COTM 05 Final Spoiler. Modern Age / End Game submitted

I'm probably one of those players Jason helps out to a certain extent. I'm playing to win and enjoy myself, I've never read any of the articles about milking and couldn't see myself doing it anyway, so Jason probably overestimates how efficient I'll keep my empire in the long run.

I'm pretty sure I'll never win anything here, but as long as I enjoy my games and keep seeing improvement I'll be happy.

Butz. groucho
 
Software Version: C3C 1.22f for Windows
Entry class: open
Game status: Diplomatic Victory for Inca
Game date: 1770 AD
Firaxis score: 2063
Jason score: 4836
Time played: 18:27:23
Submitted save: Pachacuti of the Inca, 1770 AD.SAV

Needed a break from other things i was doing so decided to play this cotm. There were absolutely NO wars in the game. The only wonder i built was the UN. Obviously i didn't try very hard for a good jason score ;)
 
Here is my COTM05 submitted game.
It's my best Jason score ever since I played GOTM/COTM!
Jason at 9796 : hope to be this time in the first 20 ! :rolleyes:

Game: COTM 05
Date submitted: 2004-10-09
Reference number: 5180
Your name: LeSphinx
Your email: ASABIN@bouyguestelecom.fr
Software Version: C3C 1.22f for Windows
Entry class: open
Game status: Domination Victory for Inca
Game date: 980 AD
Firaxis score: 4758
Jason score: 9796
Time played: 10:52:08
Submitted save: Pachacuti of the Inca, 980 AD.SAV
Renamed file: LeSphinx_COTM005_C3C122_01.SAV

LeSphinx
 
I don't know how You all are doing so well. After reading this thread i've almost cried cous my game was sooo bad (compared with Yours) :)

Congrats! :)
 
denyd said:
The earliest (lord jimbob) had the highest Jason score, yet was beat in firaxis (by dvandenberg). The lowest Jason (denyd) finished faster than someone with a 50% higher firaxis (dvandenberg).

I looked at my time-line and most of the industrial age was researched in 4-5 turns. I was very careful to maintain a cordial relationship with Greece to trade for his age bonus tech and save my TOE for Computers & Miniaturization and had an Internet pre-build already to go. I spent the last 200 years less than 30 tiles from domination and had to give away cities a couple of times to prevent domination wins. I did cost myself about 3 turns when by TOE pre-build wasn't quite ready for the new age and had to run 0 science to those turns. I have the feeling others attacked with swords & horses against spears & archers. I like to have a more decided advantage when attacking and try to minimize my losses in battle.

I guess I'll just have to stop worrying about developing an advanced nation with happy people and just build military and kill whatever moves until I reach the domination limit. Then turn on the science machine again and head for the stars.
Well, my fireaxis score could have been quite a bit higher if I had really milked my terrain for score: my screenshot at 520AD was pretty much the same up until the end because I did not really build any culture to expand boundaries (I was paranoid about going over the dom limit). Thus I never had more than ~50% of the world's terrain. Likewise, I wanted my outlying cities to grow as fast as possible so that I could convert as many citizens as I could to scientists for an expensive tech (e.g. Atomic Theory). So I let my unhappy citizens work irrigated tiles to grow pop higher rather than using entertainers to max happiness and score at the expense of raw pop growth. Thus my happiness was around 60% for this game vs. over 90% during COTM04 when I was milking a histo victory. I definitely foresook base score for a sub-1300AD launch date, which was my goal once I got to 4 turn research in the early MA.

Speaking of which, 4 turn research in the IA and Modern Era is great, but what separates a 1545AD finish (in my GOTM31) from 1285AD in this game was the fact that I managed to get into the Middle Ages (as a republic nonetheless!) before 1000BC (a first for me) and got fast research going after the initial MA techs were learned, thanks to an early commitment to a)library building and b)conquest of luxs to max citizens and revenue. I remember kicking myself in GOTM31 if I had to research a Modern Age tech in 5 turns, but I didn't appreciate the extra 5-8 turns it took me to get through monotheism, Invention, etc in an earlier age! This game was a nice one for an early SS launch, but others have shown that it's possible to fly even earlier: Kuningas's COTM03 (1260AD), Kemal's COTM03 (1255AD), and especially Bremp's GOTM26 (920AD:eek: )!
 
