Conquests 01: First Spoiler. End of ancient age.

[Mauer]

I had that problem in paint, not sure why it happens. What I did was to just resize the picture in paint by dragging diagonally in from the corner until the white was gone. To check if the white is gone, try opening it in windows picture and fax viewer. Of course you'll then have to upload it again

Thanks champain. It turns out for a pretty bad picture, but what can you do?

 

[Jason Fliegel]

As promised, here's my map as of the begining of the Middle Ages.

 

[stivomali]

Glad the GOTM finally went C3C. This is my first wack at a G(C)OTM, but I've been playing and lurking since CivII. Lately I've been playing at Emperor level, thinking of moving up to Demigod. Since I'm used to playing tech broker and being quite far behind, I didn't really notice the tech bug until well into the AA (set research at minimum early on for Writing in 50 turns).

Like many, I made 1 step N before founding Hattusas. The scout went W to the mountain and popped a settler on turn 2. That settler followed him west and founded Tarsus near the sugar. I had quite a bit of luck early on with goody huts and saw very few enemy units going for them, so I decided to go all out and built 3 scouts, then switched to granary in Hattusas. This lead to a slow start city-wise, but paid off in the end. I popped 12 goody huts total (some right on the doorstep of Babylon and Ur as others also reported): the settler mentioned above, 1 warrior, 3 maps, 25 gold twice, and 5 techs!

My main strategy was to expand toward Arabs to slow them down and gain control of all resources if possible. My empire was essentially split in two around the first two cities. The Hattusas core expanded toward Arabs and down the river, though they beat me to the bulk of the flood plains there. They were slow to snatch up the spice, so I went for it and rushed a temple (and later library) as early as possible to avoid cultural conversion. On the other front, my first 2 settlers out of Tarsus claimed the gems and incense near there. By the time I traded for the Wheel (waited for Sumeria to research it) I had a settler ready in the gems city, and he was able to take the horses near the marsh (Sumerians settled 2 tiles from it, I plopped down next to it). By the time I linked up my empire I had all 4 luxuries, horses, and 2 iron sources (by gems and incense).

1990 BC: 4 cities, 7 of 21 AA techs, researching Writing.

1000 BC: 8 cities, 12 AA techs, researching Republic.

10 AD: 19 cities, 17 AA techs, researching Horseback Riding.

400 AD: 28 cities, just entered Middle Ages when Sumerians attacked. Compare the 10 and 400 AD maps to see the city they took and the 2 desert cities I stole before sweeping across their empire in a fury of Golden Age righteousness assisted by my Arab and Babylonian lackeys. Also note the Arab city on the flood plains that I gained through cultural conversion. I would later gain the northern Arab city that's surrounded as well as the two northernmost Babylonian cities through conversion before turning on the Arabs and Babylonians.

Edit: Forgot to mention I did get Philosphy first and used it to get Code of Laws (most expensive one at the time). I didn't want to wait to get Republic with it because I was worried someone on the other continent would be less backward than my neighbors and beat me to it. Also, I didn't build any AA GWs, though the other civs on my continent were kind enough to provide the Pyramids, Great Library, Great Wall, Oracle, and Temple of Artemis for enticement to my MA expansion spree.

Re-edit: I should have mentioned I went for the Open class since this was my first G(C)OTM, but I'll move up next month.

 

[Gunner Jones]

COTM1 - Predator

Freshly installed, patched and loaded. Looked over SirPleb’s Conquest Cliff Notes.

Goal is Knights/Cavalry Domination. I’ll head for Monarchy. For me War Weariness production drag in Republic seems to kick in a couple of techs past Chivalry becalming me mid Knights push while I claw my way to Military Tradition. Better players do seem to manage this though - so input will be well received.

Assuming we have islands/continents, GL could be a big issue per the recent GOTM France. I will prebuild if I can get a good coastal location.

The rumor of reduced strategic resources has me a little concerned, I’ll trade for Iron earlier than usual to ensure my Warrior->Swordsman rush isn’t torpedoed.

QSC period. I found Hattutas just NE of Gold mountain. Like others missing the BG just a square away. Writing on min. Scouting yields Ceremonial Burial, Bronze + 1 Warrior, assorted maps and loose change. No settlers or cities for me. Lose both Scouts to Barbs due in large part to sloppy movement.

Initial Cities were founded to maximize, BG and food bonuses. Scouting showed Lux resources to be well within reach.

