GOTM79 - First Spoiler

[civ_steve]

GOTM 79 - first spoiler, the Ancient Age

With a long holiday weekend coming up in the States, I thought I'd better finally get this spoiler out!

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 the locations of any civs more than 15 moves from your capital.
2. No discussion of middle-ages (or later).
3. AS ALWAYS, do not post Spoiler information for ANY other 'X'OTM contest.

I thought I'd try to give the Regent AI something of a boost by making sure each had significant food bonuses. I even gave France a grassland wheat! Did this have any impact in your game? Has any AI emerged as a contender? How did your Ancient Age go, and what are your plans going forward?

 

[PrinceMyshkin]

Predator, going for conquest.

I moved the worker south to the bg and discovered the grassland wheat. Thanks, civ_steve! The settler followed behind the worker and settled on the bg in 3950BC while the worker went to road and irrigate the wheat. Research was set to pottery at max and builds were three warriors and a barracks pre-build for the granary. The first two warriors went exploring due south and east and then south-east.

I built 4 towns at rcp3 and 6 towns at rcp6, most of which built warrior-worker-barracks. I connected the dyes rather early and also had a town to claim the incense and a settler on the way to the gems by 1000BC. First contact was with the Celts and then the Germans, but no trades were made until writing came in. Research was then literature-CoL-philosophy-republic which I got in 1000BC drawing a 4-turn anarchy.

QSC stats were:13 towns, 20 citizens, a full map of the continent, 6 contacts and embassies, all AA tech except currency and construction, 39 gold, 1 granary, 5 barracks, 112 dom tiles, 3 settlers, 8 workers, 3 slaves, 6 archers, 5 warriors and horses and dyes connected.

The military was used to control the barbs and I suffered very little damage from them. Republic was established in 900BC and I researched currency by 800BC and traded for construction to reach the MA then. I couldn't gift Germany up since they marched a warrior to my territory and captured my incense town in a sneak attack. By then I already had a few horses, so they didn't hold it long. Gifting the Babs and Persians up netted me monotheism and engineering, so research was set to feudalism at max going for chivalry. Peace treaties were renegotiated with the Celts, Persians and Arabs for ma's against the Germans.

I am building libraries to give me some culture and minimize flips and plan to shut research off after getting chivalry and try for conquest with knights. I can't tell if any of the ai are contenders, yet. Arabia and Scandinavia both seem to be doing rather well.

 

[Più Freddo]

Predator, going for a Diplomatic victory

By moving the Worker onto the Bonus Grassland, we discovered the Wheat
tile and decided to found Paris to the south of the starting
position. Paris built a Warrior for scouting, then a Granary and a first
Settler. After an extra Warrior, Paris became a six-turn
Warrior-Wealth-Settler factory under Despotism.

With the coastal location of Paris, we built only three cities in
RCP3: First Orleans to the south, which immediately started on a
Granary and then built only Workers and the occasional Settler, then
Lyons to the east, which built the Forbidden Palace from scratch. The
third city went to the north and built military. In the following,
cities were placed at distance 5 around Lyons, rather than in a
specific pattern around Paris, in anticipation of a Palace jump.

3950 BC Found Paris
2710 BC Found Orleans
2390 BC Found Lyons
2110 BC Found Rheims
1830 BC Found Tours
1625 BC Found Marseilles
1600 BC Found Chartres
1450 BC Found Avignon
1425 BC Connect Dyes
1400 BC Found Besancon
1400 BC Connect Horses
1325 BC Found Rouen
1200 BC Found Grenoble
1025 BC Found Dijon
1025 BC Connect Incense
1000 BC Found Amiens
_900 BC Found Cherbourg​

After researching Pottery, we went straight for The Republic. The rest
we learned from our neighbours, except Literature, Currency and
Construction, which we researched at an average rate of four (3-4-5)
non-anarchy turns per tech under Republican rule.

4000 BC Discover Alphabet
3450 BC Discover Pottery
2590 BC Learn Ceremonial Burial
2470 BC Discover Writing
2110 BC Learn Warrior Code
2110 BC Learn The Wheel
2110 BC Learn Mysticism
2110 BC Learn Masonry
2110 BC Learn Iron Working
2110 BC Learn Bronze Working
1870 BC Discover Code of Laws
1870 BC Learn Horseback Riding
1650 BC Discover Philosophy
1375 BC Learn Map Making
1175 BC Discover The Republic
1100 BC Learn Polytheism
1100 BC Learn Mathematics
1025 BC Discover Literature
_925 BC Discover Currency
_800 BC Discover Construction​

Unfortunately, our only scouting Warrior turned off east and north
before meeting anyone in the south, so the contacts with our
continental neighbours had to wait until 2110 BC. We were then lucky
to be able to buy slaves in 1990 BC, 1910 BC, 1870 BC and 1675 BC. A
Worker-Slave pair is magnificently efficient in building roads (1
turn) and mines (2 turns). Without a fellow Slave, a PTW industrious
Worker wastes 50% of its capacity when building a flat-land road. It
was probably a mistake, on pangaea, not to build more Warriors initially.

