COTM77 - First Spoiler

[civ_steve]

COTM 77 First Spoiler - Mongols, 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!

OK, I don't believe you lacked company on your starting landmass. A question raised in the pre-game thread was whether you would have Horses. Since that was a concern, how did that work out? (I just counted the spaces - there is 1 Horse space closer to you than any other civ ... barely ) How did the rest of the AA go and what are your plans for the Middle Ages?

 

[Megalou]

Predator

2710 BC - Built my first town at the bottleneck by the gems, but 3 Arabian warriors and perhaps a scout made it past to get a few contacts with other AI.
1650 BC - Started to prebuild a Great wonder in Kazan.
1275 BC - Made the Republic Sling-shot (no libraries.)
1075 BC - Declared war on China (or made China declare war; I don't remember,) who had claimed the eastern horses.
1050 BC - Razed sad Canton, losing 1 swordsman.
1000 BC - Built Mandalgovi exactly where Canton was. Owned 10 cities, 13 workers, 1 warrior, 2 spearmen, 3 swordsmen. Iron connected, horses within territory, about to be connected.
875 BC - Entered Middle Ages by trading Map Making and Construction (9 t at 60% research.) I now have two horsemen, and have decided to use horsemen to grind down the Chinese. The leader chances are so much stronger than with slow units.

It was perhaps a good thing that I was more or less forced to attack China. Otherwise I may have waited too long to expand eastward. With the long distances separating us and the nearby civs, war didn't seem very risky.

 

[CKS]

Open, 20K

Once again, my resolution to keep better notes didn't last very long. My apologies.

I had awfully good luck from huts in this game. My scout headed east. The first hut popped a worker and the second (5 steps due east of Karakorum) popped a town on turn 5. I decided to make it my 20K town. By turn 21, when my notes petered out, I'd popped 25 g, The Wheel, and Mysticism. With horses showing up in the town I popped, I was feeling pretty lucky.

I had some early wars - Japan declared on about turn 60, and I spent a lot of time at war thereafter. I was surprised at the number of regular warriors that came to invade and die.

The corruption in Ta-Tu was fairly high at first, so a courthouse and the forbidden palace were early on my agenda. Consequently I grabbed few ancient wonders. My culture builds were:
Temple 2230 BC
Mausoleum 1025 BC
Library 875 BC
Forbidden Palace 490 BC
I don't remember when I hit the middle ages, but I was there before the FP finished.

So far this game is feeling a lot easier than emperor. Some of this is probably because of the deity GOTM and my current demi-god histographic game for the HOF, but I suspect it is mostly because my 20K city was free. Ta-Tu was a little far from Karakorum, but otherwise very nice - on the river, lots of bonus grass and hills, the horses and tobacco for some extra commerce. Without popping it, I'd have been doing 20K in the capital instead of growing my empire. It might have made for a better 20K date, but it would have been a much more difficult game.

 

[Megalou]

I had some early wars - Japan declared on about turn 60, and I spent a lot of time at war thereafter. I was surprised at the number of regular warriors that came to invade and die.

So once again the oddness of the Japanese AI is showing. I've noticed that they are more prone to using warriors instead of spearmen as city defenders as well.

 

[CKS]

It wasn't just Japan, though. They brought in some allies, who also sent warriors. I think I was at war with 4 different tribes in the ancient age. None of them sent significant numbers of troops, and all of them sent mostly warriors.

 

[Memento]

I had awfully good luck from huts in this game. My scout headed east. The first hut popped a worker and the second (5 steps due east of Karakorum) popped a town on turn 5. I decided to make it my 20K town. By turn 21, when my notes petered out, I'd popped 25 g, The Wheel, and Mysticism. With horses showing up in the town I popped, I was feeling pretty lucky.

My Game is similar.

found Worker, Town (in the Desert), Mystik and HR.

Settler moved after move Scout
Make a fantastic Deal with Japan, give Masonry+Mystic for TW, 2 Worker+25g
Early War with Chinese, raze the Horsetown,peace-> 2 towns.
slingshot 1525, 2 turns anarchy
Passiv War with Babylon-> 1 town
1075 MA
war with Korea
1000bc 11 towns, 38 pop, 119 tiles

 

[templar_x]

my game started very similar to Megalou´s. only that i lost 5 (!) swords to kill 2 spears in that very same Chinese town.
RNG stayed unkind with me, and i lost an insane number of units at best odds. the AI is so weak that this would not really put my empire at risk, but it is annoying and hinders my expansion. like, 4 swords and 1 horse only manage to kill one spear in 2nd Arabian town.
i stopped taking notes when i realized that i will have no time to finish this. only thing i remember is that i managed the slingshot with ease and still had to research both CoL and Currency.

templar_x

 

[Megalou]

@templar_x,
If you got that far in the ancient age (spanking both China and Arabia,) maybe you should finish at all costs. I had awful RNG too but that was later.

 

[Più Freddo]

Predator class
Conquest aim

Beginning

After having moved the Worker north discovering little and the Scout
two tiles east discovering Wheat, a mountain chain and a Goody Hut, I
decided to found in place. With the discovery of Game in the west I'd
be able to create a four-turn Settler factory and made a plan to
produce two early Scouts in the hope of gaining Pottery through
popping or meeting before needing to build the Granary. I worked the
Furs Forest for two turns at a meagre 1 fpt surplus.

