COTM57 - First Spoiler

[civ_steve]

COTM 57 First Spoiler - the Ancient Age!

Reading Requirements

1. You must be able to research a Middle Age technology.
2. You must have contact with all remaining AI on your starting continent.

Posting Restrictions

• Please be discreet about AI locations; however, feel free to discuss contacts and trades.
• No discussions of the middle ages (or later)
• No screenshots of any middle-age (or later) resources.
• Absolutely NO discussion of any other currently active 'X'OTM!

Some interesting UU's nearby. You have both Rome and Carthage very near to you, so identical 3-4-1 units, both cost 30 shields, but the NumMerc doesn't require Iron and comes in early. Was it pretty tough, or did your bumped up MW's handle the problem? How about the faster warrior units - could the AI use a 3 movement unit effectively during the AA? Any other thoughts or plans as you enter the Middle Ages?

 

[Rustwork]

i moved my worker onto the wines, the bonus grass wines! and discovered more wine. this convinced me not to go to the coast. so instead i moved one step inland along the river and founded on the next turn.

i was soon pumping out settlers.
expanding in a traditional way.

i became a republic after 3 turn revolt in 1500BC

my QSC stats are:
13 cities
37 pop
1 settler
8 workers
3 mounted warriors
4 warriors
1 curragh
1 granary

in 975BC i attacked an inca warrior in my territory to start my golden age.

i entered the middle ages in 710BC

i decided on domination from the start. after exploring i chose to let rome and carthage go until later. instead i took my improved mounted warriors against the othe civs first. since they could defend with nothing but spears.

i wanted the chinese destroyed before they could get riders. i think that the extra move is most beneficial to the AI. the incas and aztecs surprised me twice and took undefended outlying cities. i easily recaptured them. the extra move allowed them to be more sneaky, but they didn't build enough of them to hurt. I knew the chinese would build many riders if they where in a war though. the other problem is that when the AI captured a city they would sit and defend it with the fast unit, making recapturing it easy. a better stategy would have been for the AI to capture, and then keep moving to capture more unprotected cities, or to pillage, since their unit was not much defense anyway.

i found the other continent and with the great lighthouse built i had an easy path to start conquering that continent as well.

when i opened the save and checked the opponents i felt this game would be very difficult, but it is simply the opposite. by avoiding the tough defenders and using improved mounted warriors i am able to wipe out civs fairly quick.

going forward i would normaly research chivalry, but the mounted warrior already had an attack of 4, like a knight (but for less than half the cost), so why do i need knights? my plan is to go directly for military tradition. while i continue to pump out mounted warriors, and decimate the spears that are everywhere.

with the AI research rate so slow, one could probably win by shutting down research after mounted warrior. this depends on land mass of the other continent.

comment on UUs:
--fast units that are not the main attack unit do not get built enough or used correctly to fight a human opponent so they are easy to beat. (otherwise i think this may be the best improvement)
--the panzer will never see play in a domination/conquest game.
--persia didn't have iron so no immortals.
--france might have had a chance to hold a defense with better musketeers, but i will have them dead before they come close to having them.
--i avoid carthage and rome until military tradition, (if i haven't won by then)
--the vikings probably won't be too difficult with improved berserks, (again, if they get them first).

at this point i think we will see some very early military victories.

 

[Elear]

Predator, just sort of playing here.

Republic slingshot around 1200 BC, Middle Ages around 300 BC.

Went very methodically with my conquest: Inca -> Rome -> Aztecs -> China -> Carthage. The Rome UU, while equal to the Carthaginian one, was no problem at all. I found Rome had very few Legionaries, perhaps one per city, and this was easy.

My QSC was slow; I don't remember, but it was pretty bad, like 8 or 9 cities and perhaps 6 workers. I had many more workers, but barbarians quickly taught me a lesson. I'm not used to raging barbarians, and this probably cost me 6 or 7 workers by the Middle Ages. Once I was in the Middle Ages, not only was I more careful, but I was able to squash the camps easily.

I didn't try to build the Great Lighthouse which may or may not have been a mistake. Even galleys seem potent but it may take slightly longer...however given that all my troops ended up in Carthage after conquesting my whole continent: again, no problem!

I think I will have the world under control by 1000 AD, even though I think that much faster dates will be achieved.

Knights were never necessary; mounted warriors versus numidians were the most difficult matchup, closely followed by Viking pikemen + the Great Wall.

It's just a matter of time as I rampage with about 60-70 mounted warriors through the other continent.

The only other bad thing that happened was losing an army of mounted warriors parked for one turn too long in a captured city. This perhaps slowed my conquest down by five turns as I waited for additional re-enforcements.

Altogether it has made for an extremely easy game. The AIs have been working for me all along and paid me extremely well for various technologies, thus allowing me to buy a fleet of galleys and quickly fill gaps with settlers.

Certainly a Predator game has little chance of placing strongly, due to the 40 shield MWs, but this wasn't as staggering as I thought. Ever since I entered the Middle Ages, I have been able to produce several MW every turn.

-Elear

 

[Più Freddo]

1 City
9 Towns
44 Citizens
2 Barracks
2 Granaries
1 Settler
17 Workers
3 Warriors
1 Swordsman
1 Curragh
5 Contacts
5 Embassies
Iron
Wines
Missing Construction and Monarchy

 

[Elear]

Another note on this game...I think it would have been a blast at Emperor or Demigod, but Monarch has simply been less exciting with almost no tech pace due to something about the layout of this map.

