GOTM 37 Spoiler

[la fayette]

Just type your name like this:

old n SLOW

(BTW be careful because I don't think many people will finish sooner than 1750)

 

[A+ombomb]

The fastest time I could have finished off the game was well before 1750, but it wasn't too practical since my game score was insanely puny. I think the only time finishing the game super early is when you can thoroughly abuse celebration to give you an artificially large population just as you hit the space race. I don't really see this happening this game (the lack of huts for tribes and money being a major reason), so I am still expecting the best scores to be ~1770.

 

[ElephantU]

Originally posted by Joe_Chompa
I choose to follow to Monarchy, grab warrior code so i can get feudalism. From feud, i grab mapmaking, then writing, masonry, and mathematics to make 10 techs. From that point i can build dips, pikies, catapults and triremes. For my 11th tech, i research chivalry.

My 1000ad save shows Suntzu's and LH built, 19 cities, 9 triremes ready to be loaded, 1 1/2 wonders built(for when i get the appropriate tech) and many catapults on the way.


tech path:alpha, code, cere, monarchy, warrior, feud, map, writ, masonry, math, chiv, lit, rep, curr, trade

I was a little puzzled by your original plan, as Restarts are On so any civ you wipe out before AD1500 would just respawn somewhere more remote. Then I read your "AD1000 save" and realized you were just starting to move out, so I guess that would work. Might have been wiser to pursue the techs that give you faster research earlier and delay the war techs until you were closer to being ready to move out. Something like this:

Alp/CoL/Cer/MON/Wri/Map/Cur/TRA/Lit/REP/Hor/FEU/Mas/Mat/Chi

If Math were moved earlier you could have pursued Mysticism, then Philosophy, then Astronomy and Navigation for 50% more carrying capacity on your invasion ships. With a diversion to PolyTheism you could have gotten MonoTheism too for Mikes Chapel. Moving Trade up lets you start building caravans earlier for MarcoPolo, LightHouse, and SunTzu.

 

[ElephantU]

Originally posted by Old n Slow
Yeah, I'm running late -- this will be another last minute finish.

And didn't you start the Spoiler thread? Shame, shame... Too much time checking the Free For All thread for your next round!

 

[A+ombomb]

I think I now love mobile warfare. No barbs in a high barb game is great! I was especially pleased that I managed to top my last months GOTM score by over 50 points without huts .

 

[grigor]

I limped in in 1892. I tried a strategy of mining the special first (I guessed, LF) and when it came up pheasant (instead of Silk) the size 1 settler strategy was not available. Although there was more production, the late founding made the strategy a bust.

I tried peaceful trading and built a spaceship, but I souldn't figute out how to run hts civilization efficiently with so little production. The game only got fun after I launched - I wiped out the Japanese and the Aztecs with a massive Howie landing and was a few turns away from taking out the Greeks too. Definitely a new take on milking the score...

 

[ElephantU]

With three Fish in plain view there is no way it would have come up Silk. All "4-special" patterns are either two pairs or four of a kind.

Knowing that you had a band of Fish running horizontally through the starting position, you could have displaced north or south to find the Whale bands (with hidden Silks).

 

[Joe_Chompa]

my decision to research trade later is due to the fact that if i research earlier, the cities i have are still too small for them to materially benefit from building a caravan. I don't really show a benefit to having trade before i am a republic. Plus, for the most part, my cities aren't producing enough shields. It takes too many turns to build one. If I tie up a city with high production(being that i do not have many of those) in making caravans, it weakens my overall pruction of settlers, military units and city improvements.

You pose an interesting thought with moving up mathematics....hmmm....maybe techs 12-15 would get me to navigation.....how many beakers for the 12-15th techs?
I want math and chivalry early so i can set up boats and send em out hunting for cities. I am practicing this moreso in gotm38.

 

[Old n Slow]

Originally posted by ElephantU


And didn't you start the Spoiler thread? Shame, shame... Too much time checking the Free For All thread for your next round!

Actually I tried something else this month. Ripped through the middle stages so quickly (didn't leave the islande save for trading), that I decided to go a visiting much later than practical -- hence differences (and lessons learned.)

Enjoyable nevertheless.

 

[A+ombomb]

I went hard taxes right off to offset the production faults. If you buy your way up to caravans by using the 2 techs given (for phalanx/archer), it actually builds up pretty fast considering the complete lack of shields. Of course, it isn't always beneficial to buy shields - you need to know when to buy and when not to buy. Specifically, I would always try to count so my caravan/settler was completed with exact shields if possible, but I only bought shields in cases where I already had over 6/16/26/(36) shields, thus reducing the shield cost to the minimum for units of 2 gold each, and maximizing how many shields I could purchase over time. The big trick with figuring out exact purchases is keeping in mind how much food you have to grow, and what resource square will be harnessed upon growth. Typically if I find that something isn't going to work out perfectly to 40/50 resources for a settlercaravan, then I throw down a worker on water instead of grassland to grab gold instead - the loss of 1 food is usually worth it the extra gold.

Another huge factor is to build your cities on non-shielded grassland, thus increasing the total shield potential of your island without converting any land. I ALWAYS try to build on non-shielded grassland first for this reason.