COTM69 - Spoiler #2

[civ_steve]

COTM 69 Spoiler2: End of the Middle Ages

Reading Requirements:

1. Must be able to research an Industrial Age Technology.
2. Must have contact with all remaining civs and full knowledge of the map.

Posting restrictions

1. No maps showing Industrial or Modern resources.
2. No discussion of Industrial Age (or later).
3. Absolutely NO discussion of any other active 'X'OTM Contest

The Mayans have a very early UU. Did you save your Golden Age for later? How did the Middle Ages go? Is the 2nd continent under control? Or is your game over!?

 

[Megalou]

My game is over. As usual I went for an early military victory (domination,) partly due to time restrictions and partly, I guess, due to a greed for a high score. But the first reason is the main one.

This game was a bit unusual because for the most part I devoted only three core towns to building military units. Getting these three towns up to 10 spt was a priority, so that they could churn out horsemen and later knights. Mecca actually built a library, but I don't think it was worth it to research Literature, even if it only took 4 turns with a deficit, because no other towns got around to building libraries and the trade value of Literature was small. (The Republic was enough to trade Engineering and Monotheism from the scientific civs.)

Other towns built a lot of galleys, because I had decided to neither build The Great Lighthouse nor research Astronomy and so there would be some casualties at sea. Also, it is good to have a few extra galleys out there to transport settlers to unoccupied areas, in order to squeeze out a few more tiles towards domination.

But above all I built tons of settlers. At one point I had 13 settlers walking around, mainly heading south on the starting continent. With the low difficulty level, there would be slow expansion from the AI and a need to raze some size 1 towns.

Recap:
Became a Republic in 1650 BC. Researched Literature after that, prebuilding a library in Mecca and chopping the last forests to hurry it.
Enter MA in 975 BC.
After that:
950 - Gave Republic to Persia. Changed my mind and gave them everything. Then they get Engineering. We then gift Byzantium, who get Monotheism. We manage to acquire both because Byzantium was kind enough to give us Monotheism for Republic.
610 - War on Persia. Discovered Chivalry. Research off.
270 - Peace w/ Persia for their last size 1 town. Immediately redeclared, destroying Persia and inciting Golden Age.
230 - Peaked at 13 settlers wandering around.
50 AD - Completed Temple of Artemis and Statue of Zeus. Carthage destroyed.
70 AD - Destroyed Byzatines in one turn. Of course, ROPs were signed with all civs first. Connected silks. Discovered Gunpowder for no apparent reason. After this I declared war on all civs at one point or another but didn't mess too much with the Vikings because I had poor military around their area.
270 - Eliminated Egypt. Hurried 2 libraries, 1 on the interturn.
280 - Domination. 28 tiles over limit.

Contacts:
3250 BC - Persia. I guess culturally linked starting points were off?
1550 - Carthage.
1475 - Byzantines.
1400 - Scandinavia. Judging from their ridiculous tech level they are probably alone.
1250 - Arabia.
925 - Inca.
430 - Egypt.

 

[templar_x]

Megalou - looks like another very good game

i am heading for a science vc this time. won´t tell which one, but one hint: i still miss it in my COTM-record

as i have some serious connection issues at home i can only play offline at my house and post at my office so i cannot give much of a progress report yet. i think it is around 660ad, my core is finally railed, and i have finished 4-turn research on, i believe, 7 IA techs. not very impressive, i know.

hopefully i will have internet connection again soon and can post a full report in the final spoiler.

templar_x

 

[Megalou]

i think it is around 660ad, my core is finally railed, ...and i have finished 4-turn research on, i believe, 7 IA techs.

Sounds impressive to me. I have a recollection that it's fairly good to reach the IA in around 500 AD. Let's just say I would not have included the word "finally." Good luck!

 

[templar_x]

thx Megalou.

given the conquest blunder in my last game (i could still cry when i think about it) i should maybe ask one of the veterans like you before i endeavour a science vc which i have not gone for in a long time.

so feel free to give me some hints...

templar_x

 

[silversheep]

Going for 20K

AA
Palace - 4000 BC
Pyramids - 1325 BC
Temple - 1100 BC
Oracle -875 BC
Library - 825 BC

MA
Great Library - 430 BC
Colosseum - 390 BC
Statue of Zeus - 190 BC
Cathedral -130 BC
Hanging Gardens - 170 AD
Shakespeare's Theater - 430 AD
University -470 AD
Sistine Chapel - 730 AD
Copernicus' Observatory - 860 AD
Working on Newton's University

IA in 900 AD

I beelined for Shake's early, after reading some other players' strategies in previous COTMs. I revolted to Democracy soon after, which I'm not sure was a good idea because I lost 7 turns (How much better is Democracy that Republic anyway? Or is it?) CivAssist put my estimated win date at 1794AD now at 5244c, 84cpt (finally, before 1800!)

