GOTM 29 First Spoiler

[ainwood]

GOTM 29 First Spoiler

Thanks to Bugg123 for reminding me that I hadn't opened this....

Reading Requirements

1. Must have reached at lest 0 AD.
2. You should have knowledge of the approximate locations (cultural borders) of all other civs.

Posting Restriction

1. Please don't discuss anything that happens past 500 AD.

 

[Shillen]

Played contender.

While I prefer BtS to vanilla I couldn't pass up this intriguing start position. As I suggested in the pre-game thread I took a big gamble and sent my settler 2SE on the first turn to try to find food resources to the south. Unfortunately it didn't uncover anything. So on turn two I moved my settler SW one tile to get back to the river and that uncovered the coastline, but I would have to move again to get there. So I didn't settle until turn 3 to get the crab and 2 stone tiles in my capital radius. While the crab was better than no food resource at all it's probably the worst food resource I could have found. Having to waste early hammers on a workboat with raging barbs and then still only getting 4 food from the tile without a lighthouse made life difficult. On top of this, it turns out the area we were given to expand into was where I moved my settler. So I never even got to claim the wheat and rice tiles near the start position because the AI's all rushed to settle on the lush grasslands before I could get anywhere near them. So I got hemmed in big time. The only plus side to that is that the barbarians weren't as big of an issue as they might have been, but it really set me back behind the other civs.

I researched Mining and then Bronze Working first hoping to find some easy to connect copper (and also for slavery). There were a couple sources of copper but none of them would be quick to hook up because I didn't want to plop a city right next to them and would need a cultural expansion to hook them up. I grabbed Masonry next to hook up the stone. I then went on to research Animal Husbandry before Archery hoping to find some horses but I couldn't see any. So I went on to research archery and therefore I was very late getting archers out. Fortunately, as I said, the barbs weren't a huge issue, although I did get my stone pillaged a couple of times and my worker spent far too much time hiding in my city.

To make matters worse Mao declared war on me in 600BC and came at me with chariots when my only strategic resource was copper. As you know chariots get 100% bonus attacking axemen so it wasn't an easy war to fight. I didn't have any spearmen built and honestly didn't think to build them. Regardless I did manage to fight off his first couple waves of attackers defending with my archers and attacking with axemen. Mao did capture my one eastern city but I took it back a couple turns later. In the end I made peace with him without having to give anything up, but the war definitely didn't help me keep up with the other AI's.

I managed, though. After Archery I went straight for Alphabet hoping to get it early enough to trade for all the other techs and make an immediate catchup. Meanwhile I was still building a lot of axemen because I knew the only way I was going to get into a winnable position was through war. The AI's had all completely crammed me against the coastline. I was stuck with just 4 decent cities and 3 of them had AI cities within 3-4 tiles that were pushing borders with them. But my alphabet ploy worked out nicely and I got myself caught up in techs circa 425BC. Meanwhile I left Mao way behind in techs because I was still at war with him when all the tech trading happened. While I was caught up in techs I knew I had no way to stay that way unless I stuck to trading for them so I went on to research Compass next, not because I wanted it, but because I thought I could get it before the AI's did. This also worked out and I made another round of tech trading to keep up (somewhere around 300AD I think - sorry for my lack of notes again). The only bad news is that both Alexander and Bismarck already feared I was too advanced. Thankfully Asoka and Kublai were leading and they didn't feel the same way...yet. But I knew I was treading on thin ice.

Cyrus plopped a city down 4 tiles from my capital in between it and my western copper city, taking the silks. Cyrus was also the civ that took the wheat/corn tiles near the river where our settler started. Combine that with the fact that he's cultural and his usual late game strength I knew he was the one I had to take out early and I had to get him before feudalism. So I basically built nothing but axemen and my luck finally started getting better when Mao declared war on Cyrus just a few turns before I was ready to attack myself. So when Mao asked for my help I agreed willingly. At 500AD I've razed his city near my capital and captured the wheat/corn city and my army combined with Mao's are driving north towards Pasargadae. I have some swordsmen at this point in addition to my axemen and I'm starting to build my first catapults.

So while it was a rough start and I feel that moving my settler south really screwed me and for a long time early on I didn't think I was going to win, at 500AD I find myself in a decent enough position. I'm confident I can pull out a win (and no I haven't finished the game yet) but I'm sure my game won't be very competetive.

