GOTM-03 First spoiler: The early game.

[Dr Dinkindunkin]

As a Civ player, I am generally a man of peace, but I thought that this gotm would be the perfect chance to sharpen my warmongering skills. Unfortunately, I must still have a CivIII warmongering mindset.

I made some pretty disasterous decisions early on and was all too keenly aware of how much I had crippled myself from the start. I grossly miscalculated the site of my first city. I settled the plains hills to the west to get the gold in my radius, but realized almost instantly that I had just moved the cattle out of my fat cross. Since this spot also turned out to be so close to the western edge of the map, and since I decided to plop a city nearby to get the copper, I pretty much guarunteed that Kyoto would be a next-to-worthless city for ages to come. I am pretty sure that I was overzealous with my early chops and far too fickle with my research path.

Nonetheless, I was still hanging in there at 0 A.D. (albeit in last place), with the opportunity to claw up through the ranks with some intelligent play.

Intelligent play was not forthcoming. My desire to get to warmongering led me to declare war on Hatty as soon as I got my iron (way up north) hooked up. She must have beelined for feudalism, because my pathetic ancient army found her cities stocked with longbowman. Being an empiricist, I decided to see how my troops would fair. Take a guess....

I am ashamed to say that I pushed the "Retire" button after watching my troops become pincushions. As penance, I am reciting 5,000 "Hail, Sid"s and subjecting myself to public scorn and ridicule on the pages of this very forum.

So, kids, take this lesson from my transgression: don't play gotm if you are in a bad mood. Especially if you know you're looking at a come-from-(far)-behind situation. Especially, especially if there is alcohol involved....

 

[Ribannah]

CONTENDER - going for Samurai, what else?

Kyoto was founded on the forested hill. We grabbed gold and marmer, but by that time the Barbarians had taken the Ivory spot which was quite a setback.
Huts were few: we got 22 gold from the one near Kyoto and experience from one near Thebes, and that was it. We saw no more huts.

The path was pretty much dictated by the techs and the starting area, although I contemplated getting Agriculture first for faster growth. It could have been better, but I wanted to improve my focus.
When I saw the gold I decided to build a Settler right away, and that really helped our research.

Our exploring Warrior found an unprotected Worker at Thebes and we decided that we had more urgent work for him at Kyoto.
Not much else happened until an Egyptian Archer sacrificed itself (our Warrior being Woodsman II from the hut, already). Peace was immediately declared and our Warrior went on exploring counter-clockwise. He was eventually promoted to Axeman with 10 experience points (woodsman II, combat I, medic).

After researching Iron Working I was happy to find Iron near Kyoto, and with two Swordsmen I was finally able to capture the ivory spot. The swordsmen then went on to the se to another barb town, but came just in time to see the Aztecs take it (Aztecs Archer killed defending Barb archer). On the very same turn, the Aztecs also settled on the floodplains at the coast where our Settler was heading to. So we declared on our neighbours, got their barb town, their offending floodplains town when it grew to size 2, and poorly defended Tlatelolco to boot (only two Archers defending). Our Swordsmen (now Combat II, city raider and cover) have not finished yet, there are 3 more Aztec towns to go.

Encounters
3520bc Aztecs
3440bc Egypt
2440bc Arabia
1800bc Inca
1600bc England
1325bc India

Towns

Kyoto
3960bc Founded on the forested hill (iron)
2960bc Settler
2520bc =2
1800bc Settler
1575bc =3
1275bc Granary
1250bc =4
920bc Library
760bc Worker
580bc Confucian Monastery
540bc =5
500bc Confucian Missionary
460bc Worker
380bc Confucian Missionary
280bc =6
140bc =7
60bc THE GREAT LIBRARY

Osaka
2920bc West of Kyoto (rice,gold,copper)
2480bc =2
2400bc Warrior
1875bc Worker
1250bc Settler
900bc Worker
480bc =3
320bc Library
160bc =4
20bc Granary

Tokyo
1750bc Northeast (cow,marble)
1475bc =2
1300bc Barracks
1175bc =3, Archer
1075bc Archer
980bc Archer
920bc Archer
800bc Archer
760bc =4
680bc Swordsman
600bc Swordsman
480bc Worker
380bc Archer
300bc Archer
260bc =5
220bc Archer
180bc Archer

Edo
1150bc Southeast on the coast (wheat,incense)
800bc ORACLE
740bc =2
340bc Settler
140bc Granary
100bc =3
1ad Work Boat

Chinook
480bc Taken from Barbarians, south (cow,ivory,dye,corn)
240bc Granary
180bc =2
40bc =3

Cuman
320bc Barbarian city taken from Aztecs, se on the coast (fish)

Satsuma
300bc Founded east on lake (silk)
200bc Granary

Tlaxcala
140bc Taken from Aztecs, east on coast (copper)

Tlatelolco
20bc Taken from Aztecs, east (horses,rice)


Research

4000bc Fishing, The Wheel (starting techs)
3400bc Pottery
3000bc Mining
2400bc Writing (ended up with Open Borders with everyone)
1700bc Alphabet; Fishing, Agriculture, Hunting, Masonry (trade)
1675bc Archery, Animal Husbandry, Meditation (trade)
1600bc Bronze Working (trade)
1325bc Polytheism (trade)
1300bc Iron Working
1225bc Priesthood (nobody had it, much later I still got good money for it)
1100bc Sailing (trade)
840bc Code of Laws (converted to Cunfucianism)
800bc Civil Service (Oracle; revolted to Bureaucracy and Slavery)
700bc Mathematics (trade)
380bc Literature
200bc Currency
80bc The Calendar (trade)
20bc Metal Casting
1ad (The AI have Monotheism, Horseback Riding and Monarchy, but won't to trade)

At times I ran zero science to refill the treasury while Libraries and a Monastery were being built.

1000bc Score = 276 (#2 behind the Inca)

1ad Data

Sessions: 11
Score: Japan 606, Inca 490, Arabia 454, England 429, India 422, Egypt 389, Aztecs 321
Empire: 9 towns, 27 heads, 18,62% of all pop, 11,37% of all land
Great Wonders: Oracle, Great Library
Improvements: 1 Barracks, 5 Granaries, 2 Libraries, 1 Monastery
Units: 8 Workers, 2 Swordsmen, 2 Axemen, 9 Archers, 1 Work Boat

 

[Ribannah]

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

....

