GOTM 42 First Spoiler: End Of Ancient Age

[ainwood]

GOTM 42: Rome: First Spoiler

In this spoiler, you qualify if you have reached the end of the ancient age, you have all contacts on your starting continent, and you have a full-view of the staring continent, showing the majority of the coastline, and the locations of all the capitals of other civs.

You may post screenshots, but please:
Do not: Post any showing anything not-on the starting continent.
Do not: Post any minimaps showing any galley routes (successful or not).
Do not: Discuss anything outside of the ancient age.

This was a tough starting location. Where did you decide to settle? What were your initial builds and why? What was your strategy throughout the ancient age as you learned the lay-of-the-land and the locations of critical resources?

 

[Megalou]

Open,

Settling

Where did you decide to settle?

I did not so much decide as bite the bullet. After walking around the lake - worker south of the lake, settler north of the lake - I settled 2NE of the wine. The walk was not worth it, with all that jungle to the east, but at least I got easier access to the wine and the river bonus. It was the river that made me move in the first place, hoping for two floodplains with wheats and 18 bonus grasslands.

Indeed it was a troublesome start. I could not find a good RCP from where my capital ended up. Eventually I decided to start with RCP5 to secure some land, and then fill up with RCP3 later. But I never got around to RCP3 for reasons that will be evident later. I did not see the coastline to the east and only partly the coastline to the south, or I would have chosen RCP4.

After founding Rome, I built 2 warriors and a settler. I then thought it fit to start a granary prebuild. But after my first tech goal, The Wheel, was obtained, I chose Mathematics as the second tech. In the end this made me squander 31 shields on the granary, because I couldn't buy or trade Pottery until I met my last neighbour, Greece, who traded it to me.

It was a nervous time when my sole worker mined the wine (12 turns, remember) and both warriors were out walking, but the barbs didn't show themselves. Near Greece I popped a hut with barbs, though.

Research

My research sequence was The Wheel (didn't get much trading value but was able to trade potter later) ---> Mathematics (did get full trading value) ---> Code of Laws (full trading value) ---> Philosophy (don't remember). All these techs were researched at full speed except for the first 5 or so turns on mathematics when I saved money to be able to buy pottery.

I then researched republic at minimum speed, but decided that my first war could not wait for this research to be completed.

Egypt

Egypt's weak UU is the one break we've gotten in this game so far, together with the protective moutain range that leads all the way from our territory to Thebes (pretty similar to the last Persia GOTM). With about 25 turns left on republic I marched 17 legionaries and 1 archer onto that range. This was not an ROP rape; I figured I should save that option for later civs.

As my despotic Golden Age commenced my Forbidden Palace build just south of Egypt speeded up a little.

Thebes was captured with ease, but the two towns north of it held sway a bit longer. Thebes flipped once, which cause minor problems, like temporary disorder because Thebes had The Oracle and I had built a couple of temples. In 90 AD, with 1 turn left on republic, I made peace with Egypt for the reamaining AA techs. Egypt was left with 1 town quite far from Thebes. I founded a town in the midst of the flood plains to flip the palace to, but I may flip palace to Thebes instead, seeing how the conquest of Egypt went smoothly.

Importantly, horses are secured. My min research on republic netted a surplus of 1537 gold.

An unusual problem may occur when I finally flip the palace: I may lose access to the wines because of my RCP5!

Goal
Well, it's domination. I'm uneasy about my late entry into the Middle Ages. I'm prepared for a shock when you people tell about yours.

 

[eldar]

Open

I'll keep this quick, there's little to tell.

After setting 2N on the hill, building a couple of towns and deciding I didn't like the local territory (desert?! jungle?!) I built a few Archers and went after Egypt. My first target fell easily, but Thebes was Size 7 and I fell at the gates.

Then Egypt built the Great Wall.

No problem, surely my stack of 10 Archers can break through the defenses of Thebes.

That didn't work either.

No problem, surely my stack of 7 Legions can break through.

That didn't work either.

By this point I was way down in tech, had thrown away my GA in Despotism with a handful of cities, and I crawled into the Medieval Ages sometime around 500BC.

I finally killed off Egypt after about 4 attempts, but not before Greece had Cavalry before I even had Knights, and Greece eventually finished me off in 1190AD.

Maybe I was too hasty in going after Egypt with just Archers. Maybe I should've hooked up Iron earlier, built Legions sooner, and waited a bit longer to make my first attack. Egypt had great territory, Horses, Iron, and Thebes was an ideal Palace jump location.

