*SPOILER4* Gotm16-Rome - End Game Submitted

[cracker]

This is the End Game spoiler discussion thread for Gotm16-Rome.

Again take a few seconds to read this introduction carefully to make certain you DO NOT run afoul of the new spoiler rules.

This is the FOURTH and final spoiler thread to support discussion of Gotm16-Rome.

The objective of these divided spoiler threads is to provide a little tiny bit of organization to the discussion that will help more people find the topics that they are interested in without having to rummage through the entire game discussion.

Help us to keep the things filed in the appropriate places: early, middle ages, industrial ages up to Radio, or end.

I encourage every player to practice and master the process of posting links to the important previous reports of game progress that you may have posted for each of the three major phases of your game up to this point. If you need help with this process feel free to ask and I am certain that some of the more experienced players can help you.

The test for access to this spoiler thread is simple:

• you must have submitted your final save file from playing the game.

You may discuss any information from the game but if you are posting reports of events and/or activities in the Early or Middle portion of the game, those reports should be placed in the correct spoiler for that time segment of the game. If you want to be more of a "discussion thread pro" then you can just post a link to your prior reports and refer to them here as sort of game wrap up and summary with any additional observations you may have.

Big picture issues like how your overall strategy helped you to win the game or how early mistakes may have eventually led to your downfall would be nice items to discuss in this thread.

You may freely discuss features of the Zulu-Impi Puzzler and how you solved the puzzle if you did. There is also one special named impi unit that you may discuss if you found this unit (hopefully someone will have a cool screenshot or two to share of their great zulu wars.

Hope everyone has had fun with this game and that you are looking forward to Gotm17-Carthage!!

 

[Aggie]

Thanks GOTM crew for a great map, with nice little extras, like the squids and the puzzle The GOTM fenomenon really helped me to get me from monarch to emperor.

This was my second emperor win! And I'm proud about the way I achieved it. I stuck to my style that worked so well at monarch level and was able to get the same results, be it a little later in the game.

Main strategy was:

- Declare war to the strongest enemy (not my neighbour...)
- Have MA's with everyone
- Let the AI civs do all the fighting
- Heavy tech/luxury trading in between wars (no key warfare and wonder techs if I could help it though...)

This helped me to beat the Japanese, Babylonians, Americans, Germans and the Greeks. They were all eliminated and I was only heavily involved with the Germans and Japanese.

I got Space Race victory at 1794. In the Industrial Age thread I already mentioned that I got a tech lead because of TEO. This was only extended towards the end of the game (I had 4 techs to sell to France/India/Iroqious, who followed me in the tech race), because the AI was constantly at war with each other. At the end everyone was at war with everyone. This not only meant slow research, but also little cash from the AI during trading. But since I had 13000 gold at the start of the Modern Age, I could allow myself to lose about 200 gpt in order to get maximum science...

In the modern age I went for fission first to deny the AI a diplo win (although I think I was very popular, because of extensive trading). After that I went for Computers (to get science labs and higher research) and Nuclear Power (more shield production). After that all techs needed to build the ship...

Research was pretty slow because no-one was there to help me, so it took another 400 years to get from Radio to the final part of the ship.

I'm very curious to learn how others did in this GOTM and if other strategies proved to be more effective than mine.

 

[el_kalkylus]

This is the first game I submitted, and it is the first time I have ever played civilization 3 past industrial age. It was also the first time I played on emperor level. This was a very fun game of the month. Thanks civ3-gotm-staff.

My overall strategy was to take time at every move and never make hasty decisions that I would have to regret several turns later.

First goal: Kill the Japanese as early as possible with legions.
Result: Japanese were destroyed after my atrocious plans which also ruined by reputation completely. At least I stayed in the tech race for a while.

Second goal: Build roads everywhere, irrigate/mine land, build granaries, temples, workers, new cities and build alot of military units. I would also train my legions to elite status on the barbarian island.
Result: Confusion.

After this (around 500 ad), I just played. I didn't have many long time plans. Sometimes I felt like I had to do something, and so I did.

