GOTM 38: First Spoiler

[Redbad]

What do you do when your behind a couple of techs and can't trade them? In this case however I'm probably at least TEN tech's behind. Maybe more.
Please advise.

You have defeated Alex so you should have horses and you're building horsemen. Mayby you could do a pointy stick research at the expense of Hammy (and unfortuanally ruining your rep).
In the last cotm i was in a comparable situation. Similar to what i did in that cotm you could do next:

Stop researching: trade tech for gpt (especialy with hammy) until you have chivalry. Upgrade your horsemen and attack Hammy. You get an golden age which you can use for building libraries and riders.
Hammy would not be able to resist your attacks. Just before he dies trade peace for techs and then kill him.

With the large territory, the lbraries and some trading you should be able to take the tech lead after a while. Likely victorygoals from then on could be 100K or space.

 

[MOTH]

Well I'm still surviving but I feel at this point thats about all I can do. I wiped the Greeks off the planet a long time ago but unfortunatly I'm so far behind on techs compared to the rest of the world it would be suicide to try to attack anyone else.
Perhaps I didnt use my knowledge of the other civ's appropriatly, I should have held off trading communication longer I guess. I see alot of people talk about gifting other civ's into the next tech era. How is this beneficial? I'm under the impression that its better to trade techs than to study them. What do you do when your behind a couple of techs and can't trade them? In this case however I'm probably at least TEN tech's behind. Maybe more.
Please advise.

If you don't have education yet then there is always the Great Library Elevator. If you capture the Great Library you can rocket forward quickly. Several top players have used this to great advantage.

 

[A'AbarachAmadan]

Knew I didn't have enough time to play this one so finally decided to look at the posts. Man, really wish I had had the time. Looks awesome!! Maybe I'll play for fun when things slow down.

 

[JonathanValjean]

Knew I didn't have enough time to play this one so finally decided to look at the posts. Man, really wish I had had the time. Looks awesome!! Maybe I'll play for fun when things slow down.

You should definitely do so if you get the chance. This map has been a lot of fun! (I haven't played in about 5 days though, because I have the flu... ) I'm looking forward to resuming.

 

[DBear]

GOTM38: Conquest class

4000BC: One worker moves to wheat, other moves to cow. Settler builds Beijing right where he is. Oh, I have a second settler? Well, he's not going anywhere until I have a warrior guarding him. Start researching the wheel.

3950: Roadwork begins.

3900: Nothing new

3850: Roadwork completed, start mining. I value production early.

3800: Nothing new

3750: Warrior built. He guards capitol, start another one for the settler.

3700: Mining completed, workers move nw of Beijing.

3650: They start roading.

3600: Mine BG. Warrior climbs mountain nne of Beijing, sees spice. Settler stays with him. Call me paranoid, but no settlers are going unprotected.

3550: Pair head w.

3500: Beijing expands, uncovers second spice. Workers head nw to road to second site. We plan on settling 3nw, 1n of Beijing. This is on the coast, plus will put both spices in city radius upon expansion.

3450: Beijing finishes warrior, starts settler.

3400: Shanghai built, starts barracks. Workers move s of Shanghai

3350: Nothing new

3300: Spices roaded. Workers chop forest to help barracks along

3250: Nothing

3200: Shanghai finishes settler, starts warrior. Warrior and settler head south

3150: Another move south uncovers jungle across the river.

3100: Warrior and settler turn west. Forest chopped, workers start mining. Minimize science as we get wheel next turn.

3050: We get wheel, start bronze. Max science. No horses in sight. Beijing builds warrior, starts settler. Another move west uncovers sea. Warrior climbs mountain nne.

3000: Workers start roading w of Beijing. Warrior and settler head n

2950: Canton founded 2sw, 1w of Beijing, start Barracks. Workers start roading. Warrior climbs mountain, sees wheat, hills, and sea. Are we on an island?

2900: Workers move sw to connect Canton.

2850: Warrior moves back to escort settler.

2800: Workers move n of canton to mine.

2750: Beijing builds settler, starts warrior

2710: Warrior and settler meet up 2ne, 1n of Beijing

2670: Workers road n of Canton. Minimize science.

2630: Get bronze, start iron. Max science. Workers head sw.

2590: Beijing builds warrior, starts settler. Warrior heads s. Nanking built, starts worker.

2550: Warrior heads e, workers road, start mining.

2510: Canton finishes barracks, starts spear. Warrior climbs mountain e, sees more spice and more jungle.

2470: Shanghai builds archer, starts worker. Workers move s.

2430: Warrior moves e, sees another spice. Workers road.

2390: Workers finish roading, start mining. Warrior climbs hill, sees sea.

2350: Beijing finishes settler, starts warrior.

2310: Workers head e. Shanghai builds worker, starts spear. Worker moves to road Shanghai to Nanking.

2270: Workers road, settler moves e.

2230: Workers mine, settler moves e.

2190: Nanking builds worker, starts barracks. Worker heads sw. Tsingtao built, starts barracks. Shanghai worker moves e.

