Harbourboy
Deity
By 500 AD I had eliminated Alexander and had 6 cities. Interesting game so far. GOTM is so different from HoF that it takes a while to get into the right frame of mind.
GOTM 21 - First Spoiler
- Thread starter ainwood
- Start date
Munro
Deity
Fun game. Settled in place and focused on a War Chariot rush from the very beginning, converting captured cities into either unit-producing or cottage-spamming cities.
By 25AD
- Ghandi, Alex, Toka have been eliminated (kept 4 cities)
- Julius and Izzie are down to 1 city (kept 2)
- Bismark is pillaged back to the stone age and too scared to come out of cities to rebuild anything
- Napolean and Izzie are relatively untouched.
The AI was a bit disappointing in this game. I didn't meet my first spear until 725BC - after already steamrolling Ghandi, Alex and Toka. Maybe I have been playing too much Warlords, where the AI seems to be geared better against agressive human tactics?
View attachment 158097
At 25AD, I've now tech'd construction for cats and war elephants, but am still using a lot of WCs because they are so cheap. The war continues...
View attachment 158098
By 25AD
- Ghandi, Alex, Toka have been eliminated (kept 4 cities)
- Julius and Izzie are down to 1 city (kept 2)
- Bismark is pillaged back to the stone age and too scared to come out of cities to rebuild anything
- Napolean and Izzie are relatively untouched.
The AI was a bit disappointing in this game. I didn't meet my first spear until 725BC - after already steamrolling Ghandi, Alex and Toka. Maybe I have been playing too much Warlords, where the AI seems to be geared better against agressive human tactics?
View attachment 158097
At 25AD, I've now tech'd construction for cats and war elephants, but am still using a lot of WCs because they are so cheap. The war continues...
View attachment 158098
Harbourboy
Deity
Wow, great campaign, Munro. I had only eliminated one civ by that date, but you've done three! Although my economy is in slightly better shape than yours (I am running at 80% science), it doesn't look like you need an economy at all to take over the world.
That's hilarious.
There doesn't seem to have been much action in this game from people. Is that because everybody else has Beyond the Sword and is playing with that instead?
That's hilarious.
There doesn't seem to have been much action in this game from people. Is that because everybody else has Beyond the Sword and is playing with that instead?
Munro
Deity
Thanks!!
Just reached 500AD and have now captured Bismark's capital as well (nice location) and razed another german city near the french border. Bismark gave me Polytheism, Monarchy and Calendar for 10 turns of peace. Lizzy just gave me Metal Working for the same thing a couple of turns earlier. Who needs
?? Though I have been running about -40 
since BC times (and that's even with 100% gold... 
)Napolean is in some trouble now. I declared on him to steal one of his workers and he just sent a stack of swords, axes and chariots. They died.
Bismark is down to 2 desert cities (with no metal) and I just finished building a galley in my barb city NW of Thebes to land a backdoor stack of cats and swords.
This should be over soon...
Well, this one seemed to go very well for me.
About the 4th GoTM I've started, and it will probably be my 2nd submission.
I started with the contender save and started out 1S with AH and Worker to hook up those nice resources. I bumped into Gandhi on turn 3, and Alex not long after that.
I nearly fell off my chair when I saw horses next to my city, so started on a war chariot. Once I got Bronze Working and found the copper, I figured I'd put the 2nd city near there.
As I was exploring, I figured where Delhi was, and saw copper close to it. Gandhi had also put a 2nd city close to the copper near me, and his worker was busy roading the place up. So, I figured it's time to see what this war chariot rush is all about. I wanted to get Gandhi out of the way before he hooked up his copper.
In 1920BC, I declared on Gandhi, grabbing a worker, and getting his 3rd settler party out in the open. Delhi fell in 1880BC and Bonbay in 1760. That was Gandhi gone.
So, with some free workers I started roading everything up and sending my chariots towards Alex. He seemed to be without copper too.
So, at 1000BC, I DoW on Alex. Athens falls in 850BC and and Sparta in 700.
We could have finished it there, but I waited 3 turns for writing to finish, and then got some techs for 10 turns more life for Alex.
While I was waiting to finish Alex off, I explored England. It turns out Liz had a worker building a coper mine right then !! She had expanded allong the south side of the large inland sea, so I spread my chariots just outside of the borders, and captured two workers on the first turn of War (475BC)
It took a few more turns to get all the toops in position, but we filled the time taking out some roads, horses, and the off archer who came out of the cities to try to cause us trouble.
We razed all the english cities except London, and I probably lost a wonder or two there :-(. London fell at 125BC, and by 75BC the English were no more.
We also redeclared on Alex during this war when he sent another settler out and finished him off at 100BC.
Next there was a spell of rebuilding my economy which was still loosing money at 0%. War spoils keeps me going until I got Currency, and I was chopping courts in the new acquisitions as fast as my workers could. Two courts produced a saving of 15gpt, so I really need to work on the economy a while. It looks like my chariots are about done for now anyway.
Nappy is next in line, and he has spearmen about now, so it's time to build a small navy and see what Julius, Isabell and Tokugawa have been doing. Julius and Izzy are having a love-in and Tokugawa has got pissed with them and attached them. So, hopefully we'll be able to pick some more cities off there.
So, at 150AD, I've got 7 cities, and at 1183 points. Nappy is 2nd with 703.
View attachment 158138
About the 4th GoTM I've started, and it will probably be my 2nd submission.
I started with the contender save and started out 1S with AH and Worker to hook up those nice resources. I bumped into Gandhi on turn 3, and Alex not long after that.
I nearly fell off my chair when I saw horses next to my city, so started on a war chariot. Once I got Bronze Working and found the copper, I figured I'd put the 2nd city near there.
As I was exploring, I figured where Delhi was, and saw copper close to it. Gandhi had also put a 2nd city close to the copper near me, and his worker was busy roading the place up. So, I figured it's time to see what this war chariot rush is all about. I wanted to get Gandhi out of the way before he hooked up his copper.
