Conquest 06: Final Spoiler

[ainwood]

This is the final spoiler for Conquest 06: Portugal.

Now is your chance to post the final chapter of your adventures as Henry of the Portuguese.

Did you make the most of your Carracks and rule the seas? Did you pursue victory through conquest or through trade?

 

[Dynamic]

Well, well. I'm waiting for pregame of Cotm7 tomorrow, but we are only starting the 3-d spoiler of Cotm6.
But I'm very interesting to read this spoiler because I totaly haven't experience with IA and ModernA playing.

 

[grs]

I did diplo again, so pretty much uneventfull industrial age.

Just to set a date for the other players going for diplo - though I am pretty much sure I won't win anything with this time. Once I calculated my enddate I was very surprised about the result. I do not know where I lost so much time.

 

[Ambiorix]

I got diplo victory in 1510AD. Main problem was that I couldn't get research down to 4 turns, and that the AI were not capable of contributing any techs other than the optional ones.

Here's a question for the faster diplo/space-racers : do you always try to get research down to 4 turns as a priority ? I mean, it sounds obvious, but take the following example : let's say you can research a tech in 7 turns. You can also sell the previous one to civ X for a certain gpt, reducing your own pace to 5 turns. Chances are that civ X is now bankrupt and cannot do much research anymore. Would it have been better to just gift the tech away and let the AI keep its ability to research (might be in 4 turns, might be in 10 turns, ...).
Maybe the question is too general, but any tips on faster tech pace would be appreciated.

One other remark : I noticed that some civs didn't have railroads. I thought about sending some of my own workers over to railroad the land for them. It was already late in the game when I thought about this, so I didn't bother. Don't know if it would've been possible either. IF possible, would this rank as an exploit ? (I'd call it 'humanitarian aid' ).

 

[socralynnek]

At the beginning of the IA, I was at war with greece but I saw the romans (who just got gunpowder) had coal and I didn't (Spain was too strong), I decided to make peace with greece and attack Rome.
I captured 3 cities and got one in a peace treaty.
I built all IA wonders except Universal Suffrage. Didn't have another war.
Korea and England financed my research with gpt, but when England got fascist and got to war with the Maya, they couldn't help me anymore.
Decided to go for Diplo, since Space would last too long (I was too slow at the beginning, so I didn't have the chance to get a really good score)

When I got to tanks, I could have easily taken over the world, but Diplo would cost me less RL time.

The Mayans destroyed Greece, so one less to convince. Gifted lux etc. to Arabs, Maya and England. I even gifted Rome 100 gpt the turn before I built the UN, but still they voted for Korea...but the others voted for me, so I got a Diplo victory in 1670 AD with a Jason score of 5779.

What I learned from the game:
I should have been more agressive early on. Maybe I should have build up a force to attack Spain when they just built SoZ. After that they were too strong.
I should have considered gifting techs after I decided to go for Diplo or Space (was back in the MA).
In the MA, I could have build more knights to conquer the rest of Greece or the Romans, which were technologically behind. That had given me a better score and coal directly when I had Steam Power (it was about 12 turns after discovering Steam power until I could build RRs)
I got my first army when attacking Rome (in the IA), I should fight an early war at least to get an army (I had a very early war with Spain, but didn't have enough power, should have given in to their 30g demand and fight a war when I am ready)
I really had bad luck (no Suicide curracks were succesful, nothing special from huts, Spain getting Philo first, very strong Korea and Spain), but that's no excuse, I could have done better!


EDIT: Not to forget. Should really have a turnlog. I didn't concentrate enough on the first turns.

 

[grs]

Here's a question for the faster diplo/space-racers : do you always try to get research down to 4 turns as a priority ?

Yes. The AI can't contribute anything at levels below emperor in the industrial ages. Gift the scientific ones to the next age, buy their free techs and that is it.

One other remark : I noticed that some civs didn't have railroads. I thought about sending some of my own workers over to railroad the land for them. It was already late in the game when I thought about this, so I didn't bother. Don't know if it would've been possible either.

You can do that pretty good, if you have ROP. I doubt it is worth it.

IF possible, would this rank as an exploit ? (I'd call it 'humanitarian aid' ).

I would not consider it as an exploit unless you worsen their lands by that. Connecting resources for AI so you can trade for them is a common practices I'd say and what you do is similar at least.

 

[Roland Ehnström]

COTM06_Open, NoAIpatrol=0 (but I never saw any Barbarians).

*** Ancient Times ***

*** Middle Ages ***

*** Industrial Age ***

720 AD - We start researching Steam Power (4 turns, nice!).

730 AD - Our Cavalry take Fustat. And we now have 9 fresh Cavalry positioned outside the Arab capital of Mecca.

740 AD - Mecca falls into our hands, and we have enough Cavalry left to attack and capture Najran in the same turn. These cities have 9 resisters each, however, so we leave them virtually undefended for now.