 

[Bugg123]

My first ever GOTM, first game on Monarch ever, and with raging barbs to boot...

So with that in mind, being a noob and all, I went with the adventurer save.

The plan was to settle near the food (unless initial scouting revealed something interesting), get out a second settler quickly after growing to size 2) and settle near stone, hopefully finding horses nearby to cruise through the barbrush with chariots. At least that worked out fine in testing. Archers would work too, but would be more of a problem. Researched Hu->AH (I think getting Hu first shaves research off AH, and since I'd need archery if I didn't get horses, it'd save some time overall, but I could be wrong )

Finding horses would allow for a quick 3rd settler as well since I wouldn't need much of an army of chariots to get through the initial barbrush. I had no plan as to what victory condition I'd want, and left that for later. Although since I started Civ4 (at the time I registered here) I've only had cultural wins, and usually just play for that.

Warrior went NW, then N NE (revealing gold) and S to scout out stones (revealing gems). Settled SE of food. Shockingly I didn't notice I found horses near the gold, and just settled on the south coast with clams and stone. And just like that my adventurer advantage was blown away missing the horse location. For me this delayed any military plans by A LOT.

I got out my 2nd settler way later than in testing due to no horses, and Cyrus beat me to the location (if around 1500BC counts as beating me to it), so I settled further north by food and marble between asoka and cyrus instead (1360BC). I also got out enough archers to contain the barbarian threat.

Meanwhile I built SH in stone-city and got started on the oracle. In the testgames I ran, getting the oracle by 750BC was safe, so I assumed this to be the case on Monarch. Well.. I was wrong and got beaten to it in 950BC, by 2 turns. Tried for pyramids and got beaten to that by 6-7 turns as well. A lot of production out the window, but at least I had some gold to keep research up while expanding.

I found I didn't have bronze accessible, but iron popped up in the gem city fat cross (4th city), so I decided to just keep expanding as much as possible and set up infrastructure before building much of an army, trying to keep things ok in diplomacy.

I decided to side with the eastern block diplomatically. By 500AD I was positive with everyone but asoka and cyrus. Thankfully they were not very powerful or triggerhappy, so so far, so good.

By 500AD I had settled 6 cities (1 east by gems and iron), 1 south by copper and fish and one west by fish and silk (got beaten to a good location to also grab copper over there)). Barbs had settled the western parts of the continent, but cyrus took them out while I had no army to do so. This left cyrus both to the north and to the west of me.

I was last in power and 1st/2nd in other demographics by this point, and getting ready to get soldiers out the door. Tech-vise I was doing ok, and Kublai was closest. I had founded Christianity (but not converted) and was hoping to have judaism spread to me as this was my bud's religion at the time.

So I managed to survive the barbrush, got 6 cities up and am starting to get an army to hopefully take out my western enemies while keeping things cozy on the eastern flank.
I think I'd be in much better shape had I not overlooked the horses initially (which would have allowed for quicker expansion and a better army to take out my enemies, would have made a priority to get guilds, and am now allmost at CS instead). I also don't have ivory accessible, since gem city hasn't claimed it yet, and there's a german city east blocking it for now).

I'm reasearching at 121 at the moment, but have NO idea how this is in the bigger scheme of things
Still haven't decided on a victory condition, but cultural looks like it's not gonna happen, so I'm gonna have to try something new

Bugg123

 

[Shillen]

Researched Hu->AH (I think getting Hu first shaves research off AH, and since I'd need archery if I didn't get horses, it'd save some time overall, but I could be wrong )

You're not wrong. I did the same, although I didn't note it in my spoiler.

 

[kcd_swede]

Adventurer save. In my test games, I had maybe 60% chance of getting through the barb rush and being on par with the AI, and having been spanked in the BOTM03 (Prince level), I figured "Heck, why take the chance?".

First move worker 2E and warrior 1NW and saw nothing interesting. Settled 1N of start position on turn 1. Researched mining>BW for slavery. Farmed wheat mined hill, built warrior and popped settler, who settled on coast/river S of stone, all before I saw first barb. With back against the sea, and Persia culture border already on my N border, I know barbs can only attack from 2 directions and am feeling confident. Next researched Hu>Arch, since the lack of copper led me to believe a lack of horse would also follow. Didn't matter much. Whole game I only got attacked by barb warriers and one lone barb archer. These were raging from the east, so it took a number of escorts to get city 3 on the plains hill to the east, but well worth the effort.