QSC Stats:

6 Cities; 18 Warriors (9 vets); 3 Workers (1 slave); 2 Barracks
Bronze, Iron, Masonry, Alphabet, Writing, Pottery, Wheel, Warrior Code, Ceremonial Burial, Mysticism & Philosophy (3 turns0
802 Gold

Sumeria 186; Babylon 159; Arabia 142, Hittites 102

Iron and Horses are well within reach. I declare war on the Arabs around 800 BC upgrading my Warriors, I go slowly gain promotions but no leaders. I snag the Oracle and start thinking about the Temple of Artemis. In 10 BC I sue for peace taking 3 cities and Mathematics leaving the Arabs to their tundra bound capital.

Sumeria has built the Pyramids so I start building a chain of cities down the west coast. My plan is to ally Babylon to protect my eastern and southern flanks. I worry about culture flips and take out the Arabs a few moves later.

Bad, bad news strikes in 10 BC, the GL has been built on another continent. I’ll need a crossing point, a strategy to research the top half of the tech tree or build a whole bunch of galleys in the hope of crossing the ocean without it. A poster in GOTM France used this to great effect (sorry can’t find the author to credit). I’ll be very interested to see who manages to build the GL and where it ends up in most games. Could I have better managed the tech tree to ensure the Sumerians bagged this potentially key wonder?

Hit Monarchy on 10 BC., hit two turns of Anarchy then ally with Babylon against Sumeria. Columns of workers paving way for the Chariots. Start GA and head for Currency to get some Marketplaces going. Have a horrible feeling that Republic would have been the way to go with this whole darn GL issue.

Trade Currency for outstanding techs and hit the Modern age in 450 AD. Claim Ur and The Pyramids from Sumeria gaining a GL and rushing the FP in Ur. Should have probably read up about this - not too sure of the corruption issues.

So ends the spoiler. Don’t see any real problem gaining control of the continent. Beyond that some tricky choices.

 

[Ronald]

Preliminary thoughts and strategy:

One of my weakest points in mastering civ is quick tech development, so I decided to work the next gotms or cotms especially on this aspect. Analysing my playing style, I found out, that I build too much military too early. This makes the transition to republic, in my opinion the key for quick technology build-up (next to good trading straegies), difficult. The high costs to keep the military force prevents me to put a high percentage of resources into science.
This game with the tech bug provides additional challenge for quick tech development, but on the oher hand, the combination of expansionist and commercial treat is wonderful for a fast tech pace:
Building scouts and opening goodie huts should give several free techs, being commercial has the enormous advantage of starting with alphabeth. Not only is alphabeth the most expensive of the starting techs and provides therefore excellent trading opportunities, it allows now in C3C a perfect shortcut towards republic: Start research writing at max. gives writing on a standard map in about 20 to 30 turns depending on the starting location. Followed by researching code of laws in about 15 to twenty turns and philosophy in about 10 to 15 turns should ensure at least on regent level that philosophy is researched first giving a free tech and the obvious choice is republic. Normally it can be achieved between turn 45 and 65. With the increased tech costs of cotm1 and some Odysee before founding my capitol, I still was able to get to republic in turn 81.

Looking at the poor starting position, I was determined to move with my settler untill I find a good starting position. In the pregame discussion DaveMcWay pointed out rightly, that an additional food supply is worth 10 turns. By missing the opportunity to build another scout early on, it is somewhat less than 10 turns, but anyhow, at regent difficulty one turn more or less won't break the game.

The early phase:

I moved my scout in the general direction North because I feared jungle in the South and followed with my worker and settler. As soon as I discovered the cow far north I moved my settler in position and finally built Hatusas in 3600 BC.



My scout got lucky in 3450 BC when opening a goodie hut gave a settler and I quickly found Tarsus in 3350 BC. First I three more scouts, two in Hatusas and one in Tarsus to start operation discovery. these four scouts did excellent work:

Summary of opening huts:


3450 BC open hut --> settler
3300 BC open hut --> CB
2950 BC open hut --> 25g
2800 BC open hut --> WC, open hut --> BW
2750 BC open hut --> warrior
2670 BC open hut --> masonry
2470 BC open hut --> Wheel
2430 BC open hut --> horseback riding
2310 BC open hut --> IW
1790 BC open hut --> mathematics

Contact with other civs:
3400 BC contact arabs
2630 BC contact Sumeria, contact Babylon

Trade summary:
3300 BC mysticism + 35g for alphabeth
2630 BC trade CB for 10g; trade pottery for 10g
some trade with other civs I can't mention in this spoiler

City summary:
3600 BC found Hatusas
3350 BC found Tarsus
1950 BC Found Ugarit
1750 BC found Harran
1550 BC found Hattusha
1400 BC found Tirana
1350 BC found Aleppo
1150 BC found Ankuwa
975 BC found Kadesh
900 BC found Adana

Scary moment:
in 2430 BC I saw a stack of arab warriors walking towards my almost undefended town of Tarsus. I switched immediately from barack to build another warrior and moved my conscript warrior into Tarsus as well. In 2270 BC Arabs declared war and it was three defending warriors (2 regular + 1 conscript) against a first wave of 2 regular warriors.



