GOTM-03 First spoiler: The early game.

Obormot
You have good science rate (and other, who built early cottages) and significantly ahead me! So this way has his advantage especially in final score. You also will have Catapults and Engineering earlier so will see.
 
Dr Dinkindunkin said:
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.

The same happened to me. A silly beginner mistake. I'm also still too much in the Civ3 mindset to success as a warmonger. I can't help it; I played that game way too much. ;) But off to the game. I'm in 200AD, got 5 cities but am last on scores. I'm also desperately behind in research (researching Mathematics) and I've got nothing to trade for AI's techs.

The Barbarians built two cities on the exact locations of where most of us built their 2nd city (5-6 S, 1-2W from the starting point) and another one close to the sea, next to the river. Both stacked with 3 archers. It would have slowed me down too much to build piles and piles of archers (because I found the resources too late) to rid barbarians from their cities, but maybe it was a mistake not to do so early on. I've now gone with a different tactic.

Hatty is not really expansing fast from the south, I can only see a shadow of her borders. Monty is also not expanding too much on my way. I'm simply trying to keep good terms with my neighbours and see how far it takes me. The difficulty level is too much at this time. I should have started playing earlier and had a couple of practice games, but life is a *****. :cool:
 
Adventurer - 1st ever game on higher than Noble (which I've played once, and didn't win).

Considering my inexperience, things were going pretty well. Wasted the free adventurer worker by running it into barbarians, but managed to grab a fair few of the resources with chop rushing, including two iron and two copper, before monty and hatty closed my expansion down. Got hold of a couple of resources to the NE of the starting site by plonking a city down, watching it get slowly eaten by Monty, and then deciding to try what might be a very silly tactic - I moved my palace there. Cue swearing when barbarians proceeded to cut the road between it and kyoto. Languished in misery at 30% tech rate with my trade network down for a while, but I pushed monty's borders back before returning the palace to its rightful home.

Thought I was OK then, but things were to get worse ...
 
ok, well for some beginning thoughts, I'm new to GOTM, but I've been a Civ junkie ever since Civ1...so here I am, to try my hand at competing with everyone :)

First things first, I've never played monarch, and have only lived(and won handily, somehow) once on Prince. However, in that game I was Japan, ironically. So I apparently played good enough as Japan to be able to do Prince, so I decided to give this one a go. With the bonuses of Adventurer, as the only time I even loaded a game on monarch, I got crushed by 1AD.

I'm using the Autolog 1.2(with the scoring change for 1.52 added in), so I'll be posting that and adding in my thoughts sporadically throughout it.

Hopefully despite it probably being boring, someone can read through it and give me some tips, maybe help me improve my game and my spoiler writing.
 
Turn 0 (4000 BC)
Kyoto founded
Kyoto begins: Warrior
Vulcanis: I decided to found my capital in the starting location after searching West with my warrior, North with my archer, and East with my worker.

Turn 1 (3960 BC)
Research begun: Hunting
Vulcanis: I researched hunting first with an eye toward getting either AH or Archery quickly. Having never really played monarch before I was worried about my poor warriors.

Turn 3 (3880 BC)
Vulcanis: I discovered Gold to the W of my starting location, on a river, so this looks like a good place for a second city.

Turn 5 (3800 BC)
Tech learned: Mysticism
Tribal village results: technology
Vulcanis: Hut gave Mysticism-I now considered a race for an early religion since I had Mysticism only 5 turns after Spiritual civs have it. I also found out I was in the extreme NW corner of the map, and therefore could look East and South for suitable city sites before founding the city next to my capital.

Turn 6 (3760 BC)
Contact made: Aztec Empire
Vulcanis: First thoughts? Nightmare now...Monty always hates me.

Turn 8 (3680 BC)
Tech learned: Hunting

Turn 9 (3640 BC)
Research begun: Animal Husbandry
Kyoto finishes: Warrior
Vulcanis: I decided that since I had seen no barbs so far, I was safe enough to put off archery for a while and could take advantage of the cows to give myself a food and hammer boost.

Turn 10 (3600 BC)
Kyoto begins: Scout
Vulcanis: Now I found a collection of Dye, Cows, and Elephants in the midst of a jungle. This looks to be a very promising city site, hopefully I can get a settler there before anyone else.

