COTM 07: First Spoiler (End of Ancient Age).

[Ronald]

Going for 100k culture win

The very crowded map with 12 civs on standard size and the Austrian treats - militaristic and industrial - ask for early warfare. The map with little extra food encourages this decision even more.
Nevertheless I wanted a cultural win, since Austria is known for their culture. It will be not too esay, because there are no cheap cultural builds.

My game plan:
Early wars with veteran archers, then sworsdmen/ medival infantry / longbowmen and horsemen
Research quickly to military tradition to build hussars, build the temple of Artemis and never learn education (it's somewhat ironic to go for culture win un-educated)

After moving my settler to the river, my initial building sequence was: barracks, archer, archer, archer, settler, archer, archer, archer, archer, settler
I did not see the need for early exploration. With 11 rvials, all the nearby ones will show up pretty soon.

And so it was, France came from the South, Germany from the North Russia from the North, Rome from the South, later Spain from the South and when I moved my first stack of archers towards France, I also met the Ottomans.

Warfare:

My first attack was in 2510 BC against France with 3 archers against 2 warriors:

Result 1 loss, 1 unhurt, 1 down to 1 hitpoint, Paris captured

Usually I only take one opponent ealy on, but with this high prodution sites, I tried to fight on 2 fronts: Against France and Germany:

By 1000 BC Both France and Germany were eliminated

Research:
Initially I started to research the wheel, but I did not finish it, somebody, I think it was Rome was first. After that I did not do any reasearch untill I got writing.
Then I started to research Philosophy at max. Nomally The AI is researching CoL before philosophy, so I hoped that I can buy CoL before I finish Philosophy and so it came. Just before I finished Philosophy I purchased CoL and took Republic as my free tech. Afte 3 turns of anarchy Austria became
a Republic.

Empire at 1000 BC:

War against Rome:
After having fought with archers only, I uipgraded a bunch of warriors to swordsmen and send them towards Veiji and Rome

Reached middle ages in 610 BC

This was one of the most interesting ancient ages I ever had!

Ronald

 

[Mauer]

WOW, nice AA Ronald. Your use of pics is great!

 

[Ronald]

WOW, nice AA Ronald. Your use of pics is great!

Thanks, I always think that a picture tells much more than words

 

[Erudine]

Wow, it seems that some of the people doing early archer-rushes are having much better QSC stats than people doing traditional REX'ing.

I expanded till I ran out of room (six cities) then attacked France with swordsmen. It musta been too late, tho, cause French culture resulted in a few flips and a much longer-war than I wanted. :/ Eh. Still a very fun game!

 

[denyd]

Roland

Your 1000 BC position is beyond what I thought possible for the given start (and an emperor). You also seemed to have a lot more success against AI spearmen with your archers than I had with my horsemen.

Watching Ronald, SirPleib & Kunigas all going for a cultural win is going to be quite educational.

 

[Offa]

Great start Ronald. Another one who got to France when Joan only had warriors. Your start confirms the value of the ultra early war if it works, and makes me feel better about trying. I will be amazed if SirPleb can get near the score that you and Dynamic are set for.

However, if Joanie had managed to have spears instead of warriors in Paris, things could have been much tougher for you. 3 archers v 2 spears: not good.

 

[Ronald]

Great start Ronald. Another one who got to France when Joan only had warriors. Your start confirms the value of the ultra early war if it works, and makes me feel better about trying. I will be amazed if SirPleb can get near the score that you and Dynamic are set for.

My score would have been better if I had stopped at domination or conquest, but I wanted a 100k victory, so without railroads available my population growth was lower resulting in a lower final score

However, if Joanie had managed to have spears instead of warriors in Paris, things could have been much tougher for you. 3 archers v 2 spears: not good.

I would not have started with 3 archers against spearmen, I would have waited for a fourth.

Ronald

 

[Ronald]

Roland
Watching Ronald, SirPleib & Kunigas all going for a cultural win is going to be quite educational.

SirPleb and Kuningas are going for 20k, I'm going for 100k

Ronald

 

[Offa]

I would not have started with 3 archers against spearmen, I would have waited for a fourth.

Ronald

Thanks: you are making me feel much better. My failed attack on Paris was 4 archers v 2 spears (Russians in my game).

Anyway, great game.

 

[Oddible]

Big shocker to me as I didn't read the details too clearly. I'm doin' my thing and lo and behold BAM, there's France all up in my face already! Then POW, Germany all over my northside. The KABLOOEY Ruskies comin' in from their little ice peninsula.

Well, I managed to spot the 2 nearby Irons early and the Horses too. Got the Horses and the southern Iron and then the absurd AI Germany places their city 2 squares from the Incense and 2 squares from the northern Iron - just to make sure that they would get NEITHER! Weird. So I dropped a city right on their border and made sure they didn't get that iron.

