GOTM 63 First Spoiler

[jesusin]

GOTM 63 First Spoiler

Stop! If you are participating in GOTM63, then you MUST NOT read this thread unless EITHER

• You have reached at least 1 AD in your game, OR
• You have submitted your entry

Posting Restrictions

• Please do not disclose ANY events or information gained post 1 AD.
• Please do not reveal your final result if that happened after 1 AD.
• Please do not discuss the location of resources that may not show up before 1 AD.
• Please do not name civilizations that requires caravels to contact.

 

[ElWanderer]

I spent a couple of turns exploring then ended up settling in place. The pre-existing improvements made it interesting, and I was glad I ignored the AI's crazy suggestion to settle up in the tundra (to grab the marble I presume).

I did a civil service slingshot and managed to beat Monty to settling between the elephants and copper by a couple of turns. I then reverted to type and played a middling, aimless game! I don't expect to trouble the scoreboard but I'm enjoying it. I thought I'd pick this save up as a change after three weeks of trying to learn to love Civ 5... I'm very tempted to go and play the previous GOTM now (and the current BOTM, and the next WOTM looks fascinating too) - if only I had more spare time!

Five years ago, this would have been a good "trap" scenario: I'd have sat building wonders with the combination of Industrious and marble, whilst culturally pressing Monty, who'd have flipped out and attacked me. Okay, that's pretty much what happened here, but I was prepared and had a small pile of axemen - in fact I demolished his first attack without loss. I expect I'll retaliate in due course and try to wipe him off the map.

 

[Mitchum]

I spent a couple of turns exploring then ended up settling in place.

It looks like your user name has meaning...

I settled on the city ruins on T0. I too pulled off a CS sling. My research rate was so slow that I had to build a few cottages in the capital to speed things up (sorry, bbp). Rather than waiting for Monty to attack, I was the aggressor, eliminating him some time around 500 BC.

By 1 AD, I am a few turns away from Machinery. I plan to run through Alex (and KK) once I get macemen. I could have done it with Axes, but I didn't want the extra captured cities to slow down my pitiful research rate even further.

 

[Fluroscent]

I settled on the ruins on T1, after realizing that adding the plains cow to the BFC would have to do. Weak capital, but of course, it's vanilla so CS sling is so easy without the math requirement.
Settled a quick 2nd city down by the copper with cows+improved incence (later pillaged due to not paying attention ). Axe rushed and took out Monty and Alex (still has an archer though), keeping two cities from each. Aztec capital is amazing, settled on PH Stone and huge food, will be a nice GP farm.
Competed CS sling and have 7 cities by 1AD. Going to take out KK with cats+phants+axes.

 

[billybgame]

I had an interesting early game.

Wasted 2 turns moving the settler, only to settle back in place. But, then still managed to found Hinduism. This spread to all 3 of our neighbors, so I started wondering about victories like Diplomacy, or Culture.

Missed getting to the elephants area by 1 or 2 turns with my settler. Took that settler down to the cows and silk, instead, and it worked out great with copper showing up. Next settler went just N of the elephants, with the horses and rice(?).

Should have known better than any peaceful games, with Monty and Alexander. Even though we both happily shared our religion, I was being DoW'd on all over the place. I had ok defense at this point, and managed to fend off attackers for many years. I was probably low on the power graph, I imagine, though, causing their attacks.

Both were at war with me at the same time, so that wasn't good. Managed to hold off many Greek attackers at the copper city, and finally peace. Monty took my horse city, but I took it right back, and peace finally. But, later, he attacked again, and razed my city. He was on my list, by now....he was going to have to go. But, that's more for later.

Think I only had the 4 cities at 1AD, with the 4th along the southern coast, with more horses and cows. Too much war going on to do much else, really.

 

[MarleysGh0st]

I settled on the PH, 2SE of the starting position. Not a lot of food there, but all that ivory made it a production powerhouse. After meeting the neighbors, I decided an early rush was called for, so I declared war on Monty in 1640 BC. By 925 BC, I'd captured two cities and razed the third to destroy the Aztecs.

During the peace that followed, I built the Pyramids and used them to switch to Hereditary Rule, before declaring war on Alexander in 200 BC. By 1 AD, Sparta was mine and I was approaching Athens.

