GOTM77 - First Spoiler

[civ_steve]

GOTM 77 - first spoiler, the Ancient Age

Finally! I'm on vacation right now, with limited time to access the internet, and have had the bad luck to hit forum outages when I've been on the last couple of times. I'm going to take this opportunity to put all 3 spoilers up.


Reading Requirements:

1. Must be able to research a Middle Ages Technology.
2. Must have contact with all remaining civs on your starting landmass.

Posting restrictions

1. Please be discreet with any discussions regarding off-continent civs; contact dates and trades are fine but absolutely nothing revealing location or direction.
2. No discussion of middle-ages (or later).
3. AS ALWAYS, do not post Spoiler information for ANY other 'X'OTM contest.

I hope you found enough open space to establish your core empire. Were you able to keep your space to yourself (and how did you do that) or did the AI intrude? And how are things going on the 2nd continent? Have you kept up in Tech or did you find yourself falling behind? What plans do you have going into the MA?

 

[Chamnix]

No spoilers yet ?

Predator for domination.

I settled in place, worker roaded and irrigated one cow, mined and roaded 2 BGs, then returned to the other cow to road and irrigate. One warrior completed before the granary, then 4-turn settlers throughout the rest of the Ancient Age. Research started on Pottery at maximum.

After completing Pottery, I started Alphabet but met India and traded for it before completing it. After that came Philosophy, Code of Laws, and Republic, but Republic was not finished in the Ancient Age.

Barbarians were very annoying early. I went with my usual very low military approach in the beginning, and when I lost a few warriors to barbarians, I got overrun somewhat. I lost a decent amount of gold and a few citizens, but I do have to give a big to TimBentley for this thread – there were several times barbarians could reach a worker, but I left him working because I knew from Tim’s analysis that the barbarians would ransack a city instead, so at least I didn’t lose as many worker turns as I would have without that insight.

I traded for Map Making in 1350 BC and a couple galleys. The first was sunk by barbarians almost immediately, but I did get my first overseas contact in 1150 BC, and it didn’t take long for me to get all the other contacts and a pretty complete world map. I established embassies everywhere and tried to start some happy wars (alliances tied to peace treaties), but no happiness came in the Ancient Age.

QSC:

14 towns
35 citizens
1 settler
19 native workers
2 slaves
3 warriors
3 chariots
2 horsemen



In 900 BC, 2 tribes completed Currency, and the barb uprising began. I bought my way into the Middle Ages in 875 BC.

 

[greatbeyond]

No spoilers yet ?

I started mine last week and had a BSOD wipe out 20mins of thinking and typing. I can't afford to lose that much brain power!

I wasted a couple of turns moving thinking there might be a slightly better spot, only to settle 1 NW. I then started with a few warriors and researched The Wheel. I produced a Chariot and assumed, even though I knew it was "Raging" Barbarians on Diety, that I had enough to control Barbarian appearances,... I was wronnng and I almost made an early exit. They seemed to spawn quicker than normal and went from Size 2 city to Size 20 in no time. I was producing Settlers and had to go back and produce more units, which slowed down my growth, and plans to block my two closest neighbors. Lesson learned - ensure you control Barbarian appearances before going wild on expansion. Anyhow I did manage to block my two neighbors and from their rate of expansion I knew I had better cripple one now if I could. I built two Barracks and produced Veteran Archers. I had just finished HBR and started Horsemen when I started the attack. Naturally as soon as I attacked, enemy Swordsmen appeared. I managed to hold them off and then an enemy Galley appeared and dropped an Archer near one of my coastal cities. I should have fortified my 2 Archers inside my city but instead attacked losing both Archers which led to the razing of my city the next turn. I ended up settling for peace and tried to establish a Settler where an enemy city (autorazed)had been next to the only source of Iron near me, but a fourth Civ arrived and stole the spot. I concentrated on blocking any further enemy Settlers from my half of the continent but they still established 2 cities in the Tundra and one on the West coast. I did manage to get some tech trading done and met all the other Civs fairly early. As in any Diety game I started to fall behind but then saw my opportunity to exchange a MA for a couple of Techs and was only about 1 tech behind the leaders. I wisely let them do all the fighting but did steal the enemy city near "my" Iron. I concentrated on infrastructure and had most buildings in my cities. At this point I could have been doing better, but still wasn't in a bad position as my MA had helped with my neighbors. I'll save the next phase for the 2nd spoiler.

