GOTm 43: First Spoiler (Entering middle ages)

[Ronald]

no military at all?!? Strange, some were backstabbed for leaving some towns unprotected, others get away without even MP.

Earlier I had 3 regular warriors, but I disbanded them after I became a republic because of the unit costs. I also started to build horsemen, so a few turns later I did have some military

 

[eldar]

I settled in place, and later discovered the Wheats. Ah well.

My main focus is not to lose, this being my first solo Deity attempt. At 1000BC, I had 10 cities, with room for one more, settled the next turn.

My tech gambits failed miserably: Mysticism, then Polytheism. I paid, and continue to pay, mucho gpt for techs. The GL was built off-continent, too, so that's not really an option. Research will have to be of the pointy-stick variety.

I concentrated first on Settlers, and some Workers, next on military. A couple of Temples to snag Whales, and border territory.

In 775BC, I paid Persia tons of gpt for Currency. In 750BC, I booted a Spear+Settler pair camped in my territory, and they declared on me This allowed me to buy Construction a few turns later, entering the Middle Ages in 690BC.

My core is building Horses and Cats, Iron is yet to get hooked up.

No contacts beyond the starting continent - even though the Lighthouse was built elsewhere, and as has been shown, there have been visitors.

Map courtesy of CivAssist2!

Neil.

 

[pnp_dredd]

Moderator Action: Moved this post from the COTM 12 spoiler #1 thread. (Wrong thread)

It was a short game for me this month.

Settled kyoto on the spot
Begin warrior
Begin mysticism at max science
Worker south, to irrigate and road
3800 complete warrior, who heads S
start warrior
3750 warrior spies 2 fpw to the S
3700 warrior sees hut. Decide not to open it just yet, maybe once I have some spearmen or vet units
3650 mm food
3600 complete warrior, start warrior
warrior heads E
worker NN to mine and road bg
3550 second warrior finds water E, so turns N
3450 mm commerce
complete warrior, begin temple
warrior stays as MP
3350 meet mongol warrior to the S
I get bronze working and pottery for the wheel, CB and 4 gp
3250 mm commerce
3200 N warrior finds barbarian, fortifies on a mountain and prepares for the attack
3150 Warrior wins without loss
belated realise that I have pottery, and switch temple to granary
3100 worker completes rm the bg. Moves SE to irrigate and road the grapes
2950 N warrior (who passed the goody hut) disperses a barb encampment, and becomes a vet
S warrior has moved E of the mongol lands
2850 Kyoto grows to 4, up lux.
2710 Kyoto completes granary, begins spearman.
A stack of 3 mongol warriors and 4 archers appears to the s.
worker moves N to irrigate/road the other wine.
Shortly afterwards, the Mongols destroy me.

 

[DBear]

@pnp dredd--bummer, but sounds like you posted in the wrong thread. This is CotM12, with the Arabs. At least you tried GotM43, I thought it too much for me.

 

[pnp_dredd]

oops sorry about the stuff up.

I must say that I was a bit annoyed by the result. I didn't think I had a good chance to win the game, but I win about 75% of my Emperor games, so I thought I would be in with a chance witha little luck. Lesson is not to build a granary on Diety...

 

[MiniMe]

Ancient Age: 4000BC - 1300BC
I settle 2 SE. I build 2 warriors and then settlers. I dont build granary in capital, but prefer to get new towns out as quickly as possible to be sure to get some of them before all area is taken. My second town shares wheat and builds a coupld of settlers before a granary and then spits out workers. I set out for RCP 4 and 7.

Inner ring builds mostly barracks and then warriors. First batch of swords are ready in 1200BC and I attack mongols. I get a couple of cities from them until QSC is over. I am lucky with leaders and get one in 975BC and 925BC. First builds Great Library in previous Mongol city and second builds FP in Karakorum. I soon get Monarchy from the Great Library and I switch to it instantly.

I got monopoly on Polytheism just about when the others got Currency and Construction in 1300BC. So I could trade for everything and enter MA with them. I never entered MA so early before.

In 1000BC I have:
15 towns (2 captured)
41 population
1 settler
15 workers
17 vet swords (3 lost)
7 vet warriors
1 galley
6 barracks
2 temples
1 granary

So am not at all sure I will be able to finish due to vacation (not sure I will be able to submit where I am going).