After the industrial age ended (or earlier), I had the game under control. I started building spaceparts, and 1800 ad I launched the ship.


By reading all posts from the civfanatics here this month, I am of course impressed, and I look forward to get better at this game (and become a true civfanatic). I have learned that it is sometimes better to concentrate at only one thing at a time. It will pay off later in the game even though it doesn't feel like it would at the time. My strategy for next month will be quite different, but now I have prepared myself a little.

 

[AgedOne]

The exploits of the peaceful traders from Rome.

The original plan consisted of a land-grab, plenty of workers and military, and treating the neighbours well – trading plenty and offering gifts.

The early game, up to 1000BC.
A peaceful time – contacting 2 of the locals (Japan and America) and having heard of a third (Germany). I have done a little trading and a small gift.
We have 6 cities (11 citizens) , just 20gold and our military consists of 1 legionary, 3 spearmen, 1 archer, 3 warriors.
It all seemed like a very limited start.

Up to 50BC.
More steady build-up of legionaries. Only 2 more cities added.

First conflict with Japan. 50BC – 70AD
I declared war on Japan, destroyed 3 cities – getting a GA and GL in the process. Then made peace and got 3 tech off of them.

Pause for regrouping 70AD – 330AD
Two more cities added.

Second Japanese conflict. 330AD – 440AD.
Declare war. Destroy 2 cities, then seem to run out of forces to make headway. They now have samurai and pikemen – so the advantage our Legionaries had is over. Make peace, and get 1 tech & contact with Iroquois out of them.

First German conflict. 490AD – 620AD
There are a number of settlement parties wandering around on our land. I declare war and wipe them out. Also destroy a fledgling German city – Brandenburg -south of Rome. We then take a very long time to capture Dortmund, which is again to our south and so the opposite side of our empire from the German homelands.
Having done that, we make peace and get 110gold & contact with the Greeks.

Bad luck, or bad planning.
660AD. Dortmund flipped back to Germany! Our culture is very poor, but this was a shock. If I had known what I do now about the 3-turn delay before flipping and how to deal with it, I might have kept some of my units.

Second German war. 680AD – 820AD
German knights ride on to my land. I order them off and they declare war. This time the balance of power is more in their favour. They have knights and I’m still struggling along with Legionary. I lose Pisae. America and Babylon ally with Germany against us. We lose Lugdunum to the Germans and Viroconium to the Americans. I then win Lugdunum back. It looks like Germany could continue to press on and possibly wipe us out, but instead I ask for peace. Bismarck asks for Lugdunum and I accept, the alternative being my destruction.

World at war. 820AD – 950AD
Everyone seems to be at each other’s throats. Which is fine by me, as I have only the Americans to contend with, having made peace with the Babylonians.
I get Viroconium back from them, and then make peace, as I’ve spotted they have cavalry!

Next bit of Bad Luck.
960AD. Veii culture-flips to the Germans! At size 7, this is a terrible loss! Our culture is a disaster. The Germans are overturning cities that are right beside our capital, and quite some distance from theirs.

We become traders. 1000AD – 1565AD
During this spell of peace, I was able to keep regular contact and trading with France, Russia, India, England. I’m evidently way behind everyone on technology.
The first casualties occurred during this time. In 1020 the Iroquois wiped out the Aztecs, and then in 1140 the Germans finished off the Japanese.
In 1260, Cumae tries to culture-flip but is rebuffed! I build the FP there. In 1365 it tries to flip again! Even with FP!
The Iroquois reduced the numbers still further when in 1340 they destroyed the English.
Lunancantorium tries to join the Germans, but they rebuff.
Then we manage to gain Cincinnati by culture-flip from the Americans. So. Not quite the worst culture in the world.
By the end of this time my government was republic, and I’d managed to get the Americans and Greeks polite, the Indians cautious. I’d also managed to talk America and Greece into MPP deals, in the hope that Germany – large, threatening Germany – would think twice about taking on 3 allies.

