GOTM 31 Spoiler I - End of Ancient Age, Map of starting continent.

[scoutsout]

Originally posted by Offa
Why did you have an army anyway? How were you hoping to get it on a galley?

Well... the Army was left over from the war with England, and it came in pretty handy in the battles for the first few Iroquois cities. When playing a non-militaristic civ I like to get that first victorious army. The military academy (and armies) make nice pre-builds for stuff...

 

[Peglegasus]

This is my first go at GOTM, and as I've only won on emperor once, I'm playing Conquest class. Having those two workers and a warrior at start sure was nice .

So judging from the placement on the mini map I figure rival civs are probably north and west, so I send my warrior north, straight up the mountain range, meeting the English and then the Iroquois. I move one worker south a tile at the start and see the two wheat so I move the settler south and east and build Paris. I research pottery at max, build a couple warriors, go into disorder TWICE... damned emperor difficulty! then start pumping out the settlers.

I realize quickly that we're on an island with no other civs so I decide that the Great Lighthouse would be really helpful. I build Orleans 4 tiles north of Paris and figure that it's a great spot for the Lighthouse. I begin building all my cities 4 tiles from each other and it works out nicely on this landmass.

In 1950 BC we hear that the English are the most advanced civ. Ha! only two techs ahead

I make it to math before the others and trade for mysticism and the wheel. Buy writing and build embassies in 1425 BC. Of course I realize now that I should have spent that money on pounding them into the ground, but oh, well. I keep thinking that one of these guys is going to declare on me at any moment and I may not survive unless I can bring the other in to help me fight... which of course would require an embassy.

In 1350 I get my horses hooked up and soon after I make it to polytheism and trade it to the others for iron working and cash. This game I'm really focusing on tech trading because it's something I'm just getting good at. I'm beginning to think that I may try and play the whole game from a peace standpoint and work on trading skills.

I switch research to map making and am already prebuilding for the Lighthouse in Orleans. The English get to it first so I switch research to monarchy. Both civs now have horseback riding now and I'm dreading the Iroquois mounted warrior assault that I'm sure must be coming. I've been expanding quite quickly and really don't have much of a military to speak of. If I had remembered that in the GOTM ruleset warrior can upgrade, I would have done things a little differently.

By 1100 I have cut off the other civs' expansion. They begin moving settlers and spearmen through my territory. There is an English town just north of me in that mountain range that has iron and I want it, so I tell the English to get out. I figure if they declare on me I will bring the Iroquois in and I will move in to take that iron. I have 7 archers ready to move on that town, and I'm pretty sure the English haven't hooked up the iron yet for swordsmen. The English leave peacefully! The Iroquois do as well. This goes on for a while; settlers moving in and me telling them to leave. They do. I keep thinking that one of these clowns is going to start a war at some point... but no one does!

In 670 the pyramids and the collosus are complete, I don't remember who got them. I think Zimbabwe got pyramids and Iroquois got Collosus. The English have beat me to map making.
I want it badly. I pay 176gold plus 9per turn AND horses for it.
I connect my iron and one turn later...

the Great Lighthouse is completed in Orleans!!! I can't believe it. I hook up silks, trade map making to the Iroquois for philosophy and some cash, and send my first galley out from Paris soon after. One thing interesting I have noticed is that the English and the Iroquois really aren't trading many techs with each other. I'm trading with one and then the other, or buying from one and selling to the other.

In 500Bc my galley has found a solitary sea square in the ocean east of marseilles. From there we make a mad dash straight east and find land! We meet civ 1 and we are two techs ahead of them. I hold off on trading for now. I want to see who else is out here. If I trade to civ 1 now they'll just sell to their neighbors next turn. Why should they get rich off of my techs?
They don't have much money anyway. I notice the English using galleys to settle the snowy region on the south west side of the island. They get two towns going before I can grab the rest of the land.