A domination victory sounds good, at this point.

 

[haphazard1]

I settled on the plains hill 2W1S, with cows and rice. Not a great capital, but pretty decent production. I found Monty's borders quite early, and decided immediately that he had to be eliminated. The available land was not of very good quality, and I was going to need all of it myself to compete.

I finished my first settler the same turn BW completed, so I settled Orleans SSE of the capital for the closer copper, cows, and hills to mine. Built a barracks and started pumping axes; the capital did the same after finishing Stonehenge. Monty founded his second city for all the elephants but it was on the spot I wanted, so that just saved me a settler. I declared in 1480 BC when Monty sent his second settler out, capturing it and then going for his capital. He only had 2 archers, and my 7 axes + 2 warriors were just enough; fortified archers with CG1 on a hill with 40% culture were tough. Fresh axes cleaned up the second city just after it grew to size 2 (I love it when a plan comes together ) and Monty was dead at 1200 BC.

The Aztec capital was the Hindu holy city, and this quickly spread to Alex and Kublai to boost relations. So I placed a city at the southern copper to seal off the entire north for myself and started working on settling more cities. And building wonders, with stone and marble plus industrious. By 1 AD, I had 7 cities with plans for 5 more on the main landmass. I had built Stonehenge, Oracle, Pyramids, Great Library, Hanging Gardens, and Great Lighthouse; I missed the Pathenon by 2 turns to someone unknown. Representation and a handful of specialists in the former Aztec capital are helping my lackluster research rate, and the first dozen or so cottages are starting to mature. The tech rate is still pretty pathetic, but things are looking up.

I have no idea what victory condition I am going to pursue yet. This is only noble so I can probably win a number of ways -- maybe culture? My first two cities are developing nicely as hammer-heavy wonder builders, while the Aztec capital will be an excellent artist farm. I would need to grab at least a couple more religions to really make that work, though, and Buddhism, Judaism, and Confucianism have already been founded somewhere in the fog. I guess I can always fall back on military.

 

[donsig]

I settled on the city ruins. Started towards bronze working but then after a turn decided a religion would be nice so I switched to mysticism. As soon as I got that someone founded Buddhism so I gave up on the silly religious idea and went for bronze working. That turned out much better since copper was close.

An initial worker seemed a waste since the rice was already farmed and I wanted mysticism. So I started a settler. My warrior found Monty and I was tempted to attack with just the warrior but held off since I couldn't even see his city. Founded Orleans in 3040 BC on the river to the southeast (rice, cow and two ivory). I think I made a worker in each city at this point. Then I chopped another settler and founded Lyons in 2160 BC on the west coast to the south (copper and cows). Orleans built Stonehenge in 1600 BC. Once the copper was hooked up I started building axes so I could get Monty before he got me. I razed the nearest city but kept the capital. I also kept the third city in an attempt to deny the area to the Greeks. Monty is still alive but I know not where.

I made one more settler and founded Rheims on the east coast in 575 BC (fish and clams). Once I saw the stone I decided on the Pyramids which I built in Paris in 424 BC. I built the Hanging Gardens in Lyons in 150 BC. Didn't even think about the Oracle and now it is too late. I settled my prophet in Orleans to help keep my research rate up. I spent most of Monty's gold on axes for my warriors. Running slavery (though I haven't slaved much as usual) and representation (which seems to have slowed my research times). I have libraries in Paris, Orleans and Lyons.

As of 1 AD I am one turn from construction. Alex is my next target after I make some catapults and elephants. Hooking up the marble so I'll probably get distracted by some more wonders. I also want to settle a city in the northeast to get the furs. There is a barb city in the northwest.

I have six cities and I'm not sure what victory I'm going for (as usual). At least I'm high up on the power graph compared to my neighbors (which is not usual for me). So far it's been fun since I've been able to build some wonders and grow my cities.

 

[kcd_swede]

I settled on the plains 1S1SE from the start, on t1 (t0 moved to hill 2S). I wanted to keep the farmed rice and the cottaged grassland in my BFC, as well as maximixe the number of forested river grass tiles, while getting some elephants too. The infamous blue circle even pointed to that spot, so wth. I considered the PH on the rigver, but decided that it was too much production with no food to support it.

