GOTM 41: Final Spoiler

[ainwood]

This is the Final Spoiler for GOTM 41:

To qualify for this spoiler, you must have either completed (and submitted) your final save, or you must have reached the modern age.

Please: No screenshots of modern-age resources!


Now is the time to reflect on whether the game panned-out as you thought. How early did you decide on a victory condition, and did you need to change as the game developed?

 

[ionimplant]

i really hesitate to be the first replier. my notes are very bad since i'm always carried away with the game.
open, going for 20K (early win and minimum realife play time).
link to spoiler 2
1240 AD, 2nd greatleader generated. i am not sure whether i should make an army of it or rush it to the home continent and rush the Newton's university. Pasargadae has been mading 18~20 (depending on whether the mountain is worked or not) for ages and will continue to do so in about 10 more turns and then with rail i can make it a little better. but i'm guessing leader rushing will be more feasible. so i made an army

declared war on both england and iraquois around 1390AD. tons of knights came into my border to be killed. 2 leaders were generated very soon, one used to rush the universal , one
conquered oxford, with the smith's trading company. saved me about 50 gold instantly.


i'm surprised that Radio can be learned in 6 turns in Monarchy. several other techs are even learned in 4 turns.

1685 learned motorized transportation in 4 turn. 100% on flight, due in 5 turn, without the help of scientists. making 11 gpt.
i wish i hadn't hit England so hard (destroyed 3 pop12 cities besides London. i could make more gpt. i didn't trade any tech. trading all the luxuries can give me quite a lot of gpt. average price for one lux is about 20 gpt and i'm selling about 6 to Iraquois and 3 or 4 to England.

started to disband all the new units in pop12 cities to rush marketplace to boost happiness
enter the modern age at 1715 AD, getting computer as free tech. change palace prebuild to SETI, due in 3 turns.

amazingly, after building research lab in my major cities, rockety is due in 6 turns under monarchy

1725 AD, build offshore platform in Pasargadae and then fill in lots of workers.
1762 AD, Rocketry researched. fission due in 6 turns.

1768 Iron work completed in Dariush Kabir, production change to gold
1774 AD started to research nuclear power, due in 6 turn.

1814 20K achieved and the whole world celebrates Pasargadae's cultural accomplishment.

building sequence:


Temple 2190 BC
Oracle 1075 BC
Colossus 630 BC
Great Library 70 BC
Library 50 AD
Hanging Gardens 270 AD
Lighthouse 400 AD
Cathedral 440 AD
Colosseum 450 AD
Forbidden Palace 560 AD
Sistine Chapel 570 AD
Copericus' Observatory 790 AD
Bach's Cathedral 1110 AD
University 1120 AD
Shakespeare's Theatre 1295 AD
Heroic Epic 1335 AD
Newton's University 1395 AD
Universal Suffrage 1410 AD
Magellan's Voyage 1425 AD
Theory of Evolution 1475 AD
Hoover Dam 1540 AD
Wall Street 1575 AD
Military Academy 1645 AD
Battlefield Medicine 1700 AD
Seti Program 1725 AD
Resarch Lab 1730 AD
Internet 1778 AD
surprisingly, staying in Monarch seems to be just fine for this game.
the biggest mistake, i guess, is that i started the great library before i built the library and i didn't build the heroic epic early enough. my learder farming tech also needs improvement. but for a 1st time 20k try, i cannot complain too much. i just hope my second try in cotm11 will be better.
here is the image of my empire on the winning date

and my culture city:

 

[Xerol]

1.29f, Open - Combined spoiler due to lack of notes/intermediate saves. Most of my game was a single 29 hour session that spanned from the middle middle ages(around education/invention) through the end of the industrial ages, and I only saved twice in that period.