I am prebuilding for the Library in Orleans now. We get monarchy in 490BC; Liz gets it at the same time. I meet the civ 2 and get currency from them for polytheism and some gold. Then I start trading things around and end up with code of laws too and enough cash to build embassies in civ 1 and civ 2. I'm making a 17 turn run at literature now.

In 390 Liz has brought her civilization into the Middle Ages and won't sell construction. It's the last tech I need. I have found that she is a real cheap skate. Even now (I'm playing industrial age now) and techs that I'm selling for nice gold per turn deals she will offer 5 gold and a map for. But I digress...

We meet the civ 3 in 370 BC and sell them math to get rid of that pouty face of his. The civ 2 are the big money makers it seems. I sell them monarchy for a nice 600 gold. I can crank up the research now. I'm running at Literature in 7 turns at -19 gold per turn.

The Iroquois beat me to Literature. I buy construction from them because it's the last tech I need for Middle Ages. They sell me Literature for a measly 70 gold. What a bargain. I don't think I'll make it to the Great Library first but I'm going to try.

So we enter the Middle Ages in 330BC. I figure this is a good time to switch governments. So France plunges into anarchy...

Moderator Action: Nice write-up, and welcome to GOTM, but please refrain from naming the civs you met overseas in the first spoiler. Some players like to find these things out for themselves

 

[dojoboy]

Welcome to the GOTM Peglegasus!

There are portions of your update that violate this spoiler's guidelines, particularly in reference to civs that are not on the starting landmass. It possibly could "spoil" the game for others. I'm sure a mod can help you clean things up.

Edit in: Well, the guidelines didn't specifically mention it this time. I assumed. My apologies.

You may post maps, but please do not post any screenshots or minimaps that show:

1. Any other landmasses.
2. Any galley-routes off-continent (successful or not)
3. The locations of any non-ancient-age resources (eg saltpeter)

 

[Offa]

PTW 1.27 Predator

After a couple of fairly lame goes at open I have moved back to predator.

I couldn’t really see anything in the fog at the start position, but I trusted the prevailing wisdom of the pre game discussion and so I also sent my worker south spotting the wheat. Like many here, I sent up the capital as a 4-6 4-turn settler factory, and as usual I went a bit wrong in managing it occasionally.

I researched straight to writing and managed to trade with the English for pottery in time to make a granary in the capital. I then bee-lined to Republic, as Ribannah always seems to do very well this way.

I still haven’t really mastered domination/conquest so was never tempted to stray from this. With a combination of lots of bonus grassland and forest, this was a very productive start position, ideally suited to early war.

I steeled myself to attack early. Playing predator helped this I think, as it got fairly crowded early on. The English had the cheek to plonk down a city 5sq from my capital next to the wine very early on (2710bc when I had only Paris).. No more useless tundra towns I told myself, but I couldn’t stop myself and tarried too long. My army was “strong” compared with the English and Iroquois even before I upgraded warriors to swordsmen.

Eventually I attacked the English on 1000bc, which is quicker than I have managed recently but still too slow. The English and the Iroquois both fell quite easily. The Iroquois curiously never connected their horses, which was a bit silly of them.
As others have found the local AI did well at building wonders: pyramids in London and Lighthouse in Salamanca. Unfortunately they got beaten to the Great Library, which would have been nice. No early leaders for me though. I had to hand build the FP next to Paris, and so the former Iroquois lands were totally corrupt. I am glad that leaders have been toned down in Conquests as they cause too much randomness in PTW. I ROP raped the Iroquois which was a bit sordid, but it didn’t affect my reputation as they hadn’t met any of the other Civs before I wiped them out.

My lands in 1000bc immediately after I attacked the English.

Map and army in 10ad:

 

[Peglegasus]

oops! sorry about that. i was so excited about my game i forgot about those guidelines. thanks for editing for me.

sorry!

peglegasus
civ3 newb

 

[Hergrom]

Began by moving settler SE. Settled Paris on that spot, which was much better than I had anticipated, what with 2 wheat and all. This really is a great stating spot!

My pre-determined victory goal is domination.

