GOTM 29 First Spoiler

[AgedOne]

Contender save.

Prep
A few practice games on these settings had convinced me of the need for early archery. I had very little luck trying to stem the flow of barbstewards using just warriors. A group of 4 or 5 archers standing around the capital on good defence ground seemed to do the job.

I also tried several different paths towards getting early wonders, with a CoL slingshot involving Henge and Oracle seeming to work out quite well.

Of course, a lot depended on the location of the capital. In the test map (thanks JerichoHill), I had best results by moving to a location that kept the 2 foody squares in range, but had a few hills and forests too (and, I was to remember longingly, some gems).

Startings
In the real game, I walked my warrior N, not revealing too much, and then had a peek NW with my settler. Seeing some forest-hills and forest I decided to try roughly the same location again. Washington was founded NW+NW of the starting hill. As I was to discover, the crucial difference between the test game start and this was that I now had better production but an inferior commerce, compared to the trial. This meant I was always in danger of completing buildings before my science had advanced to the point I was expecting.

I went for Hunting => Archery first off. Then Mysticism, before deciding to go Mining and BronzeWorking rather than Wheel - rating the need for forest chopping over that of roads. Not sure if this was right. My worker ran short of useful things to do after the wheat and corn, and roading them up would have come in useful for health. As it was I had to let them farm a couple of riverside grass while waiting for BronzeWorking to arrive.

Builds went Worker => 4 x Archer => Stonehenge.

Meantime, my lone warrior went for a walk starting NW and then describing a clockwise circle around Washington. During this curcuit we made contact with Asoka, Bismarck, Cyrus andAlex. One of our first archers hopped up onto the original start hill to act a barb lookout and met Mao's troops. So only one AI remained unknown after 34 turns.

Early Wonders
Research continued with Wheel as I was starting Stonehenge, followed by Meditation and Priesthood in preparation for a push for the Oracle.

Stonehenge was completed without any great anguish on turn 52 (1920 BC).

Barbs had started showing up from around turn 38 onwards. Mostly harmless, and served to promote my archers. However, one little @%$&&!! defeated a precious archer who attacked him at 92% success odds. (Vomit noises)

Research was still lagging a bit behind what I would like, which delayed the start of building the Oracle beyond what I considered 'safe'. I wanted to start around when I finished Stonehenge, in order to finish by turn 62-63 which I had found was achievable with about 3 forest chops and a mine or two in place. However, I was still 3 turns short of Meditation, let alone Priesthood, at turn 52, so I filled in by replenishing the archer supply while I waited for priesthood.

Turn 61 (eek!) I was about to get priesthood, so I whipped the last turn out of a barracks to get the hammer overrun, had pre-chopped one forest and had another about to complete. Started the Oracle with a nice boost. But was it too late?

Started researching Writing, in order to be able to choose Code of Laws as a free tech.

There followed a nerve-wracking period of 13 turns, fending off barb attacks that were now coming in thick and fast, while watching the turns count down to Writing and the Oracle completion.
I could have had the Oracle a few turns before Writing, but risked all by delaying completion until the turn Writing came in - turn 74 (1040 BC) - but I got it!! Couldn't believe some pesky AI hadn't nipped in and beaten me to it. If they had I think I would have packed in there and then through sheer frustration.

Chose Code of Laws, which advanced me to the Classical era and founded Confucianism, which I adopted as state religion.

Mid-game crisis
After all that excitement, I looked around to take stock and realised that despite the wonders I wasn't really doing too well. I had one city, and was beginning to look hemmed in by the Ai all around. I had no copper. The land to the south, that I had earmarked for my next city, had been settled by barbarians (which I thought was a great idea - couldn't wait to take it off them) but then had been taken by Bismarck (boo!).

I popped a Gt Prophet, who built the Kong Miao, and my researches continued with Pottery => Animal Husbandry (no horses) => Iron Working (Whoo! Iron in my borders!)

Iron & Enemies
This last event was the first things that seemed to have gone right in some time, coming on turn 101 (350 BC). Coincidentally, I had just discovered that the nearest copper was to our south-west, and already in the possession of Asoka withing the borders of Calcutta. I had also just met the final inhabitant - Kublai Khan - but was finding that several of the neighbours were getting annoyed at me (that's Asoka, Cyrus and Alex.

