GOTM 64 First Spoiler -- 1 AD

[Cactus Pete]

GOTM 64 First Spoiler

Reading Requirements

Stop! If you are participating in GOTM 64, 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.

 

[WelshGandalf]

Settled in place, went for & got CS sling despite mis-timing it, so the oracle was only finished (900BC) 5 turns after CoL was researched

I have 4 good cities, 1 junky city to get silver and just settled 1 distant city in the top-left to nab all the lovely resources up there. Great library is done (125BC, took so long in my production-poor capital), going for Colossus and Hanging Gardens before I go all-out military. Spain will be the first target as they seem pretty small & hampered by jungle. Yet to meet the 4th rival.

The French spread Christianity to me so we're best buddies. About to found taoism - have a GProphet ready for the shrine, then will go into pacifism to get a few great scientists out. I do love being Spiritual; the religion civic in particular is seeing a lot of changes to match what I'm trying to do at the time.

Screenshot of my main 4 cities...

Spoiler :

Stats... 6 cities, 92bpt @ 70%, 33 pop, 4 workers, 4 warriors, 5 axemen. Researched up to Theology, Civil Service, Literature, Philosophy finishing next turn.

 

[adrianj]

I felt that I could handle Prince difficulty ok enough, so I took the Challenger save. Settled in place.

I didn't think the aggressive AIs would make much difference. Nevertheless, I noticed Louis soon "had enough on his hands", and surely I would be his target. Meh, I think to myself, I'll hook up copper, and worry about that when the time comes. Meanwhile I'll just go about my usual game of expanding across all this empty land. Starting with a nice spot claiming the corn/copper/silver.

My heart really sank when I have Louis declaring war on me with 2 musketeers and a lone archer. Musketeers! I haven't even connected my copper since I had to wait for a border expansion, nor have I researched Archery! I go into survival mode - change tech from my Code of Laws path to get Archery. Louis easily razes my second city and I am fearful that his musketeers could reach my capital defended by only 2 warriors within about 2 turns.

I actually attempt to use a worker as bait to try to detour him, but it turns out to be not completely terrible as Louis is slow moving the stack pillaging on the way. No chance of connecting the copper. Thankfully, my size 5 capital has some good whip potential, so I'm building one unit per turn - initially warriors then archers. After losing about 4 archers to the french musketeers I eventually have some good luck and manage to kill them on the defense.

If the AI could mouse over my face, it would read "Furious". I'm confident Louis has only rubbish archers and no more musketeers, so time to go on the offensive. I resettle the copper city and connect it up. For about 1000 years I build nothing but Axemen and Jaguars, stopping only when Paris (New Orleans) is mine. Louis offers a bunch of old techs for peace, which I take - but it won't last long. I won't rest till he is properly removed.

At 1 AD I'm only at 3 cities, but I have big plans to expand. Louis is relegated to a little city in Florida that I'll capture soon enough. Then I think I will expand peacefully as much as I can, but with an eye for an anticipated war with the English to claim their lands. Izzy is also in a mood, with "enough on her hands", so I guess I can expect to see that Conquistador soon enough. But this time I'll be prepared!

 

[MarleysGh0st]

I settled 1 SW 1 S, between the sacred lake and the ocean. Later settlers expanded to the north, including one that went far into the desert to grab the iron before Louis did. By 1 AD, I have a total of five cities, plus Stonehenge and the GLH.

No wars yet, but Spain is lowest in score, so Isabella will be my first target.

 

[Xcalibrator]

Took Challenger save, settled in place. I adopted Christianity when it spread to me and started racking up the shared religion points with Liz. But Louis almost immediately demanded that I cancel my deals (OB) with Liz. Since he was my nearest neighbor and could make my life very unpleasant with a DoW, and I would still have shared religion with Liz, I acceded. From adrianj's experience , perhaps that was a wise thing to do, but Liz refused to even talk for probably the next 100 turns, even though she was at a net +5 with me! That hurt my tech trading a fair amount since Izzy and Louis wouldn't trade anything (being different religions). Liz, HC, and I were Christian but it wasn't really gaining me much so I eventually went with No Religion and things improved enough that I was able to trade a little with everybody (when Liz finally got over her rage).

The Europeans are all mad at each other and I'm kinda nervous, especially with Izzy's conquistador and musket nosing around my borders, but I'm playing a peaceful game until I can get some cats to go after her. My military is very weak, though, and I know I'm playing with fire. At 1 AD I have 7 cities with Henge (2120 BC), Pyramids (750 BC), and I just finished the Great Library. I half-heartedly went for the Oracle (expensive without marble) but HC took it 350 BC. Bummer--I was hoping for Civil Service. Now that the GL is done I'd like to spam some more cities before Louis gets too big.

