GOTM 44 - Final Spoiler

[AlanH]

GOTM 44 Final Spoiler

Reading Requirements

Stop! If you are participating in GOTM 44, then you MUST NOT read this thread unless

• You have submitted your entry
• You have abandoned your game and will not submit your entry

 

[mtt9999]

wow. first post

well my 500AD was going pretty well, shooting for a cultural victory.

short story - didn't get it. 1394AD got liberalism; i know its late but this is diety 1541 got chemistry (for defense) and switched for an all out attack with culture... everything was going pretty well, with a victory date sometime around the 1960's for three legendary cities.

that all changed in 1600AD when Hats DoW me, which was ok because her attempt was weak, only lost one unit.. (she came by sea). never got peace from this war (more on that later) but this probably led to the next event...

1634AD Bismark DoW on me, right after he made peace with Alex... he was cautious and i thought it might be coming... this was basically the end. 1638AD timbuktu fell, destroying any hope of a cultural victory. He takes all my major cities and leaves me with three to live the rest of my life in peaceful eternity... but then Hat lands another boat of artillery, etc and in 1836?? my last city fell.

Good attempt at Diety though.. i'm relatively pleased...

Questions: I would say the weakest part of my games are diplomacy, I have little awareness on how to raise AI's opinion of me in the game (other than the usual 'years of peace, our trade relations'..., etc.) For example in vanilla, how do I see who is each AI's worst enemy?? and is there a write up or post that shows each AI's favorite civic?? That would have been really helpful because with spiritual i could have switched immediately with no consequence... Also, is there a general rule of thumb that states how much 'cash or technologies' you need to gift someone until you reap 'you have shared your technologies...'??? Is it a certain amount of beakers?? Can anyone post a link to a good thread that might discuss this please?

Who am I kidding though, Ghandi was already well on his way to space when I dies, and would have been in space about 1885 of 1890 - so it is really a moot point, but it would have been nice to see the race of culture versus space unfold.

@Jesusin: I have read some of your posts about peacemongering vs. warmongering, and as consolidation, Ghandi, with no wars in my game, would have won this one over alex, monty, and the bastard bismark who was my demise ... and thanks for all your writeups on cultural vics, they were helpful this game even though I didn't win.

Now. I must move on to WotM, on a level where I should easily win... i need a win for a change

 

[Smashace]

hooboy this was my second GOTM I've done, and the first one submitted. It's tough playing on Deity

Hmm Mali? Darn, no wonder rushing.

4000 BC: I like having all these nearby resources and being on the coast, teching Hunting first so I can get Ivory, going to put a mine with those Gems once Timbuktu expands...

3760 BC: Met half my neighbors already, Germany to the NE...

2590: far behind in the tech tree...

2260: Barbarians nearly killed me...gotta build a couple more skirmishers...

2170: Stonehenge built...and so the wonder race begins...I'll try and build the Great Lighthouse...converted to Judaism which was spread by a neighbor...

1570: At war with Monte...sent an Axeman and Spearman at me...my single skirmisher beat them both...thank God...bolstering defenses and abandoning the Lighthouse until I finish the war...

1360: Monte sends 7 units at me...my 3 skirms stopped them all...these guys can fight!

1090: Monte and I make peace...

985: Lighthouse was built...

220: 2 wars between 4 nations...Aztec vs Germany...Greeks vs Egypt...

190:Exploring an archipelago to the east...might be a good settling place in the future...

AD 110: Wars are done...

125: Spanish and Aztecs demanding tribute...not giving...

680: Too far behind in tech race, can't expand anywhere, I might've been able to make a military statement earlier, but I was being attacked by frickin' Monte. Oh well.
This is where I retired.

 

[ianw1610]

Goal - simply to learn something about Deity gameplay.

I started quite well - I was first to Alphabet, which let me backfill smaller techs, and grab a few other decent techs that had been prioritised by rivals. Also, Gandhi gifted me Metal Casting, which I used for some more trading.

My problem was the REXing of others - this restricted me to just 3 cities the whole game, with seemingly no feasible options for militaristic expansion. Maybe I could have targeted the Barb cities in the New World later on... but I chose to stick with my trusted 3 cities.

So I aimed for a 3-city Cultural win... got 5 Religions per city (none of which I founded), and 1 Cathedral per Religion. Although base Culture took a long time to develop, as I'd been working Mines rather than Cottages earlier in the game (to build a defence force / health buildings / culture buildings) - with hindsight, I should have allocated more priority to the Cottages... multipliers are not as effective if there is no base Culture to be multiplied! Aimed for just one wonder all game - Sistine Chapel - and got it...