In the decision between researching Alphabet at maximum or Ceremonial
Burial at zero I opted for the latter. It didn't help much, I popped
only one Technology, but that was my wished-for Pottery. The other two
Huts at this stage gave Maps. Later, while actually researching, I'd
pop Bronze Working and a Warrior, and that's it. Not much to call home
for.

I soon met the Arabs and the Chinese, who already knew Alphabet and
Bronze Working, so apparently Korea was just behind them. In 3500 BC I
met with said Koreans. I traded Pottery for Alphabet, got Ceremonial
Burial from the Arabs and 2 Slaves from the Chinese. I changed the
plan for a 5 turns earlier Factory and started research for Writing at
maximum.

4000 BC Discover Warrior Code
4000 BC Found Karakorum
3950 BC Pop Hut Scout1: Maps
3800 BC Pop Hut Scout1: Technology
3800 BC Learn Pottery
3700 BC Pop Hut Scout1: Maps
3650 BC Meet China
3650 BC Meet Arabia
3600 BC Connect Furs
3500 BC Meet Korea
3500 BC Learn Ceremonial Burial
3500 BC Learn Alphabet
3250 BC Pop Hut Scout3: Technology
3250 BC Learn Bronze Working
2850 BC Build Granary in Karakorum​

Expansion

The next phase of the game saw me researching towards the Republic
Sling-Shot, charting the continent using three Scouts and some
Warriors and founding the future core cities. Build order in the
capital was 2 Scouts, 2 Warriors, Granary, a six-turn and a five-turn
Settler, Wealth for population growth and four-turn Settlers, the
first of which was produced in 2190 BC.

2510 BC Found Ta-Tu
2270 BC Found Kazan
2030 BC Found Almarikh
1910 BC Found Tabriz
1790 BC Found Ulaanbaatar
1700 BC Found Hovd
1575 BC Found Darhan
1525 BC Connect Gems
1475 BC Found Dalandzadgad
1225 BC Found Mandalgovi
1225 BC Found Choybalsan
1200 BC Found Erdenet
1200 BC Connect Horses
1100 BC Found Tsetserleg
1050 BC Found Baruun-Urt​

Ta-Tu was a Worker/Settler town by the Wheat. Kazan was for early
Warriors by the Sugars. I didn't really hurry to found Erdenet close
to the eastern Horses. The Chinese were still far away. But I did
find a sweet spot in the broad mountain valley on the western side of
the mountains for Almarikh, where it would be able to work many river
Mountain tiles and the Games tile on the eastern side. This city was
ideal for the Forbidden Palace. Only then I founded Ulaanbaatar on the
isthmus by the Gems. It would turn out, that the Arabs had failed to
contact anyone else but me. I know one Arab Warrior was killed by
Barbarians.

After succeeding with the Sling-Shot, I researched Horseback Riding
since no one had it. I wanted to build Horsemen. Then only
Construction was needed in order to be able to trade for entry into
the Middle Ages. For The Republic, I could buy Monotheism from the
Babylonians and then Feudalism for Monotheism from the Koreans.

2850 BC Learn The Wheel
2850 BC Learn Masonry
2630 BC Learn Mysticism
2150 BC Discover Writing
1625 BC Discover Code of Laws
1625 BC Learn Polytheism
1625 BC Learn Mathematics
1475 BC Discover The Republic
1475 BC Discover Philosophy
1300 BC Discover Horseback Riding
1100 BC Learn Map Making
1050 BC Discover Construction
1025 BC Learn Currency
1025 BC Learn Monotheism
1025 BC Learn Feudalism​

As I met more tribes, I used the cash from trading them Technologies
for making Embassies. When I had enough Warriors for rudimentary
defense, I started the first phony war far away. But War Happiness was
not yet to be had this way.

2270 BC Pop Hut Scout1: Warrior
2850 BC Meet Japan
2190 BC Meet Egypt
2150 BC Embassy China
2150 BC Embassy Arabia
1830 BC Embassy Babylon Silks
1625 BC War Babylon
1625 BC PT/A Egypt v. Babylon
1625 BC Embassy Korea Wines
1625 BC Embassy Japan Dyes
1625 BC Embassy Egypt Horses, Ivory
1525 BC War Korea
1525 BC PT/A China v. Korea
1475 BC Establish Anarchy
1375 BC Establish Republic
1125 BC War Egypt
1125 BC PT/A Babylon v. Egypt
1025 BC Enter Middle Ages​

I posted a Spearman on the Gems Mountain in order to fend off the
Arabians while I took care of the eastern neaighbours. Arabia could be
conquered later with fresh troops from the core, which would not
otherwise be able to make it to the front on time.

Three Horsemen were already at Peking city limits.

Quick Start Challenge Result

Strictly speaking, my QSC result belongs to the Middle Ages, but I
post it here for convenience.

14 Towns
36 Citizens
_1 Granary
_7 Barracks
_6 Contacts
_6 Embassies
_1 Settler
10 Workers
_9 Slaves
_2 Warriors
_1 Spearman
_2 Archers
_7 Horsemen
Horses
Furs
Gems
Monotheism
Feudalism​

 

[Memento]

where is the final thread?