GOTM66 - Game Submitted

[civ_steve]

GOTM 66 Final Spoiler

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Tell us how it ends! (If you haven't already) Did your Celts overcome their aggressive tendencies to reach the Stars or hold a UN vote? Or was it over much earlier than this?

 

[denyd]

All done - 100K Victory in 1610 - Very peaceful game, with only 1 brief war with Russia (my infantrymen killed the invading archer & MDI) - Got to the chokepoint first - Trantor (capital) was a 4-turn settler factory for all of the BC period - Every city had a library & temple, most had a cathedral - Built Internet in mid-1500's to push CPT beyond 1000 - Very small military (6 warriors, 2 archers & 2 horsemen) until Replaceable Parts

I'll post additional details later

 

[PrinceMyshkin]

Predator Diplomatic Victory 1300AD

Upon entering the IA I traded Russia up and they got nationalism. I didn't trade Greece up since I was still getting ready for war with them. Research time for steam was 6 turns which would become 5 with a little growth. Electricity was also five turns and was discovered in 860AD. Replaceable parts was next to speed up my workers and was also five turns. Since Greece was still unknown to the other continent, I took the time to set up a ROP-rape on them. I kicked off my GA in 890AD, capturing Sun-Tzu's and half of their cities on the first turn, while researching industrialism. When that was complete in 950AD, I made a short peace with Greece for some of their smaller cities and traded them up to the IA. I got lucky and they got medicine which I traded for and started research on scientific method. I immediately redeclared on Greece to hide my crime from the other continent, and they were destroyed in 980AD. I got two leaders in this war, one rushing Newton's in Entremont in 930AD and the other making a cav army. Most of my GS's had died in the attack and I only had 22 cavs and three galleons, but production was strong and this would quickly change as I was building a number of factories in my core.

Here's a screenshot of my empire in 1000AD:


I continued to settle the rest of continent and rushed temples in Greece to get more territory and started shipping my forces to the other continent. Research was four-turns for the rest of the IA except for atomic theory which took five. By now I was able to trade for seven luxuries with the other continent. Russia also was supplying a large amount of gpt for techs, which kept me in the black for the rest of the IA. Since Arabia and the Aztecs were weak I signed ma's with all civs except Russia, capturing all their territory by 1140AD. Two leader's in this war rushed Magellan's and Universal Sufferage to any wonder cascades and provide culture for more territory on the other continent. Sistine Chapel and Hoover's Dam were completed in my core in 1160AD.

I was still about 400 tiles from the dom. limit and a culture victory would only occur just before 1800AD. Russia was giving me about 330 gpt which I needed to keep research high. I finally decided to go for diplo at this point, rather than slow my research or attack other civs whose votes I needed against either Carthage or Russia as my UN oppenent. Pre-builds for the ToE and the Palace were arranged to complete one tech away from the modern age, while I continued to send forces to the other continent just in case. I signed MP's with everyone except Russia, but no wars were ever declared by any civ on the other continent. Flight was researched in 1300AD as the ToE completed, and my free techs were radio and fission. The palace pre-build was switched to the UN from the big picture screen and the vote was 4-1 against Catherine for diplo victory in 1300AD. Firaxis score was 3926 and Jason score was just under 9000 as I never got a confirmation e-mail to remind me of the score upon submission. I still haven't quite got used to the tech pace in PtW, as specialists aren't as useful as in conquests, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. I also need to learn more about the usefulness of Palace jumps, which I rarely need in conquests.

 

[Quintillus]

Domination Victory in 1958.

I peacefully expanded but fell behind technologically until the 400s AD. In that century I grabbed an undefended city from Greece, securing me a territory advantage on my continent, and began a quick, lossless campaign to destroy the Roman colonies that had been built after they finished the Lighthouse.

I built the Great Library around this time, and until about the 1100s kept my research at 0%, accumulating over 5000 gold. With this stockpile I was able to both finish the Middle Ages at 4 turns per tech and keep my military modern at the same time. This tech rate allowed me to enter Industrial in 1495 (quite good for me) while still having Monarchy as the government.

After industrializing, I invaded Greece in the 1700s. The campaign was bloody, but after several decades I was dominating the war. By the end of that war, I had infantry.

