GOTM 40 Final Spoiler - end game submitted

[ainwood]

GOTM 40: Final Spoiler:

By popular demand (well, because I was PM'd about it ) here is the final spoiler for GOTM 40: You need to have completed your game and submitted to read it, or at least have reached the modern age.

Did the mighty Greek empire span the globe in a way that Alexander could only dream of?

Here's you chance to tell us how you closed-out your game.

As always, please refrain from posting screenshots showing modern-age resources.

 

[MOTH]

open class. Ended in a Diplomatic victory in 1660AD (I think that was the year)

I spent most of this age doing 4 turn research with the AIs about a half age behind me. I researched no optional techs after Republic. I got a few via trading with the AI.

I got my one leader during this age and used him to rush Women's Suffrage to stop the little but on wonder cascades just in case the AI got to Scientific Method. I had 2 Wonder builds going on at the time I entered the modern age. ToE complete the turn after I entered and gave me Fission and something else. My Palace pre-build was timed a bit worse and it took several turns before it completed. Everyone except Persia (and Egypt and Babylon who were dead) voted for me with no manipulation of their attitudes.

Warfare: During the Industrial Age I wiped out Babylon using first Knights and MI and during the second part of the war Tanks and Cavs (that went pretty fast).

I spent some time shipping large numbers of units with little defense to Persia. They would usually die the same turn or a turn later but Persia would lose huge numbers of Knights and Cavs attacking my tanks.

 

[Lance]

Vanilla Civ, 20k Culture in Athens.

So, I finished the game without fighting a single fight with any unit of another civ. Actually, I didn't do much anyting after the earlier spoiler. That is, after I completed Newton's in 1385AD.

After Newton's I started to build Universal Suffrage, but lost it by few turns and had to build factory instead. (not having the possibility to use palace, as it was in Athens) Next was ToE 1645AD and then Hoover Dam in 1710AD. At this point I noticed, that it was no use for me to reach for MA wonders, I stopped research and just sailed through the game until 1834AD, when the world suddenly noticed that they would be much better just bowing towards Athens.

Single city cultural 20k victory 1834AD
Firaxis score 1197
Jason score 3375

I'm feeling very confident about getting the shield for this one. It would suit nicely next to the green ambulance I had three months ago.

 

[Markus5]

85% class. Unedited notes...

