GOTM 50 - The ancient era

[PaperBeetle]

The Counterattack
In 975bc, I finally got my horses hooked up, and switched all my military builds over to horsemen. I had seven archers in stock, and sent these guys out to reclaim my iron from the Aztecs; Kufah was recaptured in 875bc, though it still needed a temple before the iron was even in its borders. Meanwhile, the Aztecs were sending their jaguars north to the undefended towns I had taken from the Iroquois. In 900bc, I gifted one of them to Russia to prevent it falling into enemy hands. In the south, my archers skirmished with Aztec troops in the field (well, desert) until the first horses started arriving. Then the push south began again. Lack of roads made it slow going, but I autorazed my first Aztec town in 630bc.

Resarch History
As is usual for me, I couldn't make up my mind whether I wanted to slow the tech pace down to put my ansars ahead of the game, or speed the tech pace up to get the ansars rolling sooner. In support of the second goal, I researched right Maths after getting Wheel (2470bc), meaning to give it to all the AI so they could do the two Cs for me. In support of the first goal, I didn't give Maths to anyone, and followed it with Currency. A couple of turns later (1525bc), I changed my mind and switched to Literature. In fact, Maths, Lit and Philosophy were the only techs I researched myself.

Enter The Medieval
The last ancient tech to be researched was Currency, as usual. The Ottomans and Carthaginians were the first AI to get it, and entered the medieval in 530bc. On the same turn, I swapped Construction for Currency with the English, and we came up to the medieval too. The barb uprisings kicked off; the most immediate threat to me was an existing camp near the remaining Iroquois peace town. There was no way my two axes were going to fight off a couple of dozen horses, and my attempts at trading my cash away only resulted in me accumulating even more of the stuff - about 500g . There was only one thing to do; my axes ran to the hills, and I gave the town to Korea, who were the weakest civ without a presence in the area. Afterwards it occured to me that I should have given the town to someone with a lot of cash to lose .

 

[Megalou]

It's weird that I seem to be among the latest to get to the medieval age considering I had 2 libraries in 1000 BC and another 2 shortly after. I'd like to think this is bad luck but it seems pretty clear that early Math is a better research choice than early Literature. Should have learned that by now.

 

[I. Larkin]

It's weird that I seem to be among the latest to get to the medieval age considering I had 2 libraries in 1000 BC and another 2 shortly after. I'd like to think this is bad luck but it seems pretty clear that early Math is a better research choice than early Literature. Should have learned that by now.

I, however, always learn literature first. Yes, you come to MA later, but others AI appears even more technologically backward.

 

[Megalou]

I, however, always learn literature first. Yes, you come to MA later, but others AI appears even more technologically backward.

Possibly, but does it matter? As long as they get us Currency and Construction they can be as backward as they want in the early MA.

The availability of libraries to AI is hard to evaluate.

Notably, even 40-turn researchers seen to have beaten my MA date.

 

[PaperBeetle]

Especially on a map like this, I agree that it is perfectly safe to have the AI equal to yourself in tech. There's so much land that they'll never get out of rex mode.

With my relatively early Literature I built only two libraries; one was in the horse town, which needed to fight the culture of the Iroquois capital, and the other was in the capital, which (working the incense) had pretty good commerce. I think this kind of focus is the influence of Civ4 on my Civ3 strategy. I did a similar thing in the Carthaginian game, cash rushing 3 or 4 libraries in my core in an attempt to get to Mil Trad faster.

 

[Redbad]

open, domination challenge

Decided to found Mecca 2NW between the cow and the wine. The scout went to the NW too and soon found WackenOpenAir. The Iroquois are quite scary with their mounted warriors, so it seemed best to plug the narrow landbridge asap. Medina founded in 2710BC at a place which later appeared to be 1S of the horses.

Wacken, despite having his own horses, didn’t accept it and dowed me. The war only resulted in him losing 5 or 6 unit and me 2, so we made peace. I built a second scout and they popped some 4 huts, netting me 2 techs, a warrior and some gold. After obtaining iron working, the closest iron was to the SW. Both WackenOpenAir and Obormot had built a town close by, Wacken 2N and Obormot 1S. I built a town 1NE of the iron and hurried a temple after 10 turns. That secured the ingredients for ansars.

The rest of the AA was about founding towns, building temples and barracks and horsemen. In 190BC the 40turn research of monarchy ended and was traded for currency, construction and literature. Unfortunately both zamint3 and Ronald got engineering. Wacken and zamint entered the MA around 450BC, which caused an uprising to the south. When the barb horsemen threatend my settler I founded Merw (in the same spot as Piu) and gifted it to Durkz.

My specs and 190BC:
19 cities, 54 citizens, 13 workers, 1 slave, 3 settlers, 2 archers, 17 horsemen, 2333 gold.

 

[azzaman333]

After an early attack from a persian warrior, the arabian empire expanded peacefully. Mecca was founded 1SE, Medina 3N of Mecca, Damascus 3NW, 1W of Mecca and Baghdad 1W, 3SW of Mecca. I missed most monopolies, but since i had done heaps of early exploration with my scouts, my world map could keep me up in tehc until the 'tecs hit the MA. I entered MA in approx. 310 BC, 5-10 turns after the Aztecs, who were first and occupied with a war vs Iroquois for most of the AA. A barb got me to declare war on Persia late in the AA, thanks to the HM who killed the Persian warrior. i stole some of the persian furs, since after thier early war against me (in which i only saw 1 warrior who attacked my capital) they started the Oracle, which stinted their growth extensively. Aztecs are beating the Iroquois, but the Aztecs dont know of my plan to rape and pillage them with my horsemen to secure my own source of Iron. Upon hitting the MA, Persia and Ottomans both got Mono, and they wouldt trade. No gov's have been researched yet in the game, so im planning on becomeing a democracy and outreasearching them to either UN or space race Victory.

