Featured Game #2 Spoiler thread 2 - Endgame

BTW I noticed a lag change in the end game, around turn 200, when selecting and moving units. And it could be my imagination, but it seemed that the skirmisher caused more lag when trying to select it than other units, could it be mod related?

Have a Phenom II X4 945, 4Gb, Ati 5770... maybe 8gb of ram could help, but I have read posts that say the contrary.
 
I've been a bit slow to get started- I played to turn 70 but had my system crash and needed to reinstall. So feel free to disqualify me for replaying, but I don't think I'll be winning any awards.

I was curious to see how few cities I could get away with founding on my own, and how focused I could be on just getting capitals and leaving the rest to trade my surplus luxuries with.

I settled on the riverside hill to the NE of the start. Built scout/scout/worker/monument.
Researched pottery/writing/mining/masonry to get first few luxuries connected.
Got the great library then the hanging gardens. Filled out honour by barb clearing, made kathmandu and the southeast militaristic CS allies.
T90- Got settler from pyramids. Settled on the coast to the NW to get the natural wonder, marble, fish and lots of riversides.
Built up an army and went to stomp Egypt (a push over who had lost a couple of small cities to Japan, who had also been fighting the Iroquios, who in turn had been fighting Russia who had expanded east of the mountain range)
T119- Thebes falls, burnt Alexandria down.
T123- Denounce Iroquois, bribe Japan to war them, Russia joins soon after. Takes about ten turns to take their two biggest cities. Got the 20 minimum influence policy then Angkor Watt around now to ally/friend every city state. Also got Notre Dame for a big happy boost.
T144- Bismark declares war, sends a reasonable number of troops (most outdated) a few turns later. Rush buy a Treb and couple of camel archers to hold him off. Putting in Piety/Patronage policies with no real plan. Commerce seems a bit weak even for Arabia on a pangaea map. Porcelain tower is nearly done (another incentive to keep every civ alive for trading).

So I'm just about to pop into the renaissance with Cannons. Plan from here is to push west to stomp down Germany (but again see if I can get away with only taking the top two cities and leaving them crippled) and pushing north to a very rapidly expanding Persia (who lost a trash frontier city to Kathmandu around T100-quite funny). India's capital is already gone to Germany, so Rome, Russia and Japan should be easy for the clean up with artillery.

I think relying one one supercapital for too long was a bit suboptimal, but not by a huge amount. Will start annexing the other capitals I have captured soon once they start building rubbish.
 
I was curious to see how few cities I could get away with founding on my own, and how focused I could be on just getting capitals and leaving the rest to trade my surplus luxuries with.

T90- Got settler from pyramids. Settled on the coast to the NW to get the natural wonder, marble, fish and lots of riversides.

I think relying one one supercapital for too long was a bit suboptimal, but not by a huge amount. Will start annexing the other capitals I have captured soon once they start building rubbish.

I think two cities is all you need when you intend to get off to a quick start (as you did), but yeah, T90 sounds like you became distracted by what a super-capital could do for you. The AI was so easy to take in this game that I'm not sure the focus on science (which I also did to some degree) is worth it.
 
I got that feeling as well- the cities fell so easily.

I also noticed the AI is quite reluctant to face an assault. I had a lot of time of AI troops just sitting around watching me pummel their cities. It is going to be interesting to see if my gamble pays off- leaving lots of small/medium AI cities behind risks retaliation later on. I am betting on my overall military strength will put them off, plus keeping a reasonable amount of cash so I can rush buy defenses if they do decide to try to reclaim their capitals.

If the GOTM3 rolls around too slowly I might go back to the beginning out of curiosity and go for an all out military assault from the very beginning. Either that or an attempt at pure ICS to go for a maximum score. I don't mind awards, and appreciate it isn't fair replaying a game, but am keen to get a better feel of what the current VEM version is capable of.

I noticed the AI built very few wonders as well- a couple went after turn 100. Could this just be a pangaea effect because the AI all felt nervous?
 
I think two cities is all you need when you intend to get off to a quick start (as you did), but yeah, T90 sounds like you became distracted by what a super-capital could do for you. The AI was so easy to take in this game that I'm not sure the focus on science (which I also did to some degree) is worth it.

I definitely focused too much on science and should have started to conquer as soon as I hit Chivalry and upgraded to camel archers, rather than waiting until I had a bunch of promoted (Armory plus HE) trebs. Attacking mostly 20-30 strength cities (and one 40 strength city - the final Iroquois capital) with infantry/artillery was slight overkill!
 
OK.....all done with what was a very fun game. The current version really strikes a lovely balance between rushing in and holding back.

T164- Massed troops toward Germany- easy clean up in the desert with extra mobility.
T170- Got the collosus (late much?)
T172- Darius notices my troops, I accept his invitation to DOW
T187- Persepolis and two large cities have fallen for the Persians, plus burnt some small trash towns. Accept peace. Raze all but capital.
T189- DOW Rome and Russia
T196- Bulb military science with a GS
T197- DOW Japan
T199- Get the oracle (later much?)
T201- Moscow falls. Rome falls. Sue for peace with both.
T2110 Kyoto falls. Final score a paltry 2919.