4000bc Move Settler N. Start mine and road.
3400bc Pottery complete. Writing started.
2750bc Sparta founded. Building Colossus for now.
1990bc Writing complete. Map Making started.
1830bc Thermopyle founded.
1425bc Corinth founded.
1275bc Sparta completes Colossus.
1225bc Map Making complete. Iron Working started. Sparta is building a galley.
1100bc Galley complete. Loaded with settler and warrior. Heads SE. Build on wine island?
1050bc Iron Working complete. Start Philosophy. Head for Republic. Iron on another island.
1000bc Save game. A ring of island cities. Get to mainland ASAP. Wandering galley needs to settle.
950bc Delphi founded on wine island.
925bc First sign of the raging barbarians. 4 galleys.
825bc Pharsalos founded on larger eastern island. Barbarian village on the island.
730bc The barbarian islands!
650bc Knossos founded on larger eastern island. Barbarian village has needed gold.
630bc Code of Laws complete. Republic started.
Various. Building island cities. Sending extra galleys exploring.
390bc Lost 2 galleys in treacherous waters.
330bc Lost another galley.
190bc Republic. Revolt? Not much point. Research C. Burial. Revolted anyway.
170bc Still anarchy.
150bc Still anarchy.
130bc Still anarchy.
110bc Republic.
90bc Galley reaches land to the west.
70bc And the galley was lost. But, Persia can be contacted. Not much to trade. World map for C. Burial + 12g.
90ad Lost another galley. Still researching the early techs.
110ad Lost another galley.
260ad Lost another galley.
340ad Lost another galley.
360ad Lost another galley.
400ad Lost another galley.
420ad Lost two more galleys.
430ad Persians demand tribute. Get bent I say. They declare war. Hmmph. Try to cross the pond. Barbarian galleys are massing in the west.
440ad Lost two more galleys. Save game.
460ad Lost two more galleys. Only two galleys have gone more than 2 turns (6 moves) into the pond.
470ad Two more galleys in the pond. One has made it 6 moves. Think it gets lost?
480ad Ha! Both galleys lost.
510ad Another galley lost. Time to stop sending suicide galleys? I think I should have built the Great Lighthouse.
610ad Hallelujah. A galley has reached the shores of Persia. We are still at war with them.
620ad Lost another galley in the east. Explore the coast of Persia.
660ad Contacted NeoCarthage. Behind on tech. Nothing to offer in trade except maps. Another Civ is next door. Lets visit them.
680ad Rome. At last. I can trade a tech. Hmmph. Monotheism for contact with Arabs + World Map + 1g. Finally trade Monotheism + World Map for Engineering + Territory Map. Wow. I was just one or two moves from Rome going east from home. I need to see where Arabia is. Trade World Map to NeoCarthage for contact. Arabs are a bit behind on tech. But, they don't deal much.
890ad Lots of trades to catch up on tech. War is over. Might even be able to take a run at a couple of wonders. Astronomy in 3.
900ad With a world map, its pretty clear where the other continent is. The galley exploring the first continent will take a run at it.
920ad Persians demanded Astronomy. Get bent. They declared war. Again. Still no easy way for them to get to me. I'm still wondering why the raging barbarians haven't loaded up their galleys with horsemen and invaded. Maybe they don't do that.
970ad Galley lost looking for second continent.
1020ad War ends. Traded peace + banking for peace + chivalry + gunpowder + 40g + 15gpt + world map. Economics in 3 turns. Building Cop. Obs. as pre-build for Smiths. Traded Banking for 60g + 35gpt to NeoCarthage.
1070ad Lost caravel.
1150ad Democracy learned. Revolt soon. Research is blazing fast. But I have no really productive cities, so wonder building will require pre-builds. Persians have a sea route and can trade. Other Civs, too. War across the pond is possible.
1180ad Ok, the other continent has shown up. Contact wth Egypt. Some trading for Zulu and Babylon contacts. Hope I didn't pay too much. I can't believe how close I was with all my ships. One more turn would have gotten me there.
1260ad Great. Civ3 hung. Restart from autosave. Still hangs. Reboot PC. Still hangs. Try previous autosave.
1265ad I had to go back 4 autosaves to get one that was OK. I tried to play the same moves. Persians demanded Economics. I declined. They declared war again. I wonder if they'll make it across the pond and past the raging barbarian galleys.
1275ad Persian galley arrives. Seems confused. Not many places to put ashore.
1295ad Thank you barbarians. Followed me right to the Persian galley. I'm 6 away from Smith's. 21 away from Newton's.
1315ad Nationalism. Industrial Age. Smith's in 2. Newton's in 17. Still Republic. After Smith's, revolt to Democracy. Save game.
1420ad Newton's complete. Golden age. Shoot for the Theory of Evolution - Hoover Dam.
1465ad ToE in 18. Industrialization in 5, then Replacable Parts and then Sanitation if there is enough time before ToE finishes. Then Atomic Theory and Electronics for ToE bonuses.
1485ad Industrialization. Replacable Parts in 6. ToE in 13.
1510ad Replacable Parts. ToE in 8. Sanitation in 4.
1515ad Golden Age has ended.
1525ad Using Universal Suff as pre-build for Hoover. Or, I might let it build to completion. Rubber is on an island without a city.
1525ad Build Rhodes on rubber island. Rush harbor in a few turns when the cost goes down.
1550ad Corporation in 2. ToE in 2. Which is first?
1560ad Finished Corp. ToE gives Atomic Theory and Electronics. Univ Suff changed to Hoover. Hoover Dam in 19. Rhodes' harbor rushed.
1565ad Upgraded riflemen to infantry.
1570ad Save game.
1650ad Hoover Dam. Persia has wiped out the Arabs and the Romans. NeoCarthage looks next.
1730ad NeoCarthage is holding on. Just completed Motorized Trans. I have a nice small fleet of destroyers, ironclads, and frigates. I have a galleon and a couple of transports to move units across the water. Save game. No picture.
1735ad Building Ports of entry in cities with lots of water production. Should have them done soon.
1745ad Beginning to upgrade warriors and swordsmen to militia. Its just money.
1766ad Modern Age. Rocketry freebe. Fission in 14. Persia wiped out the NeoC a few turns back. They aren't agressive to me yet. But, its harder to get a good deal. I need oil to build more ships and tanks, if I need them. For now, infantry and militia to guard. A few tanks for attack if necessary. Several destroyers and a couple of transports. Some older ironclads and frigages. Aluminum in two cities. With uranium I can go for spaceship. Build the UN and vote. That's possible, too. Save game.
1778ad Persia wants to deal. Just traded Radio for 107gpt + 340g + 3xLux + Oil. Fission in 8. Save Game.
1792ad UN in 14. Manhatten in 20. Space Flight in 8.
1800ad UN in 10. Manhatten in 16. Space Flight in 4. When the UN is almost done, trade fission. Persia has computers. We are pacing each other for tech. Trace space as soon as its done, if Persia has the right deal.
1804ad Persia has shown up with a couple of old-time ships. Exploring or what?
1806ad Persia landed a cavalry army. Not much of an invasion. I'll wait to see what they do. Mutual Protection with Egypt? Egypt has caught up on tech, but they are warring with Zulu. Do I want to get in the middle of that? Probably can't get hurt by the Zulu. Do it.
1808ad Persia declared war. Egypt declares on Persia. Babylon declares on Persia. We declare on Zulu because of Mutual Protection. Cavalry army easily defeated. Sank a couple of ships. Lost an ironclad foolishly. Rushed two destroyers. Can only build nuke subs.
1820ad UN in 1 turn. Egypt is gracious. Bribed Babylon and they are gracious, too.
1822ad Diplomatic victory. Final score 1485.

