GOTM-1: Closing Spoiler

[Pie-es-Tasty]

My game ending in a spectacular defeat at the hands of Mao, space ship. He beat me to every late game wonder and had most of the space ship pieces before I even built the Apollo Program. I could see my defeat coming for a very long time.

But first, the early game. I managed to snag Buddhism, which I was amazed. Izy got Hinduism which allowed me to get Buddhism. I also founded everything else save Judaism, which made Hinduism the super-religeon of the game, taking over the whole Eastern contienent. Mao was the only Jew, with me and Greece being Buddhist.

My first mistake was not taking out the Greeks. I only was in one war the entire game, and by the end my military was hopelessly out of date trying to catch up to Mao's super economy building the space ship. The one war I was in was Monty attacking with a spectacular invasion force of two full Galleons, which I easily defeated.

Another consequence of not taking out the Greeks is at the end game I had no uranium. If I did I would have nuked Mao into radioactive slag before his space ship finished. But I had to trade for it (with Mao, ironically) which cost me two arms, a leg and a foot and he ended the trade before I built more than seven ICBMs. I tested after the game was over and only one nuke got through his SDI anyway, so I doubt they would have made a diffrence in the endgame.

It was a learning experience! Hopefully I will do much better in the next GOTM.

Edit: Typos.

 

[dar]

I founded rome 1E of the starting position because of the excellant production capability of the site. I chose worker first to exploit the gems as fast as possible. Once mined the almost doubled my beakers/turn. I worker chopped out another 2 workers, then 3 settlers; founding 1W of the Iron, 1NW of the Copper, and 2S of the wheat. Since I was alone with Alexander I decided against a super early praet rush and built up my economy first. I built the pyramids to allow Representation, allowing me to grow Rome to size 10. I ignored religion early on, and then focused on the top route to Code of Laws for Confusianism. Cursed madly when one of the AIs finished the Oracle and beat me to CoL by 9 turns..... until I realised it was Alexander - whoop. I finally declared against Alexander in 175BC with a force of 13 Praetorians, with the war ending with his annhilalation in 225AD.

At that point my commerce level was high enough to research at a respectable speed, so I geared all my captured greek cities towards production in preparation for invading other continants.

I Researched optics in 760AD and started building caravels immediately. Techs at that point:

Optics
Code of Laws
Currency
Calander
Construction
Machinery
Compass
Writing
Metal Casting
Iron Working
Bronze Working
-- all the cheap techs (excluding meditation and polytheism)

I finished astronomy soon after and began construction of Galleons in my coastal cities. Research was pointed at Theology and later Feudalism. Once both were available I switched to Police State/Vassalage/Theology. I had already switched to caste system earlier and decided to keep it so I could use artist specialists in newly captured cities.

I declared on Germany in 1150AD whiping him out quickly (not entirely, I left him one size 2 tundra city I just wasnt bothered taking). With my home continent geared entirely towards production I swarmed over the AIs with an army of Praetorians and Catapults. I also used Longbowmen and Crossbowmen in support roles. Towards the end of the game my first macemen were finally arriving at the front. I attacked in the order Germany, Monty, Isabella. Finally I declared on Saladin, taking 2 cities before winning by Domination.

Domination Year: 1575
Final Score: 55512

 

[dar]

double post

 

[phoulishwan]

I don't have any notes for this portion of the game after switching from my home PC to playing from work and back, but with the Greeks down to 2 cities I had 2 caravels that went off east and west, 1 turn apart they met the Germans and the Arabians I always wait til I find a couple/few Civs before I start trading for missing techs to keep from giving up any monopoly techs, which I had a few of, I traded for what I was missing for as few techs as possible. For the rest they can research themselves.

I immediately opened Borders with both Germans and Arabs and simultaneously met the Spanish, both caravels went to the southern poles to meet up and Circumnavigate the Globe! I was building a large force of Praets at this point because I was getting ready to finish the Greeks. I was building 2-1 odds and was waiting for the capacity to hit his cities simultaneously in order to end the greeks in one fell swoop, I didn't want any other civs to get a chance to befriend Alex. Meanwhile Alex sent a settler/archer pair up north to settle on an open bit of useless land right next to my iron, which made me hold off a few turns until it grew to size 2, it wasn't a very good city but it would prove useful as a worker pump later for the advent of Railroads, so I wanted to capture it rather than raze it. Bismarck was a good friend despite our Religious differences almost right off the bat! Saladin was quite a nice chap too...but Isabella didn't like me much and it was then I decided Spanish lands would be my foothold on the new world. As soon as I learned Astronomy my coastal cities immediately started work on transports. Then I spotted the first german Caravel very near to Corinth, I had to declare before Bismark met Alex to prevent any negative modifiers so I declared despite not having my full forces ready. But I wasn't far from it, and Alex only had 1 Phalanx up in Athens, I crushed him in just a few turns. I had about 12 praets left over. With Bismark having only briefly met him the Greeks were lost to History.