On the other continent, war had been raging from about 1700 on, and after a period of Soviet predominance, Carthage had become powerful enough to dominate. In the 1850s I invaded and defeated a heavy counterattack, and built up on the coasts until in 1916 I took Carthage itself. Thereafter it was only a matter of time until I won. The Soviets didn't turn against me in time to stop me, and when they did it only resulted in my victory coming sooner. In the end, Arabia and Iroquois were conquered by other AI's, Carthage and Greece (on the island off the other continent) ended with one city, and Russia and Aztecs ended with four cities apiece. Rome, the only rival with territory, languished in the early industrial age while I had tanks and bombers conquering the world.

By my standards, this was a pretty good victory. I've never finished as early as the two above (1876ish spaceship is earliest), so 1958 was a good finish year. It's one of my few military victories - I'm usually more peaceful. The major mistake I made was waiting too long to take out Greece - once I finally did move against them, they were ready to defend and only production won the war.

 

[dojoboy]

Space Race victory in 1984.

Here is my obnoxiously long report. I got caught up into too many wars later in the game. I forgot how annoy WW was in the Civ3 series. This was my first game of Civ3 in a while. Enjoyed it.



1150 BC - Contact made w/ Alexander of Greece; trade CoL, Philosophy, & 20g to him for BW, Masonry, & Mysticism;

610 BC - Traded Republic to Alexander for The Wheel & Pottery + 58g;

150 AD - 2 Barbarian uprisings; lose settler;

170 AD - Contact made w/ Catherine (Russia), Abu Bakr (Arabia), Caesar (Rome), Hannibal (Carthage), Montezuma (Azteca), & Hiawatha (Iroquois) through trades; trade communication w/ Greece for techs (literature, Polytheism, & Currency); enter Middle Ages;

210 AD - Excuse me, I need to deal w/ 3 different barbarian uprisings at the moment;

100 AD - Greeks declared war on me, moving forces;

1110 AD - Gift Nemausus to Rome, because Greece would've captured it on the next turn; since Rome was my first target (they settled four cities in the southeast region), I will retake it when I do war w/ them;

1120 AD - Razed Halicarnassus (captured 1 worker) to my immediate north;

1130 AD - Established embassies w/ Cartage, Russia, & Iroquois; Signed alliances v. Greeks w/ Russia & Iroquois for a tech each;

1140 AD - Razed Marathon;

1150 AD - Established embassy w/ Rome & signed RoP; Gave Rome Education for alliance against the Greeks;

IBT - Greeks captured Monguntiacum & Nemausus from Rome;

1160 AD - Regained control of Monguntiacum; victorious elite Gallic swordsman propels me into GA;

1170 AD - Signed peace treaty w/ Greeks, gaining only 19 gold - he had a edge on me after my initial wave of knights were killed or weakened, plus the front is nearer his productive center (re: reinforcement); angered those I brought into the alliance, but... ;

1220 AD - Trade MT to Montezuma for Astronomy + gold +wm;

1230 AD - Catherine declared war after unsuccessful attempt to extort MT; Established embassy w/ Arabia;

1305 AD - Signed peace treaty w/ Catherine; traded Physics to Hannibal for Navigation & Music Theory; traded Navigation to Alexander for Printing Press;

1335 AD - Declared war on Rome; captured Syracuse, Caesaraugusta, and Brundisium;

1340 AD - Captured Byzantium;

1345 AD - Discovered Magnetism; traded ToG to Hannibal for Banking = entered Industrial Age;

1355 AD - Signed peace treaty w/ Rome, gaining some gold;

1590 AD - Declared war on Arabia; captured Najran & Mecca;

1595 AD - Captured Damascus;

1600 AD - Captured Baghdad;

1610 AD - Captured Kufah, Arabia destroyed!

1650 AD - Built ToE, grabbed Atomic Theory & Electronics;

1756 AD - Rome declared war on me; an MPP w/ Russia is triggered - Catherine declares war on Rome;

IBT - Aztecs declare war on Rome (had MPP w/ Russia);

