GOTM 52 Second Spoiler

[Paul#42]

So lessons learned. Never garrison captured cities with armies. Next time I'll raze any cities without useful wonders, and have some settlers on hand to capture the land area. I had rushed libraries in the towns that flipped, however these seem to have been lost when I recaptured them. I came pretty close to jacking it all in several times, but pressed on and eventually it paid off.

All culture buildings are lost when a city changes its owner.
To prevent losses in flips I leave cities empty with a unit nearby to immediately retake it.
I even do not fight resistance if I plan to elli... ele... kill the opponent soon. If I have to fight resistance I try to do it with less valuable units like the reg warriors from the first turns.

Good effort anyway, it's not easy to win on deity with so many losses and "loose" playstyle

 

[civ_steve]

The Middle Ages were not kind to me. Somehow, my 2nd city (founded near the Cows and Wheat to the NW), 2 spaces away from my capital, size 9 with 6 luxuries and some MP's, Marketplace, Library, Barracks, decides to CF to the Greeks! Right around 300 BC. That put a damper on the game. At the time I was using MedInf to take some of Carthage's holdings, so net I was down quite a bit. Weird thing; the darn city flipped back to me around 500 AD.

Anyway, I eventually kicked Carthage off the continent, gaining a foothold on the island continent to the East. I used that foothold and Knights to capture 3 more cities from Babylon; it didn't matter, they all flipped back. Finally I got up to Sipahi, and started showing the Greeks where they stood in the order of things. I captured most of the Greek cities, learned Magnetism, then signed peace with Alex for TofG getting me into the Industrial Age in 1000 AD. On the interturn, China declares on me, taking 5 towns!

So I've got a late entry into the IA, China has been there for a while, and already has Riflemen and has started on Universal Suffrage, I'm weakened from taking on Greece, while China is strong, so I'm losing a lot of Sipahi, my GA is nearly over. Not insurmountable by any means (I managed to get Babylon to ally with me for my free Steam Power), but I'm out of town on travel for my company all of next week. So I'm closing the book on this one in favor of working on this month's civ4 game.

 

[DiBZ]

PTW and as it was my first ever game on deity, and mindful of my kicking last game, played Conquest class.

Again, because my last game was sooo bad I read up on the Ottomans and for a change took the radical step of having a gameplan. So, the strategy was get iron and build swords, take out first opponent, (hopefully) force them to give me MIs that I can use to crush another oppenent and then head for Sipahis amassing Knights and cash. At the same time I would keep building cultural buildings to avoid losses through flips. Technology wise I would stick at minimum and use cash and force. Stuff Republic and stick with despotism, monarchy and communism.

Would it work?

From day one Greece and Carthage were at it hammer and tongs. (Yippee!) I watched the Greek-Carthage war until in 530BC my Military Advisor gleefully told me I outnumbered Carthage, so starting the Carthaginian Wars. My Swordsmen swept through Carthage and by 380AD Carthage was no longer a viable power on my continent. The peace treaty gave me MIs and I started the build up to my next war.

At this point only Babylon outweighed me culturally. All going well it seems.

Greece was generous enough to spend its time at war with China, Spain and Babylon, busy becoming the largest nation and so in 810AD when the majority of its troops were in Babylon I invaded, starting the Grecian Wars. By 1325AD the Greeks were completely absorbed into the Ottoman Empire.

Still only Babylon ahead on culture. Interestingly the Greeks had had Cavalry, but no one else was anywhere near. I started building up on Knights and cash whilst heading towards Sipahis. My master plan was still going strong.

In 1490AD I started annexation of the tiny independent nation of China then in 1550AD Ottoman troops marched into Salamanca triggering the Spanish wars. By 1635AD I had all of Spain crushed under the heel of the Ottoman oppressor and walked into Babylon intent on forcing them off the continent.

1670AD Alone on the continent and 1695AD got the domination victory.

So - having a strategy is a good thing - I always wondered why they called these strategy games. Just wish I was a bit quicker. A lot of my slowness was down to me using vast numbers of troops attacking the same city. I was too quick to move all my units rather than move them one by one. Also I didn't capitalise on the advantage offered by the Sipahis. And they are bloody good troops.

Still, a good game and I was chuffed with the result.

 

[k-a-bob]

Carthage builds Great Wall, so 1st target is Greece - who is squeezing my borders the most anyways. Declare, use swords and cats and dogpile the world vs them with a tech (Mono, I think) they are reduced to Athens and 2 more distant cities.

Next is Carthage. They built the GW in city south of their capital, I take 2 small towns with my sword/cat group and then take down GW city - razing it. Leave them with island city and SW corner city. I got my first leader here (making an army - and holding it for a Knight army.)

Finally get Chivalry (now "beeline to MT), build up Knight forces and invade China (after finally ridding the world of Greece). I get another dogpile (Spain and Babs) and slowly move through their countryside. I do a resource denial war, so they cant really use Riders - I see a total of 4 of them. I take their city with SunTzus and decide to keep it - they only have 3 cities left. The last 3 fall rather quickly, as they only have longbows and some leftover pikes and spears.

