GOTM 20 - first spoiler (500 AD)

[Erkon]

Yes, you can at least see the replays of the experts/everyone, i don't know if their logs are published somewhere or not.

You can find the save-file, replay and log for each player at the results page.

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/results/index.php?month=40019

Movements are not tracked in the autolog. The log at the above page shows the AI research as well.

 

[Adama]

Well guys. Hello to all, as I have not posted here for a long time. I played some of the civ2 GOTMs, and I am still, and maybe will be forever, fascinated by the depth, complexity and fun of the civ-series.

But one big question: The remaining AI(Egypt) is so far ahead in science, that there was no chance of ever attacking them. (Except you do it like AU_Armageddon did, and encounter them early enough). Even in other games I played, there is always one AI that does reasearch sometime 3techs in one turn. Unbelieveable! How can they do? So if you can't wipe out all your enemies in the early stages of the game, how can you compete in the technology race?

Thanks for any advice, have a nice day!

Welcome Back.

Civ IV is THE GAME, you are right as I have recently also re-learned ( I also used to play Civ II - casually only ).

I am still a noob, but I have heard it said ... okay, I actually know, you can attack a more advanced civ with lesser tech war units if you have a plethora of them, along with a whole passel of cats and/or trebs. Overwhelm them with numbers of lesser units. Your units DO have to be able to at least 'scratch' the metal on the defenders, of course, and destroy disabled and damaged enemy units after the sacrificial siege units 'do their thing'.

As far as your last question, I too am not so clear. Maybe another reader will comment. I don't see how you could ever 'catch up' as in a space race, so maybe military is a better choice. Of course, if they are military minded, it might still be possible to beat them to space, say, if you can defend your turf.

Best
Adama
Military Leader of the Last Remnant of the Human Race

 

[Thrallia]

you get a discount on any tech already known by another civ...a bigger discount for each other civ that knows that tech. If you can get to a big enough commercial size, you can catch up by taking advantage of that discount on essential techs, and by researching techs that have not been researched by anyone yet, allowing you to trade them for anywhere from 1-3 techs.

 

[da_Vinci]

you get a discount on any tech already known by another civ...a bigger discount for each other civ that knows that tech. If you can get to a big enough commercial size, you can catch up by taking advantage of that discount on essential techs, and by researching techs that have not been researched by anyone yet, allowing you to trade them for anywhere from 1-3 techs.

Is that discount for each civ that knows the tech, or each civ that knows the tech that you have met (or even are on good terms with)?

dV

 

[alexxx]

...you can attack a more advanced civ with lesser tech war units if you have a plethora of them, along with a whole passel of cats and/or trebs. Overwhelm them with numbers of lesser units. Your units DO have to be able to at least 'scratch' the metal on the defenders, of course, and destroy disabled and damaged enemy units after the sacrificial siege units 'do their thing'.

Thank you, Adama. OK I will try this. although in this very GOTM there is the additional difficulty, that you have to bring your troops to your foe over the sea.... So it is damn hard to bring a lot of Units, but I gonna try, and then I bomb this evergrinning Hatty to the ground.. Finally! Just a joke, I'm only for war in Computergames, not in Reality.

Next thing I have to learn is to win peacefully...

@thrallia: Thank you for this information. I have to play the diplomatic part of the game more carefully, in the future.

 

[Tosti11]

Is that discount for each civ that knows the tech, or each civ that knows the tech that you have met (or even are on good terms with)?

dV

It is for every civ you have met that has the tech. that is one reason why you want to meet all the civs as fast as possible, to maximize research on techs that perhaps you have nothing to trade for.

 

[Mad Professor]

As I write I’ve played to about 500AD on contender. I settled in place, thinking the rice and gold would be good for my second city. Mansa however settled HIS second city right there before I was even half way through building the settler. I went for AH early to see where the horses were. I wanted immortals. They were going to be my only way out of that corner.

Then there were the battles. I had some foul luck early against the few barbarians that appeared before room for barbarians ran out – including losing a settler which was critical. Woe is me – anyone got out their violin yet? It’s pretty sad when a warrior fortified on a hill is beaten by a barbarian warrior too. By this time I was feeling abused by the RNG gods. All that is no excuse for the fact that I’m not really up to immortal games, even though the only other one I played before this (GOTM10) I actually won – by space race too. But that one was easier than this one.

