GotM 67 Spoiler

[LordValuna]

Personally I have three resolutions for this game
1) Not to chomp all the huts I find until I get Monarchy.
2) Use the tech path of CoL-Cer-Bro-MON-Cur-TRA-Wri-Lit-Mys-Phi-Hor-PT-MT-REP without taking any side paths with the exception of mapmaking if I'm in a position to trade maps
3) Actually build some libraries and to make trade a priority(for the science)

Its 25 BC And I have Republic

1) Didnt pop any huts until I got Monarchy, which I promptly failed to change governments until the second OEDO year, just plain forgot
Also I went to pop the hut and it wasnt there, I looked at old saves and realized that when I grew to 2 or 3 a worker was allocated to work on the hut square thus destroying the hut. I knew this was possible, but didn't think of it.
2) Pretty well did the tech tree though not in the exact order, some things just werent available. The big messup was Monothesiam, it wasnt available so I took Rep when that was done I forgot and took Con. Finally get it at 400 ad
3) built just one library and two trade routes, but the cities are small size 3 & 2 except for Little Bighorn which is 7 am slightly ahead of everyone in pop

I have just started getting maps from the AI(with Marco Polo), am begining to realize the task for this map is great. Long and narrow with the AI's spread out. Still havent made physical contact with an AI other than a Roman Tri which suicide against one of my cities

 

[LordValuna]

Status at +1
Population: 400,000; Cities:6 ; Trade routes: 2; Government: Republic
Finance. Treasury: 123; Cost per turn: 2; Income: 8; Tax rate: 20%
Science: Total advances: 19; Advance every 8 turns; Science rate: 80%
Production: 31MT; 0 polluted tiles
Wonders: Colossus, Hanging Gardens, Marco.
Units: 2 settlers , 3 Warriors, 4 Phalanx, 1 Horseman, 1 Trireme, 1 Caravans.
Roman: Despot, 7 cities, 269g, 11 techs, Lighthouse, no contacts, Uncooperative;
Zulu: Despot,5 cities, 367g, 7 techs, War with Carthage, Icy;
Viking: Despot, 5 cities, 399g, 12 techs, no contacts, Receptive;
Aztec: Monarchy, 4 cities, 180g, 12 techs; at Peace with Sioux, Hostile;
Persian: Despot, 6 cities, 466g, 13 techs, contact with Sioux , Pyramids, Hostile;
Carthagianians: Despot, 6 cities, 367g, 7 techs; War with Zulus, Cordial;

 

[LordValuna]

Status at +1000
Population: 2.78M; Cities:8 ; Trade routes: 2; Government: Republic
Finance. Treasury: 386; Cost per turn: 9; Income: 75; Tax rate: 50%
Science: Total advances: 26; Advance every 32 turns; Science rate: 10%
Production: 78MT; 0 polluted tiles
Wonders: Colossus, Hanging Gardens, Marco, MC, Cop Ob, Mag, Shake Theatre.
Units: 7 settlers(1 none) , 3 Warriors, 7 Phalanx, 1 Legion, 3 Crusaders, 1 Dip, 1 Explorer 1 Trireme, 1 Caravans.
Roman: Rep, 9 cities, 412g, 21 techs, Lighthouse, contact with Sioux, Hostile;
Zulu: Des,9 cities, 970g, 13 techs, War with Carthage, contact with Sioux, Hostile;
Viking: Rep, 7 cities, 650g, 27 techs, contact with Sioux, Hostile, Geat Library;
Aztec: Rep, 4 cities, 296g, 27 techs; at Peace with Sioux Receptive, Great Wall
Persian: Des, 11 cities, 962g, 16 techs, at war with Sioux Enraged , Pyramids, Oracle;
Carthagianians: Des, 7 cities, 791g, 18 techs; War with Zulus, contact with Sioux Hostile;


still only 1 library and 2 trade routes. need to build caravans for Magellan and to build aquaducts to WLTK up to 12, so looks like no librarys or trade routes for a while

 

[Nick Garai]

At 1850 BC I had five cities all of which were making settlers and I had two settlers building roads. My capital city I placed right on the end of the nearest bay and have gotten both the fish and the whales as well as the wheat. My production, sciences, trade food are rocking from that placement.

