GOTM 19 - First Spoiler (0 AD)

[Lanstro]

1. I open borders with everyone who wants to have them open to me
2. No idea
3. In the early game, I always work a gold mine ahead of a cottaged square. The exception is -maybe- a flood plain cottage on a lower difficulty. The early game is the most important part of the game: 4-6 extra commerce/turn at the start of the game greatly outweighs the benefits of a better developed cottage later on.

Once the economy isn't using the gold as a crutch any more though, I tend to farm other squares and let the city start growing again.

4. With non-philosophical civs, I generally only forego mine squares for specialists. When you're really short on happiness resources however, I'm much more liberal with using them.

With philosophical with or without pyramids... then it depends

5. Mostly military power

6. no idea

 

[lightsedge]

6: Play with the HOF options in the game options. You can have it write to a log file. I believe you have to give it a path, like C:\Temp.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Aim was to go for spacerace, by warmongering till, say, 1000AD to make myself the biggest civ, then focus on science.

My Civ around 500AD




I started by moving the warrior SW then the settler NW-NE to see what was there. 2nd turn I moved the warrior W to the hill by the coast before deciding what to do with the settler. That left me still unable to see any food resources, and – worse – with no obvious other places to search - the forests to the east would stop the settler moving fast, while west just looked like mostly sea. Since on emperor level I was reluctant to waste too many turns exploring, I opted to settle in the new position, on the hill 2N of the settler-start. This is an incredibly bad long-term capital position, but I see nothing better.

vixafox wrote in the first spoiler,

Archery can delay the inevitable defeat but bronze or iron is essential to progress.

Well do I have a deathwish or what because I decided my first research was to be hunting-archery. Why? I wanted to fuel my early civ with stolen workers from the (hopefully) crowded civs around me, and that meant I needed early defence. Besides, what good is copper without a worker or three? So from the start I was building nothing but warriors (plus a scout once I had hunting – good for looking for the workers), then archers.

Unfortunately things didn’t go to plan.

I found Genghis first. His worker had just completed the roads SW of his capital. It was obvious there would be no further reason for now for his worker to remain anywhere I could get to him from, so I left.

Gandhi had a worker ideally placed, but on the very turn I was about to nab him, his ‘Hey I discovered Buddhism – naaaaaagh!’ borders expanded, knocking my warriors back and putting his worker out of reach.

I found Elizabeth and spent ages wandering around her borders but she just didn’t put any workers on the border. Not even when I withdrew my forces for a couple of turns in case I was putting her off.

Meanwhile, Huayna’s worker turned up, undefended, to pasture his pigs, and obviously just begging to be relieved of the intolerable burden his master had placed on him. Unfortunately I had no units remotely near enough.

At that point I gave up. I’ll build a sodding worker myself.

Just as my worker was nearing completion, I finally got opportunities to nab a worker each off Genghis (thanks to his founding Beshbalik south of the rice) and Lizzy. My first two wars. At the same time too!

My second city, Shanghai, was founded just south of the copper, 3S of the settler start position. Copper, 7 hills, and cows, lots of farmable land: An ideal spot for my production centre, especially once I could get civil service.

With axemen I took Beshbalik, along with expelling the English from the dyes/gems area. Then in one of my less-well-thought-out episodes, I went to war with Gandhi and captured a city SW of the gold (N of Nanjing on the screenshot). About 2 turns after I’d captured it, I realized I didn’t want it because it was in the wrong position, so I left a token defence force (1 axe) in it, and declared on Huayna, in an attempt to take Corihuayracina (gold city, which I did want). The plan worked, Gandhi retook his city, giving me the chance to raze it and put Nanjing in place instead.

And that’s where I am in 500AD. My early worker problems held me back hugely and my economy is still in dire crisis (8gpt on 0% science), I didn’t even discover construction until not long before 500AD. I’ve not built any wonders, I’ve not even been able to take advantage of the philosophical trait yet (I don’t have any city with enough food to let me put any specialists in). I’m in 5th place and have loads of catching up to do to get past Mansa Musa in 1st place. But, hey, 5th place is better than the 8th place I was in not too long ago. I am growing and I think I will eventually win my spacerace. Regrettably, probably not in the next 5-6 turns but eventually…

 

[Jove]

This one is too fun, I blew off my space race wotm9 to go for domination on this one instead.

