Spoiler: Ancient and Classical Rome.

[Dynamic]

I founded Rome on the double hammers hill (DaveMcW's idea), started producing worker and research Agriculture. After worker I produced several warriors and 2 settlers. Sorry I don't remember the details.

My research before 1000BC (dates from the built in log of civ4):
3640BC Agriculture;
3360BC Animal Husbandry (hut);
3120BC Bronze Working;
2840BC Wheel;
2600BC Pottery;
2400BC Mysticism;
2120BC Polytheism;
1960BC Masonry;
1640BC Monotheism (Judaism, Holy city is Cumae);
1440BC Priesthood;
1280BC Writing;
Go to Monarchy.

I fast explored my continent, got Animal Husbandry and some gold from the huts. Lost one scout and warrior to the barbs.
My priority was growth and expansion so I missed early Wonders. I built Granary and Barracks almost in every city.
I found Antium on the coast west from horses(not good decision) in 2640BC and Cumae 2S from the gems in 2360BC. Other cities were built with some delay.
I very bad used the forests chopping and didn't know about ability of chopping
beyond the city area.

1000bc:
6 cities
20 population
2 workers
5 warriors
2 barracks
1 obelisk
4 granaries
Score: 464

Further I produced several missioners for fast converting to the state religion.
Greeks also converted so I never had problems in relations.
My big mistake was skipping the Pyramids and I miss some useful civics.
My way was selecting Organaized Religion (1480BC, delayed by mistake with
revolution) and Hereditary Rule (925BC, again stupid delay) as fast as possible.
No Wodners - no GL, and I understand it too late.
I got shrine only in 300AD.

950BC Monarchy;
800BC Iron Working
600BC Feudalism (Oracle);
525BC Code of Laws;
300BC Alphabet;
250BC Sailing;
125BC Mathematics;
1AD Calendar.

1 AD:
10 cities
46 population
7 workers
9 warriors
2 chariots
4 barracks
6 granaries
1 lighthouse
3 libraries
8 courthouse
The Oracle
Score: 884

I missed Praetorians so waited for Knights and developed peacefully till 1250AD.

250AD Metal Casting
300AD Literature
375AD Compass
500AD Machinery
560AD Optics
620AD Hunting
660AD Civil Service
720AD Music (start GA)
800AD Guilds
840AD Paper
960AD Printing Press
1000AD Meditation
1030AD Philosophy
1100AD Nationalism
1110AD Construction
1200AD Astromomy
1220AD Banking
1260AD Military Tradition

 

[Methos]

@Dynamic: You might want to remove that last pic. Some of us still haven't found the other continent so that was extremely spoilerish!

Some of us [read: me] met other civs by them coming to our continent rather than going to theirs. Luckily as soon as I noticed your mistake I closed the window.

@GOTM Staff: Can one of you remove that pic in case Dynamic doesn't come back for a while please?

 

[Dynamic]

Sorry, I totally forget about spoiler limit for the screenshots.
I add it at the last moment for showing my country before first war but by mistake select other continent.
Sorry again.

 

[Methos]

Sorry again.

Thank you for removing it, and I understand.

Not knowing where the other landmasses are and the frustration of being unable to find them is one of the best parts about the game. Or as in CivIII when your suicide gally finally brought the coast into sight and than was lost at sea before you reached the safety of that coast!?! Those were fun (and upsetting) games!

 

[pindicator]

I left this one on the shelf for too long, but with a little bit of time opening up (and a sick day, blah) I decided to play through and see if I could still make the deadline.

So where do we start this thing? Warrior went SW onto the hill, revealing the most amount of tiles. He spotted a wheat, but not near enough to make me move Settler for it. I'd pick it up with my second city. Rome I founded one tile to the south, mostly for production. Rome on the spot gets you 2 hills; Rome one south (or east for that matter) gets you five. Now that's a praetorian pumper if I even perused one!
In my personal games I've noted that the most important thing to do, no matter what your strat, is to get a good solid base to build off of. That means developing and building additional cities. No need to rush straight for iron, and definitely no cute tech options or rushes like I may have proposed in the pre-discussion. Since we have mining already for those gems (that's gonna be a lot of commerce early on!) I decide to push worker techs early on. So agriculture was first. And what's worker techs without a worker? My first unit to be produced was a worker. Indeed, after irrigating the corn and mining the gems, Rome at size two had +5fpt and 16 commerce!
(By the way, this capital location was just screaming Beaurocracy with the gems, hills, and silk, but I'm getting ahead of myself.)