I sold the Iroquois capital to Japan since they were amassing a very large amount of money around T180 from memory. This seemed to stop them becoming too much of a monster, even though their score rivaled mine for a while. Germany were building up their military again and preparing to attack me, but time was on my side there. Will post the save file in a little while.

Few points- should I feel ashamed for trading luxuries shortly before DOWing? I figure the AI is paying you a lot less. A shift to only GPT trades would be good.

I used only one RA this game- but settled four great scientists around the capital. Only built NC and university there. Libraries elsewhere in capitals at most (rush bought).

I connected only my two main towns by roads, so missed Harun's extra traderoute income. Ended up nearly finishing patronage (double hit of the min 20 social policy and angkor watt is very strong).

Also- I should have screen capped Ramses informing me that he was having a party with wine and swingers. It is great to see the dialogue being spiced up, and is presumably a minor cosmetic thing that could keep being modded to add surprises to the game.
 
void_genesis,

When you said that you had to do a complete install, does that mean that you started over? In the case, we can't count your game officially, since you had prior knowledge of the geography and your opponents. Either way, though, great game. I'm always amazed by individual idiosyncrasies in very similar conquest games. In yours, it would be the four academies. That couldn't be more surprising!
 
Hi guys, long time no see.

First, I want to thank all you guys for the great work you have been doing with this mod. Since the last patch (where many of the changes came from this mod) I, and lots of other people, have been really enjoying multiplayer.
Ive been checking in now and then to see how its going for you guys. Then, a few days ago, I saw these GOTMs and really wanted to try it out.

I did feel, like someone mentioned, that there were alot of everything. But its probably becauce im so used to the vanilla, or because the AI was on a lower level.

Anyway, I finished the game at turn 189. It would have been earlier if the peace treaty hadnt screwed me. I sued peace with the germans while attacking rome and it said 10 turns peace treaty! While attacking Rome i gathered new troops outside Berlin and had to wait much more than 10 turns before I could attack Germany :confused:

Spoiler :
I must mention that I first played the game and tried 6-7 cities swordsman spam. As I noticed there was only 2 iron anywhere near I was totally screwed and started a new one. I dont know if thats against the rules (I imagine it is). I tried to as much as possible play the second game without using any information from the previous. I dont mind if my game gets DQed from gotm2, I played it just for fun anyway :)
 

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Anyway, I finished the game at turn 189. It would have been earlier if the peace treaty hadnt screwed me. I sued peace with the germans while attacking rome and it said 10 turns peace treaty! While attacking Rome i gathered new troops outside Berlin and had to wait much more than 10 turns before I could attack Germany :confused:

Spoiler :
I must mention that I first played the game and tried 6-7 cities swordsman spam. As I noticed there was only 2 iron anywhere near I was totally screwed and started a new one. I dont know if thats against the rules (I imagine it is). I tried to as much as possible play the second game without using any information from the previous. I dont mind if my game gets DQed from gotm2, I played it just for fun anyway :)

Replaying does disqualify you, but it's not like you lost out on a trip to the Great Barrier Reef - just an official congratulations on this thread and Thal's website. That's a super-fast win, so if you have the time, could you spell out more on how you did it?

As for the peace treaty, yes, it's supposed to be 20 turns to avoid exploits, but the game still says 10.
 
I've always been of the opinion people underestimate the value of a 3-tile border expansion, especially when all neighboring cities can benefit from it too! :)



I expanded to Medina (NW), Damascus (NE), Baghdad (SW), then Najran (NE). My opening strategy went as expected:


  1. Masonry
  2. Calendar
  3. Optics

  1. Professional Army
  2. Liberty
  3. Free Settler
  4. Free Worker
  5. Finish Liberty.
  6. Finish Honor.
  7. Commerce.

  1. Settle capital in place
  2. Scout
  3. Scout
  4. Worker
  5. Monument
  6. Stonehenge
  7. Pyramids

  1. Expand naturally to Wheat.
  2. Buy northern Marble tile.
  3. Marble completes improvement at the same time Stonehenge unlocks.
Around the start of the Medieval era Gandhi had already been conquered, and Russia/Rome were then ganging up on Darius. Several other leaders also asked me to join in so I declared war. Overall I managed to guide diplomatic relations so all the warmongers were friends, allied against all the peaceniks who were friends. This usually gives the most stable global networks, avoiding the situation where everyone denounces almost everyone else.

I conducted a two-front war against Darius and Ramesses, both of which were rather easy since the war was in the Medieval period when Arabia is strong, not in the Ancient-Classical when Persia/Egypt are strong. Unfortunately, Russia and Japan both ran into the vanilla problem where they just stop expanding for reasons I've yet to explain. I suspect the reason war was less challenging in this game is the AI is not building city defenses for some odd reason. I've been investigating this to figure out what's going on.

How can you see the time until border expansion?:confused: I have my game fully patched.
 
Turns until border expansion are the pink numbers in the city name tags.

