Conquest 03: Final Spoiler

[EsatP]

It is nonuderstanding games.
1. I have too many leaders 14(!!!).
2. I have 6-7 canon, but in F3 I see canon (0)
3. Cruiser kill without problem every units.

Result - domination 1355. No entering in indastrial era. cities build only attack units and library.

 

[Jansku]

The year is 1826. A spaceship has just been launched, with the Byzantines' flag waving on top of it.

Firaxis score: 4030
Jason score: 3992

The highlights briefly:

Ancient Times

This is how far the Byzantines got before confronting the Indians:


The Indians declared war and took Sardica. I started building horsemen, and with the help of the Indians (ab. 100gpt for engineering), managed to gather 32 knights at the choke point after learning chivalry.

Middle Ages

I attacked and captured 3 cities, including Delhi. The war elephants were too tough (and too numerous) and my knights were slaughtered. After Delhi had flipped twice and I was running out of knights, I decided to raze it and make peace, despite that it had four great wonders


After the war I quickly switched to Republic. I was lucky to get 4 techs from the great library, because I had been left behind in tech when I stayed in despotism for maybe too long. What's more, I had also totally forgotten to trade lux with others civs, or at least raise my lux slider when war weariness started to rise

Industrial Age

I tried to research military tradition as quickly as possible, but the Indians (who had been the top civ before I had attacked them) had already gotten riflemen. I attacked with 40 cavalry and took 6 cities, but then they got infantry and my attack was stopped again. This is the situation before my cavalry attack:


I got coal by bribing the Netherlands into industrial age and exchanging a tech for coal. Built lots of workers to finish the rail network in 20 turns.

My plan was to build artillery&cavalry to defeat the Indians or to attack the Netherlands. But it was too late: the Netherlands was quickly crushed by the other civs and the global research went too fast and I had to postpone the war to the tank-era.

Modern Times

When I researched motorized transportation, I managed to trade myself into modern times, and I had the tech lead together with Persia . Carthage and Ottomans were the strongest civs, Persia being third. I researched computers (I always do that when I enter modern times - the research labs pay off very quickly) and soon I got synthetic fibers.

There was aluminum in India close to my border, so I took one city with ordinary tanks and then upgraded them to modern armor. The weakened India only had TOW infantry and cavalry.

Immediately after India was conquered, I transported the armors to Ottomans (former Russia), as they didn't have mech infantry just yet. They got crushed, and there were three civs left: Byzantines, Carthage and Persia. Carthage and Byzantine were equally powerful, Persia lagging a bit behind. The three civs were almost equal in tech, with Byzantine and Persia having a slight lead.

My plan was to maintain peace and to build the spaceship, while Carthage and Persia were fighting, and it worked out . Just in case the others would reach the last spaceship tech (robotics), I had 30 modern armors near the Carthage's only aluminum resource and had a few ICBMs ready to blow up all the aluminum resources on the map



I noticed that in the final part of the game, Carthage had drafted lots of people from its core cities, during the war against Persia. Why?? Maybe because its main continent was connected to the Scandinavian peninsula, and it was trying to bring as many troops to the border as possible..

 

[FrankTheMan]

Well, this has certainly been both the most difficult (up to now) and therefor on of the most challenging GOTMs I've participated in!

During the AA I could get by technologywise through early exploring and trading, but I completely lost the tech race afterwards. Certainly something I have to improve on. At a certain point I decided I was so far behind, I could only catch up through the GL. Of course, this was inconveniantly built by the Russians in Moscow....

At that point I progressed in science just up to the point that I could only study Education, after which I set 90 percent to income and 10 percent to happiness to get some WLTK days going. It was a time of short wars with India (and Netherlands at some time). I really had to resist demanding Education in peace deals, since I easily could have gotten it. I was falling further behind rapidly.

With some carefully crafted alliances I could slowly cut through the Indian mainland all the way to the west, jumping my capital to the middle of the Indian subcontinent to create a very good core.

After building first infrastructure and then military, I was ready to try to snatch Moscow out of the Russian hands. However, they had a MP treaty with mighty Carthage, who in turn were MP'ed with Persia and Netherlands....