In 1920BC, I declared on Gandhi, grabbing a worker, and getting his 3rd settler party out in the open. Delhi fell in 1880BC and Bonbay in 1760. That was Gandhi gone.
So, with some free workers I started roading everything up and sending my chariots towards Alex. He seemed to be without copper too.
So, at 1000BC, I DoW on Alex. Athens falls in 850BC and and Sparta in 700.
We could have finished it there, but I waited 3 turns for writing to finish, and then got some techs for 10 turns more life for Alex.
While I was waiting to finish Alex off, I explored England. It turns out Liz had a worker building a coper mine right then !! She had expanded allong the south side of the large inland sea, so I spread my chariots just outside of the borders, and captured two workers on the first turn of War (475BC)
It took a few more turns to get all the toops in position, but we filled the time taking out some roads, horses, and the off archer who came out of the cities to try to cause us trouble.
We razed all the english cities except London, and I probably lost a wonder or two there :-(. London fell at 125BC, and by 75BC the English were no more.
We also redeclared on Alex during this war when he sent another settler out and finished him off at 100BC.
Next there was a spell of rebuilding my economy which was still loosing money at 0%. War spoils keeps me going until I got Currency, and I was chopping courts in the new acquisitions as fast as my workers could. Two courts produced a saving of 15gpt, so I really need to work on the economy a while. It looks like my chariots are about done for now anyway.
Nappy is next in line, and he has spearmen about now, so it's time to build a small navy and see what Julius, Isabell and Tokugawa have been doing. Julius and Izzy are having a love-in and Tokugawa has got pissed with them and attached them. So, hopefully we'll be able to pick some more cities off there.
So, at 150AD, I've got 7 cities, and at 1183 points. Nappy is 2nd with 703.
View attachment 158138
It looks like I've taken things slower than most.
I settled in place and decided I'd probably go for three cities, one more to the East where the stone is and one to the West with the gold and wine. But by the time I settled West, which seemed like a better spot to grow from, India had settled East. With my capital churning out a WC every two turns I began to pile a bit of an army in my capital while barbarians flooded in from the North to add some experience to my units. In the meantime I met all other civs.
Taking out India was quick and painless. I think I lost just a few units. I razed Madras but kept Delhi and Bombay. Then my economy started to suffer. I built the Colossus in Delhi to boost commerce and built another city up North to get the silver, deer and fur. Swapping a few techs made me by far the most advanced and by score I'm well ahead too.
I have no access to the water so conquest is going to be painfilly slow. Therefore I think I'm going to take out Greece and leave it at that and see if I can win the space-race. Having Monarchy makes it easy to keep cities happy with all the War Chariots and there's plenty of health bonuses to grow each city to at least 12. I'll try to avoid Astronomy as long as possible to get the best use out of the Colossus. By 500 AD I start to have a nice army of catapults and War Elephants. When I conquer Greece I think it's a nice choke-point to keep the other civs at bay. England is the strongest competitor so it may depend a bit on how it develops. I have a Great Engineer but haven't decided yet what to use him for. Angkor Kwat and Notre Dame are a little away still and either seem like a good possibility to catapult ahead a bit more. Or I could go for immediate gratification and build Hanging Gardens and grow even more right now. My indecisiveness may cost a bit here.
One note: I couldn't find the required MOD for Mac. Does it exist? I played with the previous one, no idea if that has any effect.
I settled in place and decided I'd probably go for three cities, one more to the East where the stone is and one to the West with the gold and wine. But by the time I settled West, which seemed like a better spot to grow from, India had settled East. With my capital churning out a WC every two turns I began to pile a bit of an army in my capital while barbarians flooded in from the North to add some experience to my units. In the meantime I met all other civs.
Taking out India was quick and painless. I think I lost just a few units. I razed Madras but kept Delhi and Bombay. Then my economy started to suffer. I built the Colossus in Delhi to boost commerce and built another city up North to get the silver, deer and fur. Swapping a few techs made me by far the most advanced and by score I'm well ahead too.
I have no access to the water so conquest is going to be painfilly slow. Therefore I think I'm going to take out Greece and leave it at that and see if I can win the space-race. Having Monarchy makes it easy to keep cities happy with all the War Chariots and there's plenty of health bonuses to grow each city to at least 12. I'll try to avoid Astronomy as long as possible to get the best use out of the Colossus. By 500 AD I start to have a nice army of catapults and War Elephants. When I conquer Greece I think it's a nice choke-point to keep the other civs at bay. England is the strongest competitor so it may depend a bit on how it develops. I have a Great Engineer but haven't decided yet what to use him for. Angkor Kwat and Notre Dame are a little away still and either seem like a good possibility to catapult ahead a bit more. Or I could go for immediate gratification and build Hanging Gardens and grow even more right now. My indecisiveness may cost a bit here.
One note: I couldn't find the required MOD for Mac. Does it exist? I played with the previous one, no idea if that has any effect.
Seems I'm a bit rusty on vanilla...
Didn't take much notes so cannot tell exactly what is before and after 500AD, so i'll stick with just a few "sure" things.
There was stone around, and hatty is spirutual. This means pyramids to me.
So a stone city got founded and pyramids built in the capital.
After that was done, I switched to police state and churned out a few war chariots. they trained on the field vs the raging barbs. The map was too small for them to be really raging, and when I was ready to move on, 1 sentry chariot and 2 warriors fogbusted the north totally. Never saw another barb.
Then I finally got me a third city. Nice name, but not really egyptian. Delhi came to me as holy hindu city but rather small and without infra. The workers were a nice addition to my rather small task force, though.
Took peace with Gandhi for monarchy. Probably was a mistake to do so, since I really didn't need that tech, and had to go further to continue war.
Well, what's done is done.
Since I had missed stonehenge in my stone city, I had enough money to continue fighting, so I did. My 4th city had a greek name.