 

[denyd]

Alexander the peaceful sat on his verandah thinking calm thoughts about the world, his over five thousand year reign had on a single blip of aggression, that by the foolish Persians who were without a method to reach him when they declared. That phony war had ended quietly and the way of peace continued. Word from his friend Hannibal had come that a glorious new Cathedral had been constructed in Hippo and at the upcoming trading conference that Alexander sponsored, he was sure to congratulate his friend on the excellent achievement. The conference provided a wonderful opportunity for Alexander to share of the knowledge his scientists had discovered for both gold and luxuries from the other nations. With the discovery of replaceable parts in 1360 AD, Alexander breathed easier. His new infantrymen were quickly trained and deployed and finally he felt secure in being able to defend his cities from the potential Persian menace. A rebuff of Xerxes ended peacefully to Alexander’s surprise and with the completion of Magellan’s Voyage in Sparta and Smith’s Trading Post in Athens, the Golden Age of Greece came to an end in 1420 AD. More delightful news as his friend Julius announced the opening of a wondrous new theater in Rome and Alexander send wines to Caesar to help with the celebration (for a small sum of gold of course). The 100 year anniversary of his inaugural trading conference provided Alexander the excuse to invite all of his friends to another one. Again the knowledge of Greece was traded for luxuries and gold of his friends.

With the completion of the Universal Suffrage in Sparta and the Theory of Evolution in Athens, Alexander was so please he for the final time invited his friends to a trading convention. Once again the knowledge of Greece was dealt for luxuries and gold, gold that would again be used to finance more research. Troubling news from the southeast Babylon and the Zulu were and war and Egypt & Carthage had joined Babylon in Hammurabi’s crusade against Shaka. Just when things were beginning to calm down (Egypt & Babylon had signed peace), Persia joins Shaka against Carthage. With the discovery of Motorized Transportation, Alexander led his people into the Modern Age (getting Ecology). With his time on the planet Alexander was determined to once more see his world at peace. To that end, he began gifting technologies to the warring parties hoping they would see the way to peace. Finally, Persia and Carthage (the last warring parties) exchanged technologies and signed peace. As the 1750 AD mark was hit, Fission was discovered by Greek scientists and the final project of Alexander’s reign neared completion. Feeling particularly generous, Alexander once again called his friends together to let them share in the wealth of his discoveries. With the new technologies and gold his friends happily traded and were happy to deal new discoveries back to Alexander.

In 1766 AD at the completion of the United Nations in Athens, Alexander sat with the leaders of the other nations and to determine the new leader of the world. Xerxes (his expected opponent) had blustered long about the need for strength and power and Alexander’s platform was that of peace and prosperity. As each of the leaders rose to cast their vote Alexander’s heart pounded in his chest. Would they choose peace and prosperity over strength and power?

Xerxes went first and voted as expected for Xerxes and Alexander stood and cast his ballot for himself. The preliminaries were over, Cleopatra stood and voted Alexander, followed by Hannibal for Alexander, Caesar for Alexander, though it was no longer necessary Shaka for Alexander and though Abu Bakr for Alexander and then Hammurabi for Alexander. A landslide had chosen the way of peace. Alexander stood thanking his friends for their confidence and belief in him. He knew his work was now done. As he reached his quarters after the celebration that night, the messenger from Mursilis was waiting with the information on his return to Alpha Centauri. With sadness, he packed a bag and left for the departure point.

(Editors note: Diplomatic Victory in 1766 AD – Firaxis score 1596 – Jason score: 4509

 

[Redbad]

When entering the Middle Ages around 500 BC, I had made some plans:
Firstly let the Babs take over the Egyptian lands and secondly establish a second core in the Persian lands. None of these plans did materialise.

I had setup a war between the Egyptians on the one side and the Greeks, Babs and Zulu on the other side. The Greek however had no intention of actively going to war, but expected the Babs and Zulu to do the fighting. Somehow I think the Babs and Zulu must have had similar expectations and relied on the Greeks to do the fighting. So noting much happened. Iirc only one Bab-city fell to the Egyptians before the wars ended.

With regard to my intended second core on the Persian lands: I founded Argos in 410 BC on the Persian coast and started to bring in troops. I tried to cultural steal the horses from nearby Pasargadae. But one turn before the intended founding of Ephesus next to horse, Pasargadae’s culture expanded and Ephesus had to be founded one tile further away in 370 AD with no chance of culturally stealing the horse.
Despite of having shipped in quite a lot of MI’s I never had the impression I could take on the Persians. And when Persia became the one civ that would give ever increasing amounts of gold per turn for techs, I abanded the idea of conquering a second core there. However Bactra defected to Greece around 650 AD and the FP was hand-build in Argos in 860 AD. So it did contribute to the science build up.

On the research-front things got along nicely.
After building the Colossus in 1550BC and G-light in 650BC, Copernicus was build in 410 AD, Newton in 660 AD, Adam S. in 1070 and ToE in 1360.
I only researched mandatory-techs and could trade for invention. When entering the Industrial Age I got a free Medicine and after gifting the Babs they got Steam, which I could trade for. So there was no reason to further the Persian into the IA.

As I said the Persians were the only civ able (or willing) to pay gold per turn for techs. It started at some 30 gpt and ended at 70 to 80 gpt for techs. This made it possible to spent 100% tax on lux en science. I could trade for 3 luxuries with the Romans and Arabs. This enabled a lux/science-ratio of 10/90. The ZEB-civs never bothered to build a harbour I suppose, because I was never able to trade for their lux.

With ToE I grabbed the last mandatory IA-tech and got , being scientific, a free Computers. The second ToE-tech was ofcourse Fission. My prebuild needed another four turns to finish UN.
It was obvious that Persia would be my opponent in the vote. In the last turn I dow Persia and ma all against them. The Romans who sneaked me twice in the past abstained, Persia voted for himself, all the others voted for the Greeks.

