COTM13: Final Spoiler

[Renata]

COTM13: Final Spoiler

Here's where you let it all hang out. As you may have noticed, if you're not pro-active in taking control, this map only gets harder as the game goes on. How did it go for you?

You must have submitted your final save to the GOTM upload site in order to read this thread. There are no spoiler restrictions.

(And please do remember to check out the Hunting Tips threads to give Conquest players some advice.)

Cheers,
Renata

 

[Jason Fliegel]

I was one of only two civs to make it to the end of my game!

Unfortunately, the other one was the Aztecs, who had about 120,000 culture to my 20,000. Once they finished off the Portugese, it was all over for me.

Actually, it was all over for me at about 2000 BC. The Arabs declared war on me and I was spending all my shields cranking out military units just to fend off the Arabs. This crippled my expansion and research and I basically never recovered. I was a rump state throughout the game, always at least a full age behind the leaders. I did manage to expand to the south and west of our starting position once the Arabs were willing to make peace, but by then, the other civs were researching Middle Ages techs and I was still working on things like Map Making and Polytheism. Much later, the Aztecs came through and started razing Arab cities, which again allowed me to expand, but again, it was too little too late for me.

Oh well. I'll get 'em next month!

 

[Twonky]

My first deity victory!
Artillery was the key. One arty-stack and one stack of cavalry took out one enemy city every second turn. This way Abu was disbanded in 1440 AD. Afterwards I was the largest civ on the map and had no big problems in deleting Henry, for what I was making heavy use of tanks. He said good-bye in 1760 AD.
I had conquered his UN, but the votes I risked were inconclusive. My luck they didn´t go against me! So I started some modern warfare on the other continent until I had all researched the techs needed to launch my SpaceShip - which I did in 1860 AD, gathering 4584 Jasons.

 

[klarius]

Predator

This game again took so much time to play, I have already forgotten how it went.
Just a few notes about what I still remember about middle ages and onward.

I entered middle ages in 975BC and started researching engineering.
When I met Byzantines a few turns later and gifted them they got engineering, so I already wasted some research.
I then bee-lined to education to get unis up, hoping the AI will get to gunpowder in this time.
The plan was to let the other continent research unmolested and take the own continent when time permits, while always researching full.

The latter part worked fine, but the other continent civs had a lot wars on their own and were researching terribly slow.

I had to research more than half of the required middle age techs myself, but they got me navigation for a nice map and economy.

At the beginning of the IA I had grabbed the wonders in Mecca and Lisbon and finished Smith's to get a golden age.
Theodora provided me with here free steam power, for an arm and a leg.
The only other required tech I could squeeze out of the AI in IA was RP. And I had already researched flight by that time.
I removed also the weaklings from the map in this timeframe, so it was only Theodora, Caesar and me.

The rest was business as usual:
ToE timed to modern age. Theodora got computers. Traded, ToE gives mini and fusion. Internet completes same turn.
Still didn't get down to 4-turn research immediately. My scientist farms just hadn't grown fast enough (pyramids on the other continent).
Byzantines got me rocketry while I researched everything else.
Launched my space ship in 1340AD.

In hindsight I should better have left the Portugese as researcher and taken out the hopeless Romans. But that would have needed quite a bit more military effort.

 

[ThERat]

I expanded towards north first to grab the wheat with rather loose city placement. By 1000BC I had a mere 5 cities.

I traded my way up and got a few techs as monopoly such as writing, philo (and with it currency). After this I completely switched off research for a long time. Through some wars I expanded and connected to the southern iron

I allied Arabs versus Portugese to weaken both and keep the Portugese off our land. Asking AI's to leave our territory I was able to get into
war without war weariness since I stayed in republic for the rest of the game.
I entered the GA in 420AD in a switch off sides war against Arabs and they were gone by 490AD destroyed by the Portugese

I entered the IA in 600AD trading my way up and warring. I had a millenium war with Egypt without ever seriously fighting
but this kept the war happiness.
In 790AD the Incas were destroyed on the other continent.
In 800AD demanded Portugese to remove their units. They declared and we started razing some towns in the north to diconnect the saltpeter. The losses were heavy, but built a lot of Cav's and in 870AD I finally got my first army, a Cav army.
After failing to plant a spy with them, the Aztecs declared war. I razed Aztec towns on our Island in the west and resettled the land. Started a 2nd Portugese war, razed some towns, but didn't gain armies. stole my way
further up to corporation waiting for ToE.

