COTM46 - Final Spoiler

[TheOverseer714]

My game was, well, weird. I went into Monarchy instead of Republic. I played a 20k like a Conquest/Domination game. There was very little peace. I went after the Zulu first, they were weak and crumbled fast, except for their two swamp and jungle cities. Then the Ottomans, they were strong and took forever to beat. While working on them, the Hittites DoWed me but they never got far, despite their AC's. No match for Ansars. Then the Mongols joined the Ottomans. They were weak, I only saw 3-4 Keshiks. Then Russia joined in but the Hittites held the choke taken from Sumeria. Sumeria was the only AI that had any sense, they never attacked or DoWed me and were my allies on and off all the way. Then the Iroquois joined in. When all was said and done, I owned 95% of the doughnut, and there were only Sumeria, Russia and the Hittites left. At this point(~1000AD) I was at 45% land and 60% population. I decided to continue my 20k run, and was just going to be a peaceful builder, Fat chance! Mursi decided to redeclare. I enlisted Russia, and my cavalry, infantry and artillery killed them fast. Finished them off. Now I was at 70% population and 60% land. From there, every turn became about avoiding Domination, and I had a fire sale on cities, gifting Sumeria lots of junk cities. Then Russia got stupid. They started a war, and my tank crews had them for breakfast. I only kept 2 cities for myself, the rest (junk towns)were gifted to Sumeria and the good ones without wonders were razed. After that, I played whack a mole with Domination with my pet Sumeria getting many towns free. I never gave them too many good ones, and they were pretty well happy, only settling one town on their own. Overall, I was pleased with my final score, being my highest Firaxis....ever.

Final stats were:

Entry class: Open
Game status: Cultural 20K Victory for Arabia
Game date: 1856 AD
Firaxis score: 6937
Jason score: 6972
Time played: 79:44:06

Here are a couple pictures, for any that are interested:

Spoiler :

 

[Paul#42]

Game status: Conquest Victory for Arabia
Game date: 290 AD
Firaxis score: 8483
Jason score: 11462

With those settings a BC conquest was defintely possible. But way to late I realized the world's shape and rushed galleys in Iroquois territory to to ferry over my units for the attack on the Hittites.

ToA (Sumeria) almost had me winning by Domination where Andro would have beaten me by the smallest margin...
Pyramides (Hittites) I captured too late to think about 100k - I would have certainly missed the deadline, then...

I stopped research after chivalry, just took Engineering from Russia for 100gpt (dowed immediately to cancel the deal ) to travel the rivers - nevertheless our units needed five turns to the front...

 

[AlanH]

Deleted ....

 

[Paul#42]

20K victory, 1830 AD. I just can't seem to develop specialist farms so early in the game, allowing Modern Age entry in 1200's. Instead, I started Modern Era in 1650, and victory son followed.

No need to be quick to Modern Times in a 20k.
Most gain for 20k is made early in the game by getting the town up to size 12 quickly, building cultural buildings in the optimal sequence, deniing the AI the precious wonders (thus even delaying research if necessary) and getting to Shakespeares early.

You beat my date, but not my score. I wonder what gets the award? Earliest 20k or highest scoring?

Earliest 20k gets the award. Lowest scoring gets the shield. Most likely you'll get none of them... (unless killerkid played conquest variant).

 

[PaperBeetle]

Yeah, there's a delicate balance to rushing to Artistry as fast as possible, while keeping the AI away from techs which let them keep their big wonder builds rolling over ... Pyramids to Artemis to Sun Tzu to Michaelangelo to Leonardo, and even on to threaten Newton if you want to gift the SCI civs into the insutrial era for their free techs. So as soon as you hit Artistry, your next target is to get to Industry as fast as possible. Rails and a factory should multiply your metro's spt by about 3. Well now your metro builds stuff so fast that it is in danger of running out of culture builds during the industrial. Which is why you keep steaming on to the modern era.

 

[supersova_SU]

Open
Domination
300 AD
Firaxis score: 8500
Jason score: 11470

 

[Honda[SU]]

I'm sorry. Chamonix-Mont-Blanc is a realy ...

 

[killerkid]

I played open class.

There were lots of great games this time around, it seemed.

 

[Paul#42]

Open
Domination
300 AD
Firaxis score: 8500
Jason score: 11470

beaten by 8 jason points.
Your good luck (town, Alphabet from huts...) did not persist throughout the game?

I'm sorry. Chamonix-Mont-Blanc is a realy ...

I just realized Klarius did not submit this one.
I'd love to see what he'd do with those settings...

 

[Lanzelot]

What a week...!

As I wrote in the first spoiler, I originally wanted to go for Conquest, but then something happened, which altered my strategy completely: my second child was born... I managed to get another hour of play and was lucky to reach the domination limit appr. 5 minutes before submission deadline... Conquest would have taken quite a bit longer, as the Russians and Mongols had cities on remote islands, which I would first have to track down in the fog.

Just a few comments:

• Started my run for conquest quite late: around 200BC. But this had the advantage that Zimbabwe had just finished the Pyramids for me... This and the fact that I later got the Oracle and Artemis from the Ottomans had a very positive effect on my score: the Pyramids increased my population score, the Temple of Artemis my territory score and the Oracle my happiness score!
• My first game ever, where I razed the Great Library city, when capturing it... But I could not afford keeping it: the next turn it would have given me Theology and Education, thus invalidating the Oracle and Artemis... I had researched up to Military Tradition and did not need any more techs for reaching my goal. (I had needed cavalry, as some ASs had already gotten to muskets, so Ansars were no longer effective.)
• I had built very early temples in my core cities, around 15 or so. I never had any culture flip problems...
• When capturing the Pyramids, I sold all my granaries to get an immediate cash boost (appr. 200g, which is quite a sum at 200BC). So when I got the Temple of Artemis later on, I started doing the same with my temples -- and noticed something very interesting: in those cities, where I had a 1000 year old temple, the cpt dropped from 4 to 2! I stopped selling the temples, after I noticed this, though I don't know, whether the extra culture was really necessary for me. (Never had any plans for 100K.) The 2cpt may also have been enough to prevent culture flips. But if you go for 100K, this is definitely something to pay attention to!
• I had planned to set up a second core in former Zulu land, rushing the FP with my first MGL. -- My first MGL came at 550AD...! Somehow my elite Ansars/Cavalries always kept loosing to spearmen... I had one more leader around 740AD, but before the army it created reached the front, the game was over
• My first score over 10000! Never thought this was possible for me...

Enough for now, need to get some sleep... I have two weeks of vacation now, so perhaps I'll get some time to look at GOTM77 or COTM47, wish me good luck!

Lanzelot