COTM 02: Spoiler 2: End of Middle ages

[Roland Ehnström]

COTM02_Open

Ancient times: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=1979557&postcount=8

** MIDDLE AGES - WAR, WAR AND MORE WAR **

130 BC - We are a Republic. Unit cost is a bit of a problem, so we disband a couple of useless Warriors (why did we build them in the first place?).

70 AD - Our Galley makes it over the dangerous ocean to make contact with the Zulus! They turn out to be backward. They can only offer us Monarchy, which we have no use of at the moment.

110 AD - A French Horseman turns up at the border around Middelburg. We send troops (Spearman + Warrior) to companion the two Spearman already guarding the town, just in case...

130 AD - False alarm, the French Horseman is turning back. He was just a scout. Meanwhile, our exploring Galley is uncovering the Zulu coastline, hoping to find another civilization.

150 AD - We trade The Republic for Literature and Monarchy with the Zulus. Nice to have an overseas civilization to trade with, which for the moment cannot trade back our scientific achievements to our neightbours.

170 AD - The Spaniards discover our continent.

210 AD - We make contact with Egypt. They are still in the Ancient age, and have nothing to offer us.

250 AD - The Spanish have settled a city on the western edge of the tundra to the far west of our continent. We don't care - now the barbarians will attack them instead!

260 AD - The Incas cross our border at Middelburg, placing 3 Chasqui Scouts on our territory! We have three Veteran Spearmen in Middelburg, so we should be safe for now, but we immediately scramble our Spearmen and Galleys to hold off a longer attack.

270 AD - The Incas declare war on us and attack Middelburg. Our Spearmen do their job nicely.

280 AD - A group of 4 Inca Arcers is sighted three tiles north/northwest of Middelburg. We scramble more resources, leaving our core cities dangerousely undefended...

290 AD - The coward Spanish ally themselves with the Inca, declaring war on us!

300 AD - The Incas send more Archers. We build Swiss Mercenaries as fast as we can. Two of our Warriors heroicly kill off two of the Inca Archers!

310 AD - The Spanish send four Warriors to help the Incas. The Incas send hoards of Archers. The Spanish sink one of our transporting Galleys (luckely it was empty). We are in trouble! Meanwhile, the French have also settled on the tundra to the west.

330 AD - Our Swiss Mercenaries do a fantastic job against the Inca Archers (and we get our first Elite unit), and our civilization enters a somewhat premature Golden Age. However, the Spanish are now sending Swordsmen to the scene...

340 AD - The Incas want 140 gold for a peace treaty. We accept, considering that they have 13 Archers and 2 Warriors outside Middelburg, alongside Spanish troops of 4 Swordsmen and a Warrior. And maybe this can make the Spanish declare war on the Incas for breaking their alliance, which would be great news for us...

360 AD - We now have 7 Veteran/Elite Swiss Mercenary in Middelburg, so at this point we WANT the Spanish to attack, so that they'll lose their precious Swordsmen (and make our Swiss Mercinaries elite).

370 AD - We make contact with the Mayan civilization. They have a pretty strong civilization, but we are more advanced. The Spanish found a town in the desert on the northen tip of our continent. We'll raze that pathetic town later...

380 AD - We make peace with the Spanish, and gain some gold in return. Except for the sinking of a Galley, they didn't kill a single one of our units, while they lost a good number of Swordsmen. Fools!

450 AD - We now have seven cities pumping out Knights every 5-10 turns. We build on average one Knight per turn. 10 more turns, and we'll be in a position to attack Spain...

530 AD - Our Golden Age has ended.

600 AD - We have accumulated 11 Veteran Knights and 7 Veteran/Elite Swiss Mercinary around Middelburg (not all units are inside the city, in case of a cultural flip). Our Military Advisor sais our military is "strong" compared to the Spanish. It is time to attack. We move some of the Swiss Mercinaries into Spanish territory, to lure some of the Spanish units out of their fortifications in the cities, making the job easier for our Knights.

620 AD - We lose 2 Knights while capturing Salamanca.

640 AD - Three of our Swiss Mercinaries are walking on Spanish soil, on a mission to pillage roads and other improvements (too bad the Spanish Iron is hidden under a city).

680 AD - We have pillaged the roads around the Spanish city with Iron (the city is on the coast, but it luckely does not have a harbor). Hopefully they do not have another source of Iron, or anyone to trade Iron with. After establishing an embassy in Paris, we see that the Spanish are trading something with the French. Hopefully it's not Iron.

