GOTM 13 - First Spoiler

Got up to 5ad. Quiet game so far. Got Budhism in 3610bc. Didn't try for ancient wonders. Gold city 2110bc.Computer crashed in 1210bc (autosave every turn so no major hassle). Marble city 1180bc. Captured barb city in 880bc (defended by three warriors, unusual). Peter converted to Buddhism in 550bc, so I converted in 535bc. We're pals a the moment. Iron city founded in460bc. Currently running a priest for Prophet to establish shrine, building Glib in gold city. Research wise I was all over the place to start with but settling now, researching maths, construction next.

Edit: 500ad. No new cities, got Buddhist shrine and Glib. Building up swords and cats. Declared on Peter 450ad.
 
Raging Barbarians?
This is my first ever GOTM.Decided to play contender,here's how my game's
gone so far! I've never played as Izzy and i never have barbs on my maps cos i find them annoying!
Founded Madrid in place,built work boat for clams.Decided not to go for a religion or wonders to start with.Went for early war techs hoping to find useful resources.Sent a warrior and scout to explore the island,found good sites for my 2nd/3rd cities ,also came across Peter.By this time i'd noticed a fair bit of barbarian activity wherever i went.Lions ,panthers,warriors but no sign of that bear.Inevitably lost my scout and warrior.
I decided to found my 2nd city,like most others,on the coast next to rice ,gold,pigs.Immediatly,a barb city appeared right next door to me!They seem to be everywhere.Both my cities had a warrior and archer,fortified for protection,but my cities weren't yet connected by a road.Decided to press ahead with more archers until something better became available.
All of a sudden,coming out of nowhere, a barb warrior was knocking on the door of Madrid ,standing on my nice little village,ready to pillage.Not bloody likely i thought ,think of the time its taken to grow.Better see him off! BIG mistake.
Attacked with warrior first to soften him up.The barb warrior had no defensive bonus, i bet you can guess what happens next.Lost my warrior,so decided to kill him off with my archer,it didn't happen quite like that.Lost my archer too, to a injured warrior!!! and now Madrid was totally unprotected. The rest is history.
At this point i decided to check the game settings to see if those Barbarians were raging.Ther're not,apparantly!

Here's my dilemma now,any ideas?
The dates around 10ad, i can't retake my capital cos its now defended by 3 barb archers.I Have no military resources for an attack and just one city producing.Here's how i see it, either there's no hope and retire or just dig in and see if i can get a settler up to that iron for swordsmen.

I kinda want to see if i can turn this around just for the fun of it, but dont know if it's worth it.Oh what to do!!

In hindsight[which is a wonderful thing of course] an early religion would have been better along with wonders aiming for a cultural victory.However,i prefer warmongering where possible,but not with raging Barbarians!!!

Has anyone else had big problems with the Babarians or is it just me? may have to put this one down to experience.I'll post again if i recover from my current plight.
 
Can't remember where I was at at 500AD so I'll limit info. I opted to go Mining/BW first to chop out settlers since there are so many juicy starting locations.

After that beelined for Alphabet. Peter refused to trade with me, even when he founded a religion and I adopted it!

Two barb cities to the north near the copper. Peter has taken them both. I plan on beelining toward music to drop a culture bomb and hopefully convert them since they are a little spread from his main border.

Going to try for a peaceful victory, either diplomacy or early space shuttle.
 
Raging Barbarians?
This is my first ever GOTM.Decided to play contender,here's how my game's
gone so far! I've never played as Izzy and i never have barbs on my maps cos i find them annoying!
Founded Madrid in place,built work boat for clams.Decided not to go for a religion or wonders to start with.Went for early war techs hoping to find useful resources.Sent a warrior and scout to explore the island,found good sites for my 2nd/3rd cities ,also came across Peter.By this time i'd noticed a fair bit of barbarian activity wherever i went.Lions ,panthers,warriors but no sign of that bear.Inevitably lost my scout and warrior.
I decided to found my 2nd city,like most others,on the coast next to rice ,gold,pigs.Immediatly,a barb city appeared right next door to me!They seem to be everywhere.Both my cities had a warrior and archer,fortified for protection,but my cities weren't yet connected by a road.Decided to press ahead with more archers until something better became available.
All of a sudden,coming out of nowhere, a barb warrior was knocking on the door of Madrid ,standing on my nice little village,ready to pillage.Not bloody likely i thought ,think of the time its taken to grow.Better see him off! BIG mistake.
Attacked with warrior first to soften him up.The barb warrior had no defensive bonus, i bet you can guess what happens next.Lost my warrior,so decided to kill him off with my archer,it didn't happen quite like that.Lost my archer too, to a injured warrior!!! and now Madrid was totally unprotected. The rest is history.
At this point i decided to check the game settings to see if those Barbarians were raging.Ther're not,apparantly!

