SGOTM 13 - klarius

[klarius]

Ok, I got it and start playing now a bit.

 

[klarius]

I played 11 turns . I cannot reach the GOTM server so attach the save.
Edit:
Save is now uploaded.

Finished nuclear power, miniaturization and satellites.
4 techs to go at 4-5 turns each.
3 SS parts built, 4th to come IBT.

Ended the war with Babylon, but got us a new one with Mongols by accident. Pretty heavy action the last 2 turns, but now it seems to calm down.
We have a bit of a WW problem, but should be Ok for the rest of the game probably.

Spoiler Turn Log :

Turn 0:
Look around our empire and check diplomacy.
Guimares can do better with engineers and some minings (draft pop away to avoid starvation).
Set some cities to grow and assign some engineers as we currently have no need for that many scientists.
Make alliances with all our friends against Maya, Inca and Aztecs.
Plant a spy with Babylon. I would rather not war them and their 65 mechs. But Ok we are at them.
Set Minamoto to abandon via settler. It doesn't add any tile and blocks a grass for other cities.

Turn 1:
Capture Khorsabad. Build a temporary attack town. Capture Oea. Capture Zamua. Capture Cadiz, losing a tank army.
MM a bit. Trade maps.

IBT:
A few fights between Mongol-France and Babs. They are now coming with quite some force.
Nuclear Power is in -> miniaturization.

Turn 2:
MM mini to 5 turns. As this is the most expensive required tech we we will need 4-5 turns per tech for the rest (25-30 turns).
Sell around nuclear power for a few 100 gpt.
An elite cav takes out a redlined tank -> leader -> army, as Apollo will complete anyway next IBT.
Take Saldae and Tell Wilaya. Settle a new access city and take Theveste.

IBT:
Lose 2 cities to babs cause I didn't watch all the rails.
Russia destroys England.

Turn 3:
Take Carthage with pretty useless Sistene. Retake some cities I lost IBT.
I doubt we will get much more from Babylon. Our troops need to heal and there are lots of Mongols and French coming up.
We also have now a war weariness problem (and WH with England is away).
I make peace with Babs shooting our rep for good. I get Theveste in the deal.
Unless somebody declares I intend to play the rest peaceful. We need our production for Space ship parts now.
Make some trades including getting the "crucial" ironclads from Russia.

Turn 4:
Only a few trades, a bit MM and worker actions.

Turn 5:
Still not much happening. Distribute troops in case there is an attack by Mongols.
We got our first SS part.

Turn 6:
Business as usual.

IBT:
Mini comes in and I rush a few offshore platforms right away.

Turn 7:
MM satellites to 4 turns. With internet in hopefully 3 (w/o pollution) or 4, we should also get laser and synthetic fibers in 4 (maybe also the rest with big starvation and merge a lot workers).
That means max 22 turns to have all tech. We just have to look to have pre-builds ready for the parts.

Turn 8:
Nothing special.

IBT:
The Ottomans destroy the Maya . Now we will have to fight the Mongols as there was a coupled treaty.

Turn 9:
The dogpile on Mongols is pretty expensive with the previous broken alliance (~2000gpt per civ).
But we have enough tech.
Take Agedincum to connect our southern and northern provinces (good thing I had prepared for that ).
Capture Augustadorum and Gergovia. Izibia next. Satsuma is pretty tough but falls.
Philadelphia is hilarious. I need conscript mechs for the last battles.
I'm out of troops now. Conscript a lot more to defend.

IBT:
Lost a bunch of mechs, but no cities. Temu has really lots of tanks.
Internet completes.

Turn 10:
Get a leader. Builds SS engine.
Another leader next battle -> army.
A long time later I got all roaming tanks, but now we have again a WW problem.
Capture Tyendenaga and Guardia in the process.

IBT:
Lose some more units, but nothing severe (just some dumb mistakes).
Satellites in, go for synthetic fibers. I doubt the Ai will come up with it and I rather have some modern armor.
France helps a little, but with typical AI tactics.

Turn 11:
We have a problem. WW doesn't allow synthetic fibers in 4.
I make Bismarck furious and try to plant a spy. He declares giving us back our old WH with him.
Take Detroit (Joan lost it IBT). Capture New York. Take Houston. Capture New The Hague.