I cannot understand why Alex built axemen instead of his UU, but I don't care. Athens is a nice city.
I also used a few chariots to get rid of a japanese city which was in the middle of my land.
I used a GE to rush the great library in the meantime and switched to representation. Cannot say when this happened. Probably before hitting Alex.
I also sued for peace with Alex when all he had left was in the remote south.
Didn't take much notes so cannot tell exactly what is before and after 500AD, so i'll stick with just a few "sure" things.
There was stone around, and hatty is spirutual. This means pyramids to me.
So a stone city got founded and pyramids built in the capital.
After that was done, I switched to police state and churned out a few war chariots. they trained on the field vs the raging barbs. The map was too small for them to be really raging, and when I was ready to move on, 1 sentry chariot and 2 warriors fogbusted the north totally. Never saw another barb.
Then I finally got me a third city. Nice name, but not really egyptian. Delhi came to me as holy hindu city but rather small and without infra. The workers were a nice addition to my rather small task force, though.
Took peace with Gandhi for monarchy. Probably was a mistake to do so, since I really didn't need that tech, and had to go further to continue war.
Well, what's done is done.
Since I had missed stonehenge in my stone city, I had enough money to continue fighting, so I did. My 4th city had a greek name.
I cannot understand why Alex built axemen instead of his UU, but I don't care. Athens is a nice city
.I also used a few chariots to get rid of a japanese city which was in the middle of my land.
I used a GE to rush the great library in the meantime and switched to representation. Cannot say when this happened. Probably before hitting Alex.
I also sued for peace with Alex when all he had left was in the remote south.
JackOfClubs
Warlord
4000 BC: Moved warrior SE. Nothing interesting is revealed so I found in place, discovering the Corn 2S1W and 3S1W. So it might have been worthwhile moving the settler S, but that would have sacrificed a turn. No big deal. Building Worker. Researching Mining -> Bronze -> Animal Husbandry. (Bronze comes first so I can chop the settler.)
3860 - 3600 BC: Exploring to the E, I find Pigs, Wine, Gold and a lone Corn surrounded by tundra. Odd; I smell world-builder here. There is no good way to get all 4 resources in a single fat x without also including lots of mountains and tundra. If horses don't turn up elsewhere, I might position city #2 to capture the wine, gold and pigs.
3600 BC: Met Alex's scout to the NE. This place seems somewhat deserted compared to the test games I've played. Are those mountains blocking off the competition?
3520 BC: The Worker completes and I start on a Warrior. Normally I would go directly for a Settler, but with raging barbs, I will need protection. Also, this will allow both BW and AH to finish, giving a better idea of where to settle. Worker sent to farm the Corn then mine the Gold.
3480 BC: Warrior kills a wolf NE of Thebes. Sent to heal in the NE hills.
3280 BC: Gandhi's warrior appears to the S. Next turn BW is finished. No copper in the visible neighborhood. Haven't found any huts either.
3120 BC: Exploring with both Warriors, I find copper to the SW, just outside Gandhi's borders. Worker completes the mine, dropping research on AH from 9 down to 5 turns. Begin chopping, but it might not make a difference.
2960 BC: Liz appears in the SE. AH due in one turn, as is the chop.
2920 BC: Oh my! Horses right next to my capital! This is too good to be true. OK, that means that the settler is going down to take the copper. Most likely spot is the grassland 4S3W which will also take in the extra Corn and the Ivory. This allows lots of flat grassland for cottages and puts pressure on Gandhi's border. He is Spiritual/Industrious so I should be able to win the Culture war, unless he starts building lots of wonders. On the other hand, it might be worthwhile to go 4S2W and eliminate the wasted coastal square at the cost of some overlap with Thebes. I still have 2 turns to decide so I will move the SW warrior to the E to see what is hiding in the fog. Human barbs are due in 5-10 turns, though, so I will start moving the SE warrior back home. Pasture due in 4 turns and War Chariot 5 after that, so I could almost risk leaving Thebes defended and getting a little more early reconnaissance done, but I don't want trouble.
2880 BC: OK, it looks like 4S2W is the better deal. I didn't realize earlier that that coast was saltwater. Moving 1 square E gives me 3 freshwater grass at the expense of 1 grass hill (and the overlap). That's a great trade considering that I would have wasted 1 tile anyway on the coast. This allows me to possibly make extra farms or water mills later and I can swap the 2nd Corn when Thebes is not working it. Flexibility, that's what I'm talking about. Also it allows me to automatically clear a jungle on settling, and I can settle 1 turn earlier. The downside is the Copper will require a border pop, but that will give me time to connect the cities and farm that Corn.
2760 BC: Another downside is that Gandhi can send a Settler, guarded by an Archer to that region and get the Copper first! Grr. He is still within his borders but will probably settle on the coast in 2 or 3 turns. Well, at least he can't settle on the Copper itself so we will just have to fight for it. And I will have horses soon so it just might be his destiny to build mine for me. An early war with Gandhi won't keep me up at night, you know...?
2720 BC: Hmmm. Gandhi's settler turns aside at the border and heads E across his lands. The AI must have figured that there was no good spot to settle over there and recalculated. I've never seen that happen before. Well, as long as he doesn't try settling on the Gold/Wine/Pig spot that I have selected for my 3rd city, we can avoid war for a couple of centuries. I would really rather kill Alex first, (wherever he happens to be).
2560 BC: Gandhi's settler disappears to the SE of Memphis. I had thought he would go for the Dye but he must have seen something better down there. The border pops, revealing my first human barb. Will he come for me or go after Gandhi?
