COTM52 - First Spoiler

[mc-red]

@Piu Freddo:
Because i was so late to becoming a republic i built most of my settlers in despotism in six turns with a warrior in between but remember not being able to come up with a four turner for a few more in republic.

I was one short from my calculation as follows:
assume 4 food in bin and size 5
One turn size five +6 food and 5 shields 3 irri fp, mined gold, irri plain
two turn size six +5 food and 7 shields above + roaded forest
one turn size seven +4 food and 10 shields
if settler produced then i am back to start of the loop but i am one shield short so it doesn't work.

I am not clear how the factory should work in your post:
assume no food in bin and size 6
two turn +5 food and 7 shields
two turn +4 food and 10 shields
for a total of 34 shields
but end at size 5 with 8 in bin

You said surplus shields were 1 so I know I am missing something key.
Also if the settler is produced at size 7 with 10 food in bin does the pop size go to 6 with 0 in the food bin?
Sorry if the answer is obvious just trying to improve my game.
regards

 

[Ninja Flick]

Open, going for domination or conquest.

Got off to a rocky start, as my capitol was struck by disease not once but twice right before my second settler was created. Then a little barb problem that destroyed my first barracks a couple turns before completion set me back again. The only bit of luck I did get was that my warrior made it past the choke point and I managed to get in touch with most of the other civs.

I recovered fairly well and went full-bore into military production. Also got the philosophy slingshot and a quick republic (love that one-turn anarchy). By the end of the ancient era, sometime a couple hundred years BC (I wasn't paying attention too closely), my archer and swordman stacks have made a huge dent in neighboring Hittite...land. While my victory date (assuming things don't go all to hell) will suffer a bit for having early difficulties, I think it should be a respectable finish.

Unless I just jinxed myself. In that case I should be dead by the time I get knights.

 

[Più Freddo]

remember not being able to come up with a four turner for a few more in republic.
[...]
I am not clear how the factory should work in your post:
assume no food in bin and size 6
two turn +5 food and 7 shields
two turn +4 food and 10 shields
for a total of 34 shields
but end at size 5 with 8 in bin

You said surplus shields were 1 so I know I am missing something key.

We start at size 5 with no food in the bin. We work (surplus fpt/spt)
City Centre: 2/1
Three Flood Plains: 3 x (2/0)
Mined Mountain: -2/3
Forest: -1/2
For a sum total of 5/6

The next turn we grow to size six in the interturn and the Governor kindly selects another Forest for us to work, since (a) we have selected, although the Governor does NOT manage citizen moods, that he should go for production and not for food or commerce and (b) we have a food surplus of four or higher. Having no selection by the Governor is probably the same. Having a food surplus of three is tricky, then commerce usually decides which tile will be used. At a food surplus of two there's only one way to have the Governor select a Forest, and that is that there's no single tile with a food surplus over one available at all.

So halfway we have 6+6+2 = 14 shields and no food in the bin. We now carefully every time move the new citizen from the second Forest to the irrigated Plains tile. That provides one more shield per turn for food balance. We now get 7 shields on the third turn and then perhaps 9 as we grow to size 7 and produce the Settler with 14+7+9 = 30 shields at the beginning of the turn. In fact, we get 10 shields because the Plains City Centre tile gets another shield as the Town grows to a City. So the real answer is 31 shields, whereof one is an overrun. But this is not visible, since the Settler is produced and two citizens removed before the interturn ends and we can have a look-see.

And for this factory, the Governor selects exactly the right tiles for us at size 5 and we can start over again.

Also if the settler is produced at size 7 with 10 food in bin does the pop size go to 6 with 0 in the food bin?

No, as the city grows to size 7 it immediately produces the Settler and goes back to size 5 with no slice of toast in the bin.

But is does grow to size 7, so if you don't have fresh water, it doesn't work.

 

[mc-red]

@Piu Freddo:
Brilliant, I never really understood the concept of growing and then shields being computed in the inter turn.
Great explanation

 

[Chamnix]

Predator class, going for conquest (but stuff happens…).

I started with worker southwest. It wasn’t obvious what the best place to settle was, but if it is not clearly better to move, then I settle in place. Delhi built 1 worker then nothing but settlers, the first aided by a chop of the grassland forest praying for a bonus grassland. The fact that my capital has been captured twice within 20 turns in recent XOTMs didn’t make me feel like I had to build military this game.

Since I had essentially no exploration when my first settler came out, Bombay ended up going to the northeast on the coast – about the only place around without a food bonus . It built a warrior first to find other city sites (and then get killed by the first barbarian he met), then 2 curraghs to sail around the continent in each direction followed by another warrior who was also killed in his first barbarian encounter .

Research was directly to the Republic slingshot completing Philosophy in 1500 BC. After that, research stayed off until the AI had reached the Middle Ages. Once in Republic, Delhi operated as a 4-turn settler factory without a granary – I just had to cash rush most of the shields.

Between 1250 BC and 1000 BC, I created the usual web of alliances tied with peace treaties, including an alliance against France with the Hittites, so they would declare on me. Meanwhile, I had built a couple archers before I had horses connected, but eventually everywhere built horsemen.

QSC:

8 cities
28 citizens
10 workers
3 archers
2 curraghs



The Pyramids build is a prebuild for the Forbidden Palace.



The Sumerians were the first to provide war happiness in 1000 BC. England joined in 800 BC letting me out of 14 gpt in payments to them and then Portugal in 530 BC.

The Hittites and the Portuguese completed Currency in 550 BC to enter the Middle Ages. I bought Currency from the Hittites in 510 BC to enter as well.

 

[ignas]

Open, going for a militaristic victory

Worker SW, after seeing nothing interesting settled in place.
Worker irrigated 2FP's and cut the forest(to aid with settler production), then irrigated the 3rd FP to get +5fpt early on.

