GOTM 11 First Spoiler: Progress to 500 AD

bio_hazard · Oct 8, 2006

Contender. I've never played monarch with the exception of a couple of quick test games for this GOTM, but I'm starting to get the hang of Prince and thought I should try this one without the Adventurer bonus. I think I'll stick with Adventurer from here on out!

Early years were not too fraught with peril. I had horrible luck with my scouting units and saw very little of the map by the end of the BC's. My original warrior died in the first 10 turns- he was on a hill, and a lion crossed a river and took him out. Also lost an archer fortified in the woods to an attacking barb archer. However, no real threats to my cities during the time of this spoiler.

I had 4 cities by about 50AD. I didn't do a very good job with city placement, as I missed getting the gold in a workable city radius until I backfilled an additional city there much later. Starting settler ended up on the hill where the river makes a bend, missing the seafood bonus but grabbing the livestock. I had one city north of the river near the wine, one city near the original starting location, and the 4th city just east of the thin strip of land near the mountains (but not grabbing the iron- Napoleon got that). This city (Phily I believe) became the lightning rod for barb attacks for a little while, but with enough archers and chariots it handled even the axemen pretty well.

My tech path was to archery, then to BW, to writing, then metal casting... Although the tech pace was in general slower than I'm used to in this game, the germans beat me to writing and although I got Alphabet first, didn't have anything else to trade and ended up trading it to fill in the remaining first and 2nd tier techs. (Metal casting was taking hecka long to research).

My plan at this point was to try to keep my neighbors happy, take up as much space as possible, and keep making enough units to push back the barbs. I was in the bottom three in score but everyone was relatively bunched up so I didn't feel like I was totally out of reach. I ended up retiring in 1850, so this didn't entirely come to fruition. In my test games I had so many problems with barbs I didn't really get to feel the effects of the Aggressive AI...

Mad Professor · Oct 8, 2006

My goal was domination. I'm not a warmonger and having had a couple of peaceful space race victories in recent GOTM's I decided to do something different. I had a slow start which probably showed in my final result (which I've uploaded).

I settled in place, and started with a workboat, working the forest to the NW of Washington which meant I could study hunting and archery and finish them at the same time as the workboat, and then pump out a couple of archers as my first military units. I was hoping to better deal with barbs this way. Barbs turned out to be very little trouble, with Bismarck settling south as I settled north, and I also settled to the east just beyond the strip between mountians and sea. Actually, I just managed to snatch the cows/rice spot from under Napoleon's nose. He had a settler there as I settled. I got in, just in time. The coast to the south and map edge to the west and close neighbours really ensured that barbarians didn't play a significant role in the early game.

After archery, I did mining and BW, and of course discovered there was no close copper. The nearest being next to a babrbarian city that settled before I could get there. About the time I got BW though I had a very nice piece of luck and got AH from a hut. This showed me the horses near Washington of course, and I promptly threw a party and went for horse back riding. I did also go and capture that babarian city and work the copper too!

Monty declared on me about 400BC and I punished him for it with a lot of plundering with my horse archers but didn't have the grunt to take cities off him. Relations with Monty and Napoleon were ugly from the start, and I eventually rolled right over them, but as I said, I started slower than I wanted. Bismarck refused to trade tech (all game actually) and that made my tech progress slower than I wanted.

Meatbuster · Oct 8, 2006

Napoleon? WHO THE HECK IS NAPOLEON? Haven't seen him in my games. I thought my "3 neighbors" were Bismarck, Monty and (CENSORED)...... is it legal to say who else I met?

Ok in my game Monty and Bismarck didn't found any religions. I founded Confucianism. Guess what happened.

Oh crap. And I was a warmonger. By 500AD I should find another target to attack now. And since this was Aggressive AI I am afraid to attack one of them since the other will. We were the Confucian bloc. Best buds. But if I know Monty well, he'll attack me sooner or later.

Wonders, wonders, I go for a CS slingshot, which worked and I also pick up the Great Library which built amazingly fast thanks to my Bureaucracy. No pyramids, but researching Monarchy early gave me astronomical growth.