2000 BC: Woohoo! The barbarians are pouring in and virtually diving under the wheels of my chariots. A couple of times I was able to position for a double play: landing next to a barb who attacked at the beginning of the next turn then riding down another on the same turn. Can't remember when I've had such a good time this early in the game. Nappy appears across the channel to the SW as does a Stone resource that I somehow missed when exploring that region. (I think my warrior got bit by a lion and I had to run back inside my borders to heal.) Ah, well, it’s probably too late to try to go for Pyramids this game. I have a Settler due in Thebes in 4 turns, but I've pretty much decided to go for the Pigs/Gold/Wine/Rice site 1S5E. It's a better site than anything near the stone and Alex is down there and I want to stop him from expanding into my turf. Maybe city number 4 can grab the stone for Hanging Gardens. Alphabet due in 4 turns.
1760 BC: Heliopolis founded near at Pig/Rice etc. The city radius allows me to meet Julius across the mountains. Hmm. You know, looking at this geography, it occurs to me that if I'm not careful I might find myself isolated. I can't currently reach Julius by land due to mountains and settling where I did, I can't build a port either. If there isn't a southern passage, this might be a bit of a problem. I'd better get some more exploring done before I settle any more cities. Nappy is currently unreachable as well, but I can still make a port city in the W near the stone. This is a very strange Lakes map! I haven't got any religion yet (actually none of my neighbors do) but I am beginning to see some evidence of intelligent design...
1720 BC: Ah, wait. There is a roman archer SW of Heliopolis. So there must be a way to get around those mountains. Still, I need to get more intel on the lay of the land. Troops building nicely for a war with Alex in a couple hundred years or so. As soon as I can get some fog busting warriors up North to prevent surprise attacks from that direction. Alphabet is in but no one I know has anything I particularly want to trade (Alex has Masonry, but he won't trade with me.) Alex, Nappy and Julius are all annoyed; Gandhi and Liz are cautious. Those two are pleased with each other so they are probably the faction I need to join, despite my close borders with Gandhi. No one is pleased with Alex so that's all good.
1400 BC: Bismarck’s scout appears in India. He is Jewish, but he didn't found it. He trades Masonry for Writing and our relations go instantly from cautious to pleased. +4 on fair trade relations? Wow. Alex and Julius have gone from annoyed to cautious for some reason and I am able to trade AH for Archery with Julius. Nappy is still annoyed because I wouldn't give him tribute but he can't get to me across the mountains and he doesn't have open borders with India or Greece. Iron Working comes in next turn.
1360 BC: Hmph. Iron over by the stone and up by the NE mountain range. I kind of figured something was up there since that tundra Corn looked kind of odd. Not really interested in Iron at the moment, just wanted IW to clear some of the jungle by Memphis. Throwing some Scouts at the frozen north so I can bring my fog-busting Chariots home. Barb archers are starting to make an appearance, so this is now a more serious threat.
1000 BC: All my chariots are on the way to Heliopolis. I am first or second on all the graphs. Pigs on line and Rice on the way. Bismarck traded me my extra Corn for Gems! I still need to find out more about Alex's territory before I commit to war. He is willing to go for Open Borders so that is obviously the next step. Mathematics in 4, but my tech rate is down to 60%. Cottages coming on line in Memphis as I slowly clear away the jungle.
775 BC: Scoped out Alex's territory. He has no metals except one iron source in the snow far to the south which he has not yet developed. He does have horses, though and ivory, but without Construction they are no threat. His entire army consists of about 10 archers in 4 cities. On the same turn, Tokugawa scout appeared south of Rome. He is in last place, of course, but oddly enough is the founder of Judaism.
725 BC: My scouting Chariot in Gandhi's territory confirms my earlier suspicion that there is no land route to the W. I will have to decide whether it is worth it to make a coastal city by the stone. There is really no good spot for it.
550 BC: DoW on Alex just as my first catapult comes on line. Sparta captured next turn without cats; no need as it is defended by 2 archers and only has 20% defense. Teching to Code of Laws to offset the maintenance expenses. Alex only has 4 cities. I will probably leave him with Corinth so that I can extort some techs from him. Corinth is too unprofitable to capture but I did leave my exploring Chariot down there to take out his Worker which is starting to mine the Iron.
350 BC: Founded Elephantine NE of the Stone by Nappy's border. I decided to try for the Pyramids even though it is late in the game.
275 BC: Athens falls. Would have been sooner, but I had to wait for the cats to catch up.
125 BC: Thermopylae captured. I sue for peace, taking Sailing, Polytheism and Monarchy as tribute. Alex actually founded Delphi while I wasn't looking so he has 2 cities. I could take either or both easily but I am starting to get hit by war weariness.
25 BC: Alex demands that I cancel trade with Gandhi! What an idiot.
1 AD: Nappy declares war on me! His stack of doom seems to consist of 2 archers and a chariot. He may have more up in Roman territory, but he is a long way from home and is totally outgunned. What's up with this aggressive AI? Has the testosterone gone to their brains? Gandhi gets the pyramids between turns. I had 2 turns to go.
175 AD: I finally meet the 9th civ. It's Bella, and of course, she is annoyed with me. She has no techs that I don't know and no resources to trade. Being with you girl, is like being alone. She founded Buddhism, and spread it to Nappy.
3860 - 3600 BC: Exploring to the E, I find Pigs, Wine, Gold and a lone Corn surrounded by tundra. Odd; I smell world-builder here. There is no good way to get all 4 resources in a single fat x without also including lots of mountains and tundra. If horses don't turn up elsewhere, I might position city #2 to capture the wine, gold and pigs.
3600 BC: Met Alex's scout to the NE. This place seems somewhat deserted compared to the test games I've played. Are those mountains blocking off the competition?
3520 BC: The Worker completes and I start on a Warrior. Normally I would go directly for a Settler, but with raging barbs, I will need protection. Also, this will allow both BW and AH to finish, giving a better idea of where to settle. Worker sent to farm the Corn then mine the Gold.
3480 BC: Warrior kills a wolf NE of Thebes. Sent to heal in the NE hills.
3280 BC: Gandhi's warrior appears to the S. Next turn BW is finished. No copper in the visible neighborhood. Haven't found any huts either.