Cainoor said:
I don't know how You all are doing so well. After reading this thread i've almost cried cous my game was sooo bad (compared with Yours) :)

Congrats! :)
Welcome to Civfanatics and GOTM :wavey:

Don't let these guys put you off. You're seeing some of the best Civ players in the world strutting their stuff here. We mere mortals can only stare open mouthed at their feats and wonder if we'll ever achieve a fraction of these performances. Look at the results tables and you'll see that most of us still have a very long way to go, but it's fun to learn from these discussions, and to watch your personal results getting better each month as a result.
 
Cainoor,
I'm not very good but playing GOTM/COTM is lot of fun. Endeed, the GOTM/COTM staff puts a lot of serious and fun and helps for all of us...
I download the previous game of the best players and with their QSC, it help me to improve my game and my opening moves which are very important!

LeSphinx
 
Open Class

20K victory in 1820; 4750+ Jason

Two problems with time and score: I didn't get a leader at all (I tried....) and I wasn't very aggressive most of the game because I was in Republic or Democracy most of the time (after I got Universal Warmongering I did provoke Carthage and in the ensuing mayhem helped dismantle the Celts).

Oh well, on to England!
 
Leaders can't rush great wonders in C3C, so it probably didn't hurt you much. Though I was lucky to get my first leader, build an army, and get another leader shortly after allowing me to rush the Heroic Epic.
 
A couple of days ago, I submitted my first 100k victory (ever!). It took me a whole night to finish this kind of thing. Here's how I did it:
After I left the ancient warfare aside and concentrated only on early expansion & culture I had a attacked the Aztecs in 420AD, turned my forces towards the Indians in 590AD, prepared to take out the Kelts in 730AD, hunted down the Romans 850AD in an alliance with the Greeks to keep my core safe, and in turn attacked the Greeks in 1040AD. I arrived at thew dom. lim. in 1140AD.
Dianthus' Mapstat became my 7th advisor then. I even pressed some Civ3 keyboard shortcuts while Mapstat was on top because I got so familiar with this tool. It helped me in hovering over the domination limit that I missed by only 2 tiles in some turns. After reading in the 2nd spoiler that somebody (edit: this was eldar, going for 100k, too!) accidentally did trigger domination victory I disbanded another town just to have a little room for mistakes. (Of course, I had CivAssist on my Desktop, too, to check for culture rate :) .)

cotm05_hist.jpg


In 1265AD I seriously began calculating:

"1265AD - Several 1 turn sessions due to end game planning. Have to decide wether to attack Japan or not, and how to speed up culture accumulation.
1. No attack on Japan: Japan and Carthage are equally strong, I can drag anyone on my side if the other is attacking me. the terination of either one will result in a war with the remaining opponent which in turn could force me to use some production for the conflict. the main aim will be to produce culture.
2. Cuzco is now up to 27spt, therefore it produces a cavalry every 3 turns that I will disband in corrupt cities. following sirplebs calculations on culture-per-shield revenue of culture-producing buildings I will from now on rush libraries 1st, temples 2nd, universities 3rd, catherdals 4th. 2 special cases: there are 2 cities size 12 building cathradals first which will be rushed for happiness to optimize game score. I already have sixtine Chapel and Bach's Catherdal which give a nice happiness boost for base score. Almost all cities are in WLTKD with 0% luxury rate.
I am in need of settlers. My estimations on the 100k victory: My cities produce culture at a ratio of 581cpt. To win in 80 turns (I arbitrarily set this target date to stay a little bit competitive) the Incans need to accumulate 29704c, that means a medium ratio of 872cpt over the course of 80 turns. The Incans need to increase their ratio by 291cpt. When I reach the estimated 872cpt in 40 turns and keep on increasing the ratio to (872cpt + 291cpt =) 1163cpt we should finish the game sometime in the 1600s.
The 82 Incan cities produce about (581cpt / 82 cities ~) 7cpt. To realistically bring up the production to rush libraries (3cpt) and temples (2cpt) I need (291cpt + 291cpt / 5cpt ~) 116 new cities in the course of the ~ 80 turns to win.
Together with effects of doubling culture values from existing improvements I estimate I have to found a new city and have to rush culture buildings worth 7 cpt in about every turn! This is pretty much but better aim too high than to low! Time is my only real opponent, now."


