GOTM 38: Spoiler 2.

[Gato Loco]

At the end of the last spoiler, I had defeated the Greeks and secured a second core next to Babylonian territory, and was plotting the next war against Babylon, a nation with lots of culture but no iron…


270 AD – Ningpo flips to the Babylonians. It was dumb putting it so close to Babylon anyway. But if this goes on much longer, I might start losing more cities to the Culture Monster.

320 AD – I declare war on the Babylonians and capture Uruk, forming a beautiful choke point. I declared war on Babylon early in order to keep them form recovering from war with Greece. They have three cities and many bowmen beyond my blockade. I’ve kept up with the tech race to the point where I can begin making exorbitant tech-for-gpt deals with the other continent. In the absence of trade routes, this is the only way to power my economy and drain theirs. The goal is to make everyone else dependent on me for research while keeping my research rate high. This slows down the tech pace, but makes sure that I stay on top. The point of imperialism is to be the big fish, even if it means draining the rest of the pond. And of course I don’t want have a high tax rate. Money is something that comes from overseas, not from your own people. Once I get Navigation, luxuries will hopefully replace technology as my primary export. This also means that I’ll probably go for domination or conquest rather than space, since research should be very slow for everyone.

420 AD – I capture the last Babylonian city beyond the choke point. There are a few bowmen trapped in my land but they will soon be dead. Meanwhile, dumb AI-controlled bowmen have been sacrificing themselves against my choke point, which is now manned by a bunch of 4-2-1 ‘Persian Mercinaries’, a unit I don’t recognize and must have been added in the PTW-equivalent GOTM mod.

500AD – Sistine Chapel GL-rushed to help with WW.

550 AD – Copernicus and Leonardo completed.

560 AD – The Babylonian front has broken. With the fall of Eridu and Nineveh, I now control the western half of Babylonian territory. They appear to have run out of bowmen. They are unable to make more than five per turn now, and I’m killing at nearly that rate. Riders + bowmen = good kill ratio. I’ve also gotten a couple more great leaders. I now own Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Copernicus. The home cities have stopped producing units for now and switched to infrastructure. The build order will be university, (temple), cathedral, bank (if available).

Unfortunately, Babylonian cultural superiority remains intact and I must beware of culture flips. My planned advance into the remaining Babylonian territory is as follows:



610AD – I have captured Babylon and with it the Pyramids. The discovery of Navigation has opened up trade routes with Egypt and the Iroquois. Sadly, I cannot make nearly as much from trading luxuries as I can from trading technology, so the tech trades will have to continue. For now I am still at war with the Vikings, Aztecs, and Japanese. The other continent harbors five civilizations:

Vikings – The only other non-cultural (scientific, religious, or Babylon) civ in the game. They have fallen behind economically and scientifically. They declared war on me after I declared phony war on the Aztecs to get technology form Egypt. They have nothing to offer for trade except incense and are not interested in any of my luxuries.

Iroquois – The first nation I made contact with. They regularly pay me lots of gpt and sell me wines. They have a high cultural rating and access to iron and horses, as well as a good starting location. An invasion would be difficult and would leave me economically worse off.

Egypt – Egypt got a rather arid starting location. Their only great cities are next to a long river that goes through the main desert. The lack of good cities makes them a reasonable invasion prospect, especially since I would gain ivory and incense. They have horses, iron, and saltpeter in their territory, so resource denial would be difficult. Like the Iroquois, they pay me for technology.

Japan – A long time ago Japan fought a war with the Aztecs and lost most of their land. They currently hold three cities. Of these, Edo has silks and Kagoshima is close to a source of saltpeter. Whatever my strategy, taking these two cities would yield a reasonable benefit for little cost.

Aztecs – Currently the most powerful civilization in the world behind China after starting on grassland and then stealing Japan’s best land. Also the strongest culture in the world. Unless I destroy them soon they will probably be my biggest rival in the endgame, though their diplomatic and resource position is a bit weak.


At this point I will have to decide what my long-term plan will be. A spaceship victory would be possible, but I would be at a disadvantage. Either the Iroquois or the Aztecs could keep up with me scientifically and will probably have more industrial capacity once their generous territory allotment is fully developed. Even if I go for a space race victory, I should take a big bite out of the Aztecs first in order to eliminate the competition. A military victory would probably be easier and quicker, since China is militaristic and currently booming in the aftermath of a golden age. In this case I have to decide between conquest and domination, since these two goals involve different strategies. I decide to go for domination in order to avoid fighting the stronger nations.

Looking at CivAssist, I see that I can achieve a domination victory by snapping up all territory not belonging to the Aztecs. Since the Aztecs are a strong enemy, I plan to sign a MPP with them and sequentially declare war on the other civs, from weakest to strongest. Sadly, I cannot yet sign a MPP as I have not discovered Nationalism. For now I sign peace and hope that they will build a harbor soon so we can trade.

Immediate goals:
-Capture the remaining Japanese cities to get silks and a foothold on that part of the continent.
-Take over the Vikings.
-Finish off the Babylonians and rebuild the captured cities.

620 AD – Magellan GL-rushed in preparation for shipping lots of troops to the other continent. In total, I got 5 GLs from the Babylonian war due to the hordes of bowmen throwing themselves against my choke point.

670 AD – The last Babylonian city falls. No more war weariness.

720 AD – The Vikings have beat me to Edo and Kagoshima. Japan is down to one city now. Fortunately, I’m at war with the Vikings too so this doesn’t hurt my plans.

740 AD – Capture Edo, along with a worker. Begin building a road to connect the Aztec road network to a harbor.

760 AD – Capture Kagoshima. The remnants of the Viking invasion force are still milling around outside the city and will launch a counterattack soon.

800 AD – Talk about overkill. Now I have J. S. Bach as well on my home continent. (from a GL). So much for war weariness.