1385 diplo victory for Greece, firaxis 2640, jason 7099.

 

[Redbad]

Single city cultural 20k victory 1834AD
Firaxis score 1197
Jason score 3375

I'm feeling very confident about getting the shield for this one. It would suit nicely next to the green ambulance I had three months ago.

I wouldn't be surprised if you scored quite high on this one

 

[eldar]

PtW, Open

I entered the Industrial Age in 1200AD, still at war with Babylon, and still waiting for a leader to move my Palace. I would have to wait a little longer, but not by much.

In 1255, I captured the Babylonian island town of Shurrupak, generating my first, and only great leader of the game. He was shipped to the former Egyptian city of Heliopolis, which already had a partial ring-5 core of cities around it (most of them built by two different AIs as well - not bad placement ) Moving two more former Egyptian cities would give me 7 cities in that ring. Ring 8 was also fairly well populated. In 1295, Helipolis became my new capital, with my original lands maintaining their productivity thanks to the Forbidden Palace in Thermopylae.

I declared war on the Zulu in 1270, and easily overran their defenders - still mainly Impi - with my Cavalry. They fell in ten turns, it might have been a little quicker but I was leader-fishing; no luck, though.

In 1310, Athens completed Newton's Univertisy, and I entered my belated, and entirely pointless, Golden Age. I spent half of it moving troops and ships for my overseas invasion. I built Magellan's in Athens to speed my Naval movement - essential for the long trips my boats had to take.

My initial target was Carthage. I had ongoing deals with Persia, Rome, and Arabia; and the city of Carthage itself had some nice Wonders.

In 1360 (a turn after the former Babylonian city of Ellipi flipped - that'll teach me to starve the natives!), I declared on Carthage and landed a sizeable force on his beaches. The following turn, I captured Oea and Hippo. In the inter-turn, it all went belly up....

The years 1365 to 1390 were fun. Persia clearly didn't like me tearing up on their turf, so they sneak-attacked me. I lost Hippo and lots of troops. Next turn, Hippo was taken back, plus I captured Hamadan, a Persian enclave on the other side of Oea.

Persia re-took Hippo, and then Oea, and advanced on Hamadan. I was down to a handful of units, and as well as their Cavalry, there was also an Army of Immortals. The final defence of Hamadan was desperate: my final unit (I don't remember if it was red-lined or not) took out the last Persian attacker. A Galleon-full of Cavalry arrived to save the day, I re-took Oea, signed peace with Carthage, and held tight, waiting for more reinforcements to arrive.

A brief landing in Eastern Persia saw me raze one city, before the four Cavalry that landed were cleaned up. I proceeded to raze Hippo, but probably stayed at war with Persia a little too long. Peace was signed in 1460, by which time my presence had strengthened.

That same turn, I re-delcared on Babylon and took their final two cities.

A turn later, I delcared on Rome, and quickly took their final two cities, one of which had a luxury (Furs).

War with Arabia followed in 1490, and they were quickly despatched.

A final campaign against Carthage saw me capture two cities, and hold until border expansions gave me a domination win in 1585.

I wasn't terribly happy with the date. The timing of my initial invasion of Egypt was off, I should've planned better for my strike at the other continent (which I should've looked for earlier, too) by making sure I had no deals with the weakest Civs (Rome and Arabia). Attacking both of those simultaneously, then crushing Carthage, would've been a neater way of rounding the game off.

Firaxis 2718, Jason 6645.

Neil.

 

[Methos]

PtW Open Class
Victory: Space Race 1908
Firaxis score: 1408
Jason score: 2970

First off I would like to state that this is the first time I have ever won on the Regent level! This was only my 3rd attempt on Regent (the first I lost horribly and the second I never finished).

Ever since the Middle Ages I had gained the tech lead and kept it, typically selling techs for gpt and keeping my research as high as possible. The only time this failed me was when Persia built the ToE. Luckily their research was so poor that once I blew past those two techs I was back in the money.

Didn’t get involved in a war until the Industrial Ages due to a lack of oil. Ended up declaring on the Zulu, though the turn before my declaration the Persians also declared on them. I invited the Babylonians while the Persians invited the Carthagians who invited the Egyptians. Nonetheless the Zulu didn’t last long.

Towards the end of the Industrial Age the Persians declared on me though their invasion force was very minimal. They took one of my former Zulu cities killing off a single unit. Knowing I couldn’t survive fighting them alone I invited every civ to join my cause. Until the end of the war I don’t recall any other invasion forces from the Persians. BTW this was one of those wars where nothing really happened to the very end, basically a standstill.

Since I didn’t have much of an invasion force myself I just sent over Carriers and Battleships to bomb their resources and never actually took anything. Towards the end of the war when everyone started backing out Persian destroyed Arabia. For some reason Carthage eventually declared on Persia again and got themselves destroyed. I stayed friends with them luckily.

Since I was going for a Space Race I didn’t wish to involve myself in any type of war if possible so from this point on I stayed out of any conflict.

I was six turns away from finishing the UN when the Persians built it. Afraid I was going to lose to an UN election I bribed everyone with either gold or techs. Amazingly an UN vote was not called. I figure Persia realized their rep was horrible with everyone so decided against it.

