GOTM-03 First spoiler: The early game.

[shadow2k]

I also went for alphabet early and found it to be a very strong move. I went Pottery (3400BC), Mining (3000BC), Bronze Working (2320BC), Writing (1900BC), Alphabet (1325BC). I never traded away alphabet and had a devestating tech lead all the way until 500AD. I think the payoff for alphabet early is huge. I don't feel it cost me any expansion at all and it saved me from researching a ton of techs on my own. If I had been a little more lucky and gotten the Oracle in around 800BC for Civil Service then I would have had samurais pre-1AD most likely.

edit: Not sure if you missed my point Rain, but my point was that Stonehenge was built about 20 turns AFTER the Oracle. That is never the case. I expect SH to go at 1200ish BC, like it did in your game. I wasn't even going for stonehenge so it wasn't lucky at all that it was built late. But the Oracle built so early really hurt. And it wasn't because I traded priesthood to any civs. The civ that built the Oracle (Victoria) did so before I had even met them.

Yes, Alphabet early is strong, no doubt. Can also have it's downfalls. Sometimes civs just won't trade certain techs to you (especially wonder techs), or start demanding them and then declare early war.

I can't comment on your game, since there's no write-up though. But just like people say chopping early is the only way...he was able to go without it for quite a while, and do just fine. Was just pointing out that there isn't just one strategy, and all the others are "silly". Part of the GOTM is getting away from that line of thought. It's why we sit here and compare strategies to begin with.

And Oracle got built in 925BC by Hatty in my game. I wasn't expecting that early of a build either.

 

[Doc TK]

I'm confused by this discussion. I don't know if I've ever not gone for Alphabet early. The only question was what else you build before it. And how much of the mining, BW path you do.

What's the alternative route where you skip Alpha and still are able to keep up with AIs in Tech?

 

[Sparts]

Other Civilizations advancing slower than usual because of stealing workers might be caused by increased barbarian activity. As those three civilizations are stagnating, a bigger portion of the map is unrevealed which could cause problems for the other civs. A long shot of course.....

 

[shadow2k]

I'm confused by this discussion. I don't know if I've ever not gone for Alphabet early. The only question was what else you build before it. And how much of the mining, BW path you do.

What's the alternative route where you skip Alpha and still are able to keep up with AIs in Tech?

Not skipping Alpha...just not beelining for it. The difference between how many techs you research before going for Alpha. I tend to research BW, and all needed worker techs first, because Alpha usually takes a decent amount of turns that early.

I also don't like to rely on AI's to research specific techs for me, or even that they'll be willing to trade them. This is especially true if you want to build certain wonders, as if you don't get that tech first, like Priesthood for Oracle, it's likely you'll get beat to it, or they won't trade it to you.

I think the original statement was that he got seven techs for the price of one by researching it early, as well as the Oracle being "silly". I got eight techs for the price of one by researching Alpha late. /shrug

 

[Duelingground]

This is my second GotM, and first attempt at a write-up. It's also only about the 6th time I've attempted Monarch, and though I've experienced some early success at this level, I've never won, though did come close in a space race.

I decide to settle in place, it looks like a good spot for lots of cottages, and I'm not sure that the risk of moving is worth it. After early exploration, I'm glad that I did. My starting warrior moved to the SW, then W, then S, soon meeting Hatshepshut, then continuing south and east. He made it nearly halfway around the map before having an unfortunate encounter with a bear.

My research path is Pottery, Mining, Bronzeworking, Writing and Alphabet, then Iron Working, which worked out quite well. After that I plan to beeline to Samurai, then Catapults.

Built a warrior first, sent him east, then began barracks, until city hit size 2, then switched to worker. Set him to building cottages until BW, then chopped a second worker. By this time I had explored a good portion of the surrounding terrain, and spotted 2 good city locations, one to the east, on the coast 2 spaces west of the copper, and the incredible spot to the south(5S, 1W of capitol). Settled the eastern spot first, and chopped library as quickly as possible, to grab the copper, then this city began building nothing but axes. The southern city was razed by a barb before I got an axeman to it, so lost several turns chopping another settler to rebuild.

My workers(now have 4) have improved several tiles around the capitol, and built a couple of cottages near the eastern city, as well as required roads to connect everyone. Other than that, they're chopping the forests to the south and west.

Barbs were a real pain for a while, causing me to lose valuable worker turns, but my neighbors spent a lot of time roaming my borders, which helped a lot. I did build one archer, to guard a chopping worker, and probably 7-8 warriors, most of which died, before switching to axes. I gave most of them the bonus vs. archers, which seemed to appear from everywhere at once, and was glad of it when my capitol was nearly lost.

My warrior exploring the east found Monty, sending a little shiver of fear down my spine, and settling my decision as to which way to expand. I'll make friends with the Egyptians, and let Monty provide my next cities. After exploring a bit of the land east of Monty, I send my eastern warrior back home, following the northern edge of the map. Just north of Monty's capitol, I'm surprised to find a goody hut. Until now, I've discovered 2, both of which give me gold.

This one is a bit better, and gives me Metal Casting! I think I was still researching Writing at the time, but may have begun Alphabet. To say I was shocked would be a massive understatement, I actually let out a bit of a rebel yell. Catching up in tech just got much easier. I immediately began trading at Alphabet, and using Pottery, Writing and Metal Casting, picked up everything I was missing. After founding Confucianism(didn't convert), I'm now researching Civil Service, and will probably trade Alphabet shortly. The highest level tech anyone else has is Mathematics, I believe, and it's currently 1 AD.

I've got several axemen on Monty's border, but will probably wait to add a few swordsmen before declaring war. Hopefully, I can eliminate him before Samurai, which will immediately move eastward to consolidate, and prepare for the next victim. If things go well against Monty, I'm tempted to continue advancing without waiting for catapults.

