COTM14 First Spoiler: Starting Landmass, Ancient Age Resources

[stagnate]

Open. First COTM I've taken seriously (usually I get bored by middle AA).

At 1000 BC I have just finished a war with Germany (left Berlin intact, but took two other cities, I think I'll regret that).

12 cities
33 pop points (if I know how to count correctly)
6 civs met (haven't found babs yet)
Tech lead, Spain has construction over me, but I have Code, Philo, and Republic.

I started with the opening that Klarius posted in the discussion thread (thanks a bunch, I don't have the patience to think all that through

Warrior -> Granary (2 chops) -> 6 turn settler factory
My first settler went out undefended just as Germany was walking by with a spear, so I had to delay for three turns to avoid plopping down a juicy undefended city. York was founded to the east, and started cranking warriors. The next city was Woolmer Green, which I founded to the north and started on a barracks right away. My worker went that direction and made two chops to hurry.

I didn't found Woolmer to steal the cows like others did. I liked the river corner position as a strong defense against potential german aggression.

I made a beeline for the Republic slingshot and made it easily (philo was only just researched by another civ). I waited on the revolt, though, because I was building military to go after Germany.

I ended up finding Netherlands first after 3(!) turns in the deep blue ocean. I had my ship going that direction to make sure Germany had no contacts before trading away my tech. Netherlands had a decent research, as did the Vikings, but Sumeria didn't have writing.

Once I knew Germany was alone and backwards (and long delayed in researching alphabet; they went Wheel, CB, Iron, Myst, Poly) I traded Alpha and Pottery, 14g and 3g/t for WC and BW. This let me build my military for war, and he couldn't really do much with the extra money.

I did really well with tech trades. I met Sumeria and they didn't have writting, and I got CB, Wheel, Masonry, and IW plus all their money (20g?). Then I met France and Spain, spain also didn't have Writing and I was able to trade that for Myst and Math (which only Spain and France had learned). I then traded Philo for Poly and gold from the vikings, since I figured they would learn soon from the dutch.

I avoided trading MM since I wanted to delay expansion as much as possible, but the Dutch and Sumeria got it about 3 turns before I did.

Next I plan to switch to repub, expand as fast as possible, gift an island city to germany and take Berlin, using them for a tech gambit into the MA.

I had no problems with Germany; the 3gpt kept me in their good graces while I was expanding. I shut down the southern part of the island with a bit of fancy footwork.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Well, though no longer officially in, I can say that my new attempt has gone a heck of a lot better. It is now around 250AD, and I am finally a Republic. The only real downside-so far-is that I am still limited to only 3 cities , and those bastard Germans built The Great Library 1 turn before I finished it . What makes that worse it that it was ME who gave them Literature in the First Place. Still, it seems to have thawed the ice, as we both now have a good working relationship. Hell, they are even trading horses for my furs. Pity they have me hemmed in on all sides though!
So, though my game is hardly going brilliantly, I can honestly say that I am doing well for my very first Emporer game!

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[Ronald]

@stagnate: please remove your minimap it includes a spoiler!

 

[JonathanValjean]

So, though my game is hardly going brilliantly, I can honestly say that I am doing well for my very first Emporer game!

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

You mean second Emperor game... Just kidding! Good luck in the rest of your game, and keep us posted about your progress. An idea would be to ask for help in the "COTM: Swimming Tips" thread. I'm sure that everyone would enjoy giving you their advice to help you defeat those blasted Germans! You must pay them back for their sneak attack in the last game.

 

[WetSawdustDemon]

@ Hannabir: As you seem to also be going for the 20K win I was wondering what your strategy was going to be with having your capital as the 20K city, are you going to try and stay far enough ahead of the AI players tech-wise so that they don’t get a look in the the MA and IA wonders? Or might you think about getting three armies as soon as possible so you can use the Pentagon as a prebuild?

@ Redbad: Thanks for the encouragement, I finally finished yesterday I won’t say how it turned out. I’ll post next details in the final spoiler, as I didn’t take any notes for the end of Middle Ages.

 

[Hannabir]

@ Hannabir: As you seem to also be going for the 20K win I was wondering what your strategy was going to be with having your capital as the 20K city, are you going to try and stay far enough ahead of the AI players tech-wise so that they don’t get a look in the the MA and IA wonders? Or might you think about getting three armies as soon as possible so you can use the Pentagon as a prebuild?

The goal is to stay far enough ahead that I can build the first high-culture MA wonders before the AI can cascade to them. I don't expect to need a prebuild in this game.

