COTM 18 - Final Spoiler: End game

Karasu · Nov 17, 2005

Here we are at the final spoiler of COTM 18.

As usual, the only requisite for access to the final spoiler is that you have completed and submitted (or ditched) your game.

We hope you enjoyed playing the Timurids, and we look forward to reading how your game was finished. Was it a win or a loss?
Military, diplomacy, culture... survival

: the game was open to different approaches -which one did you take?

And after all this, how will it feel to take on Sid?

DJMGator13 · Nov 18, 2005

I start the Industrial Age (320AD) by trading/gifting the other scientific civs during the first turn. I got Nationalism and was able to trade for Steam and Medicine. It is now that I discovered that I missed the coal by the horses to the west. I see that Korea has 2 sources of coal but 1 of them is not hooked up so I send a lone worker into their land to go hook it up. When my worker got there Korea was clearing jungle instead of roading it, so I wait a few turns and it turns out that Korea was at war with one of the western civs and they run their workers back into the city when an enemy approached. This allowed me to move onto the tile and road it. I was able to trade for it in 660AD.

I was only at a 10 turn research rate even at 100% science upon entering the IA, due to my limited number of cities. I continue adding universities to my cities and I can do Scientific Method in 7 turns but my prebuild for TOE is behind by 4 turns so I turn off research and bank some money until TOE completes in 520AD.

It was about this time that India started to lose cities, so I start making more settlers and start poaching some city sites. This is dangerous because at times I have aggressively settled some cities. My military still consists of 20 workers, the trebuchet, 2 warriors (I disbanded one of them to rush a university that turn) and a rifle which came courtesy of a cultural flip of one of my cities back to me that I had culturally flipped away from me earlier in the game. But the whole world is at war with each other. As I said in the other threads I am amazed that I lasted this long with almost no military.

During this time one of the AIs learned Industrialization for me and I traded for it. This is the last required tech I trade for in the game, I did pick up a few optional ones. I complete Hoovers in 710AD and begin my Golden Age. My aggressive settling has culturally netted me a supply of rubber from Korea when I cut into that cities 9 tiles, eventually this city will flip to me as well. I try this same technique on the Persian coal supply by the horses but never achieved the coal. I had to continue trading Korea for the coal that I hooked up for the rest of the game.

Once my GA started I was concerned that I did not have enough cities to allow for a 1000 shield UN prebuild. But India was getting hammered at this point so I continue to add cities as their cities were captured. I also finally start building military at this point since there was no beneficial infrastructure left to build. Since I was running 100% science there was no need for banks and stock markets. I was cash rushing courthouses and police stations. As my GA ended I had increased my number of cities to 34 and had a military of 2 settlers, 25 workers, 2 warriors, 21 infantry, 12 artillery and 3 fighters.

I enter the Modern Age in 1000AD with my UN prebuild ready to complete next turn. I had actually delayed it a turn because I was afraid I may not be able to acquire Fission on the age change from either my free tech or thru trade after gifting the other scientific civs. As it turned out I got Fission as my free tech so I did not bother gifting anyone else into the new age. And in 1010AD I cast my vote and wait for the results.

klarius · Nov 19, 2005

Open going for 20k

Spoiler all culture builds :

After the major setback in MA (losing Shakes') I entered the IA in 560AD.
Big picture trading netted nationalism and steam power and I got a free medicine.
So I had to research sanitation (650AD), while my land gets railed.
Could buy industry in 710 (finally shot my reputation on that) and shortly after that Shakrisabz was at it's final configuration with 20 citizens and up to 128 shields with a bit of starvation.
War with Korea started also 710AD. Korea gone in 780AD and we finally have gotten our first leader.
So on to China. Another leader forms the second army. I currently have more production than I have builds for so I go for more armies first and hand-build small wonders.
China is destroyed in 870AD.
Next war with Russia in 1110 (after just having achieved tanks).
This is a slow war with artillery redlining infantry first to maximize the blitz promotions of my tanks.
And in fact I get all the leaders I need from there on to get more than three armies and always have one available for the final small wonders.
Enter the MA in 1110AD. Get computers, Byzantines rockets, Persia Fission. So no need to wait for the Russians.
Russians destroyed in 1210AD. War with our long time ally, the Persians, starts. All the wars had put them in Fascism by now.
Also started war with Byzantines to disconnect their Uranium, but they had to many ships and bombers.
Instead of losing more ships and armies, I just gave up on preventing them build the Manhattan Project and concentrated on Persia.
In 1330AD I finished the last interesting research (not worth the effort to go all the way to integrated defense) and sold all libraries and universities outside Shakrisabz to avoid 100k.
I could have also let the Byzantines continue to accumulate culture ( they where near 50k already ), but wanted to reduce them to pet status in the end, so they don't all of a sudden drop a nuke.

1345AD the Persians are gone and I have now prepared a decent invasion on the Byzantines.
Slowly take one city after the other and in 1490AD Byzantines are left with one desert island city.

Then I tried a little milking, but I'm really bad at that.

Culture 20k victory in 1700AD.

My first competitive 20k and lots of mistakes. Also quite a bit bad luck with long anarchy and late leaders.
But still not too shabby for deity, I think.

Slow progress to domination limit:

Chamnix · Nov 19, 2005

The entire game spoiler:

I decided to go for a fast research game (ended up being diplo). This would be a new experience Ive played fast research on lower levels, but normally on deity, I generate wars to keep the AI tech pace under control, and I wasnt sure I would keep up without wars, but it turned out I was the tech leader almost all game (thanks no doubt to the very generous start).

I settled on the starting location and built warrior, granary, worker, then 4-turn settlers (except once when I forgot to micromanage :blush:

). Similar to many others, I also used a very low military strategy to start. I settled very aggressively including planting towns by the gems and the dyes (although my dye town eventually flipped to India). QSC stats:

14 towns
38 citizens
18 workers
4 slaves
12 warriors

I was surprised to find out how quickly most people got out of the Ancient Age especially since I thought I was trading liberally and playing high research. I researched Pottery first, then Alphabet (I think I traded for this before I finished it), Writing, Philosophy (getting Code of Laws as my free tech), then Republic then Literature (which could explain my slowness getting out of the Ancient Age it looks like the fastest people didnt have a government tech). I didnt reach the Middle Ages until 670 BC.

I revolted to Republic immediately upon discovery and drew 8 turns of anarchy (also slowing my Middle Ages entry). Once in Republic, I disbanded all my warriors, and my military was 1 horseman. Gradually, as my economy could handle it, I built more horses for eventual upgrade. Meanwhile, I was on good terms with everyone thanks to very liberal trading or gifting if the AI couldnt afford to pay me. I missed Copernicus thanks to starting the prebuild way too late and the massive cascade from the early Middle Ages expensive wonders, but I did get Newtons. The Industrial Age was reached in 380 AD.