Liz is fenced in with just 2 cities, Izzy has 3 (Madrid is very poorly developed, with another small city squeezed in near mine to the south, and another offshore that I can't see), and HC and Louis each have 5 or so. Louis will be my main problem. The tech pace seems rather slow in this game--not sure why. Fewer and grumpier AIs? Not a ton of food for us?

My plan is to expand, tech to cats and maybe maces, take out Izzy (at least on the mainland), then probably wait for a bigger tech and unit-numbers advantage over Louis and go after him. Not sure if I'll go for Dom or the more tedious Conquest. My date for the former wouldn't be anything special and maybe nobody else will bother with the latter. I guess it depends on how anxious I am to start the next BOTM.

 

[pnp_dredd]

Well, that's the earliest war dec I've ever had!

Settled between the lake and the sea. The plan was to REX and block off land. I settled my first city way up near Louis, on the desert tile with cows and wheat. However, in 1840 eeek! he declared and you can guess what happened to my single warrior. The city had grown to size 2, so now Louis has an extra city in a nice spot. oh well.

Spoiler :

I take a risk and instead of beelining archery I go for Alphabet, and Louis is happy to take that for peace.

At 1 AD his Mouseketeers are currently exploring the long jungle peninsula and I have 10 jaguars sitting on his border...

Spoiler :

I haven't taken a religion yet, but I'm pretty good buddiess with Huyana due to my civics.

 

[billybgame]

Well, glad I'm not the only one who got DoW'd on early on. Both France and Spain at the same time!

I went S/SE and settled on the coast/lake tile. First settled due E, to beat the Spaniards to that nifty spot. Lost my two expansion cities to the French....they kept the one to the E of the capitol, in the nifty location N of the whales. The one the the N, on the eastern coast with the copper got razed. But, my capitol survived and I managed to take out both civs advanced units! So, now we're back on a level playing field unit wise. I have some revenge in order, though I may just let culture get my eastern city back, being I have Stonehenge.

At 1 AD, I'm just recovering from the wars. Still in war with them, actually. Need to get some cities in place and build some Jaguars now. No idea on a victory goal. Something tells me it'll be of a military ilk.

 

[Mitchum]

I settled in place on the PH. After hooking up the corn and gold, a barb archer entered my borders around T40. I thought I would have more time than that. I lost my gold mine and all of my roads. Pity. Things were moving along so well before then.

I researched Agriculture, Mining, Wheel, Pottery, Writing, Alphabet. I traded for Animal Husbandry, Meditation, Archery, Masonry and IW. I pulled off the CS sling circa 700 BC, which was quite late, but I did research Alphabet first...

My second city went south to capture the gold (outer ring) and my third city went north to capture the copper. I started building Jaguars and axes non-stop. I attacked Isabella in 675 BC. I totally forgot about her advanced units. It was touch-and-go for several turns, but I managed to evade them until after I had taken Madrid. Right around 1AD, Izzy is no more. I have 6 cities with another one about to be founded.

Time to expand and then figure out what I want to do with those other filthy Europeans that have taken our lands and raped our women!!

 

[babybluepants]

Goal: fast domination. I quickly glanced at the announcement thread and got the impression that AI cities would be fortified with a bunch of advanced units. Got it in my head immediately that I'd need maces and cats, if not more, as well as a production base of 6+ cities. Played for that without thinking much further about strategy. That's about how far I got by 1 AD, with 10 maces and 4 catapults about ready to do their thing in France and England and another 4 cats this turn.

In fact, the AIs were only fortified with 2 archers, and used their muskets to scout in pairs. And they only have like 2-3 cities a piece (maybe HC has more - haven't paid any attention to him). A quick axe rush takes this easily, I would think...

Cities (7): SIP / NE coast for two seafood, copper, corn / W of there for copper, corn, silver / NW of Paris for wheat & cow / S for fish, gold / far N for silver, copper, wheat, deer / S of Madrid for corn, seafood. The top four cities are doing 25-30hpt military production right now, so it's going pretty fast.

Tech: small stuff / Oracle CS / Alpha / MC / Machinery / Currency / Construction / Drama / Paper. Can't remember why I researched Machinery before Currency. Obsoleted monuments with a Calendar trade at a very inconvenient moment, which is why I teched Drama. Always happens when I play Vanilla... Built Pyramids, as well, for no particularly good reason (since I only have 1 library ) - running some Police State now just for fun.

Barb scouts are kinda hilarious, btw.

 

[Cactus Pete]

"Barb scouts are kinda hilarious, btw." Just thought they looked the part.

