GOTM 08 - first spoiler

[mike p]

I was a day late and a dollar short pretty much all game.

I settled west to get the fish and gold, and opened with mysticism and polytheism, founding Hinduism in Berlin.

That's about all of the good news.

I missed CoL and founding Confucianism in my second city by 1 turn, when someone built the Oracle, which I had delayed for an archer and settler, meaning that I also lost the Oracle by 2 turns in Berlin. The next turn, while I was a turn away from Stonehenge in my second city, some beat me to that too. So my visions of a wonder powered cultural victory were somewhat crippled early. What a difference three turns makes.

I did manage to build the cultural powerhouses of Chichen Itza and the Colossus, but overall the opening was a miserable failure for my basic strategy. Which is funny because in my practice game I was really rolling along.

Also it seemed like there were Great People popping everywhere for the AI, though that might just be the normal rate and I'm too used to Epic speeds.

Anyway, diplomatically, I made friends with America, converted all of his cities to Hinduism and built the shrine in Berlin. So I shared my island with a loyal friend. If it was someone like Alex or Monty instead of GW, I'd have to rethink my strategy and build military, but I decided that GW is a decent neighbor, so I kept him happy.

I ended up declaring on a different civ who had a crappy city on an island to the NW just because I could reach it and I really needed to get to 6 cities. As it turns out, it was a crap site with no bonus resources, but at least it was mine.

 

[pigswill]

Got up to nearly 1200ad before finished exploring home island. Started 1W for city of Goldfish. Fishing/warrior followed by bronze-working/fishboat then researched wheel, mysticism, polytheism,priesthood (started oracle in 2120), writing (finished oracle in 1760), got CoL and Confucianism, then agric, AH, pottery and long slow haul to metalworking, civil service (90% from Prophet),alphabet which took me up to 1ad.
Surprisingly few problems with barbs (fogbuster in far west helped), founded second city in 2160bc, both cities pumped out axes while researching metalwork, built a couple of workboats to explore/attempt circumnavigation(not completed by 1ad). Went to war against George in 575bc, ok initially until my half dozen axemen hit a wall (or at least met a wall, checked the odds and ran away to wait for cats), razed a couple of cities out of pique.Build Colossus in 175bc. That was the story to 1ad. Not trailing too badly on tech yet.

 

[mushroomshirt]

Well, I am not a "pure" builder, but more of a hybrid. If you check any of my previous GOTM reports, you will see that I usually start with a relativaly builder strategy, forgoing any major millitary action in the Axman era, but often convert to warmonger once maces come along. Anyway, with that disclaimor in place...

An early wonder is not as "all or nothing" as you are making it out, and loosing out to one is not the end of the world. Remember that all the sheilds you had invested get turned to gold at a very nice exchange rate (much better than building whealth later in the game). Assuming that you are expanding fast enough that you are at say 50-70% research or lower (which most builders/hybrids are), then when you "lose" a wonder, the responce is to run science at 100% for multiple turns, getting a large heads up on research.

Indeed, the conversion rate is so good, that often when in a situation of not needing anything immedietly built, people just start pooring some sheilds into a wonder they have no intention of ever completing, for the sole goal of getting the gold later then the AI finishes it.

You know, I never thought of this. I did end up jacking up my research with the extra gold from these wonders. I think I am just not suited for this style of play though. Building (at least the way I do it) is not very tolerant of mistakes, which I make a lot of. I find that a powerful army can make up for a lot.

I guess I am a little jealous of godotnut and his early take-out of Washington. This is what I would have liked to do if I weren't trying my builder "experiment". I wonder if anyone has ever compared research rates / production with a 2x size empire that is relatively low-tech vs. a high tech well cottaged CS-slingshot small empire. I wouldn't be surprised is a well-managed (w/ courthouses) big empire would be just as good.

 

[ElWanderer]

Well my approach to this game was almost certainly non-optimal; in my defence, I was probably too concerned with the England-Portugal match to give it my full attention. It was a really enjoyable game (civ, not the football!) so I don't mind that I won't be challenging the high scorers (again).

I set off by founding 1W with a Civil Service slingshot of some kind in mind. I started by researching bronze-working though. The discovery of copper in Berlin's city radius probably dulled my usual urge to expand out to connect up resources. In fact, I ended-up taking the unusual step of founding Confucianism in my capital, so long was my expansion delayed.