Goal: Red shield (Low score conquest)

Another disappointing (read: middling score) attempt this month. I probably conquered Rome way too early, entering my golden age shortly after switching to Monarchy, my only government change. I did the math, and the Romans get a slightly better advantage out of that extra defense than Persia gets from the extra offense. Good news was once the middle ages came about I had a production advantage, putting out the same units the Japanese were for 10 shields less each. My first leader was used to build an army, which I used to take 3 cities before being destroyed while healing. The second one came with the winning unit entering Rome, which I immediately used to rush Sistine's and help prevent a reverse flip. Otherwise I ended up flipping several of Japan's cities which served as a gateway to the north through the jungle. Japan was actually first to go, with Rome having departed to an island before I had any boats at all. I didn't finish them until Cavalry came along, which I used along with any remaining Immortals to finish them off.

Contact came very late; in fact, it took the Ottomans building Magellan's to make contact, but other than the optional techs I was managing a fairly good lead on my own, maintaining a 6-8 turn pace throughout the middle ages.

Industrial ages I decided to pick on the Iroquois, taking their 6 cities with ease. So it was down to me, England, Spain, and the Ottomans. Even though Spain was nearly tied with the Ottomans for total size and power, I chose them first instead of the relatively weak England. Basically, they were closer, and my Galleons were a turn faster going that way instead of the other way.

Spain took a while. A long while. Infantry were really troublesome. Shortly after getting Nationalism (I'm starting to think it's always 100% Nationalism unlike some certain guides say) as my free tech I started prebuilds in my two top producing cities and shot for Scientific Method at full steam. Only having 6 lux's and somehow not able to trade for the other two(England broke the alliance by signing peace, not me) I had to devote 10% to entertainment and wasted a few turns building defensive units so I could have 3 per city - that saved quite a few entertainers. Anyway, so I started shooting for Theory of Evolution, and almost missed out on it (my Prebuild was started WAY too early - a 900 shield palace was nearly completed) but got it in the end, and immediately switched my capital on Hoover's after getting the two free techs. A factory in each city later, I was putting out 20 cavalry per turn - so many that I had to build many more boats to accomodate them. After finishing Spain (pillaging their rubber really made it go quickly) I took out England in one turn and set my sights on the Ottomans.

Ok, in retrospect, I probably didn't have to spend that much on rushing to tanks as I did, and really should have rushed Battleships instead of running down my reserve gold at max research. I did Radio in 40 turns after getting Electronics which left me with about 12000 gold (i think). I checked every other turn to see that I wasn't nearing the Domination Limit(I was several hundred tiles short in the end) and razed quite a few cities, and apparently the Ottomans had a ton of settlers sitting around, so I did a bunch of auto-razing too. Tanks did finish the battle, although the huge culture meant leaving them in the open for a turn.

Submission Stats:

Game status: Conquest Victory for Persia
Game date: 1816 AD
Firaxis score: 4093
Jason score: 5925

I definitely could have scored lower, by abandoning/razing many more cities(especially in Spain and England) and/or holding off on the last Ottoman city(reducing the date bonus). This is actually my highest Jason score ever, in an attempt for a low score. Chances are if I don't get it, I'll have to attempt again on the next Monarch game, because I don't think I'm quite ready for an Emperor Conquest attempt (not to mention more of a score bonus for the higher difficulty). Diplo is looking highly likely for at least 2 of the next 3 months, however. (Actually, in the Diety game(43) I might make an attempt for a Fastest Finish/Lowest Score diplo.) Somewhere in the next three months I'll also make an attempt for lowest base score for a victory (the self-titled "Blue Ambulance"), possibly also worked in with the dual award attempt in 43.

 

[k-a-bob]

My second completed (winning) game on Monarch.

At the beginning of the IA, I decided I didn't want to conquer the whole world - and I didn't really want to invade the other continent. I wanted either Diplo or Space (never having done the latter) Spain's move gave me other ideas. I controlled my entire continent and the SE island when Spain sneak attacked with 2 Cavs.
I never got horses to that point, so my immortals kicked them out.