1764 AD - Captured Ravenna & Antium;

1778 AD - Built Hoover Dam in Mohacs;

1782 AD - Captured Veii;

1786 AD - Captured Viroconium & Lutetia;

1794 AD - Rome destroyed, Catherine captured Caesar's last city

IBT - Iroquois declared war on me; Russia declared war on Iroquois, honoring our MPP; Iroquois capture Baghdad;

1798 AD - Baghdad recaptured;

1800 AD - Captured Hispalis;

1804 AD - Built Wall Street in Verulamium;

1808 AD - Augustodurum b. Intelligence Agency;

1824 AD - Captured Grand River; traded Motorized Transportation to Hannibal for Flight - entered Modern Era;

1826 AD - Captured Cattaraugus, generated first Great General;

1830 AD - Captured Salamanca (Oracle & Hanging Gardens); captured Tonawanda - Iroquois destroyed;

1906 AD - Declared war on the Aztecs, which broke a trade deal, but the Russians were on the verge of capturing Montezuma's remaining cities - didn't want Catherine to gain points; captured Teotihuacan & Calixtlahuaca;

1910 AD - Captured Texcoco;

1912 AD - Captured Tenochtitlan (Great Library, Pyramids, & Colossus);

IBT - Lost Texcoco to culture flip (lost tank army); built Battlefield Medicine in Coritanorum;

1914 AD - Built Battlefield Medicine in Coritanorum;

IBT - Carthage declared war on me; lost Tonawanda, Cattaraugus, & Salamanca;

1916 AD - Traded Space FLight to Russia for alliance v. Carthage (received 70+ gpt); traded Ecology to Greece for alliance v. Carthage (received 46 gpt); generated Great Leader while razing Texcoco;

IBT - Aztecs destroyed by Russia;

1922 AD - Recaptured Cattaraugus, destroying 6 Carthaginian bombers;

1924 AD - Recaptured Tonawanda;

1930 AD - Captured Oil Springs;

1936 AD - Captured Nora; Tactical nuke launched from Nuclear Sub detonated atop Carthage; signed peace treaty - receiving 486g & 9gpt + wm; WW was killing me;

1942 AD - Russians declared war on me (refused extortion attempt for wines); lost Veii, razed Arausio, lost Teotihuacan;

1944 AD - Captured Akwesasne;

IBT - Lost Damascus;

1946 AD - Captured Rome (Great Lighthouse) & Niagara Falls;

1948 AD - Captured Riga, Pisae, & Allegheny;

IBT - Lost Riga;

1952 AD - Captured Mauch Chunk (destroyed 3 bombers, captured worker);

1953 AD - Recaptured Damascus; captured Neapolis; destroyed Centralia;

1954 AD - Nuked Moscow, Greeks declare war on me; Nuked the Greek city of Nemausus (formerly a Celt village ages ago); captured Nemausus; captured Novgorod;

IBT - Greece nuked Syracuse & Lugdunum;

1955 AD - Captured Medina, Dnepropetrovsk, Kufah, & Riga;

1960 AD - Captured Brempalonica; signed peace treaty w/ Greece, gaining a measly 12g;

1984 AD - Space Race victory; Brennus the Strong;

 

[ionimplant]

Game: Classic GOTM 66
Date submitted: 2007-05-08
Your name: ionimplant
Software Version: PtW 1.27f for Windows
Entry class: Open
Game status: Cultural 20K Victory for Celts
Game date: 1778 AD
Firaxis score: 3482
Jason score: 6407
Time played: 37:22:00


Open class, 20K culture victory. Achieved in 1778 AD.
Started the game with 2 warriors and a granary. Found the 4-cow site and decided to get the 20k city there. It’s ring 6 but should be fine corruption-wise. I was hoping to fish for great leaders but obviously it didn’t work.

Missed two culture-rich wonders – Oracle (fortunately has the pyramid as a fallback) and Colossus (well, I cannot build it in the 20K city anyway). But these two wonders, together with the SunZi’s art of War and Leonardo’s workshop are the only ones that are located outside my 20k city at the end of the game.
With the 4-cow, I did not even need to do much worker-joining to get the 20K city into shape. It built all the wonders brick by brick until I reached the middle age. A ring 5 and 8 cities were quickly set-up for fast research and the future leader-farming.

