kingjoshi, it's a bit hard to read your post with the 1920 width picture. I doubt many people are viewing these boards with that kind of resolution. It's generally a good idea to reduce the size so it can fit on most people's screens so they don't have to scroll back and forth while reading your post. Just a tip for future posts.
GOTM-02 Second Spoiler
- Thread starter ainwood
- Start date
Cosine said:Thanks for saying that!
Personally I think all screen shots should be set as a linked attachment instead of embedded in the thread. If I want to see you screen shot, I'll click the link!
Actually, in his defense, the image in question is an attachment. If you only have one image attached then the forum automatically displays it.
Gato Loco
Open to Interpretation
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2004
- Messages
- 347
Shillen said:
I was only commenting on remarks I'd heard that it was especially hard to get a diplomatic victory because nobody would vote for you. I suspect that it's hard if you aren't planning for it until the last minute. And you're right about early contact and trade being important, especially if you're relying on religion to hold your coalition together. As we can see from the submissions this month, certain maps are made for diplomatic victory. On this map we had early contact plus just the right mixture of warlike and peaceful neighbors to make diplomacy possible.
Nik0906
Chieftain
Moderator Action: Merged from a separate thread. PLEASE do not post game-related threads or posts outside of the official spoilers until the game is over
Not sure whether I should report this as a bug or not on the GOTM.
Timbuktu does not appear on the victory conditions screen as a top 3 cultural city even though it eventually achieved legendary status. I explain below:
I have a situation where my cultural borders are being pressed by the Malinese empire. The closest Malinese city to me is Timbuktu.
I keep checking the victory conditions screen to get a handle on Timbuktu's cultural score, that is whether it appears as one of the Top 3 cities in the world on the cultural scale (not sure if I can get this info any other way on a competitor's city).
Anyhow, Timbuktu never appears on the top 3 city list although it's borders look massive and they cause one of my cities to revolt (even though my city has a reasonable cultural score itself).
I cannot understand this so I went back to a previous save of the same game and check the victory screen and Timbuktu is on it - way ahead of everyone else including London and York which are up there in the top few cities in the world.
It seems that over a certain score I guess around the 30 or 40k mark on the cultural scale, a city can disappear from the top 3 city list giving a misleading impression of the top 3 cultural cities.
This could be a problem for someone going for a cultural victory themselves.
Do you think it's a bug and has it happened to anyone else?
Not sure whether I should report this as a bug or not on the GOTM.
Timbuktu does not appear on the victory conditions screen as a top 3 cultural city even though it eventually achieved legendary status. I explain below:
I have a situation where my cultural borders are being pressed by the Malinese empire. The closest Malinese city to me is Timbuktu.
I keep checking the victory conditions screen to get a handle on Timbuktu's cultural score, that is whether it appears as one of the Top 3 cities in the world on the cultural scale (not sure if I can get this info any other way on a competitor's city).
Anyhow, Timbuktu never appears on the top 3 city list although it's borders look massive and they cause one of my cities to revolt (even though my city has a reasonable cultural score itself).
I cannot understand this so I went back to a previous save of the same game and check the victory screen and Timbuktu is on it - way ahead of everyone else including London and York which are up there in the top few cities in the world.
It seems that over a certain score I guess around the 30 or 40k mark on the cultural scale, a city can disappear from the top 3 city list giving a misleading impression of the top 3 cultural cities.
This could be a problem for someone going for a cultural victory themselves.
Do you think it's a bug and has it happened to anyone else?
As far as I've seen, on the victory conditions page the rival cities shown are always from the same empire. That way you can quickly see which empire threatens to have three legendary cities first. To see how great cities are doing, regardless of empire, go to the charts advisor and click on top five cities/wonders.
kingjoshi
King
I reduced the size considerably, but now I have a hard time reading it on my laptop. I hope people can see it better than me 
Part 5: Montezuma Part two
Continued from:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=3579658&postcount=53
Goal:
To Finish of montezuma after my first failed attempt since now I have Catapults
Outcome: Success it just took longer than I wanted
Game Year: 1100 AD Wow That took a long time, 35 Game Turns and War Weariness was becomming a problem in London.