2400BC - built Stonehenge.
1600BC - built the Oracle. Considered going for metal-casting instead of code of laws for quite some time... after-all, cheap forges and the Colossus would have been useful to go for. In the end, I decided to stick with the plan and went for code of laws

1120BC - Pyramids biafal... pretty early. Assumption must be there's another industrial civ out there or someone with early access to stone (or both!)

1040BC - I finally found my second city on the plains hill about 4 squares east of the starting position. On the same turn, Moses appears and teaches about 3/4s of civil service

700BC - switch to bureaucracy after researching the rest of civil service. My capital is a power-house but the empire is not looking very impressive at the moment. This is worrying as Washington is expanding towards me.

650BC- someone builds the Great Lighthouse as I was researching masonry (had to skip it to get the slingshot). Shouldn't have been a great surprise, really.

625BC, 500BC, 425BC and 325BC - four new cities founded in quick succession as Berlin can pump out settlers quickly... but Washington beats me to putting a city by the iron

As there was a wandering galley with a settler/archer combo, I only founded one city to the west of Berlin, though there was just about room for two cities there. Meant missing out on the fish but I didn't want anyone settling in my backyard.

250BC - Colossus biafal one turn after someone got a great engineer (same civ that built the Pyramids I guess). Why didn't I go for metal-casting again...?

125AD - another great prophet. I use him to build the Kong Miao in Berlin and things are looking better. as Confucianism has spread to Washington's lands

150AD - build the Great Library. Having got the marble linked up, this didn't take long at all.

At this point I'm rather behind Washington in techs. Looking at his start position, it's no great surprise. The city of Washington is in a great position for building lots of cottages.

Washington hasn't connected up the iron yet as he needs a border expansion first. So I have metal whilst he doesn't; we both have horses. If that remains the case, I expect to take over the entire island with macemen. Even if he mines the iron, he won't have it for long as the iron city is his most exposed to me.

Washington, I'm coming for you!

 

[Thrallia]

In any case, now that I have vented, I would like to ask the builders out there how you possibly deal with losing wonders to the AI. It just seems to me like a large gamble to invest so heavily in an all-or-nothing proposition like a wonder.

As an extreme builder, I've got to say that when I lose out on a wonder, it does sting a little bit, but I generally at least try to build every single wonder...so I guess I just try to figure out the priority for the early wonders, and rush for them. I don't try to put them off till I'm in a danger zone for the AI completing the wonder(although, this time I did with both oracle and stonehenge, but I went for stonehenge as an after thought simply because it was 1200BC and it still hadn't been built! and wasn't making Oracle a priority because I was attempting more of an expansionistic/economic start this time)

I can generally get almost every single early wonder if I research them and build them in the right order...and except for a couple of them, if I miss out on them I don't feel like its terribly damaged my game, I just take the cash I get from it and max out my science for a long time.

The only ones I generally care about missing out on are the Pyramids and Oracle...I made GL and Colossus priorities over Pyramids this time though, so I got them and got cash from Pyramids when it was built elsewhere.

If you noticed from my spoiler, I got 5 early wonders, and none of them were in my Capitol That's cause I tried for Parthenon and the Pyramids in Berlin

 

[godotnut]

@redemption438:

I'm going for a peaceful culture victory and hoping for a good date (late 1800s?)

Not to be a bummer or anything, but I'm certain that the top culture dates will be much earlier than that, probably in the 1600s. I finished around the time you mention in the Ghandi / Emporer level Gauntlet a few months back--and that was playing at Challenger level. I wasn't even close to winning, and that was with a much worse starting position.

Good luck to all!

 

[BLubmuz]

First of all, thanks to Strobe , I took a lot of good ideas from his post.

Given the kind of map and speed the goal is SS victory (could be changed, of course).

As most of all did, and as I planned in pre-game discussion, settled Berlin 1W,
since scout (NE-E) revealed nothing. For some (or no) reason I decided to send it East.

Research Path:

AH - Wheel - Fish - BW (I was pushed on it by the forest grown on my only workable hill - luckily)
- Writing - Myst - Medit - Priest - CoL/CS - sailing - masonry
- Alpha (but i knew only Washington and Toku, and no one was trading techs) so:
Agri - Archery - pottery - MC - Literature - machinery (and maces start to appear)

Build queue:

worker - warrior - warrior - WorkBoat - axe - settler - library (immediately switched 2 scientits)
- Stonehenge - axe - Oracle (it was 1 turn before CoL, but a GS was born 3 turns before, built Academy,
so CoL was anticipated 2 turns and Oracle was built 1 after for a perfect CS slingshot)
- barracks - LG - GreatLG - don't remember exactly from now on, but forge followed by Colossus
- GL in Hamburg, marble not hooked.