The war against Greece started when I got chivalry. The first leader became an army so that I could get the heroic epic. After that, leaders started to come in always at the right moment when my research allowed a new wonder to be built. Before long, the units from Greece were not enough for the leader farming and I started the farming in the other continent. The whole game has always been under control. And the minimal loss I suffered helped a lot in war weariness. I was at war with everyone except Carthage for the most of the game and 10% luxury was usually enough to keep my citizens happy. On several occasions I was counting how many elite victory I needed to get a leader. There were about 5 times when I needed between 10-20 and there were also like four times when I got a leader with the first 5 elite victory.

Finally the 20K was achieved in 1778. quite a late date compared to previous GOTM results. Not having the Colossus and the Oracle hurts a bit. But I am not sure why it’s so late and how to improve, as i felt my leader luck was pretty good after the middle age.

 

[Wotan]

Cultural 100K
Pretty peaceful expansion at first. Rings at 4 and 7. Entremont produced settlers up until the very late stages of the game. Researched first to Navigation, then to MT at almost continuous 4 turn pace. then lowered research until roughly 30 HMs were upgraded. Swift war on Greece taking most of their lands in a few turns. Peace for their Size 1 towns and finally captured the last few. 2 leaders appeared during this war, the first rushed the FP in Athens the second rushed a GW, cannot remember which. These where the only Leaders I managed to get had 30+ attacks with Elites later on the other continent without any additional leaders.

Period of ICSing the continent and when I ran out of locations I got bored and decided to attack the other continent. I had stopped research after industrialisation and generated from 500 gold per turn up to roughly 700 gpt at the end of the game. Rushed Temples, Cathedrals and libraries everywhere and built unis in productive locations. Coloseums rushed occationally.

Landed 30+ Cavalry next to most Arab locations and they were basically gone in two turns. A single location in the south required a Galleon to make the passage with 4 Cavalry before they where finally gone. Immediately after the Aztec mainland was captuered I DoWed Russia and grabbed all their mainland holdings in two turns (maybe 3?). Peace and turn focus on Aztecs. I waited the full 20 turns before attacking Russia's remaining 4 towns on the island to the NE. Aztecs was gaone in a few turns the town on the island NE and a small location on the peninsula in the north extended the war for an addiional turn. It was over in 4 or 5 turns. Now 15 turns of calm while ICSing the new territories. Final assault on Russia's remaining towns during a two turn war. Not a single Leader on this continent... End of hostilities and I now controlled land just below the domination limit. ICSing and rushing culture until 1515 when I went past 100000.

Total number of cities: 217.
18 tiles from domination.
1563 cpt
Low Jason: 8770 Earlier warfare to quickly push to the domination limit would normally be my choice and also would have ended the game much earlier but I really tried to be peaceful this game. First plan was to go without any DOW at all but that was just too boring.

 

[DBear]

Learn republic in 30, revolt. Build Tara on the east coast in 190, my planned FP city. I have rings at 4, 7, and 11. At the same time I get the lighthouse.
I declare war on Greece in 330, and kick off the GA next turn. I soon get a leader and have him rush the FP. I wipe out the Greeks by 940 and colonize the north, but it is slow going. I secure the win by going on lone scientist research after I get cavs. I then conquer the Romans and Arabs, knock the Aztecs to one inland city, and take western Iroquois.

Domination in 1475, 3562 Firaxis, 7527 Jason. Disappointing, I wanted a pre-1000 date, but it just took too long to colonize the north.

 

[Andronicus]

100k victory in 1350AD
Jason just under 10000
99+ hours (well I did leave the computer on overnight once, but that was only 4 or 5 hours)

Ancient Age
Settled in place -> warrior, granary, worker, warrior, worker, settlers
RCP 3, 6 and 9
Met Greece 1650BC, same year learnt MM - gifted him techs hoping he would help research (he did - got BW, IW, mason, wheel, HBR and myst from him)
Republic 1050BC - revoted immed
GLH built 750BC (wasted really since my invasion of other continent didnt start till I had galleons)
Pyramids built 570BC
1000BC stats
15 towns, 33pop
2 granaries
12 workers, 1 settler, 5 warriors, 10 archers

