COTM 14 Final Spoiler - End of Game

[LKendter]

I thought if a civ was down to just a settler, then it would build a city immediately, even if it means declaring. Unless they had spent those hundreds of years sitting in a boat.

Well the trouble is that is the settler was fortified in a space where the couldn't legally build a city. And they AI wasn't clever enough to move a tile.

 

[ThERat]

SS in 1670AD, not a great date, but was undecided as how to win this game.

The start was tough with only archers, but managed to beat the Germans after 3 wars, before anyone knew them.
That gave me horses, iron was another matter. I managed to settle one of those tiny Islands to discover that salt was also over there. Lost the first settler pair to mountains of barbs and decided on another strategy. I cleared all this small Island sending in 4 strong defenders and got them slaughtered, but the barbs were almost finished too. that way I gained salt and coal.
London and Berlin netted several wonders including GL, KT, Maggelan, Shakes, Adam Smith, Cops, US. managed to get Hoover via ToE slingshot. Around that time, Sumer decided to sneak attack though I made them declare on Vikings which I had attacked a turn before. These events led to a WW, everyone fighting each other. I fought everyone in the game except French. I got only 1 MGL which did not help with conquest. Thta's when I decided to launch the SS. AI was useless in helping to get more techs.

Jason around 6200

 

[Jove]

Last time I posted it was the Mid-100's and I was invading Spain with a stack of horses and a horse army. Things were going nicely- Madrid had the ToA and had completed the Knights Templar 2 turns before my planned attack. So there's my stack of horses, and... 7 deaths in a row, including the army. No retreats. I hadn't planned on such bad luck. Can't blame the RNG, though, I just wasn't prepared enough. I continued to expand in other directions, and kept trying for the 100k, but it was more than 60 turns later before I captured Madrid. France fell soon after. My game was shot! Simply not enough cities soon enough to get the culture I needed. By 1000 I was only making 300 cpt. So, I'm forced to capitulate. Didn't finish, no submission Really too bad, I see some great games this time that I would have loved to compete with.

Better luck in the Russia game I hope.

 

[Dynamic]

I went for a Conquest win (open), which I completed in 310AD. This was the fastest I've ever done it in a COTM and got my highest Jason score ever -11639.

You and hendrikszoon used suicide galleys both. I went to Navigation and inserted between of you.

After capturing France I connected Iron and upgrade part of my horsemen. My next goal was Sumeria (tech leader) and I killed them in 110BC. Without RoP I can't war very fast, but AI defense was not strong and I fight well. After Sumeris I tryed to fight by 3 direction: Dutch, Spain and Vikings. But Vikings have a lot of Ancients so I captured only 2 Iron's island and wait them on the hill. Vikings stream flow to the hill and was died here. So, I started real war against Vikings only after killing all Ancients. During defense I got a leader for the Army. Spain haven't strong defense also and my war wasn't too hard, But Dutch (or Babylon) discovered Gunpowder during the war and only missing of money is not allowed them to build many muskets. I never knew Gunpowder but I think Babylon had saltpeter. Very strange thing is they not upgreded spears except on city and I kill them enough easy.

This is first time I didn't reach Domination limit during the game. I win by Conquest in 290AD with 11838 Jason. But even if I milked this game about 200-300 years I could only reach 12K but never such score as hendrikszoon.

 

[DaveMcW]

I entered the industrial age in 170AD, and gifted all my techs to the the scientific civs.

Babylon - Nationalism
Sumeria - Steam Power

I bought Steam Power for 360gpt (my entire income), then declared war on Sumeria.
I bought Nationalism for Steam Power + 360gpt, then declared war on Babylon.

After 7 turns of research and 7 turns of anarchy, England became communist.

The rest of the game was culture milking. At first I whipped temples and libraries, but after everything was irrigated and railroaded I switched to civil engineers. I used about 20 cities for mass drafting.

Eventually I conquered the Dutch with cavalry, then the Babylonians and Sumerians with artillery. I was able to squeeze 173 cities under the domination limit.

I reached 100k culture in 1345AD.