Second War agaisnt Monty Declared in 850 AD
So I gave myself 10 Turns (The minimum allowed after sueing him for peace)to get the reinforcements (4 Cats This was crucial, 2 sword and 2 more axe) up to the front line.
For Demographics please see attached(Pic: Demographics1100AD)
A Summary of my cities is posted (Pic:Cities)
Since The last spoiler there are now: 8 new cities, for a total of 19
Coventry Founded in the void
Saxon (taken from Barbarians)
Tlatelolco
Texacoco
Tenochitilan (Used A Great Artist Culture Bomb From London)
Warwick
Teotihuacan
Tlaxcala
But In 750 AD I was running at -21/Turn with 60% Science
Currently I am running at -70/Turn with 40% Science 10% Culture, but Am still the tech leader.
However I am staying in the black due to losing Wonder Races and Capturing cities.
But I am desperately now chopping Courthouses and The Forbidden Palace.
New techs: Paper(Trade for map of Cyrus so I can form a plan)
Engineering
Drama (Culture slider)
Philosophy (Keep My religion Dominant)
Optics (Traded with washington)
In hindsight, having Bureacracy or Vassalage at this point would have helped as trying to dominate the world with Axemen and swordmen in 1100AD is DUMB
Wonders: Sistine Chapel in Jute (this extra cuture proved invaluable)
Ankor Wat being built in Jute
So at this point in the game I Control 32.39% of 64% of the total territory and 34.36% of 42% of the population Need to keep pressing on And as Shillen said you need to cover almost all of the map because of the Ice at the top and Bottom
4 Rivals Left Washington, Cyrus, Mansa Musa, Saladin
Please See attached(Pic: RelationsAll)
I decided to go for Cyrus(If you look at the picture it is a no brainer) as he is right next to my war machine from Monty as well he is the only one not under My religion that Heathen. See Attached (Pic: Cyrus Attack Plan)
Notable: Current Game score: 1871, Score if I won this turn: 67370
Edit: Forward link
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=3584735&postcount=75
Next Spoiler: The Fall of Cyrus
Continued from:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=3579658&postcount=53
Goal:
To Finish of montezuma after my first failed attempt since now I have Catapults
Outcome: Success it just took longer than I wanted
Game Year: 1100 AD Wow That took a long time, 35 Game Turns and War Weariness was becomming a problem in London.
Second War agaisnt Monty Declared in 850 AD
So I gave myself 10 Turns (The minimum allowed after sueing him for peace)to get the reinforcements (4 Cats This was crucial, 2 sword and 2 more axe) up to the front line.
For Demographics please see attached(Pic: Demographics1100AD)
A Summary of my cities is posted (Pic:Cities)
Since The last spoiler there are now: 8 new cities, for a total of 19
Coventry Founded in the void
Saxon (taken from Barbarians)
Tlatelolco
Texacoco
Tenochitilan (Used A Great Artist Culture Bomb From London)
Warwick
Teotihuacan
Tlaxcala
But In 750 AD I was running at -21/Turn with 60% Science
Currently I am running at -70/Turn with 40% Science 10% Culture, but Am still the tech leader.
However I am staying in the black due to losing Wonder Races and Capturing cities.
But I am desperately now chopping Courthouses and The Forbidden Palace.