I had real trouble finding a good position to found New York, finally plumping for a spot by the river to the south-east of Washington and almost within the reach of the stone - which was now Bismarck's property within the borders of Harrapan.

I had set to work mining the iron and hooking it up as soon as I could - and not a moment too sonn as it turned out! It was complete on turn 111 (100 BC) and just 2 turns later that whippersnapper Asoka declares on us and runs a chariot up onto the iron mine! Suicide chariot, as it turns out, as we killed him before he had a chance to do any damage. Whipped my first swordsman and went to war!

I had good hopes of snatching a city or two off of Asoka to punish him for his impertinence, but all of these plans ran aground when I made my first assault on Calcutta and was horrified to lose 2 Swords, a Spear and an Axe all well against the odds!! Curse you RNG! (More vomit noises) This wrecked any local strength advantage that I had, and the war settled down into a drab affair that no-one was winning. He would send chariots into my land and I would kill them. Once he pillaged my iron mine, but it was soon rebuilt.

Stop-off Point
I was glad when he agreed a simple peace on turn 132 (425AD) and that's more or less where this early write-up ends.

I can't say that things are going really well. The successes of the barb-repellent and the early wonder-building have faded into history. I have just 2 cities and am beginning to look at Bismarck's city by the stone as a useful addition. At least I have swordsmen, but I fear we will soon be facing better forces unless my research can be persuaded to take off. Economy is fine, and research stays at 100%, but I need a bigger empire. Soon.

 

[CyberBocal]

Contender Save.

Everything worked almost fine.
I settled on turn 2 on the east bank of the river, near the 2 food resources.
I researched hunting, archery, mining, BW, mysticism, masonry, AH, wheel, pottery, writing and alphabet, then started exchanging techs.
I built one worker, 2 archers (whipped 1 pop) and one settler (whipped 2 pops if I remember).
I farmed the food resources and mined the hill.
I made so much use of the whip in Washington that the population was on the edge of revolting, even if the capital stayed small. Whipping gave me much production.
I founded New York in 2240BC on the southern shore near the 2 stone hills.
I built Stonehenge in Washington in 1760BC.
Barbarians didn't cause much trouble, as the neighbours were pretty close, except I missed the Pyramids in New York by 3 turns because I had to delay them to build archers to defend the city againts barbs.
After discovering BW and AH, I realized there was nor copper neither horses in range. So I headed west to found a city near the copper but my settler arrived 1 turn too late : Asoka had already founded Bangalore there.
So I declared war on Asoka in 925 BC (sorry, we vould have been friends), razed Bangalore, build Boston on the ruins, and signed peace in 750 BC.
Asoka made the mistake of declaring war on me in 200BC. I easily resisted and took 2 of his cities : Calcutta in 25 BC, NW of Boston, and Bombay in 350AD on the west side of the continent, on a great location with elephants, gems and marble.
In 500AD, I have 6 cities and almost all resources needed to wage a war. I just need some horses, so I plan to capture the barb city near the west coast. I keep the pace in tech, but I'm a bit worried about Kublai Khan who is leading in tech and in score. I will try to keep Cyrus as a friend with civics and religion. For the rest, it's probably going to be a war game. I can already hear the sound of battles and the drums of war !

 

[JacktheBodiless]

Well, by 500 AD the whole landmass is pretty much settled, so the barbarians have finally gone away. I was starting to get a bit nervous to see barbarian axemen marauding around my southern cities.

The only thing I think I did differently than a lot of folks here is I decided to get along without Hunting and Archery. I know the Barbs were raging, but I figured that for 75 hammers, you can either get 5 Warriors (10 strength total) or 3 Archers (9 strength total, admittedly with a First Strike bonus). I had no resources early on that made Hunting appealing (Mao beat me at the cultural armwrestling between Shanghai and New York over the Elephants near the gems; the bastard also beat me to Stonehenge by a couple of turns; I didn't get close to the deer down south for a long time), so I figured any advantage of Archers over my Warriors was not worth the time wasted researching something I would certainly pick up in trade if I could hit Alphabet before the AI (which I did, woot, going from tech loser to tech leader in a handful of turns by not trading it to the tech-leading AIs who, for some idiotic reason, didn't research it themselves for a surprisingly long amount of time).

