COTM62 - First Spoiler

[civ_steve]

COTM 62 First Spoiler - the Ancient Age!

Reading Requirements

1. You must be able to research a Middle Age technology.

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!

I'm really sorry for how late this and the other spoilers are coming out; I've got visitors visiting for the first part of July, and I'm on travel right now, so I'm kind of scrambling around to get the civ stuff done. (And I can't run Civ3 right now until I'm back tomorrow night, so the next PTW game will be delayed as well.)

Back to this game, what did you do with your starting location/landmass? How did you make contacts / get contacted? Any strategy you plan out based on your initial situations, and how is it going through the end of the Ancient Age?

 

[CKS]

Open, 20K

Well, I got off to a great start. (Note to self: don't play when it is too dark to see the keyboard.) I went to push w to make the settler wait while I sent the worker west, but I hit something else instead (E, as it turns out) and the settler headed off westward. Unfortunately, I didn't realize what I'd hit, so he went another step away before I got him headed back east to settle by the cow.

A little exploration showed that there were no good 20K sites on our starting island, so I decided to go 20K in Berlin anyway. I haven't done a 20K without water ever, I suspect. It will be interesting.

I had a peculiar trip through the AA techs - CB, Map making, construction. I think I did map making before philosophy and then took construction as a free tech, but I no longer remember.

I got some cities over on the mainland before the local land got filled up, and then cruised along through the AA.

Culture:
palace 3750 bc
colossus 1300 bc
temple 1150 bc
great library 330 bc
library 290 bc
great lighthouse 280 ad
colosseum 380 ad

 

[Megalou]

I'm really sorry for how late this and the other spoilers are coming out;...

It doesn't affect me in the slightest. There is always one game or another to work with and if there were not, I should take the time off.

Predator, VC to be revealed later

4000
I settled in place. The fish told me there was something fishy.


2590
I've founded Leipzig in a spot that allows fresh water to be brought to Berlin.
It took the settler one turn to get there (good micro management) but on the
downside Leipzig will be unable to build Colossus.

We have 1 gold.

2510 BC
I have my first curragh.

2030
Met Persia, France and Russia. They have tons of techs.

1990
Hamburg. Building Colossus.
Machiavelli tells us we have at least 8 rivals, not 7. We are not on his list.

1870
Two workers start to irrigate a certain cow.

1750
Writing discovered - a monopoly. Even though we need other techs (esp Pottery,) we decide not to risk
the sling shot. We now start researching CoL.

1600
Spotted blue borders.

1550
Persia has learnt Writing.

1625
Konigsberg.

1375
We let Writing go to Russia and France. We get 22 gold, Pottery, CB and Iron W. Interestingly,
our doubtful choice of hill for Leipzig opens up for a mass upgrade.

1275
Finally met Egypt.
CoL->Philosophy.

1100
Philosophy and Republic learned. Pretty soon, we trade to parity but keep CoL.
We study literature at half pace.

875
We finally meet Sumeria. They have popped a barb camp by which our curragh has been anchored
for centuries. We trade warrior code and 50 gold. The curragh returns home to be upgraded and
saluted.

850
Colossus built. Starting new wonder - the Mausoleum perhaps?
We revolt. 5t.

710
We are a Republic. We meet Babylon. We trade Polytheism from them.
20% luxury.

650 BC
We meet Japan.

510 BC
Enter MA. We and Russia get Feudalism. They have no iron...
Unfortunately, no civ gets Monotheism.

 

[MeteorPunch]

Upon discovery of the starting landmass and knowing we're playing Pangaea, I decided to go for a Palace jump for this game. Several cities had happiness problems because of the forced labor as I killed the population off making them workers and settlers prior to the jump.

After learning Map Making via Philosophy slingshot, Russia went down easily from the Swordsmen and Archers I built in advance.

Entered MA around 300bc. I'm intending on going for a space game.

 

[Lanzelot]

Well, I guess I messed up the opening in this one: I sent both, settler and worker, scouting, until it became clear we are really on an island... Why didn't I listen to the fish?!
As it was, the settler lost two moves before settling and the worker five or six turns, before it finally arrived at the cow.
Still I managed the slingshot in 1150BC, had two turns of anarchy and entered the MA approx. 600BC (after researching both: Cur and Cons... even though I traded/gifted Math around to everyone... Megalou: I'm not sure whether postponing a decent government in order to go for Math first, pays off in PTW. It's too much up to chance, whether an AI really does some work for you. Picking up Math via trading at a later point and then gifting it around is probably sufficient. And in addition: to those who appear to have research power, gift everything that you already know, so that they won't waste their beakers on known stuff... I did this in this game, but no luck. Russia finished Construction like 5 turns before me, but at that point I was already enjoying WH from them and didn't want to make peace, because I was also preparing a real attack against them for getting their core and didn't want to delay it for 20 turns.

After all we learned about Palace Jumps in GOTM92, I'll put it to good use in this game. After the first 5 turns or so it was already clear that I had to jump this time... And Russia was the obvious target. They demanded something early on, and when I didn't oblige, they declared, similar to Arabia last game. Fortunately there are so many scientifics around this time, that I didn't need them Russians... Upon finishing Construction, I first went into the F1 screen (perhaps this made an important difference? because now I managed to do something that had never worked before: I was able to buy the other AIs free techs, before I got mine!?) then into the F4 screen and gifted Persia, Sumeria and the Ottomans up. Don't remember in which order. The first one got Mono, but wouldn't trade for Lit+Rep+much gold. The second also got Mono and now gave it for Rep. The last one got Feud and gave it for Rep+Mono or something. Then I went back to F6 and chose Engineering, which I got as my free tech.
Now after thinking about it: could I have gifted some others as well, (hoping to trade Eng), and then gotten Chiv as my free tech?!

Anyway, the rest belongs to the next spoiler, so I stop here.

 

[templar_x]

Lanzelot - is it possible you usually TRADE for your last AA tech? in that case you don´t get the chance to go trading first.

i know it took forever for me to find this out (=learn it from someone else here on the forums) and until then never understood why it sometimes worked and more often not.

templar_x

 

[Lanzelot]

Lanzelot - is it possible you usually TRADE for your last AA tech? in that case you don´t get the chance to go trading first.

Hmm, never paid much attention to this detail, but it may well be! (Even in this one, if I had not happened to be at war with Russia, I would have bought Cons from them, entering the MA 5 turns earlier.) Very interesting.