Meanwhile, I mined the stone off the river, tech'd masonry and quarried the other stone on the river. Built SH in stone city, GP added to cap for production, which got me Pyr in cap. Missed Oracle though... didn't notice it already built until I decided it was time to try for it. Built in 950BC by Asoka. More on wonders later..

After city 3 up, I tech'd AH (no horse visible, suprise suprise) then IW, which revealed iron right next to city 3! Great production in city 2 and 3, so time to kill someone with axe and sword. India is multiplying like rabbits but looks weak (only 2 archers in Madras), so I start heading West, same time I am ready to settle #4 city at edge of forest on west of grasslands. Ahoj! A barb city with 2 archers! No prob, they fall to my axe with no casualties, only promos. Now I have 5 cities, though not optimal placement still pretty good resources. Keep marching towards Asoka, and my culture is enough to get me able to DOW and capture Madras on same turn. March towards Dehli... the crazy bugger has nothing but archers, despite having unmined Iron next to Dehli and pastured horses in a coastal city with road to Dehli! It took me more units than I thought, though, so I let Asoka off the hook for 2 techs, and time to rebuild for the next wave in ten turns.

Now the only big decision pre-500AD was when Cyrus demands one of my two iron. It is good in my view that he has no iron, but he is clearly annoyed about that. I'm in a bad tactical situation if his immortals decide to take it, so I grant him iron. A few turns later he is at war with Alex, which is the best I could dream for. Alex don't like me much now, but he does not border me and has no open borders with Mao (or Cyrus, obviously), so who cares? He has enough strength to match Cyrus, though, so let 'em weaken each other, I say.

At 500AD, I lead in tech, lead in size, and lead in strength as far as I can see. Way ahead in culture, due to wonder-spamming in first 3 cities that only missed Oracle and Parthenon, and got I think all the other wonders available at this time. Running in Rep since Pyr founded, and good tech rate. India about to become American, which will give me about a third of the continent and nobody at my rear flank. I messed up a golden age by trying to change civs during it (BtS thinking, shame shame). Made some other errors along the way, but nothing major. For example, I did not explore at all. Nada, nothing outside turn 1. All black until I get there with units for settling or conquest. But I had iron, so that was enough.

So the only choice now is "What kind of victory should I try for?". If I was going for medals or glory-score, conq/dom would be the obvious choice. Space race is not only tedious but risky for diplo loss. And since this is Adventurer, I should try something I am not good at (and in fact have never accomplished before) - a culture victory. Now... I am aware that my GArtist production will be slow, due to polluted gene pool from all those wonders, but it should be only a matter of time even without them. I founded the CoL religion (Taoism?) in city 3, and captured Buddhist and Hindu capitol (Dehli), and see that Asoka has founded Judaism in another soon-to-be-mine city as well. So it looks like my prospects are good, and only a matter of time to this victory as long as I can keep on reasonably good terms with Mao and Cyrus, my only border civs. City 1,2, and 3 will be legendary cities; and my lowest of these is about on par with the next civs highest culture city.

So, a very late decision (500ad) to go for cultural victory. I'll let you know how it goes in the next spoiler.

 

[marconos]

Settled 1 N ...
Built a worker
Farmed both grass places
Built a warrior
Started on Settler -- 2 turns form settler done
Barbs overran my city -- game over < 12 minutes played and only 36 turns.

I think I see the problem -- I should have gone for the mine before I did the second food supply. I don't remember research for sure. I know I wasn't going after BW as I didn't have any forests to chop.

This was my 1st try at Monarch (have only won 1 prince game at that)

 

[cas]

I settled somewhere towards the east river to get hills and forest around turn 3. Researched up to BW and AH to find no bronze or horse within a reasonable distance. Founded a second city down by the stone and barbs started invading as expected.

At that point, I realized what this game would require (expansion, warmongering, defending with archers until IW) and didn't care to continue it.

I should have tried something more interesting founding on the stone, spreading religions selectively and trying to get the AI to war each other going for a diplo. I can't enjoy a standard REX/conquest game of vanilla civ anymore. Especially with raging barbs and no GW.

cas

 

[dr_s]

Contender save.

