GOTM 26 Spoiler III - Modern age or End-Game Submitted.

[SirPleb]

Originally posted by captain chaos
Is there a quick way to see how much base commerce you are generating in you large cities (e.g. size 20) or do you have to count all the little symbols. After seeing the calculations it makes sense to put the tech wonders in the cities with highest base commerce and minimal corruption.

Not that I know of. If anyone knows a way to view the base count I hope they'll jump in and tell us. I seldom worry about the base count but when I do, I count the commerce manually on the worked tiles. (Yuk.)

Most of the time I know that I have equivalent improvements (e.g. library and university) in all of my strongest cities. So sorting the F1 display by beakers shows me the best choices for tech wonders - it is comparing apples with apples if all the best cities have the same improvements. But even then, I go and manually compare the top few cities on the list before choosing. The number of beakers they're producing doesn't tell the whole story - one which isn't at the top of the list might be a better long term choice because it doesn't have as many citizens yet (and would be at the top if it did), or it might be better long term because it will have lots of nice gold tiles available but currently isn't using them, is emphasizing shields at the moment.

 

[Mark Cutt]

I decided to go for Conquest victory.
I settled my palace in the northern area W-NW from the starting tile close to both cow an wheat. I built the second city NE from the starting tile.
I set research at zero waiting for the opportunity to search a 2nd level tech.
I built Warrior-Warrior-Granary-Worker-Settler…. in Beijing and Warrior-Settler in Shangai.
I used some pop rushing in the southern area cities.
I met Khazars in 3750BC, I got Alphabet and started a 40-turns research of Mathematics. I choose it not because I needed it but only because I thought it was less likely that other civs were researching it (and I was right).
I met Mongols in 3550BC (got Terra Cotta), Gogu in 3400BC (Burial Rituals + Bronze Culture), Baekje in 3300BC (The Wheel), Takeda in 3000BC, Raja in 2350BC.
Other civs (especially Khazars) were very active in killing barbs for me. A barb warrior was killed by Khazars when he was one tile from a city of mine!
I was threatened only once and I paid.
I discovered Maths in 1950BC and I started a trading session that brought me Calligraphy + Taoism + Bajutsu + Iron Culture + the map of my continent. I start researching Shamanism at full speed.
In 1910BC I bought my first foreign warrior (at 1000BC they will be 10).
In 1550BC I discovered Shamanism and traded it for Civil Service + Confucianism + Map Making.
In 1250BC my first junk met Oda without even having to survive to the sea. The other continent was pretty behind in techs therefore I only got money (about 650g).
I discover Monarchy in 1150BC and in 1075BC I was king.
In 1075 another trading session gave me Construction + Currency and brought me in Middle Age. I gave free techs to scientific civs and was able to trade also for Monotheism and Engineering.

At 1000BC I had:
Cities 21
Citizens 75
Settlers 1
Worker 7
Slaves 10
Warrior 10
Galley 1
Horseman 8
Barracks 10
Granary 1
Temple 1
Gold 1505
Contacts 12

I had all mandatory AA techs + Monarchy + Engineering + Monotheism. My score was 688.

Norhern Area

Southern Area

Map at 1000BC

I discovered Feudal Warlords (750BC) and Samurai Code (550BC), then I stopped research to save money for current and future upgrades.

I start the war campaign in 530BC and trigger Golden Age. Korea was my first victim, they were terminated in 370BC.
In 390BC I got my first GL who built Forbidden Palace in Shangai.

In 350BC I bought Invention from Baekje for Samurai Code and 740g and I started researching towards Military Tradition at the maximum possible speed.

I attacked Mongols in 350BC. In 310BC I got my second GL who built Leonardo. I attacked Raja in 290BC. In 230BC I knew Gunpowder.

In 110BC I attacked and terminated Khazars in the same turn. In 70BC Mongols were terminated and I knew Chemistry.

In 10BC I attacked and terminated Gogu in the same turn. In 10AD I attacked Takeda on the close island. In 70AD Baekje were terminated. I had very hard time to conquer Edo (9 Riders died).
In 110AD I discovered Metallurgy.

In 190AD Takeda were terminated. In 230AD ex-Takeda Great Library gave me Education.

