GOTM 42 First Spoiler

[Erkon]

GOTM 42 First Spoiler

Reading Requirements

Stop! If you are participating in GOTM 42, then you MUST NOT read this thread unless EITHER

• You have reached at least 500 AD in your game, OR
• You have submitted your entry

Posting Restrictions

• Please do not disclose information gained post 500 AD.
• Please do not name civilizations that requires caravels to contact.
• Please do not reveal territory that requires caravels to reach.

Ahh, a bit of a challenge, no?
How did you manage the barbs?
How did you adopt to the land?
Any key decisions?

 

[RobertTheBruce]

GOTM 42: The Lonely Hearts Club GOTM

4000BC – Scout to top of forested hill – nice spot for second city to the west but it is too far away to send the settler. I move the settler SE toward sheep and look for anything promising. There is nothing promising this direction but I’ll have lots of forests to chop in the early game and hopefully will found second city along river. I found Moscow because I don’t want to wander too long in a raging barbs game.

Early builds – worker – warrior – warrior – chariot

Early techs – AH (founding my city on top of the horses is a bonus) – Wheel – BW – Ag – Pottery (Granaries for whipping and cottages for some research) – Writing – Fishing – Mysticism – Meditation – Priesthood – Code of Laws (160BC)

The good:
I discovered gold near St. Petersburg in 640BC – a big bonus which helps combat the severe happiness and commerce limitations. Razing a barbarian city gave me the gold to run deficit research toward Code of Laws and founding a religion.

I have popped two scientists for an academy and second settled (meh but too many low value techs to waste on a lightbulb)

I finally have a grip on the green portions of the continent.

The bad:
The barbs come early and often and my chariots and worker are pinned in Moscow by the onslaught. I lose a chariot trying to defend the pigs and have to whip another which results in 2 unhappy faces from whipping for 13 turns. This really slows my development and my worker spends a lot of time sitting in Moscow.

My cottage development is far behind schedule because it took so long to clear the barbarians and start rexing. There is no copper to be found and I only have 3 combat II, shock chariots left so I am not going to last to long against the axes and (shudder) swords. I have the green portions of the map fog busted but my belated scout workboat keeps finding more and more tundra.

All the wonders are being built at reasonable dates. It appears that the other civilizations aren’t having barbarian problems or massive wars. Taoism and Christianity have been founded so I’m really far behind and it looks like a long game. I seem to be drifting a bit but hopefully I can pick up my game as my cottages develop.


5AD situation – 4 cities, Confucianism founded and I have converted and am spreading the faith for happiness and culture, 1 great scientist (academy in St. Petersburg).

500AD – 6 cities, Civil Service, Monarchy and Iron Working researched. I’m still a long way from optics and am researching Literature instead. I don’t think I will beat the AI to Optics so I will try to pop some more scientists to lightbulb to education. Hopefully, I can trade my way up to Astronomy soon after meeting the neighbors.

 

[dr_s]

Boy did I botch this. Sometimes CIV really makes me feel like a terrible player.

715 BC stats: 1 city, 4 pop, 1 worker, 4/4 char/war, 0 lux res, 0 health res, 1 WW (SH), 11/8/9 F/P/C, 9 sustainable BPT, 11 CPT, 4 GGPPT, 14 gold, 0 religions, 0 cottages, no buildings other than SH. Techs: (Min, Hunt), BW, AH, Wheel, Myst, Writing, Med.

5 AD stats: 3 cities, 9 pop, 3 workers, 5/2/4 char/arch/war, 1 lux, 1 health res, 1 GP (prophet), 1 WW, 29/21/19 F/P/C, 12 sustainable BPT, 21 CPT, 4GPPPT, 3 gold, 0 religions, 0 cottages, still no buildings other than SH. Techs: Poly, Ag, Pott, Archery.

Moved the scout to the forested hill and decided to settle 1 SW of the start. Based on my test starts I decided to go BW -> AH and war -> worker. The idea was to grow to size 2 before starting the worker, have an extra fog buster asap, and be able to chop as soon as the worker popped. When I saw the horses in the BFW I wished I'd stuck with my original plan to go AH -> BW. Teched wheel.