840 AD – My invasion force lands in Viking territory and immediately takes Oslo, cutting off the Vikings’ supply of iron. They will now be unable to send any more knights after me.

However, my plans were about to go out the window. I see three Aztec knights approaching Edo (defended by two cavalry). I am at peace with the Aztecs but still have no trade deals. If I ask them to leave I will almost certainly have war. Instead I sign a RoP and sell them a nonmilitary tech for >100 gpt. They still attack and take the city IBT, but ruin their reputation in the process. They are now international pariahs and I have no trouble turning the rest of the world against them. Even the Vikings get peace and sign a military alliance, although Oslo remains in my hands until I disband it centuries later to avoid the domination limit.

The Aztec War:



The Aztecs had two main weaknesses entering the war. First, Montezuma’s name was mud after his ROP abuse at Edo. His old enemies were more than willing to take up the war again. The Iroquois in particular sent a massive SOD rampaging through their territory. Even the Vikings sent hordes of berserks to the party, since they had nothing better to offer thanks to my iron theft. Second, it was easy to deny them strategic resources. Their only source of saltpeter was near Kagoshima and was an easy target for a cavalry pillage. The cavalry was quickly killed, but the damage had been done and the Aztecs would build no more cavalry, ever. Their only connected iron was south of Tokyo and was pillaged after that city was razed. At this point, the Aztecs were reduced to longbowmen and spearmen since they did not have nationalism.



In the aftermath of the war, I had gained silks and ivory, as well as a foothold on the other continent. The Iroquois stole Tlateloco(furs) and Tenochtilan(Sun Tzu) out from under my grasp, but I was still grateful for their help in taking out four massive, flip-prone cities. More importantly, the greatest power on the continent was now gone. Their failure to unite against me has basically decided the game then and there. This new turn of events changed my plans from domination to conquest. Domination would be very easy now, but it just doesn’t seem sporting. This is the best I’ve ever done in a game of Civ3, so I feel like I should make the most of it. The only enemy I’m really afraid of are the Iroquois, and they’ll be a cakewalk once I get tanks. For now I sign a MPP and keep selling them overpriced technology.

1260 – I provoke a war with Egypt. Resource denial is not an option in this case, so I sign up the Iroquois to help. This also encourages them to pour lots of production into the war, handicapping their long term prospects and distracting the giant SoD they have parked next to their territory. Meanwhile, I devote minimal resources to building troops while cranking out infrastructure and research to get ahead of the Iroquois. The aforementioned SoD quickly takes down two of the former Aztec/Japanese cities. The Viking SoD takes the third. I’d hoped to get a piece of the action, but it doesn’t matter. Those cities will fall soon enough. My invasion force is waiting to have a go at Egypt. I ferry my main force over the bay into Egyptian territory and begin rolling over their cities. I learn how powerful artillery are against riflemen. Once the last Egyptian city falls in 1390 AD I immediately declare war on the Vikings. If I wanted to win a domination victory I would have it by taking a couple Viking cities and cash-rushing libraries in all the captured Egyptian cities. This war isn’t worth talking about. It goes just like the Egyptian war only easier. A bunch of artillery blast their cities down to nothing and then I raze them. The only obstacle is that I have to trudge through lots of enemy territory because I razed all the cities as I captured them. I raze the last Viking city in 1440, 10 turns after declaring war. At the end of this war I declare war against the Iroquois who have their entire offensive force in former Viking territory right next to my artillery. Because the Iroquois were importing saltpeter from me they can’t replace all the cavalry I’ve just obliterated. Over the next five turns, I capture or raze all their captured Aztec/Egyptian cities and knock them down to one source of rubber. They never bothered to build temples in the captured cities, so I railroad my artillery within 2 spaces, bombard, and then send in the cavalry/tanks. A small invasion force (Infantry, 2 cavalry, artillery) landed next to their final rubber source, razed it, then retreated to a nearby mountain to make sure they didn’t reconnect it. The cavalry amused themselves by moving out, pillaging, and then running back until that area was completely devastated.
What then ensued was a horrific, genocidal nightmare. The Iroquois had built enough infantry that their cities were still difficult to take. Massive infantry/cavalry floods against bombarded cities will create enough war weariness that all the cities not on my home continent go into civil disorder before the war is over. The Iroquois manage to hold out until 1480, when my tanks, aided by a steady stream of new bombers, finally pour over the mountain range and capture Oil Springs. I raze approximately one city per turn after that, finally razing the last one in 1510, to win my first ever conquest victory.



Final Observations:

-My strategy for this game was to take down the other nations one by one, always fighting from a position of technological, resource, and diplomatic advantage. I don’t think I ever had to fight a fair fight. In order, the wars I fought were:
Greeks, 430-90 BC(Swordsmen vs. Hoplites) Greeks had a lousy start location.
Babylonians 320-670 AD (MDI and Riders vs. Bowmen) Babs had no iron.
Aztecs 840-1210 AD (Riflemen, cannon, cavalry vs. muskets, pikemen, then spearmen) Aztecs quickly lost iron and saltpeter, 3 allies helped)
Egypt 1180-1390 AD (Infantry, artillery, cavalry vs. Riflemen) Egypt hadn’t gotten Replaceable Parts, Iroquois did most of the heavy lifting.
Vikings 1390-1440 AD (same as Egypt) Viking empire was laughable
Iroquois 1440-1510 AD (Infantry, Tanks, Bombers vs. Infantry and Riflemen) They stopped advancing after I stopped selling them tech.

-This was my first game with PTW rules. PTW Republic is overpowered. With Vanilla I would have had to choose between guns and butter. Instead I got all the butter I wanted and let my free unit support pay for the guns. Without the free unit support I could not have used the strategy I did since I would not have been able to outpace the AI research while at war.