Here's my dilemma now,any ideas?
The dates around 10ad, i can't retake my capital cos its now defended by 3 barb archers.I Have no military resources for an attack and just one city producing.Here's how i see it, either there's no hope and retire or just dig in and see if i can get a settler up to that iron for swordsmen.

I kinda want to see if i can turn this around just for the fun of it, but dont know if it's worth it.Oh what to do!!

In hindsight[which is a wonderful thing of course] an early religion would have been better along with wonders aiming for a cultural victory.However,i prefer warmongering where possible,but not with raging Barbarians!!!

Has anyone else had big problems with the Babarians or is it just me? may have to put this one down to experience.I'll post again if i recover from my current plight.

Was the barb warrior in defensive terrain such as hills/forest? If so it would have been better to play it defensively. He might pillage something but sooner or later he will just suicide himself by attacking the defenders of the city.
 
1150 BC, on the other hand, is pretty safe on monarch. You'll probably have to run into IND civs with access to marble to be beaten to the Oracle. Usually the cutoff date on Monarch is around 1000 - 800 BC, imhso.
I'd be interested to hear other people's exp on that, though

I had the monarchy -> oracle -> feudalism thing done in about 850 BC... Very happy about that.... the tension was horrible :)
 
1150 BC, on the other hand, is pretty safe on monarch. You'll probably have to run into IND civs with access to marble to be beaten to the Oracle. Usually the cutoff date on Monarch is around 1000 - 800 BC, imhso.
Amazingly, in a game I'm currently playing, on Monarch, The Oracle was built by an AI in 1480BC. Could hardly believe it. Figured it had to be an industrious civ with Marble in the FC of the capital.
 
Amazingly, in a game I'm currently playing, on Monarch, The Oracle was built by an AI in 1480BC. Could hardly believe it. Figured it had to be an industrious civ with Marble in the FC of the capital.

:lol: Yes, and probably starting with Mining and Myst :crazyeye:
Seriously, that's the earliest Oracle I've heard of on Monarch.
 
Because I went for a Culture win I didn't realise until about 500AD what the trick to this map was - No Military resources near the starting spot!!

Uhmm... I got iron without even sweating, and there's ivory right in the initial city...
 
1150 BC, on the other hand, is pretty safe on monarch. You'll probably have to run into IND civs with access to marble to be beaten to the Oracle. Usually the cutoff date on Monarch is around 1000 - 800 BC, imhso.
I'd be interested to hear other people's exp on that, though ;)

In my experience, 1150 isn't safe at all on Monarch, which is why I don't do Oracle on Monarch GOTMs. Too risky.
 
My general policy for all wanders:
Economic development first and if I consider it good enogth and no one build wander yet, build is as fast as posible with maximum bonuses posible.
 
First Civ4 game and 4OTM.

I am trying to copy a game played by two players named Sulla an Sirrian(? spelling)

Going for a Diplomatic win with a religous foundation.

The warrior move to east and see a river and called the settler to follow. Settler find a hill with a blue glow cast down from the heavens and climb the hill. The blue heavenly glow manifested at two diferent location yet Bella the Stubborn ignored it and establish her fledgeling nation on a hill next to gold hills which she regretted for a while and start learning Polytheism and training a warrior. The first warrior exploring the world.

