COTM 29 First Spoiler

[ainwood]

COTM 29 First Spoiler

Reading Requirements

1. You must have reached the start of the middle ages.
2. You must know the locations of the capital cities of all your rivals.

Posting Restrictions

• No discussions of the middle ages (or later)
• No screenshots of any middle-age (or later) resources.

How did the early game progress for you?

 

[Rustwork]

4000BC scout goes S-W confirms the wheat.
worker goes E to scout
settler goes SE keeping both furs in city radius and moves away
from the tundra.

I waisted a turn scouting. the opening looked dry. then it appeared as a great place for initial city, but future settlements would have to be over the mountains. ( i see the need for an extra worker)

3900BC settle moscow. Alphabet 100%. this was a rich start and at monarch i couldn't do other than try for Republic.

build: scout, warrior, warrior switched to worker, settler, granary.

?? settler before granary ?? i wanted that second city sooner for research, but what is optimal here?

also, considering monarch and reaching a tech lead easily i shouldn't have built the second scout. straight to warrior, then warrior again for MP (happiness).

i further settled in places nearby with some growth potential. i usually build my second city no more than 4 spaces away from the capital; keeping a tighter radius. this pushed me farther away, and to the north was useless.

i don't feel this map provided many additional challenges other than deciding the first few settlements.

the aggressive AI for me was not difficult, they at least made some demands, i gave in, (lose the battle, win the war).

i reached the middle ages in 530BC, no help with research.
i was a republic in 1150BC


QSC:
7 Towns
22 Population
1 Settler
5 Workers
1 Scout
2 Warriors
7 Archers


i'm interested to see the domination and conquest victories. how did the mountains and hills slow this down? i ended with diplo, too A.D.D. for space.

 

[Chamnix]

Predator Class, going for Conquest (again).

Opening Moves - scout 2 S. Settled one south of the start. Initial research Ceremonial Burial at 0%.

The capital built one additional scout then a granary then generally settlers and warriors.

Since all AI started with Alphabet, I waited until I had met 2 AI, then traded for Alphabet with one cheaper tech. After trading for Alphabet, I researched Writing to the Republic slingshot completed in 1325 BC.

Huts were pretty good for me - I popped a town in 2550 BC, but it was so far away as to be practically useless (south of Portugal). I also got 2 conscript warriors, a worker, Warrior Code, Masonry, 25 gold, 2x50 gold, and maps twice.

The aggressive AI wasn't an issue. The Byzantines declared war over my unwillingness to give them Writing in 1675 BC, but I hired the Vikings to fight them and saw almost no Byzantine units. Periodically the Viking-Byzantine war died down, but the Vikings didn't seem to meet any other civs, so I always had a spare tech to give them to restart the war immediately.

Once I hit Republic, I disbanded all my warriors, turned off research, and started building horsemen.

1000 BC:

10 towns
26 citizens
17 native workers
1 slave
7 veteran horsemen

The first real war started around 900 BC with Portugal because they looked the strongest. I also declared on Carthage and hired the Dutch to fight them. Eventually I traded sides and hammered the Netherlands. The war was fought exclusively with horsemen (mainly short-rushed) on my side.

I pointy-sticked my way into the Middle Ages in 310 BC drawing Monotheism . None of my rivals are in the Middle Ages yet, and the Byzantines in particular are 3 techs away. I believe I can finish this using only horsemen - I should not have to face pikes so Numidian Mercs will be the only issue. I am building a couple swordsmen now because I got my first leader, so I want a sword army.

