GOTM86 - Spoiler #2

[civ_steve]

GOTM 86 - second spoiler, The Middle Ages

Reading Requirements:

1. Must have contact with All remaining Civs.
2. Must be able to research an Industrial Age Technology.

Posting restrictions

1. No maps showing Industrial or Modern resources.
2. No discussion of Industrial Age (or later).
3. Absolutely NO Discussion of any other active 'X'OTM contest!

A lot of players will probably finish this game off during the Middle Ages. Are you one of them? Where have you gotten any resources that you need (if any)? If you're planning a later era victory, how are your plans going? This game is somewhat similar to last month's, except for difficulty level and civ - any generalizations you care to make contrasting the two civs? For that matter, has the Spanish UU had an impact?

 

[choxorn]

A turn later, China decided to start talking, and I signed Peace, getting Feudalism for a greatly discounted price. Some tech trades later, I got Monotheism, Engineering, and a bunch of gold. I also traded with Persia for Ivory and Carthage for Iron.

These deals lasted about two seconds. Persia had landed a settler and built Sardis on my island. Albeit annoyed, I was kind of happy- the massive uprising that had just appeared there entirely attacked this city, likely causing Persia a great deal of trouble. I was going to let this city last a little bit longer, but then they sent another Settler to my island. Now annoyed and not wanting any more of their cities to deal with, I declared war, burned Sardis and grabbed their settler pair, as well as another settler pair they landed a turn later. Unfortunately, I forgot about the Ivory I was getting from them- and the Iron I was getting from Carthage that needed to go through their waters- and both deals are broken. So much for trading reputation. (Although, it's kind of annoying that it gets broken for this- I wasn't giving Persia anything as part of a 20-turn deal, they were giving it to me)

It is currently 250 AD. I'm still at war with Persia for now, and there's a nearby city that has Ivory, so I'll try to take that and then see if they'll talk peace.

Anyway, I played a little farther. I captured Persia's Ivory city, then signed for peace, got some cash and a 2-tile island city way to the southeast. A while later, The Vikings came in my territory, and declared when I told them to "remove or declare". I killed them, and now (580 AD) have a stack of a few catapults, Horsemen, and Longbowmen stacked near their border city. And I've just become annoyed, because I bombarded the city with catapults, and the second time I hit it, it would hit something (probably damage a spear or destroy the walls) the game crashed. I reloaded, and it crashed again. I did this about 10 times before finally deciding "screw it", and used the second catapult to hit Horsemen beside the city.

I hope it doesn't crash again when I bombard, or I'm screwed.

Moderator Action: Entire Post moved from Spoiler 1 were discussions regarding Longbows are clearly out of bounds!
Please limit your discussion to the restrictions posted for the Spoiler thread!

 

[Quintillus]

Going for a Cultural 20K victory, I haven't been that expansionistic, but I did push the Vikings off my island in the early Middle Ages, before they got a chance to go Berserk. It was mostly Horsemen for me vs. Horsemen and Pikemen for them, with a couple Viking Pikes thrown in. My losses were unusually low for attacking Pikemen, helped in part by a Horse army (that nearly got itself killed in its first attack, but thereafter did well).

Otherwise militaristically, the Babylonians had settled near the Wine so I knocked them out too (Persia had settled there first, then the Vikings knocked them out, but Babylon beat everyone to resettle it). Right after I made peace they settled a city in the SW part of the island where the Vikings had razed one of mine . So midway through the Middle Ages I DOW'ed Babylon again, taking that city, one in the jungle of the Korean island that'll have gems once it culture pops, and one on the nearest island SE of mine. I settled for peace thereafter rather than taking their island to focus on markets/banks/libraries/universities, as I need a good economy for 20K. Conquistadores helped a bit in the Second Babylonian War, but it was Spears I was fighting anyway, so Horses would've been fine.

I did end up teching Persia and Korea ahead once I hit the Middle Ages; they drew Monotheism and Feudalism. I traded gold to Persia for Feudalism and used Sun Tzu's as a prebuild for The Hanging Gardens (130 AD). Then I used it as a prebuild for the Sistine Chapel (530 AD) and again for JS Bach's (960 AD), also getting the Heroic Epic in there (630 AD). Next I built Copernicus' (1160 AD) and Shakespeare's (1310 AD). My plan was to build Newton's thereafter, but as soon as I teched into the Industrial Ages the Persias stole it and the Ottomans completed Smith's. Since I got Navigation in a resource-export earlier, I'll have to settle for Magellan's. *crosses fingers no one takes it in the next two turns* Research is directed towards Industrialism for the production boost and Universal Suffrage.

