GOTM100 - First Spoiler

[civ_steve]

GOTM 100 - First spoiler, the Ancient Age

Reading Requirements:

1. Must be able to research a Middle Ages Technology.

Posting restrictions

1. Feel free to discuss distant contacts and trades, but be discreet about locations or directions of any AI.
2. No discussion of middle-ages (or later) including resource locations.
3. AS ALWAYS, do not post Spoiler information for ANY other 'X'OTM contest.

How special is this!? The first spoiler coming out just 2 days into the game? So what do you think so far? How do you like the map? Did you take advantage of your UU, or did you hold off to delay a GA? How are the civ contacts coming so far? Meet everyone, or is your view of the world still "limited"? (And did those Polynesians come by early, like I know a human player would?) Have you met the Elites yet, and how are they doing? Plans going OK, or are you going to need a Middle Age Miracle?

 

[Megalou]

Predator Condom Challenge

QSC
13 towns, 2 settlers, 10 workers, 7 warriors, 4 donsigs.

The Polynesians
No, I didn't see those blokes until I was at war with them. Then they started to chase a galley of mine with a group of 5-6 outrigger canoes, which is fine by me because they only have 2 movement points. If the Catamarans show up I will tremble, though.

Bad
I was harrassed by barbs because I wanted to go for a quick granary, building just 2 warriors and a worker before the granary. I lost no worker or settler, but two or three times pillaging took place at the very gates of the CFC Central. I also lost one population point and the connection of wine was delayed.

Too many short sittings late at night. A number of small mistakes occured. And I'm not very happy with the tech choices and trades. I didn't enter the middle ages until 650 BC. That was also the year when I revolted to republic and traded Feudalism and Engineering.

I didn't bother to explore every single tile in our area, because I assumed too early that we were Robinson Crusoes, and so didn't have any contacts until 1450 BC. I saw a few of the jungle tiles to the north pretty soon but I didn't think of the fact that jungle often separates two civs! This was rather grave. I would have liked not to research Map Making myself, as I mentioned in the pre-game discussion. It seems to me that MM is the most reliable trade opportunity of all (if you have contacts) and perhaps the most useful trade opportunity too. But instead I spent 16 turns on MM. I built too few warriors and mostly kept the ones I did build near my borders so they could do MP duty when it was necessary, and it quite often was.

The Great Lighthouse was built far away. I didn't bother to compete for it.

Good
As the AA drew to a close, it seemed pretty clear that I would not have a despotic/anarchic golden age, even though I was at war with GOTM_Staff (as a result of a web of alliances set up to try to gain some much needed war happiness) and was building a road to GOTM_Staff very near their territory, protected by a group of donsigs. The golden age will probably be pretty useful in the early MA. I have 4 libraries and more will be finished soon, as will the FP south of CFC Central.

The charming set-up and the funny town names, although at the moment I don't feel that I am living up to "mine."

Dunno
I chose RCP5 and RCP8. RCP5 is dubious when combined with a settler factory in the capital. Eg two BGs in the capital radius were unused for almost the entire ancient age. But I found it aesthetic and perhaps I can use a good number of powerful cities later on. The fast workers make it easier to avoid working unimproved tiles, which would otherwise be a big risk with RCP5 too.

 

[templar_x]

Predator ConDom Challenge - my ancient age

qsc 1000bc:
15 towns (1st)
46 pop (1st)
1 settlers, 13 workers, 6 reg + 12 vet warriors, 1 galley, 1 archer, 1 donsig, 6 slaves (i think... how can you count them precisely?)
Construction, Currency + Poly missing in AA, 4 turns to Republic
iron to become connected at will
3 grans, 6 rax
contacts with all civs but Greece​

after reading Megalou´s post i feel i may have been lucky with contacts. just after seeing the minimap i decided to send the first warrior north and the second west. this got me early contact with the GOTM staff.

i went for rcp3 again for the 1st ring, my typical dense building style. 2nd ring is not strictly but mostly rcp6.

early moves:
i settle first, then move worker to wheat, start on Pottery @ max

early build order:
warrior-warrior-settler-granary-warrior

initial worker moves:
i+r wheat, m southern bg, i+r fp, m+r bg, m+r bg

i used a spreadsheet again (only for the 2nd time) and this time things worked out as planned.