 

[ionimplant]

settled two NW of the starting position and found my 20K city 2 tile to the west along the sea, but not along the river since too big a corruption will result. and i don't feel like bringing it to size12 soon considering this is empire and there isn't much food around.
nothing happened after that. built colossus and was really worried before GL finished in 390 BC, bring me all the techs and sent me to MA in 370BC. drawing a 3 turn anarchy on my way to republic.
1990 BC Temple
1250 BC Colossus
390 BC Great Library
lost all the AA wonders except for the two that i mentioned. but nothing to complain about.
On F11 screen Athen is the number 1 city while my culture city is number 2.

@eldar, i'm sorry to see that a good player like you finish this early due to rng luck... good luck next gotm! (did you try offa's calculator to see the odds of taking thebes?)

 

[eldar]

I did retrospectively use it to work out the odds, based on a guesstimate of the city's defence (1 Elite spear on top, one other known Elite spear, and a guess of 3 more Reg spears), 10 Vet Archers still had a better-than-50% chance of taking the city, even at 7+/with walls. I'd left 2 Archers behind as well, maybe if I'd taken all 12 things would've been different

 

[Xerol]

I thought walls didn't have an effect when a city was size 7+.


Anyway. Vanilla Open, Goal of Diplo or 20k.

Diplo could wait, 20k couldn't. I settled 2 NW, on a forest tile that connected ocean with lake. I did lose the forest, but had 3 more chops and several BG's available. Rome was to be my 20k city, and since I was going for a low score, a good date wasn't a requirement. I just needed to have enough wonders/improvements early enough to get it ~1950 or so. (Any later and the AI will most likely be heading for alpha centauri while I'm nurturing the last 1000 cp in Rome.) I managed to get 5 cities out before I ran out of room, mostly because I lost my second worker early on to a single barb and couldn't get my semi-pump going fast enough. I didn't see another barb on the home continent the rest of the game.

Rome got temple, colossus, and library. Athens looks like another contender, second place on the F11 screen with the library and something else(don't remember exactly).

Got into an early war with Egypt but left them with 3 continental cities. Greece, in an alliance(still keeping the diplo option open, I decided on having greece as my "partner to the end") got 1 city out of it, but I now had the entire subcontinent under my control and was ready to charge towards the middle ages. Despotic GA actually worked out fairly well, since I had a lot of roaded but unmined BG's around, so they got full bonus from the Golden Age, and it let my workers focus on connecting up the new egyptian cities, and along with 12 slaves, clear away a good portion of the jungle.

Will I charm the world into becoming UN Secretary General? Will the world be awed by Rome's great culture? Or will I fall to an unforseen enemy? Stay tuned.

 

[Redbad]

Open PTW

Settled 2N on the hill. This isn’t looking nice: 1 bg and no foodbonusses. I’m taking Nata’s advice from the pregame and start building military. Research min. on writing.

Soon an Egyptian warrior arrives from the north. We do some trading. Then some scribe made a list of something. I only notice there are Greek and Carthagians on the list. Knowing the evilness of Ainwood, they must be on the same continent. After building a barracks and a archer, the archer heads north in the direction the Egyptian warrior came from. Mostly mountains and jungle around. Then he approaches the Egytian border: Thebes. What a magnificent sight: 2 wheat, 2 deer and plenty bg’s. Anyone with his capitol in such a location must become a superpower. The only thing wrong with Thebes is that it isn’t the Roman capitol. So that needs correction, and I change the settler build in Rome to archer.

In 2110BC three veteran archers attack Thebes which is defended by a regular spearman and a regular warrior. The third archer doesn’t have to fight. For now I only want Thebes and we make peace with the Egyptians in 1950BC for 2 workers, BW, Wheel, Pottery and 6 gold. Next turn we abandon Rome and Thebes (which is renamed to Rome) becomes the new capitol.

Second Egyptian war starts in 1075BC, this time using legionairs. Next turn our golden age starts when we capture Memphis. In 825BC we autoraze Alexandria and the following turn Heliopolis is captured and we make peace again, this time getting Map making, Mysticism and Pi-ramesses.

In 590BC when our despotic (and wasted) golden age ends we dow the Greek. We capture Plebos Nexia and autoraze Argos. Peace in 490BC for literature and territory map. Next turn Republic is researched and we draw a 7 turn anarchy, but reroll gives a 4 turn.