750 AD - Our troops storm into Medina. This brings us Furs.

760 AD - We capture Damascus. Our scientists discover Steam Power, start Industrialization (4 turns). We have a source of Coal outside Madrid, good.

780 AD - We capture Muscat.

790 AD - Our Cavalry take control of Basra.

800 AD - Our scientists discover Industrialization, start Electricity (4 turns). We capture Kufah and Fez. In the battles we get our first Great Leader, who builds a Cavalry Army.

820 AD - Our Golden Age ends, but we capture Mansura and Khurasan.

840 AD - We capture Anjar, leaving the Arabs with just one city.

850 AD - Damascus flips back to the Arabs but we take it back immediately. Electricity discovered, Medicine started (4 turns).

880 AD - Mecca flips but we take it back. Our Cavalry Army then take Bukhara, and that is the end of the Arab civilization. At this stage we are already preparing for an assault on Korea.

890 AD - Medicine discovered, The Corporation started (4 turns).

920 AD - We sell Literature to the Koreans in exchange for 316 Gold, and then we declare war on them. We move in, and take Seoul (with The Oracle and a source of Incense), Pyongyang (with The Great Lighthouse) and Pyongsong (and their only source of Horses).

930 AD - We discover The Corporation. By running 100% science, we can now get Replaceable Parts in 4 turns. It costs us 154 GPT, but the double-speed workers will be worth it (they are currently laying a railroad network on our main continent). In Korea, we capture Namp'o, Ulsan and Pusan. In the battle for Pusan, we get our second Great Leader, who immediately builds a second Cavalry Army. The Koreans are already down to just four cities.

940 AD - The Romans move a lonely Archer into our land at Brighton on the SE island. We tell them to get their butts out of there ASAP.

950 AD - The Romans attack, but our Ancient Cavalry easily defend itself.

960 AD - We take Cheju, Inch'on and Hyangsan, and get our third Great Leader, who creates our third Cavalry Army.

970 AD - Replaceable Parts discovered, Scientific Method started (4 turns). We have two sources of Rubber within our borders. We take Wonsan, and with that the Koreans are destroyed. The Romans land two Med. Infantry near Leeds - our Ancient Cavalry kill them both. Some Cavalry are currently being shipped to this island, to destroy the Roman settlements on it as revenge.

1000 AD - Said and done: We destroy Caesaraugusta and capture Syracuse.

1010 AD - Our scientists discover Scientific Method and start researching Steel (5 turns). We are now shipping our Cavalry Armies to the SE island, where they will quickly take the Mayan towns, so that we can have the island for ourselves. Then the plan is to send them on to the Mayan mainland, because the Mayans have neither Salpeter nor Horses. We make peace with Rome for Viroconium, a worthless town wedged between England and Rome. It will surely flip to either of them real soon, but until then, it may actually give a me point of two.

1020 AD - We break the bad news to the Mayans, and unload our 2nd Cavalry Army next to Tulúm.

1030 AD - Greece signs a Military Alliance against us with the Mayans, oh well... The 2nd Cavalry Army takes Tulúm.

1040 AD - The 1st Cavalry Army takes Cobá. Emerita completes our first Coal Plant, starts Newton's University.

1050 AD - The 3rd Cavalry Army capture Uaxactún. We now control all of the SE island. The 2nd Cavalry Army establishes a beachhead near Cuello, a Mayan town in the SE corner of the Greek mainland.



1060 AD - We discover Steel and start Refining (trying for 4 turns at a big deficit). We capture Cuello and Piedros Negras.

1070 AD - During battles on Greek soil we get our fourth Great Leader, who goes on to lead the 4th Cavalry Army. It looks like Greece never have had access to Salpeter, and with four Cavalry Armies, their Hoplites should be no problem, so we decide to crush them instead of the Mayans. We just need to remember to let them keep one town at the end, so that we can make use of their scientific ability to gain a free tech at the start of the modern era (only NOW do I realize Korea were in fact also scientific...). We make peace with the Mayans, gaining some Gold, and then give them Physics for 115 GPT. We also sell Physics to the English for 40 GPT.

1080 AD - We capture Mycenae.

1100 AD - Refining discovered, Combustion started (4 turns). We have 4 sources of Oil.

1120 AD - Our troops walk in to Ephesus, Thessalonica and Argos.

1140 AD - Our scientists discover Combustion, start reasearching Mass Production (4 turns). Our armies capture Athens (with Sun Tzu's) and Sparta (with the Sistine Chapel).

1150 AD - Emerita completes Newton's University. Our Cavalry take Delphi (with the Knights Templar) and Termopylae. We then make peace for Pharsalos and Knossos, leaving the Greeks with only Corinth left. We now have 50% of the world area, and plenty of empty land to fill in, so this is probably the end of our offensive warfare in this game (pending cultural flips in Greece). We sell our Barracks (18 in all). To fill in the land, we are sometimes cash-rushing Temples, but mostly hiring Civil Engineers to build them (most of our cash is used up by our greedy scientists in their quest for Space).

