solenoozerec
Stranger
@Hendrikszoon - one more world record for this COTM, you beat Dynamic's 100K in COTM10 by 10 years and matched GOTM record by Bremp 
COTM 12 - Final Spoiler (Free For All)
- Thread starter ainwood
- Start date
MiniMe
For Glory
Open, for Arabs in Space
Industrial Age 390AD - 910AD
Modern Age 910AD - 1190AD
Kept 4 turn research all the way since early in Middle Ages. Entered Modern Era in 910AD finishing Theory of Evolution on interturn to get Miniturization and Space Flight as free techs after trading for Computers, Ecology and Rocketry. Had a palace prebuild ready for the internet and that greatly helped in keeping 4 turn research in Modern Time.
Too bad the sci civs didnt get all the 4 techs among them, would have shaved 4 turns off the date. But I guess you cant have it all.
Fun game. Dont see how I will fit the next couple of Xotms into my plans with summer sneeking up on us. But maybe cram them in since they are deity.
Industrial Age 390AD - 910AD
Modern Age 910AD - 1190AD
Kept 4 turn research all the way since early in Middle Ages. Entered Modern Era in 910AD finishing Theory of Evolution on interturn to get Miniturization and Space Flight as free techs after trading for Computers, Ecology and Rocketry. Had a palace prebuild ready for the internet and that greatly helped in keeping 4 turn research in Modern Time.
Too bad the sci civs didnt get all the 4 techs among them, would have shaved 4 turns off the date. But I guess you cant have it all.
Fun game. Dont see how I will fit the next couple of Xotms into my plans with summer sneeking up on us. But maybe cram them in since they are deity.
chunkymonkey
Procrastinator
Open
After entering the MA in 750BC with a bunchy of crappy cities spread randomly across the centre of the continent, I figured it was time to do some consolidation and treat myself to some solid borders. I also didn't have a great deal of time this month, so I decided my goal would be domination.
Ottoman War 310BC - 90AD
After selling the Ottomans entrance to the MA to get their Feudalism freebie, I promptly declare war on them. I'm not planning on being nice or honourable to anyone this game. I get a leader early on and use him to build a horse army. This is useful for a while but dies capturing Istanbul in 50BC. This is also the date we learn chivalry... Our Golden Age starts in 10AD and from now on, builds are pretty much settler or ansars until the end of the game. We sue for peace in 90AD and then start on the French, since they have Temple of Artemis.
French War 90AD - 230AD
We get our 2nd leader in 150AD and build an ansar army. Which rocks. Use it to capture Paris in 170AD which has the ToA. During this time I redeclare on the Ottomans, and then sign a peace treaty to pick up a town they settled in Korea. Then I declare war same turn and finish them off... I sue for peace with the French in 230AD leaving them with Marseille.
Russian War 250AD - 370AD
The Russians built the Pyramids in 610BC so I was tempted to go for them first, but they were the only civ i saw that had horses available, albeit in a northern ice town, so I decided to leave them until I had a decent ansar stack which could dispose of them quickly. Which I did. I also got a third leader which constructed my second ansar army. I sued for 3 towns for peace, just as I met England with a successful suicide galley. The Russians never connected in their horses.
Moscow was due to complete Sun Tzu soon so I positioned an army outside and sent off the rest of the troops to the doors of Korea
Korean War 360AD - 460AD
Whilst clearing up the continent of the remaining savages, I get my 4th leader (and 3rd ansar army). I meet the Byzantines, who are still in the Ancient Age. Moscow builds ST in 430AD, so I redeclare and capture it next turn, adding free granaries and free rax to my free temple ability. We sue Korea for peace in 460AD, and leave them hanging around, since they are building Leos in Wonsan. Its now a slow and painful wait until Astronomy so I can get a safe sea passage over to the New World. In 560AD, Astronomy is learned, and troops are rallied.
English War 600AD - 690AD
The English were pretty useless, but werescattered over the centre of the continent so it took a little while to clear them. They also possessed the Statue of Zeus which helped them put up some resistance. Nevertheless they succumbed in 690AD. I now had a choice between either taking half of Byzantium or the whole of Portugal to get to Domination. Portugal had the Great Wall and horses. Byantium had pikes and MI and more culturally advanced cities. So I chose Portugal.
Portugese War 630AD - 720AD
The Great Wall put up little resistance to my Ansars and cavalry. I got Theo in at the beginning so I could get her offensive troops wandering across Old England. If I was required to take a few Byzantine cities at the end of the Portuguese War I could pick off her MI in order to have a smooth conquering session. However it was not needed. After conquering Portugal in 720AD, I needed 70 or so tiles to get Domination and luckily the settlers I had roaming across the old and new continents could reach unsettled spots to give me domination in 740AD.
Firaxis - 7229
Jason - 10387
Woohoo! After a year of playing COTM, thats my first +10k Jason.