Anyhow – determined to have some fun no matter what, I got together a band of immortals and went off to find a target… Mansa and Roosevelt had both settled in my direction, leaving me with very little space. I had three cities including my capital and I was cramped in the corner. But I did have the horses Roosevelt didn’t have skirmishers or spearmen like Mansa did, and Gandhi was too far away and too powerful, so Roosevelt drew the short straw and got nailed. Oh I had fun. I took Boston and Philadelphia, burnt down New York and plundered up a storm. I got a bunch of cheap techs off him for peace, then declared again ten turns later, and took Washington wiping him out at about 100BC. Too slow. I was hopelessly behind Mansa, Gandhi and Hatty, and Mansa who had originally been Jewish like me changed to follow Confucius, and became unhappy at me for a range of reasons. My economy needs to catch up with the times as well… On the other hand, I have survived, and I had a whole lot of fun soundly kicking Roosevelt’s butt, and if I can keep Mansa’s army off my back (which shouldn’t be too hard) I should survive the rest of the game. Winning though? Out of the question. Totally. No way. I’m now in the process of repairing my economy with courthouses and markets, I built the hanging gardens to give me a little boost which was nice, and I converted to Confucianism to keep Mansa happy. Gandhi has founded every single religion except Confucianism. It’s awesome. Someone built the Sistine Chapel in about 750BC. First time I’ve seen it that early.

Oh – the RNG gods smiled on me for one turn. That was the turn I attacked Washington and wiped out Roosevelt. He had 9 archersin the city (various garrison and combat promotions) and I went at him with ten immortals (variously promoted) and a couple of axmen. I was being highly optimistic. I think I won two 20% or so battles, and two other sub 30% battles, and kicked him out of Washington with the loss of only one immortal. It didn’t quite make up for the earlier setbacks, but it was nice to get some back.

From here my goal is survival to see who launches a space ship, because that’s what it’s going to be. I can’t win from here. I did get one bright spot where I light bulbed Compass with a GS then traded it to each of Mansa, Gandhi and Hatty for lots of tech to catch me up a lot in the tech race, but it can’t last. I’m falling fast behind again – my economy is still sick, and my army is looking very feeble against all those longbows and maces I see out there!

 

[LowtherCastle]

Why don't you just make a stack of Swords, Welephants, and cats (w/a couple spears for defense) and take out G (or MM) little by little? Pillage any metals he might have and suicide a few cats per city to make the LBMs killable.

 

[Harbourboy]

Because then they just come back at you with dozens of knights and macemen and crossbowmen.

 

[Mighty Dwaarf]

It is for every civ you have met that has the tech. that is one reason why you want to meet all the civs as fast as possible, to maximize research on techs that perhaps you have nothing to trade for.

Is that why when I look at what tech to research some techs although it says they require more beakers in total take less turns to research??
This is a question which has caused many sleepless nights

 

[Lexad]

There's also a nuber of optional prerequisites known factor. All is described here:
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/tech_research.php

 

[Mad Professor]

Why don't you just make a stack of Swords, Welephants, and cats (w/a couple spears for defense) and take out G (or MM) little by little? Pillage any metals he might have and suicide a few cats per city to make the LBMs killable.

Right now I'm working on rebuilding my economy - it will crash totally if I go on another army building drive right now. That done, I'll have a look around. I have some immortals keeping an eye on everyone. If I think the stacks of maces and crossbows (and maybe by then knights) are too much. I'll do as I say above and just wait to see who wins. If I think there's a chance (and the slim chance is that I get to guilds before the others and can upgrade my stacks of immortals to knights and attack promptly...) I will do it. Don't hold your breath for that though. I'll let you know what happened in the final spoiler when I finish!

 

[LowtherCastle]

Because then they just come back at you with dozens of knights and macemen and crossbowmen.

Not if you pillaged their metals, they don't. BUt don't pillage their horses. Let the idiots build horse archers instead of LBMs.

 

[Harbourboy]

In my game they do. Because they flatten me with those troops the turn after I declare war. And it takes about 5 turns to reach their metal. They've taken 3 of my cities by then, as well as destroying my pillaging stack, which means I can't reach the metal anyway.

