GOTM 24 Final Spoiler
- Thread starter ainwood
- Start date
Seeing how crappy my cities were, how strong china (who had built all the wonders) defenses were, and how good american cities where, I changed target.
Washington must get down!
I teched to CS and machinery, got myself a handful of maces and catapults.
I captured chicago while I was trying to get the free Great Artist from music.
Mansa musa was a lot faster than I was, figures.
No problem, I traded music for horseback riding and compass, still a good tech.
I finally completed the Great Library in 920AD
(I know games where the great library already has spawned 2 or 3 GSs at this point).
I teched to paper, captured New York and settled for peace (no way for me to get any further with my current forces) for optics, a world map and some gold.
Now I had 9 cities, 7 crappy ones and 2 reasonnable ones.
Due to sharing religion, Washington was still pleased with me, ready to trade
.
A few world map trades later, I had circumnavigated the globe
.
I went philosophy, drama, education. Traded for theology, adopted theocracy and started buylding up troops for another strike on Washington.
In 1244, I was first to liberalism, took astronomy, traded for feudalism and engineering and attacked America again.
I took Washington but was unable to hold it. It was looking a bit gloomy now.
I bribed my friends Mansa Musa and Qin in the war, to buy myself time to build more/better troops. I teched gunpowder, guilds, chemistry, nationalism, traded for banking and divine right.
Teched replaceable parts, economics (missed the great merchant, of course darn Mansa musa), rifling.
Then adopted nationhood and strated making progress in my war against Washington
. A few redcoats later, I recaptured Washington (techd constitution in between, then steel, corporation).
Now capturing cities was more like a walk in the park, but WW was climbing high (thus constitution for jails!).
In 1709, I finally had eradicated Washington of the continent and I settled for peace for a far away city.
On the same turn, I attacked china.
In the meantime, I had discovered corporations and democracy and had started the SoL.
My cannons + redcoats didn't face much resistance from China.
I teched scientific method, steam power and trade for military tradition while capturing chinese cities on 2 fronts : from the North with fresh troops, from the south with my veterans.
Slow moving troops means slow war obviously so I captured 1 city in 1715, another in 1732. After that it went smoothly (1736, 1740, 1742 for n°3, 4 and 5).
I was a bit short on troops at some point so china managed (at huge cost) to take back shangai. I took it again on the next turn, so no big deal.
I teched to biology and moved on with conquest : 2 more cities in 1752 and 1754.
Teched to communism and captured 1 more in 1762. Teched to assembly line (probably a trade with Mansa Musa) and started drafting infantry. China wasn't much threat anymore at this point.
I took 2 more cities (no more china on MY continent) and settled for peace (and 1 more far away city).
I teched to railroad finished (! finally !) the SoL and traded for physics (Mansa musa still was faster than I was).
I declared war on asoka, captured one city pretty soon and settled another filler city on my continent.
I bought (yes I did buy all the late wonders!) the Kremlin in 1792 and went on Indian rampage, buying troops in the cities as soon as they came out of revolt.
After I had captured 7 cities, I decided flight would be useful and stopped spending all my commerce on gold. Teched to combustion, then fascism (needed Mt Rushmore badly), while fighting the indians "slowly" (captured only 2 cities in 5 years
).
Captured 3 more cities, and revolted to state property (Saladin had built Versailles I planned to $ rush in Delhi). My troops were starting to get thin, and India managed to take back 1 city.
Took it back a few turns later + another city, teched to flight, then traded for electricity with Mansa Musa (he was pleased, near to friendly).
Took 1 more city, teched to artillery (did I tech or trade? I had such high commerce I could research most techs in 2/3 turns anyway so it's hard to tell from the turnlog).
I took 2 more cities, and France declares on me . I almost didn't notice his troops. I guess Asoka bribed him, but it was quite suicide from louis to declare.
I killed all his troops in a few turns, then took the lonely city he had on my continent, finished Asoka, then took all french cities I could get near to.
Meanwhile I finished the pentagon (kind of useless at this point, but a few more points for me), teched to Radio and started the corresponding wonders.
I bought R'n'R in 1859, then teched to medicine (bad move, should have gone straight to mass media) for the red cross (a few more points
).
In 1864 I teched to mass media.
In 1867 I had the united nations (thanks to a GE).
In 1869 I had hollywood (thanks to a massive infusion of $)
I traded for industrialism from Mansa Musa.
I made peace in 1872 with France after taking Paris (less WW in the final run would only help).
I completed (thanks to my ironworks city) the Eiffel Tower in 1873.
In 1874, Mansa musa asks me to declare war on saladin. I jump on the opportunity to get him to friendly. Even More so wince I was going to attack him anyway (cultural pressure was unbearable in some formerly french cities).
In 1876, Mansa Musa votes with me for a diplomatic win
.
Not the best score ever (35k) but I was kind of scared to not win at all in the first half of the game, so I'm pretty happy with the result.
Washington must get down!
I teched to CS and machinery, got myself a handful of maces and catapults.
I captured chicago while I was trying to get the free Great Artist from music.
Mansa musa was a lot faster than I was, figures.
No problem, I traded music for horseback riding and compass, still a good tech.
I finally completed the Great Library in 920AD
(I know games where the great library already has spawned 2 or 3 GSs at this point).I teched to paper, captured New York and settled for peace (no way for me to get any further with my current forces) for optics, a world map and some gold.
Now I had 9 cities, 7 crappy ones and 2 reasonnable ones.
Due to sharing religion, Washington was still pleased with me, ready to trade
.A few world map trades later, I had circumnavigated the globe
.I went philosophy, drama, education. Traded for theology, adopted theocracy and started buylding up troops for another strike on Washington.
In 1244, I was first to liberalism, took astronomy, traded for feudalism and engineering and attacked America again.
I took Washington but was unable to hold it. It was looking a bit gloomy now.
I bribed my friends Mansa Musa and Qin in the war, to buy myself time to build more/better troops. I teched gunpowder, guilds, chemistry, nationalism, traded for banking and divine right.
Teched replaceable parts, economics (missed the great merchant, of course darn Mansa musa), rifling.
Then adopted nationhood and strated making progress in my war against Washington
. A few redcoats later, I recaptured Washington (techd constitution in between, then steel, corporation).Now capturing cities was more like a walk in the park, but WW was climbing high (thus constitution for jails!).
In 1709, I finally had eradicated Washington of the continent and I settled for peace for a far away city.
On the same turn, I attacked china.
In the meantime, I had discovered corporations and democracy and had started the SoL.
My cannons + redcoats didn't face much resistance from China.
I teched scientific method, steam power and trade for military tradition while capturing chinese cities on 2 fronts : from the North with fresh troops, from the south with my veterans.
