GOTM 18 Final Spoiler
- Thread starter ainwood
- Start date
Objectives:
1. Minimum inpact on RL
2. Win
3. Good score
Outcome:
Diplomatic Victory for Mongolia
Game date: 1904 AD
Base score: 3273
Final score: 21933
So:
1. Yes, just under 7 hours
2. Yes
3. No
Tactic was pretty much to be friends with some leaders and ignore the others to set things up for a diplo. Actually started out being nice to Mansa but dump him for the russians-inca team later. I had 3 overseas wars (natrually took out the american mainland since it was my land by birth
)
1. With Mansa at Cathrines request using the rest of the knight/capapult(mace army that took out America. I only pillaged and raced two major city, as I could not fund colonies at the time anyway. Enough to leave him crippled but with life enough to keep Catherine busy for the rest of the game.
2. England 1 with the same army (reinforce by cavalry and some cannons), rased one city but failed to take Nottingham (with Versailles) due to bad planing with two galleons of reinforcements.
3. England 2 with mostly tanks to get "mutual military strangle" point with Qin during the voting face. (Kept about 5 cities to milk the score.
I had the UN in place in the 1850 so it could have been about 50 years better, still not a bad game given the time it took.
Looking forward to a more challenging level next month!
1. Minimum inpact on RL
2. Win
3. Good score
Outcome:
Diplomatic Victory for Mongolia
Game date: 1904 AD
Base score: 3273
Final score: 21933
So:
1. Yes, just under 7 hours
2. Yes
3. No
Tactic was pretty much to be friends with some leaders and ignore the others to set things up for a diplo. Actually started out being nice to Mansa but dump him for the russians-inca team later. I had 3 overseas wars (natrually took out the american mainland since it was my land by birth
)1. With Mansa at Cathrines request using the rest of the knight/capapult(mace army that took out America. I only pillaged and raced two major city, as I could not fund colonies at the time anyway. Enough to leave him crippled but with life enough to keep Catherine busy for the rest of the game.
2. England 1 with the same army (reinforce by cavalry and some cannons), rased one city but failed to take Nottingham (with Versailles) due to bad planing with two galleons of reinforcements.
3. England 2 with mostly tanks to get "mutual military strangle" point with Qin during the voting face. (Kept about 5 cities to milk the score.
I had the UN in place in the 1850 so it could have been about 50 years better, still not a bad game given the time it took.
Looking forward to a more challenging level next month!
Orion071
Home School Tutor
I went through the log after I finished the game so I have more detail about the beginning than my first spoiler.
I started off figuring that the extra hammer of the plains hill was worth more than the fresh water bonus, so I moved the Settler 1SW and settled on the hill. I started with Fishing and a Worker, then switched to a Work Boat when Fishing came in. My Scout explored my end of the continent then was eaten by a Lion before venturing into the jungle. I still hadnt met anyone, so I figured an early war was out. I founded my second city on the western peninsula with the 2 Gold and 2 Clams in 2240 BC. This funded my rapid expansion Turfan (Copper, Horses, Cows) 1720 BC, Ning-hsia (Stone, Clams) 1280 BC, Old Sarai (Sheep, Crabs) 1040 BC, New Sarai (Rice, 2 Gems) 225 BC. I almost never expand that quickly, but the Gems and Gold made it easy. Washington was being a pain by founding Chicago on the Iron + double Ivory spot. Also he was a religious tech monster Buddhism 2840 BC, Confucianism 475 BC, Taoism 275 BC, Christianity 75 BC and finally Islam in 1090 AD. Not to mention that he had Longbows in 400 AD while I was still trying to get Cats. I knew I couldnt keep up alone so I had to find the other civs. I mapped out the coast with my Galleys and discovered the Cheesy Island Chain that led to MM, HC and Catherine. I traded with them and caught up to Washington. I trained a mix of Cats, Macemen and Elephants (Washington traded me Ivory oops) to take the fight to America.
1st American War 960 AD 1090 AD
My first target was the Iron and Ivory town of Chicago to secure my own supply of each. I moved up the continent and cleared out his towns in the jungle. I had to stop short of his core because I was overextended and the WW was too high. I built 3 more cities in the jungle and teched to Liberalism first in 1240 AD. I took Nationalism and beat Washington to Chemistry. As I was building Grenadiers, I saw that he had beelined to Military Tradition and already had Cavalry! A stack of Cavalry gathered outside his previously captured town of Atlanta and he declared on me.
2nd American War 1500 AD 1585 AD
3rd American War 1665 AD 1740 AD
Fortunately, Atlanta held, but I had to wait a few turns for my own Cavalry to take the fight to him. I took out all of his cities with a mix of Cavalry, Cannons and Grenadiers, leaving him only NY, Washington and a couple of far away islands. I then took a break to gather reinforcements. I finished the Taj Mahal for a golden age in 1595 AD, then I used the GS from Physics and a GP from my GP farm to have a second Golden age in 1700 AD. I took out Washingtons remaining cities on the continent and left him 3 scattered islands.
So now with the continent in my grasp and the Buddhist shrine helping to fund my empire, I needed a victory condition. It was either Space or Diplomatic. HC and Catherine had dominated Mansa Musa, and were both Hindu and good friends. I was friendly with both of them because we were all using Hereditary Rule, but with Catherine as my UN competition, Id never get the votes. So Space Race it was. I traded techs relentlessly with Russia, Inca and England and since I was Friendly with all 3 I never hit WFYABTA. My 2 golden ages put me far ahead of everyone by the modern age. I built a few late wonders and launched in 1904 AD.
I dont think thats a great time, but the fact that I lost 3 Workers to a Barb Archer very early, and the strange set up with being alone with Washington and not able to trade early makes it an OK score I think. Well see.