-I never realized how good the Militaristic trait really is. Getting five middle age GLs let me snag all the good wonders. I ended the game having built Michelangelo, Bach, Copernicus, Magellan, Newton, Unversal Sufferage, and SETI. Admittedly, SETI was overkill but by that point I didn’t need another army either. Except for SETI, I got good use out of all those wonders, and I didn’t regret building any of them. Tellingly, even after taking heavy losses in the final war, I still didn’t have trouble with my core cities rioting, and this was without police stations since I took a pass on Communism in my rush to tanks.

-I still didn’t build enough artillery. I managed to avoid disaster because I was fighting riflemen. If I’d had to fight infantry it would have been a lot messier. I also underfunded my military. The same stack of ~20-30 units marched all the way form the southeast corner of Aztec lands to the northwest of Scandinavia, gradually gaining strength as I shipped reinforcements over. My strategy was to fight my wars on the cheap so as not to fall behind the Iroquois, but if I’d gone for artillery instead of all those cathedrals in my home cities, I would have had a second invasion force and perhaps a victory in 1300 instead of 1500. Looking at the other entries so far, I’m embarrassed that I took so long, compared with some of the other conquest dates.

Final Score - 6356
Final Jason score - 8263

 

[WillowBrook]

Vanilla Civ, Open Class

Shanghai's Quest for 20k

Summary
My first 20k culture attempt suceeded in 1868. Not bad, but I'd hoped to do better. I should have gotten some of the culture accumulating much earlier, and a coast city would have been better, and then there's the rng, but, hey, it's done now.

Details

The curse of the RNG, Part I: Anarchy
So I enter the Middle Ages in 510 bc soon after several civs on the other continent, and while I'm taking out the Greeks with swords. In the middle of the war, once I have enough units that I know I'll finish them off, and once Shanghai completes the Hanging Gardens, I decide I need a better government. Since Monarchy is the only one I have available, I revolt in 410 bc - and get 6 turns. Yuck. But, hey, I tell myself, it could have been 7. The Greeks are gone in 290, the same year the Chinese monarchy is founded, and two turns later TGL (in Athens) gives me the Republic. That same year, I declare on the Babs, fighting them with swords and horses. As I've had enough anarchy for a while, I stick with Monarchy for a while.

I get chivalry in 270 ad and launch my Golden Age a few turns later. My Golden Age ends in 500 ad, I wipe out the last of the Babs, and a few turns later I revolt to the Republic - and get 7 turns of anarchy!!

The Curse of the RNG, Part II: Leader Luck
I had only a few elite victories against the Greeks, but many against the Babs. By 460 ad, I had recorded a total of 49 elite victories and NO leaders. Zero. Zip. Nada. Finally, one of my three elite victories the next turn generates my first leader, with which I immediately build an army so Shanghai can build the heroic epic. Less than 10 elite victories later, the Babs are gone, and I have no more leader chances for quite a while.

I consider giving some towns in Old Greece to another civ to use as target practice, but am afraid that just wouldn't be in the spirit of the game. So I expect to have no more real warfare until after magnetism. However, I do get a touch of luck after an Egyptian unit dropped off in my territory captures an undefended city: I get my second leader on my 62ed elite victory, and use him to rush a wonder. (I'll later get three more in about 30 more elite victories, but by that point there's no competition for the wonders)

I blame the lack of early leaders for not getting Bach's. That plus not getting the Great Library in Shanghai probably cost me 20-30 turns. Okay, enough whining....

Palace Jump
After thousands of years of pumping out 4-turn settlers, Beijing is disbanded in 810 and my palace jumps to Babylon, around which I have carefully placed new city rings. I resettle Beijing where it was.

More Warfare
(I apologize for the lack of maps, but the civs pretty much stayed in their starting areas except as otherwise indicated.)

For Score, Leaders, and Luxes, I invade Japan (1100), taking their silks and single source of wines on their northern coast. I make peace and then get pulled into a war with the Egyptians. I take several of their cities, including their rubber (1340). This was one of the smarted moves in the game - later I would face at most one infantry in each of their cities.

As luxes get more and more expensive, I decide I need to take them by force. After the Aztecs took out Japan, Monty attacks me inspite of a ROP (1395), so I take most of Old Japan from him (and his two oil sources and only chance at coal), and he never becomes happy with me again. So I can't count on him for furs. Cleo and I have never been on good terms; our ivory deals rarely last 20 turns. I get incense from Hiawatha for many years, but always have to throw in a tech, and I didn't like doing that, especially when he gets too powerful.

In 1560 I attempt to plant a spy in Egypt and get DOW instead. Egypt in the meantime has taken all but three Viking cities. I take furs from Egypt and two neighboring cities and make peace in 1595.

Then I have to figure out what to do about Hiawatha. We've been great friends all game, but he's getting agressive, capturing the former Viking cities from Egypt and Egypt's oil sources. I'm afraid he'll end up with all of the rest of Egypt. So after an ivory deal runs out, I declare on Egypt (1710) and capture the southeastern herd of elephants. Cleo won't talk (I want to get a former Viking town or two for peace and return them to the Vikings). Then I raze three Egyptian cities and settle next to the single incense. Cleo continues to refuse to speak with me despite being down to four cities. Finally, in a single turn, I capture the last four Egyptian cities (1762), and gift them to the Vikings the next turn. Modern armor against at best 1 infantry (plus plenty of lesser units) per city is like a knife through butter....

Here is the minimap 106 years later, unchanged except for expanded culture borders.


Back to Shanghai
Shanghai is a beautiful city. Here she is the turn before she wins me the game.


Building things isn't all that exciting on paper; you can check out my save for all the details about what was built when.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

Nice work teammates Offa and Klarius.
I espescially liked Klarius's conquest pictures, must have been chaos on that continent once you were able to get there

Too bad i didn't get to play this.

