Spoiler1* Gotm22 Vikings Full map visibility of the starting landmass

[JonathanValjean]

As usual, I am thoroughly enjoying this GOTM. I did fairly well with my rate of expansion, with 11 cities at the 1000BC mark, and had the most luck I've ever had from goody huts (in 55 overall games). I am now in 50BC and have tech parity.

Below, I list some of the highlights (and lowlights) from both my QSC and post-QSC logs.

4000BC
-Nidaros founded at starting location, which is outstanding!

3450BC
-Popped hut on a mountain with gems to the S of Nidaros. Got ceremonial burial! Great! Thank you expansionist trait!

3150BC
-Popped the first hut and received: a settler! This is the best luck I've EVER had with huts! Wow! I need to play expansionist more often!
-I send the settler N so that it can be near the core.

3050BC
-Granary completed in Nidaros
-Free warrior pops hut and receives a map of the region (about two tiles worth... ha. I'm not complaining, as it could have
been three warriors...)
-Scout pops another hut, and receives Mysticism! I can't believe this!

2950BC
-Worker completes roading of lambs; moves S to improve cattle tiles (Okay, you know you are playing on a high level when you've had a start this good and you still are totally left out of the
great book about "Most Powerful Nations.")

2670BC
-Bjoergvin founded N of Nidaros.

2590BC
-Oslo founded

2510BC
-My scout spots three Russian warriors; contact Russia and she is 4 techs ahead of me and I have nothing she needs. Great!
I do have three cities to her two, though.

2390BC
-Popped a hut and received masonry! great! Checked with Russia, but she, of course, already had it!

2350BC
-Lost my free scout to a pictish warrior! Aargh!
-Nidaros builds warrior

2270BC
-Lost a warrior trying to disperse a camp!

2190BC
-Completed research of alphabet.

1990BC
-Popped a hut and got a free warrior
(We ranked 8th in most advanced nations. I "pity the fool" who is behind me...)

1950BC
-Uppsala founded

1750BC
-Linkoping founded

1550BC
-Goteburg founded

1500BC
-Linkoping builds worker; lost another warrior to fog...

1450BC
-Jonkoping founded.

1425BC
-All workers to Bjoervin to improve it to be a strong wonder city. I must get the Great Library there! I am 29 turns away
from literature right now. and 33 turns from an FP.

1325BC
-Norkoping founded

1000BC
-Kalmar founded

As of 1000BC, the mighty Vikings have:

11 cities, population of 24, 13 workers, 1 scout, 1 settler, 9 warriors, 3 archers, 2 barracks, 1 granary,
1 temple, and about half the shields needed for the Great Library. We have contact with: England, Russia, Greece, Celts, and France. We have a decent world map, and 71 gold in the treasury. In addition to all first tier techs, we have: mysticism, writing, mathematics, iron working, philosophy, code of laws, literature, map making, and horseback riding. Scores as of 1000BC: England, 414; Vikings, 340; Russia, 308; Greece, 306; Celts, 273; France, 230. Land Area: 14,200 sq. miles

825BC
Malmo founded

775BC
Orebro founded

730BC
Caved in to England's demand for some gold and my world map.
England, France, and Greece declare war on the Celts, who lose half of their empire to England.

710BC
Qitai founded

670BC
Joined 3 workers to Bjoergvin in order to boost production for the Great Library.

650BC
Celts build the Great Library, as I had 9 turns left until completion! (I should have started earlier on the bolstering of
Bjoergvin!) I switched from Great Library to Forbidden Palace, which is at the top of our starting island; I hope to move the palace later via great leader.

650BC until 50BC
I focused on building infrastructure and researched nothing in order to bring in as much gold as possible. I then traded in 50BC, bringing us up to tech parity with the rest of the world. The next phase of the game will consist of building about 30 archers, 15 galleys, and Leonardo's Workshop in preparation for a mass upgrade to berserks and an invasion of a civ. I still haven't decided which Civ to attack, but I'm considering attempting to cripple England, because she is such a behemoth in this game! I was quite disappointed that I missed the great library, but I have managed to keep up in tech without it. A big decision I have to make soon is whether or not to change from despotism to monarchy or republic. One thing is certain: I must get out of despotism!

