COTM 02 First Spoiler: End Of Ancient age

[Email10]

Predator

Initial Game plan
Find a good site for a Wonder city to have the possibility for a 20K victory. Research quickly to Philosophy and grab Map Making as free tech. Explore the seas and be the first to meet all opponents. I had a feeling we would not be playing a Pangea, with us being Seafaring.

Start sequence
My worker moved W and revealed mountains and behind them, forests with what I thought was a river, but it turned out it was silks . Anyway, the possibility of a river start made me move the settler in that direction instead of settling SE which was my plan from the starting screenshot. I was disappointed to see it was silks, but the river was not far away and I found a good location for my capital on the hills, where a cow was in reach after first expansion. My build sequence was warrior-warrior-settler. My second settler was going to find my wonder city - Rotterdam, north-west of Amsterdam.

Research
Writing was researched at max rate, followed by Philosophy. I was first to Philosophy and chose Map Making as my free tech, not following the CoL-Phil-Republic trick. I got some help from the AI with the research and entered Middle Ages around 800BC.

Rotterdam
My first build in Rotterdam was of course a Temple. Once my Warrior+Settler-factory in Amsterdam was up and running my workers moved to improve Rotterdam. I'm happy with the placement of Rotterdam and I think it will be a very nice location also for the future. I finished the Colossus in 950BC, Great Lighthouse in 490 BC and Great Library in 330 AD. I have also built the Forbidden Palace and all other Culture-generating Ancient buildings. The AI was strong in my game, especially the one of them who grabbed the Pyramids and Hanging Gardens.

Rotterdam in 1000BC:

Military
I managed to find the horse island, but somehow the iron island slipped past my attention and another civ got there before me. After building up some horsemen I took over the iron city and another city that this civ had settled on my island before declaring peace again. The rest of this civ will have to wait until I get Knights and Swiss Mercenaries. Now I had the Iron!

Future
The future doesn't look to bright for Rotterdam. The research is going a bit too fast and the AI is grabbing to many wonders. I'm not happy I missed out on the Hanging Gardens, but I hope I will be able to grab Sistine and Copernicus at least. My plan is to start to conquer the other civs soon, once I research Chivalry and have upgraded all my Horsemen. I should have paid more attention to the AI more early and maybe I should have slowed down research a bit. Also, missing out on the iron hurt a lot.

The Dutch empire in 1000BC:

Edited: a little bit too much spoiler info in my first post.. sorry for that..

 

[a space oddity]

If it's any kind of consolation, I played it almost the exact way you did, Darkness, I settled on the BG and jumped the Palace later. I waited until I had a nice centered city, so who knows, that might pay of at a later stage.

 

[Scrubber]

I really don't see any point to moving the first settler.

There is enough good terrain on the initial spot to work two good squares and if you move to the BG you can work three good squares. That is enough to pump out more settlers with no problem. I just built settlers and warriors with that city while it was the capital.

After I had a bunch more cities up it was no problem to abandon the original capital and switch to the perfect site, I lost one point of population and thats it.

EDIT: well that and the cost of one settler to resettle the old capital spot.

 

[Detlef Richter]

Wow, looks like a really hard game.
I made the same decisions like SirPleb. I first moved the worker to the hill and twice at next turn. I've seen not only forests, i've seen a river and that was the go for my settler. A very late Capitol building but at beginning of MA, i saw that this was not a wrong decision.
But early happiness is not good on such games, i made my biggest failure ever.
I was really sad that ainwood brings us no iron and no horses at our starting landmass. I realized too late that there are two small ilands with this recources. So i build my first swords at beginning of the MA and that was really bad.
Why ? I will tell it at next spoiler.

 

[Offa]

Wonders never cease. Aeson playing gotm again.

It seems there were good reasons to move the settler inland. In practice the corruption penalty from not moving the settler was even more severe than the poor growth problem, and it would have probably been better to move even if there was no cow. The high AI bonuses in predator class was a clear indicator that we were on an island so moving was pretty safe.

Now I just have to decide whether I can be bothered to play on in a game that was essentially hopeless at 3950bc.

 

[Don Vito]

1.22 Open

I settled SE on the BG too, jumped the capitol to Hague (S of Cows) after i got Wri -> CoL -> Phil researched and slingshot to Republic at 1325 BC

Seems it didnt matter so much for the research dates even i did settle on 'dry' land and choose not to gamble for fresh water.

