GOTM 27 Spoiler I - End of ancient age, full map of starting continent

[ainwood]

This is the first spoiler thread for Game Of The Month 27: The Game of the Year.

Because of the changes to such things as communication trading and map trading, it is likely that your knowledge of the map and of other civilizations (and be inference even the technology rate), will probably be progressing at a somewhat slower rate than in previous games.

SO PLEASE PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION TO THE QUALIFICATIONS TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS SPOILER, AND TO WHAT CAN BE POSTED IN THIS SPOILER!

Qualifications for participation:

1. You must have reached the end of the ancient age in terms of research.
2. You must have visibility of the entire starting continent.
3. You must have contact with the other civs (or their remains) that start on your home continent.

WHAT CAN AND CANNOT BE POSTED IN THE SPOILERS:
Not an exhaustive list - please use your common sense!

1. You CAN post screenshots of the map area, provided that these screenshots DO NOT show anything off you home continent that may spoil it for other players: eg Suicide galley paths (successful or otherwise), offshore islands (except those visible from the home contient.
2. Please DO NOT post minimaps!, or screenshots that show the minimap.
3. Please only discuss the civs that started on your home continent.

Some of these qualifiers may seem a bit restrictive, but I think that their's quite a bit to discuss. I will also monitor this thread, and start the next spoiler based on the content.

Given the starting location screenshot, points of real interest for discussion are how you went about choosing a location to settle your first city, and what steps you took in the early expansion phase. What was your sttitude towards your neighbours? Cooperative, or did you trample them into the dirt? Where did you settle your other cities? What resources are critical to your game, and how did you utilise them?

We look forward to reading the starting details of your campaign!

 

[Torisen]

Hi Guys!

This was my second attempt to start a game of the month, but I didn't get too far as the Han. I usually play epic games which, until recently, were on Regent level or below, though I've recently moved up to Monarch. So, I decided to give the Open class a try here! I'm playing Civ 3 1.29f on PC.

I've learned quite a bit in the past few months about starting off, though I don't think I'm up to predator-class standards by any means. New adaptions (for me) that I applied to this game include: 40-turn research (all through the ancient age this time), building almost exclusively warriors early, so I can upgrade them all to swordsmen, not worrying about getting behind in tech, and extracting tech through war. I went very millitaristic, building very few city improvements during the ancient age - a few temples to extend my city borders, and a few granaries to help with settler production.

In game 26, I went to war too soon. In this war, I prepared and sent concentrated forces after my enemies. When in doubt, I delayed and added more force. I also have slowly learned the lesson that I do not have to fight to the death, though I still do more often than not.

One other thing I began here that I'd never done before was keep a game log, which I can post if it would be useful.

But, to summarize some of the key developments:

My early scouting revealed a couple of very sweet looking spots to the southeast near England. I moved in and founded my first few cities in the corner - I didn't get the cow spot, but I did get the wheat & goats for my settler factory (New York) and a spot on the corner for gems. Spain expanded rapidly and crowded me pretty hard, so I knew I'd have to fight pretty early.

By 1000 BC (975BC Actually) I had 7 cities, 5 warriors, 2 granaries, 1 baracks, 2 scouts, 4 workers and a settler.

I was late getting iron because I was too afraid to attack a volcano on a mountain with just a horseman - they looked too scary. Then, Spain came along and killed it first try with a warrior. Oh. I managed to get iron hooked up just about the time Spain attacked. After some furious upgrades, I waged a major war and seized Barcelona, giving me a monopoly on Iron on the continent. I actually pillaged the iron within the first few turns of the war, as well - which was good because shortly after the war, I lost Barcelona in a culture flip! I made peace soon after, shifted my forces, and attacked England.

I seized the Great Lighthouse from England which greatly helped my early exploration. I got a great leader, built an army, and it lost its first battle - Arrrgh. Hastings had silk, which I definately wanted, but an ally seized it before my forces arrived. I did get a second great leader in the closing phases of the war.

