GOTM 05 - Final Spoiler

[jar2574]

Cultural Victory in 1250.

As mentioned in the first spoiler, I was aided by three early settlers, I used the oracle for education, I got an early acadamy, and I founded all religions except buddism.

I kept science at 100% until getting liberalism in the early ADs. Then put commerce at 100% for three or four hundred years and bought 6 cathedrals in each of my cultural cities. Then I moved cultural up to 100% and waited.

At the end, all three of my cultural cities were over 1000 per turn. One of them pulled over 1100 per turn, and then 1200 at the end when I made an extra few farmers into artists.

It was a fun little game, but I'm glad we're moving to noble, because the goody huts have too much effect on warlord.

@DaveMcW -- great spaceship game!

 

[Jove]

Drat. Warlord or not, I just didn't have time to finish this one. It was my first cultural attempt at Civ4, and a bungle pretty much from start to finish anyway. I learned a lot, maybe I'll try culture again with the next one.

 

[schmiddi]

Diplomatic Victory 20xx dont remember the precise year) adventurer class

Initially I was just triing to survive (still had my result in gotm4 in mind ) and it went fairly well. I just tried to hold all others at bay. Theodore and Napoleon were fighting each other more or less constantly. When Napoleon was weakened enough, I took my share of his land.

In the end, I aimed for histographic (sp?) victory, build the UN and accidentlys won the vote, by a margin of three votes.

 

[civ_steve]

... the 'standard' version ...

On this 'easier' level, I decided to go for a Domination victory; I'm not much of a warmonger normally and my computer is on the edge for supporting this game (hopefully it gets a bit better with the new patch that I can now install), so this was the best opportunity to test out an approach to Domination.

Initial scouting revealed lots of Cows! I probably had middle of the road luck with Huts - 3 in total, 1 worker, 1 Settler (way over on the Eastern side; I used it like a scout and it actually made it back to found my 2nd city!), and some gold.

Early on I decided that Horse Archers would be my main offensive weapon, so I had to research to Horse-BackRiding. I also wanted Alphabet of course, to pick up whatever the AI might learn for me. And I decided to research Theology; this would allow me to found Christianity and give me a free Missionary, and the civic would give me 2 extra XP's for my units, for a total of 6 with a Barracks; enough for 2 promotions. HA's don't get City Raider promotions, so I typically chose Combat1 - Combat2 to gain advantage vs Archers, or Combat1 - Shock to gain a bit against Spearmen/Axemen; a couple got Combat1 - Medic for healing. A few additional Techs - Music, and Currency for additional commerce, would be about all I'd need.

The capital was set up mostly for Commerce, as was the 2nd city (to the East). The 3rd city was founded to the NNE on a river with 4 Cows within range, and was 'Farmed' and used as a Settler Factory. The 4th city was to the West, in the hills with all the Sheeps and Gold around; this became my first Barracks city and once developed it could build a HA in 3-4 turns. I set up a 5th city to the SW near all the Floodplains; this one was farmed all over, then built a Theater and had 2 Artists to try to generate Great Artists for culture bombs. I learned Music for one GA, and got a 2nd one from this city, so I only set off 2 Culture Bombs - one in the desert to the West of Victoria, and 1 in the Far East.

That was most of my city planning, and it took far longer than I wished to get the research done and the cities set up. Once my Settler Farm city was established (a Settler built every 6 turns), I would found new cities such that 2 culture expansions would use most of the space around them. Around 1 AD I turned off research and started saving Gold; I planned to turn on Culture for the last 20-30 turns to gain a few more expansions. My intermediate cities built Barracks and military; towards the end, new cities and captured cities built Culture.

Anyway I started rolling up the Americans in the early 200's, the English in the late 300's, and the French in the 400's. Took out Saladin in the 500's - 600's, and had just declared on Montezuma, taking one city, and was ready to start on Mao, when I got the Victory notice - Domination in 660 AD.

