GOTM 18 First Spoiler

[ainwood]

GOTM 18 First Spoiler

Reading Requirements

1. You must have reached at least 0 AD.
2. You must have a full view of the starting continent (full coastline)

Posting Restrictions

1. You may not discuss anything post 500 AD.
2. You may not post any screenshots, or discuss any events that did not happen on the starting continent (aside from those that happen "in a far away land")

 

[MarkM]

Pretty unusual for me, but I guess I'm up first this time (sometimes I haven't even started yet ...)

Settle on hill to SE, after moving scout south it seemed like a no-brainer to me (better use of land than moving straight east into forest, don't waste that bottom row of land with hill etc; also got two hammers in city & preserved forest for later chopping), but many were thinking otherwise in pregame discussion so I'll be curious what consensus decision was. Initial tech path: AH >Mining >Archery >Fishing >Masonry >Mysticism >Ag >BW >Pottery -- taking me to turn 67/1320 BC). Then >Sailing >Horseback >Writing >IW >MC >Math >Constr >Alpha, taking me to 500 AD. As you can guess I never founded a religion (I later get beat to Islam by two turns, grrr!), but fortunately Washington got Judaism & it started to spread to me around start of AD era.

One really annoying thing I just need to get out the way whining about: I'd already lost two scouts to barbarians in the first 42 turns! Part of the reason I moved up archery, I had no units at all to fogbust & decided I didn't want to build warriors or more scouts.

Turn 15/460 (3400 BC) While defending in the wild, Scout loses to: Barbarian Lion (0.16/2) (Prob Victory: 78.7&#37
Turn 22/460 (3120 BC) Karakorum begins: Scout (3 turns)
Turn 42/460 (2320 BC)
While defending in the wild near Boston, Scout defeats (0.04/1): Barbarian Panther (Prob Victory: 88.9%)
While defending in the wild near Boston, Scout loses to: Barbarian Warrior (2.00/2) (Prob Victory: 0.0%)

Both of those really sucked as you can imagine, first one combat luck went against me, second one I got hit with two attacks in one turn (including encountering a warrior in 2320bc!) This seems to have happened to me consistently in last few GOTM, I lose early exploration units quickly. In this game I end up doing most my exploration with workboats! (one reason I researched fishing fourth). Initial Build Order: worker scout settler archer archer workboat worker workboat workboat (no that is not a typo), taking me to turn 2000 BC. Founded Beshbalik fairly early for me, 2400 BC/turn 40, at site to east to get stone hooked up ASAP. This is the reason for my "detour" in the tech progression above to Masonry and Mysticism. Nine turns after I founded Beshbalik I have stone quarry hooked up & begin Stonehenge at Beshbalik in 2040bc, Pyramids at Karakorum 1480bc/63 (built another settler+worker there for Turfan before starting them), completing Stonehenge in 1520bc and Pyramids in 950bc. Other wonders completed before in pre-500ad period: Great Lighthouse (Beshbalik), Colossus (Karakorum). A pretty good set of wonders for this map IMO; all were "cheap" because of resources. Founded/capture 6 more cities, my complete pre 500ad list:

Turn 1/460 (3960 BC) Karakorum founded (hill SE of starting location)
Turn 40/460 (2400 BC) Beshbalik founded (north of stone on east coast)
Turn 60/460 (1600 BC) Turfan founded (horse iron cow on east coast)
Turn 86/460 (725 BC) Ning-hsia founded (copper wine rice north of capital, interior city)
Turn 93/460 (550 BC) Old Sarai founded (2x gold, 2x clams on SW "finger" peninsula)
Turn 101/460 (350 BC) Captured Hun (Barbarian) (east coast next to mountain, ivory, fish and cow) w/ Keshiks, losing 2)
Turn 110/460 (125 BC) New Sarai founded (SE corner of continent, coast, crab+sheep)
Turn 116/460 (25 AD) Captured Mycenian (Barbarian) (west central coast, gems + cow; still with all-Keshik army, losing 3)

These are the last cities I get for a long time (past 500ad) as I have turned to building up my military for conquest already even before the Sarais are founded (and develop some vet status against barbarians). Also stop at eight to wait on COL -- a bit after 500ad -- to avoid city maintenance expense overload. Met Americans early, 3040bc. Our city build locations almost exclusively along coast leaves a dark area of jungle in center or continent, where even in 1200ad (where I am now) barbarians keep popping out of.

As I said, instead of grabbing more open land, I turn to prep to attack Washington with the surviving Keshiks as an experienced nucleus. After discovering construction in 375 AD I immediately begin spamming cats (I have already built forges & barracks in many cities by this time as earlier prep), supplemented by 1-2 each axemen, swordsmen, spearmen, and of course archers to secure captured cities as in my wake as I press on to next target. That will have to wait until next spoiler though, as I need to spam cats for a while & don't launch the war until a little after 500ad. At that point Washington and I are equal -- same # of cities, almost exactly same score. I think he is ahead in tech, me in military (unusual for me!)