Start researching pottery at max, then go mathematics at min, polytheism at min, and finally, the republic at min.

Paris built 3 warriors first, granary, then only settlers until continent is full. Went with an RCP 4/7 build. Most of the inner ring cities built a warrior, followed by a worker, barracks and then military units. Outer ring and beyond cities went with warrior, worker, temple.

I was very pleased to see the English as my closest neighbor! Not so pleased to see the Iroquois as my second closest neighbor. Although, neither were aggressive towards me. I never got a single demand from either. In fact, I never got a demand of tribute from anybody in this game. Amazing on Emporer.

At 1000BC I had 12 cities, with 2 settlers on the way. Not amazing, but good enough for me. I also had 4 or 5 barracks, 12 to 15 warriors, and 3 or 4 horsemen. My plan was to wait for knights to attack England first (with a hand from the Iroquois), and then continue on to crush the Iroquois. But that did not happen. I could not wait, and attacked, instead, with horsemen. At about this time, I hit the MA (approx 540 BC).

Overall, this played pretty easy for an Emporer game. Our two nearest rivals expanded slowly, researched at a moderate speed, and were not agressive towards us. The raging barbarians never really reared their ugly heads. And to top it all off, we start in a great region with plenty of room to expand, and have an outstanding starting city site with 2 wheats, and 5 BG in immediate reach. Fantastic!

Great game staff!

Hergrom

 

[smackster]

Originally posted by Kuningas
[

and this resulted my 1000bc stats:

43 pop
21 towns (2 captured from England)
......stuff deleted
all mandatory techs expect Contruction.
Republic in 16 turns.
[/B]

What has struck me most in the write ups is the amazing tech rate that was acheived by Kuningas. So I wonder if you (Kuningas) could allude to how you did so well here. I traded like crazy, met everyone and built some of my own, but in 1000BC, I was about 7 techs behind you.

I was playing open, I wonder if playing predator actually gives an advantage here as the AI can build quicker and has more to trade.

 

[mabellino]

1.27f Open

This is the first GOTM I've played since the Arabs waaay back in september, but the old feelings and chronic JOMT syndrome have come back with a vengence!

I don't really know where to start because I've never had a game on Emporer go so well before! My usual level is Regent so the happiness problem was a bit of a shock... darn disorder!!!!

This'll just be a quick summary because I've not got any new strategies to post (unlike the rest of you guys!)

I reached the middle ages in AD70 but forgot to save until a couple turns later... bit too involved in the game!

I moved my settler SE after lil old worker spotted the wheat and went straight for pottery (100%). Built a granary then some settlers/warriors (not a factory cos I kept messing up, but I'm learning!) and one of my warriors met the English. They were very pleased to get Masonry and offered me CB and WC for it... nice! I founded a few more cities and met the Iroquois. Traded a bit but I forget what we exchanged.

I never tried to get a wonder after reading the excellent guide in the war academy and I think it was this alone that meant I limited the inbvasion of the purple and orange hoards. The settlers and units I built meant I had the most towns and the biggest military... still in shock now!

I managed to fill most of the southern area and got all 3 lux and both strat resources. I even gifted horses to the Iro for a while to keep them off my back.

I noticed a huge difference in the AI attitude and panicked when they got annoyed cos I didn't want them to declare war on me. I am, and always will be, a PEACEFUL builder. War is too difficult for me to manage with early units so I try and avoid it at all costs.

Anyway back to the summary:

I have 12 cities, all AA tech except the govt. ones, 4xwines, silks (masquerading as ivory) and spices. 1 iron and 2 horses.

My score 567
Iroquois 525
English 462

the world according to me looks like this:

See you in Spoiler 2 (if I make it :gulp: )


EDIT: Dojoboy, where did you get those curly borders from? I want them!!

 

[Drazek]

PTW1.27f

Beginning was scary, Iroquois and English had five cities compared to my one. Got power lead in 1450BCE and the end game was easy, but more on that later. By 1000BCE I had 15 towns, 2 settlers, 11 workers, and 28 warriors. Getting ready for wars, domination is the goal. Conquerred the home continent by 210 BCE. I didn't switch to Republic until around 10BCE because I counted unit support costs would be too high.

