GOTM99 - Spoiler #2

[civ_steve]

GOTM 99 - 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!

Arabia is one of those Knight-UU type civs - how well did you use the extra MP of the Ansar Warrior to your advantage? Or did you skip ahead to Cavalry? How is the other continent doing? Are the AI giving you a challenge, or have you taken control of your game?

 

[templar_x]

gotm99 predator class
domination victory in 400ad
Firaxis score 10066
Jason score 11801

i start my attack shortly after 1000bc, but it takes some time until i make a dent...

730 connect 2nd lux
670 Mongols build Pyramids
650 i finally see the first hut in this game! on an island. then i feel i get bad luck, as Persia researches Construction and finishes GW through the cascade instead of wasting the shields invested in the Pyramids! they did not have construction before, and i hate my neighbours to always build the Wall :argh:
610 get first MGL... TGLighthouse i guess. see first immortal. destroy Egypt.
570 game crashes for no apparent reason? get the autosave and do the same moves again (which were aweful battle results, i can tell you)
530 rush Lighthouse
still having bad luck with my suicide galleys...
450 take Persepolis with GW, only 3 defenders, no losses
410 Mongols destroy last Persian town
390 research Poly and enter MA
370 finally a galley makes it over. meet Germany, far backwards. after Otto meet Ottos – the same. buy the other contact, all are equal but France, lagging even a bit more. get all their money and maps. instigate wars and dispense Republic. make a decision for conquest. get Lit from Mongols. try to deal with barbs from uprising, should have done that before the trade with Mongols.
... see the GW-bug in action when barbs sack one empty border town. have to abandon it in order to continue with the game how i hate the GW wonder!
finally connect a third lux.
150 take Karakorum with Pyramids and 4th lux
110 Mongols destroyed, i own the continent. plans on invasion of continent beta.
30ad research Chiv, everyone else still in AA. stop research, upgrades coming.
90ad there is another uprising ???? cannot remember i have ever seen that. suddenly everyone on beta continent is in MA, Germany even drew Feud. i ship-chain first troops to the other continent.
that is *really* bad luck in this game: they lacked 3 techs into MA, so chance must have had each of them research a different one. try to get this constellation in a research game!
game crashes again as i didn´t protect one town... i hate this bug! :rumble: place some units on their way and sure lose two... anyway, no sacks and no game crash this way.
110ad first Ansar victory finally triggers GA
RNG isn´t very kind when 4 Ansars in a row die to two regular spears on flat ground.
250ad Ottos gone, Germans come in force, hurry FP
330 “Fledging” Vikes destroyed, says it all. French too.
340 take last visible German towns, but they don´t disappear
350 i realize that Germany has built their new capital on the 1-tile island... noooooooooooo! have to hurry towards the dom limit now, which means LOTS of rushes.
400ad jump over the limit, despite one flip.

afterword:
TGLight was very important and may have saved by butt. what i think i did well this time is the naval invasion of the other continent. the obvious blunder is that i should have blocked the 1-tile island, for conquest 4 turns earlier.
FP was way too late, i am thinking too Conquests in the Classic games. GA should have come earlier again, too, but i don´t really know how i could have done this without losing too many shields on useless wonders.

templar_x

 

[Megalou]

Predator
Domination 310 AD
Firaxis score 10310
Jason score 12003

Technology
690 BC - Popped Currency on the big eastern island. Unlike Templar_x I found lots of huts, yielding map,warr,warr,BW,Currency,map. Still, the popping of Currency was probably quite lucky, the level being Emperor.
590 BC - Polytheism researched. Enter Middle Ages. Gifted all the scientific civs, having made contact in 670 BC. Got Engineering from Ottomans and Feudalism from Persia. Kept Monopoly on Literature. I was to get no other help with research from the AI.
310 BC - Chivalry.
290 BC - Golden Age. 4-5 turn research from here on.
230 BC - Theology.
30 AD - Navigation.

Other dates

950 BC - Sent 2 suicide galleys. One survived for two turns but would have needed three. Connected iron.
670 BC - Found the beta continent. Declared on Egypt (sloppy planning but OK) having upgraded about 8-10 warriors to swordsmen and continuing to build mainly horsemen (and a couple of libraries.)
650 BC - Trades: Construction, all contacts, 417 gold.
650 BC - First captured town: Giza.
370 BC- ROP rape on Persia.
30 BC - LEADER 1-Forbidden Palace, Pasargadae.
290 BC - Golden Age
50 AD - LEADER 2-Magellan's Voyage, Tyre.
230 AD - Ottomans give us 9 gpt for ROP. Are you sure this is Emperor?
310 AD - Domination, 69 tiles over limit.

Obviously I'm happy with breaking 12K!

T_x, that's a shame about the sacked towns and even more so the fact that you had to change VC. I planned for domination for a long time and I'm sure it would have been a different story if you had done so too.

