Conquests 01: First Spoiler. End of ancient age.

[Offa]

Predator
-------------------------
Hi everyone I'm new here, so glad to join you


by the year 1000BC, Hittitis has risen peacefully and we are the most powerful
Treasury: 443
Warriors : 19
spearman: 1
worker: 6
settler: 1
citys: 12
population: 22

That is an amazing start. How did you squeeze so many settlers out? I clearly have to learn a great deal about how to start in an area without much food. The gotm settler factories have spoilt me.

 

[ShaoKai]

Thanks very much ainwood !
i have followed your instruction, but when 'Upload Result' came up, i can't find my file in the index of upload7
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OK, let's talk about the game


the war against Arabia began, when we attacked the town with only one pop, it was ruined(but sometime not)(I don't know the rule that decide whether a town should be ruined, any one tell me?) so i only attacked their capital, this take turns to move the forces.

110BC ruin a town and got Leader Supiluliumas, he was going to hurry up the Forbidden Palace later.

70AD
The Great Lighthouse project in Ankuwa will be done in 1 turn, consider the situation of our nation,you see, trasport net is still under construction, the technology not allow us to build fast units. if we enter a golden age at this time

160AD
we entered the middle age, i had reduced the expanses of researching to gain gold to update units and buy city improvements, if not, the middle age would come earlier.
Hattusas have built the Great Pyramids, and 10 turns to the Mausoleum of Mausollos.
yet i have 24 citys and maybe 100 more or less population(how to know the total population of your nation? count it one by one?)


320AD
Arabia left just one village and i was thinking about economy and my people's life, But Sumeria declared war on us, Gilgamesh was crazy or something? It didn't make any sence! I was totally shocked! Our forces were all fortify in the north, it take long time too transport them and the worse was that we still not conected to the horse, so i sign a military alliance with Babylon...
here is my forces in 150AD

 

[scoutsout]

Hey - any of you guys have problems with Sumerian culture in this game? (Yes, I lost a few more troops to culture flips... but not the whole dang army this time...)

 

[ShaoKai]

That is an amazing start. How did you squeeze so many settlers out? I clearly have to learn a great deal about how to start in an area without much food. The gotm settler factories have spoilt me.

the first thing I do when settle is let the worker irrigate and then clear trees for the granary. and Tarsus which get from GH help a lot, let a city build settler when it has the ability(pop 3 before the settler is done), the 3th city built SE by the river has food plain....and i bought 3 workers from other civs and join them to the city because they need hundreds of years to build a road

 

[Tech Step]

I must admit that I liked the fact that the techs cost so much. the actual arrival of the techs coincided with the time that they did in the real world.

 

[champain]

Predator

What a challenging starting location! I don't think that I've played such a low food starting location for a long time. I see from reading this thread that some people have moved around for quite a long time to find a better capital location. I look forward to the QSC comparisons between those that continued their nomadic lifestyle for a couple of hundred years and those, like myself, who just tried to make the most of the immediate surroundings.

My initial scout moved NW then N and didn't see any land more fertile than the forest and plains next to the settler. So the settler moved north and founded Hattusas in 3950 BC, exposing dyes two the NE, and started building a scout. Priority one was for the worker to road and irrigate its way to those dyes, to keep that luxury slider on zero and make the most of the gold from the river.

Hattusas:

I set production to scout, scout (completed by chop), warrior, worker, barracks. I sent the warrior up to Tarsus to be an MP because it didnt have the benefit of a luxury within its borders and the road connection wouldn't be set up in time.
In 3850 BC my scout popped a hut to the NW of Hattusas. It turned out to be a friendly tribe, so Tarsus was founded. It was ordered to build scout, worker, warrior, scout, settler.

The Arabs

The first pink border was spotted in the north on grassland with a game and two rivers nearby (lucky!). I traded alphabet for ceremonial burial +10g. This was unfortunate as I had been researching this myself and was only a few turns away from finishing. New research target was mysticism.

In 3050 BC the scout noticed a settler with a warrior escort emerge from Mecca. I immediately decided to try to intercept it before it founded and sent the three warriors from Hattusas and Tarsus east to battle. Unfortunately the Arab settler founded Medina on a hill next to a river.

I decided to press on because they had not yet discovered bronze working and I was envious of their grasslands. Medina was crushed in 2670 BC for the loss of only one hitpoint from one of my warriors. These same warriors dispatched the remaining mobile Arab troops (three regular warriors) outside the borders of Mecca, but this cost the lives of two warriors, leaving just one elite.