Washington was founded on site with a Workboat Workboat Warrior Worker Settler build (I grew to size 4 first). New York is next, on the other end of the river, then the third city, Boston, just on the right side of the bay. Did I have a 4th city before 500AD? I think I founded Philadelphia on the south at the mountain range.

And I didn't have barb problems. Why? Monty and Bismarck for some reason kept scouting east of my city, practically guaranteeing that there will be hardly any barbs there (I think there's a barb city somewhere that they're attacking). And if there's any attackers? Should I say, I love my Horse Archers, I'm massing a couple already.

Why do I have Horseback Riding? I was tech trading with (CENSORED).

I'm currently sharing a tech lead with (CENSORED). Because I had Alphabet upon going for Literature, I enjoyed good tech trading throughout my turns. In fact, I get to cave in to Monty's demands and Bismarck's pleas for help, ensuring good relations.

There's iron "over there" on the west side of Boston. I'm gonna make a fifth city to take it... soon. Unless (CENSORED) or Napoleon (wherever he is), takes it.

Now who to attack... Bismarck looks like a good target or maybe I should eliminate the loose cannon Monty first? I know we're the Confucian bloc, but Monty is nuts!

Mad Professor · Oct 8, 2006

Robo Kai said:
Napoleon? WHO THE HECK IS NAPOLEON? Haven't seen him in my games. I thought my "3 neighbors" were Bismarck, Monty and (CENSORED)...... is it legal to say who else I met?

<chuckle> I know who you must mean. Obviously he snuck a unit more in your direction in your game than he did in other games people have written about here. I find it interesting (no scratch that - amazing)that you have not met Napoleon by 500AD though. Perhaps his early explorers had accidents with animals, and his first city had an accident with more serious barbarians?

Robo Kai said:
There's iron "over there" on the west side of Boston. I'm gonna make a fifth city to take it... soon. Unless (CENSORED) or Napoleon (wherever he is), takes it.

Well this statement says it all. If you have a city east of "that iron" and you haven't met Napoleon, I'd say he had some early major hiccups in the development of his civilization...

da_Vinci · Oct 8, 2006

Hi All,

After the pasting I took in GOTM 10, (you can read about it in the final spoiler for that), took adventurer again in this my third game beyond noble (GOTM 10 and a practice game using GOTM 11 settings to experience the raging barbs were the first two). Previously my favorite play was 2 AI teamed against me at noble (which you can set up on hotseat). That does not teach you about diplomacy and trading, which appear to be crucial at these higher settings with multiple unteamed AI.

I'm not at home this weekend. I have the game computer (no Office installed) but not the productivity computer (the one with Office) with me. Civ and the screenshots are on this one, but my game notes are on the one at home (an excel file).

So for now some brief comments and screenshots (to be sure I’ve got the hang of this), and more details later.

The adventurer archers were one on the settler, and one on the warrior. Workboat in the water also.

I decided to settle 2E of the start location. I wanted to eventually put a city 1W of the settler start, so it could use one of the clams for population growth. I forgot that the health bonus of the river needed the river adjacent to the city tile, not just in the radius. So in retrospect, maybe not the best play.

I used the archers to go explore the map, with an idea to set up a screen against the barbs if I could find good choke points. I’ve attached the “satellite view” of 2280 BC to show the very effective barb block I was able to generate. They gave me almost no trouble, as never got to Washington (or later, New York by the gold). As I am getting smarter I realize now that I should have the second city up by this time.

You can see that I had not yet broken my addiction to scouts (notice the right edge of the shot). Comes from playing too much Bismarck at Noble. But the 13 gold on the shot indicates that I got no gold huts with exploration, so the scout wasn’t very useful. Clear to me now that making a scout late when you don’t start with hunting serves no purpose. Maybe it doesn’t make sense to make a scout even if you start with hunting.

