Conquest 06: Second Spoiler

[ainwood]

Conquest 06 Spoiler 2: Entering the Industrial Ages.

To qualify for this spoiler, you must have contact with ALL civilizations, have the majority of the world map (ie all settled areas), and be researching an industrial-age tech.

So - how did your middle ages go? Did Spain survive your own form of Inquisition? Or did you allow them to live as a research partner?

 

[dmanakho]

Yeah!! I am the first!!!!
But again i lost all notes and as of today i totally don't remember what happened
I know Isabelle didn't existed since early middle ages.
I know i decided to go for diplo.
Oh, now i remember, all i really did was building infrastructure and going trough 4 turn tech cycles with exception of the 1st few techs, that took longer to research.
I also traded traded traded.

Oh well, I guess i've been boring story teller so i'd better shut up and listen what other people will have to say

 

[Sandman2003]

Open (NoAIPatrol = 0)

Ancient Age

Instead of my recent spate of dominations, I decided to branch out in this game and go for a conquest win The key to my strategy was that after sending out my curraghs and finding where the other continents were, I noted that there was a five tile passage between two sea tiles on the way to the Arab/Korean continent. This knowledge, plus better control over my GA, was enough of a convincer for me to decide to build the Great Lighthouse. Galley moves 3 plus one for seafaring, plus one for great lighthouse = safe passage to the continent very early!

I entered the MA in 320BC, completing the Great Lighthouse in 130BC to start a well timed GA.

Spanish War
Obviously SPain was the first issue. They had ivory, iron and houses, and were building Zeus. Unfortunately, the only Spanish city in the fog of war was the city where they were building Zeus, so I could not accurately determine when this thing would be built. The best time to attack Spain would be immediately after they finish Zeus, so I could grab it, not worry about being on the wrong end of Ancient Cavalry, and use some ACs in the Portuguese army!

Fortunately, there were two horse sources, and I won the race to the second in the east. In 110AD we declared on Spain. I had 19 horses at the time. Two turns later I had my first leader - by far trhe earlest I have had one recently, and it made up for bad GH luck. A horse army was filled immediately - Spain had at least two ACs, and some swords. Progress was slow, but in 170AD we finally captured Zeus, and in 270AD, I decided to give them a phony peace, taking all their cities bar the capital and one other. Due to the ocean borders, as long as I destroyed Spain, there would be no risk of a rep hit, so we redeclared immediately, and in 280AD Spain was no more. It was amusing to watch a whole bunch of Spanish spearmen leave their capital during the 270AD inter-turn, because some of my behind the main lines cities were ungarrissoned. This made it easier to conquer the capital.

Arab And Korean Wars
The Arabs and the Koreans shared the continent that we could reach safely with galleys, so I targeted the Arabs next. With the ex-Spanish iron hooked up, the invasion force was made up of knights and Ancient Cavalry. The only problem was that the Arabs had built Artemis, and were a cultural monster in comparison to my Portuguese - I had neglected research after chivalry, and the libraries that go with it, to my detriment! I should have brought along settlers as well! In 480AD, I was finally in position. I used RoP abuse to position my forces and destroyed the city holding Artemis, and captured five others in the first turn. I abandoned the high flip risk cities, but still had about five flips in this campaign, twice when I was about to finish the Arabs off (ie attack the last city) and then I had to move force back to the newly flipped city wasting another couple of turns each time. Strangely, enough the first flip occurred in what was supposedly the lowest flip risk city!

During the Arab war, I signed a MA with Korea against the Arabs so that they could waste a few of their units against each other. Just before the end of the camapign against the Arabs, I started on the Koreans. In 610AD the Koreans were destroyed, and the Arabs were down to a settler on a galley. Fortunately they couldn'y really go anywhere given they were locked in by the ocean, so they ended up landing by my units and were wiped out next turn.

These conflicts had produced two more leaders. One had become the Heroic epic - for more leader potential, and for cheap cultural expansion on the new continent.

English War
For the new continet, there were several places where I could safely traverse to the final, major continet. I decided to go after the English first, because they had the great Library, and I realised I was hurting from lack of access to all my connected luxuries, so I needed Navigation or Magnetism to bring them all on line. I also built up librbaries so I was starting to get a little more respectable, culture-wise.

I declared on Rome, and brought in England, and also signed an RoP with England for good measure. Half a dozen turns later I started landing and positioning my troops around England. In 720AD, I figured I had enough units around England, and decided I had better strike - they were clearly losing against Rome, and had lost at least two cities at this point. The English also had muskets, though very few of them. The Romans had obviously only just got to feudalism, as many legions and a few MI were the bulk of their forces.

Half a dozen English cities fell in the first turn of war, including the Great Library city, however, our reward was only education, so I set about max research to military tradition on our own. I suffered five flips in England as well, but finally destroyed their last city in 790AD.

Roman War
After the English, we were only average versus the Romans. The Romans advanced a large force to the Greta Library city and demanded monotheism. That was a lot cheaper than what they would have got out of the library, so I caved. In 810AD, I decided to hit their still retreating forces (no RoP abuse this time). After very slow progress, I gave them peace in 900AD, for one city, still leaving their core intact. I decided to wait for cavalry to finish them off. It turned out that I needed navigation or magnetism to upgrade my forces in former England, as the English had lacked horses. So in 980AD I finished research on magnetism and upgraded my forces. Magnetism also enabled me to bring over my knight army from the Arab/Korean continent, and my original horse army from the home continent.

In 990AD I redeclared on Rome, and by 1020AD they were destroyed.

Greek and Mayan Wars
I had got the Greeks and Mayans to fight amongst themselves before my arrival, and use an RoP abuse on the Greeks. I declared in 1080AD and had destroyed the Greeks by 1120AD.

The Mayans had the Great Wall and the Knights' Templar in the city of Copan, so we positioned enough force by this city and destroyed it first, after declaring in 1130AD. The Mayans lasted a little longer - 1210AD, with the final stroke being the killing of a rogue settler.

