News: BOTM06 First Spoiler

[Thrallia]

BOTM06 First Spoiler

Reading Requirements

Stop! If you are participating in BOTM 06, then you MUST NOT read this thread unless EITHER

• You must have reached at least 500 AD in your game, OR
• You have submitted your entry

Posting Restrictions

1. Please don't post anything post 500 AD.

 

[Mesix]

Well...that was a quick game. I don't think it could have gone any worse. I knew that on Emperor level I would need to expand fast so I cranked out two settlers vry early. I founded a second city and had the other settler killed by a barbarian.

I was eventaully able to build four cities. I was keeping up score wise with the three nearby civs who had all adopted Judism while I was Hindu. That made trading tough, but I was the first to Alphabet and was able to leverage several techs off the three of them.

Wonders wise, I was able to build the Great Library in one city, the Parthenon in another, and the Sistine Chapel in a third. I made it through the first part of the tech tree and started to lag behind my opponents and decided to utilize my Sistine Chapel to go for a cultural victory. I had 6-8 units in evey city including several longbowmen and figured that I could turtle my way for awhile. I set my culture slider to 40% and was generating about 60-100 culture in each of the three cities.

Then, a few turns into my new strategic direction, all three of them declared war on me at the same time. It was about 200 turns into the game and they each had stacks of about 30 troops including knights, catipults, and a slew of support troops. Needless to say, the writing was on the wall at this point. My longbowmen did not last long in any of my cities. I was conquered in 1560 AD.

 

[unclethrill]

My game, while still a loss, went fairly well. I built Stonehenge, chopped the Great Wall to keep out the riff-raff and then chopped the Oracle. I used the free tech to get theocracy and found Christianity. I then spread it to DeGuille and built the Apos. Palace. I was able to fit 6 cities in and had 3 going for culture while the other 3 cranked out the best units available. About every 15-20 turns I made a point of talking to everyone I knew and would give them something or trade any tech I had. This kept them off my back for the whole game (only one war and that was due to the Apostolic vote). But alas, I missed the Sistine Chapel by 2 turns.

That carries it out to 500 ad but the rest wasn't much better


Not too bad for a noble player, I guess.

 

[Conquistador 63]

Is this the first spoiler or the final spoiler? I believe the OP should have made clear to limit spoiler info till the cut date (500AD). My real spolier post will follow soon.

 

[Htadus]

Plan was to go for a Peaceful Diplomatic game. So far so good.

I do not remember most of the detail but recall building bunch of wonders and claiming a few good city sites. Stayed frindly with the locals and the two nearby's. The french adapted our religion and the nearby's had their own religion. Recalled getting 4 barb swords popping up and causing chichen-itzen to loose the name sake wonder since we had to bolster the sole defenders by poping axes. Oh well. You win some loose some.

Now if I can find the save, I can finish the game.

I think one of the far outsiders will be our comp for the UN and one of the remaining may even become a vassel.

 

[ainwood]

Is this the first spoiler or the final spoiler? I believe the OP should have made clear to limit spoiler info till the cut date (500AD). My real spolier post will follow soon.

its the first spoiler. Thrallia posted it, because I had forgotten....

 

[jesusin]

jesusin, challenger. Goal: Gold (by fast domination).

Settled in place. Researched Hunt-Fish-BW-Whee-Pott-Wri-Sail-Alpha-trade some-Constr-CS-Machi. Built Worker-War-WB-War-WB-Settler, forced by a RE.

Losing a forest and 1 happy by a RE so soon threw away my careful plans. I started a Settler just because unhappy citizens don't eat while building a Settler or Worker. Just after that another RE put a -1 with DeG and yet another one gave combat1 to DeG Archers. No need to express my opinion on early Real Events .

The lack of the intial warrior was key. After a lion became lucky, I found myself with 3 warriors protecting my 3 cities in 1800BC, with now idea where DeG was or what other settling sites were available. At least I had put an early WB exploring.

Academy 600BC. I should have researched Mason before Maths on my way towards Cats, in order not to lose the GLH by a few turns. This WW would have been huge.

I quickly settled 5 cities, the 6th one couldn't get the last gold S because DeG was faster, so it went to the iron.

1000BC stats: 3city, 9pop, 1wor, 4War,set,gall,WB. Copper. 0+Lux, 3health. 0GP, 0WW, 0NW. fpc=28-10-48, 29 sust bpt, 5cpt, 6GPPpt, 36g. Monu, 3Gra, Lib. No Relig. 0/0 cottages used. 9Tech: Wri, BW. 3 hours.