Around 1100AD I got some lucky stealing possibilities, managed to plant spy in with Aztecs, stealing steel and I managed to get a lot of money from Byz (3600g). One turn later, I traded steel for medicine and got another 1100g.
Started finally own research on sanitation while prebuilding for ToE and Hoover.
AI researched very slow due to multiple wars, but 2 turns before finishing research on sanitation the AI's had it. The same happened with scientific methods, AI's aquired it 2 turns before our research, subsequently switched off research. I was able to trade refining with Rome since they lacked other techs. Sold it for good gold.

I built ToE, in 1280AD and chose AT and Electronics to get Hoover.

In the meantime I fought 2 wars against Portugal trying to secure our Island all to ourselves.
In 1340 we own the continent, but Portugese had one city on an Island left. In 1385AD, managed to take the Portugese out.

In 1350AD I asked Aztecs to leave our territory and they declare. At this stage I decided to win by conquest and needed the world at war, so I signed in
Egypt, Byz and Rome to fight Aztecs.

Razed 3 Aztecs towns and in 1425AD settled 1st town on the new continent to claim the ivory.

In 1445AD discover flight via self research as monopoly. Sold it to Rome (Civ #2) for 200gpt,1670g to fuel my own research
By 1465 major Aztec cities were destroyed.

In 1495AD switched sides to go after the strongest AI, the Romans, Tried to expose their spy and they declared
Signed peace with Aztecs and get all other 3 AI's to ally against Rome

The stats at that turn in terms of cities:
Rome 17
Byz 15
Egypt 11
Aztecs 9
France 67

​

We got motorized transport soon after and continued to raze towns. Since the other Civ's tried to resettle the land
I tried to seal off the south.

In 1555 took out the last 2 Roman cities in the south on the continent and in a peace deal get 2 towns including the 1 tile Island.
With the entire south taken I could concentrate towards the north.

I also entered the MA, with Fission and Rocketry, but this was not needed.
In 1560 planted a spy with egypt and they declared, their doom. I also built the UN just in case.
in 1595 we eliminated Egypt taking their capital. At that moment only Aztecs (5 cities), Rome (3 cities) and Byz (16 cities) left

In 1615 eliminated Aztecs, in 1645 the Byzantines and in 1650 eliminated the last Roman city.

​

Stats:
Final Firaxis Score 1655AD: 7602
Jason score: 6452
Culture 24420
Cities: 83 (57% domination)
In the end I owned 18 armies.

 

[Own]

What was your jason score, Klarius? Great game, the little animating screen made it look easy.

 

[klarius]

The Jason was a bit below 10000.
I would have scored higher if I just would have gone for domination in 700-800 timeframe which would have been easily possible.
The spaceship date is too late for deity, but the AI just didn't want to research deity like .

 

[ThERat]

Klarius, well done, just shows how much I can still learn , but domination is faster to achieve than conquest in this case I believe

 

[shortguy]

In my last spoiler I said that Portugal only had 1 IA tech when I reached the IA. That probably wasn't true; they wasted that time on the Nationalism-dependent optional techs.

I started the IA researching steam power. I was beaten to that, but I got industrialization first, which I parlayed into Medicine and sanitation (IIRC). I was a little behind in the early IA, but the wars began to wear the AIs down, and I crept ahead. I was tied with them when I built ToE, and I kept the lead, or was even, for the rest of the game. Wars erupted, and the Aztecs and Arabs had many, many battles inside my borders. I was coasting, building a defensive military with traded rubber, when I was sneak-attacked by the Portugese. My defenses were stout, and I immediately enlisted everyone but the Byzantines (now secluded on the northeastern island) to the war effort. Early on I attacked a one hp infantry with a musketeer. I won, setting off my golden age. I didn't look back. With 90-100% research (at which rate I was losing between 50-200 gpt; I could support it because the AIs often had lots of gold around. Portugal got up around 11000 in the MA, and at the end Egypt had around 20000) I researched Mass Production and Motorized transportation myself and then traded MP and 4700 or so gold to Egypt for Flight, propelling me into the Modern Age. I went straight for Fission, got it in 8-9 turns, and built the UN.