Science
I actually continued researching at the four turn rate into the IA, reaching this point in 1050AD, and learning steam in 1130AD. However, I consider this entry into the IA immaterial to the game outcome, so I have finished the writeup here.

 

[SirPleb]

(predator)

Link to Ancient Age spoiler

Research

By the time I entered the Middle Ages in 510BC my galleys had met all other Civilizations in the world. As befits a seafaring Civilization my galleys had been very successful - only two sank, two others had survived to meet meet everyone else.

I immediately gifted Greece and Korea to the Middle Ages. They got Monotheism and Engineering and I traded for both.

For a while I ran with no research, using all available funds to help a war on Spain. In 370BC I started research again, learning Theology in 7 turns, Education in 6, and Astronomy in 6 at 10AD. I followed the top research path for two reasons: 1) I wanted Education so that I could build universities to increase my ongoing research. 2) I wanted Astronomy so that my troops could safely travel to other lands.

I then turned off research again for a while, this time to finance transportation for my forces to Arabia. At the start of my Golden Age in 150AD I began research again. I maintained a four turn research rate from that time to the end of the Middle Ages, learning Banking, Gunpowder, Chemistry, Physics, Magnetism, Theory of Gravity, and finally Metallurgy in 480AD to enter the Industrial Age.

As well as Monotheism and Engineering at the start I'd been able to trade for two more required techs, Feudalism and Invention. I hadn't researched any optional Middle Ages tech but my rivals had learned two and I'd traded for them: Music Theory and Chivalry.

Throughout the Middle Ages I traded techs heavily to Greece and Korea for gold. At the end of the period I was gaining 233gpt from them, a nice supplement to my own income. The other Civs (Maya, England, Rome) fell further and further behind - at 480AD they were only about 1/2 way through the Middle Ages.

War on Spain

At the end of Ancient Times in 510BC I'd just traded for Horseback Riding. Over the next two turns I upgraded 18 chariots and in 450BC I was ready to invade with 20 horsemen. I gave Spain Republic to stop her from pop rushing (I wanted to capture her cities not raze them), then declared war and invaded.

My invasion force was weaker than I'd have liked so for a few turns I used all available funds to short-rush additional horsemen.

The invasion went fairly smoothly. Spain had not entered the Middle Ages. Her defenders were spearmen. That meant some losses as I advanced but not unaffordable ones.

The bulk of my forces followed the south coast till they reached Madrid. There they had to defeat one Ancient Cavalry as well as the usual spearmen.

In 350BC I took Madrid and its wonderful Statue of Zeus. I used a captured worker to colonize ivory on the same turn and the Statue of Zeus obligingly created my first Ancient Cavalry on the very next turn.

In 270BC I eliminated Spain from the game. My forces still consisted of 20 horsemen - my production during this war had exactly offset my losses.

War on Arabia

After eliminating Spain I returned to peaceful research for a while. I couldn't safely sail to other lands until I learned Astronomy.

Geographically the logical choices for my next target seemed to be Maya, Greece, and Arabia. I didn't want to attack Greece, she was one of my two best trading partners. She also had pesky defenders with strength 3.

I hadn't diverted research effort to Chivalry so I'd either need to do that or would have to attack with just horsemen and a few Ancient Cavalry. Maya had iron but Arabia did not. So I selected Arabia as my target - horsemen should suffice for invading them.

In 30AD I upgraded three galleys on the east coast to carracks and in 50AD they set sail. In 90AD four of my Ancient Cavalries and five of my horsemen began the invasion of Arabia. They were soon followed by more troops from home of course.

In 150AD an Arabian galley presented itself as a target and one of my carracks sank it, triggering a Golden Age.

In 280AD I got my first leader and he formed an army of three Ancient Cavalry. This army sped my conquest of Arabia. Unfortunately it died in the last year of that war.

Late in my invasion of Arabia another Civ finally learned Chivalry but this did my forces no good - I'd chosen Arabia as a target because she didn't have iron and my invaders hadn't found any iron that she'd missed.

Finally in 370AD I finished the conquest of Arabia. I hadn't met any strong opposition. Spearmen were the strongest defenders. Nonetheless they'd taken a toll, and late in this war I'd stopped producing new horsemen at home, so at the end my forces were down to a mere 11 horsemen and 2 ancient cavalry.

Miscellaneous

I completed my Forbidden Palace in 270BC near the center of the homeland.

My culture was fairly strong due to libraries and universities. I had just one culture flip during my two wars, a captured Arabian city which reverted to her rule for one turn. (They should have known better.)

In 190BC I landed a settler on the small central island to claim spices. It wouldn't be possible to hook them up for some time after that but I wanted to claim those spices while I could.

Though I'd guessed otherwise in Ancient Times, I could easily have built the Great Lighthouse in this game and used it to trigger a Golden Age at a time I'd have liked. It wasn't until 430AD that someone (Greece) finally built it!

I completed Newton's in 460AD and had builds of Copernicus' and JS Bach's nearly complete at the end of the Middle Ages.

When I learned Magnetism that resulted in connecting furs from ex-Arabia and spices from the central island, bringing me up to five owned luxuries. I then went to try for trades and was unable to get incense or gems because there weren't extras available. But what about dyes? The other leaders just shook their heads, it wasn't a word they recognized. It seemed that this world was missing something although I wouldn't be able to be sure until I got the full world maps...

 

[MiniMe]

Middle Ages

Research
I made the decision to go for Astronomy and then Military Tradition. I granted Greece and Korea into the Middle Ages and traded for Monotheism and Feudalism. I gave all AA techs around to hopefully have some trading partners later on. I went for the peaceful branch first since I thought I had observed that some AIs tend to go for Gunpowder. It turned out to be wrong in this game, I had to self research all of it:

Theology discovered in 590BC.
Education discovered in 390BC.
Astronomy discovered in 210BC.
Engineering discovered in 110BC.
Invention discovered in 10BC.
Gunpowder discovered in 90AD.
Chemistry discovered in 230AD.
Metallurgy discovered in 280AD.
Military Tradition in 320AD.
Navigation discovered in 390AD.
Everyting at max speed except Navigation where there was no rush. Priority was to upgrade some horsies. Research off.

