Spoiler: Ancient and Classical Rome.

[AlanH]

The awards are listed here. What else can we say? Obviously there will only be one award each for Fastest Cultural and Lowest Scoring Cultural victories for Civ4.

Re. the shields, they were originally conceived as 'booby prizes', but I suppose there is a perverse challenge in trying to minimise your score while getting to a chosen victory condition. There are one or two players who have decided to try to collect all the low score prizes in Civ3 GOTMs. They haven't achieved it yet, but maybe they'll stop by and explain the attractions ...

 

[col]

hehe - well as a long time ambulance chaser - its just a challenge. The lowest scoring win for example was a careful balance between expanding enough to get then win but not so much that your score went up. I think I once had a win scoring under 100 in practice runs on a random map. That was with 3 cities iirc. OCC culture runs gave higher scores It was at a time when milking the game was how to generate high scores and once I'd proved to my own satisfaction I could get a top 10 score by doing it, I didint want to do it again.

My most creative game was highest scoring loss. Stay just below dom limit leaving one city alive. Empty your cities leaving an ants trail of workers so that one warrior captured all my cities ending on the final turn....

Fun games are those where you impose some artifical restriction on yourself then work around it

 

[Grogs]

Early going: Rome was settled in place. The starting location was excellent, but in the early going it took some work to get it really growing quickly. My first build was a 2nd warrior, who promptly got eaten by a bear. I was a little gunshy after that, so my 3rd build (after a worker) was another warrior. I finally got my first settler out in 2600 BC and founded Antium S. of the wheat to the West. For a while, I had 1 warrior in each city, huddled in the city walls as animals prowled just outside the cultural boundaries. My worker first mined the gems (awesome gold!), then chopped the forests on the silks to aid in the production of the settler. Farming the silk squares gave a nice 3f/2g or 2f/1h/2g square. Because I chop rushed the first couple of settlers, farming the corn was actually a fairly low priority. I believe it was the 5th tile I developed, after mining the gems, farming 1 GL and 1 plains silk, and farming the wheat by Antium. Cumae was founded East to claim the iron in 1440 BC, and Neapolis was founded on the West coast to capture horses in 1000 BC. My first 4 cities were all built in generally East-to-West line that closed off the northern area of the continent to Greek expansion.

Early Rome:

Technology: I research hunting first, with the intention of building a scout, but I popped one from a goody hut pretty early, so I didn't really need to. Bronze Working was second in order to reveal copper (which was quite a ways off.) then agriculture for farming, Animal Husbandry to reveal horses, Mysticism for obelisks/culture, Archery for defense, and then Iron Working (for praetorians!) After that, I set off for Code of Laws and founded Confucianism. Thanks to the gems, I was able to keep research @ 100% until 750 BC and it never dropped below 70% (for the whole game.) Picking up Civil Service very early (1 AD) allowed me to spread irrigation and switch to Beuracracy.

Tech Summary:

3760 BC: Hunting
3240 BC: Bronze Working
3000 BC: Agriculture
2760 BC: Animal Husbandry
2600 BC: Mysticism
2440 BC: Archery
2040 BC: Iron Working
1880 BC: Wheel
1760 BC: Pottery
1560 BC: Writing
1360 BC: Polytheism
1240 BC: Priesthood
750 BC: Code of Laws (Confucianism founded in Antium)
675 BC: Masonry
575 BC: Sailing
425 BC: Monotheism
150 BC: Alphabet
1 AD: Civil Service(!) - free tech from the Oracle
25 AD: Literature
250 AD: Monarchy
425 BC: Math
600 AD: Construction
720 AD: Calendar
860 AD: Metal Casting
920 AD: Drama - G. Artist
960 AD: Currency
1020 AD: Compass
1070 AD: Machinery
1130 AD: Optics
1160 AD: Theology

Foreign Relations:

Greece discovered me in 3760 BC. After I discovered Confucianism, he quickly converted and we were best buds. At least until I declared war in 375 BC. The Greeks were eliminated completely in 660 AD. Barbarians founded Assyrian NW of Rome in 1600 BC and I let it exist until 1110 AD. It provided minor amusement and occasional promotions for nearby units. My caravels encountered the first off-continent AI in 1190 AD.

WAR!!

