*Spoiler2* Gotm22-Vikings - End of Medieval Age + Full World Map

[MPF]

PTW open

This is going te be my first 20K win. Decided to go for it and stick to a 20K stategy game-play. So no high score but hopefully a fast 20K win. Unlike most, I chose the east coast for my first city Bjoergvin to profit from the wool and extra build and growth is gives the city.

Getting the Collossus was easy. Tried to get the GreatLib but the AI started it just a few turns before me. Was afraid that I would be beaten so swithed to lighthouse and bee-lined research for monarchy (to get Oracle and Hanging Gardens). Missed out on the Oracle although no one on my continent was close finishing it but the Chinese where (argh). Invested heavenly in science to get the Hanging Gardens. The ancient age succesfully passed with 3 wonders in Bjoergvin and so I could plan the next move.

England got the GreatLib and was the biggest in culture, time to plan a capture of the GreatLib. Stopped research and started to mass an army. Build about 8 tririme's to get enough swordman across. In 3 turns shipped about 32 swordman, yes the lighthouse was very usefull. Swithed to producing archers so that after capturing the GreatLib and getting some middle age techs (boy was I getting behind) so I could upgrade to berserkers.

Londen didn't new what hit them and after caputuring Londen started with plan B, the harvasting of Leaders. Used my pre-build palace to get Sistine and started a war with England that would last almost 300 years. Use the same technique as Sir Pleb to get Leaders for al the Middle age Wonders I could grab.

My 20 K city now own's:
Colossus 1475 BC
Temple 1300 BC
Great Lighthouse 630 BC
Hanging Gardens 170 BC
Library 50 BC
Colosseum 110 AD
Sistine Chappel 460 AD
University 550 AD
Cathedral 620 AD
Leonardo's Workshop 630 AD
Copernicus Observatory 690 AD
Smith's Trading Company 1190 AD
Shakespeare's Theater 1275 AD

Hoping to reach 20K around 1900 AD

 

[ltcoljt]

I did not play this month for a cultural win. But a question just popped in my mind. Isn't it true that culture accrues at a reduced rate while at war, and wouldn't this make the practice of leader farming somewhat counterproductive?

 

[Ronald]

Originally posted by ltcoljt
I did not play this month for a cultural win. But a question just popped in my mind. Isn't it true that culture accrues at a reduced rate while at war, and wouldn't this make the practice of leader farming somewhat counterproductive?

When you are at war, the culture rate stays the same. Only when you select mobilization, culture rate is halved.

Ronald

 

[Offa]

No culture for Offa, just conquest. For once I managed a fairly concerted war effort. I used very extensive upgrades for this: of archer to berserk, and later of horse to cavalry. I followed Monnsinger et al in this regard by regularly disconnecting my own resources. Once I managed to build Leo this became fairly easy.

I had my usual difficulty in keeping up with tech. I traded and bought as much as I could but still struggled. I never seemed to manage to research the right thing, and was almost always discovering techs that almost everyone else already had. I discovered the Eastern islands just before 1000bc but unfortunately I didn't meet any of the Civs over there until after the qsc. Trading with the USA and Chinese helped a little, although they were fairly backward, and I continued to fall behind and eventually had to trade contacts to catch up a little. Later on The other Civs slowed down a fair bit and allowed me to catch up/trade/extort to near parity. I did briefly even get slightly ahead when I researched metallugy, and then mil trad, but naturally I didn't think that the others could cope with such knowledge and didn't trade it. As a result I drifted behind again. I never reached the industrial age myself, althogh the Yanks did. It didn't help them much though.

I attacked the Russians first (across sea in galleys to save time), then France, then discovered Invention and got about 30 berserks. I had pre built leo to finish on that go (luck not judgement). I had munched the whole way through russia and France before getting a single GL and began to suspect that GL production was turned off. Than at last 2 crucial GLs emerged, one for Sun Tze and another for FP ( in new town in middle of france/russia. Later on I got loads of GLs but didn't have anything useful for them to do.

I found the berserks very useful for picking out the Greek hoplites, but after this I found them a bit of a dead loss. I stalled badly against the plucky Brits, who defended with musketeers and counterattacked the berserks very effectively with longbows. It probably slowed me down 150-200 years. Trying to wage a quick war with units of one move is tricky. I should have concentrated my units more in a big stack and sent them in with musketeer support. That would have taken a bit of time to coordinate but would have been well worthwhile

Things picked up a lot with cavalry. I did however have one unpleasant setback when I took Entremont. Obviously this was in the Celtic heartland so a culture flip was a big risk, but I thought that flips didn't happen for the 1st 3 turns (ref moonsinger from gotm 16). Thinking this, I put 11 units in the city on the turn I took it to try to quell some resistance, and sure enough the city flipped back to the Celts on the very next turn. Have things changed since gotm16? Normally I just station troops outside captued cities as I am pretty paranoid about flips. This does mean that I am plagued by persistent resistors.

The last bit of the game was time consuming as the whole army had to get shihted over to the Eastern islands by caravel as I never invented magnetism. The civs over there did cave in fairly easily though. Only the aztecs had musketeers defending cities, and my cavalry killed pikemen pretty easily. The usa had almost killed off the chinese by the time I arrived and although they had a lot of knights and longbow they didn't seriously impede my progress.