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

Arrrghhh!!

I didn't even know that was possible ... Writing from a hut. Incredible!
Since I skipped Bronze Working basically that's what you ended up ahead with, which got turned into a full city (the ivory spot) with Stonehenge.
I'm catching up though: traded for Bronze Working and conquered the 6-resources spot. Stonehenge is gone though, the AI built it in 1075bc.

 

[Memphus]

Arrrghhh!!

I didn't even know that was possible ... Writing from a hut. Incredible!
Since I skipped Bronze Working basically that's what you ended up ahead with, which got turned into a full city (the ivory spot) with Stonehenge.
I'm catching up though: traded for Bronze Working and conquered the 6-resources spot. Stonehenge is gone though, the AI built it in 1075bc.

I know tell me about..without a doubt it advanced my game by 20-25 turns (which is huge at the begging of the game) from a reasearch standpoint alone. Since I got alpha that much sooner it meant I coudl trade for all the other techs that much quicker. In reality, something like poping a tech as valuable as writing is just ludracris and gives a pretty unfair advantage. I mean I had to get up and walk around after thinking to myself...hmmm so now my whole game plan is out the window ....let's start again

 

[fbouthil]

I know tell me about..without a doubt it advanced my game by 20-25 turns (which is huge at the begging of the game) from a reasearch standpoint alone. Since I got alpha that much sooner it meant I coudl trade for all the other techs that much quicker. In reality, something like poping a tech as valuable as writing is just ludracris and gives a pretty unfair advantage. I mean I had to get up and walk around after thinking to myself...hmmm so now my whole game plan is out the window ....let's start again

Well, with an unfair advantage like that, it will be embarrassing if you don't get the gold medal! I guess the pressure is on you.

 

[Dynamic]

Well, with an unfair advantage like that, it will be embarrassing if you don't get the gold medal! I guess the pressure is on you.

I also got Writing from the hut, but later. And I now the man, who got both Writing and Bronze Working from the huts! So don't press Memphus so strong.

I post my story a little bit later...

 

[Dynamic]

In this game I chose Contender class, because I’m not too experienced man in Civ4 yet and don’t need additional challenge. So, I think I have to change my signature…

Tokugawa is the good leader for military way to the victory end Inline Sea also very interesting so I decided to go to Conquest/Domination. The exact decision will depend on game situation.

Starting place wasn’t looking good: only one cow and one commerce tile. So I decided to move settler. At first I moved warrior to the SW hill but saw nothing interesting. Next double move settler SW on the plain forest hill. Next turn was very hard: I had to decide found or not my city here. It was possible to move settler SE on the desert hill, save the forest and may be discover something (really there is wheat there). Also I could go E for same reason (and got gold for that) but in this case I lost second floodplain. Finally I settled on the plain hill, got second hammer in the core and save one turn, but miss all other resources.

I started with 3 warriors – I hoped to hook up more huts and steal workers from AI. Of course, without early worker I couldn't built early cottages but I expected to compencate it by benefit from stolen workers. My first warrior go E by «Z» way opening most tiles, next warrior go S by same style. I very early undersood that we are in the upper left corner of the map. But I didn't check the west and north because I met Egypt and Aztecs so I missed the Marble and nearest Copper for a long time.

I started researching Mining – it must allow me to get Bronze Working from the hut (it's not happen), then Pottery for Writing and I got it in 3040BC. Then I stopped my scouting for stilling workers. First was Egypt in 2920BC. One warrior protected worker on the way, second – go to south with 2 angry archers on the back. So only one warrior go to the my capital and was killed. Later other warrior stole Aztecs worker and using same tactics successfully transferred it to home. But after that Aztecs protected his second worker so I couldn't steal more. I don't know how Memphus did it… After that 2 warriors went E and S,E directions around the sea but were killed before the end of his missions. At least I got all contacts.

After getting Writing from the hut I researched Bronze Working and then Alphabet in 1575BC. Via tech trading I got Priesthood (temporary researched Metal Casting) and began Code of Laws. AI didn't trade Monotheism and then Monarchy for a long time but finally I got it (after 1AD).
I built Library in Kyoto (2120BC) and set 2 citizen as scientists. Kyoto was size 4 that time because I had problems with health. Academy was built in 1450BC. Then I built 2 settlers: Osaka founded in 1625BC on the forest hill between Cow and Ivory on the S, Tokyo founded in 1325BC on the forest hill E between of many forests and with Cow in radius.

I researched Code of Laws in 980BC and built Oracle in Tokyo 1 turn later with Civil Service as free tech, switched to Bureaucracy and Caste System. Confucianism founded in Tokyo and free missionary spread religion to Osaka (may be I must spread it on Kyoto and built Monastary there – possible mistake). Next were Metal Casting and Machinery in 160BC. At this point I began to feel the law science rate – missing cottages (only 2 and 1 later) near capital and only one library gives me low progress. Then I researched Currency (traded for Math and Iron Working) in 60AD for improve my economy then Construction for catapults (210AD). And in 230AD I began conquering the world with Egypt as first target (11 Samurais, Cats a little bit delayed &#61516.

Other cities was built:
Edo in 980AD SE from the capital on the river and coast;
Satsuma in 740BC between Cow and Marble on the NE;
Kagoshima in 620BC on the W between the Rice, Gold and Copper;
Nara in 60BC on NW near Pigs and north Iron.

1AD stats:
7 cities with 29 pops;
7 workers;
3 warriors;
3 archers;
1 spearmen;
1 missionary;

1 library;
1 granary;
1 Academy;
1 monastery;
3 forges (2 next turn);
3 barracks;
Oracle.

Score is 619. Inca was near with 500+ points.

P.S. I didn't switch to religion yet.
P.P.S. Some units placed beyond the picture for prevent barbs appearing.