Iron was connected in 1160 BC and the legions were quickly trained. The Roman legions (praetorians) were without a doubt the greatest fighting force in the world. One of the first legions managed to slip down to a spot near the Greek iron 1 turn before the cultural borders of Sparta and Thermopylae expanded and closed down the route. When the war began in 375 AD, 4 Roman legions and 1 archer battalion were poised just North of Greek lands (NW of the Greek horses,) with 3 more legions following 2-4 turns behind, and of course the legion poised to take out the Greek iron. Antium was cranking out legions every 3 turns and Neapolis and Cumae also contributed a couple of legions. My workers had also built a road to Greek territory to speed up the flow of reinforcements.

The Greek Campaign:

Invincible! Or so they believed. The legions were incredibly well trained, but they were young and oh-so-naive. It's not surprising they thought they were invincible though. Greek iron was immediately captured and pillaged, as well as a worker trying to connect the horses farther north. In only 4 turns, Thermopylae was captured and Sparta was razed. In the first 6 turns of the war, Praetorians defeated 8 units with only a single loss. The single praetorian legion who pillaged the iron nearly captured Corinth by themselves, winning 3 straight victories without healing.

Disaster! At the gates of Athens, the young legions quickly lost their innocence and tasted the bitter ashes of defeat. As units approached Athens to beseige the city, a Greek phalanx attacked and defeated a legion. The next turn, another phalanx and a Greek axeman destroyed 2 more legions. A 2nd assault by the Greek axe was barely brushed off by a 4th legion attempting to pillage the Greek copper. In 150 BC, 2 praetorians died making a suicidal charge at the gates of Athens. A single phalanx, now with 4 promotions, held them off. The surviving legions were able to capture Corinth, while a 2nd group from the west razed Pharsalos and Delphi, but in 300 AD the battered and bruised survivors were forced to retreat and lick their wounds. Peace was declared with the Athens city-state.

Revenge! The Roman general Tarentus Varro was fired and beheaded to be replaced with Publius Cornelius Scipio. Scipio's military cunning, combined with 6 newly conscripted Roman legions, brought about the final demise of Greece. War was declared in 560 AD, and in just 5 turns, Athens is captured and the Greek stain is removed for good. Scipio's attack also yielded a level 5 Praetorian, which would allow for the building of the Heroic Epic and, later, West Point (my Alma Mater!)

Closing Summary: By the time we encountered XXXXX in 1190 AD, Rome had 12 cities, 9 built by me and 3 captured from Greece. The former Greek city of Corinth now housed the Forbidden Palace, Rome was a commercial powerhouse, and Antium with the Heroic epic, was churning out new units every 1-2 turns. Great wonders included the Oracle (Antium), Hanging Gardens (Rome), Great Library (Rome), and the Colossus (Thermopylae). Research is cranking along at over 200 bpt and new cities are being founded as quickly as the economy will allow.

 

[Markus5]

From memory...

I settled in place and built 2 warriors then a worker then a barracks then a settler. Researched to iron working first, then went back to research techs to get roads, farms and cottages. Those weren't the best choices. I should have researched to get roads, farms and cottages first, then researched to iron working. Still, it worked out fine.

The warriors popped huts to get gold, scouts and warriors. I only built 3 warriors total. By the time I needed additional troops, I was able to build prets. I expanded quickly and improved with a preference to food and hammers. Again, a mistake... I should have balanced the improvements with gold income, too. Built barracks in every city. All prets got a city attack promo.

When my cities were large enough for me to worry about health and happiness, I stopped growth and turned them into pret factories. The troops first rolled over a barb city and then border patrol for barbs. When there were enough troops, I easily took all of Greece. That was over in about 600ad. I should have made peace for 10 turns to get a few techs before the coup de grace, but I didn't.

After winning the peace, I expanded to fill the rest of the continent. The economy was in the tank. I spent a lot of time at 0% research and used specialists to research toward techs that would improve the economy. I needed to micro manage the cities to max gold production. Eventually, things perked up.

I was about 3 turns from my first caravel when the first foreign caravel showed up. That was about 1300ad. It didn't take long for my caravel to contact everyone. After a few rounds of trading, I was in the tech lead. I was far far ahead of everyone in points. I'm not worried about any kind of attack from the others, so all my cities are building very little military.

I'm not sure what victory to work toward. Perhaps diplo.

 

[Markus5]

I suggest that the next IV GOTM be at the same level, but with a different map-style: archepelego or pangea. Then, with IV GOTM 3, maybe a step up to the prince level.

 

[Markus5]

And one more note.

