Civ3 1.29 Predator
My first post, so hi all.
This is my second GOTM, and my first stab at predator class (although I have a question for the staff about that at the bottom of this post).
Ancient Age
I moved the settler 2N before founding, and could work both wines and the forest game after the borders expanded - good enough. All of my AA research was conducted at the lowest possible rate (or single scientist when I could afford the specialist). I started a 40-turn gambit on writing and actually completed it while it still had some trade value. All other techs were purchased outright or brokered among the known civs. Most of my purchases were from India and China.
My exploration only resulted in my meeting China and India before I broke down and paid India for contact with Spain in 1750 BC. I had nothing useful to offer the Spanish, so I purchased another contact (Egypt) from India in 1475 BC. Egypt was lagging a bit, so I eventually was able to trade for all contacts and broker several techs this turn. In 1250 BC, 5 civs (India, China, Ottomans, Arabs, Egypt) all entered the Middle Ages. I finally could afford to broker my way into the Middle Ages in 1125 BC.
Middle Ages
I drew Monotheism as my free tech (of course) and immediately sold it to India for Literature, world map, 346 gold and 4 GPT. The barb uprising was not a problem - only 1 horseman approached my territory. I think India took the brunt of the barb attacks.
At 1000 BC I had 6 towns, 2 completed settlers, and my military consisted of 9 warriors and 9 hoplites. I had all AA techs except Republic and Monarchy, plus Monotheism from the Middle Ages.
I had started a 40-turn gambit on Republic back in 1375 BC, but finally broke down and picked it up in a trade from Rome in 775 BC. I had to trade 4 AA techs plus my WM and some gold for Republic, but I was fortunate that Rome had fallen behind in the tech race (a consequence of the fact that they had been busy whacking Korea down to one city). I immediately sold Republic to 5 other civs for about 300 gold. I also founded Argos in the southern cow site in 775 BC, and eventually would jump my palace there. I did not revolt until 690 BC (after finishing a couple of settlers) and drew a 4-turn anarchy, so I was a Republic in 610 BC.
France declared war on India in 630 BC, and I would eventually use this war to drop the price of several Middle Ages techs (by signing MAs as part of the deals). This worked out beautifully, as France completed the Great Wall in Paris and held out for eons against all of the other civs. China also graciously provided me horses for most of the age in exchange for wines and some GPT.
I completed the Forbidden Palace in Corinth (west of the capital near the Chinese border) in 90 BC. At the time, I was planning on taking some Chinese territory to serve as my second core. However, China triggered their GA in the early middle ages and had a huge military before that plan could ever materialize. In effect, I played most of the game with only 1.5 cores.
I finally got iron hooked up in 150 AD, after having to build a road all the way from the southern edge of the continent. I upgraded my warriors to swords to provide at least some semblance of a military, and then unhooked it to start building horsemen.
I abandoned Athens in 310 AD and took the free palace jump to Argos (cow town). I also completed a 40-turn gambit on Printing Press in 310 AD (got it at monopoly) and managed to trade it around for Chemistry, Navigation and Physics as well as GPT. In 370 AD, I brokered my way into the Industrial Age.
Industrial Age
My approach to the IA was a bit unorthodox for me. I had been planning for a relatively "peaceful" victory condition for a while since China, India and the Arabs were military powerhouses throughout the middle ages. I decided to trade Nationalism (free tech) immediately to those three civs, and netted a total of 447 GPT and 840 gold. My research rate was hideous at this point due to a combination of low population, lots of jungle between my palace and FP, and sub-optimal FP placement. Even at 100% science, it would take me 14 turns to complete Steam Power at the start of the age, so I shut off science until 480 AD and focused on building population and rushing universities.
When I resumed research, I assumed that the other civs would prioritize Steam Power and complete it for me, so I decided to study Medicine. I completed it in 560 AD, and the other civs still had not completed SP. They were busy picking up optional techs from the middle ages, so I shut off research again to wait for Steam Power.
Although I was planning on a peaceful victory condition, I saw no reason to allow the laggards to stay in the game. I wanted to claim some needed resources and territory to increase score, so I started looking for victims.