Results of the first wave: one regular warrior destroyed, one promoted to veteran and. I started to build an archerone for the second wave of another 3 warriors: 1 warrior defeated, two survived. The counterattack against one severly wounded warrior was won and in the next turn I destroyed the last of the surviving arab warriors. I sent a newly built archer towards Medina. In 1910 BC the arabs were willing to negotiate peace and to my big surprise, they agreed to donate the city of Medina.



Search for distant land:
My city of Ugarith only built curraghs. With the slow movement of 2, I did not have much hope for success with suicidal missions, but I got lucky (one out of five survived) and made first contact with civ xxx in 1325 BC, with civ yyy in 1175 BC

Tech development:
After researching writing at minimum, I researched Col at max speed and discovered it in 1150 BC, then Philosophy at max in 950 BC, get Republic for free, switch to republic after only 3 turns of anarchy
researched currency in 55o BC and finally construction in 310 BC to enter the middle ages
All the other techs were traded.
As soon as I discovered currency I built market places in almost every city, followed by libraries.



Now at the beginning at the middle ages I plan a short war to eliminate the arabs. Having my forbidden palace near their territory should give some more higly productive cities. I also plan to trigger my golden age at the end of the arab war to shorten the research for the medival techs, develop my infrastructure further and conquer my continent, but that's for the next spoiler.

 

[McPointy]

My first GOTM; open class.

First two turns: I panic. What a terrible starting position! I move the settler twice, which is a first for me, I think: NE, then NE again to bring the dyes into the city radius. Though I am surrounded by forest, I can't bear to wander around any more looking for a sweet spot, so I settle and being researching writing at 50 turns (min science).

Goodie Huts: Given my initial city location, expanding was tricky. I didn't keep good notes about exactly what I built, but I recall that the initial mix included some scouts, a warrior, and a settler to try to get a better position as soon as possible. I had some interesting results popping goodie huts:
3400 BC -- Warrior Code
3300 BC -- Mysticism
2900 BC -- 25 gold and an advanced tribe joins, located very far away in the middle of the jungles to the south, on the eastern coast. not the optimal location I would've liked for my second city.
2800 BC -- The Wheel
2710 BC -- Masonry. (2710 BC? I don't remember ever seeing 2710 before -- I had weird years for much of the game)
2630 BC -- a warrior and a map
2430 BC -- Horseback Riding
2310 BC -- Iron Working

totals: 10 huts popped that I recorded, 60% of them techs. expansionist research at its finest.

1000 BC: I have a whopping 4 cities and am engaged in war with Sumeria. (They demanded Masonry and are still very far away from my lands.) As the years go by, I gradually expand while the other civs start obsessing over wonders. I am the first to Writing. In fact, thanks to my goodie hut tech bonanza, I'm well ahead of all the other civs on my continent science-wise. Discover maps in 510 BC and make a run for philosophy (not sure how the civs on the other continent are doing) -- I can get it in 11 turns, and when I do, I get a bonus tech (I didn't record what year this was). I choose polytheism so I can get into monarchy and start my reign of terror over my continent. 210 BC, the Pyramids are built in Mecca, and I start to see light at the end of the tunnel.

War: My swordsmen spend the rest of the ancient era in a poorly-orchestrated war against Arabia and Sumeria which will not conclude until the middle ages.

Three-man chariots: Didn't build any... yet.

 

[Smoking mirror]

First time I've played game of the month for a while, may even get around to finishing this time.

I'm suprised how well I'm doing compared to some others. Though to be fair i'm only on open dificulty and i did get a setler out of my first goodyhut.

I went stright for philosophy, got literature from my free tech and started researching towards Monarchy and building the great library at the same time.

Killed off the arabs prety easy and let the sumerians build nearly all the other wonders (ready for me to grab in the middle ages). Have set my tech slider to 100% to take full advantage of the great library, which is fine as long as I find the other island before education comes along, otherwise I'll fall behind; The remaining civs on my island are quite backward.

