GOTM-1: Closing Spoiler

[ainwood]

GOTM-01 Final Spoiler

To qualify for this spoiler, you must have completed the game and submitted it.

The first spoiler was targetted at the starting continent, but there is more in the world than the greek!

How did you make contact with the rest of the world? What were your victory plans? How did you go about executing them? Who were the strongest competition and why? How did you go in the tech race?

 

[MerakSpielman]

Since I didn't take notes this will be pretty brief...

I finished in 2021, I think, with a Space Race Victory. Mao was right behind me, with just 2 pieces to go to finish his ship. I was worried he'd pop them out at the last minute, but he didn't.

Strangely enough, every civ in the game (except the greeks) founded a different religion, so nobody was a religious ally with anybody else.

But Mao was 500 points behind me the whole game, and was trouncing me on research right up until the modern age. Everybody loved him. Nobody was willing to cut off their trade or go to war with him.

The people on the other contenent were all busy ganging up on Isabella, so Mao was my only real competition.

I didn't conquer the Greeks until the 1930s, since I'm a pansy and didn't want to attack until I had an overwhelming force, and little wars with him kept whittling down my army. When you only get one shot at the game, you get a lot more tentative about wars... Other than the Greeks, there were no wars at all. Nobody declared on me or landed on my shores. Other than Mao, I was far enough ahead technologically that any invasion would have been repelled handily.

 

[Smidlee]

I conquered the greeks around 1130Ad since I made 10 turns peace with them to trade off some tech for peace. Surprisingly I wasn't too far behind in tech when I started meeting other civs. Even though having all those greek cities slow me down in the short run it didn't take long before these cities payed off. (maybe I should have destroyed Greeks sooners even though my research was down to 50%)

Once I revealed most of the map ands traded maps I then planned for the domination victory but later I wished I went for conquest. I planned to conquer Mao Zedong first NE island after building up some which started in 1830 AD. The other continent was engaged in war often so after my two in the row golden ages (16 turns using 2 Great persons plus Taj Mahal) I jumped a huge lead in techs for the rest of the game. ( The tal Mahal was the first wonder I build since before this I built units.)
It took me longer to conquer Mao Zedong than I had planned. Aztec declare war with me right after I declare war on Mao since I refuse give them free tech. In 1882 I made peace with Mao (and Aztecs)after conquering 4 of his cities so remove war weariness. I wonder if this was a mistake since 10 turns later he had regrouped his defenses. After my third golden age kick in I reentered war with China in 1906.
I finally destroyed China in 1932 with only 48% of the land. I was starting to wonder about the time limit so decided to continue with domination and not go for conquest. Aztecs was my next target since I was friendly to the Germans. Yet Aztecs had the a lot more and better units (rifleman) than any other nation so I thought this is going to be close with less than a hundred turns left. At this time I enter the modern age and would later discovery noone else would follow me. So once I built up a huge army of tanks, nothing could stand in my way from conquering one city after the next.

I strated attacking Aztecs in 1942 and by 1954 I had destroyed them. Wow, that was a lot faster than I thought since I figure he would soon get helicopters since it probably just one tech away. The biggest problem I had was waiting on my artillery to catch up with my tanks to attack noncoastal cities. Now after these cities settled down I had over 60% of the land.

My next target was Isabella. When I started invaded her I soon realized the war between her and Saladin had weaken her defence so much (both behind in tech) I lost very few units taking one city after another. At this time I had bombers yet even my bombers had trouble keeping up with my tanks run down cities. After I took these cities yet not settled down yet I realize I could have when for thre conquests. I have another bombers, choppers and tanks to taken both Saladin and Bismarck in just a few more turns. I decided to stick with domination since I already took Isabella cities. (I could have given a few cities away then declare war and destroy them but figure that too much trouble). IIRC China was the only one who had infantry so after destroying and then getting tanks the game was all over except for mopping up the rest.

So taking out china first was probably a good choice. (I don't think about taking screenshots since this is my first gotm.) There was no space race at all in my game. While I did start the apollo program I didn't finished it.

 

[MyOtherName]

My plan was a diplomatic victory! Play nice with everybody, make a beeline for mass media, rush the UN (I was even saving a great engineer for this purpose).

It all worked beautifully, UN is constructed in 1650, I win the secretary general election... and then a harsh reality set in... I forgot to cultivate my allies enough to vote for me!

Mao had always been in my back pocket, and I took over my whole continent, so I only needed one other ally. By the time I converted all of Isabella's cities to my religion, I had gotten enough negative hits that I couldn't bribe her to convert. (Mao, apparently, was her worst enemy. )

Maybe I still could have salvaged it, but I didn't think about passing a free religion resolution until much later; Isabella was voting for Frederick since they were the same religion. After passing the free religion resolution, Isabella voted for me for secretary general, but by then I had enough negative penalties that she wouldn't vote for me for victory.


In the end, I went to war with Frederick, got some more cities, and enough population so that all I needed was Mao to put me over the threshold. Victory in 1892. *sigh*

 

[Smidlee]

In the end, I went to war with Frederick, got some more cities, and enough population so that all I needed was Mao to put me over the threshold. Victory in 1892. *sigh*

Frederick was in your game? I had Bismarck so I guess this means in gotm saved you can have either German leader in the game.

 

[Grogs]

My Spoiler1 info is here:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=144187&page=6

Brief synopsis:

I encountered my first off-continent civ (Germany) with my caravel in 1190 AD. By 1300, I had met them all. I had thought that, maybe sharing the same continent and trading techs, some of the AI's would be close, if not actually ahead of me tech-wise. That was not the case. I was up 4-8 (visible) techs on every civ I met and only Mao had any decent techs over me (philosophy and engineering.) All alone now on my island fortress, I could pretty much win by any method I chose (except maybe diplomacy.)