...I think Gandhi built every other Wonder - indeed Gandhi was unstoppable in my game. He was first to Liberalism in 245AD, and seemed to get stronger after that - he had the most devastating army in the game, best production, best research, most culture, and UN Sec Gen.

I was surprised by my lack of wars. I had just one brief war with Hatty when she DoW'd me, but didn't send any units my way, then she accepted peace. None of the usual warmongers DoW'd me, although they spent a lot of time fighting amongst themselves. Monte wiped out Bismarck... Gandhi then wiped out Monte, taking Bismarck's former lands too...

So, I progressed in my Cultural pursuit, but all along I knew it was only a matter of time before Gandhi completed his victory. The Culture of my 3 cities reached 60k, 40k, 40k by 1824AD. That was when Gandhi launched his Spaceship.

I suppose it beats my 10 minute Conquest defeat from the last Deity xOTM!!

 

[gagnarath]

Having never played Deity before, or even won a game above Prince (Rare that I win there even 8D), my goal was simply survival until someone else won.

Mission acomplished! Cultural loss to Gandhi in 1808 (adjusted score 2.1k), he was also fairly close to dominationand SS victories having been ahead the whole game, he built all but TWO Wonders, amazingly I got the Collosus in around 900 AD (lololol) and Hatty got GLH >.> He delayed his Culture and SS to rape Monty near the end, had such a tech lead he could have beaten all by Conquest too, only Hatty was close and she was still behind militarily.

I made sure to spead each major religion around and re-converted whenever asked by Izzy/Monty (Buddhist) or Hatty/Gandhi (Hindu). I never lost a city to conquest, though I gave one away to Izzy that I conquered off Bismark and lost both Timbuktu, settled in place, and Djenne, West coast 1W of Dye 1N of spices, to Gandhi's culture. I founded a couple of island cities to grab some Fish, played a role in destroying 2 of the 3 dead Civs. I took 4 German cities, mainly with Amphibious Elephants 8D And took the last Greek City in between 2 of my island cities despite them having been an early trading partner Hatty was much more powerful and constantly at war with them and I joined in everytime she asked. I'd never have survived if it wasn't for the Skirmishers, I was involved with a few early wars with Germany while I behind them in Tech but their early assaults on me with Axes and Swords failed against my Skirmishers time and again even when I was massively outnumbered and thought it would all be over. Revenge via Suicide Cat and Amphibious Elephant was very sweet. Fun was had, though I never stood a sliver of a chance ;p

 

[ShannonCT]

At 250AD, I had destroyed Bismark (with help from Monty) and crippled Issy and Gandhi. Monty was tops in power by about 25%, and my scouting revealed lots of melee units in his cities. I would have liked to have attacked Alex or Hatty next, but going through Monty's land to get to them, and then leaving myself open to a massive backstab would have been inefficient and dangerous. So I had to take on Monty right away.

I spent several turns building up my Xbow numbers, and staging all of my 30-40 units at Berlin. Berlin was right up against Monty's culture boundary, thanks to a culture bomb he had set off. It was the most logical place for him to attack when I declared war. When I declared, he followed the script perfectly. He sent several waves of 6-8 units at Berlin, and I soon pulled even to him in power by hitting each stack with a couple of combat-promoted cats and then Xbows/elephants. After a little healing, I started sending 2 stacks at his cities. Monty was a tough nut to crack. He certainly didn't go down without a fight, but his AI-brain couldn't figure out how to wipe out any of my well composed stacks of elephants, Xbows, axes, and cats (with collateral damage stupid!). I captured all of Monty's mainland cities and made peace with him and his 3 island cities in 890AD. War weariness was hot and heavy and I would finish him off quickly later when I had galleons.

Unfortunately, I completely screw up my plan when I take Theology in the peace deal with Monty. Theology unlocks Paper. I was a few turns away from a second GS that was going to bulb the remaining 40% of Astro. Now the GSs will want to bulb Paper-Education-PP. Stupid Shannon! I'll have to finish Astro myself and hope I can stay afloat financially. Maybe I need to build some courthouses and the Forbidden Palace.

A quick detour back to the northwest corner of the continent had Gandhi dead before his 5000th birthday (935AD).

