GOTM 06 First Spoiler - 500 AD

[Spoony]

Originally posted by A'AbarachAmadan
Victory: 350AD
Score: 92+K

I don’t think this one will be good enough for a Fastest Finish as I originally assumed that not all the civilizations would be on the same darn continent.

I think a 350AD conquest is extremely impressive.
As you say I can't imagine anyone would realise they won't need a navy to obtain domination. That aside, I think with such a good early UU you might find some competition for fastest finish. Anyway congrats on a really good game and nice write up.

My game has gone quite well. 500AD and the Germans are all gone. Massing an army full of cats to wipe everyone else out. Got addicted to building, too many great building cities and I received 2 great engineers, so I have 5 wonders which has slowed down the domination speed. I'm about 300 points ahead in score and the clear tech leader. Anyway back to the slaughter house.

 

[Khalid]

Goal: Fastest Conquest
Victory: 350AD
Score: 92+K

I don’t think this one will be good enough for a Fastest Finish as I originally assumed that not all the civilizations would be on the same darn continent.

This sound amazing to me. I cant imagine finishing so soon and you are worried that it wouldnt be the fastest victory. Sounds really impressive.

How is it possible to build such a huge army so early. Did you build only military, or also buildings and workers.

 

[drkodos]

This sound amazing to me. I cant imagine finishing so soon and you are worried that it wouldnt be the fastest victory. Sounds really impressive.

How is it possible to build such a huge army so early. Did you build only military, or also buildings and workers.

Agreed. And congrats on getting it done.


I tried a replay where I only built military units and even went with succesful axe rushes into ZGermany, and still it was 500 AD before I knew what happened. I just can't fathom getting a victory that quickly on this map/world.

Any chance you have a replay file you'd share? And some secrets?

 

[A'AbarachAmadan]

Did you build only military, or also buildings and workers.

Early, I founded a total of 6 cities (building 5 settlers), 5 workers and 7 warriors for 'homeland defense' after the 'scouts out'. Generally cities came first, then warriors as I used two scouts as fog gazers. Note: I would have initially stopped at 4-5 cities to maintain high research, or would have placed my 5th city differently until I realized all the civs were on the same continent, which made me worry more about production and positioning than commerce. As I approached HR, I built barracks. After that, those 6 cities built almost nothing but Keshiks, the first 2 in 1040BC. Also, when I had a happiness level of X, when I reached size X+1 I would use slavery to rush with 2 citizens (getting the full 60 hammers and eliminating the unhappiness as I went to X-1 and had the additional -1 happy for rushing.) I think I only did this 4-5 times total, but in cities with lots of food, this is a good way to make it militarily useful and even lower your city upkeep a little. I also chopped and chopped and chopped with the few workers I kept in the area while 2 of them consentrated on roads to the other civs.

tried a replay where I only built military units and even went with succesful axe rushes into ZGermany, and still it was 500 AD before I knew what happened.

I thought axes would be too slow, so I only build Keskiks in my core cities (which are speed demons and would be great on the largest maps as explorers); in the two captured German cities, I build only axes (after barracks) as they were 'close' to my next objectives. I set up 'surprise' attacks normally. For example, when I attacked Germany, I didn't attack as soon as my first units arrived, but waited until I had the forces to attack both cities 'simultaneously', with the key being attacking the resources on the first turn so they can no longer build good defenses. By taking out Hamburg on turn 1 of the war (its borders hadn't expanded yet) they couldn't build any more axes, which made Berlin an easy take 1 turn later.

Another speed enhancer I didn't mention 'above' is the building of roads. Before I attacked China I had a streamline of roads from my original territory to Germany and heading up toward Mansa. By the time I was going into my slugfest with Beijing I had roads all the way to it.

After open borders place scouts in your next objective territory. It protects them from barbarians as you can move away from them easier. It allows you to plan your attack on the key area. I did this well vs. England, but against Greece I didn't check out Athens to realize how many archers they had. Don't be afraid to bypass a civilization or move some units to the far side before beginning your assault. I attacked England from 3 locations and Mansa from 4 locations, ensuring their key resources were gone on the first turn of the assault.

Also, I use 'damaged' units to assist in combat. For example, I won't attack a city with 2 Keshik on 2 archers that have a 70-75% chance to win each. That is really ony 49-56% chance of winning the battle; and if you lose they get to build back up and that unit may get a promotion. However, I will attack with 3 full Keshiks or 2 full Keshiks and 2 weak Keshik ready to mop up the damaged archer(s). With the new combat system a 3.0 Keshik has a much bigger advantage on a archer lowered to under 1.0.

