GOTM 85 - First Spoiler

[neilmeister]

GOTM 85 First Spoiler

Stop! If you are participating in GOTM85, 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.

Where did you settle?
How many times did you curse the mapmaker about the silver?
Any problems so far?

 

[Mr.WorldWide]

I chose adventurer class save, I had a suspicion that I was surrounded by snow and would have to make use of the financial trait and make my gold from the sea tiles, I guess I was wrong about that.

Anyways I moved the settler 1S rather then SiP, after all the silver was of no use and given the fact I had so much food it didn't really bother me that I wasted a fp settling on it. I scouted the land and realized I was isolated on an island, huh, culture victory I guess.

Playing the game on settler made it easy to get all the wonder techs first, I completed the Oracle in 1320BC and chose Music. After that I built a slew of wonders, the Stonehenge, the Parthenon, the Pyramids, The Kashi Vishwanath, Notre Dame, The Great Lighthouse, and on 1AD the Dai Miao. (sorry I don't know the shorthand for those yet)

I also founded Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Confucianism, and Taoism all before 1AD, I felt there was no way possible I could loose at this point. Maybe I should have been courageous enough to tackle the contender save.

 

[zbgayumn]

I was also a little thrown off by the ice/flood plains at the beginning, but after one turn of exploration I settled on the spot 1SW of the original location. That was nice when I got my Workboats built because I only had to move one tile for each of them.

I figured Neilmeister's comment about 'the challenge of finding someone to spread the Christmas message to' meant that it was an isolated start. Like Mr. Worldwide I immediately thought that culture would be the obvious path to victory. It may be the cliche this round, but after last month's slugfest I could use a nice, peaceful game.

I mapped out the island for six cities, but by 1 AD I only had five of them built. York and Hastings were along the northern coast, and those were the other two culture cities that I chose. Hastings, in the east, had potential for lots of production. York, in the middle, turned out to have great food, prod, and comm. I founded Hinduism, Confucianism, and Taoism before 1 AD. I built Stonehenge in York fairly late, and then missed Oracle. That probably cost me quite a bit in the long run. Looking back, I'm realizing that I didn't do a great job of balancing important wonders against growth. I also missed Parthenon (by 1 turn, I think) and tGL. I also had a hard time stopping the flow of Great Prophets once I got it started. By 1 AD I knew London was going to be the Great Artist farm, but I still had to knock out Drama and Lit much less build NE there.

 

[SilentWatcher]

WOW! having been a civ fan since civ 2 I bought the civ complete box set as soon as I had a pc that could play it, several years ago... Only ever played the beyond the sword version until I found this site and the game of the month. As life sometimes happens I now have WAY too much time on my hands and the monthly BOTM is just not enough.. it passes 3 or 4 days a month but thats not enough so I started on the WOTM as well.. Isnt it different! wow the tanks are good! My usual late game botm stack just isnt necessary when you have collateral damage too. This month I beat the BOTM but got my butt kicked by the WOTM and still had half a month left.. Oh well.. So I decided to play my first ever vanilla game. WOW! again.. Its a different game entirely! 1ad and I am 1 turn away from optics and less than 20 from astrology to open up the oceans and explore, wouldn't normally get that till 100s ad,, I have the oracle, The great lighthouse and the colossus my research level, economy and population are unbelievable in beyond the sword terms (I have a pop 12 capital!) Only have 3 cities tho but in the game im use to with the science level I have that wouldn't matter.. Only problem is Ive just realised that if I can do that then so can the AI. OH ! Think I may be complacent and ignorant of the differences in vanilla.. But hey ho im having fun.

 

[neilmeister]

I'm glad you guys are enjoying this one.

There is a great thread stickied in the forum, linked here that discusses the many, many differences between the variants.

I think I can sum up the important ones as in Vanilla:
- build Cats, lots of them, you barely need anything else as they can kill.
- Cavalry are way more overpowered, as they do not need rifling.

 

[SilentWatcher]

Ah! thank you Neilmeister, Most useful

 

[billybgame]

Giving it a go on Adventurer.....not sure I'll be top half in this one either so it could be a continuing trend

Settled 1S also.........started thinking war, and went for AH and BW, but soon found that was faulty planning, and turned my thoughts to a culture win also.

Had 5 cities by 1AD. York went SE, just S of the horses. Nottingham to the N of there, on the E side of the river. Hastings went to the SE, 2 N of the Fur, and then Canterbury N of there, along the coast. Was eyeing my next cities on the SW corner of my island, and a 7th on the island to the SW of us, for Gold and coastal resources galore.

