GOTM 20 - first spoiler (500 AD)

[ainwood]

GOTM 20 First Spoiler

Reading Requirements

1. If you are still alive, you must have reached at least 0 A.D.
2. You must know the rough cultural border locations of all civs reachable by land (ie - no requirement for those reachable by galley and/or caravel).

Posting Restrictions

1. Please don't discuss any details of anything post 500 A.D.

 

[Orion071]

First! I haven't finished yet so I don't have a lot of details. I decided to go long term and settled 1NW of the original spot and researched Mining for the Gold. I started a Worker and Scouted a bit. My Scout got eaten by a Panther before meeting any other civs, but America, India and Mali soon came to visit. After Animal Husbandry I started a Settler to get the horses. I settled city #2 so it would get the Rice, Bananas and Horses. Then it was all Immortals all the time. I didn't even bother with Barracks because I didn't want to take that long. When I had 7 Immortals, I sent them straight to Washington. He had just sent out a Settler party and only had 2 Archers left in Washington. I declared and took out the Archer in the open. A 3rd Archer magically appeared as I approached, but I still managed to take out Washington. New York was nicely positioned to get all of the Calendar resources so I kept it too. Boston was poorly placed to get the Copper and the Clams, so I razed it and rebuilt in a better place. I backfilled south of my capital and had a nice little 6-city empire.

It was nice of Ainwood to give us such peace-loving neighbors, but man, do they tech fast. I thought that I could keep up since I had more land than either of them, but this is Immortal, not Monarch. They are so far ahead of me that I don't think I'll ever catch up. I'm going to have to get a bunch of Catapults and Macemen and try to take another one of them out. Probably Mansa, since he's a little weaker.

 

[Lehm]

Settled 1NW, built a worker first and started to tech for animal husbandry.

Settled second city by the horses and the fish and then another one in the south with the clams, sheep, iron and some hills. The third city became a beautiful one. I built barracks in all three cities then immortals. When I got construction I built about 10 cats and then, by the year 100BC or so, I attacked Mansa taking out 3 cities in the first turns of the war. At 500AD I finally had most of his cities including Timbuktu. He had only 1 city left next to washington and a refuging settler.

I am doing well and next war will be against Roosvelt, but he has only two cities. Shouldn't be that hard to get them. The most difficult war will be the one versus Ghandi because he has a good tech lead and still a bigger territory then me. Seems like he expanded pretty fast.

Okay, I´ll write the rest in the final spoiler, hoping that I can handle Ghandi.

 

[Markus5]

I settled in place, planning a second or third city to get the gold hill. I quickly met my neighbors and Mansa planted a city by the gold. Well, I guess you know who my first victim would be. But, it was my first mistake as well.

I built a second city to get the horses and a third down southeast, then built barracks, immortals, libraries and more immortals. I took the gold city from Mansa, and developed it, over time, into a commercial center. My immortals took one more of Mansa's cities, then stalled. I should have stopped there, but wasted a few units. I turned to the 'Mericans and easily took all their cities.

The economy crashed because I wasn't paying enough attention to it and it took some time to build it back up.

I've finished the game and submitted a loss after retiring. In 500ad my economy was getting its legs under it again and I was building lots of cats, elephants and maces to attack Mansa. It looks like he's very under powered. India's culture is pushing into my western border and I don't like that. However, his tech and military is getting advanced.

I actually enjoyed this game, but I wish I was good enough to play longer and keep up in techs. It was the tech race that cost me in the end.

 

[culdeus]

Got crushed on contender after easily walking over Washington I took over too many cities and economy slowed to a crawl. Ghandi had out teched me to the extreme and I made the mistake of declaring on Mansa Musa with his skirmishers which were too much for the immortals with no cat defense. It got so bad that ghandi actually gifted ME techs. It wasn't long after that that a SoD swooped down after a virtual suicide charge on mansa and I just said screw it.