So I sent a force over to Spain and settled a city on a coastal hill and absorbed their attacks. I eventually gained a nice sized hold on the other continent, squeezing in cities anywhere there was an opening, and when the Iroquois re-DoWed me, I took their southern lands, leaving their core intact. I was well ahead research-wise of everyone, and I gifted the Ottomans into the Modern Age, hoping to pick up computers, since I already had 4 space ship parts. They didn't get that, so I had to self research the rest of the way, staying out of any and all wars until the end of the game, in 1912 - launching my spaceship.

No one else even had a tech that would let them build any parts.
The only thing I was worried about with 5 turns left was that the Ottomans built Manhattan, so I was nervous they might rush an ICBM (not thinking that they didn't have those yet, only tacticals.) But then the Iros DoWed the much stronger Spanish, and signed up the Ottomans.

So my last 20 or so turns were cleaning pollution and seeing if I could shave any turns off by adding scientists since I was at 100% research at the end (losing nominal amounts of gpt). When I started getting low, I sold Ecology to everyone for gold. I didn't need to, but it was fun.

Jason score 5084

which I didn't think was too bad for my first GOTM win.



Thanks for the game!

PS - on edit: I had about 60 elite battles, and a whopping ONE leader (rushing FP) so I never had a single army!

 

[tao]

1.29 Reaching 20K

First post is here. Ancient Age 4000BC - 190AD
Second post is here. Middle Ages 190AD - 1090AD

Research
In 1090AD we learn magnetism, enter the Industrial Ages, and (1.29) get useless nationalism. Lots of workers waiting in vain at Pasargadae to railroad. Thus I started steam, afterwards going for industrialization (Universal Suffrage), scientific method (free atomic, electronics), and zipped thru the techs. The AIs were about an Age behind and the gap was widening.
In 1500AD we learn radio, enter Modern Times and (1.29) get useless rocketry. We research computers (SETI, library), miniaturization (Internet), genetics, and the rest of the techs.
Note 1: All IA and MT techs were researched in 4 turns.
Note 2: In the end, Iroquois had just learned replaceable parts.

Wars and Great Leaders
The only goal of the wars was to get Great Leaders. I slowly walked north over the Keltoi attacking with elites after bombardment, and took some Iroquois towns at the smallest part of the continent. Here was a nice place to set-up killing fields fishing for Leaders. Defense was on mountain fortresses, getting free-shots at attackers trying in vain to reach undefended southern cities thru the valley.

I sometimes alternated wars with Iroquois and Spain to avoid war weariness, even though there was little risk because of extremely few losses. England's 3 cities were attacked to generate more elites, but no promotions happened in wiping them out. However, the Great Leaders were rolling in like locusts:

Achaemenes ("surviver" from the Middle Ages) -> Smith's (1100AD)
Darius -> Magellan's (1170AD)
Cyrus -> Universal Suffrage (1265AD)
Achaemenes -> ToE (1275AD)
Darius -> Hoover (1345AD)
Cyrus -> 2nd army
Achaemenes -> 3rd army (enabling Pentagon)
Darius -> Military Academy (1425AD)
(pre-build for SETI, finished 1515AD)
Cyrus -> Internet (1545AD)
Achaemenes -> UN (1570AD)
Darius ->CfC (1590AD)
Cyrus -> Longevity 1625AD)
Achaemenes -> Manhattan (1635AD)
Darius -> Palace (1645AD)
Cyrus -> forgot to hurry SDI (built 1750AD)​

20k Pasargadae
The city built very few Wonder (mostly small ones) by its production. The production capacity reached 72spt after Hoover was done, and in the end was at 126spt.

In 1640AD it was clear that the 20K date couldn't be improved further and the game went smoothly until 20.104 cp were reached in 1782AD, giving Firaxis 5992, Jason 8380.

 

[MOTH]

Entry class: Open
Game status: Diplomatic Victory for Persia
Game date: 1090 AD
Firaxis score: 6577
Jason score: 10542
Time played: 38:03:16

My first ever 10K jason win! Hopefully I get my second award with this result. Next month I will try something fast with little MM after 1000BC as I may not be able to submit a game after May 3rd.