I learnt Military Tradition in 270AD and used all my money to upgrade 37 Cavalries. In 280AD 11 junks with 22 Cavalries were sailing toward Tokugawa land in the second continent and in 290AD war started in the new land.

Map at 280AD

In 350AD I got my 3rd GL who built JSB (at the end they will be 7).

In 380AD Tokugawa were terminated and Kuroda were attacked, they were terminated in 410AD. In 430AD I attacked Oda.
In 450AD Ottomans declared war on us, I allied with Rome against Oda and Ottomans. Oda were terminated in 560AD, Ottomans in 570AD and Romans in 620AD for a Conquest victory.

I’m not an expert of Conquest victory and I had some problem finding the right balance between abandoning and keeping conquered cities. I should have kept more city on my continent and razed more city in the new one (I had 12 flips).
In addition I forgot to send junks to deal with the Roman island (east of the new continent) and I lost 4 turns waiting for few junks to arrive, I could have closed the game in 580AD.

Map at 580AD

 

[Offa]

Originally posted by Mark Cutt

I decided to go for Conquest victory.

Brilliant effort. Well done. But really I think you were wrong to content yourself with a conquest win, especially one 300 years faster than mine. You should have reached for the stars, like SirPleb.

 

[Mark Cutt]

Originally posted by Offa


Brilliant effort. Well done. But really I think you were wrong to content yourself with a conquest win, especially one 300 years faster than mine. You should have reached for the stars, like SirPleb.

I agree!
Unfortunately I did not know I had won gotm25 when I started gotm26.
Having the objective to win a gotm I planned the usual domination victory because I have a lot of experience in domination and it's the only way can compete with stronger player.
After the gotm25 results announcement I could only change my strategy to conquest.
I promise that starting from goty I'll try to learn the secrets of other victory condition .

 

[SirPleb]

Well done indeed Mark Cutt! Your progress at 1000BC is very impressive, gave you a strong platform to go for conquest

 

[Kuningas]

1.27

Link to GOTM 26 Spoiler II

270AD - 1190AD

I had two way to archive space victory. One way was to gain more land/cities and commerce by warring to get 4 turn tech pace. Other was to trade techs and help rivals. I chose latter and never got techs faster than 5 turns.
Primarily, I stayed out of wars. Fortunately there wasn't any wars in home continent. When I had railroads built, I disbanded military units.
Koreans and Rajaputana were my trade pals, I gifted techs and luxuries. Tokugawa were monster in other continent, ruined research capabilities there.

270AD - Ottomans got Medicine, Koreans got Nationalism.
350AD - Steam Power (8 turns). Trade for Medicine and Nationalism. Anarchy period ->
410AD - Democracy formed. (6 turns)
470AD - Electricity (6 turns)
520AD - Scientific Methods (5 turns)
600AD - Atomic Theory (8 turns), Electronics and Radio (ToE), Industrialization (Koreans)
640AD - The Corporation (4 turns)
690AD - Steel (5 turns), Refining (Koreans)
740AD - Combustion (5 turns), Replaceable Parts (Rajaputana)
800AD - Flight (6 turns) trade it for Mass Production (Rajaputana)
820AD - Koreans started UN. stupid Rajaputana have sold Flight to Koreans if I have waited 2 turns I could have get both MP and MT for Flight.
850AD - Motorized Transportation (5 turns) Koreans got Fission, Ottomans Ecology.

870AD - Steal Fission from Korean for 1700 gold
930AD - Computers (8 turns) Ecology (Ottomans) Rocketry (Koreans)
970AD - Han built UN.
980AD - Koreans cascade to SETI, close call.
990AD - Koreans learned Space flight why I didn't start on Nuclear Power.
1010AD - Space flight (8 turns)
1080AD - Superconductor (7 turns) Satellites (Koreans)
1140AD - Nuclear Power (6 turns) Synthetic Fibers (Rajaputana)
1190AD - The Laser and space ship launched.

It isn't easy to guess what AI will research next. I should have believed spreadsheet "AI tech research estimations" by Ambiorix. Could have cutted end year by 100 years.

Firaxis score 8455.