1180 AD - We discover Mass Production, start Flight (4 turns).

1220 AD - Flight complete, Motorized Transportation started (4 turns).

1255 AD - Motorized Transportation discovered. By hiring a large number of scientists, we manage to get Atomic Theory down to 4 turns at 100% science.

1275 AD - Atomic Theory complete, start Electronics (4 turns).

1295 AD - We discover Electronics and ENTER THE MODERN TIMES.

*** Modern Times ***

1295 AD - We start researching Rocketry (5 turns). We gift Greece all the way through the Industrial Age to the Modern Times. Their free tech is Computers. We get everyone else to sign Trade Embargos with us against the Greeks, so that they won't be able to trade for all our techs with the Greeks. We give the Mayans and the English Nationalism for in total 240 gold per turn, allowing us to run 100% science at a profit.

1320 AD - We discover Rocketry. Emerita completes Theory of Evolution; We chose Space Flight and Fission as our free techs. We then trade Rocketry and Fission with the Greeks for Computers, bringing our total number of new techs discovered to FOUR in this single turn. We then declare war on the Greeks, and our Cavalry Armies simply wipe them out of the game. This leaves us at war with Rome, who had an MPP with the Greeks. The Mayans are already at war with Rome, and we bribe the English to ally themselves with us against them too. We make sure we have both Aluminium and Uranium within our boarders. We find we have three sources of Aluminium, but only one source of Uranium. We would like to have a second source of Uranium, just to make sure. There is one near the Roman town of Brundusium on the bridge between England and former Greece - we're heading that way. Our scientists are now researching Ecology (5 turns). Our core cities are building Apollo Program, SETI Program, Smith's Trading Company and a bunch of Research Labs.

1325 AD - Guimarães completes Apollo Program. We are only 35 tiles away from Domination now, so we need to start being really careful about the culture.

1335 AD - We abandon undefended Viroconium in the Roman land, for their Legoins had reached it. Instead, we take Brundusium (with the Uranium).

1345 AD - Ecology discovered, Synthetic Fibres started (5 turns).

1355 AD - Luanda completes Smith's Trading Company.

1360 AD - England sign a peace treaty with Rome. So do we.

1365 AD - Barcelona completes SS Docking Bay.

1370 AD - Synthetic Fibres discovered, Superconductor started (5 turns). Coimbra completes SS Cockpit.

1380 AD - Lisbon completes SETI Program.

1395 AD - Superconductor completed, Satellites started (4 turns!). Coimbra completes SS Storage/Supply.

1405 AD - Guimarães completes SS Life Support System.

1415 AD - Satellites completed, Nuclear Power started (5 turns).

1420 AD - Emerita completes SS Engine. Coimbra completes SS Fuel Cells. We sell Industrialization to England and Maya for in total 163 GPT.

1435 AD - Luanda completes SS Exterior Casing.

1440 AD - Nuclear Power completed, The Laser started (4 turns, helped by many specialist scientists).

1450 AD - Lisbon completes SS Thrusters.

1455 AD - Lagos completes Hoover Dam, lowering our pollution.

1460 AD - The Laser discovered, Miniturization started (juuust managed to get it down to 4 turns after some 20 minutes of micromanagement - fittingly enough! ).

1465 AD - Luanda completes SS Planetary Party Lounge.

1480 AD - Miniturization completed, Robotics started (4 turns).

1500 AD - Robotics discovered. Emerita switches from a pre-build to SS Stasis Chamber via "the big picture". WE LAUNCH OUR SPACESHIP FOR ALPHA CENTAURI!

Firaxis score: 5651

Jason score: 8610

Time played: 28 hours, 43 minutes (a couple of hours of which was idle time).

I'm moderately pleased with this game. The débacle at Madrid (Middle Ages) was of course the low point of the game (but on the other hand very fun to play, in a frustrating kind of way). Also, it took way too long before I made contact with the other civs (I dislike suicide Galleys, but it's really the only way - waiting for Astronomy is waiting too long), and even longer before I finally attacked them and started taking some land. This surely cost me some points. I also think I could have made the launch earlier, if I had been 100% commited to a Space Race victory from the very start, for example by researching Writing at maximum rate instead of minimum rate (would have saved around 10 turns, which in the end equals 50 years...) and by meeting Greece and the Koreans earlier and taking advantage of their Scientific trait. Killing the Koreans was pretty stupid, too... This said, I also think I did some things pretty well, and after all 8610 Jason points isn't all that bad for a Space Ship win.