Turn 14 (3440 BC)
Vulcanis: Wheat found S of Capital and near Lake. It seems there are a number of promising city sites around my capital, so I am glad I settled where I did so I can take full advantage of them all.


Turn 16 (3360 BC)
Contact made: Egyptian Empire

Turn 17 (3320 BC)
Vulcanis: Monty to the East, Hatty to the South...this game is screaming for war, cause Hatty doesn't usually like me either. Something about religion, usually. Those spiritual types are always so picky about faith. And actually...two spiritual civs in as many meetings, this looks ripe for some religious wars down the road.

Turn 20 (3200 BC)
Warrior promoted: Woodsman I
Kyoto finishes: Scout
Buddhism founded in a distant land
Hinduism founded in a distant land
Vulcanis: I'm surprised. Both Buddhism and Hinduism are founded in the same year, which is unusual, usually Hinduism is founded a few turns later. An even bigger surprise is that neither Hatty nor Monty founded either religion. I know that they were founded by two different civs, so we must have 4 different spiritual civs on this map.

Turn 21 (3160 BC)
Kyoto begins: Warrior
Archer promoted: Guerilla I
Vulcanis: I've decided that settling to the south is the more pressing area of concern. There are better city sites there than there are to the East, and Hatty always is greedy about expanding quickly.

Turn 26 (2960 BC)
Kyoto begins: Settler
Tech learned: Animal Husbandry
Vulcanis: I've finally learned AH, and just in time to help produce my first settler. While I had no tiles to upgrade(seeing as how I have no mining, farming, pottery, and just now learned AH), I took advantage of my free worker by having him create a network of roads leading from my capital to all my potential city sites, to speed up city founding once I had some settlers. He was, of course, escorted by one of my warriors.

Turn 27 (2920 BC)
Research begun: Mining
Vulcanis: Time for mining and to take advantage of those hills in my capital radius

Turn 30 (2800 BC)
Vulcanis: After years of success fending off barbarians, my two exploring warriors are already at Woodsman II promotions and my archer is also at level two. However, my scout just lost in some jungle to a lion. My first military loss of the game, and I'm sure it won't be my last.

Turn 32 (2720 BC)
Contact made: Arabian Empire
Vulcanis: I meet Saladin the foolish, He too is spiritual, yet he did not found either Buddhism or Hinduism...are there 5 Spiritual civs out there?

Turn 36 (2560 BC)
Tech learned: Mining
Vulcanis: I've learned to dig holes in the ground finally. Now I can boost my production, however, I shall still control my urge to found the gold/production city I know I can have next to my capital. I need to extend my borders south first.

Turn 37 (2520 BC)
Research begun: Pottery
Vulcanis: I decide pottery must be next, so that I can increase my commerce, which is an abysmal 6th in the world right now. I must be terribly behind in science by now.

Turn 38 (2480 BC)
Judaism founded in a distant land
Vulcanis: Judaism is also founded by a civ I have not met yet. Either one of the ones that founded Buddha or Hindu, or yet another spiritual one. I have 3 civs left to go, I'm sure Spain or India are one of them.

Turn 41 (2360 BC)
Kyoto finishes: Settler
Vulcanis: My first settler awakens, and now he is off to spread the culture of the Japanese people. Go South, young man, Go South!

Turn 44 (2240 BC)
Osaka founded
Osaka begins: Obelisk
Vulcanis: Osaka is built on the coast, hopefully it is not my last coastal city, but there is Wheat in its fat cross, as well as Incense. This could be a good city some day, I just hope it survives long enough.
Kyoto finishes: Warrior
Vulcanis: I built yet another warrior, my paranoia is growing ever worse the longer I go without dying.

Turn 45 (2200 BC)
Kyoto begins: Settler
Vulcanis: I immediately begin another settler as I can see that Hatty already has at least 3 cities.

Turn 49 (2040 BC)
Tech learned: Pottery
Contact made: English Empire
Vulcanis: Saladin adopted Slavery. That isn't good. He's the first of the civs I've met to adopt it, but I hope I can research BW before anyone else does.
Vulcanis: The strangest thing...I wonder if it happened in anyone elses' game. England founded Buddhism. A non-spiritual civ beat at least 3 spiritual civs to the first religion founded. And it was founded quickly too, so Victoria must have gotten Meditation or Mysticism in a Tribal Hut. Luck of the draw. I jsut hope I don't miss out on all the religions.