Initially i planned to settle Hamburg near marble, but after AH and the meeting with GW, I decided
to settle near horses and gems, avoiding him to expand in the south west side of our continent.
Another good decision was Munich, settle west of Hamburg for the same reason (blocking GW)
and the choice between pigs and clam in favour of clam revealed good after IW.

Few turns after Oracle i learned that Pyramids "was built in a far away land" OK, I'll try to survive without.
Until 500 AD everything was peaceful, meet only Toku (better, he did),
so i'll talk about my wars in the 2nd spoiler, where i wish to talk about a very, very strange (good)
thing that happenened in the mid game.

As usual, some general note:
1) starting with GotM 7 we can forget goody huts: IMO this is balancing the contenders, but is raising the level:
no money and no free techs are probably sufficient to consider this Monarch like an Emperor,
at least for the initial ages.
2) In addition, apart gold and copper near Berlin, the "american" territory is incomparably better than the German one.
In fact, in the late game, my best cities was former americans.
3) This is the first site for a capital WITHOUT fresh water, never happened in my games, if I'm not wrong
All those conditions together, are definitely raising the game to Emperor (IMO).

I hope that if, as probably will, next game will be Emperor, the starting area will be,
at least, comparable with the starting areas of the AIs.

anyway the game was more challenging, and i wish to thank the Staff for the good job.

 

[culdeus]

Had a decent go at it at this point. Decided in the last of my test games I wanted to roll without the oracle and instead grab pyr/GL/Col and was able to do that. The CS slingshot on normal speed didn't seem to pay off because it was to difficult to get a timely overseas invasion pulled off in time to avoid longbows.

So I skipped it. I immediately recognized that having a neighbor and bronze meant early war. I used galleys to transport a modest axe army to worker steal and camp on Georgio. Had him dead by 1000BC IIRC.

Toku cruised by in a galley with a settler and archer and I sunk that ship as well.

I'm not sure what the boundaries of this spoier are, but someone mentioned toku earlier so I guess that's ok. One other civ had borders that reached the NE corner of the conty as well by 0BC.

Everything was going along great at that point towards my target diplomatic victory.

 

[Nares]

Prior to the release of the save, I spent a number of hours pouring over the various details of the pure CS slingshot. I ran tests of both streamlined versions completing during 1560BC or so, and my own chosen path, to pick up Hinduism, which completed (in my tests) in 1360BC.

During the course of the discussions in the pre-game thread, I ultimately decided to mix Bronze Working into my list of pre-CoL techs. The end result was, suprisingly, only a one turn delay, despite nine additional turns of research for Bronze Working. The key difference, as some noted in the pre-game thread, is the ability to emphasize high commerce tiles at the expense of high production tiles.

While in my tests I had managed to pop a Great Scientist between one and three turns prior to the completion of the slingshot, I somehow was unable to replicate that precise order. Fortunatly, the minor percent chance for a Great Prophet was inconsequential, and my first Great Scientist arrived one turn after the slingshot.

The relevant dates are as follows:

1320BC - complete The Oracle in Berlin, select Civil Service
1280BC - Merit Ptah is born in Berlin. Build Academy and revolt to Bureaucracy.
425BC - complete The Great Library in Berlin.
175BC - Nabu-Rimanni is born in Berlin.
300AD - Euclid is born in Berlin.

As you can see, I opted to keep running the Scientist specialists after popping the first Great Scientist for my Academy. I debated between integrating them as Super Specialists or not, but decided to keep them for later burning on the Liberalism race. I'm currently researching Construction, and will soon begin my war against Washington with Macemen and Catapaults. I expect it to go relatively smoothly, even though Washington is already fielding Longbows. Once Construction completes, I'm heading for Compass->Optics->Paper, and then will burn the Great Scientists so that I can use Liberalism on Astronomy.

 

[The-Hawk]

Pretty interesting reading so far. It looks like Oracle completions were all over the map. Some of the times listed in previous posts: 1200 BC, 1080 BC, 1040 BC, 1440 BC, 1020 BC.