Was in Republic at 1200 BC , after a 5-turn ( ) anarchy, and entered Middle Ages at 730 BC.
So i wasnt very much behind of the 'tough' players research rate who choose to move the settler inland

 

[Bibor]

Entered middle-ages in 390 BC. Not bad for my second GOTM game ever (no reloading grrrr).

Some important decisions:
-i migrated from the peninsula with first settler, but settled on shore SW of SW silks.
-used the philosophy to get map making first. made my expansion choices much easier.
-used aggressive galley (settler+warrior) settling tactics this time. I had three off-shore cities in 1200 BC which proved to be a serious butt-kicking catapult later.
-i lost around 400 shields total in trying to beat the other civ's for wonders. Never again. I say *never*.
-aggressive curragh/galley scouting. Met all civs but two when entering MA.
-I chose Monarchy as government type instead of Republic. Trust me, it was the right decision

 

[klarius]

Open
I'm also one of the losers who settled SE. I then also stubbornly didn't correct the error (moving the palace to cow city as early as possible would still have given a decent growth rate). So expansion was relatively slow. I did manage the philosophy-republic slingshot around 1400BC and could trade for MM some time later in republic. I had an early phony war against the top civ on the next continent, which led to the early demise of another civ.
I entered the MA around 200BC, while my starting island was still not completely filled, because settlers were going for resources and luxes on the small islands and the nearby continent.
I devoted my capital to build the Lighthouse (with Colossus prebuild), so it couldn't get a harbor and aqueduct for a long time. But after that we had a very happy Civ, with three own luxes and one traded for.
No real war in the AA, even though we were always the military weakest and crowded some AI cities to snatch away luxes.

 

[Sandman2003]

...after moving the worker W I saw the forest tiles and I misinterprated the silks to be a river!!

Yes, I think this is in fact what I did. It certainly was enough temptation to keep moving further. You could have reached my eventual captial location one turn sooner, but I had decided to settle by the river and silks just before I risked one further worker move to the hill and saw the moo moo. With the agricultural trait, that is all the food you need for a four turn settler factory, so I considered it worth moving for it. Also, I hate having to move the palace, and the start location was always going to be undesireable, so it really didn't need to be much incentive for me to want to move.

 

[chunkymonkey]

Open Class

I decided after a fierce internal struggle to move my worker into the hills. I noticed that there was a blue squiggle which could have been a river, so move further into the mountains. It’s only a patch of dyes, but a patch of dyes next to a river! I feel as though the base of the river, even though not on the coast, will provide a much better palace spot since it takes advantage of the extra food and we can pump out settlers quicker, therefore pumping out cities and curraghs quicker.

Actually after exploring a bit it’s not all too bad. We have a fairly decent sized island all to ourselves but it’s a shame about the patch of tundra. Whilst exploring the coastline I settle the green part of the island. Make contact with all the civs to the North West and realize they are all ahead technologically.

They appear to have a very pretty continent. I knew Ainwood would probably pull something like this. I was just surprised that all the civs weren’t on some lush uber–continent completely surrounding us. I probably would have cried if that was the case.

Decide to take advantage of Philosophy-Map Making instead of going for Code of Laws then Republic, so I can be the first to build the Lighthouse and get my extra Galley movement points. Once I have Map Making, I instigate a round of tech trading which sees me finish up as the tech leader! With my new knowledge I realize the two mini islands to the south have vital resources, so quickly settle there and harbour them up. I try in vain to reach the civs I believe to be to the NE but they are just out of reach. Will wait for the Lighthouse. Whilst researching Republic, I build the great Library in Amsterdam and learn all the techs necessary to gift me in to the Middle Ages in 270BC. Probably one of my fastest entries.

