GOTM #9 *Spoilers* Thread

[ProPain]

Returned from my holiday on the 25 th of july and tried to finish the gotm 9 in time. I didn't even come close. Work and other commitments took to much time. Ended in 1500 AD with my my own island, the 3 islands to the NE and the japanese island expect the south strip. I guess I was about 5 turns from exterminating Japan. I just managed to get to first position on the histograph with about 2050 points.

I was very satisfied with my progress. Normally I never play archipelago cause I hate the ferrying. I built heaps of galleys and settlers this time and managed to grab a lot of land and resources. Especially the resources turned out to be great moneymakers, other civs payed almost 400gp a turn for them. Definitely gonna use this in my future games. I missed out on building the pyramids, great lighthouse and great library. Every time i was only a few turns away from finishing it. So I ended up with some very expensive marketplaces and libraries

Don't feel like finishing the game so I'm gonna dl the 1.29 patch and try the gotm X. Regent lvl and 31 full days! Sounds like a possible finish.

 

[Creepster]

Well, I just submitted and I goofed towards the end. In my haste to re-arrange cities for better utilization of land I accidently triggered the domination limit. I forgot to remove one of the mountainous cities

Oh well. My final score was 10002 by domination in 1926AD. I think I could have ended up with a score over 14000 if not for this. My cities were just starting to explode with growth (Longevity wonder) and would have been at maximum in another 20 to 40 turns.

 

[Txurce]

Urugharakh,

I agree that an early GA is an excellent way to catch up to the AI at a point when it often has the greatest advantage. But you didn't have to trigger it early if you didn't want to. Couldn't you have built the Lighthouse and Library - triggering nothing - and continued with your original domination strategy?

MPF,

To comment on your question about city size from a perspective other than maximizing score:

Limiting the size of your cities helps early, because they secure your borders faster, and are easier to defend, needing fewer connecting roads. They also generate more culture with a temple, and often more productivity. If your goal is a culture or domination win, then there's not much upside to maximizing each city's acreage. On the other hand, if you're playing the space race, and therefore need to get through most of the tech tree, larger cities produce thelarge number of late-game beakers you'll need.

Fighting in republic is pretty easy if you don't get bogged down in a stalemate (if you do, that's your mistake, not being in republic). Democracy is tougher for war, but not that hard if you have enough luxuries and plan your wars efficiently.

 

[nbarclay]

As I watched Japan grow in size and culture, with probably the best starting position in the game, I decided I had two choices. Either I could play second fiddle for most of the game, or I could swallow up Japan and make its large, well-shaped empire a part of my own. Guess which I chose, especially with Japan not having any iron to build pikemen?

I hadn't built any cities on the Japanese continent at the time the war started, but I had found a small niche in the northeastern corner where Japanese culture had not yet taken hold. Unit after unit built up in that cultural no man's land, including warrior-upgraded swordsmen, a few spearmen, and the war chariots and horsemen that had started to become so popular once Horse Island started sending back its magnificent animals. Then I struck.

Unfortunately, even with fast units, wars can easily bog down fighting a major power on a large map. I had to switch over from Republic to Monarchy long before the war was over, which limited my research potential. (Not that I wasn't the world's technological leader, but as a Republic in a golden age, my lead would have been more than just marginal.) During the war, I used two leaders to build Leonardo's and an army, but then I got a real scare when I couldn't seem to get a third leader to build my forbidden palace. Finally, after conquering the Japanese mainland, I loaded up practically every elite unit I had and landed on the island to the southeast. At long last, my third leader emerged and I could make peace.

The only problem was that the peace didn't last. One of my cities culture flipped back to Japan, and that pushed me into finishing the Japanese off. No problem, right? Except that much to my surprise, my magnificent republic exhibited massive war weariness even in my core cities from the beginning of the new war. That strange phenomenon occurred in spite of having been a Monarchy through most of the original war and of having had somewhere around ten turns of peace before the fighting resumed. To avoid switching governments, I had to boost my luxury rate so high that research ground to a screeching halt. Definitely not good, especially since Japan built a new city just after I finished what had been their last one and then had another settler after that. (Their remaining cities were all on Dye Island, if I'm remembering its identity correctly, to the east.)

At that point, I still harbored some dreams of attacking someone with cavalry before Nationalism became a factor. But such was not to be. The tech race was too close moving toward the industrial era. In the meantime, Persia and Germany had declared war on me, and I found myself having a really interesting time on occasion trying to defend some of my lesser cities. One totally corrupt town fell to Germany temporarily. On another occasion, I had to bring in reinforcements from Japan to thwart a German attack on Horse Island (fortunately, I had a galley perfectly positioned for the job), and on still another, I decided to sacrifice a war chariot to delay an invading Rifleman until I could upgrade some units to cavalry and bring them in for the kill. (But my general had other plans and decided to win the battle instead. ) During that war, I brought in America and the Aztecs as allies, most likely hastening the Aztecs' doom.