690 AD - We have surrounded Madrid, and destroyed all roads leading in and out of the city. The Spanish are no longer able to trade anything with the French. Meanwhile, our Galleys are doing a splendid job sinking several Spanish Galleys!

710 AD - We attack Madrid with 8 Knights. We kill 5 Pikemen while losing only 1 Knight, but the city still stands. But not for long...

720 AD - Madrid is captured, along with The Oracle, but there are 9 resistors in the city, so we're likely to lose it again soon. We leave some strong offensive units outside the city to recapture it when/if this happens.

750 AD - We raze Zaragoza, the Spanish town on the tundra to the west of our continent.

760 AD - We take Seville, with 5 Knights (not losing a single one), cutting the Spanish empire in two. Salamanca flips, but we instantly win it back.

770 AD - We raze Pamplona (on the tundra) and have now chased the Spanish off our continent, for good.

860 AD - Barcelona captured, but we lost a couple of Knights to some hard-fighting Spearmen.

880 AD - We finally get a military great leader, Abel Tasman. After consulting for a while, we decide to use him to build Forbidden Palace in Madrid, as soon as the Spanish are destroyed.

890 AD - Madrid flips, but we take it back. We then easily take Valencia.

900 AD - We take Toledo, killing the fortified Pikeman on hills easier than expected.

910 AD - Murcia captured.

940 AD - Santiago captured, and the Spanish are destroyed! We use Abel Tasman to build a Forbidden Palace in Madrid.

980 AD - Our attacking force of 14 Knights (5 Elite, 9 Veteran) are gathered on the border to France. Our Military advisor say we have a strong military compared to France. The French have built Paris on top of their only source of horses. An investigation of the city reveals that it's defended by 5 Pikemen and a Knight, so taking the size 8 city with Knights will not be easy. We decide to move in with 9 of our Knights, leaving 5 on former Spanish soil to mop up possible counter-attacks from French Horsemen and Knights. The mission of the attacking force is to destroy all roads in and out of Paris, and then to move on to take the French Iron. Only then are we in a good enough position to move in and start taking cities.

1030 AD - Our Knights have completed their mission: All tiles around Paris are pillaged, as well as the road to the Iron. The best unit the French can build now are those pesky Longbowmen.

1090 AD - We take Chartres, one of two French towns on the western tundra. Meanwhile, our Knights have destroyed every useful road on French territory, but we have lost a couple of Knights to those darn Longbowmen.

1110 AD - We capture Avignon, the second French town on our continent.

1120 AD - Tours captured by 3 Knights.

1170 AD - We capture Orleans, and get our second military great leader: Willem Jansz.

1210 AD - We discoved Military Tradition, but only NOW realize that we have no access to Gunpowder! I shouldn't play when I'm this tired...

1240 AD - All those Pikemen in Paris save the day for the French, as we lose several Knights in an attempt to take the French capital. Another day...

1260 AD - We manage to take Paris (and The Great Wall) after a major battle, and get our third military great leader: Dirck Hartog.

1285 AD - We now control the city of Rheims.

1295 AD - Orleans flips. Our waiting Knight takes it back swiftly.

1315 AD - We capture Lyons, thinking that this is the end of the French civilization. But there is another French city somewhere, which we havn't found. Instead, we make peace with the French, mainly to please our people, getting some techs in return. Reopening the Dutch embassy in the new French capital city Besancon reveals its location - an island in the middle of the ocean to the northeast. We decide to fill up a couple of Caravels with Knights, send them there and finish the French off for good.

1340 AD - Said and done: We capture Besancon, and the French are history.

1345 AD - WE DISCOVER THEORY OF GRAVITY AND ENTER THE INDUSTRIAL AGE! Together with the Mayan civilization, ours is now the largest on the planet, and our score is growing rapidly. The Incas have the numerically largest military, but what seems to be mostly outdated units. They are however a threat at this point, as they are not very happy at all with our treatment of the Spanish and French, and we have few units defending out newly captured cities. We are equal to the English and the Incas in tech. None of the three civilizations on the western continent have entered the Industrial Age. There are no wars going on anywhere in the world.

Mistakes made:

1) It would perhaps have been better to chose Monarchy rather than Republic (especially after the Philosophy-slingshot to Republic didn't work out), seeing as our original continent was pretty small, and that we were planning to go to war. I did have some problems with war weariness near the end of the war with Spain, and during most of the war with France. Lesson learned: Pay more attention to LONG TERM strategies!