After training a warrior, Bella the Priestest demanded a wonder made of stone. So her laborers build her the mysterious Stonehenge as her royal sunday fairgrounds. During this time her warriors with woodsman 2 skills meet Peter the Phony. Then she realized the need for a sister city and train a settler. She ask her only defender to escort the settler to go claim the stone near Moscow. However the plan go terribly wrong as the clutural bounds of Moscow expand, Bella the Lucky was forced to build a city along the east coast river. This is one blunder that she will later easily celebrate. In the mean while her priests and scholars founded both Hinduism and Judaism in the capital.

Once the second city was established Bella the Beeline Queen focus on building yet another wonder the, once wimpy but now powerfull, Oracle. The nations laborers, scholars and priests worked hard to as a team to complete writing one turn before the Oracle. The heavens rewarded her with founding Christianity. She is on her way to create a holy-continent. However, her focus was so narrow mineded and resulted in undeveloped lnad in her empire. Soon she would learn trades to improve the land and trained a worker to improve the land.

There was time when two barbarian nations establish cities to the north and gave Bella the Concerned indigestion. However Peter the Brutal razed those cities. During this time a poor choice was made to establish a City near the Ivory instead of the Pig, Gems and Rice local. During this barbaric period of intemidation, Peter established a city to claim that blessed land. Peter is suffering a cultural inferiority in that city. Spanish empire hope to welcome this city to a true civilization.:)

Once bella noticed that Peter the Changeling had changed his state religion and was considering her his enemy number one.:mad: Militarily challenged, Bella the Wise immidiately changed religions. However, this shall not last. After learning Iron Works, Bella's army accuaired iron :banana: and start building her army. (Who need stinking copper:rolleyes: )

At the end of the 5th century Bella the Queen's historians had the following logs:
Spoiler :


Turn 3 (3910 BC)
Madrid founded
Madrid begins: Warrior
Research begun: Polytheism

Turn 8 (3760 BC)
Madrid finishes: Warrior

Turn 9 (3730 BC)
Madrid begins: Stonehenge

Turn 13 (3610 BC)
Buddhism founded in a distant land

Turn 17 (3490 BC)
Contact made: Russian Empire

Turn 22 (3340 BC)
Tech learned: Polytheism
Hinduism founded in Madrid
Hinduism has spread: Madrid

Turn 23 (3310 BC)
Research begun: Masonry
Research begun: Monotheism

Turn 37 (2890 BC)
Tech learned: Masonry
Madrid grows: 3

Turn 43 (2710 BC)
Madrid begins: Settler

Turn 48 (2560 BC)
Madrid finishes: Stonehenge

Turn 59 (2230 BC)
Tech learned: Monotheism
Judaism founded in Madrid
Judaism has spread: Madrid

Turn 60 (2200 BC)
Research begun: Priesthood

Turn 67 (1990 BC)
Madrid finishes: Settler

Turn 68 (1960 BC)
Madrid begins: Warrior

Turn 70 (1900 BC)
Tech learned: Priesthood
Madrid finishes: Warrior

Turn 71 (1870 BC)
Research begun: Writing
Madrid begins: The Oracle

Turn 73 (1810 BC)
Barcelona founded
Barcelona begins: Warrior

Turn 79 (1630 BC)
Madrid begins: Worker

Turn 91 (1270 BC)
Tech learned: Writing

Turn 92 (1240 BC)
Research begun: Hunting

Turn 94 (1180 BC)
Barcelona finishes: Warrior

Turn 95 (1150 BC)
Barcelona begins: Settler

Turn 98 (1060 BC)
Madrid finishes: The Oracle
Warrior defeats (0.88/2): Barbarian Warrior

Turn 99 (1030 BC)
Tech learned: Theology
Christianity founded in Barcelona
Christianity has spread: Barcelona
Madrid begins: Settler
Tech learned: Hunting

Turn 100 (1000 BC)
Research begun: Animal Husbandry

Turn 110 (850 BC)
Moses (Great Prophet) born in Madrid

Turn 111 (835 BC)
Madrid finishes: The Temple of Solomon

Turn 118 (730 BC)
Tech learned: Animal Husbandry

Turn 119 (715 BC)
Research begun: Mining
Research begun: Bronze Working

Turn 120 (700 BC)
Madrid finishes: Settler

Turn 121 (685 BC)
Madrid begins: Warrior

Turn 123 (655 BC)
Madrid finishes: Warrior

Turn 124 (640 BC)
Madrid begins: Worker
Seville founded
Seville begins: Warrior
Barcelona finishes: Settler