I soon had both Lighthouse and Magellan so my Carracks had a movement rate of 6.
EDIT: This is WRONG

THE WAR (340-770AD
Our phoney war was declared on Romans in 320AD just to trigger GA. This was the fruit of several 100 years wait for a nice little boat to pass by one of my mighty carracks. I wanted my GA this time, so when I spotted the nice little Roman rowboat I did not let the opportunity pass.

I declared on the Spanish in 340AD loosing instantly two cavalry against a spearman and a pikeman. But Spain cannot resist the growing power of Portugal and the lights go out for Spain 480AD.

I declare war on Greece in 440AD. By the time I eliminate them in 550AD I have gotten two leaders* from battles against Greece and I create cav armies.

I declare war on Mayans in 500AD. They are eliminated in 650AD. By this time I have gotten 2 new leaders and have all in all 4 cav armies. Note that I only put 2 cavs in each so my Carracks can bring them over to the Arabs later on.

I declare on the English in 580AD. They disappear in 720AD.

I declare on the Romans in 600AD. The Romans are extinct in 700AD.

I declare on the Arabs in 710AD with a ROP rape worthy of its name. I take 8 cities in the first round.

I declare on Koreans in 760AD with another ROP rape (been inspired by other players). I take 6 cities in the first round, leaving them with two at the end of the game (next turn).

DOMINATION is achieved in 770AD.
Firaxis score: 6688
Jason score: 10309

Question: Arabs and Koreans had only 3 cities left at this point and I would probably have taken these within 1 or 2 turns. Can anyone tell me if I made a mistake not to go for Conquest?

Conclusion
I am quite happy with research pace for Astronomy (in 230BC) and Military Tradition (in 320AD). I could probably have shaved quite a few turns off these dates by triggering GA at a better moment. I should have managed to trigger it beginning of MA but instead I triggered it same date I got MT.

War itself went ok. I cannot see how I could have saved many turns here. Except should probably have started earlier to remove Spain before MT.

 

[Ambiorix]

Open, Ancient Age
In the MA I continued my experiment to give techs away to everyone as soon as I discovered them, hoping that the AI would sometimes research a different path. I'm quite curious where I'll end up with my score - probably not too high, because i never really got down to 4 turns per tech.

Spain was eliminated early in the MA, at 50BC.
I entered the IA in 760AD (turn 191).

 

[A'AbarachAmadan]

PTW (latest patch) NoAiPatrol=0
Goal: 20K Culture victory

Ancient Era update: 4000BC-0110BC
Middle Ages Era update: 0110BC-1050AD

GOODY HUTS
390AD Maps of Region – i.e. nothing from the small island one

MEETING CIVS (actually in AA, but here is order)
3250BC Spain
1450BC Maya
1150BC Greeks
0975BC Romans
0850BC Arabia
0825BC England
0775BC Korea

MAJOR TRADES in MA
DATE – CIVILIZATION - DETAILS
various RoP agreements that I break one by one
800AD – Maya – World Map + Contact English + Silks/Ivory for Gunpower + WM + 10g + 1g/t
910AD – Greece – 3 Luxuries for Music Theory

TECHNOLOGY - DATE/HOW
Monotheism, 0170AD, trade w/ Korea
Feudalism, 0230AD, research
Chivalry, 0310AD, research
Theology, 0470AD, research
Printing Press, 0510AD, research
Engineering, 0570AD, Great Library Sooth Sayers
Invention, 0680AD, Great Library Sooth Sayers
Education, 0690AD, research
Astronomy, 0730AD, research
Navigation, 0770AD, research
Gunpowder, 0800AD, trade Maya
Banking, 0810AD, research
Chemistry, 0850AD, research
Metallurgy, 0890AD, research
Music Theory, 0910, trade Greece
Military Tradition, 0930AD, research
Physics, 0970AD, research
Theory of Gravity, 1010AD, research
Magnetism, 1050AD, research
Start researching Steam Power

Details: NONE; 210AD – Max – Feudalism, Chivalry; NONE; 430AD – Max – Theology, Printing Press; NONE; 660AD – max for a while.

Embassies/ Major Spying
110BC Embassy w/ England; London: Great Lighthouse 2.5 rows done, 2 spearmen, in revolution
110BC Embassy w/ Maya; Chichen Itza: Library 7S to go, 5 military, in revolution
110BC Spy Maya; Copan: Great Lighthouse 3 rows done, in revolution
370AD Embassy w/ Korea, Seoul: 8 military, Coliseum being built
640AD Embassy w/ Romans, Rome: 1 military, Sun Tzu in 38T (217)
790AD Embassy w/ Greece, Athens: 3 military, Trebuchet; spy on three cities building Sun Tzu: Copan in 26, Knosson in 39, Nottingham in 54
1030AD Sun Tzu is built so I spy on the 6 cities still building wonders; find out the closest two are Greek Knossos in TWO turns to JS Bachs’, which means I have to attack next turn: also Athens is 12 turns from Leonardo’s; Next closest is 23T to Leonardo’s and 52T to JS Bachs’

20K CULTURE CITY FOUNDING & CONSTRUCTION
FOUNDED - NAME - PRODUCTION DETAILS
3950BC – Lisbon(1NE) MA - Great Lighthouse(190AD), Cathedral(210AD), Knights Templar(390AD), Sistine Chapel(680AD), University(700AD), Heroic Epic(800AD), Copernicus’ Observatory(990AD)

WARS & MAJOR EVENTS

2070BC-1725BC War vs. Spain
Notes in AA Post

190BC/370AD – 620AD War vs. Arabia
190BC - Arabs declare war; 0370AD real war begins, Korea joins in & gives me 18g, Mansura; 410-Fez, Damascus; 450-Fustat, get 1st Great Leader (Viriato) on 12th Elite combat, create Army; 470-Muscat; 490-Basra; 500-Bukhara; 510-Aden; 520-Fustat deposed! - recapture Fustat; 530-Kufah; 550-Medina; 580-Mecca; 590-Najran; 600-Baghdad; 610-Khurasan; 620- Yamaha, Arabia integrated into Portuguese society
For this war I used 4 galleys, which initially took over 8 Ancient Cavalry, then set up a galley bridge so I could bring over 2 troops every turn (if available). I short rushed a few Knights. Captured 3 cities in NW, then set up a knight (and eventually more) to block Meccan reinforcements, then S, looped NE; eventually came in from W to Medina and spread out to finish them.