I popped a lot of huts early on, but I probably was only to do it because the second hut I popped got me a scout. Considering I was forgoing early exploration with building a worker first, I considered this the best possible pop for me to get. Techs would be nice, but the scout was priceless at this point. You can see my worker being churned along and my placement of Rome in this early screenshot:



Adding to my luck, my warrior circled around north, along the coastline afterwards and popped another hut, giving him experience! Two woodsman promotions later, I basically had two scouts for free to start this game!
We spotted Greece early, or rather his scout spotted us, and I know he has aggressive tendencies. So I decided I would have to take it to him first.

As soon as Rome hit size 3, I started on a settler and founded Antium in 2360BC to the east, picking up the wheat and horses. Another potential production king. I was also keeping my forests around, because especially on plains tiles there is little better. I wish I would have been quicker to Bronze Working, because there were some trees along the river that would have to go later on that could have been used to rush the early settlers, but live and learn. Even after researching Bronze Working, I took my time to fall back to Archery, because Barbarians started popping up. I also had Chariots hooked up at this time; they weren't too favorable against Greece, but they would help to pillage and take out barbs back home. This was the time when I had scouted the full starting continent and knew it was just Alex and me. And this rock isn't big enough for the both of us.

I let Rome grow another pop and pumped out a third town, Cumae in 1520. Iron Working came just a few turns before the settler; I almost went longer without researching it, because Rome was pulling in a base of 20 commerce at this point. But those Greek axes had me fearful. Cumae picked up the iron, settling NW of it. Off the river, but an important coastal site nonetheless.
After that it was an aggressive settle towards Greece. Neapolis came about in 725BC, settling 2 south of the eastern corn. It was food-poor, but the corn with cultural expansion it would work hills and corn. More importantly it was a stepping stone towards Greece. I was gearing up for a Mediterranean-style war, but had barbs popping up in my backdoor all the time, even with my woodsman warrior scouting. I burned a barb city at cost of 2 chariots; I did not like the location one bit and I didn't want to cripple my economy any more than I was about to with my annexation of Greece.

For each new town, unless it had something better to build first, a Granary was the first order of business. Being half-price and since we had no shortage of happiness, they picked my cities up quick. I thought about picking up Stonehenge for border expansions, but in the end there were too many other things to do for my goal of kicking Alex off the continent.

Here is a good pic of the empire the turn I declared on Alex



Notice I accidentally let Rome grow too big. I swear I hit the Do-Not-Grow button, but I guess I forgot.
Praetorians are being pumped and chariots are coming about as well. One bit I did with my extra chariots was to send two all the way around just outside Alex's Bronze mine.
You can see the Greek borders in the lower right corner; that's the town of Thermopylae and it fell quickly. In fact, they all fell fairly quickly. I had two groups go out. The first went east along the coast, taking cities and a second group went south and west to whatever towns Greece was trying to hide away from me. Each group was maybe 3 Praetorians large with occasionaly axe and chariot support.
Here's a list of my Greek acquisitions:

525BC - Thermopylae
425BC - Corinth (located east of the southern horses)
275BC - Sparta (located on the far southeastern tip)
125BC - Delphi (west of Thermopylae, and this won was a pain)
50AD - Athens (Stonehenge was built here by Greece)
150AD - Pharsalos, west of Athens, auto-razed, and Greece is destroyed

There was a snag of note. An archer had left Thermopylae right as my forces came (to which I laughed at, all the easier in taking the town), and I tried to gun him down with a chariot out in the open. 4.0 vs 3.3 and the archer wins flawlessly. I followed him west to Delphi and on my initial assault, take all the defenders down except for that one last archer (2 axemen had been defending it as well). I have three units against this City Defender II archer, and I'm thinking I can over-run him with 3 units (prae + axe + chariot). Well, the combat I praetorian attacks and the archer wins flawlessly. The chariot follows (I was stubborn) and the archer wins flawlessly. I decided not to sacrifice the axeman in the same way. That town stuck around until I pulled a City Raider III Praetorian from the east. War-weariness was also starting to come around, but I had a trick up my sleave for that. By the way, here is a picture of the last days of Greece:



Athens was very food rich, so when I picked up Code of Laws for courthouses, I also swapped to Caste System. Athens and other new towns got Artists for a border expansion and then fired them; Athens itself worked multiple science specialists from this point on.