3750 build 1st warrior, scout north
3550 see wines
3500 build 2nd warrior, scout west
3400 meet Ainwood , trade possible, but i miss only 6 turns into Pot...hm. ok, deal: Mas for Pot+35g (where does he have that money from? barbs already? ugh)
i cannot see i could make Writing in less than 40, so min on that
it seems like the staff is blocking a choke
3300 find incense, so lux should not become too bad
3150 build settler, start granary. will go rcp 3 again and hope that 2 rings will be possible on this map
3000 found 2nd town 2nw1w. builds warrior, then granary
lots of trading going on, ainwood picked up 3 techs in 3 turns
2750 see first hut, find FP wheat and don´t really know how to put it to good use. maybe don´t follow a strict ring pattern?
2710 buy 2 (!) workers from ainwood. he should know better than to give them away in the early game.
SF starts operation in 2510bc
2310 found 3rd town 1e2se on the hill, connecting the wines.
2150 first barbs spotted, found 4th town 2N.
kill one barb and let the second ransack the new town.
1990 2nd granary in
1950 found 5th town 2s1se off the rcp to get more FP into range and for a first coastal town
1870 4-turn worker-and warrior-factory (or 10-turn donsig-and-settler-factory) starts operation, but i have a disorder due to sloppiness. lose 2 units to barbs that already have horses
1790 6th town 1w2sw
1725 Writing in. GOTM Staff must be nearly into it too, as its trade value is low. a very long trading turn brings me nearly all the money in the known world plus all known techs BW, IW, TW, WC, HB, CB and MYST. i have 700+ coins in my pocket and know every civ but two. it seems i am the largest civ. set research to Philo.
1700 i see iron but no horses. hm. buy another worker. establish some embassies.
1675 found 7th town 3ne
1625 buy another worker from a seemingly far away civ. that should mean that we are on one of those pangaea-like 60% water maps.
1575 buy another worker, build 3rd granary
1550 found 8th town by the incense
1525 Madrid finishes Colossus
1475 2-turn WF ready. Egypt has got Maths. found 9th town by the FP wheat. Philo in.
1450 trade Philo for Maths and trade that around.
1400 buy contact with Polynesia, known to only one other civ and very backwards. connect 2nd lux
1375 found 10th town to the east
1350 found 11th town near the iron, 2 civs have CoL
1325 MM around, but despite the many civs it was a “clean” trading round so i cannot trade for it.
1275 manage to get a couple of maps, plus MM in a renewed PD
1250 now get the rest of the maps. well, that´s a huge piece of land. still no sign of the Greeks. i don´t yet see any 1-tile-islands...
1200 12th town
1150 13th town
1100 get Lit from a hut
1050 2nd WF starts operation, 14th town
1025 of all techs, Arabia researches Lit, too, and trades it around a bit
1000 GOTM staff has currency! very strange tech preferences in this game...
Paris builds Pyramids, not the worst possible location
925 Poly known, 2nd hut gives maps, Rep in and immediately revolt
875 connect iron and upgrade most vet warriors
3rd hut gives barbs
825 two civs enter MA, i should have been able to clear all barb camps before.
Construction is known, i trade up for the MA and freely distribute Republic so that the other tribes stop razing cities.
800 staff gets Mono??? i thought they are not scientific?
775 enter Republic

my PD-linked trades did not go exceptionally well, but at least i got WH from Rome already for a while. any other instigated war lasted >20 turns already...

templar_x

 

[templar_x]

regarding civ_steves extra questions:

How special is this!?

well, the choke being blocked by... uhmm, YOU made it quite special. the trading for the other contacts was exceptionally difficult, it took me over an hour to figure out how i could get most out of it (or at least most *i* was able to get out of it) after Writing was learnt.

The first spoiler coming out just 2 days into the game? So what do you think so far? How do you like the map?

as always, a great setup promising an exciting game. large is a little bit time consuming, but well, there´s only one 100th game.

Did you take advantage of your UU, or did you hold off to delay a GA?

i plan on the GA rather early in the middle ages. and lacking horses for probably some more time, my strategy does not involve knights any more. most probably i´ll start some serious research and go until MT or even STEAM. too early to say really.

How are the civ contacts coming so far? Meet everyone, or is your view of the world still "limited"? (And did those Polynesians come by early, like I know a human player would?)

all contacts but Greece who obviously have their own separated island. with regard to our special victory condition, i really hope galleys will still suffice to reach them... i sent out scouting galleys, but they died just to easily to barb vessels until now.
the Polynesians were met with some delay, but until now they appeared as the friendly native. none of their ships seen yet.