Aside: location of last American city, straight north of my horse/iron city & the midst of jungle (just a couple coastal squares otherwise), seems like a pretty lame place for AI to build a city to me -- especially one without the +3 health expansionist benefit! That is the only city either of us has bothered to build so deeply in jungle to date But I guess that's a feature of this map that both the AI and I seem to react the same to: doesn't seem to be a lot of motivation to build pre-AD cities in that vast jungle expanse in the center of the continent, especially interior cities, in fact the only non-coastal city either of us has (out of 16 cities between us) is the one I built 5N 1E of capital, in order to hook up copper. Look forward to seeing if others did more interior/inside jungle building than I did ...

Besides the building-in-equatorial-jungle-or-leaving-it-to-barbs question, other things I'd be curious to hear others' take on:

1. With all the health resources, I don't find Genghis's +3 health bonus of much use at all yet (I guess because I didn't build in all that jungle except to get copper?) Even with +2 happiness in five largest cities I got from Rep after building Pyramids 950bc, and gold, gems, ivory, wine, ad even temples and markets, happiness is still throttle on city growth, not health, and maintenance is is what's keeping me from expanding, not need for healthy locations. Probably because we also have lots of health resources, and I build Genghis's cheap granaries and harbors anyway for growth and commerce benefits (haven't built a single aqueduct yet though).
2. Other than loading up on another cheap building (barracks), not a lot of use Aggressive yet either, Few free combat 1 promotion for melee/gunpowder, as I building mostly Keshiks first (since I had horse way before I discovered IW), then cats. The 4xp from the barracks are a big help for cats though for taking on Washingon (who's already got longbowmen at 500ad)
3. Wonders. As noted I built Stonehenge, Pyramids, GL, and Colossus all pre-500ad. All of this was consequence of deciding to build 2nd city next to stone, at that point with stone they were so cheap, how could you not? I built stonehenge in 12 turns in a brand new city, and Pyramids I think in 16 or 18 in the capital? As you can see I averaged one new city each 10 turns between 2400bc-25ad, with eight cities by start of AD era it would have cost a lot more to build culture producing stuff in each to expand cultural borders (free monuments form stonehenge), or to increase happiness (which I got from Representation via Pyramids)

 

[Shono Mercy]

Was waiting for this thread to open. I still have no plans in mind on what Victory I'll try to achieve. This is how it all began...

First moved scout SE,SW. Since none of interest shows, I settled 1E of where settler originated.

Karakorum built: Worker->Settler
Tech Path: Mining->BW->AH->Agri->Pottery->Fishing->Writing->Alpha->IW->MC->Drama

BW still on research when 1st worker came out so just started making roads. Then after BW finished, started chopping 1st settler.

3040BC: Met Washington and discovered BW. Found location of Copper and so decided to build next city just NW of it.
2960BC: Someone found Buddhism
2760BC: Completed chopping Settler
2680BC: Someone found Hinduism. Founded Beshbalik and built Scout->Barracks
2520BC: Discovered AH and horse revealed near copper but not within radius of 2nd city oh well, will just stick to axemen for now.
2240BC: Discovered Agrilculture
2160BC: Someone found Judaism
2000BC: Quickly adopted slavery and switched 2nd city's production to spearman coz a barbarian warrior has shown up near it while still no one to defend. Will just be in time to whip it in case the barbarian invades. In which case it didn't. I still whipped it just to make sure.
1920BC: Discovered Pottery
1800BC: Discovered Fishing
1720BC: Just found American's borders.
1320BC: Discovered Writing
1280BC: Someone found Confucianism
1240BC: I already had 3 Axemen
1160BC: Someone built Stonehenge
1120BC: Signed Open Borders with Washington to explore his territory
925BC: Founded Turfan (Cow+Clam+Stone) and built Library
700BC: Washington built Pyramids
625BC: Discovered Alphabet
525BC: Someone found Taoism
475BC: Founded Ning-hsia on top of the left of the 2 gems to get the cow within radius.
350BC: Washington founded Chicago adjacent to my horses. This means War to me.
275BC: Discovered Iron Working
75BC: Declared War on Washington and razed Chicago next turn
125AD: Someone found Christianity
375AD: Met two other Civs and signed Open Borders with them immediately.
400AD: Captured Harappan which was a barbarian city captured by Washington (has Ivory+Ivory+Fish+Cow)
425AD: Discovered Metal Casting and started trading it on the other civs for leftout techs.

500AD: Signed Peace Treaty with Washington for Priesthood,20gold and 1gpt. I already have 6 cities. Deciding to be peaceful after conquering the whole starting continent. I'm a peacemonger you know. Might decide to spare Washington if he'll build a city out of my continent...

 

[kuukkeli]

I'm playing the Adventurer Class.

Scouted to the south and settled in 3960 BC to forest E of the starting location. Initial build order was scout, worker, warrior, settler and work boat. At the same time I researched agriculture, animal husbandry, bronze working and mysticism.

The initial scout went scouting (who would have thought) and soon popped a little gold. A little later he was eaten by a panther (I guess 89.4% isn't enough). I contacted Washington in 3200 BC. He was slightly ahead of me and was gaining more advantage slowly but surely.

In 2280 BC Beshbalik was founded to claim copper, horses and cows. Barbarian activity was quite high but nothing few axes couldn't handle. Originally I had planned to wage an early war but that huge jungle between me and Americans forced me to abandon that idea.