 

[Ronald]

Predator, PTW 1.27f

I left my last spoiler at 825BC. Here is my progress in the next ages:

Originally, I was thinking for a space victory, but I did not have the time to play it fully, so I decided after more than 25 hours of play to settle for a diplomatic victory at 1285AD with a Firaxis score of 9715.

It was quite a difficult game and I really liked playing that one.

 

[Zwingli]

Summary

When I left off my ancient age post, I was attempting to win a culture victory without directly attacking enemy cities (i.e. only gaining new territory by culture, propaganda, or poaching open sites from third party wars). In the end 34 cities flipped to me (about 24 by culture and 10 by propaganda) and culture victory was achieved in 1740 AD.

Detail
It would be a simple matter to exceed 100k culture, but it is also necessary to keep all potential rivals from reaching 50k culture. Korea and Baekje became culturally powerful, and were destroyed by alliances among the other civs on the continent. Even without attacking cities, a handful of Han horsemen/riders and catapults was enough to tip the balance in favor of the allies by destroying Korean/Baekje troops in the open.

Tokugawa became the dominant civ on the other continent, amassing significant culture and pushing back Rome and Kruodo (the only remaining competitors on that continent). A small expeditionary force of riders stopped Tokugawa's northern advance, and an alliance with Rome and Kruodo kept Tokugawa in check while Han culture increased.

As the Tokugawa stalemate dragged on for over 120 turns, the former Korean and Baekje cities flipped to the Han with great frequency. Eventually, almost all Korean/Baekje cities would flip to me. In the industrial age, rifles/infantry and explorers executed pillaging offensives against Tokugawa, and later Raja and Mongolia after these civs attacked. The Raja attack struck at my lightly defended southern territory, and I lost 7 cities to to razing, abandonment, or capture. Nonetheless, I gained far more cities from Mongolia and Raja than I lost due to favorable culture and propaganda flips, and both empires were reduced to small pauper states with the help of my allies (Goru and Kazars). Han culture was also somewhat effective overseas as 5 Roman cities on the other continent converted to my side.

The circled regions represent the original Han territories after the initial expansion, with all subsequent expansion caused by flips or third party razing.

 

[SirPleb]

Very nicely done Zwingli, a work of art!

 

[Offa]

Superb Zwingli. It looks like you weren't all that far off a domination win, which would have been a real coup.

 

[zagnut]

PTW OPEN

The good news is that I secured a diplomatic win. The bad news is that it was in 1625.

I fell behind in the tech race at the beginning of the Middle Ages and had to change my strategy. At 1375 BC I traded for Map Making and managed to barter it to the other civs for much gold and all the known techs.

I started a couple of wars after that but they all went badly. I eventually made peace and licked my wounds. The plan was to build up the military again and then take over the continent. But from that point on I started to slip behind the other civs in the tech race. The scientific civs entered the Middle Ages and must have traded their techs around because all of a sudden I was way behind. At that point I made up my mind to go for either a diplomatic or spaceship victory.

In 890 AD I declared war on Kuroda in the hope of slowing the tech race so that I coulde catch up. That worked as I allied with a lot of his neighbors to also slow them down. Raja declared war on me and that brought the war to the home continent. Pretty soon one of my Riders beat an Elephant and we entered our Golden Age. That gave me 4 turns per tech and enabled me to close the tech gap.

In 1030 I finally got my first Great Leader.

In 1150 I made peace with Raja and got Steam Power. By then I was in the lead in the tech race and sprinting for the Theory of Evolution. I got it built with a Great Leader and from then on it was all downhill to the UN. Since I was ahead in techs I just gifted techs to the other civs until they all loved my, except for Raja who was furious forever.

The most powerful civ in my game was Korea. They had many Wonders and tons of culture. Just about the time I discovered Motorized Transport they decided to declare war on me. That was their big mistake. I quickly allied every other civ against them except the Mongols who only had one city on an island. I then proceeded to take about ½ of their cities.

It was gratifying to fall behind in this game and still manage to pull out a win.

