GOTM117 - Final Spoiler

civ_steve · Nov 17, 2011

GOTM 117 Final Spoiler - Persia, Game Submitted

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OK, this covers all phases of the game. Tell us how you brought this game to an end. How were the AI on the 2nd continent doing? (A couple had some very nice terrain to work with.) How did contact go, and did you go military or later stage?

Raliuven · Nov 21, 2011

I decided on a Space Launch for this game. It was a very enjoyable game though it got a little long towards the end game, but that was more because of my MM obsession than anything. I considered invading the other island but it never materialized.

Middle Ages: 370BC 560AD
Industrial Age: 580AD 1150AD
Modern Age: 1160AD 1345AD

Egypt build the Pyramids and that makes a nice gift when I capture Thebes in 230BC.
10BC GL1 (and only for the game)
130AD Peace with Egypt (OCC)
I try to pick a fight with Gandhi but he wont bite. Finally DOW in 260AD.
270AD Capture Lahore and rush FP. Most of Indias cities have only 1 spear for protection. Gandhi rolls over for my invasion.
400AD DOW Egypt again and finish them off in 410 AD.
460AD Peace with India (OCC). Russia demands contact with China. I laugh at her and hope she will DOW but it doesnt happen.
500AD DOW China.
580AD Enter IA and gift up Germany and Russia. I draw nationalism, Germany Steam, Russia Medicine. That is very nice. Of course the AI stagnates and never researches any IA techs other than Communism (after we reach the Modern Age).
640AD Grab the last GH in Chinese lands. :crazyeye:

670AD - Disband my out of date fleet.
680AD DOW on India.
690AD China destroyed.
700AD India destroyed. No one on the other continent ever meet Egypt, China or India. As far as they all know, Im a very nice neighbor.

Disband almost my entire military.

Towards the end of the fight with the AI, in all three instances, they must have been disbanding units because attackers would appear during the IBT but then be gone on my turn.

I keep up trade with Carthage for wine and fur for the entire game.
760AD start spice trade with Germany that makes them Gracious for the rest of the game. All newly built units are disbanded in the 2nd core to rush builds.

I try to get craft and have ToE, SETI and the Internet all build on the same turn. This does not work but I do grab them all. I maintain a 4t research all through the IA & MA except for AT when I gamble on increasing my research fast enough to drop from 5t to 4t. It doesnt work.

Relations on the other continent didnt really go far. I avoided GPT deals this time but it didnt change anything. The barbarians were pretty brutal on the AI and they maintained a patchwork of cities until the wars started. The Germans start a fight with the Vikings in 920AD. Russia DOWs on Germany in 1070AD. Then Carthage DOW on the Vikings in 1340D. I stayed above the entire mess and everyone on that side was polite or gracious for the entire game. None of the AI really gained ground against the other in spite of the fact that Germany was ages ahead of the Vikings the Vikings didnt even have Chemistry at the end. Other than solidifying their lines, nothing really happened.

Upon entering the Modern Era I gift Germany & Russia up. I drew Ecology. Germany pulled Fission and Russia pulled Computers. Very nice.

I use ToE to grab Mini & lasers.

1345 AD Learn Robotics. Swap build to Stasis Chamber. Build Stasis Chamber. Launch. Win, 26 hours, 25 minutes, 25 seconds. Firaxis Score: 4282. Jason Score: 9507.

Turn Log

Spoiler :

tR1cKy · Nov 27, 2011

variant: no mounted units

I get into the MA in 210 bc, still at war with Egypt. Monotheism is my free pick, with Russia and Germany getting Feudalism and Engineering. So far, nothing bad happened, except for the occasional dud immortal losing against a warrior or an archer.

In the interturn, Germany and Russia trade each other and i get both the techs with the Great Library. At this point, research stops.

In 190 bc, i sign peace with Egypt, extorting 2 cities, and leave them playing OCC for a little while. War is resumed shortly after and their last city is captured in 90 bc. In the very last battle, the 1st leader is generated. It is sent home where it rushes the Forbidden Palace, in a position that, once the capital is moved, is even more productive than the original, because it exploits in full the gem city.

NOTE: this was a bad mistake on my part. I should have used it for Sun Tzu and, therefore, still have a way to move the capital and trigger the golden age even without more leaders. In the situation i am at this point of the game, if i do not get 2 more leaders i am forced to disband the capital and if i do not get at least ONE leader i'm pretty much screwed.

Luckily, i got the leaders i needed and so no harm was done, but it was an unnecessary risk.

With Egypt gone, i prepare to rape India. Four stacks are placed, three of them being all-elite. The dastardly act takes place in 10 ad, with all cities captured, two more elite promotions and the 2nd leader being generated. With the new core already half-formed at the intended distance, the capital can be moved without exploiting the corruption bug.

