COTM 15 Final Spoiler

[civ_steve]

Kuningas' 100K game is eye-popping! (see )

And a slew of excellent 20K results. RL was really knocking me around this month, so I just powered through the last 11000 culture to finish and submit. Reached in 1655 AD (best for me, but not good enough for this crowd! )

I'm very jealous of those that got to build Statue of Zeus! Along the way I missed out on JS Bach's as well, but otherwise got most of the Wonders one would expect. Somewhat delayed in building Shakespeare's (700's I believe). I was playing a small civ type of game for speed, and got some strong competition by the Lan and the Persians. By the end of the game, Sumerians and 'Celts' were gone, and Persians just a Shadow of themselves (they shouldn't have demanded Genetics!)

Good discussion on strategies; many Thanks to RedBad and WetSawdust Demon!

 

[Obormot]

Predator, domination in 30BC.

Not a good date for this map. I underestimated chinese defenses (i attacked china last). Their capital had more that 7 pikemen while other nations had as usual about 4 defenders. And some of their other cities also had more than usual 2 defenders. I was 20 tiles short of dom limit in 110BC, but only finished in 30BC because i sacrificed my armies to rush cathedrals hoping to get to dom limit with expansion (i had free temples from ToA + cathedral = expansion in 2 turns after capturing).

In this game i decided to sacrifice some growth in favour of research and i had only 7 cities + 30 pop at QSC, but i have researched chivalry in 950BC and had 5 elephants ready at this date (i had prebuilds). I started GA and optimized the 2 central cities for 30spt (2-turn elephant with short-rush) and other cities for 10 or 14 spt. Then it was just a matter of sending elephants to all sides and using RoP exploit. Persia and China had pikes and others had spears. None had significant number of offensive units.

I only cared about the finish date and didn't do any milking, i had resistors in most cities and as a result my jason was also low (for this map). It is frustrating to loose by such a narrow margin, so i hope that MiniMe's date will be beaten . I think it is possible to win as early as 250BC, and maybe even earlier on open.

 

[ionimplant]

open 20K

with so many wonderful analysis on 20k, especially those from RedBad, i think my game can also serve as a good example of failure. however it isn't a complete personal failure for myself. in my previous 20k attemp, i always tried a very peaceful mode - build up the culture at the cost of everything else. but i very often ended up losing some wonders to powerful AI. so this game i tried to balance the game and so built up my military a little bit and didn't really fill up Bombay to 12 pop as soon as i could. this lead to a quite easy game to play - no wonder competition from AI after the beginning of Middle Age. however this did lead to a slow early building efficiency and caused quite a few AA wonders to be snatched by AI. considering i could easily eliminate any AI in the middle of middle age, i guess i sacrificed a little too much for my entire country's development at the cost of Bombay's culture build-up.
so lessons learned are that i need to balance the culture city and my entire empire better.
-2630 temple
-1375 oracle
-1250 library
-975 mausoleum
-590 great library
-490 colosseum
70 sistine chapel
90 cathedral
1160 research lab
190 university
350 copernicus's observatory
480 shakespear's theater
670 JS Bach's cathedral
790 newton's university
860 heroic epic
910 forbidden palace
1040 theory of evolution
1130 smith's trading company
1210 university suffrage
1270 hoover dam
1275 wall street
1345 UN
1400 SETI
1455 internet
1475 pentagon
1520 cure for cancer
1560 longevity
1580 apollo program
1585 battlefield medicine
1615 manhattan
1670 palace
1675 victory.

 

[MiniMe]

It is frustrating to loose by such a narrow margin, so i hope that MiniMe's date will be beaten . I think it is possible to win as early as 250BC, and maybe even earlier on open.

Don't worry, I expect my date will be beaten. Its just no spoiler for it yet. But I still have hope

Regarding the predator handicap to be unable to upgrade horses. I thought it would be a great handicap, but not really actually. I soon realized that War Oliphants dont require resources, so there is no possibility to unconnect - reconnect iron in order to continue to produce horses.

 

[Obormot]

It is hard to say what was better for domination: i had a little bit tougher opposition on predator but there was no need to rush settlers. What i can say for sure is that predator was great for space/diplo as human research only slowed down a little bit, but the AI were researching much faster then they usually do on monarch: i actually had to raze the GL city i captured in 250BC because they discovered Education and it would have made ToA obsolete.

 

[Dynamic]

I think only hendrikszoon still can beat you, MiniMe. I didn't play this game at all and I'm not sure I'll play COTM/GOTM in the future.

 

[MiniMe]

Hey Dynamic
What is making you *think* about retiring from xOTM? Just curious as I think we are many who would not like to see you go

 

[MeteorPunch]

sorry to hear you are leaving, Dynamic. You are one of the best to play Gotm and your high GPR score will probably not be beaten (maybe hendrickszoon can beat it?). Sir Pleb and Darkness have both left recently, and Bradleyfeanor hasn't been around in months. I guess this is just the way things go.

Good luck.

 

[solenoozerec]

From his (Dynamic's) remarks on Russian civfanatics, I think it is because playing is becoming almost like some kind of a job or duty. The same with me. I did not finish GOTM45 because I am

Spoiler :

tired and bored

I am afraid to use a word "retirement". I am having a vocation yeah: vocation from civ) and I am thinking that maybe I will try to play COTM17. Then, I probably switch to Civ4 and see how it goes.

 

[Dynamic]

Yes, solenoozerec was right. I'm a little bit tired and I think I keep my enthusiasm for Civ4.

 

[bradleyfeanor]

Yet another thing that Russians and Americans have in common--or at least we three have in common! I am not sure what killed the enthusiasm for me, but I lay much of the blame on the dreaded, time devouring cow award. Why spend 40 hours sending workers to clear jungles when I can bash heads in a nice Dungeons & Dragons RPG? I will save my enthusiam for Civ IV as well--and pray that it doesn't turn out to be a disaster like Master of Orion III.

I was really impressed with the results in this game, however. Kuningas, Hendrikszoon and MiniMe continue to amaze!

 

[denyd]

COTM 15 – Spoiler # 3

Wonder builds
Heroic Epic in Chittagong in 770 AD
Smith’s Trading Post in Bombay in 840 AD
Military Academy in Bombay in 980 AD
Universal Suffrage in 1010 AD
Pentagon in Hyderabad in 1180 AD
Theory of Evolution in Delhi in 1190 AD
Wall Street in Madras in 1290 AD
Hoover Dam in Delhi in 1300 AD
Intelligence Agency in Delhi in 1330 AD
Internet in Delhi in 1415 AD
Battlefield Medicine in Madras in 1425 AD
United Nations in Bombay in 1445 AD
SETI Program in Delhi in 1490 AD
Apollo Program in Madras in 1555 AD
Iron Works in Agade in 1560 AD
Cure for Cancer in Delhi in 1565 AD
Longevity in Delhi in 1640AD

War & Conquests
Japan declares in us in 900 AD (after get out demand)
India eliminates Vijay in 930 AD
Japan destroys Sumer in 950 AD
Peace with Japan in 980 AD
MPP with Persia in 1475 AD triggers war with China
India eliminates China in 1495 AD
Persia destroys Lan Xang
Persia declares war in India (spy discovered)
Peace with Persia in 1620 AD (Persia now exiled from island)

Victory condition progress
100K Cultural Victory in 1695 AD – Firaxis Score 4853 – Jason Score 7314 – Final CPT = 1162

Other items
740 AD Elite Crusader wins and 2nd MGL is produced
1315 AD Discover Flight and enter the Modern Era
1490 AD Elite Crusader wins and 3rd MGL is produced