My next saved screenshot is 575 BC when I took the score lead, but I also have found 5 of the AI and so won’t post the shot yet as it reveals the identities and the scores for all 5.
I had 268, Bis had 254, Nap had 249, and Montez had 218 (Monty to me is that guy who led the British 8th Army, so I can’t bring myself to us that nickname for Montezuma).

I saved shots of the score view and the satellite view at 1 AD: attached is the satellite view. Scores of the three AI that I can talk about were Me 414, Bis 366, Nap 304, Montez 301. Bismarck is encroaching with Frankfurt, has Pyramids in Berlin, and the highest score after me, so I am gearing up to go to war with him at this point.

Fast forward to 400 AD. Satellite view is attached. Scores at that time are Me 462, Bis 439, Montez 340, and Nap 326. I have a stack on the wine tile near Frankfurt, moving in to attack this turn. Took Frankfurt in a couple of turns (razed it to rebuild east of it), then headed for Munich. However, Bis got longbows up before I got there, and I had to build a larger stack and the conquest of Munich was delayed.

Without the notes, that is about all I can say for now. We’ll see if I get the screenshot uploads right.

dV

Khalid · Oct 9, 2006

Hi,

first of all, thanks for a different and very interesting GOTM. I don't remember much now for the first spoiler, but i will add on later. I have played in one go to about AD600 early but have not played since.

Settled in place, workboat, warrior, worker, and went for the safe tech path with hunting and archery. I looked into my crystal ball then and guessed that there are horses nearby. So went after AH and foud horses. Next techs included mining, BW (to whip), priesthood (Oracle) Alphabet, Lit, IW,MC,CS, math, construction, machinery (3 turns to complete) in whatever order.

Build NY with wheat and 2 golds and made it my science city. Is making now the same amount of beakers as Washington under bureaucracy. Boston grabed horses and hills. Next city near water to the E and took the french city by the iron.

I have good relations with BIsmarck (but he doesn't want to trade techs), good with a censored civ, who's archer travelled the whole world, zero with monty (after he declared on me) and angry Nappy after our war.

Barbs were not much of a problem. There is Bismarck guarding to the north (he got the wine) and he also managed to take a barb city in the very SE, which can be ruining his economy a little. There are allways barbs down there near his city. My chariots were wandering far too, but had not met anyone else, except barbs cities. Got some promotions, avoided axes Explored quite succesfully. Then bismarck attacked nappy and asked me to join. I agreed. Was below on power and was just accepting anything. gave math to bismarck also ans clams to monty. I took all my chariots to france. My exploring ones were masacred by archers and I saw a city placed near the iron (i just researched IW recetly). My remaining 3 chariots went there and parked in from of that city with 2 archers. I waited for 2 more chariots to come and killed 5 archers comming to the city before thay reached it. I took the city and signed peace. Monty joined the war, but i managed to sign peace after killing his 2 archers.

So thats the way Im standing now. Land mostly improved, Tech leader (i hope for trades or extorts in future), 3 turns from maces, no religion (dont want to piss the censored, who is the only willing to trade). After hooking up iron i'm top on power, my stack assmebled and ready to set sail down to monty. My plan is to finish him, then spread buddhism around and convert everybody. I finnished Oracle ant took MC, used the GP for CS. Gl build in NY, popped a GS and build academy.

Meatbuster · Oct 9, 2006

Mad Professor said:
Well this statement says it all. If you have a city east of "that iron" and you haven't met Napoleon, I'd say he had some early major hiccups in the development of his civilization...

I actually found out what happened to Napoleon recently. But he's still alive. More on the next spoiler.

Stile · Oct 9, 2006

kojimanard said:
What I found particulary interesting about the start was city placement. The basic inclination is, of course, to go east and north. But the issue presented was how to work the gold. After puzzling about this, I decided to put New York to the west, one square west of where the horses turned to be (I didn't now it at the time). Then I could work the [corn] and have enough food to quickly work both gold hills. It also left another city location to the [east] to work the pigs and hills. I think it worked well; interested whether anyone else did this.

I followed the probably typical research path of Mining, Hunting, Archery and the build of workboat, worker, workboat with no barb or AI problems.

