Playing to the end..

[stormbind]

I started GOTM #31 but bowed out when I saw that other players had conquered the world by 900AD!!

For comparisson, I had only taken about 50% of the main island and corruption was already hitting production hard so figured there was no hope of catching the lead players.

Should I have continued regardless?

I'll be more aggressive in GOTM #32 and try to dominate from the start...

 

[a space oddity]

Should I have continued regardless?

Yup, why not? Unless you feel you need to always win the competition you're in.

Having said that I know the sinking feeling when you read some of the reports. It's easier to compare what you've done when you play on, though. Plenty of other good players and ditto reports to compare your game to.

 

[stormbind]

No, not win... but I feel I need to compete, which I define as being in contention

 

[a space oddity]

Of course it's entirely up to you, to submit or not. Personally I like to see whether I progressed a bit. This time I have chosen the same victory condition as Karasu, which means I probably am not going to have any chance on an award (=what I am aiming for ATM for lack of perceived chance of a medal) but hey, gotta try anyway, no?

 

[Detlef Richter]

What should i say, i've had two spaceship losses in a row (30,31) and i submitted, because this is the hard way of learning. And beware, the time is coming on which i'm on the top

 

[stormbind]

Spaceship victory is the one I find hardest to achieve.

 

[Dianthus]

I started GOTM #31 but bowed out when I saw that other players had conquered the world by 900AD!!

For comparisson, I had only taken about 50% of the main island and corruption was already hitting production hard so figured there was no hope of catching the lead players.

Should I have continued regardless?

I'll be more aggressive in GOTM #32 and try to dominate from the start...

I've submitted every month so far since GOTM17. Win or lose, I still find it fun, so I still play. I started badly (Regent Space Loss, Monarch Diplo Loss, Emperor Diplo Loss), and strangely got my first win on Deity (prior to GOTM I was really at Warlord level!). I think most of my improvement came from playing through to completion and participating in the spoilers. Writing down what happened in your game can be a good way of helping you to spot areas for improvement, for others to get a chance to offer tips, and maybe a chance for you to brag (even if it's to brag about your "Blunder of the month" as in this month's Spoiler 2 )

Another thing, don't expect to compare to the top players here straight-away. Those such as DaveMcW and SirPleb (+ others) are some of the best players in the world!

 

[stormbind]

I know what I did wrong; I aimed to win by 2050AD... which wasn't going to beat a 900AD win

 

[_Z_]

I ask myself how people can so easely conquer the world. I am pumping warriors, swordman, ... And yet I must always retreat because I run out of attackers. Does there exists a replay utility for civ3, ptw c3c. I know the replays in starcraft warcraft helped me a lot.

 

[Dianthus]

I haven't seen you post in the Spoilers _Z_. Give us an idea what you did and when and maybe we can give you some tips .

 

[_Z_]

I tried and I tried.
If I invaded England but my forces become to scattered around. They are to weaken. By the time then I want to attack the others they just place also an attack on my city wich I usually lose. And then I must just concentrate not to let them invade more of my land. I think it is something that I always attack with not as many attackers as you guys.

I do never post in spoilers because my game is to embarressing to see, I do read them. Reading the war academy doesn't help much. I must have an example of how people play

I also do not understand the end of the game. I have played gotm31 in the beginning till I ended up with a screen diplomatic loss. Continue playing or stop. Can I still get then further to get a spacerace victory or not?

 

[Karasu]

I don't think you can win a game after someone else has already won it

If you are looking for training, though, you may want to join a succession training game. Ainwood is currently running one in this very forum -they aren't taking any more players, but even following it will still be very instructive. Then, who knows, maybe they will kick off another one when this is over...

Or, you can look for training games in the Succession Games forum.

Whatever you do, don't give up!

 

[stormbind]

I tried and I tried.
If I invaded England but my forces become to scattered around. They are to weaken. By the time then I want to attack the others they just place also an attack on my city wich I usually lose. And then I must just concentrate not to let them invade more of my land. I think it is something that I always attack with not as many attackers as you guys.