I started off figuring that the extra hammer of the plains hill was worth more than the fresh water bonus, so I moved the Settler 1SW and settled on the hill. I started with Fishing and a Worker, then switched to a Work Boat when Fishing came in. My Scout explored my end of the continent then was eaten by a Lion before venturing into the jungle. I still hadnt met anyone, so I figured an early war was out. I founded my second city on the western peninsula with the 2 Gold and 2 Clams in 2240 BC. This funded my rapid expansion Turfan (Copper, Horses, Cows) 1720 BC, Ning-hsia (Stone, Clams) 1280 BC, Old Sarai (Sheep, Crabs) 1040 BC, New Sarai (Rice, 2 Gems) 225 BC. I almost never expand that quickly, but the Gems and Gold made it easy. Washington was being a pain by founding Chicago on the Iron + double Ivory spot. Also he was a religious tech monster Buddhism 2840 BC, Confucianism 475 BC, Taoism 275 BC, Christianity 75 BC and finally Islam in 1090 AD. Not to mention that he had Longbows in 400 AD while I was still trying to get Cats. I knew I couldnt keep up alone so I had to find the other civs. I mapped out the coast with my Galleys and discovered the Cheesy Island Chain that led to MM, HC and Catherine. I traded with them and caught up to Washington. I trained a mix of Cats, Macemen and Elephants (Washington traded me Ivory oops) to take the fight to America.
1st American War 960 AD 1090 AD
My first target was the Iron and Ivory town of Chicago to secure my own supply of each. I moved up the continent and cleared out his towns in the jungle. I had to stop short of his core because I was overextended and the WW was too high. I built 3 more cities in the jungle and teched to Liberalism first in 1240 AD. I took Nationalism and beat Washington to Chemistry. As I was building Grenadiers, I saw that he had beelined to Military Tradition and already had Cavalry! A stack of Cavalry gathered outside his previously captured town of Atlanta and he declared on me.
2nd American War 1500 AD 1585 AD
3rd American War 1665 AD 1740 AD
Fortunately, Atlanta held, but I had to wait a few turns for my own Cavalry to take the fight to him. I took out all of his cities with a mix of Cavalry, Cannons and Grenadiers, leaving him only NY, Washington and a couple of far away islands. I then took a break to gather reinforcements. I finished the Taj Mahal for a golden age in 1595 AD, then I used the GS from Physics and a GP from my GP farm to have a second Golden age in 1700 AD. I took out Washingtons remaining cities on the continent and left him 3 scattered islands.
So now with the continent in my grasp and the Buddhist shrine helping to fund my empire, I needed a victory condition. It was either Space or Diplomatic. HC and Catherine had dominated Mansa Musa, and were both Hindu and good friends. I was friendly with both of them because we were all using Hereditary Rule, but with Catherine as my UN competition, Id never get the votes. So Space Race it was. I traded techs relentlessly with Russia, Inca and England and since I was Friendly with all 3 I never hit WFYABTA. My 2 golden ages put me far ahead of everyone by the modern age. I built a few late wonders and launched in 1904 AD.
I dont think thats a great time, but the fact that I lost 3 Workers to a Barb Archer very early, and the strange set up with being alone with Washington and not able to trade early makes it an OK score I think. Well see.
This was both my first GOTM and my first game on Monarch. To attempt to compensate somewhat for this I went for the game with the bonus gold and free tech.
Shameful admission - I reloaded once when my second city was sacked by Barbarians. At that time I didn't think I'd really be reporting on the game here on civfanatics so it didn't seem like a big deal. So I won't be submitting the game but will post here anyway. Next time I'll try not to be so weak.
Before I launch into a brief synopsis of my game let me explain my general approach - I don't much like fighting wars in Civ, generally preferring the peaceful victories. That often has the effect that I end up with an overly small empire, a lack of resources or being hopelessly outclassed militarily later on in the game (or a combination of all three). This just makes the peaceful victories even more sweet when I can pull them off. My all time favourite game that I count among my best Civ performances was a cultural victory with 6 cities, running pacifism with no military units at all on a continent with 4 other civs and with Alexander as my immediate neighbour.
Therefore I really couldn't see getting much out of the particular traits and unique units of this months game and would essentially be running a "vanilla" civilisation (the health was nice, of course). I definately had no intention of researching anything as militarily orientated as horseback riding.
Like most people I settled my first city one square to the east. My scout went hooning off, quickly discovering the hut and revealing a free technology (w00t) on the tiny eastern peninsula, and in the process of exploring this pleasantly isolated location becoming a level 2 jungle warrior able to handle any animal the game could throw at me and speed through the vast central jungle at 2 spaces per turn. I could see lots of high potential city sites. With virtually everything being grassland it's clear quite quickly that we're well sited for a powerful cottage economy. Based off of this, and the fact that we share the whole continent with just Washington I decide to go for a space race victory.
My whole early game was pitched towards reaching Education and Liberalism as soon as possible in order to get Universities and free speech online and free-tech towards Democracy. In the process I nabbed the Great Library in 25 AD - my only early wonder other than Notre Dame (a mistake), since I basically didn't bother with any other one, preferring to build infrastructure and focus on settling the several juicy city sites around and ensure Washington didn't encroach too far south. My city build order was:
3960 BC Karakorum
2320 BC Beshbalik - cow/horse/copper
1560 BC Turfan - SE sheep, flood plains, crab
900 BC Ning Hsai - Clams, stone, 2 x flood plains
725 BC Old Sarai - double gems, rice and cows (mmmm)
75 BC New Sarai - double gold, double clams
425 AD Samarquand - NE cows, rice and lots of grassland. This was the key city to halting Washington - settled one turn before he would have built in the same place!
Later on two cities in the north west completed my empire, one with rice and lots of grass and a more production oriented city on the coast. I settled a 10th city for fun later on on the tiny western peninsula but it did very little.
During the early game I built just a few axemen in order to keep barbarians at bay - there weren't many in any case, I think due to my relatively quick expansion compared to most people playing this month. I kept good relations with Washington with our only "altercation" being a small culture bombing war on our borders, which I eventually won (throughout the whole game I continually received artists instead of scientists from Karakorum despite huge odds on them always being scientists, which drove me nuts - damn Notre Dame!). I didn't bother trying to explore the rest of the world since I thought I had enough land to achieve victory.
As everyone knows once free speech and emancipation come online the cottage economy really starts to purr. I reached Democracy a long time before Elizabeth (my closest rival, who I was also friendly with) and started the inevitable charge for the finish line. The fact that Elizabeth had her Apollo Program and 5 SS structures finished before I'd finished the AP briefly had me worried. As it happened there was no danger whatsoever of anyone else finishing their spaceship first: I raced to Robotics after Rocketry, started the Space Elevator, raced to Fusion and finished the elevator with the resulting GE. Meanwhile every city had finished powered factories and labs - it was plain sailing from there. Additionally I had 2 spies stationed in England and another two in Mansa Musa's territory, just in case.
