COTM56 - Final Spoiler

[Yilar]

Entry class: Open
Game status: Domination Victory for Aztecs
Game date: 10 AD
Firaxis score: 7030
Jason score: 11968
Time played: 04:57:34

Well this was rather easy. I just missed the bc win again, I had to wait for an enemy civ to complete the ToA again . I couldn't find the Dutch, so conquest was out of the question, but if the dutch hadn't been on an island I could have won on conquest earlier. Maybe I should try building it like Neo666 next time we get such an easy domination map.

Finished with 81% land and 96% pop hehe . France wouldn't grow his cities and for whatever reason and my units kept failing on Paris till the very end. So France survived the enslaught, I killed a couple of civs at the end cause they hadn't grown to size2 or expanded their boarders in time.

I do wonder if I even needed knights. I had 37 horses and 29 knights at the end and I was primary building horses as I didn't have any cash to upgrade, ww is a pain in the ass if you don't handle it correctly. Also I figured out I should have gifted republic to the enemy before I attacked them, them poprushing away their pop sucked

 

[Kulko]

Kulko, even though I didn't do nearly as well as you did, I did one thing this time that really helped fill in unused space was capturing the ToA and not let it go extinct.

Well being regent the AI proved unable to do anything useful at all. I am not sure the ToA was build while this would habve been helpful in my game. The only wonder the AI finished that I got to use for a while was the SoZ and it probably made more trouble (I had to kill 5 ACavs and produce 4 myself) than it was worth.

Also I am wondering more, what the correct thing wopuld have been to handle the whole problem. I "wasted" 2 Core cities spamming out settlers and waited for several expansions to avoid razing, just to have 100 extra towns which produced the grand total of 10 Settlers before the game was over. Of course they also helped a bit with research, but I doubt it was notable.

On the other hand not building them means lots of empty spaces for Barbs to spring up, so you need more military units to patrol your borders. If you go for conquest I wonder what is the best startegy for this problem.

Thanks for the flowers about my finish date, but if you look at both Dom victories you see there is still a lot of ground to cover. Because of the dutch this scenario wasn't inviting for conquest, which is exactly why I chose it, but had I gone for Dom I would have lost by 40 turns at least.

 

[TheOverseer714]

Duplicate post.

 

[TheOverseer714]

Yilar is scary good, so not beating him is no shame. As to Neo666, same thing. You come within 5000 points of either of them, you are doing pretty good. I think Conquest is a viable option for finishing first in a type of VC award, but overall, fast Domination tends to win the gold medal. Work out some bugs and you might just get the gold. I'll never see a medal, but I can always use these XOTMs to boost my private game. My personal goal is to hit 10k Firaxis on a standard map and it not be Histographic.

 

[Racinante]

Nice finish Yilar, how did you make the animated gif?

 

[Yilar]

Nice finish Yilar, how did you make the animated gif?

Run Civ Assist 2 in the background doing game.
Goto "World Map" tab
Right click small mini map and click "export multiple minimaps" (if it is blanked out click the "archive" button first).

Then it creates a neat gif picture which you can upload onto the internet

 

[Spoonwood]

My personal goal is to hit 10k Firaxis on a standard map and it not be Histographic.

I recently did that in a non-GOTM game. I didn't have any native luxuries and really didn't have much motivation for markets until the industrial ages either, as I had poor luxury opportunities. There do exist more conquest and domination games that way (and some 100k games) in the HoF for that, but in terms of playing time at least... it might work out easier to go diplomatic. Then again, you'll need to play with a quick tech pace and trade fairly well.

 

[Andronicus]

20k victory in 1485 AD

Culture builds
Palace 3950 BC
Temple 3050 BC
Oracle 1400 BC
MoM 1200 BC
Library 1175 BC
Great Library 900 BC
Colosseum 875 BC
Pyramids 650 BC
Cathedral 610 BC
Hanging Gardens 390 BC
Uni 270 BC
SoZ 110 BC
Shakespeare's 250 AD
Sistine 430 AD
Newton's 550 AD
Copernicus' 670 AD
Heroic Epic 690 AD
Bach's 770 AD
Universal Suff 840 AD
Wall St 850 AD
ToE 900 AD
Smith's 950 AD
Pentagon 960 AD
Leo's 1020 AD
Hoover 1090 AD
UN 1200 AD
Lab 1220 AD
Apollo 1230 AD
SETI 1285 AD
Internet 1325 AD
Cure Cancer 1360 AD
Battlefield Med 1365 AD
Longevity 1395 AD
Manhatten 1420 AD
Mil Acad 1435 AD
Intell Agency 1450 AD

I await to see if Ignas can beat Lord Hamster's best COTM 20k date of 1460 AD. This was certainly a strong site for 20k game.

 

[Spoonwood]

Nicely done Andronicus... especially since you didn't have any SGLs.