As I mentioned, I'm going to make buddies with Hatty, and have signed open borders with nearly everyone else, excepting poor wee Monty. I have only the 3 cities, but the Aztecs are right up against my borders, making it a short walk.

Thanks to the staff for a great starting spot, this looks to be a lot of fun.

And, of course, I appreciate any critiques.

 

[greentea]

This is only my second GOTM, first spoiler and first full game on Monarch. Played a few test games with little success in warmongering, so I intended to abstain from early warfare and wait until I get samurai, if possible. Also first time I took some sort of log. I only need to mention that I played Contender and here starts my story:

4000 BC
Moved warrior NE, saw the marble. Thought a little about moving to settle there, but then still moved settler SW SW and marked the spot for a 2nd city.

3960 BC
Wasn't satisfied with just 2 floodplains and no resources, so decided to move settler SE - make the desert hill useful, save a forest for chopping. It was worth it, I got wheat in the fat cross!

3920 BC
Settle, start building warrior and researching Mining

1st warrior is exploring the west mostly.

3520 BC
Forest grew near Kyoto!

3480 BC
Mining complete, start BW. Kyoto grows.

3280 BC
Switch queue to worker to time it with BW.

3200 BC
25 gold from hut

3160 BC
Buddhism and Hinduism founded far away

3000 BC
2 forests grew near Kyoto! Now that is luck.

2960 BC
First attack by a lion, promote to woodsman.

2920 BC
Meet Hatty, she's the Buddhist.

2760 BC
Get Pottery from a hut. Right now I feel I had too much luck for that game.

2720 BC
Bronze Working complete, start Agriculture

2680 BC
Worker complete, send to chop, queue another.

2520 BC
Chop complete, 2 turns to 2nd worker

2480 BC
Meet Monty. Crap!

2440 BC
Worker 2 goes for chop. Queue back to warrior.

2280 BC
Forgot to switch to settler. One chop went to warrior.
Agriculture complete, start Hunting.

2240 BC
Worker 2 completes its chop, starts building cottage.

2160 BC
Lion attack of warrior 2 (you will understand why I bother to mention this a few lines down)

2080 BC
Settler complete, heads to the awesome site S with dyes, ivories, cow and corn. Another worker queued.

2040 BC
The most stupid mistake I have done in this game. Saw lion next to the recovering warrior and moved it to forest for better defence, forgetting that my settler is going to come there this very turn. Basically suicided my settler, I will move them turn by turn from now on and not give them a final destination. Here is the screenshot.

I thought about retiring for a sec, but then decided that I got a lot of good luck so far (3 forests growing and Pottery from hut!), so it was kind of fair.
Then I just switched queue to a new settler.
Also started Animal Husbandry after comleting Hunting.

1950 BC
Worker goes to build farm on the wheat.

1800 BC
New settler complete

1750 BC
Osaka finally founded on the same spot. Build warrior there.

1725 BC
Switch queue to barracks in capital.

1700 BC
Animal Husbandry complete, go for Archery.

1650 BC
Meet Saladin.

1625 BC
Chop for barracks. Warrior in Osaka complete, queue barracks

1550 BC
Start building camp on ivory. Archery complete, go for Writing.

1500 BC
Saw copper west. Was it there all the time?

1475 BC
Meet Huayna

1325 BC
Writing complete. Open borders with Hatty. Start Alphabet.

1275 BC
Queue Library in Osaka, will chop.

1250 BC
Decrease research to 90%.

1175 BC
Saw the copper near Monty.

1075 BC
Saw horse near Monty.

1050 BC
Open borders with Saladin.

980 BC
Library complete, archer on queue.

960 BC
Barb city founded on river near Monty.

880 BC
Stonehenge built far away.

820 BC
Oracle built far away.

800 BC
Open borders with Monty.

760 BC
Alphabet complete, start Math

740 BC
Without thinking, traded Alpha to Sal for Mysticism, Sailing and Masonry.
Then got Meditation for Sailing and Polytheism for Writing. Switched research to Monotheism.

640 BC
Got Priesthood for Pottery.

580 BC
Pyramids built far away.

480 BC
Finished Monotheism, but someone already did it before me, wasn't paying attention.

460 BC
Tokyo founded near copper.

420 BC
Meet Asoka.

300 BC
Math complete, go for Currency.

240 BC
Monty turns Buddhist, now that is interesting.

220 BC
Get Iron Working for Math

200 BC
Meet Vicky. Buddhism spreads in my lands.

140 BC
Moses born far away. Research rate dropped to 80%.

120 BC
Christianity founded by Saladin.

20 BC
Parthenon built far away.

1 AD
Hatty builds her shrine. I decide to save game and check advisors before I quit. Notice that some new techs are around and I still haven't traded Alpha to everyone.

I guess this is boring, but it is taken straight from my notes. So, at this point I have 4 cities, am planning to take that barb city with a swordsman I am building and found another one at the NW corner by the iron. Soon I will have 6 and that is it with expansion, time to think of what to do next. Since I share religion with both neighbours, I decide to abstain from attacking them at this point and probably lead a mutual war with someone else to enhance our relationship even more, find another friend and possibly go for a diplomatic victory. Only problem is that it is possible that my friend Hatty might be the leader, I have to choose carefully. Also the thought of a cultural approach lingers in my head. That is the state of the empire as of 1 AD and here is how it looks:.

 

[kommie]

Posting pretty late, i suppose, only started the GOTM last nite

Going ok so far, although not as well as usual in my Monarch games, but Im a builder usually, so playing Tukogawa is a bit new to me.

I settled in place, as moving the warrior SW didnt reveal anything interesting, and was glad as i picked up the silk to the SE.

Beelined for BW and built a warrior and worker, chopped out 2 warriors and a settler. A bit forest-poor this map, aint it!? Had to resort to chopping for 22 hammers way away from my cities at times.