Tarsus and Hattusas started producing archers to capture Mecca which was now guarded by regular spearmen. My military in 2350 BC had:

-1 elite warrior.
-2 veteran archers.
-2 regular archers.
-3 workers.
-2 scouts.

I captured Mecca in 1700 BC, but by this stage the Arabs had appeared with another city, Damascus in the south. Shortly after this an archer sent to fight barbarians in the desert in the south noticed three arab archers marching towards my capital! Damascus was founded the turn after I captured Mecca which made me wonder: is restarting eliminated civs on? They couldn't have built three archers so fast, surely. I immediately made peace in exchange for the Arab city of Baghdad and 91 gold. Hattusas and Tarsus set production to granaries to begin the expansion. During the latter stages of the war Ugarit, Hattusha and Harran were founded.

At the end of the QSC period, this was the situation:

- 10 workers
- 2 slaves
- 5 archers
- 8 warriors
- 8 cities
- 16 citizens
- 3 barracks
- 2 granaries
- 75 shields for FP prebuild
- 333 gold

My notes stop at 1000 BC, but I can go over the late AA events generally. I expanded as quickly as I could, joining up spices and incense to please the people, as well as iron and horses for military developement. I also had a couple of archers in the tundra in the north dispersing barbarian camps at regular intervals and collecting gold to horde in my palace in Hattusas. I didn't know about the free tech from philosophy, but I muddled my way to the end of the ancient age in 110 AD with the help of a few techs from huts and a few from the Sumerians and Babylonians in the south. I revolted to republic and got started on a military.

I also decided that I would eliminate the Arabs, Sumerians and Babylonians, hopefully before they informed the rest of the world of my obvious lack of morality and my backstabbing. So I built up a decent sized military composed of 19 swordsmen, 17 warriors some for garrisoning and some for upgrading, 6 two man chariots for starting the golden age and upgrading eventually and four archers.

The world at 110 AD:

 

[Grazzit]

This is the first time i have made a post for a Gotm, I have played the last 2.

I have been playing conquests since it came out so I was ready for this, but i haven't played stock rules in a long time .

I am at work so plz forgive the things i miss and no pictures. my 2nd post will have more info

I moved 1 square north and settled on the river with dye in my 2 square radius. I started with:

Warrior
Scout
Scout
worker
Granery
then settlers till rex was done

I used my workers to chop down the forests to speed up my granery building
and then irrigated.

My 2nd city was to the north and a little east with 4 squares between cities. Both have 4 irrigated squares with roads. My second city went:

Warrior
Barracks
archer
archer
archer
swordsman
Repeating swordsman forever

I have found the other races and have my eye on the land of the arabs, and their HORSES!!!

I really missed the chance to use the 3 man chariot but horses were to far away and i didn't find them till the arabs already had them.

As it stands i have 8 cities, 1 settler farm, 1 worker/defender farm, and 6 making swordsmen

edit: I started almost in the exact spot as champain, oh i wish i had scouted east instead fo north and west first

 

[Detlef Richter]

I'm a little surprised that majority went for early war path at regent level. For me there was room to expand and I wanted AI to build wonders.

I made the same decision. Because i found no horses in my territorium and an early but short war against the summerian shows bad conditions for attackers.
Many many losses against theire UU.

 

[Detlef Richter]

Hey - any of you guys have problems with Sumerian culture in this game? (Yes, I lost a few more troops to culture flips... but not the whole dang army this time...)

Yes, a few rounds after capturing an sumerian city, they went back.This happens three times. So i decided to raize them all and build a new one of my one.

 

[Stile]

This is my first GOTM attempt in awhile. (Actually my last one was the Germans that the SGOTM is playing.) I chose Predator since I normally play Monarch games.

I founded my 1st city one tile north on the river and used lumber to build 2 extra scouts, and a granary before my first settler. I concentrated on expansion and while it felt like I was going very slow I was able to out expand the AI. I did well with the goody huts getting techs. But the Arabs and Sumerians kept demanding techs for which I appeased them. I always feel ashamed to do so, but all I had was warriors and spearmen at the time. I got a free town south of Sumeria next to the horses. I concentrated on getting them back to the capital, but failed to get them by the time the Arabs sneak attacked me.

