COTM86 - Final Spoiler

civ_steve · Nov 5, 2011

COTM 86 Final Spoiler; Zulu, Game Submitted

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You have completed and submitted your game.

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

I'll start the final spoiler thread now as well. I suspect a number of players will finish this game fast and militarily. If so, did you need much game time beyond the AA to finish? If you played a later victory condition, how did your game go?

Spoonwood · Nov 5, 2011

So after entering the middle ages, I wanted a GA to help pick up building of infrastructure and research. I figured I'd send out two impis have them win against some far away neighbor, so I didn't have to get involved with a serious war and could concentrate on building infrastructure. I ended up declaring on England, and got my GA rolling in 670 BC. Before this, my capital and second city once becoming settler factories, spit out nothing but settlers. Once my GA started they switched to infrastructure. I managed to settle six native luxuries.

France built both the Pyramids and The Statue of Zeus. So, they would become my first target. I managed to achieve 4 turn research in the late middle ages, without conquering any land, but I knew I wouldn't be able to sustain that without expansion. In 10 AD I had 3 turns left on Physics. Cope's finished in 001 in 70 AD. Newton's University finished in 350 AD (I know I was industrial by this point). In that year also, I noticed three ancient cavalries not within French cities, so although I didn't feel quite ready, I gathered up my horsemen and captured Orleans. Soon, I would absorb the rest of the French empire mostly with horsemen.

Then I absorbed the Maya. Then Germany decided to attack me (unlike the other two), so I took all their cities but one, which I eventually took in the modern age. Germany picked up Feudalism, Medicine, and some modern age tech for me. Arabia decided to declare on me when I was in the modern age with tanks, but I didn't take any of their cities, as I didn't want to accidently trip the domination limit and I had some 61-62 percent of it after I had absorbed Germany. Stavanger of the Vikings offered to flip to me two times I think in the modern age, but I refused both times.

I think Steam Power took me 6 turns, Industrialization took a while also. I think Scientific Method was my first 4 turn research tech, after which I maintained 4 turn research the rest of the game. I had my 2nd city pre-build with the Palace for the Internet. I almost had to build it the turn after entering the modern age, but once I had Hoover's Dam complete, I managed to have my capital finish the Theory of Evolution the turn I entered the modern age, then taking Miniaturization and using "what's the big picture" to swap my 2nd city to the Internet completing the same turn.

Every city had a culture pop 5 turns later, so I had to reset many of my cities which had become size 5 or 6 science farms. I hit F4 sometime during this turn (perhaps I accidently hit F3), and unfortunately the game crashed, so I had to reset all of my cities twice. I launched in 1260 with a Firaxis score of 4564 and a Jason score of 10617.

Raliuven · Nov 6, 2011

Middle Ages: 1050BC-500AD
IA: 510AD-1110AD
MA: 1120AD-Diplo Vote

I remained at war with France for nearly the entire game enjoying the War Happiness. GL1 in 730 BC and used use that for a sword army. I didn't log when I DOW on the Mayans but it was sometime around 710BC. 670 BC Vikings DOW on me and I enjoy that War Happiness until I destroy them in 1090AD in preparation for the UN vote. 550BC build SOZ. Once this builds I stop building military except for the odd Impi here and there. 410 peace with the Mayans. 250BC build HGs and drop lux to 0% and never need to touch it again. Rush the FP with GL2 in 30AD. 4 turn research starts with Engineering in 130AD. Build Pyramids in 150AD. 4th native lux in 230AD. Start rushing settlers for ICS with extra gold. DOW on Mayans in 290 AD. 370 AD - Arabia DOWs on me and we stay at war until 1110AD in preparation for the UN Vote.

Build MoM in 400 AD but this was a mistake. I didn't think there was anything better to build at the time but in retrospect I should have used those shields to build military to get to the domination limit faster. Oh well. In 470AD I lose by 13/13 sword army attacking a 5/5 spear. Then a 5/5 AC flawlessly retreats against a 3/3 spear. Suddenly my waste on MoM was very clear and things were strained for a while. The RNG turned evil and I had problems holding back the AI because I wasn't building any military and relying on the SoZ producing AC. I waste 4 turns grabbing MT for cavs.

