GOTM 30 Spoiler I: End of Ancient Age

[HighDesert]

PTW 1.27f Open

I switched to PTW for this GOTM to get the unit rename feature. I've been keeping a QSC log, but about 1500BC or so it really bogs down in Civ3 due to trying to remember the names of all the units. This was much better.

Start.
I thought we might need to look around a bit before finding a good spot. Planned to move the settler to the mountain. worker south and west. First move worker south. Voila!! The cow. Settler follows and settles 1 South for a 4-turn settler factory.

Research.
Pottery @ max. Writing at max. Discovered we're stuck on an island in 2900BC. MapMaking will be key. MapMaking at max. Philos max. CoL max. Republic max. No 40-turns. I tried to maximize gold for research in the opening. Got MapMaking in 1400BC. The AI didn't discover it until 875BC.

Initial builds.
Warrior to explore. Warrior to guard and local exploring. Granary. Settler. Worker. Worker. Worker. Warrior. Then 4-turn Settler factory.

QSC Stats.
The world at 1000BC:
12 Towns
33 Pop
1 Settler
11 Worker
9 Warrior
7 Galleys
Missing 5 req'd AA techs (CoL next turn)
267 Score
96 gold
1 Granary
4 Temples


The rest of AA.
After a reasonable start, I got a little unfocused. It seemed as if the Lighthouse would be real handy for this game, so I started a prebuild about 1200BC. As it was nearing completion, I had subsequently discovered enough of the world that I thought Lighthouse was not needed and that the Great Library would be handier.

Built the Library about 490BC. Shut down research. And waited. And waited. And waited. I didn't keep very good notes after QSC, but I think I hit Middle Ages about 200AD. Could have been 400AD, I was mostly asleep during this period.

Just aimlessly expanded a bit. Sort of decided to try a 100K Cultural victory as I had never tried one before. Tried to set up a second core by attacking England. Fished for Leaders to build the FP, but none showed.

Got into a lethargic build sequence with culture and just really didn't do much. All in all, a fairly passive performance.

 

[Auk]

Civ1.29f Open

I decided to go for a 20k culture victory this month, essentially because I haven't really got much time, and had the odd idea 20k games let you be a bit careless about long and bitter conquest struggles and would therefore be shorter. Not sure where I got that from. Anyway.

The game actually went exceptionally badly due to abject lack of leader production until the Industrial Age, but hey.

My expansion efforts were fairly pathetic. I built Madrid inland one square SE, since I realised that the Colossus would give me an unfortunate early GA. I built a temple as my first build, and researched Mysticism first to get the Oracle up and running. After that I rushed to Map Making and Literature and made contact with the English pretty soon after that.

In the Ancient Age, my Culture builds were
Palace 3950 BC
Temple 3500 BC
Oracle 1500 BC
Great Library 430 BC
Library 310 BC
Hanging Gardens 390 AD

At this point things were looking ok.. I'd also fought a small war against the English.

 

[Drazek]

Originally posted by HighDesert
PTW 1.27f Open
Just aimlessly expanded a bit. Sort of decided to try a 100K Cultural victory as I had never tried one before. Tried to set up a second core by attacking England. Fished for Leaders to build the FP, but none showed.

I have a similar game. I decided to for 100k as well. But it has been tough,
going very slowly due to lack of gold for rushing and no second core. Last month's late 100k wins encouraged me to go for this medal, but now I think I'm doing really bad, I even thought about abandoning the game.

 

[CKS]

I'm happy, because this turned out to be my first ever win on Monarch and my highest score ever, despite a huge mistake during the middle ages.

I moved my settler one space south to found Madrid. I decided I was going to try putting a bunch of cities close together, so I started packing them tightly. Since we ended up on a big island, this turned out even better than I had expected.

I decided that I was going to try for the great library, so I researched writing and then literature. Once I realized I was on an island by myself I had second thoughts, but I decided not to change. After learning lit I went towards map making as fast as possible. I met my first civ two turns before I learned map making, but he didn't have it either. I didn't meet England for a long time.