 

[AlanH]

Also, I've tried uploading images but they never show up in the uploaded files list. Does anyone have an idea as to what's wrong?

That happens if they don't have the correct file extension on the image name. Make sure it's .jpg in lower case.

 

[AlanH]

Did anyone else NOT get a confirmation email? I submitted quite a few days ago(don't think it was quite a week, but it's been a while.) I'm on the list, but I forgot what my Jason score was. I remember it being very low(16something) but I'm not sure exactly what. If so, I've got the lowest 100k victory Jason score in GOTM history.

Your record shows Firaxis 3963 in 2029 AD for a Jason of 3194. Dunno why you didn't get an email. Your email on file is the same as your previous submissions and email deliveries are working OK, because I just submitted my own game and received one. Is your mail server overloaded? Is your spam filtering blocking it? Try submitting again if you want to test it, and I'll deal with the duplicate entry.

Also, while browsing GOTM results: Does the Green Ambulance on GOTM 25 look suspicious to anyone else? How can you have a Histograph loss in 1000 AD?

I've checked the save file for that entry, and it's from an Iroquois game, date 3950 BC! GOTM 25 was before my time, so I've no idea where the result came from. I can only assume the date is wrong and the original file has been lost, but I've no idea how to recover the data to check it that far back.

 

[Offa]

Also, while browsing GOTM results: Does the Green Ambulance on GOTM 25 look suspicious to anyone else? How can you have a Histograph loss in 1000 AD?

Curious you mention that. I actually sent a pm to the old regime re this back in Dec 03:

Offa wrote on Dec 18, 2003 12:50 PM:

Perusing the results, I was impressed by **** winning the coveted green ambulance after only 51 seconds of play, with a score of 9999. A special award should definitely be awarded for losing by histograph in 1000ad; even you would surely struggle to manage that. I loaded up the save game and got a start file from the wrong game.

Can it be that something has gone wrong?​

I was told that they would look into it, so no worries there.

 

[ControlFreak]

I have had two goals for this game, get a diplomatic victory and get it fast. At least one of those came true.

I realize now that I made a HUGE mistake going for alphabet at minimum rather than pottery at maximum. That severely delayed my ancient age growth, which affected my research rate.
On the bright side, I did build the pyramids and the great lighthouse. Both were a tremendous help to my game. The free granarys may have helped offset my initial slow growth. The Lighthouse sped my cartographers and helped my suicide attempts.

The meeting of the minds
My second suicide galley crossed the ocean (1 turn in jeopardy thanks to the Great Lighthouse) in 30BC. I was behind in tech to the Iroquois and didn't want to give up contacts so I did no trading. That worked out well because They traded by contact around. By 50AD I had either been introduced or bought (the now cheaper) contacts by trading world maps. Trades went like this:
Iroquois gives Poly and 19g for WM. Now Monarchy shows up.
Greece gives HBR and 15g for Republic (I wanted them to have a more productive government but could have sold Polytheism, Construction or Currency instead. We're now in the Middle ages and see that we're down by Monotheism and Feudalism as well as Monarchy and Literature. Every Western Civ has all four.
Gift Poly and Currency to Babylon (they have nothing to offer) and they get Engineering!
Gift Poly, Currency and Construction to Greece (they have nothing to offer) and they get Feudalism.
Japan gives Monotheism for WM and 351g.
Greece gives Feudalism for Monotheism
Aztec gives Literature, TM and 29g for WM.
Babylon gives Engineering for Monotheism, Literature, Feudalism, WM and 185g
Sell Engineering for:
Iroquois give Monarchy, WM and 123g
Japan gives WM and 361g
Aztec gives WM, 49g and 20gpt
Vikings give WM, 31g
Gift Engineering to Egypt.
Sell Monarchy to Babyon for WM and 185g
Gift Engineering and Literature to Greece. (They lack Monarchy still but I want them to switch to Republic. A quick check indicates they are in anarchy and all others are republic.)

I start on a bee-line to Economics at max.

Targeted Wars
Babylon - for the town on our island
In 540AD, I declared to take the babylonian town that had stolen our southern iron. They are still showing a bowman and spearman as the only defense and no harbor for uprades. Elite archers (from barb wars) kill the two defenders but no leaders. Babylon wont talk yet.
Babylon learns Chivalry while at war war with us. It's part of the peace negotiations.

Greece - for horses, saltpeter and trigger our GA
Greece declares war against Babylon also. Good for me because they're my next target. In 660AD, I catch them with their military in the south and raze Athens with Medieval Infantry (upgraded warriors) and Elite archers. I planted a new city on the coast, capture Delphi which has a harbor, and used an Athenian slave to colonize the horses. Some prebuilds are switched to riders and I start sending Riders by boat to the mountains above Thermopylae. For the next four frustrating turns, I lose 3 Riders and retreat 4 to a single veteran musket. I have cut the road to the saltpeter but they must have upgraded or built him just before my assault. Finally, they leave a longbow outside of town and my Golden Age starts. They sheilds mostly go towards infrastructure, but I build enough riders to reduce Greece to a single desert town.



Babylon - for coal, dyes, and to protect Greece.
I actually drove a boat load of workers to Egypt, connected one of their coals, gifted them steam power and then traded for coal to start railroading. The boat ride delayed rails by 5 turns, but was much quicker than waiting for Egypt to connect them herself or trying to stomp them out of Babylon. Later, Babylon broke a bunch of gpt deals to Declare War. I took the opportunity to raze Uruk for it's coal. I took everything on my side of the choke points, settled a town on each making a long canal through the island, just in case I needed to get boats through quickly. I razed Lagash with heavy artillery and cavalry to prevent a lot of cultural pressure on my newly founded towns. I also tried to drop four infantry on Babylon's rubber but they were slaugtered by four flawless infantry attacks. Who says infantry is better on defense?!?!?



