GOTM 35: First Spoiler (End of Ancient Age)

[Shigella]

1.27

Scientific from the start

I finished and submitted this game about 10 days ago, but RL prevented me from assembling my spoilers until today.

Also, I finally upgraded to Conquests before playing this GOTM, so my first-ever game of PTW was GOTM35. When I saw that Greece was also in the game, I immediately decided that I would be going for space.

I have a tendency to attack all of my immediate neighbors fairly early in my games, so I had to remind myself not to declare any wars during the Ancient Age or early Middle Ages. I decided from the start that I would be a peacenik until Sipahi were available.

Like most others, I settled one tile east of the start position. Either I was at the beginning of the game, or simply am too used to having to conquer territory to gain strategic resources early in Ainwood’s games. At any rate, I started out researching Iron Working and The Wheel as my first 2 techs. I met Carthage in 2510 BC and Zululand in 1725 BC. I saw a red border on the western continent in 3050 BC and parked a warrior on the western tip of my land, but didn’t make contact with the red and green civs until I sent a galley across in 690 BC.

My science progression was:
2670 BC Learned Iron Working
2270 BC Learned The Wheel; traded for Alphabet and Warrior Code from Carthage
1725 BC Traded for Pottery and Horseback Riding from Zulu; traded for Writing from Carthage (I had already invested 14 turns of science on Writing, but wanted to start another tech); traded for Ceremonial Burial from Zulu
1250 BC Learned Code of Laws; traded for Map Making from Zulu
1075 BC Learned Philosophy
950 BC Traded for Mysticism from Carthage
650 BC Traded for Mathematics from green civ
590 BC Learned Republic; traded for Construction from Zulu
470 BC Traded for Currency from Carthage
450 BC Traded for Polytheism from Zulu; Enter Middle Ages.

Since I didn’t pick up Pottery until very late, my early growth was rather slow. In fact, I only constructed one granary the entire game (in Sogut). At 1000 BC, I had 13 towns, only 22 citizens, and 10 workers. I had already secured iron and horses, and was gradually filling out an RCP-4 build around the capital. I would eventually pack in 8 cities at RCP-4.

I revolted immediately upon learning Republic and drew a 6-turn anarchy. I revolted again during the next full turn and drew 6 turns again, so the second revolt actually cost me a turn of anarchy (as explained earlier in this thread).

Barbs were a rather significant annoyance. I foolishly lost an unescorted settler to a barb horseman, lost several warriors, and even had a city sacked on one occasion.

I entered the Middle Ages with 20 towns. My military consisted of a whopping 19 warriors, 1 archer, 3 horsemen and 2 galleys. I still had 3 turns of science left on Literature, and planned to swap all of those temple pre-builds you see over to libraries.

My immediate plans were to continue the peaceful path as long as Carthage and the Zulu were helping the tech pace. Carthage completed the Pyramids, so they obviously would be the first target. I have a solid core started around my capital, and haven’t even thought about building the Forbidden Palace yet. At this point, my plan is to leader-rush the FP in either Carthaginian or Zulu territory (so I’ll need some luck).