GOTM 30 First Spoiler

[mboza]

I moved the settler 2 NE, found nothing, moved back and founded on the starting location.

Found the english worker, contemplated a worker steal, but as mine was about to complete, and a only had warriors, decided against it. Score one for me, judging from some of the spoilers.

Kublai beat me to the gems site, so I contented myself by getting BW, built a coastal city for the ivory and desert copper and rushed England. Razed a south coast city, took London, razed a centrally placed city, not liking the location, and planning on razing a coastal city and building my own in between the two. I then took a tech for peace, as I was already falling behind. England rebuilt the south coast city, so I razed it again, then took the final coastal city, deciding against razing it after all. I then rebuilt the central city that I had razed.

Why does the AI not offer more tech for peace? Not that it would make much difference.

Phase 2 involved elephants and cats against Kublai. He declared on me, and I almost fought him off, then had to buy peace with a tech when he landed 8 units by galley next to Nottingham, just after I had dispatched my own stack into the jungle. After a short period of rebuilding, I declared on him, and had left enough defense to fight off the repeat amphibious landing.

Took some cities, accepted a single tech for peace, then drove Kublai off the continent and accepted another tech. So now I am well behind in tech, wondering how I can catch up with Germany. I probably can take all his cities, crippling my reasearch even further. I missed the 'mids, then the GL. Managed the partheon, but have not had the happiness to run many specialists, especially as London is my production powerhouse.

 

[hellwitch]

Contender.
I settle in place. Steel a worker from England and i've killed their archer on jungle/hill tile. Then peace with them. I was after AH>M>BW>fishing and started with worker>barrack> many charriots. With 4-5 charriots i've take London just after England settled 2nd city and they left only 1 archer in London (stupid AI). I've continue to spam chariots and kill England fast. Meanwhile i razed one mongol city near the gem in the turn it was settled and i move my charriots vs Kublay. And here my mistakes started - i've keeped mongols capitol and settled the gems spot but this was stupid move as my economy fell down and i've got IW in the AD! Other my mistake was to kill the mongols too fast and when Fredi show up he has contact only with my so i can't tech trade with him. Other my mistake was to go after Oracle and i've lost it because fredi get it somewhere around 1300 BC!!!! Just on the turn i've researched Preasthood. That was very annoing because i could builded it in 2 turn(prechoped). Oh well i've choped Parthenon instead but the Myst>Poly>Priesthood was a major setback for my research(i could go for writing insted for faster libraries). Parthenon was builded in London and GL in Paris later. i've take Alfa>lit next. I've got Hunting at some point early but i cant remember. I've recognised that my civ will have very big happy problems even after calendar (only 1 happy face from insease) so i've researhed Monarchy for HR the i go for cats. Why - because if i can't trade with Fredi i decided to take tech from him for peace and to raze his cities for money. At 500 AD i am figthing with Fredi(he just got lb) on his island ofcourse. The other civ are more advanced ofcourse and i'm prepering to meet them. I'm about 60-70% from finish Compass and by the time it is finished i will have 3 sci for MC>Machinary>Optic instant lightblub so i'm near to meet the other civs. I have to chance for Lib so i will take the bottom tech path - guilds>gunpower for muskets and i will take Astro with more GS because the two island are not enough for Domination. Well thats it - a sure but not optimal win. I expect somewhere around 1400-1500 AD.

 

[hellwitch]

double post! Sorry

 

[JackOfClubs]

I settled in place, too. Didn't make quite as good progress as I had hoped, but am still alive as of 440 AD. The full story is below:

Spoiler :

4000 BC: Moving the warrior NE does not reveal any good reason to move, so I settle in place. The blue circle indicated one tile E probably for the added health of settling near fresh water, but that doesn't seem worth the extra turn, since it would also lose the fish.

3880 BC: Meet Victoria's scout near the rice and marble to the E. That site looks promising, but not a lot of food. I can see Vicky's border in the shadows, which puts her about 9 tiles away from my capital.

3670: Actually Vicky is 8 tiles away on the SE coast of our island. Her border had not popped yet so I miscounted, forgetting that she is not creative. Her resources seem to be banana and clam, not particularly advantageous to her. She does start with fishing and mining so her location has some possibilities, but I don't think she will have enough food to take advantage of all the plains hills.