2150: Nanking worker roads, Shanghai worker clears forest. Beijing workers move ne. Beijing finishes warrior, starts settler. warrior moves south, time to see what's in that jungle.

2110: Canton finishes spear, starts Colossus. Will take 34 turns. Minim science. Warrior continues s. Beijing Workers road.

2070: Finish ironworking, start alpha. Max science. No iron in sight. I went through this crap with Conquest 6. Nanking worker moves w to help chop forest. Beijing workers mine.

2030: Warrior crosses jungle river, sees mountain in distance.

1990: Forest chopped, help Nanking along. BG uncovered, start roading. Beijing workers move ne. Warrior climbs mountain. Sees iron (yay!) to se, barbs (boo!) to sw.

1950: Send shanghai archer s. Warrior heads sw to deal with barbs. Beijing workers road sw of Beijing.

1910: Shanghai finishes spear, starts worker. Beijing workers mine. Warrior attacks barbs, wins, gets 25, goes vet.

1870: I get a palace build! Beijing builds settler, starts settler immediately. Settler and archer head ssw. Shanghai & Nanking workers move sw to chop forest and road. Warrior moves e, across river, next to iron. Barb is seen on mountain 2s.

1830: Barb heads off se. Beijing workers head s.

1790: Tsingtao and Nanking build barracks, start spears. Archer and settler continue s.

1750: Shanghai builds another worker, starts archer. Beijing workers mine.

1725: Get Alpha, start CB. Forest cleared outside Shanghai, start roading.

1700: Archer reaches mouth of Jungle river, sees flood plain. Workers head ene of Beijing to road to Tsingtao.

1675: Xinjian built, starts walls.

1650: Tsingtao builds spear, starts worker. Shanghai starts walls, but we're getting CB next turn, so we'll switch to temple. Beijing workers cross Jungle River.

1625: Barb attacks. Redlines us, but warrior wins and goes leet. Get CB, start Pottery. Palace expands again. Shanghai switches to temple. Beijing workers road. Shanghai archer heads s. That mountain south of Xinjian has gems.

1600: Nanking builds spear, starts worker. Beijing starts barracks. Tsingtao connected by road.

1575: Tsingtao builds worker, starts temple. Archer and settler meet up with workers s of Jungle river.

1550: Workers, settler, archer move sw.

1525: Learn pottery, start writing. Barb pops up on floodplain at mouth of jungle river.
Nanking builds worker, starts temple. worker heads ne to wheat. Workers road and clear forest outside of Tsingtao.

1500: Beijing expands. Chengdu founded on mouth of Jungle River. Archer heads s to deal w barb.

1475: Archer kills barbs. Forests outside of Tsingtao cleared.

1450: I have GOT to start checking cities that will gain population in one turn. Canton riots. I shift lux to 10%.

1425: Beijing builds barracks, starts archer. Xinjian builds walls, starts barracks.

1400: Archer clears out barbs at mouth of Iron River.

1375: Workers near Tsingtao clear forest ssw.

1350: Workers move to connect Xinjian by road.

1325: Archer kills barb on shores of Gem River.

1300: Canton finishes Colossus, starts settler. Beijing finishes archer, starts grainery. Archer heads along Tsingtao road. I have to remember that this isn't Conquests, so Wonders like the SoZ and ToA are not available.

1275: Worker climbs mountain 3s of Xinjian. Sees desert to e and w, jungle to s. Workers move to clear forest nw of Tsingtao.

1250: Get writing, start mapping. Tsingtao builds temple, start Settler. Xinjian connected by road, workers move to road iron.

1225: Canton expands, builds settler, starts grainary. Forest nw of Tsingtao cleared, road and mine. Archer s of Xinjian climbs mountain, sees more gems. Yeah, this is PTW, Conquests wouldn't have that many resources clustered together.

1200: Barb appears. Archer on mountain.

1175: Nanking starts settler. Archer kills barb. Warrior and settler move 2s, 2se of Beijing.

1150: Tsingtao expands, Shanghai builds worker. Hangchow built, starts grainary.

1125: Iron connected. We can build FP now if we want. Not sure where I want it, so I'll hold off.

1100: Tsingtao builds settler, starts sword. Workers move to clear jungle nw of Xinjian.

1075: Nanking expands. Beijing builds spear, starts sword. Archer climbs hill, sees barb.
It appears we are indeed on an island. I don't mind at all. Worker roads between Chengdu and Hangchow

1050: Barb horse attacks archer. Archer wounded. Xinjian builds barracks, starts spear. Nanking expands, starts sword. Tientsin built, starts barracks. Archer clears out barb camp, finds second iron. Shanghai builds worker, starts grainary. Workers move w of Tientsin to clear jungle. Nanking builds settler, starts sword. Settler and spear move west, planning to settle at mouth of iron river along flood plain.

1025: Beijing riots, turn up lux. Canton builds grainary, starts worker. I thought I saw a foreign ship near the se coast. Have to check it out.

