GOTM March 2006

[Dack]

o.k.

i thinks it's time to define a goal for all.
space race will (maybe) work if we concentrate on space race
like (hints) written in the

GO FOR ALPHA CENTAURi!
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=113563

but - do anybody want this to be a space race contest?

This game was not meant to be space race contest but one with conquest as the outcome. I see that I misstated at the opening of this thread and made space race a secondary goal. Goals two and three should be reversed. But I guess it is to late for that.


My hints for playing this are as follows:
You should have 15~20 cities.
Go for the educational and happiness wonders.
use diplomats... embassies to keep track of the opposition, steal technologies

Early attack will bog you down and stifle advancements, too late and their space ship will be gone.
I think carriers and nuclear weapons will be needed to destroy capitals of civilizations that launch or are about to launch a space ship.

The Apollo wonder is good for locating capitals.

 

[Pikachu]

o.k.

i thinks it's time to define a goal for all.

The goal is well defined. We are supposed to go for a conquest victory, but not all of us is capable of conquering this world on king level.

I didn’t participate in the space race in my game, but I was unable to stop the ai from doing it, so I lost the game. Fortunately we have secondary goals here, so I can still participate in the competition

I have now edited my last post to make it less confusing.

 

[Irish Caesar]

o.k.

i thinks it's time to define a goal for all.
space race will (maybe) work if we concentrate on space race
but - do anybody want this to be a space race contest?

I thought it was pretty clearly a conquest game...

 

[Zwelgje]

Hey guys. Great idea to do this GOTM. I haven't visited the forums in a while but when I saw this thread I just wanted to join in with the fun!

I'm at 40AD now and it looks that I'm going to win.
It's a tough game though. I first build about 20 cities and kept them real small, only build chariots and diplomats and invaded America. They're gone now and I'm now fighting the Babylonians and Egyptians. They're gonna fall soon. I'm already gathering my troops to take Athens and if that happens then Indians are next. There must be another civ to the south but I haven't encountered them yet.

Here's a little teaser-screenshot.

 

[Zwelgje]

It's not hard but not easy either. Logistics is the hardes part of this game, just getting enough diplomats and troups to the capital, followed by diplomats taking over all other cities...

The Babylonians were quite easy to beat, same for the Egyptians. The Indians should have been harder but they didn't attack my troops while they were circling Delhi, stupid! Finishing things off right now with them.
The Greeks put up a good fight as well but my knightpower was overwhelming for them.
The French will probably be the hardest, they've got a big piece of land and they're incredibly agressive. They whiped out 5 scouting diplomats in one go.

Anyway, update screenshot at 880AD follows below.

 

[Dack]

Hey guys. ...It's a tough game though. I first build about 20 cities and kept them real small, only build chariots and diplomats and invaded America.

I am trying your method I'm up to 300bc. As I review your screen shot I see you have about twenty cities. I have thirteen on my peninsula and three others I started on the American peninsula. Maybe not enough, I see you have yours densely spaced. How small to you keep them? I guess that I'm afraid that I'll meet up with another civilization that further advanced and that will be the end of me. I do have one wonder that I built JS Bach's Cathedral, pickup the Hanging gardens from the Americans but of course a hut gave me "Invention". Been building barracks with the captured cities and selling then to get coins.

Anyway I seem to have the momentum to push over the other civilizations.

Thanks for posting your approach to this game. It is good to get a visit from the a Deity. Lots of laughs.
I am surprised that there is so little kibitzing on the GOTM

It has taken a large toll on my catapults 76 lost so far. You must have used up a whole boat load of chariots. With an attack strength of four, I am impressed.

The Babylonians have a couple of hold out cities that are just eating my catapults. I'm working on the Egyptians now. I've run into some Greeks in the Egyptian area, we'll see what happens.

 

[Zwelgje]

You seem to be doing great Dack! Perhaps even better than I did, I hope you can keep up the momentum.

My tactic is as follows: I build about 20 cities and keep them at size 3. Once I have this, I have also researched the wheel, navigation and literacy(?) so that I can produce chariots, sails and diplomats. At this point I turn tax to the maximum.

Then I find the capital of the enemy and surround it with diplomats and chariots. Mostly, the capitals have a few defenders behind walls and with barracks so it's really hard to beat them. By covering all squares around the capital only the base-square can give a shield to maintain a unit and thus a maximum of 1 unit needs to be destroyed. When city walls and barracks have been destroyed using diplomats, that's quite easy at this level. Many capitals in this game didn't have a shield at the base so after surrounding I could just walk in.

Each attack is performed by up to 30 units.

When the capital is taken I just bribe all other cities as they've become real cheap when the capital is gone. I must say that it gets repetitve after a while. Also I haven't played in quite a while and I had never played the DOS version always windows so I had to adjust a little.

My main frustration at this point is hitting the maximum number of units over and over so I'm leaving quite a few cities undefended. Somehow the barbarians always land near these cities. How surprising...