My whole army moved on Corinth for shipment across the Ocean at the narrowest point, it would still be 3 turns for my transports to cross one way. It would be about 20ish turns before I could get an effective force over on that continent to do anything and already the effects of Feudalism were being spotted in German and Arab cities fortunately they were Praetorians and not swordsmen or I never could have pulled off the war against Isabella otherwise. I approached Bismark to declare on Isabella and after a hefty fee he acceeded to my request, I felt confident he would then allow me to amass my forces on his land, slowly while I moved my army across the seas, Bismark whittled away at Isabella's army. With 8 Praetorians I felt the time was ripe to begin my own attack seeing as I had about 6 horse archers and 4 more Praets not 3 turns behind, the same turn I declared War on Isabella, Bismark made peace ;( During this war I met Montezuma who promptly also made peace with Isabella, yikes she'd been fighting a 2 front war! And still had Madrid full to the brim with troops!

Anyhow, I ended up taking all but one of her cities leaving her a steaming mad woman down in the southern Tundras. But by the time I'd managed to beat her, I couldn't hope to beat either Saladin or the Germans who'd caught up in Military Techs, instead I changed my mind and decided I would go for a space race and merely hold on to my current holdings. Very quickly I realized I had a serious problem with culture borders pushing hard from Saladins closest cities, these cities ended up beating back only very marginally his cultural borders. Except Toledo, which despite having the Globe Theatre in it was flipped to Saladin! More to the point it kept MY GLOBE THEATRE IN IT! At some point during this war the chinese found me by caravel. Mao had founded Buddhism and Taoism, Isabella had Hinduism and Judaism, while Saladin has founded Christianity. In all I controlled 4 Holycities now, round the time of Scientific Method I was cash rushing Missionaries to get all my known religions spread to my borders cities, all my cathedrals were built overseas to repel Saladins cultural war...it cost me a fortune and I was very very upset when Toeldo flipped to him 4-5 turns after I'd cash rushed 600+G on the Globe in it. My culture front with Saladin was getting hammered and it would take me a long time to start pushing back his borders. As things progressed I never really lost control of the game, I stayed a good ways ahead in tech. But Saladin made me work hard on the cultural front to keep most of my Spanish holdings.

My week of night shifts was almost over though and I was off to visit my parents upstate New York and was running out of time to keep playing the game. So after I built the UN I changed my mind again to go for diplomatc victory, it wasn't long until I realized my only true friend was Mao, Bismark was voting for Saladin and Monte was abstaining...I was short by a handful of votes! I was gonna hafta build a decent enough army to smash open some land and kill off some of the worlds population. I decided my target would be Monte, no one liked him anyways...

I got my spies running around to check things out and soon realized I could really cripple Saladin through trade, meanwhile I shipped in troops via Airports, I asked Mao to stop trading with Saladin and ceased all my own trades, overall his top cities dropped from 1 unhappy citizen to 5 and were now losing upwards of 7 food per turn, he have to switch out some specialists to maintain. Spies are a lot of fun for deciding exactly what to withold and what to trade safely Also I started scouting out Monte's land to plan my assault and suddenly changed my mind about Monte, despite my having technologically superior units he had waaaay tooo many cavalry it would be a slow tedious fight. I searched around to find out if I could get anyone to help me in my warring endeavors and found out that no one BUT Monte was willing to go to war! Monte was ackbasswards in a major way so it was really cheap to get him to declare on Bismark. Meanwhile after the next voting session came in, I realized the population drops I forced on Saladin and Bismark from his coutryside getting utterly ruined by Monte just wouldn't be enough to get the winning votes.