Just before 2800 BC the barb influx occurred. I'm not sure how to prevent it. At that point I had a warrior on the desert hill to the NW fog-busting the west and the scout fog-busting the east. Fortunately all the barbs were warriors, but I think I killed about a dozen over the next dozen turns. Eventually got a bit of control through whipping some more warriors and was able to found St. Pete in 1900 BC 1 S of the pigs to the east. I was thinking of going culture at that point; seemed the easiest given the settings and all the great land.

Got the horses hooked up and then, before building any chariots, I decided to build SH. I was thinking (a) get a couple GP to found religions, (b) better fog-busting from cities via the free obelisk, and (c) SH generates a lot of culture (16 CPT once it doubles). Almost got away with it, but one turn before it finished three barbs (2 archers) showed up at St. Pete. Got two defenders there (one a cover warrior) and the scout as a distractor, but in 1120 BC St. Pete was razed. Never would have happened if I'd just built a couple chariots before starting SH. Worst of all I was left with essentially no fog-busting in the east. A few turns later, a second barb horde appeared, this time axes.

Thought a bit about quitting, but eventually decided to fight them off and rebuild. Eventually got control of the continent and started founding cities. Still planning to go culture, I think, but I'm waaay behind ...

 

[titanvol]

Moved 2 east & settled for pigs, sheep & ivory, researched AH, horses next to Moscow, researched the Wheel then BW. Barbs kept me pinned down in Moscow for a long time, but my scout had managed to do a nice 360 & returned to the capitol, i feared he might actually be needed for defense. I was barely able to whip out a couple chariots in time to make some headway & then sent out a settler to build St Petersburg (1720 BC) east on the coast near fish & cows. My original scout & a few warriors were escorted by chariots I put in places to the east to fogbust & eliminate barb generation in that direction. Realizing archers would show up soon & there was no copper I researched archery. Between archers in forests & hills & combat II shock chariots I was able to deal with the barb problems & gradually posted units throughout the map, put a small stack on the hill choking off the land mass to the east to keep them from coming from that direction.

Spent a small amount of time in confusion about what to do next. Decided to research masonry & founded a thrid city next to stone in 745 BC & built pyramids with a combination of chops & the whip in 145 BC, converted to HR, though in time I wanted representation. The problem is I want caste system to run extra specialists since writing & libraries are only allowing 2 scientists, but I need slavery because of low hammers. I settled a GS in Moscow, the next will build an academy there. Trying to create a mix between specialist cities & cottages for a hybrid economy.

Speaking of economy, it has been toast for ages thanx to military costs, now spamming settlers everywhere trying to figure out the best way to make a comeback, knowing I am far behind, I have no religion & confucianism & christianity have been founded so I will not be able to found one. Going for compass for harbors (wanted GLH, but got beat to it before I ever had a city capable of even thinking about it) realized I shoud have tried for GLib, but i fear it is too late now. After compass will research math then currency.

Techs (not in order of research): fishing, whl, ag, hunt, myst, mas, sail, pot, ah, arch, mas, bw, writ, IW; w/ 7 turns left to compass

Have 7 cities & another to be founded next turn, land mass will be completely settled within a few turns, then I can start on the eastern land, but might delay that because of economy. Not real confident about my situation & unsure how to best proceed from this point. I really want to leave slavery / hr for caste / rep; but low shields & only one lux w/ no rel I don't know how to best pull it off right now.

 

[Defiant47]

I died. 2800ish BC. GG

Cranked out a worker, then chopped another worker while building a warrior, then started chopping a settler when 7ish barbarian warriors came by. Having 1 warrior, I pulled him back to the capital, sacrificed all my workers to delay the onslaught, chopped another warrior, but still got razed.

Guess I should have read that "Raging" part more carefully.

 

[Cinnabar]

Emperor with raging barbs is waaay above my level, so my plan was to survive until 500AD. I can't remember the order in which I researched, but roads and animal husbandry were early discoveries. I built fighting units for a while, and finally a worker. When the first two fighters sent out to guard the horse square died in one turn (bad luck, or weak units? -- I've never fought an ocean of barbs at this level ), I hunkered down and built a barracks, then tried it again. Once I had the barracks and some improved units, I built my pasture, built chariots, and began to make some headway.