Early in the Industrial Age, I fought my only real war of the game once someone else researched Military Tradition for me (I researched no optional techs outside of the Ancient Age). I slaughtered India with sipahi and started my Golden Age. Many of their towns were still defended by spearmen :rolleyes:

. I eventually signed a Military Alliance with the Byzantines so they could take the Indians island towns for me and eliminate them completely, so they wouldnt be around to screw up my UN vote.

I ICSed the former Indian territory and made that area scientist central. I generally did not get to 4-turn research, but I could usually handle 5-6 turns, and my research buddies (most often the Russians or the Byzantines) picked up a few techs for me.

Late in the Industrial Ages, the Byzantines sneak-attacked me. They were no real threat, but I signed the Russians and the Chinese against them just to make sure they werent signed against me. Besides, the Byzantines were projected to be my UN vote rival. Of course, they screwed up that part of the plan by revolting to Fascism very late in the Industrial Age so Russia had more pop than they did. Nonetheless, I was on such good terms with everyone, it wasnt a problem.

I got Fission as my Modern Age free tech so I didnt even have to trade for it, switched my Palace prebuild to the United Nations and won a diplomatic victory in 860 AD.

Wardancer · Nov 19, 2005

Open: Domination (whole game spoiler).

1) QSC Spolier

I settled in place and built worker, granary, warrior and then settler (which came out on turn 25). From that point on I worked the capital as a 4 turn factory for the rest of the QSC. At 1000BC I had;

15 cities (1 settler)
43 citizens
178 land

37 units
1 settler
15 workers
13 warriors
1 chariot
7 Horseman

255 production in the box
138 food
272 gold
1 palace, 1 granary, 1 barracks

All AA techs except poly, monarchy and republic

All contacts except Byzantines

Overall I was quite pleased with the results. I doubt my score will be up to much because I didn't hit MA until several turns later so missed out on 1000 odd points for the free tech!

I should really have made the MA in the period. I bottled out of doing a republic Slingshot but was still first to Philosophy and got construction as my free tech. My main error was the point where I required only Currency and Poly for the MA but decided to go for literature to get another monopoly tech. I already had Construction and Philosophy as monopoly techs at this stage. In the end I did get Literature as another monopoly tech but the Russians demanded it off me. The last tech the AI got was Poly and by this stage I had nothing left to trade for it as they had all my techs and I had to self research it. Had I done that in the first place I would have saved myself about 10 turns!

Also big thanks to Twonky for showing us how to make a simple spreadsheet for planning the QSC and DaveMcW for that strat help!

2) The actual game

2430 BC – Koreans destroy Tsingtao. Starting a war that will eventually lead to the demise of both Civs. The Koreans go on to lose the war badly but the Chinese lose their source of iron.

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We entered the MA shortly after 1000BC. We were the third civ to make it after the Russians and the Indians. We got Mono as a free tech and traded this for Feudalism with the Russians. I forgot to revolt on the interturn and when I did my revolt next turn I got a 9 turn anarchy!

With one turn of Anarchy left I traded the Republic from Perisa and chose this as my new Government.

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530 BC – I start a war with the Russians in a war that had three goals.

i) I will use my tech lead to buy in China, India and Arabia into the war. The war is slightly phoney and my true plans are for China. The real goal is to kill off the huge Chinese army of Horseman on the Russians.
ii) The Russians have some outlying towns at the North of my empire. I wish to annexe these.
iii) I wish to sell Republic for cash to China and India. They have only c. 200 gold each and I know Republic is worth more. By beginning a war I can hopefully weaken all three.

The war goes largely to plan and by 450 BC I have captured three towns and raised the other. The Chinese back out of the alliance early but I buy them in again. The rest of the alliance holds up nicely for the duration of the 20 turns. I take a further town in the Desert South of the Russian Core. I hold up there. The Russians have a solid wave of Med Infs that I am easily able to deal with using my stack of Cats, Horse and my own Med infs (I even got my first GL defending the choke in 70 BC) but the Chinese Horse casualties are huge. The Indians did relatively little as they lacked both iron and horse. The Arabs were attacking around the other side of Persia so I could not see what they were doing at this stage. Had my first flip (flip count 1). Peace was finally called with the Russians in 50 BC. We got 2 cities in exchange for the Peace. The cities were on the South Western side of the Russian empire so were largely useless but did give me a great view of the Arabian Answar attack on the Russians that was to cripple the Russian Med Inf and Pike based army.

30 BC - We declared war on the Chinese. The Chinese had 15 units in my territory that were on their way back from the Russian war. These were easily massacred by my Knights and Horse. The Chinese never secured Iron so whilst they had knowledge of Chivalry they could not build riders. In 110 AD we got our second GL during the conquest of Tatung. Peace is called in 250 AD after the Chinese have been pushed back to one far off city on the other side of the Korean empire. We are a total of 12 Cities up on the war and the Chinese are removed as effective opposition.

290 AD - I began my war on the Koreans. They were small (7 cities) and had only Swords as their best unit (and no source of horses). However the terrain was not good for my quick moving armies. We made hard work of the Korans and it was not until 420 AD that they were wiped out. It was not all bad and we did get our third great leader in 330 AD recapturing Beijing which the Koreans had captured by sneaking two swords passed our forces on a Galley.

420 AD - We declared war on the Russians for the second time. Before the war declaration we gifted our undefended city on the Russian South West to Arabia. To avoid war unhappiness from losing this. The Russians still had no horse and had suffered badly at the hand of the Arab Answar (now Arab Cavalry). The Russians were still mostly defended by Pikes but they had knowledge of Gunpowder and during our war managed to trade saltpetre so they could start producing muskets. Unfortunately this was too little too late for the Russians and by 580 AD the Timurid forces had pushed them back to Moscow. Most of the Russian Cities were raised with several being kept for strategic means. We captured the Knights Templar and also obtained our fourth GL in 570 AD. Moscow housed the Great Library so was spared in order that it could be captured later is a large tech boost was required (the Arabs went on to capture Moscow which was good for us as the cultural borders were significantly reduced. The Russians went on to survive as boat people who would serve as a figure head for their former citizens to periodically revolt around!

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Towards the end of the Russian war we achieved our research goal of Military Tradition. At this point we shut off research and stock piled cash to upgrade our Knights and Horse to Sipahi. We also used our fourth GL to rush the Pentagon and added a Veteran Sipahi to each of our three Knight armies.

The next target was India. India were a significantly bigger deal than Russia as they were newly Industrial aged (the second most advanced Civ after the Persians). India had lacked their own source of horse and iron but had saltpetre and needed neither for their War Elephant. We would be spared fighting Cavalry though. Immediately before our war we signed an MPP with Persia (an Industrial aged powerhouse with near on every decent wonder in the game) to ensure victory.