EDIT: Added version and class information

 

[da_greatest]

Open v1.29

I'm going for a 20k culture victory with the restriction of only building 2 cities.

My scout found the cows and I decided to move west. To me it looked like it would be on the river, but when my city was stuck at a pop of 6 I found out it wasn't . (I guess from now on I will right click on the tiles.) Nidaros build order went something like this--scout--settler--warrior--worker--worker--worker.

I built Bjoergvin 5 tiles NE of my capital. The Bjoergvin site didn't have more shields than Nidaros but I decided to go for the 20k there because it was on the coast and I wanted to be able to use the palace as a prebuild.

All my workers were sent to Bjoergvin to road and mine the tiles, and eventually join the city. I built a temple, then the Colossus. I then started the pyramids as a prebuild for the great library.

While this went on Nidaros switched to military production. I built 3 spears, a couple archers, then horsemen. The barb camps provided a steady income and allowed some of my horses to become elite.

The first bad thing to happen to Bjoergvin was getting beat to the Hanging Gardens by one turn. I had to switch to the great wall. I didn't want this because it would cause my GA to occur when I my two cities are only at size 6. I revolted to monarchy (republic still wasn't discovered) hoping that a MA wonder would become available. I ended up building the great wall and spent my GA in monarchy.

The ancient age wasn't very exciting but I fought a few early wars because the AI kept forgetting that THE GEMS ARE MINE.

Bjoergvin's culture build dates:

Temple – 2350bc
Colossus - 1575bc
Great Library – 730bc
Library – 610bc
Great Wall - 50bc
Colosseum – 90ad

 

[Plunderer]

Open 1.21f

Hi all

This is my first GOTM and the first game played by more than 1 person, and it is very exciting. However I grossly overestimated my memory and didn't take any notes so here is a short summary based on what i can reconstruct from memory .

Summary:
Cultural victory was my goal from the start. I did not plan for, nor had any wars (except formal ) in the ancient age. First Bergen was set up as an industrial center after which the most of the archipelago was settled. The cultural building bergen built were:
2800BC temple
2070BC colosus
1475BC oracle
1025BC lighthouse
1000BC library
470BC great library
50BC hanging gardens
30BC Heroic Epic (leader)
90AD colloseum

The other two wonders were built by the english:
1225BC Pyramids
470BC Great Wall

Wars: One by one all my neighbors except the celts declared war, and which never ceased. i was 100% defensive and would only kill any units that came to my territory. Galleys would deliver at least 1-2 units each turn, sometimes up to 5-6. This created 2 great leaders; the first was used to create an army, and the second to rush the heroic epic, as there was not any avaiable nor soon expected wonder. My scouts reported that the greeks and the french were fighting against the russians from very early on, which i believe was the reason for the very slow tech pace. barbarians caused almost no trouble at all; the warriors suppressing unrest were sufficient to fend them off in the beginning and later our military was sufficient to take care of much greater threats.
Government - The Vikings became a republic some turns before completing the Hanging Gardens, about 200BC. The period of anarchy lasted 4 turns, which was ok.


A more detailed description of the game follows

Preluminary thoughts:
I wanted to achieve the fastest 20k victory i was capable of, and so the purpose of the whole empire was to support this one city in its pursuit of culture. This would be support of several kinds.
- technological support - so that the city can build more cultural improvements/wonders
- military support - so that all tiles would be worked on at all times and the city itself would be safe
- gold support for rushing the normal cultural improvements

I wanted to get at least 2-3 ancient wonders and a fourth was desireable. The musts were the Colosus and the Great Library both because they would be the most useful and because their culture/cost ratio is highest. The must not was the great wall since it would trigger our golden age. It was to be built only after the vikings become a republic or a monarchy.