490 AD - Cops builds. 570 AD - Mayans are dead. 590AD=steam and HG go obsolete but connect 5th native luxury the same turn. 550 AD - Vikings build the GL. 610AD - connect coal and start rails. 670 AD - Newton builds. 710 AD - Chiv is known to the AI but only England has the resources for knights. I hold most of the needed resources. Even if I were inclined to trade, the AI has no roads and no harbors.

760 AD - AoW builds. 810AD - 6th native luxury & Germany completes ToA. :lol:

850AD England builds the GLH. :lol:

880 AD - Arabia is down to 1 city. 890 AD make peace with France and gifts make her polite. Good news for the UN vote. DOW on Germany. England demands invention and I hope they will DOW but liz backs down. 900AD - 7th native luxury. 930AD - kill German GL at Hamburg. 970AD - Germany down to 1 city, make peace. Germany is furious and nothing will change his mind so I have to destroy Germany in 1110AD as prep for the UN Vote.

GL3 in 1020 AD for cav army. In 1070 AD I start to worry about my Diplo victory. France has gone to cautious and I need them to be polite. With the Vikings destroyed in 1090AD, England will be my rival. I plan to kill Arabia & Germany pending the vote, but I need France. Only problem - France still has not met England or Germany! I need to do some footwork and gift a few cities to France so that they can meet England. Once that is done I solidify Frances vote with a MA vs. England and a previous ROP to make Joan polite.

I use ToE to grab Fission upon entering the MA and build the UN the following round and hold the vote.

Shaka votes for Shaka
Elizabeth votes for Elizabeth
Joan votes for Shaka.

Diplo victory 31hrs, 27m, 5s.
Firaxis score: 4451
Jason Score: 10178

Turn Log

Spoiler :

Memento · Nov 7, 2011

stats
13 cities, 47 pop , 167 tiles, 25 Horses, 8 Impis
missed Construction and Monarchie

975bc build ToA
925bc 1st war with france, take 3 towns+1 for peace
900bc 1st war with germans, take Berlin
775bc Arabs out
750bc ends GA
710bc 1st war with England take London (nice SF) + York
630bc Maya out
470bc war with all
french out
450bc Dom

donsig · Nov 17, 2011

A nice leisurely domination for me in 1360 AD. Wiped out the Maya, French and Arabs. Had a couple wars with England then attacked Scandinavia. Germany demanded saltpeter. lol Did not get a single leader.

CKS · Nov 21, 2011

20k in 1705, with 143 points to spare. I spent the last gazillion turns leader fishing, picking up a couple for small wonders. I got one with two turns to go that did nothing. A few turns earlier it would have done some good. Oh, well.

pol1 · Nov 23, 2011

ss launched somewhere in the 16th century. each tech from the middle of MA needed four turns, but indecision to the VC at the beginning took its toll.
after all wars and reducing last AI - England to one town on the island west of our starting position.
nice game without pressure and with possible much, much (!) earlier ss completion.

Megalou · Nov 23, 2011

Diplomatic victory in 890 AD. Eliminated France and England and got Maya down to 1 town in order to preserve alliances. I didn't want to tussle with my chosen supporters Germany or Arabia so at the end was about 400 tiles from domination. I was somewhat slow in optimizing commerce output. Even in the industrial period there were several unused tiles in the core area. I'm simply so used to the RCP of ptw.

Another thing that happened late was me hooking up the last luxury. I put my two prebuild towns (ToE, UN) at -1 food to avoid WLKD and premature completions. I've never done that. Something new happens every game.

No leader until it was too late to make a difference. So FP was also late, IA.

Nice to see so many other great games have been played.

AutomatedTeller · Nov 25, 2011

20K in 1630 AD. Settled in place, expanded slowly, had a lot of trouble with barbs (lost a bunch of workers and at least 2 settlers) and wars (I was at war with everyone, at some point, and only declared two of them! (Maya and France) - I conquered France and Arabs completely and made maya a 1CC.