Following the strategy I outlined in the pre-game thread, I settled N-NE, which was SE of the riverside wheat. I built settler first while teching Hunting, Archery, Mining, BW. Settler popped on turn 25 (3000 BC) and settled New York on turn 29 (2840 BC) down south, on the tile where the two stone and the crab were all in the first ring. Built archers next, whipping once BW came in. Had a brief scare on turn 33 (2680 BC), when a barb warrior appeared next to the capital's BFC and my warrior was too far away to defend. Had he been able to beeline to my capital, he would have taken it one turn before an archer finished. Fortunately, he was killed by an AI archer. Completed my first worker on turn 54 (1840 BC) and started improving tiles.

I was still at 2 cities on turn 68 (1280 BC) when Alex DOW'd on me. His invasion "force" of two archers quickly annihilated itself on my CGII defenders. This did prompt me to get off my duff and build some more settlers, claiming the sheep/deer/copper site to the SE on turn 83 (800 BC---pretty late). Learned alphabet on turn 88 (675 BC) and traded around, getting IW from Asoka (I think) on turn 92 (575 BC). Saw the iron to the west of the capital, just outside my culture, so I built another settler and settled that site on turn 98 (475 BC), taking the corn away from the capital for growth. That turned out to be a pretty good city. Made peace with Alex on turn 87 (700 BC).

Decided this wasn't going to be a peaceful game, so I started teching toward construction with an eye to go after Asoka, who seemed to have the best land of my neighbors, was #1 in score, and had a crappy military. Learned construction on turn 115 (0 AD), and started to build cats to go along with my axes, spears, and swords. Got interrupted a bit on turn 123 (200 AD) when Mao DOW'd me. Most of the action took place down by the copper city, his archers/chariots versus my spears/axes, not much of a contest. Made peace on turn 133 (450 AD), then declared war on Asoka on turn 135 (500 AD). Will have to pick up from there with the next spoiler.

 

[Shillen]

Made peace on turn 133 (450 AD), then declared war on Asoka on turn 135 (500 AD). Will have to pick up from there with the next spoiler.

In my game at 500AD Asoka is 2nd in score, 1st in techs and every city has longbowmen in it. Are you attacking with maces or does he not have feudalism still? Asoka's pretty untouchable in my game at the moment, even though he hasn't warred with anyone. I'm sure my move south with my settler gave him more room to settle into, so that might be the reason.

 

[masked_zorro]

Contender save. I'm very comfortable playing Emperor and I think I have a 50-50 chance in Immortal. So with organized+financial, I was hoping for a good REX and teching in the beginning, getting the pyramids to run a representation economy with 5-6 cities. I wanted to flood cats+maces at 250 AD-ish, coming with knights soon after for a moderately high scoring dom win around 1000 AD.

I settled 2N for the food and +2 health from the river. Also for easy connectivity during the barb rush. Built warrior and grew to pop 3. Researched mining+BW. Started worker at 3, revolted to slavery and whipped the worker, starting a settler. Worker farmed both food. Proceeded to research hunting+archery - knowing no copper=no iron=no horses=ainwood is you-know-who! Switched to archer on getting archery and whipped the archer and then got the settler in 2440 B.C.

Yes, I know that's late - cyrus had already settled the gold spot up north by now! Things took a bad turn at this time. First warrior after warrior beelined to my capital delaying the settling of the stones site down south by 1-2 turns. Just as I was 3 tiles away guess what - a barb city vandal was founded on the stone site. Rather early for a barb city I say! And there goes the chance of Pyramids To make things worse, a second newly minted full health archer lost a 96% battle to a barb warrior

I took a deep breath, moved my settler to the east site next to the river and founded new york (1920 B.C.). The new plan was to quickly build NY's pop by farming the tiles and then work the mined hills+chop to get the Oracle and possibly CS? At the same time, get as many archers ASAP and try to capture vandal before the barbs get archers. I proceeded to tech as follows.

Spoiler :

Wheel
Pottery(for increased science)
AH (pray ainwood gives us horses in fat cross so I can take over Vandal )
Mysticism(hit myself on head for hoping in ainwood )
Polytheism
Priesthood
Writing
Masonry (hook up stone, dream of one-day building the Pyramids )
CoL from Oracle (don't ask me why CoL )
Iron working (same turn 775 B.C, luckily iron was already mined)
Sailing
Monarchy (to evade the happiness cap 400 B.C., revolted to HR soon after)

Meanwhile, washington built 2 more archers and with a CR1 warrior, I captured vandal (1360 B.C.) easily - cyrus took out one warrior just the previous turn and I went with 3 archers + 1 warrior vs. 2 warriors - losing just the archer. Too bad the city wasn't on the river

China got the pyramids 700 B.C. - so much for the initial plan. Settled boston by the gems in 525 B.C. By now the world was a crowded place and good city sites were at a premium. Missed out on the deer+silver+cow spot in the south - bismarck took it a little later.