I was torn between going for a cultural win or a Spaceship. I finally decided that since I only had 2 religions and no easy way to get the others, the spaceship victory would be easier to achieve. I focused on techs to improve my economy, my research, and ultimately spaceship production. At the same time, I filled out the remainder of the continent and worked on building high production/high commerce cities. For most of the 2nd spoiler, I ran the following civics: representation (science boost); civil service (Rome was by far the richest city, and with Stock Market/Oxford University/Academy it was producing about 1/3 of the research/gold in the empire); Caste system (lots of scientists); Free Market (this one was actually a mistake. I would have been better off with mercantilism, but I didn't want to waste a turn of anarchy only to discover I was wrong); Organized religion (for the +25% production.)

Because I kept my state religion (Confucianism,) most of the other civs were unfriendly with me. Only Mao was willing to trade. I traded him Monarchy for HBR. *Very* late in the game, Isabella traded me cattle and rice for silk and corn, but she cancelled it 10 turns later. The 4 civs on the big continent (Spain, Arabia, Germany, and Aztec) spent a good deal of their time fighting each other. Mao decided to get in on the fun as well, going to war with Monte in 1866. I politely refused all requests to join in on the fun. I researched Rocketry in 1858, built the Apollo Program in 1890, and launched the Spaceship in 1942.

Tech progress:

1220 AD: Divine Right
1250 AD: Paper
1330 AD: Education
1330 AD: Music (G. Artist)
1370 AD: Philosophy
1370 AD: Horseback Riding (Trade w/ Mao)
1430 AD: Liberalism
1430 AD: Nationalism (Free Tech)
1500 AD: Military Tradition
1520 AD: Gunpowder
1555 AD: Constitution
1565 AD: Engineering
1575 AD: Feudalism
1580 AD: Guilds
1585 AD: Banking
1595 AD: Economics
1610 AD: Printing Press
1620 AD: Corporation
1635 AD: Replacable Parts
1645 AD: Astronomy
1660 AD: Rifling
1675 AD: Chemistry
1680 AD: Steam Power
1705 AD: Steel
1725 AD: Assembly Line
1740 AD: Railroad
1750 AD: S & M (Scientific Method)
1770 AD: Physics
1790 AD: Electricity
1800 AD: Combustion
1810 AD: Democracy
1825 AD: Artillery
1845 AD: Industrialism
1858 AD: Rocketry
1862 AD: Radio
1872 AD: Computers
1880 AD: Satellites
1888 AD: Plastics
1896 AD: Robotics
1902 AD: Fission
1910 AD: Fiber Optics
1918 AD: Fusion
1922 AD: Biology
1924 AD: Refrigeration
1931 AD: Genetics
1933 AD: Ecology
1936 AD: Composites
1941 AD: Future Tech 1

Skipped Techs: Communism, Fascism, Flight, Medicine, Mass Media

I built pretty much every wonder from classical times on, with the exception of Chichen Itza that I lost by 2 turns. I didn't build the ones from the skipped techs (obviously) or ones that were completely pointless, like the Eiffel Tower.

Final Stats: Space Race Victory in 1942. Time Played: 23 hours, 58 minutes. Final Score: 15991

Final Thoughts: I've played quite a few noble games, but I don't think I've ever been that far ahead of everybody that early. I seem to remember a lot of people in the spoiler1 thread mentioning that the AI made contact with them around 1050-1100. I don't think I saw another caravel until around ~1400 or so. I think a big part of that was because the 4 civs on the main continent spent all their efforts pounding on each other. Mao, all by himself, did a little better, but with nobody to trade with and no AI to get free cities/workers from, he lagged behind as well. Also, Mao had a lot of desert/tundra and a rather small island, and his city placement was awful. I think also that Ainwood & Company had the kid gloves on when they came up with this map. Had the continent been lacking iron or another critical resource, it may have played out differently. All in all, it was a fun GOTM and I'm looking forward to the next one.

 

[Smidlee]

Final Thoughts: I've played quite a few noble games, but I don't think I've ever been that far ahead of everybody that early.

This is the first game on noble I was 8-10 techs ahead of everyone. Once I destroyed China the other civ never advance much in techs afterwards.

I think a big part of that was because the 4 civs on the main continent spent all their efforts pounding on each other. Mao, all by himself, did a little better, but with nobody to trade with and no AI to get free cities/workers from, he lagged behind as well. Also, Mao had a lot of desert/tundra and a rather small island, and his city placement was awful. I think also that Ainwood & Company had the kid gloves on when they came up with this map.

Still with a lot of newcomers playing their first gotm (my first also) I believe Ainwood made a good decession for the Civ4 first GOTM. This was the first game of civ4 where I went for the domination/conquest when I saw I was in a good position to do so.

Had the continent been lacking iron or another critical resource, it may have played out differently. All in all, it was a fun GOTM and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Lacking of Iron would probably cause me to go for the space race again (To me it easy to win the space race on noble) so I'm gald I had iron for us warmongers.
It was a fun game and I learn more about how to win by conquest.

 

[BeefontheBone]

I ended up finishing with an SS launch in 1986, only Mao having even completed Apollo and a couple of casings. On meeting the AI players I found I'd a noticeable tech lead in every area except naval (Mao came and met me rather than the other way around), finished off Greece's last couple of cities and continued to build up. I was preparing to launch an invasion against second-placed Mao, the others having divvied up their continent evenly and scattered a few religions about (Isabella having founded 3 IIRC, 2 for me and 2 for Mao), meaning they'd obviously not fought amongst themselves much, when Monty decided it would be a good idea to attack me. I fended off his invasion force (he probably could have taken 1 of my ex-greek cities but opted to pillage instead) then retaliated with marines and tanks, plus overwhelmingly superior naval units (my transports did about as much work clearing frigates and galleons as the destroyers and battleships I built), damaging a lot of his forces in the south but eventually gaining a foothold in the north then airlifting in units and bombers to finish him off. I ended up being attacked by bismark (I suspect the poster above meant him rather than fred) just as I was contemplating attacking him anyway to stop munich and berlin culture flipping my aztec conquests and wiping him out too. Isabella decided to attack me on the interturn before I finished my SS but just failed to take even one city (I'd put lots of mech inf in there in anticipation of this). To be honest, once I realised I was a long way ahead of the AI the second half of the game was a lot less exciting than the first, although my score of about 11200 could have been higher if I'd been more agressive. Hopefully the next GOTM will provide a bit more of a challenge - I'm finding even Prince to be a big step up from Noble (speaking as a C3C Emperor player).