About to launch a massive war against summeria with my massive cash injection allowing me to upgrade all my swordsmen to middle age infantry.

I've actualy been using the "tech bug" in some of my own games after discovering it a few weeks ago, its like playing on one small island of a huge map, quite satisfing actualy, as you get spend longer in the early eras, with not so much slow down in later ages.

Heres my map at the end of the ancient era, 21 cities baby!

 

[Bibor]

My first GOTM game, started at the beginners level...

I'll not describe my game in detail (maybe when i finish middle ages , but I have several ideas/problems...

Idea: Starting position.
I used my scouts to scout downriver (i did it later on every river). So i found incence early... and floodplains. I started the capital 1 tile NE of starting pos, cleared 2 forest, built barracks with the extra 20 shields and pumped out veteran units for the new cities down the river. This way i got all vet units from the very start, and had a decent flow of settlers from food-rich cities.

Problem: Which way to spread?
I chose the not-very-wise way. I spread like an arrow. My empire was like 6 tiles wide, from incense to that single sugar on north. Later it turned out to be great. I had a wide front to Arabs, and I had 3 iron and all Incense (at least in this part of continent.

Problem: Saltpeter. I control the NE part of the continent, no saltpeter in sight. I cannot see saltpeter on the Sumeran side either.

Problem: Sumerans.
I saw in many of your posts that your sumerans don't have iron. But they found it also somewhere... This allows them to build knights. I have 4 iron.

***

Summa summarum:

Good things:
- I have a huge army of Elite med. inf. (20 or more) and two armies of m. inf.
- I entered Golden Age in mid-medieval (horses, horses...). Got in 80% of my cities all medieval improvements + pikemen in each.
- Got Temple of Artemis, Great Wall and Mausoleum from Arabs.

Bad things:
- its 1255 AD (or something). I'm afraid I'm late with everything...
- Sumerans' empire is HUGE, and I'm afraid I cannot attack it to properly control all of it.

Questions:
- Is it wiser to simply destroy cities if attacking a large nation (sums have 1/2 of the continent almost)? Except cities with wonders, fcourse.
- Is it wiser to look up a good starting pos and loose 10 turns than to start on an average/poor one?
- Its 1255 AD and I'm still in the very middle of middle ages. Am I late?

EDIT: How do you guys manage to spread so quicky? I mean, you can but what in case some1 declares war? Or two of 'em? U cant defend such a large territory without proper amout of units.

 

[DJMGator13]

How do you guys manage to spread so quicky? I mean, you can but what in case some1 declares war? Or two of 'em? U cant defend such a large territory without proper amout of units.

Welcome to COTM games. There are several good articles in the War academy on early expansion, and reading some of the top players post here can be very helpful. There is also a good training game taking place using CivIII (not conquest) but the theory is the same for both. There is a link in my sig for the Training Day Game and it has alot of good info.

 

[IgrOK[SU]]

Can somebody say me, how it is possible, to get Republic in 1500BC, if the techs were not received neither from huts nor from the AI rivals??? Even with that it is impossible in most games in that map.

 

[Darkness]

Can somebody say me, how it is possible, to get Republic in 1500BC, if the techs were not received neither from huts nor from the AI rivals??? Even with that it is impossible in most games in that map.

That's the easy part: Sumerians start with Alphabet. So just research Writing, Code of Laws and Philosophy (in that order) at max science and pick Republic as your free tech.

The hard part: Getting enough commerce to do this. Which is why only Bremp did it so far in this game (I got it in 1400BC ). We both moved south to the flood plains, which give fast growth. Couple that with the river, which means extra commerce and you get a fast research pace.

There is a great article by DaveMcW in the strategy articles section on speeding up your research by getting the most out of your free techs.

 

[IgrOK[SU]]

But it is only 60 turns from 4000BC to 1500BC!
If you trade for Alphabet in 3200BC then only 48. And you must research 3 techs, average 16 turns per tech! How can be gained so many commerce?

 

[RFHolloway]

First GOTM, obviously beginners luck!

9 cities with 21 population (2 of which were captured)
2 settlers
6 workers +2 more captured
2 scouts
10 warriors
1 archer
10 swordsmen
1 galley

Techs – all first level plus maths, writing, Philos, Mysticism, and mapmaking.

My thoughts.

