GOTM-02: First Spoiler:

[MeteorPunch]

This is the first game I've tried nicking a worker from another civ (America) - he had lots of luck avoiding the barbs going halfway around the world to London.

Another first for this game is not trading with the AIs. I've only made 2 trades and they've been behind me in tech...maybe this is just a Financial thing though.

I have built zero Great People - something I'm terrible at.

Tech
BC
3600 Mysticism
3080 Polytheism
2760 Agriculture
2400 The Wheel
1975 Animal Husbandry
1875 Sailing (GH)
1850 Hunting
1700 Archery
1350 Bronze Working
1150 Pottery
980 Meditation
620 Iron Working
520 Masonry
400 Writing
240 Monotheism

AD
80 Mathematics
260 Calendar
380 Currency
510 Monarchy
520 Priesthood
580 Code of Laws
630 Alphabet
650 Construction
710 Metal Casting

Yes - its very difficult to get a sensible cut-off - a specific tech could be bee-lined to; ditto for an age. I'm trying not to be too prescriptive. Dates could be a good cut-off. 1 AD is probably a bit early - 500 AD?

I'll be really glad when we can make a good cutoff date. I wouldn't mind variation if it could be announced with the game release thread so at least we know in advance.

 

[Adonias]

The story up to rifling.
I thought I'd use the traits to go for cultural or diplo. So, I abstained from founding a religion and kept my defending army very well maintained (loads of axes etc.. prolly could have destroyed a lot of oponents, but I wanted to try something else). Plan was to get the Great Lighthouse, Colossus and Pantheon at least in London. Rest of the wonders were to be bonusses. I did very well, built LOADS of wonders, had no wars (or at least, no need to declare war, and as soon as anyone declared, I took a couple of cities, sued for peace and gold, and gave back the worst cities, kept the good ones).
Upto rifling (and after that) never had any trouble with barbs or any other civs. Culture going well, but I was going to make some crucial mistakes from then on... next spoiler will clarify... I'll tell this much: If you go for a certain victory, GO FOR IT, DON'T TRY TO DO ANYTHING ELSE!! (this goes for warmongering (poop out those axes until the word is at your feet, as wel as for cultural (don't waste on science if you don't need it).... anyway, I lost with 3 only turns to go on winning a culture victory
(not saying why and to whom, that'l be in part two)

Highlights:
4000 BC Founded London on the spot. Going to be my great prophet factory
3160 BC Bronze working... WEE Bronze everywere!!!
2640 BC Stole Saladins Worker
2160 BC York founded
1550 BC Animal husbandry! hmm... no horsies... oh well.. wasn't going for war anyway
1375 BC Nottingham founded
860 BC missed stonhenge
560 BC Hastings founded
640 BC Lighthouse in London
360 BC missed the oracle
80 BC Built the pyramids in York
40 AD writing
200 AD Partenon in London (see the way I'm going for culture )
430 AD Cantenbury (last city founded)
570 AD Monty declares on me (I Never had war because my militair was very wel up to speed)
600 AD Colussus in London
740 AD Music! And free artist!
1025 AD Christianity has spread to England
1030 AD I convert and become best buddies with founder Mansa
1040 AD Great Library in London
1050 AD First war with Isabella (she declaired.. stupid girl)
1060 AD Notre Dame in Nottingham
1110 AD I capture toledo and complete the Chichen Itza in London (had a big engeneer hanging...
1155 AD War with monty (joined someone.. don't remember who)
1310 AD First to discover Liberalism
1315 AD With the free tech I got Nationalism
1345 AD Built the Tai Mahal in Nottingham
1355 AD You can get more with a kind word and a gun, than.....
1515 AD Yeah... rifling... Redcoats
1595 And monty to try them on (war)

Moderator Action: Spoiler pic removed
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[Don Vito]

Adonias, you should propably remove the image, as it shows location of OIL etc

 

[Adonias]

Adonias, you should propably remove the image, as it shows location of OIL etc

Very right... luckily we have very quick mods to correct screwups like that

Darn I feel stupit about that

 

[Turner]

You really shouldn't remove any kind of mod action like that....

Just for future reference.

 

[AlanH]

Thanks for the clarification, Turner. I came here, saw the problem had been fixed, but couldn't understand the reference to prompt mod action, as it seemed as if the original poster had fixed the spoiler .

