GOTM 88 Final Spoiler

[DynamicSpirit]

GOTM 88 Final Spoiler

Tell us whether you won or lost and what happened.

Reading Requirements

Stop! If you are participating in GOTM 88, then you MUST NOT read this thread unless

• you have submitted your entry OR
• you will not submit your game

Posting Restrictions

• Do not post any savegame file from the game. Discussions and screenshots are fine but not actual games.

 

[MarleysGh0st]

Bismarck declared war on me in 225 AD. I destroyed his first wave and he never came back with a second wave. I sent my own invasion fleet to Frankfurt, his only port city. It took me until 1210 to take and raze it (along with a stack of German galleys and caravels that huddled inside). I saw no chance of holding it or pressing further inland, so I took some gold for a peace treaty.

After that, I remained at peace, while other wars broke out on the mainland. Louis took some cities from Cyrus. HC went to war against MM, with Bismarck joining MM's side and Louis taking HC's, but this became a stalemate with no exchange of territory on either side.

As peace settled over the land, Victoria started the space race. I signed defense pacts with Cyrus, Vicky and MM, then built the UN and tried for a diplomatic victory. In the end, I had everyone's votes but Louis and HC, but they had enough votes between them to block me. In 1910, I had 636 votes out of 1142, when I needed 708.

In 1912, Victory completed her ship and won the Space Victory. A puny 3,974 points for my effort.

 

[keiselhorn13]

After discovering what Roosy Island was all about I chose to play a teching peaceful game... and decided to aim for diplo. Just thought it would be a lot of work to invade and war my way to domination in this game.

Didn't go culture due to low hammer yield throughout the island, and decided to leave spaceship as the plan B.

The only real war I waged was against the French because they founded Tours just W of Washington, in a spot I was about to settle. Staying without state religion helped with diplomacy, and, I believe, compensated for the bonuses lost. Leaving the religions to others also helped create distinct blocks in diplomacy which I could manipulate.

After building UN in the 1530, the situation was 2 distinct blocks: French with Incas, and me with the rest. All was pretty good but I commited a mistake before 1st election: gave in to a French demand, getting a penalty for dealing with my allies' worst enemy. I believe that costed me the 1st vote.

In subsequent votes I tried to win my friends back, particularly Victoria (she's a tough girl to please) but then another issue turned up: Capac (my UN rival) and Cyrus (one ally) were swapping positions as 1st in population! Therefore I had to face Cyrus instead in 2 elections, wasting my diplo work with him... obviously Capac wouldn't vote me...

Eventually Capac resumed his role as UN rival. But Vicky was hard to please! On the Cyrus votes, she voted for him (we both had +8). Back with Capac, she kept abstaining even with my generous trades. The world was at the doors of the space race when she finally decided to give me her vote. Diplo 1720ad, score 28814.

Last turn's screenshot:

Spoiler :

 

[undead]

Conquest loss in 1936 AD.

Settled 4 cities on the island. Couldn't settle the 5th (maybe fitting 6 cities would have been better anyway) because Cyrus settled there. Capturing his city with horse archers and cats was a bit costly, despite the weak defenses.

Because there was a lot of food and few hills I built a lot of workshops (I never build one usually).

Anyway, research went well (I think): built the Oracle (=> MC), the Colossus, the Great Lighthouse; Liberalism first (=> Nationalism). First in gold for a long time, until I built a lot of military (managed to have a Globe Theatre city BTW) and crossed the coast to attack Cyrus with cavalry and cats: captured a coastal city, then much later the capital (defended by upgraded riflemen), then much later another coastal city (defended by more riflemen). It was very slow and costly (declared peace at least twice). And still no iron.

Just when I got this coastal city with the usual heavy losses, Bismarck attacked me (a complete surprise, I must admit). I had neglected diplomacy, except with HC, Cyrus' neighbor. (By the way, Bismarck and HC destroyed MM.) I defended the island with infantry and machine guns, until my last city fell... after 4 (four) nuclear strikes in the same turn: 1 pop, no defender left (there were about 10 defenders). Didn't see that in a long time (maybe never, actually).