 

[Drogear]

Got my space race victory 1970 AD and a score of 12465.

Had an early war against the greeks using my legionars and catapults and won without a real opposition to speak of.

I only played on monarck diff before that acctually hold my game score down. Missed some wonders to build cuz I was sure the AI would get it before me, but they where incredibly slow on buildning wonders and got it a time where I could build it twice... and I belive (in hinsight) that a conguest victory could have been very easy to achive (so is a space race vitory to but with perhaps less score points)

It was an dilema of chosing a peacefull space race victory or a conquest. I did something in the middle wich might have been a dumb choice. Whent for a spacerace vic but combined with a oversees battle against China. I somewhat easly defeated the chines with my cavalry and infantry vs knight and longbowmen but it took 15-20 turns to get every city that resultet in alot of unhappines in my home continent and by that crippling a optimal research/build pattern setting my space vic back around 10 turns or more...

 

[PaperBeetle]

GOTM-01 Final Spoiler

The first spoiler was targetted at the starting continent, but there is more in the world than the greek!

Nonsense! What is there in wider world to compare with the magnificence of Rome? Why, I can barely recall which artless plebs I was playing against!

The Early Summary
Contact with the outside world was established when a Chinese caravel arrived in 1060ad. By this point I had founded Judaism, Confucianism, Christianity and Taoism. Relations with the Buddhists in Greece were frosty, but we had not been to war yet. The continent was divided roughly in half between us; everything east and south of the Great Desert being Greek.
I was aware that I was falling behind in tech (rated 5th in 820ad), but I didn't mind too much; as long as my cultural cities always had something to build, I was content. Also, Mao had been researching well, but with a more balanced approach to the tech tree, so I was able to trade 6 techs from him over the next 100 years or so, in exchange for my advanced religious theories.

Frosty Relations
I founded the last religion, Islam, in 1180ad. Next turn, Alex declared war. This was a bit of a scary moment, as I had been totally neglecting my military in favour of spreading my religions around my empire, and building temples everywhere to support the cathedrals I would need in my cultural cities. Well, all my big cities had to switch their builds to praetorians at short notice. This included the cultural cities themselves; the two on the Tiber had Greek borders, and both came under siege from enemy forces. Luckily, praetorians are a dependable sort, and I beat back all of Alex's attacks. In 1280ad, we agreed peace for a nominal sum. I would have liked to beat him up more, shifting on to the offence, but my culture building was stalled by this war, and I needed to get it going again.

Icy Relations
Despite resuming luxury trading, Alex wasn't happy with the peace, becoming ever more envious of Rome's cultural magnificence and scientific grandeur (well, tech 4th in 1410ad, with Greece in last place). He dowed again in 1520ad, with a relatively pitiful invasion force aimed at my southernmost city - an area famed for border tensions. I brushed his troops aside in the first turn, and then started edging over into Greece. In 1565ad, I captured Pharsalos, the westernmost Greek town. Crucially, this finally brought Buddhism into my empire. Pushing east, I took Delphi in 1595ad, and give Alex peace; he wouldn't give up any towns, and had nothing else to offer, but these wars still hurt my culture farming. I was beginning to wish I had taken the imitative early in the game and kicked the Greeks off the continent.

Stick or Twist
Although I knew I was falling back in tech, I still managed to be the first to Liberalism in 1620ad, taking Astronomy free. I immediately implemented Free Speech (+100% cpt) and was faced with a big choice; keep researching or switch all commerce to culture? The next really interesting techs to me were Democracy (for Statue of Liberty) Biology (+1 food on irrigation, which would allow for more specialists), and Radio (Eiffel Tower). That's a long way to go for any great payoff. I did keep researching, but the reason was that I didn't want Alex getting ahead of me in tech. I really should have killed him so long ago...

Warmer Relations
By now we were starting to meet the guys from the Alpha continent. Bismarck had sent a caravel over to us way back in 1450ad. Monty arrived in 1645ad, and I met the other two with my own exploring caravel in 1645ad (Arabia) and 1665ad (Spain). Of course, these guys were all Hindu (and Mao an atheist, although he briefly adopted Judaism), as a result of my religion-hogging antics. They weren't greatly impressed with me, but at least they didn't keep attacking me, and I could sell them my spare luxuries and techs. I got occasional attempts at extortion, but I knocked most back.

The Thorn in My Side
Things trundled on uneventfully for a long while, with my cultural towns throwing up enormous numbers of religious buildings, and the rest of the empire doing missionaries and temples. I had also found the time to dedicate some towns to military production, so when I got Alex's third dow in 1878ad, I was able to take Argos from him on the first turn - although on the south-eastern edge of the Great Desert, the combined culture of Rome and Antium had pushed the Greek border right up to the town.
Alex did almost have a moment of brilliance, shipping eight units along the south coast for a sneak attack behind enemy lines, but I had just acquired Chemistry, and some hastily-upgraded grenadiers saw off the invasion.

Crawling Over the Line
I went on to take Knossos in 1900ad, leaving Alex with his four south-easternmost towns, and gave him peace again. There was no advantage to killing him now. I just wanted to get my culture slider up as high as possible and finish up. I was still researching a little, using the Representation/Mercantilism combo, but I spent the rest of the game with culture at 90%. In the end, each city had its six cathedrals (I never got Hinduism), although my youngest legendary city, Neapolis, was a real slouch throughout. I had to devote all but one of my culture bombs to it, for it to keep pace with the other two. Rome hit legendary in the 1963/4ad interturn, and Antium and Neapolis follow a turn later.