Have you met the Elites yet, and how are they doing?

yes, have met them. gave me a shiver however, klarius could do better in this game, his civ is puny. sirpleb won´t have many issues to grow and prosper due to his starting position.

Plans going OK, or are you going to need a Middle Age Miracle?

so far so good. miracles are still always welcome.

templar_x

 

[Megalou]

Greece? They are out there too? That's what I get for being sleepy almost every time I play. But enough with the excuses. It wasn't luck that you met the contacts millenia earlier than me. I'm pretty sure building a settler before the granary in the Central helped you churn out at least one more warrior, maybe 2.

Yes I also tried some alliances and got war happiness from GOTM Staff. I still don't understand how much happiness you get, though. (Can't get into detail on that because it involves MA.) I could have gotten more happiness had I remembered to renegotiate before the AIs requested to renew peace but not alliances. Zzz...

Having thought it over, I'm not sure the Map Making delay affected my game that much. I traded currency, construction, polytheism for republic, plus the two MA techs. (But I had to break an alliance to get both the latter ones, so war happiness will be harder to come by, later.)

Good play, t_x.

 

[Racinante]

6 slaves (i think... how can you count them precisely?)

If you are using CivAssistII, then subtract the number of workers in your military screen from the number in CAII to determine the number of slaves.


QSC 9 towns (5-way tie for 2nd), 17 pop, 6 workers, 2 settlers, 1 donSig, 4 warriors, 5 gold, have met everyone at this point except Greece. Producing 2 barracks, 1 settler (4-turn capital), 6 donsig.

I sent first warrior north and the second south. Missed the isthmus connecting me to the GOTM_Staff and sent both warriors counterclockwise. Researched Writing on minimum, but by the time I met anyone, most had it all ready. Started on Lit, thinking I might get some trade bait for it, but halfway through that research someone finished it and traded it around.

Persia declares war on me, but I never see them. Pick up one town in a peace settlement. Later trades allow me to see world map, Arabia plants two towns on my southern peninsula.

Finally complete Republic, revolt, and trade it around. 4-turn research to complete currency after 6 turns on Construction allow me to enter MA in 10 AD (ouch). Time for war with Arabia to kick them off my land.

At that point I have:

(1st) 21 towns, 239 gold, 76 pop, 38 units (many slaves bought from other cultures). 18 workers, 17 donsig, 3 warrior.
(4th) 225 land

Building 3 barracks, 6 donsig, 3 librarys, 1 market, 7 temples and 1 wall.

4 towns at RCP4, 3 at RCP5, 70 sci, 10 lux,

Not a great start, not sure what the end state will be.

 

[Più Freddo]

If you are using CivAssistII, then subtract the number of workers in your military screen from the number in CAII to determine the number of slaves.

Oh. That is probably easier than looking in the litte box on the bottom of the Military Advisor screen, where you very carefully have to scroll sideways as you count.

 

[Più Freddo]

Predator Condom Challenge

My game seems fairly similar to Megalou's in several aspects. Middle Ages reached in 670 BC after having to self-research Construction. The AI was generally very backwards and refused to trade any bonus MA technology for The Republic. Next step will be to research Feudalism (for monopoly) and trade for Engineering and Monotheism.

I built RPC3 as usual and started a pre-build for The Forbidden Palace as soon as possible. More towns placed RCP5 around this location for a future Palace jump. But on a large map, wastage and corruption are low.


Quick Start Challenge Result

_1 City
12 Towns
_3 Granaries
_2 Barracks
43 Citizens
_2 Luxuries
_2 Settlers
16 Workers
_5 Slaves
11 Warriors
_1 Galley
_2 donsigs Civ Fanatics
11 Contacts
_3 War Happies
Still researching The Republic
4 turns to Forbidden Palace

 

[Megalou]

Middle Ages reached in 670 BC after having to self-research Construction.

I'm sort of hoping that evens things out v/s my 16 turns on Map Making.

_3 War Happies

Well done.

Next step will be to research Feudalism (for monopoly) and trade for Engineering and Monotheism.

I sold out the Polynesians, ie cancelled an alliance with them against Persia and got Engineering and Feudalism for that and the republic. It will make a slight difference if you go for MT. And I will have a harder time getting War Happiness.

