GOTM59 First Spoiler - Middle Ages

[civ_steve]

GOTM 59 - first spoiler

Hey, it's the 20th! Time to regale your fellow players with tales from your game!


Reading Requirements:

1. Must have nearly complete knowledge of starting and nearby continents (connected by coast) and contact with the civs that started on them or their remains.
2. Must be able to research a Middle Ages Technology.

Posting restrictions

1. No maps showing resources from middle-ages (or later).
2. No discussion of middle-ages (or later).
3. No discussion of any other civs from across the seas (Please!)

How did you fare against this map? (I trust it was more of a challenge than last month's. ) Please share your saga over a horn of ale!

 

[AndySir]

PREDATOR CONQUEST CHALLENGE
(Arrogant fool that I am)

[/URL][/IMG]

This is me limping into the middle ages in 340AD. Settled in place, 100% Sci stright to MM, every city cranking out little but archers and catapults. The better players here don't seem to like catapults much, and after many swearing sessions when my stack of 11 threw rocks harmlessly into the dust I can see why. Just made peace with Greece in that shot, and taken Corinth and the Colossus from the Romans. My archers and catapults are about to start getting attacked by Medieval Infantry, but the continent is mine in another couple of hundred years. Greece perishes, Rome sneaks Vironconium to a censored land.

Foolishly chose to strike Greece first without waiting to see where the Iron was. What sick freak puts Iron on a one tile mountain island anyway?

Game isn't done... I'm sitting at 1080AD but it doesn't look as though I'll be earning any fastest conquest awards. If I manage the conquest at all, it's looking like it's going to be a modern age finish with all the bloody headaches that entails.

 

[civ_steve]

What sick freak puts Iron on a one tile mountain island anyway?

You don't believe that was randomly generated? Actually this was done in an early C3C GOTM as well - the Byzantines I believe.

 

[Chamnix]

Well, I guess I'm in the Predator Conquest Challenge - mainly because I play Predator, and I still need a conquest award. Obviously conquest isn't my strength, so I'm not too optimistic with all the competition, but hopefully I'll learn some things.

After moving the scout north and seeing the wheat in the fog, I decided to settle one north of the start. There were 4-turn settler factories possible in several spots, but I decided one north looked best for RCP 3 (which I ended up not using anyway ).

Normally I would research Alphabet, but based on our rivals, that seemed wasteful. I set research to Ceremonial Burial at 0% and set off looking for huts.

I built a second scout first, then started the granary. I planned out a fast start - since I wasn't going to research right away, and since a warrior to sword upgrade looked very unlikely considering the probable lack of iron, I didn't need money in Despotism. I carefully planned how to get my settler factory going as fast as possible by moving the worker without roading.

It didn't take long to recognize the complete folly of that plan. Alphabet was started at 100% and roads were started about 5 turns in. I ended up using the very unusual (for me) RCP 4 and 6 just because that's what seemed best given where I placed my capital.

I saw a light green border in 3300 BC, but no contact was made for a while. My scouts kept moving back and forth to maximize visibility across the strait - I finally saw a Roman warrior in 2590 BC and a Greek unit in 1870 BC.

In 1910 BC, I completed Writing but elected to hold onto it for a little while to race to Map Making by myself. I continually checked what I could get for Writing. In 1675 BC, the Romans would no longer offer everything they had for Writing, so I traded it to the Greeks for 3 first tier techs and some gold.

In 1450 BC, I completed Map Making and traded it for Masonry, Iron Working, Horseback Riding and World Maps. Surprisingly, iron is not going to be impossible to get. The strategy seems straightforward - take Athens with archers (thanks for not putting it on a hill ), take the Roman iron with horses, and conquer the rest of the world after I find them with knights/zerks.

In 1375 BC, the Romans demanded the right to give me war happiness - I gladly accepted. I established an embassy with Greece to sign them in, but they were already at war so they paid me for an alliance

QSC:

12 towns
34 citizens
1 scout
14 native workers
1 slave
5 regular warriors
4 veteran archers
4 regular galleys

1000 BC (minimap edited to avoid showing where my galleys had been):



In 800 BC, I got my first overseas contact.

In 670 BC, I completed Republic and sold it for the remaining ancient age techs except Currency, Construction, and Monarchy, and picked up maps of the entire known world.

In 470 BC, my 11 archer stack took Athens, and I will start horsemen soon. I traded for Construction and Currency to enter the Middle Ages and started fomenting some overseas wars.

470 BC - entering the Middle Age:

 

[Abegweit]

The better players here don't seem to like catapults much, and after many swearing sessions when my stack of 11 threw rocks harmlessly into the dust I can see why. J

Cats are pretty useless on the attack in vanilla. Big change in c3c.

 

[klarius]

Predator (conquest challenge)
Well I lost somehow a bunch of CivAssist2 autosaves, so don't even know when I entered the MA. I know I researched republic in 670BC revolted for 7 then rerolled 4 turn of anarchy and could soon (?) after buy the missing techs for MA.