When 500AD came, I had two cities, and St Petersbug had a monument, so it expanded, and a farm on its rice tile, so it grew. I had improved a few tiles besides the horses, had a teensy bit of income, and had begun to station fog-busting chariots (the one piece of good luck I had is that my scout lasted long enough to show me most of the land).

Honor was satisfied, so I retired at that point. Score terrible, but higher than zero.

(Since I wanted to apply what I thought I learned from the experience, I then started over. The first time, I'd been too cautious -- too many fighters garrisoned in the city who could have been added to pasture defence duty. Having chariots earlier made it possible to bust the fog and end (mostly) the endless struggle against barbarians (you should have renamed Peter Ivan the Terrible!). I went past 500AD this time, but to avoid spoilers, I will simply say that the first AI I met was so far ahead of me it wasn't funny.)

As an addition to the "why don't you submit?" discussion, I don't expect to submit my pathetic 500AD survival record, but I'm glad to have had the game to play with, and play over! I look forward to reading reports from better players. I also want to know whether there are ANY resources in that corner of the world besides food.

 

[Conquistador 63]

Ahh, a bit of a challenge, no?
How did you manage the barbs?
How did you adopt to the land?
Any key decisions?

Indeed, isolated start + raging barbs can be annoying. Losing a couple units at 98%+ odds can be infuriating. But maybe that should be expected: by 1AD I had 90 barb battles, won 80 and lost 10.

Anyway, what I regret the most in the BC era was losing the race to the Pyramids by a handful of turns. I bet my last coins on Math and Masonry, founded city4 next to stone and was chopping it furiously in StPete when some AI built it in 325BC. My dreams of running a representation-boosted specialist economy collapsed. I then teched towards Monarchy at 0% for HR and in 500AD I was 4 turns away from CoL. My 7th city was founded in 80AD and the 8th settler was on its way to found city8 a couple turns after 500AD in an all important mission, but that is for the final spoiler.

 

[Spionkop]

I settled Moscow on the coastal hill to the SW, made defending easier but after AH I realised the horsies were outside my BFC and I couldn't hook up the stone easily either. It got worse as my plan was to build my 2nd city to pick up the ivory, pigs etc (would have claimed the horsies too) but there was a barb city...on a hill....with archers!!! Tried to take it but didn't take enough troops (only had warriors and archers so pulled back but now faced CG2 archers instead!!!

Happy cap has castrated my growth and I feel like I'm teching backwards!!!

 

[kcd_swede]

GOTM42

Contender save
Goal: Diplo with space race as back-up

Settle: In Place (on lush land did not want to risk settling on resource).
Research path: AH > Wheel> (BW)
Build: worker>warrior>warrior>

AH obvious first choice with two pasturizable resources visible in BFC. Horses revealed next to Moscow so I put wheel ahead of BW in tech queue.

Worker actions: pasturize pigs; pasturize horses; road horses; pasturize cows.

Scout actions: before settling moved 1W1S. Then explore in a U shape (SW>S>E>NE>N). Then get eaten by lions.

Started building chariot as soon as road completed to horses. Sent one warrior NW to explore area (mistake). Barb warrior shows up in NE. Second warrior moves to forest NE of horse to get 25% defense and prevent pillage of horse. Second barb I didn’t see is 2 tiles south of Moscow, IBT moves next to Moscow. Moscow undefended, 3 turns to chariot, 1 turn to capture by barbs. 3 and 2 turns to move warriors home. Change prod to warrior knowing at best my horses will get pillaged before chariot built. Retreat warrior to horse and pray barb warrior is too stupid to take Moscow. Prayers answered: Barb warrior dies attacking warrior on horse instead of walking in an undefended Moscow. Second barb warrior kills wounded barb on horses. Second warrior home. Horses pillaged.

More barbs on way. Warrior built, attacks wounded barb: dies and does no damage. Barb warrior defeats fortified warrior behind 20% cult defenses. Game over – conquest defeat 2590BC (47 turns played -- 21 minutes played which includes a 10-minute break from the computer-- a new record for me!). Game submitted.