Time for some inelagant moves. I bought a MP with Carthage myself and then got Cathy furious by some ridiculous demands. Afterwards, I told her to get her guerrilla's (who had been helping me to cut through the Indians) off my lands. As I had hoped she declared, which led to declaration by Carthage on Russia!

I also got the Ottomans to join and launched my dromons loaded with cavalry and cannons to land near Moscow. When I got enough firepower there, Moscow easily fell and my hopes were answered. In one sweep I was at par again with the rest of the world (all the way up to flight/combustion/replaceable parts/electronics). For some unknown reason Music Theory was not delivered, while clearly everybody already knew it.

Having barely survived up to now, I never even dared to think about victory conditions. But now I felt confident that diplomatic was within reach if only I could get UN first. Russia and India were all but finished, Carthage would be my opponent, and at least Ottomans, but probably also Persia would vote for me. i did have a clash with Netherlands before, so I was very uncertain about William.

I slided into the modern age, but got ecology. Persia got fission and soon after smashed my hopes by building UN. Now I will either have to conquer Persia, thus smashing my chance for a diplo victory or find some other victory condition...

It's now 1700 AD, and given the speed of Persia scientifically and Carthage still ahead in victory score, this is still very much in the open. This may well end up in my first GOTM loss after all...

 

[Roland Ehnström]

I have 6-7 canon, but in F3 I see canon (0)

Then all your cannons are captured from some other civilization. You can see them in the box at the bottom, next to your captured slaves.

-- Roland

 

[Kuningas]

predator

Does anybody know, what triggers AI to attack healthy armies?

I feel quite secured in 950AD. Two cavalry armies are blocking the choke. In IBT Ottomans sneak attack us and kill 13/13 hp cavalry army with 4/4 hp Tank. Advance can be seen on the bottom screenshot.

 

[bradleyfeanor]

Does anybody know, what triggers AI to attack healthy armies?

I have had tanks attack cavalry armies before, in almost exactly the same situation as shown in your screenshot. I don't know if it is because the AI programming considers tanks to be strong enough to attack a cav army, or if it is because the AI was blocked and the only way to my cities was through my cav armies. Unfortunately, the attack came shortly after the AI got Mot. Trans., so I am not sure which of the two was the reason.

PS: If you are going for space, I may be in trouble again! I see you are researching flight, and I didn't get it until after 1000AD.

 

[bob rulz]

Then all your cannons are captured from some other civilization. You can see them in the box at the bottom, next to your captured slaves.

-- Roland

Are you sure? I once had a spy with someone and it said they had workers (0) but I could see them clearing up pollution near my border.

 

[Civgeek]

I have had tanks attack cavalry armies before, in almost exactly the same situation as shown in your screenshot. I don't know if it is because the AI programming considers tanks to be strong enough to attack a cav army, or if it is because the AI was blocked and the only way to my cities was through my cav armies.

I think it is the 1st (AI thinks tanks are strong enough to attack cavalry armies). I had several cav armies atacked "in the open" during the game. The AI also seemed to have no concerns about bombing the c! out of my healthy cav armies. It was quite annoying. Almost smart on the AIs part.

 

[Roland Ehnström]

Are you sure? I once had a spy with someone and it said they had workers (0) but I could see them clearing up pollution near my border.

Yep, captured units (workers or artillery) do not show up in the F3 list, except in the box at the bottom. It's because you do not pay maintaince-costs for captured units. In your case, the other civilization really didn't have any workers of their own origin - the workers you saw were slaves they had captured from some other civilization.

-- Roland

 

[SniperDevil]

I have suffered my 3rd straight COTM loss

Although i thought i did pretty good considering the difficulty level.

I suffered a conquest defeat in 1475 AD

Technology: This was by far the best game i have ever had with technology. I reached the Modern Age in 1450 AD!! Think of how much faster that will be once i start playing on difficulty levels that i can compete in.

