News: COTM 168 (Greece, Demigod) Results and Congratulations

[AlanH]

Here are the results of Conquests game 168 as Greece.

There were eleven entries with ten victories. Well done to all who played.

Summary of Medal Winners:

ignas: 1060 AD Cultural 100k Victory, 10,994 points.

I. Larkin: 680 AD Domination Victory, 10,701 points.

templar_x: 1255 AD Cultural 100k Victory, 9,979 points.

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Fastest Finish Award Winners:

Lanzelot: 1140 AD Spaceship Victory, 9,786 points.

Cotta: 1280 AD Diplomatic Victory, 8,262 points.

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Other Award Winners:

Garvarg: 1605 AD Domination Victory, 6,496 points.

eddfire3: 1650 AD Diplomatic Victory, 5,030 points.

SayHayKid: 1766 AD Spaceship Victory, 4,716 points.


>> See the full results here.
>> See the QSC results here.
>> See the updated global rankings here.
>> See the latest Pantheon of Heroes here.
>> You can see and compare graphic replays of all the submissions here.
>> Award symbols are listed here.

 

[LaSalle]

Great job to all players, especially the 100k winners! We don’t see many 100k top scores in gotm.

 

[Più Freddo]

I was going for a Space Race victory, but would never have come even close to Lanzelot's date. Very well done!

 

[SayHayKid]

Looks like I was off the pace, but happy to get a win playing Demigod for the first time. It looks like I was doing well during the first 50-75 turns, but by turn 100 I was off the pace. I have never had the patience of the "pros" to micro manage every turn. It was fun playing a standard game. I have spent so much time modding and testing, that I hadn't just played a regular game of Civ 3 in a while. I now have two COTM under my belt. The current Arab game went much better. Still a hassle without being able to see any of the lines on the Diplo screen.

There were some very impressive wins. Congratulations everybody.

 

[Lanzelot]

I was going for a Space Race victory, but would never have come even close to Lanzelot's date. Very well done!

I was quite lucky in this game with tech-trading with the AI, which I think is the decisive factor.

On Demigod, the AI is sometimes strong enough to research reasonably fast even in the later ages, so what I did in this game: I divided the AIs into two categories: the weaker ones, which I just absorbed to speed up my own research with science farms, and the stronger ones which could be expected to be able to contribute a number of useful techs in time. These were the Iroquois, Japan, Rome and the Netherlands. I helped them as good as I could by trading (or even gifting) them surplus luxuries and the techs I already knew (so that they won't spend their research on stuff I already know...)

This netted me some gold to cover my own deficit research, as well as some free techs even in the Industrial Age. (In lower level games, the AI stops being useful sometime in the early IA, except for the scientific ones of course, but in this game there weren't any scientific tribes...)

I think, it is always a very delicate balance to keep: you need to get some of the AI's gpt, to speed up your own research, but you don't want to bankrupt them too much, as that would cripple their own research capability... (Here it also helps to have two "categories" of AIs: the weaker ones, who cannot be expected to come up with anything useful quickly enough, can be drained off their gpt, while the stronger ones should be left liquid...)

This stopped only in the Modern Age, when even the stronger ones stopped being useful. Then I conquered also the Iroquois, who still had some very useful territory for me close to my palace, and the Japanese, because they sneak attacked me...

 

[Spoonwood]

I divided the AIs into two categories: the weaker ones, which I just absorbed to speed up my own research with science farms

I feel rather sure you're on the right track here Lanzelot as a general sort of high-level plan for fast science games at high levels. It's also not necessarily straightforward for some I think to pick out which AIs likely as the best research helpers, and the ones who better serve as having grown population for your empire. And I would fear it would strike some others as just too risky...

but you don't want bankrupt them too much, as that would cripple their own research capability

But here is where I don't have as good of a sense of things, and maybe just due to a lack of investigation on my part. Sometimes when I take as much gpt from AIs it seems to have no difference on their research rate. I had AIs research Communism in 10 turns in my recent Sid game, even though I took gpt from them quite liberally through other means. Now, that could be slower than if I hadn't. It also might not have an affect on their research speed up to then, because of their economic growth from banks and city growth also. It could have an affect later though also in slowing down their research. I haven't done city investigations before and after selling technologies which completely drain them of their gpt and seeing if their research rates change. I have seen enough to convince me that they do change their tax rate based on gpt deals sometimes. But if you asked me "will selling this technology for as much gpt as they will give slow down their research rate?" I can't say I would feel convinced about it changing things in the next turn or two.

Or maybe it has an effect, while gifting them gpt (which I tried in a Huge Deity game) doesn't work or needs a lot of gpt gifted and I confused the two.