GOTM 41: First Spoiler

[AlanH]

Disease always strikes two turns in a row unless the first strike takes your pop down to 1.

 

[Markus5]

As threatened, I mean, promised, here are my notes from the Ancient Age.

GOTM 41 Open

4000BC And away we go!
3400BC Pottery researched. Iron Working research started.
3150BC Meet Japan. We have a different set of techs. We trade Bronze + Masonry for The Wheel + Ceremonial Burial + 2g. And A red border to the SE. Too close for me...
3100BC It Rome. Geez, tough opponents.
3050BC The Roman city of Veii seems undefended. Take it now? A deal first. We trade Masonry + The Wheel for Warrior Code + Alphabet + 10g. Maybe not the best idea to give Rome chariots, but its just a game.
3000BC Veii is now guarded by a warrior. Looks like an RCP of 4 will work nice. Lots of good terrain in a second ring, too. Rome will grow the other direction, I hope. Still, the first cities will be to the south. Hope that Japan doesn't grow from the north too fast. That warrior showed up pretty early. They can't be far away.
2750BC Happy slider 10% until the first MP is built.
2630BC Happy slider 0%. One more warrior MP, then crank settlers.
2550BC The pump is up. Settler in 4 turns.
2510BC Iron Working researched. Writing in 18 turns at max, but we can't sustain that rate. Is there easy iron? Nope. But there is iron due south near the end of land.
2430BC First settler. Next settler in 5 turns. I have two city sites prepared at RCP 4. With the industrious workers, the new cities shouldn't need to build a worker first. Barracks first, I think. Now about that iron... I'm leaving a warrior guarding it.
2030BC Third settler. I'm sneaking a warrior (2 turns) into the pump. I want some protection.
1910BC Thank you! Iron to the east. Parking a warrior on it. It would be in the second ring. RCP 6.5 or 7.
1500BC Literature researched.
1425BC Romans demand Literature. I say no. They declare war. I am so under defended. This is going to be ugly. I should have given in to the demand. May this will be a false war.
1300BC There's a cow on my RCP 4 site. I think I might have to build on it. No Roman invasion, yet.
1200BC Code of Laws. Still no Roman invasion. I'm planning on starting the Great Library when the most productive inner ring city finishes its Immortal. I now have a stack of 4 workers that are working together very efficiently.
1175BC OK, here comes Rome's might army. 2 regular warriors and 1 regular archer. It looks like they will attack from a hill to a city that is defended by 2 regular warriors and 2 veteran Immortals.
1150BC I attack and kill a warrior. We have entered a golden age. Now that was completely unexpected. I'm saving the game. And then, take a careful look at every thing. I don't want to waste this opportunity.
1100BC Philosophy researched. The Republic in 21 turns. Just after the golden age ends.
1075BC Rome will make peace in a even deal. The Immortal is great. Roman can't send anything. But, they have iron and will connect it up eventually.

I don't see how I can produce enough units to sustain a war. I have three cities that can Immortals. Two are builidng barracks. One is building the Great Library, and one is producing settlers. There will need tp be units to attack and units to be left as MPs in the defeated cities. Can't do it.

1075BC Well, its settled. Japan demanded Philosophy, and I said no. They declared war. I'll make peace with Rome pretty soon.
975BC Peace with Rome. Got Peace + Mysticism + Horseback Riding + World Map for Peace + Philosophy. Lost one Immortal in the war. Save game. Forgot to get a 1000BC save. Grabbed an 1000BC autosave. Hope that's OK.
850BC Autorazed Japanese city. Now they talk peace. Got Peace + Map Making + 8g + Ter Map for Peace.
670BC Revolt to Republic. 4 turn anarchy says the advisor. And the Golden Age ends.
650BC Rome wants Literature. They are aggressive. But I have sufficient strength to fend them off if the declare. So I'll say no. The declare war.
550BC 10% Happy slider for a while.
490BC Peace with Rome. Got a city + maps + 3g for peace.
470BC 20% happy slider.
370BC Someone else completed the great library. Switch to building palace and hope to get to another wonder first.
10BC The middle ages have started. Got Feudalism. Changed palace pre-build to Sun-Tzu. May change again to Leonardos, if I reseach to Invention in time. No Chivalry for knights because I don't see horses. The settler pump has stopped and is catching up with a Temple, Market and library. Other cities are alternating improvement and Immortals. Soon, I'll try to take down Rome. They have iron connected to their trade network. But, they don't seem to like to build barracks.

