*Spoiler1* Gotm17- Early Specific Map

[hbdragon88]

First, I just got through the limit and I'm incredibly pissed, both at myself and the game.

It is 1200AD when I got to the second prerequisite. Or, more accurately, when I realized that I could look at this spoiler.

The fog really hurt me because sometimes there'd be a square with sea and I'd end my turn there...it cost me two galleys. The volcanos were a piece of cake. I realized that it was only an immobile 1hp unit with two workers guarding it, so it was easy to knock them out. Gave me some promotions, too.

Clearly my QSC would describe my situation a lot better than anything I could describe here. There was such a lag that I wrote up five more things than on my QSC16. And I wrote a pretty long one for QSC16.

First, the settler was a huge mistake. I should have placed it on the coast so I could start pumping out galleys as soon as I had Map Making (it would come 2 turns after the QSC ended). The capital often had nothing to do and I wringed with the thought that if I placed it on the coast, then I could have been pumping out far more than I did now. Leptis Magna, Utica, and Thevesta were the galley builders.

I got beat to every wonder, from the Great Lighthouse all the way to Leanadros'. Copernicous' is being built as I just realized that I could come here.

I had to get contact wtih the civs, I had to. Egypt was overcharging me and I wasn't going to stand for it. So I attempted to send suicide galleys all across the globe to find those other civs. That's partly why I got pissed. I lost maybe twelve galleys - most of them on the second turn in the sea/ocean. Sent them out in five, six directions - nothing, and only sinking.

On the island southeast of the main one, I send a galley down there. There were three rows of fog - curse that. I got one fog cleared but it sank the next turn. I sent another galley and it sunk before it even got there.

Three galleys from ending in sea after destroying fog. Twelve, maybe more, from the suicide. What really stunned me though was one galley. It lasted six turns before sinking - much further than my other galleys.

I'll post some maps soon, just before I made contact with Egypt, the encounter with the fog across the ocean, and all the ways that I tried to go just to gain contact with the other civs.

Without the continents of GOTM15-Russia and GOTM16-Rome, there is no way I can tell whether I've improved or not.

 

[MadScot]

Trundling slowly along....

I never intended to build carthage on the coast. My reasoning mainly being that if I were trying for a coastal GW and was beaten to it then I'd at least have the option of reverting to a Palce build, and would have a palace pre-build available.

So it was Utica built on the coast which eventually completed the colossus. I decided not to switch to the lighthouse when I got map making as there seemed to be another island close by and I assumed that I would have enough closely spaced island to survive until astronomy came along. I never really ran out of room, so that seemed to be a good call. Instead I built the colossus in Utica, which really helped my research, and then the Great Wall (to trigger my GA in Republic).

The attached shows the neoCarthaginian world in 550AD. We actually have made contact in the few years since this shot, but that's another story.

No wars; there's been an egyptian settler waiting patiently on the island next to our start location for hundreds of years - I bottled it up, then covered the island with my culture before it could settle. I think cleo has forgotten them now!

The various barb-like items aren't as scary this time as the last GOTM. Once I realised what wimps the volcanos and fogs are I was much happier. Of course, there's always squids to worry about....

My few "intrepid galleys" achieved nothing - I only sent out a few.

 

[Ribannah]

Originally posted by hbdragon88
The fog really hurt me because sometimes there'd be a square with sea and I'd end my turn there...it cost me two galleys.

Why???

Didn't you count the tiles, or did you forget to right-click on the tiles to know the terrain?

 

[Killer_Klein]

This is my first time playing the GOTM and Regent and I don't think I'm doing half bad but nothing compared to you pros out there.

I built Carthage on the Hay and my Settler was complete and I was two turns away from hitting 3 pop and disease struck. That knocked me back and it happened again. That was annoying to say the least.

I geared for war early figuring if I find someone I could wipe them out fast and then build without the AI. Did the Warrior Rush linked iron and set out with three galleys with three more a couple of turns later. I lost a few units to the Egyptians but managed to wipe themout and in the process used my leader to rush FP.

After that colonized every island and went for Navigation.

Didn't get a single wonder during Ancient. But that didn't really surprise because of the disease at the start.

 

[hbdragon88]

In the fog I would sometimes be careless, attacking fog in a sea square on my last move. What a waste - those galleys could have been sent on suicidual runs...

To show my frustration, I went to the military screen and got a map of my world. It was still small (bigger than the map grid, but not that much) so I zoomed in and captured that shot there - much better. Rememer that it is zoomed in to a very small part of hte map.

hbdragon88 - do not deliberately upsize the minimaps to be 4 time normal size because they look crappy, distort the way the forums software works, and take 8 to 10 times as much download time. I resized your image back down to get it back inside the screen width. Plus this is not the xploration spoiler and you are violating the rules - cracker

 

[hbdragon88]

This is a bit backwards, but I knew that tech trading was the thing that I needed to keep me in the game. I discovered that power starting in chieftain games, when I was falling behind in the modern ages and could catch up by aggressively selling valuable techs for cash/other techs.

I researched Map Making two turns after my QSC ended. It was stupid of me to even think of getting anything else. I sent an expedition of two galleys to counter the fog and in 490BC, I discovered the Egyptains:

 

[Capt Buttkick]

Timeline qsc:
I don't think this will be interesting to all you ppl, but I for one enjoy reading thorough timelines, although I just started doing it

4000 b.c. Move worker SW to the mountain (thanks to a tip in the pregame discussion). Settler due W.
3950 b.c. Carthago founded, worker W to flood plain. Carth starts warrior, researching pottery at 0.10.0
3900 b.c. Worker starts road.
3800 b.c. Worker moves S (should have irrigated first).
3750 b.c. Worker irrigates flood plain wheat.
3650 b.c. Worker builds road.
3550 b.c. Worker goes to ivory in two turns.
3450 b.c. Finished research on pottery, start writing (28turns). Carth expands. Warrior finished, start granary (robably a mistake, settler production right away would be better). Warrior starts exploring to the north. Worker clears forest on ivory (I should probably have made a road first).
3200 b.c. Worker starts road on ivory, Carth is pop 3, needs 10% lux.
3100 b.c. Worker E, irr flood plain. (I should have gone 0.10.0. again now)
3050 b.c. 0.10.0.
3000 b.c. Worker W, irr ivory. Carth pop 4 0.9.1.
2900 b.c. Worker goes to northmost bonus grassland in 2 turns.
2800 b.c. Worker starts mining.
2750 b.c. I was a bit insecure about whether the pop growth or granary happened first so I delayed granary 1 turn (later discovered that prod. happens before pop incr.).
2710 b.c. Carth prod. granary. Starts settler.
2670 b.c. Worker starts road. Carth pop 5 0.8.2.
2630 b.c. After travelling almost to north cape and taking the western route south, our warrior reaches south cape. The boundaries of our starting island are clear.
2590 b.c. Worker S to other bonus grassland.
2550 b.c. Worker starts mining. Carth size 6 0.8.2 is still enough lux.
2510 b.c. Carth produces settler, starts a new one. Settler moves to flood plain wheat (should have gone to ivory, then S). (Should have gone to 0.9.1.)
2470 b.c. Settler SW to flood plain. Worker starts road. Carth pop 5.
2430 b.c. Settler SW 5.3.2 for one turn.
2390 b.c. Settler W to see if this spot is significantly better than where we came from (our warrior hadn't been wuite that far W). 1.7.2. Writing finished, start mapmaking.
2350 b.c. Settler moves back...

Only notes on production, diplomacy, city foundings and, in some cases, exploration are recorded from now on .

2310 b.c. Carth prod. settler, starts a new one. Utica founded, starts rax as a prebuild to galley.
2230 b.c. Leptis Magna founded, start worker.
2110 b.c. Carth prod. settler. Starts a new one.
1950 b.c. Carth prod. settler.
1870 b.c. Theveste founded on north cape, starts worker. Leptis Magna pro. worker, starts rax (prebuild for galley).
1790 b.c. Hippo founded on south cape, starts warrior.
1750 b.c. Carth prod. settler, starts another one.
1675 b.c. Leptis Minor founded. Starts worker which obviously was a bad choice and a waste of 10 shields.
1650 b.c. Hippo prod. warrior, starts worker which is soon switched to galley. Mapmaking is discovered. Literature is started, still going as fast as I can w/o going bankrupt orgetting upset citizens.
1625 b.c. Carth builds settler, starts another one.
1600 b.c. Utica prod. galley. Starts GLighouse.
1550 b.c. Our 2 warriors lands on the island E of our mainland.
1525 b.c. We spot a vicious 1-defense volcano with 1 hitpoint left, Mt. Etna. Our warrior defeats it next turn and is promoted to veteran. Two gamer workers are collected. Sabratha founded, starts worker.
1500 b.c. Carth prod. settler which moves to galley and further on to the eastern island.
1450 b.c. Rusicadae founded.
1400 b.c. A galley finds new lands to the south. Kinda hard to land with all that fog. Literature is discovered and we move on to philosophy.
1375 b.c. Carth prod. settler which goes to a galley and into the east. Carth starts worker.
1350 b.c. Leptius Magna prod. galley which sets off N to kill some fog, starts harbour.
1325 b.c. Carth prod. worker, starts settler.
1300 b.c. Sabratha prod. worker, starts harbour.
1275 b.c. Hippo prod. galley, starts worker. We discover philosophy and pursue code of laws.
1250 b.c. Our settler lands two islands east of the mainland, spots Theôn Oikèma and two gamer workers. Lucky my veteran warrior decide to tag along.
1225 b.c. Carth prod. settler, starts a new one. Oea founded, starts rax as a prebuild.
1200 b.c. Hippo prod. worker, starts library.
1175 b.c. Leptis Minor finally prod. worker, starts library.
1150 b.c. Our galley is finally able to land some troops on the southern island.
1125 b.c. We spot Mt. Vesuvius where some barbarian warriors and horsemen are holding two more gamers captive.
1100 b.c. Carth prod. settler, strats warrior. We land on the island south of Oea and there's a yellow border there. Finally we meet with other civs.
1075 b.c. We discover code of laws and begin researching the republic. Our brave warrior is defeated near Mt. Vesuvius by a horde of horsemen. We swear the usual (revenge of course). We meet with the egyptians and they agree to trade wheel, ceremonial burial, mysticism, bronze working, iron working, warrior code, 15 gold and world map for all my sci except map making. The Egyptians have the now wellknown culture-popped Alexandria, but have otherwise not left their mainland.
1050 b.c. Popped a goody hut which had barbs lurking in it. Carth starts it second warrior in a row, the first moves to Utica to MP it. Theveste whips temple.
1000 b.c. End of qsc. Utica is still 34 turns away from the lighthouse but will grow next turn. We've finished clearing 1 jungle, 9 more are on their way. 9 cities, 15 tech. 11 workers including the four gamers, 2 warriors, 3 galleys, 2 settlers. We've build a staggering two city imps, a granary and a temple.

 

[SirPleb]

I've just written up and submitted my QSC, thought I'd post a summary here:

3950: settle Carthage in jungle south of start position
3200: settle Utica in forest west of start position
2670: learned Writing
2670: settle Leptis Magna on coast north of Carthage
2510: learned Pottery
2470: settle Theveste on coastal plains southwest of Carthage
2150: got ivory connected
2030: settle Hippo on coastal hills southeast of Carthage
1870: learned MapMaking
1725: learned Ceremonial Burial
1700: settle Plebis Magna on west coast
1625: discover the first volcano on island east of home
1625: settle Sabratha on island east of home
1525: learned Literature
1475: discover second volcano on island south of home
1450: settle Bamicus Speedica on our west coast
1425: learned Mysticism
1350: contact with Egypt, trade Writing for Warrior Code + Bronze Working
1225: learned Polytheism
1150: open a goody hut, find barbarians
1100: settle Rusicade on island west of Egypt beside wines
1000: settle Emanidae on the incense on island south of home
1000: trade Egypt Polytheism for The Wheel + IronWorking

Status at 1000BC:
10 towns, 12 Workers (8 Carthage, 4 captured), 6 Warriors, 1 Numidian Mercenary, 3 Galleys.
Utica is reasonably started toward 20K culture. Has temple and library, has started building Great Library.
Leptis Magna has Great Lighthouse about 3/4 built.
No other town has any improvement.

 

[hbdragon88]

To keep in accordiance with the spoiler rules I will now only post a recap mostly of what I did before getting Gunpowder and that will be it for posting (in this spoiler, at least). I'll read through the pages after that to see others' strategies.

After establishing Carthage on the first turn, I immediately built two warriors and then started on building a settler. It was initaially rough at first, but it got a lot more smoother when I finally got a granary built. The settlers were cranking out fast and there were no population problems (it grew to size three just as it finished)

Warrior exploration of the island revealed how small it was and no barbarians at all. As a consequence my military production city was minimal - didn't build too much. All settlers I built in Carthage were unescorted as a result.

Utica was my second city established - established west of Carthage. I got both the river and the coast to make an exceptional city. With the wheat one could ask why it wasn't converted to the settler factory. I concluded that it would take too much time to build a granary - and I needed to pump out as much as I could.

Six cities were established before the QSC concluded. The QSC17 was based on my QSC16, which had several parts: silly false fantasy, reality, strategy, timeline, and general and strategy conculsions. With the considerable lag I added: Other things, Stupid mistakes, What I was shooting for, Alternate things I could've done, and Explanation of obvious things I could do but didn't.

I did not seek Map Making but couldn't afford to lose all my research, so I had to research after. Map Making was researched two turns after the QSC was concluded. Immediately Leptis Magna was comissioned to build galleys. I got a shock when I first saw fog and saw a volcano, and went through all the islands.

At first I avoided all fog, but eventually had to go attack it. Egyptain contact was made at 490BC. I traded techs with her, a hard task. I often had to pay 100 gold or so + a tech to get a tech. Nevertheless I realized that I would have to go get rivals, like right away. That was a mistake in QSC16 - and I knew that this was major to do.

I comissioned Theveste, Utica, and Leptis Magna the building of galleys to send out for suicide runs. When they were sinking I stuck it conservative, eliminating fog and loading settlers to build. I colonized the island directly adjacent to the main island.

Sometime in the ADs, Egypt got cocky. They were with galleys and sent one, landed a spearman and a warrior right next to Utica. Suspicious - I attempted to get them a ROP. Ivory for it - I refused. The next turn my ivory was pillaged and Utica was under assult.

Utica was taken by spearman, and I was having a tough time after that reconquering it. The single spearman was repelling all warrior/archer attacks by me. It took two spartan hoplites to take it - and I sued for peace. I paid and they stopped.

More suicide runs and then I establihsed Oea on the second island east of the main one. Unfortuanely it got flipped, dang it. This game wasn't isn't too much fun...yet. Small landmass, cocky Egyptians, and other frustration.

[Argh must keep lips shut but exploration is such a huge point that it is hard...]

 

[Ambiorix]

Hi Folks,

I'm posting my QSC-entry for 4000BC here. Can't post it completely, since it's about 4 pages in word...

4000BC - The much discussed starting position… Let’s see now : we are located almost on the north pole, and still there is jungle north of us – seems like we can already notice the presence of Cracker. Whatever tile we choose to settle on will give us an income of 2-1-3, so we better take a poor spot – jungle would do nicely. It’s also worth noting that our settler is located just north of a river (let’s call it the Bagradas). That means that settling SOUTH of the river would lose a turn now, but would gain a turn for all ancient units that would be produced later, so we definitely want to cross that river now. But whereto ? It would be great if the jungle tile south of the river would be next to the coast, but I’m not sure.Moving worker SW on the mountain.Whow ! A whole new world opens up ! The jungle tile is not coastal, and it appears that the land south of the river may be the end of a peninsula, although on second thought that’s just speculation. There’s gold to the north that would be out of reach if we move our settler…After much debating, I decide to move the settler east anyway, and plan a second city SW of the wheat, that would also cover the elephant that seems to be stuck up in a tree. The gold is lost for now, but that tile probably won’t be used in the early game anyway, and can be picked up by a third city (there seems to be more land to the north than the south, strange enough). This way, if the bodies of water to the NE and SW turn out to be unconnected, I have a city on both coasts. So,Settler E (and a prayer to Ba’al).Mmm… the grass on the other side does seem greener indeed.Finally we take a peek at who our competitors are (F10).

I thought about moving the settler one turn, but I never really considered moving it two turns...
My strategy was to get map making asap. I started off by researching writing at a leasurely 40 turns pace (couldn't speed it up) and then hurry pottery and mapmaking as fast as possible. Carthage rushed the lighthouse and got it easily - a startegy I don't regret. I met the Egyptians at 1050BC and traded lots of techs. I then went for Republic at full speed. Meanwhile Egypt had also discovered mapmaking and had begun settling the island west of their homeland. I was just doing the same, and although I wasn't fully prepared I started a war with Egypt to expell them from that island, triggering my golden age. finally I amassed a fleet of 15 swordsmen and 5 Numedians that conquered the Egyptian main land, and shortly thereafter the remaining cities on other islands. No great leader stood up, and so I had to built my forbidden palace in Heliopolis brick by brick.
I sent out about 10 galleys on suicide missions. They all sank, one within view of foreign coasts.
Can't remember the dates by heart - I intend to take some notes on my game after the QSC too, next time.

 

[Ribannah]

Originally posted by Ambiorix
4000BC - The much discussed starting position… Let’s see now : we are located almost on the north pole, and still there is jungle north of us – seems like we can already notice the presence of Cracker.

As the game description says, the map was generated as southern hemisphere, so the 'north pole' is in fact the equator. Hence all the jungle.

I would like to know how that was done though.
A hemisphere option was one of my suggestions for PTW.
But I don't see that option anywhere when generating the map or in the map editor.

 

[hbdragon88]

The GOTM staff is obviously very elaborate...

Ahh now I understand why there are so much jungle - it is a pain to clear it all away. Luckily with four workers it isn't so bad - and now I have some actual cities now. No more size 2 cities - jungle has been plowed out.

One question, though. When the nasty Egyptians ROP raped me and took over Utica, something happened. When I recaptured the city I captured two "eqWorkers" as well. Not barbarians, not Egyptains - they're like native workers. Except that they're not, because when I try to 'j' stack them only two of my own move and then I have to move the "eqWorkers"

 

[Kemal]

My game so far...

Started the game with a blunder, like some others the first thing I did was trying to decide whether it was worth it to move the worker on the mountain, and considering that possible bonus resources might be revealed I chose to sacrifice my worker's first turn of movement to get a better view of the surroundings.

This view revealed a wheat on floodplains, which was obviously great, but somehow (maybe it was the incredible amount of time the AI took for his turns, although I know it's cheap to blame it on that ) I still founded Carthage on the starting location. It just suddenly happened, I guess..

But things are still going pretty well, after initial exploration and a 3000 BC granary, Carthage starts churning out a steady supply of settlers, and Utica is founded near the wheat. I beeline for mapmaking, which is discovered in 1700 BC, and as I do not sprawl the starting island with cities I start colonizing the other islands quickly.

Unlike most people I had already decided early in the game not to go for the Great Lighthouse at all. With the difficulty level being Regent, I felt I could get to astronomy (and then Navigation) fast enough to justify not dedicating a core city to such a gigantic project, costing lots of resources early in the game.
Also, while getting the GL would have meant earlier contact, opening trade routes with the other civs would still need navigation/magnetism due to the ocean barrier, leaving only gold/tech trades as an advantage for earlier contact, but I expected AI empires to be small and undeveloped, considering how it usually performs on archipelagos.

That said, I did try two suicide runs, but both failed miserably at the first turn in the ocean.

This was of course after I had contacted Egypt in 1325, with whom I traded some techs. I did not attack the Egyptians (yet) as I focused on building up my cities on the original island, while constructing the FP on the large island next to Egypt.

Even though the Egyptians were weak and would have probably been an easy kill, their cities would only have been of value if a forbidden palace had been constructed there (this was before DaveMcW published his article on palace jumps), and I thought the chance of getting a leader to build it for me very slim considering their empire only consisted of 5 cities, thus creating few chances for a leader to stand up in battle.

 

[Karasu]

Finally!

I started this game later than usual in the month, due to an unpredictably high number of other things to do which, of course, all wanted to be done at the same time...
And now, after browsing throughout this thread, I am almost exhausted!

It was nice to read comments from games played on vanilla Civ, on PTW and on the Mac version. This forum is really growing larger... thanx to Cracker, of course -but let's not congratulate him too much, or he'll get used to it and we'll have a hard time keeping up with his expectations...

Then, wow, I think I have never been mentioned this often!!!
Thanks to all those who rescued me from the volcano, although -in hindsight- I believe that roasting there was not much worse than spending thousands of years clearing jungles...

BTW: Moonsinger -now I understand your mentioning this in the "Welcome Registrar" thread...


Some random notes on the game, while I desperately try to get a timeline of sorts for the QSC:

- The map is very intriguing. I spent a lot of time before I made up my mind on the game plan, and I'm not sure I'm going where I want to...

- I am one of those who founded Carthage S of the starting position. I poked with the settler from the mountain top, and when I saw the wheat on flood plains I decided for that placement in order to use some of the grassland, have the river, the wheat and clean the jungle. Going W is worse, in my opinion, as you settle on forest instead of jungle.

- The second city (Utica) was founded around 3000 - 29something BC due W of the wheat, to share it with Carthage.
I think SirPleb's placement to make the most of that area is far superior to mine (but then, he is a superior player...).

- The third city went on the river mouth to the E, and that's where I built the Lighthouse (just a few turns after 1000 BC, I didn't want to do too good with the QSC... ).
True, it was not too useful. But it did help, at least with invading Egypt... and then, would you leave it to the other civs?
I was late in starting the Colossus, though, and I was beaten to it.

- Cities. I put eigth in the starting island, four in the island to the south, four in the one to the east, two in the small one right next to it and seven in the second one to the east (next to Egypt). I thought they were many...

- Technology: I went straight for Mapmaking. Pottery in 3300 BC, Writing in 2350 BC and MM around 1700 BC. Then onto Republic (switched around 500 BC, four turns Anarchy).

- Egypt. Traded some techs, then loaded a horde of Swordsmen and invaded her in 210 BC. The war was over around 30 BC (actually dragged on to 30 AD because of a culture flip...).

 

[civ_steve]

I'm thinking about changing my name from civ_steve to sick_steve: I've been fighting this stupid cold/flu (and it's lingering after-attacks) for over a month now!

But, I was able to get far enough to read (and post) in this spoiler. (Actually, I've played ahead and will probably post soon in the next, but first things first.)

Huts: nothing but angry Warriors! I am playing the PTW 1.14f version, and generally 1 would attack and the other two run away.

Location: I sent the Worker to the mountaintop. The additional view of the map was quite useful. I had pretty much decided to pursue a 20K cultural win, and the extra information reinforced that decision. I actually founded Carthage one space to the NE (I think), on one of the G+ spaces. This space allows 2 hills and 3 mountains within the city boundaries, has river and coastal access. The result is that I have been able to build 4 Ancient Era Wonders: Colossus, Great Lighthouse, Great Library and Hanging Gardens. The drawback is much slower general growth compared to everyone else who utilized the Floodplains/Wheat space in their initial Capital city.

I was very interested in SirPleb's report. He has taken the faster growth route, and is using a secondary city to generate the 20K culture win. I've compared a 290 AD save (I'll post a picture later when I get home) with his city image from 270 AD. SirPleb's Utica is about 250 culture points ahead, with a +6/turn delta. His production is 23 (out of 24), while mine is 19 (out of 20), however his city has a shortage of 1 food/turn so the average production is a little less. At 290 AD I had not finished building all the city improvements that generate culture; once I do that, I should have about a +7 culture/turn, due to the Colossus, Great Lighthouse and Palace, assuming that we match in other Wonders. In general, I've had more Wonders to build than resources to build them with, so I suspect that the number of Leaders generated will greatly influence the final victory date. Assuming equal numbers of Leaders, I don't feel too confident that my early Wonders will allow me to catch up. Still, I'll try to make it competitive.

Quick recap - I researched Pottery, than Bronze-Working, Writing and Map-Making (1450 BC, IIRC) I'd just finished the Colossus, so I paused in making wonders briefly to send a couple of Galleys out scouting. Made contact with Egypt around 1100 BC; I made no trades to assist them in learning Map-Making, allowing me to settle where I wished. They eventually did, and sent a Galley with a regular War-Chariot and a conscript Warrior to attack Carthage (600 BC'ish). My Veteran Warriors defeated his attack, so no Golden Age for him. Research continues, Literature, Philosophy, Code-Of-Laws. Meanwhile, I founded Bamicus Speedica on the Long Thin Island, next to the Wines. I'd just finished researching Republic (300 BC'ish), pop-rushed a Numedian Mercenary in Bamicus Speedca, then started the revolution. Along comes another War Chariot, who attacks and loses to the Mercenary, triggering my Golden Age! So I lost 5 turns of my Golden Age due to this unfortunate timing. (Still, it was better to be in Republic than not) I get Iron-Working for free, when I give peace to Egypt. After the revolution, I quickly research Mathematics, Polytheism and Monarchy, and finish building Great Library and Hanging Gardens. I roughly enter the Middle Ages around mid-200's AD. There's more, but I'll probably put them in the next post.

Two odd things about PTW - it doesn't allow you to build the Forbidden Palace in your Capital (so the build FP in capital, and rush capital elsewhere doesn't work). And I noticed the same thing that Takeo did: when I pop-rushed in BamSpeedyville, that citizen was unhappy, no matter what. 1st pop-point should be content, is made unhappy by the pop-rush, should be made content by the MP. I had to leave that point as a specialist for a lot of turns.

 

[Shillen]

Two odd things about PTW - it doesn't allow you to build the Forbidden Palace in your Capital (so the build FP in capital, and rush capital elsewhere doesn't work).

You can't do this in vanilla civ3 either. All you can do is build the FP next to your capital then move the palace later.

 

[Melinder]

so is it time to panic if I'm still stuck on this archepelago?

Melinder - just a reminder to stay within both the spirit and the written limits of this spoiler discussion.

The purpose of the spoiler discussion's is to report what you have done and to use this information to analyse what you may have done well or what you may have done poorly; Not to fish for advise on what you might do as futuer moves in the rest of your current game.

Also this thread is not intended to discuss any aspects of finding other civs beyond Egypt which fits within the starting archipelago. Please read the first posting of these spoielr thread more carefully to make sure you can participate responsibly. Thanks - cracker

 

[Melinder]

whoa.

Thanks for the reply, Cracker. I think the spirit of my little post was profoundly misunderstood. I was just commiserating; along with celebrating mine and others' victories, I've shared challenges (e.g. my postings and the resulting discussion on one GOTM FP city flip) for many months. so it was not at all fishing for advice. I just wanted to commune with anyone else still left in this thread.

Sorry for my mention of any contacts; I had seen several others in this thread mention the exact same thing as I did, so I mistakenly thought it was ok. those previous posters probably aren't here anymore, so they may need reminding too.

Thanks - Melinder

 

[Ronald]

First I thought, that I have no time to play this gotm, but since George Bush decided to engage in a war with Iraq, my business trip to the US was cancelled.
With all the real war around, I decided to take a rather peaceful approach in this game: I have not played many cultural 20k games, so I thought why don't give it a try:

I went for some wonders early in the game and got the Oracle before 1000 BC, the colossus not far away:

That was my timeline:

4000 BC: Move settler E
3950 BC: Found Carthage
3700 BC: Build warrior
3400 BC: Researched Pottery
3000 BC: Build granary
2900 BC: Build warrior
2670 BC: Build settler
2550 BC: Build uttica
2310 BC: Researched writing
1700 BC: Build granary in uttica
1525 BC: Build settler in uttica
1525 BC: Researched mapmaking
1425 BC: Researched Ceremonial burial
1425 BC: Found Leptis Magna
1300 BC: Researched Mysticism
1300 BC: Build settler in Uttica
1275 BC: Build oracle in Carthage
1250 BC: Found Theveste
1175 BC: Build Galley in Leptis Magna
1175 BC: Reasearch Bronze Working
1125 BC: Build Temple in Carthage
1100 BC: Build settler in uttica
1025 BC: Found Hippo
1000 BC: Build worker in Theveste

In 30BC, the known world was devided between us and the Egyptians.
Since I lost the race for the Great Library, I was already sure, that my final date will be not real competitive, but from mistakes one should learn. Reading just before posting my attempt, that Grandmaster Sir Pleb is out for a 20k win as well, I am sure the direct comparison will be not in favor of me. Anyway that is the world in 30 BC:

The known world is just a little bit too small for two great powers, so with a really bad feeling, I have to take out Egypt, but I promise, this will be my only offensive war in the whole game. Now, by 1000 AD I am alone on the known planet:

story to be continued

 

[planetfall]

I started this game very late in the month. Just a few quick observations of where my game differred from many players. This game is going very slowly. I am not sure why. It is about 1300 and still no astronomy. {I can finally explore in 3 turns, when I get astronomy}.

1. I did not find any goody huts, period. At least we had volcano's to play with.

2. As Moonsinger, missed Lighthouse by 3 turns. But I did get the GLib. It ended up gaining 5 techs after sacrificing 3 galleys for contact beyond the amoeba.

3. Egypt gave me one GL that I hoarded and used for Smiths. I elected to beeline for Economics since this was a lower difficulty level and Smith was possible.

4. Forgot how long, long, long it takes to move a palace. Corruption is hurting me. Since used GL for Smith instead of moving palace, it will be a long long time before can get fixed. I planted FP within 10 tiles of Palace, planning to use FP to keep down corruption in initial land mass.

5. MFG is running about 140 and is slowly, slowly improving. Without others to trade with, the start sure seems to progress slowly.

6. Most annoying, other nameless civ that used galleys to meet my sacrificial galley got Magellan way before I had astronomy. Not sure on this type of world, which is more important: Magellan or Smith's?

It will be close to see if can finish game by the 31st with starting this late in month. But will plug along as best can.

Just curious: How many cities do you have on ameoba islands prior to astronomy?
I am wondering about my city placement versus you better players.

-- PF