[PTW] News: GOTM 174 - Arabia, Monarch - Results and Congratulations

[AlanH]

Here are the results of the PtW game of Quarter 2.

All seven submissions were victories, with two Conquests at the top of the score table followed by two Diplomatic victories. We also saw two Culture wins - one 20K and one 100K.

Well done to all who played.

Summary of Medal Winners:

TheHaze: 420 AD Conquest Victory, 11,197 points.

aobaki: 910 AD Conquest Victory, 9,981 points.

Lanzelot: 990 AD Diplomatic Victory, 9,864 points.


Fastest Finish Award Winners:

greatbeyond: 1485 AD Domination Victory, 7,454 points.

Garvarg: 1802 AD Cultural 100k Victory, 6,307 points.

CKS: 1806 AD Cultural 20k Victory, 5,807 points.


Other Award Winners:

Nata: 1220 AD Diplomatic Victory, 9,164 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.

 

[Captain_Jack]

Congratulations victors! I played this game many times and after the sixth iteration or so I was able to have a strong enough civilization to live securely, but never to win. I thought the site at the end of the starting river was ideal for a 20k victory; in fact, I tried to make it so. CKS, send a photo of your final city if you have one handy.
I would appreciate any feedback/criticisms on the game construction to help with future endeavors.

 

[Lanzelot]

There is nothing I would change in the game setup. It was a nice start position, good enough to allow a variety of VCs, but not too good so it still offered a bit of a challenge. What else do we want from a game?
One of the points of a GOTM is that the player must be capable of dealing with any kind of obstacle that's thrown at him. And as every participant has to deal with the same obstacles, it's always fair, so don't worry.

The only things that I think are not fair, are things that depend on happenstance and provide a big benefit, if they occur. For example:

• Contacts are reachable only with suicide galleys. Compare the following two games, which we assume to be played almost identically in terms of game skill: in one case your first galley makes it to the other side, you gain a handful of AA tech and a big lump of gold quite early. In the other game your first 5 galleys sink, you never make contact before Astronomy, and you have to research the entire AA and part of the MA by yourself. If both of these games go for space victory or UN, it is clear, that the first game will finish some 30-50 turns faster than the second one...
• Nearby goody hut. You pop barbs which pillage improvements, kill a worker or destroy the granary in the capital. Or you pop a settler/town, which gives you a free first-ring town in 3500BC. As everything that happens in the early stages, propagates exponentially, you can imagine that the difference between these two games will be huge! It may mean the difference between winning in 400AD and winning in 1400AD...