd copper+fish+wheat (west), 4th north by clam, then captured 2 barb cities; 1 east with lot of food (but only 1 fish, not optimal location) and 1 west with 2 furs and sheeps and 1 clam. 7th marble+horse(+share clam), 8th iron+whale.

Not much to say, eco run mostly on cottages, built Great Lighthouse and Hanging Gardens in 3rd (copper) city, Great Library in 4th city and finally - Colossus in 2nd city (chopped pretty late, AI wouldnt discover Metal Casting for us xD).

Discovered 2nd island after trading maps to see Freds border. Good relations on main island due 2 all confusionists (Saladin founded a few turns before us, we spread to Mao).

Managed a standard Liberalism-Physics slingshot, next turn used 3 GS to rush Electricity in 1 turn with overflow. Planned a GE in 3rd city with 33% merchant (TGL) and 66% engineer (HG + allways 1 forge specialist) the exact turn we discovered Mass Media - and we got it! Built in 1080 AD and won voted for diplo victory in 1130AD (faster than I remembered).

The HOF record is 1320AD, but we suspect GOTMs dont qualify for HOF submissions. Right?

Hugin and Munin

 

[shyuhe]

Nice date on the diplo HuginogMunin!

 

[leif erikson]

The HOF record is 1320AD, but we suspect GOTMs dont qualify for HOF submissions. Right?

Congrats on a fast date.

As to your question, you should ask the HoF Staff. I am unsure of their policy on this.

 

[Fluroscent]

I'm guessing that since XOTM's are "doctored" maps, they cannot count for HoF purposes. But congrats HuginogMunin on an excellent diplo game. I was hoping to steal the award if there were no dedicated diplo efforts . Now I must hope there will be less fierce competition on score

 

[shyuhe]

Now I must hope there will be less fierce competition on score

I'll show you my score if you show me yours This map was low seas so I think we'll see some pretty good scores.

 

[magicgunnar]

Settled in place on my peninsula. Since I had room to expand I didn't go to war right away which I probably should have done. Especially since Saladin did take the Gold/Wheat spot to the south.

But war came along, but I didn't finish him off completely before I had cannons. Probably way too late.

Saturday night I was hoping to finish the game. I could see that I had expanded too slow to get a Domination victory, and I didn't even manage to be elected to head of U.N. so Diplomatic was out of the question. I went for space, and managed to get Space Elevator with a GE. Mansa decleared on me, but only sent a couple of units easily repelled. I stayed at war with him since he wanted gold for peace. I know I shouldn't be playing late at night, because I get tired and make mistakes. Mansa razed one of my cities before I even noticed he had landed units. Crap, I was hitting end turn too fast. I paid 170GP to end the war, just to don't have to think about it. As I was fighting Peter which had also declared on me.

I got the Pentagon, the Dam and the Internet and thought things went okay.

Suddenly I noticed that Frederick only had Life Support left to finish the Spaceship, and I thought I had the lead. None of the others had fusion, so it was me or him. Crap why hadn't I noticed before, why didn't I have some spies over at him? I really shouldn't be playing that late at night. I keep making mistakes

I sent a spy over to check out how far he was from finishing, and by cheer luck the first city I ran into was building Life Support. But it was only 2 turns left. The year was 1915.

My spy was out of moves, but the next turn I tried to sabotage the production. Crap, I was out of money, didn't think it costs money. I sold Medicine to Egypt for a little less than 4000, and crossed my fingers, 4-54% chance as you can see of the screenshot.

Spoiler :

I hit the mouse.

Success! Wow, my spaceship would come first! I conquered some Russian cities and in 4 turns finished the spaceship. Getting a score about 30k.

Just poor luck saved victory this time, I have to stop playing when I am tired.

P.S: The time in the screenshot is not late because I didn't take a screenshot until now when I wrote this.

 

[ianw1610]

I made a fast start... first to Liberalism, taking Physics for free.

However my military, whilst strong enough to defend my lands, was not strong enough to take out any rivals, so I made no expansion of my territory in the later stages of the game, over and above the initial core Settled lands. This enabled my rivals, with their bigger empires, to close the tech gap towards the end of the game.

It was a very close Space Race between myself and Mansa Musa. We both completed all Research at around the same time, but my lands were very hammer limited, so I was not able to build/chop/etc my Spaceship in time.

Space Race defeat to Mansa Musa, 1900AD.

 

[kcd_swede]

As noted in first spoiler, I wasted 4 turns right at the beginning, so felt like I would have some catching up to do. I was aimed for space from the beginning, btw.

However, I was able to blow past all the AI in the tech race, with Oxford in 900AD or so. I won liberalism and took astro. I planned all along to backstab Saladin, but by trading so much with him, he got cavalry just as my cavalry stack is ready to launch. So I went after Fredrick instead. I take over about 8 core cities, he has 2 left, but he still manages to race through the military branch of the tech tree with no friggin cities. Of the AI, he was on a continent without gunpowder... but he manages to get Railroad (read "machine guns") before anyone else (including myself). So I take peace rather than waste a lot of units... and I DOW Izzy (I had t oput them somewhere, right?)

Probably a stupid move... I mean sure, I got all but two Spanish cities before she's got rifling... but the years are passing me by. I take peace for some cash, and go back to teching, but stuck in slavery to build infra in the new world for a short while. I end up giving back Madrid after it starved to pop1 since it was just costing money.