Thrusters complete IBT. Several bigger builds under way (e.g. Seti) could be used as pre-builds for the next parts.

There is an empty army south of Steal the Land.

Next turn some payments expire. Look for trades.

If happiness gets even more of a problem, we can also still have war with Theodora. There should be still some WH.

It's now 16-18 turns (most likely 17) to finish. Just look to have prebuilds ready for the parts.

The war with Mongols isn't too bad anymore. Most of his tanks are away and France is helping now.
Still we have a big land and it isn't easy to find all the possible attack locations.

 

[ThERat]

looking good...unless Wotan takes it, I will play some turns in the next few days

 

[ThERat]

played 5 turns so far, slow going due to the many wars that are happening...researching laser now in 4 turns

 

[ThERat]

Pre-Turn
MM a lot, employ more scientists (272 now)

IT Mongol defeat 3 of our units with ease...what's with our MI's?
some German units appear and steal workers and worse, threaten our cities
we get another part for the space ship

1.1365AD
WW hits the roof already
make Byzantines furious and get them to declare war on us

Mongols don't talk yet, take Miami to try and consolidate the front
capture Grand River, autoraze Utica, found replacement

Washington seems to have a ton of units inside, leave it alone for now

sell Sumer satellites for 430gpt, to Ottomans for 740gpt
severe MM needed to prevent riots

IT Mongols are willing to talk, that's good, but I will wait for the turn to end
Istanbul finishes SETI

2.1370AD
defeat 6 units and take Buffalo, raze Eridu (bad location), found replacement
autoraze Lapurdum, found replacement
capture Cataractonium, Camulodunum

we are short of settlers

IT there is a huge stack of units coming towards our land, looks almost like the Russians...we better watch out

3. 1375AD
check the stacks and it's then that I realize both Ottoman and Russia are after some Mongol units that landed
nearby, what a relief

capture Tsosotsengel, Richborough, Atlay and Lugdunum, where we shred 3 bombers
now Mongols have only their core + former Indian cities left
succeed in settling a new town
capture Kohlapur, get another army, saved for MA

reduce science to 70%

IT Sumer and Byz sign alliance against us
synthetic fibers come in, next laser in 4
scroll forward as we lost a lux

4. 1380AD
take Bangalore
move towards their territory, decide to wait a turn for MA armies and conquer some more
defeat around 8 units in Washington, not enough

IT Mongols bombard us with 9 bombers, luckily no effect
German panzer shows up
France now manages to take Washington after bombing the heck out of it, they raze the city
good news as Persia declares war on Germany

Persia finishes off Inca, thanks to the WH gone, capital riots...scroll forward...how I hate it

5. 1385AD/B]
with all th super unhappiness, there is no choice but to go for peace
maybe can gain some more cities first

capture pop 22 Hovd, need a first MA army to support that
take Dalandzadgad and it has the US, that could help plenty
try to take out Tabriz to free space for US lose a green cav army against infantry
I eventually succeed, lose 1 cav and 2 MA's though
this is it for this war...we need peace

make peace and gain 550gold + 2 cities, he didn't want to part with 3 of them
rob him the remainder of his money for a tech

what??? we now make 9969gpt...crazy
there is happiness everywhere, what about beating up the Germans?

get RoP with ottoman to b able to reach the German borders
with the tank army we can reach and raze New Ulundi

IT Mongols sign peace with Babylon and Sumer
love breaks out everywhere, pollution as well though

6.1390AD
a little more quiet, ship armies over towards Germany
rush some stuff

IT Korea declares on Germany
Persia declares on Babylon
Lugdunum deposes us, worse, there was a cav army inside to quell resistance...
star to switch cities to wealth as we really simply need to sail home and finish another 4 parts

7.1395AD
take Hubishna
rush some stuff but we have tons of money...science to 60%

IT Russia and Mongols sign peace
Laser comes in, robotics in 4 this means we can finish all techs needed in 8

8.1400AD

it's a good time to hand over as there are 8 turns left for the techs to gain...timing of the SS parts is crucial, the
rest is really secondary...the war with Germany not important except for the WH...maybe some deals could be struck

left it to the last player to splurge our cash...currently 25k

by the way, we can also swap to superconductor as that tech has 2 SS parts....no beakers invested yet