1000: Chengdu builds barracks, starts worker. Stats:
Production: 60 shields, 90 food, 56 gold.
Units: 1 settler, 8 workers, 6 warriors, 3 archers, 5 spears.
Experience: 6 regs, 7 vets, 1 leet.
Diplomacy: none!
Territory: 141 squares, 9 towns, 21 population.
People: 13 happy, 5 content, 3 unhappy.
Buildings: 7 barracks, 2 grainaries, 3 temples, 1 wall, Colossus.
Tech: All starters + ironworking + writing, 5 turns from Mapping.
Score: 354
Demographic rankings: #1 in everything except land (#2), disease (#6) and military service (last). Beijing is 4th greatest city, behind Babylon, Tenochtitlan, Nidaros (who?). Athens is 5th.

 

[DBear]

975BC: Beijing builds sword, starts settler. Canton builds worker, starts sword. Warrior in Beijing upgraded to sword. Worker heads se. Archer heads n.

950BC: Babylon builds Pyramids. Tenochtitlan builds Oracle. Archer climbs hill, sees border across strait. Jungle cleared nw of Xinjian. Spear kills barb near Chengdu. Workers start clearing jungle near Hangchow.

925: Beijing riots, shift worker to taxman. Sword moves to Hangchow.

900: Sword moves e. Workers road Tientsin to Hangchow. Spear disperses barb camp, settler moves to mouth of Iron River.

875: Learn mapping, start math. Beijing builds settler, starts temple for happiness. Nanking builds sword, starts galley. Canton builds sword, starts settler. Tatung built, starts barracks.

850: Settler moves s

825: Same

800: Forest cleared e of Chengdu, workers move to Xinjian to road e. Forest w of Hangchow cleared, workers move to Chengdu to road to Tatung. Tsingtao builds sword, starts grainary

775: Canton builds grainary, starts worker. Macao built 2e, 1ne of Xinjian to take advantage of fish. Starts barracks. Canton worker clears forest outside Beijing.

750: Nanking builds galley, starts another galley. Settler moves s. Galley moves s. Chengdu builds worker, starts temple. Chengdu worker heads s.

725: Canton builds worker, starts galley. Beijing builds temple, starts worker. Macao roaded, workers start clearing jungle.

700: Beijing builds worker, starts another worker. Worker heads e.

690: Tientsin builds barracks, starts sword. Shanghai builds grainery, starts harbor.

670: Beijing builds worker, starts sword. Galley crosses the strait and finds the Greeks. They are equal militarily. We trade mapping for mysticism + 1. They are still up horseback. Settler moves to city site, barb next door!

650: Settler is killed. We get math, start lit. Trade math to Greeks for Horseback, 150 + territory map. The Greeks have relatively poor land. Nanking builds galley, starts settler. This galley heads w.
We also have contact with Babylon. Trade math for world map + 65. Open embassies to both. They are at southern end of long narrow continent. There is land between them where we may settle, with dye and iron.

630: Tatung riots, worker becomes taxman. Barbs appear nearby, workers retreat. Canton builds galley, starts settler. Upgrade 3 warriors to swords.

610: Barb attacks archer, dies. Barb horse attacks Tatung, dies. Archer kills horse, finds camp. Workers start clearing jungle sw of Xinjian.

590: Workers move to connect Tatung. Archer attacks camp, wins.

570: Archer clears out camp. Jungle cleared sw of Xinjian, workers road and head sw.

550: Spice forest cleared near Shanghai. Greece and Babylon starting to expand into no-man's-land. Tatung connected, start building Tatung-Xinjian road. Nanking builds settler, starts catapult. Sword and settler board galley to e. Canton builds settler, starts sword. Settler boards galley to w.

530: Palace expands. Babylon claims dyes. We'll have to take them out.

510: Workers build direct road from Canton to Chengdu.

490: Forest cleared. Tatung-Xinjian road finished. Archer kills barb. Galley drops off settler w of city site. Other galley drops off spear, then kills barb galley.

470: Tsingtao builds grainary, starts worker. Nanking builds catapult, starts catapult. Workers split up, to road gems, and to new city site. Workers mine hill near Tsingtao.

450: Nanking switches to Lighthouse. Anyang built, starts barracks. Workers start roading gems. Galley finds barb camp, drops off spear to deal with them.

430: Tatung builds barracks, starts worker. Tsingtao builds worker, starts galley. Spear clears out camp, goes leet. Babylon has Law. We don't want to give up our Lit monopoly. Beijing starts Great Lib. Canton switched to lib.

410: We trade spice to Babylon for dyes, kicking in 5 gold.

390: Greeks have a galley cruising outside our coast. Workers start clearing jungle n of Anyang.

370: Macao starts temple. Tsingtao whips galley. Archer finds barb and camp.

350: Greeks start lighthouse. Forest cleared, workers irrigate, road.
Archer clears out barb camp. Settler and sword unloaded in no man's land.

330: Sword kills barb. Tientsin switched to worker. Shantung built, starts temple. Nippur has already expanded into the area, though.