3640 BC: Meet Kublai Khan on the inter turn, but his unit is not visible. I head north, but Kublai is not nearby.

3340 BC: Hinduism FIDL (not England, and evidently not Mongolia, judging by Kublai's failure to convert.)

3310 BC: Victoria founds Buddhism and converts next turn. My worker is finished but I am still researching bronze working, (damn epic speed!) so I set him to mining the hill to the SE.

3130 BC: Kublai is way to the N. I could probably settle near the elephants and gems and block him in, at the expense of lots of maintenance. Lots of jungle up there, though and a truly efficient block would miss the clams to the W. Something to think about anyway, if there is no nearby copper.

3010 BC: Ah, no. There is copper right near the rice and marble, so that is where Orleans is going. Building the mine shaved 5 turns off the settler but there are still 24 to go. Time to get chopping.

2860 BC: Kublai founds Beshbalik at the northern tip of the continent, near the clams right were my warrior is standing. His borders give me two free tiles of movement: a stone age Orient Express! It doesn't look like there is any copper in his borders. I am a little worried about Vicky settling on the copper near me before I can get my settler out, but that area is in the fog at the moment.

2740 BC: Vicky's second border appears near the marble. She seems to have settled 1E of the marble, S of the lake, which will put the copper out of her reach. Does she not see it? She started with mining so surely she has BW by now, though she hasn't revolted to slavery, so perhaps not. Tha kind of complicates my positioning since I did't want to settle near the desert, but the other alternative is to put Orleans very close to Paris. Due in about 8 turns, minus the second chop (due in 3). Kublai has copper nearby but it is on the W coast and his cities are on the E.

2590 BC: Sending the worker to scout N of Paris -- how wild is that? -- I find a blue circle that would take in the copper and the southern elephant. But that gets me no fresh water, lots of desert and plains and no food to speak of. More attractive is the spot diagonally between the rice and the lake, NE of Paris. That will get me the copper, the rice and fresh water at the cost of lots of overlap. I can live with that, actually, though it isn't my preference. One nice thing is it will have only 1 gp maintenance (plus 1 from the paganism civic. Grr.) That rice is jungled, though, so it won't be workable until iron working. Orlean and Paris will have to share the cows for early growth, at least until fishing comes in when Paris can work the seafood.

2440 BC: Animal husbandry comes in and I have horses in my fat-x. Nice. Paris is building a baracks while Orleans concentrates on pop growth. Need another worker soon. Researching fishing, writing then IW.

1930 BC: Fising comes in a turn after the baracks finishes in Paris, so I waste a turn on a worker. Grr. I want the worker to come from Orleans, which is at size 2 and will be at 3 in a couple of turns. My borders are putting pressure on Vicky, but I don't think I will be able to flip York. She has no culture in that city, but it is just a bit too far away. Still, I have alread taken a couple of tiles from her and will probably get the marble, which she has been gracious enough to quarry. Building a mine on the copper now. Once the workboat finishes in Paris and the worker and barracks in Orleans, it will be all axes for awhile.

1090 BC: Confucianism FIDL. Yikes! I am nowhere near CoL. I am now completely surrounded by English cities, but that doesn't bother me. I have axes to her archers and the closer she builds to me, the less maintenance I will eventually have to pay. Open borders with Vicky so I can explore the one or two squares I can't see. Open borders with Kublai, as well, just to keep him friendly. He will have copper before I can get to him, so I'll probably have to wait for construction before attacking him. Should work well with all of the elephant camps Vicky is building me.

985 BC: Vicky has fish as well as clams but she hasn't built any fishing boats. WTH? Must be nice to be an emperor AI! She also has a settler in London, which is only defended by 3 archers. Is the lack of barbairans making the AI complacent?

880 BC: I have libraries build in both Paris and Orleans but I can't assign any specialists. What the devil? This didn't occur in my test games. Is it something to do with the HoF mod? Will look at this tomorrow.

End of session.

Yes, evidently the Specialist Stacker causes the problems with the specialists. Turning it off allows me to allocate a scientist in Paris to optimize production and growth. Both my cities are at the happy cap so I slow down growth as much as possible and whip off the unhappiness whenever it occurs.

355 BC: My exploring workboat discovers a German island to the NE of Kublai. I can see some other islands that I can reach, but not sure if I can contact the continent. Alphabet coming slowly in 17 turns. Still haven't attacked Vicky. London is well defended and cultural defenses are at 50-60 in most of her towns. I may have to capture a few outlying towns and leave London for the cats (which will not be happening soon).