So instead of war I expanded peacefully. In 1080 BC Turfan claimed stone and clam. In 575 BC Ning-hsia claimed two diamonds and rice. In 275 BC Old Sarai claimed cows and gold. In 75 AD New Sarai claimed sheep and crabs. I think I built monolith first to every city.

While expanding my research gave me polytheism, priesthood, pottery, writing, monarchy (taken as a free tech from The Oracle in 1320 BC), mathematics, masonry, currency, code of laws and iron working. Then I started to research civil service but distracted myself later and researched sailing and alphabet before, and traded construction from Washington. In 500 AD I still have 10 turn to go for civil service.

I'm controlling the lands south of the jungle while Washington has the lands to the north. He also has settled into jungle itself. He has four cities inside or close by that large jungle area (including one conquered barbarian city which probably was the cause of high barbarian activity earlier) and my plan is to get more living space through war. Three of those cities are in exact positions I want them to be but the ex-barb city has to be razed.

In 500 AD I'm building axes and catapults to form one large (to conquer three cities) and one small (to raze one city, protect the location for my own settler and to protect the closest city after the other stack conquers it) stack. Americans are clearly ahead of me in tech and in power but those nearby cities are quite lightly defended. My plan is to take them and sign peacy treaty immediately afterwards. If that doesn't work George has good potential to whoop my arse.

I'm running cottage economy but I suspect that I started cottaging a bit late. I also think that I could have chosen something else than Monarchy from The Oracle - due to my slow start on cottaging I could have lived few more centuries without extra happiness. I have a hunch that Metal Casting could have been the best choice.

In general I'm modestly pleased with my situation at 500 AD. It might have been better to expand north myself, especially as some of the southern cities aren't very spectacular but I don't think that my situation is in anyway doomed. I just have to win war or two to be truly competitive. I'm also a bit unsure if my decicion to skip UU completely was any good but I just didn't see any use for them after I decided not to wage an early war through jungle. And the order I founded my cities seems a bit odd now that I think of it

More in the next spoilers...

 

[Thorrez]

I think losing the cows in the capital would have made it incomparable so I picked contender on this one.

Cities
Karakorum (1E of starting location)
Beshbalik (Copper, horses and cow)
Turfan (2Gold and 2Clam)
Ning-hsia (Sheep, fish and FP)
Old Sarai (Jungles covered rice, iron and cows)
Chinook captured (2Gems, rice and cows)

Tech
Most basic, math, literature, MC (Oracle) and CS in 2 turns (fueled by a GP).

Barbs
Really annoying, I did not do a good job fogbusting, a lot of resources pillaged and I had to waste to much pop whipping defenders.

War
One with Washington ongoing, he was running away in tech so I decleared and sent in a stack with 3 keshiks, an axeman and a warrior. He already had longbows so attacking cities was out of the question but this stack has pillage pretty much every cottage he had. Really useful for funding resource and slowing him down (I useally dont pillage as attacked land = soon to be my land, meaning I want it improved). He sent so troops though the jungle but my keshiks stopped him (with some loses, but hey, they are cheap )

Wonders
Oracle and Colosus (both in capital)

 

[The Mad Swede]

3960BC: The glorious Mongolian empire settles the great city of Karakorum 1E of the start
2520BC: Slavery is adopted
2080BC: Beshbalik is founded to get copper and a good production city
1360BC: Turfan is founded in order to get gems, cow and rice and a good science city
800BC: Ning-Hsia is founded near stone
675BC: The barbarian city of Angle is captured in the jungle near Ivory and Cow
575BC: Washington, owner of Pyramids and Stonehenge, score leader, and my neighbor to the north founds Chicago in the jungle just north of my empire
425BC: Old Sarai founded to the southeast near Clams, future GP farm
225BC: War is declared on Washington!!!
175BC: Chicago captured
25AD: Atlanta razed
100AD: Philadelphia razed. Peacetalks with Washington results in a few techs and and a peace treaty.
425AD: Barbarian city of Khoisan razed by the Mongol Horde
500AD: New Sarai founded near gold on the western peninsula

I planned on some kind of conquesty style of play this time around and hoped for a quick rush on someone. That wasnt going to happen with a huge jungle to the north and only one neighbor that wasn't even very close.
I did not pursue Keshiks as I didn't think they were all that useful. Instead I used axes and Swordsmen for the first war.
I am not teching very well, I have not produced a single GP yet, but I have a decent amount of nice cities and I feel confident I will be able to take the starting continent, including the American wonders without too much trouble.
After that, the world is next!

 

[whb]

Settled SE on the hill. Second city was on the Gold/Crabs spit to try to take advantage of the massive income it could give. Did anyone else go for that?

Third city took the bronze and horses, fourth the sheep, and then captured a barbarian city at the gems. Next city is planned for the iron, then backfill for the stone.

Sadly my scout was eaten by a lion within minutes.

I suspect I'm being horribly out-teched by the other continent - neither Washington nor I have met anyone else, so he's unwilling to trade.

The plan some time soon will be to declare a long war on Washington, camp on his resource mines, and pillage for money. I think perhaps I can eat his empire slowly, and keep the maintenance under control as the empire grows. I'm conscious that I need to wreck Washington's economy (by pillaging) to keep him from reaching gunpowder and chemistry, whether or not I can afford to take his cities.