670AD-720AD War vs. Korea
670-Seoul, Inch’on, Cheju, Taejon; 680-Namp’o; 690-Pusan, Pyongyang; 700-Hyangsang, Wonsan; 720-Ulsan, Pyongsong; Korea integrated into Portuguese society; considered leaving one city and gifting them into the IA when I reached, but decided corralling them for so long would be to big of a hassle; at the start of the war I had 1 Army, 5 Crusaders, 27 Knights and 10 Ancient Cavalry; received no new great leaders even with mucho Elite combat

970AD-1020AD War vs. Maya
Start by breaking RoP w/ 27 Cavalry, 9 Crusaders, 3 Ancient Cavalry: have 22 Cavalry, 2 Crusaders that are ready to be transported; 970-Chichen Itza, Bonampak, Copan, Quirigua, 2d Great Leader, Afonso, creates another Army; 980- Greece joins me, Tikal, Yaxchilan; 990- Chichen Itza deposed! : Chichen Itza, Calakmul, Lazapa, Palenque; 1000-Lagartero, Piedras Negras; 1010-Cuello, Kaminaljuyu; 1020-Tulum, Uaxactun: Maya integrated in Portuguese society

1040AD-????AD War vs. Greeks
Start by breaking RoP w/ 44 Cavalry in the world: target is to stop wonders, then assimilate; 1040-Knossos, Ephesus, Athens, Mycenae, Thermopylae, destroy 1 city, abandon 1 city; 1050- Sparta, Pharsalos, Delphi; soon to be integrated or burned to the ground

1050AD, Entering Industrial Ages
80 Cities, 565 Population, 40+ regular Workers + lots of captured Workers
Even with over 100 units (40+ Cavalry) on the board I’m under my cost limit, so they are free

Future
Construction: Capital is still wonder factory; will have 5 cities rush Stock Exchanges so I can build Wall Street; others moving toward minimal culture, population growth, happiness
Military: reducing production, what I have now should be able to sweep the others down to one city
Expansion: must watch domination limit as I’m still going to go for the 20K; moving workers back near capital so I can start building railroads as soon as I discover Steam Power; Maya had ZERO workers, so eventually I’ll move some down that way
Research: primarily to get wonders & increase capital production – to The Corporation, Sanitation, Electronics and also Espionage, Replaceable Parts; then we’ll see where we are

 

[TriviAl]

My first game in a long time!

Started on Spain late in the ancient age. The Great Wall and Statue of Zeus made that a nasty business. Took my Lighthouse powered golden age to finish them off, part way into the medieval age for me and stuck in the ancient age for them.

I kept good relations with the other civs, trying for most of the medieval age to get them to do some research for me. Despite gifted techs they did very little. Bah!

Snagged Copernicus and Newtons in my capital, to increase my research power. Decided I was sick of all this war in the world and wanted to go for a nice friendly spaceship victory... Be my first chance to see the modern part of the conquests tech tree.

Other than that a fairly quiet medieval age.

 

[klarius]

Ancient Age

After entering MA in 675BC production was on horses in the cities with barracks, while other cities built infrastructure.
The two scientific civs both got engineering after I gifted them, so we researched Mono on our way to Astronomy.
Later we could trade for Feudalism. Other than that everything had to be done by self research.
Madrid built the SoZ in 570BC, so I had to hurry to attack Spain.
I made a RoP and all horses and the lonesome archer moved adjacent to Madrid.
In 490BC Madrid was taken, before it could produce an ancient cav.
Spain was eliminated in 230BC and the map looked like this:

I refrained from settling fishing villages in the northern tundra to not increase the corruption in former Spain.

I planned for the next war only after astronomy and chivalry would be researched, so there was a peaceful era now.
We had captured the colossus in Madrid, so the next wonder would result in the golden age. First I intended to delay this to Leonardo's, but then I rather wanted it faster by a cheap wonder. I was beaten to the Hanging Gardens by 2 turns, so it changed to the Great Lighthouse (10AD), which I didn't really want in this game.

The next target were the Maya. They had the Pyramids and were on the bigest landmass. So capturing them first would be good for score.
The Mayan war started 270AD with taking Chichen Itza and 2 more towns. The battle also spawned the first MGL, which immediately made a knight army.
I researched navigation shortly after that, so a rushed harbor made gems available.

In 350AD Maya was given peace with 3 cities left. I wanted to complete Leonardo's (380AD) and research MT before the final push.

I did settle a spice town on the central island and a fur town in Arabia in the meantime.
We were at war with Arabia since the early AA. Arabia was quite backwards so a few horses and crusaders would hold the city till I found time to divert some cavs.

MT was researched in 480AD, research was stopped and the war with Inca resumed in 490AD. They were out of the game in 510AD and the map looked likes this:

The next strong target were the Greeks, while there was also slow progress in Arabia (no hurry there).

The war started with several mistakes.
Greece had the Great Wall, but I didn't notice that it was in Pharsalos not in Athens, so I attacked Athens first and still didn't eliminate the GW.
Secondly I totally forgot that there was a greek horse in former Mayan land and lost a city to that.
Still the war went reasonably well and in 600AD Greece was no more. There was no real opposition for roughly 20 cavs and a cav army at that time. Greece was the only AI civ to acquire gunpowder in this game, but they were destroyed before they could connect their saltpeter.