New techs: Paper(Trade for map of Cyrus so I can form a plan)
Engineering
Drama (Culture slider)
Philosophy (Keep My religion Dominant)
Optics (Traded with washington)
In hindsight, having Bureacracy or Vassalage at this point would have helped as trying to dominate the world with Axemen and swordmen in 1100AD is DUMB
Wonders: Sistine Chapel in Jute (this extra cuture proved invaluable)
Ankor Wat being built in Jute
So at this point in the game I Control 32.39% of 64% of the total territory and 34.36% of 42% of the population Need to keep pressing on And as Shillen said you need to cover almost all of the map because of the Ice at the top and Bottom
4 Rivals Left Washington, Cyrus, Mansa Musa, Saladin
Please See attached(Pic: RelationsAll)
I decided to go for Cyrus(If you look at the picture it is a no brainer) as he is right next to my war machine from Monty as well he is the only one not under My religion that Heathen.
See Attached (Pic: Cyrus Attack Plan)Notable: Current Game score: 1871, Score if I won this turn: 67370
Edit: Forward link
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=3584735&postcount=75
Next Spoiler: The Fall of Cyrus
Lesson learned: Burn baby burn. I attacked early and often on this map feeling that it was relatively easy. I only built 2 cities, one for the stone and one for the gems and built the pyramid. My plan was to try to use representation and scientists for the bulk of my research and focus on food and production. Well, that was requiring a significant amount of micro-managing so I fell back onto cottage spamming and chopping axemen.
I got Izzy by surprise it appears and took her best cities in a slow slugfest because she had two sources of copper and it took me a long while to disconnect both. I didn't wipe her out but quickly moved onto Monty. His stacks upon stacks of jaguars proved to be quite annoying and I wasn't done with him until I was fielding knights. Well, silly me, I wasn't razing the cities I captured and quickly found myself in quite the economic hole. 50% science operating at a significant loss and Mansa was technologically closing on me. After swiping washingtons capital and another city I was forced to stop because I was in such financial hardship.
I tried to build as many markets/banks/courthouses as I beelined for my redcoats. It was here that mansa passed me in tech. He and I appeared to be on identical tech paths and he was beating me by 2-3 turns. The rest of the world was far behind but I HAD to stop mansa. The plan was to push through Washington into Mansa. By the time I was done taking americas best cities I had a decent force of redcoats and a steady stream of units coming from my core. Mansa was quickly exterminated and my economy once again forced me to stop advancing. I had 50% of the worlds population and land area at this point. It was time to run clean up operations on america, spain, and the aztecs. It took me 150 years or so to shuttle troops and squish all of the little border cities those 3 had built up. Cranking culture and finishing off those little cities gave me a domination victory in 1867 I believe 34k points.
I never went to war against cyrus or saladin. I only razed 1 city, I only built 2 cities. I never adopted a religion. I never founded a religion. I never buitl a religious building. I didn't get around to building the Hermitage, National epic, or Heroic epic. I felt like the RNG was against me in this game. I had several well developed and planned assaults slowed significantly by bad luck. 5:1 odds and losing 2-3 units. I was cursing at the game as one invincible longbowman would cost me 50 years. Besides that I had never played a lakes map and did not particularly enjoy having to take over soo much land and micromanaging was quite bothersome on such a slow game.
If I had to do it again I would raze many of the cities I captured. I would attack mansa much earlier. I might have tried using some missionaries to expand on my captured Shrine income. I would have put the effort into setting up a legit GP city because I didn't bother to take advantage of my philosophical trait at all. I might have exterminated izzy/monty/washington early instead of wasting soo much time later shuttling troops to exterminate them. I might have tried befriending another civ instead of being at cautious/furious with them all.
What determines score btw? For future games if we remain on relatively low difficulties scoring high is the only challenge. What factors modify my score? I want to give next month a real score push and see how well I can do.
I got Izzy by surprise it appears and took her best cities in a slow slugfest because she had two sources of copper and it took me a long while to disconnect both. I didn't wipe her out but quickly moved onto Monty. His stacks upon stacks of jaguars proved to be quite annoying and I wasn't done with him until I was fielding knights. Well, silly me, I wasn't razing the cities I captured and quickly found myself in quite the economic hole. 50% science operating at a significant loss and Mansa was technologically closing on me. After swiping washingtons capital and another city I was forced to stop because I was in such financial hardship.