The terrain characteristics I was looking for were coast/river, easy to develop and high short term (despotism/size 12) production with a high or a mediocre middle term production (republic or monarchy/size 12) while long term production was not important at all. My motivation was that the early wonders would have to be built from scratch, while once in the middle ages I expected to have a sufficient amount of fights to produce GLs and rush all the expensive wonders.

In addition the culture city was to be build asap and the capital was to be used for a worker factory. I was definitely not going to use the capital for a 20k city as its location was not in a 1 tile proximity to a coast.


Early Game:
my first moves were warrior SW and scout E E
After spotting the cows I moved the settler west in order to immediately start working on them. The first task was to build a granary; its last 20 shields were pop rushed and in addition i did not road the grassland cow in order to speed up the growth by 1 turn.
My chosen location was W NW from the capital as it was very close to what i previously described. Even though I thought that it would be difficult to win the colosus race i did risk to build a temple before because it would allow a few more, which would compensate for the 60 shields and because it would contribute culture as the colosus was being built. everything went well and it turned out that there was virtually no competition for the colosus.
The second wonder Bergen built was the oracle. When it was very close to 300 shields writing was only recently discovered and after establishing an embassy in london i saw that the english were very close from finishing the oracle. It would not jeopardize the GL at all so i decided to go for it. In addition the english would be forced to build the pyramids and it would happen before mapmaking so it would prefent any wonder cascades (as it happened)
When bergen was at nearly 300 shields again I changed my mind once more and built the lighthouse (buying mapmaking from the english). Even though literature was already known the lighthouses were not far ahead and bergen was outproducing any competitor town by a LOT. After the lighthouse i rushed a library in 1 turn having 4 workers ready to join to compensate for the lost population (Is this allowed? in the rules it said that it is not allowed to join workers in order to rush, but this was joining workers after a single rush, and bergen never grew even 1 citizen anyway ) and then the great library.

Research: After the discovery of CB I was doing 40 turn research (first 10% then scientist) mysticism then literature (i traded HR for writing) then polytheism and monarchy. polytheism and monarchy i however got from the GL. and literature i bought from england along with mapmaking when it was halfway or so discovered.

Goodies were quite lucky - 1 settler and 3 techs

 

[AdrianE]

Better late than never ...

I decided to go for open class in this my fourth CIV game ever. Prior to the start I re-read Crackers starting advice and Bamspeedy’s settler factory article. I planned out the first 20 moves in detail. Then I moved the warrior south and spotted the cows and the scout to the NW mountain and spotted the furs. That changed everything. I thought about moving the settler but decided that settling on the spot for the extra turn of production and research was better. The worker went W to road and then SW to irrigate and road the cattle. Then he went SE to irrigate and road the plains cattle. Then back to the W of Nidaros to mine and road the bonus grassland. My initial builds were warrior, scout, granary, settler. After reading some of the posts here, I crunched the numbers and moving the settler to take advantage of the cows ASAP is indeed better.

I eventually scouted out my island and got several techs from goody huts. I lost a settler to a marauding barbarian horse and that set me back. This loss allowed the French to beat me to a few prime city sites on my west coast. The Russians grabbed a tundra town on the south coast. How much do you want to bet that there is oil there? I let them have these sites as eventually I will have a war and take them.

I did grab control of the land bridge as my scout got there just before the Russians who were the first people I met. I met the French and Greeks in short order as my scouts further explored. The greedy Greeks tried to sell me contact with the English for 100 gold but I declined. The next turn my scout contacted an English galley. I did my best with tech trading and bought most of my techs. It still cost lots of money.

The Viking nation made it out of the ancient age due to a suicide galley and the resultant trading advantages. A later suicide fleet safely transported a settler, warrior and spearman over the ocean to grab something I thought was worth having. The also warrior popped a goody hut for currency for an added bonus.

As part of the trading frenzy, I opened embassies. What I saw shocked me. AI CIVs with granaries only needed 6 food to expand. It looks like England was a deity equivalent civ. Another AI civ had started the Hanging Gardens three turns ago and had it due in 5 turns in a size 5 city! Total cost around 80 shields! It is at that point I gave up on any hoped of a 20k culture win and planned a military campaign. Barracks were built and military units recruited. The Viking civilization transitioned to a monarchy for the military advantages.