I played completely differently.

Normally, I play random setup (Emperor Level) and I'll be very protective of my little country because war at the start is suicide (PC has free units and this is noticeable on small/early scale) - I emmerge in the Industial age, normally, with a philosophy of devide and conquer.

So that's how I played GOTM#31 from the start but it didn't work so well here. I defended my patch and kept all cities pretty close together, the English had their patch and the Iroquoi aswell but there wasn't enough space; everyone wanted to expand... So I considered invading England... Meanwhile the Iroquoi declared war on me!!

This was very bad news, and I paid England to rescue my arse. Iroquoi & English did exactly what you describe happening to you: They wiped out each other's aggressive units, forcing themselves on the defensive.

After waiting a decade or two, it was easy to capture my enemy's cities with a relatively small army!!

However, unlike in most other GOTM #31, England has survived well into the end game and I have narrowly missed victories...

 

[thebrose]

@stormbind, you should definitely play on. I'm was in a similar position as you. It took me until the industrial age to conquer the home continent while others had already won. This is my first GOTM and I'm playing it for fun, as you always should. I hope to complete it so I can submit it to see how well I did. And if I happen to be down toward the bottom, which I most likely will, I'm sure I won't get kicked off these forums. Only maybe a little

 

[schmiddi]

@stormbind, you should definitely play on. I'm was in a similar position as you. It took me until the industrial age to conquer the home continent while others had already won. This is my first GOTM and I'm playing it for fun, as you always should. I hope to complete it so I can submit it to see how well I did. And if I happen to be down toward the bottom, which I most likely will, I'm sure I won't get kicked off these forums. Only maybe a little

You conquered your home continent, so you will definitely not be down towards the bottom. Thats my part. I am happy just staying alive (normally playing on warlord) I played five or six gotms, finished and submitted two of them (both were a major defeat ) and am still alive. I even started to play this month, but don't have the time to finish . But It's still great fun.

 

[DJMGator13]

You should definitely continue playing. Part of competition is in seeing how you improve from month to month. You should also participate in the Spoilers, and ask questions. Many of the top players will take the time to respond to questions about their games and your game if you ask.

I good training game to follow right now is the GK2 Training Day Game in the Succession forum. There are many lurkers there and questions are welcomed even from non-team members.

Link to GK2 TDG

After learning the style of the SG you can participate in the SGOTM. You are placed on a team with strong leaders and you can learn alot directly from them. SGOTM2 is currently inplay so you should browse over their and check it out. There are 11 different teams so I'm sure there are many differnt playing styles being displayed.

 

[DogmaDog]

Well,

If you want to be a contender, you might learn more by scrapping the game and re-starting just for practice, to see if you can improve your first 5000 years, rather than learning how to play later on in the game.

On the other hand, I'm sitting at 1812, with 2 continents in my possession, and 3 other civs to contend with. The game is still challenging, and the Germans could get a spaceship victory before I can win some other way.

In other words, the game is still exciting, which I imagine may not be the case for the conquerors who have 4 of 5 continents and the destruction of the last civ is just a matter of course...or for the milkers, who press "enter" 200 times in a row to end their game?!

So, I guess what I'm saying is: You should either have fun, or try to learn something, or both. If the current game doesn't satisfy those conditions, abandon it.

DD

 

[stormbind]

Oh, not to worry. I'll be more aggressive in #32.

I think the opening caught me off guard. I'm not normally aggressive to my neighbour, mainly because I go for culture before military. The English were my allies..

1. Always destroyed any enemy troops that landed in my area (ROP)
2. Protected my coast with man-o-wars etc.
3. Voted for me at the UN

It allowed me to concentrate culture/technology and be an oportunist (creating wars without needing a big military) but is the complete inverse of how other players aproached the situation.

I took out the Iroquoi though, being that the English did all the hard work with no returns, and being the oportunist, my troops only captured the cities when sufficiently exhausted.