Edit: Ah I may have misunderstood your question. I believe the pink numbers may be from one the other mods (either CivWillard or InfoAddict)? Or maybe I am wrong...
 
void_genesis,

When you said that you had to do a complete install, does that mean that you started over? In the case, we can't count your game officially, since you had prior knowledge of the geography and your opponents. Either way, though, great game. I'm always amazed by individual idiosyncrasies in very similar conquest games. In yours, it would be the four academies. That couldn't be more surprising!

Yeah I did get to turn 70, had a bad driver update and had to restart. I expanded more the first time, and knew about half the map, so my attempt definitely doesn't count. Still fun to play though and I appreciate the effort in putting on the VEMGOTM.
 
Here is my save file for anyone curious- sorry for the lack of a screen cap....

I was definitely interested to see a capital focused domination worked well- only one civ came close to trying to fight back after their capital was gone. I was expecting all sorts of trouble.....
 

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Did it slower than most on here, taking over Moscow on turn 303.
 

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Although the first 100 turns or so were pretty slow and somewhat aimless - too distracted by wonders so my cap didn't grow very fast, only got one ruin (!), focused neither on science nor building up my military - I found this to be a very easy game mostly due to the poor AI development. My thoughts on the possibilities of why it was so easy can be found here.

Wonders:
  • I didn't get the GL or Oracle (and skipped the Great Lighthouse), but did get every other early wonder: they were just so cheap due to the wonder production bug that I couldn't resist. :blush:
  • It was fun to watch every small city I conquered pop to two rings because of the Kremlin!
  • I wonder if had waited a turn to finish the Taj Mahal before winning it would have resulted in a higher score...


Cities:
  • I settled two additional cities eventually, but neither became powerhouses. I think they were worth it because of access to Hiawatha, Oda and Cathy though.
  • The graphic didn't show up, but Damascus has Machu Picchu.


Policies:
  • I'm not sure if my foray into Tradition was worth it - probably not.
  • My science was terrible throughout the game, so the two free techs from Rationalism turned out to be essential to reaching Dynamite.
  • I really wanted to try Autocracy, but there was no way that was happening!

(Unfortunately, I have to use a screen-capture program that cuts off the top and bottom of the image.)

Game recap for anyone interested:
Spoiler :
I declared war on Egypt (the last civ I met, oddly) at around t110 with a combined arms force while teching up to Chivalry. I took Egypt's 3 westernmost cities, leaving them with two poor ones, but the Iroquois completely destroyed them soon after.

A fairly typical love-fest game to begin, I had many RAs and DoFs with everyone but Germany for the first half of the game, declaring on the Germans after taking Thebes to snag a couple cities Biz settled between Russia and Persia (mostly so my military had something to do while my DoF with Hiawatha ran out).

Russia asked for a joint invasion on the Iroquois (who were running away in tech) which I accepted with the ten turn stipulation. I sent the bulk of my forces - now with many Camel Archers - to Thebes, while the force which took the German cities went through Russia and the pass in the north. Russia sniped Hiawatha's northwestern city near the pass after I had wore it down:mad:, so I decided that Catherine was next - and I knew her cap was practically undefended.

After taking the bulk of Hiawatha's cities while waiting for the war deal with Cathy to end, he offered me all but one city in a peace deal (I razed one city). I slowly proceeded to Moscow, encircling it with my now large army and Dowed, taking it and the Iroquois city which was rightfully mine.

I realized at this point that I could have taken it much more quickly with a smaller force and that all the AIs were faring quite poorly in terms of science and military (I saw zero cities that broke 20 pop in the whole game). I said "screw it" and backstabbed my friend Persia, sweeping through their territory quickly and easily.

Diplomacy was out the window at this point, obviously, but I managed to renew a DoF with Rome and he invited me to declare on India, so now armed with Dragoons and Cannons I quickly took Gandhi's cap and (again while waiting for the war agreement to end) three more cities, aiding Rome's advance on the northern city. Germany was next, and they had more units (though only pikes and landsknecht) than any other civ yet, so it took a bit longer.

At this point I was losing units occasionally due to the rush I was in but it didn't matter because I was making so much gold (>700 gpt not in a GA and allied to every CS but one) and such a large military. Happiness wasn't an issue either, was hovering between 15-40 throughout (for the first time ever never dropped below zero happiness!), and it was only at this stage in the game that I began building Colosseums in my cities! By the last turn I was getting 231 happiness from buildings.

I had been amassing units outside of Japan's capital for a while so I Dowed them while I brought my main force north from Germany to Rome. Tokyo was situated in a decently protected spot so going was slow (he also had a fair military) until I discovered Dynamite and then it was game over - both Rome and Tokyo fell within two turns.

From taking Moscow to winning was only 40 turns.
 

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Very good game, Seek.

Why was your science terrible - population?

Would the Taj have resulted in a higher score? I think so, based on lindanealmck building every available one. I didn't realize the game was bugged - I only notice the most glaring stuff while I play - so I only pursued the GW's that made sense to me.

By the way, in my game the AI did expand. About the only empty-ish area was the desert between India, Germany and Arabia.
 
@txurce

Hmm. I didnt really do anything special, except for bulbing chivarly using the scientist from GL. After that i just killed them all :)
Imo, the most important thing in this gotm was to split your army as effectively as possible.
 
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