Anyway, I had a few close calls with the barbarians, but I kept two partially completed warriors in my queues in Washington, New York, and Boston (which was down by the stone) so that I could insta-whip them if something went wrong. Then I found iron by Washington, happy day, and Axeman were soon to follow. I didn't try any slingshots this game (with Asoka in the game and Hinduism founded while I was still building my first worker, I knew I would lose any religion races, so I didn't bother with the Oracle business), but I suppose skipping Hunting/Archery was a bit of a gamble. Anyway, things have stabilized out pretty nicely by 500 AD, I am leader on the scoreboard, and barring a random AI dogpile I should win. Now the question is, with what victory condition? On a Standard-size Pangaea map, Domination or Conquest should be doable in the age of catapults and macemen... I need to spread Judaism to all my cities, shift into Theo/Police State (yeah, I managed to beat Asoka to the Pyramids with a 4-pop whip in Washington), then start churning out the "Shock and Awe..." (Geez, am I George Washington or George W. Bush?!?!? yikes)

 

[kcd_swede]

but I kept two partially completed warriors in my queues in Washington, New York, and Boston (which was down by the stone) so that I could insta-whip them if something went wrong.

That is a strategy that would have saved my nerves a lot of stress during my pyramid build. Never thought of doing it intentionally, though -but I will surely consider it in the future. Thanks for sharing!

 

[JacktheBodiless]

You're welcome! I got the idea from OhioAstronomy's guide to "optimal start," link http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/earlygrowth.php and Zombie69's "extreme micromanagement" guide, link http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/micromanagement.php.

The queue swapping is a little tedious, but Warriors are cheap enough that you can get 2 of them for a 1-pop whip... however, you only get one per turn, so make sure you pull the trigger a turn ahead of when you actually think you will need the second one.

On a slightly related note, one thing that helped my play tremendously (although also slowed me way down) was adopting the policy of looking at every city and every (non-garrisoned) unit on every turn. Surprising how much better things are managed when you are hands-on... Also, avoid "go-to" like the plague, unless you like seeing your units moving away from the just-discovered threat before you have a chance to turn them around. No do-overs on GOTM!

 

[JerichoHill]

I settled near the river and food resources to the North, and went whip happy. I mean, I went WHIP HAPPY. My goal this game was to use the WHIP like it was NOTHING! If I hadn't whipped my cities in 10 minutes, I started to feel like an SM junkie on withdrawal. To get me in the mood, I looped Devo's "WHIP IT GOOD", until it annoyed me.

I settled about 5 cities on my own. The rest I took like a Bully takes lunch money.

I Whipped that Oracle, who spoke of some great technology. I whipped the Pyramids and then I be Representing YO! After the Mids, I worked a specialist, pacifist economy, whilst building a great gob full of axes and catapults. My first victim was Gandhi, who bit the dust around 100AD, after two wars (and 1 peace period for repositioning. Thanks for the religions and wonders baby! (Gandhi is a great AI to let build wonders...He is militarily WEAK!).

Cyrus had his religion spread to me, and since another civ was Jewish, I converted. What? Yeah, Im a quarter Jewish! I had to have some buddies to ensure that Bismarck and that Mongol guy didn't bother me.

Since I like my back clear. I DOW'ed on Alex after taking out Gandhi, and around 500AD I'm wrapping that up. Cyrus essentially has a North South Empire, and is a great buffer. Mao DOW'ed me around 400AD but met with nothing but bloodshed for him with my city to the east of the stone city (with all the hills) I'm sure we all built. That city served as my "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" city, and Mao never came close. I had plans to rout his coastal empire.

That's where I am. Gandhi is dead. Alex is all but dead. Mao will be soon. I figure Kublia's going to be my final target (Cyrus is my Jewish Buddy and Bismarck is Jewish too). Looking at the map, that should be enough to trigger domination. I hope to COW this map because I've never done the COW before.

