SGOTM 02 - Team CFR

[Obormot]

Great work!

@Balbes: I think you should just finish this up even if it takes slightly longer then 5 turns, I don't think that leaviong the last 2-3 turns for Lexad makes any sense. Lets get it done and watch the exciting race for the silver and bronze laurels.

 

[Dynamic]

After killing Mali and Inca amount of unhappy faces will be significally decreased.

 

[Balbes]

@Balbes: I think you should just finish this up even if it takes slightly longer then 5 turns, I don't think that leaviong the last 2-3 turns for Lexad makes any sense. Lets get it done and watch the exciting race for the silver and bronze laurels.

Your wish is my command.

After a closer examination, the setup didn't seem so perfect. We had a dire shortage of catapults in the north, and all the Egyptian/Chinese samurais proved to be irrelevant just as I had warned. On the other hand we more than enough gold and never were in danger of a strike.

Capturing and razing the last 3 enemy cities in 1196, CFR wins by Conquest in 1202, the exact date Dynamic predicted 3 weeks ago(!)

Congratulations everyone on a game well played.

 

[Obormot]

Congrats, guys! That was great stuff!

I had a brief look at team Peanut thread and they are not even close, so it looks like we won the gold. We may have had some luck, but the gameplay itself was excellent, so the laurels are well deserved.

Yeah, 3 weeks ago Dynamic predicted a 1200AD win and I agreed with him. But that was when we were close to getting Astronomy. In the beginning I never thought such a date was possible!

So now lets celebrate and watch how others compete for silver and bronze.

 

[Dynamic]

Congratulations to all players in team!!!
Balbes played very fast but right way!
It looks like we are only second from all teams who ended this game (after Rat Pack).

 

[IL2T]

Congrats, lucky team CFR!

 

[Gyathaar]

Congrats on finishing

 

[Dynamic]

Thank you, Gyathaar!
I was so happy and congrats Rat Pack with their victory but I forget that my nick now is showed in the Rat Pack string and other teams could see it... Is it wrong?

 

[AlanH]

Well played CFR. Looks like that date will be unbeatable

 

[akots]

Thanks everyone for playing, it was a very exciting game even though I missed half of it.

 

[Balbes]

Unfortunately it appears that nobody but myself can see the uploaded final save, but I should remind everybody that we're now allowed to replay any of our saves just for fun, including the one from 1160AD. The position makes for a very entertaining "Checkmate in 5" kind of problem. I pulled off a checkmate in 6, but with optimal play shaving off the extra turn is definitely possible. Are you good enough to do it?

 

[akots]

IMO, 6 turns is OK. Just curious which cities did you take during last turn?

 

[Balbes]

I don't quite remember their names, but: Samarquand, the city S of it, the hidden city E of it - the Northwest Triangle. Getting enough catapults, well, any catapults, there in time was the biggest problem.


BTW we're taking some heavy flak in certain other threads for our popping Mining from that hut. It almost makes me wish we didn't do it. I do agree that huts aren't very consistent with the idea of a S/GOTM competition.

 

[akots]

Let it go. These things happen and it were not critical. Let them think what they wish if that makes them feel better.

IMHO, we have played a very good game, almost an ideal game where not much went wrong and I'm extremely happy with it which, believe me, does not hapen too often.

Again wanted to say many thanks for Gyathaar who never stops to surprize the players with his wonderful and very creative scenarios and for AlanH for administering this spectacular competition.

 

[Obormot]

IMHO, we have played a very good game, almost an ideal game where not much went wrong and I'm extremely happy with it which, believe me, does not hapen too often.

My thoughts exactly. Usually after a game is over, even a good one there are lots of thoughts about things that "could be done better". This time it feels almost perfect. I think I played only 1 or two such games.

I have read team Peanut thread, they had some bad luck early with the barbs, which set them back quite a bit, they even had to poprush some archers. It really helped us that we knew when barbs are expected to spawn, so that we could setup adequate defenses. We had 4 warriros when barbs started to show up, while Peanuts had only 2, that made the difference. They wanted to go for a CS sling at first, but then abandonned that idea, because of the delay. It is a pity, a CS-sling would have made the competition more exciting and it would have been very interesting to compare the 2 strategies.

 

[Obormot]

BTW we're taking some heavy flak in certain other threads for our popping Mining from that hut. It almost makes me wish we didn't do it. I do agree that huts aren't very consistent with the idea of a S/GOTM competition.

I think the effect of mining was actually quite insignificant. Religion had much more impact, so maybe they can call us lucky for that. But despite the risk, I think it was a really cool decision that I am proud of.

Even if we were beat to it, we didn't really loose that much, since mysticism is top priority for the obelisk anyway, and we could have built one really quickly with the hammer from the plain hill working the goldmine. All we lost in that case was some beakers invested into polytheism, and ~100 beakers is a pretty good price for a 60% chance of jumping way ahead of the other teams in expansion. We would have definitely still stayed in the laurel race, and, BTW, looking at other team threads and saves I think that we would have won the game anyway .

 

[Obormot]

I think the most important things that allowed us to get so far ahead were:

1. The most streamlined resaerch path, beelining first towards Optics, then towards Astronomy, carefully calculated in advance use of GP to lightbulb techs, etc. This saved us a great deal of beakers and allowed to expand really fast, while still getting Astronomy and samurais ahead of everybody else. I think nobody except us did that, even team Peanut had to waste time researching useless Philosophy.

2. The early focus towards moving the Palace ASAP and eliminating Spain. We were not the only team to do this, but nobody killed Izabella as early as we did as far as I know. Well, religion definitely helped here with faster overall expansion, but it was not only religion. We were really focused on this and hit Izabella early and hard, putting all our production into swords and chopping all the forests we could reach. This way we grabbed some great cities for our empire early and had time to fully develop them before invading the other continent.

3. I would place religion and our strong start only 3rd in this list. Both luck and the decisions we made. Failing here would have still kept us on track, but without #1 and #2 we would not have achieved anything.

4. Micromanagement. Some people believe that winning GOTM is about crazy micro. I think it is not nearly as important as long term planning, but it definitely played its part. And building chariots to be able to whip citizens all the time was a really cool idea.

 

[Balbes]

Yes, I've looked at Peanut's thread too. Their discussion is very level-headed and professional, a joy to read. Still, many (or most) of our big decisions early in the game were slightly or signficantly better than theirs. To Peanut's credit, they managed to quickly and calmly assess the situation, and ultimately to adjust their game to still emerge on top of the crowd. Way to go Peanut!

 

[hamfist]

Congratulations CFR on the fast finish. While it´s true that Mining really helped, Obormot is right. I would say the early religion really made the day for you guys. it took us forever to get the first border pop from Osaka and that slowed our growth considerably. We also failed to notice the Oasis and settled on the river for fresh water instead of on the plains hill.

Well played. Congratulations again.

 

[Lexad]

Super! Second-best thing to read after return from hospital (first-best would have been having a last enemy city steaming waiting for ME to take her )! Great thanx for all participants, it was really a joy to mind. All know the homage I always pay t our eloquant ones, but this game a completeky fresh member - Balbes - has really shown his high matter.
Also, don't look down to MM, it's funny and gives perks
Sad some crew-members couldn't finish with us, hope this'll settle down.