I reduced England to one city and they bought peace with Monarchy. I didn't shift over for a while, though. I reoriented my forces and went back to war with Spain. I quickly seized several Spanish cities and turned lustful eyes toward the multiple Great Wonders of Madrid, not to mention the Great Library of Seville. During the war, in the year 260 A.D., I learned Construction and advance to the Middle Ages. Spain already has developed Feudalism, not a good sign!

 

[Tech Step]

(open class)

I had a disasterous GOTM 26 and I decided that this GTOM was going to be a ggod one for me. I am going to try and get into the top 50 this month (fingers crossed)

I have not got any screenshots set up but i will edit the post with them tonight and add them in inthe appropriate places.

I sent my first scout south east and saw the flood plains. However I decided (manily due to raging barbarians) that I would settle one square to the south east which would make it very difficult for attackers to kill me due to the river between us. In hindsight I don't think that it was the best idea as it made it difficult to expand to the west (lossing one turn each time I crossed the river) and the start was slow due to the poor food resources.

I immediately researched Ceremonial burial (after Sir Plebs good post in the pre game discussion thread) and my building queue was as follows scout, scout, warrior, granary, settler (I think)

My second city (New York) was founded North of the mountain in the flood plain region. By this stage I had done a fair bit of explring and met the English and the Spanish.

To my dismay I found _no_ Goody huts which ruined the whole plan of researching "CB"

Map making was my priority and I set about researching it as fast as possible. My general plan was to build heaps and heaps of Horsemen and warriors (upgrade them to swordsmen) and attack the spanish. (My border with the English was to long for me to defend well so I decided that an attack on the spanish on a smaller front would be ideal and hopefully I would be able to bring the English in on the action.

One thing I did notice was that the AI knows where the resources are before they are visible as the spanish sent a settler all the way across the island and settled right next to the Iron (before it had even appeared on the screen - I am pretty sure that they didn't have Iron working.

Once I realised that I had no iron I rallied my troops on the south east border (4 horsemen) and sent another bunch to defend my western border with the spanish. I took the town occupying the iron and upgraded all of my warriors to swords (about 5 or 6) I signed a military alliance with the english and they declared war on the spanish the next turn (yay) I was hoping that they would be able to hold off the spanish while I regrouped my troops for another offensive.

As soon as I researched Republic I revolted and to my surprise I got a 2 turn anarchy (can someone please explain that ? ) I traded republic for the remaining techs I was missing and went into the middle ages in a pretty good position.

At this stage the plan was to build as many horsemen as possible, upgrade them to knights and take over the main continent.

Yet these plans were thrown by the wayside as my only soruce of iron was depleted.

This was not going to be an easy game.........

The Ancient Era was probably one of the best that I have ever had in terms of strategy. I really used the diplomacy features and ensured that I kept all of my promises to leep my reputation good. I was unable to build any of the Ancient era wonders yet I was the largest civilization and the most powerfull. (only just in each category)

more to come.....(if anyone has gottem here well done )

 

[Zwingli]

(mac 1.29)
Stopwatch Civ
With most of my free time this month concentrated in the first week, I decided to finish the GOTY in as little time as possible. I set a goal of finishing the game in 8 hours over the course of 2 days. Starting off, I shut off the animations, hired the governor, and fired up the stopwatch.

0hr 0min
Moved the scout south, then moved Washington east to the coast. The first settler moved southward to some food resources to start a settler factory.

1hr 15min
1000 BC mark is reached with cities mostly scattered around distance 5.

2hr 10min
Spain launches a sneak attack while most of my cities are tied up on building projects (Washington was working toward Hanging Gardens). With the animations disabled, I am truly taken off guard. They capture Chicago on the first turn of war and walk into an undefended city in the south (my interior cities were very lightly defended). Large stacks of swordsmen overcome my regular warrior defenders in San Francisco after a few turns, and only an alliance with England and some whipped spearmen prevent Spain from rolling up my civ like a scroll.

2hr 56min
After 20 turns of alliance, I pay Spain 19gpt for peace. On the bright side I have retained all first ring cities and completed the Hanging Gardens in Washington.