I rushed through on research as fast as I could with only a single core mananging 4 turn research on nearly everything. I finally got a great leader as I was eliminating the English and approaching the domination limit and used him to rush a Palace in Salamanca for a second core at just the time that some of the more expensive IA techs needed to be researched. I already had some Libraries for the border expansion and I quickly cash rushed Universities. The less dense placement of the Iroq core also allowed many of my formerly corrupt cities to drop to 75% corruption instead of 95% and contribute an additional 2 beakers per city.

I held timed my Sci Method (palace) and UN (Universal Suffrage) prebuilds much better in this game than I did in GOTM40. Sci Method got me Flight to end the IA and my free tech was Fission. My second Sci Method tech got me Computers. My UN pre-build was due the following turn.

This was the first time I ever exploited the AI attitude to get a Diplo win. In the past I always lead a clean life and some AI assisted by declaring war on me or another AI. This game everyone was at peace and relatively happy, so I declared war on the Ottomans and bought MAs with the Celts and Spain. The final vote was 3 to 1 in favor of me.

I did replay the final turn without manipulating the AI attitude and the result was a draw.

 

[ionimplant]

1.29

Wars and Great Leaders
The only goal of the wars was to get Great Leaders. I slowly walked north over the Keltoi attacking with elites after bombardment, and took some Iroquois towns at the smallest part of the continent. Here was a nice place to set-up killing fields fishing for Leaders. Defense was on mountain fortresses, getting free-shots at attackers trying in vain to reach undefended southern cities thru the valley.

This reminds me of another mistake that i made. i had a similar leader-farming groud set up and got two leaders very soon after that. but then Oxford of England built the smith's trading company which was only about 5 tiles away from my front and i couldn't resist the temptation to take it out. this save me some gpt, but surely does no good to my 20k goal. it increase my battle front and makes it impossible to really take advantage of the terrain to fish for leader; it also seriously crippled england's economy (i had tried to leave 3 AI intact so that they can send units to me). i finally end up sueing for peace due to war wariness because a few of my units got killed in the field.

 

[voe]

Still going for space,

WARS
After entering the IA in 530 AD I researched MT first, once that was discovered more offensive action was taken in the spanish war. I captured all their major cities then made peace in 660 AD. They were later wiped out by my former allies the Iroqouis
By then I noticed that one of my prebuilds would coincinde with the discovery of Scientific Mathod, so this was fun, in 690 AD I discovered SciMed, switched the prebuild to ToE through F1 and got Atomic THeory and Electronics in the same turn. Unfortunately no prebuild was far enough to complete Hoover in the same turn. I read this little trick somewhere on this forum a while ago.


After peace with the spanish I focused on research and building up my cities adding workers after sanitation and hospitals. All was smooth untill Otto declared IBT in 830. I lost a couple of workers, but his stack was moving slow through english territory. I signed up the english and the celts against Otto and prepared for an invasion fleet that headed south to invade the ottoman lands.

By the time this fleet made landfall in 910 AD the Iroqouis had declared on me as well, they were harmless. Iznik is the first ottoman city to fall, in the same turn a leader emerges from a battle for an Iroqouis city. A cavalry army is formed.
The Iroqouis war ended in 1050, they had a settler on a boat by then, the Ottomans got peace in 1090 , still 4 large cities, but I wanted to heal and declare on the celts (they had backed out of our alliance and made peace with Otto)
I declare on Celts in 1120, this war is swift with my tanks, I raze their cities because of the domination limit . I give them peace again in 1190, they have a settler.
Meanwhile, all out war is started against the ottomans and england in 1170, they are eliminated in 1220 and 1230 respectively.


THis war ended all wars and the celts and iroqouis lived to see the end.