 

[milr]

Settled in place. Researched Wheel, built Barracks, mined land, starting with cows. Sent 1st Settler 3S hoping iron would show up there later. Built some workers from that city. Sent 2nd Settler between wheats, and made that my primary Settler source, with capitol as primary military source. Finding horses led me to research/build Horsemen, a big help (along with Indiam warriors) in keeping barbs at bay and treasury stocked. A couple of trades with India kept me close in research until offshore AIs arrived. Got some techs in trade, but not as many as were available. Tech lag just keeps getting worse. Tried to barricade Indian settlers, but a couple slipped through NE & WS. Also had a Mongol settlement sail into NW corner. Lost a city to India in a short war. Other than that and India's natural land area, I was able to grab the rest of the available land.

 

[DWetzel]

Open class, going for anything that doesn't involve an ambulance and lets me publish more spoilers later! (I've never played Deity before. Heck, the Japan game was the first time I'd tried Emperor).

4000 BC: Worker to the northern cow, settled in place. Warrior-settler in capital. Max research on pottery. Warrior does a bit o' scouting. On border expansion, spot wheat to north; sent the worker there to work on that for the second town. Happily, when he arrived there, I saw that it was possible to set up a great settler factory there, using the mined cow and the irrigated wheat. That let the capital do other things. Or not. Two settler factories is good, right?

3350: Built first settler. IBT, get pottery>max run on alphabet. Scouting warrior hit the east coast and then headed south, spotting the ivory. I'll settle a city there pretty soon, I think to myself. Gotta have that Statue of Zeus, that'll come in handy! (Yes, I know. It was only about 1500 game years later that I suddenly realized I was not actually playing a game that had the Statue of Zeus in it.)

3200: Found second city. Granary started.

3150: 2nd warrior in capital>another settler. Going for early expansion. Of course, that was also the appearance of the first barbarian. Have I mentioned I hate raging barbarians?

2850: The warrior on scout duty had headed west from the ivory, spots the dyes and barb camp. Disperse barb camp in 2800, when capital builds 2nd settler > archer. Head that general direction for 3rd city--want to head south but barb activity makes that too risky. Have I mentioned I hate raging barbarians?

2510: Capital archer>warrior.

2470: Barbs cart off 12g from Tres. Capital warrior>barracks. Warrior heads north for MP in 2nd city.

2430: Persia builds Colossus.

2390: Goody hut in the hinterlands yields a warrior. I'll take it! You sir, have a badge and go stand guard on some unruly citizens--and don't let anyone in.

2350: First sighting of barbarian horse. Archer kills barb warrior on hill (have I mentioned I hate raging barbs? ), spots barb camp... and Indian warrior. He's + BW, CB, Wheel, -Masonry. BW+12g for Masonry.

2310: Dos builds that granary, and I have the 4-turner set up.

2270: 2/3 archer v. barb camp = 3/4 archer. Second barbarian horse bum-rushes the capital, instantly redlines warrior... then loses. Phew!

1870: France builds Pyramids. Barbarian activity everywhere. Did I mention I hate raging barbarians? Methinks I should have taken Wheel instead of BW in that trade. Me also thinks it's too late now.

1725: Persia builds Oracle. Quite the active little wonder builders, those Persians.

1675: Tres loses some more gold to barbs. Warrior had a choice: guard city, or guard settler. I chose the settler. Have I mentioned...

1575: Get Writing, max on CoL. India doesn't have Writing. Yay! Writing for CB+100g.