Slow moving troops means slow war obviously so I captured 1 city in 1715, another in 1732. After that it went smoothly (1736, 1740, 1742 for n°3, 4 and 5).
I was a bit short on troops at some point so china managed (at huge cost) to take back shangai. I took it again on the next turn, so no big deal.
I teched to biology and moved on with conquest : 2 more cities in 1752 and 1754.
Teched to communism and captured 1 more in 1762. Teched to assembly line (probably a trade with Mansa Musa) and started drafting infantry. China wasn't much threat anymore at this point.
I took 2 more cities (no more china on MY continent) and settled for peace (and 1 more far away city).
I teched to railroad finished (! finally !) the SoL and traded for physics (Mansa musa still was faster than I was).
I declared war on asoka, captured one city pretty soon and settled another filler city on my continent.
I bought (yes I did buy all the late wonders!) the Kremlin in 1792 and went on Indian rampage, buying troops in the cities as soon as they came out of revolt.
After I had captured 7 cities, I decided flight would be useful and stopped spending all my commerce on gold. Teched to combustion, then fascism (needed Mt Rushmore badly), while fighting the indians "slowly" (captured only 2 cities in 5 years
). Captured 3 more cities, and revolted to state property (Saladin had built Versailles I planned to $ rush in Delhi). My troops were starting to get thin, and India managed to take back 1 city.
Took it back a few turns later + another city, teched to flight, then traded for electricity with Mansa Musa (he was pleased, near to friendly).
Took 1 more city, teched to artillery (did I tech or trade? I had such high commerce I could research most techs in 2/3 turns anyway so it's hard to tell from the turnlog).
I took 2 more cities, and France declares on me
. I almost didn't notice his troops. I guess Asoka bribed him, but it was quite suicide from louis to declare.I killed all his troops in a few turns, then took the lonely city he had on my continent, finished Asoka, then took all french cities I could get near to.
Meanwhile I finished the pentagon (kind of useless at this point, but a few more points for me), teched to Radio and started the corresponding wonders.
I bought R'n'R in 1859, then teched to medicine (bad move, should have gone straight to mass media) for the red cross (a few more points
).In 1864 I teched to mass media.
In 1867 I had the united nations (thanks to a GE).
In 1869 I had hollywood (thanks to a massive infusion of $)
I traded for industrialism from Mansa Musa.
I made peace in 1872 with France after taking Paris (less WW in the final run would only help).
I completed (thanks to my ironworks city) the Eiffel Tower in 1873.
In 1874, Mansa musa asks me to declare war on saladin. I jump on the opportunity to get him to friendly. Even More so wince I was going to attack him anyway (cultural pressure was unbearable in some formerly french cities).
In 1876, Mansa Musa votes with me for a diplomatic win
.Not the best score ever (35k) but I was kind of scared to not win at all in the first half of the game, so I'm pretty happy with the result.
Things didn´t look good, and they continued worse:
First American War
Built an army to attach Washington, grabs Chicago (first city going S) with not much problem and manage to take New York with some losses. Lookning go so far? No really, he does not what peace (unless he gets NY back) and a too large stack is moving on NY, so I withdraw my strike force as to not lose it and loses NY. Realize that I will lose it anyway unless I can get peace. Have to give back Chicago for peace.
Result:
New cities: None
Army: Not much left
Other gains: Nothing, unless you count the Washington now had a large army sitting at my boarder and a lot of people did not like me
It goes on from here:
Second American War
Ok, here we go again. With maces this time, I manage to retake Chicago and I think I took NY too. Had to give up tech for peace.
First Chinese War
I must have been real tired when I planed this. Basic idea was "There are no LB in Beijing, lets make a quick raid with my experience catapults and maces and take it". Well, both LBs and Chu´s was in Beijing when I landed and an couple of knight easily took out my maces. Manage to save the catapult back to the boats but I lost my city to the east (retook it but now it was useless rebuilding staff for 500 years).
I know noone thought it possible, but that might even be worse than my First American War
Third American War
or; The Tide Is Turing War. Here comes the only part of the game I am pleased with. I had won the Lib race and was able to build Red´s at this time. So the "hell no we want go" in most cities but I had a nice army in the field in a couple of turns and with help from the surviving cats I took the American heartland. Had to go peace because war wearyness on top of the draft penalties and see China DOW Washington and take 2 of his cities that I had planes for
.
Fourth American War
Desperate attempted to beat China to the last good american city fail by far.
Well, I am not exactly in good shape right now but I have a nice army of red´s, maybe I can DOW Qin?
Not so saids Qin, I have Infantry and soon to come tanks in your way.
Maybe I at least can make a diplo out of it?
Not so saids Gandhi and finish UN the turn after I get Mass Media.
Maybe SS?
Not so saids Qin as he DOWs me and let his tanks roll over me (for the record, I lost everthing but London and the city W by the gold). I was actually saved by the bell when Gandhi launch in 1900. I guess this was the tide turning back
At least I wasn´t conquered
First American War
Built an army to attach Washington, grabs Chicago (first city going S) with not much problem and manage to take New York with some losses. Lookning go so far? No really, he does not what peace (unless he gets NY back) and a too large stack is moving on NY, so I withdraw my strike force as to not lose it and loses NY. Realize that I will lose it anyway unless I can get peace. Have to give back Chicago for peace.
Result:
New cities: None
Army: Not much left
Other gains: Nothing, unless you count the Washington now had a large army sitting at my boarder and a lot of people did not like me
It goes on from here:
Second American War
Ok, here we go again. With maces this time, I manage to retake Chicago and I think I took NY too. Had to give up tech for peace.
First Chinese War
I must have been real tired when I planed this. Basic idea was "There are no LB in Beijing, lets make a quick raid with my experience catapults and maces and take it". Well, both LBs and Chu´s was in Beijing when I landed and an couple of knight easily took out my maces. Manage to save the catapult back to the boats but I lost my city to the east (retook it but now it was useless rebuilding staff for 500 years).
I know noone thought it possible, but that might even be worse than my First American War
Third American War
or; The Tide Is Turing War. Here comes the only part of the game I am pleased with. I had won the Lib race and was able to build Red´s at this time. So the "hell no we want go" in most cities but I had a nice army in the field in a couple of turns and with help from the surviving cats I took the American heartland. Had to go peace because war wearyness on top of the draft penalties and see China DOW Washington and take 2 of his cities that I had planes for
. Fourth American War
Desperate attempted to beat China to the last good american city fail by far.
Well, I am not exactly in good shape right now but I have a nice army of red´s, maybe I can DOW Qin?
Not so saids Qin, I have Infantry and soon to come tanks in your way.
Maybe I at least can make a diplo out of it?
Not so saids Gandhi and finish UN the turn after I get Mass Media.
Maybe SS?