 

[godotnut]

This game was a lot of fun. The interesting combination of playing on an unfamiliar map with a strong, yet unfamiliar civilization pulled me out of my usual early-game strategy. Specifically, I built cities slower than normal and focused on tech, wonders, and great people in the early game.

I built a worker first, studied bronze working, and chopped a settler and Stonehenge in 1775 BC. I missed the early religions but managed to found Confucism and had an early shrine thanks to Stonhenge/Philosophical. This was to prove a big money boon as the game went on. My science bar seldom sank below 70%, and I was able to upgrade promoted units throughout the game.

I founded my first city to take advantage of the stone/copper. I expanded very quickly due to Stonehenge's free obelisk and had copper and stone right away, before any barbs appeared. Consequently, barbs were quite helpful to me--toughening up my axemen for later fights and building cities to a healthy size before I "civilized" them.

I never even researched archery or horseback riding. I fought the entire game without them and did well militarily. Handy having iron nearby, swordsmen galore. I'm a big fan of catapults, too.

Chopped another settler, then built the Pyramids in my stone city in 360 BC (chop chop!). I hung low, pursued techs and eventually formed a quartet of cities below and to the right of my capital. The capital became my science center, unit builder, and great people factory number one. The stone city became my wonder builder and great people factory number two. My third city became another science center (both this and the capital eventually with academies and multiple super specialist scientists and prophets). I also built units in this city. The fourth and fifth cities were both coastal, money-makers. The fifth was founded across the ocean to take advantage of the marble up there in the chilly arctic. I actually built a galley since I was blocked by mountains and barbs on the other side. Didn't get much wear on those sails, I must say

Eventually I took the barbarian city on the far eastern side of the northern ocean I came to call my own. I timed a great artist/culture bomb in the newly-conquered city, seizing all of the undeveloped land in the far northeastern corner of the map. This eventually provided me with a third coastal money center and a production strong inland town to build more units (also copper to trade and three health resources).

Izzy got jealous of my Pyramids and tried to seize my wonder city in a sneak attack with seven mounted units. I barely fought her off in a thrilling war that could have crushed me. This was civ at its nailbiting greatest. Thank God for cheap spearmen.

Just after fending off her stack, Washington declared war on me. But by then my military machine was in full gear, and we fought to a standoff. I got some cash for peace, regathered and hit him hard with cats, swordsmen, and axemen, taking two of his cities easily. By now my kingdom spanned the artic north from the far eastern margin of the map to about halfway across the top. Mine was a long rectangular empire of the north, where I enjoyed more productive, hilly terrain than my jungle-bound tropical neighbors. Note to self: far northern and southern starts are especially strong on tropical maps.

Saladin and I were friends throughout the game. We eventually teamed up and destroyed both Isabella and Montezuma. We split the cities, but I got the rich Jewish holy city with its 25 gp/turn shrine, which gave me a further edge in tech.

Mansa Musa managed to build the Great Library. With that and his financial trait, he gave me a run for the money in the techathon. But after taking most of Isabella's kingdom and her shrine, I was able to pull ahead. I could tell about 1400 or so that it would be harder to win militarily than through tech. I considered that the really good scores are usually early military victories, and that with the space race option, I likely couldn't hope to place in the upper echelon.

But the space race victory attempt was the natural ourgrowth of my super science / great people factory stategy, and my plan was unfolding elegantly. I was surprised to notice that most of the Civ Hall of Fame scores for Prince difficulty are space race victories. I usually play on Monarch, so the victory context of Prince was unfamiliar, but I committed to going for the space race around 1400.

I finished the game late last night, after two straight evenings of several hours each. Great stuff! I read that protocol around here asks that we don't post our final results, so I'll save that for a later thread.

It will be really interesting to see how this all pans out. Will we see some really early space race victories with all the economic advantages? Or will we get the usual conquest/domination victories at the top of the pile?

 

[Shillen]

I was surprised to notice that most of the Civ Hall of Fame scores for Prince difficulty are space race victories.

This is because the beta gauntlet one for the hall of fame was fastest space race victory. The gauntlet is when a certain type of game is promoted as a competition for all players to participate in. There's a new gauntlet each update period. For the first update it was a prince standard map and the goal was earliest spaceship victory.

 

[Velvet-Glove]

AlanH: Thanks for the tips on submitting very poor games, I will do that.