 

[Grogs]

Awesome looking game A'A.

My studies forced me to take a break from the GOTM since GOTM2. All I've been playing in the interval are a few SG's, all at Monarch or Emperor level, so I was pleased to find a nice Noble level GOTM I could play and unwind on.

I move the Settler W-NW and founded Karakoam on the West bank of the river and also the extra plain-hill I saw with my scout. I built my 2nd city west on the coast to pick up the copper/sheep, and so I could build a fishing boat to explore the coast. That fishing boat was able to circle the continent clockwise all the way up to Tokugowa's lands because he was the only one who wouldn't give me Open Borders. Researching sailing also let me establish trade routes with all the other civs in short order, and I took advantage of this by building the Great Lighthouse in Beshbalik to improve my finances.

Tech-wise, I went agriculture, mining, BW, pottery, writing, fishing, alphabet. Tech trading has allowed me to reach tech parity/superiority with all the AI's.

I was planning to build Keshiks and go a conquering, but honestly, there was so much space on our initial 'peninsula' I didn't feel inclined to for quite some time. Also, Bismarck was quite a distance from the capital and I didn't want to start taking his cities until I had Code of Laws to build CH's. My first 5 cities formed a crescent that ran from the chokepoint in the west to the coast north of the eastern horses in the east. I founded a 6th city next to the stone for the pyramids and finished them in 225 AD.

While the pyramids were being built, I started a steady stream of Keshiks heading towards German lands. He had just already hooked up copper and was just working on his iron when my forces were mustered. I captured the worker mining the iron and ran him into Chinese lands to hide. In the north, I managed to pillage the copper mine, but my Keshik managed to pillage it. Bis had already built 3 spears and an axe which made my life difficult, but I managed to deal with them. I auto-razed Frankfurt on 50AD, the turn I declared, captured Munich (Christian holy city) in 250 AD, and Berlin (Jewish holy city) in 375 AD. In 500 AD, my forces are gathering for an assault on Hamburg, after which I will leave Bismarck stuck in hist tiny southern city, hopefully getting a few techs in the process.

Currently, I have no state religion, but Bhuddism spread into my lands and I founded Confucianism through pure research. Both Alexander and Qin are Bhuddists, so my inclination is to convert to Bhuddism and use them to help me fight against Elizabeth, Mansa, and Toku. After I've dealt with Bismarck, I plan to take a quick breather to reorganize my finances - they're not too bad thanks to the GL, but I need to get some CH's built before I go a conquering again.

Here's a screen shot of my empire in 500 AD:

 

[Sarum]

Great game, A’A! I am sure no one would be able to beat your time.

As for me, after scouting the map I thought it would be easier to win by domination. I don’t like (or simply can’t execute) conquest victories.

I settled in place and was happy to sea pigs nearby. First I built a scout, then another one. I found only a few huts, got archery and some gold.

My research goals were 1) Bronze Working (for chopping) and 2) Alpabet (trading), so the path was: Mining – BW – Animal Husbandry – Agriculture – Pottery – Writing – Alphabet (discovered in 950 BC). I suppose now it was better to go straight for Alphabet from the beginning.

I built my second city rather late because I wanted my first city to grow. Beshbalik was founded in 1800 BC, Turfan in 950 BC, Ning-shia (horses) in 700 BC. I built 2 more cities (in 550 BC and 375 BC) before going for my first war. During all that time I built infrastructure and several keshiks. Before my first settler I built two worker that did cottage spammnig along the river near my capital.

I waited too long. When I arrived to German lands, Bismark already had axemen and spearmen. Though I started the war in 50 BC and captured one city the same turn, I had not enough fiorces to conquer Berlin. I had to wait to 150 AD whan I managed to capture German capital. After that I sued for peace because I wanted to consolidate my forces before the final blow. Bismark had 2 cities left. After 10 turns of peace passed I captured both of them (425 AD). At that time I had about 10 keshiks. That was enough to beat China - I thought and it turned out to be true. Though China built many Wonders and was second in score, it had only a small number of archers in their cities.

OK, at 500 AD I went for domination, I wiped Germany and half of China. I will not win earlier then 1400 – 1500 AD. The continuation will follow in another spread.
My main mistake was that I lost much time developing my cities. The key in this game was a quick keshik-rush before most of the AI build spearmen.

 

[EsatP]

pls - remove

 

[Barn Owl]

Well, I've made a mess of this GOTM (not for the first time). Didn't really have enough time this month, started late (haven't finished yet). My concentration was awful, I was rushing things, didn't have a coherent strategy and kept making stupid mistakes. Still never mind it's almost time for GOTM7!