I had Iron during their sneak attack, but only a token force of maybe 5 or 6 swordsmen. They destroyed one of my desert towns (archers from the south returning from barb hunting) and captured a town near my capital with warriors. But the RNG turned on them and I recaptured my town. I also razed and subsequently claimed a town near the incense and flood plains on the East coast. I sued for peace and was surprised to take Damascus reasonably near their capital. I gave techs to get Babylon and Sumeria in the war. Babylon dodged out early, and Sumeria couldn't provide much help for distance reasons. I pop rushed harbors to get the horses up north, but foolishly missed a tile near the coast (next to where the four game are lined up) that was unmapped. By the time I got a galley out there, I suspected I may have lost the effectiveness of my UU. Fortunately the tech pace is very slow. I had one more minor war against the Arabs when they refused to leave my land and captured a town and won a small offshoot of their empire in negotiations. The main purpose of the war was to start my GA since I had just switched to Monarchy. I probably should have waited a little longer to get more popualtion, because I was disappointed by the effect. I don't dare to go at war for long against the Arabs, since we share a large border, and they have a good amount of Swordsmen.

Babylon tried to take my one horse town towards the end of the AA, but my 3-man Chariot held his ground, until I could bring up Pikemen. Currently, I am at war with Babylon. Sumeria (a good ally) is at war with Babylon and the Arabs. Sumeria now has Iron and their horses will soon be connected. I am beginning to worry, that my knights who have just taken two towns from Babylon will not be alone on the battlefield, and Sumeria also has a dominating culture lead, about 1900 to 1200 (me). Sumeria has several wonders. Arabs have ToA. I have just built the Templar and plan on taking out the Arabs and Babylon with it.

I am only about 6 techs into the MA at about 700AD. Two suicidal galleys sank just short of discovery. Sometimes I think the computer is just teasing me. I have three Iron, control of all of the desert (I'm expecting big things as far as oil and saltpetre go), and 3 luxs with spices soon to be added. I'd say I control 35-40% of the continent. No luck with leaders here either. I've had about 20 Elite victories.

 

[col]

Well after a long gap I figured it was time to have another go at GOTM. Conquests too.

I guess everyone will move to the river first go. Settled there. Pumped out lots of scouts as fast as possible and tried to reach every goodie hut on the continent. I think I probably made it. Lots of tech, money and an early settler.

Established a tech lead that I was never in the slightest danger of losing. After the initial round of trades I dont think the Ai ever researched anything for me after that. Didnt get horses but lots of iron. Once the 'good' land had gone I built MIs. Allow the Ai to build cities in the deserts - good way to identify later resources . Excellently the key wonder ie Pyramids was built on the home continent. Near enough to take too. Took out the Arabs with MIs and the rest of the continent in due course.

 

[dojoboy]

Hey - any of you guys have problems with Sumerian culture in this game? (Yes, I lost a few more troops to culture flips... but not the whole dang army this time...)

Absolutely! They've built:

Great Library
Oracle
MA Wonder
Great Wall
MA Wonder
MA Wonder
Temple of Artemis

I opted not to hand build any GWs early on, that, coupled with purposely building courthouses, barracks, and marketplaces rather than temples put me in a big hole, for I was looking to war. But, the RNG gods were not pleased with me. :still raging:

Sumeria's culture is dwarfing the entire world's combined. They've also been real uppity about it, having instigated three wars against me. But, that is for the next spoiler.

 

[ShaoKai]

Sumerian's capital is a great location, it will be our capital in my plan

 

[quant jock]

Last month was my first GOTM, this is my first time playing Conquests. I played the low division again, but it didn't help much. I haven't played hundreds of games, but this was a really bad starting position. This did not make for a fun game.

I moved my settler across the river and founded my capital. My scouts went N/NW and S/SE following the rivers, looking for better sites for my next city. Even with my poor worker chopping down trees and irrigating like crazy, it took a very long time to build my first settler. The trees speeded up a granary and barracks and units. I got really frustrated with the slow pace of research until I found out about the tech bug, and then it was only mildly frustrating.

My scouts had good luck with the goodie huts, but in two cases, the luck was TOO good. I ended up with a couple of techs, a little gold, and 2 cities so far away from my capital that they might as well have not been part of my empire. The tech from the goodie huts put me slightly ahead of my three continent-mates, so I couldn't even give the useless cities away for anything of value.

My one big break came from building my new cities along the rivers that bisected the map. I had effectively contained the Arabs to one side of me, and the Sumerians and Babylonians were on the other side. Those two had lots of intermingled settlements and I kept waiting for a nice war between the two, but it didn't happen. I targeted the Arabs for extermination, and was able to pull it off with lots of swordsmen. I deliberately did not build my UU (it does not look that great to be honest), because I did not want an early Golden Age.

