SGOTM3 Rome - Spoiler 1. Middle ages plus all continental contacts.

[mad-bax]

SGOTM3 - Spoiler 1

Rules for Posting in and Viewing this thread

1. Your team must be researching a middle age tech.
2. Your team must have contact with all AI opponents who started on the same landmass as you.
3. A nominated team member must have posted a summary of the teams game to the limit of this spoiler.
4. No discussion is permitted of any contact made from other continents.
5. No discussion is permitted of any Middle Age resource locations.

REMEMBER: Wait until your teams' summary has been posted before reading or posting in this thread yourself.

 

[Tarkeel]

Ancient Age Spoiler for Team Smackster:

Opening moves:
We settled on the spot, and went for an ultra early food strategy, sending the worker straight to the game to chop it. We built two warriors for scouting while chopping, turning the forest into an early barracks before starting a settler. This turned out to work very well since Veii didn't really need a granary, as our second city was formed N-NW of the game, and would be a 4 turn settler factory once the third city would make the second game available.

Exploration and contacs
The first warrior scouted northwards, stopping just past the floodplain before heading counter-clockwise.
The second warrior scouted SE, and in 3200 BC made a frightening discovery:

Alert alert, Alert alert, enemy sighted, enemy sighted. To the south east, Greek Phalanx, oh dear, run away, run away.

He hightailed home incase Alexander decided to just waltz into Veii. The hoplite folloed us all the way home before heading off into the mountains. Alex finally popped by for coffe before 2710 BC, and sold us Bronze Working before being told he would be the next acquisition in our empire. He wouldn't comply, so we declared on him. Scouting continued south along the western coast, before being put on hold since we didn't want more contacts and had sufficent map to plan cities.

Before 1950 BC England and America appears in F4, guess someone told them where we live. Before 1750 BC we get more company, as Russia, Germany and Babylon appear in F4. France also appeared somewhere in there, but none of them have contacted us yet though.

In 1710 we make our first contacts: Germany first, followed by England and Russia. Babylon contacted us before this with a trade, but there was some confusion if this was proper contact, so war wasn't declared untill the next player spotted the mistake. It probably didn't change much though, as Babylon never managed to become a threat, and only sent the occasional bowman at us.

Scouting was resumed again in 1350 BC, and we have a look towards the north and find French borders.

Settling and Expansion
We decided early on to go with 2 main RCP rings, at 3 and 6. This way we managed to take full advantage of the rivers.



Research and Trading
We started by researching pottery at max, followed by Bronze Working. BW never completed, since it was traded for before 2710 BC from Greece for Pottery and 3g. Continued on to Iron Working at max, which came in 1950 BC. The entire roman culture rejoiced at the fact we had plenty iron to build our might legionnaries. The wheel was the next tech up for research at max, coming in 1670 BC. Maths was ordered as the next project.

Before 1725 BC Hammurabi offers us Masonry and Ceremonial Burial if we'll just cough up Iron Working and 7 gold, which we decide is a worthy trade.

In 1500 BC England sell us Writing for WM, 23 gold and 5 gpt, Russia give us Philosophy for 6gpt and WM, Swap Philosophy for Mysticism with America, and philosophy with HBR from Germany.

In 1275 BC 3 civs have math, so we buy from France for 63g, 1gpt and wm, and sell it to Germany and England for a total of 90 gold. We buy literature from France in 1125 BC for WM+90g.

In 800 BC we buy Polytheism from America at monopoly (13gpt and 284g), and sell to the rest of the world. We start Monarchy at max.

After getting the Great Library (see below), we finished Monarchy then cut of research. At the start of 530 BC Republic pops from the great library, followed by Curreny and Construction in 450 BC, and that's it for research in this age

In 530 BC we finally trade for a world map.

Warfare
Alexanders first raiding party showed up in 2430 BC, consisting of 3 warriors. They attack our defending archer, which defeats 2 and gets promoted, and the third dies attacking the defending warrior. Things looked shaky there, but we pulled through. Immediately after a hoplite appears as well, but that is killed by our elite archer while on grass. It isn't untill 1600 or so that the next "attack" comes, in form of a lone archer. Our elite archer attacks it, and Trajan rises to our cause!

