*Spoiler2* Gotm17- Full World Map+Explore

Originally posted by SirPleb

On this map it might work well to not do the suicide runs, just beeline for Navigation and then explore. I sank about 400 shields of production. I did get a bit of cash and a good tech (Monotheism) as a result of making early contact, so those shields weren't wasted. But they could also have done a lot of good toward infrastructure.

I think even the value of the Lighthouse is debatable on this one. (If not making suicide runs - including suicide runs Lighthouse seems almost certainly a good thing.) It does connect another luxury early on and does increase ship movement, I'm not sure how that trades off against its production cost.

Having said all that, I think the suicide runs are fun, I like playing it that way. And as Renata says, there was a potential that that they'd be more important, I'd find it hard to ignore that and hope for the best at home...

I neither built the Lighthouse nor made suicide runs and I can't see that it negatively affected my game. It was all those other mistakes....
 
I have meet evereyone, so I guess I can post here. It was until 1300 Ad, so I'm not going to win any medals. I had wiped out the Egyptians, and, after getting navigation, sent out ships (or are they boats?) in every direction. Its early in the month, so I think I may be able to finish this GOTM. (Great set up, Cracker.)
 
Originally posted by Moonsinger
Based on what I read so far, I don't think those suicide galleys benefit much. In this game the AIs are all so behide in tech; there isn't much to trade with them.

Originally posted by SirPleb

On this map it might work well to not do the suicide runs, just beeline for Navigation and then explore.

I agree with both of you in retrospect. However, at the time we were all in the expansion phase, the Lighthouse and suicide galleys looked like a good idea. I thought the extra movement point would help me discover the other continents and I wanted to get to them before Education wiped out my Great Library. I figured with 15 civs there should be some who are ahead of me in techs.

Sure, it didn't work out that way and I would like to have back the gold I spent on the 37 Galleys I lost, but I don't think it was a bad strategy decision.

37 Galleys - that must be some sort of record.
 
Zagnut,

Rest assured that the record for galleys lost in a single venture will always rest with Xerxes, whose Persian fleet at Salamis began the day with almost 1000 ships and 100,000 sailors but by nightfall all of the ships had been sunk or scattered in disarray, leaving fewer than 10,000 sailors to return to the Hellespont safely.

When the Pheonician admirals of the Persian fleet came to Xerxes to complain that they had been betrayed by the poor seamanship of the Ionian Greeks who had deserted the formations, Xerxes was so displeased with their criticism that he had every surviving naval commander decapitated.

Now that's a bad day to be a galley admiral. ;)
 
Zagnut, I guess that means you get Honorable Mention in the Great Naval Disasters in History.

Building the Lighthouse made sense, because as Renata pointed out, all of the other civs could have been in contact with each other, and trying to contact them would then be critical to a good score. However, I doubt the game would have been designed so that Carthage was doomed to be isolated and behind in tech, even with the Lighthouse in an archipelago map, unless its suicide galleys made it across those squid-infested waters.

I also had the Library burning a hole in my pocket along with the Lighthouse, so there's an argument to be made for venturing out early with this position. But the potential losses are big enough that I still feel lurking on the edges of the archipelago until navigation was the best exploration strategy, once it was determined that only suicide galleys could venture out of the starting archipelago. (And we could surmise that this was the case from the start, given Cracker's instructions for when we could post.)

Having said that, it was a blast to replay the early game and have my first suicide galley - crewed by none of Zagnut's sailors - make it to Greece. And what price that first view of uncharted land, centuries before you would have had any right to be there?
 
I had the GL early and did use suicide galleys in all directions, about a dozen. I found Greece and Rome in 510 BC then nothing for 1700 years.
I entered the middle ages in 280 AD.

I was not aggressive enough in my Egyptian war in 850 AD and ended it without taking Egypt out.

I built Cpernicus in 1105 AD and leonardos in 1120. Persia built ythe GL in 390 BC and I lost 74 shields.