My war with the Arabs went nicely, and just when I took their capital, I was attacked by the Sumerians, who had built an enormous empire. With all my forces on the wrong side of my empire, I was in a lot of trouble. I desperately met with the Babylonians and paid an exhorbitant price to bring them into the war with me. Our two empires combined were probably still smaller than the mighty Sumerian empire, so things looked grim. And then, the Ancient Age ended...

 

[Offa]

Predator


I captured Mecca in 1700 BC, but by this stage the Arabs had appeared with another city, Damascus in the south. Shortly after this an archer sent to fight barbarians in the desert in the south noticed three arab archers marching towards my capital! Damascus was founded the turn after I captured Mecca which made me wonder: is restarting eliminated civs on?

I am pretty sure respawning is on. I also took out the Arab capital (a fair bit later than you) when they were apparently down to one town and they appeared to respawn in the south west near the gems. They seem to have been given a fair few extra troops in the south at the time, but the Arabs that had been wandering around in the north were seen no more.

 

[dojoboy]

...., I was attacked by the Sumerians, who had built an enormous empire. With all my forces on the wrong side of my empire, I was in a lot of trouble. I desperately met with the Babylonians and paid an exhorbitant price to bring them into the war with me. Our two empires combined were probably still smaller than the mighty Sumerian empire, so things looked grim. And then, the Ancient Age ended...

Yes, yes, I feel your pain. The same happened to me. I shudder to think what could have been if this was emperor or higher.

 

[dmanakho]

Hey - any of you guys have problems with Sumerian culture in this game? (Yes, I lost a few more troops to culture flips... but not the whole dang army this time...)

I was suprised, i didn't lose any single city due to culture flips.
Sumerians were the second advanced Civilization after me, but they had a little bit more culture, they managed to build few wonders and I only had two - GB and great wall.

 

[dmanakho]

Absolutely! They've built:

Great Library
Oracle
Great Wall
----edited---
...
...
----end of edit
Temple of Artemis

I opted not to hand build any GWs early on, that, coupled with purposely building courthouses, barracks, and marketplaces rather than temples put me in a big hole, for I was looking to war. But, the RNG gods were not pleased with me. :still raging:

Sumeria's culture is dwarfing the entire world's combined. They've also been real uppity about it, having instigated three wars against me. But, that is for the next spoiler.

Oops... This is not apropriate post... It should be a spoiler only for AA, and you mention some MA wonders.... Against the rules

 

[dojoboy]

Oops... This is not apropriate post... It should be a spoiler only for AA, and you mention some MA wonders.... Against the rules

Yikes! I guess you're right. I was ass-u-ming GWs were common knowledge. I'll edit just the same. Thanks.

Oh, edit my quote in your post.

 

[al_thor]

What surprised me the most was Babylon's inability to spread & produce his normal culture. That is until I got a good view of his starting location - all Flood Plains and desert (a little bit of Plains) - no shield production for him. It was very humorous to actually get TWO Babylonian cities through Culture Flip to me. Expansionist/Commercial, and I'm absorbing the Culture King (Religious/Scientific)!!

The AI did not research Literature, but I did and I would not sell it to anyone until I had like 5 or 6 Libraries.

Overall, this has been a great game. My first GOTM.

I'm almost to the end of the Middle Age. I know everyone and have a complete World Map (I have not shared my Map yet - it's worth big $$). Babylon is the only one left on 'my' continent, and I will be wiping him out very soon (he only has like 4 cities). I own almost all of the GW's to date, either through conquest or (most recently) building.

I am ahead by about 2 Techs. Defintely ahead in Culture, Power and Score. I guess it's now that I have to decide on type of Victory. Probably will go with Domination or Conquest, as they will be the quickest.

I have not declared war on anyone. Sumeria declared on me, and I got Arabia and Babylon to join me against him. Initially, it was touch and go, but, having no Iron, Sumeria finally caved. End of Sumeria. Then, some years later, Arabia declared on me. Babylon was weak so I left him out of it. I just finished conquering the Arabs. I did not renew my ROP with Babylon, but I still think I might have to outright declare on him. Oh well, it will be over for him in 2 or 3 turns once the war starts. I have 2 Knight Armies and 1 Army of Midevil Infantry. Pentagon will be done in like 5 or 6 turns. Heroic Epic already built.