Trajan draws up plans to construct several marvelous limestone triangles which will somehow cause our cities to grow twice as fast, as well as provide us with a border expansion. Trajan supervises construction, but perishes in a tragic gigantic limestone cube accident.

The greeks come at us again with some archers around 1450, but it's too little too late. From here on out there is a steady trinkle of Greek units (and others as well) over the mountains, but no serious threats.

We decided to hold of the GA till we could switch to Monarchy, so we built mainy horses for leaderfishing.

Before 690 BC, England allied France against us and we got an early enemy. In 570 BC an elite horse kills the last defending spear in Termopylae, getting us a leader as well. Great Library rushed in the replacement city.

In 330 BC we declare war on the last civ known to us, Russia. England had established an embassy with us, and we used this to sign England vs America for gpt, one turn before declaring premature war on England. We decided that our trading rep wasn't worth much in this game, so might as well get some use from it.

Wonders
Pyramids rushed in Antium in 1575 BC.
Great Library rushed in Syracuse in 550 BC

Conclusion and General Points
I personally love the way that all ancient age buildings, terraind and resources have latin names, gives a much better feeling for the game. Nice work on the latinized player references in city names (Aesonesium, Gonzominium?)

Those mountain ranges in the northeast and east posed some initial problems, both in blocking cities and letting enemy units walk close in protected squares.

At the end of ancient area, we didn't really see any barbs, so we were clueluess on the barb puzzle.

 

[M60A3TTS]

PTW and we're doing the variant, OWE. Note to self: schedule psychiatric evaluation ASAP.

4000BC send our worker south to confirm there isn’t a better location to plant Rome on. After seeing nothing deemed significant, Emperor M60A3TTS commanded the settler to drop his pack and we're off. Iron working in 40 @ min. Senator Sesn of Wthr had cautioned the despotic Senate that in his dreams he envisioned early contact with the mysterious Greek civ, so it was decided to try and avoid contact by moving our first warrior south. This of course was a futile attempt to circumvent the will of the gods, as a hoplite appeared in 3600BC from, you guessed it, the south. We eagerly traded young Alex our warrior code +23g for knowledge of bronze working so that we might better defend ourselves. Then we proceeded to tell Alex he was a fool as we would shortly have legions and declared. He was not amused.

Already at war with a civ and without any army to speak of, leadership was re-shuffled and Emperor Tallanas took command. In a brilliant defense of the capital in 2850BC, Greek warriors were successfully driven off, and the home of the Evil Empire, Athens, was discovered. The connected incense nearby confirmed our suspicion that Alex was on drugs this whole time, hence his pitiful attack on the Roman bastion. Thus our “Just Say No to Incense” campaign began as pillaging efforts were made ready. Senator Sesn then proceeded to claim the title of Caesar and brought up the required pillagers and improve our lands, and starting up the Cinzano wine-fest. Next up, Emperor TheNemesis DCLXVI founded our second city of Veii in 1990BC. Regrettably, Greek archers approached Rome once again, and declaring themselves to be Prohibitionists, cut our wine supply. We were not amused, and a little less happy.

A couple centuries later we learned that Tours de France was founded north of Rome. Choosing to avoid contact initially, we decided to send a Meet & Greet delegation to our new neighbor in the north. Happily spending 140 gold on French pottery and masonry, Emperor Romeothemonk showed Joan our deep appreciation by promptly razing Tours. Antium was founded as the newest member of the empire. Right around this time, we continue to rack up a growing list of enemies as England and Germany come a calling. M60 followed up with more contacts in 1375BC, with Babylon and America promoting a magical Mysticism tour for 80g that we chose to decline. Traded Uncle Sam 152 sawbucks and 1 per turn for math. Then help Otto with his cipherin’ by giving up math and 2 euros per turn for a new set of wheels and that Mystic thing. Also working Veii into our settler factory. 1200BC saw Cumae spring up as a new settlement, and around this time Emperor Tal decided it was time to get out and see the world. Trading for a series of territory maps, it was clear we were being heavily out-settled. Picked up Polytheism from Honest Abe right around this time for 10 gpt and our worldly map so we could accelerate our move towards Monarchy. Poly then went to DC Hammur-abi for writing and 15 gold grickles and his t-map.