Once I knew that I had a good shot at the UN I began to look at my opponents. I though for a long time it was to be the Aztecs, but the fact that everyone (save myself) was at war with them eventually wore them down, and Egypt took the lead. This didn't bother me much, as I was counting on 4 votes (of 7 civs left): myself, the Arabs, the Romans, and the Byzantines. I was gracious with the Byz and Arabs and polite with the Romans. However, 2 turns before the UN was buit, the Arabs signed a MPP with the Egyptians. This took one of my votes, meaning that I needed the Aztecs to join me. Right before the vote I gifted them a tech, hoping this would bring them from annoyed to polite. It worked. The vote was 5-2. The Arabs voted for me after all.

VICTORY!!!! (Actually, I did do a little dance when I won. Creepy, I know.)

Diplomatic victory in 1475 AD, with a firaxis score of 5883 and a jason of...um...I don't remember, it was in the 6 or 7 thousands.

With a little skill (most of which I learned here) and a ton of luck, I was able to beat a deity game. Thanks to everyone (knowingly or not) who helped me reach this milestone.

 

[Genghis069]

Middle Ages

Ouch.

1450 AD: Switch to Commie
1540 AD: Portugeuse, who came to the aid of the Aztecs, finish off the Romans. This is apparently the nail in my rep coffin.
1570 AD: Inca gets the UN.
1590 AD: Inca is building the Internet. I'm researching Steel...
1650 AD: Aztecs declare on Portugal. I'm hoping it's a powder keg.
1655 AD: Inca declares on Portugal.
1660 AD: The Byzantines sign MA with Inca against Portugal. This isn't really news.
1740 AD: Learn Motor. Trans.
1750 AD: Portugal and Inca peace, with Inca having removed Portugal from its landmass.
1758 AD: Aztecs declare on me.
Somewhere in here, Byzantine and Inca go to war.
1766 AD: Aztecs declare on Inca. (damnit, you're mine! )
1770 AD: I capture Texcoco. Inca snags Tlatelolco.
1772 AD: Inca finishes off the last 2 Aztec cities with Modern Armor. Oh, and the Byzantines too.
1774 AD: Sign MPP with Portugal... The writing is pretty much on the wall. Short of an ROP raping of Cuzco, there's no stopping the spaceship. I'm just too far behind in tech.

Somewhere in between... Inca boots me off their continent. I lose approx. 75 tanks in the process.

1828 AD: Inca finally launches. 4040 Firaxis. 1762 Jason. (ouch?) I finish with 23% of Area, 35% of Pop. Inca has 48% and 40% respectively, not to mention 149k+ culture to my 44.5k.

Final military:

72 Cavalry
104 Infantry
77 Tank
35 Artillery
20 Other MP
7 Bomber
~14 ships, incl. 4 Transports.

I think I needed to get aggressive and take out either the Romans or Byzantine at some point, but I was just too far behind tech-wise to think I could mount any decent offense. But hey, on the bright side, I actually made it to see 1800 AD. I'll get this Deity thing down someday.

 

[Pyzondar]

Conquest Class

First Deity win, first GOTM played, first post in the civfanatics forums ever. Many firsts, although I spent some time trying to read up on tactics and stuff. Many thanks to strategy&mechanics wizkids like Bamspeedy, Isio, Sirpleb & many more. Never would've won on deity without your tips, as I was usually struggling on Emperor before this game

The game took so much time, and I didn't take notes or record much. Started out pretty well I think. Built paris on the spot, sent the other settler north. Built warrior, granary and then my cities were building almost exclusively settlers and workers until I had about 25 cities... Managed to grab almost all the land to the southwest except for the westernmost part where Aztecs had four towns. Bastardly Arabs beat me to the gems and iron to the northeast by one lousy turn ... Still I did my first mistake in the expansion phase, as I didn't have a victory goal in mind. I was half and half going for 100k, so I built my cities closer than I would have otherwise, but I stopped my citybuilding too early to achieve that goal.