-- Roland

 

[bradleyfeanor]

NoAIPatrol=0

I missed posting in the first two threads, so this will be my only one for this game. It will not be quite as detailed as usual, because the game wasn’t that interesting. I went for my first 100k culture win. From reading all the posts in recent months, I knew it would be a bit difficult to score well against the fast domination or conquest victories, but I thought I would give it a shot. I wanted to keep my Jason score around 10k if possible. My plan was pretty straightforward: get to the domination limit as quickly as possible while also trying to set up my core to be very productive in the late game (to get Replaceable Parts in research, and to have lots of cash for rushing culture buildings). I also planned to try to balance culture accumulation with population growth (milking).

I founded Lisbon 1 tile NE of the start location in order to bring more BGs into the city radius. Initial research was Writing at Max (between the river and being seafaring, research at minimum would not be necessary), and initial builds were curragh, curragh, granary. Both curraghs scouted around the starting continent, and then died on suicide missions. In 3450, my scout entertained the Gepid tribe by spinning on his head and spitting nickels. The Gepids were so impressed that they joined our empire. The new city was located on the far east coast of the continent—above Spain—and had ivory in its city radius. A harbor was a big priority in that city.

Contact Summary
3700 Spanish
1275 Koreans
1250 Arabs
900 Maya
875 Greeks
690 English
230bc Romans

Hut Summary
3450bc town
3150 maps
2670 WC
610 Construction
170 50g
70 maps of nothing

End of QSC
7 cities
27 pop
85g
3 workers
1 scout
7 warriors
2 galleys
3 slaves
1 granary
2 barracks
1 harbor
All techs except Const, Monarchy, and Currency, which is due in 3.
Wines are connected, silk and ivory will be connected in 6 via harbor.
Statue of Zeus will be done in 7.
Score 212 (Arabia is first with 289)



Other Events of Note
Got the CoL/Philosophy slingshot, which resulted in:
Anarchy: 1550 – 1475 (to Republic)

Entered the Middle Ages in 610bc (popped Construction from a hut on an island)

Golden Age 370bc – 10ad (built the Great Lighthouse).

Entered the Industrial Age in 810ad

Spanish War (350bc – 130bc, 490ad – 500ad)
I gave them Republic just before I attacked, so they were in anarchy during the assault. I attacked Madrid first by landing my troops from galleys. I had a mix of Ancient Cavs, archers and horsemen vs. her regular spears. In 130bc I gave her peace for three cities.

During the peace, Spain grew to three cities again. In 490ad I redeclared war, and destroyed them the next turn.

Arabian War (510bc – 270ad)
This war began over my refusal to give them CoL. I never bothered to get peace because I was getting war happiness. Because they couldn’t reach me, the war didn’t really start until 10bc, when I landed and took the first city from them. They were a bit tough due to their Great Wall (50bc). I suffered high casualties. But I had trebuchets to back up my horses and Med. Inf., and captured the Great Wall and their capitol in 210ad. I gave them peace in 270ad for one city.

Second Arab War (670ad – 740ad)
This time I arrived with cavalry. They didn’t last long.

Mayan War (670ad – 800ad)
Again, Cavalry, so the war went quickly. I only saw one Mayan knight, the rest were mostly pikes, spears and swords. I had wanted to attack them sooner because they had the Pyramids, but there was just a bit too much ocean between our continents. I did give them Education only a few turns after they completed the ToA, in order to make it obsolete. As a result, I didn’t have to worry about culture flips.

Korean War (1040ad – 1070ad)
Spears really aren’t much of a match for cavalry and artillery, so the Koreans only lasted three turns. This war put me at around 60%, and with border expansions I would be close to 65%, so I decided to end my military campaigns for this game. This war also yielded my first and only leader.

Culture Accumulation
During all these wars, I was settling land quickly outside of my core in the corrupt areas. I was packing cities in as tight as I could. In 1210ad, I settled my last town—195 cities total, although one more would later flip to me. When I got Replaceable Parts in 930ad I made extensive use of Civil Engineers and the fast workers. All unhappy people were converted into Civil Engineers, and many of the citizens working a tile worth 1 or less food (in corrupt cities) were converted also. I was improving all available tiles with a large force of workers and slaves (I ended up with around 120). Just after I settled my last town (1210ad), I improved the last tile as well. I then added most of my workers to the population of coastal cities with harbors and aqueducts.

I believe my biggest mistake in this game came in the late middle ages. I was still giving harbors, aqueducts and granaries a high priority, and I probably should have been building less of those and more cultural improvements. I think this would have improved my victory date some, and it probably wouldn’t have hurt my final score that much.