Had lots and lots of trouble with barbs, much more than usual in my games, despite my fog-busting. Lost quite a few units to them, altho picked up a few nice promotions too.

Discovered Hattie and Monty, and popped 3 huts in the process, altho they werent that great, 23gold, a map and XP. Founded my 2nd city down south in that great spot with the elephants, dye and corn, and my 3rd one out east where every1 plopped theirs, on the coast just in reach of the copper, to cut monty off. My next city was planned for the west edge, with the gold and rice but Hattie beat me to it by like 3 turns!!! ARGH!!!
Decided to send that settler way out SE of my 3rd city, the copper one, to grab the only Horses in remote proximity, and MOnty beat me to that one by a few turns too!!
Not doing too well with my timing. Ended up plopping that settler down to the SE of the starting city, to grab the wheat and incense. Last city i plopped towards 500AD in the top left hand corner of the map as it was the only place left.

Nothing too exciting to report on the research front, but managed to get 1st to Alphabet, and picked up a few equal value techs from all around the world.

I was on good terms with every1, but then shortly into AD Hattie demanded that i stop trade with Monty (although she was +1 with him!?), and i had to oblige, as i knew a war with Monty was coming soon anyhow and i wanted to keep Hattie friendly. As I predicted, 5 turns later Monty declared war on me and sent stacks of jaguars, chariots and axes against my Eastern city with the copper.
So far doing a good job holding him off, have a combined arms stack parked on the hill guarding the copper (axe, axe, medic archer, spear), and the same with a few more archers in the city, with walls. Basically he's thrown like 20 units against me so far and has been crushed, i've only lost about 3 units so far due to good promotions and healing. Have been waiting for construction before counter-attacking (for cats and elephants, since i dont have horses), and have just got it at around 500AD (a bit late i think, but whatever). DIE MONTY DIE!!! mwahaha

Currently HAttie is 1st in score with her huge landmass, Monty somewhere in the middle but he's last in tech. Im a tech or 2 behind the leaders, and last in points, grrr, not used to that.
Its looking good for a revival soon though, as i grind Monty into dust and pick up his lands and resources

Hattie has no horses i think, so might be good to crush her later with Knights or Cavalry, something like that.
No religion yet, might convert to Christianity, which Hattie just founded (she's been religion free up till now, which is pretty rare for AI's i think).

Anyway, sorry for long post and no pics .

Good luck all!

 

[pnp_dredd]

I thought for ages to come up with a Ring City Placement joke for this inland sea map, but came up dry.

Anyway...

founded Kyoto on the plains hill next to the river 2SW.

The plan went just as I'd.. well... planned:

Briefly: Don't build new cities early, cottage-spam Kyoto, beeline for alphabet (1600 BC), then complete COL and Oracle on the same turn (920 BC), and take Civil Service as my free tech, then switch to beurocracy.

Up till that the only chopping I did was for Oracle.

This worked nicely, and I have a good tech lead. F4 is my new favourite Civ4 key.

I built some early warriors for exploring, and they managed to meet everyone before getting eaten/headhunted.

I also stole one of Hatty's workers with a warrior in 2920 BC, and got peace after a nothing war.

After getting beurocracy I researched Maths (680 BC), Construction (360 BC), Metal Casting (20 BC).

Built Osaka (640 BC), Tokyo (440 BC), Edo (360 BC) all near the capital, in high production areas to the NW, N and SE of Kyoto (Hatty stole the nice spot to the Sth).

At 350 AD these cities are getting up to size 6 and have barracks (and I chopped aqueduct in Tokyo as it's not on a river).

While growing, these cities were producing axes, swords and catapults.

Huayna Capac captured a barb city close to my borders early, so I dec'd and captured Apache in 160 AD.

I then continued on to dec on Monty, split my forces, and Captured Calixtlahuaca (250 AD) and Tlatelolco (350 AD) and razed Tlaxcala (340AD)



350 AD: It's 4 turns to Machinery, and 4 turns to a forge in Kyoto. Will pump Samurai and cats. Once the E war looks won (both Monty and Huayna) I'll build a bit of a force and take out Hatty.

tech path will be to mil tradition, then gunpowder, then biology (free tech for liberalism). Depending on how the next 10-20 turns go, I might not even need to go for mil tradition.

I'll have to cottage spam most cities I capture to keep my economy afloat, although building the Confucian religous builing in Kyoto, combined with a few well-placed missionaries, should be a handy gold boost.

Planning to build FP somewhere in Huayna Capac's land.

I'll need an army of workers to convert these cottages to farms later on, to maximise my score. I can see lots of workers deforesting cities simiply to build more workers.

 

[crunch]

Cities:
1. 2SW (worker, some warriors, 2 settlers, library, barracks, axes/swords)
2. on plain hill south near elephants (obelisk, barracks, units, worker)
3. near monte's copper (obelisk, oracle)

First worker went eastwards and finally circumwalked the great lake some 3000+ years later. Did not dare to attack any workers (although I met some).

Research: mysticism (hut), pottery, mining, BW, writing, IW, alphabet
Trades:
Fishing + Writing for Hunting + Polytheism (Hatsepslut)
Pottery + Writing for Meditation + Masonry (Saladin) (end turn)
Meditation + Polytheism for AH + Archery (Monte)
Meditation for Agriculture (Victoria)
Research: priesthood, CoL, Civil Service (Oracle), metal casting, machinery

Religion: founded Confusianism, have not adopted it. Egypt founded Judaism. Monte is atheist.

Lucky event: forest grew near capital just when it became unhealthy.

General
Well, actually I am somewhere in the middle of metal casting ATM. So far so good. There's a barb city on the coast southeastwards (4NE from Thebes), I hope to get some exp from it before attacking Egypt. There's another barb city near iron/pig. These are my most likely expansions.

I'm not sure about my further steps. I fear I'm not good enough for domination. But I still might try. I feel that I should start carving through Egypt's archers, but the nearest city is on a hill. Bummer.