Turn 125 (625 BC)
Barcelona begins: Worker
Barcelona begins: Warrior
Warrior defeats (2.00/2): Barbarian Warrior

Turn 128 (580 BC)
Tech learned: Mining

Turn 130 (550 BC)
Cordoba founded
Cordoba begins: Work Boat

Turn 134 (490 BC)
Madrid finishes: Worker

Turn 135 (475 BC)
Madrid begins: Warrior

Turn 138 (430 BC)
Madrid finishes: Warrior
Seville's borders expand

Turn 139 (415 BC)
Madrid begins: Settler

Turn 140 (400 BC)
Barcelona finishes: Warrior
Seville finishes: Warrior

Turn 141 (385 BC)
Barcelona begins: Worker
Seville begins: Worker

Turn 146 (310 BC)
Tech learned: Bronze Working

Turn 147 (295 BC)
Research begun: Archery

Turn 150 (250 BC)
Cordoba finishes: Work Boat

Turn 151 (235 BC)
Cordoba begins: Worker

Turn 153 (205 BC)
Tech learned: Archery

Turn 154 (190 BC)
Research begun: The Wheel
Madrid begins: Library

Turn 158 (130 BC)
Barcelona finishes: Worker
Seville finishes: Worker

Turn 159 (115 BC)
Barcelona begins: Work Boat
Seville begins: Archer
Madrid finishes: Settler

Turn 160 (100 BC)
Tech learned: The Wheel

Turn 161 (85 BC)
Research begun: Agriculture

Turn 165 (25 BC)
Cordoba finishes: Worker

Turn 166 (10 BC)
Cordoba begins: Christian Temple

Turn 167 (5 AD)
Tech learned: Agriculture

Turn 168 (20 AD)
Research begun: Pottery

Turn 169 (35 AD)
Toledo founded
Toledo begins: Archer

Turn 170 (50 AD)
Mahavira (Great Prophet) born in Madrid
Barcelona finishes: Work Boat

Turn 171 (65 AD)
Barcelona begins: Christian Temple
Seville finishes: Archer
Confucianism founded in a distant land

Turn 172 (80 AD)
Seville begins: Barracks
Madrid finishes: Library

Turn 173 (95 AD)
Madrid begins: Barracks

Turn 174 (110 AD)
Tech learned: Pottery

Turn 175 (125 AD)
Research begun: Iron Working

Turn 177 (155 AD)
Barcelona finishes: Christian Temple

Turn 178 (170 AD)
Barcelona begins: Barracks

Turn 180 (200 AD)
Cordoba finishes: Christian Temple

Turn 181 (215 AD)
Cordoba begins: Library

Turn 183 (245 AD)
Madrid finishes: Barracks

Turn 184 (260 AD)
Madrid begins: Settler

Turn 185 (275 AD)
Seville finishes: Barracks

Turn 186 (290 AD)
Seville begins: Hindu Temple

Turn 188 (320 AD)
Tech learned: Iron Working

Turn 189 (335 AD)
Research begun: Monarchy

Turn 190 (350 AD)
Seville finishes: Hindu Temple

Turn 191 (365 AD)
Seville begins: Library

Turn 192 (380 AD)
Barcelona finishes: Barracks

Turn 193 (395 AD)
Barcelona begins: Library

Turn 194 (410 AD)
Toledo finishes: Archer

Turn 195 (425 AD)
Toledo begins: Worker

Turn 197 (455 AD)
Madrid finishes: Settler


Turn 200 (500 AD)
Tech learned: Monarchy

Unfortunately the need to learn non religious technologies led bella astray from her religious goal. Budhism and Confussionism were founded in distant lands. Her new focus is to expand the spanish empire to the north by force if need be. But one thing of the distant future has been made known to her.....Spain will establish Islam.;)
 
:lol: Yes, and probably starting with Mining and Myst :crazyeye:
Seriously, that's the earliest Oracle I've heard of on Monarch.

LOL, except it's a Warlords game, so Gandhi doesn't have Industrious anymore (he's Spiritual & Philosophical now). Don't know who it was yet. I'll find out :)
 
Raging Barbarians?
Hi, I am sorry, it is a sad story.