 

[killerloop]

ptw 1.14f predator

finished the game at 1140 for a diplomatic win. Wasn't lucky with my research partners. I had to research ALL industrial age techs myself, except for medicine! My research partner should have been the rajaputana's which were the highest score at the end of the MA. Although I left them almost 1/3 of the continent, they didn't research a bit! As Sir Pleb was mentioning I also couldn't research at a 4 turn rate, it came out at 4.4. All in all the 1st GOTM I was able to finish at a in-game score of over 10000, not too bad.

 

[AdrianE]

civ 1.29 on a MAC, Open class

Han launch spaceship in 1745AD, score approximately 7700

Unlike many, I settled the capital on the spot in the south and moved the northern settler. By 1000BC I had 10 towns. I dispatched the Goguryeo first with swordsmen and horsemen. Then I attacked the Baejke. Somehow I screwed up my reputation with this attack and could no longer trade gpt. I beileve they were giving me Gems and that was the only active trade. I reduced them to a 1 city. 20 turns later, my Riders finished them off trigger a golden age. A leader appeared and he was used for Sistines.

I kept up fairly well with trading by checking the trade screen each and every turn.

Mean while the Mongols were kicking the stuffing out of the Koreans. I used my golden age to build infrastructure and about 20 riders. The riders were dispatched to the northern lands to keep an eye on the mongols. Soon after the mongols were done with Korea, they attacked us. I signed up Takeda and the Raj to fight the mongols. My Riders simply shredded the mongol forces. They had hordes of archers who died to promote my riders. I got several leaders, whom I used for wonders. The Mongols were wiped out fairly quickly.

After this war I built up my core, built the fp in a former Khazar town. Then it turned out that the iron works could be built in a 1st ring city of my FP (woo- hoo!). I got the TOE with atomic theory and electronics slingshot. This put me in the tech lead for good.

Meanwhile Kuroda died on the other continent. I sent a settler to poach a silk site in the former Kurodan lands. Oda didn't like that and sent an army to crush it. An industrial age world war was started. Oda got the Raj on their side so I had to deal with them first. The Raj had a few cities cities that I needed so I took them. I could have wiped them out but I let them live thinking they would be good research partners. They weren't. Then I turned to Oda and pummeled them. I dispatched an expeditionary force to sieze back a silk supply. Then I made peace. This was fairly easy as the Han were the only ones with tanks. Meanwhile I'm researching as fast as I can.

Then Tokugawa tries to extort Flight, and the Han say no. The result is war. Tokugawa signs up Takeda. This is actually useful as it lets me rid my continent of their outposts. I mass airlift tanks into my silks beachhead and take the south eastern corner of the other continent. They quickly accept peace.

Meanwhile I build the UN and then SETI and the Internet to help wih researching the expensive techs. I gift the Ottomans to the Modern age, they learn rocketry and I trade them Fission for it. This is the only help I get from the AIs. In order to keep a positive cash flow and high research I turn many big cities to wealth production in the modern age.

I have 9 space ship parts completed before Takeda start one. Spaceship launch in 1745AD. I have 77000 culture at this point and I believe I could get an easy 100k culture win by 1900. Given that I have moden armour, and a massive army, and nukes I believe I could also easily win a military victory.

This certainly was a melee. The AI's were constantly at war.

 

[jeffd210]

civ1.29f, open

[edited with Kuningas feedback, thanks]

On my first try at the official GOTM, I still have a lot to learn. Its amazing what some of you can do.

I did the long march to the south, never dreaming about a palace jump. I was worried about corruption. When I saw all those stacks of armies, I decided to be extra friendly and give in to whatever they asked for until I could get some armies built up.

As a result, I was peaceful for much of the AA. Here's my 1000BC status (note all in the south).

First skirmish was border cleanup and luxury grab with the Bakje. I took their closest (southern) cities.

First war with Gorguryeo at 290BC to take out their 2 cities by 230 BC and off to the MA. I used swordsmen, which I never did before, but then I never have seen the upgradeability before, and I made a guess that that would make them more useful. They're so slow I still don't like them, and still the medieval sword stops being useful in early MA in my opinion, especially with Rider for the Han available at same time! What do others think about swords versus horse? I saw some (but not all) of the pros had no swords for this game, and a lot of horse.

At 150 AD I had a decision point. Would I go west and take out the game leader Raja, or go NE and take out my furious opp Bakje and their neighbor the Kazar?

