GOTM 11 First Spoiler: Progress to 500 AD

prologos · Oct 11, 2006

Hi all. This is my first GOTM and first game in monarch also (i just played a monarch game with raging barbs and aggressive AI until about 500 BC just for testing purposes). Currently I am around 500 AD and last in points while I am around middle in the tech race (third I think after Bismarck and CENSORED).
Washington was built on the starting location and I produced warrior-work boat-warrior-warrior as I had been very affraid about barbs who kicked my ass in the test game. It turned out that it was not much of a problem in this game though. In the research tree I went straight for archery because of my barb-phobia and continued with AH-BW. By that time I founded New York in the NW to acquire the horses and corn.
My two initial warriors went on exploring and I made contact with four Civs (Monty in the South across the sea, Bismarck in the N, Napoleon in the East and another one which I don't yet know where exactly is it). Monty founded buddism which spreaded across my lands and i converted quickly as I wanted to be in his good side (if at all possible with Monty), and it turned out quite well as currently he is my best buddy (+7).
As i finished researching BW and found out that bronze was quite far I decided to research IW just to see if any iron was near. By the time the research was over I had built a settler and with the right escort (chariots+archers) I went to built a city near the iron but Nap beat me to it for a couple of turns but i decided to built it anyway and see what happened. I immediately built an ovelisk in that city and was surprised to see that in about 10 turns the iron was in my hands (and Nap had very politely provided the mine for it). Unfortunately I missed the two gold sources in the NW as Bismarck built a city next to it so i guess he will be my first target (except if Nap attacks me first).
At this point I am concentrated on building a strong army (mostly axes and swords) so I can kick Bismarck's ass.
I have built The Oracle (I got MC as a free tech) and Great Lighthouse in Washington.
Just before the point I am now I decided I had neglected the religion aspect of the game and since my first Great People was a prophet I tried to research Monotheism and have my prophet discover Theology so I could get christianity but somebody I haven't met yet beat me to it so I 'll try for Islam or Taoism instead as all other religions have been founded by now... On second thought maybe I 'll just try to conquer the closest holy city (except if it belongs to Monty). Anyway I am pretty optimistic about this game. I guess we 'll see what will happen

totororo · Oct 12, 2006

I didn't do the CS slingshot, but got Code of Law from the Oracle, and used the GP to get part of Civil Service. Reading some posts, i think i should have tried the CS slingshot.

I first aimed towards BW, to whip and chop. I was also hoping i could get some copper, which i couldn't. So i headed towards archery, and began to fogbust with archers. In my test games, i noticed that fogbusting with warriors was somehow uneffective, since they get killed easily. A archer on a forested hill is practically invicible.

The bad thing was that bismark planted a city right next to the gold, 2 turn before my settler. I decided i could build my second city close to the wine: it would cut his city, and i could have it either flip culturally or be conquested more easily. I really think that this german city slowed down my game.

Later, I managed to get the iron on the far east. I guess i was somehow lucky, because i got iron working pretty late. Couldn't get the rice though (belonged to Napoleon).

I then belined towards construction, to build catapults and prepare my invasion of German lands, which occured after 500AD.

Thrallia · Oct 18, 2006

Hey everyone, I finally got time to play some of this GOTM, and coming off my spectacularly unexpected win in GOTM10, I am playing the contender save, going for a domination or conquest win(it would be my first military victory submitted to the GOTM)

My plan was to go for BW, check for copper, and if there was no copper, go to archery, followed by AH and then I wanted to go from there to oracle, then alphabet. I wanted the GL for the scientists, and I wanted to be able to do tech trades with any AI willing to trade with me. I am not good at ignoring my builder tendencies, so I made huge efforts to make sure I didn't succumb this time.

Washington was founded in place, and proceeded to build in the following order: workboat, warrior, warrior, workboat, warrior, archer, archer, settler, worker(at 1800BC)

My initial tech path was: Mining>BW>Hunting>Archery>AH>Mysticism>Writing>Wheel>Meditation>Priesthood>Masonry>Pottery>Alphabet(Oracle)>IW

Technologically, I pretty much followed my plan, although I took Alphabet with the oracle, cause I didn't see much need for early MC. Interestingly, I decided that keeping alphabet would help me keep a tech lead over the AI, and because I never traded it to them...they never researched it in this spoiler. The only AI I knew were Napoleon, Bismark, and Monty, and none of them had Alphabet until long after this spoiler ends.

Cities founded:
Washington 4000BC
New York 1640BC
Boston 775BC(razed by barbs)
Philadelphia 125BC
Atlanta 75AD

I built a number of military units before expanding to more than one city because I was worried about the raging barbs. I knew early on taht there were only two paths for the barbs to go on to get to me, but having experienced raging barbs on the current SGOTM, I wanted to be sure I had archers defending each path. Once I did, I built a settler and sent it north to rest E of the gold mine, in range of the pigs and horses. I then built workers and another settler to keep myself from getting boxed in by Napoleon(I didn't know how close he was, but I didn't want to risk only two or three good cities). So I founded Boston on the Eastern edge of the lake. Unfortunately, two turns later, a barb axeman showed up. I sent a chariot and a warrior to protect Boston, unfortunately, the axeman attacked the chariot first and only got damaged .5, so Boston was toast. At that point I was desperately worried that I was getting myself in trouble by planning to forgo my building for a military victory. I built another settler, planning on rebuilding the city, but then I learned IW, and saw the Iron just 3 spaces away from there. So I sent my settler there, founding Philadelphia between the iron and rice.

