GOTM-03 First spoiler: The early game.

[ainwood]

GOTM-03 First Spoiler

The purpose of this first spoiler is to focus on the early game-play - the decisions you made early-on, and how they affected the starting expansion-phase of your game.

To qualify for this spoiler, you should have:

1. Contact with all other civilizations.
2. Have knowledge of the locations of the early strategic resources (Copper, Iron & horses).
3. Have progressed to at least 0 AD, but not gone past (about) 500 AD.

We will give some flexibility on the dates to allow you to post progress to natural breaks in your game.

Please DO NOT post details screenshots that may spoil things for other players - such as the locations of more advance strategic resources!

To try and better cater for all players, the second spoiler is here. This covers the balance of the game, and is for people who have finished earlier (both in terms of game years and real time) to post their results.

I am still trying to get the balance right for the spoilers, so please continue to feed-back any thoughts on the structure (for example, these spopilers could have been released a few days earlier! )

 

[ionimplant]

contender, domination
according to my memory:

move to the forest hill and settle down there. really disappointed that there's no resouces visible near by. fortunately iron showed up later after ironworking researched. built the 2nd city quite early because i really wanted to grab the ideal cite to the south, which is middle way between me and Egypt.

it turned out Egypt got its 2nd city much earlier than i did but fortunately at a different location. built the 3rd city close to the copper site and that's my initial land-grabbing phase.
then i started to build some axemen for a small scale invasion of Egypt and to fend off the barb archers. declared war on Egypt and Aztec is the only one willing to go to war with me and so signed him up. got two cities from Egypt and sued for peace. also got a few cities up to the north during this period. didn't get any wonder and didn't have any great people. i had a hard time to do this when playing a military game.

i remember reading somewhere there's a tool that can record the key dates of events. do we need to install something for it or does it come with the game?

 

[beestar]

Contender, aiming for Domination. I've never finished a Monarch game so I didn't want to make any aggressive early game moves that would jeopardize my goal of domination.

Because I was worried about barbarian axemen and archers conquering me before I could develop a strong military, I ended up building a team of as many as eight warriors who pushed out the fog of war, almost to the neighbouring civilizations. This proved very successful in preventing barbarian attack, though it may have been a little expensive and perhaps cost me a few upgrades from easy barbarian victories.

For the same reason (i.e. fear) I beelined for bronzeworking and developed my first city near the copper to the west and developed axemen as fast as possible. Otherwise I aimed for the upper part of the tech tree to get Alphabet.

I didn't expect to beat the AI to wonders for which we both knew the technology, so I waited until I was sure of sole ownership of a tech (Literature) before building my first wonder, The Great Library. Also managed to get the Hanging Gardens and Notre Dame as semi-early Wonders.

Placing Thebes so close to the south was pretty much like taking Hatty and painting a giant bull's-eye on her forehead. If she had built the Pyramids, I would have immediately attacked her once I got axemen. However, she didn't, and the AI's bonus archers on Monarch level were a big deterrent to early conquest, so instead I opened borders with her and became her best Buddhist buddy.

That meant war with Montezuma on the other side, which I figured would be a good idea since Monty would probably eventually attack me anyway. so I began my march clockwise around the world ...

 

[Nakhimov]

Playing on Contender level

I started off moving 2 SW to the plains hill, but didn't like what I saw when I got there. I ended up moving 1 NE and settling the next turn, sending the warrior to scout around while researching straight for bronze working. By the time my first settler was built, I had BW, and founded Osaka in 1850 BC next to the copper to the west, hooking it up shortly thereafter. I built a barracks and some axemen, then another settler to found Tokyo to the SE near the lakeshore in 840 BC. This ended up being the last city I founded myself. By now, I could see that I was in trouble power-wise, but this was alleviated by the fact that I was fairly good friends with Hattie, Saladin, and Asoka. I spent the next 1300 years improving my few cities, researching madly towards Samurai without any wonder aid, and building up a barracks-promoted force of about 10-12 axemen. By the 400s AD, I had CS, was working on machinery, and was on par technologically with most of the world. However, I could tell that Monty was itching to go to war, and stepped up axemen production in preparation. Sure enough, a large force of Jaguars and spearmen crossed the frontier NE of Kyoto in 470, and the First Aztec War was on.

 

[solenoozerec]

I'll post my spoiler later, maybe after I finish the game. At this moment I have a suggestion regarding organization of the 1st spoiler.

I think it may make sense to separate what is required for qualification to see the spoiler from what is allowed to post in the spoiler. For example this

"3. Have progressed to at least 0 AD, but not gone past (about) 500 AD."

can be reformulated into this:

"To qualify for this spoiler you should reach at least 500AD, but you are not allowed to post anything after 0AD."

This buffer time from 0AD to 500AD will guarantee us that all information posted here will not be spoilish.

 

[CliftonBazaar]

I found that the Egyptians were very good allies, so I took their religion and am currently sitting on a +11 relationship with her.

The aztecs do attack every 200 years but I have enough defence because I dont' worry about the Egyptions.

 

[ohioastronomy]

GOTM 3 Spoiler.

