GOTM 35 Spoiler 3: Modern Age / End-Game Submitted

[Randy]

Is that a good score? I saw that people score 10,000+, which will take me a LONG time! I just hope that at least my score was respectable, and I was happy with it.

I think it's a great score for the first GOTM. It took me some time to learn the tricks to GOTM like move the settler or not. And I think this game will be my first 10k+. So good Job.

Edit: COTM 01 was my first game so you will get a huge score soon.

 

[DizzKneeLand33]

LOL at Delmar!

Ya know, tho, I was thinking the same thing about moving the scout as SirPleb (game 36 spoiler)..... seeing what's out there before settling. However, I think from turn 2 onward I'm in trouble.....

Thanks for the kinds words too, Randy. Man, 10k+ looks like an awesome score! Best of luck in your endeavors!

I really thought that the land bridge was a way cool idea. I kept traveling down it going "is this going to end?" It made for a VERY interesting beginning of the game.

I wonder what surprises are in store for us in a few hours?

 

[Shigella]

1.27

Scientific from the start - Going for space

I picked up Nationalism as my free tech at the start of the Industrial Age. I gifted Greece up to the IA, they drew Medicine and swapped it to me for Nationalism. I then started research at maximum on Steam Power and waited around for somebody else to learn Military Tradition.

A second Carthaginian city culture-flipped to me in 560 AD, but that was OK since Carthage was struggling to keep up in research at this point. They would be my first target upon learning Military Tradition.

Meanwhile, I had not timed my pre-builds for Bach’s and Newton’s correctly, so I missed out on both of them! Bach’s was completed by the Arabs and would be useless to me, but the Zulu completed Newton’s in Zimbabwe. That seemed like a good site for my future Forbidden Palace, so that was fine with me. I completed Smith’s as a consolation prize in 650 AD.

The Zulu dutifully completed Military Tradition in 660 AD and traded it around a bit on their turn. I picked it up from France in 670 AD and immediately upgraded 20 knights to Sipahi (at 60 gold per upgrade without Leo’s – OUCH!).

In 680 AD I sold Democracy to Carthage for their world map and all 163 of their gold pieces (a real bargain for my “friends”) and then immediately declared war on them. I triggered my GA in 680 AD with my first wave of Sipahi attacks and eliminated Carthage in 710 AD. I picked up the Pyramids and Hanging Gardens (already obsolete) in Carthage.

I had to wait around for a ROP agreement with the Zulu to expire in 780 AD before I attacked them. Usually, I never sign ROP, but I had to send some workers into Zulu territory earlier in the game to build roads to their capital (so they could trade luxuries with me). At any rate, I declared on the Zulu in 780 AD and signed Greece and France to Military Alliances against them just to keep them from trading Nationalism to the Zulu. I took my time conquering the Zulu because I was leader-farming with elites for quite a while. I generated a Great Leader in 830 AD with my 16th elite victory. I saved this leader to rush the FP in Zimbabwe. In 890 AD, I captured the last Zulu town on the island west of their homeland and eliminated them from the game.

After finishing off the Zulu, I went back into builder mode for a while. I used my leader to rush the Forbidden Palace in Zimbabwe in 900 AD (I was hesitant to do so sooner, as I didn’t want to lose my FP to a culture flip). I started founding additional cities around Zimbabwe, and soon had 8 cities at RCP-5 around my FP. Technically, I guess that all of these cities were rank 9 (given my 8 cities at RCP-4 around my capital), but corruption was not a problem at all. Libraries, universities markets and aqueducts were hurried along in my second core as fast as possible.

My research path during this time was as far along the top branch as possible before dropping back to Scientific Method. I had hoped that another civ would study Scientific Method for me, but it wasn’t to be. Since I was already planning to delay building Theory of Evolution until the beginning of the Modern Age, I needed to break the wonder cascade completely before the IA learned Scientific Method. To that end, I completed Universal Suffrage in 920 AD. This also helped out somewhat with war weariness later in the game.

I also got a bit lucky and could build the Iron Works in one of my first-ring cities. This was completed in 930 AD. I also completed Wall Street in 930 AD.

I decided to conquer the Vikings and English next, as I wanted their luxuries and a direct trade route to the French (who still had not constructed a harbor). I declared war on the Vikings in 970 AD and dropped off a total of 22 Sipahi in 4 locations around their territory. They were eliminated in 1010 AD.