As to the lack of resouces, it's another part of the reason I'm being peaceful. I'll probably trade for Iron right before I get Steam Power, and hope coal turns up (somehow I doubt it). Thank goodness for horses! And luxuries are actually pretty good.

Government-wise, I switched from Monarchy to Democracy a couple turns after getting Demo (waited for Cop's to finish first). Republic is less better than Democracy in PTW, and since I figure my wars will be short and quick I decided why not. My next war will be a quick capture of the Viking island with lots of fish, cows, and whales to the West if all goes according to plan.

Babylon, Korea, and Vikings remain in the Middle Ages, but I'm pretty sure everyone else just now entered the Industrial Ages, so I do have tech parity.

 

[choxorn]

It happened again. Luckily, I saved for good measure just before every time I bombarded that city.

Anyway, I think I know what happened. It was trying to target the walls, but the walls were indestructible (The Vikings built the Great Wall). The bug that normally happens couldn't work- there was nothing else in the city to hit. So, the game crashed.

Needless to say, after taking that city, the city the Vikings had with the Spices, and a city of mine I had stupidly allowed them to capture, I made peace, grabbing another one of their cities from the deal. It is now 800 AD, and I think I'll wait until Metallurgy to go after the Vikings again.

Moderator Action: Moved from Spoiler 1 because Metallurgy is clearly not an Ancient Age Technology!

 

[choxorn]

Republic is less better than Democracy in PTW, and since I figure my wars will be short and quick I decided why not.

Erm... This GOTM was edited, Republic is exactly like it is in C3C...

Anyway, as to my game. Since my war with the Vikings I mentioned in spoiler thread one, I've mostly just built. I went after Sun Tzu in Madrid, but the bloody Carthaginians beat it to me by ONE BLEEPIN TURN. So I settled for Leo's Workshop. Actually, this proved to be rather helpful later- I recently got Saltpeter and Iron from the Babylonians and Leo's brought the upgrade cost down just enough for me to upgrade all my units to musketmen and knights (and, a few turns later, cavalry) on that turn. Well, at least, all the ones in cities with barracks. I shortly after moved the spears and catapults from my few cities without barracks to cities that did have barracks and upgraded them.

Speaking of the resource trades, I found it unbelievably hard to get any. Most nations lacked a spare source of Iron or Saltpeter, and those that did already traded it to someone else (Or in the case of Korea, didn't have Gunpowder yet). Babylon was the only one that didn't, and I couldn't trade with them, as they absolutely refused to build a single harbor anywhere. I eventually managed to connect a road from them to the Spices city I captured from the Vikings, and traded with them. My shot rep means I have to give them techs to get resources, but luckily, they're behind.

Back to wonders, I went after and easily got Copernicus' Observatory in Madrid, and currently aim for Newton in Madrid and Smith's in Barcelona.

In 1180 AD, I got Magnetism and that sent me into the IA. Now, in 1200 AD, most of the nations are a little behind me. All lack ToG and Magnetism, and several also lack Military Tradition. Babylon lacks Economics AND Military Tradition, and Korea is far back, still in the middle of the era. There's a pretty good reason for this: Carthage, Persia, and the Ottomans all fought a war with them for a while, and a few cities changed hands on some islands, and that likely slowed them down. Towards the end, I joined in too- After Carthage and the Ottomans had signed peace, Persia asked for my help, and said they would pay 24 gpt if I declared war on Korea. Making sure I had no per turn deals with Korea, I accepted this offer, hoping it would get me some money. Persia, obviously, signed peace with Korea about 3 turns after this. I signed peace with Korea too as soon as they'd talk.

My deals with Babylon will expire soon, so I clearly need to get Iron and Saltpeter of my own at some point. I have a plan to get the latter of the two: An island in the center of the map, or thereabouts, contains 4 Carthaginian cities and one Babylonian city. One of the Carthaginian cities is built on top of a Saltpeter source. I plan to send a few Cavalry, Cannons, and Conquistadores down to that island and forcibly remove Carthage from it. That's easier said than done, though- they have either NuMercs on Muskets, and they're the strongest AI in the game at the moment. Luckily, they don't have Military Tradition yet. I hope I can do this quickly.

As to Iron, I could probably fight Babylon, Korea, or Persia over that. Persia will probably be the easiest, and I'm itching to get back at them for cheating me on that military alliance, so I'll probably fight them, although my plans could change, depending on the location of Coal.