Not so saids Qin as he DOWs me and let his tanks roll over me (for the record, I lost everthing but London and the city W by the gold). I was actually saved by the bell when Gandhi launch in 1900. I guess this was the tide turning back
At least I wasn´t conquered
jesusin, contender, goal undefined initially, fastest cultural victory later. Result: 1760AD Cultural Victory.
I am not happy with my performance. This cultural game has been even slower than my space game last GOTM!
The problem, besides the crappy map, was that I had a lot of so-so cities. Since it wasn’t clear which ones would be better in the end, I tried to get all of them legendary in the beginning. Only in 575AD I decided which cities would be the three, so I had to farm over cottages in the discarded cities, what a waste!
3 turns late to Music; Liberalism, free Nationalism and 100% culture in 815AD, first 2 cathedrals in 6xxAD, NE in 725AD.
450cpt and 9 cottages in the three big, 120GPPpt, 2 religions and 13 temples in 1000AD.
Hermitage in 1208AD. Things were going very slow. I was a bit bored. Let’s put some spice into it, I thought: how far can I trade for techs without researching? I traded as far as Military Tradition, SciMeth and Corporation… Sounds good? No, of course it doesn’t, Astronomy obsoletes the Colossus, there goes my sea economy!
I had great fun taking decisions (GA: settle or bomb?, Mercantilism or FM?) but my game was plagued with mistakes (chopped the turn I changed from CS to FS, but chopped after revolting; mismanaging the order the GA should born…. At the very end I shared cottages between the capital and another city, thus saving 5 turns. I saved another one by starving both cities in the final turn.
Surprisingly nobody had built Apollo when I won. My 7 warriors were able to intimidate all AI and keep the peace.
To sum it up: 7 cities, 2 religions, 4 cathedrals, 550-150-450cpt by 1500AD, 1GS+14GA, 5GA settled 1-0-4, 9 GA bombed 0-8-1.
I wish I had had a clear goal in mind when I started.
I am not happy with my performance. This cultural game has been even slower than my space game last GOTM!
The problem, besides the crappy map, was that I had a lot of so-so cities. Since it wasn’t clear which ones would be better in the end, I tried to get all of them legendary in the beginning. Only in 575AD I decided which cities would be the three, so I had to farm over cottages in the discarded cities, what a waste!
3 turns late to Music; Liberalism, free Nationalism and 100% culture in 815AD, first 2 cathedrals in 6xxAD, NE in 725AD.
450cpt and 9 cottages in the three big, 120GPPpt, 2 religions and 13 temples in 1000AD.
Hermitage in 1208AD. Things were going very slow. I was a bit bored. Let’s put some spice into it, I thought: how far can I trade for techs without researching? I traded as far as Military Tradition, SciMeth and Corporation… Sounds good? No, of course it doesn’t, Astronomy obsoletes the Colossus, there goes my sea economy!
I had great fun taking decisions (GA: settle or bomb?, Mercantilism or FM?) but my game was plagued with mistakes (chopped the turn I changed from CS to FS, but chopped after revolting; mismanaging the order the GA should born…
. At the very end I shared cottages between the capital and another city, thus saving 5 turns. I saved another one by starving both cities in the final turn.Surprisingly nobody had built Apollo when I won. My 7 warriors were able to intimidate all AI and keep the peace.
To sum it up: 7 cities, 2 religions, 4 cathedrals, 550-150-450cpt by 1500AD, 1GS+14GA, 5GA settled 1-0-4, 9 GA bombed 0-8-1.
I wish I had had a clear goal in mind when I started.
Well i started to take out Qin which went well, starting with maces and caths finishing with maces, cannons and muskets.
So i continued to mass up troops to get washington aswell as my economy was still strong due to building courthouses in most cities and focusing on economy before warfare. (this was also one of my mistakes, i waited to long with my waring).
I then had a period of building up gold to upgrade my muskets and macement + rest of the cats to cannons and also build more reinforcements.
When i had a few stacks of 15-20 units to go from two and a half angles (last one was from the north, but with just 7 or so units and one cat or cannon) on washington i did the fatal mistake of not checking his reserach. he had both cavalry and even worse for me artillery. I had nothing which could defeat artillery one on one, and they crushed my stacks. I did manage to get 2 cities, but lost one the turn after. So i ended up loosing most of my units for nothing as i had to give the city back to washington for peace to not loose my chinese cities.
After this washington was really fast researching and when i got artillery he already had infantry, and when i had infantry and that was the time i almost gave up taking out washington. My last hope was to get tanks before he got mech inf, and build enough of them, but to no avail
So now i thought how can i win this, Asoka has more pop and land then me and leads the tech race. Washington is second and im third. I do however have much more land then washington and also pop, but my war with him did cost me the chance to overtake him as my continued unit production and waring and loosing meant a serious backdraw for me.
What made this a real problem is that Asoka and washington (who had 2-3 golden ages after my war with him) jumped ahead in tech which i never got to get back. I only managed to keep somewhat up due to maxing my tech and trading with Saladin and Mansa for a few of the techs.
So i was hoping to win by UN and started gifting techs, and trying to get washington and the mediocre, but since i never tried for religion i didn't get friendly enough and i werent first to build the UN. Washington voted for Asoka, so Diplomatic was lost. Culturual was out of the order, so spaceship was only hope.
Full focus on reserach to catch up and even if i lagged bit behind i knew i had enough production to be able to catch up if i werent too high behind. But since neither of the tech leaders would trade needed techs with me i had no chance to catch up.
Lost by spacerace in 1885, with me having 4-5 of the components built and would have needed about 20 turns more i guess to complete the spaceship ATLEAST!
My biggest faults:
1) I should have hooked up iron earlier and attacked Qin earlier so i could get washington earlier too. (washington had iron, Qin didn't so Qin was easy target, i should maybe have attacked washington instead of Qin too)
2) I should have either massed more forces in more stacks before attacking washington so i in a bigger manner would have a chance to win on pure numbers, or not attacked at all considering he had artillery and cavalery, and i only had redcoats and cannons.
3) I should have had a clear goal how to win this, i had 3 decent cottaged cities so i could have gone cultural, but with no religions in most of my cities getting alot of culture would be hard other then buying it, but it would clearly have been an option in aftersight. Other then that i could have stopped unit production when i knew i had enough to beat Qin and focus on research and building again, this way i think i would have won the spacerace, as i was tech leader before the end of the Qin war.
Conclusion:
This was winnable also for someone at my level, but some fatal mistakes caused my downfall.
I'll be back stronger for the next GOTM (i hope
)
So i continued to mass up troops to get washington aswell as my economy was still strong due to building courthouses in most cities and focusing on economy before warfare. (this was also one of my mistakes, i waited to long with my waring).