 

[samildanach]

Originally posted by smackster

I was playing open, I wonder if playing predator actually gives an advantage here as the AI can build quicker and has more to trade.

In my experience predator is certainly easier, I've played most GOTMs at both predator and open. With the caveat that in order for it to be easier you need a basic set of play skills.
GOTM 30 was the first time in my view there was a legtimate handicap in a predator game ie. no worker. I played badly in that game but even so the faster tech pace made me look a heck of alot better than I actually was.
Also I noticed that many players who gloried in the recognition of being predator level didn't seem very enthusiastic about the GOTM 30 challenge.
I think a better way to increase the challenge at predator would be to alter the tech pace in predator games. I don't know if its possible but to make the the tech pace on standard sized GOTM map one level up from open. So on an open standard sized map the tech pace is normal for that level but on an standard sized predator map the tech pace would be that of a large sized map. Without of course altering the OCN or corruption distance variable.

 

[Bob_the_Silent]

PTW 1.27f open

Hi all
that is my third gotm after gotm 30 + 29 which both I've never finished 'cause there were no glory ends in sight and it would have taken me too long to end it
Now I look forward hopefully to finish this one, although emperor is still a hard challenge to me.
Like many others, I moved settler SE due to the wheat speculations in the prediscussion thread (thank you guys, must really have eyes like an eagle ) and founded Paris 3950BC.
I'm not sure for what victory condition I should go, first I wanna conquer the starting continent, but i don't know if I should go for a domination victory, then I'm also happy about my culture, had some temples and libraries, but anyway, got no chance for a cultural victory.
I made a palace prebuild in Orleans and got the Great Library, no idea what date it was.
(Can I open an old savefile, 1000BC for example to look how many cities I had at this time and when the wonders were built and so on, or would it count as a reload?)
I got about 11-13 towns at 1000BC and France became a Republic at about 50AD.
I entered the MA some years ago I suppose.

 

[smackster]

Originally posted by samildanach
In my experience predator is certainly easier, I've played most GOTMs at both predator and open. With the caveat that in order for it to be easier you need a basic set of play skills.
GOTM 30 was the first time in my view there was a legtimate handicap in a predator game ie. no worker. I played badly in that game but even so the faster tech pace made me look a heck of alot better than I actually was.

I think that is the crux of this, the fact of giving the Predator AI more resources, actually gives the advanced player an advantage, on some maps. I did play four Predator games last year, and went back to open after I lost one and had a stalemate in another. The main reason I moved back is that I found if I did not get a good start I was in trouble, but now having improved as a player, I have more idea of how to get a good start more often.

This month and last month, I found the AI tech pace sluggish, at a period that I was trying to manipulate them into researching something I could trade / coerce or steal from them.

I'm not complaining, I had a great time playing, this is just an observation. I think I might be playing Predator next month, and hopefully I wont be reporting a loss.

Smackster

P.S. Sill doing my writeup, might actually get it done tomorrow

 

[smackster]

Originally posted by Bob_the_Silent
PTW 1.27f open

(Can I open an old savefile, 1000BC for example to look how many cities I had at this time and when the wonders were built and so on, or would it count as a reload?)

As long as you don't play from that point its not a reload. I have this nasty habit of not writing a single note right now but I save at specific points in the game, and do my write up days later by studying the saves to remind me of what happened.

 

[Bob_the_Silent]

ah ok, thx
so I will handle it like you and will give some more information for the end of MA spoiler by looking at the important saves, unless my glory France won't exist anymore then..

 

[Sabre]

Open PTW 1.21f - 5 City Challenge France

As I mentioned in the pre-game discussion, I've decided to make another go at a 5CC this month. I jokingly suggested aiming for an all-war conquest game but the all-war part is going to have to wait till I'm a bit better than this. However, I am going to attempt a conquest victory. My plan of attack is to quickly scout the area and whip out 4 settlers ASAP. I will try to stick to an RCP of 5-6, but getting the most production will be top priority for each site. Secondary priorities will be fresh water, sea access and claiming resources (though I'll have to make use of colonies I'm sure.)