Looking at the world order there were 3 groups
1. Kublai+Alex+China
2. Cyrus
3. Bismarck+Ashoka

I decided to align with group 1 so I could take out Cyrus+Ashoka without any problems. The HR gov civic would give me added bonus with Kublai and Alex. However Kublai decided to have fun and declared on me in 425 B.C. - luckily they destroyed the gems mine and suicided on boston. That was the last of Mongol and I signed peace and got some gold in 0 A.D. Meanwhile I had teched up using financial+river cottages as shown below.

Spoiler :

GS founds academy 250 B.C.
Alphabet 175 B.C.
Traded Math 150 B.C.
Currency 25 B.C.
Traded Calendar 25 A.D.
Monotheism+Construction 100 A.D.
Civil Service 325 A.D.
Metal Casting 450 A.D.

However, Cyrus threw in another spanner in the works by declaring in 75 A.D. with lots of immortals and swords. I gave up on a fast dom and decided to enjoy the full game by seeing how Civ IV looks in the later eras (never done that). After enjoying the fruits of a few mature cottages he signed peace and gave back some 200 gold!

At 500 A.D., I had some cats up and running and I was planning to declare soon on Cyrus. Probably go for the cow award

My thoughts on the game: I felt it was an interesting decision to make at the start. The lack of production in the capital was a real handicap - I initially thought those who founded south were better off due to the crabs, but on hind sight the barb city down south was only a minor problem (prevented pyramids though) and otherwise founding north gave me more space to expand and grab resources since there was nobody to claim the south territory while both cyrus and ashoka quickly gobbled up the north while alex and mao gave space for just one more on the east. I couldn't rex fast since it was raging barbs and my only production city was building the oracle instead of archers.

 

[VoxDei]

Yech... what a horrible game I've been having.

Settled 1S1SE on turn 2 to grab the four hills and the stone. Did what I said I'd do and went worker first, researching mining-hunting-archery-AH (and cursed the absence of horses). Only had one archer up when the barb hordes turned up, since I took the risk of finish my settler before starting on my archers - the settler got away with a single warrior as escort just barely, and fortunately I managed to switch to slavery about then and whipped a couple more archers. However, the lack of defence meant I could only defend Washington and had to my improvements go, which really crippled me - I hate playing raging barbs. By the time I was stable in fighting off the barbs, there was almost nowhere left to settle - I got a paltry two other cities, one on a hill to the north-east near Cyrus and one next to the iron to the west.

Unfortunately just as I was setting up the city by the iron Mao declared war on me. I just barely held on to my city to the NE (more archer whipping coupled with having settled on a hill), but again lost all my improvements to Chinese chariots. Mao finally agreed to make peace in 200AD, one turn after he lost his two roaming chariots to my first swordsman (coward). And the fact that it took me that long to get my first swordsman out should tell you that I'm not doing terribly well here...

Situation in 500AD: Not at war at the moment, but underpowered and squeezed in. Gearing up for a desperate away leg in China (which I may not have the resources for but I'd better manage before swordsmen go obsolete, since I'm falling behind on tech due to having to have spent so much time building units), since Mao hates me anyway now and if I don't get out of my box quickly I'm going to get squashed.

EDIT: Also, wasn't there a log reader around here somewhere? Reading the raw log is kind of painful, but I can't find the reader.

EDIT 2: Oh yeah, and lessons learned... when Ainwood starts you in an obvious place to settle, he wants you to settle there. If I'd settled in place I'd have firstly gotten those food resources that Cyrus got while I was busy with the barbs, and secondly I'd have had space for a city to the south.

 

[dr_s]

In my game at 500AD Asoka is 2nd in score, 1st in techs and every city has longbowmen in it. Are you attacking with maces or does he not have feudalism still? Asoka's pretty untouchable in my game at the moment, even though he hasn't warred with anyone. I'm sure my move south with my settler gave him more room to settle into, so that might be the reason.