I then had a period of building up gold to upgrade my muskets and macement + rest of the cats to cannons and also build more reinforcements.
When i had a few stacks of 15-20 units to go from two and a half angles (last one was from the north, but with just 7 or so units and one cat or cannon) on washington i did the fatal mistake of not checking his reserach. he had both cavalry and even worse for me artillery. I had nothing which could defeat artillery one on one, and they crushed my stacks. I did manage to get 2 cities, but lost one the turn after. So i ended up loosing most of my units for nothing as i had to give the city back to washington for peace to not loose my chinese cities.
After this washington was really fast researching and when i got artillery he already had infantry, and when i had infantry and that was the time i almost gave up taking out washington. My last hope was to get tanks before he got mech inf, and build enough of them, but to no avail
So now i thought how can i win this, Asoka has more pop and land then me and leads the tech race. Washington is second and im third. I do however have much more land then washington and also pop, but my war with him did cost me the chance to overtake him as my continued unit production and waring and loosing meant a serious backdraw for me.
What made this a real problem is that Asoka and washington (who had 2-3 golden ages after my war with him) jumped ahead in tech which i never got to get back. I only managed to keep somewhat up due to maxing my tech and trading with Saladin and Mansa for a few of the techs.
So i was hoping to win by UN and started gifting techs, and trying to get washington and the mediocre, but since i never tried for religion i didn't get friendly enough and i werent first to build the UN. Washington voted for Asoka, so Diplomatic was lost. Culturual was out of the order, so spaceship was only hope.
Full focus on reserach to catch up and even if i lagged bit behind i knew i had enough production to be able to catch up if i werent too high behind. But since neither of the tech leaders would trade needed techs with me i had no chance to catch up
.Lost by spacerace in 1885, with me having 4-5 of the components built and would have needed about 20 turns more i guess to complete the spaceship ATLEAST!
My biggest faults:
1) I should have hooked up iron earlier and attacked Qin earlier so i could get washington earlier too. (washington had iron, Qin didn't so Qin was easy target, i should maybe have attacked washington instead of Qin too)
2) I should have either massed more forces in more stacks before attacking washington so i in a bigger manner would have a chance to win on pure numbers, or not attacked at all considering he had artillery and cavalery, and i only had redcoats and cannons.
3) I should have had a clear goal how to win this, i had 3 decent cottaged cities so i could have gone cultural, but with no religions in most of my cities getting alot of culture would be hard other then buying it, but it would clearly have been an option in aftersight. Other then that i could have stopped unit production when i knew i had enough to beat Qin and focus on research and building again, this way i think i would have won the spacerace, as i was tech leader before the end of the Qin war.
Conclusion:
This was winnable also for someone at my level, but some fatal mistakes caused my downfall.
I'll be back stronger for the next GOTM (i hope
)
Harbourboy
Deity
I had a space loss as well in about 1915AD.
I won't bore you with the details but suffice to say that I left my "rush" on America and China too late and was playing catch up for the rest of the game.
After submitting my loss, I played it again, and it was so much easier to overrun those neighbours (although, to be fair, I did know where the iron was and beelined to hooking it up).
I won't bore you with the details but suffice to say that I left my "rush" on America and China too late and was playing catch up for the rest of the game.
After submitting my loss, I played it again, and it was so much easier to overrun those neighbours (although, to be fair, I did know where the iron was and beelined to hooking it up).
I decided to play peaceful this time, and since there were no barbarians, I was never involved in a fight during the game! That's a first for me
My main focus was to settle a lot of cities (I had seven cities 100 BC), and go for the Oracle, Great Lighthouse and the Colossus. I missed the first, but got the other two. This had a huge impact on my research, since each coastal tile produced 4 coins. No cottages at all before Liberalism
At 170 AD I ran 80% and produced 146 bpt. I've never experience such a soaring research pace before, and I didn't get many techs from trade. I ran between 80 and 100% research most of the game and got Liberalism 860 AD. I didn't beeline towards Liberalism, but it was still my earliest date so far in any of my games.
Each turn was mainly:
I made some critical mistakes in this game:
The last bullet cost me probably 30 turns, and with better play (more focused research path) I could probably have shaved another 30 turns to my launch date. Perhaps even more. I expect launch dates in the eighteenth century, and perhaps even earlier if someone really tried. I am also curious to find out how the game progressed for those who grabbed land from Washington and/or Qin.
On the other hand, I did some good things: Building the Colossus and the Great Lighthouse. This boosted the research significantly. I also settled two cities on Asoka land, and two on the island just east of Qin. Three of these became my main SS component builders, since I could run a lot of workshops. I was never worried about the lousy production capability of my initial cities, since it's easy to convert any city to a massive production monster late in the game.
I gifted a lot of tech for nothing or 200 gold, and I should have done more of it. Especially Liberalism to avoid the AI to run Mercantilism, which is very bad the economy. It is much better if the AI runs Free Market. Actually, I should have gifted all my techs continuously, to increase the chance that I could trade something from the AI.
With a bit planning, and tweaking, I managed to build the final five SS components in the same turn (1852 AD, victory 1853 AD). Sweet.
My main focus was to settle a lot of cities (I had seven cities 100 BC), and go for the Oracle, Great Lighthouse and the Colossus. I missed the first, but got the other two. This had a huge impact on my research, since each coastal tile produced 4 coins. No cottages at all before Liberalism
At 170 AD I ran 80% and produced 146 bpt. I've never experience such a soaring research pace before, and I didn't get many techs from trade. I ran between 80 and 100% research most of the game and got Liberalism 860 AD. I didn't beeline towards Liberalism, but it was still my earliest date so far in any of my games.
Each turn was mainly:
- Decide new builds in cities that have completed something
- Check cities that has grown
- Check the foreign advisor
- Talk to someone
I made some critical mistakes in this game:
- Forgot/missed to scout the land to the east until the late BC years
- Missed the Metal Casting Oracle Slingshot (should not have tried)
- Traded CoL too early to Washington, enabling him to lightbulb Philosophy
- Visiting a tribal village, although I knew there was a risk to learn astronomy. This cost me 100 bpt or 20% or my research capacity.
- Most important - Missed workboat scout to find Mansa Musa
The last bullet cost me probably 30 turns, and with better play (more focused research path) I could probably have shaved another 30 turns to my launch date. Perhaps even more. I expect launch dates in the eighteenth century, and perhaps even earlier if someone really tried. I am also curious to find out how the game progressed for those who grabbed land from Washington and/or Qin.
On the other hand, I did some good things: Building the Colossus and the Great Lighthouse. This boosted the research significantly. I also settled two cities on Asoka land, and two on the island just east of Qin. Three of these became my main SS component builders, since I could run a lot of workshops. I was never worried about the lousy production capability of my initial cities, since it's easy to convert any city to a massive production monster late in the game.