Out of the Blue. 1565AD – 1605AD.
1565AD. Germany attacks without warning! My allies come in on my side, but then (!) both ask to end the MPP as soon as possible. Cowardly scum!
My knights and Musketmen are up against cavalry and infantry, so this looks like a short and bloody conflict, with me on the wrong end.
We lose NeoCaledonium, and Byzantium burns. But then our obsolete forces hold out very well, and the German attacks grind to a halt. In 1605AD Bismarck agrees to peace, but I have to pay 170gold and 5gpt.

World chases the Greeks. 1605AD – 1740AD.
I enjoyed another spell free from assault while the whole world decided to smash the Greeks. It was France that delivered the final blow in 1740AD.
In the meantime I had moved to democracy, traded with France, America and India, and reached the dizzy heights of Theory of Gravity in our tech advancements.

Conflicts, but my choice. 1740AD – 1778AD
I watched the Germans beginning to dispose of the Americans, and unscrupulously made plans to ally with Germany.
I ended up joining in the attacks, without threat to my own forces, though I wasn’t able to gain much either.
I did found a small city in the vacant lands which got me a supply of salconflaore.
The Russians were wiped out by the French in 1752, and America by Germany in 1778. Just 6 civilizations remain, and I’m still alive.

Industrial times. 1778AD – 1912AD
I was able to settle a small part of the old American lands, and continued to juggle the remaining world powers diplomatically to keep them off my back militarily.
The French and the Germans are the 2 superpowers. I begin to watch the French make preparations for the end of the game. In 1812 they get the SETI Program, and straightaway start building the Manhattan project and the UN simultaneously. They get the Manhattan project in 1838.
I was amusing myself by colonising the barbarian strip, finding that my infantry were just about tough enough to survive the impi attacks.

The end. 1912AD.
It was announced that I had lost. It appeared to be a space race. Having not yet got as far as espionage myself, I wasn’t in a position to have watched the winners constructing their spacecraft. I determined that it was the French that did it. (For a time I thought it might have been the Barbarians )
It would be nice to say that my role was reduced to that of a spectator in this game, but I’m afraid that without a spy, it wasn’t even that good.
Still. Emperor level and I was still alive in the 20th Century – a first for me.

 

[LKendter]

1505 AD - Our third leader arrives during the assault on Leipzig. I rush another factory in a marginal city. Maybe I can get a few more troops out of the new factories. We get one of those unreal turns, and our fourth leader also arrives this turn. He also rushes a factory, as there are no wonders available anytime in the near future.

1520 AD - The foolish French declare war when I have just a couple of cities left to take from Germany. I think I know where I will land on the other continent.

1525 AD - The Germans have been eliminated.

1570 AD - I get a leader during the initial landings in the Iroquois lands - I rush a library in my staging area city.

1610 AD - We enter the modern era This is the first time in ages that I went for domination and didn't finish during the Industrial age.

1700 AD - The end of the Iroquois
(I) It just seems appropriate - domination win occurs upon the death of the Iroquois.


I am now waiting for GOTM#17. Hopefully without any foreign language suprises to slow me down.


=========================================

The final map:
{Lee, you need to downsize this image to at least 1/2 this size if you want it to be linked into a message thread, you basically took a minimap and blew it up too large to fit in the message board - cracker}


This displayed fine for me, and I don't understand the size problem. I have reduced it 50% and hopefully that works for you. The minimaps are all but unreadable at base size.

 

[Bolka]

This is how we, glorious romans, came to become the ruler of this planetum. Mostly with the use of an iron fist, and mercyless campaigns against our opponents. We always stayed in monarchy, and were always lagging behind in technology, sometimes pretty far behind.

Comments on the minimap screenshots:

AD30
Crackerum, the god of geography, showed his wrath against us by not allowing goodies close to our first city. Disheartened, our brave settlers set camp to found Rome in 4000BC on a lousy hill. Thereafter, the settlers factory ran with little efficiency to fill the south east corner of our continent with our first glorious cities.