No, I don't think he was close to Feudalism in my game at that point. I don't know what he was spending his resources on, but it wasn't that.

@VoxDei: The autolog converter is here. I always just search the forums for "autolog converter" and it shows up in the first thread found.

 

[kcd_swede]

Settled 1 N ...
Built a worker

I think I see the problem -- I should have gone for the mine before I did the second food supply. I don't remember research for sure. I know I wasn't going after BW as I didn't have any forests to chop.

This was my 1st try at Monarch (have only won 1 prince game at that)

My suggestions (I'm no expert so take it for what its worth): Build warriors until city is size 2 then build worker. The worker build much faster that way-and you do not grow when building worker so thats important. Also, when Raging Barbs is on, those warrior won't be waste - as I think you found out.

Only thing else I can add is that BW shuold have been 1st priority, not for copper nor for chopping, but for SLAVERY. You need to get into slavery ASAP to convert all those food resources into production by whipping, when settling where you did.

I agree that the mine was more important than the second food resource, at the start.

Hope this is some use for you.

 

[Bugg123]

Built SH in stone city, GP added to cap for production

Yep, also did this. Helped out a bit with the hammerpoor cap. Didn't get me pyramids, though...

 

[MacBalt]

I had a pretty uneventful game up through 500 AD. Founded Washington on the other side of the river SE of the wheat. Added three more cities by 500 BC and built no wonders. The barbs kept things interesting, but no "barb disasters" to report. Early game was all REX, Tech, Archer defense, and preparing for war after 500 AD.

One interesting note was how long it took the AI leaders to get Alphabet. When I got it I had enough other stuff to trade that I decided not to give it away to anyone. It seemed to take them forever to learn it on their own, which, I think, noticeably improved my tech trading results this game.

Details under the spoiler tag.

Spoiler :

Cities:
001/3960 BC: Washington (1SE of Wheat)
034/2640 BC: New York (4E,1S of Capital, on river & near iron later!)
070/1200 BC: Boston (6S of Capital, on river 1E of stone)
092/575 BC: Philadelphia (5S,3E of Capital, for wine & cow)

Technology Path:
xxx/???? BC: Mining (sorry, bad notes)
021/3160 BC: Bronze Working
xxx/???? BC: Hunting (bad notes again)
042/2320 BC: Archery
056/1760 BC: Writing
082/825 BC: Alphabet
082/825 BC: TRADES:
---Alexander--> Sailing (for writing)
---Asoka--> Masonry, Mysticism (for writing)
083/800 BC: TRADES:
---Bismark--> Iron Working (for writing, sailing)
---Cyrus--> The Wheel (for sailing)
095/500 BC: Mathematics
096/475 BC: TRADE:
---Khan--> Pottery, Polytheism (for math)
098/425 BC: TRADES:
---Alexander--> Meditation (for polytheism)
---Asoka--> Priesthood (for pottery)
106/225 BC: Construction
114/25 BC: Code of Laws
122/175 AD: TRADES:
---Asoka--> Monarchy (for COL)
---Alexander--> Monotheism (for math)
124/225 AD: TRADE:
---Bismark--> Calendar (for monarchy, monotheism)
125/250 AD: TRADE:
---Cyrus--> Currency (for priesthood, monotheism, COL)
129/350 AD: Civil Service
134/475 AD: TRADE:
---Alexander--> Horseback Riding (for COL)

Initial Build Order:
Warrior
Settler
Archer

Great Persons:
110/125 BC: Great Scientist #1

Early Wonders:
076/975 BC: Stonehenge in a faraway land
084/775 BC: Pyramids in a faraway land
095/500 BC: Parthenon in a faraway land
096/475 BC: Oracle in a faraway land
127/300 AD: Chichen Itza in a faraway land

 

[Thorrez]

Don't have time to write a spoiler other when saying that I deceided on 1N and had a lot of early barb troubles. Just wanted to state this:

Really funny game! Thanks Ainwood!

 

[DuncanIdaho v.1]

It's reassuring that others had just as many woes on this map that I had. I had the good sense to settle north, but I settled 1N1NW on turn 2 and I felt like I was behind by one turn the rest of my game.

Missed the Pyramids by one turn.

Cyrus beat my settler to a lovely location by one turn, and his cultural borders pushed my settler beside a barbarian axeman.

My ensuing war with Cyrus didn't go well.