I just quit the game and tried adventurer where I got a near 500AD conquest victory with no problem at all. Hell, if I had concentrated and scouted out the "fourth team" a little better and not been so tentative I'd have had a BC conquest victory.

I don't think the knowledge of the map really helped all that much the second time thru. It was more the knowledge of how immortal works vis-a-vis the happiness and penalty for too many cities and all that. I should have done more practice games, but the adventurer was really too easy. I was able to worker steal from both washington and mansa and then washington was dead by 2500BC and ghandi was not long after. I was able to pillage and burn mansa again and again keeping him to two cities while I waited for cats.

I didn't even know where the 4th person was on this map the first time thru so I teched thinking that I'd have to at least get astro. So I wasted some time not scouting the coast. I started up the "ferry of doom" and she went quietly in the night unlike in the last one.

I built almost all immortals and cats, but added some elephants later. I had at least two immortals at 4* level and probably a dozen at 3* when I won so I should have been more agressive, but it didn't count anyways.

The thing I learned here in the pregame the "cease fire" that in over a year I never really understood. This is the absolute BOMB you can sucker out mini stacks from under cover when you get civs down to one city but their city has a settler. Just cease fire one or two dudes pop out from cover and boom. They are dead. I should have known about this sooner. It's almost an exploit.

 

[RobertTheBruce]

I settled NW for the corn, rice, gold, 5 hill super-capital. This screwed up the horse city placement but grabs ivory and silk in the second border expansion as a bonus.

I had an immortal rush go very badly in the WOTM and planned a more cautious start. No worker steals; get three cities developed before war. Second city for horses, third for iron, sheep, crab, and fish. I don't attack anyone until 575BC. I grab one city from Mansa. He settled all the jungle between me and Washington and I grab his southern city with immortals after he moves his axes and spears out. We trade a few axes and ceasefire. I immediately declare war on Roosevelt. He doesn't have metal or horses so I take New York and Washington quickly with immortals before he reaches Feudalism. At 0AD, Roosevelt is crippled while Gandhi and Mansa are researching like crazy. Mansa founded Taoism in 625BC so no lightbulbing and trading for me.

I consolidate and am able to trade Metal Casting and Civil Service to the neighbors. Mansa has closed borders and demanded a tech from me (I gave him Literature) so he's the next target. I switch to Hinduism to improve relations with Gandhi (Gandhi is annoyed with Hatty and his cultural borders will cut off Hatty if she declares war on me) and am building catapults, maces, and elephants in 500AD for my next war.

The peace loving neighbors and nice sites for cities 2 and 3 are really helping this game.

 

[AU_Armageddon]

Fast game for me, took no notes and have already forgotton all the minor details. I settled 1 NW, settled 2 cities only all game going straight for cats and delaying any action till then cept slaving lots of axes and some spears and immortals.

When the first cats were out, stormed over Roosevelt in no time and took west half of Mansu before ceasefiring to consolidate forces.

Mansu got elbows as soon as I reinitiated which was a pain costing me my first real losses, but not significant resistance the second war was short.

Regrouped on Ghandi storming over him at cost of most of my force, but giving me the entire island.

Surprised, I noticed I was actually only 2-3 cities from Domination limit so slaved elephants and cats in every single city and went overseas in 3 galleys back and forth to hit 3 of Hatshetup's less defended cities. Hatty was miles ahead of me in techs and power and rest, but concentrated cats followed by eles' was more than enough to take and hold the cities for long enough to creep over the domination line for a earlyish domination win (I forget when, pretty sure not far over 500ad).

Was very straightforward stuff. IMO, you cant do well on high difficulty levels without lots of war and taking everything, and you cant win wars without lots of boring cautious effort on high difficultly unless you slave the guts out of your empire and chop everything in sight, and you wont have the army to roll over enemy after enemy unless you have cats, but if you do those 3 things, domination is assured before you click start. IMO.