Atlanta was built where Boston had been, mainly because I didn't want my cultural borders being disconnected from each other.

By 500AD, I've just learned construction, I have 5 cities, 3 are building troops, 4 have barracks, and my army is slowly being built. A few units are exploring/fogbusting, and the rest are massing on Bismark's border.

Diplomacy:
Bismark met in 3200BC
I knew he was north of me, and that what looked like a peninsula had to be an isthmus instead.
Monty met in 2760BC
I saw the edge of his borders as soon as they expanded and Washington had expanded, so I sent my second workboat down to make contact before building another fishnet.
Napoleon met in 2480BC
I had a warrior exploring, and in between turns, Napoleon met me, however, before my turn came around again, a barb warrior killed my warrior. I was lucky to meet him first.

I had open borders with all three civs, however I did not make any tech trades through this spoiler because none of them were willing to trade anything for anything other than alphabet. Monty founded, Napoleon and Bismark and I have no state religions through the end of this spoiler.

Wonders:
Oracle built in New York(675BC!)
Pyramids building in Washington
Great Library building in New York

Spoiler :

civ_steve · Oct 18, 2006

A quick spoiler. I'm a few turns past 500 AD (and didn't save that exact year) so things are somewhat approximate.

Founded on the coast, on the east side of the river. Founded New York to get 1 Gold and Horses directly, and gain Pigs and 2nd gold on expansion. Squeezed Boston to the West to pick up the Wheat. With all the River spaces available, decided to play for commerce and have been building Cottages all along the Rivers (even on a couple of Hill spaces).

Initially pursued up to BronzeWorking so I can get the two workboats out with pop-rush assist. Then researched up to Pottery to develop Cottages and build Granaries. Continued on to Writing and Alphabet. Love to be able to trade Techs. Animal Husbandry for the Pigs and Horse location, and Iron Working for Iron location were learned along the way.

Met Bismark first as a unit wandered by; Monte by viewing his culture across the sea; my scouting Warrior got eaten by some animal, so I didn't discover Napolean until I sent some Chariots as an advance force to stake out the Iron - too late, Napolean was already there! With 4 Chariots I decided to declare War, but there were often 3 Archers defending, and the top one had CG 1, 2 and 3 so I didn't fancy my chances. Still, every so often France would send out an Archer for me to run over, getting my Chariots that important 5th XP.

Eventually signed peace, and returned later with HA's; that did the trick, and I finally got my Iron.

Met a 4th civ (not to be named) who was just visiting in Rheims (Napoleon's Iron city) when I captured it. My 2nd war with him started when I saw 2 Workers on the Iron; no, I wasn't going to allow it to be connected, and those 2 Workers were mighty useful! France has so far been a good source for XP's and Workers for me!

In addition to Washington, NY and Boston, and Rheims which is captured, I found 2 more cities, 1 directly to the West of the Iron, and 1 on the coast SSW of the Iron. Other than getting the Iron early, these cities are fairly minor factors.

Here's were I started to strategize about how to take these guys out. I decided to drive my research to Guilds (since I had lots of horse units and now had Iron). Can I use GP to help me? Yes, somewhat. A GE can help learn Machinery (first GE Tech), Feudalism and then GUILDS! Only trick to it is you can't learn Mathmatics, which opens up Construction and Engineering within the path. So I avoid trading for Math, and start learning Metal Casting, and traded for the initial religious Techs; after that I research up to Monarchy. After MC is learned, I build Forges and finally get my 1 Engineer per city going - 34 turns to get 1 GE. (Not very fast, so I think to do this properly one should get MC much earlier.) Due to the long GPP accumulation time, I decide to research Machinery and Feudalism directly, and use 1 GE for Guilds. As of 500 AD I'm somewhere between almost done with the first Tech (Feudalism), or done and just started on the 2nd Tech (Machinery).

I do get Guilds later, but the GE only provides 1066 of the 1400+ beakers required, so I still have a few turns to research it. Compared to the AI I know of, a couple have Machinery and no one else has Feudalism, so I should be able to run rampant (and I plan to!) against the nearby civs for a while. Napoleon first!

Harok · Oct 23, 2006

Goal - Upon realizing space is the only victory condition I haven't done in a GOTM or SGOTM I decided to go for it plus it would give me the added bonus of perhaps getting to try out Navy Seals which I haven't used before. I laid out plans for a rapid early peaceful expansion (once I had either chariots or axes) with a CS slingshot, and early academy.