Finishing the job
After settling for peace with Babylon, I just started researching and selling techs as fast as possible. Gifting to everyone who couldn't afford it. Overall, I didn't get a lot of help past the industrial age, but had good luck with the scientific civs. They got Steam and Medicine, Fission and Something else. I had enough time to learn Replaceable Parts, Atomic Theory, Corporation and Sanitation before grabbing Electronics and Radio with TOE (delayed two turns to let Sanitation finish). Steel took 6 turns, Refining 5, as my rushed hospitals and joined workers upped my science rate. The rest, including flight, were four. The AI Researched Nationalism, Espionage and Communism, thank you very much. I had gifted them up to combustion hoping they could research Flight while I did Mass Production and Motorized Transportation but no one succeeded.

Greece was gifted to the Modern Era and got Fission. Babylon got Computers. I dropped science to zero and bought Fission for 6900g and 1065gpt. My only leader I got capturing Delphi was pulled out of mothballs and rushed the UN. I don't bother with anything else and hit Shift-Enter. Amusingly, this turn is a ranking turn.




I'm told I'm mediocre, then asked if I want to hold elections. Greece and Egypt vote for Cleo. Babylon abstains as Egypt declared on the inter-turn. Japan, Scandinavia, Aztecia and China vote for me, err Mao. 5302 point victory in 1370AD = 7852 Jason. Not as fast or as dominating as I had hoped but at least I finished in time for submission this month!



As always, it's interesting to see how the AI's differ between other players games. In mine, my gifting kept the AI's pretty even until Egypt went on a rampage and wiped out the Iroquois in a very short period of time.

 

[Mistfit]

Game: GOTM 38
Date submitted: 2004-12-31
Reference number: 5788
Your name: Mistfit
Software Version: PtW 1.27f for Windows
Entry class: open
Game status: Diplomatic Victory for China
Game date: 1325 AD
Firaxis score: 6474
Jason score: 8940
Time played: 24:34:31

I knew I was going to be short of time in the comming weeks but I just wanted to mention how much fun I had with this game. I had some very timely Leaders and ended up getting my capital move to Babylon just as I was wiping him off of the map. This was an amazing map to have 2 cores on as I think I oonly had 2 fully corrupt town on the 1st 2 contenents. I burned through the MA and IA doing mostly 4 turn research (not flight or Radio these were 5). I sold all of the tech at every chance to gain gpt. In the IA I pretty well had a constant 3-5000 gold war chest gaining 3-700gpt dependant on research rate. I rushed everything in site but concentrated on Lib's and Uni's and then Banks. I kept 6-8 lux's at all times making everyone very happy. When I reached mid point through the IA the Aztec's got a big head and dropped off 2 Knights and declared war on me. I stayed at war with them for the rest of the game. I finally played a game that I was able to perfectly time my prebuilds (hoover's and the UN) Both completing the turn after the required tech.

Thanks to the staff for a fun game

 

[AlanH]

Predator

Ancient Age Spoiler

I had in mind another Conquest victory, target pre-1000 AD and 10K Jason. I'd quite like to get the hang of fast conquests

In 775 BC my fifth or sixth suicide galley made it to the Iroquois shores. They were already in the Middle Ages and up Philosphy, CoL, Polytheism, Currency and Construction, and they knew Egypt, Azteca, Japan and the Vikings. The only assets I had that they wanted were Literature, my maps and contact with the Greeks and Babylonians. I didn't want to trade my contacts if possible, in case I needed to use dastardly tactics locally and to keep the prices of my techs high. I used my now-standard approach, trading maps and techs first for one contact at a time plus cash plus maps, starting with the cheapest contact, to reduce the price of the rest. Once I knew them all and had a reasonable map I was able to trade around the two-fers, ending up with all the AA techs and a full world map. As I turned out to be the strongest civ on the F8 screen at this point, and I could see it would take a while to get to Navigation and pay them a visit, I then sold them all peace deals to clean out their treasuries. I started fast research to Republic at this point.

In 650 BC I completed my hand-built Forbidden Palace in Nanking S/S/W of Beijing.

Here's the world map at 490 BC:


By 480 BC we completed Republic, and I was ready to discuss the import of horses with Greece, at the points of 15 swords and 11 archers' arrows. Eight galleys were loaded up with my diplomats, we declared war on Greece and took Delphi in 470 BC and Athens in 430 BC. A harbour was rushed in Delphi as soon as the population leant to use chopsticks, and then we could build and re-export horses.

Key dates from then on:

420 BC: 6-turn anarchy and resumed business as a Republic in 300 BC.

230 BC: Captured Sparta and the Colossus.

190 BC: Captured Corinth, a Great Leader was born, adn we built a new Palace in Athens. Corruption reduced from 97 gpt to 66 gpt.

150 BC: Capture Pharsalos.

130 BC: One turn from completing Feudalism, but we can buy it from the Aztecs for a reasonable price to save a turn. We then buy Monotheism from the Iroquois using Feudalism and money, and sell it to Azteca for lots of gpt. We end up with 10 gpt net positive cash flow, plus 70 gold, plus the two techs. A good day at the office. We start on Chivalry flat out (8 turns).

90 BC: Raze Thermoylae and Knossos (pop 1, no culture).

10 BC: Greece's last city is behind Nippur, a Babylonian city, and I've decided to play clean, so I don't want a RoP. I declare was on Babylon and capture Nippur. Here's the state of the world:



50 AD: Raze Argos, surprisingly. It's been Greece's capital for 10 turns, has expanded due to the palace, but auto-razes Greece is no more.