310: Workers load galley to help Shantung along. Tsingtao switched to settler. Tientsin switched to lib.

290: Get Philo, start law. Trade Philo to Bab for law + 22. Switch to Repub, minim tech. We;ll make 24/turn. Compared to Greece we are strong, equal to Babylon. Shall we pound Greece? Workers start clearing ne of Chengdu.

270: Greeks landed an escorted spear on desert s of Macao. This is a provocation! Send sword and archer as the 'welcome wagon'.

250: Canton builds lib, starts sword. Upgrade warrior to sword in Tsingtao. Athens has horses, but doesn't seem to have iron. Archer attacks hoplite, fails but wounds.

230: Tatung builds worker, starts sword. Greeks land archer and settler. Barb galley attacks Greek, fails. Sword attacks hoplite, wins, takes slaves. Sword kills warrior outside Shantung. Our 2 galleys attack 2 Greek galleys. A draw.

210: Greek archer and settler move w, on hill. Tsingtao expands. Sword attacks, kills archer, takes slaves, is redlined. Sword attacks Argos, fails. Spear takes slaves outside Argos. Shantung switches to spear. Last warrior is upgraded.

190: Hangchow builds grainary, starts sword. Ask Babylon to ally with us, they want a lot, including Lit. Not giving it to them.

170: Tsingtao builds settler, starts wall. Shanghai builds sword, starts sword. Sword attacks Delphi, loses, redlines. Second does same. Two other swords take out redlined spears, Delphi is taken, starts spear.

150: Greeks send archer from Thermo and horse from Athens against sword. Sword is wounded but goes leet. Nanking expands. 1 resistor quelled. Slaves in Shantung build road to Shurrupak. Galleys transport swords outside Thermopylae.

130: Shanghai expands, Canton builds sword. Two swords attack Thermo, die.

110: Greeks send archer from Thermo on sortie, dies. Greeks send horse against sword, dies, sword goes leet. Sword attacks another horse, fails. Whip Xinjian to finish temple.

90: Tenochtitlan builds Hanging Gardens. Palace expands. Xinjian builds temple, starts sword. Tsingtao builds wall, starts spear. Leet sword kills Archer outside Delphi.

70: Horse gets lucky and retakes Delphi. Sword takes it back. Canton builds sword, starts settler. Chinan founded 3s of Macao, starts spear.

50: Sword outside Thermo is killed. Anyang starts library. Babylon grabs iron on se of OUR land! Leet sword kills archer. C'mon, I want a leader! Shanghai builds sword, starts galley.

30: Archer kills my leet! 3 warriors go against Delphi and lose, giving me a leet sword, though wounded. We send 2 galleys full of swords to mountain ne of Thermo. Whip Tientsin for lib. Whip Tatung for sword. We make peace with Greece, picking up Argos, Pharsalos, Knossos, and 50 gold.

10BC: Tatung starts library. Tientsin starts spear. Canton builds settler, starts another.

10AD: Hangchow builds sword, starts settler.

30: Tsingtao builds spear, starts sword. Road from Chinan to Macao roaded.

50: Canton builds settler, starts temple. Tientsin expands.

70: Babylon is starting to intrude. Shanghai builds galley, starts sword.

90: Babylon expands onto OUR city site. Beijing starts GL, starts lib. Build Kaifeng, start lib.

110: Workers keep expanding and roading.

130: Salamanca builds Great Wall. Macao whips Temple.

150: Damn Greeks land near our next city site. Macao starts grainary,

170: Greeks start Mycenae. We're gonna deal with them soon.

190: Beijing builds lib, starts worker. Canton builds sword, starts sword.

210: Canton starts galley. Beijing builds worker, starts worker. Trade Gems and spice to Babylon for dyes.

230: Macao expands.

250: Chengdu expands. Workers start connect Argos to Pharsalos. Beijing starts sword.

260: Nanking builds lighthouse, starts lib. Shantung builds sword, starts temple. Canton builds galley, starts harbor.

270: sword and archer unloaded at Pharsalos and Knossos.

280: Load galley at Delphi, ready to deploy at Sparta.

290: Ningpo founded in tundra.

300: Canton, Hangchow, and Tsingtao start swords. Peace treaty ends next turn.

310: War declared. Horse kills spear in Delphi. We take Thermopylae, killing 3 hoplites, losing 2 swords. We also get some slaves. Land troops outside Sparta.

320: Babylon sneaks us, burns Argos down. We lose Thermo and units outside Sparta. We destroy Mycenae. Sword kills hoplite outside Delphi. We retake Thermopylae. Drop units off to reinforce Delphi.

330: Babylon has MI! We mass swords outside Izibia. We plan to drive the Babs off the continent then make peace.

340: Shantung falls to Babs (who cares) and Delphi falls to Greece (now I care). We raze Izibia. Leet sword sorties against hoplite, wins with no scratch, but NO LEADER! I want my leader! Swords gather outside Sippar.

350: Babs and Greeks gather outside Knossos. I send a galley on a suicide run Moderator Action: No details of directions, please . Hope to contact someone and have the GL give me techs.