Spain was weak at this point and also had horses in Seville (a coastal city with a harbor) and the Pyramids in Madrid. I DOW on Spain honorably in 550 AD, landed 6 knights and 18 horsemen, and claimed Seville (keeping the harbor intact) the next turn. The Ottomans hooked up a second source of saltpeter in 570 AD, and I traded Democracy to them for it. I rushed a barracks in Seville in 580 AD, and then upgraded my invasion force to cavalry. I used this relatively small force to methodically eliminate Spain in 650 AD, France in 740 AD (they had been at constant war since 630 BC), and Egypt in 810 AD. I also took out Korea's only city in 770 AD, primarily just to drop the price of techs a little more.
Meanwhile, China finally completed Steam Power in 650 AD. I stubbornly refused to research it myself all of this time, thinking that surely one of the strong AI would do it for me. I had even studied Sanitation myself while I was waiting, and traded Sanitation and a little gold for Steam Power in 650 AD. I then studied Electricity (7 turns), Scientific Method (5 turns) and Atomic Theory (8 turns) while waiting for the AI to study Industrialization (which India finally completed in 850 AD). I then studied the Corporation (4 turns) and completed it on the turn that I completed Theory of Evolution (880 AD). I took Electronics and Radio as my free techs, and then studied Refining (6 turns), Steel (5 turns), Combustion (4 turns), Mass Production (4 turns), Motorized Transportation (4 turns), and Flight (4 turns). Fortunately, the AI studied Replaceable Parts for me in 950 AD. I also completed a pre-build for Hoover in 1130 AD. My research in the late IA was pushed along by my GA, which I will explain in a moment.
The Arabs (who were relatively huge) demanded coal in 740 AD, and I caved in because I suspected they could take most of my lightly-defended Spanish territory. Then the idiots declared war anyway and captured a couple of my towns. No matter - I could draft rifles in most of my remaining Spanish colonies and held out fairly well until the cavalry could return from the front. I signed all of my friends up to MAs against the Arabs and took my time conquering them.
I was counting on triggering my GA with a hoplite defensive victory against an Arab archer or longbowman, and was leaving several hoplites positioned on hills around Arab cities. Unfortunately, they refused to attack! In an act of utter desperation in 980 AD, I used hoplites to attack wounded rifles in size-12 Damascus and managed to trigger my GA when a hoplite defeated a red-lined rifleman. This attack also reduced the Arabs to a single city on the southern one-tile island, so I signed a peace treaty with them and they were quiet for the rest of the game.
I decided to kill off the Romans to reduce the number of tribes to an odd number (still thinking about a Diplomatic victory at this point), and declared war on them in 1050 AD. I signed up China, India and the Ottomans to MAs against Rome - primarily just to keep the other civs occupied. I took my time with this war as well, and actually waited around for tanks to complete their demise. I eliminated the Romans in 1180 AD.
Leaders - I built and army with the first and rushed Universal Suffrage in 840 AD with the second. War weariness was never really problem even with all of my war-mongering. I only had to bump the lux tax to 10% for a couple of turns during the IA. I rushed Smith's with a third leader in 1050 AD.
Modern Age
I entered the Modern Age in 1150 AD, drew Rocketry as the free tech (of course), and then decided to check the spoiler thread to see if others had completed fast Diplomatic and Space victories. As I suspected, I had gotten too bogged down in the early IA.
I considered my options and ultimately decided to go for a cultural victory. I had about 18,000 culture in 1150 AD and it was growing at less than 400 per turn, but I could ramp that up quickly with some planning.
My new plan was to research Fission (I had timed a UN pre-build that could not wait), Computers, Miniaturization (build the Internet), Ecology and Synthetic Fibers (upgrade tanks to modern armor). I stopped war-mongering after eliminating the Romans in 1180 AD and focused on completing this tech path, rushing cultural improvements, and building a load of tanks.
I completed Fission and the UN in 1210 AD and buried the vote, completed the Internet in 1325 AD, and completed research on Synthetic Fibers in 1365 AD. I upgraded 64 tanks to modern armor in 1365 AD, DOW on India immediately and took them out in one turn (killing 44 infantry and an equal number of outdated units). I didn't use ROP abuse on India, but did sign a ROP agreement with China in the middle of this turn to provide access to all of India's cities. I did use ROP against China in 1395 AD and took all of their cities in one turn as well. I killed 63 infantry and about 20 rifles and militia in this single turn, and I never built or used artillery the entire game. All I can say is modern armor versus infantry is a cakewalk. I generated 2 more GLs this turn, and rushed Seti and Battlefield Medicine with them.