No one is close to me in research (About 220ish in science at 500AD, plus my capital is a GPF with the Parth, National Epic, Mids, GLib, and 5 scientist specialists, around 120 GPP a turn).

This is why I dislike the American UU. I'm not going to have a chance to use it

Pacifist Warmongering with NON-NERFED CATTIES RULES!

Wait..Just looked at everyone's posts. Holy Crud Shillen! Bad luck!

 

[JacktheBodiless]

Yeah, I feel like I kind of tried to have the best of both worlds with Washington between the food resources and the hammer-y hills of foresty goodness to the NW of settler's starting position. I wonder if I would have been better off building between the two rivers and just farming everything up to the happiness cap to make more whippy goodness... I just couldn't resist those trees.

Still, I guess I'm not too far behind JerichoHill... just need to get some warmongering going on.

 

[Jove]

I settled near Shillen's location on the coast, only 1 W, off the river, to grab the silks.

I was happy to have such production. I thought the start went very nice- stole a worker from Cyrus and ran him back in the days before wild animals even existed. So no worker build necessary, just start building military immediately.

Got BW, founded New York at the start position and then Boston out west where it could claim cows and copper. Boston tried to build the Oracle but didn't make it. But hooking the stone and chopping did yield the Pyramids, and also brought copper to the empire. Debated switching to Police State for awhile, but in time chose Representation instead.

Meanwhile New York is growing some cottages, we grab a town from the barbs... it sounds nice up to this point. But Cyrus hadn't forgotton his lost worker and attacked us with Immortals, Archers, and Axemen. Then swords. We barely even kept the town-there was actually some good RNG luck involved-and could only watch as he pillaged everything in sight.

Still totally pinned down by Cyrus at 1AD, but we have at least managed to pillage his horses. We control 5 pretty miserable and far-flung cities (Philadelphia went up in the SW to grab wines and fish with the obelisk chopped there). I have changed research from Monarchy to IW, the result being tech growth has been nil. Canceled deals with Asoka to try to make Mao happy, but now I fear that circumstance will deteriorate too. This gotm is definitely harder than I expected

 

[JacktheBodiless]

I think the stone was a decoy, to be honest... No way to know, at the beginning, but moving South takes you away from the AI and gives them too much room to expand into. It seems like the most solid start was to move toward the food, then try to expand horizontally to block Cyrus, Asoka, and Bismarck, and only then move South and push back the Barbarian hordes (blocking Mao and Alex in the process). I still have no idea where Kublai is... I met one of his units... he must be way the heck over to the East, since I have fully explored the West of the landmass and found no one but my first victim, Asoka.

The map's dirty little secret is that there are plains hills within the BFC of the NW blue circle, which also includes food and spices. If the map is trying to "teach" us anything, perhaps it is that food is the most flexible resource in the game... grow quickly, whip for production while your worker improves the hills, etc. Plus, there is the sheer quantitative mass of it (6 on the river wheat, 5 on the corn, 6 once we get Civil Service)... egads. The only downside to my start was that commerce was a little slow in arriving, whereas the Southern start definitely gives a commerce boost in the early going due to the coast... I just think that early commerce lag isn't that big a deal as long as you beat the AI to Alphabet.

 

[JerichoHill]

Jack,

That is EXACTLY why I went closer to the food. Because we can whip more efficiently than the AI, and have so much, along with those river tiles, I was able to whip an army, run a massive specialist economy, and have gobs of commerce. I did settle my third city near the stone, but only to block off Cyrus/Mao from advancing further...I only wanted to fight on one front with Asoka and Alex.

 

[Renata]

Ainwood defnitely deserves a spanking for this one. Rather a rude introduction to Monarch for me, with iffy city sites, raging barbs, no horses in sight, and no copper within miles. I'm having fun, but it's a lot of warring, and I'm not sure I'm going to finish. I'm also not sure it's possible for me to win if I do finish.