 

[Infantry#14]

Ok game so far.

I may pursue for domination victory.

 

[Burebista]

First time I post into one of these spoiler threads.

4000 BC moved Scout 1SE, 1SW and decide to settle on hill 1SE when I see the south shore and the south hill.
3960 BC Karakorum founded on hill 1SE. Start work on a Worker and research Fishing (6 turns).
3720 BC we learn Fishing and start on AH. Switch from Worker to Fishing Boat.
3360 BC Karakorum grows size 2 and one turn later in 3320BC I get my boat and continue with the worker.
3200 BC we know AH and start Mining
3120 BC finish Worker and start Settler.

Less detailed now.
Cities built:
Karakorum 3960 BC on hill 1SE
Beshbalik founded in 2600 BC by stone and clams.
Turfan founded in 1840 BC inside the triangle Copper, Horses, Cows.
Ning-hsia founded in 450 BC with the two Gems, Rice and Cows in radius.
Old Sarai founded in 375 BC on the west peninsula with the two Gold and two clams in radius.
Captured Minoan (Barbarian) and razed it in 500 AD on the east peninsula near Ivory. In a few turns I will build New Sarai a little more to the west from that site to get the Iron, Cows, Fish and one Ivory in radius.
These are the cities I founded by 500 AD. Later I built also Samarqand in the SE by the sheep and crab.

Tech order:
3720 BC Fishing
3200 BC Animal Husbandry
2960 BC Mining
2480 BC Bronze Working
2160 BC Masonry
1720 BC Writing
1560 BC Mysticism
1320 BC Meditation
1120 BC Priesthood
550 BC CoL (somebody beat me by 4 turns to Confucianism, but still a good tech for Courthouses)
450 BC Pottery
375 BC Agriculture
250 BC Sailing
25 AD Alphabet
75 AD Polytheism
200 AD Literature
275 AD Iron Working
375 AD Mathematics
I was researching Music at 500 AD.


Other events, wonders:
3040 BC Buddhism founded in a distant land
2480 BC made contact with Americans. It was my scout reaching their borders. We also signed open borders when I learned Writing.
2120 BC Hinduism founded in a distant land
1920 BC I begin Pyramids in Karakorum
1800 BC Judaism founded in a distant land
1560 BC I begin Stonehenge in Beshbalik
1200 BC I finish Stonehenge a few turns after a barbarian archer destroys my stone quarry.
1160 BC I finish Pyramids.
1120 BC I change civics to Representation and Slavery.
It is not in autolog, but Oracle is built in a distant land sometime around 1000BC
650 BC Confucianism founded in a distant land
625 BC Taoism founded in a distant land
325 BC I get a GE in Karakorum whom I keep for the Great Library.
200 BC Washington founds Christianity (good for me)
225 AD I built the Great Library in Karakorum using the GE
250 AD I finish Chichen Itza in Turfan, mostly because I did not have anything else to build.
375 AD I get a GS in Karakorum which I use to build an Academy.


In 500 AD I think I was very close in score with Washington. I do not remember if I was ahead or behind him at that point. I got a few good wonders: Great Library, Pyramids and even Stonehenge. But I missed Oracle, Great Lighthouse, Colossus.

 

[Thrallia]

man, my start kinda sucked compared to pretty much everyone else's...

Karakorum founded 1E, scout sent exploring NW/NE rather than S like almost everyone else did...I had already seen the coast in the screenshot and saw no reason to waste time scouting south when my borders could pop and explore it for me.

Built warrior>worker>warrior>warrior and I forget the order after that.

I researched AH first to find horses and allow me to hook up the cows, but ran into quick difficulties. I scouted a lot of the continent northward quickly, but failed to see the stone nearby until I had almost discovered BW.

In any event, it wouldn't have made a difference(or maybe it would have because of some RNG luck). My scout quickly died defending in the jungle near Washington against a Lion. Two turns later, my warrior dies near the stone sitting on a hill, when a bear attacked across the river. Neither one is a battle I would have expected to lose unless I was playing immortal or diety, when it seems like even the barbs have a bonus against you...unfortunately, the lack of exploring would have very dire, unfortunate, and almost RNG impossible results.

Karakorum quickly reached size 5 thanks to the cows and fish being hooked up, and I was able to produce a settler every 7 turns, so thanks to some gold found by my scout before dying, I planned on expanding to the copper/horses, stone, and gold all in a row, then begin gearing up for a war against Washington.

While building my settler, I roaded up to the horse/cow/copper spot and placed one of my two warriors there to guard the spot for my settler. I finish the settler, send him up, and found Beshbalik on the hill N of the copper, immediately beginning the mine on the copper. However, a barb warrior suddenly shows up threatening Beshbalik, so I send my worker into the city so he isn't attacked, because, obviously a barb warrior has no chance against my combat I promoted warrior fortified on a hill within my city.

Oh how the RNGods hate me today...the barb warrior wins, razes Beshbalik, and kill my worker...I now have Karakorum...and a single warrior. I build a couple more warriors, 1 of which loses to the same barb warrior as he stands on a plain while walking toward Karakorum. Finally defeated, I look to my statistics...I've now lost 4 warriors, 1 worker, and 1 scout...while killing 1 barb warrior. Oh yeah, and I lost a city.

