COTM57 - Final Spoiler

[civ_steve]

COTM 57 Final Spoiler; Game Submitted

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Not likely, but did the German 4-move Panzer see the light of day, and if so, did it have any impact? Any final comments?

 

[milr]

Open, Space Race Victory 1768

With a huge tech lead, I was headed for space when I realized Uranium was in short supply, and I had none of it! Fortunately, Rome held it on my continent. Afraid of a coalition counter-attack and subsequent loss of Inca ROP should I make an early grab for the uranium I needed, I bided my time. As the moment approached when I was technically prepared to build the two space parts that required Uranium, and with a pre-build, a GL, and ROPs with the Inca and Romans, I positioned my MAs and a settler for a quick strike against the two Roman cities I needed to bring the needed Uranium ore home for the one turn I needed to complete the space mission. Mission accomplished.

 

[Racinante]

Continued wailing on the Incas until they were gone. Consolidated my position with an eye on Rome's luxuries. Finally declared war on Rome and had Germany sneak attack one of two towns on the other continent. Germany took the one and razed the other, leaving me with one town on the smaller island. I bring everyone on my continent against Rome and everyone on Germany's against Germany. I eliminate Rome and settle in for a trip to space.

No other civ made the Modern Ages when I launch in 1725 after deciding not to have a UN vote twice.

Entry class: Open
Game status: Spaceship Victory for Iroquois
Game date: 1725 AD
Firaxis score: 3915
Jason score: 5783

 

[Rustwork]

on my way to domination i first defeated the incans, then the aztecs, while at war with france. shortly before defeating the aztecs rome declared on me. for some reason they never built many legions and even with the great wall in rome i was beating them down, while continuing to fight on the other continent.

 

[Rustwork]

(i accidently posted before finishing, my longer edit doesn't seem to have posted either -- no energy to retype)

basically i should have been much more aggressive as i found the tech pace very slow and the other civs not as formidable as i had anticipated.

with the great lighthouse i could have stopped research after horseback riding. mounted warriors dominated the whole game. as it went i won before military tradition.

one surprising note is the total lack of barbarians. i actually thought at one point they may have accidently been set to sedentary. i don't remember seeing even one horseman barb on my continent. my assumption changed while trying to settle the far western island, as nearly everything that landed was destroyed by barbarians immediately, or within a few turns.

i ended with my best cotm finish yet, domination in 530 AD, surpassing 10000 jason for the first time. not sure if i am improving my play, or if this was simply an easy game. since i know of many mistakes i made, i usually play almost entirely emperor, and considering i don't have the patience for precise micro-managing i think this game went faster than i expected. maybe because last month was nearly unbeatable. keep 'em coming.

 

[Yilar]

Entry class: Open
Game status: Domination Victory for Iroquois
Game date: 10 BC
Firaxis score: 9844
Jason score: 12176
Time played: 04:49:47

So close and then I miss the highscore by some 45 pts .

Well this was a rather easy scenario, as predicted we had horses closeby and the additional wines made it a bit easy. I entered republic in 1500BC, did poly and gave it away to my neighbours and then turned off research. Started warroad early towards carth and inca and attacked them both around 750bc with some mw's. Inca was building ToA so I left his cap alone and just took the outside cities. I spotted the waterbridge and my curraghs survived the trip into the sea and made contact with scandinavia. I quickly realised that I had to capture cities on the other continents to get the bc victory that I had missed in the previously cotms. So I attacked scandinavia before rome, china and aztecs . The picture below pretty much shows rest of the game. France was amazingly weak and only built 5 cities! (sometimes building pyramids is not the answer hehe).

 

[daheat43]

Yilar, how did you make that cool gif? For some reason, the replay never works when I finish the game, so I'd love to have another way to view that animation.


__

As for the game, I love Conquests! This was my first game with the expansion. The ramped up units were fun, though the MW did make it more of a race to run over everyone than a strategy match.

I started a war against the Inca early because I was scared of an AI having iron. (I hate fighting swordsman. Maybe I got scared early on in my Civ3-playing, but the fear sticks.) The Incas were pretty weak, it turned out, so I rolled over them.

I was intimidated by Rome and their legionaries (having not fought them before), so I toyed with not declaring. However, with the Carthaginians on the other side, I figured knocking out Rome's iron was the best option. (Had to go conquest/domination, right? Couldn't let the MWs go to waste.)

Took Rome, which had just built Temple of Artemis. THAT is an unbalancing wonder! What do you guys think of that? Coming from Vanilla, I was shocked at how I could go from almost no culture to world dominating culture. Of course, it sucked when it went obsolete, but it set me up to never have to worry about a city flipping. I starved them all down, but still... never worried. Do you guys like this addition?

After Rome, I had MWs coming out all the time, so I just kept rolling through Aztecs and China. Even the Carthaginians weren't much of a match once I got around to them. When civs survived with one or two cities on another island, I just made peace and let them live.