I had excellent relations with all nations and decided to go for a UN victory. Long distance war seemed a dauting proposition. With a tech lead and good relations it seemed a natural. Rome was the only close competitor.

By 1335 I had the entire map and was very much in the lead in tech and score. I hit the industrial age in 1375 AD

I never play archepeligio maps so this was new for me. It was great fun.
 
Suicide galleys were the logical thing to do. You couldn't know that all the other civs had similar islands as you. I always play on random maps, and with the difficulty being only Regent, I couldn't believe Cracker had put the AI:s at such a disadvantage. This also means I didn't like the map particularly much. It was just too "fabricated" for my liking.
 
Originally posted by Hurricane
I thought about that also, Bamspeedy, but I doesn't explain the Darius' barge thing. What was that then? And remember that almost every civ on the map expanded to other islands without map making.

I was thinking maybe Egypt had their 'free' galley sunk, since in my game they didn't have a city on another island before mapmaking. So I checked my notes and saves. Is this where their city was in your game?

goody_hut.jpg


A few turns later I saw a barb on that island, but no barbarian camp. And Egypt's culture had expanded. Using culture seems to greatly increase the chance of a city, but it's not always guaranteed.

BTW, I've cleared 40+ grasstiles now - and not spotted a single bonustile. That's the only annoying part so far for me at this map. Cracker, any particular reason for not using the random bonus grasstiles that come when you use the map editor?

I wonder if he did this to prevent a tactic that might work (it's a theory I saw someone mention, I haven't studied to see if this is actually true), that automated workers (shift-J for clearing jungles) always seem to know which tiles have bonus grassland underneath and will clear those jungles and forests before other tiles if the tile is within the same distance as another jungle/forest that doesn't have a bonus grassland underneath.
 
Originally posted by Bamspeedy


I was thinking maybe Egypt had their 'free' galley sunk, since in my game they didn't have a city on another island before mapmaking. So I checked my notes and saves. Is this where their city was in your game?

That's exactly where the Egyptian city of Alexandria was in my game, so Bamspeedy could very well be right!

Well, I took out Egypt in about 250 AD and then I settled in for some goo, old fashioned building. I got no leaders in the war ahainst Egypt so the FP was manually built in Memphis (980 AD), which took a long, long time...
I did suicide about a dozen galleys, as I mentioned in the other spoiler, and found Persia and England in 400 AD or so and in 600 AD I found Greece and Rome. All were hopelessly behind on techs... The others I met after navigation and magnetism were researched (except for Russia and the Iroqouis, who are no more).
I built Leo's, Sixtine chapel and Copernicus...
Near the end of the middle ages I started my build-up for my next war...

That's all for now...
 
Originally posted by BoBtheBUILDER
...Imagine my relief when I discovered that Cleo was sitting on the only source of saltpeter!

BoB

Bob,
Do you have no saltpeter on the home island, in the north and east of the source of the northern river?? I really do not intend to brag with that, but I have. If some people had it and some not, that could make quite a difference in the game... not?

Yes my other sourse of saltpeter is on the small island near the former Egypt city of Alexandria.

(More about my game later, I'm not through reading all the posts of the second spoiler.)
 
First of all I want to apologize to cracker and the community that I failed completely to take screenshots of my exploration events. I just forgot about it completely. I also did not write down the dates I made contact. So I will give you a rundown from what key elements and events I remember.

Then I also missed, again, to right-click all the rival units etc. I met to check for name puzzlers. So I have nothing to report in this regard. I guess I have a lot of room to improve on my GOTM documentation skills. Sorry for that.

In my spoiler 1 report I intended to go on rather peacefully. Well, only some 5 turns later, very soon thereafter anyway, Egypt was crossing my borders with as spearman and settler. I forced them to retreat or declare war and they chose war, very much as I hoped they would.

