GOTM81 - First Spoiler

[civ_steve]

GOTM 81 - first spoiler, the Ancient Age

You've waited long enough - here's the first spoiler!

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. Feel free to discuss off-continent contacts, but be discreet about locations or directions of these AI.
2. No discussion of middle-ages (or later).
3. AS ALWAYS, do not post Spoiler information for ANY other 'X'OTM contest.

How are the neighbors treating you? There's actually a civ that's pretty close to your starting location - did you block them in, or did they run you over ... or neither? Are you going for an early rush, or are you building your empire and biding your time? If you made off-continent contact, are the others ahead, behind or roughly even? Plans going forward?

 

[eldar]

Open. My shortest ever GOTM! Er, no, that's not very good, is it?

Russia were sniffing round with a "Stack of Doom" consisting of 2 warriors and a spear: enough to make me keep one warrior at home and not exploring. I gambled on not switching my granary build to an archer... and it was my undoing.

They declared on me in 3300BC. My single warrior was not enough to prevent Berlin falling to the Russian hordes.

History, it seems, has a habit of repeating itself

(For the record, I went back and re-loaded a couple of turns before the Russians attacked, built an archer instead of continuing with a granary. They still attacked me, but I survived. I played on and was well on the way to continental domination, with wars fomented overseas as well to pave the way for further expansion.)

 

[axehaxe]

I lost too. Don't feel bad man.
(I doubt I'll even submit my score.)

All in all this game was a deathtrap. The starting location was a stinker right from the beginning. This meant an awkward dilemma between using the 2nd city for a GL pre-build or extra settlers. I went the latter and made my like 4th city the GL city which I doubt would finish it in time. I made an 8 stack of pointy stick archers for back-up in case the AI finished the GL. I attacked Russia since they had a tundra start. You won't believe what happens next:

A single spearman kills ALL ****ing 8 of my archers WITHOUT LOSING 1 HP!!!! WTH??? That's a tank!!! 8 times 2 is 16 in attack!!!! The spearman didn't lose 1 HP and gets promoted to elite..I got so mad...u don't wanna know

 

[DWetzel]

I lost too. Don't feel bad man.
(I doubt I'll even submit my score.)

All in all this game was a deathtrap. The starting location was a stinker right from the beginning. This meant an awkward dilemma between using the 2nd city for a GL pre-build or extra settlers. I went the latter and made my like 4th city the GL city which I doubt would finish it in time. I made an 8 stack of pointy stick archers for back-up in case the AI finished the GL. I attacked Russia since they had a tundra start. You won't believe what happens next:

A single spearman kills ALL ****ing 8 of my archers WITHOUT LOSING 1 HP!!!! WTH??? That's a tank!!! 8 times 2 is 16 in attack!!!! The spearman didn't lose 1 HP and gets promoted to elite..I got so mad...u don't wanna know

That's pretty gross!

I'll have a fuller writeup later, but the good news is that I managed to do to Russia what they did to both of you, so I'll have a second spoiler to report.

 

[eldar]

My Jason score was 60, by the way. I've never won an Ambulance before.

I also disagree that the start location was a deathtrap: as I said, if I'd made the choice to abandon a granary (or more likely with the cow in sight, a settler) and build an archer (NOT a spear - you can't counter-attack with a spear...), I'd have gone on to greater things. Indeed I did in my replay.

If a game forest, a river, two cows, and mostly grassland and plains when Russia gets mostly tundra, and Egypt and Rome are bogged down in jungle, is a deathtrap, I'd like to see a really nasty start!

 

[DWetzel]

60. Wow. Forgive me if I giggle. It's nothing personal.

Open class, going for space (for now). On purpose this time!

Moved worker to BG, noted other BGs, moved settler 1NW to capture them all (eventually). Set research to Pottery at maximum. Built two warriors to start (for exploration).

Met the Russian spear in 3650 BC (!). I can do math. That meant they aren't far away. Traded Warrior Code for the remainder of Pottery and Russia's 10 gold. Set research to Alphabet at minimum.

I decided that having Russia around, while useful for trade, was going to crimp my style a little bit. So, after building two warriors, the capital built a barracks and then three archers. The warrior that went to check on Russia's location found Moscow quickly, and also spotted both Russian workers toiling away on my edge of the Russian territory, with no units between me and them. That seemed like a good way to kick off the war. My warrior captured the two slaves and sent them on their way home. He survived the counterattack, redlining in the process, and running for home himself.