Built worker first. Tech mining/BW and will axe-rush, since Monte meets me on t2, and that is just too close to live with.

7 axes take Tenochtitlan, which has just built the Stonehenge. He settled west of there to get copper, but never had a chance to hook it up. I waited till it was size 2 to take it. Monte gone, and I can start thinking about what I want to do in this game.

Oracle long gone... I decide to get pyramids... but after 2 t into the pyramids, I can see it in Athens. 1 turn later I can't build the pyramids, but am happy anyhow since I decide I will have them anyways.

After taking 2 greek cities, (cat+axe) I accept peace for bunch of tech, including HBR which will let me build war elephants. During the peace I attack the Mongols. I plan to do same procedure, 10t war, 10t peace. Should never have to face 2 opponents at once. I guess I'll be going for a domination.

 

[neilmeister]

Settled 1S, on the GH, after moving the warrior SE, and the settler to the ruins. Rice, elephant, hamlet and lots of green river tiles. So this was good enough for me.

Met Monty on T3 , thats not a pleasant discovery. Meet KK about 10 turns later, followed by Alex. You really gave us nice neighbours Jesusin!!

Beeline BW, and see copper just out of the BFC, but it will be inside in 3 turns. Settled city 2 in the nest of elephants to help build axes.

Failed in my first rush attempt. I took Monty's second city, next to the jungle rice, but my 5 axes lost to his 2 archers in his cap. Made peace, built about more 8 axes and tried again. His capital is amazing, and was well worth 2 attempts.

Took the Incense city from Alex, and was going for Athens, but it is just too well defended, so took peace for Masonry.

Oracled CS and eliminated Monty at about the same time, ~1000BC.

Captured one nice barb city, on the NW tip of our land. Peacefully settled most of the decent spots and will wait for Maces/Cats to eliminate Alex then KK.

 

[Grifftavian]

I moved the Warrior 1NW, which revealed the riverside Flood Plain 2N of starting location. Decided I could farm the FP and have two 4-food tiles, so settled in place on Turn 0. Initial builds Worker/Warrior x2/Settler. Initial research was bee-line Bronze Working. City 2/Orleans was SE, on the river near Rice and 3 Elephants; city 3/Lyons SW for the Copper & Cows.

Five cities at 1 AD, with a 6th to be founded on the next turn or two. Building The Parthenon in Orleans, 11 turns remaining at 1 AD. One GScientist born in Paris, used to build an Academy. Expansion slowed due to a war with guess who...

Montezuma Edna is right about him!

Monte captured Lyons twice, and I captured it back twice, then made a Peace Treaty. Not too much room for expansion remains, just northern tundra. I'll be able to build Cats in 9 more turns, so looks like Plan A is to take Monte out, then try for a Cultural Victory. From reading the earlier threads, looks like I should have taken Monte out sooner.

 

[Cactus Pete]

Settled on the ruins to maximize forests and take advantage of the hamlet the warrior revealed.

Used Oracle for Construction after I belatedly learned how seafood-rich the Aztec capital was. Took out the Aztecs a little late in 225BC, but have moved swiftly on to the Greeks and now possess Sparta and Thermopylae (total of nine cities).

No precious metals or gems (and cheap forges -- evil mapmaker at work again), only two rivers, and one floodplain to cottage . . . commerce has been hard to come by. Having to rely on specialists for research and aborted wonders for gold.

Interested to see what difficulties lie on distant shores but will take a while to research through Astronomy.

 

[Htadus]

Warrior went south to hill and found an improved cottage. Settled on the spot. I figure with two improved tiles I should let the city grow to two while building a warrior.

Warrior went SW to coast along hills and swing east by the moutain to south and find Toku. Hummm

When the capital hit pop two, I switched to a settler. By the time the settler was ready, I had choosen the PH near Aztecs with 3 elephants rice and a cow. About that time Monti sent a worker building a road to his west side. Captured the worker and sent him north. I am glad this was Vanilla since IBT my warrior get killed by an archer. I immidiately switched my tech to archary. By now I had mining, BW, Hunting, AH and was teching toward PHood. 5 or 6 turns later we were building defensive archers. He sent a settler and 2 warriors to claim the rice, cow, copper and plantation resource. Two French archers attacked it at size 2 with one warrior back up. Almost but no cigars . Next turn there was a brand new Aztec archer sitting pretty in the city .