1AD Map:

 

[Boppo]

(Contender Class)
The First Age of the Japanese Empire:

Initial settlements:
The Japanese army moved to the hill to see what was to the SW. Not seeing anything to draw them from their current homes they decided to stay where they were Kyoto was founded in 4000BC. The Emperor did not want to lose any time moving for what appeared to be little gain. The Empire founded its’ second city South 2 tiles from the hill that some advisors had wanted to use for the capital. Tokyo was founded one tile West of the Gold giving the Empire access to Copper as well. The next City (Edo) was founded on the river to the east of Kyoto. The Imperial Engineers did not pay attention though and it was found that the location chosen did not have fresh water, even though it looked to be right on the mouth of the river.

4000BC:Kyoto has been founded.
1950BC:Osaka has been founded.
1400BC:Tokyo has been founded.
580BC:Edo has been founded.

Tech Research:
Having Cows nearby the Empire started with Hunting and Animal Husbandry. They then went to Mining and Bronze Working. Next Mysticism was researched to get a way to expand the cities. After the Empire was able to build Obelisks it was decided that it would be good to be able to trade Technologies with other Civilizations so they researched Writing and then Alphabet. After Alphabet was discovered the Empire chose to trade technologies with lesser civilizations. All technologies were traded including Alphabet since it was found that another civilization had already discovered it.

3680BC:You have discovered Hunting!
2960BC:You have discovered Animal Husbandry!
2600BC:You have discovered Mining!
1825BC:You have discovered Bronze Working!
1575BC:You have discovered Mysticism!
1175BC:You have discovered Writing!
500BC:You have discovered Alphabet!

Expansion Phase:
After founding Edo the Empire that it was boxed in by the Egyptians in the South and the Aztecs to the East. A barbarian city Yayoi sprouted up to the West of and slightly South of Osaka. It would give the Empire a good line on the border with the Egyptians, so it was the first target of Imperial Japanese expansion. It fell in 440BC.

Having wetted the Imperial appetite for expansion, the Empire looked at its’ two neighbors and had to decide whom to attack first. The Egyptians were being friendly trading Techs and were known to be advanced and generally peaceful. The Aztecs were known to be the war-mongering civilization; therefore they were the logical choice. When they founded a city to the East of Edo, limiting the space available for it to expand to, the Empire mobilized for war and struck the first blow in 340BC. That city, Texoco, was quickly captured and razed in 320BC. Tlatelolco fell in 160BC.

With the Empire struggling under the burden of the new cities, peace was made with Monty in 120BC.

440BC:You have captured Yayoi!!!
340BC:You have declared war on Montezuma!
320BC:You have captured Texcoco!!!
160BC:You have captured Tlatelolco!!!
120BC:You have has made peace with Montazuma.

The rest of the time up to 560AD was spent in research and getting the Imperial finances in order. Research was directed to get the ability to build Samurai as soon as possible, through trade and research. The Hanging Gardens were also completed during this time, giving the Japanese Empire its’ first World Wonder.

240BC:You have discovered Mathematics!
80AD:You have discovered Code of Laws!
300AD:Tokugawa converts to Buddhism!(Diplomacy finds the Japanese adopting an Imperial religion)
320AD:You have discovered Currency!
420AD:Tokugawa has completed The Hanging Gardens!
450AD:You have discovered Metal Casting!

Other Notable Events:
3200BC:Buddhism has been founded in a distant land!
3080BC:Hinduism has been founded in a distant land!
1300BC:Judaism has been founded in a distant land!
1000BC:Stonehenge has been built in a far away land!
540BC:The Oracle has been built in a far away land!
440BC:The Pyramids has been built in a far away land!
320BC:Buddhism has spread in Kyoto. (Religion finds the Empire)
100BC:The Mahabodhi has been built in a far away land!
60BC:Confucianism has been founded in a distant land!
0AD:Merit Ptah has been born in a far away land!
180AD:The Parthenon has been built in a far away land!
230AD:Christianity has been founded in Giza!
310AD:Huayna Capac converts to Buddhism!
400AD:Taoism has been founded in a distant land!
450AD: Montezuma converts to Buddhism!
470AD:The Great Lighthouse has been built in a far away land!

Thus the closing of the first Age of the Japanese Empire found the Empire with six cities and the Empire mobilizing to start another phase of expansion at the expense of its’ neighbors.

 

[Memphus]

Well, with an unfair advantage like that, it will be embarrassing if you don't get the gold medal! I guess the pressure is on you.

Haha, I wish, but I don't think i will milk my game for a high score. I like to finish as fast as possible
Although I feel strongly about my opening and am convinced I have a very strong midgame, by the last 30-50 turns of winning i get bored and don't focus as much as I should to really elevate my score
i.e. instead of farming/windmill everything set workers to auto
i.e. no pumping out settlers to grab all the land on my last turn
i.e no trading away cities i justt go over the domination limit whenever it happens

on a side note though I have never razed a city, ever... , probably would have a better game if i did raze the really bad ones.

 

[Memphus]

I also got Writing from the hut, but later. And I now the man, who got both Writing and Bronze Working from the huts! So don't press Memphus so strong.

I post my story a little bit later...

Thanks for the support, , I mean winning isn't everything

as for:

But after that Aztecs protected his second worker so I couldn't steal more. I don't know how Memphus did it…

I don't know it was weird, I guess Mr. Green was dumb in my game

Once the first worker made it back, and peace was declared with Monty I put my warrior back in the same spot for the first worker steal
==>a hill in the north, right by his cows
As the cows had not been developed yet
==>this was the location of the first worker steal
he sent a worker to the cows again to try and build a pasture
==>I'm assuming the first he had built since the last war/worker steal
but there was no escort, so no problem, war/worker steal again thank you very much...and wow did this set him way back, he was in dead last from then until....
==>wait till second spoiler, even though it happened much before 500AD

 

[Kuningas]

Predator for ever... in Civ3, now Contender in Civ4.

I forgot to mention that I played contender also. I made several mistakes been my first completed Civ4 game. I don't know how religions work, what good is in shrines etc. But I'm learning.