3120 BC: Exploring with both Warriors, I find copper to the SW, just outside Gandhi's borders. Worker completes the mine, dropping research on AH from 9 down to 5 turns. Begin chopping, but it might not make a difference.
2960 BC: Liz appears in the SE. AH due in one turn, as is the chop.
2920 BC: Oh my! Horses right next to my capital! This is too good to be true. OK, that means that the settler is going down to take the copper. Most likely spot is the grassland 4S3W which will also take in the extra Corn and the Ivory. This allows lots of flat grassland for cottages and puts pressure on Gandhi's border. He is Spiritual/Industrious so I should be able to win the Culture war, unless he starts building lots of wonders. On the other hand, it might be worthwhile to go 4S2W and eliminate the wasted coastal square at the cost of some overlap with Thebes. I still have 2 turns to decide so I will move the SW warrior to the E to see what is hiding in the fog. Human barbs are due in 5-10 turns, though, so I will start moving the SE warrior back home. Pasture due in 4 turns and War Chariot 5 after that, so I could almost risk leaving Thebes defended and getting a little more early reconnaissance done, but I don't want trouble.
2880 BC: OK, it looks like 4S2W is the better deal. I didn't realize earlier that that coast was saltwater. Moving 1 square E gives me 3 freshwater grass at the expense of 1 grass hill (and the overlap). That's a great trade considering that I would have wasted 1 tile anyway on the coast. This allows me to possibly make extra farms or water mills later and I can swap the 2nd Corn when Thebes is not working it. Flexibility, that's what I'm talking about. Also it allows me to automatically clear a jungle on settling, and I can settle 1 turn earlier. The downside is the Copper will require a border pop, but that will give me time to connect the cities and farm that Corn.
2760 BC: Another downside is that Gandhi can send a Settler, guarded by an Archer to that region and get the Copper first! Grr. He is still within his borders but will probably settle on the coast in 2 or 3 turns. Well, at least he can't settle on the Copper itself so we will just have to fight for it. And I will have horses soon so it just might be his destiny to build mine for me. An early war with Gandhi won't keep me up at night, you know...?
2720 BC: Hmmm. Gandhi's settler turns aside at the border and heads E across his lands. The AI must have figured that there was no good spot to settle over there and recalculated. I've never seen that happen before. Well, as long as he doesn't try settling on the Gold/Wine/Pig spot that I have selected for my 3rd city, we can avoid war for a couple of centuries. I would really rather kill Alex first, (wherever he happens to be).
2560 BC: Gandhi's settler disappears to the SE of Memphis. I had thought he would go for the Dye but he must have seen something better down there. The border pops, revealing my first human barb. Will he come for me or go after Gandhi?
2000 BC: Woohoo! The barbarians are pouring in and virtually diving under the wheels of my chariots. A couple of times I was able to position for a double play: landing next to a barb who attacked at the beginning of the next turn then riding down another on the same turn. Can't remember when I've had such a good time this early in the game. Nappy appears across the channel to the SW as does a Stone resource that I somehow missed when exploring that region. (I think my warrior got bit by a lion and I had to run back inside my borders to heal.) Ah, well, it’s probably too late to try to go for Pyramids this game. I have a Settler due in Thebes in 4 turns, but I've pretty much decided to go for the Pigs/Gold/Wine/Rice site 1S5E. It's a better site than anything near the stone and Alex is down there and I want to stop him from expanding into my turf. Maybe city number 4 can grab the stone for Hanging Gardens. Alphabet due in 4 turns.
1760 BC: Heliopolis founded near at Pig/Rice etc. The city radius allows me to meet Julius across the mountains. Hmm. You know, looking at this geography, it occurs to me that if I'm not careful I might find myself isolated. I can't currently reach Julius by land due to mountains and settling where I did, I can't build a port either. If there isn't a southern passage, this might be a bit of a problem. I'd better get some more exploring done before I settle any more cities. Nappy is currently unreachable as well, but I can still make a port city in the W near the stone. This is a very strange Lakes map! I haven't got any religion yet (actually none of my neighbors do) but I am beginning to see some evidence of intelligent design...
1720 BC: Ah, wait. There is a roman archer SW of Heliopolis. So there must be a way to get around those mountains. Still, I need to get more intel on the lay of the land. Troops building nicely for a war with Alex in a couple hundred years or so. As soon as I can get some fog busting warriors up North to prevent surprise attacks from that direction. Alphabet is in but no one I know has anything I particularly want to trade (Alex has Masonry, but he won't trade with me.) Alex, Nappy and Julius are all annoyed; Gandhi and Liz are cautious. Those two are pleased with each other so they are probably the faction I need to join, despite my close borders with Gandhi. No one is pleased with Alex so that's all good.
1400 BC: Bismarck’s scout appears in India. He is Jewish, but he didn't found it. He trades Masonry for Writing and our relations go instantly from cautious to pleased. +4 on fair trade relations? Wow. Alex and Julius have gone from annoyed to cautious for some reason and I am able to trade AH for Archery with Julius. Nappy is still annoyed because I wouldn't give him tribute but he can't get to me across the mountains and he doesn't have open borders with India or Greece. Iron Working comes in next turn.
1360 BC: Hmph. Iron over by the stone and up by the NE mountain range. I kind of figured something was up there since that tundra Corn looked kind of odd. Not really interested in Iron at the moment, just wanted IW to clear some of the jungle by Memphis. Throwing some Scouts at the frozen north so I can bring my fog-busting Chariots home. Barb archers are starting to make an appearance, so this is now a more serious threat.
1000 BC: All my chariots are on the way to Heliopolis. I am first or second on all the graphs. Pigs on line and Rice on the way. Bismarck traded me my extra Corn for Gems! I still need to find out more about Alex's territory before I commit to war. He is willing to go for Open Borders so that is obviously the next step. Mathematics in 4, but my tech rate is down to 60%. Cottages coming on line in Memphis as I slowly clear away the jungle.