The Carthagians think they can expand by settling some open space between the Greek and the Romans. In 370BC we dow them and capture 4 settlers. In 290BC we get message that a distant civ is destroyed. And finally in 90BC we enter the Middle Ages.

And here a pic of the Roman empire in the Ancient Age.

 

[klarius]

Predator

PtW

Started with worker w settler nw. Finally settled on the 2 n hill.
Built 3 warriors then settler.
Started with min research on writing.

cities
3850BC Rome
2670BC Veii
1750BC Antium
1575BC Cumae
1125BC Neapolis
1075BC Pompeii

6 towns, 12 pop
3 barracks, 2 granaries
4 workers, 1 settler
6 warriors, 5 archers, 1 galley

875BC Pisae
750BC Ravenna
610BC Hispalis
530BC Viroconium (ponies)
330BC Lutetia
250BC Byzantium

science
2590 traded BW, all I could get for my starting techs
2110 traded pottery
2070 writing researched, Greece already had it. Still could trade masonry, CB and TW for tech parity.
1525 philosophy researched
1475 trade MM and mysticism
1225 trade IW and CoL
1150 Mathematics researched, trade for HBR
710 trade literature
590 trade construction
530 trade polytheism
510 republic researched 3-turn anarchy
250 trade for currency. Greece already had it some time but I couldn't afford it before (monopoly).

diplomacy
3000 meet Egypt
2590 meet Carthage
2150 meet Greece
2030 establish embassies with all three
1025 Athens builds the pyramids. I'm far from being able to capture it, but it's on the list
925 declare on Egypt. Raze Elephantine. Goal of this war is to get some horses.
900 meet the rest of the world
875 embassies somewhere else in the world and the first phony war there
450 Carthage declares. Make peace with egypt and ally them.
430 we have horses online , Raze Sabratha (only real action in this war)

Will soon switch sides again and go for Egypt in earnest.
Then at some time Greece and the rest of the world.

 

[2000warrior]

Class: Open, PTW
VC: Domination/Conquest always
Notes: I'm sorry if the dates are a bit inaccurate. I saved periodically throughout this game instead of logging it (wasn't too sure whether I'd post it). Any dates I'm not completely certain of have a *.

4000-3900bc: I have a certain fear of deserts from my first deity game... I go N without a second thought and end up settling on that hill 2 N of starting location.
3650 bc: warrior builds, sent N.
3600 bc: Egyptian warrior approaches from NW. God am I glad they're not the aztecs or zulu, but that's a pretty immediate approach.
3200 bc: Thebe's boarders discovered.
3100 bc: Egyptian boarders have me bottled up pretty well. I assumed this is a small continent and set pottery at max.
2700 bc*: cruddy terrain means I'm going to get about 3 citys up then go for several warrior to legionary upgrades. About 3 quality cities early on will be a must.

Noting that I'm not playing with an industrious civ, I think about 3 good cities pumping warriors for legion upgrades should take most of Egypt and a LOT of workers later on could turn this area around, though it will take some time.

2500 bc* settler/warrior pair moves down to the gold mountain outside of thebes, my SOD monitoring warrior is nearby and I block them off using the lake and ocean as natural barriers.
2150 bc Veii founded where that warrior/settler pair was headed. They turn back.
2030 bc Egyptians start on pyramids, now have contact with carthage and greece. Ugh, so that's why Egypt only had a couple extra techs.
1900bc*: see another settler/warrior pair heading down toward the spices. I go for a semi-block but they move towards the coast and keep heading S. Let them pass and send warrior back to SoD scout mountain.
1725 bc: Alexandria appears in the jungle close to rome. Ye god that's nearby. Must be some killer future resource over there.
1575 bc: Antium founded.

1100 bc: Egypt has the only capital with size 8, they started first on the Pyramids, and my invasion force is almost ready. I build an embassy with Egypt to check progress of Pyramids. Zero growth and due in 8 turns.
1100-1000 bc: connect iron and upgrade about 8 vet warriors to legions in Veii. Send 6 legions up toward Thebes.
950 bc: declare war on Egypt, send stack of 6 legions toward thebes. Upgrade another warrior so I'll have 3 to send at Alexandria next turn.
850 bc: Egypt completes pyramids and I lose 2 Legionaries capturing Thebes. Alexandria falls with no casualties but suprisingly isn't destroyed .
470 bc: Greece takes the Great Wall.. crap.
290 bc: make peace with Egypt for a free ride into the middle ages and a WM of the continent.