By this time we had another city that claimed the copper to south. After the first settler , the capital built a warrior and a worker. New city also built a worker. So all three of French workers were sent to build a road and and we quickly poped two axes and went capturing his copper city. Cost was one archer earlier and one axe.

I intend to not build many wonders in this game. So Oracle and GLib were the choices and forgot about the Mids. Got CS from oracle and working on the GLib.

After blocking off the north side of our continent, I started to build a few cities. There are 8 cities at 0AD and have 12 turns to complete Machinary. We got calander from a trade and it helps alot. Elephants and beaver is just not enough.

Most cities have a Grainary, Library, and a few Courthouses and forges. Most cites have been working on cottages and we are sustaining at 60% science.

Next phase is to go to war with Cats, Elephants and Maces while building more cities. Capital is only 12 pop but we are near happy limit. Where in the world are rare metals?

The plan is to build each of these units from all cities and send two stacks south. One through Aztec's and the other through Greece. Poor phalanx's meeting maces. Not nice.

 

[WelshGandalf]

Warrior went SW to coast along hills and swing east by the moutain to south and find Toku. Hummm

Do you mean Aztecs - Toku certainly wasn't in my game

 

[Htadus]

Do you mean Aztecs - Toku certainly wasn't in my game

Too many Toku games of late. You got me there. No wonder my 7 year old was asking "Toku?" And I was telling him yeah it is for Tokugawa. May be I should let him be in charge. After all. he was continuiously correcting my grammer.

 

[adrianj]

I decided to settle in place, reasoning that I'd appreciate the riverside and presumably more river than the lost from auto-clearing the forest. The move didn't feel so great after discovering the cows to the west but I hoped to make it work.

When I found Monty my first thoughts were to remove him ASAP. I built my second and third cities amongst the copper and ivory - they were a bit food poor, but once up to a decent size they became useful for spamming units, eg, axes.

When I saw Monty settle a city in what I considered a sub-optimal spot I sent in a few axes to remove it, and claim a couple of workers in the process. At this point I noticed the immense amount of land available to the northeast, north and west and figured a concerted war wasn't in my best interests for now. I went into Rex mode.

I had actually given up on the Oracle, but when I saw it was still available at a pretty late date I chopped it out to get Code of Laws, founding confu - the only religion on our continent. It naturally spread to the Greeks, Aztecs and Mongols and for a time we were friends. Except that Monty's capital looked so delicious as a GPFam I had to take it.

At 1AD my goals are to get close to Liberalism, find the other continent and proceed on towards a diplomatic victory.

 

[Arnold_T]

My goal this game was to just finish before the deadline! On Immortal and Diety level games this is easy - I just lose quickly
For this easier Noble level game, I needed a new strategy. Starting with three weeks to go before the deadline helps. But I'm really starting to like the Cultural win option for when I have little real-life time available. The trouble with this game is that Louis isn't really the ideal leader to go for a Cultural win with. So I thought maybe if I played a combination domination/cultural strategy it might work out. The idea being plan for a Cultural win in the end, but play the first half of the game going for domination of the starting continent.

Having read the excellent Jesusin strategy guide to winning Cultural wins at higher difficulty levels, I figured I could use most of that stuff with a less-than ideal cultural leader at Noble-level. Also I figured the Industrious trait could be leveraged for Wonders - which could help towards the Cultural win. I know, I know, in the end they don't really add up to much compared to your Cottaged culture-cities and GA-bombs, but hey, I just love building wonders, so I made that part of my plan.

After wandering around for 120 years my Initial Settler decided to set up in the old ruins. Good choice I think, lots of green tiles to Cottage. Started cottaging ASAP, good move I think, really helped with the research. The aztecs came calling early, so I worked to settle towards him and block him off, founding Orleans 2320BC near the copper and elephants. I figured Orleans could build the Oracle for the CS-sling while Paris got a couple more cities settled and researched Code of Laws.

