COTM38 - Spoiler 3, Game Submitted

[civ_steve]

COTM 38 Final Spoiler

Reading Requirements:
You may only read this thread if:

1. You have completed and submitted your game.

Posting Restrictions:

1. None! As long as its related to the GOTM, and within the forum rules!
2. And ... Absolutely NO discussion of any other active 'X'OTM contest!

If your game makes it into the Industrial Age or Later, how did it end? Did your Netherlands eventually prove victorius, or did a Demigod AI use its advantages to take the game?

 

[axehaxe]

Gah! I lost. I tried to stop India from building Hoovers but they killed my SOD in 1 turn. Retired cuz they were going to finish it before me. I kinda feel like I should have not built the GL and expanded faster in the beginning instead! Oh well. First time playing GOTM. I'll have to wait for the next one.

 

[sirdanilot]

Conquest class, conquest defeat...

I was really slow in research, and in the end, the Babylonians declared war on me and conquered me with their Modern Armor.

Anyway, time for a small evaluation:

Things that went wrong:
Researching Bronze Working first instead of Writing
Switching to Monarchy (I have now decided Monarchy is the worst government, EVER!)
Not attacking Babylon and letting them own the game
Not meeting Egypt and India before Printing Press
Not noticing that I only had to build 2 cities to get the Forbidden Palace; I finished the game without one

Things that went right:
Conquered Spain
Capturing the GLib and getting slingshotted to the end of the Middle Ages
Nicely timed GA

I have a screenshot of my defeat, but I'm too lazy to upload it.
Edit: Allright, I'll upload it then.

You really see the Millitary Advisor (it's really him, he's just wearing some make-up!) grieving for the loss of his great Dutch empire... it's sad, really.

Anyway, this was my first GOTM, and even though I failed horribly, I'm looking forward to play the next one better than this. Hopefully it'll be a nice easy Monarch game. But if they decide to make it a Deity pangaea with Portugal and surrounded by Shaka, Hiawatha and Xerxes then I'll have to post some :suicide:

 

[axehaxe]

"But if they decide to make it a Deity pangaea with Portugal and surrounded by Shaka, Hiawatha and Xerxes then I'll have to post some "


Or a Sid Russia game on arch map stuck on a 2 city island with no resource and luxuries and you meet the Dutch, the Celts, the Germans, the Byzantines, India, and Vikings all in one turn in 1800 AD when you are still researching republic and they have built 9 space parts.

By the way demigod on predator class is a little bit harder than deity - no golden age = SUCKS.

 

[klarius]

Predator

Settled on coast. Build order curragh-settler. Research writing.
Second city goes land-locked to the lake. Then another 7 coastal cities on the home island. This is finished by 1475BC. Another 2 fishing villages go to the western island before 1000BC. That concludes settling for quite some time.

Science
3100 buy pottery and CB
2510 buy BW, masonry, TW, WC, IW
1990 buy writing (nearly researched), mysticism
1625 buy mathematics
1475 CoL researched, buy MM
1325 philosophy slingshot to republic
1225 buy polytheism
1100 literature researched
875 currency researched
850 buy construction -> middle ages
I did go then to chivalry (250BC), navigation (150AD), MT (420AD) and even to magnetism to transport armies (500AD).


Diplomacy

3300 meet Spain
3100 meet Babylon
2590 meet Egypt
2510 meet India
2150 meet England
1950 embassies with everyone; phony war with Spain and alliance with Babylon.
1625 phony war with India and alliance with Egypt.
1450 meet Chinese, but lose curragh to Barbs.
1350 meet France (by an eastern suicide galley). Peace with Spain, war with Babs.
1250 War with Egypt, peace with India.
1100 meet Portugal; war with Portugal alliance with China.
850 peace with Babylon
800 war with China, peace with Portugal
710 first real war against Spain. Up to now all wars were either for war happiness or to try to get some trade benefits. We also complete the Great Lighthouse this turn.
670 capture Santiago
550 capture Madrid with Pyramids.
510 Babylon razes the last Spanish city and Spain is out.
430 raze a village in Egypt.
410 start the hot war on Babylon.
330 get a leader, build FP in Madrid; MoM completes in capital -> golden age.
310 peace with Babylon for regrouping; peace with Egypt getting 2 villages in the treaty.
150BC next round with Babylon starts. This lasts until 150AD when Babylon is destroyed.
110AD we go to war with Egypt again. India had captured most of Egypt by then and they are left with 1 town for now.
130AD the war with India starts. This round goes to 280AD capturing 5 cities and razing 2.
190AD we start the hot war on China. They are destroyed in 360AD.
In 270AD finally meet the Aztecs (I had navigation by then just didn't scout in the right direction for a long time).
310AD again war with India leaving them one island city in 380AD.
390AD settle a foothold on the English Island (was at war for quite some time, but now I had a fresh army to support the landing). England destroyed in 490AD.
400AD Egypt destroyed.
410AD war with Portugal. One short fake peace treaty at some time, other than that it lasted to their destruction in 610AD.
520AD India destroyed.
580AD the war to end all wars starts. Maya have lots of troops running around their home island. Take 3 cities in a small RoP rape and await their counter.
620AD I take some Aztec cities to make sure I get the domination limit. Make peace with Maya as I cannot reach any more cities. Maya has 7 cities left.