A little note on technology here. I was at war, and so I expected very much to fall behind in tech. I saw the early religions go and kept waiting to see Confucianism fall. I waited and I waited and thought maybe I missed it. But when I researched Code of Laws myself I founded Confuciansim to my surprise! I was maintaining a tech lead while waging early war! The other AIs must be just slugging each other to the dark ages. But I was researching at a fast pace; here's my order of research up until I qualified for the spoiler:

3680BC - Agriculture
3360BC - Wheel
3080BC - Mysticism
2880BC - Pottery
2640BC - Animal Husbandry
2320BC - Bronze Working
2200BC - Hunting
2080BC - Archery
1640BC - Iron Working (enter Classical Era)
1440BC - Writing
975BC - Mathematics
800BC - Sailing
775BC - Masonry
325BC - Currency
25BC - Confucianism... uh, I mean Code of Laws!
275AD - Calendar (maybe should have waited a bit on this, and let Stonehenge work its magic a bit
325AD - Polytheism (back-filling religious techs since I have one now!)
400AD - Monotheism
500AD - Xi Ling Shi was born in Athens, and grabs me Compass
520AD - Monarchy
540AD - Priesthood
660AD - Metal Casting

With Metal Casting in, and my economy doing well thanks to The Great Lighthouse being built in Cumae in 600AD, I went for an infra push. I swapped civics here, this time to Organized Religion and built Forges in every town that could do it. I also took off Caste System; Athens was my only specialist town and it had a library. I went to Slavery to save a bit of money. Helping in my infra push, I built the Forbidden Palace in Thermopylae in 880AD, the Colossus in Corinth in 960AD, and missed out on the Parthenon by one lousy turn in 1050AD

760AD - Alphabet
800AD - Literature
940AD - Machinery
1020AD - Optics (yay, Caravels!)
1030AD - Meditation (going for Philosophy)
and so on...

Here is an empire-wide shot of my continent in 1000AD. It was a nice arbitrary date, but it also works because I qualified for the spoiler in 1080AD. I will say that I am way ahead in the tech race, and plan on continuing to be.



Odd... the marble icon beside Arpinum did not capture. Also notice I got lucky and had a gem pop by Thermopylae. And check out Pisae! If I could have picked a food bonus there, that would have been (yet another) shield powerhouse! With all these hills, this seems a game geared towards Roman military might. Oh, well, except for the islands.
Personally, I think I've flexed my military muscle enough for this game. The plan is to build infrastructure, keep racing ahead in tech, and build that shuttle way before the other AI realize there are other continents. Well, they're not that backwards, but still.

Look for the final in the next week!

 

[hendrikszoon]

I am too lazy to protocol my games, but with Civ IV Event Log I am now able to write a detailed spoiler.


The Beginning

I settled South of the starting position. Some other players like bradleyfeanor, DaveMcW and Dynamic settled on the Plains Hill West, West, Southwest of the starting position. The two turns they loose are more then compensated by the additional Hammer. Also after building a Farm on the Wheat they got - compared with the Corn tile I used - one additional Hammer and one addtional Gold per turn. Nevertheless I also knew these advantages - the first turn of my game was moving the Warrior on the Plains Hill - I decided to settle South for two reasons:

1. In Civilization III research was very important. But in my opinion the importance of research in Civilization IV has increased again. It is not only important to get Astronomy as soon as possible. There is another more important Technology. But this I will explain in my final spoiler. In my games the capital is always a "Research Center". So it is important for me to have as much Gold as possible on the city squares. Inside the city squares of a Plains Hill capital there would be only three Silk tiles. Inside my capital I had four Silk tiles and a Gems tile. This makes a big difference in research. Especially in the beginning when Plantation was not available.

2. The capital should be also very "productive". Only with a high productivity I can get very fast all the necessary research buildings - Library, University, Observatory, Monastery - and The Great Library. A city founded on the Plains Hill has no Hill in its city squares. After chopping the Forest there would be no tile providing more than one Hammer (I don't build Workshops; I will explain later why not).

So nevertheless I understand bradleyfeanor, DaveMcW and Dynamic, my decision was another one.

Rome trained at first a Worker followed by two Settlers. In my opinion in the early phase of the game Warriors for defending cities are not necessary. Only Bears, Lions, Panthers and Wolfes, which can not enter the players territory, are active.

When trained, the Worker improved the Corn tile with a Farm and connected it with a Road, chopped Forest to accelerate the training of the first Settler, built a Gems Mine and chopped again a Forest (accleration of the second Settler). Later he built again Roads. Nevertheless Roads are not so worthful like in Civ III, I believe they are a little bit underestimated. Roads give you the possibility to move faster and there is only a small expenditure of labor needed to build them, also on Hills and in Forests. Thanks to the Roads it was possible to found my third city in the same turn the Settler was trained.