I finally managed conquest in 1310, which is very early for me. Even more importantly, despite the tedious caravels transport and the endless war, my playing time was a mere 42h 16m. Altough this is still a hell of a long time, it wasn't all spent actually playing the game and it is about half as long as my playing time in gotm 20 (I couldn't face gotm21). Looking back at old saves from gotm 20 I note that it took me a similar amount of time to get to 1305ad , but in that game I still had to play all the way to 1884. Finishing earlier is definately better for my health.

I had a problem then with W32.blaster.worm crashing my machine every few minutes. Hopefully thats gone now. Why can't virus writers play Civ instead, or just ***?

 

[bonehica]

1.29f Open

Ancient Age spoiler

entering the MA i am behind in techs (Republic and Monotheism) and am slowing researching Monarchy. my swordsman stack begins to move north to France from the newly captured city of Moscow. i declare war on France in 30bc and generate my 1st leader immediately. Healfdene is sent to Moscow to complete a FP to get my second core going. the war goes slowly as i try to milk for leaders, but am unsuccessful. around 5 turns from getting Monarchy, England gets it. luckily, she is reluctant to trade it and i am the second to get it. i trade with the Greeks and get Monotheism. in 260ad, after reducing France to a OCC, i sue for peace and get Republic and Feudalism. i am now at tech parity with everyone and am researching Engineering. anarchy leading into Republic lasts 7 turns

after coming out of the AA without one single wonder, my plan was to go for a conquest. problem is i'm very inexperienced at war in the early stages of the game and am used to building infrastructure to keep up in the tech pace. as a result my military is hardly burgeoning at this point. during the 300ads the Kelts found a city on the other landmass and communications with Aztecs, China and America are gained. this happens in between my turns so i end up having to pay handsomely for communications. in the peace period after the war with France, Greece has been busy settling towns around Moscow. i have no problem with this as Alex was my next target anyway. my vet swords are upgraded to med. swords and i declare war on Greece in 440ad. at this point my big production cities of Nidaros, Oslo and Uppsala are busy building units and the rest focused on infrastructure. i was hoping for leaders to get SZ and Leos.

unlike France and Russia, Greece has iron and pikeman, but i am slowly able to beat them back taking Sparta (silk & iron city) and Corinth which housed the freshly built Sun Tzu (no leader needed ). i am the first to Engineering and trade with England to get Theology. begin research on Invention. i slowly take the new Greece cities around Moscow fishing for a leader, but no luck. i get Invention first and am at a crossroads. England has Education and Chivalry. everyone is building Sisitine and a cascade is inevitable, due to me banking on getting a leader instead of prebuilding. also, since my big cities have been pumping out med. swords i only have a handful of archers and horse to upgrade. i decide Leos isn't a high priority and trade Invention around for Ed and Chivalry. now, instead of staying the path and heading for MilTrad, my infrastructure half of the brain takes over i begin research on Astronomy. one day i will learn

the Greco war drags on until i can get a Galloglass into battle to start my GA. my victory comes in 630ad. during the 20 turn era we research and trade for Banking, Gunpowder, Chemistry, Navigation, Music Theory, Printing Press and Democracy. also during this time Greece signs MA's with China and the Kelts. i finally nab my 2nd leader in 810ad. by this time the Aztecs had nabbed Sistine and Leo with England getting MagVoyage. i use Inwaar to build JS Bach (i handbuilt Copernicus). i also sign peace treaties with Greece, China and Kelts. i now have a good second core surrounding Moscow. we research Physics then Theory of Gravity and begin building Newtons. England and China have Free Artistry and Metallurgy. i trade Physics for Metallurgy and begina prebuild for Shakespeare. i don't need it, but i don't want England to get it either. they are a huge cultural gorilla in my game. i get Magnetism in 1030ad and enter IA. i research Economics in 4 turns and use it to get MilTrad and Free Artistry. research on Steam Power ensues. England, China and Azteca are my closest rivals only two techs behind. the Aztecs pounded on America during my war with Greece leaving them with only a couple cities.

i'm leading in the game, but i made many bad moves during the MA. a conquest victory can still be done, but not for awhile. Rifleman will soon be plentiful. making the going tough for Cavalry and Galloglass. my fleet is small (3 Galleon). i focused way too much on infrastructure instead of focusing on military units and ships. still learning on how to make up a good game plan and sticking to it.

see ya'll at the end of the IA

 

[kb2tvl]

Originally posted by Txurce

I don't think many players would consider a stable anarchy period as being less fun, because it has no effect on strategy. There is no strategy to making a single change of government - the game essentially demands it. To greatly vary the penalty for doing so makes almost as little sense as having a significantly varying penalty when building a second city.

I think there is a strategy. If you knew that you could get 8 turns of anarchy, every revolution, would you go monarchy -> rep ->demo->commy?

If there was a 2 turn anarchy then would you go republic and not change govt.

I think there is a bit of strategy or risk taking..

 

[Txurce]

kb2tvl, if you would take a glance at what you quoted, you will see that I said "there is no strategy to making a SINGLE change of government." Everyone switches out of despotism - there is no strategy to speak of involved. Given this, a swing of from 2 to 8 turns of anarchy strikes me as too large.

