Spoiler1* Gotm22 Vikings Full map visibility of the starting landmass

[flexo]

OPEN PTW

I decided before the game even started that I would try and go for a 20k victory, having had a domination one last month I didn't want to repeat myself.

Everybody has a looksie around the start position and I think that it looks pretty good for a starting location, settler factory type city. Found my capital Birka (like I'd use any other name). Since I want culture it is CB at 90%. My warrior travelling north finds the fogs (unfortunatly as he ventures into the fog he is never heard from again) and my scouts moving about in a few turns locates the diamond mountains. A skraeling hut near the diamonds produces a settler, i found ** brjoergvin ** near the diamonds (later renamed since I couldn't spell it correctly for my notes without looking two or three times). I find the landbridge and well hut city or whatever you like to refer to it as (25, bronze, deserted, 25, warrior, warrior)

After CB in 3300 i go for masonry, need the pre-build. In 2670 I found ** Stockholm ** (two squares north of Birka, by the coast, hills, river). This is going to by my culture town.

In 2670 i also see my first rivals (brown and pink). Don't meet the greeks until 2350 bc.

In 1990 bc the temple in stockholm is done and I start pre-building. In 1625 someone sold my number to the english. Don't hear about the celts until 1375 bc when the russians offer to hook us up but i decline. In 1075bc someone sold me to the celts and they chat with me but really have nothing to offer.

1700 bc french start building pyramids
1600 bc greeks start oracle
1575 bc russian starts colossus
1425 bc russian starts oracle
1400 bc greeks start colossus
1275 bc english build Colossus in York. russians switch to oracle/pyramids, greeks to pyramids.
1225 bc english start on the great lighthouse
1050 bc frnech starting on oracle
1025 bc english starting on pyramids

For some odd reason I have yet to figure out there is a riot in stockholm in 1550 even thou they where happy just the turn before, no pop increase or anything. Could have been growing resentment over the rush of the temple 400 years ago?
1125 bc I have literature (none other does), switch my prebuild to TGB.

Score wise at the qsc 1000bc mark.

358 england
343 ** scandinavian **
322 greece
319 russia (strange since they are the tech leader)
230 france
202 celts

From the looks of the graphs it looks like the celts are feeling the sqeeze from someone, my guess is the english. england got a culture boost with that first wonder.

tenochtitlan is the top five city (london, paris, washington, moscow). I'm only 6th in land area. but first in population. last in military service, that ain't good. tech wise not so good a position (that could change if i snag the library). currently 212 culture points. 72 in stockholm (that I hope will be my 20k town). we are militarily weak against all but france (average) and celts (strong). I have no idea where the Aztecs are except that they live somewhere in the dark.

975 bc london finishes the oracle (that is not good since london ain't a coast town). Russian > pyramids, french > lighthouse, greek > pyramids. OK that means two BC wonders for england, that ain't good.

650 bc the pyramids are done in washington, starting a cascade that lands the great lighthouse in Xinjian (which is in the dark so they have to boat over to us for contact) and York gets the great wall. England now has three ancient wonders, whopifreakin'doo ...

310 bc i score my first wonder with the great library.

Around that time we crawl out of the ancient era, I can't rely on TGL to bring me tech so I have to keep on researching to get me wonders and culture buildings. But atleast it brought me up to tech parity with the othes.

 

[AlanH]

Originally posted by flexo
OPEN PTW
975 bc london finishes the oracle (that is not good since london ain't a coast town).

@Flexo: What's the significance of London not being coastal? I guess it means you'll have a harder job if you want to take it out, but I can't see how it affects your 20K objective ...

 

[flexo]

@AlanH
Read spoiler #2 and I think you can figure out why and what would have happend to London if it had been on the coast.

It is/was purely a matter of denying all culture to my rivals. Nothing else. So not much to do about my 20k goal.

 

[AlanH]

Originally posted by flexo
@AlanH
Read spoiler #2 and I think you can figure out why and what would have happend to London if it had been on the coast.

It is/was purely a matter of denying all culture to my rivals. Nothing else. So not much to do about my 20k goal.

OK, I will when I get that far. I'm still just a tinpot despot right now.

 

[RufRydyr]

With 7 cities after the QSC I did better than last game. This is a cool map. I also got some nice things from goody huts. I popped a hut in the SW mountains for the second city which was great to block my half off the continent off!
Finally ended ancient age in 30ad.
I had decided to not go for the 20k cultural win. I've had trouble with culture wins. Decided to go for domination.
Wasted some suicide galleys. Shouldn't have.
Decided to go for Great Library. Really wish I had gotten it. Forgot about the prebuild and wound up with Great Lighthouse. I think it will be as uneffective this game as last.
In 1125bc we refused a Greek tribute and they declared war, but they were far away. In 775bc they got France to join their alliance. Had to pay Greece for peace, but got more back from France when we settled for peace with them.
In 430bc a suicide galley reached an edited out cool spot. Decided to try a little tech broker gamble. Paid England 443g, 1gpt for construction then traded it to BLAH for 485g, Wmap and then to France for 250g, Wmap. I kept the Wmap and communications to myself.