 

[solenoozerec]

Open for Domination: 4000BC-670BC

First moves
I started with chopping south forest as it was suggested by Peu Feredo during the pre-game discussion.
I met Germany in 3150BC, I did not have any military units at this point, but Germans appeared to be peaceful unlike in some of the spoilers that I read. Later they demanded writing and I had to give it to them, since my military consisted of two warriors at that point. They become more aggressive later on, see below.


Research
I did republic slingshot without any problems as expected in 1550BC and England become Republic in 1475BC. Then I researched Map Making. This map is a haven for research indeed so it was also possible to get to MA before 1000BC, but I decided not to do this and stopped research before we knew currency and construction.

The Great Lighthouse
Dutch built it in 1100BC, 5 turns earlier than I expected it (I mistakenly irrigated planes instead of mining them and this mistake did not help me).
As a result I had to switch production in London to ToA.

Warfare
I normally do not fight before 1000BC, but in 1250BC Spain demanded Republic. I did not give them Republic thinking that since they are remote, a war should be safe. Indeed they declared and indeed we did not fight. Moreover in 1000BC Spain agreed to have peace and gave us the capitol of Catalonia - Barcelona.
This is how we looked like (I never had 17 towns in 1000BC before):

Post 1000BC events
875 Spain completed The Mausoleum of Mausollos.
825 Traded construction.
730 After I traded CoL to Germany in exchange for a worker they suddenly attacked us and captured Nottingham.
690 FP and ToA. Spain - Great Wall.
670 Traded currency from Spain and entered MA.

Iron
I realized the lack of iron soon and moved a settler on a galley towards an island with iron. However at the end of AA England was not yet connected to iron.

@Karasu: IMHO the lack of iron is not as bad as lack of horses.

 

[IronKnight]

I met the Germans in 3600 BC, they were annoyed. Due to their close proximity to my empire, I know there will probably be an early war (Emperor level). I trade alphabet for warrior code & 10g, Otto becomes cautious. My thinking…the best defense is an early offense. I start building archers, and send them to the mountains near Leipzig (the silk town) to spy. I was able to hold off war with Germany until 2350 BC.

I know that the number of units comes into play when the AI decides to invade. I also wonder how much affect early trading (and the type of trade) will affect the AI decision to invade. I was able to change Otto from annoyed to cautious. Perhaps this helped me hold him off? I also think that sending troops up his way also mattered.

I didn’t build an early granary in London. Did this slow down my expansion…probably? I decided to build archers instead. I didn’t build York until 2470BC, probably later than most. Woolmer-Green was founded in 1910 BC.

 

[Bognor]

Bognor, it appears that a manifold welcome is in order then: welcome to CFC, your first GOTM, your first game at emperor level, and Conquests!

Thanks, mate. I'm a confirm MMOG player, but I travel a lot so I play Civ III when I travel. I generally finish a game on an 8 hour flight. Favorite game is Large, Continent, Persian, Monarch.

Bog

 

[al_thor]

Hmmmmmm........seems some have had more luck with the Germans than I. Of course, this is NOT really an Emporer-level game, more like a slightly-toned-down Diety. I say this because of the proximity of the ultra-agressive Germans, the relatively small continent that we have to 'share' with them (compared to the other 6 civs which had a lot more elbow room, most of them on their own landmass which is as big or bigger than ours), the lack of Iron, and other factors that I can not go into in this spoiler.

For myself, the treacherous Germans pounced on York without warning, even though I was paying him GPT and trading heavily. Two workers lost (this really hurt). York was lost and I was barely able to keep him at bay before making peace. I then had to wait for Horse hook-up, and builds of Horse, Spear, and Archer. Indeed the Germans paid a heavy price, but it cost me considerably. I am an entire age behind in Tech, and woefully behind in Culture. The Silks and Furs are the only things keeping me in the game.

Just another game waiting for someone to launch a Spaceship to end the misery. :-(

 

[cnwjr]

I managed my first cotm game well. I lost in 14 turns to the Germans. A pair of archers took out my spear and warrior defending London in 3300BC. I was on the conquest version.

 

[DaveMcW]

Open NoAiPatrol=0

4000BC: London founded
3750BC: Warrior
3600BC: Warrior
3100BC: Granary
3000BC: Trade Alphabet + Pottery to Germany for 2 Workers + 10g
2850BC: Settler
2670BC: Settler
2470BC: Settler
2270BC: Settler
2030BC: Settler

The German archers never bothered me, just a couple exploring spearmen.