 

[Andronicus]

4th Spoiler – Final
Saltpetre connected in 880AD when harbour rushed – now build cavs like crazy
840AD Nationalism
880AD Steam Power – no coal but Spainish have
900AD GA ends
940AD capture coal city
950AD capture Sun Tzu’s (Cadiz)
960AD Electricity
990DA Cadiz flips
1000AD Recapture Cadiz – get 1st GML
1020AD Peace with Spain leaving them with 3 cities
1020AD Research Replaceable parts – trade for medicine and industrialisation
1140AD dow Spain - Spain destroyed in 1220AD
1140AD Scientific Method
1180AD Vikings land 2 cav and 2 hose on island to my west – sparcely defended
1190AD Vikings abuse ROP capturing Brighton and getting out of 90gpt they owed
1230AD recapture Brighton – peace with Vikings in 1335AD
1245AD Steel
1270AD Refining
1300AD Combustion
1300AD Theory of Evol -> Mass Prod and Motorised Tranport
1330AD dow France – attack their iron city with cav army – unsuccessful (fortunately retreats with 2hp left)
1330 Sumeria (the world’s no 1 power) dow on me (they had MPP with me) – I ally Babs, Neth and Scand v Sumerians and French
Go into mobilisation
1400AD Atomic Theory
1425 Peace with Sumeria
1430BC 2nd MGL
1450BC French destroyed
1455dow Babylon (they are weakest – and closest) – ally Sumeria and Neth
1460AD Electronics -> Modern Ages
1465AD Zariquin deposes with tank army occupying (this is my 5th flip)
1515ADEcology
1555AD Babylonians destroyed
1560AD Hoover Dam
1570ADSynthetic Fibres -> modern armour
1580AD dow Dutch
1595AD Sumeria join Dutch in mil alliance v English
1625AD Netherlands destroyed
1635AD Expansion gives Domination victory
Firaxsis 5097
Jason 6597

I never built Man o’ wars – didn’t realise they needed salt – by time had hooked it up their time had come and gone
Lateness in obtaining iron and salt and delay in switching to rep I believe were my biggest mistakes. This is the second COTM in a row I’ve been subject to AI ROP abuse – I had never experienced it before – makes me hesitant to to grant ROP except when to my advantage

 

[JonathanValjean]

Amazing game, Dave! I'm in awe!

 

[Obormot]

Predator, goal:domination.

Once again i submitted the game right before the deadline, so everything goes into the final spoiler

Build order was was warrior, granary, settlers, worker irrigated cow without roading, chopped twice to speed up the granary and then roaded furs. First settler was ready in 2950BC. There was no need for an early curragh, because England starts with both necessary techs.

I built my first cities near the food bonuses, including the german cow, built only settlers and workers. German spears moved in my territory near unprotected cities, but did not attack . Only after most important cities (near food) were founded, i built 2 curraghs, one was sunk by the barbs, but the other made all contacts.

Research was republic slingshot (of course), literature and currency. I did not trade currency to slow tech pace down. At first expected that i might need navigation (otherwise, what is the use of our UU? ), but after i found a safe coastal passage to all AIs, i decided to use galleys and did not care about science any more.

Exploring curraghs found many small islands, and many iron sources. I also noticed that none of the AIs had iron and i managed to claim all iron sources except 2 islands in the north. (Well, i kinda expected the map to have some symmetry after my curraghs explored a bit , but it came out that there is more iron in the north). I also claimed most of the islands in the south and in the middle by peacefull expansion. QSC: 13 towns, 39 pop, 125 tiles, 4 settlers, 17 workers, 4 veteran warriors, 4 galleys, 1 curragh. For a while after that i built galleys and settlers and used ship cnaining to deliver settlers to remote islands.

I triggered my GA somewhere around 900 BC with the GLight, it was my only chance for a GA and also reduced the number of galleys in my chains, because of increased speed.

After all free space was settled i started conquering civs. I used MDI instead of knights, because they are cheaper and speed doesn't matter so much on an archipelago map. I had about equal number of galleys and MDI throughout the game and used ship chaining a lot. Only 2 civs had iron - sumeria nad netherlands, so i left them alive and conquered all others. Sumeria and Netherlands were also most advanced and managed to research gunpowder in the end of the game. Babylon already started building Leo when i attacked them, but either they didn't get gunpowder or they didn't have slatpeter. All the game i fought against spearmen. Still losses were much higher then i expected, MDIs don't retreat and are a slow. In the fend i attacked vikings and babylon simultaneously, and lost about 1/2 of MDI, because babylon had longbows and crusaders.