The first trained Settler founded Antium (2840BC) East, East, Northeast of Rome at the River. So both early cities had access to the Corn and the Gems and it gave me the possibility to switch. Additionally there was another Corn tile inside the city squares of Antium. Nevertheless I had some doubts. Maybe the better solution was to settle on the Plains Hill. So my second trained Settler took advantage of the bonus Hammer and settled on the Plains Hill (Cumae, 2360BC). Directly after the foundation of Cumae the Worker builds the Wheat Farm. Both new cities started with the training of a Worker.


On Exploration

From the Plains Hill I saw the first Goody Hut. My Warrior opened it the next turn and got some Gold. The foundation of Rome revealed another Goody Hut Southeast of the Gems. The Warrior was sent immediately to this Goody Hut. Following the coastal line the Warrior explored the Northern hemisphere and the Scout the Soutern one. They found four further Goody Huts and opened them immediately. It seems the Greek Scout was killed very early. The friendly Villagers of two of them gave me Bronze Working and Mysticism. I believe that this was a further proof for "fortune favors fools", especialy when I read what happened to bradleyfeanor. But I am sure all this will be compensated in the next games. To prevent this compensation I propose for the next 4otMs to remove all Goody Huts on the starting continent.

The Scout contacted Alexander around 3200BC. I don't know the exact date, because it not fixed in the Event Log. After the discovering Writing an Open Borders agreement with Alexander was signed.

When all the coastal line was known the last dark tiles of inland were explored. At 2000BC nearly every Land tile of the continent was known.


Early Research

I believe everyone started with the research of Agriculture (3720BC). My second research target, The Wheel (3400BC), looks a little bit strange, but I like Roads (see above).

To care a fast research, Libraries are necessary. So the next research target was Writing. Now in Civ IV it is possible to get some technologies on different paths. For Writing there are four paths available:

1. Agriculture - Pottery - Writing
2. Agriculture - Animal Husbandry - Writing
3. Mysticism - Meditation - Priesthood - Writing
4. Mysticism - Polytheism - Priesthood - Writing

I took the longest way, Mysticism (3520BC, Goody Hut) - Polytheism (2840BC) - Priesthood (2720BC) - Writing (2440BC). I decided to go the long way, because after getting Writing my next research target was Literature (The Great Library). And the necessary Technologies to research Literature are Alphabet and ..... Polytheism. Also it was not necessary to get Writing very early because the build-up of the Library could not start before the Worker and the two Settlers were trained.

I didn't research Masonry, Pottery, Animal Husbandry and Hunting because these technologies seemed not to be necessary in the early phase of the game and I hoped (it was only a hope! ) it would be possible to get them later by trading.

After getting Writing I was not going straight ahead to Literature, because I found the only Marble source close to Athens. For my favorate Wonders - The Great Library, The Partheon, The Oracle, The Taj Mahal, National and Heroic Epic - Marbel to have or to have not makes a difference of 1000 Hammers. So war with Alexander was foreseeable and I wanted to fight this war with Praetorians. Iron Working was discovered in 2040BC.

Then I came back on my old path, discovering Alphabet (1520BC) and Literature (1240BC).


Greek Wars

After researching Iron Working the first problem occured: An Iron Ressource was close to Antium, but outside the city squares. I didn't want to build there another city because of the desert around. So I built as fast as possible - supported by two chopped Forests - a Library in Antium. After the expansion of Antium's borders the Iron Mine was established immediately. Then I could start with the build-up of a small - very small - Praetorian army.

I begun the first Greek war in 1480BC, capturing a Greek Worker close to Sparta. Sparta was only defended by an Archer and a Warrior. I attacked them successful with two Axemen (both City Raider II promotion, upgraded Warriors). After this attack the Axeman who attacked the Archer was severly and the other one lightly wounded. Because of this wounds and the fact that only two Praetorians were available around Sparta (a third one was on the way and another one in the pipe), I decided to wait for reinforcements. In 1040BC with four Praetorians and the two healed Axemen Athens was captured. In the same turn I made peace with Alexander getting Masonry and Meditation. War Weariness was not a problem because my cities were very small at this time.

I used the ten turns of ceasefire - for me it was not a peace, only a ceasefire - to heal the survivors of the battle of Athens and to transfer them close to Thermopylae, the last Greek city. In 750BC I declared war again and in 725BC Thermopylae was captured. From this moment I was - together with some Barbarians - alone on my continent.