I started building the great library, but I wasn't convinced I would get it, so I continued researching pretty fast for a long time. I did build it first, and it brought me into the middle ages in 210 AD.

After filling up the starting island and learning map making, I started settling nearby islands. For some reason, I settled mostly east and west. I settled one city on the island to the south during this time, and only one more later.

At the start of the middle ages I'd met 5 neighbors, had the top score, the highest power, and the highest culture. The high power came about not because I've corrected my lack-of-military problem, but because at some point I ran out of things to build and I built a bunch of warriors while waiting to learn lit.

 

[alamo]

Originally posted by alamo
My start looks pretty similar to others. I have the home island and the closest islands on either side. I also got one city on the English island, on the other side of the jungle.

Those seafaring peoples were around, so I expect everyone got a glimpse of them.

I managed to get Colossus and Great Lib and used the breathing room to expand and build city improvements. That would cost me later, but that goes beyone the scope.

My last update. I realized I lost my last save (it was an autosave due to F3 crash). Last previous save was 10-12 turns previous mid-war, so picking up from there was not very fair.

As it stood, I was struggling to own Liz's land. Lincoln had a solid lead. Winning would not be easy. The lack of lux hurt pretty bad - more than I expected.

 

[AlanH]

1.29 Open

Interesting map, Aiinwood. I know I said I was too busy to get to it this month, but curiosity got the better of me, and it payed off in a single 24 hour "just another turn" session that took me to this spoiler point.

I decided that I could see coastal fringes almost all around the edges of the fog, so I was worried that we were on a northern peninsula, so I took a gamble on the southern coast being fresh and moved my settler south east. Bingo! I had deer, water to feed it, and a cow as well after expansion. I have no qualms about looking at F10, so on the basis of what I found there I decided pottery would come my way through contacts, and I went for a 40 turn Writing/Literature research path, saving my gold for upgrades and trading, and built a few warriors and then a Barracks pre-build ready for my Granary.

Well, by 3000 BC I found out the only land bridge went to the southern part of the island and stopped, and we were alone on an island. I had warriors pacing around the coastal areas where I could see the nearby land, but they made no contacts. By the time Writing completed I had finished my Barracks, popped a settler in 2710 BC to found Barcelona south of the Madrid lake, and buillt several vet warriors.

So in 2110 BC I started research on Pottery at max in six turns, built a Granary, and my settler pump was in action. I was too brain-dead by this time to work out how to get Madrid to interleave warriors, so I consoled myself by sharing tiles between Madrid and its neighbours to minimise wastage. After Pottery I thought I'd better get a map, so I set out for Mapmaking at 10%, finishing in about 850 BC. Then Literature at maximum - about 25 turns IIRC.

By 1000 BC I still hadn't met anyone, even though I could see an orange border to the south by standing on the mountains. I had about nine or ten cities in an almost-RCP configuration on the main island and was still squeezing them in.

So we set sail in about 750 BC to meet and greet all our friends. I had almost 1000 gold in the treasury, and four or five galleys. England and purple were our first contacts, and we immediately rode the elevator to tech parity and beyond with some tech brokering between them plus some cash spend. We found iron times 2, but no horses. By this time I had about 35 warriors, mostly vets because I couldn't build much in my cities so a lot of them had Barracks and some had Temples.

As I met purple he plopped down a city next to some horses on the north eastern island. So I hooked up my iron, upgraded a few warriors, and paid him a visit. He also colonised the north western island around th same time, but by the time I had razed his horse city he was keen to talk peace, and I was able to acquire the north western city and another on his home continent plus his small change.

I researched Currency after Literature, and was able to barter my way through the rest of the ancient age techs to get Polytheism and exchange it for Construction in 30 AD to enter the medieval era. I'm researching Republic right now, so I don't strictly qualify for this spoiler, and my lucrative peace deal with Liz expires next turn. We may be in for some more action shortly, as I think she'll find that's *my* island she's occupying currently.