3hr 13min
End of Ancient Age. (~150 BC)

 

[Tech Step]

I was late getting iron because I was too afraid to attack a volcano on a mountain with just a horseman - they looked too scary

Torisen

I am pretty sure that the volcanoes are 0/1/0 (A/D/M) units. I could be mistaken as I have had trouble killing them before with archers yet as we know the AI seems to "cheat" on occasions.

 

[barbslinger]

My start consisted of moving the scout S, since we were in the N, and irrigating the start spot per Sir Pleb. On the next turn before settling on the river I moved the scout S again and saw the flood plains! Decisions, decisions. I decided that since all I saw N was plains I would take the extra 2 turns to move and get the flood plains in city. I settled NY on incense and then started producing settlers. My scout continued S and met the English and saw some nice grassland and more + a 2 tile choke I could hold the english off on. I blocked with warriors and got some land down there but not the gems. A target was set up. When I got the volcanos killed off by an archer after 2 warrior failures I was pleased when iron came in and it was in my back yard. This city went to work on shields and I got the GrLib there in 90BC and other wonders including Leo's later. I only had 5 cities at 1000BC. I can't remember why it was so slow with the flood plains and all but I think because I was gearing up for war with Spanish and England. It was looking like contacts would be a while and the Library was a bust pretty much with this group of slow researchers so I set my sights on England for Gems and to cut them back to near nothing. I took out Hastings and York in 530-540AD for Gems and then went to war with the Spanish in 630AD. The GL put my into Republic and out of ancient and lots of warring ensued after that.

 

[ainwood]

Originally posted by Tech Step


Torisen

I am pretty sure that the volcanoes are 0/1/0 (A/D/M) units. I could be mistaken as I have had trouble killing them before with archers yet as we know the AI seems to "cheat" on occasions.

Torisen - Right-click on the volcano for the actual A/D/M it <might> vary with conquest / open / predator....

And regardless of what people may say, the Random Number Generator has been tested exhaustively, and the AI doesn't cheat!

 

[tao]

Originally posted by ainwood
Torisen - Right-click on the volcano for the actual A/D/M it <might> vary with conquest / open / predator....

And regardless of what people may say, the Random Number Generator has been tested exhaustively, and the AI doesn't cheat!

On predator, the volcanoes had defense 3. I needed 4 horsemen loosing one and 2 retreating to "free" the iron.

Does the attack bonus vs. barbarians apply?

 

[flexo]

I have returned from my three (or is it four) game hiatus

The game started out kind of slow really. After some quick looking around with my scout and worker the starting location seemed ok, in hindsight I think I should have moved one square down [2]. I had made contact with my fellow islanders less then half way into my QSC. Spain sure had a stick up somewhere, real attitude problem.

I failed to capture one of the two iron deposites on the island, BIG problem. To make things worse the second to last turn of the QSC I told spain to stick it where the sun don't shine and they would have their 23 gold pieces when they took it from my cold dead hands, apparently they decided to take me up on the offer.

So I was at War with Spain, had to abandon all other constructions in favor of mighty mighty spearmen and horsemen, whoohooo! I managed to hold them off, which I thought was incredible. Considering they had iron and swordmen. I persuaded the English to join me and they did. Island War! But the british cowards settled for peace not long after the Spainsh had raised two of their puny settlements. I had but conquered one spain town when they we all decided to have a few turns of peace and regroup. War will rage on and off until about 1000 AD on the Island.

I built myself a big stack of horsemen, and went to war with the English. They really were not worthy of Iron.

All this waring had really put a damper on my Science, so I had gone straight for litterature and prebuilt a bit on what would become my great library. Without it I don't know if I could have bounced back from the Spanish menace.

At the end of the ancient age I know Spain, England, and...
London had built the Pyramids which was good for me since at the end of the ancient era they topped my victim list

I had six or was it seven cities at the end of the QSC, mostly built next to the extensive river network that crosses the island.

 

[tao]

PREDATOR Panther 1.29

Most people know that you can do 'that', but for those that don't and don't want to know, please don't post it. Thanks. -ainwood)

The scout goes SE-SE: nothing important; settler moves E to coast. Scout Se-SE sees lamb, settler goes S. Scout goes SE-S sees flood plain and settler goes S to get lambs immediately and flood plain after 1st expansion.