50 AD: Discover Chivalry. Switch to one scientist research to pay for uprades. As Babylon houses the Great Library I figure we'll lean a few things when we get there.

70 AD: We start upgrading horses, and Egypt is destroyed by the Iroquois.

130 AD: Our first Rider sees action against a Bowman and we trigger our Golden Age. Now the cash flow can sustain a major upgrade program, and our production centers move into high gear on Rider production. After upgrades were complete we stepped up research again.

130 AD - 300 AD: Capture most of Babylon's cities, lose a couple to flips and recapture them.

300 AD: Capture Babylon itself, with the Great Library. It delivered Theology and Education, and then shut down. We won another Great Leader taking Akkad and moved our Palace again, to Babylon.

310 AD: We captured Ashur, Babylon's last city and they are gone.

330 AD: Beijing completed Leonardo's Workshop. Too late for horseman upgrades, but will come in handy when our galleys and riders are ready for upgrade.

340 AD: Forward planning. Established embassies with the other continental civs. Japan showed up as having no iron, therefore no Samurai. The other three all had both iron and horses. I decided Japan would probably be my next victim, providing silks as an immediately available and much-needed luxury, and a strong bridgehead for access to the rest of the continent. I could also attack them from both my production centres.

370 AD: Completed Gunpowder, started Astronomy.

380 AD: Vikings declared war on the Iroquois.

Here's what the world looked like at 390 AD, the turn when our Golden Age ended.



420 AD: Astronomy completed, started Navigation.

520 AD: Navigation completed, started Chemistry.
19 caravels had been loaded up with Riders and now that we can sail the ocean blue, they headed out from our west coast and from the ex-Babylon east coast. We can see that Japan and the Aztecs have no Saltpeter, so the plan is to take out Japan, then Aztecs, Iroquois and the Vikings.

530 AD: Declare war on Japan and land a substantial force on their eastern headland.

550 AD: Capture Edo with its silks. Give Astronomy to the Iroquois for RoP and an alliance against Japan. Give dyes, spices and Theology to teh Vikings for Incense and small change.

560 AD: Capture Osaka and Kyoto and Great Lighthouse.
570 AD: Nagoya, Satsuma, Nagasaki.
580 AD: Tokyo, Kagoshima, Nara
590 AD: Recapture Kyoto after a flip, capture Shimonseki.

600 AD: Japan is down to a couple of cities, and the Aztecs are wandering around in ex-Japanese territory. We ask them to kindly remove their troops and they obligingly declare war. We finish our business with Japan, taking their last two cities, and create a new Great Leader in the process. He builds an army and we load it up with a couple of Riders to provide some extra defence for our healing troops.

We then show the Aztecs we mean business by razing Chalco and killing several knights and other sundry wandering units. We achieve a major happiness boost from the elimination of Japan plus war happiness from the Aztec declaration.

610-620 AD: Take and raze several small Aztec towns. I'm concerned about flips and don't want to tie up Riders on garrison duty. We get another leader, and he builds the Sistine Chapel to deny the AI and to develop some local culture to try to combat Azteca's cultural supremacy. In retrospect I might have jumped the Palace again instead.

620 AD: We complete Metallurgy and start Military Tradition.

630 AD: Raze/capture more Aztec cities. Another Great Leader, and he build the Sistine Chapel to deny the AI and to build up a cultural defence against the Aztecs.

680 AD we complete Military Tradition. Research slowed from 4-turn pace as war weariness started to bite. Reduced research to 10% on Physics.

710 AD: Take Tenochtitlan with Sun Tzu, the Pyramids and the Hanging Gardens. We now have barracks everywhere and our riders can upgrade and heal at will, and the Gardens will help with war weariness. We also have ivory and our own source of incense to replace the VIking deal when we expire it.

730 AD: We now have all eight resources and the Aztecs are down to a couple of cities in the south. We investigate Salamanca an confirm they have only one source each of horses and iron. They have the Great Wall, so we need to be wary of their pikes even in small towns.

740 AD: A cunning plan is put into effect. We gift Chemistry and Metallurgy to the Iroquois and the walls come tumbling down as we obsolete the Great Wall. We declare war on the gracious Hiawatha, and capture four cities with our carefully placed troops. I enjoyed that



760 AD: The Aztecs finally destroyed after a few nasty flips.

780 AD: Capture the last two Iroquois cities and we are left with the Vikings. We move and heal troops for a few turns. The road system is pretty poor between the Iroquois lands and the Viking cities, so our cavalry need to get as far forwads as possible to keep the Galloglass's on their back feet.



810 AD: Declare war on the Vikings and take seven cities. Create another great Leader and build the Heroic Epic.

850 AD: We have eliminated all the Viking cities, but there are a couple of galleys floating off the west coast. We have completed Physics are researching Magnetism at 10%, so we turn research up to 100% to complete it in 3 more turns.

860 AD: We sink one of the galleys - wrong one. We chase the other one.

870 AD: We lose two caravels against the Viking galley - I'm convinced there's a defence bonus for the last unit standing in a Civ's last resting place. It's now sitting with 2 HP, waiting to be put out of its misery.

880 AD: We complete Magnetism and rush a couple of frigates.

890 AD: Our frigate sinks the galley and the Vikings are dead.

900 AD: Conquest Victory for the Chinese. Firaxis score 8094.

Things I did wrong:

- Probably should have exploited the isolation to perpetrate RoP rape on the Babylonians.

- Didn't build courthouses in Greece before jumping the Palace again, even though I knew that was my plan.

- Built the most expensive Colosseum in the world in Beijing when Babylon beat me to the Great Library by four turns. I'm still not sure why I was building it - I think I prefer to capture it. I don't even build Colosseums

- Didn't take on more than one civ at a time, so the whole of my army became focused on a single corner of the globe at the end, which is not very efficient. I finished up with 114 cavalry. I think the ideal conquest game would end with fewer units standing than you had at the peak, and with simultaneous destruction of multiple cities in different locations.

