The submission system doesn't seem to be operational, so I've uploaded my save here. Spoiler will have to wait until I've recovered - I had pull a proper all nighter to get this one done.
I retired due to lack of time at 1000 ad. At this time I was in very good shape to not get wiped out, but in lousy shape to win. My progress toward winning would have required wiping out the Iroquois, and this would then put the Sumerians in good shape for a 100K win, as no one else had anywhere close to their culture.
@PaperBeetle: There was no error reported by the submission script, so I suspect your upload attempt never made it to the GOTM server. Maybe an ISP or firewall problem?
Anyway, I've submitted your file with no problems. Here are the details:
Game: C3C COTM 84
Date submitted: 2011-08-17
Reference number: 24756
Your name: PaperBeetle
Your email:
Software Version: C3C 1.22 for Windows
Entry class: Predator
Game status: Cultural 20K Victory for India
Game date: 1848 AD
Firaxis score: 8987
Jason score: 6318
Time played: 452:35:17
Submitted save: PaperBeetle_COTM84_1848ad.sav
Renamed file: PaperBeetle_COTM084_C3C122_01.SAV
This one had a very nice land shape and start position for my style. I had no unexpected problems. The balance of power between civs seems to have maintained itself throughout the game. I was lucky with Republic sling (turns out my first ever) so I got in Republic before 1000BC. Now I just have to figure how to repeat that regularly. Good thing was lots of lux around and accessible iron. It turned out barely accessible coal as well. Losing lots of ships to get contacts was a bit of a setback but balanced wars of my opponents made up for it. I had almost no wars: I attacked Scandinavians when they were on their knees (by Romans) only to benefit a single poor worker. Iroqs declared on me but I got Rome to take the bleeding (nice thing Rome had no horses so trade of my only such resource helped maintain balance). I think I had only one phony war with Hittites overseas (just for some war happiness). Later it was just 'cave in all the way to the diplo victory'. I think I had a ridiculous amount of cash at the end (at least for my standards). If I remember something like 20K... It was lots of fun!
Thanks Alan, was pretty anxious about this one. To have a 450 hour marathon [okay, I can't have been at my PC all that time, but it's indicative] vanish into the ether might have been more than sanity could take!
Ancient and Medieval
20k city Bombay is founded in the rich lands northwest of the start. I miss the slingshot, and all wonders until I get Glib in 570bc. After meeting the other continent via suicide galley, the Glib brings me into the medieval. The Vikings settle well beyond the southern chokepoint, so I dow them 210bc in order to claim the horses and furs. I fight my way past the chokepoint, and give Ragnar peace in 170ad after taking his saltpeter town, but it flips back before I can hook the resource. My research reaches Democracy in 370ad, and I use it to trade my way into the industrial.
A Pinch of Salt, Part II
Having stocked up on reinforcements, I feel ready to restart the Viking war in 420ad, ever more keen to claim saltpeter as we enter the era of cavalries. It looks like Scandinavia is also at war with the Iroquois, so this should be a fairly decisive campaign. A leader in 450ad forms an army of footsoldiers - its main use will be to cover the artillery stack, so no need to use my few elephants on it. Just as I start knocking out Viking core towns, a bad omen: my canal town flips to the Quois in 550ad. I raze & replace the Viking saltpeter town, and hurriedly start rehooking the resource, but I'm in a precarious position with my empire split, and reinforcements blocked from reaching the front lines. Terrifyingly, Watha sees my predicament, and dows in 580ad.
A Pinch of Salt, Part III
Iroquois knights and cavalries are streaming across the no-man's-land that was Scandinavia, easily able to destroy the light defenses in my settlements. I see only one solution: recapture the chokepoint, and withdraw my entire empire to that position. But I need one more turn to get that saltpeter hooked first. I use the army to defend the adjacent town, while a single elite pikeman covers my workers on the resource [didn't think to abandon the town and colony the salt]. The pike valiantly holds off three Quois knights, and I finally, momentarily, have my saltpeter. The trebs are upgraded to cannon, my elephants become cavalry, and all my units stream back north to the canal, which I recapture in 610ad, at the cost of several cavs. I abandon four towns, choosing Reykjavik as the point at which to make my stand. It is a fine defensive point, surrounded by jungle which stops any attackers from reaching the town before I have a chance to shell them with my cannon.
Alliance and Counter-Alliance
I use my fairly advanced tech position to bring a dogpile onto Watha, though really only the Romans are in a position to fight him, and they are only going to get themselves hurt. Nevertheless, Watha obvioulsy feels the pressure, as he offers even terms for peace in 650ad. I'm not going to sell out my allies, but they have no such qualms, of course, with both Joan and Ragnar switching sides soon enough. I retaliate by arranging for the Sumerians and Hittites to deal with the French. As soon as my alliances against the Quois end in 830ad, I stretch to capture an ex-Viking town on the shore of the inland sea, and then give Watha peace. No one has really resettled Scandinavia, but I think I can claim it, and form a new front line against the Quois, ready for our next war.