2) After researching Gunpowder I totally forgot to check if we had a source of Salpeter! I just assumed that there was Salpeter on the French soil, and totally forgot to check it. Rookie mistake. Continuing to research on the lower branch, all the way to Military Tradition, when not having Salpeter, was my biggest blunder so far in this game. Lesson learned: After discovering a tech that unveils a new resource, ALWAYS scan the map for this resource!

Strategy for the Industrial Age:

Sooner or later, we need to take on the great number of Inca Archers and Spearmen. Either we attack them, or they will attack us. They are technologically advanced, so I feel we need get this war done with as soon as possible, before the Incas start building Riflemen. However, we'll upgrade our Knights into Cavalry first (trading for Gunpowder with the Mayan civlization), and we'll also build two Cavalry Armies out of the two waiting empty Armies that our latest two great leaders have built. After this, we'll probably move east, trying to use our technological advantage to crush the Zulus and give Egypt and Maya a big fight. What would be especially nice would be to get to Tanks before they can build Infantry. I'll keep a close on resources (live and learn) too. Rubber and especially Oil will be very important.

-- Roland

 

[Roland Ehnström]

The weird part with the saltpeter when I originally traded for it I still couldn't make musketman. That was quite frustrating

That's because after trading for Salpeter you get it in your capitol. Then to be able to build a Musketman in a city on the Spanish continent, you need a viable trade-route to the Spanish continent, which you wouldn't have until Astronomy (which allows trade-routes over sea).

-- Roland

 

[The Moose]

That's because after trading for Salpeter you get it in your capitol. Then to be able to build a Musketman in a city on the Spanish continent, you need a viable trade-route to the Spanish continent, which you wouldn't have until Astronomy (which allows trade-routes over sea).

-- Roland

...or it might be because the Swiss Mercenary is 1/4/1 as is the Musketman (i.e. you cannot build the Musketman).......

 

[Roland Ehnström]

Ah, yes, that's it, of course. Swiss Mercenary upgrades directly to Rifleman. Musketman is 2/4/1 though.
-- Roland

 

[Ronald]

1.22f

In 1025 BC I started my revolution with 7 turns of anarchy, so in 850 Bc the Dutch finally became a republic. I concentrated on infrastructure and research, but it was rather slow. In 450 BC I had the coastline of the continents seen, my military consisted of one warrior, one spearman, 2 curraghs and 1 galley. On score I still was last.

In 90 AD I researched gunpowder, but there was no salpeter available. There was one in english territory, so I needed astronomy to trade it and one in the Maya territory. For that I would need magnetism.

The current core of cities did not provide enough research for a fast space ship, so I needed to expand. My chosen route was Spain, France, Inca and England.

The AI research was even slower, so i was confident to get Spain with horsemen and medival infantry and France and Inca with knights. This is how it went:

I landed in 230 AD with a combination of horsemen and swiss mercenaries (their 4 defense is awsome). The spanish attacked, the mercenaries won and The Netherlands entered their golden age. Needless to say, France, Inca and England joined my war with spain.

Initially the invasion made little progress, but the GA enabled me to pay for the troops and keep a good tech pace. The spanish attacks were stopped by the swiss mercenaries and after the spanish troops were depleted it was easy.

I got my first GL and used it for a FP. This is my natural use if I don't have one built, but I am not sure it is good in C3C. The effectiveness of the FP in C3C is greatly reduced. The area around the FP took ages to develop, so it might have been better to play without the FP and use the GL for an army instead.

in 500 AD the Spanish were eliminated. The Inca military helped to win the war and unfortunately, they took Barcelona, which had Sun Tzu. So I altered my plans. After regrouping and bringing my troops into position I declared war on Inca first. The English were fighting on my side and I was hoping that they will engage the Incas on the Northern front. Only after taking Barcelona I brought my troops to the French border and started the war with France as well.

Both France and especially Inca had much more culture than the Netherlands, so city flipping became a constant worry.

The war with France gave me a GL and I formed a knights army. Finally in 690 AD I reached the industrial age.

 

[Denniz]

COTM02 - Open

Middle Ages - 230BC to 1325AD

During the Ancient Age , both France and Spain had established colonies on my island. I had been building swordmen for a rush on someone. I concidered whether it would be better to conquer the continent with 3 civs (Maya, Eygpt, and Zulus) or the one with 4 (Spain, France, Inca, and England). Neither continent had communications with the other. In fact the northmost and southmost civs on each continent did have communications, either. In the end, since the Incas were the most advanced and no galleys needed to be risked, I decided to start with Spain and work my way around. In 230AD, I felt I was ready to take on the Spanish.

Note: These picture are all Beginning of turns from autosaves.