This message is generic (not really a spoiler), and represents some tips that might be helpful to folks starting a monarch/epic/warmongering game. The actual spoiler is the second message. I ended with a 1505 domination win, 123K score. I could have shaved 200-300 years off if I hadn’t bobbled some early military moves, so I expect that we’ll see some 1200-1300 AD domination wins and scores much higher than mine (I made no attempt at milking).

Japan is aggressive/organized. This clearly favors domination/conquest. Aggressive means cheap barracks and with the UU (samurai) a foot soldier approach is stronger than one based on horses. Organized means that you can expand a bit more early on; my target is 6-7 cities, larger than I’d normally do without lower maintenance. I’ll want code of laws for courthouses around the same time as the first war. Hopefully I can get the Oracle slingshot. If not, I’ll grit my teeth and get it the slow way.
Trees are for barracks and courthouses after the initial expansion. There is little coastal real estate, so any ports are a bonus. Navies won’t matter if I do this right, because the game will be over before astronomy or any advanced resources.

The map is inland seas/high/tropical. This means a ring geometry. I’ll try to eliminate 4 AI nations and grab 3 corners, which should give me 64% of land. To avoid a 2-front war I’ll figure out some way to make a nation on one side love me – same religion for a fanatical civ would work – leave them alone and sweep around the map. This means that avoiding an early religion isn’t a loss – it’s a strategy.

The game is monarch/epic, so tech will be slow. For Japan it is a minimum of 10 turns to mining, 20 turns to Bronzeworking, and other techs are also expensive. Either getting luxuries (gold, gems) or lots of cottages will be key to keep up with research. Tech will be mining/BW, followed by other production techs as the map dictates. I hope I get copper and don’t have to mess with archery. Pottery/writing follow, then ironworking and alphabet. The only wonders I really care about are Stonehenge (cultural boundaries) and the Oracle; in test games the AIs build these around 1200 BC and 800 BC.

Test games indicate that animals are numerous; settlers and workers outside boundaries will have to be carefully guarded. Barbarians also spawn in large numbers despite the limited real estate, so posting sentries on hills outside the capital is critical. I’ll therefore go with 2 warriors/worker/worker/settler for builds, timing the worker builds so that I can get a second worker out 4 turns after BW and the settler 8 turns after BW. Warriors will be posted where the cities go, and I’ll regularly churn out extra warriors to push the boundaries out.

If I get copper I’ll gear up for my first conquest: the target is whichever of my neighbors lacks good defenses. Failing copper, it’ll have to wait for iron. I’ll refuse open borders to the aggressive AIs and embrace the friendly ones while I prepare to strike them. For military I’ll use the stack-of-doom approach. 1-2 Axes with melee promotions, 1-2 spears with healing, and the rest either axes or swords with city raider; have an archer along to garrison; 10-12 units in the first assault and progressively more added later.

The first war will be (hopefully) axes/spears, but it may have to wait until swords appear. The second war will be axe/melee, sword/city raider, spear defense/healing and maybe horses. I hope I have 2 AI players out of the way before catapults show up. AI victims 3 & 4 should be with catapults, samurais, spears/maybe elephants, horses; by the end I may have knights/pikes or may not. The target is finishing around 1200 AD. Tech is a priority until I get civil service/machinery, and after that it is full-bore conquest. I actually came close to meeting my pre-game objectives, but I’ll put the details in the other thread.

 

[Goodenuf]

Playing on Contender level... well played...

I am typically a Noble/Prince player, so this was going to be a challenge for sure. Despite the availability of the Adventurer level, I decided to try the straight-up Challenger level.

I decided to beeline towards Writing and Alphabet (since I've found that Alphabet is an extremely useful tech for trading for other techs, but in and of itself is not so useful). So, started with Worker, then some warriors for exploration.

The bad luck started when I met up with the obligatory animals and barbarians, and seemed to always end up on the short end of the battles. As proper strategy would typically dictate, I kept my warrior explorers to the hills and forests. Yet, when I met up with various barbarians, more often than not, my units were attacked and defeated, despite the added defense of forest and/or hills squares. I had not seen a run of bad luck like this for awhile. And yes, I allowed units to heal after battles that I had actually won (rare as it was).

So, I kept building warriors and archers for defense and exploration, and the exploring warriors continued to be beaten down by barbarians. It was quite uncanny, really.

I also only found one goody hut (west of Kyoto), that gave me a map of the area (which did not reveal any other huts ). This made sense given the lack of units available for exploration.

I finally reached the point of having Alphabet, and started trading this for multiple techs from other civs. Egypt, England, and the Aztecs each gave me 2 or 3 for 1 on the trades (the multiples being more basic techs, as one would expect). I was encouraged by this, and felt that things were starting to turn somewhat. I had just researched Bronze Working (so I could get the chop going and get caught up a bit), and had expanded to the North-East (to get the marble), when Monty declared war. He seems to have a penchant for declaring war right out of the blue.

In any case, I was not well defended (crazy barbs and animals took care of this), and was eventually overrun by Monty. He had Axeman and archers

Game over at 220BC, base score of 126 (wohoo!!) .