775 BC: Scoped out Alex's territory. He has no metals except one iron source in the snow far to the south which he has not yet developed. He does have horses, though and ivory, but without Construction they are no threat. His entire army consists of about 10 archers in 4 cities. On the same turn, Tokugawa scout appeared south of Rome. He is in last place, of course, but oddly enough is the founder of Judaism.
725 BC: My scouting Chariot in Gandhi's territory confirms my earlier suspicion that there is no land route to the W. I will have to decide whether it is worth it to make a coastal city by the stone. There is really no good spot for it.
550 BC: DoW on Alex just as my first catapult comes on line. Sparta captured next turn without cats; no need as it is defended by 2 archers and only has 20% defense. Teching to Code of Laws to offset the maintenance expenses. Alex only has 4 cities. I will probably leave him with Corinth so that I can extort some techs from him. Corinth is too unprofitable to capture but I did leave my exploring Chariot down there to take out his Worker which is starting to mine the Iron.
350 BC: Founded Elephantine NE of the Stone by Nappy's border. I decided to try for the Pyramids even though it is late in the game.
275 BC: Athens falls. Would have been sooner, but I had to wait for the cats to catch up.
125 BC: Thermopylae captured. I sue for peace, taking Sailing, Polytheism and Monarchy as tribute. Alex actually founded Delphi while I wasn't looking so he has 2 cities. I could take either or both easily but I am starting to get hit by war weariness.
25 BC: Alex demands that I cancel trade with Gandhi! What an idiot.
1 AD: Nappy declares war on me! His stack of doom seems to consist of 2 archers and a chariot. He may have more up in Roman territory, but he is a long way from home and is totally outgunned. What's up with this aggressive AI? Has the testosterone gone to their brains? Gandhi gets the pyramids between turns. I had 2 turns to go.
175 AD: I finally meet the 9th civ. It's Bella, and of course, she is annoyed with me. She has no techs that I don't know and no resources to trade. Being with you girl, is like being alone. She founded Buddhism, and spread it to Nappy.
* Thanks again for the great organization, I havn`t finished the game yet (played very badly) but am already looking forward to the next!
* It would be good to include in the heading of the first spoiler at which date we can open it, I waited 500 years too long just to make sure.
* What is this "can´t built ships with <20 water-tiles rule" good for? I think I`ll go for building a spaceship because of it, I cant be bothered moving all those units east now... Honestly, what is the rationale of this rule? Since when could people not cross an ocean/lake because it was too small ?!?! Things like that destroy my Civ-experience a bit because it feels so "wrong" that this small "lake" is stopping all units. Am I the only one who is annoyed by that?
Also, from a gameplay-mechanics point of view I think that while Civ is a great game it could have been even better if it was more transparent. For example by avoiding useless rules like that or by displaying the likeliness of a civ declaring war on you in the foreign advisor screen (that would be great and a lot less new players would be frustrated in their first games: "why did X attack me when he was "friendly" towards me?).
Sorry for getting slightly of topic but this has been on my mind for a while.
Cheers
* It would be good to include in the heading of the first spoiler at which date we can open it, I waited 500 years too long just to make sure
.* What is this "can´t built ships with <20 water-tiles rule" good for? I think I`ll go for building a spaceship because of it
, I cant be bothered moving all those units east now... Honestly, what is the rationale of this rule? Since when could people not cross an ocean/lake because it was too small ?!?! Things like that destroy my Civ-experience a bit because it feels so "wrong" that this small "lake" is stopping all units. Am I the only one who is annoyed by that?Also, from a gameplay-mechanics point of view I think that while Civ is a great game it could have been even better if it was more transparent. For example by avoiding useless rules like that or by displaying the likeliness of a civ declaring war on you in the foreign advisor screen (that would be great and a lot less new players would be frustrated in their first games: "why did X attack me when he was "friendly" towards me?).
Sorry for getting slightly of topic but this has been on my mind for a while.
Cheers
Lawrence
Warlord
Contender, Domination 225BC, Score:133028. 2 sessions, 3 hours.
This is one the smoothest domination games I have played. Nearly everything adhere to the plans: steal two workers. Settle one city. If find horses in sight, go straight away with War Chariots. Attack before the AI connect bronze and iron.
I have had some frustration when I found out that all civs were so far away, which means I would have a hard time stealing the second worker and escorting him back to our main core. However, Gandhi offers me his second worker in my warrior's sight after the first one has been stolen and peace sued. Great for me, so I DoWed again and get the second worker.
Next up is plainly walking through. Ghandi, Alex, Julius destroyed by 750BC. Only Julius connected bronze, but was pillaged in the first turn of war and didn't even have time to build a spearman.
Meanwhile, I built Oracle at 775BC and get CoL for return.
I stopped for a while at 750BC to switch production from military to settler-oriented. Meanwhile my frontier troops was rolling over Toku and Izy. Toku was easily finished up, but Izy took a little while since I didn't have too much troops left. The wars stopped at 350BC after I had taken Barcelona, when I already didn't have any money to stop my units from striking. Now, the time to found cities! After a series of border expansions, I was surprised by the number: 59.69%!! Should have get 1 more settler settled in time...
Next turn Barcelona's resistance ended. And so comes domination.
This is one the smoothest domination games I have played. Nearly everything adhere to the plans: steal two workers. Settle one city. If find horses in sight, go straight away with War Chariots. Attack before the AI connect bronze and iron.
I have had some frustration when I found out that all civs were so far away, which means I would have a hard time stealing the second worker and escorting him back to our main core. However, Gandhi offers me his second worker in my warrior's sight after the first one has been stolen and peace sued. Great for me, so I DoWed again and get the second worker.
Next up is plainly walking through. Ghandi, Alex, Julius destroyed by 750BC. Only Julius connected bronze, but was pillaged in the first turn of war and didn't even have time to build a spearman.