 

[Kuningas]

Domination

Seems like I played same game as pnp_dredd. I went for warrior - worker - warrior - warrior - library - settler - the oracle in capital. The Oracle was completed in 880BC and I took Civil service as free tech. Meanwhile tech order was pottery - writing - alphabet - meditation - priesthood - code of laws - CS (free) - then to machinery. Rest techs were traded. I got Samurais around 200AD. The expansion was slow (because late CET) so it took a while to research machinery 20 turns IIRC.

cities:
Capital SWSW on plains hill
Tokyo E delta river
Osaka S ivory luxuries
Edo NE cow and marble

In 200AD four cities have completed forge, barracks and I'm ready to go for war against Hatte. I stunned Hatte's expansion by worker robbery. So the war should be easy.

 

[aviator99_uk]

First thoughts:
Tockugawa & Japan do not have creativity and I've never got close without creativity (on a land based map) at Monarch so it was unlikely that sucess would be easy here.

The story:

First city at the default location. Crappy location anyway.
Warrior got killed by a goody hut.
Soon found Aztec and Egypt, decided to go for BW and war because Monty will. BW : no copper . IW turns out my 2nd city is on top of Iron ! Start churning out swordsmen and research to Alpha to trade in the other techs.

Fought Monty to a standstill took 4 of his citys including his capital, and with 3 of my own giving me 7 (same as Egypt and Inca), Monty has 3 citys left and is starting to send setlers my way again. Had to chop libraries into his citys to get some defence against Barbs and Monty spamming setlers my way. Haven't had the chance to build any cottages or a farm and have only got about 5 workers all clearing forest. Barbs are a real pain having to station troops out in the sticks to stop it happening.

Problems:

Research is at 20%, 115 turns to metal casting, haven't got any hope of trading techs or buying techs, haven't got a religion and cannot get a city over about 4 pop without getting red citizens, no happy resources about and they all need lots of research (calendar) I am never going to be able to do.

I have 7 citys, so does Egypt and Inca, but I'll bet their research isn't 20%. And they have citys with pops of 6+.

Pretty sure the AI has won this. Its 310AD and I think my only option is to send all my swordsmen at Egypt and pray that I can get some techs off her. Moving palace and seeing what happens just doesn't seem to be worth it.

In short:

A nasty sh**y little scenario which does not suit my style of play either by map or by civ. Cannot see success coming out of this but never expected to anyway.

Only decided to play it because I had nothing better to do, like watch some grass grow, and hope for something better next month.

 

[Memphus]

Contender, victory condition: leaning to fast domination

The Early Game
4000 B.C. ==> 1 AD

Goal: Fast Samuries

Themes: Quick Teching, Worker Steal

Plan:
Techs:
pottery (thanks Shillen, DaveMcW for pointing out how good this can be in pregame Discussion)
mining
bronze working
writing
alpha

from here there was no plan as I would have to evaluate the trade
possibilities.

Found SW/SW

Production: Worker (cottage spam, followed by chopping)
Warrior
?? this is to far for me to plan ahead

Exploration:
Initial Warrior going NE and then in an Eastern direction (again I was assuming more huts since most players would go South)

Worker Steal:
Once eastablished I was in the NW corner, I planned to worker steal my neighbour to the East (Later found out Montezuma) and to the South (Hatesput) Noting that a worker steal south would have to be in the first
150/4(culture turn) = 37 turns before Egypts borders expanded a second
time

Unexpected:
Luck, so far this is the luckyist game I have played...and by saying this I better not jinx it.

The Way It Happened:

Turn log with comments: please note the year of when the comment is being
read, just because I was planning on doing something in XXXX B.C. doesn't mean it panned out that way, However I have tried to include when I didn't stick with the plan

3960 B.C. Kyoto was founded ==> start producing worker (15)
reasearching pottery (14)
3680 B.C. Meet Montezuma (Ohhh I hate him)
3680 B.C. Borders Expand Kyoto (not enough to get that hut )
3640 B.C. Hut poped to the east, gain 1 scout (now I was pumped)
Descision time: where to go? Well scout can do it faster, so I
continued him East. Sent the warrior north to find the Northern edge of the map and then was *going* to bring him back along the nothern wall to Kyoto.

3480 B.C. Hut popped with warrior Tech discovered: Hunting(a
gain yes, but at this point I didn't need hunting and would have traded for it anyways once I got alpha, but still nice to have incase I need to change something up and get archery sooner)

The scout had now discovered the southern edge of Montezuma's borders
noticing a worker building a quary on Marble (instant thoughts of losing
Oracle go through my head) So I decided to take my warrior (who was going back to kyoto) to go perform a worker steal on Montezuma. The scout would continue in a eastern like pattern

3440 B.C. Pottery discovered, start mining

3400 B.C. Worker out start cottage on flood plains to the south

3320 B.C. Warrior notices a cow on Montezuma's nothern border
descision? get into position and then Wait for his
worker to come there and steal him. I often find that if I look specifically for the worker that I miss them sometimes and that makes me

3320 B.C. Game maker..this is the luck thing I was talking about: I
kinda feel like my game is spoiled because of this unfair advantage Scout pops a hut: Tech discovered: Writing I now have writing
before mining

3240 B.C. Budism founded in a distant land

3120 B.C. Hut poped by scout: result: Scout this scout was now going
to head backwards to explore and possibly escort the worker from the worker
steal from Montezuma if the timing worked out.

