GOTM115 - Final Spoiler

civ_steve · Aug 28, 2011

GOTM 115 Final Spoiler - Germans, Game Submitted

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Any final spoiler information about how your Germans did?

Raliuven · Aug 28, 2011

Goal - Spaceship Launch

Things slowed down at this point. I finally decided to put France down and when it became clear the AI wasn't learning anything new or useful, I just started robbing them blind. Eventually they DOW on me and I nuked them. Seemed like a fair trade to me. 1550 AD Luanch, not bad but not spectacular either. After moving into the IA in 740 AD I had higher hopes. Plenty of GLs this time! One thing I need to remember is to build a few defenseive fighters when I get flight in a Space game. The AI always DOW on me eventually and they come with bombers and I play catch up for a few rounds before I can overpower their annoying (ant totally useless) bomber campaigns.

IA 740AD - 1285AD
MA 1290AD - 1550AD (Launch)

Summary IA
740 AD - Enter IA, draw steam. Coal already has a road.

Trade Russia into IA and they draw Medicine.

750 AD - GL(6)
760 AD - Newtons builds (GL5). Build Cav Army (GL6). Medicine (trade). GL(7)
780 AD - build Smiths (GL7)
790 AD - Learn Electrictiy
830 AD - Learn SM. Peace with Zulu.
890 AD - Learn AT. Turn off Research. ToE due in 4t.
930 AD - ToE builds. Learn Electronics, Radio.
940 AD - GL(8).
950 AD - Build Hoovers (GL8)
990 AD - Learn RP.
1020 AD - Industrialization. Nationalism (trade)
1060 AD - Corporation
1090 AD - Communism (trade), start gifting out luxurires to help AI with research & gold production.
1110 AD- Learn Refining
1130 AD - GL(9)
1150 AD - Learn Steel
1160 AD - Build US. Build Army (GL9). Leave empty for now.
1190 AD - Learn Combustion
1230 AD - Learn Mass Production
1265 AD - Learn Motors
1285 AD - Sanitation (trade)

Summary MA
1290 AD - Enter MA - Draw Rocketry as Free tech. Load free army with panzers.
1305 AD - Gift Russia into MA - they Draw Fission. Fission (trade)
1310 AD - Zulu DOW Rome
1315 AD - Cature Pyramids in Paris
1320 AD - Build UN. There will be no vote this game!
1325 AD - Capture GW.
1340 AD - learn computers
1345 AD - Russia builds Shakespeare
1365 AD - Free Art (trade)
1370 AD - Build Battlefiled Med. Avignon flips to French. :crazyeye:

1375 AD - Learn Mini, Internet builds.
1390 AD - Orleans flips to French. :crazyeye:

1400 AD - Learn Space. DOW Zulu.
1405 AD - GL(10), French are dead.
1410 AD - SETI (GL10) and Apollo build.
1425 AD - Learn superconductors. GL(11). Zulu are dead.
Computer crashes*
1445 AD - Learn Satellites, build an army from unused Pre-build. Russia DOW on me.
1455 AD - Manhattan builds.
1460 AD - Rome DOW on me for all my generousity. :crazyeye:

1480 AD - Build army. Peace with Russia.
1485 AD - Pentagon builds. Lot of ICBM pre-builds.
1515 AD - Espionage (trade)
1525 AD - Drop first Nuke on Moscow. The Celts DOW on me. Guess I'll have to give up on a UN vote. :lol:

1530 AD - Rush an ICBM just for fun as I won't need it as a pre-build.
1535 AD - Grease Vladivostok & Kiev. I think that'll just about do it for the Russian self-research of techs!
1540 AD - Glass St Petersburg. Rome DOWs on me. :eek:

1550 AD - Launch.

* My computer seriously crashed at the 1425 AD point and the autosave from 1425 AD was corrupt. I had to reload from the 1420 AD save and replay. Everything went pretty much the same, even picking up GL(11). The only real difference is that my battleship promoted elite, which did not happen before.

As this was an undeserved promotion, I sent the elite battleship back to harbor and disbanded it. I then built a new vet battleship to replace the disbanded unit.