And also my first serious attempt at Domination. Perhaps that's telling me something. 
I made some poor strategic mistakes in the Ancient Ages, and maybe I should have arranged my wars differently so that I was ready to start a new one quicker. I also could have made better use of ROP rape, especially as I conquered the whole of my continent before anyone from the New World learned of my adventures, and so everyone was cautious, if not polite with me when I met them.
Another thing is I dedcided to research to MilTrad first rather than Astronomy which may have cost me over 100 years. Cavalry weren't much extra use really. Ansars did exactly the same job. Cavalry probably came in use when attacking walled Portuguese cities, but definitely were not worth the wait. Must learn to assess the future capability of the AI a bit more, in future...
After entering the MA in 750BC with a bunchy of crappy cities spread randomly across the centre of the continent, I figured it was time to do some consolidation and treat myself to some solid borders. I also didn't have a great deal of time this month, so I decided my goal would be domination.
Ottoman War 310BC - 90AD
After selling the Ottomans entrance to the MA to get their Feudalism freebie, I promptly declare war on them. I'm not planning on being nice or honourable to anyone this game. I get a leader early on and use him to build a horse army. This is useful for a while but dies capturing Istanbul in 50BC. This is also the date we learn chivalry... Our Golden Age starts in 10AD and from now on, builds are pretty much settler or ansars until the end of the game. We sue for peace in 90AD and then start on the French, since they have Temple of Artemis.
French War 90AD - 230AD
We get our 2nd leader in 150AD and build an ansar army. Which rocks. Use it to capture Paris in 170AD which has the ToA. During this time I redeclare on the Ottomans, and then sign a peace treaty to pick up a town they settled in Korea. Then I declare war same turn and finish them off... I sue for peace with the French in 230AD leaving them with Marseille.
Russian War 250AD - 370AD
The Russians built the Pyramids in 610BC so I was tempted to go for them first, but they were the only civ i saw that had horses available, albeit in a northern ice town, so I decided to leave them until I had a decent ansar stack which could dispose of them quickly. Which I did. I also got a third leader which constructed my second ansar army. I sued for 3 towns for peace, just as I met England with a successful suicide galley. The Russians never connected in their horses.
Moscow was due to complete Sun Tzu soon so I positioned an army outside and sent off the rest of the troops to the doors of KoreaKorean War 360AD - 460AD
Whilst clearing up the continent of the remaining savages, I get my 4th leader (and 3rd ansar army). I meet the Byzantines, who are still in the Ancient Age. Moscow builds ST in 430AD, so I redeclare and capture it next turn, adding free granaries and free rax to my free temple ability. We sue Korea for peace in 460AD, and leave them hanging around, since they are building Leos in Wonsan. Its now a slow and painful wait until Astronomy so I can get a safe sea passage over to the New World. In 560AD, Astronomy is learned, and troops are rallied.
English War 600AD - 690AD
The English were pretty useless, but werescattered over the centre of the continent so it took a little while to clear them. They also possessed the Statue of Zeus which helped them put up some resistance. Nevertheless they succumbed in 690AD. I now had a choice between either taking half of Byzantium or the whole of Portugal to get to Domination. Portugal had the Great Wall and horses. Byantium had pikes and MI and more culturally advanced cities. So I chose Portugal.
Portugese War 630AD - 720AD
The Great Wall put up little resistance to my Ansars and cavalry. I got Theo in at the beginning so I could get her offensive troops wandering across Old England. If I was required to take a few Byzantine cities at the end of the Portuguese War I could pick off her MI in order to have a smooth conquering session. However it was not needed. After conquering Portugal in 720AD, I needed 70 or so tiles to get Domination and luckily the settlers I had roaming across the old and new continents could reach unsettled spots to give me domination in 740AD.
Firaxis - 7229
Jason - 10387
Woohoo! After a year of playing COTM, thats my first +10k Jason.
And also my first serious attempt at Domination. Perhaps that's telling me something. I made some poor strategic mistakes in the Ancient Ages, and maybe I should have arranged my wars differently so that I was ready to start a new one quicker. I also could have made better use of ROP rape, especially as I conquered the whole of my continent before anyone from the New World learned of my adventures, and so everyone was cautious, if not polite with me when I met them.
Another thing is I dedcided to research to MilTrad first rather than Astronomy which may have cost me over 100 years. Cavalry weren't much extra use really. Ansars did exactly the same job. Cavalry probably came in use when attacking walled Portuguese cities, but definitely were not worth the wait. Must learn to assess the future capability of the AI a bit more, in future...
Ljdjr
Warlord
You 10K gang kick some serious Civ butt!! 
Awesome.
Awesome.
Genghis069
Chieftain
Well, as a long time lurker, I decided to give COTM11 a try and found out just how terrible a Civ3 player I really am. After about 4 failed attempts at getting Korea going, I decided to give it up, play a couple practice games, and wait for COTM12.
