GOTM 50 - The ancient era
- Thread starter ainwood
- Start date
michael4000
The Culture
I managed not to make my usual mistake of not paying attention to the strategic resources! : ) I staked out the horsies early, and took a chunk out of the Aztecs' hide to secure iron in anticipation of the UU.
Instead, I made my other usual mistake of breaking some sort of deal in the early going, I'm not even sure which one or when, so that my ability to trade for tech would be crippled for the rest of the game. : ( How I wish that the trade advisor would take a lesson from the military advisor and say something like "Sire, doing that would permanently damage our reputation as fair traders!" before I attack my ivory-trading partner or whatever.
Instead, I made my other usual mistake of breaking some sort of deal in the early going, I'm not even sure which one or when, so that my ability to trade for tech would be crippled for the rest of the game. : ( How I wish that the trade advisor would take a lesson from the military advisor and say something like "Sire, doing that would permanently damage our reputation as fair traders!" before I attack my ivory-trading partner or whatever.
I lost my trade rep very early. I made a deal for lux with King EsatP of Korea, and the next turn it went belly up. I lost my ivory and my rep, and I can now only trade in hard up-front cash. I can only assume a barb galley got in the way of the trade route. Deja vu from my Mediterranean GOTM ...21, I think. As others have said, this is a trip down memory lane, with other echoes of the original Arab game, 23, and the Mongols game, 25.
tR1cKy
taking over the world
After being asskicked to death in gotm 49, the proud Arabs seeks their due revenge. They will build a great empire, that will shine as a blinding light in a world of darkness. The other inferior people will see it, envy it, desire it. At this point, we will come with our cataphract, remove their sorry excuses of rulers from power and assimilate those weaklings into our magnificent empire, for their own good of course.
Ancient age spoiler (finally!)
Settled Mecca in place. The explorer goes westward, exploring what looks like the best spot for city 2, and the worker starts to improve the 2 bonus grassland tiles. Research is set to Mysticism at 10% science, enough to earn a significative discount when the tech is bought later.
The building queue for Mecca is scout -> scout -> scout -> settler -> granary. Scouts are sent in the opposite directions, trying to meet as many people as possible in order to make some tech brokering, and to pop as many hut as possible. The Iroquois are met very early (3600 BC) but they have the same starting tech as Arabia, so no trade is possible. The same scout get into the Ottoman borders in 3100 BC, and this time it is possible to get Masonry. Next turn, we are partying with Obormot of the Aztecs: they sell us Mysticism, then a trade round with WackenOpenAir and Zamint3 is called and we get away with Bronze Working and some useful quids.
City 2 (Medina) is founded in 2850 BC in a position NW-NW-NW-N of Mecca. Thanx to the cultural expansion of Mecca, the BG cow (mythical!) is exploitable from the very beginning. The queue for Medina will be warrior -> worker -> warrior -> settler -> granary.
Our army of scouts is busy exploring. We get abysmal results with huts: only 5 of them discovered. Two techs (Warrior Code and the Wheel) are learned, then we got a map, a worker and a deserted village
The civ hunt is more successful and we gain a fair number of early contacts: Ronald of Persia (2710), Durkz of Russia (2590) and MiniMe of Germany (2470). But nothing can be traded with them.When we finally meet Drazek of the Zulu (1990), a few more techs are gained. We buy Alphabet, the tech we were researching, for a measley 100 quids, then traded it around with everyone with a tech or a few money. Iron Working and Horse Riding are mastered this way. Surprise, no horses and no iron on our territory. In the Aztec land, Obormot has already seized both the resources. There are horses near Salamanca, in an undisputed territory, but the Iroquois beat us in claiming the resource, by putting a city in a position that makes impossible cramming a city to hook up the tile. Well, at this point iron and horses must be gained with the pointy-stick. No problem.
Research is set to Writing at max. Meanwhile, more cities are founded at RCP 4.5 from Mecca. Incense and wines are secured. The explorers continue their trips: in 1650 SirPleb of the Indians is met, another backward civilization with nothing to trade. Then, in 1625 BC, Writing is completed and we sell it to the Iroquois for Mathematics, contact with the remaining civilizations and some quids. And so we finally meet klarius of neoCarthage, EsatP of Korea and Dynamic of England. All of them are backward with no techs to sell.
We start researching Currency at bare minimum. Embassies are slowly established. All the capitals have weak defenses and no buildings except for the palace. Luxuries and resources are for the most part unconnected. Our empire completes the 1st ring, then a partial RCP 9 ring is built, with 3 cities at lower rank, but in good positions. The weak Germans dare to demand something i don't remember. We send them packing and they declare. India is immediately drawn into an alliance, for a backward tech and a contact. We never saw a German invader, and when later peace is signed they are happy to give us a city
We hit the QSC mark with 11 cities, 15 pop units, 9 workers, 4 scouts and a military composed only of 7 units, 4 of them being regular warrior. Needless to say that we are weak compared to everyone, but our empire is rich of food and money, and a wide extension of land is still open for colonization. In 1000 BC, someone has finally researched Map Making and our scout exploring finally pays off: we get the tech from the English for our world map + 90 quids, a price more than affordable. Then we trade around with everyone, gaining Polytheism, Code of Laws, a complete world map and a whopping 256 quids. Not bad at all. At 1000 BC, we have almost 600 quids in our coffers and are 3 techs away from the Middle Ages. Scary.
Here's a shot at 1000 BC:
Little happens later. We get Philosophy from the Aztecs, build a few more cities, then try to amass the max money possible and keep the competitors nice. Maps are traded continuously, the remaining contacts are sold as soon as they have some quids to pay. In 850 BC, peace is signed with Germany and the city of Munich is extorted. Then we manage to beat the Aztecs in building a city on a favourable spot. In 730 BC, the Iroquois master Construction and we're 4 turns away from Currency. We start to trade maps every turn to keep track of possible barb camp.
A camp is spotted and destroyed, then another one is seen and a warrior is sent to dispatch it. In 650 BC Currency is mastered and we start on Republic at max. Trade is delayed to not trigger a barb uprising before killing the dreaded camp, but we're 1 turn too late. In 630 BC someone has maded into the middle ages, and 24 barb horses are popped out from the camp in question, with our warrior 1 turn away from destroying it
The horses kills some units around (included the warrior and a scout) then head for our northern cities. With more than 1000 quids in our coffer, it's necessary to repel them without having them sack a city, and so our stationing troops near the Aztec border are recalled.At this point there's no reason to stay in the AA, so we buy Construction from the Iroquois and make it into the Middle ages. Here's the 630 BC shot:
--------------
AA stats
14 cities, 31 pop units, 1 settler, 13 workers, 3 scouts, 4 warriors, 6 archers, 4 spears, 2 catapults. Lacking Literature, Monarchy and Republic. We're 1st in population, 2nd in land area and 3rd in score. We have only 2 cultural buildings, the Palace of Mecca and the temple of Damascus, but more will follow. We're peaceful with everyone, and all except for Germany (annoyed) are polite with us. No gpt deals are active at the moment.
City sequence:
4000BC: Mecca;
2850BC: Medina;
1910BC: Damascus;
1750BC: Baghdad;
1350BC: Najran;
1300BC: Kufah;
1200BC: Basra;
1025BC: Khurasan;
1025BC: Anjar;
1025BC: Fustat;
1000BC: Aden;
850BC: Munich (extorted);
750BC: Yamama;
710BC: Muscat;
Contacts:
3600BC: Iroquois;
3100BC: Ottomans;
3050BC: Aztecs;
2710BC: Persia;
2590BC: Russia;
2470BC: Germany;
1990BC: Zululand;
1650BC: India;
1625BC: Carthage;
1625BC: Korea;
1625BC: England;
Tech progress:
4000BC: Pottery, Ceremonial Burial (prerequisites);
3050BC: Mysticism (trade, Aztecs), Bronze Working (trade, Iroquois);
2950BC: Warrior Code (barb hut);
2750BC: Wheel (barb hut);
1990BC: Alphabet (trade, Zulu), Iron Working (trade, Iroquois), Horse Riding (trade, Aztecs);
1625BC: Writing (self research), Mathematics (trade, Iroquois);
1000BC: Map Making (trade, English), Code of Laws (trade, Persia), Polytheism (trade, Aztecs);
975BC: Philosophy (trade, Aztecs);
650BC: Currency (self research)
630BC: Construction (trade, Iroquois);
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This time it's a close race. The hut hunt went horribly wrong, and an even nastier surprise still has to come. There's Più Freddo slightly ahead of me, and Randy slightly backwards, but closing the gap. And probably there will be someone who performed even better than that. My only hope to win the challenge is to gain terrain in the upcoming wars, something that i'm quite familiar with.