At the end of the Ancient era I have squeezed 13 cities onto the home island, plus another six on the neighbouring islands. plus my pointy-stick acquistion as a continental foothold. I have several settlers en route fo rnew locations. I have found and settled two sources of horses, but haven't completed harbours yet to bring them home, so upgrades and new builds are producing swords in numbers right now.

I've met all but one of the rivals, and I know where the other one (light green) lives. He's an old friend and I look forward to paying him a visit . I'm researching Republic a fast as possible. No barbs at home at all. They all seem to occupy the southern seas. I've lost a couple of galleys to them. I also found some goody huts on my voyages, and as I had taken a spare warrior and a settler along opportunistically, I've popped three of them - nothing/maps/50 gold was all I got for my trouble . Still, at least there were no barbs in them.

Goals? Not culture - I was so busy building my empire that I forgot to start a pre-build for any wonders. The AI is very slow, and hasn't completed the GL or the GL yet. But I know my Library build will fail, because I peeked when I bought my English embassy. I'll probably try to switch it to Sun Tzu instead and sell off all my Barracks.

I'm militarily the strongest civ I know, and my power curve is out-performing the rest. Spaceship takes so long, and I'm not confident about diplo, so putting that together with the time constraints it may well be either a "failed to finish" again, or a rather repetitive domination bid.


Thanks for this one Ainwood. I've had an amazing 24 hours on it. I hope I can do it justice before the end of the month.

 

[zagnut]

AlanH - You should try for a diplomatic win. Just be honorable in your wars, (don't be in your neighbor's property when you declare), don't raze too many cities and keep a few good friends for trades. But the easiest way to make everyone happy is to get ahead in the tech race, which you seem to be headed for, and then give away techs to the other civs. Nothing makes them happier. If you give them enough they will vote for you in the election - just like in real life.

 

[killerloop]

PTW 1.27f Predator

Reached the MA last night. Had a late start this month because of some technical problems, which seem to be solved as I upgraded to 1.27. Tx Ainwood, for your help!
I’m still cleaning up my overall AA notes, but here are my QSC results:

Start:
With only a settler to start with I didn’t gamble to see if the coast to the south was fresh water. I settled on the spot. Build a warrior, a worker and then a settler, which founded Barcelona in 2800BC SS of Madrid. I build a RCP of 6 cities at distance 3 first, then settling the southern part of our island. At 1000 BC I founded my 11th city on another island.

Science:
I first researched pottery full speed (2150BC), writing on 40 turns (1550BC), and mapmaking full speed (1150BC). I never met Orange, although I posted a warrior to look at the tiles on the opposite island. Later I found out a barb camp made it impossible for Orange to get on those tiles! Exactly at 1000 BC I dicovered the Purple. From them I got BW, Wheel & Warrior Code. Tech pace was very slow during AA. My galleys discovered all civs, but except for IW, Construction, HBR, Mysticism I had to research all techs myself. Luckily I discovered 2 techs popping huts on my discovery journeys.

QSC results:
Cities: 11 cities
Citizens: 10 happy, 14 content
Area: 103 tiles
Units: 1 settler
4 workers
13 warriors
3 galleys
City Impr.: 1 granary
1 barack
3 temples
Contact: 1 Purple
Embassy: 1 Purple
Gold: 239
Culture: 244
Score: 191 Spain, 190 Purple
Luxuries: Wool
Resources: None
And according to Pliny’s history of the World in 1000BC Spain was the happiest nation in the world!!

 

[a space oddity]

Even though I would only have three week available this month I decided to give this months' game a go.

I moved the settler of the BG tile, SE and found the lake! After settling Madrid the cow was revealed, much to my delight, as you can imagine. I decided to leave a bit of space around Madrid but settle the first ring close together.

Madrid was a settler factory for a loooong time. There was so much room to spread that there wasn't any need for a very early war.

I built a lot of warriors before connecting the Iron. In 90AD I had a nice force of 20 Swordmen and declared England.

In 230AD I had the Horses online.

In 290AD the Spanish completed the Great Library, which got us Construction and Currency and into the Middle Ages.