So...Karakorum can still build settlers quickly, so I mostly build another one then rush it with 2 turns left so I can use the overflow to build a warrior and an archer in two turns. I send him back up to the ruins of Beshbalik with both the warrior and archer, and begin work on another worker. I just finish the worker when the barbs strike again. Two barbs, 1 archer, 1 warrior show up W of Turfan. This time, I send my worker back to Karakorum...just in case.

*thirty seconds later*

The RNGods must hate that I'm playing on my Plasma right now...both my archer and warrior lose, and Turfan is razed to the ground...At this point I check the settings to see it is Raging barbs...its not, but I've now killed 1 barb at the cost of 4 warriors, 1 scout, 1 worker, 1 archer, and 2 cities. Oh yeah...and Washington just built the Pyramids in 800BC while having already built Chicago(4th city, I believe).

Did I mention the barbs are raging around me? I have the two barbs from Turfan closing in on Karakorum from the E, and 2 warriors from the NW jungle heading toward me. I build archer and warriors interchangingly so neither take more than 2 turns(yay warrior overflow), and spam them onto all the hills around Karakorum...I lose half of them, but finally kill off the last of the barbs...and they suddenly vanish.

I'm unsure what to make of this new tactic...but decide to thank Ainwood and start expanding again. I build Ning-Hsia on the ruins of Beshbalik and Turfan, then almost immediately after, Old Sarai on the hill N of the stone, and shortly after again, New Sarai 1S of the second gold hill.

I have sent my surviving archers into each of those cities, and been researching toward HBR to enable my Keshiks to wipe the floor with Washington. I've also got 3 workers building my infrastructure...I may have taken awhile, but I'm finally and quickly expanding...of course, I'm now far behind Washington. He's expanded past the jungle on the eastern coast, and is 7 visible techs ahead of me...he'd also be willing to trade techs with me...so either he knows someone that I don't, or he's just friendly enough with me that he's willing to trade monopoly techs with me.

I don't have exact dates, but I know my war with Washington started after 1AD, so I'll continue in the next spoiler(or do a spoiler pt 2 once I do have the dates)

 

[AgedOne]

Pre-game

Having looked at a number of maps generated under these start conditions, I half-expected to be placed on a continent that had been divided into two by the high sea-level, leaving us on a small sub-continent with one or two rivals.

My rough plan was to discover the resources that we had close to hand – select our early weapon of choice (likely Axemen or Keshiks) – use these to gain domination over our nearest neighbours. Select again for the next, and so on. The aim was continental dominance by 1000AD.

Then I started thinking about a Gt Prophet-fuelled slingshot to Civil Service…and my plans got slightly muddied.

To achieve this aim you basically build Stonehenge and Oracle in the same city. Research the right techs and you can choose CoL or MetalCasting as your freebie. Then when you get your Gt Prophet, use them to lightbulb CS. (Thanks to Sisiutil, from whom I read this strategy )

The reason it muddied the waters a little was that to achieve the slingshot you have to be fairly single-minded about researching the techs that are required. If you haven’t got the right techs researched before your complete Oracle, then you have to hold up production, and then the AI will most likely beat you to it. On the other hand, You will need some domestic techs to enable your workers to usefully improve your locality, and I was also wanting to get AH, BW and/or IW to select my weaponry. Fitting all this in was confusing me, as you will see.

The Start – 2 Wonders

Spoiler :

I agreed with various posters on the pre-game thread that 1E looked a nice location for Karakorum. I also went with Thrallia who suggested we were probably quite S of the equator, and that scouting should go N rather than S.

So K was founded in 3960, and the scout went N.

The research path I chose went like this:

Mysticism (learned turn 7)
Polytheism (turn 19 – founding Hinduism)
Mining (I had to have this so that we could mine the 3 plains hills; turn 25)
Priesthood (turn 33)
Fishing (I needed Pottery for the slingshot, but this was also useful; turn 39)
Pottery (turn 49)
Writing (turn 60)
Meditation (turn 70)​

Meanwhile, Karakorum built:

Warrior (turns 1-9)
Stonehenge (turns 10-12 and then turns 27-47; I started it, but when K grew to 2 I built the worker I really needed)
Worker (turns 13-26)
Warrior (turns 48-52)
Oracle (turns 53-70)​

So on turn 70 (1200BC) I was very happy at the first part of the plan coming together. The Oracle was completed the same turn as I learned the last tech I needed. I chose Code of Laws as my freebie, founding Confucianism – which I then converted to.

Early Exploration

Spoiler :

I sent my scouts N and they followed the coast round to the West initially – spotting the gold on the strip of land I named ‘Gelderland’.

The scouts then performed a sweep across to the East, keeping close to home. Animals started to make an appearance – including a hut seemingly guarded by lions!



As they completed this first pass, I noted that we hadn’t yet met another civ. This was quite different from my practice games, where we had often found ourselves hemmed in by the rivals.

Amazingly, the very next turn we met George in the jungle up to the NE, in an area containing elephants that I named ‘Ivory Coast’.