In preperation for war with Spain, I had sneaked a colony (Leiden) in along the Spanish coast as a jump off point in 10AD. I had transported the settler and 2 spearmen and 7 swordmen.

The plan was a quick push on Madrid. I had another few galley-loads of swordmen when the ROP came up for renewal. I didn't renew as I didn't want to wait another 20 turns to attack or to break a ROP when I did. Thus began one of the worst campaigns I have ever had.

As soon as I ended the ROP, my galleys were asked to leave or declare war. I choose to leave thinking I would just go around. My ships were put back by my own coast with only sea and ocean tiles between me and Leiden. Also, I had just researched Fuedslism, so I upgraded the shipborne troops to all Med. Inf. but the Leiden troops were sill swordmen. I foolishly proceed with war anyway. I hadn't rushed a temple or barracks in Leiden. Well, the swordman stack was destroyed by Med. Inf and Ancient Cavalary. I wasn't paying attention, Spain had ToZ. I was able to take Valencia (Southern tip of eastern side of bay) and Santiago (north on the Ivory, with the Statue of Zeus) with the ship-borne force and re-enforcements. After that (300AD), I sued for peace, getting the city Spain had established on my island's at western tip. (I had captured the one on our start location earlier.)

In the intervining peace, both Leiden (330AD) and Valencia (360AD) flipped to Spain. Did I mention Spain also had the ToA? The only good thing was I still had Santiago and the ToZ. I had rushed a temple there asap.

By 400AD, I was ready to try again. I got France to ally with me this time. I took Valencia with forces from home in 410AD. Sent a stack of Med.Inf. towards Madrid. They were chewed up rather badly without accomplishing much. I should have send over few more Swiss Mercenaries so I would have extra to defend my Med. Inf.

In 450AD a Swiss Mercenary successfully defends and triggers my Golden age. In 480AD an Elite MI gives me my first MGL. I save him for knights. In 530AD I research Chivalry.

Re-enforcements continue to arrive and I begin a more methodical advance on Madrid and Murcia (on the west coast, between oasis and fish) using a couple Swiss Mercenaries in each stack. I take Murcia in 580AD and enough knights arrive to build a Knight army in the same year. I finally take Madrid in 590AD. In 630AD, I take Barcelona (in the jungles NE of Madrid along the east coast). In 650AD, Madrid flips back. I take it back the next turn. I capture the remaining continential cities in 650AD and 660AD.

The additional city Spain establish on my island between wars was auto-razed earlier but the Inca had quickly landed a settler in the ruins. Spain was down to just a small island north of my island. I sent a small force of knights and auto-razed it in 730AD. End of spain.

Of course, with the long campaign and heavy losses, Spain got the last laugh as my hopes for a early Domination victory were ruined. Mistakes? Leiben was stupid. Starting the war when I did was stupid. Had I kept the Leiben troops at home and delayed a few turns for upgrades, I would have allowed me to land 15 Med. Inf. supported by Swiss Mercs. That would have allowed a more methodical approach such as I used later. In addition, I didn't pay attention to who had built what wonders. (The flips didn't cost me that much, just added frustration.) As it was, the Ancient Cavalary I got from Santiago and the Golden age production was what allowed me to accomplish anything. Once I had knights deployed, it was all over.

Wonders

I built HG in 90BC, Sun Tzu in 510AD, Knights Templar in 730AD, Herioc Epic in 800AD, and Forbidden Palace in 890AD.

France

In 850AD, I DoW on France. I had built up considerable numbers of Knights and Swiss Mercenaries by then. France had not yet researched Feudalism. I destoryed the French in 910AD. The only wonder they had was The Mausoleum of Mausollos.

Research

During this time I was researching the bottom of the MA tech. I didn't realize that you don't get Musketmen when you have Swiss Mercenaries. In any case, I researched everything at 60-70%. (Except Chemistry which I did mostly with just a couple specialists.) I traded for Education and Astronomy and lost the benefits of the Temple of Artemis. I needed the 4 luxuries I had captured for my core. The cost was one French city in the NW flipped to the Inca. I used Chemistry to get Navigation and Econmics. In 1240AD, I researched Cavalry. I had switched to 100% gold and by 1280AD, I had upgraded all my Vetern Knights to Cavalry. I kept the 3 Elite Knights I had for leader farming.

