GOTM 66 First Spoiler -- 1 AD

[Cactus Pete]

GOTM 66 First Spoiler

Reading Requirements

Stop! If you are participating in GOTM 66, 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 require caravels to contact.

 

[kcd_swede]

I moved the warrior onto the hill SE, then moved the settler east along the road. When I found pigs, I knew this is the place to build Thunderdome.... with gems and 3 pigs. I then made worker and warrior. The warrior I sent all around to pillage every tile improvement that I didn't think I'd get by rexing. I got enough gold to save my life... got BW just as many archers reach my land. One turn of intact copper mine is enough to upgrade defending warrior to an axeman. Whew... that was close.

All those nice pre-built improvements get pillaged to the ground by radiated mutants, as soon as they are inside my borders. My first settler gets destroyed and eaten by cannabalistic ozzies... and Peter promptly took the sweetspot to the south. I get a settler to the north shore, but its squeezed by French and Japanese culture. When Toku and Nappy are a culture threat, you know you are having trouble.

Barbs were relentless. However, I managed to put an archer on the copper, then improve it, and then build 5 axes to take Libyan... on the south coast getting two seafood and if Peter's culture can be fought... more pigs.

Lets see if it really works to rebuild a civilization on pig-farts.

At one AD I have Thunderdome, one really lame city in the north (founded), and one mediocre lame city in the south (captured from barbs). This caused Mao to declare war, for some reason. No metal, so I should be able to hold him off. I am so conditioned to worry about protective archers I forget this is vanilla. I guess the only good you can say is that I have Pyramids, and by beelining alphabet I have been able to maintain tech parity. As far as I can tell, no horses anywhere.

This is a hard game.... Doubt I win this one, since I have only 3 cities, sit in last place in almost every category, and the barbs are only easing up because there is nowhere left to settle. I guesss the Libyan iron is meant to give me a chance. All or nothing on a war... that's the plan from here. Two men enter, one man leaves.

 

[Cactus Pete]

Hang in there, kcd. Make that methane work for you.

 

[Xcalibrator]

My start was like kcd's, except that I sent the settler E-NE to the hill to look around before getting back on the road heading east to settle on the city ruins with piggies. The barbs certainly were a nuisance--wish I'd thought of pillaging with my warrior for gold before they did it for me--but barracks and a couple archers mostly turned the tide, at least enough that I could safely have a worker hook up the copper for axes. I was luckier than kcd on capturing the barb city on the SESW coast (S of the iron, with clams and crabs); I posted an archer in the forest there to keep an eye on things and one of the two barb archers attacked and lost, leaving only one to defend against my single axe that arrived a couple turns later. That was my 3rd city. The 2nd (NY) went south of Washington, 2E of the gold. The AI beat me to all the other decent sites so my 4th city went 4E of DC on the river, with only gems in the BFC. I plan to farm everything there for growth and collect more hammers for my war machine.

Techs were AH, Mining, BW, Hunting, Archery, Wheel, Masonry, Mysticism, Pottery, Writing, Meditation, PH, Alphabet (then trades for Math, IW, Polytheism, Monotheism, and Sailing), and finally Construction. With stone, I couldn't pass up Stonehenge (925 BC in Wash), then Pyramids and Oracle both in 550 BC (Wash and NY), taking MC from the Oracle. My first GP was a Prophet, settled in Wash in 75 BC. I'm tied for 2nd in score with Toku, with Mao on top. 45 bpt @70%.

Peter and Nappy DoWed Liz in 350 BC, each taking a minor city. I thought about going after a weakened London, but mostly the aggressors just pillaged everything in sight, so then I figured why not go after Peter while he's busy? I'm assembling a nice force of cats, axes, and swords to take his city south of NY (with silver and fish), then on to Moscow--will probably be ready to DoW around 150 AD.

After the barb harassment and getting boxed in by the AIs I was getting pretty worried, but the barb city on the coast has helped a lot with all that food, hammers, and seafood health--a lucky break. I plan to use my cat advantage for all it's worth while I can.

 

[socralynnek]

I think I just won an award.