Hate to break it to ya, Velvet-Glove, but I think I will likely get the booby prize, with a score of 167 if I remember correctly (something in the 100s I recall).

*cough* I must have been tired last night as I posted the wrong score. I've just checked my game HoF and find I had a maginificent score of 117 for this game (not 711 as first suggested). LOL!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who was caught out, that does make me feel slightly better about it. Oh well, this was definitely a learning experience for some of us... just 25 days to go to GoTM03, eh?

 

[Shillen]

I think score when you're conquered is only based on the techs you've learned. You obviously get no territory, population, or wonder score. I think in a prior version of the game they even took your techs away but they must have fixed that.

 

[AnotherJon]

This is my first gotm. I have played successfully at Prince level before though and didn't anticipate too many problems in winning my game. I tend to vary my approach between peaceful builder and aggressive warmonger games. In this case I took what I regard at the 'safe' option and decided to play peacefully unless attacked.

In the pregame thread there was discussion of the potential of going for an early academy in London and I decided to try this.

Early techs were:agriculture->bronze->animal->writing->hunting->archery->alphabet

Founded London in place in 4000BC and started building worker, he will finish with enough turns to improve the wheat before bronze is researched.

Warrior went east before moving south then arching back west. Sadly he turned up not a single hut. I met both Isabella and Saladin in quick sucession. Isabell founded Hinduism in 2600BC.

London built warrior then I chopped another warrior before chopping a settler then a library. When London reached size 5 I set it to use 2 science specialists so as to generate a great scientist.

York was founded 5S 1E of London I can't remember what it built but hopefully it was a good idea (maybe barracks - York was to be my military/production city). After building the settler I chopped a second worker in London, my first big mistake came soon after. I sent my first worker to York an my second outside Londons cultural borders to chop; he was promptly eaten by wolves. Around this time A barb city popped up in the same (magnificent) site as in Grogs' game (page 1, post #17). York made an archer (after barracks) and I sent him and two warriors to the barb city. The turn before I attacked one of the two barb warriors inside decided to attack my woodsman 2 warrior fortified in forest outside . My archer beat the other and I had a third city (it is now 1100BC) In 860BC my first great scientist popped I built an academy in London. Nottingham was founded in 300BC.

I researched metal casting as I had copper for the colossus which I wanted to improve London and any future lake/coastside cities. My second Scientist researched the wonders of mathematics for me and I set the barb city to build aqueduct + hanging gardens (chopping a bit to aid progress).

I intended to build city 5 in the coastal hill east of London, gaining clams and rice but on the way there the barbs settled 1 tile east of my intended site (not on the coast). I probably should have gathered my troops and taken them out but I was worried that my expansion was too slow and diverted the settler south founding Hasting (200AD) in the jungle (though the site does have much potential). The 5th city did bad things to my economy (I actually ran out of cash - as in my units went on strike for a turn before I noticed - really need to pay more attention), I had hoped to get to Theology to found Christianity but this looked unlikely.

By now I had met all the AIs, Mansa had a big (~500 to others ~400) lead which didn't surprise me as he seems to be a very fast researcher, I wanted to gain parity with him asap so that I could trade with him to improve my pace, also I figured that together we would outpace the more agressive AIs making attack less likely as better units = more 'power'. Monte had Buddhism, Mansa Confucianism. Washington had Judaism but was not the founder.

When my 3rd scientist appeared I used him to research philosophy, I founded Taoism (310AD) and adopted it. Soon after gaining philosophy Mansa offered 690gp + currency for it, I accepted and my economy was back on track (this is probably why I managed to get Theology and found Christianity in 670AD.). Both Saladin (now Conf) and Isabella closed borders when I adopted Taoism but thankfully Mansa remained on good terms. I built extra troops to ward off Isabella's crusader tendancies. In 620AD I razed the barb city in the screenshot and in 660AD founded Canterbury on the coast on square west. I don't think I will go any further as my next save is 1165AD which is further than most others have gone.

The only war in this period was Monte vs Washington. Monte declared in 260AD razed New York in 350AD and made peace in 540AD. This set Washington back enormously. I, perhaps foolishly refused to help either side. I hoped to make Washington an ally in the end but didn't want to risk either Isabella or Saladin joining in with Monte.