Although having said that, if WOTM11 has taught me anything, it is that inferior troops CAN defeat superior ones - if you bring PLENTY of them.......

 

[jesusin]

jesusin, contender, goal fastest diplo.

I played a rather unfocused early game, I didn't know if I should go all aout warring or I should set the basis for a great research, so I took incongruent decisions.
Settled 1NW, the best spot long term and the best production spot short term (not for a ultra early rush). I settled the 2nd city with horses and fish. AH-Wheel-Mining(should have been before Wheel)-BW-Pott for Gra whipping-fishing-IW for war security-beeline to Constr.

When I met Musa I decided to go diplo and to keep him alive as a trade partner and friend (his special archers and his charriots had nothing to do with my decission, of course).

I dowed Roo when he offered 2 wor in the same tile outside his borders. I had one single Imm then and I have to admit that I never had more than 2 at the same time, so distracted I was with a Library for an early Academy and things like that. Took the calendar resources city and kept it (was that a wrong decision since it was a poor city pre-calendar? I go to war to save settlers and take land, don't I?

AI is stupid and doesn't like to take empty cities: 2 archers were in the open besides my 2 Imm, 75% kill chances, both attack, one survives with 0,2 left and the other dies. The remaining archer can choose between finishing my last Imm and retaking his undefended city, so I put my worker just besides his archer so that he has 3 options, press enter... the archer moves away!!! Later on I left another city unoccupied and the AI wouldn't take it either.

I razed the misplaced SW city and took the capital, finishing Roos in 1280BC. That's when I realize I have forgotten to send 1 or 2 Imm to Gandhi to harass him and keep him underdevelopped. Oh my! He has fearful cultural defenses, he has longbows (!) and he is 1 turn away from connecting the SW iron and is about to settle a city in the N iron. Should I left him build spears while I regroup and wait for elephants and Cats? No!

Dow, take a worker and offer it back, his longbow takes the chance, instead of his archer, ja, ja, the firtt turn I hadd razed the N city and taken the SW city, keeping him from metals. I then prepared a settler to found my GPFarm in the SE but a barb city popped there, I had to kill 4 archers to raze it while my settler considered the meaningless of live. I should have played a defensive war, but Gandhi's tech pace had me scared, so I sent a party to raze his Ivory. In the counter strike Gancdhi killed 3 Imm and I agreed a Masonry for peace agreement.

Shortly after 1000BC, peace, 6 cities, Academy, 0% research, some reserves of gold. Here comes the worst mistake of the game. I should have burnt all my money into sailing and calendar, thus solving the happiness problem forever and creating a second research powerhouse in my empire. What I did was burn all my money into Construction and build dozens of Cats and Elephants. And yet after Constr, I decided to get MC before Calendar to start working towards my UN GE. To top it all, I had to dow too soon to keep him out of the iron, so he used his Oracle GP and his Music GA in a Golden Age, instead of building me a shrine.

So I spent one thousand years without research, 0%, negative gpt unless I forgo good tiles for sea tiles. 60 turns wasted, no progress at all.
In 200AD I get Calendar for peace from Gandhi, who is reduced to 2 pitiful northern cities, but my game is ruined.

 

[Tosti11]

Is that why when I look at what tech to research some techs although it says they require more beakers in total take less turns to research??
This is a question which has caused many sleepless nights

Yes, if you care to read the link posted by Lexad it really does tell you all could ever want to know, i believe it says the highest modifier for known by other civs is a 30% increase in your beaker production speed. Along with additional increases in speed if you know multiple pre reqs (an additional 10% per prereq). With that in mind i see no reason why a tech which requires more beakers than another tech couldn't be researched more quickly.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Game Class: Challenger

Initial Moves:
By playing the Challenger Class, I began the game without any Gold on my Plains Hills square and without knowledge of Agriculture. My first thoughts were that there might be more Flood Plains to the SW of our starting location, near the one that was visible in the starting screenshot. I figured that if there were 3 or more Flood Plains squares, I'd settle away from where the Gold was located, so that I wouldn't feel very bad about "missing out" on the Gold. So, my Scout headed SW + SW, onto a jungle-covered Grassland Hills square.

Unfortunately, it looked like there were no more Flood Plains squares, so, despite the lack of the Gold, I settled 1 NW from our starting location. Now I know how most of the Yukon gold prospectors must have felt, with the promise of riches and a grand new life turning into an impoverished fight for survival.