2590 BC Pop Hut Warrior1: Technology
2110 BC Meet Scandinavia
2110 BC Meet Persia
2110 BC Meet Germany
2110 BC Meet Celts
2110 BC Meet Babylon
2110 BC Meet Arabia
1175 BC Establish Anarchy 3 1100 BC
1100 BC Establish Republic
1100 BC Embassy Scandinavia: The Pyramids in 31 410 BC
1100 BC Embassy Persia: Horses; The Oracle in 14 750 BC
1100 BC Embassy Germany: The Pyramids in 57 110 AD
1100 BC Embassy Celts: Wines; The Oracle in 17 690 BC
1100 BC Embassy Babylon: The Pyramids in 19 650 BC
1100 BC Embassy Arabia: The Oracle in 95 560 AD
1100 BC War Scandinavia
1100 BC War Germany
1100 BC War Arabia
1100 BC Alliance Persia vs. Arabia
1100 BC Alliance Celts vs. Germany
1100 BC Alliance Babylon vs. Scandinavia
1000 BC Build Forbidden Palace in Lyons
_800 BC Enter Middle Ages
_800 BC Gift Persia Monotheism
_800 BC Gift Babylon Engineering

We were not in a position to purchase either Monotheism or
Engineering. We were at war against Germany, with alliance, and could
not gift them at this time.

The plan is to build Libraries and Universities, but also Horsemen,
which will have the assignment to take land and luxuries from the
Celts, beat the Germans and Persians and hopefully let us move the
capital into the German/Persian territory. They should each have a
single city only left for the era bonuses. Babylon are leading the
race for The Pyramids, which would be the next military target,
probably to be pursued with Knights.

Quick Start Challenge Score: 4819

13 Towns
37 Citizens
_2 Granaries
_1 Barracks
The Forbidden Palace
Horses
Incense
Dyes
_6 Contacts
_6 Embassies
Continental Map
12 Workers
_4 Slaves
_7 Warriors
_1 Archer​

 

[Nata]

Open, 20K.
After much deliberation we settled in place. 14 land tiles, river, coast, some BGs and a hill - what more do you need on Regent?

We went for Writing->Literature, as we hoped to trade the rest from the crowded (ahem) start.
Meanwhile Paris built 3 warriors and a settler, and started Pyramids prebuild.
Settler went S to settle Orleans at RCP4 near Wheat, to be our worker/settler factory.

Warriors went exploring. Crowded start my a**! One of them went NE, another SE and the third explored S a bit for future city sites,. And all of them managed to completely miss our neighbours!
I started to think we ended up on a big and juicy island and in a bout of panic went for BW after Writing. Luckily one of the warriors popped Pottery from a GH, so at least we could build Granary in Orleans.
And finally, 2 turns till BW, the warrior going back from SE exploration met Celts. Hurray! Next turn that warrior bumped into Viking Scout, and trades ensued. We got all contacts and techs available, including BW of course, and flipped Pyramids prebuild to Colossus.
And started on Literature, after wasting 5 turns on BW research.

After that things went smoothly, Orleans building mostly workers to improve/max Paris, and also a settler to found Lyons at RCP4 N to be a barracks/warrior city, then Rheims to claim Dyes etc. etc.

1000 BC stats:
4 cities, 21 pop, Colossus, Temple, Library, Granary, Barracks.
3 turns till Oracle, 1 turn till maxing out of Paris (1 jungle cleared and improved, worker ready to join), 8 turns till Republic.
6 workers, 3 warriors.

Big distances slowed our agression a bit, but by 400BC we upgraded about 10 swords, built some horsemen and declared on Celts (who also was our first victim in GOTM78). Germany joined Celts, to our delight - more targets to chase in the huge tracts of land. And we bribed Persia to our side.
War went sluggishly with no roads on Celts' side, us trying to use Elites and also trying to use Barbs to promote Swords and Horsemen. But those flipping Barbs were so far away I ended up sending only Horsemen to fight them, with the end result of about half of the Horsemen dead and the rest promoted and then half of them dead as well while legging it back home...

We entered MA in 290BC, after researching Currency, and still at war with Germany. Both Babs and Persia, when gifted, got Engineering. Darn. But that's a tale for another time.

