COTM75 - Final Spoiler

[civ_steve]

COTM 75 Final Spoiler; Greece, Game Submitted

Reading Requirements:
You may only read this thread if:

1. You have completed and submitted your game.

Posting Restrictions:

1. None! As long as its related to the GOTM, and within the forum rules!
2. And ... Absolutely NO discussion of any other active 'X'OTM contest!

COTM75 is at Monarch level, so I'll condense the last two spoilers into one. Please feel free to comment on this format.

This FINAL spoiler covers the period from the beginning of the Middle Ages to the end of your game. And as usual for the Final Spoiler, feel free to make any final comments you wish to make about your game or any others. Going into the Middle Ages you might still have some work to do to establish yourself as the dominant civ. Is that true, and how did that go? Tell us how you finished the game out.

 

[PaperBeetle]

Wow, no one has written any spoilers for this game at all? Okay, just a brief one from me then...

Settle in place and plan up a settler factory with all the food we have here. The Persian pike shows up very early and parks itself on the isthmus, so for a long time I knew only the Aztecs and Persians, and even after I met the others, it wasn't until very late that I actually sent units through the Persian blockade (i.e. by force). Sparta went on the river RCP4 east of Athens in 2900b - this will be my 20k city, supported by all those juicy hills and grasslands, even if it doesn't quite reach a bonus food source.

Slingshot acheived and Republic installed in 1500bc after a 2 turn anarchy - obviously I had a reduced number of towns at this point. I reached the medieval in 775bc, getting Monotheism free, and at this point Sparta has still built only a temple! Its first wonder, Oracle, isn't done until 670bc. Sounds like a slow start for a 20k, I guess I didn't pump it up in size fiercely enough, but I was having trouble with barbs, and happiness, and not having enough workers. Anyway, Sparta gets Glib in 150bc to start the golden age (I already built Lighthouse over on the coast, just in order to get the GA going - otherwise I would be waiting for Smith or needing to capture something from the AI). But after this slow start, I still managed to get all the cultural wonders (i.e. more than 1cpt per 100 shields) except Gardens.

As for the AI, I started with the Aztecs in 190ad, using mainly horses, then finally headed west in 630ad, starting with the Persians. I carefully keep X-man alive in the middle of the huge mountain range, up until the point he can teach me his modern free tech. The Mayan campaign starts in 930ad, and they survive due to having settled the one tile isand. Similarly the Roman campaign goes unfinished because they have holdings beyond Gaul and I can't be bothered to go there until after I've done with the Celts.

By the time I attack the French and Celts, I can't really take much more territory without going over domination, so I abandon the old Aztec province, in order that I can keep the Pyramids (and Sun Tzu and Leonardo) in Entremont, and the French spices. Sparta finishes building culture in 1505ad, and then just cruises along at 151cpt, reaching 20k in 1700ad.

Cultural builds in Sparta...
1675bc temple (1022c)
0670bc Oracle (1672c)
0650bc library (1245c)
0550bc cathedral (1200c)
0150bc Great Library (2040c)
0090bc university (1324c)
0050bc colosseum (650c)
0230ad Shakespeare (2264c)
0320ad Forbidden Palace (518c)
0380ad Zeus (964c)
0580ad Michelangelo (1086c)
0700ad Copernicus (580c)
0800ad Newton (810c)
0860ad Bach (774c)
0920ad Darwin (369c)
1000ad Suffrage (460c)
1020ad Epic (452c) (not much leader luck this game)
1080ad Smith (321c)
1120ad Academy (103c)
1150ad Wall Street (200c)
1240ad UN (364c)
1290ad Internet + lab (328c + 164c)
1335ad SETI (219c)
1350ad Pentagon (70c)
1375ad Hoover (130c)
1385ad MASH (63c)
1415ad Longevity (171c)
1430ad Apollo (108c)
1455ad The Bomb (98c)
1460ad Palace (48c)
1485ad The Cure (129c) (in 5 turns! Fully mined and improved, Sparta hit 201spt, and it always had good luck with pollution)
1490ad CIA (42c)
1505ad Star Wars (39c)
1700ad Victory (20027c total). 4716 Firaxis points makes only 8933 Jasons.