Turn 50 (2000 BC)
Research begun: Bronze Working
Vulcanis: I need to research BW now, because others already have it and I cannot be caught without it, especially not when I still don't have archery yet.

Turn 51 (1975 BC)
Vulcanis: Ptolemy released a record of most advanced Civs, as expected I am in last place. Hopefully that doesn't last much longer, but I have no real hopes of gaining the tech lead. I merely don't want to be last place.

Turn 57 (1825 BC)
Kyoto finishes: Settler
Vulcanis: Finally my settler is finished. I'm going to send him south and claim that dye and those elephants! I do not want Hatty having that city site.

Turn 58 (1800 BC)
Kyoto begins: Obelisk

Turn 63 (1675 BC)
Tokyo founded
Tokyo begins: Obelisk
Vulcanis: Well, bad luck for me. It seems barbarians have taken hold of all the elephants in the land. 3 Archers garrison the area and I shall have to send my initial archer to defend Osaka, whihc is right next door and defenseless still. On the plus side, I did settle the gold hills finally and will have my first happy resource soon, allowing my capital to begin growing again.

Turn 64 (1650 BC)
Kyoto begins: Warrior
Tech learned: Bronze Working
Osaka finishes: Obelisk
Vulcanis: What luck, I have copper in my fat cross in Tokyo. If that barbarian city hadn't popped up, I'd be metal-less still. Hopefully I can get it mined and start pumping out axemen so I can take the barbarian city before Hatty tries to.

Turn 65 (1625 BC)
Research begun: Writing
Osaka begins: Barracks
Contact made: Incan Empire
Vulcanis: I've begun work on writing. I feel my only hope of catching up in technology is to get Alphabet, meet everyone, and then trade around a couple advanced techs for everything ancient that I don't have yet...like farming...and archery.
The Incans, I'm glad Monty is between us, because later maybe Hyuana and I can flank Monty and I can survive longer.

Turn 68 (1550 BC)
Contact made: Indian Empire
Kyoto finishes: Obelisk
Vulcanis: The last Civ is now known, The only civ that isn't aggressive or spiritual is England- we'll see how they fair in the middle of everyone. Oh yeah, and India founded Hinduism...perhaps they founded Judaism too, I won't know until I see their cities.

Turn 69 (1525 BC)
Vulcanis: Asoka is very friendly so far. He offered me an open borders treaty, which I gratefully accepted. I need all the friends I can get, even if they are around the world from me. Unfortunately, that means he already has writing, since I am still a few turns away from finishing research on it.

Turn 74 (1400 BC)
Kyoto begins: Stonehenge
Vulcanis: Surprisingly, no one has finished any wonders yet. Since Stonehenge will only take my capital 22 turns, I start it and hope for some luck.

Turn 76 (1350 BC)
Tech learned: Writing
Vulcanis: I've begun exploring India's territory. Both Judaism and Hinduism were founded in Delhi, which means they took awhile to expand. However, they've stretched across their entire isthmus, so they appear to be well on their way to being the dominant civ in the SE.

Turn 77 (1325 BC)
Research begun: Alphabet
Vulcanis: I start alphabet, hoping that no one has it yet and hoping that I've got at least a couple techs that others dont'.

900BC
The Oracle is built. I wish I had thought to look for it, if I had known it wasn't built yet, I would have tried for polytheism before getting alphabet.

Turn 106 (680 BC)
Kyoto begins: Settler
Tech learned: Alphabet
I finally learn alphabet, and find that luckily, no one else has discovered it yet! Although India is probably very close to discovering it, as they had writing at least 7 turns before me and they've got a higher GNP than me(dead last still)
I've now built a library in all 3 of my cities and am ready to expand again...I've got no room to the South, that barbarian is still there, and East has nothing promising, especially not with Monty looming. I'll go north and pick up that marble finally.

Turn 107 (660 BC)
Research begun: Iron Working
Tech learned: Agriculture
Tech learned: Archery
Tech learned: Masonry
Tech learned: Polytheism
Tech learned: Sailing
Vulcanis: I immediately put my Alphabet to good use. I began research on Iron Working, and backfilled 5 techs, 3 of which are fairly important ones. I'm not sure how I lasted this long without anything stronger than warriors and 1 axeman, but I'm glad I did.
I had to trade away alphabet to india, but they can't use it yet. They're #1 in tech, and they already have everything everyone else has.