I tried to build as many markets/banks/courthouses as I beelined for my redcoats. It was here that mansa passed me in tech. He and I appeared to be on identical tech paths and he was beating me by 2-3 turns. The rest of the world was far behind but I HAD to stop mansa. The plan was to push through Washington into Mansa. By the time I was done taking americas best cities I had a decent force of redcoats and a steady stream of units coming from my core. Mansa was quickly exterminated and my economy once again forced me to stop advancing. I had 50% of the worlds population and land area at this point. It was time to run clean up operations on america, spain, and the aztecs. It took me 150 years or so to shuttle troops and squish all of the little border cities those 3 had built up. Cranking culture and finishing off those little cities gave me a domination victory in 1867 I believe 34k points.
I never went to war against cyrus or saladin. I only razed 1 city, I only built 2 cities. I never adopted a religion. I never founded a religion. I never buitl a religious building. I didn't get around to building the Hermitage, National epic, or Heroic epic. I felt like the RNG was against me in this game. I had several well developed and planned assaults slowed significantly by bad luck. 5:1 odds and losing 2-3 units. I was cursing at the game as one invincible longbowman would cost me 50 years. Besides that I had never played a lakes map and did not particularly enjoy having to take over soo much land and micromanaging was quite bothersome on such a slow game.
If I had to do it again I would raze many of the cities I captured. I would attack mansa much earlier. I might have tried using some missionaries to expand on my captured Shrine income. I would have put the effort into setting up a legit GP city because I didn't bother to take advantage of my philosophical trait at all. I might have exterminated izzy/monty/washington early instead of wasting soo much time later shuttling troops to exterminate them. I might have tried befriending another civ instead of being at cautious/furious with them all.
What determines score btw? For future games if we remain on relatively low difficulties scoring high is the only challenge. What factors modify my score? I want to give next month a real score push and see how well I can do.
Hi
This was my first GOTM game, and also my first playing England, and playing Prince Level, and boy did i get beaten.
I started up with London on the starting place, and quickly began settler production to expand to the east and south. I went well, i got a good amount of territory on a small time, but somehow the Barbarians got upset, and began rushing my cities. They captured 1 and razed another, setting me way back (Learned here, to build more defence than 2 warriors).
The Americans captured the barbarien city, giving them more land, and i was set way back with no resources and little land to expand in.
I managed to keep peace all the way through - but i never had a chance due to the beating i got by the barbariens - i had to use all available resources to hold back attack after attack on London. - I never got access to Iron or Coal - It took more than 100 turns before i had access to copper and needed trading to get horses, i enjoyed the game, and tried to find places to expand, but i was way behind the others, and could only hope for a miracle.
Next time i'll use more on defence and expand even quicker.
The game ended with Washington winning a space Victory in 1929.
This was my first GOTM game, and also my first playing England, and playing Prince Level, and boy did i get beaten.
I started up with London on the starting place, and quickly began settler production to expand to the east and south. I went well, i got a good amount of territory on a small time, but somehow the Barbarians got upset, and began rushing my cities. They captured 1 and razed another, setting me way back (Learned here, to build more defence than 2 warriors).
The Americans captured the barbarien city, giving them more land, and i was set way back with no resources and little land to expand in.
I managed to keep peace all the way through - but i never had a chance due to the beating i got by the barbariens - i had to use all available resources to hold back attack after attack on London. - I never got access to Iron or Coal - It took more than 100 turns before i had access to copper and needed trading to get horses, i enjoyed the game, and tried to find places to expand, but i was way behind the others, and could only hope for a miracle.
Next time i'll use more on defence and expand even quicker.
