COTM48 - First Spoiler

[Honda[SU]]

Interesting. Exactly the same date as I had settling in place and skipping Pottery. So moving the Settler and building a four-turner was certainly the stronger strategy. Well done!

But how did you find the right place!?

4000BC All over again the Worker has made a step on the south on flood plain. If I have constructed city at once the Worker would began to do irigation on this cell. I have looked round and have understood, that on other I protect the rivers a place for capital not worse. All also the settlers factory is impossible. Therefore I have decided to lose two courses and to go the Settler two times on the south. Suddenly the ground there is better. So, the decision is accepted... The Settler has made a step on the South as well as the Worker.

3950BC Now the Settler has made the first the second step on the south. If the place would approach, the Worker would began to do irigation. But the Settler has seen tops at two wheats. Therefore the Worker also has gone second time on the south.

3900BC Both units descended third time on the south. Near to this cell there were two wheats.

3850BC Launching site, but with the future settlers factory. AI to a Demigod have received one more bonus in three courses passed by me.

I think, that have made all correctly.

 

[The Professor]

This was the most painful COTM I've played... I DIDN'T enjoy the barbarians, thanks for asking, civ_steve. My main goal for the QSC was to have as many contacts as possible by 1000 BC. In reality, the first warrior/settler pair I sent to the west coast got wiped out by barbarians, and the next pair kept having to move to avoid them, so I didn't even have a coastal city established by 1000 BC. I also lost a worker to a barb horse that popped out of the fog before I had enough warriors to lookout on the mountaintops.

I researched Writing, then went directly for philosophy, I didn't figure it would be possible to get the Republic slingshot on DG. Obviously, the better players managed it. Took Literature as my free tech with a plan to get the Great Library. After Lit, I researched Pottery, then Maps.

All in all, not one of my proudest Civ moments.

 

[LTJG Perry]

WOW! My first attempt at GOTM. I usually play Emperor, all random, and I usually pull out some kind of win. I didn't submit this one either.
Raging Barbs on Demigod! Still I pulled the slingshot, picked LIT, built GL and researched REP. I didn't get a lot of use out of TGL , knowing only Spain forever. ( I did see Arab borders, but couldn't get to them as they were surrounded by massive stacks of fortified Barbs.) I controlled about 2/3 of the island when the "summer cottages" started arriving. TGL gave me the rest of Ancient Techs and MA techs up to Education, Eng, and Feudalism. Higher techs were waved in my face the next turn, ARG! Traded Republic for PP and a few gpt; it was all I could get - everyone but Spain already had it.
I didn't mind the foreign settlers, figuring they would flip, or provide easy targets that I could destroy and trade tech for peace. um... didn't happen. I took only one enemy city before I got trounced by an Arab-Spanish-Ottoman-Indian alliance.
I had no problems setting off the GA in Republic, but it wasn't enough. Now that I read the thread, I think that had I grabbed some coast and built curraghs and met some people my GL would have been more use, letting me build the markets and some decent mil units before the wars came. Another possible tideturner would have been settling the horses before they got claimed.
So, thanks for the challenge and the game reports, and I'll try again in June!

 

[TheOverseer714]

I think June will bring a huge Deity game, so many of us lower level players might not be in that one either. I might pick this one up again, now that my Byzantine Space Race game is over. Emperor is enough trouble for me, so I may not win, but I will try.

 

[mc-red]

I initially hated this game but it ended up being very exciting. I normally play emperor so this on open was a bit too much for me.
I stayed allied with Ottomons and India throughout and almost perpetually at war with spain and arabs. The engish i played both as an ally but also goaded them to declare on me so i could take tundra in north from them and also an oil island.
I managed to get a victorious army defending the island and build pentagon, heroic epic and millatary acadamy.
I was going for space when it was clear Ghandi was clearly going to win. I should have stopped research. I was running everything on building wealth trying to get to modern times and wasted 20 turns when the obvious way to win hit me.
I had perpetual right of passage agreements with ottomons and india. I could get a large fleet of transports laden with tanks, tank armies, and infantry armies to land in ottomon territory in three turns and using the rail network take karachi in turn four. Karachi was the choke point city between ottomons and india. This went without a hitch and i took control of the UN building. I immediately allied with ottomons, english, and spain against india who already hated ghandi and i had ghandi already at war with the arabs as well as enlgand and myself. I was pretty sure if i could hold on to the next vote i would win as ghandi would almost certainly abstain adn only spain vote for the arabs. I withheld the modern armor attack in th IBT and made it to next turn. THere was no vote so i hoped that I just hit next turn.
Ghandi launched IBT.
OUCH!!

 

[Andronicus]

Open class

Did you like the starting position or did you move elsewhere to found your capital?

Settled in place

By now you know that you are alone on your starting landmass, and its fairly large - were Barbs a problem at all?

Generally allowed barbs to sack empty towns with littl money in the bank - messed up once and a stack of7 horse sacked 179g. I think I lost 10-12 shields on 3 occasions and pop about 3 times as well. Also lost a worker to a careless move.

And has the AI intruded at all?

Not yet

Do you have (or plan to have) any off-continent possessions?

Still trying to settle the starting isle

And have your Dromons played a role so far?