3080 B.C. Hut poped by scout: 57 Gold this was from the guy exploring on his way back

3040 B.C. Mining Discovered, start bronze working

3000 B.C. Meet Asoka

3000 B.C. Warrior produced in Kyoto, Start Library which will be
chopped Warrior is heading straight for that hut.

3000 B.C. Scout killed by bear on his way back for potential escort,
so there is bad luck to

3000 B.C. Hut poped by scout: Experience This was the scout heading
eastern like this experience I double upgraded to woodsman 2 for faster exploration

2960 B.C. Meet Huyan Capac

2960 B.C. Hut poped by warrior who came from Kyoto: Result Warrior.
At this point it is time to explor south.

2880 B.C. Declare war on Monty, Worker steal (I knew he would come to that cow one day)

2800: Meet Victoria

2760: Meet Hathesput

2720 B.C. Declare war on Hatesput, Worker steal (X turns to spare)

2360 B.C. Bronze Working Discover, start Writing

2080 B.C. Worker Steal Montezuma A second time (he is really behind
now)

1900 B.C. Judiasm in a distant land

1850 B.C. Osakab Founded
This was on the plains hill everyone seems to have sought after, great
location

1825 B.C. Osaka Founded
This was to grab the marble in the north to help with building of the
Oracle

1675 B.C. Alphabet, start Metal Casting
trades began... And I really wanted to preserve Alpha

1125 B.C. Tokyo Founded
This was for strategic location of the trees as well as the copper and
eventual plantation. Starts building Pyramids, put a couple of chops towards it
I wanted to get roughly 200~300 hammers towards it then change production to something else This was I would lost the race but get much needed $$ for the up comming wars But still be able to keep my tech high.
I figured I would probably be close to being able to chop it all the way, but really had No interest in representation or Universal Sufferage $$ was more important.

1050 B.C. Stonehenge Built in Osakab (chopped after a library was
chopped there)

1025 B.C. Metal Casting, start COL

700 B.C. Code of Laws start Machinery
(in hindsight this was a mistake)
Now this was bad luck as Confuc. was founded in Osakab which was going to
be my military military powerhouse (As later on it was producing either 2 or turn Samurias) So I am not going to be able to make it a money Making powerhouse

700 B.C. Oracle built in Osakab (this was a good production spot)

680 B.C. Grabbed Bureacracy with Oracle

680 B.C. Revolt, change to Bureacracy and Caste

600 B.C. Edo Founded
This was to get a costal city and the Wheat resource, but it never
amounted to much.

600 B.C. Hathesput converts to Confuc.

420 B.C. I convert to Confuc. (needed the in Osakab),
didn't want to convert though, wanted to keep good relations for tech trading)

400 B.C. Great Scientist in Kyoto, builds Academy
This took a while, I was continually cycling on and off a Scientist here
depending on how much production I needed

320 B.C. Lose Pyramids in Tokyo to London: Lost production converted into $361 money.... exactly what I wanted

300 B.C. Machinery Discovered, start Iron working
At this point I was pretty mad only Saladin had Iron working and wouldn't
trade it to me So I had to research it myself...

220 B.C. Iron working discovered, start Currency
Iron on the desert hill right by Kyoto DOH , Well I wanted Iron ASAP
so 2 workers stopped what they were doing And beelined for it, and a third joined them a turn later In retrospect it would have been better to get this before Machinery..but I figured I could trade for it

160 B.C. Satsuma Founded
This city is going to be a GP gem, tons of forests which mean on things
Chop library, chop Great Library, and farm, in the back corner safe as can
be

80 B.C. Currency discovered, start Literature

40 B.C. Declare War on Hathesput, one Samurai is ready, more on the
way

1 AD Hathesput is about to lose a city

There is a quick Summuray comming as well, I need 2 posts for the pictures
Attached in this post:
Pic: Top of My Empire at 1AD
Pic: Bottom of My Empire 1AD
Pic: Kyoto city View 1AD
Pic: Osakab city View 1AD

 

[Memphus]

So quick summary:

Time spent: 3 hours 18 min
(on a side note these writeup took ~2 hours)

6 Cities built

TechPace:
Through self research
3480 B.C. Hunting(hut)
3440 B.C. Pottery
3320 B.C. Writing(hut) ridiculous IMO, but I can't give it back, this for
sure changed my game
3040 B.C. Mining
2360 B.C. Bronze Working
1675 B.C. Alphabet
1025 B.C. Metal Casting
700 B.C. Code of Laws
680 B.C. Bureacracy (Oracle)
300 B.C. Machinery
220 B.C. Iron Working
80 B.C. Currency
1 A.D. 1 turn away from Literature

Techs which I traded for before 1 AD, noting that no one else has Alphabet
yet, and I refuse to trade it:
Archery
Agriculture
Animal Husbandry
Mysticism
Masonry
Meditation
PriestHood
Polythesism
Sailing
Mathmatics
Monarchy

Wonders:
1050 B.C. Stonehenge (Osakab)
680 B.C. Oracle (Osakab)
320 B.C. Lose Pyramids to Elizabeth for $361

Units:
6 Workers
1 Scout; he made it all the way around the sea
6 Archers
5 Warriors
1 Samurai, and 1 next turn

Civics: Bureacracy and Caste Enabled
Economics: Running @ -9/turn with 90% science and 419 in the bank

Score: 627
Pop: 142 ==> 24 which is equal to 15.29%
Land: 182 ==> 11.87%
Techs: 240
Wonders: 65

The person in second (492) is who I just declared war on Hathesput

So the plan for here is to not stop expanding and going to war, I need to
press as far as possible before anyone get Vassalage
Because until then I am certain my Samurai's can pound city's without
Catapults.

Pic: Demographics 1 AD
Pic: City Breakdown 1AD

 

[Yehbo]

Just a quick observation, from the screenshots posted so far, it seems nearly everyone went for the same or very similar 2nd & 3rd city sites (see above example taken from culdeus' post earlier). The capital city location is more varied...

That plains hill in the middle of elephants and cows is particularly good - that city really rocked and easily outdid the capital in my game. (Osaka in screenshot)

I guess the other one (Tokyo in screenshot) is the more obvious choice for bronze than the river mouth to the East near Monty (Edo in screenshot).