 

[Lord Jimbob]

got a little bit of a late start on my FIRST gotm (predator)!
but i finally got out of the ancient age last night:

in 170AD the visionary spanish beckoned the rest of the world to follow it into a new medieval era.

still in despotism b/c i can't get the persians to trade me monarchy- guess i'll just hope republic pops up soon...

25 cities (pop=85) scattered over the main island, the horse island to the northeast, and the three islands to the west, and including all of the conquered english island (excepting one city that the spanish will absorb in the next turn or two)

still trying to decide if i want to eliminate one more opponent before settling down to generating happiness and technology in pursuit of a diplo victory...

got about 3 dozen swordsman, horsemen, galleys, catapults and warriors all together, and 17 workers and a settler.

hope i get to finish this one before the end of the month and get a new high score (never played a monarch game before- so any score will be a record for this level!)- now at 572

i also have abut a 290 shield prebuild in one of my core cities, which i would like to use on the hanging gardens (assuming i pick up monarchy soon!). i wanted to push the tech pace rather than follow it via the GL, b/c/ the AI research has seemed pretty slow.

happy hunting everybody
LJ

 

[Megalou]

1.27 Predator

Going for Culture 100K.

Starting without a worker was tough, and I moved my settler the wrong way to boot. At least Madrid was well placed for a round city placement at distance 2. It was devastating to miss the cow, seeing how many early towns I would have needed to build workers and rush temples. Strangely, I built my second town still without a worker.

All the coastal tiles persuaded me to shift my GLighth to GLib in my size-5-shields-9-wonder town. After completion, I sold every tech I got and that seems to have brought me to the middle ages a bit earlier than other "Great Librarians." It's late all the same.

Stats in 70 AD, end of ancient age:
22 towns, 1 settler
33 warriors (18 vets).
6 spearmen
All contacts
1331 gold
No wars
2120 culture points

 

[smackster]

PTW 1.27f Open


Moved worker south, saw cattle, moved settler south, settle there.

Setup the 4 turn settler factory, pumping out the first settler in 2800BC.

By 1000BC my empire looked like this

13 Cities
2 Settlers
14 Warriors
5 Workers
1 Galley
Pop 28

Techs : Ceremonial Burial, Alphabet, Pottery, Writing, Map Making

No goodie huts, no barbs.

The settler pump built all but two of the settlers. I could have squeezed one more out but didn't seem worth it.

Orange was seen to the south.

We soon met the English and another civ that will not be mentioned. Tech trading was very profitable, as we found that we were advanced.

In 290BC we started researching Monarchy although this would mean we would stay in the Ancient age for some time.

We sneaked one city onto the souther continent and that was to be used as a launching point for attack.

At beginning of the new millienium we launched a massive sword attack on England, first east, then as those cities were secured, the western prong.

In 70AD England were looking very sorry and here is what it looked like. [edit I'm sure I reduced the size of that, will have to load it up again later]

In London was the GL, so we were able to generate a lot of cash as the GL gave us a few extra techs, but not quick enough for my liking.

We entered the Middle ages in 260 AD, when at last somebody else researched Construction. I found the other nations very slow at tech in this period, and we'll see what I thought about them later in the next post.

At this point my only plan was to get a Great Leader for the FP, so it was going to be war war war until I got it. Only one elite and only one win so far, so it could be a long game.

 

[Hergrom]

PTW 1.21f Open


Well, I'm back. I just couldn't stay away from the game anymore after 5 long months. And as this is my first game played at all in 5 months, my expectations are not real high.

My goal is conquest, or domination if conquest will take much longer.

Decided to move settler SE to forest, hoping that the coast there was a lake. The worker stayed put to work the BG. Founded Madrid, and a cow is revealed! Start pottery at max.

Madrid produces warrior, warrior, warrior, warrior, granary.

My first mistake: After researching pottery, went max on mysticism... I was convinced the tail to the SW would lead to more land. Moron. Unfortunately, I was several turns into mysticism, so I waited until it was discovered to go towards map making.