The game ended with Washington winning a space Victory in 1929.
kingjoshi said:I reduced the size considerably, but now I have a hard time reading it on my laptop. I hope people can see it better than me
I'll admit it's hard to read now. Generally I play on a lower resolution so I don't have to shrink it that much (usually I do 80%) to be easily viewable on the forums. You have a few options to make it better, though. 1) You could attach a second image so the forum doesn't automatically display them, 2) You could crop the image and only show whatever the important part is, or 3) You could use civfanatics upload server instead of the attachments and then just link to the picture without imbedding it. But thanks for taking the time to shrink it down.
shadow2k
Emperor
Dreef said:
Population
Land
Tech
Wonders
If you hold your mouse over your score in the lower right corner during the game, a pop up will appear and break it down for you. I posted a screenshot of this in my spoiler near the end of the 1st page if you want to see what I mean.
shadow2k
Emperor
Shillen said:
I resize pictures using a free program from Microsoft that integrates right into WinXP (it's only for XP users). It's one of their PowerToys called Image Resizer. It allows you to merely right click the file, and then gives you a few size options, or you can customize the size...you can also keep the original file if you want, and just have a smaller sized copy made. The quality is as good or better than any other program I've used to do it, and much quicker.
Download is on the right side of the page for anyone interested.
Part 6: The Fall of Cyrus
Continued from:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=3583343&postcount=69
Goal:
To kill Cyrus in one go and expand borders enough for domination win
Game Year: 1310 AD,42 Game Turns and War Wearinesswas becomming a HUGE in London.
Good thing the war is now over.
War agaisnt Cyrus Declared in 1125 AD
So I gave myself 5 Turns to get the reinforcements into formation for the attack.
For Demographics please see attached(Pic: Demographics1310)
A Summary of my cities is posted (Pic:Cities1310AD, it is cropped to make it fit)
Since The last spoiler there are now: 13 new cities
1115AD Parthian (Captured from barbarians)
1175AD Arbela
1215AD Persopolis
1245AD Assyrian
1255AD Susa
1265AD Tyre
1270AD Agades (From Mansa Musa due to culture)
1280AD Bactra
1280AD Sidon
1300AD Newcastle (Founded to get marble (speed up Versailles) which later I found out I already had)
1310AD Pasagrade
1310AD Tarsus
1310AD Gordium
Persians Destroyed
But In 1100 AD I was running at -70/Turn with 40% Science 10% Culture, but Am still the tech leader. Over 1000GP in the bank
By 1145 I was running at -82/Turn with 40% Science 0% Culture,still the tech leader. Only 200ish GP in the bank
However
In the year 1150AD The Forbidden Palace in Barcelona (chopped it) was built which made an ENOURMOUS difference
Result:
I was running at -2/Turn with 40% Science 0% Culture
A Difference of -80/Turn
Next is to complete Versailles in Techolochilan (Monty's Capital, all the cities sound the same to me)
By 1310 With all the new cities:
I was running at -89/Turn with 40% Science 10% Culture but 1610 Gold in the bank
New techs: (Not in order)
Education (Cheap universities and Oxford Uni in London)
Vassalage (traded for)
Civil Service (Traded for)
Banking (Bank for Nottingham, holy city)
Guilds
Liberalism
Divine Right (got it from liberalism wanted spiral miranet, and keep religions)
Economics in 2 turns
Wonders: Angkor Wat
Notre Dame London needed the happyness mid war.
So at this point in the game I Control 51.54% of 64% of the total territory and 48.30% of 44% of the population
So my initial goal didn't pan out as planned which means I need to attack someone else.
I wish I had known what Shillen said about lake maps Before the GOTM. (you pretty much need to cover the entire map due to ice caps)
In 1245AD Got Mansa Musa to convert back to Confucianism again to make sure he didn't try anything funny
Notable: Game score: 2875, Score if I won this turn: 77832
**
Civics:
Despotism
Free Speech (for the cultural border expansion, went straight here from Barbarism)
Caste System
Decentralization
Organized Relgion (I get it and never change from it, I need to break this )
As can been seen in (Pic: Cities1310ADReligion) Many of my cities get the boost, but I need to keep the Missionaries comming
Wow I definetly need to improve here and go for civic like techs to get higher scores.