OK… I was cocky and did not think barbs would be such a problem. I might have been able to get a chariot out before the wave of warriors was on my horses if I had pasturized the horse before the pig, but I think that only saves 1 turn, since re-inventing the Wheel was the bottleneck. In all honesty, I think only if I had good luck (and bad judgement) to settle ON the horses did I have any chance of chariots before the onslaught.

I might have had better battle luck against barb warriors if I kept all produced warriors fortified in Moscow. If either of those had been enough to get one chariot out before horses pillaged (not sure… I think I still come up 2 turns shy of a chariot) then this game would have been a piece of cake I’m sure. (See... Still cocky!)

Oh well… stuff happens. I’ll get more done towards my EQM this way anyhow.

I'm sure the gamemaker put lots of effort into a nice world. Too bad I didn't get to see any of it. I was trying to find where the copper was placed from these spoilers... but I still don't know. That's pretty evil.

 

[Adama]

I chose Contender because I didn’t feel Adventurer would help at all. Besides, I need to learn to play Emperor level straight up. None of my recent attempts have ended with a happy ending.

Peter lost control somewhere pretty early on, and I am not sure I can even put my finger on it. Of course concerns with the Barbs was a factor, as was my economy, which tanked completely. Thoughts of retiring came to mind…

The stats I have included below tell the whole story. E.g., Peter had killed 86 Barb units by –O- AD. I tried to fogbust, but my economy wouldn’t support that many units outside my own territory. I went to hook up stone and get Masonry, but I had forgotten that there is no Great Wall in Vanilla ! Since my second city sucked {Stone City}, maybe that’s a reason I started to fall so far behind. I had 3 cities at 1oooBC, 4 cities at 5 AD, and six at 5ooAD. Perhaps I overextended my empire, ah, …but …those Barbs…

I probably {never do } didn’t build enough workers.

I finally teched far enough to get my first GP (a GS for the Academy in my capital) by 5ooAD.

My sustainable beakers per turn by 5ooAD were only about 9-to-13bpt. [Darned if I would have told them that, Peter ]

Peter was not running any specialists (after securing the Academy).

He had built no wonders of any kind by 5ooAD. {He did start the Pyramids, planning to lose, in order to try and revive his sagging economy with the $$$ therefrom in exchange for hammers}.

He had no religions by 5ooAD.

He had not even met any other AI civs… Did no ‘sailing’ yet…

He was researching HorseBack Riding at 5AD and Alpha at 5ooAD.

So what did Peter do those first 4,5oo years? Uhmmm… gosh,… gee,… I don’t really know. Mostly fighting Barbs with warriors and chariots. It will be interesting to read some of the better players’ spoilers to see what Peter was supposed to have been doing !.

Stats listed below as of 1oooBC, then 5 AD, and lastly, 5ooAD

Game	GoTM 42			
Civ	Peter			
Traits	Philo			
	Expansive			
Rivals	Six Ais			
Difficulty level	Emperor			
Map	Cust Cont			
Climate	Tropical			
Sea Level	High			
Starting Era	Ancient			
Speed	Epic			
Options	Raging Barbs, Aggressive AI			
Vic Conditions	All			
				
	Start	1000 BC	-- 5 -- AD	5oo AD
Cities 		3	4	6
Population		8	18	24
Workers		3	4	5
				
x/x Units (best, all others)		7/14	10/15	3/20
Best Unit Type		Chariot	Chariot	HorseArch
First Barb Warrior	286oBC			
Horses		Y	Y	Y
Copper		NO	NO	NO
Iron		No I/W	No I/W	No I/W
Stone (forgot no Grt Wall)	124oBC	Y	Y	Y
Marble		N	N	N
Luxury Resources		Ivory	Ivory	Ivory
Health Resources		Yes	Yes	Yes
				
# Great Persons		None	None	GS Acady
				
# World Wonder		None	None	None
# National Wonders		None	None	None
			Pyr=$$$	
Food		31	40	59
Production		17	17	24
Commerce		1	14	6
				
# Sustainable Beakers per turn		1     :(	13     :(	9     :(
				
# Culture per Turn		2	8	
				
# Great Person Points per turn		None	None	None
Gold		29g	3g	4g
				
# Religions		None	None	None
				
#/# Cottages Used		None	6/9	8/16
				
# Civs Killed		None	None	None
			1 Barb city	
Time Played 		6:1o	8:22	14:04
   (leave game running all time)				
Academy Date				ca 5ooAD
Alphabet Date				
Civil Service Date				
Liberalism Date				
Oxford Date				
Astronomy Date				
Biology Date				
 				