1AD stats: 6city, 29pop, 4wor, 4Cats, 4War, 5Axe, 2Hol, Gall, 2WB. Copper. 2Lux, 5health. 1GP, 0WW, 0NW. fpc=83,41,131; 79sust bpt, 15cpt, 0GPPpt, 220g. No Relig. 5Gra, 3lh, 3Monu, 2Ball, 2Lib, 2Barr, Acad, aque. 3/3cottages used. 19Tech: Alpha, IW, Constr, CoL. 0civs killed. 6.5 hours.

Waited till 100AD to dow DeG, since my warring skills are lacking and I usually dow unprepared. I gave him peace at 375AD, having taken 3 cities (including Paris) and having received Currency in the peace deal. My first war had been a success, but it had started waaaay too late.

 

[mabraham]

Goal: domination
Level: contender

Fishing, Polytheism

4000BC Warrior N, settled in place

3680BC Buddhism founded
3600BC Hinduism founded elsewhere...! in none of my 6 practice games did either Buddhism or Hinduism get founded as early as this one. Fishing to get access to sea commerce costs 2 turns on Poly, but I'd still have been about 2 turns short!

1800BC Built Stonehenge

1600BC Founded Judaism

1200BC Built Great Lighthouse

About 500BC... grr there's a barbarian city cutting my French trade routes. Not happy with the way this game has started!

125BC Christianity founded

25BC Boudica gets Alphabet... she also has compass!

50AD Hannibal also has Alphabet... and Theology and they both have monarchy... not good

75AD? Degaulle has Alphabet

100AD Hannibal adopts Representation - so has Pyramids

200AD Hagia Sophia built

225AD Killed Barb city... cost 2 axemen and a swordsman

375AD Confucianism founded

400AD? Switched to Hinduism to be friends with Boudica and Hannibal, and then got the anti-religion event that triggered war against Christian Degaulle. Good.

475AD Lost double swordsman taking first Degaulle city with two archers and axeman on a hill at 20% culture. Catapults from here on in.

500AD AP is Hindu... sweet - except I won't be able to take these guys by the sword

 

[hellwitch]

jesusin, challenger. Goal: Gold (by fast domination).

Settled in place. Researched Hunt-Fish-BW-Whee-Pott-Wri-Sail-Alpha-trade some-Constr-CS-Machi. Built Worker-War-WB-War-WB-Settler, forced by a RE.

Losing a forest and 1 happy by a RE so soon threw away my careful plans. I started a Settler just because unhappy citizens don't eat while building a Settler or Worker. Just after that another RE put a -1 with DeG and yet another one gave combat1 to DeG Archers. No need to express my opinion on early Real Events .

The lack of the intial warrior was key. After a lion became lucky, I found myself with 3 warriors protecting my 3 cities in 1800BC, with now idea where DeG was or what other settling sites were available. At least I had put an early WB exploring.


:.

?? Why 3 warriors when you can build holkans right after BW(no copper needed)

I've used only 1 holkan to protect 3 of my cities and i've used the warrior to bring "havoc" to the french early on. (very stupid AI indeed)

 

[jesusin]

?? Why 3 warriors when you can build holkans right after BW(no copper needed)

I've used only 1 holkan to protect 3 of my cities and i've used the warrior to bring "havoc" to the french early on. (very stupid AI indeed)

For happiness. They are cheaper than Holkans.

 

[Conquistador 63]

Goal: space (maybe diplo, if opportunity arises). Still learning BTS and missed last BOTM (vacations, but it wasn't going so well either ).

Settled in place and researched the usual worker techs, plus sailing/masonry before going Alpha, playing safe and going for the obvious GLh. Both goals (Alpha and GLh) were reached in 800BC. Seemingly, I got the same REs as jesusin, forest fire and DeG archers' free promo. He was somewhat far away, so I chose to keep him untouched until this spoiler cutdate.

After GLh I went for MC (Colossus, 50AD) then Construction (Ball courts) then towards Optics to meet the rest of the AI, by 500AD. Very late CS, at this same date.

I had only 5 cities (ran out of space), total pop=40, but had a wide tech lead as the pair of water wonders allowed me a good beaker output (e.g. next tech Paper would cost me 4 turns). Time to change gears and focus on hammers and some military techs to expand by force.

 

[JerichoHill]

oops, wrong game.

 

[Jasonc]

Started with the Adventurer Save, since I have never won a Em Level game. With the Mayans being Financial and the High Coinage of the starting location, I decided early to go for an Economic-based game with my final goal being either SpaceShip or Religious. I settled in place and founded Hinduism right away. DeGaulle converted not long after. Once I saw how far away he was though, I ruled out any early attack. (I probably wouldn't have attacked early anyway, because I tend to make a mess of it).

Instead, I set a line in the sand at the southern jungle, building my second and third cities just north of there. Then, I backfilled back to my capital. I built the GL and the Oracle, the latter of which I used it to get MC, with the plan of building the Colossus. This was new for me; usually I go the CoL route. One nice by-product of this was that I ended up getting some early Great Engs, which I used to complete a few choice wonders (can't remember the timing of this, so I won't elaborate yet.)