Più Freddo
From space, earth is blue
tR1cKy said:
I don't know about that. You entered the Middle Ages 11 turns before me, and so can get your Ansar Warriors earlier, too. Of course, I gained Horses and Iron through expansion, and you'll have to fight for them. Sort of evens it out. We'll see who's still standing when the dust settles.
![[ptw]](/images/smilies/ptw.gif "PTW Icon [ptw]")
OpenBased on the shieldland placement I figured I would only move southwest or southeast, then realizing the waters were both fresh and salt the move southeast seemed the most reasonable. I sent my scout closer to the wheat to see if anything else showed, the fish looked nice but I decided not to move any further to get it.
I started producing 3 scouts and then a settler, followed by a granary, and I alternated settler, warrior until I could got a barracks in my second city which I placed by the mythical cow.
I decided on a fairly close 4 tile first ring which I was able to fit 6 cities which should be moderate to good cities for my purposes. My second ring will be at 9, which looked to be the best but was mainly chosen because this was the best distance and secured horses which I got my third city planted near and rushed a temple there to get them hooked up and producing.
This latter point created the only bit of excitement in the QSC range, Iroquois declared war on me and attacked a warrior I was sending out to defend my workers that were roading the horses. He killed my warrior but not after losing one himself and the other severely wounded which I destroyed the next turn. I sent another warrior in to check the status and raze some improvements if he could and an archery eventually got him but he doesn't seem to have a force planned and I wonder why he declared war.
Also, has I was later to find out I can get access to Iron also with a city at my 9 tile ring, Aztecs possessed it within their city radius however.
Anyway I got a worker, and I think Warrior Code from huts and the rest maps or nothing. The worker drained my initial treasury but fortunately I had my second city placed before I had to drop tech rate. Warrior Code was pretty handy as I was beelining for Horseback Riding.
I got an image of my inner circle close to the end of the QSC period. My QSC stats are as follows:
153 gold
10 towns
1 settler
1 slave (got from Russia in trade for Masonry or something cheap)
11 workers
3 scouts
12 warriors
1 archer
2 spearmen
Researching Philosophy, need Math, Currency and Construction. Could trade for Map Making and Polytheism and maybe Mono but I withheld them at that point. I didn't want another episode like last gotm where the barbs raped me and then proceeded to hurt me in real life by crashing the game and making it unplayable.
Più Freddo said:
Thought this was turned off, or was that just the settler was turned off and you can still get these autoplaced cities?
Attachments
WarDance
Prince
Predator... Dominator Challenge (maybe)
This is my first GOTM attempt in a very long time (since India, I think) and hopefully I'll finish this one as I've never completed one. I have limited Pangea map experience as I really don't like to play them. I always seem to end up right in the middle of the map and have too many borders to defend. Funny that it's exactly what happens in this one! My problem with pangeas I think is that I end up being paranoid and have my units spread out too much to be effective. We'll see if I can get over that this time. One thing I did very differently from what I usually do is not fuss much over RCP. I put 3 or 4 towns at distance 4 and then put all the others wherever they would best use the land. The other thing I did differently is I did no research at the beginning, and minimum research most of the remainder. I just bought what I needed and tried to make as much money back as I could by trading it around. Usually I work very hard to be the tech leader.
I went for the cow... it's the cowboy life for me! I settled 2 tiles NW of the start and sent my worker to irrigate first, then road. First builds were scout, worker, warrior, granary. I sent the scout southwest. Popped a hut in 3600BC... deserted. Met the Aztecs in 3550BC and Persia in 3450BC. We get Bronze Working and some coin from Persia for our techs, get Masonry from a hut in 3350, and trade techs to the Aztecs for Warrior Code and all their money. In 3250BC we get Alphabet from a hut and switch to a minimum run on Mathematics.
In 3100BC we meet the Iroquois and sell Bronze Working for 10 gold. Another hut in 3050BC gives us the Wheel. Sell it to the Iroquois a little later for 20 gold. In 2510BC the Persians have a worker available and we buy it for Alphabet. Another hut in 2470BC gives us a regional map which is very uninteresting. 2430BC sees the construction of our first town by the wheat. Immediately I regret moving to the cow as I could have had a 4-turner by the wheat. Balancing my disappointment is the realization that I can run a nice combo factory in Mecca (although a slow one). At size 5 Mecca can do 10 shields per turn and grows in 3, so I can do 3 1-turn warriors, or a spear or archer and then a warrior before growing to size 6. Then at size 6 I can do a 3 turn settler. Later I will do 3 turn horses and then a 3 turn settler. I have to thank my succession GOTM teammate, Niklas, because without everything I've learned from him I never would have seen this possibility. Medina takes some time to get going. I build a temple to get the fish in it's radius, then a granary and pump out settlers and a couple workers from there. I think the fastest it would do is 5 turn settlers but I just don't remember.
We meet Russia in 2030BC and I notice a newly built Ottoman town in an area I explored earlier. How did we miss them? England is met in 1870BC and we acquire Mysticism from the Ottomans in exchange for alphabet.
In 1800BC I notice 2 Persian warriors and an archer moving together in a stack towards Medina. Bad news. There simply is no way I can defend against them. Medina has 1 warrior for defense and my other units are out exploring and escorting. They declare in 1700BC and my lone warrior defends against ALL 3! He becomes elite for his courage, skill, and amazing luck. We finish research on Mathematics in 1650BC and the resulting trades net us 175 gold, Horse Back Riding and Iron Working. I begin Construction at minimum but later regret that choice. The Iroquois get writing in 1600BC and I decide to make the purchase even though it's expensive. We give them 350 gold plus Russian contact for it. Trade HBR to England for Korean contact. The Wheel and Ceremonial Burial got to Korea for 35 coins. I gift everyone up to tech parity. Partly to encourage research and partly just an attempt to keep them happy and leave me alone.
1475BC sees peace with Persia. They only sent one more archer my way during the war and my elite warrior killed him easily. If only I had gotten an early leader for it! We give HBR in the peace deal and they give 64 gold and contact with the Zulu. Through the Zulu we meet Carthage. In 1375BC the English introduce us to the Germans, and through the Germans we meet India.
1000BC Stats: 2 settlers
7 workers
1 scout (they kept getting killed by barbs. I built 3 total in addition to the starter)
7 warriors
6 archers
2 spears
10 towns
6 embassies
934 gold
Construction at minimum in 15 turns
I managed to settle an early town up at the NW choke and horses are connected in 925BC. In 82BC the Aztecs beat me to Construction. Another big purchase... we pay 360 gold and a map for it. We trade it around for some small change but also get Map Making and Philosophy. Switch to Polytheism at max but I know I won't get it first. I should have switched to Poly instead of Construction earlier.
I also managed to settle a town in the south right by the Aztec iron. Pop rushed a temple after it grew to size 2, and then iron is connected in 610BC. I immediately upgrade 9 warriors, and 6 more the next turn. In 570BC we finish Poly but a couple civs have had it a couple turns already. In 470BC Persia is in the Middle Ages having finished Currency. The Barb uprising comes in 430BC and we make yet another big purchase. We buy Currency from Carthage for 310 gold and our map. Trade around for some meager coin, Literature, and Code of Laws and we are launched into the Middle Ages. Persia and Ottomans both got Monotheism. Germany, Korea and Russia don't get a free tech.
End of Ancient Age stats: 3 settlers
17 workers
3 slaves (all purchased)
1 warrior
3 spears
15 swords
4 horsemen
17 towns and 41 population
I didn't write down how many barracks and temples I've built. I know I've pop rushed 3 temples and have at least 4 barracks. Built 2 granaries.
Currently researching Monarchy, have 344 gold.
Wine, incense, horses and iron are connected. Furs will be connected in 1 turn. A frontier town in the east has dyes but it will be probably another 15 turns or so before that's connected.
Future plans: War! But I'm not sure where to start. The Iroquois are my biggest threat. They have some of the best land and have expanded more than anyone else. I don't want to face them until Ansars. The Aztecs are tempting, but they've built the Great Wall. It may be a good idea to hit them before they have pikes. If I could get the Iroquois to ally against them it would burn up their Golden Age and maybe they'd build a wonder for me for later. I would really like to have the Persian lands. Last time I checked they had not connected iron and it would be good to hit them before they hook it up. Frankly I don't know where to start. I'll have to stop and really look at this map before I continue. I might switch research to Feudalism or Engineering. Engineering is probably the one less likely for the AI to go for so perhaps that could allow me to trade for Monotheism and possibly Feudalism. Perhaps by then someone will also have Monarchy or Republic up for trade.
