GOTM95 - First Spoiler

[civ_steve]

GOTM 95 - first spoiler, the Ancient Age

Reading Requirements:

1. Must be able to research a Middle Ages Technology.

Posting restrictions

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

Good growth potential for the starting location, but a little short on commerce; was this a significant problem, especially for research, or did you manage ok? You get an isolated start, which has advantages and disadvantages - was this overall better for you or not? How did your contacts go? Fill up your landmass, or did you get help? Finally, how does it look going forward?

 

[Megalou]

Open

Good growth potential for the starting location, but a little short on commerce; was this a significant problem, especially for research, or did you manage ok?

A decent number of towns could be built thanks to the starting location of Moscow. Other food bonuses for semi-corrupt towns plus a few forests helped build settlers too and as our isolation became evident I realized that a large number of towns would be very useful to keep the upkeep down once we got to republic. (We could expand easily and didn't have to build a lot of weak military units.)

You get an isolated start, which has advantages and disadvantages - was this overall better for you or not?

I've already mentioned the main advantage, but there was no way to makes gain through warfare. Are you forcing a builder's game upon us? I'm game.

How did your contacts go?

Utterly terribly, but it remains to be seen how big the loss is compared to other players. I spotted borders very early, around 1800 BC, and thought that the blue AI would bring Map Making on a galley. (It's not the kind of tech you want to research as long as you know one AI.) So I went for Literature (building libraries - phew,) Philosophy, CoL, and Republic. But there was no galley until 450 BC and that was an Ottoman galley. However, I did have a monopoly on literature then and later got to trade Republic to three civs, so things improved.

Fill up your landmass, or did you get help? Finally, how does it look going forward?

Ha-ha. Ottomans settled on the frozen isthmus to the west shortly after the uprising. They had to eat ALL the barbs! I placed a spearman within view to enjoy the show. So, no I didn't fill up the landmass but I had tightly placed towns going as far west as the gems.



Condensed timeline:
Build order: warrior,warrior,granary,settler,worker
It would be interesting to know if early worker instead of a second warrior would have paid off.

RCP 4 or 5? 5 gives room for one more town and more towns on coast, but I chose 4. I think now it was wrong, but RCP gives nice ring of RCP6 too.

3700-Popped map, spotted nearby wine.
although founding town on gold is always tempting.
3400- Spotted distant gems.
3200- Spotted strange icy land bridge/peninsula.
2850 - Popped CB. Probably dumb if we are alone.
2750 - But now scout sees grass.
Nice place for a peaceful FP in conquests, little more.
2190 - Scout dead, but finished exploring. Alphabet (40t.) Saved up 27 gold.
1790 - Blue borders. 4 towns. Settler factory starts running.
1600 - Wine connected.
1525 - Two warriors fail to take a barb camp.
1375 - Writing.
1300 - Economically dispersed the barb camp.
1200 - Temple in Minsk.
925 - Literature. When will someone come to see me?
900 - Again, a barb camp comes in handy.
750 - Philosophy.
570 - CoL
450 - Finally met someone. And it is not the morons with the blue borders but the Ottomans, who know
everyone. Gems connected.
430 - Naturally, Ottomans are world leaders and won't trade contact with us. We use Literature to buy contacts,
then Map Making.

410 - Barb uprising. Sold Incence to Vikings to afford speeding up Republic.
350 - Sold Gems to Vikings for IW.
270 - Republic. Trade World Map, Masonry, WS, Myst, Math, HB, Currency. We revolt and get 7 turns on both rolls.
170 - Ottomans, recently with 600 g-coffers, before uprising,has been looted down to 11 because of their colony on our continent.
The toughness of the map is clear when we note that every AI can trade with each other but we can only trade with Vikings.
30 BC - Finally entered MA. 4 turns to FP.

 

[MinutiaRules]

Good growth potential for the starting location, but a little short on commerce; was this a significant problem, especially for research, or did you manage ok?

I chose to chop the forest which took a relatively long period of time to turn the potential into reality. My reasearch was as much as I could get yet still ended up very poor. Although I didn't use any scientists. I wonder if that would have made a significant difference in this position.

You get an isolated start, which has advantages and disadvantages - was this overall better for you or not? How did your contacts go?

Well I had to rely upon AI help to get any contacts as it took forever to get to MM. The isolated start would have suited me just fine if I could have gotten boats earlier. Hopefully somebody will show how to do this. Perhaps I shouldn't have gone straight to MM but instead COL or Lit? But what if the AI doesn't make contact?

Fill up your landmass, or did you get help?

Looks like I have a reasonable chance to fill it out. But that is still uncertain.

Finally, how does it look going forward?

I don't relish the idea of invading anyone over the seas as the AI have a tendacy to get really large numbers of units that they just keep around. But given my so far poor research results I don't know what else to try. Perhaps trading luxuries will help to a significant degree?

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Moscow built in 4000BC. Build Warrier then granary.
Plan head straight to MM. I like boats as fast as possible in these types
of games.
Worker mines then roads the NW BG. Then heads to game to chop,
irrigate then road.
Scout Explores, pops deserted village.

1990 BC - Vikings get Colossus.

1650BC - 4 turn SF established.

1550 BC - Ottomans pyramids.

1500 BC - Culture expand. See Blue borders. Note: Will need to block access
to local land once galleys are possible.

1450 BC America Oracle.

1000 BC - 11 towns, 2 settlers, 10 workers (close to a personal record for this number
of towns this barb setting!), 1 scout, 12 warriers,
107 gold and MM in 10. Have yet to see a single barb. GH's
were all deserted villages so far.

800 BC America GLH.

730 BC know everybody but not from my doing. I guess they traded contacts around
after an American galley came into view just before this time. Looks like
America is not yet interested in settling the local land. I still have a
chance to keep my area AI free.

