Conquests 01: First Spoiler. End of ancient age.

[Jason Fliegel]

Didn’t build any UU’s for the longest time.

By the time I had horses, cavalry tech was available. So I never built a UU until I had tanks, at which point I thought "This is ridiculous -- I haven't had a Golden Age yet." So I built a single UU, found the longbowman the Summerians had landed on my shore with an invasion force of Riflemen and Guerillas, and killed him.

 

[handy900]

I got one settler, one new town from Goody Huts.

I got 1 settler & 2 towns from huts. Both towns were poor locations. One of the towns was the exact location Scoutsout got a settler from.

So... is it just pure random chance to get a town versus a settler?

After reasing all the posts, I realize my GOTM needs a lot of work. It took me to 1305 to get domination.

 

[scoutsout]

So... is it just pure random chance to get a town versus a settler?

I don't know how that works, but I personally don't like getting a town. It seems I always get one a long distance away, right on the doorstep of some friendly bugger like Brennus or Monty. When I first started playing C3C, I got a town on the other side of russia from my empire. (Come to think of it, I was playing Hittites then too...) The town was sandwiched between Russia and Celts. Lo and behold, it had iron. That one got ugly, because I actually settled 3 other towns in the area, and defended them when Brennus came calling...

 

[pindicator]

After a two month hiatus from GOTMs, I'm back for the inaugeration of the COTM series (I'd offer a better name, but I can't think of one). With regent skill, i figured I'd attack early and often, but I still managed to show a little more reluctance to attack early in the game.

This is the first XOTM game I've played that did not have a settler factory at the start, which I'm glad for. I moved the settler E and then NE after I saw a mysetery bonus tile which later turned out to be dyes. I made scouts like mad, and ended up popping 7 goody huts, which gave me 4 warriors, CB, BW, & HBR.

QSC Stats @ 1000BC:
7 Cities
2 settlers, 4 workers, 2 scouts, and 8 warriors
BW, Mas, Alph, Pot, Wheel, WC, CB, IW, Math, Writing, Myst, Phil, MM, and HBR.
4% of world area and 20% of world popuation

Arabia did their best to piss me off early. I caved into several demands, as I had forgone major military for an early expansion. I knew who my first target would be, though, however I was still just gearing up for an eventful Middle Ages. I finally hooked up my iron at 470BC and immediately began upgrading and pumping swords and cats. In 130BC I entered the Middle Ages, just turns away from launching my first assault.

 

[AdHHH]

CQOTM, Open Class

Only my second CQOTM/GOTM, but at Im comfortable-ish at Regent, so I went for Open. I was a little underwhelmed (sp?) by the Civ choice, Ive never played as the Hittites, never even seen the 3 Man Chariot and I generally try to avoid the Commercial trait as I only think it serves as a multiplier (for Militaristic and Scientific). I also missed things on my notes, and missed large periods, AND made other mistakes, which will be revealed later...