Build Order/Buildings	Worker		3 Lib's	Libraries
	Warrior		4 Granaries	Graneries
			2 Barracks	Barracks
			2 Walls	
				
				
Techs	Hunting*	Stalled….		
	Mining*	Wheel	Writing	Writing
	>AH->->	AH	AH	HBR
	>Wheel->->	Hunting	Hunting	Archery
	>BW->->	BW	BW	BW
				
Researching			HBRide	Alpha
				
Units killed/lost		59/5	86Barb/14	
				
Victory Type & Date		???	???

This one was (and may continue to be... at least for a while longer), quite the learning experience ...

Adama

 

[Adama]

I think one comment above was significant... but it is possible spoiler info, so don't read it if you don't want to be influenced.

Spoiler :

I then teched towards Monarchy at 0% for HR

As a somewhat inexperienced GoTM'er, I completely overlooked the severe early 'happiness' restriction on this map until it was way too late. An early drive for HR would have been so much more effective than my drive toward Drama (i.e., Alpha was for nought, given the isolated start).

My 7th city was founded in 80AD and the 8th settler was on its way to found city8 a couple turns after 500AD in an all important mission, but that is for the final spoiler.

I'll be interested in hearing this story in the last spoiler...

It's revealing to see how everyone else handled this situation.
Adama

 

[ZPV]

Contender save. Goal: survive the barbs and see what I can get.

I settled 2E1S on the river (on turn 1), getting sheep, pigs, and horses in the first ring, and ivory in the second ring.

I immediately sent the scout to explore the North-west, becuase I could already see rice there. He managed to uncover everything north of the tundra in the west, but was killed before he could explore the east.

I researched AH first, thankfully revealing horses in my BFC, and started on Bronze Working.
I forgot that Chariots need the wheel
I switched to The Wheel about half-way through, when the barbs entered my territory. The first wave suicided on my fortified warriors, ignoring my pastures (although there wasn't time to build one on the sheep).

My early build path was Worker->Warrior x5->Chariot->Settler->Worker->Chariots

St Petersburg was founded on a coastal site to the West in 1990 BC, getting 2 Rice and Cows in its BFC.

Once its borders had expanded, I promoted my first Chariot to Sentry (+1 visibility range), and placed it in a position in the Northwest to completely fogbust that quadrant, effectively eliminating 1/4 of the barbarian threat.

I captured a barbarian city (Hurrian) in the east in 1480 BC, and I decided it would be my GP Farm.
It had Fish+Clams+Rice+Cows+4Floodplains!!!!!

Using these three cities, and some Sentry Chariots, I was able to completely fogbust the area north of the tundra long before the barbarians got Axes.

I continued to press the barbs back with chariots, further south, driving them out of the South-East (and fogbusting that), when they finally got Axemen.

I had a few chariots to spare at the time (~800BC I think), so I tried to push them back along the isthmus to the southwest (I didn't know how much land was down there), and I noticed a curious effect: When I put a unit on the 1-tile-wide part of the isthmus, the barbarians ran away
My best guess is that this blockade disrupted their pathing algorithm, becuase no more units tried to march towards my cities.
Total barbs killed: 48 Warriors, 9 Archers, 2 Axemen

This was great news for me, becuase it meant I could focus on my economy, as one is meant to do in an isolated start. However, I was sorely limited by the lack of happiness, and I didn't think of ways to circumvent this early enough.

City #4 was built near the stone in 910BC, allowing me to build the Pyramids in Moscow in 370BC.

I built 2 more cities by 5AD (both coastal), and I hoped to make a late run for the Great Lighthouse, but it was BIFAL in 320 BC.

I researched to Literature, so I could build National Epic in Hurrian, and then I popped a GE (my third great person) I used him to build The Great Library in 230 AD.

I missed out on Taoism by 1 turn , as it was FIDL in 305AD. I popped my 3rd GS the next turn, which I instead settled in Moscow.