My initial goal this game was dom/conquest. I went for CS slingshot for early Bureaucracy more than maces. I was thinking the map type would make any kind of military blitz hard. Hence I wanted to keep up research and I thought Bureaucracy would be a big boost. However, the best laid plans... IIRC, in my game I got a message that an AI had finished Oracle IBT 1520 BC and 1480 BC. Kind of wish I had gone for an earlier Oracle and taken metal casting, but in my tests, the AI was never this fast.

Once I discovered Washington shared my little rock, I decided to axe/horse archer rush him. So, I initially only founded three cities. However, my early focus on building science in Berlin (for the slingshot) followed by Great Lighthouse meant I was a little slow getting an army built. The distances meant it took a long time to move them into place. About 2 turns before I was ready to declare, Wash reached Feudalism and immediately upgraded to longbows. I wasn't sure I had enough units to tackle them, so I decided to delay until I was able to build maces.

Of course, by now, my decision to only found three cities was starting to stunt my teching! Cathy was running ahead in techs, I was losing confidence in my ability to sustain any kind of military advantage. As a result, I decided to give up on a military victory and try for spaceship. The good news was that Berlin was well on the way to being a science powerhouse (academy in 1080 BC, super specialist in 125 AD, GLib in 475 AD). The bad news was I only had three cities and had been very slow getting pottery and starting cottages.

The state of affairs at 500 AD -

Only three cities built, but they are pretty well developed. I am almost ready to go get some new cities from Washington. I was first to circumnavigate the world, at this point, I've met 5 AI's. After the misfire on CS slingshot and bad timing with Washington's Feudalism, I am solidly committed to a spaceship strategy. I've kept detailed notes, if my launch time is any good, I'll do a full write-up in the second spoiler. Unfortunately, I'm thinking it will be a very mediocre time... changing horses from dom/conq to space and the missed slingshot meant a slow start. For example, if I had been going for space from the beginning, I would have probably skipped the slingshot altogether and researched pottery much earlier.

 

[Cactus Pete]

ORACLE completed in 1800BC, and certainly not by me. (Never seen it that ealry on any game at any level. Has anyone else?) So much for the CS slingshot, which I sorely wanted in order to maximize my resource-rich capital. Alas, I'm at 500AD and still without CS, Bureaucracy, and macemen.

On the positive side, I have circumnavigated the globe, contacted all the other civs, gained both an academy and Philosophy from Great Scientists, built GLH, GL, and the Colossus, have dominion over 8 cities (3 American), and a running score of 45,000.

I established Berlin 1W, researched, in order, AH, BW, Fishing, Writing, The Wheel, MYST, MED, and began Preisthood (at which point the Oracle was so precociously completed). I first settled east by the horses to keep them from GW and to have chariots available when the barbs arrived around 2000BC. Then I founded on the good sites nearer home and began building an empire. When GW built Atlanta within reach of the iron, I went to war before he could mine and road it.

How BEST to take over the world from here is an interesting problem with many varied alternatives that seem almost equally attractive.

 

[Equendil]

The starting position denies access to fish and gold, and I couldn't care less about dye, since I can't hook it up until later on, so after moving my scout to uncover a few tiles, which provides no new information, I settle 1 tile west.

I didn't have the slightest idea how to win a game with archipelagos, so I had no real plan at the start other than taking advantages of the industrial and expansive traits. There's going to be much whipping (fast granaries and good starting location food wise), wonders (50% bonus on building wonders), and I'll get forges as soon as I can. Still, I'm vaguely hoping for a domination victory though I probably won't wage war early. I'll see how it goes ...


c. 4000BC

Berlin is founded! Fishing will be my first discovery. I begin a worker, switch to a workboat when fishing is discovered and start researching Animal Husbandry for the pigs. When the workboat is done, I complete my first worker, then a warrior. Bronze working is researched next.

Meanwhile, I make contact with ... Americans, who share my island. My scout finds no huts (but that was to be expected given the last GOTM), but I spot a nice location for my second city, near marble, rice and cows to the south east.

c. 2760 BC. Bronze working is discovered. I'll research the Wheel and Mysticism next. My city is building a settler. Once Mysticism is discovered and my settler is done, work on Stonehenge and research of Priesthood begins. copper is spotted in my capital's fat cross.

c. 2120 BC. My settler under escort of a warrior unit founds Hamburg near marble, rice and cows south east of Berlin!