My empire at 1000BC



Middle Ages
Poly researched 490BC -> middle ages, Greece gifted up, got feud, I researched mono then swapped
290BC suicide galley contacts other continent (didnt find the safe GLH route till later)
270BC complete FP in 1st ring - ready for later palace shift
250BC Chivalry and prepare to take Greek lands
230BC trade for all contacts and maps - sponsor some overseas wars
370BC sneak attack Greece, eventually eliminate 520AD after waiting forlornly for their last 3 cities to complete wonder builds (realised HG no use as about to research steam)
GA started in 370BC with gallic victory (first lost, I didnt build many - predominantly fought all wars with knights). GA sped research through middle ages with healthy profit.
Got 1 MGL in this war -> used to hurry Sistine as planning to whip heavily in commie

Industrial Age
Entered IA 450AD, gifted up Russia who got steam - bought with chivalry and 159gpt. Immed dow cancelled that payment, MA multiple civs against Russians
Nationalism 490AD, Communism 530AD and revolt - single scientist research from here on.

Whipped like mad in commie whilst ICSing home continent (as well as drafting and disbanding), soon found my large treasury depleting and no money to finance me from other continent
After 26 turns I ran out of money making -150gpt at 100% commerce, commie sucks. Revolted back to republic, immed making over 300 gpt (later increased to over 800gpt) and also gained also huge increase in production.

Invasion of other continent began 570AD quickly assimilating Romes's better lands and moving into the jungle area inhabited by Arabs and Russians. Between 760AD and 840AD removed Russian from the continent and shortly after Carthage took their last town on an island. Russia learnt Nationalism 2 turns before being destroyed, but were unable to draft as their town was less than size 7 - no other civ reached IA.
In 820AD got 2nd MGL capturing St Petersburg and used it to hurry palace there giving me a second core

900AD did one last turn of mass whipping, then revolted back to republic
From here mostly peaceful continuing ICS to within 50 of dom limit and rushing culture with cash and draft disbands. Did do a little leader fishing against Romans at one stage getting 2 more MGLs which were used to hurry unis.

Finished up making 1810cpt.

Had 241 cities - cycling through each of these every turn was very boring

Dont think I'll be going commie again. I think staying in republic and researching upper tech tree to navigation then switching off science would have allowed me to start my culture rush much earlier and finish sig sooner.

 

[Tone]

Predator. I ended up going for a Space victory. (link to 2nd report)

I entered the IA in 710AD, traded with the two scientific civs that I had gifted into the next age for Medicine and Nationalism (it helped that they still didn't have contact with one another) and set research for Steam. Steam took 5 turns, Electricity took a massive 8 turns but then apart from Radio in 5 turns, it was four-turn-research all the way to the stars.

The critical element in this expansion was that I declared war on Carthage in 820AD. I landed a stack of cavs with a rifle plus a couple of gallics to hopefully get my GA underway. This happened in 830AD and this boost was the initial reason for the four turners.

A few turns later I got lucky with an elite victory.



This enabled me to rush my forbidden palace in Carthage, which had both coal and iron. Nice production to come plus a great boost to my overall commerce and production. The Russians then declared war on me but they didn't have salt so I wasn't worried about them. Happiness was no longer an issue with a little bit of War Fever and the additional luxes from the Carthagian territories.

I also had a war with the Iroquois and the Romans declared on me as I expanded my gains into the new lands to gain all eight luxes and enough land to maintain good research. The Greeks were peaceful all the way. (Weren't they meant to be more aggressive???)

The AI didn't help me with any techs apart from freebies. I timed ToE to coincide with the start of Modern Times and could therefore select free techs that my scientific buddies didn't get. I had prebuilds set up in my core for research labs and a GL to rush the Internet in the new lands. I also had plenty of elite victories and so I managed to get SETI quickly as well.

I launched my SS in 1475AD.

My score was probably limited by my peaceful approach (I never exceeded 40% of the territory) and my launch date was held back primarily by my failure to make contact with the other continent for so long. I enjoyed the game though so many thanks to the GOTM staff. I think that I'll be playing a few more GOTM games again after a long break from this part of the site.