Research:
Obviously research was the key element in this game.
I maintained 4 turn research throughout the IA and reached modern times in 1130 AD (ecology free tech) The ottomans by then were at war with all others and no one had money so I gifted them all from the Middle ages to modern times, they got computers which was traded for. I could not maintain 4 turn for synth fibers an dspace flight, after that it was back to 4 turns.

I had prebuilds running all the time so that when a tech came available I could finish the spaceship part immediately, I ran out of things to build and actuallycomplete one or two solar plants
I disbanded a couple of cities a few times because of the domination limit, otherwise I grew the cities up to 6 if they had extra food, otherwise they stayed even smaller and had 1 scientist.

I almost screwed up in the end: I completed the Internet in 1380 and had not realised this would lead to a massive increase in controlled tiles because of the research lab's culture. So when I got to the year 1400 I saw lots and lots of border expansions and thought I would have a domination win, however I launched the space ship that turn, and after end turn I got a space victory, althouhg I obviously also met the domination criteria. phew....


So, I was pleased with the date, although in retrospect it could have been a bit earlier I think as I lost some pace in the tech race between 1000BC and the year 0. The AI was hopeless in this game, Rome was not a threat, Japan really never got of the mark, when i finally met the other civs I was way ahead. I do not think they had many wars on the other continent as all cities were still in original owner's hands, but something must have slowed them. Although I maintained 4 turn it meant I had to research everything myself. Maybe I could have gifted them forward straight away when I met them, but I also wanted to conquer some of heir land for future possible resources (aluminium e.g.) and to increase my science base. Gifting them would have meant lots more troops, now I wiped out the spanish with a handfull of Cav for example, they had pike men at best



Research
570 MT
610 Medicine
650 Electricity
690 Scientific Method
690 Atomic Theory
690 Electronics
730 Sanitation
770 Industrialization
810 Corporation
850 replacable Parts
890 Refining
930 Steel
970 Combustion
1010 Mass Production
1050 Mass Transport
1090 Flight
1130 Radio
1130 Ecology (free)
1130 Computers (Ottomans)
1170 Rocketry
1220 Synthetic Fibers
1260 SPace Flight
1280 fission
1300 Superconductor
1320 Satellites
1340 Miniaturization
1360 Nuclear Power'
1380 Laser
1400 robotics

Wonders
Having not much else to do I build quite a few wonders. Also built some small wonders, rushed HE in 990 in Sevilla with a leader, built the rest
610 Newton
690 Theory of Evolution
840 Leonardo
890 Hoover Dam
1345 A Smith (the celts discovered economics while I was doing satellites or something, traded for it and build Smith the same turn from a prebuild;-)
1385 Universal Suffrage
1390 UN

I obviously captured the rest ;-)

Antioch was a science city , Copernicus, Newton, Seti and was making over 200 beakers in the end.


Thanks to the staff for this game, I enjoyed it
(edit, removed spoiler pics)

 

[Tubby Rower]

Original goal: Domination
Changed to : Conquest
AA summary
MA summary

So Now I'm at war with England and Otto with a sizable tech & military advantage. I signed on the Iroquois & the Celts against the English. The Celts took a couple of border cities but I started to take some too. I reduced the English to just 4 cities then made peace.

The Ottomans were enveloped by Persian cavalry. I then turned my attention to the outlying Iroquois cities. After finishing those stragglers off, I noticed that the Iroquois had cavalry. I didn't have a lot of defenders so I made peace with them and then turned my teeth toward the Celts. Jungle slowed me down again (when will the AI clear the jungle???).

I took the Celts out in quick fashion. 4-8 cav per turn were being produced towards the end.

Before I finished off the Celts I decided to go after the Iroquois too. Towards the end I was razing cities going for a conquest victory. After clearing out 5 of the last 7 Iroquois cities I broke a peace deal with England 12 turns early to finish her off.

Two turns late I got a Conquest victory @1270AD
Firaxis score: 5784
Jason score: 9751
Time played: 16:29:13

I was still 4 turn researching at the end. I probably could have gotten a slightly better score by stopping research after getting galleons and turning up the lux but I didn't. I couldn't believe my "high" Jason score. There will probably be 12k & 13k scores on this game. Regardless, this was a fun game and I've been waiting on a "normal" non-isolated start for a few games now.