Got a bunch of leaders. Lost the Maya capitol twice - once to a ROP raping Ansar, once to a berserker. Neither team did I have the city garrisoned. later, England burned 5 or 6 cities when they sneak attacked.

supersova_SU · Nov 28, 2011

Open
Conquest Victory
Game date:
50 BC
Firaxis score:
6889
Jason score:
11507

Lanzelot · Nov 29, 2011

Man, what a powerful start position, and that on Regent! civ_steve really was generous this time...! (Or did you forget to set the Difficulty Level to Deity?! :mischief:

)
Poor AI...

Moved my settler east to use the wheat immediately and then did something which I very rarely do: built a settler before the granary! Then both towns got a granary and were producing settlers and workers en masse.
After the major REX phase was finished, I kept Ulundi going as a 1-turn worker factory for centuries. When have we ever been able to have a 1-turn WF without GA? But it worked with an aqueduct, as Ulundi had +10fpt and 7spt at size 6, picking up a mined mountain for the missing 3s (fortunately only 1 out of 11 shields was corrupted).

In 1050 BC the Arabs sneak-attacked me and I got my GA, a bit earlier than I wanted it, but in retrospect it seemed to have worked out ok: it helped me getting 4-turn research for those expansive early middle-age techs, it helped getting up Libraries, Markets and even Universities quite early, and it speed up Copernicus and the Pyramids considerably. (I didn't want to wait for the slow-poke AIs, so I built the Pyramids myself.) I think, if I had been able to choose the time for my GA, I would have chosen a similar point of time as Spoonwood did in his space race game (700-600 BC), but now I think the slightly earlier GA worked out perfectly.

Incidentally: I never made peace with the Arabs, so they were providing war happiness from 1050BC to 1120AD...

I also set up MAPT with the other nations (except Germany, which I wanted to keep on good terms for obvious reasons) and two of these MAPT traps got triggered, so eventually I had 3 sources of WH, which was quite important as for a long time I only had access to 5 luxuries.

Another point was very important in my game: I got an MGL right with my very first elite victory!! (I remember games of mine, where I didn't get an MGL the entire game, despite hundreds of elite victories...). This allowed me to create a Swordsman-Army very early, don't remember the exact time, but it must have been in the 900-800 BC range. So even though I had only a very minimal military (just 2-3 Impis and 2-3 swords - this was probably the reason why the Arabs attacked in the first place), the Swordsman-Army allowed me to capture all of France and Arabia quite quickly. So even though the core was busy building libs, markets and universities, I had a decent military expansion and grabbed lots of land for future science farms. All captured towns first produced a few slaves until they hit size 1 and then started producing settlers at a slow rate to fill the land before the expensive IA techs came along.

Regarding research: I think I popped 2-3 techs from huts and also got a few trades in the AA. But starting with the MA the AIs were of no help (as was to be expected on Regent). But at least England was quite powerful and was able to afford some good tech for gpt deals, which helped covering my budget deficit...
Also I found out that, due to my relatively large number of Universities, at the end of the MA/beginning of IA it was better to use "tax farms" instead of "science farms". I have never done this before, and at first it looks "counter-intuitive", but I think I have seen this in one of I.Larkin's games. The reason for this is: if I set up the corrupt towns as science farms, I need to keep 10% tax in order to cover the deficit. But by setting the towns to taxmen, they will cover your deficit and this allows you to increase science to 100%, yielding more beakers than the science farms would have yielded you. This works well during the "transition period", where tech prices are already high, but the number of operational science farm towns is still small. Later on (mainly after Steam Power has allowed you to double/triple your science farm area) it is not useful anymore.

So basically for most of the MA and IA the game consisted of managing the workers (chopping jungle/marshes, irrigating and railing) and managing the scientists/taxmen. Not very interesting. At the transition from IA to MA there was a very interesting IBT again: like Spoonwood, Raliuven and Megalou I used Theory of Evolution for picking two modern techs. I had timed my ToE in Zimbabwe and my 1000s Palace pre-build to coincide with the completion of the last IA tech. After it completed, I first dialed up Bismarck and gifted him into the Modern Age to see what free tech he would get. He got Ecology. When ToE finished, I picked Computers & Miniaturization and then entered F1 once again to switch my Palace pre-build to Internet and another Universal Sufferage pre-build (which would also have completed that interturn) to SETI. The Hoover Dam coincidentally also finished the same interturn, but that was not important.
So in the all important 760AD interturn I had completed three wonders, and SETI had 5 more turns to go.