In hindsight the loss of my second worker was a much bigger setback than I realised. I didn't replace him fast enough and was one short for way too long leaving many squares unimproved in the beginning. Also I should have built closer to the stone so as to make it available earlier. Playing so passively also didn't work that well, I think I could easily have wiped out Washington while he was busy with Monte, gaining much expansion space for little effort. The only real downside being that Monte was pretty universally unpopular.

One last thing: I had never had the AI offer me more than the beaker value of a tech in gold however I accepted an offer of 260 for Monotheism (256 beakers) from Cyrus.

 

[Shillen]

Warrior went east before moving south then arching back west. Sadly he turned up not a single hut.

Ah, yes, I had forgotten this. It appears all the huts were removed from the map, or at least the ones near our starting location.

One last thing: I had never had the AI offer me more than the beaker value of a tech in gold however I accepted an offer of 260 for Monotheism (256 beakers) from Cyrus.

This is a consequence of the civ3 tactic to turn research off and buy all your techs. In order to prevent you from doing that firaxis made techs worth far more gold than they are worth in beakers. This was effective in preventing buying techs, but it means the player can get large amounts of gold for techs and therefore run defecit research to get techs more quickly. It's often worthwhile to sell a 2000 beaker tech for even 500 gold if it means you can get the next tech a few turns sooner. Unfortunately since the AI doesn't value gold at all it will not take advantage of this itself. I think civ3's system was better, actually.

 

[whb]

Around this time A barb city popped up in the same (magnificent) site as in Grogs' game (page 1, post #17).

AnotherJon, this seems to be quite a common barb city location - this was where the barb's founded what was to be my fourth city, Chehalis. (The barbs also founded a city in the same 1-tile-east-of-the coast location that happened to you, but in my case the Malinese razed it and settled on the coast just before I got there, so Hastings was founded on the plains/coast to use the sheep SE of London.

I'm a little surprised you didn't found York and Nottingham 1 square right of where they are - so York could take the second gems and Nottingham the stone. I know this requires building an Obelisk in York to get the copper, but the long-term gains seem very large.

 

[Kinkill]

I settled where I was and sent my warrior SW, starting on building a new warrior while researching Bronze Working... even with few trees in sight initially I like to get Slavery early.

First happening of note was when my warrior found that delicious second city location to my SW. Three resources and then Bronze Working arrived and the copper popped to show four resources for that city. With hills to mine. This was when I decided London would be my Great person factory and I would aim to get my second city SW as soon as possible.

After Bronze I headed for Archery, fairly standard tech research, got a third Warrior to and then started on my Worker when I hit pop 2.

In the early years my main military tactic was going to be... station units just outside my borders.... keep the fog of war at bay and hopefully any Barbarian troubles would belong to the other civilisations. Largely this was a success, I had very little trouble with Barbarians.

Worker popped and went to work on the nearest trees... quickly getting me a settler, a barracks and more troops .

York was founded SW of London (this is all from memory, more exact spoilers will come in future posts, with dates etc.)

My warriors had been out exploring for some time now, and had discovered all the other civs fairly early... I built my third city west of London, but still out of the Polar region. Over the next few centuries I would stretch out West and East... I took the Barbarian Minoans in to my gentle embrace on the east side of my starting lake this formed the most easterly part of my empire for a long time.

7 cities I had when I reached the point of having borders pressing on all sides. At this time I was third from last in points and running at around 30-40% tech to stay in the black. Saladin was the leader who had pressed most in to territory I considered 'mine... jungle to the SE of London. When cleared the two cities he had there would be pretty decent... on looking to trade with Saladin I got my first pleasant news... he had no iron working.

Several Swordsman later (new Cats yet) I had his two cities and was able to make peace with him cleaning out his bank.

This was the end of the expansion phase.

York was a wonder factory. I got the pyramids and a number of other wonders... York and London were both producing Great People.

I had workers out and through some good tech trades was able to keep up with Cyrus and Mansa Mansa, the points leaders (I was now third, a little ahead of Isabella and Washington).

I was able to run at 60% tech 10% Culture and still make a little cash.

10 Cities.
Founded Taoism but have still not taken a religion to maintain relations.

Saladin and Montezuma where involved with occasional wars as other Civs picked on the little guys. I agreed to join these wars but never took any active part, just allowed the other leaders to like me more for our mutual 'struggle.