Didn't take too long before I felt strong enough. Rome declares on Spain and I tell the Germans to leave my territory or declare war. Guess which one they picked. Well, they don't exist on the continent anymore.

Everyone else except the Romans (who destroyed the Spanish) are my friends. The German wines are keeping relations very jovial. Can't wait to see what's been going on on the other continent.

Strategy
I'm just kinda working out an Emperor strategy - worked exceedingly well this game. An Ancient Age war that ends right before anyone gets Pikes. No doubt I'll have some trouble with France and Russia, but Rome seems next on the agenda.

 

[Denniz]

OPEN

Not a bad start but definately mistake-ridden. I didn't think to chop/irrigate the game until way late.

Of course, it only went downhill from there. I forgot about the slingshot and got beat to it. I had built up a bunch of Horsemen but didn't use them when I could have.

At the end of the AA, I did an unwise gpt deal to get monarchy and got a 7 turn anarchy. I pretty much had to shut down everything to pay the gpt and control unhappiness. I was average against both France and Germany going into the anarchy, but afterward I'm weak against both. I need a war to play catch up but I am liable to get my butt kicked.

France and Germany were both at war with Russia most of the AA. They were sending a constant stream of Archers and Swordmen through my territory. They just finished off Russia so all those units are going to to come flooding back my way.

Oh well, I may just abandon this one in favor of GOTM38.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Oddible, there's important spoiler info in your pic; please remove/edit it!

 

[Dynamic]

However, if Joanie had managed to have spears instead of warriors in Paris, things could have been much tougher for you. 3 archers v 2 spears: not good.

Yes, If Paris have 2 spears I would have waited and capture Paris and moreover Orlean because it could growth to size 2.

 

[Oddible]

Oddible, there's important spoiler info in your pic; please remove/edit it!

Really? Hmm, not seeing it - perhaps you could send me a private message - I would be happy to remove any problematic info.

 

[a space oddity]

In an effort to join again, I've played this one rather quickly and without keeping notes. Time will tell whether that's enough for me to pull out a win on Emperor... usually I need to keep a tight reign on the pace to do well...

I missed the slingshot and am playing this game basically as a no research game. So far so good.

Different then most people here, I went after Russia first. They are now down to a single tundra village. I captured the Great Lighthouse they built, which is nice. Germany and their ToA will be the next target.

I decided to play this game as the Queen, and give Republic a miss. I guess this'll mean no 100k for Space this time, just (hopefully) boring old domination.

 

[CKS]

This was an interesting game for a while (not in a happy sense). It was my first COTM. In fact, I've never finished a game in 1.22 before. Emperor is very iffy for me even in PTW. Add in a lot of close neighbors and it was clear that I would be losing this one. My only goal was to do better than in GOTM 37, where my Jason score has only 2 digits.

At first things seemed to be about the same. Germany declared on me in 2350 BC, but my single warrior in Vienna holds off an archer and 2 warriors, promoting twice. Then Germany decides not to continue the attack, and allows me to make peace for 25 g + 1 gpt. I've lasted long enough to beat GOTM 37.

The rest of the game goes: the Russians attack and I get Germany to be my ally, the Romans attack and I get Germany to be my ally, the Germans attack and leave me with 1 city. Finally in 1395 AD I enter the middle ages, with 1 city. I'd built a second, but it flipped to the Spanish. As I only ever learn 1 MA tech, I'll just finish my report here. Around 1600 AD I decide that the game isn't interesting any more, and my score is dropping, so I'll refuse any more demands. In 1655 the Aztecs demand some gold, I refuse, and they back down. Finally the Russians declare war on me in 1730 and I die in 1745.

I tried to concentrate on barracks and units in this game, but I didn't get the units where they needed to be. Things started going dreadfully wrong during the first war with the Russians. I needed to go on the offensive more. If I could have taken some of their cities and gotten a safe border, I would have been much better off. The Germans dragged in the rest of the continent, so I probably could have attacked in reasonable safety - the Russians had lots of other units to occupy them. Oh, well. Maybe next time.

 

[chunkymonkey]

I really didn't take this game seriously to begin with for some reason. Perhaps it was the beer I had before playing , or the endless westward searching for a spot to found Vienna. I completely missed the game forest and cattle, and ended up plumping for a poor site next to a river with one BG in the radius. I felt I needed to get a move on though, since i could see bloodthirsty french warriors wandering around eyeing up my settler. Only when I settled Vienna, I realised I was side-by-side with Paris. Great!