 

[Più Freddo]

I think it would have been a blast at Emperor or Demigod, but Monarch has simply been less exciting with almost no tech pace due to something about the layout of this map.

I agree to this.

 

[Elear]

The game continues...

I'm setting up a Histographic victory here....yawn.

Each turn is taking about thirty minutes. I have maybe 150 cities, 200 workers, and a bunch of troops finishing off France, who unfortunately developed Musketeers.

I'm not quite in the Industrial era yet so I suppose I can't graduate to the Spoiler #2 thread.

 

[Racinante]

After winning my first Demi-god game, I started this one with a relaxed approach. No real idea of what my VC will be, so I just starting building.

4000 BC: Found Salamanca in place, move worker to grapes, research The Wheel at 100%, road and build warrior, warrior, settler, curragh, warrior, granary
3650 BC: Pop hut for worker, move worker south
3300 BC: Pop hut for barbarians which kill my warrior
3000 BC: Found Niagra Falls to NE just south of Mountain, build warrior, granary
Wealthiest nations, Carthaginians, Aztecs, Germans, Inca, French, Me, Romans, Chinese
2900 BC: Barbarians ransack Salamanca taking 5 gold, currently researching bronze working, built curragh in Salamanca
2800 BC: Meet Incas Trade The Wheel for Masonry and 4 gp
2670 BC: Meet Carthage, have nothing to trade...
2630 BC: Complete Bronze Working, start on Writing
2230 BC: China, no trades
1990 BC: build Grand River on hills E of horses, meet Romans, trade Masonry for Warrior Code and 3 gp, trade The Wheel for CB and 7 gold (Vikings 3rd happiest)
1910 BC: Writing, begin on Philosophy
1600 BC: China trade writing for mysticism and 75 gp, trade writing to rome for iron working
1525 BC: Build Catt on iron hill to NE
1375 BC: China trade Map making for Mathematics and 37 gp
1300 BC: Tonawanda
1175 BC: Trade Philosophy to China for 74 gp, to Rome for 58 gp, to Inca for 25 gp. Sell Alphabet to Aztecs for 41 gp
1025 BC: Mauch Cunk founded
(Persians mentioned)
850 BC: St. Regis founded, learned Currency, Trade to Incas for Polytheism & 25 gp, Trade Polytheism, Currency for Construction, worker, and RoP

At war with the Incans (I lust after their Ivory). I may push Hiawatha to space.

 

[Yilar]

2 Cities
9 Towns
52 Citizens
6 Barracks
3 Granaries
1 Settler
17 Workers
1 Warrior
8 Mounted Warriors
2 Curraghs
5 Contacts
Horses
Iron
Wines
Missing Math, Construction, Currency, Literature and Monarchy (stopped research after poly).

Btw, Piu how do you make that fancy .xls?

 

[Più Freddo]

Piu how do you make that fancy .xls?

Well, I take the old one, erase the data and start over. Feel free to use it if you'd like to.

How do you achieve such amazing results!

 

[Yilar]

I went open mode, and went straight for granary as usual. When going for domination you don't really need contact early when you are getting slingshot anyway, so building warriors early is rather useless.

I think I built:
Granary
Warrior
Settler
Settler
Settler
etc.
till I eventually hit republic, then I switched over to barracks and did mw's. Also I only built 5 warriors total. I bought the 3rd granny.

 

[Più Freddo]

building warriors early is rather useless.

If they delay the Granary by one slot of growth, at least.

I bought the 3rd granny.

What did you do about the Forbidden Palace?

 

[Yilar]

I usually don't build the forbidden palace at all when im going for early domination, but this time I actually did, but that was for another reason, which I cannot disclose in this thread

 

[The Professor]

Built in place. Went for, and got, the Republic slingshot. As mentioned by others, the AI tech pace was slow, and I wasn't able to trade for as much as I expected. As soon as I got the horses hooked up, I started building Mounted Warriors and removed the Inca from the picture. Still deciding who my second victim should be.

QSC stats:
11 towns
19 population
1 settler
8 workers
10 warriors
1 archer
2 curragh's
6 contacts
4 embassies
4 barracks
1 granary

 

[Elear]

I've started to become distinctly alarmed that I may not finish this game in time, especially now that I have a business trip coming up at the end of the month!

Too many Civ games, not enough time

 

[TheOverseer714]

If I don't finish mine, it won't bother me too much, my score sucks... 20k was my choice, and it stunted my growth to the point the Inca settled on my horses and 8 archers weren't enough to dislodge them. I finally got my MWs and took out the Inca with them. The MWs weren't too effective vs Carthage and Rome.

 

[Elear]

If I don't finish mine, it won't bother me too much, my score sucks... 20k was my choice, and it stunted my growth to the point the Inca settled on my horses and 8 archers weren't enough to dislodge them. I finally got my MWs and took out the Inca with them. The MWs weren't too effective vs Carthage and Rome.

I imagine that's true, by that point. I was able to get strong conquests going early and didn't run into too many defenders in any one city (3 max, in some capitals). I can't reveal too many details but it took me a zillion MW to conquest the world in the end due to French musketeers. I think I just kept building them like there was no tommorow until everyone collapsed. Military alliances are also helpful.