Right about the time my third veteran archer got built is when the Russian mini-SoD arrived, consisting of three spears, a warrior, and a settler (not necessarily all in one group). I killed one spear, the warrior, and a conscript warrior that wandered up, at the cost of one archer. After the third archer, the capital went for a granary. My three archers and one of my two warriors healed and headed south, razing St. Petersburg in 2430 BC. I made peace right then, taking Ceremonial Burial, Iron Working, and Kiev (which turned out to be a size 1 tundra town that basically contributed unit support and the very occasional worker). Two of my archers made it to elite as part of this war. The third died.

I didn't even spot the cows until the second culture expansion revealed one. I was pretty focused on the south (which apparently was a wise move!!).

Needless to say, the Russian peace was to be a short-lived peace. I regrouped, healed, and then re-declared on Russia via sneak attack in 2150 BC. My first eArcher defeated the Russian spear and yielded a MGL. As I didn't fancy an archer army, he ran home to make the Pyramids. Of course, I didn't have Masonry for a few hundred years yet, but that was a minor detail. The second archer killed a defending spear. The warrior killed the defending archer, capturing size 3 Moscow and destroying the Russians. I think, no, I know, that I got insanely lucky in these battles. I'll take it.

I founded Dos (fourth overall, counting the two Russian ones, though those were sufficiently far away to be pretty corrupt) in 2070 BC, at RCP4, above the cows on the coast.

Spotted silks in 1830 BC. Also in 1830, founded Tres at RCP4 on east coast, to eventually capture both fish. After its second settler, the capital kicked out an archer and then a couple of spears for MP/exploration.

Got Masonry in 1575 BC (Writing at max), immediately rushed Pyramids in the capital.

Met Rome in 1400 BC via exploring warrior; they are up Writing/Wheel/Mysticism. I decline to trade for now. Met Egypt 1 turn later, up same techs; bought last 5 turns of Writing for 58g, Literature at max.

QSC stats:
11 cities (including the two captured ones)
23 pop
2 settlers + 1 in production
6 archers
2 spears
5 warriors
5 workers + 3 slaves + 6 workers in production
Contacts: Rome, Egypt, Russia (deceased). Pink borders across the coast, no contact yet.
Spices hooked up, on the way to two more luxes.
One Pyramids
Techs: BW, Masonry, Alpha, WC, CB, IW, Writing. Lit in 4.

925: Founded Diez and Once (the latter to capture the silks in the south).

900: Got Literature. Trade Lit to Rome for Mapmaking straight up. Trade Lit+17g+WM to Egypt for Mysticism+WM (yes, this was brutal, but it worked OK). Swap Library in Dos to galley, up next turn.

875: Meet France (those pink borders). Trade them Lit for Wheel +55g + WM. Realize I forgot to set research back up after finishing Lit at 10%; ramp it back up, Philo in 7.

850: Aztecs finish Oracle.

730: Philo in; Rome has Code of Laws and HBR, would trade HBR but not CoL. I decide to wait. Polytheism due in 10, at -6 gpt (62g in the bank).

710: Killing a barb hut makes me feel better about my cash situation.

610: Found Doce and Trece.

590: Galley somewhat improbably finds the other continent. Literature+WM trade over there yields Code of Laws AND HBR + WM, revealing the other opponents.

570: Polytheism in, full steam on Republic. I sell Literature abroad for decent cash.

510: Rome builds Great Library. They have exactly two contacts. Good for them.

330: Republic in; revolt immediately for 5 turn anarchy. Trade Republic to Rome for WM+260g+Math. Trade Math abroad for 203g+WM. Trade Math to Egypt for 120g.

290: I can trade France for Ivory, and do so. Civ abroad gets Monarchy. Trade Republic for Monarchy; trade Monarchy to Rome for construction.

230: Establish Republic; Currency in 4 at 60% (-32 gpt).

150 BC: Research Currency, enter Middle Ages. Draw Feudalism as the free tech.

I think I've had a couple of fun strokes of luck so far, but I'm probably squandering them.