Cultural victory in 1964ad, for a final score of 8776, taking 19 hours.
This is actually my equal-earliest finish date for Civ4, but I started out hoping for something like 1900ad. Alex's repeated interruptions certainly set me back quite a bit, but I am ultimately undecided as to whether it would have been worth taking time out to kill him completely.

 

[PaperBeetle]

Now I find Civ4 to be a rather un-dynamic game compared to Civ3. Sure, I played that cultural game in a pretty sedate fashion, but it shouldn't be just the human player that introduces some life to proceedings. In Civ3, the AI run amok, killing each other, founding silly towns in unlikely locations, disintegrating at the thought of researching industrial techs, that kind of stuff. There's always something going on somewhere in the game, even if the player is just taking it easy. In Civ4, my final graph and world map always look a lot like nothing happened for the whole game...

 

[Phal78]

Got my space race victory 1970 AD and a score of 12465.

How did you get such a big score? I got a space race victory in 1970 + 2 future techs + 16 cities with a score of only 8993.

What factors optimise the score?

 

[StanNP]

Domination victory – 1515AD – 78000 Firaxis points

I circumnavigated the globe in 1090AD and finished Astronomy for Galleons the same turn. My first contact had been with Germany to the East, so I maintained good relationships with them and used open borders to stage attacks on the other Civs on that continent.

My first opponent was Montezuma to the north of Germany. One city was directly on the border with Germany, so I could literally walk up next to the city and declare/attack the same turn. My initial offense force consisted of Praetorians and recently upgraded Macemen. My conquest of the Aztecs was delayed by several miss queues on my part.

1). The Aztecs may have been the only Civ besides Germany to have already developed longbows when I attacked them. This required a significant investment in Catapults before I could take the cities. In general, they were tougher then any of the other opponents proved to be.

2). Lack of significant mix in my troop promotions. The Aztecs were very aggressive on their counter-attacks. One memorable incident occurred when I landed 3 Macemen in a forest tile next to the Aztec capitol. They all had +3 city raider promotions, and I expect Montezuma to not counter attack a stack with 8 + 4 (50% forest) strength. I was wrong and he counter-attacked with catapults and a stack of horse archers that wiped out my city raiders. If I had created just one +2 woodsmen unit instead of all city raiders, then my bonus would likely have been enough to withstand any counter-attack or even to prevent it.

During the Aztec war, I also sent units west around to the other side of the big continent and landed next to an Arab city and declared war. With only 3 units (2 Praetorians and 1 Cat) I was able to withstand his counterattack and beat down the city defenses until a 2nd Galleon with reinforcements arrived. The lesson here was that forested hills, next to enemy cites, are excellent locations to land your troops. If you have a defensive promotions, (+2 hills or +2 forest) you are very hard if impossible to dislodge. Preventing the AI from doing this to you is another reason to chop all the forests around you cities.

I continued to make progress from the far east of the large continent against the Arabs as I wrapped up the Aztec campaign. I used a number of my Galleons who had sailed around the northern tip of the Aztec peninsula to move troops across to the fight the Arab cities on Spanish/Arab border and pushed the Arabs south and west.

Once the Aztecs were completely destroy my War weariness vanished, even though I had no turns of complete peace between the Aztec and Arab wars. So WW was specific to each Civ, not simply a binary function. With this good news, I started an attack on the Spanish cities along the northern coast of large continent. Here I made one of my better moves of the game militarily. I decided that in the interest of speed I would sacrifice a number of units and attempt an amphibious assault against a Spanish city. I could not use my Catapults to reduce the cities defenses while they were still on my Galleons, but I could attack directly and get the collateral damage. Using this technique, I was able to take the city and the same turn move in additional Galleons and unload some Knights that could move two more tiles into Spanish territory and next to the Spanish capital.

At this time I decided I should open a third front with China on their own island, so I sent over a small number of Macemen and Cats to camp outside a few cities and bombard. I then brought over units directly form my Continent to the Chinese island. On the turn that the final Chinese cities fell I also grabbed the last major cities in the Spanish area and claimed a Domination victory. I was prepared to attack Germany as well, but victory came before I could launch that attack.

StanNP

Some screens to be added later

 

[suspendinlight]

No mid game spoiler? I guess it's not needed since the industrial and modern eras combined last less time than the ancient era with the horrible tech pacing...

Ancient Rome
Anyway, after eliminating the Greeks in 150 BC and founding Confucianism and Taosim, I settled the rest of my continent and eventually built some Caravels which were the first to circumnavigate the globe. I met the Chinese before my ships set out on their voyage. I decided to change from attempted Conquest victory to a measley space race since the continents were pretty far apart. I probably should have just invaded though...

The New World
I tried sending some missionaries to convert the Chinese to the teachings of Confucius, but found that they were governed by a theocratic regime of pagans who wouldn't allow Confucianism to be practiced. One expedition found a small island to the north of the main continent and a Roman outpost was founded. The technological wizardry of Roman engineers was reknowned throughout the globe.

The Modern Age and the Battle of Delphi
While most other nations were busy building their first factories, Roman engineers were working on powerful machines to colonize space. A slight speed bump in their progress occurred when the Spanish landed several Knights and Infantry on the south eastern shores of the Roman empire. Rome's defenses had been long neglected, but a call to arms was made across the land and soon a force of Roman Marines were dispatched to Delphi where they easily defended the city against the ill-equipped Spanish. Just a few years later, the Aztecs landed a much more deadly attack force of 10 cavalry supported by riflemen. The garrison at Delphi was unable to hold and the Aztecs razed the city to the ground. Several more brigades of marines were trained and the Aztecs were pushed off the continent. Unfortunately, the devious Germans founded an outpost amongst the ruins of Delphi while the Roman forces were tied up with the Aztecs. This ended Roman domination of the cotinent.