I've gained Thebes, Alexandria, and Helispolis. Destroyed another 2 Egyptian cities but have already resettled them before anyone else could nab the spots. Greece and Carthage are in a pretty big war and I've already seen about 10 units fall on both sides. Because of their UU's, both are probably in their golden age by now. I'll have to build quite a bit before I assault either of them. Greece is currently building the GL, and Carthage has no wonders it is pursuing. Since the remainder of Egypt is right between myself and Greece, I'm planning to mow through Egypt and assualt Greece after the 20 turn peace period to nab their GL if it completes.

After first seeing Thebes, I descided that would be perfect for an FP, and started building one immediately after capture. Now all I need is republic but Alexander refuses to sell it. I'll be pursuing monarchy at max and try for a trade.

Mistakes & Miracles:
- Assuming I was on a small continent was a pretty big blunder, but I guess it doesn't matter at this point since I'm almost caught up in techs.
- Catching that warrior/settler pair that was aimed for my Veii spot was huge. Without that city, I'd be way behind on warrior production.
- Thebes taking the Pyramids and its completion time working out to be just after my planned invasion time was perfect. Amazing timing really.

 

[killercane]

Open for a 20K attempt

My story is somewhat similar to Redbad's. In the pregame I had decided on an archer rush and banked on having someone close by to pound on. And lo, when 3500 BC rolled around and an Egyptian warrior stumbled across our (future) great civilization, we knew that North is the direction we would go.

I settled one NW on desert (a palace move WAS in order), worker west who saw the sea, then chopped the woods on turn 3. Warrior-warrior-barracks was the build order, with the barracks quickened with the chop and no wastage. Set research to writing at min. 5 archers were sent to thebes and at 2030 we declared and took thebes. Wait a few turns, whack some straggling Egyptian warriors for some elite archers. Send 2 elites and a vet east to Memphis. Attack Memphis with the second elite and get a freaking MGL, Trajan. Boy did I love PTW at that moment. On the same turn he runs to Thebes and builds the Pyramids at 1500 BC. We took peace, all the first tier techs, a few workers, and a city from Egypt. 1400 BC we jump the palace to thebes once it had grown, in order to quicken the temple build.

I then saw a stack of Numidians and archers headed my way. This could be bad. But they attack Greece! Thus started the 2000 year long war between the two. This got both of their golden ages out of the way without any really needed wonders out there. The game could not have progressed any better at this point.

My research path was where I screwed the pooch. I went writing-philo-lit-col-republic, forgetting that the AI does not value polytheism at all in PTW. Lit should have followed writing, then poly, then monarchy for a new govt and more importantly the hanging gardens. That, coupled with losing no less than 9 galleys trying to find another civ in this godforsaken world, meant we lost the HG to civ X and Thebes was stuck building legions foreverrrrr. We entered the middle ages by researching currency and getting construction from the library around 200 bc. I replayed and researched lit, poly and monarchy, and this led to saving 10+ turns on the library and GL, allowed me to build the HG in the BCs, and get to the MA so much quicker. Im really, really kicking myself on that one.

My builds:

1500-Pyramids
1400-Palace
1225-Temple
630-Library
230-GLibrary

I never saw a single barb on our home continent.

 

[Jove]

Arrrr, my AA was similar to Redbad's. I settled on the hill 2 north, decided to build a barracks instead of a granary until I found a food bonus. Generally a conservative approach, only units for MP, archers to deal with raging barbs, no exploring until things moved a little. DOW on Egypt in 2070, Elephantine, one of their new towns, destroyed the same year. Peace in 1790 for everything they had, a floodplains town, a tech, some gold. Oh my, the land I captured extends farther than my troops could have even marched! The floodplains town is at rcp=5 from Thebes, and Egypt's remaining town is, too. Nice!
The capitol didn't move to Thebes until 1575 BC- all cities were size1, it was size2. Interesting. I grew the best I could, had a mind toward resources.
1000BC: 6 cities, 12 citizens, 9 worker, 5 warrior, 3 archer, 2 barracks, Iron, wines. 38g.
I hooked Horses in 975. Carthage build the Gr. Lib in 690, so they were targeted next. I didn't want a despotic GA, so I waited until I was a monarchy to attack...in 30AD. Actually, I attacked the Egyptian remnants first to finish them off, triggering my GA. I just so happened to meet some foreigners this very same turn, and was able to trade for all necessary AA techs and enter the Middle Ages. I did some fomenting, but that story only begins where this thread ends.