 

[milr]

Open Class, entering MA in 50BC Despotism

Settled in place, worker W1 to mine/road, build Archer, research IW. Hoping to find iron early lest it fall into unfirendly hands. Turned out to be a reasonable choice - Russian mob offered Pots for WC+20g, but later found that iron was already underfoot.
With only a single Archer against a Spear and two Warriors, Russia might have terminated us in dawn's early light, but thankfully they retreated to develop a planned attack. By the time that came, I had two archers with a third ready to hatch, and so it came to be that forevermore the Russian army would be known as the red army in memory of the blood shed on that fateful day. That was it for wars on our mainland so far as I could tell, though I suppose the Romans and Egyptians might have fought an early war or two. We did read in a bottle note that drifted onto our shores that a nation known as the honorable Iroquois had been destroyed in a fierce battle, obviously in some far away land.

The French, bless their hearts, are confined to their small private continent, thanks to the wise territorial expansion of we mainlanders. By the time the trade winds started to blow our way, their settlers had nowhere to land. Not wanting to allow petty territorial disputes detract from our growth, we graciously ignored the trespasses of our neighbors vainly searching for unclaimed lands to settle.

Our country now stands at a crossroad. Our strong but untested army is clamoring to settle old scores and to conquer other nations. Yet the common citizen seeks a new government that will engage the brilliant minds of our people in a flury of scientific discovery that might even lead to the very heavens above the sky. Shall it be war or peace, or perhaps war then peace? Or do we dare trust that our neighbors will share our desire for peace if we share the bounty of our heartland? If so, then we should lead the world toward a new world order in which national disputes are arbitrated, rather than settled in battle. The answer lies hidden somewhere in the future. As for me, I think we need a great leader to emerge and set the course for our future. Hmmm, now how does one find a great leader?

STATS:

14 cities, 145/145 tiles own/dom, 50 citizens, 19 workers, no slaves, 1 settler at sea, 13 archers, 1 spear, 23 swords.3 galleys. no wonders, 352 culture/ 6per turn. Missing Repubic & Monarchy, but got Feudalism with trade opportunities.

 

[krakedhalo]

Wow. Glad to see I'm in good company with Eldar and Axehand, though I think I "beat" both of them for futility. Russian stack of 2 warriors and a spear approach in 3450, my second warrior was exploring north, their first attacker took out my warrior.

Game over. 13 minutes.

 

[PrinceMyshkin]

Predator, going for conquest

4000BC Found Berlin on the spot and send worker to chop game building warrior-warrior-granary; research pottery at max
3650BC Contact Russia spotting their exploring pikeman-he goes north and is never seen again; Trade wc for pottery + 10 gold start researching alpha at max
2430BC Found Leipzig RCP4 near fish; spices connected
2030BC Found Hamburg RCP4 near cows; Russia makes a demand with 2 warriors 3-tiles from capital and dow's after a rebuff; switch 2 towns to archer as barracks has already been chopped in Berlin; archers defeat 3 incoming warriors over next turns
1950BC Pop worker from hut in northern jungle
1790BC Contact Rome
1700BC Contact Egypt; peace with Russia for the wheel, bw, cb and 18 gold; trade to Egypt for masonry
1675BC Discover writing; trade for iw, myst, and gold; establish 3 embassies
1575BC Found Konigsberg RCP4
1350BC Found Frankfurt RCP4
1325BC Found Munich RCP4
1250BC Discover Lit; trade for hbr and maps; switch 2 towns to galleys
1225BC Found Heidelburg RCP4
1175BC Contact France; connect dyes and horses
1125BC Found Nuremberg RCP4
1000BC Trade for remaining research on CoL and trade for polytheism

QSC stats: 8 towns, 17 pop, 7 workers, 2 settlers, 2 galleys, 5 warriors, 2 archers, 4 rax, 1 granary, 4 contacts, 3 embassies, map of continent, horses, dyes, spices, lacking philo, gov't. techs, math, currency and construction

950BC Cologne RCP7
925BC Hanover RCP7
900BC Off continent civ builds the Pyramids
850BC Discover philosophy; research set to Republic at max aided by chopping libraries
800BC Off continent civ builds the Oracle
710BC Found Bremen; off continent civ builds the Colossus
650BC Found Stuttgart
610BC Found Bonn
590BC Romans complete Hanging Gardens and Russia completes TGLib
570BC Found Salzburg
550BC Discover Republic and revolt for 5-turn anarchy; trade for math
470BC France builds the Great LightHouse
430BC Found Dortmund; trade for construction
370BC Contact other continent and get complete world map
350BC Trade for currency and reach MA getting feudalism as free tech

Russia also got feudalism for free. Plan is to upgrade to MI and conquer Russia getting the GLib, research will be off for now. A stack of 5MI, 4 horsemen and 2 archers are already on their borders. France and the Lighthouse will probably be the next target. Looking at the map, conquest will be slowed somewhat by over 25 towns built on hills so far. I'm not sure how much research will be needed to get to the other civs, but I plan to foment wars over there, soon. Egypt is already warring with Rome.