 

[FeelGood]

The Journey Continues...

Contact:
I got contact with the new world from England in 170BC. After doing some trading, I got the full map of the other continent. England cities was already scattared somewhere in the new world... Chinese, Aztecs and Americans were equal with each other...

Tech:
I got Feudalism for GL. Continue with Eng for 40 turns... I painstakingly researched it and the invention to upgrade my archers. Finally, invention came in 260AD. Mono and Theology were come from GL. During Golden age, I managed to get Chivalry, Printing press, astronomy and 4 more turns to Banking. The rest of the techs were researched (Phy, TOG and ...) and traded until I entered the Industrial age in 1080ad.

War:
Archers were upgrade to the dreaded Berserks after invention and were sent to the Russian border for war. Russians were attacked in 480ad by taking kiev through amphibious attack. Then all Russians cites fell, Moscow, St Peters.., Minsk and the rest. I got one GL that was used to rush palace in Moscow. Russians were left with Tbilisi, a city in northern tundra when I made peace. All forces then moved to the French border for another raid on them. Lyons was also taken by amphibious attack in 710ad. Then Orleans, Paris and French were left with one tundra city when I made peace in 830ad. I got one city for peace, Besancon. Lastly greece were attacked in 940AD. Another GL emerged when taking Argos which then used to rush Bach in Marseilles (a big mistake then). I made peace with them after taking Mycenae, a city on the isthmus leaving them with 7 cities. I couldn`t keep this war because of the lack of units. All cities now concentrated on infrastructure because science was taking to long for me. The best is about 7 turns. How do you guys doing to get 5 or less turns?

Wonders:
Viking - Sistine 570 ad- Nidaros
Bach 940ad - Marseilles
Newton 1010ad - Nidaros
Coper 760ad - Uppsala
England - Shake`s 990ad - London
Sun Tzu`s 170ad - London (Viking then built a very expensive colossuem)
Greece - Leo`s - Corinth

Overall:
The war has gone swiftly except for greece that I was unable to eliminate them due to cities building infrastructure. Science was a pain for me because I needed many turns to research especially in IA. Getting 4 wonders makes me proud and confident especially this is an emperor+ game. Nidaros is also doing a great job to grab the 20K culture victory. I`m already in the late modern age and through the culture culculator, It`ll achieve this victory in 1900`s. Building Bach in Marseilles was a mistake because with 6 culture points, I`ll achieve 20K sooner. This is because, at this time a was building palace prebuild (already 280+ shields) in Nidaros and didn`t want to waste any shield. It`s better if I built Heroic Epic and the Rush Bach. Anyhow, it has happened. i`ll try to do better in the next Arabic GOTM.

Question:
Which one is better ? - less infrastructure, many units for war and then build infra.. in all cities or war after all cities has all infrastructures.

 

[Mark Cutt]

First Post

My Middle Age was focussed on building culture in Oslo and conquering my neighbors to gain Firaxis score and generate GLs.

Before the beginning of IA Russia and France were terminated Vikings had generated 3 GLs.

I had mixed luck with GL. The first 2 came quickly, I only needed 20 elite wins. To have the third one I had to wait for the 61st elite win...I mean 40 elite wins without a leader...the probability of this event is (11/12)^40 = 3%

Looking back at my game I made the mistake of not moving my Palace around 600AD and the reason why I did not move it was that I did not have a GL at the right time. When I got it I was so upset that I made the mistake of using it for a wonder.

I used the first GL to create and army, win a battle and be able to build Heroic Epic. The following GLs were dedicated to wonders.

I had already met all civs in AA, this is a map of 570BC.

I used Galloglass to trigger GA in 450AD.

The other civs' were balanced in my game. English were the culture leader.

At the end of MA Oslo had built the following wonders:
Great Library - 850BC
Hanging Gardens - 230BC
Sistine Chapel - 350AD
Copernicus - 420AD
Heroic Epic - 490AD
Shakespeare - 650AD
Newton - 810AD
Military Academy - 820AD

Viking entered IA in 820AD

 

[kb2tvl]

There is a strategy leaving despo. The strategy looks toward the end game to try to decide what government path you wish to take. You can make a single jump to rep or multiple jumps to other governements. Also, religous are rewarded for being able to switch fast and short. I agree that 8 turns is painful and I have pulled both 2 and 8 turns on different games.

 

[Greebley]

Open PTW 121

The Ancient Age

My start was had been sluggish, snagging only the hanging gardens and an early forbidden palace in my culture city. But I kept on plugging away at attempting my first 20K victory. Coulld I win before 1950? 2050 seemed easy and 1750 impossible.

After becoming a republic I worked on building my infrastructure. For my culture city, I got sistine chapel in 470 AD, Cathedral in 490 AD, and University in 530 AD.

In 630, I had gotten invention and was upgrading archers to beserks. I decided to attack weaker Russia as I did not yet have the cash to upgrade all my troops. Russia had lost its second city and was fairly weak. in 660 AD I started my golden age, and 670 I got a great leader, which built an army. Unfortunately, the hero epic ended up not in my culture city. I am still not sure how this happened. I did get JSB in Valhalla, my cultural city in 730. The war with Russia lasted until 830, the fact that berserks move slower makes wars longer. Russia was down to its capitol only. In 840 I build Magellan's voyage, missing Smiths by a turn to England.