I'm advocating that Firaxis add one feature to Civ IV... Farming specialists and Great Farmers. Food is the one thing that isn't affected by specialists or Great Leaders. A farming specialist would add 2 food to a city and 3 GL points. A Great Farmer can create his special building which adds a permanent source of food to the city, or become a super farming specialist, or something else.

 

[Roland Ehnström]

I suggest that the next IV GOTM be at the same level, but with a different map-style: archepelego or pangea. Then, with IV GOTM 3, maybe a step up to the prince level.

This is probably the wrong place to have a discussion about this, but let me just say that I very much hope that the next GOTM is at a higher difficulty level. Monarch would be best IMHO, then Emperor for GOTM3.

Noble is just way too easy to be fun, as can be seen be reading through this thread - just about everyone sliced through the Greek empire like a hot knife through butter. And we'll only get better. Yes, the Romans have a strong offensive UU, but the Greeks have a strong defensive UU...

I'm pretty sure most players will finish their games before they reach the INDUSTRIAL age. Only those going for Diplomatic or Space will see the Modern times. In effect, playing at Noble is just playing 60% of civ: From the ancient times to the renaissance.

-- Roland

 

[al_thor]

What about Prince level? Jumping from Noble to Monarch just seems like we're rushing things a bit here........

Moderator Action: Paragraph Deleted - Please limit spoiler #1 comments to the first phase of the game

 

[clements]

While I did send my first warrior up on the southern hill to look for a starting position, all he saw was a tribal village. So, I settled Rome from the settler's initial position in 4000 BC. I liked the hill for defensive purposes. Plus, this kept all visible resources in Rome's fat cross. My strategy was to focus research on growth (Agriculture and Pottery) then defense (Bronze and Iron). I farmed for corn and mined for gems. I connected them with roads and started to explore.

I explored continent. I received gold and a scout from various tribes. I fought wild animals and barbarians giving me experience. I explored more and found the Greeks pretty quickly to the southwest.

As soon as I saw Alexander, I knew he was trouble, but I decided to make peace rather with a stout defense rather than go on the offensive. I wasn't ready for war (and frankly, am still struggling with the combined arms tactics in Civ IV -- Curses! Where have you gone stack-of-death!). As I explored a little more, I realized we were on our own but I still tried to believe that war was not inevitable and I could be ready for with strong defense if war came.

Knowing where Alex was and having a pretty good sense of the continent’s shape and size, I tried to block Alex in to the southeast corner of our little world. I expanded east to take iron; southwest to take wine, copper and stone; and north taking barb settlement along the way. My empire was growing quickly. Due to a good use of resources and cottages, I was making money and keeping research running strong. Alexander's and my borders were touching fairly quickly. Still, we signed an open borders agreement. I started to build Praetorians and place them along our borders with a few units stationed inside his borders as sentries and to act as "commandos" to skirmish and pillage if the Greeks brought war.

Meanwhile, Alexander and I started trading. I did not give him any gifts or provide more than one or two tributes. While he felt our borders were a source of tension, he was pretty happy with me for the most part. I turned to religion to help bring us even closer together.

While I let all the early religions go, I decided to go for Christianity. I noticed that Alexander was Confucian. I didn't think he had discovered the religion so I was guessing he (a) had contacted another civilization and (b) could be converted. Fortunately, Christianity spread very quickly through both the Roman and Greek civilizations, and Alexander quickly adopted Christianity. At this point, I had to pat myself on the back. "Oh, Alexander, we will be friends and together, my fellow Christian, we will rule the world!" I thought in my palace safely in Rome.

Now, I focused on getting off the island and raced towards Optics. After building a couple of caravel, I set off across the ocean and quickly found another continent and another civilization…

I’m not going to say what civilization I ran into or in what direction I found him just because I know that there is more than one civilization to find and/or places to find them.

Question: is there a defect/bug with the tech tree? Several times, I picked one tech from the tech tree only to find the game forced me to take one or more others before I could research the tech I wanted even though there was no dependencies between the tech I wanted and the tech I had to research. For example, I wanted to research Masonry (I had Mining) but the game forced me to take The Wheel and Pottery first. Has anyone else experienced this? Or am I doing something wrong? I am not a n00b but that doesn't mean I didn't miss a requirement.