 

[civ_steve]

1.27f

Well, not having any starting Techs gave me pause ... but what the hell! So I started with just my Worker, Settler, 10 Gold and nothing else. Settled on the initial spot and got to work.

Built two Warriors, who headed off scouting. Then a 2nd Worker. After that, Settlers in the capital for a while. I decided to develop the local food, and use the Luxury slider to control the capital. Eventually got to Size 3 for four turns (4 Shields gathered), then size 4 for five turns (25 shields more +2 on Growth) and kicked a Settler out the door every 9 turns. Settled in rings of distance 4.x and 7.x; eventually got 6 cities at Ring 4.x and sometime in the early midAges got 5 at distance 7.x; Capital got a granary after about 4 other cities were founded.

Research - I must say I've lost at every research gambit I've tried so far. Started off on the Wheel; no one has that, and since we're the only Religious civ, no one has CerBurial either which might have been better to go for initially. Made contact with Mongols first, then China. China shows up with Wheel before I do, so I spend a little Gold to get it from Mao, and trade it to the Mongols for Pottery and 35 Gold.

OK, next I go for Alphabet. Then I contact Korea ... someone else now has Alphabet. I continue on, and pretty soon China knows it as well. Buy it off Korea, and trade to Mongols for Ceremonial Burial and Warrior Code. This is getting old!

OK, the AI doesn't research Math very early. Still missing Masonry, so I start on that. Pretty soon I notice the Persians and Ottomans show up on my F4 screen - Korea has Writing and has traded my contact to them. Darn, now the Mongols have Masonry along with everyone else but me! Buy it with a few turns left, and hurry down Math as quickly as possible.

As can be expected, Math is learned before I get it. I manage to cobble a bunch of gold together (and gpt) and buy it before everyone else knows it, and trade it for Writing, Bronze-Working and Mysicism. Best deal I've made this game, but I'm falling behind quickly!

OK, it's Currency or nothing! Off I go, and it's going to take a while. After about 20 out of 30 turns go by (around 1200 BC), I get notice that my effort is in vain - a huge stack of barbarians is announced by residents of my NE most city! I track down the owners of Currency - Ottomans and Persians I believe. I set Research% to 0, and buy it for a significant chunk of gpt, then trade it for Iron-Working, Code-of-Laws and Philosophy. I thought I'd give myself a shot at researching Republic.

So here I am, missing HorseBackRiding, Construction, Polytheism and Map-making of the required Techs, while the AI is cavorting in the MidAges, and I've got huge debts I'm paying off at the same time! Yuch!

Then something magical happens! First, the huge stack of barb horsemen heading my way detours to head North! Second, I see that England (who built the Great Lighthouse) has built a city between me and the Koreans. I send a unit over and make first contact in 1100 BC. The off-continent types are missing Currency (which I have), and have Literature (which no one on our continent has.) A ferocious round of trading begins. I trade first off-continent, gaining Literature, Map-Making and HorseBackRiding, all contacts, all Gold, all Maps. Then I trade with my fellow continent members using Literature, my WM and a little gold to get Polytheism, Construction, all local Gold, all local Maps. I'm in the MiddleAges! After a round or two of 'let's see if we can get a free MidAges tech' I check civassist and see M-B's little joke! So I form a bunch of embassies, declare war on one off-continent civ and a local civ (to be named in the next spoiler!), and use whatever trade commodities at my disposal to ally everyone else on the off-continent areas with the off-continent civ, and all local contintal civs with the one local civ I'm at war with. All the allied off-continent civs are Gracious with me, and the local civs are a mix of Polite or Gracious!

That's how I entered the Middle Ages! What a turn around from a few turns before! Whew! I'll post QSC stats and a map when I get home later.

(Edit: QSC Stats -
9 Towns
24 Citizens
1 Granary (Kyoto)
4 Barracks (Edo,Satsuma,Tokyo,Nara)
2 Temples (Edo,Tokyo)

1 Settler
10 Workers
7 Warriors
6 Horsemen

Contacts - All 10 Civs; 8 Embassies (only missing Vikings and Chinese); Full WM

Techs Researched : All Ancient Age Except Republic and Monarcy; researching Monotheism

Treasury: 401 Gold.

and map)

 

[PaperBeetle]

Open class...

As with a lot of posters (some of which were surprising to me) this is my first deity game. I just won my first emperor game (GOTM42, too late to submit), so I'm happy to play this domination-style to see how I get on, working under the assumption that I will get conquered sooner or later.