Finally in the 1930s, the Apollo Program enabled Romans to land on the moon. After dedicating much of their production capabilities to an interstellar spacecraft, the SS Julius Caesar launched in 1973 bound for Alpha Centauri.

Final score ~10,500

After wiping the Greeks out so early, I should have been able to win earlier by domination, but I was not confident about launching a seaborne invasion of another continent because I haven't done it in any Civ games yet. I guess I will have to practice.

 

[AlanH]

How did you get such a big score? I got a space race victory in 1970 + 2 future techs + 16 cities with a score of only 8993.

What factors optimise the score?

This post attempts to summarise it.

 

[Drogear]

How did you get such a big score? I got a space race victory in 1970 + 2 future techs + 16 cities with a score of only 8993.

What factors optimise the score?

Occupied the whole of my starting continent and the China island. Got big and developed cities and got 90-95% of all the wonders is the combined reasons that I think might have giving me that score.

 

[Javert]

After conquering the Greeks around 1050AD I cocoon'd up and turned all my cities toward infrastructure and tech racing. My goal was domination or conquest. I made sure I was first to circumnavigate the globe with my first 2 caravels because I knew unit transport was going to be an issue. I had built the Colossus, and in a questionable decision, I sidestepped Astronomy to keep the effect for as long as I could. Landing a conquest army with Galleon's did not seem like a workable strategy, so I opted to wait for transports. As soon as Industrialism was finished I shifted all cities into war prep. Theocracy/Vassalage/Pentagon = 3 promotions = ouch.

The big continent was a zoo during the 1800's. Isabella was taking and losing cities left and right. By the time I reached her, nearly every square in her empire had been pillaged by the Arabians.

1905 - I had several SoD's of tanks/artillery/infantry ready when the transports finally arrived.
1912 - I invaded China
1935 - China sleeps with the fishes. I waited a turn afterwards to drop in and attack Berlin to clear the war weariness.
1937 - Berlin falls
1942 - Declare war on the Aztec's - their cultural borders were getting in the
way.
1945 - Derclare war on the Arabians - they were pillaging the un-cultured roads I was planning to use and basically being annoying.
1948 - Germany destroyed
1950 - Declare war on Isabella - by this time I have a CPU straining number of military units in theater.
1952 - Atzec's destroyed - they had that obnoxious little island city that took an extra 4 turns to get to and kill.
1955 - Former german and Aztec cities begin popping culture expansions and Domination threshold is reached. I managed to take 3 out of Isabella's 5 cities and 1 Arabian city before it was over. I figure ~10 more turns would have been needed for conquest. I should have razed the Chinese cities in retrospect.

Final score: 16935
Time played: 12 hours 6 minutes.

Airports/bombers came online during the Germany invasion so I ended up taking too many cities to avoid the Domination threshold because I needed bases for the planes. I had a huge tech lead and was pretty much going against rifleman as the toughest defenders with tanks/bombers/infantry so it was easy going beyond handling logistics. Eventually SAM infantry showed up and put up a bit more fight, but not much. I often did not bother to wait for artillery to arrive and sacrificed extra tanks to take cities faster. Arties are just way too slow, and once bombers arrive you can pretty much delete them. I used them mostly for defense/ mop up duty after the China invasion.

Strange Happenings:
1) I did not get a great prophet until 1892 to build the Temple of Solomon. I am pretty sure my bad building choices caused that. I had too many artist/scientist/merchant wonders in Rome.
2) The only civilizations that were at all friendly to me were, ironically, China and Germany. No other civ traded me anything the entire game.

Conclusions: I think in the end my efforts to preserve the Colossus bonus probably slowed my game down too much. I also probably should have invaded earlier than Industrialization, but I find bulk conquering with single movement units and Cavalry to be really slow and frustrating.

Editorial: Epic speed is far more fun for warmongering. At normal speed there is little point in making war with the units between Iron Working and Industrialization because they become obsolete way too fast. You can still win with those units, but you can research their upgrades faster than you can build a useful number of them.

 

[Drogear]

In addition I managed to combine a near perfect tech and development phase trouout the game and still manage to wage succesfull wars wich I never done before in higher difficulties.

I only had to building 10 cavalry combined with my old catapults and infantry upgraded from my old pretorians to take all of China and still keep me abel to focus on the developing of cities and tech researching. Only big drawback was the raging unhappines due to my research/money civic´s.

 

[tigerden27]

I won in 1988 with a Diplomatic win. Having not played a competitive game of Civ before, I was all over the place on Victory conditions.

I started out with Stonehenge completed in 1080 BC, really wanted to get an idea of map and continent plus the early cultural growth of cities really helped. At this point all the early religions were founded, so I made a tech-run at Confucianism, in Pisae. Then I go after Theology, mainly because I know I'm going to want Theocracy for the Greecian war. But I side effect is I get Christianity, in Cumae. Neither religion gets founded in my capital, seems weird to me.

One thing I forgot. Rome's UU. So I was no where near it when I wanted to start the war with Greece. That will never happen again (#1). So I tech-run at Praetorians. Unfortunately, that leaves me a bit behind on the Catapult research. So I tech-run at them.

​

The war starts in 1130, with me going after two fronts (center and west). Down the middle of the continent to draw units away from the real battles in the west. Phasalos is the first city to fall, kind of fitting because it was founded the turn my settler moved into the square I was going to found a city at the next turn.

