1.21
Ancient Age summary
Researched Monotheism first, as ai rivals are almost certain to pick Feudalism. At 100% research discovered Monotheism in 650BC after 15 turns. Had to wait 1 turn for the first AI to discover Feudalism, which I trade for immediately.
Several wonders are completed around this time:
1050 Paris builds Oracle
900 Rome complete The Pyramids
875 Zimbabwe builds the Great Wall
750 Persepolis builds the Great Library and Sogut builds the Hanging Gardens
730 Thebes builds the Colossus
390 Lyons builds the Great Lighthouse
I decide Sogut and Rome would make nice prizes. In 650BC I upgrade 25 warriors to swordsmen, spending almost all my gold. The next turn with the advent of Feudalism I have only enough gold to upgrade a handful to Azaps. Delay my research for a couple of turns to earn a little gold for further Azap upgrades. With about 1/2 upgraded I decide I have enough force to make it to Rome, and switch back to researching Chivalry as fast as I can afford - at about 70% research. In hindsight I should have concentrated on my primary goal, and built fewer warriors so that I could research Chivalry several turns faster, and upgrade horsemen earlier.
Ottomans crumble fairly easily. Sogut falls in 490AD, gaining us a double happiness hit with incense and the Hanging Gardens. In 410BC accept peace with Ottomans for a couple of their cities. They have built disconnected towns in the desert to our South and it would take me too far out of my way to destroy them at the moment.
Reach Roman borders with little more than a dozen swordsmen and azaps in 390AD. Decide my only chance to take Rome is through a right of passage. I haven't tried this technique before, but since I am unconcerned with my reputation in this game I use it mercilessly. Rome, Hispalis, Cumae and Lutetia all fall to our treacherous surprise attack in 330AD.
Meanwhile I discover Chivalry in 370AD, can only afford to upgrade 2 of 14 horseman this turn. Trigger Golden Age in 330AD with first Ansar victory. Party time.
Send the initial few Ansars to help mop up Rome. Build horsemen, and upgrade to ansars each turn by connecting and disconnecting iron (9 workers and a warrior playing Groundhog Day on a mountain top.) Average production of around 6 Ansars a turn, mostly upgraded, but the odd one built, as earning about 250gpt.
Start a series of wars, generally moving from East to West:
270BC War on Persia
250BC Capture Perseopolis and the Great Library
210BC Persia eliminated, war with France and Carthaginians
170BC War on India
130BC Romans finally eliminated
110BC War on Ottomans
90BC War on Egypt
70BC Ottomans eliminated, War on Spain
50BC Carthage eliminated
10BC War on Zulus, My 1 and only Great Leader, Uthman rushes Sun Tzu's in Bangalore
50AD India eliminated
70AD Egypt eliminated
110AD Spain eliminated, war on France
170AD Zulu eliminated
210AD Mainland secured, France have retreated to their island, have only just captured the Great Lighthouse from them. Prior to this have lost several galleys trying to reach them (the island requires Great Lighthouse to safely reach). Agree peace with France in exchange for 1 of the 3 towns they have built there.
230AD Peace treaty, what peace treaty? France eliminated.
No Forbidden Palace this game. Somehow I missed the fp corruption bug thread, so wasn't avoiding it for that reason. Could be overwhelming on this map if anyone is prepared to exploit it, although I think it is well against the spirit of the competition. Hopefully a rule to cover it will be devised before the next GOTM.
Expect to see a BC finish date seriously challenged in this game, particularly if any of the top players can get a popped settler and/or an early leader advantage. Like SirPleb I am interested in seeing how detrimental not building a Forbidden Palace will be in this game. I'm hoping it hasn't made too much difference.
The last advance achieved by anyone was Invention, which I got free through the Great Library. No musketmen to worry about helps a lot. Most defenders were still spearmen. The toughest opponent was probably the Carthaginians. It seemed like every one of their cities was founded on a hill. The ai were terrible at building roads in this game, the border between Spain and France being particularly bad. India hadn't even bothered to connect half their towns, let alone the long trek to their corner of the map.