Please Reference the (Pic: Map) for my attack plan agaisnt Saladin, as well as where The Forbidden Palace was built and the future site of Vasallages will be.
Next Spoiler: Domination Win
Continued from:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=3583343&postcount=69
Goal:
To kill Cyrus in one go and expand borders enough for domination win
Game Year: 1310 AD,42 Game Turns and War Wearinesswas becomming a HUGE in London.
Good thing the war is now over.
War agaisnt Cyrus Declared in 1125 AD
So I gave myself 5 Turns to get the reinforcements into formation for the attack.
For Demographics please see attached(Pic: Demographics1310)
A Summary of my cities is posted (Pic:Cities1310AD, it is cropped to make it fit)
Since The last spoiler there are now: 13 new cities
1115AD Parthian (Captured from barbarians)
1175AD Arbela
1215AD Persopolis
1245AD Assyrian
1255AD Susa
1265AD Tyre
1270AD Agades (From Mansa Musa due to culture)
1280AD Bactra
1280AD Sidon
1300AD Newcastle (Founded to get marble (speed up Versailles) which later I found out I already had)
1310AD Pasagrade
1310AD Tarsus
1310AD Gordium
Persians Destroyed
But In 1100 AD I was running at -70/Turn with 40% Science 10% Culture, but Am still the tech leader. Over 1000GP in the bank
By 1145 I was running at -82/Turn with 40% Science 0% Culture,still the tech leader. Only 200ish GP in the bank
However
In the year 1150AD The Forbidden Palace in Barcelona (chopped it) was built which made an ENOURMOUS difference
Result:
I was running at -2/Turn with 40% Science 0% Culture
A Difference of -80/Turn
Next is to complete Versailles in Techolochilan (Monty's Capital, all the cities sound the same to me)
By 1310 With all the new cities:
I was running at -89/Turn with 40% Science 10% Culture but 1610 Gold in the bank
New techs: (Not in order)
Education (Cheap universities and Oxford Uni in London)
Vassalage (traded for)
Civil Service (Traded for)
Banking (Bank for Nottingham, holy city)
Guilds
Liberalism
Divine Right (got it from liberalism wanted spiral miranet, and keep religions)
Economics in 2 turns
Wonders: Angkor Wat
Notre Dame London needed the happyness mid war.
So at this point in the game I Control 51.54% of 64% of the total territory and 48.30% of 44% of the population
So my initial goal didn't pan out as planned which means I need to attack someone else.
I wish I had known what Shillen said about lake maps Before the GOTM. (you pretty much need to cover the entire map due to ice caps)
In 1245AD Got Mansa Musa to convert back to Confucianism again to make sure he didn't try anything funny
Notable: Game score: 2875, Score if I won this turn: 77832
**
Civics:
Despotism
Free Speech (for the cultural border expansion, went straight here from Barbarism)
Caste System
Decentralization
Organized Relgion (I get it and never change from it, I need to break this )
As can been seen in (Pic: Cities1310ADReligion) Many of my cities get the boost, but I need to keep the Missionaries comming
Wow I definetly need to improve here and go for civic like techs to get higher scores.
Please Reference the (Pic: Map) for my attack plan agaisnt Saladin, as well as where The Forbidden Palace was built and the future site of Vasallages will be.
Next Spoiler: Domination Win
This was only my 4th Civ4 game. It was also the first game I played on Prince (the other 3 were Noble).
A brief summary with some lessons learned:
I expanded much too quickly. Not with settlers (I only founded 4 cities in the course of the game), but through capturing cities (including those of the barbarians). More on that later.
Incidentally, I didn't realize until part-way through the game that one could capture barbarian cities. I had been stationing units outside the barbarian cities to gain XP and to keep the barbarians away from my cities, but I would have captured a few early on (there were some in very nice locations) had I realized that was possible. Mistake #1.