 

[Shillen]

I would suggest Prince next time then Monarch for GOTM3. Keep in mind that there are a lot of people who play but don't post in these spoiler threads. There are some people playing that can't beat Noble. We don't want to turn them off too quickly by jumping up two difficulty levels in one month. I would bet there are some who didn't slice through the Greeks so easily and might be a bit afraid to post in this thread since all the people who did post have done so well. Also, just because the AI is easily beaten doesn't mean that the game isn't fun, IMO. Personally I have a lot of fun just trying to get the earliest victory possible, even if the AI is a pushover. In essence I'm competing with the other players, not the AI.

But I'm sure in the later months we'll cover all the difficulties. There will probably even be another Noble one sometime down the road. It's not like we're going to work our way up to immortal/deity and then just play immortal/deity every month. At least I hope not. In civ3 even though I could beat deity fairly consistently I still enjoyed playing on regent/monarch/emperor a lot more. Deity was more stressful than fun.

 

[Roland Ehnström]

Totally agree there should be a good VARIATION of difficulty levels: Some easy games and some hard ones. And that's exactly why I think we should not use the SAME difficulty level in the next game. Noble is easy for most players. Next up, let's have a game which is difficult for most players.

Also, just because the AI is easily beaten doesn't mean that the game isn't fun, IMO. Personally I have a lot of fun just trying to get the earliest victory possible, even if the AI is a pushover. In essence I'm competing with the other players, not the AI.

All right, but this also goes the other way around: Just because the AI is extremely difficult to beat doesn't mean the game isn't fun. It can often be as much fun trying to stay alive for as long as possible. Like you say: We are competing with the other players, not the AI.

-- Roland

 

[BeefontheBone]

This is off-topic, but

Question: is there a defect/bug with the tech tree? Several times, I picked one tech from the tech tree only to find the game forced me to take one or more others before I could research the tech I wanted even though there was no dependencies between the tech I wanted and the tech I had to research. For example, I wanted to research Masonry (I had Mining) but the game forced me to take The Wheel and Pottery first. Has anyone else experienced this? Or am I doing something wrong? I am not a n00b but that doesn't mean I didn't miss a requirement

The prerequisites for a tech are displayed as icons in the top-right corner of the tech tree entry, while the arrows leading to it are alternatives, so a tech with Tech A in the right hand corner and arrows from B and C requires either A and B or A and C to research. If there's nothing in the top right then you need one of the arrows (for instance, Hunting requires one of two first-level techs), and if there's no arrow (Divine Right IIRC) you just need the one in the corner. Presumably this was done in order to avoid confusion from having arrows of two colours on the tree, and to limit the number of arrows.

As for my 4OTM1 experience, I failed to make a log (meant to install the autolog mod but started playing when I was a bit high and forgot about it - let that be a warning to you!) so this is off the top of my head.
I settled 1S of the initial location after scouting the hill with my warrior, and proceeded to beeline Iron Working (ignoring religion initially - even on noble it's not worth the risk with a Civ without mysticism), gaining the ability to chop, clear the jungles to the north and build the UU. I founded a city to the west and one to the east to get the iron (same as most others it seems) and possibly one more, then researched the prerequisites for CoL and used the Oracle to found Taoism after realising that Alex wasn't likely to found a religion himself, took a couple of barbarian cities to flesh out my empire, then attacked Alex. I had a good tech lead and ended up fighting a slow war with him right up to beyond the point where another civ made contact with us (and spread a couple of extra religions, which I spread around to maximise the Free Religion bonus later on and allow more cathedrals/monasteries). It was pretty late when I took Alex out, but that meant I'd had chance to colonise the rest of the continent and take over greece without compromising my economy (was running no less than 80% science thanks to shrine income the whole time). The only area I was behind the AI in was sailing technology (getting off the continent a bit earlier might have been a good plan but I was focusing on getting plenty of wonders).

 

[bio_hazard]

I can't believe I made it far enough in the game to qualify for the spoiler! I'm running on a laptop with substandard card, so the main challenge is just getting the game to play. Last night actually played for about 3.5 hrs with no crashes- only three pre-emptive save/quits to let my computer cool down. Hopefully I'll be able to post some screenshots tomorrow- of course with the black terrain they will all look pretty much the same!


I've never finished a civ4 game before, so right now I'm just more or less having fun checking out all the tech and improvement options. No notes. No real strategy. I didn't build up military or expand as quickly as I could have so ended up not being able to threaten Alexander. As soon as I signed open borders he be-lined for a barb city nw of rome and took it over. He also grabbed a prime location near the wines sw of rome just a turn before I was going to. I got confucionism and built the big temple, and converted most greek cities. managed to get one of his cities to flip, will keep working on the others, and am working on pumping culture into a couple other key border cities. I am doing pretty well in tech, so may eventually go for Space or Diplo. I'm making a half-hearted attempt at the 3 city culture victory but probably not good enough to actually pull it off.