 

[Niklas]

, Open.
Goal undecided, but after the MicroManageMania I experienced in GotM 41 I want something a bit more fast-paced.

The early game
Settling on the spot was out of the question. My people took a short hike of 100 years, to settle on the forest NW-N of the starting location.
My plan was to build warriors and settlers, expand and wait for IW.

Met Egypt early, traded for CB and Masonry. Researched Pottery myself, then Writing at minimum. Met Carthage in 2510 BC and traded for BW. Writing finished in 1575, I then bought IW from Carthage...
Didn't meet Greece until 1425 BC, they were at war with Egypt. Just keep on fighting, my dear friends...

War and more war!
Iron in the mountains to the south, I had two workers dedicated to the task of connecting it (and the wine) to Rome. They were finished in 1075 BC, and I immediately upgraded 7 warriors to legionaries. 10 more warriors are waiting. Declare on Egypt in 1025, raze Elephantine in 1000 BC.

QSC stats:
6 towns
14 pop (14 happy... )

1 granary
4 barracks

10 legionary (1 elite, 9 veteran), 2 of them less 2 hp.
12 warriors (10 veteran)
3 workers
1 slave

Tech: Missing TW from first tier, have IW and Writing on second tier.

2gp, -7gpt (very temporarily

As you see I have a habit of maximizing happiness before handing in my QSC...

My legions marched on Thebes, which fell easily in 875 BC. Memphis and Heliopolis fell shortly after, and Pi-Ramesses actually flipped to me the turn before I was to capture it. I bought TW from Greece, and then made peace with Cleo in 710 BC for all her tech (HBR, Philo, CoL, MM and Myst) and one of her two remaining towns. Go for Republic at 100%, I can afford the -10gpt for quite some time and if I get it first I might be able to get back the investment.

My legions were still restless, and Carthage make themselves my next target by first building the Pyramids, and then plopping down a town to steal "my" horses. I DoW on them in 610 BC and bring in a reluctant Egypt with me. Doing that saved me a lot of trouble since most of the Carthagian counter attacks were directed towards the much weaker Egyptian troops.

Diplomacy, Republic and MA
In 430 BC I met the rest of the world with my very first galley, trading for Maths and Poly. Construction is also available but one of the civs have a monopoly so I wait. No intercontinental contacts were traded since I plan to abuse Greece badly and take them out before they can tell the world about it.

Researched Republic in 370 BC, 3 turns anarchy means we were a Republic in 310 BC. Traded for Construction and Monarchy from the other side.

Carthage fell in 390 BC. and their two other major towns shortly after. Unfortunately I screwed up and allowed them to take Utica back again, with the Great Lighthouse, while I was off chasing Hippo. Before I could rerecapture it I had to sue for peace in 150 BC since WW was running rampant on me. At least I know hold their two towns on hills.
The turn before peace, 170 BC, I had traded for Currency and entered the MA.

Plans for the future are to build horsemen, build treasure and wait for Chivalry. Then ROP rape Greece with at least 20 Knights. Hope it works.

 

[killercane]

"In 430 BC I met the rest of the world with my very first galley"

*grumble*
I cant really complain about the crazy RNG though...

 

[ionimplant]

Open for a 20K attempt{/QUOTE]
wow, very impressive! you're going for 20K and yet you did that with a city from another civilization!!!

 

[AlanH]

Predator Spoiler 1

The early years

We sent the worker off north west to look for better pastures. Here are my timeline notes:

Worker NW. Sees coast to west, more forest NW. It would take two settler moves to get the probable grass in the north into the first city radius. Unless it's bonus grassland, it will take 6 turns to mine it to be a 2.1.0 tile, and 9 turns to get it to 2.1.1. In 11 turns we can have 10 shields from a forest and open up a grass tile. 2 settler turns will lose 4 food, 4 gold, 2 turns research. Options are:

1. Settle NW/N turn 2. Start mine turn 3. Complete mine turn 9. Complete road turn 12. pop 2+0 food+14 gold+3 shields.

2. Settle turn 0. Start chop turn 2. Complete chop turn 12. pop 2+4 food+24 gold+10 shields.

Decide to settle in place. Start warrior. Wheel at max. No point in having spare cash around at this stage.

And so it came to pass. Rome's builds were:

3500 BC: Warrior
3000 BC: Settler, who built Veii on the hill NW/N/NE from Rome in 2850 BC.
2750 BC: Barracks
2550 BC: Warrior
2190 BC: Archer
1990 BC: Worker
1700 BC: Archer
1625 BC: Warriors ....