IMHO, the best defense against barbs are settlers. When you have 14 cities in the continent you won't have more barb problems.

In this particular game you should look at it as good luck. You have changed your palace from a mediocre city to a wonderful city for free! Produce a settler, lead him to metals accompanied by one or two archers and take the world.

Now, why on Earth didn't you whip another archer in your capital after you had lost your warrior and archer?
 
Barbs: The best defence is to not have them appear, so build a bunch of warriors that you place on hills (forested/jungled if possible) to remove as much fog as possible.
 
Yep. I had almost no trouble with the barbs, by placing something like 4 warriors in the northern jungle. Fortified on a jungled hill, they're almost invincible, provided no axe shows up.
 
A game i've play in a strange way: 2 very long sessions, and perhaps with some mistake, due to a bit of laziness, or undecision.

Not much to say until 500AD:
Settle in place, sent warrior NW
Build queue: warrior - WB - warrior
2nd city in the FP, near marble, for cottage spamming and mining hills

i was sending my 2nd settler to the gold/pigs/gems spot, but i was afraid about Russia expansion and i already has an archer there to fogbust, so i sent it to the river, to grab pigs and fish.
Then the "gift spot" was for my 4th city.
5th city to grab gems/sugar/silk/rice and for cottage spamming (later, with all that jungle)
In the meatime 2 barb cities popped, 1 in the coast near rice/ivory and another along the river, SW of Moscow.
So i built the last settler to grab copper, but i was beaten by Russia by some 2 turns... i was thinking to settle in a coastal hill to grab bananas, that was already in my borders, but i didn't (mistake) kept the settler in a city for ages (2nd mistake) and killed it, and Russia took that spot, then i had to waste time when i decided i was ready to export freedom in all the continent.

when i saw marble my 2nd city location was decided, i planned Oracle and GL, and i was successful... Oracle in Madrid in 790BC, to grab MC and GL in Cordoba in 500 AD, plus Colossus (without copper) in Barcelona in 530 AD (i has nothing better to build).
I delay too much to send a worker to grab Iron, so i has a lot of archers, to fogbust and MP.

When i realize there was only another civ in my continent, i researched Alpha only for literature, then i has to research myself all the damn early techs, then the priority was OPTICS.
At this point my aim for the game was a space race, and to be warmogering the necessary to own all the continent before Astronomy.

My first research was Hindu, successful, and i was lucky, 'cause it auto-spreaded all my cities and the most of the Russian very few turns after they were founded or connected, and Peter was pleased-to-friedly, but he never traded a single tech, until he realized i was very advanced.

Everything was peaceful, just some fight against barb archers (never seen an axe), that gave me the HE.

to be continued...
 
BTW - Has any of the previous GOTM/WOTM ever started in later eras (Industrial, Modern, etc.). I am trying out a game like that now just to get the WWII warmongering feel in Civ4?

Is there any chances future GOTM/WOTM will?

There's not been one so far. It'd mean we'd avoid hearing the phrase "Oracle slingshot" for month though wouldn't it :D ? It gets my vote for an interesting idea to try sometime.
 
naa, it just make game more boring, as there less variation and more depends on chance.
 
:goodjob:
Hi, I am sorry, it is a sad story.

IMHO, the best defense against barbs are settlers. When you have 14 cities in the continent you won't have more barb problems.

In this particular game you should look at it as good luck. You have changed your palace from a mediocre city to a wonderful city for free! Produce a settler, lead him to metals accompanied by one or two archers and take the world.

Now, why on Earth didn't you whip another archer in your capital after you had lost your warrior and archer?

Thanks for the tips.Reading yours and other posts it seems like the best way to avoid barbs is to fogburst.However,what a difference a day makes! Decided to play on just to see if i could turn things around. You were quite right about the capital thing being a much better site.I've managed to re-capture Madrid from barbs and flip their other city on the borders of Barcalona.Construction was the key with cats and elephants.I've also captured Peters city of Yerketeringburg by the iron resource.

Now i need to finsh him off and claim the continent for myself.But guess what, i can still see another barb city in the jungle!
 
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