In 880, I allied with the Greeks against France, The berserkers turned out to be an incredible disappointment in this war. I feel I both got very bad RNG luck, as well as being totally unprepared for it. The first 3 smaller towns on the borders fell fairly quickly. Then I got to Tours. My initial assault was with about 8 berserkers. I redlined 4 defenders and killed one losing all but 1 berserker in the process. I had some berserkers coming up toward the front and a few that had healed, but much of my main force was dead. I then tried to use the berserkers amphibious assault ability. 6 were loaded up into transports and assaulted the one french city with a harbor. All 6 died including some that were attacking injured Musketeers. Finally in 1080 I managed to take Tours with cavalry. War weariness was deadly and my deal with greece done, so I declared peace with france after taking only one major city in 20 years of war. My losses of berserks vs French cities were 3:1 to 4:1 against me. For cities of size 7-12 the odds should have been nearly even. France did have the Great Wall. Either they built walls which due to the bug of walls still working after size 6 would give them defence of around 11 (and some bad luck as well), or the RNG really hated me that day. I felt my berserkers were like the suicide squad from "Life of Brian".

I did get a great leader in 880 and rushed shakespeares in Valhalla, and in 1060 and rushed a Palace in Kiev (the Greeks had destroyed Russia). This helped a good deal as my palace and forbidden palace were quite close. Also in 1080 I finished Newton's observatory, the last middle age wonder in Valhalla.

While my war attempts were pathetic, my economy was strong. I now felt in control felt I had a good chance of being able to dominate the insdustrial ages and keep ahead in tech.

Other Civs

As for the other countries, England was by far the strongest in terms of tech and had grabbed the most wonders. In fact Sun Tzu was the last wonder not grabbed by me or England. They were the only ones threatening my domination of the tech situation.

The Celts had been pummelled by England and was weak. The russians gone after the loss of their second city in an early war weakened them greatly.

The Aztecs were VERY strange. Their second city looked very much like a settler from a hut as it was fairly far from the capitol. Their early build of the Colossus made me wonder if they hadn't started building that before they even created a settler (either that or they lost their settler(s). I wondered if the Aztecs were modded in some way. [Edit" maybe they did build that town. It is on the far side of jungle near dye. Still odd as there was closer dye with better land]

China and America were both fairly strong. China had been stronger for a while, but seemed to be losing ground.

Middle Age wonders:
450 AD - Sun Tzu - America
470 AD - Sistine Chapel - Viking
480 AD - Leonardos - England
730 AD - JS Bach - Viking
730 AD - Copernicus - England
830 AD - Smith's - England
840 AD - Magellan - Viking
920 AD - Shakepeare - Viking
1080 AD - Newtons - Viking

Map for the year 1100 AD:

 

[denyd]

Middle Age Wonders builds and changes:

Pyramids – Entremont – Celts – 1000BC – (taken by England–900AD)
Hanging Gardens – Bergen - Vikings – 190 AD
Sun Tzu’s Academy – London – England – 370 AD
Leo’s Workshop – Minsk – Russia – 410 AD (taken by Vikings-830AD)
JS Bach’s Cathedral – Bergen – Vikings – 760 AD
Copernicus Observatory – Mohacs – England – 780 AD
Magellan’s Voyage – Newcastle – England – 940 AD
Smith’s Trading Post – Bergen – Vikings – 1000 AD
Shakespeare’s Theatre – Bergen – Vikings – 1200 AD
Forbidden Palace – Bergen – 420 AD
Heroic Epic – Bergen – 930 AD

Great Leaders
Healfane born in 530 AD used for Army
Inawar born in 870 AD used for Smith’s Trading Post
Bubba born in 1200 AD used for Palace shift to Orleans
[Note: Inawar was born with an elite Berserk victory taking St. Petersburg from Greece and killing a Greek GL in the process]

World Rankings
1. England – tech leader – most powerful army
2. Chinese - #2 in tech – has most of new world
3. Vikings – equal to Chinese in tech, smaller army, #1 in land, population, production and GNP
4. Greece – Was #2 until I evicted them from island
5. Russia – Original leader – now part of history
6. France – Lost early war to Russia and never recovered
7. America – Hanging on in new world
8. Aztec – Seems to be playing one city challenge

Other Highlights and Lowlights
1. Golden Age in 290 AD begins military conquests
2. Military leaves Russia with one city in 750 AD
3. With only 1 city Russia declares war in England in 1040 AD
4. England eliminates Russia in 1110 AD
5. Checked Aztecs in 980 AD (3 cities) research: Code of Laws
6. Ended up razing Athens & Pharsalas (too much culture)
7. Only had 1 flip back to Russia and I quickly re-took
8. Gifted away 2 undefended cities before Greece arrived
9. At end MA change trail England by Steam Power & Nationalism
10. England is the early culture monster also largest military
11. Russia was handicapped in wars without iron or horses
12. 490 AD first military death (save a scout to barbs)
13. Five turns after alliance with Greece vs Russia, they make peace and attack me

The past and the future
1. I’ve risen from 7th place to 2nd behind only England
2. I am the largest civ on the planet (land and population)
3. Biggest worry is and England & China alliance against me
4. #2 worry is England will get TOE before me
5. I could easily lose to England via spaceship or UN vote
6. What is England researching now? Electricity & Medicine (I’m in trouble) or Communism & Industrialization (I’ll get TOE and never trail in tech again)

Well, until spoiler #3, I eagerly await hearing the continuing saga of Mr. Ragnar.