I'd never actually finished a game before, so I had a little surprise when I found out I needed 66% population AND land. So I had to keep going. Wanted to kill the Persians because... I think actually because of a vendetta. Again, their immortals killed me once long ago, so I wanted them gone. Plus, I think I wanted them gone b/c they had the Great Lighthouse and were close to my capital. It was slow-going to kill them, but I did. Also ran over all the Vikings in that time without much trouble. They didn't have Berskerers yet. That made things easier but was a little disappointing since I'd never seen the Vikings UU (and still haven't).

It was fun to race over a whole continent, and confidence-inspiring to win with such a fun UU. It's amazing to look at all the purple on the map and all those cities... having never completed a game before, I've always looked at your maps and wondered how you did it. Thanks to all you forum sages, btw... I've been reading war academy stuff for a while.

This is my first post with smiles also. I think they rock. I've probably gone a little overboard, though. Anyway... great game.

 

[Più Freddo]

I entered republic in 1500BC, did poly and gave it away to my neighbours and then turned off research.

What about the Forbidden Palace?

 

[Yilar]

I had a prebuild for the great lighthouse going when I realized there was no need for it, so I switched, instead of wasting the shields I had invested I built forbidden palace in "Grand River" (NE-NE-E of cap) in 650BC. I think the forbidden palace is rather useless for quick domination games. It might decrease overall corruption, but the time it takes to build also means you fall slighty more behind in the race to behind the war. The earlier you start a war the less resistance you meet, and thus the advantages of building the forbidden palace is very limited. At least that is my experince.

 

[Yilar]

Yilar, how did you make that cool gif? For some reason, the replay never works when I finish the game, so I'd love to have another way to view that animation.

Gonna quote myself from the COTM56 - Final Spoiler

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

 

[krakedhalo]

Entry class: Open
Game status: Conquest Victory for Iroquois
Game date: 800 AD
Firaxis score: 7618
Jason score: 10474
Time played: 15:39:42

Rolled over Inca with MWs around 400BC, getting the Oracle in Cuzco, for all the good it did me. I wasn't shooting for any particular Victory condition early on, but wanted to play with the Mounties a bit, so I sent them on to Azteca to see what 5 or 6 of them could accomplish. Turns out 5 or 6 of them could take all of the Aztecs' cities without sweating. That netted me a couple of leaders and the Pyramids, very handy. China was second in tech (behind me) and getting stronger. I didn't want to see 4-move riders, and they had just gotten Feudalism but didn't have iron, so I kept sending MWs on and decided any victory I got would be faster if I owned the whole continent. China left quickly, but I had to take a few turns to send units back to Rome. Rome had nothing of interest, but I kept the cities to be science farms. Carthage actually put up quite a bit of a fight - I had to make peace for a few cities. Broke it a few turns later and finished them off, plus the last cities of Aztecs and China on the frozen north islands, all in one turn in 500ad.

I decided the game would be over faster if I went for military, and with all the scientists I had, MT had just come in. Upgraded everyone, bought some boats, and went to town. Allied Germany against Scandinavia while a southern force landed on the France/Persia border. I brought in France v. Persia. Scandinavia lasted all of about 3 turns, and immediately I flipped on Germany. I was confused a few turns later when I took the last German town and they were still in - I hadn't seen the mid-size island in the NE. 0% science with sci farms was still turning out 5 turn research, so I got navigation and world maps. When it was France's turn, I set up a pile of cavs outside Paris, which had GW. EVERY CAV died against their musketeers. That was not the plan. So that took longer than expected. Still, quick end to the game.

Nowhere near what Yilar and some of the other high rollers around here, but my first 10k Jason score, so I'm happy.

 

[daheat43]

Thanks, Yilar.

 

[Sima Qian]

Aside from manipulating the AI's into wars, I played a rather low key game this time. Whenever I got into a war, I'd RoP with the Inca and let them take care of any enemies that showed up.

Germany got Rocketry as the free tech. Persia had just made it to the IA when I left it, so I gifted them and they got Fission (yay). I barricaded myself in the capital, then sent a final DoW to the Inca and signed up everyone else for the alliance.

Incredibly, all the AI's survived to the bitter end. Hiawatha won the UN vote, 9-1.

Entry class: Predator
Game status: Diplomatic Victory for Iroquois
Game date: 1705 AD
Firaxis score: 1603
Jason score: 4144
Time played: 03:23:39

 

[templar_x]

playing open class
vc: conquest in 330ad
Firaxis score 8524
Jason 11475

i settle in place and research writing

irrigate bonus wine, road, move to bg SW, mine+road

pop the first hut for 25g, pop 2nd hut for 3 barbs
have to change build to warrior and lose shields, then granary
builds w-w-worker-granary

next hut gives “skilled” warrior
meet Inca, they lead by MAS and CB and 1 town – wow, the next turn they learn lot of techs (BW, TW, WC)!!
research writing -> CoL
2510bc: meet Rome, same techs up
build 1st settler-curragh-worker-warrior-settler-settler-...
2390 found Niagara Falls as 2nd wine city
2230 meet China, trade Alpha-TW
1910 meet Carthage, trade TW for gold
AIs do some astonishing research in the AA, Maya even has Lit! in 1790bc. 1675 meet Aztecs, trade CB for gold

Rep slingshot in 1600bc, finish a few workers and revolt in 1500bc, become a Republic in 1400bc
meet Vikes in 1325, they are backwards, meet Germany in 1175.