340 BC: Buddhism has spread in both my cities. Converting allows me to raise the happy cap for increased production. Turns out that island was actually Frederick's home continent. Exploring to see if there he has any neighbors. Vicky hasn't met him yet but Kublai is annoyed due to border tension.

130 BC: Alphabet comes in. Kublai discovered it a turn beforem me, so he doesn't want it, but that means it is no longer a monopoly and I can trade it freely. Vicky gives me Mathematics for it and Fred gives me Hunting, Sailing and Mysticism (and 90 gold, so he has currency). Should have taken Masonry instead of some of the other techs, but I forgot I needed it for Construction.

85 BC: Declared war on England. York falls next turn at a loss of 3 axes and 2 wounded vs 2 archers and a spear. Moving the remaining 7 axes, I find London defended with 9 archers and 2 swords. What? I had thought she didn't have any metals. Now I see that one of her hill mines is defended by an archer and, yep, there is iron there.

25 BC: My axe takes out the archer guarding the iron at 20% odds! I thought I would lose at least one. Pillage the iron and sending the troops around to destroy the other mines and the banana plantation. Sometime in the early AD years, Vicky sues for peace, but the price isn't right and my troops are still marching toward Nottingham.

215 AD: Peace with England for Meditation, Polytheism and 80 gp. I would have liked to get something more expensive, like currency or at least horseback riding, but she wouldn't go for it. I can't do much damage to London right now, so I need to take whatever I can get. Her land is completely bare and she has no worker so it should be awhile before she can reopen that iron mine. Unfortunately I couldn't pillage her fish resources because she sent a galley to attack my fish. Probably should have sacrificed it, but too late now. Construction in 11 turns, which should bring us right up to the end of the peace treaty.

365 AD: Peace treaty expires. Vicky is pleased with me due to +6 for shared religion vs -3 for the prior war. Almost makes me feel guilty. Construction is in and the first catapult is due in 5 turns. On the other hand, Vicky's worker is now rebuilding the iron mine. Since Nottingham also had ivory, I may as well send an elephant or two to London, but those will actually be more useful vs Kublai's keshiks. He actually has several martial resouces (2 ivory, 2 copper, horse and iron) and most of them are in his northern area, so pillaging won't be very useful against him.

380 AD: Kublai asks me to cancel deals with Fred. I don't want to piss K off before I'm ready, which probably won't be for awhile, and Fred isn't particularly useful as an ally. So I break off trade relations with Fred, causing him to go from pleased to cautious with me, but from caustious to annoyed with Kublai. If I can get the two of them to fight it will be very useful.

440 AD: Vicky's mine is finished and the worker is now building a road. If I attack now, I can steal the worker, pillage the mine and maybe draw out some of her troops while I wait for the cats to come on line. (The first one is due in 2 turns due to a slight delay while I concentrated on growing the pop of all my cities. The happy cap was raised when I got the ivory.) This seems like an attractive plan, but I want to sleep on it.

 

[evanevanevans]

First real go at a GOTM ... Above my usual level of difficulty so took the Adventurer save with a plan to see how long I could stay in the game.

Settled in place. Found England and switched build to settler as looked like map would be very crowded. Founded second city near marble about time I found horses in my BFC, nice. Chariots soon took London and then Englands second city to leave just me and Kub on the island (didn't notice date - is there anyway to go back and check ?).

Founded a fifth city to gain gems (I kept the two London cities) by which time Kub was founding cities south of there. Took stock and found that economy was in the toilet - research at 20% and not researched pottery yet so no cottages. Kub ahead in power (and everything else as well) but am going to have to declare on him to get so cash otherwise I'll fall too far behind in techs. Am building the pyramids so if someone else gets there first that could be a nice windfall.

Plan for next playing session is to whip some Axe and Sword to join my chariots and hopefully take a few cities and get a good peace deal. Now I wish I had research archery for defense but too late for that.

 

[JackOfClubs]

(didn't notice date - is there anyway to go back and check ?).

Yes, there is a journal in the upper left corner of the display, right above the science/culture sliders and below the treasury. The icon looks like an open book with a pen writing on it.

There are three tabs that show major events, battles and a chat log (for multiplayer). Here is a screenshot.