 

[Sybot]

320 AD: The year my plan come to fruition. On this very turn I finally wipe out Hatshepsut and switch to Judaism, bringing me closer to Montezuma and Huayna, effectively securing my eastern border. Along with the production of my first War Elephant recently this all bodes well for the future.

I started out well (but not uber-lucky like the guy who got Writing from a hut) by getting a Scout from a hut which allowed me to explore and still use my first Warrior for defense. I declared on Hatty very early with a Warrior (from a hut) moving to pillage her capital. Annoyingly it only pillaged one tile before dieing. I was at war from then until the end.

I rushed for Bronze Working first in the hope of getting Copper, and indeed I found it just across from my capital. Very quickly after my second city was founded next to the copper my capital had become an Axeman factory, producing one every four turns. I charged into Hatty's territory, and would have completly destroyed her very quickly if not for the fact that she had two cities on hills, guarded by Archers with City Defense 1 (very hard to deal with).

Meanwhile I continued pumping out military, and the acquisition of the Ivory meant I could build War Elephants, having rushed to Construction to get Catapults. My forces are now regrouping to invade Saladin, and I think the speed of my army is the only thing that will slow me down from now on.

 

[anidem]

Contender
3rd GOTM; 1st game on Monarch; approx. 6th Civ4 game ever

My game has been relatively uneventful so far. My general strategy is to win a few Samurai wars early on. However, I'm not very good at this and I always grow and research far too slowly. So, by 500 AD, I am in last place and I still do not have Samurai. No wars yet, but planning to start soon.

Events

4000-3960 BC
Like most players, I began by moving my settler onto the hill 2 SW of the starting location. I noticed new jungle and flood plains tiles there, but no new resources. I decided to settle Kyoto 1 N of there in order to be within range of 5 hills and have fresh water. Began building a warrior in Kyoto and started researching Mining.

3800 BC
The original exploring warrior reached the end of the river in the mountains to the north. If we assume that the rivers are flowing towards the inland sea, it looks like we may be in the northwestern quadrant of the map.

3600-3200 BC
First warrior is completed in Kyoto. He heads to the goody hut SW of the capital first, receiving a scout and meeting Hatshepsut of the Egyptian Empire at the same time. The warrior continues south to seek out the Egyptian homeland while the scout follows the river to its mouth at the inland sea to the SE.

3160-1625 BC
The scout explores clockwise around the sea until eaten by a bear near Incan lands. The warrior explores counter-clockwise. By 1625, contact has been made with all civs except for the English.

1625-1500 BC
Discovered Writing and signed Open Borders with everyone known. Meanwhile, Kyoto has finally completed our first settler and Osaka is founded 4 W from Kyoto in 1600 BC, next to Copper.

840-820 BC
Discovered Alphabet and used it to trade Writing to everyone I could. Only Asoka already had it. From everyone else, I got Mysticism, Masonry, Animal Husbandry, Hunting, Archery, and Meditation for it. My plan is to hoard Alphabet as long as possible to help me maintain tech pace with the AI's. (not gain a lead...just trying to keep up...first game on Monarch, remember...)

520 BC
Founded Tokyo SE of Kyoto, next to Wheat and Incense. I realized as soon as I settled that this was a horrible spot for a city. I probably should have gone a couple squares south to the mouth of the river. Oh well...another amateur mistake.

180 BC
Discovered Code of Laws; founded Confucianism and converted.

140 BC
A barbarian city (Apache) had previously been sighted to the NE. Now, a couple axemen and a couple swordsmen take the city for the Japanese Empire. Looks like it will serve as a good base of operations for a future invasion against Monty.

230-500 AD
Began researching Civil Service. Almost there at 500 AD, but still need Machinery for Samurai.

Cities
3960 BC - Founded Kyoto 2W+1S from starting location
1600 BC - Founded Osaka 4W from Kyoto (for Copper)
520 BC - Founded Tokyo SE of Kyoto (near Wheat; poor choice for city location)
300 BC - Founded Edo NE of Kyoto (on square between Cow and Marble)
140 BC - Captured Apache from barbarians (6E+1N from Kyoto)
430 AD - Founded Satsuma in the NE (4N from Apache; next to Cow)

Research
3520 BC - Mining
2960 BC - Pottery
2120 BC - Bronze Working
1625 BC - Writing
1450 BC - Agriculture
840 BC - Alphabet
840 BC - Mysticism (trade)
840 BC - Masonry (trade)
840 BC - Animal Husbandry (trade)
840 BC - Hunting (trade)
820 BC - Archery (trade)
820 BC - Meditation (trade)
600 BC - Iron Working
600 BC - Polytheism (trade)
600 BC - Priesthood (trade)
180 BC - Code of Laws
160 BC - Mathematics (trade)
40 BC - Sailing
230 AD - Calendar
480 AD - Currency (trade)
500 AD - Construction (trade)
500 AD - Monotheism (trade)

Status Report at 500 AD
Rank: 7 of 7 (last place)
Score: 527 (140-146-220-21)
Cities: 6 cities, 24 population
Economy: 79 beakers, 10 income, 23 expense (90% research)
Military: 4 workers, 1 missionary, 4 archers, 3 warriors, 4 swordsmen, 5 axemen, 3 spearmen
Buildings: 5 barracks, 2 granary, 1 obelisk, 2 library, 1 monastery
Religion: Confucianism has 21% influence (more than any other religion)
Diplomacy: 2 Pleased (Hatsh, Monty); 4 Cautious (HC, Saladin, Victoria, Asoka)

Other Notes
I had no problem with barbarians. I tried to keep a few warriors just outside my borders as fog-busters, so I guess that made all the difference.

As usual, I am aweful at building wonders and great people. I have none of either at 500 AD. Hatsh has completed 3 wonders (Stonehenge, Oracle, and Pyramids) while Monty has completed 1 wonder (Great Lighthouse).

Going Forward
My current plan is to get Samurai ASAP and invade Monty. Hatsh is leading the game and is pleased with me for now, having converted to Confucianism. So I think I will leave her alone and start working my way clockwise around the world. Hopefully a well-executed war against Monty will vault me out of last place into the middle of the pack.