1425. I get called up on the phone by some dudes. Apparently India met someone.

1350: Get Code of Laws. I am getting way behind on tech. Maybe I can bust out the Great Library? That would be sweet. Start research on Literature.

1200: Someone builds the Great Lighthouse. Yup, it's Persia.

1100: I am one turn from Literature... and the Celts start the Great Library. Okay, scratch that plan.

1075: Get Literature. Most don't have it, which is very nice. I'm able to trade for many techs (can't get Polytheism or Mapmaking, nobody has Currency or Construction). Set research for min on Republic. Couple libraries quickly built for culture and to keep the research race semi-interesting.

775 BC: The evil Persians have built a town near the dyes (silks? Whichever one is in the SE. I always get those confused). Stupid Persians. I hate them almost as much as barbarians right now.

690: Mongols build Great Library. Okay then! Hanging Gardens built... in Perseopolis. Guess who has four wonders? Perseopolis. Where's Perseopolis? Aw, you know by now.

650: Indians build Great Wall.

630: Persia attempts to extort cash + map. I say no. They DOW. I should perhaps mention that I'd been building a little military stack to reclaim "my" land and lux.

590: Persia commences building Sistine Chapel.

550 BC: Having beaten back the Persians...I get peace...

and ally against the Mongols, way over there...

...and enter the Middle Ages. I've got 17 turns to Republic at min research, and am upgrading a warrior to a sword about every other turn.


I'm falling behind in the tech race, but I've got the north part of my continent to myself. India and I are sharing the ivory right now (at least in theory), and draw a line SSE from there and you have the Chinese Empire. And I'm alive!

 

[ignas]

Going for fastest victory I can achieve, probably Domination

Settled in place, irrigated both cows so that Beijing could share a cow with other city at RCP 3. Second town was founded at NW,NW,N near the wheat. Beijing got a granary, and the second town was 12 shields away when barb horsemen pillaged a city. So no granary in secon town.

Research was pottery, Math (traded for Alphabet early on with India), CoL (traded math for writing with India), philo, CoL, Map Making (usually AI research it very fast but this time India was at the Monarchy path I guess and I wanted contacts very much), Republic. Got other AA techs via trade.

Other tribe found me when I was 2 turns from MM at 1250 BC. I traded for MM and other contacts. Though a big trading round was when I got Republic in 825 BC. Got all remaining techs to enter new era and ~800 gold. Revolt

Barbs was a problem in this game pillaging few towns for a pop or two, carrying away gold, killing two workers and a settler

1000 BC stats:

15 towns
40 population
15 workers and 2 slaves
Republic due in 8 turns
few vet warriors and few vet chariots ready for upgrade
Forbidden Palace 2 turns from completion exactly in the same spot as Chamnix

Plan is to upgrade 12 vet warriors to swords and 6 chariots to horses when in Republic and go after India. Goal is Chivalry and no research after it

 

[Lanzelot]

Settled in place, irrigated one cow and mined the other, so that Beijing can be run as a 4-turner at size 3-4.5. The first settler moved to the two Wheats to start a second settler factory there. That got delayed a bit, however, because a barb pillaged the granary two turns before completion!

Once the first towns were established, they were providing warriors and archers for barb control, but barbs continued to be a pain in the a** throughout the AA. I lost a settler, a couple of workers, gold, shields and population...

Still my QSC stats look quite ok (I made a 1000BC save, but didn't submit it, as the deadline had already past):
17 towns
39 pop
2 granaries, 3 barracks, three more barracks almost finished. (You can tell, I mean business this time... I know I won't have much time for this game...)
2 settlers, 9 workers, 13 units
11 techs, Code of Laws 1 turn from completion
3 luxes, horses and iron

The screenshot shows my empire at 1000BC. I think, I got a nice RCP3 + RCP6 set up!? There are two more towns way out west.

When CoL completed, I traded it to India for MM and finished 2 galleys a couple of turns later. One sunk in dangerous waters the very first turn, and the other was sunk by a barb galley a couple of seconds after its completion...