At 500AD, I have no religion, am 1 turn away from Civil Service, but I have Drama, Currency and CoL. This will let me build The Globe Theatre in Hurrian (it has so much food that it's worth the gene pool pollution IMO), and Theatres+culture slider to maintain happiness in my other cities, so I should be set to grow and grow.

Stats:
955BC (that's my closest save to 1000BC)
3 cities, 8 pop, 14bpt.
5AD
6 cities, 30 pop, 93bpt @10% science, 1 settled GS in Moscow, Pyramids.
500AD
8 cities, 38 pop, 130bpt, 2 settled GSs + Academy, Pyramids, GLib + Nat. Epic in Hurrian.

 

[Markus5]

Gold? I didn't seen no stinkin' gold! It was almost impossible to hook up the horses. The barbs were thick. At one point there were 9 of them inside my borders. At one point I was down to a single weakened archer in the capital with 2 barbarians on the doorstep. A smart AI would have attacked. Both barbs plundered and I was able to whip one more archer and hold on. I lost 3 workers and a settler and all their associated guards. Barb axes showed up way too early. Finally, I stopped trying to finesse my way out of the jam and built nothing but archers. No improvements, nothing. With four archers guarding a worker I was able to connect the horses.

I'm well beyond the limit of this spoiler in the game, but I'm not sure if I'll go back to it. I need time the think.

The early mistake was researching Bronze before Animal Husb and building far, far too few guarding units. Apparently 3 warriors for a worker isn't enough. If I were to do it again, I'd research Animal Husb, then Wheels, then Bronze and I'd build warrior, warrior, worker, warriors until chariots are available then charriots, and then with some fog-busters roaming around, I'd think about a settler.

 

[reuster]

reuster, contender save

goals:
i)survive raging barbs and bust the fog
iia) frolic through luscious, food-filled grasslands (REX)
iib) create the sweetest GP farm possible
iii) due to likely barb-delayed early economy, choose a VC that allows me to take advantage of the long-term economic benefits of the awesome terrain. Plus, I love space. Space it is.

early plan || what actually happened
i) settle on a hill for defense. || I explored with the settler and found the hill due E by the ivory with sheep and pig x2 in BFC, settled there.
ii) research AH>BW. || After AH I noticed horses in the outer ring of the BFC, so changed to Wheel before BW.
iii) build worker>warrior>warrior. || Check.
iv) scout a ring around the capitol. || Check (scout got eaten after discovering ~80% of the continent, so I figured it was a success).

IIRC, I think I had 2 warriors garrisoned in Moscow when the first barbs showed up. Though defending Moscow was a relative piece of cake, every warrior I sent to defend the horses (which was every one beyond 2) got clobbered usually with the odds in my favor. I managed to build one chariot before the horses got more-or-less permanently cut off <-- everyone's favorite smiley this game.

Ironically, the chariot then died trying to re-occupy the horse

By this time I wasn't even trying to fogbust anymore; I had no chariots, and the warriors I sent out for that purpose were getting slaughtered now by archers. For the next several turns, I was simply holding excess warriors in Moscow while scraping out a settler and simultaneously crawling towards IW (I already knew there was no copper). After the failed iron gamble, I founded St. Petersburg on the coastal hill to the W with rice/cows.

I knew I was doomed

Archery came next, just a hair after the barbs upgraded to axes. I could not whip/chop archers fast enough, and the axes swiftly decapitated my highly promoted warriors in Moscow. Down to one city, pop 1, no worker, no improvements, 1 archer, and 1 warriors, the Russian civilization imploded :suicide:

Ok, ok, now I'm itching to retry. Things I tried differently:
i) settle on the horse,
ii) build warriors first, worker later (I may have even built a chariot before a worker).
iii) tech AH>Wheel>Archery>BW
iv) use archers to defend Moscow and pastured sheep on hill, use (sentry) chariots to fogbust
v) expand rather than improve tiles

These changes seem to be working. In about 1000BC (Edit: Oops, more like 190BC of trial #2 I have 75% of the island fogbusted and the barbs are down to a trickle, albeit of scary axemen. The empire is a modest 3 cities with Moscow on the horse, St. Petersburg in the same place as before (W hill w/ rice+cows), and Hurrian captured on the E spot with rice+cows+fish+clams+fp. The latter will definitely farm me some GP . So far, the only improved tiles are sheep and Ivory by Moscow, and rice by St. Petersburg, though I may be almost ready to defend more improved tiles. Libraries are coming up, and the first GS built an academy in Moscow.