The leader rushes a palace in Calcutta, which sits naturally at the center of a RCP 5 made of both former Egyptian and Indian cities. How nice from the AS to join forces and set up together my new core in advance so all i had to do was to grab it

From now on, any single attack against India is made with elite units. After a dozen victories, the 3rd leader finally comes. Sun Tzu is rushed and the golden age begins in 90 ad. Research is resumed and with the full power of the two cores pumped by the GA it is possible to keep a four-turns pace and, at the same time, collect the necessary money for a mass-upgrade of galleys:

170ad: Theology
250ad: Education
290ad: Astronomy
330ad: Navigation

Meanwhile, India is vanquished in 150 ad. I get Invention and Monarchy from the GLib but they're of no use for me. Some land is grabbed, productive cities are developed. A few libraries are built, then aqueducts and markets, then boats and immortals.

By the time Navigation is known, two fleets are ready to sail the seas to lay waste on German and Russian territory. The sheer number of immortals is too much for two Regent AS and they're quickly overrun. While i'm still fighting them, i declare on Scandinavia and start taking their cities too.

Germany falls in 480 ad and Russia the turn after. But at this point i realize that once again i've been a little bit too efficient in land-grabbing, as the domination limit is about to be reached. Therefore, the game ends with Scandinavia in OCC and Carthage completely untouched.

The end result is a domination victory in 500 ad, with a Firaxis score of 5895 and a Jason score of 11526.

My army at submission time: 51 workers, 2 pukes, 10 muskets, 12 catapults, 25 caravels and 82 immortals.

Verarde · Nov 27, 2011

Well, this was my first GOTM game ever, and I'm not very good, but I managed to grab an unexpected Domination victory in 1685 AD, with a Firaxis score of 3140 and a Jason score of 6806.

Ran over my continent around 1100 AD or so, DOW'd Russia in the late 1400s, then crushed the Vikes, and left the Germans with an island city in 1680. Was at war with Carthage already. They had a little 3 city encampment right below the Germans, also an MPP with them, Carthage DOW'd me actually, which led to Germany as well, and I wiped out the Germans while on my way to Carthage. The plan was to take my fleet to the Carthage main island after taking out the 3 outposts, but was unnecessary. Used Immortals and Cavalry to great abundance, and was 8 turns away from ToE when I won.

Overall thoughts: In all honesty, this was my best game that I've ever played. Highest score ever, highest end-game ranking (Xerxes the Wise

), quickest win as well. This game has taught me a lot, and I hope to continue to use these GOTMs improve my playing. Already in anticipation for the next one!

Of course, the fact that that was my highest score ever shows that I still have a lot to learn. I plan on playing one more Regent game (the story that I'm doing--link in my sig), then moving on to Monarch.

Raliuven · Nov 28, 2011

@ Verarde -

Congrats on the victory! :high5:

Hope you stick with the GOTM. I think that is a very respectable win and a Jason Score of 6806 is nothing to shake a stick at! The QSC part of the game is also pretty interesting - it is rather enlightening to see what the other players do get an early jump start in the game.

Memento · Nov 29, 2011

100k in 1400ad
Firaxis score: 4358
Jason score: 9532

CKS · Dec 1, 2011

20k in 1816. Nothing remarkable, except that once again I come a smidgen away from winning the turn before. Here I had 19995 cp in 1814.

Più Freddo · Dec 4, 2011

Tried Diplomatic, since time was running short. Reached Modern Times in 890 AD, no one gets Fission. In 930 AD, the vote was inconclusive. The tribes I had reduced through war were Furious and abstained. I guess I should have killed them off instead. No submission. I could have reached Domination around 700 AD. Would have been better and quicker, but still no good, of course.

tR1cKy · Dec 4, 2011

That's unfortunate, man

930 ad would have still been a good date for a diplo win.

In the past i've screwed up more than one game that way, and what i've learned is that in most cases the KISS principle is once again the one to follow. If you want their vote, never attack them. If you attack them, kill them off. For if you let them survive, chances are that they won't vote for you no matter what you do after.

Verarde · Dec 4, 2011

How in the world did you reach the Modern Age in 890 AD?!

Più Freddo · Dec 5, 2011

Verarde said:
How in the world did you reach the Modern Age in 890 AD?!

Four-turn research from The Republic onwards. Bonus technologies at each new era. Two free technologies from timing Theory of Evolution to finish in 890 AD.

Megalou · Dec 5, 2011

Open, diplomatic

Entered Middle ages in 690 BC. I set off my Golden Age on the turn before, arguably 1 turn too early, since I didn't need extra beakers to finish Construction. But the Golden Age was useful. I did the early MA techs in 4 or 5 turns. (I don't understand how Più Freddo could do them all in 4 turns without a GA.) After the GA I did the rest in 4 turns except Chemistry. I drew Monotheism, Germany got Feudalism and Russia eventually got Monotheism too. (I reached the other continent in 610 BC.)

I pushed away the Egyptians in the early MA, but did not get a leader. It made little difference, because there was no worthy FP town in Egypt anyway. The most important gains from Egypt was an RCP6 town and some rather corrupt towns that could take over settler production from Persepolis.

I did get a leader fighting China in the 100s BC, captured Beijing in 70 BC and immediately hurried Forbidden Palace there, dismissing the flip risk because of my huge culture compared to China. Delhi was a better place for the FP, richer in food, but India had iron and my invasion force was no larger than 10-11 immortals and 1 pikeman. I only had one core town with barracks, which built immortals in 3 turns (2 during the GA.) Also, Beijing had the Pyramids.