10 BC - Traded World map, 21 gpt and 171 gold for currency and construction.
Entered MA with Engineering monopoly! Traded it around to obtain all
AE techs plus Mono. and Feud. Revolt, back in 7. Note: before this time
I made efforts to trade but nothing appealing came up.

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[Racinante]

Good growth potential for the starting location, but a little short on commerce; was this a significant problem, especially for research, or did you manage ok?

Entered the MA later than I would have preferred. Have all three luxuries connected, so that will help. Headed to Monarchy first as I thought that path would allow me to trade better.

You get an isolated start, which has advantages and disadvantages - was this overall better for you or not?

Definitely...

How did your contacts go? Fill up your landmass, or did you get help? Finally, how does it look going forward?

The Ottomans traded contact with me to many of the other AIs, which allowed me to trade with most on the same turn. I expanded across the mountains and tundra to encounter the towns of the Germans (2), Ottomans (1), Americans (1), and Scandinavians (2). Looks like some of the AIs are at war with each other.

4000 BC: Settle in place, w, w, worker, granary
1000 BC: QSC 8 towns, 74 land, 17 population, 11 units (5 worker, 5 warrior, 1 spear), in production worker x 3, Temple, Sword, Settler, Granary, 70% sci, 20% lux, Pottery, CB, BW, Mysticism, IW, building Polytheism, working on connecting wine and incense.

350 BC: Meet the Ottomans, trade polytheism & WM for Contact
with Germans, Masonry, Alphabet, 42 g
Meet the Scandinavians, trade Poly & WM & 69 g for Writing, Math
Meet the Americans, trade Poly & WM for Literature, TM and 20 g.
Meet the Germans, trade Poly & WM & 17g for Philosophy
50 BC: Talk to the English, trade Monarchy (drew 6 turn anarchy) & WM & 6 g for Currency, Maps, Wheel, Terr Map
Trade Monarchy & WM & 3gpt & 2g for Construction, CoL
150 AD: Complete HB in 4 turns to enter Middle Ages with Monotheism as free tech. Monarchy, 20 towns, 65 population, 25 units (15 workers, 4 warriors, 4 swords, 1 settler, 1 spear), Trade English Monotheism + 23g for Feudalism.

 

[templar_x]

THE ANCIENT AGE

starting considerations
looking at the opponents: there are 3 scientifics, no early GAs – looks like a science game to me.

starting turns
scout W, then S, reveals nothing of interest only desert. worker to deer, found capital on spot. reveals another BG, so 4-6 4-turn SF is possible.
research to CB for 1 turn and zero research.
scout pops deserted village. reseach starts full speed on Alpha although i fear since i do not know whether we are alone. but if we are not, i will need the beakers invested for a trade on Alpha. worker chops forest, timber to go into an ultra-early granary, due to the little food visible.
scout going further south reveals grapes. lands to the south promise more wheat and a cow, but there are lots of hills to cross to get there.
diamonds to the south make three luxuries... are we really alone? maybe not, i find landbridge to the southwest... and more land to the west and still no trading partner.

build order w-w-granary in 2850-worker-w-settler-worker-settlers from here on

3350 first barb warrior appears already. another one trails him.
by 2900 it is very sure i am alone so i turn science to minimum, as there is no chance i will get Alpha earlier than in 40. unlucky loss of a vet warrior (on defense, on a hill, fortified) against 2 barb warriors.
1st settler in 2390
2350 pop 2nd hut, again deserted
2110 i think long and hard where to put the 2nd town and decide for 1W3NW to use the desert tile for good; Alpha in, Writing on max
from 2030 on capital is a 4-turner
1950 found 3rd town 4SE
1700 4th town 2N1NW
1625 5th town 8SE trying to install a difficult worker factory
1525 6th town 2S1SW on the incense
1125 see blue borders to the NE

QSC 1000bc
10 cities
27 citizens
1 settler, 8 workers
8 warriors, 4 vet spears
4 turns to MM

975 statistics tell me that i am the 3rd largest nations in the world. others seem to have smaller islands and/or little food. Germans are last.
875 meet Germans, they are up all visible techs. buy their map, they really have poor lands.
850 i have no idea how but suddenly i have contact with all 5 civs... they must be really close together. everyone is up the same techs (all visible). trading maps around i manage to get a look at most of their lands and collect TW, CB and MAS.
650 get monopoly on LIT, can trade for all techs available but construction. everybody´s got exactly the same techs, how sad. but nobody´s got currency yet – on deity! Poly not around either... strange.
but Poly gets around the next turn.
570 barb uprising, 3 nations have currency now. finally a disparity! trade for all 3 techs and enter MA – draw Feud, but the two other scientifics as well. get some more world info and nearly all the money.

research is full steam to Rep to finally get into a useful government.

templar_x

 

[templar_x]

btw, playing open class for the first game after my break...

Good growth potential for the starting location, but a little short on commerce; was this a significant problem, especially for research, or did you manage ok?

commerce indeed is a problem on this map, but not only for the human player. seeing so few beakers i considered to play no research. seeing the AI lands i don´t feel that´s an opportunity. i´ll rather try to grow my cities fast and get all sea commerce i can get. research is particularly slow given this is deity.

You get an isolated start, which has advantages and disadvantages - was this overall better for you or not? How did your contacts go?

had i been into the trading earlier i feel i could have sped up research. the problem is not that the AI are running away here, but that they were very slow without the human player. contacts were ok as you only had to get into contact with 1 AI, then everyone and his brother came along themselves to see you.

Fill up your landmass, or did you get help? Finally, how does it look going forward?

won´t get some tundra spots, but all the good ones defenitely.

templar_x