Settled on the ruins to the east (good), researched Hunting, AH, Mining, BW (bad, too late)

The copper was pillaged the turn I researched BW. I survived the first wave of archers. I thought, I'd survive with 4 warriors and researched The Wheel before Archery and built Barracks.

I was killed in 2000 BC in the turn when I'd have been able to rush my first archer.

I guess, I'll restart, as the map looks really interesting.

 

[Holy Cheese]

Think I just snatched the award from you, Socralynnek

I got destroyed by barbs in 2360 BC. I had settled probably in the same place as KCD Swede, but then had a brain fart instead of a pig fart when I saw the stone and decided to build the Great Wall, so researched masonry before bronze working - idiot, no GW in Vanilla Civ, so that was the end of me!

Jack

 

[yuris125]

This was my first game on Emperor, and I didn't play with raging barbs for a while. Quite a few plays were sub-optimal. But I have to say, vanilla AI seems to be so bad after you get used to BtS...

The initial plan was standard: found a few cities, do not build any wonders (yes, we're Industrious, but building wonders at early stages at the difficulty level above my comfort level seemed like a recipe for disaster), try to catch up in techs

3960BC - Washington founded on city ruins to the east of the start. Tech Animal Husbandry
During the first 3 or 4 turns, I met everyone, and hoped that with the map swarming with AI scouts, raging barbs wouldn't be a factor. So decided to gamble. Build order was Worker - Warrior - Settler. In hindsight, I'm sure it was a mistake. Worker first may be reasonable, but building just one warrior before a settler was just
3520BC - First religion founded. Guess who. I'd like to surprise you, but alas. Asoka, as expected
Same turn - AH discovered, Mining next
3280BC - Mining discovered, Bronze Working next
2720BC - Bronze Working discovered, The Wheel next
Same turn - New York founded on the ruins 3S1E of Washington. Immediately I see a barb Archer coming. I see that I have copper, which even is already mined, but it's too late to get an Axe for defence. All I can do is wait and pray
2600BC - Alas, the Archer wins a 44% battle, and New York is razed
Frankly, at this point I was considering to abandon the game. Like it was not enough that the difficulty level was higher than normal, and I founded the capital one turn later than everyone else, I also waster hammers on that Settler. But convinced myself to play on
Meanwhile, Liz founded Hinduism AND Judaism, and couldn't decide which faith she preferred, switching between them
Barbs are pillaging improvements around me, including my copper. I'm finally building warriors to protect my capital. At least it's on a hill, so those archers can't break through. AIs also help, running around with their units and killing some of those barbs before they enter my borders
2440BC - I discover The Wheel and can reconnect my copper. Pottery next
2240BC - Copper back online. Revolt to slavery, whip an Axe. Let's see what those Archers say now
2040BC - Pottery in, Writing next
With a few Axes done, and the stream of barbs subsiding, I now feel safe to re-found my 2nd city
1680BC - Boston founded on the same spot as ill-fated New York
1560BC - Writing in, Alpha next
I check around and see that most of the land around me has been claimed by now. However, there is a decent spot to the north which I can get
1000BC - AIs start a round of fights between them, Mao declares on Asoka
950BC - Philadelphia founded on the river 4N of Washington
Same turn - Peter declares on Liz
I'm inspired by all these war declarations, and start planning one myself Napoleon seems to be in the worst position, and I have my attention firmly on his lands. Washington has excellent production and starts training Axemen
875BC - Toku founds Confucianism. Wow, that was early (or is it just my inexperience with Emperor? )
850BC - Alpha in. I look around and wow again, I have monopoly on it!
Metal Casting next for more trade fodder
I can't say which tech I got from whom, but the trade went:
825BC - Alpha for Math; Alpha for IW, Myst and Hunting
800BC - Alpha for Meditation, Polytheism, Sailing and Archery
775BC - Math for Priesthood and Masonry
725BC - A "choose production" dialog pops up for Washington, and I see that the Oracle can be built in 6 turns. Without marble! I can't pass up on this opportunity
650BC - Toku founds Taoism. This is definitely wow. Looks like he bulbed it, Merit Ptah was born in a distant land a turn before
575BC - Oracle built. I didn't plan for it, so have no idea what to take. Normally it would be Metal Casting, but I already researched half of it. Decide to take Construction, those Catapults will help in the imminent war
375BC - Metal Casting in, traded for Monotheism and Calendar. Currency next
100BC - War on Napoleon declared! Again, unfortunately I lost my autosaves, so can't say what the force was. I think 10 Axes and 8 Cats sound about right
And here is an example of pure by the AI. Napoleon was sitting there without metals, and had iron (1S2E of Philadelphia) in his borders for at least 20 turns. And didn't even try to improve it!
75BC - Orleans captured with minimal losses
Same turn - Currency in, Code of Laws next