 

[Lanzelot]

Well, I submitted my game right on the same day civ_steve published the starting files. An unprecedented incidence for me... But I had a free weekend due to the family having left on a trip to the in-laws...

I played the entire game in one session in 14h (I had a couple breaks in-between, where I left the game running, so the net time was probably around 12h). One of my fastest games ever. (I'm trying to get to 10h, so that I can submit a game every month, even though I don't have much time for GOTM at the moment.)

However, because of this crazy scramble, I don't remember much from the game... I went for a fast Domination. I planned to start conquering with horsemen as well, but somehow never got ready for that. (So many other things to do...) By the time I was about ready, I was 2-3 turns from Chivalry, so I decided to wait with the first war until I got knights.

But then everything went pretty quick... Fortunately I had made a RoP with Persia and Iroquois and had already completed roads through their territory. I rolled up the AI as fast as those knights could ride, and when Paris finished Artemis, I bypassed the Romans and went straight for Paris. 5 turns after capturing Paris, the global expansion pushed me over the dom limit for a victory in 400AD and a decent score...

I think I will play a few more fast games like this, and then in the winter, when I'll have more time again, I might join you, PaperBeetle, in your quest for a "non-militaristic" 10K victory...

Sorry that you missed that goal again. At the moment 8K seems to be kind of a sonic barrier for other VCs, doesn't it? (9K perhaps for a spaceship.) Do you have any idea, how your current game could have been improved? 1700AD sounds quite late. Was it the slow tech pace due to the chokepoint? Your bad luck with leaders? (If I interpret your list correctly, you didn't rush a single wonder, did you?) Sparta must have been a pretty good site right from the beginning, if you were able to bring it to 201spt

Lanzelot

Edit: made one of those again:

 

[Più Freddo]

you didn't rush a single wonder, did you?

It would be difficult in C3C. Unless you mean the minor ones.

 

[pol1]

I've started with a plan for diplomatic if possible or some other peaceful VC as a backup.

Aztecs were swept by horses but had one city left on the island to the north. It wa done with probably too many horsemen, for the safety of operation.

Then time came Persia, but I was able to build one city at a chokepoint and another one between cow and wheat. Persia was finished with knights. Later Maya (1tile island left), Romans and few towns from Celts and/or France just to gain all eight luxes and to not to trigger dom vc.
And with no razing - to keep good attitude.
In the meantime had to develop amphibious warfare to get rid of Maya, who were abstaining and had to finish Romans who also didn't want to vote for Alexander. At least two-three first elections were inconclusive, so SS was started and also some culture rushing, just in case.

Fortunately with only Celts and France left and CAII showing 1 tile to domination limit Alexander was elected secretary general in 1690AD by votes of Joan and his own.

Should have been elected about 25-30 turns earlier, but counting for conquered AIs' good will failed me... again .

 

[pol1]

It would be difficult in C3C. Unless you mean the minor ones.

As SGLs are off, only small wonders would be possible to rush.

 

[Lanzelot]

It would be difficult in C3C.

Ah, yes... For some reason I keep forgetting this...

 

[PaperBeetle]

Indeed. But you still want to fish for leaders, even in C3C, because Epic is such good cpt-per-shield. And although the other small wonders are not so good, you still want to get them done as quick as possible. All three of my armies were created with leaders, and I leader-rushed palace (I usually get too attached the old capital to just disband it) and probably one other small wonder.
1700ad isn't my best 20k date for sure, but I figure as long as I am done before 1750ad it isn't a total disaster. I was disappointed with the score becasue I usually expect 9300-9600 for a non-military VC, due to my tireless micro.
For a better date I should have been much stricter about growing Sparta with workers pumped out of Athens. In fact I did very little of that, and quite late on. It was an unusal 20k site in that I could see it would become strong later on (at that point I didn't know it would get both aluminium and uranium, although I was secretly hoping to be able to get Ironworks) but it was all just grasslands and hills, so under despotism it was particluarly weak, and really didn't show its full potential until Shakespeare took it to size 20.