AD590
It took us long to produce enough legions to claim the whole south of the continent from the japanese, but once our legions went marching, they only stopped when they met the sea (or the germans).
Since we have the japanese cornered, we squeeze about 10 techs and 5 contacts out of them. The rest of the world watches in horror and we get a very bad reputation.

AD1485
Our neigbhour the americans were completly out of their mind and attacked us. For a hefty sum we enticed the germans to give them the boot, and so the americans were exterminated. Unfortunately the germans got used to the taste of blood and declared war on us a few turns before we were ready. A very violent conflict followed, from which we managed to get a couple more cities. When we managed to secure peace, the greeks landed, and we gave them a discrete hand to attack the germans.

AD 1530
We are pretty content with our move to let the greek take germans cities and then take them from the greeks. Greeks are far away a being at war with them doesn't hurt, but the germans are strong, and we prefer to see them quiet.

AD 1808
Yet another subtle plot we are proud of, a massive attack of the german force with defensive units! We took a german city, and occupied it with 30+ defensive units. Then we watched the germans ruining their army on our valiant defenses (and finished them off with a few attack units). We conquered little ground, but the germans are greatly diminished. We manage to secure a peace, and prepare the invasion. In the meantime the russians are emerging as a major power, and the greeks are gone.

AD 1900
As soon as the peace treaty ends. we unleash our forces and invade the germans. We have not shown mercy.
We have great concerns about the tech race, since we are behind in technology, and russians and french are building something called a spaceship. We will take action.

AD 1910
We secure an ROP with our friends the babylonians, send forces and take the russian capital (and destroy their spaceship). Unfortunately, everyone goes to war against us except our friends the babylonians, but we still manage to retain a foothold with airport on the island. We will fly over 80 units through that route. It looks like other spaceships will need our attention.

AD 1983
We took care of the indian, french and babylonian spaceships, took their cities and since we were at it, got rid of them altogether because we hate city flips. No one can stop us now, so we are going to focus on the wellbeing of our population.

AD 2046
Our peacful years were troubled by the foolish russians, we had to destroy their spaceships three more times... In the end, we triggered a domination victory too early, we wanted to watch the nice spaceship movie...

 

[Megalou]

My game went without any major mistakes (for once). But I can only share one example of daring and tactical brilliance(???) that gave me a true "rush." The details follow.

Focusing on cash and often researching at minimum rate, Rome lagged severely in tech. A few nations were on the brink of the Industrial Age whereas Caesar seemed to remain an ancient character. Shook up by the progress around him, he bought the knowledge of chivalry; legions would soon be archaic.

What he had going for himself were a few strong coastal cities, which also had a free passage to the western ocean. He built a fleet of galleys and sent them towards the remote city of Tenochtitlan near India, knowing that most of them would not return. The mythical Aztecs had denied him The Great Library by a margin of about eight turns of labour.

During the campain, Caesar researched Military Tradition, and the last galley managed to bring over two cavalry units. They joined the four knights who had already arrived. The defence of Tenochtitlan was monitored at a substantial cost of sestertie. Education was researched by one single wise man in case of failure. Rome had its troops in position when the courteous agreement to a right of passage expired. It would have been a blemish on the cunning emperor's reputation to attack earlier.

The fresco below shows the outcome of the attack. The Romans left their mark on this remote land by naming it "Indium, Educationalis Romanis Mistakus (sorry about their Latin)."

The Roman heroes did not ravage the city or rape its women. Maybe they were merciful, maybe they were afraid to mingle because of the risk for epidemic disease. A greedy and malignant businessman did, however, sell the entire marketplace for a mere 12 sestertie. They left peacefully but were hunted down, all except the cavalry unit Sneakus, celebrated at Circo Massimo for his great speed and given a semi-god status on his return.

Sixteen new technologies were revealed and brought back to Rome. The last was Sanitation, and it is rumored that Caesar, upon hearing about this discovery, frowned and uttered "What is wrong with our Aqueductus?"

Nota bene: The Roman strategists utilized the techinique nowadays known as "Ship hopping" to keep their troops from danger on the deep waters. The Greek sophists remarked that this was unethical and Caesar is still wondering what they meant.

