GOTM 99: Sioux, Diety, 5 civs, Restarts ON, Large Map.
This GOTM was as much fun as I remembered. I played it mainly for practice and didn't take very careful notes. Also, I played the first 100 turns, or so, while on a road trip. I was aiming for Early Conquest, but didn't finish very fast. Maybe I'm rusty, or maybe it was the settings. My luck seemed OK.
2500BC (approx): monarchy
2000BC: 5 cities with 3 settlers (my growth seems a bit slow, but OK).
1800BC: 7 cities, we are at war with France. For some reason, my borrowed laptop crashes whenever I type "b" to found a new city, so I have to use the menu method instead. Also, I didn't realize the dang thing had a mouse until about 1500BC ! So, I couldn't blackclick, etc (and I didn't peek at the map even though it was legal).
1300BC: 10 cities. Start a barracks and a road to Paris.
1000BC: 13 cities. I need pottery for HG soon.
approx 875BC: Marco's, and I soon get all 4 maps - and pottery from Spain. It's not in my notes, but I must have signed a cease fire with France about this time.
525BC: France declares war again and I raze Paris with 2 chariots. I have just gotten polytheism and haven't trained any elephants yet.
400BC: Cels build GL.
250BC: France goes down. Blue resurfaces as the Germans at <188,32>. I begin my patented "Anti-Respawn Plan", to encourage all future respawns to pop up in this same region, where my mounted minions will be waiting....
1AD: 33 cities. Pop 1.1m, Mfg 125, 23adv, approx 45 units. As I recall, my WoWs were MPE, HG and LH. At war with Carthage (after much good tribute).
200AD: It took me so long to reach Berlin that it was size 4 before I could attack it. I had to capture it [or play some clever games that I just didn't think of in time] rather than raze it. Blue respawns as Vikings in the distant SW corner of the map, against my great plan. But after this setback, the plan works well.
360AD: Feudalism from a hut. This was another setback, making rushbuys more expensive and increasing the odds that I'll face enemy pikemen later on. But it did allow SunTzu, of course, so I'll save money/time on barracks.
500AD: I'm having a hard time getting to Carthage (the capital) because of the weird map (pls recall I didn't peek or blackclick). But I am picking off some of their small towns and I took 400g for a cease fire.
620BC: Mike's
640BC: Navigation from a hut. Third and last setback. I was making good money off Hides trade with Valencia and this tech cuts trade bonuses badly. Of course, it does allow caravels and Magellan's. Carthage is holding out quite nicely, with walls behind rough terrain (and a river IIRC). I'll make a small posse of diplomats to take the walls down, while gathering crux to finish the job.
760AD: I got tired of the Spanish, who just refused to declare war, so I sneaked them and razed Madrid. I took 4 of their 11 cities this turn. Also got Invention from a hut - good (since I already have Nav, and can now build Leo's).
780AD: "Spanish capital moved to Valencia" Huh!!?? I thought this required the AI to have 1000 gold (and Spain had only 600 or so). Well maybe I have forgotten the rule, or maybe Spain was already building a new capital (???). This is not really so bad, since I have a ship chain to Valencia already, and the Sioux trade to it has not been very profitable after Nav. I built Mag's this turn.
800AD: Leo's... yes - 2 WoWs in 2 turns. After a while (in EC games) one's homeland has not much better to do than build vans for WoWs. I take Valencia and Spain is down to 5 cities.
860AD: Capture Pyr's from Celts. I probably messed around a bit too long with them, not attacking the capital directly, because it was size 9 with walls. But my respawn plan also took some time to set up [eg getting to the Vikings, disbanding Berlin, setting the trap...] so I'm not sure I could have finished much earlier.
880AD: BIG TURN
Berlin self-destructs by building a 2nd Settler. I could have done this a bit faster, but somehow a worker wandered onto a food tile for a few turns and the city grew once by mistake. No real problem though. Now the original respawn zone is empty again and I've started sending all spare crux there to await victims.
Also this turn, Carthage finally drops its walls and falls to the Sioux.
AND I finally found the Vikings and razed Trondhiem (a capture would also have been OK, but I'd prefer to control TWO respawn zones, reducing the odds that a respawn might arise in a totally new location). Unfortunately the Vikngs have built a 2nd city, which I still must find. I'm reluctant to trade maps too often, because making/breaking peace hurts rep, which could cost time later. The other civs also have some undiscovered cities, but I got rather lucky with "nearest city info" and with an unexplained white city tile, and found most of them with no real loss of time.
AND Spain goes down. Yellow returns as the Aztecs, almost exactly as planned, a little north of the ruins of Berlin.
900AD: Aztecs destroyed, return as Egyptians. Egyptians destroyed, return as Egyptians.
920AD: Egyptians destroyed, return as Aztecs. Aztecs destroyed (no more Yellow).
This is how the Anti-Respawn plan is supposed to work... lots of crusaders and boats waiting to kill off fresh victims in 1-2 turns each.
I think that I am not supposed to reveal the conquest date, so I'll just say that Carthage went down in a few more turns, and then the Celts. I had to trade maps with the Celts because I had absolutely no clue where to look for one of their last cities (it was far from the Celt homeland, and just a few tiles from my main ship chain. Total surprise - I never looked for "nearest city" info in that area). There were about 3 or 4 respawns each, of Orange and White, like Yellow, but these did not prolong the game more than 1-2 turns.
Well, I don't know if this was a decent EC game or not. A 1000AD-ish finish seems pretty slow, IIRC, but it was quite a large flat map, and Diety, with restarts and ... well, I hope someone else will post a log and we can compare.