Fun game. I think I'll keep on trying fast conquest for a while until I get it right.

 

[solenoozerec]

Predator

As I replayed my final save file, Greece was destroyed in 30AD.

Next goal was Babylon.
War on Babylon started at 150 AD and first GL was produced at the same year. It was used to build a palace in Athens.
We entered GA at 290AD
In 400AD Babylon was finished.
We had no other goal.

After a number of suicidal galleys we established a contact with other civilizations.
Chinese army was strong. Spirit of Chinese people was even stronger.
Yet a next goal was unclear. Japan was close to the main land and weak, Aztecs were close to a large military force on former Babylonian land and very attractive: they had a number of very good wonders.
After reading GOTM37 spoilers, I have decided to try something that I never used before – ROP abuse.
Since we were not sure about next prey and we were not sure how bad our reputation will be after we do this once, we made ROP with both, Aztecs and Japan.
Troops from main land were transported mostly to Japan and troops from Babylonian land were sent to Aztecs territory. While transporting our troops we finally decided that Aztecs should be next. At the time of this decision a number of Chinese cavalry and riders landed on Aztecs territory and Chinese troops started movement from Japan to Aztecs territory.
The following came as a shock: Out of the blue Aztecs declared war on us!
And here come a question to expert ROP abusers: Can AI read the mind? (I mean can it predict ROP abuse based on troops movements or amount of units on their territory or something like that?) After all, in terms of civ diplomacy, Aztecs were abusers and our reputation was fine. But the plan to take all Aztecs cities in one turn was ruined. So at the beginning of the war we were razing Aztecs cities instead of taking them. As I mentioned they had many wonders and a solid culture. Anyway, war went fine and Aztecs were destroyed.
Japan did not declare war and we had enough time to position our military forces properly. Therefore, a war on Japan was painless.
Egypt declared war on us itself and we bought Iroquois and Vikings as allies (We never had any serious battles with Egypt, though). Therefore, our relations with Iroquois allowed making ROP with them. This was planed for third ROP abuse (or second taking into account that Aztecs were formal abusers).
It did not work well simply because we underestimated our enemy. As a result we had a long and painful war with a short peace in between and we hit domination mostly due to filling gapes in our territory at 1020AD with a Jason score slightly higher than 10K.
Not the best result, but is encouraging enough to become a predator forever

Below are minimap details:


One more thing that might be worth mentioning:
I have a bad habit of leaving my cities totally unprotected. Sometimes AI suddenly lands its units near my cities and I cannot protect them, even rushing units will take a turn, but it means that AI will take one or two of my cities. This is not a problem under Monarchy, but in Republic it means huge war weariness. In this game, I started to raze my own cities which were within one turn from enemy units.
I did it twice in this game and I was very happy with it as my people remained as happy as they used to be.
Below you can see ruins of two cities that were destroyed for this purpose.



Interestingly this tactic has many examples in the real history.

I think I'll keep on trying fast conquest for a while until I get it right.

What is your goal? - To collect more fastest conquest awards than anyone else?

 

[AlanH]

What is your goal? - To collect more fastest conquest awards than anyone else?

Not really, I'll be surprised if this one gets an award as I think I made too many mistakes. But I'm not even competing against the rest of the community right now, but against myself. I need to make way fewer mistakes before I'll be happy with my own performance, and if I keep swapping victory conditions I'll forget the lessons I've learnt. For example, this time I made much better use of explorers than I did in 37, and I improved my logistics management a bit, but I need to do more of that.

 

[Mistfit]

What did you use explorers for?

Pilliaging?

 

[AdrianE]

Civ1.29 on Mac - Open

Well I actually finished. Space race victory in 1600AD. That is not a bad date for Civ1.29.

When I last posted the Chinese republic had made peace with Greece (leaving them with a single city) and backwards Babylon circa 270AD. Horsemen were build and swords upgraded to MDI. We learned chivalry and upgraded to riders. In 430AD we declared war on the babylonians. Our advanced units shredded their ancient age bowmen getting many elite promotions. A leader gave us an army. Another gave us Copernicus' in 530AD and a third gave us a new palace in Samarra.

Babylon was wiped out in 690AD as therr is no reason in civ1.29 to keep two scientific civs around. I decided that I would persue the space race victory.

The Babylonian core was modernized with granaries and libraries and universities rushed as I could afford them. Two turns after I discovered steam power, the babylonian coal depleted. This really hurt my development as the other AIs did not have coal for sale or even hooked up. Ouch!

Meanwhile the AIs fought some wars with the Iroqouis reducing the Vikings to a single city.

I built Smiths by hand in 940AD, the ToE in 1080AD, Hoovers in 1265AD, US in 1270AD and the UN in 1380AD. I think I could have easily won Diplomatic victory in 1380.

I wiped out the Greeks in 1410 and got a leader who rushed the internet in 1425 on the Chinese island. That helped with a pile of free research labs. Trading techs let me run 4 turn research for the most part. Seti was constructed in 1440.

Modern age research went straight to Robotics in the hope that the AIs would research the other starter level modern techs. Of course they didn't. However it did let me build some real powerhouse cities with manufacturing plants, nuclear power plants and offshore platforms.

The space ship was launched in 1600AD with a score of 5696 firaxis, 7553 jason.

 

[AlanH]

What did you use explorers for?

Pilliaging?

Yes indeed. I took out the Aztec iron, horses and luxuries using them.