I had a pretty shocking ancient ages. Every time i tried to make my mark in the tech race by researching something i didn't think that AI would (writing, philosophy, literature...) they researched it just before me. Managed to get a few bargains and lucky trades and eventually entered the MA in 230BC. This was helped briefly by a brief war with Germany, in which I managed to capture Leipzig, Frankfurt, get an MGL! (which I used for a horsie army) and sue for Monarchy and Currency. decided to go for Germany since they were horseless, and preoccupied with Rome and the Ottomans. Once I was at peace with the Germans, I revolted and got a 7 turn anarchy, ouch!

At the beginning of the MA, a lot of civs are at war with one another, and this might be the only reason i haven't been the target of a dogpile. However, as soon as the rest of them stop playing with each other I might become a tasty target, so I need to bulldoze Germania as soon as possible and i'll have a little tactical advantage, as long as I can keep France as a friend.

I'm curious to see what's going on over at the new world continent. They're building wonders left right and centre.

Great map though, I love the crowding effect. Really makes me feel as though I'm playing as Austria.

I'll stick a minimap up here when i next play. Forgot to get a screenie when I was last playing.

 

[A'AbarachAmadan]

I didn't keep great notes as I just started this game after GOTM38 was already released. Didn't have time to play GOTM37, though I might make time later as it looks like an interesting one.

AA 4000BC - 0670BC. Will be going for 100K this time.

I sent my worker North, seeing nothing I decided to settle 1 North of my starting position. My second city was 1W/1NW to take advantage of the game in the forest. Started w/ warrior/warrior/settler. I eventually settled the cows, but Frankfurt cut me off from getting any other tiles to the SE, which made the location much less usefull initially.

For research I started at none, went for min Writing after trading for Alphabet. Then went Max for Republic slingshot after that. Actually got beat to Writing by a few turns so I traded it to everyone worth trading to soon after getting it.

I traded for EVERY worker I could afford; only missed one; think I did 7-8 in the AA. Put myself in danger of not making Philosophy first doing so as I even traded Writing for them. I didn't use them for Workers though, I added them to my population to build more Settlers out of my capital. Remember at one point I had a wopping 8 citizens, 5 of which were foreigners; my capital was often all foreigners. Only built workers in cities that had at least one of my citizens in it (obviously), which sometimes meant I couldn't build one.

I had to expand mostly NW, a little SE as I was cut off by Germany to the NE, so my capital isn't really 'centered' in my empire. This makes Germany my first target so I can get some more close productive cities.

Only war I saw in the AA was Germany and Russia fighting each other through my territory. Will try to pit France against someone before I go after them. After I get Chivalry I'll be going to war. May shut off research and go with a "upgrade all horsemen, cut off iron to build horsemen, reconnect and upgrade again" scenario in order to get the military moving quicker. I plan on conquering the continent before I really start my heavy culture building.

QSC status:
11 cities, 24 population (5 foreigners w/ no combat), 119 tiles
6 workers, 4 warriors, 1 horseman, 1 curraugh

Got a 7-turn anarchy. Forgot to go into the big picture for a reroll. Oh, well.

AA status, 690BC:
12 cities, 29 population, 125 tiles
1 settler, 10 workers, 4 warriors, 2 horseman

Time to gift techs and go for Chivalry. Debating Knights Templar build.

Well, after seeing Ronald going for 100K maybe I should change.

 

[JonathanValjean]

Well, after 55 minutes, the game is over... I had really prepared for this game, playing as the Austrians on Demigod, and doing fairly well, but things went awry in my game, and my COTM experience is already over... I can't believe it!

Here are my painful QSC notes for all to see:

4000BC--Worker N; Settler E (No food advantages either direction, but Settler spots spices)
3950BC--Worker N; Settler N (Worker spots game/forest)
3900BC--Worker SW; Settler W (This isn't good... NO capital yet...)
3850BC--Vienna Founded; Worker begins Irrigation of plains; Research turned off for now
3700BC--Worker completes irrigation; begins road
3600BC--Warrior1 heads N; Workers completes road & heads SW
3550BC--Worker begins Mining; Warrior NW
3500BC--Warior1 N & spots cattle on wheat
3450BC--Warrior1 NW & meets French warrior (We have Warrior Code; she has Alphabet; I think I'll trade for it in a couple turns, hopefully meeting someone else so that the price will go down.)

3400BC--Trade: France Warrior Code, 44 gold, 3 gpt for alphabet; Warrior1 meets Russian spearman (Annoyed Russia has BW, Pottery, and CBurial; we have Warrior Code) (France also has Pottery now.); Warrior goes N & spots coast and more cattle.) (Russia will not trade nicely, and, at the moment, I refuse to give away Alphabet for Pottery and 20 gold... that's quite an uneven trade.)