Summary.
Score 406.
1 Settler
9 Workers
5 Warriors
1 Galley
35 Immortals
16 Cities

 

[ShaoKai]

Build progress:
i started with settler E, worker SE
3950BC Persepolis, worker clear forest and citizen work on forest to get a 4 turns worrior. 100% researching pottery.
3735BC finished first warrior, and the second one finished in the next turn using the forest shields.
and then build granary --> keep on building settler

tech:
100% research pottery,
Masonry + pottery = Alphabet+10 (Rome)
100% research Wrinting --> Republic
trade Ceremonial Burial + Warrior Code + The Wheel + Mysticism + Horseback Riding(Japan)
got Iron Working for peace with Rome
Literature from hut

War:
3300BC met Rome, after trade some tech, i saw their settler and worrior step into the grassland . so i decreared war on Rome 3000BC, capture their settler and we loss a worrior. i fortify my only worrior on mountains, and Caesar play 1 city challenge from then on.
we got a Leader hurry up the FP.


1000BC summary:
12 city
26 pop
2 Granary
2 Library
2 Barracks
2 settlers
7 worrior
2 worker
3 slave worker
1 turn to Republic

Entered MA at 610BC, got Feudalism as free tech, trade Monotheism from other civ. i will attack Janpanese and start GA at this moment.

 

[Markus5]

Everyone seems to understand when their Golden Age will come. Is there a good summary that explains it? The articles I've seen say that attacking with a Unique Unit will trigger a golden age. Is it that simple?

 

[MeteorPunch]

Everyone seems to understand when their Golden Age will come. Is there a good summary that explains it? The articles I've seen say that attacking with a Unique Unit will trigger a golden age. Is it that simple?

3 Ways:

Your UU wins a battle
You build 2 wonders with your Civs traits
You build a specific wonder that starts your civs GA

 

[Smirk]

Markus: Winning a battle with your UU starts a GA, thats offense or defense. And building wonders to satisfy both your Civ traits will start the GA. The latter could be a single wonder for some Civs, or multiple, to start GA you have to build the wonder but to satisfy your traits you can use captured wonders. Meaning with Persian you can capture a wonder that has a scientific trait, and then build one with industrious and start your GA.

 

[Megalou]

Oh, yes. It's that simple. Well, your unique unit must win its battle, not just attack.

Certain wonders (one for each of your civ's traits) will, as I'm sure you know, also start the golden age. That includes captured wonders, but those will not trigger the golden age until the moment you construct another wonder (any wonder) somewhere in you civ.

Edit: aren't we a helpful bunch?

 

[Markus5]

Well, I understood all about Wonders and Civ traits and Golden Ages, but this is the first time I've heard about UU and Golden Ages.

Something new everytime you play...

 

[Xevious]

... to start GA you have to build the wonder but to satisfy your traits you can use captured wonders. Meaning with Persian you can capture a wonder that has a scientific trait, and then build one with industrious and start your GA.

You could also capture one with science, another with industrious, and then build ANY wonder to start your GA. The whole point being you have to build a wonder on your own to get a GA that way.

Think of it this way, after building a wonder, if you have wonders with both of your traits in your posession, your GA will start.

 

[davidcrazy]

Roman isn't that aggressive in my game and i guess it has something to do with the fact that my warrior killed the warrior accompanying Roman's 2nd settler and later on i got one worker from Roman when negotiating for peace. i am wondering whether this also happened to other people here. but Roman did a good job in my game, considering their severely crippled start later in my game.

 

[Più Freddo]

Why is a forest allocated the first time and a useless flood plain the next, when both times the town is getting +3fpt before growth?

I wish I knew. The same thing happened to me, making my plan less excellent. Later, a forest tile was always chosen, also when an irrigated flood plain was available (intended to be used in a neighbouring city).

Edit:

I replayed my start in a few different ways. It originally had the new citizen automatically choose a flood plains tile at the second growth. The flood plains were irrigated and roaded, giving a total of five goods, the same as the furs forest tile. Surplus was 3 fpt before growth. But if, in the replay, the flood plains were not roaded, the citizen chose the forest, as intended. For the two shields I would have to pay some worker moves and a little gold.

Offa however had the citizen choose an unroaded flood plains tile before the furs forest. That contradicts my findings.

I had the governor emphasize production but not manage citizen moods, but I suppose that is understood.

 

[Bartleby]

nevermind

 

[Lanaxis]

My current game is actually going very well! Considering my cultural defeat in COTM10 it's nice to know that I'm not a total loss on Monarch difficulty games.

