COTM14 First Spoiler: Starting Landmass, Ancient Age Resources

[Snaga]

Predator

London builds warrior, worker, curragh, granary in 3000, settler in 2800, with cows irrigated and furs chopped as a priority
2 early curraghs sent out to explore, both destroyed by barbarian infestations, after making 3 offshore contacts

Germany was placid, and a bit stagnant after their initial 5 towns. Stole cow from them with an early town built South of Berlin and loaded it with units to prevent a flip. German culture was fairly low anyway.

1625 discover Philosophy and The Republic, revolt in 1600, 5 turns of anarchy. Discover Currency in 1225 and trade into middle ages. Benefited from Ais taking different AA research paths.

In 1150 established embassy to get a look at Berlin, no improvements, 3 non-elite spearman defenders, no growth, 2 shields per turn, time to put them out of their misery ...

QSC: 10 towns (2 ex – German), 1 city, 45 citizens, 11 native workers, 4 German workers, 1 warrior, 9 archers, 1 spearman, 2 horsemen, 2 trebuchet, 1 granary, 1 harbor, 3 barracks, 4 contacts, all ancient technologies except Monarchy and Literature, Engineering, 169g, Germany is willing to discuss peace, they have 4 towns remaining, one of which is offshore

Missed out on Colossus and Great Lighthouse (by 3 turns) so now thinking about capturing one of them and building another wonder to force GA. Don't want to have to research as far as the English UU

Looks like the biggest threat in this game was early aggression from Germany, I was paranoid of this also, and kept a warrior stationed in each early town to help discourage them (I believe an unprotected town increases the chance of an AI going into attack mode), delaying the exploration of the starting island. Based on others comments though, it may just be a matter of luck how aggressive Germany decides to be from the get go.

 

[Più Freddo]

Class: Open

Goal: Fast domination

Opening Plan

The starting location opened up numerous possibilities for good, or
not so good, starts. I made several calculations in advance, all of
which showed good starts but with different flavours. I decided to
move Worker1 to the Cattle tile to irrigate. This move revealed a
fourth Fur forest, which I would need when the Granary was finished
and I would have a food overflow of two for every population growth
unless I worked a Forest every two out of three turns (and the third
turn as well thorugh the workings of the Governor). My final
calculation had the following features:

1. Irrigate Cattle

2. Chop three Fur forests without roading or mining. The third chop
nets one useful shield and five into Wealth. Four (actually eight) are
wasted. All to get the first Settler out one turn earlier (3000 BC),
right after growth to population five. The first two chops go into the
Granary, and population growth is delayed one turn by working Fur
forest in order for the Granary to arrive before it (3250 BC). This
actually makes overall population growth faster than the alternative
to finish the Granary with an already high population.

3. After the first Settler produce two Warriors allowing the
population to grow to size six before the next Settler.

4. Successively mine the Fur grasslands on the way back, roading the
middle one only. As mining progresses, our six-turn 4-6 factory can
produce Warrior and Settler, Curragh and Settler and then repeatedly
Curragh, Warrior and Settler with only one shield wasted per cycle.

5. Road Cattle and River Grassland to max out the Factory's commerce
production. This road also provides the beginnings of a trade network.

What about the Bonus Grasslands? I use one of them for three early
turns, then never again until The Republic. Instead, I use a River
Grassland once every six turns at size six. One forest also remains
unexploited by the capital.


Settlement

When I saw the cow just inside the German border I thought I must have
it. But then I didn't dare to settle so close because of the risk of
getting attacked. Instead I founded York on the south coast
effectively blocking the Germans from the rest of the Island. I also
got the first scouting Warrior back on my side rather than inspect the
German inlands. This was partly because I thought I could do that by
Curragh, partly again in order not to provoke the Hun.

I then filled up and improved my lands as fast as I could. Improving
was dissapointingly slow and corruption high. The capital is just so
much more productive than the other cities. Connecting the Horses
takes forever.


Research

Upon meeting the Germans I immediately traded Alphabet for Warrior
Code and 10 gold. Warrior Code is better than Bronze Working, because
an Archer can be used for offense and defense and deters better than a
Spearman. The Republic slingshot hit target in 1500 BC. Most other
first- and second-tier Technologies I got in the meantime through
trading with four other Civilizations met overseas and with the
Germans, who researched Horseback Riding for us.

I had five Curraghs out before buying Map Making. They were all
extremely lucky, one surviving two consecutive turns on the Ocean,
several surviving barbarian attacks unscathed.


Conclusions and Mistakes

It might have been a mistake not to steal the Cow from the Germans.
Not only does it give us food and shields, it also takes them away
from the Germans. And we are more likely to connect to the German
trade network. The cost would be the need to produce more military as
deterrent.