Despite the brutal score, I still learned a fair bit, and would like to try the map again (without submission, of course) just to see if (a) the luck changes a bit, and (b) if I can properly hold of Monty, and (c) what type of score I actually could achieve on Monarch.

Note for the GameMasters: I did notice that I did not have an opportunity to save the game on the turn following defeat (just sends you back to main menu), so the submitted save file is from the previous turn.

So... when does GOTM 4 start???

 

[ewokimpi]

Originally posted by ionimplant
i remember reading somewhere there's a tool that can record the key dates of events. do we need to install something for it or does it come with the game?

The utility you may be looking for is called eventlog, by Gyathaar. See post http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=141769
It's a DOS window tool, so follow the directions carefully. Version 5 works on V1_52 save files.

Originally posted by solenoozerec
I think it may make sense to separate what is required for qualification to see the spoiler from what is allowed to post in the spoiler.
can be reformulated into this:

"To qualify for this spoiler you should reach at least 500AD, but you are not allowed to post anything after 0AD."

I agree with solenoozerec, as many of us have played far past 500ad by the time the spoiler was posted. I would not be able to post in the first spoiler at all, as I've reached 1656ad (yes, true, things are not going well.....)

 

[ScubaRoo]

Newbie posting so prepare for some howlers

Adventurer class, initially planning for domination.

Pre-game thoughts were to explore and develop military might, focussing on techs to samurai. As others have mentioned, keeping one good neighbour was part of the plan, so prepared to limit early settlement to reduce border tensions. Outline plan to lay low until samurai then start to roll. Possibly aim for alphabet to take advantage of tech trading, but iron a must.

Game on:

First move shows one of the benefits of adventurer - a two-move worker. Move S to hills and exposes two flood plains and wheat. That's my capital site - quick grab of Pottery and build cottages on those two riverside spots - mountains for hammers and wheat for later when i get round to Ag.

Set up and send everyone off to have a jolly good explore. Well - there's good news and bad news. Find Hat - early UU and borders will be pushing fast. Bugger. More good news - Monty's next door. Okay, well that fixes which way my push is going to go. Will have to keep Hatty happy!
Then - what was that you said - we've discovered Meditation? Well thank you kind goody hut.

This rather puts a different slant on things. Do I go for religion and Stonehenge to ensure that I have some room to breath. If I can found Budd before Monty then he and Hat will almost certainly convert. Stonehenge would be a real boost to GP for holy shrine and even more spread.

As i had planned a passive start this strategy sort of works and will really help me to keep up the research - those samurai are a lot of beakers away.

So - set to build Stonehenge and research Meditation.

In 1825 BC I succeed in building Stonehenge. Some time later, and against all expectations, little golden Buddha appears in Kyoto. [Interested to hear if anyone else experienced such late religions. Seems none of the 4 AIs who could have chose Med as their first research - Asoka founded Hinduism shortly after Budd came about.]

I deliberately limited expansion, founding city #2 only in 980 BC to catch the bronze, gold and rice to the west. By 220 BC both neighbours were Buddhies, plus Saladin to the south. Moses appears and builds the Mahabodhi for an income and espionage boost.

As we turn AD I'm showing very little territory but a reasonable base for future operations. Monty has been kept fairly quiet and the barbs have been held off with a FoW net. Hatty has settled in two of my chosen spots to the south but hasn't stolen any key resources - due to high culture of my capital the ivory and dyes are still available.

I'm planning to settle to the north to keep Monty away from the iron (ooh - forgot to mention that my capital turned out to be right on top of the other source of iron in this sector. Good for access but misses out on loads of hammers ). Further expansion will be at the expense of dear Monty, whose time on this peculiar little world is shortly to be curtailed at the hands of some blokes in shiny armour. Poor guy is so far behind in techs that he'll probably be defending with archers.

Summary:

Took advantage of Adventurer start to find a location that probably hasn't been used by many. Using religion to keep locals friendly and has potential to become diplomatic victory if dom doesn't look likely. Got to Alphabet first and used this to some advantage, though AI being very stingey. Research sufficiently advanced to allow me to contemplate other religions. This will only be an option if I consider Diplo important enough to deny other civs new religions to keep them on my side.

Not sure if I'm going to be able to post a finished game as my laptop is already taking up to 5 minutes to churn each turn end.

Update:

Monty has done it now - settled two cities N of my capital (one can be trashed but the other's a decent spot) and is at war with both Asoka and Hatty. Think I might have to help them out

 

[beestar]

I finally reached the point of having Alphabet, and started trading this for multiple techs from other civs. Egypt, England, and the Aztecs each gave me 2 or 3 for 1 on the trades (the multiples being more basic techs, as one would expect). I was encouraged by this, and felt that things were starting to turn somewhat. I had just researched Bronze Working (so I could get the chop going and get caught up a bit), and had expanded to the North-East (to get the marble), when Monty declared war. He seems to have a penchant for declaring war right out of the blue.

Hmm, does this mean that Alphabet was researched before Bronze Working? It could pose difficulties if Axemen and Swordsmen came that late. The AI may decide that you're weak enough to exploit ...