These estimations from my log might be a bit clumsy, but, finally, I missed my target date by 2 turns! 1675AD: Cultural Victory, Firaxis score: 4507, Jason score: 8340.
 
100k victory, in 1430AD Jason 9679 and with sir pleb not playing 100k there is an outside chance... But I really don't deserve it. I played a bad game, focused on capturing the ToA from the celts, and wanted the pyramids from the aztecs aswell. Should have just built it, I could have easily built it before them. Got to knights which really helped. I underbuilt defense again republic is not fun to be in when you lose 7 or 8 unprotected cities to a surprise attack in your GA, and spend the rest of it fighting war wearyness.

Not a single leader either...
 
Conquest victory for me -- I had already won COTMs with Diplo, Spaceship, and Domination (plus one loss :( ), so I decided to go for a Conquest. Never again! I could have had a domination victory by 1400 AD or so, but I dragged it out until 1774 by the time I wiped Carthage (the last AI) off the map.

It also didn't help that my plan to stay in Democracy and use reverse war weariness to my advantage backfired. I couldn't goad Carthage into war, but figured "What the hell -- I'll roll right over them." Instead, they put up a stiff fight and forced me into Anarchy. I didn't have Communism, so when the revolution ended, I went Monarch, redclared war, and wiped them out.

I'm glad I did it, if only because now I've had a Conquest COTM victory. But I doubt I'll do that ever again, unless ainwood gives us a tiny map or something.
========
Game: COTM 05
Software Version: C3C 1.22f for Windows
Entry class: open
Game status: Conquest Victory for Inca
Game date: 1776 AD
Firaxis score: 3397
Jason score: 6288
Time played: 17:48:23
Submitted save: 1776AD.sav
 
I kept messing up the previous COTM's by worrying to much about getting a top score, so I went for a more relaxed game. Expanded early on and then went for a builders game going for space. From the Industrial age on I was on a tech every 4 turns. Even the modern era wasn't too much of a strain to do so. I also indulged myself and RR'ed 66% of the map by 1600 AD with mines and irrigation on every square whether they needed it or not (not sure why I like doing that - most ppl would consider it tedious).

I didn't note down the exact scores but I launched the spaceship in 1690.

Fraxis score was 5xxx, and Jason was 8xxx.
 
I went for a Histo game again this month. I figured a quick run to Domination would be possible after all that talk of BC dates ;) and milking a map like this would be a challenge, since all the juicy tiles would probably be outside the starting area and a lot of useless mountains would have to be avoided by the final set of cities.

I was relatively successful and but probably could've done better with the coastal (free sea tiles!) cities. And as always, I couldn't have done it without Dianthus' priceless tool. :thumbsup:

Like so many in this game I reached my goal: score a 10k+ Jason. [dance]

And now I'll just have to sit and wait if it's good enough to get that cute, moo-ing award...
 
Well done Space, looks like you beat me in the race to the cow! :salute:

I was hoping that maybe I would be able to sneak away with the only histo victory submitted since everyone was going for early conquest. Ended up with ~9K Jason. Still my best ever though. And my first ever milked game.

Could I ask what date you managed to get virtual domination? I was there in 630AD, and stayed more or less 2 tiles under throughout. I think I probably could have done with a slightly denser city placement, but oh well, I'll know for next time...

not that I'll be milking a game any time soon - i knew it took a lot of patience, but that much?!