 

[akots]

I decided to play predator-challenger because I'm obviously not good enough to compete with the top players but I can then brag that the game I played is more difficult. Cannot say that the game is very difficult but I missed all the wonders and was lagging in tech for quite some time especially against financial civlizations. But expansion was rather speedy and good. Starting settler was moved to the forest hill. I then researched mining and bronze working followed by hunting and archery because barbarian archers started to appear in numbers. Bronze was available but would have taken too long to hook up. Then I went for Mysticism, Wheel and Agriculture, followed by Pottery, Writing, Meditation and Priesthood but it was already too late, the Oracle had been built. Presumably, starting without Wheel and Fishing actually hurts a lot. Still I'm pretty sure, with proper planning, building Oracle was quite possible at least to grab some free tech. I ended up researching everything myself - Code of Laws (was first to it), Alphabet (trades were rather productive), Iron Working, and Metal Casting. Around 100AD I traded for most of the missing techs with Asoka, who apparently was a tech leader together with Arabs.

Future looks bright (I played to almost 500AD). There was a short war against the Aztec for the sole purpose of stealing an exposed worker. The prepared war against Egypt is progressing well, Thebes (Buddism holy city, Parthenon, and some other wonder) captured by swordsmen, courthouses are being built and Civil Service is being researched. I'm second in score and first in most other important parameters like income and productivity. Unfortunately, samurai are pretty far away still. So, I guess the predator class is certainly more tricky to play in this GOTM.

 

[mboza]

Playing contender. (Domination, space race, or highest losing score?)

Started by settling on the forested hill SW, SW thinking that the river was more important than the chop.

Researched BW, then pottery then alphabet, reaching it in 1075 BC. I could then trade writing to fill in the gaps. By then I had built two more cities, in the hill to the south, and the gold/copper/rice to the west. Though I probably should have built more than the one worker I had.

I waited way too long to pick up the copper, as iron appeared first.

Three more cities, one on the coastal plain hill to the SE, one to the east (but too far from the copper) and one to the north for the marble followed

Literature followed after IW, and the great library was the only early wonder I was in a position to go for. I adopted hinduism from Hattie, and switched to organised religion to boost production. Unfortunately this upset Monty.

1AD sees me close to samurai, so I was quite happy that I was close to the tech pace suggested by Shillen and others in the pre-game thread, and indeed I had not managed to gain a tech lead in any of my test games.

Monty would be my first target, and the axe/sword army was starting to mass.

Unfortunately, I was Monty's first target. Three large stacks of horse archers appeared, and I realised too late that I was using rivers to connect my trading, and had neglected roads. One city was razed because a spearman was one single turn too late.

I survived, barely, but it set back my progress enough that it will need to wait for the next spoiler.

 

[fbouthil]

Exploration Phase: I settle on the plain hill without forest. Not the best spot for a city, but I hope it won't affect my game too much.

I sent the warrior exploring NE, so I missed the hut close to Kyoto. The second hut got snatched by the Incan just before I could get to it. I finally got a hut and got a map out of it. Not much luck with huts.

Exploration shows ivory and gold are very close, so early happiness should not be a problem.

Expansion Phase: In 2320BC, I learn Bronze working and, as usual, I time a settler to finish a few turns later. I miss the copper near the gold, so I went for the copper near the Aztecs. It won't be a very good city later, but the copper and the rice should make it a good city for now. A second city is then settled between the capital and the copper city.

2 barb cities appear: one between the cow and the ivory to the south and one next to the gold west. They are where I was planning to put my next cities, so I start building axes to take them.

Barb Conquest: In 640BC, I conquer the barb city of Aryan. I lose 3 axes in the process, so it is slowing down the next war a lot. Shortly after healing the surviving units, I conquer the other city.

This is also the time when I research alphabet and I trade for mysticism, polytheism, meditation, sailing, iron working, priesthood and masonry. I discover that iron is one tile south of Kyoto and already hooked up!

Aztec War: My axes take Technotitlan in 260BC and it is a formality to conquer 4 other Aztec cities. Montezuma exiled himself in a city that I cannot see, so I start sending my troops toward the Egyptian border for the next war. Later, I find the last Aztec city and raze it with only 2 swords and one axe killing the 3 units serving as garrison.

With code of laws researched, I start building courthouses in all but the closest cities to the capital.

Status at 0AD: I have 10 cities, 3 settled myself, 2 conquered barb cities and 5 conquered Aztec cities. My troops are going toward the Egyptian border.

Egyptian War: Again, I take the capital first sending 10 swords and 1 axe against the 5 units serving as garrison. I second attack force conquer the city NW of their capital. The primary attack force then razes a city too close to Thebes to my liking. Thebes has Stonehenge, so every city expand their borders for free.

The Egyptians settle a city near the wheat and incense SE of Kyoto. Nice gift!

I started trading for Indian gems, Incan spices and English money. With all the happiness resources, I start building a lot of granaries.

Status at 500AD: 5 Egyptian cities have been conquered, only 2 are remaining, but Elephantine has 6 units as garrison. I have slowed down military production as I am paying 19gpt in unit cost.

Plan: Settle for peace with Egypt after conquering another city to get theology and calendar. Conquer the last one 10 turns later. Build the forbidden palace somewhere in conquered Egypt close to the Arabian border. Arabia has both the Hinduism and Confuciusm holy city, so the are next. The Hinduism special building is already built and I should be able to build the one for Confuciusm because of conquered Stonhenge if it is not built once I conquer them. The Arabians are one tech away from longbowmen, so I will use catapults and knights against them.

Note: Samurai are available too close to the availability of knight to my liking, so I am completely ignoring my UU!

I think I am in advance in term of conquest to most players, but many are more technologically advanced than me. Hopefully, I can close that gap once the conquered cities grow a little.