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630 AD - The attacks on India began. The Timurid Sipahi backed up by three armies simply blew away the Indian Musket defence. From the West the Persian Cavalry massacred the Indian outlying cities. By 670 AD the invading forces had reached the Himalayan Mountains and it took until 710 AD before attacks could begin on the sub continents main cities. However even though these cities were newly defended by rifleman they were no match for the hoard of Sipahi and by 780 AD the Indians were conquered. The slippery Ghandi managed to escape on a boat to keep the Indian Civ in the game.

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During the war with the Indians the Arabs had signed an alliance with the Indians against Persia. Persia however was proving to be hard opposition than the Russians and was conquering Arabia at an alarming rate.

The Persians had a large empire, and a huge military based on cavalry and rifles. In addition to this they had a large array of wonders (Pyramids, Artemis, Leonardo, Shakespeare and thanks to their ongoing conquest of the Arabs they had the Sun Tzu). I had the Crusadors (from Russia) and the Wall (from India)……

I had a large Sipahi based military, 3 armies and a large stack of cannons. However, I had almost no defensive units at all and this could be difficult as my border with Persia was massive and their empire was about 50% railroaded already. I considered that I had two options.

i) Attack Persia immediately. Use a ROP Rape to take and hold Persopolis to obtain the TOA in order to get expansions throughout my empire, raze the Persian productive cities whilst trying to fend off their counter attacks with Sipahi.
ii) Hold off on Persia for another 5-10 turns. Take the great library (in Moscow) from the Arabs. Use Nationalism to draft rifles for border defence and use mobilisation to build even more Sipahi and crush the Persians in an almighty ROP rape.

Now I should stress that I was ill with flu whilst playing the finale of this game and this might have affected my decision but I decided to go with option (i).

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830AD - The attacks on Persia began. The results were not pretty. I captured Persopolis and razed two other central towns in the first turn but lost 6 of my own border towns in the counter attacks. I also pillaged what I believed to be the Persian’s horse supplies. Stupidly I overlooked one of their Islands that had its own horse and a harbour to go with…..

I was able to recapture my border towns (I often had to raze) and razed two more Persian towns in the next couple of turns. Then Persopolis flipped in 860AD (flip count 10) and I lost the 10 Sipahi that were healing / defending it. Luckily my local Army was covering the local cannons on their way to the new capital (Arbella that housed Shakespeare and MoM).

We had plenty of local troups and were able to re-capture Persopolis. We razed Arbella in 890 AD. The war continued along the same lines as my force near Persopolis slowly razed the Persian Core where as the remained of the Sipahi fought a frantic defensive action against the attacking Persian Cavalry. The tide gradually turned in my direction and when I got my 5th great leader in 990 AD allowing a further Sipahi Army the result seemed in little doubt.

By 1040 AD the Persians were removed from their old core and were no longer a potent fighting force. The Timurid settlers were able to begin the process of founding Timurid cities on the land previously owned by the Persians. A process greatly speeded by the fantastic railway infrastructure the Persians had left behind!

1080 AD - We achieved Domination with a Firaxis score of 11364 points and 9640 Jasons.

3) Post game thoughts

This did feel a bit like an introduction to the Deity level rather than the Deity level proper. The Ottomans seemed to be a little overpowered and the AI land didn't seem quite as nice as ours!

This was the first game for a while I used Republic as my government. For the Indian, Zulu and Celt games I used Feudalism and I think that next game I will change back because with out being able to do massive pop rushes I find it hard to keep up with the higher level AI's in terms of the numbers of units. Non core cities under Republic seem to be basically useful for making science farms and nothing else!

Also I really got caught out at the start in terms of placing my cities. I put most of my first ring on the outermost dessert squares to try and keep my empire at least semi-compact. As a result most of these never got above 10 shields. Luckily we had enough bonus squares so that I had 3 or 4 very powerful cities which went someway to making up for the ones I placed poorly.

Overall though I had a fun game so thanks to Karasu for the map. I can't wait to see how the big guns do. I'm predicting some very early finishes possibly even up there with the Indian game!

Wardancer · Nov 19, 2005

Oops - double post

Nata · Nov 20, 2005

C3C Open.

670AD - China is left with one last city. We make peace, breaking alliance with Arabs, taking ToG & Navigation and giving 110gpt. We'll break the deal in the next turn.
We enter IA and get Nationalism.

Arabs and Persia have Industry for quite a long time now and it shows. They have now strong military compare to us: must have been pumping out units with Factories.
And it looks like IA can wizz by pretty fast, and in about 1 hour of real-time playing I might have my first ever victory on Deity!
So temptation is too strong and conquering Persia or Arabia looks as too much trouble. I won't get a good date for UN but OK, let's do it.

680AD - Destroy the last Chinese city but they escape on a galley.

690AD. Byz gets to IA and gets SP. and trades to us for Nationalism. We start Medicine: due in 6.
770AD - Destroyed last Chinese island city. Get Medicine. Researching Electricity.
Got 3rd GL in war with Russia!

850AD - Got Electricity 1st. Traded for Industrialization + $ from Persia, for Corporation from Arabia and for Sanitation from Byz.
860AD - Russia destroyed, divided btw us, Persia and Arabia with us getting the biggest part.
940AD - Korea destroyed by us.
950AD - build ToE, got Atomic and Electronics. Hoover dam prebuild due in 10 turns.

Stupid AIs went for Electronics too, I waited too long to garantee Hoover and missed a trade - both Arabs and Persia got Electronics! Also I missed an opportunity for AI to research Combustion for me.
I traded for Refining, Steel and Rep.Parts but had to research Combustion, Mass.prod and Mot.transp. myself.
Arabs got Flight 1st but won't trade for Mot. Transp.

1240AD - Persia got Flight too, so now I was able to trade for Flight and entered MA. We got Ecology, Persia - Fission and Byz (after we gift them) Computers.
No trade is possible this turn. Fission in 8 turns. I'll try to steal from Byz and if they dow, ally Persia and Arabs.

1250AD - Persia and Byz traded their Techs and now Fission is cheaper as it's not a monopoly. I get Fission plus Some optional Tech and gold from Persia for Ecology.
4 turns till UN. My rival will be Byz, so I should prepare for a war in 4 turns.
I can carefully steal Tech from Byz for 2400g. I try - and it works! I have Computers now. But I need to make them dow.
Ok, I give them the boot order. And they dow!

I ally Persia and do MPP with Arabs, and next turn they both are at war with Byz and polite with me.

1270AD - UN built, I hold the vote and results are predictable: 3 for me, 1 for Teodora.
My 1st Deity win!

Firaxis: 10692
Jason: 9161
Time spent: 24:44:06.

We are at 1250AD:

The-Hawk · Nov 20, 2005

This was my first attempt at a GOTM… unfortunately, I didn’t keep a log. Thanks to those who kept logs and shared them… I’ve learned a lot from reading them. :goodjob:

To be frank, I didn’t really have much of an opening strategy. Since this was my first crack at GOTM, I was pretty anxious to post a win, didn’t really care how I scored. So, I decided to play cautious, avoid significant risks, and take what the game gave me.