I got Domination Victory 400AD, that gave me 11589 jason points.

 

[PaperBeetle]

Well the trouble is that is the settler was fortified in a space where the couldn't legally build a city. And they AI wasn't clever enough to move a tile.

Even moving in this situation, the settler could only have got two tiles away from the existing city, which isn't legal placement in the AI's book. I wonder why they coded this restriction in? It is a big weakness in the AI's game.

 

[Timko]

Even moving in this situation, the settler could only have got two tiles away from the existing city, which isn't legal placement in the AI's book. I wonder why they coded this restriction in? It is a big weakness in the AI's game.

The AI will plant a city 2 away from an existing city, if they only have a settler left. They aren't allowed to form a city 1 tile away from an existing city though.

 

[PaperBeetle]

I'll have to check that out. It seems odd to me that the AI would have different rules on where it can put cities depending whether it was on its last settler or not.

 

[PaperBeetle]

Pick a victory condition, any victory condition...

I had originally thought to go 100k in this game, assuming it would be the least represented victory condition, then as time ran away from me I thought it should be fast conquest. My weak opening game, with crippling wars against Germany and Spain, scotched that idea, and now I'm weighing up domination against diplomatic, or maybe space... I just have to play and see what I can get. I've only won emperor once before.

860ad sees England in Republic, occupying the Anglo-germanic homeland, the lesser islands to the west, and the islands east as far as Iron Isle and Gem Isle. I recently reached the Industrial, and have just declared on Spain. I dogpile the other civs onto Spain and invade with my stack of death (longbows and trebuchets - scary) which has been building up in my Franco-spanish foothold, Barcelona.

My last war with Spain saw the repeated flipping of Cadiz, a large wonder city, built amongst Spanish incense. This time I raze it, Bach or no Bach. This zero tolerance policy continues until Spain are expelled from their mainland in 1000ad. They have two island towns, including their local saltpeter, but these are picked off by my allies, and they are destroyed in 1030ad.

I am frustrated to be beaten to the saltpeter island. I am buying mine in from Holland, and my iron isn't very secure either, with a Babylonian town on Iron Isle vying for cultural control of the resource. Well I know where the next saltpeter source is; I dow on France in 1080ad. This time I just get the other civs to embargo with France; I don't need their help, and I don't want their towns cluttering my lands.

Only recently have I started building man o' wars, and my golden age is triggered in 1090ad, sinking a French caravel. I can start working up a tech lead now - so far I have been neck and neck with the northern civs, but I am researching well considering my weak infrastructure, and in 1230ad I complete Darwin, taking the usual Atomic / Electronic combo.

My stack of archers and artillery, now supported by an increasing number of cavalry, merrily romps through France capturing towns their towns. Despite one flip, I finish off the French in 1240ad. I have also used the alliance-for-gpt trick to sell Atomic to the other civs for its full market value, and I am raking the cash in, while researching at max. UN or space starts to look like a good victory condition. The Sumerian democracy has the world's largest military, so I imagine that domination would be quite a grind.

The Modern Age arrives in 1330ad, and I start researching Fission, although I don't have a decent UN prebuild going. Nor can I get one running very quickly, as I have never had access to coal, so no rails. Shortly thereafter, the AI start dripping into the modern age. Sumeria's free tech is Fission, which sufficiently devalues it that I can't get Ham's Ecology from him. Never mind - I'm settled on a diplo win, so I don't really need any more techs.

Diplo win eh? That's the one where everyone is supposed to like you right? In 1395ad I try to plant spies, and fail with each of the four remaining civs. I get dark looks from Will, Ragnar and Ham. Sumeria still have a bigger military than me, so the failed spying run is taken as provocation for war. I'm actually quite pleased; they will be my election rivals, so I gift techs to everyone else for war with Sumeria, and start cruising around the Barb Isles with my navy, capturing Sumerian ships and shelling their terrain improvements.

In 1460ad it all comes to a head. Babylon treats with Sumeria in the interturn, and I curse my luck; this is the same turn that my UN build finally creeps over the line. I'm not prepared to wait for the next election; I have to run the risk of losing 2-1 with 2 abstentions (or can Gil only win with a majority vote, i.e 3?). It's not very likely anyway. Then something unexpected happens; our war on Sumeria has been too successful, and I am facing Ham in the election! Well, there's not much to do but vote, and hope that Will and Ragnar are with me...