At 1000BC, I have 10 cities, and not much else. By time I actually get map making, I have crammed 11 cities on starting continent. the first 4 cities were at RCP 4 around Madrid, the rest strategically placed.

After map making, I am able to get 4 cities on the island to the NW, and 2 more on the island to the NE (also 1 city from an un-named civ). I was also able to get a settler to the far NE to secure some tangy fine wine. I then scrambled to get 2 settlers to the next island directly to the W to secure some horses.

After map making, I concentrated on getting to the republic, as I really needed a research boost. Changed to republic as soon as I got it. Sometime in this range I built the Great Lighthouse for multiple purposes. 1) better naval move, and 2) as part of my GA plans.

So I entered the Medieval Age sometime in the AD's, with 20 cities, a naval fleet of 8, and busily building horsemen. I had contacted all other civs.

Hergrom

 

[OzJeremy]

First GOTM, and not going well so far

Having not played Civ3 for a while, this was an abysmal start. I researched bronze working and then iron working, because I thought I'd better try to secure those deposits. I had no idea it was an island. Of course, when I did figure that out then I forgot what wretched techs I needed to get triremes.

Haven't actually got to the middle ages yet. Researching map making now, so - haven't met anyone else. My island's swarming with swordsmen, though. Built the Colossus because it was the only thing left to build apart from units. Now I've finally got literature I'm building the great library.

I didn't remember how important pottery is in this game. Ah well. I'll keep going, see what happens when I meet the English!

 

[civ_steve]

Welcome to GOTM OzJeremy!

Sorry your first game hasn't gone as well as you'd like. On the Civilopedia (middle icon in upper left of game screen) you can select Units, then Galleys (which is the earliest naval vessel in Civ3). This will show you the required Tech to build them (MapMaking). The Science Advisor (the F6 key) will then show you all the Techs you need to get MapMaking.

The AI doesn't do that well with these Island games; keep at it and see how well you can do. Hope Gotm31 is better for you!!

 

[civ_steve]

1.21f

I want to congratulate the GOTM staff on offering a unique game with unique challenges this month!!

I've nearly finished my game. The combined Easter family activities (April 11th) and Tax Time (April 15th) chewed up a good week this month, so I wanted to be just about done before doing much posting. I was a little hesitant to do Predator this month (What!! No Worker!!!!! NOOOOOO...), but thinking about it, I'd be able to replace him in 10 turns, and during that time I could make 2 Warriors for scouting, so I was less than 10 turns behind the Open crowd in terms of developing my civ. OK, I could deal with that. Sooo, I started the game.

Following the pre-game discussion thread, I moved the (lonely) settler SE and founded Madrid in 3950 BC. There was no Wheat to the NE , but there was cattle to the SW ; I had kept the Game forest within my initial radius, and the coast noticed was fresh so an irrigation source was present. (That alone was a good reason to move!!) Since I had enough potential food for a 4-turn Settler factory, and since I was behind a worker, I decided I needed a Granary very early on. Even though there were several expansionistic civs available, I didn't want to chance not contacting them, so I started on Pottery at Maximum.

I got my first 2 warriors out, and scouting. My first Worker was finished in 3400 BC. Started a Barracks, pre-build for Granary. Finished research of Pottery in 3100 BC (lack of rivers really hurts research!!) and switched to Granary; finished in 2630 BC. About that time had completely confirmed we were all alone on an island. After Pottery, started on Writing at Maximum, wanted Map-Making ASAP. The Maximum research was a complete mistake as I never got enough research going to beat the Minimum rate. Finally switched, but not until about 200 potential gold was lost!!

So, what to do with this Game? Since we were alone, and I didn't know when I might meet the other civs, I decided to set up my 2nd city (Barcelona) as a potential 20K culture city. There weren't any totally outstanding sites; I id'd a few sites near the Southern Lake, and finally chose a site just NW of the Lake. With only 1 Luxury available initially, it was difficult to get the 20K city up to a really grand population to pile shields into Wonder production, so I didn't think the final outcome would be really stellar, but at least it was set up.