 

[Nicol.Bolas]

I went for BW, then
I managed the CS slingshot,
also Stonehenge for early rex.
then I went straight for the IW for UU
I managed to block all the europeans when I realised what the map is.

early IW probably saved me.... since I was already producing Jaguars, when
Louis DW on me with 2 Musketeers and 1 archer.
He attacked city with 40% cultural, 25% fortified, +20% combat Jaguar and lost.
IE (9 vs 5 + 1 +1,5 + 2)

Then I had some time hunting the other Musketeer who pillaged half my improvements.
Eventually a big pile of Jaguars is ready to take the Louis down.

So long for the theory they will just garrison their advanced units... I would not be surprised if some people wouldnt have survived this

 

[Conquistador 63]

Well, I just reached 1AD. A lot more posts in the final spoiler thread, but I'll post here anyway.

I settled in place on the PH. After hooking up the corn and gold, a barb archer entered my borders around T40. I thought I would have more time than that. I lost my gold mine and all of my roads. Pity. Things were moving along so well before then.

Same pesky barb pillaged my gold, corn and stone before my axe dispatched him. Maybe a good excuse for being the only player who missed Oracle? To be honest, it was gone 1000BC, before I even learned Poly or Medi.

At least nobody has declared war on me (yet). This idea might have crossed Izzy's mind, but I was proactive and declared on her (for a worker steal, with my initial warrior) first!

For a few turns I regretted that crazy move, as her paired conquistador/musketmen slowly moved towards my capitol looking for revenge. But 10 turns passed, I managed to kill one of her explorers, so she accepted a free cease-fire...

HR civic has made me best friends with Capac and on ok terms wih Louis, the strongest AI's. But I've just noticed that Izzy has enough on her hands ... Hopefully my 6-city empire will have enough production to withstand her "invincible armada"...

The French spread Christianity to me so we're best buddies.

In my game the random assigned religions (as in a renaissance start) were christian english, jewish french and hindu spanish. By 1AD all of them were infected in my cities but I was still a pagan.

I researched/traded up to CS/Currency/Compass/Calendar/Monarchy. I have sustainable 132 bpt @80%.

Goal is to get rid of the european invaders - America should be for Native Americans only - then cruise to space, diplo or culture - probably the first...

 

[magicgunnar]

France decleared war and a french musketeer moved close to my capital, so close that it would be able to attack next turn. I did not have copper, or Jaguars, but whipped or produced a warrior each turn, for 5 turns or something. Then an archer shows up, and I fear my capital will fall, but one of my warriors damages the musketeer pretty hard, and I am able to produce more warriors agains the archer. The musketeer doesn't care about healing completely, and dies, a couple of turns before the next musketeer shows up. This time I am a little more prepared, with 3 warriors in the capital, and by whipping and building some warriors, I am able to fend it off. Phew!

 

[Htadus]

I was wondering why my warrior had a very small green bar indicating its health/strength in the begining. I am glad i did not go stealing workers. gunpowder units....very slick CP. Very creative just the same.

SIP. Worker, war x 3 and settler to claim the copper. Man, whats up with the colonial grummpies.

Timed the Oracle to get CS and went for Alpha. Then it was to Long bows to counter conquistadors. Izzy ia mad as hell. So I Dowed her just before 0AD and took her capital. she has a musket and Conquistador protecting her only other city. This assult group was actually heading to south america when get deviated. i am guessing someone will get fastest Domi in around 500AD. I hopeto be right behind that person. About 1000 AD. if not then I am heading to space.

 

[Psiven]

Settled S-SW on the coast anticipating a lot of coastal opportunities. Exploration revealed that this would work quite well, so I expanded to 5 cities and built Stonehenge+GLH. Working on Colossus and Civil Service in 1AD, barbs haven't bothered me and everyone is quite passive.

 

[neilmeister]

Same pesky barb pillaged my gold, corn and stone before my axe dispatched him. Maybe a good excuse for being the only player who missed Oracle? To be honest, it was gone 1000BC, before I even learned Poly or Medi.

I missed it too. In my game it was taken in 1100BC, half a dozen turns before it was going to give me CS. Surprised me, as this is just Prince.

I have been meaning to play this for a while, but without finding the time. A looming deadline can do wonders.

My woodie 2 warrior got a bit exuberant when he saw a french worker, so I found myself in a very early war, without troops, against an opponent with very advanced troops. I freaked, and started beelining Axes. I managed to get a few out before his troops arrived at the borders, and few more whipped after, but he managed to take my copper city, leaving me unable to produce more Axes. My last Axe managed to wound his last defending Musketeer enough that my last remaining unit, a Warrior, could finish him off, returning to me control of the copper. Cutting it a bit fine I thought. A stack of Axes is chopped/whipped and dispatched to Paris, which is defended only by 2 Archers, I take 1 more city before accepting peace. I take his Florida city 12 turns later (very nice GP farm indeed) to eliminate him in 300BC.

At 1ad, 5 cities settled, 3 captured. I have just switched into Beauro and am about to attack Elizabeth.