In 310 BC,
17 cities with 50 pop.
240 land
61 gold, -3pt at 80%
1 granary
8 temples
5 barracks
17 workers
18 warriors (15 reg, 2 vet, 1 elite)
4 archers (all vet)
6 spears (all vet)
1 horsman (vet)

my territory at 310 BC

Russia never had a chance with the start loc.

 

[bio_hazard]

Ugh. Not my best game. It started out ok- I relatively quickly saw I was in a central position, and would have unique map/contact info to trade. I think I did ok with the map trading, but maybe could have gotten more from the contacts. I delayed trading them for some time, and may have missed some opportunities as other nations cashed in or else managed to make contact on their own.

My real downfall was not getting horses. I missed the western horses by just 1-2 turns (my settler was almost there to claim them, but the iriquois plunked down a city), and the Aztecs grabbed the south-western horses. I did settle near the south-western Iron, but couldn't get my worker there to connect. The iriqouis were very strong and had a stream of mounted warriors passing between my city and the iron- I was afraid to boot him out or declare since he was much stronger than I was. This delayed my attempt to get cities closer to the Aztec's horses. I did a pretty good job of fending of a german attack by allying everyone against them, but somehow I got tangled up in another war and ended up having to give Persia my new city closest to the Aztec horses to stop them from steamrolling into my core...

I am roughly middle of the pack score-wise (iriqouis are winning), and I'm the lowest of the relatively successful nations. Given my state in the Middle ages (won't say more here), a victory is probably not in the cards but maybe a green ambulance? Looks like the red one is taken

 

[civ_steve]

I'm a bit delayed in posting this spoiler; with the Christmas holidays, my son's birthday in mid January and a little dabbling with CIV, it's taking me a long time to get this game going. So here it is:

The Cow looked pretty good, so I sent the scout towards the Wheat to see if there was any reason to found that way. He saw the fresh water Fish, so I changed direction and founded Mecca in 3900 BC just SW of the Wheat. I set up the 4 turn Settler Factory and decided on a Ring4.x/Ring7.x system of founding the nearby cities. Build a 2nd Scout, a 2nd Worker, then a Granary, and Settlers after that. Founded Medina on the Grapes/Hill and connected, and Damascus later near the Spice to give me 2 Luxuries; with 2 MPs a size6 city required no Luxury tax.

Scouts headed West and East, making contact with Iroqouis and Persia fairly quickly. Several other contacts shortly after that, then the rest gained after Writing became fairly established. All 11 contacts by 1000 BC.

First item to research was the Wheel (learned in 2510 BC), to locate them horses! They weren't too close by. Along the way a Hut gave me BronzeWorking, and I traded for Masonry and Warrior Code. At this point I decided to research fastest possible towards Monarchy. Mysticism in 2030 BC and Poly in 1325 BC. Traded Poly around for IronWorking, HorseBackRiding and Alphabet (finally). A contact gained shortly after allowed me to trade 3 Techs for Writing in 1175 BC. I was still researching Monarchy as of 1000 BC.

MapMaking was known by several around 800 BC. I started trading for Maps, and picked up MapMaking, Math and Philosophy and most of the world's gold. At this time I started about 3 brush wars with far off civs, getting closer civs to ally with me. I learned Monarchy in 730 BC, and became one a turn later. I picked up Code of Laws and Literature as part of peace negotiations in 430 BC. I was beaten to Currency, and bought the last turn for 10 G, and beaten to Construction, and bought the last 2 turns for 100 G. Entered the Middle Ages in 150 BC. The 2 Scientific civs both got Monotheism.

One other event of great significance. About 800 BC I see 3 Iroqouis warriors approaching an undefended Medina. I think they are chasing Barbs. Next turn they move adjacent to it, and the turn after capture it!! So first I get the 2 closest civs to ally with me against Iroqouis. Then I muster some Archer forces and take Medina back a few turns later. Then I muster many more Archer forces, build a road towards the NW frontier, capture Tonawanda (adjacent to closest Horse resource), push a Settler through to the Horses themselves, Abandon Tonawanda, and found on the Horses. Gained horses in 650 BC. This position also gives me 1 turn attack capability against Salamanca with fast units. Signed peace in 430 BC getting CoL and Lit, and 2 far West Iroqouis Towns. Along the way the Iroqouis kicked off their GA and complete Pyramids for me in Salamanca! Peace is short lived; I get a good stack of Horses together and start the war up again early, and now I have the Pyramids and a few more Iroqouis towns. And my first GL (DaveMcW) who is stashed back at home waiting for a good Wonder to rush.

That's all for now. Here is a picture of my QSC holdings and my unit list.

And my F3 screen at 150 BC -

 

[Megalou]

That's a remarkable turn of events, civsteve. I guess it can teach us to wage more early wars, if even an unwanted war can have such beneficial consequences. Going for the cow, I wish I could have gotten the pyramids as quickly as you. But you were a bit late into the Middle Ages.

 

[civ_steve]

Yes, I agree. I will have to compensate (somehow) for later access to Ansars and a later GA.

 

[Niklas]

I went fighting early on, didn't help me much. Pyramids in London, and no early GLs :grr:. Then again, I did get a lot of land...

 

[Megalou]

Oh yes, I didn't mean to say the pyramids were the only possible benefit. However, the extra land (taken before ansars are available) will have a rather small effect unless the war is very early. I fear your numerous upgradeable horsemen and early MA more.