 

[The Professor]

Wow, I guess I lucked out. I met Russia's gang of three in 3700 BC, but they happily traded Pottery for WC + 1g. My second warrior stayed home to defend Moscow, but Russia hasn't gotten aggressive. Rome has demanded my WM, and I've given in since I'm busy expanding, and don't think I'm ready for war. Rome has warred early with Egypt, which I guess why they haven't shown any interest in fighting me.

Built Leipzig on the coast by the cows, and it is busily spitting out 4-turn settlers. The Russians are stuck with about 8 cities in the tundra, they should make easy prey when my stack of swords is ready. The Romans look more formidable; legionaries are swords plus pikes. France is way behind, stuck on their little island, and Egypt looks pretty wounded from the fight with Rome. Haven't found any other Civ's yet.

At 1000 BC:
8 cities
19 Citizens
2 granaries
3 Barracks
1 settler
8 workers
12 warriors
1 archer
1 spear
lacking Phil, poly, math, currency, construction and government tech's

 

[eldar]

Wow. Glad to see I'm in good company with Eldar and Axehand, though I think I "beat" both of them for futility. Russian stack of 2 warriors and a spear approach in 3450, my second warrior was exploring north, their first attacker took out my warrior.

Game over. 13 minutes.

Meh. That'll "beat" my Ambulance score too What's worse is that I spent 2 hours prior to starting analyzing the starting position, doing a spreadsheet of moves/builds/etc. Then Cathy shows up and bombs the party all to Siberia!!

 

[templar_x]

playing open class. either going for space, from what i can see now, or UN.

this was maybe the slowest start i have seen in a very long time. lucked out with my decision for another unit for the start. then cathy suddenly appeared with her mini-SOD - she saw i was waiting for her with an axe in the hand and turned around.
i returned her kind visit soon, looking for her house with my own SOD...
one well prepared attack against russia´s empire was nearly enough, although they had built lots of tundra towns really quick. but then i had an experience similar to axehaxe: i lost nearly all of my army (12 units) to two of her spears! this kept the russians around for a very long time with two lousy tundra cities.
the egyptians always love me for no reason, the romans hate me... for the same no reason. they started two small wars with me over nothing, and now i gave them a reason . they are no fun to fight with b/c of their UU, but they are pretty much under control now.
the French? hm, let me think, ... sure yes, they ARE in the game. they spend all their li´l income on my always brandnew WM.

for the nice part, i had gained a GL from my first elite victory in my first war against Russia. sweet. this seems to become a special new ability of myself, with regards to TT´s actual DG-succession game. built the Great Lighthouse from it, after i remembered it´s PTW and i can rush wonders. i hoped it would bring me the quick contacts, and that´s exactly what i´ve got from it. (but otherwise, this was a strange situation. i cannot remember when the last time i built a wonder that early in any game, so no experience which one would be best!)

the game was incredibly slow until now, i could not believe it. i had met them all, and none of them had techs. am i supposed to self research everything here? on emperor level??
my mistake was indeed, i started too late to really do this. can´t blame anyone but myself.
at some time, one AI from the other continent and myself became runaways, leaving everyone else far behind. the AIs monopolist behaviour makes trades close to impossible, so i already researched 6 techs now in a row all by myself.

revolution? was around only 50BC and i drew 8 turns of anarchy. that did not really speed me up. gifting the russians up did not get me anything either. and then i had definitely no use for them any more.
and have i already mentioned that Germany still entered the MA first?! of all civs!

 

[MarleysGh0st]

Since our moderator obviously wanted a little schadenfreude with that starting position and everyone else is confessing, I went ahead and submitted my evidence of failing to respond to unexpected circumstances...