The next scouting sweep went East to West through dense jungle. Animal attacks became quite severe, but our plucky crew survived at least 3 attacks by panthers – giving them woodsmen promotions (but requiring lengthy hospitalisation).

We completed this second pass around 2000BC. We found the area of gems in the jungle that I dubbed ‘Glitterlands’, but still didn’t really know where George’s homelands were. The absence of any other civs led me to think that I was correct in my initial guesswork that we would be on a divided continent. (In 500AD I no longer think this is the case)

Barbarians put an end to this exploration spell – killing my promoted super-scouts easily in 1880BC.

Looking to Expand

Spoiler :

Having devoted all of our efforts to getting the Oracle, and to exploring, I now realised we had a tiny (but very cultured) civilization.



Our military was also virtually non-existent. We had to put these things right.

Planned a few nice city locations:


The barbarians were in evidence – they had set up a city in ‘Glitterlands’ – and the military needed instant attention.

Researched Archery, followed by BW and then MetalCasting.

Got a few Archers in place.

Our Gt Prophet appeared quite soon after the Oracle – 750BC. I used him to lightbulb most (about 90%) of Civil Service. However, I think I made a big mistake here. I probably should have gone and finished off CS immediately – gaining the extra bonuses in my capital – but I didn’t. I kept on a MetalCasting for ages.

When we discovered BW, in 600BC, we were able to add another location to our list of desirable city sites. Called inevitably ‘Copperfield’, it was quite close to home and NE of Karakorum.

Then I realised with an unpleasant shock that George was upsetting our plans. He had settled a city in between Copperfield and Ivory Coast. Chicago. A strange choice of location – unless he knew something we didn’t!

Things started to look horrible. With a cold feeling inside, I read that we were the most backward nation, and America was the most advanced. And this, despite the slingshot having worked perfectly!



Settled Copperfield in 200BC, and started hooking up the copper.

Finished MetalCasting in 175AD, and the last bit of CivilService in 325AD. It didn’t make us any more advanced, I’m afraid to say. America already had CS, without using any smarty-pants slingshots.

Founded Gelderland by the gold in 250AD – to bring our empire up to a mighty 3 cities.

I examined Chicago more closely, having Open Borders with our good mate George. A mine on a grassland tile! I don’t have IW yet, but I think I know where the iron is!

500AD

Spoiler :

After a good start – and the success of building Stonehenge and Oracle – everything is looking quite bleak in 500AD.

We only know America, but we are so far behind them on score, tech, power – everything. How can we ever overhaul them?

The slingshot, though it worked, provided CS so late that we could have researched it by then using normal means – as indeed America did!

Our sights are initially set not upon George, but the barbarian city founded exactly where we intended to settle in ‘Glitterlands’.



As we finish this spoiler, we are beginning to arrange our forces ready for an assault on Teoihuacan. Glitterlands will be ours!!

 

[AgedOne]

@Thrallia

Some days, the RNG Gods just hate you!
(Have you tried burning the appropriate incenses and oils in front of your plasma? Sometimes a sacrifice is needed)

The RNGG seemed to like me in this one! My scout did this in very quick succession:

While defending in the wild, Scout defeats (0.83/1): Barbarian Panther (Prob Victory: 78.7%)
While defending in the wild, Scout defeats (0.49/1): Barbarian Panther (Prob Victory: 61.9%)
While defending in the wild, Scout defeats (0.06/1): Barbarian Panther (Prob Victory: 59.3%)​

(Like that final bit of 'hanging on by the skin of your teeth'!)

Then, later, an archer did this:

While defending in Mongolian territory at Karakorum, Archer defeats (1.74/3): Barbarian Axeman (Prob Victory: 37.0%)​

Just go smite George! You know it'll make you feel better.

 

[kuukkeli]

I've now killed 1 barb at the cost of 4 warriors, 1 scout, 1 worker, 1 archer, and 2 cities.

Duh! At times I've thought that I've had bad luck but I've yet to see a beating this severe

 

[dr_s]

Played the contender save.

Founded 1E of the start, though I now think the plains hill was probably better. Tech path:

3800 BC Fishing
3440 BC Pottery
3080 BC Animal Husbandry
2840 BC Archery
2480 BC Writing
2320 BC Mining
1960 BC Bronze Working
1080 BC Horseback Riding
925 BC Mysticism
425 BC Alphabet
175 BC Iron Working
50 BC Meditation
50 AD Priesthood
175 AD Sailing
250 AD Mathematics (Great Scientist)
250 AD Agriculture
350 AD Polytheism
500 AD Literature

I don't ususally do HBR, but I did because of the UU. I think this was a mistake.

Initial build was scout, workboat, warrior, archer, worker, settler.

Founded my second city at copper/horse in 1440 BC (which seems awfully late), and my third at gold/gold/clams/clams in 750 BC. (Thrallia, I know where your luck went. My second city got hit by three barb warriors in a row immediately on founding, and my warrior won all three battles.) Barbs had settled at the gems location to the NW and on the sheep/crab location to the southeast. I captured the gems location in 100 BC. For reasons that escape me know, I ignored the stone site for a long time.

