[C3C] COTM144 Russia Monarch - Spoiler

Più Freddo

From space, earth is blue
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Jan 26, 2005
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This is the thread where you tell us the whole story of your game and how in the end you did -- win, lose or retire.

Only read or post in this thread when your game is ended and successfully submitted.
 
I was late in creating this game, so I wasn't able to play it before it was released. I have now played it until the end of the Middle Ages. I then had an Army with a single Cossack in it die against a defending Spearman and realized it was time to go for the next game...

I found the somewhat restricted starting location quite compelling. What did you think?
 
I did try it. Will not submit the save. I played untill 1000BC?. I sent settler to north, there was floodplains and a grassland cow. 6-turn combo factory for a warrior and a settler worked fine. It was much better than staying on starting location. Republic slingshot was doable. A bit slower start than in other COTMs lately but Russians game can still beat fast.
 
I played a sloppy game with many errors, partly due to staying up too late to play.

I moved to the coast before settling and then played for 20k in Moscow, which I reached in 1876. It was a nice 20k spot, giving me 115 spt at the end.

I didn't expand early at all, and I started a war just before I could have settled on some saltpeter. The war then kept me from getting the saltpeter. I built a coal plant (after building Hoover Dam) when I forgot to switch to the wonder I wanted. I didn't manage any wars well, and never got a leader. I didn't go to war much at all, though. The mongols attacked near the end. I abandoned some towns, allied neighbors, and ignored them while I waited to hit 20k.

I didn't have any trouble staying far ahead in technology or in trading for resources, so my people were happy and productive. I found it an enjoyable game.

Some early notes:
Move to coast, start CB, warrior then colossus.
Hut gives maps, gold
3300 meet Iroquois settler, can't take it with a scout, they won't trade anything :(
2850 meet Zulu, trade CB to Iroquois for alphabet
2630 meet Aztecs, trade alphabet for warrior code +10 g
1830 Colossus
1000 bc Republic, 2 towns.
630 Mausolleum
610 library
280 AD meet Mongols
 
I finished the game on Monday and submitted it yesterday. I have a write-up on my PC that I'll try to remember to post after work today.
I won via conquest just before 1700ad, which I ultimately went for because it seemed like it would be difficult victory condition due to map geography.
I found the somewhat restricted starting location quite compelling. What did you think?
Certainly! I had fun playing this scenario. The high barbs and close (aggressive?) ai made for interesting bc times. I also did not contact the second continent until Navigation which made for slow tech pace.
I did try it. Will not submit the save. I played untill 1000BC?. I sent settler to north, there was floodplains and a grassland cow. 6-turn combo factory for a warrior and a settler worked fine. It was much better than staying on starting location. Republic slingshot was doable. A bit slower start than in other COTMs lately but Russians game can still beat fast.
I settled in place, and usually do unless I'm 1 tile off of a fresh water source. How many cities do you have in your latest save? I'm curious how much faster your expansion was with a better capital location?
I played a sloppy game with many errors, partly due to staying up too late to play.
Good game as always, CKS. 20k seems to be your favorite vc, no?
 
Yes, I like 20k. I like building rather than warring (which I'm pretty bad at). I also like fast research games (diplomatic or spaceship), but I usually end up building more than I should, and 20k games don't require much of an empire.
 
Here's my write-up, I was writing it while playing for a bit, but stopped, and then I realized I was typing too long a story. Anyway:
Spoiler :