 

[MOTH]

@voe,
A couple of your pictures violate the spoiler rules for modern resources.

 

[MiniMe]

I finally finished my milk run, and let me just state that pollution is for sure an aspect that ruins the end game experience. I basically just hate it. Otherwise milking has several interesting sides.

I reached 1700 citizens in 1445 and 1800 citizens in 1545. After that things slowed down. I stabilized around 1840 citizens after maxing out all cities in my territory. But not before the Iroquois managed to stir up things a little bit by declaring on me and grabbing 6 metropolises. After a few turns later things were back under control so I guess it didnt make a great impact on final score.

Other than that I almost got a cultural victory but noticed 4 turns before reaching 100K. I had to destroy and rebuild all wonder cities and selling off all cultural buildings to reach 2050. That included Longevity, Pyramids and the others.

Glad I am finished, sure it could have been executed a lot better than I did. Score was ok

 

[StanNP]

This is without notes, so I apologize in advance for lack of pictures and other inaccuracies.

My goal was Domination limit then Diplomatic victory. I’m attempting to make up for a failed Diplomatic game from COTM8 (I lost the vote in 1335).

Here is a rough timeline of when I entered the various ages

Middle Ages – 620BC
Industrial Age – 420AD
Modern Age – 960AD

I drove my science rate hard the whole game and only researched three optional techs, Literature right after Republic (4 turns) and Navigation (4 turns). My RCP was 4 and 7 and I built libraries in all of these right around the time I entered the MA.

I got Mono as my free tech entering the MA and went along the top of the tech tree. Once I reached Education, I flipped several pre-builds over to Universities and went directly to Navigation so I would have better access to the other continent. I was not sure at the time if this was a good idea or not and I’m still not sure. Having Navigation was primarily to get a GL for a second core and to give my Immortals something to do. I finally got the GL late in the MA, so I’m not sure Navigation helped here.

My second core was built in the center of the Japanese lands and because I had waited so long for the GL, I had a large number (8 or 9) cities at or inside RCP4 around the strategically placed FP city. The FP was built right at the end of the MA, so they were on-line for researching as I started the IA.

Having the FP ring at the same distance or less as the Palace RCP appeared to give them all the same benefit as the RCP4 ring.

The start of the IA is where my luck started to change. I got Steam, which is nice, but Otto got Nationalism of course. I gifted ALL of the other civs forward with the hope that someone would research Medicine. I rushed to Replaceable Parts then spent 32 turns researching from Industrialism to thru to Flight, hoping someone would get Medicine.

I even attempted a new tactic of drip-feeding techs to the other civs. I would give away techs every 2 or 3 turns, so that if a Civ had started on that tech, they would need to pick a new one to research. Since I did not have Medicine to give away, I kept hoping another Civ would start on it. No one ever did, instead they went for all the optional techs from the MA that I had skipped.

I had a pre-build timed to for getting Scientific Method, thinking I would use it to get the final couple techs in the IA, and ended up using it on Atomic Theory and Electronics.

I had maintained a 4 turn rate for entire time since I researched Navigation with one or two turns lost to changing my mind about the right path and the ways to get others to research for me. Entering the Modern Age would be the big test.

I got Ecology. Otto got Rocketry. I was surprised that Otto traded it to me straight up. But no Fission. I had timed my UN prebuild poorly as well. I had it ready on the inter-turn when I got into the Modern Age, but when I did not get Fission, I could NOT turn it down without starving in the 5 turns it would take me to get Fission. Once it starved, the worked tiles changed and I got a palace instead. And that was the end of the my pre-build.

Lesson learned is that going into the last turn to build the UN with a Science civ, you should have close to a full set of shields required for the final turn (like 40 to 60 shields, instead of 10 or 15). This way you can turn it down, not starve down a whole size and use it when you get Fission.