3350BC--Warrior2 heads S; Warrior1 heads E, spotting a blue civ's borders dangerously close, especially considering my very slow start....; Worker completes mining, begins road; Borders expand;

3300BC--Vienna finally grows; Warrior1 spots German spear and heads E (oh, no... it's Germany... was hoping a more docile Korea...); Warrior2 S

3250BC--Trade: Germany Masonry for Bronze Working & 10 gold; He becomes cautious; I foolishly allowed Vienna to go into disorder....; Worker S; Warrior2 S; Warrior1 NE; Slider 9.0.1

3200BC--Trade: Russia Alphabet for Pottery & 50 gold; Warrior1 NE & spots coast (Germany land); Warrior2 S; 78 gold in treasury

3150BC--Warrior2 SE; Warrior1 S;

3100BC--At end of turn--Trade: Germany Pottery, Alphabet, 78 gold, 2 gpt for Wheel (He becomes cautious); Spot German Archer to the NE (Please don't attack...); Warrior3 stays home for protection; Worker completes road; Warriors 1 & 2 S; If the German archer attacks my regular warrior and wins, game over... Will the river and hill bonus be enough....) (I must get a gpt deal with Germany...); 10.0.0

3050BC--Trade: Russia Wheel for Ceremonial Burial and 29 gold; Here comes another German archer... All warriors are ordered home, but it may be too late...

3000BC--Two German archers enter my territory; odds are that Germany is about to attack... Oh, boy...; I give Germany 2 gpt in hopes he will not attack, and he becomes polite.... Stay tuned...

2950BC--Germany attacks my regular warrior from across the river, on hills, loses no hitpoints, and my game is over... (I think this is the worst game I've ever played...) I lasted for a whopping 55 minutes... wow...pathetic... The practice run with the Austrians on demigod amounted amounted to nothing... Also, all of the agonizing planning about the opening moves in 4000BC are for naught.

In retrospect, since the map was so crowded, I should have left my warriors at home for protection... I sent the first two warriors out for exploratory and tech trading purposes. Given that the map was so crowded, leaving the warriors home would have been better, since the other Civs would have come to me soon anyway, opening up tech trading possibilities. I guess it's on to the GOTM38 now... I hope my luck is a bit better there.

 

[Darkness]

Extremely fun map Ainwood!!!

Played predator, as usual.
Pregame analysis: crowded map and militaristic/industrious trait calls for early warfare with chop-rushed units. Sound like fun!

The short of my AA:

I settled S, SE of the game and built rax, worker, archer (4x) in Vienna, before producing my first settler. No early research, just cashing...

Met France in 3700BC, and their geographical position (as well as their lack of WC and BW as starting techs) made them the ideal first victim. Attacked them in 2430BC (I think, cause I didn't keep a timeline) and took Paris, losing one archer. Made peace with France for Lyons and 5 techs, leaving them with just Orleans, besides the dyes. That city fell to the mighty Austrian army a little over 20 turns later. Shortly before that I had bought writing from the Ottomans and started philosophy.
My army needed an enemy and I sent nearly all my units towards Rome (Germany was the geographically preferred target but they had a lot of units very visually on the border, so I went for Rome instead). My offensive force consisted of 3 vet archers, 1 elite archer, 2 reg spears and 1 vet warrior. I took Cumae, losing 2 vet archers, and tried to press my advantage even further, bur any hopes of taking more cities or getting a MGL were crushed when the Romans started upgrading warriors to legions.....
After one painful intraturn I was down to one veteran spear and 1 elite archer and Rome was in a GA. I tried to get a MGL by attacking once more with the elite. I won, but no MGL. At this point I decided to cut my losses and get peace with the Romans for Pompeii and MM. Trading MM around got me tech parity again.
From this point on my AA was about peaceful expansion.
I got philosophy first an took CoL as my free tech and began researching republic. (at this point I had three luxes in my lands and I would succeed in grabbing the silks north of Rome shortly thereafter, giving me 4 native luxuries, and the possibility to trade for wines with Germany for a fifth lux, so republic seemed like the best government option for this game).
I got republic in 630 BC and immediately revolted (6-turn anarchy... , but it could have been worse). During my anarchy period Germany built the Pyramids in Berlin. Guess who my first target will be.... Just after my anarchy period had ended I discovered literature (I want libs for my beeline to MT and the hussars )and at that point I was also able to trade for currency and construction, thus propelling myself into the MA.
The plan is to send a few settlers to the far west coast, to fill up the Austrian and formerly French lands and then build libraries in my core and beeline for MT to use the hussars to conquer the home continent.

Fantastic map Ainwood. This is a great game and quite challenging, especially at the start.