By 500ad I had encountered most of my neighbors but not had a single war. I seemed to be close to the top as far a tech was concerned, but only had 4 or five cities and not much of an army. I can’t remember what place I was in overall, but I think I started close to the top but was declining. My long range plan was to attack DeGaulle and take over the continent, but I wanted to wait until I had a clear tech/military advantage. Since there was plenty of work to do to get my economic engine really humming, as of 500ad I had not even begun to ramp up militarily.

 

[audawak]

This was my first GOTM in a long time (only second ever) and my first BOTM ever. Against my better judgment, I went with the contender save, but probably should've gone adventurer, given how rusty I am and that I usually play at Noble or Prince.

Settled in place and started with building a worker and researching hunting. I wanted to capitalize on the deer nearby ASAP.

Went exploring, met De Gaulle, had my first warrior eaten by a lion. De Gaulle was too far away, in my opinion, to try for a Holkan rush so I decided to aim for a cultural win, starting with Stonehenge. This didn't work out very well, though, as I didn't get ANY early religions and had no religion at all, in fact, until De Gaulle spread Taoism to me in the early ADs.

Anyway, took my time (mistake) and founded my second city ALL the way down by the jungle to the south. By 0 AD I only had 3 cities, and I was still in that position at 500 AD.

I don't know if it's the game speed (I usually play epic or marathon) or the difficulty level, but I've constantly felt like I was making mistakes, things were happening too fast, and I that I was consistently behind.

I kept missing wonders and by 500 AD I still only had Stonehenge. The cash infusion from missed wonders was somewhat helpful, but not as helpful as actually getting them built would be.

 

[Half Nelson]

A quick progress post, although since I haven’t completed yet everything is from memory. I have never won an Emperor GOTM and took the Contender start. I thought long and hard about going for an early religion, but decided it was too risky without immediate access to water tiles (a good call, as it turned out). My plan was to built an early trading empire, head for the AP and take it from there. I settled in place, built warrior – worker – settler – warrior – lighthouse. My second city was almost due E on the coast (sharing deer) with access to lots of lovely forests. I built the Oracle here (for MC) and expanded S to some nice coastal river spots. My capital focussed on completion of the GL-Colossus combo, which (to my astonishment) I achieved with only moderate whipping. Holkans kept the barbs at bay and as 500AD approached I had 5-6 cities and bordered DeG at the hot gates mid-continent:- a large barb city was placed thereabouts. Of the known world, I was tech leader and in the pack score-wise. My growing concern was religion, or rather the lack of one. I missed out on the Theology lightbulb and, although my neighbours were all Hindu, no faith spread my way. I was even considering Divine Right (I wanted the AP that badly) when my first caravel explorations heralded the simultaneous arrival of Hinduism and Taoism. I chose the former (making me part of the local gang) and started immediately on the AP. I was also building the GLib in another city. At this point, things were going much better than I could have hoped for:- my infrastructure was sound and my power growing, but what lay over the horizon ….?

 

[AgedOne]

This seems like it happened a while ago now, but I remember (as well as reading my notes) that the start went better than I was expecting.

Contender save. Emperor is above my level, really, but I may get there one day before Civ 5 comes out.

I had played a few trials and was concentrating on trying to grab an area of land, be first to Alpha, and wanted to build the Pyramids and Gt Library (and possibly Stonehenge, too, so that my borders could expand freely) Probably the most useful information from these practices was the dates that the wonders typically went.

Beginnings
I found no good reason to move, and so Mutal was settled at 4000BC.

The early tech path was Hunting - AH - Wheel - BW - Masonry - Writing - Fishing - Alpha.
Mutal built Worker - 2xWarriors - Settler - Stonehenge.
Our units explored our chunk of the continent quite rapidly, meeting De Gaulle as we went.
From the map that had been revealed, I planned roughly how to place 3 more cities to use the best of the resources without straying too far from the capital and bringing the economy down.



Settled the green site first, then when we got BW the copper was revealed by the blue site - making that the next priority.
Completed Stonehenge on turn 49 (2040BC) !
Started building Holkans, and also slipped another settler out to found the third city at the blue site.

Push for the 'Mids
Started the Pyramids on turn 60 (1600BC).

I watched the Great Wall and the Oracle go to other nations. Luckily I wasn't intending to build them.

Our neighbour DG made an insolent demand for some deer, which I felt in no position to refuse. Not until we had achieved our wonders anyway.

We completed the Pyramids on turn 95 (500BC) ! The very next turn we learned Alphabet.