But as usual my AA was pretty uneventful. I just settled very densely on our starting island.
First city west, for immediate wheat and river. RCP 3 ring. Outside of that I didn't care and just plopped towns where they fit. Micromanagement was hellish, as I shared the wheat between settler factory and worker factory.
I had 13 towns in 1000BC all on the starting island.

No luck with contact over the strait, so met Greece only with my first Galley in 1425. I bought contact with Rome, maps and a bunch of techs and immediately started a war against Rome with Greek as ally.

Later the alliance was reversed and I tried a little unsuccessful archer adventure in Greece.

But finally I got horses and iron by culture poaching them in Roman land. But these were connected only in MA.

My only foreign acquisition in AA was in lands we aren't supposed to talk about.
As usual I had started massive war action on the other continent (on the very first turn I got contact) and in a peace treaty later I even got a village (which I later had to give up).

Edit:
Screenshot from 690BC shortly before entering MA:

 

[simone76]

I just have a question, is there any way to use the iron on the island?

 

[klarius]

No

 

[AndySir]

I have another question... and I'm worried I might have cheated by taking advantage of the rank corruption exploit. Used a GL to move my palace to the front line of battle on a land we shall not name - intending only to put my core of producing cities where they were needed. Ended up with much lower corruption in the old empire.

Never done anything like this before, as I'm usually a peacemonger. Is it only cheating if you're taking the mick and moving your palace somewhere where it would otherwise be useless? Or am I now disqualified?

 

[Allanc]

i think the rules there so you dont move your palace out into the middle of the sea and get corruption benifits.
As you moved your palace to somewhere tactical then that should be alright.
Its not against the rules to move your palace, thats perfectly legitimate.
However Im no expert on these things.......

 

[AlanH]

I have another question... and I'm worried I might have cheated by taking advantage of the rank corruption exploit. Used a GL to move my palace to the front line of battle on a land we shall not name - intending only to put my core of producing cities where they were needed. Ended up with much lower corruption in the old empire.

Never done anything like this before, as I'm usually a peacemonger. Is it only cheating if you're taking the mick and moving your palace somewhere where it would otherwise be useless? Or am I now disqualified?

You can only move your palace to another location if you have a significant number of towns around it as a core. "Significant" has been ruled as meaning OCN/2, which for this map is 6, I think. Moving it to any isolated location is not permitted, regaardless of whether it's in the sea.

 

[civ_steve]

AndySir - I think you should finish your game and the staff will determine whether it takes advantage of the Rank Corruption Bug or not. AlanH has posted the general guideline where the Palace can be jumped and it will not be considered taking advantage of the bug.

 

[Htadus]

4000BC Worker to game. Scout to Lake. Settler to N.
3950BC Scout see a cow but too many turns will be lost. Founded Nidaros next to lake. Going for MM. Start MP.
3800BC Scout find NW end of island.
3750BC MP>MP
3650BC Worker road cow.
3550BC MP>Worker. Scout find another cow.
3400BC Worker>Grainary.
3050BC Workers completed game chop. Start mine.
3000BC Just npted our first victim... Light green border on the island to the north.
2590BC Learn Alpha. Start Writing. Grainary>Settler
2350BC Settler>Worker Settler to settle gold hill.
2310BC Switch worker to Rax since the worker will chop a forrest next turn. Connect lux.
2270BC Rex>Settler.
2230BC Founded Bjoergvin on gold hill to north. S:War.
2070BC Settler>Settler. Send both war tp escort settler since there is a barb out there.
2030BC Bjoer:War>Grain.
1990BC Founded Oslo. S:Rax
1910BC Nida:Settler>Settler
1830BC Founded Stockholm next to cow to east.S:War.
1750BC Nida:Settler>War
1700BC Nida:Wat>War
1675BC Founded Uppsala. S:Rax
1650BC Learned to write and start MM.
1550BC Nida:Settler>Settler
1450BC Meet Alex. He will only offer 10g for pot. Nida:Settler>Settler
1375BC Alex has 20g so we trade pot to him.
1350BC Alex sell contact to Ceasar and we trade writing +33g+2gpt for CB+BW+The wheel. Do not see any horses.
1300BC Nida:Settler>War
1275BC Nida:War>Settler. Oslo Archer>Archer. Founded Jönköping. S:Rax
1200BC Learned MM and do not trade. Founded Norrköping. Start temple. Changed most of the bilds to Galleys.
1175BC Rush Galley in Link.Nida:Settler>Settler
1100BC Learned Philo and start CoL.

1000BC Traded MM to Rome for IW+HBR+33g+TMap. Trade Philo and MM to alex for Myst+Mason+62g. Traded Philo to Rome for WMap.

QSC DATA
9 cities
2 settlers (on or its way to land to west)
22 citizens
7 Workers
1 scout
7 warriors
3 Archers
1 spear
3 Galleys.
CoL in 15 turns. Need math, Poly, Const, Currency, Lit and govs.

Stategy: Just saw an unclaimed iron in Roman terratory Going to take one Settler and 3 units to claim it.

IBT France build Pyramids??????