We also acquired about half of Arabia in the meantime.

Our trusty ally (they probably broke 5 or 6 alliances with us, but were always bribed again) the Romans had reduced the English to 6 cities. But they blocked the choke towards the English by a city. So war with Rome next, while still fighting England.

In 670AD England was reduced to 1 city and given peace. I also allied them against Rome in the hope the Romans may finish them for me, but no luck.

Also Arabia was given a few turns of peace, because my troops now were in a good position for attacking Korea first. The RoP rape left Korea also with only one city, which would fall soon:

Everything got mopped up for a conquest victory in 740AD:

 

[Sandman2003]

Question: Arabs and Koreans had only 3 cities left at this point and I would probably have taken these within 1 or 2 turns. Can anyone tell me if I made a mistake not to go for Conquest?

I believe that Sir Pleb posted fairly recently a rule of thumb for whether conquest or domination would score higher. The rule was that if conquest can be achieved within five turns of domination, go for conquest, if conquest would take more than 20 turns longer than domination, go for domination. Everything in between is a 'grey' area.

 

[bluebox]

I was also going to invade the Mayans first, but changed my mind discovering the 5 tile sea strait SirPleb talked about to the Arab-Korean continent. klarius went both ways. Impressive!

I will post some more details about my game tomorrow, but I've got a brief note to ...

I soon had both Lighthouse and Magellan so my Carracks had a movement rate of 6.

Sorry, but your assumption is wrong. You got the 2nd movement point for your carracks with the seafaring trait. I was quite disappointed when I had realized the Great Lighthouse bonus and the Magellan's bonus are not cumulative. This has been the case since vanilla.

 

[Sandman2003]

Yes, I can confirm what bluebox is saying about the GL and Magellans. With only the GL, I had 6 move carracks.

 

[MiniMe]

@Bluebox and Sandman

Silly me Thanks for the correction.

 

[Roland Ehnström]

COTM06_Open, NoAIpatrol=0

Hmm, looks like my game was no good this month, comparing with what the others have written here. However, for a while it was pretty interesting, especially in the Middle Ages, so here you have my log:

*** Ancient Times ***

*** Middle Ages ***

590 BC - We chose to research Literature (4 turns) at this point, for we'll need some Libraries in order to get a decent tech-rate in the Middle Ages. We're looking to rush to Astronomy, to get our Carracks and get out exploring the world. But first, we hope to remove Spain from the game.

510 BC - Literature discovered, Monotheism started (15 turns ). Guarda founded, filling up some land in the SW.

490 BC - Madrid completes Mausoleum of Mausollos! They start Statue of Zeus. We'll need to kill them before they complete it, or better yet: The turn after they complete it.

470 BC - Here we go, we attack Spain with Horsemen, raze Salamanca (defended by one Spearman) and kill two Archers in the open, without suffering any losses. Couldn't have hoped for a better start to this crusade! Full of confidence, we move four Horsemen toward Barcelona.

450 BC - Yes, we capture Barcelona, losing one Horseman while killing two Spearmen. Our troops are now heading for Seville.

410 BC - Seville falls into our hands. We lost no units this time, while killing two Spearmen and an Archer!

350 BC - We lose one Horseman taking Toledo, and two more when capturing Murcia.

310 BC - We finally discover Monotheism and start Theology (11 turns).

270 BC - Castelo Branco founded in the plains where Salamanca used to be. Badajoz founded way up N in the Tundra, just filling in some land.

250 BC - Santiago just barely survives an attack from our Horsemen. We also lose a Horseman up in the NE, trying to destroy Valencia. Lourenço Marques founded in the tundra up north.

230 BC - We're having some tough luck at Santiago - we lose two more Horseman to a cash-rushed Spearman and an injured Archer...

190 BC - We finally capture Santiago, and make peace with Spain for Valencia and all gold they can pay. We're intending to break this treaty and capture Madrid as soon as we have gathered some troops. We hope to eliminate Spain before they make contact with anyone else.

170 BC - Viseu founded in the NW.

130 BC - Theology discovered, Edjucation started (7 turns). Oh dear, Madrid completes Statue of Zeus - in 5 turns they'll get their first Ancient Cavalry...

90 BC - An investigation of Madrid reveals the city to be defended by four Spearmen. It is on a hilltop, and size 9, so these Spearmen have plenty of defensive bonuses. We have 5 Horsemen, 2 Warriors and a Spearman ready to fight. This will not be enough - we will have to build more units. The bad thing is that Madrid has Statue of Zeus up and running, and also access to Iron (however not yet hooked up!) for Swordsmen and soon perhaps Pikemen...

30 BC - São Mamede founded in the NE.

10 AD - We discover Edjucation, start Astronomy (7 turns). Spain's first Ancient Cavalry is moved out of Madrid escorting a Settler! Better yet, Madrid have built so many Settlers now, that it's suddenly shrunk way down to 3 pop, losing it's defence-bonus!

50 AD - We investigate Madrid again. It's now defended by three Spearmen. We move in, placing 8 Horsemen in the Jungle next to the town.

70 AD - THE ATTACK FAILED!!! The Statue of Zeus gave Spain an Ancient Cavalry at the exact right moment for them. And they cash-rushed a Spearman. So our 8 Horsemen were up against 4 Spearmen and an Ancient Cavalry. Four of our Horsemen were killed and two withdrew - we only killed two Spearmen!

90 AD - The Spanish Ancient Cavalry take back undefended Barcelona (we were certain that we would take Madrid and destroy the Spanish last turn, so we didn't care about Barcelona), and this makes war weariness strike hard across the nation. To make things even worse, Spain found Zaragoza way up north. Instead of being removed from the game, they now have three cities and almost as many units as we do!

170 AD - We discover Astronomy, start Engineering (5 turns).

190 AD - We attack Madrid again, and once again the Spanish Spearmen laugh at our pathetic Horsemen!

260 AD - We now have 11 Horsemen and two Warriors outside Madrid. If they do not manage to take the city this turn, I don't know what I'll do!