Entry class: Open
Game status: Spaceship Victory for Arabia
Game date: 1962 AD
Firaxis score: 2907
Jason score: 2822
Time played: 12:12:17
Considering I moved (graduated from the University of WI in December) and got my first real job this month, I'm happy I found 12 hours to play and even more happy I completed the game.
Nonetheless, I have a lot of work to do. I was a relatively successful Civ2 player and (still) for whatever reason haven't managed to grasp Civ3's intracacies. Back to the War Academy...
Entry class: Open
Game status: Spaceship Victory for Arabia
Game date: 1962 AD
Firaxis score: 2907
Jason score: 2822
Time played: 12:12:17
Considering I moved (graduated from the University of WI in December) and got my first real job this month, I'm happy I found 12 hours to play and even more happy I completed the game.
Nonetheless, I have a lot of work to do. I was a relatively successful Civ2 player and (still) for whatever reason haven't managed to grasp Civ3's intracacies. Back to the War Academy...
Darkness
Shadow creature
hendrikszoon said:
Great result hendrikszoon! You beat me by 21 turns...
I was kind of hoping to end my COTM career on a high note with a award, but there's no shame in being beaten by a game played in vastly superior manner!
MiniMe
For Glory
@Darkness
What you mean ending your COTM career??
I am pretty sure that would be against the COTM rules
Can staff confirm that?
What you mean ending your COTM career??
I am pretty sure that would be against the COTM rules
Can staff confirm that?
There's no GOTM rule against it ... in fact we now have a Retirement PlanMiniMe said:
However, I think you'll find that it contravenes the Laws of Physics and is therefore impossible in all circumstances except at a singularity
Darkness
Shadow creature
MiniMe said:@Darkness
What you mean ending your COTM career??
I am pretty sure that would be against the COTM rules
Can staff confirm that?
It means that this is the last COTM I played... Time to move on, etc...
Darkness
Shadow creature
AlanH said:Yeah, right!
MiniMe
For Glory
Don't think soDarkness said:It means that this is the last COTM I played... Time to move on, etc...
Megalou tried a similar stunt a while back, without success.
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2001
- Messages
- 20,064
Industrial Ages:
I started the IA 25% territory and 47% population. As it often seems for me, the territory percentage will delay hitting domination.
I am happy that I have coal. I was shocked that there is one source that I own when you consider how much territory I have taken.
The fifth war again Russia started in the Middle Ages continues. The addition gains in the IA are 14 workers, 12 cities, some useless wonders and Sun Tzu. This game has finally broken my leader problem in the COTM. I get leader #5 that will be another cavalry army. Leader #6 appears for another army. I also got several spots to plant additional towns. The war ends in 1335 AD with Russia eliminated. At the end of the Russian war am I up to 32% territory and 51% population. I think I have at least another 5% of the needed territory once temples complete in former Russia.
The sixth war starts with Korea in 1380 AD. Nationalism isn't far away for the AI civs, so I feel I need to attack now. I was hoping to have a few more infantry before this point. I gained 26 workers, 14 cities, Leo's Workshop and Magellan's Voyage. I got leader #7. Korea has been kicked of the continent in 1425 AD. Korea is officially dead in 1460 AD.
The seventh war starts with England in 1500 AD. I am at 52% territory and England will add around 7%. Once I take out England I suspect I will only need to take out a handful of Portuguese cities. I knew England was lame, but I was surprised to find spearman as the main defending unit. I gained 8 cities. The English were destroyed in 1565 AD. The only reason the war lasted that long was the first troop shipment was the defenders. I expected at least some resistance.
The eighth war to win the game is against Portugal. It begins in 1565 AD. I get the Byzantines to join the party just to avoid fighting both civs left. The English territory is awkward to defend against just Portugal. I gained 10 cities.
I got a domination win in 1620 AD. Even with playing the game more militarily aggressive then I am comfortable with I can't come close to the 1000 AD wins. I am totally baffled how the game can end that early. My final game score was 4,557. My Jason score was 6,617.
This game really proved the power of specialist cities. I could research refining in 8 turns at *0%* science. When you consider I went Monarchy and never built universities, it is clear that the scientist where the main force behind me being the run away tech leader. I love when I get the notice that the AI is starting Shakespeare when I could build Hoover Dam.
I started the IA 25% territory and 47% population. As it often seems for me, the territory percentage will delay hitting domination.
I am happy that I have coal. I was shocked that there is one source that I own when you consider how much territory I have taken.
The fifth war again Russia started in the Middle Ages continues. The addition gains in the IA are 14 workers, 12 cities, some useless wonders and Sun Tzu. This game has finally broken my leader problem in the COTM. I get leader #5 that will be another cavalry army. Leader #6 appears for another army. I also got several spots to plant additional towns. The war ends in 1335 AD with Russia eliminated. At the end of the Russian war am I up to 32% territory and 51% population. I think I have at least another 5% of the needed territory once temples complete in former Russia.