My Research Path went as follows:
Agriculture (for the Corn and temporarily for the Flood Plains)
Mining (for the Plains Hills River square)
The Wheel (in order to hook up resources, to keep my Workers busy, to keep my military mobile, and to build roads for my Settlers so that their settling location could be more flexible)
Fishing (as a helper tech to Pottery)
Pottery (for early Cottages and for early Granaries, since we can build Granaries at half price)
Animal Husbandry (in order to find out where the Horses were located on the map)
Bronze Working (for chopping and Slavery)
Writing (for Open Borders and Libraries)
Mysticism (for Obelisks)
Sailing (for early Lighthouses)
Alphabet (learned in 675 BC on Turn 88/460 for a chance at trading)
Mathematics (for opening up Currency and Construction)
Iron Working (to see if I could spot Iron. I'd have skipped this tech if I had Copper, but all of the Copper seemed to have been claimed)
Masonry (to get Construction)
Metal Casting (to trade for Construction, as some of the AIs already knew Construction before I could begin to research it)

Some comments about my Research Path:
Although having early Cottages was an important goal, with me being short a Gold, I could have waited to research Fishing and Pottery until after Animal Husbandry or even after Alphabet. As it was, I had to idle my first Settler for a couple of turns while I waited to see if there were Horses nearby.

Fortunately, there were some Horses, but in hindsight, a more optimised Research Path could have been better than spending some turns to micromanage the act of getting a Settler out quickly, who would only then sit around campfires roasting squirrels (I didn't have a Calendar for a Sugar Plantation and thus had no marshmellows to offer the Settler) until I made up my mind about where it should go.

I was not the first to research Writing; I think that both Mansa and Gandhi beat me to it. Gandhi then was able to beat me to Alphabet, reducing my trading options. The lack of the extra research power from the missing Gold (Fool's Gold, such that I might be the fool for taking on the Challenger Class) meant that I either had to have a more stream-lined beeline for Alphabet or else do what I did and just accept that I wouldn't get much trading value out of it when I did eventually research it.

I was able to trade Alphabet for Mathematics with Roosevelt. However, no other techs of mine were available for trade at the time.

Initial Build Order:
I built a Worker first. My first citizen worked the Plains Hills Forest square until the first border expansion and then worked the Flood Plains square.

Next, I built a Warrior while I grew my capital to size 2.

I built a second Worker next, as I figured that I would need a lot of manpower (who am I kidding; womanpower--we all know that the men will sit around being lazy, if they are allowed to do so) in order to get up some early Cottages, with the hope of compensating for my missing Gold.

I then made my first Settler, with the hopes of settling near a happiness resource or near some Horses (having both would be ideal).

Early Exploration:
I found Roosevelt on the second turn of the game. Within a few more turns, I'd found Mansa and Gandhi had found me.

It took a while, but my Scout finally found Gandhi's homelands, only to die to a Lion just outside of the Indian capital's cultural borders.

My first Warrior played conservatively, fearing a Barbarian-sacking of our capital, so he was only able to spot the Banana resource and Fish resource, but not the resource-cache in the South East, by the time that our first Settler was ready.

Mansa and Roosevelt had quickly expanded to the North West of my capital, before I could even get a Settler out. Thus, once my second city was settled, there really was only fog left to bust in the South East, so my Warrior headed that way.

My Warrior had an upcoming fight with a Barbarian Warrior and I quickly switched to building a second Warrior in my capital, in case I lost the fight, but this time the Forest worked in my favour. Specifically, the earlier Lion attack had kill my Scout from across a River and into a Forest--I guess the Lion knew the forests a little better than the Barb Warrior did. I switched back to whatever I was building at the time, probably a Granary, but I finished the second Warrior just after that build, so that I'd have some military police and a minimal deterrent to an early AI attack.

Once my first Warrior found that the coastline appeared faster than I'd hoped, he parked himself on a Grassland Hills square, essentially fog-busting the entire area, until my second Settler could arrive and found City #3.

High-level Builds:
I tried to build Granaries, Barracks, and Libraries in each of my 3 cities. I also built Lighthouses in the two coastal cities. I stuck with 3 cities for quite a long time, up until 200 AD.