Meanwhile our first solitary warrior did a circuit south of the lake and then headed north east and north. Our brave little soldier met victim #1, AKA Egypt, in 2550 BC, and Carthage in 2190 BC. We bought contact with Greece in 1830 BC.

Veii built a barracks first, then a granary to become a ten-turn settler factory. Cities then came fast and furious - but mostly built by Egypt

2310 BC I logged: Egypt are encroaching fast! It looks like Cleo is going to be running our settler factory for us.

1500 BC: Antium
1250 BC: Cumae
1025 BC: Neapolis
730 BC: Pompeii
550 BC; Pisae

QSC Report

5 towns, 10 citizens, 9 working fully improved tiles or lake. 2 granaries, 2 barracks, 11 warriors (1 reg), 2 archers, 5 workers. 1st level techs + IW, Writing, HBR, Literature in 20 turns at 10%. 79 gold + 12gpt. Egypt is building our cities for us. We have iron, and will hook it up real soon now and we'll need 40 gold per legion. Don't think barbs are going to be a problem.

Wars

In 370 BC all the local Egyptian towns had expanded culture or pop and would not autoraze if captured. I had upgraded a bunch of legions, and decided I had to use them, even though I was still a Despot. A despotic Golden Age happened in GOTM 41 and we survived to tell the tale, time will tell whether we can get away with it at Emperor. We declared war on Egypt and our legions captured her three local towns by 290 BC. In 210 BC we took Thebes, and in 150 BC we captured Memphis in the east and we had horses in our sights. In 70 BC Thebes flipped back to Egypt. It was quickly recaptured, but this was to be an early portent that our failure to build any early Roman culture was going to cost us a few sleepless turns.

We autorazed a couple of Egyptian towns, and captured two more before 130 AD, removing all of Egypt between us and Carthage. We made peace during The Great Trading Round that took us into the Middle Ages in 130 AD. Meanwhile, in 10 AD, Greece demanded tribute. I figured a bit of war happiness wouldn't hurt, so I rejected and Greece declared.

Research and Trade

2750 BC: Researched The Wheel, started Writing at max. Confirmed that Ainwood was living up to his reputation and we had no horses as far as we could tell.
2470 BC: Traded Egypt The Wheel+3gpt+5 for Pottery+Bronze.
1830 BC: Traded The Wheel+1gpt+1gold to Carthage for contact with Greece.
1525 BC: Buy Iron working from Greece for 30+6gpt. Swap IW for Writing with Carthage, start Literature at minimum. We have iron next to the wines. Thanks!
1350 BC: Buy HBR from Greece for 4gpt+26. Sell HBR to Carthage for CB+7.
775 BC: Buy CoL from Greece for 10gpt+, buy Mapmaking from Carthage for CoL+WM+55.
550 BC: Literature complete. Buy Philosophy for 5gpt+11+WM from Carthage. Start Republic at 10%
210 BC: Buy Maths from Carthage for 7gpt+11. Buy Mysticism from Carthage for 3gpt+14
130 AD: We finally reached the Middle Ages as a result of alien contact and some nifty trading in The Great Trading Round, which the spoiler rules preclude me from describing.

At that point our citizens reluctantly offered to put a front door on our cave - our first palace improvement.

Where next? Spoiler 2 beckons .....

[EDIT] I've added a screenshot showing Rome's territory at the point of entry into the Middle Ages. I assume the constraint of "Starting Continent" allows me to show the offshore islands, since they were visible once maps were traded and/or Rome got ships in the water.

 

[killercane]

@ Ionimplant

Well I had a settler that had gone to the best coastal spot NW of Rome, but that city couldnt match Thebes' powerhouse production and central location. I also thought about disbanding Thebes and putting it on the coast, but I would've been wasting a bonus grass, the game, and the good production. I could've done the Hanging Gardens in a mere 10 turns (40 spt) in my golden age if I had just had Monarchy. In addition to everthing else, you really need the Gardens or the Oracle in the AA if you use a landlocked city, and I pulled neither so it really hurt my end date.

 

[Nata]

PTW - Open.
Going for fast Domination or Diplo.

Start - exactly from Pregame discussion.

Settler NW and settle. Worker chop N from Rome.
We are on the coast!!!
Research: Writing at Min.
Build (work Forest - 3, Lake - 1): Warrior, Warrior, Archer with a chop.
1st warrior explores (We are in the jungle!!!), 2nd guards Rome.

