COTM 12 - First Spoiler (End of Ancient Age)

solenoozerec said:
I think it will be very interesting to look on QSC statistic and how people will perform depending on a settlement. IMHO the worst choice was not to move.

Not moving allowed you to get a city in each location in the first ring of your empire. It gave the best of both worlds.
 
Xevious said:
You must have missed my post above, as I also settled NW. I certainly don't think we're idiots. I have been quite happy with the long walk so far.


Yes I am sorry. I do believe I left you out of the list. I have been quite happy with the starting spot as it allowed for what I think to be fast expansion. It is quite a trek to get the iron though. It does appear that you did grab some from the Korean territory in your 610BC minimap. My expansion in that direction was slowed by my war with Russia.
 
budweiser said:
Not moving allowed you to get a city in each location in the first ring of your empire. It gave the best of both worlds.

The key problem of not moving isn't geography, but time.
 
If I could replay with map knowledge, I would go NW. Those bonus grassland give much better production to the first and second city.

The key problem is guessing the correct direction. :)
 
What I actualy meant is what time would be needed to produce two settlers from the starting position in order to place them to nw and se game accesable spots.
I think from the point of time it is faster to move the very first settler to one of such spots instead.
 
Cotm 12
Open
AiNoPatrol=1 (Oops, I'll fix that.)

4000bc Worker moves to NE oasis. Scout moves SE. Seeing nothing, settle right away. Building scout. Research straight to Republic slingshot.
3750bc Another scout is done. Building warrior.
3550bc Warrior complete. Building granary.
3250bc Popped goody hut for Bronze Working. See a yellow border. Egypt?
3200bc Brown units from the NW. Russia.
3150bc Popped another goody hut for a warrior. Yellow Ottomans. Trade techs with everyone.
3050bc Too crowded. Fast expansion is necessary.
3000bc Worker has finished everything he can do. Build a road to the next city. But where?
2950bc Meet France. They have Alphabet. I hope they aren't going for the slingshot.
2900bc Granary complete. Start settler/warrior/warrior.
2800bc Alphabet researched. Writing started.
2510bc Medina founded. Spices are connected.
2310bc Some more tech trades.
2270bc Blue border.
2230bc Popped a goody hut for Mysticism.

<Save Game>

What is the plan? Now that I've seen a bit of the world, I can make some plans.
First, the capital will continue to do 6-2-2 turn settler-warrior-warrior. Its not fast, but I'll be able to produce some cities. Spread the new cities to capture the best lands and block the choke point. If possible, each city will produce a worker and a temple as its first builds in whatever order works. The cheap temple is my early advantage. Some of the new cities will need to build barracks then defenders. Others will produce settlers because the capital isn't sufficient.

I'm going straight to the Republic slingshot. Then, Lit and the Great Library. One city will need to prebuild for that.

Eventually, I'll want to build horsemen which can be upgraded into our UU. Getting into the middle ages with a good tech lead to grab Leo's will be my goal. With Leo's, I'll get Chiv some way, and build a number of UUs. Then, attack and trigger a golden age. Use the GA to produce lots of UUs and take the land I want. But, I'll wait for the MA.

2110bc Contact Korea.
1990bc Trade for Iron Working from Korea. Got a bit of gold, too. Need to keep the tech 100%. But, not for long I guess.
1750bc Lost a Scout near France.
1625bc Russian demand Mysticism, I foolishly said no. They declared. Lesson: Give in early, revenge is later.
1600bc Ha! A goody hut gave Literature. I wish I had a city to build a Great Library.
1350bc I can get peace with Russia for Iron Working. Hmmm.
1200bc Settle war with Russia for Iron Working. Trade techs around. Threatened by the Ottoman. Demand Literature. They aren't as powerful as Russia, but another war would be annoying. I cave. Revenge will be mine.
1175bc I need cash to continue at 100% research. Sell Code of Law for 90g to France. It would cut 4 turns off the research to Philo. No. I don't think so.

1000bc Philo in 2 turns.
Stats.
8 Cities.
Score 213. Almost last amoung known Civs.
1 Settler
5 Workers
15 Warriors.
Building the Great Library, a warrior, a spear, barracks, 2 workers and 2 temples.

<Save game>

Couple of turns to see if I get the slingshot.
975bc Slingshot.
950bc Revolution.
925bc The Arabian Republic has ended its first turn.

Large attachment. Mia culpa.
 

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Zelda's Man said:
It is quite a trek to get the iron though. It does appear that you did grab some from the Korean territory in your 610BC minimap. My expansion in that direction was slowed by my war with Russia.