 

[Fifteenpiece]

My first post but long time reader. Also my first GOTM.

Opening:

I moved starting city Kyto north and west 1 tile, this actually was an error as I was going for a hill placement. Placed second city due east as I saw copper and 3rd city SW on the hill above floodplains. Past exp with Monarch and above has always led me to place initial cities on hills when possible.

Opening sequence was a warr/worker/chop warr/chop settler/chop worker.

Met Monty fairly rapidly, its almost intuitive that when I meet him I go right at him early in the game (just too dangerous to have on a border for any period of time). Once I had 3 cities up I chopped barracks and about 10 axemen and went right at him. Captured 3 of his cities fairly rapidly and basically mass rushed his capital with a wave attack. This established my East boundary with Incans.

At this point I had two pieces of good fortune. Met Hatty and she had not expanded upward yet, a barb city had popped to the SW of the southern floodplain city (Tokyo in my game). I was able to secure this and 2 other barb cities to west and NW corner while concurrent taking Monty out (I usually will leave a FOW area in secured corners of maps like this to breed easy barb cities).

End point at expansion had me with about 11 cities and research down to 10 pct. Fortunately I had begun cottage spam and was able to recover up to alphabet fairly rapidly (believe research was mining/bronze/archery then beeline to alpha). After alpha I went to code of law to currency and then back down to the casting-->guilds---> banking line.

Another item of good fortune was that Monty had established Judaism, I picked this up and spammed it to Incas strongly securing eastern flank and extra $$$ from holy city). Also used it as a wedge to get Hatty to declare war on me and basically wait back on her stack of doom to pull it in to defeat.

After banking generated a Samurai rush (had picked up machinery in banking beeline) and attacked Hatty. I think is about stop point for this spolier so I'll add further to Spoiler 2.

 

[The-Hawk]

Playing contender, going for Conquest victory.

Headed to the hill to the SW. Was fairly comfortable that a worker/pottery start would leave ample time to build military and deal with barbs.

My early techs: Pottery - Mining - Bronze - Writing - Alphabet
Note on tech decisions: My pre-game plan was to go for AG or IW after BW, but I decided to skip them since I had nothing to farm and easy access to copper for axes.

My first build order: Worker - warrior - warrior/worker (started warrior, switched queue to worker to time him with Bronze) - finish warrior - warrior - warrior - warrior/settler (queue switch) - settler - finish warrior.
Note on build order: I did a couple of warriors before the settlers because my capital was 3 turns from a pop expansion and I had lost one of my early warriors to a lion. In hindsight, I maybe should have gotten the settlers out quicker, I almost lost the Ivory site to Hatty. When I finally settled it, it revealed her settler two tiles away.

City placement: I decided to put my second city near the copper. Since I had waited a couple of turns for Kyoto's pop to increase, I was getting concerned about barbs getting frisky, and wanted copper asap. I placed it between the copper and gold. This meant I would lose some workable tiles to the edge of the map, but I didn't want to wait for expansion to get the copper hooked up. My third city was at the ivory site, as I said before, I really cut this close... almost lost the location to Hatty.

Early worker actions: First worker built cottages on the two FP's, then mined a hill to give him something to do while BW was finishing. 2nd worker was timed with BW... then they both went a-choppin'. After 2nd settler was chopped out, I connected up the copper.

Huts: Only found one, got 60g from it. Based on other posts, my worker first strategy (and the loss of my 2nd warrior to a lion) probably cost me some huts. Not sure I mind missing the early techs, my beeline to Alpha brought them all to me anyhow.