 

[klarius]

Well, nobody else around and I have some time at hand.
I got it and will put this baby to rest

 

[klarius]

The monster is dead .
We win in 1440 as expected. Final save

Spoiler log :

Turn 0:
I intend to stay out of trouble. That's retreat from Germany and look for an alliance.
Make an alliance with Russia against Germany and Aztecs for 620gpt.
She still has nothing to give back.
Give 3 techs to Mongols for an alliance against Germany.
Then sell him spices and ivory. I don't want the WW back so want to get on his good side.
Similar deal with Babylon.
I also ally France (for a mere 4600gpt). A sneak attack from her could get ugly.
Put enough troops into Dalandzadgad to completely remove flip risk.

Turn 1:
Retreat now completely from Germany and give up Hubi...
Pollution. A few rushes.

Turn 2:
Pollution and workers only.

IBT:
Sippar deposes. I couldn't care less.
Byzantines land a Tow

Turn 3:
Kill a Byzantine Tow, frigate and galleon.
Make peace with Sumeria to be able to trade for silks.
Notice a Persian tank next to Kyoto. Ship chain a army and kill it.

IBT:
Robotics in -> superconductor. Switch over prebuild.

Turn 4:
Bombard some Persian destroyers.

IBT:
All was nice and peaceful and now the French declare on behalf of Persia.

Turn 5:
Now Persia talks and I make peace.
Ally Koreans and Russians against France.
After some though also Ottamans for a pretty steep price.
Capture New Orleans, Syracuse, Bombay, Eboracum, Ulaanbaatar and Sippar.
Another round of heavy conscripting to hold the border.

IBT:
Lose Ninja turtles and Neo Tokyo.

Turn 6:
Take Ravenna, Ninja turtles, Neo Tokyo, Atlanta, Lutetia and Byzantium.
MM unhappies away.

Turn 7:
Capture Viroconium and finally our land is connected (now that it doesn't matter anymore).
Raze Delhi, so I don't have to defend there. raze Edfu for the same reason.
Give up some cities so France cannot reach us. But that takes too long.
No further attacks.

IBT:
SC comes in. Switch over pre-builds.
We win.

 

[AlanH]

Well done!

You guys are first to finish. Your Great Library deals will probably win the laurels

 

[klarius]

Scanning the other teams threads it's clear that the GLib was the winning move (only Smurkz tried for it, but much later than we did - and they lost the gamble obviously).

In fact, I think, only team Veteran has a decent chance to win this game at all. The others have so much problems that only a very late comeback would be possible and I think they will rather give up before investing hundreds of hours into this.

 

[Northern Pike]

Congratulations on a magnificent effort, gentlemen. The various manipulations to get the maximum benefit from the Great Library were particularly elegant, though if no other team got the GLib at all I suppose they weren't necessary for victory.

I regret my de facto withdrawal halfway through, but sometimes RL is what it is.

 

[Ronald]

Very nicely played! Congratulations!

 

[ThERat]

great effort from the whole team

seeing how the others struggle, this could have easily turned into frustrating game...luckily we got the GLib

 

[Wotan]

Oh, it was a frustrating game, but fun in one sense. Sorry I had so little time at the end. have yet to play any Civ this year. Feels like ages since I last submitted a GOTM. I sure hope my calender will open up a bit soon. Would be nice to play Civ again. Really good job by you guys that took the majority of the late turn sets.

 

[greatbeyond]

Congratulations for a fine game.

Scanning the other teams threads it's clear that the GLib was the winning move (only Smurkz tried for it, but much later than we did - and they lost the gamble obviously).

In fact, I think, only team Veteran has a decent chance to win this game at all. The others have so much problems that only a very late comeback would be possible and I think they will rather give up before investing hundreds of hours into this.

To say we had problems would be an understatement. I think you are right that the GL was the best move. We hoped at one point to take it away from whoever built it, but that turned out to be a pipe dream. Towards the end we had all but 3 or 4 of the Civs at war with us and would have struggled to finish before 2050AD, if at all. Another key factor (from reading your posts and comparing) was the skillful use of MAs, and the gifting cities/declare war/retake strategy. we considered it but none of us were confident with it and it became to late to even consider it.