The sixth war starts with Korea in 1380 AD. Nationalism isn't far away for the AI civs, so I feel I need to attack now. I was hoping to have a few more infantry before this point. I gained 26 workers, 14 cities, Leo's Workshop and Magellan's Voyage. I got leader #7. Korea has been kicked of the continent in 1425 AD. Korea is officially dead in 1460 AD.
The seventh war starts with England in 1500 AD. I am at 52% territory and England will add around 7%. Once I take out England I suspect I will only need to take out a handful of Portuguese cities. I knew England was lame, but I was surprised to find spearman as the main defending unit. I gained 8 cities. The English were destroyed in 1565 AD. The only reason the war lasted that long was the first troop shipment was the defenders. I expected at least some resistance.
The eighth war to win the game is against Portugal. It begins in 1565 AD. I get the Byzantines to join the party just to avoid fighting both civs left. The English territory is awkward to defend against just Portugal. I gained 10 cities.
I got a domination win in 1620 AD. Even with playing the game more militarily aggressive then I am comfortable with I can't come close to the 1000 AD wins. I am totally baffled how the game can end that early. My final game score was 4,557. My Jason score was 6,617.
This game really proved the power of specialist cities. I could research refining in 8 turns at *0%* science. When you consider I went Monarchy and never built universities, it is clear that the scientist where the main force behind me being the run away tech leader. I love when I get the notice that the AI is starting Shakespeare when I could build Hoover Dam.
budweiser
King of the Beers
LKendter- The way the game ends early is to use the whole first age to set up an Ansar production factory out of your core. You just focus on towns, workers, and barracks. Get yourself a republic and self research your way to ansar. There were also very many trade opportunities as gifting the scientific civs into the new age to create tech trades would reduce the amount of turns it took to get to chivalry. There is also room for war in the first age if you are careful and need iron.
Once you are set up, you just pick a victim who doesnt have iron and viola, you have a 4 attack unit against 2 defense units. In the GA you set science to zero, or minimum and use your gold to rush more ansar.
The AI in this one were very backward. They never left expansion mode if you struck quick enough. The 60% water was a huge bonus for us in that respect.
Once you are set up, you just pick a victim who doesnt have iron and viola, you have a 4 attack unit against 2 defense units. In the GA you set science to zero, or minimum and use your gold to rush more ansar.
The AI in this one were very backward. They never left expansion mode if you struck quick enough. The 60% water was a huge bonus for us in that respect.
eldar
ChiefTank
There were two sources of iron IIRC. For those who settled SE, the first was easy to grab, or steal before it got abused by the Ottomans. The second was on a mountain near Korea, but they never moved to claim it in my game - so I grabbed it as soon as I was over there.
This made for very easy warfare.
I just started a bit late compared to others!
This made for very easy warfare.
I just started a bit late compared to others!
budweiser
King of the Beers
I actually got my iron from the island. I tried and failed to take the ottoman iron. The korean iron(they never hooked it up) was out of my range. I sent over a galley with a settler and a spear very early. I settled on the island and disbanded the galley to help make the harbor. Then I let it go brick by brick unitl the turn before I finished researching chivalry and I paid it off. Ansar were my first iron troops.
DBear
unbeliever
In my game, the Ottomans grabbed the se iron early. The Koreans built a city 2 away from their iron. I was able to build a city one away on the other side of the mountain and filched it from the Koreans. 
And if goodys can be modded to not provide settlers, can't they be modded to not pop entire cities (which is even worse)?
And if goodys can be modded to not provide settlers, can't they be modded to not pop entire cities (which is even worse)?
bradleyfeanor
King
Predator, barbs fixed
Wow, there were some great games played for this COTM! It seems to be a record-setting game similar to COTM5. Congrats to DaveMcW, A'AbarachAmadan, and Dynamic especially. And my condolences to Megalou: you had a spectacular game, but I guess it wasnt meant to be.
Regrettably, my summary is coming late, but there was simply too much real-life stuff happening this month. I left my old job and began hunting a new one, so I didnt finish the game until the 30th.
Im seeking the Eptathlon award and only need space and the cow. When I noticed we had 4 scientific AIs, I decided to go for a space victory in this game. I have made it to space before 1000ad in a monarch game with 3 scientific AIs, so that was my goal for this game. But I didnt quite make it.