 

[solenoozerec]

"Luck is when preparation meets opportunity."
-- Neil Peart

Starting position

Unlike most people I went to s sw hill instead of sw sw. From that hill I saw wheat se se. It was clearly outside of a potential city radius. Giving the fact that there were only two floodplains tiles nearby, I decided that wheat is more important than an extra shield from the city tile, so I moved even further. I founded Kyoto s sw s from starting location in 3920BC.

Swordsman in 2440BC

I continued to play as I planed, researching mining first 3480BC, then bronze working 2720BC. During this time, my warriors were wondering around opening goody huts. I found three. First gave me a map, second gave me money and the third one gave me… Iron working. Imagine my incredulity. I had a very tiny hope for coining a tech from a goody hut. I was hoping for something like agriculture or hunting. I did not even know that it is possible to get a tech outside of a first tier, unless you know all of them. This is how it used to work in civ3 (if my memory does not fail). So it came as a shock, but more than that – my capital was staying on iron. I was able to build a swordsman and it was just 2440BC.

Regarding luck

Memphus got lucky with his early writing. I did not get lucky, at least not as much as him. Not only because writing is probably better, but mainly for the reason explained in the epigraph. Opportunity showed up, but I wasn’t prepared for it. I did not know what to do with such earlier swordsmen. Should I chop all surrounding forests rushing as many swordsmen as I can and going to earlier war? I do not know. I never played in sucha way even in civ3 and it sounded too risky for my third cIV game. So I continued it as I planed thinking about peaceful development and researching until I know samurais. Yet, I was pushed into a war much earlier and I was very happy that I had swordsmen.

First Egyptian war

While the location of my Kyoto was somewhat unusual, location for a second city was obvious. A solid solidarity of cIVgotm3 players regarding location of a second city was already noticed in this thread. I was not an exception. Before going to that hill which gives access to three resources, I decided to chop forest out of that hill.
Civ4 has an element to which I cannot get used to yet. Rival units can stand at the same point with your units. I was really surprised when my worker flew away from that hill because Egypt build a city there (even AI has the same opinion regarding usefulness of a city on that hill). I had swordsmen. It was obvious. I started a war against Egypt and captured Heliopolis in 1000BC.

The rest of the spoiler

Before 500AD I had one more war on Egypt in which I captured Alexandria.
I researched Civil service in 440AD, but I was not able to build samurais, because of lack of machinery and metal casting. AI civilizations were unwilling to research those techs for me
In 470AD Montezuma declared a war on me, but this is a matter of the next spoiler.

Regarding goody huts

I have nothing against getting techs from goody huts. I like this game for a certain degree of randomness. However I believe that it is too unbalancing when such a tech could be the most expensive one among those available, like it was in case of me, Memphus and some other players. Although I totally screwed my opportunity in this game, I am sure that this forum has many people who would take full advantage of this if they were in my place. I think that we should find a way to make this impossible (similar to getting a worker instead of a settler in later 3otms).

 

[greentea]

I also got a tech from a hut - pottery, and considered it great luck so early in the game. But this didn't change my long-term course, I am still a poor warmonger and went for cultural (yes, even with Tokugawa). IW really seems too good to be fair, but I don't think huts should be removed altogether, because there are enough random factors anyway, one lucky battle can give you a greater edge sometimes. BTW, I also had my capital built over the iron and for a while I couldn't understand how the hell am I able to build swordsmen.

 

[civ_steve]

Let's see, prior to GOTM3, I've been doing some reading on CIV, played through the tutorial once, and played about 3 hours in GOTM2, just enough to get to Alphabet and trade Techs (I didn't know you had to learn Alphabet to do that prior to starting GOTM2, or maybe I did and just didn't remember). So I'm playing Contender level, and taking a very leisurely approach to GOTM3, more to see how things work than to do anything incredibly strategic.

Not knowing much about terrain but knowing that Cows are nice, I founded Kyoto on the spot, sent my Warrior off exploring and started on a 2nd Warrior. Got rather concerned as a Lion showed up, but eventually figured out it, and other animals, wouldn't enter my cultural zone so it's no threat to the city. I think I popped all of 3 huts and got Civil Service for free (just joking! I got a Scout, maps and some Gold). The scout got about 5 or 6 turns before he was consumed by some ravenous animal. A 2nd Warrior eventually went off scouting, and made it about a 3rd the way around Clockwise before being done in by a Barb. My first Warrior eventually got Woodsman II, circumnavigated the Lake, met everybody and made it back; currently he's retired hanging out at Kyoto, but I might upgrade him and bring him back.

I got to about 4 Warriors, 2 Scouting out and about and 2 at home, when I built my first Worker. I think that's a bit late by what I'm seeing in the Spoilers - Kyoto had already made it to size 3 by that time. Later on I went on a Settler building phase, but only after Kyoto was size 5. Therefore Egypt beat me to the great spot near the Ivory and Dye. I founded 2 cities near there and discovered that this had no impact on Egypt's cultural control of these spaces (unlike Civ3.) OK, I'll just have to remedy this later. So I founded Osaka near the Wheat, Tokyo just North of the Dye and Edo between the Gold and Bronze at the Western Edge. That's all the native Japanese cities I've founded so far in this game.

Research wise I beelined to Alphabet. I Pastured the Cows when I had the opportunity, and built some Farms playing more of a food game than a research game. Probably not ideal. Writing came and I signed Open Borders with everybody; this seemed a pretty good idea except when the AI would insist that I drop my Open Borders with another AI. No one went to war over this, but it did count as a negative effect. Finally Alphabet was known around 1000 BC, and I was off to trade. Kept Alphabet to myself, and picked up several nice Techs (including the one that allows Cottages; more research). Bronze-working does seem pretty important considering all the things it allows! But I also discovered that in CIV the AI will simply not trade some Techs, like Priesthood that I could research in 5 turns. Priesthood does allow the Oracle, but I'm not playing a Wonder building game (although I will have to in the future as I can see in the Spoilers how important that free Tech is).