Being pretty tired after work I got home and decicded to finish as quickly as possible it was 1950 and I was pumping out Modern Armor and Air dropping them in a few key cities, my plan was to hammer and raze Medina and Damascus on the second turn of the war, 2 cities totalling about 35 votes getting razed would easily win the vote. I'd been building this up prior and was almost ready to go. First turn of the war I would take an Arabian city just south of me on the coast, smash Futjah which Saladin had plopped down on the razed tile of Isabella's last city before I wiped her off the planet and retake Toledo, I needed in all about 16 Modern Armor to carry me through both turns and assault 5 cities. His cities were somewhat lightly defended and he had at most SAM's up so I was counting on minimal losses even with using Blitz's, he still even had a couple longbowmen and Musketmen that he never upgraded, just as well meant I needed less troops, but he did have some early tanks roaming round as worker escorts, I upgraded a couple old cavalry to Gunships for them...second turn I'd planned on Razing Medina and Damascus to relieve the insane cultural pressure he'd been pummeling me with in case my assault didn't affect the voting the way I'd hoped. Seeing as Saladin could have won a cultural victory if he'd flipped the switch: Medina, Damascus & his Capital were around 10K each with about 140 cpt at only 10% culture, Spies are really useful, imo, I even knew what he was researching which I didn't realize you could see as well!.

Well to shorten the summary the Vote came up, I voted for myself and then assaulted Saladin in a violent way, devastating the first 3 target cities with more Armor at the dooresteps of Medina and Damascus than he could handle...surprisingly I didn't get a chance to raze Medina and Damascus as the Vote came in I won by a handful of votes thanks to my good friend Mao, who had just completed his Appolo program.

Won by violent Diplomatic means in 1955, final score somewhere around 15K.

 

[Velvet-Glove]

Although this, my first GOTM was enjoyable, it was a relatively lacklustre affair. I don't normally choose to go to war unless I feel confident of a successful outcome - my game was relatively peaceful throughout except for an early war with the Greeks. I finished with a Time Victory and a rather low 4577 points.

I had trouble getting a religion at the beginning of the game and ended up making a bee line for Theocracy, which gave me Christianity, which I founded in 575AD. By 225AD I had a Great Prophet and my Shrine.

In 1580 the Arabs and Aztec made an appearance, swiftly followed by the Germans (Bismarck) in 1590 and the Chinese in 1660. In 1720 one of my caravels made contact with Isabella.

In 1680 the Greeks attacked but I had anticipated this and had built up my troops in most of by bordering cities. One of my cities fell but in return I crushed three of his and razed them to the ground. All in all this war was a fairly drawn out affair - I lost many units and didn't have enough to finish Alex off so we agreed to peace in 1815 and he retreated to lick his wounds with just 4 or 5 cities to his name. Rather surprisingly, Alex never attacked me again... maybe he sensed my border cities were too strong to take (I filled them with strong defenders), or maybe my steady cultural and scientific development during the rest of the game subdued his blood-lust. Either way, he turned his attention much later in the game to a war with Isabella and left me alone.

I drew in front of all other civs at this point and remained at the top of the points table for the rest of the game.

During the mid game I concentrated on enriching my cities with culture and science. I built a good many wonders, had many specialists in all of my big cities and was regularly churning out Great People, especially scientists. I developed excellent relations with Bismark and Saladin, through mutually beneficial trades and the giving of assistance, but sadly my best friend, Bismarck, was eventually wiped out by one of his neighbours, all of whom seemed very busy with fighting one another. That suited me; I just wanted a peaceful life!

At times food became a problem, I realise now that several of my cities were a little too close for comfort and, as they grew, they were in serious competition with each other. Lesson learned; I will not do this again.

As the years rolled by I began to think about how I could win the game. There was no question of domination or conquest because all the other civs were far too established by that time and I don't have the killer instinct needed to instigate ambitious takeovers so I dismissed the possibility of going to war. Despite my fairly respectable cultural output a culture victory didn't look likely either so I set my sights on tech advancement and going for a spaceship win. I pulled out all the tricks I could think of to increase my science production and gave it my best shot. I built roughly 3/4 of the necessary parts, and Mao was hot on my heels too, but it was not to be... I simply did not have enough time to get the last couple of techs and SS parts.

During the final decade of the game I got elected UN Secretary General. I had to think long and hard about whether to call a Diplomatic Election (and risk losing) or whether it was worth the longshot that I might just pull off a Diplo win at the 11th hour. Throwing caution to the wind I went for the Election. The result was inconclusive so I limped on, towards 2040 and a Time victory.