I settled my cities exactly like you. I started off Mining/BW/AH, so I could whip up some workboats, troops, etc. when needed. I'd like a domination win, which is a win I rarely pursue.

I was pleased with the troop output. At 500AD, Napoleon has been conquered by my horse archers, I kept 5 cities. I'm currently building courthouses and cottages everywhere, I need more defense to free up the HAs, but I'm short on cash. There are 2 barb cities I would like. One on silk, the other on the copper. (I popped copper out of a mine near the pigs, but I was a only a few turns from locking up iron anyway.) I also have an army working over Bismark, but it's mostly Swordsmen and Catapults.

Aztecs founded Buddhism which spread to me. Other than moving that a bit I've been concentrating all efforts on war. I've built no wonders (captured Stonehenge), have no great people, and have not founded a religion. I also have very little knowledge of the map outside what I've conquered, and I've only met the closest 3 civs. Still I'm 2nd in land area according to the demographics, and finding who's out there and how I match up is exciting.

culdeus · Oct 9, 2006

Wow. I made the hunting->archer gambit which worked very well in my last test game.

My first warrior died in a forest against a lion. So my main mistake was waiting to build another till I could get archers. So I had no fog busting at all to work off. By the time I had 2 archers heading out they were facing 2 on 1 and 3 on 1 barbs. Got the 3rd archer built at the capitol and when both my archers were killt 2 archers (now promoted a bit) and a warrior moved down to finish me off before I could get a second one out.

Sigh.

So I restarted with the plan of hammering out some warriors early on to at least put some separation between me and them. It worked. On my first go round. I only found out the following:

-Bismark was to the north
-No bronze in the 10 square radius around the city
-Location of gold/pigs to the north
-Spotted the two bottlenecks

So on my restart my goal was a domination.

I progressed easily to two cities to hook up gold and get Washington to 6 and then 7 with a confused temple. Then I located the iron/rice and hooked that up and chopped a massive maceman army backed with cats.

Napolean built the pyramids in my game so I went after him first. His uber promoted archers were a major problem for me. The barbs giving the AI 14+XP defenders meant lots of dead maces.

I was able to somehow convert monty and bismark to confused and they are way behind me in points. I'll probably take them on in the late game as this is a non world-wrap map and getting a wedge through the center of the map is key in my book.

I can wipe out those 4 bismark cities later and monty always seems behind on tech.

Long term goal will be to overrun the eastern AI with cannons and grenadiers in the end.

JimBean345 · Oct 9, 2006

First post although reasonably regular GOTM'er - posted purely to slight variation in conditions leading to quite an interesting game (all dates stated are approximate as trying to remember whilst at work). Having seen the initial lay of the land, first thoughts were to control Nap and Bis before taking down Mont.

Decided to take somewhat risky start to look to push forwards the early war effort. Workboat - workboat - Settler start (interspersed with a few rushed warriors who protected main forested choke points). Initial warrior sacrificed for an early worker steal around 3000BC off Nap. With much hoping and praying, the little legend returned to my homeland ready to work the earth.

Three initial cities out by circa 2000BC (first built through for gold-wheat, second whipped for eastern choke point and future HE site). Fourth was Lyon (SW of Paris - Iron city) as barbs had taken in my game from Nap. With these in place, only barb action was really around Lyon for the rest of the early game (though this was constant and heavy).

Teching much the same as others - Mining, BW, AH then push for Oracle-CS sling (achieved circa 1000BC). Push then to Horse Archery for a bit of violence towards my nearest and dearest.