Map at 150 AD:

I was lined up to take Raja, then I noticed the prebuilt RCP of 5 with the Kazar and Bak -- all I had to do was help myself to their cities. So NE it would be

Here's the AI's RCP of 5 waiting to happen, with Balkhash in the center.

I also wanted tech, and both Bak and Raja had plenty to spare, if I could convince them. Bak gave me Inv and Son Buddha in 310 AD when the treaty of Balkhash was signed with Kazars mediating.

Curiously, Kazar declared war on me the next turn. I destroyed them that same turn, which must be some kind of record! What were they thinking?

I'm at a tech disadvantage, and the Mongols just don't know how to trade, so I plan to help them learn . By 410 AD, the Mongols gave me Gunpowder, Banking, and 800g.

In 450 AD my golden age is over. I'm struggling to stay up with AI research, and I'm going for space race, so I think that democracy is necessary to get the extra kick to keep up.

My 7 turn revolution has me watching helplessly as 3 of my cities flip during anarchy! Raja takes 1, Korea takes 2.

710 AD I finally get to IA about even with AI due to some timely trading. I opened up trades almost every turn to check on AI progress.

850 AD: railroads span my country. I dare any AI to attack me now! I'm starting to feel frisky for the first time this game. I have the game in hand at this point, I think.

910 AD: I have a tech lead for the first time! Sci Method is next turn, and I have GL ready to make ToE next turn. So I will be up 2 techs, I hope to keep it that way!

1150 AD: I'm at peace a long time, while I build research infrastructure. Raja takes out a lot of others (Korea, Rome, ...) I help finish Korea, and also finished Bak after our 20 turns was up. I'm starting to get that expansion itch again. With Takeda's island be next, or Korea? Raja took out Rome on other continent, if I had been on the ball I could've had most of that newly emptied real estate for just a few settlers, but now its too late to build ships. I don't even have 1 ship yet, nor any extra settlers.

1050 AD snapshot:

1200 AD: still no war, but I have lots of gold (~5000). I'm keeping my tech lead, and selling 1 or 2 tech old to Raja, Korea, and Takeda. I'm keeping Toku in the game, and Oda too.

1320 AD: Modern age. Takeda declares war on me -- why, I ask? I get Korea to help, and they get the whole world to chop Takeda's island to bits. Its only fair that I get the best pieces.

1445 AD: Korea sneak attacked me while under a RoP. I didn't know the computer would do that! Good thing they only sent 1 army to deep interior, else I would've been toast. They raze one of my best cities in interior, take 4 others. I thought we were friends, now I must have vengeance! :ripper:

I think that my trying to plant a spy on him and getting caught 3 times got him 'annoyed'. Does anyone have a good spy planting technique (in order to see space ship progress)? I ended up planting 0 spies, but got 6 caught and killed, before I abandoned the effort. For spaceship insurance, I ended up placing stacks of artillery and modern armor outside of the my main rival Raja's capital (we have RoP and he is gracious, heh heh).

To deal with Korea, I wanted to bring in allies on my side since I don't think I can take on the world. But Korea already have MPP with Raja and Toku. So I made a mistake. Instead of military alliance against them, I sign a MPP with Oda and Toku and Raja. I carefully just took Koreas armies on my land that first turn, which meant I couldn't recapture my cities. That worked fine. However, when Raja declared war on Korea on his next turn, he used my RR to take back my recently stolen cities for himself -- and he razed them! What kind of ally is that?

The MPP haunted me, because I wanted to quit the war due to high War Weariness but kept getting dragged back in. My first exit was for 2 turns, only to have Korea attack Oda and send me back. I took 4 more Korean cities, made peace, and then Korea attacked Toku. I end up launching in 1540 while still at war with the Koreans, who had cities scattered all over, and my people were none too happy.

I could've finished 1 turn earlier with my prebuild palace if I had known to go to the big picture, hit f1, open up my prebuild city and make the switch (thanks to Kuningas for that idea).

Also, if I had dreamed about being sneak attacked and having trouble with WW, I would've kept my bank account in better shape. As it was, I was feeling flush and everyone was polite to me, so I rushed culture and science improvements, draining the bank. When my people started get war weariness, and Korea's gpt deals went away due to the war, I lost so much revenue that I ran a serious deficit and had to cut back on research to stay positive.