By the time I remembered to attempt to place a spy in the other civs nukes were available. Fearing a possible war I didn’t bother. Watching my cities very closely going for a quick build I managed to launch the Space Shuttle in 1908 AD.

Once again I must state this is my first ever win on Regent level as well as obviously my first win in a XOTM! I compared my Jason score with GOTM 38 & 39 and figure I’ll be somewhere in the 80’s or 90’s, but hey, at least I won. With any luck maybe I’ll slowly work my way forward.

By popular demand (well, because I was PM'd about it )

Sorry about that. I guess I was just a little excited.

 

[ainwood]

Sorry about that. I guess I was just a little excited.

Not at all - I appreciated it.

 

[Denniz]

[PTW] - Open

MA Spoiler

I had established some cities in the jungles with the Zulu. I was planning on going after them first but Eygpt had her own ideas in 1275AD. I allied the Zulu and Babs against her. I got some of her cities but I messed up an let the Zulu have the capitol after I came up short on my attack. I was planning to jump my capitol there but I got neither the city nor the leader. In the long run, it was probably better that I didn't, as it wasn't a very good site. Eygpt was eliminated in 1360AD. I only had only Knights and MI at the time. While I had been able to trade for horses, I had no saltpeter. I was able to secure Eygpt's horse and saltpeter resourses.

I had been at war with Persia since the MA. I was finally ready to turn the war from cold to hot in 1415AD. I had transported 7 of my 9 Cavalry to the former Arab area. I had allied the world against them, mainly to keep Nationalism out of their hands. The Zulu had already taken a couple cities there. I captured the last city in the Arab area in 1410AD. I finally made peace with the Persian in 1535AD with expiration of alliances. Once again, no MGL for a palace jump.

IBT 1650AD1655AD, the Zulu decided to sneak attack. Taking a city defended by a Guerilla and one undefend one beyond it in the former Egyptian area. (First with Incense & oil and the second with horses.) I had been preparing for something on that continent so had all my offense units (8 Cav and 2 Tanks) on hand.

Babylon did a ROP rape against me in 1675AD. (Interestingly enough, they took the same city the Zulu's had taken earlier. All it had was horses. ) They had MPP with Carthage. Since I didn't have much of anything defending the former Arab area, I got a MPP with Carthage myself and let Babylon attack me first. The Romans declared on me in 1710AD and the Persian in 1720AD, which brought Carthage into it against them. All-in-all not a bad MPP deal, huh? I made with peace with the Zulu's in 1715AD, leaving them with one city on the island to their south. Carthage destroyed the Romans in 1730AD.

I got my first MGL in 1680AD which I made into an Army. I got my second two turns later. This one was used to jump my palace (finally) to Pi-Ramesses in 1705AD. I made peace with the Bablyonians and Persians in 1740AD. Although, the Persians redeclared the following turn. I made peace again in 1764AD.

In 1798AD, I invaded Babylon. With Armor & Mech Inf against Cavalry & Infantry, it didn't take too long. They were gone by 1814AD. At that point, I was at 55% of land. I had been thinking of a 2050AD space ship or straight Histograph. Up to this point I had been maximizing ciites and pop. The babs had built hospitals in some of their cities so I decided to follow their example this time and included them in my milking strategy.

In 1838AD, I performed a partial ROP rape of Carthage. I was careful to raze most of his cities, keeping a only a few mainly due to wonders. By 1848AD, Carthage was finished. During the war, one of my cities flip to the Zulu. I immediately took it back but decided free Shaka from his prison city. Perminately. I gave the prison city to Persia in anticipation of future events. I was up to 61.3% of land.

In 1866AD, I performed another partial ROP rape on Persia. I razed all but one of his cities as well. The shouting was over in 3 turns but we remained at war until 1898AD.

As I approached the dom limit I had begun rushing settlers in cities with less optimal terrian, like the Zulu and Egyptian deserts. I had accumulated 35 settlers by the time I stuffed Xerxes into his prison city. I had been gradually switching production from military to improvements and then wealth as cities finished their builds of improvements. The task of moving my population to better terrain took many hours of micromanagement. I planted forests in all unused areas to keep global warming down. I also, slowed my research to allow for more cash for rushing settlers and improvement in new cities. I came as close as 4 tiles to the dom limit.

At the end, I had over 2300 happy citizens and 376 specialists. I had even built 9 of 10 spaceship parts. It wasn't until near the end that I decided not to build the last part.

(You know I couldn't resist doing at least one using CRpViewer now that I know I can. )

I didn't get a very good score, only 6K. I probably could have done better with a late domination, dipolmacy, or SS.

Research:
1230 AD - Theory of Gravity; Steam Power (free)
1270 AD - Nationalism
1275 AD - Printing Press (trade)
1300 AD - Industrialization
1325 AD - The Corporation
1350 AD - Medicine
1380 AD - Electricity
1400 AD - Scientific Method
1430 AD - Replaceable Parts
1480 AD - Atomic Theory
1505 AD - Electronics
1515 AD - Democracy (trade)
1525 AD - Refining
1545 AD - Free Artistry (trade); Steel
1565 AD - Combustion
1590 AD - Mass Production
1620 AD - Motorized Transportation
1625 AD - Sanitation (trade)
1650 AD - Flight
1690 AD - Radio; Computers (ToE); Ecology (free); Synthetic Fibers (ToE)
1730 AD - Rocketry
1760 AD - Communism (trade)
1762 AD - Miniaturization
1776 AD - Fission
1790 AD - Genetics
1792 AD - Espionage (trade)
1824 AD - Nuclear Power
1836 AD - The Laser
1858 AD - Robotics
1908 AD - Space Flight
1916 AD - Recycling
1936 AD - Superconductor
1960 AD - Satellites
1968 AD - Smart Weapons
1988 AD - Integrated Defense
2028 AD - Amphibious War

 

[Nata]

PTW Open, going for 20K.