The Ancient Age, 4000bc-1050bc
Initial Moves
I was pretty sure I would be heading southward with my settler, and he could push back the fog in that direction quite well on his own, so I sent my scout NW, W in order to uncover more territory. That revealed the game tile and changed my plan for the settler. He went N, NW in order to found on the hill. Mecca started a scout but ended up switching to a granary because my first scout met the Russians in 3650bc, who knew pottery. So much for that part of the predator handicap. After the granary I built scout, warrior, settler. Mecca eventually became a 6-turn settler factory in despotism, a 4-turn factory under Republic. But with all the food bonuses there were many more settler factories to come.
Exploration
Most of my exploring was accomplished via three scouts. I really admired Mad Baxs design of our starting area. It seemed to me that it would tend to balance out any early decisions the player might make. If you headed north you got deer, south you got deer, and if you stayed put, early growth suffered a bit but it balanced out later by being in the corruption center of three food rich regions. Very cool!
My scouts met the AIs on our continent in the following order: 3650bc, Russia; 2950bc, France; 2850bc, Ottomans; 2710bc, Korea. I also had decent luck with huts, popping Myst, HR and Lit, as well as a warrior and several bundles of gold.
Expansion
I built my second city on the NW side of the lake in a location that claimed the silk and the second game, as well as the cow on border expansion. I would have put it right next to the cow, but a Russian settler was ready to claim the area. My third city got the horse to our west (another pesky Russian settler was trying to poach it), the fourth city claimed the 2 southern games and the fifth claimed a game and wheat to our east. That is a lot of food bonuses, so expansion went really quickly after that. I concentrated on establishing cities to work the commerce-rich lakes and share the food bonus tiles, but it wasnt easy given my capitol location, the large desert, and the large lakes. I didnt feel it would be wise to build cities that could get commerce from the lakes or seas at an RCP less than 6 because that was the distance of my productive, food-bonus cities, and closer cities would have increased their corruption. This may have been a mistake overall, as it forced me to research Sanitation down the line in order to let my core cities work more lake tiles. Im really not sure if it was a good idea to pass on founding more cities close to the capitol or not.
My fifth city claimed the choke point and separated Korea from the rest of our continent, so they never met the other civs. That was most helpful later when trading for the scientific AIs free techs at the beginning of each new age.
At the end of the QSC I had 13 towns, 31 pop, 4 settlers, 13 workers, 1 scout, 4 warriors, 3 archers, 1 spearman, 2 barracks, 2 granaries, 1 temple, horses, silk and incense.
Warfare
Not a single bit in the ancient age. I sacrificed a great deal of territory/score in order to develop my core and maximize science.
Research
I went with maximum research to the Republic slingshot, making it in 1475bc. (I will also add here that I detest the Philosophy free techit makes the game summaries extremely boring and predictable as far as research. I wish we could mod the free tech out of COTM). I researched currency next (1125bc) and turned research off. Normally I wouldnt have been able to turn off research in a space game, but the AIs got the critical tech, Math, in 1650bc. I traded for all the other techs in the AA except for the three I got from huts, which I immediately gave to the AIs. Russia discovered the last needed tech, Construction, in 1050bc and we entered the middle age. When I gifted the three scientific AIs into the next age I got all three MA techs. Woohoo!
The Middle Age (1050bc-210ad), Industrial Age (210ad-790ad), and Modern Age (790ad-1070ad)
Warfare and GA
Territory/score was a secondary concern in this game so wars came late and I didnt concentrate on them. The extra territory did help me quite a bit by allowing lots of scientist cities. I never fought Portugal or Byzantine, as I wanted them as strong as possible for research help. I would have left the civs on our continent alone as well (except for the one that built the pyramids), but, my goodness, those Monarch AIs were pitiful. They had no defense, they didnt bother to connect luxuries or resources, and they expanded very slowly. They were also accomplishing virtually nothing in research after the AA, and that was disappointing. We had the toughest regent-level AIs I had ever seen in the last COTM, but in this one we had the stupidest Monarch AIs imaginable.
Anyway, I decided that any research help I might get would come from Byzantine or Portugal, so I might as well inflate my score a bit by taking the AIs on our continent. The first target was the Ottoman empire. I had planned to attack them around 500bc, which was when they were due to build the pyramids in their capitol. Unfortunately, there was a very odd wonder cascade triggered by the Oracle being built that caused them to switch their Pyramid build to Sun Tzu and start another of their cities on the Pyramids. That caught me by surprise and really sucked, but it could have been worse. It could have forced me to build the pyramids myself in order to keep the other continent from stealing them, but as it was, the new city Otto switched to the pyramids would still beat everyone else. They would complete around 230bc, so thats when we went to war and my GA was triggered.
After the first Ottoman conflict, I would take a few cities from each of the scientific AIs on our continent and then get a few for peace. After doing that a couple of times to all of them, they were each confined to one city for the rest of the game. It was a slow process. I only built around a dozen ansars initially, so they were not confined until various turns after 500ad. The French were destroyed in 600ad, but it wasnt my fault. I left them alone in a beautiful, shiny galley--which they neglected to protect from the barbarians.