Barbs started showing up. I still had 2 Warriors defending Kyoto and suddenly I see 1 Warrior and 2 Archers approaching, fortunately they are staggered. I shift a 3rd Warrior from Osaka to Kyoto (setting Osaka to build Archer), and set Kyoto on high production squares to build an Archer. Meanwhile, 1 Warrior takes out the Barb Warrior; the wounded Warrior defends in the Hills and is killed, but another Warrior takes out that Archer. I sacrifice a 2nd Warrior to weaken the 2nd Barb Archer, and by that time my newly built Archer dispenses with this threat.

Later, a Barb Axeman attacks and kills a Warrior I had fortified in the Forest just north of the copper to the West (along with 2 impenetrable mountains, this was my defense against the unknown North). The Axeman was severly weakened, so my Warrior based in Edo finished him off. That's it for any significant Barb assaults; they do have some cities around, but have only spit out a few Archers that are easily handled by Axemen.

After my first set of trades, the AI wouldn't trade me Priesthood or Iron-Working. Fine. I'll learn Priesthood and then Metal-Casting (leading to Machinery) and see if they lighten up. England shows up with Code of Laws (yay!) but of course she wont trade it (boo!!!). For absolutely nothing. Eventually I learn MetalCasting and IronWorking becomes available, so I'm able to trade for it and a few other various Techs and see that Iron is not far away. I believe I officially did this somewhere around 300 AD. After MetalCasting I set off after Machinery; Code of Laws was still not available.

AI relations have been strange. Montezuma established Judaism and eventually converted Kyoto to that religion. That was a weird choice to make; Egypt hated Monte and had already insisted I drop Open Borders with him, which I decided to do because I was getting my best trade routes with Hatse, but I could see an advantage to having a state religion. Hatse still stayed pleased with me. And early on I gave a Tech to HC; he has been buddy-buddy ever since. So I feel somewhat secure on my NE border, which tends to send my conquering eye to the South and Southeast. Sorry Hatse.

So once I got Copper connected, it was set up Barracks if I didn't have them, and start building Axemen. I could see that Heliopolis (in that great location) had only 2 Archers defending it, so once I had about 8 Axes, off I went. I cancelled the Open Borders, and entered Egypt's territory (right around 300 AD also); War was on! Egypt was completely docile. No more defenders were sent up. The 2 Archers (one with City Garrison II, yikes!), took out 3 Axemen before they succumbed. 3 Axemen advanced to Alexandria, 2 stayed to heal (I have an Archer with Medic I), and more reinforcments advanced. I lost 2 Axemen to 2 defending Archers taking Alexandria (hmm, still no obvious reinforcements), and started advancing on Thebes. Taking the capital would be tougher ... they had 3 Archers defending it! Once was CityGarrII, and another CityGarrI. I waited until I had 7 Axemen ready, then started the assault. I lost 5 Axemen but took out 2 Archers, and the 3rd was down to 0.0/3.0. I guess ties go to the defender! He healed to 1.8/3.0, but it didn't matter. Taking Egypt's capital, it was time to sign peace. Interestingly, I couldn't get any of the 3 remaining Egyptian cities nor the 1 Tech they knew that I didn't; I don't have a good feeling for what the AI will give up during Peace.

I was concerned about the Tech rate I could maintain. It stayed at 100% when I had just Kyoto. With 2 cities I needed 10% for Taxes. The 3rd and 4th city could be maintained with 20% for Taxes. Not too bad. Once the war started I had to increase Taxes to 30 and finally 40% to avoid losing all my treasury; it helped that I got nearly 100 gold per city captured. The F2 advisor was useful to see where the money was going and how I could lessen my costs. After peace was signed, and after resistance was squashed and the new population useful, I was able to go back to 70% research.

I did get one Great Person. I assigned 2 Scientist specialists after building a Library in Kyoto. Eventually I got Socrates (I think). I was hoping he'd want to give me a much needed Tech like Machinery or Code of Laws, but he wanted to teach me Compass. Nope. Between founding an Academy or making a SuperScientist, I chose the later. I knew my Research rate would be going down with the upcoming War against Egypt, so the constant +6 beakers seemed more attractive.

So it's the late 400's AD, I'm in the middle of learning Machinery, and I'm still Code of Laws and Civil Service away from Samurai. On the plus side, my first CIV war went pretty good! Hope to see more of that during the next phase of the game!

 

[ReccaSquirrel]

For my first Monarch game, I did pretty well. I did give up though.

Declared on the Aztec and took one of their cities. I had two strong stacks on the Aztec border when suddenly a small stack of Aztec appeared in the south. Somehow the Aztec got a southern expansion. They took and razed Edo.

I most likely could have recovered from this, but I haven't even played a game on Prince difficulty setting yet. Hopefully I'll be able to win Monarch games by the time the next GotM begins.

 

[mike p]

Howdy. First GOTM for me. I've spent/wasted more hours on various incarnations of Civ than I ought to admit, starting from Civ I in my college days. Only recently got into reading up on the civfanatics site - great resource. I'm planning on a middle ages (circa 1450 domination victory).

Anyway, here's a rough (after a bottle of red and this week's BSG) summary of my game to date. (I'm up to 780 AD, but won't go all the way there for this recap, obviously.)

Started by moving SW to the river. I like being able to instantly hook up a trade route to my next city. Sent out my warrior to explore while building a second one. At size two I built a worker to start cottaging the flood plains and plains NW of town. Figured that at size 3 I'd work 2 flood plain cottages and one plains cottage, each on a river, for 3 surplus food, three hammers (starting on a plains/hill) and 6 additional commerce to start.

Worked in a couple of warriors, one of which got killed at not-so-goody-hut. Ran away from the bears!

Started fairly late (for me) on my second settler and sent him west to settle on the river next to the bronze. My tech priorities were to get to iron working, then alphabet, so I didn't take the better looking spot one square to the south because I didn't want to wait for mysticism and an obelisk to bring the copper on line (So the rice is outside of the 'fat cross'). Mined the gold there and kept that city at size one for a while because I wanted the commerce from the gold tile.