The boost from the Internet as well as the science farms (which had by that time reached immense proportions, thanks to Pyramids and rails) allowed me to maintain 4-turn research at the start of the modern age.

Quite amusing: at the end of the game all 6 AIs were still alive. I had kept 3 of them as OCCs for war happiness, but once I had 8 luxes hooked up, I made peace with them, and never bothered to eliminated them. (Didn't want any messy wars with real-time running low: going into the MA, I had only like 3 hours left before the deadline...)
I made peace with all except Arabia, just to punish them for their glorious idea of sneak attacking me...

So in 1120 AD they were still a size-2 OCC in the middle of the jungle, never built a worker to get them more food and obviously never built another settler either... I think for most of the game they were busy building the Great Library at 1spt, until the Vikings completed it around 1000AD...

Oh, and like in Spoonwood's game, I had a crash towards the end and had to reload from the 920AD auto-save. Looks like my old desktop had its problems handling the large number of cities... In order to reduce the IBT time at the end, I had set all my cities to Wealth (except for the spaceship part pre-builds) and had fortified all my workers. That allowed me to click through the last turns and submit right before the deadline. So that was better timing than in my recent incomplete attempt (GOTM115) :king:

Spoonwood · Nov 29, 2011

Lanzelot said:
In 1050 BC the Arabs sneak-attacked me and I got my GA, a bit earlier than I wanted it, but in retrospect it seemed to have worked out ok: it helped me getting 4-turn research for those expansive early middle-age techs, it helped getting up Libraries, Markets and even Universities quite early, and it speed up Copernicus and the Pyramids considerably. (I didn't want to wait for the slow-poke AIs, so I built the Pyramids myself.) I think, if I had been able to choose the time for my GA, I would have chosen a similar point of time as Spoonwood did in his space race game (700-600 BC), but now I think the slightly earlier GA worked out perfectly.

The more I've thought about this, for a space race game, as soon as you enter Republic you want the GA. It's not just that you have increased commerce and get infrastructure up earlier. It also gets your military trained faster, so you can pick up more territory for research later.

What's an MAPT?

Great game Lanzelot!

Megalou · Nov 29, 2011

Military Alliance tied to Peace Treaty, I believe. The AI wil break it eventually and give u war happiness.

Yes, Lancelot, that's a great result!

Lanzelot · Dec 2, 2011

Thanks, guys...!

However, I do think that the above mentioned coincidences ("accidental" start of the GA, MGL on the very first elite victory and perhaps more luck with popping techs from huts) were an important factor. All this combined can easily amount to > 10 turns, and then we are already in the same range as Spoonwood's finish date. So I think that Spoonwood's game is played basically on the same level and only suffered from the lack of the above streaks of luck.

One more point that just came to my mind: as I said, in my game the English were the only AI who could afford really significant gpt payments for techs. (Probably because they had a decent start and because they stayed out of any wars for most of the game.) Spoonwood on the other hand declared war on them for triggering his GA, and as we know, as soon as an AI gets involved into wars, their income (and research capability) basically stops... So there goes a good source of income for you.

Edit: ah yes, MAPT = Military Alliance against a third party tied to Peace Treaty. As soon as the AI signs peace with the third party, the entire deal (MA+PT) breaks, resulting in an "automatic DoW" on you -- and a nice source of war happiness...

PaperBeetle · Dec 10, 2011

Ancient Age
The capital is founded in the wheat fields east of the start. It works as a population pump, feeding Ulundi, which is founded in 3300bc on the riverside coastal spot south of the capital. The Republic slingshot is acheived in 1700bc, closely followed by Ulundi maxing out at size 12, and completing Colossus. Research is running at about 6 turns per tech through the usual late-ancient tech routes, so once Ragnar comes up with Mapping, I trade my way into the medieval in 1150bc.

Still Securing the Fruits of Antiquity
I continue expanding in all directions, making sure to grab ivory from the French, to allow a Zeus build at some point. Research starts on the usual 20k path (leaving Germany in the ancient age due to fears of a Pyramids cascade) as far as Printing. But there's actually so many decent ancient wonders still available that I don't want to hurry to Shakespeare, so I detour via some of the military techs in order to get ready for my first war. Zeus is completed in 470bc, and in combination with Colossus, starts my golden age.