The English were eliminated in 650ad because I wanted their luxuries. I had been able to found cities near sources of dye and spice, but the easiest way to get ivory, my eighth luxury, was by taking London.
Every war in the game was my ansars against AI spears, and very few of the latter. All AI cities save one were defended by only 1 or 2 spearmen! Pitiful. And it really made me wish I were playing for a military victory rather than a scientific one. Im definitely a warmonger at heart, and the smell of blood was making me dizzy.
Research
A critical part of my research strategy was to get a little help from the AIs (even though they sucked). It is the same strategy I learned from Civ_Steve many GOTMs ago: park the AIs on a tech they love to research, then do self research on other parts of the tech tree in order to give them as much discovery time as possible. With Monarch AIs, I would normally expect to get them to research Invention, Astronomy, Industrialization and Replaceable Parts. Flight and Synthetic Fibers are sometimes possible, but long shots. Unfortunately, these AIs were a bit weaker than usual. The other continent, which I met around 700bc, was a bit stronger but not much. In fact, no one had a single gpt to give me. Not one. All game long.
In detail, the research plan was to ensure all the AIs except Portugal were able to research Invention, so I gave them all Engineering as soon as I could. I also ensured they all had Feudalism, otherwise they would surely choose to research that instead. I left Portugal in the AA because they were the strongest researcher. As soon as I had Education, I gifted Portugal every tech I had, which made it very likely that the first tech they would research would be Astronomy.
The first several techs of the MAs (Eng, Theo, Edu, Bank, GP) took more than 4 turns to research, but when I started Chemistry my GA began and it was easy 4-turn research for the rest of the game. I probably should have triggered my GA earlier, as I was nearing 4-turn research before it hit, but I was delaying it because I thought Portugal would research Astronomy for me. Didnt happen. Fortunately, several AIs did get invention while I was researching Banking.
I did the usual to ramp up the research rate: building libraries, universities, markets, harbors and aqueducts as soon as possible, and building Copernicus and Newton in my two best beaker-yielding cities.
At the beginning of the Industrial Age I got Nationalism and Steam from the AIs (two each). I immediately researched Electricity and gave it to Portugal, which virtually ensured they would research Rep. Parts. The Byzantines were already as likely as they could be to be researching Industrialization because they had Nationalism and Steam (still not great odds though, as they also had all the MA optional techs and the governments to chose to research). After Electricity I had to get Sanitation because of the way I founded my cities early on. I had several hospitals timed to complete shortly after Sanitation and I added about 25 workers to those cities. That increased my science dramatically--especially in Medina and Mecca where each new citizen was worth 6-9 beakers.
I wasnt able to give Byzantine very long to research Industrialization. I realized that I could not research AT in 4 turns without significantly impacting the growth of my outlying cities, so I decided to go ahead and research it. (In hindsight, it would have been ok for me to hurt the growth of my corrupt cities. I ended up having way more scientists than I needed in the modern age). Portugal did get Replaceable Parts for me, at which point I traded with them and gifted them up in hopes they would research Flight. That was a vain effort.
In the Modern Age I got Rocketry, Fission and Computers from the AIs. Wonder prebuilds for Theory of Evolution, the Internet and Apollo were timed to complete upon entry to the modern age, and I got Space Flight and Miniaturization from the ToE. Seti was completed in my capitol 3 turns later. I gifted Portugal up to Synthetic Fibers when I could but I knew it was pointless to hope they could research a modern tech.
So I managed to get the AIs to research Invention and Replaceable Parts, and these two free techs were very important! They were critical in helping me to edge out MiniMe on his victory date, although his score will probably crush mine. My Firaxis was 7599, my Jason was 10,814. Here is a minimap of my final empire after the spaceship launched in 1070ad. I was close to the domination limit, but I didnt reach it until very, very late.
Its too early to talk about medals and awards, but
If Dynamic and I get our respective awards this game, we will both be looking for a cow in COTM13. I sure wish we were competing in any victory condition but the time-eating cow.
I really like Redbad and all, but I dont care to wear his GOTM 42 shoes!
Wow, there were some great games played for this COTM! It seems to be a record-setting game similar to COTM5. Congrats to DaveMcW, A'AbarachAmadan, and Dynamic especially. And my condolences to Megalou: you had a spectacular game, but I guess it wasnt meant to be.
Regrettably, my summary is coming late, but there was simply too much real-life stuff happening this month. I left my old job and began hunting a new one, so I didnt finish the game until the 30th.
Im seeking the Eptathlon award and only need space and the cow. When I noticed we had 4 scientific AIs, I decided to go for a space victory in this game. I have made it to space before 1000ad in a monarch game with 3 scientific AIs, so that was my goal for this game. But I didnt quite make it.