Inca

In 1280AD, I had 37 Cav, 6Med Inf, 39 Swiss Merc, 11 Crusaders, 13 Ancient Cav, and 6 Knights (3 in an Army). The last of my treaties with the Inca had elapsed so I DoW on the Inca. They were annoyed but never attacked as I had hoped. I literally enlisted everyone in my war as I had traded Metallurgy and Military Tradition to get Music Theory, Physics, Printing Press and allies. That way no one would trade Cavarly to the Inca.

I took out their only Iron with an amphibious assult in the far NW above the English. Since they didn't respond my 3 Crusaders took up residence in their nearby city at the edge of the Tundra. But at some point, their border with England expanded and they pickup England's Iron North of London.

By the end of the MA (1325AD), the Inca were down to 4 cities. I had captured the Oracle, GW, GL, Sistine, Leo's, and Smiths. I suffered a few flips but with minimal loss and nothing I couldn't take back the next turn.

There were a lot of lessions learned and my initial campaign against Spain was a virtual "where's Waldo" of mistakes. I am definately waiting to long between wars and not planning my trading and treaties with a long term perspective. More of that in the Industrial age...

 

[smackster]

Predator, 1.22

AA post : http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=1983310&postcount=134

Entered MA in 900BC

Prior to that in 1150BC the 2nd suicide galley had made it and met Maya. There was no real planning to this, as soon as it looked like I had discovered most of the local land, both Caragh's that I had, were sent west, and one survived about three turns and we met the Mayans. They had Poly and 160 Gold, but at that point I wanted to meet others before trading any techs to them, to maximise the trades. However, once I researched Currency in 900BC, Maya had the last MA tech, and so I traded so that I could start researching towards Chivalry, England actually picked up Poly the next turn, so I could have waited to maximise my trade position.

My Caragh continued to wander around the Mayan territory looking for others, and soon picked up 3 barb galley followers. They actually followed for about 300 years, before a fourth barb galley came up and all four hit us in one turn. I don't know if the seafaring trait means that galleys fight better, but it survived.

Egyptians were met in 590BC, it took my first Caragh 560 years to find the second civ , and then Zulu in 530BC.

Trading was brisk and it was apparent from the prices I got that typically the AI did not have many contacts. We are sure to see some record Jason scores from COTM, once we get a decent start that is

Back home at the turn of the age, there were a couple of barb huts that filled up with barbs. Due to the barb bug, they all just sat there and I was able to slowly bring up my regular warriors and get them upgraded to vets. Obviously I didn't have the iron hooked up in 900BC, and didn't really want too many elite warriors. In other games that barb bug, will really help to create some elite swordsmen.

In 510BC we research Feud and only now do I realise there really are no Scientific civs here. I do sell it to England for 107 + 19GPT.

370BC Horses hooked up. All this time (since 1175BC) we'd been fighting a phoney war with Inca, well they hadn't as I'd got all their neighbours to declare on them. So now it was peace at last with Inca and we swap Monarchy for Mono, we now start on Chiv.

90BC Chivalry at last, Maya already have it. Although Spain have Great Wall, they only have Spearmen, get France to join.
Declare war now, about three turns before I'll arrive to let France bite into them a bit. Invasion force of about 6 Knights and 4 MI invade, with more to follow. Two lightly defended Spanish cities soon fall and we are at the gates of Madrid.

50AD A Swiss Mercenary wandering in Spanish territory starts our GA. Madrid is ours, but Salamanca flips back.

270AD All Spanish cities gone, but they must have a settler somewhere, we declare peace

280AD Perfectly timed alliance with France ends so we attack them, now with 11 Knights and 4 MI

360AD At the doors of Paris Inca build the Great Library, about 40 turns after I got Education

380AD Paris is taken, in the end only two spear defenders.
Our advanced force arrives outside Lyon the most northern French city and there are about 25 Incan spear, archer, horses in their territory, just sitting there. Inca still has no iron, so we can't wait must just take them out, and can probably do it in a quick attack.

390AD Still fighting France, Abel Tasman appears at last, and an army is created.

410AD France with two cities left, arrive on a galley at our iron island with a horse (where did they get horses from), we attack with our one warrior and die (I did wonder after why I didn't just ugrade him). So we have to sue for peace to save our island. We get a ROP so that we can fight Inca.

430AD Barcelona flips back to the Spanish, find that they have a small island way into the east.
Declare war on Inca. Get England to join, but France will not for anything, they wont break their ROP with Inca.
Now with 16 Knights and 8 MI wipe out the large Incan stack, in two turns, only one upgrade however, there were about 10 elite wins in that.

450AD First elite win of this decade and Willem Janz appears and we form a second Army. Third leader two turns later and we build the HE.