After completing these buildings, I whipped military units (Immortals) as often as I could. Boy, did that lack of one happiness resource (such as a Gold resource) ever hurt--I had to keep the cities at an extremely small size.

Once I got Iron Working and found Iron, I also began whipping Axemen. I felt that although Swordsmen would have been nice, I was short on production, so I settled for Axemen. If I faced Archers, I'd lose out a bit, but not too badly, perhaps needing a couple of more suicidal units, but since the units cost less production, it could all balance out. If, on the other hand, I faced Axemen, Spearmen, and Swordsmen, then the Axemen would be a favourite to attacking than would be a Swordsman.

I also built a couple of Spearmen, but I don't think that any of them actually fought in a battle.

I also made several Catapults and a War Elephant or two, before I felt ready to attack anyone.

By the time that my army was ready to attack anyone, I was shelling out more than 25 Gold per turn in army support costs, which obviously put a large dent in my economy. Just think--some players talk about micromanaging the Commerce squares that your citizens work just to squeeze an extra Science beaker out of your Library in the odd city each turn, but I was essentially throwing away a raw potential of 25 beakers a turn. It's hard to really compare, isn't it?

Politics:
I sucked up to everyone.

They all played really nicely with each other, as well.

By the time that I found Hatshepsut with a Galley, she had already met Gandhi and Roosevelt. Of course, they'd all traded with each other, rather than waiting for me to show up on the scene. So much for a trading opportunity for me.

As I mentioned, I researched Metal Casting for trading purposes, but I was only able to trade it to one or two AI, as their research pace was so fast that most of them beat me to it.

After that point, the AI were trading so heavily with each other that I was quickly left in the dust. For quite some time, each of Gandhi, Mansa, and Hatshepsut had so many techs ahead of me that there was a scrollbar on my Advisor screen for each of them, in the spot where the techs that they know which I do not know are displayed.

Wars:
No wars occurred, for quite some time. I was the first to declare a war, deciding to go after Roosevelt once I felt that my army was ready.

At the time, I faced Longbows, Longbows, and nothing but Longbows. Only one Catapult showed up from Roosevelt, as I'd held off on trading him Construction until just prior to starting the war.

He had only two cities at the time (actually, he had three, but one was from me, as you'll read below). I declared war in 325 AD (Turn 128 out of 460 turns) and had captured both cities by 450 AD (Turn 133). I was able to easily take both down with a mixture of Catapults, Immortals, Axemen, and perhaps 1 War Elephant.

Le Coup de Grâce:
Here's where inspiration hit me. Roosevelt only had 2 cities, while the other AI were too large and too advanced for me to effectively take on immediately. Yet, since I'd been nice to Roosevelt, he'd probably give me a tech for peace and he would likely still trade with me after a war.

The trouble was that I wanted both of his cities.

So here's what I did: I scoured the map for a new city location that was as close to his borders as possible and would not take up a crucial resource. I planned to gift him this city, allowing him to survive after I took his original two cities. I saw three locations which were candidates:
1. On the Desert, next to the Ivory
2. On the Banana, West of my Horse city and South East of one of Mansa's cities
3. On or beside the Sugar, South of my Horse city and North of my Sheep and Iron city

Option 1 would be terrible if Roosevelt's culture gave him the Ivory, so I scratched that possibility off of the list.

Option 2 would mean that his city would grow rather quickly, as the Banana would mean that he'd have 3 Food in his starting square. Still, I was hurting more for Happiness Resources than I was for Health resources, so the loss of a Health resource was an acceptable short term and medium term trade-off. Plus, there would be the chance of close borders of either his or Mansa's sparking tensions with each other.

Option 3 would be okay, but it would mean having an enemy city in the heart of my empire, meaning that I'd probably need to waste hammers and commerce on keeping my rear cities better defended. It would also use up a valuable Happiness resource.

I went with Option 2 and settled on the Banana, in 200 AD (Turn 123). I was even able to whip an Immortal out of the city, thanks to sharing the Rice from the capital. Right before declaring war, I gifted the city to Roosevelt.

What an awesome move! If I were to be successful in my conquests of his two original cities, I could keep cultural pressure on his new city, keep him alive, get a tech for peace, and then still be able to tech trade with him!