 

[MarleysGh0st]

After building UN in the 1530, the situation was 2 distinct blocks: French with Incas, and me with the rest.

Interesting! You had the same voting blocks as in my game, but I see that Louis only had 37 votes in the end, instead of being the population leader. Was he on the losing end of some other wars, besides the one you fought for your island?

 

[Sleepless]

Mmm that was a bit more of a struggle than I would have thought..

Managed to get the Glh and a decent tech situation for the start. Settled 2 cities to the North and 1 to the South on the mainland.. Perhaps I should have settled the island first as Louis settled a city in the middle by the wine. Wouldn't have mattered to much except for the close border tensions and him declaring on me unexepectedly. Miss that bit from BUFFY.. Well with the lack of defenders in my mainland cities I was able to hold off his attack in one city to the North but he raised the other 2.. Plus side I kicked him off the island..

Well that set me back a long way and missed out on some other sites due to the war.. Perhaps I should concentrate more on military early..

Well next person to attack me was Viccie. Was expecting this and the fact I was able to lib Mi Trad I had a long period of using cavalry.. Yet again I suffered with crippling war weariness for the last 1000+ years of the game. Perhaps I need to re-think long wars and keep making cease fires the then re-declaring when my forces are healed.

Along the way I killed off Viccie - Louis - Cyrus - HC was down to 1 city and managed a very slow domination victory in 1922.

 

[keiselhorn13]

Interesting! You had the same voting blocks as in my game, but I see that Louis only had 37 votes in the end, instead of being the population leader. Was he on the losing end of some other wars, besides the one you fought for your island?

Louis was never population leader... it was between Cyrus and HC... Well, I made Louis a world villain (except for HC) by inciting many wars against him. Brought me many benefits: kept the AIs busy fighting (I never attacked him in the mainland), got me diplo bonus with friends for being "an ally" in these wars, and also reduced the French pop, increasing the voting weight on my side.

Bismarck was an awesome ally, he really kicked Louie's ass. He was not even taking the towns and growing his own empire... instead he was just razing... great help from him

 

[Jastrow]

Submitted an incomplete after getting fed up with the RNG punking me...

The BC's had gone well, and at the start of the AD, I decided to play for a Switzerland style demo victory. Then the RNG interveened:

1-I had founded anc converted to Confusicm. It had spread to Vicky and no-one else. So, out of the blue, the only civ in the world sharing my religion declares war on me at pleased!

2-I repel her initial wave, and send two counter attackes. The first is repelled when my fortified maceman in a forrest (protecting cats) gets taken out by a longbow who attacks him out of a city, and does not even suffer any damage! My second wave is repealled when 2 cavalry are wipped out by two knights.

3-Mansa joins in with Vicky, while also at pleased, so now its a 2 on 1 war!

Those two wars did not do significant damage to my empire, but the damaged they caused to world relationships was maybe irreparable.

4-Then HC declares on me (the decleration itself is not unexpected), and takes my national epic city by attacking it with a single untit. It was defended by a maceman and full culture, and he simply walks in with a single unit (I think it was a maceman, nothing more advanced for sure) and takes it. I take it back the next turn, but of course the national epic is gone, as well as the library.

So with all that in place, I was going to need a maricle to get the votes I needed. I completed the UN around 1500, but got declared on by Vicky again before the vote (this time, it was not unexpected; I knew I was pressing my luck)... Before this attack, I had just finished researching biology. My voting block (Me, MM, Bizmark, Louis) was about 40 votes short against my opponent (Cyrus). I was going to gift Bio to all my guys, and maybe, with a lot of luck, we could have closed the gap...

Vicky however attacked and razed one of my cities (Again, a Single unit. A cavelry, wipped out my defending cavelry), and with that, it was over.

I decided to submit instead of spending more time on it, and instead move on to one of the other XOTM.

 

[PattonTwo]

This was a good game overall for me though still ending in a space loss to Cyrus in 1924. Overall I was happy with my game since this isn't a level I would generally win at.