Lessons Learned

My best research was 6-8 turns for ModernA tech. Thanks to SirPleb's post earlier I'll try to improve that next time by growing my best research cities and trying harder for the science wonders (I only got SETI). Also, I'll need more cities.

The palace jump is something that never even occurred to me. So many games I have waited 60+ turns for that foreign palace to manually build (if no GL), when I could just build it right next door... I'll have to try it.

The 4 turn settler factory is something else I'll work on.

From now on, I'll avoid MPP unless no other options, and keep science/bank lead so that I can buy allies when I need them! On the other hand, RoP seemed to work great to keep others from warring with me when I didn't want them to (until the end of this game at least).


Final score: 6961 for launch on 1540 AD. Lots of room for improvement.

Final map:

Science rate at end (nowhere near SirPleb):

Thanks for having this GOTM forum, I really enjoyed reading the posts so far.

 

[grahamiam]

PTW 1.27f Open

I had a lot of fun with this Gotm, though I did run out of time for a space race victory due to the Christmas holiday and family obligations. I was able to score my first diety win with a diplomatic victory in 1395AD. My Firaxis score of 9227 was a personal best. Especially considering that we were also potty training my 3 year old boy this month (he is doing very well, almost ready to ditch diapers at night).

In the game, my biggest boost came from the Han's Golden age from 280AD thru 480AD. I was able to mostly catch up in the MA tech's and even got to Typography first.

By the early Industrial Age, I had conquered and claimed most of the Korean, Mongol, and Gorg land. The Baekje had most of the Khazars. We split the Raja, with the Baekje possesing the middle so that I was split in two halves. However, relations were polite so I thought I would have a good tech trading partner.

That all ended when they sneak attacked me in 810AD. They only captured one city that turn but did kill a couple of cavalry. Luckily, they also went after riders and medevil infantry. I was able to regroup and, in a few turns, had them on the run. I banished them from the home continent in 990AD, leaving them 1 city on the island off the east coast. What was really remarkable was that, in 1020AD, I was able to sue for peace and trade tech with them for gpt. The were able to pay 5gpt, 36gpt, and 116gpt in three seperate deals. Later, they paid a whoping 306gpt for Electronics! All from a single island. Thier money, however, seemed to run out in the end as they were only able to offer 76gpt for Radio.

Only the UN was hand built with a palace pre-build (badly timed, should have learned better from GoTM24). Rushed Newton's, Shaekspears, Universal Sufferage, Theory of Evolution, and even the Heroic Epic.

Thanks to all the players who submitted Gotm24 and 25. I was able to review some of the games and noted that they usually had a much denser city layout than I typically used and I tried to adjust this game. The extra cities were extremely useful during the Baekje war. Some powerful enough to build cavalry every 3 turns. Really saved my butt.

I would also like to thank civ_steve, denyd, and SirPleb for thier advice in the 1st spoiler. I did try to keep the Ottomans in the science race but they kept getting behind as I had almost the entire world paying me for tech's after Theory of Evolution. Next time, I will try to keep more than 1 science civ viable in the game for as long as possible. After reading this thread, I'll also gift more to make sure thier free tech's become available during age changes.

Congratulations Zwingli on an incredible game. I also hope Qitai submits as I am really curious what happens in that game.

Happy New Year!

 

[Txurce]

Mac 1.29
Ancient Age Spoiler
Middle Ages Spoiler

The rest of my game continued on the same research path as the Middle Ages - of the essential techs, only industrialization, rocketry and fission came my way from the AI. This was despite scrupulously keeping the other continent up to date. What worked against me was periodic warring, and too much balance among the offshore civs. Alexman has given us a good sense of what the AI will research next, but it seems to me that building up at least one AI civ to near-superpower status may also be key. My for this section of the game was about 5 turns per tech.

My approach to warfare for the rest of the game was to build units only when there was nothing else of value to build in a city. My pattern was usually markets, libraries, universities, banks, and stock exchanges, followed by factories and hospitals where useful, and then a big push for research labs. I built no temples, colosseums or cathedrals - these have fallen out of my games altogether, except when going for a cultural victory. Thanks to plentiful Leaders, I built every Industrial wonder, and the UN as well.