Territory at end of AA: (actually a couple turns into the Middle Ages)
The minimap:
This is my first GOTM attempt in a very long time (since India, I think) and hopefully I'll finish this one as I've never completed one. I have limited Pangea map experience as I really don't like to play them. I always seem to end up right in the middle of the map and have too many borders to defend. Funny that it's exactly what happens in this one! My problem with pangeas I think is that I end up being paranoid and have my units spread out too much to be effective. We'll see if I can get over that this time. One thing I did very differently from what I usually do is not fuss much over RCP. I put 3 or 4 towns at distance 4 and then put all the others wherever they would best use the land. The other thing I did differently is I did no research at the beginning, and minimum research most of the remainder. I just bought what I needed and tried to make as much money back as I could by trading it around. Usually I work very hard to be the tech leader.
I went for the cow... it's the cowboy life for me! I settled 2 tiles NW of the start and sent my worker to irrigate first, then road. First builds were scout, worker, warrior, granary. I sent the scout southwest. Popped a hut in 3600BC... deserted. Met the Aztecs in 3550BC and Persia in 3450BC. We get Bronze Working and some coin from Persia for our techs, get Masonry from a hut in 3350, and trade techs to the Aztecs for Warrior Code and all their money. In 3250BC we get Alphabet from a hut and switch to a minimum run on Mathematics.
In 3100BC we meet the Iroquois and sell Bronze Working for 10 gold. Another hut in 3050BC gives us the Wheel. Sell it to the Iroquois a little later for 20 gold. In 2510BC the Persians have a worker available and we buy it for Alphabet. Another hut in 2470BC gives us a regional map which is very uninteresting. 2430BC sees the construction of our first town by the wheat. Immediately I regret moving to the cow as I could have had a 4-turner by the wheat. Balancing my disappointment is the realization that I can run a nice combo factory in Mecca (although a slow one). At size 5 Mecca can do 10 shields per turn and grows in 3, so I can do 3 1-turn warriors, or a spear or archer and then a warrior before growing to size 6. Then at size 6 I can do a 3 turn settler. Later I will do 3 turn horses and then a 3 turn settler. I have to thank my succession GOTM teammate, Niklas, because without everything I've learned from him I never would have seen this possibility. Medina takes some time to get going. I build a temple to get the fish in it's radius, then a granary and pump out settlers and a couple workers from there. I think the fastest it would do is 5 turn settlers but I just don't remember.
We meet Russia in 2030BC and I notice a newly built Ottoman town in an area I explored earlier. How did we miss them? England is met in 1870BC and we acquire Mysticism from the Ottomans in exchange for alphabet.
In 1800BC I notice 2 Persian warriors and an archer moving together in a stack towards Medina. Bad news. There simply is no way I can defend against them. Medina has 1 warrior for defense and my other units are out exploring and escorting. They declare in 1700BC and my lone warrior defends against ALL 3! He becomes elite for his courage, skill, and amazing luck. We finish research on Mathematics in 1650BC and the resulting trades net us 175 gold, Horse Back Riding and Iron Working. I begin Construction at minimum but later regret that choice. The Iroquois get writing in 1600BC and I decide to make the purchase even though it's expensive. We give them 350 gold plus Russian contact for it. Trade HBR to England for Korean contact. The Wheel and Ceremonial Burial got to Korea for 35 coins. I gift everyone up to tech parity. Partly to encourage research and partly just an attempt to keep them happy and leave me alone.
1475BC sees peace with Persia. They only sent one more archer my way during the war and my elite warrior killed him easily. If only I had gotten an early leader for it! We give HBR in the peace deal and they give 64 gold and contact with the Zulu. Through the Zulu we meet Carthage. In 1375BC the English introduce us to the Germans, and through the Germans we meet India.
1000BC Stats: 2 settlers
7 workers
1 scout (they kept getting killed by barbs. I built 3 total in addition to the starter)
7 warriors
6 archers
2 spears
10 towns
6 embassies
934 gold
Construction at minimum in 15 turns
I managed to settle an early town up at the NW choke and horses are connected in 925BC. In 82BC the Aztecs beat me to Construction. Another big purchase... we pay 360 gold and a map for it. We trade it around for some small change but also get Map Making and Philosophy. Switch to Polytheism at max but I know I won't get it first. I should have switched to Poly instead of Construction earlier.
I also managed to settle a town in the south right by the Aztec iron. Pop rushed a temple after it grew to size 2, and then iron is connected in 610BC. I immediately upgrade 9 warriors, and 6 more the next turn. In 570BC we finish Poly but a couple civs have had it a couple turns already. In 470BC Persia is in the Middle Ages having finished Currency. The Barb uprising comes in 430BC and we make yet another big purchase. We buy Currency from Carthage for 310 gold and our map. Trade around for some meager coin, Literature, and Code of Laws and we are launched into the Middle Ages. Persia and Ottomans both got Monotheism. Germany, Korea and Russia don't get a free tech.
End of Ancient Age stats: 3 settlers
17 workers
3 slaves (all purchased)
1 warrior
3 spears
15 swords
4 horsemen
17 towns and 41 population
I didn't write down how many barracks and temples I've built. I know I've pop rushed 3 temples and have at least 4 barracks. Built 2 granaries.
Currently researching Monarchy, have 344 gold.
Wine, incense, horses and iron are connected. Furs will be connected in 1 turn. A frontier town in the east has dyes but it will be probably another 15 turns or so before that's connected.
Future plans: War! But I'm not sure where to start. The Iroquois are my biggest threat. They have some of the best land and have expanded more than anyone else. I don't want to face them until Ansars. The Aztecs are tempting, but they've built the Great Wall. It may be a good idea to hit them before they have pikes. If I could get the Iroquois to ally against them it would burn up their Golden Age and maybe they'd build a wonder for me for later. I would really like to have the Persian lands. Last time I checked they had not connected iron and it would be good to hit them before they hook it up. Frankly I don't know where to start. I'll have to stop and really look at this map before I continue. I might switch research to Feudalism or Engineering. Engineering is probably the one less likely for the AI to go for so perhaps that could allow me to trade for Monotheism and possibly Feudalism. Perhaps by then someone will also have Monarchy or Republic up for trade.
Territory at end of AA: (actually a couple turns into the Middle Ages)
The minimap:
DBear
unbeliever
Water, Water Everywhere
I taste the water and discover that N and E are fresh, S and W are salty. As a consequence of this, I send my scout in a generally NE direction. Mecca is founded 1se of the start. My first contact is a Zulu warrior in 3100BC, but the first country sighted is Germany in 2710BC. Upon meeting Germany, I traded pottery +CB for warcode +BW+10. Zulus are ahead masonry. Found Damascus in 2310BC 3nw of Mecca at the same time I learn wheel.
What Did We Get for Gifts?
Popped the first goody hut in 3550BC and got gold. Gernmany picked up IW in 2110Bc, buy it from him for wheel+30+1gpt. Did I mention there were no horses or iron in sight? I end my first session here. Next turn, I trade Zulus IW for masonry+5. We have also contacted India by this time, trade him pottery +masonry for alphabet+10. We find the Indian border in 1870BC.
Behind the Back Door
I see turquoise border to the sw in 1700BC. I send an archer to irrigate. Baghdad is founded 4sw of the original start in 1575BC.
Zulus try to extort in 1450BC, declare war which turns out to be phony. Learn writing in 1325BC, with Mecca starting the Pyramids. Najran is built next turn. I sent an archer to investigate the turquoise civ, they turn out to be the Aztecs. I also find the Iroquois at this time in 1275BC. I trade Aztecs alphabet for mysticism+35. Trade Iroquois alphabet for 85.
The Trading Floor
I use the money to open embassies to Germany, Azteca and Iroquois. I tell the Germans about the Iroquois for horseback+84. Trade horseback +contact w/India to Iroquois for contact w/Russia. Trade Russia contact w/Aztecs+India +alphabet for contact w/Ottomans +slave+2. I sell alphabet to Ottomans for 93. Open embassies to Russia, Turkey, and India. Kufah founded next turn.
In 1150BC Germany demands contact w/Zulu, refused, they declare. I make peace w/Zulus, trading them contact w/Russia and Ottomans for 109+ contact w/Carthage. Carthage turns out to be backward. Build embassies to Zulu and Carthage. I also build Basra at this time. At 1000BC I have poured everything into getting math. Persia has heard of us and make contact. They have nothing to trade.
QSC stats:
Score: 195 Firaxis, 7th of 10. 3105 QSC.
Land: 85 squares, 6 towns, 1 city.
Population: 11 happy, 4 content, 5 sad, 2 taxmen.
Production: 65 food, 146 shields, 0 gold.
Diplomacy: 9 contacts, 8 embassies.
Buildings: 4 grains, 2 rax, temple.
Units: 2 warriors, 2 archers, 2 spears, 7 workers, slave.
Experience: 4 regulars, 2 vets.
Tech: All starters +IW+math+writ+mystic+HB.
(end of 2nd session.)