I started two more galleys on low priority, but before they were finished, our continent "got discovered"... I had immediate contact with France, Mongolia and Persia and was lucky to have one valuable tech, which after a bit of trading back and forth netted me 6 other techs. "Fortunately" I was not able to afford buying contact to the Celts from someone: the very next turn I got it for free... someone must've sold the Celts contact to me...

And apparently after buying contact to me, the Celts had no more money to buy all techs I had traded with the others, and also I finished The Republic that turn (570BC), so I was able to do a bit more tech trading with them and got all the remaining AA techs except for Monarchy, which I wasn't interested in. So in 570BC I entered the MA and even got Monotheism! Everyone is on tech parity now, except for India, which is 3 or 4 techs behind. Which is quite good, because they are my first target...

I got 5 turns of anarchy. I waited three turns (so that it won't take too long before I can start sending re-enforcements to the front) and then started my attack on India with 11 swords, 3 horsemen and an archer. The first two turns got me three Indian size 2 towns (which are now size 1...). I'm trying to keep them, even though I'm quite behind in culture. I'll cash-rush a couple of temples now and hope that'll suffice. (I'm going Lone Scientist on Feudalism now and will spend some money on infrastructure, before taking up research again.)

Plan for the next phase is now: advance very carefully or go into defensive position, until their counter attack wave is absorbed. (I can already see a couple of swords coming towards me...) In a couple of turns my re-enforcements should be arriving, and India should have suffered some losses by then, so it should be possibly to advance again and take another 2 or 3 towns. Then I'll try to get another 1 or 2 in a peace deal.

Regards, Lanzelot

 

[tR1cKy]

Worker N, then settler founds Beijing on the spot. Research is not the usual Pottery -> Alpha, we go for the Wheel instead. This tech is a monopoly and if we meet a pair of civs we have a definite chance to get those techs with trading.

The initial build order is warrior -> settler -> warrior -> settler -> warrior -> worker -> granary. The 1st warrior goes exploring south, the other 2 are kept into cities to fight unhappiness and deal with barbs. India is met very early. We got both Pottery and Alphabet from them and proceed at full steam with Writing.

Cities are built at RCP 4.5. The 1st NE of the capital and the 2nd south, to secure immediately a precious ivory source. After the 4-turner is set up, Beijing will toss settlers in the wild for the whole ancient age.

Land is explored slowly. No other neighbours are met, but one of our warriors spots Persian borders oversea from the extreme east of the mainland. We trade Writing for Bronze Working and Warrior Code, then go for Literature, complete it and start Map Making. A few turns later India has the tech, but it asks an outrageous price. We go for a few turns at zero research, then buy the tech anyway one turn before the prebuild is complete. A galley sails the sea undisturbed and finally meets the Persians in 1375 BC.

What follows is the usual trade frenzy, at the end of which we come back home with all the maps, all the contacts and all the known techs. We go for Polytheism, complete it then start Republic. In 1000 BC several AS have both Currency and Construction and we can trade our way into the Middle Ages, getting a few hundred quids as an extra benefit The Persians picked Feudalism.

In the very same turn we found our 15th city. Operation Landfill is almost complete, except for a small spot in the west that is going to be settled in a pair of turns. Persia snatched a colony in the eastern tip but it's not a concern.

Barbs were a constant threat, but the Indians were much of help in containing them. We let Indian warriors roam undisturbed through our lands, and they repaid our trust by killing a nice amount of barbs. Casualties were low at the end: only two galleys, two warriors and a worker. Eight warrior got promoted veterans and an archer gained elite status. Too bad the "elite training camp" strategy didn't work this time. We upgraded all the veteran warriors and left two small open spots unguarded, but the desired barb camp never showed up

QSC/MA stats: 15 cities, 38 citizens;
units: 9 workers, 6 archers, 8 swords, 1 galley;
buildings: a granary in Beijing, a library in city 3 and 5 barracks in some of the ring cities;
Persia has already built Pyramids and Colossus in Persepolis. The Celts have built the Great Lighthouse in Mohacs and have a connected harbor, so some fruiful trade across the sea may be possible quite soon.