Capital built warrior, settler, worker and then a settler every 8 turns without a granary.

After noticing we are in the far east warrior went to scout west. Luckily it found a choke and met other tribes pretty fast (except Sumerians).

After seeing 5FP's in capital' radius research was set straight to Writing to get a better government - Republic ASAP(learned in 1525BC) to eat more food.

The second town, Bombay, was founded near FP wheat and produced workers early on. 3more towns were settled tightly in the south around floodplains to get as much food as we can get.

Built no granaries in this game. Once in Republic one town was producing +10fpt(settler every 4 turns with the help of shortrush), 3 towns +7fpt(6turn settlers/3 turn workers) and one +5fpt.

We were high on food but low on shields. So after discovering Republic research was turned off to help with rushing. Research was turned back in 1000BC to learn Currency and Construction in 9 turns. MA entered in 775BC, still lacking contact with Sumerians.

QSC stats:

11towns
31 pop
2 settlers
14 workers + 2 slaves
1 barracks
6 contacts
few embassies and a treasury with 500+ gold

Had one early war (3050BC) which netted us a slave from Hittites - I simply declared war and captured a worker which was sent home.

Plan is to get Chivalry ASAP and conquer the world with Elephants.

 

[Scratcher]

Open class.

I didn't take any notes as I have started this game late and want to try and finish, which will be probably fruitless.

The worker moved SW but no further bonuses were seen. I settled in place and built warrior, warrior settler granery. The granary was delayed as I needed to trade for pots from the Hittites who were discovered very early (3550bc). My early scouting warrior did not spot the landbridge to the main continent so contacts with other civs was delayed until curraghs were sent forth. Even then the curraghs wasted many turns scouting the southern sea before realising it was a dead end. I think I only had contacts with the Hittites, Vikings Summeria and France by the end of the age.

I researched directly for the republic slingshot and changed governments immediately. I eventually entered the MA around 500bc. The Hittites declared war while I was still in expansion and was militarily weak. This was quite a long affair but only consisted of skirmishes, killing off the few archers sent my way and destroying their town covering the source of iron. The Hittites were stupid enough to declare a second time but by now I had barracks and a steady production of horses and slowly pushed them back towards their capital. The war was still ongoing as I entered the MA.

The plan is to get to Chilvalry, upgrade my horses to War Elephants, trigger a GA and swarm onto the continent. Hopefully I will get a World War going to whittle down the AI units and I will probably go for a conquest victory, although the high food makes settlers easy to rush, so a domination may be my choice if pushed for time.

Scratcher

 

[TxCraig]

(A raging barbarian named Ike ransacked my capital city. Destroyed the Walls, but no damage to the Palace. Ike took the Coal Plant offline for almost two weeks, and damaged the Mass Transit System and Recycling Center. Fortunately, our civ is pretty tough, and we are back on our way to all the victory conditions.)​

Open, going for dom or conquest for a change of pace.

I really enjoyed the War Elephants. If I could have stopped building & researching, the game might have been over a lot sooner.

I really appreciate everyone's writeups. If I could ask, when & where did you build the Forbidden Palace? I put mine about 10 W of the capital because it had a nice ring of Hittite cities around it. Where did you put yours?

Research: Normally I would have done max research on Pottery, but this time I started off on Writing at min, hoping to trade CB for Pottery. Of course, the Hittites already had CB, so I ended up buying Pottery. I got the Republic slingshot so much later than everyone else (1025 BC), so I probably should have researched Pottery at max.

Hittites settled on a choke point. I too forgot about pangea and built curraghs.

Hittites plopped down next to the iron, like in Paul's screenshot, so I never built swordsmen. I ended up going without iron & saltpeter for the longest, but previous xOTMs have taught me how to cope.

4000 BC Settler SW. Worker W to irrigate & road FP.
3750 Warrior moves to the mountain & sees Incense. Warrior moves west in search of Pottery.
3600 Contact with Hittites. Worker moves SW to next FP, toward incense.
2550 Bought Pottery from Hittites for 64 gp + 6 gpt.
1750 First barb sighted to the SE.
1700 Finish Writing, start CoL at max (18 turns).
1250 Finished CoL; started on Philosophy (10 turns).
1025 Learned Philosophy, got the Republic slingshot!
875 Trade Philosophy + CoL + 8 gp for BW & Wheel from Hittites.
825 Trade Rep + 56gp + 5gpt for WC + Masonry + IW + Mysticism + MM from Hittites.
730 Massive barbarian uprising.
450 Contact with England.
10 BC Completed TGL.
AD 10 TGL gives us Monarchy, Feudalism, Engineering. Entered MA.

1000BC stats: Only 6 cities, pop 15, 1 temple, 1 granary, 5 workers, 7 warriors. I'm not sure why I am so far behind. I think I am building too many warriors and not enough workers.

Barbs ate two workers and one settler.

 

[Lanzelot]

If I could ask, when & where did you build the Forbidden Palace?

I have a screenshot of my core, but it's from the Middle Ages, so can't post it here. See Spoiler #2.

Lanzelot

 

[Yilar]

Open class.

Started off with warrior which went scouting, found hitties pretty early and went around but took me a while to get through. I got contact with everyone but france and sumer (couldnt find them).

Went straight for republic and got it at 1450bc, where i switched. Traded for all techs except writing, code, phil, currency, lit and construction. And for the first time ever one of the AI's estabalished an embassy on me
Entered middel ages one turn before AI in 900bc.

QSC:
To late to submit

But stats would have been:
All AA techs, but monarchy and construction
8 cities
35 pop
3 settlers
10 workers +1 slave
3 warriors
6 contacts +1 embassy
198 gold