 

[LKendter]

v1.21f

The game starts and I already see a Cracker change. Why did the capital become Nidaros? What is the significance of that name?

I am screwed by the fog, and lose an attacking archer during the early years. The embassy that Russia established provided the news that France and Russia signed a peace treaty. That means 2 future enemies have already slowed themselves down.

1600 BC is a very good year as we contact England, and get communications with the Celts. I now understand what purpose the fog served. We gain ~$90 and 4 techs out of the contacts to sell.


QSC Summary:
For the first time in a while in the GOTM, the barbarians really hurt. We lost and archer and a warrior during the QSC period. I had to slow down settlers toward sites for additional escort, and had to switch the capital from settlers to military more then once, which slowed settler creation / deployment.

We have only 12 cities so far.
Our military is 2 settlers, 2 scouts, 5 warriors, 5 archers, 8 spearman and 3 galleys.
We have 13 native workers, and 3 Russian workers.
We have contact with the 5 nearby civs.
We have the first two rows of techs along with Philosophy, Code of Laws, Map Making and Horseback riding.

As for the English monster, well I haven't posted in spoiler 2.

 

[RufRydyr]

Taolie- Thanks for a very enjoyable read!


To pop a settler out of a hut you can't be producing a settler in any city and I thing you have to have the same or less cities than the average number of AI cities. If building a settler, just switch to something else for a turn before popping a hut. I'm pretty sure this is how it works. Somebody correct this if it's wrong.

It seems that hitting 'e' for explorers makes them head to goody huts. I discovered this while playing recently. Sometimes the scouts make bonehead moves, but it's wild to watch them take a weird path right to a hut. I like to build 4 scouts first while waiting for the capital to grow. When a scout finds another civ while on autoexplore (e) it will skirt around it, so that's a could time to take control of the scout.

 

[Yndy]

Playing PREDATOR on PTW

Outline of ancient ages

My GOTM playing time was seriously disturbed by other civ and non-civ related events.

QSC
In 1000BC I had 11 cities, but some 12 workers as well. My 20K city is called “Culture 20K” and is situated near the furs in the west, on the coast and along a river. I failed to add workers into the city and also did not rush the temple.

Exploration
I was lucky to stumble upon the land bridge with my first scout. I also met the Russians early. Huts gave me maps, a tech that the Russians had, some gold, and two cities. One was on the land bridge and the other SE of Nidaros still on tundra. They were good at building workers and warriors. My scout further met the French and the Greeks. Contacts with England and the Celts were bought from Greece.

Wonder city
I took a weird research path as well and did not research Literature. I realized I had to research it myself when my Culture 20K was 8 turns away from Palace and everyone had three middle ages techs. So I built the Great Library. The cascade took the Hanging Gardens, and two MA wonders.

War
Greece had played the game very aggressive. They attacked Russia and took Moscow early on. The Russians did recover from that blow but very hard. Next Greece attacked France and razed three of their five cities. France never recuperated. England and Greece made some early demands, which I gave in but then Russia sneak- attacked me. They killed my scout and landed some units on my turf but never posed a real threat. Later Greece and France declared war but again did not attack me. At the end of these wars I landed ant took Lyon from France. Peace negotiations brought one city from each nation but all in useless positions.

Tech
My intention was to speed the tech race to get Invention as soon as possible but also to get access to culture buildings as soon as possible. At first this did not work because of the warring Greeks. Later I saw that large cascades were highly detrimental for my builds. First cascade took everything from the Oracle to the Great Wall and the second, caused took everything to Sistine Chapel.

Strategy
My goal is to get fast to the domination limit and then wait for the 20K victory. I plan to start the war at Invention with a huge Berserk army and never stop fighting. Unfortunately I lost three early archers fighting barbs and fog. I also struggled to build a large fleet after map-making was discovered. My fleet was 4 galley strong at the end of the ancient age but I never sent them in suicide missions. Instead I killed the fog and got two elite galleys at the expense of a lost third one. Later they would prove invaluable.

