GOTM 39: Spoiler 1 - The Ancient Era, All Contacts

[WarriorPoet]

I'm dieing to talk about wars in the middle ages...and "ahem" our UU...

 

[Markus5]

I'm also waiting to talk about the Middle Ages. Its almost the end of the Industrial Age for me. I'm curious to see how I'm doing in comparison...

 

[Randy]

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[Sabre]

^^Can't wait to read that writeup.

 

[davidcrazy]

wow, randy, you eliminated zulu when you only had 1 city? that's something!

 

[bio_hazard]

I'm in awe. Tell me that wasn't on Predator!?

 

[solenoozerec]

I'm in awe. Tell me that wasn't on Predator!?

With two pikes for each civ?

 

[Randy]

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[SirPleb]

Randy, that's an amazing start! Do you have a turn log available? I'd enjoy being able to recreate your opening sequence.

 

[MikeH]

Excellent stuff Randy!

3400 BC: Met an Arabian scout, they won’t trade so we kill him.

I assume this is the 'Ultimate War-mongering' variant .

 

[davidcrazy]

it seems there're a few times that Randy managed to kill AI's settlers, sometime warrior vs. spearman. so it may require a little luck to reproduce that....

Randy, that's an amazing start! Do you have a turn log available? I'd enjoy being able to recreate your opening sequence.

 

[Randy]

@ SirPleb, yes kind of. I have dislexia so the spelling and detail are not the best.
The turn log does not tell the exact path any unit followed, only headed northish. Also the attack orders were not recorded (like first vet attack, then reg.) Sometimes I build cities and then attack but others I attack then build cities. I don't know if that has an effect on the RNG or not.

@ MikeH, My reel goal was to slow down contacts between the AIs. I broke a lot of deals but the north AIs and the South AIs didn't know each other. It was late in the AA before my rep was shot to hell with everyone.

@ davidcrazy, A lot of settlers had archers with them but some had spearmen and late in the AA the China settle had a swordsman. I got him with an elite warrior that was luck!

In short it would be hard to copy with my notes, but you should come close. I'll have the timeline with my QSC entry. I won't stop at 1000 BC instead I'll cut it off at 190 BC when I enter the MA.

 

[MOTH]

open class

No detailed log. I started with Worker to Game. I didn't see anything interesting so I went Settler to the West, saw a few hills and more forest and settled there.

I wanted to try something different, so I built a barracks, granary, archer (why?) and then built settlers and warriors for a while. After Iron and Horses were hooked up I built horses and settlers. It was quite disconcerting to sit by with 0 units while 4 AIs walked past with warriors - all they needed to do was step in and it would've been game over. I was able to trade for Pottery when the first AI walked by.

My first settler went out blind to settle a new spot. I had a road past the game so that is where I went. I saw the flood plains and settled on the river at ring 5. I just missed the FP Wheat and just missed the Plains wheat. This city built a barracks and then settlers and warriors just like the first city. My 2nd settler built city #3 closer than I wanted as the Zulu settled just outside the location I wanted. I went about rushing a temple as soon as I could to get the city radius to extend right next to the Zulu city. City #4 was settled to use the FP Wheat. City #5 was settled in the south by the lake to get spices in the jungle/forest area.

Initial research was IW on minimum. An AI had it a few turns before me and wouldn't sell it cheaply enough. IW was enough for me to trade broker some techs and I got HBR as part of the round.

First Zulu war:
I upgraded most of my warriors and attacked the Zulu with them and my two horses. I picked up a couple slaves on the first turn. I autorazed the city close to my #3 and got an Archer promotion to redlined Elite. I think it had just pop-rushed something as the size dropped from 2 to 1 on the IBT. I think the pop-rush unhappiness had moved to Zimbabwe which was next on my target list. I was able to get this and got 2 more Elites. During the IBT the Arabs tried to extort me and I refused. They declared war. I sued for Peace with Zulu for a city in the North by the cow and plains wheat and whatever techs I was missing. This left the Zulu with 3 cities, one of which was all jungle. Shortly after peace they settled a 4th city.

I started a minimum run to Currency at this time. Once again the AI beat me to this by a couple of turns.

1st Arab war:
I signed on the Ottomans and Celts in MA's vs Arabia . I had a few more horses and the last of my warriors had been upgraded to Swords. My Elite Archer was also back to Berlin as MP. There was one Arabian city adjacent to my capitol expanded borders that I quickly auto-razed. I also sent my units deeper into Arabia. I think I captured a city and auto-razed another. I captured Mecca. This took about 20 turns and I cancelled the remaining MA and sued for peace. I once again got a City and some missing techs and a few more Elite horses. Arabia was left with 3 cities.