At the end of the QSC, I had 132 culture points and was making a whopping 2 culture per turn (cpt)! Here is a culture and domination % summary from a few other dates:

Year . . . Culture . CPT . . .% of land . Game focus during period
10ad . . . 802 . . . 28 . . . 15 . . . . .expansion
500ad . . .2,761 . . 83 . . . 31 . . . . .war
750ad . . .5,381 . . 120 . . .43 . . . . .cash rushing libraries, temples, harbors, aqueducts; war
1020ad . . 9,983 . . 259 . . .55 . . . . .more of the same
1250ad . . 19,284 . .586 . . .64 . . . . .cash rushing universities, cathedrals where needed for happiness; disbanding cavalry in cities to help
1400ad . . 48,534 . .1327 . . 65 . . . . .more of same, plus a few colosseums
1560ad . .101,818 . 2018 . . 65 . . . . .more of same



Game Over
My final Jason was just over 10k. Hooray! I know my final date is very, very beatable, but I really hope I luck into the 100k award, because I will not be doing another 100k game any time soon if I can help it. All that micromanagement is just too tedious for me most months. Micromanaging can be satisfying, but not quite as much as rolling over the AI as quickly as possible.

I did make a huge discovery around 1100ad in this game: Ainwood’s CivAssist. I am sure most of you already know about the value of this tool. I however, being an ignorant moron, did not. If anyone out there likes to milk and is planning to go for a 100k or Histographic win, and you do not know about Ainwood’s program, learn to use it before you start the game. It is invaluable. In particular, the screens that show the cities that grew in between turns and the wasted food per city. Once I learned to use those, I saved a tremendous amount of time, just by virtue of not needing to scroll through all the cities every turn—and it also made the milking more efficient. Thank you Ainwood. Since you gave us this great tool, I guess it is ok when you take away our dyes.

 

[a space oddity]

Interesting read, Bradley. More so because I also went for the 100k, as you know.
My enddate is in the late 18th century. I'll post more details and some screenies when I get home.

I took less land than you did but I had over 200 cities. My core towns were packed a bit closer and that's where I think I went wrong. The core wasn't producing pecunia fast enough, and the AI were useless money wise.

 

[MikeH]

Did you make the most of your Carracks and rule the seas?

I never even got to build one Magnetism came in before the one I started was finished and the build switched to galleon.

I've lost my notes for the IA and Modern Age, so apologies to those who like a log wih dates. I really must find a better way of keeping notes than scribbling them on the back of old envelopes. I should also pay the bills that were in the envelopes, but that's another matter .

The Story So Far We anhiliated the Spanish at the start of the MA, but I was slow settling fishing villages in the tundra in the north of the continent and the Mayans had just settled a city in the snowy north. We've just built Smiths and we're in our GA. My original goals were to take control of my own continent and head for space and a better score than COTM05.

I declared war on the Mayans and assembled my cavalry and ancient cavalry to take their town, while this was happening, the Arabs also started playing space invaders and settled two towns in the tundra. I allied with the Greeks, to take the Mayans' minds off reinforcing their outpost and took the city, the alliance worked and I didn't see another Mayan unit, the alliance expired and I made peace. I repeated the process with the Arabs, allying with the Koreans (who remained my friends for the rest of the game), but the Arabs attempted fighting back, so I invaded the Korean/Arabian continent with a cavalry stack, took a couple of towns and then finished them off with tanks.

In the rest of the world the Mayans were the culture vultures and the Romans the closest to me in the domination stakes, having all but anhililated the English. However, after conquering the former Arabian lands, no-one wanted to mess with me, so the rest of the game was a peaceful space race. As usual at monarch I was able build all the IA and Modern Age wonders. The only problem I faced was the Mystery of the Disappearing Uranium. The uranium on my starting continent was depleted, but luckily there was another two squares from Mecca, where I rushed cultural improvements to claim it, only to find it was also depleted a few turns later. This left me with two choices: trade with the Romans or take the supply in the remaining English lands, so I decided to prepare for both. I loaded a couple of transports with tanks and sent them with an escort of destroyers and cruisers to sit off the English shore, as I approached the end of the space race I approached Caeser for a trade. As he was the closest to me in size and the space race he should have logically refused, but of course this is the Civ3 AI and he agreed, enabling me to launch in 1850. In retrospect the game was won when I took Madrid back in 350 BC

Lessons I achieved my aims, but I was left with the feeling that I'd aimed too low. The ease with which I overran the Arabs, suggested that I could have easily done the same with the Koreans. Also the launch date of 1850 could have been probably been improved if I'd helped the Romans to stay closer in the tech race and perhaps they might have helped out with research, as it was, I was the tech leader for the enitire IA and Modern Age and the latter half of the Middle Ages. Consequently I did all the research myself.

 

[Redbad]

The only problem I faced was the Mystery of the Disappearing Uranium.

That's also my experience with uranium: it depletes very rapidly. The solution that I use for this one, is based on the fact (i think it's a fact) that resources don't deplete if not connected. I put one militairy unit and enough workers on the resource to make a road in one turn. When I need the resource the workers make a road at the beginning of the turn and at the end of the turn the militairy unit pillages the road. In this way one can always use the resource witout the risk of it depleting.