Not what I would call an exciting game but I did learn quite a lot about using specialists, generating Great People, and trying to specialise cities into centres of scientific and cultural excellence, not something I have ever done much of in the past. Civ relations were either excellent or neutral throughout the game. On the plus side this meant nobody attacked me after that first early war. On the minus side, relations were not quite good enough to afford me a Diplo win towards the end. Given my good science and production rates I'm surprised that I still failed to build the SS in time, though. *shrug*

Conclusion: I need to be more decisive and develop some stronger, or bolder, winning techniques!

 

[Smidlee]

Another consequence of not taking out the Greeks is at the end game I had no uranium. If I did I would have nuked Mao into radioactive slag before his space ship finished. But I had to trade for it (with Mao, ironically) which cost me two arms, a leg and a foot and he ended the trade before I built more than seven ICBMs. I tested after the game was over and only one nuke got through his SDI anyway, so I doubt they would have made a diffrence in the endgame.

It was a learning experience! Hopefully I will do much better in the next GOTM.

IMO spys are very useful in hindering the space race. Others have mention nukes are very weak once a city has bunkers and SDI. Personally I haven't used nukes in civ4 yet since they seem very expensive.

 

[jeremiahrounds]

The 1615 diplomatic victory is cool to me.

 

[panzooka]

an early harassment, put 1 warrior, pillaged their improovements, then fortified in a forest next to their city ^_^. crippled their progress

the real war begins

stupid lucky bastard, killed my 25% fortified praetorian with 1 unpromoted swordman

met the chinese, helping them much as i can to improove relationship(for diplomatic victory), 3 free resources to them. adopted my religion, and declare war on me? razed 3 population city, then put a settler on same spot?
when my praetorians get there, archers got upgraded to longbowman, so i cant do a thing. and i have 50% population in that city, so its gonna revolt soon.

i've being bribing saladin and bismarck just like i did to the chinese, and they are all pleased to me, while saladin would ignore 3 free resources to them, and declare war on me, razed my 18 population city with 5 elephants, which killed my machinegunner guarding the city.
i have 2 destroyer guarding the sea, but no use, he declare war and put army on my land in the same turn.
i got angry, and get my 2 best friends to attack saladin, meanwhile, i just given every military techs to bismarcks for free, and some free gold to him to upgrade. now bismarck is really happy, he revenged towards saladin and montezuma for their past war atrocities.

isabella must have being an close ally with saladin, and declared war on me, while her 2 galleons full with troops is sailing towards my land, i have my destroyer killing her 2 frigates cannon fodder every turn, and she had 6 frigate cannon fodders, took me 4 turns to sank her galleon, nearly reached my land.
meanwhile bismarch just took a city from saladin, gogo bismarch, i love u.
china and bismarck both voted for me in UN, while saladin voted for isabella, and montezuma abstains.
i have 378 votes out of 394 votes required. only 16 votes missing. stupid arabian back staber if they didnt raze my 18 population city, i would have won now.
putting my every city on emphasis growth, and my capital and city of athens is at population of 27 with lots of unhappiness and unhealthiness. who cares, as long as they lives to vote for me.

yeah bismarck!! i won, i won, all thanks to him. captured a city from montezuma which adds 8 votes for me, while my city have grown some population!, yeah~~, the vote was exactly as required, like 394 out of 394.


final score, 14643

ps, was building manhattan project for nuking saladin and isabella's big cities to reduce their population and votes.
heck, i started manhattan project when i still havnt discovered steel. and had frigates everywhere

edit, im glad bismarck is in the game, i couldnt afford to goto war overseas, but i had him to running the war for me

 

[MyOtherName]

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.

I think it's more likely I remembered wrong!

Now I find Civ4 to be a rather un-dynamic game compared to Civ3. ... In Civ4, my final graph and world map always look a lot like nothing happened for the whole game...

In my game, another civ was eliminated shortly after I eliminated Alexander. Also, Isabella declared war (and invited me along) on the Germans before I was ready! (After I broke up their religion bloc by passing a free religion resolution)

 

[mzprox]

Copy from the previous spoiler thread:


-I founded Rome on the plains/hill,
-went for agriculture, bronzeworking and then alphabet (when I got it and realized that Alexander didn't want to trade I still waited maybe He changes his mind and I didn't go for those techs He had...)
-next I researched the techs needed for early wonders
-900 BC Stonehedge
-625 BC Pyramid
-500 BC code of laws , Confucianism founded
-475 BC Oracle free tech: civil service

not bad so far ... I started revolution: representation, caste system, burocracy,

