GOTM 30 Spoiler I: End of Ancient Age

[samildanach]

Predator 1.27f PTW

I just don't want to talk about this game right now. Maybe after some counselling, I might feel ready to open up about it in a year or two.
On the other hand maybe talking about it will be therapeutic. Samildanach shuffles feet, looks to heavens for the inspiration. Well it all started in 4000 B.C. ......and you could say it pretty much ended there as well. As I moved my settler onto the nearby mountain I decided to stop looking for any other bonus tiles.I founded my second city Barca by the cattle, where I should have founded Madrid, some thousands of years later. I ended the Q.S.C. with a dreadful eight settlements Tell the truth samildanach O.K, O.K, It was seven. Seven poxy towns! Are you telling the truth now? It was six.....Might have been five I can't remember.
I had nothing in the way of military either, just a handful of warriors and I think five workers, although it may have been as many as seven, but that is probably wishful thinking.
I didn't enter the MA until 200 A.D. , and the hairy green savages thoughtful as ever welcomed the spanish to this new era ...By declaring war and sacking one of our cities on that turn. Sweet.

 

[Capt Buttkick]

Civ 1.29f

Sam.
Well, I got lucky with my starting asessment (unlike most gotm's I've played). I scouted the game with my worker and then decided to move S with my settler. Founded Madrid next turn, aiming for an early settler factory. I did throw in an early worker as well and that did wonders.
I guess I've learnt that food rich starts need lots of early workers.
After pottery I went straight for Map Making, partly because the land I had seen til then looked like an island and partly because the game announcement already had me moved towards that persuasion

End of QSC I had 13 cities and had started the Great Lighthouse.

I left the ancient age in 370 A.D. after grabbing the Great Library too, to slow down research. Here are my stats at that time:

Contact: all 7 civs.
42 cities
5 settlers
28 workers + 1 eqWorker
18 warriors
9 spearmen
39 swordmen
6 galleys
Great Lighthouse and Great Library.
Gov: republic

 

[Offa]

Originally posted by samildanach
Predator 1.27f PTW

I just don't want to talk about this game right now. Maybe after some counselling, I might feel ready to open up about it in a year or two.
On the other hand maybe talking about it will be therapeutic. Samildanach shuffles feet, looks to heavens for the inspiration.

Great write up. Even if you couldn't face playing on our team in sgotm1.

 

[zagnut]

Originally posted by WarriorPoet
I'm giving up on this game due to some events I'll post on when future spoilers are available.

I hyper-expanded like you wouldn't believe...maybe I should submit a QSC and call it a day.

Sorry to hear you are not going to continue. Don't be so ready to give up. You would be surprised how you can recover from really terrible positions with patience and confidence. Hang in there. You will surprise yourself.

 

[Ketadrean]

What is this "QSC" I read about anyway?

 

[grs]

QSC = Quick Start Challenge. You can submit your 1000 BC save. Read about it here .

 

[Ketadrean]

Oh hey crap did not know about this, is there some info on why or what submitting the QSC does?

 

[grs]

You should read this anyways!

The info you seek is on this page.

 

[Bede]

GOTM30 Spain-PTW-Open

First real attempt at a GOTM and I am enjoying it very much. The map presents some interesting challenges.

Appreciate the work, ainwood and others of GOTM staff. Thanks for the opportunity.

The Game is afoot:

Moved the settler to the SW and settled on the coast with the feedlot in first tier. Built a warrior for exploration and then started a settler.


Accordingly, after the settler and a couple more warriors, Madrid built its granary, then churned out settlers for the first hundred or so turns.

The warriors quickly determined the shape of the island, which determined the overall strategy for the early game: no military, emphasize commercial improvements, then cultural (scientific), seek contact aggressively, settle the island quickly, build boats and get offshore.


By 1050BC the island was completely settled and Spain was sailing the seas looking for islands and contacts.

Every town was on the coast and as soon as MM was learned every town except Barcelona built a galley for exploration and settler ferrying.