PS. el_kalkylus, it sounds like you managed to get a foothold on the barbaric ridge to the east very early. Was it worthwhile? I didn't get a foothold there until I had an army of infantries.

 

[Megalou]

Here is the fresco:

 

[el_kalkylus]

Originally posted by Megalou
Nota bene 2: el_kalkylus, it sounds like you managed to get a foothold on the barbaric ridge to the east very early. Was it worthwhile? I didn't get a foothold there until I had an army of infantries.

I think it was worthwhile. At least I got one great leader from the deal at 10 bc and destroyed alot of japanese and american cities.

The elite knights and cavalries produced more great leaders later, so I think it was good to drop units on the barbarian land.

 

[Man of Kent]

Final part of the story

1525AD French will still not trade flight even for Mass Production so I will have to research both Flight and Motorised Transport before I can get to Fission, which I think I will beat the French to, as they will no doubt research Amp Warfare, and Adv Flight. With the expected goal of reaching Fission first I start to prebuild the UN by starting a palace in Veii. Expansion of Impi ridge continues despite the local natives not being too happy.

1545AD Sneak attack by the Aztecs on Impi ridge and Motorised transport researched.

1610AD The Roman Empire enters the Modern Times. England has been destroyed by the other civs ganging up against her. The French having taken the expected research route are now a tech behind.

1620AD Finally clear up Impi ridge having killed 80 impi warriors and countless horseman for the loss of 6 cavalry.

1645AD Research Fission and switch palace to UN. Due to my poor start and not getting out of Despotism earlier I have decided to go for a diplomatic win. I therefore agree MPP’s will Greece, India and Babylon plus
I’ve given advances to them until all three are ‘polite’ towards me.

1650AD UN vote and I win 4-2


Overall my aim was to dominate my island so that I could not be attacked in the later stages. However i did make the mistake of staying in Despotism for far to long due to the need to keep production going whilst at war right through to the 1200's. Once I had achieved my initial goal I did not think I was in a strong enough position to attack the other island and ensure France did not complete its space ship so I change track and went for a diplomatic win which i was able to achieve on the first vote.

The impi ridge and the squids were 'interesting' and I did find the made up impi name.

 

[Megalou]

el_kalkylus,

I mainly wanted the luxuries from the ridge, but your tactics sound sensible too. The units heal well in the ships too, being fortified, so they will come back fresh for fight.

I thought the puzzle was fun , but sometimes frustrating when I didn't know how it worked and the names to write down were a zillion letters long. Except "uVe" of course. Without the premade list that was available for download it would have cost me several hours of fruitless pondering.

Then there was a special impi according to cracker. Is this anaThafrekin? The first three letters suggest that we're dealing with an anagram. "Think fear?" "Thin freak?" "Father Nik?" "The Afrikn"? I give up. Thanks for a fun game.

 

[Jurimax]

It's been awhile since I finished the game, but I know that I had a diplomatic victory. The year was about 1745AD (not completely sure), I wiped out the Japanese and the Americans had been wiped out by the Germans. I haven't got a lot more to say about the game since it's been to long since I finished it.

In my opinion the spoiler threads should all be opened from the beginning of the game. Some people, like me, can get carried away and finish the game very quickly. So a spoiler thread this late, cuts down on the ability to remember the facts of the last game.

Greetings Jurimax.

 

[Moonsinger]

Now that it's all over. There were a few thing I wish I could have done differently.

1. Irrigated the deer and made Rome a settler factory.

2. If I wasn't so afraid of the Squids, I could land two legionaries on the moutain range of the barbarian homeland after I knew the secret of Map Making. Two legionaries fortified on the top of a mountain would be good enough to clear the barb land and to make contact with the Greek and the rest of the civs on the other continent a lot sooner.

Other those two major mistakes, it was a very good game. A big huge for the GOTM staffs for designing such a wonderful game. I also love the squids (I really do). The strange Roman language didn't bother me a bit. When I was in doubt, I just looked at the graphic icons.