Easter Egg note: My fifth and final GL was named Aeson!
Other than the Arabs - who were relegated to Alcatraz, that left only the Ottomans. I declared war on them in 1410 and eliminated them in 2 turns (only because they lacked coal and never built a rail system for my armor).
The rest of the game was an exercise in ICSing and disbanding virtually all of my military as well as drafting and disbanding mechanized infantry to rush cultural improvements in corrupt cities. I had conquered a number of size-25 plus cities in India and China, so I rushed settlers like crazy from these towns until they were below size 10 and then micromanaged them to not grow above size 12 (it's too bad you can't sell off hospitals). I got bored with ICSing when I had 173 cities crammed in safely under the domination limit (BTW - Thank You Dianthus!) and drafted about 500 mech infantry to disband in cities. This was pure drudgery, so I have gained a great deal of respect for the professional milkers from this exercise.
My culture growth improved quite nicely:
Date Culture CPT
1190 AD 20019 380
1380 AD 40227 936
1455 AD 60220 1860
1505 AD 81375 2193
I stopped rushing cultural improvements in 1490 AD and rushed marketplaces for the last dozen turns just to increase score. My score was increasing by 58 per turn at the end, so I suspect that I could have wrung out around 80 points per turn if I had milked for score rather than culture. Some crude math suggests that the max score for this map is in the neighborhood of 25,000 points, so I will be interested to see how many points it takes to claim the cow in this game.
I completed the 100,000 cultural victory in 1550 AD with a Firaxis score of 8321. Jason was a bit lower, so I suspect the best date for the civ-wide cultural victory is somewhere in the 1300's.
Overall, this game was a real challenge until the AI crumbled science-wise during the IA.
One Final Question
Although I played from the Predator save, the confirmation screen after my submission indicated I played Open class. Is this typical?
And finally, I'll close with a montage of mini-maps. That Indian city in the middle of my territory never flipped to me, but two Indian towns closer to their capital did flip over to my side.
My first post, so hi all.
This is my second GOTM, and my first stab at predator class (although I have a question for the staff about that at the bottom of this post).
Ancient Age
I moved the settler 2N before founding, and could work both wines and the forest game after the borders expanded - good enough. All of my AA research was conducted at the lowest possible rate (or single scientist when I could afford the specialist). I started a 40-turn gambit on writing and actually completed it while it still had some trade value. All other techs were purchased outright or brokered among the known civs. Most of my purchases were from India and China.
My exploration only resulted in my meeting China and India before I broke down and paid India for contact with Spain in 1750 BC. I had nothing useful to offer the Spanish, so I purchased another contact (Egypt) from India in 1475 BC. Egypt was lagging a bit, so I eventually was able to trade for all contacts and broker several techs this turn. In 1250 BC, 5 civs (India, China, Ottomans, Arabs, Egypt) all entered the Middle Ages. I finally could afford to broker my way into the Middle Ages in 1125 BC.
Middle Ages
I drew Monotheism as my free tech (of course) and immediately sold it to India for Literature, world map, 346 gold and 4 GPT. The barb uprising was not a problem - only 1 horseman approached my territory. I think India took the brunt of the barb attacks.
At 1000 BC I had 6 towns, 2 completed settlers, and my military consisted of 9 warriors and 9 hoplites. I had all AA techs except Republic and Monarchy, plus Monotheism from the Middle Ages.
I had started a 40-turn gambit on Republic back in 1375 BC, but finally broke down and picked it up in a trade from Rome in 775 BC. I had to trade 4 AA techs plus my WM and some gold for Republic, but I was fortunate that Rome had fallen behind in the tech race (a consequence of the fact that they had been busy whacking Korea down to one city). I immediately sold Republic to 5 other civs for about 300 gold. I also founded Argos in the southern cow site in 775 BC, and eventually would jump my palace there. I did not revolt until 690 BC (after finishing a couple of settlers) and drew a 4-turn anarchy, so I was a Republic in 610 BC.
France declared war on India in 630 BC, and I would eventually use this war to drop the price of several Middle Ages techs (by signing MAs as part of the deals). This worked out beautifully, as France completed the Great Wall in Paris and held out for eons against all of the other civs. China also graciously provided me horses for most of the age in exchange for wines and some GPT.