Spain is small (5 cities), Babs has the entire offshore island. I do a small ROP rape Spain and also attack the last settlement on the mainland for Carthage. This is around 1000-1050 AD timeframe and Spain is gone, and Carthage has a distant island city.

Babs extorted saltpeter from me when I wasn't ready yet to take him on, but 6 turns later I DOW on them. They have a good number of knights, but not as many as me. I realize that I can get a dom victory by taking most of the main continent. I build a bunch of settlers, get another GL, so I build the FP in the north, so I have 2 military producing cores. I also realize that I will win before I can even use my UU I really wanted to experience this!

Babs actually lands 5 Knights in my main core area, but I reserve enough to knock them out before they can do anything. I run over the rest of the continent, take Babylon, and sue for peace, grabbing an island city. This plus 2 more well placed cities will put me over the limit in 1220, just have to click end turn....

Babylon flips back on the turn I would win!!
I redeclare, retake Babylon by using my UU for the first time - getting my GA as I click end turn and push over the limit in 1230 AD.

No one was even close to getting to the IA - as I kept dogpiling everyone into wars. The tech leader was actually China, who only had 8 cities, where Babs has 15-20. I actually extorted 3 techs after I destroyed the last Chinese city (they had a settler wandering) and then before the turn ended, I redeclared and destroyed it.

No one else even got Chemistry.

Final results:
Software Version: Mac 1.29f for Macintosh
Entry class: Open
Game status: Domination Victory for Ottomans
Game date: 1230 AD
Firaxis score: 6882
Jason score: 8973

This was my first Diety victory

 

[Nata]

PTW Open, Goal: domination.

650BC - trade Poly from China for Wines, enter MA. Draw Monotheism. Greece and Carthage have Feudalism and Babs have Engineering.
Get Incense and Feud from Carthage for Mono.

550BC - Trade Engineering from Greece for large gpt, then break the deal and dow. Bring Carthage into alliance for gpt.
390BC - peace with Greece. Our RCP4 is finally complete with Thermopilae. next target: Carthage.

250BC - Attack Carthage.
230BC - Utica with Insense captured.
10BC - learn GunPowder, 2nd after Greece.
10AD - Finally take Carthage with GLib & Pyramids.
50AD - Get Monarchy, Theology, Chivalry & Education from GLib.

260AD - Greeks dow us, and nobody joins our alliance!
340AD - peace with Greeks for 160g from us after they took Carthage and raze our new RCP6 city. But we'll be back!

490AD - We have Military Tradition!
550AD - Dow Greece with Sipahi. Start GA. Bring Chinese into alliance for 175gpt.
590AD - GL on 2nd retake of Athens! FP in Athens.
680AD - Last Greek city is destroyed by China. We get our gpt back.

770Ad -Have 50 Sipahi after disconnecting Saltpeter & Iron and upgrading. Ship 9 over 2nd continet and dow Carthage, signing Babs with us.
800Ad - We destroyed Carthage.
Dow China. Get GL in war with China, make Army.

900AD - War with Spain.
950AD - Chinese gone, and they started drafting Riflemen in their last city 2 turns before their demise. Too late. Those were the only Riflemen (4 total) that we fought.
990Ad - I'm poised to destroy the last Spanish city but I achieve domination next turn.

Game status: Domination Victory for Ottomans
Game date: 1000 AD
Firaxis score: 7895
Jason score: 9443
Time played: 12:20:10

 

[tR1cKy]

Just submitted. Domination in 410AD; Firaxis: 11338; Jason: 11475; my choice of completely ignoring research paid off a lot. I also played somewhat sloppy in the later turns, without some errors a date around 350 could have been obtained. Spoiler tomorrow - i really need some sleep now!

 

[Paul#42]

Wow tr1cky! Sounds like some medal is due this time. Nice score and date!!

 

[tR1cKy]

Thanx! I suspected that most of the contenders would have researched till MilTrad to spank the AS with sipahis, so i tried the no-research path. I spent everything in units and libraries (for cultural boundaries), and kicked the AS butts with swords and mercs - knights came up only in the last 10 turns. Looks like this strategy is clearly superior, i didn't even play my best in the later turns. What surprises me is that apparently no one except for me played that way.

 

[Wotan]

I did and reached domination in 420AD with jason 11628. No Sipahis and only research to Knights. Also played rather sloppy and could have finished much earlier with some planning so a finish in late 200 or very early 300 was feasible.

 

[tR1cKy]

Wow! Just 1 turn of difference! But you got a higher jason, probably the gold will be yours.

 

[Obormot]

Nice games, guys! I realised that the path to sipahis is suboptimal after i learnt how tiny this pangaea actually is. But i play for awards in cotms, gotms are just for fun when i see a game with interesting settings I just couldn't resist cutting thriugh the AI with my favourite UU My jason is just a bit higher then 11K, so i'll propably just get bronze.

 

[Paul#42]

And I was thinking I was doing well being not crushed in Ancient Times...

Still a lot to learn for me...

I forgot to post my feeble attempt:

Predator
Domination Victory 1170 AD
Firaxis score: 7124
Jason score: 9074

At least I was enjoying Sipahi till the bitter end