The AI's are hopelessly behind in research; they're near beginning of MA. Not being a warmonger type, I haven't been involved in any wars; though I'll probably start one soon, so I can get a victorious army!

I have 15 cities, one from Persia (culture flip).

Chichen Itza got struck by pollution a few times, and because of me taking too long with workers, it starved down to 18 two times. I'll need to keep around more workers! I've already got a bunch piled up so I won't have to assemble them when I need to RR...

 

[Megalou]

I haven't bothered exploring by sea yet. With all the scientific civs here on our doorstep, what need to get out and meet any more ******** regents? They probably can't even be relied on to break alliances for war happiness.

It was a continents map, not archipelago, and so there was no way to know how many sea or ocean tiles that separated the starting continent from other continents, even though the map was small. As a matter of fact, I felt sure that the foreshadowing in the game presentation, which said something like "the rest of the AI should not be hard to find," was ironic. And I wanted to know whether the Great Lighthouse, Astronomy or Navigation would be necessary. And if so, there would be a risk that the second scientific civ, which for me did not exactly come up to say hello, would be found too late. Lastly, I did get to trade Polytheism from Arabia (they didn't even have writing so you could be wrong in bundling all the ******** civs together in one santorium) and Iron Working from Vikings.

I'm not at all sure this was better than keeping the shields for other things, like you did. My irrational thirst for exploration may well have been the real reason for my curraghs and galleys. On the other hand, it may be worth noting that one single curragh can travel a long distance without danger, since the barbarians don't pester the seas until after Map Making.

Well, well, we'll see.

 

[Spoonwood]

I beelined for Shake's early, after reading some other players' strategies in previous COTMs. I revolted to Democracy soon after, which I'm not sure was a good idea because I lost 7 turns (How much better is Democracy that Republic anyway?

Good idea on beeling to Free Artistry and building Shake's earlier than later. That won't work for every level and map type, but for a Regent small map it pretty much always should. The university seems a bit late, did you gift around to get free techs? Most players don't think Republic does much better than Democracy. On top of that, you don't make any culture in Anarchy, so really in a 20k game you only want one revolution and that's to Republic for research, unless possibly playing as religious and then maybe a quick Despotism-Monarchy revolution and then another quick Monarchy-Republic revolution.

 

[ignas]

Open, goal was BC conquest victory.

For a fast victory I thought I would need Chivalry for knights and The Great Lighthouse for a better ship movement. Also Golden Age was a must to get more production and commerce. GA was triggered in 875 BC, TGL built in 775 BC, Chivalry researched in 710 BC. After researching Chivalry I turned off research and used funds to do horsemen->knight upgrade.

At first destroyed Persians with a few horses and knights, then shipchained a few knights to Inca to start conquering on the other continent. Few galleys from the east coast transported 3 horses and 3 knights to conquer Scandinavia. After destroying Inca, started marching troops towards Egypt and Arabia. Also at home started amassing knights to fight Carthage and their powerful Numidian Mercenaries and later Byzantines. Aim was to synchronize conquest on both continents.

And the turnlog if someone is interested:

900 trade Persia HBR and enter MA; gift Persians and they get Feudalism; gift Byzantines and they also get Feudalism; buy Feudalism for Republic
875 DoW Persians, capture Antioch and enter Golden Age;
825 9 horsemen;
800 capture Persepolis;
Monotheism->Chivalry;
In 2 turns one persian Immortal manages to kill 5 horsemen;
775 The Great Lighthouse built
750 8 horses, 2 galleys;
710 Chivalry researched; turn off research;
Persians raze one of our towns: reg warrior kills vet horse fortified in town;
690 meet Inca; capture Arbela, peace Persia for one more town;
670 iron connected; 3 horses upgraded;
650 RoP Inca; first 2 knights to Incan territory;
Upgrade 2 more horses to knights; 9 horsemen and 5 knights;
630 first town founded on the other continent;
7 knights and 11 horses;
610 meet Egypt
590 DoW Persians; 9 horses and 2 knights are available to attack 3 Persian towns, but I manage to capture just 2 towns so that civ will live for a turn or two;
13 knights and 11 horses;
550 capture Gordium and destroy Persia; RoP’s with everyone
530 17 knights, 8 horsemen, 12 galleys;
8 knights on other continent, DoW Inca; lose 2 knights, but capture 2 towns
490 21 knights;
470 DoW Vikings, capture Trondheim;
450 capture Incan town and get one more for peace;
Capture Bergen;
430 29 knights; DoW Inca, capture 2 towns and destroy Inca;
410 raze Copenhagen and destroy Scandinavia;
DoW Carthage, capture 2 towns;
390 capture Utica; DoW Egypt;
370 capture Carthage;
350 capture Hippo, Thebes, raze Heliopolis;
310 peaca Carthage for one hilltop town, then DoW immeadiatelly;
capture Leptis Magna, raze Oea
290 DoW Arabia: capture Kufah, Khurasan, Baghdad
270 capture Medina; DoW Byzantines, capture Varna, Caesarea;
Lose 2 towns during IT to Byzantines, feel a bit dizzy, didn’t notice 2 Byz warriors
250 raze Najran, with a loss of 4 knights vs 1 Numidian Mercenary capture Leptis Minor and destroy Carthage;
230 capture Mecca, Nicae
210 capture Damascus, raze Elephantine and destroy Egypt ;
190 capture 2 towns, get a leader; capture Basra and destroy Arabia; Varna flips
170 capture Adrianople and destroy Byzantines
150 BC Conquest victory