I wasn’t sure of how to approach this game, as it was my first competitive civ3 game. In the end I didn't try to do anything special, although there were a few delusions of grandeur. To start, I wasn’t sure whether to move my settler 1N, 1SE or to settle in place, but after sending my scout southward I settled in place. My scout then worked his way clockwise around the start location meeting the Iroquois and getting the goody hut north of the start which gave me St. Petersburg.
My initial build order was scout-scout-settler, which, in hindsight was probably not the best choice with restless barbs. Not that my scouts were killed, but I was short on units at home.
I went for and achieved the slingshot, but while I was researching writing the Iroquois sneak attacked me with a stack of 3-4 warriors. The town was on grassland with no walls and only a rSpear to defend but he held out after only 2 attacked. The war lasted about 10 turns during which I lost 1 unit and the Iroquois lost probably around 10. At this point I did not know warrior code, the wheel, or iron working and didn't want to trade the Zulu or Aztecs for them, so I fought an entirely defensive war. At the end they sent a few mounted warriors at me, but they didn't earn a victory. I thought of giving them a warrior as bait to give them a despotic golden age but decided against it due to my utter lack of military at this point. I thought I might regret the loss of even 1 unit due to how thin my troops were spread. They sued for peace and I think I got a tech but I can't remember which.
I then set most cities to settlers and used my spare spears as escorts to settle the rest of the good land south of the Iroquois and then began preparing for war. I like to play “honorably” so I dow'ed the Iroquois before entering their territory, which I don't regret, but it did earn them a golden age. So, the first bit of the war was a little dicey as they sent small stacks at me each turn. I got the Aztecs and Zulu in the fight against the Iroquois, and the Aztecs ended up taking 3 Iroquoian cities in one turn which crippled them.
The game was pretty much over with after the Iroquois went down. The Aztecs were “runaway,” they had way more territory than me, and the Zulu had maybe 5 cities at their peak, but the terrain around the old Iroquois core made The War fairly easy. In the peace between the Iroquois and Aztec wars, the Celts were destroyed. When I got to the second continent it looked like their territory was split evenly by the other 3 civs, but the Mongols owned the upper 2/3 of the island. Conquering them was straightforward as well, I had several armies that I landed with small escorts at different places on the island and then started ferrying troops across.
The hard part for me was getting to the second island. I didn't get there until Navigation. I was solo researching everything from approximately Invention onward, so getting there took some time. But when I was ready to invade I had Cossacks so the warring went smoothly.
 
Hi jarred!

Thanks for your spoiler. No need to hide it in a spoiler tag, as this thread is exclusively for spoilers. But the important thing is that we get some discussion going here at all. Thanks again!

For next year, I hope to get more spoilers and write-ups. We will have only four games, one each quarter, of each kind. There will be one spoiler thread per game, but there will be a succession of progress points which are published in the game control thread and in the spoiler thread itself. I'm thinking

1. Pre-game
2. OCN, optimal city number reached, Forbidden Palace can be built
3. Middle Ages
4. Industrial Times
5. Game submitted

Each progress point will be published two weeks after the previous one.
 
I like the idea of multiple spoiler progress points. I don't document the later game as I should, but I think I'll do better when I have to come up with something to write for each section, and when I don't have to wait so long to post.

I'm not really keen about number 2. Those of us who don't always expand rapidly (including anyone trying OCC or 5CC) may not reach this for a long time. An "either OCN or Middle Ages reached" would be ok, as one or the other of them should happen relatively quickly. Some other possibilities, from days gone by, are "Complete map of starting land mass" or "Contact with X other tribes".

I was thinking about a 1000 BC discussion point (sort of like the quick-start competition), but I was browsing through some spaceship HOF threads where some people were half-way through the middle ages by 1000 bc, so maybe that isn't so good. For those of us with 4 towns and almost to the republic, that is a little more spoiler information than I want.
 
I like that, but maybe with any town reaches pop 12, if someone is doing 20k not in the capital.
 
getting the goody hut north of the start which gave me St. Petersburg.
Same over here! This was the first hut I popped (in 3850 BC), and then the second hut (the one towards the west) gave me a settler! :eek: I thought, settlers cannot be popped in the GOTM/COTM?!

In any case, the game was very easy after that, and I went for a quick'n'dirty Conquest VC. I probably overdid it a bit with building stuff (I built the FP, Mausoleum and Lighthouse for the Golden Age and Leonardo's for a Cossack mass upgrade), which is definitely too much for a Conquest game, but I needed something to do while waiting for Navigation to come in. I didn't want to "overbuild" on horses, as I wouldn't have enough money to upgrade them all anyway, so I put my shields into these wonders. I wanted my GA before Cossacks, so that I got the two required techs (Navigation and Military Tradition, both at the end of the tech tree and on separate branches) faster. The GA allowed 4-turn research throughout the MA.
And I guess, this is my first Conquest game, where I even built a few Universities... :crazyeye: But I think it was the fastest way to get to the other continent without heavy losses in ships. Once these two techs where reached, capturing the other continent was only a matter of 20 turns or so, with Conquest being achieved in 420 AD.
 
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The Scenario file looks OK. But i remember vaguely popping a Horseman out of a Hut, so it seems a whole list has been moved by one unit in the save. How can that happen?
 
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