-25 bc Kong Miao
-350 AD great library
-+(I don't remember when): Hanging Gardens, Panthenon, National epic, Notre Dame, and many many other wonders after...
-1090 liberalism, got astronomy
-1140 I circumnavigated the planet

-Mistakes/(unlucky events)

-didn't chop the trees,
-forgot to buid mines on the hills
-Got nothing from huts but money
-I had to change to slavery and pop rush for warrior to defend one of my undefended city (and I had to do it again later)
-my city placement was far from optimal
-I didn't care about iron, so I didn't build any praetorian (I started the war in 1450 AD)
-going for alphabet...
-forgot to connect some luxury...
-and I hadn't decided what victory I 'd going for. So I'd built useless wonders, culture, Apollo program, army... I should have focused on only one thing...

Second part:

I wanted to play a peacefull game, but I realized that I was so ahead in the tech race that it would be really easy to conquer the world... in 1400 AD I led about 10 techs!! I just got rifling so started to make riflemen.

In 1450 AD the war had begun.... I attacked with riflemen but I was dissapointed with the result... They had only longbowmen but the war lasted till 1600

In 1660 my troops landed at Mao's land and finished him off in 1720. This time I used cannons too.

I couldn't stop here three turns later, in 1735, I declared war on Bismarck. And my tanks! landed near Berlin .
In the next 16 turns I took 19 cities....
It was a massacre... the enemy had only one musketman and a hundred longbowman. At the end I have about 40 tanks on the other continent.

Domination victory in 1815, 49000 points

I've bulit many wonders ( even the Apollo program in 1820). Hollywood, Broadway, RocknRoll, Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, and so on...

I should have concentrated on one thing only... either starting the war earlier or going for space race...

Next time

Screenshots:

Rome:

It was boring killing their backward army... but at least it was short...

 

[Roland Ehnström]

Civ IV GOTM1 - 1020-1510 AD - Roland Ehnström

GAME GOAL: EARLY DOMINATION

------------------------------

Earlier spoilers

4000-2000 BC
2000-1000 BC
1000-25 AD
25-1020 AD

------------------------------

The short story

Research: After discovering Astronomy (for Galleons), we went straight to Chemistry (via Guilds, Engineering and Gunpowder), to be able to upgrade our Praetorians to Grenadiers. Chemistry was discovered in 1340 AD. We were then planning to go to Steel to upgrade our Catapults to Cannons, but these plans were changed, and instead we researched Drama (for Theaters) and Music (to be able to "build" Culture), to speed up our domination victory. Then we turned off research in 1380 AD, to get gold for upgrades and rush-builds. We then had a surplus of 100 GPT, but this dropped to around 50 GPT before our only two Great People of the game combined their forces to start a Golden Age in 1460 AD - during which we were raking in some 180 GPT.

War: (See picture below). We attacked the Aztecs first, moving from south to north through their land, taking city after city. It proved easy, so soon we opened up a second front going south towards Berlin and continuing through the German civilization, killing them off in 1370 AD, before turning east towards the southern parts of Spain and Arabia. After finishing off the Aztecs in 1350 AD, our northern front attacked the north-west part of Spain, and sliced through all the way to Arabia. Spain had Longbowmen (while the Aztecs and the Germans were mainly defending wth obsolete Archers), but with enough Catapults this was no big deal, and Spain was conquered in 1490 AD. A third front was sent from the western part of Rome to the east coast of Arabia. They arrived in 1460 AD (too late!!!) and only took two Arabian cities before we reached the Domination limit in 1510 AD for 62648 points. Arabia would have been destroyed the next turn. We never touched the Chinese.

City development: While the cities of Old Rome were busy pumping out Praetorians and Catapults, we rush-built Theaters in the cities in the New World (getting the Pyramids from Berlin - so that we could switch to Universal Sufferage to rush-build with gold - was a great help, but where there were enough people we "bought" the Theaters with slaves). Then we set them to produce Culture - everything to speed up our domination.

------------------------------

The long story

1050 AD - Our eastgoing Caravel sees land...

1060 AD - A pink border spotted...

1070 AD - We meet Mao. He has nothing to offer us.

1080 AD - We discover Astronomy and start producing our first Galleons (we also have a couple of Galleys to upgrade). The plan is to send as many units as possible over seas as soon as possible - I am going for early domination, mind you. The reseach plan now is to go straight towards Chemistry and Steel, to be able to upgrade our Praetorians to Grendiers and our Catapults to Cannons, and also to get Frigates to defend our Galleons. On the way we will get Guilds, Engineering, and Gunpowder, which will allow us to build Knights (mainly for pillage duties), Musketmen (not very useful), and Pikemen (good to counter any mounted units the enemy might throw at us).