 

[malekithe]

Contender Class

The Rising of the Empire of the Sun

Midnight – A new day

I decided in the beginning, like a lot of people, to head my settler down to the plains-hill by the river to the SW, but when I got there, like a lot of people, I was disappointed at the lack of resources. I very strongly considered heading to the plain to the NW in order to get the gold I could see on the horizon into my workable radius. In the end I decided to stay on the hill for the extra floodplain to the south and the hammer bonus. Those would aid me more than the gold, so I thought, in the crucial initial turns of the game.

I plopped my settler down at the top of the hill and began production of my first worker. The area was not exactly well forested so I decided to de-prioritize bronze working. Instead, I took advantage of Japan’s starting techs; I researched pottery first and threw down a couple cottages on the floodplains. After pottery, I researched mining and bronze working, mostly to locate bronze as soon as I could but also to shave several turns off those first settlers. My build order in the beginning went something like worker > warrior > warrior > worker > warrior > settler > settler. I allowed Kyoto to grow to 2 population (to work both floodplain cottages) while producing warriors. Once I got bronze working in 2360 BC, I chopped most of the first settler, who completed in 1925 BC.

I sent the first settler to the south to found Osaka with 6 visible resources within range, corn, 2 ivory, 2 dye, and cattle. I couldn’t exactly decide what I was going to do with the city, but I couldn’t pass on such prime real-estate. It was settled in 1850 BC. The second settler was completed several turns later with the aid of a few more chops, and I sent him to acquire copper. I could have gone to the copper spot just to the west of Kyoto (which would also have gold in range), but instead decided to be a bit more aggressive and set out for the copper near Montezuma, by the river that looks like someone attempted to edit in the world editor. This had copper, a couple floodplains, and most interestingly, a sizable forest to the north. I decided that was reason enough to try for a wonder. My wonder of choice was going to be the Oracle for an attempt at a civil service slingshot.

Early Morning Labors

I plopped down Tokyo near the copper in 1650 BC and immediately began chopping an obelisk to expand the borders to include the copper. Next I spent another forest on a worker who worked on connecting the copper while the original worker started pre-chopping some forests. Meanwhile, I had finished writing in 1875 BC and began working to get to Code of Law. Mysticism was next on the agenda, followed by Meditation and Priesthood, with a sidetrack to hunting along the way (in order to get the happiness bonus from ivory). Priesthood was completed in 1350 BC and I began work on Code of Law and the Oracle simultaneously.

The chops came in fast and furious to begin with, but it became obvious that my production would far outstrip my research at that pace. So, my workers backed off and I let the citizen working the copper mine do a decent chunk of the building. I somehow screwed up my timing, though, and finished Code of Law in 840 BC, a full 2 turns ahead of when the Oracle was due to finish (I think there may have been population growth in Tokyo and Osaka to blame for the faster research). Anyway, I held my breath for the next two turns, thinking the game hung in the balance.

When I reached 800 BC and got the wonder video for the Oracle, I did a little dance (well, in my head at least). My civilization rocketed into the medieval age as I enacted bureaucracy and caste system. Kyoto, with its near-towns, became a research giant and wasn’t too shabby on the production either. All that stood between me and ultimate victory (so I thought) was a few little techs; iron working, metal casting, and machinery. Then, samurai would be mine in a bid to overthrow the world.

Twilight – The Brightening Horizon

I backtracked a little on the research, though, in order to dispense of a few formalities. I got agriculture in order to finally farm the corn near Osaka and benefit from my first health bonus of the game in 620 BC. Health had been an annoyance all game and it felt good to finally be making strides towards a healthier lifestyle… Alphabet was next on the agenda in order to completely back-fill the rest of the techs I had skipped. On the turn it completed in 540 BC I traded Code of Law to the weakest nation (India at the time) for four techs I was missing and thought I could use; polytheism, masonry, animal husbandry, and sailing. Aside from archery (which I’m not exactly sure when I acquired) and monotheism, no nation had any techs I didn’t and I was up Alphabet and Civil Service on all, Code of Law on most, and a few random lower techs on a few oddballs (like Monty… who actually had Iron Working as well, now that I recall).

I then set on my way to acquiring samurai. Kyoto built a couple more settlers after hitting the happiness/health cap and I settled Edo to the north by the marble and cows in 280 BC along with Satsuma to the east to work the rice and gold (finally) in 20 BC. When founding Edo a rather annoying thing occurred. I had sent an axeman ahead of the settler to ensure there was no barb activity. He spotted one (an archer) near my cultural border, so I give him a cover promotion on the spot and sick him on his victim. However, the archer put up the fight of his life and manages to best my axeman (<1% chance). So, with only a warrior in Kyoto, no military units in the queue, and the nearest axeman at least three turns away, I send the warrior out to finish off the severely injured archer. Just to ensure victory, I throw a cover promotion on the warrior as well. Well, you can guess what happened then. The injured archer bests my warrior (<15% chance) and begins his march on my now undefended capital. Fortunately, I could complete a scout in 1 turn, so I did just that and ran him by the archer. This gave me just enough time to pull an axeman from another town to save the day and finally bury that archer.