Thanks again to Dianthus for halving the time I spend on my games.
 
Well this was my first GOTM/COTM submission, a pretty mediocre 19th century space ship win, not even my best Regent win according to the in game HoF. I'm predicting that I'll easily get the lowest scoring space ship prize :) .

On the bright side I followed with a higher scoring, but still not brilliant win in GOTM 36. I obviously find Emperor easier than Regent.
 
Thanks Chunky. :) I reached domination quite a bit later, only around 900AD. It could have been much sooner, but I abandoned the ToA, because I wanted to be able to control city expansion. I was always going to be a difficult map to milk, so cityplacement was a concern from the start.

How wide did you build? OCP is a good way to have them in the last phase of a milking game. A neat trick I learned from the Hof-ers is building in a CxCxC pattern at first and remove the middle city later.
 
@Space

Before I started coming to these forums, I would rigorously stick to CxxxxCxxxxC , with occasional forays into CxxxCxxxC, but I'm slowly learning the benefits of CxxCxxC and CxCxC - slowly!

I just felt uncomfortable in this game with tight placement due to the mountain ranges scattered all over the place. If I'd had longer to play I could have planned it better, and I always tend to get too excited and rush my first 100 turns before I manage to get a grip on my long-term goals. :rolleyes:

By the way, good luck with your second HOF attempt. Looks like you've got a perfect start!
 
Denyd, I truly enjoy reading your write-ups, keep please keep up the good work!

Open: Links to AA spoiler: here and here
and to
MA here

1640AD -- Athens and Pharsalos captured

1645AD -- Corinth captured

1650AD -- Argos captured

1655AD -- Sparta captured

1660AD -- Delphi and Heraklea captured, Greece destoryed. They deserved it, they started it, and when I gifted them into the Industrial Ages, their free tech, I already had.

1665AD -- Yokohama captured by Incas

By this point the Carthaginians, after years of lucrative trades and me giving them the odd tech for gold or luxuries DOW'ed me. I was extremely weaken by my infrastructure, it was hard to move troops around. Rifleman and later Infantry moved to slow on the road and terrain. Slaves were connecting Rome and India with rails and my 5-6 armies were mostly Swordman, MI or Crusaders, only one Knight/Calvary army I believe. Carthage was landing troops everywhere, like someone else noted before, they were like fungus.

After finishing off the odd landing party here and there, I asked for peace and took as much as I could. This happened back and forth with peace and war for about 100 years. This time I got Yokohama and prompted gifted it back to Japan (it did get taken later )

Started Temple rushing in Greece and other new territory to prevent Carthage from landing in between. I would ask them to leave, they would hide in the cracks, but I wanted them gone. Gifted technically backward Japan to continue alliance against Carthage several times, and Celts too as a matter of fact, but would not give them RoP, as their aggressive buildups near the border between and my Azteca province.

I figured the RoP with Japan would be better than asking them to leave and them DOWing and taking Greek cities, as I was spread thin. It was bad, I was drafting Infantry at one point, knowing they would not be a match for Vet or Elite Samauri. At one point I had a MPP with Japan as we were both at war with both Carthage and the Celts.

1680AD -- Eretria captured, last city in Southern Incan land, Greece destroyed

1710AD -- Herakleia captured by Carthage...right after I had rushed/built a Temple, I was pissed. Got Japan to help me out some more.

1720AD -- Game saved on Oct. 2nd and I would not play it again until Oct. 29th, late at night. When I resume I still want to go for Cultural, likely 20K, and I feel that the 100K would not work.

1730AD -- Herakleia recaptured by Incas, peace with Carthage gained, but they don't have much to extort.

With not needing their help anymore, I asked the Celts and their 20 odd knights to leave my lands and they DOWed me. I had built a barricade North of Tzinztunzten (or whatever it is) and had several Crusader armies there. I don't remember when I built the Military Academy, but I only ended up building 2 armies in Xanadu as I often used armies as a Wonder or improvement prebuild.