 

[Memphus]

Well My Spoiler will suck...but I'll Let you know If I can Do it in the final Thread:

Current Status

500 AD

No Techs discovered

Stay tuned for the conclusion of thsi crazy attempt at a GOTM

Reasons Spoiler Will suck:

I only have three build options:

Warrior
Baracks (this is actually surprisingly a big help )
Settler

...Worker can't help since They can't do anything

 

[Obormot]

Goal: Fastest Conquest
Victory: 350AD
Score: 92+K

We are again very close, but this time I beat you for a turn!
Just got a 325AD win.

I have played the game quite different from you though.

I settled on the same hill between sheep and corn after a similar sequence of starting moves.

Built a worker first and then 6 scouts to find the number of AIs on our continent. I also assumed that Astronomy is needed, so i started a library going for and early academy right after writing was discovered, which propably slowed me down quite a lot After that i built settlers and workers using CET after learning Math. I find that chopping is still quite powerfull even with the new patch.

After I met all the AIs I changed my plans of course and joined the scientists as a super-specialist to my capital instead of building the academy. I didn't build any infrastructure in my other cities, only barracks and keshiks.

I founded only 2 more cities, one to the east in the middle of the forest with pigs and some hills and the other one on the east cost to hook up the horses. It also had pigs and hills for production. After that i stopped expanding even though there were still a few good city sites on our peninsula. I decided that it is better to capture cities then to found them, you get them with some population and improvements already, and you build units closer to the front.

I built nothing, but keshiks in my cities, no axeman, no swords, no cats (even though I resaerched Bronze Working, Iron Working and even Construction with the help of the great scientist (The latter was usefull though as it allowed me to cross rivers without loosing movement). On such a low difficutly level only speed matters. I had enough workers to build roads towards my enemies before the main keshik stacks arrived. I also did a lot of chopping near the front.

I attacked Germany, then split my forces between China->Greece and Mali->England. Later a third front against Japan opened. I managed to attack Greece, Mali and Japan before they hooked up iron or copper, so i didn't face that many spearmen.

I revolted only ones to Police state & slavery after i captured the Piramids in Beijing. Police state means +25% keshik production and no problems with WW. Slavery was also quite usefull because I poprushed all my cities to size 1 at some point after I decided that newly built keshiks won't even reach the front.

I produced a total of 90 keshiks, lost 40 of them. Killed about 40 archers, 8 spears and 15 axemen.

1000BC:

500BC:

1AD:

200AD:

300AD:

 

[Lexad]

Yeehaa! Go, Obormot!

 

[A'AbarachAmadan]

We are again very close, but this time I beat you for a turn!
Just got a 325AD win.

Darn! My conquest curse continues. I've never gotten one, not even in C3C though I tried there multiple times.

Congratulations on a great game!! I always find it interesting in Civ IV how multiple paths can lead to similar results.

 

[Harok]

Goal
Fastest Domination victory. (Contender class)
I have been stuck in a mode where I try to play quick games but get distracted by also trying to get a high score so this month I am totally ignoring score to try to speed up.

City Placement
I founded on the spot and started a worker followed by a barracks which was constantly switched to settlers and workers as I grew. 2nd city (2480BC) was east in the middle of the horse/pig/rice. 3rd city (1920BC) was to the west in the middle of the sheep/corn/copper/stone. 4th city (1080BC) was west of that near the cow and corn just past the skinny chokehold point. These were my last built cities for a long time.

Research
Like many others I thought I would need sea travel so I was planned to get Pottery and Writing much earlier than I really needed them. If I would have held off on them I probably could have improved my speed a little. But before that I wanted to chop with so many forests around and wanted early Keshiks to take out whoever was on my landmass so I started there. Luckily with that focus it allowed me to realize I probably wouldn't need libraries and such before I built them. I also got some good luck with huts for once popping 3 techs although Fishing wasn't really needed.

Animal Husbandry - 3840 BC (hut)
Mining - 3760 BC
Bronze - 3720 BC (hut)
Archery - 3480 BC
Fishing - 3080 BC (hut)
Horseback - 2360 BC
Pottery - 2080 BC
Writing - 1760 BC
Agriculture - 1560 BC
Mysticism - 1400 BC
Meditation - 1160 BC
Pristhood - 950 BC
Code of Laws - 325 BC
Masonry - 200 BC

I shut off research at this point for the rest of the game although I did make one trade with Lizzie to get Iron and Math for CoL much later.