A number of inconclusive wars were fought in the ancient times but the English did smash the Celts. The Greeks tried to extort from me and I refused. They declared war and Russian France and England were recruited to my side. Eventually we signed a peace accord.

I lost every single ancient wonder race. I must have started my pre-builds too late. If anyone would care to post a guide on building wonders in Emperor or Deity that would be appreciated. England got most of the wonders and was turning into a monster (with dominant culture too). They basically crushed the Celts in one war.

 

[ControlFreak]

Wow, lots of great 20K attempts going as well as some great development.

I decided I'd at least try for 20K since I've never won one. I wanted my second city to be the 20K city and renamed it as such. I took the tradeoff, not being on the river for having both wool in my working radius. Joining some workers, prioritizing the improvements there I managed to build temple, Collosus, FP, Hanging Gardens, Library and a palace prebuild for a MA wonder.

Nidaros, founded at the start position became an everything factory. In the end of the QSC the queue was Warrior (in 1), Settler (in 3 dropping from 7 to 5), Warrior (in 1), Warrior (in 1), Warrior (in 1), Worker (in 1, dropping from 7 to 6), Worker (in 1, dropping from 6 to 5), Settler (in 3 dropping from 7-5). Repeat. I did the whole routine about 4 times.

My scout found the english first from a hill in France. I never sold contacts, and rarely traded techs unless someone else on that island already had it and would be selling.

My whole goal was to slow the tech rate down enough that the cascades wouldn't take all the wonders. Getting three techs from huts and self researching had me even with the leaders most of the AA. I got Monarchy and switched immediately, losing 5 turns but well timed not to miss much.

I managed to fill in the starting continent with the exception of a tundra city. The Russians made the first demand of me and declared when I refused. I bought the Greeks in against them and never faced a Russian unit except for razing their tundra city on my island. I also bought in France but they broke the deal and settled for peace early into it.

The Greeks and Russians have been at war ever since with neither side gaining much land.

With all the warriors, I was in the process of gearing up for a war with England because they seemed to be building wonders and tech too fast. I connected my iron and had 4 boats and 12 swords getting ready when England demands a tech. Perfect timing Lizzy! She declares when I close the diplo screen. I captured York which had more wool and London which had the oracle. That left their captial over on the East coast, and all their cities on a shoreline to be dealt with later with berserks.

I was undecided which upgrade path to take advantage of. Archers>berserks or horses>knights. Since most civs are lacking iron and many cities are on the shore, both seem like good options. I built archers and horses depending on how the MM worked best. In 10spt towns, I alternated. I expect to eliminate France, Hurt Celts, Destroy Russians and Greece, England, Celts in that order.

The other civs (contact sold to them by the Celts who have the Lighthouse) are helping me by warring.

 

[rabies]

- Predator

I started playing late this month....and now I am rushing through the game...and as a result, I am playing a quite mediocre game.

I don't want to waste time posting a long writeup on a crappy game, so I will post a summary.

Plopped the capital down on the starting square and by the end of the QSC I had:
14 Cities
3 settlers in field. 7 Workers. 1 Slave worker. 2 Warriors. 4 Archers
1 Granary. 6 Barracks

I lost several units to the barbs, and even worse to that stupid fog to the north. I did not realize it had 3 defense points until I lost 2 archers to it!

In 530 BC, I self researched Republic and bought my way into the Middle ages. I drew 5 turns of anarchy.

I got the following from huts (average overall I would say):
conscript warrior
deserted
region map
25 gold
Code of Laws
region map

Not a single war for me during the ancient age...unusual for me. I decided to wait till berserks. England on the other hand, is way in the lead, and is quickly destroying the celts.

I ended up not going for 20k..and due to my haste, lacked a general overall game plan/goal. I will probably go ahead and try to win via domination...or whatever is the fastest for me. I am running out of time this month!