Conquest Loss: I lost to the Indians in the end. The Carthaginians were the main power in this game and i had an MPP with them. They had saved me a bunch of times but they ended up being the death of me.
Around 1450 a world war broke out. India, Russia, Persia, and the Dutch VERSES me, Carthage, and the Ottomans. Now because of my MPP i was forced to go to war with India. They stormed through my brders with modern armor and TOW infantry and i tried to defend with cavalry and rifleman, but it did not work.

Thank you Ainwood for a nice experience. This was my first conquest loss ever

FireAxis score 1115.
Jason score 450.

 

[Megalou]

It is nonuderstanding games.
1. I have too many leaders 14(!!!).
2. I have 6-7 canon, but in F3 I see canon (0)
3. Cruiser kill without problem every units.

Result - domination 1355. No entering in indastrial era. cities build only attack units and library.

Could "canon (0)" mean that all your cannons were captured from other nations? They can only be seen in the captured units box.

Nice result!

 

[Megalou]

Link to penultimate spoiler
I'd give myself a B- on this game, whereas GOTM33 was a B+. After the devastating flip in the middle ages, I focused on science instead of conquests. I was thinking space race, knowing that it is exciting to do it on archipelago maps, probably even more so when the map has been modded by ainwood. But lack of time made it clear that diplomatic was the right thing.

High points:
* Alliances with everyone against India in 880 AD delayed their knowledge of replaceable parts just long enough for me to capture all their territory.
* Beating the Indians with only 10-15 cavalries, 6 infantries, 3 ancient cavalries and stolen bombardment units.
* Seeing that the courthouse of Dehli kept the city from flipping back to those fascist b------s. (The winner writes the historybooks...they started it in 3000 BC or so... ) Eventually Dehli produced around 35 beakers.
* The micromangement of Constantinople gave me a neat 3-5 settler factory. I'm getting the hang of that, even predicting the free shields at size 5.

Low points:
* Ridiculous flip in 310 AD. If I had just founded a town 2 tiles away from Dehli to store my troops, it would not have mattered.
* Mistiming the UN by five turns. Because of unhappiness I could not join workers to speed it up. I generally build too few marketplaces. After learning Fission (traded from Ottomans), I could still have saved 1 turn by upping luxury, but just forgot about it. So please don't beat me by a small margin . I had enough of that in GOTM33.

Diplo victory in 12xx.
Jason score 7870.

That's it for me, I'm signing off for a while. If a deity game shows up I may borrow the discs back from the guy I'm lending them too. Till then, have fun. Thanks for all the great efforts from both the staff and the players!

 

[v0iDDr0iD]

Technology: This was by far the best game i have ever had with technology. I reached the Modern Age in 1450 AD!! Think of how much faster that will be once i start playing on difficulty levels that i can compete in.

Actually, you're probably researching faster because the AI contributes more to the tech-pace.. don't expect to reach modern ages before 1450 in your next regent game

 

[predesad]

I wont be submitting my game because i made a near fatal mistake in the late middle ages. I refuse to play beyond that point on this difficulty level, but sometime in the futuree i think i will replay from an earlier save.

What happened was this:

at gunpowder i mass upgraded pikes to muskets then traded away my saltpeter resource for an enormous amount of gpt, i think to russia, but it has been awhile. none of my min research attmepts worked, some AI always researched whatever i was going after first, even music theory and i was seriously behind in tech, but not overly worried.

i was planning a war with india and was planning my attack. i was going to take india's saltpeter resource on the island to the south and had an invasion force ready, so when the previous deal w/ the other AI (russia?) expired i renewed it though for not quite so much gpt but still quite a bit. i felt i had a real good plan to get the saltpeter from that island at the very beginning of the war anyway.

meanwhile, all of my ancient cavalry were scouting out india territory. i wanted to get some muskets to key locations and do a mass pillage right after the ROP expired and at the same time launch an attack on the saltpeter island, was going to plant one unit on the resource so i could pillage it on the same turn i declared war.