4000BC - It all begins. Move the Scout two squares SE, and the Settler North. The worker goes one NE into some trees
3950 - Settle 1 North of the Starting Point. Worker starts chopping, I pick Writing because it i can go for 50 turns and with this all the goody huts will reveal other techs.
3850 - Following the river ESE, I find 2 Incense
3750 - Finish a Scout, move North West in the opposite direction to the other Scout.
3650 - Pop a settler, going to settle 3 SE from capital, following river
3500 - Pop a map. Have West to East scouted from capital, it's a wide continent. West Scout goes north and finds some Gems. Meet Arabs, get Ceremonial Burial and 10g for Alphabet. Mecca is on the NE coast, and has Horses
3400 - Settle Tarsus (2nd City), there are also Spices near Mecca, I begin building a road between the cities.
3200 - Warrior built.
3050 - Pop a map
2950 - Free Warrior Code
2850 - Granary in capital, although it's no Settler Factory
2430 - There are now Dyes in the Hittite kingdom! Meet the Babylonians, swap Alphabet for Bronze Working and 10g
2390 - Barracks in the capital, Spearman next.
2350 - Meet the Sumerians, they have nothing to trade but are ahead on points.
2230 - Two free techs in a turn! Mysticism and Masonry
2150 - Pop a map
2110 - Give Arabs a 26g tribute. We are equal on tech now. I am 3rd of 4 on points; 89, 82, 77, 75
1990 - WIth my 3rd Settler decide to grab Incense in East, plan to settle on Hill
1950 - Get a free Warrior, Babylon is next to Floodpain Wheat!!!!
1750 - Pop another Warrior
1725 - Get Writing! Move to Philosophy, have loads of cash so establish all possible Embassies.
1700 - Settle Ugarit, will use to make settlers
1650 - After destroying about the fifth barb camp, I realise my conscript warriors will never be promoted
1625 - With Settler 4 i shall make a city between Ugarit and Tarsus on the river
1525 - Settle Haran
1475 - Trade Writing for 86g
1450 - Build a Worker in Ugan, my warrior finally gets promoted!
1400 - Pop 50g
1275 - A settler from the capital moves 2N1E to settle there. A settler from Tarsus will move to the rover mouth in the NW, so I know have the Arabs geographically encircled. I thought i could cut them off, then kill them off, the only worry is that the Sumerians will get involved and I will be fighting on 2 huge fronts.
1250 - Incense road linked to Empire
1200 - Settle Hattusha
1125 - Philosophy first! Get Map Making because I need to contact other Civs (I'd heard the Portugese had built SoZ so guessed they'd be strong). Choose Wheel after that, for UU.
1050 - Swap Philosophy for 180g and Maths, sell Map Making for 265g.
1025 - Settle Tyrana, although it's miles from my Empire!
925 - Get Wheel, have no horses so choose Iron Working
850 - Spot some Horses close to Bad Tibira, will go for them. Settle Aleppo.
775 - Ankuwa founded, operation encircle the Arabs complete! (Just need to attack them with something better than Archers now...)
690 - Move Settler towards my target Horses
650 - Found Kadesh, Arab borders are now touching mine
630 - Get Iron Working, there's some right next to the capital, thankfully, choose Literature
590 - Trade Iron Working for Polytheism and 60g
510 - Have Iron connected, plan to build Barracks in most productive cities. The Arabs now have 8 cities.
450 - My first Galley sets sail to Scout the Arab coast
430 - Barracks in Tarsus, Swordsmen planned. Settler in West to cover Gems and Iron, Temple planned. The Arabs don't seem to have any Iron...
410 - Oh yes they do.
390 - Get Literature, go for Monarchy
370 - Settle Hubishna, sell Maths for 74g to Sumerians, who have Horses. Babylon have nothing, I am now 2nd overall on points; 251, 207, 193, 167. Sumerians are ahead
350 - Road to Tyrana finished.
330 - 1st Swordsman finished. Im average strength vs. the Arabs
250 - Sell the Arabs Literature for 293g. Found Alaca Huyuk around the Gems and Iron and begin Temple.
190 - Upgrade 2 Warriors to Swordsman, am now strong against Arabs (!)
70 - Get Monarchy, choose Currency. Arabs only have 154g but Babs have Code Of Laws! My war plan against the Arabs is to sweep East and then back round to take the Arab cities, this way I will take Iron and Horses quicker. For this plan my western cities need to be well defended, so I focus on that too.

50 BC-390AD - Forgot to make notes, oops! Anywho, it was probably boring... Call it a Dark Age

I don't recall my MA start date, but my plan is to go Arabs, Sumerians Babs and then move on to the next landmass, which i didn't find in the AA.

 

[DaveMcW]

I didn't feel like crushing the poor Regent AIs, so I almost didn't play this game. But when I learned it was a Conquests game, I decided to try an OCC to see how good tourist attractions are in a super science city.

I started by following the river until I found the coast.



This start location had potential: a luxury, and 5 floodplains and 2 hills that would become as powerful as bonus grassland when improved under Republic. But for now, I was in Despotism, and they were unimproved!

I started research on Writing at min science. It took me until 1675BC to complete my standard OCC build list of warrior, granary, 4x worker.

My scout mapped most of the continent before barbarians got him. He popped lots of maps, a couple golds, a warrior, a settler, and a free town. I abandoned the town and joined the settler to Hattusas.



After discovering Writing, I turned science to the max and raced to get Code of Laws and Philosphy to slingshot to Republic. To get there faster, I built The Colossus which triggered my golden age in 1100BC. The despot penalty hurt, but I still got a significant research boost.



In 800BC I discovered Philosophy, got The Republic for free, and revolted with a 2-turn anarchy. I played the last 6 turns of my golden age in Republic.

The AIs were researching and building very slowly, and I took full advantage. I grabbed the Oracle, Mausoleum, Great Library, and Hanging Gardens before the Temple of Artemis cascade hit, and then I built the Great Lighthouse too.