 

[PoorAxl]

C3C 1.22 Open.
The goal - fast expansion, reinforcement, war with cossacks

I have started, like almost all of the others, I guess, moving settler 1 tile south and settle. I wanted to settle on 1st spot, but the wheat was really much better choice.
I started to research Warrior Code hoping to exchange it for alphabet later on. But I think it would be faster to research it myself, Portuguese did not want to sell anything, the same with Spain, so I have got Alphabet from Netherlands quite late. The slingshot for The Republic was still succesfull and I had 4 turns anarchy starting in 1375BC.
In this game I was affraid of raging barbarians. On the other hand, expansionist trait could help to have positive achievements from barbarian villages. And this was really good! From villages I have got 2 workers, 2 warriors, 3 techs (CB, Myst, Lit) and some maps. 4 of my warriors and my only scout were killed during exploration. There were 2 attacks on my cities, but both of them ended with my victory.
All AI opponents were calm during ancient age. I tried to keep them polite by smart trading. First, I have given them 50 gold for free and then I have sold them a tech for all of their money. At the end of ancient era there was still a lot of place to settle so this is probably also reason, that no wars were needed.
Future plans - found even more cities, build a lot of horsemen, build Sun Tzus War Academy, upgrade all horsemen to Cossacks when the time is ready, start world war for Domination victory. I know it will not be fast victory, but I want to use the UU that is offered by this game.

1 question - Can you help me what is "blitz" feature that Cossacks have and how to use it effectively?
Thanks

Techs:
3650BC Ceremonial Burial (barb village)
3250BC Mysticism (barb village)
2950BC Warrior Code (self research)
2630BC Alphabet (Netherlands)
2190BC Wheel (Spain)
2150BC Masonry (Netherlands)
1910BC Writing (selfresearch)
1790BC Horseback Riding (Portugal)
1790BC Iron Working (Spain)
1525BC Code of Laws (self research)
1375BC Philosphy (self research)
1375BC The Republic (slingshot)
1325BC Mapmaking (Netherlands)
1325BC Mathematics (Spain)
1150BC Polytheism (self research)
1050BC Literature (barb village)
1000BC Currency (self research)
850BC Construction (self research)
entering Middle Ages - Feusalism for free

QSC statistics:
14 towns
1 Granary
1 Barracks
4 workers
12 warriors
2 horsemen
6 contacts, no embassy
QSC score 4929

 

[Chamnix]

1 question - Can you help me what is "blitz" feature that Cossacks have and how to use it effectively?

Blitz is the ability to attack more than once per turn. Use it to get lots of elites -> lots of armies.

 

[F-86 Sabre]

I moved over to include one of the furs in my radius and settled in turn 2. St. Pete was founded a little bit east, the next city to the south with the wheat in its radius. I'm going for domination, but as usual I got aggressive to soon. I also failed to take proper advantage of the expansionist trait, I should have been popping a million towns, but I didn't build enough scouts. I currently have the third biggest empire, but all my wars (except one, see below) have definitely been mixed bags, including my one war of aggression.

Since I was planning on early war, I passed up the slingshot, researched warrior code and horseback riding, and eventually converted to Monarchy. I fought off the Dutch and Spanish (both are to the east on my map, with Spain the further north of the two) early on. I fought each once and a third war was both of them against me. St. Pete was captured by the Dutch in our first war and they burned it down. I resettled the site after the war, but in the next war it changed hands a couple of times and they ended up keeping it. From these conflicts I gained a couple of Spanish cities and a Dutch city. What really steamed me is that I had an army formed with Ivan the Terrible which was lost when a conquered Spanish city flipped back. A horseman army built with Peter the Great was caught in the open after getting redlined assaulting a city and was slaughtered.

After the Dutch nearly canned my hash twice, I was looking for (temporary) allies. I've had good relations with the Vikings (immediately south of me), Portugal (southwest past the Vikes) is gracious, and it looked like the Byzantines (to the west) were going to be good friends until they started trying to hold me up for currency and techs. I kept refusing because their army was weak, but the third time I refused they declared war.

My biggest concern up to that time was that I had no sources of iron and could not find anyone who could trade any. I say "could" because I never looked at their resources block and saw anything more promising than "Iron: 0." That changed with this war. I took everything from my western border to Constantinople, including a city with iron in its radius. I was greatly helped by the Vikings, who jumped in and killed a ton of Byzantine units while only taking Heraclea, so it was as if they were running interference for me.