Roosevelt didn't get any free units in the city when I gifted it to him, unlike how you get a free unit or two if you culturally convert a city, so he ended up diverting a few units (Longbowmen) to try and defend the city.

I ended up having to meet his 6-hitpoint Longbows in the open, which, considering that my army was mostly 4-hitpoint Immortals and 5-hitpoint Axemen and Catapults, would normally have been a very bad thing. I'd normally rather meet those units in his cities, after my Catapults have pummelled them for a few turns. However, here's where the Immortals truly shine. Consider that an Immortal gains a 50% bonus against Archery units and comes with a 30% retreat bonus against any unit. Thus, an Immortal also fights at strength 6 against a strength 6 Longbowman. I could then throw on a Retreat promotion and have a really good chance of winning or retreating from an even fight, as long as I fought on open ground. I sometimes lost these battles, but I comforted myself with the facts that:

a) I could get the kill with my second attacker and use his 2nd movement point to get him out of harm's way, essentially gaining a free second promotion for a Barracks-created unit with 4/5 experience

b) My Immortals were cheaper to produce than Roosevelt's Longbowmen

You have to be careful with using point b) as a decision factor, as we're facing more than 1 AI, so you can't pit your Hammers 1-for-1 against all of them. Further, at Immortal difficulty level, they often have bigger cities with more Hammer squares being worked and have more production bonuses, meaning that they may still take less time to produce a higher-costing unit than you take to make your cheaper one. Further, if they get a higher tech level, their cost to upgrade their units is so ridiculously small that they essentially gain a ton of "free hammers" by investing a very small amount of Gold to upgrade their ancient armies. Still, it's a fun way to think about such a battle when the scale of the losses is small enough.

Other comments:
Very rarely, a religion spread to me. By 500 AD, my capital, for example, still didn't have a religion. Considering that the last religion to be founded, Islam, was founded in 400 AD (Turn 131), it's a bit hard to believe that my capital avoided religions for so long.

In most games, I find that my capital often gets a religion quickly, either from another Civ or from another city of mine, likely due to the fact that it usually has a lot of trade routes going to it.

As multiple AI had researched Writing early, it is likely that my other cities did not have a trade route with my capital.

Perhaps, also, having a heavily whipped capital, along with the AIs having Open Borders with each other, kept my capital from being a highly-favoured trading partner of foreign cities.

I'm not certain how much influence trade routes have on religions spreading, but from anecdotal evidence, the impact is very large (only for the first religion in a city, of course, as further religions in a city must be manually spread by Missionaries).

I did eventually whip Temples, thinking that the whipping unhappiness would be equalized for 10 turns by the Temple's +1 to happiness. After the unhappiness wore off 10 turns later, a Temple would give me the chance to grow the city one population point larger, or at least to whip a little bit sooner for my next whipping.

I had very few Happiness resources available to me. I was limited to Ivory and whatever the AIs would trade to me, due to them being able to research Calendar near the end of the BCs, while I still didn't have it at 500 AD.

Thus, interestingly, I built Colosseums in each of my 3 cities, which is a building that I normally only obtain via conquest. With the Cultural Trait making them half price, they were actually cheaper to build than Temples, so I eventually made up for the lack of Gold happiness compared to any of you that didn't bother with these buildings. Of course, as soon as any of you build your Forges, I once again relatively lose out on a happiness point from the missing Gold (since a Forge gives an extra happiness point for having Gold), but I'm confident that I'll somehow overcome this additional challenge.

I had a lot of Cottages, but not much chance to work them. I had to keep my cities small, due to a lack of happiness and health, while the constant whipping that I used to keep the cities small meant that I had to keep them even smaller. Still, it was a focus on early cottages that kept me in the game.

Finally, due to my whipping, I didn't put my focus on Great People. I used Scientists occaisionally, in order to temporarily prevent growth beyond happiness limits, but at the 500 AD mark, I had yet to obtain a single Great Person.