I "fought" no wars during the whole game. Catherine declared war on me twice, originally in the medieval era then towards the closing stages of the game. She landed no troops the first time and a couple of cavalry and artilery the second. I kept a tiny home garrison of artillery and tanks to deal with these minor incursions. Huayna Capac also declared war in the modern era with similar lack of effect. All three times technology and/or money bribes brought Mansa Musa, Elizabeth or Washington in to actually do the fighting for me.
All in all, although I'm aware a 1941 victory and score of 12,721 isn't particularly good I thoroughly enjoyed this game, and the fact that I actually won at all has encouraged me to play next months GOTM without the newbie bonuses. In the meantime, I would greatly appreciate any comments or advice anyone has.
Shameful admission - I reloaded once when my second city was sacked by Barbarians. At that time I didn't think I'd really be reporting on the game here on civfanatics so it didn't seem like a big deal. So I won't be submitting the game but will post here anyway. Next time I'll try not to be so weak.
Before I launch into a brief synopsis of my game let me explain my general approach - I don't much like fighting wars in Civ, generally preferring the peaceful victories. That often has the effect that I end up with an overly small empire, a lack of resources or being hopelessly outclassed militarily later on in the game (or a combination of all three). This just makes the peaceful victories even more sweet when I can pull them off. My all time favourite game that I count among my best Civ performances was a cultural victory with 6 cities, running pacifism with no military units at all on a continent with 4 other civs and with Alexander as my immediate neighbour.
Therefore I really couldn't see getting much out of the particular traits and unique units of this months game and would essentially be running a "vanilla" civilisation (the health was nice, of course). I definately had no intention of researching anything as militarily orientated as horseback riding.
Like most people I settled my first city one square to the east. My scout went hooning off, quickly discovering the hut and revealing a free technology (w00t) on the tiny eastern peninsula, and in the process of exploring this pleasantly isolated location becoming a level 2 jungle warrior able to handle any animal the game could throw at me and speed through the vast central jungle at 2 spaces per turn. I could see lots of high potential city sites. With virtually everything being grassland it's clear quite quickly that we're well sited for a powerful cottage economy. Based off of this, and the fact that we share the whole continent with just Washington I decide to go for a space race victory.
My whole early game was pitched towards reaching Education and Liberalism as soon as possible in order to get Universities and free speech online and free-tech towards Democracy. In the process I nabbed the Great Library in 25 AD - my only early wonder other than Notre Dame (a mistake), since I basically didn't bother with any other one, preferring to build infrastructure and focus on settling the several juicy city sites around and ensure Washington didn't encroach too far south. My city build order was:
3960 BC Karakorum
2320 BC Beshbalik - cow/horse/copper
1560 BC Turfan - SE sheep, flood plains, crab
900 BC Ning Hsai - Clams, stone, 2 x flood plains
725 BC Old Sarai - double gems, rice and cows (mmmm)
75 BC New Sarai - double gold, double clams
425 AD Samarquand - NE cows, rice and lots of grassland. This was the key city to halting Washington - settled one turn before he would have built in the same place!
Later on two cities in the north west completed my empire, one with rice and lots of grass and a more production oriented city on the coast. I settled a 10th city for fun later on on the tiny western peninsula but it did very little.
During the early game I built just a few axemen in order to keep barbarians at bay - there weren't many in any case, I think due to my relatively quick expansion compared to most people playing this month. I kept good relations with Washington with our only "altercation" being a small culture bombing war on our borders, which I eventually won (throughout the whole game I continually received artists instead of scientists from Karakorum despite huge odds on them always being scientists, which drove me nuts - damn Notre Dame!). I didn't bother trying to explore the rest of the world since I thought I had enough land to achieve victory.
As everyone knows once free speech and emancipation come online the cottage economy really starts to purr. I reached Democracy a long time before Elizabeth (my closest rival, who I was also friendly with) and started the inevitable charge for the finish line. The fact that Elizabeth had her Apollo Program and 5 SS structures finished before I'd finished the AP briefly had me worried. As it happened there was no danger whatsoever of anyone else finishing their spaceship first: I raced to Robotics after Rocketry, started the Space Elevator, raced to Fusion and finished the elevator with the resulting GE. Meanwhile every city had finished powered factories and labs - it was plain sailing from there. Additionally I had 2 spies stationed in England and another two in Mansa Musa's territory, just in case.
I "fought" no wars during the whole game. Catherine declared war on me twice, originally in the medieval era then towards the closing stages of the game. She landed no troops the first time and a couple of cavalry and artilery the second. I kept a tiny home garrison of artillery and tanks to deal with these minor incursions. Huayna Capac also declared war in the modern era with similar lack of effect. All three times technology and/or money bribes brought Mansa Musa, Elizabeth or Washington in to actually do the fighting for me.
All in all, although I'm aware a 1941 victory and score of 12,721 isn't particularly good I thoroughly enjoyed this game, and the fact that I actually won at all has encouraged me to play next months GOTM without the newbie bonuses. In the meantime, I would greatly appreciate any comments or advice anyone has.
Harbourboy
Deity
I had another space race loss in about 1920AD. Again, I lost to that damned Huayna Capac.
Short story is that I spent the whole game taking over the main continent and then was too weak to attempt a naval invasion of anyone else. I settled in to the space race myself, but was building my last couple of parts when the Incans produced their last three pieces out of thin air and launched.
Short story is that I spent the whole game taking over the main continent and then was too weak to attempt a naval invasion of anyone else. I settled in to the space race myself, but was building my last couple of parts when the Incans produced their last three pieces out of thin air and launched.
Continued from the first spoiler thread.
In 500 AD I felt I was well-positioned to pursue the Space Race victory Id planned on. Id peacefully secured control of about 2/3rds of the starting continent. I had contact with Washington, Mansa Musa, Catherine, and Huyana Capac, and was on par or past them all technologically. From here on out my main concerns were to move my research along as fast as possible, get some good production cities ready to build a spaceship, and avoid getting in any costly wars. Id just switched to Bureaucracy.