FYI: For those who want to put me on trial for war crime, I would like to inform you that I'm completely innocent (at least, in this GOTM16). Absolutely no nuke was launched! Absolutely no global warming! I had a few pollution toward the end of the game, but no tile alternation of any type. Most importantly, I didn't starve any foreign citizens to dead. If I need to reduce the number of foreign citizens in recent captured cities, I just continously rushed settlers to reduce them to size 1.

PS: I didn't find that special Impi. However, I found all the Zulu names and solved the barb puzzle around 800AD. To conquered the barb land was easy. I landed two knights, a pikeman and two legions. Only the two knights survived long enough to solved the puzzle. The rest of my troop (including their ships) were doomed the moment they landed.

 

[pilferman]

I've never had government type play such a monumental role in determining the outcome of a Civ 3. When I casually play Civ 3, I "alter" the game rules to reduce corruption, reduce pollution, and speed up colonization. Basically, Republic and Democracy are the only governemts I'll use when playing a typical game. As such, I don't have much experience with Monarchy or Communism.

With corruption playing a very significant role in this GOTM, I figured that Republic and Democracy would be the best gov. types. I was very, very wrong. For example, Kyoto (with a courthouse) was still only producing one shield. The rest were corrupted. I was simply amazed. Kyoto isn't too far from Rome, but it's production was nothing. My FP was in Washington, but that was too far away to have any effect on Kyoto. Needless to say, many of my cities were being run by Ken Lay types. Also, since I was a war much of the time, things got very bad at home. I've never experienced war weariness on this level before. Even with my main cities containing marketplaces, banks, all religious buildings, and all luxuries, a few rounds of war weariness thrust them into chaos. Those were just two problems, though.

Because I was in a race with the AI to get to the UN, I wanted the most efficient government so I could run through the technologies quickly. I changed from Despotism to Monarchy to Republic to Democracy to Communism to Monarchy. All told, I was in anarchy for 5/5/6/7/7 turns (total of 30 turns!!). I settled with Monarchy because I couldn't bear the war-weariness or the "communal" corruption which came with the other goverments. As you can see, I lost about 30 turns while in anarchy. While I did end up winning the game, I could have done much, much better.

Does anyone have a government preference or government advice for the higher levels? If only I had been a religious civ...

 

[pilferman]

Aside from my immense governmental problems, my game played fairly well (for me). I could not make much of a foothold on the other continent because of my technological deficiencies. Because of this "minor setback," I decided to simply destroy my enemies one civ at a time. Instead of keeping the conquered cities (only to have another AI attack me and win), I decided to raze everything and let the remaining AI fill in the gaps. :soldier:

The English and the Aztecs went quickly, and I managed to turn everyone against the French. By this time, everyone (but me) had Infantry. Attacks with cavalry would have been futile, so I simply had everyone attack one civ at a time. First it was the French, then it was the Russians. See minimaps:



Since I hadn't touched the Greeks or the Iroquois yet they had grown quite large. The Greeks were far and away the most advanced.

I tried desperately to build the UN before any other civ, not for the victory but to prevent it for another civ. I was a few turns away from completion, when the Greeks built it. I immediately sent over a few armies to destroy it, and it went off without a hitch. Well, a long war with the Greeks followed, with little gained on my part.

The Greeks charged ahead with their technological fiesta. When they nearly completed their spaceship, I attacked with everything I had. My modern armors ripped through (with heavy casualties) the Greek territory, destroying their spaceship and any hope for a victory. I decided to keep a few of their cities, razing the rest (I didn't know how much I would conquer). Once they were gone, I attacked the Indians, who went quietly.

The Iroquois were the only remaining civ other than mighty Rome. I had two choices, attack the Iroquios and see what happens or slowly go for the domination victory (peacefully). I chose the latter because I didn't have enough of a military. The problem was that they were building their spaceship quickly. With the help of a brave spy I learned that they had built 9 of 10 components, but hadn't yet discovered the tech needed for the planetary party lounge. I was slowly amassing an enormous army on their island in case they started building the final component. In the meantime, I built cities to reach the domination limit. I don't use mapstat, so I didn't know when it would kick in (that's the reason for the spaceship killer army). Long, boring story slightly shorter, they didn't build their final spaceship component and I got the Domination victory in time for the millenium celebration!