As time marches on, the AI wonders start rolling by without so much of a hint of an MGL as we’re fighting off a growing number of bad guys. And the French bad guys got swords. We have a couple legions of our own, but are holding out for the GA to start with a more productive form of government. Emperor Tal shows his artistic side by coming up with a very colorful dot map that indicates tons of places we can put settlers down. Of course without a means of defense, planting a bunch of towns may not mean as much. M60 develops an attack plan into the French at the start of the GA, although the AI unbeknownst to us is sending a steady stream of swords in our direction which renders the plan somewhat, if not temporarily, irrelevant.

Emperor Nem gets to deal with our #1 continental power, England, and beats back every effort to get at our west coast towns. Vexed by their inability to put together an intelligent offensive, Liz calls on Babylon for assistance in 750BC. 670BC we offer 62 euros and 4 per turn for literature from Otto. He accepts, at which time we amend the deal to be for 62 euros and war. Get MM from Russia for Lit, 120 rubles and a map. Emperor Romeo finds things getting hotter as Bab bowmen and French swords are coming in force now right as Monarchy is almost discovered. Honest Abe appears in a belligerent tone and demands a map and some spare change. As we’re due to declare within 10, we tell him to take his threats elsewhere. So like any expansionist bully, he declares. Our towns are holding, but next, Emperor M60 sees AI settlers moving into the undeveloped areas to our south, so it’s getting close to flood conditions. 330BC gets Russia 323 of our gold and WM for Philo and CoL and her map. 250BC is an ominous year as our first town, Viriconium in the north is sacked by the French.

Monarchy is discovered in 250BC as four whipped units come in just before our unit production stops. Anarchy reigns for 7 turns, as Emperor M60 continues to hold off other advances. Emperor Tal leads his people out of anarchy and into the GA. Pick up currency in 130BC and we’re into the Middle Ages. 90BC is the Year of the Ridiculous. A Roman elite spear in a walled city loses to a French warrior. 70BC was the actual start of the GA. How does that correspond to Caesars arrival? 30BC brings bad news as Lutetia is destroyed by Greece. A scandal breaks out in Rome itself when it is learned that Emperor Tallanas was capturing slaves in this last set of turns. Rebuked by the Senate for his transgressions, the slaves are ordered to be freed from their existence and sent to the cross.

So the big picture says we’re being overrun. Whether we turn it around, we’ll know soon enough. Waiting for Monarchy has certainly been a risk, and the payoff remains to be seen. We’re desperately seeking MGL, anyone seen one out there?

 

[smackster]

So the big picture says we’re being overrun. Whether we turn it around, we’ll know soon enough. Waiting for Monarchy has certainly been a risk, and the payoff remains to be seen. We’re desperately seeking MGL, and I ain’t talking Monosodium glutamate. Anyone seen one out there?

Yes one or two, but most in the next spoiler, including 3 in one span of 10 turns, and on consecutive elite wins. Sorry looks like we got all yours.

Looks like meeting France so early is a bad thing, we were lucky that they were way down our contact list.

Cheers

Smackster

 

[SesnOfWthr]

Yes one or two, but most in the next spoiler, including 3 in one span of 10 turns, and on consecutive elite wins. Sorry looks like we got all yours.

I'm sure you're not all THAT sorry.

But for pity's sake, keep it to yourself!!

We have not yet begun to fight....

 

[AlanH]

Xteam's Ancient Age Progress.

We decided to go for the Xenophobic NOW variant, just for fun

Our celebrity cast:

klarius
AdrianE
Capt Buttkick
leif erickson
AlanH

klarius seemed to have a very good handle on how to MM our capital to get a fast granary, so we gave him the first turns. He settled Rome in 4000 BC, ran Pottery research at max and duly completed a granary as he predicted at turn 20. In 2550 BC AdrianE founded our Veii, our next city, west of Rome on a 3.x radius, and we proceeded to build a core.