The techs included the last I needed to enter the MA. I got Monotheism. So did every single Scientific AI. The wonder cascade happened soon and all the AA wonders were soon built. England had the Pyramids and the Celts have the GL.

2nd Zulu war. This didn't last long. I took out 2 cities on the first turn (I captued, I auto-razed). I made an attempt on their coastal hill city and 2 horses died and 1 retreated. An Elite Sword had killed 1 spear. I sent the Sword to the South to the jungle city and regather forces for a second attempt. It went much better and the Zulu were gone.

I prepared for the first English war. Everyone had Monarchy and England had Republic but wouldn't trade it. The first turn of the war I took 2 English cities and captured 2 settlers and a couple other slaves. The Asian contacts finally became available IBT. They had also gotten Monotheism. Still England was the only Republic. Turn 2 saw London and the Pyramids fall. Turn 3 saw 2 more cities captured. Turn 5 saw England's last continental city (a hill town) captured and the appearance of my first (only so far) Great Leader. I sued for peace and got Republic and everything else England had. They now had 1 city on an Island.

I traded Republic to the Americans for Fuedalism (which had just become available). I then traded it to the Celts (owners of the GL) for some GPT and their cash. 3 turns later I had setup pop-rushes in many towns to build Libraries and/or Temples and I revolted in 10BC. I got a 6 turn Anarchy when I will re-emerge as a Republic. My FP is still being hand built and will finish 5 turns after I emerge from anarchy.

Future plans:
0. Build my Palace in England's old lands (Nicely setup with RCP 5) as soon as the FP is built in my old core.
1. take out Ottomans.
2. capture Great Library and take out Celts.
3. Build or capture a Miltary Wonder.
4. Build another wonder if needed to trigger GA.
5. Take out Rome, Greece, and America.

I will keep Arabia around for a while so that I can get the reverse WW when needed.

 

[ControlFreak]

Sounds like a lot of good games going so far. Randy especially with his ultra-fast conquest program.

My game is unfortunately mired by lack of thought, missed opportunities and general apathy.

I had started with the intention of going for Domination. My last game (Diplomatic) suffered in score because of a failure to gain territory early on. I hoped that by striving toward domination, I could learn to improve on my ancient age agressiveness. As it turns out, I have a lot to learn.

I'm writing this off the top of my head so don't sue me for accuracy later.

Opening Moves
I settled in place (I really hate moving unless there's an obvious benefit.)
The worker mined one river grassland before moving to chop the deer.
I think my build order was warrior,warrior,granary,worker, warrior, settler.

Having the extra worker helped get berlin improved ahead of growth.

A barb got in my way so instead of going N to the FP-Wheat, I went E to the Bonus Grassland. Couldn't get to the extra food up north with R3 spacing and thought R5 would be too far on a crowded Panagea. I was therefore stuck with R4 which, per Sir Pleb's accurate assessment, was not optimal. All but one of my inner core cities need an aquaduct. That was very poor planning and will slow me down as I try to build more expensive units.

Tech
Having been burnt last GOTM with no pottery, I researched that at max. I ended up trading for it anyway but the gold spent was not wasted. I then tried a bunch of unsuccessful minimum science gambits. These Monarchy civs are researching faster than the civs last Month. The tech was led by the Zulu but everyone had their own monopoly tech in the ancient age and the owner usually got their own two-fer. Very impressive trading for the AI.

I did get Literature first but am going for the Great Library so didn't trade it. I did used it to rush librarys in any captured town with 4 or more foreigners.

War
I knew that I wanted to, what's the word...foment?... wars between the AI's. The starting locations looke strong for Greece, Rome, Zulu and England. When Iron working became available, Rome and Zulu both got it first and had Iron hooked up. I had been saving gold not researching hard. I formed some embassies and got a three man dogpile on Rome: Greece, America and Zulu. America had been in the tech forefront and I didn't want them to get ahead. Greece, Zulu and Rome all had their AA UUs available so I hoped they would spend the GA in despotism, while all their sheild investments depleted in even combat. The plan worked well. They were evenly matched opponents, only one city was razed and all three rushed their citizens to oblivion during their GA. All three civs honored our agreement for the full twenty turns and Greece and America continue their war on Rome. This let me engage the northern part of the continent without fear of a back stabbing.

With horses hooked up so early (I had roaded that tile before the Wheel, just to get to the BGs) that I started making chariots in mass. Every town except the FP-Wheat Frankfurt made a worker, a barrack, and then chariots. With that said, I only got about 8 made.