Alex is next on my hit list. He has 7 cities on the mainland and 1 on an island. I still don't have macemen, and he has them, along with pikes and knights. But well-composed stacks of elephants and Xbows should neutralize his advantage. I start the war against him by killing a couple wandering knights, and beeline through Sparta and Athens (home of the Great Lighthouse). With these two cities safely in hand, Alex has no chance. Some musketmen start appearing near the end, but luckily elephants can be upgraded to Pinch without knowledge of Gunpowder in Vanilla. I make peace with Alex in 1160AD for Civil Service, and leave him a single island city. Now I can upgrade my few remaining axemen to maces and take on Hatty.

My scouting of Hatty shows 30 units in her 5 mega-cities. I see several musketmen, so I build some elephants in my Theocracy-aided cities so I can have Pinch protection. My two stacks of 20-25 units each sit north of Egypt, in two captured Greek cities that are completely swamped by Egyptian culture. I declare war on Hatty and back all of my units out of those two cities and let Hatty make the first move. She sends a few units to raze each city. Not what I was hoping for, but I kill the offending units and send my two stacks at two of her large cities. She's got a nice assortment of units that will make any of my units underdogs in a assault on the city. Well, that is until I hit them with 6-8 cats each. These two cities fall. She still has a few mini-stacks roaming around, but I've got the upper hand now.

I start working my way through the islands while fighting Hatty. Issy has three cities on a long island south of Timbuktu, plus two more somewhere. Still using galleys, I transfer about 10 units to that island and take the three cities. I find another single-tile island city that I take in an amphibious assault (amphibious elephants, yay! ). Her last city is at the very eastern end of the island chain, and Monty's three cities and Alex's one city stand between. So I make peace with her and go after Monty and Alex. I have Astro now, so galleons will make this go fast.

Alex is dead in 1286AD.
Monty is dead in 1292AD.
Hatty is dead in 1334AD.
Issy is dead in 1346AD.

I win a Conquest victory in 1352AD for 195K points.

So it turns out I never really needed Astro (though it sped up the final island wars). The brave new world was chock-full-o-barbs in 1352AD, so there wasn't much room for easy settler spam. I should have just committed myself to all out Terra war and not worried about my economy going to crap.

 

[iggymnrr]

Well done!

 

[iggymnrr]

At Last! After getting killed off right away in the adventure save by Monty, I wanted a second shot at this one. This time I settled 1 SW and just saw this news come across the wire:

1808-Seville has achieved legendary status.
1815-Delhi has achieved legendary status.
1823-Bombay has achieved legendary status.

All three cities were mine and Bombay tried to be my great artist factory. It produced only 4 (maybe 5) artists down the stretch and an assortment of other GPs. Nerve wracking. I managed to get 3 shrines early and holy sites of 6 religions. Even though it was a replay, it is still my first deity win: 33000 or so. In the end only Izzy, Monty and Hatty remained. All were pleased despite my obvious war with one of them. I had no idea for a long while that I would select Seville to be my top culture getter. It needed no artists. Bombay needed the most.

My hands are still shaking.

 

[fizikis]

@ Shannon

How can you have a negative income (according to your second screenshot) for such a long period of time? Do you survive with the money taken from capture of enemy cities?

 

[ShannonCT]

@ Shannon

How can you have a negative income (according to your second screenshot) for such a long period of time? Do you survive with the money taken from capture of enemy cities?

Yes, mostly from captured cities. Also from selling techs and world map.

 

[hhhawk]

Contender. Culture win - 1808AD.
From start played on military culture.
Capital - 3N from start. Has had time to cover with the second city copper and other useful resources.
Played start through the Alphabet, it is literally for a course before attack of the Greek has had time to connect copper. Has beaten off spears from chariots.
Then itself has beaten off catapults and axes of 6 cities at the Isabella.
Then - three cities at Gandi.
So I, have received 4 religions and 10 cities.
Further built religious constructions and generated GA (10-11?).
Few times rescued the German from total destruction by the Aztec.
Bismarck was necessary to me as the buffer from the Greek and the Aztec.
More close to finish has concluded the protective pact with both aggressors - Aleх and Monte.
Then I was again attacked by the Greek, fortunately the kernel of its armies has got stuck on the way and has been broken by allies Aztecs.

 

[ShannonCT]

Good game hhhawk! Peaceful culture victory looks to be impossible on this map. Capturing religions from Isabella and Gandhi was the best course.

I wonder how Grey Cardinal and Jovan Kukic did in their games.

 

[iggymnrr]

@hhhawk

Nice capitol hhhawk! And nice map analysis! Your Timbuktu is my Djenne. Interesting you also won by military culture at the same time as my meaningless adventure replay.

 

[hhhawk]

@iggymnrr
Starting pos approached for the second city. For capital it is necessary more food and river tiles under cottages. Therefore I 4 turns searched for a suitable place for Timbuktu.