360: Babs take Knossos. Galley sinks. We take Sippar. The contient is secured. Babs refuse to talk.

370: Spear on hill south of Pharsalos drive off two Bab horses and Greek archer, goes leet. Swords outside Thermo kill Greek archers. Greece wants to talk to us, but we want to talk to Babs. Our galley sinks a Bab galley. Paoting built on ruins of Mycenae. Sword in Pharsalos kills hoplite, goes leet.

380: Babs send a SoD to Pharsalos. Spear holds off MI and warrior, falls to Bow. Trying another suicide run.

390: We pick up construction from GL. Galley survives, finds the X and Y. They want contact with Babs, I refuse. The GL should give us a bunch of techs. Babs still won't talk to us.

400: GL goes into high gear, we pick up Poly, Currency, Monarch, Feud, Mono, and Engineer. Moderator Action: Deleted MA details

 

[AlanH]

Predator

GOTM 38 First Spoiler

Summary:

Settled in place, irrigated everything, built five towns at radius 3 and six more at radius 6. By 1000 BC we had 15 cities and 3 settlers en route to occupy the south of the island. In 775 BC we entered the Middle Ages as a result of meeting the rest of the world.

Builds:

Beijing:
3800 BC Warrior
3150 BC Granary
2900 BC Settler, then a Settler every 4 turns.

High priority was given to workers in other towns as it became clear there was lots of jungle. We had 20 industrious workers by 1000 BC. We also built barracks in 9 towns and, in the absence of horses and with no Iron Working we built some warriors and a force of archers.

Research:
Pottery at full speed completed in 3400 BC.
Alphabet at 10%, completed in 1700 BC.

We realised we were alone, and found that the visible adjacent land mass was not going to talk to us, so research moved to max speed ...
Writing completed in 1500 BC
Wheel completed in 1375 BC.

That's when we discovered our Riders would need to import their horses.

Map Making completed by 1100 BC.
Work started on Literature.

A galley contacted the Greeks in 1025 BC.
Sold Map Making to Greece for contact with Babylon + WM + 25 gold.
Bought CB + BW from Babylon for Masonry + WM + 13 gold.
Bought IW from Babylon for Map Making + 39 gold.

Literature completed in 975 BC.
Sold Literature to Babylon for HBR + WM + 24 gold.
Sold HBR to Greece for Mysticism + WM + 10 gold.

In 775 BC a galley contacted people in a far off land and we traded their contacts and our maps and techs to reach the Middle Ages. No contacts were traded between the continents at this stage, as it was clear that they would not meet for quite a while.

Full version of this timeline as zipped html, including the complete turn log for the first 40 turns.

Here's my F3 screen at 1000 BC.

 

[DJMGator13]

775BC, very nice Alan. I was not so lucky. I went down the wrong research path and got Map Making later. I finished the QSC period with zero contacts.

QSC Stats
13 cities
33 pop
3 settlers
12 workers
12 warriors
7 archers
only 8 techs

I had a bit of rng luck with some galleys and I enter the MA in 290BC, with 24 cities and in control of some fine Greek horses. I have also met all the other civs.

 

[Jove]

Arrrr, I decided right off the bat to go for the culture 100k victory. After settling in place and noticing a Third food bonus around the start location, I realized I could have 2 cities sharing 3 food bonuses with a tight placement. In fact, I was certain it was Ainwood's intent. I built warrior then settler to get my second city started on the Pyramids right away, settling it in 3300 bc at a distance of 2.5 E-NE of Beijing. I named it Pyramid City, so sure was I that my plan would succeed. This second city got the benefits of all the food and industrial worker turns to get it up to full size as soon as possible, sacrificing the settler factory for awhile. Maybe that was counter-productive, we'll find out later I guess.
The Pyramids were completed in 1425 BC. I was very pleased with that, but was way behind otherwise. By 1000 BC I had 1 settler, 7 cities, 4 temples, 2 barracks, 6 workers, 7 warriors, 3 archers, 105g, literature in 1 turn, and 260 culture.
I decided to stick with the tight placement, with rings of 2.5, 4.5, and 6. I just think China should be dense and crowded, and anyhow I always wish for more cities in a 100k game.
In 590 bc I started building FP 2.5 S-SE of Beijing, planning a palace jump later. It was completed in 10 BC. This plan was flawed as it turns out. A few days later, after my ICS placement was filled in, I read though the palace jump notes and realized that the number of neighboring cities affects where the palace goes. Mine were packed like sardines, so nuts to that! I figured being Militaristic I'd get enough leaders to rush a palace anyway, however, things didn't work out so nicely. The rest of that story is for another thread.
Due to my cultural focus I didn't meet Greece until 410 BC. Traded for Bronze and Iron Working, meet the Babs, got Horseback Riding and everyone's gold. I was up to 620g, not bad I thought. The next turn I completed the Great Library in Pyramid City. I couldn't have been happier to have those two wonders this early in the game, but again I felt behind in other aspects, plus I didn't know anyone to put the GL in use.
210 BC I get a 5-turn anarchy preparing for Republic.
190 BC- Greece is trying to settle my southern lands. My military is wimpy, but what can Greece do from another island? I attack his settlers and raze his settlements. I start building a lot of warriors and galleys to explore and take out Greece. I have a question here: This war was started during anarchy, and I didn't notice any war weariness until 330 AD. Does it make a difference if one declares war during anarchy and then goes Republic? Or does war weariness just kick in very slowly at first?
I got very lucky with my suicide galleys. I only built one, it sank in 110 AD, but not before flagging down 2 foreign galleys. Whoosh! By 130 AD I have everyone's gold, Feudalism, Monotheism, Theology, and Engineering. My troop of swordsmen en-route to Greece doubles back to upgrade to MI's. That's it for my ancient age. I'm interested to find out if my culture rush strategy is worth a darn compared to other players.