Expanding Northwest
When Smoke sends a slaver into my land in 250bc, I presume that he is volunteering to be my first victim. But despite many insults, he refuses to admit this intention. I dow him anyway, and easily assimilate his core. My first elite win throws a leader, who forms a mace army, as I don't have enough veteran ACs yet (no time to waste on barracks-building in Ulundi). Meanwhile, the Vikings complete Pyramids in 90bc, which doesn't cause much cascading. Artemis and Lighthouse are still available to keep the AI distracted, and I get the Gardens out of harm's way in 10ad.

Expanding East
The Mayans are destroyed in 130ad, by which time Ulundi has laid down some regular buildings and started prebuilding Shakespeare, so I get research back onto the Democracy - Artistry path. As soon as the units are refreshed from the Mayan campaign, they begin forming up on the French borders. I dow Joan in 250ad, and by 240ad she is exiled to two towns on the southern edge of the Arabian peninsula. No need to give Joan peace, but I'll not be bothered with ROP either, might as well just fight my way through Arabia.

Into the Industrial
After the completion of Shakespeare in 390ad, I bring Ulundi up to size 17; no need to go all the way to size 20, as without a harbour, the 3 coastal tiles would actual be a drain on the city's net production. Over in the east, the Arabs are proving one of the flimsiest opponents yet, with most towns defended only by a single spear. They are destroyed in 450ad, and the French follow them out 2 turns later, just as I finish Magnetism to enter the industrial era, and complete Epic.

Ramping Up Production
After Epic, Ulundi rushes FP and then starts prebuilding factory. I judge it safe to bring Otto forward, since he can't build anything fast enough to threaten me any more. he gets Steam, which I buy with a reasonable amount of cash and several optional techs. Turns out I don't have coal on the trade network but there are a couple of sources accessible. I get it hooked in 510ad, as I begin attacking the English, intending to claim Sun Tzu which went up in London. I also want to establish a long-term border across the narrowest part of the continent, so I can manage my territory with respect to the dom limit in a simple fashion.

Back to the Medieval
Ulundi reaches a new production plateau in 610ad, making 92spt at -3fpt. I still have several serious medieval wonders to take care of; Newton is done in 620ad, after which I start Copernicus, and the Germans are teasing themselves with a Michelangelo build. The optional techs (Music, Navigation, Economics) are still un-researched, and I deviate from my usual 20k strategy here. Normally I head for the modern age, Internet, and further production boosts as fast as possible, and come back for the remaining medieval wonders afterwards. But this time, given that I don't suppose the AI will research any of those techs, I head back to do them myself.

Down-sizing the AI
While finishing the industrial era, I take out the English, and then move on to the Germans, leaving them with a single town in the marshland, so I can buy Otto's modern free tech. Finally I move on the Vikings in order that I can claim the Pyramids of Trondheim. These wars are all pretty slow as I am doing some serious leader-fishing, so fighting only with elites, despite my core churning out plenty of fresh veterans.

Finishing Off
I finally reach the modern era in 1110ad with the completion of Darwin. I bring Otto up for Computers, and just manage to scrape together 4-turn research on Fission, which I use to buy the German free tech. I then kill him, leaving only the Vikings, under close watch on the island west of the core.
By now, I am dacing around the domination limit, taking particular care to be ready for the cultural expansions from Internet, which completes in 1240ad. I eventually settle on keeping Pyramids of Trondheim and Sun Tzu in London, but withdrawing from much of Germany. The game ends without further incident in 1540ad, with Ulundi on 20061 culture, making 170cpt. Jason score 10364.

COTM86 - Final Spoiler

civ_steve

Deity

COTM 86 Final Spoiler; Zulu, Game Submitted

Spoonwood

Grand Philosopher

Raliuven

Emperor

Memento

The World is mine

donsig

Low level intermediary

CKS

Deity

pol1

kayaking physicist

Megalou

Money is the currency of fear

AutomatedTeller

Frequent poster

supersova_SU

Warlord

Lanzelot

Moderator

Spoonwood

Grand Philosopher

Megalou

Money is the currency of fear

Lanzelot

Moderator

PaperBeetle

Emperor

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