I'd kinda like to see more GotMs where you are isolated or otherwise unable to get a domination via galleys. I'd really like to see a No Tech Trading gotm. The difficulty ramps up for me like 500% on maps where you cant exploit alphabet. Personally, I play all my SP CiV4 games with NoTT and find myself losing quite a few Emporer and Immortal games. Unless totally isolated, I find there is a flat ZERO chance of not dominating on Immortal down with the three exploits of Alphabet, Slavery, and Chopping. Chopping not so bad nowadays, but super looking forward to BTS where slavery has been nurfed and game numbing tech trading exploits of alphabet are gone!

My advice for others, if you aren't slaving practically nonstop, then you aren't doing as well as you can. Not much else really matters by comparison. For rolling armies, take the extra turn to bombard to 0% and attack nothing without softening em with a couple sacrificial cats. Trick is to make sure you have enough cats there. Every 2nd unit you make should be a cat. 50% of my entire forces are usually comprised of cats. 80% in multiplayer. Removing withdraw from Cats in BTS is another positive step for reinvigorating this game.

IMO.

 

[sebtanic]

Well it seems immortal is still beyond my abilities. Settled 1N, 2nd city at the horses and 3rd city in the far SE corner of our continent - which means I didn't get to work the iron in any of my cities Tried the immortal rush, but most of them lost out against Mansa's Skirmishers even when they were out in the open and I had an 80%+ chance of winning - man was it frustrating, I started to think the AI is cheating on this level.
My only success was that I managed to raze one of Mansa's city but soon after he took my horse city with a galley that had sneaked up from behind and that I hadn't paid the proper attention to. Couldn't seem to get it back as America also declared on me... in 500AD my units are making a last stand in the capital, the only city that's left of my empire. The only question is how long will they hold out...

 

[Adama]

This is just my second GOTM that was destined for possible submission ( I’m a noobie, and the first two months of April and May I replayed to learn) and I chose Advernturer Class. This is my first ever Immortal level game.

I settled north, and it was all uphill from there, particularly in the early game. I decided to try early warmongering (something I haven’t been successful at before) and to start by trying to steal a worker. Eventually I did {circa 3440 BC}, but it cost me two archers (what a deal?) and I would further lose two more warriors trying to take out a nosey American scout planning some sort of rescue mission for his worker buddy.

The horses fell just outside my borders, so my first priority became the copper to the west. My third city was 1N of the horses. I was ‘lucky’ (using that term loosely here) in that the Barbs founded a fourth city right at the very southeast tip of my starting island. I waited for it to grow to size two, and although it wasn’t exactly where I wanted it, I made the decision that it saved me a settler and kept it [instead of razing it] for my fourth city.

By 1000 BC I was ready to actually fight a war with swords, axes and a couple of immortals. I captured Washington from Roosevelt in 925 BC. [I did not think I could correctly execute an immortal rush, especially as I expected cultural borders to provide enemies too much defense for my skill level].

In this time period though, I was feeling very “lost.” My research rate had dropped precipitously and was now at zero {the slider wouldn’t go below zero to help my economy!}. Even at zero science, my economy was barely holding its own. I had made it to writing, and was slowly researching Alphabet. The only recourse I had was to hire a couple of scientists at Persepolis (my capital) and have them help with Alpha.

I captured Boston (despite having to attack across 40% cultural defenses) in 875 BC and noticed the first hint of WW-- it had taken 15-20 turns before Washington had allowed peace when I had first stolen a worker, so I suppose there was already a penalty state in effect from that early “war” which was causing the war weariness.

EARLY CONSTRUCTION

All I could build was granaries, barracks & a library here and there. I also looked for ways to help my economy, i.e., building cottages for instance.

RESEARCH

I finally got Alpha research completed in 650 BC to find I was pretty much seriously behind in techs (no surprise there on Immortal level). But, now that I had Alpha, I offered Roosevelt peace in exchange for Myst, Fishing & Masonry and he accepted (my first break, and first ‘ray of hope.’ My excitement was quickly dashed as MM would not trade me Math for anything, including not even Alpha. Ahhh… but after I had put a couple of turns of research into Math, I was able to work something out and trade.