 

[Zwelgje]

I've finished. Conquered the world in 1190AD. Holding off the french armor with my diplomats and some riflemen I had bribed. Good stuff!
I'll zip the save files tomorrow, it's 4.20 AM here so I'm gonna sleep but I just had to share this with you guys.

Powergraph so that you can see how much I sucked in the beginning and how much I rocked at the end.
Also my military losses to give you an idea how many troops I lost during the game.

 

[Dack]

I've finished. ...military losses to give you an idea how many troops I lost during the game.

Wow! Very impressive. Just wondering what version are you using?
What goverment did you switch to if any?

 

[Zwelgje]

I've upgraded to version 5 prior to doing this game. I stayed in despotism the entire game as it allows you to produce as many units as you want without happiness or shields consequences.

 

[Zwelgje]

I've made a zip file, what now? Submit it here in this thread or submit it to someone who is going to check it?

Spoiler:
Conquest victory at 1190AD, score 1562 (124%).

 

[Dack]

... I stayed in despotism the entire game as it allows you to produce as many units as you want without happiness or shields consequences.

I was hoping you would say that you had stayed in despotism. I have remained there also. I think I have allow my cities to get too big. I'm at 380ad, have over extended my units, out of money (spent a few turns at low tax so I could get Railroad). I think I've lost confidence all my battles just seem to be feeding my troops to the meat grinder. Need to slow the pace of attack and build up sufficient numbers before preceding.

 

[Dack]

I've made a zip file, what now? Submit it here in this thread or submit it to someone who is going to check it?

In my opinion the purpose of this GOTM is 1) have fun. 2) reviewing the strategy others use. 3) sparking discussion on the tactics used.


Submit it here with any descriptions, screen shots that you wish.

Anyone who feels that using this method will spoil it for them self should refrain from reading further until they are ready to post.

Sorry but I'll repeat myself

Entries will consists of a zip file with all auto save games. If 3000bc & 2000bc may be overwritten then rename them Civil2.* and Civil3.*. The move before your last move will be saved as civil0.*. Include your Replay.txt, your year and score.


My reasoning for this is to allow others to review the various stages in game play.

Out of curiosity how many of you are playing?

 

[Zwelgje]

Attached the zipfile with all autosaves and the save in the final turn. Just bribe the french city with the diplo and all ends.
For my tactic it may be nice to look at the 1AD save at the Egyptian situation. The knights have taken part in the Thebes siege and are now moving down towards Athens while the diplomats are spreading out to bribe all other cities. I'm using ferries to shuttle the units from one peninsula to the other. The oceans are only 2 squares wide so with one boat you can shuttle unlimited amounts of units by sentrying the boat each time.

 

[Zwelgje]

I was hoping you would say that you had stayed in despotism. I have remained there also. I think I have allow my cities to get too big. I'm at 380ad, have over extended my units, out of money (spent a few turns at low tax so I could get Railroad). I think I've lost confidence all my battles just seem to be feeding my troops to the meat grinder. Need to slow the pace of attack and build up sufficient numbers before preceding.

At a certain moment you should stop making units in your homeland as they would be travelling way too far for the action. Let your newly conquered cities produce units and let your homeland produce buildings that you sell off when you complete them: no units that can't be finished due to the unitlimit and you get extra money.
Don't bother with making railroads. Once you have a constant stream of units coming you'll never be shorthanded. Take every opportunity to make peace, brake it at the times you need to. AI can be really stupid, I was at peace with the Egyptians, I surrounded Thebes with my diplomats (no consequences), which were later replaced by knights at some places (again no consequences for peace) and Thebes couldn't maintain its units and a knight just walked in.

 

[Zwelgje]

BUMP!

(or in other words: Isn't anybody else playing? )

 

[trada]

I am. I'll finish my game tonight.

 

[Pikachu]

I am playing like crazy, but I haven’t figured out how to win this game yet. I am on my 5th try now, but it isn’t going my way this time either. I will not be able to win before the deadline. May I ask for an extended deadline?

 

[GoldBerg]

the scenario is very interesting / great.

i couldn't resist to overlook it with terraform
before i did start (yes, i am pathetic)

but after ~5 tries
and the small map pictures posted here at thread
everybody else know -anyway-
how the scenario looks like.

it's even hard to win it with 'normal', wellknown cheats...

i will give
the early invasion tactic at american/babylonian landside
like

... ...
I build about 20 cities and keep them at size 3. Once I have this, I have also researched the wheel, navigation and literacy(?) so that I can produce chariots, sails and diplomats. At this point I turn tax to the maximum.

Then I find the capital of the enemy and surround it with diplomats and chariots. Mostly, the capitals have a few defenders behind walls and with barracks so it's really hard to beat them. By covering all squares around the capital only the base-square can give a shield to maintain a unit and thus a maximum of 1 unit needs to be destroyed. When city walls and barracks have been destroyed using diplomats, ...

a try.
but i won't do as good as you guys here anyway,
no matter what ...

 

[Zwelgje]

it's even hard to win it with 'normal', wellknown cheats...

I've used the settler cheat a few times (not more than 10 times) and that's it. So it's quite possible to win without cheating at all.