What went well was my city growth. I managed to squeeze 8 cities onto the island (I settled 1 north) as I was cautious to place cities as close together as I could. I would think that was good overall.

What didn't go well was any attempt at an early war.

I was last in score until attacking France around 1000 AD. I was moving nicely towards eliminating them when the Inca launched a surprise attack from half way around the world. They had marched 3 good sized stacks all the way to attack the French cities I was taking and they should have captured paris and possibly Rheims except the 3 stacks didn't coordinate at all and the third one stopped to pillage around Paris. I beat them off and then eventually finished off France around 1500.

Then I was left with no good options. The English and Persians were the top 2 civs and I didn't think I could take either one on successfully yet. So I slowly migrated my units over to the Inca and quickly attacked and wiped them out around 1750.

next I prepared to attack Mansa. I built up the forces and was finally ready to attack him when he formed a defensive alliance with persia no more than 1-3 turns before I attacked. I gave up on that assult because there was no way I could take him and Persia at the same time as I was still lagging Persia on the powergraph though I was pulling into second.

I basically lost a ton of time trying to position to attack someone. I ended up attacking and defeating Germany but not until around 1900. By then England and Persia (and Mansa) were ahead of me in tech.

Looking back I guess I could have attacked Mansa and hoped to get lucky and lose only a city or two to Persia before settling for peace. I'm not sure if that would have worked or not. If it had I might well have pulled out a domination victory.

Even still, thanks for the game!

 

[greatbeyond]

Misery loves company! So here I come...

Settled on the northern Gold for the quicker Settlers and production. Later in the game the hammers from having this mined would have helped.

I knew the challenge would be to get off the island and establish a beachhead. Iron only appears on the outer perimeter of the map so I was trying to get a city out to claim some iron.
Everything was going well up to 200BC. I had 5 cities on the island and 2 on the northern coast. One due north of Washington and one to the NW adjacent to the French. I have been gracious to everyone, though I have been building my armies thinking I would attack Louis XIV as he appeared weakest and his Archers don't enjoy the defensive bonus. Before I can do so, HC DOWs at 200BC and steps two Archers across the border from France. At this point I'm not 100% sure where HC's lands are. His two Archers(unpromoted) attack my fortified Axe. The first is killed but drops the Axe's strength to less than half (thanks RNG, how about next time you give me that kind of luck). Next Archer kills my Axe and razes the city. I rush my units to the SW and find HC's cities. As I move next to his city, he comes up with War Elephants followed by LB's. I manage to maneuver and take one city then losing it. HC will not settle for Peace. Louis XIV jumps in and DOWs me. This goes on to 800AD when I take two of HC cities and he agrees to peace for them back. This long war has left empire development way behind. Luckily Cyrus DOWs Louis, followed later by Vicky, and I follow Cyrus' units through France taking 3 cities including Orleans with TGL. No more wars at this point for me.

I don't build anymore units during this time and concentrate on building the empire. I figure the UN is my best bet so I beeline for it completing it in the early 1700's. For the last 125 turns or so I am running at 100% research due to a couple of GM's and selling techs to the AI. I am surprised that I am so far ahead of everyone but Bismark in Techs, though he is going for space. Cyrus has grown to the number 1 position and I want HC to be my opponent. HC has been busy chipping away at MM's cities, but he never makes it it to number one.
As I figured, Cyrus is my opponent. We pretty much split the votes every time. MM is mad because I won't stop trading with HC, but HC is voting for me and has more votes. Bismark votes for me as well. Vicky won't vote for me even though I try everything to get better relations.

As soon as I completed the UN. I knew if I couldn't get the vote my only other hope was Space. So I shifted gears and was soon ahead of everyone but Bismark. Then Cyrus comes out of nowhere, passes Bismark and pulls ahead of me. We are neck and neck with techs, perhaps he has a slight edge. However, he has the huge empire and massive production. I know it is no use but I keep hoping. I build Scotland Yard to get Spies thinking perhaps I can use the to destroy Spaceship production. Apparently Spies really suck in vanilla. I guess I'll have to find a guide to using them effectively.