Wondrous Stories
Carthage finishes the Colossus in 875BC. We get the bad news in 850BC that Iroquois have horses. Next turn Korea hails us and trades maps. I also trade them IW+math for mapmaking. We make a fair peace with Germany at this time. Everyone is up philo except Carthage. In 800BC Germany builds the Oracle. Khurasan is founded in 690BC. Two turns later we learn poly and start lit. We do some dealing of poly, trading it around for a net total of law+philo+415+TMs. Great, Iroquois have iron too. Open embassies to England, Korea and Persia. England is 8 away from Pyramids, but by running science at max I can get lit in 9. As it happens, others pick up lit, quickening the time. I avoid the cascade and learn lit in 530BC. I turn off research and use a lone scientist to research monarchy. We get the GL in 410BC.
And in Other News
Anjar is founded in 610BC and Fustat a century later. In 550BC, England declares war on Persia. Iroquois extort TM+17 in 490. We have plenty to spare, so we give in. Also, they are on our border unlike the previous phony wars. Aden is built at the same time as the GL. Yamama is built on the 'gate' cutting off Lake Damascus from the northern ocean in 350BC. The GL picks up construction in 330BC. Next turn, we receive news of an uprising near Anjar, so we know someone has currency. Sure enough, next turn the GL picks it up and we move into the MA. We are 5th with 326, just behind Aztecs. Iroquois are 1st with 486, England is 2nd with 395. My 3rd session ends here.
I taste the water and discover that N and E are fresh, S and W are salty. As a consequence of this, I send my scout in a generally NE direction. Mecca is founded 1se of the start. My first contact is a Zulu warrior in 3100BC, but the first country sighted is Germany in 2710BC. Upon meeting Germany, I traded pottery +CB for warcode +BW+10. Zulus are ahead masonry. Found Damascus in 2310BC 3nw of Mecca at the same time I learn wheel.
What Did We Get for Gifts?
Popped the first goody hut in 3550BC and got gold. Gernmany picked up IW in 2110Bc, buy it from him for wheel+30+1gpt. Did I mention there were no horses or iron in sight? I end my first session here. Next turn, I trade Zulus IW for masonry+5. We have also contacted India by this time, trade him pottery +masonry for alphabet+10. We find the Indian border in 1870BC.
Behind the Back Door
I see turquoise border to the sw in 1700BC. I send an archer to irrigate. Baghdad is founded 4sw of the original start in 1575BC.
Zulus try to extort in 1450BC, declare war which turns out to be phony. Learn writing in 1325BC, with Mecca starting the Pyramids. Najran is built next turn. I sent an archer to investigate the turquoise civ, they turn out to be the Aztecs. I also find the Iroquois at this time in 1275BC. I trade Aztecs alphabet for mysticism+35. Trade Iroquois alphabet for 85.
The Trading Floor
I use the money to open embassies to Germany, Azteca and Iroquois. I tell the Germans about the Iroquois for horseback+84. Trade horseback +contact w/India to Iroquois for contact w/Russia. Trade Russia contact w/Aztecs+India +alphabet for contact w/Ottomans +slave+2. I sell alphabet to Ottomans for 93. Open embassies to Russia, Turkey, and India. Kufah founded next turn.
In 1150BC Germany demands contact w/Zulu, refused, they declare. I make peace w/Zulus, trading them contact w/Russia and Ottomans for 109+ contact w/Carthage. Carthage turns out to be backward. Build embassies to Zulu and Carthage. I also build Basra at this time. At 1000BC I have poured everything into getting math. Persia has heard of us and make contact. They have nothing to trade.
QSC stats:
Score: 195 Firaxis, 7th of 10. 3105 QSC.
Land: 85 squares, 6 towns, 1 city.
Population: 11 happy, 4 content, 5 sad, 2 taxmen.
Production: 65 food, 146 shields, 0 gold.
Diplomacy: 9 contacts, 8 embassies.
Buildings: 4 grains, 2 rax, temple.
Units: 2 warriors, 2 archers, 2 spears, 7 workers, slave.
Experience: 4 regulars, 2 vets.
Tech: All starters +IW+math+writ+mystic+HB.
(end of 2nd session.)
Wondrous Stories
Carthage finishes the Colossus in 875BC. We get the bad news in 850BC that Iroquois have horses. Next turn Korea hails us and trades maps. I also trade them IW+math for mapmaking. We make a fair peace with Germany at this time. Everyone is up philo except Carthage. In 800BC Germany builds the Oracle. Khurasan is founded in 690BC. Two turns later we learn poly and start lit. We do some dealing of poly, trading it around for a net total of law+philo+415+TMs. Great, Iroquois have iron too. Open embassies to England, Korea and Persia. England is 8 away from Pyramids, but by running science at max I can get lit in 9. As it happens, others pick up lit, quickening the time. I avoid the cascade and learn lit in 530BC. I turn off research and use a lone scientist to research monarchy. We get the GL in 410BC.
And in Other News
Anjar is founded in 610BC and Fustat a century later. In 550BC, England declares war on Persia. Iroquois extort TM+17 in 490. We have plenty to spare, so we give in. Also, they are on our border unlike the previous phony wars. Aden is built at the same time as the GL. Yamama is built on the 'gate' cutting off Lake Damascus from the northern ocean in 350BC. The GL picks up construction in 330BC. Next turn, we receive news of an uprising near Anjar, so we know someone has currency. Sure enough, next turn the GL picks it up and we move into the MA. We are 5th with 326, just behind Aztecs. Iroquois are 1st with 486, England is 2nd with 395. My 3rd session ends here.
Who is this posting?
Well, I've played civ2 since it was released. I have played civ3 about 10 times. And this would be my first GOTM. I did download and try out g47 and g49 (failed badly on 49). And I've read a lot of strategy on these forums, love that stuff. But haven't tried it out in practise to much.
Well, how did it go?
Quite well in the start. Good starting location. With christmas in between Ill do ancient age from memory. First city SE of start, next was W in range of the cow. Built 3-4 new scouts and saw the sights.
Any resources?
I was lucky enough to grab the horses to the west before the injuns got em. Iron to the south I did not get. However, my scouting revealed that there was Iron far to the east, in unclaimed land. So I went and claimed it. City nr. 6 or 7 was therefore far from my capital, all alone in the mountains east. I bought courthouse and started the FP there, and after some time I had connected the iron. I built cities on the way to the iron too, in the swamplands. My country was therefore a circle around starting point, with a narrow, exposed salient leading eastwards. And at the tip of the salient, I was building FP.
What about politics?
W and SW - Iroquis. No trouble from them.
S and SE - aztecs. No real contact, no trouble.
E - Persians. No trouble from them (yet) but they were busy with England and Korea
NE - English. They were friendly, and fought Persia a long time, aided by Koreans who lived beyond them
N - Germans. After I claimed the lands as far as the river, I received more and more the cold shoulder from Frederick. He might have to be taught a lesson...
What about wonders?
Yeah I have read about wonder fixation. So I built only one, the great library. I was busy expanding, but after I thought I had reach my comfortable city limit I went ahead and built this in my capital. It took me right into the middle ages.
Well thats that, more comprehensive in the next (middle-age) post
Well, I've played civ2 since it was released. I have played civ3 about 10 times. And this would be my first GOTM. I did download and try out g47 and g49 (failed badly on 49). And I've read a lot of strategy on these forums, love that stuff. But haven't tried it out in practise to much.
Well, how did it go?
Quite well in the start. Good starting location. With christmas in between Ill do ancient age from memory. First city SE of start, next was W in range of the cow. Built 3-4 new scouts and saw the sights.
Any resources?
I was lucky enough to grab the horses to the west before the injuns got em. Iron to the south I did not get. However, my scouting revealed that there was Iron far to the east, in unclaimed land. So I went and claimed it. City nr. 6 or 7 was therefore far from my capital, all alone in the mountains east. I bought courthouse and started the FP there, and after some time I had connected the iron. I built cities on the way to the iron too, in the swamplands. My country was therefore a circle around starting point, with a narrow, exposed salient leading eastwards. And at the tip of the salient, I was building FP.
What about politics?
W and SW - Iroquis. No trouble from them.
S and SE - aztecs. No real contact, no trouble.
E - Persians. No trouble from them (yet) but they were busy with England and Korea
NE - English. They were friendly, and fought Persia a long time, aided by Koreans who lived beyond them
N - Germans. After I claimed the lands as far as the river, I received more and more the cold shoulder from Frederick. He might have to be taught a lesson...
What about wonders?
Yeah I have read about wonder fixation. So I built only one, the great library. I was busy expanding, but after I thought I had reach my comfortable city limit I went ahead and built this in my capital. It took me right into the middle ages.
Well thats that, more comprehensive in the next (middle-age) post
Welcome & nice going! However, if I were a nasty person I would say great library fixation is the most pathological variant...Thomas G said:
Well, I'm playing a predator cow challenge against Niklas and I'm really worried that he hasn't posted here yet. It could well mean that he is being scientific about every little decision (which would be far from my own haphazard approach). Let's hope he is still stuffing himself and working on a new slothful lifestyle.