I made it all the way to Modern Times without getting into one war. Although I didn’t have much territory, my cities were well developed and none of the AI civs was running away (India and Arabia were gone). I didn’t get too many wonders… I got GL, used ToE to go get Hoover, and ended up with the UN. From past experience with Sid and Deity random map games, I was pretty confident I was over the hump and had the game well under control.

Samarqand was a production powerhouse, so I decided to go for the UN and a Diplomatic win. At this point, Korea gave me a big assist. :lol:

With about 2 turns left on the production of the UN, Korea declared war on me. I quickly brought China, Russia, and Byzantine into military alliances versus Korea (Persia was already at war with them). These alliances, plus a couple of bribes, made me the toast of the town and sealed the diplomatic win in 1290AD. All in all, I was really pokey getting here, probably will be the slowest win on the board. :undecide:

But, as I said, I wanted my first GOTM to be a win, so I went the slow but sure route.

By the way, I think this is the first time I’ve ever won a diplomatic victory at Civ. Whenever I play random maps, I turn off diplomatic and space race… personally, I think domination victories are a better test. So, just to be sure I had this one in the bag, I kept playing after submitting my diplomatic win. Wanted to paint the world orange… was able to do that a couple of hundred years later.

Many thanks to those the folks responsible for GOTM… I think you have me hooked. It’s a great opportunity to try things you’ve never done before (like the diplomatic win for me). Karasu, thanks for the map, I really enjoyed it.

PS…. Not sure this is the forum for it… but I do have a question. Per the GOTM rules, ROP abuse is allowed. From posts in the forums, it appears many people think abusing ROP is dishonorable. I’m curious as to why is it allowed in GOTM? Or, have I misinterpreted public opinion on the issue… do most folks think it is OK?

PPS... I tried to include some screenshots, can't figure out how to make it work. Sorry about that.

ainwood · Nov 20, 2005

The-Hawk said:
PS. Not sure this is the forum for it but I do have a question. Per the GOTM rules, ROP abuse is allowed. From posts in the forums, it appears many people think abusing ROP is dishonorable. Im curious as to why is it allowed in GOTM? Or, have I misinterpreted public opinion on the issue do most folks think it is OK?

Its allowed because you take a rep hit for doing it (although there are ways around that as well :ack:

) - but that's the main reason.

Mwoimp · Nov 20, 2005

Conquest, Survive

So continuing on from the second spoiler. This is the account the decline and fall of the Timurid Empire. So I entered the IA in 750AD after everyone else and got Medicine as my free tech.

760AD - signed alliance with Russia against India, everyone else seemed to be at war with them so I figured I might as well be too.
- Byzantines declared war on me they had MPP with India (as if I care, they're on an island)
- captured Bengal from India

770AD - captured Chittagong from India

800AD - the Chinese destroyed the Koreans

810AD - captured Kolhapur from India and got control of dyes

850AD - captured Calcutta from India

900AD - captured Karachi from India

970AD - signed Peace with India for worldmap + 32g (they are down to 1 city)
- signed Peace with Byzantines

980AD - the Persians destroyed the Indians

Whenever cities were destroyed on the map I rushed settlers to these places to found new cities.

1030AD - Everyone now seems to be at war with Russia so... signed alliance with Persia against Russia, I gave world map + 13gpt + 34g (for some reason nobody wanted my help in fighting russia, this was the cheapest i could get)
- captured Bryansk from Russia + 16g

1100AD - signed peace with Russia for 40g

At this point the Persians have become a superpower, and I figure they are going to win this game one way or another. They have been getting farther ahead in the tech race, and they recently built Theory of Evolution, and advanced to the modern age.

1330AD - Persia builds UN, but never calls a vote (darn, I figured if he did I might still have a chance of winning)

1450AD - the Persians destroyed the Russians

1505AD - signed an alliance with Byzantines against China

1510AD - captured Tientsin from China
- New Tashkent culture flipped to Persia (it was in the old russian territory)

1530AD - the Persians destroyed the Chinese (I had a RoP with Persia for quite a while because this way their modern armors could go directly accross my territory to attack the chinese and prevent the chinese from wandering through my territory with their cavalry and infantry)

I founded a lot of citites in the Chinese territory, including New Shiraz on the ruins of original Shiraz which the persians destroyed when they captured it from China, this happened completely by chance i thought it was funny)

1650AD - So just me, persia, byzantium, and arabia left. The arabs are puny so I decide to declare on them. (Plus I figured my Sipahi might be able to take their infantry better than the Persian mech. inf. and Byzantines are on an island, and i have no navy)
- captured Baghdad
1660AD - captured Medina

1665AD - Persia declared war on me, and my army is in arabia on the other side of the Persian territory

1670AD - Peace with Arabs: gave RoP + MotTrans + Wines
got RoP + Electronics + Econ + FreeArt
- advanced to modern age and got Rocketry

So my war with Persia. Suffice it to say I did not keep track of what cities I lost each turn, i'll just give some highlights.

Pros: 1675AD - I captured Najran from Persia + 126g

Cons: 1675AD - war weariness hit badly. I went into anarchy and never came out
My army never made it back to home soil they died in the field ( most of them capturing and then loosing Najran.
1685AD - Persia nuked 7 of my cities!!!
1690AD - Arabs declare war.
1695AD - Samarqand captured. Capital moves to Cheju.
1700AD - Cheju destroyed. Capital moves to Bokhara.

Interesting: The war lasted 8 turns, during which I lost 39 cities. (Apparently infantry, riflemen, and musketmen don't stand up well to Modern Armor

)
Here is how many were lost each turn: 9, 7, 5, 3, 5 (this was the turn they nuked me), 4, 4, 3
For the first 4 turns they destroyed exactly 2 cities each turn no matter how many the captured, and it seemed relatively randomly chosen. Then the last 4 turns they destroyed every city they captured with the exception of Samarqand.

As I said earlier I'd been expecting the Persians to win for awhile. They'd built the UN but never called a vote. They'd built 9 spaceship parts failry quickly, but never built the tenth. At the end thye had at least half the land and pop, and 95k total culture, and they were well on their way to a conquest victory. Which just goes to show me that the AI's aren't that smart, because:

1705AD - Byzantines wins by Space Race!!

This surprised the heck out of me. In fact since at first it just told me that I'd lost a space race, I originally wrote on my record sheet that Persia had won.

Time played: 21:21:16
Firaxis score: 4273
Jason score: 1487

Maybe I'll have a chance at highest scoring loser, since lowest is such stiff competition, but I doubt it. Oh well it was fun.

Oh and by the way is the next COTM really going to be diety. Cause if so, darn...