Turn 118 (440 BC)
Edo founded
Edo begins: Obelisk
I've now got 4 cities, and plan to try for some wonders again once I've got the marble worked.

Turn 123 (340 BC)
Osaka begins: The Great Lighthouse
Tech learned: Iron Working
Vulcanis: I learn Iron Working, and luckily, I have it within my cultural borders already. All I have to do is connect it. I've also started work on the Great Lighthouse. I'm hoping that since it requires a lighthouse first, no one else is working on it yet.

Turn 124 (320 BC)
Research begun: Priesthood

Turn 127 (260 BC)
Tech learned: Meditation
Tech learned: Monotheism
Tech learned: Priesthood
Research begun: Horseback Riding
Vulcanis: I finished Priesthood and Traded Alphabet to Hatty to get Meditation and Monotheism. Horse Riding is being researched so that I have someone who can compete with the Jaguar Warriors Monty keeps sending through my lands.

Turn 128 (240 BC)
Vulcanis: Aztecs declared war on me and promptly invaded with Jaguar Warriors. I knew he would eventually, I just hoped that it would wait until after I got horses. I pop rush a few spearmen and archers in my cities for defense.

Turn 130 (200 BC)
Tech learned: Mathematics
Vulcanis: Traded Alphabet to Incans for Mathematics. I hope it comes in handy before it is too late.

Turn 140 (0 AD)
Kyoto begins: Archer
Confucianism founded in a distant land
Vulcanis: Still on the defensive with Kyoto under siege, I'm pop rushing a defensive unit every turn to defend against the JW. Unfortunately, they die after a few attacks.
Meanwhile, Confuscianism is founded...yet another religion I've missed out on. That's 4 of 7 gone.

Turn 149 (180 AD)
Tokyo begins: Barracks
Tech learned: Horseback Riding
Vulcanis: Horseback Riding is finally complete. Monty still won't talk peace, and Kyoto is still under siege, but I've managed to kill off a few of his JW with some late rushed axemen. I've just found out that the Pyramid wonder was built in 20AD. That was only the 3rd wonder so far. What in the world is taking them so long? Monarch doesn't seem to be as hard thus far as I'd feared, although it will be if Monty doesn't get beaten down soon.

Turn 150 (200 AD)
Research begun: Calendar
Axeman promoted: Combat II
Vulcanis: I finally have peace. I killed his invasion force, so he was willing to at least talk to me, since I had one archer near his newest city. He refused a straight up peace, but I gave him mathematics to shut him up. Peace is restored and I can lick my wounds now.
My economy is in the drink after pop rushing so many times in my capital. I've fallen farther back in tech and size, and couldn't continue the war, despite how it pained me to give him tech to get peace.

Turn 151 (210 AD)
Osaka finishes: The Great Lighthouse
Osaka begins: Settler
Vulcanis: Cheers, I finished my first wonder ever on Monarch. Now to try to expand my civ once more. 4 cities just won't cut it this game.

Turn 158 (280 AD)
Tokyo grows: 5
Christianity founded in a distant land
Vulcanis: Yet another religion down. I'm not sure yet who founded this one, but there's only Taoism and Islam left.

Turn 165 (350 AD)
Kyoto begins: Aqueduct
Tech learned: Calendar
Tokyo's borders expand
Tokyo finishes: Barracks
Vulcanis: The calendar. Useful for knowing what year it is and realizing I'm far behind the tech pace I'm used to. Luckily I have 2 happy resources in my borders that I can now make use of. That should help me increase my population somewhat.

Turn 166 (360 AD)
Research begun: Monarchy
Tokyo begins: Granary
Vulcanis: I've gotten so far behind my neighbors in size, science, and production I need to reassess my goals. I'm going to begin trying for a diplomatic or cultural victory most likely, and will be less headstrong against my rivals. I never give in to their demands, but I'm going to have to so that they like me and don't try to kill me.

Turn 170 (400 AD)
Satsuma founded
Satsuma begins: Library
Vulcanis: I've got 5 cities now, Satsuma has been founded just north of the formerly barbarian city Hatty now owns. I managed to steal one of the Dye's from her in this placement, and I can take advantage of the flood plains and iron now.