1950BC: Germany demands Writing
1525BC: Republic
1450BC: Anarchy ends
1400BC: Trade Mysticism to Germany for Worker + 2g

I built 4 curraghs, to take advantage of the barb-free waters before Map Making. But I'll have to wait a couple spoilers before I can say what they did.

 

[GoodGame]

I ain't gonna lie. I restarted this one more than once, twice....(oops).....
....
mainly with the intent of reliably getting the Colossus (the Netherlands tended to get it) (I feel this is crucial for fast self-research---I was right). Focusing on it after building a granary, and one more city did the trick.
I also aimed to get the Philosophy first, but also after doing Code of Laws (I have to double-check if it worked)

The interesting thing I discovered was rather than be intimidated by the Germans, militant nature, it was better to build my second city aggressively in their face. In other runs, I tried a defensive structure, by building just south of the river that bordered our civs, but I either couldn't keep the German settlers out passively, or was forced to force a war I couldn't possibly win.

Just building 1 square North of the border river let me steal the German's cow with my second city. As Berlin was only 1 pop at the time, this proved a crucial strategy. That city then became a granary-settler factory also, letting me use the capital to build Colossus before anyone else. Once done with that I had two settler pumps to claim the rest of the south (the third city was by the other cow to the SW of the start).

Then I preceded to wage a successful war of attrition against the germans using only archers and spearman in combined arms tactics (the spearman guarded the travel path of the archers). Workers engineered a road, and I was sure to attack Berlin without giving them a river bonus. A few spearmen raiders destroyed their luxuries and resupply lines.

Germany was crushed fairly easily without catapults (being so close to me helped a lot, plus the cows)



Using some some strategic waterway grabbing, I was able to seal the large island to the East from the French, and secure the passage to the West of my capital city.

Also grabbed the diamonds and first Iron to the East.


So successful in building cities, without a Forbidden Palace, that corruption made things grind to a halt off of my home island.

Also the barbarians in the middle of the map are a serious force, that a settler-spearman is nowhere near enough to grab strategic waterways and the iron(s) there.

I'm now thinking I should have cut down on the home island colonization after beating down Germany. A better strategy would have been to focus on blocking the neighbors by seizing the waterways, and blockading with galleys. Then building the FP on the next large island to the East.

 

[azzaman333]

i played one turn yesterday and in that turn the dutch were destroyed, but i dont know who killed them. so someone is probably a very strong AI.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Predator. Barbs fixed, of course.
Goal: Enjoy my favorite traits, and win by space in a reasonable time without babysitting 65.9% land/population.

Surprisingly, for someone like me who NEVER RoP-rapes anyway, Predator turned out to be substantially easier this time. Why? Because the AI Curraghs helped a lot to clear out the Barbarian ships, and I met one (is the name of that Civ spoiler info, btw?) from the North pretty early.

The Start:
Settled in place, full speed towards the slingshot.
First build was a Worker (2 turns of Wealth before). This allowed me to road the Cow first, and thus I completed the slingshot successfully in 1550BC, just like many others. In fact, I believe the Worker was a pretty smart move, because of:

The Germans:
Nasty surprise to find the most aggressive Civ right next door…
I did not build a Warrior before the Granary and the first Settler (completed with a chop exactly when London grew to size 4). But, my personal theory is that the AI is tempted to attack not so much when you’re weaker (since this is the usual thing on the higher levels), but when you’re weaker and bigger – and because of the Worker, Otto had 3 cities when I had only one. I further tried to manipulate Germany peacefully by expanding towards them – my 4th city was at that 1-tile lake in “their” territory (#2 and #3 were exactly where everyone else built them). And, I bought any Worker they had for sale; once I met Spain, I got 2 for Alpha (wasn’t sure if Isabella got a free Curragh, so I didn’t count on Otto not getting it from her soon anyway). And I bought 3 more German Workers during AA. Because Otto had no Workers, and I grabbed his Cow soon as well, Berlin didn’t make many spt; and because I rubberbanded his Settlers with the Horses, he had his entire starting units an Settler Escort duty for a long time.

Research:
As said, slingshot in 1550BC. At that time, I had contact with Germany, Spain, France and one Northern Civ (met their Curragh); so, CoL and Writing alone got me WC, BW, HBR, IW, Poly, Maths, Myst, and Masonry. Went for Lit next.

Exploration:
In a lucky move, I chopped a Curragh after the first Settler and sent it W.
I was quite surprised to encounter lots of Barb Galleys before anyone had researched MM; so I guess they were preplaced on the map?