Turning on the Culture slider had a minimal effect on my territory; only the core cities had enough commerce to make this work well. The fringe cities had 2 culture per turn by default; building culture usually upped it to 3 cpt and the culture slider might gain a 4th. To get to 150 culture for this type of city requires nearly 40 turns, so no real benefit there. Additional culture bombs would have helped; I would have had to build or capture the Pyramids for this, and I didn't plan for that and it was the Aztecs who did build it, so no GA factory. I liked the planning out of the cities part of this exercise, but my lack of experience with the warfare side of CIV led to some delay in starting the attacks. Still a fairly fast domination, certainly for me!

Thanks to the staff for a 'catch your breath' game; good for learning a few more basics!

 

[The-Hawk]

Cultural Victory in 1250.

Wow, well done. I thought my culture time was OK, but you smoked it. I suspect the three settlers you popped was a big factor (I popped 1), the fact that you were getting so much culture per turn at the end might be because you had your culture cities up sooner (and therefore they had more mature economies). However, even from your brief spoilers, I see other key differences. Sounds like your use of a science center (noted in your first spoiler) was a positive factor, your tech pace was much better. Also, you also built more cathedrals. In my spoiler, I was wondering if I went too far with 5 cathedrals per city, sounds like I didn't go far enough.

In any event, an outstanding effort! If your time holds up, I'm hoping you post a detailed spoiler. I'd love to have a chance to look at your strategy in more detail.

 

[jar2574]

Wow, well done. I thought my culture time was OK, but you smoked it. I suspect the three settlers you popped was a big factor (I popped 1), the fact that you were getting so much culture per turn at the end might be because you had your culture cities up sooner (and therefore they had more mature economies).

Thanks! Yup, I think the three settlers really helped maximize gold production. My cultural cities were Moscow, St. Pete north of Moscow with the cows, and a third one pretty far down SW surrounded by flood plains, founded with my second popped settler. (Never would have founded it that far from capital if not warlord, but wouldn't have found the settler unless on warlord either.)

Those cultural cities were cottage spamming from the get-go, and building libraries and graneries after each produced two settlers, a worker or two, and a military unit or two. Any square other than a resource square was used as a cottage. At the end, those three cities were producing tons of gold, and with six cathedrals each, culture just shot up.

All but one of my other cities focused on population and production exclusively, so that I'd have enough military units and missionaries. My fourth city produced military units and a barracks exclusively. It was a very specialized economy. I think I built a total of 10 cities. Flipped one towards the very end, but didn't keep it.

It has been almost a month, so I have forgotten the finer details of the game, but I know I followed DaveMcW's research outline from his cultural win. Looks like I'll follow his outline for space victory when I attempt that!

 

[Samson]

Game status: Spaceship Victory for Russia
Game date: 1285 AD
Base score: 7060
Final score: 139765

I shall try and write a decient spoiler, but my strategy was basicly -

I founded on the plains hill.
I went for a worker first. Got 1 worker + 1 settler from huts.
My 1st city was just north of the capital, then I colonised the rockies for all the forests.
Spamed settlers to take most of the plains before the other civs had more tahn 2 or 3 cities.
1000 BC I had around 20 cities. My Science dropped to around 30%.
Most cities used the available cows then cottages. I had 3 pure production cities.
I had one war with napolion for pigs, sugar and all that grass land.
I founded confusuism. Most of the world got it.
Teched to CS slingshot with oricale, then banking, biology, Democracy, electricity, rocketry, computers, fusion, robotics, ecology(? last space ship part).
Towards the end of my last golden age (close to fusion) I had around 5300 beakers per turn.

 

[Antoninus]

The fearless leader of this poor civilization, Catherine (or me, if you want to be technical), suffered from a tragic flaw. She could not decide on a cohesive strategy. Even though Catherine was known far and wide as a creative leader, focusing on providing culture directly to the good citizens of this land, she did not necessarily utilize this unique trait of hers until many, many years after the birth of Christ.

Thus, coming out of the caveman era she concentrated on fouding new cities. She only had one scout, who was quickly malled by a nasty bear in the nearby Dark Wood. Her people heard great tales from the other civilizations about the so-called "goody huts," where the backward hut people provided them much needed benefits. She built military units to guard her cities, but neglected for many years the construction of any libraries, oblisks, or any of the religious buildings which could have provided early cultural happiness to the citizens. She allowed the other nearby civilizations to found most of the religions. (Eventually, L. Ron Hubbard invented Scientology, but she could not take advantage of this new religion.)