520AD Spain down to their last spearman in their last city, and they are destroyed at last.
Inca left just sending out longbows, Fourth leader, third army just filling them with one Knight so that we can transport them when we need it. Later I would leave them empty waiting for Cavalry

680AD After a titanic struggle we capture the Inca capital and the temple of artimis. The Incan's had over 10 times our culture and I would suffer from flips more than I've ever seen before. I'm not sure how much this slowed us down but clearly it didn't help. There were many times when reserves had to be sent off to take flipped cities and that reduced the number of Knights in the front line. Obviously with a few armies in the field it didn't slow the front line down too much.

740AD With Inca down to three cities, decide to finish the French, its a rep break, but we have so much cash, 90% science, and still +146 GPT that we know that we don't need a rep now.

760AD Inca down to one city.
Realise that we don't have Saltpetr and therefore can't build Cavalry, England have it so we'll have to take it. I'm not used to (my second game actually) where the resources are so slim. France are gone.
Zulu arrive at our home continent with a horse and and Impi, luckily there are Knights around, looks like a sneak attack to me.

800AD Zulu do declare war, and we wipe their weak force out. I believe that is a direct result of breaking our rep in 740Ad, if I had not broken the rep, I don't think that attack would have come. Once you have broken your rep then the chance of sneak attack from others seems to go up a lot.

850AD Inca gone at last. They had so much culture the flips were driving me crazy. It was comedy at the end I'd get their last city in a position to be taken, and then another would flip, when that was about to be taken, then another would flip. I was only putting a single MI into garrison and it was really slow going reducing the resistors. One city with the Knight Templer, flipped about 6 times. In the end I just left a couple of Crusaders outside, and they kept taking it back.

From now it was quick going, armies in place and England is crushed very quickly. We still need some more land space and a fleet of Caravels arrive at the southern point of the old English empire, a large set of Cavalry including two armies go on their way. We initiate war with Zulu, and get their neighbours into an alliance, three turns later we arrive and Zulu are soon gone.

With Zulu gone we still needed a few more squares, all holes are filled in at home, so we have another quick alliance break, and a quick forage into Egypt for the extra squares.

1160AD Dom win 5545 Firaxis points Jason 9102

I guess I have to be happy after the difficult start with a 5 city 1000BC, without iron or horses on the start island.

 

[klarius]

Open
continued from above

After I had five luxes in my tiny empire I thought it time for a golden age, to build up some infrastructure and military and boost science. The Incas where my target for a very limited military operation. I declared and put a lone swiss merc near Paris, thinking he will survive at least one fight. In fact he survived all 4 attackers (only bows and horses). This encouraged me to take Paris with some horses, but I had to note a large archer stack behind it. I retreated, let the Incas take the city again and took it myself again next turn when I could get two swiss mercs and 2 MI into the city. After that lots of archers impaled themselves on the swiss' attacking over a river. After a few turns Inca was ready for peace and did even throw in a few GP.
After a peaceful GA, I started the next small skirmish with the Incas. They didn't have iron at that time and were just starting to connect some near Paris. I decided that this would anyways would be starting point for the big wars and that I didn't have to watch my reputation anymore. So I allied England and Spain knowing that I would make peace in a few turns. I just took the iron city and wanted to take a second city nearby but then Spain completed the Statue of Zeus. So peace with Inca war with Spain and alliance with Inca. By 470 AD I had reduced spain to 3 cities, which were not on the road network and in swamps or jungle. That was when I finally noted that I had no Saltpeter and the only easy source was in England. I was already in the midst of researching chemistry by then. I stopped research before going to metallurgy and prepared for the England war. Luckily somebody on the other continent had researched chivalry so I could trade for it and now finally have some decent attackers. But still a big error to trade, I forgot totally that I just had acquired the great library in Madrid. So I traded for a tech I would have acquired the next turn anyway (Zulu and Egypt had it), and I gave Invention for it, leading to losing Leonardo's in the Sun Tsu cascade shortly after (leading to a 550 shield heroic epic).
The England campaign went smoothly and was over by 680 AD. I had started science again in time so Cavalry was available at the time I could start to ship Saltpeter. I also rushed some barracks and Cavalry in english cities, so the final blow was with cavs already. Small problem, I couldn't destroy England. They settled an 1 tile island the very turn I destroyed their last continental city (and I didn't note it).
Next to the Incans. I started of very bad, because I wanted to take the city with Tempel of Artemis first. Unsufficient forces lead to me losing my only (MI) army and a few cavs. After that I did the right thing and slowly moved my SODs from to sides into the country taking only what I could hold. In 870 AD Incans were history and I had the ToA, while nobody knew anything of education. I decided I wanted to keep it some time to fill in some fishing villages so I razed Madrid to get rid of the Great Library. That wasn't necessary as I noted in the end. Egypt did have education in the end, but never traded it to anybody.
The rest was just usual rolling over the AI's. On the way back home the cavs took out the rest of spain. I had one MGL there who formed a cav army. In the meantime I also had 3 armies rush built in the Military academy. So I just ferried them over (1 army with one cav in it and 2 cavs in another galley), took out Zulu, paused a little to regroup than attacked Egypt until domination was reaxhed in 1170 AD.