AA Spoiler, 2nd spoiler.

Industrial age started bright and rosy in 1355AD with a Steam Power and with Newton University due in about 15 turns.

2nd core was busily expanding on the Zulu/Babs continent, with 7 cities, Horses and SaltPeter, but still without Palace or FP.
That was a kind of chiken/egg dilemma I was struggling with in late MA: to get a FP you need a Leader, to get a Leader you need lots of troops, home islands are low production and can't give lots of troops and new continent can't give lots of troops until it has a FP: back to sq.1. And I've never jumped a Palace before by destroying a capital and I never will: the thing freaks me out.

That was troubling me until I noticed that during President's Day celebration Hlobane, the closest city to the home islands, was giving me 4 shields! So off it went to hand-build FP, with all the workers dispatched to work terrain around, and that's how it was progressing at 1345AD, just before IA:

But all that ended with treacherous Zulu sneak-attacking me in 1360AD. The following years were tough and much was lost, but the Greeks survived and finally prevailed, and here's the tale of their preserverance.

1360-1415AD Zulu war. They declared on us and we lost 2 cities. They were backwards, but numerous and had lots of Knights against our Hoplites, MI and a few Muskets. I was bracing myself to be pushed off the continent, but we survived with building lots of Hoplites/Muskets. I even had to switch FP build in Hlobane to a Musket, losing 45 shields. D'oh!
Zulu obliged us by pillaging our SaltPeter so that we could buy lots of cheap Hoplites, and that helped a lot.
The humiliating peace was bought in 1415AD, and Greeks started rebuilding their core and FP in Hlobane from scratch. That was sad and held back Greeks' final expansion by 300 years.

Here's how it looked right after the war, in 1425AD:

1430AD - Built Newton. 5520c./67 cpt.

1545AD - Univ.Suffrage built while having monopoly on Sci.Method for couple of turns, with Carthage being close on it. Built before Carthage got the Method - phew!

1605AD - Darwin built. Got Atomic/Electronics, starting on Hoover Dam.
Meanwhile, Persia is at war with Zulu. Great - I'm still afraid of Zulu as don't have Rep.Parts yet, and this is a relief.

1635AD. FP hand-built on the Zulu continent! Finally! There's much rejoicing in Greek Republic, and Greeks can finally kick some butt and hunt for some Leaders.

1690AD - Hoover Dam built. Hospital bought for Sparta and it's now at max capacity of 15 people/tiles.

1735AD - Intelligence Agency.

1758AD - Battlefield Medicine.

1764AD - Wall Street. 10822c./86cpt.
Why didn't I start Palace prebuild for some Modern Wonder at this point? I don't know, probably it was late night, and I wasted couple of turns (12) building commercial improvements.

1788AD- enter Modern Age, get Computers. Perfect!
1788AD - Research Lab.

It's time to start leader farming in Zulu land: we've got couple of Tanks and 2 of their cities flipped to us recently. Make them dow by demanding to leave, and that's when I've finally felt I'm playing Regent. 2 attacks at once by an Elite Tank against some Impi and a few Muskets is just perfect for making leaders... but unfortunately, we soon ran out of Impi to beat.

1816AD. Zulu are gone and no GL. But now have about 10 Elite Tanks. Next target - Babylon.

1820AD - SETI program. 13177c./91cpt.
Persians dow on us! They have some former Zulu cities on the continent and the south island. Great, just what my Tanks were waiting for.

1830AD - Got a GL! Make an Army.
1834AD - Peace with Persia after pushing them out of the neighbourhood. Babs are spared till Heroic Epic.

1846AD - United Nations (why didn't I switch to HE in 1834? Probably was loosing too many shields).
1854AD - Heroic Epic.
1858AD - Declare on Babs. 1st Elite fight produces a GL! he is shipped home, it takes a few turns.

1866AD - Apollo.
1868AD - Cure for Cancer with GL.
1876AD - Babs were a good sport, drafting a lot of Infantries for our Tanks, but they too are gone, alas, and no more GLs. I'm done with war as the end is close and another GL won't make any difference.

1896AD - Internet.
1920AD - Longevity. 18360c./119cpt.
1930AD - Military Academy.
1946AD - Strategic Missile Defense built. 20K win!

Score: Firaxis 1844. Jason 3388.

Final expansion, 1856AD and 1946AD:

Missed on: Oracle, GL, GW, Leo, Sun Tsu, J.Bach, Manhattan (don't want Nukes in my world!), Pentagon.
Plus Magellan built in another Greek city.
Sparta in the end was working 20 tiles with Offshore, 87 sh/3 corr.

Could be worse, but could be so much better if I didn't waste too many years in the beginning desiding on winning condition and not growing Sparta. And making Athens 20K would be better move. Sparta had only 1 shield advantage over Athens after all...