 

[killerloop]

PTW 1.14f Predator

I started very late this month and met 1st spoiler criteria last week. Scanning through the spoiler1 I think I didn’t do too bad, therefore I post my results (1st time!)

Pre-game thoughts
In what I’ve seen from Cracker’s GOTM land & civ distribution, they normally fit quite nice in an historical perspective. So, this GOTM we play Vikings. My initial thoughts: What if we’re on a peninsula like Norway/Sweden? Than land connection lies in the north, and civs we meet 1st are probably Russia, later European France? Via boat probably England & Celts? Leif Ericson discovered America? Since our starting position lies in the south, I want to explore the south first. Will try to take up Cracker’s challenge for a 20k win (would be the 1st), although I know finishing this game will not be this month.

Start
I open the file, check our opponents, and smile! I move my scout W-S, see cows. Move my Settler W to build Nidaros (Trondheim). This name gives me more confidence moving south. And was I right!

Early Building Sequence
Nidaros to build scout-warrior-settler-granary and than become a 4-turn settler factory.
1st Settler will move 2 times W on coast for 20k city building Colossus.

Contacts
France warrior scouted in 2850 BC
Russian village scouted in 2430 BC
Greek village scouted in 2190 BC
Celt contact traded in 2030 BC
England contact traded in1700 BC
Contact to other civs established in 1000 BC via suicide galley

Technology
Started with Alphabet at 40 turn pace, after alphabet only researched literature myself (for Great Library). The rest I traded or received via Great Library. Entered MA in 630 BC

Goody huts
2 settlers, 1 map, 2 25g, 5 tech: CB, BW, Myst, Wheel, HBR

Wonders
Vikings: Colossus in 1625 BC, FP in 900 BC (via GL), Great Library in 650 BC,
Celts: Oracle in 1475 BC
Aztecs: Pyramids in 1175 BC

Barbarians
Were ok to handle. 3 times lucky with scout next to barbcamp. One city ransacked for 24g. One vet swordsman lost vs. barbcamp.

QSC Summary
Cities 13
Pop 32 (28happy, 3 content, 1 unhappy)
Settler 2
Worker 5
Slave 3
Scout 2
Warrior 3
Archer 2 (1 decorated)
Spearman 7
Galley 1
Swordsman 3
Great Leader 1 (on my 1st (and only!) non barbarian fight with an invading French settler/spearman pair on my island!)
Granaries 3
Barrack 1
Colossus 1
Embassies 8
Land 156
Wool, Fur, Horse, Iron connected, Gem connected in 2 turns
All Ancient Age Techs, except Currency, Construction, Monarchy and Republic
Gold 547
Score 2nd with 439, England leads with 506

RCP
Not intended, nor planned! But 2 cities are at the 3 and 3.5 ring, 6 cities on the 6 and 6.5 ring. Qitai’s observation is right, corruption level is the same! Who says this map isn’t designed for RCP!

Wars
Greece decimated Russia, England decimated Celts. Had one war (hardly), when France landed settler/spearman pair on my peninsula, and I kicked them off (2 workers + 1 GL, though!)

 

[RFHolloway]

Just going through updating my PTW copy for all the old installs. I decided to play at least the QSC potion of all of these, just to see how I am doing. Plaed open as I am an emperor player (though struggling sometimes).

any way

QSC stats

13 cities, 31 total pop
471 gold, 60 income, but 39 gpt increase
2 settlers in the field
12 workers
1 scout
14 warriors
5 archers
16 swordsmen

all level 1 2 and 3 techs (none of level 4 though). almost all of these were got on the 1000BC turn thanks to a really sucessful alphabet, poly 40 turn gamble.

all territory maps

culture 146.

looks like all the stuff I learned from lurking on GK2 really paid off!

moving the units at the start was really important. scout went north to the mountain and saw nothing of interest, but I moved the warrior south to the mountain next, and saw the cows. That meant I moved the worker west not east to the bonus grass land. This in turn meant that that one cow was irrigated as soon as the borders expanded.