Darkest Before the Dawn

Now would be an opportune time to get into the details of the political landscape. I had decided to stay without a state religion despite founding Confucianism. Hattie had founded Buddhism and Monty and HC had no religion. My plan at the time was to adopt the religion of one of my neighbors and then head in the opposite direction with my war-machine. As Monty had founded no religions, I figured he would be the target of my initial aggression. To my surprise, though, shortly after I founded Confucianism, Monty decided to make it his state religion. It had apparently spread to a number of his cities without my doing anything special. So now, I’m thinking I may actually get to adopt a religion I founded (that would be one of the first times I’ve ever done that). I hesitate converting just yet, wanting to finish my research to samurai first. In the meantime, Confucianism spreads to the Inca as well. I’m loving it and already starting to strategize how the war with Hattie is going to go. But, you know what they say about the best laid plans…

In 180 BC Monty declares war on me (sealing his fate) and rides a couple of sissy little chariots to attempt to plunder the copper by Tokyo. Eventually he did succeed in pillaging the copper, but not before I had a stack of axemen capable of taking one or two of his cities. But, right around this time, Monty convinces his buddy HC that I’m the devil incarnate and I find I’m at war with both of them. I worry that my stack of axemen may be insufficient for the task and sue for peace with Monty. He decides to leave HC hanging and grants me peace with no techs changing hands. HC sent maybe 2 chariots my way the entire “war”. Well, what can ya do…?

Back to the story… The techs on the way to samurai fell aside fairly swiftly. Iron Working came in 380 BC, Metal Casting in 80 BC, and finally Machinery was completed 2 turns after those crazy Incans declared war in 240 AD. Now I’m 5 turns away from my first Samurai. Monty and HC will never know what hit them…

The rest will have to wait until I find the time to put together a second spoiler. As a hint: many a national leader discovers just how sharp Japanese steel really is.

As a side note… I realized when going back to write this that I didn’t actually have any saves between 2000 BC and 600 AD. I set out to attempt to recreate my situation. For the most part I did a good job, settling cities on the appropriate turns and discovering techs within a turn of the first pass. However, one problem I ran into was with the barbarians. I didn’t lose that axeman to the archer. This, in turn, gave me just a strong enough army for Monty to not declare war. Therefore, he never convinced HC to declare war. So, in the replay, I find that my logical next choice would be to continue buddying up to Monty and HC, declaring a state of Confucianism, and sending the war machine off after Hattie. What a difference a random battle makes…!

Next Up: The Dawn of the Empire of the Sun

 

[Greenlocke]

I agree with ewokimpi and solenoozerec. Perhaps we could post all of the spoiler-threads at once. That way, when players reach a certain stage they can post their results in each thread.
I'm afraid that I've progressed too far for this forum already.

 

[ewokimpi]

Communication of the Royal Society, London year of the Dao 1850ad: Found by our antiquarian researchers in the archive of the Japanese Empire, purporting to be summary of the condition of the Japanese empire in the year 1ad. Translation as follows:


Hideki Ewokimpi, military historian to the court of Emperor Suinin, He, Shinning One, 11th scion of the House of Yayoi, ruler of Japan, 1st lord among lords, favored by the sun, moon, and stars, all power flows from his person: I respectfully submit this strategic summary of the land of Nippon, knowing that my effort is feeble and my person as nothing in your sight.

Know that legends say that Yayoi, the ancestral house of your glorious person, was founded by one Adventurer Hashimoto Drunkanaki. The first city of Japan, EwokVille, was founded by this person in 3960bc on a foggy night late in the year. We can only speculate as to the cause of the difficult positioning of EwokVille, located as it is far from water and high on a rocky hill side. It is said that Drunanaki originally started his trek northeast - north of the position of city. It is also said that he was greatly fond of a fermented drink made of honey and the local mushrooms, and had an aversion to jungle. Perhaps that accounts for why he settled the city where he did, not realizing that the lack of water would crimp its growth even unto the current time. Its immediate access to early manufacturing capability did not make up for this lack.

Even so, EwokVille is the greatest city of the four of your glorious empire, it being of size THREE, a number sacred to the moon goddess. The other cities of the empire, Kyoto, Osaka and Aryan, are all of size TWO. It is too bad that even at size three, it is in poor health.

Your country is not rich in resources, lord. We have an iron mine near our capital, and to the west at Osaka there is a copper mine. Southeast of our capital lies wheat. Although the city cannot work these fields, their development has helped the health situation in the capital somewhat. This resource is threatened by the presence of the Azteca city Calixlauca further to the southeast. Also known to us, but not developed, are Cattle, Elephants, Dye, Silk and Gold, within our boundaries, and there are many other resources beyond our boundaries. Had we the population to expand as your noble heart so honorable deserves, we would currently own many more of these resources. It is said that such creatures as Horses exist, but they are not known to our explorers. The Azteca have access to two such, our traders tell.