the problem: india declared war on me in the middle of the rop, sending cavalry at my choke city, which had not been built on the hill, but foolishly on the grassland below the hill, what was i thinking. i still won more battles than i lost, but this initial invasion kept me from getting to the island for the saltpeter as i had to deal with cavalry / med inf / and musket SoD that never seemed to stop. plus, on the same turn they declared war on me they took out all of my ancient cavalry in their territory, which was all my ancient cavalry.

basically i made 3 mistakes, one of which i cannot really fix without going way back in the saves or making a big sacrifice in wasted time, that being founding my choke city on the grass instead of the hill. the other two mistakes, trading the saltpeter to russia when i was preparing to go to war and keeping too many valuable untis (ancient cavalry) spread out in their territory, i have learned from. i might replay form earlier not just to correct these mistakes, but because i woiuld like to know how well i would have done if i had not made those mistakes.

 

[eldar]

Eek. Spaceship loss to India in 1685.

After making it through the Ancient age unscathed, and level-ish in tech, I fell behind the pace. Though I'd built the SoZ for the ACs, they only helped me capture a few Dutch cities in that dogpile. After that, the Indians DoW'd me in 800AD or so, and I could only watch as their Cavalry walked all over my cities. Then the Vikings joined in the fun, taking a couple of cities.

I brokered peace for cities from both, and ended up with just two cities, waiting for whatever win to come along. I outlasted the Dutch, Vikings, and Russians. The end was a series of world wars, with India the inevitable aggressor. They had over 100K culture, I guess one of the others must've been over half - would've been over sooner otherwise.

Biggest mistake: not colonising the entire peninsula once it became clear I could, and not using my Dromons to colonise nearby islands and coasts. Once the other Civs knew each other, my use as a tech broker was gone, and so was I.

The final score:
Game: COTM 03
Date submitted: 2004-08-23
Reference number: 4746
Your name: eldar
Your email: spam.this@nothankyou.com
Software Version: C3C 1.22f for Windows
Entry class: open
Game status: Spaceship Loss to India
Game date: 1685 AD
Firaxis score: 663
Jason score: 344
Time played: 09:21:14
Submitted save: COTM03_T328_1685AD.SAV
Renamed file: eldar_COTM003_C3C122_01.SAV

Neil.

 

[DaveMcW]

Open

Spoiler 1: 4000BC to 530BC
Spoiler 2: 530BC to 660AD

Continuing my quest for 20k culture in Adrianople....

I got the three industrial wonders easily. And my constant warring gave me enough leaders to rush the Pentagon, Wall Street, and Intelligence Agency when they became available. This left about 20 turns to build (and rush) armies in Adrianople before I started on the modern wonders.

The Indians were eliminated in 1040AD.
The Dutch were eliminated in 1240AD.
The Vikings were eliminated in 1270AD.
The Carthaginian war began in 1270AD.

Also in 1270AD, I bought Flight from the Ottomans and entered the modern age. I have Fission, the Ottomans and Persians have Fission and Ecology, and Carthage has Mass Production. Adrianople is up to 101 cpt, 9674 total culture.

Now that I've read and posted in this spoiler thread, I'm back to playing the game. Ideally I will milk the game until my cultural victory, but lack of time and patience may force me to end it quickly.

Spoiler 4: 1270AD to 1675AD

 

[Peglegasus]

Conquest class

So in 580 AD I am in the industrial age and find myself in quite a similar situation as I was in the only other GOTM I've completed; GOTM 31, my first.
GOTM 31 final spoiler

I have no coal, a very small territory, no military to speak of... I've decided after my unsuccessful war with India that I will attempt a diplomatic victory just like in GOTM31. That game really helped me learn good trading. Cash flow will be the most important factor in my game so the most important improvements will be banks and stock exchanges. One thing that's really funny is that I notice a couple Russian horsemen on India's 2 tile island. Russia dropped them there when they were at war back in the early middle ages!