Befittingly, I moved one step toward the cow with my first move. (a note of admiration to those who hoped for fish)
Because of the map I built more workers and settlers. Because of the VC I kept all my scrap military (6 warriors, 2 archers, 1 spearman) after revolting to republic. They cost a lot of upkeep but I hope to use them to quell resistance later. The great number of civs make great economic helpers. And I may well go to monarchy after Chivalry.
I took very simple notes this time, but here they are:
Technology
This is when I learned the techs. I kept full speed up to Currency after which I switched to 0%.
Alphabet 2310
BW 2900 (hut)
Masonry 2710 (traded from Persia)
WC 2710 (traded from Persia)
Wheel 2630 (hut)
Writing ?
Mysticism 2310 (trade)
HB 2190 (hut)
IW 1830 (trade. Gave to all)
Philosophy 1350 (hut)
Literature c 1200
Polytheism c 1200 (traded)
Map Making c 1200 (traded)
Code of Laws 1050
Mathematics 975 (traded & given)
Republic 590
Currency c 400
Construction 370 BC (trade from Iroquois with GreatLib)
Monarchy 370 BC (trade)
Early build order in Mekka:
Scout 3700
Warrior 3450
Scout 3350
Settler 3050
Granary
(I regret the warrior, should have been a scout)
Some Contacts
3100 - Met Persia.
2750 - Met Iroquois
2710 - Met Aztecs
2630 - Met Zulu
2310 - Met England
1950 - Met India
1830 - Met Korea
1650 - Met Carthage (trade) (last)
Preface:
After a long time Mac-only, I now also own a PC and decided to play gotm50 with it. IMHO CivAssist makes a tremendeous difference: never missing a worker for grab, never missing a new trade opportunity are invaluable assets. These are features Firaxis should have included in the game to increase the fun and reduce the tediousness.
Large world:
Knowing that I can't compete with the expert war mongers, I decide to do another 20k game. This is monarch and it will be easy to cath-up with the AIs despite of sacrificing a lot of growth in the beginning in favor of the 20k city.
The start:
Mecca is founded 2NW to grab cow, wine hill, and bonus grass. Build order is scout, scout, scout, warrior, settler. Medina is founded in 2900bc at rcp4, 2 SE of the starting position to grab the bonus wheat, 2 bg, and 5 hills and starts working on a temple.
Exploration and research:
With 3 scouts, I started 0% research to accumulate money and hoped for techs from huts and trades. But the huts gave map, map, gold, warrior, map, gold: not a very good result. But I was able to make good trades and 2670bc started min research on writing, which I did not complete but got in trade also and started literature. Since I was weak, the AIs made quite a lot of extortions and I delayed completing lit until I had a good head start on the Great Library pre-build.
QSC:
In 1000bc I only had 4 cities at rcp4 around Mecca, but Medina was already pop 10 and making 22 shields per turn.
20K Medina:
I decided to build Colossus and hoped for the starting Golden Age to push the Great Library construction. And it happened. The race for The Great Lighthouse was tight vs. Seoul which was 3 turns ahead of Medina. I donated them monarchy and they had 5 turns of anarchy.
2390bc: temple
1350bc: Colossus
710bc: Great Library
590bc: library
210bc: Great Lighthouse
At the end of the Ancient Age, I had 2000+ gold because I waited for republic to come from The Great Library and start rushing. Luckily, I was able to move 12 defenders into the northern town to be attacked by 17 barb horsemen and lost only 1 spear, but got 3 elite spears from defending. I grabbed neither horses nor iron and will have to fight for it beginning of the Middle Ages.
After a long time Mac-only, I now also own a PC and decided to play gotm50 with it. IMHO CivAssist makes a tremendeous difference: never missing a worker for grab, never missing a new trade opportunity are invaluable assets. These are features Firaxis should have included in the game to increase the fun and reduce the tediousness.
Large world:
Knowing that I can't compete with the expert war mongers, I decide to do another 20k game. This is monarch and it will be easy to cath-up with the AIs despite of sacrificing a lot of growth in the beginning in favor of the 20k city.
The start:
Mecca is founded 2NW to grab cow, wine hill, and bonus grass. Build order is scout, scout, scout, warrior, settler. Medina is founded in 2900bc at rcp4, 2 SE of the starting position to grab the bonus wheat, 2 bg, and 5 hills and starts working on a temple.
Exploration and research:
With 3 scouts, I started 0% research to accumulate money and hoped for techs from huts and trades. But the huts gave map, map, gold, warrior, map, gold: not a very good result. But I was able to make good trades and 2670bc started min research on writing, which I did not complete but got in trade also and started literature. Since I was weak, the AIs made quite a lot of extortions and I delayed completing lit until I had a good head start on the Great Library pre-build.
QSC:
In 1000bc I only had 4 cities at rcp4 around Mecca, but Medina was already pop 10 and making 22 shields per turn.
20K Medina:
I decided to build Colossus and hoped for the starting Golden Age to push the Great Library construction. And it happened. The race for The Great Lighthouse was tight vs. Seoul which was 3 turns ahead of Medina. I donated them monarchy and they had 5 turns of anarchy.
2390bc: temple
1350bc: Colossus
710bc: Great Library
590bc: library
210bc: Great Lighthouse
At the end of the Ancient Age, I had 2000+ gold because I waited for republic to come from The Great Library and start rushing. Luckily, I was able to move 12 defenders into the northern town to be attacked by 17 barb horsemen and lost only 1 spear, but got 3 elite spears from defending. I grabbed neither horses nor iron and will have to fight for it beginning of the Middle Ages.
Playing Predator Class for the first time I decided to go for 20k.
Start
I settled SE-E from start, irrigated wheat, hurried a settler, built a granary and pumped workers till Mecca bacame a 4-turn-SF.
20k Medina I founded 2NW from the start, not being aware that east of the start the tiles were much more productive (5 tiles water vs. 8 in my site).
20k
Also building Colossus first surprisingly started my GA
but this "mental absense" enabled me to get way ahead of the AI opponents and encouraged me to build the Pyramides to speed up growth early.
2850 BC Medina founded
2470 BC Temple
1400 BC Colossus
825 BC Pyramides
530 BC Forbidden Palace
510 BC Library
470 BC Colosseum
foreign affairs
After the Germans assaulted early, capturing one worker (my brave reg warrior killed one of two German archers and the other draw back
), the other towns started building veteran units, archers and later horses after I did some aggressive settling in Atztec area to claim horses and Iron.
Research
I started researching The Wheel at max as I had noticed no Civ had that starting tech. I stayed tech and contact broker throughout the whole AT without getting any techs (except maxybe one ) from huts. I traded / gifted Writing, Polytheism and Mathmatics quite immediately to kick start AIs' research. I guess I reached MA around 500 BC.
Start
I settled SE-E from start, irrigated wheat, hurried a settler, built a granary and pumped workers till Mecca bacame a 4-turn-SF.
20k Medina I founded 2NW from the start, not being aware that east of the start the tiles were much more productive (5 tiles water vs. 8 in my site).
20k
Also building Colossus first surprisingly started my GA
but this "mental absense" enabled me to get way ahead of the AI opponents and encouraged me to build the Pyramides to speed up growth early. 2850 BC Medina founded
2470 BC Temple
1400 BC Colossus
825 BC Pyramides
530 BC Forbidden Palace
510 BC Library
470 BC Colosseum
foreign affairs
After the Germans assaulted early, capturing one worker (my brave reg warrior killed one of two German archers and the other draw back
), the other towns started building veteran units, archers and later horses after I did some aggressive settling in Atztec area to claim horses and Iron. Research
I started researching The Wheel at max as I had noticed no Civ had that starting tech. I stayed tech and contact broker throughout the whole AT without getting any techs (except maxybe one
) from huts. I traded / gifted Writing, Polytheism and Mathmatics quite immediately to kick start AIs' research. I guess I reached MA around 500 BC.
denyd
Emperor
Abu Bakr was delighted to be selected to lead the new colonization mission. The challenge of a larger that usual planet did not faze him as he was determined to prove that his culture was one that could claim success. He knew success would be determined on early expansion and peaceful relations with his neighbors. Resources spent on conquest would have to be diverted from his culture improvements and that was something to be avoided. He studied the original site and decided that it would be necessary to taste the nearby waters before determining the site for his first city.