At 450 BC I had ten cities and three settlers plus each city was making another settler. I also had a little diplomat guy checking out the island. My pop was 350,000 and I had 891 gold. Still no contact with anyone.

At 150 BC I found an advanced tribe on a corner of my island so that helped out lots. My population had grown to 520,000.

In 200 AD I had begun to colonize other local lands and islands. I found another advanced tribe southwest of me and started a colony there. I had 910,000 people by now and 14 cities with most cities building settlers still. My gold was at 661. I have been buying the Wonders and reduced my science level to the lowest it can be with Republic. I got Republic earlier already.

I began to encounter the Aztecs and the Romans shortly thereafter. The Romans managed to take over one of my cities near my capital (which I called Capital). I boought the city back quickly and the Romans haven't bothered me since. I also have been declaring war on the Aztecs and have been buying their cities one by one except for the capital which I had to take over. By now I have about 30 cities and dealing with all those micromanagement problems. I still am pumping out settlers and found another advanced tribe on a large unihabited island to my southeast. Some barbarians were on there so I bought them I have since destroyed the Aztecs while the Romans and Persians signed the Virconium Pact to contain my aggression.

During this time I dropped my sciences to zeron and made tons of cash until I reached about 11,000 Gold. I then dropped my gold to 0 and lived off the surplus while my sciences rose at a discovery every three turns. I eventually surpassed everyone and the Great Library wasn't needed as much even though electrcitity wasn't even discoverd yet. The Romans began discovering Railroad andIndustrialization so I had to quickly develop those and then outright purchased the remaining wonders associated with those technologies when the Romans were close to making them.

By 1635 I had (as already stated) 30 cities, and a population of 5.44 million with 4987 Gold.

Right now it is AD 1778 and I have 8.68 million people and have taken over the Roman city of Hispalis (I bought it, I love diplomats!). I have 44 cities (some I conquered). I am currently going at it with the Romans and expect to be makin g some purchases pretty quickly. I know I don't conquer fast, but I do eventually conquer all.

I am democracy by now to. I still haven't established contact with everyone yet but slowly I am taking them all over one by one as I encounter them.

Alright, it is now 1873 AD, and I have 12.57 million population and that little sun is starting to indicate global warming. I am at war (definitely at war) with the Romans. We are at a stale mate along a small spit of land. I have tanks and am moving them up but they keep on bringing in Cavalry. It's a war of attrition right now. I also am having massive Barbarian uprisings happening on one continent. The total number of cities I now own are 58 and growing. I hav about ten engineers running around and when they get planted I'll grow even more! I am building the Manhattan project to.

1900 AD. I have a nuclear missile and I finally used it on Veii! Took over the city. before the other Roman cities get them I am going to nuke them all and take over each one. Sooner or later they are going to get SDI so goodbye Romans!

Alright. Now it is a war of nuclear attrition. I have thrown three nukes at Rome and taken their capital but they escaped. Veii has been nuked twice and now is a smaller city! The year is 1903 and my pop is 15.7 million. I have 66 cities and am slowly advancing into Rome's empire. They stole my advanced flying technology so I have to attack as fast as I can to destroy them before they start developing technologies to counter my nukes and advanced flight.

If this is King level I think I need to go up a notch!