 

[Qitai]

QSC Summary
Cities 18
Pop 33
Settler 2
Worker 23
Scout 1
Warrior 5
Archer 4
Galley 3
Slave 1
Granaries 4
Barrack 1
Land 160
Wool, Fur, Horse connected, Gem connected in 2 turn
All Tech except Currency, Construction, Literature and Republic
Gold 1240
All contact made
In Anarchy, 2 more turns to Monarchy

Start
Move my scout NE, spotted the lamb. Looks like best site is NW. Scout continue S looking for reason not to move the settler NW. Cattle in view. Settler move W to form capital. Pump out 2 scout before going for the granary and then 4turn settler factory.

Tech
Plan is to head straight for Monarchy.

3150BC CB Researched at max, Block BW, Standby Scout pop hut to get 25gc and Mysticism
1600BC 40T Polytheism researched, Trade for all missing tech, including map making.
1075BC Monarchy Researched at max, Trade for Maths, CoL and Philo.
750BC Currency researched
730BC Construction traded, MA.

Barbarian
Three statement
(1) Disperse one camp and another appear the next turn
(2) Endless Barbarian until Viking land secured.
(3) Marathon with scout and barbarian

Barbarian losses
1 Scout
3 Warrior
1 attacking Archer
67 gold


Hut
No luck.

25gc
2 maps
Bronze Working
Mysticism

RCP
Notice that my 3 distance town and 3.5 distance town has the same corruption level. Break away from game to do some testing on corruption. Test result shows that I always get same corruption for cities at n and n+0.5 (e.g. 10 and 10.5 gets same corruption).

 

[Txurce]

Originally posted by Qitai
QSC Summary
RCP
Notice that my 3 distance town and 3.5 distance town has the same corruption level. Break away from game to do some testing on corruption. Test result shows that I always get same corruption for cities at n and n+0.5 (e.g. 10 and 10.5 gets same corruption).

Very interesting. This discovery makes RCP much easier to apply, while still building in desirable locations. I wonder if the corruption tests will hold up later in the game, as the cities get bigger?

 

[Qitai]

I did my test on size 15 city using mod bic outside of GOTM22 after making that observation. My Sample size is 10 pairs ranging from distance of 2 to 10. Alex has also verified the result.

 

[hotrod0823]

What about 2.5 and 3 ?? or n-.5 and n?

 

[Dianthus]

Originally posted by hotrod0823
What about 2.5 and 3 ?? or n-.5 and n?

The distance rounds down, so 2 = 2.5, 3 = 3.5, 4 = 4.5 etc.

 

[Qitai]

Nope, only 2 and 2.5, 3 and 3.5, 4 and 4.5 etc. I.e. you only take the Integer part of the distance. Or in layman term, ignore the decimal.

 

[Svar]

Originally posted by Txurce


Very interesting. This discovery makes RCP much easier to apply, while still building in desirable locations. I wonder if the corruption tests will hold up later in the game, as the cities get bigger?

I reported this here and have since run the OCP test out to population 29. With full production the ring 5.0 and ring 5.5 cities still have exactly the same corruption.

Since Alex and Qitai have already run the pairs out to ring 10 I wont bother with my planned test to check pairs from 3.0 to 11.5. Thanks guys for the verification.

 

[AlanH]

Originally posted by Txurce


Very interesting. This discovery makes RCP much easier to apply, while still building in desirable locations.

Certainly does. If I'd known that I would have planned a different city distribution for this game, I think. The small land area with mountains and sea inlets made it quite a challenge to fit lots of cities in while maintaining equal radii. Of course, this was my first attempt at RCP, so I probably missed a few tricks.

 

[Svar]

Originally posted by AlanH

Certainly does. If I'd known that I would have planned a different city distribution for this game, I think. The small land area with mountains and sea inlets made it quite a challenge to fit lots of cities in while maintaining equal radii. Of course, this was my first attempt at RCP, so I probably missed a few tricks.

I was aware of it and I still had trouble fitting cities into my selected rings (x.0 or x.5). This map wasn't well suited to RCP, the people who place cities in the most optimum position probably did better.

 

[cracker]

Originally posted by Svar
... I still had trouble fitting cities into my selected rings (x.0 or x.5). This map wasn't well suited to RCP, ...

... and how do you think this miracle of modern technology came about?

 

[Puzzlinon]

It was a great map. If there were no good RCP arrangements, it was because there were no good arrangements, period. Planning cities was like playing one of those sliding-square 1-15 games, everything wanted everything else to be one more step in a different direction.

 

[LKendter]

Originally posted by cracker
... and how do you think this miracle of modern technology came about?

I hope you continue to make rcp hard.
I know a lot of the players like it, but I feel it turns the game into a math formula. For me it takes away a lot of the game.



Of course, next time it be nice to have a start with a semi-logical are for the fp.