Meanwhile, I built Oracle at 775BC and get CoL for return.
I stopped for a while at 750BC to switch production from military to settler-oriented. Meanwhile my frontier troops was rolling over Toku and Izy. Toku was easily finished up, but Izy took a little while since I didn't have too much troops left. The wars stopped at 350BC after I had taken Barcelona, when I already didn't have any money to stop my units from striking. Now, the time to found cities! After a series of border expansions, I was surprised by the number: 59.69%!! Should have get 1 more settler settled in time...
Next turn Barcelona's resistance ended. And so comes domination.
Nice game Lawrence! With a domination victory in 375AD I didn't expect to take the dom award, but I didn't expect to get beaten by such a wide margin either. Good job 
I started by building 2 workers. There was so much good land it seemed a good idea, and I hoped the AI would build a few extra roads and cottages before I focused on attacking them.
Beelined to Construction then Currency before learning Alphabet. Never learnt CoL. Built only 2 markets, one in Delhi fairly early. Put up 2 specialists and generated only one great person, a merchant, in 50AD. He conducted a trade mission to India's last remaining city before we destroyed them. So that and a bunch of cottages was our big financial plan. Had over 1000g left over at the end, the merchant wasn't even necessary... finishing off Ghandi earlier and chopping all his tundra forests would have paid off better.
We never fought with Rome at all. Everyone else was destroyed at the end except France who was on the way out. Managed to ferry a lot of units over in the ice lake to the NW of the start position, but I agree it was silly to be able to build the Great Lighthouse in that western lake but not a galley. Anyway, a bunch of whipped settlers pushed us over the limit. 375AD is by far my fastest dom victory, and the score isn't bad either, but looks like once again I am not fast enough...
I started by building 2 workers. There was so much good land it seemed a good idea, and I hoped the AI would build a few extra roads and cottages before I focused on attacking them.
Beelined to Construction then Currency before learning Alphabet. Never learnt CoL. Built only 2 markets, one in Delhi fairly early. Put up 2 specialists and generated only one great person, a merchant, in 50AD. He conducted a trade mission to India's last remaining city before we destroyed them. So that and a bunch of cottages was our big financial plan. Had over 1000g left over at the end, the merchant wasn't even necessary... finishing off Ghandi earlier and chopping all his tundra forests would have paid off better.
We never fought with Rome at all. Everyone else was destroyed at the end except France who was on the way out. Managed to ferry a lot of units over in the ice lake to the NW of the start position, but I agree it was silly to be able to build the Great Lighthouse in that western lake but not a galley. Anyway, a bunch of whipped settlers pushed us over the limit. 375AD is by far my fastest dom victory, and the score isn't bad either, but looks like once again I am not fast enough...
Htadus
A and L's dad
Space bound again to fix all the mistakes made as Warlord Stalin.
After getting ganged up on WOTM 10(? Churchill) because we only built 2 cities and were building too many Wonders, this time Hatty and I choose to expand more.
Settled in the starting tile. Build a worker, rax untill growing to 3 and switched to a settler. Learned Mining, AH and BW. Thanks for the horses and wanted to claim the Copper to SW. About 4 turns before the settler was done, the warrior saw an Indian settler with an archer escort heading to claim the stone. Rushed the settler but could not get him next to the water in time. The Indian settler moved on to the river tile next to Stone. So we settled away from water and did not get the stone in the fat cross.
But it had copper, ivory, flood plain and many grassy hills. But no easy ship route to what we come to find as France. (But from what I read, no great loss)
Settled another city to claim gold, wine, rice and sheep(?) Went for Science but built WC between other buildings, Settled another City by the Iron, sheep and deer Just as a military production city. Got the CS sling via the Oracle, built TGL, Mids and HG in 3 Cities.
At 1 AD we were so far ahead of all others and had a decent military and had enough with Alex. Took two of his Cities and sued for peace. Researched at about 80%.
Right now it is around 1000AD and Got rid of Toku. Ceasar is cautious and weak. Otto annexed most of Nappy's lands and DOWed on us. We are 10 turns from getting Calvary and a very sizable force is next to Germany. Only have 3 trading partners but Elizabeth is hold back. Science is down to 60-70% but The FP is on its way.
I guess we need to Build a second core around old Japan and Germany. And May be Izzy too. She is worthless. On to Alpha Centauri.
After getting ganged up on WOTM 10(? Churchill) because we only built 2 cities and were building too many Wonders, this time Hatty and I choose to expand more.
Settled in the starting tile. Build a worker, rax untill growing to 3 and switched to a settler. Learned Mining, AH and BW. Thanks for the horses and wanted to claim the Copper to SW. About 4 turns before the settler was done, the warrior saw an Indian settler with an archer escort heading to claim the stone. Rushed the settler but could not get him next to the water in time. The Indian settler moved on to the river tile next to Stone. So we settled away from water and did not get the stone in the fat cross.
But it had copper, ivory, flood plain and many grassy hills. But no easy ship route to what we come to find as France. (But from what I read, no great loss)Settled another city to claim gold, wine, rice and sheep(?) Went for Science but built WC between other buildings, Settled another City by the Iron, sheep and deer Just as a military production city. Got the CS sling via the Oracle, built TGL, Mids and HG in 3 Cities.
At 1 AD we were so far ahead of all others and had a decent military and had enough with Alex. Took two of his Cities and sued for peace. Researched at about 80%.
Right now it is around 1000AD and Got rid of Toku. Ceasar is cautious and weak. Otto annexed most of Nappy's lands and DOWed on us. We are 10 turns from getting Calvary and a very sizable force is next to Germany. Only have 3 trading partners but Elizabeth is hold back. Science is down to 60-70% but The FP is on its way.
I guess we need to Build a second core around old Japan and Germany. And May be Izzy too. She is worthless. On to Alpha Centauri.