Through these years of peace I built up my cities. All my resources were hooked up, farms spread. I built Wonders, missed a couple (gaining cash) and kept the tech coming as quickly as I could afford. I gained and overtook Mansa and Cyrus to take the points lead. Mansa had a tech advantage over me, and Cyrus was the most populous civ, but I had a better balance than either of them. Borders were pressing though, I kept culture coming in my cities and this started to push back the borders of Isabella and Washington to my West. I had slipped behind in terms of army size, but Washington was busy destroying Montezuma and Isabella was friendly after some decent trades and me 'joining' her wars.

It was clear I was in a strong and stable position and would be able to aim for either a diplomatic or space race victory.

Then Isabella attacked.

To Come: Episode two... Spanking a Queen.

 

[hurricane766]

Didn't keep a record of my exploits so this is just from memory, but...

I had played a bunch of practice rounds with the GOTM2's parameters before the actual save was released so I could figure out a strategy.

I went for axemen as my first priority because of the problems I had with the barbs in all my test runs. That seemed to really help me cause I was able to take 2 barb cities for free and keep any barb interference to a minimum.

I cottage spammed this game, and went for a land grab, I had about 10 cities without having to war. Sorry no screenshots

I didn't really focus on a GP factory although london ended up being it. I think I got 1 GA, 2 GP, and 8 or 9 GS. I was able to stay ahead in tech for most of the game - probably because of the GS.

I didn't attack anyone till I had red coats Then I went for the Malinese - took all but two of their crappier cities. Persia declared on me - silly Persians - so Saladin and I took it to them.

Moderator Action: Edited. This is the *first* spoiler, not the *last*

I play so much CIV, I think there should be a GOTW (Game of the Week)

 

[whb]

Attn mods: given that because the spoiler-limit is "don't give details about resources beyond coal" rather than "don't give details about events beyond coal", and we're getting rather a lot of people posting their space race end games, can we open the second spoiler thread now?

I have a few interesting things that happened in my game, including something very odd about automated workers, that I'd rather put in the second spoiler thread - but if everyone posts their finishes here, then there might not be much of a second spoiler thread. I'm sure others must be in the same position.

 

[Krexent]

I expanded very rapidly using London as a settler factory. I am still running too much off of Civ 3 principles, my focus on expansion was overemphasized. I ended up with multiple poorly (or in a couple cases completely) undefended cities. I also attempted to make open borders with everyone which I discovered resulted in a lot of people angry at me once civs began choosing sides. Anyway, quite early in BC after only playing for about an hour I was essentially destroyed by barbarians. I lost a settler, 3 cities, the last of which was London.

I totally underestimated the threat barbarians pose. I skipped researching archery. That was a big mistake, I needed it with the barbs. I also did just didn't produce enough warriors at all.

This was my first Prince level game, and my first lake game, and my first epic game. My biggest lesson learned was don't rush into a GOTM completely unprepared.

I have since began another epic, lake, prince game as Elizabeth and I am doing excellent... I made good use of the philosophical trait by building the parthenon, the great library, and national epic all in the same high production city. It is a regular great person factory. I also protected my cities much better, and got axemen quickly to fend off the increasingly strengthening barbs. This was definitely an eye opener! I'm playing my diplomacy a lot smarter now, but I still feel like I have a lot to learn in that regard... it is so complex now.

Krexent

 

[Sound+Vision]

In the early years my main military tactic was going to be... station units just outside my borders.... keep the fog of war at bay and hopefully any Barbarian troubles would belong to the other civilisations. Largely this was a success, I had very little trouble with Barbarians.

Yes, this seems like the best way to take care of the barbarians rather than stationing people in your cities. If I had done that would prolly have saved me a lot of trouble with the barbs. Plus that way you can have workers improve those tiles without having to worry about them getting eaten. But then again with the fog of war pushed farther back doesn't that also mean that there will be fewer barb cities near your territory for the claiming?

 

[nurla]

Space victory - 1927 AD, final score - 17521 (5755 game score)

Unfortunately will not be counted.
Only one wrong reload in starting position
...who cares?

 

[AnotherJon]

It's often worthwhile to sell a 2000 beaker tech for even 500 gold if it means you can get the next tech a few turns sooner. .

I have noticed the potential of selling techs to backwards civs for 200-300 gold every few turns .