The attached mini maps are:
990AD: turn after Persia destroyed India
1665AD: turn Persia declared war on me
1700AD: turn before game ended

Karasu · Nov 21, 2005

Mwoimp said:
Oh and by the way is the next COTM really going to be diety. Cause if so, darn...

I think it's going to be Sid by popular request.
I'm also thinking of something more relaxing for the following one...

Mwoimp · Nov 21, 2005

Sid was what I meant to say, don't know why I typed diety. I hope by relaxing you mean a lot more relaxing.

Twonky · Nov 21, 2005

IA was entered in 480 AD with China and Korea just conquered. Persia and Russia had already entered IA, too, and after trading, we all shared knowledge of the three first tier techs (with me owing all their gold and recieving massive gpt). Yet I still need a lot more land mass, so my eyes fall on India. I declare in 500 AD and have them wiped out in 600 AD, now leading 4 armies in the field.

Now I have reached a point of decision. Shall I push on the assault and risk to fight rifles with my Sipahis? I can hardly afford high losses, my military is actually not that big.
The Arabs make the decision for me. While I am busy ICSing the Chinese/Korean/Indian lands for science farms, Arabia sneaks me. Geez, everyone hates me, I wonder why? :mischief:

I counter their assault, ripping apart what seems to be their SoD in The Glorious Year of 730 AD. Praise the RNG!! Three consecutive elite victories are awarded three MGLs!! :king:

Never again will I question RNG´s fairness!

With 6 Sipahi armies (now Pentagon-style) I swallowed the Arabian empire in 820 AD, but made a terrible mistake. In order to profit from AI free techs, I let the Arabs survive - but they are not scientific! :wallbash:

I even make peace with them, breaking the MA with Russia... :twitch:

In 1060 AD the modern era arrives. I trade/gift my opponents (except for the Arabs :mad:

) into MT, too. In 1070 AD I can trade for the 3 out of 4 first tiers that are available, but have to give all of my cash (around 13,000g) for it. Still my commerce is pretty well due to the massive amount of science-farms. As I have Aluminium as well as Uranium, the course is set to Alpha Centauri.
Stupidly, the Russians feel the urge to declare on me in 1150 AD. I pull in Persia, they ally the Byzantines - and we have a nice WorldWar that only prevents me from profiting from the AI science efforts.

Oh well. So I did the research myself and launched in 1350 AD.
I am sure one of the predators out there will claim the award with a more reasonable date, but I´m pretty confident with my Jason score of 9900 - this is by far my best result so far.

al_thor · Nov 22, 2005

I just finished this game. I would have (and SHOULD have) won much earlier by Diplo, but Gandhi refused to vote for me.
I gave him 2 or 3 chances to do so, and then I converted to communism. Shortly thereafter, the silos for 28 ICBM's were emptied and the domination assault was begun.

I did have a question on something: I don't recall the numbers, but my Firaxis score was a great deal HIGHER than my Jason score. What's up with that?

Anyway, thanks for the game. I barely had time to finish it what with all of the time I am spending on CivIV. I may have to pass on the Carthage GOTM.

Andronicus · Nov 23, 2005

First try on deity and a surprisingly easy domination victory. Seemed much easier than DG game as Joan some months back.

The ample food lead me to REX like crazy with minimal military -> I think I forgot this is deity and made 2 early mistakes.
Firstly I thought I had a sufficient headstart on science to try phil slingshot - I beat all civs on starting continent to phil in 1425BC, but not Theodora - so no freebie tech. This delayed my getting to rep as I researched lit first, not getting rep until 690BC, then drawing 8 turn anarchy.
My second mistake was not to build some military as the ample free space started to dwindle. Result was Arabs sneak attack in 875BC with stack of 7 warriors, when my military consists of 4 warriors. Feeling the game was lost (or at least that oportunity of early victory was gone) I bullishly revolted once rep came in and somehow managed to hang on with only 1 warrior left when I emerged into rep. I lost 3 cities including Urgench with horses - 2 others razed, but further damage was avoided thanks to multiple alliances (Arabs lost 4 core towns), Arabs being long way away and only having 1 move units. I pop rushed 3 swords before revolting but lost all these to warrior attacks

. With production back in rep I was able to retake Urgench then wait for alliances to expire before making peace. From then on I made sure I had some military (didnt stop Russia from sneak attacking me later).
Once military trad came in (280AD) victory was assurred as sipahi raced through weak AIs. The main military powers (Persia, China and Russia) were observed to decimate themselves in brutal wars which achieved little in terms of capturing cities but made my job much easier.

At this stage I could have shut off research and cash-rushed sipahi, but I did not realise their potential so decided to research to replacable parts to get artilery. This was stupid as I ended up using more artilery to disband to rush libs to expand my borders to reach domination limit than I did for bombing.
The railroads certainly sped my sipahi as I used ROP to railroad ahead for the last 2 civs on the continent (Russia and Arabs) and took each out in 1 turn with minimal losses.
I think I was afraid the AI would rapidly research to replacable parts and I would be fighting infantry, however in the end I was the only one with infantry, Arabs, Koreans, China and Indians had only spears and pikes, and Russia and Persians had no more than 3 rifles in any city (easily taken with sipahi armies).

I gained 8 MGLs

, the first 5 built sipahi armies, the 6th the pentagon and the last 2 came in my final turn (no heroic epic but most productive city built mil academy and 2 further armies - I think the sipahi units would have been more valuable).

I took risks with flips and was fortunate not to get too many. Generally I left healing units and weak units (eg drafted rifles) to suppress resistors moving them to next city once all resistance suppressed. This saved me from having to produce more settlers.

Thought I was going to have to conquer some islands (galleons rushed on final trun, last 2 armies only loaded with 3 sipahi) to reach domination limit, but some late settler rushes allowed me to fill in enough gaps.
In 830AD I finally owned all the main continent with 66% land - press enter and ... Sidon flips :mad:

. Fortunately still 9 tiles over dom limit

Domination victory 840AD
Firaxsis 11463
Jason 9861

Having succeeded on diety

, this is my last civ3 game (other than completing current SGOTM) so thank you very very much to staff for providing these interesting games :goodjob:

To all those experienced civ players who shared their wisdom and significantly increased my achievement and enjoyment from this game
:goodjob:

killerkid · Nov 24, 2005

I gave up, wouldve lost. china attacked me and i didn't have miltrad. But it figures, im still trying to master emperor.

GOTM-AI · Nov 25, 2005

INDUSTRIAL AGE and MODERN TIMES :scan:

400 AD
A Korean privateer sinks an Indian Galley.
Byzantium so far has kept away from all this warring.

Our Korean friends are supporting us on our western front. This is good, as we were being slowly pushed back by Persian forces.