Washington is founded in 3850bc w 0 research on ceremonial burial and starts to build 2nd scout later going west.

We meet the English in 3550 and Spanish in 3350. In 2230 we contact another civ across the water. But since we cannot trade contacts or maps, this is of limited value for now.

Since the 2 scouts showed the limited size of our continent, not more of them were built. Since Madrid and York were slaving on the Pyramids early, I decided to not compete but build units instead hoping the Pyramid looser would cascade to Great Lighthouse. Madrid built Pyramids, York switched to GLight and we hope for it to succeed in the Middle Ages.

We research mathematics, currency, literature full speed each and trade for the other techs. We did not find any goody huts to pop.

1300bc Spain wants math which we deny of course and they declare war. We ally w England (giving mathematics and getting horseback riding). We try hard to get promotions and hope for a Great leader, but in vain though we win a lot of fights. Have the odds been changed by cracker??? Fighting continues into Middle Ages as we continue to hope for a Leader but no cities change owner since we have not yet connected the iron and upgraded our warriors to swords.

By 1000bc, America had 7 cities pop 18, 3 workers, 2 slaves, 8 warriors, 1 archer, 1 scout, 3 spears, 2 horsemen.

In 875bc the 1st of many galleys starts north to explore the sea its findings to be discussed in the next spoiler.

Entering Middle Ages in 710bc still in despotism.

 

[Kuningas]

1.27

4000-610BC

Initial

I had similar moves for scout (S,SE S,SE SW,W) and settler(E,S,S) as Tao and I founded Washington in same spot. Build order scout-scout-granary.

1. Scout goes 3x NW,W and contact Spain 3600BC. Spain has Alphabet for Masonry and pottery. 40 turn gambit for Mathematics begins. First easter egg, squids.
2. Scout goes SE. Meet England 3450BC. They have Ceremonial Burial for Masonry. EDIT: They had mysticism already. There may be one hut ( I didn't find any).
3. Scout goes NE. Meet 3th civ 2390BC. Second easter egg, barbarian scouts. Haven't seen them before.

1830BC Mathematics and then full speed Philosophy 1830-1500BC, Code of Laws 1500-1200BC and The Republic 1200-670BC. 610BC England knows currency I trade and enter in the MA.

Spain started at least with 2 settlers. I ran out of space ~2000BC. Food poor start and limited space resulted 8 cities in 1000BC distance 4/4,5.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/GOTM27_Kuningas_RCP.jpg

QSC stats:
8 cities
29 citizens
settler
7+1 workers
3 scouts
10 horses
4 barracks
1 granary
1 temple
AA techs, missing Currency, Republic, Monarchy, Literature.
score 213
173 gold
Republic in 15 turns

Wars
First war was phony when I refused in 3th civs demands. Second war vs England 975-850BC. I aimed to gain control of iron. I razed two cities with horses. I may have advanced further, but England completed Great Wall 850BC. It was suicide to attack in wall towns. I quickly conclude peace and MA vs Spain 850BC. That war continued to MA, it was slower and casulties were heavier. But I gained necessary space for expand.

 

[bluebox]

*** please keep posting your game and class ***
thank you

after losing gotm 26 i wanted this one to be a sure shot (read this somewhere in this thread before ... ) so i started on conquest again.

exploration with scout and chests showed completely homogenious terrain, so i moved the settler one step away from the coast to get all improvable city tiles and started to produce another scout. i met english and spanish and it seemed like space is scarce. i switched from granary to barracks in washington, builded a bunch of warriors and archers and founded one one additional city at the flood plains in the south.
i went on war with the english, conquered city (iron site) was auto-razed and resettled by me. i got their 2nd city in the peace deal.
now spain was building their empire towards me. producing warriors and mass upgrade to swordsmen were my preparations to the spanish war. i was able to get an alliance with the english (by tech, but i cannot tell you how this happened ) , so spain had to split their forces and i could conquer their border cities.