I completed the Forbidden Palace in Corinth (west of the capital near the Chinese border) in 90 BC. At the time, I was planning on taking some Chinese territory to serve as my second core. However, China triggered their GA in the early middle ages and had a huge military before that plan could ever materialize. In effect, I played most of the game with only 1.5 cores.
I finally got iron hooked up in 150 AD, after having to build a road all the way from the southern edge of the continent. I upgraded my warriors to swords to provide at least some semblance of a military, and then unhooked it to start building horsemen.
I abandoned Athens in 310 AD and took the free palace jump to Argos (cow town). I also completed a 40-turn gambit on Printing Press in 310 AD (got it at monopoly) and managed to trade it around for Chemistry, Navigation and Physics as well as GPT. In 370 AD, I brokered my way into the Industrial Age.
Industrial Age
My approach to the IA was a bit unorthodox for me. I had been planning for a relatively "peaceful" victory condition for a while since China, India and the Arabs were military powerhouses throughout the middle ages. I decided to trade Nationalism (free tech) immediately to those three civs, and netted a total of 447 GPT and 840 gold. My research rate was hideous at this point due to a combination of low population, lots of jungle between my palace and FP, and sub-optimal FP placement. Even at 100% science, it would take me 14 turns to complete Steam Power at the start of the age, so I shut off science until 480 AD and focused on building population and rushing universities.
When I resumed research, I assumed that the other civs would prioritize Steam Power and complete it for me, so I decided to study Medicine. I completed it in 560 AD, and the other civs still had not completed SP. They were busy picking up optional techs from the middle ages, so I shut off research again to wait for Steam Power.
Although I was planning on a peaceful victory condition, I saw no reason to allow the laggards to stay in the game. I wanted to claim some needed resources and territory to increase score, so I started looking for victims.
Spain was weak at this point and also had horses in Seville (a coastal city with a harbor) and the Pyramids in Madrid. I DOW on Spain honorably in 550 AD, landed 6 knights and 18 horsemen, and claimed Seville (keeping the harbor intact) the next turn. The Ottomans hooked up a second source of saltpeter in 570 AD, and I traded Democracy to them for it. I rushed a barracks in Seville in 580 AD, and then upgraded my invasion force to cavalry. I used this relatively small force to methodically eliminate Spain in 650 AD, France in 740 AD (they had been at constant war since 630 BC), and Egypt in 810 AD. I also took out Korea's only city in 770 AD, primarily just to drop the price of techs a little more.
Meanwhile, China finally completed Steam Power in 650 AD. I stubbornly refused to research it myself all of this time, thinking that surely one of the strong AI would do it for me. I had even studied Sanitation myself while I was waiting, and traded Sanitation and a little gold for Steam Power in 650 AD. I then studied Electricity (7 turns), Scientific Method (5 turns) and Atomic Theory (8 turns) while waiting for the AI to study Industrialization (which India finally completed in 850 AD). I then studied the Corporation (4 turns) and completed it on the turn that I completed Theory of Evolution (880 AD). I took Electronics and Radio as my free techs, and then studied Refining (6 turns), Steel (5 turns), Combustion (4 turns), Mass Production (4 turns), Motorized Transportation (4 turns), and Flight (4 turns). Fortunately, the AI studied Replaceable Parts for me in 950 AD. I also completed a pre-build for Hoover in 1130 AD. My research in the late IA was pushed along by my GA, which I will explain in a moment.
The Arabs (who were relatively huge) demanded coal in 740 AD, and I caved in because I suspected they could take most of my lightly-defended Spanish territory. Then the idiots declared war anyway and captured a couple of my towns. No matter - I could draft rifles in most of my remaining Spanish colonies and held out fairly well until the cavalry could return from the front. I signed all of my friends up to MAs against the Arabs and took my time conquering them.
I was counting on triggering my GA with a hoplite defensive victory against an Arab archer or longbowman, and was leaving several hoplites positioned on hills around Arab cities. Unfortunately, they refused to attack! In an act of utter desperation in 980 AD, I used hoplites to attack wounded rifles in size-12 Damascus and managed to trigger my GA when a hoplite defeated a red-lined rifleman. This attack also reduced the Arabs to a single city on the southern one-tile island, so I signed a peace treaty with them and they were quiet for the rest of the game.