Alex sends a couple of units up the eastern flank, I'm not too worried about it, I'll produce a couple of Horse Archers to take them out before the pillaging gets too bad. Only they weren't out to pillage. They were after Cumae. I'm sure you all remember the Iron that was to the east of our starting location. Well, that just happened to be where Cumae was founded for me. At the time I didn't have Iron Working so I didn't even know it. Wasn't really paying too much attention because Iron units were available as soon I discovered Iron. BTW, Cumae is either the first or second city that Rome founds. Well, my only defense that was stationed there was the original Warrior we all start out with. Single source, critical resource, far away from my main army, hidden under a city, defended by the weakest military unit available. That will never happen again (#2). Yup, recipe for disaster. Fortunately, I was preparing to take out pillagers, so the Horse Archer were rushed the next turn and took out the lone still healing swordsman. I reinforce and the war continues.

The Western front moves slowly, but steadily, East. Once the centers falls the war is just about over. I lose less forces taking the last 3 cities than I did taking Sparta in the center of the continent. The last major battle was for Thermopylae. Curious that Sparta was the city that put up the biggest fight, while Athens and Corinth were captured without much bloodshed. I really think this would have been more fun as the Persians.

While the war is going on Alex circumnavigates the globe, in 1390. Big deal he is able to use it for a few years before giving into defeat in 1665. At the time, I figured that nobody had contacted him, because nobody had contacted me.

​

China shows up a few years later and we get along for a short time. At this point I'm cranking out the buildings, culture, etc... I've got access to 4 religions so I think culture may be a good bet. These are known as the quite years.

Unfortunately, I didn't spend enough effort investing in my military. Mao knows my weakness and attacks in 1931. Two Galley's of units drop in just outside Cumae. Again with the surprising me at Cumae. Fortunately, I've got a sizable army left over from the Greek war. Taking the city back wasn't a problem in 1941, also I had the Iron from Athens so the resource wasn't as critical. Couple of years later in 1945 we sign a Peace that lasts the rest of the game.

I'm finally convinced to send out my Caravels and explore the world. This isolationism isn't going to work. That will never happen again (#3). I even have a couple of Galleys stocked in case someone gets frisky.

Did I say frisky? Leave it to the Aztecs. About fifteen years after I use a Great Merchant to up my gold, Montezuma, what did he do with the money. He figured my continent must have hidden gold supplies for his taking and declares war one me in 1959, dropping a couple of Galley's worth of units just outside Corinth.

Fortunately, I'm prepared this time. By sheer bad luck (for him) Corith is the most heavily defended city I have with a lot of spare units just sitting there. He never even takes a city. But he does have me outclassed in military tech, so I figure I better get a place on his continent to be able to strike from in the future.

Remember the Great Merchant that started all this... Well Montezuma decided to tell Isabella there is gold in the "New World" too. So she also sends a few galleys worth over in 1961, but with the same results. In her case I don't take it personally, after all it was Montezuma that started it. Peace is declared ten years later.

During the war Saladin builds the Apollo Program. (Or at least I thought he did, it didn't show up in the replay.) Oh No! I wasn't ready for that. Hmmm, there's enough time for him to actually build the Spaceship. I was hoping to coast to victory on points in 50 years. Plan B kicks in. UN you are my friend. Fortunately Thermopylae is a powerhouse with production, with the Iron Works it was cranking out Destroyer every few turns during the war. Side note, I didn't know how helpful and effective having an early Destroyer navy was. That will never happen again (#4).

I keep the war with Montezuma going longer that I should. I take Tlacopan, just to make sure I have a city on that continent and begin bombing (with Destroyers) the Aztec cities of Berlin(?) and Cologne(?). He finally offers enough for peace. So the war is over after almost 25 years in 1983.

The first UN vote comes up and I win handily. My only real competition was Saladin but he voted for me. I really wasn't expecting that. We always had fairly good relations, be we were only at +9. Isabella abstains. Montezuma votes for himself of course. My best friend Mao also voted for me.

The next vote comes up and I decide to go for it all. Diplo-win. I carry the top three vote holders in Mao, Saladin and myself.

​

Evidentally Bismark didn't get much of a chance in my game. He was killed off before Alex was.

 

[Shillen]

Part 1 of my spoiler

So I continue with phase 3 of my game, finishing settling my continent and building courthouses/forges/granaries/libraries in all my cities as well as spreading Confucianism in all my cities.

Meanwhile I have 2 caravels off exploring to the east. Now normally I send one caravel east and one west but since we were in the bottom left corner of the map and I built both of my caravels on the east coast I didn’t want to double back around to the west with one of them. This was probably a bad decision as it took me many turns longer to receive the globe circumnavigation bonus.

680AD
I learn Civil Service and revolt to Bureaucracy and Slavery. Start research on the much needed Currency.
I meet the Buddhist nation of China (Mao). He’s up Polytheism, Alphabet and Archery on me. I’m up Compass, Construction, Metal Casting and Civil Service on him. I sign open borders and gift him metal casting for the +4 relations boost. He will not trade any techs with me. His heathen religion modifier is -2.

720AD
I meet the Jewish nation of Germany (Bismarck). I sign open borders with him. He does not have Alphabet yet so I cannot trade with him. He only has 5 cities, leading me to believe he’s probably one of the weaker civs in the game. He is not the founder of Judaism and there is no heathen religion modifier.

760AD
I meet Hindu nation of Spain. Surprise surprise she hates me for my religion and won't sign open borders. Heathen religion modifier is -3. She also doesn't have Alphabet so I can’t trade techs with her either.

780AD
I learn Currency and start on Paper, heading towards Education next.
Economic status: 115b, 61g, 67e

800AD
I meet the Christian nation of Arabia. He has a -3 heathen religion modifier and won’t sign open borders with me either. He also has no Alphabet. This whole continent is technologically backwards and Mao has not met any of them yet so he won’t trade techs either.

820AD
I meet the pagan nation of Montezuma. I sign open borders with him but he also has no Alphabet.

900AD
I learn Paper and start on Education.