But I had a backup plan. I had saved a GL just in case. So during the turn before I completed Fission (1000ad) I used my GL to rush a palace I would flip over to the UN. During the Inter-turn after I got Fission, I went to my town where the prebuild was and could not pick UN. Rushing the palace had made it so that I could NOT pick a wonder. Ooops. But the palace was back at its original location, which helped with my corruption.

My backup, backup plan was to use my super shield Iron works town in the old Japanese lands (104 shields/turn) to rush the UN. It would take around 7 more turns to build it.

Then I gave up on Diplo and went for a Space victory, which was a very good idea since my Diplo mistakes had not hurt my Space Race potential.

I achieved Space victory in 1315AD, which seemed like a good date considering we only had one other Science Civ to help us.

 

[Lawrence]

Tao: Congrats, you beat me by 2 turns.
So I got the feel you had in GOTM 39.

Cultural 20k victory in 1786. Had I not made any one of my big mistakes, I would have won this one.

My last big mistake was mentioned in the industrial spoiler, I had to spend 4 turns each to research Free Artistry and Economics, at industrial and modern ages, respectively. The (about) 20 turns delay of Shakespeare's and (about) 60 turns delay of Smith's lost my game, considering I have nothing to build in late Industrial and can only build armies in 20k city.

Oh, that's another mistake! I should have hurried some armies and built the Pentagon early! Gotta be more and more careful in the next one.

Don't have Civ at hand, would post my final spoiler in the weekend.

 

[Nata]

PTW Open
Goal: Fastest Space.

MA spoiler

Not much to report here.

980AD - Enter IA with Medicine.
1160AD - war with Irokez, mostly to get rid of Immortals.
1250AD - Irokez are gone, start on England.
Got Sci. method, building Hoover Dam.
1275AD - GL Syrius! Hurry Hoover Dam.
1315AD - English are gone.

1420AD - Enter Modern Age, get Computers, gift Turks, they get Fission but trade only after we add Rocketry.

1685ad - Spaceship victory.

Firaxis: 4772. Jason: 7542

My fastest Spaceship to the date, and highest Jason score - the other one was about 4500... This is my 2nd GOTM, but of course I could do better.

For example, I didn't realize that Exterior Casing was 640 shields, and my Palace prebuild wasn't enough when I learned the last Space tech (Synthetic Fibers), and I had to wait 2 more turns for it to finish. Next time I should remember to finish with the discotheque...

What I couldn't do to the end is maintain 4-turn research on all Techs, there were some big techs in IA and Modern Age which took 5-6 turns.

What's the key here, how you guys achieve 4-turn research on everything? I had 2 cores, lots of productive cities with all possible science improvements in them and all the Science wonders and the remaining Civs were funding my research in amounts of about 500gpt. My research was always at 100% starting from IA.

I tried making scientists but it only seemed to make things worse. I also didn't build Hospitals because I hate Pollution. Should I have grown my cities bigger? Or maybe making scientists in corrupted cities on the other continent would have helped? Just curious.

Attached is my world at the winning date.

 

[AlanH]

I don't often play into the modern era, but I suspect lack of hospitals is the key. Your build pattern isn't too dense, so if you can get your core cities bigger you'll get more beakers, particularly in the ones with science multipliers like Newton. A city with 20 working citizens is like having 1.5 cities at pop 12, so you can multiply your beaker output by up to 1.5. And yes, corrupt cities should all be grown as big as possible with lots of citizens working as scientists.

 

[tao]

What's the key here, how you guys achieve 4-turn research on everything?

I crammed lots and lots of cities in the corrupt parts of my territory to get complete coverage of my unit support under republic. The tiles were fully irrigated and railroaded and the cities at either pop 6 or 12 with lots of taxmen (IA) or scientists (MT).

E.g. on the eastern island and in former Japan, I placed about twice as many cities as you did.