Paris culture in AA:
Palace: 4000BC
Colossus: 1830BC
Temple: 1675BC
Library: 1500BC
Oracle: 950BC
GL: 450BC

 

[Scratcher]

It must be about a year since I played a PTW game, but I have some spare time this month. That could be a premature statement as I quite often attempt Cotm games but can never finish them in time.

I settled in place and built RCP 3 and 6. The early game was warrior exploration, connecting lux and expansion.

1000bc stats, 14 towns, pop 23, 25 units (1 settler, 7 workers, 8 warriors, 1 spear and 8 swords). Gov is anarchy with a further 2 turns before republic. All AI known on the continent with the Celts lined up for a visit by my swords.

I eventaually entered the MA around 600 - 700BC, the celts had been reduced to a three city state. I gifted the babs, persia and the germans to the MA and all three got Fuedalism as their free tech. This was not very helpful.

I will probably aim for a Domination victory with little or no research after Chivalry and knights.

 

[DWetzel]

Open, going for a 100k. Or something. But no spaceship. Honest!

I really didn't take notes for the start (this turned into one of those "just one more turn aw crap it's 3:00 AM" games), except that I settled 1E of the starting location, with the second city going S-S-SW on the coast in 2670 BC. After that I really don't remember a whole lot. Got off to a lousy start for settling the land (I think I had all of seven cities at 1000 BC), and actually had some trouble with the barbarians. Did get the Oracle in the capital in 1450 BC, and the Pyramids a thousand years later, which somewhat helped overcome the slow start. Met the Celts and Persians very late, and everyone else somewhat after that. Golden Age nowhere in sight (which in retrospect was a good thing).

Mostly kept to myself early, then started to get aggressive as the AI settled a few random spots in the SW jungle and one along my far north coast (which I didn't mind for a while).

All in all, probably not a very good start for a 100k game (which I hadn't tried before--seems like more cities earlier would have been nice, but I was building more military than I wanted to due to the barbs, who I had just horrible luck with).

 

[TxCraig]

Hello everyone.

Open, 20K.

Current game is my second attempt. (My first attempt, I did not protect my workers & settlers, and the barbs had a field day.) This time, I cranked out a few more settlers and warriors before starting to build the GL, and the other civs did not bother me too much, until Persia in the Middle Ages.

In PtW 1.27f, is there a bug with bombard? Persia did a sneak attack and I am trying to take back my city, but it keeps crashing when I bombard.

I have only recently moved up from Warrior to Regent, and I feel like I am still doing something wrong . . . here is my capital city culture:
Palace: 3950 BC
Temple: 3050 BC
GL: 530 BC
Library: 330 BC
HG: AD 10
Colosseum: AD 150
Cathedral: AD 350
Sistine: AD 650
Univ: AD 720
JS Bach: AD 1030

 

[DWetzel]

Hello everyone.

Open, 20K.

Current game is my second attempt.

Allow me to be the bearer of bad news. You're supposed to play the game with no reloading (other than the obvious "save game and come back to that spot later"). Starting over gives you an unfair advantage because you have knowledge of the map, the opponents, things that went wrong the first time... you know.

My advice is enjoy the heck out of playing the game anyway--can't outlaw that! --but for submitting and scoring the game, that's a nono.

 

[Chamnix]

In PtW 1.27f, is there a bug with bombard? Persia did a sneak attack and I am trying to take back my city, but it keeps crashing when I bombard.

Does Persia have the Great Wall? I seem to remember some bug with bombarding a city of the tribe that has that wonder...

 

[TxCraig]

Yes, Persia did have the Great Wall, so that could be it. Either that or bad RAM.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

Predator, going for Space (or maybe diplomacy)

I moved the worker to the bg, saw the wheat, settled in place.
Warrior->warrior->warrior->rax (prebuild for granary)
100% writing.
3100 BC See a random celtic pike (and you thought those pikes HURT us), trade for Pottery and CB.
2550 barbs show up. trading writing for BW and WC
2510 pop mysticism
2430 found orleans. Celts have masonry
2270 found lyons
1990 celts have the wheel
1870 meet germany. trades give me contacts with all but 1 civ, who I assume is off land, masonry, IW, and the wheel, plus 90 odd gold.
1700 Found tours
1600 start republic
1400 Found chartres
1175 Get republic, revolt, 2 turns anarchy.
1000 BC am in republic, researching math. Somewhere along the line, I trade for literature and polytheism with math and something.
690 BC enter MA.

QSC stats:

10 towns
28 pop
2 settlers
4 workers
7 warriors
3 archers
1 galley

2 granaries
3 rac
373 gold, -6 per turn.

All AA techs except Polytheism, Monarchy, math, construction, currency, literature