Leftist Politics Triumphant
I was delighted when my agreeing to Washingtons demand that I accept Hinduism resulted in his being willing to trade techs with me in the 600s. Mansa and Catherine are naturally keen on tech trading, and were also willing to swap with me even though doing so gave me trading with the enemy penalties from both of them. I collected something like 10 techs through trading by 1000 AD, while I researched my way towards Liberalism. When I discovered that in 1040 AD I took Astronomy as my free tech. I also revolted to Free Religion.
My next goal was to work my way through the tech tree to Computers as fast as was practical. Besides the prerequisites for that, I picked up Printing Press, Chemistry, and Communism along the way. I wanted Communism so I could boost my production and cut maintenance costs on my large-ish empire using State Property. I revolted to that in 1310 AD.
While all this research was going on I contacted Elizabeth and Qin, who were pretty backwards and thus not of much interest to me for the rest of the game. At home, I built science improvements all over the place. I already had a lot of cottages that were maturing nicely, and I started to concentrate more on Workshops and Windmills thinking that new cottages wouldnt mature that much in the remaining time. I think I jumped the gun somewhat in that respect. I also continued to exploit Representation by running plenty of specialists. I built the Hagia Sophia in Karakorum, mostly for the Great Engineer points, and followed it up with Oxford University. Old Sarai (the gem city) built the Kremlin.
Dastardly Sneak Attacks
A war broke out in the mid-1500s. By a stroke of luck I noticed that Huyana had a couple of Galleons full of troops off my coast. I knew what that meant, so I had a chance to move some units around and prepare for him. In fact, I tried to abort his offensive entirely by bribing Mansa Musa to declare war on him first. But in case that didnt work, I revolted to Universal Suffrage (thanks to the Pyramids) so I could buy more units with cash. While I was at it, I swapped over to Free Speech since I now had enough Towns for it to pay off.
I wasnt that surprised when Huyana declared war on me next turn anyway. But I was shocked when, on the very same turn, Catherine declared war and landed a force on the opposite side of my continent! There was a real risk for a turn or two that Id lose my Gold City and my Stone city. The AIs penchant for pillaging rather than all out attack is what saved me, as it gave me enough time to rush (and rush buy) more troops into position. So all I lost were a few improvements and fishing boats.
I spent about several turns during the early stages of the war running an all cash economy, which I used to fully modernize my army and rush buy a bunch of additional troops. By the end of that period, Catherine had agreed to peace and my Frigates were laying waste to Huyanas coastline. He made peace with me shortly thereafter. The big loser in all of this turned out to be Mansa Musa. Catherine declared on him not long after she made peace with me, and over the next several centuries she methodically destroyed his empire. By the end of the game he was down to a single island city northwest of Washington. Sorry bout that Mansa!
Computers and Other Wonderous Achievements
With the war over I resumed all-out researching. I had a couple of excellent production cities in Turfan and Tabriz, thanks to resources, mines, and tons of Workshops. With nothing more pressing to do I had them build Broadway, The Eiffel Tower, and Rock N Roll.
Computers were discovered in 1660 AD. Most of my cities started building Laboratories to further boost research and prepare for spaceship construction. It was getting more difficult to trade for techs now, however. Washington thought I was too advanced. Mansa knew better than to part with Rocketry. And no one else had much that would be useful. I started selling off techs for modest amounts of money, partly to help fund my own research but also in the hopes of dragging a few AIs up to tech parity with me so that they might go on to discover something I didnt already know.
I wasnt at all worried about being beaten into space, even though Washington built his Apollo Program before I even had Rocketry. The AI is just plain terrible at building spaceship parts. Whereas I had enormous production capacity ready to go at a moments notice. More than I needed, really. I was running out of useful stuff to build, besides additional military. I decided with so much production to spare I could use the Great Engineers Id been saving to build The Statue of Liberty. That let me run more Scientist specialists.
The Internet and Outer Space
Since the AIs wouldnt trade me space-race-related techs and I had the production capacity to spare, I decided that the Internet would be worth a shot. So I headed for Fiber Optics by way of Plastics. I discovered Fiber Optics in 1822 AD and started researching Robotics. The Internet was completed in 1842 AD and yielded Rocketry and Fascism. Later it provided me with Mass Media, Flight, and Satellites. All of that was without delaying construction of any spaceship parts. So I think that move paid off.
I started work on the Apollo Program immediately after developing Rocketry. I was already working on the Space Elevator. They were completed in 1856 and 1860 AD, respectively. It was a snap to get the few remaining techs I needed and build all the parts. I threw in a Golden Age for good measure. And I still had enough cash left over to rush buy the United Nations on the turn before my victory.
It took only 25 turns after the discovery of Rocketry to get my ship into space. In 1886 AD my spaceship launched, brining me a score of 3,263/20,730.
I think that things went very well for me this game. Not perfectly. The two-front war was a surprise, and cost me 6-7 turns of research. Plus it prompted me to switch to Universal Suffrage earlier than Id planned, and I somehow convinced myself not to switch back to Republic afterward. Definitely the wrong decision, that one. And if I could do it over again I wouldnt have begun emphasizing production tile improvements over cottages as early as I did. Still, Im quite pleased with my results. I think I did well with my research, and also with my tech trading. Ultimately thats what a fast spaceship launch requires. And while all the workshops, watermills, and windmills werent the best possible improvements for research purposes they did help me get most of my cities populations up to high level, which must have boosted my score.
Technological Development 500 AD through 1876 AD
In 500 AD I felt I was well-positioned to pursue the Space Race victory Id planned on. Id peacefully secured control of about 2/3rds of the starting continent. I had contact with Washington, Mansa Musa, Catherine, and Huyana Capac, and was on par or past them all technologically. From here on out my main concerns were to move my research along as fast as possible, get some good production cities ready to build a spaceship, and avoid getting in any costly wars. Id just switched to Bureaucracy.
Leftist Politics Triumphant
I was delighted when my agreeing to Washingtons demand that I accept Hinduism resulted in his being willing to trade techs with me in the 600s. Mansa and Catherine are naturally keen on tech trading, and were also willing to swap with me even though doing so gave me trading with the enemy penalties from both of them. I collected something like 10 techs through trading by 1000 AD, while I researched my way towards Liberalism. When I discovered that in 1040 AD I took Astronomy as my free tech. I also revolted to Free Religion.