After the first Spain war

England acquired, we have Cavs

Incans gone, the rest is only mopping up

Domination reached

A really fun game. I had to struggle for a long time, which wouldn't have happened, if I would have walked the settler to the cow or had abandoned the first capitol early (I never moved the capitol). I made a few mistakes later, but only when I already was in a position where it couldn't hurt much.
8918 Jason not as good as my COTM1 result, but also not too shabby.

 

[SirPleb]

Woah Sir Pleb, how did you manage to kill Spain with 6 knights and 2 swiss mercs

I didn't kill them that easily That was just my first landing force from my four galleys. The galleys then started ferrying additional troops over to join the invasion. I had four more Knights ready to go immediately (they arrived two turns later) and I produced additional ones quickly because I'd triggered my Golden Age.

Also how did you reaserch tech so fast I didnt have too many cities since it was small land and I was averging reaserch at about 10 turns ...

Some things which can increase your tech rate:
1) Republic will allow a much higher rate than Monarchy due to higher gross income. If you can deal with the additional unit support cost and with war weariness then Republic gives a big boost to science.
2) All tiles which citizens are working should be roaded.
3) Libraries in all core cities, and later on universities.
4) Grow cities in the core region to be large enough to work all available tiles, including all the accessible coastal and sea tiles (they produce commerce)
5) Maintain enough happiness for all or almost all citizens in core cities to be productive. Entertainers don't work tiles and thus don't generate gold for science. Luxuries and marketplaces are the most important things for happiness.
6) Reduce expenses so that the science slider can remain high. Or as an alternative, get gold in trade from other Civs to offset running at a deficit with the science slider high. Reducing expenses is tricky but includes things like not having unused extra military units around which cost maintenance; not building unnecessary city improvements (e.g. not all cities need barracks, I almost never build cathedrals or colosseums, sell off unneed improvements in captured cities); build marketplaces and get luxuries for happiness so that the luxury slider can remain low); get Smith's Trading to eliminate some upkeep costs.
7) Build a Forbidden Palace to reduce corruption losses a bit
8) In any core city which is losing a fair bit to corruption build a courthouse. The tradeoff as to when to build a courthouse varies depending on how corrupt the city is and your other urgent production requirements. As a rule of thumb, in the long run I want a courthouse in every city which is losing 20% or more to corruption. The higher the corruption the sooner I'll build the courthouse.
9) In corrupt regions maximize food for each city and then use excess citizens (any which would otherwise cause too much unhappiness) as scientists.
10) If possible get science wonders (Copernicus' and Newton's) in your highest science cities.

 

[smackster]

I feel its almost rude to compare ones game with SirPleb in public, but I think this is an interesting timeline comparison that shows how my game slips.

We start off close, although SirPleb has a few more Knights, and I think that is all the difference. Note that I had the bad start, and didn't wander over the mountains, only 5 cities at 1000BC, how much difference does that make I wonder. Also I had lots of flips.

By this time, 210AD, I'd reduced Spain to 3 towns and despite some losses my military was up to 18 Knights.

From Smacksters timeline
210AD Spain down to one city on my continent. I had about 11 Knights

Now onto France, and we both attack about the same time, not sure how many Knights SirPleb has at this point, but it take me 9 turns longer.

In 270AD I declared war on France and moved into her territory.
....
At 320AD I'd taken over all of France except one town northeast of the Inca:

From Smacksters timeline
280AD Perfectly timed alliance with France ends so we attack them, now with 11 Knights and 4 MI
410AD France with two cities left

Now on to Inca, and I'm now 12 Knights behind and some 27 turns to boot.

declared war on the Inca in 330AD and began invading them. My forces were up to 28 Knights at this point.

At 470AD the Inca were nearly out of the game and my world map looked like this:

From Smacksters timeline
430AD Now with 16 Knights and 8 MI wipe out the large Incan stack, in two turns, only one upgrade however, there were about 10 elite wins in that.
740AD With Inca down to three cities

What I'm not sure about is how SirPleb built so many more Knights than I did during this period, and how the Incan's fell so quickly. I even had Inca fighting their neighbours in the early BC's.