 

[Più Freddo]

It will make a slight difference if you go for MT. And I will have a harder time getting War Happiness.

I'm thinking, that a few turns for Chivalry will pay off if Monotheism is for free anyway. We'll see in spoiler number two. The problem at this point appears to be to get hold of Horses using slow troops, rather than the research choices.

The donsigs are brilliant, though.

 

[ThinkTank]

[ 6 slaves (i think... how can you count them precisely?).

If you are using CivAssistII, then subtract the number of workers in your military screen from the number in CAII to determine the number of slaves.

Oh. That is probably easier than looking in the litte box on the bottom of the Military Advisor screen, where you very carefully have to scroll sideways as you count.

You can see the number as is in the Territory screen of CA2 (pic from a modded solo game):

Spoiler :

 

[templar_x]

thanks TT! now you mentioned it i remembered that i once already knew this. i always keep forgetting how powerful CAII is and where i found that specific information the last time.

templar_x

 

[milr]

Had company at home for a good while, so I go a bit of a late start, and haven't been able to swallow it all in a crash session (or a few of same).

I usually play at 'open' level. But the bonus free shot, and the large number of players who said they were taking he predator challenge, led me to conclude that I too should play this one at predator level.
I doubt I will try to conquer the world as you warmongers like to do, but who knows?

I settled in place, and my first warriors reported back to me that an RCP2 looked inviting, and so I made it so. Once the RCP2 skeleton was laid out, I went to work exploring and protecting the rest of our obviously intended territory from barbs, while also building and sending settlers out to establish control of the perimeter. An unexpected arrival of an Arabian settlement vessel in the southwest was foiled by a timely arrival of our own settler, coupled with a blocking action by our warriors and donsigs.

When a second Arabian vessel arrived a few turns later, we were forced to temporarily cede the outermost area to them while we brought up additional warriors, since we did not desire to begin our GA by engaging them with donsigs. Soon after conquering the intruding foreigners we were able to negotiate our way to peace and entry into the MA in 510BC. At least two other civs had reached the MA and had completed Mono.

QSC found us with 83 tiles, 10 cities, 17 citizens, 4 settlers, 4 workers, 15 warriors, and 5 donsigs

In 950BC we completed research on Polytheism, and traded our way to many techs and a world map. Barbs presented no problem, and the Polynesians backward development was beneficial in our efforts to obtain a world map. The 'throat block' dissolved itself when I brought a second warrior up to support my own throat block, so I may be able to settle on that square, which my warrior is now occupying..

I plan to continue RCP2 placement as best I can throughout the empire. My world map is missing one or two CIVs in the Northwest. If I can easily steal or buy some horses, I may pursue a military victory. Otherwise, I'll hold what I have, try to gain technical superiority, and go for a diplomatic victory.

 

[TheHaze]

I will enter the predator condom challenge to see how I can do compared to the really good players.

Not very good at notetaking, I will just put down some basic concepts I followed in the AA
- settled in place, built 3 warrior scouts, granary and then settlers (4 turn settler factory), maybe a worker in between
- I met the GOTM Staff pretty early and had contact with all the world (except for the Greek) in the AA, traded the complete world map as soon as possible to locate horses
- arabs settled on my peninsula but that will obviously have to change
- used rcp 4, not building a foreign palace, hoping for a palace jump with a leader (but that was delayed too long, I am afraid)
- I was the first to republic, immediately revolted and drew 2 (!) turns of anarchy

Future plans:
- war with slow units to get control of horses. I am useless at warring with slow units, so that will be a challenge
- use a donsig to get the golden age in early MA, construct Leonardos
- I have a prebuild going (meant for the GLH) that I delayed to use for Sun Tzus
- research to MT for cavalry
- use the connect / disconnect scheme and conquer the world (evil laughter)

questions by civ_steve
How special is this!?
Great setup, I really appreciate all the effort you guys put into this.

So what do you think so far? How do you like the map?
Sure a special map for Archipelago, resources seem to be really scarce. That is a challenge, but will probably hamper the AIs more than the human players.

Did you take advantage of your UU, or did you hold off to delay a GA?
Held it off for a timely GA.