c. 1960 BC. Stonehenge is built. Time for some military units, Berlin is building an axeman. Writing is being researched around that time. As soon as my axeman is done, work on the Oracle begins. The population in Berlin has gone up and down quite a bit since the start due to whipping.

c. 1480 BC. Ta da ! The Oracle is built. I pick ... Metal Casting as my free tech. It's rather unusual (edit: seeing other people comments, maybe it's not that unusual after all), but it's costly to research, I have the industrial trait which means I can build forges quick, may as well take good advantage of that and shoot ahead of other civs. I immediately being building a forge in Berlin. Alphabet is next on my research list.

c. 1040 BC. Berlin is going strong, and the Colossus is completed.

c. 700 BC. I'm done with Alphabet, and researching Code of Laws. I get Agriculture, Sailing, Masonry, and Iron Working from Americans through trading. No iron on my (western) part of the Island, but Americans have some. I don't think I have have made contact with other civilizations yet. Only two cities so far, but the third will follow soon. I must have researched pottery at some point, can't remember when.

c. 525 BC. Munich is founded near rice, horses and gems on the narrow part of the island east. It's blocking the way so Americans won't get a foothold on my part of the Island. I eventually plan on waging war on America when the Island is too small for the two of us but not yet ... No good location left for a fourth city though.

c. 250 BC. Academy built in Berlin thanks to a Great Scientist.

c. 200 BC. The Parthenon is built in Berlin.

c. 75 BC. The Great Library is built in Berlin. Whipped another four of my population, they're not happy about it. I'll let my city grow from now on however.

c. 225 AD. Christianity is founded in Munich. It will spread nicely on the Island since it's the only religion here. I make it my state religion, switch to organized religion, and build the Church of Nativity a few turns later thanks to a Great Prophet. Washington will also convert to Christianity.

So far so good. Few cities, but good start (given the limited options for tech trade and limited territory at least) ...

Can't remember when I started sailing around the globe with two galleys, but I think I had contact with just the Japanese (in addition to Washington of course) at that point. Tokugawa isn't the nicest of neighbours, though usually falls behind in score fast compared to other civs, the annoying thing is I can't trade techs with him as usual... Though I waited very late to build galleys, I'm surprised no other civ made their way to our island yet. Looks like we may be isolated. (edit:removed details of nearby islands). There's huts after all, at least I spotted one on an island settled by barbarians.

Quick summary:
State around 200AD. Only three cities, but I don't really have any more good spots on my part of the Island and Washington settled fast. On the other hand, my three cities are in good shape, Berlin has five wonders, I have founded the only religion of the island and I have the shrine. I overlooked exploration of the world until late, so I'm missing contact with several civs, maybe most, can't remember exactly who I had contacted by then. Anyhow, I was doing alright in score and techs, though starting to wonder how I'm going to win by domination. I should have wiped out Washington by now.

Early build order in capital: Worker, switched to workboat when fishing was discovered, finished worker, warrior, settler, Stonehenge, axeman, Oracle, Forge ...

Early research order: Fishing, Animal Husbandry, Bronze Working, The Wheel, Mysticism, Priesthood, Writing, Alphabet, Code of Laws. (pottery somewhere in there as well).

Early wonders: Stonehenge, Oracle, Colossus, Parthenon, Great Library, I just can't resist building wonders.

 

[VeryApe]

ORACLE completed in 1800BC, and certainly not by me. (Never seen it that ealry on any game at any level. Has anyone else?)

The AI completed it in 1840 BC in my game. The same AI also got the Pyramids, Colossus, Great Library and the Hanging Gardens early in the same city. So my plan for Oracle to get Metal Casting failed. At least I got the Great Lighthouse built

 

[Murky]

First of all, thanks to Strobe , I took a lot of good ideas from his post.

Given the kind of map and speed the goal is SS victory (could be changed, of course).

As most of all did, and as I planned in pre-game discussion, settled Berlin 1W,
since scout (NE-E) revealed nothing. For some (or no) reason I decided to send it East.

Research Path:

AH - Wheel - Fish - BW (I was pushed on it by the forest grown on my only workable hill - luckily)
- Writing - Myst - Medit - Priest - CoL/CS - sailing - masonry
- Alpha (but i knew only Washington and Toku, and no one was trading techs) so:
Agri - Archery - pottery - MC - Literature - machinery (and maces start to appear)

Build queue:

worker - warrior - warrior - WorkBoat - axe - settler - library (immediately switched 2 scientits)
- Stonehenge - axe - Oracle (it was 1 turn before CoL, but a GS was born 3 turns before, built Academy,
so CoL was anticipated 2 turns and Oracle was built 1 after for a perfect CS slingshot)
- barracks - LG - GreatLG - don't remember exactly from now on, but forge followed by Colossus
- GL in Hamburg, marble not hooked.