 

[SirPleb]

@SirPleb, I still don't understand why you didn't build the Great Lighthouse in Rotterdam and built instead improvements, which weren't urgently needed at that time.

Oops, so much for me remembering to address this in spoiler 2

Fairly early in the game I knew that my galleys could safely reach a number of Civs (Spain, France, Inca, England) without needing the Lighthouse. And there was a chance I could reach everyone else, I didn't know yet. By 1500BC I did know that at worst I could reach them after learning Astronomy. The Civs I could definitely reach would keep me busy for a while, long enough that in the meantime I could if necessary develop a way to reach the other Civs, i.e. research to Astronomy, capture the Lighthouse if built by one of the local Civs, or even galley hop.

With those future alternatives being possible it seemed better to invest 300 shields in something else rather than the Great Lighthouse, which at worst could be replaced by researching a few additional techs. 300 shields == 10 Horsemen, or 4 Knights, or a Courthouse + Marketplace + Library + Harbor, a fair bit of production to use on a wonder I wasn't sure I'd need.

 

[klarius]

Sure, SirPleb it was clear in your case that you didn't need the Lighthouse for warring. I just wondered why you passed on the chance for early hauling in of luxes. I'm pretty sure this would have payed of in more than the 1200 gold for rushing the improvements or units.

 

[smackster]

Sure, SirPleb it was clear in your case that you didn't need the Lighthouse for warring. I just wondered why you passed on the chance for early hauling in of luxes. I'm pretty sure this would have payed of in more than the 1200 gold for rushing the improvements or units.

There is too much risk that somebody will beat you to it, so generally I would research Astronomy / Navigation on any map where I need sea/ocean trading. Imagine turning off tech research and then somebody far away getting the GL one turn before you do.

Smackster

 

[SirPleb]

Sure, SirPleb it was clear in your case that you didn't need the Lighthouse for warring. I just wondered why you passed on the chance for early hauling in of luxes. I'm pretty sure this would have payed of in more than the 1200 gold for rushing the improvements or units.

Does that work? I could swear I did that once long ago and then found that the Lighthouse doesn't actually change luxury/resource connections, i.e. even with it they won't connect across sea. So I've never factored that into my thinking about the Lighthouse since. Have I been wrong about that? In this particular game that might have swayed me to build it, I'm not sure. I got to Astronomy asap to make the connections and didn't lose a lot of turns unconnected.

 

[klarius]

Does that work? I could swear I did that once long ago and then found that the Lighthouse doesn't actually change luxury/resource connections, i.e. even with it they won't connect across sea. So I've never factored that into my thinking about the Lighthouse since. Have I been wrong about that?

Well it worked in my game, I had five luxes before astronomy. One on my island, three by cities next to resources on the next continent. One traded from spain (through my own harbor city connected to her road network),

 

[SniperDevil]

I have a question. Is it better to go to war with your neighbor who is equal in tech (Spanish) or go to war far away against someone who is way behind in tech but has many troops (Mayans) ??

 

[AlanH]

Does that work? I could swear I did that once long ago and then found that the Lighthouse doesn't actually change luxury/resource connections, i.e. even with it they won't connect across sea.

That's true.

For coastal trade you have to have a continuous path of road/harbour/coast tiles between your capital and the AI capital.

For sea trade you have to have a continuous path of road/harbour/coast/sea tiles between your capital and the AI capital.

Ability to sail across stretches of non-tradable water does not grant trade access.

 

[solenoozerec]

Open (1st GOTM ever)
I had to start a war on England after discovery of gunpowder, since they had saltpeter, which was easier to capture by small and fast military campaign than Zulu’s saltpeter.
After I took one of their cities, which is located inland and has no any improvements (zoomed below) I was surprised that all my strategic resources and luxuries were available in this city.
The only explanation is that it is available from my other cities on the same continent through the territories of other civs. But is it true that cities can be connected through foreign territories? Seems like a gap in my civ knowledge.

 

[dmanakho]

Open (1st GOTM ever)
But is it true that cities can be connected through foreign territories? Seems like a gap in my civ knowledge.

I believe it is possible but only if you have Right of passage with foreign civs.

 

[AlanH]

But is it true that cities can be connected through foreign territories?

I have a feeling I've seen a similar effect myself. It's possible there's a bug, of course. Did you have a ROP with any of the adjacent civs?