COTM 13: First spoiler (end of ancient age)

[Perugia]

Open

This is my first COTM submission although I have played a few GOTMs and COTMs including the last 2 without submitting as I usually run out of time. Reading the COTM12 spoilers I see that retirement is possible so I'll try that if I run into the same difficulty.

Like almost everyone I settled in place on the gold mountain. I wanted to build a granary using chops and as there were 5 Civs starting with Pottery I went for an exploration gambit and started to research writing at max hoping for a slingshot. We met the Arabs in 350BC, traded for pottery and after MMing a citizen to the gold mountain to delay growth Paris built it's granary in 2900BC.

Lyons was founded to secure the wheat in 2330BC and immediately started a granary after that it churned out settlers almost continuously. There followed a rapid as possible expansion to secure furs, 2 games and horses.

After we traded for Iron Working in 710BC we found two available sources. The nearer northern one was grabbed with a town but was under culture pressure and so garrisoned heavily. Both the iron and iron town are still to be connected but a worker is on the job. I hope to secure the far away southern iron resource one as insurance but reporting that will have to wait until the next thread.
In 590BC we researched Literature only to meet the Egyptians and find we did not have a monopoly so we traded it around immediately for some good catching up.

Contacts Embassies Means

We met the civs from the other continent slowly even though we built a Curragh because it sailed clockwise. My second warrior started out going west but around 300BC swung east to explore the land immediately S of Paris. I should have let an new build do that. As a result I did not explore the far west of our continent until chariots were built and missed the Aztecs and Romans landing and didn't meet anyone else until they came to our continent.

3350 Arabs 1125
2550 Portugal 390
1000 Aztecs 430 (chariot visits Chalco founded near SW cow)
710 Rome 590 (chariot visits Byzantium in far SW)
690 Incas 590 (Incas land behind our exploring chariots in about 775BC but we don't have any warriors around and don't find out until Arequipa founded in 710BC).
590 Egypt 530 (settler met on south coast between Byzantium and Chalco)
430 Byzantines 350 (dromons met on East Coast)



Technology
3350 Pottery + 20g from Arabia for Masonry
2370 Writing (research)
2190 Mathematics and Ceremonial Burial from Portugal for Writing
2190 Ceremonial Burial (trade)
2190 Mysticism from Arabia for Writing
1425 CoL (research)
1425 The Wheel + 35g from Arabia for CoL
1200 Philosophy (research)
1200 Bronze Working and Warrior Code from Arabia for Philosophy 7gpt + 1g
1200 Warrior Code (trade)
1000 Horseback riding from Portugal for 5gpt + 40g
710 Iron Working from Rome for Mathematics 1gpt +19g
590 Literature (research) recoup 150g from Aztecs after other trades
590 Currency from Portugal for Literature, 3gpt + 7g
590 Construction + 7g from Arabia for Currency and Literature
590 Mapmaking, Polytheism and 29g from Rome for Construction, Currency and Literature
590 Polytheism (trade)
590 Enter Middle Ages

Troubles

Very little trouble, the Arabs extorted 21g in 1400BC and the Portuguese 22g in 775 BC. There were a few wars on the other continent.

We are mustering a force of horsemen and catapults to capture Brundisium now it has grown to size 2, Our agreement with Rome is about to expire and they are at war with the Aztecs.

Mistakes

Researching CoL instead of Philosophy and gambling on having a Philosophy monopoly and/or a free tech and optimally picking up CoL through F4 trade leading to free Republic. AFAIR AI tends to go for CoL before Philosophy, should have remembered that.

I wasted a lot of warriors and later horsie moves keeping AI sellers out of good land within 2 tiles of existing cities.

Not sure if a mistake but I missed out on a 2 wheat + FP site 6 tiles N of the start that went Arabic. Maybe I should have built first settler before the granary to get this as its definitely the best food site on whole continent. Only problem is that it's at a corruption distance of 9 which reduces shields available to it as a settler farm folks. I'm not sure by how much though.

On getting pottery in trade, changing settler production into granary and losing out on most of the bonus food site N of Paris to the Arabs. Maybe I should have built the first settler before granary.



Prospects

We are still in despotism and slowly researching feudalism. The AI have both Monarchy and Republic but we can't yet trade for them even. I hope we can exploit AI wars on the other continent to catch up in techs for cash and Military Alliances.

For a detailed timelline up to 1000BC see my Quickstart submission.

 

[DJMGator13]

Like most people I settled in place on top of the gold hill. My first builds were warrior (x2) than a granary since I luckily managed to meet Arabia in 3400BC. I cannot imagine how bad a start I would have had if I had not gone north with the first warrior. By meeting Arabia that early I was able to trade for Pottery before my barrack completed, so I was able to switch to a granary. I met Portugal in 2800BC. By running research at max and trading I was able to almost stay up with them. I spied the Aztecs border in 1950BC but do not make contact with them until their border expands in 1250BC. I met Egypt in 1075BC.

Here is a look at my tech pace:
Alpha - 4000BC started
Masonry - 4000BC started
Pottery - 3400BC trade ARB
Bronze Working - 3400BC trade ARB
CB - 2800BC trade PORT
Writing - 2230BC researched
Wheel - 2230BC trade PORT
WC - 2230BC trade PORT
IW - 2230BC trade ARB
MYST - 2230 trade ARB
PHIL - 1600BC researched – use Big Picture
HBR - 1600BC trade PORT
could not make a trade for POLY with ARB so I select COL
COL - 1600BC free – due to PHIL
POLY - 1600BC trade ARB - had to include COL to get POLY
MapM - 1600BC trade PORT
Math - 1250BC trade AZT
Literature - 1150BC researched
Construction - 1075BC trade EGY
Republic - 1050BC trade PORT - drew 5 turn revolt period
Currency - 670BC researched

So I ended the QSC period short only Currency and with 2 turns remaining on my revolt to a Republic form of government. I have 10 cities, total pop of only 15, but my military consist of 9 workers, 10 warriors and 1 spear. I have also built 3 granaries. I have also secured horses and iron.