So, I plodded along to 1000 BC. At times I set Madrid to be a 2 turn Worker factory, cranking out lots of workers to develop my civ. Along the way I established 8 cities total on my little island. RCP was out the window; I don't think any 2 cities had the same distance to the capital! I had 20 citizens, 11 Workers and 14 Warriors. 1 Granary, 3 Temples and 1 Barracks with 44 Gold in the bank. I finished Writing in 1550 BC (40 turns!), and Map-Making in 1100 BC (only 14 turns). I had seen Orange culture to the South, so I rushed 2 Galleys in the South, and made contact in 1025 BC with England. They had Bronze-Working, Masonry, Wheel and Warrior Code, along with Mysticism, to our Writing (and Map-Making!). I'd changed Barcelona from a Granary pre-build to the Great Lighthouse (they already had a Temple built); I made no trades since I wanted to protect Map-Making and the Great Lighthouse as long as possible. That was my QSC status at 1000 BC.

So, my Galleys started heading out. I finished the Great Lighthouse eventually in 550 BC, just before my wandering Galleys contacted the final civ in 510 BC. Obviously the GLight did not help the exploring, but I found it to be very useful otherwise! Without it, you could trade (once harbors were built) with 4 other civs; with it all the civs can trade with you. More important was the extra movement point; with all the coast tiles in this game, my Galleys could consistently move 3 spaces, vs 2 for any non-seafaring civs. Also, my ships moved 4 spaces in Sea, vs 3 for most of the others. (And, the Barb galleys didn't attack you if you were in Sea, which I could do without risk; this helped me avoid a lot of Barb attacks.) I did a lot of naval movement in the game, so that extra space really helped!

Research: I learned Philosophy next after Map-Making. This gave me a trading Tech, since I was trying to protect Map-Making. Counting England as civ#1, civ#2 was contacted in 800 BC, and my Philosophy gained me BronzeWorking, Wheel and Gold. Contact civ#3 in 710 BC; trade Phil for IronWorking, Warrior Code and Gold; since English now have Writing, trade Phil. for Masonry and Gold. Contact civ#4 in 670 BC; they are missing Alphabet; trade them Alpha for Myst and Gold; Sell Myst to civ#2 for 114 Gold. Contact civs#5 and #6 in 550 BC; by this time we have learned Literature, but we're not going to trade it so that Barcelona can work on the Great Library. 510 BC contact civ#7, no trade. Trade Phil and 14 gold to civ#5 for Math; Sell Math to civ#3, England, civ#6 (get HorseBackRiding in trade, too), start a minimum research on Poly. In 390 BC see that civ#4 has Poly and they are way behind otherwise; trade Writing and Math for Poly; trade Poly to civ#3 for Dyes, Wines and Gold; trade Poly to civ#6 for CodeofLaws and Gold; sell Poly to civs#5 and #7. Start minimum research on Monarchy. 350 BC, Barcelona finishes Library, and starts on Great Library. 150 BC civ#5 finishes the Pyramids, so early Wonders are done; the Great Library should be safe for me to finish. 310 AD, finish Great Library in Barcelona; 320 AD learn Construction and Currency from GLib, and we are in Middle Ages!! (I am one turn away from learning Monarchy by myself, so I'm technically qualified for this thread in 330 AD.)

Wars: (yeah, Baby!!) 450 BC, finally got Iron connected, and started upgrading Vet Warriors to Vet Swordsmen. They promptly moved South to a waiting armada of Galleys (if 4 counts as an armada); declared war on England, and landed at Coventry, in the North, in 330 BC. Having lots of Galleys with island terrain overcomes much of the slowness of the Swordsman unit; while the main force was taking Coventry, the reinforcements were picked up, then dropped off on the NE end of England to destroy a newly formed town there (Warwick). Then these reinforcements rejoined with the healed Coventry veterans, to hop down the coast and take NewCastle. Meanwhile, fresh reinforcements arrived down the Eastern coast to destroy a Jungle town there. The English had no response and London was taken in 130 BC as another Eastern town (York) is also destroyed this turn. Peace is signed in 110 BC where I gain Coventry and Oxford (on an island) leaving Hastings to the far SW as the only English town left. In 11 turns I've taken or destroyed 6 towns with Swordsmen; I'm starting to enjoy the island life!!