 

[Kulko]

ToE in 5 Turns!

 

[Andronicus]

ToE in 5 Turns!

Well, MM paradise (or hell depending on your perspective) growing and shinking the capital.
I kept a bunch of 24 workers on duty for the capital from onset of railroads till end of game. These ensured 1 turn pollution clean up as well as minimising wastage of shields. On final turn mined tiles were irrigated until there would be no wastage if pollution hit the highest shield producing tile (4 shields). During rushed builds (cash rushed buildings and leader rushed small wonders) I built up the food storage to max with irrigating everything so I could mine everything and run max shields, but food shoirtage, during wonder builds.

I made a few mistakes, particuarly not getting Shakes early enough. On a coastal 20k site it is not so critical as typically it only adds another 4 or so shields, here it added at least 8spt IIRC (from 27), so significantly sped following wonders. This would have allowed me to build KT as well which I missed by 1 turn to Portugal (in Sun Tzu cascade). I had MM'd to build KT just as industrialisation researched so could then get immed factory and coal plant, but this required change to Cops and delayed my factory increased shield production. Running short of time in modern age I didnt bother leader fishing for the last few small wonders - I doubt it would have enabled me to get the extra 30 culture to finish 1 turn earlier.
I also had some ill luck - early disease in my worker pump slowed development of the capital (not only do you lose 1 pop twice, but each time the governor set it to 4fpt so it took 3 turns to regrow the next pop not 2). Also had what felt like 100 elite victories before my first MGL (but I shouldnt complain having recently had MGL on first elite victory (the recent Roman COTM) and on this occassion the second victory was soon after the first). Finally when steam came in I found coal on about the only jungle tile my army of slaves had not roaded, took 2 turns to connect delaying RR in capital.

Looking at Ignas' culture builds it seems we built the same culture improvements to 270AD, though in different order with Ignas going for granary early. His earlier Shakes and HE would have put him some turns ahead at onset of industrial.

 

[Più Freddo]

Predator class
Going for Conquest

MONTEZUMA LOOKED OUT over the forested plains in the south, where
coyotes, chinchillas, otters and possums were roving, and thought that
could be a site for his capital, where two shields per turn would be
produced in the city centre. His Worker team he sent to the adjacent
Furs Forest with the purpose of cutting it down.

ONCE ARRIVED in the Forest, Montezuma saw Desert, a Hill and
apparently Flood Plains by the river. "Let's climb that Hill!" he
said. His people groaned. "You said we'd settle here!" "My feet are
aching!" Bingo! There grew Wheat on those Flood Plains.

MONTEZUMA was celebrated as a great leader and his Cihuacoatl, that is
First Counsellor, a fellow called Più Freddo, quickly made up plans
for something quite extraordinary: The Aztecs would use a despotic
Golden Age for a Warrior and Settler four-turn combo factory before
having mined ready for a regular factory. As it turned out, The
Republic was discovered just after the Golden Age, which made it
possible to collect 10 slices of bread per turn in Tenochtitlan.

TENOCHTITLAN was founded in 3850 BC and produced the following until 1000 BC

• Wealth
• A Jaguar Warrior for scouting and triggering the Golden Age
• A Granary
• A Worker
• A Settler
• A Barracks
• During the Golden Age: Five 3-turn Settlers and 1-turn Warriors
• Under Depsotism: Another 3-turn Settler
• Under Anarchy: nothing
• Under Republic: Three short-rushed 2-turn Settlers
• Wealth to grow and eleven 1-turn Workers
• A 1-turn Settler
• A Horseman

Cities

3850 BC Found Tenochtitlan
2630 BC Found Teotihuacan
2390 BC Found Tlatelolco
2230 BC Found Texcoco
2030 BC Found Tlaxcala
1910 BC Found Calixtlahuaca
1600 BC Found Tlacopan
1425 BC Found Atzcapotzalco
1375 BC Found Tzintzuntzen
1350 BC Found Malinalco
1275 BC Found Tula
1175 BC Capture Berlin
1000 BC Found Tamuin
1000 BC Capture Corihuayrachina​

Quick Start Challenge results

3 Cities
12 Towns
49 Citizens
10 Contacts
21 Workers
7 Slaves
4 Horsemen
3 Archers
3 Warriors
9 Swordsmen
2 Jaguar Warriors
9 Barracks
1 Granary
Horses, Iron, Furs, Incense
Missing Construction, Literature, Monarchy
QSC Score: 6675​

Research

4000 BC Discover Warrior Code
3350 BC Learn Pottery
3000 BC Discover The Wheel
2850 BC Learn Masonry
2850 BC Learn Bronze Working
2850 BC Learn Alphabet
2630 BC Learn Ceremonial Burial
2230 BC Discover Writing
2230 BC Learn Mysticism
2150 BC Learn Iron Working
1950 BC Learn Horseback Riding
1870 BC Discover Code of Laws
1675 BC Discover The Republic
1675 BC Discover Philosophy
1550 BC Learn Mathematics
1300 BC Learn Map Making
1200 BC Learn Polytheism
1000 BC Discover Currency​