1100 AD - We meet Saladin of Arabia. They seem to have a strong culture. We make a couple of trades with them, gaining Archery, Horseback Riding, Polytheism and Cows. Then we meet Montezuma, who is already annoyed for some reason. He has nothing to offer us, and is looking likely as the target of our first over seas invasion...

1130 AD - We meet Bismarck and Isabella. Trade for Monotheism with Bismarck. Isabella seems to be the strongest AI and she is annoyed as usual...

1150 AD - We have discovered Guilds and started Engineering. Our ships are the first to circumnavigate the globe! Archimedes (Great Engineer) born in Neapolis. We'll save him for a rainy day.

1160 AD - We sign Open Borders with Bismarck, to be able to position our troops in his land in preperation for the assault on the Aztecs.

1210 AD - WAR!!! We declare on Montezuma. We have 14 Praetorians, 9 Catapults and a Knight on the German/Aztec continent, and many more on their way there.

1220 AD - Our numerous Praetorians capture Texcoco. Our scientists discover Engineering and start Gunpowder.

1250 AD - Tlatelolco captured.

1270 AD - Gunpowder discovered, Chemistry started.

1280 AD - Teotihuacan and Tlaxcala captured.

1290 AD - We open up a second front by declaring WAR on Bismarck! Army Group South heading for Berlin consists of 14 Praetorians, 10 Catapults, 2 Knights, 2 Pikemen and 1 Horse Archer. Army Group North heading for Tenochtitlan consists of 10 Praetorians and 9 Catapults.

1320 AD - Berlin and Tenochtitlan falls into our hands.

1330 AD - Major strategic overhaul In order to speed up our campaign, we decide we need to attack the Spanish/Arabian part of the continent from two sides. So we reposition 6 of our 10 Galleons to the WEST side of our continent, so that they can ship troops over directly to the eastern shores of Arabia. If everything goes to plan, our two fronts will meet up in the middle, between former Spain and Arabia, about the time we hit the domination limit.

1340 AD - Hamburg captured. OMG, Berlin had the Pyramids! We switch to Universal Sufferage and Slavery, to be able to rush-build culture buildings with either money or people. We also switch production to Settlers in some of our cities, to fill in land further speeding up our domination victory. Our scientists discover Chemistry, and start researching Drama, to be able to build Theaters.

1350 AD - We capture Calixtlahuaca, and with this THE AZTEC CIVILIZATION IS DESTROYED! Munich captured from the Germans. We declare war on Isabella!

1360 AD - Barcelona captured from Spain. We discover Drama and start Music, to enable building culture. Saladin already has Music to trade to us, be he wants Machinery for it, and we definately don't want him to get Crossbowmen...

1370 AD - Cologne captured - THE GERMAN CIVILIZATION IS DESTROYED!

1380 AD - Music discovered. We turn off research, for +102 GPT.

1420 AD - Murcia and Seville captured.

1430 AD - Santiago and Bantu captured.

1450 AD - Madrid captured.

1460 AD - Copernicus is born in Neapolis. He and Archimedes start a Golden Age for our Civilization! Salamanca captured. Our first three Galleons filled with Grenadiers, Catapults and Settles have arrived at the Arabian east coast - We declare WAR on Saladin!

1470 AD - Toledo captured from the Spanish and Najran from the Arabians.

1490 AD - Cordoba captured and THE SPANISH CIVILIZATION IS DESTROYED! Khurasan captured from the Arabians.

1505 AD - We capture Baghdad and Kufah.

1510 AD - Basra captured. Setia founded on the Roman continent to gain a little more land. End of turn: DOMINATION VICTORY!!!

Schematic picture of the Roman invasion of The New World:

Score: 62648
Game score: 3721
Time spent: 13 hours 55 minutes

-- Roland

 

[Denniz]

For the record, I had a 1973 Space Ship Victory for about 10K score. I waited too long to start the dash for the required techs. I did build Labs in all my high production cities and had 3 Gorges and space elevator.

A lot of people say they don't build SE but if I am going to build SS I try to go for it's tech first so I can build it while I am building Apollo. A timely engineer can help.