The Start

The very first obstacle in 5CC is the placement of your capitol. It needs to combine being a very productive site while allowing prime land for your other 4 cities. My origional thought was to settle to the SE, hopefully placing me on the coast and claiming the 3 grasslands to the SE. Moving my worker south revealed the 2 wheat. This site ends up not being on the coast but is still a very nice spot so my settler moves 1 SE.

Next turn I move my worker SE to the wheat and the terrain revealed leaves me rethinking my starting spot. Settling at the current spot would leave a riverside hill and a couple of grasslands outside of any possible city site and I'm trying to squeeze the most production out of each site. One more move of the settler to the E would take me off the lake but would place me on the coast and make those south of the river tiles available. As a coastal site this is nearly ideal. Tons of food, plenty of shields and only 4 water tiles (1 being the tiny lake.) It's not next to fresh water, but an eventual aqueduct isn't that big a deal. A settler factory would be easy to set up here, but in this game there's just no need.

I decided to research Math at 40t. England starts with Alphabet also (yeah I checked F10, but cmon man - a France game without England would be unthinkable!) so I figured Math would be a better risk then Writing as long as I took my time giving them Masonry.

Meet the Neighbors

My first warrior headed north along the mountains, my second headed west. Warrior2 met an Iroquois scout just before Warrior1 stumbled onto English territory. The Iroquois needed Masonry and Alphabet and had a ton of techs to trade. Since I had met them to the west and had spotted orange boundaries to the north I took a chance and waited to contact England before trading, guessing that the two hadn't met yet. Doh! Next turn Iroquois traded for the now discounted Alphabet with the English. Ah well, I still got Warrior Code, Bronze Working and Pottery from the English for Masonry and some spare change. The Iroquois had the Wheel but were asking too much.

Further scouting discovers that it's just the three of us, which is fine by me. By the time I crush those two I'll be about ready to try an overseas invasion.

My Fab Five

By 3000bc my first settler was 1 turn away, so it's time to start planning where my other 4 cities will go. My first priority is to claim those wines. Once again I have to sacrifice being on fresh water for the greater good. I needed to make that gold a workable tile which left only two options for Orleans, the grass wines or the hill SE. The hill site would be on the river but would mean I'd lose a mined hill, would crowd into the nice spot NW of Paris and would share a tile with Paris. The grass site would also give me a second coastal city and thus Orleans was placed there. This site will be my Colossus site. Decent food, lots of shields and nearly every tile bringing in trade.

Lyons was placed SE of the game and with all the BG nearby was to be a dedicated warrior factory. Once it reached pop 6 I was able to crank out a warrior every turn.

Rheims was placed south of the other wines - a third coastal city. This site also pushed out the warriors at a good clip.

In 1700 Tours, my final city, was placed next to the sheep on the NW coast. While a decent site, it is by far my weakest spot and will probably end up just being a supporting city to my core four cities. Lots of irrigation and a courthouse are required to get this town up to speed. Of course, this was the one city I could place on fresh water!

My one early game bad luck was getting the plague in Orleans while building the Colossus. It slowed me down, but I still ended up completing it in 570bc.

Conquest

In 1000bc I was ready to go. A stack of 9 swords had been upgraded and positioned outside Nottingham, England's iron town. Two turns later Nottingham was rubble. The next turn, I finished my 40t Currency and the Iroquois decided I should just give it to them. They seemed pretty upset when there messenger came home missing his head. Really though, what did they expect?

My army spent the next bit battling it out with various archers and working their way north. In 875bc, England's few swordsmen appeared outside of Orleans, still building away at the Colossus. I couldn't take the chance of losing all that Wonder production so I gave peace to England in exchange for Mysticism and Writing and then trading them Currency for Map Making.