I decided to kill off the Romans to reduce the number of tribes to an odd number (still thinking about a Diplomatic victory at this point), and declared war on them in 1050 AD. I signed up China, India and the Ottomans to MAs against Rome - primarily just to keep the other civs occupied. I took my time with this war as well, and actually waited around for tanks to complete their demise. I eliminated the Romans in 1180 AD.
Leaders - I built and army with the first and rushed Universal Suffrage in 840 AD with the second. War weariness was never really problem even with all of my war-mongering. I only had to bump the lux tax to 10% for a couple of turns during the IA. I rushed Smith's with a third leader in 1050 AD.
Modern Age
I entered the Modern Age in 1150 AD, drew Rocketry as the free tech (of course), and then decided to check the spoiler thread to see if others had completed fast Diplomatic and Space victories. As I suspected, I had gotten too bogged down in the early IA.
I considered my options and ultimately decided to go for a cultural victory. I had about 18,000 culture in 1150 AD and it was growing at less than 400 per turn, but I could ramp that up quickly with some planning.
My new plan was to research Fission (I had timed a UN pre-build that could not wait), Computers, Miniaturization (build the Internet), Ecology and Synthetic Fibers (upgrade tanks to modern armor). I stopped war-mongering after eliminating the Romans in 1180 AD and focused on completing this tech path, rushing cultural improvements, and building a load of tanks.
I completed Fission and the UN in 1210 AD and buried the vote, completed the Internet in 1325 AD, and completed research on Synthetic Fibers in 1365 AD. I upgraded 64 tanks to modern armor in 1365 AD, DOW on India immediately and took them out in one turn (killing 44 infantry and an equal number of outdated units). I didn't use ROP abuse on India, but did sign a ROP agreement with China in the middle of this turn to provide access to all of India's cities. I did use ROP against China in 1395 AD and took all of their cities in one turn as well. I killed 63 infantry and about 20 rifles and militia in this single turn, and I never built or used artillery the entire game. All I can say is modern armor versus infantry is a cakewalk. I generated 2 more GLs this turn, and rushed Seti and Battlefield Medicine with them.
Easter Egg note: My fifth and final GL was named Aeson!
Other than the Arabs - who were relegated to Alcatraz, that left only the Ottomans. I declared war on them in 1410 and eliminated them in 2 turns (only because they lacked coal and never built a rail system for my armor).
The rest of the game was an exercise in ICSing and disbanding virtually all of my military as well as drafting and disbanding mechanized infantry to rush cultural improvements in corrupt cities. I had conquered a number of size-25 plus cities in India and China, so I rushed settlers like crazy from these towns until they were below size 10 and then micromanaged them to not grow above size 12 (it's too bad you can't sell off hospitals). I got bored with ICSing when I had 173 cities crammed in safely under the domination limit (BTW - Thank You Dianthus!) and drafted about 500 mech infantry to disband in cities. This was pure drudgery, so I have gained a great deal of respect for the professional milkers from this exercise.
My culture growth improved quite nicely:
Date Culture CPT
1190 AD 20019 380
1380 AD 40227 936
1455 AD 60220 1860
1505 AD 81375 2193
I stopped rushing cultural improvements in 1490 AD and rushed marketplaces for the last dozen turns just to increase score. My score was increasing by 58 per turn at the end, so I suspect that I could have wrung out around 80 points per turn if I had milked for score rather than culture. Some crude math suggests that the max score for this map is in the neighborhood of 25,000 points, so I will be interested to see how many points it takes to claim the cow in this game.
I completed the 100,000 cultural victory in 1550 AD with a Firaxis score of 8321. Jason was a bit lower, so I suspect the best date for the civ-wide cultural victory is somewhere in the 1300's.
Overall, this game was a real challenge until the AI crumbled science-wise during the IA.
One Final Question
Although I played from the Predator save, the confirmation screen after my submission indicated I played Open class. Is this typical?
And finally, I'll close with a montage of mini-maps. That Indian city in the middle of my territory never flipped to me, but two Indian towns closer to their capital did flip over to my side.
on your GOTM33!! 
. I congratulate all players who successfully ended this game, it wasn't easy
. Before 430AD I captured China, India, Rome, Egipt and was ready to war with France and Korea (~60 Knight).