 

[ShiplordAtvar]

Hey itcoljt (sp?)

I've also noticed that culture doesn't accrue at all when you're in anarchy.

FWIW...

 

[Sabre]

Open PTW 1.21f

Spoiler #1

Vikings Will Be Vikings

As I noted in my first spoiler, I’ve opted for a 5cc attempt in this game and so far my little civ has kept it’s head down and played nice with it’s neighbors. Shortly after I entered the Middle Ages, however, I learned that no matter how much culture you throw at a Viking you can never quench the desire for pillage and plunder. In 210ad the Russians placed the town of Krasnayarsk next to one of my gem mountains. I wasn’t thinking and neglected to surround them with troops. I had no choice but to declare war on Russia and recruit Greece and France as allies. Krasnayarsk was burnt to the ground (this is a theme of any war using 5cc – and it was fun playing the bloodthirsty Viking!) Little else was accomplished in this war as all I really wanted were for MY gems to be left alone. I learned my lesson and surrounded the gems with troops.

The Viking Republic

As the war with Russia was winding down I made another government shift to Republic. To my surprise I only had two turns of anarchy. I think I saw someone mention anarchy length was tied to civ size so maybe this is why it was so short – I don’t know, but I was very happy with this.

On the issue of anarchy length, I really don’t mind the randomness to anarchy. I just wish the possible range was limited to maybe 2 to 5 turns. 5 turns is a pain, but something to be prepared for. 7 turns just makes me frustrated and really starts to mess with any schedules you might have. Just my thoughts.

The Many Wonders of Oslo

I’d chosen the city of Oslo (ne coast near the wool) as my 20k attempt. In the Ancient Age I only managed to get the Great Library and I still wasn’t certain that I could succeed. However, in the Middle Ages Oslo really began to shine. In 90ad England beat us to the Hanging Gardens by 4 turns and we ended up with a very expensive cathedral. In 630 we beat the English to the Sistine Chapel (they settled for Sun Tzu’s) and in 810 we built Copernicus’ Observatory. Both of these were high on my wish list and Oslo was really cranking out the shields. With these two under my belt to go with the Great Library I really began to believe I can reach 20k with this city – I just have to find a way to keep everyone else in check. Tough task for 5 cities!

A Real War

Even though I had surrounded my gems with troops, France had managed to place a city on the bridge across from them. This city had to be very corrupt but it made me nervous as any culture expansion would take my colony away. France had also placed two cities on my north coast. They didn’t really hurt my nation being there, but they were cramping my culture expansion.

Oslo had been building JS Bach’s Cathedral but a check on York revealed very bad news: England would beat Oslo by about twenty turns. I took my disappointment out on the French.

In 830 we declare war on France and recruit Russia as our ally (though Catherine still didn’t like me much!) Lady luck smiled on me as my first berserk unit attacking Avignon (nw of Nidaros) killed a spearman, promoted to elite and set off my Golden Age. Next turn that same unit killed a red-lined longbowman and produced my first Great Leader, Healfdean! A quick check of York shows I have just enough time to reach Oslo and rush JS Bach’s – wow!

I managed to raze the two north cities, the bridge city and a small town in my tundra while none of my cities have been touched.

Meanwhile we had given Greece an alliance vs China for 11gpt. China landed an invasion force of 1 medieval infantry which was easily repelled.

End of Middle Ages

In 990 Oslo built Shakespeare’s Theater. We ended the war with China few turns later (just before they discovered Military Tradition.) In 1170 England demanded Physics. We sent their diplomat back short a head. They declare war. We make peace with France and get Greece and China as allies vs China.

In 1190 Oslo finished Newton’s University. A few turns later we research Magnetism and enter the Industrial Age. Oslo is producing a whopping 66 culture points a turn. With the way I’ve been able to keep up in tech, Oslo should easily be able to grab a few more Wonders before it’s done.

The Other Civs

Russia - Russia started out a tech monster. I think they must have had great luck getting techs out of huts and they were in good position to make early trades with Greece and France. My war with them started a freefall for Russia though. By getting France and Greece to ally with me, they took a chunk of Russia's northern lands and Russia's foolish alliance with me vs France led to France finishing them off in 1100ad.

France – France started out very slowly. Their war with Russia helped them some, but they are still trailing a bit in tech. Much of their territory is stretched out to the south of Paris and unless they build a Forbidden Palace in Moscow or Minsk I don’t really consider them a threat. If they get uppity, Greece and I can smack them around a bit pretty easily at this point.