 

[LordValuna]

Status at +1500
Population: 9.93M; Cities:12 ; Trade routes: 3; Government: Democracy
Finance. Treasury: 698; Cost per turn: 77; Income: 194; Tax rate: 40%
Science: Total advances: 39; Advance every 4 turns; Science rate: 30%
Production: 127MT; 0 polluted tiles
Wonders: Colossus, Hanging Gardens, Marco, MC, Cop Ob, Shake Theatre, Mag, Issace Newton, SoL.
Units: 9 settlers(1 none) , 2 Warriors, 9 Phalanx, 2 Legion(1 none), 2 Musketeers, 4 Crusaders, 3 Dip, 1 Trireme, 5 Caravans.
Roman: Rep, 11 cities, 1109g, 27 techs, Lighthouse, contact with Sioux, Hostile;
Zulu: Rep,10 cities, 1159g, 21 techs, contact with Sioux, Hostile;
Viking: Rep, 9 cities, 1454g, 35 techs, contact with Sioux, Hostile, Great Library, KRC, leaoardo's Workshop;
Aztec: Rep, 5 cities, 310g, 31 techs; at Peace with Sioux Hostile, Great Wall
Persian: Rep, 11 cities, 1591g, 23 techs, at war with Sioux Enraged , Pyramids, Oracle;
Carthagianians: Rep, 10 cities, 1296g, 22 techs; contact with Sioux Hostile;
Power Supreme & Spotless
The Zulu's & Carthage managed to lose contact with each other so couldnt be at war
Boy the AI sure does like Republic!
Must say this looks like a Space Game, I dont see how I'm going to conquer along this long map in time, but will keep trying.

 

[LordValuna]

Status at +1750
I've pretty well given up on conquest, looks too hard
Population: 22.27M; Cities:26 ; Trade routes: not sure; Government: Democracy
Finance. Treasury: 2083; Cost per turn: 108; Income: 245; Tax rate: 20%
Science: Total advances: 62; Advance every 2 turns; Science rate: 50%
Production: 254MT; 0 polluted tiles
Wonders: Colossus, Hanging Gardens, Marco, MC, Cop Ob, Shake Theatre, Mag, J.S.Bach, GW ,
Issac Newton, Adams Smith Trading Co, Darvins Voyage, SoL, Hoover Dam.
Units: 6 settlers(1 none), 19 eng, 2 Warriors, 8 Phalanx, 2 Legion(1 none), 2 Musketeers,
5 Alpine Troops, 7 Rifleman, 5 Marines, 4 Crusaders, 10 Calvary, 1 Trireme, 2 Caravals,
1 Galleon, 1 Transport, 3 Diplimats, 1 Spy, 1 Caravans, 4 Freight.
Marco Polo expired so only ambassy I have is with Rome
Roman: Rep, 8 cities, 1471g, 35 techs, Lighthouse, War with Sioux, Receptive;
Zulu: Rep, Hostile;
Viking: Rep, Receptive, Great Library, KRC, Sun Tzu, Leonardo's Workshop, Eiffel Tower;
Aztec: destroyed
Persian: Monarchy, at war with Sioux Enraged , Pyramids, Oracle;
Carthagianians: Rep, Hostile;
Power Supreme & Spotless

 

[Peaster]

At first glance, this GOTM looks like #58. But since this map is round, and the continents do not quite block the sea routes, conquest was faster this time. I had poor hut luck [pots, w.code, weeds...] but filled up my island with about 20-25 cities. I built MPE in 900BC and LH in 850BC, and planned on EC in about 300AD.

I planned to send a few flots West to the Aztec/Vikings/Pers + a few East to the Romans/Carths/Zulu, with heavier investment in the West [I wanted one good shipchain for overseas trade ASAP]. I figured the profits from the West would pay for the more difficult conquest in the East. But I had worse luck in the West, and it turned out to be the harder side. I stuck with Monarchy after 2250BC. Some dates below are approximations.

500BC: HG to control riots, even at King level, and it helped with celebrations, too.

325BC: Oops! Too obsessed with Aztec trade... I finally notice that to defeat the 5 other civs, I have sent out flots with only 5 Settlers (plus a couple of fairly worthless Archers). This is not completely crazy, since each Settler can build a colony and quickly rushbuy 4 vet crusaders [with SunTzu] - usually enough to take an enemy capitol. But it is quite risky, so I quickly sent some back-up flots to the mid-distance regions.

200BC: Sun Tzu, and flots have made landings vs the Az/Vi/Ro/Carth civs, but not the distant Pers/Zulu yet.