now the crazy part of the (hi)story:
leader! but no wonder to build - so i made an army of swordsmen.
another leader! bought literature and built great library!
and around 150ad - my third leader! used for ... (fill in ma-wonder)

this is a good example of how a game can rise or fall by chance. it's probably the counterside of what other players experienced in other games. and with leader 2 and 3 i didn't even realize i was moving an elite unit until i was supposed to rename them!

some in-game observations:
corruption is not a problem for now. this might be so because:
- it's a large map;
- the optimal number of cities has increased in c3c and i think cracker has done it in this c3c mod, too.

tech pace is pretty slow - i can tell you because i have the gl, so i know what's going on!

thank you for reading this

 

[Megalou]

PREDATOR PTW1.27

I agree that people should post game version and class. As I understand it, we no longer have to use symbols like the one I copied from Kuningas.

As of yet, no one has commented on what a great game this is. If a random game was like this the quality of each game would go up a great deal. Maybe the lack of praise is because the best easter eggs and other details will unfold in the next spoiler. This feels truly like a masterly set-up for a game.

The only new "eggs" I noticed in the ancient age were laid by the Spanish who expanded at a rate I have never seen before, certainly not on monarch.

I started the game by moving the settler an unbelievable 4 steps into the range of 4 flood plains. Apart from losing some early production, commerce, food and worker tasks, I gave the Spaniards extra room for expansion. You can see on the screenshot how close Spain came. They actually founded a town at distance 1 from the original starting location. I'm not sure if the extra room I gave the Spanish or the late founding of Wasington was to blame, but my expansion area was very small, only 4 towns at RCP4. Having to build temples to culture push, or even avoid flips, slowed down my inevitable military campaigns.

In my defence I might add that I had no idea that the southern tip of the continent was so close. I sent the scout west after he had revealed the flood plains. The loss of commerce seemed like the smallest problem, since I also planned to research Ceremonial Burial at 0%. But I didn't find any goody huts either. However, I'm pretty sure the English popped Mysticism somewhere on the western coastline, near a barb camp I had trouble avoiding. They had Mysticism long before Spain and shortly after reseaching something else.

Maybe I gained a small advantage over the English as a result of moving south. I overran them easily with horsemen (no leader)before the end of the age, after prebuilding lots of chariots thanks to being near horses. I gained the Great Lighthouse from them. I wiped the English out in one fell swoop because they had no techs to offer anymore.

Miscellaneous:

* The corruption in former England is low, thankfully. I think it can contribute about 1/3 of the total commerce/production even without courthouses. Nottingham is so close to Washington it's almost a power house. Had this been a deity game I would struggle with corruption at this point.

* Spain definitely started with at least two settlers. Cheap AI production seems less of an obstacle. I made some notes:
English settler: 27 shields (90%)
Spanish temple: 27 sh (45% but they have the religious trait)

* The attack strength of the squid used to be 1 but now it is 2. This is great for the game and also makes them look bigger. I made good use of the 100% bonus vs barbarians, but left the volcanos to the AI, not sure what the stats (1.2) mean.

* Using a lone scientist instead of researching at 10% saved me as much as 14 gpt (at the end of the age).

Sorry I can't give more details. I just get too carried away to make systematic notes.

 

[Rocinante]

Conquest class-GOTY

My first GOTM..well actually my second try at my first GOTM. Didn't use the treasures on first try and was so slow getting started that the English rushed me and sacked all my cities but one so I decided to start over. Hopefully I can get next month's game in submittable form.

Second try--Used settler on starting square; used both treasures to jump start Granary. Expanded exactly as I did the first time--mostly due West.

Grabbed the wool near 'Lonely Mountain', reached the west coast and grabbed the incense there. Am now moving South to get the incense there. The English came but I was stronger this time and they didn't attack.

No war as yet. No wonders built as yet.

At first I didn't realize the volcanoes are to be popped like huts. Then I saw the Spainards try but they failed many times--with warriors, spearmen and archers, too. I finally popped one but didn't get anything.

Kept research levels at one level below negative rate. Haven't made any trades yet.

975 B.C. stats:
Washington founded 4000BC
NY-founded 2550BC
Boston-2030
Philly(wool)-1675
Atlanta-1500BC
Chicago-1300
Seattle-1275
SF-1125BC
Miami(incense)-1100BC
Houston-975BC

total population-20
9 towns
6 warriors
4 spearmen
3 archers
2 workers
1 settler

Contacts with Spain & England only.