I declared war on England in 1030 AD and had little trouble conquering them with my original Viking invasion force. I did have to dispatch some units to the northern island, which England had colonized. I captured the last English city in 1070 AD, and intended for that to be the end of my war-mongering for the game. An added bonus was that I generated my second Great Leader in 1040 AD (on my 31st elite victory). I shipped that GL back home and saved him for a Modern Age wonder.

The rest of the Industrial Age was an exercise in 4-turn research and building. I completed Hoover Dam in 1120 AD and immediately sold off about a dozen coal plants. This reduced pollution in my core considerably. I also had a pre-build for Theory of Evolution ready to complete at the end of the 1200 AD turn. I learned Radio at the end of the 1200 AD turn (in 1210 AD, technically) and entered the Modern Age.

My Industrial Age science progression was:
510 AD Nationalism (free tech); traded for Medicine from Greece
550 AD Traded for Printing Press from France
570 AD Learned Steam Power
630 AD Learned Industrialization
670 AD Traded for Democracry and Military Tradition from France
680 AD Learned The Corporation
730 AD Learned Electricity
790 AD Learned Refining
840 AD Learned Steel
900 AD Learned Combustion (I really screwed this up and lost a turn of science, as my GA ended in 880 AD and I forgot about losing beakers.)
940 AD Traded for Communism from France
960 AD Learned Flight
1000 AD Learned Scientific Method
1040 AD Traded for Replaceable Parts from France
1050 AD Learned Atomic Theory
1090 AD Learned Electronics
1130 AD Learned Mass Production
1170 AD Learned Motorized Transportation
1190 AD Traded for Free Artistry from France
1210 AD Learned Radio; Entered Modern Age

Immediately upon completing Radio, I checked out the “big picture” and saw that I learned Computers as my free tech. I then gifted 9 techs to the Greeks to get them into the Modern Age, and they drew Fission as their free tech. I had to trade Computers, Free Artistry, world map, Saltpeter, Rubber, Ivory, Spices, Furs and 30 GPT to extract Fission from the Greeks! I gifted both the French and Arabs up to the Modern Age as well, and took some GPT from them. I also was hoping that, if I could get all of the remaining civs up to tech parity, somebody might study Ecology for me (this turned out to be wishful thinking). I then exited out of the diplomacy screen, completed Theory of Evolution, and took Miniaturization and Nuclear Power as my free techs.

In 1210 AD, I swapped a palace pre-build over to the United Nations (which would complete in 4 turns), and rushed The Internet in Sogut with my saved leader.

I guess the French got drunk on their new power, and they declared war on me at the end of the 1210 AD turn. They razed one city that I had left undefended near their border (which is probably why they attacked in the first place) and captured 3 slaves. I just fought a holding action against them with Sipahi and Mechanized Infantry draftees, and we finally settled our differences in 1275 AD.

Meanwhile, my building in the core continued unabated. I completed the United Nations in 1240 AD, and completed the Apollo Program (by scrolling ahead and flipping a pre-build) immediately upon learning Space Flight at the end of the 1270 AD turn. I finally completed Seti in Zimbabwe in 1300 AD, and this helped me maintain a 4-turn research pace throughout the rest of the Modern Age. The French were nice enough to build the Manhattan Project during this time, so I was able to use ICBMs as pre-builds for spaceship parts. Just for the heck of it, I did allow 5 ICBMs to complete and would gladly have nuked the French into the Stone Age had they started another war. Unfortunately, they didn’t provoke me again.

My Modern Age science progression was:
1210 AD Computers (free tech); traded for Fission from Greece; Learned Miniaturization and Nuclear Power from Theory of Evolution
1250 AD Learned Rocketry
1275 AD Learned Space Flight; traded for Espionage from France
1295 AD Learned Satellites
1315 AD Learned The Laser
1335 AD Learned Superconductor
1355 AD Learned Ecology
1375 AD Learned Synthetic Fibers
1395 AD Learned Robotics; Launch!

I did have to hire about 150 scientists in addition to 100% science spending to complete research on Robotics in 4 turns. Robotics research was completed at the end of the 1390 AD turn, I flipped another pre-build over to the last spaceship part, and launched in 1395 AD. My final Firaxis score was 5583, which translated to a Jason score of 9241.

Thanks to the staff for another fun game!