I founded 4 religions, so knew my culture plan could work. Also, had Optics before 1AD, so was already moving towards searching the world.

Built Stonehenge and the Oracle in London.........Great Lighthouse and Colossus in Nottingham, and have plans to get all the GA wonders going soon, too.

Even with the pluses to non-GA GP, I had pretty good luck and have started piling up the GAs.

 

[WelshGandalf]

Plan - early Oxford then scienece victory. The means - getting CS with Oracle.

I settled 1S. Glad I didn't go with the alternative some were opting for, as it would've meant settling on top of the cooper. I built 2 workers early as it would take so long to upgrade the flood plains. Lots of cottages & financial trait meant I flew through the tech tree and completed the oracle in around 1700BC and went straight into beaurocracy (which I always spell wrong ).

My teching then got a bit random. I teched a few random things before finally remembering/realising that the great library would be a great wonder to get since we're philosophical. I started building it around 100BC.

I had 2 great scientists, one created an academy and the other bulbed most of Education. By 1AD I had 3 universities and 4 libraries in my 6 cities. So the same problem I had last time I tried to get a really early Oxford - a lack of universiites. Pro tip though - you only need 5 universities on this map as it is "small" rather than the normal 6.

I missed out on the Pyramids so am aiming for Constiution so I can get representation up.

Bubls are not so powerful here as I expect to be a mile ahead in techs, so I can't trade them for stuff. So I plan to settle many in my capital. With Library/Uni/Academy/Oxford, that's a +200% modifier, under represntation a settled GS will repay itself in 60-70 turns, plus give you lots of hammers too.

 

[Ronnie1]

I tend to jump into Noble games too quickly without a lot of planning because they are a bit below my comfort level. Unfortunately I think I am playing this way below expectations.

 

[Quintillus]

I decided to go exploring before starting, since the starting point didn't seem that great (I didn't realize the ice could still have both farms and cottages), particularly with the silver useless. In the end, I settled 5 East of the starting location (NE of the Wheat) in 3880 BC, and am happy with the results. London built the Lighthouse, the Pyramids, and the Colossus, all before 1 AD (although the Colossus appears to have been nerfed in Vanilla rather than BTS). Went with Hereditary Rule on the government so I could make London into a mega-city.

I narrowly missed Confucianism, and recently missed Taoism, too. So, the plan now is to go for Christianity, which would be appropriate for the Christmas message. If that fails, I'll either go for Islam, or possibly make this an Atheist game (a handicap, but it would be fun).

The sting of no silver was lessened after scouting the island. But, it did factor into the government decision.

Long-term goal is a science victory, or possibly Cultural. I don't expect to be first time-wise, since I never am. But I'm optimistic about my chances of winning somehow or other. Standard difficulty.

 

[Falabello]

The beginning and cities:
#1- London 1S (4000 BC) ==> Work Boat / Worker / Warrior / Work Boat / Settler
#2- York SE (2200 BC) – 1 clam, 1 rice, 1 marble, 1 corn
#3- Nottingham E (1640 BC) – 1 fish, 1 stone, 1 crab, 1 wheat
#4- Hastings SE (1400 BC) – 1 fish, 1 cow, 1 corn (shared)
#5- Canterbury SE (800 BC) – 1 clam, 1 fur, 1 cow (shared)
#6- Coventry E (725 BC) – 1crab, 1 silk
#7- Warwick S (1 AD) – 1 fish

Technologies, Wonders and Great Persons:
- Agric / TW / BW / Pott / Writ / Math / Sail / Masonry / Myst / Poly / Priest / CoL / Metal C / Alpha / Lit / Civil Service (2 turns)…
- No Techs traded yet
- Lost The Oracle by one single turn (675 BC) ! My choice would be Civil Service !
- The Great Lighthouse (525 BC) – The Parthenon (450 BC) - The Great Library (25 BC)
- 1 Great Scientist: Academy in London

The game:
- Early on I built a Work Boat to explore the sea, but soon I discovered that we were isolated on this mini continent !
- Just one Barbarian Warrior
- At 1 AD our Civilization still imagines to be the only one existing on the planet. We do not know what's beyond the great seas …
- National Epic in Capitol (10 turns with 3 forests) / The Colossus (5 turns) / 1 Settler to the SW Island (5 turns)…
- This time I will not build any Cottage, however I do not know if I'm doing the right thing .

