COTM53 - Final Spoiler

[civ_steve]

COTM 53 Final Spoiler; Game Submitted

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Lots of ways to play this one. Early war and go for a military victory are always options. REL and SCI give you lots of cheap cultural buildings for an 80K victory. And SCI is useful for UN or Space types. How did you approach and finish this game off?

 

[Più Freddo]

Predator Class
Going for a Domination Victory

AS THE BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION entered the Middle Ages in 775 BC, it
had just produced a Forbidden Palace and was a few turns into a Golden
Age under the Government of Republic. It was at war with its two
nearest neighbours, Egypt and Inca, which it was fighting with
Horsemen. Inca and Greece had entered the Middle Ages the very same
turn. Babylon was enjoying War Happiness from both its active wars as
well as from a more fictitious one against distant Arabia.

AT THE VERGE of the Middle Ages, the Babylonians had effortlessly
discovered Feudalism, as had indeed the Greeks also. The war against
Persia had not been formally ended due to the fact that two turns
still remained of the Alliance with the Aztecs. The Babylonian
scientists took off for a couple of sabbatical turns. By a provocative
demand for its troops to leave Babylonian soil, the Aztecs were lured
to declare war on the very last turn of their Alliance. War
Happiness reached new heights. After peace had been made with Persia,
it was happy to teach Babylon Engineering, quickening the movement of
Babylonian units. Research was restarted for Monotheism and Chivalry.
A library was erected in the city of Babylon.

IN THE VERY NEXT TURN, in 710 BC, also Greece declared war causing an
increase in War Happiness. Another Military Great Leader emerged in
Incan lands, who formed an Army. The Army was put on hold until
Knights could be produced to fill it. One turn later, improvements
around Babylon were finialised and Workers joined so that the city
would produce a Horseman every turn at size 12. The wars against Egypt
and Inca were coming to an end with the Golden Age, and as Chivalry
was discovered, research in Babylon also saw a final ending.

775 BC Discover Feudalism
730 BC Learn Engineering
730 BC Capture Cuzco
710 BC Emerge Military Great Leader
570 BC Discover Monotheism
550 BC Capture Thebes
470 BC Discover Chivalry
450 BC Exit Golden Age​

IN THE WAR against Greece, only one city was taken by Horsemen only.
Soon Knights in shining armour would succour their more old-fashioned
companions in their unfair fight against Hoplites. As Persia then
declared war, all six foreign tribes at once were at war with Babylon.
And they were all losing.

IF THE BABYLONIAN SENATE had only known how successful their armies
were, and how small the world was, they would never have started the
construction of The Temple of Artemis in Babylon in 370 BC. It was
scheduled to be finished in 25 turns and five turns later, in 230 AD,
through a massive spread of cultural influence, guarantee Babylonian
hegemony until the end of history. "It seemed like a decent domination
date at the time," was a commonly heard excuse in later times.

ONLY IN 130 BC, twelwe turns later, did Babylon realise its error and
turned the beginnings of The Temple of Artemis into a Statue of
Zeus. This in turn would with time produce a grand sum total of two
Ancient Cavalry units, both of which would never reach the front in
time to see a fight.

AT THE END OF HISTORY, many luxuries were connected and many a cheap
Temple rushed with cash. A cluster of Military Great Leaders created
two Armies and a Heroic Epic. Domination was achieved in the interturn
to 130 AD.

430 BC Connect Furs
270 BC Connect Ivory
270 BC Connect Gems
230 BC Capture Athens
210 BC Connect Silks
210 BC Connect Dyes
190 BC Connect Spices
150 BC Destroy Greece
_90 BC Destroy Arabia
_70 BC Emerge Military Great Leader
_50 BC Emerge Military Great Leader
_30 BC Emerge Military Great Leader
_70 AD Destroy Inca
130 AD Domination​

 

[TxCraig]

I went for broke, attempting a fastest-finish 20K. Instead I get the short bus this time.

 

[Scratcher]

580ad domination. No MGL's until very late.

Jason score 11040

 

[LTJG Perry]

Open
Game status: Cultural 100K Victory for Babylon
Game date: 1780 AD
Firaxis score: 3531
Jason score: 5832
area 40% , pop 45%

No Leaders Ever!

 

[axehaxe]

I've won this game in the 8,500's Jason score range. Felt good to whoop the AI's a$$ after the past few games that went bad.

 

[TheOverseer714]

I've won this game in the 8,500's Jason score range. Felt good to whoop the AI's a$$ after the past few games that went bad.