 

[tR1cKy]

After a long, forced vacation from GotMs, i'm finally able to play and submit a game
---

predator - going for Domination (what else, Pinky?)

Settled in place, initial build order is warrior -> settler -> warrior -> worker -> settler. The granary was build later, i gave priority to settle the food tiles, grab the wines and build a coastal city, should the Great Lightouse be needed later (it was). Probably it was better to build immediately a settler factory, since my QSC stat was nothing exceptional (10 cities).

Cities are settled at ring 4 and 6.5. Research is the usual Pottery -> Map Making path, with a diversion to Masonry to have a prebuild for the Great Lighthouse. It turned out to be an unnecessary precaution, anyway better safe than sorry.

It took a while to figure out the exact nature of the map, and it was somewhat disappointing. Only 2 civs in the home continent, with six AS packed in the other landmass and a HUGE land area to colonize. Playing this map as the Arabs would have been much more interesting.

First stage of the game is nothing but furious expansion, with just a handful of warriors to hunt barbs. After the 2 rings are complete the warrior buildup may start. Greece is met in 1550BC and Iron Working is traded. Soon after a source of iron is connected and the mass upgrade of warriors may start.

Research continues toward Republic, which is finally discovered in 725BC. Research is then zeroed, no more techs are necessary to take over the world with gallics.

In 490BC the Great Lighthouse is complete and we start suicide missions oversea. The 2nd attempt is successful and the Russians are met. We end the trade round with all contacts, a complete world map and the knowledge of Construction. The tech is sold to Greece for all they had. A costly mistake, as it will be seen later.

The coastal exploration continues and two safe routes through the ocean are discovered later. Both of them will be used to get troops to the far continent.

In the homeland, we found a city to the northern tip, road it to the core, then send galleys there for a naval invasion on Greece. A beach head is founded in the Greek territory. Gallics and catapult are amassed there, to prepare a RoP rape against foolish Alex. The attacks was delayed to give Greece time to finish the Pyramids... but the Aztecs got them first and for the wonder cascade effect Greece got the Great Wall An so a quick and dirty job becomes a slow and costly invasion, not counting the fact that all the catapult become virtually useless.

The rape is performed anyway and a few turns later Athens is captured, but losses were significant, to the point that we're forced to sign peace and stop the campaign until enough reinforcements are shipped in the Greek land. At least we got the leader to rush the Forbidden Palace near Athens.

It's only 170AD when the last Greek bastion falls to the Celts.

A few turns later, the 2 shipchains for Arabia and Rome are almost set up and the invasion of the far continent may begin. Just before moving oversea we resumed research and learned Monarchy, in the hope to rush the Hanging Gardens somewhere should a second leader pop up, but despite countless elite wins the 2nd leader (and the 3rd too!) came out only at the very end of the game,

We declare honorably on Arabia, invade their tiny peninsula, declare on the Aztecs, then RoP-rape the Romans. From now on it's a steady advance in the enemy territory, but the large amount of money spent to rush settlers and temples caused a shortage of troops in the late game, to the point that military operations were considerably slowed. The virgin land grabbed was A LOT, but probably it could have been done faster with only the pointy stick.

The domination limit is finally reached in 510 AD, for a score of 5762 Firaxis and 11032 Jasons. Nothing exceptional considering my past record, but it's quite a lot that i don't play seriously a civ3 game, so i guess i should be happy with it

Here's the tech log:

4000BC: Warrior Code, Ceremonial Burial (prerequisite)
3000BC: Alphabet (research);
2670BC: Pottery (research);
2310BC: Masonry (research);
1870BC: Writing (resarch);
1550BC: Map Making (research); Iron Working (trade, Greece);
1450BC: Mysticism (barb hut);
1375BC: Mathematics (research), Wheel (trade, Greece);
1175BC: Code of Laws (research); Horse Riding (trade, Greece);
1075BC: Philosophy (research);
725BC: Republic (research);
310BC: Construction (trade);
30AD: Currency (trade);
190AD: Literature, Polytheism (trade);
260AD: Monarchy (research),

The cities built till the QSC mark:

4000BC: Entremont;
3150BC: Mohacs;
2550BC: Lugdunum;
2230BC: Camulodunum;
1475BC: Richborough;
1475BC: Verulamium;
1400BC: Gergovia;
1350BC: Augustodorum;
1225BC: Agendicum;
1200BC: Eboracum;

And the final minimap:



Here's a curious screenshot:



After the demise of Rome they still had a pair of wandering settlers around. One of them built their new capital in a place surrounded by Carthaginian cities.