Turn 174 (440 AD)
Tech learned: Monarchy
Research begun: Currency
Edo finishes: Scout
Vulcanis: I'm trying to uncover the whereabouts of everyone's new cities, which should be easy considering I have an open borders treaty with everyone right now, even Monty. I begin research on currency so I can hopefully buy or sell techs with cash in the future.

Turn 178 (480 AD)
Vulcanis: Monty declared war on Asoka, apparently my strategy of giving in to demands has gotten me off his enemy list for the time being. He's gained a couple of techs from me since the war. Apparently my tech trading has paid off, and i'm now 3rd in the tech race.

Turn 179 (490 AD)
Vulcanis: And, my strategy backfires the very next turn, as Monty asks me to declare war on Asoka.
The decision in the end was a no-brainer. India is on the other side of the world and will never be able to touch me, while I already know how painful Monty could be.


I've played past this, and it gets more and more warlike as more people adopt religions. I forgot to take any screenshots at this point(didn't even notice I was past 500AD until I hit 1000AD lol) But here is a screenshot of my empire now, and the info chart showing where I rank in each category. At 500AD, I was dead last in score, but slowly catching up to Monty.
 

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Thrallia said:
Hopefully despite it probably being boring, someone can read through it and give me some tips, maybe help me improve my game and my spoiler writing.

Some remarks that may help:

You started with a worker but your research path was so, that he couldn't improve a tile for 25 turns and then another 10 turns in which he could only improve 1 tile. Researching pottery, mining and bronze would have given him much more to do and the cottages, mines and chopped trees would have made your progress much faster.

In 2240BC you founded Osaka near incense and wheat. But at that time you couldn't develop neither the incense nor the wheat. You could improve the gold-hill. So founding your first city there, would have meant much more for you at that point in the game.

You repeatly say that you like to found your own religion. But you didn't make any attempt so far to research one. I don't think it's really important to found one, but if you do, you could have started research towards CoL after alphabet.

Building the great lighthouse was not a decision I would have made. You only had one coastal city. All those hammers were much better spend on a decent military for example.

I won't pretend that all I've said is wisdom, but it are just things I would have done differently. So only hold on the things you think can improve your game.

edit: changed calendar to alphabet :blush:
 
I try a cultural victory this game. :)

I know that may sound strange, but is obvious that most of players will try a domination/conquest victory so let's try something else ...
For the moment I'm in 1150 build wonders + confucian academies and ... move all available units near borders with Montezuma and Hatsepsut in order to minimize chances for a stupid war.

Regards
 
Redbad said:
Some remarks that may help:

You started with a worker but your research path was so, that he couldn't improve a tile for 25 turns and then another 10 turns in which he could only improve 1 tile. Researching pottery, mining and bronze would have given him much more to do and the cottages, mines and chopped trees would have made your progress much faster.
Yeah, looking back I probably should have done pottery and mining sooner. I did end up getting BW before all but 3 rivals got it, so I think I did ok with that. As for chopping, maybe it is a flaw in my strategy, but I don't usually like chopping unless it is to get a wonder faster.

Redbad said:
In 2240BC you founded Osaka near incense and wheat. But at that time you couldn't develop neither the incense nor the wheat. You could improve the gold-hill. So founding your first city there, would have meant much more for you at that point in the game.
True, but I had heard from others in the pre-discussion that it could be important for trade to settle next to the lake early(although it turns out I did very little trading as I had no resources. :blush: The biggest reason I did not settle the gold yet though was because I was a little daunted about playing on monarch, and so was trying to aggressively take up some of the expansion room that Hatty had. Now that I've played as far as I have, I would have settle the gold earlier, since it seems I was more daunted than I should have been.

Redbad said:
You repeatly say that you like to found your own religion. But you didn't make any attempt so far to research one. I don't think it's really important to found one, but if you do, you could have started research towards CoL after alphabet.
Yeah, I should have, I love having my own religion, and lately it seems to always be Confuscianism. I was worried though that India would get it first(since I had given them alphabet already). And I had pressing military needs to consider, I had no military tech other than BW, so I chose IW. By the time I finished IW, India had indeed founded Confuscianism.

Redbad said:
Building the great lighthouse was not a decision I would have made. You only had one coastal city. All those hammers were much better spend on a decent military for example.
Also true, especially harmful was that I continued building it throughout the time that Kyoto was under siege by Monty. I did not think about the fact that I would not be able to take advantage of it, I think I was mostly hoping for GP points and the rush of knowing I had finally built a wonder on monarch.