I hit the Middle Ages in 670BC, with full world contact, 12 cities, 29 pop, 1 settler, 10 workers, 10 warriors, 1 spear, 1 cat, and 1 galley. I have a lot of libraries under construction since the map is almost full.

Picture from 1000BC

 

[sanabas]

Got back from a RL imposed break from all civ recently, so I'm going to rush through this by next week, and start playing COTM regularly. GOTM too if I ever find my PTW disc.

I founded Paris on the spot, build order was 3 warriors, granary, settler. Research was full speed for philosophy. First warrior went north, second went east, 3rd was MP. First contacted the arabs in 3450BC, I couldn't resist the stack of 3 workers he had at the edge of his territory in 3150BC, and so I declared and took them after trading. The 3 slaves immediately moved E into the mountains to avoid recapture, the warrior was immediately attacked heavily, managing to kill off 4 Arab warriors, being promoted to elite, but the 5th warrior on the first turn of war finished him off. 1 slave continued exploring north, the others came home. No more attacks during the war, which was over by 2850BC. Not much else exciting, except for using one of the slaves to colonise the iron NE of paris, and having the Arabs steal it by founding a city there 5 turns later. Arabs also extorted Philosophy off me. Both were filed for things to avenge later, but that's the next spoiler. Tech rate was very quick, hitting the MA at 1025 BC. This was helped both by republic & monarchy being ignored by me and the 3 others I knew, and portugal building the colossus in 1950 BC, triggering their GA.

Contacts made:

Arabs: 3450 BC
Portugal: 2710 BC
Aztecs: 1050 BC That's it in the AA. Rest of contacts to qualify for spoiler:

Inca: 900 BC
Egypt: 875 BC
Rome: 875 BC
Byzantines: 630 BC

Cities:

4000 BC Paris
2550 BC Orleans by cow to the E
2150 BC Lyons by furs to the N
1675 BC Rheims
1425 BC Tours on coast NW of Paris
1400 BC Marseilles on coast NE of Paris
1350 BC Chartres
1175 BC Avignon
1100 BC Besancon
1050 BC Rouen

Techs:

3450 BC: Meet Arabs, trade for Pottery & C. Burial
2710 BC: Meet Portugal, trade for Warrior Code
2270 BC: Research Writing, trade for Bronze, Wheel & Mysticism, and discover horses by Orleans.
1700 BC: Research Philosophy, nobody has Polytheism yet, so no Monarchy. trade for Maths via big picture, Currency is free tech. Trade for Iron Working & Map Making, start on Literature
1200 BC: Research Literature, start on Polytheism
1050BC: Contact Aztecs, trade for Polytheism, Horseback and Code of Laws
1025 BC: Trade for Construction, enter MA.

1000 BC stats: I have all compulsory AA techs + Literature, 3 contacts have all compulsory AA techs but no optional ones
10 cities, 18 population, 121 territory. contacts have 13, 14 & 15 cities
1 settler, 2 slaves, 5 workers
8 warriors, 3 spears, 1 galley

 

[Megalou]

I'm going to rush through this by next week, and start playing COTM regularly. GOTM too if I ever find my PTW disc.

If you have a normal Conquests disc, PTW should be included on the same disc.

 

[DaveMcW]

You may have to reinstall PTW from the Conquests disk to make it work.

 

[chunkymonkey]

Open

First Deity game - i hope I don't get squashed too soon.

My aim for the early game would be to grab Philosophy first, so I could get a decent freebie to trade around and keep me in the running. I managed this in 1600BC and grabbed Code of Laws. However my landgrab attempt did not go completely to plan, due to the lack of contact with the Arabs until 2800BC. I was counting on meeting them sooner with the 3 warrior guys I'd sent out, and so had a granary prebuild setup in Paris, which I had to switch to rax in the end. Eventually I was underway and managed to grab all the decent land as well as the northern source of iron which I figured would deny Arabia their knights.

I decided I would run at 0% research for the rest of the Ancient Ages and act as the middle man for at least the early part of the MA. If I was lucky I might be able to get Arabs or Portugal to build the Library and I could hitch a free ride into the late MA.

In order to try and stifle my neighbours, I declared on Portugal in 1275BC and got the Arabs to fight them. I managed to get away without fighting a single Portuguese unit. I meet Cleo and trade for Maths in 1075BC, just as an Aztec warrior razes the town she places on our continent.


QSC Stats
---------
9 cities, 18 pop
3 granaries, 1 barracks,
1 settler, 5 workers, 7 warriors, 4 archers, 1 spear
4 contacts, 1 embassy
AA techs bar Cons,Curr,Maps,Lit,Rep,Monarchy


I continue to use my wealth to buy the remaining techs in the AA, from Rome and Arabia mainly and sell them around. I'm a little wary of making the Arabs too fat, but it can't be helped now. I enter the Middle Ages in 650BC, just as Arabia builds the Library in Baghdad. Slowly and surely, I draw my plans against them...

 

[AlanH]

Open

First Deity game - i hope I don't get squashed too soon.

I hope you didn't too. Better late than never

 

[chunkymonkey]

I know I was planning on getting my spoilers written up before the beginning of the weekend, but I'm just too lazy!