Settled Beijing 2 north on the plains hill, was disappointed that there isn't any extra food around. As of 5AD it's official: this isn't the greatest capitol I've ever seen. Still, the furs helped in the early stages and the +4 gold is helping. Build worker, farmed some grass first to gain some growth, a couple warriors, and then chopped a settler to claim the rice-gold location.

I was in a big hurry to procure some copper too, and claimed that with the horses and cows in 1930BC. I had to build a library there to keep the English from expanding to steal our horses, but that was ok. Only now, at 5AD, am I building our 3rd settler.

After a little exploring I thought Karakorum could really be a gem with such a slew of resources. The first war against Mongolia was successful, retreating Chariots wounded units and then Axes mopped up the rest. We lost only a few units, captured Karakorum and made peace in 745BC for Polytheism.

We learned Alphabet around this time, it was worth a nice pile of techs in trade.

From here I did something I rarely do: I followed the plan I laid out in the pre-game discussion I researched Compass to have something harmless to trade for Mathematics and Calendar. Then researched Metal Casting while using a single scientist in the gold city toward a great scientist. He came around just a few turns before MC was done, then in 160BC lightbulb Machinery- a god from the machine indeed.

I'm a little ahead of things though. Ghandi was running away with the game, Delhi controlled The Oracle, Stonehenge, and the Buddhist shrine, the dominant religion of the world. The army from the Mongolian campaign marched across to capture that awesome location with it's ivory and what-all. (The shrine is worth +14g at 5AD, without that we'd be ultra-poor) We made peace for nothing, just capturing Delhi was good enough. Whipping a Buddhist temple and putting up a priest meant it generated 16 prophet points. Zoroaster showed up at 10BC to lightbulb Theology, we revolt to Theocracy and are ready to crack down on these unruly AI.

So at 5AD we have 7 towns- we managed to capture Mongolia's remaining town. Our first 2 choko's croaked in that battle btw but did enough damage for our other forces to destroy his great big stack. Karakorum will generate some settlers to work all that seafood and to claim our own source of iron around the peninsula- we're trading Fish, Stone, and Ivory to HC, our best buddy, for Iron. He's the only one pleased with us but sadly won't trade squat for Theology- I really hoped it would yield Construction and Currency, but we're less and less popular all the time and it ain't worth squat for trade. Anyway, eventually the Mongolian Peninsula will be a whipper's paradise.

Right now I'm trying to decide if I should trade Metal Casting for those 2 techs (I can...), or if I should demand Currency from India (he gave us 200g previously), or just go without and hope to wrest something from India after the war. Obviously I just being the only one with MC and machinery. Anyway, we're ready to declare on India again this turn, his new capitol with the pyramids is lightly defended and we've got 2 choko's, 2 axes, a sword and a chariot on the scene. Hopefully a switch to Representation will speed up our pathetic research rate, it's Civil Service in 30 as of now...

 

[Harbourboy]

I don't know how you guys have managed to take over so many cities so quickly. In my game the AI had huge armies almost instantaneously.

 

[Htadus]

Settled Beijing 2 north on the plains hill, was disappointed that there isn't any extra food around. As of 5AD it's official: this isn't the greatest capitol I've ever seen.

Ha...funny. I must have misread your pregame comments. I was possitive (I do need to sleep and rest more) you said that you are considering moving to the forested hill 2E to settle and I thought that may be a good Idea. So I did it and it was a great idea. Thanks.
Just in case it was someone else, thanks.

 

[Jove]

Well I'm glad you trust me enough to misinterpret me I hoped for seafood in the pre-game. Looking back I wish I'd settled where you did...

 

[Thorrez]

Is DISATSER spelled with one or two stupid worker steals? Oh, just one, down the drain we go then...