I then concentrated on the Iroquois, destroying three small towns in the north mountain area. I had just upgraded a new batch of warriors to swords and my army was scattered and wounded, so I called a peace with the Iroquois in 510bc in exchange for Horseback Riding.

My swordsmen were regathered into three stacks on the English borders, one in the west where England had two small coastal towns, one NW of London and a third on England's south border. War is declared and English towns fall fast and furious. The big ouch was taking London and their Great Pyramids. Pressing the raze city button brought a small tear to my eye, but it had to be done for the greater good. In 230bc, England was reduced to one town and peace was granted for Code of Laws and Construction.

The cleansing of the homeland was now in it's final stage. The Iroquois, sensing their doom perhaps, landed a settler on the iron island to the north. Unfortunately for them I had a swordsman sitting offshore keeping a watch and the little town lasted all of one turn. Another small town was razed and my armies were threatening the Iroquois core when I reached the Middle Ages in 190bc.

AA Research

Masonry - start
Alphabet - start
Warrior Code - England for Mas (2950bc)
Bronze Working - England for Mas (2950bc)
Pottery - England for Mas (2950bc)
Mathematics - 40t (2070bc)
The Wheel - Iroquois for Math (2070bc)
Ceremonial Burial - England for Wheel (2070bc)
Currency - 40t (950bc)
Mysticism - England for peace (875bc)
Writing - England for peace (875bc)
Map Making - England for Currency (875bc)
Horseback Riding - Iroquois for peace (510bc)
Code of Laws - England for peace (230bc)
Construction - England for peace (230bc)
Literature - other civ for Const (190bc)
Polytheism - other civ for Const (190bc)

Plans for the Middle Ages

Things are going well and the homeland should be cleared by the time I reach Chivalry. A detachment of troops will need to remain in the north to quickly dislodge anyone trying to settle my pristine wilderness. In the meantime they will travel around collecting taxes from the various tribes in the area.

My conquest needs to continue and this will be more of a challenge from here on. Fortunately I should not face any real threat to my cities as long as I can keep up in tech. With me a non-contributor and 2 of the civs out of the way I'm hoping tech will be slow. Now, how to get my armies over there? A question for another spoiler.

The Magnificent French Empire

 

[TimBentley]

Civ3v1.29 conquest

Since this is my first GOTM and my first Emperor game, I decided to play conquest level. Since I did not take notes, I am writing solely by memory.

I started by moving my settler one tile se and discovered wheat. I scouted with my warrior and discovered the Iroquois and the English. I peacefully expanded so that my part of the continent was fully developed, although the AI civs settled several cities as well. Meanwhile, I tried and failed to get two wonders. London beat me to the Great Library, and Cattaraugus beat me to the Great Lighthouse.

At this time, I decided to expand into England using my superior military strength. I took a couple of cities of my part of the continent and sent my swordsmen ravaging through England, taking several cities. I finally captured London and the Great Library. I decided to sign peace with England and enter Monarchy. After changing my government, I decided to attack the Iroquois. My troops in London captured Niagra Falls and Oil Springs. I also took several cities in my part of the continent (one culture flipped to me), and gained my first great leader, Napoleon. Since there were no great wonders available and I had already built the Forbidden Palace (after I failed to get the Great Lighthouse), I decided to build an army. By this time I had learned Feudalism, so I filled it with Persian mercenaries. I attacked Alleghany on another front and sent reinforcements through London. Unfortunately, at this time, the citizens decided to rejoin England. As no other path was available to reinforce my tired troops in the north, Niagra Falls and Oil Springs were recaptured by the Iroquois mounted warriors. As I decided to stop for the day, my troops were outside Salamanca, ready to capture it.