Pumped HA's out (mainly through whip) until I had seven sitting on Bis' borders. My first built warrior had moved into Bis territory to ensure no bronze/iron was hooked up. With worker on his way to the required goods (far north), the time was right for a bit of plunder. First two cities were down promptly with only one lost horse (one razed = wine, second kept, clams + whale). With six archers (two well promoted) in a 40% city (with Mids, Parth and Chic Itz + subsequent rise to 60% towards end of fight), I knew my 10 HA's were in for a close battle for Berlin. The fight came down to two near dead HA's vs. one half dead archer with US coming through on a 22% prob fight

----- However the sight of two barb axes stacked behind Berlin was not pretty to behold :sad:

Took peace with Bis and then Berlin eventually back in my grasp by around 1AD ( having had Parth & CI destroyed though :mad:

)

By cut off point, have maces and HA's lined on Nap's borders ready to attack, had GS in Washington (around 200BC), taken Great Lighthouse & Colossus in Wash and have undertaken copious amounts of whipping in new cities. Bis well out of game with two northern cities left, Nap and Mont have about half total points and around half power ( of myself) meaning should be easy territory for the good ol' US of A. Not played much past this so still much fun to be had.

uberfish · Oct 9, 2006

I expect lots of people to go for conquest or domination so I'm playing for space.

Opening build: fishing boat, warrior (scouting), whip boat, worker, warrior, warrior, settler (whipped), warrior

Research: Mining, bronze, AH, wheel, pottery, sailing, mysticism, writing, masonry, alpha

I played the warrior gambit, and with the favourable terrain setup they were able to cover me until I got the horses connected.

Buddhism spread to me from Monty in 1720 and I converted.

In 600 BC I had 5 cities, Great Lighthouse in the capital and Alphabet, and was proceeding down the Great Library/Colossus path.

Bismarck built Pyramids, Oracle, Parthenon so I built up some horse archers and declared war on him, capturing his nearest city then then Berlin in 350 AD. Meanwhile I was sneak attacked by Napoleon in 325 AD so I had to sign peace and move my troops over to fight him. Unfortunately, this spoiled my plans to peacefully expand to the east. Fortunately I had a convenient choke point to defend against his HA hordes.

dowski · Oct 9, 2006

Well, this is my first Monarch game and first GOTM. I usually play on Noble. I picked the GOTM with no starting bonuses for me or the AI (Contender?).

I know for next time to keep better notes (and to turn on the HOF mod logging feature!).

Founded Washinton in place and started with a workboat->warrior I think. I was pretty concerned about barbs, as I played a test game with raging barbs and they were all over me. I went for archery pretty quickly and put some archers at the choke points to the north and east. One huge problem after that is that I failed to explore much further for many years.

Anyhow, I think I encountered less than 10 barbs at my choke points. So much for the raging problem in our start loc.

I didn't get a second city founded until around 1850. I settled New York 2 N of the horses, within range of both gold, the horses and the pigs. By around 1 AD I founded Boston to the east inbetween the lakes and the large sea. That was all the cities I had by 500 AD.

Diplomatically, I was "best buds" with Monty, as I took to his religion early on and gave him clams or something. Bismark and Napoleon both had cautious or annoyed attitudes toward me.

I managed to crank out quite a few wonders by 500AD. Washington built the Oracle, the Colossus and the Great Lighthouse. New York built the Chichen Itza.

Amongst my immediate peers, I was the tech leader and did quite a bit of trading with Monty, since he had such a positive attitude towards me. Napoleon was really backwards though he had a bunch of cities. Should have taken advantage of that, in retrospect.

I fielded a decent size army for my Civs size, but by 500AD it consisted of mainly archers and horse archers. We had a couple cats too. No wars by this point to test 'em out though. I was second in score to Nap and Monty and Bismark were bringing up the rear.

Things were quiet ... too quiet ...

dowski

ewokimpi · Oct 10, 2006

Contender. I'm a Prince level player. My outcome at this point in my development is always Domnination/Conquest, with Space or Diplo as fallback positions.

My plan for this game was to set up the criteria for a slow expansion by either settlement and/or conquest. I wanted to build the capital up pop 5 using two clams and three hills, I wanted Stonehenge, and I wanted an early attacking unit. Because of the possibility of Barb Madness, Hunting-Archery was the initial tech path. I planned on the second city being the military city.

Later objectives include getting the Great Library, an Academy in the Capital City, and using the Capital city as the Money city. (I tend to go broke... I do great at having manufacturing, but usually end up at 20-30% research after the initial wave of conquest.) Note that I intended to skip Oracle in this game.