In 390AD I started building my library, temple and colosseum. I had been focusing exclusively on wonders to get as many tourist attractions as possible. In 420AD I finally got Currency from the Great Library and entered the Middle Ages.

My one city is 4th in GNP and 3rd in productivity!

 

[Sandman2003]

Open

Ok, I started this one quite late, and didn't read any pregame discussion. Hopefully I can finish in time. Since the start was so barren, I looked for better grounds to found my city. I figured I wanted some sort of bonus and could afford a bit of time on Regent. I sent the scout and the worker in opposite directions along the river. The scout followed the desert SE so I would not lose the two movement. The worker crossed the river to the NE, and the settler sort of followed the scout. On the second turn, the scout discovered the first flood plain, so I knew my settler would move there, and so I started heading the worker south as well. One turn latter still the scout revealed even more flood plains, so I settled amongst three in 3750BC.

My build went scout, warrior, setltler, granary with the intention of then being a settler pump. Science was min to writing, then max to Philosophy. With a little bit of trading and a lot of goody huts, I quickly became the science leader.

Those damn Arabs decided to have a go at me very early. At this time I only had my first two cities plus one popped in a goody hut onthe NW coast of the continent - far too far way to help my core. The Arabs turned up with three warriors. I put my whole armed forces in the area - two warriors into my second city and fortified. The Arabs attacked across a river, and we just held out, but I had to change build priorities from settler/worker to two spearmen. This slowed what was obviously going to be a slow start, even further. A little later, after no further war action, I was able to buy the Arabs off for about 30 gold, and start my expansion proper.

By 1000BC we only had about 7 cities, but we were producing settlers and swords every five turns or so. Since our UU was early AA, I decided that we would be going ot war fairly early, and probably remain that way through much of the MA, so I went the Monarchy path, drawing 5 turns of anarchy.

Who to war on? An easy choice really - both the Sumerians and the Babylonians also have an early AA UU, so you are far better off to go against the Arabs. Also I was still smarting from their attack on me! I may have waited longer than necessary to build up my force, because in the end, the Arabs turned out to be a pushover. By the end of the AA, the Arabs are down to two cities. I also used the Arab war to secure their horse resource for my three man chariots, although I delayed their use until the war was half over so I would have more cities to enjoy my GA.

In 400AD we entered the Middle Ages. The ARabs are all but gone. The Baylonians look weak. The Sumerians are culture rich, driven primarily by the temple of Artemis, but they lack iron. We are still in GA, and will shortly be using attack 4 units against their strength 2 units to roll first through them, then finish the babs to consolidate our continent.

 

[ssharlow]

Finally decided to dive back into GOTM for this one even though I knew I probably wouldn't have time to fininish. Even with several 12-2am sessions I still don't qualify for spoiler 2. Just wanted to share my 2 cents. I'm glad I decided to play though, I've missed this.

1. I still don't like moving my settler as much as I need to - I really cringe at moving more than 1 space. I think I did 3 in this one and it was painful.
2. I wasn't expecting respawn to be on so I was thrown when the arabs weren't wiped out - it was probably mentioned somewhere but at 1am - it suprised me.
3. Same for auto-build - "I built a trebucket, there, why did I do that, I really need to go to bed".

Anyway, this was probably my most militaristic game to date, not normally my style. I tried to wipe the Arabs out to secure the northland and they came back in the SE corner. I got a GL and built a sword army that really helped when Sumeria declared war for no good reason. I stupidly enlisted Babs and Arabs as allies and probably handed them their golden age. Sumeria used their golden age incredibly well - squeezing out Babs and arabs and building several wonders - their culture was off the map. I would have been fine with "my" half of the continent had they not been such a powerhouse. I built next to nothing but swords (and later maces) as I knew I had to take them down.

Interesting fact - I captured the temple of Artemis soon before it became obsolete but all my cultureless cites had time to expand before they lost their temporary temples - very nice touch.

Interesting fact 2 - destroying an AI city the same turn it is founded isn't a rep hit as long as you declare first. They must not realize their territory is there until the next turn - based on the autosave not realtime?

Interesting fact 3 - since GL's can't do much but armies and armies are now hugely more powerful - they are going from hardly ever used to always used. I never would have expected that little fact to change my style so much.

Anyway - I got a second GL and then had a sword army and a mace army and the entire continent was mine by 1100 AD - extremely militaristic for me. I now need to build a ton of infrastructure and plan my next move. Most likely scenario is a peaceful un/space race since my rep is still spotless. Of course I'll probably be missing aluminum or something.