920AD
I switch from Education to Alphabet as the other continent still has not learned it. I really could use some of the older techs. Organized Religion would be a huge help right now as my cities are building courthouses very slowly. My tech pace is suffering greatly due to all the new cities.
Economic status: 93b, 96g, 91e

1000AD
I learn Alphabet, continue Education. I trade for Archery from Bismarck. Other than that the only other tech I can trade for is HBR and I don’t really care for it. I do gift a tech to each civ to net the +4 “Our trade relations have been fair and forthright” modifier. None of the civs are enemies with each other so I get no negative modifier. Montezuma is now Jewish and does have a -2 modifier with me. Montezuma and Bismarck don’t even have Polytheism yet. I really don’t know what that continent has been doing all these years.

1030AD
My first missionary failed to convert Berlin even though it only had 1 religion in it.
I trade for HBR and Polytheism. I sign open borders with Saladin.

1050AD
I spread Confucianism in Berlin and he's willing to convert right away. I give him Code of Laws for conversion + 10g + WM. I also trade Horseback Riding to Mao for his world map since I forgot to before.
My continent is as settled as it will ever be. (I probably should have built more cities later on as there are still quite a few unused tiles but I never did.)
Economic Status: 147b, 79g, 95e

A shot of my empire:


1060AD
Isabella demands Metal Casting and I give it to her. I also trade her Code of Laws for Monotheism and 50g. Then I sign open borders with her. Now I have open borders with everyone.
Saladin and Montezuma don't like me for trading with Isabella now (-4 modifiers both). It seems I need to not trade with her anymore. I'll have to cancel the open borders in 10 turns. She might be my opponent anyway, either her or Mao. I'm betting it will be Mao since he has his own continent and probably has more population.

1070AD
I start the Forbidden Palace in Athens.

1100AD
I learn Education and enter the Renaissance Era. I was planning to learn Economics next so I could do a double civic swap to Organized Religion and Free Market. But I forgot that Economics required Banking which I’m still 2 techs away from. Since my tech slider is already up to 80% and should only increase as the games goes on banks are not that important and I can’t justify learning 3 techs for an extra trade route in each city when I’m only 7 techs away from Mass Media.

Meanwhile I’ve been making sure no cities are generating more GPP’s than Antium is. Antium is generating 1 GPP from Kong Miao and 3 GPP from its hired engineer. This means it will have a 50/50 chance of getting me a great engineer. A great engineer is very important because at the date I’m going to learn Mass Media building the UN from scratch would take many many turns. (In hindsight I should have built the Hanging Gardens earlier but I guess I didn’t think of it.)

1110AD
Adopt Organized Religion + Caste System
Economic Status: 171b, 89g, 106e

1120AD
Montezuma cancels open borders. He still hates me since I traded with Isabella. Him and Saladin were the two civs I was hoping to convert to my religion next since they are definitely not going to be my opponent in the elections. Well I divert my missionaries to Saladin now.

1160AD
I cancel open borders with Isabella. Now my negative modifiers with Montezuma and Saladin should decay over time.

1190AD
Archimedes (Great Engineer) is born in Antium! Oh lucky me.
Forbidden Palace completes in Athens jumpstarting my economy. Now to finish the university, Oxford University, observatory, and academy in Rome.
Economic Status: 182b, 97g, 92e

1210AD
I finally reach Saladin’s city only to find out he’s in a Theocracy. I had forgotten all about that civic. It’s his favorite civic also. I can’t get him to adopt anything else. So now the two civs I wanted to convert the most are not convertible. I guess I’ll have to convert Mao in the meantime, but that will be no easy task since he founded both Buddhism and Taoism and has both religions in his biggest cities.

1230AD
Saladin cancels open borders. He still hates me for trading with Isabella. Him and Montezuma are both at -3 for trading with their worst enemies now. Bismarck is up to +8, -0 and Mao is at +6, -2. Saladin is +5, -7. Montezuma is +5, -6.
I learn Astronomy. Start research on Printing Press. I gift corn to Saladin and Montezuma. I trade clam and silk to Bismarck for Fur and Cow. I trade silk to Mao for Spices. I gift Deer to Bismarck. I gift Dye to Mao. Ok hopefully Isabella will stay second in score and I can unite the world against her.
I finish my university in Rome.
Economic Status: 228b, 105g, 94e.

1250AD
I notice that my caraval + missionary I had in Saladin's borders is still there even though I have no open borders. I could have sworn missionaries couldn't entire a civ you didn't have open borders with. So I end up diverting my missionaries to Montezuma instead of Mao since he isn’t in a Theocracy. (Well this resulted in lost turns as you can ship your caravel with a missionary into their borders but you can’t drop the missionary off into their cities or onto their land without open borders.)

1290AD
I learn printing press. Start scientific method. My tech pace is getting better with the universities in my cities.

1300AD
Antium completes the Hanging Gardens. I’ve made Sparta into my GPP city, although a very poor one. It has a floodplain, plains sheep and irrigated grasslands. It’s getting +12 GPP per turn, which is enough considering I’ve only gotten 2 great leaders so far in the game anyway.
Economic status: 277b, 123g, 110e.

1340AD
I trade Optics and Paper to Saladin for Feudalism.

1350AD
That trade seemed to have improved relations with Saladin and he is willing to sign open borders again. Progress, but he's still a theocracy and won't adopt anything else.

1360AD
I learn Scientific Method and enter Industrial Era. I start research on Physics.
Ptolemy (Great Scientist) is born in Sparta. I send him to build an academy in Rome.

1380AD
The academy is built in Rome increasing science output (80%) to 177 beakers from 138.
Economic Status: 421b, 100g, 104e

1400AD
Confucianism spreads to Tlatelolco (Monty). Bismarck must have sent a missionary his way. Meanwhile I’ve converted two of Mao’s bigger cities to Confucianism.