During the fight over Adrianople I got more great leaders. I used Stalin to build a defensive army, and since I expected to take a few more Byzantine cities, I used Lenin to build the Forbidden Palace. Unfortunately, the offensive stalled at Constantinople. When I tried to go around it after the smaller cities, I captured Dyrachium quickly, but it flipped back. Captured it again, and it flipped back. If I could have counted on the cities staying Russian, I would have continued until the Byzantines were totally conquered, but I decided to cut my losses and come after them later. After making peace with Byzantium I went after Spain, but that went nowhere.

I should also note that three of the four biggest empires--current ranking goes Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Vikings--are having a war within my borders. The Netherlands is by far the largest. They are throwing everything they have at each other in the region surrounding my border with the Vikes. I am happy to let them beat each other up while I eat popcorn and watch.

I am now building stacks of combined arms and deciding on my next move. I may take advantage of the Dutch being tied down, but the problem is they have many troops in or near my territory. The longer option is to wait until I have Metallurgy and Military Tradition and send stacks of Cossacks and stacks of cannon/musketmen/med infantry to wipe out Spain. Then I would stage attacks from Spain into either the western or eastern portion of the Netherlands, depending on whether they're still fighting the Portugese and Vikings. Given that they've been fighting for hundreds of years over the same ground just the other side of my border, I think that's a distinct possibility.

I had a huge problem with culture flipping in conquered cities. On lower levels I never had this problem; if I rushed a temple in the city and then administered it as normal, they stayed conquered. Can anybody tell me what I can do to counter this?

 

[Chamnix]

I never found rushing temples in captured towns to be very effective. Conquering the surrounding towns will remove the boundary pressure, and it usually takes too long before the local culture will exceed the AI’s local culture anyway.

Generally, I think the most effective thing to do is to reduce the foreign population as quickly as possible, either through starvation or rushing workers/settlers or both. Just be aware that towns founded with a settler created from foreigners will also have a chance of flipping, but that flip risk is usually very manageable.

 

[PoorAxl]

Blitz is the ability to attack more than once per turn. Use it to get lots of elites -> lots of armies.

Thanks, it seems to be really good feature.

I am surprised that I am still only one that submitted QSC. It is not so popular anymore?

 

[F-86 Sabre]

Thanks a bunch for the tips, Chamnix. I had been figuring that rushing workers or settlers in might help. I'll try your techniques and see what works for me.

 

[klarius]

Open - goal is space (or diplo, if I lose patience)

Settled south.
Build order: scout-warrior-granary.
Research: the wheel.

Goody huts were extremely good. Got a worker and a useful town (about 10 tiles from capital) from the first 2 opened.

Contacts
3250 Spain
3200 Carthage
2950 Portugal
1950 Scandinavia
1790 Byzantine

Science
3250 CB from hut
3200 trade masonry, alphabet and mysticism
2950 TW researched
2550 trade WC
2230 writing researched
1990 trade HBR
1790 trade IW
1725 CoL researched
1550 philosophy researched -> republic -> revolt (4 turns anarchy)
1375 trade mathematics
1325 literature researched
1250 trade MM
1075 currency researched
1050 trade polytheism
950 construction researched -> MA

1000BC empire:

11 towns, 40 pop, 4 libraries, 2 granaries, 2 barracks
2 settlers, 16 workers, 3 slaves
4 archers, 3 warriors, 1 chariot, 1 scout
all AA techs except construction and monarchy
all contacts, 4 embassies

No war in AA. Not even between the AIs as far as I know.

Edit:
There seems to be something fishy between open and predator.
Where Chamnix is showing Amsterdam, I have Carthage.
Vikings are in the far southwest in my game, Spain northeast.

 

[Htadus]

Open Domination.


Scout Yuri moved south and found a wheat, so moved worker and Settler south.

We founded Moscow in 3950 BC on the banks of Volga and immediately start a Scout who will be called Igor. We wanted to learn the secrets of a republic through the wizardly magic of Philosophy. Our sages advised that we must learn the alphabet and writing and beat everyone to learn this philosophy after learning the Codes of Law. The F10 crystal ball tell us that many know this Alphabet, so we start studying the wheel. Yuri the scout heads west in search of better land. The despotic worker was forced to build a mine and a road on the bonus grass land by Volga. This work was followed by irrigating the wheat lands, more roads, forest chops and endless centuries of back breaking work. In the year 3800 BC, came a bad omen from the nearby Volcano in the form of black smoke; the Mother Nature has some plans of her own for us. In the year 3700 BC, Scout Igor completed his training and head east in search of fame and fortune. The same year Yuri sent a message of finding the nearby west coast.