I just entered Renaissance- i think at end of Classical era Greece and I were pretty close in score.
Edit- here's lovely Rome shortly after founding.

 

[Wallabulla]

This was my first GOTM game, been playing since the old Civ1 days.
Forgot to keep a log until the modern age, so will post more later.

Built Rome on the first tile, went straight for Iron working, built lots of Pret, and in about turn 150 I destroyed the Greeks.

This is from the eventlog program


Turn 10: Hinduism has been founded in a distant land!
Turn 13: You have discovered Bronze Working!
Turn 14: The revolution has begun!!!
Turn 14: Julius Caesar adopts Slavery
Turn 16: You have discovered Iron Working!
Turn 18: Buddhism has been founded in a distant land!
Turn 21: You have discovered Mysticism!
Turn 29: You have discovered The Wheel!
Turn 36: Julius Caesar has completed Stonehenge!
Turn 37: You have discovered Pottery!
Turn 37: Alexander adopts Slavery!
Turn 63: You have discovered Metal Casting!
Turn 63: Judaism has been founded in a distant land!
Turn 66: You have discovered Agriculture!
Turn 70: You have discovered Masonry!
Turn 74: You have discovered Sailing!
Turn 78: You have discovered Animal Husbandry!
Turn 83: You have discovered Writing!
Turn 85: You have discovered Hunting!
Turn 85: Moses has been born in Rome!
Turn 88: You have discovered Archery!
Turn 90: The Pyramids has been built in a far away land!
Turn 95: The Oracle has been built in a far away land!
Turn 99: You have discovered Alphabet!
Turn 110: Mahavira has been born in a far away land!
Turn 112: The Great Lighthouse has been built in a far away land!
Turn 114: You have discovered Compass!
Turn 120: Merit Ptah has been born in Athens!
Turn 122: You have discovered Mathematics!
Turn 123: Zoroaster has been born in a far away land!
Turn 124: The Mahabodhi has been built in a far away land!
Turn 126: Confucianism has been founded in a distant land!
Turn 127: The Kong Miao has been built in a far away land!
Turn 129: Christianity has been founded in a distant land!
Turn 131: Imhotep has been born in a far away land!
Turn 133: The Parthenon has been built in a far away land!
Turn 133: Xi Ling Shi has been born in a far away land!
Turn 134: You have discovered Currency!
Turn 136: Nabu-rimanni has been born in Athens!
Turn 137: You have declared war on Alexander! The year 540
Turn 138: You have captured Bactrian!!!
Turn 139: You have captured Corinth!!!
Turn 139: Harkuf has been born in a far away land!
Turn 140: You have captured Thermopylae!!!
Turn 140: You have captured Athens!!!
Turn 142: Thermopylae has been captured by the Greek Empire!!!
Turn 146: You have captured Pharsalos!!!
Turn 146: You have captured Thermopylae!!!
Turn 148: You have discovered Construction!
Turn 149: Plato has been born in a far away land!
Turn 150: You have captured Sparta!!!
Turn 150: Chuang-Tzu has been born in a far away land!
Turn 150: Homer has been born in a far away land!
Turn 151: The Kashi Vishwanath has been built in a far away land!
Turn 152: You have discovered Priesthood!
Turn 154: Mencius has been born in a far away land!
Turn 155: Archimedes has been born in Rome!
Turn 159: You have discovered Monarchy!
Turn 159: Julius Caesar has completed The Colossus!
Turn 160: The revolution has begun!!!
Turn 160: Julius Caesar adopts Hereditary Rule
Turn 162: You have declared war on Alexander!
Turn 163: You have captured Delphi!!!
Turn 163: The Greek Civilization has been destroyed!!! The year 1030
Turn 163: You have discovered Monotheism!
Turn 163: Julius Caesar has completed The Hanging Gardens!
Turn 168: You have discovered Calendar!
Turn 169: St. John has been born in a far away land!
Turn 171: You have discovered Literature!
Turn 177: Aristole has been born in a far away land!
Turn 181: You have discovered Machinery!
Turn 182: Ptolemy has been born in a far away land!
Turn 183: The Sistine Chapel has been built in a far away land!
Turn 184: You have captured Estruscan!!!
Turn 187: You have discovered Optics! The year 1270

And with Optics a new chapter starts

 

[sithmaster1523]

Well that was fast... Played first ever GOTM and eliminated within an hour. Guess military domination not the best idea. Can't wait until next month.