Initial build was to be Workboat, Worker, Archer, Worker, Alt-Archer until safe, and Stonehenge thereafter.

Initial tech path was to be Hunting, Archey, Mining, Myst, and on to Cottages, Writing (Library-Academy), Alpha, then expansion oriented techs before war oriented.

Did not intend to war until late Classical/early middle ages with Cats and Axes or Cats and Horse Archers.

So, how did the plan collide with reality?

Basically, the starting landscape turned out to be a moderately spacious peninsula with a narrow openning to the northeast and another pair of small seas nearly closing the north. America's neighbor's were warlike: Monty south across the larger sea, Napoleon far to the east (not far enough, it turned out) beyond the narrow neck, and Bizmarck to the north beyond the seas.

Barbs were little threat overall because of the small area of the peninsula, and the mountain walls and the narrow access to the northeast, although I still allowed a mine to be pillaged early.

Events:

Spoiler :

Techs:

Spoiler :

Initial Build Capital

Spoiler :

I don't have exact stats on empire at 500 AD, as never remember to save then. Shortly after that point, stats are:

39 pop, 92 sci (100%) 58 gold, 51 hammers, 83 food, 38 culture, 5 great person.
Military is 6 workers, 9 archers, 1 chariot, 9 HA, 1 warrior, 1 cat, 1 galley(!)

At AD 500, situation is I'm slowly absorbing Biz, and soon to take Berlin when more cats pop out. Nappy has the Iron city to the East, so America is without metal. I have cautious relations with no-name, and same with Nappy and Monty, however have only traded techs with no-name. Monty has started to trade resources. He asked for a clam, and I refused. Perhaps this became important later - only time will tell. :-)

I'm point leader because of chewing up Bizmarck. I do feel I'm behind on being able to turn in a Domination or Conquest victory; this map has a LOT of space, and I'm not able to affect the two powers far from me. And Monty, dear vermin that he is, bides his time, thinking bloody thoughts in his horrific temples...

Jorunkun · Oct 10, 2006

Since I usually play on immortal, I took the challenger save and pledged myself to a fast domination or conquest win. The big weakness in my game is a tendency to slack off after the first rounds of conquest and gold-plate my cities, which tends to get me secure but slow victories, so in this GOTM I am making a conscious effort to stay on the offensive as hard as possible. The following are my notes, with some comment added later.

The Start
I had played two test games and decided to go BW before archery to see if there was any bronze and get some rushing in when necessary. Also, I wanted to mine the hills as soon as possible to mass produce archers in time for the barb onslaught. Both tactics played out well.

Spoiler :

Second City
Barbs were quite manageable once Washington started spawning archers. With the horses and gold nearby, I decided to expand north, to box in Bismark and beat him to the wine.

Spoiler :

A Change of Plans
By 925 I had a settler on its way to the wine up north and planned to invade Bismark as soon as I had enough chariots available. Fortunately, I did send an archer to explore east because ….

825 – Exploring archers spots unclaimed iron next to … Napoleon’s border. I decide to forego the wine and sent the settler east instead.
700 – Boston founded NW of the iron – hooray!

War Plans
Soon after, Bismark claimed the wine with Cologne. However, my scouts saw that this city and the one on the isthmus behind it (Hamburg) were only guarder by two archers each, so I kept on producing chariots in New York instead of waiting for the iron to come online. Since Napoleon was so slow in expanding, I also rushed another settler to claim the silk in the east.

Spoiler :

German War
200 – DOW on Bismark and take Cologne, at the loss of one chariot. Yeah.
75 – capture Hamburg, lose two chariots. Iron in Boston comes online.
25 AD – Heavy barb onslaught in the east. Need to divert chariots intended for the northern front.
50 – Monarchy > Currency (cont). Trade Monarchy to Napoleon for Sailing (and +2 fair & forthright mod, which allows for open borders). I want to make nice with Nappy while I am busy with Bismark (note the alliteration <g>).