Washington then founded two cities in the jungle, one to the NW, one to the NE near the elephants. The barbs also had a city up there. My plan was to raze the barb city, then Washington's two cities, then push the war as far as I could. I razed the barb city in 275 AD, followed by Seattle in 450 AD and San Francisco shortly thereafter.

At this point I thought I was in pretty good shape, but I'm about the make a strategic blunder that will have to wait till the next spoiler.

 

[Orion071]

I'm not going to post much detail, because I haven't finished yet and I didn't keep any notes.

I started off founding 1SE on the plains hill and researched Fishing. I figured that I didn't need the health bonus as much as the extra hammer. My initial Scout mapped the southern part then got eaten by a Lion, so I didn't do much scouting at all. I started a Worker, then interrupted it for a Workboat when Fishing was available. I built a couple of Warriors to scout and saw that Washington and I were alone and he was too far away to attack. Since I wasn't going for an early war, I founded city #2 on the western peninsula with the double-clams double-gold. I quickly spammed 3 more cities, using the gold to maintain my economy. City #3 was by the horse-copper-cow, city #4 was on the coast by the stone, and city #5 was in the south by the sheep.

I had some trouble from Barbs was when I miscalculated and didn't realize the Barb Archer could use my road between the capitol and the gold city. My heart sunk when he moved 2 spaces and took out 3 Workers that were building a farm. Bad, but certainly not as bad as Thraillia.

Meanwhile, George is predictably a tech monster. Since we're alone on this island, he won't trade with me. Fortunately, he was dumb enough to trade me Ivory (he got the "Ivory Coast" + iron city because I was slow to expand into the jungle). A nice mix of Cats, Elephants and Macemen were assembled to take the fight to America.

Continued later in the final spoiler...

 

[MarkM]

Wow, Thrallia, I feel your pain I almost feel guilty now about whining in my summary about losing two scouts to barbs in first 40 turns. I wonder if the odds are precalculated in civ games - note I also lost my first scout to a lion, in a battle I should have won. In hindsight maybe it was a blessing in disguise, as I wrote, the disgust of losing two units so quickly drove me to get archery very very early (for me), the 3rd tech I researched after AH and mining, and having 100% archers (even as scouts) while barbs were still mostly warriors & animals probably helped me keep things in hand.

So far it seems I have an atypical game, I settled SE instead of E (though I'm not sure of the impact of that), I got archery very early, I went E to get stone for my second city instead of north (or W near gold), and resulting from that i went for Pyramids & Stonehenge. Also I went fishing 4th (leaving BW to be my eighth tech researched, as I then turned to chasing Stonehenge and Pyramids) and pumped out 3 work boats in first 50 turns to supplement my two archers as explorers. All before my second settler, which stunned even me when I looked at the log yesterday. There seems to be lots of ramifications of this, only some of which I can discuss now. For example, I think expanding E with that first settler & getting Stonehenge built in the 2nd city 18 turns after founding it, popping its borders quickly probably meant I'd fogbusted almost the entire south of the continent before the barbs started showing up in force, leaving me with a relatively small "barbarian border." The rapid expansion of the second city border in the E also made it easier to found the third city next to the horses & iron.

 

[Infantry#14]

Thrallia, I shared your pain too. I suffered a similar fate in WOTM 8 with the raging barbarians in that Mana Musa was always like 10 techs ahead of me for most of that game.

Wish your game well.

 

[Ronnie1]

The Plan
The Mongols on a big jungley map with Genghis Kahn at the helm seemed like a fine opportunity to go for a Domination win. The start position seemed like it had potential as a strong production center. 1st goal is to Dominate the starting continent by about T200-T220. I liked the hill to the SE for the extra hammer and saw no downside over the other the pre-game favorite 1E, and I spare the forrest for later use. I also new that since we were in the south, the scout would start by working his way generally N.
The Action
The scout goes NW-NE to hilltop for a nice view, the settler moves to the hill SE. The scout goes NW-NW to rice. I settle Karakorum T2 start building Barracks. Research begun on fishing. Scout explores Gold peninsula in the W and then goes N. On T7 we learn fishing and start AH, switch production to Workboat. On T13 the scout dies on a forrested hill after 2 panthers attack the same turn, so much for early exploration. T18 we finish our WB and start on a worker. T20 learn AH and start on Archery. T25 worker done, finish Barracks, also learn Archery and start on Mining. T31 learn Mining and start BW, also Barracks finished and build 3 Archers and then Settler. 2 of the archers fanned out to E-NE to explore and fogbust. Soon discover Stone site and Horse site. T47 pop rush the settler and follow with 2 Archers, Grannary, and another Settler. Beshbalik founded on the Copper/Horse/Cow site on T52 so all resources in the small square, start building Ganary. Washington's archer showed up on T53 for first contact. Turfan is founded on T61 on the hill at the 2Gem/Rice/Cow site, start building Granary. Ning-Hsia founded on T83 at the 2Gold/2Clam site, start building WB but soon switches to Grannary. Old Sarai founded on T86 1n of Stone at the Stone/Clam site, start building Grannary. On T105, the Barbarian city of Chinook, in the perfect spot grabbing the 2 Elephants/Fish/Cows, falls to Mongol Axes, start building Grannary. T107 New Sarai is founded in the south at the Sheep/Crab site, start building Grannary.
The Results and Opinions of the Despot
After BW, we researched Pottery>Writing>AG>Alpha>Masonry>Iron Working>and was working on Sailing with an eye towards Currency and CoL as Science rate is down to 30%.
All Grannaries were pop rushed at size 2 for faster growth. Some where around T50 I kind of gave up on the fast Domination of the Continent because I hadn't even met anyone else yet. George of course showed up right after that, but seemed to be well off in the distance, still a difficult task with all the intervening jungle and no hope of trading possibilities.
By T108 I felt pretty good though. I had the following assets; 7 cities, 2 Barracks, 5 Grannaries, 3 Libraries, 9 Archers, 2 Chariots, 2 Axes, and 7 workers. I had only lost my starting Scout and a single Chariot, and I had killed 11 barb Warriors and 3 Archers while capturing Chinook. I had explored N almost to the city of Washington and could see Georges Swords, Horse Archers, and Spears, nothing to worry about. I was behind in both score and power of course, but that is not unusual this early. All is good!!!
The Flaw in the Plan
On T110 Washington declares WAR on ME! He lands 2 HA's at Chinook by galley which is garrisoned with a C1/CR2 Axe and my best Archer C1/Shock/CG1 and captures a worker with a wandering archer. Chinook falls the first turn. HA's, Swords, and Spears start arriving from the north. I may get a chance to dominate this continent after all!