 

[socralynnek]

That's also my experience with uranium: it depletes very rapidly. The solution that I use for this one, is based on the fact (i think it's a fact) that resources don't deplete if not connected. I put one militairy unit and enough workers on the resource to make a road in one turn. When I need the resource the workers make a road at the beginning of the turn and at the end of the turn the militairy unit pillages the road. In this way one can always use the resource witout the risk of it depleting.

Hmmm...if that's true, it might be considered as an exploit. Haven't tried this, but I think it can deplete even if not connected, but wouldn't bet.

 

[bluebox]

Hmmm...if that's true, it might be considered as an exploit.

If it really works this way, it would be an exploit, but a legal one, I think. It's like leader farming - the player reacts to minimize randomness of events. It think this a different league than, let's say: frequent re-loading.


back to topic here are my spoiler notes:

Phiuuu .... that was a difficult victory, not at least because of technical problems. I decided to go for histographic, conquered everything, and started milking - but the game tended to lots of unexpected crashes. Maybe this lead to a higher than usual reload count.
This was not a problem of the save but a problem with my computer. I added a memory bank (now 256MB!) and eventually reinstalled my os in the process of getting rid of those crashes.
After the re-installation procedure the game didn't crash as frequently as before - so I decided to set everything to automatic (workers, governours) for a quick end-game. I finally ended Cotm06 with a 5-digit firaxis score. I will keep Jason score undisclosed until darkness has submitted .

In the Middle Ages I started conquering everyone on the planet, the Arabs in 300AD and the Koreans in 590AD. I kept a Korean city with TOA to make all my newly captured cites expand their borders. The city only flipped once and I immediately got it back with my Army parked next to the city. I had three Armies and I was already upgrading knights to cavalry.
The English were already down to a Settler-in-a-boat by that time due to heavy military engagement by the Romans. After the forced retirement of both the Arab and the Korean government in 780AD (Arab had a single city until the 20-turn peace deal ended) my troops were shipped to the Roman part of the southern continent and attacked in 930AD. I needed an AI hostage as an excuse for not ending the game until 2050. I choose the Zero-city English who were still paddling around their settler because they had the least culture. I gifted them a former English tundra city I took from the Romans.

After the Romans I went to war against the Greeks in 1130AD, keeping Athens with both Sun tzu's and Leonardo's. I conquered the size-12 city various times and let the Greeks re-capture it for a faster pop decrease. Athens never flipped culturally. Greece had Cavalry but they were no difficult opponent. I had up to 5 armies in the field. A sixth leader was used to rush The Pentagon for even bigger armies.

While being at war with Greece, the Mayans declared, violating the MA + ROP we had. I made peace with the Greeks in 1300AD to free more units for the Maya campaign. I conquered the capitol as the last Mayan city to keep it for Pyramids. This was in 1345AD. The peace deal with Greece ended in 1400AD, that was the date the 3 remaining greek cities were captured.

I abandoned and re-settled cities with respect to the dom. limit. Every flat land tile turned into irrigated lands. The transformation was generally done in 1630AD. Finally I revolted to Communism because I wanted to make everybody equally happy! This was a very good move especially on this map with a heavily discentered capitol. With the SPHQ built corruption decreased by almost 50% (from over 60% in Rep. to about 20%). Instead of rushing I made extended use of Engineers for Hospitals and Mass Transit Systems. A few unhappy citizens were convinced of the greatness of my regime by some military units patrolling the cities .

C3C now works without any errors, again, after updating my sound drivers. I tested with my late CotM06 savegames. I suppose there was a conflict with the directx interface my obviously outdated driver could not handle. I'm really glad the producer of the chipset still maintains technical support for my mainboard sold in 2000. Doubling RAM was a cheap investment and remarkably improves perfomance.

Ready to play the Sumerians!

 

[SirPleb]

(Predator, NoAIPatrol=0)

Link to Ancient Age spoiler
Link to Middle Ages spoiler

Industrial Age Research

At the beginning of the Industrial Age in 480AD I gifted Greece and Korea forward. They got Steam Power and Nationalism as their free techs. I was able to trade for these though at some expense in gpt.

I didn't expect that my rivals would help me to get any other required Industrial Age tech. (Not that Nationalism was required or particularly useful.) So I forged ahead with research on the path I considered best without regard to what they'd research, beginning by studying Electricity en route to Replaceable Parts.

Those two techs took me five turns each to research. After that I was able to maintain a four turn research pace for a while.

After Replaceable Parts I diverted to an optional tech, Military Tradition. I'm not sure if this was worthwhile. I think that in effect it cost me just three turns since I was working on increasing research capacity during this time and one of the later techs might have taken a turn longer if I'd gone directly on instead of taking this side path. I wanted this tech badly because I wanted to continue forceful expansion, for score and for luxuries (all seven of them, arghh.) And although I had three weak targets who were still in the Middle Ages I had just 16 Knights. Not much of a force even against weak opponents. OTOH 16 Cavalry? Against pikemen that would be much stronger because losses would be low.