Initially i planned to settle Hamburg near marble, but after AH and the meeting with GW, I decided
to settle near horses and gems, avoiding him to expand in the south west side of our continent.
Another good decision was Munich, settle west of Hamburg for the same reason (blocking GW)
and the choice between pigs and clam in favour of clam revealed good after IW.

Few turns after Oracle i learned that Pyramids "was built in a far away land" OK, I'll try to survive without.
Until 500 AD everything was peaceful, meet only Toku (better, he did),
so i'll talk about my wars in the 2nd spoiler, where i wish to talk about a very, very strange (good)
thing that happenened in the mid game.

As usual, some general note:
1) starting with GotM 7 we can forget goody huts: IMO this is balancing the contenders, but is raising the level:
no money and no free techs are probably sufficient to consider this Monarch like an Emperor,
at least for the initial ages.
2) In addition, apart gold and copper near Berlin, the "american" territory is incomparably better than the German one.
In fact, in the late game, my best cities was former americans.
3) This is the first site for a capital WITHOUT fresh water, never happened in my games, if I'm not wrong
All those conditions together, are definitely raising the game to Emperor (IMO).

I hope that if, as probably will, next game will be Emperor, the starting area will be,
at least, comparable with the starting areas of the AIs.

anyway the game was more challenging, and i wish to thank the Staff for the good job.

I would have to agree this felt more like Emperor than Monarch. I was tempted to move my capital to Washington's former lands because they were so much nicer. In most of my test games, Washington was never an early enemy. You usually ended up with Monty or Kublai Khan. He's was much more difficult to deal with than them because his lands played perfectly into the organized/financial traits.

 

[trippstowe]

On day one, I did most of everything up to 0AD. I didn’t take notes so this is not very detailed. This is my first game on all by myself on monarch. I haven’t lost a prince game since I can remember though. It is time I graduated.

Every GOTM I have tried for a higher score via domination or conquest. I am tired of these ending, so this one I will try for a different victory. It looks like culture is out because I cannot get my own religions fast enough, so it will be either diplio or space race. I also planned to get the oracle for metal casting, great lighthouse, and the colossus. As discussed the pregame thread, this seemed to be necessary.

I started out settling 1W next to the coast. This seemed optimal to me to get the piggys and the gold. This seemed to be good; I got a worker then 2 warriors before I got another settler out. Then I built a lighthouse and then the great lighthouse. I settled my next city next to marble to the SE. I made a mistake here and didn’t make this a coastal city, I think I should have since I will have the coastal wonders. I then settled the NW to get corn and gold. Then settled on the horses, I wanted to get the gems too but Washington beat me to it. My last settlement was next to the spices to the NE. during this time I got the oracle and rushed metal casting. I think the CS slingshot would have been too much of a risk at this level and metal casting is a slingshot also. Built the forge and the colossus. Now I am building libraries everywhere then forges, then …. My relations with Washington and Japan are good. Washington has helped me fill in lots of missing techs. I will settle one more city on this island on the isthmus to the north, also I have some prospects on other islands that I like. My economy is pretty good, at 70% with +4 gold, and my score is a good 150 points above Washington, and Japan doesn’t look like they will ever catch us. As far as tech path I really don’t remember what order I went in at all. I know that I am not making a bee-line for astronomy, especially with the colossus and my galleys being able to make it pretty far without it. Maybe I can make use of the ironside later. It has always seemed pretty useless to me. At 0AD I am now researching calendar and building a galley to settle off the original island.

EDIT: Oh and I used my great merchant to discover currency. it seems like a good idea so far.

EDIT2: My second city is now my GPS provider with the Great Library.

 

[culdeus]

One thing that really got me off track is that when the oracle was built so early. I had to take a right turn on the tech path to get to Lit faster. The AI really builds the 50% bonus wonders first chance they get and the GLibrary is marble also.

The AI also de-emphasizes the great lighthouse so that was delayed somewhat.