Having met the Germans and the Ottomans just after you entered the MA, I'm surprised you didn't gift them into the MA. At least it could be worth discussing.

 

[templar_x]

congratulations for your fast domination win, Megalou!

i´ll have a closer look on my blunders later not to occupy that 1-tile island was the one that had my pay dearly for it, definitely.

cheers
templar_x

 

[Megalou]

Yes, with the exception of not exploring the possibilities of combo factories, I'm quite satisfied with the result. It will be interesting to see how others did. Kuningas, for exemple, has done mind-bending things in the past and I recon he will have beaten us.

 

[templar_x]

regarding research and why i did not gift up:

in hindsight it appears i should have gifted the scientifics up. however, i believe i was unlucky here and would do the same if i was in that situation again. sure i would have gotten to Chivalry earlier by gifting up, thus had had my GA earlier (this would have been an important point, imo). on the other hand, with the other continent lacking 3 techs for MA, i felt i had a good chance they would never make it to Feud if i don´t help their research, therefore i would not have had to face pikes and mdis.

i would not expect in a 2nd out of 10 games that all 3 ais manage to research the right (different) tech to come up with it the same turn and trade each other up. in fact, i gasped in disbelief when i saw this.

i think my date would have been quite good for conquest. and it´s all my fault that i missed that vc. (and in case we had agreed to contest for fastest domination, that was my other blunder there... have we?)

it´s always a pleasure to play it out with my friend Megalou though, and i would be interested in the strategies of anyone who beats these dates by lenghts.

templar_x

 

[Megalou]

i think my date would have been quite good for conquest. and it´s all my fault that i missed that vc. (and in case we had agreed to contest for fastest domination, that was my other blunder there... have we?)

No. I was worried about the opposite for a while, that we had agreed on conquest. But all we agreed on was to be b/dastards. And I was a b/d when it came to taking cities in peace treaties and then declaring again. And ROP rapes - I think I did 4 of them.

it´s always a pleasure to play it out with my friend Megalou though, and i would be interested in the strategies of anyone who beats these dates by lenghts.

Likewise! And that's an encouraging comment.

 

[TheOverseer714]

Well I finished my game and submitted it. Not the lurid scores of the 2 masters above, but not bad.

Entry class: Open
Game status: Domination Victory for Arabia
Game date: 1040 AD
Firaxis score: 7351
Jason score: 9724
Time played: 36:02:39

My best XOTM score ever. Definitely pleased with my outcome. I think the 3 workers I popped from huts early helped immensely. Had my factory set up in record time. My settler factory never stopped after I got it going. I used those settlers for RCP 3 spacing and had 5 cities on that ring. Unfortunately, the next ring was weak, but that was the map. In my game, the Persians were beasts. They made Egypt an easily taken 4CC and the Mongols an island country with their early Iron and Immortals. All the while building some nice wonders for me. The Ansar(sorry, couldn't resist) to my prayers was the Arab UU. I used them and made short work of the Persians. I owned my continent about 500AD. My biggest obstacle to winning early was the fact that the Vikings got the Great Lighthouse. Had to research Navigation myself. Then I went after the Ottomans and the Vikings. The Ottomans were easy, the Vikings weren't, so I eked a Domination out 4 turns after my goal. I think I would have done better if I had built a second core in old Persia. I think going Republic might have helped too. Even so, this was fun!

 

[templar_x]

Overseer - THREE workers???

i did not even see 3 huts... and cannot remember if i ever popped a single worker in a XOTM.

i must have had a different barb hut setting than you and Megalou

congrats on your personal record!

templar_x

 

[TheOverseer714]

Overseer - THREE workers???

i did not even see 3 huts... and cannot remember if i ever popped a single worker in a XOTM.

i must have had a different barb hut setting than you and Megalou

congrats on your personal record!

templar_x

I think the predator save must have had all but a couple off huts removed. At first it made things a little rough with unit support, having 3 workers, 3 scouts and 2 warriors and only 1 city.

 

[Megalou]

No, then the game description would have mentioned that handicap. Besides, I got map,war,war,BW,Currency,map=6 huts playing predator. (The reason I never got any workers was probably that I was always building a worker somewhere when popping.)

 

[Più Freddo]

(The reason I never got any workers was probably that I was always building a worker somewhere when popping.)

Isn't it Settler the game checks for? The popped Workers are in the original game Settlers.

 

[Megalou]

Yes, some of the workers should be settlers reassigned, but can't you pop "genuine," original workers in out-of-the-box games, too? It would be interesting to hear if Overseer turned off worker building, settler building or both before popping the huts. I did not bother about that. In the beginning maybe I should have, although with the last two huts techs was definitely what I hoped for.

 

[Più Freddo]

can't you pop "genuine," original workers in out-of-the-box games, too?

I think not.