Ainwood, I've spoken to Santa and you're getting a lump of coal in your stocking this year.

 

[mboza]

Food can always be whipped, so decided to head N. Moved NE, due to the 2nd river, then moved NW to settle 2N on the second turn.

Built warrior, worker (farm, farm, mine, hide...), warrior, settler, warrior x3, settler.

Researched mining, BW, AH, road, pottery, writing, alphabet.

3120BC BW, no bronze visible at all, revolt to slavery to start whipping some of my 5 pop. Go for AH, sure that there must be something in the area of the startign screenshot.

2280BC New York founded, south coast, for stone and clams. Starts wb. Hindusim founded IAFAL.
2200BC New York razed by barb warrior attacking across the river. NY had one defender, with insufficient time to heal in before the second attack. Actually founded it with a barb next door, so that I could get the defense bonus for my warrior.

1360BC Stonehenge built IAFAL. No need to rush south again to build it then.
1260BC Judaism founded IAFAL.

1120BC Boston founded, on site of NY. Cyrus has claimed the marble/cow site to the north that looked interesting, and the horses NE.
975BC Boston razed by barb axe. Time to start a deity OCC practice game?

800BC Pyramids built IAFAL. Germany adopts Representation.
500 BC Oracle built by someone.

375BC Conf, Great Lighthouse IAFAL.

Mao has longbowmen, I am still defending with warriors.

Alphabet arrives, and I start trading for techs. IW, hunting then archery, in time to fight off the last wave of barbs, sailing, and the religous techs. I research maths and construction. OB with everyone, and my warriors find all the nice city locations that I missed when scouting. I think I managed to trade alpha to everyone eventually.

I get a fouth settler out, found Phily by the western iron. In between two Indian holy cities, so no telling how long I will get before it revolts against me. Start building swords and cats to carve myself a larger empire.

400 AD Mao converts to Taoism.
450 AD Cyrus declares war. My warrior defeats the immortal that surprise attacked it.
475 AD Cyrus captures Philadelphia, having sent a sword and immortal through India.
500 AD Conquest defeat, just in time for inclusion in this spoiler. Have displayed the abilities of Dan Quayle, despite this, Washington still looks smug.

I then discover that the autosave has not been set to every turn since I built the new PC, so I just submitted the 425AD save as a conquest defeat.

Clearly I should have gone for archery after AH. I had hoped that fog-busting would be enough, especially after I met everyone so soon. Building NY by the stone looked obvious, but it leaves almost everything north of the starting site to the AI, and two stone and a clams is still not a particularly great site.

 

[nokem]

Adventurer save.

Settled 2N to grab the food. Sadly went exploring in every direction except the gold and iron which would have been helpful. Still, plenty of AIs around to share the barb pain. Never played agressive AI before so don't know what to expect there.

Tech path will be: AH for horses. If no horses beeline BW for axes. If no copper go for Archery and start praying. Build order will be wa, wa, settler, then as good a defence force as I can raise.

Warrior finds coast to the south. Better land appears to be W so that's where we head. AH arrives on T13 but no horses to be seen so BW is the next target.

On turn 22 my warrior stumbles on horses on the far western coast. I decide on a risky gamble: send the settler all the way west to grab the horses, research Sailing to hook them up and start whipping chariots ASAP.

I very nearly arsed it up. Firstly I settled 1S of the horses instead of on top, so had to wait for a worker to pasturise them. Then I forgot to bust all the black squares along the S coast and had to send the 1st chariot along there to open the trade route. My warriors fought a heroic rear-guard action and held off the horde for just long enough.

With the barbs subdued I dropped cities along the coast to pick up the stone and copper. Teched to alphabet and traded it with almost everyone. I'm 2nd last in score and barely keeping up tech-wise, but building a stack of cats, axes and chariots. My friend Alex is preparing to attack someone - it's either Cyrus or Mao. Which ever one he chooses, I'm going to pile straight in alongside

nokem

 

[hellwitch]

Very nice game for me. i've settled on a blue circle SW from the corn. I go for BW and when i get it : suprise no copper anywhere near. I saw 2 very nice eco spot 1st with gold and second with gem. Cyrus took the gold before i even blink so i settled the second town near the gem. Latter it shows up that this spot is very good because that way i've blocked bismark from the west while Mao block him from the east so the germans were very weak civ this game.