175 – Upon seeing nine (!) archers guarding Berlin, I grudgingly make peace with Bismark, who has built the Pyramids, which I want to run police state. This will have to wait for swordmen and cats, I guess.

300 – Currency > Construction. Trade Monty clam and wine for ivory.
400 – Trade Monty crab for incense
500 – Construction > Literature (for the heroic epic)

Outlook
At 500 AD, I am already preparing for the next war, with swords, cats and – thanks to Monty’s ivory – elephants. I really want the pyramids, but heavy barb pressure and an expanding Nappy to the east suggest I should focus my forces there next.

I am quite happy with my early game: A secure source of iron, the successful war against Germany, excellent trades with Monty (of all people &#8230

– and more warmongering to come soon.

warren peace · Oct 10, 2006

Contender level. The last two GOTM's I struggled with. However, Monarch is a level I feel comfortable with. Because of the raging barbarians I was somewhat cautious starting out. I went for bronze working early to do some chopping. Budhism spread to my land in 75AD and I converted. At 500AD Bismark was the most powerful. I was ranked third (out of five).

Cities
Washington 4000BC
New York 2520BC
Boston 550BC
Rheims 100 BC (captured from Barbarians)
Philadephia 50BC
Atlanta 425BC

Wonders
Stonehenge 1280BC

Tech
Mining 3720BC
Bronze working 3160BC
Wheel 2880BC
Hunting 2680BC
Animal Husbandry 2360BC
Archery 2160BC
Pottery 1880BC
Mysticism 1680BC
Writing 1240BC
Horseback riding 650BC
Alphabet 200BC
25AD Meditation, Polytheism, sailing, iron working (for alphabet)
75AD Mathematics
125 AD Priesthood
200 AD Masonry
425AD Monarchy

culdeus · Oct 11, 2006

Stupid, almost noobish question.

Some of you knew who founded the pyramids by seeing such and such convert to representation. Now, can you assume if you see "pyramids in far off land" that it was built by someone you have not yet met?

Just curious cause I got the "far off lands" pyramids so I'm assuming it's not one of the nearby three.

Redbad · Oct 11, 2006

No, the message "the pyramids has been built in a far away land" is what the players will have gotten before the message "Bismarck adopts representation.
Actually the second message is a better indicator for if the pyramids have been built by an unkown civ. That is, if you don't get a ".... adopts representation"-message then you're fairly certain the pyramids were built by someone you don't know.

bio_hazard · Oct 11, 2006

Good question- thanks culdeus! So, what if a wonder is built by a known civ but in an unknown city? Presumably if its the pyramids and the civ switched governments, you'd still see it even if you didn't know where the 'mids were built?

Shillen · Oct 11, 2006

bio_hazard said:
Good question- thanks culdeus! So, what if a wonder is built by a known civ but in an unknown city? Presumably if its the pyramids and the civ switched governments, you'd still see it even if you didn't know where the 'mids were built?

Yeah, I had met Bismarck in my game, but I hadn't discovered the city of Berlin yet. So when he finished the Pyramids in Berlin I got the message "The Pyramids have been built in a far away land." But then when he adopted representation I knew he had built it. I then went to the top 5 cities screen and I saw it in Berlin.

Vynd · Oct 11, 2006

I wasnt entirely sure what to expect from this game. With the raging barbarians and the aggressive AIs, it seemed like a militaristic game might be in order. But I didnt really want to play that way having just done a Conquest game in WOTM 1. Culture or Diplomatic victories sounded like uphill battles. So I decided that I would probably aim for a Space Race win if circumstances were at all favorable.

I settled in place and built Workboat -> Warrior -> Warrior -> Settler. My early research was: Mining -> Bronze Working -> Hunting -> Archery -> Animal Husbandry.

My basic reasoning was that BW was great if it helped me find metal, and still good for pop rushing no matter what. But having found no bronze nearby I was afraid to risk going straight for AH and taking the risk of facing Barbarian hordes with only warriors, hence my acquiring Archery, which I typically avoid.