Moderator Action: Better luck next time!

Merged with the main spoiler thread.

 

[Smidlee]

did you first build some Praetorian first? (Iron needed) With 12-20 Praetorians you can easily take one city after another. Roman Praetorian is probably the best UU in the civ4 especially for domination victory.
(with Praetoians you can take cities early on without CATs.)

 

[Sixpak]

First GOTM ever. Didn't know about auolog, and never thought to take a screenshot. This is also the first spoiler thread I read and didn't want to read any of it until I had actually finished my game and submitted it.

Brief synapse though...

Founded Rome on Hill...

Ended up in war with Greece three separate times. The first two times I nearly lost the game. In fact he took one of my cites (the one by the iron) during the second war. In both cases I begged for peace

The third war I was prepared, ready, and itching to fight. I was cranking out Praetorians to the exclusion of all else. About seven cities were pushing young recruits out the door. I crushed Greece after a rather lengthy campaign. Critical to that success was cutting off his supply of horses and the iron.

I know to make a journal or something next time, take a few screenshots. BTW, I will state this though.... I *barely* scratched out a victory even on Noble. Much higher difficulty levels will probably cream me.

I must say though, this has been an absolutely blast to play. Look forward to more!

Sixpak

 

[Renata]

To the spoiler thread with ye.

No discussing games outside designated threads, please. The first post is innocuous enough, but answers to Smidlee's questions would not be.

 

[wei]

This was an interesting game. The goal is either domination or conquest (seems more like conquest now that I have clears the starting continent fairly quickly).

Settled E of the starting location. Started building worker straight up while researching bronze-working. Found a few huts, contains map of south area and some gold.

Sometime later, spotted a greek scout! Seems like coming from the east. Warrior goes towards east, picking up experience vs animals and from a hut, used for wood/jungle defence II, now able to move 2 tiles on forest/jungle terrain.

Found Athens on lower right of the continent, only 1 city. Warrior circle the Greek borders, looking for workers. No workers found, circled around towards the bottom left where there is a patch of forest on the hill. Declared war on the Greeks! Stationed the warrior with wood/jungle defence II on the forest hill. No response from the Greeks, seems that they started building archers (can see 4 archers in Athens).

Meanwhile, back in Rome, found a few cities, 1 towards south of Rome, 1 to the west. Tech wise, went for Arg, Pottery, Animal, and Myst. Chopped for the StoneHenge. Still no iron working yet.

Greeks send 2 archers with settler to find Sparta on the hill just below 2nd city from Rome. Stationed 2 warriors on the forest next to Sparta. Greeks sent more archers, killed both warriors. All 3 romans cities began building barracks.

Time to finish off the Greeks. Found iron working and iron, all 3 Roman cities began building Roman UU. Send 1 Pretorian to anyoy Sparta, followed with 2 more Pretorian to take sparta. Meanwhile, the Greeks sneaked their settler towards their west to find Themopolye!

Sent 2 Pretorians towards the new Greek city. And a long trail of Pretorians (may be about 5) towards Athens through the woods. At this point the Greeks still only has archers, no match against Roman Pretorians! Greeks were no more around turn 90.

From then on, chopped the Oracle, found Code of Law. And then beelined for Optics. In between, 1 barbarian city popped up on the Roman continent! Gave me a shock when some their axemen turned up near the city off Rome on the west. Easily handles with 3 Pretorians.

Fun game!

Cheers, Wei.

 

[tecknogyk]

I would bet there are some who didn't slice through the Greeks so easily and might be a bit afraid to post in this thread since all the people who did post have done so well.

Actually, I wasn't going to post my loss until later spoiler threads but since I'm not giving away anything then I'll chime in on this issue. My earlier optimism about fending off Alexander after not being prepared was a tad early it seems. That early blunder pretty much lost me the game due to being behind because of my unpreparedness and the length of the conflict. I'd give more details, but this happens later in the game and is not covered by this spoiler. Suffice it to say...my ship is sunk...heh. I may or may not be ready for another difficulty by the next month but I want to make sure I get a win on noble before I decide to go up in difficulty. I'm fairly certain that I can win on noble and that this game was just a blunder on my part (I'm chalking it up as a learning experience). I will of course attempt the next GOTM regardless.

-teck