Turn Log

Spoiler :

1550 AD - Achieve launch. 24hours, 5 minutes, 20 seconds. Firaxis: 4919. Jason: 7694.

templar_x · Aug 28, 2011

Trying to summarize the little I still know...

around 0bc my war against Rome starts. the FP was built in Tenochtitlan, with a RCP3 around it. not ideal, I know, but as good as this worked out. the single Roman legion i see is beaten, so no GA for Caesar. Entremont with TGLib is taken, and Sun Tzu´s is built, so I myself am in my GA! :-)

with everything fully improved, quite a few towns reach a good production, with 2-turn finishes of troops. the cap even manages 1-turn-horses.

Edit: the first MGL had built the FP, and the second TGLighthouse, when I realized that ships with a longer range could allow a second route of invasion to speed up the conquest. Due to lack of time I am still convinced that I used ships much too little for optimization of transport.

My invasion goes from the east and the west, and Celtia falters quickly. Russia puts up some resistance, Rome does ok. Everyone else was pathetic. I surely should have sent the workers even earlier (too much working in the core, around 0bc there is no jungle left) to build the tactical roads. however, in the end everything is connected well.

conquest victory in 340ad.

templar_x

tR1cKy · Aug 30, 2011

Predator, spoiler to conquest.

First of all, mine is definitely NOT the fastest conquest here. I got plagued by many RNG bad whims, but even with everything gone right, i doubt i would have been able to beat templar's great final date (good job man).

In 800 BC war with Aztecs begins. Stacks move outside 2 enemy cities and the next turn they are captured, but with heavy casualties on my side. With no immediate reinforcements coming, the offensive is stalled until few turns into Republic. The capital city is finally captured in 650 BC, after another heavy blood bath. Without enough troops for a complete assimilation, Germany must sign peace and leave Aztecs play OCC for now.

War with Zulu starts in 530 BC. Once again, two cities at once are targeted. The first falls flawlessly, but the pikeman on the 2nd one takes a heavy toll on the german swordsmen. Meanwhile, Feudalism, Monarchy and Monotheism are bought via trade and reinforcements are sent to the Zulu front.

When the offensive restarts, in 350 BC, a few medinf are there for capturing Zimbabwe, but their performance is abysmal and the pikeman in Zimbabwe ends up in elite status after taking down all of them :mad:

The city is captured anyway, but we're once again short of troops. As if it wasn't enough, the subsequent attack on Bapedi fails, as the last impi is victorious against a swordsman. Here you are, Shaka, a golden age courtesy of Germany.

Bapedi is finally captured in 290 BC. In the same turn, Rome beats Paris in building the Great Library :mad:

So long to an early golden age. Next turn, another city "liberated" and, finally, the 1st leader comes. At least, the 2nd core in former Aztec land can be finally set up.

The struggle goes on as the Aztec OCC is captured and the remaining Zulu cities are traded for peace, leaving Shaka playing OCC in the island city of Mpondo, north of our core continent.

Next target is France. With the past score, i decide to wait until knights are available. The offensive begins in 50 AD. We capture Paris, with Pyramids and also obtain the 2nd leader, that is sent home to rush Sun Tzu. With granaries and barracks everywhere, things seems to be improving, at last. Not so fast, actually, since we start taking big casualties against french pikemen and have, once again, to slow down waiting for reinforcements. The RNG gods are not with me this time

France is finally obliterated in 290 AD.

At this point we sign RoP with Rome and Russia (to be raped later), send reinforcement once again and penetrate in Roman territory. In 370 AD, five roman cities fall at once, including Rome with Great Library. At the same time, the 3rd leader is generated. Next turn, a flow of tecnologies come in, up to Navigation! Rome is left open, lost, and recaptured the same turn as our leader rushes Magellan in our core. Finally, golden age begins.

The last Roman city falls in 460 AD. At this point i'm just a few turns away from Military Tradition and, with Russia having knights and possibly muskets, i decide to wait until cavalries are available. Military Tradition is researched in 490 AD and knights are mass-upgraded immediately. In the same turn, Russia demands something, i tell them to fog off and they declare

The 1st Russian city falls in 500 AD, and the struggle is pretty much over. The RNG gods seem finally satisfied of german blood, and cavalry units overwhelm Russian and Celtic defenders almost too easily. The whole matter is set in 10 mere turns, as i score a conquest victory in 600 AD.

Firaxis score: 8964; Jason score: 10994.

It's been fun to be again into GotMs. Let's see if next month i can be a better competitor.