Some hoplite of mine defended successfully and triggerd my GA around 150AD, which allowed me to build lots of swordmen, horsemen, etc. With these I successfully concluded my campaign around 700AD I think it was, destroying the Egypt completely.

I got no leader, so I needed to build the FP in Heliopolis manually. Stupid me disbanded a few war veterans in it to rush things, but of course this was completely useless. It's around 1335AD in my game and finally the FP is complete.

After victory over Egypt I set out to exploration. I decide not to undertake suicide missions, but research the peaceful branch directly to Navigation, which I successfully conclude by obtaining Magellan.

I start exploration with 2 caravells and 1 galley. First contact is made exploring east. My ship meets the English. Another mission run at about the same time meets the Greek in the south. The galley I lose in the thick ocean fog between myself and the Greek.

I continue exploring with the two caravells. The "Greek" caravel then proceeds to find America, the "English region" caravel would explore southwards and later finds the Aztecs. From the Aztecs it travels east again and meets the Iroquese. The "Greek" caravel returns home from America/Germany to fetch men to colonize any unsettled land which I did not find back then (but I found now, see below).

The exploration run going south from England misses the island there. I discover it only later in a map trade with England, and the English are already having a settlement there by then.

I discover the southern island to the west of Iroquois. When my settler and hoplite step onto the island they find lots of wine and wheat there. But an Iroquese settler and pikeman are walking aroundalready!! But they continue walking while me I immediately plop down a city and rush a temple. I guess I'll be wine merchant later on... lovely idea :)

I cannot understand why the AI did not found a city there before me. They certainly had the chance to do so, and it's an excellent location...???

Through the years I make contact with the other civs, it eventually turns out that I'm the most advanced civ. I'm pleased.

Russia has been destroyed a long time ago, I think sometimes during my war with Egypt there was a popup message to this regard. I now learn it must have been the Americans that finished them off.

Aztecs and China are the most behind. Germany and Zulu are way behind also. Babylon is also heavily behind, but not quite as much. Rome and Greece and America and England, plus Iroquois are all about the same in terms of development when I initially meet them. Of the AI's Persia is the best at initial meeting by a narrow margin, with America has the best momentum.

Now towards the end of the Medieval Age, America has overtake Persia by a solid margin. All other are not a factor anymore I think.

I trade with the AI a lot, probably not the best course of action at this time. Others say they are withholding for as long as possible. I think I should have done that also, as the AI civs are generally poor in the days I meet them. Only Persia seems to be capable of generating gold and having good research, the others I pretty much bankrupted already.

I have established embassies with all the worthwhile civs. Relations are as follows: Aztecs and Germans are annoyed at me. China is cautious. All others are polite.

I am trading for luxuries I don't have: Spice, dye, gems, silks. There are no furs available. If one of the AI's were not so lazy, I could trade for furs from Germany for example also. Having secured only 3 luxuries is a bit too little for my taste, but going to war because of that I find tediuos work on this map. And for now, the AI are asking moderate prices and I have a few things to trade back, so it might work just to keep trading for luxuries. We'll see... I have 10% committed to luxury still. The best trade I have on is selling horses to Iroquois for some 17 GPT or so. Imagine being Iroquois and no horses :)

A few words about wonders: I obtained Magellan and I build Copernicus. I also got the Sistine Chapel. I'm currently building Smith and Bach cathedral. They will be finished in 24 and 25 turns, ahead of the the AI's as per my latest intelligence reports.

I would like to build Newton in Carthage where I already have Copernicus, but I may need build it in Thebes. I am not sure how apt the AI is with regard switching from one wonder to the other.

Production, gold and science are strong pillars of my empire. I also have a lot of WLTK days going on by now, which is great.

But my military is very fragile: Only one garrison hoplite in all cities, maybe 2 muskateers somewhere, only 1 or 2 knights and 3 caravells. I know I need to build up my defences. I also need more workers, especially on the home island (I have only 3 there) and the eastern provinces where production will lift off in the industrial ages (currently 2 eqWorkers there only).