Yes, it was a very long trek, but I made it a priority to get the iron before Korea got to it. As you can see on that minimap I did get it. I hadn't had any wars up to that point. I was about to work on France though. For some reason France was very small. I suspect they had massive barb problems because they kept having workers for me to buy (I bought 4).
 
I think that no iron in the NW is not a big problem: you would propably like to build horsemen, not swordsmen in the ancient age and so you won't need iron untill you discover chivalry. And by that time you should start conquering the continent anyway, so why not start your conquest from secureing that source of iron?
 
Obormot said:
I think that no iron in the NW is not a big problem: you would propably like to build horsemen, not swordsmen in the ancient age and so you won't need iron untill you discover chivalry. And by that time you should start conquering the continent anyway, so why not start your conquest from secureing that source of iron?

Yes, I agree that it is not a huge problem, this is why I am not sure that SE is better than NW. But with iron you have an option to wait and start conquering the world after chivalry. In case of NW you do not have such option.
 
Very humorous screenshot.
Earlier in the game, I had noticed that one of Korea's cities was destroyed by a volcano. During the course of the game, I nearly destroyed the Ottoman's, leaving them one city, which happened to be founded on the very same spot that the Korean city was decimated.
I like to think that the Ottoman's were so embarrassed about the a**kicking I handed them, that they finally decided to end it all. :D
 
Well, I looked at other posts in this thread, and my mini-map isn't really all that much bigger than others that are shown, so I though it would be okay. Everyone knows that the Ottoman's and the Korean's and the Russians are in the game, so no big deal from that aspect.
So how is it a spoiler? I tried to be careful about it. Did I miss something?
 
There's a wee bit of a resource showing. You might want to try editing the picture or pulling it and putting it up in the next spoiler.
 
I will re-post in the next spoiler. It's a great screenie, as I have never had the likes of this happen before (a civ being taken out because a volcano destroys their one and only city).
 
Yes, I agree that it is not a huge problem, this is why I am not sure that SE is better than NW. But with iron you have an option to wait and start conquering the world after chivalry. In case of NW you do not have such option.
Well, the map was man-made, and its creators tried to balance it so that the result doesn't depend much on where you moved the settler. You either get iron or cow. Each has it's advantages, but still i find the cow much more important in this game.
There is another good spot to the NE, but propably noone moved there, because that direction doesn't look promising from the starting position.
 
My plan from the preview screenshot was to go 1N, settle, and start pumping scouts as fast as possible. From the preview screen, I though the two mountains were grasslands :blush: , but everything else was guessed correct, so I assumed a nice size 13 capitol was available at the start:
MP_arab1.gif


Plans changed when my scout moved to the north hill to confirm the land. Of course, I found out the grasslands were actually mountains, but more important was, game/forest/river only a few moves away. I like having forests to build the first granary so I settled on the NW river.

My cities built warrior, worker, temples, barracks (usually in that order) with the capitol building settlers.

QSC
10 towns - 26 population
2 settlers
11 workers
15 warriors
1 curragh
210 gold
all AA tech but Currency, Construction, and Monarchy

MIDDLE AGE - 370bc
17 town - 70 population
11 workers
9 warriors
11 horsemen
1185 gold

I was able to save up some money for attacking Russia in the MA with horse -> Ansar upgrades.
 
Class: Open

Goal: To practice fast domination, preferably never entering the
industrial age


I thought I would try hard to get at least something out of our
expansionist trait and would therefore build two more scouts as fast
as possible. The plan would then be to reach domination mainly through
Ansar Warriors. This spoiler describes the preparations in the Ancient
Age.


Getting Started

I settled SE in order to use the forest to get a third scout very
early. I couldn't dream that the starting location was surrounded by
wonder-lands; in every direction there were food and luxuries in
abundance. Going in any random direction would have payed off,
especially since the AI civilizations were all fairly weak, far away
and slow to expand. However, this might have been partly caused by me
popping all the huts.


Scouting and Research

I started researching The Wheel at 0% waiting to meet someone who knew
Alphabet. This happened in 3200 BC when I met Korea. After trading,
research was Writing at 100%. I met the Ottomans in 3100 BC and Russia
in 2800 BC, France only in 2390 BC. My three Scouts popped 25 gold,
Warrior Code, Bronze Working, a conscript Warrior, a Worker and
finally, in 2350 BC, Mysticism. I never popped a Worker while
production was set to Settler.
The Worker was popped on the far side
of Korea with nothing more to scout, so I disbanded it as soon as it
would start costing me support. All Scouts made it back to some city
to be disbanded in 1325 BC. I also sent a couple of Curraghs out, who
found overseas land. Unfortunately, the shores were not yet inhabited
when my exploration party passed by. Other landmasses are edited out
of the Mini-Maps.