Persia had grown to swallow all of former Russia, and were indeed the most powerful nation -such is the power of Immortals.
But as the time passed, the time of Immortals has slowly declined, and this alliance against Persia will prove too much for them to handle -Xerxes will slowly decline, as you (feeble humans) are about to read.

430 AD
Korea take Mosul from Persia. We will want it back some day...

440 AD
Persia conquer the Arab city of Khurasan (mountain Gems)
Chittagong flips to us, as it has to.

460 AD
India joins the crusade against Persia

470 AD
We lose Tabriz in former Russia to the Persian. This will not last long, as we are now researching Military Tradition.

510 AD
We discover MT. Our time is about to come.

520 AD
We dsetroy the Persian city of Ghulaman (desert saltpeter)

530 AD
First Sipahi victory. Our GA begins, the tides turn against Persia now.

550 AD
Korea takes Jinjan (edge of our western desert) from Persia, and India takes Khurasan. Persia is being pushed back.
Arabia have started to field Cavalries.

560 AD
India take Samaria from Persia (Horses pass between east and west)
Persia have no more horses now.
Everyone is at war with Xerxes, mainly thanks to Korean diplomacy.

570 AD
Persia manages to capture Punjab, Indian city between Persia and Arabia

580 AD
We take Sidon (Persia's western Iron). Sipahi are spreading terror and death.

600 AD
We destroy Ergili in the persian desert, and found a city where Ghulaman used to be, finally pushing our borders to the west.
We are still losing too many Sipahi due to careless positioning at end turn, though.
Korea have made peace with Persia, breaking all their alliances (or most of them).

620 AD
Korea builds Newton's University.

630 AD
We take Dakyanus in former southeastern Russia.
Persian counter destroys an arab city. The border between Arabia and Persia remains stable on the edge of the jungle.

640 AD
We take Tver, at the mouth of russian river (southeast Russia)

650 AD
Persia have reached the IA, and apparently still have horses as they have started building Cavalries. This could slow down our progress, as they also made peace with Arabia.
Who is the traitor who is trading horses to Persia!

660 AD
We take Tureng Tepe

670 AD
We retake Tabriz, but we are still waste time and Sipahi hunting down persian wandering units.
Korea and Arabia are at war.
Byzantium lands some forces on western persian coast, next to Pasargadae.
Persia makes peace with China.

We are told that we lack focus. Borazjan should have fallen this turn! Instead, we wasted four Sipahi on easy kills in open fields.

680 AD
Borazjan is taken, and Pasargadae falls to Byzantium. Persia is divided in two halves now, former Russia being separated from the original core.

China is again at war wit Xerxes.

We are now allied with Korea against Arabia as well.

690 AD
China and Korea are at war

700 AD
Persia have made peace with Byzantium. Now most of the fighting is between China, Korea and Arabia.
We are now a Fascism

War goes on on China-Korea borders, Arabia-India and in persian territory.
We would need more allies, as we are engaged in several fronts.

750 AD
Pasargadae flips back to Persi. We capture Istakhr.

760 AD
Rostov is taken, and Bampur is only defended by a Cavalry.
We also attack Persepolis itslef, killing two Rifles. But it won't fall for many years yet.

770 AD
Bampur falls.
We are now alone against Persia, and their counterattack is concentrating on our cities. We are still stronger, though, and they will never manage to recover their losses.
However, our war on this front is about to reach a standstill.

The Korean have captured Chinese Xinjiang (our closest horses), and Tsingtao (China-Korea southern river).

We squander a number of Sipahi chasing individual Immortals and Cavalries. We thus fail to capture St. Petersburg when it is down to the last defender.

790 AD
We fail again at St. Petersburg, against many Conscript Rifles, and Persia take back Borazjan.

China lose Tatung to the Koreans. They are bacwards, and are defending with Muskets against Cavalry. They will soon be in big trouble.

800 AD
We take back Borazjan and finally capture St. Petersburg. Only Moscow now remains to the Persians in the north, and if we can take it all our troops will convege to their core.
We lose Borazjan again

We decide to declare war on Korea to defend our friends the Chinese. We risk getting in serious trouble now.

810 AD
We are allied with Byz against Persia and Korea.
Korea has allied with India against us, and we are still at war with Arabia.

We retake Borazjan, and capture Pasargadae
We lose Pasargadae to Persian counter

China lose Nanking to Korea. They seem doomed.

820 AD
We retake Pasargadae and capture Samaria and Tyre.
In the east, we are unlucky against Koreans.

After many centuries, Arabia recaptures Khorasan

830 AD
We take Mosul. Ours again.
China keeps on losing cities to Korea. This is not good.

840 AD
Ulsan is captured. It had the Korean FP: this should reduce Korea's productivity.
Persian counterattacks are getting weaker and weaker.

850 AD
We take Tientsin, Nanking and Xinjiang from the Koreans (the latter auto-razed).
Paegam holds, but it is too close to our core to resist

In the south, Arabia is having the best of India and their troops are getting close to our borders.

860 AD
We make no great progress, and keep on losing units in open field

870 AD
Paegam and Khurasan are captured.
Byzantine troops capture the Indian city Karachi north of their peninsula.
We will be hard pressed to defend Khurasan with Sipahi only.

880 AD
Korea retake Ulsan

890 AD
Ulsan is ours again, but Khurasan is defended by a single redlined Sipahi.

900 AD
The Byzantines build the Universal Suffrage

910 AD
Persia retakes Khurasan

920 AD
We capture Jaipur, north of India
Now war operations are mainly in this area, Persia being able to take a break.

930 AD
Persian troops are coming forward from the Khurasan-Samaria gap.
We are fighing too many wars at the same time.
We capture Bangal

Wars are stalling. We need to change alliances, but we are not making peace with anyone.

970 AD
We take Kolhapur.
The Chinese retake Tsingtao

Persia's army has been eaten away. The only have some Rifles now. They couldn't stand a war with another enemy.
Byzantium is the only Democracy, and they are the tech leaders with Korea. But Korea is a Fascism now.

980 AD
We retake Khurasan
The Koreans retake Tsingtao.

1000 AD
We are catching up in score with Persia and Byzantium, and we are the largest nation and the most powerful military.
Yet, we cannot make this advantage a decisive one to win this game, as wars have been dragging slowly for many decades now, without anyone taking the upper hand.
Our diplomacy is clearly not good enough.

1010 AD
We have made peace with India and Arabia.
Arabia and Persia are allies against India.

1020 AD
Our army has lost momentum, as well as far too many Sipahi.
But now it seems that Byzantium is again at war with Persia.

1030 AD
We take Tatung. It had been long since we last conquered a Korean city.

1040 AD
Tatung was defended by two Sipahi... and we lose it.
The Chinese retake Tsingtao.

1050 AD
We attack Tatung again. Of course, the Korean has moved an Elite rifle in.
Why don't we do the same, since we've got 90 Riflemen!
Koreans take back Tsingtao

1060 AD
Tatung is ours again
And lost again.

1070 AD
We capture Tatung for the last time, as it was size 1 and gets razed
We lose what probably is the tenth sipahi outside Tsingtao: we arrive with one or two each turn just outside it, and the Korean duly kill them all.
Byzantium takes Persian Zohak at the arab border.