Gameplay Recap
All cities besides capital immediately built a barracks and then Keshik after Keshik. Later on I built a few Archers and Axes in these cities for protection from barbs and military police for happiness but other than that almost nothing except Keshiks.

A couple of workers improved cities while a couple more built roads towards Bismark and then other civs if they were next on the attack list. I only had one worker building towards Japan which slowed me down a lot. I absolutely should have used another worker.

I declared on Bismark in 925 BC taking Hamburg (900BC) and Berlin (725BC) while Munich was autorazed in 825BC.

Next I declared on Japan in 450 BC taking Osaka (350BC), Kyoto (250BC), Tokyo (125BC) and then I stalled as I thought it was all of his cities only to find my poor scouting had missed Edo. I gave him peace as I didn't have enough Keshiks and all newly created ones had been sent toward China for the next war. I sent a few more up north and then declared again in 175 AD
and took Edo finishing him off.

I declared on Qin in 125BC taking Nanjing (100BC), Shangai (25AD), Bejing (150AD), Guangzhou (275AD), and again I thought they would be gone but had missed Xian which I took in 475AD.

The biggest mistakes I had made so far were not building a second scout for looking around and needing one more road building workers.

My next stack of doom was ready to take on Mansa and I declared in 500 AD but the rest will have to wait for the next spoiler.

Assessment
I am well on my way to a very fast domination but the few mistakes I made will probably cost me enough time to lose out to others. I am really starting to hurt on the money front also because of all the cities. Conquest certainly would have been easier and I probably should have razed a few of the cities and rebuilt them later if they weren't in great spots.

 

[magritte]

This is my first CIV4 GOTM, though I began a couple CIV 3 games. Yeah, I know this GOTM was over months ago. However, I wanted to try one and this one is at noble difficulty, which is where I currently play. Also, I’m interested in improving my early game because I find myself constantly having to win from behind, so it’s interesting for me to see how better players are managing their start. I should probably move up to prince level, but maybe after this game. Here’s where I placed my first six cities. While I realize Kublai’s aggressive trait and early UU favor an early conquest approach, it’s a big map with a lot of space. So I’m going to play this more in my usual style and probably go for a space race victory eventually. Here’s where I built my first six cities.

1. Karakorum – on river to west of start position
2. Beshbalik – on plains (yes, too close to Karakorum) near the pigs and rice.
3. Turfan – on coast near sheep and copper –I went for bronze working fairly early for chopping
4. Ninghsia – at the isthmus, north of vineyards – I wanted to seal off my peninsula from intruders early.
5. Old Sarai – east of Beshbalik by the horses and pigs
6. New Sarai – on the grassland near the cows to the north of Beshbalik

Gameplay has been quite uneventful thus far. I picked up agriculture, pottery, hunting and bronze working early. Since there was no one nearby, I decided going after the Keshiks wasn’t going to be critical in this game. I opted to push for alphabet, then tech traded my way up through some religious techs, fishing, sailing, and then went for monarchy to keep my people happy and get the vineyards going. It proved a popular tech as I traded it out for mathematics and iron working. By this time I noticed that I still didn’t have any religion, so I decided to get one. I was late on monotheism, but was first to theology and founded Christianity. Of course, as soon as I founded Christianity, Confucianism arrived at my border from China.

Overall, things are going pretty much as planned. I’m first in GNP, first in food yield, first in population, a very close second in land area to Mansa Musa and first in score by a fair margin. I’m only third in manufacturing because I forgot to pick up metal casting again and am a total cottage spam addict. And I am—as usual—light on the military, ranking a dangerously low sixth in that category.

As of 500 AD, there have yet to be any wars in my game. Because I concentrated on getting to the choke point rather than filling out my peninsula to the east, I have a little barbarian kingdom near New Sarai that has been a minor annoyance. However, they will be taken out shortly. My main worry is Tokugawa who has never liked me and is now annoyed with me because I refused to give him Alphabet for free. He’s third in score and second in population and has built a city just north of Ninghsia close to the iron ore deposit—in retrospect, perhaps I should have built a city up there.

I’m hoping Bismarck will join me in a war against Tokugawa before he gets his Samurai going. Bismarck is pleased with me because I closed my border to Alexander whom everyone seems to hate for some reason and as he has no state religion, I’ve sent a Christian missionary to Berlin to see if I can convert him. He may be too weak to be of much use however.

Other than Tokugawa, Mansa Musa and Qin (who are annoyed with each other) appear to be my chief rivals. Mansa Musa may be my best long term ally, since he is also annoyed with Tokugawa and pleased with Bismarck. He’s cautious with me now because I’m a heathen (he founded Hinduism), but I’m sure I can swing him around.