The main reason to raid the Greeks so early was - you remember - the Marble close to Athens. So directly after capturing Athens, Neapolis was founded on the tile North of the Marble. This was not a good decision. The better solution in such a case is to found the city directly on the Marble. Because of my fault three Workers were necessary to connect the Marble by building a Road and a Quarry.

First building started in Neapolis was The Oracle. When the three Workers had finished their "Marble Job" they chopped two Forests to accelerate this Wonder.


Great People Farming Program

In my opinion Great People play an important role in Civ IV. Nevertheless we don't have a philosophical Leader in this 4otM, I started my "Great People Farming Program". The program consists of four essential parts:

1. Pacifism (+100% Great People Birth Rate in cities with State Religion)
2. The Great Library (8 Great Scientist points - six points come from the two free Scientists)
3. The Partheon (+50% Great People Birth Rate in all cities, 2 Great Artist points)
4. National Epics (+100% Great People Birth Rate in the city, 1 Great Artist point)

After the defeat of the Greek only Pacifism was not available. The next research target was Philosophy. To reach this target I started the research of Code of Laws. In the same turn I researched it (875BC) - this I call a good timing - The Oracle was completed in Neapolis. I took Philosophy for free, found Taoismus in Cumae and converted in the same turn. Some turns later I adopted Pacifism. The Great Library was built in Rome and The Parthenon in Antium. Both Wonders were completed 550BC. Later also the National Epic was established in Rome.

The most important Great People for me at this time were two Great Scientists (needed for Academies in my "Research Centers" Rome and Athens) and a Great Prophet (needed for The Dai Miao in Cumae). To prevent an unpleasant surprise, I cared for a 100% Great Prophet probability in Neapolis and a 100% Great Scientist probability in Rome.

In sum 13 Great People (all other civilizations got together 11) were born in the Roman Empire. Five of them were used to trigger two Golden Ages, two to build Academies, one to build The Dai Miao, one to build The Kong Miao, two joined Rome and two rushed Technologies.


Further Development

After the defeat of the Greeks a long phase of calm development followed, interrupted only by some Barbarians and the conquest of a Barbarian city (Bulgar, 225BC).

In 850BC Pisae was founded on the Stone Ressource (you see I am adaptive) at the West coast. Because the chop rush of The Oracle was so succesful, I did the same with The Pyramids in Pisae. Three workers were chopping all the Forest around Pisae. So it was possible to finish The Pyramids only 9 turns after the foundation of Pisae. I adopted Representation immediately. There was a discussion concerning Settler rush by chopping. In my opinion Wonder rush - especially when a chopped Forest adds 60 Hammers - is more efficient. I used Forest chopping also to accelerate The Great Library and The Parthenon.

First research target of this phase was Calendar (400BC) via Sailing (800BC) and Mathematics (575BC), because it is needed for plantations. Also it is part on the way to Astronomy. The next steps - Metal Casting (250BC), Compass (175BC), Machinery (25BC) - lead to Optics (50AD). Now it was possible to contact the other civilizations.


1AD Status



For the 1AD status I make a comparison with the results of bradleyfeanor.

			bradleyfeanor	hendrikszoon
Cities			9		9
Population		58		50
Workers			10		10
Warriors		10		2		
Praetorians		2		4
Axemen			0		2
Work Boat		0		1
Barracks		6		2
Granaries		8		1
Lighthouses		0		3
Academies		0		2
Libraries		3		5
Courthouses		1		3
Temples			1		1
Monasteries		0		2
Stonehenge		yes		no
Church of the Nativity	yes		no
The Dai Miao		no		yes
National Epic		no		yes
The Pyramids		yes		yes
The Great Library	no		yes
The Oracle		yes		yes
The Parthenon		no		yes
The Hanging Gardens	yes		no

Research Beakers	4256		7000

Raw Score		1106		1136

I believe the higher Population of bradleyfeanor is explained by the eight Granaries. The number of Workers is identically and the combat strength of the armies is also more or the same.

The most significant difference is the number of Research Beakers. Also after substraction of Bronze Working (Goody Hut), Mysticism (Goody Hut), Masonry (Greeks) and Meditation (Greeks) I have a lead of 2282 Beakers (6538 to 4256).

I believe this is good point to end this spoiler. All further information I will give in my final spoiler next week.