However, this is where things diverged a little from the training games. Apparently, DG was every bit as advanced as us, and already had Alpha. We couldn't trade anything with him, and we hadn't met anyone else. How disappointing!

Anyway, on with the show. The same turn saw our first Gt Person pop - a Prophet, of course.
Used him to start a Golden Age, just for a short-term boost, and especially to allow us to revolt to Rep and Slavery without penalty.

Library Chasing
This was a good moment to pause for breath. In training, I had managed to miss out on the Gt Library around turn 136. That was 38 turns away, and I had just started researching aesthetics. By my calculations I was going to be in a position to start building the Gt Lib in 22 turns (after aesthetics, Poly and Lit). That left about 15 turns. Very tight!

Worse, I was just being forced to lower the tech rate as the economy dropped.

A bit of micro-mgmt, and research turns picked up again. The 2 libraries in construction were going to help, too.

Just when I needed smooth running and a problem-free section, well ...
First, I had an oversight and left a worker chopping one turn too long when they were supposed to be pre-chopping ready for the Gt Lib build. Darn! There goes a forest.
Then, appalling luck! The very same turn one of my libraries was completed, it was swept away by a monsoon!! It's not often I finish building a library only to begin building a library.

Then some good stuff evened things out a bit. There was a random boost of my research into Lit, and then a few turns later we discovered Tin in a mine at Mutal, adding a few more hammers to our build.

It got very tense. I had to be reminded to breathe now and again. As a much-needed distraction, Hannibal sailed by and wanted to open borders and trade tech. At last! Then, I found I had a couple of things that DG didn't have, so was able to trade with him also.

Turn 132 (425 AD) and the great day arrived. We had a Gt Library in Mutal!

Half-Time Talk
A good point to stop and take stock of early progress.

Three good wonders. Able to run Representation. Two Gt People already, the second being a scientist, who joined Mutal.
We are on good terms with De Gaulle.
On the downside, our score is awful and we have only 3 cities at nearly 500 AD.
The most hilarious measure is our power. Our 'soldiers' demographic is less than half that of even the weakest AI.

Some work to do in the second half, I think.

 

[jesusin]

Nice reading

The very next turn we learned Alphabet.

However, this is where things diverged a little from the training games. Apparently, DG was every bit as advanced as us, and already had Alpha. We couldn't trade anything with him, and we hadn't met anyone else. How disappointing!

Where was your exploring WB at the time?

A good point to stop and take stock of early progress.

Three good wonders. Able to run Representation. Two Gt People already, the second being a scientist, who joined Mutal.

Wouldn't an Academy have been more beneficial?

 

[AgedOne]

Nice reading
Where was your exploring WB at the time?

Well, that one's easily answered. It was still at the boat-builders.
Having researched Fishing only just before Alpha, while Mutal was building Pyramids, meant my first boat was about 5 turns away still.

Wouldn't an Academy have been more beneficial?

This one really gets me. I have no idea why I did this. Under normal circumstances I always build an academy with my first GS. I played the first session about 2 weeks ago, and no matter how hard I look at my notes I cannot work out why I did this!!

All told, I think you are answering the question as to why I still struggle at Emperor level (and Monarch, if truth be told). Too many decisions.

One day, I'll put a stop to them...

 

[Lexad]

Challenger, goal - score (for Gauntlet)

This was the first game where I ran a couple of hours of testing before actually playing (thanx for the testmap, vixafox!) - I planned to go for GLhouse or Oracle ( but figured out I could build both - and did so by 975BC. In the meantime I founded two more cities - the 2nd with fish and gold, 3rd I wanted to found by southernomst 3 golds and a clam, but saw De Gaulle's settler with 2 archers moving there, so settled close to the 2nd with clam and gold. Imagine my wrath when he continued NW and settled away from the site. I quickly built one more settler and claimed the spot. Only then did I start to contemplate military action, and still it took quite a while, with all the tasty buildings like granaries, ball courts, libraries, forges and harbours to be built. As a result, my campaign started later than jesusin's, facing lbows already in DeG lands.

My exploring workboat took the wrong turn (i.e. east), so I found Hannibal and Boudica quite late, and when I had to make a decision on tech from Oracle, I picked CoL instead of Alpha. However, I founded confu, which became the only local religion until I founded Tao. GPriest from Oracle founded religious wonder, providing me with mighty income, which helped me throughout the game. Too bad I'll have to kill all my Confu buddies.

Early tech line: Hunting - Fishing - BW - Sailing - Medi - Phood - Masonry - Writing - CoL from Oracle - Alpha - Maths - Construction.
Early production: worker - boat - boat - warrior - boat - warrior - settler - mix of Oracle, lhouse and GLhouse picking appropriate timing - settler.

Details on 1000bc and 1 AD later.

 

[Harbourboy]

Jesusin, what units did you attack De Gaulle with?