Settled Lyons 1440BC with Clams, Horses, RIce and Cows in the BFC, and Rheims 975BC behind the mountains with Cows, two Spices and a shared Copper (with Orleans) in the BFC. Plan was going great, Barbs weren't much of an issue, but research was slower than Orleans' ability to produce the Oracle. Continued to cottage Paris, got Writing in 1440, and Code of Laws in 825BC, and Oracle in 800BC for Civil Service -yay!

I think I could have been faster to Oracle if I'd researched Writing earlier. My first four tech were AH, Pottery, Mining, BW. Maybe I should have then researched Writing, ahead of my next four techs which were Myst, Med, Priest, Hunting?

up till 1AD things have been very peaceful as I filled in cities to the north, smiled as my neighbours adopted Confu, continued research and traded techs nicely with KK and ALex to get Fishing, ARch, Alph, Masonry, Sailing by 525BC. Got Monarchy 375BC, and IW, Poly, and Mono by 250BC. The Aztecs aren't really much into tech trading though, and they are they obvious next target after northern expansion is done.
At 1AD I have seven cities, a nice tech lead of four or five techs over my known rivals. Don't know anything about the other continent except that they founded a ton of religions (hope that doesn't impact my Cultural win plan), and somebody built the Pyramids over there in 400BC, and Stonehenge in 1120BC.
I think Lyon will be a great Wonder city, with the Great Lighthouse already built (150BC), on track for Parthenon by 100AD, and probably the Colossus after that.
Probably the Aztecs think it would a great city for them too! so my plan is to tech quickly to Elephants and Cats and build an army to take them out - hopefully before they take me out.

I think my long term plan is still a good one - not sure if I should take out Alex and KK though before settling in for the Cultural finish. If I'm interested in the highest score possible from here I wonder is it better to spend the time to get the points from more territorry by conquering my continent completly, or to focus on the fastest possible Cultural win?

 

[Jouzou]

I'm running 5 cities and doing all right. As usual, I have made mistakes, but one in particular is bugging me. I attacked a barb city 1E of the cows in NW and kept it. I only later realized that founding a city of my own west of the spices would have netted the spices, rice, cows* and iron in the BFC. Ah well, it's not gonna be too bad once I get a lighthouse there. Maybe I'll make a rice/iron city later. I do have Colossus, so might as well take advantage of those coastal tiles.

In other news, Monty DOW'd our royal ass (totally didn't see that one coming from a mile away). Fortunately, I just happened to have some military units stationed at the border. My attack force is not quite strong enough yet, but I'm working on it. He has copper and ponies, but I have Dumbos and I'm researching construction. If he's not smart enough to produce spears, he'll be toast.

*Fun fact: Say the word "rice" and the word "cows" right after it. You have now pronounced the word "rape" in my native language.

 

[Mad Professor]

I'm finally getting to this one. Whether I get it finished is another matter. I'm playing in a hurry...

I settled in place for the want of good analysis to do anything different, and sent the warrior off exploring. I started with mining->BW because there seemed to be a lot of forest around that I wanted to chop. Once I bumped into Monty early I conceived another use for bronze... By the time I'd bumped into Kublai and Alex as well I was absolutely convinced of the need for the alternative use for bronze. So naturally my second city went south on the coast near that copper...

I was reasonably pleased with getting Civil Service with the Oracle while simultaneously beating the stuffing out of Monty with axe men. I got a bit sloppy though - playing on Noble, in a hurry and all that...

I took a couple of cities off Monty and got peace for a couple of techs - sailing and poly I seem to remember it was. I asked for peace after marching up to his capital and realizing my axes didn't really have much chance against that cultural defense and retired to invent catapults before continuing.

By 1AD I am through currency and construction and have just started building a list of cats. When they're done I'll polish off Monty and keep right on going into Greece and Mongolia. I'm currently studying metal casting, to be followed by machinery, so by the time I'm finished with Greece, I should have a nice row of maces in my army to tackle Mongolia with.

So from here it's definitely a military victory I'm going for and it sure won't be the fastest done in this game! After getting those maces out I guess I'll be heading for astronomy so I can find that dratted other continent that's got to be out there with the other lucky civs who get to survive longer.

And I have to do all that by the day after tomorrow. Hahahaha. I can dream...

Oh - at 1AD I have six cities - four I settled and two I took off Monty, and I founded Confucianism by getting CoL the turn I finished the oracle to grab CS with it.