The final result I am happy with particularly as this is my first QSC. It really turned out to be the tale of 2 cities, and 2 wars

I played well at the first 10 turns, my decision to build 4 scouts first was almost right (the last one should have been a warrior) and was rewarded with being first to 12 huts! The results of these improved my result no end, 5 techs and 2 cities, including a city in 3900 BC! By the time I managed to get my first settler in 2630 BC, that city had already produced a worker and 2 warriors!

My initial moves were

4000 bc scout nw, n. settler e, worker ne
3950 bc scout nw n, found city1 (scout), worker chops and then stops
3900 bc scout nw n pops hut, city2!(worker)
3850 bc scout n n
3800 bc scout n n
3750 bc scout w,w city 1 produces scout2 new build is scout. Scout 2 s s.
3700 bc city 1 produces scout 3 new build scout. Scout 2 N s, scout 3 w w scout n (popped CB) w. worker irrigates

The chop then stop stopped me wasting the shields, probably would have been better to move it, but at least I spotted it!

The other city I got was more of a distraction. It was just south of Ur by about 6 tiles or so and in a really ugly location. It couldn’t grow to more than size 3 and even at that level was only producing 1 shield. I planned to produce a settler and build a flood plains city to the south to enable it to tile share and get the additional food. However I forgot to change the production and before I realised out popped a warrior. At this stage my scouts had identified that Babylon did not have much of a military and had 2 cities to defend. I decided to have a crack at the capital. I brought down 2 warriors (one regular and one elite) plus the warrior just popped from bonus city 2. Suffice to say Babylon got a spearman in time, my first warrior died and he promoted, the rest decided it would be a better idea to go home. Gains captured 1 worker, 10 gold from peace. Losses - One warrior from each side.

The other war was far more successful. This was set in lace by my tech strategy. I did a minimum run on writing. The gold that this gave me was over 500 by the time I completed my first tech and decided to research the next one on max. This gave me the ability to promote 7 warriors to swordsmen in 2 turns and send them after the Arabs. I waited until I was on the borders of their 4 city empire to establish an embassy. Their capital was on plains and guarded by 2 spearmen. The RNG was kind, and I didn’t lose a unit. I camped outside another city, they sued for peace, after some haggling, I agreed to the besieged city and 22 gold. This left them with 2 size 1 cities, and me with 2 cities without losing a single unit.

 

[IgrOK[SU]]

Couple that with the river, which means extra commerce and you get a fast research pace.

It takes 42-29-10 turns for SirPleb and 50-20-10 for me to learn Republic. And I can't imagine that that numbers can be shorted for 32 turns! Something like 25-16-7? (Writing-Code of Laws-Philosophy)

 

[Darkness]

But it is only 60 turns from 4000BC to 1500BC!
If you trade for Alphabet in 3200BC then only 48. And you must research 3 techs, average 16 turns per tech! How can be gained so many commerce?

You don't need to trade for alphabet. Sumeria starts with it.
I founded my capital near the floodplains in 3800BC and immediately started writing.
Start research - 3800BC
Discover writing - 2390BC
Discover Code of Laws - 1650BC
Discover Philosophy - 1400BC
Floodplains are on rivers and they give both extra food as well as extra commerce

 

[IgrOK[SU]]

You don't need to trade for alphabet. Sumeria starts with it.

We are playing Hittites! What Sumeria???

 

[Bremp]

IgrOK[SU] wrote:

Can somebody say me, how it is possible, to get Republic in 1500BC, if the techs were not received neither from huts nor from the AI rivals??? Even with that it is impossible in most games in that map.

The free settler that I got made this possible. I built Tarsus in the top of that gold hill near the marsh. Only this cut the time to research writing in 15 or more turns.
In 1500bc I was producing more than 40 beakers (more than 70 after I change to Republic). I think I researched Phil in 6 turns, but I'm not sure in how many turns I researched CoL.

 

[Darkness]

We are playing Hittites! What Sumeria???

Oops sorry.

I meant to samy the hittites start with alphabet, so you don't have to trade for it.
Hittites are commercial/expansionist -> starting techs are pottery and alphabet.


Sorry for the confusion

 

[IgrOK[SU]]

The free settler that I got made this possible. I built Tarsus in the top of that gold hill near the marsh. Only this cut the time to research writing in 15 or more turns.

Two cities produced enough beakers for Writing in 15 turns?

 

[IgrOK[SU]]

Sorry for my questions, but I was VERY surprised when saw Bremp's Spoiler 1. I thought such game was impossible... Now I know that my game skills not so good as I thought.