 

[totororo]

I need to learn to attack other continents. Actually, I never did it, and neither did it this time. While reading your posts, i realized that my army of praetorians could have landed on the shore of the New World right after the conquest of the Greeks.

I first thought I should wait to have a better economy (I had to lower my research to 20%; the too fast conquest of my continent and of the Greeks crippled my economy). When I recovered, it was kind of too late to raise a decent army. They all had longbowmen by the time. I decided to go for a diplomatic victory.

I built the UN in the early 1800s. The situation was kind of funny. Monty, Bismarck and Isabella were hinduists. Saladin was Confusianist and Mao Taoist. Isabella was my biggest oponent.
She was friendly toward me, Bismarck and Monty but disliked Saladin (i don't remember her behaviour towards Mao). Everybody was friendly towards me but Saladin. But since i had no religion and that i couldn't convert to hinduism (none of my city got it), i had to have everyone angry with Isabela.

That was funny: I had Isabella declare war to Saladin. But since Bismark and Monty were friendly towards Saladin, she got trouble with them. I surprisingly manage to have both of them declare war to her (my plan worked out well). I then did the same. Mao did too.

A couple of votes later, i won. Mao was my new oponent, but Bismark's, Monty's and my vote (i was favouring growth in all my cities) were enough. It was in 1876. I got 20637 points. That's quite good but I could have done far better. The war path is always better, in terms of score. I'll remember that.

 

[Grogs]

A lot of people say they don't build SE but if I am going to build SS I try to go for it's tech first so I can build it while I am building Apollo. A timely engineer can help.

I'm with you on this one. Conveniently enough, you can get that free Great Engineer just a couple of techs down the road (Fusion) unless you're in a really close space race. I find that by the time I've reached Fusion from Robotics, I've got just about enough hammers into the SE manually that the G. Engineer can finish it. That worked great for me since I was able to rush the great elevator and start the SS engine on the same turn. When you reach the last SS tech, whatever it is, all you can do is wait X turns until you build the last component. Having the SE will shave a turn or two off that final build time, resulting in a slightly faster finish.

The only time I could really see not building the SE would be if you've got a small empire and it would mean pulling a high-production city off of building SS parts.

 

[Wallabulla]

Well, after I got to ocean traveling boats, I wanted to conquer someone My eyes fell on the Germans as the easiest to take. As you can see from the picture they fell for my great army of Grenadiers, Cannons and Cavalery .
Wasnt sure what to do next, but Monty suddenly declared war in about 1950.. The stupidest thing he could do..

The roman mainland at the end of the game

Erased the Aztec about 1965, diblomatic victory in 1967, score 14224 first time for me with a diplomatic victory

 

[eldar]

Highlight: SS win in 1962, 13375pts

Detail:
The Greeks were finished at a leisurely pace, and gone just after 1000AD. The continent to myself, I'd inherited Taoism (but no shrine) from Alex, and had a wrecked, 0% science, economy. I struggled towards Code of Laws, and so began the rebuilding.

CoL lead to every city starting a courthouse that turn - I couldn't delay. As soon as the sixth was done, the FP got build in the former Greek city of Sparta. I then concentrated largely on financial techs to further boost my economy.

Meanwhile, my caravels were circumnavigating the globe and making "friends". Mao and the Germans (I don't remember if it was Freddie or Bizzy...) were my bestest buddies, Izzy and Sallie were so-so, Monty was a pain-in-the-butt.

From my tech hole, I made use of monopoly techs to drag myself forwards (bizarrely, Philospohy was one of those monopolies, over a thousand years after Alex had discovered, and promptly lost upon his demise, such knowledge). Soon, the AIs were refusing to trade me techs because they thought I was getting too advanced. Well, guys, news for you... I'm about to take the lead and not look back. My overall economy grew to be 4 times that of the average.

I just built and built, staying where I was, and spreading Taoism to all of Mao's cities (converted him once, he went back to Confucianism, and I never tried again), and some of Germany's. I briefly entered a war between Germany and the Aztecs - sending half a dozen tanks and my navy to primarily harry the Aztec forces, though I did some pillaging and razed a city.

I was utterly untroubled in my attempt to build my spaceship, no other AI even researched Rocketry let alone built their own Apollo Program. My end base score was over twice that of my nearest rival - and that without ever settling off the home continent.