Greece – Alex and me go way back. I trade him furs and wool and he backs me in nearly all my wars. He also plays a mean game of Spades. Greece is at about the same level as France in tech and suffers from the same less than ideal city layout. His cities are placed mainly in 3 seperate groups. I don’t forsee any trouble out of Greece.

England – England keeps me on my toes with the Wonders. They have been keeping pace in tech and are fairly isolated on their island. I’ve got some boats loaded with berserks with Liz’s name on them though. If I can raze York and London I will wipe out nearly all her Wonders and wreck havock with her science research capabilities.

Celts – Alive, but barely. They have been squeezed out of relevance by England and are no threat.

China – My biggest threat to a 20k win. China is large, advanced and far, far away. They have maintained a 1-2 tech lead on me for the most part, but we have no remaining hostilities (probably due to how little fighting we actually did.) My only concern with them is whether they reach space before I can hit 20k. I’m thinking an industrial world war against them may be necessary to slow them down. I need to get them into Communism.

America – Large but not very advanced. I’m not sure why but despite being as large as China, America is about 4-5 techs back and is not gaining. I’ve been at war with them for much of the Middle Ages but very little has actually happened. I’m afraid to recruit them in a war against China as China could probably roll over them and end up even bigger.

Aztecs – Never met them. They were killed off in 150ad before I had contact with the east.

Oslo

Temple – 1250bc
Great Library – 490bc
Library – 350bc
Cathedral (was Hanging Gardens) – 90ad
Colosseum – 190ad
Sistine Chapel – 620ad
Copernicus’ Observatory – 800ad
University (bought) – 810ad
JS Bach’s Cathedral (Healfdean) – 860ad
Shakespeare’s Theater – 980ad
Newton’s University – 1190ad

Research

Self-researched: Astronomy, Banking, Printing Press, Democracy, Free Artistry, Chemistry, Physics, Theory of Gravity, Magnetism
Trade: Gunpowder(En), Music Theory(En), Navigation(En), Economics(Gr), Metallurgy(Ch)
Great Library: Feudalism, Theology, Chivalry, Engineering, Education

Below is a pic at 1000ad in the midst of my Golden Age

 

[Puzzlinon]

Will be watching with interest, Sabre: that looks like a very well-executed 5cc 20k game. (My "culture" city was at around 38 cpt at the timeframe you've got 66, and I wasn't giving myself any constraints, let alone 5cc.)

I just wish the possible range was limited to maybe 2 to 5 turns. 5 turns is a pain, but something to be prepared for. 7 turns just makes me frustrated and really starts to mess with any schedules you might have. Just my thoughts.

I know what you mean, but I find it helps to spin it out differently in my head. I always do the Revolution thing with things set up to expect a 7-turn interregnum with no production. I may not like it, but it's what I base schedules on.

In other words, I budget for the government change as costing a 7-turn anarchy, and do it when it's worth paying that cost. It's generally always worth it to go from despotism to rep, even if it were always 7-turn anarchy, except during key wonder races, when you don't switch anyway unless you're religious.

That way, the long anarchys leave me where I've planned to be, and shorter ones are gravy. So it's not so irritating.

 

[Darkness]

@Txurce: Wow. Very impressive game. I also went the military way but I could never have gotten a conquest win in 950 AD.

This is my last spoiler for this game, as the Viking nation never advanced beyond the middle ages….
We entered the middle ages in 370 BC

370 BC – Contact with the Aztecs, Chinese and Americans gained. Sold by the Greeks, who have the Great Lighthouse, I think.
30 AD - We discover invention, so we’ll get access to Berzerkers! Initial force (for the Russian invasion) of 6 archers upgraded to berserkers.
50 AD – War declared on Russia (they have wines, the Great Library and control the site projected for our new palace). Berserker wins battle and triggers GA. We’ll spend the GA getting money for our berserker upgrades and building a huge load of horseman.
230 AD - 1st Leader – army
250 AD – Army wins battle, Goteborg starts building Heroic Epic. 2nd Leader
270 AD – 2nd Leader used for Palace Jump to Sevastopol.
300 AD – Minsk captured. We now control the Great Library and get Monotheism and Republic. Russia has some tundra cities left
340 AD – We declare war on the Aztecs and get an alliance against them with the Americans.
We also declare war on France and get alliance against France with the English. Last Russian city taken, only a settler on a ship remains.
350 AD – Heroic Epic built. GA ends.
370 AD – Peace with Russia
420 AD – Peace with France (we’ve taken all their mainland cities)
440 AD – Peace with Aztecs
500 AD We ally with all the other civs except the Celts and the Aztecs to vanquish the Greeks.
510 AD – Greeks destroy the French.
520 AD – 3rd Leader. Rushes Leo’s in Athens.
540 AD – We get education from the Great Library, making it obsolete. We conquer Sparta, home of the Great Lighthouse.
550 AD – We capture Corinth, which has Sun Tzu’s.
580 AD – Military tradition discovered. Start upgrading to cavalry.
590 AD – Our new cavalries take the Greek city of Pharsalos. We now control our entire starting continent.
610 AD – We declare war on the Celts.
630 AD – We capture the last Greek city in our half of the world. They have 6 or 7 small cities remaining in the American/Aztec/Chinese part of the world, but we can’t reach those right now. We also capture Entremont this turn, eliminating the Celts.
650 AD - We sign a peace treaty with the Greeks and get a city with it. We declare war on the English and begin the invasion.
690 AD – 4th Leader goes to rush Sistine Chapel the same turn.
750 AD – We capture Hastings, which holds the Oracle. We also capture London, which holds the Pyramids and the Great Wall. 5th Leader appears, called Joe Capp? He forms an army
800 AD – England is dead.
830 AD – We declare war on the Americans and the Chinese.
840 AD – The Aztecs declare war on us.
860 AD – Sixth Leader (Fran Tarkenton?), rushes library in Yangchow.
870 AD – Seventh Leader (Eric Bloodaxe), rushes library in Ningpo.
890 AD – 8th Leader (Leif Erikson), rushes library in New Shanghai.
900 AD – 9th Leader (Canute II), rushes library in Houston.
910 AD – 10th Leader (Healfdene) rushes library in Anyang.
930 AD – 11th Leader (Inwaaer) rushes library in Tethuatican.
950 AD – 12th Leader...
970 AD – We take Tenochtitlan (Colossus) and destroy the Aztecs.
990 AD – We capture Washington (Copernicus). 12th Leader rushes library in Qitaiodea.
Declared war on the Greeks again to take some of their cities in my quest for the domination limit.
1020 AD – Domination win (which was close 'cause on the final (intra)turn a formerly Chinese city flipped back, and the Americans started landing units near undefended cities of mine) with a Firaxis score of 8470 in slightly more than 33 hours (much improved over my 90+ hour game of last month). Jason score is slightly over 10K, at 10239.