My early scouting was somewhat limited out of fear of barbarians, but I found the northern isthmus (but assumed it was a peninsula), and the eastern choke point and a bit of the territory beyond it (saw silk, missed the rice). I didnt find any civs, but four found me. Bismarck and Napoleon contacted me pretty early on, and Montezuma I saw across the water a bit later. I was also contacted by a fourth civ around 1700 BC that I assumed was somewhere to the southeast. Monty was Buddhist, and when that religion spread to me in the late BCs I adopted it and worked hard to make him my friend. I hoped to be friendly with Napoleon too, and direct the two warmongers against the other civs.

JerichoHill proposed going for a coastal city strategy with the Great Lighthouse Colossus. I didnt think it would work at the time, but it stuck with me and when I saw all that additional water to the north and another sea to the southeast, I found that I liked it after all. It would fit well with my Space Race goal.

My research reflected this plan. I picked up The Wheel, Pottery, and Writing, then Sailing (for Lighthouses), and Alphabet.

I established New York near the 2 Gold, Pigs, and Horses. Boston went near the lakes and coast to the east. Hunkered within the two chokepoints, I hardly fought any barbarians at all during the early game. I believe I killed 3 warriors, thats it. When I sent a Chariot east to scout in the late BCs, however, I saw a barbarian city and a sizable group of barbarian axemen and archers heading north towards Napoleon, so they were definitely having an impact.

I wanted the territory to my north for coastal cities. I was taken aback when Bismarck founded a city near the Wine. I thought that area was isolated, and Bismarck was out east with Napoleon somewhere! I established Open Borders and scouted his territory. He was relying on Archers, for defense, although I saw hed eventually get Copper. I decided to attack. New York started pumping out Chariots. Washington chipped in one or two as well, but it was mostly focused on: A) generating a Great Scientist for an Academy, and; B) getting my Wonders built. I established my Academy in 450 BC, at the same time I made my first tech trades, acquired Masonry, and started construction of the Great Lighthouse. Almost all of my tech trading was with Nameless Civ, and with Monty, who was becoming a solid friend.

I researched Mathematics, Construction and Horseback Riding as trade bait, and to bolster my military. Then it was back to wonder-related techs: Literature and Metal Casting. Currency was the last tech I researched before 500 AD.

By 0 AD I still had only 3 cities, but New York and Washington were both powerhouses. The Great Lighthouse was finished and the Great Library was underway in Washington. And my invasion force (some Chariots, a couple of Horse Archers, and two Catapults) was ready! I invaded Germany and captured Cologne (near the Wine) with ease. I left a few troops behind to guard against attacks from Frankfurt, to the east, and sent the rest towards Hamburg on the isthmus. That fell in 200 AD. My armies then marched on Berlin, which was defended by quite a lot of Archers. But it was home to the Pyramids! It had to be mine. And in 450 AD, it was. I suffered several unlucky losses while capturing it, however, and so I had to make peace and abandon my plan of taking Germanys city by the Copper. At least Bismarck gave me Monarchy as part of the peace deal.

Heres where things took a sudden turn for the worse. I had a small force fortified along the eastern chokepoint, in a forest just outside my cultural borders. At the same time I was capturing Berlin, Napoleon moved some units into that space. I noticed it but failed to think of the implications. Big mistake. In 475 AD, Napoleon declared war. My units were automagically teleported out of the forest into an unfortified position on the plains next to Boston! They were duly slaughtered. I now had 4 or 5 French Horse Archers approaching Boston, with only an Archer and a Chariot to defend it. I started running my army back down from Germany, rush built another Archer in Boston, began researching Feudalism (cmon Longbows!) and ended the turn

GOTM 11 First Spoiler: Progress to 500 AD

Prince

Deity

formerly Robo Kai

Deity

Gypsy Prince

Attachments

Warlord

formerly Robo Kai

Emperor

Emperor

Chieftain

Immortal

Monarch

A Tribal Force

AdvCiv for life

Chieftain

Emperor

should have shaved

Prince

Deity

Prince

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