 

[Jove]

@Solenoozerec: I've been beating my brains for 3 weeks trying to remember the name of the Orthodox Christmas. What is it? Then I can wish you a happy _______.

 

[WillowBrook]

Vanilla Civ, Open Class

Goal
I've never won a 20k game. I've never even attempted one. This one might as well be it (my first try, that it - we'll see if it succeeds).

Initial moves
As I suggested in the pre-game thread, I settled Beijing west one space to allow use of the food bonuses by three cities at RCP 4. Shanghai, to be my 20k city, was founded just west of the wheat. This is not an ideal location, not being on a coast or a river, but there are plenty of hills for production and the food bonuses will allow the city to support maximum production.

Research and contacts, Part I
I made the mistake of assuming that we'd have neighbors and did no research for the first 14 turns, hoping to do 40 turns on a second-tier tech. When I realized I was probably alone, I went to max possible (adjusting for happiness) on pottery, alphabet, writing, and mapmaking, which I discovered in 1275 bc. I research liturature next.

I soon met the Greeks and buy CB from Alex for 88g to allow a temple in Shanghai.

Here is my kingdom in 1000 bc:

1000 bc stats
42g
11 towns
30 pop
3 barracks, 1 granary, the FP
Masonry, Alph, Pott, WC, CB, Writing, MM, and Lit; philosophy due in 3
Embassy with the Greeks, no other contacts
Units: 1 settler, 5 workers, 18 warriors, 6 archers, 5 galleys
Spices hooked up

Research and contacts, Part II
I meet the Babs in 900, just after they complete the pyramids. I trade Liturature for BW, COL, and myst; I get IW from the Greeks for Lit. This was a HUGE mistake, as it allowed them to switch Athens from the pyramids to the Great Library (which they complete in 610 bc).

A very lucky suicide galley gets me a contact before sinking in 825bc. (Just about my only luck in the game, BTW - I'll gripe about long anarchies and almost no leaders in the next spoiler.) COL gets me a series of contacts and some territory maps, and I manage to meet the rest of the world while keeping the Greeks and Babs isolated (and liturature a secret until TGL is complete). I also set some of the far civs fighting each other, as I have no need of a fast tech rate.

In 510 bc monarchy appears, and I trade lit and some gold for it, and then use those techs to get me into the middle ages. The former GL prebuild soon becomes the Hanging Gardens. I turn off reserach for a while as I will soon capture TGL.

Expansion and Warfare
I declare on the Greeks in 590 bc after a ROP expires, and finish them up in 290 bc.

Beijing ran as a four-turn settler factory (sometimes settler/warrior) until, well, that's for the next spoiler.

20k Culture City
Here are my culture builds in Shanghai:
1150 bc: Forbidden Palace
975 bc: temple
430 bc: Hanging Gardens

My QSC timeline will include the entire AA; check it out for details (it'll be up...eventually).

 

[Lance]

I've never had a cultural victory, so I wanted totry to get one now and decided I would give 100K a try. I didn't really know how I should do it, but I will see later how I did, I suppose.

First on early actions. I didn't keep a log of my actions, but I will write a report based on a sheet where I went through some possible starts. This is a plan that I eventually chose to follow. (And did follow too)

4000BC Settled in place, start warrior, working cow tile, worker to the cow
3950BC Worker irrigate cow, working cow tile.
3850BC Irrigation done, worker moves to the BG NW of the city.
3800BC Mine BG
3750BC Warrior out, start prebuild for granary
3700BC Pop up to 2, working cow and BG.
3650BC Mining of the BG done, worker moves to the wheat
3600BC Irrigate wheat
3500BC Irrigation done, start to road the wheat, borders expand
3450BC Pop up to 3, working cow, mined BG and game
3400BC Road on whet done, worker moves to BG SW of the city, working tiles:cow, game and wheat.
3350BC Mine the BG, working cow, game and mined BG
3300BC Working cow, wheat, mined BG and after pop increase, also game.
3250BC Pop now 4, we have 46 shields in the box and will finish pottery next turn. Working cow, wheat mined BG and game. Lux slider of course in heavy use.
3200BC Mining completed, start to road the BG tile. Pottery researched, change production from pyramids to granary, which will be done next turn.
3150BC Granary done, start settler
3100BC Road completed, move to cow
3050BC Road the cow, population to 5
2950BC First settler out, road on cow completed, population down to 4.