Turn 1 (3960 BC)
Kyoto founded
Kyoto begins: Worker
Research begun: Pottery
Turn 15 (3400 BC)
Research begun: Mining
Turn 16 (3360 BC)
Kyoto begins: Warrior
Turn 25 (3000 BC)
Research begun: Bronze Working
Kyoto begins: Warrior
Turn 29 (2840 BC)
Kyoto begins: Worker (queue switch) At this point, my worker was timed to finish a turn before BW, but I knew the 2nd cottage would soon be completed on the 2nd FP, so the BW research would pick up a turn.
Turn 41 (2360 BC)
Tech learned: Bronze Working
Kyoto finishes: Worker (timed it right!)
Turn 42 (2320 BC)
Research begun: Writing
Turn 45 (2200 BC)
Kyoto finishes: Warrior
Turn 46 (2160 BC)
Kyoto finishes: Warrior
Turn 47 (2120 BC)
Kyoto finishes: Warrior (3 warriors in 3 turns - gotta love those chops!)
Turn 49 (2040 BC)
Kyoto begins: Settler (queue switch after I got my 3rd pop)
Turn 54 (1900 BC)
Kyoto begins: Settler
Turn 55 (1875 BC)
Tech learned: Writing
Turn 56 (1850 BC)
Osaka founded
Osaka begins: Warrior
Turn 57 (1825 BC)
Kyoto finishes: Settler
Turn 60 (1750 BC)
Kyoto begins: Library
Turn 61 (1725 BC)
My third settler headed south, with a single warrior escort. They stumbled on a barb archer in the fog, were able to fortify on a forest tile, and...
Turn 62 (1700 BC)
Warrior defeats (1.64/2): Barbarian Archer (phew!)
Turn 64 (1650 BC)
Tokyo founded - finally, my third city up... and there is Hatty's settler 2 tiles away.
Turn 73 (1425 BC)
Warrior defeats (0.96/2): Barbarian Warrior - The barbs are starting to attack, just got the copper hooked up in time! I'm glad I settled Osaka so that copper would be inside its initial cultural border. If I'd have had to wait to get an Obelisk built to expand, I may not have survived the barb phase.
Turn 75 (1375 BC)
Osaka finishes: Axeman - First one done, at this point, I'm feeling pretty confident about the outcome of the game. With Axes, I can survive barbs, with the jump on techs, I can handle the AI's. Hatty's borders already have reached Tokyo, will need to think about getting some culture in there.
Turn 79 (1275 BC)
Tech learned: Alphabet
Turn 80 (1250 BC)
Trade for: Mysticism, Hunting, Masonry, Agriculture
Research begun: Animal Husbandry
Turn 85 (1125 BC)
Research begun: Iron Working
Turn 88 (1050 BC)
Trade for: Archery
Turn 90 (1000 BC)
Kyoto begins: Barracks
Turn 92 (960 BC)
Tokyo begins: Obelisk
Turn 94 (920 BC)
Osaka begins: Obelisk
Turn 95 (900 BC)
Tech learned: Iron Working
Turn 96 (880 BC)
Trade for: Meditation, Polytheism
Turn 98 (840 BC)
Kyoto begins: Settler - ready for a little more expansion
Tech learned: Priesthood
Turn 99 (820 BC)
Tokyo begins: The Oracle - I decide to build this here so I can build up my culture vs. Hatty.
Turn 100 (800 BC)
Trade for: Monotheism, Sailing
Turn 112 (560 BC)
Kyoto begins: Granary
Turn 113 (540 BC)
Razed Aryan (barb city)
Tokyo finishes: The Oracle
Turn 114 (520 BC)
Free tech from Oracle: Theology - decided to take it so I could get Christianity.
Christianity founded in Osaka
Tokyo begins: Library
Turn 116 (480 BC)
Edo founded - (near river mouth to east)
Edo begins: Obelisk
Kyoto begins: Settler (queue switch from Granary, decided I didn't really need it for now, don't have the resources that provide extra health
Turn 117 (460 BC)
Tech learned: Code of Laws
Confucianism founded in Edo - now I have 2!
Turn 118 (440 BC)
Trade for: Mathematics
Research begun: Construction - I had planned to go for Sami's first, but since I have Ivory and I'm only one tech away, I can't resist getting Oliphants and Cats up first. Samis will need to wait a bit longer.
Turn 120 (400 BC)
Edo begins: Lighthouse
Turn 126 (280 BC)
Tokyo begins: Granary
Turn 128 (240 BC)
Razed Mauryan (barbs)
Turn 129 (220 BC)
Kyoto finishes: Settler
Turn 133 (140 BC)
Satsuma founded - in North near 2nd iron
Satsuma begins: Obelisk
Turn 134 (120 BC)
Research begun: Metal Casting
Turn 135 (100 BC)
Tokyo begins: Barracks
Turn 136 (80 BC)
Edo begins: Barracks
Turn 138 (40 BC)
Kyoto finishes: Granary
Turn 139 (20 BC)
Kyoto begins: War Elephant - first one done, starting to think about some serious mongering. Question is who? Monty or Hatty? Hatty or Monty?
Thinking I'll go for Hatty first, she is the frontrunner.
Tokyo finishes: Barracks
Satsuma finishes: Obelisk
Turn 140 (0 AD)
Edo finishes: Barracks
Turn 142 (40 AD)
Monty declares on me and bushwacks an Axeman who was exploring:
Axeman loses to: Aztec Axeman (2.00/5)
Looks like Monty is volunteering to "go" first! In hindsight, I think my decision to get Elephants up was a good one, don't think I'd be producing Sami's yet if I'd gone that route. Next few turns are spent ravaging his "SOK" (Stack of Kamikazis).
Oliphants vs. Chariots and Archers = goodness.
Turn 149 (180 AD)
Tech learned: Metal Casting
Turn 152 (220 AD)
Satsuma finishes: Barracks
Turn 154 (240 AD)
Razed Calixtlahuaca (Monty)
Turn 161 (310 AD)
Captured Tlatelolco (Monty) - This one looks like its worth keeping.
Turn 163 (330 AD)
Tokyo begins: Settler - I decide I'll need to found a city between Edo and Tlatelolco to get them hooked up.
Trade for: Monarchy, Calendar
Turn 164 (340 AD)
Razed Xochicalco (Monty)
Turn 169 (390 AD)
Razed Chehalis (barbs)
Turn 172 (420 AD)
Tokyo begins: Courthouse
Turn 173 (430 AD)
Captured Tenochtitlan (Monty) - hmmm.... think I'll keep this one too.
Turn 174 (440 AD)
Razed Tlacopan (Monty)
Turn 177 (470 AD)
Kagoshima founded - between Edo and Tlatelolco
Turn 179 (490 AD)
Tech learned: Machinery
Turn 180 (500 AD)
Kyoto begins: Forge
Turn 181 (510 AD)
Trade for: Currency
Monty has a pretty big stack in his next city, so I make peace.
I met Victoria shortly after this war ended.

Location of my core of 4 cities (as of 240 BC):

 

[kojimanard]

Contender
I played quite a few practice starts with a mining-bw-pottery-writing-alphabet tech path and had some very good results (CS from Oracle leading to samurai in 370AD was the best) and some quite poor (missing the Oracle and falling behind in tech). It seemed to work only with flood plains and hopefully gold. As a result, I settled on the plain hill to the SW, as discussed in the pregame discussion, and there were two fp’s. I was happy to see the gold and cooper to the west and put Osaka there.

I had virtually no barb trouble; I don’t think they ever got into my territory. They had settled on the hill to the south by the ivory before I could settle there and it was a struggle to take out the three archers (I think I lost three axeman in the process). Another barb town to the east fell easily.

Tech pace went reasonably well, with alphabet in 1200 BC enabling me to trade for other early techs. I built the Oracle in 720 BC for CoL. Got literature and wasted some time by not getting the marble soon enough, so the GL was not completed until 350 AD. I declared on Hatty and took two cities, and then received 300 gold for peace. By 500 AD, I’m about tied with Asoka for the tech lead, and have seven cities, with CS a few turns away (w/ mc, but w/o machinery).