Sent my 2nd settler towards the coast to get both the wheat and the incense, though I went 2 squares south to get on the river since I didn't have agriculture anyway and certainly wanted nothing to do with radical ideas like Calendar. Ran into Hatty who was expanding north. Would have liked to get a city where the dyes and elephants were because I worried that the GOTM would do something sadistic like give us Samurais as a UU and then leave us with no Iron so we needed to utilize the Ivory. But she beat me to it.

Leave 3 warriors atop hills to keep the barbs at bay. 2nd city reached the west edge of the map, and a warrior on the hill next to the marble reaches the north edge. Sent one to the sea prior to my 3rd city and Hatty covers the south for me. Luckily, only one barb warrior comes from the NW.

Just after I settle the 3rd city, iron shows up right next to Kyoto. And my barracks are finished.

I decide that I like elephants, but not in a dirty way.

This thing called Library - it does not help the proud Nipponese to crush the enemy. Let us build swordsmen instead to let the warmth of the Rising Sun bathe the cities of the Egyptian wretches.

Many (lesser) rulers would choose axemen primarily, but by scouting south, I see the nearest Egyptian city is guarded by archers - which are no match for swordsman with cover! I build one axeman with shock (just in case!) and send it and four swordsmen south. (If a civ doesn't have bronze working (or copper) they are totally owned by swordsmen instead of axemen - 6 rather than 5 with a 10% city attack bonus - first promotion of cover gives 6 +10% (combat 1), +10% for city attack (swordsman) +25% (cover bonus) compared to 5 + combat 1 + cover.) (City raider can wait for a second promotion after Cover - Aggressive is nice!)

Hatty has some iron, but no Iron Working, and is totally my b*tch. Meanwhile I get Alphabet and trade for the first level of techs (Agriculture, hunting, mysticism). Next turn I trade some more for Husbandry, meditation and sailing. I still keep a monopoly on Alphabet though.

I make peace with Hatty at one point, but realizing that the Organized trait lets me add more cities without crippling my research, I've only raze two Eqyptian cities (one of which she refounds). The rest are added to my empire to build troops to protect against my newly Confucian neighbors, Montezuma and Saladin.

I keep a swordsman, spearman and axeman in the north guarding the capital and my coastal city, just in case Monty gets the improper idea that west is viable direction to expand.

Wonders? Who needs wonders? Eventually most of the (formerly) Egyptian cities are properly aligned. Japan becomes even more healthy when workboats bring sushi to the masses. We even find horses 2 tiles to the south of the penultimate Egyptian city. If only we had culture!

Along my way south Hatty converts to Confucianism. Which means I don't want the current war to end until I am done taking most of her cities because if I make peace and then declare war I'll take a relationship hit with both Saladin and Monty.

After alphabet I went towards Metal Casting and started building some forges, then COL and Civil service. I also allow one particularly weak citizen to work in Kyoto as a librarian - perhaps some day he will found an Academy.

In the late BCs/early ADs Monty converts to Hinduism to suck up to the Incas. Saladin implores me to experience the wisdom of Confucianism, which (hopefully!) secures my southern border with Saladin (whose closest city is Baghdad, the birthplace of Confucianism) and means I next expand north east towards Montezuma (who is stuck north of the jungles with crappy Jaguars to my experienced swordsman and axemen.)

At one point I have to option to finish the Colussus in 18 turns, but I like spearmen better since Monty has chariots, and I have only two coastal cities and one fresh water lake tile.

Civil Service comes in prior to 500 AD and it's on to Machinery, though my war plans won't wait that long!

Building courthouses and barracks prior to machinery - then it's all Samurai. The entire map west of the ocean is Japanese. My next targets are Monty and the Incans, assuming Saladin doesn't do something stupid like found Islam and switch religions. (Which is unlikely since he also founded Taoism, but didn't switch since he had already founded Confucianism.)

Right now I'm 2nd just behind Hyuana Capac in score, but about 3 techs at least behind Saladin (stupid philosophers!). I expect that once New Japan (formerly the Aztec Empire) is re-educated, I will be first and on my way to a fairly easy domination victory.

 

[Harok]

Goal
Early Domination victory before Samurais become obsolete. (Contender class)

City Placement
I struggled with the placement of my first city but finally decided to move S then SW. When I saw the wheat to the SE I moved again this time S so I would be able to have the wheat and both of the flood plains. This turned out to be the iron spot which cost me a lot of hammers in the long run but I still found the capital to be very productive. I think this is the first time I have ever moved twice before settling my first city and I was worried it would set me back quite a bit but in the end it didn't seem to hinder me a lot. (Kyoto 3920 BC)

For my second city (Osaka 1800 BC) I again had a tough decision between the gold/copper area to the west or the ivory/dye/cow/corn but in the end I felt it more important to secure copper and get the gold mined to speed early research. By securing copper I figured I could always just capture the other spot later on if I got beat to it. When Hattie did beat me to that spot I decided to grab the marble/cow to the North (Tokyo 1400BC) because my plan included 2 early wonders the Oracle and Great Library both of which would be sped up by the marble. These are the only 3 cities I built myself, all others were taken by force from barbs or other civs.

Research
Sailing - 3800 BC (from hut)
Pottery - 3400 BC
Mining - 3000 BC
Bronze - 2280 BC
Writing - 1775 BC
Alphabet - 1150 BC
Code of Laws - 660 BC
Civil Service - 620 BC (Oracle)
Metal Casting - 340 BC
Machinery - 80 AD

Gameplay Recap
My initial warrior swooped around in a half circle around my city to show some land and then off to the East. This apparently turned out to be a very poor path as I only found 1 hut which was the one right outside the first city borders. I got Sailing from this hut which was nothing great but I think (my notes seem to have disappeared) it was at least something not everyone had once I got to Alphabet so it gave me a little extra trading power. When my warrior found Monte as my Eastern neighbor I knew I had found my first war target. Monte has backstabbed and/or blindsided me more than any other civ so when he is my neighbor it is an instant worker steal war. I found his worker at the cow and attacked declaring war in 2840 BC. Unfortunately the next turn his archer attacked and killed my warrior. I haven't found a good way to handle this yet as for me it always seems to mean they have no interest in peace whereas if my warrior survives I can easily get peace in just a few turns.