After that Beijing produced settler every 4 turns until it was abandoned later in the game. Not too much later (after some more worker actions) It started to work as a 4 turn warrior/settler pump.

In 1000BC I had

16 towns, 40 pop
2 granaries
6 barracs
3 settlers
10 workers
36 warriors, 13 archers
4 galleys
416 gold
contact with just Greece
technologically quite backwards; Mas, alpha, pottery, wheel, WC, Writing and MM

As I haven't been taking notes, I can't really tell the time I got in to the MA, but I did have a save from 50AD, and I guess it can't be terribly wrong, as I have all the necessery AA techs but none of the MA techs. So I will write what I can, based on the info in that save.

So, in 50AD I had all AA techs

I'm in war with the greeks, who have only two towns left. I have control of the north part of their continent. I have contact with all other civs (also their maps)

I have FP in Shanghai, two tiles east from Beijing (planning on palace jump).

I have 36 towns, of which 23 in the starting continent plus 4 settlers.

Only 17 workers (plus 2 slaves) Should propably have more, but I concentrated on settlers.

8 galleys and 44 military units.

Culture:

Palace, FP, 14 temples, 4 libraries, 976 culture, 44 cpt.

I thought that in addition to producing settlers quite much I would build temple and library to every city. After that core cities would consentrate on military and those cities who only produce one shield would build wealth. Naturally, during despotism I pop rushed when I could, and later on I used gold.

However, I'm not all that sure that building culture buildins early is the best way to achieve a fast 100K, as I only have altogether as much culture as I would hope to produce in one turn in the future, but I'll see how it works (or does it work).

 

[eldar]

PtW Open

Entered the MA in 110AD, after getting contact with everyone else who weren't Babylonian or Greek. Also declared on Greece in the same turn. Greece have the Great Library (I started my pre-build too late!), but are currently at war with Babylon. Nice, both will have hosed their GAs in Despotism. The other Civs are way ahead in tech.

Timeline:

BC 4000 Plan to settle in place, Worker N first to the cow to see if there's anything interesting over the horizon. Nothing doing, 4 BGs, a Cow, and Wheat - I'll settle for that. 2 more BGs on settling. Very very good. And Game on expansion! Blimey! Beijing founded, start Warrior. Research Pottery @ Max.
3800 Beijing Warrior->Rax
3550 Beijing expands, Spices to NW.
3250 Pottery->Alphabet @ Min
3100 Shanghai founded, starts Rax.
2150 Canton founded. Beijing is now a 4-turn Warrior/Settler factory, producing Veteran Warriors.
1870 Nanking founded.
1700 Tsingtao founded.
1600 Xinjian founded.
1475 Chengdu founded.
1375 Hangchow founded.
1275 Tsientsin founded.
1200 Tatung founded.
1150 Macao founded.
1000 Map Making completed, I still have no contacts! The Oracle has already been built. I have a lot of Archers with no-one to hit! Basically, all I've done is expand, setting up a 4-turn Warrior/Settler factory in Beijing, sharing tiles when possible. Archers have gone out on Barb patrol. After Pottery and Alphabet, I took the view we were alone on an island (correct!), so researched Writing and Map Making at max. I maybe should've upped Alphabet at some point, to get Map Making earlier.
950 Anyang founded.
900 Shantung founded.
875 Chinan founded.
775 Kaifeng founded. Contact Greece (ouch!). Up BW(+), Wheel, CB(+). Have Alpha, Writing, MM! Hopefully not Lit. Have contact with Babylon. Lit next turn so trade then.
750 Sell Lit+WM+190g for BW+CB+Wheel+TM. We have no Horses! Greece still up Myst(+). Research set to Maths on min.
670 Ningpo founded.
650 Buy Myst for WM+175g. Contact with Babylon. Sell Lit+WM for IW+TM+20g. I am now at tech parity. Sci rate upped to 70%. We have 2 Iron sources. So tech rate goes back down to save cash for upgrades.
530 Paoting founded.
510 Yangchow founded.
430 Colossus & Great Wall(!) completed "elsewhere".
410 Buy CoL from Babylon, get nowt but WM from Greece - must've been chasing it themselves.
350 New Beijing founded. New Shanghai founded - the last "mainland" city. Greece/Babylon at war!
330 Babylon has Horseback Riding. No good to me as I have no Horses.
290 Buy Philosophy from Greece for WM+Spices+170g. Sell to Babylon for WM+85g.
230 Babylon have Maths, so buy it from them and sell to Greece. Switch to Poly at min.
190 Iron connected, 6 Warriors upgraded.
90 New Canton founded, in a gap on the Greece/Babylon island.
AD 10 New Nanking founded.
30 Suicide Galley contacts <censored>, gets some gpt, their TM, Horseback Riding for WM, Greece, Babylon.
110 MA entered. All contacts bought, plus the remaining AA techs except governments. DoW vs Greece, land 8 Swords, 3 Archers, 2 Cats and a Settler by Delphi. Athens has the Great Library.