Sparta the winner:

Final question: why my images are not showing up? Do I have to put them on a separate web site and link from there?

 

[Markus5]

The worst thing for me was the 20 galleys lost looking for the mythical continents. An early contact didn't pan out because persia didn't have much to trade and liked to declare war. They didn't make it across the pond until much later, so the war only made it hard to trade with them. Still it was a very enjoyable game. I'm not very good at war-mongering, so the option to be cool was great. More games should be like this. I regret playing the 85% option. Next time, next time... When is next time?

Oh, anyone do anything with the barb islands? I did lead a persian unit into barb waters where the barbs took care of the only invasion attempt. Otherwise, they were pretty benign. A really nasty trick would have been to put a valuable resource on a barb island. But, they just sat there with dozens of units in their villages.

 

[k-a-bob]

Oh, anyone do anything with the barb islands? I did lead a persian unit into barb waters where the barbs took care of the only invasion attempt. Otherwise, they were pretty benign. A really nasty trick would have been to put a valuable resource on a barb island. But, they just sat there with dozens of units in their villages.

They didn't bother me much - sank 1 ship of mine - I got a lot of elite ships that way.
What did freak me out is when the Persians would start sailing through from the east side of my islands to get at some new barb ships before I knew they were there! I thought they were invading!

Also - any resource there would be wasted, because it was mountain and single square (no way to get it off that island.) What would the AI do with that - try to take it?

 

[eldar]

I did research all the way up to Mech Transport (I only really needed to go as far as Rep Parts to help blunt the Persians). Could've got Amphibious Warfare and trained my Marines some!

 

[Gato Loco]

GOTM 40 Industrial age spoiler – PTW open

Part 8 – Living in Don Rumsfeld’s fantasy world
As the industrial age began in 960 AD, I was in the process of thrashing the Egyptians, hoping to establish a second core on the southern continent. The war finally ended in 1030 AD when I took the final Egyptian city. After spending a few turns shuffling troops around into a good attacking position, I declared on Babylon in 1080 AD. This war was more of a challenge, as Babylon had advanced to the middle ages and was building knights. They possessed multiple horses and iron in fairly secure locations, a fact which prevented me from using a resource-denial tactic. My advance consisted of a large stack of MDI with a few cavalry scouts advancing and taking cities one at a time. I built few cannons since the cities weren’t well defended enough to need bombardment (no muskets). In 1280, the last Babylonian city fell and I loaded my troops on a train and sent them directly to Zululand after a brief stop to upgrade them to militia and infantry. The Zulu war was once again a cakewalk, as the Zulu lands were mostly unproductive jungle. In fact the main hindrance at this point was my unwillingness to attack with non-elite units, since I really wanted a GL. I had stopped reinforcing my troops at this point, since I was taking few if any losses and preferred to build civilian improvements in the homeland. Once the dust settled, I controlled an entire continent of hopelessly corrupt cities. I had not managed to produce a GL, so moving the palace was out of the question. At this point it was obvious that I would go for a diplomatic victory.

Part 9 – Round up the goats, we’re going to make us some cheese.
I don’t like diplomatic victory. It’s just too easy to game the AI into supporting you, and AI civs don’t seem to know how to play diplomatically. All in all, it’s a rather cheesy way to win. But my lack of shields ruled out military or space victories, and it was too late to start a culture victory. About halfway through the industrial age, I started a prebuild for the UN (Hoover dam), and pushed research up as fast as I could. Meanwhile, Persia was going on a rampage, gobbling up Carthage and Rome. Seeing an opportunity, I gifted both Hannibal and Caesar one worthless city each so that they could cast their votes against Persia when the time came. If Persia had been halfway intelligent, they could have done the same to Hammurabi and Shaka, but they were not, and they did not. As war raged on the two continents, Greece continued trading and building, preparing for the modern age.

Part 10 –
Nearing the end of the game, I was feeling quite satisfied, having played a good builder game for a nice finish. Sadly, I was about to make the biggest mistake of the game. In 1435 I built Smith’s, hoping to free up a few more gpt for research, and completely missing the fact that I could have built ToE and gotten two free techs. This was not too bad until I suddenly realized, way too late, that my Hoover Dam prebuild was going to finish before I got Fission. Desperately, I tried cranking down Sparta’s production, but to no avail. Hoping for a miracle, I gifted Persia into the modern age, but they got something else as their free tech. I would have done the same to Babylon, but I’d wiped them out in order to keep them from voting against me. Sparta built the dam in 1625, a single turn before fission was discovered. Athens (helped by a free hydro plant) finally built the UN in 1700. The same turn, I started a worldwide crusade against Persia with the money I’d been saving, and won the vote in 1705. Had I built ToE instead I would have researched fission in time and managed to win 60 years or so earlier.


Finished: 1705 AD
Firaxis Score: 2486
Jason score: 6053

p.s. Sorry for the less detailed spoiler, but I’m a bit pressed for time. I think I mentioned all the most significant events and trends.

 

[denyd]

Gato Loco: Something I learned a while back is how to slow down builds. What you need to do is take all of your citizens off shield producing tiles water and non-BG only. You're able to retain most our your citizens and only add 2-3spt. Just another tool to add to your bag of tricks.