None of the northern Civs had iron readily available. I prioritized my victims by how close they were to getting iron.

1. The ottomans were reduced to one city by my chariots and ensuing peace treaty (grabbed one or two remaining towns.) A barrack was rushed with Ottoman citizens lives and used to upgrade the non elite chariots to horsemen.
2. The Arabs were next, having Iron in there borders but not connected. Horsemen drove them down to what I thought was one town and their capital. I settled for peace and realized they had settlers on galleys as two more towns showed up in the next few turns (Island to the NW). A leader was created during the war that built the pyramids in an arab town to help my culture. (In retrospect, I should have moved the leader closer to home to work on a 20k potential city. Having not done that, I am crossing that victory off of my potential list.)
3. Ottomans eliminated after peace expired.
4. England was next having settled the Horse/Iron town north of the floodplains but not yet connecting it to their capital. I must have missed an iron source because I saw swordsmen as I neared London. I took town towns from them and settled for currency and put myself in the next age. I did not gain wines but traded for them with several luxuries and 8gpt.
5. All along I had been saving horsemen in the south for the Zulu. When I got to 6 horses, I noticed a stream of yellow swords heading toward Greece (so I thought) They would have kept heading that way if I hadn't killed the barb camp they were after. So instead of declaring on Greece, their swords turned around and "patrolled" the Zulu city on my southern border. I did a lot of defensive shuffling to prepare for that onslaught. When I had 8 horses, I delcared and promptly lost two veteran horses and an elite chariot to the impi settler pair in my lands. A third horse (last remaining from the English attack) finally killed the little bugger.
   
   I was shaking in my boots now with the 8 horse stack approaching Zimbabwe, but the RNG evened itself out and we took their capital and the Oracle with 5/8 horses remaining.

The Other Continent
During the Zulu war, a Chinese galley made the crossing and ended up inside the borders of my ex-Arab town that we got through the peace treaty. We were ahead so I traded some old techs for contacts and maps. Then I sold contact for Republic (I thought I had also gotten Monarchy but appearantly never closed the deal. Next turn was too late and contacts were everywhere.)

Near Future
The leader-rushed Pyramids were well timed and many civs lost a lot of shields. The Zulu had already gotten the Oracle and Literature was not know so except for the English Great Lighthouse, there was no cascade. I should self build the GLib in 6 more turns (~10AD). I am undecided if I want to attempt Sun Tsu's or just build units and capture it. I need to build my FP soon as it has already been too long delayed.

I got feudalism and greece got engineering. I haven't gifted Korea up yet as I'm trying to keep the tech pace slow. I was going to head for knights but if others get feudalism soon, I will beeline to Cavalry instead.

I also need to revolt to a better govenment but am waiting for the GLib to finish. I should have done the revolt and FP earlier. Learning, learning, learning.

Good luck all.

{If I get time, I comeback and edit in dates and screenies.}

 

[SirPleb]

My game is unfortunately mired by lack of thought, missed opportunities and general apathy.

Not a chance! You are off to a great start and your writeup is very enjoyable too.

I like your thinking on fomenting the early war on Rome. Very nice for keeping a lot of the AIs busy. And meshing that with sequencing the opponents based on iron - , that's a thing of beauty.

 

[Randy]

QSC score questions.

1) Let's say a War-monger kills off 4 of the AI before 1000 BC. Do you still get some points for contact?

2) Let's say that same War-monger has capitured 7 of his 16 cities by 1000 BC. Do you get the same amount of points for those cities and people?

 

[ainwood]

QSC score questions.

1) Let's say a War-monger kills off 4 of the AI before 1000 BC. Do you still get some points for contact?

2) Let's say that same War-monger has capitured 7 of his 16 cities by 1000 BC. Do you get the same amount of points for those cities and people?

Yes, and yes.

 

[Randy]

Wow, that was a fast answer. Thanks Ainwood.

 

[StrictlyRockers]

A very impressive game Randy! I will enjoy reading whatever details you will post on this one. This was some rare luck, and you did a great job capitalizing on it!

 

[ControlFreak]

Not a chance! You are off to a great start and your writeup is very enjoyable too.

I like your thinking on fomenting the early war on Rome. Very nice for keeping a lot of the AIs busy. And meshing that with sequencing the opponents based on iron - , that's a thing of beauty.

Thank you for your kind words. I will approach the remainder of my game with more enthusiasm!

BTW, The word "Foment" is one of the MANY things I have learned from you SirPleb.