I gifted a lot of tech for nothing or 200 gold, and I should have done more of it. Especially Liberalism to avoid the AI to run Mercantilism, which is very bad the economy. It is much better if the AI runs Free Market. Actually, I should have gifted all my techs continuously, to increase the chance that I could trade something from the AI.
With a bit planning, and tweaking, I managed to build the final five SS components in the same turn (1852 AD, victory 1853 AD). Sweet.
Around the end of the previous spoiler, I had just finished wiping out the US with swords and cats. What followed was about 700 years of peace as I cottaged up the (crappy) land, built up infrastructure, and raced first to liberalism (which I used for printing press), and then pushed on to grenadiers and cannons. During this time, I develloped a close frindship with Asoka (despite never adopting a religion), and he prooved to be a reliable trading partner who helped me keep a decent tech pace.
With cannons and Grens, I invaded Qin, who was defending with long/crossbow, and got whipped bassicaly as quick as the troops could move. Preformed a pincer movement comming at him from both my original land, and Washington.
This war resulted in many CR2 and CR3 cannons, which I immeditly redirected out to the west most city and off the island. Declared on MM, who was also defending with bows, and also got whiped quicly. Ran the troops through his island, and as soon as I had finished him off, moved on towards Saladin and the next war. Made it halfway through Saladin, and got stalled by war weariness (mostly because Asoka had just discovered demo, and gone emancipation), so I took a 10 turn peace to tech democracy (asoka would not trade the monopoly tech), and then revolted to emancipation and police state, and continued the war effort.
At some point around this time, my opponents began fielding gunpoweder units on defence (grens and rifles), but I was ready for this as I had recently started producing redcoats. I finished taking Saladin, by grabing his last city which he had kindly settled on the island of my next target (It this moment, I have forgotten who it was? Bismark? In any event, the only guy other than Asoka that is left...) I ran through him rather easily as well, given me nearly enough land to get to the domination limite (indeed, I would have been past domination once his cities all came out of revolt, but I was able to shave a few turns of that... During the last war, I had been building some settlers in my small cities and shipping them off to the various iceburg islands... I settled a couple of dozen of these as soon as that would be enough to push pass the domination limit.
Ended up with domination in 17xx (forgotten the exact date), for a score of 85 or 90K.
Overall, this was a strange game for me. On the one hand, I did many things well that I dont usually do. On the other hand, I messed up elements that I often do well at. I think this is an indication of improovement in my game that I have develloped new elements, and I hope that I can put these togheter with the things I previously did well to get better all around. Of these elements...
The bad:
-I never develloped a GP farm, and ended up popping only 2 or 3 GP the entire game.
-I located several cities badly because I did not plan for their long term.
-I planed late game (post liberalism) tech badly, failing to realize at what stage I would need to shift to emancipation, which cost me some 10 turns of the time.
-I was too ambitious with exploring, and did not stay close to the stone in the washington fat cross to nab the worker asap. By the time I got him, the path home had been sealed of.
-I failed to take peace at the first oppertunity with Washington, and did not get another chance of centuries.
The good.
-Decent city specialization, including dedicated millitary production cities, and a missionary farm.
-Good war/logistics planning... Splitting my forces, and routing between cities to get through the terain as quickly as possible before war weariness came in.
-Good logistic in terms of getting boats built in time for my intercontinetal invasion (I usually end up with troops siting in a port city while I build the navy.)
-Good job of maintaning diplomatic relationships as needed.
With cannons and Grens, I invaded Qin, who was defending with long/crossbow, and got whipped bassicaly as quick as the troops could move. Preformed a pincer movement comming at him from both my original land, and Washington.
This war resulted in many CR2 and CR3 cannons, which I immeditly redirected out to the west most city and off the island. Declared on MM, who was also defending with bows, and also got whiped quicly. Ran the troops through his island, and as soon as I had finished him off, moved on towards Saladin and the next war. Made it halfway through Saladin, and got stalled by war weariness (mostly because Asoka had just discovered demo, and gone emancipation), so I took a 10 turn peace to tech democracy (asoka would not trade the monopoly tech), and then revolted to emancipation and police state, and continued the war effort.
At some point around this time, my opponents began fielding gunpoweder units on defence (grens and rifles), but I was ready for this as I had recently started producing redcoats. I finished taking Saladin, by grabing his last city which he had kindly settled on the island of my next target (It this moment, I have forgotten who it was? Bismark? In any event, the only guy other than Asoka that is left...) I ran through him rather easily as well, given me nearly enough land to get to the domination limite (indeed, I would have been past domination once his cities all came out of revolt, but I was able to shave a few turns of that... During the last war, I had been building some settlers in my small cities and shipping them off to the various iceburg islands... I settled a couple of dozen of these as soon as that would be enough to push pass the domination limit.
Ended up with domination in 17xx (forgotten the exact date), for a score of 85 or 90K.
Overall, this was a strange game for me. On the one hand, I did many things well that I dont usually do. On the other hand, I messed up elements that I often do well at. I think this is an indication of improovement in my game that I have develloped new elements, and I hope that I can put these togheter with the things I previously did well to get better all around. Of these elements...
The bad:
-I never develloped a GP farm, and ended up popping only 2 or 3 GP the entire game.
-I located several cities badly because I did not plan for their long term.
-I planed late game (post liberalism) tech badly, failing to realize at what stage I would need to shift to emancipation, which cost me some 10 turns of the time.
-I was too ambitious with exploring, and did not stay close to the stone in the washington fat cross to nab the worker asap. By the time I got him, the path home had been sealed of.
-I failed to take peace at the first oppertunity with Washington, and did not get another chance of centuries.
The good.
-Decent city specialization, including dedicated millitary production cities, and a missionary farm.
-Good war/logistics planning... Splitting my forces, and routing between cities to get through the terain as quickly as possible before war weariness came in.
-Good logistic in terms of getting boats built in time for my intercontinetal invasion (I usually end up with troops siting in a port city while I build the navy.)
-Good job of maintaning diplomatic relationships as needed.
After the AI spoiled my WOTM14 attempt early I thought it was payback time.
I went for AH and BW first. As there was neither horses nor copper around my first settler scouted some land before I settled it frustrated in the East. Went for iron just to observe that it is in a crappy location in the West. The fourth city I founded at the iron and I started to build up an army. America was my first victim. Went for them with swords and cats. After I took Washington stopped for peace to heal units and reinforce. Finally I left him with a crappy tundra city in the SE. Immediately turned on Qin from North and South and finished him off with cats, maces and my first knights (traded horses from Mansa). Somehow Qin was just able to build 1 Cho Ku Nu when I marched on Beijing. The next unlucky guy was Asoka being too close to me. Redcoats just went through Asokas lands.