But cash was a problem. I simply couldn't afford to hurry a harbour to connect the trade network to China. And I was unable to help build enough roads in India. So I kept Beijing and some other Chinese towns in civil disorder for at least 10 turns, so that I could gain commerce from them and avoid starvation. This probaly saved 1-3 turns in the late MA and early IA. Entered IA in 310 AD and drew Steam Power. Germany got Medicine. I did not gift Russia.

In the IA I sent a settler to the other continent who settled on top of incense. Once a worker (for roads) and a harbour was hurried I could trade spices from Germany and had 8 luxes for the rest of the game, with one exception...

In the IA I learned Industrialisation and Electricity in 5 turns and the rest in 4, IIRC. I used TOE to learn Atomic Theory and Electronics - not Radio and Fission. My reasoning behind this was that I had a 37/64 (58%) chance that either I, Russia or Germany would get Fission as a free tech. Unfortunately, when I reached the Modern age in 820 AD, we didn't, so I needed 5 turns to research Fission.

But all of this hardly matters in comparison with my ridiculous mistake. I started the UN prebuild way too late. When I realized this, I tried everything to get another leader, but to no avail. (I had gotten a second leader while chewing up India, but that was long before and that leader was used for Newton's University.) I'm putting thís basic mistake down to fatigue, since I don't have a lot of time to play except late at night.

I took out the Vikings while chasing for the leader and then Germany declared on me as I was mopping up Scandinavia. This created a new problem: Germany was supposed to be my opponent in the election, but if I captured half of Germany in my quest for a leader, Russia would suddenly have a much larger poulation than Germany. Then there would be 4 civs voting, Germany who hated my guts, Russia who would vote for themselves, Carthage who would vote for me and me who would vote for me. It would have been an inconclusive vote. I did not have the resources to eliminate Germany.

A secondary problem was that the loss of spices and incense (Germany had taken my incence town) made it too expensive to maintain WLTK day, which could have saved a couple of turns on the UN.

At this point I was considering going for space instead, which would eradicate the mistake, but that would have taken too much real life time and I would probably be making another mistake right now.

Well, what happened was that I did capture more than half of Germany, without getting a leader. So when there was 1 turn left on UN, I signed for peace and gave almost all the towns back to Germany as well as a few Scandinavian towns. I then won by diplomacy in 930 AD.

Some satisfaction came from the fact that I got >10k jason points. I was 204 tiles from the domination limit before giving the towns to Germany, which put me at 351. It was a fun game, as most diplo games are, but I did get a bit weary from counting beakers and selling my world map 100 times for the necessary extra cash.

Più Freddo · Dec 6, 2011

Megalou said:
I don't understand how Più Freddo could do them all in 4 turns without a GA

By then I had some Libraries. I also had some luck with Leaders and rushed Forbidden Palace, The Pyramids and Palace in Delhi, in that order. Don't know off the top of my head just how early, but it might have helped, I guess.

I captured The Colossus in Thebes a few turns after it was completed and put the FP city on the Gold Hill north of the starting location, which made Thebes a core city at distance 5 once the Palace was jumped. (This was definitely later than the late AA.) Persepolis had gotten a Courthouse before that and helped along bravely in spite of being corrupt. I had War Happiness before I could connect the four luxuries from the other Continent.

In the end I could research Fission in four turns at a surplus without having built The Internet or any Research Lab. It was a killer map for science. At a low difficulty level, of course.

I had to research Steam Power, by the way.

Megalou · Dec 6, 2011

Did you use horsemen to earn so many leaders? I find that horsemen are generally more effective than swordsmen (if somewhat more costly because of their death rate) but the 4 attack points of the immortal is hard to resist.

A bunch of ironies in this our diplomatic duel. Did fatigue play a part in your inconclusive vote as it did in my catastrophic prebuild?

Più Freddo · Dec 7, 2011

Megalou said:
Did you use horsemen to earn so many leaders?

No, Immortals. They were amazing. The rest of the fighting was made with Horsemen until I unfortunately got Riflemen and then Infantry.

Did fatigue play a part in your inconclusive vote as it did in my catastrophic prebuild?

I just never really switched from Space to Diplo except for pre-building Theory of Gravity eight turns earlier. Fatigue? Perhaps one can call it that.

GOTM117 - Final Spoiler

civ_steve

Deity

GOTM 117 Final Spoiler - Persia, Game Submitted

Raliuven

Emperor

tR1cKy

taking over the world

Verarde

Pondering Wearing A Hat

Raliuven

Emperor

Memento

The World is mine

CKS

Deity

Più Freddo

From space, earth is blue

tR1cKy

taking over the world

Verarde

Pondering Wearing A Hat

Più Freddo

From space, earth is blue

Megalou

Money is the currency of fear

Più Freddo

From space, earth is blue

Megalou

Money is the currency of fear

Più Freddo

From space, earth is blue

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