---

EDIT: surely a typo in the written notes, since a turn dated 725BC doesn't exist. The exact date for Republic should be 750BC, but i'm not sure.

 

[Shigella]

Predator 20K

I’ve been on hiatus for about 18 months, but finally had a bit of free time to try to take care of a bit of unfinished business. I was glad to see a lot of talk about 20K attempts in the pre-game thread, so I thought this would be a good time to try to finally claim a 20K award.

Ancient Age
Founded Entremont on the starting spot and built warrior, granary, settler. I wanted a coastal locale for my 20K city, and the spot W,SW of Entremont looked just fine to me. Coastal river, 2 hills, 2 BG, 2 food bonuses (including the fish that would be worked later) giving the ability to eventually mine all of the plains, and only 4 water tiles – that’s good enough. Mohacs was founded in 2710 and started a temple. The nice starting position allowed me to share the cow between Entremont and Mohacs quite a bit, and still run Entremont as a 4-turn settler factory while Mohacs cranked out wonders.

Finally met Greece in 1750 BC. I waited a couple turns to complete Poly and then did some trading with them. Alex demanded Pottery and 8 gold in 950 BC, I told him to piss off, and Greeks DOW. Perhaps the elevated aggression did work. I could have signed peace in 730 BC without a single engagement, but decided the war happiness was actually more valuable to me. I finally signed peace in 370 BC when Alex had a stack of archers headed in my general direction.

My Ancient Age research was focused on growth and getting wonders available - Pottery, BW, IW, Myst, Poly (traded to Greeks for Alph, Wheel and gold), Masonry, Writing, Lit, MM, Math, Const, Monarchy (revolted to Monarchy in 410 BC), Currency, HBR, Phil, CofL. Cities were built at RCP 5, 9 and 13 around Mohacs, as I knew I would be abandoning Entremont eventually.

Mohacs completed temple, Colossus, library, Oracle, and Great Wall to trigger my GA in 290 BC. Mohacs then rushed a market and coliseum before starting on the Great Library, which I was building at the end of the Ancient Age.

Meeting the neighbors
My first suicide galley survived 2 turns at sea and met Carthage in 130 BC. Trades that ensued gave me all contacts CofL (I had invested 1 turn of research), Feudalism, maps and all the worlds gold. I didn’t trade contact with the Greeks to any of the other civs (in fact the Greeks never met anyone else even though they survived to the end of my game). I purchased embassies with everyone and then started a dogpile on Russia, which was leading in tech. That pretty much spelled the end of cooperation on the other continent.

Warfare and leader farming
The rest of my game was focused on fast research (almost all by myself other than some free techs at the dawn of each age) and methodically farming elite victories against anyone who could throw troops in my direction. Given the distance to Greece and my slow military development, I didn’t get my first elite victory until 190 AD. I didn’t get my first leader until my 28th elite victory in 630 AD. This leader rushed Sistine Chapel in 660 AD. The second leader didn’t come until 970 AD (after another 33 elite victories). This leader rushed Bach’s in 1040 AD.

Although my early leader luck was horrible (2 leaders after 61 elite victories), things really picked up after this point. Ultimately, I generated 17 leaders from 170 elite victories. Several of these leaders came early in the Modern Era, so their impact on my eventual finish date was quite minimal.

I gradually eliminated everyone but Greece, who I banished to a tundra home, and settled in 7 tiles below the domination limit. Given all the jungle, hills, tundra and plains, this was a painful map to milk for score! Mohacs hit 20K in 1740 AD, which was a bit later than I had hoped. Its not a bad date for this map, but it is definitely beatable. My poor early leader luck and the sheer distance to the closest enemy really hampered the final finish date. At the end, my 20K city was producing 161 culture per turn and contained every culture-generating building except for the Pyramids (Tenochtitlan), Great Lighthouse (Tenochtitlan), Sun Tzu’s (Moscow), Iron Works (not eligible) and Integrated Defense (never researched).