 

[Shigella]

Now that I have submitted my 4th GOTM, I thought I would contribute some scattered thoughts relative to Jason scoring and Predator class.

1. This was my first game in PTW, and my time spent playing was over 63 hours! Somebody PLEASE tell me that the clock keeps running even when the program is running in the background!

2. I think I am finally convinced that Jason score is relatively insensitive to the best date for each victory condition, and rather is primarily sensitive to land area and happy citizens. One example for this would be comparing my game with the one posted by “a space oddity.” She had roughly the same territory I had at the end of the game, but she took out Carthage and the Zulu quite a bit earlier than I did. She also did a fair bit of ICSing in the Zulu lands to increase score. The net effect was that my Jason score appears to be about 600 points below hers, although I launched 19 turns earlier. Err - no offense intended to "space," but it looked like a good game to compare to mine.

I am also convinced that you can achieve a high Jason score with any victory condition. However, fast diplomatic or spaceship strategies are not likely to get very high Jason scores simply because you must invest in science, libraries, universities, markets, etc rather than military. There also is an incentive to work with your strong neighbors, which generally causes one to delay conquering to the domination limit until at least the Industrial Age. Fast conquest and domination victories don’t require nearly the investment in infrastructure and science, so you can focus on building up an overpowering military and then (in the case of a domination goal) use cash to rush cultural improvements in the late game.

3. I don’t think that the Predator handicap/bonus had any affect on my game. It seemed that the AI were not using their increased unit support to build more units, as the civs I conquered were all fairly weak. I did get a fair bit of GPT through the course of the game, but I think I accomplished that primarily by providing heavy research subsidies to the French and Greeks (the only 2 commercial civs in the game). I really didn’t get squat for research out of the AI after the end of the Middle Ages. They only studied one required tech for me (Replaceable Parts) and they picked up six optional techs (including Military Tradition) during that time.

For what its worth, CRPStats tells me that I paid out 372 gold to other civs in GPT deals, and brought in a total of 16,842 gold from other civs in GPT deals. If anybody played a comparable game in open class, I would be curious to see how much GPT they could garner in deals. For the sake of comparison, my incoming GPT peaked at 248 GPT from 1050 – 1100 AD.

I would encourage others to feel free to further enlighten me on my hypotheses. In the meantime, I think I will continue to play Predator class as long as it is not a profound disadvantage.

 

[Sir_Ortin]

To Ainwood:

Is it possible to extend submission date for some more days?
Unfortunately, I have no opportunity to upload my game save until, probably, saturday, sunday or even monday. At monday I will go to work and definitely upload a save, but about other days I'm not sure.

 

[a space oddity]

[...]2. I think I am finally convinced that Jason score is relatively insensitive to the best date for each victory condition, and rather is primarily sensitive to land area and happy citizens. One example for this would be comparing my game with the one posted by “a space oddity.” She had roughly the same territory I had at the end of the game, but she took out Carthage and the Zulu quite a bit earlier than I did. She also did a fair bit of ICSing in the Zulu lands to increase score. The net effect was that my Jason score appears to be about 600 points below hers, although I launched 19 turns earlier. Err - no offense intended to "space," but it looked like a good game to compare to mine.
[...]

None taken. It's a fair comparison. I decided to go for a Space victory at the end of the AA, which actually was too late since I had slowed down tech speed at first and entered the MA relatively late. It's true that Firaxis score is a huge part of the Jason score, so it makes sense to play a domination type game regardless of the victory type. And yes, when going for an award you might want to make different choices. That's exactly why they where introduced.

I failed to get a Leader in time to build the FP in a good spot, so I built it brick by brick relatively close to my core. The other thing I could've done better, was to build courthouses sooner, they really push the number of beakers produced upward.

I'll try to do better in GotM36.

 

[Sir_Ortin]

I understand that I missed the deadline, but I want to upload here my save for GOTM35.

 

[AlanH]

I understand that I missed the deadline, but I want to upload here my save for GOTM35.

Sorry, Sir_Ortin, but the deadline is part of the game specification, and all players are subject to the same constraint. We only accept late submissions under very exceptional circumstances, and then only when we, the staff, have contributed to the player's delay.

 

[Sir_Ortin]

Well, not a problem at all. Rule is a rule.
I will try my luck later in GOTM36, COTM5 and SGOTM4.