Shortly before I got chivalry, portugal DOWed the arabs and I took the chance to ally them. The war resulted in arabia being pretty much split in half, although portugal got Mecca including the great wall and Bach's

After that, Egypt was racing ahead, so I dow them and ally aztecs and inca against them. Unfortunately, I had a luxury deal going on with them, so my rep was fubared... DOWed portugal when I got cavalries, it was a tight war although I won Mecca and four other cities. Razed three of them though as flip chances were too high...

Anyway, I was playing on my parents old P2 which unfortunately had too little memory, so it kept swapping out. Got fed up with warring and grinded myself to a spaceship victory in 1774 I think.. Jason score around 4.4k, not competitive but it's my first officially played game so I'm satisfied... Looking forward to the next one though.

 

[Megalou]

Predator
My two goals for this COTM were intimately related:

I. Get a fast military victory (conquest or domination.) I haven't had one in C3C deity before, and not so many in PTW deity either.

II. Don't fight riflemen or infantries. This goal was inspired firstly by the multitude of gold strewn in our core area, which would help us keep a decent tech pace. Secondly, in my experience conquest is very hard if there are riflemen about.

So how did it go?

I. Domination victory in 1000 AD. It's not really fast, but not slow either.

II. Aztecs and Rome got Riflemen before the end & Aztecs had Infantry. But Egypt and Inca never got there so I could wipe them out comfortably with my cavalries. I then went into semi-milk mode and let culture teke care of the necessary growth. So I didn't fight any Riflemen. If I go for conquest at this level I must remember to involve all civs in tech-delaying wars.

I never reached the Industrial Age. I didn't want the Great Lighthouse to become obsolete.

The most exiting part of the game was to get the golden age. Twice I captured Lisbon just before I finished building JS Bach's cathedral. The first time, Lisbon flipped, so I had to delay JS Bach's C. The second time, I was only one hipoint away from losing Lisbon - but I got my GA.

The biggest single problem was that Temple of Artemis was built way out of reach by the mighty Aztecs.

If my result holds up in the competition I might write a detailed spoiler, but I don't think it will.

 

[Own]

What was your jason score?

 

[ThERat]

still waiting for someone else to post a conquest win so I can see that my 1655AD date was far off

 

[Megalou]

What was your jason score?

It was, and is, a number. Yea, 'tis a number that shall be revealed to the world in a fortnight or thereabouts

@ThERat - I think it will be beaten, but good job nonetheless!

 

[LKendter]

I am happy that I have a natural coal resource. It wasn't by Cherbourg, so I am trying to figure out the AIs obsession with that location. I find out I do have rubber. I am still baffled why the AI was obsessed by Cherbourg.


Bad news hits in 980 AD as Rome is already building ToE. The odds of getting Hoover and the huge tech boast has gone away. It is clear this may be a forever behind in tech game, and a loss via UN is very possible.


The scariness of the game continues in 1290AD when I already see a Roman tank. The AI research pace has been just brutal this game. I think that was the challenge built in. Rome is modern in 1315 AD when I still have half an age to go.


A war with Rome begins in 1420 AD. Even though they are #1, I feel they must be the first target. I need there oil source on my continent. I get Arabia into the war via an MPP to break their MPP with Rome. This is one of those brutal wars. Cavalry and artillery can defeat mechs and tow infantry, but it is a very slow process. The good news is the Roman cities are giving me a lot of cash. Of course, I need a larger empire for hire a bunch of taxmen to speed up the stealing process. The Roman lands should really help there. The timing of the war worked great as I caught all the Roman troops in the north fighting Portugal. The Romans did me a favor and took out the one Arabia city down there. The war becomes phony in 1485 AD when Rome is cleared from my continent.


Even though I am still in the Industrial Ages, Rome has already completed the U.N.