Diplomatic victory in 1460ad; Liz, Will and Ragnar vote for Liz. Ham votes for Ham. Gil abstains. Firaxis score 5686 gives me Jason score 7618.

Diplo always feels like a cop-out to me, and both my Emperor wins are diplos, so I still consider myself a Monarch-level player. I am sure I could have ploughed on to domination or space if I had more RL time, but that will have to wait until the next xOTM at this level. In the meantime, I have pangaea Monarchs to pound

 

[Paul#42]

While I was playing this, I hated, hated, hated the resource distribution.

I second that. Especially, just after developing railroad and hooking up some coal - my only iron disappeared!
When I just had decided on which island to build my new iron city, the coal disappeared, too!! :suicide:

I finally managed a diplomatic victory in 1345 with some 8xxx Jason.

Not really impressive after reading MiniMe

 

[JonathanValjean]

Not really impressive after reading MiniMe

Paul,

I am still quite impressed by your victory! I think that 8000 plus Jason points is impressive, no matter what someone else accomplished.

 

[JonathanValjean]

My game was very enjoyable, and I really liked the map features. I was the tech leader for most of the game, after recovering from the initial German attack, that is. I played the game at a leisurely pace, building up my infrastructure and culture, and having an overwhelming military force before attacking my victims. Some key dates:

680AD, Conquered Germany
1545AD, Conquered Spain
1670AD, Conquered France
1766AD, Conquered Sumeria (was necessary in order to win via 100K)
1870AD, Victory via 100K Culture

Firaxis-5281
Jason-5271

 

[GrandMatt]

This was my first cotm, and surely wont be my last. Emporer isnt really hard for me but has been a good couple of months since i have last played, so took a while to polish the skills back up, and was a good match

I won space ship victory at 1950 AD , but i played a slow and relaxed game
score 3884
jason score 3601
(conquest class...>) 3061
Keys to victory

discovering philosopy first, helped because england starts with alphabet, free tech, so i got literature, and hence built great libary

with great libuary built, i relax tech spend to 0% and built up some military to attack the OVERLY FRIENDLY germans, after a mass of long bow men in the mid ages, i took on germany, it wasnt that hard as, i let them attack first and with out iron no swordmen or med infantary to counter attack, the mountains north of london helped as a great defensive point here

after the quick victory over germany, i made peace for some technology because after education i was laggin behind, since great libary effect was canceld, still not researching for some turns, i built cities where the former germans had been, and consentrated on infastructure for some number of turns

mean while i have to gloat about my initial stubborness to claim as much land as abroad as possible early, as most of the important resources were on them, a really good blessing in desguise, the only resource i didnt get till way past its use was saltpetter, which denied me of gettin man o wars ect

but after some many relaxed turned, spent trading luxurys so my ppl were the happiest, i had a solid base core of citys i was turned back onto researching techs, after a switch to democracy that was catching up tech from here was 4 turns each till late stages, but i really was a fair way behind

when i got to finnnally use the coal that i secured in the very ancient ages unknowningly, i had my citys production increased to max, and was thrilled to see only the sumerians had coal as well and they werent keen on sharing with anyone else

the rest of the game was spent in catch up, and after slowly strenghtening my way to the top, i sort to increase that power, using the other teams against each other, ie spain vrs the french

now finnaly caught up to the others in the tech race, i started to get wonders again, like the internet, but unfortunately missed out on the other key wonders

after messsin round for hundreds of turns, i decided to test my opponents with a icbm barrage, with most citys producing 1 every 5 -7 turns, after nuking on my first turn 15 cities from various computers, i knew i had smashed any chance of a fight back already, now with every one at war with me, i continued to build space race improvements, lucky i did, as when i finally got espionage and a spy i discovered sumerians were 4/10 parts there

i also had nice tank invasion combined with icbms, i took out most of spain, i was lucky too get past that bottle neck easily, the game didnt last much longer as i built the last space race component

all in all awesome game, i loved the expansionism that u had to undergo to recieve those critical resources in the centre, draw backs.... damn germany put up a S#it fight

( would upload pics, but i am massive noobie at this ... )

winner