The first five turns of this game without a city really killed me off in the power ratings.Moderator Action: Details of civs outside the home continent censored- - AlanH

Due to only having one luxury, I have consistently needed to muck around with the luxury slider, at the expense of building up a fat purse. I can’t wait until the other civs build harbours so that I can poach all their luxuries. I was very surprised to see that there were no goody huts on the island, and hardly any barbs either. Made for easy settling though. Probably should have settled the tundra area, since the [censored] have just landed. If it turns out there is oil there I’ll just have to crush them later. :devil2:

 

[SniperDevil]

Conquest Class (hehe)

This is my 2nd GOTM ever and my first game on Monarch And ihve had one of the best technological starts ever. I built my first cite SE on the BG. I Built cities thoughout the whole continent and only have 1 on the arctive penisula. The [censored] have 1 colony on the westernmost portion of this peninsula. I have cities on the 2 southern islands and i have made contacts with everyone. Only 7 civs left but not because of me. I have been at war 3 times buit with not actual conflict, was only at war cause they threatened me and didnt give in. I made the republic sling shot by researching writing, map making, CoL, and then Philisophy, and became a Republic. I enterend the MA circa 150 BC which is my earkiest ever .

One question though for the skilled players. I am confused on what order would be best to reseach tech in the MA any tips?

Moderator Action: censored overseas civ name - AlanH

 

[a space oddity]

It depends on what you try to achieve. Many people just research Chivalry and the 'bottom half' of the chart, ie the straight route to Mil.Trad. In that case you can use the Cavs as 'pointy stick' to get the other techs. This will slow down the tech pace, and when you're aiming for a (quick) Diplo or Space win, you need to stay researching and trading.

 

[Jason Fliegel]

Well, Ainwood really took care of us this time, didn't he?

After agonizing for a while, I decided to scout my settler onto the BG. My thought was that if there was anything good SE of the BG (across the water), I would move their and found on the BG. Otherwise, I was going to leave my settler right where he was. As we all know, there was nothing good SE of the BG, so Amsterdam was founded in 4000 BC. I then proceeded to colonize the east half of my tiny island, building 6 additional cities. Rotterdam, settled directly SW of the line of silks, became my capital after a failed race to the Great Library. That race -- and my failed race to Philosophy -- were major setbacks, along with the fact that I ended the ancient age with a mere 9 cities (the 7 on the main island, and the horse colony and the iron colony that everyone else no doubt built.

Thanks to my brave carracks and galleons, however, I met all the other civilizations long before everyone else and was able to trade my way into tech leadership. Thus, by around 200 A.D., I hit the Middle Ages before most, if not all, of the A.I.s.

At this point, though, I'm not sure what to do. Part of my want to build a little fortress on my island and play merchant prince until I get a space race/diplomatic victory. Part of me wants to carve up a piece of my nearest neighbor's territory for myself. We'll see what happens.

Edit: I wrote this right after I hit the Middle Ages. I've played more and pursued a different strategy altogether, which started off well, but isn't doing so great for me now!

 

[Denniz]

COTM02 - Open

Ancient Age

I decided to move inland when I saw the mountains and what looked like a river (yeah, me too ). Besides, everytime I settled quickly in a GOTM (all 3 times),
I have regreted it. Once I saw the cow, I should have quit while I was ahead. But no, I had to get some stupid notion that as a Seafaring civ, I needed to start on the coast.
Even then I still wanted to be on the river. So I wandered two more turns and then I settled one short of the coast in 3550BC. (Note to self, get glasses checked.)
The 1 shows where I originally decided to stop. Of course, the hill would have been better.

I regreted that choice for the whole game. Those 3 coastal tiles in my city's box were often used for only one food and two commerce. What a waste!

My starting builds were: Warrior x4, Settler, Grainery, Warrior, Settler, Warrior (happiness), Barracks, then either Warrior or Spearman and Settler
throughout expansion phase. I think 3/4 of my settlers came from my captitol. My first settler would build Rotterdam on the middle silk and started by building Curragh then Worker.

By 100BC I had 7 Cities, 17pop, 7Warriors, 6Spearmen, and 6Workers.


I started researching Writing at the minimum. I was planning Writing, Code-of-Laws, Philosophy, Republic (slingshot), Mapmaking. Unfortuneately, I traded Writing for a bunch of early techs.
My mistake was not being patient and waiting for my explorations to reveal more civs so I could use the techs I was getting for my early techs or gold to trade around instead.
Someone got Philosophy first. It didn't help that I was still researching on minimum. As it was, I had contact with everyone before 630BC.

By 230BC, the beginning of the Middle Ages, I had 11 cities, including the two resource islands Ainwood was kind enough to create. All those icons would have just cluttered up our starting island
and attracted unwanted civs. Not that that work in my case. Due other priorities, I hadn't gotten around to settling the starting penisula or the oasis on the northern tip of the island.
So some of those unwanted civs came by anyway. (Colored RED to hide identity of civs.)