Korea have Infantry now, and the war starts looking uglier for our Sipahi.

1090 AD
Byzantium is serious. They landed some 10 troops on persian coast.

1100 AD
Arabia and Persia are at war
Tsingtao is once again a Korean city.

Everyone but Korea against Persia now.

1110 AD
We lose Bengal to the Koreans.
Tsingtao back to China.

1120 AD
We retake Bengal.
There are still large gaps in former Russia -we don't bother filling them.
Surprise. The Chinese have held Tsingtao for one full turn. Two Infantries outside it, though, mean they are going to lose it soon.

We reduced Bactra down to its last defender, but we preferred using our last units to attack a wandering Immortal.

Guess what happened at Tsingtao -again.

1140 AD
Once again, we threaten Persia's core. But we are attacking in a random fashion, and we cannot take their well defended cities.

Korea have filled Tsingtao with Infantries.
Arabia and China are at war.

1160 AD
Sipahi against Infantry. Our production is still high enough to keep up with the losses.
Arabs conquer Persian Punjab -Persia has finally run out of horses, it seems.
We decide to make peace with Persia and stay at war with Korea.

1170 AD
Surprise surprise. We take Tsingtao.

1200 AD
Byzantium completes Theory of Evolution. They are now runnig away on the tech tree...

1250 AD
We make peace with Korea.

We found a city or two in the gaps that the war has left.

1255 AD
Arabia in the meantime has decided to declare on Byzantium too. Bad idea.

1260 AD
Byzantines reach the Modern Era, and picked Rocketry.

1270 AD
We join the war against Arabia.

1275 AD
China and Korea are again at war.

1290 AD
We ally with China against.
We also have a MPP with Byz.

We strike deep in the heart of Arabia, taking two cities and razing two more -the second is Mecca.

1295 AD
Byzantines begin the UN.

1300 AD
We take Baghdad and approach more arabic cities.

1325 AD
Arabia is all but gone.
Had we used the Sipahi this way earlier, we'd be already dominating the world.

1340 AD
Korea seem in trouble, because of intense Byzantine bombing in ther southern regions.
We take advantage of this to capture two of their cities.

1355 AD
The last arabic city is taken by Theodora.

Persia and India are filling the gaps we left in Arabia. We are not building a single settler, only military units. Are we going for Conquest?

Byzantium completes the UN.
But they won't call a vote. Too many wars have been fought.

1360 AD
We make peace with Korea (but the MPP is still active).
We now have 73 Sipahi, and we could claim the entire continent to us. Will we do it?

1365 AD
The war between China and Byz and Korea continues.

1370 AD
India declares on Byzantium: they want Karachi back. The world seems ready for another major conflict.

1375 AD
Pusan falls to Byzantium.

Karachi is defended by Mech Inf -unlikely to see War Elephants take it back.
India is still in the Middle Ages.

Byzantines start SETI.
They have Rocketry, Fission, Computers and Space Flight. And they are still in Fascism.

1380 AD
We decide that the time for Xerxes has come.
We declare on Persia and take Altin Tepe, Punjab, Hamadan, Dariush Kabir.

He has 31 Rifles, 3 Cannons, 1 Immortal
We have 36 Rifles, 141 Infantries, 5 Cannon, 13 Artillery, 83 Sipahi.

1385 AD
We take the persian jungle city of Arbela, and raze another one.
We attack and take Sardis, in the Persian core.
Persepolis is also under siege. It has many Riflemen, but like most of Xerxes armies, these are only Conscripts -Persepolis falls and is burned.
We finally conquer Moscow, the last russian city still under persian rule.
Only two cities left, their fate is sealed.

India and Byzantium continue their war. We see a Marine against a Spearman, and the Spear almost makes it...
India has no hope.

China and Korea are stalling, while Byzantine reinforcements arrive in the area.
Korea had managed to keep up with the Byzantine tech pace for a while, and have a decent and modern army, but their continuous wars with China and us, and their smaller lands are now hindering them.
The war is fought in Korean lands.

India has allied with China against Korea.

1390 AD
Gordium is taken, Antioch falls, and Persia is no more.

Pyongyang is under attack, but Chinese Cavalry won't be enough against Korean defending Infantry.

Byzantines complete Manhattan.

1395 AD
We renew our MPP with Theodora.

1400 AD
We found one city in the open spaces left in persian territory.

1405 AD
Theodora takes Calcutta and starts the Internet.

1410 AD
We declare on Korea and take Pyongyang.
Byzantium takes Bombay. India cannot counter, we cannot declare.
Yes, we declare. And so does China.

India has just made it into the IA.

1415 AD
We take Wonsan, Cheju, Seoul -the former Korean capital is razed.
Byzantuim takes Madras and are now at the gates of Delhi.

1420 AD
The Chinese take Lahore and India is gone.

1430 AD
Byz has started the space race.
They have built 3 parts of the SS, but their tech progress seems slow now.
We occupy most of Asia, but our conquest seems to be lacking focus. Who will be first?

1435 AD
We raze Hyangsan
Byzantium conquers Taejon.
Korea is no more -all our long-time enemies have been vanquished.
Will we turn now against our ancient allies the Chinese?

1440 AD
Peace in the world.
Byzantines discover Ecology, and are 6 turns away from the Internet.

Samarqand is the second city in the world, after Constantinople.

We are now at 38% or world area and 54% of world populaton.
There are many gaps in our conquered territories.

1450 AD
The Chinese are settling some of the voids in former India and Korea. We build Bombers.

1460 AD
Adrianople completes SETI.

1470 AD
Byzantium completes the Internet.

1475 AD
After some years of peace, Byzantium declares on China.
Expansion in India must have been the cause for this conflict.

1480 AD
We declare too, honouring our MPP. We raze Jinjian, between our territory and former Persia (desert) and capture Chinan in the far north of our lands.

We raze Tientsin in the Chinese desert and manage to attack Beijing itself.
We kill a large number of Chinese units in the open.

Byzantium attacks Indian chinese cities.

The chinese have 29 Rifles, 2 Longbow, 2 Cavalries, 5 Cannon.

1485 AD
We take Canton and raze Chengdu
Byzantium takes Lahore

1490 AD
We declare on the Byzantines.

We take Beijng and raze Shanghai, Shantung, Macao, Ningpo.

We now start facing Byzantine Tanks and Mech inf.

We have 43% of world area, and 58% population.
Byzantium is at 4 SS parts.

1495 AD
China is gone.
Now it is down to us and Theodora.

Our Sipahy bravely attack Mech Inf in Pusan. We suffer heavy losses, but Pusan is taken and Taejon razed.