Amen, brother! I think your results were about where I ended up. I had so much fun with this one I did it in 2 days of playing. Here are the stats for my game:

Entry class: Open
Game status: Domination Victory for Babylon
Game date: 1380 AD
Firaxis score: 5387
Jason score: 8375
Time played: 16:20:05

I liked the small map with extra opponents, it made for a nice fast game.

 

[greatbeyond]

Nice job Piu Freddo. I knew that from the way my game went someone would have a very early win. What is even more impressive was that you did it on Predator.

I played open class and won in 1100ad with a Jason score of 9K+. I had hoped to win by 500ad but I think the AI ganged together to punish me for the way I treated them at the beginning of the game. Early wars started with the Inca, then Egypt, followed by Greece. in each case I probably played a little conservatively and after getting a few cities got peace. Around 100AD I was (hoping) to begin my final buildup when everyone but Arabia declared war on me. It was close and took quite awhile to fend off the masses. I had one city razed but took 1 of the AIs. I got peace one by one and at about 500AD I had to start building all over. Persia was a powerhouse and would be my last target. I worked as hard as I could to get to MT and started the final phase ~900AD first with knight's then Cavalry. I took all of Egypt and all but one of the Inca cities on the mainland. Then it was Greece's turn, wiping them out. A short rest to upgrade all knights to Cavalry and I took 7 of Persia's cities to reach the Dom limit.

The starting area was very poor production wise with all the plains, and this probably slowed things down considerably.

My research was very slow compared to others here as I concentrated on getting the military out. It seems that the better path was to develop first then attack.

I too didn't get any MGLs until late and I used it to build the FP very late, ~800AD.

 

[Sima Qian]

I had hoped to get a 20K culture win this time, as Hammurabi stereotypically does, but eventually I got fed up and settled for diplomacy.

I moved to the northwest to settle, immediately bonking myself on the head for not finding the two cattle that were directly north of the start position. The only consolation was that later on I'd get extra shields from the mountains and hills. I was also surprised to find that what I thought was a coast turned out to be an inland sea. It didn't prevent me from building Colossus, so it made no difference to me.

I remember cash rushing some early cultural buildings (library & cathedral I think). This allowed some extra turns to attempt some more wonders. I would've liked to get Hanging Gardens, but got stuck with Great Lighthouse instead. Being coastal also helped me nab Magellan's later in the game, though that was utterly useless as I never had any reason to build ships.

After getting steam power, I was annoyed that nobody had spare coal. I sent workers into Arabia to hook up one of their unconnected sources, but they had a swordsman fortified in there that wouldn't budge. Grr. However, at the time Egypt and Persia were at war, spilling most of their blood on Inca soil. The natural thing to do was to ally both of them against Inca, and eventually Egypt picked up the coal by Cuzco and traded it to me. Railroads at last!

Built the ape statues and got atomic theory & electronics, which were sold for pretty good profits to the AI. The gold accumulated was more than enough to fork over to Greece (along with ecology, my free tech), who were the first to get fission.

Aztecs got wiped out around that time, and the remaining AI were a bit too balanced to go straight for a vote, so I needed to somehow hurt Arabia and Persia while still getting their vote. Greece was the front-runner in tech, so I declared on Alex and got Abu and Xerxes to ally. The two of them got beat up pretty badly, and Greek mechs began to close in on my city. I baited a few of them with workers to buy some time while Persian reinforcements marched in.

Alex brought Cleo to his side, costing me a vote, but ultimately the Middle Eastern Coalition triumphed over the Greco-Egyptian Axis, 3-2, at the UN.

Entry class: Predator
Game status: Diplomatic Victory for Babylon
Game date: 1585 AD
Firaxis score: 2526
Jason score: 4991
Time played: 02:13:24

 

[Andronicus]

20k culture victory for Hammy in 1585AD
Could have been earlier, but I got beaten to philosophy by 1 turn. This meant I missed the republic sling shot, thus when GLib completed 2 turns later (having already built Oracle) I had the dreaded despotic GA. This gave me the grand bonus of 2 spt since all but 1 tile was already producing 2 spt. Egypt had Monarchy but wouldnt trade to me - I hoped GLib might bring it in, but eventually bought it with 5 turns left on GA and revolted still during GA. Research in Monarchy was slow which delayed getting to Shakespear (built in 600AD). Immediately revolted to democracy and research left AI in dust from then on.

Setled 1NW after first worker move revealed cow, then moving worker onto cow revealed second, finding 3rd after settling convinced me to go 20k.