630AD domination victory.

 

[Othniel]

1375AD Diplomatic Win
Firaxis of 6689, Jason of 7478

I originally started this game as a 20k effort...and abandoned that quickly when I saw how 20k poor the terrain was. I figured Diplomacy would be my out-route, and from about 3850BC onward this was a dedicated Diplo game.

I was quite disappointed in my Jason on this game after getting over 10k on my last one.

Highlights:

1. Achieved 4-5 turn research from around Astronomy to the end of the game
2. Set up Madrid as a super-science city with Colossus (captured from Spanish), Copernicus, Newtons, and a Palace jump. It was cranking a decent 300+ beakers for much of the second half of the game
3. Science-farmed former Babs land and numerous outlying islands
4. Consolidated enemy civs by supporting phony wars. Main ending opponents were Indians, Portugal, Maya, and England. India and Maya were the best AI researchers.
5. Won my first dedicated Diplomacy game at DG or higher difficulty level. Unanimously was voted into office as U.N Secretary General over Ghandi (Babs abstained and Ghandi voted for himself, of course)

Lowlights:

1. Researched BW first for attempt at Colossus (20k, remember ) and that ended up costing me the Republic slingshot. Only Babs started with BW so I was hoping...but not to be as they were our neighbors.
2. Portugal beat me to the Great Lighthouse by 3 turns when every other contact didn't have Map Making yet (I hadn't met Portugal yet). In Klarius' game, they built the GLH in 710BC. In mine, it was pre-1000BC.
3. Maya beat me to Magellan's by a couple turns also. Losing the two naval wonders hurt a LOT
4. Consistently attacking well-defended islands like France and leaving poorly-defended ones like the Aztecs alone :suicide: In my defense, France got Feudalism only while my invasion fleet was on their doorstep, but their new MDI blew apart my force after my Sword Army got canned on a French pike...
5. Portugal ROP-raped my small cities that I had built on former Chinese lands, causing me tremendous WW and denying me access to 3 luxes for the rest of the game! Ouch...
6. Gifted OCC Babs into the Modern Age and they drew...Ecology. I was forced to self-research Fission and had to start over my U.N. prebuild. That cost me about 8 turns, unfortunately.

My early game must have really cost me because with my 4-5 turn research from Astronomy onward, I felt that I went about as fast as one could go. I think not getting the Republic slingshot was a huge blow as I developed my core pretty quickly and conquered the Babs/Spanish island reasonably quickly. Also, not having the GLH to settle the outlying islands was a big blow.

I was QUITE disappointed in the AI Civs as they managed to only research Medicine (Bab's free tech) and Replaceable Parts in the IA. Even after consistently gifting the AI up to set them up for tech research, the other civs somehow got lost in the IA optional techs like Communism and their research seemed to crawl along for no discernible reason. They had been cranking before...

Well, I'm sure someone will be beating my score, as it was not great by a mile. Fun game, though, and I learned a lot about high-research games.

 

[Kool Keith]

First demigod victory!

Really not a well played game on my part, but the AI is incredibly stupid. So there's that.

Entry class: Open
Game status: Spaceship Victory for Netherlands
Game date: 1953 AD
Firaxis score: 3100
Jason score: 2280
Time played: 37:26:57

 

[Othniel]

First demigod victory!

Congrats! Always nice to get the first one out of the way.