My forces are approaching Paris, and I see no reason why I shouldn't take it easily. But that battle will happen in AD times Napoleon has gold right next to Paris, which is unimproved - I don't know how to comment on this

So, by 1AD I have 4 cities (3 self-founded, 1 captured), with 3 more (2 Napoleon's and 1 Barbarian) on track to join my empire soon. Once they're captured, I will have more cities than any of the AIs. I'm keeping up in tech (mainly thanks to trades, my GNP sucks, with Philadelphia being the only commerce city), and ahead of everyone in production. I also love how the AIs say "Welcome, Mad Frank!" Things are certainly looking up

 

[DynamicSpirit]

I started this game with a lot of trepidation: Based on the starting area and the description, I feared a struggle to found rubbish cities with no resources in the few bits of the world not covered in fallout – which is a game I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed (or bothered finishing).

But as it turned out, the stroll along the road revealed the dream city ruins that CP had clearly prepared specially for us. I wonder if there’s anyone who won’t settle on them…

So obviously, I turned back and settled in the desert. Nah, only kidding. My warrior wandered westwards along the south coast to discover Mao and some very luscious grassland before meeting a rather cute lion, but failing to convince the lion in time that all the luscious grassland would make a far nicer and more nutritious meal (lots of B vitamins) than said warrior would have done. I built two workers and a few more warriors and was glad I did as the barbarian invasion was horrendous!. The workers basically spent their entire lives dodging people in black warrior costumes (and frankly, not particularly sexy costumes at that, despite the black colour) and trying to rebuild pastures that they’d only just rebuilt like 3 turns previously. If the copper hadn’t shown up in the capital (I assume it was an oversight on CP’s part, leaving it there), Mad Frank would have long since become the late Mad Frank by 1AD. Actually make that by about 2000 BC. Most games I’m carefully trying to figure out how to get a 10xp unit so I can build the heroic epic. In this game by about 1500BC I had built 3 axemen and they ALL had 10xp. Hmmm. Does that mean I can build 3 heroic epics?

Anyway, besides the barbs, I noticed another minor problem. I had one single city and I hadn’t explored anywhere apart from the coast to Mao - to be honest, I’d already recognized the shape of the Melbourne-Perth coastline, put two and two together, and – well, I think I can guess what the rest of the map looks like without the hassle of actually sending anyone to look at it. But that’s not the problem, that’s just an incidental anecdote to keep you in suspense regarding the true problem.

The true problem is this: Red culture pressure to the north. Blue culture pressure to the NE, White to the SE and orange to the S. Even Mao’s pink was closing in to the SW. So unless I was planning on building New York in the middle of the fallout-ridden desert, there was – well – not going to be a New York. One bloomin' city and I’m already hemmed in by culture on all sides. Uh?

So, it’s a choice between war and being squeezed out of existence. Hmmmm. Which to choose? Tough decision, this one…

In making my choice, I was influenced by several observations:

1. We had stone.
2. If the pyramids allowed Washington to grow to size 7 or 8, I’d be able to build an axeman every 1-2 turns there.
3. Washington would make the best GP farm I’d ever had. And that’s out of a lot of GOTMs.
4. The extra culture from a world wonder would help stop me being squeezed out of existence until my axemen had done their duty.

I think you probably get my drift. So – pyramids build 1720BC. God knows what I’d have done if anyone had beaten me to them – that was basically my only strategy with no plan B. And as of 1AD, I’ve taken the barb city by the iron to the South, walked over Peter (chosen because that’s where my axes happened to be) and am making inroads into England (helped by my first catapults coming online). I’ve yet to build a single settler. My hope is to take over the entire East side Australia before settling into my usual spacerace, though I suspect as I attack increasingly advanced civs with my axemen and cats, the first part of that plan could become difficult to achieve.