Slow start as usual for 20k, although got early granary and 2 settlers out before starting culture. Spied Egyptian ivory on SE coast so sent an early settler there to poach it off Egyptians who already had it under their control and had thoughtfully roaded it for me. The subsequent ACs later came visiting.

Had a few hairy moments when the Incans sneak attacked me, I had seen the warning signs and was able to hold them off whilst allying Persia. Later Persia sneaked me whilst I was eliminating Greece, all my military being on the far side of the empire with no way to defend my Incan holdings. Persia had 13 knights I could count and I only had 3 units west of Babylon. I had to gift 4 towns to Aztecs and Arabs whilst allying them, so Persia was slowed taking these. However by the time Persia reached my core I had my armies (3 at that time) there and was able to retake the cities along with most of the rest of Persia.

 

[Spoonwood]

Impressive finish date for not having any SGLs Andronicus, and for not having The Colossus. Universal Suffrage before Bach's? Anyways, looking at your game I think what helped you finish fast came as having The Great Library early, The Statue of Zeus early, and The Heroic Epic early. Maybe I should consider building The Great Library even on Demi-god and Deity, instead of cramming in as many other ancient wonders as I can in fear that I'll lose them.

Myself, I played this as a 20k. I made it well into the industrial age and got attacked. I lost my 20k city for a turn or two, took it back, and then decided to give up, because I felt frustated and I felt I had spent too much time civving.

 

[Andronicus]

Impressive finish date for not having any SGLs Andronicus, and for not having The Colossus. Universal Suffrage before Bach's? Anyways, looking at your game I think what helped you finish fast came as having The Great Library early, The Statue of Zeus early, and The Heroic Epic early. Maybe I should consider building The Great Library even on Demi-god and Deity, instead of cramming in as many other ancient wonders as I can in fear that I'll lose them.

Thanks, though I believe a date of around 1500AD was possible with this awesome site (I think I recall an early 1500s victory in an Indian pangea game with a less powerful site some years ago). To get earlier I needed to be at Free Artistry much sooner so build Shakes by 350AD. My research was much too slow in Monarchy. I had a wasted GA and 2 revolts (at least we were religious). On the plus side early leaders allowing early heroic epic was beneficial.
US came before Bachs as I was hoping the AI would research Music (I did not want to delay getting to Industrialisation for factory and coal plant), but they never did. This caused me to spend 4 turns researching it resulting in 4 turns later getting to modern age wonders and 4 turns during industrial age where I had no culture to build. (all research was in 4 turns after revolting to Democracy).
I agree going for the highest culture per shield wonders first is generally the best policy - so early GLib and (if avail) SoZ are usually my aim - I have not attempted 20k on higher than emperor, perhaps I should.

Myself, I played this as a 20k. I made it well into the industrial age and got attacked. I lost my 20k city for a turn or two, took it back, and then decided to give up, because I felt frustated and I felt I had spent too much time civving.

Hard luck, balancing military and culture is always a challenge in 20k - was it a sneak attack?
I find 20k attempts tend to be quite time consuming, especially the latter parts which dont make all that much difference to finish date.

 

[Spoonwood]

Strange, I usually find 20k games quite fast... relatively speaking.

 

[Lanzelot]

A sneak attack by the Incans in 1525BC forced me to use one of my Bowmen. It was either that or loose a town, and the town was the one which would soon provide wine to my empire, so I decided to rescue the town. This resulted in a GA at 1525BC!!!! At least I had already 5 good towns erected at that time, so it was not completely wasted.

1275BC I got the Rep slingshot, waited one turn to have two units completed (still at war with Incans) and then spent two turns in anarchy (why do I always get two turns, when we are religious? Shouldn't it be 1 turn? I noticed this in all our religious XOTMs so far. Or do I count incorrectly?)
The Republic is established in 1200BC and I still have 7 turns of my golden age left...

But in retrospective, my early GA may not have been that bad, it allowed my some early military acquisitions: Cuzco was captured in 975BC and the Incan resistance basically broken. Usually I don't start any real military action before 500BC...! As a consequence I also got my Forbidden Palace much earlier than usual: in 190AD

QSC stats:
7 towns, 27 pop
5 workers, 2 slaves
6 contacts, 4 embassies
17 techs, (Currency under research, MM and Construction missing)
4 barracks, 3 libraries, a granary and a temple
wine, iron and horses

Entered MA in 900BC and got Feudalism (as did the Greeks and later the Persians )

Except for once I never had to declare war, always got attacked or got war via broken alliances... Also after our discussions in the COTM52 final spoiler I tried the horse-knight upgrade strategy for the first time. It really works great!