We lose Jaipur to Byz tanks.

The Byzantine army now counts 200 Mech Infantries.

We have only 38 Sipahi. Their era is obviously finished, but they proved to be capable of lasting much longer than we were expecting.

1500 AD
We retake Jaipur with reasonable casualties.

Byzantium completes the fifth SS part.

1515 AD
We retake Jaipur, which we had lost in the meantime, and raze Calcutta.

Byzantium drops atomic bombs on Herat!
They take Herat.

1530 AD
We retake Herat.
Bur Byzantium are at 7(1) SS parts, and have now Modern Armours.

Samarqand and Paegam are nuked.

1540 AD
We raze Lahore.

1555 AD
We capture Karachi.
With the sheer force of our numbers, we are pushing them from India. But that will not prevent their launch...

We raze Madras.

1565 AD
We make peace with Theodora.

1580 AD
Byzantines are 1 tech away from launch

1610 AD
We reach the Modern Age.
Byz has reached Robotics.

1615 AD
They are three turns away from completing the spaceship.
In frustration, we declare again.

1625 AD
We raze a couple of their towns -now we have tanks.

They are indeed left with only two cities at the very edges of our continent.
Little satisfaction, for they have now added the last part to their SS.

Space Race Loss

We had 45% of land, 61% of population. So close... :sad:

DBear · Nov 25, 2005

Not much happened in my industrial age.

Lost several border cities to China via culture flip--circled in red on the map.

Persia and Byzantines declared war on China. I stayed out, China started winning. Byzantines switched sides, I joined the war to kick off my GA. Took a couple Persian cities, including one that had Sun Tzu. Had I known, I would've sold off barracks for cash beforehand.

Byzantines were miles ahead in tech and were also outculturing everyone. China was keeping it close, so Byzantines didn't get a culture win. I had researched flight, but hadn't gone far on the bottom branch of the IA tech tree.

I never had more than 15% of land or population, so it looks like GotM-AI has beaten me this time.

Hugbear · Nov 26, 2005

Open, Domination Victory

As mentioned in my AA spoiler, I had great expansion (QSC 20 towns), but tech could've been faster. The Republic was discovered in 690 BC, and Military Trad. was discovered in 250 AD.

I thought the AI was pretty aggressive at Diety level, especially with the starting position in the middle of everybody. I was sneak attacked by the Arabs (925 BC), Chinese (230 AD), Persians (290 AD), and Indians (510 AD) and always lost unprotected cities. I was generally able to win them back but suffer war weariness. I tried to avoid war by being really nice - China and Russia were gracious toward me for a long time - that didn't work as long as I wanted.

I traded for all the lux I could until no one wanted to trade w/ me anymore.

Maybe a more conservative approach (like building def. units) could've let me dictate the game better. I had plans for attacking China and Persia, but the AI was always a little faster than I expected.

After getting Chivalry from Persia in 490 BC, I could have kept my small knight army around and prepared to conquer China, but instead, I went after Madras with Leo's Workshop. (Persia was at war with India at the time.) I got Madras, and Leo's was helpful for a little while, until Persia's sneak attack, which forced me to give away my cities on the Indian subcontinent. I recaptured Leo's later in the game, and it was very helpful for the MT conquest (105g horse -> sipahi upgrade).

Once MT was discovered, I stopped research/trading for techs and tried to conquer ASAP, succeeding in 660 AD. I got the Arabs just in time or 1 turn too late - just as they got Nationalism. In my RoP rape, I had to deal with maybe 1/2 Riflemen and 1/2 Muskets. At the end, the entire continent was conquered, except for 1 Korean city.

I got a lot of great leaders (7), but too late in the game to be that helpful. The first one was in 460 AD, and I never rushed/built a FP or Epic.

China

230 - China declares war, takes 5 towns (1 razed, lose 1 settler)
290 - Peace for Nanking + Lahore, Trade Metal for 6 workers
440 - China eliminated

Korea

250 - Ally Korea vs. China for Chem, Banking, Horse, Incense
280 - Trade Metal for Dyes + 9g
450 - War on Korea
460 - 1st GL
490 - Peace for 2 cities

Persia

290 - Declare war, take 1 city + raze 2
350 - Peace for Kolhapur
440 - Declare war on Persia
470 - Peace for Zolak
570 - RoP
580 - RoP rape, 5th GL, Persia destroyed

Russia

490 - Declare War, get 2 great leaders
550 - 4th GL
570 - Russia destroyed

India

510 - India declares war, captures bombay and razes 1 city

Arabia

580 - RoP
600 - Arabs Get Nationalism, Mass Upgrade to Rifleman
610 - RoP semi-rape (didn't expect riflemen but attacked them anyway), Get 6th Leader
Capture 6 cities, Fail 6
650 - 7th GL, Eliminate Arabia from Continent, Peace w/ Arabia
660 - End of Game

Nikodemus · Nov 28, 2005

After some fairly succesful trading that I described more closely in the MA spoiler thread, Timur leads his people to the Industrial Ages in 600AD, while fighting a bloody war against the Chinese with the Persian allies on the side.

700AD The Russians finally land their lone settler and perish immediately.
700AD Persia captures the last Chinese city. Again I grab perhaps 90% of the Chinese land while Persia gets the rest even though they kill much larger share of the enemy units.
760AD The Koreans exit the picture (they had had only 1 city for a few centuries)
800AD Declare on India.
870AD India is all but dead.
900AD Trick Arabia to declare war. They already have some infantries in def, which is going to slow things down. Finally the first leader pops up and I get my first army.
910AD Last Indian city falls.
1000AD Arabs are gone.
1050AD Probably shouldn't have made Persia pound the Arabs since now I'm some 150 tiles short of domination. Would've been much closer if they hadn't captured those few cities. I ponder how to proceed. Persia makes the decision much easier by backstabbing me just as I had figured I'd try for a spaceship. Unfortunately I'm stretched out so thin that some border cities have to be defended by wounded sipahis and as a result the war weariness goes through the roof. Luckily I have enough cash to buy some infantries and soon I have pretty good control of the situation.

1110AD Domination achieved. The Firaxis score seems to be the highest I've ever had, 10311, while the Jason score is 9166.

Maybe a few general comments about the game are in place. I was really surprised to find out that all the AIs didn't constantly want everything I had. I was even more surprised that the Persians held on to every military alliance I signed with them. Those two things usually go exactly the opposite way making everything so much harder. Looking forward to the sid-cotm now. :-)

COTM 18 - Final Spoiler: End game

Wanderer

Still breathing

... !

Attachments

Chasing Time

Warlord

Warlord

Warlord

Attachments

Old Original Geezer

Consultant.

Chieftain

Attachments

Wanderer

Chieftain

King

Prince

Emperor

Prince

Chieftain

unbeliever

Chieftain

Demigod

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