Many, many things could have been improved upon, but I wasn't too worried about them. My score was plenty to make me happy, but not nearly enough to make me a contender for the top 10. All in all, this was a great GOTM!

 

[pilferman]

I didn't do anything with the barbarian island until I decided to use it as a shortcut to the Greeks. What I mean by that is it would be a shorter trip to send all of my tanks to the barbarian island and have a bunch of transports refill/drop tanks on the other big island. The barbarian island would serve only as a "middleman" in the process.

When I landed a few transports of tanks on the barbarian island, I couldn't believe what I saw! There were hundreds (??) of barbarian Impis and Horsemen waiting for me. My tanks made quick work of them, but it was still amazing. I dealt with them too quickly to solve the puzzle. I had forgotten about it until it was already over. On the other hand, there were plenty of puzzled barbarians who didn't know what to make of my metallic monstrosities. Here is a pic:



My shortcut definately was a shortcut (to the Greeks), but it didn't last long. I settled the barb island shortly afterwards. Strangely, no other civ had landed on the island until I had set up camp. I suspect they had no reason to do so, since they couldn't sail through.

 

[gskyes]

Here is my radio report

Following my last post the Germans declared war on me, and the Americans joined due to a MPP. I fought a mostly defensive war, but I did take two german cities surrounded by my territory. One the germans had built where I razed a Japanese city, and the other one I built next to it but it flipped back to them. The Japanese provided a good buffer between me and the Americans/Germans, because they didn't have a rail network. The German and American forces seemed to be concentrating on taking back the two cities that I had taken. This required them to pass through my territory near Kyoto, where they were easy targets for artillery and tanks. Most were wounded, several killed, and not one made it to attack either city. I made peace as soon as I could, making sure to do both in one turn, so their MPP didn't draw the other back in.

I colonized most of the barbarian island. Teams of settlers, infantry, calvary and workers were sent to settle the unclaimed lands. I didn't pay any attention to Impi names, and was content to let them throw themselves against my city walls. In each city a temple was rushed to expand my borders.

The greeks were the first to the modern age and got Rocketry for free. This was because I sold them Motorized Transportation a few turns before they researched Flight. I was also researching Flight and entered the modern ages a few turns after them. I researched Fission first and had switched production from the Intelligence Agency in Rome to the UN, where it would be completed in about 8 turns. During this time I traded and gave gifts to most civs. Japan had been furious since the first war, and now America and Germany were also furious with me. The other continent was full of polite faces.

In 1480 the UN was finished in Rome. I held a vote, with the final results...



I didn't expect Alexander to be the other choice because it was hard to tell before hand. The German/American war cost me two votes, but it wasn't enough. I never had a chance with Japan, and Greece's vote was obvious. But the rest of the world voted for me and the Glorious Romans achieve a diplomatic victory.

Here is the final map in 1480 AD



This was my first emperor win, and I have to give some credit to the GOTM staff. Without the GOTM, I wouldn't have challenged myself at this level.

 

[SirPleb]

When I wrote in the Radio spoiler thread (here) I had dominated the world and was in my milking phase, hoping to improve England's attitude enough for a diplomatic victory at the end. Alas it was not to be. I used every trick I could from Bamspeedy's excellent "AI Attitude" article but I'd done too much damage earlier, England remained annoyed and abstained in the final vote. I did set up for the other five victory conditions but could not get the sixth one, diplomatic. Oh well.

In hindsight I'd do a fair bit differently on this map:
1) Irrigate the game tile at the start.
2) Not send troops to the barbarian lands until I had the home continent fully under control. I sent 12 legionaries there at a time when most of them would have been better used to speed the conquest at home. It was an interesting gamble though - I thought they might make it across to another continent.
3) I wouldn't lose time guiding Greece as my "executioner". Now that Bamspeedy has illuminated the mysteries of AI attitude, I'd raze about ten less towns during conquest and just carry on full speed, resulting in a faster conquest phase and a diplomatic win.