Soon I will finish my fogbusting army and then build settlers and workers to start my economy. As for tech, I'm beelining Optics since I know the AIs are way ahead, though I will probably detour to Monarchy to solve happiness problems. I have no plans for wonders right now, since none of the currently accessible ones are really worth the hammers I would otherwise spend on fogbusters, settlers, and workers. Maybe the GLH, but probably not.

So what did I learn about raging barb starts? Since I went against the "spirit of Civ" and used my knowledge of where resources were and weren't in trial #2, it's hard to say what I should have done differently from the beginning. I guess building warriors before a worker and prioritizing expansion over improvement of tiles are two general principles to apply to a raging barbs start. Still, if I hadn't settled on the horse and/or hadn't known to research archery for lack of metals, I don't think those two principles would have been enough for me to survive.

 

[JerichoHill]

This was awesome.

Not.

Research AH->Wheel
Settle in place, get Horseys.
Build a Chariot just a first Barb encroaches.

Chariot attacks Barb. 95% odds to win
Loses.

Barb takes city next turn.

Game ends.

Cries.

(Sorry, have not sent in submission yet, but its cause I am at work)

 

[reuster]

I just thought of something: the last Emperor game I played was BOTM 08, in which we started alone on a lush island... Sounds familiar, but I remember I actually won that game, in style, with tons of wonders too. What was different about that game... ?

 

[Futilitis]

Well I looked at all the advice about archers in the pregame thread, and I thought. Sneaky thought occurred to me that if there were horses the Adventurer save could be to tempt/allow adventurers into Horse Archers quickly (all right, less slowly) - which would fit the general mounted Russian push at some point narrative, that seemed to be shaping up. Then I built (regenerated something close) and played a few (universally depressing) test games in which I was wiped out. Came to the conclusion I would settle in place and trust to finding some copper with a tech path of AH->BW with the expectation of finding neither and having to go on to IW. Production has to be worker->*warrior until wiped out. Decided to go with the standard save.

1600 BC To my stunned amazement I more or less called the thing right. I'm alive. I've lost the scout, of course, and irritatingly a chariot. I saw the first archer a few turns ago and he has just started taken down the crucial fog buster on the wooded hill 3E which is going to be a pain. I have just built my first settler. So, defences are thin at the moment having lost the chariot out there too. Was hoping to settle north of the clams, but I think the whole barbarian archer thing is going to be a bit rough in that direction for a while. Will build chariots madly and settle in the safe and lush torth-west somewhere. the question is, where exactly? Still ten turns to IW so no good clues and no obviously superior site.

We appear to be on an isolated start. I'm researching IW - which I fear is a mistake at this point. Going to need to cottage spam massively and research massively to deal with the isolation. On the plus side I should survive longer than I expected.

1300 BC IW - no Iron visible - what a waste of time that was. Need fishing to open up pottery and for St Petersburg yet to be. Maybe should be putting "My Town" to the NE (where it faces the new city of the barbarian hordes), but it amuses "Me" to use it for it's traditional purpose (opening up a new sea trading vista)!

1240 BC founded St Petersburg with serious chariot support and a brief barb lull where I originally planned directly north of the clams - it's a short-termish positioning rather than 1 square further N, but heck I need stuff now, and I don't want to have to divert into Meditation and monument building too soon.

910 BC Founded Novgorod 1 west of the oasis to the NE. Hope to have a spare chariot to send to obscure corners of the island to find some metals! Badly need to get the ivory on-line for some happiness.

715 BC First axeman sighted. Chariot hides in trees but plowed under. Need metals - still none found. Why am I researching writing? I need horse archers should I stop or carry on for extra research? I need the research too in the bigger scheme of things. Carry on with the writing build library and meanwhile spam chariots until I can get horse archers.