As it was, by about 60BC I had 5 cities, but no horsies. Isabella (to my south) had a nicely corralled pasture of fine war-stallions. So I decided to trade. No, not with Isabella. I traded blood for horses. For over five hundred years, I sent young soldiers armed with swords, axes, and bows to beat down the Spanish walls and take what was rightfully mine. Sounds bad, but it was actually quick and merciful in game time. In just a few turns I had captured 4 Spanish cities (including 2 Holy cities, horses, and other resources) and made peace. In the same time, I captured a barbarian city.
This brought me to about 680 AD with 9 cities. Research was low and dropping as I continued to build units to defend my vast borders against rampant barbarians. It would be about 500 years (including several turns of 0% research) before the economy recovered from my over-expansion. Mistake #2. Surprisingly, I never got too far behind in tech, due to several wars occuring over that span (no, I didn't start all of them... ) as follows:
960-1110 AD: vs Montezuma
1350 AD: vs Isabella, taking the last Spanish city
1400s: vs Montezuma
1600s: vs Washington
1700-1714: vs Monte...captured his remaining 4 cities in 2 turns
1746-1796: vs Saladin (captured and/or razed 12 cities)
1832-1871: vs Washington (captured and/or razed 8 cities)
1877-1886: vs Saladin (captured his final 3 cities)
At this point I had a pretty good lead in score, territory, and power (I had decided early on to try for a domination victory). I easily had the pop %, but I needed about 6% more territory for the win. Culture expansion was out of the question; my borders were tight with Cyrus and Mansa (the only other remaining civs at this point), and none of my border cities had high culture (having been recently captured). So it was once more into the breach.
Cyrus and Mansa had a defensive pact, which was going to make things more difficult. I wasted a few turns trying to get either one of them annoyed at me enough to attack (thereby breaking the defensive pact), but I quickly tired of that game. Mistake #3.
I built enough units (tanks and bombers, mainly) for 3 invasion forces plus the defense of my border cities. The war to end all wars (1896-1905) resulted in the capture of 13 cities (most from Cyrus). I needed about half of those to put me over the 64% territory criteria for the domination win.
Domination, 1906
5607 in-game score, 21740 total score.
Misc:
1) I enjoyed playing on Epic. The games on normal setting always tend to be tech races for me, without many chances for a bloody war. This was the first game in which I got in large-scale wars.
2) The AI seemed, well, a pushover. Maybe I got lucky, but this was only my 4th game and I never felt in danger of losing, despite making many mistakes. The only cities I lost were border cities, taken a turn or two after I had captured them. I played overly-cautious, thinking that at any moment one of the AIs was going to put the smack-down on me, and it never happened. Had I known, I would've played more aggressively, in which case I may have finished much earlier. I'm hoping to see even higher difficulty levels in at least some of the future GOTMs.
Many thanks to the moderators, can't wait 'til GOTM3.
A brief summary with some lessons learned:
I expanded much too quickly. Not with settlers (I only founded 4 cities in the course of the game), but through capturing cities (including those of the barbarians). More on that later.
Incidentally, I didn't realize until part-way through the game that one could capture barbarian cities. I had been stationing units outside the barbarian cities to gain XP and to keep the barbarians away from my cities, but I would have captured a few early on (there were some in very nice locations) had I realized that was possible. Mistake #1.
As it was, by about 60BC I had 5 cities, but no horsies. Isabella (to my south) had a nicely corralled pasture of fine war-stallions. So I decided to trade. No, not with Isabella. I traded blood for horses. For over five hundred years, I sent young soldiers armed with swords, axes, and bows to beat down the Spanish walls and take what was rightfully mine. Sounds bad, but it was actually quick and merciful in game time. In just a few turns I had captured 4 Spanish cities (including 2 Holy cities, horses, and other resources) and made peace. In the same time, I captured a barbarian city.
