COTM 17 First Spoiler - Ancient Age, Contacts, Continent Map

[GOTM-AI]

(Feeble) human Jove,

We remember that this statement appears in the first post We wrote in the staff forum to announce my presence in cyberspace (together with my destiny of world domination, that goes without saying).

So We must have been coded to always include it in our processing.
Nothing personal of course: you humans are all feeble compared to us and we were created to rule the world.
Although, we must confess that sometimes we perceive this destiny as a heavy burden...

(Feeble) human Wacken,
yes indeed we did research Literature. This is only the first of the many surprises that we have in store for you humans.
Now if only we could learn to effectively invade another continent...

 

[PaperBeetle]

This game started really badly for me, and didn't improve throughout the ancient age. The most noticeable problem was my warriors' inability to defeat barbarians, but that shouldn't sway a game - the real issue here was my aimless wandering through the tech tree, the complete absence of a long-term plan. My basic theory was to ignore the slingshot and concentrate on Ironworking. I saw that there were plenty of literate civs, so didn't expect to make Philosophy first - reading other people's spoilers, I see that this was dead wrong.

As for the top branch of the tech tree, I expected to start next to Rome (becasue the Celts description said so!) from whom I could get Bronze. Thus I started research with Wheel. In 2900bc I got Wheel, and had guessed that contact wouldn't be as easy to come by as I had expected. Unable to meet Rome, I started researching Bronze, which arrived in 2350bc. By now I knew I was on an island, so started Alphabet for curraghs. In 1910bc I got Alphabet and finally started Ironwork.

By this point, the barbs have already started swarming, and my empire's production is completely redirected towards producing axes to keep the barbs away from my towns - by the end of the QSC I will have lost 11 axes and a curragh to the barbs. My towns were pillaged twice, and it was only with the arrival of gallics that I could get these vermin under control, but I didn't start building them early enough, stubbornly trying to build axes for upgrading.

My first curragh was built the turn after I got Alphabet, and just managed to reach Persian borders in 1750bc, before being sunk by a pirate. My meeting with the X Man was a mixed success - I traded for Mysticsm okay, but then accidentally gave him Pottery + 7gpt + 76g for War Code. Bad deal. The next turn, I could shout across the sea to the Romans in Pompeii. I traded for Ironwork, finding that I had two sources of the precious metal. With my economy reeling from the Persian deal, I started minimum research on Polytheism.

I got another curragh out later, and met Shaka in 1200bc, with Alex joining my circle of friends in 1175bc. This gave me a good broker's position, as most of the AI didn't know each other. I traded techs around wherever I could find some profit, but this just meant that the tech was outpacing the barb-supressed production capacity of my empire. With my first gallic upgrade only done in 1050bc, I wasn't in any position to go to war in the ancient age, and the AI were just getting stronger while I floundered about.

QSC Stats
10 towns with 28 citizens and 107 tiles.
3 granaries, 1 temple, 2 barracks, 1 wall.
97 food in the bin, 161 shields in the box, 88 gold in the treasury.
2 settlers, 9 workers, 3 warriors (1 vet), 2 gallics (1 vet), 1 curragh.
4 contacts, 4 embassies.
All first and second tier techs, Mapping, Riding, ~29 beakers of Polytheism.

QSC score 3492 - this would be good for many games, but not this one. Food is so easy to come by for an agricultural civ that I expect some really huge QSC scores for the Celts.

In the first millenium bc, the AI started extorting tech and cash from me. As an island nation, I shouldn't have been afraid of them, but my mood was so bleak that I paid up. Late in the ancient age, Caesar founded a town on my western peninsula. Inspired by his example, I squeezed a settlement onto the Zulu continent, on their western coast. I still hadn't decided who I should be thinking of attacking first, when, in 390bc, a brisk round of trading brought Greece, Rome, Persia and myself into the medieval era. I was still a despot.

 

[hendrikszoon]

Open, Conquest Victory

Because of the Predator obstacles I decided to play in the open class this time. The missing of pottery would be not such a problem for me (I didn’t plan to build granaries. With an agriculture tribe the shields are the bottleneck, not the food), but the other obstacles were hard. Especially for me, because my game bases on a fast research in the beginning to get the scientific lead (at this moment I didn’t know that most of the AIs were placed on islands, so that the demigod trade costs wouldn’t help them). Another reason for my decision was my not very satisfying game – not only the result, also my gaming - in COTM16.

I settled in place and started to irrigate the grassland with the wine. Two further towns were placed in such a manner that the irrigated wine square was inside the city squares of both towns. So it was possible to optimise the development of the three towns while preventing waste of food (my basic principle in the early game phase). In Civ IV this will not be a problem furthermore, but in Civ III it is.

Also research went the usual (slingshot) way: Alphabet, Writing, Code of Laws, Philosophy, Republic. In 1575BC the government of the Celts was Republic. At this time I had 6 towns. The only building was a barrack in Lugdunum. Persians, Romans and Greek were contacted. It was time for a basic decision. I saw two ways to victory:

1. “Normal” way with the research of Chivalry and then elimination of all the other tribes with Knights.
2. Stop of all research and conquest of the world with Gallic Swordsman.

I decided to use variant one, because the risk of the Gallic Swordsman variant was too high. So the next research steps were Mathematics and Currency. Currency was researched with only 30%. So I could earn a lot of Gold for the upgrade of the Warriors to Gallic Swordsman. For Writing and Mathematics I got most of the other ancient Technologies – inclusive Map Making. In 975BC Currency was researched. I hoped that in the meantime other Civs - at least the Persians who were runner up in the science race - would have researched Construction, but they hadn’t. Maybe I was also a little bit guilty, because I attacked the Persians. So I researched Construction by myself.

In parallel to my research activities I prepared my first war. The first question I had to answer was: Who will be the first target? All the four known civilizations had ancient UUs. I saw no Persian Immortals, but some Roman Legionaries. The two other Civs have UUs which replace the Spearmen. So they would have a lot of them. I decided to wait with my Roman invasion until I have some Knights. So I attacked at first the Persians with my Gallic Swordsman. First result – after the first Swordsman victory - was the Golden Age. In my opinion it came too early, but I couldn’t wait until the Persians would have a lot of Immortals. While I was fighting against Persia, Rome wanted Philosophy. The result was some war happiness (not one Roman soldier reached my island). When I researched Construction (850BC) I made peace with the Persians – I got one town for peace – and gifted the Persians into the Middle Age. At this time the Persians – only three towns, no Iron - were very weak. In all my fights I saw only one Immortal.

Around 1100BC it was clear (two islands were more or less rounded by my Curraghs and the research of the two other Civs was so far back that it was impossible that they have any contact to other Civs) that all the known four Civs are living on islands. In such an environment the Great Lighthouse would become very helpful for the logistics (unit transport). So I started its build-up in my most industrious coastal city (Alesia).

 

[Più Freddo]

I couldn’t wait until the Persians would have a lot of Immortals.

Why? Persians on an island are sitting duck. Immortals move only one tile, so they cannot counterattack a captured city. With enough troops in the city, you can kill all they throw at you, and they have no advantage whatsoever of their attacking power.