How are the civ contacts coming so far? Meet everyone, or is your view of the world still "limited"?
Met everyone (until templar_x pointed out that the Greek are in the game, too) ... Full world view

(And did those Polynesians come by early, like I know a human player would?)
They came by fairly early, but are a backwards civ and will not play any role in my game.

Have you met the Elites yet, and how are they doing?
The elites are not doing that well, shame, because I like their town names. Modern elites are in a delicate position geographically, the ancient elites doing slightly better, therefore.

Plans going OK, or are you going to need a Middle Age Miracle?
Plans ok, let's see if I can pull off the simultaneous win (never done that before).

 

[Lanzelot]

I made the 1000BC save a while ago, but when I decided to upload, I noticed the deadline was already over... I also finished the Ancient Age a couple of days ago, but didn't find the time yet to type it all in. However, this being a special game I did take detailed notes with pencil and paper while playing, and here is the timeline:

4000BC
Worker to wheat, didn't see anything better, so settled in place. The F10 screen showed only one civ with Pottery, so I thought the likelihood of getting that in an early trade is about zero, so I started Pottery on max.
3400BC
Meet the GOTM Staff and of course they have Pottery...! Sell them Alphabet + Masonry for Bronze Working + 26g. Did not take Pottery, because my own research of that would still finish before my granary pre-built, so Bronze seemed more useful.
3200BC
Finish Pottery, start Writing.
?
Pop some barbs... Granary finished.
2550BC
First settler goes off the line. For the next time I take turns building a settler in 4 and a worker in 2.
2510BC
Found GOTM Forum 3E of capital. I'm trying to set this up as a second 4-turner by settling the third town 6E on the coast, so that the wheat on floodplain gets into GOTM Forum's city radius.
(Special note for templar_x: I think by settling on the wine hill you missed the chance to get that second settler factory?! I never settle on a wine hill, as I think it wastes a powerful square. And with industrious workers, it shouldn't be a problem to get that hill improved.)
2390BC
Settler. Pop 25g.
2350BC
Connect wine.
2310BC
Something strange happened: we suddenly know the Mongols. Apparently GOTM Staff sold them contact with us... Both of them already know Writing and 7 more contacts!! GOTM Home founded 6E of capital.
2230BC
Settler.
2150BC
Rome now knows us as well. I guess, I just wait until ainwood has sold our contact around to everyone else...
2110BC
Pantheon of Heroes founded.
2030BC
Writing is finished. Establish an embassy in ainwood_abode. Settler. Start on Map Making.
1950BC
Medals Table founded.
1790BC
Buy a worker from GOTM Staff for 6gpt.
1750BC
Settler.
1725BC
Ephtathlete Statue founded.
1675BC
As no more contacts have been coming in lately and I'm hopelessly backward, I decide to start a major trading round. It looks like the tech pace has been quite high for an Emperor game, I'm at least 5 techs behind GOTM Staff, Mongolia and Rome. The cheapest contact is Polynesia, so I guess it is backwards as well and perhaps I can sell them something. Also Rome doesn't know them yet.
Buy contact Polynesia from GOTM Staff for 3gpt.
Sell Polynesia Writing for Warrior Code + 29g
Sell Rome contact Polynesia for contact Ancient Elites + 13g.
Sell Ancient Elites Alphabet + 9g for Wheel + contact Egypt.
Sell Ancient Elites Writing for Horseback Riding + 21g.
Sell Egypt contact Polynesia for contact France.
Sell France Writing + Horseback Riding for Iron Working + Ceremonial Burial + 50g + contact Arabia.
Sell Arabia contact Polynesia + 5g for contact Modern Elites.
Sell Modern Elites contact France + contact Polynesia for contact Spain + contact Persia + 10g.
Sell Persia Horseback Riding + 53g for Mysticism.
Sell Spain Mysticism for 25g.
So that's now 11 contacts out of 13. No one has Map Making yet, so I guess my decision to research that instead of going for Republic directly wasn't too bad. (During the trading round I already started regretting that I went for Map Making first...)
1650BC
Settler.
1625BC
Fastest Finish Award founded. Sell Ancient Elites Iron Working + Ceremonial Burial for a worker.
1600BC
Settler.
1575BC
Barbarian horseman comes out of the fog and kills a worker! Shouldn't have been so careless.
1500BC
Finish Map Making. Start Literature (hoping someone will finish Code of Laws in the meantime). Lowest Score Shield founded. Map Making kicks off the next trading frenzy...
I guess the details might be a bit boring, so here's just a summary: selling Map Making and my World Map gained me Philosophy, contact with Babylon, everybody's World Map, 2 workers and 203g.
1475BC
Sell GOTM Staff updated WM for 31g.
1450BC
Settler.
1425BC
Global Ranking founded.
1400BC
Settler.
1375BC
Arabia finishes Literature first! #$&%!! After I invested already 4 turns into it. I buy it for 198g + 19gpt + WM. Then sell it to GOTM Staff for WM + 79g. Start on Code of Laws. QSC founded.
1350BC
Settler. Rome comes up with two techs in one turn: Code of Laws and Mathematics! Four others including Arabia have Math. Looks like they did some large scale trading as well...
I give Spain Map Making for Mathematics. Then I sell WMs and techs around for all the spare cash in the world that I could get. (I think it was like 200g.) Then buy Code of Laws from Rome for 125g, 23gpt and WM. Sell CoL on to Arabia for 77g and to Spain for a worker.
Finally I declare war on Rome . (I know I'm mean... But I figured this will be the last gpt deal I need in this game, and getting to Republic asap justifies all means... Some may ask, why then did I include the 125g in the deal with Rome? Because they wouldn't sell for a pure gpt-price... Start research on Republic. Around that time two libraries got ready as well, but still Republic took for ever (18 turns). Large Map is quite expensive.
1300BC
Settler.
1275BC
Submit Game and Game Results founded. Incense hooked up.
1250BC
Settler.
1200BC
Settler. SGOTM founded.
1150BC
Settler. Rome knocks at my door and asks for peace?! Generous as I am, I grant it for Hispalis (size 1 town) and 20g...
1125BC
Map Galery founded.
1100BC
Settler.
1075BC
Game Replay founded. Buy a worker from Arabia for WM and 113g.
1050BC
Settler. Jason founded.
1000BC
Settler. Game Stats founded. Demand a town from Babylon, and they give it to us! Never thought that would work on Emperor...! Try the same with Modern Elites, but they won't give one. So we declare war. (We can use them for war happiness fishing later on.)