Other news

3350 BC Meet Inca
3050 BC Meet America
2850 BC Meet Portugal
2630 BC Meet England
2590 BC Enter Golden Age
2190 BC Meet Mongols
2110 BC Meet Russia
2030 BC Meet Maya
1870 BC Meet Germany
1790 BC Exit Golden Age
1725 BC Meet Spain
1675 BC Establish Anarchy
1550 BC Meet France
1550 BC Establish Republic
0950 BC Build Forbidden Palace in Texcoco
0450 BC Build Heroic Epic in Tenochtitlan​

MONTEZUMA ATTEMPTED TO CONQUER the world without ever leaving the
Ancient Age. The MP Warriors were upgraded and a few more Swordsmen
built, since finding and connecting Horses took some time. The hope
was long high in the Aztec empire, that the Dutch would be found and
conquered as well, but suicide Galleys sank at sea.

350 BC Destroy Inca
350 BC Destroy France
250 BC Destroy Germany England discovers Construction
_50 BC Destroy Maya
_50 BC Destroy America
_50 BC Destroy Spain
_30 BC Destroy Russia
_30 BC Destroy England First sighting of Netherlands border
_10 BC Destroy Mongols Galley sinks
_10 BC Destroy Portugal​

AT THIS POINT, the whole home continent was Aztec. A few turns
earlier, once the Dutch borders at least had been spotted, it was
clear they couldn't be touched without another age of research. The
decision was made to make a very late switch to Domination. Montezuma
cursed the evil earth-god of civ_steve! More than 400 tiles were
missing.

Entry class: Predator
Game status: Domination Victory for Aztecs
Game date: 130 AD
Firaxis score: 6738
Jason score: 11811
Time played: 34:55:23​

 

[Yilar]

Not bad Piu.

I didn't submit QSC as the deadline is earlier for some reason.

But if I had I would have had:
1 city (cap)
11 towns
39 pop
10 contacts
14 workers
6 slaves
13 horses
3 jags
5 barracks
3 granaries
Horses, furs and silks hooked (yes I started my warroad fairly early hehe)
All AA techs cept monarchy. I entered MA in 1000BC, so I traded my way to mono to.

I'm kidda wondering why did you trigger your GA so early? I had 1 turn horses in cap when I entered GA when I attacked America in 900bc.

 

[greatbeyond]

Open class

Domination victory in 1010AD, Jason score IIRC ~9300

I had hoped for a much earlier Domination win, but this map took forever to settle and fill in. I expected some early finishes but was still surprised by what a few accomplished.
I went for a preliminary Archer rush followed by some Swords when they came in, and cut back Germany, America, Inca, and Spain.
I let things calm down a little, then when I got MI, it was back to war with the same AIs and I also threw in England and France. Most, except the Inca were cut back to just 2 or 3 cities. I continued to expand, and was dismayed to see around 0BC that I only had about 20% of the land.

I rushed to Chivalry and eliminated, Germany and America, followed by the Inca who took longer than expected. I had left the Maya to their own devices and they quickly became a cultural powerhouse. I started the war against them with my Knights, finally using a Jag to spark my GA ~400AD restarting research and finishing the Maya as I got Cavalry.
Then I eliminated the French and Spain. The Mongols who I had several fake wars with were next, then the Portuguese. I ended up having to take a few cities from the Russians for the win. I had thought of going for Conquest but learned fairly early that the Dutch were offshore and figured a Conquest would take a lot longer.
These kind of games are good for the ego after getting killed in the Deity game.

 

[Più Freddo]

yes I started my warroad fairly early

Very good! I sort of didn't get around to it. Partly because of my other mistake building only 11 one-turn Workers and not many more. Building an early war road cannot be underestimated in such a game. I'm ashamed.

I'm kidda wondering why did you trigger your GA so early?

Well, I thought it would be a funny experiment. Everybody is always complaining that an early GA is such a loss, especially during the REX. In this case, I had my factory ready very early and reached Republic very early. It wouldn't have made sense with say an industrious tribe.
It certainly wasn't out of carelessness, but minutely planned.

And it seems it wasn't so silly.

I had 1 turn horses in cap when I entered GA when I attacked America in 900bc.

I had one-turn Horsemen in my capital, too, at size 12. Admittedly at a deficit of 8 fpt. So two turns at +8 fpt, 19 spt for one HM, then two turns at -8 fpt, 30 spt for two more. 3 HM in 4 turns. But very late in the game. Again, far too few Workers.