The Tech Lead
Investigating Salamanca shows that Watha is far enough along a wonder build that despite Bombay's power, I need to choose between Darwin and Suffrage. Suffrage may be more cpt, but I need to get control of the tech race. Bombay completes Darwin in 860ad, and I take the usual Atomic and Electronics. I trade Atomic for Replaceables, Corporation, Communism and Sanitation, plus plenty of cash, and get my cannon upgraded to artillery. Watha does seem to be researching at about the same speed as me, so our next war isn't going to be trivial, but with infantry and artillery, winning it should be mostly a matter of patience and determination.
Consolidation
While Watha and I are at peace, Jules decides to try to attack me, despite the Quois armies making (rather slow) progress through his core. Initially I am up for this war, though it does mean I will need to postpone the second Iroquois war by another 20 turns. But no sooner do I lock Watha into this plan with an alliance against Rome, than Jules signs MPP with my luxury supplier, Gil. Very cute. I don't engage the Romans, so as not to trigger the pact, and by 1170ad, Watha has claimed the Roman lands, banishing Jules to one of the southeast islands. Over the same period, I take the largest southeast island, leaving Ragnar with the 1-tiler. Over on the other continent, a slightly damaged France makes peace with the other civs, leaving them free to fight each other, with the result that Sumeria conquers Hittitia in 1250ad. With the English long since destroyed by the Sumerians, only four main civs remain. Gil is shaping up to go into runaway AI mode.
Dawn of the Modern Era
In 1265ad, I find Watha has both Flight and trespassing units. We all know how to play this: I buy Flight for stacks of gpt, and boot the Quois for a dow. I am in the modern era, and ready for war; as the jungle defense worked so well at Reykjavik, I spent the peacetime planting forests on my borders, to impede inbound attackers. The tactic proves very successful, and apart from a marine strike, I don't lose any towns to the Quois. Indeed, when I feel Watha is ready for me to start taking his towns, I plan my captures and combat settles to continue making similar use of terrain. I am also building a good number of armies to use in screening manouevres. My counter-offensive begins in 1340ad, and starts in the Quois' Roman province, which is easy to attack as it lacks culture.
www.goldenage.gov.in
It's not every game that I have to wait for Internet to get my golden age, and it certainly seems unlikely for a 20k game, but so far I've not been able to get any Rel wonders. Internet completes in 1370ad, and my giolden age is finally on, just in time to contribute to building all that expensive industrial / modern infrastructure in my core and semi-core towns. Down at the battlefront, the war is taking care of itself. The longer I fight the Quois, the more momentum I build up. They are expelled from the mainland in 1470ad, and finally eliminated in 1510ad, with a little Sumerian help. But Gil is getting stronger, as I had feared. I have been feeding him tech, to keep my own finances afloat, and now I have to worry about his chance of actually winning. With Internet, I am confident of staying well above 50% of his culture, so he is no 100k threat, but he could easily pull out a space win before I hit 20k.
The Weakest Link
I analyse the Gil situation for a while, and decide that his weak link is uranium. He has only one source, just north of London. I need to attack him, disconnect it, and somehow keep it unhooked, preventing him from building SS Fuel. Can I do this before he gets ICBMs? No time to lose then - I dow in 1570ad, as soon as my carrier group reaches the Sumerian north coast. My bombers begin laying waste to the land all over the English province. I also bring Joan into the war, to ensure I have a relatively protected landing zone for my ground units. Unfortunately, Joan is down to 4 towns, but I manage to get my rocket trucks and armies safely shipped over just in time to watch helplessly as the Sumerians steamroll the French peninsula. But no problem - I can just take those towns for myself. Using plenty of army-screening, I push the Sumerians out of the French peninsula as far as silk town Orleans.
The Final Nightmare
Meanwhile, with a combination of relentless bombing and amphibious warfare, I start razing Sumeria's northern coastal towns. London is inland though, so I have to make a landing with armies to finally raze it in 1655ad. I also have a settler on hand to claim the area and ensure (short of a flip) that after I agree peace with Gil, he can't get access to the uranium. I just want to delay peace long enough to grab the silks at Orleans. Bad choice. Two turns before my armies roll into the place, it launches an ICBM at Bombay, destroying all significant buildings apart from colosseum. I can swiftly rebuild of course, but this probably sets me back about 10 turns. I take Orleans in 1670ad, settle the uranium, and give Gil peace. It is a tense finish, but as I calculated, Gil gets stuck on 9/10 SS components built, and has to watch as Bombay staggers over the finishing line in 1848ad.
Spoiler20k Dates :
-2590: Bombay founded
-1575: temple
-0570: Great Library
-0330: Forbidden Palace -0270: revolt (2 turns of course) for Republic
-0190: cathedral
-0130: library
-0070: colosseum
0030: university
0320: Copernicus
0480: Shakespeare
0550: Epic
0680: Academy 0790: factory 0800: coal plant
0860: Darwin
0940: Hoover
0980: Pentagon
1070: Red Cross
1110: CIA
1170: Wall Street
1310: SETI
1370: Internet & lab (golden age starts)
1405: UN
1430: The Bomb
1435: Apollo (rushed)
1470: The Cure (golden age ends)
1515: Longevity
1660: nuke destroys temple, library, cathedral and university
1670: rebuild library
1675: rebuild temple
1680: rebuild university
1685: rebuild cathedral
1690: Star Wars
1830: palace 1848: 20007 culture, making 101cpt.
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