This GOTM was as much fun as I remembered. I played it mainly for practice and didn't take very careful notes. Also, I played the first 100 turns, or so, while on a road trip. I was aiming for Early Conquest, but didn't finish very fast. Maybe I'm rusty, or maybe it was the settings. My luck seemed OK.
2500BC (approx): monarchy
2000BC: 5 cities with 3 settlers (my growth seems a bit slow, but OK).
1800BC: 7 cities, we are at war with France. For some reason, my borrowed laptop crashes whenever I type "b" to found a new city, so I have to use the menu method instead. Also, I didn't realize the dang thing had a mouse until about 1500BC ! So, I couldn't blackclick, etc (and I didn't peek at the map even though it was legal).
1300BC: 10 cities. Start a barracks and a road to Paris.
1000BC: 13 cities. I need pottery for HG soon.
approx 875BC: Marco's, and I soon get all 4 maps - and pottery from Spain. It's not in my notes, but I must have signed a cease fire with France about this time.
525BC: France declares war again and I raze Paris with 2 chariots. I have just gotten polytheism and haven't trained any elephants yet.
400BC: Cels build GL.
250BC: France goes down. Blue resurfaces as the Germans at <188,32>. I begin my patented "Anti-Respawn Plan", to encourage all future respawns to pop up in this same region, where my mounted minions will be waiting....
1AD: 33 cities. Pop 1.1m, Mfg 125, 23adv, approx 45 units. As I recall, my WoWs were MPE, HG and LH. At war with Carthage (after much good tribute).
200AD: It took me so long to reach Berlin that it was size 4 before I could attack it. I had to capture it [or play some clever games that I just didn't think of in time] rather than raze it. Blue respawns as Vikings in the distant SW corner of the map, against my great plan. But after this setback, the plan works well.
360AD: Feudalism from a hut. This was another setback, making rushbuys more expensive and increasing the odds that I'll face enemy pikemen later on. But it did allow SunTzu, of course, so I'll save money/time on barracks.
500AD: I'm having a hard time getting to Carthage (the capital) because of the weird map (pls recall I didn't peek or blackclick). But I am picking off some of their small towns and I took 400g for a cease fire.
620BC: Mike's
640BC: Navigation from a hut. Third and last setback. I was making good money off Hides trade with Valencia and this tech cuts trade bonuses badly. Of course, it does allow caravels and Magellan's. Carthage is holding out quite nicely, with walls behind rough terrain (and a river IIRC). I'll make a small posse of diplomats to take the walls down, while gathering crux to finish the job.
760AD: I got tired of the Spanish, who just refused to declare war, so I sneaked them and razed Madrid. I took 4 of their 11 cities this turn. Also got Invention from a hut - good (since I already have Nav, and can now build Leo's).
780AD: "Spanish capital moved to Valencia" Huh!!?? I thought this required the AI to have 1000 gold (and Spain had only 600 or so). Well maybe I have forgotten the rule, or maybe Spain was already building a new capital (???). This is not really so bad, since I have a ship chain to Valencia already, and the Sioux trade to it has not been very profitable after Nav. I built Mag's this turn.
800AD: Leo's... yes - 2 WoWs in 2 turns. After a while (in EC games) one's homeland has not much better to do than build vans for WoWs. I take Valencia and Spain is down to 5 cities.
860AD: Capture Pyr's from Celts. I probably messed around a bit too long with them, not attacking the capital directly, because it was size 9 with walls. But my respawn plan also took some time to set up [eg getting to the Vikings, disbanding Berlin, setting the trap...] so I'm not sure I could have finished much earlier.
880AD: BIG TURN
Berlin self-destructs by building a 2nd Settler. I could have done this a bit faster, but somehow a worker wandered onto a food tile for a few turns and the city grew once by mistake. No real problem though. Now the original respawn zone is empty again and I've started sending all spare crux there to await victims.
Also this turn, Carthage finally drops its walls and falls to the Sioux.
AND I finally found the Vikings and razed Trondhiem (a capture would also have been OK, but I'd prefer to control TWO respawn zones, reducing the odds that a respawn might arise in a totally new location). Unfortunately the Vikngs have built a 2nd city, which I still must find. I'm reluctant to trade maps too often, because making/breaking peace hurts rep, which could cost time later. The other civs also have some undiscovered cities, but I got rather lucky with "nearest city info" and with an unexplained white city tile, and found most of them with no real loss of time.
AND Spain goes down. Yellow returns as the Aztecs, almost exactly as planned, a little north of the ruins of Berlin.
900AD: Aztecs destroyed, return as Egyptians. Egyptians destroyed, return as Egyptians.
920AD: Egyptians destroyed, return as Aztecs. Aztecs destroyed (no more Yellow).
This is how the Anti-Respawn plan is supposed to work... lots of crusaders and boats waiting to kill off fresh victims in 1-2 turns each.
I think that I am not supposed to reveal the conquest date, so I'll just say that Carthage went down in a few more turns, and then the Celts. I had to trade maps with the Celts because I had absolutely no clue where to look for one of their last cities (it was far from the Celt homeland, and just a few tiles from my main ship chain. Total surprise - I never looked for "nearest city" info in that area). There were about 3 or 4 respawns each, of Orange and White, like Yellow, but these did not prolong the game more than 1-2 turns.
Well, I don't know if this was a decent EC game or not. A 1000AD-ish finish seems pretty slow, IIRC, but it was quite a large flat map, and Diety, with restarts and ... well, I hope someone else will post a log and we can compare.