Redbad said:
I won't pretend that all I've said is wisdom, but it are just things I would have done differently. So only hold on the things you think can improve your game.
Yes, much of what you said could have dramatically impacted my game...and if I were to go back and play again, I would play differently. I am happy that I chose to put my capital where I did, but just about everything else I did was in fear of the AI, and inefficient as well. I just hope it doesn't come back to bite me in my next spoiler
 
Goal: Leverage the Samurai and Aggresive traits via warmongering.

At 460 AD, I am poised to strike on Montezuma with a cadre of loyal Swordsmen, thus beginning my first war.

Cities:
3960BC: Kyoto (Plains hill on river)
1825BC: Osaka (4S, 1W of capital--should have gone plains hill)
1350BC: Tokyo (4S, 4E of cap, on river)
700BC: Edo (7E, 2N, to get copper and flood plains)
320BC: Satsuma (4W, to get gold income)
20BC: Kagoshima (6N, 2E, one W of marble)
280AD: Nara (3W, 5N, wasted by Barbs in 350 AD)

Techs:
3560BC:Mining
2800BC:Bronze Working
2360BC:Agriculture
1525BC:Iron Working
1400BC:Hunting
1250BC:Mysticism
1025BC:Animal Husbandry
760BC:Writing
580BC:Sailing
480BC:pottery
360BC:Meditation
260BC:priesthood
160AD:Monarchy
220AD:Masonry

First time on Monarch, it was my happy level on Civ III, we'll see on Civ IV.

Mistakes:
- Not getting Alphabet: After reading others' descriptions it is obvious that it would have been a powerful boost. The first few games I played of Civ IV I made sure to put a priority on Alphabet, and it was always a waste of time. However, on higher levels it seems to be much more important (doh!). Lesson learned.
- Not building a city near the gold: I finally started working the gold square when I built Satsuma in 320 BC. I really could have used that income.

Status at 460AD:
Rank: 6 of 7
Score: 498
Cities: 6 cities, 31 pop
Military: 5 Swords, 5 Axes, 5 Warrior, 1 Spear, 3 Archers
5 Worker, 1 Scout, 1 Galley

Not in bad shape at all, a rough start but poised for future success.

4otm30000.JPG
 
Well that's ugly. Can anyone tell me how to make that image a little larger?

Also, any thoughts or comments or suggestions on my write-up are absolutely welcome.
 
well I know that getting alphabet early and doing tech trading is the only thing that has kept me from being last place in score.
 
ronricorum said:
Also, any thoughts or comments or suggestions on my write-up are absolutely welcome.

As nobody else comments, I'll give it another go.

You're doing not so bad sofar and you mentioned yourself two important points of improvement. I would like to add a strategic comment. Your goal is to make most of your traits and UU. With that in mind you should get to the necesary techs for samurai asap. When all the AI has longbows and better units it's no longer fun to fight with samurai.

However in your research list I see quite a few distractions. For example sailing is really no priority on an inland sea map. Hunting isn't necessary either. Your axemen are quite capable of defending your border towns. And when they're built with a barracks combat 2 axes have little trouble flattening barb archers and axes or even swordsmen. Besides archers and spears don't upgrade to samurai.

So I guess the message is: focus on the goal and don't research nice-to-have techs. You can always beat them out of the AI. ;)
 
I' m quite disappointed by the way my game go and I have one question : for a cultural win game is really mandatory to found more than one religion ?
I managed to found only one and no else ( still ) spread in my empire so now I'm in shortage of cultural buildings ... :(

Regards all
 
Yes that's a real setback. I went cultural too and founded 3 religions and another 3 spread to me, though 1 came to late to make a difference. However, in your case, there are some things that can be done:

Have open borders and have little or no religions in your bordertowns. That way other religions spread faster to you. Those border towns can best be quite productive in order to build a monastery fast and then missionaries.

Build obelisk, theatre, library and university in your cultural cities.

Try to get Sistine and set your cultural cities to artist specialists. The specialists generate very much culture and provide artist GPs.

Alternatively to having artist specialists you can develop much commerce (hamlets, towns) around your culture cities. They will generate enormous culture once you set the culture slider high.

In the beginning maybe get some great scientists to found academies. The academies generate descent culture and help research. When your holy city is one the cultur cities, you could do something similar with a great prophet and a shrine.
 