Have only been playing since November, sneaking time here and there so SWMBO doesn't get annoyed. Anyway, helluva game, hope to get better very quickly.

 

[Auk]

Civ 1.29f - Predator

Initial Impressions - Eek! Well with such a rubbish start site I reckoned that if I found a nice site with my scout I could easily justify spending a few turns trekking with my settler to find some bonus tiles. Even with rapid irrigation, a plains only site would take ages to make a granary. The second important thing was to note that there were only 9 opponents. On a map of this size, this either meant that I would have loads of room to expand – or that there was a lot of water.

I sent my scout 2 squares due west and moved my settler down a square. Neither move revealed any better tiles, however another river was revealed by the scout. I then moved my scout round the bottom of the mountain – this revealed a wool bonus. With +2fd, +1 shld, this was definitely worth heading for. So I did. While moving my settler, my scout revealed a whole lotta other bonuses. I decided on a site for my first city that enabled me to work 2 sheep squares at the beginning and then a wool after the first cultural expansion. This would give me a nice settler factory. In my excitement at finding this, I failed to spot an even better spot, one which would have had 3 wools and 2 sheep in its radius. I only realised this a few turns later, by which time the Spanish had snagged the wools. D’oh!

Anyhow – I soon contacted the Spanish, and the English, both of which were dangerously close to my borders. For this reason, I built a tight RCP at distance 3, and then pretty much settled at random for the rest of my initial expansion, since I didn’t have the room for a wider ring. Thanks to the nice start point, I pumped out settlers at quite a rate. At 1000 BC I had : 15 towns (pop30), 7 native workers, 12 warriors, 1 archer, 2 barracks, 4 granaries and 1 temple. And no, I can’t remember why I built the temple. I could see that the Vikings were up north, but I didn’t know whether they were on an island or not, and my scouts kept getting whacked by barbarians. (I’m assuming that the presence of the Vikings is allowed for this spoiler since you can’t really have explored the continent without having come across them….)

Technically not.... but it is a difficult one. New rule: May mention actions of the VIKINGS IF THESE ACTIONS HAPPEN ON YOUR CONTINENT! No discussion or screenshots of where they came from please.

. I was expecting to find one, two at most more civs via landroutes, so I wasn’t that concerned. I hadn’t seen any sudden tech jumps by the English or Spanish. At 1000 BC I had just started researching Republic at 10% science. 90% science only gave me 24 turns, which I was a bit surprised about…

I sent my first galley out shortly afterwards.

The next period was… somewhat slow. I pretty much stopped building settlers, since there wasn’t really anywhere for them to go, and started building up an army, which I planned to use to attack the english. Sadly, I didn’t have any iron, so it was going to be horsemen all the way. I’ve actually finished the game now, and looking back, I played this part of the game (and the early part of the next age) pretty badly. Everything seemed to slow down. Anyhow. In about 540 BC I declared war on the English. They didn’t put up much of a fight. I haven’t played on monarch for a while, and I think I was over cautious in my war-mongering for most of the game. I got in a brief and pointless war with the Vikings due to an alliance with the Spanish during this period also.

The English war dragged on a bit, and I finally left them with one city left, after having captured the great library (in 170BC) and their iron source. The capture of the great library pushed me into the next age. I was a republic by this stage.

edit: I've never considered using one scientist rather than 10% science. I am officially a doofus.

 

[denyd]

Unlike a couple of the previous posters, I only moved 1 space before settling. My scout went west meeting Spain in 5 turns. My second scout met the English in 3450 BC. Noting the poor food start after developing a pair of tiles I rejoined my worker to Washington and got my first settler out in 3000BC. Just as I was beginning to repeat this process a couple (4) Spanish warriors showed up outside the undefended Washington, so I switched my worker build to a warrior. Sure enough next turn they all moved into my territory declaring war in 2750 BC. While I managed to survive the war losing only 1 warrior, the switch from expansion to defense allowed both England and Spain to garner much of the territory. After buying peace from Spain I managed to get 7 towns built at 1000BC. Using $$ I was able to keep up on tech researching only Literature myself (and I had to give that to England as tribute).