And a random screenshot:

 

[templar_x]

Impressive, Great playing!

Templar_x

 

[Megalou]

Congratulations, ignas!

 

[PaperBeetle]

i am heading for a science vc this time. won´t tell which one, but one hint: i still miss it in my COTM-record

as i have some serious connection issues at home i can only play offline at my house and post at my office so i cannot give much of a progress report yet. i think it is around 660ad, my core is finally railed, and i have finished 4-turn research on, i believe, 7 IA techs. not very impressive, i know.

We're close. It sounds like I'm currently ahead, but teching slightly slower, having used up my GA already. I'll keep schtum about whether I'm going space or diplo, and refrain from checking your Pantheon status. Good luck!

Gifting up the SCIs
Entering the medieval in 925bc mainturn, I gift up Theo, who gets Engineering, and X-man for Feudalism. Very good. They don't even know each other yet, so trading for these techs shouldn't be too hard; Republic for Engineering straight up, and then Engineering + Republic for Feudalism. So I set research to Monotheism. After a couple of turns inspecting my borders, the Carthaginian axes I was worried about in the last spoiler head south again. How disappointing, I need a golden age. Well, I'll turn my attention to Persia instead; it's always handy to reduce SCI civs to 1CC vassals who can be milked for free techs. A town I aggressively settled next to Persepolis flips in 825bc, which was expected, but I'll have it back shortly.

The New World
In 690bc, an eastward-bound suicide galley meets the Vikings; I sell Maths for a very welcome 110g. The galley survives and starts circulating clockwise. It finds an Egyptian axe in 430bc and meets Arabia in 390bc, after sailing past out-of-reach Incan borders. Abu has 106g which he gives up for Laws. I don't dabble much in the affairs of this continent for now, but I'll be back after Magnetism to grab some of their luxuries.

A Leisurely War
In 670bc I have enough ACs to make a war against Persia stick. I dow and immediately take Pasargadae, and then sit back for a while, waiting for the right time to take the next town with slavers; I don't want to start my golden age at the end of researching Theology, as it won't give me enough boost to save any turns. Better to start the GA the same turn I start a new tech... 610bc in fact. A leader also pops up pretty soon, and an army of ACs is obviously called for. Defended by only a single spear each, Persia's outlying towns are easy pickings. I stop when he has just Persep and hill-bound Gordium left (okay, actually I accidentally take Gordium, so I have to let him recapture it , giving me war weariness). I want to take Persep after it has finished its wonder build, and leave X-man stranded in a town that won't grow above size 2. But when will that wonder complete? I let him win an easy immortal/axe fight to get his GA going, but it's still a painful wait. Finally in 30bc, Persia has my wish come true and builds Pyramids. Heroes. I claim the prize in 10ad and give X-man peace. The armies can head for Carthage next. I dow Hanni in 170ad and start trekking south, wishing I had already laid down roads.

Tech Progress
Engineering: trade
Feudalism: trade
Monotheism: 7 turn research
Theology: 7 turn research
Education: 4 turn research in GA
Astronomy: 5 turn research in GA (I should have tried Invention instead at this point, to keep 4-turn research going)
Banking: 4 turn research in GA
Invention: 4 turn research in GA
Gunpowder: 4 turn research in GA
Chemistry: 4 turn research
Physics: 4 turn research
Magnetism: 4 turn research
Gravity: 4 turn research
Metallurgy: 4 turn research
Industrial era reached in 190>210ad.

I built both Copernicus (in the capital) and Newton (in the FP town, which is less beaker-rich than the capital, but I really mismanaged my wonder builds).