 

[DBear]

GotM40O Industrial/Modern highlights

Cities founded:
1535: Halicarnassus, Pergamon
1570: Miletos
1630: Artemisium
1660: Phocaea
1680: Sicyon
1705: Gortyn
1735? Mytilene
1758: Tegea
1796: Apollonia (to claim oil on Persian continent)
1830?: Eleusis (to claim furs)

Techs:
1480: Medicine (bonus)
1525: Steam (learn)
1565: Electric (learn)
1600: National (trade)
1655: Atomics (learn)
1710: Electronics (learn)
1735: Replaceables, Industry (Darwin)
Sanitation, Commie (trade)
1758: Corporate (learn)
1778: Refining (learn)(Great, no oil)
1784: Espionage (trade)
1792: Steel (learn)
1808: Combust (learn)
1822: Mass Productio (learn)
1834: Motors (learn)
1850: Radio (learn)
1864: Flight (learn), Fission (bonus)
1868: Rockets (trade)
1884: Computers (learn)
1904: Miniatures (learn)
1920: Space (learn)
1934: Superconductor (learn)
1946: Satellites (learn)
1948: Amphibious (trade)
1954: Nuke Power (learn)
1960: Laser (learn)
1966: Robots (learn)
1968: Ecology (trade)
1973: Synthetics (learn)
1979: Genetics (would've gotten)

Wars:
1745-1764: Persia War II (raze Halicarnassus, Artemisium, and Mytilene)
1838-1880: Persia War III (raze Apollonia and Eleusis)

eliminations:
1615: Carthage by Greece (this was utterly stupid. Fustat was never more than a minimal producer, and if I had kept Carthage alive and traded them the occasional tech I could've gotten a diplomatic win when I built the UN)
1660: Arabs by Greece (I wanted Aden's horses and rubber).
Persia did the majority of the dirty work by driving them off the continent.
1776: Rome almost by Persians (left doing the 1CC).

Wonders:
1485: Copernicus in Corinth
1585: Newton U. in Plebos Nexia
1735: Darwin in Athens
1754: Ironworks in Thermopylae (got lucky and had a coal pop up next to the city)
1794: Hoover in Thermopylae
1802: Suffrage in Athens
1822: CIA in Athens
1852: Wall Street in Athens
1898: UN in Athens (If I had kept Carthage alive I coulda won by now)
1906: Internet in Thermopylae
1916: Red Cross in Athens
1934: Apollo in Athens
1942: SETI in Corinth

Starship parts:
1942: Docking Bay
1946: Cockpit
1950: Life Support, Fuel Cells
1952: Engine
1956: Thrusters
1962: Lounge
1970: Stasis Chamber
1974: Storage
1978: Exterior Casing

Score:
1390 Firaxis, 2317 Jason (possible shield?)
With my very late discovery of the continents and stupidly eliminating a potential ally, I probably played this as bad as one can while still winning. The Great Lib was the only saving grace, as I wouldn't have caught up without it.
My original goal was a culture win, but I didn't have enough cities to make that happen. At the endgame, Babs and Persia were matching me per turn.

 

[MOTH]

Gato Loco: Something I learned a while back is how to slow down builds. What you need to do is take all of your citizens off shield producing tiles water and non-BG only. You're able to retain most our your citizens and only add 2-3spt. Just another tool to add to your bag of tricks.

Another trick I picked up in the HallO'Fame is to sell of your happiness improvements (maybe just the marketplace) and cause you city to deliberately riot. It won't starve while rioting and when its time you just switch a few specialists to entertainers and you will come out of riot and finish your build.

 

[WillowBrook]

, 5CC (almost), no war (almost), diplomatic win in 1804

I didn't have much time this month, so I tried a 5 city challenge for the first time. I figured a diplomatic win would be fastest, and part way through I decided not to bother to fight anyone, either.

Brief Overview
I build my 5th city in 1000 BC, used RCP4, and three towns were off the starting island. I send out twenty or thirty suicide galleys (perhaps more - I stopped keeping track) before meeting anyone else in 310 AD; I don't make it to the southern continent until 480. I enter the Middle Ages in 450, the Industrial Ages in 1345, and the Modern Ages in 1770. The scientific civs get every first-tier Modern Age tech except fission, so I have to research it while trying to hang on to a prebuild (fortunately the other civs don't switch their Hoover prebuilds to SETI when Hoover's completes, or the game would have been much longer).

Golden Age
A wonder cascade forced me to waste 350 sheilds on a university 2 turns before economics came in, but I still managed to build Smith's. I was going to trigger the GA it with TOE, but I had a prebuild available when TOG came it, so I triggered it with Newton's. I still managed to get TOE. IIRC, those were the only three wonders I built before the UN.

The "almosts"
It wasn't a pure 5CC: I built a sixth city to get coal to build RR, since none was available from other civs when I got steam, but abandoned it once RR was done. I was also at war a few turns when I finally refused to give into Persia's attempt to extort electricity (I'd given in to several previous demands). But I never saw any of their military anywhere near my territory.

The Vote
The Babs were my competition, and Xerxes also voted for them, but everyone else liked me more. So I took over the world with five cities and not more than about 15 non-navel military units, all defensive and none of which saw battle. And about 13 hours of time. If I'd thought about it, I'd have slowed things down more and gone for a lowest-scoring victory award. We'll see if 3000+ Jason score is too high.