ECONOMY

My economy ‘sucked’ to put it mildly and became my obsession early on. I had reduced my research to zero very early, relying on scientists in my capital and that’s about it. Finally stabilizing at about +3gpt, I had something over $100g in my treasury and nursed it. I decided I might add a few $$$ by starting the Pyramids late (planning to lose) in 550 BC. Another brilliant maneuver on my part, netting me almost $14g, (because the very turn after I started, MM completed the ‘mids !!). I was running out of options, so it seemed.

EARLY EXPLORATION

Okay, not so early. I built a workboat and met Hattie circa 400 BC. Got Poly & sailing for Alpha. In levels below Immortal, I rarely trade away Alpha so early, but I had usually been leading or close in techs at those levels. In Immortal here, all the techs were becoming cheap by the time I got them, so I traded whatever I could—beggars cannot be choosers.

MORE WAR

I DOW’ed Rossevelt again in 375 BC, in what I deemed a desperate attempt to take him out. I had used slavery and chopping everywhere to produce all the military units I could, but soon (after this American War) would require War Elephants and much needed Cats, the latter for cultural defenses (available thanks to completing Construction circa 250 BC).

I razed New York in 350 BC and destroyed Roosevelt’s Civ in 300 BC.

I DOW’ed Gandhi in 75 AD. Now that I had prepared, and the troops on their way or at the spearhead would have to carry the day, I suspended military production in a few cities to build some infrastructure for happiness growth including temples and coliseums I also finally remembered to develop my plantation/Calendar happy resources too.

I decided to raze Bombay in 150 AD. Wasn’t sure at this level if I could keep it (both cultural pressure, and fear of the mounting city maintenance). Turned out that Hattie reduced her opinion of me because noobie that I am, I had failed to take into consideration (okay, so I didn’t even notice &#8230 that Bombay had been a holy city. Ooops. Could’ve used that shrine income, if he had built it yet. I am a very slow learner, so I again razed an Indian city in 225 AD. I captured and kept Delhi, Madras & Bangalore before 500 AD. I {edited for possible spoiler info} received a nice tech (metal casting-MC) for peace {with Gandhi}. I also noticed that M&M has Macemen, and soon had traded Machinery and Civ Service to Gandhi. Further, Hattie wouldn’t trade me anything for MC.

Razing cities presents its’ own problems of enemy and friendly civ’s settlers, as well as Barbs. So, I don’t know if I did correctly or not.

SCORE

At 540 AD (only notes I have) my score was 1391 which was second to Hattie’s 1525. M&M was 1361 and Gandhi was 579.


PLANS

You got to be kidding me. I don’t know. I suppose I have to find a way to tackle M&M on the mainland next (even though he is still more advanced than me). I cannot win a tech race on Immortal level. My trading opportunities will soon be slim and none. The fact that {Editing for possible spoiler info} I am very close to finishing Civ Service (which every one else already has- no trading opportunity), but I do not have machinery for Maces yet. I’ve diverted production facilities from military units into markets, a courthouse, forges, etc. here and there. But now it has to be near time to prepare for war once more. I am not yet in Hereditary Rule (I only have about one Axeman or Archer as garrison in my cities- needs to be improved). I am in Slavery and I have chopped nearly every forest available already once I acquired Math for the boost- there was a boost, wasn’t there …?)

WISH ME LUCK

I am not even sure if I have a chance to win this on Immortal, ‘cause I don’t know what I’ll meet when I try to attack the more advanced Civs—and I will hopefully have a numerical unit advantage with lots of Cats—but that appears to be the only hope.

P.S. These were my notes at 500 AD, but I have since completed and submitted. You guys have helped me tremendously- I could never have finished this early in the month. More in the second spoiler.