Yet to build any (coastal towns built 4 curraghs (3 survive) and then started courts which are yet to complete)


4000BC Constantinople -> warr, warr, settler, worker, granary -> 2 turn worker factory till rep, then 4 turn SF
2710BC Adrianople by wheats -> granary, 4 turn SF
2630BC disease hits Constantinople
1990BC Writing
1575BC Caesarea on coast -> curragh
1425 Nicaea
1400BC Varna on southern FP -> granary (2 turn WF in republic)
1300BC Smyrna
1275BC CoL
1150BC Heraclea
1125BC contact France (down writing, dont trade)
1050BC Trebizond
100BC Meet Ottomen and see light pink border, but end on sea tile to avoid barb galley stack

8 towns, 18 pop
2 granaries
3 settlers, 13 workers, 3 warriors, 1 spear, 3 curraghs
Phil -> rep (free)

975BC
Revolt (4 turn anarchy)
curragh survives and meet Arabs - down Alpha!
trade for IW, CB, WC, Mas, myst, wheel from Arabs for alpha, writing and gold
trade for HBR from Otto for writing
trade for math from French for writing
trade for poly from Arabs for HBR and math
- France and Otto up curr + constr, all 3 up monarchy

925BC contact India and Spain
trade constr + 6g from Spain for writing
900BC
trade currency + 4g from Arabs for contr.
875BC
trade 24gpt + 104g from Otto for CoL
Incense conected
850BC
Chalcedon by iron
800BC
Massive uprisings as French, Ottomen and India enter MA
775BC meet backward England, get 276g for writing
trade MM, mon, 15gpt + 79g from India for rep
-> medieval ages getting free feudalism (which Ottomen already have)

Yet to decide on victory direction (except it wont be culture), most likely military, but have next to no military yet (no barracks). Have connected horses and iron.

One surprise, I was unable to get AIs to dow me despite making them furious with extravagent demands and my weak military. Only war I have observed so far has been France and Arabs with French doing best there.


__

 

[milr]

Playing open, I quit at the BC/AD flip. It wasn't fun getting that far, and no fun was in sight after seeing summer cottages and a tech mountain to climb.

I settled in place, and immediately began building a settler, while my worker mined and roaded the sugar field. The worker then joined the citiy to push the settler along. Settler went 3S as the best bet to find some grassland. I knew there would be lots of barbs for a while, and workers would either be picked off, or there hard work would be destroyed. Was pleased with what turned up there.

Capital produced spear, spear, worker for a while, and 2nd city produced mostly settlers. New workers improved 2nd city territory, spears protected them and the imrovements, and accompanied settlers. 3rd city was on western coast. By then, barbs were on the rise, and I built spears instead of curaghs, figuring AIs would find me, whilst the only (and last) thing my curaghs would find is barbs. Sigh.

In time, I was able to de-barb the western area with cities, while slowly expanding south and north. Spears that escaped settlements kept new settlements from forming to the east. By BC/AD flip, I had de-barbed the north with settlements as well, with help from western settlers.

Worst barbs I've ever encountered. At one point, I had three barb sinks (like heat sinks, only drain off barbs instead) going at once! Settlers had 2-3 spear escorts, who ran for the hills once the city was planted. Whenever possible, I planted cities next to barb settlements, as I only built spears, knowing I'd lose anything else. Hadn't found iron by the time I quit, and prior experience said regular archers couldn't get the job done.

Gotm_79 arrived to my great relief, after I tried other post-challenge starts to Cotm_48, none of which did as well as my original attempt.

I expect I'll re-visit this challenge periodically to improve my game. I think the rampaging barbs at this skill level make the worker->join->settler start a viable stategy, but waiting for AIs to meet me isn't.

 

[Honda[SU]]

1000BC - QSC and 775BC - MA
Barracks - prebuild for Library
Courthouse - prebuild for MM (570BC)

 

[Chamnix]

After reading these spoilers, I really regret skipping this game - looks like it was quite a challenge .

 

[Neo666]

Open, going for conquest or domination

I’m making this report by memory with some help of civassist2, so I’m probably not very accurate (I just can’t get myself making notes!)

The beginning
Moved the worker south, spotted another sugar and grassland. I thought the starting location was pretty crappy and remembered a post by civ_steve in which he said something along the line of; “how higher the level the better the starting location”, so I decided to also move the settler.
2nd turn: moved the worker again, hoping to spot a better location. After gazing for 5 minutes I was pretty sure I spotted wheat! So I again moved the settler along.
3rd turn: my fog-gaze was correct. Lovin’ the food-wealth, 4 turner here I come! Moved the settler again.
4th turn: settled and moved the worker to the wheat. Started on pottery (and an attempt for the republic slingshot after that) and building a warrior.

After building a worker, a couple of warriors and a settler I started on the granary. The 2nd city was located in the west to create another settler/worker producing city. The third was located in the south for warriors and curraghs.

2nd phase of the ancient age; meeting the others
Scouting + expansion to the east went really slow because of the anoying barbs so it took a lot of time to explore the entire starting location, because of the sea-faring trait I could keep my curraghs alive for the most part, my first curragh met the French around 1800BC and Arabia in 1700BC, decided to not trade writing at first so I could go for the slingshot. After meeting the Ottomans in 1425BC and being 2 turns away from code of laws I decided to trade, ending up with masonry, the wheel, iron working and mathematics. Only down warrior code and CB. Started on philosophy in 1375BC. I met the Spain in 1350BC, trading for WC, CB, Horseback Riding and a lot of gold (around 150), now I’m up COL and only down Philo to Arabia. Met the indians in 1325BC (by now I was scouting with 3 curraghs).

The slingshot!
Discovered philosophy in 1200BC (first one), traded COL and philosophy around for poly, construction and lots of gold (I have 514 gold). I’m up at least Republic to the rest and only Arabia has MM. Revolution for a 5 turn revolt.

QSC
7 cities
25 population
74 land
671 gold
26 units (2 settlers, 10 workers, 11 warriors, 3 curraghs)
2 granary’s, 2 barracks
Technology: traded for MM, 8 turns remaining for currency.
Contacts: everyone

The rest of the ancient age
Was about killing some barbs, doing some more scouting and finishing currency, reached the Middle Ages in 800 BC