Excelent advices !! Thanks a lot - some suggestions help me alot, even if no in that game !! :)

Redbad said:
Have open borders and have little or no religions in your bordertowns.

I was idiot :wallbash: I spread my realigion prioritary in my border cities in order to convert my neighborhoods and have a more peacefull life. :(

Build obelisk, theatre, library and university in your cultural cities.

This was already build ( no obelisks - managed to build Stonehenge ).
But lack of different Academies/Monasteries ( +50% culture ... that's excellent :mischief: ) really hurt. :(

Try to get Sistine and set your cultural cities to artist specialists. The specialists generate very much culture and provide artist GPs.

:wallbash:
I lose Sistine with 2 turns ...

The academies generate descent culture and help research. When your holy city is one the cultur cities, you could do something similar with a great prophet and a shrine.

This was done - but didn't seems enough. :(
Anyway - thanks again for advices !! :)

Regards
 
I've started a bit late, so I won't write a blow-by-blow description as it would seem quite like other peoples starts. I settled first on the plains hill due west of the starting point, to get a riverside location, and a goldmine. Early tech research was driven by the need to get the goldmine into operation, so agriculture, mining, and bronzeworking. I realized that without food resources or floodplains around my capital I needed to settle a more lush location quickly, so I built a settler and founded a city down the river, where it had two elephant, a wheat and a dye in its fat cross. I researched hunting and archery to use the elephants, and to defend against barbarians. Early on that city had health problems so I whipped some population for another settler who went west to found a city near the other river. By this time the goldmine was up and running, and my research was powering ahead with the help of libraries.

I'm wondering if the UU in this game is a bit of a distraction? With the elephants, there is a possibility of building an 8-strength unit, with extra against horses, much earlier than you can get Samurai. Experienced elephants (with horse fighting upgrade) can give even cavalry pause for thought. Also I'm only 13 turns from Knights when I get Samurai. Anyway I researched mathematics and construction first to get war elephants and catapaults to fight Montezuma. With hindsight I should have gone after him much earlier, using some swordsmen (I was first to ironworking due to my goldmine), rather than waiting for the elephants. However, at that time (when I usually like to attack) I couldn't see his borders, due to an unfortunate incident involving a scout and a panther, so I decided to expand using my own settlers instead. Then before I could do it, Montezuma founded two cities on hills right next to my borders :( So I founded one right next to his, and he declared war. I was only a couple of turns from construction though, so had the upper hand (or trunk :)) He had about a hundred axemen, chariots and spearmen though, so it is slow going taking his cities.

One thing I didn't do, which I saw most others do was to get any copper. Instead of founding a city to get copper, I went for the most lush situations, figuring that it was more beneficial to have some rich cities than copper. This worked out OK, as it turned out that there was iron nearby. I think that the goldmine and the fast research made this possible, as iron didn't take long to research. I was surprised to find even on a jungle map that the AI was so slow to research it. This type of map seems to slow the AI down a bit I think.
 
Redbad said:
So I guess the message is: focus on the goal and don't research nice-to-have techs. You can always beat them out of the AI. ;)


Thanks, Redbad. I seem to remember having reasons for researching those techs at the time, but they must have been really bad ones, since my memory seems to have blocked them out.

Anyway, your method sounds like more fun :)
 
ronricorum said:
Thanks, Redbad. I seem to remember having reasons for researching those techs at the time, but they must have been really bad ones, since my memory seems to have blocked them out.

Anyway, your method sounds like more fun :)
there's a reason for you to research every tech ;) that's why you need to choose. and the more you play, the wiser choice you will make.
 
Mîtiu Ioan said:
I' m quite disappointed by the way my game go and I have one question : for a cultural win game is really mandatory to found more than one religion ?
I managed to found only one and no else ( still ) spread in my empire so now I'm in shortage of cultural buildings ... :(

Regards all

I got a culture win in GotM 2 without founding a single religion. The key however is to not spread the first one you get right away like crazy because you need some of those cities to pick up different religions. Then once you get a few religions start spreading them like mad.

It sounds like you already have spread your religion around though.:(

Options I can think of off the top of my head would be to found new border cities if there is any room left and hope it picks up a new religion from a neighbor. Or if there is no room left for new cities you could always have a short war with a neighbor to grab 2 or 3 of their cities with different religions and then spread those.
 
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