Long story short: expansion was slow, due to needing to build a metric ton of archers to fend off all the barbs. I missed a couple of city sites by just a turn or two, including just missing capturing a barb city down by the silks. (Mao got it.) I was up to about five or six cities and holding my own in tech when both Mao and Genghis declared on me -- arrgh! My iron/gems city (east of the capital) and my wines/silver city (east of that nice deer/cow/copper site) took the brunt. I lost the wines/silver city to a keshik on a very bad dice roll (I had a fully fortified, triply-promoted archer in there, behind walls even), though I could have reinforced with injured units and chose not to, so bad on me I guess. Worse than that was losing no less than three workers to keshiks coming out of nowhere, which by the third one was making me feel both careless and stupid. On the plus side, I captured the silk city from Mao eventually, and am no longer at war with him. I also resettled the wine site. But I can't touch Genghis, and his power is still well above mine, so I have no idea when that war might end.

As I said, I really have no idea how to proceed to give myself the best chance. I'm up to ten cities, but they all suck to varying degrees. I'm behind in tech, which is an issue, but production seems to be my biggest problem. Besides the marginal territory, I've been so busy building units that my cities have little infrastructure. And my allies have been of no use -- either they backstabbed me (looking at you, Mao), or they are too weak to help me. I'm sure a good player could still retrieve this situation, but I'm not a good player, and I have no idea where to go from here.

 

[slowrider]

Goal: Fastest Spaceship

Approach: The usual … worker stealing, harassment and general stone aging of a couple of choice civs in preparation for a relatively painless early to mid game assimilation while bee lining to Democracy. Bunker in and build cottages everywhere, maybe have some fun with a tech lead by starting a bunch of “lets you and him fight” wars to keep the bad guys busy while researching Tang … yada, yada … why even play, I've got it all figured out.

Actual Results: Getting pummeled by the barbs and surrounded (mostly by Cyrus) has been the main storyline so far (that was part of the plan I forgot to mention). At 500AD the game is finally starting to bend to my will but it’s too late and I’ve made too many mistakes to be competitive.

First tech was AH. The strategy was if chariots are available for barb defense then research next to BW for slavery, chopping and a proper military. If no source of horse then detour to archery before BW. Well, to my surprise horses are available to the north. After a worker I’m farming and producing a settler as fast as possible while researching Mining/BW. Had even decided to settle directly on top of the horse but Cyrus suddenly shows up and claims the area. Wow that was fast especially since I recently stole a worker from him. Now I'm closer to BW than Archery ... do I risk it?

At this point I remember diminishing the barb threat because I could see Cyrus filling in to the north, India to the east and China to the west. With ocean to the south and 6-7 warrior fog busters I remember thinking, “I ain’t afraid of no barbs!”

Looking back it reminds me of Rob Stone of ESPN saying, “I ain’t afraid of no chili peppers!” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvK2Y1hv9mY. My experience turned out remarkably similar to his.

After losing out to Cyrus for the horses I go down south and found Stone Crab city while building fog busting warriors, another settler and teching to BW. Barb warriors start appearing in more numbers than I anticipated. They easily break through my perimeter and are now coming in thick and heavy. Even though my defense is shrewd I’m seriously back on my heals and regretting the decision to pass up archery. No big disasters against the barb warriors though … lost the farms and mine in Washington a couple of times but built back fairly quickly between waves. My crab cakes were safe down south and there were no quarries or cottages to protect but it was nerve racking worrying that a wave of barb archers would show up and threaten my very existence. Finished BW, saw the copper to the SE (down by the coast) and sent a settler and two warriors. Settled directly on the copper to also capture the cow which was another mistake, as the site wasn’t coastal and would require a long road to hook up my other two cities. Didn’t matter anyway because 3 archers appeared and took it out. I guess they didn’t like where it was either. Responded quickly chopping and whipping another settler and settled on the coast this time but had to mine and road the copper while researching Sailing to hook up the other cities. Finally my cities were hooked up to copper and with a few whipped Axemen the barb situation was stabilized.

After the barb wars settled I took inventory to find myself seriously surrounded. Cyrus had gone crazy. Not only had he stolen my horses to the north but he also grabbed the jungle-gem city with ivory to the NW (that blocked in Bismark). He also settled two cities to my west between Asoka and me. Meanwhile Mao grabbed the river city to my immediate west, which had iron and wine. I was snuggly surrounded but with Axemen and good production potential Cyrus’s empire had waxed.