3400BC. BG under the forest - road, mine.
3250BC. Archer explores. Settler in 10, grow in 9.
3000BC - Archer sees yellow border.
2950BC - chat with Cleo, she can trade BW and Pottery for Alpha and WC, but suddenly she says something strange: "Illegal operation - system will shutdown". WTH?!!
Reload from Autosave from this turn, repeat the moves (all 2 of them), hope it's OK.
Resume chat with Cleo - she trades BW and Pottery for Alpha, WC and 5G. Has 2 workers for sale, but I can't afford it. Save game - just in case.

Missed opportunity
RedBad, you played my dream game! The moment I set eyes on the wondrous Thebes I wanted it and I knew that the key to the game lies beyound its gates.
But instead of following my own advice and just build archers I proceeded with my 1st settler.
The result - not enough archers to take Thebes quickly, and I only managed it much later with legions.

2670BC - Veii found on the coast NW. I deside for RCP4. Archer crosses Egyptian border, meets Carthage, trades Pottery for Masonry + 50g. Rome is building barracks.

2310BC. Worker chops right after barracks, hurries an Archer. Archer moves North, war with Egypt is imminent.

The war which was too late

2150BC. One archer trails behind Egypt warrior/settler, another watches 2 workers clearing/roading Spices next to Memphis.
I want to declare as soon as workers finish with Spices and Archer catches up with the settler pair. 4 extra workers would be nice.
Well, this turn settler plops a town in a really weird place and workers finish clearing Spices and just leave! D'oh! Aren't you guys suppose to mine it or something? Lazy bastards!
So I dow on Egypt and all I can manage is to autoraze the new town and pillage Spices just out of spite.

2110BC. Archer on Spices withstands 2 warrior attacks, gets promoted. Another vArcher and warrior move to position on Thebes. One more vArcher is hurrying North.

2070BC. Get Writing first, trade with Carthage for IW, Wheel and CB. Get Embassy with Cartage, but hold off on MA against Egypt. Unfortunately can't trade with Egypt.
Memphis has Horses and Iron! Got to get Egypt, and get it fast!

1950BC. Heroic Archer on Spice kills approaching warrior and a defending Spearman in Memphis. A,A,W and a new A move to Thebes. A attacks Thebes and dies. Warrior pillages road. Another A kills the Spearman in Thebes.

1675BC. Veii builds Granary, starts on Settler. Rome builds Archer and starts on Settler, to clame close Iron.

1625BC. No way we are getting Thebes now. It seems like it's adding a spearman every turn.
Peace with Egypt for Mysticism, 43 g and contact with Greece. I'll connect Iron first, and only then repeat the attack with Legions.

1500BC - Antium on river/coast close to Egypt.
1475BC - Cumae on iron.

QSC
1000BC Neapolis founded stealing Wheat from Thebes.
975BC. Pompei founded on S coast.
Forgot to save 1000BC, so 975BC stats: 6 towns, 12 pop, 2 workers, 2 barracks, 1 granary, 2 v archers, 1 spear, 11 warrior (3 reg, 8 vet.) 337 cash, CoL in 2 turns, Wines hooked up.

670BC. Have lots of Legions and 29 turns to Rep. Time to declare on Egypt. Maybe GA will help research Rep. faster.

650BC - declare. Autoraze Spice city and move worker over. Take Thebes (9 Legions, 2 die) and capture 3 slaves.

410BC - peace after we take Heliopolis with Ivory. They give Byblos with Horses, Math and 30g for peace. Their Capital jumps to El-amarna in a the jungle in the midst of our territory.

170BC - suiside Galley sees a border.

10BC we are the Republic.
Earlier Greeks beat us 2 turns to Republic so we couldn't get any trade benefits from that. And Carthage beat us to Great Wall by 6 turns. Bad omens.

170AD - reach another tribe, get Currency and enter MA.

Attached: Roman empire at 50AD.

 

[Drugged_Unholy]

PTW Open - Going for the ambulance.

I have never won an emperor game before, and looking at the start didn't give me much hope that I could now. Nevertheless it is the taking part that counts, and my main goal is to learn from the mistakes i will make.