The Ancient Age, 4000bc-1050bc
Initial Moves
I was pretty sure I would be heading southward with my settler, and he could push back the fog in that direction quite well on his own, so I sent my scout NW, W in order to uncover more territory. That revealed the game tile and changed my plan for the settler. He went N, NW in order to found on the hill. Mecca started a scout but ended up switching to a granary because my first scout met the Russians in 3650bc, who knew pottery. So much for that part of the predator handicap.
After the granary I built scout, warrior, settler. Mecca eventually became a 6-turn settler factory in despotism, a 4-turn factory under Republic. But with all the food bonuses there were many more settler factories to come.Exploration
Most of my exploring was accomplished via three scouts. I really admired Mad Baxs design of our starting area. It seemed to me that it would tend to balance out any early decisions the player might make. If you headed north you got deer, south you got deer, and if you stayed put, early growth suffered a bit but it balanced out later by being in the corruption center of three food rich regions. Very cool!
My scouts met the AIs on our continent in the following order: 3650bc, Russia; 2950bc, France; 2850bc, Ottomans; 2710bc, Korea. I also had decent luck with huts, popping Myst, HR and Lit, as well as a warrior and several bundles of gold.
Expansion
I built my second city on the NW side of the lake in a location that claimed the silk and the second game, as well as the cow on border expansion. I would have put it right next to the cow, but a Russian settler was ready to claim the area. My third city got the horse to our west (another pesky Russian settler was trying to poach it), the fourth city claimed the 2 southern games and the fifth claimed a game and wheat to our east. That is a lot of food bonuses, so expansion went really quickly after that. I concentrated on establishing cities to work the commerce-rich lakes and share the food bonus tiles, but it wasnt easy given my capitol location, the large desert, and the large lakes. I didnt feel it would be wise to build cities that could get commerce from the lakes or seas at an RCP less than 6 because that was the distance of my productive, food-bonus cities, and closer cities would have increased their corruption. This may have been a mistake overall, as it forced me to research Sanitation down the line in order to let my core cities work more lake tiles. Im really not sure if it was a good idea to pass on founding more cities close to the capitol or not.
My fifth city claimed the choke point and separated Korea from the rest of our continent, so they never met the other civs. That was most helpful later when trading for the scientific AIs free techs at the beginning of each new age.
At the end of the QSC I had 13 towns, 31 pop, 4 settlers, 13 workers, 1 scout, 4 warriors, 3 archers, 1 spearman, 2 barracks, 2 granaries, 1 temple, horses, silk and incense.
Warfare
Not a single bit in the ancient age. I sacrificed a great deal of territory/score in order to develop my core and maximize science.
Research
I went with maximum research to the Republic slingshot, making it in 1475bc. (I will also add here that I detest the Philosophy free techit makes the game summaries extremely boring and predictable as far as research. I wish we could mod the free tech out of COTM). I researched currency next (1125bc) and turned research off. Normally I wouldnt have been able to turn off research in a space game, but the AIs got the critical tech, Math, in 1650bc. I traded for all the other techs in the AA except for the three I got from huts, which I immediately gave to the AIs. Russia discovered the last needed tech, Construction, in 1050bc and we entered the middle age. When I gifted the three scientific AIs into the next age I got all three MA techs. Woohoo!
The Middle Age (1050bc-210ad), Industrial Age (210ad-790ad), and Modern Age (790ad-1070ad)
Warfare and GA
Territory/score was a secondary concern in this game so wars came late and I didnt concentrate on them. The extra territory did help me quite a bit by allowing lots of scientist cities. I never fought Portugal or Byzantine, as I wanted them as strong as possible for research help. I would have left the civs on our continent alone as well (except for the one that built the pyramids), but, my goodness, those Monarch AIs were pitiful. They had no defense, they didnt bother to connect luxuries or resources, and they expanded very slowly. They were also accomplishing virtually nothing in research after the AA, and that was disappointing. We had the toughest regent-level AIs I had ever seen in the last COTM, but in this one we had the stupidest Monarch AIs imaginable.
Anyway, I decided that any research help I might get would come from Byzantine or Portugal, so I might as well inflate my score a bit by taking the AIs on our continent. The first target was the Ottoman empire. I had planned to attack them around 500bc, which was when they were due to build the pyramids in their capitol. Unfortunately, there was a very odd wonder cascade triggered by the Oracle being built that caused them to switch their Pyramid build to Sun Tzu and start another of their cities on the Pyramids. That caught me by surprise and really sucked, but it could have been worse. It could have forced me to build the pyramids myself in order to keep the other continent from stealing them, but as it was, the new city Otto switched to the pyramids would still beat everyone else. They would complete around 230bc, so thats when we went to war and my GA was triggered.