Status at ~500AD:
Beijiong the only city at size 4 with a barrack as the only building

So this is how it happened:

(Of course I blaim it all on RL only allowing me to play one (the GOTM) game a month )

Settled on the forest 1S of the stone (and felt lucky with the corn in play). Sent the warrior down south scouting and deceided to steal an english worker. Should not have, lost both the warrior and the worker (back to England) on the way back.

At this point I should have rushed a settler to claim the copper but was to slow and all of a sudden Liz has to cities down there so I can not settle. Settle by the gold instead.

To make a long painful story short. I did get alpha and could catch up in tech, but did not trade it to Liz for peace as copper was finally on line and "I was going to strike back anyway". Lost first Beijing, but took it back, then lost Shanghai and finally bought peace by giving away a newly settle (for this reason) useless city up by the beaver.

Well, at least it is good for RL

About the settings
I think emperor and a lot of agressive AI was a very nice set up. This actually made winning the game the challenge instead of the normal "beat the stupid AI faster than your human forum competetors can".

 

[Harbourboy]

Don't worry, Thorrez. You're not the only one to get a bit beaten up on this month's game.

 

[Adama]

@Lanstro & lightsedge:

Thanks for the info. I learn something new about Civ every day I can play, which is not enough. Don't get much time outside of the GOTM either (@Thorrez) because of RL. Have travel this week and many days next month. Hmmm.... Thorrez and I have to get our priorities straight ... When I get a little time I play Civ, read forums, threads on strategy, and articles .... if there's time left over I go to work (wife's requirement) in order to eat [and it is nice to sleep indoors].

Thanks again for info provided in this forum,
Adama

 

[Thoriak]

Hello everyone

It´s the first time i try a GOTM game and i have a little question, where do i send my savefile of my completed game, or did i get it all backwards?

Anyhow, I hope you all enjoy this tricky one =).

Regards
/Thoriak

 

[JackOfClubs]

GOTM Submission Page

 

[EEO]

Is DISASTER spelled with one or two stupid worker steals?

There are some analogies between our games.

I settled on the stone (for +1 in city square) and felt lucky to see the corn. It was better than sea resource, because Agriculture was already known (and Fishing not necessary). I went directly to BW in order to be the first on key spots by combination of chopping and poprushing.

On the bright side:
- settled the second city near the copper
- chopped the Oracle in it, getting the MC slingshot (around 1500 BC)
- settled the third city near gold, rice

On the dark side:
- lost the first 3 (!) warriors against animals : with such events, the initial advantage of settling on stone is lost
- try worker steal against Elizabeth and lost both worker and warrior in the counter-strike
- 2 warriors lost in the resulting war with Elizabeth (unsurprisingly she wants my second city for peace), until chinese axemen arrive

At this point (around 900BC) I came to the conclusion that the opening was clearly sub-optimistic and decided not to invest in 20 more hours of play for a mediocre performance. To be sure not reverting to the game, I opened this first spoiler ...

 

[Erkon]

I had two goals with this game: fast domination and early Cho Ko Nuts (through Oracle -> Metal Casting -> Forge -> Great Engineer -> Machinery).

Settled 2E since I wanted a plains hills and I glanced tundra/bad terrain to the north. And I was rewarded with rice

Then I saw the gold hills and I chopped a settler. I settled SE of the southern gold to get access to the cow.

The third city was settled S-SW of the copper to stake some land in case the iron showed up there. And it turned out to be a nice early production city.

I got the Oracle 1300 BC and chose Metal Casting (pottery completed the same turn)

Then I researched alphabet and traded me a tech lead.

I assigned an engineer and I got a GE (with 20% chance)

The GE lightbulbed almost all of machinery.

Machinery was discovered on the same turn as the iron was connected.

Then I build cho-ko-nuts. Gengis was my first victim.

I shut down research after Code of Laws until I got positive cash-flow at 0% research.

I demanded gold from Elisabeth, then declared. That way, she won't have gold to upgrade her units.

At 500 AD I had captured the capitals of Gengis Kahn, Elisabeth, Huayna Capac and Julius Ceasar (in that order).