Question #1: Results for GOTM 19 were published (today?) and I made the top half – i.e., #22, thanks again primarily to the education I received from helpful forum members here. My question is while I definitely will play Contender and not AC on Immortal GOTM’s and levels below that, am I eligible on a Deity level (if there is one) to play with Adventurer Class? I.e., although I have had some luck with the AC class the last two months, I have only played a few games of Civ IV at all, and certainly no Deity level contests. Just checking before I make a wrong choice of class in any future GOTM.

Question #2: I played AC in WOTM last month (my first ever WarLords game of any kind). I assume it is considered totally separate from GOTM. I.e., I think that there I would play contender for sure on Monarch levels and below, but would like to play Adv Class on higher levels- I assume that is separately tabulated from the results in GOTM and is okay?

Thanks again for all the help.

Best to all
Adama
Military Leader of the last remnant of the Human Race

 

[Cactus Pete]

After all the pre-game discussion, I was looking forward to an early immortal rush . . . didn't build an immortal until AD.

Settled the plains hill to gain early production; but, when I found Mali and its skirmishers and then the awkward location of the horses, I wasn't comfortable with the risk. Founded two more cities and played conservatively, much as I discussed in the pre-game.

Once swordsmen were available I conquered America, and I have now begun to methodically capture Mali cities with the aid of cats. Little risk, high score, slow finish -- not what I anticipated.

I'd be interested if anyone was able to make an immediate immortal rush work.

 

[Infantry#14]

My game ended disgracefully as I retired sometime before the AD era.

Settled in place and set to research AH. Built 2nd city near horse. I used immortal rush on Washington and easily eliminated him as he had no bronze or horse. Then I gambled. Instead of building up my economy and wait for construction (ivory), I Dow on Gandhi. Captured 1/2 cities and peace b/c he had too much melee defenders. I got impatient and arrogant and Dow on Mana Musa. Pillage all his improvements, but maintainence was too much, because I was research at 20%. Then, he had longbows. I know all is loss, cuz I had no way to catch up. Even if I keep this up, I can at most do a cultural victory.

Btw, nice to know that Egypt is on a penisula that is blocked from the mainland by a mountain. Early Domination and Conquest may probably not possible after all.

 

[mrchadt]

I settled 1N, I figured it would give me more freedom to put my second city where ever I liked, if I settled in place I would want my second city near the gold. I also went for the hill for quicker workers and early production.
My starting tech was mining-BW-AH-wheel, builds- worker-warrior-worker warrior-settler, I think. The main point being 2 early workers to chop the settler for a quick second city.
I thought that even if horses were in the capital BFC or first expansion I would want a 2nd city before building an army. I settled my 2nd city 1N of horse to reach fish.
Roos settled near the dye so I attacked him early took and kept the city, and took washington shortly after. I let him live for iron just after getting alphabet. Trade lots and did well, getting math, pot ,myst , arch, poly, med.
I revolted to judaism , same as ghandi, got friendly and askd for sailing which he gave. A couple of turns later my good friend became hindu to now he hates me.
Mansa settled early next to the bananas. He put quite a force in there! I decided I had to attack him, so I declared on mansa losing 4 or 5 immortals on his city. Then on to his capital. Lots of pillaging while I waited for my first 2 catapults. Took his capital and got calander for peace. In the meantime I had let Roos expand to 2 cities and get copper, he only had 1 spear so I nipped him in the bud. Raising 1 city and keeping the other coastal city with clams.
Then I finished off mansa taking his remaining cities. Upto 500AD try to build infrastucture and get enough to kill ghandi. He is escaping, building all the wonders and religous shrines, so if I can take him will decide if I win.

 

[da_Vinci]

I am not sure that my immortals and I are destined for immortality on this immortal game, but at least we are alive at 500 AD!