After the first Ottoman conflict, I would take a few cities from each of the scientific AIs on our continent and then get a few for peace. After doing that a couple of times to all of them, they were each confined to one city for the rest of the game. It was a slow process. I only built around a dozen ansars initially, so they were not confined until various turns after 500ad. The French were destroyed in 600ad, but it wasnt my fault. I left them alone in a beautiful, shiny galley--which they neglected to protect from the barbarians.
The English were eliminated in 650ad because I wanted their luxuries. I had been able to found cities near sources of dye and spice, but the easiest way to get ivory, my eighth luxury, was by taking London.
Every war in the game was my ansars against AI spears, and very few of the latter. All AI cities save one were defended by only 1 or 2 spearmen! Pitiful. And it really made me wish I were playing for a military victory rather than a scientific one. Im definitely a warmonger at heart, and the smell of blood was making me dizzy.
Research
A critical part of my research strategy was to get a little help from the AIs (even though they sucked). It is the same strategy I learned from Civ_Steve many GOTMs ago: park the AIs on a tech they love to research, then do self research on other parts of the tech tree in order to give them as much discovery time as possible. With Monarch AIs, I would normally expect to get them to research Invention, Astronomy, Industrialization and Replaceable Parts. Flight and Synthetic Fibers are sometimes possible, but long shots. Unfortunately, these AIs were a bit weaker than usual. The other continent, which I met around 700bc, was a bit stronger but not much. In fact, no one had a single gpt to give me. Not one. All game long.
In detail, the research plan was to ensure all the AIs except Portugal were able to research Invention, so I gave them all Engineering as soon as I could. I also ensured they all had Feudalism, otherwise they would surely choose to research that instead. I left Portugal in the AA because they were the strongest researcher. As soon as I had Education, I gifted Portugal every tech I had, which made it very likely that the first tech they would research would be Astronomy.
The first several techs of the MAs (Eng, Theo, Edu, Bank, GP) took more than 4 turns to research, but when I started Chemistry my GA began and it was easy 4-turn research for the rest of the game. I probably should have triggered my GA earlier, as I was nearing 4-turn research before it hit, but I was delaying it because I thought Portugal would research Astronomy for me. Didnt happen. Fortunately, several AIs did get invention while I was researching Banking.
I did the usual to ramp up the research rate: building libraries, universities, markets, harbors and aqueducts as soon as possible, and building Copernicus and Newton in my two best beaker-yielding cities.
At the beginning of the Industrial Age I got Nationalism and Steam from the AIs (two each). I immediately researched Electricity and gave it to Portugal, which virtually ensured they would research Rep. Parts. The Byzantines were already as likely as they could be to be researching Industrialization because they had Nationalism and Steam (still not great odds though, as they also had all the MA optional techs and the governments to chose to research). After Electricity I had to get Sanitation because of the way I founded my cities early on. I had several hospitals timed to complete shortly after Sanitation and I added about 25 workers to those cities. That increased my science dramatically--especially in Medina and Mecca where each new citizen was worth 6-9 beakers.
I wasnt able to give Byzantine very long to research Industrialization. I realized that I could not research AT in 4 turns without significantly impacting the growth of my outlying cities, so I decided to go ahead and research it. (In hindsight, it would have been ok for me to hurt the growth of my corrupt cities. I ended up having way more scientists than I needed in the modern age). Portugal did get Replaceable Parts for me, at which point I traded with them and gifted them up in hopes they would research Flight. That was a vain effort.
In the Modern Age I got Rocketry, Fission and Computers from the AIs. Wonder prebuilds for Theory of Evolution, the Internet and Apollo were timed to complete upon entry to the modern age, and I got Space Flight and Miniaturization from the ToE. Seti was completed in my capitol 3 turns later. I gifted Portugal up to Synthetic Fibers when I could but I knew it was pointless to hope they could research a modern tech.
So I managed to get the AIs to research Invention and Replaceable Parts, and these two free techs were very important! They were critical in helping me to edge out MiniMe on his victory date, although his score will probably crush mine. My Firaxis was 7599, my Jason was 10,814. Here is a minimap of my final empire after the spaceship launched in 1070ad. I was close to the domination limit, but I didnt reach it until very, very late.
Its too early to talk about medals and awards, but
If Dynamic and I get our respective awards this game, we will both be looking for a cow in COTM13. I sure wish we were competing in any victory condition but the time-eating cow.
I really like Redbad and all, but I dont care to wear his GOTM 42 shoes!
Redbad
should have shaved
Great game Bradley, as usual I might add
Believe it or not: I'm already remembering GOTM42 with nostalgia. The horrors and injustices done to me in GOTM43 (and still ongoing) are just to brutal. I will of course put them to writing in due course, when I'm somewhat recovered.
bradleyfeanor said:
Believe it or not: I'm already remembering GOTM42 with nostalgia. The horrors and injustices done to me in GOTM43 (and still ongoing) are just to brutal. I will of course put them to writing in due course, when I'm somewhat recovered.
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