 

[DaviddesJ]

I can't agree with BLubmuz at all. We have a great starting position (pigs, fish, gold, and copper and spices), and a huge amount of room to expand. Washington also has a good starting position, which is good for us, as it gives us a trading partner, and his cities will be good for us whenever we attack and capture them. The only thing that makes this game at all difficult is the early completions for Oracle etc. (at least in some games). Otherwise it seems significantly easier than average Monarch.

 

[redemption438]

@redemption438:

Not to be a bummer or anything, but I'm certain that the top culture dates will be much earlier than that, probably in the 1600s.

Yes, I didn't mean I was expecting the best date. Was just musing about my personal goal - I only tried culture once before, and that was a 1930ish victory on monarch with a better leader, so I'm hoping to improve on it.

I also assume the fastest cultural dates at this level will be from a strategy that begins with warmongering and much more expansion, rather than the peaceful minimalist approach. Do you think that's true or false?

Btw, nice culture strategy guide.

 

[paulhager]

I haven't played above Prince level, at which I've won about 2/3 of the time. Therefore, I decided to take the (EDIT) "adventurer" option with the extra archers and settler (sorry for the subject error).

Given the extra units, I used the westernmost settler to found Berlin and used the other units + settler (carefully) for searching. As a consequence, I found a pretty good location for the second city with the Marble resource just outside the Fat Cross (FC). There was also a Cow resource which give me a lot of hammers for construction. Given the circumstances of two early cities, I decided to go for Stonehenge in city #2. I also went for and actually got Polytheism/Hinduism. At that point I had Fishing and Animal Husbandry. I then made a beeline toward the well-known "CS Slingshot".

I discovered early on that George Washington was sharing the Island with me. Initially I was comfortably ahead but saw that George was catching up. Right after I got Writing, I switched gears and went for Organized Religion and Masonry. I decided to go for Theology and take advantage of the +2 bonus experience since I planned on going to war with George ASAP. Meanwhile, I founded a third city east of city #2 with Horses in the FC. Amazingly, I was able to build both the Parthenon and the Pyramids prior to going to war with George.

Facilitating my war was that George apparently didn't have access to copper, though it transpired he also had horses. My initial shot was to attack a settler plus escorting archers with Axmen + chariots. All of my chariots started out with F1+F2 promotions. As a result, I only lost one chariot during attacks and one in a counter attack during my war. Unfortunately, I only took one city while razing another. George got Horse Archers which complicated things. Several groups were landed behind my lines where, fortunately, I had adequate reserves, including anti-horse spearmen. Still, the spoiling attacks slowed me down enough that I eventually stopped with George down to two cities on the Island + another city that had apparently been founded elsewhere. I was hoping to obtain some tech but George was quite wooden and wouldn't give up anything for an armistice. Frankly, I've never been able to get the A.I. to give up tech at any level - I don't know how other players manage this (if there's some secret to this, I'd like to know it).

Somewhere during the battle, both Tokugawa and Cyrus sailed by and I established contact with them. I could never get Tokugawa to trade but Cyrus became quite friendly - it helped that the Persians adopted Hinduism.

As of 500 AD I remain in the overall lead, have Macemen, and am running both Bureaucracy and Pacifism. I've expanded to cover most of the Island, though George has 3 cities + 3 elsewhere. I also have 6 in 500. I have two main GP farms - one is producing GS, the other GP. I've been trying to set things up for a potential cultural victory. We'll see how that plays out.

 

[MrRudy]

Hello everyone!

[Off Topic]

I'm quite new to this forum - just joined in June. And this is my first GOTM game (which I'm also planning to submit). I've been playing Civ4 for a while and my skills have tremendesly increased during a month period thanks to this forum. Before joining Civfanatics, I was struggling on Noble (mostly loosing). Now I practically win every Noble game and I'm looking foward to Prince level. I also took a challenge in GOTM VII, but I made some dramatic mistakes that led to unpleasant defeat.
This month it is time for Monarch which for me is huge step foward. Well... this, of course, will not prevent me from joining in. Most likely I'm going to loose, but it will be great fun anyway. I made a few test games with the same map conditions and in 2 out of 3 I made teriblly bad, but in the other game I was doing fairly well till Industrios age, after I started drastically to fall behind both in score and technology. Nevertheless I'm going to start the game as a Contender class.

[On Topic]

The PLAN

My initial plan was trying to beeline for Oracle CS slingshot, trying to build some wonders (Great Lighthouse or Pyramids, Colossus), explore the arcipelago I have been put on to see if I have any neighbours nearby. I also had in mind following guidelines provided by armstrong where instead of going for CS slingshot I would take Metal Casting.