QSC stats:
19 towns, 50 population, 1 settler, 8 workers, 6 slaves, 4 barracks, 3 granaries, 1 temple, 3 libraries, 9 warriors, 2 donsigs, 16 techs and 4 turns left on Republic (the missing ones: Polytheism, which is already known to 2 civs, Currency, Construction), 2 luxuries, 12 contacts. (Where is Greece?!)


950BC
Settler. Spot Light Games founded. Ancient Elites have a worker, but don't have anything to buy it. So I just extort it...
900BC
Settler. Republic finishes in the interturn. The next major trade feast...
Sell Republic to Spain for Currency, WM, 123g and a worker.
Sell Currency to Persia for Polytheism, 40g and WM.
Sell Currency to Rome, Arabia and Mongolia for WMs and 258g.
Sell Polytheism to France for WM and 77g.
Revolt and draw 6 turns anarchy. Re-roll and get 4 turns this time.
Articles founded.
850BC
Arabia gets Republic from someone?!
825BC
Arabia is first to finish Construction and enters Middle Age. Why didn't they finish it a turn earlier, then I could have traded it for Republic!
pre-800BC interturn
Republic established. Meanwhile I can buy construction from France and enter the Middle Age as well.
Gift up GOTM Staff and they get Engineering, but are not willing to part with it for Rep + Lit + all my gold.
Gift up Persia and they get Monotheism. They would be willing to sell it for the trifle of Literature + Republic + 571g + 46gpt... (I'm surprised, they still accept gpt deals? Must be a bug in the trade reputation system?! Normally, when I'm very careful not to hurt my reputation, no one accepts gpt...) But I don't buy it yet.
Gift up Babylon, who were still 6 techs behind, and they get Engineering as well. Now the price has dropped so much that I can get it for Republic + Literature + 67g + WM. (Buy it from them rather than from GOTM Staff, because GOTM Staff looks much further advanced, so perhaps I can later get something else for my Rep or Lit. Babylon on the other hand is unlikely to come up with anything useful for the rest f the game...)
Go back to Persia and buy Monotheism for Engineering, Literature, Republic and 22gpt.
Start lone scientist on Theology. When I now leave the F1 screen, a defect in my mouse apparently issues two clicks instead of one, and the "exit-X" is exactly on top of the "end-of-turn button"! So this ends the interturn and then the 800BC turn as well... #%&$§§!! I wanted to declare war on Persia right away, as I now need my gpt for upgrading warriors. Good luck that during anarchy I always arrange my cities with taxmen & entertainers, so they don't riot. (I heard somewhere that during riots there's a chance that a city improvement gets destroyed. Can anyone confirm this?) Therefore I did not loose too much commerce/production this turn.