685 BC Am going to lose Novgorod. Bad words.

430 BC Rebuilt Novgorod as Rostov.

85 BC 1st GS - build Academy: research has not been good, still only 40%. I'm going to get destroyed when someone-with-tech arrives. Still unable to penetrate the SW of the island: a steady drip of chariots keeps the situation stable in a classic strange attractor way. Ten turns (no eight now I've academied the capital) to horse archers, which should give me the upper hand on the axes and get something in there that can stop the spawning without costing so much it stops my research. I'll then need to decide a longer term research strategy. Probably beelining currency makes sense so I can get some more cities out and cottage and start a virtuous financial cycle to fund research.

I have to say, writing things out knowing you have an audience does tend to make you stop and think a bit more clearly about what you are aiming for with strategy. You have to justify it to yourself and it gives you a chance to notice the gaps. A worthwhile playing tactic to improve your game!

500 AD Pretty much what I planned: research up to 60%, still no metals found, 16 turns to currency. Still havn't researched meditation, farming or sailing and no-one to trade with yet - which I suppose is good in that I won't have to fight anyone - but bad in that I need to trade. Will pop a settler next turn (and build another soon). Aiming to settle it to NW, adjacent to the rice where it will eventually see the cows and clams, cottage lots and build a library.

Must explore SW completely, although looks wildly uninviting in there. Will then probably research construction for a painless barb city reduction. Would prefer if it was somewhere else from a coverage point of view (NE flood plain opposite (N) of the cows) but it's a nice spot for a city so I'll probably keep it, seeing as it's well established and has great potential. Much building of markets must also happen. Unfortunately no happy resources for markets to act upon. Will irritatingly need to aim for monarchy, see if I can do the get meditation and use next GS to bulb philosophy. Note to self - must postpone sailing until this is done or a loss. Not been paying attention to religions. Only philosophy and islam left: no surprise there. Doubt I'll get the Oracle...

... but maybe I should postpone the
construction idea to give it a go ...
and you do get consolation dosh.
---------------------------------------------Nah - better to REX, I think.
Oracle is nice though.
---------------------------------------------NO! Discipline! This is emperor!
[sulk]
---------------------------------------------Anyway, now I look at the log it went ages and ages ago.

Log of events in distant lands (which people may or may not be curious about):
Buddism 2670 BC
Hinduism 2710 BC
Judaism 2110 BC
Confucianism 310 BC
Christianity 80 AD

Stonehenge 850 BC
Oracle 670 BC
Great Lighthouse 130 BC
Pyramids 20 AD
Parthenon 140 AD

Never thought I'd get this far. Wow! I think I'll eventually discover I'm at the back of the pack though.

 

[Orry]

I settled in the rather odd spot of 3W 1S. I made the fatal mistake of building a warrior instead of a worker first though, I hadn't managed to improve a tile before the barbarians showed up and declared the show to be over in 2710 BC. I think its the first time I've finished a GOTM in less than 10 minutes.

 

[Lanstro]

My scout revealed the rice, and I decided to settle 1SW to make sure I had at least a couple of hills.

Research went AH->wheel->BW
Build order was worker -> warrior -> warrior -> chariots

The barbs came about when I hooked up the horses, and they came thick and fast. It was a bit touch n go at times, but the capital itself was never seriously threatened.

Eventually the chariots started beating back the hordes, and I was able to stick 3 warriors/scouts to the northwest to fully fogbust that area (rotating out more chariots). My second town was founded to the NE for 2 ivory + cows (+maybe sheep? can't remember - am at work).

I made a few errors with the micromanagement of workers (happens when playing with a hangover), the biggest of which was not noticing a barbarian archer, getting one of my workers killed. So I doubt I'll be at the top of the scores for this one, but I'm doing OK. The AIs don't seem to be building the wonders or researching techs all that quickly, so I figure I'll catch up sometime around renaissance/industrial and crush them militarily (hopefully getting some use out of the cossacks).

 

[Deckhand]

Contender save. (oh, how I wish I had stuck with plan for Adventurer, although I don't think it would have made any difference).
turn one, moved 2S; turn 2 settled SW (of start position)
Researched AH, Wheel.
Developed Pigs, Horses. Started road.
Built worker, warrior, warrior, warrior.
Won first battle. Lost next three. Game over.