Know also, that another reason the empire has not expanded as it should is because of evil hoards of jungle barbarians to the south, and also forest barbarians to the northwest and north. Because of the efforts of your beatific ancestor Itoku, who directed the discovery of Bronze Working in 2360bc, and your ancestor Koan, who was responsible for the discovery of Archery in 1500bc, your sacred empire has, for the most part, been able to fend off these evil peoples. However, your excoriated ancestor Hideous Defeatanabe, may his tea leaves be forever dry and his tea service always cracked, lost the second city of the empire, Kyoto to the jungle barbarians in 1150bc. The city was recaptured by Seijuro Yoshioka almost 400 years later, in 620bc. All the improvements were lost in this city and had to be built again. Although Kyoto was regained the empire was nearly depopulated by the use of slavery to speed up military production.

Fortunately, general Seijuro's great great grandson went on to capture the barbarian city of Aryan in 480bc. This city lies near expansive flood plains, and near silk, and is our strategic bulwark against the pestilential Azteca, who lie somewhat to its east. We have not explored to the east, for neither empire finds the other trustworthy.

We have explored south, to the Egyptian lands, and the Saracens, and east to England, and India. We are aware of the Inca beyond India to the north, but know of them only through scouts and traders.

Finally, in your glorious reign, you have caused the secrets of Kanji to be discovered. Thus, we can communicate to the six other civilized powers that exist around this sea. We have found that we are somewhat ahead of them in technology on average, as the empires economy is committed to research above all else, except the military. However, we are the weakest empire overall, and your generals fear the future. Our neighbor to the south, Egypt, seems to be ruled by one who is just and without lust, but the bloodthirsty Azteca to the east will be our doom if we are unprepared.

Thus it is that your empire has put so much effort on military and so little on anything else, other than research. The current army consists of 2 warriors battalions, 3 of archers, and 5 of axemen. There are also two companies of workers. The lack of workers is particularly acute, and holds the empire back as much as the poor health situation of EwokVille. It is believed one or more companies of workers were lost when Kyoto fell.

Here is how we stand relative to the other empires around the inland sea:

GNP, 3rd
Mfg, 7th
Crops, 7th
Soldiers, 7th,
Land, 7th,
pop, 7th,
approv., 4th
life-exp, 4th,
imp/exp, 7th.

Nippon's treasury is 120, and research is at 90%, with a deficit of 3. The budget is 31 per turn.

We hear that great architectural wonders have been built in foreign lands, but we have none, and our explorers have laid eyes on only one, Stonehenge, in Thebes. Had our first city started with abundant fresh water, we could have competed for these wonders. It is impossible to do when the capital of your sacred empire cannot rise above THREE.

I know this summary is offensive to your eyes, Shinning One, Emperor Suinin, 11th scion of the House of Yayoi, ruler of Japan, 1st lord among lords, favored by the sun, moon, and stars, all power flows from your person. I give this summary over to your Chamberlain Tokichiro, trusting that he will transmit it to your mighty person. I go to commit Seppuku, as placing these characters to parchment demands of me the ultimate. I fear greatly for your person, and the future of Nippon. I fear the Azteca. Be prepared.

**
Appended is a map of the Japanese empire circa the year 1ad. It is a wonder they lasted nearly to modern times.

 

[Zeepsel]

2nd Civ4 Gotm After skipping game 2 because I couldn't find the time to play...

Well, onto the first part of my game! I started by doing a little test... Rebuilding the starting location and checking if I saw anything that would lure me anywhere else than SW SW... Since I didn't plan on researching Animal Husbandry soon, I didn't even think about settling in place. The tile that was apparently a flood plain did lure me, so I decided to stay with my initial thoughts.

Settled SW SW and researched Pots right away to get some research going. After that started to work my way to Archery, as I didn't want to get surprised by barbs or no copper issues

Once I had Archery, I started to work towards Bronze. In the meanwhile building some cottages helped to boost my research big time. And once I had Bronze, I wanted to go to Alphabet to trade for less important stuff, like Animal Husbandry and Iron Working(I saw Copper appear within my grasps, so figured I could take the Iron by force when I felt like it).

I let the capital grow to size 5 and chopped a 2nd worker and 3 settlers, the city sites were pretty obvious, as the first was in the area of the elephants, the 2nd was near the copper, the 3rd was near the ocean and incense.

This basically set me up to get some military machine going and I builded axes, axes... and axes... Took 1 of 2!!! barb cities to my north and worked towards Samurai.

The rest is for the second spoiler

 

[storvik]

As somebody mentioned, Japan is aggressive/organized. This clearly favors domination/conquest.

The only problem with the UU samurai is that you must not fall behind in the science race in order to get samurais early enough.
Not falling behind in the science race can be secured by crippling the other civs.

A Cunnnig Plan:

*Build a worker first.
*Get bronze working
-> choping
-> chop&whip a stack of axemen
-> get one city from the nearest neighbour
*Get iron working
-> get rid of the jungle
-> chop&whip swordsmen
-> get one city from the other neighbour

Friendly with everybody else.

What did happened:

Hard time with barbarians, and almost had to cancel my early war plan because I was afraid to send my troops away. Also, I actually got Iron before copper, so I did my two early wars by sending 3-4 swordsmen against both Hatsu and Monty.

Got the Ivory City (located in the same place as Osaka in Ionimplant's game) from Hatsu, and two forest towns from Monty.