This has been one of my worst games ever to planting spies. I don't know why I am having such bad luck. It is very frustrating as I have some techs to steal and use in trade, but that time is limited. The Byzantines died in 1515 AD before I could steal Electronics and trade it to them.


I finally enter the Modern Ages in 1560 AD. This was mostly by signing deals, and then having my spy caught. This kept freeing up income for the next deal. It would have been a lot simpler if the spies could steal something.


At this point I have no question I will be in the low scoring crowed. The game has gone on to long with so small of an empire. The question now is how to even pull of a win. I am still behind in tech, and very worried that an AI will launch on me.


I get the Arabs to declare war in 1600 AD. I feel boxed into a corner and need to do something. Over thirty tanks cross by border the very first turn of the war. After a few turns I manage to burn the Arab offensive units. I end the war in 1768 AD, as I must concentrate 100% on Rome before they launch.


During this war I go totally leader happy. The trouble is at this point I keep hitting the army limit, and don't have much of value to rush. It is just to easily to get elite units with blitzing tanks. This went into a complete drought after I could have rushed an ICBM.


I have been in a phony war with Rome since the start of the MA. I would keep signing peace to gain something, and then he would declare war again over a caught spy. It ceases to be phony in 1756 AD when I start assaulting his towns on the small island. I general don't try to fight two wars at once in the MA, but I must slow down the Romans.


My worst luck over with spies continues into the MA.


As I feared I get to see Nuclear Havoc. The first nukes arrive in 1784 AD. What baffles me is why the Inca didn't declare war over this since I am at peace with them. I then screw up by signing temp peace with Rome ruining my rep. What sucks is I sign a temp peace with Rome, and the Inca nukes me! My aluminum city of Besancon was hit multiple times. The killer with nukes is that the AI can have them under construction long after the resources are disconnected.


War starts back up with Rome in 1814 AD. This time I have nukes and nuke his aluminum and uranium sources. I plan to have his continent a total nuclear wasteland. I also understand how to use nukes better then the AI. I will nuke every luxury off the map to destroy his productivity. With Rome at 9 parts it is critical that he never reconnects aluminum and uranium at the same time. During this fun Arabia starts building a space ship, so I need to start building up reserves to hit his capitol. I destroyed their capitol when they had 9 space parts built.


Anybody who thinks that artillery is the killer bombard unit hasn't used nukes. I got a big chunk to the Roman offensive units close to my city on their continent, and then nuked a good percentage out of existence. The battle over there is that brutal. Trying to take out an AI with mechs and modern armor is very difficult.


What I can't understand is that the aluminum sources have been constantly disconnected, but the Romans won't run out of Modern Armor. I have watched their count go up multiple times. They can't be importing it as they have been in constant war with Arabia.


In 1920 AD I decide to go into AW mode and declare war on the Arabs. The Arabs were destroyed in 1953 AD. This lets me finally end this marathon in with a domination victory. The finally Jason score is an embarrassing 2,793. This is probably the worst I have even done a GOTM.

 

[Renata]

That sounds like a wild game, LK. Congrats on sticking it out.

Yeah, with 60% land and Deity AIs I fully expected the tech pace to be brutal. A very hard game for the builder.

Renata

 

[THE WIZ]

On my third GOTM, second COTM, first deity COTM, I felt I did well to survive until 1772. I was one of only three civs left. There was no reason why either other civ (rome or Arabs) couldnt have slaughtered me anytime before 1500, but trades kept me alive.

However, I did survive a couple of big wars, solidly built infantry up until it would have been a long war to kill me, and lost by spaceship to the romans. My Jason score was a disappointing 997 (or so), less than I thought it would be from the Firaxis score (2,983 i think).

But I never play Deity, so I was a little proud of myself.

But I did discover I am a huge builder and a horrible chicken when behind in tech.

I gotta learn to win by domination/conquest.

The map did get more and more challenging the later it went...tough stuff.

See you all next time (probably in the hunting tips)

 

[Yndy]

Hello, long time no writing. And no GOTM for me. I actually started a couple of them but I was not used to Civ so I became over-aggressive and lost. I think I sent one in for last month (or was it two months ago?).