 

[TheOverseer714]

I was shocked that I did pretty well. First, I did my first predator AFAIK. Secondly, I started Thursday and finished today. I wanted to do a 20k, but knew I'd never have time. Lastly, this was played without Civ Assist 2 or MapStat. I'm not ashamed of my score, for once. Had 2 settler/worker factories going the whole time, which probably helped alot. Barbs never were a problem, due to an unusually good REX. Waited very late to begin my Domination, but went very fast once I got Cavalry. Had to take certain resources from my friendly neighbors, but they didn't mind, as they soon became extinct. Between rushing Libraries and settlers and attacking, I made Domination 5 turns later than my 1000 AD goal, but much fun was had.

Entry class: Predator
Game status: Domination Victory for Greece
Game date: 1050 AD
Firaxis score: 5228
Jason score: 9328
Time played: 22:14:37

 

[Megalou]

My game seems pretty similar to Lanzelots. Paris built The Temple of Artemis and it was my ultimate target, although I did not bypass the Romans but brought them down to one town in about 5 turns. In 290 AD I made peace with Aztecs and France for a final couple of cities and went over the domination limit by a margin of -82 tiles.

I did not build FP. Instead I used my first leader to form a ridiculously effective knights army (known as The Butterknife Battalions) and my second one to hurry Heroic Epic in a Celtic town that was conquered later than Paris.

I built 5 galleys before I realized that I would reach Paris on foot soon enough. I even built two towns to form a channel so that the boats wouldn't have to sail around the Persepolis peninsula.

A game of ups and downs: Missed out on the 4-turn settler factory by moving the settler (as mentioned in spoiler #1) although in Republic Athens was a functioning 4-t sf for a while. Lucked out on the free techs, as Persia and us got Monotheism and Feudalism. I think I was also a bit lucky with the flips. Paris could easily have flipped but the only town that did was the Celtic Great Library town.

I turned of research after Chivalry but I was 1 turn away from learning Engineering from a lone scientist. The AI behaved stupidly as usual. Their greatest fault apart from not being humans seems to me to be that they build too few workers and that the workers totally disregard the need to build a network for the resources within their territory.

 

[Lanzelot]

I think I will play a few more fast games like this, and then in the winter, when I'll have more time again, I might join you, PaperBeetle, in your quest for a "non-militaristic" 10K victory...

It's my new goal - 10K without conquest or domnination.

Oops, I guess I mixed this up... I meant of course Megalou! Sorry PaperBeetle.

Anyway, Megalou, it looks like you have reached the first part of your new goal (score over 10K), but failed miserably on the second part...

You said your game went similar to mine, so did you as well wait until you got knights, or did you start with horses?

Lanzelot
(grummel, murmel, beat me by 10 turns, murmel, murmel )

 

[Megalou]

Oops, I guess I mixed this up... I meant of course Megalou! Sorry PaperBeetle.

Anyway, Megalou, it looks like you have reached the first part of your new goal (score over 10K), but failed miserably on the second part...

The "peaceful" 10K goal conflicts with another goal: 1st in the GPR. If I have time I will devote next months' games to one goal each, if not, it will be GPR only. Milking has a way of thinning out my interest in C3.

You said your game went similar to mine, so did you as well wait until you got knights, or did you start with horses?

Lanzelot
(grummel, murmel, beat me by 10 turns, murmel, murmel )

I only used one or two elite horsemen. When I got Feud and Mono I had barely even hooked horses up since I felt certain I would only build horsemen for upgrading.

The western army consisted of around 25 knights and a bunch of Ancient cavalries from 450 BC and onwards. (I got Chivalry in 710 BC and attacked Persia around 470 BC.) Did you build The Statue of Z? Rolling over Persia and Maya went really quick and when my western army was split up between Rome and Celts-France I was happy to find that France was as cordial as usual, having practically no offensive military at all. My eastern army was produced in a second wave of upgrades (connect/disconnect.)

I cannot say whether the timing could have been better in any way. I was 82 tiles over the limit so theoretically I should have taken Paris earlier. But if I had put 8 knights on boats those knights would have been useless while travelling on the boats. If I had left the Celts, from whom I took 5 towns, alone, I would probably have taken Paris a few turns earlier, but I wasn't taking any chances after missing the limit by 2 tiles in the fast Iroquois GOTM with a home spun ToA.

 

[supersova_SU]

Domination 460 AD
Firaxis score: 7299
Jason score: 10944
Time played: 10:57:57