270 AD - YES we take Madrid, but it actually got CLOSE: The last Spearman had to be killed by a regular Warrior! Meanwhile, our first Carrack sets sail on a journey west...

280 AD - Our first Carrack spots settled land in the west. Our second Carrack is completed, and it sets sail S. We discover Engineering and start Feudalism (5 turns). We now have 5 Horsemen outside Barcelona.

290 AD - We make contact with Korea, who have nothing to offer us. A Spanish Archer in Barcelona redlines one of our Horsemen, so we decide not to attack this turn. Spain build Pamplona on "Ainwood island", so we make peace for Pamplona and Zaragoza. We of course have no intention to stick with this peace treaty, and instead move in more Horsemen from Madrid toward Barcelona.

300 AD - Our southbound Carrack makes contact with the Mayans. We get some more extremely bad RNG: Barcelona is a 3 pop town on Grassland, defended by three Spearmen (one veteran, two regular) and a 2/4 hp Archer, yet we don't even come CLOSE to taking the town when attacking with EIGHT veteran Horsemen!

310 AD - FINALLY Barcelona falls, and the Spanish are destroyed. OH MY GOD what a relief! At this point I make a final decition on what victory-condition to go for, something I have silently been thinking about from the very start of the game. For a little while I was interested in trying a 100k Culture win, but that was soon out of the question, seeing as we were isolated on a pretty small continent. After this, the remaining alternatives were Domination or Space Race, because Conquest is overly tedious, Histographic naturally even more so, and UN just plain boring on Monarch. Well, during the war with Spain, partly because I had nothing else to do (I didn't feel like sending out scores of suicide-Galleys for the questionable reward of finding some backward civs - on Emperor maybe, but not on Monarch) I have built a number of Libraries and even some Courthouses and Aqueducts, which I don't normally do if I am going for a Domination win. Also, the war with Spain took longer than I hoped for, partly because of bad RNG, partly because I underestimated their ability to cash-rush Spearmen with just one city, and partly because I didn't want to spend too much on building a big military when I didn't know of any other civ. So if I now try to go for a Domination win, it won't be a very fast Domination anyway. And the map is very commerce-rich, as we have noted, which of course suits Space Race. And, finally, I am getting pretty sick of going for Domination/Conquest anyway. So: We're heading for space! However, we will still go to war for more land, because more land equals higher score. Only, our main focus will be on research and infrastructure from now on.

320 AD - We meet Greece and Arabia. We are now building Copernicus' Observatory in Emerita.

330 AD - We discover Feudalism and start Invention (4 turns). Luanda completes Forbidden Palace.

350 AD - We meet Rome.

360 AD - We meet England, so now we have contacted all rival civs.

370 AD - Invention discovered, Gunpowder started (4 turns).

410 AD - Gunpowder discovered, Chemistry started (5 turns). We find we have two sources of Salpeter. Ourique founded in the NE.

430 AD - Goa founded, filling up land in former Spain. The English build Leeds on top of a source of Spices on the island SE of our continent. Our Carrack carrying our Settler that way arrived ONE turn too late to claim the luxury. Our Settler nevertheless land on the island, and spots a goody hut.

440 AD - The hut gives 50 gold.

450 AD - Diu founded close to Madrid.

460 AD - Chemistry discovered, Physics started (5 turns).

490 AD - Tavira founded next to a source of Iron on the island in the SE.

510 AD - Physics discovered, Magnetism started (5 turns).

560 AD - Magnetism discovered, Metallurgy started (4 turns). We can now trade overseas: We give some mixed Luxuries to the Mayans for Gems.

600 AD - Metallurgy dicovered. We decide to go for Military Tradition at this point. It could be seen as a waste of 4 turns of research since we are going for a Space Race victory, but the Cavalry will be very effective against the Spears and Pikes of our opponents, in our quest to increase the size of our land. Metallurgy renders The Statue of Zeus obsolete. We send the 5 Ancient Cavalry we have to the SE island, in an attampt to take some land and, especially, get hold of those Spices.

620 AD - Emerita completes Copernicus' Observatory. As calculated, this triggers the start of our Golden Age!

630 AD - Our Ancient Cavary attack and capture Brighton!

640 AD - We discover Military Tradition, start Banking (4 turns). Three Horsemen upgraded to Cavalry.

650 AD - We capture Leeds, with the Spices. Two more Horsemen upgraded to Cavalry, and we still have five more Horsemen to upgrade as soon as we find the funds. We also have 6 cities which have completed their Barracks + Courthouse + Library + University combo, and are now building Cavalry in 4 to 7 turns each. We're thinking of attacking Arabia, because they have no iron, and neither do their neighbours Korea, and they are still far from researching Gunpowder. We'll make sure the Koreans (who are weaker than Arabia) are drawn into the war, and if it stalls, we'll just switch sides and continue to work on Korea instead. The goal is to take as much land as possible with as few units as possible. Arabia are pretty strong in culture, so we will have to look out for flips.

660 AD - Our Ancient Cavalry destroy Norwich, chasing the English off the island.

680 AD - Banking completed, start Theory of Gravity (4 turns).

690 AD - We sign a peace treaty with England for some Gold.

700 AD - We declare war on Arabia, and land 9 Cavalry on their western peninsula. Korea happily joins us in an alliance against the Arabs, and even PAY us 16 Gold for it (no, they were not at war already, but perhaps earlier). The resistance finally ends in Leeds - we of course hurry a Harbor.

710 AD - Our Cavalry have no problem at all dealing with the Spearmen and Archers in Baghdad, Aden and Yamama. Nine attacks, nine wins, and three cities are added to the Portuguese republic!

720 AD - We discover Theory of Gravity and ENTER THE INDUSTRIAL AGE.

-- Roland

 

[rrau]

open, fixed barbs (but useless as I don't think I ever saw a barb this game )

I left off in the AA with a failed attack on Spain's capital - should have taken it, but real bad rng and a city had flipped back to them on the same turn so they now have 2 cities.