The capital soon trained a warrior, and built a granary and a barracks with the plans of expanding fast and furiously.

The Adventures of Yuri and Igor.

The scouts Yuri and Igor are Hero’s of the fledgling Empire. Between the two, they learned new technologies, collected gold and maps from isolated distant villages, met nearby and far away neighbors, and convinced a nearby village to shed their barbaric ways and become part of the Russian empire. The year1500BC was a sad year for the Empire, our noble scout Igor had a fatal encounter with a savage horseman. He will be remembered.


Knowledge

Ceremonial Burial was taught to Yuri in 3800 BC
Warrior Code was taught to Yuri in 3350 BC
Mysticism was taught to Igor in 3200 BC
Masonry was taught to Yuri in 3150 BC
We learn the Wheel on our own in 3000 BC. We have horses.
We trade Masonry to Isa of Spain for Alphabet and 10g.
Horseback riding was taught to Igor in 2550 BC
Iron Working was taught to Yuri the Great in 2230 BC.
Our sages discover Writing in 2110 BC
Our sages discover Code of Law in 1550 BC
Our sages discover the secrets of Philosophy in 1350 BC and are rewarded with the knowledge of Republic
We traded Horseback Riding to Will in 1250 BC for Map Making.
Our sages discover Mathematic in 1075 BC
We traded for Literature and Polytheism some where in between.

Meeting Civilizations

Igor meets the Spanish Queen in 3400 BC. They know Alphabet but will not trade.
Yuri meets Henry of Portugal in 3000 BC.
Yuri meets Hannibal of Carthage in 2710 BC. No deals.
Igor meets William of Dutch in 2390 BC. No deals.
Yuri the Great meets Theo of Byzantine in 1700 BC and sells Mason to her for 10g.
Yuri the Great meets Vikings in1600 BC and trade Mason for 10g. We are running out of gold.

Cities

3950 BC Founded Moscow
2390 BC Founded St. Petersburg
2350 BC Yuri the Great convert a Village and call it Novgorod
1870 BC Founded Rostov. Our future Capitol?.
1250 BC Founded Vladivostok by the two cows to west.
There were others. 9 by 1000 BC.

Significant events

1175BC: We became a Republic.
1125BC: Portuguese demanded Code of Law and declared on our Republic. We established Embassy in Carthage and allied them against Portugal.
1075BC: Moscow is a 4 turner factory.
570 BC Razed the nearest Portuguese city. Choose to delay learning currency. Why? Bad thinking at 3 AM?
490 BC The sole remaining Horseman from the Portuguese assault gives us the great leader Ivan the NOT SO Terrible. We enter the Middle Ages and were rewarded with the knowledge of Feudalism. We forgot to gift Theo during the Big Picture. What a mess? Luckily, when we did gift Theo to Middle age, she got Engineering and traded for Republic and Literature. We traded around to get all the gold but did not gift all others to the Middle age. We will learn Monotheism in 14 turns.

410 BC Ivan the great hurried a FP in Novagrad.

Plan to go for domination but fear running out of time.

 

[Scratcher]

Open Class - goal Conquest or Domination depending on time

Moved scout S,S...worker SW and settler south, settled 3950
Build order: scout-scout-scout-settler.
Research: the wheel at 20%, and down to 10% when possible.

I managed to get many goody huts but it took forever to get a free tech which hindered early trading. I also popped a worker, which I had never seen before, and then immediately got another.