Situation: second-last in the scores currently, but another war should fix it. After the next war cycle against Hatsu and Monty, I hope to be able to concentrate on building science with the stolen money. Not having stonehenge or anything nice in the cities is a problem, but can't help.

Update: MEDIEVAL AGES

Constant war cycles against Egypt and Aztecs.
Nobody seems to like me, which makes the tech trading difficult.
However, reached civil service. The leader is Saladin with 1200 points and low tech, I'm second on 1100 points with moderated tech. Incas and Indians have like 1000 points but have high tech. Monty and Hatsu are still alive with some 500 points. I need them alive so I can get some goodies from them every now and then.

I have freezed all military production, I have two Rapid Deployment Stacks. I'm pumping science and chopping for research untill I'll get the Samurai. It's starting to seem like I don't need samurai, because Monty and Hatsu will be dead soon enough, and other civs are so far that Samurai will be obsolate before the wars agains the others.

Dominition victory seems like the only possible goal.

 

[Adonias]

Contender, goal: domination.

In the beginning, tough choises must be made: where to build the capital, what to research, what to build, who to be befriended with.

As for the first 2 points, respectivly on the forest/plainshill near the river, pottery and a worker. Dispite having good luck building two workers at the start in test games, after reading the second spoilers from GOTM2, I though.. what the heck, build two warriors after the first worker, and lets steal our workers.

Big gamble of course. Stealing workers at prince is all fine, but I've never done that at monarch... would it work? Would civs be crippeled, would their sore fealings be the start of my doom?

First to be discoverd was hatti. First war was with hatty (3360BC). Hatti is safe to go to war with. She's such a lovely girl . So, one worker up, couple more to go. Hmm... monty... lets' take our chances. If het gets crippled enough from me stealing his worker, he's going to be no problem at all... if not... well... ouch. So, war in 2200BC. Got another worker from him, and got it safely back home. Next up was Saladin, boy, am I the bully of the world here. War in 1750BC with Saladin, got a worker, used it to explore, lost it to animals :|.

So far for the early wars, lets see how that plays out. For now, I was focussed on FoW busting, research to Samurai and other handy techs for war (currency for markets and requesting gold, COL of course, for court houses)

Cities:

After looking around a little, I noticed the land was a bit, well, chop poor. But I did have a nice patch up north. So that's where Osaka was built (1150BC). I had a bit of luck there, as I had iron in the city radius when I discoverd it. Osaka was my jumpboard to settlers, workers and anti FoW warriors with cover from the barracks.

Of course, the gold could not go untouched, so Tokyo was build one tile north of the floodplain (1075BC), where of course a cottage was built.

The marble would also come in handy, so Edo was built (940BC) next to the cow to get that.

So, 940BC, 4 cities, 6 workers, 4 FoW warriors, 4 garisson warriors, 3 barracks, 2 libraries, zero wonders...

Teching and wonder building

I wanted quick teching, and wanted to use the oracle to the max, so I opted for pottery for the cottages, and then took the most direct route to Civil Cervice:

3480BC Pottery (yeah, turn 13... 2 turns before I could have researched it myself.. got in from a goody hut )
2720BC Writing (LIBRARY!)
2400BC Mining
1875BC Bronze working (chop chop, never built a single axe (did build some spears though, being afraid of hatti's war charriots)
1125BC Alfabet (traded hunting, animal husbandry, masonry, agriculture, mysticism and the next tech neede for prieshood, using writing and pottery. I never traded away alfabet, never. The AI stays backward without it for a long time.
940BC Priesthood
560BC CoL founding confusianism, but not yet adopting it (afraid of monty, who was still godless, but you never know with him...)
540BC Civil Service *I did it!!! I timed building the oracle perfectly using pre-chopped forrests around kyoto. Never did that before Oh.. of course, revolted to burocracy the same turn.
420BC Iron
60BC Metal casting
60AD Literature
220AD Great prophet, saved him for theology
240AD Great library in Osaka (remember? The northern forest patch, oh.. and of course marble from Ede helped a lot)
300AD Machinery (yeah! Samurai!)
320AD Monotheism
330AD Theology (Used the great prophet for this) (didn't found chritianity, this was done in 210AD)
330AD revolution! Slavery (I really learnt to appreciate slavery in this game), and theocracy... Double city raider samurai (and 2 medics of course )

Ready to take the world... or am I?

 

[Demon Rob]

First official attempt at a GOTM (tried civ3 ones but never seriously and never submitted). Decided to keep a diary of events so here it is, tried to reformat it but its a little messy:

Civ4 GOTM3

Tried running some test games of toki at monarch and failed miserably,
so very glad the 'adventurer' level has come out!

Sent all my people eploring in different directions,
Archers to the upper east, warrior to the upper west,
Worker to the lower west,
and the hilly treed plains with a river view become the wise settlers choice.

3960 First city founded - Alpha
start building a worker for future deforestation
workers have got nothing to do but make roads, plus one very nice looking native hut just waiting to be popped.
Sure - if it pops barbarians then its game over as the worker gets taken and the city is defenceless - the warrior and the archer are off exploring.