Immediately following Byzantine's entry into the industrial age the wonder cascade begins. Bach's in Istanbul, Smith's in Madras, Newton's in Persepolis, leaving us Magellan's in Adrianople- completed in 610AD. We begin trying desperately to get coal. There are two sources in Russian lands but they aren't hooked up so we can't trade for it. My other goal is to try and get India to feel a little better about us. Ghandi, it turns out, will remain furious with us for all but about 20 turns. We trade all around for as many luxuries as we can get, gift techs to the Dutch and the Vikings, and gift small amounts of gpt to anyone annoyed with us to try and get them polite. This works phenomenally with Carthage. Hannibal will be gracious to us basically the remainder of the game.

About that coal on the little island: I used a worker to plant a colony on it. I knew it wouldn't let me use it that way. I was hoping for one of those "the source of (resource) has been exhausted" messages because it seems the resource always respawns not too far away. Was a longshot, I knew, but I had to try something.

We make it to industrialization first in 710AD! I was surprised, actually. We use it to get caught up in most techs and acquire over 1000 gold plus about 112 gpt. We GIFT industrialization to Ghandi and he's still furious. Cash rush factories in Adrianople and Constantinople. In 780AD we complete the Forbidden Palace in Lahore. There's no way the cities down here are going to flip now! At least that's my hope.

Research Corporation in 780AD! Another 113gpt +700 or so coins and our research gets pumped way up. Entertainment slider stays at 0% for almost all the industrial age because of all the luxuries we are able to trade for. Somewhere around this time I get frustrated waiting for Russia to hook up the coal, so I find a creative way to get some. One of the coal deposits is on an island Russia shares with the Ottomans, and the coal is right on the edge of Russian culture. I hurriedly get 2 workers, a settler, and a knight over there via galleon.


The Russian workers were kind enough to road it and clear the jungle for me! Something that surprised me was that I was able to build coal plants and start railroading without putting a harbor in the new city.

Steel in 900AD. Able to get electricity, nationalism, sanitation, 40gpt and some change. Russia has replaceable parts. We gift a bunch of techs to the Netherlands and Vikings, and India destroys the Vikings in 930AD. India asks for an MPP +ROP with us in 960AD. Ghandi is still furious. I feel like I need to do something or else Ghandi is just going to squish me like a bug. We agree to the MPP and give some gpt. I don't want his troops all over my land. Delhi completes Universal Suffrage the next turn. Our build in Adrianople switches to Palace.

In 980AD Russia starts getting uppity. They demand 29 gold +map. Sure Cathy, here ya go. And take this 5gpt gift too. She is polite now. She gets Scientific Method 1 turn before us. We go ahead and finish our research on it and in 1000AD switch Adrianople to Theory of Evolution in 6 turns. I think about selling it around because it's doubtful anyone can finish it faster than 6 turns. But I don't. Ottomans demand it IBT and we give. Then I decide to sell since I already gave it away and I accidentally gift it to Persia! Doh! ToE is complete in 1040AD and we jump ahead to Atomic Theory and Electronics. Adrianople will complete the Hoover dam in 15 turns. Atomic Theory nets us Replaceable Parts, Refining, Communism, Gems, Rubber, 110gpt and some change. Ottomans are now gracious too.

Now if I continue like this my post will be waaaay long so I'll try to sum up more. The AI aggression is crazy in this game. I renew my MPP with India after it expires and that sends me to war later. There are wars breaking out all over the place constantly. 2 civs will be allied against a third for a while, then the 2 allies will go to war against each other... madness! In the end though I hope this will help my UN chances. We complete the Hoover Dam, Wall Street, Intelligence Agency. We fall behind on tech eventually with India becoming the leader. Russia goes and researches ironclads with only 3 techs left in the IA!

In 1270 my MPP with India bites me. India and Carthage ally against the Ottomans. We are forced to declare, losing wines and rubber. The Ottomans capture Smolensk on our littel coal island. I have cash rushed infantry over there but not nearly enough of them. Our little outpost is taken quickly, along with our coal. Luckily I have already railroaded everything in our territory. Then Persia joins the alliance against us which means we lose dyes and incense too. ALL our cities riot. Ghandi soon after dclares on the Dutch, too! Complete chaos! The only good thing that comes out of all this is that Ghandi is now only annoyed with us. Yeah! As soon as our MPP is over we do not renew. Ghandi goes back to furious.