Tech log:

4000BC: Masonry (prerequisite);
3200BC: Pottery, Ceremonial Burial (trade, India);
2900BC: Wheel (research); Alphabet (trade, India);
2070BC: Writing (research); Bronze Working, Warrior Code (trade, India);
1600BC: Literature (research);
1500BC: Map Making (trade, India);
1375BC: Code of Laws (trade, Persia); Mathematics (trade, France); Philosophy, Mysticism (trade, Mongolia); Iron Working, Horse Riding (trade, Celts);
1175BC: Polytheism (research);
1000BC: Construction (trade, Celts); Currency (trade, Mongols);


Cities:

4000BC: Beijing;
3200BC: Shangai;
2800BC: Canton;
1990BC: Nanking;
1830BC: Tsingtao;
1725BC: Xinjan;
1550BC: Chengdu;
1475BC: Hangchow;
1400BC: Tientsin;
1275BC: Tatung;
1200BC: Macao;
1175BC: Anyang;
1150BC: Shantung;
1050BC: Chinan;
1000BC: Kaifeng;


Meetings:

3200BC: India;
1375BC: all the rest;

In the attachment, a shot of our empire at the dawn of Middle Ages:

 

[I. Larkin]

Predator, to avoid comments from #42.
Worker on Cow, then settler founds Beijing on the spot. Research as usual Pottery -> Alpha-> Writing, Alpha come from India, proceed at full steam with Writing but India beat me 4 turns on Writing…
The initial build order is warrior -> settler -> warrior -> Granary-> worker -> The 1st warrior goes exploring south, the other 2 are kept into cities to fight unhappiness and deal with barbs. India is met very early. We got both Pottery and Alphabet from them and.

Cities are built at RCP (4, 8) The 1st N of the capital and the 2nd NE, to secure immediately a precious ivory source. Next two was at ring 8 near Indians: the reasons was
1) to secure whole Ivory for sure,
2) 2) block India from Expansion and
3) it was relatively secure area from Barbarians.
4) Rank corruption also lower if yo have fewer Cities in Inner ring.
After the 4-turner is set up, Beijing will toss settlers and workers for the whole ancient age. New Cities build reg warriors and then at the end of AA veteran horses.

Land is explored slowly. No other neighbours are met, but one of our warriors spots Persian borders oversea from the extreme east of the mainland.

To speed up research I continually borrowed money from India (18 for 1 gpt), as a result India also research fast and always had a spear cash. I finish IW at 1650, while India got Map Making.

Even with my IW MMaking costs a lot gpt, but I did not care much. Suicide Galley (suicide, because Barbarians patrolled “safe route”) make contact at 1525 BC and that follows is the usual trade fiesta, at the end of which we come back home with all the maps, all the contacts and all the known techs. We go for Philosophy, complete it at 1400 BC trade CoL from Mongols and then start Republic at max with 24 gpt deficit. Embassy in Pesepolis (33 g) showed great City with Pyramid and Colossus, that follow Phony war with France, X man was bound with Peace Treaty. Persia got monopoly on construction 1375 BC and holds it for a long time. At 1175 BC X man quit from MA that resulted my first happy war. Unfortunately Cascade of Wonders lead to Lighthouse in Karakorum (Mongolia) and Great Wall in Persipolis. Around 1000 BC I landed in Persia, but the only result I got is pillage around and despotic rush of Persia down Persipolis to Size 1. Republic come at 900 BC (monopoly ) and second revolt gives 5 turns Anarchy. At Anarchy period huge barbarian apprising appeared near Silk City, 1 camp appeared near working Worker (?) IBT. Horses was trained to Elite, but I lost 2 swords.
At 775 BC new government was established, Barbarians done in first approximation,
3 Techs was trade to Republic from France and Monotheism at Sci 70% with 38 gpt deficit begins.
The Persians picked Feudalism.