GOTM 30 Spoiler

[la fayette]

I decided to play MGE, no city bribe (and of course no black clicking and no helper programs, as usual).
Given the size of the island and the size of the map, Marco was a high priority, but I didn't get all maps at first contact (that's MGE , those people often are icy even when you meet them with gifts).
All the AI civs got swiftly so hostile that I got angry and decided to go for conquest: GW, then Mike and hordes of crusaders (over 80 at work in the endgame ), LH, then Magellan (providing 6 moves caravels ), and here we go.
The map was big enough to make me fear not to finish the job before 1500 (you know those tiny cities hidden faraway in the black), but I finally managed sooner than that .

 

[Jayne]

My game started rather well. I was going great until about 1850 and was on course for my earliest AC landing yet.

Then I went away for a few days and when I came back to it the AI turned nasty! It suddenly went horribly wrong for the next 50 turns until the game ended. Everyone (except the Aztecs) were at war with me, I was being nuked from every direction and in the last 20 turns or so I lost a lot of cities. This was also probably the first game where all 5 AI's (the Green one long gone) where all evenly matched tech-wise.

So what started off for me as a really good game ended as one of the worst. Nevermind - there's always next month!

 

[Old n Slow]

I’ve started -- probably played too many turns carelessly, but we’ll see. I’m at about 800 AD, Have HG, Colossus & Marco’s with the other ancients all elsewhere. I have yet to settle the entire island, but one of my dozen cities is offshore. Was able to get maps of everyone (classic is good for that) but have yet to establish an alliance. Need to let this one sit for a few days, so I can look at it with fresh eyes & see what a new view can bring to light.

 

[KingWilly]

Had much the same problem as Jayne. Was going fine just up until it was time to launch my spaceship. The tech race was fairly even (except for the Aztecs). Suddenly the Japanese and Carthaginians decided they didn't like me, and just a few turns before landing they attacked. The Japanese only got one of my cities, but I could have scored better had they decided not to attack.
Probably wasn't my worst entry in the GOTM (Some of my earlier games were worse - before really reading tips from guys like Smash and Starlifter), but probably could have done better with some better planning. Oh well, I'll have to wait till next month now.

 

[golem]

Nice game. I have not so big problem so far in GOTM. I have decided to finish as soon as possible. After building Marco Polo (350 BC) I realised that I am almost the worst in science and nobody likes me. No exchange of knowledges, no sharing of maps. Just wars. Barbarians did me the hell - I had to kill 8 horsmans and two chariots. I did it but I spent a lot of money.Now I am in 800 AD, I am fighting with the rest of the world but Japanese. After building Copernicus I have new knowledge every 17 turns. Goodbye, fast finish.

 

[ElephantU]

Just passed 200AD myself. Built Marco Polo around 50BC (after HG and race for Colossus) and was frustrated: all 3 civs that had tech I wanted to trade for, were all building Wonders so they answered "sorry - our great minds are too busy on ...". Wasnt worth dumping techs just to get maps, so I sat it out for a few hundred years. I was suprised when I saw how close the Celts are: they never dropped by in the BC. Now the Celts have Astronomy and I'm trying to get ready to swap and build it; just dont want to draw attention to it while they have another Wonder building.

 

[grigor]

I found this start very challenging. Despite the money and the shields toward the wonder, there was not much to do for a while. I am short of real time this month so I decided on a conquer strategy, but I got sidetracked by roadbuilding and mining (which I would never do if I were in the same stage of the game in 3000BC). I want for trade before triremes, which may have been a blunder, and then got the one-more-turn blues. So now (320 AD) I have neither a civilization machine nor a war powerhouse, and it looks like forever before Crusaders and Ironclads. I hope I have time to finish.

Were I to start over at 1000BC Iwould recommend sleaze sleaze sleaze until about 12 cities and then worry about focusing science toward war.

 

[Old n Slow]

Getting close to the end (late 1500's) -- but I have yet to take a foreign city. I have $24K to spend and not much else to buy. Maybe I'll go visit the locals & see what's for sale...

 

[ElephantU]

Back from vacation: I never posted my 1AD log, so I'll put it all one big file. Developing the island went well, the nearness of the Celts was a suprise, but made for early trade destinations. I was late getting a decent shipping chain going, settling for the Carths and the French. Once the research was in the bag I throttled back to build trucks for spaceship parts, but when crossing 1500AD everyone else's attitude took a big drop. After launch I had some fun "punishing" the Celts and Indians.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/EUGOTM30log.txt

 

[ElephantU]

And the SSC, with Research Lab, before Flight, size 25 (with Refrig it went to 32: too late):