I'm careful not to attack any other civs we are at war with. I want peace as soon as possible and get back to trading and preparing them for the UN vote. I build some ships and some infantry as defenders but no REAL military force. The world ends up having a couple turns of peace and then my worst fear is realized: Ghandi declares on us! He even gets Cathy to join him. I start drafting riflemen (no rubber for infantry!) and building artillery (no oil for tanks!). I immediately regret not building Caesarea on the hill on the land bridge so I send workers to build a fortress on it and then barricade it. Ghandi's invasion force moves in... infantry and guerillas? Flak guns? Crusaders?!?! Holy cow! Ghandi doesn't have oil either! I use artillery to bambard his units and cavalry to swoop in and finish them off. We lose 1 infantry total and they lose 2 Flak guns (I don't even have flight yet!) and about a half dozen infantry and guerillas. The only real damage done is Chalcedon gets bombed repeatedly and I have to rebuild the temple, library, etc there. They do some pillaging though which is annoying because I can't rebuild the railroads. Ghandi realizes his attack isn't going to accomplish much and calls for peace. What a relief.

Eventually we all enter the modern age. I use the "big picture method" but no one will trade their techs. No one gets fission. We get ecology. Russia gets computers. Persia ecology. India quickly researches rocketry. Our military plans get stolen a couple times and this makes me real nervous. We trade for some oil and rubber and roll out tanks. India again starts moving forces into our land, a goofy mix of infantry, guerillas, marines and longbows. As I close in on fission I start running into money problems. All those gpt deals from the late IA start expiring. I end up having to disband units, join workers to cities, switch cities to wealth, etc to maintain the tech pace.

Wars are still breaking out all over the place. India and Carthage ally against Persia, which makes the Indian forces leave our land. I breathe a little easier. India tries to drag me into it. No way, man! We're sooo close to fission and the UN. Russia goes to war with India! I forgot about the Russian horsemen by Chittagong! So 2 ancient age units attack a modern age city. They are redlined and retreat, then suicide onto the city the next turn.


With 1 turn left on fission, we get word that India is building the UN. I panic for a sec but then check F7 and start to laugh! India is building the UN in Chittagong! It's a freakin' 2 tile island, and the one open tile hasn't even been roaded because the Russian horsemen have been sitting on it for 2000 years! Too much! We get fission and switch to UN in Constantinople. Was originally going to build in Adrianople but by switching some citizens around and altering some terrain Constantinople can finish a couple turns faster. Research goes to 0% and the gifts start flowing from the Byzantine empire. My military plans are stolen again. Makes me nervous. I haven't put spies anywhere because I didn't want to piss anyone off.

Russia asks for an MPP. They are at war with the Ottomans, Carthage, and India. No thank you, Cathy. We are trying to stop all this madness. We agree to ROP instead. Then I notice that Cathy only has 3 cities left! I want Cathy around for the UN vote. I've been buttering her up since about 400BC. After a bit of thought, I surround Sardica with infantry and ships and then gift it to her.

Carthage very quickly moves ships over and lands tanks in our land but can't reach it. They promptly bomb it from size 10 down to size 1. I highly doubt Carthage will attack me to get to it. They've been gracious towards us since the end of the MA. We shower gifts on everyone.

The UN is complete in 1550 and we hold the election. The interesting thing is there are only 2 candidates: Osman and myself!


Just for kicks I investigate Chittagong... 177 turns left

My territory at end game:



Was a fun game. I almost didn't continue after the Middle Ages because I thought it might be boring just sitting there trying to get the UN win, but it turned out to be fairly exciting with all the wars going on. I also thought about quitting because I really didn't think I could keep up with the tech pace, but it turned out to really not be a problem even for my small country.
One thing interesting I noticed was that everyone except me and the Netherlands were in Fascism the whole time, even at the end. I think this helped me a lot. I had the most cash flow probably and when they offered big gpt deals for tech I'm sure that slowed their research a bit. The Dutch were in Republic but really weren't doing much. I basically gave them every tech from the MA onward.