Because I was going for a military win I bee-lined my research to invention, and later military tradition. I kept the other civs as ignorant as possible, to make sure I could get the domination limit using only cavalry and a couple of berserks. This worked out just fine as I could use the money I got from going 100% tax after researching military tradition for rushing settlers and cultural buildings, to get to the domination limit ASAP.

As far as I could tell (from the replay) only the Greeks and Chinese had a golden age (besides myself, of course) and I was the only one to get GLs (12).

Overall this was a very fun game, which I actually finished far faster than I thought I would...

 

[Txurce]

Darkness, great game. I couldn't have won by domination in 1020, as my victory was partly determined by keeping the AI warring, and therefore expanding much more slowly.

As it turns out, your Jason score is about 500 points higher than mine, partly because of your much higher Firaxis score, which factors in population (and land mass?). In my game, I didn't raze many cities, but I razed some.

After a cursory analysis, I do think you could have conquered the world at least as fast as I did. Comparing your game to mine, I see that we took different research paths to achieve similar goals. Basically, you went for cavalry, while I stuck with berserkers and knights. I suspect that I would gain more by keeping up my research, but I tend not to, since I build no markets or libraries in these games. The second major difference is that you waited until you had berserkers to go to war, while I started with swordsmen. (I'll save the third difference for later.) Despite that, note the chronological similarities:

After we both conquered our home continent, you conquered the Kelts in 630; I conquered the English mainland in 700, and their eastern island in 780. You knocked out the English in 800, while the Kelts lingered in my game until 950. So with roughly equal production cores, you were ahead on the conquest trail in the western hemisphere.

The last difference in our approaches is probably what made it possible for me to finish a little sooner than you. You went to war against the other continent in 830-840, while I declared war on the Aztecs in 650, America in 730 and - after conquering those two - invaded China in 890.

This is a strategy I use which works well for me, although it's not employed by many other players. Basically it involves an intuitive sense of timing so that there are shorter lags while shifting units from one front to the other. What I do is start a war, break the enemy's back, and then make mopping-up a job for my second-rate units, or nearby first-rate ones without reinforcements. In the meantime, no later than as I'm breaking the first opponent's back, my new units are en route to a second front. (With the Vikings, I had my archers ready for upgrade on the eastern hemisphere even before I declared war on the Kelts and English with knights.) In most cases, this approach seems to lead to the final civ being attacked sooner than it would otherwise have been.

 

[Darkness]

@Txurce: Indeed there are some interesting similarities.
I still think your win is more impressive than mine. You obviously had a two-front war going the entire middle ages. I tried to take out the starting continent first and left the Aztecs etc. alone, simply because I could not reach them (no astronomy and lighthouse). Later when I had the lighthouse I found I needed all my units for my conquest of England, so I couldn't start the invasion of the eastern hemisphere.
What second rate units did you have running around?
I dibanded my warriors (I only had 8 or so) for shields in my cities on the landbridge to get my production of some culture going.
I only build one spearman the entire game and I basically did all my conquests with 15 berserkers, whose number dwindled to one at the ned and a constantly refreshed load of cavalry numbering between 40 and 50...