1410AD
Monty declares war on Bismarck and asks me to join him. Since Bismarck is my best friend and Monty is lowest in score I decline. Monty is willing to sign open borders now so I do so and I also trade silks for incense. It seems Monty immediately converted to Confucianism even though he only has the one city with the religion in it. I can’t persuade Monty to make peace with Bismarck for Civil Service which seems to be the only tech I can trade him right now. I don’t want to have to piss off either of them so I need them to make peace as soon as possible.

1420AD
I discover Physics. Get a great scientist as a result. I merge him in Rome since Rome is the only city really generating a lot of science and it will get multiplied by 225% once I finish Oxford University. Mao still won't trade me any techs. I start research on Philosophy to get to Liberalism.

1440AD
I learn Philosophy. I tell Monty to make peace with Bismarck (he just captured a big city) for Philosophy and Civil Service and he gives me 110 gold also. Finally Mao is willing to trade so I trade him civil service for literature.

1450AD
I’ve converted Mao’s 3 biggest cities to Confucianism now. I persuade him to convert to Confucianism for a tech (I don’t remember which and didn’t record it). Rome finishes Oxford University.
Economic status: 664b, 73g, 107e

A picture of Rome, producing more science than the rest of my empire combined:



1460AD
As the first to discover Liberalism I choose Electricity (4200 beakers) as my free tech. I start research on Radio (will take 5-6 turns). Great...Saladin and Mao finally meet and they don't like each other. So I get a diplomacy penalty with Saladin. I don't know if Mao or Isabella will be my opponent. If Mao is then I don't want to piss off Saladin just to please Mao.

1505AD
I discover Radio and enter the Modern Era. Mao converts to Buddhism?? I have no option to convert him back either. I guess there’s like a 4 turn period where you can’t change religion again. I start research on Mass Media (5 turns).

1515AD
I micromanage several cities to get Mass Media in 2 turns instead of 3. The sooner I can get the votes started the better although I'm not sure I'll win the first diplomatic victory vote yet. But I'd like to know who my opponent is to know who my enemies and who my friends are.
Economic Status: 847b, 90g, 105e

1520AD
Mao just founded another religion, sheesh. (Islam)

1525AD
I discover Mass Media. I set United Nations build in Antium. Archimedes rushes 750 hammers worth of it - 250 hammers to go - 7 turns. Research is set to Guilds to get Banking/Economics. I convert Mao back to Confucianism and get Theology in the process. I need to convert his last two cities and hopefully he'll stay Confucian this time.

1530AD
Saladin cancels open borders. I didn’t like him anyway.

1535AD
I discover Guilds and start Banking. I get a great prophet in Athens. I'll merge him in Sparta (my GPP city that will need to build science buildings).

1540AD
I discover Banking and start Economics. Man Mao is second in score again. I hope he doesn't end up being my opponent...

1545AD
I discover Economics and get a great merchant. I merge him in Rome for the bonus food and gold. I start research on Replaceable Parts.

1550AD
Saladin asks me to cancel deals with Mao and I decline. That will hurt if Mao ends up being my opponent.

1560AD
I learn Replaceable Parts and start research on Engineering, working towards Biology next.
The United Nations completes in Antium.

Here’s a breakdown of relations in order of score:
Saladin +5, -8
Mao - +9, -0
Isabella +5, -8
Montezuma +9, -2 (-1 trading with Isabella still hasn’t decayed and -1 for not helping in his war against Bismarck)
Bismarck +13, -3

Bismarck’s -3 is traded with worst enemies but I have no idea who his worst enemy is since he’s cautious or pleased with everyone. I’m guessing it’s Monty since Monty declared war on him. It’s alright though I think I can win him over even with the negative modifier since I have him at +13.

As you can see Saladin passed Mao in score, but I think my opponent is based on population, not score. Score and population just tend to coincide with each other.

1565AD
I discover Engineering and start Gunpowder.

1570AD
I discover Gunpowder and start Chemistry.

1575AD
The first UN vote is held. I have 195 votes and need 191 to win. Isabella is my opponent surprisingly. She seems to have jumped up in score.

1580AD
I discover Chemistry and start Biology.
I'm elected by a vote of 349. Only Isabella voted for herself (77 votes). Saladin abstained (57 votes). Interestingly Mao only had 58 votes so that means Isabella should remain my opponent since she leads by that much. I bet I can win the first vote I call.

1585AD - WTF? Mao converted to Buddhism again. Every single one of his cities is Confuscian. That's really lame. I won’t be able to convert him back for 4 turns or something and I don’t think he’ll vote for me now.

1595AD
I call for election. I need 303 votes and I have 202. I really need both Monty and Bismarck to vote for me but I think I should win with that.
I discover Biology and start Nationalism.

1600AD
I only get 246 votes. Montezuma abstained and he wouldn't have put me over the top anyway. Mao also abstained of course. He would have voted for me if he was my religion still. Hopefully by the next vote I can get Mao re-converted and maybe I can start a mutual war with Monte. I declare war on Saladin then I sign Montezuma, Bismarck, and Mao all into the war. If they can capture a couple cities it will net them some more votes too. I also set every single one of my cities to max growth. I’m hellbent on winning the next vote.

1605AD
I discover Nationalism and start Constitution.
I convert Mao back to Confuscianism. I definitely have his vote now. Monte is the questionable one...

1615AD
I discover Constitution and start Corporation.
I call for another vote. Requires 319 votes, I have 221 votes. Isabella is still my opponent.

Here are my relations:



Julius Caesar wins Diplomatic Victory! 1615AD. All civs voted for me except Saladin and Isabella. Final score 42155.

Overall I'm very pleased with my result but there are many many things I could have done better. This was a great learning experience and I'm sure I'll learn even more from this thread.

edit: I think one major aspect of my game is not emphasized enough in this post. Pretty much throughout this entire period I was constantly shipping missionaries overseas. There was rarely a point in time that I had fewer than 3 missionaries in existence (which is the max # for noble). I had pretty much all of Monty's and Bismarck's cities Confucian and all of Mao's were.