 

[Santa Cruz Tim]

So. First, let me say that this is the first GOTM that I've participated in. I tried one of the early CIV 3 GOTMs but got my butt handed to me and lost interest. LOL. In any case, the main reason I am playing is to make myself play at least one game per month to completion, without reloads, regardless of the outcome. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and although I don't do a lot of reloading I do tend to quit all together if things so sufficiently sour (particularly because I enjoy the early game more anyway). So, that being said... Hi! I'm Santa Cruz Tim and this month I'm also the Emperor of the mighty Roman Empire! I started this game with a cultural victory in mind, so my hope was to found as many religions as possible as quickly as I could in order to build as many different cathedrals as possible in my three culture cities as well as the holy buildings for each religion. So, I explored the continent and got rather lucky with the goodie huts, both with what they gave me and with Alexander's failure to get to them first. Particularly surprising was that I got to the one just east of Athens before he did, even though I explored that corner of the continent last! I managed to get 3 scouts from the huts, so that did give me an advantage! I also got pottery and agriculture, so I was very happy.

By 2000 BC I had founded my second city, Antium, on the coast next to the stone resource, hoping to use it to ensure that I got Stonehenge, and give me a shot at trying for the Pyramids. I decided to ignore the marble, since it was in such a bad spot. Also, I figured I'd get it as soon as I wiped Greece off the map anyway! I founded Hinduism and Judaism in Rome, so my religious obsession was off to a good start. I decided to try and build the Oracle for Code of Laws and then use a Great Prophet for Theology. (This was my main reason for trying for Stonehenge. I'd rather have the Pyramids, but they generate Engineers not Prophets.) This was a somewhat risky strategy since the opponent was Alexander. He is one of the few civs that tends to attack early if he senses weakness. My plan at this point was to research bronze and iron next and cross my fingers that an iron resource (or at least copper) would pop up in a useful place! If so, I would build Praetorians and eliminate Alexander. Otherwise, I would build some archers and hope he decided to play nice!

By 1000 BC, I had managed to build Stonehenge in Antium and the Oracle in Rome, thus founding Confucianism in Antium. After discovering Bronze Working, I noticed to my irritation that the copper resource was one space south of Antium's city radius. Oh well. After discovering Iron Working, I realized how close the iron was to Rome, so I sent a settler to found my third city there, on the coast between the iron and the sugar. By this time a barbarian city had formed near the dye on the west coast, so my plan was to build a couple of Praetorians and take the Barbarian city, hopefully getting a city raider promotion from it and then trying to destroy Alex before he knew what hit him.

By 1AD my plan to dominate the religious scene was going better than could be expected. I researched Philosophy and discovered Theology with a Great Prophet from Rome (the Oracle). Unless something unexpected happened, I would use the Great Prophet from Antium (Stonehenge) to get Divine Right, giving me 6 of 7 religions. This is exactly what I hoped for and will allow me to build a lot of culture in my three main cities. The drawback of course, is that the 5 unknown civs will all end up being Buddhists and kind of hate me for being a heathen. Not everything went as planned, though. I got greedy and tried or the Pyramids but didn't get them. Ironically, this helped me get Philosophy since the production was converted to cash, allowing me to keep the research slider at 100%. The Greeks got the Barbarian city (That's what I get for signing an Open Borders agreement), but no matter. That city was isolated from the rest of Greece, so it would be easy pickings later. At this point I had three cities to Alex's five, so it was time to get serious about stopping his growth.

By 1000 AD I had founded Islam and had five cities for Alex's seven. So far, there had been no war. (Wow. 5000 years of peace. Isn't that special?) Alex's score was a bit higher than mine and although neither of us had the Alphabet yet, I was pretty sure that he had quite a few technologies that I didn't have since I had been obsessively pursuing religion. His military was bigger and if I didn't do something quick I was going to lose any advantage that Praetorians would have given me. It was only a matter of time before he got Macemen and Knights.

Finally, in 1340 AD Alexander attacked. Unfortunately for me, I had still not built up my military enough. It was ugly, but I managed to hold him off. During the war, Alex finished the Sistine Chapel, which I had been trying to build in Rome. This is a very important wonder for a cultural victory and I had waited too long to build it. If there was ever any doubt in my mind that I was going to completely wipe Alexander from the map it was now gone. I needed to get the Sistine Chapel.