This sure was a great map, thank you Cracker!

Moonsinger: About your thought that if replaying you'd send just a couple of legionaries to the barbarian lands, I think you might need more - I originally sent two and they were quickly slaughtered. Later on I sent two groups of five, each with a Settler to build a town with Armamentarium for healing, and that was more than enough. Three or four in each group would probably have been fine, or five without the settler.

 

[Yndy]

Originally posted by Moonsinger
Now that it's all over. There were a few thing I wish I could have done differently.

2. If I wasn't so afraid of the Squids, I could land two legionaries on the moutain range of the barbarian homeland after I knew the secret of Map Making. Two legionaries fortified on the top of a mountain would be good enough to clear the barb land and to make contact with the Greek and the rest of the civs on the other continent a lot sooner.

The squids were not as bad as they looked. And not as many either. I made 5 or 6 ferry transports and only one galley was lost empty. Of course I did not go that far to land my troops on the mountain range.
But the barbs were worst IMHO. I have lost fortified infantry on mountain. I think that 4 galleys carrying 6 legions would have been needed to successfully land on the closest mountain and advance to a position where you could see the Greek cities (you know that if you lose a galley in the stack, the troops would relocate on the other(s) if there is space).

Edit: SirPleb I answered Moonsinger before reading your post. Seems like we have similar opinions. I also missed those Legions but the early contact with the Greeks would have worth the effort.

 

[Singularity]

At the end of my last report I had to secure rubber to keep my mechanized infantry production secured into the new era. After scouting the 'spine of the world' for rubber I knew I had to take the rubber lying in the choke seperating Japan from America on our continent. I had finally factories and hospitals in all my center cities - and together with mobilization and Golden Age I spewed out tanks in great numbers. Pollution hung thick over my lands, but my huge labourforce removed any spills with immediate effect.

I had allready started to move into japan when I started producing tanks, but it was slow work with artillery/cavalry compared to tanks rushing over the lands. I started the war on japan in the mid 1500s, and in 1665 I ruled the continent alone after kicking Abe into the history books.

The greeks stayed on top with me in research, while Russia where wielding a powerful military(nothing compared to mine though) and Iroquious somehow had most territory while being less developed and powerful than Greece and Russia. After Hiawata swept the english into the oceans, and banishing their capitol to a little patch of tundra safe in my heartlands. He failed to settle all the free land. I filled a transport ship with a MI, settler and a few workers to get a foothold on the other continent. In 1700 I settled Londonium, quite funny actually - because London was the city sout of Londonium. So, I did the standard airport, barracks, wall rush. And my army could be transported from my continent to the new one all within a few rounds and some hectic airlifting.



Taking this continent went quite quick, as I allied with Greece and France in the beginning. I only used my artillery on metropolis cities, and cities on hills. Elsewhere my Modern Armor swept over the continent in very short time, making me abolute ruler in little over 1810 years. I triggered domination around 1820, and was happy with that since I decided that I had neither time or patience to milk my cities to optimize score. That is a project for the holidays when I can sit for several hours hitting next turn and rushing aquaducts and hospitals.



In the end I was not very happy about not securing the entire southend of my continent by kicking the japanese out in the ancient age. That way I would with greater probability secure all strategiacal resources. and make a second ring of cities around an early FP. I could've launced an early spaceship or conquered the world much sooner with the added production from theese cities.

However I'm very pleased with my new strategy of having 2-3 times the number of my cities in workers. No doubt this payed off in increased production and taxes. The AI never even got close to my infrastructure.

All in all I gotta say that I've gone quantum leaps forward in skill by competing in the GOTM. Being insired is the best way of learning, much better then 'try and fail' .

I can probably take on all difficulty up to Emperor levels now. So I hope the PTW GOTM will be Deity difficulty