Given my rustiness, I made a couple of stupid mistakes that cost me a turn or two on the final finish date. I was particularly annoyed that I screwed up the pre-build for the intelligence agency, completed it 3 turns late, and then hit 1735 with 19,997 culture. I also screwed up my free palace jump into Mohacs (shameful given that the info is right there in CAII) and had to use a leader for the task later on. Oh well, at least I didn’t accidentally trigger domination when the internet caused all the border expansions!

Here are the build dates and the culture generated by each building (apologies for the horrid formatting):
Temple 2350 BC 1142
The Colossus 1200 BC 1449
Library 1025 BC 1401
The Oracle 550 BC 1652
The Great Wall 290 BC 750
Colosseum 250 BC 738
The Great Library 10 AD 1980
Cathedral 30 AD 981
The Hanging Gardens 280 AD 1144
University 340 AD 1072
Forbidden Palace 450 AD 470
Copernicus's Observatory 630 AD 724
Sistine Chapel 660 AD 1032
Shakespeare's Theater 850 AD 1096
Magellan's Voyage 1030 AD 357
JS Bach's Cathedral 1040 AD 708
Heroic Epic 1130 AD 436
Newton's University 1150 AD 642
Smith's Trading Company 1160 AD 318
Leonardo's Workshop 1240 AD 196
Universal Suffrage 1300 AD 352
Military Academy 1320 AD 84
Theory of Evolution 1340 AD 240
Hoover Dam 1345 AD 158
Wall Street 1395 AD 138
Battlefield Medicine 1435 AD 61
The Pentagon 1490 AD 50
The United Nations 1550 AD 152
SETI program 1555 AD 111
The Manhattan Project 1560 AD 72
Palace 1565 AD 35
Research Lab 1570 AD 68
The Internet 1575 AD 132
Cure for Cancer 1600 AD 84
Longevity 1605 AD 81
Apollo Program 1640 AD 40
Intelligence Agency 1680 AD 12

 

[Garvarg]

Nothing to be proud of but....

Conquest, 790 AD
Fir 5269
Jas 10526

It just seemed like it was taking a long time to wipe out the last two AI (Cart and IRoq) because of the bad roads and and Cars UU.

My first G leader came so early, that I built the Pyr and thought I would get the FP on the same first continent, but no such luck. Fimally built in the former Russian calpital, but by then it was too late to do much with it. All my slaves were building roads so noone could improve the land.

Ended up with most of the first continent settled just to fill up space and stop the barbs.

By the end i was only 181 tiles from domination, and had 149 cities.

Oh well, on to the next game.

 

[socralynnek]

Started late, lost too many units to the Greek.

Only got one leader despite many elite wins.
The leader formed an army which then lost (at full health) to a hoplite in its first battle.

So, no FP for me.

Didn't make it in time. Stopped at 1090 AD with 450 tiles to go for a Domination win.

 

[PaperBeetle]

Tough break socral. I was running a tight deadline too, starting late after the epic deity game. I payed the last 80 turns of a 20k between 21:30 last night and 08:30 this morning (with about 4 hours sleep). That's probably my fastest-ever set of turns!

 

[PaperBeetle]

Finally the 20K was achieved in 1778. quite a late date compared to previous GOTM results. Not having the Colossus and the Oracle hurts a bit. But I am not sure why it’s so late and how to improve, as i felt my leader luck was pretty good after the middle age.

Well I have a theory that leader farming is a red herring. On a game-long scale, your accumulation of culture buildings is restricted by your tech progress not your production capacity, especially with a city site as powerful as 20k (I chose the same name, but founded 1SE of you). The best wonders will not be delayed because of their shield requirement, as they should be carefully prebuilt. This may mean passing up things like Sun Tzu, Leonardo and The Wall, but getting those would be a relatively small boost compared to the size of the leader-farming operation you would use to secure them. And if that leader farm comes at the expense of fast self-research, I don't think it is worth it at all.