MM DOW's HC, then followed by Vicky, then Bismark. I join in hoping that HC will be destroyed and MM and Vicky will vote for me. Unfortunately Cyrus launches in 1912AD and I am left castaway on my island with a just a volleyball for company.

Had it not been for HC attacking me out of the blue, no demands first, I can see a better outcome 900 years wasted. I think his DOW was one of those RNG anomalies. We didn't share any borders and he didn't even have any coastal cities.

The map type itself made the game play a little harder. Lack of hammers on the Island meant slow production. I had entertained the thought of a cultural victory , but with HC and Bismark both getting a a 50% wonder production bonus, I knew it would be very iffy. As it was, Bismark beat me to the Oracle by half a turn in 1200BC.

 

[neilmeister]

Domination 1520ad

I am a bit rusty with Vanilla, I do play every month, but normally only to test out the GOTM games and rarely to completion.

Have to agree with the others, this seemed to play harder than Emperor, but that might be because I chose a military victory.

My original plan was just to kill everyone with Cats & Maces, but the AI were a bit too strong for that, so I went for Knights and eventually Cavalry. Once Cavalry was in things sped up significantly.

English, French, Persians, then Malinese & Germans all fell to the New Deal. I was a bt tricky at the end, as the Incans were rapidly conquering the Malinese so I has to speed up to make sure I got some of those cities. 64% seemed like almost the whole map.

 

[lymond]

Wow! What a depressing read! :suicide: At least Neil cheered me up at the end.

I did Dom in 1515AD. Really rushed a good portion of the game to get this submitted in time. I'd played most of the BCs a month ago and then picked this up last night to see if I could finish it....Barely. Turned into a real slog of a game. Nothing really went wrong but its just a lot of land.

...and the unhappinesss of Vanilla is just laughably ridiculous. In a matter of a few turns I'm sporting 9+ war unhappiness in cities. After getting Cavs up a pretty much was unable to research anything at all as I spent most of my commerce on culture so that my cities did not explode.

BCs went fairly well. Settled on Gold and focused on GLH. Settled 7 decent cities on the island as soon as possible. No barbs issues. I think one barb warrior spawned but I had the island spawnbusted fairly quick. (Actually ended with 8 cities on that island)

After GLH, I beelined Monarchy and then Alpha. HR just seems so important on vanilla to get any happiness. Did not even bother trying for Oracle. Went Lit and built TGL in 2corn/fish city to the east - nice city. TGL pretty much built from whip OF.

Then pursued CS and Machinery/Construction to get a Mace/Cat war going with Cyrus. Funny how aggressive the AIs are with settlers. Pretty much very AI had galleys floating around with settlers in them but nowhere to go. Cyrus kept trying to settle on my island while leaving tons of good land unsettled around him. (I closed borders once to prevent him grabbing my last spot right as I had a settler out)

So right as I enter the ADs I start pounding on Cyrus for a good long time. No issues with the war but it just takes a long time ferrying over units, healing, etc.

I move on to Louis next with Mace/Cats/Phants. Meanwhile I work towards Lib>MT (or MS whatever..ha), so Cavs enter the picture. At this point I have a fairly large empire and HE in an old Persia city. I send some troops toward Capac at this point and attack him directly with Cavs - pretty much mowing down his cities with ease. (He'd been at war for a very long time with Mansa but had nothing to show for it)

After wiping Capac clean, I DOW on Mansa taking a few of his cities and then taking peace. He gave me another city. Meanwhile I finish off the French which was a long slow slog of a war. Again no issues or stupid losses, but just slow moving up to the North.

Bit off a bit of Vicky's empire toward the end to get over the limit. She was the only one that put up any fight with her Knights, but still went down easily.

I could have been more aggressive and finished this off earlier but focus as much on growth as I could, so units came slower later. Plus I stupidly switched into Caste thinking it would boost my workshops, forgetting that the bonus is not present on vanilla.

Interesting setup and good map. I think I'm getting a bit tired of vanilla though...I may retire from it. Too much junk in this version.