100BC The Vikings sneak attack, and thier warrior defeats my only colony. I had sent 1-2 other Settlers this direction for backup, but lost them to barbs when popping huts along the way. Very painful, but luckily I already had a nice shipchain to the Aztecs, and could extend it to the Vikings without losing much time. Two flots are patiently aiming for the Pers + Zulu all this time.

1AD: I captured Rome earlier than planned, because it had built the Pyramids. But I left most Roman cities intact, to trade with [as in GOTM 58]. Likewise, I have not attacked any Aztec cities yet.

An unlucky Sioux explorer popped a hut and was surrounded by 8 barbs. A friendly Legion killed one, allowing the explorer to move out one square onto a hill. By some miracle, two barb horsemen died attacking it, and the others gave up! But I took risks again the next turn and lost the poor thing.

40AD: Mike's. [For interest-theory fans: This 400s investment freed up entertainers, and added about 35s per turn to Sioux MFG, a value of about 700s]. I had about 45 cities.

100AD: Carthage sneak-attacks, defeating my Archer, but crusaders from my colony capture their capitol, and mop-up can begin. A few turns later, I sneak against Trondheim. Both mop-ups take a while, because both these civs are well spread out, but they are now powerless against dips.

I have about 1500-2000g on hand now, which I'd prefer to spend ASAP, except that the future Pers/Zulu colonies will need the dough for fast RB's (mostly from zero).

260AD: Crucial demands change, and a hut gives Invention, but the days of trade were winding down anyway. I take the science bar off of zero, and accept Navigation. We finish off the Romans. The Aztecs choose this moment to sneak attack (they captured a vacant port using a settler) but they go down quickly [shipchain + size = easy conquest].

The One-Settler Invasion Plan has worked OK so far, on 2 out of 3 civs, and it is starting to work against the Pers and Zulus too.

320AD: Carthage and Vikings are history. Leo's upgrades my boats. I am buying vans for WoW's on the home island. The Zulu capitol has fallen. Barbarians and a peace treaty slow down the Persian conquest a little.

380AD: Done. 92 cities, about 50 caravels, 40 crusaders, etc. I had about 1000g left and 15 vans, but was too tired to make many more WoWs. Maybe if somebody revives the HOF, I will work a little harder for those points....

EDIT: The HOF has now been updated, by the Duke, I guess. Thank you!

 

[Stegyre]

380AD: Done. 92 cities, about 50 caravels, 40 crusaders, etc. I had about 1000g left and 15 vans, but was too tired to make many more WoWs. Maybe if somebody revives the HOF, I will work a little harder for those points....

Don't think I'm ever going to match that conquest style.

Here's a very brief synopsis, as of my 1 A.D. save:

2050: Monarchy (delayed revolution 3 Oedo cycles, due to mental lapse) & 5 cities. 7 techs.

1100: MPE, begin tech-slaving; 7 cities; 12 techs by end of turn.

975: Col. built in SSC (Slim Buttes at 451,13).

625: Republic, some celebration.

1 A.D.: 9 Cities, 55 citizens, 12 trade routes, 30 techs; Copes has been built; SSC will finish Shakes next turn; sufficient caravans to build Magellans; then eligible to build Mikes and Bachs. For all my tech-slaving, no one's yet invented the wheel, although 3 of my six slaves are researching it.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Nick G. and to a lesser extent Lord Valuna,
Do not keep so much money at hand. Money receives no interest. Use it to rush your builds. When you build something, anything, it starts providing value. The sooner you build it the more value you get out of it. The only time I ever have a lot of cash on hand is during Fundamentalism government and that is only because I cannot wisely spend it fast enough.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

I had poor hut luck [pots, w.code, weeds...]

380AD: Done. 92 cities, about 50 caravels, 40 crusaders, etc. I had about 1000g left and 15 vans, but was too tired to make many more WoWs. Maybe if somebody revives the HOF, I will work a little harder for those points....