The whole game I was advanced. I was quite astonished that the tech pace was that slow. Even Mansa was very backward. IIRC he did not even have infantry when I was approaching his cities with tanks.
I think I could have finished this earlier, but I was getting lazy and did not push hard enough.
I went for AH and BW first. As there was neither horses nor copper around my first settler scouted some land before I settled it frustrated in the East. Went for iron just to observe that it is in a crappy location in the West. The fourth city I founded at the iron and I started to build up an army. America was my first victim. Went for them with swords and cats. After I took Washington stopped for peace to heal units and reinforce. Finally I left him with a crappy tundra city in the SE. Immediately turned on Qin from North and South and finished him off with cats, maces and my first knights (traded horses from Mansa). Somehow Qin was just able to build 1 Cho Ku Nu when I marched on Beijing.
The next unlucky guy was Asoka being too close to me. Redcoats just went through Asokas lands.The whole game I was advanced. I was quite astonished that the tech pace was that slow. Even Mansa was very backward. IIRC he did not even have infantry when I was approaching his cities with tanks.
I think I could have finished this earlier, but I was getting lazy and did not push hard enough.
Markus5
Code Monkey
I settled in place. Settled a production city to the east at the second elbow. It built military most of the time. Grew my capital and pumped workers and settlers while farming GPs. Cities were built only in better places and there was no effort to fill in the gaps. I built 3 to the east, 2 to the south and 2 to the west. None were remarkable cities. I built enough units (axes and cats) to take 2 cities from America in 700ad or so. When the cultural push back from America grew too large, I too most America's cities on the continent with maces and cats. I kept only the good cities. Former America was very nice for me. China became belligerent, so I watched for a sneak-attack and sure-enough I was attacked with grenadiers and cats. I lost one city with 8 Redcoats and two cannon to a small stack of grenadiers and cats. But, my production was too much and I took it back, and razed 3 marginal Chinese cities. I would have been happy to race to the Spaceship, but China's culture was pushing hard and threatened to split my empire. So I crushed her with artillery and infantry. Except for some ice cities in the north and south, the continent was mine. Spaceship launched in 1907 or so.
LowtherCastle
Deity
- Joined
- May 18, 2005
- Messages
- 23,529
Nice summary, Erkon. Thanks. Too bad there wasn't a Wimp of the Week aWard this time...I decided to play peaceful this time, and since there were no barbarians, I was never involved in a fight during the game! That's a first for me
Kennigit
proud 2 boxer
Spacerace, 1857 (or 58)
I'm dissapointed w/ how I ended this game. I've been trying to get some lean mean spaceships off, and since this was also Monarch I compared it to my WOTM 13 or 14 game (Izzy; had a 1855).
I started out moving capital 1W, built some cities south and to the east, cottaged up everything, beelined to monarchy then civil service&machinery, declared war on Washington, and ended up getting 4 quality cities (New York, Washington, Boston, X) that all were around Washington.
I was feeling pretty high and mighty about myself, and teched away to a spaceship where I ended up being very stupid. I messed up the last parts, namely the life support w/ ecology as my capital had an engine, boston had a docking bay, and washington had a stasis chamber. I starved my life support city trying to shave acouple turns off, but ended up adding 1 or 2 turns since the food didn't work out. Can't remember a lot from this game, but all I know was that the final 50 turns or so really were poorly managed and cost me easily 5-6+ turns.
I'm dissapointed w/ how I ended this game. I've been trying to get some lean mean spaceships off, and since this was also Monarch I compared it to my WOTM 13 or 14 game (Izzy; had a 1855).
I started out moving capital 1W, built some cities south and to the east, cottaged up everything, beelined to monarchy then civil service&machinery, declared war on Washington, and ended up getting 4 quality cities (New York, Washington, Boston, X) that all were around Washington.
I was feeling pretty high and mighty about myself, and teched away to a spaceship where I ended up being very stupid. I messed up the last parts, namely the life support w/ ecology as my capital had an engine, boston had a docking bay, and washington had a stasis chamber. I starved my life support city trying to shave acouple turns off, but ended up adding 1 or 2 turns since the food didn't work out. Can't remember a lot from this game, but all I know was that the final 50 turns or so really were poorly managed and cost me easily 5-6+ turns.
billybgame
Prince
I retired in the later 1800's. In the early to mid 1800's, out of the blue, Mansa Munsa declared war on me. By habit I go for peaceful games, these days. They're so much quicker, and enjoyable to me, I suppose. To a fault, I guess. Back in the day, in Civ 1 and 2, I used to love warmongering. Life's just busier now, I guess. Either that, or I'm just more peaceful.
Anyhow, I was a bit vexxed at this war, as I was ill-prepared, with my cities on that crappy land to the west of London were only around size 5 or 6, and poorly defended. My military, in general, was very thin. No worries, as all he did was station some galleys in my territory. Odd kind of war it was.
I had 13 cities, by now going south to the hill on the coast, north of Chicago, and over to just north of the mountain, on the north/south strip of land going down to the Chinese. Had 4 cities to the west, in the best possible spots. Figured that was enough property to try and make a peaceful game of it.
However, the Chinese's culture was infringing on me, no doubt. That was not looking good. And, I was mired in next to last, ahead of only the French. Live and learn. I was hoping to make up ground, but it wasn't happening.
I had good relations with America and China. Matter of fact, I traded resources and techs with nearly everyone. Only Mansa Musa and Saladin, as usual for me, were the surly sort, and I didn't trade with them. So, I thought I was good with all but them. Suddenly, out of nowhere, China declares war on me, with a wave of cavalry, cannon and riflemen. Luckily, I had just gotten redcoats. So, I thought, that is. Before was all said and done, I lost 4 cities to the Chinese. I retired in disgust, before my score got any lower. My redcoats may as well have been warriors. I lost nealry every battle, with my redcoats. Fortified in cities. Cities on hills. Didn't matter. Riflemen beat them. He lost maybe two cavalry. It was unreal. I figured I had maybe my worst battle luck in all of Civ 4. Here, I was saying "give me what you got". Thought my redcoats, with 25% vs horse and 25% vs gunpowder, would be good enough, with 4 per city. Forget it. They went through them like scissors through paper.
Oh, well. We'll try better next time.
Here's my first effort at a screenshot. It's my emprire in 1730, and how it looked at it's biggest.
Anyhow, I was a bit vexxed at this war, as I was ill-prepared, with my cities on that crappy land to the west of London were only around size 5 or 6, and poorly defended. My military, in general, was very thin. No worries, as all he did was station some galleys in my territory. Odd kind of war it was.
I had 13 cities, by now going south to the hill on the coast, north of Chicago, and over to just north of the mountain, on the north/south strip of land going down to the Chinese. Had 4 cities to the west, in the best possible spots. Figured that was enough property to try and make a peaceful game of it.