I also tried a couple of experiments, with them. I tried reducing population in the bigger cities by pillaging food bonus tiles and standing on them. This didn't really work, as I used too few, too late. Starvation needs time at one pop point per turn, and once cavalry are on the move you don't get much time before they are at the city gates. At that point I'd rather just hit the city than play a waiting game. Also, knights can jump out, kill the explorer and retreat back to safety, so the attrition rate is a bit high and doesn't do war weariness any good. I also used one or two to divert the attention of Viking Galloglasses who were threatening my stray cavalry, with mixed results. I think I may have saved one or two, but not enough to make a difference to the outcome.

I think part of my dissatisfaction with this game was the feeling that I had too much slack. If I'd jumped my palace to the other continent when I had a Great Leader, for example, my production rate would probably have been lower due to reduces population in that core, but it would have been in the right place, I had ready-made barracks and granaries from the captured Aztec wonders, and I may well have finished earlier with fewer excess units. As it is I was building units that couldn't achieve anything during the last ten to twenty turns. 114 cavalry at the end is insane!

 

[Xerol]

I might've just got it and deleted it and forgot I did, I'm not entirely sure. Thanks in either case, you obviously got the save so I'm done for this month.

As far as the mail server being overloaded, it's more like the mail user being overloaded. It's bound to get lost in the hundreds of emails I'm getting a day(probably soon to be thousands), and no, it's not spam(well 99% isn't). It's at times like these that yahoo's filters come in handy, and I think I'll set one up just for GOTM stuff.

 

[tao]

PREDATOR 1.29

First post is here. Ancient Age 4000BC - 670BC

We started the Middle Ages with 5 turns of anarchy before establishing the Chinese republic and heading towards a Space Victory.

In a funny beginning of the MA, the Iroquois tried to extort polytheism, we told them to shove it, they declared war, and we benefited from reverse war weariness; very handy.

War on Greece
450BC we traded for the Greek cash and map, donated them republic to push them into anarchy, and declared war. Babylon was an ally for some outdated AA tech. The war went slow because hoplites were darn hard to kill. Thus I side-stepped my tech path into researching chivalry, upgraded horses to riders, triggered the Golden Age, and destroyed Greece in 310AD.

War on Babylon
Same turn as removing Greece, the Babylonian war started. The first Great Leader built an army to enable Heroic Epic. This gave a nice stream of Leaders (from killing mostly bowmen with riders) for Magellan's, army, Palace move to Eridu, Sistine.
Then I made a short peace with Babylon 640AD to allow for some tech trades before they were destroyed in 660AD after giving another Leader to be saved for Smith's.

Middle Ages Research
I was able to trade for monotheism (Babylon's free tech), gunpowder, and chemistry while side-stepping to chivalry and afterwards heading for navigation. This allowed me to trade for luxuries and have my people always very happy without luxury tax.

660AD metallurgy was researched and Industrial Times started. By now, the AIs were backwards and still no contact between the new world and Babylon was made. Thus I could donate Babylon into the IA, trade with all the cash, gpt, luxuries, etc. I had for their free nationalism, and destroy the the same turn.

Industrial Age Research
With 2 cores, research was relatively fast. This Age, no optional techs were addressed. Steam required 6 turns, electricity and replaceable parts 5 turns each, all other techs were done in 4 turns.

War on Aztecs
To spend the idle times in the Industrial Age, war was made to the Aztecs and they were destroyed 1295AD. Japan was attacked next with the sole purpose to create Great Leader Kublai Khan for the future.

Modern Times Research
1320AD was a year well-timed. Radio was researched, Theory of Evolution was completed giving computer and miniaturization, and Kublai Khan hurried The Internet on the original home continent. The Babylonian core had some pre-builds for research labs. Thus all techs continued to come in at 4 turns.

1520AD robotics was learned, a pre-build was switched to stasis chamber, and the launch occured.

Firaxis 6882, Jason 8751

Ex post thoughts
I had to kill Babylon, because their culture was too strong and I did not want to have any flip risk. Thus it might have been better to keep a remote Greek town for their free Modern Times tech; this would have moved the launch to 1500AD.

Researching chivalry was "wasting" 4 turns, but allowed for fast capture of Babylon and establishing a strong second core. I don't think it slowed me down. And 4 turns on navigation allowed to get the new world luxuries and thus putting more commerce into research. And since i could trade for chemistry and banking, I also think it did not slow me down.

Thus the way to improve would have been a stronger Ancient Age with faster growth and research, especially when I look at some post in the First Spoiler.

PS: Diplomatic Victory would have been possible in 1320AD also.

 

[Tomoyo]

Mistfit: What happened to your Space Race?

 

[Mistfit]

I got bored with it and the prebuild for the UN worked out so nicely I decided to end it at diplo.

 

[solenoozerec]

The Aztecs finally destroyed after a few nasty flips.

Alan, if you are going for a fast conquest, why bother capturing Aztecs cities? Don’t you think that razing would be more efficient?

 

[AlanH]

Don’t you think that razing would be more efficient?

Yes, that's the collective wisdom, but ....

Pro razing:
- It liberates a few units because I don't have to guard for flips or to suppress resistance. But I had plenty of units and this maybe occupied half a dozen - less than 10%.

Anti razing
- It leaves me with empty land for barbs to roam.
- While I'm still fighting the AI they have equal speed over all roads in unclaimed territory.
- It reduces score.
- It reduces income because all those starving taxmen return gold per turn to my treasury.
- It increases unit support cost because I have fewer cities.
- It makes the others furious, and that may mean I don't get to choose when to start the next war.

I did actually raze four or five Aztec cities because that seems to be the accepted practice, and then I saw the effect on the Vikings, who immediately went from Annoyed to Furious, and I thought about it. The above balance sheet doesn't make a good case for razing, unless I'm missing something. Once I had defeated the Aztecs and suppressed the resistance I could cash rush cavalry in any Aztec city, and I continued to starve the cities and generate gpt from taxmen.