As usual, amazing result despite the bad luck hut. I never thought you could pull this one off before +500.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

I had good hut luck. The first one gave me 50g. I founded Little Bighorn at the starting spot and went for size 1 settler (made possible by the 50g).

Second settler built a couple of roads and then waited a turn by the next hut for the size 1 settler to be produced. That turned out to be an excellent decision as the second hut was an advanced tribe founding Wounded Knee.

The size 1 settler and the advanced tribe really propelled my growth. I had 12 cities by -1550 and my home island was full.

Next hut was empty and the last one was another advanced tribe. This city missed a whale by one tile and shall be relocated in time.

No off path techs from huts allowed me to achieve Monarchy in -2700. The next turn Monarchy was established. Trade was discovered in -1950 and Marco was built in -1250.

I was supreme as expected. Exchanged some tech and maps with all my rivals. At this point, my strategy is clear: early trade with Romans and Aztecs; later trade with others; expansion into the two uninhabited nearby islands; early landing.

-1000 Philosophy -> Republic -> Monotheism.

Status at -1000
Population: 0.58M; Cities: 12; Trade routes: 0D0F; Government: Monarchy
Cost per turn: 0; Total advances: 17; Production: 52MT; 0 polluted tiles
Wonders: Marco
Units: 6 settlers (1 None), 2 Warrior, 1 Trireme, 3 Caravan.
Roman: 3 cities, 11 techs;
Zulu: 3 cities, 9 techs;
Viking: 4 cities, 7 techs;
Aztec: 3 cities, 8 techs;
Persian: 3 cities, 10 techs;
Carthaginian: 2 cities, 7 techs;

 

[LordValuna]

Nick G. and to a lesser extent Lord Valuna,
Do not keep so much money at hand. Money receives no interest. Use it to rush your builds. When you build something, anything, it starts providing value.

Its 1844, so I rushed Frieght for the Spaceship, plus lots of other things to spend about 2000g and also lowered my tax rate 10% in favour of luxuries, as you suggest. Will probably only have to rush frieght for one or two turns for the spaceship. I would like to have some cash on hand to buy the Viking cities after I take their second capital(just took Trodhiem) they are the only AI whith a Spaceship in progress, that is an important goal. Have 3156 probably to high, I only recently started making extra money.

Ali, I read your interest rate post and increase the number of settlers & trade I build, still not enough I suspect. But what interest me is how much trade in a city should you have before building a marketplace or library pays back what you'd get from building settlers?

 

[Magic_gorter]

The second game of the month I played and the first early landing. A huge map and hoped that the other civ's where not to far away. Only Romans and Aztecs war near. Bad hut luck. Horse riding and warrior code and two archers. Made also the mistake not to build schools and university.

Next time I wait with hut popping after monarchy or trade.
1800 BC discovered monarchy
1700 BC switched to MONARCHY
1450 BC discovered trade
1000 BC 290,000 citizens (8 city's)
975 BC MARCO POLO
875 BC PYRAMIDS
725 BC COLOSSUS
600 BC HANGING GARDEN
50 BC switched to REPUBLIC
1 AD 810,000 citizens (12 city's)
75 AD COPERNICUS
140 AD SHAKESPEARE
440 AD switched to DEMO
500 AD LEONARDO (3,520,000 citizens (19 city's)
600 AD THEORY OF GRAVITY
1000 AD 5,420,000 citizens (22 city's)
1380 AD Launched spaceship
1395 AD End game (9,070,000 citizens)

12 WONDERS

Which option is better for EL, only build caravans for wonders on the island where SSC is located or use these caravans for trade?