It seems the good players could get faster to The Republic. I had to
crank up the luxury slider and so reduce science spendings. Probably
connecting the luxury faster and chopping slower was the ticket. Also
more skills in trading overseas could help, I suppose.

Did anyone connect to Germany and trade in their Silks?

 

[Snaga]

Did anyone connect to Germany and trade in their Silks?

I got silks trade from 1830BC before declaring war and claiming them for myself in 1025BC.

As for stealing the cow, I think it is fairly safe to do if you are planning to build a military deterrent or invasion force anyway, as they can do double duty as flip protection. It also makes a nice location for the Forbidden Palace.

 

[Karasu]

I see I wasn't the only one to get screwed by the ultra-early wars. I noticed several other deaths, and several near misses.

Germany was the cruelest civ to put next to us with them getting free spears and archers for their bonus units. I was not impressed with this map design at all.

I am truly sorry that this map has been a disappointment to some. I can only apologize with those who didn't find this game up to their expectations.

Actually, I spent quite some time testing it -the initial moves in particular, given the known belligerance of the neighbour. I was only attacked once in about 25 starts, and I could see that one coming, so it seemed a reasonably playable situation.

And I believe that the overall map has some very interesting features.

In any case, thanks for the feebdack (be it positive or criticism): it is always invaluable input for the next games (and no, you won't be in a ten-tiles island with Aztecs and Celts this time! ).

 

[Redbad]

Did anyone connect to Germany and trade in their Silks?

I founded a city, Woolmer Green, south of the german cow and got control of it. Furthermore i put up a defenseline through the mountains surrounding Woolmer Green. The defenseline also prevented Germany to settle south.
Upon connecting Woolmer Green trades became possible. At first I didn't trade for silks, but I immediatly gifted them furs. I had only one, quite harmless, little war with them.

 

[MiniMe]

Well, to be positive - I find the map excellent. I am not at all finished yet and truly enjoy it so far. The placement of barbs and resources are twists I really appreciate. And playing England), which I rarely do, on such an archipelago map really gives us the opportunity to profit a maximum from their traits.

 

[Ronald]

I also truly enjoy playing this map. It really makes a very interesting play, but more in the next spoiler.

 

[JonathanValjean]

I am truly sorry that this map has been a disappointment to some. I can only apologize with those who didn't find this game up to their expectations.

Karasu,

Once I made it through my near-death experience with Germany, the map has been great! I have really enjoyed some of the various features, and subsequent strategies that I have employed due to the design. Thanks for your hard work!

 

[LKendter]

Actually, I spent quite some time testing it -the initial moves in particular, given the known belligerence of the neighbor. I was only attacked once in about 25 starts, and I could see that one coming, so it seemed a reasonably playable situation.

The trouble is these early random attacks seem to occur the worst around emperor. Throw in the civ with the highest military rating with free defenders being spears, and free offensive units being archers and it radically increases the odds.

I tried a few retries out of curiosity. If I went military paranoid I wasn't attacked and even was able to archer rush Germany down in the BCs. However, that rules out the only win type I wanted from this map with 20K.

This game really made wonder if I made a mistake coming back to COTM. I left for quite awhile as I didn't like path of the GOTM a while ago. I am back to get games that weren't modded to death.


Even consider the below quote. The person enjoyed the game, but they also almost got screwed.

Karasu,

Once I made it through my near-death experience with Germany, the map has been great! I have really enjoyed some of the various features, and subsequent strategies that I have employed due to the design. Thanks for your hard work!

 

[Ambiorix]

Same here.
July would be the first month since January where I'd have some time to play. I built curragh-granary-settler (or two curraghs, don't remember), and got run over by Germany. I did have a second town when they raided London, but they went after that one as well.

The two curraghs got so see quite a bit of the map, and it looked like fun to play.

Karasu confirmed in a PM that the agressiveness-levels weren't changed, and that the scenario was tested for early attacks. Oh well - time for other things.

 

[BlackNo1]

2nd COTM and 1st post:

Though I tend for a farmers gambit I had no probs with sneaking Germans. Was able to seal their expansion to the west of with some dancing in front of their settlers. They founded 5 towns, me 8 on the island. Build up military to attack Berlin with 8 or 10 archers + some spears (3 or 4) for cover and went on. Attack failed (Bad RNG?): 3 spears defeated all but 3 archers while losing only few hitpoints. Had to come back later and after 3 wars Germany is reduced to three small towns on different islands. Made contact with Spain + France with my 1st curragh, but lost several ships searching for the other civs. Finally found them very late. On research: went for rep. slingshot and made without probs. Rest was traded at low cost. Plan is to go for military and take out Germany, Spain and France... Lets see...