After I made peace and started full-scale trading for luxuries again, I interrupted that game to play the first "Apolyton University" game. Then when I got back to the GOTM, there was little enough time left that I decided to go for a space race victory. (It had been something of a toss-up; part of me liked the idea of a peaceful finish, but another part wanted to really punish Persia and Germany.) With both my own continent and Japan's, plus two islands to the east, my research ran in high gear through the industrial and modern eras.

Once I got Computers and Fission, I brought the three remaining powers (Germany, America, and Persia) into the modern age and even stopped squeezing them for new gold payments. Quick deals got me Ecology and Rocketry (thanks to Germany's and Persia's scientific natures), but in spite of my efforts, the AIs never provided any additional help. I determined that uranium and aluminum were both serious danger areas since I had only one supply of each, so I pillaged my own supplies and finished off the initial modern tech trading by arranging imports in exchange for my technology.

Not long after those trades, Persia and then Germany went to war with America, one of the reasons for the negligible AI research in the modern age. Fortunately, no one wanted to add me to their list of enemies, so the only real damage was the loss of my American silk supply when the Germans razed the border city it came from. Part of me really wanted to punish Germany, but I settled for giving America free rubber and later, as the game was winding down, selling them Synthetic Fibers for a song. Since Germany had neither oil nor rubber, they could have found themselves quite unhappy had the game lasted longer, especially since Persia had already made peace.

My launch date for Alpha Centauri was 1640, almost a century later than SirPleb's magnificent showing last month. I'll be interested to see how my performance compares, especially given the difficulty of maintaining a high late-game research rate without conquest on this particular map. My score wasn't too much below 7000, and blew away my best previous score. (Then again, this is probably the first high-level game I've ever actually finished on a large map.)

Nathan

 

[Urugharakh]

Originally posted by Txurce
Urugharakh,

I agree that an early GA is an excellent way to catch up to the AI at a point when it often has the greatest advantage. But you didn't have to trigger it early if you didn't want to. Couldn't you have built the Lighthouse and Library - triggering nothing - and continued with your original domination strategy?

Of course I could do so. But Pyramids are extremly useful, saving 60 shields and 1gpt in every early city and giving a quick start for any new settlements. I was prepared for the GA. All worked tiles had at least 2 shields and 2 commerce and the hill tiles where all mined giving 3 shields under despotism.

 

[Zur]

I submit some hours before midnight GMT. Playing my usual peaceful expansion style with stakes on 6 islands gained without war. I was surprised I kept up with AI expansion at emperor! Nice. Have learnt much.
Played till 1415AD but then got dragged into war, ran out of time and commited ritual Kurt Cobain suicide again.
Aiming for highest conquest defeat again

Gory Details:

100% science until 1250BC when maintenance costs exceed income from barb camps.
Squeezed in an early temple in 2400BC, which gave me a cultural lead into the ADs.
330BC I see Japanese borders but seeing unclaimed islands, sacrifice early contact for faster expansion into those islands.
150AD Japanese attack (by ramming the body of a single warrior into my spear) since my expansion will soon overtake theirs.
The logical thing to do. I out-expand Japanese on barbell island, with 6 cities to his 2.
260AD FP completed due to early construction. The location is non-optimal (in Elephantine) but it was the best location for a city not totally corrupt. I plan a palace shift later seeing new lands to NE. This was never accomplished. I realised Palace takes 1000 shields to build! Is this a bug?! Civilopedia puts it as 100.
270AD Great Lighthouse completed in Memphis just as Japanese galley gives chase 1 square behind mine.
280AD Trigger golden age just before I sign peace with Japanese. I take this opportunity to build courthouses since corruption will go thro the roof later.
290AD Exploration skyrockets with Great Lighthouse and I achieve first contact with Persians. They are much more advanced but smaller and have less culture. Obtain first contact with small Aztecs. They are behind in everything. I have 15 settlers at this point. This is about 1/3 my total pop. And I am not even playing ICS.
330AD Contact with Germans and Americans. Aztecs catch up 7 techs in 1 turn upon meeting them, with 0 gold to spare! WTF? I am now about 2 techs behind again. I have the most cities but am only 4th in land area since I used a relatively dense build in the jungle island to NE. Only behind Japan in culture. 9 barb horses attack a city which I purposely left undefended. Lost 2 shields only
420AD Discover Feudalism and catch up in tech in a massive trade. Switch government to Republic. The well-timed GA has tided me over to republic. Discover that Germany and America are at war.
570AD I realise selling Feudalism was a mistake since America completed Sun Tzu's, beating me by 3 turns. I thought the AI wouldn't be able to build it in 20-40 turns without pre-building. I am forced to buy Invention from Persians for 900 gold to complete Leo's. I recoup 200 from Aztecs.
650AD I have finished expanding into the NE islands on which the Japanese only managed to sneak in 5 cities. I begin expanding into the NW gaps to grab ivory.
740AD Wonder race for Sistine begins. I investigate all 3 rivals and find myself in the lead but only 1 turn (~30 to completion) ahead of Richmond. Workers are sent to mine irrigated squares.
940AD Time flies and income takes off as I switch to 0 science to catch up tech. Complete Copernicus by an old palace pre-build. Want to move palace to barbell island in NE.
1000AD Minor city deposes to America. Spy on Persepolis building Bach and see that I am JUST behind, so give it to him.
1020AD Ocean trade is finally possible and I catch up with tech again by trading luxuries. New islands to the N are discovered and I consider another crazy expansion phase even as some cities reach maturity and others constipate at pop 6. Enormous inflow of cash at 0 science, but still not enough to buy techs, rush buildings and rush expansion! Since it's the 29th of the month, I decide against expanding since it will only add to my territorial score and deprive the AI of some lands - they are too far away to be of much use, since at this point, I will be going for diplo or spaceship. Not much real-time left to play with.
1090AD Could have led race for Smith, but lose it since I built a bank instead of pre-building.
1100AD Another city deposes! Lose 5 workers to Japanese! I make sure everyone (except Aztecs) is dependent on my luxuries to deter invasion. My base island has been weakly or undefended since the start. (No sh*t)
1230AD a few cities depose to Japanese/Persians/Americans. Acceptable losses. Could have been prevented by rushing culture in the right cities.
1285AD My Newton's University, complete in 13 turns, got beaten by Persians by 5 turns! No spice on WM??
1325AD Persia declares war because I forget to renew their luxuries! Bastards!
1360AD Aztecs (!) declare too!!
1370AD Germans (!) delcare too!! I get peace with Persia Make sure they are sedated with luxuries
1395AD Germans threaten my ivory seriously! I waste lots of gold rushing. My rifle attacks a pike and dies without even causing a single point of damage. My cavalry failed to take out a pike(!) and I was forced to MPP with Americans! This is all sounding very improbable. I definitely blame it on the random number generator Industrialization slowed due to war
1405AD Germans keep coming and Americans declare on Germans.
1410AD Dragged back to war with Aztecs due to Americans.
1415AD War weariness skyrockets due to Aztec error (should have maintained war with them). Communism costs a bomb.
I give up!!! It's midnight 2/8.