To make matters even worse, the good people of Russia were convinced to be warmongers during the "Age of the Cossack." The Cossack was an amazing military unit for her, so she took advantage of its traits against the other "backward" militaries of her neighbors. China, therefor, suffered from this aggressive era, losing all of its cities to the north of the great, expansive Russia.

Once Russia occupied approximately half of the known world (which, by the way, seemed to drop off into the vast empty nothingness around its edges), inexplicably, Catherine decided she would become the most cultured, revered civilization on this flat planet. So religious buildings became the focus, and the tax advisors decided to place all monies from the general fund into providing cultural benefits directly to the proletariat, at the cost of any further research. The scientists were furious when their funding was cut off. And although she was soon recognized as the greatest leader of the known world because of the legendary culture in her three largest cities, it was, in her opinion, "too little, too late."

But Catherine has learned her lesson. Soon thereafter she passed an edict that after the next Big Bang, and the next creation of a new world, she would think more about an overall strategy when her citizens were still cavemen, and she would stick to said stategy to the bitter end.

Cultural Victory, but not until sometime in the Twentieth Century.

My first GOTM, and my first submission. I enjoyed the game, and I enjoyed reading (and learning from) the other great leaders.

 

[Lexad]

Cultural Victory in 1250.

Here go my petty dreams about a cultural medal. You've beaten me by 20 years - great job! I tried a different strat - went through 3 great artist farms in my cultural cities.

 

[jar2574]

Here go my petty dreams about a cultural medal. You've beaten me by 20 years - great job! I tried a different strat - went through 3 great artist farms in my cultural cities.

Whew! We'll see if my time holds up. I've lost diplo twice by only a few turns. It may happen again this month. I know how you feel.

 

[hendrikszoon]

Contender Class, Goal: Domination Victory

This time my game wasn't worth to write a detailed spoiler. So I will accent only three points:

1. Goody Huts

In no Civ IV before I opened so many Goody Huts. I don't remember the exact number, but I believe it were six or seven. Already the first Goody Hut provided me with a Settler. Later two Technologies (Animal Husbandry, Archery), a further Scout as well as a Map and some Gold followed.

When I had finished the game I believed that I have had a lot of luck. But after reading the spoilers it became clear that my results were more or less "normal": Luck was to get three Settlers.


2. Worker Robbery

I tried - like usual - to get some Workers from other Civilizations. I sent my first Warrior to the American territory and placed him close to a ressource. Then I waited - also like usual - for the Worker. And waited and waited and waited ... But for a long time no Worker appeared. I had to wait until 2040BC.

My mistake was that I never played before a game on Warlord level. So I have had no experience according the behavior of the other Civilizations on this level.


3. Fighting with Horse Archers

I thought that at such low level Horse Archers are sufficient to conquer the world. deluche did it on Monarch level. So hendrikszoon should be able to be also successful on Warlord Level.

My first victim was Roosevelt. He had only one City - Washington - defended by an Archer and two Warriors. I wiped him from the map without any losses. Next victim was Victoria with three cities. She had also only Warriors and Archers. So nevertheless I loose in this War my first Horse Archer to finish the war successful was also not a big problem.

The next man on my list was Napoleon. At this time I had three Horse Archers with Combat III promotion and some further with Combat II promotion. And the French War started also promising: I took Orleans - defended by two Archers - without losses. After the wounds of the two Horse Horchers which assaulted Orleans were healed, I moved my troops forward to Paris. Then a disaster took place. After positioning four Horse Archers for the attack on Paris these Horse Archers were attacked by two French Spearmen. With the result that two of them - with Combat III promotion - lost their live on the field of honor. I started immediately the fallback of the two survivers, but another Spearman appeared and killed my last Combat III Horse Archer.

It was a blessing in disguise that I didn't had stopped my research after getting Horseback Riding. I had also research Public Service - on the normal way via The Oracle - and Machinery. So Macemen were available and I started immediately the training of them. With combined Horse Archers and Macemen Armies it was not a problem to eliminate all the other Civilizations.