 

[Rustwork]

well, i was hoping to finish this one quick. i'd say 15 minutes was quick enough. forgot to save before i threw my laptop in the pool so no submission. in hindsight i should have taken the potential threat from germany more seriously. a big clue should have been the extra spear given as a bonus. when i saw two archers i gifted germany a tech but they wanted blood. i built an early settler and didn't have the pop to rush anything so once they declared it was over. i think the start was a bit too random for a COTM. but, considering it was possible to survive an early attack i blame myself for the loss.

 

[Jove]

Regarding early death: Does anyone know for sure what contributes to the AI attacking very early in the game? Is it city placement? My first was 2 south of London in 2900 BC. Did that make me out of the way? Too strong already for the AI to attack? Some got attacked earlier than that. I dunno... I know I played AA AI hockey with the Germans early on to block them, I don't think they ever had an archer next to my cities, although they did have some elsewhere. How do our actions affect this? Or is it just pure luck??

 

[Bigfoot]

This is the first COTM I have played in a while. I don't have a turnlog to refer to, so I don't have exact dates. Playing Open class, my goal is either Space or UN victory (seems logical with all of the extra commerce we get in this one). I settled in place, irrigated the cow and chopped the forest next to it. Build order was warrior => curragh => granery => archer => settler. The archer wasn't per plan, but I was a bit alarmed when I realized Germany was next door and we had just 1 warrior built. Upon meeting Germany I traded Alpha for WC and 10G, then later made a gpt trade with them to discourage an early attack (my curragh was able to make some early contacts and tech trades). My second and third cities both focused on military builds. Amassed a force of archers and cats which succeeded in rushing the Germans. Also spawned a great leader, which rushed the FP in Berlin. So I have a nice group of cities to work with now, and no real threats to my core. I tried for the Republic slingshot but was narrowly aced out by Spain. Built the GL (traded Lit. around the turn before it was completed), so gold and techs have not been a problem.

This has been a fun map so far, I am looking forward to when I can use MOW against those annoying Spaniards.

 

[Erudine]

I thought the map was great. Thanks!

 

[denyd]

I a quick non-narrative recap (which I'll get to later), unlike many others, I had few problems with Otto. I settled my second city S of his cow and later settled a city to steal a silk for myself. At the end of the QSC had 4 Vet Spears & 2 Reg Warriors, so it wasn't my military that scared off the Hun. I did trade early & often with him, the standard Alphabet for BW + 10g that others did, in 1650 BC trading furs for only 12g and then in 1275 BC trading Math & CoL for Map Making. For some reason my Germany was more intent on wonder building, starting Colossus & The Great Lighthouse in Leipzig and the Pyramids in Berlin and not being able to complete any of them.

My most interesting adventure was the tale of my curragh, the Drake, which left Woolmer Green in 1950 BC heading east. Upon reaching western Spain, he turned north and began accumulating a caboose of barbarbian galleys. After contacting all of the northern tribes, he was lost in heavy seas off the coast of Amsterdam in 230 BC, leaving the 17 barbarians now chasing him, to play with the Dutch vessels.

I'll put together a proper spoiler and post it later.

 

[eldar]

I lost about half-a-dozen boats trying to fight through that passage to the north - eventually a galley limped through, on 1 hit point, and Elite.

Those Barb galleys plagued me throughout the game - I even lost a fully-laden galleon to a Barb galley in the mid-Industrial age!!

 

[Cuivienen]

Regarding early death: Does anyone know for sure what contributes to the AI attacking very early in the game? Is it city placement? My first was 2 south of London in 2900 BC. Did that make me out of the way? Too strong already for the AI to attack? Some got attacked earlier than that. I dunno... I know I played AA AI hockey with the Germans early on to block them, I don't think they ever had an archer next to my cities, although they did have some elsewhere. How do our actions affect this? Or is it just pure luck??

I've finished the game already, and I went back and did some tests on early deaths. Apparently, Germany attacks 100% of the time if your first build is a Warrior or Curragh and you send it out to explore. If you keep it in London, even a Curragh that can't actually do anything to defend you, they will not attack. If your first build is anything else, i.e. anything non-military, they will not immediately sneak attack you.

I'll post my spoiler later, but I'll say that I was lucky enough to get a Curragh through the Barbarian Sea before anyone discovered Map Making - or at least I never saw a barb Galley until after meeting the third and fourth groups of civs.

 

[Bigfoot]

^ Cuivienen, that wasn't my experience. Germany did not declare, even though my first build was a warrior which I sent exploring. I did make an early gpt deal with them, although it may have been pure luck that they didn't attack anyway.

 

[MeteorPunch]

I've read the Civ 3 RNG gets part of it's "randomness" from the individual's CPU. This could explain why Karusu can run many tests on his system and get totally different results from someone else.