 

[Ronnie1]

I settled the garden spot also, but I did it on the 3rd turn (T2 in game) because I went off the road to the hill further SE for a better view on T1. I built worker 1st and started a second worker waiting for the pigs to come online. As soon as I could work the pigs I grew while building 2 warriors. Then at size 2 working 2 pigs I tried finished the 2nd worker. But then the barbs got crazy and I kept having to insert new warriors because the ones I had kept dieing. I even had to sacrifice 1 of the workers to allow a warrior to be built.

At 3000bc I had 2 warriors and 1.5 workers, 2 pig pastures and I was working on the gems. The first barb warrior just showed up on the northern border. See Screen shot 1.

Research went AH > Mining > BW

My copper mine was pillaged before I knew it was copper. Now I thought I had to research Archery if I was going to survive. But I changed my mind and decided to get the Wheel to re-hook the copper. Indecisiveness here did not help me at all.

Research after BW > Hunting > Wheel > Archery

At 2000bc I have 6 warriors and 1 worker, and I am working on a settler at size 4, working 2 pigs, a plains hill mine and an unimproved pig. I am trying to get my copper rebuilt. Screen shot 2.

By 1000bc things were starting to look up. There had been a rough patch just after 2000bc when my copper was pillaged AGAIN before I could get it roaded. I did eventually build 1 archer so I could actually get and keep the copper long enough to start building Axes. I settled New York in 1720bc, 3 south of Washington to share a pig and get the gold.

Research after Archery > Masonry > Pottery > Writing

In 1680bc I declared on Peter so I could steal a worker. My attacking warrior died to an archer, but in vanilla, the worker was safely away and axes were starting to be produced and were heading south. By now I had built 10 warriors but 7 were dead, so at 1000bc I had 4 warriors, 1 archer, 4 axes and 3 workers. Screen shot 3

1AD!!!

Research after Writing > Iron Working > Alphabet > Math > Myst + Sailing (trade) > Construction > Poly (trade) > Literature

Things were definitely looking up. Peter was dead and I had added 4 of his cities to my empire. I built the Pyramids in 1 AD in New York. I was building the Great Library in Novgorod which Peter had nicely placed with 2 seafoods, pigs, and iron on the southern coast, this would be my GP Farm. My army was headed back north to attack Napoleon before he could hook up the iron in the north. I was building mostly Cats and Swords now in Washington and New York and was whipping some infrastructure in the newly captured southern cities. Screen shots 4 and 5

 

[zamint3]

Settled on the city ruins, research AH first then beeline Archery.

Build worker first, then units. Pastured the northern pigs and fortified a warrior on top of it. This part actually worked, that pasture never got pillaged.

After fighting a lot of barbs, having some awful RNG luck (well I guess it always feels like that when you loose a couple of battles... ), I was ready to expand only to find all the land taken by the AI...

At 1AD I have built one more city and did take the barb city SW by the iron (unfortunately not on the coast and unfortunately Chinese culture took the iron the turn before I captured the city. )

Research is fine, CS-sling in 550Bc and Pyramids in 250BC, I have Metal Casting and Construction.

Major mistake was not to go after any of the AI. There has been a lot of wars but now at 1AD they all make peace and the opportunity has passed .
Peter has got 11 archers in and around his closest city.

1AD Stats:
Cities: 3 (3 libs, 2 granary, 2 aqua, 1 rax)
Pop: 16
Research: sustain 90%, 53 bpt
Units: 2 workers, 5 archers (lost 5), 5 axes, 1 warrior (Killed 18 barb archers!)

Plan is to research Machinery and let the Maces march.

 

[neilmeister]

Wow, this game was all about survival.

I, like everybody else, built Thunderdome in the pre-designated spot. I met all 6 AI by turn 10, and they all except for Mao came from the east. This was obviously going to be a bloodbath.

Beelined BW in the hope that we would be gifted copper in the BFC. Yay! Thanks CP, if there was no copper it would have been game over. It was still touch and go for quite some time.