Upon declaration of war I manoeuvered my already present, although minimal forces and armies that could get there in a way to protect weakly fortified towns (2/2 Infantry) from their Knights and against borders as the odd Calvary keep coming in before.

Great Military Leader, New World Man is born

1740AD -- Things caught up to me and Lahore was captured by a Cetic Knight

1745AD -- Upon arrivals of Reenforcements from Greece, Lahore recaptured

1754AD -- Two GMLs are created on the same turn in the same battle region as I had an Elite Guerilla and an Elite Calvary

Verulamium and Augustodurm were captured here with several armies ready to branch out after rioting subsided.

1756AD -- Burdigala captured

Theory of Evolution created in Xanadu, it's 9th Wonder (plus a few small wonders)

I had delayed the building of this wonder to coincide with the discovery of Refining. I took Steel and Electronics as the free techs. This was hard to balance out as I removed production tiles from Xanadu, I also lost Trade and was worried the science would slow down to, had to play with the slider

1758AD -- Cataractonium captured

1760AD -- Alesia and Entremont captured

1762AD -- Lugdunum captured

I was close to Domination so I only wanted one more city, the new Celtic capital of Gergovia. The reason I did not stop at Entremont was because I wanted Lugdunum and Lapurdum for their Saltpeter and other resources, to deny the Celts having them.

I had rushed some Temples, Libraries, Aquaducts and Hospitals throughout the empire for the last few turns, if they had 2-3 turns left. And being at about 63% land I thought this was safe

1764AD -- Lapurdum captured

Hoover Dam built in Lakeside Park

1768AD -- Gergovia captured, peace arranged with the Celts giving me recently captured Tolosa and Ratae Coritanorum. There was a Japanese unit close by, so I gave them Tolosa right away. They lost it that turn! I was really hoping that Japan would finish off the Celts from here...I shuld have gave them more Tech and resources to do this.

1770AD -- Having not realized that Japan just lost Tolosa, I gave them Ratae Coritanorum because they had a Samauri within one tile.

1800AD -- Rushing those Temples in newly acquired Celt territory proved fatal as I acheived Domination Victory. I had one turn left on Espionage, as I was planning to build the +1 culture small wonder in Xanadu, plus the next possible wonders.

18 hours
Firaxis score: 2765

Things that I would not do in the future:

1. Leave the game for so long without playing a little, I lost momentum and focus
2. Use more of my 7-8 MGL to build Wonders to have them around longer
3. Going for a 20K cultural, I don't know if flirting with Domination is actually worth it. I didn't raze many cities because I didn't want the Carthaginians to land, but maybe warring as much is not needed...or I should be smarter about it.
 
Open

No posts in the other threads, this is my one and only. :)

Okay, I'd decided to do a write-up this month for the first time, but after I got past the QSC, which I did very detailed, I got lazy and stopped taking notes. I'm glad I did it for the QSC though, as it kept me from making nearly as many mistakes as I'd normally have made. So, I'm gonna post my edited and shortened QSC timeline and a few other thoughts and a general summary of the rest.

First of all, in COTM4, I went for 100k Culture, hoping to pick up a medal for an underplayed victory condition. It didn't work out and I finished fouth, partly because more people went for it than expected and partly because my strategy was flawed. Going into this game, I decided I was going to concentrate more on getting to the domination limit before worrying overly about cultural buildings and that I'd make sure to ICS the hell out of the continent and rush primarily libraries then temples.

So... the QSC:

4000BC - Settler founds Cuzco and starts warrior. Start research alphabet.

3850BC - Cuzco builds warrior1 and begins granary.

3500BC - Contact Aztecs

3250BC - Cuzco builds granary, begins settler.

3200BC - Contact Greeks. Trade Masonry to Greeks for Alphabet & Bronze Working. Trade Masonry to Aztecs for Warrior Code. Begin researching Writing.