I ran JungleIII’s test game, and learned to be careful not to bite off more than I can chew (or at least pay for) too early. In that test I hit a stretch of negative cash flow at 0% science! The pillage cash can lull you to sleep if you are not careful.

Looks like that pitfall ensnared Markus5, culdeus, Adama, and Infantry#14 (as it has me in other GOTM).

But of course, one has to also attack fast enough … there is a sweet spot between those extremes I am sure, and that is what separates the top players from me (among other things).

OK, back to the game. Settled 1N, sent scout 2 SW to start. Worker and mining. Then wheel, as I had encountered idle worker time in the test game, and with wheel in hand, worker could pre-road to the horses, as JungleIII suggested. Warrior after worker.

AH after wheel, second warrior. Turn 25 (3000BC) begin settler, and learn AH. Horses in the NE. Glad the gold is in the capital, as I am free to found second city where horses are. Nice spot for a GP farm in the SE as well. Ivory SW.

Turn 36, (2560 BC) finish setter, start barracks. Turn 38 (2480 BC) Pasargardae founded. Learned fishing (for the fish in Pasargardae), started WB.

Turn 42 (2320BC) finished barracks, learned pottery (cottages for the economy) and started writing. Turn 43 (2280) start first immortal, continuous production in Persepolis.

Roos had settled NY in the calendar heaven, and was one border pop away from copper. Captured NY Turn 53 (1880 BC).

Barbs founded Angle near the ivory … captured Angle turn 64 (1440 BC). Learned math that turn as well. Turn 65 (1400 BC) captured and razed Boston.

Here I decided to deliver a blow to Gandhi rather than finish Roos. Maybe a mistake? Made peace with Roos, only to find his border blocked my access to Gandhi ! But, he was instantly cautions with me, so got Open Borders soon after.

Turn 76 (975 BC) declared on Gandhi. Invading with only immortals. Turn 79 (900 BC) captured and razed Madras, but losing lots of immortals to Gandhi’s chariots after they win a combat against archers. By turn 82 it is clear the immortals are spent, so we make peace.

Finally get alpha turn 88 (675 BC). Economy is down to 20 to 40% sci, IIRC. Turn 103 met Hatty in my galley, traded some techs. One advantage to leaving Roos alive is we did some tech trading. I used religious switches to manipulate relations for tech trading with the AI. Eventually we were all Buddhist buddies.

GP farm in SE bulbed me a lot of techs, which kept me close, at least early.

The screenshot of the score graph shows that Roos is crippled, and I am hanging in there for now.

dV

 

[Thrallia]

Ok, I settled in place and decided to try for a fast military victory, as I know I can't keep up with Emperor AI in research, much less Immortal.

I researched AH first, saw the horses, and que'd up a Settler after I built a worker and warrior in Persepolis. I founded Pasagardae 1N of the horses, and started an immediate workboat there.

At that point, my research had gone AH>Mining>BW>Wheel>Fishing. Fishing timed to finish exactly when I founded Pasagardae. I had already sent my worker over to road the horses and prepare for pasturing.
As soon as the workboat was finished, I was already putting out 6 hammers in Pasagardae and building an Immortal every 2-3 turns in Persepolis.

Mansa founded Djenne 2N from the gold, so I positioned 5 Immortals in 1 turn distance from it, declared war around 2000BC, and took the city, losing 1 Immortal. I then moved up, and took Kumbi Saleh about 8 turns later, at the cost of 3 Immortals. Unfortunately, I stalled at Timbuktu because he'd managed to build 2 spears before I disconnected his copper. I peaced him, then declared war on Roosevelt 1 turn before he would have hooked up his copper to the W of Persepolis. On turn 1, I razed Chicago on my borders, on turn 3 I razed New York, his copper city. I then turned toward Washington, and easily took it when he sent a settler and two archers back to where New York had been. He founded Philadelphia the turn before I took Washington, so I razed it also, and Roosevelt was eliminated in 1040BC.