My next goal was to work my way through the tech tree to Computers as fast as was practical. Besides the prerequisites for that, I picked up Printing Press, Chemistry, and Communism along the way. I wanted Communism so I could boost my production and cut maintenance costs on my large-ish empire using State Property. I revolted to that in 1310 AD.
While all this research was going on I contacted Elizabeth and Qin, who were pretty backwards and thus not of much interest to me for the rest of the game. At home, I built science improvements all over the place. I already had a lot of cottages that were maturing nicely, and I started to concentrate more on Workshops and Windmills thinking that new cottages wouldnt mature that much in the remaining time. I think I jumped the gun somewhat in that respect. I also continued to exploit Representation by running plenty of specialists. I built the Hagia Sophia in Karakorum, mostly for the Great Engineer points, and followed it up with Oxford University. Old Sarai (the gem city) built the Kremlin.
Dastardly Sneak Attacks
A war broke out in the mid-1500s. By a stroke of luck I noticed that Huyana had a couple of Galleons full of troops off my coast. I knew what that meant, so I had a chance to move some units around and prepare for him. In fact, I tried to abort his offensive entirely by bribing Mansa Musa to declare war on him first. But in case that didnt work, I revolted to Universal Suffrage (thanks to the Pyramids) so I could buy more units with cash. While I was at it, I swapped over to Free Speech since I now had enough Towns for it to pay off.
I wasnt that surprised when Huyana declared war on me next turn anyway. But I was shocked when, on the very same turn, Catherine declared war and landed a force on the opposite side of my continent! There was a real risk for a turn or two that Id lose my Gold City and my Stone city. The AIs penchant for pillaging rather than all out attack is what saved me, as it gave me enough time to rush (and rush buy) more troops into position. So all I lost were a few improvements and fishing boats.
I spent about several turns during the early stages of the war running an all cash economy, which I used to fully modernize my army and rush buy a bunch of additional troops. By the end of that period, Catherine had agreed to peace and my Frigates were laying waste to Huyanas coastline. He made peace with me shortly thereafter. The big loser in all of this turned out to be Mansa Musa. Catherine declared on him not long after she made peace with me, and over the next several centuries she methodically destroyed his empire. By the end of the game he was down to a single island city northwest of Washington. Sorry bout that Mansa!
Computers and Other Wonderous Achievements
With the war over I resumed all-out researching. I had a couple of excellent production cities in Turfan and Tabriz, thanks to resources, mines, and tons of Workshops. With nothing more pressing to do I had them build Broadway, The Eiffel Tower, and Rock N Roll.
Computers were discovered in 1660 AD. Most of my cities started building Laboratories to further boost research and prepare for spaceship construction. It was getting more difficult to trade for techs now, however. Washington thought I was too advanced. Mansa knew better than to part with Rocketry. And no one else had much that would be useful. I started selling off techs for modest amounts of money, partly to help fund my own research but also in the hopes of dragging a few AIs up to tech parity with me so that they might go on to discover something I didnt already know.
I wasnt at all worried about being beaten into space, even though Washington built his Apollo Program before I even had Rocketry. The AI is just plain terrible at building spaceship parts. Whereas I had enormous production capacity ready to go at a moments notice. More than I needed, really. I was running out of useful stuff to build, besides additional military. I decided with so much production to spare I could use the Great Engineers Id been saving to build The Statue of Liberty. That let me run more Scientist specialists.
The Internet and Outer Space
Since the AIs wouldnt trade me space-race-related techs and I had the production capacity to spare, I decided that the Internet would be worth a shot. So I headed for Fiber Optics by way of Plastics. I discovered Fiber Optics in 1822 AD and started researching Robotics. The Internet was completed in 1842 AD and yielded Rocketry and Fascism. Later it provided me with Mass Media, Flight, and Satellites. All of that was without delaying construction of any spaceship parts. So I think that move paid off.
I started work on the Apollo Program immediately after developing Rocketry. I was already working on the Space Elevator. They were completed in 1856 and 1860 AD, respectively. It was a snap to get the few remaining techs I needed and build all the parts. I threw in a Golden Age for good measure. And I still had enough cash left over to rush buy the United Nations on the turn before my victory.
It took only 25 turns after the discovery of Rocketry to get my ship into space. In 1886 AD my spaceship launched, brining me a score of 3,263/20,730.
I think that things went very well for me this game. Not perfectly. The two-front war was a surprise, and cost me 6-7 turns of research. Plus it prompted me to switch to Universal Suffrage earlier than Id planned, and I somehow convinced myself not to switch back to Republic afterward. Definitely the wrong decision, that one. And if I could do it over again I wouldnt have begun emphasizing production tile improvements over cottages as early as I did. Still, Im quite pleased with my results. I think I did well with my research, and also with my tech trading. Ultimately thats what a fast spaceship launch requires. And while all the workshops, watermills, and windmills werent the best possible improvements for research purposes they did help me get most of my cities populations up to high level, which must have boosted my score.
Technological Development 500 AD through 1876 AD
Spoiler :
Lehm
Gypsy Jester
Space Race - Loss to catherine.
Unfortunately 5 turns before I was going to launch my baby catherine did it. Mh, now I am disappointed. I am still growing too slowly. It took me too long to take Washington off the continent what was making me falling too far behind in techrace. Should have left him alone a bit earlier to gain more progress in research. Okay... next game is waiting..
Unfortunately 5 turns before I was going to launch my baby catherine did it. Mh, now I am disappointed. I am still growing too slowly. It took me too long to take Washington off the continent what was making me falling too far behind in techrace. Should have left him alone a bit earlier to gain more progress in research. Okay... next game is waiting..
Pretty uneventful start. Settled the obvious cities (gold, gems, horses, iron and sheep) and captured the ivory city from the barbarians. Attacked Washington since "I was afraid he was getting too advanced". 
and captured Philadelphia and Atlanta to stop him. That didn't help, so I captured his original cities in the second war. I used great people to pop Optics and partly pop astronomy and chemistry. When I finally learned steel, I had 35 catapults, so I shut down research, upgraded them to cannon and sweeped over the southern continent (I used two fleets of galleons, one north and one south, which sped up the attack). I disbanded about 20 ships due to maintenance during the game. The most difficult part of this game was to plan the logistics (balance of units and moving the galleons where they were needed).