First Moves

I setlled one tile to W (I guess most people did it). I took Fishing to research as the first tech. And was building worker in Berlin. A little exploration of an island led to the fact that my neighbour is Americans (Washington). Well... could be worse, of course. As soon as I resarched Fishing, I swithched to building fishing boat in Berlin to enjoy the food/growth benefit of a fish tile. And continued researching AH, to be able fo work Pig tile and to see if I have Horses nearby. After resarching AH, I found out that a horse resource is pretty far from my initial location, so without much thinking I went for BW to see if I have copper somewhere nearer my location. When I researched BW, to my surprise I found out that there were 2 copper resources nearby. That was very good, otherwise most likely I would go for Archery to be able to defend from Barbs. Speaking of huts, no huts on the starting island for me. Anyway, there were some huts on neighbouring islands. Seeing that I have no stone resource near me, made me a bit sad since it would be very helpful for wonders I wanted to build. I was getting worried if I could be able to make CS slingshot since it requires researching CoL and it would most likely mean - bye, bye Pyramids or Great Lighthouse and other early wonders. So, I decided going for Metal Casting instead. Building Great LightHouse and Colossus at least. Copper factor made me think, that I would be able to build Colossus in the second city.

Wonders, wonders, wonders....

I completed Oracle in 1600 BC and made a slingshot to Metal Casting. I started building a Forge in Berlin to be able to set one person to GE. Meanwhile researching techs required for building Great Lighthouse. Building Great Lighthouse was a piece of cake - it could be built in 7 turns. With additional help of forest chop I made to it lightingly fast. I was also thinking of building Stonehenge as no one had managed to do this yet. But I decided it wasn't necessary since there were other things to care about as well. In 825 BC I was lucky to get GE in Berlin, that gave me free Pyramids in the next turn. [very happy] And soon afterwards the Colossus had been finished in Hamburg (second city), too! This was a really successful start and I was rolling ahead in score by some 80 points over Washington. Also Judaism got spread to my empire somewhere about this time, and I converted to it.

Wonders I built:

1600 BC - Oracle
1000 BC - Great Lighthouse
800 BC - Pyramids
600 BC - Colossus
450 AD - Great Library

Nasty Washington

After a successful wonder rush, I was planning to expand to some more 3-4 cities. I built 2 other cities: Munich to the SE of Berlin next to the cow resourse and Cologne NE of Berlin next to corn and dyes. My military was pretty weak at this point - I had 2-3 warriors, 2 spearman and 1 axeman. I noticed how Washington passed with 3 chariots (nicely upgraded) and an archer by my fog buster axeman. I had a pretty bad feeling he is going to attack me, so I put my axamen way back home. (of course, he couldn't keep up with chariots). I started to build military, but I could build only 1 spearman at best before the arrival of Washington. And, in 375 BC Washington declares WAR on me. There was no way of defending my newly founded cities - they got raized soon afterwards. I managed to fight back the first wave of attack and to my surprise there wasn't second one for hundreds of years. But quite a significant devastation had been made to my empire and now I was equaled (a little backwards) of Cyrus and Washington. Nevertheless I was not going to give up. I managed to build quite nice numbers of military, but this was not save enough to attempt to take Atlanta from Washington as my catapults were just to arrive. I was also leaning towards maceman to be able to play sweet revenge to my pal Washington.

Assesment by 500 AD

After recovering from unpleasant attack my military was pretty good to garantee safety in my empire, but still not powerful enough to give some significant punch back to Washington. So, shortly after 500 AD I made peace with Washington as he was getting horse archers and was about to unload 4 of them near Berlin for pilliaging most likely. I'm building catapults and soon maceman are about to arrive. I've also managed to build 2 new cities in place of raized ones. And I'm about to build another at the end of strange archipelago horn to the North. Wonders keep my economy at quite good rate and I'm somewhere about in the middle in players score list. I fall a bit in behind for techs to Vicky. I've also managed to get Great Library in Berlin thanks to another GE. My future plans is to attack Washington of course as soon as I get good numbers of maces+cats. I could have been doing much better, if I didn't neglect my military after a successful wonder rush. So to say - you can always learn from your mistakes! Currently I'm not sure what type of victory I'm trying to achieve. Most likely I will go for space race which seems most reasonable on such type of the map.

Screenshot of 750 BC attached. (this is my only screenshot taken)