 

[LordValuna]

Status at +1849
Spaceship Launched 1848 will arrive 1863, destroyed second Capital of Vivings in 1848 destroying Viking Spaceship
Population: 76.56M; Cities:55 ; Trade routes: not sure; Government: Democracy
Finance. Treasury: 1527; Cost per turn: 335; Income: 978; Tax rate: 30%
Science: Total advances: 87(corrected); Advance every 3 turns; Science rate: 10%
Production: 628MT; 0 polluted tiles
Wonders: Colossus, Hanging Gardens, Lighthouse, GL, GW,KRC, LW, Marco, MC, Cop Ob, Shake Theatre, Mag, J.S.Bach ,
Issac Newton, Adams Smith Trading Co, Darvins Voyage, SoL,Eiffel Tower, Women's Suff,UN, Apollo, Seti, Cure for Cancer, Hoover Dam.
Units: 2 settlers(1 none), 33 eng, 8 Phalanx, 1 Legion, 6 Musketeers,
8 Alpine Troops, 22 Rifleman, 8 Marines, 4 Crusaders, 3 Calvary, 12 armour, 2 canon(2 none), 1 Trireme, 1 Galleon, 3 Transport, 1 Battleship,
4 Spy, 11 Freight.

Roman: Conquered
Zulu: Rep, Receptive contact, 2059g, 56 tech, 14 cities, at peace with Pers, Allied with Carthage;
Viking: Rep, Receptive War, 359g, 54 tech, 8 cities, Sun Tzu;
Aztec: destroyed
Persian: Monarchy, at war with Sioux Enraged, 2012 g, 17 cities, 42 tech , Pyramids, Oracle, Peace with Zulus;
Carthagianians: Rep, Enraged War, 1986g, 49 tech, 15 cities, Allied with Zulus;
Power Supreme & Spotless

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Its 1844, so I rushed Frieght for the Spaceship, plus lots of other things to spend about 2000g and also lowered my tax rate 10% in favour of luxuries, as you suggest.

Right from the start never keep too much money on hand. Use it to partial rush build; be it units or structures.

Ali, I read your interest rate post and increase the number of settlers & trade I build, still not enough I suspect. But what interest me is how much trade in a city should you have before building a marketplace or library pays back what you'd get from building settlers?

A library(marketplace) increases scinece (tax & lux) by 50% and it costs 80s plus 1g per turn for upkeep. Going with a 5% rate of return, you should expect to receive 4s+1g per turn. Using 1s=2g that is 9g. Assuming 50% science and 50% for tax+lux rates, these improvements are worthwhile after your city is producing 18 arrows.

Another advantage of the marketplace is that it helps your city to celebrate. Celebration, under any form of government, is extremely valuable. For that reason, I always make marketplaces before libraries (except maybe in my science city) and I do make them sooner than the above payoff formula dictates when I am in the midst of celebrations.

Postscript (correction): The correct answer above is 36 arrows. I neglected to take into account one of the factors. Having said that, once you reach a certain point in the game, growth slows down and you just cannot get 5% return by building a settler and making another city close by. By then, you should probably be content with 3-4%

 

[Ali Ardavan]

The second game of the month I played and the first early landing.

Welcome. It is great to see new players.

1380 AD Launched spaceship
1395 AD End game (9,070,000 citizens)

12 WONDERS

Impressive result for your second GOTM.

Which option is better for EL, only build caravans for wonders on the island where SSC is located or use these caravans for trade?

Foreign/offshore trade is very lucrative. Take full advantage of it.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Status at +1849
Spaceship Launched 1848 will arrive 1863, ...
Science: Total advances: 62; Advance every 3 turns; Science rate: 10%

How did you manage to launch a space ship with only 62 techs?

 

[TheViking]

An interesting game because of the geography (very long in the E-W direction). Frequently I start military operations once can build crusaders, build lots of them, and try to conquer lots of AI cities until I discover democracy at which time my emphasis often shifts to infrastrucure and science.

This time I went for a very early republic (much earlier than I usually do), even without HG and Mike, established an SSC that quickly reached size 8 and 12 soon after that, and then started churning out caravans and caravels. Since the map was big and the AI far away I left most of my cities undefended and concentrated on trade using large shipchains. The only exception was the Aztecs, they were very weak (4 cities and little cash) when I met them so I bought/subverted all of their cities (the senate signed a cease fire so I subverted some cities). Once they sneak attacked I captured Tenochtitlan using just a single crusader and they were history.