Unaware of the hidden wheat, and mindful of the hill's defensive bonus, I settle in place. First build is a warrior of course, and the hut pops maps

Then in 3600bc, after only one session of GOTM43, something disastrous happens: my civ is attacked by Real Life! Virtual time stands still, while a Real week passes. Now I come back to the game after the QSC deadline, thinking how am I going to get this game done in time? There's only one answer. I'm going do the One City Challenge. First deity, first OCC

Now I figure there are two realistic ways of winning a OCC; 20k and Diplo, and one can play for both at the same time. So after I build my second explorer, I start on temple. When this is done (3150bc), Kyoto concentrates on growth, reaching pop 7 in 2310bc.

My explorers find Mongolia in 3200bc, but only meet the Koreans in 2430bc. The other AI contacts come shortly thereafter as a result of contact trading between the AI, apart from Persia who I meet in 1625bc.

Kyoto's build queue didn't include much culture for a long stretch, mainly because I didn't have any suitable techs. Using its food bonuses, it built 2-turn workers until the Oracle became buildable in 1750bc. These workers did enough improvements for a size 12 city and then joined back into Kyoto to bring it straight up to full size. The Ottomans complete Oracle so I switch to Pyramids, but Persia finishes these in 1500bc and I waste 120+ shields building a spear. It's the first big shield waste I've had in a 20k game. Ouch.

Meanwhile, tech trading goes fairly smoothly for me and I can keep up, helped in particular by getting the monopoly on Polytheism, which I used to trade all techs and almost all the continent's cash in 1325bc. The English arrive on my coastline in 1175bc. They trade my contact to their neighbours, and I make a bit more cash with my new, temporary contact monopoly. England settles north of Kyoto.

QSC stats...
1 city with 12 pop (all happy) claiming 35 tiles.
1 barracks, 1 granary, 1 temple, 1 courthouse.
Total stored food: 37, shields: 66, treasury: 491.
3 workers, 2 slaves, 2 warriors (1 veteran), 3 archers (2 veteran), 6 veteran spears, 3 catapults.
All contacts, no embassies.
All ancient techs except Construction, Currency, Literature, Republic and Monarchy (26 beakers contributed).
Firaxis score to date: 209.
QSC score estimated by MapStat: 4760 Frankly, that doesn't sound very likely, and (to quote Fish) "I'll never really know for sure / You never really gave me time"

In 950bc, the AIs reach medieval and trigger a massive uprising. They mostly spend their time sacking nearby English cities, and just after they are all dispatched, Kyoto completes The Wall (825bc). One could hardly think of a more pointless wonder for this game (although it does match one of my traits), but that's all there was available to me. I trade for the Currency (to enter the medieval) and Literature (to start the Glibrary) in 775bc. I'm still a despot, researching Monarchy at minimum, although the AI have it already.

Well, so far I'm more than happy to be alive and hanging onto the AI's coat-tails. Fingers crossed for the medieval era.

 

[tR1cKy]

One day left for submissions, and i just made into the Middle Ages. Guess there will be another overnight marathon, but this time i doubt to be able to submit in time

 

[Niklas]

You and me both tR1cKy.
And today is my wife's birthday...

 

[eldar]

I don't think I'll be going back to it - I'm in the same position as tR1cKy. I plan to retire my game this evening.

It's one of those games where I didn't feel any momentum building. Plus I'm still not confident enough at solo Deity (not even touched COTM13, either) to really think I had a chance of winning.

 

[CKS]

PTW Open

Well, I managed to finish my game off in time, so I guess I'll write up something. I've been playing 20K games, but there is no way I'll be able to do that here. My goal is not to lose by conquest.

I settled in place and started in on alphabet. I didn't write down why, but I started at max, so I must have had some reason for picking it. Maybe I had great library delusions. The worker started chopping some forest to help build a barracks, and I built a single warrior first.

I put my next city between the wines and the horses, and kept rotten notes after that, as I kept expecting to be wiped out. I met the Mongols early on and Korea and the Ottomans much later. I popped a worker from a hut and used it as a scout, wandering through Mongolia, the Ottoman Empire, and Korea. Eventually it made it home, which was good, because I was chronically short of workers.

My research and trading went poorly, but I entered the middle ages in 975 BC. No wars, poor expansion - a typical early game for me.