3920 Beeline to bronzeworking and the chop, start with mining in 10 turns.
53 gold from the hut, yeah that'll do.

3680 Warriors reach the western wall - now we know where we are. Not that its gunna do us any good.

Archers pop hostile villagers from a hut - early experience can only be good. Money is better.
And then the wolves follow up, not much health left now.

3600bc and hello to Monty as we bump into his kingdom.
Hmm, go the single archer rush? If only it wasnt gotm and then I could experiment.

3520bc
lions kill the warriors, damn.
mining learnt - onto bronze.

and Hatty wanders up with her own archer.
No-one at home in the Capitol, lets hope she doesn't come and investigate.

2520 and we meet up with Saladin on the borders of Hatty's empire.

2200 2nd city to the south, with cows and elephants and stuff all around,
sitting on a nice plains hill, again with a river view.

Archer is sitting over on a coastal river near monty, waiting for a settler.
After that another settler for the coast near hatty.

Oops, one worker is about to get eaten by lions.

2040bc did I learn? No. There's goes my 2nd worker to another lion.

2000bc Gamma settled on the Southern Coast, and that limits my early Hatty border.
Time to build warriors to scare off the lions, then replace the workers.

1975bc Livy's list of most advanced cilizations, and I'm coming in the top 7!
Is that good?

1900bc Barbarian archers are sighted all over the place. Is the end near?

1775bc Incans drop by and say hello. What nice guys!
Especially if they can go and play with the barbarian archers.

1600bc I got pig iron. Cool. and right next to Alpha. Now to get some axes going!

1450bc The money's run out. Research down to 90%.

1200bc Delta settled, on a river delta to the east. This is the border with Monty.
Research down to 70%

1175bc Victoria calls in. I'll have her head later. But better be peace for now.

1125bc Sent a boat exploring to the south, then east. Got to Arabia but had to stop, still 4 turns till writing.

1025bc Learnt writing. Open borders with everyone, lets go spying.
Saladin: 3 cities
Victoria: 3 cities
Monty: 4 cities
Hauyna: 3 cities and hates hatty
Hatty: 3 cities but no border agreement with her
- she's my first victim, in another 3 swordsmen time.

780bc bede says i'm the 5th most powerful. Hatty is 4th but not for much longer.

740bc and Asoka makes the last civ found. Discovered by my wandering fishing boat far far away.

540bc 4 swordsmen, 2 axemen (and a warrior in a pear tree) in the front line army,
and 4 more swordsmen rushing to the front,
Invade Hatty time! 5 cities and soon to be mine or rubble.

520bc Thebes with 4 archers and +40%. Yeah, easy stuff!

500 bc India has captured Parthan, so I'm not the only warmongerer. Thats good.
Lost 1 swordsman, but the capital is mine! Now to mop up.
Oooh - and a bonus Oracle too. Nice one.

Research back top 100% with the prizemoney.

480bc Alexandria on the sea (size1) has only 1 archer. Lets see what a swordsman can do.
Oops, not much.

440bc Burn Baby Burn. No more Alexandria. Hey its ok, they didn't have a library.

300bc Alphabet is mine. Time to trade for goodies around the world.
Found next egyptian city - to destroy or not to destroy?
Nah, destroy! Definitely - it has an iron mine.
Barbarian trouble on the home front. Where the troops are no longer. Ooops.

200bc last 2 egyptian cities,
one has 2 archers, I've got sword and axe, kill 1 1/2 of them but lose both of mine.
one has 2 archers vs 2 swords, 2 axes. Its mine! and I get his horses too.

120bc First religion spreads into my lands. Judaism from over the sea somewhere.

100bc I've circumnavigated the inland sea. Where's my bonus?

20bc Final assoult. no more hatty.
And I'm coming 2nd!
This games easy!

Actually much later in the game now, and boy the mistakes I've made since 20bc!

 

[karmina]

Contender class

I adopted Memphus' idea of not doing the obvious, and sent the warrior NE. Showed me marble, so I decided to settle 2N - immediate cows, lake & marble. However, in hindsight it proved to be a rather unfortunate decision:
1. nearly no initial commerce
2. Egypt took that great location with 2 dyes and several other resources
3. Egypt finished the Oracle before I was even able to build it.

Scorewise I was last for a long time, practically just until Beaurocracy, and capturing of the first Aztec city - somewhere around 500AD. Samurais were available shortly after, when a fistful of axes & swords approached Monty's 2nd town. (BTW he declared war on me, but obviously much later than in many other peoples games.)

Well, at least I managed to get the Great Library, and my hammer-rich capital proved to be a quite effective Samurai factory later on...

Barbs were a problem; they didn't take cities or important improvements, but I had to get Archery and lost my first 2 warriors, 2 scouts, 2 archers and iirc even 1 or 2 axemen to them.

I founded 4 other cities and took one costal barb city close to Egypt. Egypt founded Budhism (which I adopted rather late), is still 1st 500AD, way ahead of me, but at least a very good friend (>10).

The Incas built the Pyramids & Chitchen horsehockyza, are 2nd in score and 1st in power...and just declared war on me to help Montezuma...

 

[Rad Chris]

Declared on Hatty to steal her worker, then she wouldnt sign peace for the next 3000 years. Monty declared on me in 1200BC. Game over.