A few comments on the game: Whatta map!! (The ConDoms will have fun with it... BTW: sorry for not joining the challenge, but I had enough Conquests for a while, and as I finally got the medal in GOTM99, I try a bit variety. Have never done 100K in GOTM, only in COTM, where it's easier using Feudalism. So this should be fun.)
The lack of horses will force different strategies than the usual "horseman -> knight -> go visit the neighbors" strategy... Excellent.
I'm planning on a major swordsmen upgrade right now and will ship them over to Arabia, while finishing a road through the jungle towards the GOTM Staff. Don't know yet, though, whether I shouldn't better keep them in the game?! They have been so useful so far, I wouldn't be surprised if civ_steve somehow modified them in a special way?! But their territory is easiest to reach, and for a fast 100K I need it asap. Still it doesn't "feel right" to eliminate our beloved GOTM staff who has been running this competition smoothly for so many years...

The UUs: I didn't meet any yet, and I'm afraid they won't play that much of a role in this game... The AI is notorious for not making the most out of their UUs, and I'll make sure to eliminate the dangerous ones, before they can built theirs in large numbers (or at least take away the necessary resources in time). And I will use mine only later to start a GA after the second core is booming. (That's why I'm using swordsmen for the first war.)

The Elites should be ashamed of themselves... I extorted a worker (and meanwhile also a town) from SirPleb, just by threatening him (If I would try that with the "real guys" I could kiss my ass good-bye...) And klarius looks rather weak as well. (Though he didn't give in to threats yet.)

Lanzelot

 

[templar_x]

(Special note for templar_x: I think by settling on the wine hill you missed the chance to get that second settler factory?! I never settle on a wine hill, as I think it wastes a powerful square. And with industrious workers, it shouldn't be a problem to get that hill improved.)

Lanzelot - you really got me worried for a second. but that hill i mentioned here:

2310 found 3rd town 1e2se on the hill, connecting the wines.

is NOT the wines hill
and yes, i too think that improving it was easy with ind workers. so i even had it prepared so i connected it by settling NEXT TO it.

i think i also mentioned somewhere in my spoiler that i established 3 factories, like you did. the main difference may lie that you optimized your city count and i wanted more population to become workers early so i could crank up production in the core for ConDom.

good luck for your 100k game, it´s a pity not to have you in the extra challenge.

templar_x

 

[Lanzelot]

Lanzelot - you really got me worried for a second. but that hill i mentioned here:

2310 found 3rd town 1e2se on the hill, connecting the wines.

is NOT the wines hill

Ah, sorry, "on the hill" sounded to me like you meant the wines hill...
Obviously I should have known that our current #1 would never do such a thing...

BTW, I just realize that all our starts (Megalou's and Piú Freddo's included) went quite similar, if we count the workers in addition to the settlers/towns. I just put more emphasis on a large number of towns (thought it might be good for 100K), while you others put more emphasis on workers.

 

[templar_x]

Lanzelot - those are indeed very similar results, but you must have been building roads eagerly to get those settlers into place so fast.

regarding the # 1, this has a good sound to it, thank you. but i would not even have known the actual stats if you had not mentioned it. i only found out very recently that this table actually exists

templar_x

 

[Megalou]

I did not build a granary in my wines town because it was so high on food and low on shields in the early phases (before republic and mines on the other hills.) Even though I hardly built anything but settlers in this town I can remember how it grew rapidly anyway, even beyond size 6. It would be interesting to hear a justification for the granary, but I can't be bothered to do any actual calculations myself. Did you let your third granary town take advantage of the flood plains too?

 

[templar_x]

Megalou - check out the actual site OFF THE RIVER i had chosen for that town and you´ll see that there are enough shields for a size 4 to 6 SF.

i even saved another flood plain and built another 1st ring town off the river, and even off the ring. i could post a screenie in a later spoiler or pm it to you, if you want to see how i placed my towns.

templar_x