Post-500-AD Plans:
- Build up an even larger army
- Go after Mansa Musa
- Depending upon the tech level at the time, either go after Gandhi or else lay off of the military production and focus on building infrastructure and the Epics (Heroic and National)
- Keep researching outdated techs that Roosevelt doesn't know so that I can trade for techs like Feudalism from him
- Hopefully, somehow, take down Mansa before he techs to Gunpowder units, reduce him to one city, and also try to trade with him, if I am ever able to research a tech that he doesn't already know

 

[LotusDagger]

I settled on the spot. Plan to use the gold for the second city. Built a worker first and research toward animal husbandry. MM put Djenne NW to my capitol with gold, rice, two dyes, sugar, and banana within its BFC. It is pretty clear who the target will be. Once settler completed, I found Pasargadae right on top of horse and began to train immortals. Susa was founded later south to the capital with multiple food resources.

I DOWed on MM in 2120BC with 2 immortals. Destroyed a skirmisher and capture a worker in the open field. Captured Djenne in 2080BC and Kumbi Saleh in 1560BC. I tried Timbuktu. With 40% cultural defense, the skirmisher is too tough for immortal. After a few casualties (which actually helps my economy), I pulled back and signed peace.

I researched alphabet, and traded some tech. At this time, I noticed Gandhi is doing pretty well but only defend his city with archers. I promptly DOWed on him with seven immortals, trying to weaken him. Captured Bombay at 900BC and Madras at 825BC. I signed peace after that. City maintenance so far away is a disaster. Bombay's food resource (pig, wheat) was engulfed by India culture so I gave it to Roosevelt to reduce the city maintenance and boost some relationship. I kept Madras, which is holy city of Jewish and had fish and clam in BFC.

I kept an immortal watching closely on Roosevelt. At the moment he connected his copper mine, I DOWed on him with 6 immortals. I razed Boston and replaced it with my fourth one, which can use the FP from the capital for growth and has ivory in its BFC. New York was captured in 400BC. Washington was Hindu holy city with the shrine. But it is too tough with 60% cultural defense for immortals. So I signed peace.

The economy is crashing, only positive at 10% slider. Nonetheless, the loot money helped me to do the research and the calendar resource began to come online. I did not have enough mature cottages, so I decided to run the SE. I switched to Caste system and began to hire scientists in Susa, Pasargadae and Madras. All three cities can support 4 to 5 scientists by working the food resources. During this time, Buddhism spread to me and MM. Both of us converted. This put the relationship with Gandhi and MM to pleased and allowed me for further tech trading. Although Gandhi began to run away with tech, I was not too hopeless. I was really surprised that the Pyramid was only built in 250AD by Egypt. I guess I should have tried.

On 100BC, I DOWed on MM again. It is a major mistake. I thought he didn’t have metal, which is wrong. MM’s skirmishers and axemans within the fortress of Timbuktu stopped my aggression. It is a standoff and I signed peace on 250AD. Once peace with MM, I DOWed on Roosevelt immediately. He already had longbows, so the war dragged on. I really should go to Roosevelt when he only has archers. Anyway, I captured Washington in 450AD and Bombay in 640AD. I had a big surprise when I found Parthenon in Bombay. , Roosy! Gifting him Bombay (with marble within its BFC) really paid off nicely. It was actually built on 25AD. The other two cities of America are too crappy, so I signed peace.

 

[Lexad]

Settled captal maximising horse-probable tiles in 3rd radius of the city - herefore 2N with 15 tiles, it paid off.
Techs: Mining, AH, BW,Pottery, Writing, Alpha. Traded and researched and forced out from AI Masonry, Math, Myst, Medit, Poly, Phood, Calendar and maybe something else.
First war with Roosevelt - stolen a worker; my first immorta came online the same turn Roosevelt's archer stepped next to my only city. Captured all Roosevelt's cities and with promoted Immortas attacked Musa's capital, then his norhern city, destroyed city on spices and dyes and captured one to the south of Persepolis on sheep. Left with 1 city.

Next was Gandhi - captured al his cities except 1 fairly easy; through all 3 campaigns faced only 3 chariots and 1 axe beside archers, quickly destroyed metals and horses. Researched Construction and shut down research as I was running negative GDP.

Met Hatty, built some galleys and attacked her as I calculated home region would not be enough for Domination. Got a bit carried away - could've finihed faster. Pushed hatty all the way to Thebes with immortals and pults, Domination in 175AD, 170K score. The scoring system definitely does not favour early finishes.

 

[Harbourboy]

I would be pretty happy with that result, Lexad! I wish I could even get any sort of win in these GOTMs. I think I have still only ever got a victory condition in one so far.