Screens:

Rome and her Empire, 1963, the year after the launch of the Spaceship to Alpha Centauri

The Info Screen, showing Rome's economic dominance over her rivals

 

[DesertWolf]

i think i need to train more - i only had 5000something points .... but it was my first ever gotm

i got a space ship victory in 2033 at some times, a very lucky one

first it held me down that i conquered greece - with all those many cities from greece my economy sufferes and my research got low

that meant i was one of the worst advanced civilizations (second last one around 1700 or so)

i tried to conquer china next, but i had to realize that my units are not strong enough to do that, so i stepped back and wanted to conquer the other civs - but the problem was, that montezuma always came from the east and the spanish from the west, so i was most of the time defending my island.

after a long defence fight i decided to go for the space race victory, i build in every city every possible science building as well as i went straight forward to the space ship technilogies that lead to becomeing the most advanced civ in a short period of time. and within less than 100 turns (before time victory) i build the complete spaceship and launched it (i could've launched the ship 2 turns earlier, but i really wanted to have that internet project, that gave me 3 techs, too )

so thats my little story about that game

even though i have not that of a high score like you guys have, i myself feel that i did great

 

[col]

Grr - accidental domination in 1994 when going for a Conquest. I thought I had enough squares in hand when expansions occurred. Its tricky when you cant disband a city to reduce yourself.

 

[Jass]

Cultural victory in 1964
game score:4658
total score:10772

The game was rather easy. All resources were on the island. I realized pretty early that I wouldn't have a good reason for an overseas war. I had a good & fun game nonetheless.

Some cool things that happened:

Greece declares war in 425AD. I wasn't exactly prepared. He sent two galleons filled with axemen towards my iron resource. I had a tough time defending it. Got it back and switched all my cities to preatorians. Wiped him off the map in 1180AD, the turn our 10 turn peace treaty ended. The peace treaty had given me 3 techs.

In 1830AD, Mao declares war on me. Very strange, he was the only civ who was pleased towards me. After declaring war, he still was pleased towards me. Strange guy that Mao. I refused to declare peace with him to cripple him through war weariness (he didn't have anything worthwile to trade. His frigates couldn't touch my destroyers anyway. It worked. Isabella soon became nr2 instead of Mao.

A few screenies. Notice the culture output of Antium.

Was my first GOTM ever

edit: ~major OOPS~. I just read the rules (for the first time) and noticed that you aren't allowed to load a saved game and alter your strategy. I may have done that. Oh well, I'll know it for next GOTM.

 

[jar2574]

Space victory in 1910. I was content to stay on my little island and aim for the stars rather than invading other continents. Looks like I should have used the prats to my advantage and invaded. Oh well, next month maybe I'll be a warmonger.

Some highlights were my wars with Alexander. I fought three. Everything was fine until 560 AD, when my brothers and sisters of the hindi faith decided to invade. I responded with impressive force and was about to wipe him out, when a tricky invasion force forced me to sue for peace. Alex came round my eastern coast and landed a swordsman and chariot next to my iron producing city. I only had a warrior there! My armies were deep in his territory and had taken 2 cities, but I sued for peace because I really liked that iron city.

I waited 10 turns and attacked (after putting at least one prat in each coastal city) This war ended when my offensive peetered out against his 3 remaining cities. I should have kept one larger force of prats to sweep through his lands instead of dividing my forces into 3 parts. When army 2 and 3 got bogged down I sued for peace b/c of war weariness, and b/c it would have taken 10+ turns for adequate reinforcements to arrive. 10 turns later I attacked again with sufficient prats and a few macemen in both armies. The last war was over quickly. Alex was finished sometime in the 1300s.

Another fun war occured about a century after crazy Monty formed a city near the southernmost deer on my continent. I left it alone, thinking I would swallow it culturally. Monty became insane. He invaded from the east with 3 cav, a grenadier, and a catapult. I upgraded to infantry and railroaded reinforcements and wiped him out. I could have invaded the other continent then, but instead I bribed Isabella and Bismark to invade Monty. That was gratifying.


My game wasn't the most exciting, because I had the continent all to myself and a gigantic tech lead. One reason my military was fairly weak was that I never allowed my science to drop below 80. Most of the time it was at 100 because I had 3 religious shrines to help boost income. I could have been a lot more agressive, but I really focused on a space victory throughout. I was cautious in my first ever GOTM. After these wars against inferior opponents, not all of which were successful, it's probably a good thing that I didn't try to go for conquest. I'd probably have lost.