I'm trying to include a map, but keep getting the message that I have included too many images in previous posts or my signature. What should I do?

A ******ed thing I noticed during the replay...The Aztecs built their 3rd city and then it disappeared and reappeared again 2 or 3 times!
No message on capturing, so it must have starved to death! That probably explains their, um, somewhat undesired expansion rate.

Entertaining game and learned a few things too:
1. Peace is harder to maintain than war.
2. AI are bastards (I already knew this, but this needs emphasizing again).
3. See above.

Achieving 2600 points at 1400AD ain't bad. My cows are dry

Edit: I had to cut out some smileys

Goody huts: deserted, barbs, barbs, deserted, map, maths, barbs, deserted, barbs

 

[civ_steve]

Hey, I've gotten timed-out on this reply twice! How do I submit anything sizeable without getting timed out!

I've started most of the GOTMs; this is the first one I've completed! It's mostly finding enough time to finish the game. I usually do pretty well, but can't finish. But not this month! (Okay, I was done one hour late in my timezone; I hope Matrix will include my results, since I do find it so hard to even come close to finishing a game.)

Quick synopsis: early barbarians delayed me a bit. No early wonders. Slightly behind the Japanese in colonizing the adjacent islands, but made up for it by sheer numbers of cities generated.

3 wars with Japan. First one, 400 to 800 AD, ended up with me owning all 3 of the adjacent islands (small, medium and large Jungle), 2 Japanese cities, my GA and my first Leader. Second one from 1000 AD to mid 1200's; had to stop when other civs gave him Nationalism and my Cavalry were being stopped. I now owned 5 Japanese cities, and founded two more in the spaces between. 3rd one started in 1700's, with large force of Tanks, Infantry and Artillery on my side. Finally finished him off in 1806, :slay: one turn before I finished the UN. (I didn't think I'd get his vote!)

Built UN, called for Vote. Germany: big trade partner with Egypt, never at war with Egypt, I got his vote. Aztecs: nearly wiped out by Persia, I allowed 1 city on my large Jungle island, and gave him lots of stuff, I got his vote. America: big trade partner with Egypt, however, he signed a MPP with Japan 3 turns before I finished Japan off, so we were at war. He abstained.

So, 3 votes for Egypt, 1 vote for Persia, 1 abstention. Egypt Wins!

I guess if I previewed my post every few minutes, that might prevent the timeout. Okay

 

[Chieftess]

I know it's long over, but this is one that I just quit. I had 30 swordsman, with more on the way, thinking that would be enough. So, what happens? I see Japanese horsemen IN THE DOZENS attacking! My swordsman didn't stand a chance, and when they COULD attack, EVERY SINGLE HORSEMEN FLED!!!!!!

I quit after my 30 swordsmen were decimated...