 

[Plunderer]

Summary:
The middle age passed even more smoothly than the ancient, and it felt like playing on chieftain difficulty

Bergen's culture:
110AD sun tsu (leader)
230AD forbidden palace
300AD cathedral
350AD sinistine chapel (leader)
420AD university
470AD bach (leader)
610AD copernicus
670AD leonardo (leader)
690AD smith (leader)
730AD magellan
900AD shakespeare
1070AD newton

the year is 1110 and bergen's culture is 8633 with 109 cpt.

rivals:
the celts were reduced to 1 town in the tundra in the south part of my archipelago. russia is a little bigger than france which is a little bigger than greece. on the other continent china is the leader and the americans are very small though the aztecs are also very backwards technologically. In fact it took ages for the greek the aztecs and the americans to enter the middle ages, i think it did not happen before 500ad even though russia england france and china had all required techs far earlier. (it will be nice to attach some pictures, but where can i upload an image?)

tech: after waiting for a veery long time for the ai to discover motheism i decided that it will take far too long and started doing my own research. currently i am the leader and am ahead with about 10 techs, although a few turns ago the chinese discovered astronomy and managed to establish/trade contact with everyone, so i expect them to start catching up.

golden age: it was triggered after the construction of the sun tsu and was used mainly to build up an infrastructure of marketplaces, courthouses and libraries.

expansion: i built only 3 town not on my archipelago, two on the bottom right hand side island to get the spices and the wines and one on the central right hand side island for the dyes. i have 6 luxuries (after navigation) and decided that the french silk is not worth fighting for.

war: i continued my defensive war and produced several leaders, who greatly speeded up the wonder constuction. i used mainly horsemen, however as pikemen and knights and medieval infantry started to replace the archers and the spearmen their mortality rate greatly increased. i made several berserkers, but they just wouldn't become elites... i had long term plans so kept producing horsemen and then knights and now upgraded them all to cavalery so i have 30 and 20 musketmen.
I did not to start an offensive war because it would be slow and costy in terms of units and war weariness, so i decided to wait until all cultural improvements/wonders are built and then use rails to take over the continent. my second reason for a late war was the little benefit i would have from the territory - it would take a long time to secure and develop the new area and it would not increase my income much ( i was doing 4turn res. anyway). on the other hand industial tech are more difficult to research so some more towns will come in handy, and it would be nice to have them ready in advance...
On berserkers and cavalery: nice as amphibious may be, i really don't like transporting troops with galleys/caravels and much prefer to use a 2 or even 3 move units such as cavalery, tanks and modern armor. perhaps this was my main reason to wait until the industrial age before making any offensive wars.

future plans: i am very much looking forward to finding out where the coal is in 6 turns, and although i bet that we have lots of oil in the tundra, am a little worried that there may not be coal. it will be my first priority to secure a coal resource and then start a major offence with workers ad cavalery at the same time i will research industrialization, scientific method and electronics and build the corresponding wonders to further boost culture

PS. I very much recommend to everyone to read SirPleb's article on leader farming, as it covers just about all essential principles and techniques for making a nearly 100% usage of the chances to get promotions/leaders from elite victories.

 

[AlanH]

Open 1.29b2

Ancient Age here

Time has been short this month, so here are just a few quick notes on my progress in the Middle Ages.

I entered the era in 570 BC, building a culture center in Nidaros. I was at war with France, and no-one on our continent had yet met the Other World. We were not in bad shape, but a little bit small and a little bit weak. However, the Middle Ages were a frustrating and damaging time for the Vikings, and I'm not at all sure we'll survive this game.

The Medieval era has ended in 1200 AD, and we are only behind the Greeks and English by the Greek Industrial age freebie.

The race to equip Nidaros with all things cultural went OK. On top of its Oracle, Temple and Palace we added the Hanging Gardens, Copernicus, the Sistine Chapel and Shakespeare's Theatre, along with a Library, Cathedral and University. So it's now running at 64 cpt and will reach 20K in 1942, *IF* no one gets in our way and even if I build nothing else. We even won Bach's Cathedral along the way, in another city. I also had a lucky suicide galley that made first contact with the Aztecs.

Now the bad news. The local AI have insisted on fighting silly wars, and I have failed to grab the initiative and capitalise on their stupidity. The era has been marked by a succession of alliances and deals broken by the AI civs, plus one fatal trade route failure that has left my rep in the trash. I captured several Russian cities when they decided to invite me into a war, only to lose them later to the Greeks because my forces were stretched too thin. The Greeks have now wiped out what I left of the Russians and consigned the French to history. Meanwhile the Chinese have anihilated the Aztecs. The minimap now looks like this:

My plans to upgrade archers to galloglass and go rampaging around England and Greece were dashed when a badly-timed eight-turn anarchy lost me both Sun Tzu and Leo's. Because I had been researching flat out even while I had the Great Library, I was not in good financial shape and could not afford the 100 gold per unit for a "mass" upgrade. Plus, my archers were scattered around my outposts, where barracks were thin on the ground, relocation delays were severe and replacement troops were not easy to find.

I did try one ill-fated Galloglass attack on the English, but I found that, with no bombard capability to wear down the defences, they were ineffective against pikes in a size 12 city. They were much more useful when the Greeks tried to march across the land bridge. They wiped the floor with the defending hoplites, even on the hills, leaving the Greek Mercenaries at the mercy of my knights. One Galloglass managed to destroy a 10-hp Mercenary army. None of this exploited their amphibious capability. It was just their massive attack rating that prevailed.

So I'm now trying to build a big enough sea-borne cavalry force to take out England and Greece before it's too late. It'll be a do or die effort, I feel. Watch this space