However, the Chinese's culture was infringing on me, no doubt. That was not looking good. And, I was mired in next to last, ahead of only the French. Live and learn. I was hoping to make up ground, but it wasn't happening.
I had good relations with America and China. Matter of fact, I traded resources and techs with nearly everyone. Only Mansa Musa and Saladin, as usual for me, were the surly sort, and I didn't trade with them. So, I thought I was good with all but them. Suddenly, out of nowhere, China declares war on me, with a wave of cavalry, cannon and riflemen. Luckily, I had just gotten redcoats. So, I thought, that is. Before was all said and done, I lost 4 cities to the Chinese. I retired in disgust, before my score got any lower. My redcoats may as well have been warriors. I lost nealry every battle, with my redcoats. Fortified in cities. Cities on hills. Didn't matter. Riflemen beat them. He lost maybe two cavalry. It was unreal. I figured I had maybe my worst battle luck in all of Civ 4. Here, I was saying "give me what you got". Thought my redcoats, with 25% vs horse and 25% vs gunpowder, would be good enough, with 4 per city. Forget it. They went through them like scissors through paper.
Oh, well. We'll try better next time.
Here's my first effort at a screenshot. It's my emprire in 1730, and how it looked at it's biggest.
Markus5
Code Monkey
I was equally surprised when China took my city defended with 8 Redcoats and 2 cannons. They came with 10 or so grenadiers, 4 cats, and a couple of longbows. I softened them up sacrificing the cannons on the stack. So, they were hurting when they attacked. They still managed to put 8 units into the city after winning it. But, the AI doesn't seem to push its advantage. I began stacking units outside the city to try and retake it. They threw weakened units at my stack and lost them - for no reason. Then, for what ever reason, they moved out all units except for 2 grenadiers. It was simple to retake the city. I was pushing another stack into China from my ex-American cities and razing junk cities, so maybe they were trying to send defenders to shore up things.
Its one thing I've began to count on -- the AI is sometimes just stoopid.
I didn't take many notes during my game so I go by the few saves I have and the replay file.
My biggest mistake I put down to inexperience - I didn't decide on a VC until very late, playing it more as I went. This is my second solo game only (yeah I played it before WOTM14 which was my third), though I have some experience from the SGOTMs. Nevertheless, it was a great learning experience and I hope to do a lot better in future GOTMs.
I settled London 1N of starting location, on the lake and on the northern coast giving me 3F lake tiles after building Lighthouse. I later settled Nottingham just S of the lake, and those two towns together game me a route between all three seas. I never used the route through London though, I would later settle a choke town in the east for passage in that direction. York was founded by the Fish up north for settler production and research. Hastings went by the wheat SE to beat Qin to that position, Coventry got the Cow north of there at a later point. Canterbury grabbed the iron out west, Warwick south towards Washington, and later Newcastle SW of the gold, marking the end of my peaceful expansion. 8 towns all in all, with 7 of them settled in the BCs.
I sent out some work boats to explore, one in each direction, and met up with everyone pretty quickly. It took an incredibly long time for them to meet each other though, so I could tech-broker my way up the tree for a very long time. I built the Colossus, but waaaay too late in hindsight (1142 AD). I'm pretty much an anti-wonder player in Civ3 and I have hard time getting around to change my mindset, that wonders in CIV are actually very useful depending on strategy (yeah, they are in Civ3 too under the right circumstances, but less often).
I wanted to practice some warring this game, so I was a bit frustrated at the lack of Copper and Horses. When I got iron I quickly built up a nice force of swords and a few axes, plus some galleys to ferry new troops down to the front. Declared on Washington in 455 AD and quickly overran Chicago (470 AD) and New York (545 AD), then waited a while to pick off his counter and wait for some shipped reinforcements. The next advance saw Washington itself fall (with Pyramids) in 755 AD, and then Philadelphia (815), Boston (860) and Atlanta (905) fell in rapid succession before I signed peace. I waited all until 1055 AD before redeclaring, razing Seattle and thus pushing Washington off the continent. He had managed to sneak a settler out into the eastern archipelago though, so it wasn't until much later that I finally conquered him completely.
In 1328 AD I had researched Rifling, upgraded a lot of maces to redcoats, and secured the American lands. Time to go knock on Qin's door. My redcoats pretty much rolled over him, taking Xian (1346 AD), Nanjing (1376), Shanghai and Hangzhou (1394), Ningbo (1406, razed), Kaifeng (1412, razed), Guangzhou (1418), Macau (1424, razed), Beijing (1454) and Chengdu (1460) before signing peace. He was then off the main continent, and I even got Shandong by the gems south of Asoka in the peace deal. Qin actually lived to see the end of the game.
At this point I finally took a step back and reviewed my situation with regards to what victory to pursue. I realized I would be way behind the fastest for Conquest or Domination, and I hadn't really kept up my redcoat production as I should have. But Asoka and Mansa were both really good buddies, and together we easily controlled enough of the world to vote me up as winner. Diplomacy it is then.
From this point I didn't do much fighting at all, only some mop-up of America near the end just for fun (gone in 1595 AD). Instead I beelined for Mass Media, trying to get as many GSs as possible out of my non-GPP-focused economy, and building Iron Works in London for a speedy UN production. I even tried to get a GE in London, running three Engineers for a while, but I only had ~45% odds for a GE and managed to pop a useless GM instead. I also built the Taj Mahal in Beijing to speed up production during the last stretch, and built workshops all over my cottages at London (running at a food deficit). Built the UN in 1676 AD, diplomatic victory in 1700 AD. Base score 3447, final score 58471.
All in all I'm rather pleased with my performance, in particular since I feel I learnt a lot. I know I could have done a lot of things better, but that's where future GOTMs comes in.
My biggest mistake I put down to inexperience - I didn't decide on a VC until very late, playing it more as I went. This is my second solo game only (yeah I played it before WOTM14 which was my third), though I have some experience from the SGOTMs. Nevertheless, it was a great learning experience and I hope to do a lot better in future GOTMs.
I settled London 1N of starting location, on the lake and on the northern coast giving me 3F lake tiles after building Lighthouse. I later settled Nottingham just S of the lake, and those two towns together game me a route between all three seas. I never used the route through London though, I would later settle a choke town in the east for passage in that direction. York was founded by the Fish up north for settler production and research. Hastings went by the wheat SE to beat Qin to that position, Coventry got the Cow north of there at a later point. Canterbury grabbed the iron out west, Warwick south towards Washington, and later Newcastle SW of the gold, marking the end of my peaceful expansion. 8 towns all in all, with 7 of them settled in the BCs.