320ad ibt entered MA

360ad unbelievable, failed again there were 3 one hp spears left and I had 3 5hp elite horsemen there. I thought I would take the city, but no, they killed off all 3 of my elite horses and 2 vet horses. This a size 6 city and I'm not attacking across the river so I should have captured the city. I also don't have any elites left

500ad finally captured Madrid

550ad finally destroyed the Spanish, start 2 suicide galleys on their way
ibt built the Great Library (had cascaded to it)

560ad meet maya

580ad met Greece and England

620ad met Rome

900ad England demands education - no way lizzie

1250ad entered IA

 

[MikeH]

The story so far: we ended the Ancient age by capturing 3 Spanish towns, including Madrid, with archers and getting the final AA tech, HBR, in the peace treaty in 350BC. Madrid contains the Colossuse and the Statue of Zeus. We have contact with the Koreans and the Arabs.

My plans were to build up a force of swords and Ancient Cavalry and finish off Spain and then continue on my quest for a Space Race victory and hopefullly a better score than I managed in COTM05.

The first problem that I faced was that Madrid had shrunk when I captured it so the iron and ivory are now outside the borders so I started a library in Madrid to force expansion, unfortunately Madrid is as corrupt as a politician, so I'll have to cash rush the library as soon as I can afford it. On the positive side the horses I've taken from the Spanish are now hooked up, so I started building horsemen in the meantime.

I allowed the 20 turn peace with Spain to expire and declared war again and finally wiped out the Spanish in 420 AD with little problem. The only slight set- back was when I captured Spain's second capital and the new capital was established next to one of my newly settled towns causing it to culture flip to the Spanish, but it was easily recaptured.

The position after the fall of Spain

Other highlights:

520 AD - A suicide galley encounters the Mayan border and we establish contact and trade Chivalry for Engineering, Unfortunately the galley has ended its turn in an ocean square and sinks next turn.

750 A new suicide galley makes it across to the third continent.

760 We meet the Greeks, but they have nothing to trade. I start research on Printing Press to indulge in a bit of profitable contact trading

780 - We meet the English, but they also have nothing to trade.

840 - Printing Press comes in so I trade:

Contact with the Greeks to the Koreans for 21gpt and 41g
Contact with the Koreans to the English for contact with the Romans and 9g.

I now have contact will all other civs. I'm ahead in score, but the Mayans are way ahead in the culture race. I have the largest land area, 19% to the Romans 16%, and the largest share of world population, 27% to the Koreans 15%.

I start researching the Banking - Economics route

880 - More comm. trading: I trade contact with the Maya to the Koreans in return for 2 gpt and 64 gold. Thanks to careless clicking I give the Arabs contact with the Mayans for free. The Arabs love me. Everybody else is broke.

890 - We now have embassies with everyone.

1040 - We complete Smiths in Lisbon and trigger our Golden Age.

1080 - End of the Middle Ages, unfortunately I've been a bit dilatory in settling fishing villages in the tundra to the north and the Mayans establish a city up there. It looks like another war is in the offing.

Side note: I never got to experience Portugal's wonderful UU. I did start building a carrack, but I got my GA from Smiths and Magnrtism caused the build to switch to a galleon .

 

[grs]

OPEN - no noAIPatrol setting.

ancient age spoiler

I elimiated Spain in 190AD and was already researching Astronomy then. I got the Colossus and The Great Lighthouse from Spain in Madrid and therefore placed the Forbidden Palace in Barcelona. I settled all of the starting isle and triggerd my golden age with Copernicus' Observatory close to the end of the middle ages (it forced the game to recheck my wonders and the captured Lighthouse triggered it). I entered the industrial times at 720AD, still in my golden age.

The city in the center is settled on spices. These enable me to research at 90% right now - without any temples.

 

[Greebley]

Ancient age recap:
Spain demanded Writing and I refused leading to an early war. I eliminated Spain in the ancient age (370BC). This took about 200 years longer than it would have otherwise due to an inopportune flip of Madrid.

------------

The middle ages were very peaceful for me. I took a more relaxed pace toward expansion to other continents, building infra instead of units.

In 610 AD, I completed the statue of Zeus which gave me a Golden Age. Spain never even started it.

In 990 (two turns before the industrial age), I declared war on Greece, 1000 AD, I claimed my first off continent city.

I entered the Industial age in 1010 AD.

 

[horragoth]

Ancient Times

War with Spain

In 350 BC i have finally connected horses and started building horsemen to prepare war with Spain. This effort was augmented by Golden Age starting in 230 BC after building Lighthouse in Lisbon. The war vs Spain was declared in 190 BC, which was rather early from the point of view of my offensive capabilities (10 horsemen built and some 5 in production) but I was researching Chivalry and thus I needed the iron desperately and the Spanish just completed Statue of Zeus in Madrid.

Madrid was captured in 10 AD, and the iron resource was conected by colony in 30 AD. My research was set to 10% towards Engineering since finishing Chivalry in 50 BC, so I started upgrade horsemen to Knights. In 150 AD Spain has still contact only with me so I could conclude peace with them for 3 minor hardly reacheable cities and break the peace immediately without consequences. COnquest was finished in 170 AD.

Invading Arabia

My military production was quite good having both SoZ and KT in my posession, thus I started transport forces to Arabia. I had the ROP with Arabs which I planned to abuse, which I did in 350 AD. My invasion army consisted of Knights, Crusaders, and Ancient Cavalries.