I enjoyed it so much that I repeated the process with civ#2. In 110 AD I declare war and land 12 Vet Swords adjacent to a town of civ#2. By 320 AD (when I entered the Middle Ages), I had taken or destroyed 9 towns (in 14 turns). They were down to only 2 towns (they didn't survive long after.)

Barbs: never saw a Barb on my home island. The NE tip of the English island saw a mass Barb uprising as the AI entered the Middle Ages well before I did (90 BC). Eventually I cleaned them out. I did encounter a Barb zone on the map, but that's for another spoiler. As I stated earlier, the Barb galleys didn't bother me if I stayed in Sea spaces, so I could avoid most of them.

Plans: as of 320 AD, I have 32 towns: 8 on my island, 8 more that I've founded on adjacent islands, and 16 on the English and civ#2's islands. I didn't generate a Great Leader in either conflict, so I've just finished building the Forbidden Palace in 270 AD in Salamanca (closest city to Madrid), and am planning a Palace Jump to the English Island; IMO a better spot than civ#2's lands. Will finish research of Monarchy the next turn; but I really want Republic to change to, so I'll get some sort of a trade going about the time I do the Palace Jump.

I'm much further along, so all this stuff works, of course, but these were my thoughts at this time in the game. I'm not one to build a big Navy usually, but this game has been really different. Here is my Army and Navy at this point:

And here's a screenshot of the activity and preparations going on in the formerly English Island:

 

[Megalou]

Originally posted by civ_steve
320 AD learn Construction and Currency from GLib, and we are in Middle Ages!! (I am one turn away from learning Monarchy by myself, so I'm technically qualified for this thread in 330 AD.)

The way I interpret the GOTM rules, you are in the next age when the message "Our people have entered a new age of discovery" is shown. I don't think you need to research monarchy to qualify for the first spoiler.

Very nice trading, civ_steve. How much money did you save with Great Library? I recall having around 1331 gold when I switched to monarchy and started to spend.

 

[civ_steve]

Well, in reality, I'm much further along now. I was referring to Ainwood's requirement 1, to be in the Middle Ages, which he clarified as to be researching a Middle Ages technology. I didn't start researching a Middle Ages technology until 330 AD, but I was capable to do so if I wanted.

I'm showing 32 Swordsmen, which were all upgrades from Warriors at 40 gold each. Assuming some defeated Swordsmen, maybe 40 total were upgraded, or about 1600 gold spent. Counting my current treasury I've had about 2000 free gold to this point. Of course more value is generated during the early Middle Ages, too.

For me, the Great Library was doubly useful because I wanted to slow research down. Now I can save my money, do upgrades or rushes once I change governments, and the AI is not getting Techs or money from me for their technology. Older units are more useful for longer periods; this makes the AI more vulnerable. Also, since I am developing a 20K city, wonder cascades are shorter as the AI is less likely to have researched the next Wonder technology. And I also like its 6 culture/turn.

 

[OzJeremy]

Thanks civ_steve... maybe I should go back to it. I chucked a bit of a hissy-fit when the computer beat me to a wonder I was two turns away from, then because I was annoyed with that I kept moving the damned galley away before loading it up with swordsmen. Quit in disgust. Shameful behaviour, really. I'll go back to it. Maybe that's a good thing about civ - if you play on when you've stuffed up, rather than quitting, it's character-building!

 

[civ_steve]

Definintely character building, and you may learn some new things for your next campaign! Even so, I plan to drop all other activities once the Gotm31 save is available (some time in the next 24 hours!)

Check out the Reference Thread (one of the GOTM stickied threads): there are links to several great articles about Civ3 strategy.