I sent out some work boats to explore, one in each direction, and met up with everyone pretty quickly. It took an incredibly long time for them to meet each other though, so I could tech-broker my way up the tree for a very long time. I built the Colossus, but waaaay too late in hindsight (1142 AD). I'm pretty much an anti-wonder player in Civ3 and I have hard time getting around to change my mindset, that wonders in CIV are actually very useful depending on strategy (yeah, they are in Civ3 too under the right circumstances, but less often).
I wanted to practice some warring this game, so I was a bit frustrated at the lack of Copper and Horses. When I got iron I quickly built up a nice force of swords and a few axes, plus some galleys to ferry new troops down to the front. Declared on Washington in 455 AD and quickly overran Chicago (470 AD) and New York (545 AD), then waited a while to pick off his counter and wait for some shipped reinforcements. The next advance saw Washington itself fall (with Pyramids) in 755 AD, and then Philadelphia (815), Boston (860) and Atlanta (905) fell in rapid succession before I signed peace. I waited all until 1055 AD before redeclaring, razing Seattle and thus pushing Washington off the continent. He had managed to sneak a settler out into the eastern archipelago though, so it wasn't until much later that I finally conquered him completely.
In 1328 AD I had researched Rifling, upgraded a lot of maces to redcoats, and secured the American lands. Time to go knock on Qin's door. My redcoats pretty much rolled over him, taking Xian (1346 AD), Nanjing (1376), Shanghai and Hangzhou (1394), Ningbo (1406, razed), Kaifeng (1412, razed), Guangzhou (1418), Macau (1424, razed), Beijing (1454) and Chengdu (1460) before signing peace. He was then off the main continent, and I even got Shandong by the gems south of Asoka in the peace deal. Qin actually lived to see the end of the game.
At this point I finally took a step back and reviewed my situation with regards to what victory to pursue. I realized I would be way behind the fastest for Conquest or Domination, and I hadn't really kept up my redcoat production as I should have. But Asoka and Mansa were both really good buddies, and together we easily controlled enough of the world to vote me up as winner. Diplomacy it is then.
From this point I didn't do much fighting at all, only some mop-up of America near the end just for fun (gone in 1595 AD). Instead I beelined for Mass Media, trying to get as many GSs as possible out of my non-GPP-focused economy, and building Iron Works in London for a speedy UN production. I even tried to get a GE in London, running three Engineers for a while, but I only had ~45% odds for a GE and managed to pop a useless GM instead. I also built the Taj Mahal in Beijing to speed up production during the last stretch, and built workshops all over my cottages at London (running at a food deficit). Built the UN in 1676 AD, diplomatic victory in 1700 AD. Base score 3447, final score 58471.
All in all I'm rather pleased with my performance, in particular since I feel I learnt a lot. I know I could have done a lot of things better, but that's where future GOTMs comes in.
Care to mention which turn?
Sorry, forgot. It was 1852 (victory year 1853 - post updated).
Nice summary, Erkon. Thanks. Too bad there wasn't a Wimp of the Week aWard this time...
What, no WotWaW? Man, how am I ever going to achieve that coveted trophy
spacemanmf
Stalwart
Quick summary:
Settled 1NW, got 9 cities up before ran out of room, fell behind in techs to Washington/Qin at first, but emphasised commerce/built Colossus to catch up and surge past.
Invaded Washington with maces/cats (surprise), paused/regrouped, attacked with redcoats (beelined to rifles), cleared Washington off main island and sued for peace. Paused briefly then attacked Qin (getting some CR3 Infantry by now - knife through butter), wiped Chinese off main island and sued for peace.
Switched to infastructure and, ultimately space race charge. Asoka was right up there and just needed one part in the end, with a couple of others well on the way (Saladin and Mansa). I messed up badly and could have launched 3 or 4 turns earlier, as I emphasised food on all but 2 cities, but actually 3 cities were building the last required parts - oops.
Got the internet for a nice grab of all non-essential techs - was on to Future Tech 3 by the end.
Not the fastest, and not a great score, but a difficult starting position, so I'm fairly happy.
Settled 1NW, got 9 cities up before ran out of room, fell behind in techs to Washington/Qin at first, but emphasised commerce/built Colossus to catch up and surge past.
Invaded Washington with maces/cats (surprise), paused/regrouped, attacked with redcoats (beelined to rifles), cleared Washington off main island and sued for peace. Paused briefly then attacked Qin (getting some CR3 Infantry by now - knife through butter), wiped Chinese off main island and sued for peace.
Switched to infastructure and, ultimately space race charge. Asoka was right up there and just needed one part in the end, with a couple of others well on the way (Saladin and Mansa). I messed up badly and could have launched 3 or 4 turns earlier, as I emphasised food on all but 2 cities, but actually 3 cities were building the last required parts - oops.
Got the internet for a nice grab of all non-essential techs - was on to Future Tech 3 by the end.
Not the fastest, and not a great score, but a difficult starting position, so I'm fairly happy.
Jimmy Thunder
King
Doh, I got voted in the same year as Niklas
but had a lower score than him !I struggled at the start, and was most underwhelmed that all our homeland could offer was numerous cows and silk. I cottaged two cities and the others were sort of a mix of everything else.
I tried for oracle --> MC but missed out and later on I missed philosophy by a narrow few turns.
I decided not to settle the wasteland to the west with the iron and gold and just made a pure catapults/galley army and attacked Qin to get some better looking land. This won me the Pyramids and quite a few decent city sites. I kept Qin alive with one city left (hoping that I could extort a few monopoly techs he still had - I was wrong).
So I had quite a few catapults and galleys left and I saw that Saladin was the only civ without longbows and he had the Great Library and Great Lighthouse (all of my cities were coastal!). So I made a stack of about 7-8galleys, 14 catapults and a single long bow and made the long galley route for Mecca. I landed and took Mecca and another decent city there. I'm not sure if it paid off, but I thought it was a very creative manoeuvre at least!
Then I sped towards Mass Media with the aim of building the UN in a distant Arabian city and gifting it to Saladin.
I messed up my UN production by having a long delay afting hitting Mass Media. First I waited about 8 turns for resistance to end in the captured Arabian city, then I expected my GE (who arrive late by sea) to do more than 75% of the build. The city I picked didn't have forests to chop so I revolted to Universal Sufferage for a further delay and spent 5-6k gold to finally finish it. Just came down to a lack of planning really, and a poorly chosen UN city.
Looking at other people's spoilers I think I should have claimed the iron and had a go at Washington too, to completely claim my continent for myself. Although you don't necessarily need a lot of land to shoot for a Diplo win.
As it turned out, my less-than-dominant position in world population did encourage me to stray from the direct tech path to get Steel and Biology because I was worried about not having enough votes.
A fun game! We were faced with some hard decisions about how to develop the empire in the first half of the game. I played it a little too fast I think.
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