CKS · Aug 30, 2011

20K in 1852. I didn't expand quickly (or much), so I think I'll get a nice shield this time. I wasn't even the high score in-game.

I never caught up in tech, but the AI let me have a nice set of wonders.
AA: Colossus, Great Library, Hanging Gardens
MA: Bach's, Copernicus's, Newton's
IA: ToE, US, Hoover
MA: UN
Why all the AI decided not to build any of these useful for science or culture wonders, I can't imagine. Russia was the big civ - way ahead in size and techs - and she appeared to be heading for space, so I'd have thought she'd have picked up some of them.

Megalou · Aug 30, 2011

Big disappointment. I aimed for diplo, setting just one 10 shield town aside for military (warriors then swords then, desperately, the guys with the maces) and one for The Great Library. I figured that with the high difficulty level the AI would keep a decent tech pace themselves but the first disappointment was that they didn't, probably because of the meagre map. With cash saved I financed an invasion of Aztecs but I had very bad RNG. Had my dedication been greater, I could perhaps have prepared for that. But my interest in this game is ebbing right now.

DNF.

templar_x · Aug 31, 2011

@ tr1cky - it is incredible how different our spoilers read. your AIs really did some serious research there. :eek:

reading about your game, i feel quite lucky now what seemed to be a bit tough-going when i played myself. the Great Library was much closer for me, there was no settlement on islands (well, that may be minor, i had lots of galleys), i could get to the enemy early enough so that there was no need for better troops than horses/maces.

and of course you played predator. had i known you will i would have chosen predator myself. possibly quite much of the difference lied there.

i definitely did not believe i was especially fast. i used too few workers on the front and thus my units lost speed. that surely has cost me a few turns. otherwise things went quite ok.

great you decided to return for the same game i did.

templar_x

tR1cKy · Sep 3, 2011

Yep! It surprised me too, but it's not the first time i see it happening.

My impression is that there's some pseudo-random factor in the behaviour of the AS that actually comes from what the human player does, even when there's no contact at all. Settle here instead of there, build or research this instead of that, and you have the AS doing slightly different things.

By consequence, different RNG rolls may be generated and different decisions may be taken because of them. In the long run, those subtle changes may either cancel out each other or add up until the general outcome diverge dramatically from what could have been if you had chosen a different opening strategy.

In my case, i had the AS never wage war each other - the only exception being Zulu after being reduced to a wandering settler somewhere that probably walked too much in foreign lands until it was killed a few turns later by someone. Moreover they went tech-frenzy, building libraries and universities everywhere and spending all they could in research, to the point that a diplo o space game could have taken quite an advantage of it.

PaperBeetle · Sep 3, 2011

I wonder if it something to do with barbs? The barbarian player, of course, has very great geographical reach early in the game. So on a turn when he sees only tR1cKy's units, his axes near e.g. the Zulus behave differently than they do on the same turn in Templar's game, when he does not see any human units. Then when the barbs and Zulus come into contact, they are in different relative positions, and react differently. Thus a non-RNG change in human actions has been transfered to a change in AI civ actions.

Più Freddo · Sep 3, 2011

Well, I played predator and happened to trigger domination in 360 AD. I was thinking I'd do a ConDom, which would have been finished in 380 AD if all had gone well, but forgot about some cultural expansions taking place. I actually had been keeping Settlers on hold for two turns. Bummer.

I also forgot to send troops over west to the last peninsula from the first core after I had taken The Great Lighthouse in Entremont. I just didn't think of it.

I researched the last lap from Feudalism to Chivalry and short-rushed rather than disconnecting. I triggered the Golden Age by Leader-rushing Sun Tzu's Art of War after having captured The Great Library.

templar_x · Sep 5, 2011

sounds like a very good game, Piu. can you tell us a bit more about it?

t_x

Lanzelot · Sep 7, 2011

...perhaps I get a UN victory?!

As usual I was running out of time in the end. With just a few seconds left (or so I thought), I made a .sav and submitted an incomplete retired game. Then I played on and six turns later I got the UN. As the submission page was still open (even though according to my clock it was already 22min over the time) I submitted a second .sav with a UN victory at 1560AD. Perhaps Steve accepts that instead of the incomplete one from 1500AD?! :please:

As this game was lots of fun, and as I finally had a decent 20K game going, I finished the game tonight up to it's logical conclusion: 20K in 1776AD.
There were a few setbacks (Moscow snatching the Hanging Gardens a few turns before me, pollution delaying the finish of several wonders...), but it was a good 20K spot and for once I had enough luck with leaders. Originally I wanted to use the second town on the coast as 20K site, but it became obvious that none of the coastal spots would have enough shields, so I used Berlin. In the beginning I had been afraid that on Emperor this would be too risky, but the missing palace prebuild never was a problem.