 

[damnrunner]

Retired 890AD

At 500AD I was pumped to take on the world and expected to win the game. I had just crushed India and was teching Machinery and CS to upgrade may armies and take on the Aztecs.

In the meantime I figured I would take out Spain’s remaining island holdout cities.

Then with my armies massing to the south, and a few turns before getting Machinery, Monty declared war on me. This was surprising as he liked me the most, and I expected his next war declaration would be on Alex or Egypt. I faced several veteran stacks of maces, elephants, xbows, horse archers, and a few pikes. I still thought I had a chance though. I had a good number of elephants and catapults and I would soon be teching Machinery which would let my upgrade my skirmishers into mace killing xbows.

I had to stage a strategic withdrawal and gave up some Indian cities as I finished teching Machinery, and whipped a few xbows. I was able to defeat a stack (actually 2) that was going after my iron city to the east of Timbuktu. I then threw everything to a former Indian city on a hill next to a copper resource for a last stand against multiple stacks of veteran Aztec units. I killed one stack with catapults and elephants. And survived an attack from two more. But more units just kept on coming and I ended up losing the city.

At this point it was hopeless. I just lost the majority of my units and my only real reserve was a bunch of city raider swords that I had kept out of the fray until they could be upgraded to maces. At this point I would not have any cities left by the time I could finish teching CS – so it was essentially game over.

Real bummer as If I had teched a bit faster I think I could have won this one.

 

[ShannonCT]

Sorry damnrunner. Do you think you would have had a chance against Monty if you had not tried to finish off Issy when you did? Have you tried replaying from some earlier point to see if you could destroy Monty's attacking forces knowing when they were coming?

 

[damnrunner]

Have not tried yet, but RL willing I was hoping to give it a shot.

I think a bigger issue was never really formulating long term plans on how to structure my economy. Having xbows 10 turns earlier and the 4 to upgrade my skirmishers could have turned things around.

I was very focused on production and was doing a lot of whipping in the game, and my cities were never really working very many cottages. However, I never really focused on building a specialist economy either.

Once I captured the Indian territory, I inherited a lot of cottages - and was hoping to boost my economy. I probably should have razed the cottages and really focused on specialists - especially since I captured the pyramids in Delhi and could run representation.

I guess I didn't want to put Mali's financial trait to waste but eneded up not really making much use of it anyway. I probably should have built 1 or 2 high value cottage cities to run 100% gold and run scientists everywhere else.

 

[Lexad]

Taking GOTM to vacation was a bad decision - my old note lost power every 10 minutes, so I decided to end this misery of autosave-loading for me and GOTM staff checking the save. Also stole 4 workers - from Gandhi and Bismark, got peace with both, settled at the spot, started hooking up copper. Well, things happen.
Great games, Shannon and hhhawk!

 

[MacBalt]

Ugh... It is a cruel world out there...

My closest "almost" yet on Deity. Would have won a culture victory in two turns when the window popped up informing me that Gandhi had won a space victory. Here it comes...

Wait for it...



Oh well...

Here is an interesting question. I played a few turns after saving the defeat just to see what would happen. My third city went legendary on the same turn that Gandhi's third city went legendary. The note for my city popped up before the note about Gandhi's city after the pause in between turns. Let's pretend Gandhi's spaceship crashed and burned on the launchpad (boy, that's a nice image ). Would I have won the game if culture had been the deciding VC or would Gandhi have won?

EDIT/ADD: Oh yeah -- space loss to Gandhi in 1851. Basically I rushed Izzy with skirmishers and axes and then used her cities to support a peaceful culture strategy. It worked well from there because Monty kept Bismark busy fighting while Alex and Hatty squared off against each other. In fact, Hatty eventually wiped Alex off the map, which was delightfully entertaining to watch. Actually, I enjoyed this game very much despite the close loss. Thanks to the staff for putting it together.

 

[wwassme]

I won Spaceship win for Mali in 1894, just 3 turns ahead of Hatty's launch. Adventurer save, around 29,000 points. Ghandi and Alex watched from heaven. Bismarck watched from his couple of remaining isolated outposts as my loyal war dog Monty kept eliminating his cities. Isabella commenced an ineffective war two turns before launch to try to stop me. Hatty wondered why two Malinese spies were able to slip through her defenses and set back production of her remaining spaceship part.

Question: I know there is a 15% penalty on score for the Adventurer save and I'm ineligible for any awards. Does using the Adventurer save affect the speed ranking?

I'm away from home for a few days, so more details to follow later.