We met Greece in 2750 BC but studiously ignored them. In the IBT after 2310 BC they finally called us with an offer we couldn't refuse, so we did a few tech trades and declared war like good little xenophobes. We then sent out a warrior to track down more civs, since we had 20 turns before our next declaration and we wanted to make as many trading opportunities as possible. Our second research project was Writing at minimum and we built our treasury for trade.

We met France in 1990 BC, and we set up tech and contact deals with them in 1575 BC to the tune of 20 gpt and declared war . Our full dance list for this continent then filled out as shown below, with a combination of direct and traded contacts. You'll see that we didn't have to worry about keeping to schedule after our third declaration, on England. In the space of ten turns they bought three others into a dogpile on us, with Russia giving them a helping hand. Germany finally declared on us to complete the continental set:

Civ             Contact date/turn      Latest DoW date/turn
Greece         2270 BC / Turn #37     2270 BC / Turn #37 (1st contact)
France         1990 BC / Turn #44     1575 BC / Turn #57 Declared
England        1625 BC / Turn #55     1075 BC / Turn #77 Declared
America        1500 BC / Turn #60      610 BC / Turn #97 They declared 975 BC
Russia         1500 BC / Turn #60      210 BC / Turn #117 They declared 775 BC
Babylon        1450 BC / Turn #62      190 AD / Turn #137 They declared 750 BC
Germany        1325 BC / Turn #67      420 AD / Turn #157 They declared 510 BC

We mainly operated in active defence mode, batting off successive incursions of warriors, archers, spears and bowmen. The Valley of Death to the north of Rome was a particularly bloody field, complete with the fabled 600 English horsemen riding to their deaths. We used archers then horses to defend the Roman Empire, and held off on building and deploying legions for as long as possible to delay our Golden Age. The RNG was not kind to us during these battles, and in spite of winning many elite battles we weren't blessed with a leader until after the end of the Ancient Age.

Our defensive approach meant we only took out two cities in about 4000 years of hatred. We destroyed Chartres in 730 BC, and Thermopylae in 250 BC.

Our research path took us through:
Pottery (max) completed in 3250 BC
Writing (min) completed in 1650 BC
Literature (min) bought in 1325 BC,
Polytheism (min) bought in 800 BC
Monarchy (max) completed in 350 BC
Construction (min) bought in 190 BC
Currency (max) completed in 130 BC -> Medieval.

We now have a 2 ring core of 14 cities at 3.x and 6.x, we are in our Golden Age in Monarchy and we are about to start taking the fight to our enemies. We've met more despicable aliens but even if we were allowed to talk about them here, they're not worth the typing effort, frankly.

Here's a picure of our empire as we move to a new era:

 

[Mauer]

Team Mauer: Ancient Age

First of all I would like to say that our team is very technologically advanced, and blatantly disrespectful. Seeing that Democracy has not been discovered yet, isn't it amazing that I was "voted" to write the spoiler. The whole lot of degenerates refuse to even call me sir!

We started off by deciding, as others did, to found on the spot. We started off by building 3 warriors, researching Pottery at 100%, then prebuilding a granary. We got so lucky with each of the warriors finding huts within a 10 tile radius. All of them giving us settlers!

J/K Had you fooled for a second there huh! We decided on a 4/7 core, but looking back wonder if we should have gone 3/6 using the rivers to our advantage. Our second city was Veii settled Just east of the second game there. Zamint our team hero, spied out a good settler factory. We set up the inner core with Veii pumping settlers, the other cities building barracks then warriors, and Rome alternating between the two.

We tried to stay out of petty sqabbling with our neighbors, being pansies for the first couple thousand years. I think all of the civs demanded something at one point or another. Alex was the first one we met. He was pretty stingy with his scientific discoveries. We noticed the mountain range wasn't going to give him much room either. So when we saw one city, then another on "our" side we decided he should be the first to go.

Our Northermost scout made most of the contacts. After meeting Cathy in 2310 BC we noticed some border conflict between herself and the germans. They were at war for quite some time. In 875BC we were able to get math/57g/WM for a MA against Germany. Germany never would send any troops.