I discovered Writing in 1750 BC and had a large trading round gaining
me Horseback Riding, Polytheism, Mathematics and Map Making when I
discovered Code of Laws in 1250 BC. The Philosophy-Republic slingshot
succeeded in 1050 BC.


Settling in Peace

I founded Medina in 2710 BC on the choke point to the north. It seemed
worthwile at the time and the location was rich on food. It meant that
the Games location to the south-east had to wait until 1870 BC, when
Damascus was founded. Russia beat me to the north-western Games and
Cattle area in 2470 BC and 1450 BC. I should have prevented the
latter, but I went further south to claim the Wines.

Mecca was a ten-turn dual-Warrior-per-Settler factory, and the
food-rich cities also contributed Workers and Settlers.


Quick Start Challenge Result

6 Cities
18 Citizens
17 Technologies
4 Contacts
270 Culture
207 Points
2 Workers
2 Slaves
7 Warriors
1 Curragh
1 Archer​


Really Getting Started

In 530 BC an army of six Horsemen, an Archer and a Spearman attacked
the Ottoman Empire. First target was the Silks city of Bursa south of
the south-eastern Games location. The goal of the war was to seize the
Silks, the Iron and generally the good Grassland in the area. There
are also Furs on Ottoman lands. In the middle of this war, Russia
demanded Literature and I refused. I had previously, in 1400 BC, given
in to a 20 Gold demand, but now it was time to tame the bear. In 350
BC I ended the war against the Ottomans for two Cities and 13 Gold,
adding to the military gains of four Cities, several Slaves, two
Luxuries and Iron.

After 14 rounds of war with Russia I made peace for Construction, one
City in the middle of Russia and all their Gold. I had secured the two
Russian Cities on the north-western wonderland location for the Arab
Empire and one more City on the west coast.

Also on the same round my Curragh made contact with the Portuguese on
another continent. A trading round wins us Currency from the
Portuguese and brings us into the Middle Ages. I gift the three
scientific Tribes on our continent into these pleasant times as well
and get their free Technologies through trade: Monotheism and
Feudalism.

It is the year 170 BC and we have an Iron monopoly on our starting
continent. The next victim will be France, who is hopelessly behind in
all aspects of the game. The Ottomans are severly dented and will be
an easy target.
 

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Predator, Barb fixed.

NW and S were the two logical choices for moving the settler. I moved the scout s then e and he saw only plains. The worker went NW seeing forest on grass. The settler followed the worker since grass is better for growth. Next turn, the worker moves west and sees the game on the river which is good news. The settler and worker head to the river. On moving across the river, the cow is seen. Mecca is finally settled in 3700 BC and begins a scout.

The first scout meets the Ottomans in 3600 BC. The second scout pops a hut in the north for maps and meets the Russians in 3350 BC. We trade Ceremonial Burial and 13 gold for Pottery and production in Mecca is changed to a granary. Scout1 explores in the south and then heads west, getting killed by a barb in 2850 BC just before meeting the French. Scout2 heads n and coming to the coast heads south, finding the land bridge in 2550 BC. Scout2 continues east, meeting the Koreans in 2230 BC popping a hut for maps along the way. A warrior finally makes it down to meet the French in 1700 BC.

Research Summary
3350 BC Pottery (trade w/ Russians), Bronze Working (trade w/ Ottomans)
2550 BC Alphabet, Masonry & Warrior Code (trade w/ Ottomans)
2230 BC The Wheel (trade w/ Koreans)
1870 BC Writing (Ottomans and Russia get it independently in 1550 BC)
1475 BC Code of Laws, Mathematics & Iron Working (trade w/ Korea), Horseback Riding & Mysticism (trade w/ Ottomans)
1325 BC Philosophy, but no slingshot. No one I know has it so the other continent must have a lot of goody huts (we and the Ottomans have over 40% of the world's population)
~875 BC Republic
Research continues with Currency and Construction and we enter the Middle Ages in 590 BC. We don't trade the Republic until the Scientific civs have crossed over.

At 1000 BC, we have 12 cities (27 population, 1 granary, 3 barracks) with 2 settlers. One settler is heading towards the eastern iron and will settle there in 2 turns taking it from the Koreans. We have 12 workers, 1 scout, 4 warriors, 1 archer, 1 spearman, and 1 horseman.

At 590 BC, we have 18 cities (45 population, 1 granary, 4 barracks, 1 market, 1 temple), the Ottomans and Russians have 10 each. The Ottomans have half of our population. We've added 5 workers and 2 horsemen since 1000 BC.
 

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