Early Game - Good luck with huts bad luck with barbs
My initial warrior went E-NE and got experience from the first hut he found. This was a big boost as I used it for double movement in forest/jungles and this allowed him to move around very swiftly to get contacts (he met all but 1 civ) and many huts. These huts yielded 2 techs (Bronze and Pottery), some gold, a couple of maps, and a hostile village which he survived as it was in a forest and he still had a movement point to get away from all but one of the barbs. He then died trying to pop a hut which was defended by a barb warrior. All in all that initial warrior was my civ's MVP :salute:

as the gold and nice techs (especially BW for whipping as seen in next paragraphs) were a game saver.

Unfortunately back home my luck was the exact opposite. :mad:

My initial settler founded on the opening spot and I quickly got a worker, workboat, a couple of warriors, and settler pumped out. I founded my second city so it would get the horse and 1 gold right away and use the 2nd gold and pig on expansion. Its initial builds were a warrior, chariot, and library for border pop and to generate my first GS after it could work the pig. This gave me 3 warriors and 2 chariots for fog busting and defense (1 warrior used as MP in capital). Things were looking really good at this point in my eyes until a wave of barb archers showed up. The first came from the east and beat my fully fortified warrior in a forest. The next beat my northern chariot while crossing a river. Then the archer from the east (now with an upgrade) took down my other chariot. Next another archer from the north took down a warrior in a forest. So I have 3 barb archers (a warrior popped also in a turn or 2) bearing down on me and I have a single MP warrior in my capital to defend 2 cities with. :eek:

It has been awhile since I lost a game but I thought I might be losing this one.

I turned to the whip :whipped:

and got 2 chariots and warriors out as quickly as I could. I defeated the archer from the east with a chariot but then lost a warrior in the north to an archer. That archer then moved directly next to my 2nd city as a warrior was rushed and I debated fortifying him in the city or moving him out into a forest but finally decided if I just fortified I would lose the battle and city for sure but if I moved out the archer might go for the warrior instead of the city and in a forest I had a chance to live. The archer attacked the warrior and I won giving me time to get a chariot up north for help. That warrior also took out a warrior and the chariot from the south took out an archer before dying but when the second chariot arrived he finished mopping up the invading hordes, and the barbs would never be an issue again.

This left my civ in tatters though as I had 2 cities with a total pop of 3 and unhappiness issues to think about for the capital once it grew back. Bis settled a city near my borders cutting off my expansion that direction and Nap got to the iron/cow/rice (I think it was rice) area in the east. I could fit a city to the east but it would grow slowly with no food resource and would have low production so I decided not to settle it for now.

Instead I went through with some of my initial plans and did a CS slingshot and got a GS generated (academy in washington) before it could give me a prophet. Next I went after the Great Library and then turned to my new expansion plan which involved lots of cats with a few horse archers sprinkled in. :hammer:

I declared on Bis and disconnected his copper with a couple of chariots. He killed one of them with an axe but when I took it out with the other chariot he was without copper the rest of his game. My cat/HA army marched north and took out city after city. He had built the Pyramids in his capital which fell without too much problem as upgraded cats are too strong for archers with no culture bonus. I gave him peace once I had all of his western cities because I didn't know where his city across the big lake was and had no quick way of getting there until I could get a galley built.

I walked most of my forces towards Napolean for my eastern expansion phase while the rest waited for the galley transport to take out Bis's last city and then it would join up with the other forces. This plan hit a snag when I noticed a small stack of a horse archers/jaguars of that normally kind hearted :dubious:

Montezuma fellow headed toward my borders. I had given him tribute early on and we had open borders and some tech exchanges so I thought he might pick on someone else for his every-game-I-have-ever-seen-him-in-sneek-attack. My forces were at Nap's borders when I saw that Monte was going to attack me and I debated if I should go ahead with my war on Nap, retreat my force back home, or go southward to fight Monte instead. I had poor intel on what his cities looked like other than what I could see from Washington's border expansions and where they were located so I ruled out going for him. I was close to pikes which would take out his mounted units without trouble and if he had no boats then it would take him a long time to get units to me and I had easy places to set up a 2 pike/1 longbow fortification. So I went ahead and declared on Nappy. Monte declared on me a couple of turns later. And then I declared on Bis a couple of turns after that when my forces arrived from across the lake putting me at war with almost every civ I knew at the same time. :ar15:

And this was designed as a mostly peaceful game in my mind when I was starting out. :crazyeye:

I am doing this from memory so I am not sure what the dates were so I will stop here for this spoiler. At this point I felt like I was in pretty good shape having recovered from the near disasterous early loss to the barbs. My forces in Nappy's land (esp. cats) had lots of promotions, I didn't see the war with Monte as a threat and Bis would be wiped out in a couple of turns. My tech pace was really picking up as I had 3 academies (Washington, New York, Berlin which Bis built for me) a confucian shrine which had spread into most of my cities with no missionaries and the pyramids for representation. With a couple of nice city sites from Napolean I should have plenty of cities that could work mostly cottages until the endgame where they could switch to farms/hills for production of spaceship parts. My trouble with barbs assured me of being out of the running for a medal but I should still be able to manage a decent launch date.

GOTM 11 First Spoiler: Progress to 500 AD

prologos

Chieftain

totororo

Chieftain

Thrallia

Prodigal Staffer

civ_steve

Deity

Harok

Vagabond

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