Plus 2 Settlers not shown.

In summary, I don't regret moving, I do regret not quiting while I was ahead. My 1000BC numbers were about average for me which tells me moving is good if you do it right.
I should have had another city but for those 2-3 turns. Bad trading cost me the free tech. I trailed tech-wise for pretty much the whole game. Kind of a shaky start,
the Middle Ages didn't start out much better...


On a side note, reading the other posts I found something interesting. Dispite a lot of different city placements so far, I wonder if everyone put a city at the north bend in the river.

Moderator Action: Images reduced to fit page width better. The wider originals can be opened by clicking the reduced ones - AlanH

 

[Risuaita]

Moved worker to the hill and saw something blue behind those mountains thinking it could be river. Moved settler to the mountain and the blue which i saw was actually silks

I don't remember exactly what my moves were but i moved my settler on the hill and settled there. This gave me access to silks, cow and lots of bonus grassland tiles. Wonderful place for my capital.

Irrigated cow,mined bonus grasslands and 4-turn settler factory was ready. Agriculture trait gave one extra food so i was able to get +5 food every turn. Every tile on the starting continent was quickly in my control. I even settled town on the oasis tile.

Found those horses but i didn't see iron anywhere so i thought, we have to attack someone to get it. I built about 15 horsemen and i was ready to attack when i saw some cultural border south of our island. I could swear that island wasn't there before and of coutrse iron was there. I was so blind

I just entered middle ages so it didn't matter much: i upgared those horsemen to knights and everything was fine

 

[DanielF]

Open Class

Well, I guess I'll have to say that this has been one of the worst games I've played so far. Starting from the beginning, I built my capital at the starting location without moving the settler, then started mass producing settlers. I ran into a problem with barbarians that slowed me down. I couldn't build many land improvements for about 20 turns because of those horses. Then, to make things worse, I was involved in an ancient world war. But I'll skip that part to avoid giving away anything that I'm not supposed to.

Anyway, here's a picture of one of the ice peninsula on the south of the continent, where there is a lot of fighting. I made everything that doesn't belong to me black and white to keep the other civ's identities a secret.

(I forgot to color it in, but the ruins in the south center were mine. The other two belonged to other civs.)

And here is an overview of the starting continent so far.

 

[Civgeek]

This is my first COTM (I played through COTM 01, but didn’t have time to finish, only downloading the save file on the 28th) so I just wanted to say Hello! and that I’m looking forward to learning from what seems to be a very active community of CivFanatics. I found the pre-game discussion very enlightening and informative. I’ll post my comments on this month’s game shortly, but one quick question; why censor the references to other Civs? Doesn’t everybody get to know who, if not where, the other tribes are around 3,000 BC when one of those annoying scholars shows up with their list of the ”Greatest”? I thought the list gave some insight in to what kind of game to expect, so it would be interesting to hear other people’s thoughts on any early strategy choices made knowing who else was in the game (for instance the number of other seafaring Civs).

 

[SirPleb]

what made you not want to move the worker to the hill when you saw it in 3850BC?

After moving my settler west in 3800BC things looked like this:

I thought that it was very unlikely that I'd see anything from the hills which could tempt me to move further. All new tiles visible from the hill, except the one N,N, would be within the boundaries of a city there after border expansion. And it was starting to seem likely that I'd want to begin by building a granary, so a fast chop (much faster in Conquests than before) for 10s would be handy. Also, that silk tile would eventually (chopped, roaded, and mined) become a 2f+1s+3g tile, a nice one for science. So a chop there was desirable sooner or later. Adding all that up I decided to begin working it right away before even settling.

 

[SniperDevil]

So then there really is no strategy order of researching techs in the MA?

Also is a Democracy better to go for early or later? Shouyld i just stick wit Republic?

 

[a space oddity]

I am hardly an authority on that, SniperDevil. Going straight for Mil.Trad. is one strategy that is widely used. Some very experienced players know which techs the AI are likely to research and will base their plan on that. When I am researching the 'upper half' I usually aim for a chance on Smith's, because I like to have $$$$. But as I said maybe you should wait for others to anwer your question before you draw any conclusions.

As for Democracy, these days I don't use it anymore and just stick with Republic, to keep my hands free for when I want to stroll along the war-path some more.