Key events
100 BC : Contact with Catherine
50 BC : Contact with Mansa Musa
350 AD: Contact with Huayna Capac
375 AD - 560 AD : First war with Washington
780 AD Optics
840 AD - 1060 AD : Second war with Washington
1200 AD Astronomy
1280 AD - 1450 AD : War with Qin Shi Huang (eliminated)
1290 AD AD Steel
1420 AD - 1550 AD: War with Mansa Musa (eliminated)
1440 AD - 1525 AD : War with Elizabeth (eliminated)
1560 AD - 1585 AD : Third war with Washington (eliminated)
1560 AD - 1635 AD : War with Catherine
Missed circumnavigate with a few turns to Washington
and captured Philadelphia and Atlanta to stop him. That didn't help, so I captured his original cities in the second war. I used great people to pop Optics and partly pop astronomy and chemistry. When I finally learned steel, I had 35 catapults, so I shut down research, upgraded them to cannon and sweeped over the southern continent (I used two fleets of galleons, one north and one south, which sped up the attack). I disbanded about 20 ships due to maintenance during the game. The most difficult part of this game was to plan the logistics (balance of units and moving the galleons where they were needed).Key events
100 BC : Contact with Catherine
50 BC : Contact with Mansa Musa
350 AD: Contact with Huayna Capac
375 AD - 560 AD : First war with Washington
780 AD Optics
840 AD - 1060 AD : Second war with Washington
1200 AD Astronomy
1280 AD - 1450 AD : War with Qin Shi Huang (eliminated)
1290 AD AD Steel
1420 AD - 1550 AD: War with Mansa Musa (eliminated)
1440 AD - 1525 AD : War with Elizabeth (eliminated)
1560 AD - 1585 AD : Third war with Washington (eliminated)
1560 AD - 1635 AD : War with Catherine
Missed circumnavigate with a few turns to Washington
In my first spoiler, I explained that we took Washington down extremely early, almost completely crashing out the great Mongolian economy. We predicted:
The Quick History:
The late-game AI seems terrible. Catherine might have won a diplomatic victory vote if she had proposed it, and she definitely could have launched her spaceship if she bothered to build the last part. She only needed one more, and she had the technology for it! Also, I don't know how I got the space elevator, since Catherine got the Great Engineer from Fusion.
In the final turn before my victory, Catherine switched to Theocracy, since a couple turns before she had declared war on the two-city Chinese Empire again. I don't know how the late-game AI works, but it is certainly not thinking about victory.
The Quick History:
- 475 BC - 200 BC: 1st American War, Washington captured.
- 640 AD - 800 AD: 2nd American War, we capture all but 1 city.
With our economy completely ruined, the silly Americans teach us Code of Laws and Currency.
All nine (!) of our cities immediately begin courthouses.
- 1070 AD: We meet Huayna, and guess what! He has a caravel visiting our archers!
Later we meet the Christian buddies Mansa and Catherine, and align with them instead. - 1440 AD: The great Mongolian empire has caught up in technology, and wins the liberalism race.
- 1545 AD - 1560 AD: 3rd American War, to settle the rest of the continent.
- 1565 AD: Chinese-Malinese War starts. We are getting worried about world war, so...
- 1580 AD: We sign a defense pact with Catherine.
- 1630 AD: We join the war against China, since Mansa asks so nicely and we are behind Catherine in technology. We need a little more productive territory if we are going to win the space race.
- 1780 AD: We take Beijing and end the first Chinese war.
- 1814 AD: 10 turns later, we start again against China.
- 1830 AD: With China almost destroyed, we make peace and renew our defense pact with Catherine.
- 1844 AD: Surprise! Catherine completes Apollo Program.
- 1888 AD: The grand Mongolian nation completes its own Apollo Program.
- 1940 AD: Catherine builds the United Nations and gets elected Secretary-General... but never asks to "win the game." Why not?
- 1949 AD: We finish our spaceship and declare ourselves kings of the world!
The late-game AI seems terrible. Catherine might have won a diplomatic victory vote if she had proposed it, and she definitely could have launched her spaceship if she bothered to build the last part. She only needed one more, and she had the technology for it! Also, I don't know how I got the space elevator, since Catherine got the Great Engineer from Fusion.
In the final turn before my victory, Catherine switched to Theocracy, since a couple turns before she had declared war on the two-city Chinese Empire again. I don't know how the late-game AI works, but it is certainly not thinking about victory.
The Mad Swede
Chieftain
Continued from my first spoiler. In 500 AD I had 8 cities, a failing economy and had attacked Washington once. I went for domination.
Key events after 500AD:
680AD: The second American war begins!
980AD: Peace! 2 cities were captured and 1 razed.
980AD: Hereditary Rule adopted
1100AD: The third American war begins!
1140AD: Washington and the Pyramids captured. Representation adopted.
1200AD: Bureaucracy adopted
1210AD: New York captured and its peace again. America reduced to 2 cities.
1400AD: I convert to Buddhism and join Huayna and Catherine in the holy faith.
1460AD: The fourth American war is declared!
1500AD: I somehow manage to be first to discover Liberalism!
1520AD: Peace with Washington. He now has 1 city on an island.
1520-1680AD: Major army restructuring and building. The plan is to invade China with grenadiers and cannons.
1680AD: War is declared on China!
1710AD: The somewhat weird combination of Free Speech/Police State is adopted.
1745AD: State Property/Emancipation adopted
1760AD: The fifth (!) American war is declared!
1765AD: The American civilization is destroyed!
1804AD: The chinese civilization is destroyed! 11 cities captured!
1810AD: War is declared on Mansa Musa AND Elizabeth!
1852AD: Peace with Mali!
1854AD: The Malinese civilization destroyed (by the Russians)!
1870AD: Peace with Elizabeth!
I was not going to reach domination without attacking Russia or Inca. This did not appeal to me so I went for diplomatic instead. I tried out a sneaky method I had read about:
1) Rush UN
2) Give UN city away to the most hated civ (Elizabeth)
3) Grease up to the others and wait for the votes
4) WIN!
The Russians voted for me and that gave me the victory in 1888AD for some 5045/42332 pts.