As soon as his landing pod hatch opened he scanned the nearby water sources and when the northern one was determined to be fresh water he sent his team to found his first city there. His workmen were tasked with improving the area around his capital. Lewis, his first scout set out to the east and celebrated the commissioning of Clark (his brother) as a scout with the acquisition of the Code of Warriors from a wandering nomad. With a third scout heading north (Clark went west to meet the Iroquois), Mecca began building his first settler. After Lewis met the Zulu tribe, Clark met the Ottoman tribe and obtained Bronze Working for the base Arab technologies. With the founding of Medina, Abu doubled his empire’s size. With now four scouts in the field, Abu traded for masonry and mysticism as his capital produced a second settler and began building a granary. Medina now was in the process of creating a work force to improve the terrain.
Lewis made contact with the English and acquired the Alphabet in 2550 BC which upped the Arab contact total to five (the Aztecs were met the prior year). Crockett met the Persians in 2430 BC at the same time Lewis acquired the knowledge of Iron Working from shepherd village. The founding of Baghdad coincided with a pair of noteworthy events, the trade with Persia for the Wheel and the discovery of horses on the hill next to Baghdad. While there were still no known sources of iron at least horses had been claimed. Abu focused his research towards Horseback Riding while his first temple was being constructed. By 2000 BC the Arabs had met another tribe (Russia) and completed the setup of Mecca as a settler producer. With a pair of worker teams the core of the empire was developing nicely. A blackmail from the Iroquois for gold convinced Abu that a military would soon be needed so he ordered the construction of a barracks in Baghdad and with a trade acquired horseback riding and would soon begin training veteran horsemen.
His scouts (all five) continued meeting the remaining nations (Germany, Carthage and Korea) while Abu kept busy directing workers, founding new cities and making deals for technology (Writing from England), slaves (from Aztecs) and gold. With the discovery of Mathematics in 1200 BC the Arab nation was the leader in technology and with the completion of 5 more temples easily led the world in culture. That same year Clark would be the first scout to be killed by barbarians. An English blackmail of Aztec contact convince Abu to turn his attention to military and a couple of archer builds were successful in turning back a couple of barbarian attackers in the north with only Anjar losing a citizen to a barbarian horse. The acquisition of Polytheism in 1025 BC came as the Arabs completed another pair of temples. So far on the only World Wonder, the Oracle had been completed (by the Iroquois) and Abu felt that the commitment of resources did not justify the return.
The next three hundred years saw little changes, only the discovery of philosophy and trades for Map Making and Code of Laws highlighted the science portion of the era, while England completed the Pyramids in London, the Arabs passed the 500 point culture level. All remained quiet for another four hundred years with four days of national mourning for each of the scouts who died at the hands of barbarians, the discovery of Literature plus trades for Currency & Construction and the completion of Colossus in Korea and Great Lighthouse in Carthage as entries for the history books.
The future looked bright with over 1200 points of culture and a nearly complete Great Library. Funding that had been used for research would be spent on a national literacy program to add libraries to all cities. The world had been at peace and with embassies in all nations capitals Abu hoped it would remain so.
[Editors Note: For those interested in such things, I settled at an RCP of 5 and 12 initially and went back and filled in the 8 ring in the middle ages. QSC numbers: 9 towns, 8 temples, a granary and a barracks. 3 settlers in route and 5 workers and a slave. 356C & 18cpt & 350g with -8gpt - 1 Archer & 1 Warrior both vets & 139 tiles]
As soon as his landing pod hatch opened he scanned the nearby water sources and when the northern one was determined to be fresh water he sent his team to found his first city there. His workmen were tasked with improving the area around his capital. Lewis, his first scout set out to the east and celebrated the commissioning of Clark (his brother) as a scout with the acquisition of the Code of Warriors from a wandering nomad. With a third scout heading north (Clark went west to meet the Iroquois), Mecca began building his first settler. After Lewis met the Zulu tribe, Clark met the Ottoman tribe and obtained Bronze Working for the base Arab technologies. With the founding of Medina, Abu doubled his empire’s size. With now four scouts in the field, Abu traded for masonry and mysticism as his capital produced a second settler and began building a granary. Medina now was in the process of creating a work force to improve the terrain.
Lewis made contact with the English and acquired the Alphabet in 2550 BC which upped the Arab contact total to five (the Aztecs were met the prior year). Crockett met the Persians in 2430 BC at the same time Lewis acquired the knowledge of Iron Working from shepherd village. The founding of Baghdad coincided with a pair of noteworthy events, the trade with Persia for the Wheel and the discovery of horses on the hill next to Baghdad. While there were still no known sources of iron at least horses had been claimed. Abu focused his research towards Horseback Riding while his first temple was being constructed. By 2000 BC the Arabs had met another tribe (Russia) and completed the setup of Mecca as a settler producer. With a pair of worker teams the core of the empire was developing nicely. A blackmail from the Iroquois for gold convinced Abu that a military would soon be needed so he ordered the construction of a barracks in Baghdad and with a trade acquired horseback riding and would soon begin training veteran horsemen.
His scouts (all five) continued meeting the remaining nations (Germany, Carthage and Korea) while Abu kept busy directing workers, founding new cities and making deals for technology (Writing from England), slaves (from Aztecs) and gold. With the discovery of Mathematics in 1200 BC the Arab nation was the leader in technology and with the completion of 5 more temples easily led the world in culture. That same year Clark would be the first scout to be killed by barbarians. An English blackmail of Aztec contact convince Abu to turn his attention to military and a couple of archer builds were successful in turning back a couple of barbarian attackers in the north with only Anjar losing a citizen to a barbarian horse. The acquisition of Polytheism in 1025 BC came as the Arabs completed another pair of temples. So far on the only World Wonder, the Oracle had been completed (by the Iroquois) and Abu felt that the commitment of resources did not justify the return.
The next three hundred years saw little changes, only the discovery of philosophy and trades for Map Making and Code of Laws highlighted the science portion of the era, while England completed the Pyramids in London, the Arabs passed the 500 point culture level. All remained quiet for another four hundred years with four days of national mourning for each of the scouts who died at the hands of barbarians, the discovery of Literature plus trades for Currency & Construction and the completion of Colossus in Korea and Great Lighthouse in Carthage as entries for the history books.
The future looked bright with over 1200 points of culture and a nearly complete Great Library. Funding that had been used for research would be spent on a national literacy program to add libraries to all cities. The world had been at peace and with embassies in all nations capitals Abu hoped it would remain so.
[Editors Note: For those interested in such things, I settled at an RCP of 5 and 12 initially and went back and filled in the 8 ring in the middle ages. QSC numbers: 9 towns, 8 temples, a granary and a barracks. 3 settlers in route and 5 workers and a slave. 356C & 18cpt & 350g with -8gpt - 1 Archer & 1 Warrior both vets & 139 tiles]
Stuffed yes. Scientific I hope, though I may have to be a bit less so if I want to finish this game in time. But slothful, unfortunately not. As usual it's my RL work that keeps me from playing.Megalou said:
You seem to have missed some important details in your spoiler, such as the number of towns and pop at the QSC/MA. How could I compare my game to yours if you don't reveal these things?
So far I've played the game much as I would have if I were aiming for domination, since I seem to recall that the key to a high milking score is to reach the domination limit as fast as possible.
Just like WarDance, I figured that the cow would help create a nice 30+30 combo factory. So I moved the settler SE and settled there. SE? Yes, since the cow location could actually do 11 spt at size 5, I could afford to do that in my second town and lose one shield to corruption. And because the wheat was a BG wheat, and my scout had found an extra BG to the south, I realized that the spot SE could make 10 spt at size 5, and that the two locations could alternate the BG between them. The only unknown in the equation was that the cow location needed another BG, luckily there was one further to the NW. So I had two 30+30 combo factories.
Spoiler detailed per-turn plans for the combo factories :
The only other noteworthy thing I did was my non-standard research path. I figured with this many opponents that I could actually get some help with research, so I consistently chose techs that the AIs normally don't favor. Didn't work out very well though, the AIs took forever to reach Writing. Too few AIs that started with Alphabet I believe. I would have wanted to go for CoL right after Maths, but now I couldn't do that.
Tech Progression
3300 BC: Bronze Working (hut)
2900 BC: Warrior Code (hut) (really stupid since I could have traded it from Persia)
2670 BC: Masonry (Persia) (didn't want the same to happen again)
2670 BC: Mysticism (hut)
2350 BC: Alphabet (England)
2350 BC: The Wheel (Persia) (I had 6 turns left at min research)
1910 BC: Iron Working (Zulu)
1625 BC: Mathematics (researched)
1525 BC: Writing (England)
1100 BC: Currency (researched)
1050 BC: Map Making (Iroquois)
925 BC: Code of Laws (researched) (AIs still don't have Philo at this point)
875 BC: Philosophy (Germany)
690 BC: Horseback Riding (Iroquois) (could have had it earlier, but combo factories could only do 20+30 at until now)
550 BC: Republic (researched) => Revolt on the IBT
550 BC: Polytheism (Aztecs)
550 BC: Construction (Zulu) => Enter MA
550 BC: Literature (Carthage)
550 BC: Engineering (Ottomans) (after gifting)
Persia entered the MA with Monotheism, but wouldn't trade it even for Engineering + Republic, Ronald wanted another 500 gp. Nah.