Like some of the other lucky few, I was totally untouched by disease from the floodplains. Sorry Guys. I did have several riots because I wasn't paying that close attention if it makes you feel any better

Like many others Romes demand for Literature started my first war and shortly thereafter GA. The ended after we both razed some cities and realized that I wasn't quite prepared to dominate them. So peace briefly came while I built up my forces and made the jump to Monarchy. The second Roman War resulted in them finally getting kicked off the continent.

I'm currently repositioning/rebuilding my forces for a sneak attack on Japan. Hopefully I can wipe them out before they get samurai.

 

[ÆnigmÆffect]

Man, I really suck at keeping track. I made a save at 1000bc, and that's about all I did.

Some things I did remember:

I'm going for 20k (hopefully my first win of this type... I just got bored the other times), and wanted pottery fairly early on. I didn't have many cities nor units, and Rome declared pretty early. After some frantic maneuvering, got peace from Rome. Not too long later, Japan declared, and brought in LOADS of archers. However, They were warring with Rome also. I think I had like 3 or 4 towns at the time (I tend to expand really slowly fast enough if I'm going for 20k). A lot of desperate moves, trying for peace every round, and about 3 turns from them able to overrun me, they acknowledge my presence for peace. PHEW.

By 1000BC, I think I had like 4 or 5 cities. At some point, Persepolis (where people mentioned the 4 turn factory) became a 4 turn factory (with Monarchy), then I got to expand a bit better.

Rome has most of the bottom Island, and even the Spices peninsula. I'm thinking I'll need to culture absorb them or something...

Upon completing GL (the tech pace is somewhat slow... I was able to grab Oracle and HG and GL, and still wasn't in MA), I hit my GA. I have a prebuild going, and need to cross the ocean (I saw the borders twice, then my galley sunk) to trade for construction (Ottomans completed GW, so I know I can get to MA from them). I really don't want to waste my GA on a small item, so getting to Sistine ASAP is important.

Sorry for the lack of dates. I just wanted to share (I'm going pretty slow for a fast 20k win. And with my low power throughout the game, I doubt I'll have a good score... )

 

[ÆnigmÆffect]

Question for 20k:

Is it a good idea to trigger an Ancient Age GA to get some of the big items built earlier, so they accumulate more time? I didn't get GL till some time in the AD, and think that'll hurt me (I'm currently getting 25 cpt, and in like 200 or 300 AD...?)

 

[Grogs]

Question for 20k:

Is it a good idea to trigger an Ancient Age GA to get some of the big items built earlier, so they accumulate more time? I didn't get GL till some time in the AD, and think that'll hurt me (I'm currently getting 25 cpt, and in like 200 or 300 AD...?)

The GA is probably largely wasted in the AA. 2 shield tiles, like mined BG's and mined plains won't produce any extra shields. Also, if your pop is significantly less than 12, you'll also get fewer shields from the GA.

BTW, 25 cpt sounds ok to me. My 20k city was producing 21 in 150 AD so we're in the same ball park.

 

[ainwood]

Question for 20k:

Is it a good idea to trigger an Ancient Age GA to get some of the big items built earlier, so they accumulate more time? I didn't get GL till some time in the AD, and think that'll hurt me (I'm currently getting 25 cpt, and in like 200 or 300 AD...?)

An early golden-age is fine, if you've got a decent number of cities (eg. if you'd got a good settler-factory working).

The thing you don't want is a golden-age whilst you're still in despotism - make sure you've got monarchy or republic first.

The reason is that a golden-age gives you an extra shield and an extra commerce in every tile that is alrady producing one. In despotism, any tile producing 3 or more food/shields/gold has the output reduced by one: Ie the extra gold/shield from the golden age can be 'lost' due to the despotic penalty.

 

[denyd]

I had a worse than despotism expierence in this game as the turn after I revolted to Republic, I was sneak attacked and spent the first 6 turns of my GA in anarchy

 

[Sabre]

I agree that most of the time you don't want a Despotic Golden Age, but sometimes if you wait you might miss a good opportunity to attack. In this game I went ahead and attacked Rome as soon as I had enough forces. The Golden Age helped me pump out Immortals and I figured gaining Rome as a second core 20 - 30 turns earlier would offset the hit my GA production took. My towns all had enough production to get Temples and Libraries built while maintaining enough of a force to deal with both Rome and Japan and also managing 4-turn research. If I had waited I would also have had to face more Legions, who ended up being a good match to the Immortal. I think the no-Despot rule is generally the way to go, but there are exceptions.

 

[Iver-P]

I hope this post is not too revealing. If so would staff remove it or what ever needs to be done? Thanks

I'm just wondering if everyone experienced an conspicious resource missing from the home continent?

How is it that the GOTM "gods" always seem to graciously provide some things, yet force us to cooperate (trade) with others in order to get others?