1 AD:
- 7 cities (all founded) - Pop 30 / Treasury 4g
- 150 bpt at 100% / 107 bpt breakeven at 60%
- Only one in score
- Just one single Warrior in each City and no Army prepared yet…

 

[WelshGandalf]

The beginning and cities:
Technologies, Wonders and Great Persons:
- Lost The Oracle by one single turn (675 BC) ! My choice would be Civil Service !

- 1 Great Scientist: Academy in London

The game:
- This time I will not build any Cottage, however I do not know if I'm doing the right thing .

If you want to Oracle CS you really should focus on it. The returns you get from it early on are massive. I got it about 1000 years before you! Part of that would be because I did built cottages, whereas you didn't. Two good reasons to get some cottages - Financial trait and getting CS and hence bureaucracy early on.

Ofc you could just leverage Philosophical instead, but really that needs Pyramids. I'd definitely be trying to utilise one of my 2 traits.

 

[Falabello]

If you want to Oracle CS you really should focus on it. The returns you get from it early on are massive. I got it about 1000 years before you! Part of that would be because I did built cottages, whereas you didn't. Two good reasons to get some cottages - Financial trait and getting CS and hence bureaucracy early on.

Hey - you're right! I thought that by this level I would not have this problem and didn't focus on it
And you mentioned something that I still have a lot of doubts: In other games some people told me that while Financial I would not need to build any cottage, and I have noticed they do not build them. So I tried this: no cottages and used the Capital as a GP Farm. I guess that my style of playing needs cottages in Capital, following your tips! But I also think it's a very, very controversy question
Thanks by the tips !

 

[keiselhorn13]

And you mentioned something that I still have a lot of doubts: In other games some people told me that while Financial I would not need to build any cottage

No way! Financial makes river cottages even more worthy building, they are 3 commerce from the start.

So I tried this: no cottages and used the Capital as a GP Farm.

It was such a resource and river-rich island, I think there was other good spots for GP farming, like the corn-seafood area. IMHO there was many good spots for both science city and GP farm, but I think the starting area was great for Oxford.

Merry Xmas.

 

[Falabello]

I played this game again, and this time using the Capital as a commerce city. It was better building cottages. This idea of no-cottage didn't work well to me. I guess that in all of my games I'll use them in Capital .

IMHO there was many good spots for both science city and GP farm

Yes, you're right and I agree !

Hey, could you help me again in another question? How can I do to appear the phrase "Originally Posted by Keiselhorn13" with the link? In the selected texts that I copy this sentence doesn't appear!

Merry Xmas too !!!

 

[srad]

A nice game for the Christmas holidays: Superb land and a top leader!


My 1 AD report:

- 8 cities - no more room left to settle another one.
- Build 1240BC GLH and 1080 Oracle -> took Currency

Tech rate is very high, I have CS, Monarchy, Literature and in two turns Machinery is in.

 

[keiselhorn13]

@Falabello: if you reply with the "Quote" button the link will appear straight away in your "reply to thread" screen. The link would be the dotted comma ( ; ) and number that follows it.

Sometimes I press "quote" and then delete the bits of the person's message that I don't want to repeat. Otherwise I don't know how to get that number that makes the link. Maybe one of the moderators could help on this one. Sorry everybody for this brief off-topic.

 

[Htadus]

Settled 1 south on the flood plain. Obviously, I did not pay attention to the warning and was utterly disappointed when my worker would not listen to me and build a mine on the silver. So later on I sent him to greet the only barb warrior to ever to pop his head up on this continent. But he was not in any danger since my only warrior was protecting him. I think I expanded to about 6 cities by the deadline and ended up loosing Mids and I think also the GLH.

Oh that is not the worst. Lack of focus cost me the Oracle too . First I was heading for CS but then changed my mind and headed toward completing MC to take Machinery from the Oracle and lost it by 3 turns. Oh well whatever. I think I had 3 or 4 religions too. And then I forgot about the game until today. So the rush is on. I guess my wife is right all along...I am a procrastinator.

(By the way map maker, shouldn't japan and russia been on this map? Perhaps even India? This continent look very much like some landmass down under )

And why did you hide the gold from us neil? Ofcourse it has nothing to do with me not remembering to build an extra WB to go look around or just playing lousy or anything.

 

[neilmeister]

(By the way map maker, shouldn't japan and russia been on this map? Perhaps even India? This continent look very much like some landmass down under )

And why did you hide the gold from us neil? Ofcourse it has nothing to do with me not remembering to build an extra WB to go look around or just playing lousy or anything.

Terra is only roughly Earth like, so its not super accurate.

I hid the gold to give some reward to those that explored, mind you, there were a lot of resources on your little island anyway.