So at the end I was successful. And I have learned my lessons: I will never try to conquer the world with Horse Archers. And I will never again underestimate Napoleon.

 

[Lexad]

Whew! We'll see if my time holds up. I've lost diplo twice by only a few turns. It may happen again this month. I know how you feel.

And you've got it! Congratz! I'm second

 

[jar2574]

And you've got it! Congratz! I'm second

Impressive score though, much higher than mine. Our games must have been quite different.

How many cathedrals did you build?

And how many settlers did you get from goody huts? I got three. If you got fewer than that then I've got to hear your strategy!

 

[Lexad]

I got 1 settler, 6 cathedrals each city (all save buddhism which went to Monty). I went for the badge, thus fought no wars and expanded only by my own settlers. Also I see you went for comerce - a true move when playing Cathie - while I made my 3 cultural cities produce great artists and culture from specialists. If I was less dumb with Liberalism, Oracle and (less important) Hanging Gardens, we could have had a run for it! Still, gg.

 

[jar2574]

I got 1 settler, 6 cathedrals each city (all save buddhism which went to Monty). I went for the badge, thus fought no wars and expanded only by my own settlers. Also I see you went for comerce - a true move when playing Cathie - while I made my 3 cultural cities produce great artists and culture from specialists. If I was less dumb with Liberalism, Oracle and (less important) Hanging Gardens, we could have had a run for it! Still, gg.

Looks like I should have gone with artist specialists. The only thing that saved me was getting the oracle.

Though in a longer game, (which would occur above warlord) I think commerce cities would be more beneficial than specialists, because they have time to develop into towns. Maybe a mix of two commerce and one artist would be the best.

gg

 

[Lexad]

I tend to share your view on cities But I try not to go for long cultural games.

 

[EEO]

Class: Contender, domination victory in 1140 AD, score: 187689

At the time I write this spoiler, I have patch 1.61 installed (and no dual install) so the dates in my event log are not the right ones (because some changes were made to the timeline in Epic speed) . I could deduce the right dates via number of turns, but this work isn't worth it ... I remember one date from the game and I think it describes the essential thing:

In 1005 AD, I discovered Biology. At this time, Chinese, American, French, English and Arabian Civilizations have been destroyed in this order while the last opponent, Aztec Civilization, owns one last city. The first two were attacked by Horse Archers, the other ones by Knights. Conquest could have been done far before, but I was playing for score and thus had to do some milking ... At this moment score was about 110 K. I let population grow until 1140 AD, when score seemed to stabilize. I let then the domination victory occur (I avoided domination several turns before by giving to Aztecs my smallest city).

It was my first real attempt at milking and I was surprised how efficient it is for the score: from 110 K to 187 K in 27 turns (with Hanging Gardens) !

The score could have been better without these mistakes:
- I gained one settler (and this was the only one ) in second turn from a Goody Hut. I founded my second city in West mountains among the Golds. After foundation, I realized that a better site existed one square away with one more gold and more food. I think the difference in research could have been significant in the long run ...
- I avoided for many turns the Calendar technology. In fact, it was important because it makes obelisks obsolete and I had obelisks in several conquered cities. By acquiring Calendar sooner, I should have prevented these cities from a quick cultural growth. This way I could have kept more cities (by not razing them in order to avoid early domination).
- I should have built Hanging Gardens in the last turn.
- I should have conquered the two last Aztec cities in the last turn (in fact my military units were inside the biggest cities in order to avoid unhappiness with Hereditary Rule).

Eventually I would like to express special tanks:

- To hendrikszoon: the spoilers he wrote for GOTM1 and 2 describe an extraordinary efficient strategy for milking. I think there is only one way to make hendrikszoon's strategy obsolete in Civ4 : changing score formula ...
- To DaveMcW: for short but powerful comments. For instance, in GOTM3 pre-game discussion, a comment about cottage spamming gave the initial strategy of the game.
- To bradleyfeanor: his spoilers and comments are among the most pleasant to read
- To Shillen: hoping he will return. Great enthusiasm and detailed comments. I understand losing 2 fights with 99+% is discouraging. I gave up in GOTM4 for this reason ...