 

[civ_steve]

But if they decide to make it a Deity pangaea with Portugal and surrounded by Shaka, Hiawatha and Xerxes ...

Thanks for the idea! Actually next month will take the difficulty level way down, perhaps Regent. From there we'll ramp up each month to December's big game, which will probably be Deity, maybe Sid. Prepare!

 

[Kool Keith]

Congrats! Always nice to get the first one out of the way.

Thank you kindly.

I've seen some players say to never give up on a game, that every game is winnable. That is sort of what happened here. I might have been cooked if I didn't have aluminum and uranium. That was a huge break.

That and the AI fell apart in the modern age. The rival civs started non-stop warring with each other and largely left me out of it. Smooth sailing to the finish line.

 

[silversheep]

This was my first ever GOTM and first time I tried demigod, so I'm so glad I won!

Entry class: Conquest
Game status: Diplomatic Victory for Netherlands
Game date: 1788 AD
Firaxis score: 3447
Jason score: 3403
Time played: 27:19:10

(For ancient/medieval age see my posts in the previous spoilers)

I got to the industrial age (sometime in the 13th century) fourth, after Portugal, India, and Maya. I was lagging in research at first, with India way ahead. I researched Medicine>Sanitation>Steam Power>Electricity>Scientific Method so I could build Theory of Evolution and catch up. I skipped all optional techs, including Nationalism. India started 1 turn after me, but I got Amsterdam to size 20 and mined all squares around it and finished first. I chose Atomic Theory and Electronics as my free techs. I did a lot of trading techs (my techs for gpt, Indians refused to give me techs) and resources, so I was getting many 100s of gpt, and resources and luxuries. I got coal from the Portuguese, and spent the next 20 turns building railroads.

Sometime around 1500 most of the other civs were battling each other; it was a world war! Portugal and India, the world powers, fought each other, and cities swapped back and forth. Other civs signed lots of mpps and military alliances and things got messy. I stayed out of it, peacefully building my country. I refused all MPP/MAs, and if some civ demanded something of me, I gave it to them. A couple times, cities were razed, so I rushed a settler over to plop a city down. The Babylonians destroyed the Spanish, India destroyed England, Portugal destroyed China, and France destroyed Egypt.

With lots of gold I had research at 90-100%, and after finishing Motorized Transportation, was the first to the Modern Age! I researched Fission and prebuilt United Nations with Battlefield Medicine. I got worried when Portugal got 25% of the land area, making it a contender for the leader. Then Aztecs suddenly attacked me for no reason! (what were they thinking? Longbowmen and pikeman vs. infantry and tanks?!) But other than Portugal and India, who voted for themselves, and the furious Aztecs who abstained, everyone voted for me! No surprise, because I gave them free and cheap techs, and always gave in to demands!

Well, I had fun playing my first GOTM, and I probably won't be able to do so again for a while: going on vacation, and school right when I got back! I did a QSC for this one, writing down everything was a bit tedious though.

Some pictures (sorry about the bad quality):

 

[Kool Keith]

Good job.

 

[Schalke 04]

And i thought i would have been the only newcomer to gotm

This all was very new to me. First time for me to gotm, to archipelago and demigod, of course. I played a lot of monarch, and a couple of emperors before. So i tried to get an extra challenge and gave this one a try. And i'm very proud to say, that my efforts payed off and i could win this game
I submitted my save file one or two weeks ago, and started immediatly gotm69, so i don't remember my jasons score. My Civ score is 7367 in the conquests class.

I finally won by domination. I didn't need to go to take the landsite of the strong egyptians and the mayans for this. Capturing all of the other civs was enough for the 66%-barrier. I choosed communism as the government for my dutch people, which became very powerful in the time. I had dozens of low corrupt metropolises, which made the glorious dutch empire a production powerhouse.

I spent 71 hours on this game, and i think i will not play a gotm again, which is above emperor, at least for the next time.

My final worldmap is attached here:

 

[silversheep]

Good job.

Thanks!!

 

[sirdanilot]

Thanks for the idea! Actually next month will take the difficulty level way down, perhaps Regent. From there we'll ramp up each month to December's big game, which will probably be Deity, maybe Sid. Prepare!

Ah, Regent, now we're talking !

As for the December game, I guess I am going to try for the red ambulance then...

 

[supersova_SU]

Domination
1450 AD
Jason 7402
Time 51:46:28

very difficult game !...