There is probably no question that I will eventually win my game, I guess by UN vote or space race. Im currently about 300 points ahead of America and the lead is increasing at maybe 5 points per turn. I feel I made mainly good choices so far. I'm not after GOTM high scores, will not get them anyway. I'm content just winning the game, see if I can overcome it's challenges.

I'm learning new things in this game, which is helpful. Basically the game is over after the QSC, right? I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish the game in time for submission though, only some 20 more sessions available...

Last night I had the game crash a few times, so I needed to recover from autosaves. But at this stage in the game it is of no relevance anymore, I reckon. I shut-down and rebooted the computer, but eventually it would crash again. I guess the big map and many cities and civs are straining it's memory as well...
 
My first suicide galley was successful around 700AD, going east and finding England and Persia. I had a dry spell, and was about to give up, when as one of my galleys was about to sink, I saw a green culture border in the south.

I decided to keep sending them, and my next one made it. That gave me contact with Greece and Rome. That was the end of my suicide discoveries, for now I had Navigation. After that everyone else was discovered. England, Greece, and Rome were the only ones that were truly on par with me for tech, but soon most everyone else started catching up.
 
The game went horrible, It did start out great. I crushed Egypt, settled all the island I could. Then I realised that I was trapped up here and could not get out. So massive research ahead.

Think Germany built the Light House, but besides that Carthage snagged most of the GW (think in the end I had 10+ in Carthage).

I took until Magnetism for me to start exploring the world. At the time I was ahead of the AI:s. Most of the world had been settled by then except one small island in the extreme south east that I conqured, enslaved and made into beaver city. The AI:s where not that far behind and not soon after they all got to gether and knew each other. The age of AI aid packages and gifting where upon me.

I had tried to hail marry a few galleys of into the unknown before but they had never come more than two or three turns out before sinking.

The Zulu and Persia where at war for most of the game. But I don't think it ever really did amount to much. Then mainly bombarded eachother. I was in on that war once but then it never returned. I picked on weaker once instead.

The game was quite calm for my part. Persia had basically rubbed out England (2 cities left), Germany+Russia+America had there island in a three way tie. Greece and Rome shared. Aztec and China shared. Zulus had nearly wiped out everyone down there (Baby and Iroq I think)..{snip - Flexo, Marines could not possibly be something that anyone would interpret as belonging in this spoiler discussion - cracker

{snip - Flexo, coal als0 cannot be reasonably discussed here - cracker

.{snip - Flexo, The UN and ICBMs Arrrgghh. Please make at least an attempt to read the instructions and follow the spirit of the discussion rules - cracker

"named units", naturally I found the ones around the starting island, I also nabbed some from that island down in the extreme south that I settled. I found no others. Think that made it 13 or something (I have already sent that in).

{snip -
laserevap.gif
Flexo, I think you may need to voluntarily clear posts with me for the next 30 days if this is going to be the pattern - cracker
 
I am guessing that I was one of the earliest to make outside contact. I was a bit desperate, due to the fact that I had invested so many shields to get the Great Library, to find other civilizations. I was going to be ticked if I ended up getting practically nothing from it due to isolation. I had been cranking out the galleys for the dual purposes of suicide missions and to be ready for the coming war with Egypt.

I sent one out immediately after exploring all of my opening area. It happened to be at the far east of Egypt, so I went to the most eastern sea tile, and waited for the start of a turn to start my quest. Four eastern moves later, nothing. But look at this! I didn't sink this turn! Cool, I might make it. Four more eastern moves and...I can see territory!!! ARGH!! My turn ends ONE tile away from safe sea. But the Gods spared my sorry butt, and in 50BC I made contact with England and with Persia.
 

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Here is a screen shot of how England and Persia had evolved at the time I met them.