I then consolidated in Kumbi Saleh, built some axes, and then declared war on Mansa again...on review, I should have declared on Gandhi to slow him down, but I attacked Mansa again, hoping to take him out, then take on Gandhi. I managed to take Timbuktu, defended by 4 skirmishers, while losing 8 out of 10 axes/immortals!!! That was at 250BC, and I was hopeful I'd take him out pre-AD as well. Unfortunately, Mansa had hooked up another copper to the NW in the deserts, and ran out suicide axe after suicide axe. So I peaced him for a couple techs.

At 1AD, I had 7 cities, was running 60% science at a surplus, and was already way behind Gandhi in tech.

 

[Piko]

Gee tough, i'm no newbie to civ 4, but i couldnt get a win on this one, no way, i'm deffinately not experienced on immortal level, i think my ignorance there hurt me a lot. But heres what i did to 500ad... with adventurer save


techs: bw, anim hus, fish, b-line for code of laws

ok built 1 nw, barracks for 10 turns, decided after surveying land i wanted 2 cities, one for horse and fish and one south for fish, clam, sheep, hills, looked too nice to turn down. So i wanted them quick!!! chopped worker at size 2, then chopped first settler, and had one worker sent to build road and chop tree 1N of horses, then ARRGHHH it switched back to producing barracks in main city, i didnt notice, lost chops to it, was annoyed, proceeded to chop second settler, 2 workers werent enough even, lots of work to be done, so 3 immortals and a wandering MM settler later... voila.

I could see washington had no resources so wanted to hit MM first. i continued my immortal rush, is all i built in 3 cities for a long time, perhaps too long? anyhow, conquered MM fairly easily, tried to wait for alphabet to trade for peace but i couldnt do it, and just wiped him out completely. Job 1 complete.

Next Washington, straight to the capital. I kept the 3 MM cities i captured, bad idea? i dont know, lots of hills seem useful. I see gandhi soooo far ahead in techs its not funny, new cities i take build libraries and courthouses asap. Missed out on taoism. main 3 cities turn to libraries and courthouses also as i see washington much weaker with only archers. was a cake walk, traded for peace when i got alphabet, he was chicken meat but i need tech.

here I am stuck. India has feudalism, my economy is up the creek, i'll have to keep washington alive as a trade buddy, india just seem too big to hit, i need to catch up in techs, i kill a few units to keep from minus income at 0% and sigh.

cottages, mines, all i'm building with workers, my whole land is worked by 100AD, but i am desperate for calendar, too late to go for cultural, as i have zero of the religons, i'm stuck, i can't see a win, my economy is bouncing back strong, i managed to trade up, 2 techs behind! race for liberalism.... I don't see a win possible.

I believe i should have hit gandhi after i weakened the US but i didnt have construction yet, and my economy was already busted? so i couldnt get it soon enough anyhow. Alas

 

[Aborigen]

In the beginning of new era, I took half of the continent, where Ghandi, Mansa and Washington lived. And I was 6-7% from domination limit, and my economy crashed ;-) units are now dissappearing....

 

[culdeus]

My advice for others, if you aren't slaving practically nonstop, then you aren't doing as well as you can. Not much else really matters by comparison. For rolling armies, take the extra turn to bombard to 0% and attack nothing without softening em with a couple sacrificial cats. Trick is to make sure you have enough cats there. Every 2nd unit you make should be a cat. 50% of my entire forces are usually comprised of cats. 80% in multiplayer. Removing withdraw from Cats in BTS is another positive step for reinvigorating this game.

IMO.

Slow down a bit, slaving cats is a totally different thing than slaving immortals. Slaving cats would almost certainly require calendar and IW in this game to get enough . Slaving immortals is possible in the good city sites here, but the limit of 4 or 5 makes this virtually impossible without a very wide tech approach and one that gives the AI time to build up counters.