Entry class: Open
Game status: Conquest Loss
Game date: 2430 BC
Firaxis score: 97
Jason score: 77
Time played: 00:15:39

I spotted the Russian stack of doom in 3700 BC, but they turned away from their first approach to Berlin. I founded Leipzig in 2800 BC, to the north of Berlin, and started building a granary. Then a stack of three Russian warriors marched on Berlin again, so I switched to building an archer. With the Russians at the gates of the city, I demand they leave. Naturally, they declare war. Foolishly, I tried attacking them with my archer, Berlin's lone defender. The archer loses and the Russians take the now undefended city. They march north, defeat the warrior there, raze Leipzig, and consign Germany to the history books in 2430 BC.

And my Jason score isn't even good enough for the ambulance.

 

[Chamnix]

Predator class.

I settled in place and moved the worker to the game forest to chop and irrigate. Builds were warrior, warrior, then a settler on growth to size 3 aided by the chop.

A Russian pikeman walked into undefended Berlin in 3000 BC. I already had my second city founded, so the game wasn't over. I played long enough to convince myself that I would still win the game, but I don't think I'll spend the time to complete it.

 

[greatbeyond]

I'm sure it was just a coincidence that the Russians were sooo close and sent a stack of 2 Spears and a Warrior to try and eliminate the human player. It seems the Russians had too many units to start the game (open class). As for me I started with a Warrior then an Archer and managed to deter Catherine until a little bit later. BTW it seems I wasn't the only one that had RNG disasters as I had several instances of Archers losing to 1 Spear and an elite Swordsman losing to a regular Warrior with no defensive bonuses. I'll try a little more in depth description later. Right now I am doing much better as the game has progressed.

 

[eldar]

Russia would have stared with 4 free spears, 2 free warriors, 1 free worker.

So the stack she sent out would almost certainly have at least 1 warrior, 1 spear; the remaining unit would be down to RNG but most likely a warrior with the extra spears defending Moscow and/or the workers.

 

[TheOverseer714]

That early attack was a real killer. I survived, but it really wiped out my whole REX phase. I may not have time to finish it, with my SG schedule, but I'd probably have a lousy score. What was with the RnG? I was losing swords to unfortified archers regularly, and my swords fortified and behind walls were easy meat for regular archers, not to mention needing 3-4 spears per Russian spear. Very ugly indeed! Civ-Steve was in a very cruel mood this month.

 

[Lanzelot]

The same as what Overseer714 said also goes for me.

I remember in Civ2 "Friedrich der Große" has been ruler of the Germans instead of Bismarck. This would have been much more fitting for the current game... For those of you not familiar with Prussian history, here's the story: In the Seven-Years War in 1759 the Prussians suffered a decisive defeat at the battle of Kunersdorf. But then instead of advancing to Berlin, the Russians unexpectedly retreated to Cottbus. As a consequence Prussia survived that cruel war, where it was fighting alone against the combined powers of Russia, Austria-Hungaria, France and a few smaller states, and instead of being extinguished it became one of Europes great powers.
(See also http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirakel_des_Hauses_Brandenburg. Note: the English version of that Wikipedia entry is a bit off topic in my opinion, talking more about Hitler than Friedrich II.)

Well, I predicted a slow start in the Pre-Game Discussion, but for completely wrong reasons: the starting position was actually quite good. After settling in place I saw that the game was the only food bonus, so I decided to chop it right away, thinking food is more important than shields in the early phase. In the time until the timber was due to arrive in Berlin, I built two warriors for scouting purposes. The first one went to the mountain tops at SE-SE-E, where he arrived in 3650BC, only to see the Russian SoD of 1 spear and 2 warriors I had read somewhere that the AI cheats and knows the positions of all units of the human player, so I knew, what they were heading for: undefended Berlin!

I fortified that warrior on the mountain top to block their advance, kept the second warrior at home instead of sending him scouting and chopped the forest into a spear instead of an early granary. I traded the Russians Warrior Code for Pottery and a few gold coins and they went from Annoyed to Cautious, so I hoped perhaps they'll be nice neighbors...

When the Russian stack turned north to go around the little lake, my blocking warrior followed them like in a mirror and blocked them again in the forest SE of the spices. When the spear completed, Berlin started on a settler, which was then send west to the two cows.