Anyway, lots of fun, little time, why can't my kids be raised by wolves - it would give me more time for this.

 

[Dianthus]

QSC (4000BC to 1000BC)

My first moves were to move the Scout South then East and the Worker East to see if I could find any bonuses. I decided to settle North-East of the starting location to get on the river, have access to the plains and forest (for chopping) and not too distant access to the first lux. Having already moved my Scout South I continued searching in that direction and quickly found a Goody Hut in BC3850BC :


By 1000BC I hadn't settled that many towns. We've definitely been spoilt with settler factory starts in previous GOTMs. Luckily this game was only a Regent game! The following shows the world at 1000BC:



I also had a Settler ready to grab the Horses South-West of the Desert, though it was going to be some time before they could be connected up:


My QSC Stats were:
6 towns
17 Population
2 Granaries
2 Barracks
1 Temple
1 Settler
5 Workers
1 Scout
14 Warriors
1 Spearman

4000BC Alphabet (Starting Tech)
4000BC Pottery (Starting Tech)
3650BC Ceremonial Burial (Goody Hut)
2190BC Writing (Researched in 38 turns)
1870BC Bronze Working (Traded)
1870BC Masonry (Traded)
1870BC Warrior Code (Traded)
1870BC Iron Working (Traded)
1625BC Philosophy (Researched in 16 turns)
1625BC Code of Laws (Free Philosophy Tech)
1650BC Mysticism (Traded)
1425BC The Wheel (Researched in 8 turns)
1100BC Mathematics (Researched in 13 turns)

30 turns to Construction


Further peaceful buildup (1000BC-690BC)

There was still plenty of space to settle at this point, so I continued to build. I didn't want to attack the AIs yet as I prefered to let them expand their towns so I could capture rather than raze them when the time came. Looking back I'm not sure what happened to my building period, I only managed to build 1 more Settler and a bunch more warriors . At this point (and indeed even at 1000BC) my military advisor claimed I was strong compared to the AIs:


At this point Arabia demanded Mathematics. I had already given in to their demand for Philosophy in 1550BC and wasn't about to wimp out again, especially as I was so sure about my military strength, and I fully expected them to be bluffing. They weren't, they declared war! I did some quick trading:

Trade Code of Laws+Maths to Babylon for Polytheism, alliance Vs Arabia + 7g.
Trade Code of Laws+Philosophy to Sumeria for alliance Vs Arabia+88g.

Then the fun began .


Arabian Annihilation (690BC-190BC)

I started fairly slowly, just killing any Arabian troops out in the open while I upgraded my Warriors to Swordsmen and building more Swordsmen. Even having this war this late in the game most of the Arabian towns auto-razed, I was only able to capture 2 of them. I got my first MGL in 190BC when taking the last Arabian town, and cursed my stupidity when I found I could rush a GW . I chose to build an army, though in retrospect maybe I should have used it for the Forbidden Palace. Here's a minimap at 190BC:



One other notable occurence during this period, The Sumerians built the Pyramids for me in 530BC [dance].


Little rest break (190BC-70AD)

Next followed a brief rest break while I regrouped. I built some War Chariots during this period. This was partly because I wanted to trigger a Golden Age in the next war, and partly because I wanted to build some units that could be upgraded to more useful units in the future. Here's a minimap showing my meagre growth during this period (spot the difference):



Sumerian Slaughter (70AD-280AD)

Sumeria was the obvious next target having built The Pyramids. I managed to capture 7 of their 11 towns to increase my territory, and also trigger a Golden Age in 70AD with my first War Chariot fight. In 280AD I was poised to take their last town. I offered them peace if they would give me The Republic, but they refused, and I wiped them out:


Looking back at my autosaves I can see I built a whole bunch more Swordsmen (I had 30, built another 20). 30 really should have been enough, and I ended up with far too many useless Swordsmen at the end of it.


More expansion (280AD-380AD)

Next was another brief period of expansion. At around this point one of the AIs must have entered the Middle Ages to cause the barb explosion. Lost a bit of gold here:


In 380AD I researched Horseback Riding to learn the last Ancient Age required tech. I had been hoping Babylon would research this and left it to last, but never mind. My last act of this Spoiler was a bit naughty. I traded Horseback Riding + Currency + Horses + Dyes + Spices + 14gpt to Babylon for Monarchy, then declared war on them .

Here's the final minimap for this spoiler:



A Graph for the 1st Spoiler

Here's my over-the-top-for-regent military for this spoiler period: