*Spoiler* Game 5-6 France - Full Map + Industrial - CLOSED

[Dianthus]

1.27 (Euro) Open


Initial Moves (4000 BC to 50 AD)

Initially I moved the Worker North West to the Cows ready to irrigate, and the Settler South West to avoid settling on the bonus grass. I got a bit of a surprise on finding another 2 wheat. That's got to be the easiest settler factory ever!

I explored the immediate vincinity and fairly quickly discovered the lack of space East, South & West due to coast and North due to the Germans. I concentrated on gaining the Northern sites for my RCP before the Germans could get there, then filled in the rest of my 4 ring by 550 BC :

During this period the Germans had been typically agressive, demanding Philosophy off me in 1475 BC. I gave in as I had very little military. I was running at max research, and completed research of The Repbulic in 1025 BC and the goverment change by 900 BC.

I was thinking it would be important to meet any other neighbours as soon as possible for trading purposes so made The Great Lighthouse a priority and completed it in 350 BC. Then began a period of exploring, complete with much loss of life due to treacherous ocean and violent squid.


War with Germany (50 AD to 490 AD)

Germany started war on us in 50 AD. At this point "Compared to them, we have an average military" consisting of 3 Warriors, 9 Spearmen and 3 Horsemen. The border with Germany was quite large, so the 9 Spearmen were kept pretty busy repelling invaders.

50 AD minimap :

I started building up my military, and took some German cities. I really wanted to make peace, but kept on until I had taken Berlin (complete with The Great Library) in 330 AD, exchanging Peace and my World Map for 2 Workers, Polytheism, their World Map and 40g.

At this point Germany was in a bad way, no longer having horses, and their only source of Iron on the island to the north requiring connecting to their island cities and building of Harbours.

At this point the Great Library was pretty useless to me as I only knew Germany, and their life expectancy was pretty short . I concentrated on some daring attempts at crossing the ocean, finally making contact with the Iroquois in 400 AD. I did a little trading to gain some gold and advance the AIs tech so they could start researching new techs for me. This is the known world at 400 AD :

The Aztecs were looking pretty poorly at this point, and sure enough the Zulus wiped them out on the next turn.

The remaining German cities were taken with another quick war from 430 AD to 490 AD, including Hamburg complete with the Colossus. Just before taking their last 2 cities in 490 AD I made peace with Germany for Engineering and Monarchy. I'd been careful not to allow communication between Germany and the other AI's for just this reason!


Building period (490 AD to 1395 AD)

This is the period I think I really blew it. I settled for minimal research until the Great Library became obsolete, and the Iroquois/Zulus weren't researching all that fast. On reaching Education I researched at maximum to get to Economics for Smiths Trading Company, then to Military Tradition in preparation for war. Despite the lack of Libraries I was researching at a 4 turn rate for most of this period.

In 950 AD I disconnected the Iron and started building Horsemen in prepartion for a mass upgrade to Cavalry. By 1350 AD, when I built Smiths Trading Company, I had 83 Horsement to upgrade. At this point I had a Net Gain of 950 gpt, and was starting to think it might not take much longer to reach 1500 gpt as I could greatly increase that 950 gpt by disbanding units, selling unnecessary buildings, trading techs, building wealth and using lots of tax men.

In 1395 AD I calculated I should be able to reach around 1530 gpt. It sure broke my heart disbanding all those Horsemen! This turn took a long time, and was pretty worrying towards the end when I was struggling to reach the 1500 gpt mark. Part of the reason for this near heart-stopping moment was that I had forgotten that I couldn't sell Aquaducts!

Here's a before/after of my finances in 1395 AD :

And a pretty graph of my progression to Commercial Domination :

Conclusion

I was pretty surprised at how soon 1500 gpt came around. On seeing the size of the land available I was thinking I would need to change to Democracy (I was still in Republic, though had just researched Democracy), rail road everything (hadn't reached the Industrial age) and do a lot of trading (only got 87 gpt out of the AIs). I didn't even get a golden age or get to use the (so far not banned) Rank Corruption Exploit!

 

[Hergrom]

Net Gain can be found in two places, and both are identical. You can find it on the F1(?) screen, where all of the other monetary figures are listed, and on the main screen in the white box in the lower right hand corner (the + or - amount of GPT). If you have the sliders for research and luxeries set at 0, then this number must be 1500 or more for victory (along with a 15000 treasury). See Mad-Bax's post above for an example of a victorious game. See the last inserted picture.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1256604#post1256604

BTW, I have finished my game and will be posting the spoiler tomorrow.

Hergrom

 

[Dianthus]

Originally posted by Tone
I hope you're right Sir Bugsy otherwise my game is unfinished. Can we get a ruling on this please?

Tone, it seems pretty clear from what cracker said on the game announcement page, sorry :

In the domestic advisor screen, if you set your scientific research slider and your entertainment spending slider both to zero percent, then the "Net Gain" box will show the total net income for your civilization. To declare a commercial domination victory, you must have a treasury of 15,000 gold and you must have a net gain of 1,500 pieces of gold per turn.

 

[Sylock]

"I have 17694 + 1595 GPT – 551 Corruption – 116 Maintenance – 26 Unit"

This is the line that the above poster is unclear about.

You can take this one of two ways.
1) He is bringing in 1595 GPT after he pays Corruption, Maintenance, and Unit costs. Meaning he is really bringin in (Edit: a total, not net gain) 2288 gpt.
or
2) He is only bringing in 902 GPT after paying his Corruption, Maintenance, and Unit costs.

I was a little confussed myself.

 

[Melifluous]

PTW 1.27f Open

Well what can I say...

This was a fantastic map and deserved all the love and attention that I gave it. All 15 hours and 49 minutes of it

I done won it and in 1340AD at that!

Score sucks but what the hay.

Lemme recap.

I move my settler one square NE as I dont like tundra, this gets all the silks in my radius

we rumble on building a few cities and then military.

At 1000 BC we have 11 cities and the germans have 8 cities.

In 850BC we get the colossus and in 950BC, the germans destroy Grenoble. They must pay...

Munich destroyed in 590BC and my first Elite win in 510BC whilst taking Berlin nets my one and only leader.

FP rushed in berlin. Germany reduced to 1 city on 470BC.

We wait 20 turns before taking this last city as I want to be careful of my rep...

That was it really

I noticed the island to the west and in 170BC found my first city there (no barbs here, wierd) to be followed by two more.

The northern island I notice later, much later and it is CRAWLING with barbs, like I cant find a place to land, 11 knights and a settler eventually do for all they were worth. The knights never died but the city wasnt up to much.

Anyway back to the main plot.

I build the Great Wall in 130BC and enter my GA. Much building is done in the following order. Temple, Marketplace, courthouse, harbor if applicable

I destroy the Germans in 50BC. I have researched Monarchy and not republic and suffer my GA in Monarchy. I then research straight to Education, then Banking, republic.

ANARCHY

After republic I research economics and then PP and Democracy.

This is where I could have done SO much better.

I turn of research and revolt to Demo whilst I build up my gold and my cities.

Eventually My island is complete and all workers rejoin my cities.

Every City is size 12

I wait for Markets and Harbors and Courthouses and Banks to finish and get the HG and Smiths and Sistine and Great Lighthouse in the meantime.

Still not gonna make +1500gpt. Dangit.

I start my research again and 4 turn tech to Navigation and then Magnetism. A caravel sails east.

We still dont have Literature and I research that as the boat sails..

and sails and sails...

We meet the Aztecs last city and the Zulu.

Lots of trading goes on and and we get all other essential techs in the MA's up to Chemisty plus about 200gpt

Still not enough...

We push again and research all the MA techs...

Eventually we disband every unit... (except 11 workers, all my own) and sell every tech we have for gpt and sell all non cash making improvements.

We now have wonders, courthouses, markets, harbours and banks in almost every city and we sell EVERYTHING else.

We MM every city to maximise its gold, even if will starve and riot next turn we are just after this screen shot...

(btw selling all improvements, disbanding all units and MM'ing to 3gold rich coast squares I made about 140-160gpt )

We win in 1340AD yay with 22 cities.

Very Nice Game ...

Thank you

 

[MadScot]

1.21f Open

I guess we're just reporting the whole game here?

The first two ages
France: 1220AD to 1405AD : An Industrial Golden Age

Timeline
Warfare
Science
Wonders

France entered the Industrial Age with a treasury of 6235g and a 'raw' income is 893gpt. All Middle Ages techs except for Chivalry, Military Tradition and Free Artistry were known. The AIs were in the early Middle Ages: the Iroquois knew Monotheism, Feudalism, Engineering, Theology and Chivalry; the Aztecs also knew Invention. France had an approximately 12 tech lead, therefore.

1220AD Lyons will now become a worker factory - currently size 12, we'll build it down to a size 6 city, at which point one worker/turn should be possible. The workers will be used for mass railroad building, forestry and re-irrigation as hospitals are built then joined to the larger cities.
Figure 9 Lyons One-turn Worker Factory

1260AD Orleans builds Newton's University.

1270AD Magellan's Voyage in Marseilles.

1280AD Slow down the Great Library pre-build in Paris to allow time to discover Industrialisation.

1310AD swap Paris to Universal Suffrage

1375AD We learn Scientific Method, and swap Rheims from the Palace to Theory of Evolution (wasting 173 shields). Rhiems completes it the same turn, giving us Atomic Theory and Electronics, allowing Paris to swap from Universal Suffrage to Hoover Dam (in 2 turns).

1380AD With 4 Stock Exchanges now built, Wall Street is an option. Our treasury is 10983g and our base income is 1153gpt. Start to join workers to cities, bringing Orleans to size 20, producing 200 science beakers per turn.

1385AD Paris builds the Hoover Dam, triggering the French Golden Age.

1390AD We drop research spending to zero, keep 10% on luxuries and our income is 1653gpt.

1405AD Our treasury has now grown to 15952g. With luxuries at 10% and science at 10% we're making 1526gpt, too. Both criteria for Commercial Domination are met, game over!
Figure 10 The French Economy in 1405AD

Figure 11 The French Army and Navy

Comments
I did not sell off improvements or disband units to achieve the commercial domination criteria, as it was not necessary. In fact, France continues to conduct research at a low level and import luxuries at the end of the game. With the massive increase in commerce due to the Golden Age, it was not necessary to take extreme measures to achieve the 1500gpt threshold.

I built a small navy towards the end, partly in my continuing hunt for more land (in case there was another luxury hiding on an island) and partly to provide early warning of offensive action by the AIs. They had only just learned Navigation at game end, so the threat was purely theoretical. The victorious archers from the German war remained the French army to the end. Had I disbanded them it might have saved 20gpt or so - perhaps 2000g at most. Since the criteria for ending the game includes a 1500gpt income, it's likely that would have saved at most one or two turns, which didn't seem worthwhile.

Similarly, I continued to develop infrastructure for my cities, including factories in some cases. The increased maintenance would havebeen offset by increased shield production converted to wealth if necessary. Similarly, research building were constructed and maintained. Again, perhaps a turn or two could have been shaved off the end date, but with Hoover needed to trigger the GA (the AI had both the Hanging Gardens and the Great Wall) a degree of research speed was required.

To be honest, I expected this to be a harder game than it turned out. The isolation allowed a very methodical approach. Not the fingernail munching affair the GOTM so often is. Fun, though.

If the "gross gain" interpretation is correct, I rather misplayed this. Could probably have forced the gross gpt value over 1500 somewhat earlier.

 

[Melifluous]

Madscot.

This is NET GPT I am quite sure

Fear ye not

melifluous

PS. Also thread said IA or Game Submitted, well I submitted my game.
Also says this will be the ONLY spoiler...

Melifluous

 

[dojoboy]

1.29 beta 2

Knowing there were only four rivals, my first thought was how many of them I would need for commerce. My initial plan was to secure multiple resources, exterminate the closest rival civ, and build the FP, Wall Street, and Smith's.

My first 9 build orders consisted of 3 workers and 6 warriors in Paris. I really wanted to lay down roads quickly and do the usual tile improvements.

1725 BC --- Met Germany and traded Alphabet, Masonry, & 100g for Ceremonial Burial, warrior Code, & Bronze Working.

1050 BC --- Built Pyramids in Paris; saving money on granaries now.

490 BC - Built Great Library in Paris; as its completion neared, i realized it may not be very beneficial ut didn't want to waste the shields.

70 AD --- Germany DoWs France; Rheims builds Colossus.

230 AD --- Peace signed w/ Germany after capturing Leipzig and Frankfurt.

250 AD --- Lyons builds Great Lighthouse. Time to go sailing, uh, I mean rowing.

460 AD --- France, after years of suffering the oppressive German envoy, DoWs Germany; suicide galleys begin journeys into the unknown, many brave men lost.

550 AD --- Germany pushed of southern continent; Bismarck has 3 cities remaining on northern continent.

650 AD --- W/ island to the west of southern continent settled by France, and the central island (3 tiles) firmly controlled by Barbarians, France begins colonization of the northern continent; Besacon & Rouen founded right away. I quickly notice that the Barbarian horde on the northern island are extremely passive, not one offensive against French forces.

1090 AD --- DoW Germany.

1120 AD --- Germany destroyed.

Begin worrying if I’ll ever get free techs from the Great Library, concentrating on domestic improvements, and consider culling my army for gpt.

1380 AD --- Suicide galley makes contact w/ Azteca, establish communications.

1385 AD --- Same suicide galley makes contact w/ Iroquois, communications established.

1390 AD --- Purchase communications for Zululand from Azteca, for 90g. Wasted gold since the Zulu end up being just east of Azteca.

1450 AD --- Tech parity among all civs; my treasury continues to grow w/ gpt at a minimum.

1480 AD --- Orleans builds Copernicus’s Observatory.

1495 AD --- Caravel flotilla mobilizes for invasion of Zululand (weakest of the three civs of the Eastern Hemisphere.

1505 AD --- Trade Astronomy & 140g to Iroquois for Chemistry; trade Chemistry & 90g to Azteca for Music Theory. My interest here is to make these two civs my trading partners for the remainder of the game. The Zulu are too weak to be beneficial, plus they control ivory resources, which would better serve French interests.

1575 AD --- DoW Zululand.

1635 AD --- Zululand destroyed; French influence established in the Eastern Hemisphere.

1710 AD --- Cologne builds Magellan’s Voyage.

1758 AD --- W/ wonders under construction, I had put off switching to Republic until now; anarchy begins.

1770 AD --- French Revolution gives birth to a republican form of government.

Continue building commerce & happiness producing improvements.

2000 AD --- A new revolution hits France; anarchy ensues.

2004 AD --- France becomes a democratic republic.

2006 AD --- Forbidden Palace finally constructed, the hard way, in Stuttgart; northern continent.

2007 AD --- Commercial Domination achieved!!!

Observations: I probably should have hit the victory conditions earlier by trimming my units back, but an early war between the Aztecs and Iroquois concerned me. I didn’t want one to wipe out the other, which it seemed was going to happen. I considered capturing the Azteca city along the isthmus, which connected the two larger landmasses in the Eastern Hemisphere, to save the Iroquois from the Aztecs. But, I hesitated making either furious w/ me and, fortunately, peace was declared after the Iroquois lost 4 cities. Although the Iroquois did declare war on me at one time, I purposely refused to capture any of Hiawatha’s cities. Soon peace was signed and they were polite almost immediately (luxury gifts). It was the Aztecs who contributed the bonus gpt to trigger French victory. Half way through the game, I did begin to regret not playing the Open Division. I had never aimed for such prosperity before and did not possess a "tried-n-true" strategy beforehand. Live and learn.

 

[Txurce]

I've been looking forward to reading about this game for a long time, especially how everyone planned to win. My own report is in the works. I hope no one minds if I respond to several of the posts in one shot:

Sylock, your game looks strong to me - certainly Open level. Kuningas played an amazing game on Conquest, and an amazing game on any level. Most of us would be outclassed, compared to his result!

Megalou, I can see what's potentially misleading about CbB's post, but it sounds like he hit the 1500gpt mark (because it's hard to get it wrong, since the screen just says it).

Madscot, thanks for the terrific write-up. It's great being drawn in so deeply into someone's game.

Mellifluous, what blows me away about your game is that you finished in very good time - 1340 - and switched from despotism to monarchy to republic to democracy (right?). How many total turns of anarchy did you endure, and why didn't you just switch once, to republic?

akots and Kuningas, both of you played to win in the Middle Ages. I finished in between your finish dates, but went into the Industrial Era to do it. I was curious if you planned from the start on winning in the Middle Ages, and how.

 

[Txurce]

PRE-GAME STRATEGY:

Expand as fast as possible, because it’s almost always a good idea. Establish a second core as quickly as possible – not waiting for a Leader.

Build marketplaces, banks, courthouses, aqueducts, and harbors, all of which increase gpt.

Also build libraries and universities, so as to research the key techs quicker. This is based on the assumption that their raising upkeep is irrelevant until the last turn of the game, because hitting 1500gpt would be harder than 15000g.

Trade will be important for increased gpt, faster research, and luxuries to make up for no happiness buildings. The plan is to explore early, and stay friendly.

Wonders make more sense than ever, because upkeep isn’t an issue, and my cities will have less to do than usual. Build the Colossus and Lighthouse for increased and earlier trade. Pass on the Pyramids, as this would trigger an early GA, and I should have time to crank up the population. Pass on the Library, as I intend to research faster, playing Monarch. Later, build Smith’s, Bach’s, and the science wonders.

Research will always be maxed out. The milestones will be mapmaking, currency, republic, literature, navigation, economics, and corporation.

The build order (based on starting position): settler factory, worker factory, wonder, wonder, barracks everywhere else for a while.

ULTRA-EARLY ADJUSTMENTS:

I moved the settler NW, to take advantage of the second cattle, whose legs I could see, leaving the other cattle for the second city.

I built two warriors, then a granary. One warior explored north, the other explored the immediate area. I decided to build my second city 3 tiles off, then a ring at 4/4.5, and a second ring at 6/6.5.

Once I realized that we were alone with the Germans, the plan became to use them as trading partners until I was efficient enough to research alone. Then I would wipe them out, settle the continent, and expand no further. The continent seemed about right for two low-corruption cores. Civ size is otherwise irrelevant in this game.

MILESTONES AND POST-MORTEMS:

Tech trading with the Germans went very well. In the meantime, I decided to conquer them with horsemen, as these were best suited to defend any possible invasions later on.

By 630BC, I had built the Colossus, and was 5 turns away from the Lighthouse. I had 13 cities to the Germans’ 8 (including one on the iron island), when Dijon inexplicably flipped. I invaded with 15 horsemen, and kept building mounted units until I could foresee the end of the war. The German spears defended better than I’ve ever experienced, and my 5 units per town strategy hit a wall more than once. Nevertheless, my much higher productivity allowed me to wear the Germans down even while undergoing four turns of anarchy switching to Republic in 370BC. The Germans finally went under in 210BC, two turns before I entered the Middle Ages.

Even with the Lighthouse, I explored the local area before venturing into the dark to the east and west. After losing two galleys, I made contact with the other continent in 310AD. They were hopelessly backward, of course, and by then I was researching at a four-turn clip. I only gained feudalism from the AI in the entire game. Their gpt deals also never totaled 70gpt at any one time.

In retrospect, I would have been better off building the Pyramids and waiting for navigation to meet the other side. Navigation arrived in 430 AD, after which I was able to trade tech for luxuries and set the counter at zero for the rest of the game. (I had just completed Bach’s as well. I probably would have been better off saving the four turns of research, putting the luxury rate at 10% if need be, and changing it on the final turn. Or even more obvious, build the Hanging Gardens!)

In the Middle Ages, as planned, I built Bach’s, Smith’s, and the two science wonders. The GA kicked in at 460AD with the Copernicus build, allowing me to build most of my heavy infrastructure. My gross income at this point was 940g – way off the mark. I entered the Industrial Age in 840, with my income at 1268. It’s worth considering that expanding to the northern island, with settlers built by cities producing only wealth, might have put me over the top around this point. The catch is that I would have needed to build a palace in a totally corrupt area by hand – I got no Leaders from the Germans.

In the Industrial Era I researched steam, industrialization and the corporation comfortably at a four-turn clip. I only built a few railroads, as they weren’t needed. Almost all of my cities were size 12 already. I had a set number of cities prebuilding stock exchanges, and quit once they started to produce 1500gpt. I got rid of my granaries, barracks, libraries, universities and units on genereal principle. A few turns later – 1040 AD - this income put me over the 15000g mark.

WHAT I FEEL BEST ABOUT:

Settling into a comfortable four-turn research pace after a few techs in the Middle Ages. The best players can do it from the start, but I am starting to get the hang of how to get there in a hurry.

WHAT I FEEL NOT SO GOOD ABOUT:

Building Bach’s instead of the Hanging Gardens, and not having the nerve and foresight to try what Kuningas and akots did: go for a medieval win.

 

[Tone]

Originally posted by mad-bax
I wondered if there were any Essex boys out there brave enough to admit it. I'm not accusing you of that though Tone

It's true, but I am from the more cultured western side of the county!!!

I don't know why I got so confused over the net/gross thing. It's quite simple to set the sliders to zero and look at the result. Thanks for pointing that out Megalou. Still, I'm glad to say that I did understand it when I played the game originally.

 

[Kuningas]

Originally posted by Txurce




Since cracker wrote the above in reference to 5-6, that seems to answer the question about eligibility.

I don't know how much of an advantage Conquest contributed, since I've never played it. But achieving commercial domination in the Middle Ages is eye-popping. If I were a competing Conquest-level player, I wouldn't be happy about the sandbagging. But as someone admiring a very well-played game, my hat's off to Kuningas.

akots and Kuningas, both of you played to win in the Middle Ages. I finished in between your finish dates, but went into the Industrial Era to do it. I was curious if you planned from the start on winning in the Middle Ages, and how.

I should have read that reference more careful

Conquest class profits for this game:
same as in regent level.
-Germans were weak. only 1 city at 1900BC.
-Decreased tech cost. After researched the Republic at 1000BC. I got rest of the techs in 4-5 turns.

I planned for going economics and my economy required GA which I planned to trigger with wonders. I required much settling space and thus if there be limited space and furious neighbours. I may have the plan changed.

In my 28 cities I have 21 courthouses, 17 aqueducts, 1 temple, 28 marketplaces, 16 banks and all coastal cities have harbors. Chartres have FP (5N1W from Paris). I rushed courthouses, aqueducts, marketplaces when possible. 470AD when GA started my treasure were near empty. It was just wait those 130 years to fill it up.

 

[keiselhorn]

The starting location for Paris was pretty good, but I was not confident in this "gift" from cracker. So, I decide to move the worker first towards the cows. Then that wonderful vision appeared: 2 squares of wheat to add to the cow, bonus g's and luxury. Moved the settler SW and founded Paris in 3950bc.

Very soon during the exploration I found out we were in an island. And sooner, we contact the Germans. Berlim is too close to my core!

That moment I decided that I wouldn't have no bigger profits than risks with the Germans around, and that they should be destroyed asap. But I would take some techs from them.

I chose to not use RCP because I didn't know how to apply it correctly until last week. My next GOTM I'll see if I can try it decently.

2710bc - Orleans is founded. Germany only with Berlin...

2030bc - Lyons
1950bc - Rheims
1675bc - Finally Germany founds Leipzig
1550bc - Tours
1500bc - Marseilles. Thank you, settler factory.

1325bc - The Germans were quiet, but now it's visible that they are increasing their growth. I need techs they have, so let's creep them for a sec. I send 3 warriors, steal their workers (that's what really got them) and auto-raze Leipzig, which was defended by 1 warrior and 1 spearmen. Obviously they were vets and I took care of the river.

Wait some more turns, checking Berlin's defenses, the Germans almost don't react (and I kill their 2 spare archers), went to negociations and got 1 or 2 techs, I don't remember which (I'm writing this from the replay and my reminds)

Very soon the found Hamburg, north of the peninsula (1200bc), and I redeclare war, taking the weak Berlin in 1075bc

Zulu GA - 1050bc (looks like in all games there was an Aztec vs Zulu war and both won in similar proportions of the games). The Aztecs were destroyed very quickly and they haven't even had a chance for their GA. The zulus were also fighting the Iroquis for about the next 1000 years.

975bc - the young Hamburg falls and it's the extinction of Germany.

350bc - Pyramids in Paris. All the continent was occupied.
30bc - Great Library in Orleans

50ad - start colonizing the western island. 3 cities total.

210 - Great Wall in Tours
370 - Colossus in Marseilles - GA triggered
380 - hand-built FP in Avignon (centre of the base island)
420 - Northern big island colonisation starts
590 - Finish settling -- disband all military
840 - Sistine Chapel in Tours
870 - Sun Tzu in Paris
970 - Leo's in Lyons
1040 - Copernicus in Orleans
(why am I playing for 100k? )
1210 - JS Bach in Paris
1280 - Magellan in Rouen

About here I got contact with Iroquis and Zulus, and we started trading everything till the end of the game, starting with ROP for my 3 islands

1335 - Shakespeare in Tours
1355 - Smith in Lyons(a bit late actually )
1385 - Newton in Avignon
1485 - ToE also in Avignon (factory before Newton, coal plant after Newton) --- chose Atomic Theory + Eletronics. Replaceable Parts were next and after, the last: The Corporation.
1490 - Women's Suffrage in Paris

I wanted stock exchanges! Then I could have some 10 stocks around plus the Wall Street! Trading techs was not an option... Soon I got the Corporation. I was with about 7k gold and earning some 400g/turn. But if I mobilised my efforts, I could reach 1100g/turn easily.

Replaceable parts: railroads all around the French polinesia.

about 1500-1520 I got The Corporation. Some stock exchanges coming quick (coal plants everywhere, and I didn't have "huge" pollution problems)

1550 - Hoover Dam in our dear capital
In 1565, earning well. Just need 1 more thing...
1570 - Wall Street in Avignon. Mobilise the economy. Sell everything that doesn't give money.

1575 - Commercial domination victory. 16429g, 1571g/t

Final Firaxis: 1791

Somehow, I should have emphasised less the wonders, since I have a pretty quick domination over Germany. But, anyway, I never felt I was getting slower with them. And they provided happiness and in some cases money, like the Pyramids who paid my granaries, and Sun Tzu (in case any AI notices I'm undefended).

For those interested, my cultural score was 36246. I just wanted the benefits of the wonders, and I didn't want to risk a powerful wonder in the hands of the zulus.

I got all the wonders except for:
- Oracle (Iroquis, 1025bc)
- Hanging Gardens (Iroquis, 530ad)
- Lighthouse (Zulus, 550ad)

Here a picture of my ending.

 

[CdB]

Originally posted by Megalou
CdB,

I'm sorry but I don't think that you can disregard corruption, maintenance and support. Cracker says "1,500 gold per turn in net gain from your economy" whereas you seem to have listed your gross gain in your spoiler.

Sorry if my writing were confusing ... but the GPT amounts are to be understood as NET gain ... (Corruption & Maintenance already included).

 

[Megalou]

CdB,

Good! Congratulations on a strong game. I probably misunderstood because I thought your "-" were minuses when they apparently were hyphens.

Vive la France

 

[dojoboy]

Wow, I'm impressed w/ such early achievements by everyone. My game-play is too cautious. Good job on those early victories.

 

[CdB]

@Megalou

No offense Just hasty and bad writing
Feel sympathetic to what happened to Anna Lindh

 

[Melifluous]

Originally posted by Txurce

Mellifluous, what blows me away about your game is that you finished in very good time - 1340 - and switched from despotism to monarchy to republic to democracy (right?). How many total turns of anarchy did you endure, and why didn't you just switch once, to republic?

Thanks,

Yes I switched around a bit..

Lemme see Despotism -> Monarchy = 3 turns of anarchy
(I didnt get republic until just before Democracy)

Monarchy -> Republic = 5 turns of anarchy (ouch)
(I was drunk and triple stupid as I was about 7 turns from Democracy)

Republic -> Democracy = 3 turns.

I like Democracy, and I wanted fast workers for Railroads if I got there. Also the AI pays well for Democracy

In fact there were several other damn stoopid things I did in this game. Turning research off for a 30 turn stretch in the Middle Ages I thought I would get to 1500gpt without meeting the AI.

I was about 200gpt short

Ho Hum you live and learn...

Melifluous

 

[AdrianE]

Civ 1.29 open

After starting the Arabs GOTM and deciding it would be too tedious as well as take too long, I saw the 5-6 game announcement. It looked like it would be way more fun (and quick) so I downloaded it.

Early on I decided to settle where there was fresh water to maximize early growth. No RCP for me although I was close. I spewed out a lot of cities quickly and they grew fast. I met the Germans and discovered we were on an island. I also settled lots of cities on the coast as with a harbour you can get 2F and 3S per water tile worked.

My second or 3rd suicide galley found the iroquois and I did some trading. I settled the iron island and rushed a harbour.

As iron came on line, I went to war with Germany. My dozen horsemen backed up by swordsemen, drove Germany off my island. Napoleon arrived to rush a FP in Berlin.

I got the Collosus and the GL. The GL was useless as it only got me monarchy! I had turned down reseach after getting the GL. After the war, I improved the former German lands. Industrious workers are great. After a while I realised that I was the tech leader and the AIs were never going to catch up, so I switched to 4 turn research mode. Priorities were, navigation (for cross ocean trade) banking and economics.

Every city got a marketplace, bank and harbor (if appropriate). They also got libraries and universities to speed up the tech pace. Due to the shortages of luxuries they got temples and colliseums. Later they got Cathedrals. I usually never build colliseums early but this time they were needed to keep the population working.

As France was the tech leader, I got all the middle age wonders. I sold all my barracks before Sun Tsu's and absolutely made sure I got Smiths. When I got Sistine Chapel it meant that the entertainment slider could be set permantently at 0.

I made an effort to keep the Iroquois, Aztecs and Zulu broke and equal in techs. That way there was no reason for them to demand stuff off each other, so they would stay prosperous. They'd have lots of cash to pay me for techs. That worked reasonably well. I was getting at least 100gpt from them from navigation until the end.

In the industrial age, I went for steam power, sanitation and the corporation. In 1540AD after the hospitals and stock exchanges came on line I was getting net 1505gpt and had over 16000 gold.

I could have done this faster in retrospect by always going for 4 turn research to get to stock exchanges faster and by a denser city build which would have removed the hospitals requirement.

All in all and interesting challenge that fit my time budget. I got this one in about 16 hours of play time.

Adrian

 

[Txurce]

I keep on reviewing my strategy in light of akots' and Kinungas' medieval wins, and realize that by aiming for a corporation-based win, I minimized my chances of winning any earlier. This is because I built universities ahead of banks, since speeding research was more important than increasing gpt, if the goal was to reach corporation (and stock exchanges) asap. But I now wonder if I could have won in the Middle Ages if I had built banks exclusively while in a GA, and finished off with Smith's in the same 20-turn span.

The other factor that I neglected was city number. I didn't add any cities to the German layout, which was the standard AI "classic" approach. A few extra cities may have increased my medieval population to a number high enough to bring in 1500gpt, under a banks-first approach.

This is another example of where a more patient and analytical approach than mine could have worked out before the game started how many cities of a certain size with markets, banks and courthouses are needed to put you over 1500gpt in a GA (with or without Smith's). The more I think about it, the more I expect to see some of the top players winning halfway through the Middle Ages - possibly even ignoring the entire lower branch of the tech tree.