Predator

Anyway, this was a great game for me, I actually never got to Flight or the MA in C3C before (due to not playing it much and because I either won with cavalry or didn't win at all). No long write-up for me just to let you know that I got to the Industrial age in about 5 days RL (started as soon as the game was released) but it then took me 15 days RL to get a domination. That was 70 long hours.

To cut the long story short, I did not make much of the starting position, first town settled near the furs (big mistake) then on the gold hills and only later near the food sources. I did not allow the Arabs and the Portuguese to settle south of my lands but the Aztecs came so fast, I lost all the good city sites there (the two fur sources, the iron plus that the iron in the North was taken by the Arabs before I could see its location. I had a wild try for Philosophy, failed, then went for Republic, was not first there either and left the ancient age among the last in tech and with no iron.

In the middle ages things got a little better, I made some tech deals and did some research on my own, things got even better after Universities came around because the world was in turmoil. Arabs and the Portugese fought many times and the Arabs got to #2 in the world. The Aztecs were #1 because they got the entire south of my continent. Then they started wars with Egypt and Rome. I tryied to get the prime locations in a short war with them at the beginning of the Middle ages but in the end, I lost the Iron town and had to keep importing Iron when I needed upgrades.

The war with me got the Aztecs a little out of balance because they had to move troops so far but afterwards they returned and finished the Romans with the exception of the 1 tile island. Egypt fought the Inca and the Bizantines fought the Portuguese and the Aztecs so I managed was first to Printing Press, then I was the second to get physiscs and things changed as I had a lot of cash from the Arabs and the Egyptians. I was first to ToG and even got Newton as my first Wonder. I got to the Industrial age together with the rest of the front pack in 720AD. Rome, Inca and the Byzantines were already behind.

I rushed to get Steam Power and was first to do so, then rushed for Industrialization, then Medicine. I got beaten to Electricity and RP but I built the TOE and Hoover and then the Corporation and Refining. I was happy to have Coal and Rubber but kept importing Iron for a high cost. I also had only 2 luxuries and importing 3 more. This is the map of the French republic and the world in 1180AD.

I finished Refining and saw that I need oil so I attacked the Aztecs with Cavalry, Infantry and Artillery. I managed to free my continent without great difficulty, the Aztecs lacked a rail network and hat to carry troops over the strait. Also I made alliances with everybody against them to make WWI. After I freed my continent I had some tries to get a city in the Aztec mainland but totally unsuccessful. War weariness was climbing and the Arabs pulled out of the conflict to finish the Portuguese. That's the map at 1320AD when I declared war to the Arabs.

At that time I decided that I need to fight more efficiently and I still missed luxuries so I turned into a Fascist regime. Although the tech pace slowed down dramatically and my 3 techs lead was gone by the end of the Industrial Age, fighting was good. I made peace with the Aztecs and finished the Arabs and the Portuguese, then started to assemble a force that could brake the Aztec defences.

WWII begun around 1460AD when I passed the strait to the Aztecs. I now had Bombers to join my force of Cavalries, Infantries and Artilleries. Still it took up to 1585AD to weaken the Aytecs enough so that I could take major cities. By then, I had enlisted Egypt, the Bizantines and the Inca to start WWII. The Bizantines didn't make it, the Aztecs had several cities in the area as well as a very strong navy.

Next turn, I had Motorized Transportation and it was the beginning of the end but it took until 1695AD to get a domination victory. By then I also had computers but I had never triggered a Golden Age because I forgot Military leaders can't build Great Wonders. SETI was 5 turns away from completion when I managed to secure enough towns from the Egyptians for a Domination victory. Jason and in-game scores were similar, around 6000 Edit: Jason was 5500.

 

[DJMGator13]

klarius - Good game. When did you start outresearching the AIs in your game?

I just finished a 1500AD launch and knew I was in trouble for an award. I hit the Industrail Age in 420AD and was the tech leader for the rest of the game. I was only able to trade for 4 required tech (replaceable parts, Rocketry, Fission, and space) the rest of the game and in 1000AD I actually gifted the AI's to tech parity just to have them try to help me. I was selling techs around the horn as soon as I got them.