GH1 3650 Worker
GH2 3300 Worker
GH3 3050 Warrior
GH4 2950 Maps
GH5 2950 25G
GH6 2900 Warrior
GH7 2900 Warrior
GH8 2750 Alphabet
GH9 2750 Ceremonial Burial
GH10 2630 Maps
GH11 2350 Mysticism
GH12 1870 Iron Working

Contacts
3200 Spain
2900 Carthage
2630 Portugal
2550 Byzantine
2430 Scandinavia

Science
2750 Alphabet from hut
2750 CB from hut
2550 trade WC, Masonry
2350 Mysticism from hut
2190 trade Wheel
2070 trade Writing
1870 IW from Hut
1650 Philosophy researched -> Polytheism
1425 trade HBR, MM
1000 trade Maths
875 Monarchy researched -> revolt (6 turns anarchy)
690 trade Construction, COL
450 Currency completed -> MA Feudalism as free

Other events
1700 Spain demanded mysticism which was granted.
1400 Dutch demanded MM. Refused and the Dutch declared war. The dutch take a core city with a wandering warrior which I could not stop, but the city was recaptured the following turn (only 1 pop lost and 1 turn of shields)
450 Peace agreed with the Dutch.
Horses, furs and gems connected, no iron yet.

The plan is to "aquire" iron, research to chivalry, upgrade and build knights and then min research to Cossacks if required.

 

[PaperBeetle]

The Plan
They give us a cavalry UU, I'm gonna use it. Even if it is as feeble as the cossack; I get to pay an extra 10 shields for the privilege of attacking more than once per turn. But how often do I expect to finish combat with enough moves and hit points to go again? Rarely.
Anyway, cossacks it is, so I'm going to build a strong core, Republic slingshot and research hard to Mil Trad. Only then will I head out on the warpath.

A Nasty Start
The scout quickly reveals that we have only a splash of decent grassland to start on, surrounded by a formidable ring of mountains. I settle 1S for immediate access to the wheat. The first build is scout, but I change to axe when I meet a Viking axe wandering over from the east (predator). Next up is a worker to help chop the granary, which is complete in 2750bc; the first settler comes out in 2590bc. I go for the gems in the west first, and the remaining fur and grass in the northwest with my second settler.

Meet the Victims
So I met the Vikings in the east, and a couple of turns later, south of Scandinavia, the Byzantines. The capital gets busy pushing out settlers, to bring itself down to a small size for 6 turn axe/settler comboing, which means I am late in getting more scouts moving. Thus I do not meet anyone in the west for a long time. In predator, my southwestern neighbour is Holland (met 1950bc) and Portugal (1870bc) is in the northwestern peninsula. The last two civs go unmet for some time.

Losing the Slingshot
My research started with Wheel, and then went to Writing, which I reached in 1790bc. At this point I start Laws of course, but I am also about to pop a hut this turn. It never even enters my head to block Philosophy while I open the hut, although I have been stung on this before (American CotM iirc). So I get Philosophy from the hut and Laws for free. Disaster. Even including the value of the tech from the hut, that actually cost me research; I was easily on track to get the Republic slingshot, and Republic costs more beakers than Laws and Philosophy combined.

Research the Hard Way
Despite my strongly researching empire, I can't do Republic in any fast time, so I go for Literature instead, and start planning library prebuilds. Suprisingly, Ragnar gets it before me (a hut?) so I trade Laws for it and begin Republic, with libraries going up around the core. In the end, it takes 19 turns to research. During this time, a Viking axe approaches my undefended town in the mountain pass to the east of the core. Getting a bad feeling about this, I dow Theo, and send Ragnar off to fight her. I also find Carthage in 1400bc and Spain in 1250bc, both southwest of Holland.

QSC Stats
9 towns with 134 tiles and 23 citizens.
1 granary, 2 barracks, 4 libraries.
130 food in the bin, 69 shields in the box, 196g in the treasury.
1 settler, 5 workers, 6 slaves, 2 scouts, 5 axes (reg), 4 spears (vet), 3 horses (vet).
All ancient techs except Construction, Currency, Monarchy, Republic (650 beakers gathered).
6 contacts, 4 embassies.
Score 248 puts me ahead of all the AI.

Finishing the Age
Getting Republic in 900bc, I suffer a 6 turn stretch in anarchy, but in the meantime the AI have been busily applying the Maths I taught them; I get to trade Construction from Carthage and Currency from Portugal, entering the medieval in 750bc, the turn after I become a Republic.