Here's now my spoiler:

Originally I wanted to play the next COTM, but the Germans (an old favorite of mine...), an apparently pretty good start position and a small map were too good to pass by... Also my fingers were itching to try another 20K, and this position looks like a decent 20K start.

Pre-game thoughts:
First decision to be made: "Open" or "Predator"? I plan to use the militaristic trait and fish for MGLs, therefore this "obstacle" sounded quite useful to me:

The AI get 2 extra bonus Unit Support and an extra Bonus Unit per City (3 instead of 2).

The loss of Bronze Working is not so good for 20K, but hopefully I can trade for it by the time I can build the Colossus. So off we go: Predator!

I open the save and check my rivals. 4 of the 6 start with Warrior Code

So probaply no early trade opportunity. Another difficult decision: what to research? The fastest way out of Despotism is probably a beeline to Monarchy. This would also open up some decent culture builds: early temple, Oracle, Hanging Gardens (all of which are useful to run the 20K city at size 12 without needing too much lux tax). But I don't like Monarchy, and the Alpha->Writing path gives faster access to a cheap library and to the GLib. I guess I do Pottery first and hope to have a clearer picture about my contacts later.

Worker moves to the cow. In order to open up a coastal spot for the 20K town, I move my settler 1W. Looks like this will at the same time allow for an RCP3 later. The tile that Megalou thought could be a floodplain, looks like coast now anyway.

BC builds in Berlin:
3950 Palace
3350 Settler
2750 Temple
1525 The Oracle
1450 Settler
0650 The Great Library
0590 Library
0430 Colosseum
Granary and a few 4-turn settlers
0070 Marketplace

AD builds in Berlin:
380 Leonardo's Workshop (triggers GA)
400 Cathedral
550 Sistine Chapel
560 University
630 Heroic Epic
780 Copernicus's Observatory
930 Shakespeare's Theater
940 JS Bach's Cathedral (MGL)
980 Courthouse
990 Newton's University (MGL)

1000 Smith's Trading Company (MGL)
1255 Universal Suffrage
1260 Factory
1265 Coal Plant (turned out I didn't need it...)
1280 Hospital
1285 Theory of Evolution (MGL)
1295 Bank
1300 Hoover Dam (MGL)
1320 Military Academy
1345 Intelligence Agency
Stock Exchange and two Armies
1425 Wall Street
1445 The Pentagon
1470 Battlefield Medicine
1555 The United Nations
1560 SETI program (MGL)
1565 Research Lab
1615 The Internet
1620 The Manhattan Project (MGL)
1625 Cure for Cancer (MGL)
1630 Longevity (MGL)
1655 Apollo Program
Airport and several Bombers
1715 SAM Missile Defense
1760 Strategic Missile Defense (MGL, surprisingly, this chops off another turn of the end date...!)

Once I had two fully improved cores, I was producing Cavalries and later Panzer and was practically able to generate a leader whenever I needed one...

Attached the final save and pretty detailed notes until 1355...

Più Freddo · Sep 8, 2011

Given the many BGs including the one with the Cattle on it, it was
possible on the capital location (1W?) to have a 6x10 combo factory on
the small map where the 10th shield is corrupted. However, I settled
for a smaller Archer and Settler factory, since there was very little
land left over for the other cities. First builds were Archer, two MP
Warriors and a Granary.

For details of the Ancient Age, see spoiler #1.