I whipped my first axe, the same turn that a barb archer killed my defending warrior on the copper. I had to use this lone axe to take back the copper tile, leaving my cap defended by a single warrior, with a barb warrior sitting outside. Needless to say, the barb died and I lived.

Things finally settled down and my improvements stopped getting pillaged when I had 4 axes positioned strategically in my BFC.

My one and only settler settled south of the cap, next to the pigs.

I was dead last in score, with Peter taking the crabs/clams and silver/sheep spots.

The only thing for it was to just crank out axes and try to conquer Peter, who was second in score, but still a mile behind Liz. I managed to take the 2 cities mention, but his cap was defended by 7 CG archers !!! I took peace and slowly built up more troops. My 11 axes/swords pour over his border, only to find 8 archers in Moscow!! So, I occuped every square in Moscows BFC, and waited for cats. Once they arrived it was game over for Peter. Took Moscow and another city but decided to stop there for some juicy techs and cash.

At 1ad I have 6 cities, building the 'mids, and have 9 more turns to wait until I can launch the final assault on his last city.

 

[babybluepants]

Goal: fast domination or conquest

Settled for gold and two pigs SE of the start, on about turn 3. Initial build was warrior-worker, and initial tech Hunting-AH-Mining-Archery-BW. Underestimated the barbs a bit and lost all three of my main improvements (2 pigs and gold) sometime in the 2000's BC. I fought them off relatively quickly, but the lost tile production hurt bad. At 2000 BC, I'd beaten the barbs all the way back and settled NYC north of Washington, with 2 pigs, gems, stone and copper.

At this stage a took a long break to consider my options. There were only 3 decent sites left (crab-clam-iron in the SW, seafood-copper in the NE, some pigs and gems in the E). Peter had settled St Petersburg S of Washington (fish-sheep-silver) and had a settler party on its way somewhere in the east (ended up on the northern copper-fish). My options were to:
1) focus on tech and go for CS sling, hopefully Mids and a rush towards Machinery
2) build two barracks, a pile of axes and kill Peter for 3 good cities
3) Try to get the 2-3 remaining city spots asap
Or, some combination thereof. After agonizing for a while, I decided on mainly option 1 and went for library-2Sci in Washington and the Oracle in New York. Forgot to start the Oracle when I was supposed to, and wasted 2t compared to COL research (950 BC). Boston was settled very soon after NYC, SW of the capital with two seafood and iron.

At about the same time as Oracle, I started on axes in Washington and then also NY. NY switched to Mids a little later, when I hooked up stone. Attacked circa 750 BC, with some 6 axes and 6 more trailing. Peter lost one city (sheep,fish,silver), but reinforced Moscow enough to warrant a temporary peace for Sailing + 100g. He also did something I've never seen an AI do - sent two C2 archers by galley from a threatened Moscow towards Boston. Forced me to detour my reinforcements and play cat and mouse for some turns.

I got MC right after the peace treaty and focused on Granary/Forge everywhere, with also HG in Washington, while teching Machinery. That came in the same turn that the peace expired, and then I went Construction in 4t, with also a switch to Police State. That's where I currently am, with 4 cities, 29 pop, 2 workers, forges and barracks everywhere, Police State, with 4 Maces and 12 Axes, and about a mace every 2t from DC and NY, 3-4t from Boston. Need Lit for HE now. Peter will be toast any moment, and Liz is looking easy (2 archers per city atm).

The barb losses early hurt me. I feel I've played really well since, but that was just a massive delay initially. Now if only Jovan Kukic would be kind enough to tell me what he's planning to do...

 

[Conquistador 63]

As always, a wonderful scenario delivered by Catus Pete!

I followed the road and settled on the designated site t1. So far so good. Met Nappy that same turn and almost every other AI by t5. As AH didn’t show any horses (poor animals didn’t survive the nukes, I guess), I decided I shouldn't take more risks, went Hunting/Archery next (t23), and only then Mining/BW.

Initial builds were worker, warrior x2, then was too hasty to build a settler...huge mistake, founded NY to the south and defended it with a warrior, just to have it taken by a barb archer a handful of turns later. Learned lesson, built more troops (archers and axemen), then resettled the south with 2 cities packed together as the rest of the good sites were already taken. It was clear I had to expand by the sword (or by the axe, to be more precise). At least the barb menace was more or less under control. Up to 1AD I have killed 35 barb units and lost 3 (including the New Yorker guy).