I did wait a couple of turns to revolt, in the hope to secure MoM in London (originally the one AA wonder I wanted; for the happiness and the tourism), and even more because I wanted a few Archers in case Otto gets nasty.
Of course, I pulled 7 turns . Republic established in 950AD - and Sumeria grabbed the MoM (and since they had the Pyramids, this meant GA as well). Beat me for 7 shields missing…luckily, I had the Glib as fallback (monopoly on Lit), so I could keep the shields without risk. Ended with the Lighthouse and my GA in 630AD; but since I entered the MA in 710BC, this is for a different thread.
710BC is pretty lame, but most AI Civs insisted on researching Monarchy. Only France showed up with Currency when I was almost done with it; had to do the rest myself.

QSC stats:
10 towns, pop 26; 2 Granaries, 1 Barracks, 1 Temple (culture towards Germany); 10 Warriors (all reg), 3 vet Archers, 1 Cat, 3 Curraghs, 4 Workers, 5 German Slaves.
Techs: Missing Monarchy, Currency and Construction.

 

[Redbad]

Good to hear of you Doc. I always like your spoilers. Somehow I got the feeling you're mostly struck by mishap

The Germans:
Nasty surprise to find the most aggressive Civ right next door…

I'd prefer Otto any time over the X-man. But that's perhaps my frustration And of course in RL I'm living next door to them.

But then again... a X-man without iron

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Somehow I got the feeling you're mostly struck by mishap

Actually, no reason to complain about this CotM; 7 turns of Anarchy is ugly, but it could have been 9 as well - and while the AI civs where no help at all in AA, they were useful later. And, Germans did not attack me after all.

But, what about missing the slingshot in CotM 11 (Regent! With Korea!) due to Mongols popping Philo from a hut with one turn to go for me?
Or CotM13: Arabs build ToA, my Iron town flips immediately; discover Steam, trade my spare Coal - in the very same interturn, my other source depletes; line up units to capture Lisbon (Collossus + Pyramids) from weak Portugal 2 turns before I complete ToE to trigger my GA - and Arabs declare exactly that turn on Portugal, capture Lisbon and pile about 20 Infantry and Guerillas there?
I did abandon CotM11 after that insult; CotM13 I still should have won, but simply couldn't find the time.

 

[berserks01]

First Emperor game, so Conquest class.

I wish I was good enough to do an early war with Germany so I can wipe them out, but don't think my military is good enough as of yet, so I'll wait a little more. But I'm just an amateur.

By 1000BC, I:
-got all techs except CoL, HbR, Curreny, Republic, Monarchy, and Construction.
-7 cities
-23 pop
-1 settler
-5 workers 1 slave
-7 warrior, 7 archers, 2 spears
-1 granary
-2 galleys
-3 Barracks.

And my empire looks like:

 

[King Of America]

Conquest Class

The spear came in very handy; helped me find the Germans quickly. Like others, I also converted my gran. build to a settler build to block the G.'s expansion.

I also built a couple barracks and some Archers.

When I had 7 (all Vets I think), I went in. Berlin was crushed quickly, but his captial moved to the Silks, so I spent the next x turns taking that. I thought about giving him temporary mercy until the MA to get an extra tech off him, but I have paid the price for easing up before, so Germany did not make it to the MA.

Wearing my Elizabethian Freudian slip, I suppose I could follow denyd's narartive last game and say that Otto was relegated to the private room next to Elizabeth's chambers, but I won't.

Rather tough placement of the Iron, eh gamemaster? The Spansih beat me to it and well.. I suppose I shouldn't say much more.

Most frustrating thing: Blowing the slingshot. I was the first to Philosphy but I did not realize it (I think I'm expecting the old Civ 2 [or 1] congradulations messages) -- I saw Republic at 50 turns and didn't think to choose it; instead I picked MM. Next time I get to Phil, I'll just grab Republic (or whatever I really want). If I don't get to make another choice immediately, I'll know I didn't get the sling shot. On the other hand, maybe our benevolent leader could create a little mod so we get a "Congradulations" message when we get the slingshot. This is the second time I've punted the slingshot. Oh well, at least I didn't choose Mysticism

 

[DBear]

Comment: What is with the weird English city names? Watton-at-Stone, Woolmer Green, Great Wymondley, WTH?

As for myself, I was pretty nervous when the Germans came calling, but they just passed thru. I think it was because I managed to get a second city out before they showed up. Ended the QSC with 7.