Image attachment 50bcperseng.jpg temporarily suppressed - trying to work withe dales to restore it in a readable format - cracker
 
After finding Persia and England, I then set my sights on finishing up this age and then going as far as I could up the bottom of the tech tree, perhaps all the way to Military Tradition, while letting the GL keep me mostly current on the top part of the tech tree. Unlike a lot of players, I had put off conflict with Egypt, so I didn't get done with them until around 1400AD or so. By this time I had decided to go for Magnetism, wanting to forge ahead into the next era.

I did have a ton of units and caravels ready to go at that point however (all on the eastern part of my area, where they had just finished crushing the Egyptians), so I set sail for England and Persia. As it would happen, my choice of which one to attack was made easy as Persia (who had discovered Navigation) invaded my main island with a very small force.

Here you can see how they had evolved while I had been taking care of Egypt:

Image attachment 1435adabouttoinvadepers.jpg temporarily suppressed - trying to work with dales to restore it in a readable format - cracker
 
As you can see, my early success with suicide galleys (getting over to England/Persia in 50BC) had not met with similar success after that-- all my other galleys had been lost at sea before I decided to abandon the quest. I figured I didn't need any more contacts that badly.

Right when I got to Persia's shore, I enlisted England's help in the battle, and I got maps and contacts from them that opened my eyes to two other continents. Here is how America/Russia/Germany looked in 1435AD:
Image attachment 1435adamer.jpg temporarily suppressed - trying to work with dales to restore it in a readable format - cracker
 
Here is the Zulu/Iriqois/Babylonian continent when I first learned of them, 1435AD:

Image attachment 1435adzulu.jpg temporarily suppressed - trying to work with dales to restore it in a readable format - cracker

In 1590AD I found out about the remaining two continents but the pictures of Rome/Greece and Aztecs China will have to wait until later.
 
Originally posted by Shillen
Well let me start out by saying I'm stupid. I didn't know navigation let your caravels traverse ocean squares. Instead I went all the way to magnetism before exploring.
I am just as stupid, because I made the same mistake, just a bit later than you :D
Originally posted by SirPleb
My first success came in 390BC, meeting England far east of Egypt. There's no particular reason I was exploring in that direction, I just happened to have galleys in the Egyptian region when I finished exploring the safe limits. I'd only lost one galley up to this point, was lucky so far.
Wow, I thought I reached there early getting there in 50BC. A full 340 years after you :)

I chose to go that direction because the galley I had set was over there from exploring Egypt. Just looking at the map, I had guessed it was more likely there would be land due E than due S of the easternmost part of the starting area.
 
Hee, Hee, I actually have reached the second spoiler this month before the 25th. I wish I kept better notes but I lost upwords of 12-15 galleys suiciding S, W and SE before coming in contact with, in this order, Greece, Rome, Persia, England, America, Germany, the other one there on that area, then Iroquois area then the Chinese area. I did build the Great Lighthouse but did not get a great leader in the conquering of Egypt in 250ad. I am still building the FP still ways away. I was convinced there was an island hidden in the fog and it took me several turns to finish it off all in vain. I must also say that I only found the first 3 island areas without Navigation, the last two major ones came after and I never sold the communication, though perhaps I should have with the Persains or Greeks. Xerses especially has been a real $&*#@, if you know what I mean. I am maybe one tech behind him and about even with the Americans, Romans and Greeks. I built JSB but still am lagging a bit in science trying to keep up. I am way behind in military and have not built up yet but my production could make up for that real quick when I see fit.
@pterrok
I too feel this map was a bit too contrived, but I am still trying to enjoy the "world that I live in." I have found myself throughout the game trying to outthink Cracker and what ironies he has built into the game with questions like "I'll bet there are five or six different land area simialar to ours and Egypts," and "I'll bet the fog goes 10 tiles thick in every direction to impede exploration." I guess the best thing about it is that it has forced me to think of all the possibilities of the map and not assume anything.
 
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