And a little piccie:

Neil.

 

[solenoozerec]

@Solenoozerec: I've been beating my brains for 3 weeks trying to remember the name of the Orthodox Christmas. What is it? Then I can wish you a happy _______.

Just add 14 days (same applies to Orthodox New Year). You can also address it to our New Year baby Akots, EsatP and other Byzantium (a good civ, though I lost COTM3) relatives.

 

[SirPleb]

1.27 Predator

Opening Moves

I settled at the start position.

My worker irrigated the cattle and then mined the wheat. I'd replace that with irrigation when a second town was able to share the wheat - temporarily mining it while used only by the capital gave what seemed like a strong opening sequence.

I built two warriors who went exploring and then a granary which was completed in 3100BC. After that Beijing ran as a four turn settler pump for a long time.

In 2230BC Beijing started running as a four turn warrior+settler pump. By then I knew I was isolated and that I wouldn't need those warriors as military units but they were nearly free to produce and were useful as MPs.

Expansion

In 2510BC my warriors finished exploring the coastline and I knew I was alone.

I did the same ring 3 build as klarius, Offa, and solenoozerec - six towns at exactly the same locations for all of us I think. The last of my ring 3 towns was founded in 1990BC:

Though there was limited room for expansion and China has industrious workers, I figured the amount of work to be done was very large and that I'd want a lot of workers. So I built a granary in my town which shared the wheat and built another granary in a southern town which would be able to use the deer.

And though my inner ring was already a bit crowded I decided to next build a second ring at distance 6. Ring 7 would be less cramped but didn't allow for any cities north or east of the core.

Research

I researched Pottery, Alphabet, and then Writing at the maximum rate learning them in 3300BC, 2430BC, and 1910BC respectively.

I of course wanted Map Making next to get some galleys out exploring. But I decided to be less direct, to go for Literature first. I reasoned that I would probably (there was a small chance I could learn some of this from another Civ) be researching Map Making, Philosophy, Code Of Laws, and Republic. If I learned Literature first and built some libraries it looked like I would reach the end of that sequence (Republic) more quickly. And I'd get some nice side-effects from doing it that way: I'd gain some culture, I'd have a higher research capacity for later techs, and my core cities would have something useful to do. That last point was what got me thinking along these lines in the first place. My core cities were running out of work. I didn't need more military units, they'd just cost me maintenance eventually. I didn't need barracks yet and they'd just cost maintenance if built before required. What could I do which was useful? By researching Literature next I could work on libraries.

I learned Literature in 1600BC, Map Making in 1375BC, Code Of Laws in 1225BC, Philosophy in 1125BC.

In 1100BC I traded with Greece and Babylon to get their maps, The Wheel, Bronze Working, Ceremonial Burial, and Iron Working.

In 825BC I learned Republic, revolted, and got a six turn anarchy.

By this time a suicide galley had survived to meet some distant Civs. By trading with them I was able to enter the Middle Ages at 550BC without having done any further research myself.

QSC Status

At 1000BC I had:
15 towns, population 41
1 settler
25 native workers
3 granaries, 6 libraries, 1 barracks, 1 harbor
15 warriors, 1 archer, 2 galleys

Plans for the Immediate Future

At the end Ancient Times I'd settled almost the entire home continent. I had not been in conflict with Greece or Babylon. I'd recently done minimal preparations for war with Greece - I had 14 Swordsmen ready to invade. My plan was to wait till entering the Middle Ages, gift Greece and Babylon there, trade for their free techs, then invade Greece and take her horses. I'd research toward Chivalry building Horsemen until I got it.

 

[Offa]

QSC Status

At 1000BC I had:
25 native workers

Well whatever else is true, that is a lot of workers.

Middle Ages at 550bc is particularly strong, although having luck with galleys helped of course ( ). Your idea about literature seems clearly right, as science is the key to this game. I only hope you are going for a 20k win, or else I suspect we will be treated to a description of an outrageously early conquest in the next spoiler.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

Yep, you know what i always say about workers

25 workers are a sure start for a marvelous result even if another player than Sir pleb would finish this game.

 

[eldar]

25 workers at 1000BC - pretty handy

I do have a question about RCP, given that a couple have set it up. I was trying for it, but gave up when it became clear that my second ring wasn't going to allow me the cities I'd have wanted.

I always thought that, for RCP, distances were measured in half-units. However from a couple of spoilers here (SirPleb, klarius(?)), it looks like those half-units are rounded down.

I.e.

xxxc }
Cxxc } all of these cities are at distance 3, not just the one due east.
xxxc }

Why have I been getting this wrong?!

Neil.

 

[AlanH]

Yes. Half tiles are rounded down, so you sometimes see rcp radius stated as 3.x or 6.x.

 

[eldar]

Grr. I am having lousy leader luck in this game - and I just want the one for my FP down in ex-Babylon....