GOTM 56 Spoiler

[grigor]

A small map on Prince with no restarts? Oh boy! This cries out for a green star effort.

I went to Monarchy right away, then map making, then Trade, then Polytheism. I built MPE in 2000BC, got all AI maps, and went to war right away. I didn't finish by 1000BC, which was my ideal goal at the start.

I did build Lighthouse, which saved about 2 turns.

The last AI fell in xxx BC. I bribed only one AI city, but I could have razed it instead, and the finishing time was not affected. So, Lafayette,

I expect to play this game several more times to see if a 1000BC finish is possible.

 

[Peaster]

Grigor - any finish before 1AD is excellent, but I bet you actually finished much earlier than that. 400BC?

I played mostly for the gold, but with some hopes of green (until I read Grigor's post). The starting position looks great, but it does not easily allow the size one trick, or much hut-popping, so my growth was rather slow. I reduced the AI to one puppet city by about 100BC, and spent another 10 turns on republic/growth + wonders, for GOTM score. I had about 50 cities and 6 wonders at the end.

I delayed my WoWs a little this time, with MPE in 950BC and Pyrs in approx 700BC. Later - LH, MC, HG and Col. I maxed taxes much of the game, but still got monotheism in 525BC. Only built about 3-4 barracks... the AI only had about 2-3 cities each and no walls... so rookie elephants probably would have been enough.

The Zulus caused trouble by sneak attacking an empty Aztec outpost, and they also defeated my crusader and a settler with minor units. But they were doomed to live too close to the Aztec homeland, so eventually they fell.

 

[URUWASHI]

Impressive , but not Unusual from you Peaster and Grigor.
As the game went on after 1000 BC I decided to go for the Internal Trade and a Science City , therefore ..the Space ship.
This was my first game landing a SS , but I realized with so many islands/continents
at Prince level my only worry was the Barbarians.
Last month I been playing and using some strategies that I learn from other players , and some of my own.
I decide to use my " seed Finder " theory ( Locating Hidden Special's ) and build cities near by ...it work wonderful!
After Building 4 cities in Island 39 , I started massive trading with the main land...I found later that Island 43, should have been a better post..............ohhhh well !
Building LH and MP was of not use then....
By 1000 AD I had build my Science City and reached population 25 , discoveries , 3 turns, science City alone was supplying over 500 Beakers.
I made 3 Critical Blunders: a ) Not changing from Soft fundy to DEmocracy after I destroyed the Germans and Romans , and took over the Zulu Mainland in one turn by 1100 I conquer both, but remained in Fundy for 20+ turns ...that cost me 7 to 8 techs.B ) Not Building Airports after Radio in 1300 or so...that will have speed my trade, consequently lowering down my taxes....
C ) I Build Airports near Carthage and Sioux Capital , but forgot to build one near " new " Zulu Capital. THat would allow me to trade with the Zulus.Caravans with the Sioux will pay 500 gold per turn........
Regardless...I managed to land in Alpha Centaury before 1650 with 40.000 , and have all 28 Wonders.
I Guess , that IF I had not made those 3 critical errors , I could have launched around 1450-1500.
I enjoyed the game ......!!

 

[grigor]

Peaster -

Yes, I finished well before 400BC.

Since you were going for a big score, I would have suggested delaying the other wonders but building Pyramids as soon as you got trade. At prince level, the AI won't be much of a help by 950BC. (MPE will give some techs on different paths in 1800BC, but by the time the human gets to 950 BC all those techs will have been learned). But 50 cities in 1AD is really terrific on this map. With that infrastructure, an early landing would have seemed in the cards - did you consider it?

 

[The BMC]

I won by Conquest in 1400 AD. While I see I was owned by several people here speed-wise (as expected), this is probably the fastest conquest I've ever done. First time I've ever done it before Armors came along, actually. I'm more of a landing player and I usually go for that on Emperor or Deity.

I love maps with tons of small islands. It's just too bad that the AI really doesn't understand how to handle them. I first knocked out the Germans, who had 3 inland cities on their island, so they pretty much had no chance of ever leaving their island unless they somehow bribed a transport ship, which I've never seen any AI player do (let alone that it's on Prince level where bribery is minimal anyway).