Since I was waiting for the AI to research military tradition, I used Riders to take the last Goguryeo city in 520, then allied with the Kuroda (who had settled along the icy southern rim) against the Raj. My Riders encountered only a few elephants, and the occasional musketman - but the Raj had no iron. In 750 I acquired MT from the Ottomans, and got Korea to declare war the next turn. (The Raj fell in 780). The Koreans had riflemen, but not a lot of them, and the cavalry made short work out of them, knocking them out in 850. The only AI left on the continent was the southern Kurodan strip, but I took their cities and made peace in four turns. This left the Takeda on their island as my last immediate target. I invaded in 920 with a cavalry army and loose cavalry, and eliminated them in 1030.

There was about a century of peace until 1160 when - one turn before I entered the Modern Age - the Oda declared war after failing to extort motorized transportation. To keep my research hopes alive, I allied with all of the other AI powers, and invaded with two tank armies and six tanks. The Oda were eliminated in 1285. At this point I was entertaining myself while waiting to build my spaceship. In 1305 I declared war on the Tokugawa with the Kuroda as allies, and wiped them out in six turns. This put me very close to the domination limit. Cutting it very tightly, I took two Roman cities in 1345, and razed the rest of their continental holdings in five turns. In 1415 I attacked the Ottomans to take a city that was on the wrong side of the border (offending my aesthetic sensibilities), then built a buffer by taking their three border cities and giving them to the Kuroda. I launched the next turn. Thanks to this expansion, I managed to get a Firaxis score of 10784.

This is the state of my military - and the extent of my empire - at game's end:

 

[Kuningas]

Originally posted by jeffd210
How do you put in one of those screen shot pictures?

How do you find out how long you have anarchy? (using Civ3 1.29f)

Does anyone have a good spy planting technique (in order to see space ship progress)?

I could've finished 1 turn earlier with my prebuild palace if I had built something else that turn (then switch my palace to lounge when that first thing completed). Is that legal?

I lost out so much revenue that I ran a serious deficit and had to cut back on research to stay positive (what would happen if it goes negative: random buildings sold, or not random?)

Colossus would probably help too, due to extra commerce -- or does that bonus end early?

By the way, how to get the "hours spent" summary? Is it an add on patch?

And the little happy faces on the F1 screen? Is that an add on too?

1. There is many tutorials for that. ie: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?threadid=55122

2. Press F1. Little advisor in top right corner, click him few times.

3. Spy planting fails so often. I plant spies only when I want specific civ to declare war on me. This will give defensive war bonus, it increases happiness in my cities.

4. It's legal in GOTM. When you research last mandatory tech for space ship, hit "what's the big screen?" go to F1 screen and replace palace with last component.

5. It's bug "negative cash research". You can run -1000 gpt and you only lost building and unit. I think its fixed in C3C.

6. Colossus' effect continues until Flight is learned.

7. Hours spent summary is only in PTW and C3C.

8. Yes, its add-on.

 

[Hurricane]

Just thought I'd peek in and say I won't submit this month. I had to replace my video card, and getting the new one took almost 3 weeks (delay on delay on delay), so I couldn't finish my game in time.

 

[Txurce]

SirPleb and Kuningas:

In comparing my game to yours, the big difference in research lies in the Ancient Era, which you both finished well ahead of me. I succeeded in all of my research gambits, there was no war to slow research down, and everyone traded constantly. One big difference , though, was that I didn't amke contact with the other continent until well after the QSC was over. Do you feel that these extra contacts had a major effect on your research?

 

[SirPleb]

Originally posted by Txurce
One big difference though, was that I didn't amke contact with the other continent until well after the QSC was over. Do you feel that these extra contacts had a major effect on your research?

They definitely had an impact for me

When I first met the remote Civs I was able to get Shamanism from Oda. A bit later Baekje where the first Civ in my world to learn Currency, in 1275BC. Ottomans were the first to learn Construction, in 1225BC. By cross-trading these two I was able to enter Middle Ages at that date. And then to further boost things, I was able to gift the remote Ottomans into Middle Ages at that time as well as Korea locally.