1000BC QSC stats:
9 cities
7 workers
20 warriors
3 legionary
6th place at 233, 1st is Greece with 276

In 950BC we decide we should be acquiring land in more convenient ways. You know, take land where cities already exist. So we hook up the iron and start upgrading. It takes a few hundred years to get those legions trained and upgrade all those warriors. But in 690BC DoW on Greece. I was pretty pessimistic about attacking those hoplites in all that mountainous/hilly terrain. But the RNG gods were watching over us. We pulled it off without a hitch. In 470BC we offer peace for 3 cities WM and 12 gold. Leaving Alex with 2 cities (each on different continents).

We were shooting for Monarchy, but it was taking forever. So we finally buy Republic from cathy for an arm, a leg, and our firstborn children. They wanted Sark too (thought he was my firstborn), but I quickly informed them he is a comrade in arms. Then we tripped the anarchy switch in the middle of the war with Greece, but we weren't worried cause they rolled over pretty easily. Researched currency in 410BC and here we are in the spoiler.

I would like to bring up some confusion in our team thread. We were curious, being Romans and all, where are the bathhouses? Should have been available with Construction, right?

screenshot (sorry it is 3 turns into the MA)

 

[tao]

Team tao decided to go the xenophobic variant for a little bit of extra excitement. Before we started, I gave out our plan:

How to win an ideal game

1. We start exploring and hope to meet the first civ not too close to our capitol.
2. We can trade our alphabet for pottery and bronze working (or wheel/warrior code) before we declare war.
3. We do min research on writing and hope to meet the 2nd (or 3rd?) civ once we learned it and can trade it for iron working.
4. We research literature aiming for the Great Library.
5. A very early Great Leader builds us The Pyramids (wishful thinking).
6. We build the Great Library with a Great Leader.
7. Maybe we can delay our Golden Age until we are monarchy (more wishful thinking).
8. Since we are not pangea, contact with other civs is delayed until we have conquered our continent.
9. The Great Library will give us also lots of Middle Age techs once we contact the off-continent civs,
10. If even half of this happens, we should win. Easily.

Alas, the game turned out to not be "ideal". We did not get a Great Leader for The Pyramids. We could not trade alphabet for pottery nor bronze or writing for iron working, but had to pay lots of gold.

We settled on the spot and decided to do rcp 4/7 for a little more growth potential. We saw the Greeks early but managed to avoid contact, because hoplites are no fun to kill. We min researched writing and literature, and just as we finished the latter, we got the much hoped for Great Leader Trajan, who built us the Great Library in 530BC. Thus we learned a lot of Middle Age techs (including monarchy), and after only 2 turns of anarchy, the Roman kingdom was established in 450BC, the same year we enter the Middle Ages and learn monotheism. We will soon start our Golden Age and start annihilating them all.


The picture is dated 350BC, but no new cities were founded inbetween.

Contact List
2800BC: France; dow
1550BC: England; dow
1550BC: America, Russia, Germany, Babylon, Greece
1050BC: America; dow
590BC: dow on Russia (they already declared 730BC)
190BC: dow on Germany
210AD: dow on Babylon
430AD: dow on Greece

 

[zamint3]

Looking good X-team. ....looks like you are somewhat behind in score though.

The RNG was not kind to us during these battles, and in spite of winning many elite battles we weren't blessed with a leader until after the end of the Ancient Age.

That has allways been a problem with the X-team, you don't know how to please the RNG-gods , they have been smiling at my new team! (Team Mauer )

Can I ask one question? How does your military look at this moment?

 

[Mauer]

Looking good X-team. ....looks like you are somewhat behind in score though.

Sorry zamint, hate to stomp on your gloating, but I was gonna ask this question here anyways. What does everyone think about the balance between variant and nonvariant play? As far as score comparison.

We mainly operated in active defence mode, batting off successive incursions of warriors, archers, spears and bowmen.

In all fairness, this is something we didn't have to deal with untill it was on our terms. We were able to make deals, trade maps for gold, etc. more often and for longer periods of time. We didn't DoW on anybody untill about 875BC I think, and there were no troops involved. First action we saw was when we had 3 seperate stacks of legions prepositioned outside greek towns. I started thinking about this every time I would go check out the graph. Just wondered what everyone else thought.