 

[AgedOne]

On T13 the scout dies on a forrested hill after 2 panthers attack the same turn,

The very same panthers that took my scout's leg, I'll be bound!
My scout was extremely lucky. Clung on to life after the attacks until the paramedics got there. (He was at 0.06, apparently!) ICU for a month and he was OK.

On T110 Washington declares WAR on ME!

George! Kindly old uncle George! How could he!
I had wondered if he would have a pop at me before I was ready to go for him. In my game, he didn't. That's amazing. At T110 I had just settled my second city. You had many more than that, and he still went for you!

I trust you'll make him pay for this impertinence, later?

 

[Jove]

Contender save.

I've had enough success with Domination victories, so lately it's space space space. This time is no different. Please don't think I have this VC figured out though- I don't, I'm working on it, that's what's fun about it!

Settled E like most everyone else. The captiol started on a worker right away, we started researching Animal Husbandry. After that the tech path went:

Spoiler :

Fishing
Mining
Pottery
Writing
Mysticism
Priesthood
Code of Laws (found Confucianism and convert at turn 88)
Monarchy
Sailing
Polytheism
Feudalism (Switch to Vassalage and Serfdom at 50AD)
Metalcasting and Mathematics in trade with foreigners
Currency and Ironworking in trade with foreigners
Finally at 500AD we were a few turns away from Civil Service.
Alphabet and Literature are in there too, but I didn't record when...

After only a little scouting I thought this land was great and just claiming it was the top priority. Double clams with double gold? Double gems by a river!?! Stone just within reach!?!?!? I didn't know what to go for first. It was probably a mistake, but I settled the gold/clams first at 2120BC. A third town didn't appear until 1400BC to claim the horses, copper and Cows up north. That's a lot of resources but the clock is ticking on the Pyramids by now isn't it, why don't we have the stone? Oh well.

Meanwhile we were whipping like nuts. 3 citizens for our second settler. 2 citizens to guarantee getting Stonehenge in the capitol at turn 69. 2 more for a quick worker. Then 2 more for city #4 to claim clams and sheep SE. We whipped other things elsewhere.. I don't know if this whipping turned out to be the best idea or not, it seemed good at the time.

The strategy was to give up on the Oracle and the Pyramids in favor of simply claiming a lot of land and cottage spamming it quickly to bump up the science rate. (We researched Oracle techs anyway for temples and to get at Monarchy.) Then throw up some specialists and accrue great people from many locations 50-150 turns down the line.We wanted the Great Library but unfortunately got beat to that, and the Lighthouse never materialized either, but yes we did claim some land. Once we had Monarchy we concentrated on growing Karakorum as large as possible (size 12 by 475), and with Serfdom our small supply of workers was getting things done.
Still, at 500 our science rate wasn't all that super (less than 200bpt). We'd made a few trades but nothing spectacular. Stonehenge was extremely handy but then again we got all prophets for a while, no scientists. Turfan got the shrine (I've become a big fan of having a shrine in a space race) and 2 priest-specialists before long. It seems like priests are better as specialists this early than lightbulbing things in a space game, but I dunno, anyone hold the opposite opinion?

At 500, even though we were sacrificing other goals to claim land we'd only settled 6 or 7, capturing one more from barbs on the NE penninsula. Washington captured a barb town by the gems which really hurt- we didn't fight any wars in this spoiler period and didn't plan on any for awhile. We were busy taking advantage of Organized Religion to build as many libraries, forges, and etc. as possible.

Longbows were nice for taking out barb towns, but they were pretty much extinct anyway by 100AD...

It wasn't until quite late that we figured out the 'lay of the land' to find more AI. Doing this 30 turns earlier would've helped immensely.

But anyway. The goal is to complete a space race within 300 turns- I was just over that mark last time. So far I think this empire is solid enough, but I'm starting to wonder if anyone can get a fastest-finish space award without having early Pyramids one way or another...