I also established a colony in the westernmsot part of the large island east of the starting island. Further east was the Roman empire; I established a border at a nice choke point but didn't fire a single shot at them for a long time but used them as a trading partner. Once I discovered railroad I wanted to shorten my shipchain by capturing a few Roman cities east of my colony. At this time my technology was advancing very fast so before I had finished preparing this I discovered espionage and the Roman cities turned out to be so cheap I didn't fire a single shot at them but bought the five cities I wanted and established a new chokepoint. Now I was able to greatly increase my trade with the Carthaginians and especially the Zulus. I mainly expanded towards the east and the Carthaginians were east of the Romans and the Zulus east of the Carthaginians. This resulted in huge delivery bonuses so I soon discovered automobile and built lots of superhighways. Once this happened I usually acquired two techs per turn until I started researching future techs at which point I raised the luxury and tax rates a bit. All of this happened so fast I sometimes didn't have time to build some of the wonders I wanted until 20-30 turns after discovering the relevant tech (examples: AS, WS and Hoover).

I was too busy advancing to build any military units until I could build armor, howitzers, stealth fighters and paratroopers - I didn't fire a single shot at the Romans until I had built one howitzer and one armor. I never built a single dragoon or cavalry (those I have are barbs I bribed). I also prioritized automobile ahead of tactics. Usually I'm interested in tactics because I love having a big military and I want Leo to upgrade it but this time I had only a few crusaders so the fact that Leo expires with automobile was irrelevant.

Now the Romans are history and I'm attacking the Carthaginians, Zulus and Vikings (and soon the Persians too) with howitzers, stealth fighters, battleships, armor, spies, engineers and paratroopers (my army is still small but very hi-tech and rapidly growing). Their cities are defended by warriors (!), phalanxes and musketeers . In theory, one stealth fighter and one paratrooper could easily conquer the world - my technological advantage is overwhelming. I could have won earlier (I'm not finished) and gotten a better GOTM score but this is fun.

Status in 1555 AD:
59 cities, 57,260,000 people. Researching future tech 8. Only 4 gold (!). 52 engineers, 1 warrior (!), 1 phalanx, 8 musketeers, 25 riflemen, 2 paratroopers, 3 elephants, 7 crusaders, 4 knights, 3 cavalries, 4 armors, 1 catapult, 3 howitzers, 4 stealth fighters (many more under construction), 1 battleship, 30 transports, 11 spies, 9 freight. All wonders except pyramids, HG, Lighthouse, GL, Oracle, GW, Sun Tzu and KRC.

Zulus: 9 cities, researching NONE (just discovered gunpowder), 1676 gold.
Vikings: 18 cities, researching democracy, 1408 gold.
Persians: 12 cities, researching steam engine, 1970 gold.
Carthaginians: 11 cities, researching magnetism, 434 gold.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

I was very slow in expanding to my neighboring islands even though I built my first offshore city in -0950. At +1 I have only 4 offshore cities on 3 nearby islands. I concentrated on caravans, mostly for wonders, and later on infrastructure with the first one being a temple in my science city in -500.
First trade routes came with 2 deliveries to Aztec cities in -400s. Next batch was to Rome in -100.


Status at +0001
Population: 4.37M; Cities: 16; Trade routes: 2D5F; Government: Republic
Cost per turn: 12; Total advances: 28; Production: 112MT; 0 polluted tiles
Wonders: Pyramids, Colossus, Hanging Gardens, Marco, Michelangelo.
Units: 16 settlers (1 None), 5 Phalanx, 1 Legion, 1 Elephant, 1 Crusader, 2 Trireme, 1 Diplomat, 4 Caravans, 1 explorer.
Roman: 4 cities, 16 techs;
Zulu: 6 cities, 13 techs;
Viking: 8 cities, 12 techs;
Aztec: 3 cities, 13 techs;
Persian: 6 cities, 15 techs;
Carthaginian: 4 cities, 10 techs;

 

[Peaster]

Ali - looks like a promising game (and The Viking's game, too). But I'm surprised you can manage transportation with only two triremes, and no Lighthouse.