 

[grs]

OPEN

ancient age 4000BC - 590BC

I didn't have time to write a middle age spoiler, so I'll try to sum it up in this final one.

1st Indian war (430BC - 110AD):

430BC


110AD - captured 6 cities, razed and replaced 2 and got 1 for peace (+Invention and some gold); Dehli got the forbidden palace from the 2nd of my only two MGL; the first formed a med.inf. army


2nd Indian war (560AD - 660AD):

560AD


660AD - India is destroyed - Hyderabad flipped from me twice in a row ("freeing" me of many ACs healing there)


I entered the industrial age somewhere in between. I got nationalism, the Russians and Ottomans (my trading partners) the other two techs.

I built harbours, libraries, courts, unis, banks and researched the middle path (to combustion). The AIs reseached the optional techs and some of the lower branch. Delhi got a factory and a power plant. I took a gamble with timing a UN prebuild 1 turn after entering the modern age, hoping for me or at least one AI getting fission. I entered the modern age in 1150AD. Gifted all AI to it and none got fission ... I pressed <enter> and ended up with fission, switched the prebuild and finished the game in 1160AD with a 5:2 vote vs. Hannibal.

The GOTM submission form told me:

Game status: Diplomatic Victory for Byzantines
Game date: 1160 AD
Firaxis score: 7433
Jason score: 8510
Time played: 22:53:17

Some remarks.

I got my coal from this island (Septum was settled on it and Zwolle flipped to me). It also held a second oil source.


I formed no alliances and had no more wars. I did no dogpiling to win the UN, just gifted everyone a tech or two and made ROP agreements.

@ainwood: was this a huge map again? I needed more cities than I calculated to get a 1.000 shield palace (I thought/read it will cost 1.000 shields at OCN, but I needed more cities).

Besides me winning this game, I don't think this was an easy demi-god game. Sure it is easier than taking the first random map you take, but I don't like India as neighbour, because a) they are always a cultural giant b) you can't stop them from building elephants once they know chivalry. Pillaging is of very limited use against them. I consider myself very lucky with getting coal "cheaper" than it was designed; i.e. I did not have to war for it. The guaranteed SoZ was a big help!

It was a very interesting game - with a nice large enough island for a fast UN win this time, but without coal again. Thanks for the game and please give us some coal next time

 

[Denniz]

ALL our cities riot.

There is a trick I use to avoid multiple cities rioting like that. I zoom to the first city when the message pops up (you have to have that turned on, of course). I fix that city and use the next button to step through all my cities and fix them before I go back to the main screen. Since the other cities haven't been processed yet they do not riot.

 

[Gyathaar]

This was my first GOTM, and since I started the 27th, I decided to play a OOC to save time

moved sw so I would be on sea and betting on that I would have more river in workable tiles, and still have the cow in radius. Settling showed the deer aswell.

Was planning to try for a 20k victory.. and ancient agest went great.. a few currags gave me lots of contacts and I was tech leader.. culture allowed me to grab ivory so I could start Zeus uncontested.. later had to buy ivory to produce the ancient cavs.

Ended up with colossus,zeus, mausoleum and great library of the ancient wonders...

Middle ages was bad.. missed out on sun zu, leo and siztine with 1 round due to a castade.. and nothing was available to switch to.. switched to a barrachs I believe. Missed copernicus by 2 turns.. and after that I was hopelessly behind in techs and ended up not getting a single middelage or industrial age wonder..

Due to incredibly lucky tech steals (didnt get caught a single time on neither tech steals or spy planing), followed by 2-3 fers.., I somehow managed to get into modern ages as 2nd civ.. drew fission as free tech.. and started to build UN.

With 1 turn left on UN I still had monopoly on fission, so I gifted fission and other techs.. started RoPs, and a MMp with persia (was stupid.. caused me to go to war with the duych in interturn.. and they had been gratious with me since early middle ages). And all the civs was gracious at that point.

Hit end of turn, held the vote and won diplomatically in 1510AD.

Toughest OOC I have ever played I think.. no recources or lux (except for a few turns in ancient ages), and missing out on all the wonders though 2 full ages.