I concluded an alliance with Korea. Arabs were quite backwards and their Spearmen didn't offer much protection, and so they were destroyed by 480 AD. The turn after, Koreans decided they must have one of our recently captured cities and DoWed us. The war was quite difficult despite Koreans had no Iron. I however suffered from overextension, having no defensive units on Arabian continent (and no reserves at home). I immediately started to produce Pikemen in my core cities to be transported to conquered territory, but the conquest was slow and a threat of Korean cities culture flipping was imminent (actually one city flipped). The I decided to make an all-out attack on Koreans not leaving any units for garrison duty on their continents which saved me from losing units in case of cultural flip and proved too much for Korean defenses. They were destroyed in 630 AD

Invading 3rd Continent

After conquering Korea, I still needed to conquer 2-3 nations to dimination. In 750 AD when I was able to transport troops, the choices were as follows:
Rome: Legions, MIs, Pikemen, Great Wall, far from gunpowder tech
Maya: MIs, Pikemen, small territory, not far from Gunpowder
Greece: Musketmen, Large, no Iron,
English: just acquired Gunpowder, no Iron
I decided to attack English who could be easily accessed as well as got rid of their salpeter resouce below Liverpool city (see figure after 1st turn of war)

They had only a couple of Musketmen. Spearmen let them live until 850 AD, no more.
Greece was invaded immediately after. Rest of troops from English campain attacked through the land bridge, new troops were ferried from north near the Maya border. I have brought some trebuchets along, because Greeks had several musketmen in each city. So far I had only one great leader which formed army during Arabian campaign. Unfortunately, I filled it full with 3 units and so it could not leave the continent. During this war, the luck changed. In the time period 950 - 980 i have got another 3 GLs and the three armies make the greek campaign less difficult than anticipated.
In the very end I have taken 2 cities from Maya to get beyond the Domination limit quickly.

Game: COTM 06
Game status: Domination Victory for Portugal
Game date: 1030 AD
Firaxis score: 6128
Jason score: 9788
Time played: 23:51:31

 

[DJMGator13]

Link to my AA post

First MA period of Inactivity* (750BC to 110BC)
My MA started in 750BC with me gifting the Greeks into the MA and trading for Monotheism. From here it is a relatively quite period as I stop producing settlers, let my barracks complete and build up my stable of horses. I also allowed Spain to continue to expand and waited until most of their cities grew to size 2. I was hoping to build the Great Lighthouse during this period also, but unfortunately I got beat to it, by Spain. My FP completes in 390BC, I learn Feudalism in 370BC and in 110BC my military looks like this.

Spanish War (110BC to 110AD)
Issue DOW on Spain (12 cities) in 110BC and autoraze 2 recently formed cities that first turn. In 70BC I learned Chivalry and also capture my 2nd Spanish city and their horse supply. I capture 2 more cities and generate my first Great Leader in 10BC. In 50AD Barcelona deposes back to Spain, I quickly recapture it along with Madrid, which gives me control of the Colossus, the Great Lighthouse and Spanish Iron. I capture another city the next turn and then sue for peace gaining their last size 1 city. Naturally they demand I remove my troops, which I refuse to do, so we go back to war and in 110AD I capture the last Spanish city. During this period I turn my science to 0% and hire a scientist for research.

Second Period of MA Inactivity (120AD to 330AD)
During this period I was hoping to complete the TOA but again I got beat to it, so my original Lighthouse build now is set to Sun Tzu (which completes in 330AD). After the Spanish War I only have a few galleys (poor planning), so I start rushing some and also upgrade my horses to knights. I complete SOZ in 270AD and trigger my Golden Age. In 330AD I order my invasion fleet of 10 galleys to head east to Arabia.

Arabian War (340AD to 440AD)
Issue DOW on Arabia (12 cities) in 340AD, establish an embassy with Korea and sign them into a ROP and a MA versus Arabia. In 350AD I load 2 more knights into my Army and capture 3 cities. I capture 2 more by 370AD including their capital with the Hanging Gardens. In 380AD Medina deposes back, I recapture it along with 2 more cities the same turn. I gain 3 more cities the next 2 turns and eliminate Arabia in 440AD.

Korean War (470AD to 550AD)
Learned something new: my ROP with Korea ended because it was signed as part of the MA deal, should have signed as a separate deal for the ROP. I renew the ROP anyhow and start positioning troops by Korean cities. My GA ends in 470AD and I issue DOW on Korea (16 cities) the same turn. I capture 3 cities and generate my 2nd Great Leader the first turn. Steadily progress through their cities and in 520AD I generate my 3rd Great Leader. I capture the last 2 Korean cities in 550AD and turn my eye towards the long continent to the south.

Third period of semi-inactivity (560AD to 660AD)
I call this semi-inactivity only because there was no actual fighting. However, I am actually positioning troops for a ROP rape of Rome. I can safely cross the ocean using the yellow path in the above map. I have also signed ROP with all 4 remaining civs.

Roman War (670AD to 710AD)
Issue DOW on Rome (13 cities) in 670AD and capture 6 cities that turn. I just failed in my attempt at a 7th city; Pompeii still had a single redlined unit. Capture 5 more cities the next 3 turns. I capture the 12th city in 710AD and make peace with Rome who has been relegated to the small island. I could have gotten the city via a peace deal but had no units to defend it with and England had cities next to it. (I later capture this city in 840AD.)

English War (710AD to 790AD)
Issue DOW on England (11 cities) in 710AD, capturing 2 cities including Newcastle. I can now drop off units directly in the city. By 740AD I have captured 4 more cities including London with the Great Wall. I completely eliminate the English in 790AD.

Greek War (780AD to 840AD)
Issue DOW on Greece (10 cities) in 780AD. Greece has actually built a fortress on the chokepoint, so I have a good battle here to capture the fortress. By 820AD I have captured 3 cities including Athens with the TOA and Sistine Chapel. I also generate my 4th Great Leader that turn. In 840AD Greece landed 2 units by an undefended city so I make peace with them after capturing Sparta and Pharsalos with the Knight Templar.

Mayan War (830AD to 850AD)
I only need 53 tiles for domination so I issue DOW on Maya (17 cities) in 830AD. I capture their city on the small island in 840AD to kick off the war. As it turns out this is the only city I need. Having founded a few cities in the former English lands and having captured the TOA, my empire is now 27 tiles over the domination limit.

* Note: I referenced 3 periods of “inactivity” above mainly to stress that had I planned and positioned troops (ships) better I could have won the game much earlier than I did.