After BW, I went Writing/Alpha (1400BC) and got Myst, Wheel, IW, Masonry, Sailing, Pottery, Medi and PH. Almost everyone had PH, I have been losing Oracle to the AI in other recent XOTM's, so I panicked and finished it in 1000BC taking MC, instead of trying for CS. Well, cheap forges would give me a production boost and up to +3 soon, so it wasn’t that bad. Math and Construction for Catapults came next. But I couldn’t wait for them to attack, I declared on Mao in 875BC for the iron/clams/crab city (Nanjing) to the SW (Chinese workers were about to connect iron when I captured them).

Took peace soon after getting the city, and declared on Peter for the silver/sheep/fish city in 575BC. Later took Moscow (swords and cats were already in action here), and razed a tundra city to the South and a desert/plains to the East, before accepting peace for Currency in 100BC. Other than that, have teched up to CoL/Calendar(traded this one) and I was halfway through CS when I decided to insert Lit – as I plan to go to space, I don’t want to miss Glib to Asoka. I have also built the stony wonders: SH, HG and the Mids (running Rep/Slavery now).

Peter was left with just a (junk?)city to the NW of our starting spot, but that didn’t stop him from declaring on Liz, most likely accepting an invitation from Nappy to join him in a war. I was preparing to focus on Mao again, but he spared me of the trouble as he took the initiative and declared on me in 325BC, looking for revenge. Two galleys landed 4 archers near Nanjing, but were soon dispatched, and now his coastal city to the West is under siege. We have swords/axes/cats, they have archers/cats. Funny to notice Mao is sending a galley to colonize Tasmania, but fortunately it hasn’t stopped to pillage my fishing nets along the journey.

My civ has 6 good cities now (looks a lot like Ronnie1’s empire) and I’m #1 in scoreboard and have a good lead in tech. Only thing I miss in this game is I haven't met Aunty Entity... or is she Washington(Bartertown)'s city governor?

 

[Htadus]

My reluctance to tech Archary almost cost me the game but the mined and roaded copper saved the day. I am so off my regular game but building a settler before worker sort of worked out.

I had extramly bad luck with the barb city to south. Got 4 of 5 axes killed by 2 archers. I should have backed off when first two died without touching the archer. Left a single very damaged archer left with a very promotable axe alive but i did not see Asoka's archer in the fog. He got the city. So i promoted my axe and attacked very damaged indian archer. The problem was I had an open border with him. So my axe steped out of the forest and walked in to the new Indian city.

I had 4 cities and a whole lot of axes and cats by cut off date. BTW the cut off date should go back to 500 AD. It is a better talking point.

 

[-Asterix-]

But as it turned out, the stroll along the road revealed the dream city ruins that CP had clearly prepared specially for us. I wonder if there’s anyone who won’t settle on them…

That would be me. And babybluepants it seems...

Initially went exploring east and found the first ruins. At the same time I also found the mined gold down south and decided that I want it from the beginning. Settled by the gold with 2 bacons and later also copper. Went AH for pastures, then Mining -> BW. Initial builds were worker and then some warriors to fogbust a bit and fend off those few incoming barbs.

Once I got BW and built an axe it was time for first settler. This happened maybe too late but I didn't want it killed and there were still few spots to take. Settled NYC north by the stone (2 bacons + gems) and the third city south with 2 clams, bacon and later iron. Oracled Construction as I wanted to be Mad Frank and go on killing spree with some axes and cats.

Nappy fell quick, then I went on for Lizzy. Left Lizzy with one city as I managed to get CoL for peace and went on for Peter. Teched IW for swords. Also got Currency at some point, hoping it's enough with CoL to keep economy not crashing too much.

At 1ad I have 13 cities, 3 built, 3 from Nappy, 1 from barbs, 2 from Lizzy and 4 from Peter. Economy is crashing but not too bad. Now I'll just wait for a few turns to be able to kill Lizzy once and for all, transferring my troops towards the Chinese lands at the same time. China is the score leader and I'm hoping to get there before they get longbows... Peaceful victory is not an option here.