Key events after 500AD:
680AD: The second American war begins!
980AD: Peace! 2 cities were captured and 1 razed.
980AD: Hereditary Rule adopted
1100AD: The third American war begins!
1140AD: Washington and the Pyramids captured. Representation adopted.
1200AD: Bureaucracy adopted
1210AD: New York captured and its peace again. America reduced to 2 cities.
1400AD: I convert to Buddhism and join Huayna and Catherine in the holy faith.
1460AD: The fourth American war is declared!
1500AD: I somehow manage to be first to discover Liberalism!
1520AD: Peace with Washington. He now has 1 city on an island.
1520-1680AD: Major army restructuring and building. The plan is to invade China with grenadiers and cannons.
1680AD: War is declared on China!
1710AD: The somewhat weird combination of Free Speech/Police State is adopted.
1745AD: State Property/Emancipation adopted
1760AD: The fifth (!) American war is declared!
1765AD: The American civilization is destroyed!
1804AD: The chinese civilization is destroyed! 11 cities captured!
1810AD: War is declared on Mansa Musa AND Elizabeth!
1852AD: Peace with Mali!
1854AD: The Malinese civilization destroyed (by the Russians)!
1870AD: Peace with Elizabeth!
I was not going to reach domination without attacking Russia or Inca. This did not appeal to me so I went for diplomatic instead. I tried out a sneaky method I had read about:
1) Rush UN
2) Give UN city away to the most hated civ (Elizabeth)
3) Grease up to the others and wait for the votes
4) WIN!
The Russians voted for me and that gave me the victory in 1888AD for some 5045/42332 pts.
Domination victory 1804 AD
Fun map, nice twist with all the Financial AIs.
Plenty of space to expand early on. Took out Washington using Maces etc. By then I had found everyone and was gaining a tech lead. I bribed some wars between Mansa and Catherine, and between Qin and Elizabeth. Qin was way behind me in tech, but by the time I had moved all units from the northern tip of my continent to the southern, and shipped them over to Qin's land, he had regained some of that tech disadvantage. I had a bunch of CR Grenadiers, but he managed to upgrade some defensive units to Grenadiers too. This mean that the war against him took much longer than I had hoped for. Once the chinese were finished I continued on against England, but Elizabeth just managed to research rifling = Redcoats! by then. Once again, big delays.
In the meantime, I opened up a second front against Mansa Musa. This was a walkover, but Catherine thought so too and we were racing to take Mansa's best cities. I got the majority of them, this must have ticked her off because when Mansa was reduced to a single island city there was suddenly plenty of Russian units right next to my newly captured former Malinese cities. Uh oh. Next turn, Catherine declares war on me, despite being pleased, and despite being in a common war already!
I lost a couple of cities, but once I got a bunch of reinforcements there I recaptured and went on the offensive. Finally I conquered both England and Russia and triggered the domination limit in 1804.
A very late domination victory. My main mistakes were in poor timing, especially when bribing AIs to war, and in building research infrastructure instead of banks. Steel and Military tradition were among the last techs I researched before going 0%...
Btw, congrats Erkon for your Dom victory, well played! You beat me again it seems.
Fun map, nice twist with all the Financial AIs.
Plenty of space to expand early on. Took out Washington using Maces etc. By then I had found everyone and was gaining a tech lead. I bribed some wars between Mansa and Catherine, and between Qin and Elizabeth. Qin was way behind me in tech, but by the time I had moved all units from the northern tip of my continent to the southern, and shipped them over to Qin's land, he had regained some of that tech disadvantage. I had a bunch of CR Grenadiers, but he managed to upgrade some defensive units to Grenadiers too. This mean that the war against him took much longer than I had hoped for. Once the chinese were finished I continued on against England, but Elizabeth just managed to research rifling = Redcoats! by then. Once again, big delays.
In the meantime, I opened up a second front against Mansa Musa. This was a walkover, but Catherine thought so too and we were racing to take Mansa's best cities. I got the majority of them, this must have ticked her off because when Mansa was reduced to a single island city there was suddenly plenty of Russian units right next to my newly captured former Malinese cities. Uh oh. Next turn, Catherine declares war on me, despite being pleased, and despite being in a common war already!
I lost a couple of cities, but once I got a bunch of reinforcements there I recaptured and went on the offensive. Finally I conquered both England and Russia and triggered the domination limit in 1804.
A very late domination victory. My main mistakes were in poor timing, especially when bribing AIs to war, and in building research infrastructure instead of banks. Steel and Military tradition were among the last techs I researched before going 0%...
Btw, congrats Erkon for your Dom victory, well played! You beat me again it seems.
It's very peculiar that we get such a different end date. We play very similar, although you normally spend more effort into research, while I prefer to start the wars earlier (such as in WOTM4: Romans). It's strange how an early minor difference can have such a big difference at the end of the game.
It seems like bribing the AI into war may backfire. It's probably best to do that perhaps five turns ahead of your own attack. The AI will then move all loose units against the other AI, and hopefully upgrade the units closest to AI as well. The backstab needs to be done before the AI has built any new units though.
They had what seemed to me to be a really big land mass. Given the opportunity I think the AI will happily overexpand to fill the available space.
The late-game AI seems terrible. Catherine might have won a diplomatic victory vote if she had proposed it, and she definitely could have launched her spaceship if she bothered to build the last part. She only needed one more, and she had the technology for it! Also, I don't know how I got the space elevator, since Catherine got the Great Engineer from Fusion.
...I don't know how the late-game AI works, but it is certainly not thinking about victory.
Agreed. If you can make it to the late stages of the game without getting wiped out or falling way, way behind in technology, it's usually possible to win the space race. I don't think the AI can honestly be said to "know how to win." Sometimes it just gets there by accident by following whatever algorithms they've given it. But more often than not it'll neglect to build the space ships parts or offer the UN votes that it needs to gain a victory.
Ronnie1
Deity
The biggest mistake I made in this game was not getting an exploring boat out early. When I was exploring the landmass there was a barb city in the E that did not allow me to see the islands, I don't think I built an exploring boat before Caravels. Earlier contact with the other continents would have taken many turns off the victory date from early tech trading. I had some pretty awful luck with the RNG on this one, I lost countless battles at better than70% odds and probably a handful or 2 at 90+%.