In fact, the only civ that actually settled any islands beside their own was the Zulus. And this game went on for a long time.

It was nice how they fixed the AI in Civ 3 to be all up over those small islands. Too bad the map creator had to forget how to make anymore than 3 or 4 of them on the same map.

 

[URUWASHI]

BMC , I found the Germans very early , and established an embassy , few turns after I located the Zulus.
I agree,and Im sometimes mesmerized by the stupidity of the AI ....Germans had 3 cities , and no PORTS ...YET , they built the Magellan Wonder!!
In fact , when I discoverd Electricity by 1000 and The LIbrary becamed obsolete, and because I was gifting the Sioux with as many Techs and money as I could , but I was not gonna give them Gunpowder with the Germans having the LIbraray.... ( guess ...what AI built the Great Library...Germans Again ) I decided to wipe them all , Germans , Romans and Zulu's....Took me several Crusaders to take the Germans, but 2 Destroyers and one Carvel with 1 Crusader , and 2 Diplomats...soon as the Destroyers eliminated the defenders in Rome and Zimbawe ...the army will conquer the city ..then the Caravel enter the square...next turn , Civ will go into Riots....then 2 dilpomats will take a city ....for peanuts.
It took me 3 turns to conquer them .
Romans had build MP , Zulus Lighthouse and Kings Richard.
I made a fatal blunder, that cost me several turns of research ...I built SOL to avoid the Anarchy years, ....then after I conquer all 3 I forgot to switch to DEMO again...I guess coffers where getting good chunks of gold....I realized my error by 1300 or so.
By 1130 I was researching Flight, and I discovered by 1300....Before that my discovery rate was 3 turns.....
After I readjusted and changed to DEMO , ( 1300 + ) with all the new 12 cities taken from all 3 Civs, Techs were one every 2 turns.
Responding to Peaster and Grigor....Yes . Conquest earlier could have been an Option..but when I met the Germans Roman and Zulus ..their cities where size 2 or 3 ...in other words will be destroyed if attacked.....and with 47 + continents....massive trade.....the Space Ship Approach was the logical call.
Prince level...no CIV will start a Wonder after several turns.....worst enemy are Barbarians.

 

[la fayette]

grigor,
I bet the green star is yours.
I own seven, which is enough for me for a while and I have decided to play for a medal from now on (silver if Peaster plays for gold ).

 

[EmperorGandalf]

For once i have done fairly well in a gotm, and actually won (spaceship) the starting spot was good, i made that my main research city. eventually i spread out and made small colonies on other islands, contacted zulus and then germans, made trade routes, and right before my space ship landed took some cities w. wonders from the zulus. the germans still had a couple wonders, but they were too far away. spaceship landed 1851, not my best time, but good for this difficulty(for me: i have landed spaceship 1446, but that was chieftain level, not gotm)

 

[Peaster]

Peaster -

Yes, I finished well before 400BC.

Since you were going for a big score, I would have suggested delaying the other wonders but building Pyramids as soon as you got trade. At prince level, the AI won't be much of a help by 950BC. (MPE will give some techs on different paths in 1800BC, but by the time the human gets to 950 BC all those techs will have been learned). But 50 cities in 1AD is really terrific on this map. With that infrastructure, an early landing would have seemed in the cards - did you consider it?

Congrats on a fine game, and the Green Star !! (probably)

I still sweat over which wonders to build first, and have found few guiding principles for that. So, I can't really argue (but I'll try). I kept taxes high in this game because I didn't expect much economic help from trade, tribute or huts. My science suffered a bit. I knew I'd build MPE eventually to get the techs (and maps) I needed, and I knew some AI had poly because I had already gotten an elephant from a hut. In 950BC of this game, I needed poly and masonry (required for Pyramids) to make progress, so I went for MPE first. The only real alternative was LH, which didn't seem urgent on this map. Of course, I could have researched masonry earlier, so this aint a great excuse for delaying Pyramids.

I wonder if building them earlier would have helped. If you are planning to celebrate a Republic, the main purpose of the Pyramids is to get plenty of size 3 cities. In the game, I switched to Republic in 25bc, when 65% of my cities were size 3+. On the average, those grew to about size 6 within 5 turns, when the growth slowed, mainly due to lack of food. Not sure this worked perfectly, but it wasn't bad - my Pyramid timing seemed OK.