At 500AD I was on my way to taking over most of Cyrus’s cities he had built on top of me. He could keep his capital and his other far northern cities. Next would be Akosa’s juicy empire and maybe a couple of Mao’s cities before settling down to a more civilized space race lifestyle.

That’s the plan anyway …

PS - Here come the barb galleys.

 

[Bart_civ]

Pre-game:

Thanks to the save from JerichoHill, I got a good feel of the raging barb setting. Several tests learned that early archers are the way to go to maximize survival changes.
Resources (horses/copper/iron) would be critical if an early war was necessary.
But my basic plan was to turtle/tech for a while and then go for a hostile takeover...


The Game (contender save):

Capital 1N of hill, 'cos food is more important in the beginning for all the obvious reasons.
tech-order : hunting/mining/archery/BW/AH/myst/writing/poly/PH
build-order : worker/archer/archer/archer/settler

I choose mining before archery so the first worker can start the mine asap, even before farming corn/wheat -> earlier production bonus for archers -> first archer finished at 2960BC, before barbs appear.
Mysticism for possibility of Henge/obelisk.
Writing for libs.
Priesthood for access to Oracle.
NewYork founded (2000BC) at river and crab, south of stone -> first build: workboat.
Writing finishes just in time to start libraries in both cities.
Somehow I got the impression the AI weren't teching as fast as I would have expected (usually I play on Monarch).
I guess they were having trouble settling the open spaces with all those barbs, although Asoka was able to grab the copper west of me.

At 1160BC, major decision time: go for IW (no metals/horses nearby) or alphabet (trade)?
Well, if you have 2 roads to choose from, go for safety first ('cos of evil Ainwood) and choose the third path => monarchy for the feudalism slingshot and then alpha for trading IW.
NY went for Oracle, while capital builds barracks and archers for defence.
775BC: GS in capital from that early lib -> academy
625BC: Oracle finished -> feudalism -> longbows
550BC: lucky break -> take barb town Hurrian near horses with a scouting archer (Asoka chariots weakened the remaining defender)
450BC: alphabet finished -> trade IW, wheel, meditation, sailing, pottery, masonry, mono
275BC: found Boston on iron hill (no way the AI is going to pillage my metal!)
175BC: Bismarck DoW me (he's pleased at the time) -> lots of pillaging archers enter my land, but just serve as extra XP for my LBs.
150AD: I join the Jew block (Cyrus, Bismarck, Alex)
275AD: Alex becomes my attack dog -> he DoW Khan for a few techs
425AD: I raze a southern german city and Biz gives currency and gold for peace (goes from annoyed to pleased)
450AD: I DoW Khan on request of Alex, it's a non-war but I get better relations with Alex ; learn MC
475AD: start CS / 4 cities in total

some AI events:
875BC: Khan DoW Asoka
800BC: Alex DoW Cyrus (and razes a city)
175BC: Khan founds Confu


Aftermath:

Defensive perimeter with archers took care of incoming barbs with surprising efficiency, especially if you could defend from behind the river as was the case in NewYork.
The delay of IW set me back on the power graph, big time.
Those early Longbows really saved the day. When promoted, they can attack anything the AI throws at you in the BC years.

So the question remains: have the AI succeeded in containing my expansion room or do they have a sleeping giant among them?

 

[JerichoHill]

I found this game really easy. For those that didn't, what made your game hard?

 

[Shillen]

I found this game really easy. For those that didn't, what made your game hard?

It was hard for a monarch game, not hard in general. And it was mostly only hard because I gambled on finding a food resource down by the stone when there wasn't one (the crab hardly even counts). On top of this moving south allowed the AI's to claim all the good territory to the north and you got packed in very quickly. There was no way to know that the AI's were so close to the north, east and west and that moving south was giving up so much territory to them. I normally don't gamble on things like this but since I prefer BtS anyway I figured if I screwed myself too badly I could just quit the game.

But like I said, it's still just a monarch game. It would take a lot more misfortune than that for me to lose on monarch.

 

[AgedOne]

I found this game really easy. For those that didn't, what made your game hard?