3950 BC Found Berlin
2630 BC Found Leipzig
2350 BC Found Hamburg
1950 BC Found Konigsberg
1725 BC Found Frankfurt
1525 BC Found Munich
1525 BC Connect Iron
1075 BC Connect Silks
_950 BC Capture Tenochtitlan with The Oracle
_875 BC Found Heidelburg
_825 BC Found Nuremberg
_825 BC Connect Horses
_800 BC Found Cologne
_775 BC Connect Spices
_750 BC Connect Ivory
_730 BC Found Hannover
_690 BC Connect Gems
_630 BC Build Forbidden Palace
_450 BC Capture Paris with The Great Library

Science:

4000 BC Discover Warrior Code
3400 BC Discover Pottery
2630 BC Discover The Wheel
1830 BC Learn Writing
1830 BC Learn Mysticism
1830 BC Learn Masonry
1830 BC Learn Iron Working Technological parity
1830 BC Learn Bronze Working
1830 BC Discover Horseback Riding
_950 BC Learn Polytheism
_950 BC Learn Mathematics
_950 BC Learn Map Making
_950 BC Learn Code of Laws
_730 BC Learn Literature
_570 BC Discover The Republic
_450 BC Learn Currency
_450 BC Learn Construction
_450 BC Discover Engineering Russia has discovered the same

The initial Archer was eventually sent to deal with the little obstacle.

3200 BC Disperse Barbarian Encampment 1st
3050 BC Disperse Barbarian Encampment 2nd. Still no promotion.
2670 BC Disperse Barbarian Encampment 3rd
2630 BC Disperse Barbarian Encampment 4th. Archer finally Veteran.

Once through, the game could develop.

2470 BC Meet Zululand
2430 BC Meet Aztecs
2310 BC Meet France They buy our contact
2070 BC Meet Russia They buy our contact
1910 BC Meet Celts
1830 BC Meet Rome
1275 BC War Aztecs
1000 BC War Russia War Happiness!
_950 BC Peace Aztecs
_875 BC War Zululand
_670 BC Emerge Great Leader Barbarossa
_670 BC Destroy Zululand
_570 BC Establish Anarchy
_510 BC Establish Republic
_450 BC Enter Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, I did start research towards Chivalry, thinking
the AI wouldn't contribute any more. On the same turn as I discovered
Feudalism, which I wanted also for the Medieval Infantry, Rome bought
it from Russia, so I would have gotten it the next turn from The Great
Library without any research.

430 BC Learn Monarchy
250 BC Discover Feudalism
_70 BC Discover Monotheism
10 AD Discover Chivalry

After having taken most of the Aztecs with Archers and Zululand with
Swordsmen, I mixed in Horsemen when finishing off the French. As I was
preparing for attacking Rome -- I needed to found a coastal city in my
second, previously Aztec, core before I could rush Galleys and ship
troops over, and I also needed to mop up the Aztecs -- the Romans
finished The Great Wall. They were also protected by jungles in the
north. I shipped over Medieval Infantry on several Galleys, took a
coastal city as bridgehead and marched directly on Rome. I find that
is the best way to deal with The Great Wall. By that time Knights
started reinforcing the army. The rest was just moving troops, whereby
I oversaw the possibility to ship troops over directly to Celtic land
and the last peninsula.

After having rushed The Forbidden Palace, Sun Tzu's Art fo War and
Leonardo's Workshop, I used later Great Leaders to rush a Marketplace
and a Knight.

350 BC Destroy France
290 BC Emerge Great Leader Richtoffen
250 BC War Rome
250 BC Destroy Aztecs
230 BC Build Sun Tzu's Art of War
230 BC Enter Golden Age
150 BC Emerge Great Leader Hengest
_50 BC Emerge Great Leader Horsa
_50 AD Build Leonardo's Workshop
_70 AD Connect Dyes
_90 AD Capture Rome with The Pyramids and The Great Wall
170 AD Connect Wines
250 AD Capture Entremont with The Great Lighthouse
280 AD Capture Moscow with The Hanging Gardens
310 AD Flip Minsk
320 AD Flip Yakutsk
330 AD Connect Furs
150 AD Exit Golden Age
170 AD Peace Rome
170 AD War Celts
170 AD War Russia War Happiness!
250 AD Emerge Great Leader Barbarossa
330 AD Destroy Russia
340 AD Domination limit
360 AD Domination victory

GOTM115 - Final Spoiler

civ_steve

Deity

GOTM 115 Final Spoiler - Germans, Game Submitted

Raliuven

Emperor

templar_x

usually walks his talks

tR1cKy

taking over the world

CKS

Deity

Megalou

Money is the currency of fear

templar_x

usually walks his talks

tR1cKy

taking over the world

PaperBeetle

Emperor

Più Freddo

From space, earth is blue

templar_x

usually walks his talks

Lanzelot

Moderator

Più Freddo

From space, earth is blue

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