My main alternative to spending 200s on the Pyrs (in the 1800bc era) was to build about 4 settlers, which I did, to quickly increase my civ size almost 50%. I think that was better, but I'm not sure.

I did not consider early landing, cuz I don't really know how!

@La Fayette: Go for the Gold, Baby !!! There are many reasonable strategies, and I have only tried one.

 

[ElephantU]

At first I thought this was going to be a pleasant OCC, but then I discovered the Cyan civ was missing. I was doing a Fast Growth start with a diversion to Engineering for KRC, but I got stuck for awhile as Strong which really drove up the beaker costs. I got an alliance early with the Sioux, and two more later with the Romans and Zulus, but never with the Germans or Carth so alliance gifts were disappointing. Plus growing early meant I passed the others earlier than usual and could not beg the gold I needed for the midgame caravan building. I finally decided to go for Supreme (mostly by inflating my treasury) and hung in there long enough to get started on the spaceship. I stopped gifting the Sioux techs after I gave my Trade Route partners Auto (in hopes they would build SuperHighways - always hope, rarely works). With such a big treasury I've been bribing away everything in the neighborhood - no military threats to worry about. Launch date in the 1500's.

 

[EmperorGandalf]

1500's?
I still need to work on my spaceship strategy, i guess. (i probably knew that already anyway "

 

[Carrot]

XXX AD launch date, but the last three turns were ugly. Freight deliveries were lower than expected so I ended up having to disband engineers for that last module... Fusion Power and a 15:3:1 ship with 130g to spare. I guess one engi could have been saved, but I was in a bit of a panic there when I realised that funds were too low.

I did a few mistakes in the mid-game, I think. Or it could be that the AI is less of a help on Prince level. The EL strategy is intended for Deity were trading partners grow faster. More cities earlier would probably have cut a few turns in the end. I like archipelagos, though. Slightly more difficult expansion phase, but more control over AI movement and it keeps the peace. My own game would have benefitted from better terrain for the AI, but a great map overall.

Oh, and Pottery!? I had Salt around for millenia and no demand anywhere. But challenges makes us better players...

 

[la fayette]

A pre-1000 landing is always an achievement.
Congratulations, carrot

 

[grigor]

Yes, I echo LaFayette. Copngratulations, Carrot! I have not yet managed a pre-1000 landing. (That's why I go for early conquest...)

 

[bruderpetrus]

new here and having fun in taking part. reached 1000ad today, maybe not the best...

reached 1900 still playing. looks like i can launch ship soon. think i need a good plan to get into the hall of fame.

it´s 1960. launch could be possible but i decided to terraform. could this be the planet i ever wanted to stay?

 

[CivFan91]

bruderpetrus, welcome to CFC!

 

[Ali Ardavan]

I started playing today. I needed some time off after GOTM55. Having started this late I was going to play OCC but I did some black clicking and realized we are on a small island. That, the fact that we are on prince level, and that the pink civ is in the game made me change my mind. I may regret this as the deadline gets closer.

My goal is to conquer Zulu and Carthaginians at a minimum and end with SS landing.
I may have to modify this as the game progresses.

I quickly made 4 cities on my homeland and built a trireme. I discovered the tiny island next door and settled it. It is -900 now. I have just built Marco. I have 5 cities, and no army.

I do intend to gear research towards Engineering and build King Richard as quickly as possible.

 

[ElephantU]

"pink civ"?

 

[nerovats]

Wow 400BC is great. I played this one (first civII game in years) and finished in 760AD, getting the feel for it again would have made an earlier date, but 400BC is awesome.
A pre 1000 launch is also unbelievable, how did you get the tech rate up, all my ai's we're kind of ******ed, was only able to trade a tech once or twice.
I'm tempted to try next GOTM too, altho I play several civIII GOTM's/SG's so might have no time.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

"pink civ"?

I am partially color blind. And to make matters worse my screen has lost its ability to show some colors properly: red looks like orange. I meant the last Civ: Mongols/Sioux/Indians. What is their color, purple?

I am glad I decided to play this one and decided not to do an OCC. What a beautiful Archipelago. These are rare indeed. I bet this is a hand made map and not randomly generated.