Spoiler #1 left off @ T110 (125BC) with Georgie declaring on me and taking said barb city from my hot little hands. It was of course the elephant city that I needed desperately if I was going to mount any sort of counter attack at George's key cities. I was re-evaluating the Victory condition question at this point also. The Keshik proved to be mostly useless under my guidance and it's normally useful lifespan was just about up. I had not made any contacts off of the starting continent yet, so I was pretty clueless.
The American Wars
Important mid-game builds!
The Players
Tech fest from here on! The game was not really in doubt past this point. I back stabbed George 1 more time and took Houston to end the yearning issues that were hampering growth in the old American cities. Catherine back stabbed me, and razed Seattle, HC filled the void with cities before I could rebuild. I stomped all over Catherine's western empire in retaliation. This consisted mostly of Musa's original core cities, which he had lost to Catherine, I razed all but Timbuktu. Musa ended with 1 city on the NW island off our continent. The southern continent was never really a factor in the late game, not enough good dirt to work with. George was the only one eliminated(RIP).
Late game wonders and important dates for the Mongols included:
Karakorum finishes: Broadway 1852
Karakorum finishes: The Eiffel Tower 1876
Samarqand finishes: The Pentagon 1876
Beshbalik finishes: Rock N Roll 1878
Karakorum finishes: Apollo Program 1904
Samarqand finishes: The Space Elevator 1931
Thanks to the GOTM staff!
A very fun game, again harder than the difficulty level might have implied.
Spoiler #1 left off @ T110 (125BC) with Georgie declaring on me and taking said barb city from my hot little hands. It was of course the elephant city that I needed desperately if I was going to mount any sort of counter attack at George's key cities. I was re-evaluating the Victory condition question at this point also. The Keshik proved to be mostly useless under my guidance and it's normally useful lifespan was just about up. I had not made any contacts off of the starting continent yet, so I was pretty clueless.
The American Wars
Spoiler :
Important mid-game builds!
Spoiler :
The Players
Spoiler :
Tech fest from here on! The game was not really in doubt past this point. I back stabbed George 1 more time and took Houston to end the yearning issues that were hampering growth in the old American cities. Catherine back stabbed me, and razed Seattle, HC filled the void with cities before I could rebuild. I stomped all over Catherine's western empire in retaliation. This consisted mostly of Musa's original core cities, which he had lost to Catherine, I razed all but Timbuktu. Musa ended with 1 city on the NW island off our continent. The southern continent was never really a factor in the late game, not enough good dirt to work with. George was the only one eliminated(RIP).
Late game wonders and important dates for the Mongols included:
Karakorum finishes: Broadway 1852
Karakorum finishes: The Eiffel Tower 1876
Samarqand finishes: The Pentagon 1876
Beshbalik finishes: Rock N Roll 1878
Karakorum finishes: Apollo Program 1904
Samarqand finishes: The Space Elevator 1931
Thanks to the GOTM staff!
A very fun game, again harder than the difficulty level might have implied.
The Mad Swede
Chieftain
Hmm, good point. I did on the other hand read about it in the Russians SGOTM thread so I assumed it would be ok. I'll have to check that somehow.
Thanks. I didn't play the end of the game very well though so there's always room for improvement.
Frederiksberg
Deity
No doubt that this is legal! It was used by many teams in SGOTM3. I used it myself for this SGOTM - I also gave the UN city to Elisabeth (Diplomatic victory 1660 AD). Will post a spoiler later...
dr_s
Prince
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2006
- Messages
- 539
Picking up from 500 AD, when I was at war with Washington. I had razed two of his cities in the jungle (one by the ivory) and my stack was moving north. Washington had built two cities in the little ithmus that separated the north and south parts of the continent; one of these was the Confucian holy city. Blinded by greed, I decided to take these two cities, partly because I didn't yet have a religion, and partly because I could block Washington off from the south.
I'm not sure what I was thinking, but this was a big mistake. (My thought process was something like: 1. Capture holy city. 2. ???? 3. Profit!) My economy tanked because of the maintanence, and I was down to 10% science to run in the black. (And I never did get a great prophet to build the shrine.) I spammed cottages and eventually rebuilt my economy, but I think I fell way too far behind here.
My other big mistake was not scouting enough. I sent a galley around to the west and found nothing of interest. I had seen the small island to the east, but assumed it didn't go anywhere (because no galleys had come that way, I suppose). Wrong! (I wonder, were the "Breadcrumb Islands" naturally occurring, or were they added by our host?) Anyway, by the time I found the other civs I was way behind. Of course Washington hated me and wouldn't trade, so I had to try to catch up myself. I actually caught up with a couple civs (Mansa and Elizabeth) so I eventually had a couple trade partners.
As the game wore on, I realized that space race was probably my only hope, so I beelined the internet, completing it in 1948. (I had completed the Apollo program in 1940.) The internet immediately gave me all the techs I was missing: Fascism, Communism, Mass Media, Ecology, Fission, Composites, Genetics, Fusion, and Robotics, but it was too late. Catherine launched in 1951.
I'm not sure what I was thinking, but this was a big mistake. (My thought process was something like: 1. Capture holy city. 2. ???? 3. Profit!) My economy tanked because of the maintanence, and I was down to 10% science to run in the black. (And I never did get a great prophet to build the shrine.) I spammed cottages and eventually rebuilt my economy, but I think I fell way too far behind here.
My other big mistake was not scouting enough. I sent a galley around to the west and found nothing of interest. I had seen the small island to the east, but assumed it didn't go anywhere (because no galleys had come that way, I suppose). Wrong! (I wonder, were the "Breadcrumb Islands" naturally occurring, or were they added by our host?) Anyway, by the time I found the other civs I was way behind. Of course Washington hated me and wouldn't trade, so I had to try to catch up myself. I actually caught up with a couple civs (Mansa and Elizabeth) so I eventually had a couple trade partners.
As the game wore on, I realized that space race was probably my only hope, so I beelined the internet, completing it in 1948. (I had completed the Apollo program in 1940.) The internet immediately gave me all the techs I was missing: Fascism, Communism, Mass Media, Ecology, Fission, Composites, Genetics, Fusion, and Robotics, but it was too late. Catherine launched in 1951.
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