 

[zamint3]

Sorry zamint, hate to stomp on your gloating

You could have waited a day or two!

 

[Mauer]

You could have waited a day or two!

Oops, I mean yeah, what's the deal Xteam?!

 

[AlanH]

What deal? You mean why are there two distinct scoring lines on the Firaxis graph? Check out which teams are in which group and look a the YES/NO entries under 'Variant'. With one notable exception there's a 100% correlation.

We've been fighting the Greeks since God was a child, and all the other civs since shortly afterwards. We've not been able to trade gpt since our second declaration of war, and we've had very few trading partners anyway. Early and continuous war, with no option to take cities, sue for peace, or capture slaves. That's enough to explain the score difference between the variant and non-variant teams.

We've build everything we have with the sweat of our own Roman brows, with no Leader help from the pesky RNG that has been living in Smackster's pocket for the last two weeks. Hence our score being down by 30% on Smackster - how do you compete with free Pyramids and Great Library? Success at this variant is obviously very dependent on random leader generation, and Smackster drew the long straw

We're not going to win any laurels this time (when did we ever ), but we'd still quite like to see if we can survive

Can I ask one question? How does your military look at this moment?

Enormous

 

[SesnOfWthr]

I'm with you, Alan.

I really hate to make excuses, but we've been doubled screwed by the rng. It took us some 60+ tries to get a leader, and Greece contacted us fully 800 years before anyone else that has posted.

Now, I should also add that we have not been the most strategically sound team ever, but I think the gaffes we did make were minor ones.

 

[smackster]

We've build everything we have with the sweat of our own Roman brows, with no Leader help from the pesky RNG that has been living in Smackster's pocket for the last two weeks. Hence our score being down by 30% on Smackster - how do you compete with free Pyramids and Great Library? Success at this variant is obviously very dependent on random leader generation, and Smackster drew the long straw

Free Sun Tzu's, Leo's, HG, Magellen's, etc....although out of scope of this spoiler its seems a bit restrictive not to talk a little beyond AA. Only our first leader was really lucky (third elite win I think), the rest were due to the quantity of elite wins.

Maybe tweak the rules a bit to reduce the early randomness and only allow teams to use a leader after 26 elite wins (so if you get him on your first win you can't use him until 26 wins).

As important for our game is that our contact with France was far down the contact list, so for a long time in this game we only had to fight one direct neighbour. And that order was not totally luck as we decided early that as soon as we got our second contact, we would trade for the rest in an order based on historical locations. Second contact came quite late, as we had no cash and were generally behind in tech.

 

[AlanH]

@SesnOfWthr: It wasn't clear from your timeline that Greece contacted you. Did you do any active exploring? We stayed very close to home to delay meetings, and by the time we did see a Greek we had nothing of interest to them, I guess, so they ignored us, and we waited until they came calling.

 

[Tarkeel]

Our first leader was mainly luck, but the others have just been stacking the deck. We had some luck on early contacts though, as one of our closest neighbours (France) was one of the last we had to declare on.

The non-variant teams have a definite advantage early on though, as they can press on expansion without worrying too much about defense. Later on their main advantage is being able to capture wonders and free (slave) labour.

 

[AlanH]

Only our first leader was really lucky (third elite win I think), the rest were due to the quantity of elite wins.

You think in 3000 years of continuous fighting we didn't have elite wins? I'm not going to go back and count them, but rest assured we had them in abundance.

 

[dmanakho]

Free Sun Tzu's, Leo's, HG, Magellen's, etc....

I would also add free Sistine Chapel, Heroic Epic and couple of armies to this line... ... We have those, don't we, team?

and... i think the difference here is while we were collecting MGLs other teams were hunting for some greek and french slave women to use in sweat shops

 

[Mauer]

Oops, I mean yeah, what's the deal Xteam?!

Sorry Alanh, I didn't mean to hit a sore spot . Was just a response to Zamint3's disdainful reaction to my question posted above. I absolutely agree with your remarks, as well as tarkeel's and sesn's. When comparing the scores on the graph, I usually uncheck all of the yes variants just to get a better feel for how we compare to the level we are playing at.
edit: by the way RNG grace just left us I do believe