 

[eldar]

Open

Times Ancient
Times Medieval

The Celts were on the way out as I entered the Industrial Age in around AD850, gaining Nationalism (oh well...) as my free tech. Research-wise, I went for Steam Power, Electricity, and Replaceable Parts, then stopped research.

I did switch it on again to get Industrialization, so I could rush Universal Suffrage with a Leader; and the same for Scientific Method (after trading to get Medicine) for ToE - though I never built it as the tech came in the turn I finished the game.

It was just as well I researched those techs, too, otherwise things might've gone differently - having a rail network on the other continent was very, very useful.

After disposing of the Celts (another Settler-in-Galley scenario, and this one sunk the first Privateer I sent after it, just to prolong my War Weariness!), I moved into England and they were easily destroyed.

Next I moved on to the Iroquois, and was part way through assimilating them when Spain sneak-attacked me (technically a RoP rape as I'd had RoP to get at a couple of enemy cities). I hate Conquistadors and their "all terrain as roads" ability. It includes my territory so more than once a city I thought perfectly safe, and without defenders, was stolen or razed! If I hadn't had the rail network to quickly move rushed Infantry from down south up to defend cities, things might have gone very wrong.

I finally stopped the Spanish nonsense by razing Madrid. Fittingly, the final nine squares I needed for domination were taken by founding a new city, named "Anti-Madrid", in its place.

Final result: domination in AD1200, Jason ~9400. If only I'd researched Navigation earlier....

Neil.

 

[Markus5]

1305 Industrial Age. Save Game.

Summary.
Score 1089.
1 Settler
18 Workers
47 Musketmen
4 Galleys
38 Immortals
29 Cities

Almost no notes in the Industrial Age.

1655AD Modern Age. Save Game.
34 Cities
Score 1655. Ha! Same as the year.
25 Workers
1 Musketman
10 Riflemen
57 Infantry
22 Tanks
4 Artillery
2 Galleys
2 Galleons
3 Destroyers
5 Immortals
33 Guerillas

I'll finish upgrades. Probably won't build any more units unless war looms. I might try for a histogram victory, but that will take time. Spaceship might be fun.

Spaceship victory in 1810AD.
Score 3003.
Xerxes the Wise.

 

[markh]

Open Class

Maybe I will be able to finish this one in time. It looks promising. As soon as I discovered the Romans and Japanese I just built military despite in my Capitol where I built improvements and the Great Library. From then on I turned my research to 10% and went after both the Romans and Japanese. Furthermore I tried to avoid contacts with the other civs as long as possible. As I progressed driving the Romans and Japanese off the continent I discovered the civs on the other continent completing one wonder after the other. As I kept the Romans and Japanese busy our continent did no progress in research, just the techs I researched at 40 turns. Militarily I could easily control the Romans and Japanese and switched to building improvements and my strategy avoiding contacts with the other civs paid off. The Spanish were the first reaching our continent and she immediately sold my contact to other civs on her continent shooting me through the middle ages to the industrial ages being on par with the two most advanced civs thanks to the Great Library. I immediately switched to Republic and as I had enough cash I could easily rush some Universities and could research at a very good speed keeping up with the civs on the other continent. I rapidly finished the Romans and Japanese then. Finished Hoovers soon and now I am in the modern ages. Just built the UN, so this will not be any issue anymore. As I hardly trade all civs are annoyed with me. The Celts will vanish soon as they are still in the Industrial era and from the war between Celts and Spain I got a beachhead without being forced to declare war on someone, so now my tanks and mechanic infantries are flying to the other continent for the final blow. Hope to finish this one this weekend.

 

[Tubby Rower]

Final result: domination in AD1200, Jason ~9400. If only I'd researched Navigation earlier....

Neil.

I finished 7 turns after you and scored about 300 Jason points above you. I wonder if you had gone for Conquest too what the difference in the scores would be... Good job though. Luckily I didn't have to deal with Conquistadors due to the Iroquois bloodlust after signing a MA with them.