Tosti11
Monarch
Contender save, Settled in place on the plains hill and set to building a worker. Don't remember much of the early game. I know i researched AH to find horses and built war chariots early. I took over Ghandi and Alex by 500AD. I pulled off the CS slingshot and was ahead in every way possible for most of the game. Around 500 AD I wasn't sure whether to attack Eng or Japan, then Rome and Spain. I did some economy building and teching for vassalage and engineering to round out the military techs. The rest will have to come in the final spoiler.
I ended up winning the game, but could have done so much faster and with a much higher score. The mid game was much too slow, i was timid and indecisive. I will be interested to see how high the scores get for this game. The starting position was great with virtually no threat of attack on the core cities except from barbs. I used active defenders to gain third promotions against barbs, then send them off to the front, build another defender and repeat. Plus with the cheap and fast war chariots I was not suprised to read of a 225 B.C. Domination victory. that is amazing.
I ended up winning the game, but could have done so much faster and with a much higher score. The mid game was much too slow, i was timid and indecisive. I will be interested to see how high the scores get for this game. The starting position was great with virtually no threat of attack on the core cities except from barbs. I used active defenders to gain third promotions against barbs, then send them off to the front, build another defender and repeat. Plus with the cheap and fast war chariots I was not suprised to read of a 225 B.C. Domination victory. that is amazing.
Htadus
A and L's dad
Sorry to have offended you Thorrez. I only had a couple of stopsand could not remember what happend around 500AD. If you were able to extract anything from what I said, I will be shocked and impressed.
That whole paragraph is about what I planned to do and contained absolutely no useful information. After all most seem to have gotton rid of Toku way earlier.
As for useful information, I have not yet seen the German Capital in my game at the time I posted, but I knew what it look like soon.
All I am saying is that no two games are alike and what one player discover in 250 BC may take another untill end of the game. Anyways, you are right. It is the principle that matter and I do sincerely apologize.
That whole paragraph is about what I planned to do and contained absolutely no useful information. After all most seem to have gotton rid of Toku way earlier.
As for useful information, I have not yet seen the German Capital in my game at the time I posted, but I knew what it look like soon.
All I am saying is that no two games are alike and what one player discover in 250 BC may take another untill end of the game. Anyways, you are right. It is the principle that matter and I do sincerely apologize.
Lawrence
Warlord
Nice game Lawrence! With a domination victory in 375AD I didn't expect to take the dom award, but I didn't expect to get beaten by such a wide margin either. Good job
I started by building 2 workers. There was so much good land it seemed a good idea, and I hoped the AI would build a few extra roads and cottages before I focused on attacking them.
Beelined to Construction then Currency before learning Alphabet. Never learnt CoL. Built only 2 markets, one in Delhi fairly early. Put up 2 specialists and generated only one great person, a merchant, in 50AD. He conducted a trade mission to India's last remaining city before we destroyed them. So that and a bunch of cottages was our big financial plan. Had over 1000g left over at the end, the merchant wasn't even necessary... finishing off Ghandi earlier and chopping all his tundra forests would have paid off better.
We never fought with Rome at all. Everyone else was destroyed at the end except France who was on the way out. Managed to ferry a lot of units over in the ice lake to the NW of the start position, but I agree it was silly to be able to build the Great Lighthouse in that western lake but not a galley. Anyway, a bunch of whipped settlers pushed us over the limit. 375AD is by far my fastest dom victory, and the score isn't bad either, but looks like once again I am not fast enough...
I think the crucial difference is between building and stealing the 2 workers. Since this game is so crowded I planned way ahead of this start: 5 quick warriors - settler (at 2 pop), these warriors (forgotten how many I actually built, well, plans are always subject to changes
) safely landed me the two workers I needed. In terms of shields, 5 warriors only costs 75, while the normal 2 warrior + worker + warrior + settler + worker start will cost 165 (not counting the shield needed for the settler). And that is more than 3.5 war chariots, without considering the effect of quicker expansion and growth. If you are lucky enough, 4 war chariots are all you need to capture Delhi, so you know the difference.
RobertTheBruce
King
A smooth campaign start for me. I went worker first rather than stealing; mining for the gold, then animal husbandry. I eliminated Gandhi and left Alex with one tundra city by 1000BC with war chariots. A steady stream of barbarian warriors and archers from the north gave all my chariots a second promotion before heading to the front lines. I completed the oracle for a CS slingshot in 775BC and the pyramids in 600BC.
I then switch to economic development for a while with early representation and bureaucracy. I'll probably try for an early space race.
The map layout is very interesting but really limited the options in the early game. It was a very crowded map so most players will rush their neighbors. The mountains meant Gandhi and Alex are the only possible victims. Its probably a reason there aren't that many spoilers. Other than some impressively fast military victories, most players games are probably pretty similar up to 0AD.
I then switch to economic development for a while with early representation and bureaucracy. I'll probably try for an early space race.
The map layout is very interesting but really limited the options in the early game. It was a very crowded map so most players will rush their neighbors. The mountains meant Gandhi and Alex are the only possible victims. Its probably a reason there aren't that many spoilers. Other than some impressively fast military victories, most players games are probably pretty similar up to 0AD.
Tosti11
Monarch
If the fact that I eventually won my game is in appropiate or spoilerish then i suppose i apologize, otherwise there was nothing past 500AD in my post and there are thread moderators for a reason
I think so too. Two free workers in the early BC's is a huge bonus, and you must have leveraged it well to achieve such a fast victory. It's too bad it makes the 2-worker start look bad though. I had cottages, roads, chops, farms, &etc. in all my towns- growth was way more worth it once I had two of my own workers. The raging barbs Were a little hairy, but our early military was well executed and War Chariots were available pronto. Anyway, I wanted to allow the AI to grow at first- I hoped there would ultimately be more total workers in the world to capture and I wanted the AI to build more cities for me to capture instead of settling everything. It essentially worked out that way too. It was just too long-term a plan for this map.
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