Originally I'd hoped to get Military Tradition from a rival. But when I learned Replaceable Parts (my first priority) at 580AD, there was no sign of that happening. Greece and Korea still had many other possible research paths open including Printing Press / Democracy, Economics, and even Navigation which is usually a high AI priority. So I researched Military Tradition myself.

After that I returned to required techs and learned all of the other Industrial Age ones in four turns each except Atomic Theory and Electronics - those took five turns each.

And that got me to the end of the Industrial Age in 1120AD.

Along the way I traded for Navigation, Printing Press, Democracy, Communism, and Fascism. And for gold - I took whatever gold I could in deals with Korea and Greece.

During the Industrial Age I built Copernicus', Bach's, Hoover Dam, and even Universal Suffrage, just to keep my rivals from cascading from it later. I didn't build Smith's because no one had yet discovered Economics.

War on Maya

I decided to leave Korea and Greece alone, probably for the rest of the game. I wanted them to get free tech at the beginning of Modern Times and in the meantime they were valuable trading partners.

The other three Civs, Maya, England, and Rome, were all backward and would be relatively easy prey as long as I reached them before they could learn Nationalism. Of the three I chose Maya as my first target because they had the Pyramids.

So, near the start of the Industrial Age I declared war on England and allied Rome against her. That would keep them both a bit weaker and more backward until I got around to invading them.

In 590AD I declared on Maya and landed an assault force of knights. While those were in transit I'd made the decision to research Military Tradition. After landing in Mayan territory they captured just one coastal town. Then they stayed there while it rushed a barracks and harbor. They upgraded to cavalry before proceding into the rest of Maya.

With cavalry my advance through Mayan lands was steady and deadly. The homeland produced enough new cavalry to replace lost units. In 670AD I got my second and third great leaders in the same turn. Each formed a cavalry army and that greatly sped progress.

In 730AD, having taken their Pyramids, Knights Templar, Hanging Gardens, and Great Wall, I gave Maya peace for their second last town.



War on England and Rome

After taking the Mayan lands, regrouping, and healing, my troops had a long journey to their next battleground in England.

By the time my force of 2 cavalry armies and 8 individual cavalry reached England there wasn't much left of her. Rome had gained the upper hand in the long war which I'd kept going.

My forces quickly captured London and its associated supply of incense, then went on to take the rest of England except one town which I left as a buffer between my new territory and Greece, giving England peace in 830AD.

Rome was stronger, so after making peace with England my forces took a breather while fresh troops assembled at home and travelled to the east coast of Rome. During this phase Rome destroyed England's last town, eliminating her from the game.

In 970AD I had 12 fresh cavalry ready off Rome's east coast and 8 more in transit. I declared war and began my invasion, supplementing it with attacks by my cavalry armies in Rome's west.

Even at this late date Rome was far from finishing the Middle Ages. And she didn't have saltpeter. So although she had a lot of units, the strongest were pikemen and knights. No match for my cavalry.

In 1060AD I eliminated Rome.

At this point I also reached the domination limit for the map:



From this time till the end whenever I settled a new town I had to abandon a corresponding amount of territory elsewhere. I did this for a few towns to claim the best land in the ex-Roman territory, swapping it for some inhospitable lands which I donated to Greece. But I didn't do much. I was near enough to the end of the game that the score I could gain by swapping bad land for good seemed minimal and not worth the effort required to protect the resulting holes in my territory.

Modern Times

When I entered Modern Times in 1120AD I used "the big picture" to gift Korea and Greece forward. They got Computers and Rocketry as their free techs, so I selected Fission as my next research. I'd timed a Theory of Evolution build to complete this turn so that gave me Fission. I then used the big picture again, traded to get Computers, selected Miniaturization as my research tech, and exited. That got me Minaturization as the second free tech. I switched a Palace prebuild to complete The Internet next turn.

I had to assign a lot of scientists to assist but with their help I was able to learn Space Flight in 1160AD, four turns after entering Modern Times.

After that it was fairly easy to maintain a four turn research pace, learning Ecology, Synthetic Fibers, Satellites, Superconductor, Nuclear Power, The Laser, and finally in 1345 Robotics. By then I'd built all the spaceship parts but one. I finished that one via "the big picture" and a prebuild to achieve a 1345AD launch.

Miscellaneous

Civil Engineers were helpful in the milking aspect of this game. By the end I had aqueducts in almost all corrupt towns, and harbors and marketplaces in most towns which needed them.

I never did find any dyes. Happiness during the later stages of the game suffered somewhat due to having only 7 luxuries.