Hesitant about saying that my game was hard, for a couple of reasons:
a) I'm still playing, and can't discuss what happens after 500AD
b) It didn't feel like a hard game, I achieved some things I set out to do . . . but when I stopped to take stock I was in a fairly poor position.

I should start by saying that Monarch level is about my limit - and has been for a long time. So I'm not improving much and my expectations are low.

What makes any game hard? Well, we make them hard for ourselves, I'm sure. Other people obviously find them easy, and that's because their decisions are better. I'm aware that the decisions I make - which seem reasonable to me - would probably be quickly picked apart by an expert.

The position I found myself in - and I often do - was that my empire was too small, my military too puny, and even my research (that I was hoping to focus on) was not as good as some AI. All too frequently I find that my 'soldiers' count on the demographics screen is lower than - and in some cases almost half that of - the weakest AI. If I had more cities I could build more units, but I find that I can't support 10 cities unless I have courthouses everywhere and probably an FP. This game was an extreme example of me becoming trapped in a tiny empire, but all too often I have fewer cities than any AI.

I guess that makes it a hard game for me. But they all are at Monarch and above.

 

[Renata]

I found this game really easy. For those that didn't, what made your game hard?

Not being a very good player?

I made it harder on myself than it should have been. I've never before played without significant production in my capital, and though I did make use of the whip, I'm sure I didn't do so very well. I would have been more comfortable and probably wound up with a better result if I had given up the river for my capital and moved west toward the hills. Losing my workers to keshiks was just plain stupid, and has set me back significantly. Then there was that "first time on a new level" thing where tons of little mistakes mean you're a turn or two late for everything.

Having to go all the way to iron-working for good units also hurt -- there were tons of other things I'd rather have researched, but trying to expand into raging barbs (including the odd axeman) with only archers for defense was making me nervous.

But mostly it was just that I stink.

 

[kcd_swede]

When your plans are working, everything seems easy. When they aren't working, everything seems difficult. More skill keeps you out of the latter category more often.

Adventurer save made this one easy for me.

 

[MarkM]

The position I found myself in - and I often do - was that my empire was too small, my military too puny, and even my research (that I was hoping to focus on) was not as good as some AI.

I suspect in this game how it plays out is determined in great degree by where you first settle. Me personally, I chose N+NW for reasons I said in pre-game, to build it into a research powerhouse and focus on that route (settling there maximized river tiles to immediately get 3 coins when you cottage, and the two food resources let you use the whip to grow quickly / complete builds / run specialists, depending on your need at any given time. I put an academy in there, built the great library and national epic to set up an escalating cycle of producing GS & settling them in the city alongside the two from GL to spawn yet more GS. Beelining first civil service for bureaucracy (+50% to base coins, so all the other research boosts are multiplied) and then Education for Oxford made it even more disgusting. The only thing missing is Bismarck built the Pyramids fairly early in BC when I was still 6 turns away in my second city ( should've whipped it ) so I couldn't get the +3 science per specialist from Rep.

My point is, everything you needed to see to figure out how to consciously emphasize research long term and win the tech race was actually visible in the pre game thread screenshot. I also could predict I'd stunt myself a bit short term as I rode out barbarian waves -- I remember checking stats, I had 28 barbarian warriors and 3 archers killed by about 1500 or 1000 BC! -- losing a lot of my improvements repeatedly because I could not defend them as aggressively as I might've if I'd settled south. But in the long run, consistently emphasizing research goal in capital at N+NW location made it near impossible to NOT out-research the AIs by 500ad, IMO.

 

[AgedOne]

... But in the long run, consistently emphasizing research goal in capital at N+NW location made it near impossible to NOT out-research the AIs by 500ad, IMO.

Mark
Your post reminded me that we had a discussion about another GOTM about a year ago. I went back and read it. GOTM18 it was, and the weird thing was we were discussing how I'd managed to reach a stunted, underpowered position for the second xOTM in a row!! I even explained how I had been intending to focus on research but had been distracted by achieving a CS slingshot. This game is therefore a visit to deja-vu land.
I think my resolution should definitely be to learn something about this game once in a while, instead of repeating the same game for years on end!!