QCS 1000BC:
Rep
11 cities
pop 40
currency in 2
1 settler
15 worker
2 slaves (bought)
know 7 out of 9 civs, meet the rest in the next turns
2 4-turn settler factories up and running, 1 2-turn worker factory (2nd under construction)

still undecided whether domination or conquest, it´ll turn out which one appears more feasible. depends on speed of progress and ToA.

975 horses connected
950 meet France and Persia, 2nd continent is backward
embassy with all nations
trade Rep around and instigate wars
reach MA and research FEUD first
900 iron connected, had started FP build in iron town some time ago
800 2nd 2-turn worker factory ready

French build Pyramids on other continent

kick off GA in 650

1-turn workers in Niagara Falls
Persepolis builds Lighthouse
lots of 2-turn MW

start war against Incas and make easy progress, only 1 def in most cities

470 research Eng and stop research
Romans build GLib for me... although no real need for it
--- 450 Carthage 25 turns from ToA!!!
3rd lux online
build FP in between close mountains -> 20spt

350BC Incans destroyed
France loses against Persia
i accidentally bust my rep against Rome... well, wouldn´t have kept it clean for much longer anyway
270bc first mgl in attack of Rome
capture Rome, hardly
190bc Rome gone

strange, i just notice that near Rome there is a river without a “mountain spring” – don´t think i have ever seen that before

110bc Statue of Zeus completed... just didn´t like the spt for units in GA in good producing town

10bc Aztecs destroyed

50ad start attack against Persia

lots of defenders in AI capitals... 7 spears in Persepolis!

110AD take Persepolis with Great Lighthouse

take south with ease, but then the Persians move quite a stack of 15 immortals *ugh*
invade north of the other continent with another army
150ad China gone
kill the stack, not a single promotion – very few in the whole game
Carthage finishes ToA – i had waited for this to finish before i take the city, Carth´s last;
cascade makes Germany finish GW :-( don´t expect any issues from tiny Germany though

170Ad Carths gone

250ad take Trondheim in my 2nd attempt
260ad cultural expansion takes me to 55% territory 91% pop... looks like conquest now
280ad France leaves the game
290ad Persia destroyed
take Berlin with GW – no more hill forts
destroy Vikings

320AD Germany defeated – they had entered the MA only 1 turn before just to cause the barb uprising...
330AD CONQUEST!!!

 

[templar_x]

my thoughts on this game:

it felt very easy to conquer lands with the beefed up mounties. even romans and numidians did not put much of a fight as they simply build too few units on this level.

the late fast units (riders, panzer) of course did not appear. the early warrior ones amazingly were hardly built. i think i only saw 1 or 2 of them. i was a bit more careful than usually with the front cities but nothing happened.
on my continent the romans were the only ones with iron connected, only the chinese used horses. on the other continent only Persia had their UU - since they are weak on def and only 1-movers, they were no problem at all although they had built quite a few of them.

still i saw quite many defenders in some capitals for this level... i cannot remember i ever saw 8 units in a capital at this level.

i chose a relatively fast attack on Carthago so to not face more numidians as well as for the reason to get the passage to the other continent under my control. great reasoning here from yilar... i should have thought this to the very end and see i could definitely have been much faster.

so i had one load of mounties go through my own continent anti-clockwise, a second one i ship-chained over to Persia from my core to mop up the other continent from the south, and a third one attacked the Carths and was shipped over against the Vikes. the last turns went very fast this way with Mounties heading north and south on the other continent. even those hill cities did not put up too much resistance.

very few elites and only one leader emerged, but i think armies would not have changed anything in my game.

ah... and yes, thanks for the bonus wine! it was much appreciated

 

[DWetzel]

Bummer. I think I forgot to actually submit my game I finished about 12 hours after the saves were released. OCC Diplo win in 1774 AD. (Would have been a 20k in 1850 AD, but I didn't feel like playing it out.) Golden Age triggered by a Mounted Warrior sacking Rome in the early 1700s (with artillery support).

 

[daheat43]

DWetzel - How did sacking Rome give you a Golden Age? Because you captured a wonder?

Templar - thanks for your in depth account of your moves. Helps me see how to go about an early military victory. One question? What do you mean "Rep slingshot in 1600bc?"

All - Is there any particular victory condition that scores higher than the others? Would it be better to go with an early Diplo or wait a few more turns (or 60) to win by domination? Or put off a domination to win by cultural? Is there any definite answer on this question?

 

[Spoonwood]

Usually histographic games net the highest scores.

 

[templar_x]

Templar - thanks for your in depth account of your moves. Helps me see how to go about an early military victory. One question? What do you mean "Rep slingshot in 1600bc?"

you´re welcome. to me it was of greatest help that some really good players gave account of their initial moves. so i thought i´d add mine once, too, so you can distinguish mediocre moves from them

Rep slingshot means Republic slingshot, i.e. you research CoL first, then Philo as the frist tribe to learn it, and voilá - you can choose valuable Republic as your free tech.

templar_x

 

[daheat43]

Ah ha! Thanks, templar and Spoonwood.