And then finally in the year **** (not sure if I'm allowed to say) a caravel from a far away land appeared off the coast. And so, I stopped for the night to write this up. The war with Greece is going well, but not as quickly as I'd like. I have destroyed one of his cities (only because it was population 1) and conquered two. That gives me eight cities to his seven. At this point we are pretty evenly matched as far as military goes, but I am about to discover Guilds, which he doesn't have yet, so hopefully I can crank out a few knights and finish him off. I just discovered Optics, so I am making a caravel on the west coast and one on the east, each with a Jewish Missionary (Judaism is my state religion). I'll send the caravels in opposite directions hoping to circumnavigate the globe before anyone else and to spread my religion to two of my unknown opponents. If I am lucky, there will be more than one other continent. If so, it is possible that any civs on the "no religion" continent won't have Buddhism yet. In that case, I'll spread Judiasm there and be able to get a civ that shares my religion. I'm not really counting on it though.

The long term plan: Still a cultural victory. With six religions and a continent to myself (assuming I defeat Alexander), it should be easy. I've found that in circumstances such as this that the chance of being conquered by anyone else is neglible. What is not negligible, however, is the possibility that one of the others will win a Space Race victory before I finish the Cultural Victory. So, as soon as I finish conquering the continent I'll need to move quickly to build nine of each temple (yes, that's 54 temples) so that I can build six cathedrals in each of my three culture cities. I'll keep the research slider at 100% at least until I discover Democracy. At that point I will do whatever it takes to make sure I get the Statue of Liberty and I'll set my civics to what I consider the best recipe for a cultural victory: Representation / Free Speech / Caste System / Mercantilism / Pacifism, with most of the free specialists being artists so that I can create great works in my three cities. Depending on how the competition is, I may or may not keep the research slider at 100% until I get Electricity - Radio - Mass Media. Due to the two free specialists per city from the Statue of Liberty and Mercantilism and the extra research per specialist from Representation, I'll be able to generate a decent enough amount of research even if the research slider is at 0%. Once I have Mass Media, I'll probably try to get Flight and Industrialism, either through research or more likely trade (the AI never seems to go for Radio or Mass Media right away, so they will all need them). Then I will set the culture slider to 100% and crank out fighters and battleships to keep any invading forces away from my coast and just try to get my cultural victory before one of the other civs goes into space.

Wow. I'm really long-winded.

 

[Shillen]

@hendrikszoon

Two academies and the shrine by 1AD? That's nothing short of amazing.

 

[RoddyVR]

having tried to read this thread, i now know what i will do for the next GOTM.

i will finish it early so that i can READ all the spoilers one at a time as they are posted.

cause i cant plow though almost 300 long posts at once on the same subject.

 

[bradleyfeanor]

Wow, awsome spoiler Hendrikszoon! Great explaination of the "why" you did things and not just the "what" you did.

I am really impressed with how quickly you developed your capitol into a science-generating monster. I also never realized how valuable Great Leaders can be--I like them, but I have never gone after them with the intensity you did early in this game. The combination of these two strategies makes for a very strong game plan that I will have to explore more thoroughly. The tough part is going to be doing both these things while still maintaining a very fast growth rate like you achieved.

I also noted this:

To prevent this compensation I propose for the next 4otMs to remove all Goody Huts on the starting continent.

That triggered a snort that snowed Christmas-cookie crumbs about my keyboard.

Other than your two free scientists for the Great Library, did you use a lot of specialists prior to 1 AD?

 

[Dynamic]

Thank you Hendrikszoon for the excellent post! It's very informative!
How many games did you play before this GOTM?

 

[hendrikszoon]

Other than your two free scientists for the Great Library, did you use a lot of specialists prior to 1 AD?

Beside the two free Scientists I had only a Priest in Neapolis for some turns. I used this Priest to care that the Great Prophet was born before the second Great Scientist.

How many games did you play before this GOTM?

I finished only one game (Romans, Standard Map, Continents, Noble) before this GotM. I used this game to test my strategy and to examine the scoring behavior at the last turn. E.g. to find out, if I get the Population bonus also from Hanging Gardens finished in the last turn or if it is necessary to finish the Wonder the turn before (last turn is o.k.).

Before this game I played a lot on a Duel map on Chieftain level to understand how the game mechanics works.

 

[solenoozerec]

This game is my first civ4 game.

My impression is very good. I particularly like combat. It gives enormous amount of tactical possibilities. But the course of my game is comically frustrating. For a long time I was not able to figure out what tech I need to to cross the ocean. I interpreted cyvlopedia’s “+1 sight across water” as a better visibility for naval units. It was also not clear whether a caravel can go to the ocean (there is something about exploring rival territory). Anyway at some point I decided that Optics might be what I need.
Ok, I built a caravel only to discover that I cannot load units on it (my fault, there is a statement about this in civlopedia). So now I know that I need to learn astronomy.