It wasn't until 1210AD that someone (Korea) finally learned Economics. I flipped a prebuild of something else to build Smith's on the following turn.

In 1240AD I completed SETI to give a final boost to research and completed the UN to prevent anyone else from building it.

When I saw that Madrid had access to both iron and coal I couldn't resist seeing what I could make of the city. Normally I'd treat a city that far from my core as totally corrupt and not develop it. In Conquests the maximum corruption in a city is 90%, and that is reduced 10% by each of a Courthouse and a Police Station. I wanted to see what a 70% corrupt city could do with the Iron Works as a booster. The strength of the final result in Madrid surprised me:

 

[Dynamic]

Very good Space date SirPleb!
And how about score you got? Do you cross 11K Jason? In my Cotm06 I got above 11K points but 12K as far as moon for me.

 

[a space oddity]

But we mere mortals are glad when we get 10k.

As promised earlier, a picture showing my modest progress through the ages. The first frame was taking during the golden age that I used to produce cathedrals an unis in my core. In hindsight I should have conquered the Korean/Arab island first. It must be said though, that the Koreans were by far the wealthiest AI and by slowly conquering their cities they've provided me with the means to rush temples and libs in the cities I plonked down in their former lands.

 

[JonathanValjean]

Sigh... I am just lucky to have won this one, as embarrasing as it is to say. I almost lost my first Monarch level game in nearly 2 years....

I was attempting to go for a cultural victory, as is clear by my title line. I didn't get started on expressly building cultural improvements until too late, as a long, drawn out war with Spain complicated matters, as she had a few to many Ancient Cavalry to take on my hordes of horsemen. Then, after I had full control of the island, I fully focused on cultural accrual for quite some time. That was a mistake, as I should have continued expanding in order to have a great "footprint" of land on which to build up my culture. I noticed in 1900, as I was almost to the the 100K mark that Korea was at around 60,000 points... Oh, no!!! How I allowed them to sneak up on me like that is shameful, but it was true. I then dedicated everything I had to attempting to double Korea's culture. My military was quite weak, and theirs was the strongest in the game, so attacking them was out of the question. In 1970, I calculated that it would be impossible to double Korea's culture, and that my only chance of winning was either to win the Spacerace or Histographically. (I am certain that I could have one diplomatically, as my reputation was sterling; however, in my obsession to build more culture, I allowed Korea to take the tech lead and therefore beat me to the U.N. Being a warmonger, they wisely chose not to hold elections. Korea had 8/10 spaceship parts built at that time, but they had one huge disadvantage: they had no access to uranium. I signed embargoes with every remaining nation to prevent their obtaining it via trade, and I nervously watched to see if they might conquer land with this win-impeding resource. Thankfully, as I shifted all of my empire's resources to the Space Race, I was able to launch my ship in 2012. I had accrued 156,814 cultural points, but Korea had 103,496... I learned a lot from this game, and look forward to the next. It is good to be back playing the game after 6 month hiatus. (I did have a blast with my Porsches during that time, however. ) My final Firaxis score was 2851, and my Jason score was 2696. I shall see better days in the GOTM, but again, it was great fun!

EDIT: reduced the size of the victory status screenshot.

 

[bluebox]

Overwhelming achievement, again, SirPleb!

Mortals like me, let's have a look at this one:

When I entered Modern Times in 1120AD I used "the big picture" to gift Korea and Greece forward. They got Computers and Rocketry as their free techs, so I selected Fission as my next research. I'd timed a Theory of Evolution build to complete this turn so that gave me Fission. I then used the big picture again, traded to get Computers, selected Miniaturization as my research tech, and exited. That got me Minaturization as the second free tech.

So you made a "scientific slingshot", gained the effects of the timed production of TOE, did yet another scientific slingshot resulting out of that, therefore going through the "big picture" twice, picking up 4 techs in a single interturn??

Incredible!


A simple from me.

 

[SirPleb]

Very good Space date SirPleb!
And how about score you got? Do you cross 11K Jason? In my Cotm06 I got above 11K points but 12K as far as moon for me.

Thanks Dynamic. You got me again, I'm over 10K Jason this time but not over 11K

 

[SirPleb]

A simple from me.

Thanks bluebox! I've been refining my use of that trick and I think I have it pretty much tuned now. I think the most important things about it are:

1) Make sure no one else can build Theory Of Evolution for a long time. Hold off trading Scientific Method at least until all Industrial Age wonder cascades have finished, and even after that hold it longer if possible.

2) Have a prebuild timed to be one turn from completing Palace on entering Modern Times. Make sure to get Miniaturization right away. If a gifted-forward scientific Civ gets Computers trade for it after getting the first free tech from ToE; if they don't get Computers then pick that as the first ToE tech. Either way take Miniaturization as the second one. And then flip the prebuild to complete Internet the next turn, giving all subsequent Modern Times research a huge boost