The Oracle was delayed since I was late with Pottery (when I saw the gold I decided to take animal husbandry before the Oracle). I completed both Pottery and Oracle the same turn, but I think I was lucky. The Great Engineer was also luck. I realised that I would not have time to build a forge anywhere else than in my capital, so I had to gamble a bit. Again, I was lucky.

 

[Harbourboy]

At 500 AD I had captured the capitals of Gengis Kahn, Elisabeth, Huayna Capac and Julius Ceasar (in that order).

Fantastic stuff!

 

[lightsedge]

Erkon, what happened to Ghandi?

 

[Erkon]

Gandhi was not a military threat, so i bypassed him. I will explain in the final spoiler.

 

[Vulcans]

Ghandi can also be useful! But i'll also explain that in the final spoiler thread.

 

[culdeus]

I sort of bailed on this game. I think I have too much knowledge to do adventurer again. It became too easy as virtually every civ but Hatty was well behind me and in big trouble by 500AD.

With adventurer I was able to steal two workers from GK before just walking over him with three axes and then turn 9 axes on HC to wipe him out. Ghandi was next and he was down to a couple of disparate cities before JC declared on me and was dealt with by cats + axes.

Then chos came along and that was such a cakewalk that I lost interest in finishing what was going to be a fairly easy domination if I wanted to take the time to micromanage the economy.

I started again with the regular game to play to 1AD and quit and it was much, much different. Having the worker and the two soliders meant easy worker steal of GK or even one from each of GK and HC was likely possible. Those extra workers were so huge and the gold + 2 workers had 4xp axes out in the mid 2000BC timeframe.

Used GK's capital as a GP farm and Ghandi had a double holy city. I think by 0AD in the adventurer game I had maybe 8 or 9 cities and razed two. Knowing everything I knew in the regular version I could only manage 4.

The AI seems to have a difficult time with this map. The lack of food resources really, really hurts it's city planning.

 

[orb]

My pre-game attempts and the posts in the pre game discussion had told me that War was the future in this game, so not being good at this type of game play I set about it with trepidation.

Settled in place and set scientists on the BW route while scouting. - Found Ghandi first..Great I'lll attack India...But wait, he's got Elephants...Can I get Axemen before he gets War Elephants??? (I dont know). - Continue scouting and there is Elizabeth. - But she's got Elephants as well. - What's going on here, why dont I have Elephants?? - OK from past experience Lizzy is more likely to attack me than Ghandi, so I'll worker steal on Lizzy to slow her down while being friendly with Ghandi until I've dealt with this southern English threat.

Build a settler and race it down to the mountain pass near Lizzy (settle on the hill for defence)..It's looking good. And low it came to pass that horses are near here as well, great!, just need to expand the borders to claim them.

But what's this??? Genghis to my West...Where did he come from?? - I had scouted to see the peninsula but thought it just ended rather than opened up again.

I'm going to have to DOW on Genghis who is far more dangeous than Lizzy, before he gets his horses hooked up. -End War with Lizzy, attack Genghis. - Capture Beshbalik (near corn on peninsula.) - March army on Mongol Capitol.

But..

The Incans settle beside my southern horses and I lose the resource. - Curse them. - Peace with Genghis. - Attack Incan's. In 700BC I capture Ollantayambo and regain my horses.

OK at this stage I've founded 2 cities and captured 2 cities and been at war with 3 neighbours...This is not my usual sort of game at all, but it's quite fun.

The plan - Capture Machu Pichu (Due East of Beijing) and build lots of cottages to keep the economy going. (Thanks to Erkon for mentioning this to me a few games back.) and go back to the war with the Mongols before Keshiks run riot.

Peace with Huayna in 640BC.

On the science front. - Popped a GT Sci in 340 BC for academy in Beijing. Got Alpha in 205BC and started trading. - Hatty gave me fishing and Mathematics, Washington gave me Iron Working +90 gold, Ghandi already had Alpha but gave me Myst because he was my friend !?*!?.

By 5AD I was second from last in score and had population and happiness issues. - By 425AD I built the Hanging Gardens which helped some. - But I still need to sort out Genghis, and catch up with Ghandi in tech.

More to come in the next post.