Settlement history
T1 Madrid (3950)
T21 Barcelona (3000BC)
T45 Seville (1990BC)
T49 Toledo (1830BC)
T56 Santaigo (1625BC)
T62 Salamanca (1475BC)
T69 Murcia (1300BC)
T79 Valencia (1050BC)

The first off-island settlement was Ciudad de la Luna on the island to the NE in 190BC (T113)

190BC Unit Count
1 settler
13 workers
13 warriors
3 spears
2 swords
2 galleys

190BC Science Advisor

The Realm of Spain circa 190BC

City placement on the home island was guided by a 4-8-12 placement which maximized use of available land and sea and which actually worked nicely on the off-island settlement locations to the West and NorthEast.

Barcelona was the production leader at this stage and concentrated on the two critical wonders: the Colussus (800BC) and the Great Lighthouse (250BC). The Colussus was a significant commerce boost and also inaugurated the Golden Age (in despotism) which greatly shortened the research time to Map Making and accelerated the building of the Great Lighthouse.

Contact with England came almost as soon as the warrior reached the south and Spain began a program of trading technology for technology and gold that served her well throughout her history. The goals were to have the other civilizations fund research, maintain control of the technology pace and stay ahead militarily through quality, not quantity. The long term goal was either Diplomatic or Space Victory. (I eliminated Domination and Conquest and planned for wars only to capture resources or trade goods, or, should it become necessary, eliminate a rival's Space Ship).

Spain entered the Middle Ages at some point (notes lost)between 310BC(T113) and 340AD (T150). T150 marked the end of the native expansion phase as both islands to northeast and west and a third island to the west had been colonised. At this point we had contact with all other civilizations and the exchange of technology for cash and technology was in full spate.

Spain Western Islands 340AD

Spain Home Island 340AD

Spain Eastern Island

Relationship with England circa 340AD

The commercial and religious traits established our research path. Presented with a fork in the tree Spain chose to research towards those advances that complemented those traits. The result was technical parity with the leader, and a one or two step advantage on the others, with one notable exception who lagged badly behind. This position created tremendous brokerage opportunities throughout the Ancient and Middle Ages, as for example, Spain could trade Polytheism to the leader for a military technology, and cash, then turn around and sell one or the other to the others for cash and another military tech. In most cities (the exceptions being the barracks towns of Santiago, Toledo and Salamanca) libraries came before temples and harbors and marketplaces soon after. The scientific and cultural boost of libraries supported the research pace and cultural dominance, and the economic improvements and brokerage paid for the research. The settlement plan minimized the effects of corruption on the home island and courthouses were needed only early in the outlying colonies and on the home island much later in the game when the last shield and gold coin had much higher marginal value (the multiplier effects of banks in the Middle Ages and factories later).

There were no wars fought by the Spanish during this phase, as there was no strategic reason for belligerence. The first war came early in the Middle Ages to consolidate control of the westernmost island (two other nations had outposts there) and the second to establish a foothold on the English island and to seize some luxury resources needed to pacify an increasingly restive population as the home island cities grew towards 12.

 

[dojoboy]

Originally posted by Offa


I'm not sure what you mean. Those are my other cities surrounding Madrid in a pretty tight RCP 3 ring. Barcelona is obviously in a bad spot as it reduces the available spots in the ring, but I was in a rush to settle at the time ( not realizing I was alone on the island) and didn't want to waste more forest by settling on it.

I never saw barbs either, or huts.

Ah, makes sense. They just looked like fortified barbs to me in the city-view screen.

 

[Bede]

Sorry for double post

 

[gozpel]

Open PTW 1.27

I moved the worker S and find a cow, and Madrid is founded SW of the start. I built a settler and then a worker, a double forest chop gave me a timely granary.

The year 3250bc was a good year where I met England, learnt Pottery and founded my second city Barcelona. My workers mainly built roads after improving Madrid and the commerce helped me a lot.

I researched Writing (1950bc) and MapMaking (1400bc) at max.
England got Writing for BW and WC a few turns before I finished MM.
When my galleys were out roaming the seas, I basically gave away techs, especially Maths and Philosophy which I researched myself. This to motivate the AI to go for CoL and Construction, while I researched Poly, Monarchy and Currency at max.