This brought me to about 680 AD with 9 cities. Research was low and dropping as I continued to build units to defend my vast borders against rampant barbarians. It would be about 500 years (including several turns of 0% research) before the economy recovered from my over-expansion. Mistake #2. Surprisingly, I never got too far behind in tech, due to several wars occuring over that span (no, I didn't start all of them...
) as follows:960-1110 AD: vs Montezuma
1350 AD: vs Isabella, taking the last Spanish city
1400s: vs Montezuma
1600s: vs Washington
1700-1714: vs Monte...captured his remaining 4 cities in 2 turns
1746-1796: vs Saladin (captured and/or razed 12 cities)
1832-1871: vs Washington (captured and/or razed 8 cities)
1877-1886: vs Saladin (captured his final 3 cities)
At this point I had a pretty good lead in score, territory, and power (I had decided early on to try for a domination victory). I easily had the pop %, but I needed about 6% more territory for the win. Culture expansion was out of the question; my borders were tight with Cyrus and Mansa (the only other remaining civs at this point), and none of my border cities had high culture (having been recently captured). So it was once more into the breach.
Cyrus and Mansa had a defensive pact, which was going to make things more difficult. I wasted a few turns trying to get either one of them annoyed at me enough to attack (thereby breaking the defensive pact), but I quickly tired of that game. Mistake #3.
I built enough units (tanks and bombers, mainly) for 3 invasion forces plus the defense of my border cities. The war to end all wars (1896-1905) resulted in the capture of 13 cities (most from Cyrus). I needed about half of those to put me over the 64% territory criteria for the domination win.
Domination, 1906
5607 in-game score, 21740 total score.
Misc:
1) I enjoyed playing on Epic. The games on normal setting always tend to be tech races for me, without many chances for a bloody war. This was the first game in which I got in large-scale wars.
2) The AI seemed, well, a pushover. Maybe I got lucky, but this was only my 4th game and I never felt in danger of losing, despite making many mistakes. The only cities I lost were border cities, taken a turn or two after I had captured them. I played overly-cautious, thinking that at any moment one of the AIs was going to put the smack-down on me, and it never happened. Had I known, I would've played more aggressively, in which case I may have finished much earlier. I'm hoping to see even higher difficulty levels in at least some of the future GOTMs.
Many thanks to the moderators, can't wait 'til GOTM3.
First game at Prince level.
Lost in 1945 to American Space victory - captured Boston one turn later.
Had highest points score (4102), but a long way way behind in techs.
Spain made repeated attacks from 4th place, which preoccupied me whilst America and Mali got ahead in techs.
Probable biggest mistake - never decided on a victory condition.
Enjoyed the game.
Many thanks to the Moderators
Lost in 1945 to American Space victory - captured Boston one turn later.
Had highest points score (4102), but a long way way behind in techs.
Spain made repeated attacks from 4th place, which preoccupied me whilst America and Mali got ahead in techs.
Probable biggest mistake - never decided on a victory condition.
Enjoyed the game.
Many thanks to the Moderators
knupp715
King
Thanks Shadow2k. I just downloaded that image resizer program. It is extremely easy to use and I like it a lot.
Spoony
Chieftain
Well done Shillen, you beat me by a turn. My speed was excellent, but my milking was incredibly poor. Only built about 3 wonders.
Conquest in 1615AD
with a final score of 53,207
I'm really proud of that speed, but I need to learn to keep some cities building improvements and not units.
My story is the same as most. I wiped out Spain & America early. Mali became my strongest opponent with a better score than me. So I went for Saladdin next. Then came a bit of a lull as I had stretched myself taking out Saladdin. I waited for knights before I wiped out Persia and then I used Cavalry to finish the rest. I had to wait for Cavalry as Mali had a faster tech speed than me. Luckily they didn't bother with researching gunpowder and my Cavalry ripped through them.
I missed completing two turns earlier by losing a 95% battle in my favour
. I guess the Civ4 gods were against me. I assume someone will make a 1500AD finish anyway if not much earlier.Similar threads