Here is a screenshot with the core of my empire and a minimap of the continent (with a couple of failed suicide galley runs removed)

A summary of my empire in 420 AD:
20 cities
113 pop
4 native workers, 17 foreign
7 warriors
5 spearmen
1 catapult
1 army
11 persian mercenaries
862 score

 

[Lord Jimbob]

PTW 1.27 open

I was also pleasantly surprised by the meekness of our neighbors on the home continent. Here's my turn log for the AA:
my AA turn log

I focused on expanding as fast as I could, hoping that nobody would try to beat up on me before I got some barracks online for developing my army. Fortunately, the English and Iroquois were focused on chasing barbs rather than poaching my undefended cities. I did a 4 turn settler factory out of Paris (after worker>warrior>warrior>worker>granary) and tried to keep up w/workers and warriors from my peripheral cities, which were arranged in a 5 tile ring around Paris. I researched writing at minimum (given that there were three starting civs w/pottery according to the spaceship screen), then mapmaking (Iro beat me to it...), math (for trading), then on to philosophy and republic.

France by 1000bc:
13 cities (2 conquered from England), pop=32, 2 settlers, 7 workers, 7 slaves, 6 warriors, 2 swords, 1 chariot, 13 horses, and 4 galleys. French pioneers had mapped a route to a new continent, but we had yet to safely deliver a boat to a coastal tile or spot another civ's border. We had learned most essential AA techs, but for construction, currency, and poly, and were 6 turns from philosophy.

We traded w/our neighbors and by the end of the AA we had met 3 new civs across the ocean, and trades w/them brought France into the MA in 530bc.

I hand-built the FP in Orleans, just north of Paris, in 650bc so I could save a future leader for an army (to get heroic epic going) or a palace rush on a new continent to set up my second core (which I managed to do in the MA). Serendipitously, we got our GL, Napolean, as an elite horse killed the last unit in London (the exact same thing happened during the capture of another civ's capitol in the MA...). I eventually used it to make a 2-knight army (transportable overseas) and used for fighting abroad. I didn't claim the continent for France until early in the MA, but we had crippled the English and taken the Colossus and Lighthouse in Salamanca from the Iroquois, as well as their horse city (although an uberarcher beat off a few attackers and managed to recapture it briefly at the end of the AA.

I think I am learning how important it is to commit to a victory path early on (at least if one wants a higher score): I've been trying to do everything up 'til now (2/3 through MA)- getting lots of happy peeps (lux tax slows down science/military), conquering as much as I can, and researching as fast as possible, but no one thing really well. Now that I'm trying to decide on my mid- and endgame strategy, I wish that I had either decided to conquer more aggressively (for dom/conq approach), or to research more quickly (SS/diplo approach), or to focus more on fast pop growth and happiness (for milking approach), etc... lesson learned.

My end of AA collage (click image to see larger version):
rest-of-game post in spoiler#3



Moderator Action: Reduced width of composite screenshot and fixed link to last map image. Please reduce image widths to 800 pixels wide or less before uploading. We don't all have 21 inch monitors!

edit: sorry about that, Alan. I didn't see the less than 800 pixel width request until after I posted...

 

[zamint3]

Originally posted by AlanH

The dawn of French civilisation
As soon as I opened the start file I could see the tip of the wheat peering out of the fog.

Which terrain mod are you using?
I could see absolutely nothing, not even the shoreline of the small lake south of our starting position, and thats very clear even on the game announcement page.
I'm using "Snoopy's greener" (I think!!)

 

[Lord Jimbob]

Originally posted by zamint3
Which terrain mod are you using?
I could see absolutely nothing, not even the shoreline of the small lake south of our starting position, and thats very clear even on the game announcement page.
I'm using "Snoopy's greener" (I think!!)

I could see it pretty clearly w/Warpstorm's tile set. I think one may get better at 'seeing through the fog' after years of studying GOTM pre-game screenshots!

 

[AlanH]

Originally posted by zamint3
Which terrain mod are you using?
I could see absolutely nothing, not even the shoreline of the small lake south of our starting position, and thats very clear even on the game announcement page.
I'm using "Snoopy's greener" (I think!!)

Out of the box. It's a personal thing, but I don't like the technicolor mods, with little doormats all over the irrigated tiles