I settled Rome NW and N of the starting location and started building some warriors to explore. I soon met the egyptians and traded away with them. It was 2670 BC before I got a settler out of rome, which I used to settle on the river and coast up North, calling the city "20k attempt city" - despite having never achieved 20k and only really intending to have a half hearted attempt at it. I then built some more warriors for the purposes of Military police and hopefully to deter aggression. This is how things looked in 1000BC

Obviously a terrible start, still - Rome wasn't built in a day.

In 825 BC the 20k attempt city built the colossos, but I was unable to build any other wonders as I was by now too behind in tech. I settled some more towns to the east and started building some troops to go against egypt. In 290 ad Egypt demanded tribute and I refused. They declared and as my military wasn't as strong as I wanted I waited for their attack. In 320ad my golden age began as I fought back. However I made a massive mistake here, I left Rome undefended save for a warrior, and bad luck on the RNG meant a stack of egyptian swordsmen approached rome. I manged to kill all but 1 of this stack, but bad luck on rng left this sole swordsman standing on full power. He then beat the warrior in rome and had taken my capital. The palace jumped to the 20k attempt city, which had already built the forbidden palace. Although I re-took Rome 2 turns later the damage had been done, my remaining towns were extremely pissed off at the war and my lux rate was so high I was running deficit spending - despite having no research. Every turn i was losing a unit, which most turns was fine as I could take losing warriors, but I also lost some workers. Nevertheless I was begining to advance my troops into egypt as they were now fighting the greeks as well. I took 2 of their cities (with heavy losses) before accepting peace and some techs. I now had the jungle to myself and thus decieded to rebuilt my infrastructure and military. I then traded my way into the MA.

 

[MOTH]

[PTW] Open class for whatever victory falls my way.

I'm playing this one as quickly as I can with little MM as I must submit by May 1st before vacation.

I settled on the spot and built warrior-warrior-settler-warrior-settler. I was able to find both Carthage and Greece before they found each other as Egypt quickly blocked the center. Trading contacts allowed me to temporaily reach tech parity. Greece demanded something relatively early and I refused. Before they reached my land they were ready for peace but I bought Egypt into war with some large GPT which I promptly broke by signing peace. I was researching as fast as possible to Monarchy and once I had gone through a 2 turn anarachy declared war on Egypt. While taking Thebes I got a MGL and rushed the palace in Thebes which increased my remaining FP build time by nearly double.

Greece and Carthage were then also at war so I participated as well and eventually took Alexandria from Greece before getting peace. Egypt got peace when they were down to one Tundra town. Carthage got two cities between Thebes and the Horses so I got a settler across and rushed a Library to claim the horses.

I then started preparing an attack on Carthage. They had the Great Library and I was vastly behind in techs. I noticed that I could place cities CxC on a path that would allow Knights to attack Carthage on the turn of war. So that was what I would do.

A couple other points:
I was able to settle a couple of offshore islands including one overrun with barbs. The Legionaries stationed there quickly became Elite while I built Vet warriors to ship home.

I got my 2nd or 3rd suicide galley adjacent to a border on another landmass while still in the ocean. Shift-D allowed me to contact the Civ even though they didn't show up in F4. That was good as the galley quickly sunk. The other continent was generally backwards but was able to pay lots of GPT for techs. One Civ over there appears to own nearly half the continent including lots of cities with names belonging to two of the other civs.

I might go for Diplo again. The next play session I will be sure to gift each of the small civs a small city near my capitol so that they are not eliminated.

 

[Markus5]

As usual, I played another crappy game. But, this one had a twist at the end. Can't wait for later spoilers.

Anyway, I was paranoid about raging barbs and having no iron. So, I played oddly. I built RCP 3 and 6 and fortified all cities. I researched at max to Republic, trading along the way for some techs. With 3 turns left for Republic, Egypt declared war. With the legions I was now producing, I walked through their jungle cites on the east coast. The first battle started the Golden Age. The last battle produced a great leader who rushed the Forbidden Palace in a northern city. All the extra troops camped in the northern cities after making peace with Egypt. I pulled a 2 turn anarchy and finished the Golden Age as a republic. Egypt was divided east and west. I filled in cities as Greece and Carthage picked at Egypt.

At the entrance to the Middle Ages, I saw how powerful Greece was becoming, and didn't have the military skills and tech to take out anyone. I resolved to fortify my borders and concentrate on production and tech. I had a lot to catch up on.

Preview:
Will Greece continue to be the powerhouse?
Will Egypt survive as a divided nation with each half in its own vice?
What is happening in the rest of the world?
Can Rome defend its borders and join the elite ranks?
Stay tuned.