Plus if you are whipping all the time you should be really hurting for commerce to pay for the whipped units. It's been my experience that as long as you can build organically units in 4 or 5 turns there's not much point in whipping. Clearly the "horse" city site was a whiptastic place, but the "sheep" and "ivory" sites could pump out an immortal in 4 or 5 turns easily. And those likely did not have the benefit of religion and had even less to deal with.

I'd like to see a 2000BC 20 turn build order and a 1AD and 500AD 20 turn build order to get a feel for how much whipping and where you did whip to get more units out.

 

[Adama]

Btw, nice to know that

@Infantry#14:

After I read your post, I decided that info might be 'spoiler info' and edited my first post.

Adama

 

[Thalaba]

I think I made into the early ADs. I didn't have the Autolog on, so my dates might be sketchy. I settled in place because of the blue circle, thinking maybe in indicated horses to the south. I wish I'd gone one north or northwest, now.

Techs were AH, M, BW, Wheel, Writing, Alphabet.
Builds were Worker, Warrior, Settler.

I had my worker in place to work the horses as soon as I settled and started pumping out Immortals. By the time I had my second or third immortal, I saw that Mansa already had Longbowmen. He had feudalism prior to 1500BC!

Around that time I started to war with America. They hadn't connected Bronze yet, so it was fairly easy. I wiped them out, keeping Washington and razing the rest. I had 4 cities altogether (also captured a barb city on the peninsula south east of my capital). Shortly before eliminating washington, I discovered Alphabet. Ghandi already had it, Mansa did not but didn't offer me much for it so I didn't offer to trade with him.

My plan was to consolidate, but Mansa declared war on me only a few turns after I wiped out America. He used a galley to land a Longbowman and Horsearcher near my horse city and took it easily. I tried to fight back but lost most of my Immortals. I managed to raze 2 or 3 of his cities.

I got peace by giving him Washington. I tried to build again for a while, hoping to take cities back by culture. I switched to Hinduism which was the same religion as everyone else, and for a while both Ghandi and Mansa were giving me techs. Then sometime before I could build Macemen, Mansa switched to confucianism and declared on me again, wiping me out before 500AD.

I never saw Mansa with any troops other than longbowmen, archers, horsearchers, and catapults.

Thalaba.

 

[Thrallia]

Question #1: Results for GOTM 19 were published (today?) and I made the top half – i.e., #22, thanks again primarily to the education I received from helpful forum members here. My question is while I definitely will play Contender and not AC on Immortal GOTM’s and levels below that, am I eligible on a Deity level (if there is one) to play with Adventurer Class? I.e., although I have had some luck with the AC class the last two months, I have only played a few games of Civ IV at all, and certainly no Deity level contests. Just checking before I make a wrong choice of class in any future GOTM.

The suggested rules for adventurer saves is that if you've won on that level before you should play contender, or if you've finished in the top half of the standings in any of the GOTMs. As far as Deity is concerned...it is generally considered a different monster entirely, and in the only Deity GOTM we've had so far, the contender save had a bonus as well, only challenger didn't have a bonus. If/when we get another deity, I'd ask Alan for final confirmation, but I'm not sure how much any adventurer bonus would help someone who's not used to deity level games. Last time only 1 person even won the game.

Question #2: I played AC in WOTM last month (my first ever WarLords game of any kind). I assume it is considered totally separate from GOTM. I.e., I think that there I would play contender for sure on Monarch levels and below, but would like to play Adv Class on higher levels- I assume that is separately tabulated from the results in GOTM and is okay?

Actually, the WOTM is the same as the GOTM. They both have their scores put in the same table, becoming an eptathlete in the G/WOTM considers both the WOTM and GOTM standings. And the global rankings take the better of your WOTM/GOTM for the month.
Again, you'll want to talk to Alan for final confirmation in any game, but I'd say go with the contender saves from here on, it'll definitely help your early game get stronger. Now that you know how to start strong with a bonus, you just need to learn to reach that point without the bonus, which is actually not as hard as you'd think.