3100BC - Contact Indians. Trade Masonry to Indians for Ceremonial Burial.

2900BC - Get maps from a hut.

2850BC - Tiwanaku founded.

2630BC - Machu Picchu founded.

2430BC - Ollantaytambo founded.

2390BC - Trade Pottery & Warrior Code to Greeks for Iron Working, see iron next to Machu and off to the NE. Trade Iron Working to Aztecs for The Wheel, the only horses I see are under Athens! :(

2350BC - Discover Writing and begin Code of Laws.

2270BC - Corihuayrachina founded.

2230BC - Ollan. starts Forbidden Palace prebuild with Pyramids.

2070BC - Contact Celts. Trade Iron Working to Celts for Mysticism.

1910BC - Huamanga founded.

1830BC - Discover Code of Laws and being Philosophy. Vilcas founded. Contact Romans.

1750BC - Contact Romans.

1700BC - Vilcabamba founded. Vitcos founded.

1625BC - Discover Philosophy & Republic, begin Literature. Revolt, getting 6, then 5 turns of anarchy.

1600BC - Andahuaylas founded.

1500BC - Enter Republic. Trade Alphabet and Masonry to Japanese for Horseback Riding. Trade Code of Laws to Greeks for Mathematics.

1475BC - Contact Carthage.

1425BC - Change Ollan. production to Forbidden Palace. Change Machu production to Pyramids.

1400BC - I decide that since I'm spending time getting gold at the moment, other civs should be doing my researching for me. I decide to go ahead and gift everyone everything except Republic.

1300BC - Ica founded.

1175BC - Arequipa founded.

1125BC - Nasca founded.

1100BC - Atico founded. Juli founded.

1050BC - Discover Literature and begin Currency.

1000BC - Trade Literature to Celts for Polytheism. Trade Polytheism to Greece for Map Making.

QSC Stats

15 Cities
49 Pop
1 Settler
9 Workers
3 Purchased Slave Workers
1 Warrior
1 Spearman
15 Swordsman
2 Curragh
1 Granary
6 Barracks
3 Turns from completing Forbidden Palace
35% to completing Pyramids, estimate 20 turns left.

In the end, I sacrificed a few cities/pop for my FP and Pyramids builds. Since I'm going for 100K culture though, having The Pyramids is essential so I can pump out infinite settlers for the ICS outside my core.

Soon after this, I conquered the Greeks, although I left them one city because of their scientific trait, then the Romans, then as I was getting ready to attack the Aztecs, they completed the Temple of Artemis. This made me rethink my strategy, and after a while, I decided that I would see if I could rely on Artemis + ICS and never let Education get researched. So I conquered the Aztecs, then the Indians, then I started focusing on building culture and settlers to fill in all the land I'd conquered while I researched towards cavalry.

Once I got cavalry, I conquered most of the rest of the world, sending a few boats over to Carthage to gain their incense and wines for happiness points. In the end, I managed to prevent anyone from ever researching Education while building libraries in all of my cities and cathedrals in about half. I barely failed to finish off Carthage, bashing 12 cavalry into their last 2 cities defended by musketeers before giving up, figuring that they wouldn't be able to research Education with what they had left, even though they were only one tech away.

Software Version: C3C 1.22f for Windows
Entry class: open
Game status: Cultural 100k Victory for Inca
Game date: 1330 AD
Firaxis score: 5920
Jason score: 11342
Time played: 44:25:42

A very satisfactory result. Concentrating on getting to the domination point certainly maximized my score, and the Temple of Artemis helped with both that AND with the culture. I really like this strategy for low level games where you can get to everyone with galleys. If it were on Emperor or had another continent, it probably wouldn't have worked. I really like how Artemis accelerated me to the domination point though, and that may be useful in the future. If I ever go for 100k in a similar situation, I'll definitely actively build Artemis myself. Combined with the Pyramids, it helps a lot for reaching domination quickly. So I finished a hundred years earlier than my last attempt and with a much higher Jason score.

Detailed QSC
 
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