950 BC Founded Västerås on the landmass to the west.
750 BC Founded Malmö and Örebro on the landmass to the west. Founded Qitaimjorg to secure the only iron on Greco-Roman Continent .
710 BC Learned CoL. We are going the Cat route. Math in 6 turns.
[B]590 BC Learned Math and Start Construction.
450 BC[/B] WE Declare on Rome.
430 BC Rome is ours.
410 BC Galley cross the ocean to the east near Greace.
350 BC Last turn lost 4 archers to a single spear. Meet Joan. Trade contact w/Greeks for 32g and Contact w/Spain. The process continued untill we met all civs and got all the gold, techs and Maps.
250 BC LAst turn we sold Republic to Greece and when they are in Anarchy we declared on them.
180 BC Learned Currency and entered Middle Age.

 

[Niklas]

I can't believe how badly I screwed up. Not in the game, I was doing fine... until I realised with a shock I had been playing some 50 turns in C3C!

No way I can go back a play in PtW, I'm far too spoilered already, so no predator challenge for me this time around...

 

[Più Freddo]

Predator Conquest Challenge

Sent the Scout northwards and discovered Wheat in the fog. Settled
Nidaros W of the starting position and took a fast science road
towards the four-turn Settler factory. I took advantage of the
information about the starting location, which was coded in the
conquest-class bonus configuration: Archer, Gold, Galley: a hutless,
ironless, horseless island.

Worker actions: road Wheat, irrigate Wheat, road BG, mine BG, road BG,
cut Game forest.

Capital build order: Wealth (one turn), Warrior (3600 BC), Granary
(2900 BC) just before growth to five citizens, Settler (2710 BC),
Worker (2630 BC), Warrior (2550 BC), Settler (2390 BC) which received
the timber of the Game Forest. Game irrigated and shared with
Bjoergvin from 1750 BC, before that it was mined. Four-turn operation
from the third Settler (2110 BC) until the end of the Ancient Ages.

3950 BC Found Nidaros (1 turn)
2630 BC Found Bjoergvin (27)
2630 BC Connect Spices
2270 BC Found Oslo (9)
2030 BC Found Stockholm just in front of the first barbarian (6)
1830 BC Found Uppsala (5)
1725 BC Found Linköping (3)
1550 BC Found Göteborg (7)
1525 BC Found Jönköping (1)
1475 BC Found Norrköping (2)
1375 BC Found Västerås (4)
1300 BC Found Kalmar (3)
1225 BC Found Malmö (3)
1200 BC Found Örebro (1)
1075 BC Found Qitaimjorg (5)
975 BC Found DaveMcWorgborg (4)
775 BC Found Snagarst (8)
775 BC Found Lund (0)
690 BC Found Falun (4)​

At 1000 BC, I had

14 cities
34 citizens
2 contacts
1 settler
7 workers
10 warriors
5 archers
2 galleys​

I researched at maximum towards Map Making and ended up buying
Alphabet from the Greek one turn before discovering it myself. Soon
took the scientific lead of the three local civilizations. Eventually
suicided over to the other side and met the rest and learned from them
the remaining Ancient Age technologies. My trading chips were my World
Map, my two Contacts and Currency. Will discover The Republic on the
next turn (610 BC).

2850 BC Meet Greece
2850 BC Learn Alphabet
2550 BC Meet Rome
2110 BC Discover Writing (41 turns)
1870 BC Learn The Wheel
1870 BC Learn Ceremonial Burial
1870 BC Learn Bronze Working
1600 BC Learn Mysticism
1600 BC Learn Iron Working
1600 BC Discover Map Making (15)
1350 BC Discover Literature (10)
1250 BC Learn Philosophy
1225 BC Learn Horseback Riding
1100 BC Discover Mathematics (10)
875 BC Learn Code of Laws
875 BC Discover Currency (9)
630 BC Meet Spain
630 BC Meet Korea
630 BC Meet India
630 BC Meet France
630 BC Meet England
630 BC Enter Middle Ages​

Still havent enganged in any warfare. Have a city close to the Roman
Iron, where I plan to cash rush improvements in preparation for taking
the Iron. Am handbuilding Forbidden Palace in Bjoergvin in preparation
for a Palace Jump to an AI capital. Both rings, of distances 3 and 6
from Nidaros, will then be within distance 5 from the FP.

 

[Taxpayer'sMoney]

PTW Predator Conquest (No) Challenge

I'm no good at military VCs, in fact I very rarely finish a gotm/cotm. Principally because I quit when I realise that I'm so far behind the pace of the rest of you guys (I'm easily demoralised).

I have reached the medieval towards the end of the BCs. I settled next to the wheat and game and completely failed to set up anything like a settler factory. I concentrated on producing vet archers, researching to map making and starting an early (for me!) war. So I dowed on Greece, dumped 18 archers on their doorstep and took Athens. Next Corinth fell, before I took another town and then settled for peace + 2 towns + construction + the contents of their treasury. Next I will sail north to attempt to take Rome with my archer stack, and my freshly acquired horses. After I acquire iron from the generous Romans I'll hope to bring fresh carnage to continents new...

 

[Abegweit]

Deleted. Pointless.