By 1000bc I had 16 cities, 11 packed on my own little island and 5 others spread around. With 9 galleys this time I scouted fairly quickly and knew 5 foreign civs. I also had 9 workers, 2 settlers sailing and 10 warriors.

I became a Monarchy 450bc and entered the Middle Age 290bc with an additional 10 towns, by giving a far off civ Poly for CoL and soon after another civ researched Construction for me which I happily traded for 3 techs.

This map is really fun, I like playing real archipelagos. The downside is the lack of luxes, but the pointy stick will take care of that.

 

[Offa]

Originally posted by gozpel

The year 3250bc was a good year where I met England, learnt Pottery and founded my second city Barcelona.

By 1000bc I had 16 cities, 11 packed on my own little island and 5 others spread around. With 9 galleys this time I scouted fairly quickly and knew 5 foreign civs. I also had 9 workers, 2 settlers sailing and 10 warriors.

Good grief. What a start. How the hell did you do that. How did you met the english so soon. 16 cities!

 

[gozpel]

double post

 

[Offa]

Argghh !!!

I figured out what happened. You can see 2 squares of the English coast from the SE coast. I just tried a restart and made contact in 3000bc. In the game I actually built a city in the square 1 N of the SE coast but the short sighted fool stationed there didn't have the coast in his field of view. I didn't meet the English until 470bc.

Still Gozpel, 16 cities +2 settlers + exploring at 1000bc is awesome. Pottery first was definitely best in this game .

 

[gozpel]

My scouting warrior wandered around enjoying the scenery and saw an English scout, so that was indeed lucky.

But the settler factory wasn't luck, it was pure determination to fix it every second turn when the new citizen wanted to work a forest. I didn't miss it once.

To add up to 16cities + 2 settler, other cities had to build a couple of settler as well, so most cities at 1000bc were 1 pops

Too bad I screwed up my turnlog, so I won't submitting the QSC.
But it was good to get into the routine of typing the turns again and next month I will save in time.

 

[el_kalkylus]

QSC Period

After 1000 bc:
I was still in the golden age and research was fast. I researched 80-100% for Literature (6 turns), traded it with the english for half some cash; not all of their money because I wanted them to research a little for me. Then I researched Polytheism, Philospy, traded for Code of Laws with some civ. So when the golden age ended, I researched The Republic which took about 20-25 turns I think. In the meanwhile I decided I would give all my techs to a, what seemed to be, powerful civ. Eventually that civ researched Currency for me while another researched Construction for me. And so I left the Ancient age at 110 bc in Republic.

Madrid built two settlers some warriors and workers and then worked on Great Library. And because my other cities were busy building harbors, libraries, barracks and a few warriors, I didn't build more than two cities after 1000 bc. Instead I captured one with 7 warriors (not the english.) Here are two screenshots of 110 bc:

 

[el_kalkylus]

Barcelona also built the Great Lighthouse, so I was able to contact all 7 civs with 3 lost galleys. It took a while to figure out that I could move more than 2 moves if I moved the galley to a certain square.

btw, in my previous post I meant 7 swordsmen (upgraded warriors).

To sum it up, at 110 bc I had 20 workers, 7 galleys, 6 swordsmen, 5 warriors, 1 spearman, 11 cities on 4 islands, Colussus and Great Lighthouse, 2 harbors, 4 libraries, 5 granaries, 10 temples and 2 barracks.

 

[Offa]

Originally posted by gozpel

But the settler factory wasn't luck, it was pure determination to fix it every second turn when the new citizen wanted to work a forest. I didn't miss it once.

Again well done. I'm very envious. But why only 9 warriors. You were making them in Madrid weren't you, as well as settlers?

 

[gozpel]

Originally posted by Offa
But why only 9 warriors. You were making them in Madrid weren't you, as well as settlers?

I didn't even think of doing the 4-turn warrior/settler factory.
Read through your post about that Offa, and I see where I will try to improve next time

I didn't want to waste time with the barracks, and I ran it as 4-6 and by using the lake for 2 turns every rotation, I gained a little extra commerce for science.

The 7th tile I gave to Murcia NNE of Madrid, which built a couple of galleys and units.