Another curious thing: In the pre-game discussion I wrote that since I have no idea how religion works and how to use it, I am not going to use it.
The problem is that I qualified for this spoiler in 1420AD and I still have no idea what religion is . I own my continent and none of the cities on it have religion. All are pagan.

Talking about paganism, there is a politically correct statement in the manual that to avoid offending people believes, all religions are equal in the game.
What about pagan people? They might get offended by this game.

 

[Dynamic]

I finished only one game (Romans, Standard Map, Continents, Noble) before this GotM. I used this game to test my strategy and to examine the scoring behavior at the last turn. E.g. to find out, if I get the Population bonus also from Hanging Gardens finished in the last turn or if it is necessary to finish the Wonder the turn before (last turn is o.k.).

Good point, but it seems to me only for low difficulty level...

 

[Boppy]

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to the Civ GOTM scene, although I did play a Civ3 GOTM once.

I've just got to the point in my Civ4 GOTM where it was safe to look in this thread. I have to say I am really impressed by the quality of people's write ups

I have made brief notes on how my progress has gone but compared to having screen shots and datelines that other's reports have all I've got is my tech order and why I did things.

Someone previously posted about a log that gets created. Is this done by default and how do I access it? I may then try write a better report!

Thanks,

Boppy

 

[Dave the Lesser]

Well, here’s my game summary. I saw the results today and decided to write a little something. Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I didn’t take any notes. Anything you read below is (poorly) reconstructed from memory.

Game Strategy: Fast Domination

The Opening

I settled W, W, SW on the plains hill for the +1 production. I love building my capital on a plains hill as those first crucial units get built just a few turns faster. A couple turns may not seem like much, but if they allow my warrior to explore a few more tiles or find one extra goodie hut, the long-term effects become magnified. I popped a scout when Rome was built and sent him and my warrior out exploring. In my opinion, there’s no need to garrison the capital in the early game. I never station a unit there until barbs appear or until the city requires happiness. As I recall, my first production orders were worker, worker, warrior, settler (with chopping). Again, the warrior was sent out to get as much information as possible on my surroundings. I’ve found in Civ IV, information is king and you can never get too much of it.

With a sizable portion of the homeland revealed, I began city planning. I think my second city (Antium) was to the east where it could use two food bonuses and a gems tile. The site for the 3rd city (Cumae) was a no-brainer for me – I plopped down on the stone tile on the western coast. This spot: 1) allowed for instantaneous stone hookup once Masonry was learned; 2) it was the only tile that could reach the fish bonus; and 3) it had forests up the wazoo. Thus, city #3 was to become my wonder-chop city. Stonehenge, the Pyramids and the Oracle (free Civil Service) were all chopped by the forests in and around Cumae. City #4 (Neapolis) was built down south near some sheep. Surprisingly good production there…who knew?

Like many others players, my Roman civilization was Confucian. I built the Kong Miao shortly after adopting the religion and began mass producing missionaries. I did discover Christianity several centuries later, but never produced any Christian missionaries since it wasn’t worth the production at that point.

Early research was fairly typical. Goodie huts helped the cause and I remember researching Currency pretty early for the extra trade route. Calendar was also researched early for obvious reasons. Iron Working was not a priority….this is Noble, no need to rush war, it will come in time. I did finally research it to unlock the jungled sugar tiles off to the east. I think I ran at around 90% science for most of the early game, pretty much breezing through techs via cottage spamming in four science cities (Rome, Antium, a grassland city near the 2 sugars, and a former barbarian city NW of where I settled Rome).

The Middle Game

Since my whole game centered on early domination, I didn’t beeline to Astronomy for several reasons. First and foremost, I had to build an army that could cross the water and kick some *whistle sound*. The majority of said army would consist of promoted praetorians and catapults. Therefore, Theology had to be researched for the +2 experience and Machinery had to be delayed so I could amass sufficient praetorians (macemen are nice, but not +40 hammers nice). With barracks and State Religion, my praetorians had City Raider II right out of the box. Overpowered unit, you say? I wholeheartedly agree, but I’m not complaining. Lastly, I researched Music to ensure Homer was born in the Roman civilization.

Once the praetorian division of the army was built, I declared war on Alexander in 620 AD. Athens was captured in 780 and the Greeks were no more. Sometime during the war, I discovered Optics and built my first caravel. It set sail from the west coast and, several turns later, bumped into another civilization….