With the early TW I grabbed the horses, but my scouts had missed the iron mountain to the south so by the time I noticed the iron there, the spot was taken by the Aztecs.
Goody huts
3600 BC: warrior
3300 BC: Bronze Working
2950 BC: warrior
2900 BC: Warrior Code
2750 BC: map
2670 BC: Mysticism
2590 BC: gold
1990 BC: advanced tribe by the wines and small lake near the English peninsula
QSC stats
11 towns, 30 pop
2 granaries, 2 temples, 4 barracks
2 settlers, x workers, y slaves (will edit in when I get to my other computer with that save on)
2 scouts, 12 warriors, 2 chariots
All 1st and 2nd tier techs, MM, Maths, Currency
All contacts, full map, no embassies
814 gp, doing -8gpt
EDIT: Added this nice picture showing Ar-dairy-a at 975 BC:
View attachment 110554
Entering the MA
17 towns, 51 pop, 177 land
375 score
3 granaries, 2 temples, 6 barracks, 1 walls (by the horses)
1 settler, 13 workers, 9 slaves
1 scout, 11 warriors, 18 horsemen
941 gp, 33 gpt, sliders at 8.0.2
I'm seriously considering disbanding a bunch of MP and scouting warriors, and the scouts, right now I'm paying 56 gpt for units!
Next goal is to grab the iron from Aztecs who should easily roll over.
Very impressive, especially the number of horsemen. You are ahead in everything except libraries and possibly, at the later stage, workers.
I failed to save at 1000 BC. Here is 1125BC (turn 75):
6 cities
22 pop
81 tiles
6 workers
? slaves
2 scouts
6 warriors
2 archers
244 gold
2 temples
2 libraries
2 granaries
My rationale for the small numbers of workers at this stage was the juiciness of the sweet water tiles.
And at the end of the ancient era, 370 BC (turn 109):
12 towns
36 pop
165 tiles
3 settlers
20 workers
? slaves
6 warriors
2 archers
1 spearman
1 horseman
602 gold
5 temples
4 libraries
1 harbour
2 granaries
3 rax
Gems from Carthage - this was on and off, surely due to some senseless barbarian vessel steered by Captain Rum in his sleep.
A mere 325 points.
Next, the map at 370 BC. I missed the narrow land bridge to the Iroquois area and hence the horses. Also, the placing of Aden looks quite stupid in retrospect, considering I had not completed my RCP4 circle.
One of my settlers is trying to tear some furs from the hands of Persia. Dunno where the 3rd settler is, probably near some dyes.
I 'd say you are now 4 to 1 favourite due to the horsemen and score. Some things would be far-fetched to compare, eg you can see me building a harbour in Najran which I can see you would not dream of.
I failed to save at 1000 BC. Here is 1125BC (turn 75):
6 cities
22 pop
81 tiles
6 workers
? slaves
2 scouts
6 warriors
2 archers
244 gold
2 temples
2 libraries
2 granaries
My rationale for the small numbers of workers at this stage was the juiciness of the sweet water tiles.
And at the end of the ancient era, 370 BC (turn 109):
12 towns
36 pop
165 tiles
3 settlers
20 workers
? slaves
6 warriors
2 archers
1 spearman
1 horseman
602 gold
5 temples
4 libraries
1 harbour
2 granaries
3 rax
Gems from Carthage - this was on and off, surely due to some senseless barbarian vessel steered by Captain Rum in his sleep.
A mere 325 points.
Next, the map at 370 BC. I missed the narrow land bridge to the Iroquois area and hence the horses. Also, the placing of Aden looks quite stupid in retrospect, considering I had not completed my RCP4 circle.
One of my settlers is trying to tear some furs from the hands of Persia. Dunno where the 3rd settler is, probably near some dyes.
I 'd say you are now 4 to 1 favourite due to the horsemen and score. Some things would be far-fetched to compare, eg you can see me building a harbour in Najran which I can see you would not dream of.
Open class, going for Arabs in space.
I opted to settle on the initial spot thinking that RCP would be more valuable than the food in my capital. I figured with all the land to fill, I would want lots of settlers for a long time, so my initial build in Mecca was a granary completed just before size 3. Next came a settler to settle by the cow, then scouts and workers. Towns by the cow and the wheat both built granaries first and became 6-turn settler factories. Despite all the land, I settled at RCP 3 and 6 out of habit although I did grab the furs and dyes to the east.
Initial research was The Wheel, then Alphabet (traded for before completion). Following that I researched Math, Literature, Philosophy, and Republic. I popped Masonry, Horseback Riding, and 2 warriors - all other techs I traded for.
The barbarians were not really an issue - they killed some scouts and took some gold, but there was so much gold in the world from people clearing camps that I had no problem keeping research at 100%. The barbs also made some workers available for sale for obsolete technologies.
QSC stats:
11 towns
29 citizens
2 settlers
7 workers
5 slaves
5 warriors
5 archers
2 scouts
3 granaries
2 barracks
1 library
My third settler was enroute to the horses when the Iroquois settled there which led to the only Ancient Age war. I didn't really want to fight the Iroquois because they were my best research buddy, but I needed horses on a map this size, so I prepared a stack of 7 archers and declared war in 690 BC. Oil Springs fell under the first assault, and when I entered the Middle Ages, the Iroquois still wouldn't talk to me. I'm sure I could do a lot more damage, but I don't want to.
Middle Ages started in 590 BC when I traded for Currency, Construction, and Polytheism. The eastern and western civs still had not met each other.
I opted to settle on the initial spot thinking that RCP would be more valuable than the food in my capital. I figured with all the land to fill, I would want lots of settlers for a long time, so my initial build in Mecca was a granary completed just before size 3. Next came a settler to settle by the cow, then scouts and workers. Towns by the cow and the wheat both built granaries first and became 6-turn settler factories. Despite all the land, I settled at RCP 3 and 6 out of habit although I did grab the furs and dyes to the east.
Initial research was The Wheel, then Alphabet (traded for before completion). Following that I researched Math, Literature, Philosophy, and Republic. I popped Masonry, Horseback Riding, and 2 warriors - all other techs I traded for.
The barbarians were not really an issue - they killed some scouts and took some gold, but there was so much gold in the world from people clearing camps that I had no problem keeping research at 100%. The barbs also made some workers available for sale for obsolete technologies.
QSC stats:
11 towns
29 citizens
2 settlers
7 workers
5 slaves
5 warriors
5 archers
2 scouts
3 granaries
2 barracks
1 library
My third settler was enroute to the horses when the Iroquois settled there which led to the only Ancient Age war. I didn't really want to fight the Iroquois because they were my best research buddy, but I needed horses on a map this size, so I prepared a stack of 7 archers and declared war in 690 BC. Oil Springs fell under the first assault, and when I entered the Middle Ages, the Iroquois still wouldn't talk to me. I'm sure I could do a lot more damage, but I don't want to.
Middle Ages started in 590 BC when I traded for Currency, Construction, and Polytheism. The eastern and western civs still had not met each other.
PaperBeetle
Emperor
After taking a bit of a battering in last month's tR1cKy challenge, I decided to take the opposite route this time: do whatever tR1cKy is not 
. So I shall take my ansars to all corners of the globe, and kill everybody I find there.
First Up, First Error
In the pregame thread I argued that we should be given the salinity of any water as pregame information, as we would always taste the water anyway, before making any final decisions. Duly, immediately on starting the game, I tasted the water and found it all to be salty
. Running up a spreadsheet on this basis, I decided to found my capital 1SW, and set up an eight turn combo factory. I didn't realise the error of my tasting until 2670bc. Ouch.
The Planned Start
Following my spreadsheet to the letter, I built scout, axe, granny, settler, then a mix of scouts, axes and settlers, running the factory at sizes 3 - 5. The moo didn't get improved at all, until I realised it could be watered. My worker concentrated on mining everything in sight. I assumed the freshwater oversight was a serious error, but my QSC stats seem pretty competitive, so maybe concentrating on production, and running the factory small, allowed me to start spamming sooner. Anyway...
Replanned Start
The second town went to the wheat & fish site, but I would have needed cultural expansion to get the fish, and I didn't want to take time out to build a temple (what a cheapskate, heh) so I planned for a combo factory here too; the final reworking of my spreadsheet had both towns running as six turn factories; Medina just doing settler, Mecca doing axe + settler. This seemed pretty good until I read Niklas's mighty twin combo factory scheme
.