 

[Norsk]

Run Civ Assist 2 in the background doing game.
Goto "World Map" tab
Right click small mini map and click "export multiple minimaps" (if it is blanked out click the "archive" button first).

Then it creates a neat gif picture which you can upload onto the internet

COTM56 was my first CivFanatics GOTM. Fun. Looked up Civ Assist 2 and downloaded; would like to try while doing COTM57. What do I do if it is blanked out but archive button is also greyed out?

 

[PaperBeetle]

Game: C3C COTM 56
Date submitted: 2009-02-01
Your name: PaperBeetle
Software Version: C3C 1.22 for Windows
Entry class: Predator
Game status: Spaceship Victory for Aztecs
Game date: 1255 AD
Firaxis score: 6176
Jason score: 11220
Time played: 112:05:44

The Ancient Age
I settled two population pumps on the flooding river, pushing out 14 towns during the QSC. Research was Pots and the Republic slingshot, as usual. I traded for Maths during the anarchy, and once in Republic quickly mopped up the remaining techs, to enter the medieval in 1075bc.

Recession Bites
Once in the medieval, my economy started to collapse under the weight of unit support. I was running the capital as a 1-turn worker pump in an attempt to get the land improved fast, followed by big population jump when the workers rejoin cities. However, there always seems to be more work to be done, so I never got around to the add-back, and the workers just kept on coming. I researched up the top branch of the medieval tech tree at about 12 turns per tech. I eventually stopped making native workers much later in the game, when I had over 200 of them!

Armies East
On entering the medieval I traded for Germany's free tech, Monotheism (Russia drew the same), gave them a desert town in which to spend the rest of the game, and then went to war, sending in horses. They didn't offer much resistance, so I was happy to send the horses further east into Spain, right after Madrid put up the Pyramids. I took Madrid, but it was harder going due to the heavy jungle cover which restricted my troops' movement. So when the Inca sneak attacked my western borders, I withdrew from Spain, resolving to finish the job later.

Armies West
The Inca were easily repulsed, and then dispatched, followed by their neighbour America. By now I had finished researching the top branch of the tech tree and was starting along the bottom at 4 turns per tech. The Mayans eventually came up with Chivalry, which I bought. Knights became my weapon of choice for the rest of the game, for no-one ever discovered Mil Trad, and of course the AI never reached defenders worthy of infantry/artillery war.

Reducing Russia
After claiming the western coast, I went back to finish off Spain. As my armies were in the area I lined up Russia next. I had just reached the industrial, so I gifted Cath and Otto up, trading for their free techs (both Medicine and Steam), but I wanted to curtail Russia's power before she actually managed to build some decent units. My minimal force of knights found the Russian towns still defended by spears, so it didn't take long to capture them all, leaving Cath a single town on the Dutch islands. Mongolia fell next, followed by Portugal and England.

Settling Down
I finished the conquest of the pangaea by knocking out the French, who had ancient cavs, and the Mayans, who had templars and a confused border with me as I had settled the southern peninsula on the Mayans east border. A couple of infantrymen kept me safe from any AI counterattacks, and pretty soon I was left with just the Dutch, and the two scientific city-states. I started re-arranging towns on the pangaea to maximise population, while building a wall of towns to gift to the Dutch, which would protect me from border-popping over the dom limit.

A Change of Heart
As I approached the modern era, it became obvious that I wouldn't need to build Internet, so there wouldn't be any uncontrolled border popping. No need for the Dutch towns then; I attacked Holland, reducing them to a single city on the smallest island. Then, once I had traded for the German and Russian modern free techs, I destroyed those two nations. Darwin was also arranged to complete as I entered the modern era, picking up Computers and Miniaturization.

Finishing Up
From there on, it was just cruising to space in 1255ad. I had maintained 4-turn research ever since starting on the bottom branch of the medieval tech tree, and given the exceptionally milkable map, I did the whole modern era at 50% science or less. So if only I had been able to research faster at the start of the medieval, I could have saved 5-10 turns on my finish date. The thing is, I never had a golden age. Somehow, I forgot about when I entered the medieval, and by the time I remembered, I realised I could do the rest of the game at 4 turns per tech without it, so I thought I would make a point of skipping it. This did cause me some trouble when completing wonders; I could never build Internet, and I had to keep gifting away cities with military wonders, and then taking them back later.

 

[Kulko]

Well that sure sounds like you made the Heptatlon and also like you are a crazy lunatic.

 

[PaperBeetle]

Well I hope so, but I haven't yet seen the result of the spacemaster himself, tao. I believe he has been responsible for every COTM space award that I didn't get!

 

[ignas]

Finally finished. This one was time consuming as I was trying to milk a bit while going for 20K in capital.

20K victory in 1460 AD
Firaxis score: 7738
Jason score: 12148
Time played: 51:04:56