Meanwhile the Russian stack had turned around again and eventually arrived on German soil. I can't remember now, whether that was before or after the completion of that first settler. With a spear and a warrior I felt relatively safe, but the Russians declared anyway. Talking about RNG luck: the first Russian warrior killed my spearman, which was fortified in Berlin behind a river, and the warrior didn't even loose a single hit point!! What are the odds of something like that??
At that point I thought, ok, game over. There's only one warrior left in Berlin, and Cathy can still attack with another warrior and spearman (and she knows the warrior is the last defender). But then the miracle happened: the other two units didn't attack?!?!

Perhaps she wanted to use all three units again in next turn's attack?! If that first warrior would have lost one or two hitpoints (and consequently would have been of no use the following turn), would she have kept attacking?

Anyway, I immediately switched the granary, I had started meanwhile, back to spearman again and moved my second warrior back into Berlin. Fortunately it hadn't gone far. The next turn both Russian warriors attacked, the first one again killing one of my warriors without getting a scratch, and the other one redlining my last defender! I tell you, that game was not for the faint-hearted! The next turn my spearman replacement finished -- and was killed right away, when that darn Russian warrior attacked again! But this time the Russian warrior got redlined in the process. My remaining warrior had gone from red to yellow since the last turn, so if the Russian spearman would attack now, it could still have been game over. But miraculously it didn't. And the next turn they retreated, probably to heal the redlined warrior.

Now the crisis was over, I survived by a hair, but the game was pretty much crippled. No early scouting, no early granary, no early expansion. For the next couple of centuries a continuous stream of Russion warriors kept arriving in Germany, and Berlin had to build many spears and archers, which kept loosing against those warriors. civ_steve must've manipulated the RNG as well...

But once Leipzig was set up by the two cows and started producing workers and settlers, my core grew and finally I gained the upper hand in that war. But I wasn't able to go on the attack myself, because meanwhile I had two contacts in the north: Egypt and Rome, both of which declared on my after some initial trading. So I made peace with Russia and postponed my punishment raid till later...

At hat point I took a look at the map. In an earlier GOTM I had made the mistake of directing the first attack against the closest neighbor instead of against the one with the best core. That had delayed the establishment of my second core for two long, and I didn't want to repeat that mistake. Therefore I dicided Rome would be my first serious target, as they had undoubtedly the best territory, including two cows, two wheats, iron, furs and 4 silks. In the Russian wars I had already gained a very early Swordsmen Army, so I sent that, 8 additionly swords and a couple of warriors for road-building purposes north towards Rome. However, that plan had a couple of flaws:

• Roman Legions are quite tough...
• Roman Legions in a jungle war are even tougher...
• Getting my units through the jungle takes ages.
• The unit upkeep with the few towns I had eats up all the money.

In retrospect I probably should have taken over Russias 10 or so towns first, this would have allowed my a larger army, which would have dealt with Rome more successfully. (At that point I had killed dozens of Russian invaders, while my military had been coninuously growing, so taking out Russia would probably have been easy at that time. However, there territory was quite worthless, so I thought that can as well be taken lateron, Russia is quite weak now and will never be a threat again. - I didn't think of unit upkeep at that point...)

As it was I fought a long and unsuccessful war against Rome&Egypt, loosing quite a number of swordsmen in the jungle, getting to Roman territory in snail-tempo, because I used my Swords Army to eliminate the Legions that were heading south, and those stupid PTW Armies take so painfully long to heal! When I finally reached and fortified the mountain barrier between the jungle and Roman territory, the Russians sneak attacked, and I had to turn back... But that's a story for the second spoiler.

Republic was established around 450BC, and the MA entered around 200-100BC. Leipzig had completed the Great Lighthouse and Berlin the Heroic Epic shortly before entering the MA. I got Feudalism, gifted up the Russians and they got Engineering. Lateron I got that in a peace deal for free...

My QSC stats (calculated backwards from an 875BC save):
7 towns
4 contacts
14 or 15 techs

A final word on this game: I think too much depended on RNG luck. Whether you are eliminated after a couple of dozen turns or whether you survive and go on to victory is solely decided by coincidence and not by your playing skill. If this weren't Germany (which I like so much, and who knows when I'll get the next chance to play it in a GOTM, and after all I had been the one asking for a "late-UU civ", so I feel kind of obliged to play it...) I would not submit this month. After reading the posts here, I feel this game is not fair to those who were eliminated early on. I don't think they played any worse than the rest of us, it was just bad luck.

Lanzelot