 

[Lanzelot]

Firaxis score: 9802
Jason score: 11857
Time played: 36:44:19

Strange, during the game I had the impression, everything was going quite well, Egyptians built the Great Lighthouse for me, FP rushed by leader in 290BC, Ansar triggered GA soon after (before 200BC). But in the end the game dragged on, and compared to your "virtual" Conquest date of 350AD, templar_x, my date looks quite mediocre?!

Perhaps my mistakes were: I did gift Otto and the Ottos into MA. While this allowed me pre-200BC Chivalry, I did have to face a decent amount of pikes on the other continent.

I did not use connect/disconnect, but kept researching all the way to Navigation. The reason was that I had already enough Ansars, but the "doubly-linked ship-chain" to Beta was way to slow, and most Ansars were waiting idly on Alpha. I thought with Caravels I would get them over faster. But I guess I should have built many more galleys while still conquering Alpha. Bad logistics planning on my side.

One other reason for my continued research was the 1-tile island. I had already noticed it right after the global map trading and was very anxious about it. Shortly after I saw it growing to size 2 and feared it might be necessary to research all the way up to Magnetism (for bombarding it back to size 1). If this should become necessary, I wanted to be prepared and not having to research to entire MA...

In the end, however, it was not necessary to go to Magnetism: after some time of waiting, the Ottomans were willing to give it in a peace deal at size 2. (I think, this is different in C3C?! In C3C I've never seen an AI giving a town bigger than size 1.)
Sorry to hear that this island spoiled your nice game, templar!

There's something else, that I don't understand: according to the Civilopedia, the Lighthouse expires with Magnetism. I went to Navigation, because I had another unused leader at that time and wanted to rush Magellan's, which I did right when Navigation was finished. I expected my caravels to get 5-movement now, but they didn't So either the Lighthouse expires with Navigation as well, or Lighthouse and Magellan's are not accumulative? Does anyone know something about this?

The final point that slowed me down a turn: the Germans had a settler on a boat! I had seen this coming and had rushed caravels along the coast, where 3 German galleys were floating around. (In towns currently in resistance, I rushed them by disbanding 3 Ansars.) The caravels were ready right the same turn when I took the last German town (440AD). But one of the German galleys survived 3 caravel attacks!! So the game went into "overtime". I rushed three more caravels and moved a left-behind French catapult into place.
In the following turn the catapult bombarded the galley to 1/5, but still it survived two more caravel attacks! The last caravel finally sent it to the bottom of the ocean... RIP

Congrats to Megalou for beating 12K!
Lanzelot

 

[Racinante]

Just beat the buzzer... Anyway, Egypt demanded early, and I refused, so she declared, took a city, I retook, she razed, I rebuilt and just before she took it again, I managed to gain a peace treaty. The war I was not prepared for set me back a bit. Finally wiped out Egypt, then hammered Persia, before turning on the Mongols. Eliminated both of them in the same turn. Dash to Navigation while building Ansars then across the ocean (Germany had eliminated the Ottomans), wiped out Scandinavia, then declare on Germany.

Date submitted: 2010-02-20
Entry class: Open
Game status: Domination Victory for Arabia
Game date: 1190 AD
Firaxis score: 6707
Jason score: 9246
Time played: 17:42:19

Wasn't sure I would get the submission in on time... had about 7 minutes to spare....

 

[TheOverseer714]

Yes, some of the workers should be settlers reassigned, but can't you pop "genuine," original workers in out-of-the-box games, too? It would be interesting to hear if Overseer turned of worker building, settler building or both before popping the huts. I did not bother about that. In the beginning maybe I should have, although with the last two huts techs was definitely what I hoped for.

I'm pretty sure I was working on my granary when I popped the workers, so that may have had an effect. As pops go, those workers are probably one of the best outcomes. The lil' guys were still working 3 millenia later...

 

[Più Freddo]

Jason score: 11857
[...]
Strange, during the game I had the impression, everything was going quite well

Jason greets: It was!

Lighthouse and Magellan's are not accumulative?

That's right. They aren't.

 

[Lanzelot]

That's right. They aren't.

Ok, thanks! Good that I didn't waste too many resources on it... I wanted Navigation anyway, to stop the ship losses on Ocean, and I really had no other use for that leader...

 

[Megalou]

I'm pretty sure I was working on my granary when I popped the workers, so that may have had an effect. As pops go, those workers are probably one of the best outcomes. The lil' guys were still working 3 millenia later...

Yes, I suppose you're right, although I find techs more exciting to hope for. I often park units next to huts so that they can pop them at the "right" time. Typically, if I lack Currency, Republic and HB when I find a hut, a good time to pop would be the moment I've finished researching Republic. Then I would switch to HB right before popping, so that I might pop Currency but not the rotten HB. (As you probably know, you can't pop the tech you are currently researching.)