There was no sign of Monte for a long time when he suddenly appeared with a couple of archers near my northern city of Tokyo. I had a couple of warriors in the area but they were defeated after killing one archer. This gave Monte a free pass to take over Tokyo (1150 BC) as my next closest warrior would arrive 1 turn too late. I would need axes before I could take it back in 460 BC and this set me back a long time and killed any chance I had at using the marble to speed the Oracle. I have a question about the Oracle that someone probably knows the answer to, if you finish it on the exact turn as you complete a tech does the tech getting done come in before or after the Oracle? Basically I wanted to use the Oracle to found Civil Service and I was scheduled to finish it on the same turn as finishing Code of Laws, but I was scared I wouldn't get the option to use it for Civil Service if they finished on the same turn so I switched production to something else for one turn.

After I took back Tokyo I continued to build axes and a few swords and took the war to Monte's land, capturing a barb city near the silks and copper to the East on the way which gave a few units another useful promotion. I captured a couple of Monte's cities and razed one when I got the great news that Monte finished the pyramids (40 AD) in his capital just as I was one city away from attacking the capital, taking it for myself. I guess Monte can be a good neighbor afterall.

Assessment
I felt I was on a solid tech pace in spite of the the setback of losing my 3rd city so early. Samurais were about to come rolling off the line and Monte was already in huge trouble and with the pyramids soon allowing Police State the world was in trouble.

 

[Obormot]

Contender class.
Going for a fast conquest or domination without any milking.

I chose contender because the challenger handicap seemed to be too big for me since i wanted to play the cottage gambit and taking away both prerequisites of pottery would have hurt too much. Even for early CETers i think this is a greater disadvantage then a similar one in civ3 because there is no tech trading now before alphabet.

This is my first civ4 gotm and also my first civ4 game that i am going to finish; i've played several openings, but never completed a game before. So i decided to choose a pretty straightforward approach for this game: get to samurai and (maybe) some other miltary techs (engineering - for faster road movement, guilds - for knights, war civic techs) asap, then shut down science and push to a quick military victory. So far i am enjoying the game, civ4 really proved to be not as bad as it looks at first . I am a little disappointed by the AI though they seem to be even more stupid then the good old civ3 AIs. A funny fact: the incan leader (commercial!) doesn't know pottery yet in 1AD.

Like many others i wanted to use the powerfull Oracle slingshot to get Civil Service, which is not only the most expensive tech on the road to samurai, but also enables Bureaucracy, a civic that will speed up getting other techs greatly. It is a huge boost to science because the capital that gets the +50% bonus will have the most developed cottages and propably it'll also be the only city with an academy.

I decided to move to the plains hill in the south, not even because of the extra hammer, but because of the extra commerce from the river and because of the FP tiles that speed up growth without the need to research Agriculture or Animal Husbandry. I was a little disappointed when i saw only two FPs, some jungle and no bonus resources, but decided that it is still good enough and settled on the plains hill. And after that i saw the gold hill and the wheat just outside the city radius.

I started by building a worker and cottaging both FPs and 2 grassland tiles near Kyoto. After the worker i built some warriors and let Kyoto grow. Now having read other people's spoilers i think that it was propably a mistake: those who built warriors first and then worker at size 2 managed to pop lots of goodies from huts (even Writing and BW!) and stole more workers from the AI. I managed to steal only one worker (from Hatshepsut) and only popped gold at best from the few huts i found. My starting warrior was killed by the angry egyptians after stealing their worker, but i was lucky enough to get the worker back without cover.

I researched pottery to build cottages, then writing to build a library and generate a leader for the academy, then BW to chop and pop rush the library and a settler to found the second city. I left 2 forests near Kyoto temporarily for +1 health, propably a mistake. The settler went NE and founded my second city near the pigs and lots of forests to chop the Oracle (i didn't find marble by that time yet). Then i researched CoL (i see some people researched alphabet before CoL, but i was afraid that the AI will build the Orcale before me, so i took a faster route and researched to Priesthood myself). I researched CoL and completed the Oracle on the same turn in 1025BC and took CS for free as planned.

By beelining straight to CoL and skipping Alphabet i almost guaranteed that i'll get it before the AI, the earliest date the AI built the Oracle reported here was 960BC IIRC. This could cause some trouble with barbs since i had only warriors, but luckily i didn't see any barb axemen and only a few archers, some of which were killed by wandering AI units. I guess on a high sea level the barbs are not such a big threat. The worst thing was that a barb city popped in the great southern location and was later captured by Egypt

I revolted to Bureaucracy and Caste System immidiately after the slingshot, but did not adopt Confucianism because i decided that 1 happy face is not worth the anarchy and also because i didn't want to spoil the relations with the AI. I researched Alphabet after that and traded for all the usefull techs that i skipped. Then i researched Metal Casting and Machinery to be able to build samurai, then currency for trade routes. I am now 1 turn away from construction.

I was able to get a decent research rate, but i am way behind Dynamic and some other players expansion-wise. I should learn to balance research vs expansion better. I only have 5 cities at 1AD. I think i made a typical newby mistake of not building enough workers and not growing cities fast enough And of course the extra stolen workers in Dynamic's game also played their role.

I built my third city near the gold hill and copper, 4th near cow and marble, 5th near wheat. As i mentioned earlier, a barb town popped on the great spot in the south and the town was later captured by Egypt. I have a settler ready to claim the spot in the north near the other iron source and some hills, which can temporarily work the cow tile to grow. I plan to settle one more city before starting the military push, the one in the far NW near another cow tile and lots of forest tiles.

Tech progress:

3400BC - Pottery
2640BC - Writing
2440BC - Mining
1900BC - BW
1750BC - Mysticism
1625BC - Meditation
1525BC - Priesthood
1025BC - Code of Laws & Civil Service
820BC - Alphabet
580BC - Metal Casting
320BC - Machinery
80BC - Currency

I traded for many more techs, incuding IW and Math.

Status at 1AD:

5 cities
19 population
1 settler
6 workers
6 warriors
1 samurai
4 barracks
1 library
1 academy
1 oracle