So far the AI has all the Wonders, Spain-Colossus, Vikings-Great Lib and an Asian nation has the other 3.

I found it disappointing not to find any huts. Maybe the English got to them first, but one of the few advantages of expansionists is the goodies from huts. Quite a handicap not to get them.

Things turned around thanks to English having no iron and the build warriors - hook-up the iron - upgrade warriors to swords - pillage the iron routine, my force of about 30 swords captured or razed all but one English city. I've just bought construction & currency from Spain for 600g have entered the Middle Ages at about 100 BC. Soon I will have Isabella & Elizabeth's heads on pikes outside my capital (unless I turn them into concubines).

My Asian visitor has placed 2 cities on my ancestral homeland so those will be eradicated before I begin to send my forces off island.

General notes:

Still in despotism - Arabs didn't make it out of BC - Many vet battles won and only 2 elites so far - Spotted a couple of squids, no barbarians seen all game (also no huts)

All original cities have a temple & barracks, soon all will have library. If I can get enough cities I might go for a 100K win. Of course there's another island out there with a couple of scientific (Babs & Greeks), I have know idea how far along they might be.

It seems like Spain got a kicked up start, but I'll soon be erasing their color from the chart.

 

[Offa]

Originally posted by Zwingli

(mac 1.29)
Stopwatch Civ
With most of my free time this month concentrated in the first week, I decided to finish the GOTY in as little time as possible. I set a goal of finishing the game in 8 hours over the course of 2 days.

Open ptw1.27.
I had exactly the same idea. It was a complete disaster.

Originally I decided not to play this GOTM and learn Medieval Total War instead but I found that incomprehensible so I was lured back.

I settled in the start position which was pretty barren but playing open it wasn't too hard to keep up with the AI.

I kept up in trades and expanded quite well but missed the iron reserves. I attacked the English with horsemen to capture their iron and ran into an immortal spearman on a hill in their town defending the iron reserve. I wasted a big chunk of my army against him and then gave up. Normally I would like to think I would have been a bit more organised and taken it more easily.

In retrospect I think a warrior gambit or early archer rush would have been a good ploy in a rapid play game. A very clear simple plan is obviously key.

I was playing about as fast as you but found it very unsettling to play at such speed. I am sure you will do well as always.

 

[gozpel]

Open PTW 1.27

My scout found the lamb when I was about to settle by the coast and another couple of turns later Washington was founded by the lamb. I built a couple of settlers before a granary. One settler moved to the wool and the other to the wheat. By 1000bc I had 15 cities and only built a couple more settlers as I ran out of room to expand more. Barracks and warriors after that, when I thought I was out of iron I saw an english warrior try to whack that vulcano and I right-clicked to see the stats...and found my iron
A moment of Duh!

I researched Maths in 40 turns, then Currency at the same rate. I was hoping someone could research CoL or Philosophy for me, but no luck and I had to do that myself at max. I left ancient era 570bc and was reseaching Republic at max - 16 turns.

I built a couple of galleys, who promptly was devoured by squids almost before they left the docks...some good shields wasted there.

Being expansionist and not finding a single goodyhut sucks and having the scouts wandering over a small island like this really made that trait useless. Not really, without the scout Washington would've been a coastal city and my progress so much slower.

For once the techpace is quite slow and I am enjoying myself and feel no need to rush off anywhere. Except, my neighbours shouldn't really trust me...more on that in the next spoiler.

 

[barbslinger]

Originally posted by tao
Have the odds been changed by cracker???

I was thinking the same thing. I have been seeing limited elite promotions and zero leaders! I think I even had a reg not promote after 2 victories. Terrible RNG in my 1st war but then it seemed normal in 2nd war.

 

[Megalou]

Originally posted by Auk
I've never considered using one scientist rather than 10% science. I am officially a doofus.

With a start like yours, you're definitely not a doofus. Too bad your game went a bit stagnant later in the ancient age. I had the same feeling in my game.