ScoutsOut
My scouts (I built an extra three) did their usual good work. In my last Arabian game, the COTM, I got a free town to the south-east of Korea. This game was quite different; my free town was to the south-west of Korea, near some silks. I also found two techs and a conscript axe, and met all rivals except India and Germany, whose contacts I would buy in 1000bc.
Resource Hunting
Mindful of the importance of grabbing strategic resources, I started research with Wheel, though I traded for it 2 turns before the research would have finished. Knowing the location of the nearest horse, I sent my second-built settler there, to found Baghdad at the Iroquois chokepoint. The next town went next to the wine, and then I sent another settler on a long resource trek; southwest to get the iron. Not wanting to move from the seashore, and to fit my carefully planned RCP 3/6/9, Kufah went at the rivermouth and started a temple to grab the iron and moo.
Resource Envy
My resource grabbing antics were not appreciated by the AI. In 1525bc, the Iroquois dowed, and attempted to attack my horse town. Of course, attacking a fortified axe on a hill over a river, with just axes, they were repulsed. Foolishly, I brought the Ottomans and Aztecs in on my side; I didn't want to spare resources from my own expansion to fight this war, but I was worried that the Iroquois might turn south to attack my exposed iron town. Well, it wasn't the Iroquois I should have worried about. In 1225bc, as the Aztec armies sprinted north past Kufah toward Iroquoia, they found my iron too hard to resist, and turned on me, capturing the town.
Rep? Who Needs It?
Not wanting to fight on two fronts, I decided to concentrate on getting my iron back. The Iroquois got peace in exchange for two of their towns, and I had shot my rep, by breaking my war deal with the Ottomans. Mind you, the Iro and Otto will be on and off at war for the rest of their game, so it wasn't all for nothing.
QSC Stats
12 towns with 31 citizens and 132 tiles.
76 food in the bin, 79 shields in the box, 210g in the treasury.
2 granaries, 3 barracks, 2 temples.
1 settler, 5 workers, 5 slaves, 2 scouts, 12 axes (1 vet), 7 archers (6 vets).
11 contacts, 9 embassies.
All ancient techs except Construction, Currency, Polytheism, Monarchy, Republic, Laws (79 beakers gathered).
Too late to submit, as usual.
. So I shall take my ansars to all corners of the globe, and kill everybody I find there.First Up, First Error
In the pregame thread I argued that we should be given the salinity of any water as pregame information, as we would always taste the water anyway, before making any final decisions. Duly, immediately on starting the game, I tasted the water and found it all to be salty
. Running up a spreadsheet on this basis, I decided to found my capital 1SW, and set up an eight turn combo factory. I didn't realise the error of my tasting until 2670bc. Ouch.The Planned Start
Following my spreadsheet to the letter, I built scout, axe, granny, settler, then a mix of scouts, axes and settlers, running the factory at sizes 3 - 5. The moo didn't get improved at all, until I realised it could be watered. My worker concentrated on mining everything in sight. I assumed the freshwater oversight was a serious error, but my QSC stats seem pretty competitive, so maybe concentrating on production, and running the factory small, allowed me to start spamming sooner. Anyway...
Replanned Start
The second town went to the wheat & fish site, but I would have needed cultural expansion to get the fish, and I didn't want to take time out to build a temple (what a cheapskate, heh) so I planned for a combo factory here too; the final reworking of my spreadsheet had both towns running as six turn factories; Medina just doing settler, Mecca doing axe + settler. This seemed pretty good until I read Niklas's mighty twin combo factory scheme
.ScoutsOut
My scouts (I built an extra three) did their usual good work. In my last Arabian game, the COTM, I got a free town to the south-east of Korea. This game was quite different; my free town was to the south-west of Korea, near some silks. I also found two techs and a conscript axe, and met all rivals except India and Germany, whose contacts I would buy in 1000bc.
Resource Hunting
Mindful of the importance of grabbing strategic resources, I started research with Wheel, though I traded for it 2 turns before the research would have finished. Knowing the location of the nearest horse, I sent my second-built settler there, to found Baghdad at the Iroquois chokepoint. The next town went next to the wine, and then I sent another settler on a long resource trek; southwest to get the iron. Not wanting to move from the seashore, and to fit my carefully planned RCP 3/6/9, Kufah went at the rivermouth and started a temple to grab the iron and moo.
Resource Envy
My resource grabbing antics were not appreciated by the AI. In 1525bc, the Iroquois dowed, and attempted to attack my horse town. Of course, attacking a fortified axe on a hill over a river, with just axes, they were repulsed. Foolishly, I brought the Ottomans and Aztecs in on my side; I didn't want to spare resources from my own expansion to fight this war, but I was worried that the Iroquois might turn south to attack my exposed iron town. Well, it wasn't the Iroquois I should have worried about. In 1225bc, as the Aztec armies sprinted north past Kufah toward Iroquoia, they found my iron too hard to resist, and turned on me, capturing the town
.Rep? Who Needs It?
Not wanting to fight on two fronts, I decided to concentrate on getting my iron back. The Iroquois got peace in exchange for two of their towns, and I had shot my rep, by breaking my war deal with the Ottomans. Mind you, the Iro and Otto will be on and off at war for the rest of their game, so it wasn't all for nothing.
QSC Stats
12 towns with 31 citizens and 132 tiles.
76 food in the bin, 79 shields in the box, 210g in the treasury.
2 granaries, 3 barracks, 2 temples.
1 settler, 5 workers, 5 slaves, 2 scouts, 12 axes (1 vet), 7 archers (6 vets).
11 contacts, 9 embassies.
All ancient techs except Construction, Currency, Polytheism, Monarchy, Republic, Laws (79 beakers gathered).
Too late to submit, as usual.
Attachments
I. Larkin
Deity
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2003
- Messages
- 4,417
Spoiler MA.
Settle SE from start and send scout NE.
Research Mysticism at min.
Build order: Warrior, Warrior, Granary, Settler, Scout.
Warriors have found nothing at S and SE and return back and go SW and. NW.
Scouts got WC and eqworker from Huts. Later got HBR.
Scout met Korean first and English on way back.
Warriors met Russians, Iroquois, Aztecs, and later Ottomans.
Second scout at deep SE met Persian, Cartage. On return way found Zulu killed by barbarians.
After systematic search Germans were found at North at 1150 BC and Indians soon after.
In general, scouts did very good job and I manage to trade Map Making from Persia for WM + 25 gold lump sum. (Not gpt).
For Cities placement I use 4-8 RCP and finish first ring of 5 Cities at 1790 BC.
Basra, to control Horses near Salamanca was built at distance 11 at 1250 BC. After border expanded Medina worked as settler factory with 5 fpt surplus. It builds second ring (not finished yet.)
Research: After 40 turns Mysticism I research at almost 100% rate and discover Writing, Literature, Philosophy, CoL, Republic, Currency. I trade the rest of techs on the way and maintain Sci leadership.
War: all AIs were very peaceful, except Ottos and Iro, who were at war with each other at all historical time. To get Iron I declare war to Aztecs and bring Iros to war as double alliance vs Aztecs and Ottos. The same date (510 BC) Republic was discovered that allowed me to get rid of MP. 7 turns later (350 BC) I was close to capture second Aztecs City, and trade to Iro Currency for Construction and our Alliance enter together to Middle Age. I have monopoly on Republic and down to 2 AIs for Monarchy.
Settle SE from start and send scout NE.
Research Mysticism at min.
Build order: Warrior, Warrior, Granary, Settler, Scout.
Warriors have found nothing at S and SE and return back and go SW and. NW.
Scouts got WC and eqworker from Huts. Later got HBR.
Scout met Korean first and English on way back.
Warriors met Russians, Iroquois, Aztecs, and later Ottomans.
Second scout at deep SE met Persian, Cartage. On return way found Zulu killed by barbarians.
After systematic search Germans were found at North at 1150 BC and Indians soon after.
In general, scouts did very good job and I manage to trade Map Making from Persia for WM + 25 gold lump sum. (Not gpt).
For Cities placement I use 4-8 RCP and finish first ring of 5 Cities at 1790 BC.
Basra, to control Horses near Salamanca was built at distance 11 at 1250 BC. After border expanded Medina worked as settler factory with 5 fpt surplus. It builds second ring (not finished yet.)
Research: After 40 turns Mysticism I research at almost 100% rate and discover Writing, Literature, Philosophy, CoL, Republic, Currency. I trade the rest of techs on the way and maintain Sci leadership.
War: all AIs were very peaceful, except Ottos and Iro, who were at war with each other at all historical time. To get Iron I declare war to Aztecs and bring Iros to war as double alliance vs Aztecs and Ottos. The same date (510 BC) Republic was discovered that allowed me to get rid of MP. 7 turns later (350 BC) I was close to capture second Aztecs City, and trade to Iro Currency for Construction and our Alliance enter together to Middle Age. I have monopoly on Republic and down to 2 AIs for Monarchy.
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