Babylon build the Temple of Artemis in 270 BC. After reading Più Freddo's report, however, I think this was a mistake. Later Babylon also tried to build Leonardo's, but in 290AD it was beaten by Tenochtitlan by a couple of turns . What to do with all those shields? The most expensive improvement at that point would have been a Cathedral, but because of all the war happiness and 8 luxuries hooked up, Babylon was already at 100% happiness (probably even at 200% ), so I thought I really don't need this. Instead I build a Knight. Probably the most expensive Knight in history...!

Not much luck with great leaders in this game: the first came in 320AD!!

The drawback of getting lots of dows was: I wasn't able to use RoP rapes in this game... Except for Egypt, where I took 9 cities in 380AD, all other acquisitions were "honest" wars.

Throughout the game the Aztecs were my true friend, ally and trading partner. I continued with a lone scientist after Chivalry and with their help got to Invention and Gunpowder. But neither one was any help: as I already mentioned, the Aztecs beat me to Leonardo's and while I did use a couple of muskets, pikes would have sufficed as well.

In 440AD there were 50 tiles missing for domination. I tried my best to scrape the last remaining tiles and thought there would be a chance to make it: there would be a couple of cultural expansions in the interturn, and I captured 4 new towns and I settled 2 new towns on the coast, which would give 2-3 additional coast tiles here and there. However, it was not to be: in 450AD two tiles were missing Here I really regretted that a couple of turns earlier I did not pay attention to an Egyptian galley approaching my undefended island town in the south west. They landed a single spearman on my island and then razed the town. Should have rushed a spearman on time, when I saw them approaching. Now I had to content with domination in 460AD and something like a Jason score of 11090.

After that game I thought, I would finally follow Paul's and Chamnix' "advice" and try my first Predator in the next game. But seeing now that COTM54 is Demigod, I beg your pardon and will chicken out again... For some reason I always struggled badly in the last few Demigod games (COTM48 was a nightmare, COTM49 was no better...) Deity on PTW seems much easier!

Lanzelot

 

[Yilar]

Entry class: Predator
Game status: Domination Victory for Babylon
Game date: 50 AD
Firaxis score: 11012
Jason score: 11926
Time played: 03:19:36

Continued from spoiler #1
After I entered ma in 1000bc, i got mono as my free tech. I gifted persia into MA and was lucky enough for him to have feud (or I would have gifted greece into ma to, it's nice with enemy sci civs hehe). I gave mono+200gold in exchange for feud and started researching chiv. I triggered ga right before i got chiv, i had built 15-20 horses, but only upgraded 6 before I went to war with inca. I went straight through him and attacked persia. At the same time I RoP raped egygt right after he finished zeus. Then I went for greece, who was a bit tougher since he had hoplites, many knights died But I had an army so it wasn't that bad I spied on the enemies building temple of artemis and found that mecca was finishing it shortly. So i waited for him to complete it and I captured Mecca the turn after it was built. 5 turns later I won with 72% land and 91% pop.

Btw... How do you make that neat picture replay thing??

 

[TheOverseer714]

50 AD...Awesome! 3 hrs and 20 minutes is amazing, also. Gold medal level performance.

 

[Paul#42]

Great Job Yilar!!

I had not enough time to play this time...
But I doubt I would have come anywhere close to this...

 

[Lanzelot]

Game status: Domination Victory for Babylon
Game date: 50 AD
Jason score: 11926

....

Btw... How do you make that neat picture replay thing??

Hi Yilar,
amazing! I think, results like these can be achieved only with a combination of "highly sophisticated skill plus a bit of luck", can't it...?

I'm a bit surprised about the Jason score, though. Your finish date is 410 years earlier than mine, but you get only ~800 Jason points more?? I would expect a score in the 13000s for a game like this!

Do you use CivAssist II ? PrinceMyshkin explained, how to do these animated gifs at the end of spoiler #2 for GOTM81.

Cheers, Lanzelot

 

[Lanzelot]

I had not enough time to play this time...

Come on, there have been four weeks and you didn't have 3h20min to spare at some point...?

 

[Yilar]

Yes, it does take quite a bit of luck. I only researched 7 techs through 130 turns of playing. And Artemis did give me the edge, if I had to build temples, I would have been in the same situation as Piu.

I don't use civ assist But for cotm54 I will try and post one of those neat gifs.