The whole "new world" for me made exactly 1 spaceship part, and it was the last part to finish, and I had to wait 3 turns for it to finish. Very bad planning. I think I'd have won this faster if I played without any wars, just using home-grown cities. Maybe not... I did get a lot of beakers from the german cities... but I should have stopped the war after getting the 3 or 4 best cities.

During the space sprint, Mansa was actually teching faster than me, and building lots of parts before I get Apollo. But I do get Fusion first... ended up settling that GE since the space elevator would not have helped enough to justify building it (I had used a saved GE for 3Gorges instead of the Space Elev like I had planned).

It was a very close space race with Mansa. I had a 3-way traingle defense pact with Saladin and Peter, and Saladin had a dp with Mao as welll, so that I was not too concerned about angry spaniards and germans and chinese.

I think at some point Mansa gave up on space. He had everything except Ecology and the SS part that goes with it. I had 4 turns left. He demands Eco (I refuse). Pssst... you can tech that in like 1 turn, you Malinese dolt. Anyhow, I think I won the game without Mansa finishing Ecology. Inexplicable. Its as if he decided to let me win. I mean, how could he know that I would throw a tantrum if I lost?

Result: Spaceship victory in 1894AD.

No great... but Not bad for someone who is still wondering why its taking so long to get a great general.

 

[Mitchum]

I decided to play for a cultural victory this game because I hadn’t played one in quite a while. This game was full of blunders and odd occurences.

1. I was the first to circumnavigate the globe even though I never once scouted beyond our general vicinity (I didn’t even explore into Saladin’s cultural borders). The only navy I ever had was devoted to pulling fish, crabs and clams out of the sea. I guess being the first to paper and trading maps is one way to circumnavigate, although I never once used the added +1 movement since I already had all of the work boats I needed.

2. I stole Saladin’s worker in the first 20 turns or so. As a result, he would never trade me a single tech. The only time he would open borders with me was for a short while when I was running no state religion.

3. Saladin was the founder of Buddhism, so I declared no state religion and opened borders with him in the hope that his religion would spread to a religion-less city I put right near him. No dice.

4. I was the founder of Confucianism (on my way to the CS slingshot) and Islam. That’s it. No other religions ever spread to me even though I had open borders with everyone other than Saladin most of the game. This meant that I could only build two cathedrals in each legendary city.

5. I had a hard time picking my three legendary cities. They were Delhi (settled 1S), Bombay (settled south to capture the gold, wheat and pigs) and the GP Farm (with two fish, corn, pigs and gold). The GP farm had terrible production and had trouble building the National Epic in a reasonable amount of time, so my GP generation started late.

6. I produced one GS (academy in Delhi), one GPro from the Oracle (settled in Delhi), and 15 GAs (one of them from Music). I settled 3 GAs in Delhi and bombed the other 12 (0 – 4 – 8).

7. I completely blew Delhi by settling 3 GAs and building the Hermitage there. Delhi achieved legendary status 32 turns before the other 2, and ended the game with 76,110 culture… what a waste.

8. I was playing blind with respect to Delhi in this game. I could not see the full city interface in Delhi only (see image) from 300 AD on (all other cities were fine ). This meant that I could not assign specialists there or really tell what was going on in the city. The only way I could figure out what was going on was to look at the F1 screen or mouse over the city, which shows some basic information like food, hammers and culture. I was worried that the city governor would assign engineers (which it did) or a bunch of scientists, giving me a late game great person of the wrong flavor. As a result, I forced the city to work a bunch of citizens at a measly 1H each. I could have easily pumped a couple of late game GAs out of this city since it reached legendary status so early, but I was unable to do so.

Spoiler :

9. There was not a single war the entire game other than me stealing Sal’s worker early in the game. I was the likely target of Sal and Izzy being the lone Confucian heathen. So I built a bunch of units in Delhi and my auxiliary cities so that I wouldn’t look like a total cream puff.

In light of the big mistake in having Delhi going legendary so early and having only two religions all game, I finished with a reasonable cultural victory, at least for me, in 1765 AD.

 

[ianw1610]

8. I was playing blind with respect to Delhi in this game. I could not see the full city interface in Delhi only (see image) from 300 AD on (all other cities were fine ). This meant that I could not assign specialists there or really tell what was going on in the city.

I've had that problem before also. It only occurs when a city has 1 or more settled Great People. If I remember correctly, the problem is resolved by clicking Options ---> HOF3 ---> and UNCHECKING the "Specialist Stacker".

 

[Mitchum]

I've had that problem before also. It only occurs when a city has 1 or more settled Great People. If I remember correctly, the problem is resolved by clicking Options ---> HOF3 ---> and UNCHECKING the "Specialist Stacker".

Thanks! That did it. I guess it was Sid's way of punishing me for being a dolt and settling three great artists in Delhi rather than saving them for a culture bomb.

 

[leif erikson]

I've had that problem before also. It only occurs when a city has 1 or more settled Great People. If I remember correctly, the problem is resolved by clicking Options ---> HOF3 ---> and UNCHECKING the "Specialist Stacker".

 

[Sleepless]

Diplo win in 1800AD. Bit slow compared to some although if I hadn't been so sentimental and stuck with Sal's religion who had been my friend from the beginning and wiped him out instead I could of adopted the other islands religion and with shared fav civics got a much earlier time.

As it was I wiped out both Peter and Mao but even with there lands and sals votes I was still 80 - 90 short of a diplo win. So ended up taking most of Issies cities which was enough to win me the vote in 1800.